He is Risen!

He is not here; he has risen.

I serve a risen Savior; He’s in the world today. I know that He is living, no matter what men may say. I see His hand of mercy, I hear His voice of cheer and just the time I need Him, He’s always near. He lives…

Do you know he lives? Does He live in you? What a difference He makes? What a difference it makes in our lives that Jesus lives in us!

Today, we gather to celebrate an unprecedented event in world history – the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. The church celebrates three important dates – Christmas, Good Friday and Easter. But if there were no Easter, Christmas is meaningless and Friday won’t be good. We won’t celebrate any of them.

My car – Jesus is alive!

We live and die; Christ died and lived! John Stott.

The resurrection of Jesus places Jesus in a category all by Himself. Christianity is based upon the fact of crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Without these two facts, there won’t be a church.

Whenever we contemplate the resurrection of Jesus Christ, a few questions arise. You will notice that at Christmas and Easter, you can usually expect the media to put out an article, a documentary that takes shots at Christianity. These do not build faith but do the opposite create more doubt and confusion. For example, Macleans March 2016 issue asks the provocative question: Did Jesus really exist?

I want us to focus on three questions today.

1. Did Jesus really rise from the dead?

2. Did Jesus know He will die and be resurrected?

2. What does the resurrection mean to me today?

Prop: He is risen

1. Did Jesus really rise from the dead?

There are some common objections people have to the resurrection.

a. “The disciples fabricated the resurrection.”

b. “The Gospels set forth one of many ancient resurrection stories!

c. “The disciples suffered from some sort of hallucination.”

d. “The women and the disciples went to the wrong tomb.”

e. “Jesus did not actually die and simply awoke in the tomb.”

f. “The person killed was a look-alike of Jesus.”

a) Objection: “The disciples fabricated the resurrection.”

Answer: Hmmm, why? There is no reason for the disciples to have fabricated the resurrection of Jesus. Their loyalty to Jesus had already cost them more than they were comfortable with, so, why would they make up something that would get them into more trouble? What would they gain by doing so? Who would continue to claim they saw something they didn’t when it threatened their livelihood then their freedom and then their very lives. Eventually, in a group of eleven, it breaks down…but it didn’t!

The disciples themselves did not believe when the women said HE is risen.

Remember Thomas - “I have the see the nails in His hands before I believe.”

b) Objection: “The Gospels set forth one of many ancient resurrection stories!”

Answer: There are NO ancient resurrection stories like the one recorded in the New Testament. No one anticipated a physical resurrection.

c) Objection: “The disciples suffered from some sort of hallucination.”

Answer: A hallucination is a private, individual phenomenon, so a common event arrived at via the physical senses cannot be a “hallucination.” How can all the disciples have the same hallucination at the same time? How is it possible that 500 people [] had the identical hallucination m at the same time?

But imagine turning up tomorrow at city hall to view his body and behold, there is no body. It is missing. What happened? You will proceed to go to the funeral home. But maybe you went to wrong home.

d) Objection: “The women and the disciples went to the wrong tomb.”

Answer: This one is so laughable that it barely deserves a response. It is not as if there were tombs all over Jerusalem for Jews generally avoided all grave sites like the plague and professional stone cut ones were rare. Moreover, Jerusalem, then and now, is not hard to find your way around. The Scriptures clearly tell us where he was laid. Joseph of Arimathea, a rich man and member of the Sanhedrin council, had a tomb in close proximity to the crucifixion site. He and Nicodemus, both members of the ruling religious council, the Sanhedrin, went to Pilate to request the body of Jesus. That’s where he was laid. If Mary and the disciple went to the wrong tomb to find Jesus, there is an easy solution. The answer to this is simply find the right tomb. It shouldn’t be difficult.

e) Disciples stole the body.

The chief priests instructed the guards.

When the chief priests had met with the elders and devised a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money, 13 telling them, “You are to say, ‘His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep.’

Jesus’s body was under heavy guard, how can some disciples who were so scared that they all fled from him, one naked, the night he was betrayed, muster enough courage to dare such a venture. That would be a suicide mission. The disciples never believed He would rise again. It was unprecedented.

f) Swoon theory.

The Romans were experts at killing. Jesus was severely scourged before he was placed o the cross. Many died of shock from such beatings. He was nailed to cross, the cruelest form of execution invented. They plunged a spear into his side. They certified him dead and as a result did not break his bones. Jesus body was wrapped in strips of linen soaked in 75 pounds of spices, myrrh and aloes. He could not have swooned from that. Surviving all of this should alone make him superhuman.

