"He is not here; for He has risen, as He said. Come, see the place where He lay." Matthew 28:6 It is an old question, as old as death itself - and as new.....

We find it in the oldest book of the Old Book, the 14th verse in the 14th chapter of Job, raises the question, if a man die shall he live again? But how strange to say "if" - "If a man die?" A most exact interpretation of the question raised in Job would be to say "When a man dies, or after a man dies, will he live again." That is the question! Is life possible after death? Millions of people glibly repeat the Apostles' Creed: "I believe in the resurrection of the body." We speak of the resurrection, but have we seen it? We don't act as if we do. We try to disguise death with flowers - flowers on the casket wreaths on the door-knob flowers heaped on the cold grave. We embalm the body to make it look lifelike. We color the cheeks and tint the pallid face, as though to deceive ourselves. We even dress the body in the departed tenant's best clothes, but after we are all finished, we still have only a dead body, without any life. The facts concerning Jesus of Nazareth are, according to the Church and the Holy Scriptures are that He lived, He died and He arose from the dead. He lived, as no intelligent person can deny. He died, that is a fact that nobody need deny. He died after quivering on a cross, after about six hours of agony and suffering. To make certain that He was dead, one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and watched the last remaining drops of His blood poured out to prove that He was dead.

Jesus was a dead man now, very much like any other dead man. So when even the Roman authorities were satisfied that they had seen the last of this strange, troublesome Dreamer, His enemies went to Pilate asking him to set a watch of soldiers about the tomb for three days. Remembering that He had said He would rise again, and being afraid that His disciples would come and steal the body away, they insisted on sealing with their own official seal the huge stone that blocked the entrance to the grave. Pilate granted their request say: "Ye have a watch, go your way, make it as sure as you can."We are not told whether Pilate smiled a sardonic smile as he spoke, but Matthew adds the most ironic sentence in literature: "So they went and made the sepulcher sure, sealing the stone and setting a watch.

Thus they took every precaution against fraud. Thus they left Him on Friday evening - just before the Sabbath began, His dead body hastily embalmed, wrapped in bandages on which a hundred pounds of myrrh had been hastily spread. He tomb was closed with a huge stone guarded by Roman soldiers.

Than came Sunday morning. The first rays of the early morning sun cast a great light that caused the dew drops on the flowers to sparkle like diamonds. The atmosphere of the garden was changed......It was
the same garden....yet strangely different. The heaviness of despair was gone, and there was a new note of gladness in the singing of the birds.
Suddenly at a certain hour between sunset and dawn, in that new garden tomb that belonged to Joseph of Arimathea, there was a strange stirring, a fluttering of unseen forces...a whirling of angel wings, the rustle as of the breath of God moving through the garden.
Strong immeasurable forces poured life back into the dead body they had laid upon the cold stone slab; and the Man who had been dead rose up out of the grave clothes, walked to the threshold of the tomb, stood swaying for a moment on His wounded feet, and walked out into the moonlit garden.

We can almost hear in our hearts the faint sign, as the life spirit fluttered back into he tortured body, and smell in our own nostrils the medley of strange scents that floated back to Him of linen and bandages, and apices and close air an blood.
Then, as we are told in John's Gospel, chapter 20.Then came a group of women as soon as they could, bringing spices and materials with which to complete the hasty anointing of their Lord. They came with all the materials to anoint a dead body, and when they came to the grave, they found that the stone had been rolled away from the door of it, and the tomb was empty.

Here is John's account of what followed: "But Mary stood without at the sepulcher weeping: and as she wept, she stopped down, and looked into the sepulchre, and saw two angels in white sitting, the one at the head, and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. And they said unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? She saith unto them, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid Him.
"And when she had thus said, she turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou? She supposing Him to be the gardener sad unto Him, Sir, if thou have born Him hence, tell me where thou hast laid Him, and I will take Him away.
"Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto Him, Rabboni; which is to say, Master."
There were two names spoken, "Mary" and "Rabboni." She heard her name spoken as only one Voice could speak it - gently echoing in the garden. And there was her "Rabboni" Master. as she saw His face.
If we believe this, it is the loveliest story in literature. If we do not believe it, it is a clever and shameful lie! Does it sound like a lie to you? Does it have a hallow ring of uncertainty of falsehood? Do you not rahter get the feel of truth in it? Is it all a trick. Are we all deluded fools. No, we are not deluded - No fact in history is better established, more scientifically established, than this one.

The disciples did not expect this to happen. They did not believe Jesus would rise from the dead. Not after they had seen Him die on the cross. Not after they had seen him buried in the tomb.
When Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary, the mother of James and the other women came breathlessly from the empty tomb, shaking with an extraordinary excitement and blurting out the news to the disciples, we awre told; "and their words seemd to them as idle tales, and they believed them not."
Over and over again this point it emphasized. Read the stories for yourselves! Read Luke, or the story of Thomas, the dogged unbeliever, as John tells us about it. "Except, I shall see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and trhrust my hadn into His side, I will not believe." That was no wishful thinking, was it?
Eight days passed by. The disciples were gathered together. This time Thomas was there. Jesus was with them in the room, and He said to Thomas: "Reach hither thy finger, and behold My hands; and reach hither thy hand and thrust it into My side; and be not faithless, but believing.
And Thomas answered and said unto Him, "My Lord and my God."

Now, if one man says he has seen a dead person alive, you will probably not believe him, no matter how trustworthy you have found him to be in the past. If ten men tell you that they have, at the same time, seen this dead person alive, talking walking in newness of life, you may begin to be impressed. If 500 men tell you that they have seen someone who was dead...well, you must admit that you are in a startling minority. If you deny the Resurrection, you are in precisely that minority. The close followers of Jesus Christ knew that their Savior had risen from the dead. Once they saw Him, it became an undeniable fact of history.

Do you think their story is an invention? Could you invent that sort of story? And would you invent it, so that you might be crucified upside down like Peter? Or have your head chopped off, like Paul, outside the walls of Rome? or to be stoned to death like Stephen? or run through with a sword like James?
Why would they insist in a lie, if every time they insisted it was true, they were driving nails into their own coffins.
For 40 days, Jesus showed Himself to the disciples alive. Then, before 500 of them, He ascended into Heaven. Ten days later He sent the Holy Spirit, to take His place among them and give their lives guidance and direction. Suddenly on the day of Pentecost, Peter is facing the foes of Jesus and preaching with a reckless courage. "Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by Him in the mist of you, as ye yourselves also know; Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and again: Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death because it was not possible that He should be holden of it." Acts 2:22-24.

What had happened? The undeniable fact is this: the disciples of Jesus were scattered downcast hopeless with a sense of tragic loss and then, in a few days, they were thrilling with victory, completely changed. Why? They were all thrilled beyond fear in the stupendous knowledge that Jesus Christ was alive forevermore, and they went about rejoicing in a joy and compelled them to preach the Gospel with such power that millions of people came to a personal relationship with Jesus. Churches sprang up in Asia Minor and Europe like wild flowers in the spring. It is estimated that their numbers grew to more than five million during the first generation of Christians. Rome tried to stop the spread of this incredible story by fierce persecutions. Rome tottered and fell, but Jesus Christ lived on. "If a man die, shall he live again?" Yes, because the Resurrection is a fact and Jesus lives forever! When we die we are all going to spend eternity somewhere, either in Hell, or in Heaven. I know that I am going to spend eternity in Heaven with Jesus. Why am I sure? Because He promised me: He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on Him." John 3:36.

Jesus Lives, and you can live with Him forever too. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:16. This is the meaning of the Resurrection!