The Spirit of the Resurrection
I heard about a woman named Carol. She was the organist at her church. She was a good musician but did something no organist should ever do at her church. She overslept on Easter morning and missed the sunrise service. She was so embarrassed. Of course, the minister and the church forgave her. They teased her about it, but it was done lovingly and in good fun.
The following year, on Easter, her phone rang at 5 a.m. Jolted awake by the loud ringing, she scrambled to answer it. It was the minister, and he said, “Carol, it’s Easter morning. The Lord has risen! And I suggest you do the same!”
We, too, can be resurrected. Christ shares his resurrection with us. He rises, and so can we. We, too, can have new life. We, too, can make a fresh start. And one day, in the future, we will rise out of our graves to eternal life.
Philippians 3:7-10 (NKJV):
7 But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. 8 Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; 10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, 11 if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
I like calling the anniversary of the resurrection of Jesus “Resurrection Day” rather than “Easter.” The word “Easter” is not in the Bible other than a mistranslation of Passover in the KJV. If my studies are correct, Easter derives from the name of a pagan fertility goddess, Ishtar. The use of rabbits and Easter eggs commemorates fertility, not resurrection.
The facts of the gospel are simple. The gospel is the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. Paul laid them out in 1 Corinthians 15:1-8 (NKJV):
Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, 2 by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.
3 For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. 6 After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. 7 After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles. 8 Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time.
There is more to the gospel than citing or understanding facts. As God-followers, we entered an arena different from anything we have experienced apart from Him. We now engaged with God on spiritual terms, not logical or even emotional. God is more concerned about our character than our feelings or intellect. Since this is spiritual engagement, it involves the Holy Spirit. He teaches us certain things in conjunction with His inspired word and enables us to comprehend what we could not otherwise.
The Spirit’s impact involves several things, including the condition of our hearts. The Holy Spirit can move us beyond logic if we have receptive hearts. When the Spirit was present at Pentecost in Acts 2, He empowered the words of Peter and the other apostles so much that their hearers were “cut to the heart.”
While Peter appealed to the scriptures and the details of the crucifixion, the Holy Spirit supernaturally and spiritually impacted the people. The apostles experienced the risen Savior between Passover and Pentecost. However, the difference between the apostles before Pentecost and after isn’t the gospel’s facts but the Spirit’s presence.
We are in spiritual, not intellectual, warfare. The demons are running rampant convincing people to embrace wrong values, calling evil good and good evil (Isaiah 5:20). Information and logic are involved in this warfare, but it does not end with these. How much more do we need the Holy Spirit to help us see beyond the veil of spiritual blindness and to the light of God’s Son? We need the word of God and the facts of the gospel, but we also need the Spirit of God to touch our hearts. Jesus said in John 6:63 (NKJV):
It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.
It is humbling and exhilarating to think that the same Spirit that inhabits believers raised Jesus from the dead. Paul wrote in Romans 8:11 (NKJV):
11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
This same empowering Spirit of God enables us to comprehend the truth of God, including the resurrection of Jesus. Though you may have read the facts, the Spirit takes us to the spiritual level of belief. Listen to the Lord in John 16:12-14 (NKJV):
12 “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. 14 He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.
We generally dread death, though we know it is natural (Ecclesiastes 9:5). Like a distant lighthouse on a stormy shore, the resurrection of Jesus gives us hope amidst our trepidations. Jesus’ resurrection paved the way for us, but before we can get to the glory of the resurrection, we must go through the death crisis.
On “Good Friday,” Jesus went to the cross on our behalf. He was not the only one to suffer this fate that day as Pilate crucified Him between two thieves. As cruel as it was, crucifixion was a common practice. In 519 B.C., for example, the Persian king Darius crucified 3,000 Babylonians. In A.D. 66, the Romans crucified 3,600 Jews who started an insurrection. When the Romans restored order, the executioners had run out of wood for crosses.
When people today look to Jesus for salvation as the “author and finisher of our faith,” it is not because He died or because He died on the cross; we look to Him because He did not stay in the tomb. On the third day, "Resurrection Day," He rose and showed Himself to His followers and family.
Jesus was more than a “good man,” though He was good (Luke 18:18). He was more than a prophet, though He was a “prophet like Moses” (Acts 3:22-23). He was God’s unique Son who defied all expectations. No one expected Him to rise from the dead because it is illogical, although He raised the dead during His ministry. Satan and his minions were surprised by it, as Paul points out in 1 Corinthians 2:6-8 (NKJV):
6 However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. 7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, 8 which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
Jesus either rose from the dead or didn’t. The Bible declares His resurrection, and the Spirit empowers our acceptance. One of the strongest arguments for His resurrection is the death of His apostles. All but John died a martyr’s death according to tradition. Some of His disciples experienced gruesome deaths and remained faithful to Him until the end. Would you have stolen His body as the Jews claim and die for a lie?
