Sermons
He Is Risen!
“HE IS RISEN!”
A couple of weeks ago Terry asked if I would fill in for him while Jennie and he were on vacation in Texas over the Easter weekend. I obviously agreed.
While I was considering what it would be that I would present as an Easter sermon I began as all of us should. I began in scripture. Then I decided to head out to a couple of local stores to see how the marketplace was portraying Easter.
What I found was no surprise to anyone.
I began by looking over the card racks looking for Easter cards. What I discovered was a lot of cards with Rabbits, cute baby chicks, and colored eggs. I guess this was done to get people to buy more chocolate rabbits, jellybeans, baskets with fake grass and that old standby, soft mushy yellow peeps!
I saw only a couple of cards that might be slightly religious in nature. One had a picture of an old country church, another with clasped hands and a short prayer. What I didn’t see was a card with a cross or a depiction of an open tomb. Not one that I saw had the name of Jesus on it!
If the greeting card display of most stores is like the one I was in, we would have to agree that the resurrection of Christ is not considered to have much significance in the marketplace.
Easter bunnies and eggs have won out dramatically over Christ Jesus, the cross and the empty tomb.
Please don’t misunderstand; if any of us want to prepare colored eggs and baskets full of candy, or hide Easter eggs for the kids, that’s fine.
I can remember setting our two boys at the kitchen table and coloring eggs. After they had gone to bed Deb and I would hide the eggs around the house for the kids to work off their candy high searching for them in the morning. My only mistake was not counting how many we hid so we would know that there wouldn’t be that one egg that ages and rots somewhere!
Although having fun with the kids is always a good thing, we have to be careful that we don’t associate a few eggs and a chocolate bunny with the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.
To so would be to cheapen what the Lord has done for mankind.
In searching the scriptures one cannot find any reference to the coloring and hiding of eggs or a basket full of candy and fake grass anywhere. In fact there is not to be found anything that is even remotely indicative of how people today choose to celebrate this day.
We celebrate the Lord’s crucifixion, death and resurrection every Sunday as we gather around the Lord’s Table in remembrance of all that God has done for us and on account of us!
We will now look into the significance of the resurrected Lord:
Rather than presenting proofs of Jesus’ resurrection this morning, we will present the significance of the resurrection. Most people, even those who choose not to worship or accept Jesus as Lord believe that He in fact rose from the grave.
However, so many just don’t understand the overwhelming, awe inspiring, profound significance associated with the resurrection. Not even in a personal way. If they did, there would be standing room only in every church building in the world today!
We will be spending the rest of this morning mainly in 1 Corinthians 15:12-20
In these few verses we could spend quite a lot of time breaking them down and grasping a deep understanding of what Paul is saying. The entire Christian faith depends on the truth that Paul is presenting here.
Paul is making an argument for the resurrection of Christ and giving insight into its significance.
Paul says there are six things that would be in shambles if Christ did not rise from the dead. Then verse 20 reverses the whole paragraph where we read: “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead!”
Let’s look at those six things:
- Verse 14: “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain.” But since Christ has been raised, our preaching is not in vain.
- Verse 14: “and your faith is vain.” But since Christ has been raised, our faith is not vain.
- Verse 15: If Christ has not been raised, “We are found to be misrepresenting God {literally: we are false witnesses}, because we testified of God that He raised Christ.” But since Christ has been raised, the apostles are not false witnesses about the work of God.
- Verse 17: “If Christ has not been raised then your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.” But since Christ has been raised, we are not still in our sins.
- Verse 18: If Christ has not been raised, then “those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.” But since Christ has been raised, the dead in Christ have not perished.
- Verse 19: If Christ has not been raised, then “we are of all men most to be pitied.” But since Christ has been raised, we are not to be pitied.
What really should make the lights go on for us and what should show us the good news is that all these negatives expressed by Paul in verses 14-19 are not really negatives but positive results of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus!
We need to see what God has really done for us in raising Jesus from the dead. Rather than looking at the negatives, let’s look at the positive perspective of what we just read.
- We are forgiven of our sins: From verse 17, instead of saying negatively that we are not still in our sins; we can say positively that because of the resurrection we are forgiven for our sins!
