The Resurrection that Was, and Is, and Is to Come - 1 Corinthians 15:12-23 - April 24, 2011
(Resurrection Sunday and Communion Service)
Thomas Jefferson is a name many of you are to likely recognize this morning. In his time he was the principle author of the Declaration of Independence, he was a Founding Father of a new nation, and he served as the 3rd president of the United States of America. Of the 44 men who have held that office, there are many today who would consider Thomas Jefferson to be amongst the greatest of them. He was a man who was intensely interested in theology and who studied the Bible fervently. In his private letters, of which he wrote some 16,000, he refers to himself as “a Christian,” yet he rejected the divinity of Jesus. He claimed to appreciate the moral teachings of the one whom we call the Christ, yet scoffed at the miracles. In fact he went so far as to take the Gospels, and to rewrite them, or to edit them, intentionally leaving out the miraculous workings of God. www.en.wikipedia.org – Thomas Jefferson
Now, ‘Gospel,’ is a word that means, ‘Good News.’ I’ve tried to figure out what the good news of the Gospels would be if the miraculous were to be removed. Gone would be the virgin birth of Jesus. Absent would be the healings and the restorations – no blind men receiving their sight back; no lepers being made new; no lame leaping with joy. Distinctly banished from his edited works would be any atonement for sin; no resurrection of Jesus from the dead; no ascension of the risen Christ into heaven. As far as Jefferson was concerned Jesus is still in the tomb today.
And there are many in our day who think just as Jefferson did. There are many today who comb through the pages of the Gospels and seek to remove all of the inexplicable, to do away with the unexplainable. They claim to be seeking the ‘historical Jesus,’ not realizing that as they scoff at the miracles, that they are destroying the very thing they are looking to find.
Keep those things in mind for a few moments more. I’m going to ask you to open your Bibles with me, this morning, to the book of 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians 15 and we’ll begin reading in verse 12. If you do not have a Bible, and would like to follow along as I read from the Word of God, you can simply raise your hand and an usher would be pleased to bring you a Bible and, if you would like, that Bible can be yours to keep. It would be our gift to you this morning. Anyone in need of a Bible? … Alright, verse 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? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. 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. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men. But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. 1 Corinthians 15:12-23
Ladies and Gentleman, today is Resurrection Sunday and I am here to tell you that Thomas Jefferson was wrong. The tomb is empty! Jesus has risen from the grave! That’s why we are here this morning! Amen? Amen! … And I want to speak with you this morning about the resurrection – the resurrection that was, the resurrection that is, and the resurrection that is to come, and I want us to understand together what these things mean for us today. Because it doesn’t do us any good to take the word of God, learn it, but not let it touch our lives. So what we want to do every time we open our Bibles is to discover how the Word of God, informs, impacts, and influences our lives day to day.
So let’s begin with the resurrection that was. Look to verse 20 with me … But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 1 Corinthians 15:20 Now just a few days ago we had our Good Friday service, didn’t we? We joined with a few other churches in the community and had a tremendous time of worship with our brother and sisters in the faith.
And in that service our focus was on the cross and as we unpacked the Scriptures we discovered that God had a plan in the cross. It wasn’t an accident of history. Hundreds of years before the crucifixion the prophet Isaiah proclaimed that it would be the Lord’s will to crush Him (Him being Jesus) and to cause Him to suffer, and to make His life a guilt offering. Isaiah 53:10 That’s what was happening on the cross. The Word of God was being fulfilled.
But we also discovered that God had a purpose in the cross. It turns out that you and I, in our sin, have made ourselves enemies of God. We don’t like to think of it that way, but that’s how the apostle Paul puts it in his letter to the Colossians, saying, Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. Colossians 1:21 God’s justice and holiness demand that sin be addressed but the heart of God longs to draw us close and reconcile us to Himself. That’s why Jesus became a guilt offering – He who had no sin became sin for us that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. The purpose of the cross was to make peace between God and man. The Bible tells us that we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 5:1 This was the purpose of the cross.
Thirdly we discovered that, not only did God have a plan and a purpose in the cross, but that God had a promise for us to hold to in the cross as well. It was a promise of forgiveness and of peace with God. It was a promise that all who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved, Acts 2:21 not by their works, not by their good deeds, not by their moral lifestyles, but by faith in Jesus. It was a promise of new life, for God has said, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you. Ezekiel 36:26-27 And then you will be a new creation for the old has gone, the new has come! 2 Corinthians 5:17 It is a promise of new life in the here and now and it is the promise of life evermore in the kingdom of heaven.
