by Dr. Ray Pritchard

Scripture: Acts 2:24-32

"Brothers, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day. But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne. Seeing what was ahead, he spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to the grave, nor did his body see decay. God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact."
(Acts 2:29-32).

Suppose you were preaching to the men who crucified Jesus, and you wanted to convince them that the man they had crucified had risen from the dead. How would you do it? It's an interesting question because it's not easy to convince anyone that a resurrection has taken place. Several weeks ago we discussed a similar question in my Wednesday night Pastor's Bible class. I asked the groups gathered round the tables to discuss what it would take to convince them that someone they knew had risen from the dead. One person said, "If he told me something that only he and I knew, then I might believe it." Another person said, "If we sat down and had a meal together." Someone else said, "If he appeared to lots of other people who knew him as well as I did, then I would know I wasn't dreaming or having a strange vision." We concluded that it wouldn't be easy to convince any of us that someone we knew and loved had come back from the dead. And it would be much harder if we had seen them die, and harder yet if the death had been as gruesome as a crucifixion.

No wonder the disciples had a hard time on Easter Sunday morning. It's hard enough to watch someone you love die. It would be almost impossible to believe they had come back from the dead. By definition a resurrection is a rare miracle because a true resurrection means you come back to life never to die again. That hasn't happened in 2,000 years.

• It was hard to believe then.
• It's still hard to believe now.
• The odds are against it.

Did you happen to see the March 28, 2005 issue of Newsweek magazine? The cover story by Jon Meacham is called "How Jesus Become Christ." The article asks this question: "How did a Jewish prophet come to be seen as the Christian savior?" Here is the first paragraph:

The story, it seemed, was over. Convicted of sedition, condemned to death by crucifixion, nailed to a cross on a hill called Golgotha, Jesus of Nazareth had endured all that he could. According to Mark, the earliest Gospel, Jesus, suffering and approaching the end, repeated a verse of the 22nd Psalm, a passage familiar to first-century Jewish ears: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" There was a final, wordless cry. And then silence.

Meacham points out, correctly, that the disciples, dejected and confused, did not expect a resurrection. The women who went to the tomb intended to anoint the corpse. But to their surprise, instead of a dead body, they encountered an angel inside the tomb who said these amazing words, "Don't be alarmed. You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him" (Mark 16:6).

Meacham describes the early reaction to the news of the resurrection this way:

And so begins the story of Christianity - with confusion, not with clarity; with mystery, not with certainty. According to Luke's Gospel, the disciples at first treated the women's report of the empty tomb as "an idle tale, and … did not believe them"; the Gospel of John says that Jesus' followers "as yet … did not know … that he must rise from the dead."

And from that uncertain beginning sprang the Christian movement, which today numbers over two billion people - one-third of the world's population. A recent Newsweek poll reveals that 78 percent of Americans believe that Jesus rose from the dead. The article notes that you cannot explain the spread of Christianity apart from the resurrection. If the bones of Jesus could be dug up in some first-century tomb, then as Paul says in I Corinthians 15, our faith is vain and we are of all people most to be pitied. There are many different ways to argue for the resurrection of Jesus. The Newsweek article mentions two of them:

1) The tomb really was empty on Easter Sunday morning.

This is a simple statement of fact. When the women got there, the tomb was empty. When Peter and John got there, the tomb was empty. When the Romans investigated, the tomb was empty. When the Jewish leaders checked it out, the tomb was empty. This one fact has never been successfully answered by critics of the Christian faith. If Jesus did not rise from the dead, what happened to his body? Neither the Romans nor the Jewish leaders would have taken the body. The Romans didn't care about Jesus one way or the other, and the Jewish leaders wanted to make sure he stayed in the grave. The disciples had no reason to take his body. And since Roman soldiers guarded the tomb under penalty of death if anyone disturbed it, grave robbers couldn't have gotten near it. So what happened to the body? Jesus was in the tomb on Friday night. He was gone by Sunday morning.

2) Jesus appeared to hundreds of people.

