“Because He Lives…”
1 Corinthians 15:3-20
(Easter Sunday, April 15, 2001)
Introduction
Most of you don’t know this, but I have been living with a painful childhood memory that has impacted my impressions of Easter.
It happened during a family trip. I don’t know where we were going, or how old I was, because I have blocked that from my memory.
But I vividly remember what happened. My dad was driving down the highway that dark night. All of a sudden, a small rabbit ran across the road. There was a sickening thud as the little fella met with the tires of the car.
Witnessing what had just transpired, I cried out, “You ran over the Easter Bunny!”
The trauma still haunts me. I struggle with forgiving my father for that heartless, cruel act.
Well, the story is true, but my current reaction is not. I know now that my father did not purposely run over the rabbit, and it certainly wasn’t the Easter Bunny.
But my first reaction was correct, as far as my understanding of Easter was concerned at that age.
I thought that since the Easter Bunny was dead, Easter was dead. There was no hope for Easter.
Thankfully the real Easter Story is full of hope. Because the main character of the Easter story was dead, but is now alive, and that is what we celebrate this morning.
I like Easter even more than Christmas, except for the presents, of course, and here’s why: Easter is the validation of what we celebrate at Christmas.
Without the resurrection, the birth at Bethlehem, amazing as it was from a virgin, would not have the impact it has because of the resurrection.
Our Scripture passage this morning gives us an idea of the importance of the resurrection. Please turn with me to 1 Cor. 15:3-20, which is on page 815 of the Bibles in the seats.
For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. 6 After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, 8 and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.
9 For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them--yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. 11 Whether, then, it was I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed.
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.
This morning I want to visit with you about the importance of the resurrection. It’s more than a religious holiday. It is the very center of Christianity. Without the resurrection, we have nothing.
And I want to focus on three different “facts” of the resurrection, and the first of these is that…
I. The Resurrection is a Historical Fact. (vv. 3-8)
This will be the place we spend the most time, but I think you will see why as we go on, okay?
The empty tomb is a real fact of history. Let’s go over just a few of the details.
First, Jesus was dead. You would think that goes without saying, but it doesn’t. Many, even today, believe Jesus was not dead. They think He just went unconscious, then regained consciousness and came out of the tomb.
However, that just doesn’t hold water. First, the Romans who crucified Jesus were pros at what they did. They knew dead when they saw it.
The gospels say that one man asked for the body so he could bury it before the Jewish celebration about to take place. Pilate was amazed that Jesus was dead already. After all, He had only been hanging on that cross for at least six hours!
He sent soldiers to make sure Jesus was dead. They confirmed it by shoving a spear into His side. He was dead. And He was placed in the tomb, which was closed with a stone that weighed anywhere between one and two tons.
At this point allow me mention what happened when the tomb was sealed. The Bible says that when Jesus was placed in the tomb, Pilate ordered the tomb sealed, which meant that the entrance was made “tamper-proof,” if you will. Anyone caught tampering with the seal was punished by crucifixion upside down.
A guard was placed at the temple. This was not just one man, not just two men, not just three. A Roman guard was generally made up of, get this, 12 men, highly trained.
These men were exceptionally disciplined. If any were to fall asleep during duty, the entire bunch was executed.
That being said, does it seem likely that Jesus, having been scourged with a cat-o-nine tails, then nailed to a cross, would regain enough strength after one day in the tomb, much less three, without food and water to move the one to two ton stone without disturbing the guard, sneak past them, then walk miles to see His disciples on feet that had been pierced with a nail the size of a railroad spike?
Another theory says that the women who went to anoint Jesus’ body went to the wrong tomb. But Scripture says they were present when Jesus was put in the tomb. They saw the Roman guard and the seal. There was no mistake about the tomb.
Yet another theory says that the Jewish leaders took the body to keep the disciples from stealing it.
Think just for a moment. If that were true, then when the disciples began preaching the resurrection, all the Jews had to do was produce the body to prove them wrong. And Christianity would have been just as dead.
Some think maybe the disciples saw a hallucination. That’s what Thomas thought. But Scripture tells us that Jesus appeared to some of them, and ate breakfast with them. Last I heard, hallucinations don’t eat food. And in this instance, as in others, He appeared to more than one person. Thomas placed his hands in Jesus’ wounds before he was convinced.
I appreciate your patience, but this is important. And before we go on, I want to cover one other theory.
This one says that the disciples stole the body. That one holds no water, either. Just the other day, the disciples feared for their very lives when Jesus was arrested.
What makes someone think that all of a sudden they became brave enough to pull off something like that?
Remember what I said about the Roman guard? Can you imagine a bunch of fisherman sneaking past the guard, moving the stone ever so quietly, and taking the body?
Then there’s the fact that they fearlessly proclaimed the resurrection, being threatened with death for doing so.
No one willingly dies for what they know to be a lie. Yet every one of the disciples except John was martyred because of their faith in the risen Christ.
Verses 3-8 also give us some evidence. Can you imagine a courtroom scene, where the attorney calls over 500 witnesses to the stand?
They all just say, “I saw Him alive after He was dead and buried.”
This Scripture says that over 500 people saw Jesus after He rose from the grave.
In fact, Simon Greenleaf, one of the men responsible for making the Harvard Law School the famous institution it is says that the resurrection is one of the best supported events in history, according to the laws of legal evidence administered in courts of justice.
