Matthew 28:6 (NIV) “He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.”

While Jesus was here on earth, He did many amazing and miraculous things that people had never seen or experienced before. He healed everyone who came to Him to be healed, no matter what it was that they were suffering. He opened blind eyes, enabled the lame to walk, healed lepers from their leprosy, cast out demons from the demon-possessed and even raised dead people back to life. It’s a wonder that everyone in Israel didn’t bow their knees in praise and adoration to Him. But that just shows how depraved the sinful human condition is that we all suffer from. At the end of the Book of John, John says that if everything that Jesus did while here on earth were to be written down in books, the world would not be big enough to contain them. But having said all of that, it wouldn’t have mattered what He did if one event had not happened: His resurrection.

The resurrection is what put the final exclamation point on Jesus’ ministry and what proved beyond all doubt who He was. This proved that He was the Messiah, the Son of God, God in the flesh. If the resurrection has not happened, we would still be waiting for the promised Messiah. But He did rise and He is alive, sitting at the right hand of the Father (Mark 16:19). But some might argue that we just say that He resurrected, but that perhaps that story was made up. But there is irrefutable proof that He did rise from the tomb. First, there’s the empty tomb. Did you know that the argument that skeptics use is not that the tomb was not empty, but that the body was stolen. They couldn’t say that it wasn’t empty because there were too many eyewitnesses that saw that the tomb was empty. But arguing that the body was stolen doesn’t work because there happened to be professional Roman legionary soldiers, not temple guards, ordered by Pilate to guard the tomb and make it as secure as possible. The custom was to assign a sixteen-man squad to take turns in four shifts. Then there was the Romans imperial seal on the tomb, which meant that anyone who tampered with it would be put to death. In addition, there is the fact that many people saw Jesus after He rose. He rose and there is no doubt about it unless you just want to make up your own truth.

The fact that Jesus rose is everything. It means that He is who He said He was, that our eternity is secured and that our bodies will rise from the dead also after we die. When believers die, their spirits go to be with the Father in heaven, but the body remains here on earth. But when Jesus comes back for all of His people, the Word of God says that the dead in Christ will rise first. What a glorious day that will be, and it’s all because Jesus rose! Praise the Lord, for He has risen! He has risen just as He said He would.

Pastor Joey Vazquez