Is Resurrection Even Possible?
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Introduction:
I came across a news article this week from Time entitled “Americans Are the Unhappiest They Have Been in 50 years.” A University of Chicago did a study of 2,279 adults and found that 50% of those interviewed were unhappy. This was before the murder of George Floyd and the protests and riots.
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought challenges on one’s mental health in regards to:
Isolationism.
Depression.
Job loss.
Relational pressures.
Uncertainty of the future.
Now you add the sad things you view on the news or social media with black men being killed and even police officers being killed in the line of duty. It is a sad time.
Some members here have experienced loss during these past few months. I know because I have prayed for some of you and grieved the loss in my hearts for people you have lost.
I understand why 50 % would label themselves as unhappy. Why do I bring all this up? We are experiencing the effects of a fallen world. We are being confronted in this season the reality of of living in a cursed creation. A world where we see the deadly effects of sin. Death seems to be all around us as the world has been confronted with its own mortality.
I rarely see any type of good news when I check my phone. Instead, it just seems there is anger and sadness and fighting and division.
Many were also shocked and disappointment with the recent Supreme Courts decision on redefining the terms of human sexuality that will have far reaching implications for the days ahead.
That is why I love being together again to listen to God’s Word. While the winds of sadness and fear grow strong in our world, I know the Lord will strengthen us with His Word and His people.
In a world without God, it can seem hopeless.
In a world with news of death tolls, it can seem that the the proper response is only despair.
But I want to show you from Scripture this morning that the Resurrection changes everything. The Resurrection of Jesus Christ, if true, will change your perspective and outlook on life. You see, the Christian faith, rests on the resurrection. In Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, he says that if Christ is not raised from the dead, your faith is futile. You are still dead in your sins. We are men to be most pitied along with the rest of the world.
There is no true hope apart of Christ.
But if Christ is raised from the dead, it gives us hope and strength to keep going when the days are difficult, especially in this challenging season we are dealing with.
The resurrection means that everything sad and broken in the world will eventually become undone and renewed and restored for those who trust in Christ.
So the title of my message this morning is: “Is the Resurrection Even Possible?” It was a question that was posed to Jesus during his time as well. As we see today, some thought the idea of resurrection was absurd. Even in Jesus’ time, the idea of resurrection seemed impossible.
Those who deny the resurrection deny one of the central doctrines of Christianity. The Resurrection is a first order gospel issue. If you lose the resurrection, you lose Christianity. You cannot be a Christian if you deny the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Those who deny a Resurrection show that they have an earthly and even unregenerate mind.
Main Idea: A earthly and unregenerate mind is ignorant of the Scriptures and the power of God, while a believer born again by God’s Spirit has been enlightened to see the beauty of the Scriptures and the power of God demonstrated supremely in Christ.
Our outline for this morning is as follows as we continue in our study of Mark:
I. A Ridiculous Argument (vv. 17-24)
II. A Sharp Rebuke (vv. 25-27)
Recap
Last week, the Pharisees and Herodians tried to pose a political trap in regards to paying taxes to Caesar, this week, we see another group trying to stumble Jesus on a theological trap. And the issue that Jesus debates with the religious leaders “Is the resurrection even possible?”
Let us turn to God’s Word this morning.
Scripture Reading:
And Sadducees came to him, who say that there is no resurrection. And they asked him a question, saying, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife, but leaves no child, the man must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. There were seven brothers; the first took a wife, and when he died left no offspring. And the second took her, and died, leaving no offspring. And the third likewise. And the seven left no offspring. Last of all the woman also died. In the resurrection, when they rise again, whose wife will she be? For the seven had her as wife.”
Jesus said to them, “Is this not the reason you are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God? For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. And as for the dead being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, how God spoke to him, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living. You are quite wrong.”
This is the reading of God’s Holy, Inspired, and Eternal Word. Amen.
Notice first, the ridiculous argument. If you were here last week, we were reminded that these groups of people were not sincere. They were skeptics trying to trap Jesus. They tried to use a false argument or false dichotomy. Last week, Jesus dealt with the Pharisees and Herodians, this week, he deals with another group, the Sadduccees.
This is the only time the group is mentioned in Mark’s gospel.
