1 Corinthians 1 – Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the Gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand.
2 – By this Gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.
3 – For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
4 – that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,
5 – and that He appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve.
6 – After that, He appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep.
7 – Then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles,
8 – and last of all He appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.
12 – If it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?
13 – If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised.
14 – And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.
17 – And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.
18 – Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost.
19 – If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.
20 – But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
21 – For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a Man.
22 – For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.
One of my favorite movies of all time is Seabiscuit. There have been a couple movie versions of this wonderful story but the one I’m referring to came out a few years ago and it starred Tobey Maguire and Jeff Bridges. It’s a very well-done movie—based on a very well-written book—by Laura Hillenbrand and this morning I want to begin my message by showing you my favorite scene from this film—but first let me set it up…by reminding you that in Seabiscuit’s day America was in the latter half of the Great Depression.
Some of you are young enough to remember that difficult chapter in our nation’s history…so you know that in 1938 people had endured almost ten years of high unemployment and sky-rocketing prices. Things were far worse than they are now. People felt hopeless and defeated.
In a very real sense, those were years when America needed a hero—someone to make people believe they could make it. Keep all that in mind as I read this excerpt from Hillenbrand’s book:
That year the number one news-maker wasn’t President Roosevelt. Nor was it Adolf Hitler or Mussolini. It wasn’t the pope or Lou Gehrig or Howard Hughes or Clark Gable. No—the subject of the most news-paper column inches in 1938 wasn’t even a PERSON. It was an undersized, mud-colored, crooked-legged race-horse named Seabiscuit. In those days, Seabiscuit was nothing short of a cultural icon in America, enjoying adulation so intense and broad-based that it transcended sport. When he raced, his fans choked local roads, poured out of special cross-country “Seasbiscuit Limited” trains, packed the hotels and cleaned out the restaurants. Tuning in to radio broadcasts of his races was a weekend ritual across the country, drawing as many as forty million listeners. His appearances smashed attendance records at nearly every major track and drew the largest throngs ever to see a horse race in the U.S. In an era when the United States’ population was less than half its current size, seventy-eight thousand people witnessed his last race, a crowd comparable to those at today’s Super Bowls. As many as forty thousand fans mobbed tracks just to watch his workouts.
Well in the months leading up to 1938 Seabiscuit began to rack up win after win in the WEST and it became obvious that his “enemy” —his rival—was a horse that had been victorious in the EAST—a horse named War Admiral. As you can see when you compare these two pictures, unlike little Sea Biscuit, War Admiral was huge—and he was perfectly proportioned with no obvious flaws. Plus, he had awesome, frightening speed. Once underway, he was way too fast for other horses. War Admiral beat opponent after opponent the instant they left the starting gate—leaving them “to ebb out like spilling water behind him.”
In the spring of 1937 War Admiral displayed such an overwhelming acceleration and stamina that he was never NOT in the lead at any race. From start to finish no horse could touch him. He won the Triple Crown—setting new speed records. He appeared to be unbeatable. Let me put it this way. He was the “GOLIATH”…and Seabiscuit was the young “David.”
After declining several challenges from Seabiscuit’s owner, War Admiral’s owner—a man named Riddle—finally yielded to popular pressure and agreed to a match race. It was held at Pimlico on November 1st, 1938 and little crooked-legged Seabiscuit was expected to lose. Most people thought even he was no match for War Admiral. To make matters worse, his regular jockey was in the hospital after a serious accident. That’s the set up…now watch the movie version of the race itself.
CLIP – 1:39:00 – 1:46:00
Now—why do our hearts soar when we see scenes like this? Why do we always root for underdogs like Seabiscuit? I think it’s because we all instinctively know that as fallen beings, we are underdogs in a race against a huge powerful foe—an enemy named DEATH. We know that on our own there is no way we can beat him. Like War Admiral DEATH is too big—too powerful. No strategy has every worked against him. I mean, vitamins, exercise routines—nothing works. Death beats everyone who “races” against him. The odds are stacked against us. As someone put it, “The statistics on death are quite grim. One out of one people die.” This fact is the root cause for what I think of as “the Great Depression of the soul.” We all live our lives with a cloud hanging over us. We know it’s hopeless because death will get us in the end. Sure—when we are young we can put this terrifying thought out of our minds. In the early years of our lives we can convince ourselves that death is something that happens to other people—not to us…but when we grow older we finally see the folly of that thinking. We look back and see that, yes, death is gaining on us…and will beat us in the end.
