1 Corinthians 15:12 – But 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.
15 – More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that He raised Christ from the dead.
But He did not raise Him if in fact the dead are not raised.
16 – For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. 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.
This is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
As I think back over my life, it is easy to see that certain days were turning point days. I refer to them this in this way because things happened on those days that changed the direction of the rest of my life. For example, I remember the day I became a Christian. I was just six but that memory is still crystal clear in my aging mind. It happened on a Sunday. After catching me snacking on left over Lord Supper crackers and grape juice my Dad spent the afternoon talking to me about the symbolism of that ordinance and why we should hold it in reverence, and his words helped me to realize my need for Jesus. Of course, I already knew Jesus Christ had died on the cross. As a P.K. I’d heard that story a thousand times, I knew very well that Jesus died for me. But that day was the first time I understood that as a sinner I needed Him to die for me. I made a conscious decision that afternoon to respond to that need by asking Jesus to forgive me and to lead me. How many of you remember the day you decided to follow Jesus? Wouldn’t you call that a “turning point day?”
I also remember the day I realized God was calling me to my particular line of work, the vocation of ministering to His people, His church. I was a sophomore in college and had been struggling with this decision for some time because as a teen I had vowed to become anything but a minister, but God had other ideas. As I wrestled with this decision my parents suggested I talk to James Alcock, who at the time was in charge of music ministry for the BCMD. They knew how much I admired Mr. Alcock. So, I drove up to Camp Wo-Me-To where he was leading Music Camp to meet with him. We sat on rocking chairs on the porch of the chapel and talked for a couple hours. And as I drove back down that mountain and headed home I said “Yes” to God. I gave Him my life to use in ministering to His people, His church. How many of you remember the day you knew the line of work that God was calling you to?
I remember several other “turning point” days, the day Sue and I went on our first date, those three days on which our children were born, the day God called me to become your pastor. And, I’m sure you can remember days like this from your own past, days that have changed all others.
Well, of course this morning we join with Christians all over the world to celebrate the turning point day of all turning point days, the day that Jesus Christ rose from the dead. That day, the first Easter Sunday, has had more impact on humanity than all other days combined. I mean, the day Jesus Christ rose from the dead didn’t just change one life, it changed all lives! In fact, as I studied and worked to prepare for this message, I decided the best way to word this would be to say that Jesus’ resurrection has changed all of time, because it has! Any way you look on the time continuum, you see the affects of that day of days.
(1) For example, we can look back and see how the resurrection of Jesus Christ has impacted the past.
You see, the fact that Jesus rose from the dead showed that He was not just another one of those numerous mortal religious leaders who come and go, cluttering the pages of history, people who’s deaths silenced their outrageous claims. No, in spite of the predictions of many, the historical record shows that the movement Jesus Christ started, the church, still thrives and grows, precisely because He still lives.
Voltaire, the famous French philosopher once said that the Bible and Christianity would pass within a hundred years. Well, Voltaire died nearly 230 years ago and the church of Jesus Christ is still here.
In 1882 Friedrich Nietzsche said, “God is dead.” He believed the dawn of science would be the doom of the Christian faith. He was obviously very wrong.
The Communist dictionary once defined the Bible as, “A collection of fantastic legends without any scientific support.” Communism is diminishing. The church is thriving.
Max Lucado sums this all up by saying, “Everyone who has tried to bury the Christian faith has discovered the same thing. It won’t stay buried any more than it’s Founder.”
And Lucado is right. The movement Jesus Christ started, the church, is still here because Jesus us still here. You see, His resurrection proved that Jesus was indeed Who He claimed to be, the Son of God, Conqueror of death itself, the Savior of all Who call on Him. And we can look back and see that this fact has impacted all aspects of human history. An anonymous individual once put it this way,
“More than 2000 years ago there was a Man born contrary to the laws of life. This Man lived in poverty and was reared in obscurity. He did not travel extensively. Only once did He cross the boundary of the country in which He lived and that was during His exile in childhood. He possessed neither name, wealth, nor influence. His relatives were inconspicuous, uninfluential, and had neither training nor education. In infancy He startled a king; in childhood He puzzled the doctors; in manhood He ruled the course of nature, walked upon billows as if pavements, and hushed the sea to sleep. He healed the multitudes without medicine and made no charge for His services. He never wrote a book, and yet all the libraries of the country could not hold the books that have been written about Him. He never wrote a song, and yet He has furnished the theme for more songs than all the songwriters combined. He never founded a college, but all the schools put together cannot boast of having as many students. He never marshaled an army, nor drafted a soldier, nor fired a gun, and yet no leader ever had more volunteers, who have, under His orders, made more rebels stack arms and surrender without a shot being fired. The names of the past proud statesmen of Greece and Rome have come and gone. The names of the past scientists, philosophers, and theologians have come and gone; but the name of this Man abounds more and more. Though time has spread 2000 years between the people of this generation and the scene of His crucifixion, yet He still lives. I am far within the mark when I say that all the armies that ever marched, all the navies that ever were built; all the parliaments that ever sat and all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as has that one solitary life.”
