The Passion of Christ

God Showed His Love For Us
When He Raised From The Dead

April 11, 2004
Genesis 1:1; Revelation 21:5-7

Over these last few weeks we have thought about some of the ways that God has shown his love for us.
God Showed His Love For Us In The Eternal Past.
God Showed His Love For Us When He Came To This Earth.
God Showed His Love For Us When He Died For Our Sins.
In this service we want to think about how God Showed His Love For Us When He Raised From The Dead.

In our previous message, we saw that even with all the good that Jesus had done and all the miracles that he had performed, almost everyone had now turned against him.

The rulers, the religious leaders, many of his own people, and yes Judas, one of his own Disciples, sold him for the paltry sum of only thirty pieces of silver as it had been prophesied some 500 years before in Zechariah. 11:12-13. Matthew tells us in Matthew 26:14-15 "Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went unto the chief priests, And said unto them, What will ye give me, and I will deliver him into you? And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver." Can you imagine that? For only thirty pieces of silver, the equivalent to just a few dollars in American money, Judas sold the precious Son of God into the hands of wicked sinners.

I shared with you last week some of the things that our Lord voluntarily endured as he paid the price for your sins and for mine. He suffered tremendous stress. He was hated, despised, rejected, and tortured by the people. He suffered at the hands of the Romans, whose beatings were known to be very bloody and leaving lacerations all over the body. He was beaten almost to the point of death with the whips and then a crown of thorns was forced upon his precious brow. Isaiah tells us that "...his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men:" (Isaiah 52:14). He was forced to carry the heavy load of the cross and then hung naked before the hateful crowd in open shame. They drove huge nails through his hands and feet. And they beat him, they mocked him, they tortured him, they ridiculed him in about every way that you could imagine, stopping just short of taking his precious life. And all the time, his precious blood was flowing from his body to pay the price for sinners like you and me.

There is no doubt about it to die upon "The Old Rugged Cross" was to die the most horrible death that has ever been devised by sinful men. But before we come to this scene that we have before us, many things had happened in our Lord's public ministry. The prophecies were not good enough for the Jewish leadership and they kept demanding that he give them a sign. They wanted something miraculous, something supernatural, something they could touch and see, something that would prove his seemingly strange teachings and lifestyle. They wanted to know by what right, in who's name, with what credentials, and through what power he was teaching things that were different to what the rabbis and the scribes were teaching.

But if they had really believed what Moses and the prophets had written, they would have known by what right, in who's name, with what credentials, and through what power he was teaching things that were different to what the rabbis and the scribes were teaching.

They repeatedly asked him for a sign until finally Jesus promised them just one last sign. Listen carefully to what Jesus told them in Matthew 12:38-40: "Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee. But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas: For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." He told them again in John 2:18-21 "Then answered the Jews and said unto him, What sign shewest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things? Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days? But he spake of the temple of his body." Jesus was simply saying that the sign that would prove everything he had said and done in his life was this: You destroy my body, this temple that I live in, and after three days and nights in the heart of the earth, I will raise it up from the grave. In other words, the Lord made his resurrection the final sign to show that his message was genuine and that his death truly was a sacrifice for all mankind.

Think with me for just a moment. If Jesus did not rise from the grave, His claims would be false, His death would was in vain, and He was just another man. But if he did rise from the dead, then and only then, he was who he claimed to be, he could atone for our sins, and he would have the power to give us eternal life. The all powerful the all wise and the all knowing God of the entire universe would determine our eternal destiny based upon this one special sign. And beloved, that sign was that his precious son would rise again from the dead.

The Roman soldiers that stood guard at the tomb for three days and three nights couldn't stop him from rising from the dead. The large stone that was placed over the only opening to the tomb couldn't keep him inside. In fact, there wasn't a force in the universe, whether it be fallen angels or unregenerated men, that could stop the precious son of God from rising again from the dead and coming forth from the tomb.

We, like the people of long ago, depend so much on signs. Signs are everywhere, telling us what to do, where to go, and how to do things. Many times our health, our happiness, and sometimes our very lives, depend upon just one sign. And sometimes it is a bitter experience to miss seeing just one sign. I pray that as we look at some of these Bible verses, there won't be anyone that will go away from the services today and miss this one last sign. Look at those two verses in Matthew 12:40 "For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth."

No less than five times in the Gospels Jesus declares he would be crucified, buried, and rise again from the dead. Not only did he have to die, lie in the grave for exactly three days and three nights, and rise specifically at the exact time, but He must do these things in the exact order, at the right place, at the exact time, and in the exact way God's prophets had proclaimed for thousands of years.

Please allow me to take a few moments and mention just a few of the prophecies that are given to us in the Old Testament.

