If you were asked to rank the importance of salvation in your life, what rank would you give it? If you understand the depths of your sinfulness, and if you understand the heights of God’s righteousness, then you’d need to give salvation a rank of 10 out of 10. And if you could perceive the length, breadth, height and depth of the love of God involved in your salvation you’d give salvation the rank of 10. If you could gauge the pain which Christ endured to purchase your salvation you’d rank it a 10. If you could imagine the glory of eternity as a child of God, you’d give salvation the rank of 10. With these things being true, how highly must we rank the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ? “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead…” Notice where Peter places the resurrection of Christ in regard to our salvation? Isn’t it absolutely critical to our redemption?
Early in Christianity, God’s saints made much more of Jesus’ resurrection than we usually make of it today. For example at Paul’s trial before the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem, his life was on the line. The same men who cried out for Jesus’ crucifixion were judging Paul’s service for Jesus. The same men who paid people to perjure themselves about Christ’s empty tomb, were judging the ministry of Christ’s foremost evangelist. And one of the first things he said to his judges was, “Men and brethren, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee: of the hope and resurrection of the dead I am called in question.” It could be that he was using the old “divide and conquer” technique. Maybe he was thinking, “I’m in serious trouble here. But if I can get these two groups to fight among themselves, they might forget about me.” That could have been his intention. But it could be Paul was simply stating a fact: “the resurrection of Christ is the reason I am what I am.” As a Pharisee he believed in a coming Messiah, but eventually he learned that He had already arrived. Paul always believed that there would be a Kingdom of Christ, but he had now learned that it begins in the soul, not in who was seated over the sanhedrin or in the White House. He had always believed in resurrection, and now he knew that Jesus had actually arisen from the dead. Unlike the Sadducees who denied most of the spiritual things of the Jewish faith, Paul not only continued to believe them, but he had actually experienced the reality of some of them. “Men and brethren, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee: of the hope and resurrection of the dead I am called in question.”
150 years ago, one of the brightest minds in France was a man named Joseph Ernest Renan. This man grew up in Catholic schools and was destined become a high-ranking priest. But Renan grew arrogant in his intellect and eventually became an agnostic. One of the things that he did was to spend 30 years writing a seven volume history of religion. But his best known work was called “The Life of Jesus.” Just about everything Renan wrote attacked the Bible and the Saviour. He painted our Lord Jesus as a mere human being, and Christianity was described as a joke. On the cover of one edition of his “Life of Jesus” his publisher depicted a dismal crucifixion. There were vultures, a terrible storm, observers laughing, agony, and blood. It included a paraphrase of Jesus’ own words, “It is finished.” Renan meant to say that Christianity was finished; education had exploded all of its myths. The myths of Jesus’ deity, of His virgin birth, and of His resurrection were all gone. Jesus Christ was nothing but a drop of blood dispersed throughout the vast ocean of humanity. So much for the ideas of the fallible religious historian.
The DIVINE historian looked at the same events in a very different way: “And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.” When the Saviour said, “It is finished,” He was not talking about Christianity. He was talking about His earthly life, but more than that, He was speaking about the work of salvation. He was talking about all God’s requirements for the redemption of sinners. They had been met. As for His life, the body of the Lord Jesus rested three days in the grave and then gloriously re-emerged. “Up from the grave he arose, TRIUMPHANT over all his foes.”
Seated before Paul there in the hallowed halls of the Council chamber were both Pharisees and Sadducees. There were men like Paul and there were other men who weren’t much different from Joseph Renan. Who possessed the correct theology? I’m sure that the Sadducees were convinced that their anti-resurrection, angel-denying faith was right. After all, one of their own was the High Priest, so denying miracles and spirituals, must be correct. They held the office; they had the prestige; they had the power. Much like the intellectuals and educators of the 21st century. But remember that actually Paul and Peter were the ones who held the truth.
