The Resurrection of Jesus Christ

1.            As he lay dying 19^th. century evangelist, Dwight L Moody called out, “Earth recedes, heaven opens before me …. This is no dream. It is beautiful, it is like a trance. If this is death it is sweet. There is no valley here. God is calling me, I must go”. A little while earlier he had remarked, “One day soon there will be headlines in the newspaper, ‘MOODY DIES’. “Don’t you believe it!”, said Moody, “On that day I shall be more alive than ever!”. In 1865 Lord Palmerston, Prime Minister of the time, was told by his doctor that he was dying. “My dear doctor” he exclaimed, “That’s the last thing I’ll do!” In the book of Job, probably penned over 2500 years ago, the age old question is posed, “If a man dies, will he live again?” That is a big question which has been asked since man became man, since warriors were buried with their weapons, since Egyptian kings were mummified to preserve their bodies for ever, and, in modern times, bodies placed in deep freeze in the hope of medical advances that can bring them back to life. What do we believe about death? What does the Christian faith have to say about death? “If a man dies, will he live again?”.

  2.            Listen to some of these words of the apostle Paul, written in about 53 or 54 AD. “I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, ⁴and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, ⁵and that he appeared to Peter, then to the twelve. ⁶Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters^* at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died.^{* 7}Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. ⁸Last of all, as to someone untimely born, he appeared also to me.” You see the significance of “most of whom are still alive”. Paul was writing within about 20 years of what he saw as the most amazing and significant event in history!

3.            The world is sceptical, perhaps more so in the 21^st. century than ever before. “I don’t believe in heaven or hell, they’re both here; you choose which one you’re going to lodge in”. And how about this for a romantic touch from your partner, “Without you heaven would be dull, and hell would not be hell if you were there”. “If you go to heaven without being naturally qualified, you won’t enjoy yourself there!” And one very much from the 20th. century, “There’s a rumour going around theological circles that the powers that arrange these matters have done away with hell, and heaven has gone comprehensive”  Clement Freud requested his gravestone to read, “Passed my sell-by date, April 27^th 2009”.

  4.            The apostle Paul had very different ideas. For Paul the resurrection was of “first importance”. I can remember a former Vicar in our local parish church saying to us on Easter Sunday, “Our faith stands or falls by the events of that first Easter”. No resurrection, no Christianity. The whole idea would surely have been stillborn. The disciples, who locked themselves in the upper room for fear of the Jews, would never have been heard of again! With their leader literally “dead and buried”, they would not have had the courage to say anything. Indeed they wouldn’t have had anything to say! But historian Luke records the words of Peter to the crowd on the Day of Pentecost, “This Jesus, God raised up, and of that we are all witnesses”. And when the opposition came, Luke tells us, “With great power the apostles, (Peter, John and the others) continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ”.       

5.            Not only is the resurrection of first importance, it is historical. There were witnesses, lots of them, most of whom are still alive in the mid 50’s AD, says Paul. In other words, if you don’t believe me, go and ask them! Jesus suffered under Pontius Pilate, who was the Roman prefect of Judea for 10 years from 26AD. An inscription identifying him as such was discovered in Caesarea in 1961. “Jesus was raised on the third day”, as foretold in the Old Testament of the Messiah, probably on Sunday Apr. 5^th. 33AD, although possibly on the corresponding Sunday in 30AD. The apostle John writes, “That which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you.” If we deny the resurrection we make these hundreds of eyewitnesses, including Peter, John and Paul, into false witnesses. Did they risk, or even give their lives, for what they knew to be a lie? Do they seem like a bunch of liars?

6.            The resurrection is of first importance, it is historical and, thirdly, it is physical. Thomas placed his hands in the wounds. The risen Jesus ate barbecued fish on the lakeside with the disciples. The resurrection was not mere survival as a memory or an influence, or survival in a disembodied state in some spirit world. Nor was it to become united with god and depersonalised like a raindrop in the ocean. These are pagan ideas, nevertheless still believed by many. Neither was the resurrection mere resuscitation, so that death is just postponed to a later date! CS Lewis once remarked that he had great sympathy with Lazarus because he must have had to do his dying all over again!

7.            The resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ is physical, historical and of first importance to our Christian faith. Paul again, “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God.” It is that important! Christians believe in the resurrection. Jesus told his probing, incredulous, disciples that he was going ahead of them to prepare places for them in heaven. For them, and for us today, his resurrection confirmed the truth of what he had said. It makes the incredible: credible! “Our faith stands or falls by the events of that first Easter”.

8.            One of the most influential Christians of our time is Joni Earickson-Tada a quadriplegic. As a teenager she dived into a lake and broke her neck. Now in her 60’s, despite being paralysed from the neck down, Joni became an advocate for disabled persons which led to a presidential appointment to the US National Council for Disability, leading to enactment of the reforming Disabilities Act in that country.  She has been round the world in her wheelchair witnessing to her faith in Christ. She has said, “The Bible speaks of our bodies being glorified. I haven’t been cheated out of being a complete person. I am just going through a forty year delay, and God is with me even in that. Being glorified – I know what that means. It’s the time after my death here when I shall be on my feet dancing!”

9.            Many see this as wishful thinking! - pie in the sky when you die! “Where is the evidence?”, they say. The answer is that the evidence is in the truth and reality of the historical and physical resurrection of Jesus Christ. That is why the apostle Peter writes, “By his great mercy (God) has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” So what is the significance of the resurrection for us today?

10.          Listen to these words from later in 1 Cor. 15, “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died.^{* ….. 22}for as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive . ²³But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then, at his coming, those who belong to Christ.” John Stott, commenting on these verses says, “The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the first glimpse of the material universe which has been redeemed and transformed.” In other words it is the forerunner or the prototype of the future for all those who put their trust in him. In other words, Jesus Christ has gone ahead of us, as he promised, “to prepare a place for us”.

 

11.          The apostles, Peter and Paul, both wrote their final New Testament letters from prison in Rome. Shortly after they put down their pens each, separately, was led out and put to death by their Roman captors. Along with others at the time they lay down their lives for the truth of Christianity, and in particular for proclaiming Jesus as the Son of God and his resurrection from the dead. After examining this and all the other evidence, Thomas Arnold, headmaster of Rugby School and later Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford University, declared the resurrection to be "the best attested fact of history".