The Death and Resurrection of Jesus, a sermon by Colin Dye

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After Jesus? crucifixion, the disciples were a shattered band of people who were ready to return to their old homes and their old way of life. But something then happened which convinced them that Jesus was alive, and that they had a message which could transform the world.

Those sceptics who do not believe that the Son rose from the dead need to explain this dramatic turnaround, and the disciples? fearlessness in proclaiming the gospel ? despite the terrible opposition that they faced. For Christians, the physical resurrection of Jesus is the obvious explanation for this sudden change in attitude and action.

In Acts 2:24 & 36, the first Christian preachers announced that the one whom the Jews had crucified had been raised from the dead, and that God had made him both Lord and Christ. Something must have happened to produce this conviction, and the New Testament writers are unanimous in insisting that it was the physical resurrection of Jesus.

The resurrection was so important to the early church that, in Acts 1:22, only witnesses to the resurrection were considered as candidates for Judas? replacement. Then, throughout Acts, the resurrection was uppermost in the church?s preaching and teaching.

The resurrection predicted

Matthew, Mark and Luke report that Jesus predicted his death three times, and that he linked this with the promise of a resurrection to follow after three days. The fact that Jesus made the prediction several times suggests he knew that the disciples would not grasp the idea that easily. The disciples? problem seems to be that they had a wrong idea of Jesus? mission: Luke 24:21 shows that their hopes were fixed on a physical kingdom, and these were shattered by the crucifixion.

All the disciples, except John, deserted Jesus and appear not to have been present at the cross. They had no faith in the spiritual purpose of Jesus? mission, and did not remember that he had predicted his death and a resurrection. As the Gospels show that the idea of a suffering Messiah was unacceptable not just to the Jews but also to the disciples, it is not surprising that they fled when Jesus was crucified.

The resurrection accomplished

The Bible never explains how God works creatively, because we do not know, and would never be able to understand, his divine processes. So the Gospel writers do not attempt to explain how God raised Jesus from the dead, they simply report what they saw: The tomb was empty and the risen Lord appeared to individual disciples, to small groups of them, and even to a crowd of five hundred . Those people who refuse to believe in the resurrection need to provide an alternative explanation for both these facts. Those who assert that the appearances were caused by hallucination cannot explain the empty tomb, and those who insist that the empty tomb was due to fraud cannot explain the risen appearances. The Son?s risen appearances confirmed his resurrection and provided a series of occasions when he could teach his disciples about the kingdom in the light of his resurrection.

The resurrection proclaimed

In 1 Corinthians 15:3?11, the apostle Paul lists the appearances to authenticate the resurrection, describes his own experience, and then applies this in his general proclamation and application of the resurrection in 15:12?58. In this passage, he asserts that the Christian faith would be futile if Christ were not risen. For Paul, the resurrection is at the centre of his faith and his thinking, as well as at the centre of his experience.

The resurrection permeates through Paul?s teaching. For him, the resurrection of the Son was an indisputable fact of history and fundamental to his preaching. Paul, like us, had to learn about the resurrection from others, but Peter was an eye-witness. In 1 Peter 1:3 & 21?22 he shows its relationship with our new birth and our confidence in God. Peter was writing mainly to persecuted, suffering believers, and he promises them that their suffering will give way to the glory of the risen Christ. For Peter, the reality of the resurrection is the indispensable basis for hope. The apostle John was another eye-witness, and his book of Revelation centres on the risen Christ.

Without the resurrection, Jesus would have to be either a divine person who never really became human and who did not die, or a human person who was not divine, who died and did not rise. Only a resurrection guarantees the dual nature of Christ, and this is why it is vital to our understanding of the God the Son and central to our Christian faith.

We can understand the resurrection only as a supernatural act of God. Although Jesus claimed the power to take up his life after laying it down, in John 10:18, the New Testament never suggests that the resurrection was an independent act of Christ.

The power behind the resurrection was the power of God: it was a supreme display of divine power; it was the act which defeated death and checked corruption. By raising his Son from death to life, God provided humanity with a way from death to life ? and this means that the resurrection is an essential part of God?s plan for our salvation.

But this is not all there is to the resurrection, for it also expresses God?s satisfaction with what Christ has done on the cross and vindicates his mission. If Christ had not been raised there would have been no visible proof that his death had accomplished anything.

