Resurrection of Jesus Christ

Transcript

GR 741
3/9/1986
Resurrection of Christ
Matthew 28:1-15
Gil Rugh

Matthew has unfolded his account of the suffering and death of Christ on the cross. It would seem that the earthly life and ministry of Jesus Christ had come to a disastrous conclusion. His disciples, those closest to Him, have been scattered in fear and despair. Through the crucifixion and through His burial, there were a few faithful women with Him to the end. But for all intents and purposes, it seemed that the impact of the life of Jesus Christ had come to an abrupt conclusion, dying the death of a criminal and rejected by the people He came to redeem and to rule over. Yet there was a dramatic change brought about in these disciples. These same disciples, who were hiding in fear, overwhelmed by despair, and talking about returning to their former vocations, were brought together into a dynamic force that would change the world. The resurrection of Jesus Christ was the explanation for that change.
The resurrection of Christ recorded in Matthew 28 has become the focal point of Christianity. In fact, it is the point on which Christianity stands or falls. The salvation that Christ provided was through His death on the cross. According to Romans 6:23, “The wages of sin is death.” When Christ said, “It is finished” (John 19:30) and bowed His head and dismissed His spirit, the work of redemption was complete and accomplished. When a person comes to believe that Christ died for them personally, they are cleansed, forgiven, and made a new creature in Christ. But the resurrection is the crucial focal point because it is the demonstration and the proof that Christ was the Son of God as He claimed to be and that by His death He did indeed provide salvation for all who will believe in Him. The resurrection testifies to the validity and effectiveness of the death of Christ on the cross.
In 1 Corinthians 15 Paul provided the fullest development of the doctrine of the resurrection anywhere in Scripture. Paul opened the chapter by unfolding the facts of the Gospel of Christ. Paul wrote regarding the Gospel in 1 Corinthians 15:3-6, “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time.” The fact that He was buried is a testimony to the fact He died. The fact that He was seen by many witnesses is a testimony to the reality of the resurrection.

The whole issue of resurrection was under consideration as Paul wrote for there were some at Corinth that denied a literal bodily resurrection. Paul said that the bodily resurrection was crucial to Christianity because if there was no resurrection of the body, then not even Christ rose from the dead. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:13, 14, “But if there is no resurrection from the dead, not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain.” Bodily resurrection for us is inseparably linked to the bodily resurrection of Christ. If there was not a literal bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ, then it is totally worthless and of no value to preach about Jesus Christ. Furthermore, it is of absolutely no value to place your faith in Jesus Christ. There are many men preaching today who deny the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ, yet they preach about the love of Christ, the greatness of the life of Christ, and the importance of following the example of Christ. But the testimony of the Word of God is that if Christ has not been bodily raised from the dead, then that preaching is of no value. These men ought to go do something honest and worthwhile since it is of no worth at all that people should believe in Christ if He was not bodily raised from the dead.
Paul said it again in 1 Corinthians 15:17-19, “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied.”
Paul said if there was not a literal bodily resurrection of Christ, and yet people were talking about Him, preaching about Him, and believing in Him, that is pitiful because they were believing in a hoax! They might just as well believe in any other man or woman who has ever died. You get just as much value out of that faith as you do faith in Christ if He did not bodily rise from the grave.
Christianity stands or falls on the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is the battleground. There is almost universal agreement among liberal theologians as well as biblical theologians that Christ died. But there is great debate over the issue of His resurrection. The resurrection of Christ is the crucial focal point of Christianity.
In Matthew 28, Matthew turned his attention to this crucial point. It is the most glorious and spectacular event that has ever occurred, and what is amazing is that the gospel writers record it in such a direct and unspectacular way. In a few short verses, Matthew recorded the historical facts of the dramatic resurrection of Christ from the dead. The other Gospel writers elaborated different details, but the resurrection of Christ is presented in a rather quiet way. And it is presented clearly as a historical fact.