This unknown poet is right; we can look back in time and see that no life has affected History more than the life of our risen Lord.
Dr. James Kennedy writes,
“Some people have made transformational changes in one department of human learning or in one aspect of human life and their names are forever enshrined in the annals of human history. But the past shows that Jesus Christ, the greatest man Who ever lived, has changed virtually every aspect of human life.”
And, 0ur Lord has promised to do just that. In Revelation 21:5 He said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And that is exactly what He has done, literally everything Jesus touched He transformed. For example, as I reminded you this past Christmas, He touched time itself, and we see that because His birthday alters the way that we measure history. Even the atheist Soviet Union was forced to acknowledge Jesus in its constitution when it said it came into existence in “the year of our Lord, 1917.”
Jesus has also transformed architecture. To take Him out of history, would mean you would have to tear down all the churches and beautiful cathedrals around the world. Jesus has transformed art and music. Without Jesus there would be no Last Supper by Da Vinci, no Madonna. Without His life to inspire it, the most beautiful music that has ever been put on score, sung by a voice, or played by an instrument would never have been heard.
Jesus life inspired the way humanity responds to the needy. Our Lord set the great example of helping the poor, of caring for the poverty-stricken and downtrodden. He bid His followers to go and do likewise. And they did, and still do! So, without His life and example there would be no “help” programs like the Red Cross and Easter Seals and The Salvation Army, World Vision, Samaritan’s Purse, or Compassion International. In fact, many historians attribute the creation of the hospital itself to Christianity because in the United States, the first hospitals were started by Believers.
As I told you in my last SOWER article two weeks ago, a pastor on the Mississippi coast, a place hard hit by Katrina, told me that Christians were literally re-building his town one home at a time. He said that before FEMA or any other group arrived, Christians were there, providing food, clothing, shelter, medical help, and counseling. Even today the gulf region is being flooded with believers who continue to help, inspired to do so by their relationship with our risen Lord.
We could go on and on and on listing Jesus’ impact on education and civil rights and science and government and economics and basic morality because it is easy to look back over the pages of history and see that Jesus’ resurrection has changed everything. No one would want to live in a world in which Easter Sunday never dawned.
This week I came across a cartoon of two Roman soldiers standing by the empty tomb. The stone was rolled away and ONE soldier was looking very worried because he knew they had failed in their responsibility. But the other one shrugged and said, “Don’t worry about it. A hundred years from now, no one will remember.”
Well, he was wrong wasn’t he! All mankind remembers this historical fact. The impact of the resurrection of Jesus is has been felt for 2000 years now.
(2) And it is still felt, because that first Easter Sunday also changes our present.
I mean, Easter validates the faith that you and I live by right now. It proves that we’re not wasting our time worshiping here every week. The resurrection of Jesus Christ shows that it is not pointless for us to try to live according to the teachings of the Bible day in and day out.
Vance Havner once said, “If the Resurrection of Jesus is a myth, then I am MYTHtaken, MYTHstified, and MYTHerable.” Try to say that three times real fast! Well Havner was right, as Paul says in our text for today, without the resurrection, the very structure of our Christian faith falls apart and the gospel we proclaim becomes null and void. If Easter Sunday had never dawned, I would be wasting my life as a minister. Remember Paul’s words in verses 14 and 17? “If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.”
Can you feel the blows of despair that would hit us in the here and now, one after another, if Christ didn’t rise from the dead?
- Our preaching and teaching would be useless.
- Our faith would be hopeless.
- And we would still be lost in our sins.
But you see, because Jesus did rise from the dead, our faith is verified! Easter proves that Jesus is worthy of our faith, it proves that He is indeed, “the only Way, the only Truth, and the only Path to eternal, abundant Life”
Dr. David Seamands tells of a Muslim who became a Christian in Africa. Some of his friends asked him, “Why did you become a Christian?” He answered, “Well, it’s like this. Suppose you were going down the road and suddenly the road forked in two directions and you didn’t know which way to go, and there at the fork of the road were two men: one dead and one alive. Which one would you ask for directions?”
