The Resurrection

Our text today is from 1 Corinthians 15:12-28. The Bible says, “Now
if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that
there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the
dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised,
then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to
be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ,
whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the
dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not
been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those
also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope
in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. But in fact Christ
has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen
asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of
the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.
But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then at his coming those
who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God
the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he
must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to
be destroyed is death. For “God has put all things in subjection under his
feet.” But when it says, “all things are put in subjection,” it is plain that
he is excepted who put all things in subjection under him. When all things are
subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put
all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all.”

Before we get into the text, let’s take a moment to review what
happened on this Sunday morning over 2000 years ago. It was a cool crisp Sunday
morning, the sun just hinting at the horizon. The women had begun working their
weary way down to the garden tomb wondering how they would move the stone. All
at once there was an earthquake. Simultaneously the body of Jesus materialized
through the burial clothes as if they were not there, in one instance becoming
a glorified eternal incorruptible human body. Once standing, he removed the wrap
from his face, folded it, and laid it neatly in a place by itself. Also,
simultaneously a brilliant powerful angel rolled the very large stone away from
the tomb. The sight of it all sent the soldiers into shock and trembling.

The women arrived to see the stone rolled away and hear the angel that
had been sitting on the stone announce to them from inside the tomb, “Do not
be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here,
for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay.” Once inside the tomb the
women saw the eternally empty place where he had been laid. They saw two angels
that appeared as men, one at the head, the other at the foot of this vast empty
space. The angels said to the women, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.” They reminded the women of the things Jesus had said to them all in Galilee regarding his resurrection.

The women recalled the words of Jesus as the angel continued speaking
to them instructing them to go quickly and tell the disciples. Still filled
with fear and amazement, they immediately ran back to Peter and John
proclaiming that the body of Jesus had been stolen but did not know where the
body was taken. Peter and John ran to the tomb to find it empty. They returned
back home and marveled at what they had seen.

Over the course of the next few days, Jesus began appearing to each of
them. Sometimes alone, sometimes in groups. Over the next 50 days, he was able
to disguise his appearance. He ate with them at least twice, proving that it
was his body and not that of a ghost. He appeared to his brother, James, alone.
He appeared to Peter, alone. He appeared to Mary Magdalene, alone, more on this
appearance this afternoon. He told them to take this message of new life to all
the world. Finally, he ascended out of their sight promising to return some
day.

This is the resurrection that we celebrate every Sunday morning. This
is the resurrection that marks this Easter season. This is the resurrection
that today is believed by some and doubted by others, followed by the faithful
and ridiculed by the ridiculous, honored by the honorable and excoriated by the
exiled. This is what all the noise is about. This is what Paul is on about in the
text that was just read in your hearing.

This text contemplates a world where Jesus is not resurrected from the
grave. For Christians, this is a dreadful thought. Some in Corinth did not
believe in bodily resurrection. Paul argues if there is no resurrection from
the dead, then one is forced to the conclusion that Christ was not raised from
the dead. As he works through this idea, he observes several things that would
be consequentially intellectually demanded, if Christ is not raised from the
dead.

Such a prospect is almost impossible to entertain. The impact that
Jesus Christ has had on this world is immeasurable in social terms alone, not
to mention psychological and of course spiritual. This
impact of Christ stands or falls with the resurrection. If he is not raised, he
becomes the most elaborate fraud of all time as do his disciples. The impact of
an un-resurrected Jesus would be unnoticeable, if at all. No, his impact on
these last 2000 years rests solely at the opening of an empty tomb. If he is
not raised, he becomes just another of the tens of thousands of sad stories of
not so notable Jews that were put to death by the Romans in the first century.
Christianity and all that it means comes to a full stop if there is no
resurrection.

In our text, the Apostle Paul offers a series of theoretical “if”
statements. With each of these “if” statement, he postulates the demanded
conclusions. We will consider these awful consequences of a world without a
resurrected Savior (or in other words, what the world looked like on Friday
night), and we will contrast them with a world in which there is a resurrected
Savior (what the world looks like on Sunday morning).

Paul offers his first “if-then” statement
when he says, “Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can
some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?” Can you see
that he is forcing all who consider this issue to understand it in binary
terms? Either Christ is raised, or he is not. There is no in between, no
compromise, no gray area. There is no room for you to be undecided. In your
indecision, you are by default admitting to a world where Christ has not been
raised. You are forced to accept one or the other as true. Either you
acknowledge Christ is raised and everything that comes with it, or you hold
that he is not raised, and you accept all the associated consequences.

