What Happens If the Resurrection Isn’t True?
If the resurrection isn’t real, everything falls apart, but if it is, it changes everything. This message explores why the risen Christ reshapes our faith, our hope, and how we live right now.
-
The Resurrection
1 When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. 2 And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. 3 And they were saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?” 4 And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back—it was very large. 5 And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed. 6 And he said to them, “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here. See the place where they laid him. 7 But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.” 8 And they went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.
[Some of the earliest manuscripts do not include 16:9–20.][a]
Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalene
[[9 Now when he rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons. 10 She went and told those who had been with him, as they mourned and wept. 11 But when they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they would not believe it.
Jesus Appears to Two Disciples
12 After these things he appeared in another form to two of them, as they were walking into the country. 13 And they went back and told the rest, but they did not believe them.
The Great Commission
14 Afterward he appeared to the eleven themselves as they were reclining at table, and he rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen. 15 And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. 16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.
Friday or Sunday: The Reality That Changes Everything
There is a grand eternal help that has been offered to each of us.
I have been doing this for decades, and over the years, you notice a few things. I am mindful that many people believe in the resurrection. But people are often not changed by believing in the resurrection.
When we hear this news, and we are not changed by it, something diabolical is at work. Easter is not a ghost story. Something happened at Easter that has the potential of changing every life. Something happened at Easter that has the power to change the future, the forever life of everyone.
C.S. Lewis once said, “What are we to make of Christ? There is no question of what we can make of him. It is entirely a question of what he intends to make of us. You must accept or reject the story.”
Many people have studied and worked very hard to earn certification in a field or discipline. They have worked hard on degrees, licenses, and certifications. But how much have they studied, I mean really, with due diligence, studied the claims by which we gather at Easter? How many have really studied and reflected on the implications that it carries for their one and only life?
Reason with me for a moment. If there is a God (no surprise to you that I believe that there is), if there is a God, and if He has sent His Son Jesus Christ to this planet, and if He died on a cross and defeated death, and knowing the claims that He makes about your one and only life, these things are worthy of consideration. These claims are worthy of sober consideration. These claims are worthy of being weighed as of the utmost importance. Otherwise, life may very well be meaningless.
Blind Pitiless Indifference?
Many are familiar with the new atheists who hit North America like a wave about 10 to 15 years ago. Hitchens, Dawkins. Read this one statement that Richard Dawkins made:
“In a universe of blind physical forces and genetic replication, some people are going to get hurt, other people are going to get lucky, and you won’t find any rhyme or reason in it, nor any justice. The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, and no good, nothing but blind, pitiless indifference. DNA neither knows nor cares. DNA just is, and we dance to its music.”
The question is: does that kind of fatalism and hopelessness define our existence?
Counter that with some of the things Jesus taught. Jesus claims that a day is coming when there will be justice. Jesus claims a day is coming when all of creation will be restored. Jesus claims that a day is coming when there will be no more wars, no more pain, no more tears, no more cancers, no more disease, no more dying. Jesus claims a day is coming when people who know Him will live forever on a recreated planet.
When you read a statement like Dawkins’, is this what I would say to my own mother years ago when she lay dying, way too young, after a sudden aneurysm? Would I lean down in my own mother’s ear and say: “Mom, you will just have to dance to the music of blind, pitiless indifference”?
No. Because there are realities that are beyond what is physical, and that reality is love.
My brother and I and our family literally leaned over in my mother’s ear, because love matters, and said, “Mom, we love you. We are here at your side. You are not alone.” That is what love does. Love has the proclivity to magnify what ultimately is most true.
Love will always magnify what is ultimately true. So what does this have to do with Easter?
When we say the stone was rolled away on this day, it often comes off like a casual Easter greeting. But I would remind you that this is something God initiated. Matthew 28:2-4:
“And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men.”
When the women came to the tomb in Mark 16:4, “they looked up and saw that the stone had been rolled back—it was very large.”
Here is the question: why point that out? Because we do need to note that it was God who rolled the stone away. Why? Why would God roll the stone away? I mean, is it not true for those of you who have read your Bibles that you are aware that when Jesus takes on a resurrected body, He passes through walls? Why not let Jesus rise from the dead and pass through the walls of the tomb?
Well, here is the deal. God did not roll the stone away for Jesus. God rolled away the stone for the women to see. God rolled away the stone so that we could see.
Love magnifies what is most true. Love will always magnify what is ultimately true.
Verse 5 tells us they entered the tomb. They saw a young man clothed in a long white robe sitting on the right side. They were alarmed because Jesus was not there. Critics of the resurrection often say, “Well, does not the Bible contradict itself? One gospel says there is one angel. Another gospel says there are two.”
