Transcript

Well, let’s go to 1 Corinthians chapter 15 this morning as we pick back up again and resume our study through this marvelous New Testament epistle. And once again, this is simply a letter that was written by the apostle Paul to the troubled, back slidden baby believers in the city of Corinth. And he’s coming, or he has come rather, to the last major issue that he needs to straighten out. I’m telling you, sometimes I say “Lord, the church you’ve given to me to pastor is just, just overwhelming” and then I read Paul, writing to Corinth. And I say thank God, I didn’t pastor the church at Corinth. I mean, you guys are, are a breeze compared to the church at Corinth. You, you’re actually wonderful. As a matter of fact, the stress we have as a staff is good stress, its because so many good things are happening, and good things are going forward and God’s doing so much and just, its hard to keep up with and praise the Lord for that. But Paul, he had it right the opposite, one problem after the other, after carnality, after immaturities, heretical beliefs, and now he comes to the last issue and that is the doctrine of the resurrection. And he begins in chapter 15 defending the true biblical doctrine of the resurrection. And this is greatly needed in our world today.

Liberal theologians for the last 50 to 100 years began to attack everything that was supernatural in the Bible. They’d try to explain everything away. And they came up with an approach to the resurrection that said, “well, it’s not really talking about actual literal bodies being raised from the dead. It’s a spiritual emphasis and a spiritual thing and there’s no real bodily resurrection”. Well, Paul had similar arguments 2000 years ago that came up in the church at Corinth, we have them today. Isn’t it interesting how satan comes up with nothing new. I mean, you find the same old heresies, the same old rebellions over and over and over again, now listen, satan comes and he puts a little new clothes on them, puts another name on them, but you find their root viewpoint in the same old stuff, recycled generation after generation. So this is a very contemporary thought.

Now, last time we were in 1 Corinthians, we looked that at verses 1 through 11, and in those verses Paul was defending the resurrection. Now we pick up in verse 12, and we’ll go down through verses 19 and we’ll find the apostle Paul continues his defense of the resurrection.

Let’s begin there in verse 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. 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”.

Verse 16, “For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, 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”.

First of all, I want us to notice the prominence of the true doctrine of the resurrection. That’s going to be one of Paul’s first points he, as he continues to defend the bodily resurrection of those who are believers, and also of Christ. He’s going to say notice how prominently this is a part of our essential core beliefs, as Christians. He begins in verse 12 and he says, “now if Christ is preached, that he’s been raised from the dead”. Now the word “if” is in the first class condition. In the original koine Greek the first class condition means an assurance of truth, it was assured as true. You could even write in your Bible and be very accurate over the word “if”, the word “since”. So he says “now since Christ is preached, that he has been raised from the dead”. His point is, it’s the essential and prominent theme of the preaching that you new believers at Corinth have heard from the very beginning.

As a matter of fact, if you’ll jump back up to verse 3, as Paul began writing and we come to what we divided into chapter 15 verse 3, Paul begins to go over the gospel again. Now he’s not going over the gospel in the sense of saying, “now let’s straighten it out,” he’s going over it in the sense of saying, for the 100th time, or the 1000th time, here it is again. It’s never changed, its been like this from the beginning, you’ve already heard it over and over and over and over again, well, let’s say it one more time.

Look at verse 3: “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received”. Now when he says the word “received,” he means this gospel message is not of Paul, I didn’t come up with it, I didn’t learn it in the seminary, God divinely showed us this truth. Well, what is this divinely received thing, Paul that came directly from God. Well this, last part, verse 3: “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”. And then in the followings verses he affirms others who also saw Jesus, after he was raised.

So he says that’s what you’ve heard, it’s the prominent cornerstone, essential fundamental teaching you’ve heard from the beginning. That’s what Christianity is. Jesus died, Jesus was buried, Jesus worse again. That’s the gospel. His point is, we preached it to you over and over, you received it, embraced it, stood on it, you preached it yourself, now back down to verse twelve. All that being true, last part of verse 12, “now how do some among you say there’s no resurrection of the dead?”. How in the world after the prominence and how well laid out this has been from the very, very beginning, would some of you come back and say “well now, the dead really don’t rise do they?”. And evidently because of some Greek philosophers and we’ll talk about that in in a moment, some Greek philosophy had crept into the church, and once again they wanted to mix true Christianity and make it compatible or palatable with contemporary thought. And that’s the same kind of stuff we see in our world today as the sociologists and psychologists and psychiatrists and demographic studiers want to say “we’ve got to make the gospel relevant”. Same old stuff. Folks, once again the gospel is never going to be relevant to a fallen, depraved, ungodly generation. They are going to rebel against it, buck against it, complain about it, they are not going to like God’s truth. We don’t make it relevant, we preach it in truth, but in love and we stand on it. In truth and in love, the best we can.

