Up From the Grave He Arose
Dearly beloved of God, Jesus Christ died as our Passover lamb. The lamb was killed on the fourteenth of Nisan, and the Passover lamb was eaten that evening. It was the first meal of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
When was Jesus resurrected from the dead?
Matthew 28:1 Interlinear Greek- English New Testament, Berry
Now late on the Sabbath, as it was getting dusk toward [the] first [day] of [the] week, came Mary the Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre.
The Word of God informs us that this was the Sabbath, our Saturday. It was approaching dusk toward the first day of the week.
The Judeans numbered their days. The Sabbath was the seventh day, and the first day of the week corresponds with our Sunday. The date was the seventeenth of Nisan.
The guards were still watching the sepulcher, which was still sealed to preserve the evidence that Jesus was indeed dead. About a hundred pounds of linen cloth that had been wrapped around his dead body with a mixture of myrrh and aloes [see John 19:39,40] had hardened after three days and three nights in the sepulchre. The religious leaders plans were about to blow up in their faces.
Matthew 28:2-4
And behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the LORD descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it. His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow; And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men.
The word “Behold” introduces a new subject to us. It had been three days and three nights since Jesus died and was buried. Jesus was resurrected from the dead on the weekly Sabbath, Saturday on our calendar as it was getting dusk toward the first day of the week, which began at sunset.
Matthew 12: 40
For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
After Jesus died, he was buried and was in the grave for three days and three nights.
Jesus did not ascend into heaven for forty days after his resurrection from the dead. He was a dead man, but God raised him out from among all the dead people. He was the first, and the only man thus far to be raised from the dead to die no more. John 3:13 informs us that he is the only man in heaven today.
Acts 2:31 and 32
He [David] seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell [hades: the grave], neither his flesh did see corruption. This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses.
Each gospel testifies that he was risen from the dead, and provides us with the evidence of eye witnesses that saw him after his resurrection. The empty mummified grave wrappings remained as proof that God had raised Jesus from the dead.
Records in the book of Acts confirm it. I Corinthians 15 reports eye witness accounts of his resurrection out from among the dead.
Romans reveals that to be saved one must confess the Lord Jesus and believe that God raised him from the dead.
As God resurrected His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord from the dead, so the dead in Christ will be resurrected, also.
Romans 6: 5 and 8
5 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection:
8 Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him:
Our release from the grave and the state of death will be like Jesus Christ’s. When will the dead in Christ be raised from the dead?
I Corinthians 15: 20-23
20 But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.
21 For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.
22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
23 But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming.
Christ was the first fruit offering of them that have fallen asleep, and they will be resurrected from the dead “AT HIS COMING.”
When the Lord Jesus Christ comes for the Church, which is his body, both those living and the dead that are Christ’s will be delivered from sin and death.
I Corinthians 15: 52-57
52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
54 So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.
55 O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
56 The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.
57 But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory [over sin and death] through our Lord Jesus Christ.
If we should fall asleep before the Lord Jesus Christ returns, at his coming he will raise us up as God raised him from the dead.
Thank God we have the victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ. Up from the grave he arose, and so shall we at his coming.