What if....the Resurrection is True?

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the cornerstone of Biblical Christianity. And that's why when you go into the New Testament, you will find that every sermon preached in the New Testament was a resurrection sermon. In Acts chapter 2, Peter preached the resurrection to the Jewish crowd at the day of Pentecost. In Acts chapter 7, Stephen preached the resurrection to the Jewish people who were stoning him to death. In Acts chapter 17, Paul preached the resurrection to the philosophers on Mars Hill in Athens. And in Acts chapter 28, Paul again preached the resurrection to Emperor Nero of Rome and to all of his elite Praetorian Guard there in Rome. And I could keep going, but I think the point is clear that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the foundation of the New Testament and of all of Biblical Christianity. Now if you're here and you're not certain the resurrection actually happened, then I want to direct your attention to my sermon from last year on Easter where I gave compelling evidence that the resurrection really did happen. You can find it online at mcleanbible.org slash sermons and I urge you to go listen to it. Today, however, what we're going to do is assume that the resurrection happened and we're going to answer the question, What if the resurrection is true?

What difference does that make for you and me here in the 21st century? So, are you ready? Alright, here we go. Number one, if the resurrection is true, it means, first of all, that Jesus really is Jehovah God wrapped in human flesh just as He claimed to be. In John chapter 10, Jesus said, I and the Father are one. In John chapter 14, Jesus said, He who has seen Me has seen the Father.

In John chapter 12, Jesus said, He who sees Me sees the One who sent Me. Folks, don't you ever let anybody tell you that Jesus Himself never claimed to be God. Jesus claimed it all the time. As a matter of fact, the Jewish rabbis in John chapter 10, they were getting ready to stone Jesus and He asked them, Why are you stoning Me? And they said, We are stoning you for blasphemy because you, a mere man, claim to be, what's the next word?

God. Yes, you claim to be God. Hey, they knew exactly what Jesus was claiming. And when the rabbis asked for proof of His claim, look where Jesus pointed them.

Matthew chapter 12, He said to them, For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so the Son of Man, Jesus Himself, will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. In other words, for proof of His deity, Jesus pointed these guys to His resurrection. Now, look, it's easy for a person to claim that they are a messenger from God. I mean, Muhammad claimed that. Buddha claimed that. Confucius claimed that. Joseph Smith claimed that. Mary Baker Eddy claimed it. Rabbi Schneerson claimed it.

Jim Jones claimed it. And Jesus claimed that He was a messenger from God. But Jesus claimed something none of these folks ever claimed, and that is that He was not just a messenger from God, but that He was Jehovah God Himself wrapped in human flesh. And all of these guys, Jesus, like all of them, remember they all spent three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. And the difference is that all the rest of these guys are still in the heart of the earth, but Jesus is risen. Praise God for that.

Amen. And let me tell you why Jesus is risen. The Bible says Jesus is risen because as Jehovah God, Acts chapter 2, the Bible says it was impossible for death to hold Him.

Second of all, if the resurrection is true, not only does it mean that Jesus is Jehovah God in the flesh as He claimed, but it means, number two, that Jesus is telling us the truth about the afterlife. Jesus said to the rabbis, Matthew chapter 23, You serpents, you brood of vipers, how will you escape being condemned to the word? To hell, yeah. And Jesus said to His disciples, Luke chapter 10, Nevertheless, do not rejoice that the demons are subject to you, but rather rejoice that your names are written in heaven.

Yeah. Friends, there really is an afterlife. There really is a hell. There really is a heaven.

And real people really do go to these places and they really do stay there for all of eternity. And you say, how can you be so sure of that? Well, because Jesus said so in the Bible. And as Jehovah God in the flesh, He ought to know. In John chapter 3, Jesus was talking to Rabbi Nicodemus and they were talking about the afterlife. And Jesus said to him, I speak of that which I know. And I testify, Jesus said, of that which I have seen. I've been to the afterlife, Nicodemus. I know what's over there, Nicodemus. No one other than me, no one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven, meaning Jesus Himself.

And yet here's the tragic part. He says, Yet Nicodemus, you will not believe my testimony. Bertrand Russell, the great British philosopher, said, I believe when I die, I shall rot and nothing of my ego will survive.

