Resurrection: The Key to Everything

The issue, frankly, is not what proves the resurrection. The issue is what does the resurrection that is the Father do? Most of it focuses on how to prove the resurrection. In fact, the books that have been written on proving the resurrection would fill a myriad of library shelves. And that's not unusual because often at this time of year, the question comes up, how can we prove the resurrection? If it is so central to Christian faith, how do we prove it? What is it that proves Jesus really rose from the dead? Well, the answer to that question is very simple. The Bible.

And now that we've dealt with that question, I want to move to another question. I don't want to talk about how we prove the resurrection. The Bible proves the resurrection.

It is the Word of God and it says Jesus Christ rose from the dead and that settles it. The issue, frankly, is not what proves the resurrection. The issue is what does the resurrection prove? What does the resurrection prove?

And the answer is basically the full redemptive plan and purpose of God. In fact, the resurrection is the key to everything. If you remove the resurrection of Jesus Christ from Christianity, you don't have Christianity.

You literally take the heart out of it. We accept that the resurrection happened by faith, faith in the Scripture, faith that is given to us by the Holy Spirit. We have been convinced by the Holy Spirit that the Bible is true and the Bible says Jesus arose from the dead and that settles that issue.

And on the pages of Scripture, there is ample convincing evidence. But the question is, what did the resurrection of Jesus Christ mean? What did it verify?

What did it accomplish? What did it prove? Well, I want us to look at several realities that are proven by the resurrection, several that are made incontrovertible and inarguable by the resurrection, and I think you'll find them very basic to the message of Scripture. First of all, the resurrection proves the truthfulness of the Word of God. It proves the truthfulness of the Word of God.

That's really reversing the normal approach. We might say, well, the Word of God proves the resurrection, but let's look at it in reverse and see how the resurrection proves the Word of God. Turn in your Bible to Acts chapter 2. Acts chapter 2 takes us to a great day in the history of the church, its first day, the day the church was born, the day of Pentecost.

The believers had been filled with the power of the Holy Spirit and now Peter stands up to preach a great sermon, the hearing of which caused 3,000 people to be saved and the church was born. But as he moves into his sermon, he quotes an Old Testament passage starting in verse 25 of Acts 2. He is speaking about Christ and His death in verse 23, speaks of His resurrection in verse 24 when he says, God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power.

So he is saying Jesus arose from the dead, death couldn't hold Him. And then he goes on to quote from Psalm 16. For David says of Him, I was always beholding the Lord in my presence, for He is at my right hand that I may not be shaken. Therefore, my heart was glad and my tongue exalted. Moreover, my flesh also will abide in hope because Thou wilt not abandon my soul to Hades, nor allow Thy Holy One to undergo decay.

Thou hast made known to me the ways of life, Thou wilt make me full of gladness with Thy presence. He is quoting David. David was the author of Psalm 16 and David was writing this. Now some might say, well David was writing it about himself. But that's not true because David's soul did go into Hades and David's body did undergo decay and David, the man that he was in a physical body, has not returned to the ways of life. So it could not refer to David. Notice how Peter interprets it then in verse 29, Brethren, I may confidently say to you regarding the patriarch David that he both died and was buried and his tomb is with us to this day.

In other words, Peter is saying now David couldn't have been referring to himself. David has been abandoned, as it were, to death. He is still in the abode of the dead. His tomb is still present, still known to the people.

They even knew its location. David has not returned to the ways of life. So he could not be referring to David, verse 30, and so because he was a prophet and knew that God had sworn to him with an oath to seat one of his descendants upon his throne, he looked ahead and spoke of the resurrection of the Christ that he was neither abandoned to Hades nor did his flesh suffer decay. In other words, he says David was prophesying as a prophet the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It was Jesus Christ whose flesh would abide in hope, whose soul would not be abandoned in Hades, and who as the Holy One would never undergo decay. It was Jesus Christ who would be given back the path of life and would come back full of gladness face to face into the presence of God. David didn't fulfill that.

