The Resurrection of Jesus

Hello people, how are you? I write today after quite a short break as I have been asked to write something on The Resurrection of Jesus, so here comes this article.

Well now resurrection (rising from the dead) can only after death just eternal life only came after Jesus came. Let us read some interesting scripture from the book of Amos in the Old Testament.

Amos 8:7-10
7 The Lord, the God of Israel, has sworn, “I will never forget their evil deeds. 8 And so the earth will quake, and everyone in the land will be in distress. The whole country will be shaken; it will rise and fall like the River Nile. 9 The time is coming when I will make the sun go down at noon and the earth grow dark in daytime. I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken. 10 I will turn your festivals into funerals and change your glad songs into cries of grief. I will make you shave your heads and wear sackcloth, and you will be like parents mourning for their only child. That day will be bitter to the end.

When I read the above scripture what the Spirit revealed to me was that this was about the death of Jesus, let us read the New Testament record of a few moments before Jesus died.

Matthew 27:45-46,50-54
45 At noon the whole country was covered with darkness, which lasted for three hours. 46 At about three o’clock Jesus cried out with a loud shout, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why did you abandon me?”
50 Jesus again gave a loud cry and breathed his last.
51 Then the curtain hanging in the Temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split apart,
52 the graves broke open, and many of God’s people who had died were raised to life. 53 They left the graves, and after Jesus rose from death, they went into the Holy City, where many people saw them.
54 When the army officer and the soldiers with him who were watching Jesus saw the earthquake and everything else that happened, they were terrified and said, “He really was the Son of God!”

Jesus was cut off from His Father and the Spirit during His time of death, as He went to the cross taking on Him the penalty all the sin (1Peter 2:24) of the world (John 1:29), Biblically sin cuts people from God (Isaiah 59:2) as God said he would never forget the evil of His people (Amos 8:7) and so He forgot His Son dying on the cross, thus Jesus cried “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” (Mat 27:46) on the cross.

1Peter 2:24
Christ himself carried our sins in his body to the cross, so that we might die to sin and live for righteousness. It is by his wounds that you have been healed.

John 1:29
The next day John saw Jesus coming to him, and said, “There is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!

Isaiah 59:2
It is because of your sins that he doesn’t hear you. It is your sins that separate you from God when you try to worship him.

Let us do a comparative study of Amos 8:7-10 materializing in the New Testament as the death of Jesus.

• “Earth will quake, the whole country will be shaken”: Amos 8:7 fulfilled Mat 27:51,54.
• “Everyone in the land in distress”: Amos 8:7 fulfilled Mat 27:24 (Roman governor Pilate refuses to pass sentence over Jesus but the idea of the Roman governor Pilate giving in to the crowd due to the reason of being unable to contain the riot shows the distress in the land)

Matthew 27:24
24 When Pilate saw that it was no use to go on, but that a riot might break out, he took some water, washed his hands in front of the crowd, and said, “I am not responsible for the death of this man! This is your doing!”

• “sun go down at noon and the earth grow dark in daytime”: Amos 8:9 fulfilled Mat 27:45
• “turn your festivals into funerals and change your glad songs into cries of grief”: Amos 8:10 fulfilled Mat 15:6-11,15 & Luke 23:27

Matthew 15:6-11,15
6 At every Passover Festival Pilate was in the habit of setting free any one prisoner the people asked for. 7 At that time a man named Barabbas was in prison with the rebels who had committed murder in the riot. 8 When the crowd gathered and began to ask Pilate for the usual favour, 9 he asked them, “Do you want me to set free for you the king of the Jews?” 10 He knew very well that the chief priests had handed Jesus over to him because they were jealous.
11 But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to ask, instead, for Pilate to set Barabbas free for them.
…
15 So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified.

Luke 23:27 (People following Jesus on His way to the cross)
27 A large crowd of people followed him; among them were some women who were weeping and wailing for him.

• About shaving heads and wear sackcloth (Amos 8:10), that is what people in the time of Amos (middle of 8 century BC) used to do during mourning but the tradition of mourning changed as time passed & just ask we grind our masala (spices) now-a-days in a electric mixer rather that on a grinding stone in the same way the people of Jesus time mourned very differently from the time of Amos. The New Testament however keeps no record of people mourning for Jesus after His death for what He did on the cross was Good, being the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world. Thus we observe Good Friday. The disciples did mourn & this was said by Omniscient Jesus before His death.

Matthew 9:14-15
14 Then the followers of John the Baptist came to Jesus, asking, “Why is it that we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples don’t fast at all?”
15 Jesus answered, “Do you expect the guests at a wedding party to be sad as long as the bridegroom is with them? Of course not! But the day will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.

Note:-
1. Omniscient means having complete or unlimited knowledge, awareness, or understanding; perceiving all things.
2. The Church’s (believers in Jesus) union with God is Biblically compared to a marriage.

• “and you will be like parents mourning for their only child” from Amos 8:10 refers to the only Son of God that The Father s gave unto His people (Mat 21:37) hoping they would accept Him as their own (John 1:11), which many did not and this Son they put to death and made that day bitter to the end (Amos 8:10).

