Biblical Moment: Celebrating the Resurrection of Jesus on Easter Sunday!

Biblical Moment: Celebrating the Resurrection of Jesus on Easter Sunday!

Biblical Accounts of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John:

“The next day, the one following the day of preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate and said, “Sir, we remember that this impostor while still alive said, ‘After three days I will be raised up.’ Give orders, then, that the grave be secured until the third day, lest His Disciples come and steal Him and say to the people, ‘He has been raised from the dead.’ This last imposture would be worse than the first.” Pilate said to them, “The guard is yours; go secure it as best you can.” So they went and secured the tomb by fixing a seal to the stone and setting the guard.”—Matthew 27:62-66

“After the Sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb. And behold, there was a great earthquake; for an Angel of the Lord descended from Heaven, approached, rolled back the stone, and sat upon it. His appearance was like lightning and his clothing was white as snow. The guards were shaken with fear of him and became like dead men. Then the Angel said to the women in reply, “Do not be afraid! I know that you are seeking Jesus the crucified. He is not here, for He has been raised just as He said. Come and see the place where He lay. Then go quickly and tell His Disciples, ‘He has been raised from the dead, and He is going before you to Galilee; there you will see Him.’ Behold, I have told you.” Then they went away quickly from the tomb, fearful yet overjoyed, and ran to announce this to His Disciples. And behold, Jesus met them on their way and greeted them. They approached, embraced His Feet, and did Him homage. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go tell My Brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see Me.”

—Matthew 28:1-10

“While they were going, some of the guard went into the city and told the chief priests all that had happened. They assembled with the elders and took counsel; then they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers, telling them, “You are to say, ‘His disciples came by night and stole Him while we were asleep.’ And if this gets to the ears of the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.” The soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed. And this story has circulated among the Jews to the present day.”—Matthew 28:11-15

“The Eleven Disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had ordered them. When they saw Him, they worshiped, but they doubted. Then Jesus approached and said to them, “All power 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, until the end of the age.””—Matthew 28:16-20

“When it was already evening, since it was the day of preparation, the day before the Sabbath, Joseph of Arimathea, a distinguished member of the council, who was himself awaiting the Kingdom of God, came and courageously went to Pilate and asked for the Body of Jesus. Pilate was amazed that He was already dead. He summoned the centurion and asked him if Jesus had already died. And when he learned of it from the centurion, he gave the body to Joseph. Having bought a linen cloth, he took Him down, wrapped Him in the linen cloth and laid Him in a Tomb that had been hewn out of the rock. Then he rolled a stone against the entrance to the Tomb. Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses watched where He was laid.”—Mark 15:42-47

“When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go and anoint Him. Very early when the sun had risen, on the first day of the week, they came to the Tomb. They were saying to one another, “Who will roll back the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?” When they looked up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back; it was very large. On entering the Tomb they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a white robe, and they were utterly amazed. He said to them, “Do not be amazed! You seek Jesus of Nazareth, the crucified. He has been raised; He is not here. Behold, the place where they laid Him. But go and tell His Disciples and Peter, ‘He is going before you to Galilee; there you will see Him, as He told you.’” 8 Then they went out and fled from the Tomb, seized with trembling and bewilderment. They said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.”

—Mark 16:1-8

“When Jesus had risen, early on the first day of the week, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had driven seven demons. She went and told His Companions who were mourning and weeping. When they heard that He was alive and had been seen by her, they did not believe. After this He appeared in another form to two of them walking along on their way to the country. They returned and told the others; but they did not believe them either.”—Mark 16: 9-13

“But later, as the Eleven were at table, Jesus appeared to them and rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart because they had not believed those who saw Him after He had been raised. He said to them, “Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved; whoever does not believe will be condemned. These signs will accompany those who believe: in My Name they will drive out demons, they will speak new languages. They will pick up serpents with their hands, and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not harm them. They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.””—Mark 16: 14-18

“Now there was a virtuous and righteous man named Joseph who, though he was a member of the council, had not consented to their plan of action. He came from the Jewish town of Arimathea and was awaiting the Kingdom of God. He went to Pilate and asked for the Body of Jesus. After he had taken the body down, he wrapped it in a linen cloth and laid Him in a rock-hewn Tomb in which no one had yet been buried. It was the day of preparation, and the Sabbath was about to begin. The women who had come from Galilee with Him followed behind, and when they had seen the tomb and the way in which His Body was laid in it, they returned and prepared spices and perfumed oils. Then they rested on the Sabbath according to the commandment.”—Luke 23:50-56

