Sunday School | Prophecy of Christ's Resurrection

Introduction

All right, so come on in, settle down. We are in the midst of our very long series covering all major doctrines. We're looking at, gosh, what are we doing? Theology proper, Christology, and maybe some others. This is a doctrine of the persons of the Godhead. We're gonna talk about the doctrine of man and sin and salvation, the church, end times, angels, maybe I skipped something in there, but a whole bunch of stuff. And we're in the middle of our, we're about halfway through our doctrine of Christ. So our study of Christology.

Does anybody remember our kind of ten subsections of Christology? You remember any of this? As you madly look at your notes? Christology, what are we talking about? Do you remember any of them? You can just name one or two if you remember.

Okay, we did death; that's the most recent one. I'm glad that's on your mind. Is miracles? Is teaching? His obedient life? Okay, what came before that? His incarnation. So his incarnation, his miracles and teaching, his obedient life, his death. And what's coming next? His resurrection, right? Now we're gonna get into his return to our sorrow things, his intercession for sinners, his ascension as king. Did I say he's returned to our sorrow? I already said that? Maybe that's everything. Okay, we're gonna cover all these things, and today we're finally gonna get to his resurrection, which for most Christians, we understand it's just central, right? His death and his resurrection are key to so much.

The Early Christian Creed about Christ's Resurrection

So as you look at the resurrection, the resurrection of Christ is described in what is probably the earliest Christian creed contained in the scriptures. Anybody know what the earliest Christian creed is that's contained in the scriptures? And it's possible you can come up with a couple of answers, but I think there's one answer that's more proper if we're using creedal language.

The earliest time, there was like a summary statement. It sounds like something that the church might recite when they gather together. It's formulaic and it kind of hammers it all. What are you thinking, Gil?

It's the first Corinthians.

It is. Do you know the chapter? Very good. Okay, so Gil's got us in the ballpark. There's a creed in first Corinthians. You may know the chapter, but the one that is really in particular about the resurrection is chapter 15. Okay, so if you have a Bible, turn to first Corinthians 15. This is where we're gonna start. And as you've done with kind of everything else, we'll be talking about the resurrection for a handful of weeks.

I'll give it to you in verse one. I'll read you this whole kind of section. And this whole chapter, by the way, is about resurrection, but we'll start here and we'll pick out this aspect of it. It says:

Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel that I preach to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel, you are saved if you hold firmly to the word I preach to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.

And now here's where the creed begins:

For what I received, I passed on to you as of first importance. That Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, then to the twelve. After that, he appeared to more than 500 of the brothers at the same time, most of whom were still living, but some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. And last of all, he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.

That's the section Paul uses to launch in. What's up, Massies? Good to see you, bro. Sheena, delighted to see you, okay? But you are late, so there's that.

This passage, your first Corinthians 15, you can hear it's almost got this rhythm to it. The Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures, that he appeared to Peter, then to the twelve. It's generally assumed that Paul wasn't writing that for the first time, but he was simply quoting that. That something would have been recognizable. But what I want to draw your attention to here is we talk about the resurrection of Christ.

You might have thought, well, why don't we actually start with the gospels? Why don't we start the resurrection of Christ where the resurrection of Christ occurs? That'd be a reasonable place to start. But we're not starting there; we will get there. But we're starting here because this is talking about something earlier than that.

So here's the phrase again. Would I receive to pass on to you as of first importance? The Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, then to the twelve. So Paul, that phrase shows up twice there. What does the phrase according to the scriptures mean? Why is it showing up twice there in that creed? And in particular, why is it showing up in reference to the resurrection?

Robin, how has your shoulder? All right?

(indistinct chatter)

Okay. Robin is saying it's because it's what's been prophesied, which means when Paul claims, he's not simply claiming that Jesus rose from the dead. He's claiming that when Jesus rose from the dead, it was a fulfillment of something that had been prophesied earlier, okay? And so the reason we're not going to the scene of the crime, so to speak, in the gospels, when he's raised from the dead, I want to go back to the origin of the whole thing.

So when Paul says that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures, he is saying he's claiming that the Old Testament predicted, anticipated, that faithful Jews, looking for a Messiah, should have anticipated that this was going to happen.

So the question is, where does that occur? Before you answer it, let me read you one more. This is not just some anomaly. In John 20, verse 8, it says:

Finally, the other disciple who had reached the tomb first also went inside. He saw and believed.

By the way, that's that chipper little moment where John and Peter race to the tomb, and John gets there first. And he records it in holy scriptures, so for the rest of time, Peter will be humiliated that he lost a foot race with John. Okay? It's amazing when you're actually riding Bible, the power that you have.