And finally, we discovered that, in the cross, God has a proclamation for you to declare. Because of what God has done through the cross, reconciling sinful man to Himself and making peace, drawing a people to Himself, setting us free from bondage to sin and granting new life, we have a message to proclaim to the world that others would turn from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in Jesus Christ. Acts 26:17-18
This is the wonder of the cross! That’s why it’s called ‘Good Friday.’ But you need to understand this: without the resurrection of Jesus from the dead none of it means a thing! Look at how Paul says it in verse 14 … And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. 1 Corinthians 15:14 Verse 17 … And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. 1 Corinthians 15:17 Verse 18 … Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. 1 Corinthians 15:18 Verse 19 … If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men. 1 Corinthians 15:19
If Jesus was not raised from the dead our faith is empty and futile and we are wasting our time here this morning! If that were the case every single one of us should get up out of our seats and go and do, and live, in whatever manner we choose, for not a word of these Gospels could be trusted! We would still be in our sins and we would be without hope and without God in this world.
But the converse is just as true. If Jesus rose from the dead, then everything changes, doesn’t it? If Jesus rose from the dead the Word of God is proven true. If Jesus rose from the dead all those things that I’ve said about the cross become true as well. Through the blood of Jesus that was shed on our behalf we have forgiveness of our sins, we have new life in Him, and we have the sure and certain hope of entering into the presence of God when our time on earth comes to a close.
All of Christianity hinges on the question of whether or not the tomb is empty. And if it is, how are you going to respond to it? What are you going to do with that empty tomb? The last verse that ____________ read for us just before I got up to speak told us of the wonderment of the disciples when they were confronted with the empty tomb. They didn’t know what to make of it. But then they saw Jesus – they saw the risen Lord - and everything fell into place. It all began to make sense. Their hope had not been empty, their faith had not been futile, the Word of God had not failed them, for Jesus Christ had been raised from the dead!
The Bible tells us that Jesus, through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by His resurrection from the dead. Romans 1:4 As God raised Jesus from the dead, He was declaring once again, “This is my Son! This is My anointed One – the Messiah - the Deliverer – the Savior – the One whom I had promised from of old. This is He whom I have sent to make Peace and to rescue you from your sins.”
And the very fact that God raised Jesus up from the grave proves that His sacrifice was acceptable to God, that what took place in the cross was sufficient atonement for our sins, and that our sin, by the grace of God, was exchanged for the righteousness of Christ!
Folks, the resurrection is at the very heart of Christianity. Look to 1 Corinthians 15 with me, beginning in verse, 1. Paul writes … Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. 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. 1 Corinthians 15:1-7
Did you hear it? … By this Gospel you are saved – saved from what? – saved from the just wrath of God that our sins demand – and by what Gospel – what Good News – are we saved? Simply this: That Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day. This is the Good News of Jesus Christ for you and me and God has raised Jesus from the dead that we may have full confidence and assurance that the Word of God will stand firm!
Without the resurrection that was we are still without hope and without God in this world but because God raised Jesus from the grave, because the tomb is empty, we can live in light of the Resurrection that Is. Paul, in his letter to the Colossian Church, writes these words …
For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority. In him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead. When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. Colossians 2:8-15
Folks, because the word, ‘resurrection,’ means “the act of rising from the dead or returning to life,” there is a sense in which we, through faith in Christ, are living in the resurrection that Is. Apart from Christ Scripture tells us that we are dead in our sins and transgressions. Ephesians 2:1 We are dead. There is no true life. But Paul tells us that in Jesus, that sinful nature is put off, and that we who were dead, have now been raised with Him through our faith in the power of God who raised Him from the dead.
And that means we have power to live that new life in the here and now. We don’t have to be held captive to the shame of the past, nor to the sins of our fathers. We who were once slaves to sin have been set free; we who were once in darkness have been brought into the light, we who were once far from God have been brought near! We who were separated from God by our sins, we who by those same sins became objects of the wrath of God, have now been made new and have been given the power to live for Him who died for us!
I appreciate how it says it in the book of 1 Corinthians where we read these words … Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. 1 Corinthians 6:9-11
“And that is what some of you were.” I think that those might just be some of the most beautiful, the most meaningful words, in all of the Bible. Why? Because they show us the power of living in the resurrection that is! There is real power in the Gospel of Christ to transform lives; to take that which we were and to make it something beautiful in the sight of God. Because of the resurrection of Jesus we have hope, and new life, for today.
