The Resurrection
- February 12, 2012
- Speaker: Pastor Aaron Smith
- Series: Self-Revelation
- Category: Topical
This is the final week of this sermon series. God has revealed Himself in His Son. We believe that Jesus is the Incarnate God. He died, and three days later, was raised from the dead. He is alive and He is our God! How do we know this? Well, by grace through faith on account of Christ. But, our God works in history. So there is empirical evidence for our faith placed in Jesus.
The Gospels are eyewitness testimonies. The Gospel manuscripts are very reliable. Jesus claimed to be God Incarnate. He demonstrated that claim by His miracles. The One That Mattered, Jesus' resurrection from the dead, is the crucial evidence for Christianity and for the Christian! This is true for two major reasons. One, Jesus said it would happen. We saw last week that Jesus, in the midst of His ministry of preaching, teaching, and healing, kept pointing to the coming miracle of His resurrection from the dead. If He was not raised from the dead, He was a liar and not whom He said He was and not whom He demonstrated to be. Two, by His resurrection, Jesus deals with the deepest and most profound question for the human race: death. If Jesus defeated death, that speaks volumes to the human condition. If death defeated Jesus, we continue to grapple with death's dominion, destruction, and inescapability.
The Apostle Paul was very clear: the Christian claim rests on the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. 1 Corinthians 15:14 - "And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain." Paul spend his life preaching that Jesus was God Incarnate, who died, and was raised from the dead. Paul preached this Gospel in Corinth, people believed in Christ, and he writes them this letter. But, Paul writes, if Christ was not raised, his time with them was useless as is this letter and their new life in the Gospel. Useless without the resurrection. A grand waste of time. 1 Corinthians 15:17 - "And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins." Not only would the Corinthian Christians faith be garbage, but they would still stand before the Holy God as sinners without forgiveness, without an intercessor, without a hope. Their sins that lead to death are there, crying out their sentence: "Guilty!" 1 Corinthians 15:19 - "If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied." If Christ was not raised, all who place their hope in Christ should be pitied by all others. "Those poor, poor Christians. What a shame!"
But Christ has been raised! That is everything for the Christian! And those eyewitness, reliable documents proclaim the resurrection of Jesus loud and clear. And they are at pains to describe three specific things about the resurrection.
The tomb was empty. Matthew 28:6 - "He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay." These words are spoken to the women who come to the tomb. See, look! He is not where he was placed. Mark 16:6 - "You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here. See the place where they laid him." Luke 24:3 - "...but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus." John 20:6-7 - "[Simon Peter] saw the linen cloths lying there, and the face cloth, which had been on Jesus' head, not lying with the linen cloths but folded up in a place by itself." Peter saw this, this, and this, but not the body. Now, listen to part of Peter's sermon at Pentecost. He contrasts the graves of David and Jesus. Acts 2:29-32 - "...the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day....This Jesus God raised up, and of that we are all witnesses." Peter is clear. King David died, was buried, and placed in a tomb. "His tomb is with us to this day" - Peter urges them to go check out the tomb! Jesus died, was buried, and placed in a tomb. Peter urges them to go check out that tomb as well. Surely, the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea was not a secret tomb. The women who went to anoint Jesus didn't have to ask where it was. The disciples, although they were men, didn't have to stop and ask for directions. They knew where it was. Joseph was a rich man, and his property was well known.
The Gospel documents are at pains to describe the post-resurrection appearances of Jesus. Matthew 28:9 - "And behold, Jesus met them and said, 'Greetings!'" Jesus appears to the women. Luke 24:15 - "While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them." This is Cleopas and another disciples, and Jesus talks and walks with them for a good amount of time. John 20:20,26 - "Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord...eight days later, his disciples were inside again and Thomas was with them..." Yes, Jesus appeared to his disciples once, then again, but this time "Doubting Thomas" was with them. Then our Epistle reading for today. 1 Corinthians 15 - "...he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve, then he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive...then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles...he appeared also to me." "Most of whom are still alive" - Paul is practically begging his Corinthians brothers and sisters in the faith, "If you have doubts, ask those who saw the Resurrected Jesus. If your family and friends think you're crazy, ask those who saw the Resurrected Jesus. If your Christian community is starting to slide, ask those who saw the Resurrection Jesus. Do it; they are still alive!!"
The Gospel documents are at pain to describe the bodily resurrection of Jesus. His was a real, physical, bodily resurrection. This was NOT a "spiritual" resurrection. Matthew 28:9 - "And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshipped him." Have you ever noticed that Casper the Friendly Ghost has no feet? Ghosts don't have feet. The Resurrected Jesus does! Luke 24:40,42 - "...he showed them his hands and his feet...they gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate before them." Dead people don't eat. Jesus ate. He needs a body for this! John 20:27 - "Then he said to Thomas, 'Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side.'" Jesus' resurrection was a bodily resurrection.
Yes, Jesus was raised from the dead. And the eyewitnesses of his life, ministry, death, burial, and resurrection were convinced this was the truth. And they were willing to die for it. Peter says in Acts 2:32, "We are all witnesses." The church father Origen says Peter was martyred in Rome. The Resurrected Jesus told the disciples, including James, the son of Zebedee, in Acts 1:8 - "...you will be my witnesses..." In Acts 12: 2, we read that Herod Agrippa "killed James the brother of John with the sword...." Paul testifies in 1 Corinthians 15:8 that Jesus "appeared also to me." Origen states that Paul also was martyred in Rome. These men died for the truth. Many have noted the following: "People will die for their religious beliefs if they sincerely believe they're true, but people won't die for their religious beliefs if they know their beliefs are false." (Stroebel, The Case for Christ) Many have died a sad death by their involvement with a cult. But Jesus' disciples were not only sincerely in their belief, but they also testified to its truth.
"I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel..." We have come to belief the Incarnation and Resurrection of Jesus through the Holy Spirit working throught the Gospel. So, we confess, "And I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried...The third day He rose again from the dead." Brothers and sisters in Christ, we believe in the Incarnation and Resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. "This is most certainly true." We stand between Christmas (The Incarnation) and Easter (The Resurrection). While we believe this through God-given faith, God has revealed Himself in history. The Gospels are eyewitness documents. The Gospels are reliable documents. Jesus claimed to be God Incarnate and demonstrated this with His miracles. He pointed then to His coming Resurrection from the dead. On the third day, the tomb was empty. Jesus, in His body, appeared to many. Yes, this is most certainly true!
