Jeffrey C. Long

I preached the following sermon at Filer Mennonite Church on Sunday April 9th, 2005

If you would like to study more about the historicity of the resurrection, I recommend going to this article by William Lane Craig

One of my favorite verses is

Jeremiah 29:1-7 Thus says Yahweh of Hosts, the God of Israel, to all the captivity, whom I have caused to be carried away captive from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5 Build you houses, and dwell in them; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them. 6 Take wives, and father sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; and multiply you there, and don’t be diminished. 7 Seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray to Yahweh for it; for in the peace of it shall you have peace.



Another favorite is



John 10:10 I have come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

These are favorite verses because they demonstrate that God is not simply interested in heaven, but he is interested in life here and now. In fact, it seems He has a passion for here and now.

Did you know that people are less concerned with eternity now then they used to be? When we are sharing our faith with people, asking them a question like “If you were to die today do you know if you would go to heaven or hell” is not necessarily the most meaningful conversation starter.

People want to know how to live their life now.

The answer that we can give them is that the bread of God which came from heaven can satisfy our spiritual hunger and give us life right here on earth.

Jesus came so that we could have life and lots of it. From Jeremiah we learn that God values us building homes and living in them. He values our gardens and our eating. He values our relationships with our wives and husbands and sons and daughters. He values the transitions we go through as our children become adults and are given in marriage. He values the nation we live in, whichever one it is, and that their may be peace in it.

We Christians are sent into the world to let people know that God has come and he wants us to live lives that overflow with life!

John 20:19-31

19 When therefore it was evening, on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were locked where the disciples were assembled, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and said to them, “Peace be to you.”

20 When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples therefore were glad when they saw the Lord. 21 Jesus therefore said to them again, “Peace be to you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.” 22 When he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit! 23 Whoever’s sins you forgive, they are forgiven them. Whoever’s sins you retain, they have been retained.”

24 But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, wasn’t with them when Jesus came. 25 The other disciples therefore said to him, “We have seen the Lord!”

But he said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”

26 After eight days again his disciples were inside, and Thomas was with them. Jesus came, the doors being locked, and stood in the midst, and said, “Peace be to you.” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Reach here your finger, and see my hands. Reach here your hand, and put it into my side. Don’t be unbelieving, but believing.”

28 Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!”

29 Jesus said to him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen, and have believed.”

30 Therefore Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these are written, that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name.

20-21 As the Father has sent me, I send you

The disciples therefore were glad when they saw the Lord. 21 Jesus therefore said to them again, “Peace be to you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.”

How are we sent?

First, We are to receive the Holy Spirit when we are sent to preach life

Genesis 2:4 Breathing life into the first man

These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that Jehovah God made earth and heaven. 5 And no plant of the field was yet in the earth, and no herb of the field had yet sprung up; for Jehovah God had not caused it to rain upon the earth: and there was not a man to till the ground; 6 but there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground. 7 And Jehovah God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

In the cradle of life man became a living soul when “God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.”

What a remarkable picture. God has taken dust and formed it into a human being. But it is an inanimate man. Without life. And God breathes into him, and suddenly he becomes a living soul.

But we know that the first Adam disobeyed God and though he lived physically, was dead spiritually.

When Jesus came he was the second Adam. The rebirth of humanity. And in his death and resurrection, we live not only physically but spiritually.

And so, in verse 22 of John 20, we read that “he breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit!”

Jesus breathed into the nostrils of the disciples the breathe of spiritual life.

And so, being sent into the world as Jesus was sent begins when He breathes spiritual life into our nostrils.

I believe that when we first follow Jesus, the Holy Spirit comes to live in us.

But Psalm 23:5 says ” You anoint my head with oil. My cup runs over.”

I want my cup to overflow with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit abides in me, but He wants me to overflow with the Spirit.

So as I am sent into the world to tell people about life in Jesus, I believe I need Jesus to breathe the Holy Spirit into me anew.

First, We are to receive the Holy Spirit when we are sent to preach life

Second, when we are sent, we are to forgive sins.

Verse 23 says “Whoever’s sins you forgive are forgiven whoever’s sins you retain are retained”

Years ago, I had a series of relationships fail in my life. Close friends and partners in ministry walked away from their relationship with me. This was a very difficult time for me as I became angry and bitter about these relationships. It took a long time before I learned to forgive them.

Though I never voiced to them “I forgive you,” there was forgiveness in my spirit towards them. And as a result, when I came into contact with them, I was able to relate with them again and not be stuck inside of unforgiveness.

This illustrates that there is great power in forgiveness and unforgiveness.

Forgiveness releases people. Unforgiveness binds them.

When Jesus sent us, He sent us with the power to forgive sins. To release people.

In Acts 5:30 the apostle Peter proclaimed ” 30 The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree. 31 God has exalted Him with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins. 32 And we are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him.

We are sent to the world to witness that through Jesus there is forgiveness of sins.

While we often preach that through forgiveness of sins we have eternal life, there is another aspect we need to preach that may be more meaningful to our neighbors.

Forgiveness of sins releases us. When we are forgiven we are released from our past.

And also, when we forgive, we release others.

The son who forgives his alcoholic father releases his father from his debt and the son in turn discovers that he is released from his own bondage.

The wife who forgives the husband who divorced her is able to find a new path for life, released herself from the bondage of her unforgiveness.

When we are sent as Jesus was sent by the Father, we are sent to forgive people of their sins. There is perhaps nothing more life giving.

