241 Sermon Illustrations on Resurrection

Do you know for sure what's going to happen to you after you die? The prospect of that should make you think. It made Peter Waldo anxious for the first time when, at a party, a friend of his suddenly keeled over and died. He went home and looked through his library of history books, scientific books, and philosophical books, trying to find something about death. But they told him nothing. Finally he turned to the Bible. There he found information that couldn't be found elsewhere-basic truths that were given by Christ Himself, who had experienced death and conquered it. He told what it is and what would happen to the righteous and the unrighteous after death occurs. This is a subject that vitally concerns everyone. Christ is the only one who ever rose from the dead of His own volition and by His own power. That's why His revelation about what happens after death appeared believable to Waldo. Peter Waldo became a noted Christian reformer, founder of the Waldensian Church of Europe. A Unique Person An unbeliever once asked a Christian, "If I told you that this child was born without the intervention of a human father, would you believe it?" After a little thought the Christian replied, "Yes, if he were able to grow up and live like Christ." In other words, Christ's sinless life, His death and resurrection make the virgin birth believable.

A closely sealed vase was found in a mummy pit in Egypt by the English traveler Wilkinson. In it were discovered a few peas, old, wrinkled, and hard as a stone. The peas were planted carefully under a glass, and at the end of 30 days, they sprang into life, after having lain sleeping in the dust of a tomb for almost 3,000 years-a faint illustration of the mortal body which shall put on immortality. "Because He lives, we shall live also." A Solitary Grain In April, the Sunday school teacher asked all eight children in her class to hide within an empty container a small object that represented life in the spring. Not wanting to embarrass eight-year-old Stephen, whose mental retardation was becoming more manifest, the teacher suggested that the children all place their unlabeled containers on her desk. Since she feared that Stephen might not have caught on, she decided that she should open them. The first had a tiny flower. "What a lovely sign of new life!" "I brought that one!" the donor exclaimed. Next came a rock. "That must be Stephen's," the teacher thought, since rocks do not symbolize new life. But Billy shouted that his rock had moss on it, and moss was new life. The teacher agreed. A butterfly flew from the third container, and another child bragged that her choice was best of all. The fourth container was empty. "That has to be Stephen's," thought the teacher, quickly reaching for the fifth. "Please, don't skip mine!'Stephen interjected. "But it's empty." "That's right," said Stephen. "The tomb was empty, and that is new life for everyone." Later that summer, Stephen's condition grew worse, and he died. On his casket at the funeral, mourners found eight containers. They were ALL EMPTY. No Tomb to Visit In one of the villages of Northern India a missionary was preaching in a bazaar. As he closed, a Muslim gentleman came up and said, "You must admit we have one thing you have not, and it is better than anything you have." The missionary smiled and said, "I should be pleased to hear what it is." The Muslim said, "You know when we go to Mecca we at least find a coffin. But when you Christians go to Jerusalem, which is your Mecca, you find nothing but an empty grave." But the missionary just smiled and said, "That is just the difference. Mohammed is dead; Mohammed is in the coffin. And false systems of religion and philosophy are in their coffins, but Jesus Christ, whose kingdom is to include all nations and kindreds and tribes, is not here; He is risen. And all power in heaven and on earth is given unto Him. That is our hope." A living Christ! That is our hope. He is not dead, but alive forevermore. The Disciples Made No Relic of Christ's Tomb If ye seek Jesus, do not go to His grave. You will not find Him there. Is it not quite striking that after the disciples were convinced that He had risen they never again visited His tomb? At least there is no record of it. Why should they? It was only an incident, a temporary halting place in the experience of our Lord. They did not make pilgrimages to it. They did not esteem it above any other place. They did not bury it beneath tokens of affection. They did not break off pieces of the rock and keep them as relics for seeking souls to look at in the hope of meriting divine favor. No, after that first Sunday evening, the disciples were done with the tomb. Why should they give their time to the veneration of places, when they had the living Savior with them? To us, Christ is all and in all. He is alive, and He has power to give life. Not by meat and drink, not by pilgrimages and fastings, but by looking unto Him do we enter into life that death cannot touch.