No, Bertrand, that's not right. You should have believed Jesus's testimony. And Carl Sagan said, I'd love to believe that when I die, some thinking feeling part of me will continue.

But I know of nothing to suggest that this is more than just wishful thinking. No, Carl, that's not right. You should have believed Jesus's testimony. And Stephen Hawking says, the belief that heaven or an afterlife awaits us is a fairy story for people afraid of death.

No, Stephen, that's not right. You need to believe Jesus's testimony. And folks, I'm begging you here today, heaven is real because Jesus says it is. And hell is real because Jesus says it is. And I beg you, believe Jesus's testimony and believe how He said you and I can escape hell and get to heaven.

He said, John 14, 6, I am the way, the truth and the life. Say the next two words with me. Say it. No one.

Say it louder. No one comes to the Father. No one gets into heaven except through me. Now, if you're here today and you've never tried to come to heaven and eternal life through Christ, you've tried other ways, but not that way, we're going to give you a chance in a few minutes. But let me finish the sermon first. Number three, if the resurrection is true, then third, it means that as followers of Christ, we will rise from the dead just like Jesus did.

I love this. The Bible says that as followers of Christ, when we die here on earth, a very curious thing happens. Our body separates from our spirit. Our body goes into the grave or into the sea or into the urn, whatever, while our spirit as a follower of Christ goes to live with the Lord in heaven. The Bible says 2 Corinthians 5, 8, For a believer to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord in spirit. Oh, but that's only a temporary situation because the Bible goes on to say, when Jesus returns, He's going to raise our dead bodies back to life, and He is going to transform them into glorified bodies, bodies with no sin nature, bodies like His post-resurrection body, bodies that we will have for the rest of time and eternity. Jesus said in John chapter 6, He said, For My Father's will is that everyone who believes in the Son shall have eternal life.

Watch now. And I will raise these people up at the last day. And at the last day, the Bible says, Philippians 3 21, That Jesus will transform our lowly bodies and make them to be like His glorious body.

Hallelujah, huh? What a future. Friends, what a future we have in the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus isn't the only one who's going to rise from the dead. As followers of Christ, you and I are going to rise. Also, it's just that we're going to be a little bit behind Him in time.

That's all. He's first. We'll follow Him.

What a great future, huh? Amen. Number four, and finally, if the resurrection is true, then it means that Jesus has the power to back up all these promises that He makes to us. Jesus said in John chapter 10, I have the authority to lay my life down.

Now stop there for a minute. Doesn't everybody have that authority? Huh? Don't you have that authority? Don't I have that authority? You have the authority to take your life, right, if you want to.

Okay. So Jesus, you know, my first response is, that's no big whoop that you got the authority to take your life. Oh, but He hadn't finished yet. Look, Jesus said, I have the authority to lay my life down and I have the authority to take it back up again.

Whoa. Now that's a different matter altogether. To have the authority once you have taken your own life or once you've gone into the grave by your own power, by your own authority to raise yourself up from the dead.

Oh, now that's different. And nobody has that kind of authority. Nobody has that kind of power except the eternal, risen, omnipotent, glorified Son of God. But that's who Jesus is. Amen. You can clap for that.

Won't hurt you. That's who He is. And so, listen folks, if Jesus says that He's Jehovah God in the flesh, I bank it. And if Jesus says that hell's out there and only by believing in Him can I escape hell and get into heaven, I bank that. And if Jesus says that He's going to raise our bodies up from the dead if we believe in Him, I bank that. And if Jesus says He's got the power to do all these things and more, what do we do? We bank that.

That's right. Because, folks, when somebody has the power to raise themselves from the dead, whatever they say, I don't care what it is. I bank it. Praise God for that. And listen, one more thing. Do you know the most common phrase Jesus ever used in the Bible? That God has ever used throughout the whole Old and New Testament?

Do you know what it is? Do not be afraid. Amazing, huh? And this is the beautiful part about Jesus' resurrection and His power. If He really is the being that He says He is, then when He tells me don't be afraid, folks, I'm not going to be afraid. I'm not going to be afraid of the grave. I'm not going to be afraid of death. I'm not going to be afraid of the afterlife. And I'm not going to be afraid of anything here on this earth. Jesus said, Hebrews 13, 5, I will never leave you, nor will I ever forsake you. The Bible goes on to say, therefore, I can confidently say the Lord is my helper.