On top of this, our assurance that Christ still cares for us today, and still intercedes for us, depends on his resurrection. His exalted position, his new name, his restored status, and his present activity, all depend upon his resurrection. As Paul states, without the Son?s resurrection, our faith would be meaningless and our hope would be futile.

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We have the best news in existence. Christ died and is risen again

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God-in-Christ, therefore, is the only substitute who can accomplish your atonement, because Jesus is the only One in whom the should and the could are united by his fully-human, fully-divine nature.

Early in their history, the people of Israel were slaves in Egypt. Eventually, God revealed himself to Moses and appointed him to lead the people away from slavery and into the promised land of Canaan. Moses spoke to Pharaoh, the Egyptian ruler, but he would not let the people of Israel go. So God sent a series of warning ‘plagues’ to Egypt.

When Pharaoh still refused to release the Israelites, God announced that he would send a final ‘plague’ of death on the country. There would be a supreme act of holy judgement on Egypt and a merciful act of deliverance for Israel. God would act decisively to demonstrate his love and his justice, his grace and his holiness.

God told Moses that each Israelite household should take a perfect lamb or goat, kill it, and sprinkle some of its blood on the outside doorposts and lintels of their houses.

Sprinkled with the blood That night, God passed through Egypt and killed the firstborn male of every human family and every farm animal. But he passed over all those homes where the doorways were splashed with blood. There was unlimited salvation from death for all the households whose homes were sprinkled with the blood of a lamb.

Just as Adam and Eve in Eden had personally to accept the blood-stained clothes from God, so each Jewish family had personally to act on God’s provision of the blood sacrifice.

They each had to sacrifice their most valuable animal and sprinkle its blood on their doorposts: this was their personal, faith-filled response to God’s outstretched grace.

The Bible records that God rewarded his people’s obedient sacrifices with unlimited blessing – this time with a personal salvation from death and a corporate salvation from slavery.

Pointers to the cross As we look at Exodus chapter 12 and read the details of the Passover we can see an amazing picture of the cross and our unlimited salvation! ? There was only one way of escape from God’s just wrath, and that was by God’s gracious provision ? God’s merciful love passed over every blood-marked home to shield them from his wrath ? the people of Israel belonged to God because they’d been purchased by the blood and so were consecrated to his service ? the only survivors were those in homes where a perfect lamb had died instead of them ? the survivors were those who’d appropriated the blood ? the sacrifice not only dealt with their past bondage, it also provided them with a new life of freedom And it is still the same today! The judgement of God and the sentence of death hangs over every household today. There isn’t a person alive on earth who doesn’t live in the fear and knowledge of death. The wonderful news, however, is that the perfect Lamb has been sacrificed at Calvary; and that all those who believe his blood was shed to achieve their unlimited salvation will be spared when the terrible day of judgement finally comes.

Claim the blood Make sure that you claim his blood, for yourself and for your entire household. Do it now!

Sprinkle the blood of the Lamb over your life and over your home. Place it over yourself and your loved ones. Live continually in the safety of its covering. And make sure that you spread the good news of Jesus’ saving blood to all your friends and relations. Once you’ve started to believe in the blood, and have personally appropriated it, you’ll begin to sleep easy at night. You’ll rest in the knowledge that his blood is the guarantee of your unlimited salvation and your unlimited life of freedom. Every appearance of the crimson thread of the blood in the Old Testament prepares the way for the New Testament declaration that Jesus Christ shed his blood as a sacrifice for you – and for all people everywhere. All the Jewish sacrifices are meant to point you to Christ: they should help you grasp the significance of his death, and understand why he died. What they don’t do, however, is reveal precisely who Jesus is. Most unbelievers think that he was merely a man; while many believers imagine that he was somehow independent of God.

Right and wrong ideas The problem with these ideas is that they lead people to misunderstand the blood. Never think that, on the cross, Jesus was trying to pacify an angry God and grasp a begrudging salvation. And never think that an unjust God killed an innocent Jesus in place of the real culprits.

The story of Abraham and Isaac on Mount Moriah paved the way for the truth. The Father was ready to sacrifice his beloved Son and the adult Son was prepared to be the willing victim. Their wills were one: the Father gave the Son and the Son freely gave himself. The Father sacrificed the Son and the Son willingly sacrificed himself.

God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them. 2 Corinthians 5:19

This should help you to realise that the blood sacrifice on the cross was not made by Christ alone or by God alone, but by God acting in Christ. In their love for you, the Father, the Son and the Spirit worked together in grace and harmony in the shedding of their own blood.