I would just submit to you that it only corroborates what happened. When Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John were recording these events, the details are slightly different, but they are observing that something significant has happened. The body is not there. The grave clothes are positioned next to where the body was, which indicates that a thief did not steal the body.
And so the angel says in Mark 16:6: “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen!”
Your Greatest Fear Overcome
I submit to you that the reality of the resurrection actually ministers and gives you power in Christ over your greatest fear. Your greatest fear is morbidity, that your life is limited. And because if you have faith in the person of Jesus Christ, because He lives, you will live.
Is there anything more significant than that reality? Anything more significant than that truth, that in Christ’s death has been overcome, including yours?
This is why the psalmist would say in Psalm 16:11: “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures,” and note this word, “forevermore.” God is declaring that in Christ, there is an eternity set apart for you.
The statistics, as you are aware, on death are quite impressive. We find that in all the studies that have been done, 10 out of every 10 people will die. The Bible says in Psalm 89:48: “What man can live and never see death? Who can deliver his soul from the power of Sheol?” We see it in Hebrews 9:27: “It is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment.”
Church, please understand I am not teaching this out of Scripture to be morbid. I am speaking this to magnify the hope that your greatest fear is overcome by a person. There really is hope, living hope. His name is Jesus.
Why Jesus Wept
I remember Bible drills when I was a child, and there would always be a fifth-grade boy who would try to be cute when the teacher said, “Have you memorized your verse?” The boy would say, “Yes, ma’am. ‘Jesus wept’” (John 11:35).
Have you ever wondered why Jesus was weeping in that moment? He was at the tomb of Lazarus. He was about to raise Lazarus from the dead. Why would you be sad when you already know the outcome?
The Bible does not tell us, but I will share my hunch. Jesus, I believe, was experiencing deep intimacy with His heavenly Father in this moment. He was experiencing a revelation in His own heart about what was about to take place.
When Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, this kicked things into motion, whereby the Pharisees said, “Now we have got to kill him.” Jesus was aware that this was the one act that was going to take the Pharisees over the threshold.
In communion with the Father, He heard as if the Father was saying: “What I am about to do in Lazarus in raising him from the dead, Jesus, I am going to do in you. Only for you, it is going to be eternal. And what I am about to do in you will be done for all persons who put their faith in the Son.”
That is why Jesus said: “Because I live, you also will live” (John 14:19).
“In the resurrection, we have the presence of the future. The power by which God will finally destroy all suffering, evil, deformity, and death at the end of time has broken into history now and is available—catch the nuance in what is coming—partially, but substantially now, when we unite with the risen Christ by faith. That future power that is potent enough to remake the universe comes into us.” Tim Keller
That is why Jesus said these mind-boggling things in Revelation 1:17-18: “Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.”
Jesus has authority over life. He has authority over death. He has authority over hell. He has authority over the grave.
Why Was Jesus Crucified?
This gets us into this question: why was Jesus crucified? Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 15:3: “Christ died for our sins.”
There is a sin problem in all of us. Every moment of drunkenness is a result of sin. Every tension you have in a relationship is a result of sin. Every conflict between people in your office or workplace is a result of sin.
Jesus said that sin begins in the heart. In the Sermon on the Mount, He shared that it is a sin to commit murder. However, if you hate someone, you have already committed the sin of murder in your heart (Matthew 5:21-22). Jesus said sex outside of marriage is a sin, but if you have looked upon a person and lusted for them, you have already committed adultery in your heart (Matthew 5:27-28).
We have a sin problem. The New Testament defines sin with a Greek word called hamartia. It means to miss the mark of God’s direction, God’s leading, or what God has made clear in our lives.
The Bible says in Romans 3:23: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:10: “None is righteous, no, not one.” 1 John 1:8: “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”
Jesus Christ was crucified on a cross for our sins. He did not sin. We have sinned, but He paid our debt. He paid a debt He did not owe. We owed a debt we could not pay.
I was standing in line in a grocery store in rural Alabama, and there was this woman with her two children who got up to pay. She pulled out her food stamps, but she did not have enough to pay. She turned to wipe the nose of one of her children, and a man standing in line behind her, witnessing what was happening, grabbed cash out of his pocket, slipped it over to the cashier, and paid her debt. He took care of it.
God gives you salvation in Christ as a free gift, but you have to open it.
The death of Jesus Christ on the cross was a substitutionary act for you. A number of years ago, I was asked to speak at a missions conference. I felt very honored that I was invited. Then I found out I was their second choice. Their first choice was a well-known missional leader on a global level. I was his substitute.
Church, Jesus is your substitute. Sometimes, when you look at a cross, particularly one where Jesus is hanging there, you could ask the question: why is that man hanging on the cross? Here is the answer: He is subbing for you.
That is why the Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5:21: “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
None of us are righteous on our own. But through what Christ has done on the cross, substituting for us, taking God’s judgment, this is a free gift.
