He Did It!
A Sermon by Pastor R. D. Johnson
Preached at the Ann Arbor, MI Free Methodist Church
Scripture Text: Luke 20:27-40 April 8, 2012 Sermon #0296
About a week or two before Palm Sunday, a man from Bethany died. What was remarkable about his death is that his death was remarkable. No one ever really cared if someone from Bethany died. It was a poor and leprous village a few miles outside of Jerusalem. What was remarkable about this unknown man, is that he didn’t stay dead like people are supposed to!
He happened to be a good friend of Jesus. After he had been dead four days and already sealed in the tomb, Jesus came to Bethany. Martha, the dead man’s sister cried out to Jesus that if He had only been there, her brother would still be alive. This demonstrated faith.
But “Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?" She said to him, "Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world."” – John 11:25-27
She hadn’t believed that until He asked her, but once He asked, she believed whatever He said! She believed, but didn’t understand until an hour or so later when Jesus called out, “Lazarus, come out!” Jesus proved beyond doubt that He had power over Death!
Luk 20:27 There came to him some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection,
Luk 20:28 and they asked him a question, saying, "Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies, having a wife but no children, the man must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother.
Luk 20:29 Now there were seven brothers. The first took a wife, and died without children.
Luk 20:30 And the second
Luk 20:31 and the third took her, and likewise all seven left no children and died.
Luk 20:32 Afterward the woman also died.
Luk 20:33 In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had her as wife."
Luk 20:34 And Jesus said to them, "The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage,
Luk 20:35 but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage,
Luk 20:36 for they cannot die anymore, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection.
Luk 20:37 But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed, in the passage about the bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.
Luk 20:38 Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to him."
Luk 20:39 Then some of the scribes answered, "Teacher, you have spoken well."
Luk 20:40 For they no longer dared to ask him any question.
Joh 20:26 Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you."
Joh 20:27 Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe."
Joh 20:28 Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!"
Joh 20:29 Jesus said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."
Joh 20:30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book;
Joh 20:31 but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
5 Proofs of the Resurrection:
1) The Empty Tomb
· Jesus did not die – walked out after He revived
· Wrong Tomb – Women went to the wrong tomb
· Stolen Body – Disciples came in the night and took the body
· Actual Resurrection – Shroud found convinced Peter
2) Testimony of women
· A fiction Gospel would not have had women as the eyewitnesses
· But when they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they would not believe it. – Mark 16:11
3) Hundreds of Eyewitnesses
· Mass Hallucinations – Except Jesus did not look like Jesus…
· He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. – Acts 1:3
· Paul’s writing depends on the corroboration of eyewitnesses still living!
4) The Courage of the Disciples
· All but John ran and hid in fear for their lives when Jesus was taken and crucified
· All remained in hiding days later when Jesus appeared to them
· ALL but John dies martyrs deaths
5) The Conversion of Paul
· Strongest opposition to the Christian movement – imprisoning and killing them
· Present (according to Acts) and approving of the stoning of Stephen
· Christians did not trust him when he first claimed to have converted
· they had certain points of dispute with him about their own religion and about a certain Jesus, who was dead, but whom Paul asserted to be alive. – Acts 25:19
· Gave his life to spread the good news of Jesus’ death and resurrection
“Indeed taking all the evidence together, it is not too much to say that there is no single historic incident better or more variously supported than the Resurrection of Christ. Nothing but the antecedent assumption that it must be false could have suggested the idea of deficiency in the proof of it.” - Brooke Foss Westcott, 19th century British Bishop