So, in my mind, this is why we root for the “Sea biscuits” in life. As “little guys” ourselves, we always cheer for the underdog—and we love those stories where against overwhelming odds, the little guy wins.
I bring this up because today we celebrate the fact that Someone DID beat death in this race we all run. His name is Jesus! At first, to even His closest followers, it looked like Jesus was an underdog. It looked like death had won another one. Remember? That Good Friday Jesus was cruelly beaten within an inch of his life and then He was nailed to a cross where He died a horrible death. For three days His body lay in a borrowed tomb. But—we say “borrowed” because that first Easter Sunday morning Jesus ROSE—bodily—victoriously and gave that tomb back to it’s owner! That glorious morning our Lord “crossed the finish line” first. He defeated death. He left it in His dust! He did what no one else had ever done before or since.You may think, “Well, Mark, what about Lazarus and the others that Jesus brought back to life? Didn’t they beat death too?” And I would say they didn’t beat death—not really—because Lazarus and the others eventually died. Their resurrection was a temporary reprieve. Not so with Jesus—He rose ETERNALLY. And because He did—ever since that first Easter Sunday, humanity has crowded churches like ours…much like people crowded the track to see Seabiscuit race. As underdogs, we come together to praise God for Jesus, Who defeated this huge enemy we all face. We gather to retell this—the GREATEST PART of the Greatest Story Ever Told…the story of Jesus’ victory over death.
And, Jesus’ first followers led the way, in that they made Jesus’ resurrection the focus of their teaching. It was the linchpin of their message. I mean, the resurrection is what held their story together. It’s what MADE it the Greatest Story Ever Told and they told that story every chance they got. In the book of Acts, Luke describes the entire ministry of Peter and John in these five words: “preaching Jesus and the Resurrection.” That’s pretty much all they did! It was same with Paul. In our text for today Paul summarized the “sermon” he had been preaching all over the world by saying, “I passed on to you as the first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins, that He was buried, that on the third day He rose again, and that He was seen.”
I’m saying that the Greatest Story Ever Told REVOLVES around Jesus resurrection. It’s what makes the Gospel good news! This morning I want us to remind ourselves why this part of the story so precious to us by reviewing the significance of what happened that first Easter morning.
(1) First, the resurrection of Jesus is significant because it assured us that our PAST can be FORGIVEN.
You see, our hopelessness in the face of death—is rooted in the fact that we all know we are SINNERS. As Mark Twain once put it, “Man is the only animal that blushes, and the only animal that needs to.” Twain was right. We are all guilty of sin.
And if that weren’t bad enough, we know our sin separates us from our Creator. This is why there is a “God-shaped” hole in the hearts of all people who don’t know Jesus. We were designed to walk in fellowship with our Lord—but our sin makes that impossible. However, when Jesus came, He proclaimed the message we all longed to hear. He said that our sins could actually be forgiven. If you’ve read the Gospel accounts you know that during His public ministry, there are four words that Jesus said over and over again: “Your sins are forgiven.” (Matthew 9:2) In fact, that night in the upper room just a few hours before His arrest, He referred to the Communion cup as, “His blood which was shed for the forgiveness of sins.” (Matthew 26:28)
So understand—Jesus linked OUR forgiveness with HIS death. He taught that He was going to die in our place—the innocent would die for the guilty. He would pay for our sins on the cross, making our forgiveness—our pardon—possible.
But the question that comes to mind is this one: “How can we know whether Jesus could really do that? Sure—He said He was going to die for our forgiveness but was He able to do that?” How can we know whether He achieved by His death what He said He was going to? How can we know whether God accepted His death as a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice for the sins of the whole world? How can we know if those four words Jesus always said are true?”
Well—if Jesus had REMAINED dead—if His bones were still in the tomb, we would have to conclude that His sacrifice was a failure. I mean, if death beat Jesus like it beats everyone else, we’d have to assume that He was no more sinless than you or me—and therefore not qualified to die in our place—not suitable so secure our forgiveness. Paul came to this conclusion. In fact, he was very clear about this point. Remember? He said, “If Christ was not raised, from the dead, our faith is futile, we are still in our sins—WE ARE UNFORGIVEN—and those who have died have perished…BUT…Christ WAS raised from the dead.” Jesus DID beat death! God raised Him on the third day and this tells us that He approved of what Jesus had done for us on the cross. The resurrection shows that Jesus did not die in vain. We CAN be forgiven! His atoning sacrifice is the ground on which God is able to forgive all our sins and give us a new life. The RESURRECTION of Jesus validates the DEATH of Jesus.
