THE FOUNDATION OF OUR FAITH
(Easter Sunday)
1 Cor 15: 12-23 (p815) April 8, 2012
INTRODUCTION:
Have you ever noticed that many of the movies about Jesus come to the resurrection and they’re not sure what to do….
They know they can’t leave it out…or completely ignore it, so they show an ending clip with an empty finish…they’ll show the grave clothes sitting in a pile… Mel Gibson’s “The Passion” at least paid it some attention…with the blinking light and the picture of a resurrected, transformed Jesus exiting the tomb…
Why? Why is the resurrection of Jesus ignored, or given short shift? Why would people want to leave it out…And my answer is…”Because it’s supernatural and unexplainable.
People can grasp a peasant boy growing up to be a great teacher and leader…someone coming from obscurity to influence is the lifeblood of Hollywood and the literary world…
Even a martyrs death is easily made part of the screenplay or closing chapters…but there are no scenes after the death…you cannot continue writing after the conclusion…
That’s the reason the resurrection is so ignored…or so attached…Death, even death on a cross is understandable…life after the conclusion…not so much.
[Every year thousands of people climb in the Italian Alps passing the “stations of the cross.”…It seems to end at this crucifix (show picture) , but if you continue on past the cross you can find another shrine , a shrine symbolizing the empty tomb…It (show 2nd picture) is neglected, the bush has grown up around it…almost everyone goes as far as the cross…but most stop there.]
Why is almost everyone willing to go as far as the cross but not the empty tomb?....Not just in the movies or books, not just in the Italian Alps…but spiritually speaking when it comes to Jesus death, burial and resurrection…
I think I know
I THE CROSS IS ABOUT SALVATION
[Josh Cooper, our student minister told me about a conversation he had with one of our students over at Fern Creek…this guy asked Josh why all these rappers talk about killing people and hooking up and getting high or cranked…and then they thank Jesus for their awards and stuff…
Josh said, “I think that’s a little longer conversation than we can have right now in the hallway.”
But Josh told him what we all know…the cross is about salvation…Jesus died there so our sins could be forgiven…I Love Jesus being my Savior…I need Him to keep me out of Hell!.
I’m not sure how many times dead or death is mentioned in our text…but A LOT! Verse 21 says “Death came through a man…verse 22 lets us know that man’s name…”for as in Adam all die”….
We know Adam & Eve opened the door to sin…and even though I’m not accountable for their sin or anyone’s but my own….I have their father, selfish nature…mankind became broken in the Garden of Eden…We are all broken…Remember Romans 2: 10-12
Romans 3: 10-12 (p 797)
Romans 5 tell us…”Sin entered the world through one man and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned.” (V12)
Rappers, Preachers, Policemen, Teachers…Jews and Gentiles, Rich and Poor, young and old…men and women…we all sin…and we all will die…We know that…we see it happening….and we grieve when it happens to someone we love close to us…
All of us understand the need for the cross….we’ll approach the cross because we all need a Savior…we need an answer to death…
[I’m afraid sometimes we leave the resurrection out of the salvation process…Have you ever heard someone say…”I want to get Baptized, maybe a young person…or maybe someone not so young.
Whenever I hear that I’m cautious…many times I’ll say, “But do you want to surrender yourself to Jesus?”
What? No, I want to get baptized…I want to go to heaven…and I want to teach people Baptism isn’t a box to be checked off…
Baptism is not the washing of your outer body…It’s the cleansing of your conscience. That’s what 1 Peter 3:21 says and then “It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.”
Ironic isn’t it…Peter says we’re not saved by the cross…we’re save by the resurrection. If you’re dead when you’re buried and dead when you are removed from the grave…you’re still dead!
The cross accomplished nothing without the resurrection. Hang it around your neck…nail it to a wall…get baptized 42 times…because you need a Savior…but if you’re still dead in your sins, and there is no resurrection…your still dead!
Here is what our text is all about…it’s the truth of Easter.
II THE RESURRECTION IS ABOUT LIFE AFTER DEATH
Far too many people get to the cross and know the despair and heartache of sin and death…but far fewer have moved beyond it, to find the real meaning of Easter…New Life.
“You see if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised and if Christ has not been raised our preaching is useless and so is your faith.”
“If Christ has not been raised your faith is futile; and you are still in your sins.”
