There's much that can be said
on a day like today where the world pauses, and if not even
in sincerity, but for the sake of tradition, considers the resurrection
of Jesus. We could look at the traditions
of Easter in our own lives and in the generations that we have
been witness to, and we could ask the question, what is it
that makes this day so special? And of course, it is a day, as
I've said, year after year that families can gather together.
It's an opportunity for us to do church together. A lot of
times cantatas or plays or whatnot can be produced and put on for
our enjoyment, even for our praise. But when it gets down to it,
like I've said already, I don't believe that we should pick a
day to celebrate the resurrection of Christ, but it should be the
center of our every day. It should be the center of our
every thought. It should be the center of everything.
For as Paul would say, do all things for the glory of Christ.
If we do all things for the glory of Christ, the foundation of
what makes that possible is that He is on our mind. And the gospel,
the good news of Christ is in our hearts. And it's dear to
us and it's dear to our world So therefore, all that we do
is with in mind that Christ has been raised from the dead. I'd
suggest to you that Jesus was not special in the fact that
he was crucified, for two other men died with him that day. Millions
of people have been martyred for their faith. So to say that
Jesus is who He is because He gave His life for a cause, it
just places Him on the same scale as many who have done the same.
Or to say that He was crucified on a cross when thousands were
crucified on a Roman cross. So what difference does it make?
I could sit here today and I could give you the physiological effects
of the crucifixion. I could tell you that as Jesus
was whipped with the capnine tails, with the leather and the
shards of metal that ripped His flesh from His body and exposed
His ribcage, I could talk to you about what that did to the
nerves in His body and how it made every other pain seem a
lot more intense. I could tell you what it was
like to carry on that bare back several hundred pound beam up
to Golgotha. I could tell you what it feels
like or what happened to him psychologically, if you will,
to feel his beard being pulled from his face or the thorns being
pressed into the scalp. I could even share with you what
happens medically to one who is crucified and how they strive
to live versus suffocating. and how that the back is exposed
for a reason that the only thing they have to do is pull up with
their wrists and push up with their ankles against the nerves
that have been pierced by nails so that they may scuff their
back upon the cross to take a breath lest they suffocate and die.
And that, even if it were not Jesus, the Christ would tear
us to pieces. The judgment of God is not seen
in the crucifixion against Christ. The judgment of God is seen in
the death of Christ. It wasn't that Christ suffered
so much in the flesh, for the man next to Him suffered just
as much. It was that Jesus, the eternal
God of heaven, experienced the wage of sin, which is death in
the body. He experienced the judgment of
God. and had Jesus just died on the cross, there would be
nothing to look forward to. There would be nothing to hope
in. There would be nothing to say, our soul is satisfied in
the story of a dead Savior. Stories do not save. Stories
do not give life. Stories do not transform hearts. Stories do not open blind eyes,
but Christ does. And I want to say today that
I believe that the resurrection is what is so offensive about
the gospel. It's not the cross. Yes, we could
depict the cross just in that little bit of reminding about
what the pain is on the cross is hard for us. And then yet, even in our humanity,
we would look at an animal beside the road suffering and would
have a similar empathy. We would have a similar heart.
Don't let it suffer. But even though Christ suffered
greatly in His flesh as a human being, He suffered more. Can I use this in an improper
way? Greater. because he suffered judgment
that was not his at the hands of a people for
whom he was willing to die. And it seems to me that there
would not be that harshness against the gospel of Jesus Christ had
he just stayed dead. Had He just been this spiritual
God that had a lot of good teaching? But see, Jesus wasn't a spiritual
God with a lot of good teaching. Jesus was God who had become
flesh. Jesus created Mary and the womb
inside of her, and Jesus was born from the very creation of
His own Word. And He lived among this world
as a slave, obedient to death on a cross, so that He would
be exalted above all things, that His name would be exalted
above all names. Jesus, the God-man, submitted
to the will of God the Father in order to purchase a people
for Himself on the cross of Calvary. But if the cross of Calvary did
not lead to the grave, which did not lead to the resurrection
of Jesus Christ from the dead, I tell you there is no gospel.
