The Reality and the Relevance of the Resurrection
Lighthouse Assembly of God
4/16/06
Pastor Greg Tabor
I. Introduction
Why does the Easter bunny and egg hunts seem to be more exciting than news about Christ’s death and resurrection? Because we simply haven’t grasped the significance of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Hank Hanegraaff writes, “The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the greatest feat in the annals of human history. It is the very “capstone in the arch of Christianity.” Without it, all else crumbles. When we fully comprehend the significance of resurrection, our lives will be revolutionized. Without resurrection, there is no hope. Indeed without resurrection, there would be no Christianity.” (from Christian Research Report, Vol.13, Issue 2, May 2000).
II. The Reality of the Resurrection
We need to come to a conclusion today that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is more than a fairy tale, more than a legend, and more than some religious symbol. It is a historical fact that is indisputable. In fact, Billy Graham said that, “There is more evidence that Jesus rose from the dead than there is that Julius Caesar ever lived or that Alexander the Great died at the age of thirty-three.” How can Billy Graham make such a statement? Is there really evidence that makes believing in the resurrection more than a leap of blind faith? Let’s see…
*Proofs of the Resurrection (using Hanegraaff’s acronym FEAT)
While each of these points could be studied in more detail, we’ll just stay on each point briefly, but enough to make the point.
- Fatal Torment
Dr. Norman Geisler writes, “For the Resurrection to have any significance, Jesus had to be dead first.” (When Skeptics Ask. p. 120).
Some have concluded that Jesus just passed out and revived later in His tomb. But that’s absurd! Christ suffered horribly. Let me explain how horribly He suffered and eventually died.
He began his suffering at the Garden of Gethsemane where Luke 22:44 says, “his sweat was like drops of blood falling the ground.”, and his suffering continued throughout his interrogations before Annas and Caiaphas, where he was hit in the face, spit upon and beaten, and continued on as he was taken to Pilate, where he was flogged, given a crown of thorns, spit upon and struck on the head again and again. The flogging alone was so brutal that it is amazing he lasted until His crucifixion.
And then there was the crucifixion itself. Hanegraaff writes, “The Roman system of crucifixion had been fine-tuned to produce maximum pain. In fact, the word excruciating (literally “out of the cross”) had to be invented to fully codify its horror.” (Resurrection. p. 19). They used 5 to 7 inch spikes to hammer him to the wooden beams of the cross.
John 19:31-37 gives the account of the guards breaking the legs of the thieves to hasten their death by asphyxiation at the request of the religious leaders so that the bodies would not be left on the crosses during the Sabbath. But when they came to Jesus, he was already dead and they speared His side instead. This produced a sudden flow of blood and water. If he wasn’t dead, he would be dead now.
Mark 15:44-45 NIV says, “Pilate was surprised to hear that he was already dead. Summoning the centurion, he asked him if Jesus had already died. When he learned from the centurion that it was so, he gave the body to Joseph.” He was dead. No doubt about it.
- Empty Tomb
In Matthew 27:51-61 it gives the account of Jesus’ burial. Joseph of Arimathea, a member of the Sandhedrin, placed Jesus’ body in his tomb. This account also says that Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were sitting opposite the tomb, so they knew where it was. And the next day the Sanhedrin came up with a plan to specifically thwart any plan the disciples might have of stealing Jesus’ body and faking a resurrection by getting Pilate’s order to post a guard and seal the tomb (read Matthew 27:62-66).
Some might say that the Romans or the Jews stole the body, but that makes no sense. What motive would they have had? That would only encourage something they wanted squelched. Instead, after Jesus had risen, and the guards had reported everything that had happened, the chief priests bribed them to circulate a false story that the disciples had stolen the body (read Matthew 28:11-15).
The tomb was discovered empty because it was empty. Nobody got the tombs mixed up. Nobody stole the body. It was empty, period.
- Appearances
One of the greatest proofs of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ was His many post-resurrection appearances.
While there were many appearances, for the sake of time, I want to look at just one of these appearances. Listen to 1 Corinthians 15:6 NIV:
“he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep.”
More than 500 people! There were surely many people that could testify to the trustworthiness of this statement. Several hundred. Paul’s statement had plenty of eyewitness testimony to back it up or to disprove it if it had been false.
