The King is Alive
by Pastor Shannon Pinto
INTRODUCTION:
Today believers, followers and worshipers of Jesus Christ remember and celebrate with utmost delight His resurrection. Resurrection Sunday we believe is the day that 2000 years ago Jesus Christ rose from the dead bodily three days after He was crucified. For us it means that all the Jesus said, did and promised is true. And all of God’s promises are true. What God says He fulfills.
Luke 24
But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared. 2 And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3 but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4 While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men suddenly stood near them in dazzling clothing; 5 and as the women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, the mensaid to them, “Why do you seek the living One among the dead? 6 He is not here, but He has [a]risen. Remember how He spoke to you while He was still in Galilee, 7 saying that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.”8 And they remembered His words, 9 and returned from the tomb and reported all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. 10 Now they were Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James; also the other women with them were telling these things to the apostles.11 But these words appeared [b]to them as nonsense, and they would not believe them. 12 But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he *saw the linen wrappings [c]only; and he went away to his home, marveling at what had happened.
Consider for a moment what mankind has accomplished. We’ve built spaceships that can leave our solar system. We’ve transplanted hearts into week-old babies. We’ve computerized everything from architecture to zoology. We’ve made tremendous progress in many areas of life.
Then why go backward? Why step 2,000 years into history to put our faith in an event that violates the laws of science? Can educated people living in the 21st century be convinced that Jesus really did come back from the dead? Many say no. They feel we have progressed too far to consider the resurrection of Jesus to be an authentic historical event.
Time would not permit me to fulfill explore and explain the details of the historicity of this amazing event of singular and primary importance in the history of mankind.
What does the Resurrection of Jesus mean?
THE KING IS TRUE
The Bible makes this fact clear that Jesus was frequently accused of being an impostor e.g. demon possessed, a false teacher, a sinner, a glutton and even an impostor.
It is interesting to read the lives of the top impostors the world has seen. Known as “the man who sold the Eiffel Tower”, Victor Lustig was one of the most talented confidence tricksters who ever lived. Born in 1890 in Bohemia, Czechoslovakia, he was a glib and a charming conman, fluent in multiple languages. He established himself by working scams on the ocean liners steaming between Paris and New York City. Lustig’s first con involved a “money-printing machine”. He would demonstrate the capability of the small box to clients, all the while lamenting that it took the device six hours to copy a $100 bill. The gullible clients, sensing huge profits, would buy the machines for a high price, usually over $30,000. Over the next twelve hours, the machine would produce two more $100 bills. After that, it produced only blank paper, as its supply of $100 bills became exhausted. By the time the clients realized that they had been scammed, Lustig was long gone.
In 1925, Lustig’s master con began when he was reading a newspaper: an article discussed the problems the city was having maintaining the Eiffel Tower. So he adopted the persona of a government official, and sent six scrap metal dealers an invitation to discuss a possible business deal. Lustig told the group that the upkeep on the Eiffel Tower was so outrageous that the city could not maintain it any longer, and wanted to sell it for scrap. So he sold the Eiffel Tower to one of the scrap metal dealers and took a train to Vienna with the suitcase full of cash. The buyer was too humiliated to even complain to the police.
Later, Lustig even managed to cheat renowned gangster Al Capone. On 1907, Lustig arrived to the United States and conducted a number of scams, but eventually his luck ran out: he was arrested for counterfeiting and sent to Alcatraz prison. On March 9, 1947, he contracted pneumonia and died two days later.
To be a fraud or an impostor, one can say and do what they want about anything and get away with most of it for some time though rarely all of all the time.
But you can’t say “I’m going to rise from the dead” and get away with that easily when you are in a land surrounded by religious experts who are waiting for you to make a single mistake in what you say and do. Further to that in a land that was aggressively controlled by the worlds’ most disciplined and brutal armies of the Roman Empire.
Truth is not negotiable. Historical statements of fact are not open to question. When we read, for example, the battle of Panipat, we are obligated to believe it. Although none of us observed the war personally, what we know about it is supported by the written testimony of those who were there and by the scholarship of later inquirers who studied the War. The written accounts may differ on a few minor details, but we know that we can trust the record of the historians.
In a historical sense, I dare say, the resurrection stands on ground that is more solid than the records of the battle of Panipat or any other historical event recorded. Reliable witnesses wrote about meeting and talking with Jesus after His death. Skeptical enemies noticed His disappearance from the tomb. Extra-biblical, historical reports were given of His resurrection. Eyewitnesses of Jesus’ post-death appearances died defending their belief in it.
