The Vindication of the Resurrection Rob Wilkerson

An Easter Sunday Talk from 1 Corinthians 15:5-8

 Rob Wilkerson,  Church in the Boro

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Introduction: What if Jesus’ Resurrection Were Put on Trial Today?

One of the most crucial pieces of evidence against a defendant in the court of law is an
eyewitness to the crime. Without an actual eyewitness who, with their own eyes and ears, saw
and heard the crime as it was being committed, the rest of the evidence is considered
circumstantial. Other evidences may point to the defendant, but none seals the case like the
person who saw him do it.

But what happens when the defense attorney begins a line of questioning that leaves both the
eye-witness and jury only thinking he saw or heard the defendant? Perhaps it was dark that
night. Perhaps the defendant was far enough away that any number of other men in a lineup
could have matched the description. Perhaps the eyewitness was tired or under the influence
of alcohol or some other intoxicating substance.

That’s the job of the defense attorney…to counter-examine the eyewitness and hopefully
unravel their story, to the end that, at best, the jury themselves are left questioning whether or
not the eyewitness really saw what he thought he saw. Any good defense attorney knows the
damage that an eyewitness can cause his case. And he knows that the undoing of their
testimony means the greater chance that his client may be given a ‘not guilty’ vote.

But what happens to the defense’s case when more than one eyewitness is produced? What
do you think would happen if you had two or three or maybe even five different persons who
all saw the defendant commit the crime in question? What happens then? Each eyewitness
will obviously only strengthen the case of the prosecution against the defendant. And though
I’m not a lawyer, I have been seated before on jury duty for a murder case. There were several
eyewitnesses. And each time an eyewitness spoke, the defendant was in more and more
trouble. One day we were called in and seated, only to be told by assistant district attorney
that the defendant had changed his plea to guilty. There were simply too many eyewitnesses.
His case was crushed underneath the weight of the evidence.

That was the case with a man who had three or possibly more eyewitnesses to his crime. It at
least made it to court where the testimony could be told and heard. But would such a case
even make it to court if there were, say, over 500 eyewitnesses to the crime? I’m not sure. But
I would bet that it would probably not, for the defendant would simply enter a plea of guilty
and sentencing would be the only thing to take place in the court of law. Why even think about
entering a plea of “not guilty” or hear a case at all when a perpetrator has over 500
eyewitnesses ready to testify against him?

When Jesus Becomes the Defendant in the World’s Eyes

Yet this is the case today when our Lord Jesus is put on trial as the defendant by the world. To
many the simple idea that a person could actually rise from the dead after three days is
preposterous. This is definitely the way we see progressive liberalism moving back into the
mainstream churches, and even evangelical churches today. Resurrection in many of these

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circles is no longer spoken of in terms of a definitive, concrete, historical event that took place
in the life of Jesus Christ. Rather, it’s spoken of as simply a metaphor for transformation from
an old way of life to a new way of life.

In short, liberalism, oddly enough, sees resurrection as having more to do with this life than
with the next! How much more preposterous then, is the idea that a person would actually
raise himself from the dead after three days of being buried in a tomb! In point of fact Jesus
makes such a claim in John 2:18-21. Then, in many other passages like those in Acts (2:22-24,
32; 3:14-15; 4:10; 10:37-40; 13:30-37; 17:31), Romans (4:24; 6:4; 8:11; 10:9) and elsewhere (1
Pet. 1:18-21; Eph. 1:17-20; 1 Cor. 6:14; Gal. 1:1; Col. 2:12; 1 Thess. 1:9-10) we are told that God
is the One who raised Jesus from the dead. So which is it? WHO is it? This is nothing more
than an equalization of the two indicating Jesus’ divinity, just like we find in statements like, “I
and the Father are one” or “before Abraham was, I AM.” And this gets down to the substance
of why this issue of resurrection is so very, very significant for the gospel. If Jesus is not God,
then He is just another man. If he’s just another man he had no real ability to take our place,
forgive our sins, and rescue us from the coming wrath of God. Many other human beings were
raised from the dead, so essentially Jesus would be no different from any of them…unless He
was God. And that makes all the difference in the world, because only God can both die as a
human and then raise Himself from the dead.