Matthew 28:1 says, “Now after the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to look at the grave.” These faithful women had been with Him during the crucifixion. Matthew 27:55, 56 says, “Many women were there looking on from a distance, who had followed Jesus from Galilee while ministering to
Him. Among them was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee.” Mary the mother of James and Joseph is referred to as ‘the other Mary’ in Matthew 28:1. At the tomb you find the faithful women observing and watching as the body was laid in the tomb and sealed by the rock, “Mary Magdalene was there, and the other Mary, sitting opposite the grave” (Matt. 27:61). And they were the first ones there after the Sabbath was past, early Sunday morning.
The various gospel accounts indicate that these women left home in the darkness of the morning and arrived at the tomb as the sun had arisen. Both Luke and Mark, in their accounts, tell that these women had prepared spices. Remember Christ had died and been buried, and Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus had buried the body with certain burial spices, some 75 pounds of burial spices. But the friends of Christ had not had time to labor over the body and give it proper preparation for burial. So these women had gone to that effort and work and had come with the intention of anointing the body of Christ. These women were not coming to see if perhaps the resurrection had occurred, but with full anticipation of anointing the dead body of Jesus Christ. This shows something of what the followers of Christ were thinking in these days. They were not even looking or hoping for a resurrection. They were just hoping for an opportunity to give the body a proper burial at this point.
Matthew 28:2 continues, “And behold, a severe earthquake had occurred, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled away the stone and sat upon it.” This was a dramatic event! God sent a messenger from heaven, and in connection with his arrival there was a great earthquake. Scripture says that earthquakes were often present in connection with a special visitation from God. This angel came as the messenger from God, an earthquake occurred, and that stone was removed from in front of the tomb. The resurrection of Christ had already occurred. Jesus did not need the stone to be rolled away so that He could be raised from the dead. In John’s account of events after the resurrection, Christ appeared in the middle of a room that was locked up. He did not need doors to be opened or stones to be removed. But the stone was removed for the benefit of people so that they could see that the grave was empty. If Christ had been raised from the dead but the stone had never been moved, how would anybody have ever known? The stone had to be rolled back so people could look in and say, “He’s gone! There’s nothing there but an empty tomb and empty grave clothes, ” as other Gospel accounts record.
The angel’s description is striking, “And his appearance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow” (Matt. 28:3). This was a messenger from the very presence of God, and his brilliance reflected one who served in the presence of Almighty God. He was described as being like lightning with a white garment, and he was there sitting on that stone.
Another important note made by Matthew is that there were other eyewitnesses. The guards at the tomb saw this angel. “The guards shook for fear of him and became like dead men” (v.
4). These hardened, calloused, courageous soldiers beheld this awesome messenger from the presence of God and they shook and fell over in a dead faint. They were overwhelmed by the reality of His presence and His power demonstrated in the earthquake.
Then the angel addressed the women who had arrived. “The angel said to the women, ‘Do not be afraid; for I know that you are looking for Jesus who has been crucified’” (v. 5). The followers of Christ have a privileged position with Almighty God and with the angels of God. The Book of Hebrews indicates that angels are ministering spirits sent from the presence of God as servants of those who are the heirs of salvation. That is what this angel had come for, to be a servant of these believers, to explain to them what happened and give them instructions on what they were to do from this point. The first thing he said to these dear, godly women was don’t be afraid. He did not say that to the soldiers. They had a right to fear! But to the women: “Do not be afraid; for I know that you are looking for Jesus who has been crucified” (v. 5). This came from the presence of God. He was aware of the situation. He knew these women were looking for the body of Jesus.
The angel’s next statement must have come as a dramatic shock to them. Matthew 28:6 begins, “He is not here, for He has risen, just as He said.” Remarkable! The angel told them that he knew they were looking for the body of Jesus, but Jesus wasn’t there because He had risen just as He said! Christ had tried to prepare His followers for His coming death at Jerusalem by telling them what would happen and reminding them that those events would be climaxed in victory over death by bodily resurrection. But they never got the point.
