Resurrection Hope in Hard Times
1 Corinthians 15:12-20
Easter Sunday, April 12, 2009
NOTE: THE ME/WE/GOD/YOU/WE FORMAT IS FROM ANDY STANLEY’S BOOK, "COMMUNICATING FOR A CHANGE."
Me: I’m like a lot of people in our world today. Grew up in a broken home, bounced between parents, wasn’t particularly popular or good-looking, and wondering if I’d amount to anything to be proud of.
Truth be told, I still wonder about that sometimes!
Pastors aren’t immune from pain and heartache. We go through the same hassles of trying to pay the bills, working hard, raising teenagers, freaking out over cell phone bills, having people angry at us for one thing or another, and trying to keep our wives happy.
We also have all the joys of other people, so I’m not complaining. I’m just saying that I live in the same world you do.
We: We live in a world that’s filled with all sorts of great things.
But it’s also a world filled with a lot of tough stuff, and none of us can escape it. It’s part of living in a broken world.
And if we were all honest, I think we’d all agree that at times it’s all we can do to just sit down, let out a deep sigh, and wonder if there’s really any hope for the world in general or for us in particular.
God: Easter is a season to remind us that there is hope because of what Jesus accomplished between Friday and Sunday.
In a world of hardship and unsettledness, Jesus offers us hope.
All through the gospels, we see Jesus talking about the hope that He offers to those who love Him and obey Him.
He offers peace with God.
He offers the peace of God.
He offers hope in our relationships.
He even offers hope in our finances. And who couldn’t use some of that nowadays, right?
I started a couple mutual funds for my youngest daughters with money they received from the insurance company as a settlement for the accident they were in last summer.
It was a thousand bucks apiece – THEN. I’d tell you what they’re worth now, but I don’t want to cry in front of you.
The Scriptures are full of practical advice about handling money in ways that allow you to meet your needs and have enough left over to bless others less fortunate.
No matter where you’re at in life, Jesus offers hope through His Words and actions for the daily grind of Monday through Friday living. And Saturday. And Sunday. Every day.
Billy Graham has been through the grinder in recent years. He lost his beloved wife, and he is suffering from the effects of Parkinson’s disease, making him unable to continue his crusade work.
In his latest letter to the public, he has this to say about the hope Christ offers us as we go through life on earth:
“My heart goes out to you. Life isn’t always fair or easy. You may feel you do not know where to turn. But one of the Bible’s greatest truths is this: God never abandons us when life becomes difficult. He is always with us and wants to help us, even when things seem to be going wrong. He does not guarantee to reverse every misfortune, but if Christ lives in our hearts, we have His promise that nothing “in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:39, NIV).
“What a guarantee! Instead of being fearful about the future, this Easter we can trust and believe that God is working a purpose in our lives. We can have hope!”
We could literally spend years just looking at the multitude of Scripture passages that describe the hope we have in Christ for our everyday living.
But I want to talk about another passage of Scripture that talks about another hope we can have because of the resurrection of Christ, which we celebrate at Easter.
1 Corinthians 15:12-20 (p. 815) –
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.
Folks, it would be enough for us to just have hope to make it through life on earth, wouldn’t you say?
Just knowing that He’s there for us as we grind through life – the good, the bad, and the ugly, is great.
But according to this passage, there’s hope for not just this life, but for the life to come. And there is a life to come. Look back at verses 12-13 –
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.
There is more to life than just living and dying. Death on earth isn’t the end. In fact, it’s barely the beginning.
On the timeline of eternity, our lives on earth are just a snap of the fingers. We don’t stay in the grave, we all rise and face God.
The Bible says we will face God to account for ourselves. And depending on that judgment, we will live for eternity in one of two places: heaven or hell.
The resurrection of Jesus ensures that all who believe and follow Jesus will enter heaven. And in the meantime, have His presence with us on earth to help us in the daily grind of living.
The resurrection of Jesus gives us hope for this life and the life to come.
If Christ had stayed dead, then He couldn’t offer us any real hope.
He’d be just like any other religious figure in history who said and did some neat things, but then died.
But He didn’t just die. He rose again. According to the first few verses of this same chapter from Scripture, He appeared to over 500 people after He was certified as dead by His executioners.
And because He rose, we have hope for the next life. We can have the hope of heaven.
That hope is available to anyone who wants it.
But listen -
You don’t have that hope, you don’t get to heaven by just being a good person. Someone is always better than you, so what is the cutoff point of “not-goodness?”
There’s the story of two brothers who were famous criminals in the city they lived in. there seemed to be no crime in which these two brothers were not involved in, whether it was murder, illegal gambling, prostitution rings-you name it, they were involved in it.
As time would have it, the older of the two brothers died. While trying to make funeral arrangements, the younger brother offered $10,000 to any minister or priest who would say in the eulogy that his older brother was “a saint."
Well, after so many phone calls, he could find no pastor or minister or priest who would do the funeral and say that his brother was a saint. Just about at the end of his rope, the younger brother finally found a young minister who agreed to do the funeral and say that his brother was “a saint.”
At the funeral, the minister got up and said this: “The man who lies in this casket before you today was a liar, a cheat, a swindler, involved in all sorts of organized crime, was linked to several murders, and even ran around on his wife. But compared to his younger brother, this man was a saint!” (Sermoncentral.com, contributed by Rob Willis)
You don’t get to heaven by being “religious.”
Going to church doesn’t get you to heaven. Praying doesn’t get you to heaven. Taking communion and getting baptized doesn’t get you to heaven.
Certainly being a pastor doesn’t get you to heaven.
You don’t get to heaven because your mom or dad, or grandpa or grandma, or aunt and uncle is going to heaven.