He appeared to Mary, to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, to Peter, to James, to all the apostles, and eventually to 500 people at one time. These appearances happened at different places in different circumstances over many days. Jesus invited Thomas to touch him. He ate fish with the apostles on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. When Paul listed the various appearances of Christ in I Corinthians 15:5-8, it was like a legal brief, as if to say, "If you doubt my word, these witnesses are all available. Check it out for yourself."

From the beginning skeptics have attacked the resurrection. Dr. Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, offers this helpful perspective:

Those who would attack the Church and reject its gospel must direct their arrows at the most crucial truth claim of the New Testament and the disciples: That Jesus Christ, having suffered death on a cross, though sinless, having borne the sins of those He came to save, having been buried in a sealed and guarded grave, was raised by the power of God on the third day.

On this Easter Sunday, we need to keep two perspectives in mind:

A) It is the chief cornerstone of our faith and the ultimate miracle.

The resurrection is God's stamp of approval on his Son. That's why Peter says in Acts 2:24, "God raised him from the dead." He says it again in verse 32, "God has raised this Jesus to life." It didn't just happen by chance that Jesus rose from the dead. God raised his own Son on the third day.

B) Jesus defeated death when he rose from the dead.

We have heard a great deal in recent days about how normal and natural death is. We see death celebrated almost as if it is a good thing in and of itself. If death is so good, why do we not want to talk about it? If death is so good, why do we make up euphemisms like "passed on" and "crossed over" and "slipped away"? If death is so good, why do we cover people with makeup when they die? Joe Carter of "The Evangelical Outpost" has some important words about this that we need to hear:

Death isn't natural. Life, given to us by an abundantly generous Creator, is natural. Death is the enemy that separates us from ourselves, from our loved ones, and most importantly, from God. It is such a curse that it required the Son of God himself to remove it so that we might live once again.

I think he is right on the money. We need to do some clear thinking on this topic. We celebrate Easter because Jesus came back from the dead. Death could not hold him. That alone should tell you that death is not "natural" or "normal" or "good" in the truest sense of those words. The euthanasia proponents like to talk about "death with dignity" and death as a beautiful thing. If you've ever seen anyone die, you know there's nothing beautiful about it. I've never believed in the beauty of death, not for a moment, and I don't see how you can square that with Christian theology. Death is the "last enemy" that will be destroyed (I Corinthians 15:26). We ought not to fall for the secular, pro-death viewpoint that death is somehow noble or good or dignified. If death is so good, why did Jesus come back from it? Why didn't he stay dead? I wholeheartedly agree that there are better and worse ways to die, and I thank God for those doctors and nurses and hospice workers and loving family and friends that give themselves tirelessly for the dying. God bless them all. They are doing God's work. But let us not confuse compassion for the dying with a mushy, misty, touchy-feely view of death. Death may be a release from pain, and in that sense it can be a blessing, but death is also the result of pain and suffering. The Bible says that death came into the world because of sin (Romans 5:12), and without sin, there would be no death. That's why Revelation 21:4 says that in heaven, "There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." Death, suffering and pain all belong to the "old order" that even now is passing away. Thank God, there will be no graves dug into the hillsides of heaven. Jesus made sure of that on Easter Sunday morning.

 Back to the Original Question

And so I return to my original question: Suppose you were preaching to the men who crucified Jesus, and you wanted to convince them that the man they had crucified had risen from the dead. How would you do it? That's the challenge Peter faced on Pentecost, exactly 50 days after Jesus rose from the dead. As he preached in the temple courts, a vast crowd gathered to hear him. Among those present were many who had consented to the death of Christ. If they had not actively participated, they had gone along with the crowd. If they had not cried out, "Crucify him!" they had also not done anything to stop the miscarriage of justice. Whether actively or passively, they had crucified the Lord of glory. But word had spread that his tomb was empty and wild rumors circulated that Jesus had appeared to his disciples. They didn't know what to believe.

