1 John 1:1

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and our hands have handled concerning the word of life. The life was manifested and we have seen it. And we bear witness and declare to you that eternal life, which was with the Father, was manifested to us. That which we have seen and heard, we declare to you that you also may have fellowship with us... And these things we write to you that your joy may be full. — 1 John 1:1-4

The resurrection is not a footnote to the Christian faith — it is the only explanation for everything that follows.

The Most Important Day in History

It is an important holiday — Easter Sunday, which many Christians prefer to call Resurrection Sunday, the day we remember and celebrate the most important event for the church. Nearly two billion people on this planet are celebrating it right now. I believe it is not only the most important event for the church, but the most important event in all of human history.

A couple of weeks ago we began a new series in the first epistle of John. It's normal at a holiday like Easter to leave your passage and preach a topical message on the resurrection, but as I prayed about our gathering on Resurrection Sunday, I found that this passage fits the topic of resurrection perfectly.

Who John Was

John was one of the earliest followers of Jesus, among the group we call the twelve disciples or apostles. Bible scholars believe he was probably the youngest of the group — possibly as young as fifteen when he began following Jesus. He was the younger brother of James, the son of Zebedee. James and John were fishermen on the Sea of Galilee, and they were partnered, as the Scriptures show, with another follower named Simon, whom we know as Peter. We see these three — Peter, James, and John — together with Jesus quite a bit.

When these men first began to follow Jesus, they didn't do so for the purest of motives. This may shock you. Last week several people told me they'd never heard James and John described that way before. But it's not something I'm forcing on the text — it's clear throughout the Gospels.

A Nation Looking for Messiah

When Jesus came two thousand years ago, the entire nation of Israel was seeking an anointed, powerful, political king who would destroy the occupying Romans and restore Israel to its former glory and beyond. They were looking for an anointed one — in Hebrew, Messiah. In the Jewish thinking of that day, three anointed offices fulfilled the Messiah figure: the king, the prophet, and the priest. For more than a thousand years their prophets had predicted one who would fill all three offices and make Israel great again. I said it.

That's what Peter, James, John, and the others expected. From the earliest days they confessed Jesus as the anointed one. And because they were His inner circle, they assumed that when He established His kingdom and destroyed the Romans, they would be His posse, right there beside Him. They had huge expectations of what that would mean for them.

Palm Sunday and Rising Expectations

The culmination of that hope seemed to arrive on what we call Palm Sunday. Jesus came into Jerusalem with thousands of pilgrims to celebrate Passover, riding in on a donkey down the Mount of Olives. The crowds laid palm branches before Him and sang from Psalm 118:

This is the day that the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. Hosanna — Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

You can imagine Peter, James, and John walking along thinking, This is it. By the end of the week He'll be crowned king, and we'll be with Him. It begins to make sense why these men argued constantly about who would be greatest in the kingdom. It makes sense why James and John knelt before Jesus and asked to sit at His right hand and His left when He came into His kingdom. It makes sense why these "sons of thunder" thought it would be acceptable to call down fire on Israel's enemies, and why the disciples asked, "What's going to be our reward? We left everything to follow You."

They Followed for Lousy Reasons

Point one: the earliest disciples followed Jesus for lousy reasons. We exalt them and lift them up on a pedestal, but when they first began to follow Jesus, they did not have the greatest motives.

If we're honest, the same could be said about us. Maybe we first followed Jesus because we thought He'd make our lives better, or give us health and wealth, or because we didn't want to go to hell. When I prayed to receive Jesus as a four- or five-year-old Sunday school kid, I prayed because I didn't want to go to hell. That's not necessarily a bad place to start — but that kind of beginning faith doesn't always have staying power through difficulty.

In the parable of the sower, Jesus describes seed that falls on shallow ground and springs up quickly, but when the sun of trials comes up, it burns out. When we follow Jesus only because our lives are a mess and we hope He'll fix everything, that may not be the staying faith that carries us through. And when you follow the story of the disciples, their initial trust was not enough to carry them through the difficulties they would face.

When Everything Fell Apart

All of Jesus' earliest followers began following Him without fully comprehending who He was or what He came to do. They had assumptions, expectations, even presumptuous views about the privileges, possessions, and fame they would receive. And just when everything seemed about to take off like a rocket, it all fell apart.

