The Resurrection

The Resurrection

The Resurrection is Essential to Christianity

Fables that Deny the Resurrection

The “Stolen Body” Fable

The “Didn’t Really Die” Fable

The “Wrong Tomb” Fable

Facts that Support the Resurrection

The Empty Tomb

The Effects on the Lives of the Disciples

The Existence of Christianity today

The Resurrection is Essential to Living Life Eternal

The Resurrection is Essential to Living Life Now

Slide

There sure are a lot of opinions out there concerning how you get to heaven and what Easter is all about.

As Christians today is the day we celebrate and remember the Resurrection of Christ and the victory over death that He won for all of those who believe in Him as Christ, the Son of God, God in the flesh.

But not everyone believes that as the video made clear.

Even the apostles didn’t believe this at first (Read Luke 24:1-11)

The Apostles did end up believing, but my question is why should people today believe in the resurrection?

Why should I believe in Christ as the only way to heaven?

And for even Christians, do we have to really believe in the resurrection to be a Christian?

Is the resurrection of Jesus really that important?

I mean, I have never seen anyone in my lifetime be dead for 3 days and then come back to life.

For people today, this resurrection may be hard to believe.

In fact, recently there was a show called “the Lost tomb of Jesus.”

They found a tomb that had some bones in some ossuary that they tried to make a case for these being the bones of Jesus, showing that He never really did rise from the dead.

And there was a man who claimed to be a Christian who said it really didn’t matter if someone found Jesus’ bones or if He did not actually, physically raise from the dead.

Is that true?

Does it matter to Christianity if Jesus really raised from the dead?

Does it really matter to living in the fullness of the Christian life that Jesus raised from the dead or not?

Is it really necessary?

Today, we are going to continue talking about the essential aspects of Christianity that we began talking about last week.

(Release 4-K Short Circuits to class)

Last week we spoke about the essential belief that Jesus is the Christ

Which means we recognize Him as

our King

the Son of God

God in the flesh

Those beliefs are essential to true Christianity.

Failure to believe those things is failure to believe Christianity.

This week we are going to talk about if the resurrection is essential and what is there to support that this event really occurred.

Let’s read again 1 Corinthians 15:1-6

Slide

and see what Paul thinks about these things.

1 Corinthians 15:1-6

1 Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. 2 By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.

3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. 6 After that, 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. (from New International Version)

Well, we see here that Paul tells us that

The Resurrection is Essential to Christianity

Slide

1 Corinthians 15:2-4

Paul is seeking to remind the Corinthians of the gospel that brings salvation and the fact that Jesus raised from the dead is part of that gospel, and essential part of the gospel.

He goes even further later in this chapter in

1 Corinthians 15:12-14

12 But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14 And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.

If Christ did not physically resurrect from the dead, then your faith is useless. Your faith in Christ is useless. You might as well just live life as you see fit, because if Christ did not raise from the dead, he lied to his followers, and there really is no hope in life.

But thankfully, Christ did rise from the dead. And we are going to look at some of the evidence of that in a minute.