- Transformation
The reality is that a transformation in Jesus’ followers took place. This is evidence of the reality of the resurrection. This little band of disciples went from hiding to preaching in a very short time. They were willing to go through horrible torture and death. Lee Strobel writes, “Nobody willingly dies for something that they know is false.”(Case for Easter, p.88). But they knew it to be true. They knew Jesus had died, they knew there was an empty tomb, and they had seen Him.
And the reality of the resurrection’s transforming power didn’t stop with the eyewitnesses, but “As Christian philosopher J.P. Moreland points out, within weeks of the resurrection, not just one, but an entire community of at least ten thousand Jews were willing to give up the very sociological and theological traditions that had given them their national identity.”(Resurrection. p. 60).
Some angry Jews in Thessalonica said of Paul and his comrades that “These men who have caused trouble all over the world have now come here.”(Acts 17:6 NIV). The original followers and the hearers of that first century were so radically transformed that they affected their culture big time. And the transformation of people has been continuing for 2000 years.
III. The Relevance of the Resurrection
Now the question is ‘Why should Christ’s resurrection be important to me?’
Remember, the beginning of this message when I quoted Hank Hanegraaff stating that without the resurrection there would be no Christianity? Let’s examine a few things that help us understand the importance of the resurrection for us.
A. The Resurrection proves Jesus is God
Christ’s resurrection proves He was God, and not an imposter. In John 2 Jesus chased out the money changers in the Temple because they’d turned God’s Temple into a marketing venture. The Jews asked Him, “What miraculous sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?” This is what Jesus told them:
“Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.” (John 2:19 NIV)
They thought he was referring to the Temple building they were in. But verse 21 tells us He was referring to His body. He delivered on His miraculous sign, thus proving who He was.
Paul opened the letter to the Romans like this:
“Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God—the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures regarding his Son, who as to his human nature was a descendant of David, and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.” Romans 1:1-4 NIV
The Resurrection proves Jesus to be the Son of God and brings us face to face with the fact that He is who He claimed to be, God. The founder of every other religion died and stayed dead. Jesus rose again. This is important to you because it forces you to make a decision in your life. Since Christ is who He claimed to be, how will you respond to Him?
B. The Resurrection makes your salvation possible
Without the Resurrection of Jesus Christ every person is still dead in their sins. Romans 4:25 NIV says, “He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.”
“If Jesus died and was never raised, then his death did nothing to accomplish justification. God raising him from the dead showed acceptance of Christ’s sacrifice. If God left Jesus in the grave, then the sacrifice was not accepted and no one has received cleansing from sin. The condemnation for sin is death (Romans 6:23). To still be under condemnation means that all people will be given the ultimate penalty for their sins.” -- Life Application Bible Commentary
Paul writes, “if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith … And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost.”(1 Cor 15:14,17-18 NIV). If Christ did not rise then you are still dead in your sins and your Christian faith is worthless and anyone you’ve known who died a believer is just as damned as an unbeliever.
If there had been no resurrection, then Christ proved Himself nothing more than a self-deceived prophet or crazy man and all of us are fools for trusting Him. BUT, as we’ve already seen, thankfully, the resurrection of Jesus Christ is a historical fact. Faith in Christ is not in vain. This is important to you this morning because Jesus’ being alive means the way to God has been ‘paved’ by Christ and you can be made right with Him and have relationship with Him this morning.
C. The Resurrection makes your resurrection possible
You and I are spirit and body. We are spiritual and we have physicality. Unlike the beliefs of the Greek philosophers who thought the body was evil and something we should want to be released from, God made our bodies as part of who we are and they complete us. Right now our bodies are affected by sin and die, but God has a plan to resurrect our bodies to perfection. Listen to philosopher Peter Kreeft:
“We are better than angels at many things, and those things would be missing from us and those perfections missing from the universe if our souls were simply disembodied. Angels are much better than we are at intelligence, will, and power, but they cannot smell flowers or weep over a Chopin nocturne.” (Peter Kreeft quoted by Hank Hanegraaff in Resurrection, p. 72)
These resurrected bodies, our current bodies transformed, will be bodies completely perfect and dominated by the Spirit rather than the sinful nature. Granted, the resurrection will not take place until Christ’s Second Coming, and 2 Corinthians 5 lets us know that our disembodiment at death, for the believer, results in being in God’s presence. But the same passage also lets us know that Paul desired to be “clothed” with his heavenly dwelling and not “naked,” or disembodied. So we can conclude that while our family members and friends that have died who were believers are very much enjoying the presence of the Lord, this is not their final eternal state. God has their bodily resurrection planned because He never planned permanent disembodiment for us.
