Over the many years of ministry on several occasions, I have had questions like these thrown into my face. “Where was God when my wife died?” “Where was God when my son got cancer?” Where was God when that missionary was killed while serving God?” There are times when all of us have had questions just like those I mentioned. People can fill in their own blanks with their own personal tragedies. Likely, the first time I heard this I didn’t really have an answer. I do now. God was exactly where He was when He let His own Son die on the old rugged cross. The people of God aren’t immune to suffering just because we are children of God. We are in sinful bodies in a sinful world with the penalty of death hanging over all things touched by that sin.
That final day of Jesus’ life was one of great confusion, sadness, agony, and uncertainty for the early followers of Christ. Those at the foot of the cross, along with some watching from a distance, were watching first-hand, eyewitnesses, as the Lord Jesus suffered, hanging for six agonizing hours on the cross until finally He whispered a final prayer, “Father into thy hands I commend my spirit.” The suffering of Christ was now over but not for the people of God. Those followers of Jesus also had targets on them. They would begin to experience great persecution for walking in the way of this man Jesus. The great old hymn of the faith “It is well with my Soul” has a phrase that is beautiful, at least to me. It speaks to the burdens and the drowning under the heavy circumstances of life that God’s people experience. “Sorrows like sea billows roll.” That phrase in the song isn’t about the billows that rolled over Jesus as horrible as they were, it describes the overwhelming circumstances that the people of God experience. Billows refers to waves of water or smoke that keep coming and keep coming. God’s people can be and often are overwhelmed with the relentlessness. The small group who was watching on crucifixion day were helpless to do anything except weep, mourn and beg God to do something. Well, God did do something! He raised Jesus from the dead.
What God did changed them from a rag tag bunch of Galileans to a group of people that turned the world upside down. Acts 17:6 uses that exact phrase. Paul and his team preaching Christ crucified and being raised from the dead flipped the world on its head. The missionary journey had now stopped in Thessalonica. The city elders called them “lewd” (wicked) for preaching Christ and His glorious gospel. Once the resurrection happened no one was ever the same! Peter preached at Pentecost. His main point of the sermon is found in Acts 2:23-24. “This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. Therefore, being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear.” Peter and John head to the Temple to pray. They see a crippled man begging for alms. They have no money, but they heal him. Peter begins testifying. What does he say? Acts 3:14-15 is key. “But ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer (Barabbas) to be granted unto you; And killed the Prince of life whom God raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses.”
A great number of verses in the Acts testify to this same truth. Jesus was raised from the dead. Let me give you a quick list of verses. Circumstances and personalities of each verse are different but one common thread through them all, the resurrection of Jesus. Acts 4:2, 10, 33; 13:30-34; 17:3, 18, 31-32; 26:23. There are also many others from the epistles. Romans 6:5-6; II Corinthians 5:14-15, 21; Philippians 3:10; Colossians 1:18; I Thessalonians 4:14; Hebrews 13:20-21; I Peter 1:3; 3:21; Revelation 20:6, 12-13.
The passage we will close with is found in I Corinthians 15:20-26, “But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first-fruits 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 first-fruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming. 24 Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. 25 For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.” Without the resurrection everything is stuck on a dead-end street. George Eldon Ladd speaking about the resurrection said, “His resurrection validates all that came before.” I agree whole-heartedly with Ladd. When the billows of life crush you remember that the resurrection of Jesus is proof that a better day is coming. The great old black preacher from late 1900’s S.M. Lockridge used to preach a sermon “It’s Friday, but Sunday’s Coming.” It is Friday and Jesus is hanging on the cross. Hope has been lost. The Lord is dead. But Sunday’s coming. Hang on brothers and sisters, everything will be fine. The resurrection declares it.