God the Son:

The resurrection is no appendix to the faith. This is the faith. He is risen! The Lord is risen indeed!

James S. Stewart

The risen Lord is not just merely apart of faith it is the faith.

If you don’t believe this you are not in the faith.

Chapter 46

The Resurrection and Ascension of Christ

I. The Resurrection

A. The Importance of Christ’s Resurrection

1. To His person. If Christ did not rise from the dead then He was a liar, for He predicted that He would (Matt. 20:19 ).

Matthew 20:19 (NKJV)

19 and deliver Him to the Gentiles to mock and to scourge and to crucify. And the third day He will rise again.”

This is where Jesus spoke the first time of His betrayal, mocking, flogging, and crucifixion. But He also reminded them that death was not the end for Him, for He would rise again on the third day (cf. 16:21; 17:23).

To the women who came to His tomb wondering where He was, the angel said, “He is not here, for He has risen, just as He said” (28:6). The Resurrection authenticates our Lord as a true Prophet. Without that, all that He said would be subject to doubt.

The fact that Jesus predicted that He would be flogged, mocked, crucified that took little to no faith. Having faith in that was something that wasn’t desirable. Who would put there faith in a crucified Messiah. Because death is a real reality for everyone. But to say He would be resurrected that a difficult one to grasp mentally and spiritually.

Matthew 28:6 NKJV

6 He is not here; for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.

“Jesus made claims about Himself being resurrected, if those claims didn’t come true then in essence Jesus would be a lair hence not God. But Jesus was resurrected hence adding validity to His divinity. “

Pastor James Bryson

2. To His work. If Christ did not rise from the dead then no 65tpost-resurrection ministries. His ministry would have ended at His death. We would not, therefore, have a High Priest now, an Intercessor, Advocate, or a Head of the church. Furthermore, there would be no living Person to indwell and empower us (Rom. 6:1–10; Gal. 2:20).

3. To the Gospel. In the classic passage, 1 Corinthians 15:3–8, Christ’s death and resurrection are said to be “of first importance.” The Gospel is based on two essential facts: a Savior died and He lives. The burial proves the reality of His death. He did not merely faint only to be revived later. He died. The list of witnesses proves the reality of His resurrection. He died and was buried; He rose and was seen. Paul wrote of that same twofold emphasis in Romans 4:25: He was delivered for our offenses and raised for our justification. Without the Resurrection there is no Gospel.

4. To us. If Christ did not rise then our witness is false, our faith is without meaningful content, and our prospects for the future are hopeless (1 Cor. 15:13–19). If Christ is not risen then believers who have died would be dead in the absolute sense without any hope of resurrection. And we who live could only be pitied for being deluded into thinking there is a future resurrection for them.

B. The Evidences for Christ’s Resurrection

1. His appearances after the Resurrection. The number and variety of people in a variety of circumstances who saw the Lord after His resurrection give overwhelming proof of the fact that He did rise from the dead. When, for example, on the Day of Pentecost Peter offered as proof of his message the fact that they were witnesses of the resurrected Christ, he did so in the city where the Resurrection had occurred less than two months before and to an audience who could ask around to check on Peter’s claim (Acts 2:32).

The order of appearances between Christ’s resurrection and ascension seems to be as follows: (a) to Mary Magdalene and the other women (Matt. 28:8–10; Mark 16:9–10; John 20:11–18); (b) to Peter, probably in the afternoon (Luke 24:34; 1 Cor. 15:5); (c) to the disciples on the Emmaus road toward evening (Mark 16:12; Luke 24:13–32); (d) to the disciples, except Thomas, in the Upper Room (Luke 24:36–43; John 20:19–25); (e) to the disciples, including Thomas, on the next Sunday night (Mark 16:14; John 20:26–29); (f) to seven disciples beside the Sea of Galilee (John 21:1–24); (g) to the apostles and more than 500 brethren and James, the Lord’s half brother (1 Cor. 15:6–7); (h) to those who witnessed the Ascension (Matt. 28:18–20; Mark 16:19; Luke 24:44–53; Acts 1:3–12).

