01.11 Resurrection Of Jesus

XI. Resurrection of Jesus The Resurrection of Jesus is the foundation fact on which Christianity is built. "If Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins." 1 Corinthians 15:17. The proof of Jesus’ "Deity" depended on His Resurrection from the dead. Five different times He declared that He would be crucified and buried and on the third day would rise from the dead. Matthew 12:39-40; Matthew 20:17-19; Matthew 26:30-32; Luke 18:31-33; John 2:19-22. If He had not risen we would not have known whether He was what He claimed to be or not, but the Apostle Paul says He was "declared (demonstrated) to be the SON OF GOD ... by the RESURRECTION FROM THE DEAD." Romans 1:4. Jesus came to take the sinner’s place and satisfy the Law. If Jesus had not risen from the dead we should not have known whether this had been done. When the criminal has served out his full time he cannot be held in confinement a moment longer. According to the Scriptures Jesus’ sentence was that He should remain in the grave three days, when the time was up no power in heaven, earth, or hell could hold Him there a minute longer. This is clearly brought out in Acts 2:24 -"Whom God raised up from the dead, having loosed the pains (power) of death because it was not possible that He should be HOLDEN OF IT." The Psalmist said of Jesus-"Thou wilt not suffer Thine ’Holy One’ to see CORRUPTION." Psalms 16:10. Acts 2:29-32. Therefore Jesus had to rise before the fourth day when corruption is supposed to set in. The Resurrection of Jesus is proof that "DEATH" has been conquered. When Jesus appeared to John on the Isle of Patmos He declared-"I am He that liveth, and was dead; and behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen: and have the KEYS of ’Hell’ (Hades, the Underworld) and of ’Death’ (the Grave)." Revelation 1:18. We can picture "Death" saying to Captain Sepulchre, "Hold on to that man in Joseph’s Tomb until ’corruption’ shall have seized upon Him, for if He comes out He will make a breach in the walls of ’Hades’ (the Underworld) through which all the prisoners of ’Hades’ will escape." But it was not "Death" that had taken Christ captive. Christ simply pursued "Death" into his own dominions, and then conquering him came forth leading captivity captive, and crying "I am the RESURRECTION and the LIFE." John 11:25. When Jesus rose from the dead He-"ABOLISHED DEATH, and brought ’Life’ and ’Immortality’ to light." 2 Timothy 1:10. That is, He took from Death its terrors, and made provision by which we shall be freed from the bonds of Death by the resurrection of our bodies, so that ultimately there will be no more Death. Revelation 21:4. Therefore because the Tomb could not hold Jesus it shall not be able to hold us, for-"If the Spirit of Him who raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in us, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall quicken our mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in us." Romans 8:11. That is raise us from the dead. THE FACT OF THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS

There can be no question as to Jesus’ death on the Cross. All four Evangelists tell us that Jesus "yielded up His spirit." Death did not conquer Him. He yielded up His life of His own accord. He said "I have power to lay down my life and I have power to take it again." John 10:17-18. The Roman soldiers did not break the limbs of Jesus because they saw He was dead. John 19:33. And the Centurion testified to Pilate that Jesus was dead. Mark 15:43-45. If Jesus had not yielded up His life on the Cross the "spear thrust" would have killed him, for we read that when the soldier thrust his spear into Jesus’ side there came forth water and blood, showing that the spear had pierced His heart. John 19:34. If Jesus had not actually died on the Cross but only swooned away He would have been smothered to death by the napkin that was wrapped about His head. Every precaution was taken not only to see that Jesus was dead, but that His body should not be secretly removed from the Tomb. The Tomb was sealed and a guard of Roman soldiers placed to watch it. Matthew 27:62-66. But there were other "Watchers" than the Roman soldiers. Unseen angels kept watch over the resting place of the Son of God. Thus past Friday night, Saturday, Saturday night, but as the sky began to purple in the east on that first Easter Morn there was a great earthquake and an angel descended from Heaven and rolled away the stone from the door of the Sepulchre, and so dazzling was his appearance that the Roman guard became as dead men. Matthew 28:2-4. Whether the angel rolled away the stone to let Jesus out, or simply to reveal the fact that the Tomb ’ was empty, we are not told, but the empty Tomb of Joseph of Arimathea bore witness to the fact that Jesus had risen as He said He would.