Don’t let the apostates, atheists and humanists deceive you into thinking that only uneducated fools believe that Jesus arose from the grave. Some of the greatest minds that humanity has ever seen have been believers in the truth of God – all of the truths of God. Legal Minds, like Supreme Court Justices, Harvard Law professors, and Attorneys General. Nuclear physicists, geneticists, and research biologists have looked at the evidence and accepted the facts of Jesus’ resurrection. Skilled investigators like the most respected police detectives, have been convinced of the truth to which Peter refers. But the despite the physical and logical evidence, this is a truth that must be received by faith. And actually, what Daniel Webster, Simon Greenleaf, or Joseph Renan say is really unimportant. What is most important is what the Bible says about the subject of Jesus’ resurrection. No child of God has any difficulty believing that Christ was crucified to death, and that his life was miraculously restored. Thus saith the scriptures.
Like Paul, and like Peter, we should approach the resurrection of Christ without the slightest doubt. Our questions this evening are not: “Is it true,” or “Is it so?” Rather our question is: “What does the resurrection of Christ mean to me?” Peter equated Jesus resurrection with the believer’s hope, and the incorruptible inheritance. But there is more.
Jesus’ resurrection is God’s exclamation point over Jesus’ DEITY.
I wonder if Peter ever had the opportunity to read Paul’s letter to the Romans: “Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, (Which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures,) Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead: By whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations, for his name.”
You know, if you stop and think about it, it might be more difficult to prove Jesus’ humanity than His deity. If you left off everything about Jesus which was not miraculous or divine, what would be left? Do we have His high school year book with a goofy-looking picture? Are there any newspaper clippings, making announcements of his birth, graduation or even His death? Do we have any of the letters that He ever wrote? When it comes to the life of Christ, there is as much evidence of Jesus’ deity as there is of his humanity. And then there are things like Jesus’ impeccability which make some people doubt his humanity. He did not sin, even a single time in thirty-three years; is this man for real? The evidence of His deity is beyond dispute. There are the testimonies of believers and non-believers. There were dozens of miracles – such as His multiplying of bread and fish. He changed the physical properties of things – like water into wine and into pathways on the sea. He pronounced a death sentence on a tree, and the next day it was dead. And then there was His restoring of life to bodies that were without question dead and decaying. But the greatest proof of His deity, as declared by the Word of God, was Jesus’ own resurrection.
There have been hundreds of self-proclaimed messiahs throughout history. But after their funerals, after the tears and sighs, after the succeeding generation, those liars became as dusty as their empty promises. Every year since 1926 people have been expecting the return of Harry Houdini, but they’ve been disappointed. I can’t understand how people still attend the meetings of the Christian Science cult. Mary Baker Eddy hasn’t been heard since she entered the death and Hell which she denied. Joseph Smith and Brigham Young are in Hades today awaiting their final judgment. But after a few days of visiting with His disciples following His resurrection Jesus ascended into Glory.
If Christ had not come out of that tomb, then Christianity would have abruptly ended. Paul would not have been converted, and the greatest evangelist of all time would have ended his life still hating the rumors about Jesus of Nazareth. But like Peter, Paul actually saw and heard the risen Christ, and the resurrection eventually became the center of their theology.
The Lord Jesus himself laid everything on the line: “Destroy this temple and in three days I will rebuild it.” “Destroy this body and in three days I will rebuild and occupy it again.” After His transfiguration He told his disciples not repeat what they had seen until He was raised from death. After seeing the resurrected Jesus, the famous doubting disciple properly declared, “My Lord and my God.” And Peter became an entirely different sort of person, because Jesus’ resurrection was proof of His deity.
And the Resurrection of Christ was the GUARANTEE of his SALVATION.
Like my earlier question, I wonder if Paul ever read Peter’s first epistle. If he had I’m sure he would shouted “amen.” “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you.”
If a person denies the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, he unlocks the door to Hell, greases the threshold, and steps forward on roller skates. “But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.”
