Seriously, someone rising from the dead?
I was doing some research recently on the longest anyone has ever been dead before being brought back to life. Some of the stories seemed a little far-fetched. But The Daily Telegraph in the UK ran a headline on 19 April 2019, “Lazarus Syndrome: man comes back to life 30 minutes after dying”. Lazarus Syndrome is the spontaneous return of circulation once attempts at resuscitation have failed. It’s only been seen 38 times.
If you think that’s cool, the same paper on 26 May 2008 reported that a woman came back to life after being dead for 17 hours. While they were making funeral arrangements, the family got a call saying the mother had come back to life.
A shocked Dr Eggleston told the paper the chances of surviving three such long periods without a heart rate were less than 10 percent. “It's a miracle. The odds were certainly against her.”
If they ever bury me, I think I’d like a fully charged mobile phone in my pocket! Can you imagine the conversation? “Ring. Ring. Hi Darling. I’m not really dead! Do you mind bringing the dog down to dig me up”?
The Gospels say that Jesus was dead for three days before he was brought back to life. His body didn’t self-start like the others, instead God raised him from the dead. Given the violent nature of his death, there was no doubt that Jesus was dead.
John says that to confirm his death, a soldier pieced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water” (John 19.34).
Then three days in a tomb. Jesus was very dead.
The BBC recently did a survey and seems like the majority of people who call themselves Christians in the United Kingdom are not convinced that Jesus physically died and rose from the dead. Although of those who regularly attend church, 82% believed in the physical resurrection.
This survey does raise some interesting questions. How much of the Easter story does one have to believe to be a Christian? Or do we as Christians overstate the importance of the resurrection of Jesus? Are the reasons for Jesus’ resurrection exaggerated for the sake of his followers?
In answering these questions, I’d like to make three points. (1) The case for an historical resurrection; (2) the spiritual challenge of the resurrection; (3) the Bible explains why God raised Jesus from the dead.
The case for an historical resurrection. People simply don’t believe that Jesus was dead and came back to life. Not even some clergy. In his book, “Escaping from Fundamentalism”, Bishop John Selby Spong argues that the resurrection is no more than a parable of future hope. He says there is no such thing as a physical resurrection. He argues that the resurrection is picture language which is meant to invoke within us a Christ-power which is otherwise unattainable.
So what are we to make of the resurrection? Is Richard Dawkins right? Is the resurrection a nice story for simpletons who believe that God created the world? The radio announcer Alan Jones said one year—and I think with every good intention:
The Easter message is a simple one. It’s just reminding us that goodness can and will triumph. And that’s the hope we carry with us this weekend. Without being too religious, we need to rediscover our faith. We need to rediscover the humanity and decency which lie at the core of Christianity. And that’s the challenge I guess for all of us.
Neil Foster is an Associate Professor of Law at Newcastle University—not too far from us. He wrote a legal paper examining the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus. On page 3 of his paper he makes this point (slide):
We need to be clear about this: the fact that the resurrection of Jesus actually, literally happened in the Middle East about 2000 years ago, is vital if Christianity is to be taken seriously. Christianity may or may not have a set of moral principles that make living in society more pleasant - but if the Bible is taken seriously, the moral principles are not at the centre of the Christian faith. Christianity stands or falls on a set of events said to have occurred at a specific time, in a specific place.
This is no more than an expansion of what Paul says in 1 Cor 15.14, 19, “And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith … If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men”.
Foster proceeds to test the evidence on the basis of NSW law. He says in seeking truth, courts traditionally recognise a number of valid sources of evidence and Foster tests the evidence in the light of these categories. As you can imagine the arguments twists and turn and we haven’t time to examine the detail.
But Foster’s paper is quite readable and I’ll put a link to it on our church website.
The point I’m making is that it is not unreasonable—and fact it is quite reasonable—to conclude that the resurrection of Jesus was an historical event. Foster concludes:
For the writers of the New Testament, this evidence was clear and uncomplicated - many of them had seen and met Jesus, before and after his death; or else they had heard and trusted the evidence of the eye-witnesses. As the writer of the letter to the Hebrews puts it: this salvation “was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard, while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles.” (Heb 2:3-4)
It's not only lawyers who examine the evidence for the resurrection. Lee Strobel used to work as a journalist for the Chicago Tribune and he found, in his words, “an avalanche of historical data” to support belief in the physical death and resurrection of Jesus.
The spiritual challenge of the resurrection. But there’s a sting in the tail of this evidential line of inquiry. When I read the Gospels I see that many people were eyewitnesses to the miracles but not everyone packed their bags and followed Jesus. Wolfhart Pannenberg is an influential German theologian. In a magazine interview he was discussing the resurrection and he said this,
The evidence for Jesus’ resurrection is so strong that nobody would question it except for two things: First, it is a very unusual event. And second, if you believe it happened, you have to change the way you live.
He’s the conundrum: if you believe that the resurrection happened, you must change your life because the implications of not changing are unthinkable.
On Good Friday we talked about sin and saw that it was an attitude of turning your back on God. Sin is a rejection of God’s rightful place in the universe and his right to rule our lives. And when you turn your back on someone you severe your relationship with them. Sin is a deliberate choice to reject God and make ourselves god.