You know many of the great shakers and movers in history were considered crazy by their peers until they substantiated their claims. And, it was no different for Jesus. Before His resurrection, He was ridiculed for the things He had said. Remember? As He hung on the cross the bystanders said, “So! You Who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, come down from the cross and save Yourself.” They continued to mock Him and said, “He saved others, but He can’t save Himself! Let this Christ, this King of Israel, come down from the cross that we may see and believe.” When He was arrested, even Jesus’ own disciples abandoned Him and fled.
But when He rose again Jesus proved once and for all that He was indeed the Christ. God’s Messiah. Easter morning substantiated all His claims and when this day dawned it restored His followers’ faith in Him. They believed that He was indeed “the resurrection and the life” and that whoever put their faith in Him would live “even though he were to die.” Jesus’ resurrection validated their faith and as a result they became bold in their evangelism.
They found the answer to their sins in the death of Jesus and the answer to their deaths in His resurrection. And Jesus’ continued living presence with them, even after His ascension, motivated and empowered them to share this wonderful life-changing message with all people. They literally turned the world upside down because Jesus’ resurrection changed faith once and for all. It authenticated it.
You know, these days, inspired no doubt by Dan Brown’s heretical novel, The Da Vinci Code, we hear a lot about “lost gospels” that have been found in Egypt and safe deposit boxes in New Jersey books like The Gospel of Judas and The Gospel of Mary Magdalene and The Gospel of Thomas, etc. ancient books recently discovered that supposedly cast new light on the Christian faith. Well friends, those books are not gospels. They are false teachings. And they weren’t “lost” either. The early church read and discarded them a long time ago, they threw these books the trash because their powerless teachings contradicted the one true gospel, the gospel that inspired them to give their very lives so that all people could hear it. And that Gospel, the true Gospel, is just as fresh, relevant, and powerful today as it was when it was first preached and written. For Jesus still lives!
This is why Christians all over the world can sing, as we did at our sunrise service this morning,
“I serve a RISEN Savior. He’s in the world TODAY. I know that He is living whatever men may say. I see His hand of mercy. I hear His voice of cheer.
And just the time I need Him, He’s always near. He lives, He lives, Christ Jesus lives today. He walks with me and talks with me along life’s narrow way
He lives, He lives, salvation to impart. You ask me how I know He lives? He lives within my heart!”
Bruce Larson writes,
“The events of Easter cannot be reduced to a creed or a philosophy. We are not asked to believe the doctrine of the resurrection. We are asked to meet this Person raised from the dead. In faith, we move from belief in a doctrine to knowledge of a Person. Ultimate truth is a Person. We met Him. He is alive.”
Have you met this person? Does He live in your heart? Do you know the Risen Jesus? I do, He’s my closest Companion. He’s the Solid Rock of my life. He’s my Anchor — my Fortress. I couldn’t do anything without His power and presence because He’s not in a tomb. He is risen! He is risen indeed!
And as I just inferred the fact that Jesus is risen not only validates our faith, it empowers our life. I mean, experience has taught us that life is full of problems that we are powerless to solve. Think about it, have you ever felt like your life was out of control, like you were weak and ineffective in some situation whether it’s trying to break a bad habit or save a relationship or get out of debt or parent your kids or manage your schedule or just to live right? Well, the fact is, the reason we fail in the difficulties of life is because we were never meant to live this life on our own power. No, we were meant to live life empowered by a relationship with our Creator and Redeemer.
That’s what Paul was talking about in 2nd Corinthians 4:7ff when he said,
“We have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.”
In other words the secret of success in the Christian life is not imitation, you know just trying to live and act like Christ. No, its inhabitation. It’s letting our Risen Lord live in and through us! And Jesus does just that! Even today this world is being changed by believers inhabited by the Risen Jesus!
Do you remember this quote from John Stott? In his classic little book, Basic Christianity, he said,
“It’s no good giving me a play like Hamlet or King Lear, and telling me to write a play like that. Shakespeare could do it, I can’t. And, it’s no good showing me a life like that of Jesus and then telling me to live a life like that. Jesus could do it, I can’t. But if the genius of Shakespeare could come and live in me, then I could write plays like that. And if the Spirit of Jesus could come and live in me, then I could live a life like that. To have Him as our example is not enough. We need Him [inside us] as our Savior.”
