Why Did Jesus Have to Rise Again?

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https://youtu.be/jXDp5_nDB7M?si=4MoDmBqgR4H-lHNX

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Why did Jesus Have to Rise Again?

The Why’s of Easter

Greg Lavine and John Beeson

So we begin this Easter Sunday with this declaration. He is risen. He is risen indeed. One more time. He is risen.

He is risen indeed. Amen. Now we respond in that way, not just because it's some religious thing that we do, some, some little thing that the church, churchy thing that we do on Easter Sunday. It is us repeating the most outrageous claim in all of history that a man came who is fully God and fully man and lived among us 2,000 years ago. His name was Jesus Christ and he died a humiliating death at the hands of the Roman government and then rose again to conquer death and sin forever.

And so when we say he is risen, he is risen indeed. We, we step into an outrageous and audacious claim. Now there have been outrageous claims made throughout history, each with their own set of implications. The Buddha said that there was no permanent self that radically changes our lives, our way that we view humanity. If that is true, Muhammad said, I am the final prophet.

An outrageous claim that gives him the utmost authority of anyone who's ever lived radically

changes reality. But none made a more audacious claim than Jesus Christ himself, who claimed to be God, a human being. There's an interaction. Jesus made this claim throughout his ministry. There's one interaction that he had with the religious leaders at the time who said, hey Jesus, just we've heard rumors that you're saying this, but just say it plainly.

Are you the Messiah? And he one ups them. Jesus over in John 10 returns and he's going to say, I'm not just Messiah. He says this, I and the Father are one. The God that you worship is now here with you in the flesh.

An outrageous claim. Now how can a man prove such a claim? You look to Jesus in his life and you could see the powerful teachings that he gave us that still resonate 2,000 years later. You could say, well that's some proof. You can look at his life and see a life of righteousness and humility.

And you could say, well that's some proof. You can look at his miracles changing the fate of those who are blind to see. Lame who walked even demonstrating the power over death in raising up of Lazarus, the expelling of demons, the declaration that he can forgive sin, all of those things are proof. But there is no proof more powerful than than the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. He knew it and he shared with the disciples over and over, I am going to die, I'm going to be laid in a tomb and three days later I will rise from the dead.

On seven different occasions in The Gospels, we read those exact words. Consider just one with me out of the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 17. As they were gathering in Galilee, Jesus said to them, the Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men and they will kill him and he'll be raised on the third day. And they were greatly distressed. They didn't get it.

They didn't understand it. Jesus knew his greatest proof of being God was going to be rising from the dead. And they had to grasp this. They had. This is a foundational aspect of the Christian faith.

At its very base, Jesus Christ is God and rose from the dead. Paul, Paul says this is of absolute first importance. Consider these words in First Corinthians, chapter 15, First Corinthians, chapter 15, beginning in verse 3. For I delivered to you as a first importance, this is, this is number one on your list. I'm giving this to you as the most important thing of the Gospel.

Who I also received, I delivered to you. I went back to verse one. For I delivered to you as a first importance what I also received. That Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures. And that he appeared to Cephas, then to the 12.

Then he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Well, this is a big deal. This is foundational. Jesus Christ was not simply a prophet. Jesus Christ was not simply a good teacher.

Jesus Christ was not simply a great moral man of God setting an example in this world. Jesus Christ is God and he proved it by his resurrection. This is why we need to address this. He says he appeared to Peter. That's great.

He appeared to the 12. Fantastic. Then he appeared to more than 500 people at one time. And most of them were still alive. Go check it out.

There's, there's all these theories that people put out there. Well, maybe, maybe Rome hid his body. That's, that's what happened to Jesus. He didn't rise from the dead of any government on earth that wanted to squel a rebellion and offer up the body of Jesus, it was Rome. Well maybe, maybe the Jews stole his body and hid it away, that it actually is one up over the Romans.

If there's any group on earth that wanted to provide the body to stop this movement, it was the Jewish people. Some people say, well maybe it was the disciples. Paul said, don't you understand? The disciples gave up their lives for the truth that they saw the resurrected Jesus. And it's not just 12 of them.

