The Resurrection
Notes
Transcript
Intro
Intro
We just celebrated Easter
Which most all of you know, or should know is when we celebrate Jesus dying for our sins, and then raising from the dead
Why did He do this? Paul tells us
8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
I think what happens though is that we focus so much on the fact that Jesus died, that we miss the fact about Jesus raising from the dead
We hyper fixate on the importance of His death, but not on the importance of his resurrection
Listen to what A. W. Tozer - a famous pastor and theologian said about the resurrection
The Christian church is helpless and hopeless if it is stripped of the reality and historicity of the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ.2
A. W. Tozer
Have you ever thought about that?
Why the resurrection is so important?
A. W. Tozer said that the Christian church would be helpless and hopeless if it is stripped of the resurrection of Jesus
He said that the church would be hopeless
We would have no hope if Jesus didn’t raise from the dead
Jesus’ death would ultimately mean nothing if Jesus didn’t raise from the dead
And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.
Paul even affirms this - if Christ was not raised everything is pointless!
So I want to give you 3 reasons for why the resurrection is THAT important!
It proves Old Testament prophecy
It proves Old Testament prophecy
The resurrection proves OT Prophecy
Everything about Jesus’ life was prophesied by God
Isaiah 53 gives a clear example of how Jesus will be killed and raised
The Messiah rejected:
3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
34 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!
The Messiah killed as a sacrifice for sin:
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. 7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. 8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? 9 And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.
21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
The Messiah will be silent in front of His accusers:
7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.
23 When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.
The Messiah will be buried with the rich:
9 And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.
57 When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who also was a disciple of Jesus. 58 He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate ordered it to be given to him. 59 And Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen shroud 60 and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had cut in the rock. And he rolled a great stone to the entrance of the tomb and went away.
The Messiah will be with criminals in His death:
12 Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.
27 And with him they crucified two robbers, one on his right and one on his left.
And finally that the Messiah will be raised up:
8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people?
10 Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
“Cut off” - be killed
“Prolong his days” - can’t be prolonged if you die - therefore must have raised
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,
Jesus’ entire life-death-resurrection was prophesied
That was just from one chapter in the book of Isaiah, yet there was so many more!
Yet Jesus fulfilled them all!
If He did not, there would be no point in our faith because it wouldn’t be true’
None of it would be true, so he had to raise from the dead to go along with the OT prophecies
It proves Jesus’ deity
It proves Jesus’ deity
The resurrection proves Jesus’ deity
The second thing we see is that Christ raising from the dead proves that He is in fact God
30 They went on from there and passed through Galilee. And he did not want anyone to know, 31 for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And when he is killed, after three days he will rise.”
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.
19 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” 20 The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” 21 But he was speaking about the temple of his body. 22 When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.
These are just three examples of Jesus teaching directly about His resurrection
Jesus specifically saying that he will be raised from the dead
If Jesus didn’t raise from the dead these things would all be false - would all make Him not God
Remember God is truth - there is no lying when it comes to God
If Jesus then didn’t raise from the dead all of these things would be lies and would be wrong which would disqualify Him from being God
Jesus had to be perfectly accurate on everything He said if He was God - including about being raising from the dead
Jesus defeated death
Jesus defeated death
The resurrection proves Jesus defeated death
The last thing I want you to take away is that the resurrection proves that Jesus defeated death
The very thing that we deserve - because of our sin
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
19 By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
Death was created as a separation from God because of our sin
Before Adam and Eve fell - there would have been no death
But after sin entered the world death and separation from God entered
The mortality rate of all human beings is 100%!
It doesn’t matter about hospitals and medicine you will die
Every person will die
Yet because Jesus rose from the dead we no longer have to worry
24 God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.
Jesus was raised because it was not possible for Him to stay dead
25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live,
Jesus is the resurrection and the life - to be those things means you can’t be dead!
That’s why we can celebrate what Paul writes here:
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.
Death no longer has a hold on us! Death can no longer stop us!
Because Jesus died and raised, death is powerless in the name of Jesus
Conclusion
Conclusion
Listen to the words of Martin Luther
Our Lord has written the promise of the resurrection, not in books alone, but in every leaf of springtime.
Martin Luther
All over the earth we see resurrection, every spring we see flowers, leaves, and grass “resurrect”
It is everywhere as a sign of the future resurrection we will have in Jesus!
His resurrection shows us:
The Bible/OT prophecy is reliable
He is God
He defeated death!
Because of that it should change something in us
We should start to take our life serious because of what Jesus did on the cross, and then by leaving the grave
Since Jesus rose from the dead we should take everything He says seriously!