In our final message in this years passion week series entitled, Joy From Sorrow, we shall seek to unpack the greatest of all miracles known to man. A miracle of such immense proportion that our present purpose and future continuance rises and falls on this miracle, the miracle of the resurrection of Jesus the Christ from the dead. The apostle Paul declares it like this:

1 Corinthians 15:12–19

ESV

12 Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14 And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. 15 We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. 16 For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.

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The last time we met, on Good Friday evening, we learned how God’s servant, his Son, the Messiah, had to endure the sorrow of the cross in order for joy to be the outcome. We learned that the peace we seek with God can only come through the sacrificial, substitutional death of the Messiah in our place, in other words,

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Isaiah 53:3–7

ESV

3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. 7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.

Thus it was so as we left Friday night. However, if Christ remained in the grave, he would have been no better then any other humble religious leader. But it is the miracle of the resurrection that sets Christ apart from them all, for Paul goes on to say, from our call to worship this morning,

‌1 Corinthians 15:20–22

ESV

20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.

‌It is the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, that gives us hope here this morning, and every morning. This we will see was not a manufactured hope brought on by some fanatics who were living in deception, but real unexpected hope which we seek to unpack this morning in our message entitled, Exaltation of Joy, from Luke 24:1-12.