So he says, “how do some of you say there’s no resurrection when its been so prominent”. His point is, everyone who knows the gospel, knows the cornerstone element of the gospel is that Christ is raised, bodily, from the dead. Now listen, and the only reason he rose from the dead is for our ultimate resurrection, are you hearing me. That’s the only reason he came. You see, he did not need to be resurrected, but he was not sinful and he was not going to die. He became sinful because on the cross he became our sin. He never sinned. He died because the wages of sin is death and he became our sin. He took the judgement blow of God hanging on the cross, because we deserve the judgement blow. He was buried in the grave and the heavenly Father looked down upon him in the grave and said, “my Son, you fully satisfied the whole demands of my wrath against sin for all of man. Now arise, my Son,” settling and making the statement to all the universe that it’s all been taken.

So, so Paul’s point is, some of you in the church influenced by Greek philosophy have begun to say, “well maybe Jesus rose from the dead, he was a god”. Now in that Greek culture they accepted gods, they had all kinds of gods. But then they would say, “we normal regular folks, we don’t really rise bodily from the dead”. Paul’s point is, the only reason Jesus rose is so that you will rise. If you believe he rose, you had to also believe you will rise. Because the only reason he died was to rise so that when you die you’ll rise. Don’t separate them, they go together.

So Paul’s point, we preach Christ’s resurrection because it is the assurance of our resurrection. His resurrection secures ours. There was no reason for him to die and be resurrected. The great theologian Hodge said this: “The admission of Christ’s resurrection is inconsistent with the denial of our resurrection”. You can’t say “yes he rose, but we won’t”. We go together friend, he’s our elder brother, we’re of the same family. We stick with him.

Now look down at verse 14, the first phrase: “And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain”. In other words, he’s saying, all this abundance and even redundance of preaching over and over that kept talking about Jesus’ bodily resurrection, all that was void of truth, void of reality and void of any power, that’s what the word “vain” means. If Jesus didn’t really rise from the grave. As a matter of fact, that’s not good news at all, is it. Go around preaching that you’ve got a dead man that can help you is not any good news to me. That’s the same thing the Marxists have, that’s the same thing the followers of every other cult that’s every other existed have. He’s their, they’re dead and still dead. That’s not good news. If he’s not raised, our whole faith is vain, empty worthless, groundless. Nothing to it.

Now notice secondly, not only does Paul continue to defend the resurrection by showing the prominence of the preaching of the resurrection, but secondly he talks about the position of those who reject the resurrection. Just what is their position. Where are they coming from and how have they crept into the churches and began to assimilate and disseminate through the churches that the resurrection thing is not really all that important and its not really going to happen. And like the modern liberals will tell us, “well, Christianity is just following the unselfish love that the Lord Jesus taught us to live”. My friend, that’s not the cornerstone of Christianity. Now we should live in unselfish love, but that wasn’t his main message. His main message is, “you’re a sinner before a holy and just God, I’m going to take your sin on the cross and after I’ve taken it and fully satisfied the wrath that’s against you, I’ll rise again. As a statement has been taken. And it’s all finished”.

So what is the position of those who reject the resurrection. Let’s begin look at some things in verse 13 that give us insights and then we can draw from the historical context some more specifics about their position. First of all, verse 13: “But if there is no resurrection of the dead”. Now stop right there. Paul says, “if there is no resurrection of the dead”. Now he’s referring back, he’s reflecting on what they’ve been hearing. You see, the Corinthians, historians generally agree, held that to teach you that your body would rise again is either an impossibility or an absurdity. That’s the way the culture of the day viewed it. Greek philosophy, now listen, Greek philosophy viewed that for the body to rise, would lock the soul back in the body. And their whole philosophical concept was the goal of, or, or aim of death was that you get rid of the confines, the limitations of your body so your soul can be set free to go do whatever its suppose to do. Much like the Hindu nirvana, I guess, where you just kind of, you know the Hindus teach that you reincarnate and reincarnate and finally if you’re good enough, over centuries of reincarnation then you slip off into nirvana somewhere. There, you ask “what’s nirvana,” they say, “we don’t’ know”. Well, that’s sort of what the Greek, isn’t it amazing, culture to culture, area to area satan has nothing new. They are all just the same things with a little different twists on them.