God in Christ Some people have suggested that God died on the cross, but common sense should convince you that the immortal God could not die. God simply had to become fully human (without ceasing to be fully God) if he was to die as your substitute atoning sacrifice, and be both Judge and innocent victim, both high priest and perfect lamb. Jesus Christ, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a servant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled himself and become obedient to the point of death even the death of the cross. Philippians 2:6-8

When you think about it carefully, it should be obvious that only a human should atone for your sins (because it’s you who’s sinned). And that only God could accomplish the necessary atonement (since it’s he who’s justly demanded it).

God-in-Christ, therefore, is the only substitute who can accomplish your atonement, because Jesus is the only One in whom the should and the could are united by his fully-human, fully-divine nature.

Your substitute on the cross The good news, dear friend, is that a substitute has taken your place, offered your confession, borne the pain of your sin, and endured the penalty due to your disobedience. And this substitute wasn’t an animal, nor was it Christ alone or God alone. Instead, the substitute who died in your place was God-in-Christ, the fully human, fully divine being who was uniquely qualified to represent human you and divine God, and to mediate between you.

When God gave his Son for you, he graciously gave himself! When he sent his Son for you, he graciously came himself! God humbled himself to become – in-and-through his Son – human flesh, and to endure and accept the terrible consequences of all your sin. In his amazing grace, the Judge personally intervened and endured the penalty which he’d imposed upon you. In order to save you from death, my friend, God-in-Christ graciously substituted himself and shed his blood for you.

How can you respond to the cross and the blood with anything other than total commitment?

?I confess and declare that I owe everything to the precious blood of Jesus Christ, who died in my place, once-and-for-all, on the cross of Calvary.

I thank You, my Father, for graciously providing the blood of sacrifice so that I can dwell in Your presence forever. I thank You, my Jesus, for willingly donating every drop of Your blood so that I can always have Your life flowing through me. I thank You, my God, for providing the Passover Lamb to die for my life and my deliverance. I sprinkle his blood over my life, over my home, over my family, over all that is dear to me. I receive by faith the unlimited salvation and unlimited blessings that his shed blood brings to me. I affirm before all the host of heaven that the precious blood of Jesus permanently guarantees my forgiveness, eternally removes my guilt, and beckons me into the welcoming presence of God.

In Your grace and mercy, through the great power of the blood, You have provided me with unlimited life and freedom. I accept Your gift. I receive Your gift.

I depend on Your gift. I rejoice in Your gift. Praise Your wonderful name.?

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The cover of our Church magazine, "revival times"

In order to fully understand the cross correctly we need grasp the natures of the Father, the Son and the Spirit.

Most of the secular objections to the cross are based on wrong ideas about God and Christ; and nearly all the Christian misunderstandings about salvation come from inaccurate pictures of the relationship between the Father and the Son. The idea of substitution rests on the identity of the substitute. Everyone knows that Christ was the substitute, but we need to grasp precisely who the Christ is who died on the cross.

An independent Jesus Unbelievers think that the person who died on the cross was simply a human being. Although most Christians reject this idea, many believers think that the Son was an individual being who was quite separate from God ? an independent third party in the act of salvation.

This means that they present the cross either as Jesus trying to pacify an angry God and grasp a begrudging salvation, or as an unjust God who kills an innocent Jesus in place of the real culprits. This is a grievous misrepresentation of the Father. He is not reluctant to suffer himself or to forgive humanity, and he is not a cold tyrant whose anger has to be appeased and whose antipathy to humanity has to be overcome by someone outside himself, by some third party. This ?third party? approach sets the Son against the Father, yet there has never been any discord or conflict between them. Whatever happened on the cross was willed and accepted by both equally.

The second clause of Isaiah 53:10 is notoriously difficult to translate. It is unclear in Hebrew who makes the offering: the clause could mean either ?though God offers his servant as an offering? or ?though the servant offers himself as an offering?. At first sight, the New Testament appears to be equally ambiguous.

Passages like Romans 3:25, ?[Christ Jesus] whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed? and the well known John 3:16, ?For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life? stress that the Father sacrificed the Son. Whereas Matthew 20:28 emphasises that the Son sacrificed himself, ?the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.?

