Resurrection: The Key to Everything B

The resurrection not only proves the truthfulness of the Word of God, it proves the deity of the Son of God.

God is the one who raised Christ and He did it to give testimony to His deity. He is becoming His resurrection both Lord and Christ. Welcome to Grace to You with John MacArthur.

I'm your host, Phil Johnson. Tomorrow, Good Friday, will be a day of sorrow for many, many people as they mourn the shame and unspeakable suffering Jesus endured on the cross. And yet what followed His sacrifice is so remarkable, so monumental, only the sinless Son of God could accomplish it.

And it's the reason that sorrow and mourning give way to joy. You'll see that today on Grace to You as John MacArthur continues his study called, Easter Through the Eyes of God, with a message titled, Resurrection, the Key to Everything. Now follow along as John introduces the lesson with a series of questions about what exactly happened at the tomb of Christ. What did the resurrection of Jesus Christ mean? What did it verify?

What did it accomplish? What did it prove? First of all, the resurrection proves the truthfulness of the Word of God. Secondly, the resurrection not only proves the truthfulness of the Word of God, it proves the deity of the Son of God.

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. Romans 4, 25, maybe the most wonderful, the most powerful verse with regard to the application of His resurrection, makes a third point and I want you to get this third point. The first point, His resurrection proves the truthfulness of the Word of God. The second point, His resurrection proves the deity of the Son of God. Thirdly, His resurrection proves the completion of the salvation of God, the completion of the salvation of God.

Listen to Romans for wonderful truth, truth on which we build our lives. He was delivered up because of our transgressions and was raised because of our justification. In order for God to justify us, in order for God to declare us righteous, He had to raise Jesus from the dead. When it says His name shall be called Jesus for He shall save His people from their sins, that's exactly what God wanted. But in order to accomplish it, He had to raise Christ from the dead. That was indispensable evidence of the completion and efficacious value of His death.

It was the Father's way of saying, your death accomplished its intended purpose. It was God raising Him from the dead to affirm that what He did on the cross satisfied God's holy justice. There are so many essential features in our salvation contingent on the resurrection.

I can take Romans 4.25 and split it into component parts. The bestowing of eternal life is dependent on the resurrection. As in Adam all died, so in Christ shall all be made alive.

Because I live, you shall live also. In other words, it was in the death of Christ and His resurrection that He granted to us eternal life. If He never rose, then He showed He couldn't conquer death. If He never rose, He wouldn't be alive. If He wasn't alive, He couldn't give us life. But He did arise and He said in John 11.25, I am the resurrection and the life whoever believes in Me, even though he dies, shall live again. So eternal life is dependent upon the resurrection. That's a component in the completion of God's salvation.

Secondly, the sending of the Holy Spirit. If Jesus hadn't arisen from the grave, He never would have ascended back to the Father. If He hadn't ascended back to the Father, He never would have sent the Holy Spirit. He Himself said that He could not send the Holy Spirit until He had gone back to the Father, John 16.7.

I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away. If I do not go away, the Holy Spirit will not come to you, but if I go, I'll send Him to you. And when He comes, He'll convict the world of sin and righteousness and judgment. When He comes, He'll lead you into all truth.

When He comes, He'll bring all things into remembrance. When He comes, He will place you into the body of Christ. When He comes, He will become the guarantee of your eternal life. When He comes, He will take up residence in you and you will become His temple. When He comes, He will empower you for service. When He comes, He will guide you. When He comes, He will instruct you in the Word of God.

He will be the anointing that teaches you so that you need no human teacher. The whole full-blown ministry of the Holy Spirit was dependent upon the resurrection of Christ. If He didn't rise, He couldn't ascend. If He couldn't ascend, He couldn't send the Spirit. No resurrection, no ascension, no ascension, no Holy Spirit.

No Holy Spirit, no church. When you talk about the resurrection proving the completion of the saving work of God, you're talking about the heart of Christianity. He had to rise to give us eternal life.

He had to have the life to give it. He had to rise to go back to the Father to send us the Holy Spirit. Thirdly, He had to rise to forgive our sins. If He hadn't arisen from the dead, then we would know the Father was not pleased with His sacrifice. His sacrifice was not efficacious. It was not successful.

It didn't work. It didn't atone for our sins. And therefore, the Father did not exalt Him and take Him to glory because He didn't do what He was supposed to do. On the other hand, if Jesus was raised from the dead, taken to the right hand of God, seated at the throne of God on His right hand, affirmed by God as having perfectly accomplished our redemption, then there is forgiveness of sins.

Then it is accomplished. Then He who came for the express purpose of dying to put away death and sin accomplished His purpose. He, it says, was made like His brethren in all things that He might become a merciful and faithful High Priest and things pertaining to God to make propitiation for the sins of His people. That's Hebrews 2. Later on it says in Hebrews that He has perfected forever them that are sanctified by the offering of Himself, that His sacrifice did work.

