INTRODUCTION

1. In John's gospel, there is a noticeable emphasis on the signs that Jesus performed (John 20:30-31).  This is because every sign was an indicator of who He was.  The signs signified that Jesus was the Son of God.

2. In John 2:13-22, Jesus foretold of the greatest sign of them all, which was His resurrection from the dead.

   1. On this occasion, Jesus drove the moneychangers from the temple, saying "Take these things away!  Do not make My Father's house a house of merchandise!"

   2. In response, the Jews requested a sign to prove that He had the authority to put out the moneychangers.  The Lord answered them by saying, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."

      1. The Jews immediately assumed that Jesus was speaking of the temple of God in Jerusalem, and they mocked Him.

      2. Later, they would attempt to use this statement of the Lord against Him (Matt. 26:61).

      3. As He suffered on the cross, they mocked Him saying, "You who are going to destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save Yourself!  If You are the Son of God, come down from the cross" (Matt 27:40).

   3. However, John tells us that the Lord was not speaking of the temple of God, but rather He spoke of the temple of His own body (John 2:21).  The disciples of Jesus later remembered that He made this prophecy of His resurrection, and they believed His word as a result of this sign (John 2:22).

3. It is this sign - the sign of the Lord's resurrection - that has become a sign for all times.  There has never been a greater indicator of who Jesus is than His resurrection from the dead.  For all the ages of the earth, the resurrection is the sign of the Christ.

    

DESTROYING "THE TEMPLE"

1. The resurrection of Jesus is a convincing sign only if He was truly dead.  Therefore, let us consider the evidence of His death, which was the destruction of temple of His body.

   1. Jesus was subjected to crucifixion, a brutal form of execution reserved for the lowest of criminals in Roman society.  Notice how crucifixion was carried out.

      1. The cross consisted of a pole and a crossbar.  The pole was mounted in the ground and was only slightly taller than a person.  The crossbar was removable, so this is the part of the cross that the Lord had to bear.

      2. Prior to the actual crucifixion, the Romans would scourge the condemned man.  Scourging was done by whipping with a short leather strap that contained pieces of metal or bone for tearing the flesh.

      3. Following the scourging, the condemned man was forced to carry the crossbar to the place of his crucifixion.  The crossbar was then mounted onto the pole.

      4. The condemned man was then nailed to the cross.  Nails were driven through the wrists in order to support the weight of the victim's body. The feet were also nailed to the cross through the heels.

      5. The result of this process was that the victim died a slow and agonizing death.  This was not a process that men survived.

      6. Read Matthew 27:26-50.  Jesus suffered beatings by the Romans, the crown of thorns, and crucifixion. In the end, it was affixation, exhaustion, loss of blood, and exposure that ended the life of Jesus.

   2. We know for certain that Jesus did suffer crucifixion and death because of the many witnesses who saw Him.

      1. The Jews who mocked Him and His own acquaintances witnessed His death (Luke 23:48-49).

      2. The Roman soldiers who crucified and guarded Him witnessed His death.  They even verified that He was dead by piercing His side with a spear (John 19:31-34), which convinced them that He was truly dead.

      3. The apostle Thomas certainly believed that Jesus was dead, for he refused to believe that Jesus could possibly be alive after the ordeal He suffered (John 20:24-25).

      4. The apostle John recorded the account of the Lord's death, and he was a firsthand eyewitness of the events (John 19:35).

      5. Those who buried Him knew that He was dead, for they prepared His body for burial and laid it in the ground (Matt. 27:57-61; Luke 23:50-55).

      6. The enemies of Jesus knew that He was dead, for they requested that His tomb be guarded in case His disciples tried to steal His body and claim He was raised (Matt. 27:62-66).

      7. Even the Jewish historian Josephus recorded that Jesus had been sentenced by Pilate to die by crucifixion.

2. Therefore, the death of Jesus Christ is made certain by the abundant evidence.  The temple of His body was destroyed.  If Jesus was seen alive again after suffering the things witnessed by many, then it could only have been by the power of God.

    

RAISING UP "THE TEMPLE" AGAIN

1. Just as the evidence is abundant regarding the death of Christ, the evidence regarding His resurrection is abundant as well.  In this way, the Lord raised up the temple in three days.

   1. The first witnesses to the resurrection of Christ were the women who came to anoint His body (Matt. 28:1-10; Mark 16:1-10).  They saw Him on the morning of the third day since His death.

   2. The Roman guards appointed by Pilate also witnessed the events at the resurrection (Matt. 28:4).  These guards received a bribe from the chief priests and elders so that they would not tell what they saw.  They lied to others, saying that His body was stolen (Matt. 28:11-15).

   3. After the resurrection, Jesus appeared to two disciples as they traveled the road to Emmaus (Mark 16:12-13; Luke 24:13-32).

   4. After this, He appeared to the eleven apostles (Matt. 28:16-20; Mark 16:14; Luke 24:33-53; John 20:19-21:23).  These appearances went on for a period of forty days (Acts 1:3).

   5. In addition to these, Paul wrote that Jesus had appeared to more than five hundred disciples at one time and to himself (1Cor. 15:1-8). When Paul wrote this, many of those five hundred were still alive and available to bear witness to what they had seen.

   6. These witnesses give powerful testimony to the certainty of the Lord's resurrection.

2. Some have discounted the resurrection of Jesus as a massive conspiracy or a mass hallucination, but the facts deny these assertions.

   1. The behavior of the disciples after the Lord's crucifixion shows that they had given up.  Without Him, they had no plan of continuing what the Lord had begun.

      1. The disciples had a disappointed, defeated attitude about Jesus (Luke 24:21).  In spite of His teachings, they were not expecting the resurrection.

      2. They did not believe that Jesus had been raised until they saw Him for themselves (Mark 16:11-14; Luke 24:8-11; 18-24; John 20:24-29).

   2. Also, the opponents of Jesus had taken special precautions to prevent any hoax from being perpetrated by sealing and guarding the tomb (Matt. 27:62-66).

   3. If the resurrection of Christ had not occurred, then the evidence needed to deny it would have been easy to present, which was the dead body of Jesus.  However, as the song says, "an empty grave is there to prove my Savior lives."

   4. History tells us that the truth of Christ's resurrection is certain.  This event changed the world.  The effects are too far reaching to be a hoax or a mass hallucination.

       

CONCLUSION -- THE MEANING OF THE RESURRECTION

1. The resurrection is the greatest sign that man has received proving that Jesus is the Son of God and the Christ.  This is exactly what Jesus meant when He promised this sign, saying, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up" (John 2:19).

   1. As Paul wrote, Jesus "was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead" (Rom. 1:4).

   2. When Peter preached the gospel on Pentecost following the Lord's ascension, the resurrection of Jesus was main subject of his sermon (Acts 2:22-36).  By it, Peter said that God had shown that Jesus is "both Lord and Christ" (Acts 2:36).

2. Not only this, but also the resurrection of Jesus gives us the hope that we will be raised from the dead (1Cor. 15:12-28).

   1. "But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep" (1Cor. 15:20).

   2. "But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ" (1Cor. 15:57).