The chief priests and the Pharisees were determined that Jesus was going to stay in his grave. They used every resource and power available to see to that. They secured the tomb by placing a seal on the great stone that had been rolled in front of it to close the entrance (Matthew 27:66). They also posted guards at the entrance of the tomb. These were not the spekoulator who were bodyguards or executioners (Mark 6:27), nor the phulax who were keepers (Acts 5:23), but the elite koustodia who were the Roman army's special forces. In spite of all their human efforts, the Jewish leaders were unable to prevent Jesus from accomplishing what had already been determined and promised: "After three days I will rise again" (Matthew 27:63). These carnal-minded, religious leaders did not know that NOTHING in the physical realm has the ability to hinder the divine will from accomplishing its purpose. YOU CANNOT STOP A REAL RESURRECTION. Paul states that all who are baptized into Christ are baptized into his death, and in the same manner that Christ was resurrected they are to be resurrected to a new life in Christ (Romans 6:3-7). There are individuals who want others to believe that someone or something prevents their resurrection to a new life. Such a person remains the same individual that he was before his "conversion." At this point, you should again remember that YOU CANNOT STOP A REAL RESURRECTION in an individual's life. You can stop a fake, but not a genuine resurrection to a new life in Christ. God's incomparably great power is available for those who believe. "That power is like the working of His mighty strength, which He exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms" (Ephesians 1:19-20). If you deliberately decide in your heart that you are going to bury your old self and be resurrected to a new life in Christ, you have God's promise that you cannot be stopped. However, if you are looking for an excuse for living the same old life day after day, you will find one. There are numerous people and things to blame. You can blame society, or your mate or your children, or your parents, or your neighbors or hypocrites in the church. You can blame bad breaks, the wrong side of the bed, circumstances, or your tough childhood. Excuses are endless, but if you want to be resurrected to a new life you will be. Nothing can stop you. If you are a fake, you will always have an excuse why you cannot change. If you are genuine, you will not be stopped. YOU CANNOT STOP A REAL RESURRECTION! A Glorious Body In the days when any country boy could stand in front of a blacksmith's shop and watch with fascinated eyes what happened there, something analogous to the resurrection of the body occurred. The smith would put a rusty, cold, dull piece of iron into the fire, and, after awhile, take that identical piece of iron out of the fire, but now bright and glowing. Thus it will be with our bodies: they are laid down in the grave, dead, heavy, earthly; but at the general resurrection this dead, heavy, earthly body shall arise living and glorious. The Corruptible Made Incorruptible A professor of biology made it his custom to stand before his students holding up a little seed between his thumb and forefinger. When he bowed before the seed, his students were mystified. This university professor had spent his whole life studying the beginning of life, and he acknowledged to his students that it was still a mystery to him. He said: "I know exactly what this seed consists of in the exact proportions of water, carbon, and other elements. I can mix these individual elements and make a seed that will look exactly like this one. If I plant the seed that I have compounded, it will rot. The various elements I have put together will be absorbed by the ground. However, if I sow the seed that God made, it will spring up into a plant, because it contains that mysterious element we call life." The physical resurrection of Christ is just as much a mystery. In fact, the life you now possess which causes your body to function and renew itself continually, and not collapse into a putrefying mass, is also a mystery. He, therefore, who in the beginning created our present corruptible bodies, will also create a new body without having to collect the various elements of our old ones from the earth. My Resurrection Has Come Suppose a visitor to our earth from another planet were to see a caterpillar on a rosebush, and a conversation could take place between them. It might go something like this: "How ugly you are and how gross, doing nothing but eat, eat, eat, all day long," says the visitor. "True," replies the caterpillar, "but I won't always be like this. Some day I'll have beautiful wings, and fly from flower to flower." "A likely story," says the visitor with a laugh. A few days later, this stranger finds a hard brown chrysalis on the rosebush and is surprised to hear the caterpillar's voice saying, "Now I'm worse off than before. You think I'm dead because I can neither move nor eat, but soon I shall have a resurrection and fly in the sun." "Poor deluded worm," says the visitor, "you'd better accept the fact that your life is over." But about three weeks later, the stranger, strolling in the rose garden, is surprised to hear the caterpillar's voice again. Looking for the chrysalis, he sees one beautiful wing and then another unfolding from its cracked shell. "You see," says the voice, "my resurrection has come," and spreading its wings the butterfly flits away to enjoy its wonderful new existence. The Living One A Mohammedan and a Christian were discussing their religions and had agreed that both Mohammed and Christ were prophets. Where, then, lay the difference? The Christian illustrated it this way: "I came to a crossroads and I saw a dead man and a living man. Which one did I ask for directions?" The response came quickly, "The living one, of course." "Why, then," asked his friend, "do you send me to Mohammed who is dead, instead of Christ who is alive?" This is the basic difference between Christ and every other religious leader. All the others came into the world, lived, and died-but none of them lived again. The resurrection of Christ was the one event that persuaded His disciples once for all that He was the Christ, God's Son.