The Romans were experts at killing. Jesus was severely scourged before he was placed o the cross. Many died of shock from such beatings. He was nailed to cross, the cruelest form of execution invented. They plunged a spear into his side. They certified him dead and as a result did not break his bones. Jesus body was wrapped in strips of linen soaked in 75 pounds of spices, myrrh and aloes. He could not have swooned from that. Surviving all of this should alone make him superhuman.

g) Mistaken identity

- a likeness of Him.

Some news reported may say tomorrow - This is not Rob. This is someone looking like Rob. A case of mistaken identity. The solution will be either one of two things – produce the authentic Rob Ford or let those closest to him identify him.

Whatever objections people have to the resurrection can be refuted. Many scholars have done that. There is a renowned NT scholar Dr. Gary Habermas who has extensively studied the life of Jesus and does just that.

“There is no historic incident better or more variously supported than the resurrection of Christ. Brooke Foss Wescott.

“There is more evidence that Jesus rose from the dead than there is that Julius Caesar ever lived or that Alexander the Great died at the age of thirty-three.” Billy Graham.

2. Did Jesus know He will die and be resurrected?

Muslims say “Man planned and Allah planned.” As if the death of Jesus was a miscalculation. As if Jesus lost when He was nailed to a cross. That’s the feeling you get many times about good Friday. Look what we did to a good man! It took Jesus by surprise. What they forget is that Jesus was born to die.

His death was predicted in the OT way back in , the very moment man sinned. “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.”

God told Abraham when he was offering up his son, God will indeed provide Himself a sacrifice.”

We see the death of Jesus vividly in the Passover observance.

‘Because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, nor will you let your faithful one see decay.

“He will see the light of life and be satisfied.”

"For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth" ().

“And he began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.

Saying, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be delivered unto the chief priests, and unto the scribes; and they shall condemn him to death, and shall deliver him to the Gentiles: And they shall mock him, and shall scourge him, and shall spit upon him, and shall kill him: and the third day he shall rise again.

But after that I am risen, I will go before you into Galilee.

Some may say he engineered, he orchestrated his death but no. He came to die and knew He would. He prophesied His betrayal, scourging, crucifixion, burial and resurrection.

No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father."

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

I hope we can be more strengthened in our faith today that Jesus is risen and this was His plan all the while. He came to die for our sins and prove that He alone is the Messiah and Savior of the world by being raised from the dead.

3. What does the resurrection mean to me today?

a. Jesus is unique.

You can find tombs of other religious leaders with their remains inside.

i. Muhammad was buried in the Al-Masjid an-Nabawi ("Mosque of the Prophet") in the city of Medina in Saudi Arabia.

ii. The Buddha's body was cremated and the relics were placed in monuments. For example, the Temple of the Tooth in Sri Lanka is the place where the right tooth relic of Buddha is kept at present.

iii. The remains of Bahá'u'lláh, founder of the Bahá'í Faith can be found in the the Shrine of Bahá'u'lláh , located in Bahji, Israel.

iv. The tomb of Christ is famous because of what it DOES NOT CONTAIN.” Sam Morris.

v. The angel did not remove the stone so Jesus could leave the tomb but so that the disciples and others can go in and see. An empty tomb is there to prove my Saviour lives!

vi. Jesus declared-

Revelation 1:17–18 NIV

When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.

“I am the First and the Last. 18 I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore.”

b. It is God’s Divine stamp of approval. This unprecedented event, a marvel, a wonder, a mystery, was done by God Almighty to prove to the world Jesus is the Son of God, the Savior of the world. This was God’s stamp of approval.

c. Always hope in our darkest trial.

i. The resurrection proves to us that in our deepest darkest hour, our greatest loss or disappointment, our worst tragedy or set back in life, He who conquered death and the grave lives in us today and is able to do exceeding, abundantly far above all we can hope or think. He is the dream restorer, the repairer of the broken.

ii. .

iii. Because I live, you shall live also.

iv. “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

v. “No matter how devastating our struggles, disappointments, and troubles are, they are only temporary. No matter what happens to you, no matter the depth of tragedy or pain you face, no matter how death stalks you and your loved ones, the Resurrection promises you a future of immeasurable good.” Josh McDowell

d. Hope of future resurrection.

i. The Scriptures teach of the resurrection of the righteous and wicked, the just and unjust. The resurrection of Jesus is the firstfruits of the resurrection of the just. That’s why He is called the firstborn from among the dead in and “But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.”

ii. “Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life. 25 Very truly I tell you, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. 26 For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. 27 And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man.28 “Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice 29 and come out—those who have done what is good will rise to live, and those who have done what is evil will rise to be condemned.

……………….

“If Jesus rose from the dead, then you have to accept all that he said; if he didn't rise from the dead, then why worry about any of what he said? The issue on which everything hangs is not whether or not you like his teaching but whether or not he rose from the dead.”