People don’t give up being god too easily. To accept the implications of the resurrection is radically life-changing. In his book, “A Fresh Start”, John Chapman tells of a conversation he had with a university student.
“I was urging a young man at a university mission to take a Gospel and read it. He told me he hadn’t ever read one, and he didn’t want to take one even then. “What have you got to lose?” I asked. “Everything”, he replied, “it might turn out to be true”.
Chapman himself says, “When I was first confronted with the gospel and its full implications, my difficulty was not whether or not it was right. I secretly believed it was. My problem was that I just didn’t want it to be right. I didn’t want Jesus to be Lord over my life. I wanted to be free and independent”.
We don’t look at the resurrection objectively because we are more than rational beings. Our natures are flawed and our propensity is to run our lives our way. In the language of the Bible, we have “sinful natures”. Our preference is to ignore God and enjoy self-autonomy.
On Easter Sunday, the big question is “why did God raise Jesus from the dead”? The Bible explains why God raised Jesus from the dead. The resurrection gives us clarity in three areas: (1) It is the final demonstration of God’s power; (2) the resurrection confirms Jesus as the ruler of the world; (3) the resurrection is the ground of hope for Christian believers.
The resurrection is the final demonstration of God’s power. We live in a very tribal world. Perhaps more so than any other time in history. And there are many tribal gods. It’s as though life’s a supermarket and down the worship aisle we can choose whatever god pleases us. And when we count the number of religions in the world there’s no shortage of choice.
The resurrection shows that the God who speaks in the Bible is no tribal god. The power to raise someone from the dead means he’s a standout God. A global God. A god above all other gods because he demonstrates a power unknown to other gods.
The power to create life belongs to God alone. This is one of the lessons from Gen 1. The god that Israel will meet at Mt Sinai is not another tribal god common in the Ancient Near East. He is the God that created the heavens and the earth and he gives life and our very existence is dependent upon him.
The resurrection affirms the power of God.
The Bible refers to God’s enormous power as his “great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead” (Eph 1.18–20).
Should not the resurrection stop you in your tracks?
The God you’re dealing with is no idle god who is all smoke and no fire. The resurrection is a sign that God should be taken very, very seriously. Since God determines who lives and who dies then he’s to be treated with care.
God has not finished exercising his power. There will come a time when you will stand before him and give an account of your life. And he will decide whether you will live or whether you will die.
The resurrection brings us in touch with reality. He is God and you are not so it’s better to be on the right side of his power.
The resurrection confirms Jesus as the ruler of the world. The Father has given all authority in heaven and on earth to Jesus. Jesus rose to be the ruler of the world. And since Jesus conquered death, he is able to grant eternal life to whomever he wills. Such is his to give. To be separated from Jesus is to remain in death (John 3:36).
The Apostle Paul speaks about Jesus this way:
…he humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross. Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:8-11)
Since Jesus is the ruler of the world the Bible writers warn us not to rebel against the rule of Jesus. We are in a “no win” situation if we continue to oppose him. Jesus himself will be our judge on the day of reckoning.
“For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead” (Acts 17:30-31).
Life is not amoral. I do not have the right to make my own rules. We will one day stand before Jesus and give an account for our choices—our behaviour. It is foolish not to be prepared.
The resurrection is the grounds of hope for Christian believers. In the Western world we have a strange fear of death. We pretend it will never happen, at least to us. We hardly ever speak about it. We sometimes do in the abstract, but we hardly ever talk about our own death. When we do, people say we are morbid.
Our fear of death can be seen in the great lengths to which we go to pretend we are younger than we are.
But the resurrection of Jesus is the forerunner to the resurrection of all Christian people. Just as Jesus rose from the dead, one day God’s people rise with resurrection bodies. This is our hope for the future. You can read about this for yourself in Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 15). And Paul knew this from the words of Jesus himself,
“Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out—those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned” (John 5:28-29).
At a funeral service, a preacher got carried away and his sermon far exceeded the time limit. Finally his assistant whispered, “It’s getting late sir”! “I know”, the preacher said, “But this doctrine of the resurrection is so important”
“Yes, sir”, the assistant said, “But we’ve got to get the body over to the cemetery in time for it”.
We often hear these words at funerals, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die” (John 11:25). The death and resurrection of Jesus are at the very centre of all God’s purposes for his world.
So any method which you might come up with to get right with God which bypasses these events cannot be right.
It is possible to be a thoroughly good person and know nothing about Jesus. It would be possible to live a really good life even if Jesus had not been born or had not died and rose, but when we put our trust in our own goodness we are saying that God made a terrible mistake.
God’s plan to rescue us was to send his one and only Son to die and rise for us. Good people say to him, “You needn’t have done that. I don’t need it. I’m OK the way I am”. Then we’re right back to square one again. If we could satisfy God’s anger by being good then there would have been no need for Easter.
Watchman Nee once said, “Our old history ends with the cross; our new history begins with the resurrection”. In Christ we are a new creation. The wrath of God satisfied at the cross, the power of sin defeated. The resurrection assuring us that death that we have a wonderful hope for the future as we look forward to the return of our ascended King.
