John K. Jenkins Sr - The Validity of The Resurrection

I must talk about this with you all this morning because if Jesus was hung on the cross and died, he would be categorized with everybody else, as many folks went to a cross and died. He was not the first nor the last to be crucified; however, what he did that was so much different from everybody else was that he conquered death eternally. When he got up out of the grave, he conquered death. Now, there are other people in the Bible who were resurrected; you can find at least eight or nine other resurrections in the Scriptures of people who were raised from the dead. The problem, though, is that they were raised from the dead but then died again. The distinction is that Jesus died, was resurrected, and stayed alive. Somebody say that puts him in a category that differs from everybody else; that puts him heads and shoulders above the rest, marking him as a special person. What Paul is trying to communicate to the Corinthian Church, and what I’m trying to communicate to you today, is that if you take the resurrection out of the Scriptures, if you remove the resurrection of Jesus from the word, then everything crumbles, and our lives are messed up. So I thought for a few moments we would take a moment to look at this. I wanted to discuss it because so many of us say we believe that Jesus rose from the dead. We are voicing that, but the reality is it’s not reflected in our lives. Let me roll that back and give it to you again: if, in fact, Jesus was raised from the dead and you say you believe in that, my question then is, why is that not reflected as a regular part of your lifestyle? You are in a dangerous position and posture if you are denying the lordship of Jesus. See, Jesus is one of three things: he’s either a liar, a lunatic, or Lord. He’s either the biggest liar who ever lived, or he’s a lunatic-a crazy person going around telling everybody he’s God-or he is, in fact, the Lord of lords and King of kings, and everything he said is true. I don’t know where you all are, but I choose, by the very core of my being, to embrace and accept Jesus as Lord of lords. I choose-I, nobody backed me up, nobody made me do it-I choose to embrace him as Lord. I choose to believe that he is the Lord of lords and King of kings, and you’re in a dangerous posture if you are denying the lordship of Jesus. In verse 12, Paul raises an ever-important question. He says, «If it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how is it and why is it that some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?» Why could you say that, in essence, he did not get up out of the grave? That, my friends, is a critical question. If Jesus died and was raised from the dead, why is it not reflected in your life, your choices, and your behavior? If you say you believe it, why is it not reflected in your language, your attitude, your actions, your friendships, the way you spend your money, and the way you treat other people? Go on and preach, Pastor; they aren 't going to say anything. The truth of the matter is Jesus is either who he said he is or he is not. If you say you believe he is who he said he is, then I think somebody better examine and crank it up a few notches and take your level of obedience and commitment to God to another plateau. I thought I ought to talk about it today because some of our lifestyles seem to demonstrate and suggest that we don’t believe that Jesus got up out of the grave. If we’re going to embrace the resurrection of Jesus-and I believe that the fact that you got up and came to church today is some indication that you have some level of belief in Jesus-I’m simply saying let’s put some weight behind the validity of the fact of his resurrection. I’m trying to tell you it’s a valid resurrection. The word «valid» means it’s sound, it’s just, it’s well-founded, it’s effective, and it’s genuine. The validity of his resurrection is what I want to discuss. I want to walk through this 15th chapter; I don’t have time to cover it all, but I want to break it down into three areas that help to bring about the validity of his resurrection. It’s a valid resurrection; somebody say it’s valid. Pastor, how do you know it’s valid? You were not there; you didn’t see it; you’re going by what you heard other folks say. How do you know it’s valid? Well, I have three things to tell you and prove to you from Paul’s writings that validate his resurrection. What are those three things? Here 's number one: first of all, there are witnesses to his resurrection. Somebody say «witnesses.» There are witnesses to his resurrection, and in verses 5-8, we see these witnesses. In verse 5, it says that he was seen by Cephas- there’s the first name mentioned, Cephas, also called Peter-who saw him with his own eyes. He was seen by Cephas, and then it says by the twelve. Then, by the twelve disciples, they saw him