Why the Resurrection Matters

This episode contains portions from the following programs:

"The Reality of Resurrection"

"Celebrating Jesus"

"He Is the Resurrection and the Life"

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Dannah Gresh: I want to ask you an important question, "Do you actually believe in the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ?" I’m talking that His three-day lifeless body rose back up and walked this earth? I do.

And there’s an old song I like to play every Easter weekend . . . over and over. It just gives me chills when I get to the chorus. Indulge me; you’ll be glad you did.

Song: "Arise, My Love" by NewSong

Not a word was heard
At the tomb that day;
Just shuffling of soldiers feet
As they guarded the grave.
One day, two days,
Three days had past.
Could it be that Jesus
Breathed His last?

Could it be that His Father
Had forsaken him?
Turned his back on His son
Dispising our sin.

All hell seemed to whisper,
"Just forget Him, He's dead."
Then the Father looked down
To his son and he said.
 

Arise, My love
Arise, My love
The grave no longer
Has a hold on you.
No more death's sting
No more suffering.
Arise, arise my love.¹

Dannah: That was my friends in the band NewSong with "Arise, My Love."

Welcome to this special Easter edition of Revive Our Hearts Weekend. I’m Dannah Gresh. The bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ . . . it matters. What makes you confident that it happened? I’ll tell you what gets me every time: the disciples of Jesus! I mean, they were hiding or, like Peter, standing “at a distance.” Every single one of them was scared.

But then, they saw the risen body of Jesus and fear dissolved. They were so sure that Jesus was alive that they no longer feared the repercussions of being associated with Him. What turns the cowardly into courageous? I think it was a resurrection!

Resurrection Sunday! It’s what we observe this weekend. Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth is here to take us on a journey of remembering Jesus this Easter weekend. 

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: You want to endure in times of hardship and suffering? Remember Jesus Christ. He says, “Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel, for which I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal” (2 Tim. 2:8–9).

Now think about this for a moment. Paul is writing to Timothy. Timothy is a pastor. He’s a godly man. He’s got some insecurities. He’s got some fears, but he’s a man of God. He’s a young man of God.

But Timothy is a pastor. How could he forget Jesus Christ? You think, Paul would you need to tell Timothy "Remember Jesus Christ"? Why would you need to tell a pastor, “Remember Jesus Christ”? Why, for heaven’s sake, would he need to tell any of us, “Remember Jesus Christ”?

You know why? Because when we’re under pressure, when we’re facing hardship, we tend to forget Jesus. We tend to forget. Now, we don’t forget intellectually. We don’t forget His name.

But we forget Him so easily, and Paul says, “Don’t forget Him.” Remember Jesus Christ. In fact, the original language here stresses that this is a continuing action. Be continually remembering Jesus Christ—not just once or twice or three times, not just now, not just next week, but continually between now and the time you get to the end of the race, until you get to the finish line, be continually remembering Jesus Christ.

We need to remember His life, how He was born to a virgin, and born in Bethlehem—an obscure birth, but at the same time, worshiped by angels, by shepherds, and by wise men.

We need to remember how He grew up in Nazareth and lived among us. Paul says in 2 Timothy that He’s the offspring, or the descendent, of David. That says that He was a real man. He was flesh and blood. He knew what it was to be hungry, to be thirsty, to be tired, to be opposed.

He endured our pain and our suffering. He lived our life. He walked on our planet. He walked in our shoes. Remember His life.

But remember He was more than a man. He was God. He was the God-man, and the resurrection from the dead ultimately validated Him as the Son of God. He was God Himself.

But He lived a holy life. Remember that. Remember that He spoke the truth. Every time He spoke, He was speaking truth because He was the truth. He did miracles. He made the blind to see. He helped those who were lame to walk.

Remember as you look back on His life that He is Lord over all creation, and you see it throughout His earthly ministry over the wind and the waves, over all of creation. He’s powerful. He’s compassionate. He’s merciful.

I find it’s important to spend time regularly in the Gospels. You want to remember Jesus Christ? Be reading the Gospels. Now, Jesus is all through the Scriptures from Genesis to Revelation, but remember His life. Live in the Gospels. Focus there, not just in the Gospels, but keep remembering His life.

