Wonderful Deeds of Jesus-#5

Jesus Raised the Dead & Was Raised

Hopewell Church of Christ

January 30, 2000

After considering the deeds of Jesus in his acts of compassion toward man in healing his infirmities, creating the world, and his many acts of judgment, we are now prepared to consider the greatest miracle of all---raising the dead! This is at the heart of the message of Christ and Scripture. Someone called it "the heart of the heart and center of Christianity." Herein lies our hope of eternal life.

I have been surprised that we have not had more discussion on this theme in modern days (in our churches). The Pharisees and Sadducees debated it often. (Acts 23:8.) Paul masterfully handled a divided audience once by announcing that he was a Pharisee and for his belief in the resurrection of the dead he was called into question. (Acts 23:6.) I hope that the silence is a sign of our unwavering acceptance of this great truth. However, I fear that the silence may be a sign of our indifference toward something that we had rather not think about. We must remember that at the heart of our justification is the confidence we have that God raised his Son from the dead, in the likeness of Abraham's confidence that God would have raised Isaac. (Rom. 4:17-25, Heb. 11:17-19.)

1) Jesus raised the widow of Nain's only son. (Luke 7:11-16.) "Young man, I say to you, Arise." (7:14.)

2) Lazarus was raised after he was dead four days. (John 11:43-44.) Jesus told Martha, "Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God." (11:40.)

3) The ruler of the synagogue, Jairus' daughter. (Luke 8:41f.) "Little girl, I say to you, Arise." (5:41.)

4) Jesus was raised by the power of God. "And God hath both raised up the Lord and will also raise up us by his own power." (1 Cor. 6:14.)

5) We often forget that many arose after Jesus' resurrection and went into Jerusalem. Can you imagine the power of their testimony concerning the resurrection of the dead? "And the graves were opened and many bodies of the saints which slept arose and came out of the graves after his resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared unto many." (Matt. 27:52-53.)

6) Remember that it is the same Lord who will raise all the dead at his second coming, including those that he raised when on earth in the first century! "Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice and shall come forth." (John 5:28f.)

7) Peter raised Dorcas; Paul the young man Eutychus; Elijah the widow's son; Elisha the Shunammite's son. Including the many of Matthew 27 and these individuals, there are many resurrections in the Bible.

We could say that sin is man's greatest problem, but the wages of sin is death. (Romans 6:23.) Job wondered if man will live again. "If a man dies, shall he live again." (Job 14:14.) David faced this question squarely when he lost his infant son. We all ponder the meaning of life and especially each time we bury one that we love. Where is life carrying us? Is death the end of it all? These are the greatest questions of one's life. We must not leave them to philosophers; we must answer them for ourselves.

It should be obvious to us that unless someone tells us who has been on the other side of the grave, we could never know the answer to Job's question. It makes sense that the God who made us has told us. He has not left us without some information about this issue. He has revealed to us that we all shall be raised to live again. Everyone in their graves will be raised. Would it not be strange if the Bible did not answer this question?? By the time we reach the New Testament, we should have known that this question would not be avoided! We have been led up to this moment by what has gone before (Abraham's challenge to his faith, David's desire to see his son; Job's plaintive cry).

Jesus has crossed the barrier between the eternal world and our physical world. He lived in both. (John 16:28, Rev. 1:18.) He can answer the question. He presented the answer in a dramatic way---by dying and being raised by the power of God on the third day. He is the only one who has been raised that did not die again afterwards. His resurrection, therefore, gives hope to a lost and dying world.

We readily admit that the whole of Christianity rests upon the truthfulness of the resurrection. Paul expressed this point more powerfully than any other. He wrote,

"Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how so some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is vain and your faith is also vain. Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ." (1 Cor. 15:12-15.)

Three ways some deny the bodily resurrection. 1) We cannot by-pass the necessity of the resurrection by thinking that the spirit can live eternally without a body. Paul said that to be "unclothed" or disembodied was not desirable.

