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We’ll begin in John 20:24-28 this morning. What a great story. Thomas had “skipped church” the week before when the risen Christ appeared to the other disciples. We pick up the story in verses 24-25.
John 20:24-25, But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples were saying to him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.”
Eight days later Jesus shows up again. J. C. Ryle thinks Jesus shows up this second week just for Thomas’ sake. Jesus is patient and compassionate toward Thomas.
John 20:26-28 After eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors having been shut, and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.” 27 Then He said to Thomas, “Reach here with your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand and put it into My side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing.” 28 Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!”
I don’t think Thomas dared stick his finger into those scars. But then Jesus says this for all of us now 20 centuries later:
John 20:29, Jesus said to him, “Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed.”
How many have actually seen the Grand Canyon? Do you believe it’s there? Have you seen the risen Christ? Do you believe He is risen? If so, Jesus says, “You are blessed!”
The resurrection is the linchpin of all our hopes! The Cambridge English Dictionary defines “linchpin” as “the most important…part of a system that holds together the other members.” If you slip the resurrection of Christ out of the complex of biblical teaching of Christ, His deity, virgin conception and birth, His perfect, sinless life, His substitutionary sacrifice for sinners on the cross, His death and burial, if you remove the resurrection, everything crumbles.
There is no salvation without the resurrection. If Christ’s body decomposed into the dust mixed with all the other dead and decomposed human beings in earth’s history, then we have no hope! Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:17-19, “If Christ has not been raised, our faith is worthless, we’re still in our sins, and we are of all people most to be pitied.” You can’t have Christianity without a physically resurrected Christ. It is impossible. But if He did arise from the dead, then everything else the Bible says is absolutely trustworthy! No chain is stronger than its weakest link. There are no weak links in Christ. Not one link will ever snap! Every other human scheme, religion, philosophy not only has weak links; they are all links of sand!
THE RESURRECTION IS THE LINCHPIN TO THREE MAJOR DOCTRINES
Our Christian lives can be summarized by three major truths or doctrines: Justification, Sanctification, and Glorification.
- Justification deals with the penalty of our sin.
- Sanctification deals with the power and pollution of our sin.
- Glorification deals with the very presence of our sin.
What I want you to see this morning is how the resurrection of Christ is the linchpin to each of these three realities. Because He rose, those who trust in Him have been justified, are being sanctified, and will be glorified.
CHRIST’S RESURRECTION IS THE PROOF OF OUR JUSTIFICATION
Romans 4:24-25, 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, 25 He who was delivered over because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification.
How is the resurrection of Christ proof of our justification? How do we know Christ actually paid for sins, that His work on that cross was successful? How do we know God the Father accepted His sacrificial death, His propitiation for our sins? For three days that question remained unanswered. As Jesus’ lifeless body lay there in Joseph’s dark tomb, a victim of the curse of sin (although He never sinned), think of all the dying people, all the corpses, the battle fields, hospital beds, plagues cutting down entire regions, children and elderly dying from cancer, leukemia, loved ones slipping out of reach, succumbing to the pale horse named Death. Every day 178,000 people die. All hope beyond the grave hinges on what happens to that cold, dead body lying there.
Will this body rise? Will life, warmth, breath, movement come into Jesus’ body? One day, two days, three days. How monumental this was. Jesus said, “Tear this temple down and in three days I’ll raise it back up again.” He told the disciples, “They’ll kill me, but I’ll rise on the third day.” If His body remains till the fourth day – gone is all hope, we are still in our sins and under condemnation. If His body remains till the fourth day, we still face the wrath of God and we have no answer to give our children, to give the sick and dying, to comfort the persecuted. We descend into the dark blackness of nihilism. Life has no ultimate meaning. There’s no other hope; this life is all there is.
There have been glorious moments in history. On July 20, 1969, two men attempted to land on the moon in a lunar module. At 4:17 pm Neil Armstrong announced, “The Eagle has landed!” Mission Control in Houston erupted with celebration and relief! Half a billion people were watching on TV. Man had landed on the moon! Truly a glorious moment in human history.
But Christ’s resurrection transcends all other glorious moments in history. Heaven must have erupted with praise and glory when suddenly in that dark tomb Jesus body warmed, came to life, and He stood up, rolled up that head cloth and put it one place, laid the linen apart from it, and walked out of that tomb as the great Conqueror of sin and death forever and ever! His resurrection was God’s announcement to the world that what He accomplished on the cross was a success!
That’s what Paul means in Romans 4:25. The resurrection is the proof, the assurance that Christ has paid for sins in full. There isn’t another drop of wrath for God to pour out on His people. Christ cried out, “It is finished,” in the Greek, “tetelestai.” Sin is paid in full and the resurrection proves it! God is satisfied, sinners are redeemed, salvation is accomplished. That’s why Romans 5:1 assures every believer, “Having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” It is not we hope to have peace with God, or will some day, after working off our guilt, spending millions of years in purgatory. No, right now we have peace with God because Christ’s work was a colossal, eternal success and the resurrection proves it.
