The Best Possible News - Jesus is Alive!

Please turn your Bibles to …

For our lesson today, we are continuing our 5th Sunday series titled “The Best Possible News”… In our first lesson in this series, we talked about the life of Jesus – about the good things he was doing in His miracles and His teaching – both of which showed His authority.

For our second lesson we discussed the death of Jesus Christ for our sins and how it fulfilled the Old Testament prophecies of the Messiah.

Our lesson today will be similar to the previous lesson on the death of Christ in that we will follow a similar outline. Today we will talk about the resurrection of Jesus Christ, using as our main text …

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As we saw in our first lesson, the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the main emphasis in chapter 15. Paul begins the chapter though giving the Corinthians a reminder of the Gospel message. I would like to read verses 1-8 so we can get a full picture of what the Gospel message entails…

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We see the whole Gospel message here that the Corinthians first had preached to them. This message was of first importance, the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

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I would like to focus on verses 4&5 for the moment…

“he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared…”

his verse provides our outline of our lesson today: Jesus: (1) Was raised on the 3rd day, (2) According to the scriptures, (3) seen by eyewitnesses

These will be the three main points that we talk about in our lesson today.

But before I start with our first point, I would like to say something real quick about the first part of v4, “he was buried.” Paul here is trying to emphasize the fact that Jesus really died. He breathed his last breath on the cross, was pierced with the spear by one of the soldiers. He was taken off of the cross and buried in a tomb. There was no mistaking it… His dead body was wrapped up according to the traditions of the Jews and was placed in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, a tomb that no one had ever been placed in.

All of the theories that say he just swooned… that he passed out or went into a short coma on the cross don’t take into the account the evidence that we have… Jesus did not pass out on the cross and then get taken out of the tomb by his disciples later on… All of the evidence points to the fact that he died. He died and was buried…

So with this said, let’s go ahead and consider our first main point for today - He was raised.

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The Gospels then tell us that a huge stone was put at the entrance of the tomb, a stone that probably weighed somewhere between 1,000-2,000 pounds. A guard was placed at the tomb so that the disciples could not come to steal the body.

Then on the first day of the week, on Sunday, Matthew tells us that as the day began to dawn, there was a great earthquake and an angel came down from Heaven. He rolled the stone away from the door of the tomb and sat on it. We are told that the angel’s countenance was bright – like lightening – and his clothing was as white as snow… The guards who saw this take place were scared to death… Matthew says that these men shook for fear and became like dead men.

When the women came to the tomb, the angel reported to them that Jesus was no longer in His tomb – that he had been raised… The angel proclaimed in Luke’s account:

“And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, "Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.”" ()

We are told by Matthew that the guards who were watching the tomb went to the chief priests and told them what had happened at the tomb… The chief priests decided to bribe the guards and to create a story to cover up the truth of what happened…

These are some of the claims that the gospels make about the resurrection of Jesus… This would have been an amazing event to behold…

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Then we see Jesus make His first appearances to witnesses. The witnesses claim that Jesus first appeared to Mary Magdalene, then to the women who were with her. Then he appeared to 2 men on the road to Emmaus, then to Simon Peter and the other apostles without Thomas on the day of His being raised.

Then a week later, Jesus appeared again to His disciples with Thomas present. Thomas, who doubted at first, was convinced, fell before Jesus and said, “My Lord and My God!" He later appeared to the apostles at the Sea of Galilee and to James His brother, who at one point did not believe in Jesus, but was convinced by the resurrection that Jesus was who he claimed to be.

Paul states in that at one time over 500 people at once saw Jesus resurrected. This was not just one person seeing someone they thought was Jesus for a moment or one person hallucinating. This is 500 people at one time seeing someone raised from the dead. This many people cannot see a hallucination all at once…

tells us that Jesus appeared to James his half-brother… This led to James becoming a Christian. He didn’t believe in Jesus before.

