The Resurrection of Jesus Christ
Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 7 viewsNotes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
Good Morning,
Please turn with me this morning to the book of Christianity is either real or it’s not real. This is either fact or its fiction. Christianity rises and falls with the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Paul is addressing a group of people who are arguing one one hand that they are part of this community of faith, but on the other hand that somehow they do not believe not just in the resurrection of Christ but they dont believe in resurrection at all.
They are opposed to the idea, they are convinced that resurrection does not exist, that resurrection cannot happen, that resurrection will not happen.
So they deny the resurrection of Jesus Christ. However even though they deny this concept of the resurrection and denying the resurrection of Jesus Christ, they dont wanna neccesarily deny Christianity, and that may seem odd to you, and it should.
It used to be that if you believed He did then you declared that you believed it, and declared yourself a Christian and stood up for your beliefs and if you believe He didn’t then you would declare yourself an athiest and you would go out into the world living courageously as a nonbeliever.
Why would someone claim to be a follower of Christianity and deny THE essential element of Christianity?
This is not just a first century thing, we have people in our day and our time who claim on one hand to be followers of Christ and then on the other hand deny the resurrection of Jesus.
For example
John Shelby Swan in his book entitled “A New Christianity for a new world” says these words
“I do not believe that Jesus was born by the miracle of the virgin birth, nor do I believe that virgin births happen anywhere except in mythology. I do not believe angels sang to hillside shepherds or that he fled to Egpyt to escape the wrath of kingherod.
I do not believe the event that Christians celebrate at Easter the resurrection of the three days dead body of Jesus.”
Now you may think why does it matter what that guy says?
Well heres why it matters…
He spent 30 years as a pastor, was a lecturer at Harvard divinity school claims on one hand allegiance to Jesus and on the other hand denies the historic Christians faith.
Now the first question that comes to mind is how can this be?
But there is another question
How do we respond to that?
Is it right for us to just sort of say, ok well thats what works for you I guess thats your interpretation and your position is that what we should do?
What would Jesus do if someone made that kind of denial well we dont have to wonder what Jesus would do.
In
:
when Jesus said who do people say that I am John responds some people say that your Elijah some say your Abraham.... but then Jesus says cool who do you say that I am?
He said your the son of the living god… Jesus says thats great Pete flesh and blood did not reveal this to you but my Father in Heaven.
But the next thing that happens in that story is this He tells them He had to be crucified. Not just killed executed, not just executed but executed by the scribes and Pharisees.
Teachers of the law Peter comes and rebukes Him WHY? Because that doesnt fit with what is supposed to happen with the Messiah. So he rebukes Him, He says never Ill go to death with you before I let anything happen to you, and Jesus says get thee behind me Satan.
Jesus does not accept multiple views on who He is, He says there is one that is correct, and one that is from the pit of Hell.
How does Paul deal with the same issue with people who claim to followers of Christ but deny the resurrection of Jesus Christ?
Responds From Authority
Responds From Authority
Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand,
That isn’t the question anymore, the main question is..... SO WHAT?
If He did rise from the grave then so what? What does that mean for me and my life?
and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.
Do I care?
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures,
that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,
This is Paul’s argument from authority, and to understand this argument you have to understand this
Imagine there were a couple of guys and they just kind of come over and they are like hey you know where you from all this small talk stuff, and the one guy goes hey Im great Im from so and so I came here to go to school, REALLY?
Yeah I went to Auburn, really you went to Auburn I went to Auburn, yeah! Thats awesome! SO I say what did you get your degree in?
That guy goes I didn’t really have like a degree, “really what did you study while you were there?”
The guy says you know study thats kind of a broad term, really?
Who was your favorite professor when you were there?
Well I didn’t really have any proefessors… but you wold me you were a graduate from Auburn, but you didn’t get a degree form there, you didn have a major and you didnt take a class?
yeah…
How does that work?
I mean I really like the place.
Now we laugh at that why? Because all of us understand that wherever you go to school has the right to grant degrees to people who meet their standards. We all agree that you cant just go around saying that you are a graduate of a school if you didnt meet the requirements that they set.
Thats called a lie.
Nobody would disagree with that.
That is what the argument from authority is all about Paul is making an argument and heres what he is saying. OK YOU ARE SAYING YOUR A CHRISTIAN, SMALL PROBLEM THERE ARE THINGS THAT YOU MUST BELIEVE IN ORDER TO CALL YOURSELF A CHRISTIAN AND YOU ARE DENYING THOSE THINGS WHICH YOU GOTTA BELIEVE IN ORDER TO BE A CHIRSTIAN.
