So there are stories of people being raised from the dead. In the Old Testament there were Elijah's bones, which were so full of resurrection power, that when a body was dropped on him, immediately the man came back to life again.
In the New Testament, Jesus healed and raised from the dead, a young boy that was dead; this young girl raised-up Lazarus from the dead. We also see in the New Testament, that Peter raised a young girl from the dead; and also Paul raised a young man from the dead. In fact in Matthew 10:7-8, Jesus specifically says - now get this: “raising people from the dead goes with preaching the gospel”. See?
It goes with preaching the gospel; so He told: wherever you go, preach the gospel of the kingdom, heal the sick, raise the dead, cast out demons, and so on. So the ministry of raising people from the dead was entrusted to the church. How far we've slipped from that! How far we've slipped; yet I've heard stories, in the last two or three years, of people that were prayed for here in New Zealand, that rose again from the dead - so God, in these latter days, is restoring great power to the church.
Now here's something you need to understand. All of those people, who were raised from the dead, that we just read about - all died; so when we're teaching the doctrine of Resurrection from the Dead, we're teaching about something that goes much beyond that, and I want us to go there now.
Let's have a look in Matthew 27. We’ll just look at when Jesus rose from the dead. I want you just to stick with me, as we're going to go through a few scriptures, and I want you to understand what this is about, because you'll understand this is the great hope of a Christian believer. In fact it's a foundation to become Christian.
Matthew 27:62 – On the next day, which followed the Day of Preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees gathered to Pilate saying, "Sir, while He was alive, the deceiver said 'After three days I will rise from the dead.' So command the tomb be secured until the third day, lest the disciples come by night and steal Him away, and say to the people, 'He's risen from the dead.' And the last deception will be worse than the first." Pilate said "You have a guard; go your way, make it as secure as you know how." So they went, and made the tomb where Jesus was buried secure, sealing the stone and setting a guard - which is probably four Roman soldiers.
After the Sabbath on the first day of the week began to dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb. Behold, there was a great earthquake, and an angel of the Lord descended from heaven; and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat on it. His countenance was like lightening, his clothing was white as snow; and the guards shook for fear, and became like dead men. But the angel answered, and said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; He is risen, as He said. Come and see the place where he lay." They walked in - in another version it tells: they walked in, and they saw the grave clothes. Now they were wrapped around Him, and they had not been unravelled - they were just empty. He had risen - literally risen, completely out of the grave.
So Jesus was the first to rise from the dead. The Bible calls Him the first born. He is the first man truly resurrected. Acts 26:23. It says "that Christ would suffer, and that He would be the first to rise from the dead". So when we're talking about Resurrection from the Dead, we're talking about a total change of a person's body - going along with their spirit being rejoined to them, so they come alive. We'll show you a little more about this in a moment.