Easter 2004: “Because He Lives
: 1 Corinthians 15:12-20”
By
Jim Bomkamp
1.
INTRO
1.1.
In our study today, seeing that it is Easter Sunday, 2004, we are going
to set aside our regular study and consider what it means to us as people that
Jesus Christ has been raised up from the dead, and that He lives today.
1.2.
Since the gospel preaching of the early church always featured
prominently the proclaiming of the truth of Christ having been raised from the
dead, then I have no qualms with spending one Sunday per year emphasizing the
resurrection of Christ in my teaching.
1.3.
In 1 Corinthians chapter 15, the apostle Paul summarized for us all of
the essential doctrinal truths of the Christian faith, and thus the truth of
the death and resurrection of Christ are centrally expounded upon in that
chapter.
1.4.
In our study today, we are going to concentrate upon 1 Corinthians
15:12-20 where Paul has the Corinthians consider the hypothetical question of
what if Christ is not raised from the dead,
“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? 13
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. 15 Moreover we are even found to
be false witnesses of God, because we testified against God that He raised
Christ, whom He did not raise, if in fact the dead are not raised. 16 For
if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised; 17 and
if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your
sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have
perished. 19 If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of
all men most to be pitied. 20 But now Christ has been raised from
the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep.”
2.
Thomas Jefferson was one of the founding fathers of our nation and a
great man, nevertheless he could not accept the miraculous elements in
Scripture. He edited his own special version of the Bible in which all
references to the supernatural were deleted. Jefferson, in editing the Gospels,
confined himself solely to the moral teachings of Jesus. The closing words of
3.
Henry Morris has said, “The
bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is the crowning proof of Christianity.
Everything else that was said or done by Christ and the Apostles is secondary
in importance to the resurrection. If the resurrection did not take place then
Christianity is a false religion. If it did take place, then Christ is God and
the Christian faith is absolute truth.”
Truly, if Christ raised from the dead then this fact has far reaching
effects and implications.
4.
Before we consider the implications of Christ’s
resurrection, lets consider what the implications are “if Christ has not raised
from the dead” :
[ NOTE: Everything mentioned here is really just an
extapolation from our text in 1 Cor. 15:12-20 where the apostle Paul causes the
Corinthians to consider the hypothetical situation, “If Christ is not raised…”
]
4.1.
Jesus would be a liar.
4.2.
There is no gospel.
4.2.1. "And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain . . .
." (1 Cor. 15:14a).
4.3.
The gospel is a worthless
message, and a useless focus for faith.
4.4.
The message of the Bible is
without authority and hollow.
4.5.
Our faith is groundless, it
is nothing more than wishful thinking.
4.6.
Christ is still dead thus He
has no power to save us.
4.7.
All
preaching is to no avail and our faith is useless because it rests upon a
faulty foundation.
4.8.
The
apostles were liars.
4.9.
We are spreading a lie.
4.10. Our faith is in vain!
4.11. Our faith doesn’t even have any meaning.
4.12. We are superstitious fools living in a dream world.
4.13. We have no hope for the future.
4.14. Everything we believe, and all of our hopes are
nothing more than misplaced confidence in a mirage.
4.15. There are no absolute standards and
no future judgment so people on earth might just as well do whatever they want
or feel like doing.
4.16. Our loved ones who have died, whom we so greatly
desire to see again, are totally perished and any hope of being reunited with
them is a false hope. Christians who have died are forever lost.
4.17. Every obituary column that mentions a future
world and hope in heaven would be a lie.
4.18. Life itself is but a vale of tears or a fleeting
dream that will be snuffed out at death.
4.19. The gospel would neither be true nor a living and
vitalizing power.
4.20. We are still in our sins.
4.21. There is no redemption and no reconciliation with God.
4.22. We suffer for nothing.
4.23. We are the most miserable people in the world.
4.24. Why bother to go to church? You would be better off somewhere else.
4.25. Why give money to a church or Christian organization? You’re only
giving to a lost cause.
4.26. Why bother to serve Him? You’re only wasting your time.
4.27. Why tell others about Him? You might as well save your breath.
4.28. It is indeed "biodegradability" which has the last word about
our life – As a website for Christian ecology I read stated.
4.29. The apostle Paul would say, “If the dead are
not raised – if this life of risk and sacrifice is my only life – I am a fool.
A pitiable fool.” This means that a
deep abiding confidence in the resurrection is what kept Paul going in his life
of radical risk-taking love. This same
confidence in the resurrection can be the key that opens a new life for you.
5.
Illustration :
It
was June 18, 1815, the
Late in the day it flashed the signal: “W - E - L - L - I - N - G - T - O - N -
- - D - E - F - E - A - T - E - D - - -.” Just at that moment a fog cloud made
it impossible to read the message. The news of defeat quickly spread throughout
the city. The whole countryside was sad and gloomy when they heard the news
that their country had lost the war. Suddenly, the fog lifted, and the
remainder of the message could be read. The message had four words, not two.