Frank Morison, another attorney, set out to write a book refuting the resurrection. He ended up writing one of the best defenses of the resurrection, entitled, Who Moved the Stone?
And there have been others. The resurrection cannot be disproved. The evidence is not only plentiful, it is overwhelming.
He rose from grave. Make no mistake. It is a historical fact. Next,…
II. The Resurrection is a Theological Fact.
(vv. 12-18)
What I want to focus on here is found in verse 17 – And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.
The whole of Christianity rests on the resurrection. Without the resurrection, we have an empty, useless faith.
Without the resurrection, there is no hope in eternity, and eternity is what Christianity is all about.
Jesus died and rose to provide a place in heaven. Without the resurrection, we have no heaven, and all of Scripture is useless.
You might as well throw it away, and live as if there was no hope.
But the resurrection provides hope. Hope for this life and beyond, as we will see in the next point, that…
III. The Resurrection is a Personal Fact.
(vv. 19-20)
Look at verse 19 again – If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.
But Christ has been raised, and that gives me hope. It goes beyond being a theological teaching. It goes to the very heart of where I am now in life and where I will spend eternity.
Jesus said that He came to give us life and have it to the full here on earth.
But Christ didn’t die to just give you a full life on earth. He died to give you something beyond this life.
And that is good news, because I’ll be off this earth a whole lot longer than I will be on it.
A famous song by Bill Gaither says,
“Because He lives, I can face tomorrow.
Because He lives, all fear is gone.
Because I know He holds the future,
Life is worth the living, just because He lives.”
There is no need to pity me, baby, because my hope is not built on the empty promises of a dead religious man, it’s built on the glorious fact of the resurrection of the Son of God.
And that gives me hope when the time will come for me to face death. I can face death with the knowledge that I will spend eternity with the Savior.
The resurrection gives us the ability to say that “Death has been swallowed up in victory!”
And we can say with the prophet Hosea, “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?
When Jesus was put in that ol’ tomb, the religious leaders and the Romans thought that it was over.
“We finally got rid of that troublemaker.”
And the disciples thought it was over, too. But thank God it wasn’t over – not by a long shot.
There’s a saying in sports that “it ain’t over ‘til the fat lady sings.”
Well, my guess is that there are a lot of skinny women in Jerusalem, because it wasn’t over then, and it ain’t over now!
Jesus is alive, and seated at the right hand of the throne of God, and that is reason to celebrate, both now, and for eternity!
And for that, we can say, Hallelujah!
Conclusion
Let’s wrap this up.
We’ve spent a considerable time this morning talking about the fact of the resurrection. You have the facts.
But it’s one thing to know about something, it’s another thing to do something about it.
The question of the moment, and of eternity, is this: What will you do with what you know about Jesus?
You have three choices.
The first is to reject it altogether. You have the choice to say, “I don’t care about the evidence, I will reject it.”
I pray that you will not do that. When someone does that, the issue no longer is the truth, but your will.
If this is your choice, I promise to love and respect you in that choice, though I also promise that I will be praying for God to reveal Himself to you in such a way that you will yield to Him out of sheer exhaustion from running.
The second choice is to investigate it further. This is a good option, if you are serious. God is not afraid of your questions – He’s heard them all. Nor is He afraid of your attempts to find the truth.
In fact, God is truth, so it delights Him to see people searching for truth. I would be thrilled to help you with resources, or answer your questions, to the best of my ability.
I guarantee that if you come to me with honest questions, I will do all I can to help you find the answers, and I will treat your questions with dignity and respect, and I would hope that everyone here would do the same.
The third choice is to accept what you know, and act in a way to make the resurrection and what it accomplished real in your life.
The book of Romans says that “the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
We deserve punishment for our sins, but on the cross, Christ took the punishment we deserve, so we could have the gift of eternal life.
Let me talk for a moment about gifts.
One thing about gifts is that they are not earned. Gifts are given, for the most part, because you love or care for someone.
They are not bought or earned by the recipient. In the case of eternal life, the Bible says that we can do nothing to earn eternal life.
We can never be good enough, we can never lead enough old ladies across the street, we can never give enough to charity, we can never go to church enough, we can’t do enough good, nor can we avoid enough evil, to get to heaven. It is a gift.
Secondly, a gift under the Christmas tree doesn’t do any good if stays under the tree. It doesn’t really belong to the person until they take it and claim it for their own.
God has given us the gift of eternal life. But like the gift under the Christmas tree, it doesn’t do any good if you don’t take it and claim it for your own.
Claim the gift Christ offers you. It’s as simple as ABC:
Admit you’re a sinner, purposing to turn from them with God’s help.
Believe Christ died for you and rose from the grave.
Confess Him as Lord, asking Him to forgive your sins and give you eternal life, the promise of life in heaven. The Bible says that if you confess Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. And that all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved.
Jesus died to bring you to heaven. Don’t walk away from an eternity in heaven.
Don’t choose eternal punishment when the offer of eternal life is yours for the taking.
I am going to pray in a moment. If you want to take Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you will have that opportunity.
For those of you already knowing Christ as Savior, I pray that you will walk out of here with a renewed passion for those who are not in relationship with Christ, and that you will seek opportunities to tell friends and loved ones of the grace of God in Christ.
Shall we pray. (Heads bowed and eyes closed).
After we pray, I am going to ask you to keep your heads bowed and your eyes closed for just a few more moments.