For there is no vindication of Jesus and His claims. Jesus declared
Himself to be the God of heaven. Jesus declared Himself to be
the One who can do more than just heal the body, but forgive
sins. Jesus declared Himself to be
before Abraham. Jesus said that Moses longed
for the day that He would come, and Abraham rejoiced in his day. Jesus said that He hung the universe
in the balance of His control. Jesus said that He was the beginning
and the end, the first and the last. He said He was the King
of all kings and the Lord of all lords. The Bible says that
Jesus is the Christ, the Holy, Anointed One of God, to whom
only is ascribed to God. Jesus is the holy, holy, holy,
worthy, worthy, worthy. And a beautiful story of a great
martyr dying for the sake of the sins of a people is one thing,
but that that same person being raised to life, proving to say
to the world, I am that which I am, and I am, is so different. And it's not my opinion on the
matter. Jesus is alive and He was alive yesterday and He'll
be alive tomorrow. So what? What difference does
it make? You hear me ask that almost every
week. Friends, if we had a Jesus that
just died like every other prophet, He would not be an offense. Why
is the cross an offense? Because Jesus was holy and He
was vindicated, and though He took the wage of death, God gave
Him what He deserved, which is exaltation and life. And then
He gives us what we do not deserve, which is eternal life in Christ.
When we deserve eternal death. In 1 Corinthians chapter 15,
starting in verse 14, Paul is arguing here against the Gnostic teaching
that the resurrection could not be. That there is no such thing. There are people in our day who
believe that when we die, we are spiritual beings. And we
are. Our spirit lives forever. We
live forever. But there's a teaching that's
explicit in the New Testament that Jesus Christ is the first
fruits of those who are resurrected from the dead. And it's not just
the New Testament, there was a foreshadowing of such all the
way through the Old Testament. That Jesus would come, Emmanuel
would come, He would suffer and die, and He would be vindicated
through the resurrection of the dead. So it is not about dying
in Christ, but about knowing that we are living in Christ.
Though we live in a temporal state in this body that is corrupted
by sin, and the world, even my watch is rattling. Why is my
watch rattling? Because a piece broke off inside.
Why does even a mechanical machine break? Because sin entered the
world. My watch didn't sin. I didn't
sin and get mad and punch my neighbor with it and that's why
it broke. It's just winding down. It's in a perpetual state of
corruption. The world that we live in is decaying every second
of our lives. From the day we're born, we're
one step closer to death. Because sin has entered the world,
and because of sin, all must die. For the just wage of sin
is death. And Paul is saying, that there's
a gospel of first importance. I'll read through verse 23, and
then we're going to talk about verses 14 through 23. Paul says,
now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preach to you.
which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are
now being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to
you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of
first importance what I also received, that is, Christ died
for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures. That He was buried,
that He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,
and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then He appeared
to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are
still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared
to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all, as to one untimely
born, he appeared also to me." Remember who's writing this.
This is Saul of Tarsus, who is now known as Paul, who on his
way to Damascus to kill and arrest and destroy Christians, Jesus
Christ appeared to him. For I am the least of the apostles,
unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church
of God." Verse 10. But by the grace of God, I am
what I am, and His grace toward me was not empty. It was not
in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder
than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that
is with me. whether then it was I or they,
so we preached and so you believed." Now here's the deal. Jesus is
preached to the Corinthians and we know what they're doing in
this letter. They're arguing over who preached
the gospel and who they got saved under. There's quotes in the
air here. I was saved in the preaching
of Pastor so-and-so, or Brother so-and-so, or Bishop so-and-so,
or whatever. Paul tells them, look, God does
it all. He even says, I'm glad I didn't
baptize any of the lot of you, that you couldn't brag. The point
is, God has done the work. And I preached, and they preached,
whatever. God gave you the gospel, and
you believed it. Now, if Christ is proclaimed
as raised from the dead, how can you say that there is no
resurrection of the dead? You see the problem? Well, Christ
was raised, yay, we believe the gospel, but now there were others
who were saying that there is no resurrection of the dead,
the Gnostics. Let's talk about the gospel,
they'd say, let's look at Jesus, but let's understand that everything
that's physical is bad. The body's bad, the world is
bad, the grass is bad, the air we breathe, anything that's physical
is bad, we want it to go away. Eastern mysticism still believes
that. Buddhism still believes that. Hinduism still believes
that. That everything physical, the
point of heaven, what they call nirvana, the word means to be
snuffed out, is to cease to exist. And that's not far from Gnostic
teaching in the days of Jesus, in the days of the apostles.
