TRANSCENDING PRESENT POSSIBILITY

"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."  (1 Peter 1:3)

Of all the mysteries our faith invites us to contemplate, the Resurrection is by far the most astonishing.  Not simply in the sense of being difficult to believe in a logical fashion.  That, in a way, is the very point of it.  The very idea of resurrection shatters all the categories of comprehension with which we make sense of our world. It draws us instead into a reality that transcends present possibility.  

-- Wendy M. Wright in “The Rising”   

#5583

ACCOUNTS OF THE RESURRECTION – Part 2

“For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. After that, He appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have died.”  (1 Corinthians 15:3-6)

The empty tomb and the accounts of the personal meetings with Jesus are even more historically certain when you realize they must be taken together. If there had been only an empty tomb and no sightings, no one would have concluded it was a resurrection. They would have assumed that the body had been stolen. Yet if there had been only eyewitness sightings of Jesus and no empty tomb, no one would have concluded it was a resurrection, because people’s accounts of seeing departed loved ones happen all the time. Only if the two factors were both together would anyone have concluded that Jesus was raised from the dead.

Paul’s letters show that Christians proclaimed Jesus’s bodily resurrection from the very beginning. That meant the tomb must have been empty. No one in Jerusalem would have believed the preaching for a minute if the tomb was not empty. Skeptics could have easily produced Jesus’s rotted corpse. Also, Paul could not be telling people in a public document that there were scores of eyewitnesses alive if there were not. We can’t permit ourselves the luxury of thinking that the resurrection accounts were only fabricated years later. Whatever else happened, the tomb of Jesus must have really been empty and hundreds of witnesses must have claimed that they saw Him bodily raised….

They knew that if it was true it meant we can’t live our lives any way we want. It also meant we don’t have to be afraid of anything, not Roman swords, not cancer, nothing. If Jesus rose from the dead, it changes everything. 

-- Timothy Keller in “The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism”  

#5580

CHRIST’S RESURRECTION IS THE BREAKTHROUGH

"If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that He raised Christ from the dead. But He did not raise Him if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep."  (1 Corinthians 15:14-20 NIV)

Without the resurrection there is no gospel... The issue for Paul [in 1 Corinthians] cut to the center of the gospel: Quit preaching the forgiveness of sins if Christ was destroyed. Quit offering hope for a new life if Jesus is dead. Quit believing in eternal joy with God if Jesus was martyred and sent to sleep forever in the mists of Sheol. But, Paul proclaims, Jesus not only bled and died for sinners; He also rose again in victory and power. His offering of forgiveness carries divine authority. And of ultimate significance to us, His resurrection is the breakthrough, the pioneer work that leads the way. The same power that raised Jesus will raise us from the dead. If Christ is alive, as we believe, we too shall live... with our Savior.

-- U.M. Bishop Richard Wilke in “DISCIPLE: Becoming Disciples Through Bible Study” 

#5578

THE RESURRECTION LIFE

"There is an order to this resurrection: Christ was raised as the first of the harvest; then all who belong to Christ will be raised when He comes back."  (1 Corinthians 15:23 NLT)

It is true and important to say that the resurrection of Jesus proved both who He was and that the Father had accepted what He did for us. But these truths do not say enough. Jesus’ resurrection was not only proof of what He did, it is itself something that He did for us. Through His resurrection, Jesus became the new Adam, the first person to experience all that God had intended for humans since creation. He became the source of the resurrection life we enjoy now, and the guarantee that at death we too will enter fully into the same quality of existence. 

-- Mark Strom in “The Symphony of Scripture” 

#5577

TRUSTING IN THE RESURRECTION

“Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; He has risen! Remember how He told you, while He was still with you in Galilee: ‘The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified, and on the third day be raised again.’”  (Luke 24:5b-7 NIV)

Wouldn’t it be great to fully understand the Resurrection? Forget about it. Every time I’ve ever felt like I really got it, a new angle has popped up. There’s always something else to grow into as it relates to the Resurrection. Rest in it. Trust it. Bet your life on it! But don’t think you’ll ever fully “get it.”

