Resurrection Sunday

Sermon Outline for Sunday, April 4, 2021

 

What we celebrate today is a Risen Savior. The songs that have been sung today, the drama we just watched, all point to the ONE FACT, not myth, that Christians can celebrate that others cannot.

 

Let’s look at some points …

  • Buddha, the religious leader, revered founder of Buddhism, and worshipped by Buddhist schools and monks – died at the age of 80 in the years between 483 and 400 BC
  • The Hindu religion has so many different gods, but after a few google searches, at least in what I found, I found that NONE ever walked earth, and therefore never actually lived in our sense of the word, so I guess since they never lived, they never died.
  • Muhammad, the religious leader and founder of Islam, is said to have been sent by the Christian God, however we as Christians do not adhere to this thought process, died at the age 61 or 62 in the year 632 AD.

 

We could go on in our research, however, why waste our time.

 

Let’s look at the Word of God for RESURRECTION PROOF of Jesus Christ.

 

John 20:6 ESV

Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there,

 

The Resurrection of Christ makes Easter the triumphant occasion that it is. The Apostle Paul said that if Christ is not raised from the dead, our faith is in vain (1 Corinthians 15:17). Satan does all he can to attack the resurrection doctrine more than any other doctrine, because he wants to tear down our faith. Many attacks have come against the fact that Christ rose from the dead, because if ONE verse in the Bible can be proven WRONG, then all else would have a hard time standing. I told someone a though about lies … if you lie about ONE thing, I will find out, then my question would be, what ELSE have you lied about. This is the same process many who try to disprove the scripture have. So, this morning lets look at ONE of the attacks against the empty grave … someone STOLE Jesus Christ’s body.

 

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FIRST – THE MINUTES FOR STEALING:

  • Thieves do no do things leisurely. They do things quickly, lest they be caught.
  • For Peter to find the grave clothes as they were in the tomb says no thieves stole the body because they would not have taken the time to remove the grave clothes nor would they leave them in such good order as they were. If they had removed the grave clothes, it would have taken too much time and they would have simply tossed them in a pile.
  • But Peter found the grave clothes lying in the tomb just like a balloon with the air gone out of it.

 

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SECOND – THE MESS FOR STEALING:

  • To steal a body from the grave without the clothes in a ridiculous fable.
  • The custom in those days (and in those days they followed customs, policy and procedures a lot closer than anyone today) was to wrap the body in many yards of linen material and mix the wrapping with spices to delay the decaying process.
  • This was done for Jesus by Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea (John 19:38). They would not scrimp in this work because Jesus of Arimathea especially was a wealth man (Matthew 27:57) and would not hold back in preparing Jesus’ body for burial.
  • Thieves would not have taken the time or endure the mess of removing the sticky grave clothes. His body was beaten, pierced and a huge mess, this would have made a LARGE mess in the removal of clothing and removal of His body.
  • Thieves are not smart people, however, they are not dumb either.

 

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THIRD – THE MEN FOR STEALING:

  • Who would have stolen the body of Christ?
  • The tomb was sealed (Matthew 27:66) and there was a guard at the tomb of soldiers – no one would want to encounter them.
  • The disciples were hiding and scared of what was going to happen to them for being a follower of Christ, they would not have risked stealing the body or venture close to the tomb.
  • The ladies didn’t come to the grave prepared to steal the body, they came to add spices to the wrapped linen.
  • The idea of stealing the body was perpetrated by the enemies of Christ (Matthew 27:64) in their attempt to prevent the resurrection news.
  • Those who oppose the resurrection today are also enemies of Christ and will embrace many theories … HOWEVER …. HE IS ALIVE!!!

 

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We must understand that because of the Resurrection News, we can have faith that all other aspects of the Word of God are true and for us today. We shouldn’t celebrate His Resurrection just one day a year, but all year long. WHY? Because of His Resurrection …

 

I have faith that God can do this and so much more in my life, because I have faith in the Resurrection!!!

 

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Pastor Andy Lambert ~ pastorandy@cvcog.church

 

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