But that’s what the Greeks said, they said “man, this is a digression to teach the resurrection of the body. You’re, you’re locking the soul back up in the body again. Its, its, its a retrocession”. Its the same thing as if in their thinking, they would say, “its like taking a person and putting them back in the womb, you don’t do that, that’s the confinement again, that’s not living out to the full”. So you can understand how they wanted to bring in their Greek philosophy and make Christianity compatible and comfortable with their Greek philosophy. One of the ancient Greek philosophers for example, said this: “The soul having once been emancipated from the body is never to be re-imprisoned”. So they thought when, when Paul came in and preached this gospel that talked about bodily resurrection, they thought, “oh no, that can’t work. Oh, that, that’s against what we believe”. So, so most of the Greeks were open to a life after death, a life of your soul living somewhere, I doubt that they had any concept of heaven as Christians have, but they believed the soul lived on somewhere, but they had no concept of the bodily resurrection. And while its somewhat unclear, we can generally conclude most Greeks would have had little problem with Jesus’ bodily resurrection, but they certainly would reject all the rest of us having a bodily resurrection because after all Jesus was a god, they thought he’s a little above man. And they had all their gods that could do supernatural things. But they really didn’t want to deal with this thing of all of us as followers of Jesus would also have a bodily resurrection.

But my friend, that is exactly what the gospel teaches. That is exactly what Christians believe. As a mater of fact, that’s why you have the oft repeated phrase throughout the Bible, “the resurrection of the dead”. That’s not the resurrection of your spirit or soul, immediately your spirit and souls with the body or with the Lord rather, but your body is left in the grave. So when it says the resurrection of the dead, it means our bodily resurrection. And often you see the phrase “the resurrection of the body,” its the Greek word for the actual physical frame, you lived in down here. That’s the Christian truth.

Now look at verse 13, the last part, let’s just read it all in context: “but if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised”. Now once again they viewed Christ as a god, so they didn’t really have a problem with Christ bodily rising, but they would categorically reject that any of the rest of us could rise from the dead. But Paul says you cannot separate the shepherd from his sheep. Paul says, to deny Christ’s resurrection, or rather to deny our resurrection means you exclude Christ rising from the dead. Because where the head goes, now listen, the body follows. Are you with me. Where the head went, Jesus is our head, isn’t he, he’s the head of the church. Where he travels we’re going to follow.

As a matter of fact, my body went everywhere my head went this last week. That’s the most amazing thing. That’s why I have a real problem with folks who say “I have Jesus in my heart and I love Jesus and I belong to Jesus, but I’m never going to come to church”. Well, what do you mean. I’m going to tell you, the head every Sunday morning gets up and comes right here. And you can’t reject where the head goes very long before you have problems in your body. As a matter of fact, the body dies without the head. You keep going opposite directions of the head, you’ll die spiritually. Completely. The bride, we’re the bride, aren’t we of Christ. The bride follows joyfully, trusting the grooms provision and protection. Paul is saying, can’t separate the two. You hold Jesus is rose from the dead, you must hold that we, the bride, the church will also rise form the dead. That’s why he came after all. That’s why he died. So that he might rise again having procured, established, settled the salvation question, and he lives forever in heaven that the might extend to us that free, full, final forever salvation, so that one day after we finish our service down here, that’s why we’re left down here folks, to get in on serving our eternal Lord, and serving that eternal kingdom, in this temporal kingdom. That’s why you’re here. You, you’re not here to get saved, you’ve been saved, you’re here to serve until your salvation is compete in heaven. That’s why you join local churches, to get in on service until we get home. Amen. That’s what we’re all about.