His tomb is still sealed over there near Siloam. But David was a prophet and David was predicting the resurrection of Messiah. To sum up Peter's argument, his logic would go like this. Psalm 16 refers to someone being resurrected. It can't be David. Messiah was to come as David's greater son out of David's loins. The Psalm refers to Messiah. Messiah will therefore be raised from the dead. And then he concludes in verse 32, this Jesus God raised up again. The Old Testament then in Psalm 16 predicts the resurrection of the Messiah. If the Messiah doesn't rise, if Jesus Christ doesn't rise from the grave, the Bible is not telling us the truth. But the resurrection of Christ proves that the Bible speaks truth. What does the resurrection prove then?

The truthfulness of the Word of God. Look at Acts chapter 13. And here we find the preacher, not Peter this time, but Paul. And Paul, in apostolic fashion consistent with Peter, is also preaching the resurrection, which of course was the heart of the Christian faith. And in Acts chapter 13, I want you to notice verse 30. Verse 29, of course talking about the cross and Jesus being laid in a tomb. And then Paul says as he proclaims Christ to Jews, verse 30, but God raised Him from the dead. And for many days He appeared to those who came up with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem, the very ones who are now His witnesses to the people. And we preach to you the good news of the promise made to the fathers.

There it is. We're preaching the resurrection. It is good news. We are witnesses to it and it is that which was promised to the fathers, the Jewish fathers, the Old Testament saints. Verse 33, that God has fulfilled this promise to our children in that He raised up Jesus as it is also written in the second psalm, Thou art my Son, today I have begotten Thee. And he is saying when the psalmist said that, he was predicting that Jesus would be raised from the dead. Verse 34, and as for the fact that He raised Him up from the dead, no more to return to decay, He has spoken in this way, I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David. That is a prophecy from Isaiah chapter 55 and verse 3 which promises that the Messiah will not perish, but the Messiah will inherit the holy and sure blessings promised to David.

That is all the kingdom promised. And then He says, therefore, verse 35, He also says in another psalm and goes back to the same psalm 16 that we saw earlier, Thou wilt not allow Thy holy one to undergo decay. For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep and was laid among his fathers and underwent decay.

But he whom God raised did not undergo decay. And again you see, here is Paul and based on three Old Testament prophecies, he preaches the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Scripture is at stake. If Jesus doesn't rise, Psalm 2 is wrong, Psalm 16 is wrong, Isaiah 55 is wrong, any other Old Testament passage indicating the resurrection of Jesus Christ is wrong, therefore the Bible cannot be trusted.

It is not always true who then can discern when it is and when it isn't. And man is left with a hopelessly skewed, confusing, inadequate and inaccurate document in the Scriptures. But if Jesus rises from the dead, the prophecies are true, the Word of God is confirmed as speaking truth.

In Acts chapter 26, we read verse 22, And so having obtained help from God, I stand to this day testifying both to small and great, stating nothing but what the prophets and Moses said was going to take place. And what did the prophets say? And what did Moses say even back in the Pentateuch? That the Christ was to suffer and that by means of His resurrection from the dead, He should be the first to proclaim blight both to the Jewish people and to the Gentiles. All the way back in the Law, all the way back in the Prophets, as well as the hagiography, the holy writings, the Psalms, we see it in the Law, the Prophets, and the writings. The Messiah will die and the Messiah will rise. Scripture is at stake. When Jesus arose then, all of these prophecies and many more were fulfilled and the Word of God was proven to be true. Now I want you to turn to the second chapter of John's gospel, John chapter 2 and verse 19. Here our Lord Jesus is speaking, speaking to the Jews who are asking Him about a sign. Jesus answered and said to them, You want a sign?

I'll give you one. Verse 19, Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up. That is a prophecy that is Scripture spoken by Christ recorded in the gospel of John.