(2 Cor. 5:1-4.) 2) Others seek to by-pass the resurrection by saying that God will simply give us a new body from heaven and there is no need to raise the old one. But there is no life if the dead are not raised! 3) By saying that Jesus lives in their hearts. A song suggests that concept. But the bodily resurrected Son of God does not live in our hearts. This is a way for some to keep the language of the resurrection, but denying its reality. There are hundreds of ways that people talk about the resurrection, but deny it in fact. They speak poetically about the budding of the trees, the grass growing, the birds singing in the spring. Yet they often say nothing about the fact that our Lord was raised from the dead.

Others simply do not believe in the resurrection of the dead. How do we get past these doubts or unbelief? It is easier for some than others. For many there has never been serious doubt. We accept that our Lord raised Lazarus, the widow's son, the ruler's daughter, etc. We believe that He was raised from the dead making our redemption complete and our hope secure. Before I suggest some ways of getting past any doubts, here are some examples of how troubled some were and are. We can all say with the father who asked Jesus to heal his son, Lord I believe, but help thou mine unbelief. (Mark 9:24.)

1) Thomas Jefferson. This man is well known in American politics and even around the world. Our third President of the United States could not accept the miracles of Jesus. But he believed that the teachings of Jesus presented the finest ethical system ever presented to man.

He so disbelieved the miracles of Jesus that he literally cut the references from his Bible with a pair of scissors! He published the emasculated remains in a book entitled, The Jefferson Bible. (The Jefferson Bible: The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth, Thomas Jefferson, Costa Mesa, CA, Noontide Press, 1989.) He felt that the miracles are an affront to intelligent people. We have just finished a rather extensive survey of the miracles of Jesus. Thomas Jefferson would not have stayed with us for the past five weeks. He would have left or voiced his objections.

He rewrote the life of Jesus leaving out all the miracles, but presenting a chronological view of Jesus' life using the KJV. Let us see what that would look like. First, you must exclude the creation by Jesus because that is a miracle. So we could not get the world into existence that way! Then, Jesus could not be born of Mary because that is a miracle. We cannot even get Jesus into the world, not the One called Immanuel. Then, we leave behind all his acts of compassion in healing man. We only include his sermons. He has a message, but no divine power. We must remove the resurrection of Jesus and his ascension from the Bible. When he died, he must have been buried somewhere in Palestine. Even though the greatest ethical teacher who ever lived, we do not know where he was buried. His disciples did not even mark the grave. What ingratitude! To remove the miracles from the Bible would be to rewrite your own Bible. That is what Thomas Jefferson did.

Remember all those clusters of miracles that we discussed---those at the creation, the beginning of Israel, the beginning of the church, and those that will be performed at the beginning of the new heaven and new earth. All those must be removed. What we are left with is a fragment of a Bible without any divine power in it.

2) The French skeptic, Ernest Renan, wrote a book entitled The Life of Jesus in which he voiced his objections to the miracles of the Bible.

3) Rudolf Bultmann is known for his effort to "demythologize the Bible." Many have followed his lead in saying that the miraculous events of Scripture should be seen as myth or legends.

4) Others are most cautious in writing that one simply cannot know for sure. One man concluded his study by saying that there were strong arguments for the historical basis of the resurrection of Jesus, and there were many objections that one could raise. He took the middle of the road view of the agnostics---one who does not know. "Both the skeptic and the believer is correct in his own worldview." (Jeffrey Jay Lowder, "The Debate Between Christians and Skeptics," 1995.)

1) Understand that our worldview matters. We all start out in a certain direction or with presuppositions, as they are called. No one can avoid it. That is to say, look at the broader picture first before you consider the lesser items. If one doubts the miracles of Jesus, one has a view of Jesus that is not biblical. If we understand and believe that He is the Creator, why is it an incredible thing to believe that he can raise the dead? (Acts 26:8, Paul to Agrippa.) It is not incredible. It is unacceptable only to the one who has already rejected the God of the Bible and the Lord of creation.

