IF HE’S DEAD, BECAUSE HE’S NOT
I CORINTHIANS 15: 1-20
EASTER SUNDAY APRIL 15, 2001
INTRODUCTION: “But for the Grace of God” By Keith Urban. “I can hear the neighbors They’re arguin’ again and there hasn’t been peace on our street since who knows when. I don’t mean to listen in, but the shoutin’ is so loud. I turn up the radio to drown it out and silently I say a little prayer. “BUT FOR THE GRACE OF GOD GO I. I MUST’VE BEEN BORN A LUCKY GUY, HEAVEN ONLY KNOWS HOW I’VE BEEN BLESSED WITH THE GIFT OF YOUR LOVE. AND I LOOK AROUND AND ALL I SEE IS YOUR HAPPINESS EMBRACING ME. OH LORD I’D BE LOST BUT FOR THE GRACE OF GOD.” I can see that old man, He’s walking past our door and I’ve been told that he’s rich, but he seems so poor ‘cause no one comes to call on him and his phone it never rings. He wanders through his empty home surrounded by his things and silently I say a little prayer, yes I do, But for the grace of God go I. I must’ve been born a lucky guy. Heaven only knows how I’ve been blessed with the gift of your love and I look around and all I see is your happiness embracing me. Oh Lord I’d be lost but for the grace of God. I look around and all I see is your happiness embracing me. Oh Lord I’d be lost but for the grace of God. Oh Lord I’d be lost, Oh Lord I’d be lost But for the Grace of God, Oh Lord I’d be lost but for the Grace of God.
THESIS SENTENCE: BECAUSE JESUS WAS RAISED FROM THE DEAD, WE WILL BE ALSO!
TRANSITION SENTENCE: Our text for this day speaks to us of the horror of what it would be like if Jesus had not been raised from the dead. There would be no grace from God bestowed upon us. Can you imagine life without the grace of God? The Apostle Paul tries to explain to us the difference between the realities of the Resurrection and if there had been no Resurrection and the Key Word is GRACE.
GRACE DEFINED: G: GOD, R: RICHES, A: AT, C: CHRIST, and E: EXPENSE
LET’S START WITH THE NEGETIVE PROPOSITION THE APOSTLE PAUL OFFERS US, WHAT WOULD IT BE LIKE WITH OUT GRACE?
I. IF HE’S DEAD (VV. 12-19)
WHAT WOULD REALITY BE LIKE WITH OUT THE RESURRECTION?
A. PREACHING IS USELESS (v.14)
1. There is no goodnews to proclaim
2. There is no story to tell
3. Jesus was just a lunatic who thought HE was God
4. And to tell that story would be of no use, but to ridicule!
5. Preaching would be a hollow shell, empty!
B. FAITH IS USELESS (V. 14 & 17)
1. You would have nothing to believe in.
2. Faith would be devoid of value and totally ineffective.
3. Faith would have no reward; belief would be in vain.
4. In verse 17, Paul says your faith would be futile.
5. Faith would be an endless effort to attain what is unattainable.
C. WITNESSING IS USELESS (v. 15)
1. This may concern preaching
2. God has been misrepresented.
3. We have testified that God raised Christ from the dead.
4. This makes us out to be liars and false witnesses of God.
5. We have lied about GOD!
D. SALVATION IS USELESS (V. 17)
1. For some reason, Paul assures us, if there is no resurrection, there is no forgiveness of sins.
2. We are still in our sins.
3. Jesus said He had the authority to forgive sins, but if He is dead, then He is a liar and our Sins are still separating us from God!
4. To make it even clearer, The Apostle Paul asserts that those who died believing in Christ are lost.
5. They died believing a Lie and are forever separated from God!
E. HOPE IS USELESS (V. 19)
1. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.” 2. False hope is worse than no hope.
3. It is a mirage in the desert.
4. This life is all we have.
5. There is no future Reward, Peace, Joy, Healing!
6. WE ARE HOPELESS!
ILLUSTRATION: “The grave is the end. This brief life is all that we have.” There are a lot of people who believe that today. Let me put it in the eloquent words of Bertrand Russell, one of the spokesmen for those who do not believe in the resurrection of Jesus. In one of his works, he wrote: “The life of a man is a long march through the night, surrounded by invisible foes, tortured by weariness and pain, toward a goal which few can hope to reach and where none may tarry long. One by one as they march, our comrades vanish from our sight, seized by the silent orders of omnipotent death. Brief and powerless in man’s life. On him and all his race the slow, sure doom falls, pitiless and dark. Blind to good and evil, reckless of destruction, omnipotent matter rolls on its relentless way. For man, condemned today to lose his dearest, tomorrow himself to pass through the gate of darkness, it remains only to cherish, ere yet to blow falls, the lofty thoughts that ennoble his little day.”
II. BECAUSE HE’S NOT DEAD (VV. 20, 1-11)
A. WE HAVE A GOSPEL TO BELIEVE (V. 1-4)
1. The Apostle Paul says he wants to remind us of what we are ready know and have received.
2. The Apostle Paul shares with us that he is not the originator of the Gospel message, but that he received it, and passed it on to us, “AS OF FIRST IMPORTANCE.”
3. What is this matter of first importance that he so urgently passed on? 4. “CHRIST DIED FOR OUR SINS ACCORDING TO THE SCRIPTURES, THAT HE WAS BURIED, THAT HE WAS RAISED ON THE THRID DAY ACCORDING TO THE SCRIPTURES.... (Verse 4).”
