The God Who Raises the Dead
Download MP3If you would, turn in your bibles to Hebrews chapter 11. Book of Hebrews chapter 11. And I'll begin reading in verse 32. And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David, and Samuel, and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.
Jeffrey Heine:Women receive back their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured refusing to accept release so that they might rise again to a better life. Others suffered mocking and flogging and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned. They were sawn in 2.
Jeffrey Heine:They were killed with a sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated, of whom the world was not worthy, wandering about in deserts and mountains and in dens and in caves of the earth. And all of these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised since God had provided something better for us. That apart from us, they should not be made perfect. Pray with me.
Jeffrey Heine:God, we pray that you would speak to us now, that you honor the very reading of your word. Lord, now give me the words to say. May my words fall to the ground and blow away. But Lord, may your words remain. May they change our hearts.
Jeffrey Heine:I pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. We we parted from Luke. We're on week 41 of actually going through the gospel of Luke. But in Luke's account of the resurrection, you see some women, they come to the tomb early Sunday morning, and they find the tombstone rolled away, and there's 2 angels there.
Jeffrey Heine:And the angels give them a gentle and glorious rebuke, but it's definitely a rebuke. They say, why do you seek the living among the dead? He's not here. He is risen. It's a glorious rebuke.
Jeffrey Heine:It's a gentle rebuke, but it's definitely a rebuke because they were seeking the living among the dead and they should not have treated Jesus as if He were dead. Which is a mistake that is commonly made, especially today. Their problem was they were treating Jesus just like everybody who had come before him. They were treating treating Jesus just like the founder of every major religion. In which if you want to get to know that founder, you can simply read the founder's works.
Jeffrey Heine:You can read his or her writings. Maybe you can try to follow that founder's rules, but you realize that that founder is dead. Jesus is not like the founder of any other religion. They came expecting to find a full tomb. I mean, you can't really blame them in a sense.
Jeffrey Heine:The, the resurrection is an absurd idea, and it was just as absurd 2000 years ago as it is today. Don't think, you know, as a lot of modern people do that those were just primitive people. They believed anything. Not the case at all. They they had as much problem with the resurrection as as modern people do.
Jeffrey Heine:People don't. They know people who are dead stay dead. They don't come back from death. You know, you find this when you go through Acts. In Acts 17, Paul is talking to some very wise and educated men.
Jeffrey Heine:And the moment he mentions the resurrection, he just says the word resurrection. And immediately just they're angry and they won't listen to him anymore because it's an absurd idea even in the 1st century. If you wanted to start a religion, there's easier ways to start one than to have that as the core of your faith. There's actually been somewhat of a, I guess I'd call it a turning of the tide, in regards to scholarship regarding the empty tomb in the last decade. You're you're now reading even the most skeptical scholars are acknowledging that the tomb was empty.
Jeffrey Heine:Even the most skeptical now are saying, okay, granted the tomb was empty. Because if it wasn't empty, you know, it would have been the end of Christianity. They could have just pulled out a Recently, Newsweek Magazine did an article. You can find it online if you want to. It's actually from a few years ago.
Jeffrey Heine:And it stated that outside of the resurrection of Jesus, there is not a plausible explanation for the explosion of Christianity. And the article talks about how the burden of proof now has shifted. It has now shifted to the skeptics of the resurrection that they need to somehow, they need to somehow come up with a plausible alternative. Because the evidence seems so great, and there's no really other plausible answer right now to explain why Christianity exploded. Now the the article, let me be, you know, very quick to say, it wasn't saying they believed in the resurrection.
Jeffrey Heine:They were just saying right now there is no alternative, plositive, plausible explanation for why the explosion of the Christian church. There were a lot of people during this time who claimed to be the Messiah, just, you know, right along with Jesus. And whenever they died, no one thought about saying, well, let's just come up with the idea that they were raised from the dead. Didn't happen. When the when the person died, when they were thought to be Messiah died, they just found another Messiah.
Jeffrey Heine:Sometimes they went with a person's brother. They kept it in the family and you don't even get a hint of that in Christianity. A matter of fact, James did not even come to believe in his half brother Jesus that he was, the Messiah until after Jesus rose from the dead. He was then converted and, you know, he ended his life by being thrown off of a temple, Temple Mount. He was stoned when he landed and given another chance to recant.