There were many witnesses who saw Jesus die on the Cross, but there was not an eye-witness to His Resurrection. That is, no one actually saw Him come out of the Sepulchre. The Roman soldiers did not see him come forth for they were as dead men during the rolling away of the stone and for some time afterward. The story that the Elders put in their mouth, that His Disciples came by night and stole Him away while they slept (Matthew 28:11-15), was to discredit the Disciples if they should claim that Jesus had risen, and is absurd upon its face, for it was death for a Roman soldier to sleep on duty, and if they were all asleep how could they know whether Jesus’ body was stolen or arose, and if stolen who stole it? It would have been noisy work breaking the seal and rolling back the stone and would have aroused the soldiers if asleep. More, it was a bright moonlight night, and many pilgrims who had come to the Passover Feast were camped about the city, and it would have been difficult to have carried away the body of Jesus without being seen. If the chief priests had really believed that Jesus’ body had been stolen, they would have offered a reward for its recovery, for the recovery of the body would have set at rest for all time the question of Jesus’ resurrection. But they did not, thus proving that they believed a miracle had taken place. But the most remarkable testimony to the physical resurrection of the body of Jesus is found in the statemerit of the Apostle John, that when he and Peter came to the empty tomb and went in and examined it, they found the linen cloths, in which the body of Jesus had been wrapped, lying on the stone slab on which it had been laid, "and the napkin that was about His head not lying with the linen cloths, but wrapped together in a place by itself." John 20:6-7. That is, the grave clothes of Jesus were not taken away from the Sepulchre, nor tossed to one side as if discarded, but like a hollow cocoon, stiffened by the embalming material, they were left lying on the stone slab, and the napkin was lying by itself, just the distance of the head from the body, revealing the fact that when Jesus arose He just slipped out of His burial clothes as a locust sheds his skin, and left His clothes behind as a silent witness that His body was not stolen, for if His body had been stolen the thieves would not have tarried to remove His grave clothes, and if for any reason they did, they would not have left them in order, but would have thrown them down anywhere and anyhow.

We have still further evidence that the disciples did not steal the body in the fact that they were so hard to convince that Jesus had really risen from the dead. To us it is a mystery that every one of the disciples was not at the Sepulchre on the morning of the third day to see their Master rise. He had told them so often that He was to be crucified and rise again the third day, but they either forgot it in their sorrow or disbelieved it, for of all His disciples only a few women went to the Sepulchre that morning, and they went not expecting to see Him rise, but to further embalm His body, and they seemed not to have known that a guard had been placed at the Sepulchre for they wondered who would roll away the stone that they might reach the body of Jesus. Mark 16:1-3. We see now the wisdom of their unbelief. If the disciples had hung around the Sepulchre it would have added plausibility to the charge that they had stolen His body, but their very absence and unbelief disprove the charge. But while no one actually saw Jesus rise from the dead, there were many witnesses who saw Him after His Resurrection, and that not weeks and months after, but the very day He arose. If He had not been really dead when He was laid in the Sepulchre and revived, and in some way escaped from the Tomb there would have been the pitiable spectacle of His dragging himself about a physical wreck, with wounds in His hands and feet and side. But Jesus when He appeared to His disciples was in robust health, and able to walk half a dozen miles to Emmaus with two of His disciples on the afternoon of the day He arose. The miracle of Christ’s Resurrection was twofold, restoration to LIFE, and restoration to HEALTH. On the day of His Resurrection Jesus appeared to His disciples five times. First to Mary Magdalene (John 20:11-18), then to the women (Matthew 28:9-10), then to Peter (Luke 24:34), then in the late afternoon to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35), and then in the evening to a number of the disciples in the "Upper Room." John 20:19 (Luke 24:36-48). A week later, in the same room, He again appeared to His disciples, Thomas being present. John 20:24-29. Later He appeared to seven disciples on the shore of the Sea of Galilee (John 21:1-25), then to the "Eleven" on a mountain in Galilee (Matthew 28:16-20; Mark 16:14-18), then to 500 brethren at once (1 Corinthians 15:6), then to James (1 Corinthians 15:7), and then, forty days after His Resurrection, He ascended to Heaven in the presence of His Disciples from the Mount of Olives. Luke 24:50-53. Paul tells us in his letter to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 15:6), written 27 years after the Resurrection, that of 500 witnesses that saw Him at one time, the greater part were still alive. It stands to reason that all these persons could not have been deceived, and if there had been collusion among them to perpetrate a fraud, it is improbable to suppose that all of them could have kept the secret or that it would not have leaked out in some way. But someone may ask-"Why did not Jesus appear to His enemies, as well as to His disciples?" That is, to the Chief Priests, and to Pilate. He did not appear to them because He told the Jews that they should not see Him again until they should say-"Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord" (Matthew 23:37-39), and that will not be until the Revelation Stage of His Second Coming, when they shall again look upon Him whom they pierced. But the fact is He did appear to one of his greatest enemies-"Saul of Tarsus," who has confirmed in his wonderful chapter on the Resurrection, the 15th of First Corinthians, that Jesus did rise from the dead.