So he says, “I’m up in heaven, I’ve risen again, interceding for you, waiting for you, until I get through using you for my name’s sake down there, then we’ll all get together up here, and you’ll be trophies of my grace forever, for all eternity”. That’s what the gospel’s all about. Now verse 16, we’ll just touch on that as we’re continuing to talk about the position of those who rejected the resurrection. Verse 16 says: “For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised”. In other words, if dead men are not raised, then its never happened. That includes Jesus. Paul is simply saying to this church influenced by Greek thinking, you cannot make Greek philosophy compatible with Christian truth. Christ rose, we will rise. Period. That’s the way it is.

Now we move on to the third major thing that I think the apostle Paul points out here. See he’s already talked about the prominence of the true doctrine of the resurrection. He said, “we preached it over and over, and shared it over and over, you’ve received it and stood on it, now why are you letting this stuff sneak into your church”.

Then secondly he says, “let’s talk a little about the position of those who wold reject it,” they were just bringing their old Greek philosophies in and trying to water the gospel down to be compatible with their Greek philosophy of the day. Same thing liberals are trying to do in the church today. And might I add, they succeeded greatly in killing several major denominations that were at one time Bible believing. So we have the same thing today. Many of you go to work with and many of your young people to go school with people every single day who go to churches where they may not boldly and clearly state it, but the theological positions of many of those behind the pulpits is that the bodily resurrection is not that big of a deal. It’s not that essential. If you pen them down. I tell you what happens, here’s what happens when you talk to a liberal: they will squirm, and they will wiggle, and they’ll twiggle, whatever that is, and they’ll move and they’ll jerk and they’ll jump and they’ll jive and they’ll debate and they’ll talk for an hour and a half and never give you a clear answer. Never.

I’ll never forget one time a man at our Baptist convention had the religion professors of a certain school to stand up and said “come see our religion professors, we’ve got a great religion department,” I said, great. I went right to see them. Went to the first one, teaching our preacher boys, I said, “tell me what you believe about the inerrancy of scripture”. He didn’t shut up for an hour, and still didn’t tell me anything. You know what that meant? He doesn’t hold to the inerrancy of scripture. But they are liars folks, they are deceivers, that’s what they are. You ought to able to just tell somebody “yes I hold to the bodily resurrection of Christ and all those who are his”. Or I don’t. Yeah you do, or you don’t, and that’s the way the Apostle Paul laid it out.

Well, that’s sort of a side note and a rabbit we’re chasing, let’s get back to our third major point. Paul’s going to say “now let’s talk about some problems, you believers are going to have if you reject the resurrection of the dead”. If you reject that doctrine, here’s some problems Paul says you’re going to have.

Number one, it turns your faith into foolishness. If there’s no resurrection of the dead, then your faith is foolish. Everything you’ve trusted in, believed in, held to, stood on, as Christian truth, that was just a foolish waste of time. Now look at verse 14, the last part, well, let’s just read all of it: “And if,” and that’s the first class condition, you could say “since Christ has not been raised,” now he’s playing their position. He said, “well, okay, since, since that’s what you believe, some of you, since Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, and your faith also is vain”. That word “vain,” when it says “your faith is vain” means empty and groundless. You see, one can believe with all the faith that he can muster, with a fully convinced mind, a totally consecrate heart, and clenched fists in a dead Savior, but the dead still can’t save the living. It still won’t work. It’s totally vain.

And our world system, from ancient times, has been greatly influenced by what we now define as materialism, or the materialist philosophy. Now what is the doctrine of materialism, or the materialist philosophy. Well, listen to this. This is a definition of materialism and, and Marxism and extreme socialism, or just the offspring of the overall doctrine of materialism. Materialism says that physical matter, physical matter, things you can see with your eye, or hear with your ear or touch with your hand, or smell with your nose or taste with your tongue. The things you can discern with your five senses, physical matter, is the only or the fundamental reality. They would say that all being and all processes can be explained as manifestations or results of matter. So in other words they say that all there really is in the universe is matter, there’s this and there’s this plant, there’s this floor over here, this is matter, your body is matter, we can look under a microscope, we can find atoms and cells and molecules, that’s matter, but that’s all that matters is matter. Nothing else is real if your five senses can’t pick it up. Now folks, incredibly educated people hold this position. As a mater of fact, they have the major influences in culture.

And what will, what we’ve seen through the centuries, now listen to me, what we seen through the centuries sis fallen man going from a total materialistic viewpoint, to realizing that don’t work and realizing they are bankrupt, instead of turning to the true gospel, here’s what they do: they buy into a false spirituality. Then they realize that don’t work and they fall back into total materialism again. Then they jump into false spirituality.