Therefore you are lying, you ARE NOT A CHRISITAN, your claiming that this is who you are but you have not met the requirements neccesarry to be categorized as one.
Thats what He is doing.
look at it again
Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand,
1 Corinthians 15:
IN WHICH YOU STAND mean this is the foundation on which you based your life.
and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.
In other words if you believed the gospel I proclaimed is what you believe then you are standing firmly and you are saved but if you do not believe the gospel as it was proclaimed you are not saved because you have believed in vain.
Its useless, its like saying you graduated from Auburn and you never even went there.
Now he is very clear about what they need here.
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures,
OF FIRST IMPORTANCE
This means the basic bedrock truth of Christianity. He means these things cannot be left out if you call yourself a Christian.
THAT CHRIST
If were wrong on Jesus were wrong on Christianity. you cant be wrong on Jesus and be right on Christianity.
Jesus is who the Bible says He is. You dont get to form Jesus into your own image, you dont get to take the things you like about Jesus and take those sayings of His and leave everything else out.
CHRIST DIED FOR SIN!
Let’s be more clear Christ died for your sin and mine.
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Some people believe one thing, and some people believe another thing and if you believe that and it gives you some help to live a full life then bless you just dont pressure anyone else to believe.
Listen to me this morning, if you are in here and you are playing church then you need to know something since you have never truly surrendered your soul into the hands of the Son of God, then your sins are not forgiven.
That means that one day when you pass away that you will stand before god and I went to church will not be good enough to wahs you clean from your sin and you will pay for it with eternal separation from God.
I AM PLEADING WITH YOU THIS MORNING, THIS IS NOT A GAME REPENT AND TURN TO JESUS HE LOVES YOU AND HE WAS SEPARATED FROM HIS FATHER WHEN THE BIBLE SAYS HE TURNED HIS FACE AWAY SO THAT YOU DONT HAVE TO BE SEPERATED FROM HIM.
HE MADE A WAY PAID FOR WITH HIS OWN BLOOD FOR YOU TO BE FORGIVEN AND SET FREE, AND RECIEVE PARDON FOR THE SINS YOU HAVE COMMITTED AGAINST GOD!
Christ died for sin, thats the gospel, and He was raised on the third day.
He didn’t stay dead, you cant be a Christian and not believe Jesus is alive today!
Argument from Evidence
Argument from Evidence
and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.
Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.
Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.
Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.
For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.
This is amazing Jesus dies He is crucified then He is resurrected and then we have eyewitness accounts of His resurrection. Those eyewitnesses include Peter who saw Him, and then it says the 12
Now if your sharp you might have caught that.... isn’t there a problem there? It says that Jesus appeared to the 12 but one ole boy had hanged himself. Judas the betrayer, so that would have only left 11.
Thats a contradiction right there.
Really? Let’s imagine the Iron bowl is coming on Alabama versus Auburn, and Alabama is about ready to just beat them down.... but wait a minute somethings wrong theres a player who is missing.
He was academically disqualified I’ll tell you what the announcer is not gonna say now introducing the Alabama Crimson tide minus Bo Scarbourough he aint gonna say that.
Because the unit is still the Crimson tide regardless of whether bo is in the Lineup or not.
when you talk abou the unit you call them by the name of the unit. If you remember the very first thing they do on the day of pentecost before they do anything else they replaced Judas why?
Because the number 12 is significant there had to be 12 of them.
We read about the 12 in tribes 12 elders, He is talking about the unti here.
Then Jesus after He rose from the dead appeard to more than 500 brotheras at one time. You know there are theories that try to explain away the resurrection.
THE HALLUCINATION THEORY
There is actually a PHD given based on this theory that Jesus was not really raised from the dead. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the most documented fact in all of ancient history.
There is no historical fact that is as well documented as the resurrection of Jesus Christ. None.
When this is written he says more than 500 saw Him and most of them were still alive when he was writing this. If you do the math, there were still about 300 eyewitnesses alive when this was written.
Nothing has that kind of testimony.
So what does this hallucination theory say? These women they come to the tomb, after Jesus has been crucified but He is not there. So they just hallucinate, the first two disciples get there they join the women in their hallucination.
The men on the road to Emmaus a completely different issue in a completely different place have the same hallucination. They go to the upper room, and now allof the other disciples in the upper room hallucinate.
Wait a minute Thomas was missing, He comes in later and they restart the hallucination for his benefit. Then 500 people at the same time have the same hallucination.
I got two question
I thought crack was more recent than that, and secondly if they hallucinated there would have still ben a body in the tomb. Somebody would have been able to go and say excuse me guards would you move the stone for a minute so we can show these people who are high that Jesus is still dead?
That didn’t happen at all.
