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The Original Resurrection Sunday was a day of unbelief. Three times unbelief is mentioned in the account recorded in Matthew 16:11,13,14. We quite understand that unbelief is just the opposite of believing. Hebrews 11:6 says, "Without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him."

If we do not believe in the resurrection, there can be no justification from our sins. God reminds us in Romans 5:1 that Jesus was raised for our justification and that justification is by faith. Faith in what? His resurrection.

Neither can there be any salvation without the resurrection. Romans 10:9 says, "That is thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved."

There also can be no heaven without the resurrection. 1 Thessalonians 4:14-17 "For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord."

Belief in the resurrection is the keystone of Christianity. When it is removed, all must invariably crumble into ruin. It is the citadel of the Christian faith. It is the doctrine that turned the ancient world upside down--that lifted Christianity preeminently above Judaism and the pagan religions of the Mediterranean world. But just as the presence of the reviling thief on the cross shows that a person can be right next to Jesus and yet be lost; just as the mocking Athenians show that you can hear the greatest gospel preacher and still be lost; so does this message reveal that one can hear about the resurrection of Christ and still be lost--unless he believes that Christ died for his sins and rose again for his justification and makes confession of that belief.