God, Give Me a Sign
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THE RESURRECTION
THE RESURRECTION
1 But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. 2 And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3 but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4 While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. 5 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? 6 He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, 7 that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.” 8 And they remembered his words, 9 and returning from the tomb they told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. 10 Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles, 11 but these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. 12 But Peter rose and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; and he went home marveling at what had happened.
OPENING REMARKS
I remember as a young man on occasion being filled with doubt about the truth of the Bible. I had doubts about whether Jesus really did all that the Bible claimed He did, I had doubts over whether His death could actually deal with my sins, I had doubts over the very existence of God. And I remember what I would pray in those moments; ‘God, if you will just give me a sign, if you will just prove that you are real I’ll live for you, I’ll believe you. Move that object right now, or heal this pain in my body right now. Prove yourself to me.’
You know, there’s a story that Jesus told in Luke Chapter 16 about a man who thought like I used to, I want you to see what happened;
19 “There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. 20 At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores 21 and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.
22 “The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. 23 In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. 24 So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’
25 “But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. 26 And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’
27 “He answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my family, 28 for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’
29 “Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’
30 “ ‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’
31 “He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’ ”
This rich man had this same attitude as I did. Ignoring the signs, warnings, miracles and prophecies that God had already given and asking for a fresh one just for Him. Ok God, prove yourself to me. I won’t believe you unless you work a miracle right here for me. But look at what Abraham says; if they don’t listen to Moses and the Prophets, they won’t even be convinced if someone rises from the dead.’
I want to say to you; God has given you a sign. He’s not shy, He’s not hiding, asides from all the myriad proofs of His existence, His goodness, His grace that are all around us, He has clearly revealed Himself to the whole world through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And if we won’t be satisfied with that sign, we won’t be satisfied with any sign.
38 Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” 39 But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
So if you’re in that place of asking God to show you a sign then I want to show you today that you need look no further than the empty tomb, than the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth from the dead.
SO WHAT IS SO SIGNIFICANT ABOUT THE CROSS
It is a well documented historical event.
It is God’s vindication of Jesus as the Messiah.
It is the authentication of the scriptures.
It is victory over sin.
It is victory over death.
It is victory over the powers of darkness.
It is the reason for hope.
A HISTORICAL EVENT
Growing up I picked up the prevailing attitide of culture that there was a neat divide between the world of facts and the world of religion. In studies like Maths, Science, Technology, Geography etc we dealt with what was real, with facts, not like the world of religion, which was essentially a collection of fables and traditions handed down from distant, darker times that helped people from a bygone era deal with their ignorance. And so I like my fellow students treated any religious claims with a heavy dose of skepticism. Interestingly, the same heavy dosage of skepticism wasn’t meted out to the study of history, where we are relying on ancienct historical texts, much like we are in the case of Christianity.
The fact is, I had never been taught what the New Testament actually is. As well as it being the inspired word of God it is a collection of 1st century Greek documents, these documents which have been handed down to us through the centuries contain actual eye witness accounts of a man named Jesus of Nazareth. We can trace copies of these documents all the way back to the beginning of the 2nd century AD and there are 10s of 1000s of them. Because we have thousands of copies of these books dating way back to within a few decades of when they were originally written we can see that they have not been radically changed or altered, 99 per cent of any differences between these ancient copies of the NT are grammar, slips of the pen and spelling differences. No other historical documents come close to the New Testament in terms of the number of copies we have, or in terms of how close our copies are to the date of original composition. In other words, this is exceptionally good evidence that what we are reading today is an accurate representation of what was originally written, it also means that these documents were in circulation in the first century AD. So if they contained false information concerning facts about Jesus’s resurrection someone in the first century could have corrected it, but we have no such corrections.
So I’m going to give you four historical facts about the resurrection that scholars (even atheist ones) agree on:
A) Jesus’s burial in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea
Joseph was an important guy, an elder in the council. The location of his tomb was known to both Jews and Jesus’s followers.
