Resurrection

Matthew 28:1-10
P. G. Mathew | Sunday, April 20, 2014
Copyright © 2014, P. G. Mathew
Language [Japanese]

Hallelujah! Our Lord Jesus Christ is risen from the dead! The Father raised him by the power of the Holy Spirit for the eternal salvation of all the elect sinners. He has defeated and triumphed over all his enemies. Therefore, let the people of God rejoice and be exceedingly glad!

How do we know this gospel truth? We know from the Holy Scriptures, which were written by the holy prophets and apostles under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. We believe in the absolute authority of the Scriptures, as the Westminster Confession of Faith, chapter 1, declares.

All four gospels give eyewitness accounts of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Luke the historian says that he wrote his gospel so that Theophilus “may know the certainty of the things [he had] been taught” (Luke 1:4). John tells us that he wrote his gospel so that we “may believe that Jesus is the promised Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing, [we] may have life in his name” (John 20:31). Luke also says, “After his suffering, Jesus showed himself to these men and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive” (Acts 1:3). Luke records many of these infallible, logical proofs in his two-volume work, the gospel of Luke and the book of Acts.

Christianity essentially has to do with Jesus Christ—his person and work. God sent him from heaven to us sinners so that we may be justified and brought to glory, that is, to God’s presence. We read in Hebrews 2:10, “In bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering.” And Peter tells us, “For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit” (1 Pet. 3:18).

Who, then, is Jesus Christ? We want to look at seven points concerning him.

1. Jesus Is God

What does God say in his holy word about Jesus Christ? He declares that Jesus is God. John writes, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. . . . The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. . . . No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known” (John 1:1, 14, 18).

Paul says, “For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form” (Col. 2:9). He writes elsewhere, “while we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13). He also says, “Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen” (Rom. 9:5).

Jesus Christ is Yahweh, the covenant God of the Old Testament. He is Lord; he is Deity. Professor John Frame says, “Unless our savior is God, we are without hope. It is the deity of Christ that sustains his human nature through terrible suffering, that gives worth and power to his sufferings, that makes his salvation sure. As God said through Isaiah (43:11), only the Lord can save us from our worst predicament. Only the Lord can be the Savior. And as Jonah said, salvation is of the Lord (2:9).”¹

Jesus Christ is God. I counsel you to bow your knees before him and confess him as Savior and Lord so that you may be saved today.

2. Jesus Is the Virgin-Born Son of God

Jesus was born of a virgin. When she was told that she would bear a son, Mary asked the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” The angel told her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God” (Luke 1:34–35). And as we already read, John writes, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory” (John 1:14).

Dr. J. Oliver Buswell, Jr. says, “The virgin birth was a special miracle wrought by the Third Person of the Trinity, whereby the Second Person of the Trinity, the eternal Son of God, took to himself a genuine and complete human nature, and was born as a man, without surrendering in any way his complete, divine nature.”² Professor John Murray says, “The incarnation means that he who never began to be in his specific identity as Son of God, began to be what he eternally was not. . . . The infinite became finite, the eternal and supratemporal entered time and became subject to its conditions. The immutable became the mutable, the invisible became the visible, the Creator became the created, the sustainer of all became dependent, the Almighty infirm. . . . God became man.”³ He also says that there is a “conjunction in one person of all that belongs to Godhead and all that belongs to manhood.”⁴

Jesus Christ is one person in two natures, divine and human. Without faith in the virgin birth of Jesus Christ, no one can be saved.

3. Jesus Was Sinless

Jesus lived a sinless life. When challenged by the Jews, he asked, “Can any of you prove me guilty of sin?” (John 8:46). In Hebrews 4:15 we read, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin.” In Hebrews 7:26 we read, “Such a high priest meets our need—one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens.” John writes, “But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin” (1 John 3:5). Peter says, “He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth. . . . He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed” (1 Pet. 2:22, 24). Paul writes, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21). A sinful Jesus cannot save anyone. He would himself need a Savior.

4. Jesus Is Our Atonement

We need a Savior because all descendants of Adam are sinners. Paul says, “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned” (Rom. 5:12).

The Bible tells us we are conceived in sin, born sinners, and practice sin daily in our intellects, wills, and affections. By nature we are dead in transgressions and sins. We are fools who deny God. We are enemies of God. The wrath of God abides upon every sinner. We are alienated from God and from each other. We also are schizophrenic, in the sense that we are divided amongst ourselves and have no peace.

But in Jesus Christ we have a peacemaker. He is our atonement, one who makes “at one” those who are enemies. He is the one who makes amends, blotting out our offenses and making satisfaction for wrong we have done, and reconciling us to God. On the cross, God presented his Son as a sacrifice of atonement for the elect, believing sinners. Jesus Christ died for our sins in our place, as our substitute.

All have sinned and come short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23), and the wages of sin is death (Rom. 6:23). All must die eternal death, unless God intervenes. But Jesus Christ, by his life and death, made atonement in our behalf. Paul says that God’s purpose was “in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility” (Eph. 2:16).