So we have seen the resurrection that was and the resurrection that is, but there is also the Resurrection that Is to Come. Look to verse 22 with me … For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. 1 Corinthians 15:22-23 Earlier in this passage Paul made the point of how empty it would be if our faith gave us hope only while we drew breath. And what he’s saying is that because of the resurrection we have a hope that endures beyond the grave. Not a hope in the sense of ‘wishful thinking,’ but a hope that is sure and certain because it is founded on the Word and character of God Himself.
Friends, the day will come when you will draw your last breath. Your friends and your family will gather around and will mourn your passing. Your body will be returned to the earth and will eventually pass to dust. But because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ that is not the end of the story. He is called the ‘first fruits’ – that’s simply a way of saying He is the first of what will one day be many.
He was not the first person in the Bible to be raised to life - but He was the first to be raised to life never to die again. All those whom God had raised earlier, one day, died again. But not Jesus. He is the first fruits of the resurrection yet to come. In Him the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable and the mortal with the immortal. And we are told that there will one day be a resurrection of a similar kind for us as well.
Those who have believed upon the Son of God will be raised to everlasting life with the Father in the kingdom He has prepared. Those who have not believed will, by their very unbelief, find themselves condemned to a place called hell. Scripture tells us about the resurrection of those who by faith are found to be in Christ, with these words …
Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. According to the Lord’s own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17 Amen? Amen!
So there we have it - the resurrection that was, the resurrection that is, and the resurrection that is to come. Think back to that moment when those who had gone to Jesus’ tomb saw the stone had been rolled away … They were faced with the same choices that we are – what to do with the cross – what to do with the empty tomb – what to do with the resurrection? As they responded to the risen Lord their lives were transformed. The same thing happens with us today. Life is never the same! We are not made perfect; but we are made new. And those are encouraging words for those who are in Christ by faith. For God has told us in His own Word that By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and He will raise us also. 1 Corinthians 6:14 And that should be a source of great hope, and comfort and strength in the days of our lives. But it all hinges on what you will do with the empty tomb.
Let’s pray …
Resurrection Sunday Communion Service
Friends, before us on this table, this morning, we have the elements of the Lord’s Supper. In a few moments we will have the opportunity to celebrate this remembrance together. It is a good day to do so because it really brings to life what we’ve been talking about this morning. For Scripture tells us that on the night He was betrayed, Jesus shared a meal with His disciples. As they reclined around the table we’re told that He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.” Jesus was looking ahead to what was to come. He was looking to the cross on which He would give His body over to death that we might have new life. And He was saying “Remember! Remember what the true cost of sin is. It comes at a price too heavy for you to pay and so I will pay it for you. By my body I will redeem you from death.”
And we’re told that In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.” Luke 22:19-20 That too, points to the true cost of sin, for Scripture reveals that without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness for sin. Jesus bled for you, He bled for me. He shed His blood that we might be forgiven and our sins exchanged for the righteousness of Christ.
And so in the bread and the cup we are confronted with the deep and abiding love of God for us. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16 And I invite you to consider those things as our servers come forward this morning. And I want to challenge you in these moments to consider a very personal question: What will you do with the empty tomb? How will you respond to the One who declares, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” John 11:25-26
If so, we invite you to take the bread and the cup with us today. If not we would simply ask you to pass them on to the those next to you. And I’ll also ask you to hold on to the bread and hold on to the cup, and when all have been served we will eat and drink together in remembrance of Christ.
[Servers distribute bread and cup.]
Before we taste of the bread and drink of the cup I want to share a portion of a poem with you. It is written by Louis Stokes and goes like this: As recorded in “A Resurrection Religion,” by Bruce Howell, www.sermoncentral.com
Inside the tomb Christ lay one morn,
Defeated seemed salvation’s horn,
But God the Father spoke the word,
And this He said, tho no man heard,
“Come forth!”
Inside the tomb of sin I lay,
The price of sin I had to pay;
But Christ the Raiser of the dead
Spoke to my poor, bound soul and said,
“Come forth!”
And when the great and final sound
Shall raise our loved ones from the ground,
‘Twill be the last time we shall hear
That glorious sound upon our ear,
“Come forth!”
The resurrection that was, the resurrection that is, the resurrection that is to come – it’s all bound up in Jesus Christ and so as we eat and drink this morning may we do so with hearts humbled by the mercy of God but also with hears that are overflowing with joy and wonder, for the tomb is empty and our God lives! Amen? Amen!
Pray …