The Jews in their ignorance said it took 46 years to build this temple. They think He's talking about the physical temple of Herod and you will raise it up in three days? But He was speaking of the temple of His body. Listen verse 22, when therefore He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this and they believed the Scripture and the Word which Jesus had spoken. They knew the Scripture promised a resurrection. They knew Jesus in speaking New Testament Scripture promised a resurrection and when it happened, they believed the Scripture. The resurrection of Jesus Christ should affirm our faith and confidence in the veracity, the inerrancy of Scripture. What does the resurrection prove? It proves that the Scripture is true. In Luke chapter 24, a familiar scene on the road to Emmaus, as two woe begun and saddened and grieving disciples walk along thinking their Lord has perished for good, not knowing of His resurrection.

They are sad, all is lost, and as Jesus comes alongside, in verse 25 of Luke 24, He says to them, O foolish men and slow of heart, to believe in all that the prophets have spoken. Was it not necessary for the Christ, the Messiah to suffer these things and to enter into His glory? And beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures. The picture of a dead and risen Messiah is all over the Old Testament. Every time there was a sacrifice of a lamb, every time such sacrifice is noted in the Scripture, it speaks of a dying Messiah.

But every time it talks about Messiah's reigning and ruling and kingdom, it speaks about a living Messiah. Therefore, it is obvious that the one who dies must come back to life. It is all over the Old Testament and the Scripture's veracity is at stake in the resurrection. In 1 Corinthians chapter 15, you remember these wonderful words, I delivered to you, verse 3, of first importance what I received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures and that He was buried and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, just as the Old Testament said He would be, just as He Himself said and the New Testament writers said He would be. Secondly, the resurrection not only proves the truthfulness of the Word of God, it proves the deity of the Son of God, the deity of the Son of God. In fact, no greater proof exists for the divine nature of Jesus Christ than His rising from the dead. That is the most monumental thing that He did to verify that He was God, for only God can give life. Only God can conquer death. If you look into the New Testament, you will find a myriad of individuals giving testimony to Christ as God.

Some are the most amazing, others we might expect. For example, demons affirm the deity of Christ. In Mark 5 and 6, chapter 5, verse 6 and 7, I should say, the demons said, Jesus, Son of the Most High God. Even the demons, even the minions of hell, the fallen angels know of His deity.

They know He is the Son of the Most High God. In John chapter 9, you meet a man born blind, a man whom Jesus healed, a man who was sick for the glory of God. And Jesus says to him, Do you believe in the Son of Man? And he answered and said, And who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him? And Jesus said, You've seen Him and He is the one who's talking with you. And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshiped him. He knew he was dealing with God. The rest of the people said, We don't know where He's from.

And the blind man said, You mean He's opened my eyes and you don't know where He's from? And then there were the disciples who gave testimony. Peter on behalf of all of them said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Thomas said, My Lord and my God. Nathaniel said, Thou art the Son of God. Matthew said, He is God with us. Mark said, He is Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Luke said, He is the Son of God. The apostles, the writers of the New Testament, affirmed the deity of Christ. There was John the Baptist, you remember, his cousin who said, I saw and bear record that this is the Son of God. There was Martha, the sister of Mary, who said very affirmingly, I have believed that you are the Christ, the Son of God, even He who comes into the world, John 11, 27. There was the testimony of a Roman soldier at his crucifixion, truly this man is the Son of God. And Christ repeatedly made such claims. He said, If you've seen Me, you've seen the Father.

I and the Father are one. You have the testimony of all of these individuals to the deity of Christ, but none of them is as potent as the testimony of one other individual. Look at Romans chapter 1 and verse 4. In verse 1, we are introduced to the phrase, the gospel of God, Romans 1, 1. Verse 2 says, God promised it through the prophets. Verse 3 says, it was the gospel of God concerning God's Son. Then verse 4 says, it was the gospel of God concerning His Son who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead. At His baptism, the Father spoke out of heaven and said, This is My beloved Son, listen to Him. And that was a strong word from God at His baptism. But an even stronger word from God was that God raised Him from the dead. And God was in essence saying, This is My beloved Son and He is proven to be My Son in that He has been raised from the dead now for sure and for every reason.

Listen to Him. Romans 1, 4 is the testimony of God the Father. He is the supreme witness. In Acts 13, 30 it says, God raised Him from the dead. And God did it to give testimony to His deity. In Romans 6, 4, it tells us as well that Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father. The Father wanted Him raised from the dead and so through His glory or His power, His attributes, His essence, He raised Christ from the dead. Ephesians chapter 1 verse 19 talks about the surpassing greatness of God's power.