Immediately after Palm Sunday, Jesus entered the temple and cleansed it, driving out those who were buying and selling, infuriating the religious establishment. Over the next days, recorded in Matthew 22 and 23, He effectively picked a fight with all the ruling leadership — the Herodians, the scribes, the Pharisees, the Sadducees. No less than seven times He called the Pharisees hypocrites, then dropped the mic and walked out of the temple. When His concerned disciples pointed out how beautiful the temple was, He said, "Not one stone will be left upon another." That prediction, made around 30 AD, came fully to pass forty years later when the Romans destroyed the temple.

About twenty-four hours later, He gathered His twelve for Passover. The mood changed. He grew somber and said, "One of you will betray Me. All of you will be made to stumble because of Me tonight." They protested, "We would never. We will die with You." Peter led the charge — and Jesus said, "Peter, you'll deny Me three times before morning."

They Fled in Fear

A few hours later, Jesus was betrayed with a kiss. His disciples fled. Peter denied Him three times. He was arrested, beaten, falsely accused, condemned, and crucified. On Good Friday, Jesus of Nazareth died on a Roman cross outside Jerusalem. The only one of His twelve disciples who was there to witness it was John, the man who writes this letter. By sundown Jesus' lifeless body was taken down and buried in a newly cut tomb.

Point two: when Jesus died, the earliest followers fled in fear. None of the apostles showed up to bury their friend. He was buried by two secret disciples — Joseph of Arimathea, a wealthy man who owned the tomb, and Nicodemus, who had come to Jesus by night in John 3. They went to Pontius Pilate to ask for the body. But Peter, John, James, Bartholomew, and Thomas — the men who said, "We can drink of the cup You drink, even if we have to die with You" — where were they?

On the Sunday after the crucifixion, Luke 24 tells us, two disciples walked toward Emmaus, going home with crushed hopes. The risen Jesus appeared to them, but they didn't recognize Him. They said, "This Jesus of Nazareth was crucified three days ago, and we had hoped He was the Messiah."

The Only Plausible Explanation

So here is the question. Why, when everything fell apart, didn't these fearful deniers simply go home, return to their fishing businesses, and resume life as usual? How did these same men who hid in fear while others buried their friend become the most bold and powerful evangelists of the good news — nearly every one of them later executed as a martyr for declaring this truth? What changed?

Point three: the resurrection is the only plausible explanation for the transformation of the disciples. The only thing that explains the shift from cowering in fear to standing before the same religious leaders a month and a half later and proclaiming, "He has risen, He whom you crucified," is that three days after His death they saw Him alive. It transformed everything.

They Died Proclaiming It

About sixty years later, John — now a very old man, the last of his close friends still living — writes this letter of encouragement to the church. By then his brother and his friends had all died, most in horrific ways, all of them going to their deaths saying, "We have seen a man who was crucified and dead, alive."

James, John's brother, was the first of the twelve martyred — beheaded by Herod around 42 AD (Acts 12:2). Andrew was crucified in modern Turkey. Thomas was pierced through with spears after taking the gospel to India. Philip was tortured to death in northern Africa. Matthew was stabbed to death in Ethiopia. James, the son of Alphaeus, was stoned and clubbed to death in Syria. Simon the zealot was killed in Persia for refusing to sacrifice to the sun god. Peter was crucified in Rome around 64 AD under Nero, and tradition holds he asked to be crucified upside down, unwilling to die in the same manner as his Lord. Paul, also a witness of the risen Jesus, was beheaded by Nero shortly after.

"I Believe in Science"

Many people today — modernists, postmodernists, humanists — say, "I'm fine with you believing what you want, but I believe in science, and people who die don't come back to life. The resurrection seems implausible." Yet more than a third of Americans believe they have personally experienced a miracle, and medical science has documented inexplicable healings, writing them up as "spontaneous resolution" because miracle doesn't sound scientific.

The resurrection was just as implausible to the disciples. Jesus predicted His death and resurrection at least three times (Matthew 16:21; 17:23; 20:19), and every time His disciples were confused. In Mark 9:9, coming down from the mountain of transfiguration, He told Peter, James, and John to tell no one until the Son of Man had risen — and they kept it to themselves, questioning what rising from the dead meant. In Mark 9:31-32, He again said He would be killed and rise the third day, "but they did not understand this saying and were afraid to ask Him."