Our text says…if that’s true…our godly loved ones who have died already are lost and if our hope in Christ is only in this life…we should be pitied more than anyone else…
If Jesus hasn’t risen from the dead…then…there is no victory…there is no hope…you and I should spend these 70 years on earth as selfishly as we can…Why…because it’s all there is…and if you waste it serving others….or believing in “Jesus” then you should be pitied more than anyone else…you blew it!
But if Christ really did rise from the dead and you’ve accepted him as you Savior, died to self, and been reborn to live a new life in the Holy Spirit…when does the resurrection of Jesus show itself?
When he returns…absolutely…”In Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own turn; Christ, the first fruits; then when he comes, those who belong to him (v 22-23) then the end will come…
When Christ returns…the bodies of Christian loved ones will rise from the grave, be transformed immediately, glorified…and united with their Spirit (which Jesus is bring with him according to ! Thess 4:
“Death will be swallowed up in victory…”
But I would share with you the resurrection doesn’t being here…at the end, at Christ’s return…
The power of Easter…The resurrection begins after my death to sin and new birth in Christ…listen…Read with me Romans 6: 4-5 (p799)
2 Cor. 5:17 says “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone the new has come.”
I can be spiritually dying in a body that’s dying...or I can be spiritually living in a body that’s dying… Either way this body that my spirit lives in is dying…History, experience, life everything lets me know it will last 70 years or so if I’m fortunate give or take)
This body is just the container…it’s just the jar…and the jar doesn’t determine the worth of what it holds.
Here’s what I’ve discovered about my cracked stint ridden, back fused, and scared up, knee wobblem, diabetic jar…
I invited life to fill it on Jan 17th, 1978…I stopped dying spiritually in a dying body….How?
Rascal Flatts expressed it better than I ever could…their new song is called “Changed” Here’s how it starts
I came up out of the water Raise my Hands up to the father Gave it all to him that day Felt a new wind kiss my face Walked away, Eyes wide open Could finally see where I was going Didn’t matter where I been I’m not the same man I was then.
I got off track; I made mistakes Back slid my way into that place where souls get lost Lines get crossed And the pain won’t go away I hit my knees, Now here I stand There I was, now here I am Here I am Changed
The resurrection is about life after deaths…
On Jan. 17, 1978 I died…My sin was washed away completely…my heart, mind and attitude was totally transformed by the Holy spirit and I’ve lived a resurrected life for the past 34 years…”It didn’t matter where I’d been I’m not the same man I was then…there I was, now here I am…changed!
I inherited a sinful nature from Adam…I inherited a resurrection to new life from Jesus…In my spirit…Jan 17, 1978…and sometime in the future in my body….
Folks, whether you are the Apostle Paul who said…”I am a new creation…the old has gone and the new has come!!!
Or Bill Gaither who wrote “shackled by a heavy burden beneath a load of guilt and shame and then the hand of Jesus touched me. Now I am no longer the same. Or as Jason Gray who says…”I am not who I was I am being remade I am new! I’m chosen and holy and I ’m feeling loved. I am new!”
Or Rascal Flatts who sings…”Didn’t matter where I’d been I’m not the same man I was then”
Easter isn’t about candy and bunnies…It’s about a savior who conquered sin on a cross and overcame the power of death with a resurrection.
“In Christ all will be made alive” And yes I believe that is a promise for “those who have fallen asleep in Christ... but it’s much more than a promise for those who have died in Christ…
Christianity isn’t about “doing something”…like “going to church, getting baptized, or reading your Bible…you can do all that stuff and never experience a resurrection…
Unless you experience “the Holy Spirit’s conviction for your sin…and you realize your dead in your sins and accountable for sins payment…death…you cannot repent… turn from that life to God…but if you turn towards God in repentance and plea for rescue….Jesus plainly says…die to your old life…believe in me as Savior…unite yourself with me in my death and burial…and by the same Holy Spirit rise to walk in a new life.
This is the reason that the resurrection is the foundation of our faith…If Christ hadn’t conquered death then…my faith is worthless…this sermon was a waste of your precious 70 years (give or take) time.
But if, He has been risen… (And I believe he has indeed, than he is the hope for those who have died believing in Him…and for those of us who are presently living for Him.
Either way…we belong to Him and…
1 Cor 15: 24-26 (p815)
The resurrection….Easter Sunday is all about…life after death!
Let’s pray