“But at daybreak on the first day of the week they took the spices they had prepared and went to the Tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the Tomb; but when they entered, they did not find the Body of the Lord Jesus. While they were puzzling over this, behold, two men in dazzling garments appeared to them. They were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground. They said to them, “Why do you seek the living one among the dead? He is not here, but He has been raised. Remember what He said to you while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners and be crucified, and rise on the third day.” And they remembered His Words. Then they returned from the Tomb and announced all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. The women were Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James; the others who accompanied them also told this to the Apostles, but their story seemed like nonsense and they did not believe them. But Peter got up and ran to the tomb, bent down, and saw the burial cloths alone; then he went home amazed at what had happened.”

—Luke 24:1-12

“Now that very day two of them were going to a village seven miles from Jerusalem called Emmaus, and they were conversing about all the things that had occurred. And it happened that while they were conversing and debating, Jesus himself drew near and walked with them, but their eyes were prevented from recognizing Him. He asked them, “What are you discussing as you walk along?” They stopped, looking downcast. One of them, named Cleopas, said to Him in reply, “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know of the things that have taken place there in these days?” And He replied to them, “What sort of things?” They said to Him, “The things that happened to Jesus the Nazarene, who was a Prophet mighty in Deed and Word before God and all the people, how our chief priests and rulers both handed Him over to a sentence of death and crucified Him. But we were hoping that He would be the one to redeem Israel; and besides all this, it is now the third day since this took place. Some women from our group, however, have astounded us: they were at the Tomb early in the morning and did not find His Body; they came back and reported that they had indeed seen a vision of Angels who announced that He was alive. Then some of those with us went to the Tomb and found things just as the women had described, but Him they did not see.”

And He said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are! How slow of heart to believe all that the Prophets spoke! Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and enter into His Glory?” Then beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He interpreted to them what referred to Him in all the Scriptures.

As they approached the village to which they were going, He gave the impression that He was going on farther. But they urged Him, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over.” So He went in to stay with them. And it happened that, while He was with them at table, He took bread, said the Blessing, broke it, and gave it to them. With that their eyes were opened and they recognized Him, but He vanished from their sight. Then they said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while He spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?”

So they set out at once and returned to Jerusalem where they found gathered together the Eleven and those with them who were saying, “The Lord has truly been raised and has appeared to Simon!” Then the two recounted what had taken place on the way and how He was made known to them in the Breaking of the Bread.”—Luke 24:13-35

“After this, Joseph of Arimathea, secretly a Disciple of Jesus for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate if he could remove the Body of Jesus. And Pilate permitted it. So he came and took His Body. Nicodemus, the one who had first come to Him at night, also came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes weighing about one hundred pounds. They took the Body of Jesus and bound it with burial cloths along with the spices, according to the Jewish burial custom. Now in the place where he had been crucified there was a Garden, and in the Garden a new Tomb, in which no one had yet been buried. So they laid Jesus there because of the Jewish preparation day; for the Tomb was close by.”—John 19:38-42

“On the first day of the week, Mary of Magdala came to the Tomb early in the morning, while it was still dark, and saw the stone removed from the Tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them, “They have taken the Lord from the Tomb, and we don’t know where they put Him.” So Peter and the other Disciple went out and came to the Tomb. They both ran, but the other Disciple ran faster than Peter and arrived at the Tomb first; he bent down and saw the burial cloths there, but did not go in. When Simon Peter arrived after him, he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there, and the cloth that had covered His Head, not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place. Then the other Disciple also went in, the one who had arrived at the tomb first, and he saw and believed. For they did not yet understand the Scripture that He had to rise from the dead. Then the Disciples returned home.”—John 20:1-10

“But Mary stayed outside the Tomb weeping. And as she wept, she bent over into the Tomb and saw two Angels in white sitting there, one at the head and one at the feet where the Body of Jesus had been. And they said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken my Lord, and I don’t know where they laid Him.” When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus there, but did not know it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” She thought it was the gardener and said to Him, “Sir, if you carried Him away, tell me where you laid Him, and I will take Him.” Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to Him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni,” which means Teacher. Jesus said to her, “Stop holding on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to My brothers and tell them, ‘I am going to My Father and your Father, to My God and your God.’” Mary of Magdala went and announced to the Disciples, “I have seen the Lord,” and what He told her.”—John 20:11-18

