Title: Keeping the Story Alive
Text: I Corinthians 15:1-8
Thesis: In the telling and retelling of the Good News, we keep hope alive.
Introduction
Every year, early in the month of October, she set aside a day to plan her spring garden. She would get up early and if it was nasty weather, she would wear an old raincoat, with clipboard and diagram in hand she would take her seat in the wooden lawn chair that sat at the edge of her garden. He husband would then bring out the buckets of old bulbs and bags of new bulbs and plant them under her careful supervision.
This was her annual October ritual and even as the years went by and old age over took her, you could be certain that the woman would take her place in the lawn chair and oversee the planting of the bulbs that would burst into bloom come spring.
Even when her own end was near, she sat there under those dark October skies, calmly plotting the resurrection.
Just as I have told the story of the woman who plotted the resurrection of her garden in spring, we tell and retell the story of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ as we plot the resurrection that will be our own.
The story begins with death… the death of Jesus Christ.
I. Christ Died for Our Sins According to the Scripture
• I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me – that Christ died for our s ins, just as the Scriptures said. I Corinthians 15:3
A. We are quick to acknowledge our accomplishments and successes
B. We are less inclined to acknowledge our sinfulness… in fact many of us feel embarrassed, ashamed, condemned, and doomed by our past indiscretions and sins.
This week has been a banner week for a media feeding frenzy for a gluttonous public eager to gobble up yet one more sordid saga of human depravity as politicians have fessed up to indiscretions in their personal lives.
The Good News is that Jesus, through his all-time, award winning, sacrificial act of love, scored the ultimate accomplishment of overturning our condemnation, erasing our embarrassment, shame, and guilt, replacing doom with hope of eternal life.
• For all have sinned; and all fall short of the glory of God. Romans 3:23
• The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans 6:23
• But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s judgment. Romans 5:8-9
The story continues with burial…
II. Christ was Buried.
• He was buried… I Corinthians 15:4a
For some time now, I have been a regular watcher of the Canadian situation comedy Corner Gas, which airs Sunday through Thursday nights on Superstation WGN out of Chicago. The inside scenes are shot at production studios in Regina and the outdoor scenes are shot in a small, fictitious town named Dog River, which is on the highway between the real towns of Moose Jaw and Weyburn, Saskatchewan.
It began running in 2004 and has had a million or more views per episode since. It was however rumored that the series finale would air on March 7, 2007. There was considerable sadness in Monty Land until March 13, 2007, when producers announced there would be a 19- episode fifth season which began airing last fall.
The thought of a season finale was bad enough… how was I to live if the series were to end forever? Some books should have another chapter. Some stories should have a sequel. However, some stories conclude with, “The End.”
A. We have all stood at a graveside…
We have all stood at a graveside and felt the finality of a relationship, as we knew it. We have felt the abruptness of the end, so to speak.
B. Once people stood at the graveside of Jesus Christ…
Once people stood at the graveside of Jesus Christ. I doubt that the funeral director set up a nice little tent, rolled out some green astro-turf, and set up chairs for his loved ones. I doubt that they broke flowers from the casket spray to be tucked away in a thick book, along with a copy of the memorial folder. But I suspect the family of Jesus felt the same sense of loss and finality we feel when we leave the graveside of a loved one.
Jesus was crucified, dead, and buried…
Elizabeth Elliot Gren has a friend who was born without legs… she is a cheerful Christian whose outlook on life is a testimony to the sufficiency of God’s grace for the pain and suffering of life. Elizabeth asked her to write a letter to a couple she knew whose baby had just been born without legs.
In her letter to the parents of the little baby, she told the parents that their little boy’s birth defect would likely be much more difficult for them than for their son. She told them that he would adapt and grow in ways that would distinguish him as an exceptional child. She assured them of the goodness of God and of the grace that God would give them and their son.
