The Reason for the Resurrection

Introduction

Some of you may be surprised to know that I enjoy looking into the reasons behind things. It has its limits of course, but I find it fun to take the things we read the Bible and ask “why?” We just spent four weeks looking at why Jesus’ death on the cross saves us for example. But then comes resurrection Sunday, and we are celebrating this morning the empty tomb not the cross. So the question is, why did Jesus rise from the dead?

I think it can be easy to view the resurrection almost like an epilogue to Jesus’ story. Like the main event was the crucifixion only happened because it had to because Jesus is God and therefore can’t just be dead. Now I will hasten to point out that the idea that death can’t hold Jesus down is Biblical and is definitely one of the reasons for the resurrection. This is what was predicted in Psalm 16:10

Psalm 16:10 CSB

For you will not abandon me to Sheol; you will not allow your faithful one to see decay.

Which Peter quotes in Acts 2:24-36

Acts 2:24–31 CSB

God raised him up, ending the pains of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by death. For David says of him: I saw the Lord ever before me; because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices. Moreover, my flesh will rest in hope, because you will not abandon me in Hades or allow your holy one to see decay. You have revealed the paths of life to me; you will fill me with gladness in your presence. “Brothers and sisters, I can confidently speak to you about the patriarch David: He is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Since he was a prophet, he knew that God had sworn an oath to him to seat one of his descendants on his throne. Seeing what was to come, he spoke concerning the resurrection of the Messiah: He was not abandoned in Hades, and his flesh did not experience decay.

So clearly Jesus could not remain dead because God can’t stay dead. That is very true. But what I’m interested in this morning is what is accomplished by the resurrection. What purpose did it serve for Jesus to rise from the dead, besides simply the fact that it had to happen that way? Well in order to investigate this question I found a list of references to the resurrection in the Bible and I read them in their context and asked what each of them had to say about why Jesus rose from the dead. Now this produced a long list of good Bible reasons behind the resurrection, but most of them boiled down to three big reasons behind the resurrection, and those reasons were first that He would be glorified and rewarded for His sacrifice on the cross. Second, that His resurrection would be the ultimate proof to the whole world that He is who He said He is and that salvation is found only through Him. Thirdly Jesus rose from the grave in order that He could be the example to us of what was waiting for us in our own future, a new and eternal life in Him.

To Glorify Him

Illustration: I like it when a good book has an “epilogue” where we get to see the heroes enjoying life after they’ve saved the world. Often this comes after they’ve been put through the most horrible stuff their authors could imagine.

I mean, who doesn’t want a rewared after they’ve done hard work? Like the cold drink at the end of a hot day. And who doesn’t deserve a reward for accomplishing difficult things, like we give awards to athletes and musicians and actors and so on. I saw a Facebook friend the other day congratulating his daughter for winning an award for nursing. We like to award people for their accomplishments.

So then, after the Son of God humbles Himself to the point of death on a cross for all of us, well… doesn’t He deserve a reward? This is what God seems to be getting at when He tells Isaiah the following in Isaiah 53:10-12

Isaiah 53:10–12 CSB

Yet the Lord was pleased to crush him severely. When you make him a guilt offering, he will see his seed, he will prolong his days, and by his hand, the Lord’s pleasure will be accomplished. After his anguish, he will see light and be satisfied. By his knowledge, my righteous servant will justify many, and he will carry their iniquities. Therefore I will give him the many as a portion, and he will receive the mighty as spoil, because he willingly submitted to death, and was counted among the rebels; yet he bore the sin of many and interceded for the rebels.

This prophecy was a real head-scratcher for many before Jesus came, since it seems somewhat contradictory on a surface level reading. God is saying that this righteous servant will be crushed, and in case you were wondering if that meant suffering just short of death verse 9 refers to Him being assigned a grave and being with a rich man at his death. So clearly this suffering servant has died. But then God says that He will prolong His days and will see His seed and will receive a portion and spoils. How can this be, unless… unless He died and came back to life! It makes a lot of sense in retrospect, doesn’t it? And so the first clear prophecy about the resurrection describes it as the reward given to the Messiah for suffering for others.

Of course the resurrection itself isn’t His only reward. We talked a few weeks ago about the fact that His reward in part is that we get rewarded, but beyond that Jesus also is exalted to the right hand of God as Peter says to the Sanhedrin in Acts 5:29-32

Acts 5:29–32 CSB

Peter and the apostles replied, “We must obey God rather than people. The God of our ancestors raised up Jesus, whom you had murdered by hanging him on a tree. God exalted this man to his right hand as ruler and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him.”