Matthew 16:21 says, “From that time Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised up on the third day.” The disciples did not understand it. Peter even took Jesus aside and rebuked Him! Matthew 17:22 says, “And while they were gathering together in Galilee, Jesus said to them, ‘The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men; and they will kill Him, and He will be raised on the third day.’ And they were deeply grieved.” It was fitting that they would be grieved over what was going to happen but they did not put the suffering and death together with the resurrection. It totally went by them. So on the third day they did not come to the tomb saying, “Let’s go and see if He’s going to be raised on the third day like He said” but rather “Let’s go and anoint His body. ”
The angel reminded them that what Christ had said has been fulfilled. Matthew 28:6 concludes with the angel saying to them, “Come, see the place where He was lying.” I think that’s an interesting touch to the story. This was an angel from the presence of God, and he made note of that in a moment; but first he invited them to look into that tomb and see that there was no body in the tomb, just empty grave clothes. That way they not only had the word of the angel, but they themselves had seen the empty tomb!
Then in Matthew 28:7 he told them “Go quickly and tell His disciples that He has risen from the dead; and behold, He is going ahead of you into Galilee, there you will see Him; behold, I have told you.” I like that last statement! Remember when the angel came and announced the birth of John the Baptist and the father of John the Baptist said “How shall I know these things are so? ” And the angel was almost dumbfounded! “I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God” (Luke 1:19). The audacity! The angel could not believe that this man would ask how he would know that these things were going to happen. The angel was the servant of God who stood in the presence of God, and he brought the message from His presence! As the angel spoke to the women at the tomb, you almost get the feeling from this angel that he was trying to impress the women with the importance of his message. In effect he says, “He’s risen; look at the empty tomb. Now you tell them He will meet them in Galilee. Behold! Listen up! Pay attention! I have told you. ” The authority of this heavenly spokesman was evident as he communicated the message from God.
The angel said “Go quickly,” and they go quickly! These women had been faithful and they continued to be faithful. Matthew 28:8 says, “And they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy and ran to report it to His disciples.” They had mixed feelings. They had come expecting to anoint a dead body and to prepare it for a fitting burial. But they were confronted by an angel and an empty tomb and given a message to proclaim! They went with great joy, but there was a little bit of fear mixed with it all! And in a few minutes of time there had been such a dramatic change from going to anoint the dead body of the One they were serving to going to be the official proclaimers of His resurrection! They went with fear and great joy to report it to His disciples.
I think there is another interesting touch to this story, by God’s design. It is interesting in light of the fact that in a Jewish court of law, a woman’s testimony was not valid. This tells you something of the esteem in which women were held. Their testimony was not valid in a Jewish court of law, yet God solemnly chose women to be the first official testifiers to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. I believe that this was a testimony to their faithfulness. This was an honor given to them that they should be given the unique privilege to be first. Isn’t it fitting that those who were last at the tomb should be first to proclaim the empty tomb? God honored their faithfulness through it all.
The women ran to report the resurrection to the disciples. The women had the testimony of the angel and the empty tomb. There would only be one other thing that could happen that could be more dramatic, and that would be to see the resurrected Christ Himself. “And behold, Jesus met them and greeted them. And they came up and took hold of His feet and worshiped Him” (Matt. 28:9). This must be the time when the Lord gives especially strong hearts to His children, because I’m sure that if you just had your normal heart beating, you would have had a heart attack in this kind of scene. Within a matter of no more than minutes, these women have gone from being prepared to anoint a dead body to confronting an angel who is like the lightning of the sky, to seeing an empty tomb, to standing face to face with a man that they had watched die the agony of crucifixion three days earlier. It was amazing that they did not turn and run in fear. Some of the “courageous” men who confronted Him thought He was a ghost!
Christ greeted them, and they grabbed onto His feet and worshiped Him. This showed the condition of their hearts and their faith. They grabbed onto His feet; they have bowed down before Him and worshiped Him. And I believe that the fact that they grabbed on to His feet is significant.

