Pt. 29, Beliefs of the Biblical Christian, Part 4

 
Beliefs of the Biblical Christian, Part 4
Pt. 29, The Biblical Story
The Resurrection of Jesus Christ

By Pastor Dan Kennedy
© April 5, 2015
www.pastorkennedy.com


Why it is so important that we celebrate Jesus Christ’s Resurrection?

Almost 3,000 years ago this Obituary for a king was written in the Scripture:
“And Asa slept with his fathers, dying in the forty-first year of his reign.  They buried him in the tomb that he had cut for himself in the city of David. They laid him on a bier that had been filled with various kinds of spices prepared by the perfumer’s art, and they made a very great fire in his honor.”  2 Chronicles 16:13–14 

•	King Asa had reigned forty-one years.
•	King Asa was known as a good king who sought to follow God.
•	King Asa was buried in great honor.
•	King Asa died almost 3,000 years ago.
Lee Kuan Yew, the founding father of Singapore who transformed the sleepy British colony into a commercial powerhouse, died March 23, 2015 at 91 years of age. 

•	Lee Kuan Yew was the founding father of Singapore.
•	Singapore has been called Asia’s richest and most advanced economy…achieved in only a little over fifty years.
•	When Lee Kuan Yew died many thousands paid their respects. 

The rich, the powerful, the talented, the brilliant, the poor, the humble and the unknown:  everyone dies.

Do you believe there is Life after Death?  

Denial of Life After Death is Not New.
There have always been those who deny life after death…and every denier has his or her own reasons (Acts 23:8).  Some reasons have religious overtones, some are philosophical, some are personal, and some reasons rise from anger against God, but all strive for the same answer.  There is no life after death – they say.  

But it seems no one can conclusively prove or disprove life after death to the living, so one has to look at the reasonable probabilities and come to one’s own conclusion by faith.  
Probabilities may include: the existence of the universe, the reality and mystery of life, consciousness, procreation, truth, virtue, justice, diversity, millions of species, etc., etc. – each with their value, purpose and meaning. 

Tragically, if one comes to the conclusion that there is no life after death, but at death find that they are wrong…there will be an eternity to suffer the consequences of his or her error.

The facts everyone needs to consider:

•	Death is no respecter of persons – everybody dies.  
Many have relayed Near Death Experiences (NDE) after being presumed dead and then resuscitated.  I am not saying that NDE’s prove life after death, (not all experiences are from God, or are reliable truth), but it is interesting that even those blind from birth experiencing NDE’s have recounted visually accurate details of their hospital room, and other sights, etc.  If an agnostic disbelieved life after death, NDE’s should give a moment of pause to – at least, rethink one’s position.
•	Every religion contemplates life after death (encompassing some 86% of the world’s population)
•	Much more importantly, Jesus specifically spoke of life after death
o	Jesus told skeptical Sadducees about life after death who tried to stump Him with a religious technical question on remarriage – “We will be like the angels,” Jesus told them (of course the Sadducees didn’t believe in angels either!).
Matthew 22:29–30 
29 But Jesus answered them, “You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God. 30 For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.
o	 Jesus went on to tell the Life-after-death religious skeptics that God is the God of the living, not the dead…
Matthew 22:29–30 
31 And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God: 32 ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living.” 
o	 Jesus declared the Resurrection to jealous and skeptical Jewish leaders
John 5:25, 28-29  
25 “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. 

28 Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice 29 and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment. 

o Jesus spoke to Martha regarding Lazarus’ death and resurrection

John 11:25–26 
25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” 

o Jesus told His Disciples about His Coming Again and the Resurrection

John 14:2–3  
2 In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. 

•	All of Jesus’ Apostles (who had been with Christ during His three year ministry) confirmed Christ’s Resurrection from the dead
Acts 4:33 
33 And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. 
1 Corinthians 15:3–7 
3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 

o	 The Apostle Peter preached about Christ’s Resurrection at Pentecost
Acts 2:31–32 
31 he (King David, in the Psalms – 1,000 years before Christ) foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. (Ps. 16:10) 32 This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. 
o	 The Apostle Paul confidently taught the Resurrection of Jesus Christ and of eternal life throughout his writings.
- Paul spoke before Felix, the Governor regarding the Resurrection
Acts 24:14–15 
14 … I worship the God of our fathers, believing everything laid down by the Law and written in the Prophets, 15 having a hope in God, which these men themselves accept, that there will be a resurrection of both the just and the unjust.
- Paul addressed philosophers in Athens about the Resurrection
Acts 17:18 
18 Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him. And some said, “What does this babbler wish to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities”—because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. 

Acts 17:30–32 
30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” 
32 Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, “We will hear you again about this.” 

- Read the 15th chapter of Paul’s first letter to the church at Corinth – Here are some selected portions:
1 Corinthians 15:35–38; 42-44; 51-52 
The Resurrection Body 
35 But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?” 36 You foolish person! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. 37 And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. 38 But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body. 

42 So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. 43 It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. 44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. 

51 Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. 
 
Is there Life after Death?

The Bible teaches that Jesus Christ shed His own blood on the cross as a Substitutionary Sacrifice for the sin of the world – those who put their trust in Him receive pardon and redemption from their sin, transformation by the Holy Spirit, and the promise of eternal life in Christ’s Kingdom.

The Scripture teaches that Jesus Christ broke the power of sin and death by rising again from the dead.

The Scripture teaches that when we die we will be resurrected and those who by faith have trusted Jesus Christ for the cleansing of the guilt of our sin against God will forever be with the Lord, and one day Jesus Christ will return to establish His eternal Kingdom!

~~~

Every day we experience the mystery of life and creation – in the air we breathe, the fusion of blood through our veins to every cell in our body, the sunshine we take for granted, with the rain pouring down and watering our world, borne on jet streams and diverse wind currents.  Fresh water streams and rivers run into the salty oceans – all filled with myriads of aquatic life.   Huge forests, plant life, gardens, with orchards bearing all manner of fruit, found on windblown mountains to fertile valleys.  Snow packed peaks distribute moisture to our crops in the summer.  We seem to easily forget what God does for us every day, all the while on seeming autopilot, allowing our busy lives to be focused purely on ourselves.

Most of us seldom leave our human created shelters and modes of transportation, which we have fashioned with our own hands, so we have little time to marvel in the vastness of God’s creation and the profound expanse of the universe.   We interact with each other using the unexplainable dynamic of human life, mind, spirit and consciousness.  We are presented every day with grand displays of a tangible reality, and glorious mystery that God is there.   

And we somehow take the vastness of God’s Creation and the miracle of our human being for granted…simply saying, in the end, that we are not sure God is even there, and most likely when we die, there is nothing more.

Let us think again.

Let us ponder Christ’s Resurrection.  Let us consider our own resurrection.  Let us seriously consider Eternal Life.  Let us consider our life right now!

Christ is Risen!
He is Risen Indeed!




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