What if Jesus is still dead?

 “No religion stands or falls with a claim about the resurrection 
of its founder in the way Christianity does.”  Craig Blomberg

  As Vice President, George Bush, represented the United States. at the funeral of former Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev. Bush was deeply moved by a silent protest carried out by Brezhnev's widow. She stood motionless by the coffin until seconds before it was closed. Then, just as the soldiers touched the lid, Brezhnev's wife performed an act of great courage and hope, a gesture that must surely rank as one of the most profound acts of civil disobedience in a communist country. Mrs. Brezhnev reached down and made the sign of the cross on her husband's chest. There in the citadel of secular, atheistic power, the wife of the man who had run it all hoped that her husband was wrong. She hoped that there was another life, and that that life was best represented by Jesus who died on the cross, and that the same Jesus might yet have mercy on her husband.
  Jesus Christ’s resurrection is central to the celebration of Easter, yet fewer than half of American adults make the connection. The Barna Group asked people to describe what Easter means to them personally. Only 42% tied Easter to the Resurrection. Adults between 18 and 25 were the least likely of all ages to connect the two together. David Kinnaman, president of the Barna Group, commented, “The Easter holiday in particular still has a distinctly religious connection for people, but the specifics of it are really fading in a lot of people’s minds.”
  The bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ is foundational. There is no Easter and no Christianity if Jesus Christ has not risen from the dead. If Jesus hasn’t been raised from the dead—bodily—Christianity is lost. If His body is decaying somewhere in the Middle East today, it’s a disaster for our faith. Everything rises or falls with Easter! What are some implications if Jesus is dead and not resurrected?
  We have no hope of rising from the dead. Jesus wasn’t “mostly dead,” He was completely dead. The destiny of the Christian to another life, resurrection life, depends on the deliverance of Jesus from deathly decay. One reason we celebrate Easter is that we know it foreshadows what God is going to do with everyone who belongs to Jesus at the end of time. Our souls are with Jesus as soon as we die, but our bodies are at rest, awaiting the day of resurrection when Christ returns and says, Wake up! I am making all things new. If Christ hasn’t been raised, there is no hope of a future resurrection.
  Our preaching and teaching is false and pointless. If Christ hasn’t been raised, then every time anyone preaches, it’s just babble or noise. It’s an empty pep talk. It may make us feel better but it won’t change the fact that Jesus is dead and buried, and that one day, we’ll all be dead and buried, too. Death has won. If Christ had not been raised from the dead, He wouldn’t have conquered sin or death or hell. There would be no good news. There would be no sermon or message. Bible-believing churches and preachers would be like liberal preachers who say that Jesus is a great moral teacher and that we can learn a lot from his teaching and His example. However, they miss the point that makes Jesus unique – He has been raised from the dead! He is alive! He is our Savior and Lord!
  Our faith is worthless. Christian faith is not generic. It’s not just important that you believe something, but that the Someone you believe in is actually able to save you! True faith has power because of who we believe in, not simply because we believe in it.
  When we buy a product we want to make sure that we can trust it to work the way it’s supposed to. When you buy a car you’re looking for reliability. A car you know will carry you safely for years to come. The car company tries to earn your trust by giving you a warranty. The warranty tells you how long and to what extent you can trust them and their product. Some are three years and 36,000 miles. Others are 5 years and 50,000 miles, and some are 10 years and 100,000-mile warranties. The problem with these warranties is they eventually run out. You can trust them but only for a period of time. If Jesus didn’t rise from the dead, we can’t trust Him with our lives and we obviously can’t trust Him with our eternity.
  We are still in our sins. Without the resurrection of Jesus, we also don’t have forgiveness. Our sins have not been removed. We are still guilty before a holy God. The power of sin has not been broken, and the sentence of death has not been challenged. Sin and death are connected. The sign that sin has been taken care of is that death dies—death is reversed and is overcome by new life. What happened on Easter morning vindicates what happened on Friday afternoon. Christ’s resurrection validates His cross. Easter is why we can say Good Friday. If Christ is not raised, the consequences to a fallen world are catastrophic. Good Friday becomes the true Black Friday. There is no payment for sins if Christ is not raised. This consequence follows from the previous one and means that every human being will face the full, unmediated justice of God for all eternity.
  Believers who have died are lost forever. Without the resurrection of Christ, every funeral ends in hopelessness. There’s no hope of heaven. Everyone you’ve grieved is gone for good. We’ve believed in a Jesus that’s powerless over death. He couldn’t raise Himself so He can’t raise us.
  On one occasion Michelangelo, the famed artist, turned on his fellow artists completely indignant. Michelangelo said: “Why do you keep filling gallery after gallery with endless pictures on the one theme of Christ in weakness, Christ on the Cross, and most of all, Christ hanging dead? Why do you concentrate on the passing episode as if it were the last work as if the curtain dropped on Him with disaster and defeat? That dreadful scene lasted…a few hours. But to the unending eternity, Christ is alive; the stone has been rolled away and He rules and reigns and triumphs!” He was right! Our Savior is alive!

Can we help you spiritually? Please check out more resources on our church's web page, Gracechurchwi.org. Or call us at 262.763.3021. If you'd like to know more about how Jesus can change your life, I'd love to mail you a copy of how Jesus changed my life in "My Story." E-mail me at Carson@gracechurchwi.org to request a free copy. Please include your mailing address. 