That’s one reason Jesus came back from the dead, people, to empower us to live as He lived. I mean, Jesus didn’t die and then rise again just to be studied and oohhed and aahhed over. No. He died and rose again to offer through His blood and His life, new life, transforming power to live an abundant, successful, fulfilling life.
Do you remember Paul’s words from Ephesians 1:18-20? He says,
“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, 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!”
Paul is reminding us here that the same power that enabled Jesus to rise from the dead 2000 years ago is available to help you and me rise above our problems today. Jesus’ resurrection proves to us once and for all that no problem is too big for God to handle. No situation is hopeless if it is turned over to Him. If God can bring His Son back to life, He can cause a resurrection in any aspect of our lives as well.
So, let me ask you, what has died in your life? What dreams; what hopes; what relationship; what vision? Is there a particular sin that has you in its grip? Remember, no situation in life is beyond Jesus’ resurrection power! Claim that power for your own today!
So we can look back and see that Jesus’ resurrection has impacted the past. We can look around and see that it changes our present,
(3) but most of all we can look forward and see that it will change our future.
And we need our future’s changed because we know that death awaits us all one day. We know that as Ecclesiastes 8:8 says, “None of us can hold back our spirit from departing. None of us has the power to prevent the day of our death. There is no escaping that obligation, that dark battle.” Well, this unavoidable fate terrifies us. I think ole Homer hit the nail on the head when he said, “What is called life is destroyed by death and none can take away its terror.”
In our text for today Paul referred to this dread when he says in verse 18 that, “If Christ has not been raised, then those who have died in Christ have perished.”
This thought of perishing someday in a future that seems to get closer faster and faster, well it is just too much for us to even consider. This is why people don’t like to talk about death. If you don’t believe this is true, invite your friends over, sit them down, serve them some coffee and pie and say, “Let’s talk about death. Who’s got their funeral plots all picked out? Anyone know a good undertaker? And what about coffins, which do you prefer, metal or wood?” See what happens. Bring death up and conversation will die. Your company will make their excuses and leave because no one is comfortable talking about their death. In fact, psychologists tell us that the one place people cannot envision themselves is in a casket at a funeral service. It represents a future darkness few can bear to imagine.
One of my favorite stories on this subject is about a guy who went jogging one night. He went down a road in the dark and he decided to take a short cut through a cemetery. He was jogging along through the gravestones trying not to look down.
Well, there was a freshly dug grave there, getting ready for a body the next day, and in the dark this jogger didn’t see it and he fell into the hole. It was so deep that he couldn’t climb out. He tried jumping out, tried climbing out, called for help. Nobody could hear him. Finally he decided to spend the night there till somebody came along in the morning. And so he crawled up in the corner, and tried to doze off.
A little bit later, another jogger came through the cemetery and fell in the same hole. And this guy started jumping, trying to get out. All of a sudden, the second jogger felt a hand on his shoulder. He froze in his tracks, terrified. And then he heard a voice say, “You can’t get out of here.” But he did!
Well we all know that in spite of the advances of modern science we can’t get out of death. No matter how fast you run, it is coming to us all. One day each of these aging bodies we all walk around in will be in a grave. Researchers once asked children to write sentences about what they believed about death.
Gilda, aged 8 said, “When you die they put you in a box and bury you in the ground because you don’t look too good.”
Stephanie, aged 9 said, “Doctors help you so you won’t die until you pay their bill.”
Marsha, aged 9 said, “When you die, you don’t have to do homework in heaven unless your teacher is there too.”
Raymond aged 10 said, “A good doctor can help you so you won’t die. A bad doctor sends you to heaven.”
We chuckle, but inside we all shudder a bit because we know that death is in our future.
One day about 25 years ago when I was at Southern Seminary, I decided to take a break from studying in the library and stretch my legs. So I started to explore that huge book-filled building. On the upper floor I found a long wall lined with pictures of every seminary graduating class from the year the school was founded back in 1865 until the present. The professors were pictured on the top in rows, and the students below. Well, I had heard of one of Southern’s most famous professors, W. O. Carver. In fact my dad had told me that when I was a toddler and he was at seminary they had “introduced” me to Dr. Carver, so I found his first picture as a young professor in 1899 when he came to the faculty and then I looked at his picture every year until his retirement in 1956. In this way I watched him age from a young virile man to an old dying man and it hit me that I would age like that, and you know, I have! I’m not trying to be morbid, but death is the future that awaits us all. These earth-suits were not intended to last forever, and that is indeed a terrifying thought.