Sixty-six years after His Resurrection Jesus appeared to the Apostle John on the Isle of Patmos, and thus we have from the testimony of these many witnesses, indisputable evidence as to the Resurrection of Jesus. This testimony comes from His enemies as well as His friends, and the appearances were not made in secret, but in the open where fraud was impossible. As further proof that Jesus did not revive, but actually rose from the dead, we have the fact that He did not die again but ASCENDED TO HEAVEN IN THE PRESENCE OF HIS DISCIPLES. For over eighteen centuries that "idle tale" of the Roman soldiers, that the Disciples of Jesus stole His body, has been the only explanation of the miraculous fact that on Sunday morning, April 9, A. D. 30, the virgin Sepulchre of Joseph of Arimathea was found TENANTLESS. The most astute legal minds of the centuries have weighed the evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus and pronounced it to be flawless.

There is no discrepancy between John and the other evangelists as to the visit of the women to the Sepulchre. Mary with the other women, at dawn, started to the Sepulchre. They found the stone rolled away and the Sepulchre empty. Mary left the other women and hastened back to tell the Disciples. After she had gone the other women entered the Sepulchre when they saw a young man in white who told them that Jesus was risen, and commanded them to go and tell His Disciples. Mark 16:4-7. They at once left the Sepulchre to look for the Disciples. Meanwhile Mary met Peter and John who left her and ran to the Sepulchre, which, after hurriedly investigating, they left and returned to Jerusalem. John 20:3-10. Mary returned to the Sepulchre after Peter and John had left, and finding herself alone began to weep. Jesus appeared to her and called her by name. At once she recognized the Master and wanted to touch Him, but Jesus said-"Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father." He then commanded her to go and tell the brethren, and then He disappeared. Mary at once left the Sepulchre to do the Master’s bidding. Shortly after, Jesus met the other women on their way to tell the Disciples. To them He said-"All Hail," and they fell at His feet, upon which they laid their hands, and worshipped Him. Matthew 28:9-10. At once the question arises why did Jesus forbid Mary to touch Him, and shortly after permitted the women to do so? The only possible answer is that in the meantime, with the swiftness of light, Jesus had ascended to the Father and returned. On the "Day of Atonement," after the High Priest had offered on the Altar the "Blood of the Atonement," if any one touched him before He could carry the "blood" into the Most Holy Place and make Atonement, the Offering was of no avail. So Jesus having offered His own blood on the Altar of the Cross, for Mary to have touched Him before He ascended to the Most Holy Place on high and offered His blood there would have vitiated the work of the Cross. The fact that the women held Jesus by the feet, that that afternoon He walked for miles and talked with two of His disciples, that in the evening he ate a piece of broiled fish and a honeycomb, that a week later He told Thomas to thrust his hand in His side, and that some time later He breakfasted with His Disciples on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, all prove that Jesus’ Resurrection body was not a phantom, but had a physical form and could perform the functions of a human body, and while it was not a glorified body like He had on the Mount of Transfiguration, it had the power to enter a closed room, and to appear and disappear at will, and remain unrecognized until He disclosed Himself by the tone of His voice. This gives us a hint of what our resurrection bodies will be like, as far as their capabilities and powers are concerned, when it will be necessary during the "Age to Come" for us to visit the earth on missions of love and service. The Resurrection of Jesus changed the whole attitude of the disciples toward Him, and completely revolutionized their lives and became the central theme of their preaching. The "Standard of God’s Power" in the Old Testament was the "EXODUS." The "Standard of God’s Power" in the New Testament is the "RESURRECTION OF JESUS." It was the culmination of all of Jesus’ miracles. As God He laid down His life on the Cross, and as God He rose from the dead. Why then should we think it incredible that GOD should raise the dead ? Acts 26:8. As a testimony to the fact that Jesus rose from the dead we have the observance of the "First Day of the Week" or the "Lord’s Day," and the ordinance of baptism. The command to observe the Sabbath was given to Israel exclusively. It was not given to the Gentiles. It was given to Israel as the "Sign" of the "Mosaic Covenant." "Verily my Sabbaths ye shall keep; for it is a SIGN between me and you throughout your generations." Exodus 31:13. Ezekiel 20:12, Ezekiel 20:19-21. The Sabbath Day then belongs to the Jews alone and is not binding on the Gentiles (the world), or on the Church (Christians).. Nowhere in the Bible do you find God finding fault with a nation or people, except the Jewish nation, for not observing the Sabbath. As a Jewish ordinance it has never been abrogated, changed, or transferred to any other day of the week, or to any other people. It is now in abeyance as foretold in "Hosea 2:11 it would be. It is resumed when the Jews are nationally restored to their own land. Isaiah 66:23. Ezekiel 44:24; Ezekiel 46:1-3. The fact then that the Christian Church observes the "First Day of the Week," the day on which Jesus rose from the dead, as a day of rest and worship is a proof of the Resurrection of Jesus. As to the relation of Baptism to the Resurrection of Jesus, see the Chapter on "Regeneration and Baptism."