But finally, the other disciple who reached the tomb first, that'd be John, he also went inside. He saw and believed. And look at this, verse nine:

They still did not understand from scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.

He's saying the same thing that we get in 1 Corinthians 15. It's like, this wasn't some random thing that just happened and took everybody by surprise. Well, it did take everybody by surprise, but it shouldn't have because this is what was expected. This was what was anticipated.

So these guys are both John and Paul, in their own way, making the claim that the resurrection was preordained and it had been foretold. The question is: where?

What do you guys think? Where does the Old Testament anticipate the resurrection of Christ? Anybody know? I'll let you guys take a minute here.

Gary, you got a shot?

Isaiah 53.

Okay, Isaiah 53 is a fantastic answer. We're gonna look at that. Yes, it absolutely does. And it's funny, for my money, Isaiah 53 is probably the clearest picture of this. It is not, however, the passage that the Old Testament that gets quoted twice in the New Testament about the resurrection. So we'll look at that for sure. It's my favorite, your favorite is my favorite, but there's one that the New Testament actually uses twice.

Yeah, Brenda?

There's one in Hosea.

Okay, interesting. You think about Hosea 6?

Six, two, it says after two days, he will revive us; on the third day, he will raise us up.

Okay. Okay, so if we have time, we will look at that. We'll go back to Hosea in a minute. Hosea—that is not what that passage means, but we can look at that. It'll probably get cited for this purpose, but it's erroneous. So we'll take a look at that in a little bit. If we can't, 'cause I'd love to show you how to take it out of context.

Yeah, Zach?

Boom, boom, boom.

Okay. Psalm 16, Zach. That's the passage that Acts is going to quote twice. So let's go back, we'll look at Psalm 16. This is gonna be baseline. We're gonna understand Psalm 16, then we'll jump to Isaiah 53, and then we'll deal with maybe Jonah and Hosea as we go, okay? So Psalm 16, verse nine. I don't know if you guys would be familiar; I should've probably captured this here. Let me get it up for myself here.

Psalm 16 is the happy psalm. I love Psalm 16. If you read it, it's—let's see. It's a psalm with David. You’ll kind of catch the vibe of this thing.

Keep me safe, oh God, for in you I take refuge. I say to the Lord, you are my Lord. Apart from you, I have no good thing.

It's a celebration of all that we have in him. Okay? He's gonna say in verse four, those who run after other gods will suffer more and more. I'm not gonna jump into their stuff. In verse five, he says, Lord, you alone are my portion and my cup. You make my lot secure. Here's a great line:

The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places. Surely I have a delightful inheritance.

This is the description of someone who's saying, Lord, everything you do in my life is good. It's filled with joy and with pleasure. In fact, the very end of it, he says, verse 11:

You make known to me the path of life. You will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

It's a very generous psalm of praise, adoration, and delight, but right there in the middle, actually right before the end, it's got this line. He says, look at verse nine and ten. Well, we'll start at verse eight.

I keep my eyes always on the Lord. With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.

Therefore, my heart is glad, and my tongue rejoices, and look at this line:

My body also will rest secure because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, nor will you let your faithful one see decay.

Now, the claim here of the person writing this thing is that my body will not decompose, and there ain't nobody that can say that. 'Cause your body sooner or later, your body's going to decompose 'cause you're gonna die, okay? Now, so this is in there, and so you're reading the psalm, and everything's wonderful and everything's great and everything's lovely and all that. My body will never decay.

And when Peter quotes this—and you can go up, you can go up to Acts two—Peter's gonna basically say, hey, did you ever notice that's a really weird thing for somebody to say? Because everybody's body decays, and in particular, do you know who wrote this psalm? David. Did David's body decay? You bet it did. So what does that mean? Okay, so according to Peter, when Peter looks at that, go up to Acts two, and he's going to say:

"Brothers, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day. But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on note that he would place one of his descendants on his throne. Seeing what was to come, he spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah—that he was not abandoned to the realm of the dead, nor did his body see decay."

You've made known to me the paths of life, and you fill me with joy in your presence. And then here's Peter's comment on that in verse 29:

Fellow Israelites, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day, but he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on note that he would place one of his descendants on his throne. Seeing what was to come, he spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah—that he was not abandoned to the realm of the dead, nor did his body see decay. God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it.

Now, when Peter was saying this, do you know the context? Acts two. What will be going on there?

It's Pentecost.