Remember His suffering and His sacrifice. Remember what some of us have known since we were little, little, little, but don’t forget it. Keep continually remembering that He was rejected, that He was opposed by the religious establishment.

Remember that He was falsely accused. He was mocked. He was scorned. He was cruelly persecuted. He was condemned to die as a criminal.

Remember that He prayed, if possible, to be spared from having to take on Himself the sin of the world, but that when He knew it was the Father’s will, He surrendered Himself from eternity past all the way to the cross to fulfill the will of the Father.

He said, “I delight to do Your will.” He lived that surrendered life. Remember as you think about His sufferings and His sacrifice that in the process of going to the cross and being rejected and being crucified, that He never became bitter.

He never lashed out at His enemies. Instead, He forgave those who crucified Him, laid down His life for His friends and for His enemies. Remember that. When you think your suffering is more than you can handle, remember Jesus Christ.

Remember His suffering and His sacrifice. Remember what He endured for you. Remember that when you are suffering as a believer, you are sharing in His sufferings.

I have a collection of emails from a dear friend who has been through some very, very difficult, excruciatingly difficult waters over the last several years. As I was preparing this series just in the last day or so, I looked up some of those emails and was just reminded of how this woman has endured by remembering Jesus Christ.

In one of those emails, she said, “If my hope was not in Him right now, I could not endure. His rejection and being despised, insulted, and afflicted, was so much, much greater than mine.”

She remembered Jesus Christ, and as she’s been continually remembering Christ and His sufferings, she has been given courage and grace to endure.

And then remember not just His suffering and His sacrifice, but as you remember Jesus Christ, remember His triumph over death, and as He triumphed over death, remember that He also triumphed over Satan and sin.

Remember His triumph. That’s what Paul said in verse 8 of 2 Timothy 2, “Remember Jesus Christ risen from the dead.” Risen from the dead. Remember that He didn’t stay on that cross. He didn’t stay in that tomb.

On the third day, He rose from the dead by the power of God. Remember that His humiliation turned into His exaltation. Remember that His suffering—His cross—is not the end of the story. And your suffering is not the end of the story.

Remember that there’s a resurrection beyond the cross. When Paul says, “Remember Jesus Christ risen from the dead,” that word risen underscores that fact that He rose, and He now lives.

He’s still alive. Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, triumphant over Satan and sin and death, and remember that the resurrected Christ lives in us and among us.

He is alive. He rose. He is risen, and as you think that your sufferings are perhaps, in some cases, going to take you under, that you may not be able to physically survive your sufferings—be they physical or financial, marital or relational, whatever the issue—remember that the resurrected Christ lives in you to give you hope. Because He has been raised from the dead, we too shall live with Him eternally.

Remember that when you think there’s no way you can make it. Remember Jesus Christ. Remember His power, His promise, and His presence.

Dannah: Remembering Jesus and His resurrection is so important, as Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth just explained. I hope this weekend you’ll spend some time remembering. The promise that He is risen is a lifeline for us. 

In order for us to get a bigger picture of why the resurrection matters so much, we need to go back to the beginning. Staci Rudolph and I looked back at the start of humanity on an episode of True Girl, that’s my podcast for seven to twelve year-old girls and their moms. I wanted to help girls—and you—to get a bigger picture of the power of the resurrection. 

Staci Rudolph: Resurrection is the action of being resurrected, which means to bring something that was dead back to life. For the record, I can’t do that. It would be pretty cool, though. I’d have a lot more plants around my house if I had that power!

Dannah: I probably would, too. So, we know that we can’t bring something back to life. But God can . . . and He did! Let’s go back in time, oh, a few thousand years to the Garden of Eden.

Staci: Back then, the world was perfect. Adam and Eve were there naming all the animals and birds and fish.

God walked with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. They enjoyed each other's presence and lived perfect lives. It was all so beautiful and full of life.

There was just one rule: God commanded them to eat freely of any tree in the garden except . . . the tree of the knowledge of good and evil . . . the one in the middle of the garden. God said, “If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die.”

Sadly, Satan came to Eve in the form of a snake. The snake lied to Eve and convinced her to eat from that tree. Adam and Eve sinned. They disobeyed God’s command. What did God say would happen if they ate from that tree? They would surely die! From that day on, humanity began to live with the reality of death and dying.