What can man do to me? I'm not afraid when I've got Jesus on my side, the risen Christ. Amen? And so the beauty of the resurrection is that it empties right into the confidence we have. Do not be afraid of anything, Jesus said. Because I've got the power over everything. All authority in heaven and earth belong to me. And I'm here to protect you. I'll take care of you when I tell you don't fear.

What are you supposed to do when Jesus says don't fear? Where do we put it? In the where? In the bank. That is exactly right, my friends.

You take that and you bank it and you live on it. You with me? All right.

Amen. Now, let me conclude by saying that you remember all those people that we mentioned earlier, Confucius and Buddha and Muhammad and all those guys, remember we said they all went into the ground and they never came back out again? Well, don't forget, each one of them, when they were alive, offered people a way to get to heaven and a way to get eternal life. But the problem is now they're all dead.

If their way worked, why wouldn't they still be alive, huh? Jesus offered people a way to get to heaven and a way to get eternal life. And he rose from the dead.

He's alive forevermore. It's almost like you've got a bunch of skeletons pointing at a bunch of doors saying this is the way to get to heaven. And then you've got this one door with the living, risen, forever alive Christ saying, Oh no, this is the way you get there. Now, what person in their right mind would follow a skeleton instead of a living, risen savior, huh?

Huh? Well, let me say to you, if you're here today and you're trusting anything, anything to get you into heaven and give you eternal life except Jesus Christ and what he did for you on the cross and his shedding of his blood to pay for your sin in the sight of a holy God, if you're trusting anything else, I hate to tell you this, but you're following one of those skeletons, my friend. That skeleton is going to take you right where he is. Hey, follow a dead savior, you'll end up just like him. But the great news of the Bible, we don't have a dead savior, right? No, we've got a living savior. And look, follow a living savior and you'll end up just like him. Who wants to follow a dead savior? I want a living savior, folks.

And that's what we have in the Lord Jesus Christ. So if you're here today and you've been following a skeleton, we're going to give you a chance right now to change doors. We don't want you going through that door.

No, no, that door will not take you anywhere except death and hell. We want you following the right door, the Lord Jesus Christ, the real way to heaven and eternal life, and we're going to give you a chance to do that right now. Let's bow our heads together. And here's what we're going to do. If you've been following a skeleton, it's time to change right now and follow the Lord Jesus, the living Christ. So we're just going to say a little prayer where you're going to tell the Lord that you're ready to exchange doors and that you're ready to embrace Him as your Lord and Savior.

Here we go. I'm going to pray out loud one phrase at a time. You pray silently, please, right behind me one phrase at a time. Lord Jesus, I come to you today because I want eternal life.

I want to know for certain that I'm going to heaven when I leave this earth. And so today I renounce every other door and every other Savior I've ever followed. And today I put my full weight on you, my full trust in you, that by your work on the cross and your shed blood for my sins that you will give me eternal life and take me to heaven if I will trust and rely on you.

And so I do that today. I lay my life at your feet. I surrender my heart to you. And I embrace you as my Lord and my Savior from this point on for the rest of my life. In Jesus' name I pray.

Amen. We look forward to the day when the Bible says every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. We look forward to the day that you will break every stronghold of Satan and you will throw him in the lake of fire and we will be rid of that evil being for the rest of eternity. Lord, we look forward to the day where you will pull every idol down, every place of idol worship down, all the high places, and only the throne of Jesus will be lifted up on this earth. Father, we look forward to the day when every tongue that has maligned you and blasphemed you and criticized you and talked other people out of believing in you and said things hateful about you that they will be forced to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

They were wrong. And Lord Jesus, until that day, you keep us faithful to you, Lord, and you remind us, as we said, that we have nothing to fear. You have conquered death. You have overcome. You have conquered this world. And when we are with you, there is nothing for us to fear.

Lord Jesus, thank you. We've got good news for this world. And that we've got good news for our lives. We worship you and we love you for being our Savior. And we pray these things in Jesus' name. And God's people said, Amen. Amen.