Grace Emmanuel Church

Pastor Sam Chess

(The Power of the Resurrection)

Harry Houdini is dead! When I was young, even though he was already dead, the name Houdini was synonomous with escape from impossible places. Harry Houdini would have himself sealed in a coffin..he would get out; he would have himself sewn up into canvas bags, out he would come. He even had himself put into a maximun security prison and somehow he got out. This wasn't the fake TV stuff...he, reportedly, really did managed to get out of impossible places.

In October 1926 Harry arrived at the brink of death. He really thought death was going to be his greatest escape challenge. He told his wife, to expect his return; that if there was anyway possible to return from death, he would find it and make contact on the eve of their anniversary. She lit a lamp and put it at the base of Harry's portrait and waited for his return. On the tenth anniversary of his death she turned off the lamp...Harry Houdini didn't come back.

I. Cheating Death

Harry wasn't the only one who predicted he would return from death.

John 2:15 Jesus made a whip from some ropes and chased them all out of the Temple. 18"What right do you have to do these things?" the Jewish leaders demanded. "If you have this authority from God, show us a miraculous sign to prove it."19 "All right," Jesus replied. "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." 20 "What!" they exclaimed. "It took forty-six years to build this Temple, and you can do it in three days?" 21 But by "this temple," Jesus meant his body. 22 After he was raised from the dead, the disciples remembered that he had said this. And they believed both Jesus and the Scriptures. (NLT)

The difference in Jesus and Houdini is that Jesus did return from the dead.... and Jesus return would not have been a small thing in Jerusalem. Jesus return would have been on the mind and in the conversation of every single person. In a town the size of Jerusalem every body would have known somebod, who knew somebody who actually saw him.

1 Corinthians 15:3 ... Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. 4 He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, as the Scriptures said. 5 He was seen by Peter and then by the twelve apostles. 6 After that, he was was seen by more than five hundred of his followers at one time….

The really, unbelieveable miracle isn't the one about Jesus rising from the dead. It's the fact that anybody, actually bought into the propaganda that the high priest's press secretary sent out.

....And it wasn't just Jesus' resurrection making the news.....

Matthew 27:52..and tombs opened. The bodies of many godly men and women who had died were raised from the dead 53 after Jesus' resurrection. They left the cemetery, went into the holy city of Jerusalem, and appeared to many people.(NLT)

So not only is Jesus walking around and everybody knows somebody who has actually seen him, but other people, who's funerals you attended, are knocking on your door! “ Hey, I was just in the neighborhood and thought I'd stop by....I'm back from the dead!

What amazes me is how the atmosphere,on this same Sunday, one week after the Resurrection; from what must have been almost universal belief, changed into, in just a few centuries, almost universal unbelief.

We are surrounded by those today who believe the Resurrection is just hoax believed only by weak minded people. Sadly there were millions of people who sat in Easter church services last weekend, who do not actually believe that Christ physically rose from the dead. Pastors told their congrgations that Jesus physical body really stayed in the grave, but metaphysically his spirit rose to bring hope to those who would follow the princilpes he taught while still alive.

On May 19th the Devinci Code movie is going to be released and millions will flock to find out why, what the Bible says is not really true. Scientific minds today immedieately discredit the resurrection as myth because, they say, miracles simply do not happen. Those same scientist will tell us that we must be very careful not to approach any study with forgone conclusions in our mind, yet they will approach the Resurrection from the foregone conclusion that it couldn't possibly be true.

Can you imagine, anyone reading an eyewitness account of Plato's life and death and then setting out to try to prove that what the eywitnesses all said didn't really ever happen and that the eyewitnesses were, obviously, all liars; even if the eyewitness' were willing to suffer violent deaths for what they beleived, and the story they were reporting swept the world and brought life changing results into the lives of millions of people in every generation.

The reason nobody tries to disproves Plato's life and death, yet so many try to disprove Jesus life, death and resurrection; is because you can believe anything you want about Plato and it doesn't affect the rest of your life. With Jesus, if you open your mind to what the eywitness' said, as truth, you, then, have to deal with what that means to your eternal future.

II. The most important day on the calendar...

The Resurrection is not just important to the Christian faith, without it there would be no Christian faith!

Michelangelo travelled across Europe and was struck by the great number of pictures he saw of Jesus hanging on the cross. He asked, Why are art galleries filled with pictures of Jesus dying? Why do artist concentrate on that one part of his life as if it were the final scene? Christ dying lasted only a few hours but to the end of eternity Christ lives on!

