This Easter Sermon was presented April 24, 2011, at Palm Desert Church of Christ, by Dale Wells.

2. On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, "Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen! (Luke 24:1-6 NIV)

3. Brothers, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day. ... Seeing what was ahead, he spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to the grave, nor did his body see decay. God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact. (Acts 2:29-32 NIV)

4. WhatHappenedthat Day Validated His Claims

5. Jesus claimed to be.… The Christ, the Son of God (Matt. 16:16-20) Sent by God (John 8:42) One with the Father (John 10:30) Equal to the Father in honor (John 5:22-23) Able to forgive sins (Matt 9:2-6) Lord of the temple (John 2:14-22)

6. Romans 1:2-4 NIV the gospel … regarding his Son, who as to his human nature was a descendant of David, and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.

7. Acts 2:32-36 NIV God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact. Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear. … "Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ."

8. Acts 4:10-12 NIV … It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. … Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved."

9. Acts 4:33 NIV With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all.

10. Acts 10:40-41 NIV … God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen. He was not seen by all the people, but by witnesses whom God had already chosen—by us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.

11. WhatHappenedthat Day Devastated His Enemies

12. Genesis 3:15 NIV And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel."

13. John 12:31-32 NIV Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out. But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself."

14. 1 John 3:8 NIV He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work.

15. Hebrews 2:14-15 NIV Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.

16. John 14:30 NIV I will not speak with you much longer, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold on me,

17. John 16:7-11 NIV But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me; in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.

18. Colossians 2:13-15 NIV When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

19. Revelation 12:7-10 NIV And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. … The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. … Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: "Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down.

20. WhatHappenedthat Day Inaugurated His Kingdom

21. Daniel 2:44 NIV In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever.

22. Daniel 7:13-14 NIV "In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.

23. Matthew 3:1-2 NIV In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the Desert of Judea and saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near."

24. Matthew 12:28 NIV But if I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.

25. Acts 1:9-11 NIV After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. "Men of Galilee," they said, "why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven."

26. Ephesians 1:19-23 NIV … That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms ... And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.

27. WhatHappenedthat Day Facilitated His Intercession

28. Romans 8:34 NIV Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.

29. Hebrews 2:16-18 NIV For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham's descendants. For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

30. Hebrews 7:16 NIV one who has become a priest not on the basis of a regulation as to his ancestry but on the basis of the power of an indestructible life.

31. Hebrews 7:24-25 NIV but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.

32. WhatHappenedthat Day Originated the New Creation

33. Revelation 21:5 NIV He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!" Then he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true."

34. Colossians 1:18 NIV And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.

35. Romans 6:9 NIV For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him.

36. Acts 13:34 NIV The fact that God raised him from the dead, never to decay, is stated in these words: "'I will give you the holy and sure blessings promised to David.'

37. Karl Heim said: “The Resurrection of Christ is in no way an event belonging to the present order of time as a link in the chain of events. Neither is it one of those miraculous events which do happen from time to time in our order of time, like the miracles of healing or the raising of dead as we find them in the apostolic age. The Resurrection of Christ is something fundamentally distinguished from all events which take place on the level of the present time. It is the beginning of the perfecting of the world.

38. 1 Corinthians 15:19-23 NIV If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men. But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him.

39. Jack Cottrell on 1 Cor 15: “as the process of death, once the stone has started rolling, can no longer be stopped but changes the whole of world history into one great dance of death, so also can the resurrection of the world once it has started no longer be stopped. It is like the awakening of the spring of the world. The movement cannot cease until the whole creation has become new. . . .”

40. 1 Peter 1:3-5 NIV Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.

41. Acts 17:30-31 NIV In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead."

42. WhatHappenedthat Day Gives Us Life

43. John 17:37-39 NIV On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him." By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.

44. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 NIV Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.

45. John 5:24 NIV "I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.

46. Ephesians 2:4-7 NIV But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.

47. 1 John 3:14 NIV We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death.

48. 1 Corinthians 15:50-53 NIV … flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.

49. 2 Corinthians 4:14 NIV … we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence.

50. The Resurrection of Jesus…. Validated His Claims Devastated His Enemies Inaugurated His Kingdom Facilitated His Intercession Originated the New Creation Gives Us Life

51. The Power of the Resurrection

52. 1 John 4:4 NIV You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.

53. Philippians 3:10-11 NIV I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

54. 1 Peter 1:3-4 NIV Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you,

55. 1 Peter 3:21-22 NIV … this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at God's right hand—with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him.

56. Romans 6:3-5 NIV … don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection.

57. For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! (Romans 5:10 NIV)