THE FIRST GOSPEL SERMON (3)

The first gospel sermon was made up of three main points: the perfect life of Jesus, the death of Jesus on the cross, and the resurrection of Jesus from the tomb. So the three point sermon is biblical (he said with a laugh).

The third major point that Peter made about Jesus, in that first gospel sermon ever preached, is that God raised him from the dead. “God hath raised him from the dead, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it” (Acts 2:24). The gospel of Jesus Christ includes his resurrection.

Do I really believe that Jesus was resurrected bodily from the grave? I believe it as much as I believe I am writing this article. There is zero doubt in my mind that Jesus came back from the grave. The evidence is overwhelming, first of all. Check out my article on the power of eyewitness testimony in the matter called “The Twelve Apostles and the Resurrection of Christ.” But there are other reasons that we could discuss as proof of the resurrection. The empty tomb. The missing body. But there is a point that is far more powerful than even those.

The impact that Jesus has made on the lives of men and women, and the world itself, is, to me, the most powerful evidence for his resurrection. The hope that he gives. The free gift of salvation that he offers. It’s all too powerful to deny. There have been other stories of “heroes” who came back from the grave. You know that. But this story teaches that Jesus was raised from the dead as God’s paid-in-full receipt for our sins. Human religions emphasize human achievements. The religion of Christianity has divine portraits fingerprints all over it, one of which is the fact that a perfect man had to die for us in order for us to be saved. And yet the only way that we could know that worked is because the resurrection says it worked.

You can’t preach Jesus without preaching the resurrection. Not the true Jesus. The resurrection proves that he is the Son of God (Romans 1:4). And the resurrection proves that our sins have been paid for and we are saved. He went to the cross because of our sins, but he was raised because we have been saved by his death (Romans 4:25).

Dewayne Dunaway