2. Effects that must have a cause (the Resurrection). Some astounding facts must be explained. It is inconceivable to think they could have a satisfactory explanation other than being caused by the resurrection of Christ.

What caused the tomb to be empty? The disciples saw that it was empty. The guards reported to the chief priests that it was empty and took a bribe to keep quiet about it (Matt. 28:11–15). If the story they were ordered to tell (that the disciples came and stole the body) were true, then, of course, they should have been punished or executed for allowing that to happen while they were on guard duty. Some have suggested that the disciples went to the wrong tomb, but again the presence of the guard makes this inconceivable. The tomb was empty (the effect) because Christ had risen (the cause).

What caused the events of the Day of Pentecost? Pentecost came and went every year, but the year that Christ rose it saw the descent of the Holy Spirit as He had promised (Acts 1:5). In his sermon Peter attributed the coming of the Spirit to the fact that the risen Christ sent the Spirit (2:33). The coming of the Spirit (the effect) had to have a sufficient cause (the risen Christ).

What caused the day of worship to change? All the first Christians were Jewish, accustomed to worshiping on the Sabbath. Yet suddenly and uniformly they began to worship on Sunday though it was an ordinary workday (Acts 20:7). Why? Because they wanted to commemorate the resurrection of their Lord, which took place on Sunday, they changed their day of worship. Sunday worship, the effect; Christ’s resurrection, the cause.

C. The Results of Christ’s Resurrection

1. A new, prototype body. With the resurrection of Christ there appeared for the first time in history a new kind of resurrection body, for He rose with an eternal body, never to die again. Before that event, all resurrections were restorations to the former earthly bodies.

Christ’s resurrection body had links with His unresurrected earthly body. People recognized Him (John 20:2 f-09o83k7iw56jtaneBSD xzt He was not merely a spirit showing itself (Luke 24:39–40).

But His resurrection body was different. He could enter closed rooms without opening doors (Luke 24:36; John 20:19), He could appear and disappear at will (Luke 24:15; John 20:19), and apparently He was never limited by physical needs such as sleep or food.

The most detailed description of Christ risen and ascended is found in Revelation 1:12–16. Here John recorded his vision of the glorified Christ. He was like a son of man, which links Him to His former earthly appearance, but He also radiated glory from His eyes, feet, voice, and face. This is the way we shall see Him someday.

His resurrection also serves as a prototype of the resurrection of believers. Twice Christ is referred to as the firstborn from the dead (Col. 1:18; Rev. 1:5). This means that He was the first to have an eternally resurrected body. Our resurrection bodies, like His, will be different from our earthly bodies. When answering the question, What will believers’ resurrection bodies be like? Paul said that they will not be the same bodies that were laid in the grave simply reconstituted; but they will be new yet related to the former ones (1 Cor. 15:35–41).

Believers in the eternal state will be “like Him” (1 John 3:2). What does this mean? John explained in the following verses. To be like Him means to be pure (v. 3), to be without sin (v. 5), and to be righteous (v. 7). Our entire beings, including our bodies, will be characterized these ways.

2. A proof of His claims. We have already mentioned that His resurrection proved His truthfulness as a Prophet (Matt. 28:6). It also validated His claim to be Lord and Messiah, a point Peter drove home in his Pentecost sermon (Acts 2:36). Paul states that the Resurrection proved Him to be the Son of God (Rom. 1:4).

3. A prerequisite to all His subsequent ministries. If Christ did not rise then His life and ministry ended on the cross, and He does nothing from that time on. Through the Resurrection and Ascension our Lord entered into His present and future ministries, which will be discussed in the next chapter.

The resurrection of Christ has always been the joyous, captivating, and motivating truth for the church. One of the simplest prayers and earliest creeds of the church was “Maranatha,” “our Lord, come” (1 Cor. 16:22). No one could say that who denied the resurrection of his Lord. It affirmed in the clearest way that Jesus is the living and coming Lord.

Maranatha!