The Resurrection

 

[The following is a manuscript of my message delivered at Pilgrim Reformed Church on Sunday morning, the 5th of April, 2026 - Easter Sunday.  This service included Holy Communion with our Lord.  If all went well, a recording of the service may be available on our YouTube streaming channel: 

https://www.youtube.com/@pilgrimreformedchurch1992/streams for the older services or https://www.youtube.com/@pilgrimreformedchurch3115/streams for later services.]

Our bible has many passages that hinge on something happening in three days.  One of the more familiar references is Jonah in the belly of the great fish for three days.  Jesus mentioned this one time when the people asked for a sign.  He responded, “The only sign will be the miracle that happened to the prophet Jonah.  Jonah was in the stomach of the big fish for three days and three nights. In the same way, the Son of Man will be in the grave three days and three nights.”  There were quite a few times when Jesus spoke of His impending death and resurrection, such as when He said, “Destroy this temple and I will build it again in three days.”

Three days.  Three is the number of God – the Triune God, God in Three Persons, the Holy Trinity.  And in three days the Temple was indeed rebuilt.  Today we celebrate that third day, and Jesus’ victory over the grave.

We celebrate Christmas because it commemorates the birth of Jesus into this world on His mission to bring us forgiveness and offer us eternal life.  And while that is extremely important, the foundation of our faith comes now, today, on Easter Sunday.  For it is the resurrection of the body that we are promised, and that promise is proven by the resurrection of Jesus.  Had Jesus not been raised from the dead, Christianity very likely would have faded and died as an ideology.

The resurrection is so important to us, that all four Gospel writers recorded it.  And the Apostle Luke’s Book of Acts mentions it often as a main theme of the Apostles’ preachings.  One of those mentioned was the Apostle Paul and the messages he delivered during his missionary journeys.  And of course Paul included this topic in some of his letters, including one to the church family in Corinth.

Please listen and follow along as the Apostle Paul gives us better insight into what the resurrection means to us, as he wrote in the 15th chapter of his 1st Letter to the Corinthians, verses 1 through 8 and 12 through 26, and I’ll be reading from the Easy-to-Read Version of our Holy Bible this morning…

1 Now, brothers and sisters, I want you to remember the Good News I told you. You received that Good News message, and you continue to base your life on it. 2 That Good News, the message you heard from me, is God’s way to save you. But you must continue believing it. If you don’t, you believed for nothing.

3 I gave you the message that I received. I told you the most important truths: that Christ died for our sins, as the Scriptures say; 4 that He was buried and was raised to life on the third day, as the Scriptures say; 5 and that He appeared to Peter and then to the twelve apostles. 6 After that Christ appeared to more than 500 other believers at the same time. Most of them are still living today, but some have died. 7 Then He appeared to James and later to all the apostles. 8 Last of all, He appeared to me. I was different, like a baby born before the normal time.

12 We tell everyone that Christ was raised from death. So why do some of you say that people will not be raised from death? 13 If no one will ever be raised from death, then Christ has never been raised. 14 And if Christ has never been raised, then the message we tell is worth nothing. And your faith is worth nothing. 15 And we will also be guilty of lying about God, because we have told people about Him, saying that He raised Christ from death. And if no one is raised from death, then God never raised Christ from death. 16 If those who have died are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. 17 And if Christ has not been raised from death, then your faith is for nothing; you are still guilty of your sins. 18 And those in Christ who have already died are lost. 19 If our hope in Christ is only for this life here on earth, then people should feel more sorry for us than for anyone else.

20 But Christ really has been raised from death — the first one of all those who will be raised. 21 Death comes to people because of what one man did. But now there is resurrection from death because of another man. 22 I mean that in Adam all of us die. And in the same way, in Christ all of us will be made alive again. 23 But everyone will be raised to life in the right order. Christ was first to be raised. Then, when Christ comes again, those who belong to Him will be raised to life. 24 Then the end will come. Christ will destroy all rulers, authorities, and powers. Then He will give the kingdom to God the Father.

