The Resurrection of Jesus Christ

The Resurrection of Jesus Christ Acts 25. 18 When his accusers got up to speak, they did not charge him with any of the crimes I had expected. 19 Instead, they had some points of dispute with him about their own religion and about a dead man named Jesus who Paul claimed was alive. Christ has indeed been raised from the Dead. I Corinthians 15.20 If not... *Your faith is in vain. 15.7 *We are of all men most miserable I Corinthians 15.19 *He is a liar. He said to Martha John 11. 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in Me will live, even though they die; You cannot say well I believe Jesus was a good man but not God. C.S. Lewis: I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. Here we are in a season of dying, the autumn will bring the winter. We are watching the trees shed their leaves, birds getting ready to migrate... our thoughts turn to Thanksgiving and Christmas/ Advent. Today I want to jump to the Spring Season and talk about Jesus’ Resurrection. Two huge wonders re how Jesus was born and how after He died He rose from the grave. Both events are celebrated in beginnings. Christmas, His birth as they days are getting longer. Easter His Resurrection in the beginning of Spring, the growing season. One at the end of the harvest, the other in the beginning of planting. In our lives we have beginnings and endings. We have birth and death. We have times of celebrations and sorrow. But for the believer death is the last enemy. After that there is the Resurrection, eternity with Jesus. We ought to live with one foot in heaven and one on earth. The Resurrection of Jesus and His Promises associated with it are for now and forever. With Christ’ Resurrection we have... *The Empty Tomb The empty tomb in Jerusalem stands today in a beautiful well kept Garden. In the Cesarean Coliseum Paul gave his defense. Back to the Empty Tomb That is a historical fact. He Arose That is a present reality. He walks with me and He talks with me... That is a future hope. I Thessalonians 4. 13 Brothers, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. 14 For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. 15 According to the LORD’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the LORD Himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the LORD in the air. And so we will be with the LORD forever. *The Risen Life Romans 6.4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. The most visible sign of the Resurrection is changed lives. God, Who raised Christ, working in us. Christ living in us. The Resurrection power at work in a redeemed soul. We are His witnesses. The Risen Life implies spiritual death before and the physical death to come. Psalm 39.4 “Show me, Lord, my life’s end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting my life is. 5 You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before You. Everyone is but a breath, even those who seem secure. 6 “Surely everyone goes around like a mere phantom; in vain they rush about, heaping up wealth without knowing whose it will finally be. Colossians 3:1-2 Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. Isaiah 26.19 Your dead will live; Their corpses will rise. You who lie in the dust, awake and shout for joy, For your dew is as the dew of the dawn, And the earth will give birth to the departed spirits. 2 Corinthians 5:15 and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf. Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. 1 Corinthians 15:31 I affirm, brethren, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily. Philippians 3:8-10 More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; In this time of suffering we have to ask ourselves, what are we going to do with our pain? Are we going to blame others for it? Are we going to try to fix it? No one lives on this earth without it. It is the great teacher, although none of us want to admit it. -RR 1 Peter 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, Colossians 3:10 and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him— 2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. We are His witnesses today, in 2020. Paul indicated that his sufferings resulted in wider spread of the Gospel. Philippians 1. 12 Now I want you to know, brothers that what has happened to me has actually served to advance the gospel. 13 As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard[c] and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ. 14 And because of my chains, most of the brothers and sisters have become confident in the Lord and dare all the more to proclaim the gospel without fear. We see the infancy of the faith in Festus’ words. *The Coming Savior Jesus Christ Crucified, Risen and Coming Again He will come again. No one knows the Day or the hour. We must always be ready. Live in the power of the Resurrection today! Wait for the Resurrection Day! Share the Good News! Be at peace. Give Grace. Sent from my iPad