THE POWER OF THE CRUCIFIXION IS THE RESURRECTION (a)

THE POWER OF THE CRUCIFIXION IS THE RESURRECTION (a)

Romans 1:16 (KJV)

For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

Romans 10:8-13 (KJV)

But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach;

That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.

For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him.

For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

I want to do a thing I have never done before today.

Seems like a good time to do things like that.

·   We have never had live stream services before

·   We have never had only three people in this auditorium for church before.[1]

·   We have never done an Easter Service like this before

So, I am going to do something I have never done before.

·   I am going to preach the first half of my message this morning and 

·   I am going to finish this message in the service tonight

From the passages I read, I want you to notice that, while the gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, 

It is the resurrection that gives the gospel its power.

Paul defined the gospel for us in 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 (KJV)

Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;

By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.

For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;

And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:

The gospel message, the good news for mankind is 

·   The death

·   The burial and

·   The resurrection of Jesus,

And that,

·   According to the Scriptures

Paul said that the gospel of Christ, the good news of His death, burial and resurrection, is “the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth…”

But then notice that in Romans 10:9 (KJV)

That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

There, of course, would be no resurrection without the death and the burial, but the point of faith that saves is the resurrection of Jesus.

·   Every religious leader has died and was buried, every single one.

·   Only Jesus Christ resurrected from the grave.

It’s why Christianity is more than a religion.

Religion follows the principles, teachings and unproven theories of man now gone.

Christianity follows a living Saviour who proved His message by living among us, without sin, dying for us on the cross and then rising from the grave that we might continue to walk with Him.

The power of the crucifixion is the resurrection.

I have two directions I want to travel with this truth.

·   The first concerns Jesus, His crucifixion and His resurrection

·   The second concern the believer, his crucifixion and his resurrection

CONCERNING THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST, I have three observations I would like to present you:

The first,

I. JESUS SPOKE OF HIS RESURRECTION

John 2:12-21 (KJV)

After this he went down to Capernaum, he, and his mother, and his brethren, and his disciples: and they continued there not many days.

And the Jews' passover was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem,

And found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting:

And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers' money, and overthrew the tables;

And said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not my Father's house an house of merchandise.

And his disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up.

Then answered the Jews and said unto him, What sign shewest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things?

Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.

Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days?

But he spake of the temple of his body.

We know, of course, that Jesus also spoke of His death, even His crucifixion.

John 3:14 (KJV)

And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:

He said again in, 

John 8:28 (KJV)

Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things.

And then, to leave no doubt what the subject was He said,

John 12:32-33 (KJV)

And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.

This he said, signifying what death he should die.

But notice passages like these, 

Matthew 20:17-19 (KJV)

And Jesus going up to Jerusalem took the twelve disciples apart in the way, and said unto them,

Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn him to death,

And shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify him: and the third day he shall rise again.

Here He speaks not of the Cross, but of the resurrection.

Matthew 17:22-23 (KJV)

And while they abode in Galilee, Jesus said unto them, The Son of man shall be betrayed into the hands of men:

And they shall kill him, and the third day he shall be raised again. And they were exceeding sorry.

And I think the key passage,

Matthew 16:21-24 (KJV)

From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day.

Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee.

But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.

Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

Verse 24 hints at the message I want to preach tonight.

What I want you to notice now is how important Jesus thought the resurrection to be.

When Peter rebuked him to talking about it, Jesus said that it was Satan, who had inspired the rebuke.

In John 2:19 (KJV) it’s almost like Jesus issued a challenge

Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.

The power of the crucifixion is the resurrection.

Consider second,

II. JESUS DISPLAYED HIS RESURRECTION 

In Matthew 28:6 (KJV) the angel says,

He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.

John 20:1-8 (KJV) gives some more details.

The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre.

Then she runneth, and cometh to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and saith unto them, They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid him.

Peter therefore went forth, and that other disciple, and came to the sepulchre.

So they ran both together: and the other disciple did outrun Peter, and came first to the sepulchre.

And he stooping down, and looking in, saw the linen clothes lying; yet went he not in.

Then cometh Simon Peter following him, and went into the sepulchre, and seeth the linen clothes lie,

And the napkin, that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself.

Then went in also that other disciple, which came first to the sepulchre, and he saw, and believed.

Jesus did show Himself after He arose, that will be my next point.

But before anyone ever saw Him, they saw the empty tomb.

It was like He wanted to make a point.

·   They saw the empty tomb

·   They saw the graves clothes, that His dead body had been bound in and

·   The saw the napkin, not lying with the clothes but, the Bible says, “wrapped together in a place by itself.”

According to eastern culture, 

·   When a napkin is dropped, it means the user has finished and left. 

·   But when the napkin is wrapped, or folded together it means he is planning to come back.

Jesus is coming back my friends.

Jesus is coming back!

Consider with me third,

III. JESUS PROVED HIS RESURRECTION 

Acts 1:1-3 (KJV)

The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach,

Until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen:

To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God:

The Bible says He proved His resurrection “by many infallible proofs.”

·   He spoke with them

·   He ate with them

·   He allowed them to touch him.

Apostle John wrote

1 John 1:1-2 (KJV)

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life;

(For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;)

He showed Himself to a lot of them. Paul said, “of above five hundred brethren at once.”[2]

But here’s the one I want to focus on a bit, “being seen of them forty days,”

He continued with them.

It wasn’t just a moment or two, a flash of a vision and then He was gone.

It was long enough to be real.

And then, Acts 1:9-11 (KJV)

And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight.

And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel;

Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.

Conclusion

The power of the crucifixion is the resurrection.

He is alive!

·   He is as alive today as He was before the crucifixion.

·   He is as alive today as He was when He showed Himself alive to the disciples

And He will show Himself alive to you, if you will: 

·   Call upon Him to save you

·   Seek Him in your daily life and

·   Walk with Him as He leads you

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[1] I can only remember one time when I preached to less than this. When we started the church in Astoria there was one Wednesday night service when Anita was in the nursery with baby Bohannan and the Karen Hockley was home with a sick Jennifer, and the other two families that usually came didn’t show. The only person in the auditorium was Rod Hockley. Boy, did he get an ear full!

[2] 1 Corinthians 15:6