25 Christ must rule until God puts all enemies under His feet. 26 The last enemy to be destroyed will be death.

--1 Corinthians 15:1-8, 12-26 (ERV)

Let us pray…  Heavenly Father, thank You for sending Your Christ to free us from the bonds of sin!  Jesus came to offer salvation to all the world because You love us all.  And He commands us to go and make disciples of all the world.  Sadly, Father, not everyone believes in Jesus as Your Son, they refuse to accept Him as their Lord.  There are many who don’t even know about Jesus, about what He taught and did.  Please help us reach out to the non-believers of the world, Father, sharing the Good News and showing Your love.  Help us spread the message that Jesus has risen from the dead and lives again, the first of many.  And please forgive us when we hesitate to do Your will and as our Lord Jesus commands us.

Speak to us now, Father, that we might hear Your voice through Your Spirit within us and better understand Your message today.  Thank You for raising Jesus from the dead to show that we too will be raised to eternal life if we just follow Him.  Help us keep the joy of His resurrection in our heart and our actions as we go about each day doing Your will.  This we pray in the precious name of Your Son, Christ Jesus our Lord.   Amen.

A person reported waking up from a code only to find themselves speaking Italian - a language they did not know - and then immediately flatlined again.  After being revived, they later joked, “I’d come back to the wrong body.”

A 72-year-old Indian man named Deepak Singh suddenly awoke atop a funeral pyre just before his cremation.  Declared dead after collapsing, he came to, thoroughly shocking his gathered family.  He later joked that he hoped they would wait until he was actually dead next time. 

There have been many, many instances of people being brought back to life, especially in hospital environments or under emergency medical conditions.  We even have AEDs here in the church that can help restore a person’s pulse, and anyone trained in CPR can help revive someone.  But I've only heard of two instances where a person had been dead and buried for three days and then brought back to life.  The first was Lazarus, raised from the grave by Jesus.  And the second was Jesus, raised back first to physical life and then eternal life by God.

Every Easter we celebrate that Jesus was raised from the dead.  Easter and Christmas are the most joyous days for Christians.  Jesus died for our sins, and then defeated death.  The resurrection story, the empty tomb, was looked at this morning during our Sunrise Service.  Now, in Paul’s letter, we look at what the resurrection means to us, to mankind.

Paul begins this passage by reminding us of the Good News, of how important it is for us to remember the Gospel message because it is God’s way to save us.  And he encourages us to keep holding on to this message, to keep believing, or our faith would be for naught.  Then Paul boils that message down to the most important truths: that the Christ died for our sins; that He was buried but was then raised to life on the third day; and that He appeared to Peter, and then to the twelve, and then to over 500 other believers, then to James and the other apostles, and finally to Paul himself.  That last occurred when Jesus struck him blind on the road to Damascus.

Paul then goes on to defend the resurrection of the dead, something the Sadducees did not accept or believe in.  And he was very direct in his statement to us Christians.  If there was no resurrection, if Jesus was not raised from the dead, then our faith is worthless, pointless.  Not only that, but we are still guilty of our sins and will have to answer to them before God.

If our hope, our faith in Christ, is only good for this earthly life, then there really is no reason to go on living.  But Jesus was raised from the dead, and we will be, too.

A little earlier, I mentioned that something happening in three days is a recurrent theme in our bible.  The two examples I gave were both from the New Testament, although the incident of Jonah that Jesus spoke of actually occurred in Old Testament times.

There’s another Old Testament reference I’d like to look at, where the prophet Hosea claims that resurrection will occur for all who walk with the Lord.  By the way, Hosea wrote this over 700 years before Jesus was born into this world.  Oh, and this resurrection will come on the third day, too.

Please hear the words of the prophet Hosea, from the first two verses of the 6th chapter of the book bearing his name…

1 Come, let’s go back to the Lord.

He hurt us, but He will heal us.