Toward the end of her letter she wrote, “You have been chosen in a special way to show how it is that God makes all things work together for good… God has a beautiful plan in mind for you and your son.” And then she wrote, “What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the creator calls a butterfly.” What the followers of Christ called the end of the world, the creator called the resurrection.
The story culminates with resurrection.
III. Christ was Raised from the Dead
• Christ was raised on the third day, as the Scriptures said. I Corinthians 15:4b
A. The resurrection told, John 20
The story has been told and retold… the story has been passed down from generation to generation. The story has been kept alive by the telling and retelling of the details.
Mary went to the tomb early on Sunday morning. She stood outside the tomb crying and then she stooped and looked into the tomb and saw two angels sitting where Jesus had been laid. They asked her, “Why are you crying?” And Mary said, “I am crying because they have taken the body of my Lord away and I don’t know were to find him.” And then another voice asked, “Woman, why are you crying?” And she repeated her answer once again thinking it was the sexton of the cemetery… but then, she recognized the risen Christ. And in an instant, her sadness was turned to gladness. Then Jesus told her to go and tell the disciples that she had seen the Lord and that he was alive.
It is a remarkable tale… it is the type of story that lends itself to myth or legend or fairy tale. Except for the fact that the resurrection of Christ is supported by the irrefutable testimony of over 500 eye-witnesses… it would seem unbelievable.
B. The resurrection in question, I Corinthians 15:12-15
Still, some must have thought the resurrection a preposterous tale, otherwise why would the Apostle Paul have bothered to argue, “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?” I Corinthians 15:12
C. The resurrection defended, I Corinthians 15:19-20
Paul defended the resurrection story and went on to say, “If only in 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 first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.” I Corinthians 15:19-20
What does Paul mean by the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep?
It is a little early for planting but it will not be long before farmers here in Colorado will be planting corn. After the corn has been in the ground for a few days, farmers will go out into their fields, open their pliers and holding one handle in their grip, will dig around in the corn row with the other handle to see if they can find a kernel of corn that has sprouted. And they will watch every day until they see the first little green shoots begin to pop through the soil. When they see the first shoots burst through the soil, they know that soon they will all break through and the field will fill with row upon row of tiny green shoots.
God wants us to see the resurrection of Christ as a first fruits of sorts… Jesus was the first to pop through the soil, so to speak. He was the first of many, many, countless resurrections that are to follow.
Jesus Christ died for our sins. He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day. And he was seen.
IV. Christ was Seen
• He was seen by Peter and then the twelve apostles. After that, he was seen by more than five hundred of his followers at one time… then he was seen by James and later by all the apostles. Last of all, I saw him too… I Corinthians 15:5-8
Conclusion
In April of 1998 Smithsonian Magazine featured a feel good story titled, Fly Away Home… also an Academy Award winning film based on the work of Joe Duff and Bill Lishman of Operation Migration.
While many birds instinctively migrate, the Sandhill Crane and Whooping Crane do not. They must learn the migratory ritual and route from their parents. Teaching a bird to migrate is called imprinting. Joe Duff and Bill Lishman wondered if geese could then be imprinted or taught a migratory ritual and route or pattern.
So from the moment of hatching they began imprinting a flock of Canadian Geese so that the geese thought of them as their parents… then in 1993, using an ultra light aircraft, Lishman successfully led a flock of geese from Ontario, Canada to northern Virginia. The following spring the geese returned to Ontario on their own.
Once Jesus told his disciples he was going away to prepare a place for them. He s aid, “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me so that you may also be where I am going. You know the way to the place where I am going.”
Thomas, one of the disciples was puzzled and responded, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
Jesus answered, “I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:1-6
We are not unlike the cranes or geese that need to migrate but do not know the way… so we follow Christ who leads the way.
Paul concluded his chapter on the resurrection saying, “Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable and the mortal must put on immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: ‘Death has been swallowed up in victory.’ Thanks be unto God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” I Corinthians 15:51