It is said of West, an eminent man, that he was going to take up the doctrine of the resurrection, and just show the world what a fraud it was, while Lord Lyttleton was going to take up the conversion of Saul, and just show the folly of it. These men were going to annihilate that doctrine and that incident of the gospel. A Frenchman said it took twelve fishermen to build up Christ's religion, but one Frenchman pulled it down. From Calvary this doctrine rolled along the stream of time, through the eighteen hundred years, down to us, and West got at it and began to look at the evidence; but instead of his being able to cope with it he found it perfectly overwhelming--the proof that Christ had risen, that He had come out of the sepulcher and ascended to heaven and led captivity captive. The light dawned upon him, and he became an expounder of the word of God and a champion of Christianity; And Lord Lyttleton, that infidel and skeptic hadn't been long at the conversion of Saul before the God of Saul broke upon his sight, and he too, began to preach.

The bodies of the elect, after this life, in the kingdom of heaven, shall be like the glorious body of Christ. So Paul saith, "Christ Jesus our Lord shall change our vile bodies, that they may be like his glorious body." Now, the resemblance between Christ's body and ours standeth in these things: as Christ's body is incorruptible, so shall our bodies be void of all corruption; as Christ's body is immortal, so ours in the kingdom of heaven shall never die; as Christ's body is spiritual, so shall ours be made spiritual; as the apostle saith, "It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body;" not because the body shall be changed into a spirit, for it shall remain the same substance, and that forever, but because it shall be preserved by a spiritual and divine manner. For in this life it is preserved by meat, drink, clothing, sleep, physic, rest, and diet; but after, without all these means, the life of the body shall be continued, and body and soul keep together by the immediate power of God's spirit for ever and ever. Thus the body of Christ is now preserved in heaven, and so shall the bodies of the saints be after the day of judgment. Furthermore, as Christ's body is now a shining body, as doth appear by his transfiguration in the Mount, so, in all likelihood, after the resurrection, the bodies of the elect shall be shining bright, always remaining the same substance. Lastly, as Christ's body, after it rose again from the grave, had this property of agility besides swiftness, to pass from earth to the third heaven, being in distance many thousand miles from us, and that without a violence, so shall the bodies of the saints; for, being glorified, they shall be able as well to ascend upward as to go downward, and to move without violence, and that very swiftly. W. Perkins.

Even in a moral point of view, I think the analogies derived from the transformation of insects admit of some beautiful applications, which have not been neglected by pious entomologists. The three states of the caterpillar, larva, and butterfly, have, since the time of the Greek poets, been applied to typify the human being, — its terrestrial form, apparent death, and ultimate celestial destination; and it seems more extraordinary that a sordid and crawling worm should become a beautiful and active fly, that an inhabitant of the dark and fetid dung-hill should in an instant entirely change its form, rise into the blue air, and enjoy the sun-beams, than that a being whose pursuits here have been after an undying name, and whose purest happiness has been derived from the acquisition of intellectual power and finite knowledge, should rise hereafter into a state of being where universality is no longer a name, and ascend to the source of unbounded power and infinite wisdom. Sir H. Davy.

One of the most wonderful passages in the life-history of the infusoria is the encysting process which at certain times they undergo, and which serves to preserve them under circumstances which do not permit the continuance of their ordinary activity. Previous to the formation of the cyst, the movements of the animal gradually diminish, and finally cease altogether: its form becomes more rounded; its oval aperture closes; and its cilia are either lost or retracted. The surface of the body then exudes a gelatinous excretion, which hardens around it so as to form a complete coffin-like case, in which the torpid animal remains embedded until the fostering influences of warmth and humidity again recall it to an active life. Hartwig.

When we pluck down a house, with intent to rebuild it, or repair the ruins of it, we warn the inhabitants out of it, lest they should be soiled with the dust and rubbish, or offended with the noise, and so, for a time, provide some other place for them; but, when we have new trimmed and dressed up the house, then we bring them back to a better habitation. Thus God, when he overturneth this rotten room of our flesh, calleth out the soul for a little time, and lodgeth it with himself in some corner of his kingdom, repaireth the imperfections of our bodies against the resurrection, and then, having made them beautiful, yea, glorious and incorruptible, he doth put our souls back again into their acquainted mansions. Chrysostom.

