He Is Risen! Easter 2022

He is Risen!!

April 17, 2022

Have you ever wondered . . . .

Why sandwich meat is round, when bread is square?

Why is it that lemon juice has an artificial flavor while dishwashing liquid has real lemons?

If man developed from monkeys, why are there still monkeys?

Why can’t the professor on Gilligan’s Island fix a hole in a boat, but he can make a radio out of a coconut?

Why do adults say they “slept like a baby” when babies wake up every few hours?

Why is it that your nose runs but your feet smell?

We can go on with lots of fun and silly questions, and one that lots of people ask as well is — — “How can a man who died come back to life again?”

Isn’t that one of the Easter questions? And it’s not a silly question. It’s one of those questions where the answer defies logic. It moves beyond logic and centers on something called faith and trust in God. In all honesty, how did it happen?!

None of us have a clue. Medically speaking . . . it just doesn’t happen. But with God all things are possible. We trust in that! We need to trust in that! We place our faith in the God of the miraculous, the God who can do more than we imagine.

I want to share with you various passages from 1 Corinthians 15. You can call it the “resurrection chapter.” Paul talks all about the resurrection in various ways. He wrote - - -

3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures,

4 that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,

12 Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?

13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised.

14 And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.

16 For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised.

17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.

18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.

19 If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.

Oh, I love that last line. Even though it’s a negative, it’s a reason for the hope we have in Christ.

Think about it . . . . if you were a Hindu, your hope would be that there was a powerful outworking of karma in your life. You would return, you would be reincarnated, into a different existence to pursue your next cycle of life. Depending on your goodness, you might be an ant, a snake, a flower, or a really good person, until you finally get it right and enter nirvana.

If you were Jewish, you would trust that by your faith and commitment to the Torah you would gain eternal life. Much of it being according to your good works and the prayers of others after your death.

If you were Buddhist, your assumption would be that you’d be absorbed into the formless beyond.

If we you’re a secularist, with no real conviction of a God, you’d have nothing to hope in. You’re just a blip, an asterisk between life and death. There would be no future hope. When you die, that’s it, that’s all there is, because there’s nothing afterwards. You would simply cease to exist.

BUT - - - - I believe there is a far better answer, and we celebrate that answer today. If there is no Easter — then I don’t have a better message, no better answer. That’s what Paul’s getting at. Our faith would be futile. We would have no forgiveness of our sins AND there would be no hope in life everlasting. We would be pitied and should be pitied and laughed at.

If there’s no answer, then live it up, because that’s all there is. But the message of Easter reminds us that there’s hope beyond death — there’s resurrection! Resurrection is more than a pie-in-the-sky wish — it’s demonstrated by the fact that Jesus rose from the grave.

This is where we find our great hope. If we don’t have an Easter faith . . . a resurrection faith, then we can’t have hope beyond death. But because we do have an Easter faith, I know I will once again see those who have died before me who are in Christ.