The New Testament is full of this image of Jesus coming down from the Father and then after the crucifixion and resurrection being lifted up again, and Paul describes this appointment to being in the rightful place of the Son of God as being “by” the resurrection of the dead in His introduction to his letter to the Romans in Romans 1:1-4

Romans 1:1–4 CSB

Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God—which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures—concerning his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who was a descendant of David according to the flesh and was appointed to be the powerful Son of God according to the Spirit of holiness by the resurrection of the dead.

I think we’d all say that when someone does something extraordinary they deserve a reward. I think we’d also all say that the greater the feat accomplished the greater the reward should be. Well nothing is greater than the love demonstrated by Jesus on the cross, or the victory that He won over the forces of evil there and the eternal life He made available to all of us. So shouldn’t He then receive the greatest reward imaginable? Something like this Ephesians 1:20-23

Ephesians 1:20–23 CSB

He exercised this power in Christ by raising him from the dead and seating him at his right hand in the heavens—far above every ruler and authority, power and dominion, and every title given, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he subjected everything under his feet and appointed him as head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of the one who fills all things in every way.

Now remember, we believe as good Bible believing Trinitarians that Jesus has always been God and was always worthy of being seated at the right hand of God and to rule over heaven and earth. The reason they talk about Him as being given this authority is because by being born on earth as a human being He gave up that authority. He surrendered His thrown and became a human being. Then He earned that authority back by dying for our sins and was given resurrection and exaltation as a reward.

So then the only sensible thing to do is to bow down and confess that He is Lord. That’s what everyone is going to do one day when Jesus returns. Either you will bow down out of love and admiration or out of fear and regret. Let’s do now what Jesus deserves, what He earned on that cross. Let’s worship Him for the loving God that He is and for all that He has done for us.

To Prove Him True

Illustration: If I told you I had Easter dinner last night, you probably wouldn’t question me. It’s true, but even if it wasn’t it doesn’t really affect your life in any way, so why question it at all. But if I told you that your best friend is secretly a bank robber. The stakes are a bit higher in that situation, so if I claim to be sincere you’re going to want evidence.

The bigger an impact a claim has on your life, the more you’re going to want some evidence to back that claim up. In other words when someone tell you something sincerely, the bigger a deal it is the more you need them to prove it to you. Of course trust plays a role in this too, but assuming all other things are equal there’s a direct connection between the impact something has on your life and your desire to have evidence to back it up.

Let’s think for a second about the kind of claims that Jesus made. For one thing He claimed to be the Messiah, the chosen one that God sent to save Israel. That’s a pretty big deal, especially to the other Israelites He was preaching to. He also claimed that He was one with God and that the only way anyone else could have access to God was THROUGH HIM. That’s a huge deal. He’s claiming sole access to the God of the Universe, claiming that everyone who rejects Him is also rejecting God. Finally the biggest claim of all Jesus subtly claims as we’ve seen in our series through the Gospel According to John to be God Himself come to earth in the flesh. In other words He’s claiming that He is the one who created all of us and to whom we all owe our worship and loyalty.

If anything needed some evidence it was this. We’re talking the biggest stakes possible. The difference between eternal life and eternal death, a huge change to how the Jewish people saw the world. I don’t blame the authorities and the people for wanting evidence. Of course throughout Jesus’ ministry He’s casting out demons and performing miracles and speaking with a wisdom unknown to man, so I also don’t blame Jesus for reacting negatively when they continue to demand a sign. So what does Jesus tell them is the sign that will prove His authority? John 2:18-22

John 2:18–22 CSB

So the Jews replied to him, “What sign will you show us for doing these things?” Jesus answered, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it up in three days.” Therefore the Jews said, “This temple took forty-six years to build, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking about the temple of his body. So when he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the statement Jesus had made.

Jesus gives the resurrection as THE sign that proves who He is. He will die and on the third day He will rise again. This is all over the gospels, acts and Paul’s letters as the reason that we should believe. That’s why He tells His disciples about it multiple times when it happens, so that they will know what it means when it does. That’s why the resurrection is what the disciples say throughout the book of acts is the reason others should believe. I won’t read all the Acts Quotes to you, but I will list a few just to give you an idea of how frequent this is. Acts 1:3, Acts 2:24-36, Acts 3:15, Acts 10:40-41, Acts 13:30-37, Acts 17:3, 30-31.

The most convincing scripture about the importance of the resurrection as evidence of the truth of what Jesus said though is this one found in 1 Corinthians 15:12-19

1 Corinthians 15:12–19 CSB

Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say, “There is no resurrection of the dead”? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation is in vain, and so is your faith. Moreover, we are found to be false witnesses about God, because we have testified wrongly about God that he raised up Christ—whom he did not raise up, if in fact the dead are not raised. 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. Those, then, who have fallen asleep in Christ have also perished. If we have put our hope in Christ for this life only, we should be pitied more than anyone.

The resurrection is the definitive proof of the gospel. That what we believe is true. That there is hope for us in the next life. That Jesus is God and Messiah. That’s what the resurrection is about. God proving that His Son is who He says He is.