C.S. Lewis best described this problem
as a trilemma (one of three choices that must be made). It goes something like
this. If Jesus is not raised after having made the claim he would be raised,
then one of two conclusions must be true. He was either lying, or he was
mentally deluded (two of the three choices). If he was in fact raised, then
only one conclusion can be possible (the third of the three choices). The man
Jesus, with the power over death to the extent that he can come back from the
dead never to die again, to eternally remain alive… well, he is more than a
man. He is the LORD of life and death and eternity. Hence the description of
this trilemma as “Lord, Liar, Lunatic.”

Let’s begin with the latter two choices,
liar, or lunatic. If he is not raised, then he was lying when he predicted his
resurrection in John 2:18-21. His disciples were lying when they claimed
they had seen the resurrected Savior in Acts
2:32. In fact, it’s not just one lie, but many. It would require a
whole cacophony of lies in order to support the empty tomb and the multiple
sightings. These lies would have to be attested to by over a thousand people
with 500 having claimed to see the resurrected Jesus on one occasion alone. It
would easily be the largest most elaborate conspiracy of all time. If the
resurrection was a lie, think about what these liars did to sustain that lie. Jesus
endured a torturous death based on this claim, Matthew 26:61. The apostles, all but one, went to their
death as a result of this claim. Countless thousands more have been put to death
because they believed these witnesses. No reasonable person reviewing these
facts would conclude that these people were lying. That leaves us the lunatic
option.

If Jesus and these witnesses were not
intentionally lying, then the only other possibility (if Jesus is not raised)
is that they were overcome by some kind of mass delusion. We must conclude that
Jesus, the great teacher, the one that gave us the golden rule, the one that
told us to love our neighbor as ourselves, we must conclude that this great
teacher was a lunatic. That he was unaware of what he was saying. That he
believed he would be resurrected and thus announced this belief, but in fact he
was overcome with some sort of mental illness. We must conclude this man that
gave us world changing teachings, the most brilliant sermon ever preached, was in
fact mentally ill.

Neither of these two choices are plausible
or reasonable leaving us with the third option, he is Lord. It is not at all
reasonable that this many liars would hold so true to their fabricated
fraudulent story that they would all go to the gallows never having abdicated
their story. Only a lunatic would believe such a thing. It is neither at all
reasonable to believe that a man capable of giving such wise teachings is in
fact mentally disabled. Teachings that have impacted the entire planet earth
for thousands of years, teachings that ring so true that they are on the lips
of every human being, teachings so sage, that they inform nearly every codified
law on earth.

These teachings did not come from crazy!
Reason demands we conclude but one thing. Jesus Christ was raised, is alive, is
at the right hand of the Father and is the Lord of life, the Lord of death, and
the Lord of eternity. The only question left to answer here, is He your Lord?

Paul offers his next “if-then” statement
when he says, “And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in
vain and your faith is in vain.” There
are two elements in Paul’s argument. The first element relates to the testimony
of the eyewitnesses to the resurrection (preaching is in vain). The second
element, to the reaction of those that have heard the testimony (faith is in
vain). We will first consider the “preaching is in vain” element.

Throughout his ministry, Jesus explained to his apostles they would
change the world with their preaching, Acts 1:8. He described them as
fishers of men, Matthew 4:19. He told them they would be hated for what they
had to say, John 15:18. He told them they would usher in the Kingdom of
Heaven with their preaching, Matthew 16:19. Through their
preaching, lives would be changed, despair would become hope, hate would become
love and desperation would become victory.

Fifty days after the resurrection of our Savior, the apostles stood on
a stage to preach their first sermon. They explained to those that crucified
Jesus they had killed the Son of God, but that there was hope. That day, the
hate that festered into crucifixion turned into repentance and 3000 souls were
baptized. A community of followers, followers of the resurrected Savior, was
created.

Over the next few years, the preaching of this Kingdom spread across
the globe. With it, changes in human behavior. The preaching of this kingdom
caused slaves to be freed, women to be treated as equal, children to be valued,
politicians to rule with integrity, hope to be injected into a world of death.
The change that occurred from 33 A.D. to 300 A.D. is nothing less than
miraculous. It is without doubt the most significant
cultural/political/philosophical change to ever have occurred in history.

