Sermon
The Theology Of The Resurrection
May 4, 2003
Pastor Donald Sheley

I'm going to ask you to take your sermon notes. They are entitled "The Theology Of The Resurrection". I made the observation that Easter Sunday is always a little frustrating to me because there are 15 hours of great theological truth to preach in 15 minutes, so we've extended Easter and we're talking about after the resurrection.

Last Lord's Day we followed the disciples as they made their journey, by invitation of Christ, up to the Sea of Galilee, which is about 75 miles north, because immediately following the resurrection Christ had invited them to a celebration up in Galilee. There all their fears, all their doubts, all their questions were resolved, because they spent time personally with Jesus. Truly it was so, the Christ that they had listened to, the Christ that they had followed, the Christ that they had observed that went to that cross truly had risen from the dead.

Then we took the next step and observed how the resurrection and their personal time with Christ transformed their preaching, preaching under tremendous anointing in the face of those as Jewish people who had been a part of the crucifixion, yet with great power and strength that they declared the story of the resurrection.

Now today we're going to read the same Scripture passage and I want to make some other observations. What happened after the resurrection? 1 Corinthians 15 reads:
"Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand,
by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you-unless you believed in vain.
For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received; that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures,
and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep.
After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles.
Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time.
For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.
But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.
Therefore, whether it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.
Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?
But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen.
And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty.
Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up-if in fact the dead do not rise.
For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen.
And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins!
Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.
If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most pitiable. But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead.
For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive."

Now I begin our lesson with that observation I just made, that in our last study we were considering the effects of the resurrection on the disciples and their preaching. We noted that the first event that followed was that celebration up in Galilee where Jesus spent time with His disciples confirming their faith and removing all doubt. He truly was the Christ that they had listened to.

Now there's one aspect that we didn't consider in our last study and it has to do with the nature of the resurrection body. We find ourselves in the presence of a great mystery when we try to contemplate the real nature of the risen body of our Lord Jesus Christ. When He rose from the grave, He rose to die no more; He would never again be subject to the power of death, for "death hath no more dominion over Him" Paul writes in Romans.

His body was endowed with properties and qualities which were new and mysterious; it was totally different both in action and in being from the limitations which had prevailed in the days of His flesh. He could appear and vanish at will in a manner that was wholly spontaneous and supernormal. He could ignore or transcend natural barriers in a way that is quite beyond ordinary comprehension.

Thus, He emerged from the grave clothes while not a single fold was displaced, and He left the tomb even though the stone had yet to be rolled away. Matthew tells us, "And behold, there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat on it." He revealed Himself to Mary in the garden and then to the women by the wayside, and He withdrew again without a hint to tell them how He came or where he went.

John tells us, "But Mary stood outside the tomb weeping, and as she wept she stooped down and looked into the tomb. And she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain.
Then they said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?" She said to them, "Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him."
Now when she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, and did not know that it was Jesus."

He joined the two disciples on the way to Emmaus as though He had come from nowhere, and He left them in the inn at the village as though He had vanished into space. Luke says, "Then they drew near to the village where they were going, and He indicated that He would have gone farther. But they constrained Him, saying, "Abide with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent." And He went in to stay with them. Now it came to pass, as He sat at the table with them, that He took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they knew Him; and He vanished from their sight."

Twice He stood in the midst of the disciples who had assembled behind doors shut with iron bolts, and there was no obvious means of ingress or egress. His manifestations to the seven by the lake and to the brethren on the hills of Galilee were no less sudden and unexplained. So it would seem that all the resurrection appearances were marked by this dynamic quality.

Dramatic? Yes. No one knew where He was in the intervals between each appearance or whence He came on each occasion. Yet, the gospel records make it plain that His body risen was identical to His body buried. The resurrection body was a real body. Proof of this may be found in the series of manifestations to His disciples: "To whom also He showed Himself alive after His passion by many infallible proofs, being seen by them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God."

The disciples not only saw Him with their eyes, but they were allowed to feel Him with their hands. It would seem that Mary fell at His feet and held them fast when she met Him in the garden; and it was this eager clasping of His limbs which called forth the gentle prohibition..."Touch Me not". She had felt Him, and found Him real. She had touched Him, and that was enough.

When He revealed Himself to the women shortly after this scene, we are told that "they came, and held Him by the feet, and worshipped Him". They had not been without fear and trepidation when they first hear of the resurrection; that fear was not wholly allayed even by the message of the angel or the sight of Jesus Himself. But, it was only when they held Him by His feet and felt Him with their hands that all their fears were swallowed up in adoring certainty.