This week I read of a fellow pastor who received a letter that said: “I’m 31 years old and divorced, though I fought the divorce bitterly. I feel badly. I have no hope for my future. Often I go home and cry, but there’s no one holding me when I cry. Nobody cares. Nothing changes, and I continue to fail. I’m stressed out emotionally, and I feel I’m on the verge of a collapse. Something is very wrong. But I feel so hurt and embittered that I can scarcely react or relate to others anymore. I feel as if I’m going to have to sit out the rest of my life in the penalty box.”
Maybe you feel that way because of your own mistakes. Maybe some secret sin haunts you. Maybe you feel like you can’t get on with the present or the future because you are stuck in the past with some guilt or regret tying you down. You feel like you’ll just have to live with this guilt for the rest of your life. You’re not happy—you feel hopeless and alone. Your sin is killing your joy.
If that describes your situation then listen to this good news. Colossians 2:14 says: “Jesus has forgiven all our sins and canceled every debt we owe. Christ has done away with it by nailing it to the cross.” Jesus made it possible for your sin to be forgiven and washed away like sidewalk chalk in a rainstorm! Jesus nailed your sin to the cross—ALL OF IT. He paid for your guilt—my guilt. Rick Warren puts it this way: “Jesus was hung for my hang-ups. He was nailed to the cross, so I can quit nailing myself to the cross. He wants to forgive your past. He wants to cancel every debt you owe—emotional debts, relational debts, sins. All canceled.” Warren is right! Because of the resurrection, we can be forgiven…debt free! We can come to know God. We can start over again—this time with Him walking at our side!
Pastor Philip Griffin shares a powerful story about the forgiveness Jesus’ resurrection has made possible. He writes:
During the early days of our church plant in Texas we were baptizing lots of people so we brought in a small indoor swimming pool. There were about 30 people who were planning to be baptized the following Sunday. But the day before the service I realized that we didn’t have a HOSE to fill the pool. I asked around and none of our staff members had one so I decided to go out and buy one. As I was leaving to get the hose, a guy named John stopped me in the parking lot and said, ‘I’m glad I caught you, pastor. I need to talk to you.’ I tried to have a conversation with him as walked toward my car—after all I had to get that HOSE—but he said, “Can we sit down somewhere? I really need to talk in private.’ I took him back to my office and when we sat down, he said, ‘I want to know if you’re for real.
I heard your sermon the other day when you talked about how God says to each and every one of us that there is nothing we can do or say to make Him not love us. You said God doesn’t always love our behavior, but He loves us and sent His Son to make it possible for us to be forgiven. Is that true? Is it for real?’ I told John, ‘Absolutely, it’s for real.’ He said, ‘Well, I’m struggling with homosexual desires and behavior. I’m in and out of gay relationships. I understand what the Bible says, and I want to do what God wants me to do—but I’m losing this battle. Several months ago, I tried to go to another church, but when I came clean with my struggles, they told me never to come back again.’ We stayed and talked, and I connected him with a ministry that helps people battling same-sex attraction. I also connected him with one of our church’s small groups, which ended up embracing him. Before he left my office, he said, ‘Now I want to tell you one more thing.’ At this point I was thinking, ‘I’m not going to have time to get that HOSE.’ John said, ‘When I pulled into the parking lot today, I wasn’t aiming my car in this direction. I was going to kill myself.’ When I asked John if he had a plan for ending his life, he said, ‘Yes, I did. It was already in motion. I went to the hardware store and bought a garden hose earlier today, and I bought some duct tape. My plan was to drive down this little rural road and tape the hose to my muffler and feed it into my car window.’ I said, ‘John, are YOU for real? You actually bought a hose?’ He said he had and we continued to talk and before he left, I got a glimpse of redemption that day. I saw John cross the line of faith and let Christ put his feet on a different path. And more than that I saw God take something that was intended for death—that hose—and use it to fill up something that means life—our baptismal pool. From then on we told that story every time we did baptisms in that church.