One of the passages not mentioned above in the list comes from 1 Corinthians 15:14-15. There
Paul writes, “And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in
vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he
raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised.” How then can we
be sure that Jesus was raised from the dead so that our faith is not empty and worthless and
vain?

Turning back a few verses before, we read in 1 Corinthians 15:5-8, that there were over five
hundred witnesses who saw Him alive after He was crucified and buried. That’s one heck of a
group of human beings who would have seen Jesus dead on the cross and then seen him alive
later on. No doubt this kind of eyewitness testimony would hold up in any court of law. But
some would wholeheartedly disagree. ReligiousTolerance.org, for example, has written on the
subject of the resurrection:

55 to 65 CE: Paul writes a series of letters to churches in various cities. In I

Corinthians 15:3-8" he says "...I [Paul] passed on to you...that he was buried,
that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he
appeared to Peter, and then to the twelve. After that, he appeared to more than
five hundred of the brothers at the same time,...then he appeared to James, then
to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me..." Paul used the phrase "he
was raised" As Bishop Spong has written:

"...the power of resurrection resided with God. God was the initiator...Jesus was
the recipient, the one acted upon. Paul never used anything but the passive verb

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to discuss the Easter event and he used that form 37 times. For Paul, Jesus was
raised by God. Jesus did not rise." 2

To Paul, Jesus was not restored to life in his original body in order to walk around
and talk to his followers. Rather, Jesus was raised from death into the presence
of God in a spiritual body. As he writes in I Corinthians 15:50 Paul believed:
"...flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God nor does the perishable
inherit the imperishable."

Paul seems to be unaware of the empty tomb, of the bodily resurrection, of the
visitation by one or more women, and other details of the resurrection story as
was written later in the gospels. It is also doubtful that the story was known by
other Christians at that time. It is probable that the account was created after
Paul's death.

It is also doubtful that Jesus appeared to a crowd of more than 500. A dead man
talking to a group would be such a miraculous event that word of it would
spread very widely. The incident would have been recorded by other Christian
authors and also by non-Christian historians of the time. No other trace of the
group of 500 exists…

One interpretation of the resurrection story concludes that the earliest followers
of Jesus knew nothing about the resurrection. Paul believed that Jesus had a
passive role in his resurrection. He was raised by God into heaven, housed in a
spirit body. His physical body rotted. The story of the tomb, its stone, the angels,
men and women at the tomb, of Jesus meeting, talking and eating with his
followers, etc. is a myth, a legend created by various Christian movements many
decades after Jesus' execution. That saga became captured in the four canonical
gospels at different stages in its development.

Source: http://www.religioustolerance.org/resur_lt.htm

I personally found these paragraphs to be confusing, especially in light of the twelve generally
accepted knowable, historical facts about the resurrection. Gary Habermas, one of the leading
scholars on the resurrection of Jesus, lists these in his book, The Historical Jesus.

1. Jesus died by crucifixion.

2. Jesus was buried.
3. Jesus’ death caused the disciples to despair and lose hope, believing that
his life was ended.
4. Although not as widely accepted, many scholars hold that the tomb in
which Jesus was buried was discovered to be empty just a few days later.
5. Critical scholars agree that the disciples had experiences which they

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believed were literal appearances of the risen Jesus.

6. Because of these experiences the disciples were transformed from doubters who were
afraid to identify themselves with Jesus to bold proclaimers of his death and
resurrection.
7. This message was the center of preaching in the early church.
8. This message was especially proclaimed in Jerusalem, where Jesus died and was buried
shortly before.
9. As a result of this preaching the church was born and grew.
10. Sunday became the primary day of worship.
11. James, who had been a skeptic, was converted to the faith when he also believed that
he saw the resurrected Jesus.
12. A few years later, Paul was converted by an experience which he, likewise, believed to
be an appearance of the risen Jesus.

(Source: Gary Habermas, The Historical Jesus [Joplin, MO: College Press, 1996], p. 158).

After citing several first sources referring to Jesus and the resurrection, my friend Adrian
Warnock, in his book entitled Raised With Christ, sums it up nicely this way.

“There is simply no record of any significant group of early

Christians who doubted that Jesus had risen from the dead. The
early existence of a group of people who believed Christ had risen
from the dead is confirmed by multiple secular sources. Many
secular historians have concurred that the evidence is
exceptionally good that Jesus existed, was killed, and that his
followers claimed he had risen from the dead.”