Finally, we are sent with the testimony of the signs of his resurrection

Verse 30 says “Therefore Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these are written, that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name.”

I believe that the gospel of John is a book designed to witness Jesus to people who have not yet chosen to follow Jesus with their life.

Because John the author here specifically says that “these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name.”

This book was written with the irreligious in mind.

And specifically it says that the signs Jesus did to demonstrate his resurrection were written her that irreligious people may believe that Jesus is the Christ.

Which means that when we are sent into the world we are sent with the ability to demonstrate to people that Jesus rose from the dead

Isn’t it remarkable that we can credibly testify to a miraculous event that occurred over 2000 years ago?

Two reasons that the resurrection is a matter of history and not myth. 


First, Jesus resurrection was not to one or two people. It was verifiable by multiple witnesses.

In Luke 24:34 He appeared to Peter, in Luke 24:36-42 and here in John 20:19-20 we read about Him appearing to the 11 remaining disciples.

William Lane Craig says:

“the most notable feature of this appearance is the physical demonstrations of Jesus’ showing his wounds and eating before the disciples. The purpose of the physical demonstrations is to show two things: first, that Jesus was raised physically; and second, that he was the same Jesus who had been crucified.”

http://www.apologetics.com/default.jsp?bodycontent=/articles/historical_apologetics/craig-resurrection.html

He appeared to His younger brother James

Again, William Lane Craig says:

“What makes this amazing is that apparently neither James nor any of Jesus’ younger brothers believed in Jesus during his lifetime. (See Mark 3:21, 31-35; John 7:1-10.) They didn’t believe he was the Messiah, or a prophet, or even anybody special. But after the resurrection, all of a sudden Jesus’ brothers pop up in the Christian fellowship in the upper room in Jerusalem (Acts 1:14). There is no further mention of them until Acts 12:17. This is the story of Peter’s deliverance from prison by the angel. What are Peter’s first words? “Report this to James.” In Galatians 1:19 Paul tells of his two-week visit to Jerusalem about three years after his Damascus Road experience. He says that besides Peter, he saw none of the other apostles except James the Lord’s brother. Paul at least implies that James was now being reckoned as an apostle. When Paul visited Jerusalem again fourteen years later, he says there were three “pillars” of the church in Jerusalem: Peter, John, and James (Gal. 2:9). Finally, in Acts 21:18 James is the sole head of the Jerusalem church and of the council of elders.”

Most remarkable of all, he appeared at one time to 500 people.

I Corinthians 15:3-10 500 hundred witnesses

3 For I delivered unto you first of all that which also I received: that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; 4 and that he was buried; and that he hath been raised on the third day according to the scriptures; 5 and that he appeared to Cephas; then to the twelve; 6 then he appeared to above five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain until now, but some are fallen asleep; 7 then he appeared to James; then to all the apostles;

And finally, he appeared to Saul of Tarsus, whose name was then changed to Paul, the apostle, writer of numerous letters in the Bible.

I Corinthians 15:8 and last of all, as to the child untimely born, he appeared to me also. 9 For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not found vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.

So, the first reason that the resurrection is a matter of history and not myth is that Jesus did not appear to one or two people. His resurrection was verifiable by multiple witnesses.

The second reason that the resurrection is a matter of history and not myth is because the testimony of the disciples was verifiable.

Two examples that we just mentioned.

The first is James.

The book of Acts was written during the life of James himself. It was a record available to anybody in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria. If they had known that this record of James’ conversion were not true it could have been refuted in the public record. We would have historical documents stating that James was a fraud. And yet we have none.

William Lane Craig writes

Many of us have brothers. What would it take to make you believe that your brother is the Lord, so that you would die for this belief, as James did? Can there be any doubt that the reason for this remarkable transformation is to be found in the fact that “then he appeared to James”? Even the skeptical NT critic Hans Grass admits that the conversion of James is one of the surest proofs of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.12

The book of Acts is a credible witness that Jesus had risen from the dead.

The second example that the testimony of the disciples was verifiable is the appearance to the 500.



William Lane Craig writes

“Paul himself apparently had personal contact with these people, since he knew that some had died. This is seen in Paul’s parenthetical comment, “most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep.” Why does Paul add this remark? The great NT scholar of Cambridge University, C.H. Dodd, replies, “There can hardly be any purpose in mentioning the fact that the most of the 500 are still alive, unless Paul is saying, in effect, ‘The witnesses are there to be questioned.’”10 Notice: Paul couId never have said this if the event had not occurred. He could not have challenged people to ask the witnesses if the event had never taken place and there were no witnesses. But evidently there were witnesses to this event, and Paul knew that some of them had died in the meantime. Therefore, the event must have taken place.”

There are many more reasons to believe that resurrection is a verifiable historical event and not a myth. If you’d like to study it more, I invite you to go to my website where you will find the link to the article I’ve quoted here. Also, I recommend this book “Evidence that demands a verdict.” When I was in High School this was a very meaningful book in my search for the truth of the gospel of Jesus.

And so, returning to the book of John, we are sent with the testimony of the signs of his resurrection.

Verse 30 says “Therefore Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these are written, that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name.”

And these are written that irreligious people may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God and that believing they may have life in his name.

Life is what people are hungering for. And Jesus breathed spiritual life into us sending us out as He had been sent by the Father to forgive sins so that people may have life in his name.

Let’s live our own lives in the awareness that we are sent into the world to testify that Jesus the Christ has risen from the dead. Pay attention to the people you know who do not follow Jesus. You are sent to them.