Turning that around, if a sinner has faith enough to believe and depend on the Lord Jesus’ death and resurrection, then he can rightfully call himself a child of God. “Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; but for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.” Or as Paul put it in Acts 13: “For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep, and was laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption: but he, whom God raised again, saw no corruption. Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.” If the Lord Jesus’ body rotted away in some musty tomb, He couldn’t be much help to any of us sinners.
Do you remember when King Saul wanted the advice and help from the Prophet Samuel? He was facing the most crucial day of his life, and there was no one to advise him. Oh, how he longed to listen to Samuel once again. Oops, but Samuel was dead. There is not much help in a dead counselor or a dead Saviour. “If Christ be not raised, then your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.”
When God the Father participated in the resurrection of the Son, He was saying, “I am propitiated. I am satisfied with the sacrifice that my Son has made.” I once read of a Chinese lady who was trying to explain to her relatives why she had forsaken the ancient family religion: She said, “I knocked on the humble door of Confucius and there was no answer. I knocked on the gold plated door of Buddha, but no one was home. I knocked on the tent door of Mohammed, but only his friends were there. But when I called upon the Christ of the Christians, He answered me in love and grace.”
Jesus’ Resurrection is the GUARANTEE of Peter’s RESURRECTION.
The Lord Jesus once said, “I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also.”
The other day I saw the picture of a Ukrainian body half buried in the snow. Life is terribly fragile. We are so dependent upon so many things to maintain our lives, including protection from outside forces that could instantly snuff out our lives. But the danger of death in the Ukraine is not any greater today than it was a year ago. If the food is not nutritious or if the air isn’t pure, we shall die. If a certain virus invades our bodies, or one of our many body parts malfunctions, we die. If an untrained civilian thinks by holding an automatic weapon he is going stop trained Russian soldiers, he will die. But there is another part to the equation that the blind man neglects to see. In addition to many other things, our living is dependent upon the living of Son of God – the resurrection.
But even more than that, beyond the physical life, any eternal life is really His life. Romans 8:11 – “If the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus form the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.” II Corinthians 4:14 – “Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you.”
One summer the caterpillars were all feasting on the big green bush in the front yard. They were getting bigger and fatter with every passing day. Then the oldest and biggest crawled into a coffin of his own making and appeared to die. The other caterpillars all sobbed and mourned; they had a heart-rending funeral for their friend. Little did they know that soon he would emerge a thousand times more glorious than he had been before. The caterpillar had become a magnificent Tiger Swallowtail butterfly. It was possible because the Creator/Saviour decreed that it be so. “So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.”
Science declares that there is no such thing as annihilation? The explosion of a bomb is merely the changing of one form of substance into another, along with the expulsion of a great deal of energy. The compost pile in the back yard is the changing of left-overs into fertilizer. The decomposition of a dead animal in forest, is nutrition for the bush beside it. And the death of the saint is his transformation by the power of God. Away back in the oldest book in Bible, Job said – “For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God.”
Perhaps the reason that the Sadducees so hated the doctrine of the resurrection was because…
The resurrection of Jesus is the guarantee of JUDGMENT for those who die in their sins.
Paul was not the only Apostle to stand before the Supreme Court of Israel. Peter had done so earlier. And Paul had preached to the intellectuals of Athens. And as that message came to a conclusion, he declared without embarrassment: “And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent: Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.”
Peter knew that Jesus Christ is the King of Kings and Judge over all men. We must remember that in Jesus’ resurrection there is more than one eternal truth. For the person begotten of God, there is the guaranteed hope of eternal life. But for the Christ-rejecter, there is the guarantee that no sinner can get away with his sin. Two thousand years ago a group of sinners, whom the Lord made feel miserable in their wretchedness, took and executed the Saviour. Pilate washed his hands of the blood of Christ and then later died insane. But the Christ Whom they rejected, Peter knew to be the King of Heaven. He is the Saviour of those who will turn from their sins to humbly face and trust him. And He is the judge of those who die in their sins.
I think that this is what Paul was hoping to tell the Sanhedrin that day back in Acts 24 – Jesus lives. Peter’s message was very positive. Because our Saviour lives, we too have life and we have hope. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively HOPE by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”