Why The Ressurrection Matters
Easter 2023 • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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The Lord is my strength and song, And He has become my salvation.
The voice of rejoicing and salvation Is in the tents of the righteous; The right hand of the Lord does valiantly.
The right hand of the Lord is exalted; The right hand of the Lord does valiantly.
I shall not die, but live, And declare the works of the Lord.
The Lord has chastened me severely, But He has not given me over to death.
Open to me the gates of righteousness; I will go through them, And I will praise the Lord.
This is the gate of the Lord, Through which the righteous shall enter.
I will praise You, For You have answered me, And have become my salvation.
The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone.
This was the Lord’s doing; It is marvelous in our eyes.
This is the day the Lord has made; We will rejoice and be glad in it.
Scripture Reading
Now after the Sabbath, as the first day of the week began to dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb.
And behold, there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat on it.
His countenance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow.
And the guards shook for fear of him, and became like dead men.
But the angel answered and said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified.
He is not here; for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.
And go quickly and tell His disciples that He is risen from the dead, and indeed He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him. Behold, I have told you.”
So they went out quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to bring His disciples word.
And as they went to tell His disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, “Rejoice!” So they came and held Him by the feet and worshiped Him.
Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell My brethren to go to Galilee, and there they will see Me.”
INTRO:
INTRO:
AG: Just after World War II, a Preacher by the name of William Sangster, came down with a disease that gradually paralyzed him. Eventually, even his vocal cords were paralyzed. On Easter Sunday, his last Easter on earth, his daughter came to visit. Using stiffened fingers, he scribbled this message to her: “How terrible to wake up on Easter and have no voice with which to shout, ‘He is risen!’” Then, pausing a moment, he added, “But it is even worse to have a voice and not want to shout.”
RS: You and I should feel like shouting today, because this is Easter, and Christ has risen from the dead. But, just what does that mean to us today. The answer is found in the Book of Romans. It is Paul’s greatest declaration of Christian truth. Three times in Romans, the apostle Paul refers to the great results of Easter. He says that they are:
1. Easter confirmed Christ’s identity.
2. Easter cancelled sin’s penalty.
3. Because of Easter, we can celebrate eternal life.
1. Easter confirmed Christ’s identity.
1. Easter confirmed Christ’s identity.
Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God
which He promised before through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures,
concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh,
and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.
The Resurrection proves who Jesus is.
Paul begins his letter to the Romans with a significant reference to Easter.
This passage answers a couple of very important questions.
The first question is, “How do we know Jesus Christ was truly human—that He was a man?”
The first question is, “How do we know Jesus Christ was truly human—that He was a man?”
Paul answers, “We know, because He descended from the seed of David.”
Matthew and Luke record His human ancestestry. Mary was a direct descendant of King David. Added to that, His stepfather, Joseph was also a direct descendant of David.
The OT prophets spoke often of a coming heir to David’s throne who would do what Jesus did!
They ultimately said that the Messiah will sit upon the throne of David.
In the New Testament, Jesus is even called the Son of David.
The second question is, “How do we know He was truly divine—that He was God?”
The second question is, “How do we know He was truly divine—that He was God?”
Paul answers, “The Resurrection verified it.”
You see, the Resurrection did not make Him the Son of God; it simply revealed who He was.
His resurrection proves that He was accurate when He said, (John 8:23).
And He said to them, “You are from beneath; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world.
Jesus came from heaven to earth, and He lived as a man.
He came to save mankind, through His death on a cross. Throughout His ministry He walked the dusty roads teaching His disciples and doing many wonderful things.
But the days of walking along the dusty roads in Israel are over now; He has come back from the dead in mighty power. His resurrection proves He is the Son of God.
If Jesus had lived a wonderful life and died a heroic death, and if that had been the end of Him, He might have been listed with the great and heroic, but He would have simply been one among many.
However, His uniqueness is guaranteed forever by His resurrection. The others are dead and gone, and have left behind only a memory. But Jesus lives on, and His presence is within us. He is still mighty; He has great power.
Many people have the mistaken view that other founders of the world’s religions claimed to be God, but that isn’t so.
Just because people claim to be something doesn’t mean they are. Christ claimed to be God, but what were His credentials?
He said,
(John 1:19).
Now this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?”
(Matt.12:40).
For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
He even predicted His death, burial and resurection!
And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.
Easter fulfilled those promises and bear out His claim to be God. We follow a living Savior, who loves us. That’s important!
