Opening: Unlike other religions, Christianity is based on Christ Jesus: His incarnation to be a Man, His life and teachings, His death and resurrection, His ascension to heaven, and His second coming. Christ is the center of Christianity. No Christ, no Christians, or no Christ’s followers!
Even if we take just one of those aspects of Christ out, we would no longer have the true Christ that the Bible teaches. Here’s an example:
In 1996 I took the Clinical Pastoral Education for a year. On Easter Sunday, I was scheduled to lead the morning devotion. Since it was Easter, I shared from 1 Corinthians 15 about the resurrection of Christ that I believed was true, really happened. After the devotion, my supervisor, the director of the CPE, told me that he didn’t think that Jesus really rose from the dead. I was surprised because he was an ordained pastor. Apparently, to him, he could be a Christian, even an ordained minister without believing in the resurrection of Christ. But, like I said earlier,
Christianity is based on what the Bible teaches about Christ. And the Bible clearly teaches that Christ Jesus rose from the dead. Removing that aspect from Christ would ruin the whole thing because everything about Him is interconnected. That is why, today I would like to share with you “Why is the Resurrection of Christ so Important?”
1. To prove that Christ is the Son of God. The fact that Jesus Christ died on the cross does not prove in itself He is God. Jesus proved His deity by fulfilling the prophecies of His death and by His return from the grave. If Jesus had died and remained dead, he would be like the millions who went before Him and the billions who came after him. But that is not what happened.
Christ’s resurrection proves that He is someone of a unique status: The Son of God. The Bible declares that " and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord." (Romans 1:4).
2. To prove that Jesus Christ was who He claimed to be. Mark 8:31 - “He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again.” Our Lord had claimed to be the Son of God, which was the reason why the religious leaders conspired to kill Him (John 19:7 - "The Jewish leaders insisted, “We have a law, and according to that law he must die because he claimed to be the Son of God.”).
The resurrection was God’s proof that the Lord Jesus was Who He claimed to be: the Son of God and Messiah. John 14:6 “Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
3. To reveal Christ's power over death. The Bible records, "For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him." (Romans 6:9). Death is the enemy of mankind and the just punishment for each person’s sins (Romans 6:23).
The mortality rate is and will always be 100%. No amount of effort, medical technology, power, or riches can escape the clutches of death. Christ rose from the dead because death could no longer hold him, and we no longer have to fear death because Christ has triumphed over it. Death is no longer an enemy because, in Christ, we no longer have to fear the punishment that comes after death. “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Corinthians 15:55-57).
4. To prove Christ's power to forgive sin. The Bible asserts, "If Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins" (1 Corinthians 15:17). By raising from the dead, Jesus proved His authority and power to break the bonds of sin and to assure forgiveness and eternal life to all who accept His gift of salvation.
5. To prove the Gospel is true. The fact that Jesus is alive means that he can save today. This was a major argument of Paul’s in 1 Cor 15, where he defends the truth of the resurrection by explaining the whole Christian gospel depends on it: "And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain…and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied" (1 Corinthians 15:1-4, 14; 17-19).
Paul explains that the resurrection is not only a fundamental part of the Gospel, but it is the glue that holds every part of the Gospel together. Without it, Christians are believing in vain and are without hope. But since Christ has risen from the dead, we have hope of having our sins forgiven, being made right in God’s sight, and having eternal life through Christ.
6. To give us a living hope. Being forgiven of our sins and justified before God gives Christians tremendous hope. Christians are changed from being enemies of God bound for hell to becoming forgiven children of God with an eternal inheritance in heaven that can never be taken away. What could be better news than that? “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3).
Illustration: The German theologian, Jurgen Moltmann, expressed in a single sentence the great span from Good Friday to Easter. It is, in fact, a summary of human history, past, present, and future: "God weeps with us so that we may someday laugh with him." ”Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.” (1 Corinthians 15:58)
7. To show us that we will be raised like him. Christ is described as the first fruit of the resurrection from the dead, meaning that his resurrection is a precursor to the resurrection of all believers (1 Cor 15:20). 1 Cor 15:21-22 explains, “For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.”
Christians will enjoy the resurrected life just like Christ did, with glorified bodies raised in power (1 Corinthians 15:42-44). We may suffer in this life with many pains and illnesses, but in the life to come, we will not suffer, but enjoy the perfect bodies we have always longed for.
Closing: Some people may think only uneducated or non-intelligent people become Christians who believe in the resurrection of Jesus. But that is not true. Look what Ian Hutchinson said:
“I’m a professor of nuclear science and engineering at MIT, and I believe that Jesus was raised from the dead. So do dozens of my colleagues. How can this be? We really believe in the bodily resurrection of the first-century Jew known as Jesus of Nazareth. My Christian colleagues at MIT – and millions of other scientists worldwide – somehow think that a literal miracle like the resurrection of Jesus is possible.”
Happy Resurrection Day! Jesus is alive!
Note: This sermon used many sources from other preachers
