Illustrations - His Ressurection

THERE IS EVIDENCE FOR THE RESURRECTION.

There are six lines of evidence for the historicity of Jesus' appearances. The resurrection of Jesus is the central fact of the Christian faith.
The entire structure of Christianity, the hope for eternal life and for any meaning to human existence, stands or falls with Christ's resurrection.
As Paul wrote: "If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins." (1 Cor 15:17). His resurrection is the most important event of history and it is a most certain fact.

1. The very fact of Christianity is proof in itself. The preaching of the apostles (Acts 2:22:36; 3:14:15; 4:10:12; 10:36:43; 13:26:39; 17:31; 26:22, 23; etc.) always centred on the resurrection.
"With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus." (Acts 4:33)
This was the message that won thousands to faith in Christ.

2. Worship changed to a Sunday. The first Christians were devout Jews, accustomed to worshipping faithfully on the Sabbath, the seventh day of the week, but now they began meeting instead on the first day, because that was the day of the resurrection.

3. The institution of the Lord's Supper. Their greatest annual observance was the Passover, but this soon became Easter for them, when they realised that Christ had fulfilled the Passover, dying as the Lamb of God, and then rising again from the dead. The observance of the Lord's day, Easter and the Lord's Supper, can be traced back to apostolic times and the resurrection.

4. The existence of the Christian Church. There is no doubt that the apostles and early Christians, by the tens of thousands, believed and preached the resurrection. Is it possible they could have been wrong and their faith was based on wicked deception or fanatical delusion? Highly unlikely.

5. Their willingness to suffer for truth. They suffered severely for their faith, losing their possessions and lives in the great Jewish and Roman persecutions of the first century. Would they have persisted in their testimony if they knew it was a lie?

6. The evidence of the empty tomb. The tomb had been sealed with the Roman seal and was guarded, under pain of death, by a detachment of 16 Roman soldiers night and day. A great stone weighing several tons was rolled in front of its entrance and sealed by the guard. Yet on the first Easter morning, the soldiers fled in terror, the stone was rolled away, and the body vanished.
In the grave, the grave clothes still as they had been before He had passed out of them.

The empty tomb has never been explained, except by the bodily resurrection of Jesus. If the body actually was still there, where the Jews or Romans had seen it, and had guarded it, they would certainly have produced it as a sure means of immediately quenching the spreading flame of the Christian faith.
If the apostles or other friends of Jesus somehow had the body themselves, and thus knew He was dead, they could never have preached His resurrection as they did. For they knew it would surely mean persecution for them and their deaths.
No man willingly sacrifices his life for something he knows to be a lie!

The empty tomb speaks eloquently of His resurrection.

"WHY THE RESURRECTION IS CREDIBLE" By Gordon Moyes
See the full sermon at “SERMONS”

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Even people who do not believe in the Resurrection of Jesus find themselves strangely drawn to it

Even people who do not believe in the Resurrection of Jesus find themselves strangely drawn to it. One of the writers who rejects the resurrection of Christ finds himself strangely drawn to it.
Bishop John Shelby Spong writes: "What we cannot finally deny is that Easter dawned and that a community of people became convinced that Jesus was alive in a new way and that the grave of death could not contain the meaning of his life.
Furthermore we cannot deny that because of their conviction their lives were dramatically and qualitatively different, and that they were able to pass that difference on for two thousand years so that you and I can now be part of the community that lives in this conviction.
So here I stand, called, I believe, to live as a part of the people of the resurrection.
And living here, I assert that Jesus lives, that death cannot contain him, that Jesus is Lord."

Why not join with the Easter people? Believe in the Risen Lord with all you heart and find Him as your friend and Saviour.

