This above YouTUBE video features some very powerful words by Dr. John Piper. It is a must listen to. You can listen to this entire message he gave at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary here.
I felt the urgency today to further direct your hearts and minds to feast upon the Word of God as it speaks to the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. As you read and maybe meditate upon the many verses below, I trust they will be an encouragement in your life and in your service in the gospel to worship the One who conquered sin, Satan, death and the grave. The resurrection of our Lord isn’t something we should just focus on once a year during the Easter season, treating it only as the “icing on the cake” of Christianity. But it should occupy our souls and eclipse all other joys every day as the central theme of our faith. There is no greater news than, “He’s alive! He’s alive! He’s alive and I’m forgiven, heaven’s gates are opened wide… He’s alive!” Therefore, as part of the worship-centered life we should live Coram Deo 24/7 rejoicing and glorifying in the resurrected Jesus.
The tragic fact is though, in today’s evangelical climate the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ is sometimes strangely absent – or even purposely left out of gospel presentations. But even more concerning, it is now acceptable by some evangelicals that the gospel, without including the bodily resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead, could be embraced as the genuine gospel. That is a hellish lie beloved. If Christ did not rise from the dead, we are the world’s greatest fools, our faith is a sham, and there is no gospel to proclaim. This should be a burden to us all; and produce in each of us deep, aching, heart-wrenching prayer for revival and reformation to the very gospel that demands our lives be forsaken even unto death.
What a joy to go into all the world and proclaim this good news to people in every nation that salvation is only by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And as we go to our neighborhoods, cities, schools, places of work, and families may we never leave out of the gospel beloved, the bodily resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Lord is risen,,,
Steve
1 Cor. 15:1-4
The Gospels:
Matt. 16:21 ¶ From that time Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised up on the third day.
Matt. 20:19 and will hand Him over to the Gentiles to mock and scourge and crucify Him, and on the third day He will be raised up.”
John 2:22 So when He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He said this; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had spoken.
John 11:25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies,
John 21:14 This is now the third time that Jesus was manifested to the disciples, after He was raised from the dead.
Acts:
Acts 2:14 ¶ But Peter, taking his stand with the eleven, raised his voice and declared to them: “Men of Judea and all you who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you and give heed to my words. Acts 2:24 “But God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power. Acts 2:32 “This Jesus God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses.
Acts 3:15 but put to death the Prince of life, the one whom God raised from the dead, a fact to which we are witnesses.
Acts 4:2 being greatly disturbed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead.
Acts 4:10 let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by this name this man stands here before you in good health.
Acts 4:33 And with great power the apostles were giving testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and abundant grace was upon them all.
Acts 17:18 And also some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers were conversing with him. Some were saying, “What would this idle babbler wish to say?” Others, “He seems to be a proclaimer of strange deities,”—because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection.
Acts 24:21 other than for this one statement which I shouted out while standing among them, ‘For the resurrection of the dead I am on trial before you today.’”
Acts 26:23 that the Christ was to suffer, and that by reason of His resurrection from the dead He would be the first to proclaim light both to the Jewish people and to the Gentiles.”
The Epistles:
Rom. 1:4 who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord,
Rom. 4:24 but for our sake also, to whom it will be credited, as those who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, Rom. 4:25 He who was delivered over because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification.
Rom. 6:4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
Rom. 7:4 ¶ Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God.
Rom. 8:11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
Rom. 8:34 who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.
Rom. 10:9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;
1Cor. 15:4 and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,
1Cor. 15:12 ¶ Now if Christ is preached, that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 1Cor. 15:13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised; 1Cor. 15:14 and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain. 1Cor. 15:15 Moreover we are even found to be false witnesses of God, because we testified against God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise, if in fact the dead are not raised. 1Cor. 15:16 For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised; 1Cor. 15:17 and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins. 1Cor. 15:20 ¶ But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep.
2Cor. 4:14 knowing that He who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and will present us with you.
Gal. 1:1 ¶ Paul, an apostle (not sent from men nor through the agency of man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised Him from the dead),
Eph. 1:20 which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places,
Eph. 2:6 and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
Phil. 3:10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; Phil. 3:11 in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
Col. 2:12 having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.
1Th. 1:10 and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath to come.
1Pet. 1:3 ¶ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 1Pet. 1:21 who through Him are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.
1Pet. 3:21 Corresponding to that, baptism now saves you—not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience—through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