Now there's another form of evidence and that's the fact that He ate with His disciples from time to time. The first occasion was when the two disciples constrained Him to lodge with them in Emmaus. He went in as a guest and He sat down as a host to sup with them and they with Him. Luke says, "And it came to pass as He sat at meat with them, He took bread, and He blessed it, and brake, and gave to them."

Now when He stood in the midst of the disciples that same evening, He dispelled their fears in the same way. He asked them if they had any food that was available, and they gave Him a piece of broiled fish and some honeycomb. And Luke tells us that He took it, and He did eat before them.

When Jesus met His disciples at the Sea of Tiberias, He prepared the fire on the seashore and prepared the breakfast, and He said, "Come and eat breakfast." And John says, Yet none of the disciples dared ask Him, "Who are You: --knowing that it was the Lord. Jesus then came and took the bread and gave it to them, and likewise the fish. This is now the third time that Jesus showed Himself to His disciples after He was raised from the dead."

Pause - Jesus' resurrection body was identical to the body in which He carried on His ministry, in the sense that He could be seen and He could perform tasks. They could touch Him and there was substance, and yet, in a moment of time He could vanish. That substance spiritualized and He was out of their sight.

Now my mind works this way. I can understand, at least of little bit, the marvelous capability and the power of God to take a body and make it look identical to His ministry, and yet disappear. It could spiritualize and vanish. But now food is material. And always what bothered me is He ate the fish, the fish went into His tummy, it's there and He disappears -- what happened to that food? You say, that's a crazy question pastor. I try to wrap my mind around the immensity of this miracle of the resurrected body of Christ; to be seen, to be able to be touched, to eat, and yet vanish.

Now the amazing thing about this is that because He rose from the grave, and because of that resurrection body John writes in 1 John 3, "Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God!" He goes on to write, "and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is."

One of the glorious truths of the resurrection of Jesus Christ is that resurrected body that was the marvel of that moment to those disciples, will be the resurrected body that you and I will have when we see Him face to face. One of the great truths of the resurrection of Christ.

Now because time hastens along, I'll have you read the rest of the notes until we get to page 6. I'd like to go to page 6 today. You see if I go to the back and get close to the end of the sermon time, at least I can feel that I covered most of it. You can read that for your lunch today. I had great joy in putting these notes together, and when you read them you'll see that they are packed with a lot of wonderful truths.

But on page 6, the resurrection changed fear and doubt of the disciples into certainty and joy. The resurrected body of Jesus gives us the promise that we too shall have a body like unto His glorious body when we arrive in His presence. But there is more about the resurrection for us to think about. Let us consider the doctrinal significance of the resurrection.

(1) Christ's resurrection insures our regeneration or our new birth.
Peter says that "we have been born anew to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Here he explicitly connects Jesus' resurrection with our regeneration or new birth. When Jesus rose from the dead He had a new quality of life, a "Resurrection Life" in a human body and a human spirit that were perfectly suited for fellowship and obedience to God forever. In His resurrection, Jesus earned for us the new kind of life just like His. We do not receive all of that new "Resurrection Life" when we become Christians, for our bodies remain as they were, still subject to weakness, aging and death. But in our spirits we are made alive with the new resurrection power.

But if the Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you...and folks, that's what happened -- when you said 'Lord Jesus, I open my heart and my life to You. I receive You as my Savior and my Lord,' the Bible says that His Spirit comes to live within us. Now here's Paul's statement, But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you." Thus it is through His resurrection that Christ earned for us the new kind of life we receive when we are born again. This is why Paul can say that God made us alive together with Christ, for by grace you have been saved, and He raised us up with Him.

When God brought Christ from the dead He thought of us as somehow being raised with Christ and therefore deserving the merits of Christ's resurrection. And Paul said that his goal in life was 'that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection.' Ah, what a statement. Paul knew that even in this life the resurrection of Christ gave new power for Christian ministry and obedience to God. For Paul the resurrection was not simply a past event in history, however amazing. It was not simply something which had happened to Jesus, however important it was. It was a dynamic power which operated in the life of the individual Christian.

Paul connects the resurrection of Christ with the spiritual power at work within us when he tells the Ephesians that he is praying that they may know "what is the immeasurable greatness of His power to us who believe, according to the working of His great might which He accomplished in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and made Him sit at His right hand in heavenly places." Here Paul says that the power by which God raised Christ from the dead is the same power at work within us. O, if we could grasp that glorious truth.

Paul goes on to say we've been buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life...So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus." What a truth. Paul said because of the resurrection and the power that brought Christ out of that tomb, when you and I opened our hearts and lives to Christ's indwelling presence, that same power is at work within us. Amen?

