Sermon Tone Analysis

The Significance of the Resurrection

by \\ Robert Deffinbaugh \\ deffinbaugh@bible.org

! Introduction

This week I found it necessary to do some of my research and preparation for this Easter message in a nearby dime store.

I went there to learn how the average person attempts to celebrate Easter.

That’s right, the dime store.

One of the best sources of material on the theology of Easter is to be found in the “Easter” section of the greeting cards.

I found a fairly good sized selection of cards on display, the vast majority of which were entirely secular.

They ranged from the “thinking of you at Easter” variety to the ones which had pictures of fuzzy teddy bears, rabbits, and Easter eggs, and some kind of inane holiday greeting.

Frequently there was a “Spring is Here” motif with Easter somehow associated with the coming of Spring, and the happy thought of leaving behind a dreary winter and looking forward to the fresh new life which signals the coming of Spring.

There were three or four cards which might loosely be called “religious” cards.

For example, one had a picturesque church on the cover, another had “an Easter prayer,” and another had a religious word or two.

Not so much as one card contained a cross, an empty tomb, not even the name of the Lord Jesus.

If the greeting card displays of most stores are like the one I visited, we would have to agree that the resurrection of Christ is not considered very significant by the marketplace.

Easter bunnies and eggs have won “hands down” over Christ, the cross of Calvary, and the empty tomb.

The significance of Easter is often overlooked or distorted by churches in America.

All too often, Easter Sunday is more of a “coming out” ritual, a part of the celebration of the commencement of Spring, than it is an observance and celebration of the resurrection of our Lord.

Ladies can show off their new hats and outfits.

Once a year church attenders can show up to shock the preacher, and to give him his annual “shot” at them as they attend.

Typically, many evangelical preachers take this occasion to give an apologetic sermon, seeking to show that the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ is a proven fact of history--and that it is.

I am convinced, however, that many of the non-Christians who attend Easter Sunday services accept the resurrection of Christ as a fact.

They simply have not come to recognize and act of its significance.

It is for this reason that I am addressing this message to the religious unbelievers who believe in the fact of Christ’s resurrection from the dead, but who fail to grasp its significance in a personal way.

I will seek to demonstrate the significance of the resurrection of Christ by focusing on the uniqueness, the necessity, and the urgency of the resurrection.

!

The Uniqueness of Christ’s Resurrection

The significance of resurrection of our Lord is first to be seen in the uniqueness of His resurrection from the dead.

There are several facets of the uniquesness of the resurrection of our Lord which we shall focus on:

*(1) The resurrection of our Lord was unique because of His deity*.

The significance in the event of the resurrection is intertwined with the significance of the person who was raised.

It was no mere mortal who rose from the dead on that Easter morning, it was the Son of God.

Throughout His life, Jesus had claimed to be the Son of God, for which reason the religious leaders sought to put Him to death (cf.

John 8:31-59).

At the sight of our Lord’s death, a soldier standing nearby declared, “Truly this man was the Son of God!” (Mark 15:39).

Beyond this, the resurrection was proof positive that the Lord Jesus was the Son of God, even as He had declared (cf.

Rom.

1:3-4).

In his message on the resurrection of Christ, one of Peter’s arguments was that if the Lord Jesus was indeed God, it would be impossible for God to have remained dead, to decompose in a tomb (cf.

Acts 2:24-32).

For anyone to have been raised from the dead would have been significant; for the Son of God to have been raised is all the more so.

One therefore cannot take the resurrection of our Lord too seriously.

*(2) The resurrection of our Lord was unique because of the death which preceded and necessitated His resurrection*.

The death of Christ was the death of one who was sinless, on behalf of those who were sinners.

Over the years there have been some who have sought to show that the death of Christ was less noble than it is.

A few have thought that it was our Lord’s own folly that brought about His death.

After all, they might say, He made ridiculous claims to be God Himself, and He persistently offended the religious leaders by publicly attacking and ridiculing them.

No wonder He died, some would say, because this “man” did not have the sense to recognize his own humanity or the diplomacy to pacify the power structure of that day.

Most men would not dare to go so far, but would rather look upon the death of Christ as a great tragedy.

It was not our Lord’s folly, but the “fickle hand of fate” or the “evil plots of a few threatened men” which brought about the premature death of Jesus, before He could establish His ideal kingdom on earth.

