Easter 2017

Easter Sunday…2011

says,

“The Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.”

The Hebrew word for “living being” is nephesh, often translated “soul.”

The point at which Adam became nephesh (LIVING BEING) is when God joined his body (dust) and spirit (breath) together.

Adam was not a living human being until he had both material (physical) and immaterial (spiritual) components.

Thus, the essence of humanity is not just spirit, but spirit joined with body.

This Spirit…your essence or nephesh is what goes to be with God

It is for this that Jesus came to earth, died and rose again to redeem

The world works to sustain the material man

Jesus died to save the spiritual man

State: The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the very heart of Christianity.

In St. Paul reasoned,

"If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. . .We are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead."

In that same chapter he says

"If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost.

I will explain why later

But then Paul triumphantly declares,

But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead

1 Cor. 15:20

Paul affirmed who Christ is

Romans 1:4 NLT

and he was shown to be the Son of God when he was raised from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit. He is Jesus Christ our Lord.

Jesus said himself

Not because of miracles

Not because of wisdom

Not because of

Jesus said himself

(New Living Translation)

19 “All right,” Jesus replied. “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.

The sole reason anyone believed Jesus was who he said he was.....was because of the resurrection

Not because of miracles

Not because of wisdom

because of the resurrection

Resurrection proof:

Because: Only a perfect sinless person can escape death & Hell

Which would have made him a sinner

He would not have been perfect

And the perfect sacrifice required would not be…

Resurrection proof:

The Romans could have killed Christianity immediately if they could have displayed a body.

The disciples are not knowingly going to die gruesome deaths for a lie.

also

Jesus had not done what Messiahs were supposed to do.  

This is the McCarthy lecture 2002, delivered on March 13,2002, in the Faculty of theology of the Gregorian University.

He had neither won a decisive victory over Israel’s political enemies, nor restored the Temple.

 Nor had he brought God’s justice and peace to the world;

the wolf was not yet lying down with the lamb.  

But the early gospel traditions are already shaped by the belief that Jesus was Israel’s Messiah;

Others were more like what the Jews expected the Messiah to do

Nobody said that about Judas the Galilean after his revolt ended in failure in AD 6.  

Nobody said it of Simon bar-Giora after his death at the end of Titus’s triumph in AD 70.  

Nobody said it about bar-Kochbar after his defeat and death in 135.  

But they did see Jesus as the Messiah after he died…why?

Where messianic movements tried to carry on after the death of their would-be Messiah, their most important task was to find another Messiah.

See The New Testament and the People of God 175-81 for a description of various movements.

 The fact that the early Christians did not do that, but continued, against all precedent, to regard Jesus himself as Messiah, despite outstanding alternative candidates such as the righteous, devout and well-respected James, Jesus’ own brother, is evidence that demands an explanation.

What was different about Jesus…?

  The fact that the early Christians did not do that, but continued, against all precedent, to regard Jesus himself as Messiah, despite outstanding alternative candidates such as the righteous, devout and well-respected James, Jesus’ own brother, is evidence that demands an explanation.

The Resurrection

State: Because Jesus did not have sin..and…fulfilled all the law….Jesus was able to raise from the dead

Why is it important that he is perfect & raised from the dead?

If Jesus had sinned he would have been under the penalty of death for his own sin and could not have paid our sin debt which demands our lives in forfeiture for our own sins

The old system under the law of Moses was only a shadow, a dim preview of the good things to come, not the good things themselves.

The sacrifices under that system were repeated again and again, year after year, but they were never able to provide perfect cleansing for those who came to worship.

2 If they could have provided perfect cleansing, the sacrifices would have stopped, for the worshipers would have been purified once for all time, and their feelings of guilt would have disappeared.

Hebrews 10

1) Most world religions have some sort of sacrifice or offering to appease their deity

Of sacrifice or offering to appease their deity

Why?....What happened that God needs to be appeased

3 But instead, those sacrifices actually reminded them of their sins year after year. 4 For it is not possible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

3 But instead, those sacrifices actually reminded them of their sins year after year. 4 For it is not possible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

5 That is why, when Christ came into the world, he said to God,

“You did not want animal sacrifices or sin offerings. But you have given me a body to offer.

6 You were not pleased with burnt offerings or other offerings for sin.

6 You were not pleased with burnt offerings or other offerings for sin. 7 Then I said, ‘Look, I have come to do your will, O God— as is written about me in the Scriptures.’”

Goes on to say

Goes on to say

10 For God’s will was for us to be made holy by the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all time.

11 Under the old covenant, the priest stands and ministers before the altar day after day, offering the same sacrifices again and again, which can never take away sins. 12 But our High Priest offered himself to God as a single sacrifice for sins, good for all time. Then he sat down in the place of honor at God’s right hand.

Goes on to say

14 For by that one offering he forever made perfect those who are being made holy.

Goes on to say

17 Then he (God) says,

“I will never again remember their sins and lawless deeds.”

18 And when sins have been forgiven, there is no need to offer any more sacrifices.

1 Peter 1:19–20 NLT

It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. God chose him as your ransom long before the world began, but now in these last days he has been revealed for your sake.

20 God chose him as your ransom long before the world began, but now in these last days he has been revealed for your sake.