Adam and Eve were kicked out of the garden. They had to live a life separated from God, the One who made them, the One who loved and cherished them above all else. And for the rest of us, sin continues to separate us from God and move us towards death.

And, you probably know Jesus died on the cross as a punishment for all your sin and all my sin. But let me ask this. Why? Why did He do that?

Because sin separates us from God and from other people. I mean, have you ever lied to your mom or dad? Do you remember feeling far away from them because of that lie? That’s just one of the many horrible things sin does to us.

Dannah: Yes. You know, Staci, I am remembering a time when I lied to my dad, and I just felt farther and farther and farther away from him, until I couldn’t stand that feeling anymore. I actually had to confess to him that I lied to him. Sin does separate us from God, and it does separate us from other people. 

It’s evidence of being under the curse of sin and death. But from the beginning of time God set up the stage for the resurrection. Now, what’s that mean again?

Staci: To bring something that was dead back to life.

Dannah: Yes. And when Jesus came, He changed everything. He died so that we would not have to pay the price of sin. He came and gave His life on the cross. Since He lived a perfect life, without any sin, He was able to take all of our sin on Him. His death gave us a way to be close to God forever, it erased the power of death and offered us eternal life.

Staci: But here’s the really awesome news. Jesus didn’t stay dead. 

Dannah: Amen. 

Staci: Three days after he was crucified, He came back to life. He resurrected. 

Dannah: And that, my friend, is why you and I don’t have to live with the ultimate consequence of our sin. 

Let me read you a verse about that. Here’s John 8:36.

So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

Dannah: Because Jesus died, because Jesus was resurrected, you and I can be free! 

Staci: Yes! Now that is something to celebrate!

Dannah: Something to celebrate, indeed. As my friend Staci and I just talked about, we have the gift of eternal life because of Jesus’ death on the cross and His resurrection. 

Eternal life . . . that might be something hard to wrap our minds around now. But our time on this earth is but a speck compared to all of eternity. Nancy’s back to take us deeper into why the resurrection matters for eternal life in the future, and our lives right now. 

She takes us to the story of Mary and Martha, and their brother Lazarus who had been dead several days. Let’s go to John chapter 11, verses 25–26. 

Nancy: Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die [looking at Lazarus who had just died] yet shall he live, and everyone who lives [Martha, Mary, your friends, everyone who lives] and believes in me shall never die” (vv. 25–26).

So here Jesus reveals Himself as the “I AM”—the eternally existent Yahweh that we talked about some days ago. She had hope for the future, she believed in a resurrection that was coming “on the last day,” at end of the age, but she lacked hope for the present. And this name of Jesus means to her that resurrection, which she’d hoped for down the road, resurrection has come. Resurrection is right here, right now. Present hope.

Now, like so many of these other names of Jesus we’ve looked at, this one is also a claim to deity. Jesus is claiming to be God because only God has power of life and death. Only God can give life. All life originates with God. You remember reading in Genesis 2: “The Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature” (v. 7).

If you have breath, if you have life, you got it from God. You may not believe in God. You may claim to be an atheist, but if you’re breathing, you got your life from God. He is the source of all life.

So in saying, “I am the Resurrection and the Life” Jesus is saying again, I am God. I am the source and giver of life. Now, notice that Jesus doesn’t just say, “I will raise your brother from the dead” which is true. But Jesus says instead, “I am the Resurrection and the Life.” Not just what I will do, but who I am.

It’s a reminder that eternal life is wrapped up in Jesus. It’s embodied in Jesus, in belief in Him, in a relationship with Him. There is no physical life apart from God breathing life into us. And there is no eternal life, no spiritual life apart from Jesus who is the Resurrection and the life.

So you see, the resurrection is not just an event. It is that. But more than that it is a Person. I am the Resurrection and the Life. Our hope of eternal life beyond the grave is not found in some abstract theological concept, but it’s found in a Person. Jesus is the answer to death.

You see, we were created to live forever. We have sinned. The result is death. We’re born spiritually dead, the Bible tells us, separated from God who is Life. We all die physically, as well. So on every front we’ve got death to anticipate. That’s what we have to look forward to is death—physical and spiritual. And that’s where Jesus comes in—the Resurrection and the Life!