(Source: Raised with Christ by Adrian Warnock (Wheaton: Crossway, 2010), p.

54).

Why the World Reacts & Responds This Way

So despite what appears to be an undeniable historical accuracy of Luke’s account, as well as

the seemingly undeniable evidence of the apostle Paul’s life and ministry (even among skeptic
scholars), there are somehow still multitudes of people who would counter the claim of Jesus’
resurrection despite irrefutable eyewitness testimony to the contrary. Why, I ask you, would
someone choose to believe what is opposite the truth despite so much evidence to the
contrary? Perhaps Mark Twain hit on something inside the human heart when he wrote, “It
ain't those parts of the Bible that I can't understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do
understand.”

The answer is pretty simple then, right? If you admit to Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, then
you admit to something more powerful than the natural. You admit to the supernatural. And if
you admit to the supernatural, it logically follows that you are no longer in control of

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everything, and the natural laws of science no longer apply. This in turn leaves you in a position
to have to account for it, or in the very least what you’re going to do with it. At that point you
can, on the one hand, reject it and look utterly foolish since it’s plainly and painfully obvious. Or
you can believe in the supernatural and face up to it.

At that point if you reject the painful and plain truth about the supernatural then you end up
having to create all sorts of rationale and argumentation and debate against it, essentially
suppressing the truth about it in their hearts. If you accept it then you have to face it along
with the act that the supernatural forces at work must be interacted with at some level,
regardless of what kind of “faith” is required.

However, at the logical end of it all, I believe is the necessity of the person to face the fact of
the supernatural and reason that there is a supernatural being and that He is God, thereby
opening one up to all the other truth that is in the Bible from God. Ultimately, it’s all about
accountability and personal responsibility. It’s easy to dismiss the resurrection and the
supernatural because it’s easier to live life without accountability to God Himself. John
MacArthur put it well.

“Neutrality is not an option. Either Jesus rose and rightly demands

your attention, repentance, trust and obedience, or he stayed
dead. If he only became a rotting corpse why should you follow
him?”

(Source: Preface in Gerard Crispin’s The Resurrection: The Unopened Gift

[Epsom, UK: Day One, 2002], p. 16).

In short, unbelievers essentially hate the truth, do not want to submit to it, and therefore they
do not give their ear to it, but instead rationalize it away. But the eyewitness testimony of over
500 people to a Jesus Christ who was in fact crucified and is now in fact resurrected is validation
of the resurrection.

How Believers React & Respond to the Resurrection

Now, while this is the case of the unsaved, what about the saved? It is possible to be so use to
the incontrovertible evidence of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead that even those
who affirm its truth have grown numb toward it. If the lost man hates and rejects this truth,
many saved persons ignore it and think hardly anything of it, except during the Easter Sunday
sermon. For many it is a fleeting thought that Jesus rose from the dead and that He was seen
by over 500 people. For them it is simply a passing “wow!” and then they turn back to their
business.

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But can we do that with such a text as this! Can we simply read the fact that over 500 people
saw Jesus after He was risen from the dead and go on with our lives as we always have? Can
we merely acknowledge this truth, its evidences, and the conclusion without experiencing the
impact it must have on our moment-by-moment thinking and living?

What is usually one’s reaction to the eyewitness testimony of a person or persons who saw the
defendant murder a person? It is usually a ghastly horror expressed outwardly by the covering
of the face or the dropping of the head or the gaping of the mouth. Perhaps it is expressed
inwardly by the churning of anger or sadness. Either way, there is a certain “shock” value in
testimony like this. It holds the jury and the audience captive in shock and terror. It is many
times an awe-filled moment.

Recovering the Shock-Value of the Eyewitness Testimony to the Resurrection

Why is it any different then with the evidence regarding the eyewitnesses to Jesus’
resurrection? Where’s the shock value? Where’s the awe? Where’s the outward and inward
expressions that are produced in the wake of such evidence? Simply put, why has the
eyewitness testimony to the resurrection of Christ lost its impact on Christians today?