Listen to Romans 8:23-24 NIV:
“we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved.”
Our spirits have been saved, but we are awaiting the day our bodies are completely made new and free of the weight of sin and totally dominated by the Holy Spirit. “For in this hope we were saved.” Resurrection is our hope. And 2 Corinthians 5:5 says, “Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose…” This ‘first fruits of the Spirit’ spoken of in Romans 8:23 is elsewhere referred to as a deposit in Ephesians 1:14, 2 Corinthians 1:22 and 2 Corinthians 5:5 and His indwelling is a guarantee that much more is on the way. We have the down payment of the Spirit, but are awaiting the full transaction that will come to fruition when our bodies are resurrected and we live forever with Him.
And our resurrection is only made possible by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. As Stanley Horton points out, “Christ’s resurrection and ours are part of one and the same plan of God.”(Horton, Stanley. I & II Corinthians. p. 150) Christ’s resurrection guarantees our own bodily resurrection. The Bible refers to Him as being the ‘first fruits,’ which guarantees the whole harvest, of which you and I are a part if we are in Christ. In other words, since He was raised first, we know we will be raised.
“But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him.” 1 Corinthians 15:20-23 NIV
When will our resurrection take place? The passage we just read said, “when he comes.” This second coming is referred to in Titus 2:13 as the “blessed hope.” Philippians 3:20-21 tells us that we are awaiting a Savior from heaven who “will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.” When Christ returns we will see Him and we will be transformed! What a blessed hope indeed!
Now, just look at yourself. Take a minute. Do you feel too fat? Too thin? Got hurting knees or allergies? Losing your hair? Whatever problems and imperfections you have are temporary and will one day be changed in the twinkling of an eye if you are in Christ. That is our hope. It is the completion for us of the ultimate extreme makeover. A heavenly body for eternal living.
IV. Conclusion
Let me close by using two illustrations:
First, your life is like Humpty Dumpty’s. Remember, he sat on a wall and fell and all the king horses and all the king’s men couldn’t put him back together again? You and I are broken because of sin. And there’s not a thing anyone can do to fix us. We are utterly helpless and hopeless and stand in judgment before God because of our sin. But listen to this story…
“Little Philip, born with Down’s syndrome, attended a third-grade Sunday School class with several eight-year-old boys and girls. Typical of that age, the children did not readily accept Philip with his differences, according to an article in Leadership magazine. But because of a creative teacher, they began to care about Philip and accept him as part of the group, though not fully. The Sunday after Easter the teacher brought Leggs pantyhose containers, the kind that look like large eggs. Each receiving one, the children were told to go outside on that lovely spring day, find some symbol for new life, and put it in the egg-like container. Back in the classroom, they would share their new-life symbols, opening the containers one by one in surprise fashion. After running about the church property in wild confusion, the students returned to the classroom and placed the containers on the table. Surrounded by the children, the teacher began to open them one by one. After each one, whether flower, butterfly, or leaf, the class would ooh and ahh. Then one was opened, revealing nothing inside. The children exclaimed, "That’s stupid. That’s not fair. Somebody didn’t do their assignment." Philip spoke up, "That’s mine." "Philip, you don’t ever do things right!" the student retorted. "There’s nothing there!" I did so do it," Philip insisted. "I did do it. It’s empty. the tomb was empty!" Silence followed. From then on Philip became a full member of the class.
He died not long afterward from an infection most normal children would have shrugged off. At the funeral this class of eight-year-olds marched up to the altar not with flowers, but with their Sunday school teacher, each to lay on it an empty pantyhose egg.” (From Leadership Magazine. I got this off of www.sermonillustrations.com )
While you may be broken like Humpty Dumpty because of sin and unfixable by anyone in the world, because that tomb is genuinely empty and Jesus is alive, what He did on the cross paid for your sins and you’ve been given an opportunity to not only be fixed, but to become a new creation and to have fellowship with God. That’s the joy of Resurrection morning. God can fix you spiritually and you can have the hope that He will one day complete your redemption by redeeming your body to be like Jesus’ body! Hallelujah! Will you accept His salvation this morning? Wouldn’t you be a fool not to? Do you see how relevant the resurrection is to your life? Without it you have no life.
