Title:  I am the resurrection, ...

   As a young man, D.L. Moody was called upon suddenly to preach a funeral sermon. He hunted all throughout the four Gospels trying to find one of Christ's funeral sermons, but searched in vain. He found that Christ broke up every funeral he ever attended. Death could not exist where he was. When the dead heard his voice they sprang to life. Jesus said, "I am the resurrection, and the life."

See:  John 11:25

Title:  Lenin

   Lenin thought that those who believed in God were worse than fools. "Every man who occupies himself with the construction of a god, or merely even agrees to it, prostitutes himself in the worst way," he wrote. "For he occupies himself not with activity, but with self-contemplation and self-reflection, and tries thereby to deify his most unclean, most stupid, and most servile features and pettinesses." Consequently, anyone who believes in God is not simply in error; he is "mentally deranged". This is why believers in the Soviet Union are frequently judged insane and committed to mental institutions.

   -- From George Seldes, Great Thoughts.

See:  Psa 34:8-10; 1 Cor 15:13-20
 

Title:  11,111 Heads

According to Dr. E. R. Bull, a Methodist missionary to the Ryuku Islands of Japan, a huge grave has been discovered on the Island of Amakusa, where a marker states that the heads of 11,111 Christians are buried there. The date of the grave is 1637, in which year the Japanese government ordered all Christians exterminated, and the inscription above this grave states that 11,111 Christians were killed, and that their bodies were buried separately.

The purpose in this was that the missionaries who had brought Christianity to Japan had preached the resurrection of the body, and the Japanese rulers supposed that by separating the heads from the rest of the bodies in burial, there could be no possibility of the Christians coming forth from their graves.

—Selected

Title:  A New Religion

   The originator of a new religion came to the great French diplomat-statesman Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord and complained that he could not make any converts. "What would you suggest I do?" he asked.
   "I should recommend," said Talleyrand, "that you get yourself crucified, and then die, but be sure to rise again the third day."
   Christianity stands on the resurrection.

See:  1 Cor 15:3-4
 

Title:  Only the Shell

   Dear Ann Landers:
   A recent column of yours about a minister who mispronounced the name of the deceased three times during the service brought back some memories.
   Our preacher got this one off a few weeks ago while extolling the virtues of a leading citizen during the eulogy: "We have here only the shell -- the nut is gone."
   -- D. Indel

   Dear D:
   Thanks for my laugh for the day. Beautiful!

See:  Job 19:26

Title:  Christ and Funerals

As a young man, D.L. Moody was called upon to suddenly to preach a funeral sermon. He hunted all through out the Four Gospels trying to find one of Christ's funeral sermons, but searched in vain.  He found that Christ broke up every funeral He went attended

. Death could not exist where He was. When the dead heard His voice they sprang to life. Jesus said, I am the resurrection, and the life ( John 11:25 )

copied
 

Title:  Waterloo

   THE FOG LIFTED  It was June 18, 1815, the Battle of Waterloo. The French under the command of Napoleon were fighting the Allies (British, Dutch, and Germans) under the command of Wellington. The people of England depended on a system of signals to find out how the battle was going. One of these signal stations was on the tower of Winchester Cathedral.
   Late in the day it flashed the signal: "W-E-L-L-I-N-G-T-O-N- - - D-E-F-E-A-T-E-D- -." Just at that moment one of those sudden English fog-clouds made it impossible to read the message. The news of defeat quickly spread throughout the city. The whole countryside was sad and gloomy when they heard the news that their country had lost the war. Suddenly the fog lifted, and the remainder of the message could be read. The message had four words, not two. The complete message was: "W-E-L-L-I-N-G-T-O-N- - -D-E-F-E-A-T-E-D- - T-H-E- - -E-N-E-M-Y!" It took only a few minutes for the good news to spread. Sorrow was turned into joy, defeat was turned into victory!
   So it was when Jesus was laid in the tomb on the first Good Friday afternoon. Hope had died even in the hearts of Jesus' most loyal friends. After the frightful crucifixion the fog of disappointment and misunderstanding had steeled in on the friends of Jesus. They had "read" only part of the Divine message. "Christ defeated"

See:  Mark 16:5-6; 1 Cor 15:54-55

Title:  Dear Eutychus

   Here is a letter written to a local advice column along with the response:

   Dear Eutychus:

   Our preacher said, on Easter, that Jesus just swooned on
   the cross and that the disciples nursed Him back to health.
   What do you think?