1. How do I know it has lost its impact on people today?

A. Consider the Reaction of the Eyewitnesses

The resurrection left Peter in disbelief. It left John bewildered. Both Peter and John left the
tomb and went back home marveling (John 20:10; Luke 24:12). It left Mary Magdalene in awe
and wonder (vv. 16,18). Later on, it left Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James, and
Salome trembling and astonished (Mark 16:8). It left Thomas doubting (John 20:25). But the
disciples eventually rejoiced (v. 20).

They enjoyed meals with Jesus. Once when He just appeared in the middle of a group of
believers, He ate a piece of broiled fish to prove that He was the real deal (Luke 24). Once again
in John 21 Jesus appeared at the seashore, orchestrated another miraculous catch of fish, and
then had a fish-fry with them (John 21).

B. Now, Consider the Eyewitness Disciples Response and Its Impact on Us

Mark’s record is interesting. Of the women who saw Him, Mark records that they “said nothing
to anyone, for they were afraid” (16:8). Later on, after Mary Magdalene had told the disciples
that she herself had seen the resurrected Christ, “they refused to believe it” (16:11).

Then, when the two disciples who were on the way to Emmaus saw Jesus, they returned to tell
the disciples, yet “they did not believe them either” (16:13). And these were His own disciples!
Think of it! Everyone seemed to believe that Jesus had risen from the dead except for His own
apostles. Mark then records that when Jesus finally did appear to the disciples, “He reproached

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them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who had
seen Him after He had risen” (16:14).

What followed this reproach was a command to go and preach the gospel to all creation
(16:15). The implication is that (1) it is a reproach on a believer to not truly believe in the
resurrection of Christ, and (2) it is an obligation on a believer to go into all the world and preach
the gospel since Christ has risen from the dead. After all, regardless of what country you’re
from or what you country you’re travelling to, it would be good news anywhere and
everywhere to hear that God sent His Son who was killed and resurrected.

The point I will make here as well as several more times this morning is that

the mission is inseparably connected

to the truth of the resurrection,
and that your involvement in the mission
is a reflection of your belief in the resurrection.

You simply will not be able to help yourself if you believe this truth. It will compel and propel
you to win others to Him. But if you do not win others to Him, it is primarily because the truth
of His resurrection and power has evidently not yet captured your heart and mind. And if this is
true, then take the same reproach on yourself that Jesus gave to the disciples. If they heard all
the reports and yet still didn’t believe, you’ve heard more reports than they did, and yet will
you still not believe?

And if you’re asking yourself if I’m implying that missions and evangelism are the truest
reflections of your profession of Christ, you’re right! That’s the clear implication and
application of Mark 16:14-15. If a Christian is one who has been truly impacted and gripped by
the resurrection of Christ, then that Christian will make it his or her aim to get that gospel to
the world, no matter what the cost, simply because of the value of the information you say you
believe. In other words, one cannot profess to be a Christian and yet not be going to the
nations to win the lost, because in not doing so, they show they have not yet believed in the
resurrection of Christ from the dead!

C. Consider the Impact of the Eyewitnesses on the World

It was said of some of the apostles that they turned the world upside down (Acts 17:6).
Everything that was dear to the religious leaders of that day was turned upside down on its
head and it was crashing down around them. All the religious practices of wood, hay and
stubble which they had constructed in the lives and hearts of the people was burning up before
their very eyes. And it was all because twelve men had been so impacted by the resurrected

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Jesus Christ that they couldn’t help themselves! It was such a magnificent act, a miracle above
all miracles, that the whole world simply had to know about it, no matter what the cost!

For most of the apostles, it did cost them their lives. But that didn’t matter. They all knew the
implication and promise of Christ’s resurrection. If He rose from the dead, then they would
too! So what difference does it make what people might do to us? As I have told you before,
“Fear not! You can only be killed!” They may kill you, but that is the very worst they can do.
They cannot take away what Christ has promised to do to you if you follow Him.

That’s why they had the impact on the world that they did at that time, and that’s why modern
missions has had such an impact on the world in the last two and a half hundred years or so.
Men and women have firmly believed in the truth of the resurrection such that they were
compelled to tell others about the power of God. And they told that truth in such a way that
also showed the world that it didn’t matter what happened to them – the truth they had to tell
was worth the price of their very lives.

