Christ's Resurrection - The New Beginning

Today being Resurrection Sunday,  I thought it made sense to study the Resurrection as it is presented to us in Scripture.  As I looked up the word in my biblical index I was reminded that it was mentioned twelve times prior to Jesus' death, most often as a somewhat controversial belief that was present in the Jewish faith, and over which the Pharisees and Sadducees disagreed. This belief was based on passages in the books of Isaiah and Daniel, and was considered the resurrection of the righteous, which followed the coming of the Messiah.  I think this is important to note, for the Jews had a foundational belief and paradigm for resurrection.  That being said, I don't know that any of them comprehended what God intended to do.

Jesus gave us strong evidence that God had power over death, as He worked many miracles of raising the dead.  In fact in His answer to John's disciples, He specifically mentions the dead being raised as a sign that He was the Messiah. Here are the verses from Matthew 11:2-6 NIV:

[2] When John, who was in prison, heard about the deeds of the Messiah, he sent his disciples [3] to ask him, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?”

[4] Jesus replied, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: [5] The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. [6] Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me.”

As we continue to review the scriptures, we find that later in John's Gospel as that Jesus goes one step further, and proclaims that He is the resurrection!  This conversation happened at the raising of Lazarus, and was between Jesus and Martha - John 11:23-26 NIV:

[23] Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”

[24] Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”

[25] Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; [26] and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

Martha is affirming her belief in the resurrection of the righteous (the core Jewish Belief) and Jesus takes this moment to reveal to her that indeed He is the resurrection and the life!  What an amazing statement!  He goes on to prove that statement is true by calling Lazarus out of the grave on the fourth day after his death (John 11:39-43).

Looking at what Jesus said in His response to Martha, the Greek word that is translated resurrection is Anastasis, and it fundamentally means rising from the dead. Jesus also proclaimed that He was the life (Greek - Zoe) and that is defined as the life of every living soul.  Jesus, in His divinity, which he had emptied Himself of (Philippians 2:5-8), was both, and it is here that we see Jesus revealing His true nature.

Thus, one of the core beliefs of the Jews is incarnate in Jesus, and yet they couldn't see or understand it.  Even his closest followers couldn't really understand what Jesus meant when he kept referring to His impending death, and rising on the third day.  Here is one example from the Gospel of Mark 9:31-32 NIV:

[31]..."because he was teaching his disciples. He said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after three days he will rise.” [32] But they did not understand what he meant and were afraid to ask him about it. "

It was after Jesus rose that the Apostles understood what Jesus meant, and it is in this light that the Gospels and all the rest of the books of the new Testament are written. Paul writes that the Resurrection of Jesus was the core belief - 1 Corinthians 15:17 NIV: "And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins."  It was Jesus' death and Resurrection that were essential in the forgiveness of our sins and our birth into eternal life.  Jesus came to destroy the works of the enemy (1 John 3:8) and sin and death are two of his primary works.  In Jesus' death he conquered sin, in rising He conquered death.  Paul writes about these two victories and their impact upon us in his letter to the Romans 6:5-10 NIV:

[5] "For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. [6] For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin--- [7] because anyone who has died has been set free from sin."

[8] "Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. [9] For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. [10] The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God."

In a very real sense, when Jesus rose from the dead, we were united with Him, and now live with Him eternally!  Of all the events in the history of the world the two with the most significant eternal consequences for us all are Jesus' death on the cross, and His resurrection, for these two things open the way for us to the Father and to eternal life.  His death and Resurrection undo what was done in the Garden, and restore to us our original inheritance - relationship with the Father, and eternal life.

It is important to note that the story does not end here at Jesus' Resurrection, rather this is just the beginning.  In fact, Jesus returned and then spent another 40 days on earth, meeting with His disciples and continued teaching them about the Kingdom that He had established (Acts 1:3).  The Resurrection laid the way for His ascension into, and reign in Heaven.  His ascension opened the way for the Father to send the Holy Spirit to us, to empower the Church and continue the full ministry of Jesus and accomplish the fulfillment of the great commission, and advancing of God's Kingdom here on earth.  It is this advancing of God's kingdom that we are part of today!

Recently I was reading a book titled "Thy Kingdom Come" by Harold Eberle, and in it he described the significance of the Gospel of the Kingdom, not stopping with the Jesus' death and Resurrection. Here is a quote from his book:

"I am not saying that Christians who only know the gospel of salvation deny the resurrection, ascension, and enthronement of Jesus. Of course, they believe these events happened, but they tend to think of the resurrection, ascension, and enthronement as secondary to the death of Jesus. They think of the resurrection as proof that Jesus is the Son of God. It is the stamp of authentication that the death of Jesus was truly valid. They tend to think of the ascension and enthronement as the Father’s rewards to the Son for having suffered the crucifixion. According to the gospel of salvation, the resurrection, ascension, and enthronement point back to the death of Jesus. The death is overwhelmingly seen as the most significant event and accomplishment of Jesus."

"In contrast, Christians who teach the gospel of the kingdom see the death, resurrection, ascension, and enthronement of Jesus as each primary and essential for establishing the kingdom of God:

Through His death, Jesus took care of our sins.
When He resurrected, He conquered death.
As He ascended, He was raised above all authority.
When He was enthroned, He became King.

If any of these accomplishments had been left undone, the gospel of the kingdom would not be the gospel. It is not enough to realize that the cross is empty. We must understand what Jesus accomplished through His resurrection, ascension, and enthronement."

Thus, today we celebrate Jesus' Resurrection, and we recognize all that was accomplished by God on our behalf!  We celebrate Jesus the first born from the dead into Eternal life!  We celebrate the defeat of sin and death!  We celebrate the victory of Christ's sinless, obedient life and death, and the Father's raising Him to life!  We celebrate the fact that we died and rose with Christ!  We celebrate the beginning of our eternal story!

Amen and Hallelujah!