Easter 1996
1 Corinthians 15:1-4 (Free Text)
Easter According To The Scriptures
My dear friends in Christ, all people for whom Jesus Christ died and rose again:
The newsman reports on the TV: "According to one witness, "so and so" did "such and such", but other witnesses say that "it didn’t happen that way at all." The Federal Income Tax booklet reads, "according to I.R.S. ruling #3243, "such and such" income is taxable, but one should also consult Form #2112 for possible exemptions under these certain conditions." In college football, according to the Associated Press poll, this team is #1, but according to the Coaches Poll, that team is #1.
Who’s right? Who’s to be believed? And it was that way on the first Easter. According to the chief priests, Pharisees and Scribes, the body of Jesus of Nazareth had been stolen by his disciples in the night, and the false rumor of his resurrection had been spread around. According to the Greek scholars to whom the Apostle Paul preached about the resurrection of the dead on his 2nd Missionary Journey, such a notion was utterly foolish and to be believed only by intellectual midgets.
But my friends, we come here today with the Pharisees long dead and gone, with the ancient Greek culture buried in the sands of time, and still proclaim the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. And we do that -- not "according to one person" or "according to opinion" or "according to logic" -- but we celebrate with joy and proclaim EASTER ACCORDING TO SCRIPTURE.
1. Christ Died For Our Sins
But what is EASTER ACCORDING TO THE SCRIPTURES? It begins with this: CHRIST DIED FOR OUR SINS, ACCORDING TO THE SCRIPTURES, THAT HE WAS BURIED.
Yes, CHRIST DIED... FOR OUR SINS. More than any one thing, sin is what makes us different from God and Christ. CAN ANY OF YOU PROVE ME GUILTY OF SIN? Jesus asked the Jews six months before his death. None could. The eternal Son of God came from the side of the holy Father. God has never sinned. God has never thought about trying it. God has never even wanted to try it.
In our world, especially America, we like to highlight differences and celebrate diversity, but this difference between a holy God and sinful man is far from something to appreciate. For the holy God demands that we live up to his holy standards in our every thought, word, and action. And his standard is this YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I THE LORD YOUR GOD AM HOLY.
Moreover, who could possibly get excited about this difference when the holy God goes on to tell us in the Scriptures that THE SOUL THAT SINS SHALL DIE! And through his law, the Ten Commandments, which acts as a mirror to show me how miserably I’ve failed to be holy, God grabs me by the shirt and says in holy anger, "Damn you, Keith Wessel. I placed you as a minister and teacher of my Word to my people and you still sin against me. Even though I’ve showered you with every possible blessing in heaven and earth, you repay my goodness with wickedness. You fail to love me with your whole heart. You fail to love your neighbor, fail to seek his good before your own. You look out for #1. You’re selfish, you’re unkind, you’re inconsiderate of others, you fail to pray.... What shall I do with you, Pastor Keith Wessel. I will throw you into hell, for that is what you deserve!"
ACCORDING TO THE SCRIPTURES, that’s the picture of my heart and how God feels about it.
But, ACCORDING TO THE SCRIPTURES, that’s not the full picture of God’s heart. For Scripture also says this: CHRIST DIED FOR OUR SINS, ACCORDING TO THE SCRIPTURES. Though God is just, God is also eternal love, and in love he could not stand idly by and nonchalantly watch sinful people go to hell.
But what sinful person on this planet could possibly pay for sin? What sinful person could possibly earn heaven through perfect obedience to God, when we are all even conceived and born in sin?
There was no one. So God sent his own, holy Son into the world to DIE FOR OUR SINS. The Old Testament prophets spelled it out in detail: HE WAS LED LIKE A SHEEP TO THE SLAUGHTER; HE WAS CRUSHED FOR OUR INIQUITIES. ACCORDING TO THE SCRIPTURES, God offered his own Son into death as a perfect sacrifice FOR OUR SINS. His own Son, who he has loved from eternity far more intensely, far more perfectly than I am able to love my children. And the Son agreed willingly to sacrifice himself because he loved his Father, and because he loved us.
But more than some act of noble courage, this sacrifice had blood so holy it would not only wipe out the greatest of sins, but so holy that it would, and did, wipe out all sins. And, ACCORDING TO THE SCRIPTURES, WE HAVE FORGIVENESS THROUGH HIS BLOOD, SHED ON THE CROSS.
Who on Good Friday believed it? How loving, how powerful, how victorious did the corpse of Jesus of Nazareth look as it hung there, bloodied and beaten, nailed to a tree?
It didn’t. And so two of his followers took down his cold, lifeless body and wrapped it for permanent burial in the tomb. The rest of his followers were hiding, thinking they were next.
2. He Rose to Life
But then, God raised his Son to life, ACCORDING TO THE SCRIPTURES. Psalm 2. Psalm 8. Psalm 16. Psalm 22, Psalm 110. Psalm 118. Isaiah 53 -- ACCORDING TO THE SCRIPTURES God raised his Son to life.
But why was it necessary? Couldn’t have Jesus remained a great religious leader, couldn’t his influence have continued had he stayed dead? Why did he have to come back to life?
He had to come back to life so that Easter could be ACCORDING TO THE SCRIPTURES. By fulfilling his promise to rise from the dead, God showed one most important thing; he keeps his Word. And that means we can believe every other thing he has said ACCORDING TO THE SCRIPTURES.