As a matter of fact not only did the apostles and the women and 500 hallucinate but the guards did as well putting there lives at risk they thought they saw someone roll the stone away and it alost killed the them to look, the Bible said they fell as dead men.
Man that was some potent drugs going around I guess.
(swoon theory)
Because if I dont think thats the case then that is my choice. Now behind those two kinds of unbelief the old one DID JESUS RISE
(EXPLAIN)
and Now
(CRUCIFIXION)
IM TELLING YOU IF JESUS CHRIST COULD GO THROUGH ALL OF THAT THEN ROLL A 12 TON BOULDER AWAY FROM THE DOOR TAKE OUT TWO ROMAN SOLDIERS FULLY ARMED AND THEN GO WALKING THE STREETS!
Are different assumptions.
IM STILL GONNA FOLLOW HIM BECAUSE THATS IMPOSSIBLE!
Let me see if I can explain this a little bit. The assumption behind the first question was like this:
You see there is one thing all of the smart people in the world cannot account for, the missing body of the Lord Jesus. It was a FACT that He lived It was a FACT THAT HE DIED, IT WAS A FACT THAT HE WAS BURIED AND IT IS A FACT THAT HIS BODY AINT THERE NO MORE SO EITHER HE ROSE FROM THE DEAD OR THIS IS ONE OF THE GREATEST TRICKS ANYONE HAS EVER PLAYED BEFORE,
The Argument From Logic
The Argument From Logic
The world would be at loose ends if this was true.
What Paul says if there is no thing as resurrection then there are 7 things that must follow.
7 things that have to be true if there is no resurrection.
Now the assumption to the second question… SO WHAT?
1 Corinthians 15:
For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.
But by God’s grace I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not ineffective. However, I worked more than any of them, yet not I, but God’s grace that was with me.
Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?
Is not that science cannot explain it, but the assumption behind SO WHAT?
But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised.
Is this I WILL ADMIT IN MY HEART WHAT I LIKE IF I FEEL THAT IT WILL
He just won the argument on point number one.
So for example one says prove it to me scientifically and I will believe
we have over 600 eyewitnesses of His resurrection, we have numerous eyewtinesses of His crucifixion of Jesus christ as He is crucified by Roman soldiers. So He has already won the argument but thats ok he aint finished yet he is just warming up.
2. If Christ has not been raised then our preaching is vain
Thats where this idea comes from in our world today. There are a majority of people who say I will believe what I wanna believe and you can believe what you wanna believe and we will just all get along.
preaching is useless powerless its nothing not only that but
\
3. your faith is vain
For the minds of our world today the thought of Jesus Christ rising from the dead falls into the ca
If there is no such thing as resurrection what are you believing in? If there is no such thing as resurrection why do you need to have faith?
People are just like whatever if there are UFOS then fine they can send a rocket out there but I dont really care I am living my own life Im not thinking about it.
If there is no such thing as resurrection then the object of your faith is nonexistent and if you have faith in something that is nonexistent you just have wishful thinking.
This is the way people approach the ressurection of Jesus. If He did then great and if it helps you then great but my life is over here and I just dont think about it very often.
1 Corinthians 15:
and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation is without foundation, and so is your faith.
The reason I bring all of that up is because as I present you with a witness of the resurrection, I want you to be thinking.
In addition, we are found to be false witnesses about God, because we have testified about God that He raised up Christ—whom He did not raise up if in fact the dead are not raised.
COULD THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS REALLY MATTER?
1 Coi
For if the dead are not raised, Christ has not been raised.
If so then why does it matter?
4. if Christ has not been raised preaching is vain, faith is vain, and everyone who preaches the resurrection is a liar and a blasphemer.
Because we lie on God and say He did something He never did. Paul says you dont get to be politically correct here you dont get to pull the whole whats true for you is true for you and whats true for me is what is true for me bit.
UHUH
If there is no such thing as resurrection you gotta look me in my eye and say your a liar and a blasphemer bc your saying that God did something that He never did.
But they wont do it bc they cant do it the conscience wont let them especially since there are over 600 people who were eyewitnesses and 300 of them are still alive at this time.
you have to say that all of them are liars too
1 Corinthians 15:
And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins.
No resuurection then God did not accept Jesus’ sacrifice for your sins and you are damned and doomed.
The price hadnt been paid.
(credit card)
We would not be forgiven of our sins.
6. then those who have fallen asleep have perished
If there is no resurrection then there is no hope for anyone who has gone on before us. They are dead like dogs we will nevr see them again.
7.
But if there is a resurrection then guess what WE HAVE ALL THE HOPE IN THE WORLD!!!
