Because HE LIVES!
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There is more to the resurrection of Jesus Christ than typically meets the eye. This is not an optional minor doctrine, friend. This is one of the load-bearing columns, a pillar on which a thousand realities hang. --- Dr. Joe McKeever
Even those who have served God all their lives need reminding of the importance of the resurrection of Jesus sometimes. Those new to the faith enjoy learning the full dimensions of the new life they have received in Christ.
Here are an even dozen aspects of the resurrection of Jesus that instruct our minds, inspire our hearts, and inform us all....
1) No one expected Jesus to rise from the dead.
Jesus' resurrection was as much a shock to the disciples as His death had been. Thomas, known forever as the "doubter" was merely voicing what most of them felt when he declared he would not believe in the risen Lord until he had done his own thorough investigation. (cf. John 20).
2) Everyone doubted it at first. Everyone.
Matthew 28:17 says, "And when they saw Him, they worshiped Him. But some were doubtful." Only one devoted to the whole truth would include such an incriminating statement in his narrative. Thank you Matthew. (And thank you Holy Spirit.)
3) Only later, after the disciples thought it through and talked it out, did they recall that Jesus had predicted His death and resurrection several times.
The gospels tell of three separate times Jesus tried to prepare the disciples for this world-changing event that lay just ahead. See Mark 8:31-32; 9:31-32; & 10:33-34. Since they had their minds made up that He was following an entirely different agenda, none of this made sense and their minds refused to accept it. Only later did it fit. Mark 9:9-10 speaks of the Lord's conversation with James, John and Peter as they descended the Mount of Transfiguration. "And as they were coming down from the mountain, He gave them orders not to relate to anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man should rise from the dead. And they seized upon that statement, discussing with one another what rising from the dear might mean."
4) The stone was rolled away from the entrance to the tomb NOT to let Jesus out.
But to let the disciples in. The angel said, “Come see the
place where He lay.”
5) Jesus appeared only to believers.
The most complete list of His appearances is the one Paul
gave in I Corinthians 15. Just as the believers only were given “many
infallible proofs” (Acts 1:3), only believers saw the risen Christ. (The
single possible exception to this may be the Lord’s brother James, who later
became head of the church at Jerusalem.)
6) The Lord missed a great opportunity for dramatic
effect by not making some “surprise guest appearances” to Herod, Pilate, and
the high priest.
Had this been a made-up story as critics have surmised, no
writer could have missed the chance for a comeuppance in which the risen Christ
dropped in on these men. But Jesus was not here for dramatic effect.
(Anyone doubting that will enjoy seeing how He healed people, e.g., the blind
beggar of Jericho. Luke 18:42 says, “And Jesus said to him, ‘Okay, you’ve got
it,’ and his eyes were opened.” (All right, I moderned it up a tad. But
that’s about how it went.)
7) Jesus’ opponents did not steal His body, as some have
claimed.
We know this for one overwhelming reason: when the disciples
began covering Jerusalem with this doctrine (Acts 5:28), the easiest way to put
a stop to this business would have been for His opponents to produce the dead
body. They didn’t for one simple reason: they didn’t have it.
The next time you hear this foolishness that says “the Jews
knew that Jesus expected to rise from the dead, so to stop it from happening,
they stole the body and hid it,” remember this: Had they known where the
body was, they’d have stopped the gospel movement dead in its tracks. Give me a
break.
8) Some of the Jews did remember Jesus’ predictions to
rise from the dead. It’s almost funny that they did, but the disciples
did not.
Matthew 27:62ff reads, “Now, on the next day, which is the
one after the preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered
together with Pilate and said, ‘Sir, we remember that when He was still alive
that deceiver said, ‘After three days I am to rise again.” Therefore,
they requested and got a Roman guard for the tomb to make it secure.
We are indebted to them for this additional verification of
the resurrection.9) Jesus’ friends did not steal His body.
In the first place, they would have had no reason. They missed the predictions about his death/resurrection and were so disappointed they were leaving town (see Luke 24).
Second, the amazing transformation in these disciples had to have had a cause. They were practically “shot out of cannons” as they busted out of Jerusalem and exploded across the Roman Empire with the message of Jesus. Many of them died for the gospel.
No one dies for a hoax.
10) The gospel stands or falls on the resurrection of
Jesus.
Paul says, “If Christ be not raised, your faith is worthless
and you are still in your sins” (I Corinthians 15:17). He adds, “If we
have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied”
(15:19).
This is not an optional minor doctrine, friend. This is one
of the load-bearing columns, a pillar on which a thousand realities hang.
11) This same “resurrection power” is available now.
Paul states his heart’s desire: “…that I may know Him, and
the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings….”
(Philippians 3:10).In 1945, the world saw the destructive power of atomic energy when our country dropped bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Ever since then, we have been devoted to finding positive uses for this energy. Today, nuclear power runs the electricity in my city, sends submarines around the world underwater, and does a thousand other things. The force that raised Jesus from the dead is the same Holy Spirit power that guided my teaching yesterday, empowered your witness last evening, and answered our prayers this morning.
Plus, I expect it’s this same resurrection power that raises
you and me one day.
12) The point of the resurrection is a
thousand-fold. The two biggies are these:
a) The resurrection of Jesus Christ confirmed His
identity–every claim He made for Himself, every promise He gave His followers,
and every judgment He delivered to the enemy.b) And this one: He’s still alive today.
When I asked the disciples of a guru what they did with the resurrection of Jesus–“Doesn’t that make him a zillion miles above all these other religious leaders you believe in?”–they answered, “We do not believe anything that happened 2,000 years ago has any possible meaning for us today.”
Such willful blindness.
It has great meaning if that same Lord–the Jesus of Nazareth
who walked the dusty lanes of Galilee and the hills of Zion teaching the way of
God, the Savior who took our sins on Himself and paid for them by His death on
Calvary–is still alive and a loose in our world today.
As He is.
We bow at His feet with Thomas and say, “My Lord and my
God!” (John 20:28).
Jesus Christ is Lord! He is risen and nothing will ever be
the same again!
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A native of Alabama and the son of a
coal miner, Joe McKeever has been saved more than 60 years, been preaching the
gospel of Jesus Christ more than 50 years, and has been writing and
cartooning for religious publications more than 40 years. He put in 42
years pastoring six Southern Baptist Churches (most recently the First Baptist
Church of Kenner, LA), followed by 5 years as director of missions for the SBC
churches of metro New Orleans.
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