What’s the latest cycle? The latest cycle is we saw what Marxism and communism, taking over Central America, taking over Africa, taking over Europe, what happened?. Doesn’t work. It’s a colossal failure. So what’s beginning to fill the void. Now that people say “well, there’s got to be more than just our materialistic viewpoint,” which came communism and Marxism and socialism, there’s got to be more, so what did we have?. The new age movement. A false spirituality came in. And you know what it is, look at the new age movement, you know what the new age movement is: its old pagan Hinduism, that’s all it is, with a new label on it. And then we’ll go through that and we’ll experiment with that for a while, and there’s no answers there either, so you know what culture will do, it will shift back into materialism again.

And you’ll find, if you study history, those cycles going over and over and over again. And whether the person was holding to materialistic viewpoint, that took faith to hold to that. Or to false spirituality, it’s still faith, but it’s all vain. Amen. It’s faith in something, it’s confidence in something, but it’s all vain.

Now let’s go back to the materialist for just a second. Alright, now, I want to tie all this together, hang with me. You see the materialist had two essential questions that they have no answer for. There are two essential questions and the materialist has no answer for. Number one, the origin of matter.

There’s another question that the materialist just can’t answer. And that is why every civilization that’s ever existed has been religious. They have a problem with that. How is it that every culture and some of them are so uncivilized, I generally call them civilizations, whether it is the most primitive group in the jungles of the world, or some of the most sophisticated cultures of ancient Egypt, or ancient Babylon, or the Assyrians or whomever it might be, every single civilization has had a belief in the supernatural, some power beyond them, and they struggle with that, where did that come from, and they go “aha, we’ve got our answer”. They say “here’s how it happened. Man has just evolved like all other animals and somewhere in man’s process of evolution, he developed a psychological need for a belief system. He’s developed an emotional and psychological need to believe in something bigger than himself, there’s nothing really out there, but man just needs that, since he’s evolved to need that, we therefore, as materialists will accept that its okay to have faith in something bigger than you”. “Deionized matter what it is, just have a belief system. Because you’ve evolved to psychologically need a belief system. They say it doesn’t matter what you place your faith in, you just need faith in something. Because psychologically you have evolved to need that. Animals don’t need that, man just happens to have evolved to need that”.

My friend, Christianity emphatically, wholeheartedly disagrees. Paul says your faith is vain if it is not placed in and based upon historical solid facts and in a living person. Have all the faith you want, all the belief you want, all the conviction you can muster, all the consecration of your heart, clinched fist and all, but its worthless if it is not placed in a true living one. Whose conquered death. You see, faith alone is look, is like a famished man lost and dying in the desert. And the rock on the next hill is a canteen of water. Dehydrated and delusionary he’s confident that the rock still has no salvation for him. So it is with fallen man, fallen man suffering from severe dehydration, spiritual dehydration, becomes delusionary to the point of rejecting the gospel, but holding confidently to an empty faith that is worthless to save. That’s why Paul says your faith is vain. He didn’t really rise from the dead. You’re not better than any other pagan believe that’s come along the tracks. Faith, sincerity, conviction, worthless, if the object of your faith is not true. And the teaching of the one you place faith in did not really come about.

Now look at verse 17, the first part there: “And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless”. First of all he says, “vain,” now he says “worthless”. He wants to reemphasize it one more time. If Jesus didn’t really die, if Jesus wasn’t really buried, if Jesus didn’t really take your sin penalty on the cross, if actually, literally, bodily, he did not become your sin, if actually, literally, and bodily if the heavenly Father did not release and put on his mortal frame the actual, literal torment and judgement of hell that we all deserve justly for our sins. If he didn’t extinguish the final, final ounce of judgement you and I deserve and if he didn’t die because the wages of sin is death, and that if he didn’t rise again as the statement or to affirm that its all been taken, if that didn’t actually literally happen, Paul says, your faith is vain, your faith is worthless. Vain and worthless.

