EXPANDING FAITH THREE SIZES

“Afterward Jesus appeared again to His disciples, by the Sea of Galilee. It happened this way: Simon Peter, Thomas (also known as Didymus), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples were together. ‘I’m going out to fish,’ Simon Peter told them, and they said, ‘We’ll go with you.’ So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus.”  (John 21:1-4 NIV)

Thinking all is lost after the crucifixion, some of the disciples go fishing on the Sea of Galilee -- a dismal, depressing, fishing expedition. Hot, naked, and exhausted, the disciples try valiantly to return to the way things were before they met Jesus. Suddenly a voice from the shore (big rock thrown here): “Catchin’ anything?” “Nah,” they shout back, more depressed than ever. “Then try the other side of the boat!” the voice yells again. Peter stands up to see who this wise guy is. Wait -- no, it can’t be -- but, yes, it is: the Lord! Suddenly Peter can’t move fast enough. He leaps into the water, and swims to shore, leaving the others to haul in a miraculous catch. His faith grows three sizes in a matter of minutes. The boundaries of what he thinks God can do explode, and his love and gratitude for what God is doing in Jesus Christ, Lord of Life, is simply too large to fit in the boat any more. 

-- Kenda Creasy Dean and Ron Foster in “The Godbearing Life”

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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”  

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ACCOUNTS OF THE RESURRECTION – Part 1

“When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so they could go and anoint the body of Jesus. Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they went to the tomb. They were asking one another, ‘Who will roll away the stone from the entrance of the tomb?’ But when they looked up, they saw that the stone had been rolled away, even though it was extremely large. When they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed. But he said to them, ‘Do not be alarmed. You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here! See the place where they put Him. But go, tell His disciples and Peter, “He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see Him, just as He told you.”’”  (Mark 16:1-7)

The accounts of the resurrection in the Bible were too problematic to be fabrications. Each gospel states that the first eyewitnesses to the resurrection were women. Women’s low social status [at that time] meant that their testimony was not admissible evidence in court. There was no possible advantage to the church to recount that all the first witnesses were women. It could only have undermined the credibility of the testimony. The only possible explanation for why women were depicted as meeting Jesus first is if they really had. N.T. Wright argues that there must have been enormous pressure on the early proclaimers of the Christian message to remove the women from the accounts. They felt they could not do so – the records were too well known. The accounts of the first eyewitnesses would have been electrifying and life-changing, passed along and retold more than any other stories about the life of Jesus. 

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

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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” 

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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” 

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