Matthew 21:37
Last of all he sent his son to them. ‘Surely they will respect my son,’ he said.

John 1:11,14
11 He came to his own country, but his own people did not receive him.
…
14 The Word became a human being and, full of grace and truth, lived among us. We saw his glory, the glory which he received as the Father’s only Son.

For the above the same Christian view of the true death of Jesus, many would have quoted Isaiah 52:13 & Isaiah 53 but being an ex-math student I love to come to the same conclusion trying a different approach & this is what seals the Bible uniquely as complete, genuine & truly from God because no matter what solution you are looking for in the Bible, as long you are receiving from the Bible what is been given rather than just picking what you are comfortable with, then you will always wind up finding your way; believing in Jesus. You know when people asked Jesus what God want them to do, he did not say the primary thing was fasting or praying or charity or visiting holy places. Let us see what he said.

John 6:28-29
28 So they asked him, “What can we do in order to do what God wants us to do?”
29 Jesus answered, “What God wants you to do is to believe in the one he sent.”

Now talking of Resurrection and eternal life, the Old Testament men of God rose from their death after the time Jesus was resurrected (Mat 27:52-53), these people were then seen the city & they then went into God’s presence (heaven).

Hosea 6:2
In two or three days he will revive us, and we will live in his presence.

The only thing we need to grasp about eternal life & about rising from death; is Jesus, He is Biblically God’s only Son (John 3:16) and is God’s firstborn (Colossians 1:15) because He existed before all things (Colossians 1:17) & was the first to be as man, raised from the dead (Revelation 1:5).

John 3:16
For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not die but have eternal life.

Colossians 1:15
Christ is the visible likeness of the invisible God. He is the firstborn Son, superior to all created things.
…
Christ existed before all things, and in union with him all things have their proper place.

Revelation 1:5
and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the first to be raised from death and who is also the ruler of the kings of the world. He loves us, and by his sacrificial death he has freed us from our sins

Resurrection (rising from the dead) my friends, is only worth while if death cannot touch you again. According to the Daniel 12:2 in the Old Testament, not all who die will rise & from those who rise some will enjoy eternal life while the others suffer eternal disgrace. The Bible also speaks of 2 deaths first being the crumbling of our bodies physically and second death being been thrown into hell fire (Mat 25:41; Rev 21:8). When Jesus went back to heaven, He sent the Holy Spirit to us (John 15:26) that we may to listen to Him (Spirit) & so remain in Jesus thus being saved from the second death (Rev 2:11).

Daniel 12:2
Many of those who have already died will live again: some will enjoy eternal life, and some will suffer eternal disgrace.

Matthew 25:41
…Away to the eternal fire which has been prepared for the Devil and his angels!

Revelation 21:8
… lake burning with fire and sulphur, which is the second death.”

John 15:26 (Jesus’ word)
“The Helper will come — the Spirit, who reveals the truth about God and who comes from the Father. I will send him to you from the Father, and he will speak about me.

Revelation 2:11 (Jesus word)
11 “If you have ears, then, listen to what the Spirit says to the churches!
“Those who win the victory will not be hurt by the second death.

So you see the Spirit keep speaking to us about Jesus and in remaining in Jesus till the end we have victory over the second death or shall I more optimistically say eternal life in union with Christ (Romans 6:23).

Romans 6:23
For sin pays its wage — death; but God’s free gift is eternal life in union with Christ Jesus our Lord.

Check this scripture too; Amos 8:11-14
11 “The time is coming when I will send famine on the land. People will be hungry, but not for bread; they will be thirsty, but not for water. They will hunger and thirst for a message from the Lord. I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken. 12 People will wander from the Dead Sea to the Mediterranean and then on from the north to the east. They will look everywhere for a message from the Lord, but they will not find it. 13 On that day even healthy young men and women will collapse from thirst. 14 Those who swear by the idols of Samaria, who say, ‘By the god of Dan,’ or, ‘By the god of Beersheba’ — those people will fall and not rise again.”

You can see in verse 11, the spiritual depravity/famine God said he would bring on the world, may be these are the days we live in today. People wander distant places considering them as holy, these venture far out seeking God (verse 12) and in all this even the healthiest (soundest) of people fall prey to Satan (collapse) (verse 13) for they would have found and clung to god/gods (one or many) (verse 14)other than Yahweh (Father Jesus Spirit).

My last piece of Scripture that closes this article is the answer to the question posed in the above Amos 8:11-14 regarding the spiritual depravity/famine/vacuum being set in this world for God. As I said earlier the only thing we need to grasp about eternal life & about rising from death; is Jesus.

John 6:35-40 (Jesus’ word)
35 “I am the bread of life,” Jesus told them. “Those who come to me will never be hungry; those who believe in me will never be thirsty. 36 Now, I told you that you have seen me but will not believe. 37 Everyone whom my Father gives me will come to me. I will never turn away anyone who comes to me, 38 because I have come down from heaven to do not my own will but the will of him who sent me. 39 And it is the will of him who sent me that I should not lose any of all those he has given me, but that I should raise them all to life on the last day. 40 For what my Father wants is that all who see the Son and believe in him should have eternal life. And I will raise them to life on the last day.”