My friend, listen to me, you should never spend one half of one second in a so called Christian church where the leaders or the doctrinal position of that church has one ounce or one iota of question about the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ. Paul said, “you’re just, it’s a vain, worthless waste of time”. Folks, if that’s not true, then let’s juts go out here and eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die. Amen. Why live this life, if that’s false. I have more respect for the heathen epicurean out here that lives for the sensual pleasures of the mortal body than some quasi religious person who rejects the bodily resurrection. Logically he makes better sense than the liberal theologian. And the liberal pastor and the liberal Christian. He says “yes, Jesus, yes follow his teachings, bodily resur, ah, we’re not too concerned about that stuff, you know, that, that’s kind of antiquated”. Pal says, “fine, place your faith in a dead Savior that didn’t really rise is vain and its worthless”.

Let me ask you today, where is your confidence. And where is your faith. Is your faith in you. Let me ask you, is your faith in your faith. Don’t’ place faith in your faith, your faith is faulty, place faith in Christ. I have to go to God every day and say, “Lord, if my faith is going to get me there, I’m sunk. But I have faith that Christ can get me there”. He ever, listen, he lives to what: “Ever intercede for us”. He’s up there ever interceding for us, and I have confidence he is sufficient.

As a matter of fact, are you listening to Jeff Noblit this morning, let me tell you something. Let me tell you something. Every week of my life, God shows me afresh the failure that I really am. And that increases my confidence, “Jesus, you’ve got to do it”. And I’m not using this as a justification for living in sin and rebellion, it breaks my heart when I fail. It breaks my heart when he exposes my weakness. It breaks my heart when he shows me a mirror and I see how ugly I really am. And it also increases my confidence that it’s all of Jesus. All what he did. All what he, he’s accomplished. All what he can do. And nothing of me. If it’s not, we’re sunk.

As Vance Havner said, and I can’t get over this phrase, and that’s why I quote it all the time: “I’m just shipwrecked on God, and stranded on omnipotence”. Cause there’s nothing to me. Jesus can get the job done. We have confidence that a crucified, buried, risen, ever living interceding Lord. That faith is worthy, that faith is never vain.

[Evening Service – 32:21]

Now we’ve come to the third major area of this part of his defense, and that is he begins with some problems you will have if you reject the doctrine of the resurrection. And we’d looked at the first one, first of all he says, it turns your faith into foolishness. He says, faith is worthless by itself. Faith is worthless alone. For faith to have any validity or any meaning or any merit, it must be faith in historical truth and in a living person. So he says if Christ didn’t rise from the dead, he’s dead in the grave, and your faith is foolishness. He said, if you want to hold to that fine, but all your faith is worthless if you do that.

Now the second problem, this is new material. The second problem he said you’re going to have if you reject the doctrine of the bodily resurrection. It turns gospel preachers into perverse men. It turns gospel preachers into perverse men.

Look at verse 15. Picking up on his agreement with them, when the, when he says in verse 14, “and if Christ not been raised,” that’s what you’re hearing, then jumping down to verse 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.” He said, you’ve got to understand, if you embrace this new teaching that’s crept in since I last spoke to you, then that makes all of us who are Apostles, who’ve been your preachers, that makes us perverse and wicked men. Cause we’ve been teaching a lie. And we’ve been standing against God, because if God in fact did not raise Christ from the dead.

Just to get another reaffirmation of the importance of this doctrine of the resurrection, look at Acts chapter 1 with me for just a moment. Acts chapter 1, we have in context here, the early Apostles, wanting to fill the role of Judas Iscariot. And they are saying, Judas Iscariot, of course, is off the scene, he’s killed himself, he was an imposter form the beginning. In the sovereignty of God, he had his role and it has been fulfilled, and now he’s out of the picture, so they want to replace him, and notice what’s said in Acts 1:21 about his replacement. “Therefore it is necessary that of the men who have accompanied us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us,” in other words, first of all it needs to be a fellow whose been with us during Jesus incarnate ministry. And then verse 22, “beginning with the baptism of John until the day that He was taken up from us,” that’s his ascension, “one of these must become a witness with us of His resurrection.” What is their point. In order for this fellow to be an Apostle, to be in this elite office, that God used when the church was established, he had to have seen the resurrected Lord. So these Apostles put great emphasis on the resurrection. He had to have seen the, the, the Lord raised, physically, before he could be an Apostle.

