Resurrection Day!

The reason Christians worship on Sundays is because Christ was raised on the first day of the week. In that sense, every Sunday is Resurrection Sunday. If you want to read a long development of the importance of Christ's resurrection, read 1st Corinthians chapter 15. The Gospels tell us the facts of Christ's resurrection; the apostle Paul develops those facts in one of his longest chapters.

Th resurrection is an essential part of the Christian message (15:1-4). Unlike some topics where good Christians can disagree, there can be no disagreement allowed in the church. It appears that some in that church were heeding foolish ideas about the impossibility of bodily resurrection, and Paul responds with a strong, absolute affirmation of Christ's bodily resurrection.

Our belief is not based on visions, whether our own or someone else's. The Bible describes prophets having visions, but the resurrection was not a vision. Christ invited doubting Thomas to feel his wounds and put his hand into His side. Paul says that our accounts of Christ's resurrection were all eye-witness testimonials, sometimes by multiple people at the same time (15:5-9).

Christ's bodily resurrection is why anyone is saved by God from judgment and hell (15:12-19). This is because Christ satisfied God's law and so death lost its hold on Him, and then we by trusting in Him take refuge under His accomplishment. If Christ wasn't raised, then our faith is futile and Christians who suffer for their confession of His resurrection have done so pointlessly and should be pitied. 

Christians can become corrupted doctrinally and morally, even on something so fundamental as the resurrection, because they hang around with bad people (15:33). Also, there are people in our churches who claim to be Christians but are not, so they are naturally drawn by Satan to falsehoods about Jesus Christ (15:34).

Jesus Christ is the cornerstone of our faith, and the bodily resurrection of Christ for our salvation is an essential part of that cornerstone. Martin Luther King Jr in his seminary days wrote that the virgin birth never happened and whether or not Christ rose from the dead was unimportant. These showed him at that time to have not been a follower of Jesus Christ. But a true follower of Jesus Christ always confesses belief in His bodily resurrection.