The death of Christ was unique, however, because it was a part of God’s eternal plan that Christ would die as an innocent sacrificial lamb, as a substitute payment for the sins of men.

The sacrifices of the Old Testament system anticipated Him who was to come as the “Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world” (John 1:29; cf.

I Cor.

5:7).

From eternity past, Christ was designated as the perfect sacrifice, without spot or blemish, whose death could thus atone for the sins of others (Is.

53; Heb.

9:11-14; 1 Pet.

1:18-20; 2:21-25).

*(3) The resurrection of our Lord was unique as an event which had no precedent*.[1]

Never before had anyone been raised from the grave in such a way as to be completely transformed and thus beyond the icy fingers of death.

Our Lord’s resurrection was the first genuine resurrection in the history of man.

His resurrection is referred to as “the first fruits,” for there will be many who will follow after Him (1 Cor.

15:23).

!

The Necessity \\ of our Lord’s Resurrection

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is significant because of its necessity.

There are several reasons why the resurrection was necessary, and we shall consider some of them below.

*(1) The resurrection of Christ was necessary to prove that Jesus Christ was who He claimed to be*.

Our Lord had clearly claimed to be the son of God, which was the reason why the religious leaders conspired to kill Him (cf.

John 19:7).

The resurrection was God’s proof that the Lord Jesus was Who He claimed to be: the Son of God:

Who was declared with power to be the Son of God by the resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 1:4).

*(2) The resurrection of Christ was necessary to prove that Jesus Christ had accomplished what He had promised*.

The death of our Lord alone would not have sufficed, since it is by our identification with Him in His death, burial, and resurrection that we are saved.

Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.

For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life (Rom.

5:9-10).

In 1 Corinthians chapter 15, that great resurrection chapter of the New Testament, Paul argues that apart from Christ’s resurrection, we would have no hope:

But if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain. . . .

For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins (1 Cor.

15:13-14; 16-17).

In his message at Pentecost, Peter taught that the resurrection of Christ by the Father (through the Holy Spirit) was God’s vindication of His Son, His message, and His work:

“This Man, delivered up by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death.

And God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its powers. . . .

This Jesus God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses.

Therefore having been exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured forth this which you both see and hear. . . .

Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ--this Jesus whom you crucified” (Acts 2:23-24, 32-33, 36).

*(3) The resurrection was a necessary in order to fulfill biblical prophecy*.

In Acts chapter 2 Peter argued that the resurrection was biblically necessary, citing David’s words in Psalm 16:10:

“Because Thou wilt not abandon my soul to Hades, Nor allow Thy Holy One to undergo decay” (Acts 2:27; cf.

13:33).

Peter argued from Psalm 16 that David could not have referred to himself, but rather to his Son, Messiah, whom God would raise from the dead.

The Old Testament Scriptures were understood by the apostles to foretell the resurrection of Christ.

The resurrection of Christ was thus a biblical necessity.

*(4) The resurrection of Christ was also a logical necessity*.

In his message in the second chapter of Acts, Peter also contended that the resurrection of Christ, the Messiah, was a logical as well as a biblical necessity.

“And God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power” (Acts 2:24).

Peter argued here that it is impossible for God to remain in the grave and to decay, as men do.

By virtue of being God, Christ could not have been left in that tomb, dead.

*(5) The resurrection of Christ is vital because it is a necessary element of a saving faith*.

In both the Old and the New Testaments, a saving faith was a faith in a God’s who could and would raise men from the dead.

A careful study of the 11th chapter of Hebrews will indicate that the faith of Old Testament saints was a resurrection faith.[2]

Allow me to use one Old Testament figure to demonstrate the resurrection dimension of faith, the faith of Abraham.

The initial absence of this kind of faith is apparent from Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his wife’s purity in order to save his own skin.

As Abram and Sarai approached Egypt, he said to her,

“See now, I know that you are a beautiful woman; and it will come about that when the Egyptians see you, that they will say, ‘This is his wife’; and they will kill me, but they will let you live.

Please say that you are my sister so that it may go well with me because of you, and that I might live on account of you” (Gen.

12:11-13).

This was far from a resurrection faith on Abraham’s part.

He was so fearful of dying that he was willing to sacrifice his wife’s purity to save his own skin.

As God continued to work in Abraham’s life, a resurrection faith resulted.