And he's saying, look, Jesus was raised from the dead, so
if you proclaim the Gospel of Christ as He has been raised
from the dead, How can you then say there is no such thing as
a resurrection of the dead? See why this is offensive? Because
it went against the culture. It went against the knowledge
of the Greeks. It went against the wisdom. It went against it. When Paul says that the cross
is a stumbling block and an offense, It wasn't just the cross. It
was the cross and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Sure, nobody
would stop. Oh, Jesus died. Whoop-de-doo.
Everybody dies who breaks the law. He complained. He said he
was the king. He was going to take over Caesar.
He was going to take over Rome. See, that was the mindset. And
when he wasn't going to take over Rome the way the Jews wanted
it, they wanted him dead. And so if there's no resurrection
of the dead, then why don't we preach that Jesus has raised
the dead? But if there is no resurrection of dead, then not
even Christ has been raised from the dead, Paul says. And if Christ
has not been raised, here we go, then our preaching is empty. Worthless. And your faith is
empty. It's got no substance. It's in
nothing. 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.
than those of us who have fallen asleep, who have died in Christ,
have perished. If in Christ we have hope in
this life only, we of all people are to be most pitied. But in
fact, there's the antithesis, in fact, Christ has been raised
from the dead. The firstfruits of those who
have fallen asleep. For as by man came death, by
man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all
die, so also Christ shall be made alive. But each in his own
order. Christ the firstfruits, then
at His coming, those who belong to Christ. So I'm going to suggest to you,
based on what Paul teaches the Corinthian church about the resurrection
of Jesus Christ, it's so much more than just the narrative
of history. And for those of you who have been on Tuesday
nights, we looked at the narrative of the Gospels, the narrative
of the Epistles, and this coming Tuesday we're going to look at
how to understand and read the narrative of prophets and prophecies. But
there's much more to be understood than just this is the story and
this is the way it happened. And the apostles in their letters,
they expose theological truths because they're defending theological
truths. They're defending against theological
errors like there's no resurrection. And so the best way to defend
against the theological error of that there is no resurrection
from the dead in the flesh is to say Jesus has been raised
from the dead, and if so, this is why it's important. And that's
what Paul's doing here. He's telling us why the resurrection
of Jesus Christ is not only historically important, but theologically
essential to everything we believe. Friends, there is a wild root
among the world today who would say that it's not as important
to believe these things. It doesn't matter. Jesus still
had good teaching, and he was still, he's still a good man,
and he still had good truth, and if we live by it, we'll change
our world for the better. But if that's the case, then
Jesus is a liar, because Jesus claimed to be raised from the
dead. And if someone's a liar, then everything they say is subject
to that lie. If someone's a false prophet,
then all that they preach is false, even when there's a skin
of truth around it. And so why is the resurrection
necessary? Well, Paul gives us some negatives,
and then he gives us some positives. And so that we can stay on the
positive focus today in this text, I want to give you the
negative, then the positive that's obvious from it. And then we'll
close out with three therefores. Because Christ, in fact, is raised
from the dead, therefore. And we'll close out with three
of those. This is odd for me, but it's pretext if you're not
careful. So I wanted to make sure it was
good. In the context of Scripture, we see that there are many places
in the Old and New Testament that teach us about the resurrection,
that teach us about the hope and the promise of that new life
that comes through Christ. We understand that Jesus Himself,
in Matthew 12, says these words. He says, For just as Jonah was
in the belly of the great fish for three days and three nights,
so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the
heart of the earth. So Jesus uses the Old Testament to ratify
His proposition that He is going to be raised from the dead. He
uses the sign of Jonah. And you'll understand a little
bit more on Tuesday about what that means. But the sign of Jonah. Jonah didn't know anything about
Jesus. He wasn't even on His mind. Jonah wasn't doing all