There are many ways people try to explain away the resurrection. One of them is that these dear women went to the wrong tomb on Sunday morning. They just got confused, and it wasn’t an angel they saw sitting on that rock, it was the gardener! Then the gardener told them they were at the wrong tomb and that Jesus was not there. When the gardener told the women that Jesus was not there, they thought he meant that Jesus was raised from the dead and they ran off, and in their emotional confusion they had a vision that they saw Christ. There are absurd explanations, but that is one of the most absurd! Yet people actually write such things as the explanation of the resurrection. I think they grabbed on to His feet to help clarify that this was not a vision of the resurrected Christ. This was an actual, bodily appearance of the resurrected Christ. His body had substance; the women could touch Him and hold on to Him. He had flesh and bone.
Matthew 28:10 says, “Then Jesus said to them, ‘Do not be afraid; go and take word to My brethren to leave for Galilee, and there they will see Me.’” Jesus told them the same thing that the angel told them, “Do not be afraid.” Those who believe in Him have no cause for fear. This was a time of great joy and excitement to celebrate the victory of Jesus Christ over death and sin! Jesus told them, “Go and spread the word among My brethren that I’ve been resurrected, and there ’ll be an official meeting in Galilee. ”
There were some resurrection appearances before Galilee, but the focal point for Matthew in his summary was that climactic meeting in Galilee. I think Galilee was mentioned for several reasons. First, in Matthew’s record of the ministry of Christ on earth, Galilee was the focal point. Matthew spent the bulk of his time on the ministry of Christ in Galilee. Second, Christ said Jerusalem, the capital of Israel, had come under the judgment of God; it had rejected its Messiah and been abandoned by Him. And third, Christ had prophesied before His death that He would meet these disciples in Galilee, and that prophecy was about to be fulfilled.
Matthew then turned his attention to an interesting area that none of the other gospel writers had seen fit to write about. I am glad Matthew did because I have some questions in my mind. What happened to the soldiers when they woke up? What did the religious leaders do when they heard about it? How did they explain the resurrection or the absence of the body of Jesus Christ?
Matthew answered those questions. Matthew 28:11 says, “Now while they were on their way, some of the guard came into the city and reported to the chief priests all that had happened.” The guards woke up from their dead faint and some of them made their way into the city and went to the chief priests. Why did they go to the chief priests? There are a couple of possibilities. This may have been the temple police who were used as a guard. In Matthew 27:65, when the leaders asked Pilate for a guard for the tomb, he said to them, “You have a guard; go, make it as secure as you know how.” Since this was a Roman crucifixion, Pilate could have been giving them the Roman authority to guard the tomb but telling them to use their guard. The temple police were under the authority of the Sanhedrin and the chief priests. If these were temple police, it would have been natural for them to report to the chief priests. Another possibility, although less likely, was that these were Roman soldiers but they were not particularly anxious to go and tell Pilate that they lost the body. Since it was a Jewish event led by Jews, the Roman soldiers reported to the chief priests.

At any rate, the guard had come to the chief priests, and in the plan of God it fit God’s purpose that the chief priests and the leaders of Israel were the first to hear from these guards that the body was gone and that it was gone because of a supernatural event. They had a problem. What were the Jewish chief priests and leaders going to do about this? The guards came and related “You won’t believe this, but as we were standing guard at the tomb, this being from heaven looked like lightning with brilliant garments came and there was an earthquake, and the stone was rolled back and that’s the last thing I remember! We just fell over dead on the ground. And we got up and looked around and there’s no body in the grave, just empty grave clothes. ” This called for a meeting of the Sanhedrin.
The Sanhedrin gathered, and Matthew 28:12, 13, says, “And when they had assembled with the elders and consulted together, they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers, and said, ‘You are to say, “His disciples came by night and stole Him away while we were asleep.”’”
Note that as the religious governing body in Israel, they did not assemble to consider this new evidence or to evaluate whether this greatest of signs ever given during the earthly ministry of Christ did indeed give irrefutable proof that Christ was the Messiah of Israel, the Son of God.