Yes, that is Acts two for you. Yes, that's gonna happen. That's gonna happen a little later in verse 42. You're gonna get to that. But up in the beginning of Acts two, it's Pentecost. Faithful Jews from all around the world have come, and basically, Peter is appealing to their own understanding of scripture. And he points out this weird enigmatic passage. Do you ever notice that David wrote this song in which he said his body wouldn't decay? You ever wonder what the heck was going on with that? Well, I'll tell you what's going on with that.

He wasn't talking about himself. He was talking about the Messiah whose body would not see decay, and he says this is that. And he's pointing back to it, okay? Acts two uses Psalm 16 as evidence for the resurrection. And then Paul is gonna do the same thing. Go up to Acts 13, 32. And Paul is preaching his emphases on Antioch, and he's doing what he does. It's constantly on a missionary journey.

And look at this, he's gonna string together a bunch of scripture in Acts 13, 32:

We tell you the good news. God promised our ancestors. He's fulfilled for us, their children, by raising up Jesus. Then he's gonna quote Psalm two. You're my son; today I have become your father.

That's about Jesus' kingship. We'll talk about that in about a month. And then verse 34:

God raised him from the dead so that he will never be subject to decay.

There it is again. As God has said, I will give you the holy body and sure blessings promised to David. So he stated elsewhere, "You will not let your holy one see decay." And then again, he reminds us:

When David had served God's purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep. He was buried with his ancestors, and his body decayed. But the one whom God raised from the dead did not see decay.

So he's again, doing the exact same argument that Peter does. Listen, obviously David's body turned to dust, just like everybody else's. But there's someone of whom Psalm 16 is true, and that someone has actually come.

Old Testament Anticipation of Resurrection

Good? Okay, Robin.

Jesus, multiple times, told the disciples that this was gonna happen.

Yes.

And then it was going to rise through the dead.

Yes.

But they didn't see it, and they didn't believe it, I guess. And they didn't compare it to the Psalm scripture. I guess the only difference is the presence of the Holy Spirit opening their eyes once and so.

Okay, this is great. So what Robin said is that Jesus, and we'll look at some of these—again, we'll have time at the end—we have time. So Jesus' own words, you could say, I'm not sure that Paul is saying, "When he says this was predicted in the scriptures," you could be like, "Yeah, it's in Mark, yeah, it's right here in Luke." That's also scripture, right? And Jesus says it repeatedly. Well, while we're here, we'll just hit it. So Jesus is gonna say things like this in Mark nine.

Jesus says to them, the son of man, this is 9:31, the son of man is gonna be delivered into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after three days, he will rise.

Right? Mark 10, the next chapter:

Jesus says the mock on him, spit on him, flog him, and kill him. And three days later, he will rise.

Luke 18:

He'll be delivered over to the Gentiles. The mock him, insult him, and spit on him. They will flog him and kill him. And on the third day, he will rise again.

Luke 24, 45:

This is what is written. The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day.

Right? So Jesus says it over and over again. But every time, every time he does, they're like, I don't know what that meant. I mean, it obviously doesn't mean what it sounds like. They're not gonna kill him. So I don't know. There's some metaphorical, figurative kind of a thing, right? And they just kind of like erase it. We have the same tendency. Whenever you read something in the Bible that doesn't make any sense, what do you do? Just turn the page, you know, and just keep it right on going. We do this all the time and they just didn't get it. It couldn't— it didn't land for them. But he made it as explicit as he could, right? Gil?

They either don't believe it or in one time, Peter just says, why are you saying that, like, that's not true?

Yeah, I mean, David. Yeah, Peter's like, obviously they’re not gonna kill you, number one. Who would? And number two, we wouldn't permit it. And Jesus is like, you know, this is this kind of famous that— get behind me Satan moment, all right? So yes, it is. It's not just in the Old Testament; it's in all these things.

Let me show you what I think, even though the New Testament twice goes to Psalm 16, I think Isaiah 53, Gary, is a richer answer. So if you go to Isaiah 53, I think we've talked about these, you guys. Do you remember what collection of writings Isaiah 53 fits into? Is this familiar to you?

The servant song.

Exactly right. So these four passages in Isaiah—from chapter 49 up through 53—there are these poems, if you will, describing this mysterious servant. 42 starts at chapter 42, and then up through 53, 49 is the second one. It describes this servant. 53 is the one we know best of all because it is so unambiguously and obviously a depiction of the crucifixion, right? It is—and many would regard it, the high water mark of Old Testament revelation about the crucifixion of Christ. But it is also a revelation of his resurrection.

