As we read the New Testament passages, we realize that the resurrection matters supremely. For example, in Romans 1:3-4, concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, 4 and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead. We can see that the incarnation of Christ, when He was born to this earth, validated His humanity, but it’s His resurrection that validated His deity, that proved that He was God.
It’s the resurrection that validates the deity of Christ. The First century followers of Christ, before the resurrection they were timid; they were fearful. They thought that their lives might be at risk, causing them to run and hide in the room. None of them but John even showed up at the cross; they were all in hiding.
But then news came out of the resurrection and then the gift and empowerment of the Holy Spirit. They were bold enough and willing to lay down their lives for Christ’s sake. The church was birthed and it spread through the proclamation that Christ died for our sins and was buried and raised from the dead. If Jesus is the resurrection and the life—and He is—what do we have to fear? What’s the worst that can happen to you?
The apostles and the early church, started to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and the messages of resurrection. That’s the reason the church began. Apart from Christ’s resurrection from the dead, we have no hope of eternal life. 1 Peter 1:3 says that, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead”.
So there’s no doubt that the resurrection matters.
What difference does the empty tomb make in our lives this week and the next week and the week after that?
What difference does it make for people who are facing problems and pain, failure, and fears? I want to talk to you today, about six implications of the resurrection for those who have placed their faith in Christ. So you can go back and reflect on these implications of the resurrection—not only on Easter Sunday, but throughout the course of the year.
I. The resurrection means there is hope in the most desperate circumstances.
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. - John 14:6
It means that God can make a way out where there is no human way out. It means that God is all-powerful and nothing is beyond His control. It means that one day all tears will be wiped away and all sorrow will be turned to joy. It means that He can bring beauty out of ashes and that He can cause even evil circumstances to bring Him ultimate glory.
Think about the circumstances of the cross, so painful where evil men put Christ to death and realize that evil men never get the final word. God gets the final word. There is hope in the most desperate circumstances.
It’s the resurrection that encourages us to remember that Christ has defeated death—the most ultimate desperate circumstance. He’s defeated death by walking through it and has come out to the other side. So no matter how many enemies seek to take Him down, He cannot ever die again. That’s what the resurrection tells us.
We think today about news of natural disasters, economic uncertainty, world crises—it can be overwhelming just to read the news. But the resurrection encourages us to take a deep breath and to remember that God is on His throne; He is in charge no matter how dark it gets in your life or in this world.
There is nothing that can happen to us that is not going to be ultimately overcome by His power. The resurrection means there is hope in the most desperate circumstances. God is helping and hoping beyond our circumstances.
II. The resurrection means that God always keeps His promises.
In Matthew chapter 28:5-6, when the two women went to the tomb looking for the body of Jesus that was buried there, “The angel said to the women, ‘Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen, as he said'”. As He said . . . Jesus had told the disciples that He would not stay dead, that He would rise from the dead.
Let me just read to you one of those accounts where He’s told them that. In Matthew 16:21-22, “From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, "Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you”.
Now what’s the problem? Peter did not hear the end of the message! All he heard was the part about the Son of Man going to “suffer many things . . . and be killed,” and that’s all Peter heard. Peter goes, “No way, Lord! That’s not going to happen to You!” He didn’t hear “and on the third day be raised.” He heard it with his physical ears, but he didn’t get the promise of the resurrection.
So when the angels said to the two women, “He is not here; He is risen, as He said,” the disciples began to remember things that Jesus had told them, promises He had made that they had just entirely missed. So we think about how much stress and anxiety and fear the disciples had to endure all because they didn’t really hear and lay hold of the promises of God.
It makes me wonder how our lives would be different if we really believed, if we really heard and believed and laid hold of the promises of God? How often are we stressed out: “Lord, no! This can’t happen!” No! We haven’t heard the end of the story. We haven’t heard the promises. We haven’t really heard the promises.
Think of that wonderful promise in 1 Peter chapter 5:10, that says: After you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace who has called you to His eternal glory in Christ will Himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.
How often do we forget that when we’re in the midst of the suffering part? If we would just hear, believe, and lay hold of the promises of God, how much stress and discouragement would we be able to avoid perhaps if we remembered that God always keeps His promises. That’s the message of the resurrection.
III: The resurrection means that death is no longer to be feared.
Because Christ overcame death, our separations and losses are only temporary. On the last day, those who are in Christ will be raised from the dead. That’s an implication of Christ’s resurrection from the dead. Because He rose from the dead, that means that those of us who are in Christ will one day be raised as well.
Remember those incredible words of Jesus to Martha, who was grieving over the death of her brother Lazarus? In John 11:25-26, Jesus said to Martha, I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he dies, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?
That’s what Jesus said to Martha. Do you believe this—that whosoever "lives and believes in Me will never die”? [What changed the way of our christian death forever?] Jesus' resurrection forever changed the way Christians view death.