"WHY THE RESURRECTION IS CREDIBLE" By Gordon Moyes
See the full sermon at “SERMONS”

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JESUS AND HIS ASCENSION

Thus ascending, He led captivity captive, He passed into the presence of God with the defeated foes of the race dragged at His chariot wheels,
the Master of sin,
the Vanquisher of Satan,
the Overcomer of death,
the insignia of Whose victory were the wounds that He bore, and the fact that He lived the life taken up after having been laid down in death. For Himself He stood in the perfection of His manhood. For man He stood in the perfection of His Saviourhood.
It is now that He is invested with the Name. In that sublimest of all passages dealing with His descent and ascent, the apostle declares that God gave unto Him
“the Name which is above every name,” (Phil. 2:9)
and the occasion of the giving of the Name was His exaltation to heaven, after the perfect carrying out of that Divine work of Love which included humiliation and suffering and death.

Cambell Morgan. “The Crises of the Christ” Chapter 28.
(See Chapter 28 in full in “Articles”)

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JESUS AND HIS ASCENSION

On ascension day something still more marvellous occurred. The Man of Nazareth, the First of the new race, the last Adam, passed into the Divine presence in the right of His own perfect humanity.
In His coming,
He asked for no mercy.
No mediator opened the door of heaven for Him.
He proceeded along the hue of the outworking of the infinite order to consummation, basing His claim to reception upon the even and inexorable justice of God.
He passed from earth to heaven, and stood unafraid in the white light of the Eternal Purity. In all the record of the race there has been no other like unto this Jesus of Nazareth.

G.Cambell Morgan. “The Crises of the Christ” Chapter 28.
(See Chapter 28 in full in “Articles”)

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JESUS AND HIS ASCENSION - THE NAME.

In the ascension light what Name is this now bestowed upon the all conquering Man?

Its the old Name, full of ineffable music, the Name of Jesus.
It is the Name by which His mother first called Him in the innocence of infancy.
It is the Name by which men knew Him in the purity of His boyhood.
It is the Name by which men called Him in the victory of His Manhood.
It is the Name by which disciples knew Him in the days of His teaching.
It is the Name which men wrote over His Cross in the hour of His dying.
It is the old Name, and yet He had never received it in all fullness until now.

At His Incarnation the Name was a prophecy. “Thou shalt call His Name Jesus; for it is He that shall save His people from their sins.” (Matt. 1:21)
That “prophetic Name” He carried through all life’s mystery and ministry, the Name that told to those that understood, that God's faith was centred in this innocent child, and holy Man.
And now having accomplished all, perfected to finality the infinite plan of the Eternal Love, He is invested with the Name which at His birth was prophetic.
The issue is reached, and in the centre of the universe of God, the Man of Nazareth is enthroned, and named by the sweet Name that ever speaks of perfect humanity, and ever declares the fulfillment of the purpose of salvation. At His birth the Name of Jesus was the proclamation of a Divine purpose.
On ascension day it was the ratification of a victory won.
He gave Him the Name- “JESUS”.

Cambell Morgan. “The Crises of the Christ” Chapter 28.

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Jesus His resurrection

Because Christianity’s influence is so pervasive throughout much of the world, it is easy to forget how radical its beliefs once were. Jesus’ resurrection forever changed Christians’ view of death. Rodney Stark, sociologist at the University of Washington, points out that when a major plague hit the ancient Roman Empire, Christians had surprisingly high survival rates. Why? Most Roman citizens would banish any plague-stricken person from their household. But because Christians had no fear of death, they nursed their sick instead of throwing them out on the streets. Therefore, many Christians survived the plague.
“2000 Years of Jesus” by Kenneth L. Woodward, NEWSWEEK, March 29, 1999, p. 55.