So if you go to it, go to— we'll pick it up in verse 8. Still talking about this servant. We don't, it may not be immediately obvious that it's the Messiah, but it is the Messiah. In verse 8, it says:

By oppression and judgment, he was taken away. Yet, who of his generation protested? He was cut off from the land of the living.

What does that mean? Dead, there's no ambiguity here, right? To be cut off from the land of the living is to be killed. For the transgression of my people, he was punished. That punishment is the punishment of death. He was assigned to grave with the wicked. Why was he given a grave? Because he's dead, okay? Though he'd done no violence, nor was there any deceit in his mouth.

Verse 10:

It was the Lord's will to crush him and to cause him to suffer. And though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin—what do you do with the sin offering? You kill it, okay? He's dead. He's dead—the language of death permeates. But look at this, though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days.

That's where the record skips, right? How can your days be prolonged if you've been killed, if you've been executed, if you've been made an offering for sin? He's gonna have to be a resurrection somewhere snuck in the middle, right? As he continues on, not only does he prolong his days, it says, verse 11:

After he has suffered—this is all resurrection language—after he has suffered, he will see the light of life and be satisfied.

So these are resurrection themes. Make sense?

So when John says in John 20, "they didn't understand from the scriptures that, of course, he's gonna arise from the dead." This is what we're talking about. Isaiah 53—that guy's gonna be killed and then he's gonna live forever. This one is gonna suffer the punishment of death, and then he's gonna see the light of life. It’s resurrection.

Jesus' Own Predictions and Old Testament Fulfillment

This was not a new thing, okay? Catherine?

Yes. Which part of it?

Well, oh gosh, when he, when he, when he cries out, wait a minute.

Oh, why have you forsaken me?

Yes, the opening line.

So, Catherine's quoting Psalm 22. There are two Psalms that are primarily crucifixion Psalms. You know this?

Psalm 22 and Psalm 69.

If you read either one of them, you're gonna be like, obviously, okay? Psalm 22 is one that Jesus quotes on the cross. When he says,

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

That's Psalm 22:1, for sure. And what did you—something about that you wanted to point out?

Well, a friend of ours did a master's little film about Jesus dying. It's like, so in there, it was like, it's Psalm 22. It's like he dies, but then it's all old.

That's right.

Afterward, just like an explosion of joy.

You are exactly right. So you guys, we'll go here. Well, we'll kind of add this on. Go to Psalm 22. So Psalm 22, if you read the front half of it, you're like, okay, this is terrible, right? When he says,

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

He's describing this agony, this misery. And if we pick it up, look at verse 17.

All my bones are on display. People stare and gloat over me. How about this line? They divide my clothes among them and cast lots for my garment.

Does that ring a bell? Okay. This guy's getting crucified. He's suffering, he's dying, he's being pierced. All this language is in here. But then, look at that. Verse 20:

Deliver me from the sword, my life from the power of the dogs.

Rescue me from the mouths of lions. Save me from the horns of the wild oxen. So this is a little bit sophisticated, so stay with me on this. Over and over and over again, there are going to be pictures in the Old Testament of things that happen with this guy. And then, when Jesus shows up, he's constantly going to fulfill—this is really important—overfill those pictures. He's going to take that picture, and he's going to do it, but he's going to like uber do it. He's going to do it super.

Not only is this somebody who's like, you could read Psalm 22 and get the sense of it's like, man, he was almost dead, just so close to dead, and then he revived. But when Jesus shows up, he doesn't almost die and revive. He does die, dies, and resurrects. Those are the sorts of things. One that the New Testament makes explicit is the offering of Abraham, Abraham offering Isaac on the cross, not on the cross, but on the mountain, on Mount Moriah, you familiar with this story? Genesis 22, I think.

So essentially, what happens is Abraham offers up his son unto death, and then he gets him back from the dead. Now, he doesn't actually die, but he raises the knife—he just doesn't bring it down, okay? And when Jesus shows up, his father offers him on probably the same hill, actually. The cross is probably at Mount Moriah; it's probably all the same place. And not only does God raise that knife, but that one he brings down. And then, when the author of Hebrews quotes it, go to Hebrews—

Hebrews 11. Listen to how it's the same kind of thing that's happening in Psalm 22, where there's this almost picture, and Jesus comes in and says, no, no, let's just do it all the way.

Hebrews 11:17:

By faith, Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son. Even though God had said to him, it's through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.

