Charlie Dates At Emory University’s Candler school of theology.

You see the watching world does not have a problem with Jesus being born. Christmas is pretty cool to a lot of people people. It doesn’t disturb us that he lived. Some are willing to admit that he performed a dynamic ministry and that he was put to death by crucifixion. But to say more than an existential resurrection, to say anything more than a metaphorical meaning, the potential that he was raised from the dead is unthinkable to some. To suggest that he was literally, manifestly, victoriously raise from the grave is intellectually dishonest. 

We know of 10 or 12 other men who were considered to be the Messiah. When each of them died all of their followers scattered. You’ve got a couple of options when your Messiah dies. You can vote a new one in or you can give up the movement and go run and hide. Disciples not only did not give up but they kept going. They kept going, claiming that the Messiah was actually alive. They pressed on. And when they were asked how do you know that he is alive? They said we saw him.

I want to suggest to you today that the resurrection is still the capstone of the gospel. It says to us that our Christian faith is not concerned with mere mortality. It’s something higher than Plato‘s philosophy of the immortality of the soul. We have something more resilient than the easy dismissal of the Sadducees. Yes, it is difficult to wrap our minds around someone being dead for three days but being raised from the dead. But that’s the good news that he actually got up. This text is to teach you and I that the fact of the resurrection can transform even your death. That you can confidently…