Posts Tagged ‘Resurrection’
The importance Of The Resurrection Of Jesus
Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?
But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty.
Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up—if in fact the dead do not rise.
For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.
If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.
1 Corinthians 15: 22 – 19
But now, Christ is risen and has been seen by, not only the Apostles, but by as many as 500 followers as well.
He is risen … Jesus is risen in deed…
The Risen Christ Affirms Christianity
Do you know that if Jesus has not been raised from the dead that Christianity is a false religion?
Read the following verses from 1 Corinthians 15 and think about them…
14 if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is vain and your faith is also vain.
17 and if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile, you are still in your in you sins!
You can see by these versus that Christianity depends on the fact that Jesus has been raised, bodily, from death and burial. So that we can read these versus, with certainty, also from 1 Corinthians.
3 For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
4 and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures,
20 But now Christ is risen from the dead…
Christianity is real. Salvation and forgiveness is offered because of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus, and all who believes in and receives Jesus as Lord and Savior will be forgiven, and will be saved from facing the wrath of God on judgement day.
Christ is risen … He is risen indeed!
Sunday Is Coming!
This Homily was first given by me during a Lenten Service in February of 1983. It is based on 1 Corinthians 15: 12 – 29
(This inspirational sermon has been updated for this post)
The Risen Christ, Our Hope
12 Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead then Christ is not risen. 14 And if Christ is not risen then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty. 15 Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up—if in fact the dead do not rise. 16 For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. 17 And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! 18 Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable. (NKJV)
Several months ago, we celebrated the birth of Jesus. It was a joyous occasion, and we spent a great deal of time, energy and, of course, money in preparing for it. But, what if Jesus were dead and still in the grave? What then?
A few months later it is Friday, a day that Christians call “Good Friday”. To the Apostles, however, and the other followers of Jesus, this day was anything but good. In fact it started out rather badly and went down hill from there. It could very well have been the reason that Christmas never happened.
First, one of His own disciples betrayed Him. Then, as He was taken prisoner, the rest of them deserted Him and fled into the darkness of the night, fearful for their own lives. And one of His closest friends – Peter – would deny Him three times, and Jesus heard him.
In the hours that followed, Jesus was humiliated, degraded, and badly beaten. He was mocked, whipped and spat upon. He had a crown of thorns fiercely forced upon his head and his beard was pulled out by hand.
After the soldiers had fun with Him, Jesus was tried, convicted and sentenced to death; to die in horrible torture, having been nailed to a wooden cross and left to die. Finally, before that day was over, Jesus was placed in a tomb that wasn’t even His.
On that day the Apostles saw all of their hopes and dreams washed away by the death of their closest friend. Yes, that day was a Friday, but for them it wasn’t good. For it was a day of total defeat for their cause of believing that Jesus was the Messiah. They had nothing to look forward to, and they hid in fear that they, too, would be arrested and taken away.
However, there was one thing that they didn’t know and if they had known this day would not have been a day of defeat, but a day of beginnings and a day of anticipation. Yes, it was Friday, but Sunday was coming! And as Psalm 118: 24 says, “This is the day which the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it.”
For, although Jesus died on the cross for sins, He was raised from the dead for our justification. As it says in Scripture, “But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.” You see, it is His resurrection that gives His birth meaning, and it is His resurrection that makes Friday good.
Our faith in forgiveness for our sins and the promise of eternal life in Heaven is based on the fact that Jesus was raised from the dead, and is still alive today.
Because of this truth, this factual turn of events, everything that Jesus said and did before His death is just as important as what happened after, and we should know them, study them and believe them.
This is a time when we should make a self-examination of our own faith and find out how it compares to God’s Holy Word, and where a change is needed in our faith, or in our way of living, we should accept the challenge to make that change, and do so with God’s help; with the Holy Spirit working in us to will and to do of His good pleasure.
Our prayer today should be that each and every one of us will make such an examination and that our faith in Jesus will not only be increased but be strengthened as well. And with this faith we can proclaim along with the Apostle Peter, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade – kept in Heaven for you.
Yes, today is Friday… But Sunday Is Coming!
The Work Of Christ On The Cross & The Resurrection
Was He Successful?