How great is it? Verse 20, it is the power with which He brought about the resurrection of Christ from the dead and seated Him at His right hand. Again, God is the one who raised Christ and He did it to give testimony to His deity. He has become in His resurrection both Lord and Christ. The resurrection, Peter says in Acts 2, 36, shows Him to be Lord and Christ. So the resurrection not only proves that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, but it proves that He was God.

It's John MacArthur, Chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary, and he's showing you why the resurrection is the turning point of all redemptive history and why it is literally the key to everything. The title of John's study here on Grace to You, Easter Through the Eyes of God. Now obviously we're airing this series with the Easter weekend in mind, it's coming right up, and yet the story of the resurrection and especially the events that come right before it. That is the heart of gospel truth and of course, John, the gospel is not seasonal. Well no, and look, we don't want to reserve the story of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ to one weekend a year by any means, and we don't. But at the same time, we make an emphasis on it because as long as the world is going to be looking at it and taking thought in that direction and the secular world sort of stops and gives us a bit of an access to put the truth of the death and resurrection of Christ in, we're going to take the advantage of doing that. And we know that the Lord can use that and bless it in a special way.

But no, we're preaching the gospel day after day after day all through the year without any reluctance and without any breaks. Along that line, you can extend Easter in your own life by reading a book that I wrote some years back that is one of the more important books I've ever written, and the title of it is The Murder of Jesus. I don't know if we think about what happened to Jesus as murder, but that's exactly what it was. And the details that are laid out in this book, The Murder of Jesus, are among the most fascinating details in all of Holy Scripture.

What happened on Good Friday and what happened on Easter Sunday had all kinds of preliminary actions going on as the murder of Jesus was being set up. It's a profoundly and amazingly unique story that must be understood, and the Scripture gives us a lot of truth, a lot of revelation about it. So I would love to get in your hands a copy of the book, The Murder of Jesus. It's the story that leads up to his death, covering every facet of the preliminary things, the trial and all that was going on as things were being conspired against him, the convergence of man's wickedness, and at the same time, God's gracious, sovereign plan. So The Murder of Jesus is a tremendous, tremendous book to read.

It will increase your love for the Lord and your gratitude for your salvation. It will enrich you profoundly on the full story of the sacrifice of Christ, and that means it's a compelling, vivid read that will drive you to worship, to worship our Lord. So get a copy of The Murder of Jesus today, and here's the amazing story.

It is free to anyone writing us for the first time. The story is so important, and we want to get this into the hands of as many as possible. If you've never contacted us before, you can order a copy of The Murder of Jesus and we'll get it to you. And for the rest of you who are part of our ministry, of course, it's available. Yes, and friend, if you're looking to kindle afresh your love for Christ, to better understand His sacrifice on your behalf and the profound benefits that you enjoy because of Christ's death, John's book, The Murder of Jesus, can help.

It's free if you've never contacted us before, so get in touch today. To request your copy, call us toll-free at 800-55-GRACE or visit our website, gty.org. Again, The Murder of Jesus, a full-size book, is our gift to you if you have never contacted us before. Just call 800-55-GRACE or go online to gty.org. And something else you should know about, and that's the MacArthur Study Bible. The MacArthur Study Bible has introductions to each book of Scripture, cross-references, and the most important feature, 25,000 footnotes that help explain God's Word from start to finish, Old Testament to New Testament. To order the MacArthur Study Bible, available in the English Standard, New King James, and New American Standard versions, call us at 800-55-GRACE or shop online at gty.org. That's our website. One more time, gty.org. Now for John MacArthur and the entire Grace To You staff, I'm Phil Johnson. Remember that Grace To You television airs this Sunday on DirecTV and on some other stations. Go to our website to see if it's available in your area, and then join us tomorrow when John continues his look at Easter through the eyes of God with another half hour of unleashing God's truth, one verse at a time, on Grace To You.