Our sins were completely covered and the Father affirmed it in the resurrection. Fourthly, Jesus must rise from the dead in order to be at the right hand of God interceding for us. His resurrection is inseparably linked to His work of intercession as He presents His petitions on behalf of the weak and tempted Christians and intercedes for them before the throne of grace. John says in 1 John 2, 1 and 2, we have an advocate with the Father who is always pleading our case. Hebrews chapter 4 and Hebrews chapter 7 says we have a merciful, faithful High Priest in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin and He ever lives to make intercession for us. He is always at the right hand of God. Satan is there accusing us. He is there defending us.

He is our lawyer, our advocate, our defender. The resurrection therefore is necessary not only for forgiveness of sins but for perpetual intercession that we might never be tempted above that we are able and that there always will be a way of escape. Fifthly, the resurrection is crucial to the bestowal of spiritual gifts, to the bestowal of spiritual gifts.

What are those? Those are the divine enabling abilities that the Spirit of God gives to every Christian so that we can serve God. In Ephesians chapter 4, it says that Christ ascended and after He ascended He gave some as apostles and some as prophets and evangelists and pastor-teachers for the equipping of the saints, for the work of service, for the building up of the body of Christ. He went back to heaven and then He began to work through gifted men and spiritual gifts to build His church strong.

To each one of us, verse 7 says, was given grace according to the measure of Christ's gift and He gave us that gift when He ascended on high, when He led captivity, a host of captives and gave gifts to men. Jesus risen from the dead ascends to heaven, sends back spiritual gifts, gifted men so that we can serve God. That's all based on His resurrection. If He doesn't arise, He doesn't ascend, He doesn't send gifts nor the enabling Spirit. Sixthly, the resurrection also grants spiritual power, spiritual power. Jesus said in Matthew 28, 18, all power is given unto Me in heaven and earth.

Then in Acts 1, 8, He says, when the Spirit comes, I'm passing it to you. And you now are able to do exceeding abundantly above all you can ask or think according to the power that works in you. You have the power, Ephesians 1 says, that raised Jesus from the dead working through you. Jesus Christ then sends us power, the enabling power and authority of the Spirit of God.

I can give you a seventh component of the salvation of God and that is Jesus Christ in His resurrection has given to us a new position of blessing, a new position of blessing. In Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 3, it says, we are blessed with all spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ. Christ is in the heavenlies and because He is there, He pours out all spiritual blessing on us. Chapter 2 of Ephesians and verse 7 says, forever He will pour out the surpassing riches of His grace and His kindness toward us.

What immense blessing. The salvation of God demanded eternal life, the coming of the Spirit, the forgiveness of sins, ongoing intercession, the bestowing of spiritual gifts, the granting of spiritual power, and the outpouring of eternal blessing. And all of that hinges on the resurrection. If Christ doesn't rise, none of it happens, none of it. The question then is not what proves the resurrection, but what does the resurrection prove? It proves that the Word of God is true. It proves that the Son of God is deity. It proves that the salvation of God is complete.

Fourthly, the resurrection proves the establishment of the church of God, the establishment of the church of God. Our Lord said He would build His church. You remember these words in Matthew 16, I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. What are the gates of Hades?

It's a Jewish expression meaning what? Death. I'll build my church and death won't stop it, not your death and not mine. Jesus was in effect saying, I'm going to die, but I'm going to rise.

Death is not going to stop me from building my church. Ephesians 1, 20 says that Christ was raised from the dead, seated at the right hand in heavenly places, far above all rule, all authority, power, dominion, every name that is named, not only in this age and the age to come. And He's put all things in subjection under His feet and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

When He rose, He took His seat, He became the head of the church. The resurrection is essential to the establishment of the church. If there's no resurrection, there's no church. Anybody that says they belong to a church that doesn't believe the resurrection doesn't belong to a church.

The true church is the church of those who have been given life through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. John Calvin wrote, this is the highest honor of the church that until He is united to us, the Son of God reckons Himself in some measure imperfect. Without consolation, it is for us to learn that not until we are in His presence does He possess all His parts or does He wish to be regarded as complete. In other words, the Messiah Himself is not complete without His body.

He is a head without a body. The church is His completion. And that church was born in the resurrection. It was the resurrection that transformed the apostles from scattered, fearful, faithless doubters and cowards into world-changing apostles. The little band of disciples, maligned and persecuted, grew to fill Jerusalem with their teaching and soon turned the world upside down. Jews meeting on Sabbath for centuries and millennia all of a sudden became Christians meeting on Sunday. Sabbath was no more the day, Sunday was because Jesus arose and the church has marched through time triumphant in the power of its risen Christ. The resurrection proves then the truthfulness of the Word of God, the deity of the Son of God, the completion of the salvation of God, the establishment of the church of God.

