The Resurrection of Jesus Christ – John 20:1-31

In no single area does Satan try so hard to provoke misunderstanding in religious people as in the doctrine
of the resurrection. If he can’t get man to laugh at the whole idea, he will then try to get him to spiritualize
it which is exactly the same thing. Christ’s spirit did not die. He commended it to God, not the grave. He
gave up the spirit. It left the body, but it was obviously the body which died, not the spirit. So to deny bodily
resurrection is to deny the resurrection all together. This denial is Satan’s greatest goal. Why? Because if
Christ be not raised, we are yet in our sins, right where Satan wants us.

THE RESURRECTION WAS BODILY

There is a trick of the Devil today of trying to confess the resurrection but to deny that it was bodily. Consider
the prool aganist such heresy.
A. Only the body died, (Luke 23:43,46). Therefore, only the body could revive.
B. The angels knew it was his body for which the women searched, so it was obviously the body which they
told them had risen. (Luke 24:2-6). Were they there to anoint a spirit?
C. Throughout all the New Testament accounts of the resurrection, it is the absence of the body that was
claimed as evidence of His resurrection. (Luke 24:12,23; Mark 16:6; and Matthew 28:6),
D. The angels spoke of that which was laid, being raisen. Was this the spirit? Of course not, it was the
body. (Mark 16:6).
E. The Lord told Thomas to touch his hands and his side. (John 20:27). Was this a spirit?
F. The Lord himself flatly states that He is not a spirit but flesh in Luke 24:39-44.
G. Obviously that which was buried is that which rose again. (1 Corinthians 15:4).

THE RESURRECTION WAS ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL

A. It was God’s stamp of identity and approval upon the Lord. (Acts 3:15, Acts 2:22, 24 and Acts 17:31).
B. This truth is indispensable to Christian faith and salvation. (I Corithhians 15:17).
C. All our hope of eternal life lies in His resurrection. (Corinthians 15:17, 18 and I Thessalonians 4:14).