“On the evening of that first day of the week, when the doors were locked, where the Disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When He had said this, He showed them His Hands and His Side. The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent Me, so I send you.” And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive The Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.”—John 20:19-23

“Thomas, called Didymus, one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other Disciples said to him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in His Hands and put my finger into the nail marks and put my hand into His Side, I will not believe.” Now a week later His Disciples were again inside and Thomas was with them. Jesus came, although the doors were locked, and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.” Then He said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see My Hands, and bring your hand and put it into My Side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe.” Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you come to believe because you have seen Me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.” Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His Disciples that are not written in this book. But these are written that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through this belief you may have life in His Name.”—John 20:24-31

Other Biblical Accounts of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ:

“Paul, a Slave of Christ Jesus, called to be an Apostle and set apart for the Gospel of God, which He promised previously through His Prophets in the Holy Scriptures, the Gospel about his Son, descended from David according to the flesh, but established as Son of God in Power according to The Spirit of Holiness through Resurrection from the Dead, Jesus Christ our Lord. Through Him we have received the Grace of Apostleship, to bring about the Obedience of Faith, for the sake of His Name, among all the Gentiles, among whom are you also, who are called to belong to Jesus Christ; to all the beloved of God in Rome, called to be holy. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”—Romans 1:1-7

“For ‘In Him we live and move and have our being,’ as even some of your poets have said, ‘For we too are His Offspring.’ Since therefore we are the Offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divinity is like an image fashioned from gold, silver, or stone by human art and imagination. God has overlooked the times of ignorance, but now He demands that all people everywhere repent because He has established a day on which He will ‘judge the world with justice’ through a Man He has Appointed, and He has provided confirmation for all by raising Jesus from the dead.”

—Acts 17:28-31

“But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead came also through a human being. For just as in Adam all die, so too in Christ shall all be brought to life, but each one in proper order: Christ the first fruits; then, at His Coming, those who belong to Christ; then comes the end, when He hands over the Kingdom to his God and Father, when He has destroyed every sovereignty and every authority and power. For He must reign until He has put all His Enemies under His Feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.”

—1 Corinthians 15:20–26

“This I declare, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all fall asleep, but we will all be changed, in an instant, in the blink of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For that which is corruptible must clothe itself with incorruptibility, and that which is mortal must clothe itself with immortality. And when this which is corruptible clothes itself with incorruptibility and this which is mortal clothes itself with immortality, then the Word that is written shall come about: “Death is swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God who gives us the Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”—1 Corinthians 15:50-57

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who in His Great Mercy gave us a new birth to a living hope through the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you who by the power of God are safeguarded through faith, to a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the final time. In this you rejoice, although now for a little while you may have to suffer through various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that is perishable even though tested by fire, may prove to be for Praise, Glory, and Honor at the Revelation of Jesus Christ. Although you have not seen Him you love Him; even though you do not see Him now yet believe in Him, you rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, as you attain the goal of your faith, the Salvation of your Souls.”

—1 Peter 1:3–9

“What then shall we say? Shall we persist in sin that grace may abound? Of course not! How can we who died to sin yet live in it? Or are you unaware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were indeed buried with Him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the Glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life.

For if we have grown into union with Him through a death like His, we shall also be united with Him in the Resurrection. We know that our old self was crucified with Him, so that our sinful body might be done away with, that we might no longer be in slavery to sin. For a dead person has been absolved from sin. If, then, we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him. We know that Christ, raised from the dead, dies no more; death no longer has power over Him.”—Romans 6:1-9

“Do you not know that a little yeast leavens all the dough? Clear out the old yeast, so that you may become a fresh batch of dough, inasmuch as you are unleavened. For our Paschal Lamb, Christ, has been sacrificed. Therefore, let us celebrate the feast, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of Sincerity and Truth.”—1 Corinthians 5:6-8

“The next day John the Baptist saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. He is the One of whom I said, ‘A man is coming after me who ranks ahead of me because He existed before me.’ I did not know Him, but the reason why I came baptizing with water was that He might be made known to Israel.” John testified further, saying, “I saw the Spirit come down like a Dove from the sky and remain upon Him. I did not know Him, but the One who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘On whomever you see the Spirit come down and remain, He is the one who will baptize with The Holy Spirit.’ Now I have seen and testified that He is the Son of God.”

—John 1:29-34