This is the place where many folks fall short of being able to be Christian. It’s not very reasonable to believe Jesus Christ was raised from the dead: “Nice guy. Love the teachings. Really like the way He gave the hypocrites such a hard time. Really loved people. But come on, resurrected?! No way. I can’t buy that.”

A very wise person with no formal education once said, “I have found that it’s impossible to prove God’s promises in advance, but if you’ll live them, you’ll find they are true, every one.” God promises the Resurrection to each of us. If we’ll live our lives trusting it’s all true, then the Resurrection will grow on us and it will make all the difference in our daily walk with Jesus. 

-- Pastor Jamie Westlake, from the Cypress Lake UMC Lenten Devotional 2004

#5331

LETTING GO

Jesus said, “If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for My sake, you will save it.”  (Matthew 16:25 NLT)

Until you have given up your self to Him you will not have a real self… Does that sound strange? The same principle holds, you know, for more everyday matters. Even in social life, you will never make a good impression on other people until you stop thinking about what sort of impression you are making… The principle runs through all life from top to bottom. Give up yourself, and you will find your real self. Lose your life and you will save it… Nothing that you have not given away will be really yours. Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead. 

-- C. S. Lewis in “Mere Christianity”

#5087

CONVINCED OF THE RESURRECTION

“If our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world. But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. He is the first of a great harvest of all who have died.”  (I Corinthians 15:19-20 NLT)

Christianity did not begin with a group of people trying to remember and follow Jesus' teaching even though He was dead. It began with the belief that God had vindicated Jesus as the Messiah by raising Him from the dead. This is why one would be completely mistaken to think that Jesus was a good teacher whose followers eventually developed a myth about His being the Son of God. There would be no Christian movement today if His original followers had not been convinced that He had really risen from the dead. 

-- Mark Mittelberg in “The Questions Christians Hope No One Will Ask”

#5073

BECAUSE JESUS WAS RAISED

"Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we've been given a brand-new life and have everything to live for, including a future in heaven -- and the future begins now!" (1 Peter 1:3-4 MSG).

Others offer life, but no one offers to do what Jesus does -- to reconnect us to His power. But how can we know? How do we know that Jesus knows what He's talking about? The ultimate answer, according to His flagship followers, is the vacated tomb. Did you note the words you just read? "Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we've been given a brand-new life." In the final sum, it was the disrupted grave that convinced the maiden Christians to cast their lots with Christ. "He was seen by Peter and then by the twelve apostles. After that, Jesus was seen by more than five hundred of the believers at the same time" (1 Corinthians 15:5-6 NCV).

Can Jesus actually replace death with life? He did a convincing job with His own. We can trust Him because He has been there.

-- Max Lucado in “3:16 - The Numbers of Hope”


#4578

RESURRECTION WITNESSES

If Jesus' tomb is empty, His promise is not. Leave it to the apostle Paul to reduce the logic to a single sentence: "There is an order to this resurrection: Christ was raised as the first of the harvest; then all who belong to Christ will be raised when He comes back" (1 Corinthians 15:23 NLT).


Paul was writing to Corinthian Christians, people who had been schooled in the Greek philosophy of a shadow afterlife. Someone was convincing them that corpses couldn't be raised, neither theirs nor Christ's. The apostle couldn't bear such thought. "Let me go over the Message with you one final time" (1 Corinthians 15:1 MSG). With an insistence of an attorney in closing arguments, he reviewed the facts: "[Jesus] was raised from death on the third day… he presented Himself alive to Peter… His close friends… more than five hundred of His followers… James… the rest of those He commissioned… and… finally… to me" (1 Corinthians 15:4-8 MSG).


Line up the witnesses, he offered. Call them out one by one. Let each person who saw the resurrected Christ say so. Better pack a lunch and clear your calendar, for more than five hundred testifiers are willing to speak.


-- Max Lucado in Fearless: Imagine Your Life Without Fear




#3854