Suppose you were Peter on that day. How would you convince them of the resurrection? Peter did something very unique. He told them a simple story and he quoted Psalm 16 to prove his point. He told them a tale of two men. You can read all about in Acts 2:24-32. Here is his story in short form:

Two men died. One was famous. One was not so famous.
Both men were buried not far from here
One man stayed dead. The other man didn't

You can check out the story for yourself
David's tomb is not far from here
He was a patriarch and a prophet
He spoke of the coming resurrection of Jesus
He predicted that God would not allow his body to stay in the grave
He wrote this down in Psalm 16

What David predicted came true 50 days ago
God raised Jesus from the dead
We saw him with our own eyes

I can tell the story even shorter than that:

Two men died
One man stayed dead
The other man didn't
The first man predicted it
The second man fulfilled it

David was the first man
Jesus was the second man
God was the one who made it happen

It was a stroke of genius because the Jews revered three men above all others: Abraham, Moses and David. Abraham was buried in Hebron, a town south of Jerusalem. Nobody knew for sure where Moses was buried. But everyone knew where David was buried. His tomb was well-known in Jerusalem. I imagine Peter even pointed to it and said, "Go out there and check it out for yourself." David had died 1,000 years earlier, and his body was still in the tomb. But Jesus borrowed Joseph's tomb for about 36 hours. Then he left it behind forever. That's why they call it a "borrowed" tomb. He didn't plan to stay there very long.

Peter then comes to his stirring conclusion in Acts 2:36, "Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ."

• > He is the Lord. So worship him.
• > He is the Christ. So follow him.

In his book World Aflame, Billy Graham tells the story of Auguste Comte, the French philosopher, and Thomas Caryle, the Scottish essayist. Comte said he was going to start a new religion that would supplant the religion of Christ. It was to have no mysteries and was to be as plain as the multiplication table; its name was to be positivism. "Very good, Mr. Comte," Carlyle replied, "very good. All you will need to do will be to speak as never a man spake, and live as never a man lived, and be crucified, and rise again the third day, and get the world to believe that you are still alive. Then your religion will have a chance."

Dr. David Seamands tells of a Muslim who became a Christian in Africa: "Some of his friends asked him, ‘Why did you become a Christian?' He answered, ‘Well, It's like this. Suppose you were going down the road and suddenly the road forked in two directions and you didn't know which way to go, and there at the fork in the road were two men, one dead and one alive. Which one would you ask for directions?'" We hear a great deal these days about which religion is the right religion. How do you know which religion has the truth? Here's a simple way to answer that question. Find the religion whose founder rose from the dead. That's the one you need to follow.

I end with the words of Jesus in Revelation 1:18, "I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades." This is the message of Easter. This is the reason for our hope. One day sooner or later, we're all going to die. In that day we'll lose everything we have on this earth, but we'll keep everything that matters most because death cannot separate us from Jesus Christ. No enemy remains that he has not already conquered.

> On His Way to Iraq

A few days ago we received the following email from a young man:

In several months I will be going to Iraq to work in a Dignitary Protection Unit. 12 people, including several of my friends, have been killed in the past 6 months working in this role. As a Christian what can I do to find more courage and peace in this? What do I tell my family in helping them with their fears?

How would you answer that? What does Easter have to say to him? In my answer I quoted several verses about God's sovereignty over all of life, including Psalm 139:16, "All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be." That word "ordained" is very strong. It means that every day of your life was laid out by God before you were born. Then I told him this:

When you go to Iraq, you cannot possibly die unless God wills it so. I've heard it said this way, "A man of God is immortal until his work on earth is done." You might die in Iraq, but then you might die in Oak Park too. And from God's point of view, you are just as safe in Iraq as anywhere on the face of the earth. … On one hand, I guess it's easy for me to say that because I'm not going to Iraq and you have the additional burden of knowing that several of your friends have died doing the very work you are being called to do. I cannot begin to understand what that means for you. But this much I know is true: God has called you to go to Iraq, and you are safer being with God in Iraq than being in the US without Him. Nothing can touch you in Iraq that does not first past through the Father's loving hands.

I closed my note to him with these words:

I'm happy to be writing this note to you during Holy Week. What a week this is. This is the week when we remember that Jesus conquered death. If he can beat death himself, he can raise us up also. I pray you will have an exuberant Easter. Thank you for serving our country on the front lines of freedom.