that he did so that we could say, oh, that's a pretty cool
story that references Jesus. Jonah was a prophet sent to a
people that he hated, that he wanted to see God condemn. But
God in His mercy toward Jonah caused him to what? Be swallowed
by a fish rather than perish so that he could be obedient
to the call of God. And then Jonah, even in his bitterness,
wanted God to smite Nineveh because they were awful people. They
were wicked people. We've not seen that type of wickedness
in our life face to face. Our neighbors who really mean
to us, they're not Ninevites. And so Jonah thought, I'm going
to preach judgment against these people and I'm going to sit up
here, put out my lazy chair, pop me some popcorn and watch
God burn hell from heaven and burn them up. And God didn't
do it. Why? Because they repented. God granted them repentance and
they repented. Now future Nineveh perished. But that day Nineveh
repented. And it angered Jonah. So this
is a narrative about how God is sufficient even in a disobedient
prophet. His word goes. even in a sense
where there's a hated people who deserve judgment, God is
gracious. It also teaches that God only saves through the preaching
of His word. God didn't come into a swell
of tornadoes and say, believe it or not, we did it all. I mean,
yeah, that was crazy. And you know, they didn't do
that. God sent a human being with his written word and he
walked into Nineveh and he preached the gospel. The good news that
if you turn from your sin, Jesus or God will save you from certain
destruction. And God did. But Jesus said that
Jonah was so much more. Just as Jonah was in the belly
of the fish for three days and three nights, so I, the Son of
Man, will also be in the ground, in the heart of the earth. The
Greek word there for heart of the earth or grave is hades.
For the high scholars, hades. Yeah, whatever. So Jesus says the Old Testament
alludes to the fact or points to the fact that He's going to
be in the grave. In Matthew 28, it says the words, he is not
here. The narrative of the gospels,
the history account says he has risen. Come and see the place
where he once lay. He is not here. In Luke, it says the Lord has
risen indeed and has appeared to Simon. And in John 20. John 20 is a is a kicker, y'all. John 20 is great. all the way
through the end, especially in the salvation of Thomas. Thomas
is so sure that Jesus could not have been risen from the dead
that he says, I'm going to have to stick my fingers in his wounds
to believe. You know what that is? That's
unbelief. That's unbelief. That's saying,
well, we'll just show you Jesus. I'm not going to believe it's
him, even if it looks like him. We'll just let him talk to you. I'm
not going to believe it if he says what I hear Jesus say. We'll
just let you see his wounds. Well, I'm not going to believe
that because anybody could have wounds. I'm going to stick my hands in
there. That's how certain I am he's not. You bring him here,
let me stick my hands in his side. Let me put my hand in the
wound in his chest. Then I'll believe you. You hear
the sarcasm there? and in a locked room. See, the
first time they gathered, Thomas didn't even come. Why? Because
he had no expectation of anything. Thomas' whole heart was, let's
just go die with Jesus. Peter pulled the sword out and
cut the ear off of the high priest. Let's just fight. Let's just
revolt. Revolution! Let's do it, Jesus! And Jesus
is like, this isn't why I came. I came to be the Lamb. I'm going
to be raised from the dead. I've been telling y'all that.
Hadn't I been telling y'all that? Didn't I tell y'all that in John
chapter 2? Didn't I tell you when I cleansed the temple? Remember
y'all were all standing there watching me with my anger and
my zeal for the holiness of my Father. Didn't you watch me ruin
these people's lives? Didn't you see me turn over their
tables and throw the money back to the poor? Didn't you see me
let out their animals and let them... and ruin their livestock,
ruin their opportunity to ever make a living? Didn't you see
me with anger and zeal for my Father's house, cleanse the temple
of God? And didn't you hear me say when
the Pharisees looked at Him and said, by whose authority do you
come and do this in this house? And Jesus says, I'll tell you
this, you tear this temple down and in three days I will raise
it up. I will raise it up. And it says right there in John's
Gospel in chapter 2, right after that, and it says, and they,
let's just paraphrase, didn't understand it. We know they didn't
understand it. They didn't understand anything
Jesus taught. But after He was raised from the dead, they remembered
He had said these things in the temple, and they understood.