   Sincerely,
   Bewildered

   Dear Bewildered:

   Beat your preacher with a cat-of-nine-tails with 39 heavy
   strokes, nail him to a cross; hang him in the sun for 6
   hours; run a spear through his heart; embalm him; put him
   in an airless tomb for 36 hours and see what happens.

   Sincerely,
   Eutychus

See:  1 Cor 15:3-4

Title:  Another Religion

   In my book World Aflame, I told the story about Auguste Comte, the French philosopher, and Thomas Caryle, the Scottish essayist. Comte said he was going to start a new religion that would supplant the religion of Christ. It was to have no mysteries and was to be as plain as the multiplication table; its name was to be positivism. "Very good, Mr. Comte," Carlyle replied, "very good. All you will need to do will be to speak as never a man spake, and live as never a man lived, and be crucified, and rise again the third day, and get the world to believe that you are still alive. Then your religion will have a chance to get on."

   -- Billy Graham

See:  John 17:21

Other Topic/Subtopic/Index:
Christ/Became Man's Substitute/3361
Cross of Christ/891-892

Title:  The Victorious Christ of Michelangelo

   On one occasion Michelangelo turned to his fellow artists and said with frustration in his voice, "Why do you keep filling gallery after gallery with endless pictures on the one theme of Christ in weakness, Christ on the cross, and most of all, Christ hanging dead?" he asked. "Why do you concentrate on the passing episode as if it were the last work, as if the curtain dropped down there on disaster and defeat? That dreadful scene lasted only a few hours. But to the unending eternity Christ is alive; Christ rules and reigns and triumphs!"
   Michelangelo was right. Even though the cross is vitally important because of the redemption Jesus accomplished for us there, we must not emphasize His death to the exclusion of His resurrection victory. We should think of Him now in His glorified state in heaven.

See:  Acts 3:13; Phil 2:9-11

Title:  Totally Awesome

   Who is Jesus Christ? The God-man -- the most unique Person who ever lived. The awesome Son of God!
   Some time ago a lady wrote me a true story of an event that happened in a Christian school:
   A kindergarten teacher was determining how much religious training her new students had. While talking with one little boy, to whom the story of Jesus was obviously brand new, she began relating His death on the cross. When asked what a cross was, she picked up some sticks, and fashioning a crude one, she explained that Jesus was actually nailed to that cross, and then He died. The little boy with eyes downcast quietly acknowledged, "Oh, that's too bad." In the very next breath, however, she related that He arose again and that He came back to life. And his little eyes got big as saucers. He lit up and exclaimed, "Totally awesome!"
   You don't know the full identity of Jesus if your response is "Oh, that's too bad." You know His identity only if your description is "Totally awesome!"

   -- Charles Swindoll, Growing Deep in the Christian Life.

See:  1 Cor 15:56-57

Title:  Historical Proof

   Now there was about this time Jesus a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man; for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him many Jews, and also many of the Greeks. This man was the Christ. And when Pilate had condemned him to the cross, those who had loved him from the first did not forsake him for he appeared to them alive on the third day, the divine prophets having spoken these and thousands of other wonderful things about him. And even now, the race of Christians, so named from him, has not died out.

   -- From the Writings of Josephus, before 100 A.D.

See:  Rom 4:23-25; 1 Cor 15:13-20

Title:  More Proof

   When the Garden Tomb was discovered in 1885, the godly General Gordon was convinced that this was the place where the body of Jesus had lain. There is a traditional tomb inside the wall of modern Jerusalem, but no certainty attaches to the site.
   The Garden Tomb, hidden for centuries, was covered with rubbish twenty  feet high. When they first cleared the spot, with great caution they gathered all the dust and debris within the tomb and carefully shipped it to the Scientific Association of Great Britain. Every part of it was analyzed, but there was no trace of human remains. If this is the real tomb of Christ, then Jesus was the first to be laid there and he was also the last.

   -- Alliance Weekly

See:  Rom 6:4; 1 Cor 15:3-8

Title:  No Coffin

   A conversation between a Christian missionary and a Muslim illustrates a great point. The Mohammedan wanted to impress the missionary with what he considered to be the superiority of Islam. So he said, "When we go to Mecca, we at least find a coffin, but when you Christians go the Jerusalem, your mecca, you find nothing but an empty grave." To this the believer replied, "That is just the difference, Mohammed is dead and in his coffin. And all other systems of religion and philosophy are in their coffins. But Christ is risen, and all power in heaven and on earth is given to Him! He is alive forevermore!

See:  1 Cor 15:20-24