He’s Alive! So What?
Consequences of the Resurrection
1 Corinthians 15:30-34, 58
It was the first day of the week. Probably a little bit earlier than a sunrise service. Three women were making their way through the dimly lit streets of the community.
As I approach these women, I hear them talking. Their conversation catches my attention. I join them as they walk.
They are on their way to anoint the body of Jesus of Nazareth for burial. Everyone around here had heard of Jesus. The events of the past few days; his parade style arrival in town; the raucous he had raised in the temple; his in-your-face confrontation with the religious leaders; his trial; his crucifixion and his death; had captured the attention of the community. Even the event of his burial had caused some commotion.
But they remembered that a stone had been ordered placed in the doorway of the tomb, and it had been sealed closed. There was no way that the stone could be moved. The stone, in the shape of a 6 or 7 foot disk, nearly one and a half feet thick, had been set in its grooves. It would take no less than several horses to pull it out.
The conversation the rest of the way to the tomb centered on how the stone could be moved, so burial preparations could be made. Could you imagine our surprise then, when we arrived at the tomb and found the stone removed from the entrance?
We went inside. And there sat a young man. He was dressed in a pure white robe. It was strange that he would be sitting in the tomb. He had caught us off guard and we were more than a little uneasy about him being there.
But what he said is what I will never forget. "Don’t be afraid. You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. Look at the place where they laid him. Go, go tell the disciples, he is alive as he said."
He’s alive! He’s alive! So what? What difference does that make?
Have you ever tried to imagine what it would have been like to have been a witness to the resurrection? Have you ever placed yourself back in time to experience the excitement of the resurrection appearances? If you have you probably asked the same question, "So what? What difference does the resurrection make?"
In chapter 15 of 1 Corinthians, Paul spends a great deal of space arguing for the validity of the resurrection. There were some in the church of Corinth who denied Jesus had been raised. But Paul stands solidly behind the resurrection as an essential element of faith.
Paul also points out for us several theological ways the resurrection made a difference. He displays several doctrinal accomplishments of the resurrection: The resurrection proved Jesus was unique. The resurrection broke the power of death. The resurrection fulfilled the Scriptures. The resurrection instituted the gospel. The resurrection insured Jesus’ return. The resurrection assured the believers of their involvement in the resurrection to come.
I think that we would all agree readily with each of these points. But I don’t want us to consider these "theoretical" achievements. Rather, I want us to draw back. I want us to consider the consequences of the resurrection. What practical difference does the resurrection make in a believer’s day to day life?
1 Corinthians 15:30-34 and verse 58:
As for us, why do we endanger ourselves every hour? I die every day - I mean that, brothers - just as surely as I glory over you in Christ Jesus our Lord. If I fought wild beasts in Ephesus for merely human reasons, what have I gained? If the dead are not raised, "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die." Don’t be misled: "Bad company corrupts good character." Come back to your senses as you ought, and stop sinning; for there are some who are ignorant of God - I say that to shame you.
Verse 58:
Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.
In these few verses, Paul expresses at least three answers to our question, "So what?" There are three consequences of the resurrection, which must be affected in each Christian’s life.
1. We must remain convinced of the resurrection
What had happened in Corinth is this: Paul had come to Corinth and had spoken to them the message of the gospel. He had from Scripture, told them of how Christ had died and was raised on the third day. He had told them of all the people to whom Jesus appeared, including himself. But after Paul had gone some in the church decided that in fact Jesus was not raised, that in fact there was no resurrection of the dead.
Those who denied the resurrection continued to propagate their convictions within the church. Now the whole community of faith was devastated. If the resurrection had not occurred then the entire foundation of Christianity lie in shambles.
Paul steps in again with 1 Corinthians 15. In verses 3-8, he reiterates the gospel, which he had first preached to them. He told them of the witnesses who were still alive. In much of the rest of the chapter, he argues that Christ’s resurrection was necessary in order for any hope to remain. The resurrection is essential.
