My primary text for
today’s message is from the 15th chapter of St Paul’s first letter
to the Corinthians. It is a familiar passage to many of you and is often the
focus of messages in Protestant and Catholic churches during the Easter season
during which we fix our attention on the bodily resurrection of Jesus from the
dead. Here is the text:
“Now I make known
to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you
received, in which also you stand, by which also you are saved, if
you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed
in vain.”
I want to stop here
only for a moment and emphasize Paul’s point. If Jesus was not physically
resurrected from death, then our Christian faith is based on lies and
falsehood. And, as Paul will say in a moment – if Jesus did not physically rise
from death, we are without hope whatsoever for eternal life and the forgiveness
of our sins.
Let me repeat that
crucial point: We are without hope for
eternal life and the forgiveness of our sins.
Let me now continue
with verse three: “For I delivered to you as of first importance
what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the
Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the
third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared
to Cephas, then to the twelve. After that He appeared to more
than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but
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 to me also. For I am the least of the
apostles, and not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted
the church of God. . . 12 Now if Christ is preached that
He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is
no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead,
not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised,
then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain. . . [and] your faith is
worthless; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have
fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If we have hoped in Christ in this life
only, we are of all men most to be pitied.”
Some of you might
wonder why I am making a point to preach once again on the resurrection of
Jesus. I often mention His resurrection during the year – sometimes just in
passing, sometimes going into a bit more detail. So why again today – this time
devoting an entire sermon to this historical truth? Well, let me tell you why
at the outset of my words today:
St Peter wrote his two
letters around 66 AD. By this time the Church had spread well beyond Jerusalem
and into the surrounding nations. But by this time several heresies were also
making their way through Jerusalem and into the surrounding nations. One of
those heresies denied the physical resurrection of the Christ. Satan knows very
well – far better than anyone of flesh and blood can know – that without faith
in the historicity of Christ’s resurrection, the Christianity taught by the
apostles evaporates – along with any hope for eternal salvation.
And so, Peter, knowing
the horrible and eternal fate that awaited those who denied the resurrection,
wrote this in his second letter:
(2 Peter 1:12-15) “Therefore, I
will always be ready to remind you of these things, even though
you already know them, and have been established in the
truth which is present with you. I consider it right, as long as
I am in this earthly dwelling, to stir you up by way of
reminder, knowing that the laying aside of my earthly dwelling
is imminent, as also our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me. And
I will also be diligent that at any time after my departure you will be
able to call these things to mind.”
Now then, I do not have
a premonition of my impending death, but Peter makes a very important point,
especially knowing the human propensity to forget things we’ve been told –
sometimes what we’ve been told over and over.
So, Peter wanted to make sure he told them the truth one more time, even
though they already knew it. And I also want to make sure you hear it one more
time – even though you already know it.
Peter was not alone in
his fear for the fledgling Church. Paul, writing at around the same time warned
the Christians at Colossae: (Colossians 2:8) “See to it that no one
takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the
tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the
world, rather than according to Christ.
Jude also warned his
audience: (Jude 4) “For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those
who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons
who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our
only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.”
Christian, Satan is
still alive and well and walking among the churches, employing the same
playbook he has been using since the Garden of Eden when he seduced Eve to
doubt God's word. You will remember what he said to our first mother: (Genesis
3:1) - “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the
garden’?”
In other words – and I
paraphrase verse four – “Eve, do you really believe that nonsense? Surely, you
will not die if you disobey Him.’
Fast forward to this
century. As I researched for this sermon, I came across a 2019 article from ‘Crosswalk.com.*
Serene Jones, president of Union Theological Seminary in New York, stated she “doesn’t
believe in the bodily resurrection of Christ, the power of prayer,
a literal heaven, or miracles.”
When the seminary was
founded in 1836, Professors were required to affirm they believed
“the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be the word of God” and the
“only infallible rule of faith and practice.”
How times have changed.
And Union Theological Seminary is only one of a growing list of seminaries
where the physical resurrection of Christ is no longer a required doctrinal
belief. Therefore, it should surprise no
one that a growing number of churches being pastored by graduates of such
seminaries are now teaching their congregations to disbelieve that
essential Biblical truth – a truth essential to salvation.
Yes, Satan is alive and
well in our churches. And I will also remind you of Paul’s warning to the
Corinthian church in 2 Corinthians 11:13-15: “For such men are false
apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of
Christ. No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel
of light. Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise
themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to
their deeds.”
Do you realize that if
Jesus did not physically and bodily rise from the dead on the third day, if
it’s all a lie, if it’s all made up, then you and I have no rational reason to
trust ANY of the Scriptures. If the resurrection is a lie, then you have no justifiable
reason to look forward to eternity with the Father. Indeed, the ONLY thing we
would have in our future after death is eternal separation from the Holy, Holy God
who will never receive any sin – even lingering sin – into His presence.
I can quote for you multiple
texts in both the Old and New Testaments
which demonstrate that
Jesus rose from the dead FOR our salvation. But if a person is disinclined to
believe the Bible is the fully inerrant, infallible, and divinely inspired word
of God – as is not taught in many seminaries and from church pulpits – then those
texts are not going to satisfy him or her. And yet, if someone doesn’t believe
in the biblical record of Christ’s resurrection, then these questions ought to
be asked and answered:
“Are you certain that
your sins have been forgiven? If your answer is yes, then on what basis do you
believe that? If it based on the promises of God to the penitent, then why do
you pick and choose what Scriptures you will believe and what you will ignore?