Page 7 -- Christ's resurrection insures our justification. In only one passage does Paul explicitly connect Christ's resurrection with our justification, but Paul says that Jesus was put to death for our trespasses and He was raised for our justification. When Jesus was raised from the dead, it was God's declaration of approval, of Christ's work of redemption. Because Christ had humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross, God has highly exalted Him. And by raising Christ from the dead, God the Father was in effect saying that He approved of Christ's suffering and dying for our sins, that His work was completed, and that Christ no longer had any need to remain dead. There was no penalty left to pay for sin, no more wrath of God to bear, no more guilt or liability to punish-all had been completely paid for, and no guilt remained.

In the resurrection, God was saying to Christ, I approve of what You have done, and You find favor in My sight. Now, If God raised us up with Him then by virtue of our union with Christ, God's declaration of approval of Christ is also His declaration and approval of us. When the Father in essence said to Christ, "All the penalty for sins has been paid and I find You not guilty but righteous in My sight," He was thereby making the declaration that would also apply to us once we trusted in Christ for our salvation. In this way Christ's resurrection also gave final approval and proof that He earned our justification.

Let's go quickly to the last page. After Jesus' resurrection, He still had the nail prints in His hands. Some have suggested that maybe we might bear some of our scars of life, but I note here that the scars from Jesus' crucifixion are unique because they are an eternal reminder of His sufferings and death for us. The fact that He retains those scars does not necessarily mean that we shall retain our scars. Rather, all will be healed, and all will be made perfect and whole.

Three other thoughts -- Paul also sees that the resurrection has application to our obedience to God in this life. After the long discussion of the resurrection, the entire chapter of 1 Corinthians 15, Paul concludes by encouraging his readers. Now remember, the subject has been resurrection, and Paul says, because of Christ's resurrection, "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain." It is because Christ was raised from the dead, and we too shall be raised from the dead, that we should continue steadfastly in the Lord's work. That's Paul's logic.

What a great motivation. Because He rose from the dead, one of these days we too shall rise to meet Him. What a glorious moment that will be. Paul's thought is this -- because we know that any moment in the twinkling of and eye we made be in His presence, the resurrected Lord, and this mortal shall put on immortality and this corruption shall put on incorruption, then live your life every moment as if the next moment we'll be in His presence. That's what Paul is says. Be immovable, steadfast, always excitedly abounding in the work of God.

When I think of that I look across your faces and say, maybe the next moment (snaps fingers), the next Sunday, we'll all be there, and not here. Amen? Paul said because He rose we're going to rise to meet Him.

The next one -- Paul encourages us when we think about the resurrection, to focus our future on heavenly rewards in our goal. He sees the resurrection as a time when the struggles of this life will be repaid. "If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory."

There is coming that glorious day. Paul said, set your minds on things above, on the eternal values, because that's what really counts. It's not what we have here, it's the treasures we've sent on ahead of us. Set your mind on the things of heaven.

Then the resurrection places on us the obligation to stop yielding to sin in our lives. When Paul says we are to consider ourselves "dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus" by virtue of the resurrection of Christ and His resurrection power within us, he then goes on immediately to say, "Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies...Do not yield your members to sin."

The fact that we have this new resurrection power over the dominion of sin in our lives is used by Paul as a reason to exhort us not to sin any more. What Paul is saying, that resurrection power that brought Christ out of that grave comes to take residence within us and we become the temple of the Holy Spirit, and because that power is within us, we can be more than conquerors through Christ who loved us. Amen? We need not fall to sin knowing that His power, His precious Spirit is at work within us. Paul says don't yield yourselves to sin. It has no more dominion over you. His power is within us.

And after the resurrection, then the ascension. After Jesus' resurrection, He was on earth for forty days, then He lead them out to Bethany, just outside Jerusalem, and lifting up His hands, He blessed them, and while He blessed them, He parted from them, and was carried up into heaven. Christ is now in heaven with the angelic choirs singing praise to Him.

Worthy is the Lamb who was slain. Worthy is the Lamb. Amen. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we've tried with our finite minds to grapple with some of these great eternal truths that cling tenaciously and are foundationed in the truth of the resurrection; to somehow understand that one of these days this mortal flesh shall be changed and we'll be like You. We'll have a resurrected body like Yours, dear Christ. To know that power that brought You out of that grave is the same power that could be at work and should be at work within each one of our lives, helping us to always abound in Your work and becoming more than conquerors through You who loved us. We bow in Your presence, dear Christ, and we worship You. We love You, Lord Jesus. Thank you for loving us. And everybody said, amen. God bless you.