THE IMPORTANCE OF CHRIST'S RESURRECTION

No event has had a greater impact upon the history of mankind than the resurrec­tion of Jesus Christ from the . We know that it is a Bible doctrine, but sometimes I fear we fail to see just how vital it is to our faith. Consider the fol­lowing:

1. It Proves Jesus is the Christ. The res­urrection of Jesus from the was the crowning piece of evidence to mankind that Jesus was who He claimed to be.

On one occasion, when Jesus had cleansed the Temple , His critics ap­proached and asked Him, “’What sign do You show to us, since You do these things?' Jesus answered and said to them, 'Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.' Then the Jews said, 'It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?' But He was speaking of the tem­ple of His body. Therefore, when He had risen from the , His disciples re­membered that he had said this to them; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said" (John 2:18­22). His disciples did not understand what He meant by this statement until after his resurrection. It was then that they believed.

In Deuteronomy 18:22, Moses told the children of Israel how to tell if a prophet was indeed from God. "When a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the thing does not come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him." Jesus said that He was going to be raised from the (Matt. 16:21 ; 17:22 -23; 20:19 ). If He hadn't raised from the , then He would have failed the test that Moses gave, and no one would have a reason to lis­ten to anything else He had said. But, since what He said about His resurrec­tion did come true, we must accept eve­rything He has said, including His claim to be the Son of God.

2. It Gained Victory Over Sin and . When Jesus died on the cross it appeared that Satan had won. came into the world because of sin. It was the greatest power that the devil had. But it was not powerful enough. Peter says that God raised Jesus up, “having loosed the pains of , because it was not possible that He should be held by it" (Acts 2:24 ). When Jesus rose from the , He gained victory over the devil and all his power, includ­ing sin and .

We can share in this victory too. Paul says that Jesus "was delivered up be­cause of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification... For if when we were enemies we were recon­ciled to God through the of His Son, much more, having been recon­ciled, we shall be saved by His life" (Rom. 4:25; 5:10).

3. It validates Our Faith. The whole of Christianity rests on the resurrection of Jesus from the . In First Corinthians 15, Paul is speaking about the reality of our future resurrection from the . He says the assurance of this promise is found in our Lord's own resurrection. Notice how much our faith depends upon the resurrection of Jesus from the : "And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty. .. 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 fall men the most pitiable" (vs. 14, 17­-19).

If Christ did not raise from the , then everything about Christianity is a lie, because all of Christianity is based upon the resurrection. The Lord's resur­rection was a major theme in the preach­ing of the gospel in the New Testament (Acts 2:24 -32; 3:15 ; 10:30 ; 13:33 ; 17:31 ; 1 Cor. 15:3-4). Without it, there was no reason to believe or obey what the apos­tles preached.

4. It Assures Us of Judgment. Paul told the people of Athens , "Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by rais­ing Him from the " (Acts 17:30 -31). A day is coming in which every person will stand before the judgment seat of Christ, give account of themselves, and receive from the Lord according to what they have done (Rom. 14:10-12; 2 Cor. 5:10). Paul says that the proof that this will happen is the resurrection of Jesus from the . If we believe that Jesus rose from the , we must also accept the fact that we will be judged. Assurance of this fact should move all men every­where to repent.

It has been observed that more people attend worship services on Easter Sunday than on any other Sunday of the year. That tells me that people feel there is something special about Easter Sunday. The resurrection of Jesus from the should motivate people to do more than just attend one church service a year. It should move people to repent of their sins, change their life, and faithfully serve the Lord until He returns.

Conclusion. The resurrection of Jesus from the is very important. Without it, Jesus is just another prophet. But he did raise from the . The New Testament tells of eyewitnesses who claim they saw the risen Christ. Based upon their testimony, we can believe that Jesus is the Son of God and our Savior. We can have assurance of the forgiveness of our sins and a hope in our own resur­rection from the . And, if we believe Jesus rose from the , we must also accept the fact that He will return to judge the world in righteousness. Are we ready? - Heath Rogers  

 

 

 

                                           AND ANOTHER THING ... 
                                      (Noises In The Night)

Crash ... grunt … groan... - along with several other weird sounds at two o'clock on the morning is enough to wake a fellow up. This happened several years ago, Jut I still remember it. Oh, by the way ­along with this, I also found something was missing - a wife! I found myself in bed alone, and then I hear shuffling noises. Naturally I ask, "'what in the world is going on?" - to which Willie replies, "I ran into the wall" (we had big walls in that house - you know, the kind that went from floor to ceiling and from corner to corner)?

My next move is to try and turn over and go back to sleep, when it dawns on me the bed is shaking. "Now what?" (silly question). I learn that the shaking is coming from her groping in the dark, and then I heard, "I'm lost."

“How can you get lost in your own bedroom,” I wonder? So I decide to turn the light on, and all this provokes is a silly giggle for getting lost in such a maze as your own room. So I decide I may as well laugh about the matter too. Finally got back to sleep and it seemed even more ridiculous the next morning. At least we had something to talk about to start the day.

Object Lesson: If you look around long enough, you can always find something humorous, even at two o'clock in the morning - if you have a weird wife who gets lost in her own room. Truth to tell, I was afraid to give her the car keys after that little episode. - Bill Moseley