Christ's Resurrection Gives Us Hope

“Hope is called the anchor of the soul (Hebrews 6:19) because it gives stability to the Christian life. But hope is not simply a ‘wish’ (I wish that such-and-such would take place); rather, it is that which latches on to the certainty of the promises of the future that God has made.” R.C. Sproul

   Henri Nouwen told a story in his book, Turn My Mourning into Dancing: A solder was captured as a prisoner of war. His captors transported him by train far from his homeland. He felt isolated from country, family, and anything familiar. His loneliness grew as he continued not to hear anything from home. He could not even know if his family was even alive or how his country was faring. Thus, he lost a sense of anything to live for. But suddenly, unexpectedly, he got a letter. It was smudged, torn at the edges from months of travel. But it said, “We are waiting for you to come home. All is fine here. Don’t worry.” Everything instantly changed. He did the same difficult labor on the same meager rations, but now he knew someone waited for his release and homecoming. Hope changed his life. That’s what Easter is about – Hope! If the cross had ended it all. If Jesus had not risen bodily from the grave, we would have no hope. That’s the thesis of the great chapter on the resurrection, 1 Corinthians 15. 

  Christ’s resurrection gives us hope in the face of death. Read the Gospel accounts for yourself. Until His disciples met the risen Christ, they had no hope. The only explanation for their radical change from the terrified to the bold was meeting the risen Christ. It’s why one of our favorite Psalms is the 23rd where it says, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death…” (vs. 4). Because Jesus is alive we know that we will not be left in death. The moment that the born-again Christian closes their eyes on this life, they wake up in heaven with the Lord Jesus for all eternity. “Absent from the body…at home with the Lord” (2 Cor. 5:8).

  Christ’s resurrection gives us hope to see those who died in faith again. Heaven becomes sweeter for me each year. For over 50 years now, I’ve longed to see my Mom once again. In 1970 she was taken in a tragic car accident into the presence of her Savior.

  One of the burdens of long pastorates is that you have to bury your friends. But they’re not gone. They’re not dust and ashes. No, because of the resurrection I know that they are waiting for me and you. They are more alive today than they have ever been. The longer that I am a Christian, the more that I understand the Apostle Paul’s heart when he said, “For to me to live is Christ, to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21). Who but a Christian would believe that death is gain. Because of Christ’s resurrection, we know we leave a temporal world of pain and suffering for eternal bliss.

  Christ’s resurrection gives us hope that we are forgiven. Because Jesus died and paid for our sin, we know that we’re forgiven BUT if He had not risen from the grave, we would have wondered if it was enough. Because of His resurrection, Romans 8:1 is not an empty promise, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” When I look back at my life and my dark, evil heart. It’s hard for me to believe that a holy God loves me and forgives me. For years it haunted me that my last words to my Mom a few weeks before she died were: “I hate you!” Sure, they were uttered by a 10-year-old, but they were words that I never had a chance to apologize for. Even the night that she was killed, they came ringing back in my heart. But because of Jesus’ cross, because of His resurrection, I know that I’m forgiven for that and my innumerable other transgressions. It’s not because I’ve done anything to balance things out with God. It’s because Jesus paid my sin debt. He paid it all. It’s all of grace that I’m forgiven. If you’ve trusted Him as your Savior, so are you!

  Christ’s resurrection gives us hope that we have a new body. My earth suit is wearing out and so is yours. Every year there are more parts that creak and groan with aches and pains. It has an expiration date. But I’ve got a new one waiting for me. “For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality” (1 Cor. 15:54-55). Jesus’ resurrection and His glorified body gave us a peek into what God has for us in our new and eternal ones. 

  Christ’s resurrection gives us hope that there will be a new earth. The Creative Mandate requires that we not abuse this planet (Genesis 1:28). We’re managers of God’s creation and property. Because of sin, we know that mankind has miserably failed. We’re terrible managers of God’s property. We pollute. We abuse. We burn and pillage. We wreck and ruin. But someday there will be a new earth, better than Eden, better than the world contaminated by sin (Revelation 21:1).  

  Christ’s resurrection gives us hope that there will be a new government. Too many Christians have placed their hope in human political leaders. Even the best governmental leaders have hearts contaminated by sin. Too many believers wring their hands over what temporal leaders do. Should we be involved? Yes. Should we vote. Yes. And we must pray. Yet, we know that all government has a very short shelf life. 

  In the midst of sometimes shocking political upheavals, we know that  Jesus Christ is the ruler of all the kings and presidents and chiefs and premiers and governors and prime ministers. If President Biden says to Jesus, “How can you be the ruler over me? I have my office by the election of the people of the United States, a sovereign nation, and by virtue of a constitutional inauguration and installation.” The Lord Jesus will answer, “I have my office as ruler over you by God’s sovereignty and by virtue of my resurrection, my indestructible life, and my installation at God's right hand.” When Jesus rose again, God the Father exalted Him and gave Him a “name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee might bow” (Phil. 2:9-10). That includes all the rulers and kings of the earth. Jesus is alive today presiding from heaven over the rulers of the earth. It’s a breathtaking thought and something most today do not believe, but it’s at the heart of biblical truth. Jesus Christ is alive and reigns. It should revolutionize the way we watch the news and live out our lives. Because of His resurrection, we watch the events of this world through the eyes of faith. His resurrection turned the 1st-century world upside down. It must revolutionize our lives! Easter is God’s reminder of that.

  As John Donne wrote, “Death, be not proud.” God won’t let death win. Jesus is alive and we will live with Him forever and ever!

Can we help you spiritually? Can we help you know Jesus better? Please check out more resources on our church's web page, Gracechurchwi.org. Or, call us at 262.763.3021. If you'd like to know more about how Jesus can change your life, I'd love to mail you a copy of how Jesus changed my life in "My Story." E-mail me at Carson@gracechurchwi.org to request a free copy. Please include your mailing address.