Good morning. Welcome to the Park Avenue Church of Christ.
Why do we call ourselves that?
We meet on Park Avenue, but why church of Christ?
· Church - The New Testament was written in Greek and the word translated church simply means a group of people called out for an assembly. It’s used in secular Greek as an assembly of all kinds. Normally it is an assembly of people who have something in common, not just a mob of people.
· Of - That’s a participle. It means belonging to
· Christ
- Means anointed, Messiah, chosen one, Jesus
Church of Christ means an assembly of people who have something in common who belong to Christ, Jesus.
Included in that commonality is that we share certain beliefs about who Jesus is. And Jesus is a lot of things, isn’t he? He’s a great teacher. Compassionate. Humble. Kind. Loving. Demanding. Asks for our devotion. All those things are true, but there’s more. A lot of people fit that bill. What is different about Him? What is unique? What do we believe about Him that sets Him apart from everyone else?
Think of this. I invite you to a meal. There’s a lot involved with putting a mean together. Plates, glasses, placemats, table, chair, centerpiece, candles. Let’s say I invite you to a meal and you sit down at this table. It is still not a meal until what arrives? The food! Food id absolutely essential for a meal.
So what is absolutely essential for this to be an assembly of likeminded people who belong to Christ?
There was a man named Paul who was an early convert to Christianity. He was a contemporary of Jesus although he didn’t come to faith until after Christ died. He was a Jewish man who was well-trained in the Jewish faith. But once he became a Christian, he became devoted to spreading the good news of Jesus to the non-Jewish world. So he travelled extensively planting churches. Much of the book of Acts is the story of Paul. Many of your Bibles have maps at the back where you can follow along with journeys.
One important city Paul established a church was Corinth. It’s in Greece. Not far from Athens. The city is still there today. He stayed there 18 months getting this church going but eventually he left to spread the good news in other places. While away he gets news that this church has a lot of questions. They have a lot of issues. Paul writes two letters to this church that are included in the NT of the Bible. One issue they have is they have forgotten what really defined them as a church of Christ.
Here are some things they think are most important:
Who taught you. Paul taught me, that makes me better. Apollos taught me. Peter taught me. Paul’s response to that, “No. That’s not what is most important.”
Am I married or single. There seem to be a faction hat think that real Christians don’t get married. Although Paul sees an advantage to this, he again says, “No. That’s not what is most important.”
What I eat. There were some pagan temples in Corinth and in those temples sacrifices were brought and some of the left over sacrificial meat was sold in the markets. Some believers said it was okay to eat. Others said it was not okay. Paul’s response to that, “No. That’s not what is most important.”
What spiritual gift I have. Some highly valued speaking in tongues. That is what makes a person a Christian. Paul’s response to that, “No. That’s not what is most important.”
Paul addresses all these issues because they are important but they are not most important. There are a lot of things that we make more important than they should be. Even now. So, near the end of the letter in chapter 15 he wants them to know what is most important. He wants them to know what is absolutely essential.
1 Corinthians 15:3–4 (ESV) — 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.
Christ died for our sins – that is essential. His death benefitted us.
He was buried – a rumor may have started that he wasn’t really dead.
He was raised on the third day – the resurrection is an essential belief to Christianity
In the rest of the chapter Paul is going to talk about the resurrection.
The first point he says is that the resurrection is Undeniable.
Apparently, some people were doubting the resurrection. I can understand that. I’ve had my doubts at times. I’ve questioned it. Things like this don’t happen. People die. I’ve done a lot of funerals and never has one been cancelled! But that’s what makes it a miracle. That’s what makes Jesus unique. Not that he is the only one but he came to life by his own power. No one helped him!
But Paul says as unbelievable as it may be there are so many witnesses. The 12, James his brother, Cephas (Peter), there’s the crowd of 500. This letter was written only 20 years after the resurrection and Paul says that many of those people are still alive!
He will go on to say that the resurrection is Indispensable to our faith.
1 Corinthians 15:14 (ESV) — 14 And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.
There is no Christianity without the resurrection. Just like there is no meal with the food there is no Christianity without the resurrection. In fact Paul says we are pitiful people if there is no resurrection.
1 Corinthians 15:19 (ESV) — 19 If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.
Another argument he makes in this chapter is perhaps more of what we would call a philosophical argument. Paul cannot tolerate the alternative to resurrection - that death is the end of us all. Can you tolerate that? Can you live with the belief that death wins in the end? Can you stomach the idea that all we are is the sum total of the atoms and molecules that we are composed of and when we die we are no more?
Philip Yancy in his book The Jesus I Never Knew writes this:
One reason I am open to belief, I admit, is that at a very deep level I want the Easter story to be true. Faith grows out of a subsoil of yearning, and something primal in human beings cries out against the reign of death.
Philip Yancey, The Jesus I Never Knew
There’s something deep in the hearts of human beings and that is the belief that there is something more than this world.
Paul affirms that instinct as he reminds us that we are Imperishable. That instinct is true.
1 Corinthians 15:53–55, 57 (ESV) — 53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. 54 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” 55 “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
This resurrection of Christ is undeniable. It is indispensable. And it does affirm that instinct we all have that we are Imperishable.
Paul closes this discussion with these words:
1 Corinthians 15:58 (ESV) — 58 Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
Therefore – what we believe has an effect on how we live.
Be steadfast – this is so important that it is non-negotiable. This is where I always need to go back to. This word comes from a root that is also used in the Greek word that is translated chair or sit. This is my chair.
Church people become quite possessive of their pews. Many of you sit in the same place week after week and if someone sits there, good luck to them! When you walk into the worship center you instinctively go to your pew – you’re like a bird flying north for the winter. That’s what the resurrection needs to be. You always go back to it. You interpret life not through disasters and pain and need. You interpret life by the resurrection.
Immovable - don’t you love that word? We can change our minds on a lot if things but not this. We can have differences about how things are done in church, but not this.
Colossians 1:21–23 (ESV) — 21 And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, 22 he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, 23if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.
The resurrection is to Christianity as food is to a meal.
This word can also be translated “unshakable.” I like that too. The word carries with the notion of not being agitated. Not being unsettled. Maybe even not being overly anxious.
The world can shake us up, can’t it? That’s not new. In another letter Paul writes these words:
Romans 8:31–39 (ESV) — 31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 33Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. 35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Bad things happen in life but the resurrection gives us something to hold onto. It gives us some hope. Shouldn’t the resurrection do that?
I like to watch highlights of championships won by the Boston sports teams I cheer for. One of my favorites is the Super Bowl when the Patriots were losing to Atlanta 28-3. It wasn’t my favorite at that point but they came back to win. I can watch the highlights of that game without worry because I know the ending.
1 Corinthians 15:58 (ESV) — 58 Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
Since we are steadfast and unshakable, we continue to abound in the work of the Lord. We don’t give up. We know that our labor is not in vain. Really, if there is no resurrection then isn’t everything in vain? There’s a whole book of the Bible, Ecclesiastes, that essentially says that everything is vain without God. “Vanities of vanities, all is vanity,” is one of the mantras of the book. If this is all there is then what is our motivation? The resurrection reminds us that what we do here has eternal consequences.
There are two ways to look at life, I have concluded. One way is to focus on the wars and violence, the squalor, the pain and tragedy and death. There is another way to look at the world. If I take Easter as the starting point, the one incontrovertible fact about how God treats those whom he loves, then human history becomes the contradiction and Easter is a preview of ultimate reality. Hope then flows like lava beneath the crust of daily life.
Philip Yancey, The Jesus I Never Knew
Hope. That’s a beautiful word. And that is exactly what the resurrection is all about.