If you forget everything else I've said this morning, remember this: Jesus holds the keys to death and Hades. Let that thought fill your heart with joy. The voice of the risen Christ calls to us this morning, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die" (John 11:25-26).

Rejoice, child of God. You have nothing to fear.

O death, where is your victory?

Christ the Lord is risen today. Rejoice. Fear not. A light shines from the empty tomb. Death is swallowed up in victory.

Do you know him? Easter is a wonderful time to trust Christ as your Lord and Savior. I can't think of a better time or a better place or a better moment to come to Christ. Run to the cross. Run with all your might and lay hold of Jesus who died for you and rose from the dead. Trust him with all your heart, and you will never be disappointed.

Trust in him and whether you live or whether you die, you can know for certain that you are going to heaven. Trust in him and when you die, you won't stay dead forever.

Christ the Lord is risen today. Amen.

by Daniel Waller

Scripture: 1 Peter 1:3–4

We have some really good news to share with you this morning. I don't know if I should though because it's a bit premature. You see, I received a letter this week that said I might have already won ten million dollars. Now I don't know for sure yet. But it says I am on the list. This envelope says that I am right up near the top. I didn't even have to do anything really, to do this. Now I know it is a bit early and I have to send in some junk, but I may have already won ten million dollars. Wouldn't it be great?

Don't you hate that when they hook you in with that stuff? They do it all the time. They promise us some great prize that we are going to get. We are right there at the top, Mr. Rick Rusaw. They even sent me a letter asking me how I would like to have the money. Would I like to have it in yearly installments, or monthly. I must be close this year.

That annoys me when they do that. I don't know about you, but that frustrates me when I get that. I wish they would be honest. I wish one time this envelope would come and say, "You don't have a chance. You're a loser. You didn't even fill out the material right this time. Where was your head when you were doing this? I don't even know why you enter these stupid contests. There is no hope for you." That is more like reality for us, isn't it?

Disappointment happens. Somebody promises us something and we hope it is going to happen. It doesn't happen. All the way back to our childhood when those stupid little plastic toys in the cereal box were going to be our life-time fulfillment if we could just get it. So mom would buy that stuff. We would be up to our elbows looking for that little tiny plastic ring or little decoder thing. It never did quite live up to its expectations, did it?

It disappointed us, it frustrated us. Sometimes it is a relationship, sometimes it is a job and sometimes it is a wealth we hope to have and don't get. Or when we do get it, it is not quite what we thought it was going to be. Great promises, usually disappointment, rarely meeting our expectations, great hopes. But they usually don't work out.

Peter writes to us some words of hope and expectation. Great hope that we would have found in 1 Peter 1:3-4

Peter says, "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, in his great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an inheritance that can never perish or spoil or fade kept in heaven for you."

Peter says that because of Christ's resurrection we have this great inheritance. Over ten million dollars and it won't perish, spoil or fade. It is being kept for you. You are a guaranteed winner that is what Peter says.

Now how did Peter get to this place where he can proclaim with such confidence and such great hope. It didn't come easily for him. In fact, this hope came out of much disappointment for Peter. The disciples had been with Jesus. He had been talking about establishing a kingdom. The disciples thought it was going to be earthly. He had been proclaiming this great news of the Messiah being there.

He had been doing miracles for them. They thought it was a wonderful time. Many of disciples, I am sure, were thinking, "We cannot wait to be in those chief spots. We cannot wait to have Jewish authority ruling again. We are going to get to be at the right hand of Jesus, helping to rule in his kingdom."

But in just a moment, things changed. They changed too quickly. They have been in this great triumphal entry, a huge parade where all the people were proclaiming how great Jesus was. The disciples were with him. What a time of joy and celebration that must have been.

Here just a short time later they are taking Jesus off to a mock trial and they are going to crucify him. All the things the disciples had hoped for, all the promises on the outside of the envelope as far as they were concerned, were empty now. It wasn't happening. It wasn't going to work out quite like they thought it was going to. Things change in just a moment sometimes, don't they? How quickly things change.