He appeared to over 500 at one time and most of them are still alive. Go check it out. He is saying, this is so foundational, it's verifiable fact. He is risen. He is risen indeed.

Yes. So here's the turn in the sermon. You could sit there and say, okay, all right, I'll follow with you. That Jesus rose again from the dead, but what does that mean for me? How does that impact my life?

That's the question we've been asking the last few weeks. What does the life of Jesus mean for you? For me, what does the death of Jesus mean for us? And today we ask this question, okay, if it's true that Jesus rose again from the dead, what does it actually mean for us? What's the impact in our lives?

We want to begin here. We're going to give you three reasons that it impacts our lives. And the first is this, that it confirms that Jesus is God. It confirms that Jesus is God. And if Jesus is God, it changes the way in which we encounter him.

It changes the way that we listen to his words, that we respond to his words. Jesus makes this claim himself. I want to take us to another time that he makes this claim. It's actually the most highest stakes moment of his life. His life is on the line and he can easily wriggle out of it if he just gives up this claim because he's on trial for blasphemy, on trial for claiming to be God.

Listen to what happens as Jesus is in front of Caiaphas, the high priest and the Sanhedrin, verse 59 of Matthew 26. Now the chief priests and the whole council were seeking false testimony against Jesus that they might put him to death. But they found none. There were many false witnesses that came forward at last. Two came forward and said, this man said, I am able to destroy the temple of God and to rebuild it in three days.

Jesus is speaking of himself as the fulfillment of the temple. He is the one who's going to be

destroyed and raised again in three days. And the high priest stood and he said, have you no answer to make? What is it that these men testify against you? But Jesus remained silent.

And the high priest said to him, I adjure you by the living God. Tell us if you are the Christ, the

Messiah, the Son of God. Jesus said to him, you have said so, but I tell you, from now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of power and coming on the clouds of heaven. Jesus, in the face of judgment, with his life on the line, says, this claim that you're making about me, you have no idea the implications of it. It's absolutely true, says I.

The Son of Man. It's his favorite way to refer to himself. It's back from a prophecy in the Old

Testament that speaks of the Divine one who will come. The Son of Man. I will come.

You judge me today. But on that final day, I will sit in judgment over you and over everyone. I am the Almighty, I am the judge. I am God. Jesus says, if I had a time machine, that's one conversation I would like to have witnessed.

Jesus appears to the disciples. There's 11 at this point. And he appears to them and shows himself to them. But Thomas is not with them. And the other disciples go to Thomas and they say, thomas, Jesus rose from the dead.

We saw him, we were with him. And Thomas says, when I see him with my own eyes, in fact, I want to touch the wounds in his hand. Then I'll believe that he rose from the dead. Eight days later, Jesus appeared to the disciples again. And Thomas is there.

And Jesus doesn't wait for Thomas to bring it up. Jesus sees Thomas, says, thomas, I heard you. Come and touch my hands. And Thomas gets up and touches his hands and listen, listen to these words. This is out of John, chapter 19, in verse 28.

John, chapter 20. Yeah, John 20. Next page, verse 28. Thomas answered him. These are Thomas words.

My Lord and my God. You rose from the dead. That, that proves you're not just my Lord. You're my Lord and my God. The resurrection of Jesus Christ shows that he is God.

It. It proves that he is God. It's meaningful to me because we all have doubting Thomases inside of us. There's oftentimes I think Jesus didn't have to rise from the dead publicly. He paid for our sins on the cross.

He was laid in the tomb. He could have just risen and gone up to heaven without rolling the stone away, without visiting anyone. He could have just ascended into the, into the heavens, but he didn't. Why did Jesus rise from the dead visibly, tangibly, so that human beings could see him, so that we would believe, so that we would see it and know he's God. It's tangible, it's provable.

He is God. And this is a foundational truth. Had a friend that I met with for a while, that was Mormon, and we began pouring into each other's lives, trying to understand each other. And I will never forget early into that conversation, I looked at him and I said, okay. Do you believe Jesus is God?

