The Power of the Resurrection of Our Saviour

The Power of the Resurrection.

Remember 4 words

The Fact and Facts of the Resurrection.

Reading : Matthew 28 : 1-10

v.6 He is risen.    “ He is not here; for he is risen, even as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay”.

It is a fact. Christ did not stay in the grave and decay, He returned to physical bodily life on the third day after his death as he promised.

His body was real. They had lived with him and they saw Him die and give up His spirit.He really died and He really was buried and rose again.

They saw Him and became witnesses willing to die for the cause having seen the Resurrected Christ. He was seen by:

• Mary magdalene and the other Mary at the tomb on the resurrection morn.
• The two on the road to Emmaus a village outside of Jerusalem  
• The Twelve in the Upper Room.
• More than 500 people at once according to 1 Cor 15.
• On more than 17 different occasions Jesus was seen after his resurrection

Applications.

1. The Apostles chose for an Apostle to replace Judas Iscariot, someone who had been with them  from John’s Baptism until the Ascension of Christ. They were to be Witnesses of the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

2. We are to be witnesses but they were Eye-witnesses.

A witness is someone who has first-hand knowledge about a crime or dramatic event through their senses (e.g. seeing, hearing, smelling, touching)

and can help certify important considerations to the crime or event.

A witness who has seen the event first-hand is known as an eye-witness.

Witness testimony is often presumed to be better than circumstantial evidence.

However studies have shown that individual, separate witness testimony is often flawed and parts of it can be meaningless.

This can occur because of a person's faculty of observation and recollection, because of a person's bias, or because the witness is lying.

1 Cor 15 :3-8

1Co 15:3  For I repeated to you the all-important fact which also I had been taught, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures;

1Co 15:4  that He was buried; that He rose to life again on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,

1Co 15:5  and was seen by Peter, and then by the Twelve.

1Co 15:6  Afterwards He was seen by more than five hundred brethren at once, most of whom are still alive, although some of them have now fallen asleep.

1Co 15:7  Afterwards He was seen by James, and then by all the Apostles.

1Co 15:8  And last of all, as to one of untimely birth, He appeared to me also.

The Death, Burial and Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ are the very Basis of our Christian faith. More about that latter.

Fantasies and false Statement  about the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Most who do not believe in the bodily Resurrection of Christ from the dead do so because they wilfully disbelieve. They have what the Bible calls an evil heart of unbelief. They suppress or Hold down the truth and they live in their unrighteousness and disobedience.

1. They say ‘raised from the dead’ merely means that Christ as a ‘spirit being’ did not remain in hades [the waiting place of the dead] but was raised up to heaven.

This contradicts the explicit declaration of Scripture.  Jesus said to the disciples especially doubting Thomas,”

Luk_24:39  See my hands and my feet--it is my very self. Feel me and see, for a spirit has not flesh and bones as you see I have."  Jesus rose bodily from the Grave and we will also rise bodily.

2. In the ‘Vision Hypothesis’ that Christ only appeared to them in a very subjective way as in a vision. This is false and is contrary to Scripture. His resurrection in Scripture is set before us as a Miraculous restoration to his Physical life where he ate with them walked with them preached and instructed them. It was a true Reunion of his spirit with his body even though the physical limitations were set aside. In other words, Now “he entered a locked room” miraculously, He said to Mary “don’t touch me I have not yet ascended to my Father”. He disappeared from the feast at Emmaus when they recognised Him.

The Resurrection was the beginning of His Glorification to the Father’s right hand.

His Body was real. It was the same body in which they had seen Him living and in whci He had died.

READJohn 20:24-29

Joh 20:24  Thomas, one of the twelve--surnamed 'the Twin' --was not among them when Jesus came.

Joh 20:25  So the rest of the disciples told him, "We have seen the Master!" His reply was, "Unless I see in his hands the wound made by the nails and put my finger into the wound, and put my hand into his side, I will never believe it."

Joh 20:26  A week later the disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them, when Jesus came--though the doors were locked--and stood in their midst, and said, "Peace be to you."

Joh 20:27  Then He said to Thomas, "Bring your finger here and feel my hands; bring you hand and put it into my side; and do not be ready to disbelieve but to believe."

Christ’s Body now in heaven is a Glorified Body. Revelation 1:12-18

All the Gospels concord together that Christ rose bodily and ascended into heaven as a MAN.

COMMENT

This was the teaching of the Apostles.

Act 4:1  While they were saying this to the people, the Priests, the Commander of the Temple Guard, and the Sadducees came upon them,

Act 4:2  highly incensed at their teaching the people and proclaiming in the case of Jesus and the Resurrection from among the dead.

Act 4:3  They arrested the two Apostles and lodged them in custody till the next day; for it was already evening.

….....................................

Act 4:33  while the Apostles with great force of conviction delivered their testimony as to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus; and great grace was upon them all. [ And with great power the apostles were giving forth their witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.]

COMMENT

1 Cor 15:14 And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain and your faith also is vain!

And if Christ is not risen, then is our preaching vain - Another consequence which must follow if it be held that there was no resurrection, and consequently that Christ was not risen. it would be vain and useless to preach. The substance of their preaching was that Christ was raised up; and all their preaching was based on that. If that were not true, the whole system was false, and Christianity was an imposition. The word vain here seems to include the idea of useless, idle, false. It would be “false” to affirm that the Christian system was from heaven; it would be useless to proclaim such a system, since it could save no one.