5. The Gospel is, Jesus died for our sins. He did, and we no longer have to carry the death penalty for sin! Romans 3:23 tells us that, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Romans 6:23 tells us, “for the wages of sin is death.” Jesus came to fix this!!
6. “He was buried.” He really died!
ILLUSTRATION: Funny story I read yesterday. Some man was trying to start a religious order, a cult. He asked a great French diplomat, after failing to make any converts, “what would you suggest I do?” To this Talleyrand replied, “that you get yourself crucified, and then die, but be sure to rise again on the third day.” JESUS WAS DEAD!
7. “He was raised on the third day, also according to Scripture!”
8. This is the whole Gospel story. Did you miss any of it? Shall I restate it for you, “Jesus died for our sins, was buried, and on the third day, ROSE FROM THE DEAD!”
9. VERSE 20 ELABORATES SLIGHTLY, “But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.”
B. WE HAVE AN EXAMPLE TO FOLLOW (verses 5-9)
1. Many saw the resurrected Christ!
2. Peter saw Him!
3. The twelve saw Him (?) Judas was not there (Matthew 27:1-10)!
4. More than 500 saw Him, and most of them, at this writing, are still around, though some have “fallen asleep.”
5. James saw Him, all the Apostles saw Him.
6. Are you starting to get the picture?
7. This was no secret; this is not area 51 and UFO’s. People everywhere saw the RISEN LORD!!!!
AN ASIDE: PAUL DOES NOT USE GREEK PHILOSOPHICAL ARGUEMENTS HERE, JUST THE PLAIN TRUTH OF LIVING HUMAN BEINGS.
8. This truth is not stagnant; it did not end with all those of the past, but moves itself into the Present!
9. Guess whom else saw Jesus? Paul said HE DID, TOO!
10. Paul proclaims to us that Jesus still wants to interact in the lives of all humanity!! Paul says that Jesus appeared to him, as one abnormally born (Paul is referring to himself, and not the Lord).
ILLUSTRATION: In May 1855, an eighteen-year-old boy went to the deacons of a church in Boston. He had been raised in a Unitarian church, in almost total ignorance of the gospel, but when he had moved to Boston to make his fortune, he began to attend a Bible-preaching church. Then, in April 1855, his Sunday school teacher had come into the store where he was working and simply and persuasively shared the gospel and urged the young man to trust in the Lord Jesus. He had, and now he was applying to join the church. Years later his Sunday school teacher said of him: “I can truly say that I have seen few persons whose minds were spiritually darker than was his when he came into my Sunday school class. And I think the committee of the church seldom met an applicant for membership who seemed more unlikely ever to become a Christian of clear and decided views of Gospel truth, still less to fill any space of public or extended usefulness. Who was that boy? It was none other than D.L. Moody. By God’s grace, he was transformed into one of the most effective servants of God.
AN ASIDE HERE: DID JESUS APPEARING TO PAUL MEAN ANYTHING?
C. WE HAVE GRACE ON WHICH TO HOLD (verses 10, 1-2)
1. “But by the Grace of God I am what I am (v.10).”
2. Paul tells us that the Grace of God transforms us into what God wants us to be! And therefore, Paul tells us that the Grace of God was not without effect in his life! 3. We live in the Bible belt and have heard the truth of the Gospel (E.G. Billy Graham, Church, funerals)
4. We all even claim to be Christians (I met a man two years ago and as we talked, I asked, “Are you a Christian?” He replied, “I have gone to this church since I was born.” He never did tell me if He had excepted Christ as Lord and Savior.
5. Paul says to those he was writing, “You have taken a stand on this Gospel I preached to you, Yet there is a problem, you don’t believe it all.”
6. What they do not believe is that they too will share in the Resurrection of Christ. He is the firstfruits of those to be raised. He is the first, and we shall follow!
ILLUSTRATION: At the death of Nikita Khrushchev many years ago, a humorous story circulated in political circles. The Communist party that had cast Mr. Khrushchev aside was uncomfortable with the idea of burying his body on Soviet soil. They first called the President of the U.S., Richard Nixon, and asked if the U.S. would take Khrushchev’s corpse. Nixon had his own problems at the time and declined. Then the Soviet leaders tried Golda Meir, Prime Minister of Israel. Mrs. Meir was agreeable but she added, “I must warn you that this country has the world’s highest resurrection rate.”
7. “BY This Gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain (verse 2).”
8. Okay, You have heard the Gospel and have received it. You have even taken a stand concerning it. But to do you really believe it. If you don’t hold on to the grace offered in Christ, you have believed in Vain!
CONCLUSION: Can you quote Ephesians 2: 8. “For it is by Grace you are saved through faith – and this not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.
Romans 10: 9 states, “That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised HIM from the dead you will be saved.”
This is Grace in action. This is what we are to hold firmly to and this is the Gospel that saves us!
HAVE YOU RECEIVED THE GRACE OF GOD? IF NOT, WILL YOU PRAY IN FAITH AND RECEIVE THE JOY OF THE RESURRECTION TODAY?
Please stand and pray with me, “Dear Jesus, I have lived as though you were dead and not risen. But because you live, I will have faith, I will trust in you only for Salvation, for the forgiveness of my sins, and for my eternal life with you. Thank you for saving me. I receive You as Lord and Savior. In Your name I pray, AMEN!