On the cross, God demonstrates his love and justice. Paul declares, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8). He also says, “God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished—he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus” (Rom. 3:25–26).

Have you put your faith in Jesus Christ? If not, I command and beseech you to repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. For whom did Christ die? For all the people of the world who truly repent and believe in God’s Son Jesus, who himself loved us and died in behalf of us.

5. Jesus Was Raised from the Dead

J.N.D. Anderson says: “The fact of the resurrection is one of the best historically attested facts of ancient history.”⁵

Jesus Christ predicted his own death and resurrection many times. As the Prophet (Deut. 18), he predicted the absolute, divine necessity of his death and resurrection (see Matt. 16:21; 17:9; 17:23; 20:19; 26:32). For example, in Matthew 16:21 we read, “From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.”

Jesus knew that the Scriptures spoke about his death and resurrection (see Luke 24:26–27, 44–47). He says that the whole Old Testament spoke of him—his death, his burial, and his resurrection, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins may be proclaimed to all the world. Jesus came to fulfill what the Old Testament promised—a Messiah and Savior who, by his death, would conquer death, the devil, sin, and all his enemies. He became incarnate to give his life a ransom for many.

All of the gospels testify to Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection. No one ever before had been raised from the dead to live forever (see Acts 26:23 and 1 Corinthians 15:20).

Jesus gave many convincing proofs of his resurrection. If you say you don’t want to believe in his resurrection, you are a fool, and your mind is closed. You should get on your knees and call upon the name of the Lord, that he may open your heart, as he opened the heart of Lydia to respond to the gospel.

Paul appeals to many witnesses in 1 Corinthians 15:3–8. Jesus rose from the sealed and guarded tomb on the third day, exactly as he predicted. He rose from the grave after his death and burial, in his own body of flesh and bones, yet glorified; a body that could go through the grave clothes and the sealed and closed tomb. (PGM) His body still bore the marks of crucifixion. It could appear and disappear, including appearing in a room with closed doors.

In this resurrection body, Christ ascended into heaven, defying gravity. In his resurrection body, he could eat food and be touched. His body is physical, imperishable, glorious, powerful, incorruptible, immortal, and triumphant.

Many people saw Jesus in his resurrection body. Our resurrection bodies shall be like his (Phil. 3:21). He made over ten post-resurrection appearances for forty days to hundreds of people, giving infallible proofs to his resurrection.

Do you want proof? Consider the following:

1. The empty tomb. The angels invited the disciples, “Come and see. See, he is not here; he is risen, as he said.” Jesus is truth. He cannot lie.
2. Yet the tomb had his grave clothes lying undisturbed. This means his body was not stolen, either by enemies or friends.
3. No one ever produced the dead body of Jesus to put an end to Christianity. Do you know why? Because he really did rise from the dead. The truth is, his body did not experience decay, as we read in Psalm 16:10: “You will not let your Holy One see decay.”
4. God’s angels took out the sealed, very large stone that closed the mouth of the tomb. They did not do this so that Jesus could get out, but to demonstrate God’s control over all powers, including the power of Rome. They also removed the stone so that the witnesses could come in and see that not only was Christ’s body not there, but also that he had left something—the grave clothes, as a proof of his resurrection.
5. The testimony of his holy elect angels. They told the women, “He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. You will see him in Galilee, as he said.”
6. The testimony of Jesus himself to the women, to the apostles, and to John. So we read, “The women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy. . . . Suddenly Jesus met them. ‘Greetings,’ he said. . . . Then Jesus said to them, ‘Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me’” (Matt. 28:8–10). When Paul asked, “Who are you, Lord?” he said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. Now get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen of me and what I will show you” (Acts 26:15–16). To John he said, “I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades” (Rev. 1:18). And in John 14:19 he said, “Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live.”
7. The unbelieving apostles now believed and their lives were transformed. Peter, who denied Jesus, spoke of his resurrection and was crucified for his faith.
8. The apostolic declaration in the book of Acts. The apostles declared as fact that Christ was raised from the dead (Acts 2:32; 3:15; 5:32; 10:39; 13:31–32; 23:6; 24:15; 25:9; 26:8, 16, 23).
9. Jewish believers began worshiping on Sunday, the first day of the week, and began calling it the Lord’s Day, because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ on that day.
10. A special proof is the confession of Christ’s death and resurrection by Paul. Paul was the most educated, brilliant, and achieving apostle, by his own testimony. He was an arch-enemy of Christianity and a star persecutor of Christians because of their insistence of the truth of the resurrection of Christ. Jesus appeared to Paul and he became convinced of the resurrection of Christ. And in God’s time, he was martyred for his faith in Christ’s resurrection.