:13-
We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, concerning those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve like the rest, who have no hope. Since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, in the same way God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep through Jesus. For we say this to you by a revelation from the Lord: We who are still alive at the Lord’s coming will certainly have no advantage over those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the archangel’s voice, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are still alive will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.
(preach)
If there is no such thing as resurrection then we are the most pathetic lot on the face of the planet.
Because we are living a hopeless existence and we are being conformed to a lie.
But i told you that Paul won the argument on point number one. Because He has won the argument on point number one we can flip the script and turn those 7 things upside down.
THERE IS SUCH THING AS RESURRECTION THEREFORE JESUS DID GET UP FROM THE GRAVE HE IS NO LONGER DEAD HE IS ALIVE, HE HAS ASCENDED AND IS SEATED AT THE RIGHT HAND OF THE FATHER FOREVER MAKING INTERCESSION FOR US.
HE HAS RISEN WITH ALL POWER IN HIS HANDS AS KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS,
PREACHING IS NOT VAIN IT IS THE POWER OF GOD UNTO SALVATION FOR ALL WHO BELIEVE IT IS FOOLISHNESS TO THOSE WHO ARE PERISHING BUT TO THOSE WHO ARE BEING SAVED IT IS THE POWER THAT BRINGS US TO LIFE!
FAITH IS NOT VAIN WE HAVE FAITH IN THE ONE WHO RAISED CHRIST FROM THE DEAD AND WE PLACE OUR HOPE IN THAT SAME ONE THAT RAISED HIM UP.
WE ARE NOT LIARS BUT TRUTH TELLERS BECAUSE WE PROCLAIMING THAT GOD DID EXACTLY WHAT HE SAID HE DID BY RAISING JESUS CHRIST FROM THE DEAD
WE ARE NOT SINS I HAVE BEEN WASHED I HAVE BEEN CLEANSED I HAVE BEEN MADE WHOLE MY PRICE HAS BEEN PAID, THERE WAS ONE WHO WAS MY SUBSTITUTE AND NOW I AM CLEAN AND MADE A CHILD OF GOD AND WILL BE ABLE TO SEE HIM FACE TO FACE!
THOSE WHO HAVE PERISHED IN CHRIST ARE NOT DEAD THEY WILL RISE LIKE CHRIST ROSE AND
I AM NOT PATHETIC DONT YOU DARE PITTY ME, BECAUSE THERE IS GOING TO COME A DAY WHEN YOU HERE THAT KYLE JOHNSON IS DEAD THAT HE IS GONE DONT YOU BELIEVE IT FOR A MOMENT
BECAUSE TO ABSENT FROM THE BODY IS TO BE PRESENT WITH THE LORD YOU CAN BELIEVE ALL YOU WANT THAT THIS LIFE IS AS GOOD AS IT GETS, BUT I KNOW BETTER BECAUSE THERE ARE THINGS THAT I LONG FOR THERE ARE PARTS OF ME THAT ACHE THERE ARE THINGS THAT I WANT THAT THIS OLD WORLD CANT SATISFY.
BUT THERE IS COMING A DAY WHEN ILL BE CHANGED IN THE TWINKLING OF AN EYE AND BE IN THE PRESNCE OF ALMIGHTY GOD AND WHEN I AM TRANSFORMED AND FACE TO FACE WITH MY KING I WILL EXPERIENCE THE FUFILLMENT THAT I WAS CREATED FOR AND UNDERSTAND WHY SATISFACTION NEVER CAME UNTIL I SAW JESUS!
DONT YOU DARE PITTY ME, YOU PITTY SOMEONE WHO ON THE ONE HAND SAYS HE FOLLOWS CHRIST BUT ON THE OTHER HAND DOESNT EVEN UNDERSTAND THAT JESUS HAS WON THE VICTORY OVER DEATH HELL AND THE GRAVE
THATS WHATS PATHETIC AND PITTIFUL
NOT THOSE WHO BELIEVE AND KNOW THE RESURRECTED CHRIST
Christ died for sin, He was raised on the third day, has ascended to the right hand of the father and will one day return to judge the living and the dead. Those of us who remain will be changed transformed those of us who have died will be raised like he was to experience a brand new life this is the essence of Christianity.,
Not just a religion, not just rules to live by but a hope a hope of something beyond anything we can see or even comprehend. A hope the grave is not the end.
A hope that we were made for something more than this
a hope that there is a reason that the reaosn we are not satisfied is because we were made for something more and He waits for us at the resurrection.
This same empty tomb that was seen by over 600 eyewitnesses.
(If I die .....I lose nothing, but if you die…)
I pray that you would know this hope and grasp this hope and one day your hope would become sight.
Let’s Pray