He wasn't talking about the building, because the Jews goes, it took
46 years to build this thing. And He's going to build it in
three days. What a joke. We know he's a lunatic now, that's
why he came here tearing everything up. It's crazy. Kicking over
tables and shooing out things. Ripping people with a scourge.
Of course, Jesus wasn't going on there. I'll get this stuff
up out of here. Shoo, shoo, shoo. This is nasty. We don't want
to have nasty stuff in the church. Now y'all get on there. I've
had people argue with me with anger. that Jesus was careful
and calm and collected and he put that scourge together so
that the birds wouldn't poop on him and the sheep would get
on out in an orderly fashion. I think he looked like Bruce
Holkroy when he went in there. I think he broke it up. I think
he put scars and scratches on people. I think Jesus meant business
when he cleaned the temple. He's saying, this ain't the temple
at all. I'm the temple. And when I die, I'm going to
show you on the temple of God because I'm going to come back. In all these places, we see the
New Testament narrative, we see places that talks about the resurrection. We see the apostles teaching
about the resurrection. But here in first Corinthians
15, I see the offense of the resurrection and the theological
necessity of the resurrection. Let's look at it again. Paul
says that our preaching is in vain if Christ has not been raised
from the dead. You know what that means? That
means that coming to church and celebrating the Word, studying
the Bible, is empty. Empty. Worthless. If Christ has
not been raised from the dead. Christ has been raised from the
dead, therefore there is a purpose in preaching. So I take the negative
that Paul gives and I'm gonna turn it into a positive. So preaching
is effective because there's a resurrection. Preaching is
effective because there is a living Christ who, by the Holy Spirit,
operates through his word. The word of God has no power
if Christ did not raise from the dead. It's just words. Secondly, Paul says this, he
says, and your faith is in vain. What is faith? What does it mean
when he says your faith, the faith, he's not talking about
the object faith. The idea that this is the gospel
and we call that the faith, like we see in Jude. He's talking
about the subject faith, the subjective faith. In whom have
you placed your faith? The object of your faith, the
thing that you have looked upon and believed is vain and empty
if Christ has not been raised from the dead. There is no good
news for you, beloved, if Christ has not been raised. Thirdly, we see that Paul says
that we are found to be misrepresenting God. Because we are saying that
God has raised Christ from the dead, and if we're preaching
that which God did not preach, that's blasphemy. That's misrepresentation. That's a false gospel. So to
preach that Jesus is all these things, but He did not raise
from the dead, is to preach that God, in some sense, is a liar. Or best, we are lying about what
God is saying. But the truth is, is that Jesus
has been raised from the dead, so God is true. God is faithful. When Jesus says, I am the way
and the truth and the life, He speaks not only for Himself,
but also for the Father. He also speaks for God, the Holy
Spirit, the Godhead. Our one God is truth. Our one God is life, our one
God. Jesus Christ is the way to the
Father. Jesus Christ is the way to eternal
life. Jesus Christ, because He has been raised to life, is the
proof of God's faithfulness. It's an insanity plea to believe
that Jesus, number one, is not an existent person in history,
and number two, did not die, and number three, was not raised
to life. But it's also an insanity case
if you think that just knowing that it's true is salvation for
you. You must believe fully. You must
have absolute faith. You must surrender all that you
are. You must, in every aspect of
your life, every inkling, every notion, every inch, every umption
that you've ever put in the favor of your flesh, doing anything
good to gain favor with God, you must put that to death and
know that it's in Christ alone. He goes on to say, we testified
about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise, but he
did raise him. And in verse 16, he says this,
for if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised.
You see how solid this argument is? The apostles are stinking
amazing when it comes to getting these truth claims out and putting
it where there's no hole there. Well, Jesus could have been the
one who was raised and nobody else could be raised. See, I've
got a brother locally who debates that with me. Well, nobody else
will ever be raised from the dead. Jesus was the only one.
The rest of us are raised in the Spirit and we just sort of
float around like little cherubs. We're just sort of cherubs because
we're not worthy to be raised. Okay, I don't follow your argument.
