Speaker: Pastor H. Biakson
Topic: You are witnesses of these things.
Bible verses: John 11:38-44 | Luke 24:44-48
I wish you all a very happy resurrection day in the name of our Lord and saviour Jesus Christ. Today we will talk about how our Lord Jesus Christ really rose again and how we can be the witnesses.
After his resurrection, Jesus appeared to different people - Mary Magdalene, Peter, three women, travellers on the road to Emmau, the twelve disciples and to Thomas. They found it hard to believe that it was indeed Jesus himself, until He showed them the marks on his hands. Like the disciples not believing Him when they first saw Jesus, we may be very stubborn to believe Him, yet He is humble and ready to take further steps for us to help our unbelief.
There were many controversies surrounding the resurrection. The Roman army did not want to believe that Jesus will rise again, so the tomb was strictly guarded. They took all the measures to not let Jesus rise again, but what the Lord had said was still happened. No obstruction could come in the Lord’s way.
Indeed, the Lord has risen! It was the fulfilment of the Scripture which was written in the books of Psalm, Isaiah, Zachariah, and Job. Jesus himself told in parables that He will destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days. Then Judas did not believe Him and question as to how he would build a temple in three days when it took forty-six year to complete it. But Jesus was only talking about the temple which was his own body. Even though it was written and foretold that Jesus will die and rise again on the third day, people still could not believe it, even his disciples.
So, when Jesus was risen, his tomb was empty, his body gone, his burial cloth was folded. People could not still believe and made up stories saying:
- The disciples took away his body, which was impossible as the tomb was guarded under strict security. Moreover, the tombstone was so heavy which could not be easily moved.
- The authorities took away the body. If this was real, they would want to show the dead body to people to prove themselves.
- The wrong tomb was visited by Mary Magdalene. This was impossible again as she called others to see the tomb. If it had been the wrong tomb, the others would have recognized it.
- It was due to hallucination. But a group of people cannot hallucinate together and see the same thing.
- Swoon Theory, which says that Jesus was only unconscious. When people who were hanged on the cross during that period of time, they would make sure that the person was definitely dead, and their bodies were not taken down for as long as they were alive. If they didn’t die soon, then their leg bones were broken so that they would lose support and finally be hanged to death anyway. But Jesus did die, so they didn’t even need to break his leg bones.
The soldiers knew that Jesus rose again, but they were hugely bribed to say that His body was stolen by the disciples while they were asleep. They might have been many false stories about the resurrection, but the truth prevails, the living testimony cannot be hidden.
The most powerful witness of the resurrection is the Changed Life. When we see Jesus clearly, everything changes. The disciple’s lives changed after the resurrection When the Holy Spirit came to them in Jerusalem, all the disciples were changed totally, unlike the night when Jesus was arrested. Peter, who had betrayed Jesus before the resurrection, was totally changed after he saw clearly the risen Christ. Paul who was dedicated to persecuting Jesus, too, was changed completely after he met Jesus on the road to Damascus.
May we, the youth, also experience the same kind of change in our lives through by meeting Jesus Christ, and show the same in our lives. May we be witnesses of this resurrection and live out this changed life.