Fifthly and sadly, the resurrection proves the inevitability of the judgment of God, the inevitability of the judgment of God. When our Lord came into the world the first time, He was mocked and scorned, hated, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. He was humbled. He allowed Himself to be treated so terribly. The people said He was from hell. They battered Him. They spit on Him. They pushed a crown of thorns into His head. They drove nails through His hands and feet. They rammed a spear into His side. They put Him on display naked as a laughing stock. But that's not the last scene the world will have of Jesus. He rose from the dead to be their judge. They executed Him as a criminal.

He will come back as their judge. Listen to John 8, a very, very powerful, powerful testimony. He says to the Jews who have rejected Him, verse 26, I have many things to speak and to judge concerning you.

This thing isn't over, He said. Back in verse 21 He said, because you do not know Me, you will die in your sins and where I am going you cannot come. I have more to say to you, He says, and to judge concerning you. Back in John chapter 5 He speaks specifically about that judgment. In verse 22 He says, all judgment is given to the Son. God has made Him judge and given to Him all judgment. Verse 21, just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so the Son also gives life to whom He wishes. And then not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son. Down in verse 25, truly, truly I say to you, an hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear shall live for just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son to have life in Himself and He gave Him authority to execute judgment.

What kind of judgment? Verse 28, someday the tombs are going to hear His voice. They're going to come forth, those who did good deeds, to the resurrection of life, those who committed evil ones, to a resurrection of judgment.

I can do nothing on my own initiative, verse 30 says, as I hear I judge, and my judgment is just. He's coming back as a just judge. He's coming back as judge, jury, sentencer, executioner.

And God has testified to that. He was killed as a criminal. He will return as a resurrected judge. Listen to Acts 10, verse 42. Actually, start at verse 40. God raised Him up on the third day after being hanged on a cross, verse 39. God raised Him up on the third day, Acts 10, verse 40, and granted that He should become visible, not to all the people, but to witnesses who were chosen beforehand by God, that is to us who ate and drank with Him after He rose from the dead. Why did He appear to the apostles, verse 42, and He ordered us to preach to the people and solemnly to testify that this is the One who has been appointed by God as judge of the living and the dead.

He will come back as a God-appointed judge. In Acts chapter 17, Paul is preaching on the Areopagus known as Mars Hill in Athens. And Paul says in verse 30 of that sermon that God has patiently overlooked the times of man's ignorance, but He is now declaring to men that they must repent, verse 31 of Acts 17, because He has fixed a day, the day of the Lord, in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a man He has appointed. And how did He furnish proof that Christ was the man? By raising Him from the dead, says Paul. The resurrection then is the act of the Father by which He appoints Christ to be the judge.

You can see how many sweeping realities in the Christian faith are unlocked to us in the resurrection of Christ. He is raised not only for our justification, who believe, but for the damnation of those who do not believe. And the Father attested to Him as Savior, as Son, and as Judge by His resurrection from the dead.

I'm thinking of Romans 14, 9 which says, Christ died and lived again that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living. And then the next verse says, we must all stand before the judgment seat of God. He is not only the judge of the unbeliever, He is the judge of the believer. We must all stand before the judgment seat of Christ, Paul says in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, and He will be there to test our works to see if their wood, hay, and stubble are gold, silver, and precious stones. The Lord Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, proves the truthfulness of the Word of God, the deity of the Son of God, the completion of the salvation of God, the establishment of the church of God, the inevitability of the judgment of God. And one last point, the eternal bliss of the people of God. His resurrection is the guarantee of our eternal heaven. Listen to these wonderful and familiar words, Jesus speaking, John 14, let not your heart be troubled.

Believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many dwelling places. If it were not so, I would have told you, for I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, receive you to Myself that where I am, there you may be also. Right there, Jesus is predicting His resurrection. He's headed to death, but He says, I'm going right through death into the Father's house to get a place ready for you and I'll be back to get you. If there's no resurrection, there's no place prepared for us. If there's no place prepared for us, there's no heaven for us. Everything depends on the resurrection.

Again I say what I said at the beginning. The real issue is not can you prove the resurrection. The real issue is what does the resurrection prove? You take out the resurrection and you have cut out the soul of the Christian faith and you have non-Christianity without the resurrection. All of God's complete redemptive plan depends on this key reality.