I love this testimony because it reminds us that no matter what our sin—we can be forgiven. If we repent He is faithful and just to do that and the resurrection proves this is possible! Jesus took that Roman cross—something intended for death—and through His resurrection, made it into a universal symbol for LIFE—the abundant NEW LIFE that is possible….for ANYONE who comes to God and confesses his or her sin…and in that step of faith experiences forgiveness and cleansing. God can put us on the right path. All we have to do is ask.
(2) This leads me to mention a second reason the resurrection of Jesus is so significant.
It assures us that our PRESENT can be empowered.
I don’t know about you but I need more than forgiveness for the past. I need power in the present. I need the power to do the things I know I should do…and the will-power NOT to do the things I know I shouldn’t do. Do you feel that way? Do you ever feel like your life is out of control? Do you ever feel powerless to defeat some temptation or save a relationship…or live the way you know God wants you to live? If you do it’s because you were not meant to live this life on your own power. You and I were meant to get the power to live RIGHT—from our RIGHTEOUS God.
The question is—can God give us that kind of power? Can selfish people really be made unselfish? Is it possible for immoral people to be given self-control? Is it possible for cruel people to be made kind, and sour people to be sweetened?
On this Resurrection Day I want to tell you that it IS possible. God has power to change human nature and to change human beings. He has power to transform you and me into the image of His Son…to make us like Christ. The resurrection made that kind of power accessible. Paul says as much. Do you remember our study of his first prayer in the letter to the Ephesians? He said “I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and His incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of His mighty strength, which He exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms.” (Ephesians 1:18-20)
Paul was saying that the same resurrection power that brought Jesus back from the dead is available to us. God is able to raise us from the death of sin to the life of righteousness. Let me put it this way—the resurrection proves God can change us in any way we need changing.
I have a friend—I won’t share his name but I knew him before He decided to follow Jesus and in those days he was self-centered and focused on one thing: accumulating worldly wealth. But when he met Jesus all things became new! He changed into one of the most self-less people I have ever known. Since then he’s given his life to serving others…that is what he values now. He could care less about earthly wealth. THE POWER OF THE RESURRECTION DID THAT! It put him on the right path and enabled him to stay on it.
In his book Has Christianity Failed You? Ravi Zacharias says that Jesus’ power to change lives like this is one of the greatest proofs for the reality of Jesus’ resurrection: He writes: “During the course of nearly 40 years, I have traveled to virtually every continent and seen or heard some of the most amazing testimonies of God’s intervention in the most extreme circumstances. I have seen hardened criminals touched by the message of Jesus Christ and their hearts turned toward good in a way that no amount or rehabilitation could have accomplished. I have seen ardent followers of radical belief systems turned from being violent, brutal terrorists to becoming mild, tenderhearted followers of Jesus Christ. I have seen nations where the gospel, banned and silenced by governments, has nevertheless conquered the ethos and mind-set of an entire culture.”
Then in his own words Zacharias lists EXAMPLES of Christ’s power to transform lives. He writes: “In the middle of the twentieth century, after destroying all of the Christian seminary libraries in the country, Chairman Mao declared that Christianity had been permanently removed from China, never to make a return. Yet, on Easter Sunday in 2009, the leading English language newspaper in Hong Kong published a picture of Tiananmen Square on page 1, with Jesus’ picture replacing Chairman Mao’s picture on the gigantic banner, and the words, ‘Christ is Risen’ were written below it.”
That’s the power of the resurrection! Here’s another. “The British author A. N. Wilson, who only a few years ago was known for his scathing attacks on Christianity celebrated Easter in 2009 at a church with a group of other church members, proclaiming that the story of the Jesus of the Gospels is the only story that makes sense out of life and its challenges. [Wilson said], ‘My own return to faith has surprised none more than myself…My belief has come about in large measure because of the lives and examples of people I have known—not the famous, not saints, but friends and relations who have lived, and faced death, in light of the resurrection story, or in the quiet acceptance that they have a future after they die.’”
These examples show that Easter is good news because it assures us that we can be empowered to change…to be emboldened to share our faith even in nations where it is illegal to do so…empowered to do the good works we long to do—good works that pull even skeptics to God.
(3) Jesus’ resurrection assures us that our past can be forgiven, our present can be empowered and finally it tells us that our FUTURE is secure.