He wounded us, but He will put bandages on us.

2 After two days He will bring us back to life.

He will raise us up on the third day.

Then we can live near Him.

--Hosea 6:1-2 (ERV)

The prophets spoke for God.  Their words came from God.  He used them to speak to mankind.  And He promises to bring us back to life and raise us up on the third day.  Jesus was just the first.  In verse 20 of our scripture reading, Paul proclaims that Jesus is “the first one of all those who will be raised”.

Paul goes on to say that death entered this world due to the sin of Adam, but then salvation came to the world because of the righteous act of Jesus.  Paul specifically says, “in Christ all of us will be made alive again”.  The key is “in Christ”.  By our belief in Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God, and by following Him as our Lord, we remain in Him, and we will be raised to new life, eternal life with Him.

This is the promise of the resurrection.  This is the foundation of our faith.  This is our hope.

In just a few moments we will come to the table of our Lord to share His last meal with Him.  The Apostle Paul warns that we must be right with God before doing so.  Otherwise, we share the guilt of His execution, of His death, with those who committed the act.

Now is the time to get right with God.  If you are feeling convicted by the Holy Spirit, if you are weighed down by the guilt of disobedience, if you are holding a grudge against a fellow believer, if there is anything in your life that God would see as sinful, lay it all at the foot of our Lord’s cross, repent, and seek forgiveness.  Get right with God.

In the blessed name of Christ Jesus our Lord, the Son of God, who came in the flesh to redeem us, who was raised from the dead into flesh and returned to heaven, and who is coming again to judge us all.  Amen.

Let us pray…  Almighty God, thank You for raising Your Son Jesus from the dead!  He gave up His mortal life to atone us of our sin so that we could always be with You, and then You resurrected Him in the body to show that we too will be resurrected in the body when our mortal life is finished.  You will give us a new, incorruptible body that will last for all eternity.  Thank You, Father, for such wonderful gifts, for having mercy on us.  Sometimes, Father, we don’t understand everything that has been saved for us in our Bible.  Sometimes we don’t understand because we don’t spend enough time in study and reflection.  Please forgive us these times, Father.  Help us better grasp all that Jesus taught us, and all that the prophets wrote about Him.  Give us greater insight and visibility into all You have promised.  And Father, guide us around any pitfalls in this life and strengthen our spirits to do Your will.  And please help us do a better job of sharing Jesus with others so that they too may be saved by Your mercy and His sacrifice.  

Father, please shield us from Satan as he attacks our faith, trying to make us his own.  Help us be better servants, glorifying You in all we do so that the world can see You in us, through our deeds, in how we live.  And help us remain strong, faithful, and true to You in all things, no matter what the world throws at us or holds out before us.

Please hear us now, Father, as we pause for just a moment to speak to You through Your Spirit within us, promising to be more obedient to Your commands, and seeking Your help to do so…

Lord Jesus, on this day – the third day - so long ago You left an empty tomb behind as You were raised to renewed life by our Father God, just as You said You would be.  So many had trouble believing this, even those who walked with You.  So You showed Yourself to them, in the flesh, and we have their reports and witnessing so that we can believe.  Thank You, Jesus, for taking our sin upon Yourself, leaving our sin in the grave, and walking forth into a new day.  Please help us follow Your example and pattern our life after Yours.  Help us see through Your eyes.  Help us be more understanding, more merciful, more forgiving, remembering that we are all created in our Triune God’s image and that You came to save us all.  And Lord, please help us reach out to the non-believing world with the Gospel message, showing Your love through our love.  Give us the words to say, show us what to do to help bring the lost to You.  Please help us be faithful and true to You, putting all our trust in You, all our hope in You.  Heal the hurts that separate and divide us one from another.  Help us keep our focus on the things of heaven and the needs of others rather than on anything this life might offer.  This we pray in Your blessed name, Christ Jesus our Lord and our Savior.  Amen.