“Preaching on Christ - The Sovereign Servant”
TOPIC:“Christ - His Victorious Resurrection”
by Rev. Dr. Reg Dunlap
TEXT:Acts 2:32
“God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact.”
The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is the cornerstone of the Christian faith and the crowning event in the life of Jesus. The very foundation of Christianity stands or falls on this truth. Christianity must have an Easter in it to make it different from all other religions. Though it is debated by some and doubted by others, to those of us who have encountered the risen Christ by faith, we accept it without reservation as an historical fact.
The overwhelming evidence for it from the Word of God makes it a doctrine intellectually respectable to believe as actually taken place. Christ's resurrection is not an ARGUMENT to be DEBATED, but an ANNOUNCEMENT to be DECLARED. The fact of His vicious death is completely counterbalanced by the fact of His victorious resurrection. The crushing hope of man came to life by the conquering hand of God. We worship a living Christ!
I.
Let us consider, first of all, the PROPHECY of Christ's resurrection. Notice the words of Peter in verse 27 as he quotes from a Psalm written by David: “You will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One to see decay.” David was not writing about himself in this Psalm but was making a prophecy about Christ.
In the Old Testament itself the resurrection of Christ is predicted by the patriarchs, proclaimed by the prophets and promised in the Psalms. Listen to the hopeful words of Job: “For I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth” (Job 19:25). What ringing confidence! What tremendous faith! Here Job became one of the first of the patriarchs to mention the future resurrection of Christ the Redeemer.
As we come to the New Testament Jesus predicted His own resurrection from the dead. He taught in plain language the divine necessity of coming back to life again. At the beginning of His ministry Jesus said: “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days” (John 2:19). To His disciples Christ said: “The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men. They will kill him, and on the third day he will be raised to life” (Matthew 17:22). It is inconceivable that Jesus would have predicted His resurrection from the dead if it was not going to happen. He staked His reputation . . .