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Session 5: The Christ Rises from the Dead

 

Intro and Recap:

  1. We saw over sessions 2-4 that the eternal King of the universe would also suffer and die for our sins.  The Christ had to be our Guilt Offering.  Today we’re going to look at the fact that the Christ wouldn’t stay dead.  He had to be resurrected.
  3. But before we look at what that means, does anyone have questions from the homework?  Any questions from Luke 20-23?

 

The Christ had to be raised from the dead:

  1. Now we looked in Session 2 at the promised Christ.  He’s the man who will rule the whole world forever.  But last week we saw that this same man had to die.  Did you notice the problem:  How can someone rule forever, if they are going to die?
  3. There’s only one possible answer:  It’s clear that the Christ will have to rise from the dead, to begin his eternal rule.  What’s more, he will have to rise with a body that cannot die.  Because anyone who will rule forever must also live forever.  Since the Christ will rule forever, he must rise from the dead and then rule forever.  One way to say this is that the Christ had to be resurrected.  So what we are going to look at now is some of the bible’s teaching on resurrection.
  5. What is a resurrection?
  1. The passage we will read is Daniel 12:2-3.  The author, Daniel, was living and writing around 600-550 BC.

2 Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt. 3 Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever.

 

  1. Here is the idea of resurrection: it’s the teaching that one day there will be a judgment.  At this judgment, everyone will come back from the dead.  Everyone will then live forever in some sense.  But some will have ‘life forever’, while others have ‘shame forever’.  This is another way to speak of ‘heaven’ and ‘hell’.  This day when the dead rise is called ‘the resurrection’ in the bible.  So the idea of ‘resurrection’ isn’t first about Jesus.  It is firstly an idea about the judgment day for everyone.  Lets’ read Luke 14:13 to see how the bible speaks about the resurrection:

13 But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, 14 and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous."

 

  1. This passage speaks of the resurrection, but it’s not talking about Jesus.  The resurrection is not just about Jesus, it’s about all the righteous.  It’s about all those who might have a banquet and invite the poor.  The resurrection is everyone’s judgment day.

 

The Christ will likely rise from the dead quickly:

  1. So what about the Christ – if he has to rule forever, when will he get this immortal body that he needs for his immortal reign?  We discover in Psalm 16 that the Christ will likely be resurrected before everyone else.  The passage is Psalm 16:8-10.  King David is writing, and the date is around 1000BC:

I have set the LORD always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. 9 Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure, 10 because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay.

 

  1. In verse 10, David speaks about his confidence for the future.  The first thing he says is that he won’t be abandoned to the grave - he knows that he will not stay dead forever.  The second thing he says is similar, but adds something more.  He speaks about God’s ‘Holy One’.  That’s another way of speaking of the Christ, the Messiah.  David says that God won’t let his ‘Holy One’ see decay.  The Christ won’t rot in the ground.
  3. But we’ve seen in previous sessions that the Christ has to die.  So here’s the thing:  Unless God does some miracle [and stops the dead Christ’s body from decaying in the ground], the Christ can’t stay dead long.  If he did stay dead too long, his body would rot.  And that’s what David said won’t happen – God won’t let the Christ’s body rot.  So we expect that after the Christ dies, he will rise from the dead quickly.

 

The Third Day pattern in the Old Testament -

'Climactic reversal from death to life'

 

  1. But we can say more about the timing of the Christ’s resurrection.  In the Old Testament stories, the ‘third day’ is a day with some surprising patterns.  The first surprise is how often ‘the third day’ time stamp is mentioned.  There are 69 references to ‘third day’ or ‘three days’ in the Old Testament. [1]   By comparison, there are only 14 references to ‘two days’ or ‘second day’. There are only 8 references to ‘fourth day’ or ‘four days’.  So the Old Testament makes a lot of ‘three days’, and ‘the third day’.  We can conclude that something is being communicated.  The day contains special meaning.  But what is that meaning?
  3. We can see the meaning by looking at the pattern of events on the third day.  There are fourteen passages in the stories of the Old Testament which use the phrase ‘on the third day’.  Of these, nine stories have a person saved from death that third day. [2]   This is surprisingly high.  Compare this sample with the twenty-four passages where the Old Testament speaks of ‘the next day’. [3]   Only 2 out of 24 passages on the ‘next day’ have such an event, where a person is saved from death.  This is much less than 9 out of 14 on the third day.
  5. Our point is that the careful reader can notice a special theme in ‘the third day’ stories.  This pattern is the ‘climactic reversal from death to life’.
  7. Let’s read a story to get the idea.  Consider this story in Genesis 22:1-19:  It’s a story from Abraham’s lifetime, around 2000 BC.