Luke's account in Acts says that Jesus appeared to them many times over a 40 day period, teaching them about the kingdom of God. Then after this period of time, Jesus gave them the great commission, telling them to proclaim the message of salvation through His death, burial, and resurrection, a message that they were willing to give their lives for! Then, after giving the great commission, they watched as Jesus ascended into heaven.

Paul

There was at least one more appearance according to the testimony. He was on his way to Damascus with letters from the Jewish leaders giving him authority to find Christians in that city and to arrest them and bring them back to Jerusalem. But one the way to Damascus, a bright light appeared, Paul fell to the ground, and Jesus appeared to him, bringing about his conversion. Paul who was an enemy of the Lord, became an Apostle of the Lord, and proclaimed the gospel in much of the known world of his time.

These things are what we see in the testimony of the New Testament. These people saw the Lord Jesus, and many of them gave testimony to their seeing Him…

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It was God’s will for Him to die, which we saw in our last lesson. But the resurrection of the Messiah after His death was also foretold by the prophets.

There are two prophecies I would like to consider.

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The first one is in . This is probably the most well known of the prophecies… In psalm 16:9-11, the psalmist, David, says,

“"Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices; my flesh also dwells secure. For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption. You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore." ()

It seems as you read this passage in its context that David is talking about himself. That God would not allow his body to see corruption or decay… But is this what David is talking about here? Is he talking about himself? The answer is , ‘no.’ Peter refers to this passage in and argues that David could not be talking about himself in this passage. We have talked about this passage before, but he shows that David had to be talking about someone else because David, after he died, did see corruption and his bones were still among them to see. Peter says that he was talking about the Messiah, the one who David was promised in to have sit on His throne.

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Next, let’s turn to . In this chapter, as Paul is preaching the Gospel in Antioch, he refers to a few passages that Jesus fulfilled in being raised from the dead. Let’s read verses 32-39.

"And we bring you the good news that what God promised to the fathers, this he has fulfilled to us their children by raising Jesus, as also it is written in the second Psalm, "'You are my Son, today I have begotten you.' And as for the fact that he raised him from the dead, no more to return to corruption, he has spoken in this way, "'I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David.' Therefore he says also in another psalm, "'You will not let your Holy One see corruption.' For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep and was laid with his fathers and saw corruption, but he whom God raised up did not see corruption. Let it be known to you therefore, brothers, that through this man forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and by him everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses." ()

The final verse that Paul refers to is the same passage that Peter used in his sermon on Pentecost in (). But he refers to two other passages here:

● - "You are my Son, today I have begotten you.”

● – “I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David”

These are two lesser known passages that we don’t often point to and say, this is talking about the resurrection… But this is how Paul uses these two passages. , a kingly psalm about God installing His king on Zion… The resurrection had to happen to make this exaltation to the throne possible… The words “today I have begotten” you refer to his installation in the royal office, not to his birth... These ideas of being the Son of God or “being begotten by God” are talking about his kingship… In , where God makes the promise to David that his descendants will reign on the throne forever, he says that these descendants will be a son to Him. The king is called the son of God. This is fulfilled first in the kings of Judah, but is a prophecy ultimately of Jesus and his being raised up and given the nations as an inheritance… Isaiah and David were talking about the resurrection and the promise to David being fulfilled through the Messiah.

Then … Just a few chapters earlier, there was a great prophecy about the death of the Messiah… Here in the context of the blessings God will give his people under the messianic covenant, he says that he will “give the holy and sure blessing of David.” Paul says this is talking about the resurrection of Jesus…

There are a few other passages that can be pointed to, but these give a good example of this idea that the Old Testament spoke of, not just the death of the Messiah, but also the resurrection/glorification of the Messiah onto the throne of David.

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If Jesus was resurrected from His tomb, this has many consequences for you and I…

• Jesus is the Son of God ()

• He has all authority ()

• Jesus will be our judge ()

• We have a reason for hope that we can share with others (; )

What is your response?