D. Now, Consider YOUR Impact on the World

Is it possible that the reason we have so little impact is because we hold so little regard for the
irrefutable evidence of the resurrection? Is it possible that we have little impact on the world
because the resurrection has had so little impact upon us? If it seems to you that this gospel is
held and told by you with so little power, it is because its power has not gripped you
completely. If it did, you would go. If it did, you could not help but impact the world around
you.

Recovering the Impact of a Validated Resurrection on the Church Today

2. How Should the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the Dead Impact Christians Today?

A. The resurrection must return to the center stage of evangelistic efforts.

1. We must constantly preach this part of the gospel to ourselves.

We often act like Peter who saw the empty tomb yet still did not believe (Luke 24). We
sometimes act like Thomas who didn’t believe despite the testimony of three godly women
(John 20). We hear about it, and we read it. But too often it simply does not seem to have an
impact on us. I’m not sure if this is because of our cultures’ inundation with news and facts and
information. But regardless, there must be a resolve within to fight to recover this truth so it
will impact us and the world the way it needs to.

Some will argue that it is because we were not there, and therefore it could not impact us as
much as it did them. Perhaps. But Jesus told Thomas in John 20:29 that those who worshiped
Him and believed in Him without ever having seen Him are more blessed and satisfied and

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joyful than those who did actually see Him. So Jesus’ argument here runs contrary to normal
human understanding. Yet because He said it, it must be so.

Hence, it is our duty and delight to figure out how we are more blessed and satisfied and joyful
and happy having not see Him, and further how we can be more blessed and satisfied and
joyful and happy day by day, as we serve a resurrected Jesus we’ve never seen. From my
personal experience this means two things for us.

 First, this means we must not and cannot be like those disciples who, despite so much
testimony to the opposite, continued to disbelieve that Jesus had risen from the dead.
How terrible! Work with all your might to read the gospels and meditate on His
resurrection. Pray with all your might that God might be pleased to deeply impact you
with these truths so that you would be changed forever!

 Second, how comforting was their unbelief! What do I mean by this? Simply that
despite their unbelief, Jesus made Himself known to them and then used them to
impact the world! And He can use you! No matter how deep your unbelief, He can use
you. Pray what the father of the handicapped child prayed, “I believe Lord. Help my
unbelief!” Confess it for what it is, ask Him to make you believe it, and then ask Him to
use you where He desires. If He could use unbelieving disciples, He can use you
beloved!

2. We must boldly preach this as part of the gospel to others.

It is interesting to take note of some of the gospel sermons in the book of Acts by a couple of
the apostles. And by comparison it is interesting to note how many gospel presentations and
sermons today seem to be void of something the apostles considered absolutely essential to
the gospel message, namely this crucial and central issue of the resurrection.

 Acts 2:32. Peter preached his first sermon. And in transitioning to his conclusion he
drives home the truth of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. He preaches, “This
Jesus God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses.” It was important for Peter to
emphasize to this huge crowd that Jesus’ resurrection was not a matter of hearsay. He
and the apostles and others who were in the upper room praying were actually
witnesses to the fact that Jesus rose from the dead.

 Acts 3:15. In Peter’s second sermon, he preached about “the one whom God raised
from the dead, a fact to which we are witnesses.’

 Acts 5:32. In Peter’s third sermon, a fundamental argument in his sermon is the
testimony: “we are witnesses of these things…”

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 Acts 10:39-41. In Peter’s sermon to Cornelius, the resurrection was a central fact. He
preached, “And we are witneses of all the things He did both in the land of the Jews and
in Jerusalem…God raised Him up on the third day, and granted that He should become
visible, not to all the people, but to witnesses who were chosen beforehand by God,
that is, to us, who ate and drank with Him after He arose from the dead.”

 Acts 13:30-31. In one of Paul’s sermons during his first missionary journey, he
preached, “But God raised Him up from the dead; and for many days He appeared to
those who came up with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem, the very ones who are now His
witnesses to the people.” Evidently, then, the witnesses to Jesus’ resurrection were a
central truth in his understanding and preaching of the gospel.

One more passage that warrants our attention on this point is Acts 17:31. In Paul’s sermon to
the crowd at Mars Hill, he preached, “He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in
unrighteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by
raising Him from the dead.”