I was in a church Friday, and prominent in the front of the room was a sculpture of Jesus hanging on the Cross. I'm not trying to diminish the importance of Jesus death in our place.... but if Jesus had taken your place, and stayed dead, nothing would have eternally changed for you! Without the resurrection there would still be no salvation for your sins. We read this last week:

Let me add verse 18:

17 And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless, and you are still under condemnation for your sins. 18 In that case, all who have died believing in Christ have perished!

If there is no resurrection there is no Savior... if there is no Savior there is no forgiveness, if there is no forgiveness there is no justification (erasing your sin debt), if there is no justification there can be no cleansing, and without cleansing you still have to pay the penalty for your own sins.

Romans 4:23 Now this wonderful truth--that God declared him to be righteous--wasn't just for Abraham's benefit. 24It was for us, too, assuring us that God will also declare us to be righteous if we believe in God, who brought Jesus our Lord back from the dead. 25He was handed over to die because of our sins, and he was raised from the dead to make us right with God.

1 Peter 1:3 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. (NIV)

You may be looking at that saying, Wait a minute, we didn't get our new life through Jesus resurrection...that's came through his death, for us, on the cross...

That's not what these verses are saying... Jesus resurrection was like a “headline across the top of a cosmic newspaper” with God saying: I told you! This is what I've been leading toward for all of time. This is the centerpiece of all of history. This is my DNA proof....

Romans 1:3-4  It is the Good News about his Son, Jesus, who came as a man, born into King David's royal family line. 4 And Jesus Christ our Lord was shown to be the Son of God when God powerfully raised him from the dead by means of the Holy Spirit.^(NLT)

The resurrection is proof that God accepted Jesus sacrifice on your behalf. It is proof that God has opened the door for all mankind to come and receive forgiveness of sins and eternal life. It is God's promisary note to you that if you come to him he will erase your sin debt. (and more?).

III. What does all of that mean to you?

The short course goes something like this....

1 Corinthians 6:14 By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also. (NIV)

ILL:In Hanover, Germany there lived a woman who was convinced there would be no resurrection . Oddly, she had a tomb built with huge slabs of granite and marble cemented together. She had added heavy steel clamps to insure, that if she was wrong about the resurrection, she would stay put. She even had a marker installed that said, “This burial place must never be opened!” That'll keep God out!

God has a great sense of humor... a tiny seed blew on top of the soil that had sifted over the tomb. It sprouted and it's root grew until the steel clasps broke and finally the granite slabs were pushed aside. It was probably God's way of saying, “Ready or not, here I come”

ILL. Friend, after friend, had stepped forward, hugged Martha and assure her, Your brother Lazarus will rise again! She had lost track of the number of times she had heard it as she stood by her brothers coffin. Now, her dear friend, Jesus of Nazareth, had finally arrived and said the same words:

John 11:23 “Your brother will rise again”

    Choking back a sob, she said:

John 11:24 "I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day."

Jesus responds:

John 11:25 "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?"

I don't just provide resurrection...I am the resurrection. I'm not just the source of life...I am life!

Paul described it this way:

1 Corinthians 15:20 But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. 22 For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. 23 But each in his own turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him.

When the Jews harvested their grain, the first of the ripe grain was given as an offering to the Lord, even before the rest of the grain was harvested. It was given in faith that the rest of the grain would ripen. God emphasized that the firstfruits would lead to a full harvest. Jesus was the “firstfruits” of those who would rise and not die again, that opened the door to a full harvest. You and I are to be part of that harvest. Because he rose from the dead, you will raise too; either to an eternal existence with God, or to eternal separation from God. One way or another, you and I are not staying in the grave.

Your embracing of Jesus death on your behalf is absolutely necessary. Your embracing of his resurrection, to new life, is every bit as necessary also:

Romans 10:9 .... if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in

your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

-Colossians 2:12For you were buried with Christ when you were baptized. And with him you were raised to a new life because you trusted the mighty power of God, who raised Christ from the dead.    -

Ephesians 1:18 I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the wonderful future he has promised to those he called. I want you to realize what a rich and glorious inheritance he has given to his people. 19 I pray that you will begin to understand the incredible greatness of his power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power 20 that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God's right hand in the heavenly realms. (NLT)

Romans 8:10 Since Christ lives within you, even though your body will die because of sin, your spirit is alive because you have been made right with God. 11 The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as he raised Christ from the dead, he will give life to your mortal body by this same Spirit living within you. (NLT)

2 Corinthians 4:14 We know that the same God who raised our Lord Jesus will also raise us with Jesus and present us to himself... (NLT)

One day there will be a trumpet sounded, a loud command, the voice of an archangel... It won't matter if you have been dismembered and sunk in the ocean. It won't matter if you were cremated and your body spread in the ocean. It won't matter if you got caught at ground zero in an nuclear blast. There won't be a force on earth that can stop the power of God when he says. “Come on up”.