Once again, the truth is parallel and inter-related. The Father gave the Son and the Son freely gave himself. The Father sacrificed his Son, and the Son voluntarily sacrificed himself. The Father did not make the Son endure an ordeal he was unwilling to bear, and the Son did not surprise the Father by his selfless action. Galatians 1:4 & John 10:17?18 express this paradox very plainly.

In one sense, the story of Abraham and Isaac on Mount Moriah is an obvious foreshadowing, for there we see the father ready to sacrifice his unique son of promise, and the son prepared to be the willing victim. At another level, however, it is a thoroughly inadequate picture because Abraham and Isaac are separate, independent beings. God is not divided into three. He is one, but more than one. The Father, the Son and the Spirit are not three distinct individuals; they are three self-distinctions within one being who reveal their essential oneness in a three-fold diversity of ?uni-persons?, characteristics and functions.

If we misunderstand this absolute divine unity we are likely to fall into error whenever we think about the cross. If we think of the Father and the Son as separate individuals we inevitably caricature Calvary as either God punishing an innocent Jesus (cosmic child abuse) or as Jesus placating an angry God (as in paganism).

But 2 Corinthians 5:18?19 makes it clear that the sacrifice was not made by Christ alone, or by God alone, but by God acting in-and-through Christ with his full agreement. They worked together in harmony. Their functions may have been different but their wills were one. They were co-dependent not independent.

God himself

The essential unity of God has led some people (they are usually called ?Unitarians?) to believe that God alone was the substitute, that he took our place and died for us. They argue: 1 Corinthians 2:8 shows that it was the Lord of Glory who was crucified; Revelation reveals that the Lamb who died is at the centre of God?s throne; Hebrews 9:17 teaches that we can benefit from the promises in a will only after the testator has died; and Acts 20:28 announces that God purchased the church with his own blood.

Their argument fails, however on the fact that no verse specifically declares that God himself died on the cross, and on the realisation that the immortality of God means he could not have died. Common sense should be enough to convince us that God simply had to become human (without ceasing to be God or becoming independent of God) if he was to die as our substitute and simultaneously be both Judge and innocent Victim.

We should note that the New Testament usually means ?the first uni-person of God, the Father? when it mentions God. This is another reason why it can be misleading to suggest that ?God? died on the cross ? for it was the fully-human, fully-divine Son who died, not the fully-divine Father. If we over-emphasise ?God?s? sufferings on the cross we are in danger of confusing the ?uni-persons? of the Trinity, of denying the eternal distinctiveness of the Son, and of denying Jesus? full humanity. Passages like Romans 5:12?19; Galatians 4:4; Philippians 2:7?8 & Hebrews 5:8 underline the ?unity and functional distinctiveness? within God by stressing the Son?s willing submission to the Father.

God-in-Christ

The substitute who took our place, offered our full confession, bore the pain of all our sin, and endured the penalty incurred by all our rebellious disobedience was not Christ alone (as this would make him an outside third party) or God alone (because this would negate the incarnation). Instead, the Substitute on the cross was God-in-Christ, fully-human and fully-divine, uniquely qualified to represent both God and humanity, and to mediate between them. Whenever we think about the cross in terms of Christ suffering and dying, we overlook the Father?s gracious initiative. But when we think about it in terms of God suffering and dying, we overlook the Son?s gracious mediation.

In contrast to these partial approaches, the New Testament consistently stresses that the Father acted in salvation ?in-and through Christ with his whole-hearted agreement?. It should be obvious that only a human should make atonement for the sins of humanity (because it is men and women who have sinned) and that only God could make the necessary atonement (since it is he who had justly demanded it and humans could not provide their own). Jesus Christ, therefore is the only possible substitute because he is the only person in whom the should and could are united by virtue of his fully-human, fully-divine nature.