Paul was right. If Jesus has not risen, we are in a hopeless condition. He expresses the necessity of the resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15:12-19 (NKJV):
12 Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. 14 And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty. 15 Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up—if in fact the dead do not rise. 16 For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. 17 And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! 18 Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.
Can you see the spiritual battle in Paul’s remarks? One group, including the apostle, believed Jesus rose from the dead. Another group denied the resurrection. Both heard the same facts, but the Spirit of God impacted one group but not the other. Could it be that one group was open to the will of God, and the other was closed to God and pursued their own logic?
This is not unlike the Sadducees of the first century. The priests made up this Jewish sect, and they limited their efforts to this world. They did not anticipate spirits, resurrection, or eternity. Instead, they practiced “carpe diem” and “seized the day.”
Jesus confronted the Sadducees in Mark 12 when they tried to trip Him up concerning the resurrection. Even from the five Torah books, the only books the Sadducees believed, God displayed life after death. Without going into detail, listen to His reply in verses 24-27 (NKJV):
24 Jesus answered and said to them, “Are you not therefore mistaken, because you do not know the Scriptures nor the power of God? 25 For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. 26 But concerning the dead, that they rise, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the burning bush passage, how God spoke to him, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? 27 He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living. You are therefore greatly mistaken.”
Years later, the apostle Paul defended himself and his ministry before the council in Jerusalem. On this occasion, he used the reality of the resurrection to get out of a jam and turned his opponents against each other. Listen to Acts 23:6-9 (NKJV):
6 But when Paul perceived that one part were Sadducees and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, “Men and brethren, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee; concerning the hope and resurrection of the dead I am being judged!”
7 And when he had said this, a dissension arose between the Pharisees and the Sadducees; and the assembly was divided. 8 For Sadducees say that there is no resurrection—and no angel or spirit; but the Pharisees confess both. 9 Then there arose a loud outcry. And the scribes of the Pharisees’ party arose and protested, saying, “We find no evil in this man; but if a spirit or an angel has spoken to him, let us not fight against God.”
Jesus either rose or He didn’t. If He did, we will; if He didn’t, we won’t. According to Paul, Jesus is God’s first fruit from the dead. He rose at the feast of the first fruits as God’s promise for more to come. When Jesus died, graves near Jerusalem opened with the earthquake, and certain saints rose from the dead. On the feast of first fruits, when Jesus rose from the dead, these resurrected souls entered the city and showed themselves alive (see Matthew 27:51-53). The scriptures don’t tell us for sure, but it is plausible that they went into the temple and presented themselves to the priests while the farmers presented their first fruits to the LORD. What kind of impact must they have had on the priests and people in Jerusalem?
The Holy Spirit teaches us in His word and in our hearts that Jesus is alive. There are frightening consequences if He has not resurrected, as Paul argues in 1 Corinthians 15:14-19 (NKJV).
If Jesus is not alive, our gospel preaching is pointless. None of the sermons any preacher presented has value if the resurrection is a lie. If we have missed one point, we miss it all. Verse 14 reads, “14 And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty . . .” No resurrection means no good news, no conquering of death.
Further, in verse 14, Paul observes, “if Christ is not risen, your faith is also empty.” If Jesus did not resurrect, the tomb is not empty; our faith is. The resurrection gives us purpose in living in this age and gives hope for the next, but without it, there is nothing. Why make the sacrifices Jesus calls for if there is no resurrection? His resurrection verifies His words as accurate. The Psalmist saw vanity when he compared his life to the wicked and wrote in Psalm 73:13 (NKJV):
13 Surely I have cleansed my heart in vain,
And washed my hands in innocence.
The Christian life only makes sense with the resurrection. Not only do we miss out on eternal life, but we also miss out on truth and purpose for this life. But it doesn’t end there. Paul warns that some preachers were liars and false teachers. Verse 15 reads:
15 Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up—if in fact the dead do not rise.
Paul lists witnesses to the resurrection in this chapter. If Jesus did not resurrect, all of these people lied. The Jewish elders tried to discredit the disciples and propagate the lie that they stole the body. When they heard the Roman guards’ report of Jesus’ resurrection, the Jews bribed them. Listen to Matthew 28:12-15 (NKJV):
12 When they had assembled with the elders and consulted together, they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers, 13 saying, “Tell them, ‘His disciples came at night and stole Him away while we slept.’ 14 And if this comes to the governor’s ears, we will appease him and make you secure.” 15 So they took the money and did as they were instructed; and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day.
If the resurrection is false, Jesus was either deceived or lied. Likewise, the NT writers were deceived or lied. If they lied about the resurrection, what else was a lie?