But more than just that! For by raising his Son to life, God the Father was declaring to the world, "I accept his sacrifice for sin! HE HAS DONE ALL THINGS WELL. There is no more that has to be done for forgiveness. There is nothing that you need to do! Death is a defeated enemy, heaven has an open door."
And in the resurrection, God declares you and me and the entire world, "Not guilty!"
So what sin is bothering you? It is forgiven. So what secret shame do you have hidden away in your heart? It is forgiven. So what habitual problem do you fight against, but fail more often than not? It is forgiven. ACCORDING TO THE SCRIPTURES.
And ACCORDING TO THE SCRIPTURES, Christ rose because he is the God of the Living, not the dead. Confucious is dead. Mohammed is dead. Buddha is dead. Aristotle is dead. Mary Baker Eddy is dead. Ralph Waldo Emerson is dead. Charles Taze Russell is dead. Joseph Smith and Brigham Young are dead. Shirley McClaine isn’t dead yet, but eventually she will be.
Every leader of human religion is dead. But Jesus Christ is alive forever and ever. And ACCORDING TO THE SCRIPTURES, BECAUSE HE LIVES YOU ALSO WILL LIVE.
My friends, this isn’t some tricky theology or some unrealistic, overly-simplistic, dreamy-eyed vision of life and the after-life; it’s the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is EASTER ACCORDING TO THE SCRIPTURES.
3. Whoever Believes Will Be Saved
And, ACCORDING TO THE SCRIPTURES, BY THIS GOSPEL YOU ARE SAVED. YOU are saved. This message of God’s grace and peace is for YOU.
Do you doubt it? Look who is writing this letter, and what this section is about? On that first Easter Jesus appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. Peter, who had three-times denied knowing Jesus. The Twelve, who really ought to have been the ones giving a proper burial to their teacher, but who had run away both to a house and to the valley of despair, because they didn’t believe Jesus would rise from the dead. And it is Paul who writes these words -- Paul, who spent half his life bashing the Christian faith and tracking down Christians to arrest and kill them.
Yet all these men are now in heaven. And you have not committed a sin so great that God cannot forgive it. Easter tells us he has forgiven it. And ACCORDING TO THE SCRIPTURES, BY THIS GOSPEL YOU ARE SAVED.
4. This is of First Importance
No wonder Paul writes FOR WHAT I RECEIVED, I PASSED ON TO YOU AS OF FIRST IMPORTANCE. No wonder Paul practiced what he preached. For when we read the book of Acts, sermon after sermon in place after place the Apostle Paul focused his preaching on the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Peter did the same on Pentecost.
Easter is of FIRST IMPORTANCE, ACCORDING TO THE SCRIPTURES. It must continue to be in the life of the church today!
For how easily Christian churches can be distracted, and burdened down by the cares of the world and the work that has to be done. How easy a thing it is for a church to spend all its time feeding the poor, housing the homeless, debating "abortion", denouncing "racism" etc. etc. And those are good things. They need to be done and the church needs to do them.
But of FIRST IMPORTANCE we must continue to declare forgiveness of sins through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. That alone can change peoples lives, and give them the greatest help and hope. That alone can change hearts, and when it does, it will change behavior. For ACCORDING TO THE SCRIPTURES, WHOEVER IS IN CHRIST IS A NEW CREATION; THE OLD HAS GONE, THE NEW HAS COME.
Easter must remain of FIRST IMPORTANCE in a world that is more and more viewing this Bible not as THE POWER OF GOD TO SALVATION, but as an error-filled, legend-filled, human document.
Albert Schweitzer, the famous social worker, once attended a banquet where he was seated next to the then editor of Christianity Today. As the conversation went along that night, the editor had some suspicions about Schweitzer’s faith and so he asked him openly, "Dr. Schweitzer, do you believe that Jesus’ body physically rose from the dead on Easter?" Without missing a beat, Dr. Schweitzer replied, "What magazine did you say you were from? Christianity Today? Sounds more like "Christianity Yesterday."
But even though so-called scholars (such as the "Jesus Seminar") debunk the resurrection of Christ as utter nonsense and nothing more than a spiritual parable, ACCORDING TO THE SCRIPTURES the grave is empty: HE IS NOT THERE, HE IS RISEN!
And even though people revile the Bible as out of date, out of touch, irrelevant to modern life and modern problems, we know it is the unchanging, eternal wisdom of God. We must still continue to PASS ON WHAT WE HAVE RECEIVED AS OF FIRST IMPORTANCE. For people are still being born in sin. For people are still coming under God’s eternal judgment against sin. For people still die, and when they die, they will stand before the Judge of heaven and earth. That’s a problem as old as the earth itself. Death remains the greatest enemy. Death remains the greatest fear.
But so that you and all people may ever be ready to die, God in grace gave us EASTER ACCORDING TO THE SCRIPTURES. And, ACCORDING TO THE SCRIPTURES, both the angels and Jesus himself say: DO NOT BE AFRAID. Do not be afraid of life, do not be afraid of death. I AM THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE. WHOEVER BELIEVES IN ME, SHALL LIVE, EVEN THOUGH HE DIES, AND WHOEVER LIVES AND BELIEVES IN ME SHALL NEVER DIE.
According to the Scriptures, through the death and resurrection of Jesus from the dead, your sins are forgiven. This is God’s own Word to you. And because it is, you can believe it. And whoever does believe it has eternal life. AMEN.