The book of Psalms gives us many prophecies. They tell us:
About the death of Jesus' betrayer (Judas). Psalms 55:15.
Jesus would be condemned by false accusations. Psalms 27:12.
He would be silent when they accused him. Psalms 53:7.
He would be insulted, spit upon, and scourged. Psalms 22:7-16.
He would be crucified. Psalms 22:14-17.
He would be given gall and vinegar to drink. Psalms 69:21.
He would pray for his enemies. Psalms 109:4.
About his cries from the cross. Psalms 22:1.
He would die in the prime of life. Psalms 89:45
He would die a voluntary death. Psalms 40:6-8
They would cast lots for his clothing. Psalms 22:18.
His bones would not be broken. Psalms 34:20.
His hands and feet would be pierced. Psalms 22:16.

The prophet Isaiah tells us:
He would die with malefactors. Isaiah 53:9-12.
He would suffer for others. Isaiah 53:1-8.

The prophet Zechariah tells us:
He would be betrayed by a friend. Zechariah 13:6.
He would be betrayed for 30 pieces of silver. Zechariah 11:12.
He would be deserted by his disciples. Zechariah 13:6.

I told you before that, according to the historian and mathematician Peter Stoner, the odds of one person fulfilling just 8 of the some 333 prophecies given about the Son of God's first coming to this earth would be like taking the State of Texas and covering the entire state two feet deep in silver dollars, putting a marked coin somewhere underneath all the others, blindfolding a person, and allowing them to pick up just the one that was premarked on the first try. In other words it was almost an impossibility!

Could this Jesus of Nazareth, that claimed to be the Son of God, possibly prove he was who he claimed to be, beyond any shadow of doubt? Let's find out as we consider the promise that he made.

Remember what he said when they questioned him in Matthew 12:39 "... An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas: For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." Now of course, all of us know that this prophecy had to do with his death, his burial, and his resurrection.

So let's begin by thinking about His Death.

The first part of the sign was to be his death and more specifically his death on the cross. Matthew tells us in Matthew 27:50 "Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost." In other words, he died. It seems that I can almost hear someone say, "Wait a minute pastor. Many men died on the cross. That doesn't prove anything." To which I would answer, you are 100% correct. But as I previously pointed out, this last sign was to be in perfect harmony with God's perfect and holy word. As we think about the Old Testament prophecies that I've given you and the scriptures that we read, we have ample evidence that this man, this Jesus of Nazareth, fulfilled every prophecy given concerning his death on the cross of Calvary.

Let's move on and think about the second thing that Jesus told us and that is about His Burial.

Remember again the verse we read where Jesus said in Matthew 12:40 "For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." Jesus emphatically stated the fact that he would be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

The word "three" is used some 485 times in the Bible. And do you know that I don’t believe that I have ever had anyone tell me that the word "three" meant anything but "three" except when they were trying to tell me that Jesus was only in the grave for part of "three" days and "three" nights. The rulers and the people mocked and laughed at him. In fact they even used his words against him in court to have him crucified.

When Jesus died on the cross of Calvary some unusual things happened that were also prophesied on the Old Testament. The prophet Isaiah had written in Isaiah 53:9 that His burial would be with the rich. The Psalmist had written in Psalms 16:10 That his body would not see corruption.

Let's read some more verses that we find in John 19:38-39 "And after this Joseph of Arimathaea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus: and Pilate gave him leave. He came therefore, and took the body of Jesus. And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight."

How strange are God's ways. These two rich men came to take care of the body of Jesus to fulfill the prophecy that had been given hundreds and hundreds of years before. Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, who had come to Jesus in the darkness of the night for fear of the Jews and Joseph, a secret disciple of Jesus for fear of the Jews, now team up to bury our Lord's body. So we read in John 19:40-42 "Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury. Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden; and in the garden a new sepulchre, wherein was never man yet laid. There laid they Jesus therefore because of the Jews' preparation day; for the sepulchre was nigh at hand." Can you imagine that? These disciples that had followed in darkness and in secret now step forward into the light to bury their crucified Saviour! These teachers of Israel believed that here at last was the long promised lamb of God of whom the prophets had foretold for centuries.

Two parts of the sign that Jesus had given had passed and both were in perfect accordance with the scriptures, but the hardest part is yet to come.

Dying is easy. Being buried is easy. Everyone can do that. But what about the third part of the sign that Jesus had spoken about? That, of course, was His Resurrection.

The Psalmist told us in Psalms 16:10 "... neither will thou suffer thine Holy one to see corruption." Watch this! Hundreds of years before the precious Son of God died the Psalmist tells us his body will not see corruption. The corruption of the body is believed to begin taking place on the fourth day after someone dies.

There are many other passages that prophesy of his resurrection, so I want us to notice just a few of them.
Psalms 30:3 "O LORD, thou hast brought up my soul from the grave: thou hast kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit."
Psalms 41:9-10 "Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me. But thou, O LORD, be merciful unto me, and raise me up, that I may requite them."

Remember now, the scriptures tell us several times that Jesus said he would rise from the dead after three days and three nights. This was to be the final sign! This was to settle once and for all whether or not he was truly the Son of God.