He said, yes. That wasn't the answer I was expecting. And I kind of backpedaled and I. Oh, I didn't know you thought that. It was a month later, before I slowly started to realize we were using a different vocabulary.

We were using words different. And I came back to it. I said, okay, remember when I asked you if Jesus was God? And you said, yes. Is he God, like, supreme above everything, Creator of heaven and earth, the one God of Gods, Lord of Lords, King of kings over everything?

Oh, no. He said, I believe he's a God, like I'm a God. I thought, oh, okay. So that's the difference. Here's a truth.

This truth divides all religions on the face of the earth. This truth divides all denominations. If you are Christian, you believe in this. If you don't believe in this, you. You're not Christian.

I don't care what name you put on the wall of your building. Jesus Christ is God, died for our sins, and three days later rose from the dead. It is a foundational truth. Foundational truth. Consider these words out of the Book of Romans.

I have a lot of Roman. I turned right to it. I'm so proud of myself. Romans, chapter one. In verse eight, first I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you because of.

I didn't. Verse 1. Skip verse 8. It's a great verse, but let's go back. Verse 1.

Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the Gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures concerning his Son, Jesus, who was descended from David according to the flesh. In other words, we know he's a human being because he descended from David. We know his ancestry. We know his parents. We know Mary, where he was born.

We know he was a human being because he descended from David. And verse four was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the spirit of holiness. By his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, he proves he is God by the power of the resurrection. Jesus Christ is alive today. He is risen.

He is risen indeed. Amen. The first thing that the resurrection means for you and me is that it proves that Jesus is God. The second thing it means for us is that it guarantees a resurrection. It guarantees a resurrection.

When we speak of resurrection, we're not talking about some spiritualized thing. You might have been to a memorial service where they say the deceased will live on in our memories, right? That's not what we're talking about with Jesus, what we're talking about is a true bodily resurrection, a conquering of death. Paul puts it all on the line earlier in the sermon Greg was in First Corinthians 15. He continues that line of reasoning and he pushes all of his poker chips into the center of the table.

He says, listen, if this is false, this Christianity thing isn't some nice little thing. It's ridiculous. It's absurd. It's to be mocked. Listen to him in First Corinthians 15:17.

And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you're still in your sins. Death awaits you. You are trapped by your sin, trapped by your flesh, trapped by the bentness of your own heart. The resurrection of Jesus Christ must be true for any of those things to be untrue. But he says he has been risen.

And because Jesus Christ has been raised from the dead, all of that has changed. Listen to him continue down in verse 20. But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as man came, death by a man has also come, the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.

Let me explain what he's saying there. He's saying, listen, every single one of us, we all have the same Father. Way back at the beginning, the first man, the first bearer of God's image, and his name was Adam, and he walked with God in perfect union. He was given a perfect life by God, and yet still he chose to rebel, he chose to disobey God. And in so doing, he not only cut himself off from God, he cut humanity off from God.

Every one of us lives in the reality of Adam's bent away from God, his sin, his pride, his selfishness. And all of us are born in sin. And for all of us, death awaits us. Until a new Adam appeared, the beginning of the turn of all things. Jesus Christ, who overcame death, overcame sin.

And in him we can experience new life. Life not under Adam, but under Jesus Christ, Son of God, Son of Man. And in him, if you die to yourself, you will rise again, and you are guaranteed a new resurrection. I don't know if you picked up that little word in there. He called Jesus the first fruits.

So angel and I are doing our first little Arizona gardening experiment this year. So we have a little garden bed. Things are growing, right? And when we really got excited was just about a week or so ago when our zucchini, the blossoms started little. Itty bitty zucchinis at the bottom, we're like, hooray, there's going to be crops, real crops, because little zucchini become big zucchini and one zucchini becomes many zucchini.