Here, read this 1240 page book. Okay, I did and I still don't
follow. We're gonna argue about these things. Paul says, if the
dead are not raised, then Christ hasn't been raised. And on the other side, if Christ
hasn't been raised, then we're not gonna be raised. And if we're not, Verse 17, if
Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile. It's not only
empty, it's worthless. It's senseless. It's really stupid. It's what Paul's saying. Because,
and not only is it a futile faith, you who do not believe that Christ
has been raised are still in your sins. Now see, here's a theological
compact here. You've got the life of Jesus, which is an apparent,
the incarnation of Jesus. Here's the gospel. Jesus, the
God of heaven, becomes a zygote, an embryo, a child, a toddler,
a tweener, a teen, a 20 year old, 30 year old, 33, and then
dies. So Jesus, the God of heaven,
becomes a man. Holy, perfect, righteous, all
man, all God. He lives obediently without even
the desire to sin. Hear me, church. Jesus did not
struggle with obeying as a child. Jesus did not rebel as a child,
talk back, fight with his brothers and sisters. You see books written
about this stuff. People assuming about how Jesus'
childhood was. Shoving James and hurting him
and healing his boo-boos. I mean, silly stuff. Everything Jesus has ever thought,
said, done, or desired has been pleasing to God the Father. Or
He is not God. The fullness of the mind of Christ
is in perfect unity with the mind of God the Father. perfect
unity with the pre-incarnate Christ, perfect unity with the
Word before it was ever ascribed to the ears of man or written
down for our eyes. God the Son is holy and all that
He ever has done is holy. He lived 33 years on this earth
as a human being in absolute obedience and complete perfection
with God's holy requirements. And that alone is what satisfied
his ability to become the lamb of God, to take away the sins
of the world. That's it. And so it's good news that God
created all that there is so that he could save a people and
then created a people and then created Mary, and then
came from Mary, born into the world and lived holy, and then
started His ministry, and then obediently did all that God the
Father required of Him, giving glory to Him above Himself. And then willfully went to the
cross to suffer the wage of sin, which is death. And not just
any death. He didn't just pass out. The
word excruciate is a compound word in its etymology. It means of the cross, out of
the cross. So the highest level of pain
that we can establish in our vocabulary is expressed through
the adjective of excruciating. pains like that of the pain of
the cross, of the crucifixion. Jesus Christ in the gospel is
that he also suffered the wage of sin. He also suffered the
death of a criminal, though he was not a criminal, and that
he also rose from the dead. and He ascended to the Father.
If Jesus didn't rise and Jesus didn't ascend, then where is
our Mediator? Where is our High Priest who
is not doing sacrifices, who became the sacrifice? Where is the blood of the New
Covenant? It's dried up to dust. But as
it is, it flows in the veins of a living Savior. Every heartbeat
of Jesus' heart flows in it the blood of atonement for the people
that He purchased. Paul says that our faith is worthless
if Jesus has not been raised but since He has been raised,
our faith is sustained by Christ. Our faith is effectual by Christ. Our faith is provided for to
us by Christ. And the negative there, Paul
says, it leaves all men in sin. I don't have time to really dig
there. I started looking at that and
thought I could preach or teach, we could look at about four or
five hours of looking at what that really means. But here in
a nutshell is how we should see this. We are free from the bondage
of sin because the wages of sin is what? and a willing and able and sufficient
sacrifice may provide atonement for those sins. But what does sin bring? Death. And if Christ had not
been raised to life, we would still be bound. to the wage of
sin. Thus we are still in our sin,
and because we would be in our sin, we are condemned by God.
You see? So we don't take pieces of the
gospel and say, this is the gospel. It's all the good news of God.
The full narrative of it all, which I would include, much like
Timothy, I would go all the way back to the beginning. Because
John does that twice. John says that the good news
of the gospel of God started when God said, let there be light. Jesus says that the judgment
is this, Nicodemus, you're spiritual, you're holy, you're righteous,
you're wont, you're teaching, you're prayer, you're sacrifices,
all of your liturgy, all of the history of your people, all of
this. You love the darkness. And I,
Jesus speaking, the light has come into the world, but you
love your religion more. You love your way more. You love
your thoughts more. You love your teaching more.