Why were they confused? Because a bodily resurrection was not part of Jewish belief — it was completely foreign to them. So the resurrection may seem implausible to modern thinking, but it was no more implausible than the transformation that took place in these men three days after the crucifixion.

Virtually all skeptical historians of the last century agree on this. Bart Ehrman, a former Christian who recanted his faith and has a problem with miracles, says as a historian that it is very clear the disciples had some experience with a resurrected Jesus after His crucifixion. So why doesn't he believe in Christ? Because he doesn't want to — not because the evidence fails. The evidence supports the resurrection.

Life Was Manifested

So sixty years later, after all his friends died professing it, John writes:

The life was manifested and we have seen it. And we bear witness and declare to you that eternal life, which was with the Father, was manifested to us.

What greater manifestation of eternal life could there be than that a man dies and rises again three days later? He continues:

That which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us, and truly our fellowship is with the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. And these things we write to you, that your joy may be full.

Point four: there is no eternal life, fullness of joy, and fellowship with the Father without resurrection. Some say the Christian faith, even apart from the resurrection, is good because it's a good philosophy that leads to a good life. But it is even bigger than that.

Paul Stakes Everything on It

Turn to 1 Corinthians 15, written about fifteen years after Jesus rose, by the Apostle Paul — who had his own encounter with the risen Jesus on the road to Damascus (Acts 9). Paul had been going to persecute Christians precisely because he did not believe in a bodily resurrection. But after meeting the risen Christ, his life did a full 180, and the persecutor became the greatest preacher of the gospel.

Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you... by which also you are saved... For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.

This was not original to Paul. It was a creed of the early church that historians believe was being spoken within six months of the resurrection. And there were witnesses:

He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present... After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles. Then last of all He was seen by me also.

Paul says you can go investigate it — most of those five hundred were still alive. James, the half-brother of Jesus, had been a skeptic before the crucifixion. The message is this: Christ died on a historically verifiable cross, was placed in a tomb, and three days later the tomb was empty and more than five hundred people saw Him alive.

If There Is No Resurrection

Now if Christ is preached that He has been risen from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?

We aren't more progressive than the first century — they saw people die and stay buried too. That's why the resurrection is so phenomenal. Paul reasons that if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen:

And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty... If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.

If there is no resurrection, the Christian faith as a philosophy is dead, and we are to be pitied. Paul puts everything on the resurrection. And in verse 32 he says, "If the dead do not rise, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die." If there is no resurrection, you might as well be a hedonist, because this life is all there is.

Point five: if there is no resurrection, then there is no point to Christianity. Everything about the Christian faith rises and falls on the empty tomb. If there is no resurrection, this is all a complete waste of time.

Because He Lives

But the early followers who fled in fear became, three days later, the most bold evangelists, proclaiming, "We have seen alive a man who was dead." And the implication is that everything Jesus said is true.

If Jesus rose from the dead, then when He said in John 14:6, "I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me," He was speaking the truth. When He said in John 11:25, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live," He was speaking the truth — which is why He turned to the woman and asked, "Do you believe this?"

Do you trust that Christ died for your sins according to the Scriptures, was buried, and rose again the third day? If you do — and I believe it's true, based on the eyewitness testimony of more than five hundred witnesses — then in Him is life, and that more abundantly. In Him is fellowship with God and with one another, and fullness of joy forever. That's why the church is so excited about this resurrection. Because if He lives, then we can live also.

Closing Prayer

Lord, when we close our eyes and speak, we are not speaking into the air. We are communicating with the Messiah, the anointed one, who is not dead. The tomb is empty. The angels said on that resurrection Sunday, "Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, for He is risen." So we are praying to the living God seated upon a throne.

Because of Your death on the cross, our sins can be pardoned and forgiven. We receive Your grace and are given life — the eternal life that was with the Father, manifested to us, so we can have relationship with You and with one another, and fullness of joy. We thank You for what Your grace gives us in the cross and in the empty tomb. We rejoice today that the tomb is empty. We praise You, Jesus.

If today this message has clicked for you and you'd like to receive the gift of grace and forgiveness that Jesus gives — He who knew no sin became sin for us, that we might be made righteous and right with God — then pray this with me: Dear Jesus, I confess that You are alive. I pray that You would forgive me of my sin, that You would come into my life by Your Spirit, that You would give me new life and fullness of joy. Help me to follow You by faith and to trust You with my life. In Jesus' name, Amen.