He Has Risen
Mark 16:6 tells us: “He has risen!” All the Gospels record that Jesus Christ rose from the dead. There are men and women who proclaim it throughout the book of Acts and throughout the New Testament. After 40 days had passed, Jesus appeared to many. He appeared to Mary Magdalene first, then to the two on the road to Emmaus, and the Bible records that over 500 people saw Him in His resurrected form (1 Corinthians 15:6).
In fact, people were willing to suffer and die for that truth. Men and women who formerly ran away as cowards before His resurrection now testify to His resurrection, and they are willing to die for that truth. Peter, Paul, and John suffer in exile.
This is why Blaise Pascal makes the statement: “I believe the witnesses that get their throats cut for their testimony.”
G.B. Hardy, a Canadian scientist, once asked the question when he was contemplating if he should have faith in the person of Jesus Christ. He said, “When I look at religion, I have two questions. Has anybody ever conquered death? And the second question: if they did, did they make a way for me to conquer death?”
He writes: “I checked the tomb of Buddha, and it was occupied. I checked the tomb of Confucius, and it was occupied. I checked the tomb of Muhammad and it was occupied, and I came to the tomb of Jesus and it was empty. And I said, there is one who has conquered death. And I asked the second question: did He make a way for me to do it? And I opened my Bible, and I discovered that He said, ‘Because I live, you also will live.’”
It’s Not Too Late
Loved ones, have you ever read your Bible and come across details, and you wonder: why is that detail in there? What is the purpose of this particular detail? I think about the woman who had the issue of blood. The Bible gives a detail: she had suffered for 12 years (Mark 5:25). There is another story where Jesus healed a woman who was bent over. Maybe she had scoliosis, and she had suffered for 18 years (Luke 13:11). Then there is another story of a man at the pool of Siloam who could not walk, and he had suffered for 38 years (John 5:5).
Why does the Bible give details like 12 years, 18 years, 38 years? You know why, church family? Because God wants you to know it is not too late for you.
You may have been conditioned by your condition for so long that you have lost sight of the fact that it is not too late. You are not too far gone for the love of God, for the mercy of God, for the grace of God.
You do not want to walk in the power of Friday when Jesus is hanging on a cross, and things move in a direction of deadness. You want to move in the direction of Sunday, where Jesus has a heartbeat, where Jesus has life that He offers you.
The resurrection has happened in history so that there would be power available to change your history.
I know that is a bold statement, but there is power in what Jesus Christ did on Sunday. This is why Augustine makes the statement: “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in you.”
Friday or Sunday?
When we were conducting our first church plant, there was a fellow pastor about four miles down the highway. We built a relationship with one another. He was an African American pastor who pastored an African American congregation and was revitalizing a church. I was planting one.
We agreed that his church would come to our church on a Wednesday night, and we would share a worship service together. And then the next month, we would go to his church. So he came to our church. Their choir filled the balcony. The glory of God was so amazing, I thought the roof was going to come off. Then the next month we went to their church.
When I was preaching, there was a sweet old lady who began to wave a handkerchief. There was an African American brother who was going, “Help him, Lord, help him.” But the more I preached, the liberty seemed to increase in that place.
When I finished preaching, I turned to the senior pastor and said, “How about that?” And the senior pastor sat me down on the platform, and he said to me, “Boy, just watch.”
He got in the pulpit, and he began to say to people that he loved deeply: “It’s Friday. Jesus is hanging on the cross. The devil’s dancing with glee. But that’s Friday. Sunday’s coming. Friday, the people are bound up in fear. But Sunday’s coming. Perfect love is about to rise from the dead and liberate humanity from fear for all those who will turn to Him. That Friday, Jesus is in the grave. People are full of anxiety. But Sunday’s coming. There’s a liberation coming.”
For the next several minutes, he went back and forth: “Friday. Sunday’s coming. Friday. Sunday’s coming.” And that place erupted.
He asked this question: What’s it going to be? Living in the reality of Friday, or living into the reality of Sunday?
That is the question. Jesus came and hung on a cross to take our sins, and if we come to Him, confess them, and repent, He will forgive us. Not only will He forgive us, He extends mercy. We do not get what we deserve, and He fills our hearts with His grace.
When we repent and turn to Him in faith and trust that He is who He says He is, that He is risen from the dead, we do not have to live in the reality of the deadness of a Friday, but we live into the new life that Christ has made available on Sunday.
TL;DR
The resurrection is not a side belief—it is the foundation that holds the entire Christian faith together.
Without the resurrection, faith is empty, sin remains, and hope is lost, but because Christ is risen, everything changes.
Jesus’ resurrection is the firstfruits, guaranteeing that those who belong to Him will also be raised.
The promise of resurrection reshapes how we live today with hope, purpose, and confidence in what is to come.