Madame de Gasparin visited a crypt at Palermo, where thousands of skeletons, in every variety of position, were seen. There were the mingled bones and the nameless dust, an indistinguishable mass! She took a handful of the dust, gazed upon it, and was filled with doubt of the possibility of the resurrection of the dead. She hastened back into the daylight, when she suddenly saw the symbol I. N. R. L.; and a voice echoed in her heart, "Believest thou that I am able to do this?" She responded, "Yea, verily, Thou wilt do it;" and from that day forth never doubted the doctrine of the resurrection.

RESURRECTION, Harvest of the Looking at those grassy mounds in the light of this truth, the eye of faith sees them change into a field sown with the seeds of immortality. Blessed field! What flowers shall spring there! What a harvest shall be gathered there! In the neighboring fields, "whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap;" but here how great the difference between what is sown amid mourners' tears, and what shall be reaped amid angels' joys! between the poor body that we restore to the earth, and the noble form that shall spring from its ashes! Those who saw Lazarus' putrid corpse, with health glowing on its cheek, saw nothing to match the change the grave shall work on these mouldering bones. Dr. Guthrie.

The one taken from pit into which he came through rejection by his own. He is coming to the place of ruler and will be channel of blessing to Gentiles

Mary's devotion to Christ. To stay while others stay is the world's love. To stay alone is divine love. Given to woman to first proclaim the resurrection message

Lord Lindsay’s party, while wandering among the Egyptian Pyramids, found a mummy, which from the hieroglyphical inscriptions, etc., found in the sarcophagus containing the body, was supposed to be 3,000 years old. After unwrapping the mummy, a small root was found in one of its hands. Desiring to know how long vegetable seed-life, could exist, the bulb was taken from that hand, closed for 3,000 years, and planted in a sunny soil. In time it sprouted, blooming into a beautiful flower.

Paper, that article so useful in human life, takes its origin from cast-off rags. The rag dealer buys the cast-off rags. These he takes to the mill, and there they are sorted, washed, mashed and shaped, in short, formed into a fabric beautiful enough to bear upon its surface the messages of love, the certificate of marriage or the signature of kings. This reminds us of the resurrection of the body. When deserted by the soul how much better is it than a worn and wasted rag? It is buried in the earth, and there reduced to dust and ashes. If man’s art and device can produce so pure and white a fabric as paper from filthy rags, what should hinder God by His mighty power, from raising this body from the grave, and fashioning it like unto the body of Christ.

Monica, in her closing moments, said concerning her body being buried far from her native home, “Nothing is far from God. He will know where to find me on the resurrection morning.”

Mr. Moffat, the missionary, was once telling an African chief about the resurrection, when the savage replied: “I do not wish to hear about the dead rising. The dead cannot rise! The dead must not rise!” Then raising his right arm, and shaking his hand as if quivering a spear, he said: “I have slain my thousands, and shall they rise?”

—That identity of person and recognition after death are facts, may be comprehended from the position of man in the sight of God. “Fear not; for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name.”—Isaiah 43:1. “I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before His angels.”—Revelation 3:5. Paul speaks of those whose names are in the book of life; and James of those whose names are not in the book of life. The deduction is obvious; where individuality exists, recognition is a necessary consequence.

I well remember how in my native village in New England it used to be customary, as a funeral procession left the church, for the bell to toll as many times as the deceased was years old. How anxiously I would count those strokes of the bell to see how long I might reckon on living! Sometimes there would be seventy or eighty tolls, and I would give a sigh of relief to think I had so many years to live. But at other times there would be only a few years tolled, and then a horror would seize me as I thought that I, too, might soon be claimed as a victim by that dread monster, Death. Death and judgment were a constant source of fear to me till I realized the fact that neither shall ever have any hold on a child of God. In his letter to the Romans the Apostle Paul has showed, in most direct language, that there is no condemnation for a child of God, but that he is passed from under the power of law, and in the Epistle to the Corinthians he tells us that “there is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body,” “and as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.”