NIV Genesis 22:1 Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, "Abraham!" "Here I am," he replied. 2 Then God said, "Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about." 3 Early the next morning Abraham got up and saddled his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about. 4 On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. 5 He said to his servants, "Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you." 6 Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, 7 Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, "Father?" "Yes, my son?" Abraham replied. "The fire and wood are here," Isaac said, "but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?" 8 Abraham answered, "God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son." And the two of them went on together. 9 When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 10 Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. 11 But the angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven, "Abraham! Abraham!" "Here I am," he replied. 12 "Do not lay a hand on the boy," he said. "Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son." 13 Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 So Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide. And to this day it is said, "On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided." 15 The angel of the LORD called to Abraham from heaven a second time 16 and said, "I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17 I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, 18 and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me."

 

  1. In this story, the third day was the day when God Abraham was to kill Isaac.  God had decreed Isaac’s death, so Isaac was as good as dead.  Yet, in the climax to the story, Isaac’s life is spared on the third day.  It is a reversal from life to death on the third day.
  3. A shorter story occurs in 2 Kings 20.  This story comes from around the year 710 BC.

NIV 2 Kings 20:1 In those days Hezekiah became ill and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz went to him and said, "This is what the LORD says: Put your house in order, because you are going to die; you will not recover." 2 Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD, 3 "Remember, O LORD, how I have walked before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes." And Hezekiah wept bitterly. 4 Before Isaiah had left the middle court, the word of the LORD came to him: 5 "Go back and tell Hezekiah, the leader of my people, 'This is what the LORD, the God of your father David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will heal you. On the third day from now you will go up to the temple of the LORD. 6 I will add fifteen years to your life. And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria . I will defend this city for my sake and for the sake of my servant David.'"

 

  1. Hezekiah had been told by God that he would die.  Yet in a great climax, on the third day he is well enough to go to the temple.
  3. There is another passage in the Old Testament which links the resurrection of the dead with the third day.  This passage is not a story, but a predictive prophecy.  The passage is Hosea 6:2, and was written around 730 BC. [4]

ESV Hosea 6:1 "Come, let us return to the LORD; for he has torn us, that he may heal us; he has struck us down, and he will bind us up. 2 After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him.

 

  1. The passage is a poem.  The first half of each line is preliminary; the second half is the climactic prediction for the future.  For example, ‘he has torn us’ is preliminary, a statement of the past.  But ‘that he may heal us’ is the climactic prediction for the future.  Just so, in verse two, ‘after two days he will revive us’ is preliminary.  ‘On the third day he will raise us up’ is the climactic prediction for the future.  So the third day is predicted to be a day of raising up.
  3. We do not have time to cover all the stories in question.  The point is that the Old Testament points to the third day as a day of climactic reversal from death to life.

 

The Old Testament strongly suggestts that the Christ had to rise from the dead on the third day:

 

  1. With this ‘third day’ pattern in mind, we can return to the resurrection of the Christ.  We know that the Christ must be raised with a resurrection body, so that he can reign forever.  We know it is likely that he will be raised quickly (as we saw above).  Now we add the pattern we have seen regarding the third day. 
  3. Together, this leads us to a suggestion which the Old Testament makes about the Christ.  The Old Testament strongly hints that the Christ will be raised on the third day.  And this is what in fact happened.

 

Jesus was raised from the dead on the third day:

 

  1. Let’s finish by reading how Jesus was historically raised on the third day.  It’s in Luke 23:54-24:8.

NIV Luke 23:54 It was Pr eparation Day, and the Sabbath was about to begin. 55 The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph and saw the tomb and how his body was laid in it. 56 Then they went home and prepared spices and perfumes. But they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment.

24:1 On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. 2 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 wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. 5 In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, "Why do you look for the living among the dead? 6 He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee : 7 'The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.'" 8 Then they remembered his words.

 

  1. Notice that it was the third day when Jesus was raised.  The Jewish day started at sunset.  So the Preparation Day was the first day ( 23:54 ).  The Sabbath (Saturday) was the second day, and they rested ( 23:56 ).  He was raised Saturday night (the third day), so that on the Sunday morning the stone was rolled away (24:2).  Jesus had been raised on the third day, in accordance with the Scriptures.  The implication is that now Jesus will be King of the universe forever.  He is now the king of the world forever, because he cannot die again.  So the big question is - will we accept Jesus as our king?
  3. Any questions? The homework for this week is to finish reading Luke’s gospel.
  5. We’ve seen in this session a key teaching of the Old Testament:  The Christ will rise from the dead on the third day as the king of the world forever.

 

Appendix A to Session 5

Appendix B to Session 5

 

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