We were at a parade in downtown Longmont. Our daughter, Chelsea, was just two and a half years old. One minute she was right there on the curbside next to us. The next minute she was gone. We couldn't find her. Several minutes had passed. Our two-and-a-half-year-old was nowhere to be found. You have been there before. You know the panic.

It is amazing all the things you can think of in just a few minutes that may have happened. I don't know how she did it, but she was two blocks away, wandering down the sidewalk. We were glad when we found her. It worked out OK. But for just a moment, there was panic. For just a moment, things were not working out like I had hoped for at all.

Maybe for some of you this past week or month or year, it has been difficult. In an instant, you got a health report that changed your world. It changed how you were going to approach life. Changed how you were going to face the next few weeks, months. And for some of you, finding out that you didn't have that long. Maybe it was the phone call that came or the knock at your door to announce that someone in your family was gone now.

Someone who had been there at the table, now was no longer going to be able to be there. You are experiencing the loss and the grief that comes with the loss of a loved one. For some of you, it was a job change. For others it was a spouse that said, "I don't want to be with you any more." For others, maybe something going on with your children or your family. In just a moment, circumstances can change. Our outlook changes with them.

Look what happened to the disciples. Jesus had told them it was going to be like this. He was going to be crucified and He would rise again from the dead. They did not understand that. In fact the good news had been so good, they did not want to believe the bad. How did they respond? Peter who had promised loyalty and faithfulness and "I will fight with you until the end", had promised Jesus that he wasn't going to give up on him, that he was going to stay right there.

Luke, chapter 22, we see Peter denying Christ three times. "I never knew him. I wasn't with him." When Jesus needed him the most, Peter was gone. When it really mattered. When it was on the line. Peter was saying, "I never had anything to do with this guy." So Peter, even though boasts of promise and great loyalty and "I will fight to the death for you", Peter gives up and caves in.

We have the women who had been following Jesus. Many of his followers, many of the disciples, went to the garden. Jesus has been crucified. They are going with all the spices and cloths. They are going to finish the burial preparations. They did not understand either. Jesus had said something about rising from the dead. But somehow these ladies had missed that.

Scripture says that on the very first day of the week, early in the morning, the women took spices they had prepared. They went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb. When the entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightening stood beside them. In their fright, the women bowed down. But the men said to them, "Why are you looking for the living among the dead? He is not here. He is risen.

Remember how he told you he was going to do this? They said a man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day be raised again." Then they remembered Jesus' words. The angels were saying to them, "What are you doing here with all of those dead things? Don't you remember? This one you had been following, this one you had been celebrating; He told you he was going to die and be buried. Then rise again in three days. Why do you seek the living among the dead?" Luke 24:1-11

You see, for Mary and Joanna and the other women, it had been hopelessness. The graveyard was not a very good place for them. In fact, this Scripture says they went back to tell the disciples. The disciples said, "Your words seems like nonsense to us. How can someone who has been dead, rise again?" They did not understand Jesus' words. They didn't understand what Jesus had been teaching. Their hope had been turned into hopelessness. Their excitement had been turned into despair.

All these great promises of something they were going to be a part of, now seemed to be ending in that cemetery.

I have been in enough cemeteries to know that there is not much excitement or enthusiasm there. A sense of loss, a sense of grief, a sense of departure for us. What is death really like? That great thief. Oh, we joke about it some. I like what Erma Bombeck says. She wants written on her tombstone. "No big deal, I am used to dust."

Or maybe, your family will receive a letter like this from the government some day. Like this family in Greenville, South Carolina. The husband had passed away. This is the letter they received from the government. "Your social service benefits will be stopped effective March, 1992 because we received notice that you passed away. May God bless you. You may reply if there is a change in your circumstances." Not likely to happen.

We joke about death because that is the one way for us to deal with it. Yet, there is not much good news in the graveyard. Death is that great thief. Death is that great interrupter of hopes and dreams. Death is that which many of us fear. We don't want to talk about it. We don't want to think about it. We hope it doesn't affect us. Yet, all of us inevitably have to deal with death.