And your faith is also vain - It is useless to believe. It can be of no advantage. If Christ was not raised, He was an impostor, since He repeatedly declared that He would rise Mat_16:21; Mat_18:22-23; Luk_9:22, and since the whole of His religion depended on that. The system could not be true unless Christ had been raised, as He said He would be; Barnes

CHRIST HAS RISEN FROM THE DEAD. HE’S ALIVE FOR EVERMORE. HALLELUJAH

Christ’s Resurrection as the Prototype [or Firstfruits]

Meaning of Prototype

1. An original type, form, or instance serving as a basis or standard for later stages.

2. An original, full-scale, and usually working model of a new product or new version of an existing product

Jesus Resurrection involved a real Body; It involved a Transformed Body;and It involved an Identical Body.

Acts 26 :23 Paul says to King Agrippa II, “that Christ was the first [protos] who should rise from the dead.”

This cannot mean that the Christ would be the first dead person who should be restored to life, for Elijah had raised the son of the Shunammite, and Jesus himself had raised Lazarus, and the widow’s son at Nain. It does not mean that he would be the first in the order of time that should rise, but first in eminence [fame]; the most distinguished, the chief, the head of those who should rise from the dead - πρῶτος ἐξ ἀναστάσεως νεκρῶν  prōtos ex anastaseōs nekrōn.

In accordance with this He is called Col_1:18 “the beginning, the from the dead,” having among all the dead who should be raised up the pre-eminence of being the firstborn or eldest son, or what pertained to the first-born.

In 1Co_15:20 he is called “the first fruits of them that slept. This declaration is therefore made of him by way of Pre-eminence:

(1) As being chief, a prince and first among those raised from the dead;

(2) As being raised by his own power Joh_10:18;

(3) As, by his rising, securing a dominion over death and the grave. 1Co_15:25-26;

1Co 15:25  For He must continue King until He shall have put all His enemies under His feet.

1Co 15:26  The last enemy that is to be overthrown is Death;

and,

(4) As bringing, by his rising, life and immortality to light. He rose to return to death no more. And he thus secured an ascendency over death and the grave, and was thus, by way of fame and renown, first among those raised from the dead.

ILLUSTRATION Dr Donald Grey Barnhouse in Train in Holland in the Springtime.

The train sped through the acres and acres of tulips which eventually gave way to a sea of green leaves belonging to a late variety

“I wonder what these will be,” , till he saw a solitary bloom and exclaimed, Now I know: they will all be yellow” .

The word for “Firstfruits” implies

1. Christ would be the first to rise of a huge number of resurrected.

2. His resurrection would be a pattern of the believer’s as the firstfruits of the coming harvest.

In the book of Leviticus 23z:15-17 a single sheaf or bundle of barley was the WAVE SHEAF OR THE FIRSTFRUITS  was brought to the High priest who waved it before the Lord.

Application

1.  Jesus is the Chief and Prince among those who rise from the Dead. He is the Prototype.

2. He conquered death and the grave. So we also will rise from the dead.

3. He lives for evermore and we will live to die no more. Resurrected life means everlasting life with God.

2. It involved a Transformed Body; METAMORPHOSIS

A change or transformation of the form or nature of a thing or person into a completely different one, by natural or supernatural means:

The two on the Road to Emmaus discussing the events in jerusalem. Jesus drew near:

Luk 24:30  But as soon as He had sat down with them, and had taken the bread and had blessed and broken it, and was handing it to them,

Luk 24:31  their eyes were opened and they recognized Him. But He vanished from them.

He was no longer limited by distance.

Afterwards He appeared in the locked room where the disciples were there. His body was not limited by walls.

Luk 24:33  So they rose and without an hour's delay returned to Jerusalem, and found the Eleven and the rest met together, who said to them,

Luk 24:34  "Yes, it is true: the Master has come back to life. He has been seen by Simon."

Luk 24:35  Then they related what had happened on the way, and how He had been recognized by them in the breaking of the bread.

Luk 24:36  While they were thus talking, He Himself stood in their midst and said, "Peace be to you!"

1Jn 3:2  Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is.

1Jn 3:3  And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.

APPLICATION

The Apostle John spoke of “The time for Receiving our resurrection bodies is when Christ comes. These bodies will be changed to be like Christ’s body.

A METAMORPHOSIS will take place We shall be changed in the Twinkling of an eyehttp://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRDxNIgusj_-pq2-CZTp7BMPUZcp-09bE2UHXSCrpRBLD6qcJdU7w

1Co 15:22  For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all will be made alive.

1Co 15:23  But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then those who belong to

Christ at His coming.

The Glorified Body we will receive will be different in DURATION , POWER and VALUE

1Co 15:41  There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differs from another star in glory.

1Co 15:42  So also is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption.

1Co 15:43  It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power.

1Co 15:44  It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.

Duration                              corruption        v      Incorruption

POWER                               weakness         v      mighty strength [dunamis]

VALUE                                  Natural             v     Spiritual

1Co 15:44  It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.

But certainly he means to say that the “spiritual body” has some kind of germinal connection with the “natural body,” though the development is glorious beyond our comprehension though not beyond the power of Christ to perform (Phi_3:21). The force of the argument remains unimpaired though we cannot follow fully into the thought beyond us. RWP

Conclusion:

1.