Why the Resurrection Is the Gospel

CONSECRATE Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.  Jesus, I belong to you. I lift up my heart to you. I set my mind on you. I fix my eyes on you. I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice. Jesus, we belong to you.  Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.  HEAR Matthew 28:16–20 ESV Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” CONSIDER The crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth is easily the most public execution in the history of the world. It has been witnessed by billions of people the world over thanks to the eyewitness accounts recorded in these four historical documents we now read together—the Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.  Throughout the twenty intervening centuries since, people have refuted the divine identity of Jesus and his significance to history and eternity but no serious claim can stand which denies the historicity of his life and public witness to his death. All that said, we are not waking up eighty-nine days in a row and reading the Gospels because of Jesus's claims to divine status, his extraordinary teachings, his documented miracles, or even his scandalously unjust public execution. We are reading the Gospels and as a consequence, the whole Bible, because of this sentence: The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay." (Matt. 28:5) We are reading the Gospels and as a consequence, the whole Bible, because of this sentence: Suddenly Jesus met them. “Greetings,” he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. (Matt. 28:9) We are reading the Gospels and as a consequence, the whole Bible, because of this sentence: Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him they worshiped him,  Are you getting the point here? The resurrection is the gospel. No resurrection. No gospel. Great teacher. Miracle worker. Prophet martyr. In the resurrection, we behold the God of gods dealing death to death. In his resurrection from the dead, Jesus defeated the curse of death and destroyed the power of sin. As a result, Christian discipleship is the comprehensive operationalizing of the life, teaching, miraculous love, wonder-working power, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ. As a result, we here on the Wake-Up Call are reading the Gospels and as a consequence, the whole Bible, because of this sentence: Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. PRAY Lord Jesus, thank you for the Gospels which tell us the true story of you and reveal to us the power of the gospel—you are risen from the dead! You have defeated death and destroyed the power of sin. Would you take this fact from the realm of doctrine and make it the subject and source of my daily life? Come, Holy Spirit, and operationalize the resurrection of Jesus Christ in my life—top to bottom, inside and out. Praying in Jesus's name, amen.