Transformative Power of the Resurrection

"They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightening stood beside them. In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, 'Why do you look for the living among the dead? He's not here. He has risen.'" [00:00:20]

"Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves and he went away wondering to himself what had had happened. Now that same day, two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them, but they were kept from recognizing him." [00:01:14]

"Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?' And beginning with Moses and all the prophets he explained to them what was said in all the scriptures concerning himself.” Amen. We'll leave it there. Let's just pause and pray once again. Gracious God, what we know not, teach us. What we are not, make us. What we have not, give us. For your Son's sake. Amen." [00:02:49]

"Their dream has been extinguished and that as a result of the crucifixion of their cherished leader and teacher, and we're told that the events in Jerusalem in the early hours of the day had been absolutely peculiar. In fact, as they tried to put the pieces of the puzzle together it just became more and more complex. They were not only amazed. They were confused, and you will see that they've very honest about it." [00:07:04]

"The amazement of the women, the confusion of the men. Not a lot has changed, but the thing that we need to understand is, that the downcast faces of these characters, be they two males, or a male and a female, “they stood still,” verse 17, “their faces downcast.” They illustrate the fact that for a first century Jew the crucifixion of a Messiah did not say that He was true, and that the kingdom had come." [00:07:50]

"Now, you go to Acts chapter 2, to Luke's second volume and what do you discover? That here is this same Peter, who had gone into see the tomb come home bewildered giving a quite masterful treatment of what has happened in the whole story of redemptive history. I would suggest to you that he reaches his high point when he gets to around verse 29, 'I can tell you confidently,' he says, 'that the patriarch David died and was buried and his tomb is here to this day.'" [00:14:42]

"The answer that the Bible gives to us for this dramatic change is that Jesus is alive from the dead. It is because Peter and the others were totally convinced of that case, that they then went out to do what they did. It is because they went out and did what they did that eventually the gospel writers recorded it. For if you think about it, when Mark wrote his gospel and someone came to him and said, 'What are you doing this afternoon?'" [00:18:08]

"Absent the resurrection, there would be no Christianity. F.F. Bruce put it succinctly. He said, 'If Jesus had not risen from the dead, we should probably never have heard of him.' If you think about that, a Galilean carpenter in His day. Long days gone in a small province of a remote part of the world, going around doing things. He would have just been one of many strange people that had roamed around and eventually His candle had burned out, and He was buried, and He was gone, and His followers would have dissipated were it not for the fact of the resurrection." [00:19:59]

"The resurrection is a pledge of our own resurrection, and the resurrection means that we have a story to tell. A story to tell. It is historical, it actually happened. It is rational. It really makes sense of the material, and it is empirical. It stands up to the test both in affirming the truths that we lay hold of in believing the Bible, and also in providing an answer the cries of the human heart." [00:36:46]

"The resurrection answers the cry for meaning. It answers the cry for freedom because it says Jesus really does set people free. All of the other illusions are simply illusions, but if the resurrected Son makes you free, you'll be free indeed. It answers the cry for forgiveness, for love, for hope, for God. It is this story that we are called upon to take out to the world." [00:39:42]

"The symbol of Christianity is not the dead figure of a crucifix. The symbol of Christianity is the triumphant Christ with the cross broken beneath His feet. He is risen, and so He is not 2,000 years away. He's really here, and men and women may call out to Him, and discover Him as a Savior and as a friend. Now, something dramatic happened to change those characters and when they went out to tell the world, they said, this is history." [00:40:48]

"Father, thank you for the Bible. Thank you that you've given us the privilege in these hours to begin to open the pages and think about the immensity of what's conveyed concerning the fact that the incarnate Christ rose triumphant over death and hell and sits at your right hand from whence He will come to judge the living and the dead. Seal all that is of yourself to us, banish everything that is extraneous from us and guide our minds and our hearts through these afternoon and evening hours, we pray, so that we might be caught up again in the wonder of the fact that Jesus is alive from the dead." [00:41:37]