Rodney Stark is a sociologist at the University of Washington. He has observed that when a major plague hit the ancient Roman Empire, Christians had unusually high survival rates. You might wonder, Why? Here's the reason he discovered it.
In the homes of most Roman citizens, when someone got the plague, the sick person would be thrown out into the street so as not to contaminate others. But because Christians had no fear of death, they didn't throw their sick out into the streets; they nursed and cared for them in their homes. Many of those sick survived that plague. They didn't have a fear of death.
Listen, if Jesus is the resurrection and the life—and He is—what do we have to fear? What’s the worst that can happen to you? You say, “I can die!” Well, the good news is that He has overcome death.
So the resurrection means that those who are in Christ no longer need to fear death. He has delivered us from Satan’s power who, for many years, held us in bondage to the fear of death—Hebrews tells us.(Hebrews 2:15)
IV. The bodily resurrection of Christ assures us of our own bodily resurrection
The resurrection of Christ assures us of our own bodily resurrection, not just His Spirit that rose from the dead, as some liberal theologians will tell you. But His body was raised from the dead. That assures us of our own bodily resurrection to come.
Paul says this numerous times in the epistles. I Corinthians 6:14, “God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power”. The same power that raised Christ from the dead will raise our mortal bodies one day.
Because of Jesus’ resurrection, we have been given a sure hope for the future. His resurrection is a pledge of our own future resurrection, and of the fact (and I love this verse in Philippians 3) that God “will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body” (v. 21). Anybody ready for that? Amen! This is our hope that we have because of the resurrection.
There’s a church cemetery that has a grave marker about a name named John Adams that reads this way: who died Sept 2, 1811, age 79. Death has decomposed him, and at the great resurrection Christ will recompose him.
Yes! I love that! Death has decomposed him— But at the great resurrection, Christ will recompose him, and you and I have that same hope.
At many of our Easter services we would say, “Christ is risen!” And what do we say in response? “He is risen indeed!”
Phillips Brooks, who was a writer in the 1800s, said, “Let us say not merely, ‘Christ is risen,’ but ‘I shall rise.’” I shall rise—that’s a promise of the resurrection.
V: The resurrection means that God has accepted and approves of the work that Christ did on the cross, and therefore He accepts and approves of us.
Now this is something you may not have thought about a lot, but it is a huge implication of the resurrection. The resurrection for Christ meant that His work was finished. The price for sin had been paid; no penalty was left. God's righteous anger against sin and sinners had been completely satisfied. There was no remaining guilt. The resurrection was proof that God had accepted the payment and completely approved of Christ’s death in the place of sinners.
Now, the Scripture tells us that we have been united with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection. Ephesians 2 says that God “raised us up with Christ”—which means that God not only accepts Christ, but He accepts us. He approves of us as He approves of Christ. For those who are in Christ, that means there is no longer any condemnation for any of our sins—past, present, or future. Could I hear a hallelujah?! Amen!
So many believers I meet are plagued with guilt from their past, frustrated with their inability to please God. I wrestle with those thoughts in my own heart so often.
Romans 4 tells us that Jesus “was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification” (v. 25). It’s the resurrection that allowed Jesus’ righteousness to be credited to us. That justification required the resurrection, and justification is not only “just as if I had never sinned.” Many of us are familiar with that meaning, but it also means, “just as if I had always obeyed.”
Because Jesus has perfectly pleased His Father, those of us who are in Christ are also pleasing to God. That’s an implication of the resurrection—that we are accepted, we are approved by God because God has accepted and approved of the work that Jesus Christ did on the cross.
There have been times in our lives, Sin seems very powerful in our life. Temptations are so strong. We have to remind ourselves that the resurrection means that the power and dominion of sin in my life has been broken.
Romans 6:4, We were buried with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in the newness of life.
Romans 6:5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God.
Now, what’s the implication of all of that? You say, “Yes, I died with Christ; I was raised with Christ. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. You’re not a servant of sin. It’s not your master any longer. If you’ve been crucified with Christ, dead with Him and raised with Him, the power and dominion of sin in your life has been overcome. That’s another thing worth saying, “Praise the Lord! Thank You, Jesus!”
The resurrection means that the same power that raised Christ from the dead is available to us. In Ephesians 1:19-20, the apostle Paul prayed that the Ephesians would know, What is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places
What does that mean? That’s a long sentence . . . as Paul was prone to do. It means that the very same power that God sent forth to raise Christ from the dead and to cause Him to be seated at the right hand of the Father in heavenly places, that very same power is at work in us—the power of Christ. The power of His Holy Spirit lives in us. That same power to obey God, to defeat sin, to walk with God, to love Him and please Him—that same power is available to us.
So the question isn’t so much: Does the resurrection really matter? We see that it does. I think the question we need to be asking is: Do we live as if Christ really rose from the dead? Amen.