AP: When it comes to eternal matters, who are you willing to follow?
The dead leaders of the world’s religions and philosophies or the only founder of a major religion who claimed to be God and who proved it by rising from the dead. Follow Jesus, because He is God and He proved it.
2. Easter cancelled sin’s penalty.
2. Easter cancelled sin’s penalty.
When talking about the righteousness of Christ, Paul had this to say:(Rom.4:24–25).
but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead,
who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification.
Christ died as God’s sacrificial Lamb (John 1:29)
The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!
His death was to pay the redemptive price for the sins of all people (Rom. 3:24)
being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
Because of That, God will forgive those who respond by faith to that provision. Christ’s resurrection was the proof (or demonstration) of God’s acceptance of Jesus’ sacrifice (Rom.1:4).
and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.
Thus because He lives, God can credit His provided righteousness to the account of every person who responds by faith to that offer.”
(2 Corinthians 5:21).
For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
God replaces our sin debt with Christ’s righteousness!
Our account was in the red, deeply in debt due to sin
God not only erases the debt, He fills our accounts!
Jesus lived a sinless life.
He was tempted more that any man;
For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.
Therefore, He was righteous in the eyes of God. And when we place our faith in Him, something happens; we receive His righteousness by God giving it to us.
There isn’t a thing anyone can do to become clothed with God’s righteousness except have faith in Jesus Christ as his Savior from sin.
What can be more wonderful than to know that your sins are forgiven?
3. Because of Easter, we can celebrate eternal life.
3. Because of Easter, we can celebrate eternal life.
This is what Paul said about that in the 8 th chapter of Romans, (Rom.8:11).
But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
What Paul is saying in this verse is that all men die, because they’re human.
Sin came into the world, and along with sin came death, which is the result of sin. Therefore, all men eventually die; but the man who has Christ and His Spirit will rise again.
You see, the Christian is one in Christ. The child of God is on his way to eternal life; death is only a brief interlude that has to be passed through on the way.
Now, Christ died and rose again thus defeating death and grave
“O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?”
The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law.
But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Any person who is one with Christ is one with death’s conqueror and shares in that victory.
We are essentially connected to Jesus by His resurrection. We actually share the life of Christ, somewhat like a limb that’s grafted into a tree shares the life of the tree. The life of Christ is our life now. We have a sure hope of a resurrection of our own, and of eternal life.
Jesus said, (John 11:25 –26)
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live.
And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
Satan believed he had defeated Jesus when He died on the cross, but that opinion only lasted three days, because the resurrection conquered sin and death and gave Satan a knock-out blow.
When the shepherd boy David knocked out the giant Goliath with a stone from his slingshot, he rushed over to the fallen man and, taking the giant’s own sword, cut off his head. Jesus did that with Satan. Using the devil’s own weapon, death, He defeated him.
Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil,
and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
It was necessary for Christ to die in order to destroy the power and fear of death.
That doesn’t mean that death and Satan have been destroyed, however, they have been made ineffective. Through His resurrection, Christ broke the hold which Satan possessed over all people.
Though these bodies may one day fall asleep, we have the blessed hope that we too will be resurrected.
Because Christ was raised from the dead, we shall be raised from the dead. The Holy Spirit will deliver us from the “body of this death”—this old nature.
Conclusion:
Conclusion:
Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan tells the remarkable story of a man who set out from the City of Destruction, hoping to journey toward the Celestial City. As he trudged out of town, beginning his journey, he bore a heavy burden on his back. It weighed him down. It was the burden of sin and guilt. But then the pilgrim met a man named Evangelist who pointed him in the right direction. Coming to a hill called Calvary, the pilgrim knelt at the Cross. The burden fell from his back, rolled down the hill, and disappeared forever into the empty tomb
All of us carry a heavy load of sin, until we give it to Jesus. What better time could there be to do that, than at Easter, when He received new physical life.
Because of Easter, we can receive a new spiritual life too; we can be born again. Easter gives us everything our hearts and minds need—confirmation of Christ’s identity, cancellation of sin’s penalty, and celebration of life eternally.
All of it is yours for the taking, for the believing, for the accepting.
Will you come to Christ today and trust in Him?
People who trust Christ are God’s children on their way to glory. The Redeemer has defeated death and the devil, and He understands how His people feel as they face the temptations and trials of life. When you come to Him by faith, you come to a sympathetic High Priest who can meet your every need. I pray that you will trust Him!