What Does the Resurrection of Jesus Prove?
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The resurrection of Jesus Christ proves everything. It validated His ministry by fulfilling prophecies He made, including rising from the dead on the third day. It proved His divinity, as no human had ever predicted and accomplished their own resurrection. The resurrection showed that Jesus is Lord and the promised Messiah, as the Jews had waited for. It proved that through faith in Jesus, people's sins can be forgiven and they too will be resurrected, just as He was.
What Does the Resurrection of Jesus Prove?
- 1. What Does the Resurrection Prove What Does the Resurrection Prove? Everything! It is hard to imagine how the church could have started and grown without the physical resurrection of Jesus from the dead. What Jesus did on Calvary paid for all the sins of all mankind for all time. But without His physical resurrection from the dead it is very unlikely many people would have believed that their sins were forgiven through the death of Jesus. Put yourself in the shoes of His disciples for a moment: Your nation has waited generations for the promised Messiah of God to come and save Israel from its enemies. Jesus seems to be that Messiah but then He is arrested, rejected and condemned to death by the religious leaders of Israel. You could easily imagine the 11 disciples saying to themselves: “How could the religious leaders of our nation kill Jesus? Surely, they would know the Messiah when He comes, right? This Jesus we thought was the Messiah has died like a common criminal—hanging naked on that cross outside of town. Even the huge crowds of Jews who came to Jerusalem at Passover shouted for His death. It’s all so confusing. How could this happen to Jesus? And now He is dead. His body is in that tomb. So what now? Were we wrong about Him? Did He fool us with His healing powers? Did we just waste three years of our lives following a man who isn’t what we thought? What in the world just happened? How could Israel murder its Messiah and a prophet who healed the sick? 1
- 2. What Does the Resurrection Prove No one will ever believe in what He said now. Why should they? How could they? I’m not sure I can. I signed up to follow a victorious Messiah and now it looks like He failed to become what we hoped for. He’s dead. How can I continue to trust what He said now?” Here’s why Jesus had to physically rise from the dead 1. To Validate His Ministry by Fulfilling Prophecy At at least three times, Jesus prophesied to His 12 disciples that He would rise from the dead in Mark, Luke and Matthew’s Gospel accounts. Here is how Matthew records it: From that time Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things ... and be killed, and be raised up on the third day. (Matthew 16:21) This was a prophecy and a promise Jesus made repeatedly to His closest disciples. This was black and white. No poetic language, no parables. Either He comes back from the dead or not. Jesus painted Himself into a corner with these prophetic words and He knew it. Jesus knew what His disciples were thinking after He died: How could anyone believe in the ministry of Jesus and His promises of eternal life through faith in Him if Jesus could not fulfill His prophecy and keep His promise to rise from the dead? Jesus knew His entire ministry was at stake here. People could easily ask, “If Jesus was wrong about His resurrection, what else of what he said was He wrong about? If Jesus could not keep His promise that he would rise from the dead, how can I trust Him to save me so that I will rise from the dead to life in heaven?” 2
- 3. What Does the Resurrection Prove If Jesus did not rise form the dead, everything else Jesus said and did could be called into question and doubted. This is precisely why the Apostle Peter preached so vigorously on the resurrection of Jesus in the first sermon of the early Church on Pentecost as recorded in Acts 2. A newly Spirit-filled Peter preached that it was impossible for Jesus to stay in the grave. The Holy Spirit inspired Peter to show that the resurrection of Jesus fulfilled a prophecy from Psalm 16: Acts 2:23-32: “… this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death. But 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. For David says of Him: …’Because You will not abandon my soul to Hades, nor allow Your Holy One to undergo decay. 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. And so, because he was a prophet and knew that God had sworn to him with an oath to seat one of his descendants on 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. This Jesus God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses.” So, Easter reminds us of the absolute necessity of Jesus rising from the dead to fulfill prophecies made by Jesus and prophecies in the OT. 2. To Validate His Divinity The resurrection of Jesus from the dead points to his divinity. Everyone knew that no human had ever predicted and accomplished his physical resurrection from the dead. This put Jesus in a new category. The Jews only worshiped One God they called the Lord. The Jews never expected God to come to them in 3
- 4. What Does the Resurrection Prove human form, but the Holy Spirit led Peter’s sermon on the resurrection to proclaim a new theological truth to the nation of Israel for the first time: Jesus is Lord. Acts 2:36: “Therefore, let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ—this Jesus whom you crucified.” Peter is saying, “Because Jesus fulfills rose from the dead and fulfilled that Ps. 16 prophecy, He has to be divine. He has to be Lord, God —- and Messiah. In fact, Peter uses that same term for God just two verses later: Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself.” So, the resurrection of Jesus explains why Jesus accepted the worship of people on earth: He is God in human flesh! His resurrection validates the two biggest Messianic prophesies we quote at Christmas: Is. 9:6 & 7:14. 9:6: “For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us;…And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. 7:14: “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel” (God with us) So, to recap: what does the resurrection prove? 4
- 5. What Does the Resurrection Prove Calvary points to Jesus as Messiah. The resurrection proves Jesus is more than the Messiah. Jesus is Lord and Messiah! Calvary is the vindication of mankind before God. The resurrection of Jesus is the validation of that vindication before mankind. Calvary is the pudding. The resurrection is the proof of the pudding. The resurrection proves that: Nothing is impossible for God! He raised the dead! Nothing is impossible for us—-if God is guiding us to do it. Everything Jesus said is true and that God keeps His word! That we shall rise from the dead just as Jesus has. The resurrection is God's final testimony to a skeptical world that Jesus is The long-awaited Jewish Messiah, the Savior of the world and the fully Divine Son of God as He claimed to be! The resurrection of Jesus Christ proves that no matter how bad, how painful and how desperate our situation may be, there is always hope in God just as their was for the disciples of Jesus on Good Friday. It was Friday, …but Sunday was coming! The power of the resurrected Jesus is available to all of us today to have a fresh start: spiritually, emotionally, physically, financially and relationally. Pray: 5
- 6. What Does the Resurrection Prove 6