 Today is the day after resurrection Sunday. And today is the first day of the rest of your life. Is that just a cliché or is the reality of the resurrection making a difference in your life today? "If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable." 1 Corinthians 15:19 "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead" 1 Peter 1:3 “Resurrection Day" is the day of all days Let’s review the day that changed the course of history. The resurrection left its mark on eternity because our Christian faith is based on the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It’s a fact we can receive by faith. A fact that has forever changed the history of mankind. But what do these facts mean for you today, 2,000 years after the fact? Anything? Or everything?
You see, the multitude of the old saints from the Old Testament were patiently waiting in paradise to be released and ushered into the presence of God. Jesus took the keys of death and hell away from Satan himself. The sting of death for the believer would never be present again. Then on that third day Christ arose and came out of the tomb and after 40 days of ministry to the disciples He ascended to heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father where He lives and intercedes for all of us on earth. We are free and are not enslaved to sin or anything the devil tries to do in our lives. The resurrection gives believers access to the Kingdom of God and all things to pertain to life. The Resurrection Is the Sign of Christ The Redeemer When The religious Pharisees asked Jesus for a sign that He was the Son of God, Jesus answered with scriptures. “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Matthew 12:39-40 The sign of the person and Messiah and deity of Jesus Christ as the Son of God is His resurrection from the dead. The fact of the Jesus' deity and His office as Messiah is so certain that if you take it away, the whole ministry of Christ falls to the ground. The keystone in the arch of the deity and ministry of the Son of God is the power of His resurrection. His resurrection is the attestation that He was what He said He was, and He’s able to do what He declared Himself able to do. [John 2:18-21; Acts 17:31]. So, the Jews answered and said to 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. John 2:18-21 For in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’ Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising. 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 dead.” Acts 17:28-31 II. What Happened During the Three Days and Nights After Christ died on the cross? Jesus became sin for us and was the substitute for us. The first Adam became "spiritually bankrupt" when he and Eve listened to the Serpent. God promised them that if they ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, they would die. And they died spiritually. Satan breathed death -Satan's own nature into their soul. Although they still lived physically, they were spiritually separated from God and true Life. The dominion over the earth that they once possessed was no longer theirs—in their act of rebellion against God, they forfeited their place in creation. God had intended for mankind to have control over the earth. They gave it up to the devil when they became his subjects. Every person is a descendant of Adam and Eve’s, and so we also were born subjects of the devil--spiritually separated from God. Or, to put it simply, we want our way—not God’s. Jesus became sin so that we could have that Eternal Life breathed into our spirit and become “born again.” For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. 2 Corinthians 5:21 "If Christ Has Not Been Raised . . . " And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. 15 Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not.16 For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: 17 And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. 18 Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. 19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.20 But now is Christ risen from the dead and become the first fruits of them that slept. 1 Corinthians 15:14-20 In those verses, Paul says there are six things that would be in shambles if Christ did not rise from the dead. Then verse 20 reverses the whole paragraph: "But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead." So, let's look at those six things.
Now, let’s reverse these scriptures and put them in a positive tense 1. We Are Forgiven for Our Sins From verse 17, instead of saying negatively that we are not still in our sins, we can say positively that because of the resurrection we are forgiven for our sins. 2. Our Faith Is Well-Founded From verse 14, instead of saying negatively that our faith is not in vain, we can say that because of the resurrection our faith is well-founded. 3. The Apostles Preach What Is True From verse 15, instead of saying negatively that the apostles are not false witnesses about the work of God, we can say positively that because of the resurrection, the apostles preach what is true. They are not false witnesses about God. They are true. The need for truth is a deep need of the human soul. Our young people are being taught (just like many of us were taught) that there is no absolute truth- something that is true all the time and everywhere whether people know it or like it. Without the conviction that there are absolutes that can be shared and made the basis for society, the only end will be anarchy where everyone does what is right in his own eyes. We can see that happened in the book of Judges when there was no leadership, people began to do what they thought was right in their own eyes. Jesus came into the world to say, "I am the way, the truth, and the life" (John 14:6). And then he rose from the dead to vindicate his claim. Jesus is the Lord. He has a right to tell us what is absolutely true because in the resurrection, God proved him to be absolutely true. 4/5. We Are to Be Envied Instead of saying negatively that we are not to be pitied, we can say positively that because of the resurrection we are to be envied. Our preaching is not in vain—it is full, meaningful, valid, valuable, significant. If Christ is not raised, then living for him, doing what he says, following his will is a great delusion. We should be pitied like insane people who live by hallucinations. But since he has been raised and is alive and reigns as king forever, all our obedience, all our love, all our self-denial is not just-to-be-pitied but is positively enviable, because we will be eternally rewarded for living our lives in obedience to God. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 4:17, "This slight momentary affliction is working for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison." And there is in every one of us the longing that our lives be well spent—that our lives count for something. We all desire our lives to have significance and usefulness. We don’t want to come to the end of our days on this earth and realize that our life here was all in vain, empty, pointless, useless, insignificant—pitiable. Paul knew this. That's why he encouraged the saints to "Be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain." 1 Corinthians 15:58 6. Those Who Have Fallen Asleep Are Alive Finally, there is the longing that we shall live forever in joy. That we not come to an empty end after living a full and valuable life. That we not become a zero, or worse, damned. And so, Paul says in verse 18 that because Christ is raised those who have fallen asleep in him—those who have died in faith—have not perished. Or positively, they are alive. They will live forever. They live the way Christ lives. They will enter the joy of their Master. In raising Christ from the dead:
If we are born again, we are free and are not enslaved to sin or anything the devil tries to do in our lives. The resurrection gives us access to the Kingdom of God and all things to pertain to life. Let His Resurrection power rule in your life today. You can indeed experience the power of His resurrection today! We may have already celebrated Easter Sunday, but the power of God to raise you from the dead and live in obedience to His will is available today and forever! For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God. John 3:16-21
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