Maybe you’re not a true, genuine, no doubt about it believer in Christ. Listen to Romans 10:9, “If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved!” Do you stand with Thomas, now believing, “My Lord and my God?”
CHRIST’S RESURRECTION IS THE POWER OF OUR SANCTIFICATION
Where do we get the power to live this Christian life, to truly grow and change and get victory over our sins? The resurrection!
First, we are born again or given new spiritual life by resurrection power.
1 Peter 1:3, We have been born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Christ from the dead!
The life God gives us that makes us new creatures is resurrection life! Ephesians 2:5-6 says the same thing. When we were dead in our transgressions, “God raised us up together with Him.”
We are reborn by resurrection power, and we are transformed by resurrection power –
Ephesians 1:19-20, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places.
Look closely at this: power, greatness, surpassing. The power you have as a believer isn’t like resurrection power – it is resurrection power. Paul calls it the surpassing greatness of His power! Power is dunamis, a capacity to produce an effect. Then he describes it as greatness – megathos! Like those mega machines young boys love to watch. The resurrection power in you is megathos power. And then he adds surpassing, hyperbolic. NIV says incomparable! Way more than you need!
This isn’t a little putt-putt power that may not get you over the hill. No, this is more than enough power for you to live the Christian life to His glory. Like a jet engine empowering a MINI Cooper over the Rocky Mountains, there is plenty to spare! Every true believer in this place has an inner spiritual engine called “R-Powered”, Resurrection Powered. You have all you need to be loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, kind, gentle, good, self-controlled, and faithful. What is your weakness, your sin habit, your addiction? Lay it out there beside Christ’s resurrection power in your life, and you’re looking at an ant beside an elephant. That’s why we can’t say “I can’t.” Paul said in Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ who infuses His resurrection power into me!”
This is why we believe and teach that God has given us all we need to grow and change, to put off the deeds of the flesh and put on the fruit of the Spirit. You can be the kind of man or woman God wants you to be. You’re dealing with more than enough, incomparable, mega resurrection power! But I don’t feel very powerful. That’s okay. Christ told Paul, “My power is made perfect in your weakness.” You don’t feel this power, but you experience it as you obey Jesus Christ! That’s how it works. It’s kind of like Wi-Fi in this place. You don’t see it or feel it, but it’s there. All you have to do is turn on your phone and you’ll access it. That’s kind of how Christ’s resurrection power works in your life.
Resurrection power is experienced as we determine to obey Christ. Like the guy with the withered arm, he didn’t feel power, but he experienced it as he obeyed Christ and stretched out his arm. He could have said, “I can’t. I don’t have the power.” But Christ would have said, “Don’t worry about not feeling the power. Just stretch out your arm. I’ve got the power.” He obeyed and that’s when he experienced the power!
Aren’t we blessed? Empowered with resurrection power, we have a sufficiency to deal with those sinful habits and become more like Christ. Philippians 2:13 says God is energizing us to will and to do of His good pleasure. That energizing is resurrection power! Paul says in Ephesians 1:19-20 that Christ’s resurrection is the power of your progressive sanctification as you grow and become more and more like Christ.
CHRIST’S RESURRECTION IS THE PROMISE OF OUR FUTURE GLORIFICATION. God is so clear here.
1 Corinthians 15:20-23, But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep. For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ’s at His coming.
How do we know we will ever get new bodies, saved from the very presence of sin? Jesus declared, “Because I live, you too shall live!” Or as the song says, “Because He lives, I can face tomorrow.” 2 Timothy 1:10 says, “He abolished death and brought life and immortality to life through the gospel!”
Here’s where it gets even better – only because Christ arose from the grave! No other religious leader, no other human being ever did this. Only Christ arose and He is out there and He’s coming back.
1 Thessalonians 4:14-18, 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. 15 For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore comfort one another with these words.
He arose and ascended, and He’s coming back down to take us back up. That’s the rapture. He’s going to resurrect every dead believer at the rapture and change all the living believers. We all get brand new glorified bodies to forever be with the Lord! Do you believe this? Are you ready? Would you like a wonderful weight reduction program? Get your wrinkles smoothed, your aches and pains taken away, a brand new body just like Jesus body? How’s this for good news in a very depressing news cycle?
Philippians 3:21, Christ will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.
People, never forget that the physical resurrection of Jesus Christ is the linchpin of all the hope of our faith. Christ’s resurrection is the proof of our justification, the power for our ongoing progressive sanctification, and the bright promise of our coming glorification! When Thomas saw the risen Christ he confessed, “My Lord and my God.” Then Jesus said, “Blessed are those who, having not seen, yet believe.” What about you? Will you turn from going your own way and receive Christ as your Lord, God, and Savior? Can you say to Jesus Christ, “My Lord and my God?”