Christian, listen! We do
not have the option or the right to choose what we will believe and what we
will not believe. Faith in the 100% inerrancy, infallibility, and divine
inspiration of God's word is an ‘all-or-nothing’ faith if we hope to face life
AND death with a godly confidence.
Listen, please. If
Jesus did not rise from the dead, then no one can reasonably have confidence
that their sins are forgiven. Here again is Paul’s comment in 1 Corinthians
15:13-14 “But if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has
been raised; 14 and if Christ has not been
raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain. . . [and] your
faith is worthless; you are still in your sins.”
And here yet is another
question we might ask those who deny the resurrection of Jesus: “Where is the
body?”
The story of the
resurrection that circulated among the apostles and the early church converts
could have immediately been silenced within the first hour that it began. All that
the Roman soldiers and the Jewish religious leaders needed to do was to produce
the dead body of Jesus. They certainly knew where He was buried. They
themselves had set a guard AND a seal across the tomb.
But the corpse of Jesus
was nowhere to be found. And THAT is the question every resurrection denier has
tried to answer for the last two thousand years. In fact, honest investigators
– such as Josh McDowell (author of ‘Evidence that Demands a Verdict,” and “More
than a Carpenter’), and Lee Strobel, (author of ‘The Case for Christ’) – set out
to answer as they tried to expose the story as a myth.
At first, Strobel, who
was a former legal editor for the Chicago Tribune, thought the Christian faith
was merely a crutch for people who couldn’t face life on their own. After his
wife became a Christian, Stroble spent the next 21 months investigating the
resurrection claims of the New Testament and other historical documents from
the era. At the end of his investigations he wrote in his book, “I was ambushed
by the amount and quality of the evidence that Jesus is the unique Son of God.”
Where is the body? You
will hear all kinds of absurd and even outrageous theories – none of which has
ever, in 2000 years, held up to even the most superficial scrutiny. For
example, some have fallen for the ridiculous claim that the disciples went to
the wrong tomb – which is why they couldn’t find Jesus’ body. Yet, as I said a
moment ago, the soldiers and the Jewish leaders knew exactly where Jesus was
entombed.
Others like to say the
disciples stole the body from the tomb. Now, how much sense does THAT make,
knowing that each of the apostles could have avoided torturous martyrdom if
they denied the resurrection since they all KNEW it was a lie.
There are other equally
ridiculous ideas that have circulated for 2000 years as unbelievers tried and
try to dissuade men and women from coming to faith, and perhaps at some time I
will specifically address them. But for now, let me say this by way of
encouragement:
People – whoever they
are and regardless of their academic or theological degrees – no one rejects the
existence God or the resurrection of the Son of God for intellectual reasons,
despite their protestations. People reject the existence of God and the resurrection
of the Son of God for moral reasons.
This is not MY opinion.
It’s what Jesus Himself said. Listen to Him in John 3:19-20 “This is the
judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the
darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For
everyone who does evil hates the Light and does not come to the Light for fear
that his deeds will be exposed.”
When people embrace the
stunningly absurd theories that try to do away with the reality of the
resurrection, when they convince themselves – and make no mistake, most people
who reject Christ’s resurrection HAVE convinced themselves – when they do that
it is because they realize that if Jesus came back from the dead then
that means He is God.
AND, if Jesus is not
God,
then He won’t be the one who judges them after death. And if He is not going to
judge them after death, they can live how they choose without fear of a final
judgment.
Rejecting the
resurrection of Christ DESPITE the overwhelming historical evidence of His
resurrection – rejecting the truth really makes a lot of sense for someone who
wants to live life their way, and not God’s way.
Christian – The reason
your sins are GONE is not only because of your confession of those sins to God.
Your sins are gone because Jesus physically rose from the tomb. Here again is
Paul in 1 Corinthians 15 – and by the way, if it has been a while since you
read that chapter, I urge you to do so today. It is only one chapter, but it
WILL bolster your faith in what God has done for us:
“But if there is no
resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised; and if
Christ has not been raised, then . . . your faith is worthless; you are
still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ
have perished. If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we
are of all men most to be pitied.”
The historical evidence
of Jesus’ physical resurrection is as verifiable as is the history of who won
the baseball World Series last year. You do not need to back down from your
proclamation and your unwavering belief in Christ’s resurrection – even if
someone with a dozen Ph.Ds challenges you.
God's
word will ALWAYS prove to be infallible, without error, and fully inspired by
God Himself. You can stake your reputation and even your life on it – as our
Christian brothers and sisters have done for 2,000 years.
Because
Jesus physically rose from the grave, so ALSO will every true Christian rise
from their own grave.
I
will repeat that for emphasis: Because Jesus rose from the dead, YOU ALSO will
be PHYSICALLY raised when King Jesus returns to earth on the last day.
That’s
one reason it’s called the ‘gospel’ – which means, the ‘good news.’
My
brothers and sisters – you can trust what God has told us in His word. He ain’t
lying to us.
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