Resurrection!

Resurrection!

Introduction: If you consider yourself a “believer,” the very foundation of the being a disciple of Christ is the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth after three days in the tomb. As Paul argued in 1 Corinthians 15, if there is no resurrection from the dead, then…

• Christ has not been raised
• If Christ has not been raised, then all of scripture is a lie.
• If Christ is not raised, then our teaching and our faith is worthless and we are still in our sins eternally lost.
• If Christ has not been raised, we are of all people most to be pitied.

Of course, if Christ was raised and reigns as King, then…Instead of the believer being “most to be pitied,” the most to be pitied are those who refuse to believe and take advantage of the resurrection by obeying Jesus.

However, the resurrection of Jesus poses a greater issue than just the fact that Jesus raised from the dead. We make a huge mistake if we simply celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus every first day of the week. Jesus and the apostles taught that the resurrection carries with it power that believers are to use in their daily lives. 

Paul wrote that we are to comprehend “what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 1:19-20). 

1. God’s Repeated Foreshadowing and Symbology
   1. By looking too narrowly at the evidence, here is what I mean. We must not simply examine the evidence for the resurrection of Christ, though that evidence should be examined carefully. There is evidence for the power of God in resurrection throughout scripture.
   2. Ephesians 2:4-5 “But  God, being  rich in mercy,  because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses,  made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” Every person who is a disciple of Christ should be acutely aware that Jesus’ resurrection was intended to bring about both a present and future resurrection. We should be able to see our present resurrection simply by comparing our lives prior to Christ to our present lives. 
   3. Therefore it is critical to be reminded that God’s resurrection power has been evident long before Christ and long before our transformation. God has always been giving life to the dead. 
   4. Genesis 2:7 “then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.”
      Until God breathed into Adam the breath of life, Adam was nothing but dead molecules formed out of dirt. We live physically because of the power of God’s Spirit breathing life into us.
   5. After the sin of the Garden and the pronouncement of the curse of death, God repeatedly illustrated his power and desire to raise us back to life. 
      1. Genesis 5 In the midst of 10 generations of, “and he died,” Enoch “walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.” 
      2. When God chose Abraham and Sarah through whom the world would be blessed, God intentionally waited until both of them could not have a child before giving life to their dead bodies.
         Romans 4:17-19 “as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.” He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the deadness of Sarah’s womb.” 
      3. We need to consider the great impact this has on us. If Abraham and Sarah do not have offspring, there is no Israel and there is no Christ and there is no us with hope and the world remain dead. Notice! God purposely did not leave our salvation in the hands of natural reproduction. The salvation of mankind is only in the hands of God and his power to give life to the dead. 
   6. To confirm, consider Romans 9:6-8: “But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but ‘Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.’ This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring.”  
      1. The implications of this are profound. It is the children of the promise that are counted as offspring. In other words, we are brought to life just as Isaac, not because of “works” or by anything we could have done, but by the power of the Spirit of God implanted in us through the resurrection of Christ. 
      2. Therefore, God has tied together the two greatest miracles/signs in the life of Jesus: the virgin birth and the resurrection of Jesus. Even the entrance of Jesus into this world would not be by natural procreation, but by the power of the Spirit of God overshadowing Mary.
      3. Now we can see the importance of salvation only coming through our lifelong “obedience of faith” in Jesus Christ (Romans 16:26), and no other way! 
         1. As Jesus said to Nicodemus, “You must be born from again.” 
         2. John 3:13 “…children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of he flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”
2. Disciples Are Living Proof of the Resurrection Story 
   1. If disciples’ lives do not demonstrate and reflect the resurrection, they are not disciples! 
   2. John 20:19 “On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.’” This scene represents the condition and faith of the apostles prior to Jesus’ appearance to them following his resurrection.
   3. The contrast is this scene as Peter and John all the Jewish leaders who condemned Jesus to death:
      Acts 4:10-13 “let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by him this man is standing before you well. This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished.” What caused the change? Nothing but the bodily resurrection of Jesus. 
   4. But that was not the only change: Acts 8:3-4 “But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison. Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went.” Note the affect that the resurrection had on disciples who were under the threat of imprisonment and death. No fear! Certainly they did not stay and get unlawfully arrested. But neither were they silent.
   5. Therefore, Jesus’ foundational principle for our future resurrection is our willingness to give up our lives.
      1. Matthew 16:24-25 “Then Jesus told his disciples, ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.’” 
      2. Romans 6:3-8 “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.” 
      3. 2 Corinthians 5:14-17 “For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” 

Conclusion: 

• • The above texts give us a clear picture of whether we have hope of a resurrection to life with the Lord. 
    • First, we must be united with him in a death like his as we are buried with him in baptism into death. This is the beginning of our covenant relationship with him.
    • Second, since we have died with him, we no longer live for ourselves but for him who died and was raised. 
  • Finally, please beware that our future resurrection can be either good news or bad news. John 5:28-29 “Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.” 

Berry Kercheville

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