Assurances from the Resurrection

Father; for which of those works do ye stone me? The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God."

Jesus declared Himself to be God & the resurrection assures us that He told the truth.

B. The resurrection unveiled who Jesus truly was.
In some ways up until this time, His Deity had been veiled….

On several occasions Jesus actually commanded others not to tell who He was or what He had done.

Mt 8:4 "And Jesus saith unto him, See thou tell no man; but go thy way, shew thyself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them." Mt 16:20 "Then charged he his disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ."
Mt 17:9 "And as they came down from the mountain, Jesus charged them, saying, Tell the vision to no man, until the Son of man be risen again from the dead."

The resurrection itself declares very loudly and clearly the Deity of Jesus Christ.

II. The resurrection assures us of forgiveness of sins (1 Cor. 15:17; Rom. 4:23-25).

Rom. 4:23-25 "Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification."

These verses are reminding us that Jesus died for our sins and that God raised up Jesus from the tomb of Joseph of Arimathaea after three days. Therefore:

A. The resurrection is proof that God accepted the sacrifice of Jesus for our sins.

You see, the resurrection of Jesus Christ is God’s gurantee that the full price for our sins were paid by the shed blood of Christ.

B. The resurrection is proof that Jesus died as our sinless substitute

C. The resurrection is proof that sin’s penalty has been paid in full.

The resurrection shows the truthfulness of 2 Cor. 5:21.

2 Cor. 5:21 "For he hath made him [to be] sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him."

III. The resurrection assures us of our own resurrection (1 Cor. 15:12,13, 20-23).

A. It assures us that Christ’s resurrection was:
real – seen by numerous people (Cephas, the 12, & over 500 at one time; 1 Cor. 15:5-8).
tangible – Mary Magdalene & other women at the tomb, & the apostles (Matt. 28:8-10).
bodily – not a ghost Luke 24:36-40
yet a glorified, spiritual body (read; 1 Cor. 15:35-44)
a "first fruit" – indicating that we, His children, will also someday resurrect.

As believers we are looking to being resurrected someday, not because we understand it fully, but because God raised Jesus from the dead and promised we will be raised too.

B. It assures us that our resurrection will be like His:

We know that He was but a firstfruit, with many more to follow.

We see this confidence expressed in the words of Paul:

Phil. 3:20-21 "For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the
Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself."

The resurrection gave