Thomas Jefferson, along with George Washington and other founders of our nation, were deists. That is, they promoted natural reason above revelation. God does not interrupt the natural laws put into place. He created the world and now keeps his distance from it. The world continues only by laws of nature. This is the worldview of deists.

2) Understand the nature of unbelief. Unbelief is a free choice that a person makes. No one can be forced to believe. Notice that the Bible does not seek to force faith upon anyone. It simply presents the evidence that produces faith in a willing person. "He that wills to do my will shall know of the doctrine, whether it is from God or whether I speak of myself." (John 7:17.)

The rich man thought that his five brothers would believe if someone arose from the dead to warn them. Abraham said, "If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one arose from the dead." (Luke 16:31.) This is the true nature of unbelief. It does not change its mind when more evidence if presented. Remember that Someone has already been raised from the dead, and yet there are unbelievers.

If a person chooses to not believe, then nothing will convince him. The same evidence is before all of us. Some believe; others do not. It is a free choice; each must decide. What God has given to produce faith is sufficient. (Romans 10:17.) Since the evidence is sufficient, God will not give any more evidence.

3) Understand the nature of faith. Faith means that you trust God. It means that you know enough about yourself to know that you cannot direct your own pathway. (Jer. 10:23.) It means that you accept the evidence presented by the eye and ear-witnesses of Scripture. It means that you accept the redemption offered through the life of Jesus who is God's Son.

Faith does not mean: a) That you understand everything about God and the Bible. b) That you have all faith without any doubts. "Lord, I believe but help thou my unbelief," said the father. (Mark 9:24.) We all have areas of doubt. Only when you face your doubts will your faith be able to grow. c) That you must leave your mind behind. We should continue to think, accept and reject what does not seem rational.

What are the arguments against the concept that the dead have been raised and will be raised from the dead?? Here is a summary:

1) Nothing happens contrary to nature.

a) Is nature able to restrain God from acting in His world?

b) There is no such restraint in Scripture that God cannot act.

c) All things are divine---nature, providence, miracles.

d) Tell the story by Wayne Jackson about the tomb in Hannover, Germany, with the inscription, "This grave is purchased for eternity: It shall never be opened." (Reason & Revelation, August 1985, vol. 5, no. 8, 32.)

2) Biblical miracles are natural events. They just appear to be miraculous or the metaphorical language used misleads people who interpret them literally.

a) Some have sought to make the whole Bible metaphorical. Some examples are: The pall-bearers carrying the widow of Nain's son represented the Law which produces death. Jesus had power over the Law. The dead son represented man dead in sin.

b) The context should determine if something is metaphorical. What does the cleansing of the lepers represent, healing the deaf, casting our demons, raising the dead? Do they each mean something differently? Are none of these deeds literal?

3) Witnesses are not sufficient---not men of good sense and integrity to be followed or believed.

a) The deeds were done during the time of the greatest civilization to date, the Roman Empire, and in the midst of Jerusalem.

b) Nothing was done in secret. Only two miracles out of more than three dozen recorded miracles by Jesus were done in private.

c) The witnesses were numerous. Saul of Tarsus did not want to see the resurrected Christ on the road to Damascus. He was going there to arrest Christians.

4) People crave the miraculous and tend to believe absurd stories.

a) Some people probably do. Is that so of all the many witnesses of the miracles of Jesus?

b) We do need to be discerning and cautious about what we accept.

5) All religions claim some miracles. Which ones are true?

a) Other world religions are not built upon miracles. Christianity stands upon the fact of God's existence and ability to act in His world.

b) Many others who make false claims quickly fade away into the background, but not Christianity. All the miracles fit in the context of human existence and need. Will man live again? This is a valid question.

6) Our experience is contrary to a belief in miracles.

a) Miracles did not and do not happen every day. They cluster around the beginning of new eras in Scripture.

b) What about the experience of the thousands who saw the miracles of Jesus? They would not argue that their experience argues against miracles.