THE GREATEST MIRACLE – THE EMPTY TOMB 

John 20:1-18

1. Jesus turns water to wine (John 2:1-11)
2. Jesus heals a Royal official’s son (John 4:46-54)
3. Jesus heals a man paralyzed for 38 years  (John 5:1-15)
4. Jesus feeds 5,000 people (John 6:1-15)
5. Jesus walks on Water (John 6:16-24)
6. Jesus heals a man born blind (John 9:1-7)
7. Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead (John 11:1-45)
8. Jesus rises from the dead (John 20:1-18)

Intro:  John 20:30-31 “And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.” John 21:25 “And there are also many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. Amen.”

There are only two miracles that are recorded in all the four gospels – Feeding of the 5000 and the resurrection. 

I strongly believe that the resurrection of Christ is the greatest event in history thus the greatest miracle. Without Jesus resurrection, the Gospels will be useless; the New Testament will be senseless and there will be no hope for salvation. Romans 10:9-10 “if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” in order to be saved you have to believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  According to John 5, we are all going to live forever; this is the essence of the scriptures. Every human being ever born will live forever, either in everlasting joy or everlasting suffering.

If you believe in the resurrection, Jesus is your Lord.  If you don’t want Jesus to be your Lord, then you can deny the resurrection.  If there is a resurrection, Jesus is Lord and the Bible is true.  And every man is therefore accountable to His lordship.  

Religions are everywhere we look. No matter what we believe or why we believe it, we can make it a religion. With so many different religions teaching that their way is the right way, what makes Christianity any different? The answer is the resurrection. Jesus took our sins, died on a cross, and came back to life. People make pilgrimages to the grave sites of other religious leaders. Christians visit an empty tomb. 

Because Jesus rises from the dead, THREE things are obvious:

1. Our sins are forgiven.

We were dead in our sins, but Jesus died to pay for our sins (Romans 3:25). His resurrection defeated sin’s power over us. Because Jesus rises from the dead, we can experience forgiveness for all of our sins because He canceled the record of our sins, took it away by nailing it to the cross, and rose again to set us free (Colossians 2:13-14).

2. We have a divine connection to God.

Because Jesus rises from the dead, the lost connection between man and God is restored. Jesus bridged the gap between our sinfulness and God’s holiness by creating a way for us to connect with God. The Bible says that when Jesus died on the cross, a veil in the temple that separated God from man was torn. In that moment, Jesus made a way for us to have a relationship with God (Matthew 27:50-51).

3. We have proof that we serve a living God.

  Everything Jesus ever claimed would have been a lie had it not been for the resurrection. Many prophets and teachers came before Him claiming many of the same things, but only Jesus had the power to defeat death by rising from the dead three days after being crucified. The tomb is empty, Jesus is risen, and because He is alive, you can also have life. Jesus’ resurrection proves that He is who He says He is and that He is alive. Jesus is the only one who was dead and is now alive (Revelation 1:18).

Conclusion: Without the resurrection there would be no Christianity as everything we believe in and stand for would be a lie (1 Corinthians 15:13-19). If Jesus did not rise from the dead, then the New Testament would never have been written.”  Because there will be no need o write about another dead hero. But because Jesus is raised from the dead, you can have eternal life through Jesus Christ and the power of sin and hell is broken.