Jesus became a man; He lived a sinless life; He tasted death for every man, Hebrews 2 tells us. Acts tells us, “You killed the Author of life.” How’d you like that on your resume? “You killed the Author of life,” but death couldn’t keep Him because Act 3 goes on to say: "God raised [him] from the dead”(v. 15). You killed Him. God raised Him from the dead. So Jesus died and came back to life again so that we might have eternal life. He gave us life by taking our death.

This whole concept of “life” is a recurring theme in the Gospel of John. Sometime as you read through the Gospel of John just circle all the times you see the word “life.” You’ll see it about forty-three times. The phrase “eternal life” you’ll see eighteen times in the Gospel of John. And that life comes only through Jesus who is the Resurrection and the Life.

So you see this theme all the way through the Gospel of John.

In him was life, and the life was the light of men. (John 1:4)

Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. (John 3:36)

And then a lot of talk about life, keep your finger in John 11, and if you’re following along in your Bible, turn for just a moment to John 5, a lot of talk about life in John 5. We’ll come back to Lazarus in just a moment.

For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will . . . Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.

Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. (vv. 21, 24–25)

Do you think that maybe Martha had about Jesus saying those words before He got to Bethany? Maybe that’s where a seed of faith was planted in her heart.

For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. . . . Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment. (vv. 26, 28–29)

Now, a lot we could say about that last verse, but I just want to point out that in the last day, all will be resurrected. All those dead bodies will be resurrected. Those who have believed in Christ and evidenced that faith by obeying Him, they will be raised to eternal life. Those who have not believed in Christ and have evidenced that by not being willing to obey Him, they will be raised up. They are still in their sin, and they will pass on to eternal judgment.

There are only two options, and it all hinges on believing what Jesus said in John 11, go back there now, verse 25:

Jesus said [to her], “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die." (vv. 25–26)

Now it’s not enough just to hear Jesus say these words, to be exposed to this truth. Jesus asked Martha in verse 26, “Do you believe this?” Do you believe what I’ve said? He’s really saying, “Do you believe in Me? Do you believe that I am who I say I am?” This believing means not just intellectual assent, but it means personal faith and trust being placed in Jesus.

This is huge because in this passage we see that whether you believe in Him or not is a matter of life or death, eternal life or death. So that’s a question we all need to answer when we hear what Jesus says about life, about death, about faith, about the resurrection, about Himself. The question is: “Do you believe this? Do you believe Me?” Well, verse 27:

She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”

Now, there’s a lot Martha still doesn’t understand, but one thing she does believe and that is He is who He said He was. He is the Christ, the Son of God, the promised Messiah. And because she knows He is who He claimed to be, she knows she can believe and rely on His promises. So here in this moment, faith in who Jesus is, displaces and overcomes her doubts, her confusion, her despair, her fear. It’s faith in Jesus that makes the all difference in her life at this moment as they come to the graveside of her brother.

So what about you? Do you believe that Jesus is who He claimed to be? Do you believe that those who die believing in Jesus have eternal life? 

Dannah: I do, I sure do! Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth with some important questions for you to think about. As you’ve listened today, I pray you’ve seen the wonder of Jesus’ resurrection on a deeper level. I hope you see why the resurrection matters so much for you today and for eternity. 

May this weekend be full of celebrating our risen Savior. well, we started today with an old song. I want to end our time together with a newer one by Chris Tomlin. It’s called "Precious Love."

Oh the precious love of Jesus,
Oh the fount of grace divine.
Flowing as a mighty river
Washing sinners in its tide.
There will never be another
In whose pain we are redeemed.
Oh the precious love of Jesus,
Oh He loves you and me.²

He is worthy! Thanks for listening today, and I hope you have a wonderful Resurrection Sunday. 

I’m Dannah Gresh. We’ll see you next time for Revive Our Hearts Weekend.

This program is a listener-supported production of Revive Our Hearts in Niles, Michigan, calling women to freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness in our risen Christ.

¹“Arise My Love,” NewSong, The Very Best of NewSong, ℗ 2005 Provident Label Group, LLC.

²“Precious Love,” Chris Tomlin, Always, ℗ 2022 RiverMusic Holdings, LP, under exclusive license to Capitol CMG, Inc.

*Offers available only during the broadcast of the podcast season.