We put this first as the basic need of our hearts because if God holds our sins against us – and all have sinned – then there is no hope of anything else from God.The foundation for every other blessing from God is that God won’t hold our sins against us.Everything hangs on the forgiveness that is freely granted through the resurrection of Jesus.
How is the resurrection connected to our forgiveness?Isn’t it the death of Jesus that takes away our sin, because He bore our sins and took away our judgment {1 Cor. 15:3}?
Yes, but the connection with the resurrection is very important.{Romans 4:25} puts it like this.“He was handed over {to death} on account of our transgressions, and He was raised on account of our justification.”
- From verse 14, instead of saying negatively that our faith is not in vain, we can say positively that because of the resurrection our faith is well founded, or to put it more personally, because of the resurrection of Jesus there is someone we can trust absolutely!
- From verse 15, instead of saying negatively that the apostles are not false witnesses about the work of God, we can say positively that because of the resurrection the apostles preach what is true. They are not false witnesses about God. They are true and speak absolutes from God.
How many of us were taught that there is no absolute truth.That all is arbitrary.Ever changing.How comforting it is to accept God’s truth, even if some don’t always agree with it.As human beings we function a lot better when we know our boundaries.
Without the conviction that there are absolutes that can be shared and made the basis for society, the only end is anarchy.You do your thing and I’ll do mine.Everyone doing what’s right in their own minds.
Jesus came into the world to say, “I am the way, the truth and the life.” {John 14:6}, and then He rose from the dead to vindicate His claim.Jesus has a right to tell us what is absolutely true because in the resurrection God proved Him to be absolutely true!
Fourth and Fifth:From verse 19, instead of saying negatively that we are not to be pitied we can say positively that because of the resurrection Christians are to be looked to. Jesus said that we are a city on a hill. If one isn’t in the city then he/she will look to the light of the city as a guide.
Since Christ has been raised and is alive and reigns as King forever, all our obedience, all our love, all our self-denial is not in vain, we are not to be pitied. { 2 Cor. 4:18} “While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are only temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal!”
- Verse 18, Paul says that because Christ has been raised those who have fallen asleep in Him, those that have died in the faith, have not perished. Or to say it another way, they live forever with Christ! They have entered into the joy of their Master.
The good news can be summed up in three words; “HE IS RISEN”
God raised His Son from the dead to reign forever.
The resurrection Of Christ has blessed us beyond comprehension.
Therefore we can know the answer to why Jesus came, taught, died and rose again.
As a direct result of the Lord’s resurrection we can rest assured that God has given us all that we would ever need for a life of service to the King. That our lives can count for something, lives well spent, that we may have significance and usefulness. That we don’t come to the end of our days and say,” it was all in vain, empty, pointless, useless, insignificant.”
Paul knows this and speaks to us with these words at the end of this whole chapter on the resurrection {V 58}:“Be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.”
We must come to the acceptance that deep in the hearts of all of us, every person, there is a longing for someone that can be trusted, for someone that we can count on through thick and thin.Someone who is absolutely trustworthy.Someone who, if we put our faith in, won’t turn out to be in vain.That someone is the resurrected Lord Jesus.He won’t let us down.He will always be there.In fact, Jesus said such when He said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
Why do we have these deep longings?Well, God made us this way! God put man and woman in the garden of Eden to glorify God by trusting Him for everything that was needed!
Someone put it this way, “The greatest news in all the world is that God and His Son are most glorified in you when you are most satisfied in Them!”
In closing:The resurrection of Jesus Glorified Him and gives us these blessings from God;
- He gave us forgiveness and glorified Jesus as the all-sufficient forgiver.
- He gave us a friend to count on and Glorified Jesus as utterly reliable.
- He gave us guidance and unchanging truth and glorified Jesus as the absolute foundation for truth and righteousness.
- He gave us a life that is not pitiable but enviable, a ministry that is not in vain but fruitful, and glorified Jesus as the source and goal of all life and all ministry.
- He gave us everlasting joy that will not be ended by biological death, and glorified Jesus as the author of life, the victor over death, and the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.
As we end this morning’s worship service, let us all lend our attention to this closing short video that we last showed at the Old Opera House.
It is profound in content and gives us a wonderful insight into what the results of the resurrection of Jesus means to every person of every age and for all time. Without the resurrection of the Lord Jesus all would be in vain, but because He did in fact rise from the dead we can be assured that God is true to His word.