Whether it is the loss of a family member or friend or at some point our own death, we see it as not being fair. Death is not what God intended for us. So the women and the disciples had all this great hope and promise. All these things they were going to see happen. Now it ended in a cemetery. But the angel says to them, "What are you doing here? What are you doing here looking for the living among the dead? Don't you know Jesus did exactly what he said he was going to do?"

There is power in the resurrection of Jesus. Christianity would be an empty religion if Jesus were just a great teacher who had come and dumped out some nice parables and a few nice sayings and some things that all of us ought to live by once in a while to get our lives together, to live pretty decent lives. That would be one thing.

But it isn't anything to give our lives to. But Jesus was more than just a good moral teacher. Jesus was more than just a historical person. Jesus conquered death. It changed the course of history. For Peter, the one who had been the denier. For Peter, the one who had given up. Peter learned that his failure wasn't going to be final, that Jesus was going to accept him. That God was going to love him. Peter goes on to make significant contributions to the church. There is good news because of the resurrection of Jesus.

Several years ago while on vacation we took our kids to see Lion King. If you have children, you probably have that movie memorized by now. We went, and again our youngest Chelsea, (she is four now) when Mufasa the father dies—gets trampled there. She started wailing. She did not stop crying the whole movie. The entire movie. I am shoving popcorn in her mouth, she was still crying. Recently one of the grandparents sent the video to us. So now we watch Lion King pretty much 24 hours a day. You know what she told me the other day? "Dad, don't worry. Mufasa, he dies, but he comes back to life! Because when we start the movie over, he is there again!" I must have looked skeptical because she said, "I'm not kidding!" Pretty simplistic for a four-year old.

But you know I think that is what God is saying. That is what God was saying to the disciples. That is what God is saying through the course of history to us. "I am not kidding! He came back! He is coming back and there is power in his resurrection because he has defeated the one enemy that all of us fear."

God has taken care of death. Jesus, risen again from the dead. That hope gave Peter power. That hope helped the women discover that there could be sense even in the midst of nonsense and grief. That mourning could be turned to joy. That tears could become laughter. That hopelessness could become hope again. The disciples celebrate his resurrection.

Do you remember when/ the city of Chicago, and for that part most of America, celebrated the return of its hero when sports writers proclaim, "He's back!", speaking of Michael Jordan. The disciples, how much more do they have to celebrate. When the world proclaims, "He's back."/ Not to win a championship, not from retirement, but He has conquered death. He has come back from the grave and we can place our trust and our hope in his resurrection. He's back! So the disciples have much to celebrate now.

Thomas said, "I am not going to believe this. I am not going to buy this stuff. There is no way someone is going to rise from the dead. I won't believe it until I can see his hands and touch his side." It is that same Thomas, who later fell down before the Lord, Jesus Christ, and said, "My Lord and my God." There is power in the resurrection of Jesus.

There is hope, not just for the disciples, not only for the women gathered in that cemetery. But there is hope for us today. An inheritance, Peter says, that will not perish or fade or spoil. Given for us so that we might have hope. It is tough to live without hope. It is tough for us to see how we are going to make it when there is no hope. Today in our society there is a lot of talk about spiritual things. There has been a lot of interest in that over the last year and a half.

More and more people are looking at moral issues and spiritual issues. USA Today in December posted a survey that 96% of us in America believe in God. 90% believe in heaven. 79% believe in miracles. 72% believe in angels. Those are all well and good. But the point is, there is a hunger going on in our society today because I believe we have reached a brink of hopelessness. Programs and money and careers and jobs and relationships don't quite satisfy us. They are like the envelope that promises us, "You may have already won 10 million dollars." We pursue it and it is never quite what we want it to be.

The real hope for us is to fill that empty spot in our lives. The real hope for us is to anchor to something. The real hope for us is to place our trust and our confidence in God. What God is saying through the resurrection of Jesus Christ is you can trust my promises. You can count on them. When I give you my word, you can count on it. God is so graciously giving us his word that each of us who would come to believe in him and place our hope and trust in him would have an inheritance that would not disappoint us. I have some good news for you. You can trust his promises.