The complete message was: “W - E - L - L - I - N - G - T - O - N - - - D - E -
F - E - A - T - E - D - - - T - H - E - - - E - N - E - M - Y!” It took only a
few minutes for the good news to spread. Sorrow was turned into joy, defeat was
turned into victory!
So it was when Jesus was laid in the tomb.
Hope had died in the hearts of Jesus’ most loyal friends. After the frightful crucifixion, the fog of
disappointment and misunderstanding had crept in on the friends of Jesus. They had read only part of the message. “Christ defeated” was all they knew. But then
on the third day the fog of disappointment and misunderstanding lifted, and the
world received the complete message:
“Christ defeated death!” Defeat
was turned into victory; death was
turned into life!
6.
Now, let’s consider the
implications of Christ’s resurrection for us His people, or what is true now
“Because He Lives” :
6.1.
Because
Christ is risen, we can receive the forgiveness of sins and the hope of new
life not only in this world but also beyond this world.
6.2.
Because Christ is risen, we are the most happy of all
men.
6.3.
Because Christ is risen, we live too.
6.4.
Because is risen we are identified with Him.
6.4.1. Paul wrote in Romans 6:3-4 about
the fact that those of us who have come to know Christ as our Lord and Savior
have been identified with Jesus in His death and His resurrection and that we
are now walking in that resurrection life in Christ, “3 Or do you
not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been
baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we have been buried with Him
through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through
the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.”
6.5.
Because Christ is risen we die and our life is hid with Christ in God.
6.6.
Because Christ is risen, we too have the promise of
eternal life for He has promised that one day He will raise us up with Him ( in
a body just like His ), and from then on we shall always be with the Lord.
6.7.
Because Christ is risen, I know that in my flesh I will
see God.
6.8.
Because
Christ is risen we worship.
6.9.
Because Christ is risen, He supremely reigns over all
creation and brings ultimate victory.
6.10. Because Christ is risen, the victory has been
won, Satan, sin, death, hell and the grave have been overcome.
6.11. Because Christ is risen, we are seated in the
heavenly places with Him.
6.12. Because Christ is risen He sits on the throne and
reigns, and we will also reign with Him.
6.13. Because Christ is risen, our choices and what we
do in our life matters supremely for one day ultimate justice will be carried
out for all men and women, for all shall stand before Him as judge and give
account of our lives.
6.14. Because Christ is risen, the Christian cannot be
pessimistic.
6.15. Because Christ is risen, we are never alone.
6.16. Because Christ is risen, death does not have the
last word in our lives.
6.17. Because Christ is risen, then faith in Him is not
in vain. Our hope is not uncertain.
6.18. Because Christ is risen, everything has
changed! All of history has the
glorified Christ as its center, measure and guide.
6.18.1.By the way, remember that
even our very calendar is divided by the death of Christ into BC and AD. Nothing like this can be said of any other
religious leader in history.
6.18.2.
6.19. Because Christ is risen, everything changes and
life and history acquire new meaning.
6.20. Because Christ is risen, we can look with new
eyes and hearts at every event in our life.
6.21. Because Christ is risen from the dead, it means
that it is possible for the Christian to live every moment of every day in the
presence and the fellowship of the living Christ. It means that the Christian approaches no
tasks alone, bears no sorrow alone, attacks no problem alone, faces no demand
alone, endures no temptation alone. It
means that Jesus Christ does not issue His commands, and then leave us to do
our best to obey them alone, but that He is constantly with us to enable us to
perform that which He commands.
6.22. Because Christ is risen, the resurrection of
believers is an indisputable fact.
6.23. Because Christ is risen, it means that there is a
God and that the God of the Bible is the true God.
6.24. Because Christ is risen, He has beaten the curse
of death, He's done what is humanly impossible.
His teaching has been validated, He has been proven reliable and most
powerful.
6.25. Because Christ is risen, we know that every word of God in our scriptures is
trustworthy and inerrant and can be relied upon.
6.26. Because Christ is risen, there is such a thing as
absolutes and absolute truth!
6.27. Because Christ is risen from the dead, this
confirms His claims to speak and act with the authority of God himself.
6.28. Because Christ is risen from the dead, His truth
and His cause live also.
6.29. Because Christ is risen, then your life cannot be as it was
before Easter.
6.30. Because Christ is risen, then He is victorious
forever and eternal life is already started on earth.
6.31. Because Christ is risen, then life and love
ultimately triumph.
6.32. Because Christ is risen, we don’t need to live in
fear.
6.33. Because Christ is risen then all the world is the
stage for this drama of saving grace, and there is no grain of sand or
star in the distant heavens that does not somehow participate.
6.34. Because Christ is risen, you and I must be active partners in evangelizing the
world in which we live.
7.
Now, let
us consider the implications for us as Christians of what the resurrection life
of Christ “in us” really means to us :
7.1.
