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May, 2011 Sermon by Pastor JR. Fields

Most of you present already have your mind made up concerning the Resurrection, while others of you may be struggling about it. You have always been told that you just have to take everything by faith. Moreover, faith is not a bad thing, but for those whose faith is not strong you may be skeptic about it. There are those who do not believe at all.

I want to preach to you today why you can believe the Resurrection is real. It is not a myth and it is not a fairytale. IF I can convince you that the Resurrection is real, would you at least consider making Jesus Christ your Lord and Savior? I also would like to remind you that you might think on this…There is a place waiting for you in eternity. It is in the smoking section and not in the non-smoking section. You don’t have to change the course you are on; but please give me the opportunity to help you change your mind.

A Bible Apologist, a defender of the faith, was on a college campus debating the belief of Christ and the accuracy of the Bible. It is a known fact that many on our college campuses are hostile on things of faith.

There was one particular person who was razzing the Apologist hard. The Bible Apologist said to the student, “If I can convince you that the Bible is true would you consider inviting Jesus in your heart?” The student said, “Absolutely not!”

There are those who want to come across as being intellectually hungry but when presented with the truth they already have their mind made up. They don’t want the God of the Bible. They don’t want the accountability that comes with the God of the Bible.

Easter means different things to people. Some it is a three-day weekend. To others it may be a time to buy and wear new clothes. Let me say this before I go any further…”This is the first Easter I have worn old clothes.” But that is all right. It doesn’t matter if you have new clothes, old clothes, or bad clothes on, it doesn’t matter as long as you have clothes on…Amen!”

There are those that see Easter as an egg hunt and others see it as chocolate bunnies. Those things are the world’s view of Easter, the secular view of Easter. However, to the Christian view, it is a reminder of the world-changing event that took place over two-thousand years ago. It is a time we Christians celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is the Resurrection of Jesus Christ that distinguishes the faith of Christians from all other faiths. That proved that He was the Son of God manifested in human form.

You may not agree that Jesus Christ is the Son of God; you may not believe that Jesus died so that we may have life eternal; you may not agree in His death, burial, and Resurrection. But you see, there is something that you must know. Every person will be held accountable to that truth whether you believe it or not…You are accountable to God so don’t you think you had better have your house in order?

Paul wrote down three fundamental truths that I want to talk about this morning.

Jesus died for sin. Not only did He die but also was buried. Not only was He buried but also He arose on the third day according to the scripture.

I want to point something out…the death and burial are not the significant parts of the story. Confucius died and is buried in some place called Ku-fu, China. That is where Buddha goes to recognize his dead body. You see, our faith recognizes a Savior who arose from the dead…So far, neither Mohammed nor Confucius has done that. Jesus rose victoriously and lives forevermore. He arose for our justification. That’s what makes Him above all the rest.

Let me ask you a question and I want you to raise your hand….How many people believe that there was a George Washington, the father of our country. How many has laid eyes on him or eaten lunch with him…Not any here. Yet, we believe he existed. Here is the thing about history, 99.9 % of it is based on someone else’s eyewitness account. So, we were not there when George Washington took that hatchet and cut the cherry tree down. We were not there when he got in the boat and went across that river and founded our nation. We were not there but we believe there is truth in what has been recorded.

I’ve got to believe that there is more possible truth in the fact that Jesus rose from the dead than it is impossible.

If we believe in the account of George Washington is true then we can believe the Bible is true when it reads that the tomb was empty. The counselors were bribing the soldiers to say the Jews stole His body.

The first recording of His Resurrection was not from Peter, not from John, not from any of His disciples, but from the women.

They were the ones that discovered that the body was missing…You ask, “What’s the big deal about that?” Well here is the deal. In Bible times, it was not customary to believe the testimony of a woman. Therefore, if someone were making this story up they would not have said the first to respond to Him would be women. To say it was the disciples would have carried more weight of the public opinion.

The Bible says when they came to the Garden to take away Jesus all the disciples scattered. They were like cowardly kittens. At the first sign of trouble, they were gone. The entire group…But then, something happened. The cowardly kittens were convinced not to be afraid any more. They were hiding in fear, but something gave them courage.

The truth was they saw Him and knew He rose from the dead because they were seeing Him with their very eyes. The same Peter that denied Him three times was the same Peter that stood before thousands and preached the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. He was no longer afraid. He stood before dignitaries and preached so hard he pealed the paint off the walls.