Jesus was
born of a virgin. He came from heaven. He laid aside his glory and took upon
himself the form of flesh.
I know that
sounds incredible. It is incredible! But it really happened.
Being God, he became a man and walked among
us. He taught and he healed and he raised the dead.
He did
things that no mere man could have done, because He was the Messiah. He is the
Messiah. The Chosen One, the Son of God.
He was rejected by his own people, and was
flogged and spit upon, and stretched out on a cross and crucified. For us. For
you. For me.
He died for
us.
He took our
sins and he bore the penalty for then. He paid a ransom for us.
And they
laid him in a borrowed tomb. He didn’t need it for very long. Only three days.
He was dead.
The Romans knew how to kill people. They were experts at it. They were
professionals. The military unit who took him out there to that place and
nailed him to that cross had executed many such condemned men. They didn’t make
mistakes. He wasn’t mostly dead… He was ALL dead! He was completely dead.
On the third
day, on Sunday, the women came to the tomb. It was empty. He wasn’t there.
He rose from
the grave. He really did! He is alive! Jesus the Christ, the Son of God, our
Lord and Savior. He lives.
He showed
himself to his disciples. He showed them his wounds. He counseled and comforted
them. He ate with them. Once He appeared to over 500 people at once.
Finally, he
took his disciples out to the Mount of Olives and he told them what they needed
to do. Make disciples, teach them what I have taught you, to believe, to love,
to be His disciples. He promised that he would be with them, and with us
always.
And then he
ascended back to heaven, where he sits at the right hand of God in heaven,
until he returns again one day.
These events occurred. It really happened. It
has been studied and analyzed and attacked and deconstructed and still it
stands as the most significant event in history. It cannot be explained away. I
invite you to examine the historical evidence.
To deny the
Resurrection of Christ is like trying to deny an atomic explosion.
The impact of the resurrection of Christ is
just as evident in history, as are the rippling impact waves, and the fiery
cloud that rises from the center of a nuclear explosion.
There is no other way to explain the sudden,
immediate, and continued rising of Christian faith in history, the ripples of
transformed lives, the shock waves that emanated outward from Calvary,
overthrowing kingdoms and liberating the lost, the least and the last of every
race and culture, ever since… not with force, not with the sword, but with
love. The love of Christ, what an amazing gift. Jesus who did this amazing
thing for us.
There’s no
way to explain the explosion of Christianity without the Resurrection.
Consider
this. Consider this one fact. All of his disciples, all of the men who became
apostles for Christ… they all died proclaiming the gospel facts… that Jesus was
the Son of God and that he was crucified, and rose from the grave and ascended
into heaven, before their very eyes.
All of his disciples, except John, were
murdered for their belief in Christ.
James, the son of Zebedee was beheaded in
Jerusalem in 44 AD, the first of the disciples to be martyred. Andrew was
crucified on an X shaped cross. Phillip was crucified in AD 54. Matthew was
killed by an axe in 60 AD. Peter was crucified upside down outside of Rome in
64 AD. Bartholomew was skinned alive and then beheaded near the Caspian Sea.
Thomas was killed by spear in Madras, India in 72 AD. James, son of Alphaeus
was stoned, and then clubbed to death at age 90. Jude was crucified. Simon the
zealot was crucified in AD 74. Matthias, the replacement of Judas Iscariot, was
stoned and beheaded.
Now I want you to think about something.
Men will lie
about a lot of things. They will lie for many reasons.
And men will die for a few things. But men
don’t die for lies.
At the end, they tell the truth. They only die
for what they believe to be true.
Every one of
the twelve apostles died professing the facts of Jesus… that they had seen, and
that they had lived. Their lives were given for this truth. Their lives were
spent preaching this truth. Because it is true!
He made us
and he bought us. We belong to him, whether we like it or not. We belong to
him.
But he has
left us the decision, whether to accept His gift of life.
Whether or not to accept His Lordship.
The bible says that one day, “every knee shall
bow, and every tongue confess, that Jesus Christ is Lord”, but for some who bow
on that day, it will be too late to claim the inheritance.
So we have
to decide what we’re going to do about this truth.
We are
responsible before God, now that we know these things.
Believers or those who don’t.
Claimers of
our inheritance or those who reject it.
Eternity with our Lord in the New Jerusalem, or eternity without God, completely removed from His presence and His Grace.
We have to
choose which side of that fence we are going to stand on.
That’s why we are here, and that’s what this whole
deal is about.
MJS
