The Importance of the Resurrection
Notes
Transcript
Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen: And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not. For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.
Muslim Jason - Refuting Jesus and promoting Muhammed - Jesus was being exalted in our conversation, and he began to push back by stating,
Jesus was put in a tomb because He is dead.
“Where’s Muhammed?”
Holy site were we can see the burial place of the prophet Muhammed.
“The difference between your hope and mine, is the fact you go to a dead body and I go to an empty tomb.”
The resurrection is powerful beyond human comprehension!
Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?
If Jesus is being preached and the Gospel is being furthered, the natural product of this is people believing Jesus rose from the dead
Some had intellectual problems with this:
Sadduccees:
The same day came to him the Sadducees, which say that there is no resurrection, and asked him, Saying, Master, Moses said, If a man die, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother. Now there were with us seven brethren: and the first, when he had married a wife, deceased, and, having no issue, left his wife unto his brother: Likewise the second also, and the third, unto the seventh. And last of all the woman died also. Therefore in the resurrection whose wife shall she be of the seven? for they all had her. Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven. But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. And when the multitude heard this, they were astonished at his doctrine.
Greeks
And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked: and others said, We will hear thee again of this matter.
Paul was taught by respected intelligent individuals as he was raised a Pharisee.
Even he did not have a problem with the resurrection
Confessing Christians who chose not to believe in the resurrection of Jesus? Impossible?! Statement reeking of indignation.
This had crept into the church of Corinth like Satan loves to see it creep into church’s today.
There are “theologians” today that claim Jesus did not rise from the dead.
Dr. Wilbur M. Smith: “I think that men, great giants of intellect, men whose works have been consulted by the scholars of many generations, men like Bengel, Schaff, Bishop Lightfoot, Bishop Westcott, Bishop Ellicot, Dr. A. T. Robertson, Professor James Orr, would justly resent as an insult the fact that they, in finding proof of the bodily resurrection in the New Testament, were only like a lot of children fitting together a jigsaw puzzle.”[6]
One such intellectual giant was Thomas Arnold, for fourteen years the famous headmaster of Rugby, one of England’s prestigious educational institutions, author of a famous three-volume History of Rome, and appointee to the chair of Modern History at Oxford. He declared, “I have been used for many years to study the histories of other times, and to examine and weigh the evidence of those who have written about them, and I know of no one fact in the history of mankind which is proved by better or fuller evidence of every sort, to the understanding of a fair enquirer, than the great sign which God hath given us that Christ died and rose again from the dead.
But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen:
Paul refutes this lie as one who could give personal testimony to the resurrected Saviour!
He, being an eye witness to Jesus being alive, was convinced without any doubt of the risen Son of God.
Carbon - based
Made from dust
God makes diamonds from carbon
God also made charcoal from carbon
Is it too incredible to think that God can take our carbon atoms and put them together again?
For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
God doesn’t disclose how much of the carbon that formed our earthly bodies will be used to make our glorified bodies
Is God limited in some way by some saints being burned or their ashes scattered across an ocean of water?
Our God is the same one that spoke everything into existence, He can do anything, at any time, any where He desires.
But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen: And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not. For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised:
If there is no resurrection then Jesus never defeated death. If Jesus, never defeated death then we are wasting our time!
The Bible teaches a different story told by many!
Began in Jerusalem
Luke 24:46-48
And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these things.
The mission began to set in:
Acts 1:21-22
Wherefore of these men which have companied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, Beginning from the baptism of John, unto that same day that he was taken up from us, must one be ordained to be a witness with us of his resurrection.
Day of Pentecost
Acts 2:32
This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses.
Told plainly to the Pharisees:
Acts 3:14-15
But ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you; And killed the Prince of life, whom God hath raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses.
Freed from prison Peter and the apostles again:
Acts 5:29-32
Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree. Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins. And we are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him.
Peter preached to Cornelius and the gentiles:
Acts 10:38-40
How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him. And we are witnesses of all things which he did both in the land of the Jews, and in Jerusalem; whom they slew and hanged on a tree: Him God raised up the third day, and shewed him openly;
Paul preached to the Jews in Antioch:
Acts 13:28-31
And though they found no cause of death in him, yet desired they Pilate that he should be slain. And when they had fulfilled all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree, and laid him in a sepulchre. But God raised him from the dead: And he was seen many days of them which came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are his witnesses unto the people.
Paul stood before King Agrippa and testified:
Acts 26:8
Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God should raise the dead?
The summary of Acts can be:
And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all.
Speaking at a church years ago, was a man named, Pastor Schutez, who was a German refugee, a fugitive from the Gestapo and a wanted man. He had been a well-known German pastor, a man of whom the rising Nazi leaders had taken note. He told how one day he had attended one of the giant rallies that Hitler and his henchmen were so skilled in staging. The speaker at the rostrum was waxing eloquent against the Jews. The audience was responding with mounting hysteria. Then the speaker had spotted Schutez in the crowd. He picked him out as the butt of his scorn. “Pastor Schutez,” he said, “You are a fool! Fancy believing in a crucified, dead Jew!”
Pastor Schutez jumped to his feet and, in ringing tones which could be heard all across the auditorium, he replied, “Yes, sir! I should indeed be a fool if I believed in a crucified, dead Jew. But I believe in the risen, living Son of God!”
And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.
If there’s no resurrection then we have no reason to pick up the Bible, sing a hymn, or lift our voices up in prayer
There’s no forgiveness of sins and we are destined for hell!
Every sacrifice pointed like a giant arrow to Calvary.
It was all for nought if there is no resurrection
No sacrifice leading up to Calvary could defeat death
Here comes the Lamb!
He died for our sins. He paid the price for our transgressions!
The story cannot end there for it did there would be justification.
Jesus, the Lamb of God, paid for our sins, but could not defeat the price of sin which is death.
Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.
Satan wants you to believe the lie that Jesus is in the tomb. The demons of hell know the power of the resurrection and will do everything they can to sway your mind to refute the bodily resurrection of Christ.
Thank God! It is a lie! He lives! Jesus lives today!
Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.
If there’s no resurrection then we have no hope of seeing our loved ones again
If there’s no resurrection then we are just like an animal that is gone. Nothing further can be added to the story.
If we have only this life, then we are most miserable:
Martyrs died in vain
Those who bore seemingly unbearable burdens or struggled with difficulties seemingly too painful to endure all followed God Who could not defeat with life the very thing sin designed by death.
That empty tomb witnessed by many, brings hope for forgiveness of sin, a relationship with God Himself, eternal life, and joy unspeakable!
The fact is today:
Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: