05 - He Is Risen Indeed By Pastor Jeff Wickwire Notes

1 Cor 15:12-20 "But tell me this—since we preach that Christ rose from the dead, why are some of you saying there will be no resurrection of the dead? 13 For if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised either.

14 And if Christ has not been raised, then all our preaching is useless, and your faith is useless. 15 And we apostles would all be lying about God—for we have said that God raised Christ from the grave. But that can’t be true if there is no resurrection of the dead.

16 And if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless and you are still guilty of your sins.

18 In that case, all who have died believing in Christ are lost! 19 And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world.

20 But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. He is the first of a great harvest of all who have died."

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How many of you have ever heard of a man named Harry Houdini?

Harry Houdini died in October of 1926.

But his claim to fame was that he was a magician that specialized in spectacular escapes.

As a matter of fact, he was said to have laughed at locks, sneered at fetters.

They said of Harry that he had the flexibility of an eel....He had the lives of a cat.

They did all kinds of things to try to incarcerate him.

They would seal him in coffins. He would escape.

They riveted him into a boiler. He escaped.

They sowed him up in canvas bags. He escaped.

They sealed him in a barrel. He escaped.

They put him in maximum-security prison. And slippery Harry somehow got out.

But then in October 1926, old man death laid his hands on Harry Houdini and put him in a grave and he is yet to escape.

At his funeral one pallbearer was heard saying to another, "I'll bet he's not in that casket!"

As a matter of fact, Houdini himself had told his wife on his death bed, "If there is any way out, I will find it....If there is any way out I'll make contact with you and we'll do it on the anniversary of my death."

For 10 years she kept a light burning over his portrait.

At the end of 10 years she turned out the light.......Death had Harry and he couldn't escape!

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Death also laid his hands on the Lord Jesus Christ.

And death put Jesus in a solid rock tomb.

And there was a stone over the mouth of that tomb, and the seal of the Roman government was placed upon the rock.

And a Roman guard of at least 20 men were posted to guard that tomb.

But on the third day, Jesus Christ rose from the sleep of death.

He neatly unwound the grave clothes that were wrapped around him like a butterfly would lay down a cocoon, and placed them in the corner.

And then Jesus Christ passed through the walls of that solid rock tomb.

By the way, the stone wasn't rolled away to let Jesus out....it was rolled away to let the disciples in to see that Jesus had risen.

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Now, we often think of the Cross as the end of the story of Jesus, but without the resurrection, we have no Christianity.

It is the resurrection that sets Christianity apart from any other religion.

In fact, the resurrection was the defining moment of truth as to whether Jesus was Who He had claimed to be!

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Jesus spoke openly about what would happen to Him---He would be crucified and then resurrected from the dead.

If you read the four gospels, you will be struck by the fact that Jesus predicted, over and over again, His own betrayal, death, and resurrection.

He told His disciples, "The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again" (Mark 8:31).

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Two separate witnesses testified to Jesus' statement that if his enemies destroyed the temple (meaning his body), he would build it again in three days (John 2:19).

The following exchange between Jesus and the Jewish religious leaders took place.

"So the Jews answered and said to him, 'What sign do you show to us, since you do these things?' Jesus answered and said to them, 'Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.'

Then the Jews said, 'It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?'

"But he was speaking of the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he said this; and they believed the Scripture, and the word which Jesus had spoken" (John 2:18-22).

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When asked for a specific sign from the religious leaders Jesus said.

"An evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign; and yet no sign shall be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet; for just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth (Matthew 12:39-40)."

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Especially during the last six months of His earthly life, Jesus emphasized the importance and necessity of His upcoming crucifixion as well as the triumph of His resurrection.

The Bible records, "From that time Jesus began to show to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day (Matthew 16:21)."

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Jesus also made the amazing claim that He had the authority to accomplish the resurrection Himself.

"Therefore my Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it again (John 10:17, 18).

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The predictions Jesus made of His resurrection were such common knowledge that it led the religious rulers to ask Pontius Pilate to secure the tomb.

"On the next day, which followed the Day of Preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees gathered together to Pilate saying, 'Sir, we remember, while he was still alive, how that deceiver said, "After three days I will rise."

"Therefore command that the tomb be made secure until the third day, lest his disciples come by night and steal Him away, and say to the people, "He has risen from the dead. So the last deception will be worse than the first'" (Matthew 27:62-64).

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So get this: A full Roman garrison consisting of at least 20 men was dispatched to the tomb of Jesus out of fear His disciples would come and steal the body away.

Think of it, twenty tough, burly men posted around the grave of a dead man to be sure He stayed there!!

But two thousand Roman guards could not have kept Jesus in that tomb!

The Bible records that....

"Early on Sunday morning, as the new day was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went out to visit the tomb."

2 "Suddenly there was a great earthquake! For an angel of the Lord came down from heaven, rolled aside the stone, and sat on it. 3 His face shone like lightning, and his clothing was as white as snow."

And watch this, "The guards shook with fear when they saw him, and they fell into a dead faint" (Matt. 28:1-4).

The Bible records that later some of the guards, "...went into the city and told the leading priests what had happened.

Then it says, "A meeting with the elders was called, and they decided to give the soldiers a large bribe."

13 "They told the soldiers, “You must say, ‘Jesus’ disciples came during the night while we were sleeping, and they stole his body.’ 14 If the governor hears about it, we’ll stand up for you so you won’t get in trouble.”

15 "So the guards accepted the bribe and said what they were told to say. Their story spread widely among the Jews, and they still tell it today" (Matt 28:11-15).

So in spite of all efforts to keep Jesus in the tomb, He arose and was repeatedly seen by the disciples and by over 500 other followers between His resurrection and ascension back into heaven...

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Now, you might way, what does all this matter to me? That was a long time ago!

Here's why the resurrection of Jesus Christ matters to you and me today....

First, if there was no resurrection, Christianity is a hoax, and we are wasting our time.

Paul the Apostle wrote, "And if Christ has not been raised, then all our preaching is useless, and your faith is useless. 15 And we apostles would all be lying about God—for we have said that God raised Christ from the grave...And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world" (1 Cor 15:14-15; 19).

But the truth is, Jesus’ resurrection is historical fact!

Professor Thomas Arnold, a world-renowned historian, once said that Christ’s resurrection from the dead is the “best-attested fact in human history."

A Second reason Jesus' resurrection matters is, the resurrection is one of the major proofs that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

Paul said that Christ is “declared to be the Son of God with power . . . by the resurrection from the dead” (Romans 1:4)

You see, everything Jesus said and did, everything He claimed about Himself--Who He was, what He'd come to do--rode on whether or not He rose from the dead...

So when Jesus walked out of the tomb that first Easter morning, it affirmed to the world that He was indeed the Son of God!

Third, Jesus’ resurrection provides the assurance that we can have forgiveness from our sins.

The Bible argues, “But if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain. . . . For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins (1 Cor. 15:13-14; 16-17).

The reverse of the Apostle’s words would be this: If Jesus WAS raised, our sins WILL be forgiven when we, by faith, turn to Him.

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Folks, the founder of Islam is dead. The founder of Buddhism and all other world religions can be found in a graveyard.

As the song says:

No, it won't be old Buddha that's sitting on the throne

And it won't be old Mohammed that's calling us Home

And it won't be Hare Krishna that plays that trumpet tune

And we're going to see The Son not Reverend Moon!

Sixty years after his death, Jesus appeared to John on the island of Patmos and said:

“I am the first and the last, and the Living one; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive for evermore” (Revelation 1:17-18).

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But all of this does you no good unless you place your faith in Christ by asking Him to forgive you of your sins...PRAY

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