Consider this: it's not just that he's offering his only son, which is terrible in its own way, but it is through Isaac that all your grandchildren and great-grandchildren and all the stars that fill the heavens are gonna come. And so it's a strange thing—like God promised me that Isaac's gonna have a bunch of babies. Now he's telling me that Isaac has to be killed. The only possible way this can work out is we kill Isaac, then God raises him from the dead, right? So he would embrace the promises, was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, it's through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned. Abraham reasoned that God would raise him from the dead. Could even raise the dead. And so, in a manner of speaking, he did receive Isaac back from the dead. Sort of.

But then, when Jesus shows up, he doesn't sorta die and sorta rise. He really dies and really rises. Makes sense? These are the sorts of things. Now, we could also look at Jonah. Jonah, if you read the story of Jonah, you'd never think, oh, I get it. My side's gonna be killed and rise from the dead. No one would ever think that, not in a million years.

There are some fascinating things about Jonah that we could unpack. Maybe we'll do that in a—well, maybe we'll do that. I'm not sure if we'll do it. We're not gonna do it today. But Jesus points to the sign of Jonah: three days and nights in the belly of the whale. So will the Son of Man be three days and nights. There's an illusion there, but it's soft. And I think it'd be pretty unreasonable to expect that anybody would ever have seen that, okay?

Hosea and the Misinterpretation

Alright, good. Do I have time? Let's go look at Hosea. Let me show you this one so you can know. Everything we just showed you is true. This one is not true, but it's commonly cited. And it's important to me that you know why, what's going on?

So when the New Testament quotes the Old Testament, it's grabbing the words of the Old Testament. Okay? And if you were to go out into your yard and you were to grab a handful of grass and tear it up—one of two things could happen. One, you might just like break off the grass and get a handful of grass. Okay? Second thing that could happen is that you actually grab it low enough and the ground is soft enough that what might actually happen—that you bring up the roots.

When the New Testament writers reach into the Old Testament and they grab the words, are they breaking off the words and bringing those? Or are they grabbing the roots and bringing the meaning? What's are they doing? (indistinct) They get the words, so the roots include the words. It is my contention that 100% of the time, old words, never not. When they grab the words, they bring the meaning. They're not allowed to take words that don't have anything to do with anything and strip, break them off, and come back here and pin it down. It's always going to be faithful to the original meaning of the passage. It will never be anything else.

We have a tendency to be a little bit lazy in our scholarship, and we just see the words and then we just glue them onto somebody's forehead over here. You don't get to do that. So, the reason Hosea 6 cannot be rightly understood as a prediction of the Messiah's resurrection is because the meaning of those words is not remotely worthy of that. So, take a look at it. Here's what it is:

If you go to Hosea 6, there's a song about this. It's just this set to lyrics. And it's a bad song, and don't sing it, okay? Here's how the passage goes.

Come, let us return to the Lord. He has torn us to pieces, but he will heal us. He has injured us, but he will bind up our wounds. After two days, he will revive us; on the third day, he will restore us that we may live in his presence. Let us acknowledge the Lord. Let us press on to acknowledge him. As surely as the sun rises, he will appear. He will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth.

That sounds lovely. What it sounds like is: you know what? God is so good and he's so gracious and he's so faithful that we'll turn to him, and he'll be merciful to us. And that's true, but it's not true here. And the reason we know it's not true here is because God responds to these words. When people are saying, hey, let us return to him; he's gonna let us up.

What this is, this is a kid whose parent has grounded them and said, you know, you're not going to prom this weekend. And that kid gets on the phone and says, yeah, it's fine. My dad just grounded me, but he's a pushover, and it's gonna be fine, and we're gonna get out of this, and nothing will come of the punishment.

That's what's being said. And we know that because God overhears the conversation. This kid is having with his friend, and he interrupts. So in the next verse, I remember verse four, God speaks and says:

What can I do with you, Ephraim? What can I do with you, Judah? Your love is like the morning mist, like the early dew that disappears. Therefore, I cut you into pieces with my prophets. I killed you with the words of my mouth, that my judgments go forth like the sun. For I desire mercy and not sacrifice, acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings. As at Adam, they've broken the covenant. They're unfaithful to me.

And he just goes off on him. What is being claimed in those early verses of Hosea 6 is that God's a chump, and we can get away with murder. He said he would punish us; I bet he doesn't. I bet it's gonna be fine. And then God says, no, no, no, no, no, stop it. Okay, that is what Hosea 6 means, and that doesn't have anything to do with anything consistent in the resurrection of Christ. Okay? Other passages do. Psalm 22, I think, is pretty close. Psalm 16, Isaiah 53, there are other places that anticipate this, that if we were paying attention, we could have seen it coming, just not that one.

Conclusion

Good enough? All right, that's all for now. You guys did great sticking with all that, so we'll do it again next week. Thanks for coming.