Well, this is another reason Easter is a day for celebrating, because on this day we rejoice over the fact that Jesus defeated this death that comes for us all! Jesus’ resurrection takes away our fear of this unavoidable future. Hebrews 2:14-15 says,
“Since the children have flesh and blood, Jesus 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.”
You see, Jesus has changed the meaning of death. As Paul said, He has taken the sting out of it by demonstrating that for the Christian, death is not that which destroys what we call life.
We rejoice at Easter over the fact that we have put our faith in our risen Lord Who promised, “he who believes in Me will live even though he dies.” Because He lives, we know that death is not the end but rather the real beginning.
This is why when we bury a Christian like Lloyd Linn or Dick McClain or Audrey Kiser or Don Peyton or Connie Norris or Ron Heim or Jean Waters or Dick Helt or Ed Bradley or Marion Brown or Luke Spencer or Robbie Smead or Ann Burke or Luther Hall or Charles Adams, fill in your own loved one’s name. The resurrection is why we grieve at these funerals, but not like those who have no hope, because we have hope, a sure and steadfast hope! We know we’ll see our loved ones again!
As 1st Thessalonians 4:13-18 says,
“Since we believe that Jesus died and then came back to life again, we can also believe that when Jesus returns, God will bring back with Him all the Christians who have died. For the Lord Himself will come down from heaven with a mighty shout and with the soul-stirring cry of the archangel and the great trumpet-call of God! And we will be caught up with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and remain with Him forever.”
Words like these from the Scriptures comfort and encourage us because they tell us that death is not the end! In fact for the Christian it is the real beginning of life. It’s our entry into a place where we will be together again, a place that Our God has been preparing for us for 2000 years!
Many of you sports fans may have may read books by sports writer Bob Buford. I haven’t but this week I read his testimony about when his son Ross was tragically killed in a drowning accident in the Rio Grande River. Buford told how he grieved over losing his 21 year old son. You can imagine how hard that would be. And he said one day in prayer he felt liked God told him, “Bob, draw a horizontal line on a piece of paper.” Buford said he took pencil and drew a line. Then God said, “Now write a number, the largest number you can think of below that line.” And he did. He wrote a one with all kinds of zeroes across the width of the page. Next God said, “On top of that line, write 21. Now look at that. You have only spent 21 one trillionths of the time you’re going spend together with your son Ross.”
People, that’s what it means to have a living hope! Because of that happened on Easter, we have the hope of living together forever in the future with God and the loved ones that have gone before us. And our future in Heaven will be wonderful. I can promise you there are no terrorists, there are no car bombs, no school shootings. No wars, no racism, no hatred. No taxes! No nightly news! There’s not even a hint of evil in the whole place. We can throw away our watches and cell phones and palm pilots and laptops and handkerchiefs. It’s going to be a place that’s free from disease, free from pain, free from death. Revelation 21:4 says that,“God will wipe away every tear from our eyes, there will be no more death, mourning, or crying or pain for the old order of things will have passed away.”
Some of you live every single day with physical pain. I have good news for you if you are a Christian. There is coming a day when you will have a new body and it will be pain-free. Not only that. It will be flexible. It will be quick. It’ll be trim. It will be perfect. No dentures. No fat grams. No glasses. No hearing aids. No wheelchairs. No artificial limbs. No arthritis.
Some of you live with emotional pain every single day. Well there’s a day coming when there will be no painful memories. No regrets. There will be no baggage. There will be no struggle with depression or anxiety. There will be no more broken hearts. You see, as Christians our future is to live for all eternity in a place where all our inner longings will be fulfilled when we meet Jesus face to face.
Well, do you see how Jesus’ resurrection changes our future! Aren’t you glad it does!?
This morning if you are here and you are not a Christian, then I want you to know that this future can be yours as well. Today, this day can be your turning point day, as you claim Jesus as your Savior because in that decision He becomes not just the resurrection and life but your resurrection and life. On this Easter Sunday morning, I invite you to, “confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead.” We would love to celebrate this turning point in your life with you so, if you make that decision come and share it with me. Others may have commitments to make public this morning, perhaps God is calling you to join our church, or you’d like to pray about some aspect of your life, but come now as God leads.
Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts since as members of one body you were called to peace. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly and whatever you do, in word or in deed Do it all in the of Christ giving thanks to God the Father through Him.