Jeffrey Heine:He refused and he was clubbed to death, acknowledging his half brother as the Messiah. I've got a brother, and if he came to me and said, hey. I'm gonna die, and I'm gonna rise again for the forgiveness of your sins. I'd say, you're insane. You're crazy.
Jeffrey Heine:I'd I'd get them put some place, but not James. Something happened that convinced him. Last year, during Easter, we looked at the how even the resurrection was an absurd idea to the Jews. Even absurd to them because they thought that everybody would be raised on the last day. And the idea that just one person would be raised apart from everybody else never crossed their mind.
Jeffrey Heine:There wasn't a place to even fit that into their theology. And so if you're gonna make up a fanciful story, you're you're gonna do it to fit your theology, to try to prove your theology. But here, there's this absurd story that they're telling everybody that doesn't even fit with their current theology. A matter of fact, it caused big problems them. They didn't know what to do with the resurrection for a long time.
Jeffrey Heine:What were the implications of it? What did it really mean? But it happened and they had to deal with it, and their theology needed to adjust. You can see one of the other, I guess, proofs of the resurrection by something that Jeff mentioned earlier, that we worship on a Sunday. For over a 1000 years, the Jewish people, they had always worshiped on Saturday.
Jeffrey Heine:Overnight, they all worshiped on Sunday. Now, I grew up Southern Baptist, and if we wanted to change the carpet, change a hymn book, you would form a committee, which would form a few subcommittees, you know, which would then nominate somebody to look into the matter. And the process of changing something like carpet was a lengthy process. Changing the day of worship that you have kept for a 1000 years, instantly, Sunday. Why?
Jeffrey Heine:Because Jesus rose on Sunday. Another proof is the early writings of the church. You see, the resurrection was not a late belief that was tacked on, but even the most skeptical of historians are now acknowledging that the very first Christians, the very first writings we have, the resurrection is the center of their faith. It was not tacked on later, the very center at the earliest stage. And you see this in Paul's writings to the Corinthians, which was just 20 years after the resurrection.
Jeffrey Heine:Just 20 years. And he says this, Jesus appeared to Cephas, then to the 12, then He appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive. You can't make a claim like that 20 years after the resurrection, 20 years after an event, and expect to get away with it if it's not true. If I were to come to you and say, Hey, you know what? 20 years ago, there was a dinosaur.
Jeffrey Heine:It walked right down First Avenue North. 500 people, they came out of their offices, they all saw the dinosaur, and and most of them are still alive today. You could go and talk to them. What's the first thing you would do? You try to go and find these 500 people because it's an absurd claim, and I can't get away with something like that.
Jeffrey Heine:When Paul says there were 500 people and they are still alive today, he's saying, go check it out. I'm not making this up. It's happened. When you look at all these evidences, there's, there's simply no other plausible explanation for why Christianity exploded on the scene, why scared disciples became fearless martyrs, like that. And it didn't grow out in the sticks, you know, like a lot of things today will will grow out, you know, in some of the hills of Montana or, you know, someplace where hardly anybody lives.
Jeffrey Heine:This grew in the cities, the metropolitan centers, the cultural centers of the day. It grew up in Rome and in Corinth, and in Ephesus, and Galatia. It'd be like popping up in London, and in Paris, and in New York City. And it exploded in growth. So the emperor himself became a believer.
Jeffrey Heine:And we we could go on and on about different proofs of the resurrection, that that's not what I want to do. As we go through Luke, we're gonna look at a number more. I mean, that's just this is just the tip of the iceberg. What I want us to focus on is what is the difference? What difference does it make in our lives that He is risen?
Jeffrey Heine:If we believe this, how does it change us? That's why I want us to look at Hebrews chapter 11. I love this chapter. Here he's beginning to walk through all these great men and women of the faith. You you've got people who stop the mouths of lions, Daniel.
Jeffrey Heine:People who quenched the power of fire, a reference to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. People who became mighty in war and put foreign armies to flight, a a likely reference to King David. Some women received back their dead by resurrection. This is a reference to Elijah who raised the widow's son, and it's a reference to Elisha who raised the son of a Shunammite woman. Both dead, and they were both brought back to life.