The reason this warrants our attention is because Paul explains that the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead becomes your evangelistic proof that Christ is going to judge them for their
unrighteousness. In other words, if they want proof for the fact that they should fear and bow
to this Christ, His own resurrection from the dead is enough. But if they reject that, what hope
is there left for them?

Consider the parable of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16:19 and following. Remember what
he asked Abraham for? First he wanted Abraham to send someone to his five brothers so they
wouldn’t have to endure such hell. Abraham responded by telling him that they had the OT
and with that they should be able to escape it. Yet then the rich man asked if he could go back
and tell them, for surely they would believe if someone rose from the dead. Yet Abraham
concluded that if they wouldn’t believe the Scriptures, they won’t believe even if someone rose
from the dead.

Moving back to the beginning of Acts, we read some of Jesus’ last words to the upper room
group. He told them in 1:8 that they would be His witnesses. As eyewitnesses, they were to
bear their testimony everywhere they could to the most remote parts of the earth. And that
testimony continues to spread through those who witnessed the apostles and first believers. A
second generation of Christians were then born who simply took what they heard and believed
to others, who then became the third generation of believers, and so on and so forth.

The point here is that the witness to the resurrection didn’t die just because the eyewitnesses
did. It is our responsibility to continue to testify to that witness even though we are not
eyewitnesses. And in so doing, we too become part of the witnesses of Jesus in Acts 1:8 who
are to take His death, burial and resurrection to the most remote regions of the earth.

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I recall the problem with Israel throughout their history. Several times over they were rebuked
and condemned by God because they did not do one simple thing. They did not pass down the
greatest historical facet of their nation – the deliverance from Egypt at the Red Sea. This was
the single most important event in Israel’s history, and they were to pass it down to their
children so that even though their children were not eyewitnesses to that wondrous event,
they too would grow to love and know the God of the Red Sea. But it was the failure to pass
this down and make much of this event that resulted in generation after generation rising up in
Israel who did not know God nor the ways of God. And this should serve as an example to us
regarding our children and our sharing with them of the greatest single event in all of history –
the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

Two Primary Reflections of the Validity of the Resurrection

Therefore, the mission will always wane when witnesses to the resurrected Christ wane either in
number or belief. Thankfully, God has promised that Jesus will “see his offspring” (Isa. 53:10-
11). This is seen nowhere better than in two primary reflections. First, the rapid expansion of
the church. Per Warnock,

“No other successful movement has ever claimed its founder

rose from the dead. Ultimately, the persistence and growth
throughout history of the largest movement the world has ever
seen is the strongest evidence for the resurrection. Many
millions of people have claimed that their lives have been
transformed by Jesus and that they had a relationship with
Jesus” (p. 54).

Second, the martyrdom of so many believers. Only an extremely deluded and perhaps even
drug-induced state of mind could impel so many people to willingly lay down their lives in the
name of and for a man who was never really raised from the dead. Is such mass delusion
possible? Many will point to examples such as Jim Jones in Jonestown, Guyana where 600
adults poisoned 300 plus children with cyanide, then administered to themselves in a so-called
act of revolution back on November 18, 1978.

But these and other incidents like them are vastly different in so many ways. Early Christian
martyrs were forced to bow the knee to Caesar, calling him a god. They said no and were
executed. All of the apostles were executed except for one, and in various countries too where
they were bringing the good news of a resurrected Jesus. Why would Jesus’ own apostles and
millions of Christians after them willingly and non-violently count their lives as worth so little if
they were not being motivated by the One whose life gave them so much more?

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So if we call ourselves by His name, let us rise up and muster up whatever energy we may
possess in order to affirm this truth to our hearts so that we can again be effective witnesses to
our city, county, community and our world. Therefore the pursuit of our lives should be to
recapture and maintain the wonder and awe of the resurrection of Christ.

B. It must return worship and awe to the center stage of the Christian life.

1. What was John’s response in Revelation 1?

John records his own response for us: “When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But
he laid his right hand on me, saying, ‘Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I
died, and behold I am alive forever more, and I have the keys of Death and Hades” (1:17-18).

That is real worship. Biblically speaking, worship is not the raising of the hands while singing a
moving song. That is praise. Biblical worship is the prostration of a person’s body before God
when they have encountered the living God.

And in keeping with Jesus’ philosophy that we are more blessed and happier without having
seen the resurrected Christ, then in some sense our worship and belief in Him, it seems to me,
must somehow be affected to a greater degree by truly worshiping this Christ we cannot see.
And how does this occur since we cannot see Him?