Folks, you simply can’t get to heaven on any merit of your own. You don’t have enough merit and you never will.
Why? Because we’re all sinners. Everybody in this room and around the world has sinned against God and therefore deserve Hell.
But because Jesus died and rose again, we can get to heaven on His merits – His perfection. Jesus was the perfect sacrifice for sins because He never sinned Himself.
The Son of God gave His life so that you and I could go to heaven in spite of our background.
Jesus makes it possible for you to be forgiven of all your sins, no matter how great or small, and He makes heaven available for you.
It’s available for you, but it’s up to you to take it.
Forgiveness and heaven are a gift from God. You can’t earn it. He offers it to you, but like any gift, it’s not yours until you take it for yourself.
So how do you take the gift for yourself?
You simply ask for it, trusting that everything He did is all you need, believing that Jesus is your only hope for heaven.
Jesus said that He was the way, the truth, and the life, and that no one comes to the Father except through Him.
It takes believing in Jesus and what He did for you, asking Him to give that to you.
In just a few moments I’m going to lead you in a prayer that you can say in your heart to secure heaven for yourself through Jesus.
But before I do that I want to explain a little bit about what it means to “believe.”
Most people in America would probably say they believe in Jesus. What they usually mean, whether they really know it or not is, “I believe in Jesus like I believe in George Washington. He was a nice guy, did some cool things, and that’s about it.”
It’s a passive belief.
But the word “believe” in the Bible talks about an active faith.
It means that you’re willing to stake your eternal destiny on it.
Let me use this staircase as an example. I can say all day long that I believe it’ll hold me up.
But it’s not until I’m willing to risk my neck and step on it that I’m really exercising faith, right?
That’s the kind of faith Jesus talks about in passages like this one–
For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.
If you want eternal life, you need to believe that Jesus paid the price for you and that He rose from the grave so you could have forgiveness and a guaranteed home in heaven.
Not because of who you are or what you’ve done, but because of Jesus and what He did for you.
And if you have this kind of belief in Jesus, then when it’s your turn to face God, and He asks you why you think you should be allowed into heaven, you can say, “Because I’ve put my trust in Jesus and what He did for me on the cross. I have no other hope – He’s everything I’ve got.”
And the Father will say, “That’s all I need to hear. Enter, my child.”
I’m going to say a prayer now that you can say with me in your heart if you want to take the gift that Jesus offers you – that forgiveness of sins and home in heaven.
(Prayer)
You: I’d like you to take out that attendance card that I had you fill out earlier.
On the bottom of that card are the letters A, B, C, and D. I’m going to ask you to circle one of those letters based on your response to Christ today.
A – Already believe.
You’ve already put your faith in Christ for forgiveness and heaven. You’re seeking to follow Him in every area of your life.
B – Believing today or believing again.
If today, you prayed that prayer with me, and you asked Christ to forgive your sins and give you a home in heaven, then this is the one you circle.
And if that’s you, I want to say, “Welcome.” Welcome to the family of God, made up of all who believe in Christ, no matter what local church they might attend.
Some of you might have believed in and followed Christ a while back, but you’ve turned away since then, but you feel God tugging your heart to return to Christ.
If that’s what you want to do today, then you also circle the letter B. If you want, you can put a little number 2 next to it to let me know you’re believing in Christ again.
C – Considering it.
You’re not really sure you’re buying all this Jesus stuff. But you’re willing to look into more, ask some questions, check it out.
If that’s you, that’s great. Check it out.
Don’t take my word for anything you hear today. Read the Bible for yourself and see the words and actions of Jesus for yourself, recorded by eyewitnesses and those who hung out with them.
If you don’t have a Bible in understandable English, please take one of the Bibles in the seats – free of charge.
But whatever you do, check it out. It’s too important for you to blow off. It can mean your eternity, folks.
D – Don’t plan on ever believing in Christ.
You don’t care about Christ, don’t want Him, and don’t want anything to do with Him right now.
If that’s you, we respect that. We don’t want to force anything down your throat.
Just know that we’ll be praying for you, because we don’t want you to leave earth in that condition, okay? We love you and care where you’ll spend eternity.
I’d like every one of you to take a couple moments right now and circle one of those letters. I’ll give you about 15-30 seconds, okay?
Now take it and fold it in half. And lastly, I’m going to ask that you place that folded card in the offering plates by the doors as you leave the sanctuary.
This will help us with a record of who is here today and how each of you responded to the message.
I promise you won’t go on any kind of marketing list or anything like that. This is simply to help us minister to you.
I’d like us to close this portion of the service in prayer as we prepare to baptize some people this morning.
Let’s pray.
Baptism service
We believe and teach that baptism is primarily two things:
1. A public testimony of a person’s faith in Christ.
Baptism, according to Scripture is done after a person puts their faith in Christ, as a public testimony of their faith and of their commitment to live for Him.
Baptism, according to Scripture, doesn’t get a person to heaven. It’s an outward expression of an inward reality that the person has given their life to Christ.
2. An act of obedience to Christ.
Jesus told His disciples to baptize those who have put their faith in Him, and so we do that here as well.
We join our Baptist friends, our Nazarene friends, our Assembly of God friends, and numerous other denominations and churches in practicing baptism this way.
We usually baptize by immersion, although we do sprinkle or pour on occasion, when a person, for one reason or another is unable to be immersed.
Immersion is a great picture of how we identify with Christ.
When the person is put under the water, it symbolizes His death and also our dying to ourselves.
When they’re brought up, it symbolizes the new life we have in Christ.
Easter is a great day for baptism for these reasons, and we have three people being baptized today.
I’m going to ask them to come forward now. They’re going to each introduce themselves, telling us a little bit of their love for Christ and why they’re being baptized.