You don't love me because I make all that you have done your entire
life moot. What do we want? Do we want our
treasures, and our thoughts, and our gospel, and our idols,
and our religion, and our faith, and our theology? Or do we want
the one true God who suffered death, who beat death, and who
intercedes for us today as our only hope? Christ has broken the bondage
of sin because sin has been defeated, not just paid for. Not just paid for. Defeated. Because if He had not been raised
from the dead, all of those who have fallen asleep in Christ
have perished. You see, we might think, well, he's just talking
in the theological sense about being in sin. We can still have
eternal life. No! He cuts that argument out. He's like, I can't let you go
there. Because Paul knew men. The God inspiring Paul and giving
him wisdom knew man. John 2, the very last few verses
said no one had to tell Jesus about the heart of man. He knew
them. And Paul says, yeah, they didn't
perish is what you're thinking, but I'm telling you that if Christ
has not been raised, Those who have died already have perished.
Not just those who have died, but those who have died in Christ
have perished. They will forever suffer the
wage of sin because the grasp of death is God. God's judgment is the chokehold
of death. Death is not this thing, this
sort of fighting against God. God created death as a just,
honest, glorious, honorable, holy, loving wage. He's fair. So we as sinners get
that which God created, which is eternal death. And if we don't
have Christ alive, we still are choked by the wage of sin and
the death of the flesh. The resurrection is so much deeper.
There's this story about Jesus coming out of the grave. Jesus came out of the grave to
defeat the grave. Why? Because we're going to be
made holy like Jesus in our flesh. That's what I want. Nothing will
be incomplete with Christ. I don't want to float around
like a butterfly. I want to be me. Holy. I don't want to deal with the
sin in my mind, and in my heart, and in my flesh, and in my world.
I don't want to struggle and fight the battle again. I look
forward to the day when no more wickedness will ever cross my
path. That is where the gospel comes
to life for us. That's why holiness is an imperative
of the church of Jesus Christ this day. Not tomorrow. Because if Christ had not been
raised, we are perished. And he says if Christ had not
been raised, above all people, above all people, Paul says,
we are to be most pitied. You see how he describes that?
Not just be pitied. Not just be pitied. above all people. But he says,
we are of all people most to be pitied that there is no group
that should be pitied more than we should be pitied if Christ
is not risen from the dead. Because our lives have been a
fool's errand. We have run to the end of the
world to realize it was round. and wasted it all. And so with that comes the outcome
or the opposite to say that Christ has been raised from the dead
and in that is the single and sole purpose of living today. Why do we tarry? Why do we hold
on? Why do we carry through the suffering and the trials of life?
Because we have died with Christ and we will live with Christ.
So when we live in the mire and the muck and the persecution
and the cancer and the death and the divorce and the disease
and everything else that we deal with here, we who are in Christ
are living. And we will one day be raised to
the fullness of eternal life. But in fact, verse 20. Paul is so awesome here. But in fact, this hypothetical
if, what if, but if, if he hasn't, he says, but in fact, Christ
has been raised from the dead. He has been raised from the dead.
