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The Resurrection of Jesus on Easter Day from the dead stands alone. It was, and is, a unique event. Nothing like it has happened to anyone else, before or since Elijah.

That is why it is both the central affirmation of faith for Christians and the greatest stumbling block for UN believers. It is at the same time a source of profound comfort to some and intense irritation to others. It is difficult to remain indifferent to such a startling story.

Since the happening was unparalleled, it cannot be compared with anything else; it can only be contrasted with everything else. However, this is not the time and place to contrast and compare Jesus' paradigm shift of the resurrection with the common incidence of resuscitation in the West or the common idea of reincarnation in the East. Easter Day is the time and day to refresh our minds of the facts, promises, power, experience, joy, glory, future, and the validity of the resurrection of the risen Lord, Jesus Christ, our saviour. Amen.

Jesus' Paradigm shift of the Resurrection.

The promise fulfilled. Everything that happened to Jesus either before or during his lifetime and ministry were promised. You only need to know where to look for them. In my study room, I have a chart that shows 100 selected Biblical promises in the Old Testament fulfilled by Jesus. Indeed, we know very well that Jesus had no personal secretary during his lifetime and ministry. However, the record we have in the New Testament section of the Bile is the only recorded and the best evidence of Jesus' paradigm shift' in world history.

The Testimonies of the Resurrection.

I have just selected four testimonies. Why four? Because the sources are reliable, dependable, accountable, and authentic from the New Testament.

1.The Experience of the Eye-witnesses.

The first eye-witness of the resurrection were women. Matthew 28:1-10, Mark 16:1-8, Luke 24:1-12, John 20:1-9.

In the law courts and public life of the first-century Judea, the testimony of women was given little weight. It was held that only the testimony of men could be trusted. It is all the more remarkable, therefore, that in the accounts of the resurrection in the Gospels, the women are centre stage. They are the first at the empty tomb on the Sunday morning. They hear the message of Jesus' Paradigm shift of the resurrection from the angels. Mary is the first person to encounter the risen Christ, whom she mistakes for the gardener.

This has the ring of authenticity. If the resurrection accounts were invented as it has been suggested by some critics, it would have been crazy to choose women as key eye-witnesses. The Gospels record that the first eye-witnesses were women, because they were!

2.The Empty tomb of the risen Lord.

The empty tomb of our Lord Jesus Christ is a fact. This fact is strongly supported by the fact that the grave of Jesus Christ did not become a place of pilgrimage. Tomb veneration was common at the time of Jesus, and people would often meet for worship at the grave of dead prophets, as they do today. In surprising contrast, the earliest Jewish Christians did no such thing. 'No practice of tomb veneration, or even of meeting for worship at Jesus' tomb is attested for the first Christians', affirms Professor Dunn. Veneration of the empty tomb only began two or three hundred years later, and it persists today.

When he writes, 'The tomb was not venerated, it did not become a place of pilgrimage, because the tomb was empty!'

I agree with Professor James Dunn's conclusion when he writes, 'The tomb was not venerated, and it did not become a place of pilgrimage, because the tomb was empty!'

3. No one produced the body of the dead Jesus.

The disciples began, not primarily by spreading of the ideas, but by the proclamation of the fact. Something has happened, said the apostles. Jesus, who died on the cross, is now alive. To disprove an idea you must argue. To disprove a fact, you must produce evidence. Those who wanted to discredit the apostles and the Jewish and Romans leaders wanted to do that very much they had only to produce one piece of evidence to make the disciples look very silly.

All they had to do was to produce the body of Jesus. If they had done that we would never have heard of Jesus' Paradigm shift of the resurrection, or of his followers. There would be no Christian Church.

It is very significant that they could not do this. If the authorities had taken the body, or discovered it still in the tomb because the disciples had lied, or had gone to the wrong grave, they would have produced the corpse. When Peter and the rest of the disciples began preaching that God had raised Jesus, this would have silenced them instantly.

Instead, the authorities imprisoned, threatened, and beat the disciples. Herod even had James beheaded. They circulated the report that the disciples had stolen the body. It's absolutely certain that the Jewish and Roman leaders had no idea at all what had happened to Jesus.

Yet the stubborn fact remained: his body had gone.

4. The Power of the Resurrection.

One surprising feature of the reported resurrection you find in the Gospels and Acts of the apostles is that of the resurrection appearances. However, the resurrection appearances were only confined to a period of only six weeks. After that they stopped abruptly. Yet the first disciples continued to speak and behave as though Jesus was with them-not physically, but by his Spirit.

Even more remarkable is the fact that this conviction was shared by others. At first by hundreds, then by thousands, then millions, then billions who had never seen Jesus, before or after his crucifixion.

The evidence of the resurrection is not confined to the past. Millions of modern men, women and children continue to experience a new power, and continuing 'presence' in their lives. Although of differing backgrounds, cultures, ages and temperaments, they put it down to the same cause: the risen Lord is alive and at work in our world and in our lives here at St Matthew's Church today.

Hallelujah! Christ is raised. He is risen indeed, Hallelujah.

Jesus Christ has defeated sin and death. He has thrown wide open the gates of glory. Heaven waits. Our present life is the shadow; life in the world to come is the substance (1 John 3:1-3).