B) That the tomb was discovered empty on the first day of the week (Sunday)
The claims that Jesus had risen from the dead could have been easily proven false if someone could have produced a body. Everyone knew where the tomb was but Jesus’s body clearly wasn’t in it.
We know that the Jewish leaders spread the rumour that the disciples had stolen the body, proving again the truth of the empty tomb.
C) That Jesus appeared on multiple occasions after His death to his followers and even 500 people at once!
3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.
Scholars believe that this little passage is actually a creed that was recited in the early church, they date it to within 5 years of Jesus’s resurrection. So what’s it’s saying? It’s saying that He rose again bodily, not spiritually, not metaphorically but physically, and showed up to not just his followers but 500 people at once, even showing up to skeptics, like His brother James and last of all, Paul. Paul essentially says, hey, most of those 500 are still alive, go check it with them if you don’t believe me!
Atheist scholar, Gerd Ludemann “It may be taken as historically certain that Peter and the disciples had experiences after Jesus’s death in which Jesus appeared to them as the risen Christ.”
D) The dramatic and rapid transformation in the apostles.
Immediately after Jesus died his followers went into hiding, they were devastated and feared for their lives. However, immediately after witnessing the risen Jesus they changed dramatically. They became bold and preached Jesus’s resurrection even though it landed them in trouble with the authorities and even led to brutal executions for many of them. You don’t do that for a lie.
IT IS VINDICATION OF JESUS AS MESSIAH
When Jesus was dying on the cross the religious leaders circled him, mocking him, ‘if you are the son of God come down from the cross.’ Their mockery was turned to anguish when Jesus was raised from the dead:
Acts 2:23-24,32-37
32 This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. 33 Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing. 34 For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says,
“ ‘The Lord said to my Lord,
“Sit at my right hand,
35 until I make your enemies your footstool.” ’
36 Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”
37 Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”
Jesus’s resurrection didn’t happen in secret, it was a public event, witnessed first hand by many people. And He goes on living! He is alive to this day. His resurrection was God’s seal of approval on Jesus’s work at the cross and it was a vindication of all that Jesus had claimed to be, that yes, He truly is the Son of God.
IT IS THE AUTHENTICATION OF THE SCRIPTURES
3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,
Jesus’s resurrection was the fulfilment of thousands of years of prophecy, it is the ultimate authentication of the truth of the scriptures. That what they promised would happen actually happened; that a messiah would come, that He would suffer and die at the hands of sinful men, but it would be God’s will, and that God would not let Him see corruption but would raise Him to life again and give Him a Kingdom that would know no end.
IT IS VICTORY OVER SIN
25 He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.
Jesus’s resurrection is complete victory over sin for all who believe. It is:
Deliverance from the guilt of sin.
Deliverance from the punishment owed to sin.
Deliverance from the power of sin.
24 “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.”
IT IS VICTORY OVER DEATH
As sin meets it’s death in the resurrection so do the wages of sin; death.
20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.
51 Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. 53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. 54 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:
“Death is swallowed up in victory.”
55 “O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”
56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
IT IS VICTORY OVER THE POWERS OF DARKNESS
When we become a Christian we are radically changed. It’s not just like adopting a new set of believes, or changing the way you think about things. Becoming a Christian is about dying, it is death to the old you, when you believe in Christ you die to the world and to sin and to the power of the evil one and you are made a new creation. You have new life within you. A life which isn’t any longer captive to sin, a life which is no longer obedient to the powers of darkness, but is instead obedient to God.
10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. 13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. 15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.
IT IS THE REASON FOR HOPE
The resurrection tells us that there is life after death, for those who trust in Christ dying isn’t the end. God is showing us through the resurrection that though we as His people experience trials, pain and suffering in this life that He is in charge, that He reigns over the future, and that Christ our elder brother has gone ahead to prepare a place for us.
It shows us that His word is true. We can trust Him. And that when He says He’s coming back, we had better believe that He is.
1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
Pray