The good news is that we can have hope in one who has conquered death. Risen from the grave, so that we might have hope in him. An inheritance that never fades or spoils or perishes. Kept in heaven for us. This time you are guaranteed the prize. This time you are guaranteed to be a winner. This is not some marketing gimmick. This is God's word saying to us, "You can trust my promises."

This morning we are going to sing a song of invitation. There are those of you who are outside of a relationship with Christ. We want to invite you to come. The real hope and power is not simply in Jesus' words or that we get together and talk about it. The real hope and power is that we celebrate his resurrection from the dead, conquering death. Not only do I know that from a personal experience of accepting Christ, but history validates Jesus' claims. We hope this morning that some of you would accept it. Maybe others want to become a part of our church family.

by John MacArthur, Grace Community Church

"How do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?"
(1 Corinthians 15:12).

Without the truth of bodily resurrection, the Christian faith would not make sense.

Even though Paul and the other apostles made the resurrection of Christ and His followers from the dead a central part of the gospel message, some new Gentile converts (the Corinthians especially) had difficulty accepting the idea of bodily resurrection. That struggle resulted mainly from the effects of Greek dualism, which viewed the spiritual as inherently good and the physical as inherently bad. Under that belief, a physical resurrection was considered quite repulsive.

The only way for the doubting Gentiles to accommodate their dualism was to say that Jesus was divine but not truly human. Therefore, He only appeared to die, and His appearances between the crucifixion and ascension were manifestations that merely seemed to be bodily. But Paul knew that was bad doctrine. He wrote to the Romans, "Concerning His Son . . . born of the seed of David according to the flesh . . . declared with power to be the Son of God by the resurrection from the dead" (Rom. 1:3-4).

To deny the actual, bodily resurrection of Christ creates some very significant doctrinal problems. Without His resurrection, the gospel is an empty message that doesn't make sense. Without the Resurrection, Jesus could not have conquered sin and death, and thus we could not have followed in that victory either.

Without physical resurrection, a life of faith centered on the Lord Jesus is worthless. A dead savior cannot provide any kind of life. If the dead do not rise bodily, Christ did not rise, and neither will we. If all that were true, we could not do much more than conclude with Isaiah's Servant, "I have spent My strength for nothing and vanity" (49:4). But the glorious reality is that we can affirm with Job, "I know that my Redeemer lives, and . . . .without my flesh [after death] I shall see God" (Job 19:25-26).

Suggestions for Prayer

Thank God that the truth of the Resurrection makes our theology credible and the gospel powerful.

For Further Study

Sometimes Jesus' closest followers have doubts about the Resurrection. Read John 20:19-29. How did Jesus prove to the disciples that it was really Him? What else did Jesus implicitly appeal to when He confronted Thomas's doubts?

by Greg Laurie

"I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live"
- John 11:25

Easter is for everyone!

It is about Jesus, and it is specifically about Jesus crucified and risen again from the dead.

I don’t know how you might describe your life this Easter. Maybe you are full of faith and looking forward to joining your family and friends at church and perhaps a special meal later in the day. If everything is going well for you, then praise God for that.

For others, it might be a different story. For some, Easter may even be a bittersweet day.

Death can seem so brutal, so ruthless, and so final. And that is exactly how the disciples felt when they saw the beaten, bloodied body of their Lord hanging on a Roman cross. Then, in addition to the Crucifixion, a Roman soldier took his spear, thrust it into Jesus’ side, and out of it came blood and water.

There was no question about it. Christ had died. If the Crucifixion hadn’t killed him, certainly the spear of the Roman soldier would have. The disciples thought it was over. They thought death had finished it.

So the disciples were shocked to find an angel waiting for them with the good news: “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He is risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid Him” (Mark 16:6).

They thought He was dead. But He was alive again.

Because Jesus has died and has risen again, it means that we as believers do not have to be afraid of death. As 1 Corinthians 15:20 tells us, “But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.” Jesus has gone to the other side, He has returned, and He has the keys to death and hell (see Revelation 1:18).

He is the resurrection and the life, and if we believe in Him, though we were dead, yet shall we live.