When the first fruits appear, when Jesus resurrection comes, we don't just look back on that as some inspiring moment in history. Well, good for Jesus. No, In Jesus, our resurrection is guaranteed. If we are in him, what difference does it make that Jesus Christ rose from the dead? Number one, it proves he's God.

Number two, it guarantees a future resurrection, a future eternity. Any of us who have been to a memorial service, you gaze into eternity, you look past this life. We realize this life is fleeting, this life is short. You gaze into eternity and all human beings, what's on the other side of that, it guarantees eternity. If you have ever lost a loved one, this is the great glorious hope.

Not that they're just gone, not that we just remember them. Jesus Christ is going to come back. And the saints who have gone before are coming with them in a train. We will rise up and meet them in the air. And glory is going to take place.

A grand party in heaven is going to take place. Consider the simple little words, a very famous verse, John 3:16. Would you read let's put John 3:16 up on the screen. I want to read this together. For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Eternal life. That's the gift in Christ. Eternal life. And we can bank on it, we can rest on it. Those who have gone before, who knew Christ, they are in eternal life.

We, when we get there, will join in eternal life. You can look to your loved ones, say, hey, let's meet by the north wall in the west corner. We'll have a barbecue, we'll get a get together. We're going to praise Jesus. It is a good thing.

It's a guarantee of a future resurrection. A guarantee. Number one, it proves Jesus is God. Number two, it guarantees a future resurrection. Number three.

Number three, we receive resurrection power. He gives us resurrection power in his resurrection, resurrection power. This is a big deal. In John chapter 16, Jesus is talking with his disciples and he says some, some startling words. This is just before he is going to go.

I said, I'm all over the place. John 16, verse 7. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away. For if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will Send him to you.

You don't know this yet, but I'm gonna rise from the dead. And the spirit that rises me from the dead, I am going to send to you. And he will dwell in you. This is much better that I go or you won't have that power. When I was a kid, used to pump water with my great aunts.

We'd go to their house, we'd walk down to this lake and there's a pump there. We'd pump jugs of water to bring back for drinking water at the house. And if you got down to the lake and no one had pumped the water before you, you knew. It's like a couple of minutes of pumping before that water's coming up. And if you start going and your shoulder gets sore, you stop and rest just for a second, you hear the water gurgle back down.

If you keep pumping until the water comes and you stop, like celebrating, oh, there's water. It stops. You gotta keep pumping and pumping and pumping. Jesus is saying, hey, if you try to pump your way through the Christian life, two things are going to. You'll be eternally frustrated and you will fail.

We don't have it. We need supernatural power inside of us in order to live the Christian life.

If you've ever been in a relationship that's had strain, if you're married, if you're a parent, if you have parents, if you've ever faced an addiction that's been like a shackle and over and over and over, you stumble, you've had a habit that you have tried and tried and tried to get past, you know this truth. We don't have it. We need supernatural power to flow through our veins. And the promise of Jesus Christ is he is giving us his resurrection power. His resurrection gives this to us.

And it is a grand, glorious thing considering. Consider the disciples. The disciples while Jesus was alive are kind of bumbling fools. Peter, the chief of the apostle, had Jesus say these words to him, get behind me, Satan. That's not a sentence you want God saying to you at any point in your life.

When Jesus died on the cross, all of the disciples had run away, but one. John was the only one left. Peter denied him the three times the night he's arrested. The rest weren't even there when he was arrested. They're running away scared.

And after the resurrection, he sends resurrection power in the Holy Spirit to them. And from that moment on, you read of the apostles, you think, what got into these guys? What made these guys such stalwarts of Faith, Godly men. At one point, they're preaching at the temple. They're arrested, they're told, don't preach at the temple anymore.

They go back, they preach at the temple. Miracles are happening. They're arrested, they're brought in again, they're beaten, they're told, don't go, do it again. And listen to these words in Acts chapter five that define them as they go. Acts, chapter five.

I am all over the place. Verse.

I'm really there. Verse 41. It's on the wrong page. Acts, chapter 5, verse 41. Then they left the

presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name.