We've already heard. We met with Peter. We met with
James. We met with this guy and that guy and 500 people saw him
float into heaven. And Peter says, we've not made
up cool myths. We've not talked about these
cool things. We've not made this stuff up,
but we as our witnesses to His glory. John says that Jesus,
He saw that which was from the beginning. Touched it. Heard it with His ears. Saw Him
with His eyes. Peter goes on to say, and it's
not about our testimony. It's not our eyewitness testimony
that makes it true. It's the fact that God Himself
has spoken these things and stated that Christ would come, and He
has come, and that He would die, and He has died, and He would
be raised, and He has been raised. And He's alive today. And all
the fullness of Scripture points to this. And it is true, for
God Himself testifies to it. But Christ has in fact been raised
from the dead. He is the first fruits of those
who fall asleep. What does that mean? Christ is
the first to be raised to immortal, immutable flesh. Understand that
Jesus Christ is forever the God-man. Eternally. And right now, He
is the God-man. He has a body. He is the first of all the children
of God. He is the proof. He is what Hebrews
says, will keep our eyes on the what? Founder and the finisher
of our faith. All those who have gone before us, yea, they line
the ways pointing to Christ. This is the hope we have. Hope
of the believer is not heaven, spirit place, butterfly land. The hope of the believer is that
God will put, Ephesians 1.10, all things under the feet of
Christ. We are His body and we will be there with Him in the
flesh. 21, for as by a man came death,
who is he talking about? Adam and Eve. by the fact that
Adam and Eve sinned against God, so therefore death entered the
world rightly and justly. Therefore, all those who come
in the lineage of Adam, who is that? Everybody but Jesus, born
of a virgin. Had Jesus had an earthly daddy,
we are really to be pitied. As men, by man came death, but
also through a man comes the resurrection of the dead." Why? Because God cannot satisfy His
justice against humanity unless He has a lamb that satisfies
His justice against humanity. God can't sacrifice a bull or
a goat or flower or dove and be vindicated. Bulls, flower,
wheat, and doves, and rams, and pigeons, they didn't sin against
God. We do. And we can atone for our sin
under punishment because an eternal God requires eternal consequences. So Jesus suffered six hours on
the cross and then suffered three days in the ground. And God is satisfied. Romans
3 gives us a clear picture of what that is. Start in verse
21 if you want to look at it. God is satisfied. He is satisfied
because Jesus Christ is propitiation. The only way Jesus can satisfy
the wrath of God is that He is a human being. And if some angel
had just poofed out of a grave, angels are spirit. They are not
human. So as Adam caused all men to
die, so then through the second Adam, all men will be made alive. All men who will live, that is.
But most importantly, as I've said already, all men will be
resurrected from the dead, believer and unbeliever. Some to judgment
and everlasting death, the second death, and some to everlasting
life. All who are in Christ are alive,
and all who are alive in Christ will live again, though they
die. And he says that in verse 22,
For as in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive. I guess at the end of the day,
you've got to find yourself in one of those two boats. You've
got to see yourself either trusting fully in the God who is raised
from the dead, whose name is Jesus, or trusting fully in every
other piece of wisdom you can hold on to and die, though you're
already dead. Do you believe the gospel of
Jesus? Not that it's true that it's
yours. For the demons believe and they
tremble because it's not theirs. God never became an angel to
die for the sins of Satan and his demons. And He's not going
to. And He's justified in it. Just
as if He had never ever established a covenant to save a people,
God would be great and worthy to be praised if he condemned
every last one of us. But he didn't. Because of the
great love with which he loved us, he has caused us to be born
again to a living hope through what does Peter say? Through
the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Paul says to the
Thessalonians, he says, you are not objects of wrath. but are
what? Objects of mercy to the resurrection
of Jesus Christ from the dead. Do you believe that is your gospel?
Are you holding to God's gospel for you? Your neighbor cannot
save you and believe for you. Your mama and your grandma and
all the prayers of the saints cannot get you to heaven. If
you do not believe on Jesus Christ and repent of your sin, which
includes unbelief, if you are not trusting in Christ, you will
be raised to judgment. Where are you? I thank You, Lord, that we are
not a people to be most pitied. That we're not a people to be
laughed at because we have hung our hats on a silly myth. But God, You have raised Christ
from the dead, and all the implications of that are just vast. You've redeemed us. You've saved
us. You've sanctified us. You're
glorifying us. Lord, You've defeated sin. You've defeated death. You've
defeated the devil. You've defeated the enemies of
this earth. You've justified us before You. You've established
a kingdom over which Christ will reign supreme. There's so much. Every spiritual blessing in the
heavenly places is ours. So Father, help us to rest assured
today that our faith is not in vain. For we believe in a risen Christ.
And Lord, by your great mercy and through your word, by your
spirit, would you give life to those who hear this message,
who need salvation, help them to see that which they cannot
see without you. Help them to believe. Help them
to come to the gospel of grace. We thank you for this day. And
for every day, let us live as though we are alive because we
are. That we are your children because
we are. In Jesus' name, amen.