“The Christian Savior had lived and associated with men whose minds and senses apprehended His person, acts, and character. These witnesses had transmitted their knowledge directly, and they had testified to the life of Jesus Christ and His teaching. Jesus was then a historical, not a mythical, being.” Clifford Moore
Even so, some still don’t believe. To make that refusal, a person must not only reject the eyewitness accounts and the circumstantial evidence, but he must make an even greater leap. The person who thinks that the resurrection is a fraud or a hoax must reject the entire Bible. There can be no picking and choosing. If the resurrection is a hoax, then so is the New Testament and everything Jesus said or did. Claiming that Christ was a great teacher or a prophet—as even most unbelievers attest—while rejecting His resurrection is an impossible position. Consider what Jesus said during His ministry— before the crucifixion:
The Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day (Luke 9:22).
For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth (Matthew 12:40).
Think about it. Wouldn’t we consider a man who made such wild claims to be not only untrustworthy but crazy if he couldn’t follow through on his predictions? Instead of calling such a person a great teacher, wouldn’t we call him a charlatan and a threat to mankind? There can be no middle ground. If Jesus did not do what He said He would do, He must be rejected completely. And along with Him go the Old Testament (because of its predictions of the Messiah’s coming), the trustworthiness of Paul (who converted to Christ at the cost of beatings, imprisonments, and banishment from his former colleagues), and 2,000 years of church history (which rests solely on the resurrection).
Study and you will understand why both secular and religious scholars find Jesus to be a uniquely captivating, historical person.
Former presidential counsel Charles Colson tells how his Watergate experience can be used to support the testimony of the first-century men who said they saw the resurrected Jesus.
How do we know that Jesus was resurrected? We have the eyewitness accounts of the 11 apostles who were with Him and, of course, the apostle Paul who saw Him. They were with Him before His crucifixion and for the 40 days between His resurrection and His ascension. They lived for as long as 40 years thereafter, never once denying that they had seen Jesus raised from the dead.
What does that have to do with Watergate? I’ll tell you. In June 1972, I was home on a weekend with my wife and children. We had a few days off because President Nixon was in Key Biscayne, Florida. My phone that was connected to the White House rang. It was John Erlichmann. He told me that some burglars had broken into the Democratic National Headquarters in Washington. I started laughing hysterically because I thought to myself, “Of all the ridiculous places for anybody to break into in Washington, DC.”
I went away from that phone call shaking my head and feeling a little despair. I thought, “Now we have a campaign issue, but it will go away after the election.” Well, as you know, it didn’t!
The log showed that in the months immediately following the 1972 election, I was with President Nixon more than any other aide. Watergate never came up. We first started to discuss it in February 1973, when the Ervin hearings started. On March 21, 1973, John Dean walked into the Oval Office and said, “Mr. President, there is a cancer growing on your presidency.” That’s the first time the President really knew there was a conspiracy in the White House. That’s the first time it became a criminal act inside the White House.
John Dean’s memoirs record that 3 days after that meeting in the Oval Office he began to get nervous about his own role. That’s when he hired a lawyer. On April 8, Dean went to the prosecutors to bargain for immunity so that he would not be prosecuted. In turn, he would testify against the President. Later, he said, “I did it to save my own skin.” When he went to the prosecutors to bargain for immunity, it was all over.
Then the other aides started to go in. I took a lie detector test, and my lawyers leaked it to the New York Times. Everybody started to scramble for cover. The Watergate cover-up was actually over because Mr. Nixon’s presidency was doomed. Now, if you stop and figure it out, you will see that the Watergate cover-up actually lasted 3 weeks or less—from March 21 to April 8, 1973.
Now put yourself in our position. Here we were, the 12 most powerful men in the United States . All the power of government was at our fingertips, but we could not keep a lie together for 3 weeks. The most powerful men in the world could not hold on to a lie. So weak is man that we couldn’t do it.
Are you going to tell me that those powerless apostles who were outcasts in their own land could be stoned, persecuted, and beaten, some for 40 years, never once denying that Jesus was raised from the dead? Impossible, humanly impossible—unless they had seen the risen Christ face to face. Otherwise, the apostle Peter would have been just another John Dean. He’d have gone in to turn state’s evidence. Is it likely, then, that a deliberate cover up, a plot to perpetuate a lie about the resurrection, could have survived the persecution of the apostles and the purge of the first-century believers who were cast by the thousands to the lions for refusing to renounce Christ? Is it not probable that at least one apostle would have “confessed” rather than being beheaded or stoned? Is it not likely that some “smoking gun” document might have been produced exposing the “Passover plot”? Surely one of the conspirators would have made a deal.
If Jesus was raised from the dead, as I am absolutely, intellectually positive that He was—and the evidence of history is overwhelming—it’s not only a matter of faith but a matter of deepest intellectual conviction and of the greatest consequence for mankind.