Once upon a time a Persian king was marching westward with a great army to fight against Greece. In the evening, after the army had encamped for the night, someone found the king looking over the host of people spread out before him, and he was in tears. When he was asked the cause of his sadness, he replied that he had been thinking that one hundred years from that time not one of all these men in his army would be alive. That was long before Christ lived, and had risen from the dead on Easter morning. These people had no Easter. They did not believe in the sort of everlasting life in which we believe. And even long after the resurrection of Christ there were many people in Greece and Rome who had not heard the wonderful news. Here is a letter that someone wrote over a hundred years after that first Easter to a mother whose son had just died: "I was much grieved, and shed as many tears over your son as I did over my own, and I did everything that was fitting, as so did my whole family.... But still there is nothing one can do in the face of such trouble. So I leave you to comfort yourselves. Good-bye." If these people had known about our Easter they would not have felt so hopeless and sad. For since Christ has risen from the dead, we know that all who love Him and try to be like Him shall also rise from the dead, and be with Him in a life beyond the grave. He said to His disciples before He was crucified: "In my Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." When we know this, then to die is not so terrible as it was to the Persians and Greeks. It is like going to sleep in our home, and waking up in a place much more beautiful than we had ever dreamed of, and being with Christ, the Friend of little children, forever. But we must know Christ in this life if we are to enjoy His friendship in the next.

The Roman Emperor Theodosius, in a fit of great good humor, set at liberty all persons in prison or in captivity; and then he sighed, and wished he could release the dead from their graves. Theodosius could not reach the key of the graves; these hang at the girdle of the Prince of Life. He shall open the iron gates, and bid the myriads pour forth, as bees from a hive.

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That Jesus lived, that Jesus died, The ancient stories tell; With words of wisdom, love, and truth, That he could speak so well; And all so great his work for man, I hail him, brave and free, The highest of heroic souls Who lived and died for me.

That Jesus rose, that Jesus reigns, The hearts that love him know; They feel Him guide and strengthen them, As on through life they go. Rejoicing in His leadership, The heavenward way I see, And shall not stray if I can say, He rose and reigns in me.

--A. IRVINE INNES, _The Christian Register_.

Does the tide ever turn in the land of the dead? Shall we stir at the kiss of the wave rolling back, And lift, like the sea-weed, the death-draggled head, And toss with life’s flood, like the tangles of wrack?

We trust it is so; for the sea that God turns, And sends flooding back into river and bay-- Is the sea more divine than the spirit that yearns? And we will not believe that life’s tide ebbs for aye.

--JAMES BUCKHAM, _Frank Leslie’s_.

See JUDGMENT DAY.

RESUSCITATION

Lamar Fontaine describes his sensations when he was about to be buried alive after being desperately wounded on the battle-field:

Some time in the night I heard the approach of voices and the tramp of men. Soon I heard the sound of picks and spades and caught the gleam of lanterns, and knew a burial-party was on the field, and that surgeons, with their attendants, had come to pick up and care for the wounded. Again and again I tried to speak, but no sound came. Presently I felt the jar of the picks and spades as they dug a grave by my side, and then I felt a strong hand grasp my head and another my feet, and lift me clear of the ground. There was a sharp click, and then a loud buzzing sound in my ears, and my whole body was in an agony of pain. A fearful thirst tortured me. I spoke, and my friends let me drop suddenly to the ground. The jar awoke every faculty to life. I asked for water, and at once a strong light was flashed in my face, a rubber canteen applied to my lips, and I felt a life-giving stream of cold, refreshing water flow down my swollen throat, and seemingly into every part of my frame.--“My Life and My Lectures.”

Freezing dead people until future medicine can revive them. Dora Kent, 83, in nursing home; devoted son Saul didn't want her to disappear forever so he went to Alcor Life Extension Foundation. They cut off his mother's head and froze it in liquid nitrogen, against the unlikely day when science might be able to bring it back to life and attach it to a new body. But Dora Kent may not have been legally dead when she was beheaded. A search of facility revealed weapons, one frozen corpse and 6 heads. 100 people belong to society that will freeze their bodies, about 15 are on ice at 3 centers. Cost can be $125,000 to keep you till 21st century. Dora's head was not among those found. She may not have had any plans to be frozen (let alone decapitated); the consent forms were signed only by her son.

[see also #1357]

Book by Gail Giorgio claims Elvis is still alive and grows beards to be unrecognized. Has been sighted in a Burger King in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Book includes a tape by Elvis.

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