Then, in verse 58, in the face of those who deny the resurrection, Paul tells the Corinthian believers to "become firm. Let nothing move you." The Corinthian believers had listened to the words of "bad conversation," and it had shaken the foundation of their faith. Paul tells them now to become convinced of the resurrection occurrences.
"Firm" is a construction term. It refers to the foundation of the building. The building is built on a solid foundation. It is not built on a foundation which is steadily shifting, like sand on the seashore.
Become firm like the foundation of a building. Become solidly grounded, so that no matter the attack that is made, you can stand.
Don’t let others push you around with their ideas of the gospel. Don’t even believe it, if an angel comes with a different message, then the one you heard. Don’t be moved from a solid conviction that Jesus did raise from the dead.
When Paul inserts in verse 7, the statement that most of the witnesses to Christ’s resurrection are still living, seems to be offered to those who have doubts about the resurrection. If they want to be firmly convinced all they have to do is ask the people who were there.
A firm conviction can come easily to them who seek it. Repeatedly non-Christian lawyers have taken the Resurrection story, and have attempted to disprove it within legal means. Repeatedly those self-same lawyers, convicted by the reality of the Resurrection, have professed the Christian faith.
Arguments have arisen as to what happened to the body. Four options are possible:
1) Jesus didn’t die. He only fainted. He recovered in the tomb, and left. But that theory doesn’t take into account is the blood and water flowing separately from the wound in Jesus’ side. Obviously the heart had ruptured and Jesus had died.
2) Or the disciples stole the body. Yet the gospel which these men preached rested on the resurrection, for them a lie. And a greater argument yet, here were ten of eleven men who died martyr’s deaths for the same lie. Would they have been willing to die, if the resurrection was a lie?
3) Or the Roman and Jewish authorities confiscated the body. After all they heard Jesus’ claims that he would rise from the dead. But when they wanted to destroy Christianity, all it would have taken was the body of Jesus on display. But they couldn’t show it.
4) The fourth option, the only one left … Jesus actually did raise from the dead.
Or what about a body that could be assumed out of burial garments, and still leave the garments lying collapsed on the table? Or what about the vast number of witnesses at various places on different occasions? Or what of the changed lives of Peter, Paul and Jesus’ brother James?
When I was growing up in Rock Falls, in the neighborhood there was a small neighborhood store. About half of the store was full of candy for neighborhood children. I would make frequent trips to that store for the pick-and-choose candies. He had several kinds of candy from which you could pick and choose 10 pieces for a quarter. But there was one specific kind, which I did not like, so I never chose it.
There are some who would approach the Christian faith in the same way. They do not believe that miracles could possibly occur. And the resurrection is obviously miraculous. It is something they choose not to believe.
But we can not enter into Scripture with that same mentality. We can not approach the Bible and say, "I like this Jesus, but I don’t like that Christ. I like the idea of love, but not the idea of service. I like the idea of Jesus’ sacrificial death, but not that he rose from the dead.
The entire gospel is wrapped around a belief in the resurrection. If we loose that element of our faith, Christianity has just become another of the world religions. There is nothing real to offer.
Become convinced. Don’t move away from that conviction, no matter what happens. "Stand firm. Let nothing move you."
2. We must leave sin behind
The first consequence of the resurrection is closely related to the second. When we loose our conviction of the resurrection occurrence, we become prey for sin. Maybe that is what happened in Corinth.
In verse 34, Paul says, "Come back to your senses." This phrase carries the same idea of becoming convinced of the resurrection, in verse 58. And he refers to those who are perverting the gospel as "some who are ignorant of God." But tucked very neatly between those two phrases is the imperative, "Stop sinning."
In verse 33, Paul quotes from the Greek poet, Menander, "Bad company corrupts good character." The word "company" can be taken in one of two senses. The first sense is the idea of companionship. The second is the idea of conversation.
The second sense, the sense of conversation is to be preferred. It was by verbal propagation of their anti-resurrectionist ideas that the church began to suffer. And once conviction is lost, once the solid foundation had been removed, sin is inevitable.