No, they had a meeting to decide how they were going to suppress the evidence and keep it from spreading. They had no interest in evaluating the reality of the resurrection and the supernatural events witnessed by these soldiers. They were only interested in concealing these facts. They decided to set up the soldiers. The Sanhedrin voted to give a large sum of money to the soldiers. It was the best they could do. The greatest minds in Israel were confronted with the greatest evidence as to the Person and Work of Christ that was ever given. The best they could come up with was a lie that was not very good.
If these soldiers were sound asleep, how did they know the disciples stole the body? They were asleep. It’s hard for sleeping men to testify to what happened, isn’t it? If they said that they were sound asleep, then all they could testify about was that they were sound asleep and when they woke up, the body was gone. But they were going to say that the disciples stole the body while they were asleep. That would be conjecture.
When Pilate told the Jewish leaders to take their guard and make the tomb as secure as they could, we know there was more than one guard because it was in the plural. If they were going to do everything they could to make this tomb secure, you can bet there were a number of guards at the tomb. But the religious leaders wanted people to believe that these soldiers had fallen asleep. These soldiers who had been trained that if they lost their prisoner, and in this case their prisoner was a dead body, then they would take the place of that prisoner, in this case they would be executed. In fact in Acts 12, there were some guards guarding Peter in prison one night. An angel from God came and released Peter from the prison. Herod found out about it in the morning and questioned the guards, and all they could say was “We don’t know. ” Those guards were led off to execution. Why? The only fact that mattered to Herod was that they were in charge of Peter and Peter was gone.
These soldiers have been strictly trained and had this knowledge of the consequences. The religious leaders wanted people to believe that all of the soldiers got so tired that they all went to sleep at the same time and they were in such a dead sound sleep that the disciples could roll that huge boulder sealing the tomb, breaking the seal, and get the body out of there and do it all so quietly that no soldier woke up. You would have thought they could come up with a better story; but quite frankly, that’s the best one I’ve heard. The idea that the women went to the wrong tomb is pretty far fetched especially since they had been at this tomb to watch the burial three days earlier, Peter and John came to check out this tomb for themselves, and all the Sanhedrin would have to do to prove the hoax was go to the right tomb! Yet some poor, deluded scholarly people today have tried to espouse such a view.
Another explanation is called the swoon theory, popularized in some writings that were done a little while ago. This view says that Christ never really did die on the cross, but He just fainted away in what is called a dead faint. They took Him down and put Him in the grave, and then His followers came and doctored Him up and He came out of it and everybody felt good. If you stop and think about that, Jesus had been scourged by the Romans, beaten so badly that He was too weak to take His own cross to the place of crucifixion. He had hung on that cross for hours suffering abuse. He had seemed to die there, and then to assure death a Roman spear had pierced His side.
Roman soldiers, who were very aware of the awfulness of crucifixion, did not take people who were not dead off crosses. It is really a stretch to think that a Roman soldier would make such a mistake, since he knows that if he takes this man down and the man is not dead, then he will be hung up there. That was why he ran the spear into the side of Christ. They did not want there to be any question about Jesus having been dead since they were not going to break His legs.
The swoon theory requires that they took Him down having been scourged, having been crucified, having been pierced with a spear, and then Christ got enough strength in three days to appear before His disciples and revolutionize their lives so that they could change the world. I still think the explanation of the Sanhedrin has more credibility than that. But the resurrection of Christ becomes the focal point! It is the event you cannot avoid. You must come to grips with the resurrection of Christ. As you face the fact of the resurrection, if you believe it, you are driven to accept the fact that He is the Savior or, if not, you must try to explain it away.
I was interested in some writings by a Jewish scholar that appeared recently. He is a Jewish scholar, not a believer in Jesus Christ, but his conclusions, which have been published in news magazines and newspapers, are that the evidence for the resurrection of Christ is irrefutable! The only conclusion an honest scholar can come to is that Jesus Christ was bodily raised from the dead! This is amazing because it is coming from a Jewish scholar who does not believe in Jesus as the Messiah. He says the only explanation is that Jesus Christ was bodily raised from the dead so He could be a Savior of Gentiles, but the Jews are still looking for the Jewish Messiah who will be the political deliverer of Israel. He has missed the point. If Jesus was bodily raised from the dead, then what Jesus Christ said about who He was and why He came had to be true. But what interests me is that this Jewish scholar who studies the New Testament says the evidence is irrefutable. There can be no other explanation for the absence of the body, for the transformation of life in the followers of Christ, and for the impact of Christianity, except that Christ was indeed raised from the dead.