What takes a group of bumbling guys who don't get it and turn them in to a group of men who are honored to suffer for the name of Christ. Resurrection power. Not just bumbling. They were arguing months ago. Who is the greatest, who's going to be honored the most, have the biggest throne.

And here they are throwing themselves headlong. Who is going to have the opportunity to suffer the most? This is the transformed life in Jesus Christ. And here's the reality. We can't do it on our own.

We can't do it on our own. There's a promise God gives to the prophet Ezekiel. God had come, covenanted with his people. He told his people what his heart was, the way in which they were to walk, the guarantees in which the covenant would offer them blessing if they walked in that way. And yet, generation after generation failed to follow the heart of God.

And God said, don't worry, one day your hearts will be changed. Listen to Ezekiel offer this promise. And I will give you a new heart and a new spirit. I will put within you and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. Are you weary?

Are you tired of trying to break that addiction? To uproot the web, the roots of bitterness from within your heart, to repair relationships on your own strength. The promise of the resurrected Jesus Christ is that he is our power. He is our power.

So this week I had to get a new battery in my car. It's the plight of any Arizona driver, right? Like, they give me the new battery. They're like, three year guarantee. I'm like, yeah, right, see you in 18 months, right?

Like, that's just the reality, right? So, like, a car without a battery is worthless. I don't care how nice that car is. You could drive up in that front circle, say, pastor John, got you a Bentley. Got you a Maserati, A Tesla, whatever it is, right here are the keys.

You throw me the keys. By the way, the battery's dead. I mean, you might as well hand me a pair of skates or bicycle. It's worth more to me to get home today than that car is. We need power.

And Jesus Christ's resurrection brings that power. Paul makes this very point as he opens up his letter to the church at Ephesus. The first chapter is just a glorious chapter as he talks about the implications of Christ for us, what does it mean for us? And near the end of that, he talks about the implications of the resurrection for us. And he's going to say this.

He's going to say the same power that God worked in that resurrection of Jesus Christ. It's the same power he's working on in your life if you're in Christ. Listen to Paul. He says this in verse 19 of Ephesians 1. And what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places?

That's not just a little power in your life, the working of God's power in your life for those who

believe, the same exact power that rose Jesus from the dead, now that's a battery. That. That's life transformation. And Jesus Christ, his resurrection guarantees it for all who are in Him. I love it.

I love everything you said, except for this dilemma. And this might be a generational thing. I don't know, maybe it's my childhood. When you say that, I immediately think it is going to be a generational thing. I just know that this afternoon I'm still going to be picturing Joe Walsh plugging away my Maserati.

Does 180, you know, mention Maserati in the story? And that's just I. That's where my brain goes and it's stuck in my head now, all because Burt Reynolds drove that car in the Longest Yard and I watched it with my dad when I was a kid. What do we do with this? How do we.

How do we take this home? Two practical takeaways. The first is enter into relationship with Jesus. Enter into relationship with Jesus. It is the foundational reason, the foundational gift of everything.

God sent his son. His son died on the cross, rose from the dead for a foundational reason that God wants a relationship with you and with me. Today, if you want, you can travel and you can go visit Confucius tomb, take pictures in front of it. If you want, you can go visit Buddha's tomb, take pictures in front of that. If you'd like, you can go to Muhammad's tomb, stand out in front and take pictures,

selfies.

But if you. If you want to go take a selfie in front of Jesus tomb, you're going to find that it's not really possible. You'll go to Israel, you'll walk around, you'll see some people. Well, it could have been here. This is a site. It could have been here. This is another site. We don't know exactly where it is because he is not there. He is risen. He is risen indeed.

Amen. He's alive. He's alive and he's here. He wants a relationship with us. Now, it might be that you're curious about God.

Maybe you came because it's Easter and you're interested. Maybe you're not even interested. Just the person that loves you, that you came with, wanted you to come. But you hear this and maybe you wonder, could Jesus, Could Jesus be God? Is he here?

And the answer is yes. And I would invite you to follow those nudges and turn to him and enter into relationship with him. It's also possible. You've been a Christian for a long time, but you've. You've drifted from relationship.