The Apostle Paul points out that if Jesus is not alive, we have useless faith and are still in our sins. When we look at the baptism in Romans 6:1-4 (NKJV) we see a magnificent picture of a new, resurrected life. Paul wrote:
What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? 3 Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
If there is no resurrection, baptism is an invalid picture. We do not rise to the newness of life as Jesus rose from the dead, we are still in sin, and our faith is pointless. Notice 1 Corinthians 15:16-17 (NKJV):
16 For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. 17 And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins!
If Jesus is not alive today, we grieve the loss of our Christian loved ones. In 1 Thessalonians 4:13 (ESV), Paul wrote about our grief. He said:
But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.
Sometimes Christians feel guilty for grieving the loss of a loved one, especially when we consider that they are in a better place with God. However, if there is no resurrection, there is no better place, and that heaps sorrow upon sorrow. He points out in 1 Corinthians 15:18 (NKJV):
18 Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.
There is one more issue if Jesus has not risen – we are a miserable lot, for without His resurrection, we would have no hope or meaningful faith. Without the resurrection, we have no Savior and remain condemned for our sins. In verse 19, he wrote:
19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.
To put our faith in Christ and have nothing to look forward to would be to teach, preach, suffer, sacrifice, and work entirely for nothing. If Christ is still dead, he cannot help us regarding the life to come, nor can he help us now. He cannot improve our earthly life if He cannot grant us eternal life. The Christian life would be a mockery, a charade, a tragic joke.
A Christian has no Savior but Christ, no Redeemer but Christ, and no Lord. Therefore if Christ was not raised, he is not alive, and our Christian life is lifeless. We would have nothing to justify our faith, Bible study, preaching, service for Him, or worship of Him, and nothing to justify our hope for this life or the next. We would deserve nothing but the compassion reserved for fools.
But wait, there is more! We are not to be pitied, for the apostle immediately continues, " 20 But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep." (1 Corinthians 15:20, NKJV).
Paul here calls Jesus the first fruits of the dead. In the Old Testament, before the Israelites harvested their crops, they were to bring a sample called the first fruits to the priests as an offering to the Lord, indicating more to come. The fact that Jesus is the first fruit indicates that the rest of the crop will be harvested and His resurrection is proof.
Adam was the forerunner of everyone who dies, and Christ is the forerunner of everyone who will be raised to live. Adam brought death into this world, and all of us will die. But Christ brought eternal life into this world, and all the faithful will live through him.
John Hart was a signer of the Declaration of Independence, a Judge, and a Legislator. He and many of our Founding Fathers anticipated the resurrection and reward. He stated the following in his last will and testament:
[T]hanks be given unto Almighty God therefore, and knowing that it is appointed for all men once to die and after that the judgment [Hebrews 9:27] . . . principally, I give and recommend my soul into the hands of Almighty God who gave it and my body to the earth to be buried in a decent and Christian like manner . . . to receive the same again at the general resurrection by the mighty power of God.
Let me close with the following story:
A missionary in Brazil discovered a tribe of Indians in a remote part of the jungle. They lived near a large river. The tribe was friendly and required medical attention. A contagious disease was ravaging the population, and people were dying. Doctors set up an infirmary in another part of the jungle, and the missionary determined that the only hope for this tribe was for them to go to the hospital for treatment. To reach the hospital, however, the Indians would have to cross the river – something they were unwilling to do since they believed that evil spirits inhabited the river. To enter the water meant certain death
The missionary explained to them how he had crossed the river and arrived unharmed. The refused. He led the people to the bank and placed his hand in the water. The people still wouldn’t believe him. He walked out into the river and splashed water on his face. The people watched closely but still were hesitant. Finally, the missionary turned and dove into the water. He swam beneath the surface until he emerged on the other side.
Having proven that the river’s power was a farce, the missionary raised a triumphant fist in the air. He had entered the water and escaped. The Indians broke into cheers and followed him across.
Jesus came into this world and found people enslaved by their fear of death (Hebrews 2:15). He could have explained that the river of death was nothing to fear, but people wouldn’t believe him. He touched a boy and called him back to life, but his followers were still unconvinced. He brought life into the dead body of a girl, but the people were still cynical. He even let a dead man spend four days in a grave and called him out. Apparently, that was not enough.
For it was still necessary for Jesus Christ to enter the river, submerging himself in the waters of death, only to emerge after three days on the other side. Then and only then could we believe that death has been conquered, that Jesus has “destroyed him who had the power of death.” (Hebrews 2:14).
I hope you have a gracious Resurrection Day. Remember, the power of Jesus’ resurrection impacts us in living a life of fulfillment, anticipating the day when we see Him face to face, alive and forever well.
Keep The Light of the Power of Jesus’ Resurrection Burning!
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