Resurrection of Our Lord, Easter Day (2024)
Notes
Transcript
Resurrection Reality
“Without the Resurrection Faith Is Futile”
(OUR VICTORY OVER DEATH IS GUARANTEED)
It would not be productive to look for help in a cemetery. A corpse can do only one thing—rot. This is the source of the crushing sorrow Jesus’ followers felt. He was the one in whom they had placed all their hope for a better reality. Now he was dead, so they thought. They were overwhelmed with sorrow, not just because they missed their friend. It now all seemed so pointless: the years and miles following Jesus, witnessing his miracles, listening to him. He was dead! And a corpse can only do one thing.
The resurrection changed everything. The disciples saw clearly that Jesus is who he said he was and did what he said he’d do. They realized their faith rested on a rock-solid foundation. Here is the Resurrection Reality. If Christ had not been raised, our faith in him would be futile. He could do nothing to help us.
But Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! And our victory over death is guaranteed!
It is guaranteed
By Christ’s Resurrection
By Christ’s Resurrection
Christ is the firstfruits.
Just as the first barley harvest and waving the first sheaf of grain offered as a sacrifice to God in the Old Testament represented the full harvest that was to follow, so Christ’s resurrection is the first of many resurrections that will surely follow.
Because our resurrection from the dead is assured, our physical death can be regarded as a sleep (“who are asleep”).
20 But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep.
The hope we have based on Christ’s resurrection does not relate only to this life but also to life beyond physical death (1 Cor. 15:19).
So, Christ is the firstfruits, and He is also
Christ is the source of life.
Death is an event brought on by the first man, Adam in the Garden of Eden.
However, the second Adam, Jesus Christ, the God-man, by His death and resurrection abolished death.
22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.
10 but now has been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel,
But when will this banishment of death occur for us in view of the fact that we must all experience physical death? “Each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at His coming those who belong to Christ” (1 Cor. 15:23).
Our victory over death is guaranteed by Christ’s Resurrection and
At Christ’s Second Coming
At Christ’s Second Coming
As we look around us and our society, it is easy to see the triumphs of evil, especially the devastation caused by death, which will not continue forever.
Christ is even now in control and will one day openly display His victory over all evil.
Colossians 1:17 (NASB95)
17 He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.
In the meantime He will not permit any evil, including death, to destroy us (Luke 10:19; 1 Cor: 15:25,27).
The day is coming when all the forces opposing God will be utterly destroyed (1 Cor. 15:24).
The machinations of the devil, the schemes of evil people, the perversions of our sinful nature, the grip of death will finally be conquered.
From that day on there will be no more death—no more dying for us Christians (Rev. 21:4).
The second coming of Christ will mark the beginning of a new existence in which the Triune God will be everything to us in a kingdom of glory without end (1 Cor. 15:28).
The resurrection of Jesus Christ guarantees our victory over death, proves that our resurrection is coming, when we shall rise to endless life, and death shall be no more. At the end, when Jesus returns, death is destroyed forever and Jesus gives us life. His resurrection guarantees our eternal life.
So, it’s understandable that people who are enjoying life—or who are worrying about their relationship with God—would view death as the “enemy.” People who are suffering physical pain or mental anguish may, however, regard death as a friend rather than an enemy.
Yet from the perspective of what God guarantees for us—that we should not die but live—death is indeed the “last enemy.”
The message of Easter is that God has conquered this enemy for us.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.