Paul is saying, "Don’t let them deceive you. Their lies will not only effect your theology and how you view the resurrection. Their lies will destroy your Christian living.
No wonder there was so much sin within the Corinthian church. No wonder Paul had to confront them about their tolerance of a young man living with his step-mother. No wonder Paul had to confront them about their divisive spirit. No wonder Paul had to confront them about their lack of love for each other. No wonder Paul had to confront them concerning their abuses of the Lord’s Supper.
For when the Corinthians had lost their moorings in the conviction of the resurrection, they wandered aimlessly in a sea of sin, sinking, and yet unconcerned.
How about you? Have you found in the resurrection a reason to leave your sins behind? Have you found that which breaks the tie to the man of sinfulness? Have you come to your senses and stopped sinning?
Two people provide clear pictures for us of the resurrection faith leaving sin behind. The first person is Peter. The second is James.
Peter, during the telling of the Passion story has suffered a tragic eclipse. He had denied Christ three times. He had cursed and sworn as if he had never known the restraining influence of Jesus in his life. He had gone out into the night to weep bitterly. When Jesus is dead, he joined the others in the upper room, behind barred doors, for fear of the Jews, utterly dejected.
But when we turn over one or two pages in the Bible, we see him standing, perhaps on the steps outside of the same upper room of the same house in Jerusalem, preaching so boldly and powerfully to a vast crowd that 3000 believe in Christ and are baptized. We turn onto the next chapters, and we watch him defying the very Sanhedrin who had condemned Jesus to death, rejoicing that he is counted worth to suffer for Christ’s name, and later sleeping in his cell on the night before his expected execution.
Simon Peter is a new man. The shifting sands have been blown away. True to his name, he is a real rock now. What had made the difference?
Or James, what later assumed a position of leadership in the Jerusalem church. He was one of the brothers of Jesus, who throughout the gospels are represented as not believing in Jesus. But when we reach the first chapter of Acts, the list which Luke gives of those assembled disciples concludes with the words "and … his brothers."
James is evidently a believer now! What made the difference? What convinced him that Jesus was not a "raving lunatic" as he once believed? Perhaps we have the clue we are seeking in 1 Corinthians 15:7. Here in Paul’s catalogue of those who have seen the risen Christ, he adds, "He appeared to James."
When confronted with the reality of the resurrection, their lives were changed. They threw off the sin, the denials, the unbelief, and began to live boldly Christian lives.
Have you left your sin behind?
3. We must serve wholeheartedly
A week ago, I spoke of Isaiah, as he encountered God, in the temple. Isaiah confessed his sin, and he was called to serve. In response to the resurrection, we are also called to serve.
Verse 58, "Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know your labor in the Lord is not in vain." Now that you have this assurance of resurrection, find your place to serve.
The term work is the same term Paul uses of his own personal ministry. The term actually means ministry. It is not the minister’s job, for we have all been called to be ministers. We all have a responsibility to serve.
The other term labor can best be described from my childhood. My step-dad always planted a large garden. The first couple of years, I was not allowed to work in the garden because I was yet too small. I would go out and sit by the edge of the garden and watch him work.
One day my turn came. As we went out to the garden, my step-dad gave me the hoe, and led me over to the bell peppers, were he thought I couldn’t do too much damage, and I got to work.
I was probably no more than 5 minutes, but it seemed like an hour. I turned and said, "Dad this is work." He said, "Yes". And I replied, "You don’t seem to understand this is hard work."
Labor is hard work. The work that caused you to perspire, and to become physically fatigued. It is work that takes all of the energy you have, and drinks it away.
Find a place of ministry that you can pour yourself into. Find a place to serve that you can give your undivided devotion. And once you have found that place to serve, get to work with all the vigor that you can muster.
Notice the example of Paul in verses 30-32. He gave his ministry his all. He took abuse from people who acted like wild animals. He placed himself in situation were execution due to his faith was at least a possibility. He gave his service everything he had.