God is not interested in us standing up and singing songs if we are not in relationship. What he's after is our hearts, not our words. He wants our lives. He wants to be in relationship with us. So I would encourage you follow those nudges and spend time with Jesus.

Enter into relationship number two. Walk in resurrection power. Walk in resurrection power. When we say that the resurrection power is given to us, it's not just an idea. And here's the poison of it.

I'll be the first to raise my hand. So God has given me natural abilities. He's given me a brain to think like, I kind of assume really well, better than it really does.

I can coast on my own strength in life oftentimes, but I can't be the husband he's calling me to be without resurrection power working in me. I can't be the dad he's called me to be. Without

resurrection power working in me. I can't be the friend. I can't live a godly life the way he calls me to without resurrection power.

So if you've been walking on your own strength, I plead, I beg on this day of all days turn, to have the supernatural power of God, the Holy Spirit, of God, bring the power of resurrection into your life, to break chains and set you free.

If you've had a habit, you've had a generational habit born in your life, something you can't get past, your hope. And my hope and anyone's hope is not that we'll eventually get strong enough, it's Jesus.

Would you fill me with your Holy Spirit and have your way in my heart and my mind and my life, and break the chains that bind me and set me free to live for your glory today? Resurrection power in you and me. Amen. Amen. So we have the blessing of doing something special here on this Easter Sunday, which is responding in taking the Lord's communion.

And if you are in Christ, if you've placed your trust in him, and maybe even just that's, that's fresh for you, that's. That's real even in this moment, we invite you to the Lord's table to respond in faith. Part of the communion place is a declaration of this is me in Christ. This is what Christ has done for me. And so we would invite you to partake with us.

We have tables up here. We'd invite you to come. We have tables also in the back, back there is our gluten free elements. And so I invite you to partake. If you are joining with us online, we're so grateful you're with us.

We invite you to grab whatever elements you have, maybe some Easter bread and some drink, and to join with us as well as we reflect on the Lord's death and resurrection. For us today, as you're gathering communion elements, I'll just share this. Sometimes in tradition, sometimes here at New Life, we pass communion. Communion comes to you. And maybe you've been in church where that is the tradition.

There's a richness in that, in the symbol that Jesus comes to us, he meets us where we're at. We are now in the practice most of the time of getting up and coming forward to get communion elements. But there's a symbol in that, that there is a response that Jesus is calling us to. He's calling us to respond to him, to run to him, to join in relationship with him, to have his Holy Spirit flow through us. He's calling us to take steps towards him so we can reflect on that as we grab the communion elements.

Today, the power of the resurrection is this, that Jesus Christ entered into our pain, to our suffering, to our brokenness. He took our sin on his shoulders and he healed us from the inside out. That was his declaration. The night before he was crucified, he took the bread and he broke the bread. He said this is my body.

Broken for you, broken for you. Jesus Christ came as the passover lamb and he took our sin on his shoulders. He took our brokenness on his shoulders and he became broken on the cross that in his healing we might be healed. He said whenever you eat of it, do so in memory of me. Lets eat in memory of Jesus.

Jesus, we thank you. We thank you for your brokenness that we might be healed. We thank you for the cross. It's in Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Amen.

Likewise on that night the he was betrayed, he took the cup. So this is the cup of the new covenant poured out in my blood for the forgiveness of sins.

One of my favorite old time gospel songs is there's power in the blood. There's power, power, wonder working power in the precious blood of the lamb.

There's power to wash away our sin and there's power to make us new.

So Lord Jesus, I ask that you would anoint this cup that spiritually become for us your blood, wash our sins away.

We all have selfishness and pride in us darker than we even realize. So wash us, cleanse us, close us, clothe us in white robes and then Lord Jesus, would you give us your resurrection power afresh and anew in this day that we might live obedient chivalry, honorable, kind, loving lives for your glory in this world, the blood of Christ shed for you and for me.

Amen and amen. Can we go ahead and stand as we come before the Lord and close in song?