THIS KING IS ALL POWERFUL
He taught what no one else did ever
He taught like no one else ever
He did works that no one else ever
THIS KING IS GOOD
For He came to this earth , lived, suffered dies and rose again for us sinful men and women
Matthew 20:28
just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His [a]life a ransom for many.”
THIS KING IS SURELY GOING TO COME AGAIN
This King Jesus rose from the dead 2000 years ago....what does it mean for us now in the 21st century.
It means for everyone (the ones who believe and one who don’t) the clock is ticking faster...faster....because there was one more thing He said before He left the face of the earth to go back to the Father. He said, “He is coming back again to this earth”
One often overlooked aspect of the resurrection of Jesus is how it signals that the time is short. Easter tells us that history now is beeping more and more rapidly, calling for our repentance. The nations soon will be a footstool for the feet of the Son (Psalm 110:1). They, and each of us, should kiss the Son and take refuge in him before it is too late (Psalm 2:12).
Today I Have Begotten You
The refrain of resurrection returns many times in the Psalms, but it makes its first appearance in Psalm 2. Do you hear the refrain?
I will tell of the decree:
The Lord said to me, “You are my Son;
today I have begotten you.” (Psalm 2:7)
The today of Psalm 2:7 is Easter Sunday. It is as if the psalmist sings, “Christ the Lord is risen today.” How do we know that the today of Psalm 2 is the same day as Easter Sunday? Listen to the apostle Paul preach and apply Psalm 2
As It Is Written
Acts 13 is the clearest text that establishes the connection between the resurrection of Jesus and the today of Psalm 2. There, Paul preaches the good news of the gospel, from the Old Testament Scriptures, to unbelieving Jews. He declares that God raised Jesus from the dead in fulfillment of the promise to the fathers. What text will he choose to prove it?
We bring you the good news that what God promised to the fathers, this he has fulfilled to us their children by raising Jesus, as also it is written in the second Psalm,
“You are my Son,
today I have begotten you.” (Acts 13:32–33)
Paul’s sermon ought to provoke some pondering on our part. How could the psalmist say that there is a day (“today”) that Jesus was declared the Son of God (“You are my Son”)? The eternal Son of God never had a beginning; there was never a moment when he suddenly came into existence and God the Father declared him to be his Son. This text, however, seems to say that there was a moment when God the Father made a sonship declaration.
Declared to Be King
At the start of Romans, Paul unpacks the good news of God’s Son (Romans 1:1–3). He highlights the greatness of the Son of God from two different vantage points — his earthly life (as a descendant of David according to the flesh) and his resurrected life:
[He] was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 1:4)
When was the eternal Son of God declared to be the Son of God in power? Answer: “by his resurrection from the dead.” This declaration is a moment of enthronement because he is the Son of God “in power.” This phrase in powe ris related to the first phrase “descended from David.” He fulfills the promise of the royal Son of David who would rule on Jerusalem’s throne in power. The moment of fulfillment is the resurrection.
Tale of Two Thrones
This New Testament reality of the Son of God’s enthronement resolves a perplexing tension in the Old Testament. God is King — his dwelling place is in heaven. But he also said that his dwelling place was in the temple in Jerusalem. And there was a throne there too — a human king descended from David would sit on that throne. The kings of Israel often rebelled against God’s rule. Therefore, the King of the universe often had to judge the king of Israel. How and when would those two thrones ever come together and reign as one?
Answer: the resurrection and ascension of Jesus. Jesus took his seat on the throne promised to David’s Son. Where is that throne? The earthly David had a throne in the earthly Zion (Jerusalem), but great David’s greater Son has a throne in the heavenly Zion. Because Jesus is risen and cannot die, the heavenly throne is filled forever (Hebrews 1:1–5).
Advance Warning
What is the Easter lesson for us in Psalm 2? The nations urgently need to hear heaven’s decree: Jesus is risen. Psalm 2 calls all nations, and all rulers, to stop raging (Psalm 2:1–3) and start repenting (Psalm 2:10–12). Why? God has installed his resurrected king on the throne of the universe.
The resurrection is the advance warning that judgment is coming. The King has been raised. The rebellion failed. The resurrection changes everything. Since the Son rose from the dead, history is now racing toward judgment, like a freight train with a full head of steam.
Paul makes the same point in Acts 17. The resurrection has happened. “The times of ignorance” have ended, and the time for repentance has come:
The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead. (Acts 17:30–31)
The resurrection, among other things, is the assurance that God means business. Judgment is coming. Let all peoples be warned. And let those who have bowed to the Son “rejoice with trembling,” for “blessed are all who take refuge in him” (Psalm 2:11–12).