So then as Jesus’ disciples who are charged with making disciples of all nations, we need to recognize the importance not just of the cross, but of the empty tomb. The empty tomb is the best and most lasting evidence that our following after Jesus means something. So then I think we should all know back and forth the case that can be made for the truth of the resurrection. The evidence that the tomb was in fact empty and the testimony of the disciples who died defending the truth of the resurrection. We need to be empty tomb people, people who tell everyone with a bold and confident voice that He is Risen!

To Make Him the Firstborn

Illustration: Now I will admit I’m an anxious person, so when we first started trying to have kids I worried we wouldn’t be able to. The second time around was easier because Owen proved we weren’t infertile.

In the last point we talked about the fact that Jesus’ resurrection proved that He is who He says that He is. That He is God and that He can in fact save us from our sins and restore us to relationship with the Father. But Jesus didn’t just make claims about Himself. He also made claims about what would happen to us in the future. He talked about the fact that He will judge the living and the dead and seperate the unrighteous from the righteous. But He also echoed the promise of Daniel 12:2

Daniel 12:2 CSB

Many who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, some to eternal life, and some to disgrace and eternal contempt.

God promised that His people would see a resurrection. That in a sense they would be born again into a new eternal life, that we would trade in these perishable bodies for imperishable ones. So Jesus’ resurrection isn’t just proof about who He is, it’s also God showing us that Jesus is the firstborn from the dead and we will also be reborn from the dead. That’s the phrase used to describe Jesus in Revelation 1:5

Revelation 1:5 CSB

and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead and the ruler of the kings of the earth.

Firstborn from the dead implies in this context that there will be others who will be born from the dead. If you’re following Jesus this morning that’s you and that’s me. By the way in my preperation for this sermon this was the most common reason for why Jesus was resurrected from the dead, as evidence that we would also be resurrected from the dead. God doesn’t want you to have a vague hope based on knowing who Jesus is that something good will happen. He wants you to know that because Jesus was raised from the dead we too can be confident that we will be raised from the dead.

In fact the reason that we baptize new believers is not just an image of cleansing, it’s also and maybe even primarily about dying and being reborn in Jesus, which is what Paul describes in Romans 6:4-9

Romans 6:4–9 CSB

Therefore we were buried with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in the likeness of his death, we will certainly also be in the likeness of his resurrection. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be rendered powerless so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin, since a person who has died is freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him, because we know that Christ, having been raised from the dead, will not die again. Death no longer rules over him.

He then says later in Romans 8:11

Romans 8:11 CSB

And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, then he who raised Christ from the dead will also bring your mortal bodies to life through his Spirit who lives in you.

Here’s a sampling of other places where the New Testament assured us that we will be raised in the same way that Christ was raised,

1 Corinthians 6:14 CSB

God raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by his power.

2 Corinthians 4:14 CSB

For we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you.

Philippians 3:10–11 CSB

My goal is to know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death, assuming that I will somehow reach the resurrection from among the dead.

Colossians 2:12 CSB

when you were buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.

Colossians 3:1 CSB

So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

1 Peter 1:3 CSB

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead

A pretty safe rule of thumb when it comes to studying the Bible is this: What the Bible repeats deserves special attention. What the Bible repeats a lot deserves a lot of special attention. My brothers and sisters the future hope of our resurrection is no small thing. It’s the happy ending that we’re all headed for. This is why I avoid talking about “going to heaven” in my sermons and talk instead about the New Heavens and New Earth. Because the Bible describes our future that way, and I would rather emphasize what the Bible says instead of the way our culture talks about it which is a step removed from the Bible.

The point is this my friends. When we look at the empty tomb we are looking at our future. Jesus defeated death not just for Himself but for all of us. We don’t need to fear the grave because we know that one day we will all be raised the same way He was. When we shout He is Risen we say it knowing it’s the hope that we will rise.

Conclusion

So then while we rightly emphasize the importance of the cross as Christians, let us not forget the importance of the empty tomb, since we know that without it we would have no reason to believe. Jesus rose from the dead not just because death could not hold him, but as the just reward for all that He accomplished through His ministry and His death on the cross for our behalf. Jesus rose from the dead in order to give the proof that He is God’s Only Son and God Himself and that all that He told us during His ministry is true and that we can place our faith and trust in Him. Jesus rose also from the dead in order to show us our future and give us reason to have full confidence that we will one day rise from the dead ourselves to be with Him forever.

So this Resurrection Sunday let us gaze with love at the empty tomb and all that it means for us, and let us leave this place with Jesus’ message on our lips, the same one that He had for the women at the tomb and for His disciples who saw Him. Let us go as His true witnesses in the world spreading His truth and His way with everyone that we meat.

HE IS RISEN!

Let us pray.