Happy Easter! On Easter we celebrate the most important event in the history of the world. The resurrection of Jesus Christ. Our message today is entitled “Jesus is Alive.” Let’s begin this morning talking about why the resurrection is so important for each one of us. Jesus prophesied that He would die and rise again.
Matthew 20:18-19 (ESV) “… the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day.”
Yet, despite this, Jesus’ followers did really believe that He would die. And when He died, they didn’t believe that He would rise again. If Jesus wasn’t raised from the dead, what would He be? He would be false prophet, a liar and certainly not the Son of God. As followers of Jesus, we speak a lot about Jesus dying on the cross for our sins. But without the resurrection, Jesus’ death would have accomplished nothing.
1 Corinthians 15:17 (ESV) And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.
You see, when God raised Jesus from the dead, it meant that God accepted Jesus’ sacrifice for sin on the cross. Jesus was raised from the dead to never die again. This had never happened before in the history of the world. We don’t celebrate Jesus hanging on the cross, we celebrate the empty tomb.The empty tomb meant that Jesus no longer dead, but lives forever more. The resurrection of Jesus means that every believer will be resurrected in the same way.
1 Corinthians 15:52 (ESV) in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.
As followers of Jesus, we will receive a resurrected body just like Jesus did. That body will have both physical and spiritual dimensions, just like Jesus’ did. Our resurrected bodies will fit us to live forever in the new heavens and new earth. So, sorry to disappoint you, but you’re not going float around on clouds playing harps forever. We will have a wonderful future of eternal life forever with Jesus. All because of the resurrection of Jesus. All because Jesus is Alive. So, let’s look more closely at the resurrection story from the Gospel of Luke this morning to see how it applies to our lives today.