As I said at the beginning of this message, we all fear death because it steals our future. Death will end our lives…end our friendships…end our families. Death will put an end to everything we love and cherish. I mean, no matter how fast we “run” we all know death catches up with each of us sooner or later. But—for the children of a man named Joseph Bayly it was SOONER. We often talk about how unnatural it is for a parent to have to bury their children—it’s supposed to be the other way around. Well, this poor man buried three of his kids. His newborn son died after surgery, his five-year-old boy died from leukemia, and his eighteen-year-old was killed in a sledding accident complicated by mild hemophilia. Each of these experiences made this grieving father feel even more powerless in the face of death. Think of it—the futures of his three children were taken. As an outlet for his grief he wrote a book about death entitled, The Last Thing We Talk About. Listen to what he says about this enemy that steals our future.
The hearse began its grievous journey many thousands of years ago, as a litter made of saplings. Litter, sled, wagon, Cadillac: the conveyance has changed, but the corpse it carries is the same. Birth and death enclose a man in a sort of parenthesis of the present. And the brackets at the beginning and end of life are still impenetrable. This frustrates us, especially in a time of scientific breakthrough and exploding knowledge—knowledge that allows us to break out of earth’s environment…and yet be stopped cold by death’s unyielding mystery. Electroencephalograms may replace a mirror held before the mouth, autopsies may become more sophisticated. Cosmetic embalming may take the place of pennies on the eyelids and canvas shrouds, but death continues to confront us with its blank wall. Everything else changes; death is changeless. Dairy farmer and sales executive live in death’s shadow, right along with Nobel prize winner and prostitute, mother, infant, teen, and old man. The hearse stands waiting for the surgeon who transplants a heart as well as the hopeful recipient, for the funeral director as well as the corpse he manipulates. Death spares none.
Bayly’s defeatist words remind me of The Message’s paraphrase of Job 21:23-26 where it says,
“Some people die in the prime of life, with everything going for them—fat and sassy. Others die bitter and bereft, never getting a taste of happiness. But they’re both laid out side by side in the cemetery, where the worms can’t tell one from the other.”
With that kind of end staring us in the face, it’s no wonder we fear death—and this is why we rejoice as Christ-followers—especially on Easter Sunday. Do you remember Paul’s words: “If Christ has not been raised…then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men. But—Christ HAS indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a Man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.”
Then listen to the words of Hebrews 2:14-16: “Since the children have flesh and blood (that’s you and me) He (that’s Jesus)—He too shared in their humanity so that by His death He might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.”
As followers of the RISEN Christ, we can know that death is not the end—we can know that it is just a doorway that leads us into an eternity of life and joy. We know that Christ-following loved ones and friends who died before us are not lost. We’ll all be together again some day. I have greeted you on 22 Easter Sundays. I have said, “He is Risen!” and you have replied, “He is risen indeed” 22 times. Death would say that an end will come to our Easter exchange. It would say, “Mark, you’ve had a good run but you’ll only do this 10 or 15 more times before you retire. There will be an end to your Easters—and there will be an end to you!” But—because of what happened on that first Easter morning, I can say, “You are wrong! You do not have the last word in my life. As a Christ-follower, death is just the beginning! I’ll be rejoicing that Jesus is risen for all eternity!”
LET US PRAY
Father God,
Thank You for sending Your Son, Jesus, to do what could not be done in any other way. His coming…His dying…His rising…has changed everything….our past…our present…our future.
Thank You for the implications of those three words: HE IS RISEN! I pray that You would open eyes this morning…make hearts receptive to the life-changing news of the Gospel. I ask this in JESUS’ name. AMEN
This week, we’ve reviewed THE GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD. We’ve looked at the last week of Jesus’ earthly ministry as a synopsis of the Gospel. We’ve talked about how God loved us too much to let us die in our sins so He sent His only Son to die in our place and make our forgiveness possible. Jesus died so that we could have life. Well, this is not just a story—it’s true—the question is, how will you respond to it? Will you become a part of the GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD? You become a part by responding to Jesus’ coming and you can do that right now by admitting your sin to God, telling Him you believe Jesus is His Son and that He died in your place…asking for His forgiveness and giving Him your life. If you make that decision, come share it with me. Tell me your part of the story! If God is leading you to join our church, come forward and tell me about that. Join us in the task of sharing the Greatest Story Ever Told with a lost and dying world. Come now as we stand and sing.