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JESUS - THE EMPTY TOMB

He was 9 years old--in a Sunday school class of 8-year-olds. Eight-year-olds can be cruel. The third-graders did not welcome Philip to their group. Not just because he was older. He was "different."
He suffered from Down's syndrome and its obvious manifestations: facial characteristics, slow responses, symptoms of retardation.
One Sunday after Easter, the Sunday school teacher gathered some of those plastic eggs that pull apart in the middle--the kind in which some ladies' pantyhose are packaged.
The Sunday school teacher gave one of these plastic eggs to each child. On that beautiful spring day each child was to go outdoors and discover for himself some symbol of "new life" and place that symbolic seed or leaf or whatever inside the egg.
They would then open their eggs one by one, and each youngster would explain how his find was a symbol of "new life." So…
The youngsters gathered a round on the appointed day and put their eggs on a table, and the teacher began to open them. One child had found a flower. All the children "oohed" and "aahed" at the lovely symbol of new life. In another was a butterfly. "Beautiful," the girls said.
Another egg was opened to reveal a rock. Some of the children laughed. "That's crazy!" one said. "How's a rock supposed to be like a "new life?" Immediately a little boy spoke up and said, "That's mine. I knew everybody would get flowers and leaves and butterflies and all that stuff, so I got a rock to be different." Everyone laughed.
The teacher opened the last one, and there was nothing inside. "That's not fair," someone said. "That's stupid," said another. The teacher felt a tug on his shirt. It was Philip. Looking up he said, "It's mine. I did do it. It's empty. I have new life because the tomb is empty." The class fell silent.
From that day on Philip became part of the group. They welcomed him. Whatever had made him different was never mentioned again.
Philip's family had known he would not live a long life; just too many things wrong with the tiny body. That summer, overcome with infection, Philip died.
On the day of his funeral nine 8-year-old boys and girls confronted the reality of death and marched up to the altar--not with flowers. Nine children with their Sunday school teacher placed on the casket of their friend their gift of love--an empty egg.
Brethren, that young child knew that since the tomb was empty -- that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead -- he had a new life. Likewise, through His resurrection, we too may have a new life in Christ.

Stories From The Heart
Alice Gray, Multnomah, pp. 15-16.

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OUR HOPE IS CENTRED ON OUR LORD'S RETURN.

When General Douglas Macarthur was leaving the Philippines to go to Brisbane, Australia, to establish new headquarters in the war against Japan, he promised, "I shall return." the promise of Jesus. Jesus said, "I shall return." It was a promise that He will keep. When astronauts who have been on the space shuttle return into the earth's atmosphere, a cry goes up from Houston, Texas, "Re-entry has been achieved."
That exultant call is nothing to the mighty shout that will be heard when our Lord Jesus, who came in poverty, in silence, submission and subjection, achieves re-entry and returns - this time to the world in glory, power and acknowledgement! At a gathering of editors of major newspapers in the United States, a competition was held to write the greatest possible headline. The winning headline, chosen by the editors, was simply, "Jesus Has Returned!" That is the biggest news this world could ever receive! Once, at a printer's premises, I asked: "What is the largest type a printer has for a banner head-line on a page?" The printer told me, "Throughout the trade, the largest type is called 'Second Coming Type.' You reserve it for the Second Coming!"
The Signs of His Return. Jesus refers to some signs that would be seen before His coming. There would be wide-spread immorality, fighting among the nations, wars and rumours of wars, false prophets, scoffing against those who believe in Christ, persecution against the true faith, world dictators, famine in many parts of the earth, recurring earthquakes, and, from other scripture, the Jews, back within their own land of Israel. For the first time in world history, all of these signs are present today.
The Purpose of His Return. Jesus Christ is coming to vindicate God's people who have been proclaiming truth throughout their lives; to raise to life again those believers who have died in faith in Christ; to judge the nations of the earth; to destroy Satan and the forces of evil; to renew the world and the environment, and to gather the faithful in heaven. 1 Corinthians 15:24; Revelation 20:7; 2 Peter 3:13; Revelation 21:1
This world will pass away and there will be a new creation. Peter wrote: "Your lives should be holy and dedicated to God, as you wait for the Day of God and do your best to make it come soon - the Day when the heavens will burn up and be destroyed and the heavenly bodies will be melted by the heat. But we wait for what God has promised: new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness will be at home." 2 Peter 3:11-13

THE PROMISE OF CHRIST'S RETURN- GORDON MOYES
See the full sermon at “SERMONS”

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