We're told in the 28th chapter of Matthew that Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to the tomb to anoint the body of Jesus. As they came closer, a great earthquake shook the area. When they got to the grave, it should have been sealed and guarded, but the soldiers shook like leaves in an autumn wind and lay like dead men upon the ground. The stone should have been in place, but a mighty angel had rolled it back and sat upon it. Jesus the one who had been crucified just three days before was supposed to be inside, but he was gone. The angel that was present said "The best I can do is show you where he used to be. Come, see the place where the Lord lay." Matthew 28:6. The grave clothes were neatly wrapped, undisturbed, in the right place, with the napkin that was used to wrap his head all in place, but the body was gone. That little tomb, carved into the solid rock with only one exit, was closed, but this man, this Jesus of Nazareth, this man that proclaimed for everyone to hear that he was the Son of God, was gone.

Oh yes, that beautiful old song by Robert Lowery is true.

Low in the grave he lay, Jesus my Savior!
Waiting the coming day, Jesus my Lord!
Vainly they watched his bed, Jesus my Saviour!
Vainly they sealed the dead, Jesus my Lord!
Death cannot keep his prey, Jesus my Saviour!
He tore the bars away, Jesus my Lord!

Up from the grave he arose,
With a mighty triumph o'er his foes;
He arose a victor from the dark domain,
And he lives forever with his saints to reign.
He arose! He arose! Hallelujah! Christ arose!

As Mary left the tomb that resurrection morning, she met her risen Saviour on the way and his words to her were, "all hail" or "O joy!" The last sign had been given. Jesus of Nazareth had died for our sins, according to the scriptures, he was buried, and now he had risen again from the dead after three days and three nights in the heart of the earth, all in perfect accord with the Old Testament Scriptures. The mighty angel proclaimed to the women on that Resurrection morning "He is risen!"

These were the words that would:
Bring rejoicing to the saddened hearts of the disciples!
Challenge missionaries to go around the world to preach the gospel to every creature.
Stir the heart of Alfred M. Ackley to write

He lives, He lives, Christ Jesus lives today,
He walks with me, He talks with me,
Along life's narrow way.
He lives, He lives, salvation to impart,
You ask me how I know He lives?
He lives with my heart!

Luke tells us in Luke 1:1-3 "The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, Until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen: To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God:" You see, the fact that Jesus arose from the dead cannot be refuted because he showed himself alive to many, at least 500, by many infallible proofs. (I Corrinthians 15:6)

Yes, he died and was buried, but praise God, he arose again just like he said he would and is setting at his Father's right hand today offering eternal life to those that will receive him as their Saviour and Lord. And beloved, Jesus makes the following declaration for the entire world to hear. You wanted to see something miraculous, something supernatural, something you could touch and feel, and something that would prove my seemingly strange teachings and lifestyle. You wanted to know by what right, in who's name, with what credentials, and through what power I was teaching things that were different to what the rabbis and the scribes were teaching. I invite you to take a walk down past the rugged landscape of Mount Calvary to the garden tomb that sits just a short distance away. Study it. See how it was carved out of the mountain of stone. Look at the massive stone that sealed the tomb but has been rolled away. Look inside if you will and study the grave clothes that I left behind. And please remember what I told you earlier regarding my life. I told you that No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father. (John 10:18)

That's why he could say to Mary when he met her that morning in John 11:25-26 "... I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die." Yes, the Lord's disciples Nicodemus, Joseph, Mary, and countless multitudes have trusted and received the Lord Jesus Christ as their own personal Lord and Savior throughout the centuries. They believed with all their hearts that Jesus did die for their sins, was buried, but that he did rise again from the dead, so that he might give us eternal life.

But what about you this morning? Do you believe that Jesus was the Saviour that the scriptures have told us about? Do you believe that he died for you personally, was buried for you personally, and rose again after three days and three nights in the heart of the earth for you personally? Do you know that you have sinned against a Holy God? Will you confess that to him today? Are you ready to put your complete faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and what he did for you at Calvary so that you won't have to perish in an eternal lake of fire but have eternal life? Will you trust him this very day as your personal Lord and Saviour?

Oh friend, the last sign has been given. Jesus Christ the eternal Son of God died for my sins and your sins according to the scriptures, he was buried, but praise God, he rose again after the third day according to the scriptures.

But that's not all. He sits today at the right hand of God the Father and will give anyone, yes even you, eternal life if you will only put your faith and trust in him as your own Saviour and Lord.

Will you trust him and receive him into your heart and life today?

Copyright © 2004 by Dr. Kennith Atkison

This material is provided for personal study or for use in preparation of sermons, Sunday school classes, or other oral communication. This material may be quoted in written form with appropriate credit and may be copied or reprinted for distribution as long as it is given away and no charge is made for copies, shipping or handling. It may not be reprinted for commercial publication.