You can probably think of someone who seems like just the sort of person God would use—someone, say, with fantastic gifts and an attractive personality. Perhaps you’ve wished you were like that person or that you had this gift or that quality so you could be more useful for Christ. Yet while it’s good to want to grow, we must remember: we often don’t measure usefulness the way God does.
The rising of Christ from the dead is at the heart of the Christian message. If Jesus is not alive, our message is in vain and our lives are without hope. In a selection of sermons, Alistair Begg explains the importance of the resurrection of Christ and that it demands a response from all.
April 18, 2022
“Let us rejoice in the Lord always; let us show the world that we are a happy and a blessed people.” — C.H. Spurgeon
The Gospel writers introduce us to several followers of Jesus who turned out to be scoundrels and scoundrels transformed to be saints. In her book Saints and Scoundrels in the Story of Jesus, author Nancy Guthrie takes a close-up look at some of these individuals, including Caiaphas and Zacchaeus, and also several groups of people, like the Pharisees and Jesus’ own family, so that we can better understand their motives, hopes, fears, flaws, successes, and failures.
It’s hard to fathom Jesus Christ’s final, agonizing hours upon a Roman cross. The floggings, the torture, and the humiliation He had endured were reserved for the worst of criminals. It is no wonder, then, that with His last breath, Jesus cried out in a loud voice “Tetélestai!”—“It is finished” (John 19:30).
The historicity of Jesus’ death by crucifixion is widely accepted. Jesus’ resurrection, on the other hand, is still met with doubt. Everyone dies, after all, but very few people in history, even as the Bible records it, have experienced someone coming back from the dead. So from the beginning, the resurrection, and particularly its implications, has proven a stumbling block for many.
“God, in the immensity of His love, has taken and credited me the righteousness of Jesus Christ, a credit that is entirely undeserved. Why would I then do anything other than grant to people something of that same measure of forgiveness?” — Alistair Begg
The central message of the book of Hebrews is the superiority of Jesus Christ. Chapter after chapter declares that Jesus surpasses all that came before Him and all that exists in creation. This glorious truth leads the writer to conclude that the new covenant Jesus inaugurated is superior to the old covenant with its laws, regulations, priests, and sacrifices—including in the way it deals with a guilty conscience.
In Philippians 3:20, Paul lays down a principle that has been a great hope for each ensuing generation of believers: “Our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.” Peter puts this concept another way in his first letter, calling the Christians to whom he writes “sojourners and exiles” in their own country (1 Peter 2:11).
“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” John 14:6–7 (ESV)