Before you answer make sure you have all the information that you need to make an informed decision. The reason I make that recommendation is that much of what the average Christian sitting in the Pew believes is only what they have been told, and they know very little of what the Bible actually says. You may be one of them.
Here’s a test. In Matthew 1:21 we read, “And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins.”
The key words in this verse is “His people”. Who you believe these people are will determine whether your answer is correct. Now, either Jesus was successful and effective in His work, the reason for which He came, or He was a big failure; in which case He was not who He said He was. If He is a failure then He is a fraud and the biggest purveyor of lies that ever lived.
Let’s look at another verse. In 1st Corinthians 1:18 we read, “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”
The message here is about those who are saved by the power of God because of the work that was done on the cross. Specifically, it talks about those who “are being saved”. In other words, the work that Jesus did upon the cross was only for those who will be saved.
Here’s another example. In Colossians 2:14 we read, “having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.”
In this verse the key word is “us”. In short, sins were nailed to the cross. Redemption was made for those that, here, are called “us”. Now who are the “us”? In Colossians 1:2 we see this, “To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are in Colosse:”
The “us” of Colossians 2:14 are the “saints and faithful brethren” of Colossians 1:2. Again, we see specific people were mentioned, those who had been saved, and only they had their sins nailed to the cross and it was for them that redemption was made.
If we are to believe the Bible then we must believe that the work of Christ on the cross was for a specific people and in this He was successful. Now, what about the resurrection?
In Colossians 2:11 – 13 we read, “In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses,”.
In addition, in Romans 4:23 – 25 we read, “Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered up because of our offenses (cross), and was raised because of our justification. (resurrection)”.
Again, in these verses we see that specific people are in mind in the work that Christ did on the cross and in His resurrection. In fact, God makes it clear that they who are being saved were in a condition of being “dead in your trespasses” and that it was because of what Christ did you were made alive, having forgiven you all your trespasses”.
In other words, before you were born again, if you are a Christian, God had already forgiven you of your sins because of what Christ did for you. In addition, you are also included in the resurrection assuring you of everlasting life, again because of what Jesus did for you in His being raised from the dead.
Before we finish let’s look at just three more verses. They are all found in the Gospel of John and they are all in chapter six. The first verse we will look at is found in verse 44, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.” A similar statement is found in verse 65, “And He said, “Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father.”
I bet you thought that anyone could choose to come to Jesus anytime they wanted too, didn’t you? Well, here Jesus tells not just once, but twice, that “NO ONE” can come unless the Father draws him. Now let’s look at the last of these three verses.
Again, staying in John 6 but this time in verse 37 we read, “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.”
Did you notice what it said? It said that “ALL” that Father gives Me will come to Jesus.
Now I am sure you have never been taught nor even told that these verses exists and that they were said by Jesus. In these three verses Jesus is telling us that unless you are drawn by the Father to come to Him you will never, of your own free-will, ever choose to come to Him, but if you are drawn by the Father, then you will have been given the ability to come to Jesus and you will come to Him of your own free-will.
When you take these three verses that were said by Jesus, and combine them with the other verses that we have looked at, we can only come to one conclusion. We have to believe that Jesus was successful in His work upon the cross and in the resurrection, and that both were done for specific people.
The people of Matthew 1:21 for which He came to save are those whom He chooses to save and to assure them of life eternal with His resurrection from the dead. In one last verse, John 5:21 we read, “For as the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the Son gives life to whom He will.”
Yes, Christ was successful in His work upon the cross and in His resurrection from the dead. Every person for whom Christ died upon the cross, to give them forgiveness of sins in His redemptive work, and to provide everlasting life through His resurrection from the dead, will be saved and will be given life eternal.
This brings us back to Matthew 1:21, “And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins.”
After looking at the verses that we have, now who do you think are the “people” who Jesus came to save from their sins? Knowing that not everyone will be saved and only those for whom He came to save will be saved, you will have to conclude that these people are those for whom Christ died upon the cross and to apply to the same life everlasting with His resurrection from the dead.
His people – His sheep – the Elect of God.
Anything else will make Jesus into a failure and a liar. I don’t think you want to be the one to accuse of Him of that. Do You?
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