Resurrection talk.

If you tell a group of people that you believe that Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ, rose from the dead in a glorified human body, you will probably encounter disbelief and/or ridicule! Many people won't even consider the possibility that Jesus rose from the dead, claiming that it is a 'scientific' absurdity. 

This, however, should not discourage those of us who do believe. Indeed, the resurrection of Jesus is one of history's best-attested events. In addition, billions of people have experisnced His life-transforming power by placing their trust, unreservedly, in Him.

Michael Green tells of a visit he made to a cancer specialist who was dying of leukemia while still in his forties. When his condition was diagnosed, the man would have claimed to have been an agnostic. However, he read a couple of books that were used to bring him to a clear and joyful faith in the risen Christ. He was also angry! "Why", he asked, "have I never had the evidence put to me, clearly, before?"

Frank Morison (literary pseudonym for Albert Henry Ross - no relation!) was a printer, advertiser, and journalist, whose attention was captured by the "strangeness" of the Resurrection story. Influenced by skeptical thinkers in the early part of the last century, he set out to prove that the whole story was nothing more than a myth. His research, however, led him to discover the validity of the Biblical record in a moving, and personal, way. His intellectually honest research - not starting from the assumption that the Gospel records are inerrant, Divine revelation, but treating them, rather, as human documents subject to histrorical analysis and verification - forced him to the conclusion that the literal resurrection of Jesus from the dead, is a fact that the Gospel writers correctly report, and interpret. "Who moved the stone?" is still well-worth reading!

Paul, writing to the believers in Corinth, has this to say: "Now if Christ is preached as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised; 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 of God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised. If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all men most to be pitied. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep." (I Cor:15:12-20).

"The Lord is risen!" "He is risen indeed." is not just a traditional greeting for Resurrection Day. It is a glorious truth, that others need to hear! The spiritually dead need to hear about the living Saviour.