All but one of the apostles were put to death for their preaching.
Peter was crucified upside down at his request since he did not feel worthy to
die in the same manner as his Lord. Paul was beheaded under the direction of
Nero. Andrew was crucified in what is now known as Russia. Thomas was pierced
through by the spears of four soldiers in what we know as India. Matthew was
stabbed to death in Ethiopia. Bartholomew martyred in Armenia. James the son of
Alpheus was stoned and clubbed to death in Palestine. Simon the Zealot was
killed for refusing to worship the Sun god in what we know as Iran. Matthias
was burned alive in Syria. John was the only to survive having been cast into a
pot of boiling oil but escaping unhurt. These men all met their fate never
having changed their story about witnessing the crucifixion. When the spear
pierced the side of Thomas who was invited to place his hand in the pierced
side of Jesus, he did not recant. When Peter hung upside down on the cross, he
never once expressed words of regret. They held to their conviction in the
resurrection because they knew without doubt that Jesus Christ came forth from
the grave. With joy, they preached this message of hope everywhere they went.
They knew that their preaching was not in vain. They knew. Peter, if Christ is
not raised, why hang there. Paul, if Christ is not raised, why then does the executioner’s
blade approach your neck. John, if Christ is not raised, why do you boil in
oil? Why proclaim this vain message and suffer so, if Christ is not raised?

Indeed, he is raised and preaching the message of his resurrection is
the most purposeful thing a human being can do. Preaching is not in vain,
because Christ is raised. The only question to raise here is, to whom have you
preached the truth of this resurrection?

Paul not only considers the plight of the preacher, but that of the
believer when he says, “…and your faith is in vain.” If Christ is not
raised, all those that confess Christianity and live by the tenants of its faith
are in fact living a lie. Their very existence is vain. You see, at the very
core of the Christian faith is that someday, the day of our resurrection, all
wrongs will be made right, all losses will become victories, death will be
swallowed up in life. It is why Paul is able to say, “For he
was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God. For we also
are weak in him, but in dealing with you we will live with him by the power
of God.” 2 Corinthians 13:4-5. The power of the
Christian’s future life is directly connected to the power demonstrated in
Christ’s resurrection. If he is not raised, all hope is lost. Every investment
that Christians make in faith’s bank are a complete loss. The hours spent in
prayer, a waste of time. The lives sacrificed on the altar of faith in a
resurrected Christ, lost without hope. The great advancements brought forth in
the world as a result of the undying Christian faith were all works of vanity.
Things like hospitals where all would receive care in the
name of Christ, not just the wealthy few. Things like schooling for all
children not just
the privileged. Shelters and assistance for the
impoverished, assistance for abused women
and children, the fight to end slavery in the
United States; all of these were born out of the Christian faith. Through the
span of millennia none of these things ever came to be. Man without Christ
could never achieve them. Not until a resurrected Jesus taught his followers
the self-sacrificing love that epitomizes the Christian faith.

All of this based on a lie? All of this based on a vain belief in a
fraudulent Savior? I say to you nay! The world is a different place than it was
two thousand years ago in no small part to faith placed in a man that died on a
cross, was buried, but three days later came back to life and eternally vacated
the tomb. Faith based in the hope that he offers when he said he would be the
first of many. Faith that depends on the hope of a future resurrection founded
in the certainty of a historic resurrection. No friend, their faith was not
vain. The real question to ask here is, in what do you believe? What faith
guides your life? Is your faith vain, or is it based in the verity of a raised
Savior.

Paul now considers the last of the consequences
if in fact Christ is not raised when he says, “And if Christ has not been
raised… …you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in
Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of
all people most to be pitied.” We
typically think of sins being addressed at the cross. We talk about Christ
taking our sins in his flesh, 1 Peter 2:24. We think of Christians
as wearing the righteousness of Christ, Philippians 3:9. In this text, Paul
addresses a harsh reality. The work that Christ began at the cross is of no
point if he is not raised. The forgiving power of the cross only has its
effectiveness in the person of a risen savior. If Christ is not raised, we are
still in our sins. The atoning work of Christ is of no effect if Christ is
dead.

However, a resurrected Christ seated at the right hand of God in a
human body, having lived sinless, sacrificed to the extent of sins requirement
(death), having conquered
the consequences of sin by coming back to life with an eternal human body,
sitting before the God and Father of all the universe forever and perpetually
offering himself as an atonement for sin, interceding on our
part, this Christ can forgive sin. Imagine for a moment a world where there is
no solution for sin. That is what Paul is asking you to do. Imagine a world
without a resurrected Savior, a world therefore without remedy for evil. A
world where evil ultimately wins and is expressed in the irreversible death of
every human being. Imagine the Apostle Peter weeping bitterly after his denial
with no resolution for his guilt. Imagine the seventeen-year-old boy imprisoned
at Riker’s Island for murder begging for forgiveness but not finding it.
Imagine the Roman soldier that pierced the side of Jesus standing at the Jordan
River to be baptized by James the brother of Jesus, but with no hope that the
debt he owes, the wrong he did, the evil he committed, will ever be undone.