I. A Ridiculous Argument (vv. 18-24)
I. A Ridiculous Argument (vv. 18-24)
And Sadducees came to him, who say that there is no resurrection. And they asked him a question, saying,
Who were the Sadduccees?
The Sadduccees were the less popular religious group of the day. The Pharisees were more prominent. Commentators tell us that the Sadduccees were a wealthy and priestly group who rivaled the Pharisees. They would be your theological rationalists and liberals of the day. They generally supported the Romans.
“Sadduccees based their theology on the first five books of the Old Testament, and, in particular, the denied the doctrine of the resurrection.” Ferguson
We know that the Old Testament does in fact teach resurrection. We see this in the Psalms, in Job, and even the Prophets.
And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
Since they only held to the first five books of Moses, and they believed that the first books did not teach a physical resurrection. In other words, when men died, they simply perished and were no more.
The Gospel of Mark Interpretation
According to Josephus (Ant. 18.12–17) the Pharisees believed that “souls have power to survive death and that there are rewards and punishments under the earth for those who have led lives of virtue and vice,” whereas “the Sadducees hold that the soul perishes along with the body.”
Not only did they deny the resurrection, but they did not believe in angels or demons.
For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, nor angel, nor spirit, but the Pharisees acknowledge them all.
And to summarize the differences…one commentator notes..
The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Gospel according to Mark The Test of the Sadducees (12:18–27)
The Pharisees believed in divine sovereignty, while the Sadducees affirmed human free will alone; the Pharisees believed in angels and demons, whereas the Sadducees did not; the Pharisees accepted a broader understanding of Scripture and revelation, which included both written (Torah, Writings, and Prophets) and oral traditions, whereas the Sadducees accepted only the written Torah; and finally, as this story indicates, the Pharisees affirmed the resurrection of the dead, which the Sadducees expressly denied (12:18; Acts 23:8). The Sadducean denial of angels, demons, and the afterlife derived from their exclusive reliance on the Torah, which does not set forth these doctrines. The Sadducees were thus theological conservatives, and the Pharisees theological progressives.
You do not hear of the Sadduccees after Rome’s destruction of the Temple in 70 AD.
We don’t hear the term Sadduccees today, but they are still plenty today. They are alive and well.
They are the ones who say that Scripture is compromised and has errors because of human authors.
Scripture is outdated and not evolved with the times.
They are the ones who say that angels and demons don’t exist because we know science has disproven that silly stuff.
They are the ones who say there can’t be resurrection because life just simply ends when you are buried.
People will not call themselves Sadduccees, but functionally there are many Sadduccees today who not believe in a literal resurrection, angels, spirits or demons because Oh we are intelligent and modern people who don’t believe in a world of fairies and Santa Claus right?
There may be functional Sadduccees today in our congregation who functionally live like atheists and live as life here on earth is it.
These were the Sadduccees. And notice they come to Jesus not sincerely, but deceptively to try to pose a question to stump Jesus.
“Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife, but leaves no child, the man must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother.
Teacher…You can even hear the flattery in their voice. They didn’t really want to submit to his teaching, they were just buttering him up before the kill.
What is reference here is what is called a Levirate Marriage. Latin word-Levir-brother-in-Law. Brother-in-Law Marriage Law.
The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Gospel according to Mark The Test of the Sadducees (12:18–27)
Levirate marriage was a practice whereby a man was obligated to marry a childless widow of his brother in order to preserve the name and memory of his deceased brother and to ensure the establishment of his deceased brother’s property inheritance within the family line.
The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Gospel according to Mark The Test of the Sadducees (12:18–27)
Levirate marriage was, rather, a compensatory social custom designed to prevent intermarriage of Jews and Gentiles and to preserve honor and property within a family line in cases where a woman’s husband was deceased.
You can read more about in Deuteronomy 25. For example it says...
“If brothers dwell together, and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the dead man shall not be married outside the family to a stranger. Her husband’s brother shall go in to her and take her as his wife and perform the duty of a husband’s brother to her. And the first son whom she bears shall succeed to the name of his dead brother, that his name may not be blotted out of Israel.
You also see this in Genesis 38. Judah had relations with a Canaanite and bore two sons. The first son died, because he was wicked. The second son, Onan, also died because he was wicked.