The cross

These ideas of ?divine oneness? and ?God-in-Christ? mean, first, that there are only two participants in the drama of the cross, not three: humanity and God; and, second, that it is all down to grace. In giving his Son, God graciously gave himself for us. In sending the Son, he graciously came himself for us. By grace, the Judge intervened and himself endured the penalty that he had imposed on us. In order to save sinful humanity in a way which was fully consistent with his holy nature, God-in Christ graciously substituted himself for us. Before we can consider what happened on the cross, and its consequences and implications for us, we need to be absolutely clear what the cross is and is not. For example, the cross was not:

?A bargain with the devil ?A requirement of some code of law or honour ? A punishment of an innocent Jesus by a harsh Father ? A means of extracting salvation from a mean Father ? An action of the Father which by-passed Christ?s mediation

Instead, the just-and-loving God humbled himself to become ? in-andthrough his only Son ? human flesh, and to endure and accept the terrible consequences of human sin. He graciously did this so that he could save us without compromising his holy divine character. In many ways, substitution is at the heart of both sin and salvation. We can say that the essence of sin is humanity substituting itself for God, while the essence of salvation is God substituting himself for humanity. Through our rebellious sin, we put ourselves where only God should be; and by his amazing grace, God puts himself where only we deserve to be. Truly our salvation is by grace.

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The mystery of Godliness

The Early Church worshipped God not out of sentiment but revelation. Just how packed with truth the worship of First Century believers was can be seen from Paul’s quotation from one of their worship songs. Truly Spirit-inspired, this song’s lyrics were as follows:

God was manifested in the flesh, Justified in the Spirit, Seen by angels, Preached among the Gentiles, Believed on in the world, Received up in glory. 1 Timothy 3:16

Paul introduces the song by saying without doubt the revelation we carry is magnificent: And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness.

The word ‘mystery’ means ‘a truth previously hidden, now disclosed’. Our worship also should be filled with truth about God – not just a personal response to God.

Recent surveys show that 15% of British people attend church services at least once a month. This leaves many ‘unchurched’ people who have yet to experience the joy of Christian worship. But what’s the appeal of songs of worship? Is it the musical style, the technical excellence or the feelings they evoke? Perhaps this has something to do with it – but far more important than that, is the fact that our worship gives us the opportunity to set our hearts ablaze with truth. Just look at the truth-content of this early worship song:

? God was manifested in the flesh – hallelujah! Jesus came; ? Justified in the Spirit – he died and was raised again; ? Seen by angels – he revealed the reality of the supernatural realm; ? Preached among the Gentiles – he came for all nations; ? Believed on in the world – we can all come to know him by faith; ? Received up in glory – he ascended to heaven taking up his place on the throne of the universe.

This Easter we celebrate all these great truths, not just as poetry or sentimental ideas, but as truth. The mystery has been revealed. God has made himself known. Singing songs of truth edifies our mind and excites our spirit – and it rests on one great fact – Jesus is not dead, but is risen from the dead and is alive for evermore. We know that we are forgiven, called for a purpose and empowered by love.

Take time to worship the resurrected Christ in spirit and truth. Take even more time to spread the message that is the heart of it all. Let the world know the God whom we worship is the Lord of all.

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Easter is just round the corner

Andrew first found his own brother Simon, and said to him, “We have found the Messiah.” In every chain of events there are links – the odd remark here, the chance encounter there, the happy coincidence somewhere else.

Behind these happenings is the often unseen hand of God who draws all thing together to complete His Master design for our lives. He uses every event and every spoken word to build His pattern for us.

Nowhere is this more apparent than in our coming to Christ. I can remember many specific situations that were divine links in the chain of events that brought about my conversion. There were the words of Mr Dobson, the secondary school maths teacher who was a believer. And then the words of an unknown preacher who mounted the stage and addressed the thousands of revellers at the Isle of Wight Pop Festival in 1970. In the vast audience was a 16 year-old unbeliever hungry for truth – me!

But the most important influence on me was that of my own brother, Ray who had come to Christ while living in South Africa. I was a student dancer in London and terribly lost in sin. My brother took the time to come to England to tell me about Jesus. In a matter of days I had come to faith in Christ!

All because my brother cared enough to share the gospel.

It reminds me of Jesus’ disciple, Andrew. The first thing he did when he found the Messiah was to go to his brother and tell him about it. He was a divine link. God used him to bring his brother to Christ.

We are told that 90% of those who come to Christ in public meetings do so as a result of the witness of some close friend or relative. Are you available to be a divine link for the Lord? Are you building bridges to those who don’t yet know Jesus with a view to introducing them to Him?

Easter?is just around the corner. Now is the time to keep those divine appointments with the lost. Make sure that when our?Easter Celebrations come along you will be able to bring folk to the meetings to hear the gospel preached . Here is the link with all the details for you.

Don’t miss the opportunity to speak to your friends about Jesus. They’re counting on you!

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Resurrection Power at Work in You

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The empty tomb speaks of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ

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