Jesus Christ, by his death and resurrection, has conquered death for us, his people! Are you his people? He destroyed death and brought life and immortality to his people. He gives us eternal life. Jesus said, “I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever!” (Rev. 1:18). He said, “Because I live, you also will live” (John 14:19). Christ is our life, in life and in death.

If Jesus’ predictions of his death and resurrection are true, then all his teachings are true. Thus, we can be assured of the following:

1. Christ shed his blood for the remission of our sins.
2. He came down from heaven, from the Father, and he went back to the Father.
3. His words were the words of the Father.
4. He and his Father are one. This is an assertion of his deity.
5. He is the Son of God.
6. Whoever believes in him has eternal life. Jesus said so.
7. Unbelieving people are condemned.
8. There is a devil, and all unbelievers are children of the devil, doomed to destruction.
9. The Bible is true. Jesus said, “It is written,” and that is it.
10. Jesus is coming again as Savior and Judge.
11. He is the way, the truth, and the life. He said, “No one can come to the Father except through me.” There is no eternal life or salvation outside of Jesus Christ.
12. He is given all authority in heaven and on earth.

God’s people also receive many benefits from the resurrection of Christ. Because of his death and resurrection, these things are true:

1. We are born again: “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 Pet. 1:3).
2. We are justified: “He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification” (Rom. 4:25).
3. We are sanctified: “We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life” (Rom. 6:4).
4. We have eternal life. Jesus said, “Because I live, you also will live” (John 14:19).
5. We are given the Holy Spirit: “God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact. Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear” (Acts 2:32–33). The Holy Spirit has been poured out because Christ was raised from the dead and ascended into the heavens.
6. We shall also be raised from the dead: “We know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence” (2 Cor. 4:14).
7. Christ is the Judge of the whole universe: “For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead” (Acts 17:31). Christ is going to judge you. Now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation. Now you must bow your knees and open your mouth and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, for the glory of God the Father.

The Athenians mocked Paul when he spoke of the bodily resurrection of Jesus. So do all modern, cultured despisers. God must open the eyes of these blind ones so that they may see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ when they are hearing the gospel. May God help us to pray for the salvation of the perishing souls.

Unbelief tries to shut the Lord of all creation out of his world. But he acts in his world in time and space according to his sovereign will. We cannot prevent him from acting in his world.

True science and history must reflect the truth of the Bible. Otherwise, it is not true science. Paul spoke to the cultured despisers including the Roman procurator Festus and King Agrippa II: “Why should any of you consider it incredible that God raises the dead?” (Acts 26:8). We could also ask, “Why do you think it incredible that God created the world ex nihilo—out of nothing?” We must understand who God is. The infinite personal God created all things and raised Jesus Christ from the dead. The adequate reason for all the existing reality of the universe is God.

6. Jesus Is Our Savior

This risen Christ is our Savior. Paul writes, “It is because of [God the Father] that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption” (1 Cor. 1:30). He also says, “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins” (1 Cor. 15:17). Everyone who does not believe in Jesus Christ is without hope and without God in the world.

The risen Christ has saved us from the wrath of God; the dominion of sin and death; and the dominion of the world, the flesh, and the devil. For all who believe in Jesus Christ, the resurrected One, “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1).

Christ has set us free! Paul declares, “You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness” (Rom. 6:18). We have freedom from sin, freedom from death, freedom from the devil. Liberty! That is what we have. Praise be to God! We have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.

7. Jesus Is Coming Again in Glory

Finally, we must acknowledge this truth: Jesus is coming soon, or we shall soon die. That is the biblical testimony. So we read, “For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words” (1 Thess. 4:16–18).

Doubting Thomas saw the risen Christ, and he confessed, “My Lord and my God!” Paul confessed too: “Christ loved me and gave himself for me.” But Jesus does not make personal visits and appearances now so that unbelievers can believe. The report of the historical, miraculous resurrection of Jesus is given to us in the sacred Scriptures by God-authorized writers. It is the truth. It is the very word of God. Believe it and be saved.

So we read, “Jesus told [Thomas], ‘Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed’” (John 20:29). Reflecting on these words, Peter wrote, “Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy” (1 Pet. 1:8). The Philippian jailer asked Paul and Silas, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” The simple answer came: “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved—you and your household” (Acts 16:31). And Paul explained to them who Jesus was, his person and his work, and that he was raised from the dead.

Friends, why would you perish? Believe in the risen Christ today. Then you will live forever and ever in God’s holy presence in everlasting joy.

¹ John M. Frame, Salvation Belongs to the Lord (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2006), 141.

² J. Oliver Buswell, Jr., “The Virgin Birth of Jesus,” Baker’s Dictionary of Theology, edited by Everett F. Harrison et al (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1982), 543–44.

³ John Murray, “The Person of Christ,” Collected Writings of John Murray, Vol. 2, Select Lectures in Systematic Theology (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1977), p. 132.

⁴ Murray, 133.

⁵ J. N. D. Anderson, The Evidence for the Resurrection (London: InterVarsity, 1950), 1.