Then Judah said to Onan, “Go in to your brother’s wife and perform the duty of a brother-in-law to her, and raise up offspring for your brother.” But Onan knew that the offspring would not be his. So whenever he went in to his brother’s wife he would waste the semen on the ground, so as not to give offspring to his brother. And what he did was wicked in the sight of the Lord, and he put him to death also.
And even in the story of Ruth where Naomi has a distant relative that can redeem Ruth from their poverty.
You family name and inheritance was your social security back then. And if you were a woman who did not have a husband or an inheritance of land, you could be left destitute and even potentially subject to slavery and abuse as we see in the story of Ruth. God’s concern was to protect the woman and protect the name and inheritance so that their family would not be blotted out of Israel.
The Ridiculous Argument
They posed a hypothetical question to Jesus. It was a question that really had no answers. In Philosophy, we call this a Reductio Ad Absurdum argument. In other words, an argument literally meaning reduction to the absurd. The argument cannot be true because the conclusion seems so absurd. The poor woman who had to deal with eight different men.
There were seven brothers; the first took a wife, and when he died left no offspring. And the second took her, and died, leaving no offspring. And the third likewise. And the seven left no offspring. Last of all the woman also died. In the resurrection, when they rise again, whose wife will she be? For the seven had her as wife.”
Some questions can be used by skeptics to weaponize and club a believer.
If God made you, then who made God? A God would have to make a God, and on and on it goes if everything has a maker. Therefore there is no God. The argument seems absurd, so therefore there is no God.
Or can God make a stone so big he can’t move it?
Absurd questions can lead to absurd conclusions.
The poor women had to deal with eight different men with no child to pass on the family name and inheritance. And eventually she died.
So, who will she be if you believe in a resurrection? Tell us? She obviously can’t be married to all the men? Or does she have to choose which one will be her husband? Resurrection just didn’t make sense.
The problem with these Sadduccees is that they believed heavenly life was just a continuation of earthly life. Their theology of heaven was wrong. Their minds were earthly and did not understand the nature of heaven.
Paul rebuked the Corinthians for this:
But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?” You foolish person! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body. For not all flesh is the same, but there is one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish. There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is of one kind, and the glory of the earthly is of another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory.
So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable.
Christian—Beware of Presuppositions behind the Questions of Unbelievers and Skeptics. Everyone has a worldview. And you based your conclusions on how you view the world.
And if we swim and breathe the air of an anti-God culture everyday. If we are not careful, we begin to absorb the ideologies of our godless environment and only think of life in terms of life here on earth. In other words, we become wordly.
In the past, I study the history of philosophy. And I found it fascinating how philosophy can directly influence the culture and worldviews of the everyday man.
During the Enlightenment, it was the Age of Reason. And with the publication of Darwin’s origin of species, miracles and supernatural were no longer deemed valid because we found a more reasonable and alternative explanation.
These ideas passed into the university and eventually people tried to revise the stories of the Bible to make it more digestible to modern man.
David Hume, the Scottish enlightenment philosopher, for example, said that the idea of Resurrection was absurd. He believed miracles were impossible because we live in a closed material system.
“When anyone tells me, that he saw a dead man restored to life, I immediately consider with myself, whether it be more probable, that this person should either deceive or be deceived, or that the fact, which he relates, should really have happened.”
In other words, anyone who says there is a resurrection is either lying or being lied to.
Ideas matter. These ideas are presented everyday in the media. In your social media. In your schools. In the entertainment you watch. In the news you take in. And if you are not careful, you begin to think like the culture as you absorbs its godless ideas.
These Sadduccees were skeptics and challenged Jesus by showing a ridiculous argument in hoping to show how absurd and ridiculous the idea of resurrection was.
The first five books, they argued, did not teach resurrection.
Experience does not teach resurrection.
And this argument shows how absurd the resurrection is.
Therefore there is no resurrection.
Christian—The resurrection of Jesus Christ is a first order issue. I do not believe you can be a Christian and deny the Resurrection.
Church—The Christian church gathered on the Lord’s Day, not the Sabbath, because they affirmed the doctrine of the Resurrection.