As you look at Matthew’s account and the explanation the Sanhedrin came up with and their instructions to the soldiers guarding the tomb, my first reaction is why would the soldiers go along with it? If the soldiers had just confronted an angel from heaven whose appearance was like lightning, whose white garments shown, and they fainted in his presence, why would they want to go away and lie about it? Maybe what the Jewish leaders said to the soldiers in Matthew 28:14 helps, “‘And if this should come to the governor’s ears, we will win him over and keep you out of trouble.’ And they took the money and did as they had been instructed; and this story was widely spread among the Jews, and is to this day” (vv. 14, 15).
Put yourself in the guards’ place for a moment. They would have been on trial for their lives. They were given the responsibility to guard that dead body. The dead body was gone. These Jewish leaders told them to tell a lie and they would get a large sum of money to do it. Their choices were, either lie and be rich or tell the truth and die. How would you like to stand before Pilate and say “Pilate, the body is gone, but you ’ve got to believe this: There was this brilliant person just like lightning who appeared from nowhere. There was an earthquake, the stone moved, we fell over as dead, and when we got up the body was gone. ” Would you like to be on trial for your life and try to convince a pagan Roman governor of that? So they were in a little bit of difficulty.
The offer from the Sanhedrin came with a reminder of this difficulty. “Don’t worry, men, if word of the fact that the body’s gone gets back to the governor, we’ll intercede for you. But men, if you don’t go along with our story, who’s going to intercede for you? When we tell the governor that you fell asleep and His disciples stole the body, you will be in trouble. ” So I could see unbelieving soldiers who have the option to get rich or the option to die take the option to get rich and spread the lie. And the story was widely spread that the disciples stole His body. That was the first explanation given for the absence of the body of Jesus Christ.
The empty tomb is still the great testimony to the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the irrefutable evidence of God that Christ has been raised from the dead. Where was His body? Do you think these religious leaders would not have produced this body if it had been possible in any conceivable way? But they could not do it! It amazes me that these Jewish leaders did not stop and consider the evidence. The testimony of these soldiers that they saw a supernatural event and the body was gone would have been enough to at least reconsider their position. In Matthew 27:42 while Christ was hanging on the cross, the religious leaders said, “He saved others; He cannot save Himself. He is the King of Israel; let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe in Him.” They were saying that if He did one more great, spectacular sign, then they would believe. Christ did not come down from the cross. He did something greater. He died on the cross, and then after three days in the grave He was raised from the dead, but they still did not believe. They were not really looking for more evidence.

In Matthew 12:38 it says, “Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to Him, ‘Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.’” Right to the very end the Jews were saying “Show us a sign. Show us a sign.” That was why Paul said in 1 Corinthians that the Jews seek for a sign. One more miracle! “But He answered and said to them, ‘An evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign; and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet; for just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth’” (vv. 39, 40). This may also say something about today’s generation in which people crave for the miraculous, the spectacular, and the supernatural. Jesus said that is a mark of an evil and adulterous generation. Then Jesus told them the great sign. The sign of signs to the nation Israel would be the resurrection of Jesus Christ after three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. But it did not change unbelieving Israel. God said it would not.