Simply put, He has given us an account of these things in the Scriptures and it is our obligation
and delight to do whatever we can to impress these things on our hearts until He is pleased to
appear to us in our minds. In other words, while we may never see Him with our eyes, we can
certainly see Him with our minds, and we should diligently seek to see Him this way.

In the thought of Jonathan Edwards, who is considered the greatest theologian in the history of
America, God appears to our understanding and He communicates Himself to our hearts. This
comes by a constant exposure to God’s truth and a constant appeal to the Spirit to make that
truth impact us in a lasting way. That’s how we must seek the resurrected Jesus Christ today.
We must spare no effort to place ourselves in a position where God will make Himself appear to
us in our minds and hearts, and do it often enough so that we will be lastingly changed. This is
worship, and when we worship long enough, we will become changed. Then and only then will
we really have something to say to the world, and then and only then will the world be more
likely to listen to us. They will say of us as it was said of the Apostles that we have been with
Jesus (Acts 4:13).

It is this act of Jesus Christ appearing to us in our minds and hearts that reminds me of the two
disciples’ response after they had walked and talked with the resurrected Christ.

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2. What was the response of the two disciples who walked with Jesus on the
road to Emmaus on the afternoon of the resurrection day?

Luke records for us in 24:32, “And they said to one another, ‘Were not our hearts burning
within us while He was speaking to us on the road, while He was explaining the Scriptures to
us?’” Christ appeared not only to them physically, but also to them mentally and spiritually.
That appearance to their mind caused their hearts to burn. There was a moment of worship
which occurred in their hearts. And this moment of worship produced an immediate reaction:
“And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem. And they found the eleven and
those who were with them gathered together, saying, ‘The Lord has risen indeed, and has
appeared to Simon!’” (Luke 24:33-34).

The moment Christ invaded their hearts and minds with the truth of His resurrection they left
immediately for Jerusalem to go back and tell others. Once again, when this truth suddenly and
lastingly invades and permeates your soul, you will not be able to help but immediately tell
others. That is the way of the resurrection, and each time this occurred in Scripture, and every
time it occurs today it is simply further vindication of the resurrection of Christ.

Conclusion

You may not have seen the resurrected Christ with your eyes, but has He appeared to your
heart, your mind, your understanding, your soul? Has His love filled you to overflowing your
capacity to contain it within? You will know for sure whether or not He has by whether or not
you have made it your aim in life to tell others about this amazing work of salvation. Listen to
Martyn Lloyd-Jones as he elaborates on what I mean.

“Once a man has the love of Christ in his heart you need not train
him to witness; he will do it. He will know the power, the
constraint, the motive; everything is already there…The servants of
God who have most adorned the life and the history of the Christian
church have always been men who have realized that this is the
most important thing of all, and they have spent ours in prayer
seeking His face and enjoying His love. The man who knows the
love of Christ in his heart can do more in one hour than the busy
type of man can do in a century.”

(Source: An Exposition of Ephesians 3 [Grand Rapids:

Baker Book House, 1979], pp. 247-530).

Further, you will know how well His resurrection has permeated your heart and mind and soul
by how you evangelize. Is the resurrection a central component of your thinking? Is it
therefore a central component of your witnessing and evangelizing? Do you make this the
central issue with an unbeliever, that Jesus vindicated His claim to deity by rising from the dead,
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and that He can spiritually appear in our hearts to confirm that, and that He has promised to
raise us up from the dead one day soon when He comes again? For Paul, and the original
apostles, and all first century Christians for that matter, the resurrection was the truth upon
which they lived and died.

A local church is validated by Christ when it validates the resurrection through real worship and
true evangelism. This is the direction I desire for this local church. I want it to be validated by
Christ Himself. So let each of us commit our time to think, meditate, read, study and pray for
the Spirit to penetrate the numbness and rebellion of heart with the explosive power of the
resurrection. When we are changed individually, our church will be changed corporately.
When the resurrection enraptures our hearts, our little flock will not help but be launched into
the community in a new, effective and lasting way.

This is what I pray for. This is what Jesus died for. And this is what He rose again for. Let’s pray
diligently to that end.

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