Grieving Christian—If we do not have a doctrine of Resurrection, we do not have hope.
What do I gain if, humanly speaking, I fought with beasts at Ephesus? If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.” Wake up from your drunken stupor, as is right, and do not go on sinning. For some have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame.
A Christian can find comfort when he experiences loss, because of the doctrine of the Resurrection. Comfort one another with these words.
Non-Christian—If you think the idea of resurrection is absurd, have you actually considered the claims of Christ yourself? There is evidence that Christ rose. Eyewitnesses, an empty tomb, the continuity of the Christian faith. You just have to remove your prejudices if you actually want to study it. You can talk to me and I can recommend to you some scholarly resources.
No historian will doubt that the early Christians did in fact believe that Jesus rose again from the dead.
But if you come with presuppositions that the Bible is flawed or miracles do not happen, then whatever conclusion you come to in regards to the Resurrection will already be flawed because of your inward prejudices.
Transition: That was the ridiculous argument and question posed by the Sadduccees, but notice the wise and sharp rebuke of our Lord...
II. A Sharp Rebuke (vv. 24-27)
II. A Sharp Rebuke (vv. 24-27)
Jesus said to them, “Is this not the reason you are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God?
You are wrong. Your dead wrong. You are way off. Your off track. You missed the target.
The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Gospel according to Mark The Test of the Sadducees (12:18–27)
The Greek word for “error,” planan (from which “planet” is derived), means “to wander off track” or “to be led astray.”
Jesus indicted them for two things:
Ignorance of Scripture.
Ignorance of the Power of God.
A. Ignorance of Scripture
I think 100 percent of our theological errors happen because we do not know the Scriptures R.C. Sproul
If we do not know Scripture, we will be tossed to and fro like the waves of the sea. Paul does not want Christians to be like spiritual infants.
so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,
Young people, if you don’t know your Bibles, and on your phones more than you are on your Bibles, you will be driven by every wave and wind of trending #hashtag or article posted or tweet shared. I have a great concern that we have studied the culture more than we have studied our Bibles.
Yes, we need to know what is going on with the culture if we want to preach to the culture. But if we are more invested in the culture, we must be careful we are not absorbed by the culture that we begin to think that the doctrines of the Bible are strange.
We begin to think that the Bible does not have answers. We begin think that the local church has no effect on the world. That’s my concern.
B. Ignorance of the Power of God
And when your ignorant of the things of God, you will be ignorant of the power of God. It seems so hopeless, and that’s why we need God to act.
For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. And as for the dead being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, how God spoke to him, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’?
Notice Jesus doesn’t say “If they rise, but when the rise.” Jesus affirmed the validity of resurrection.
No Marriage or Sex in Heaven
Jesus is teaching that there will be no marriage and sex in heaven. But we will be like angels, immortal beings, who have perfect fellowship and communion with God.
If you think that’s terrible that there is no marriage or sex in heaven, then you don’t understand the ultimate purpose of marriage.
Randy Alcorn, has written an excellent book on Heaven.
“The purpose of marriage is not to replace Heaven, but to prepare us for it.”
“The One-Flesh marital union we know on Earth is as a signpost pointing to our relationship to Christ as our Bridegroom…each marriage is a shadow, a copy, an echo of the true and ultimate marriage…we’ll have greater intimacy with Jesus than we ever had in the best earthly marriages.”
The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Gospel according to Mark The Test of the Sadducees (12:18–27)
Present earthly experience is entirely insufficient to forecast divine heavenly realities: we can no more imagine heavenly existence than an infant in utero can imagine a Beethoven piano concerto or the Grand Canyon at sunset.
For your Maker is your husband,
the Lord of hosts is his name;
and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer,
the God of the whole earth he is called.
Singles—that should encourage you. No human relationship can satisfy you the way God can. You may never get married here on earth, but you will one day be married to the One in which all marriages pointed to.
Married—I love my wife. She is my best friend. But whatever love and joy I receive in this gift of marriage, is a echo of something heavenly and greater that is coming. Helen will be with me and I will love her deeper than she has ever been because we will be both loved and be satisfied with the overflowing love of Jesus.
Jonathan Edwards once preached a sermon: “Heaven, a World Full of Love.”