Jeffrey Heine:This, after the author of Hebrews shares that, the the story takes a turn in verse 35. Women received back their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so they might rise again to a better life. This is likely referring to a time that most Christians don't know much about. The time in between testaments.
Jeffrey Heine:The time of the Maccabean martyrs, in which there's lots of accounts of different martyrs during this time. And one of the most famous is of a mother in which her 7 children were brought forward in front of Antiochus Epiphanes who he loved to to take, Jewish prominent Jewish families and execute them publicly. He would say, Hey, eat pork or you die. Break the law of God or you die. And he loved doing this.
Jeffrey Heine:And one of the, stories of martyrdom, 7 sons of this mom were brought forward and they were given the chance to recant. And if they weren't, their tongues were cut off. And then they were dismembered. And while after that happened, they were scalped, and they were still left breathing, given one final chance to recant before they were thrown on a fire alive. 1 by 1, these sons were killed this way in front of their mom.
Jeffrey Heine:All the while, their mother saying, stand strong. God will give you back those hands. God will give you back that tongue. You will be raised again. Stand strong.
Jeffrey Heine:And when it finally came to the last child, the child held out his hands and held out his tongue. And I think that's what the author of Hebrews is alluding to is a lot of these Maccabean martyrs. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release. Why? The resurrection.
Jeffrey Heine:The resurrection. The author of Hebrews later says that in verse 40, that God has provided something better for us. Meaning, when we look at all these accounts of faith, some being delivered, some being killed, but all very bold in their faith, says they didn't receive what was promised. Why? Because God has something better for us.
Jeffrey Heine:And what he's talking about is the resurrection, the resurrection of Jesus. They didn't have that. They, they never got to read about that, they never got to see that. The resurrection of Jesus. We know that.
Jeffrey Heine:We we we have far more concrete hope than they had. Because we get to look at Jesus, and we get to see our glorious future. We see him as the first fruits or the first born. The language that Paul uses, when describing Jesus, meaning that his resurrection is first, but we are coming in his wake. And so when we look at Jesus, we know what is going to happen to us.
Jeffrey Heine:We're gonna be raised like that. We're gonna be given a body like that. He is proof of that. He's the first fruits. We have a greater hope that galvanizes us for all that life throws at us.
Jeffrey Heine:Even those who were raised from the dead, when Elijah raised that widow's son, when Elisha raised the Shunammite, or Shunammite's son, or even when Jesus raised somebody like Lazarus, what we have is better. Our resurrection is better because those people died again. They were raised, but they were not given a transformed body. They died again. And we look at Jesus, and now we know it awaits us, and that galvanizes us for all of life ahead.
Jeffrey Heine:Close with this because I'm gonna allow a few people to share. There's a hidden chapter in Paul's life. We we don't really know much about it. I hope to to really preach through that at some point. He had just come through Turkey, and he had some traumatic experience.
Jeffrey Heine:We're not exactly sure of everything that had happened, but he's full of doubt. He's wondering if he has failed in his mission. The Ephesians were making life very difficult for him. The the Corinthians had stabbed him in the back. And so Paul writes in 2nd Corinthians 1, for we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of even life itself.
Jeffrey Heine:Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death, But that was to make us rely not on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead. I don't know about you, but it's a comfort to me actually to know that even the great apostle Paul could fall into despair, that he could struggle with a depression so great. He said it felt like there was this death sentence just hanging over his head. He was despairing of life. He felt like a failure.
Jeffrey Heine:And then he says, but it was at that absolute lowest point. God said, look at the resurrection. Look at the resurrection. I am a God who raises the dead. And that's why Paul could say, when I am weak, he is strong.
Jeffrey Heine:Because the resurrection of Christ was a concrete hope that met him in his lowest point. And he thought, you know what? Even if my task fails, I worship a God who raises the dead. Let me tell you what, if God can be trusted to raise the dead, he can be trusted with your marriage. He can be trusted with your job.
Jeffrey Heine:He can be trusted with your children. He can be trusted with all of life. Knowing that someday, He's going to take off our body of mortality, and He's going to clothe us with immortality. That's our hope as we look at this Easter Sunday in the resurrection of our Lord Jesus.