Imagine that it is crucifixion night, and there is no awareness of the hope
that resurrection morning brings. Imagine that all Christ accomplished in his
resurrection is entirely negated. Imagine the creator of all, the embodiment of
righteousness, God in the flesh, is dead lying in a cold tomb. Imagine that the
all-powerful transcendent God became a man in order to help man, but was
conquered by evil and killed, and now God has been defeated and is dead.
Imagine what the world looks like on Friday night with no hope of there ever
being a Sunday morning.

Hear the words of that once famous preacher, Shadrach Meshach Lockridge
as he describes this awful thought.

· It’s
Friday, Jesus is praying, Peter is sleeping, Judas is
betraying, But Sunday is coming.

· It’s
Friday, Pilate is struggling, The council is conspiring, The crowd is vilifying,
They don’t even know, That Sunday is
coming.

· It’s
Friday, The disciples are running like
sheep without a shepherd, Mary is crying, Peter is
denying, Cause they don’t know, That Sunday is
coming.

· It’s
Friday, The Romans beat my Savior, They robe him in scarlet, They crown him
with thorns, But they don’t know, That Sunday’s coming.

· It’s
Friday, See Jesus walking to Calvary His blood dripping, His body stumbling,
His spirit is burdened, But you see, it’s only Friday, Sunday is coming.

· It’s
Friday, The world is winning, People are sinning, And evil is grinning.

· It’s
Friday, The soldiers nail my Savior’s hands to the cross, They nail my Savior’s
feet to the cross, And then they raise him up next to criminals. But let me tell you something, Sunday is coming.

· It’s
Friday, The disciples are questioning what has happened to their King, And the
Pharisees are celebrating that their scheming has been achieved, But they don’t
know, It’s only Friday.

· It’s
Friday, He’s hanging on the cross, Feeling forsaken by his Father, Left alone
and dying, Can nobody save him? It’s only Friday.

· It’s
Friday, The earth trembles, The sky grows dark, My King yields his spirit.

· It’s
Friday, Hope is lost, Death has won, Sin has conquered, and Satan is laughing.

· It’s
Friday, Jesus is buried, A soldier stands guard, And a rock is rolled into
place.

· But
it’s Friday, It is only Friday, Sunday is coming!

To all within the sound of my voice let me gladly announce to you, it
is Sunday morning. Paul powerfully concludes this with his victorious
pronouncement when he says, “But in fact Christ has been raised from the
dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.” Without apology,
with no equivocation, without caveat, Paul establishes as a matter of fact that
Christ was raised from the dead. He does so as if to dare anyone to challenge
it. And today, we ask to all mankind of all ages with absolute confidence, produce
the body. If he is not raised, produce the body. They haven’t and they can’t
because as the angel said, “Why do you seek the living
among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.”

Yes, the question has been answered. He is risen and He is Lord. That leaves
just one last question. Are you one that will benefit from his resurrection?
Are you one that will experience the same power that raised him from the grave?
Or will you continue to live in the weakness of certain death with an uncertain
eternity? Listen carefully to how Paul describes the ones that live by this
power. “For he was crucified in weakness (Friday), but lives
by the power of God (Sunday
morning). For we also are weak in him, but in dealing with you we will live
with him by the power of God. Examine yourselves, to see whether you
are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves,
that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!” 2
Corinthians 13:4-5.

Clearly, to live by the
power that raised Christ from the dead, Jesus Christ must be in you. You must
be united with Christ in order to live by that power. Examine yourselves, test
yourselves and ask, have you been united
with Christ?

Paul helps us with this
examination as he explains how we can be united in both his death and his
resurrection. Examine and test yourselves to see if you have been united with
Christ as we read this text. “What shall we say then? Are we
to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to
sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized
into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with
him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the
dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For
if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be
united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was
crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing,
so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been
set free from sin.” Romans 6:1-7

You see, the power of
resurrection comes upon those that join Christ in both his death and
resurrection. You must be as this text says, “united with Christ” in his death, burial and resurrection. The text explains to us
that this is what happens at the baptism of a repentant believer. To live by
the power of God, to live like it is Sunday morning, you must be buried with
him in baptism and rise to walk in newness of life. This text is clear. The
only question to ask is this. By what power do you live. By the power of Friday
night? By the power of the soldier’s spear, Peters denial, Mary’s tears, and a
laughing enemy? If so, I ask you now to change that. Start living in the power
of Sunday morning, the power of the resurrection. Live in the power of a Christ
that sits at the right hand of the Father inviting you to join him. Live in the
power of eternal life, forgiveness, and joy inexpressible. The water is ready
for your resurrection, are you?