The Bible Exposition Commentary Chapter Nine: The Servant in Jerusalem (Mark 11:1–12:44)
Resurrection is not the restoration of life as we know it; it is the entrance into a new life that is different.
Nothing will be lost in Heaven. Love will be deeper than anything we have experienced on this earth.
Troubled Marriages—Those with troubled marriages and loneliness, God will be your comfort and strength. He will redeem the brokenness as you come to Him.
Like the angels...
Angels are immortal, holy, and have perfect fellowship with God. We will be like angels in the fact that we will also be immortal, holy, and have perfect fellowship with God.
The resurrected are transfigured into a new dimension of life that we have never experienced (see 9:2–3; Rev. 7:9–17).4
Garland, David E.. Mark (The NIV Application Commentary Book 2) (p. 470). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
The Gospel of Mark 8. The Question Concerning the Resurrection. Ch. 12:18–27
Jesus affirmed that the resurrection life is comparable to the life enjoyed by the angels. Its great purpose and center is communion with God.
The New International Greek Testament Commentary: The Gospel of Mark The Sadducees and Resurrection (12:18–27)
Angels, as eternal beings, have no need to reproduce. And in such a context the exclusiveness and jealousy which belong to marriage are no longer appropriate.
Have you Not Read?
And as for the dead being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, how God spoke to him, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’?
Have you not read? Notice the sarcasm in Jesus’ words. Jesus did not quote from the Prophets, but from the books the Sadduccees affirmed.
Are you a religious leader and don’t know your own religious book?
Are you a pastor and don’t know your Bible?
Are you a firefighter and don’t know how to use a fire hose?
Are you a Nurse and don’t know how to use an IV?
Have you not read your own Book? The books they affirmed.
Jesus quotes from Exodus 3:6
And he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.
God meets Moses at a burning bush. And Jesus bases his argument on the Resurrection not from the Prophets or Later Revelation, but from Moses himself! Arguing from Resurrection from a phrase.
A preacher gave an example on the importance of tenses. If you asked me, am I married. If I say “I was married” vs. “I am married.” Those two verb tenses can mean totally different things.
I was once married, and no longer married.
I am married and currently married.
And notice what God says, I am the the God of your Father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.
These men had died hundred of years before. But what God is saying is that I AM their God, not WAS their God.
What Jesus is implying is that Patriarchs continue to live in order that God may be true to fulfill his promises to these men. God is faithful and powerful to fulfill these promises.
The God of ancient promise was the God of eternal fulfilment. John Stott
The New International Greek Testament Commentary: The Gospel of Mark The Sadducees and Resurrection (12:18–27)
The argument is better understood as a reflection on the character of the covenant God whom Moses encountered, a God who through his new name ‘I AM’ is revealed as the living God, the ever-present helper and deliverer of his people. If such a God chooses to be identified by the names of his long-dead servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, with whom his covenant was made, and whom he committed himself to protect, they cannot be simply dead and forgotten: οὐκ ἔστιν θεὸς νεκρῶν ἀλλὰ ζώντων.
This little detail proves the doctrine of the Resurrection! The Bible is so rich!
Christian—Have you not read? I love Jesus and his wisdom. I pray that rebuke doesn’t happen to us. Read your Bible. Read your Bible everyday.
Read your Bible, pray everyday, pray everyday and you’ll grow, grow.
Don’t read your Bible, don’t pray everyday, and you’ll shrink, shrink.
Have a plan for your Bible reading that goes through the Whole Bible. Don’t let isolated verses govern your Christianity, but dig in searching every word and text as looking and digging for gold like the Bereans. Verb tenses o
A right knowledge of the scripture, as the fountain whence all revealed religion now flows, and the foundation on which it is built, is the best preservative against error. Keep the truth, the scripture-truth, and it shall keep thee.
Don’t have a superficial understanding of the Bible. You cannot have a simplistic understanding of the Bible in the godless culture we are living in. People have been raised in this church and think they know their Bibles, or heard before, but no, the more you study, the more you will see the wealth and riches of the Bible.
Oh how I love your law!
It is my meditation all the day.