In the account of the rich man and Lazarus, both the rich man and Lazarus died. This is not the Lazarus that Jesus raised from the dead during His earthly ministry, but another man of the same name who was a poor beggar. Upon death, the rich man went immediately to Hades. Hades is the place of torment where the wicked go awaiting final sentencing to hell. Lazarus was carried to Abraham’s bosom, the place of blessing; I believe this is synonymous with Paradise or Heaven. The rich man was in torment in Hades, and he cried out to Abraham and said, “‘Then I beg you, father, that you send him to my father’s house--for I have five brothers--that he may warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’ But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’” (Luke 16:27-29). The rich man wanted Lazarus to be raised from the dead and sent to his five brothers on earth to warn them so they would not come to Hades. But Abraham told him that they had the Scriptures; they could listen to what God said in the Old Testament Scriptures. “But he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent!’ But he said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone rises from the dead’” (vv. 30, 31). Abraham, as God’s spokesman, said if they would not listen to His Word, they would not believe even if someone came back from the dead! The proof of that is that the Jews did not believe what the Word of God said about Jesus Christ, and they did not believe in the face of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
There are times today when we think, “Oh, if we could only do the miraculous today people would come to believe. ” No, they wouldn’t. People who will not believe the truth of the Word of God will not believe even in the face of the greatest miracle. Where’s the proof of that? Jesus Christ has been raised from the dead. The proof is irrefutable! The evidence is greater than would be needed to prove the fact! But has everyone believed in Jesus Christ as the Savior? No, they haven’t. Why? They find a way to explain it away, just like those who were present when Christ was raised from the dead explained it away. They always find an excuse not to believe. Even if you multiply the evidence and multiply the proof and multiply the signs, it does not change the fact that they won’t believe! And that is the issue.
The signs and the proofs encourage and strengthen the faith of those who believe; but those who won’t believe just explain away the resurrection. The resurrection is the focal point of history because it is God’s testimony and God’s evidence that Jesus is His Son and that by His death He secured redemption. The resurrection is God’s declaration that you can only be forgiven your sins and have eternal life if you believe in Jesus Christ. From this point on, the resurrection becomes the focal point of the preaching of the followers of Jesus Christ.
Peter spoke of the coming resurrection of Christ in Acts 2:32, “This Jesus God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses.” Peter, with other followers of Christ, had seen the resurrected Christ. They could testify that it was a reality. And he said in Acts 2:36, “Therefore let all the
house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ--this Jesus whom you crucified.”
Later in Acts, Peter demonstrated that the forgiveness of sins is granted through Jesus Christ.
“The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you had put to death by hanging Him on a cross. He is the one whom God exalted to His right hand as a Prince and a Savior, to grant repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins” (Acts 5:30, 31). Again Peter mentioned the resurrection.
Peter said that Christ was seen after the resurrection so that people could be living testimonies to the reality of the resurrection in Acts 10:40-42: “God raised Him up on the third day and granted that He become visible, not to all the people, but to witnesses who were chosen beforehand by God, that is, to us who ate and drank with Him after He arose from the dead. And He ordered us to preach to the people, and solemnly to testify that this is the One who has been appointed by God as Judge of the living and the dead.” This is a crucial point. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is God’s guarantee to you that you will be judged by Jesus Christ. “Of Him all the prophets bear witness that through His name everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins” (v. 43).
God’s plan for forgiveness of sins is the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Acts 13:36-39 says, “For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep, and was laid among his fathers and underwent decay; but He whom God raised did not undergo decay. Therefore let it be known to you, brethren, that through Him forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and through Him everyone who believes is freed from all things.” In Romans 1:4 Paul wrote, “[Jesus] was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead.” And in Romans 4:25, “He who was delivered over because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification.” The resurrection of Christ is God’s irrefutable proof that Jesus was His Son, and by His death, He paid in full the penalty for sin.
It’s amazing how God continues to bring all mankind to the same point. He has made the death and resurrection of His Son the focal point of history, and now, 2000 years later, we are being confronted with the same event as those Jewish leaders were 2000 years ago. The issue is still the same.
God said that the resurrection is the greatest sign and the final evidence that Jesus is His Son, the Savior of the World. In light of the evidence of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, what will be your response? Are you skeptical? Have you explained it away? Or, have you come to believe that Jesus is the Son of God? This is the focal point of history. This is the focal point of eternity. Heaven and Hell hinge on this issue. What has been your response to the resurrection of Jesus Christ? Do you believe God’s testimony given in His Word? Have you believed in His Son, Jesus Christ? Have you recognized that His resurrection settles it for eternity?