And that brings it right down to us, doesn't it? All of the redemptive plan of God in its fullness completed through the resurrection of Jesus Christ will either mean to you heaven or it will mean to you hell. He will either be back to take you to the place that He has prepared for you or He will be back to send you to the place He has prepared for the devil and his angels. He will be back either to gather you into His heaven or to send you to the hell that is outside of His presence forever. He will be back to pour upon you eternal blessing or eternal punishment. You will arise from the dead someday to the resurrection of life in His presence, to the resurrection of damnation out of His presence. All gospel realities hinge on His resurrection and your eternity is at stake. You can make your choice.

It doesn't seem to me to be much of a choice to choose heaven, forgiveness, blessedness, joy, fulfillment in His presence or damnation, punishment, hell forever out of His presence, but that's the choice. Pray with me. Our Father, we're very much aware of the fact that this is not just a message. This is a command.

Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. The gospel is a command. When the Father said, this is My beloved Son, listen to Him, that was a command. And either we obey it and respond in faith to Christ, give Him our lives, ask Him to save us from our sins and take us to heaven, or we reject it and disobey and are appointed a place with the damned and the wicked. Father, I pray that Your Holy Spirit would work in every life, every heart, every mind so that no one can shirk this message, this truth.

This is not just something that can be ignored, treated with indifference. Eternal destiny turns on the issue of will I commit my life to the one who rose to be my Savior, or will I reject Him and face Him as my judge? Lord, I pray heaven will be rejoicing because many will be turned from death to life, darkness to light, hell to heaven, despair to hope, sin to righteousness. Work Your work in every heart for the glory of Christ we ask.

Amen. That's John MacArthur. He is the teacher each day here on Grace to You. He's also Chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary. He calls his current study, Easter Through the Eyes of God. Now John, I love the title of today's lesson, Resurrection, the Key to Everything. And really, it is the key to everything. All of history prior to the Resurrection looks forward to it and everything since then looks back at it.

It's the most graphic demonstration of God's love ever and the proof of our salvation. It's also something that demands a response. You know, years ago there was a Canadian scientist by the name of G.B. Hardy who said, I was looking for the truth in religion. And he said, I only had one question. Did the leader of that religion rise from the dead? Because if he didn't rise from the dead, then I have no reason to put my eternity in his hands.

And that's pretty insightful. And there's only one religious leader who ever rose from the dead and that's the Lord Jesus Christ. The Resurrection is everything.

It makes all the difference. Buddha's in the grave and Muhammad's in the grave and on and on and on in the religious history. But the grave is empty because Jesus rose from the dead.

This is the validation of Christianity. God declared him to be his son by the Resurrection from the dead. God declared that he was satisfied with the sacrifice of Christ, that it was a sufficient atonement for the sins of his people. And God declared that satisfaction by the Resurrection from the dead.

God declared him to be heir of everything and to have a right to come and sit on his throne and receive his inheritance by the Resurrection from the dead. So the Resurrection is everything. And part of understanding the immense reality of the Resurrection is to understand what came before the Resurrection and that is the death of Christ. And even backing up a little from that, you need to understand what forces were in action leading to the death of Christ and then to the Resurrection and then to the full validation of Christianity by that Resurrection. And to do that, I want to mention a book called The Murder of Jesus.

If you've never contacted this ministry before, we'll send you a free copy. And this is a full-size book, The Murder of Jesus. It's an amazing story of all the trials and everything that was leading up to the death of Christ and culminated in the glory of his Resurrection.

See the role that God played, that Satan played, the Jews played, the Romans played. It's a tremendous story, no story like it, and you won't be able to put it down once you open the cover. So if you've never been in touch with us before, do it today and request a copy of The Murder of Jesus. Yes, this book shows you why Christ died, who is responsible for his death, and what Jesus' final hours mean for your life today. To get a copy of John's book, The Murder of Jesus, it's free if it's your first time contacting us, get in touch today. Our number here, 855 Grace, or go to the website gty.org. With its focus on the death and resurrection of Christ and how that makes salvation possible, The Murder of Jesus is ideal to put in the hands of an unbeliever you know. Again, The Murder of Jesus is our gift to you if you've never contacted us before.

Just call 800-55-GRACE or go to gty.org. And if you're looking for more biblical truth that explains the profound significance of Christ's death and resurrection, let me encourage you to go to our website and download some of Grace2U's Easter-themed studies, like Condemned and Crucified, The Crucifixion Chronicle, and The Empty Tomb. These studies, or any of the more than 3,500 of John's sermons, are available free of charge at our website, gty.org. You'll also find daily devotionals, video clips from John's various conference appearances, and much more, all of it free at gty.org. Now for John MacArthur, I'm Phil Johnson, encouraging you to be here again tomorrow, Good Friday, when John looks at the many reasons you have to believe in Christ's resurrection. It's another 30 minutes of unleashing God's truth, one verse at a time, on Grace2U.