TOPIC:"The Message That Changed the World"
by Rev. Dr. Reg Dunlap
TEXT:Matthew 28:1-10
"And go quickly, and tell His disciples that He is risen from the dead"
(Matthew 28:7)
At the beginning of this message let me underscore this important fact: According to the New Testament Easter is more than an event to be celebrated once a year, it is a message to be proclaimed each day of our lives. For the Christians of the first century the message of Christ's resurrection had to be announced to all people. So they went everywhere telling it. Notice the urgency of getting the Easter message out: "And go quickly, and tell." And notice the words in verse 8: "And they departed quickly...and did run to bring His disciples word."
So the resurrection message of Christ started and spread throughout Palestine, and eventually, across the entire Roman Empire. Those early disciples believed it, proclaimed it, and died defending it. It was indeed a message that changed the world. Let us now take a closer look at this Easter message of the first century and how it relates to living in the twenty-first century.
I.
Consider, to begin with, that the message that changed the world is the message that Christ is ALIVE. That is a FACT. Not dead, but alive. Alive at this very moment. We read in verse 7 these words: "And go quickly, and tell His disciples that He is risen from the dead." Notice the words of verse 6: "He is not here; for He is risen." Then notice the greatest past tense of all history: "Come, see the place where the Lord lay" (v. 6).
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is not an invented theory, but an established fact. It is a confirmed truth rooted indestructively in history. It is a verifiable fact that can be substantiated. The truth of Christ's resurrection may be denied, doubted, debated, and disputed, but it is an eternal fact authenticated by many reliable witnesses who willingly and sacrificially went to their deaths believing it.
There is no doubt as to the fact that Jesus Christ was a real person who lived in Palestine centuries ago. He was not a legend, myth, a figment of the imagination, or some fictitious character out of a religious book. Christ is an irrefutable fact who emerged in history at a given time and a given place. His birth, His life, His works, His teachings, His sufferings, His miracles, His death - all belong to a body of facts set forth by Josephus, the early Jewish historian, who wrote about it in his Antiquities about Christ.
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