“Perhaps the most practical is this: the man who knows the Scriptures and the power of God (as Jesus himself did) will always be able to give an answer for the hope he has in the gospel (1 Pet 3:15). That is why a mind well-furnished with Scripture, which has spent time in meditation on its teaching, and is convinced of the power of its author, will see through all hypocritical objections to Christian faith, and be able to contend for the faith which has been given to the church (Jude 3).” Ferguson
CFBC—That is why I believe the church is essential business. We need not less Bible, but more Bible intake. Make a commitment to attend church regularly to sit under God’s preached Word. Take a hold of every teaching opportunity to learn more of Scripture. Take hold of the Sunday Schools. Take hold of the Wednesday Bible Studies. Take hold of the Prayer meetings.
Preacher—The fundamental duty of the pastor is to preach the Word. The more Bible we get, the stronger and healthier we will be. The more Bible the church gets, the stronger and healthier it will be.
And more Bible should lead to more sanctified and godly lives that love and reflect something of the character of God.
He is not God of the dead, but of the living. You are quite wrong.”
God is not God of the dead, but God of the living.
He continues to be their God to fulfill his promises. Death cannot even separate the believer from God fulfilling his promises.
The Sadduccees were ignorant of the Scriptures and ignorant of the power of God.
Jesus again says to them: You are quite wrong!
Gospel of Jesus Christ
But to those of us whom the Lord opens our hearts. What will happen if we seek the Scriptures diligently? We will find that the Bible shows us the power of God!!!
God has revealed his power throughout history in various ways.
But the greatest demonstration and supreme display of God’s power was raising a man from the dead.
You see, Christ, the Eternal Son of God, became a human. And he grew in wisdom and favor with God and man.
The Bible says that Christ knew the Scriptures because He would be the fulfilment of the Scriptures.
God made a beautiful world. A perfect world. A world that was made to love Him and be in perfect fellowship with Him.
And He created man to love Him and enjoy Him.
But he turned away from God, and brought sin and death into the world. The effects of what we are experiencing today of sickness, disease, disaster, killings, greed, envy, and all sorts of other sins in a world that turns from God.
The Punishment for these sins are eternal death.
But Christ, became a man, and became a servant, to be punished on the cross to take away our punishment and guilt. To satisfy the just demands of God’s Law.
And the supreme vindication of God’s power was raising His Son from the dead.
And he has been raised from the dead to cancel the power of sin over our lives.
He has been raised from the dead to declare us righteous by his substitutionary death.
He has been raised to be the firstfruits of a future resurrection in which there will be no more pain and sadness.
The resurrection is central to Christianity because in the resurrection of Christ, the promises of God are fulfilled in displaying God’s everlasting love to those who love Him and fear Him and turn from their sin.
If you are not a Christian, turn away from your sin and turn from Him.
The Resurrection is our hope. It is our comfort. It is our confidence because it tells us that sin and death don’t have the final word.
Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live,
Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.
“Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man.
Non-Christian
If you are not a Christian, you don’t have to live in fear or despair with regards to what is going on. But you can live with joy and hope if you believe in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The very resurrection of Christ is what will save you and secure your eternity for the future if you come to Him in repentance and faith.
I plead with you to be reconciled to God. The world is passing away and we are here today and gone tomorrow, but if you have Christ, you will have eternal joy as God makes everything right on that Final Day.
Summary:
Don’t be earthly minded and think like a Sadducee. Don’t try to come up with ridiculous arguments trying to disprove the truth of Christianity.
Don’t be ignorant of the Scriptures which speaks of Jesus.
Don’t be ignorant of the Power of God which was supremely manifested in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Jesus said, “Because I live, you will also live.”
Conclusion:
The story is told of the great Evangelist D.L. Moody as he was reflecting on his own death someday. He said this...
"Some day you will read in the papers that D.L. Moody of East Northfield, is dead. Don't you believe a word of it! At that moment I shall be more alive than I am now; I shall have gone up higher, that is all, out of this old clay tenement into a house that is immortal—a body that death cannot touch, that sin cannot taint; a body fashioned like unto His glorious body."
"I was born of the flesh in 1837.
I was born of the Spirit in 1856.
That which is born of the flesh may die.
That which is born of the Spirit will live forever."
The resurrection encourage our hearts.