Paul
writes about how the resurrection life is a mystery in 1 Cor. 15:51, something
that can be understood in this life only by divine revelation.
7.2.
The
resurrection life is very much the way the apostle Paul describes the “new
creation,” the risen life, the born again life.
7.3.
The resurrection life is a life that cannot be
touched by death.
7.4.
The resurrection life is a new creation: the earthly
life is put to death and is replaced with a brand new life that flows out of
heaven.
7.4.1. 2 Cor. 5:17 tells us, “Therefore if any man is
in Christ the old things have passed away, behold all things have become new.”
7.4.2. I tend to think of this new life
which we receive in Christ as being sort of like that of the butterfly. The butterfly does not begin as a butterfly
but rather as an ugly green caterpillar.
However, one day that caterpillar spins a cocoon. Then, when the time is ready out of that cocoon
comes a caterpillar. Everything is
different about that butterfly. Whereas
a caterpillar crawled along a butterfly flies.
Whereas a caterpillar is furry and ugly a butterfly is beautiful. Whereas a caterpillar eats green leaves a
butterfly eats nectar.
7.5.
The resurrection life is His life. You've done a swap, remember? You've changed places.
7.5.1. Remember, the apostle Paul wrote in Gal. 2:20, “I
have been crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I but Christ.” This is resurrection life.
7.6.
The resurrection life is not just a future hope, but
a current crucial aspect of our very existence.
7.7.
"The
Resurrection is essentially the proclamation that the Reign of God is here,
that it is in the midst of the world. The resurrection life is the Reign of
God. To live that life is to live a life
in all fullness in spite of the fact that it has to be lived in hardship, pain,
and suffering...It is the transfiguration of life and the world not only at the
end time but in the ongoing life and history of humankind." (C.S. Song, Jesus and the Reign of God. P.
287, 1993.)
7.8.
If,
then, the resurrection life is a being in the world which Christ's proclamation
creates, and if the content of Christ's proclamation was in the way in which, on
God's behalf, He turned the world over to man as his responsibility, then the
content of the resurrection life is man's assumption of responsibility for the
world as a heritage from God.
7.9.
The
light of salvation is shining into a world of sin and the light of the
resurrection life is shining into a world under the control of death.
7.10. The resurrection life" is manifested in great spiritual power and
holiness.
7.11. The resurrection life is not something realized once for all, then to become
an independent life. Rather, it is a
life of which Christ is the center and the source.
7.12. The cancellation of bereavement is precisely what
the resurrection life is all about.
7.12.1.The highest reward of heaven, however, is that it
is a place where we will be with God. We have seen how the most blissful
experiences of earthly life give Christians fragmentary glimpses of what the
joys of heaven will be like.
7.13. The resurrection life is flowing into me and making me able to do what God
wants me to do with all joy and delight.
7.14. The resurrection life is not yet completely the believer's own. It is still in part hidden, to be revealed
fully only at Christ's coming.
7.15. The resurrection life is beyond the power of man. It is the eternal, the
invaluable life.
7.16. The resurrection life is not exempt from losing your job, suffering
fractured relationships, facing serious illness or losing loved ones, but it is
the life that allows us the victory, joy and peace in the midst of these
circumstances.
7.17. The resurrection life is not just an event to take place, it is a person who
is alive, and with us today.
7.18. The resurrection life is movement and adventure; it sets out to do something new. It expects to be surprised.
7.19. The resurrection life is a life of service.
7.20. The Resurrection life is to live the life of a steward of God, using our
skills our time and our energies in serving the Lord as we allow Him to flow
and work through our life.
8.
ILLUSTRATION :
Every year
thousands of people climb a mountain in the Italian
Far too many have gotten to the cross and have known the despair and the
heartbreak. Far too few have moved
beyond the cross to find the real message of Easter. That is the message of the empty tomb and
also of the life that we Christians can now live in. Lets ask the Lord to help us live this year
in the reality of what the resurrection life of Christ which is in us is
intended by God to be.
9.
Lets
conclude by singing and considering the song “Because He Lives” by William and Gloria Gaither:
God
sent His son, they called Him Jesus
He came to love, heal, and forgive.
He lived and died to buy my pardon,
An empty grave is there to prove my Savior lives.
Because
He lives, I can face tomorrow.
Because He lives, All fear is gone.
Because I know He holds the future,
And life is worth the living just because He lives.
How
sweet to hold a newborn baby,
And feel the pride and joy he gives.
But greater still the calm assurance,
This child can face uncertain days because He lives.
Because
He lives, I can face tomorrow.
Because He lives, All fear is gone.
Because I know He holds the future,
And life is worth the living just because He lives.
And
then one day I'll cross the river,
I'll fight life's final war with pain.
And then as death gives way to victory,
I'll see the lights of glory and I'll know He lives.
Because He lives, I can face tomorrow.
Because He lives, All fear is gone!
Because I know He holds the future
And life is worth the living just because He lives!