So as Paul’s writing to the church at Corinth, he says, now look. We claim to have seen him with our eyes, when we came and preached to you. Seen you after he was risen from the dead. We claim to have touched him, after his resurrection. I believe its John that says, we beheld him, and John gets into graphic words, he says, “and we handled him with our hands.” John wants you to know he wasn’t just a spirit, or, or some sort of, of a vision, it was actually, literally him in bodily form. And then they say we bodily proclaimed and preached his bodily resurrection to you. And to others. And even that this bodily resurrection of Christ is the keystone of the gospel.

So Paul’s point here is this. If all of this is false, and all of this is some sort of intricate, manipulative conspiracy to deceive and mislead people, then we are the most evil of men. We would have to be the worst of the worse. We would be blatantly and bodily contradicting what really, really happened. And he uses the phrase back in our text, of 1 Corinthians 15:15 when he says, “because we testified against God.” If your Bible uses another translation, I’d ask you to write the word “against” in there, because its a very good translation. Paul doesn’t say we were just not in line with God. He says, if Jesus didn’t rise form the grave, then everything we’ve been doing has been diametrically opposed to what God did. So Paul says, one problem you’re going to have if you reject bodily resurrection is, you call these early gospel preachers perverse men. They are the worst of the worse.

A third problem that Paul says you’re going to have if you reject the bodily resurrection, it will turn saints into sinners. It makes those who are holy ones, those who’ve been cleansed by the resurrect Lord, they no longer are holy ones, that’s what the word saints means, they no longer are cleansed before the Lord, they are still sinners before God, judged by him and condemned by him. That’s what you have to view them as. If Jesus didn’t rise form the dead.

Look at verse 17. “And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins.” Now, keep your finger there and turn back to Romans chapter 4. Romans 4:24-25, look what Paul says to the church at Rome. “but for our sake also, to whom it will be reckoned as those who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, He who was delivered over because of our transgressions,” what a beautiful picture. He was delivered up to hang on a cross. And endure crucifixion because he was going up there to bear our transgressions. To take our place as a transgressor before God. Now notice the rest of verse 25. “and was raised because of our justification.” Notice not even raised to offer the possibility of justification, but were raised because of justification. Past tense meaning there. Now here’s the point. Paul says I want you to know when Jesus Christ hung on the cross, he literally took the sins of those that were his. He literally took the judgement and the punishment and God the Father said alright, you’ve done it my Son, you’ve finished everything required, now rise, they are already justified. Rise, its already done. That’s strong folks. That’s wonderful news. That means now we have a standing before God, a status before God as saints, holy ones.

But if Jesus is still dead, our standing is as sinners before God. Because after we were fully… just folks, I’m not waiting to try to figure out if I might get justified, when Jesus got finished on Calvary, God says you are justified. Now brother Jeff, we weren’t even there, that was 2000 years ago. No problem for an eternal God. No problem, we, I can’t understand that. You don’t’ have to understand it, just be glad you got in on it. Its the theological truth of the word of God. Look at Romans 8:34 right quick. “who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.” Now if he’s not up there to continually intercede, we’re lost in sin. But he is there.

So his resurrection, is our assurance that the Father no longer holds us liable as sinners. Are you hearing me. His resurrection is the confident assurance we have that the heavenly Father no longer holds you and I liable as sinners before him. Now we stand before him as saints. Holy ones. Well, now brother Jeff, I just believe the old song. You know, some baptists believe the old song more than the old book, but anyway. I just believe the old song, I’m just a sinner, saved by grace. Well, you know that’s true, and that’s a good song, but its not totally true. You’re not just a sinner saved by grace, you’re a saint, clothed in the righteousness of God, accepted before Jesus Christ and his heavenly Father right now. Now in practice you are not a saint, but in position you’re a saint. In, in the every day lifestyle you’re not living like a saint, but your status before God is as a saint. But if he’s still dead in the grave, you’re still lost in your sins.

Now listen, every person on planet earth is either in sin, that’s what he says here, Jesus is dead, “you are still in your sins.” You are either in sin or in Christ. Are you with me. You are either in sin, as you sit here look at me tonight, young person, right now, as God looks at you, he either looks at you as in sin, or in Christ. Wouldn’t you rather God look at you and say he’s in Christ. Not based on your performance, mom or dad, not based on your good and bad, right and wrong moral lifestyle. Now all of us ought to live right after we get saved, and if you are saved, you will live right or you’ll be miserable and God will take you to the woodshed. But, that’s not what saves you. You are either in sin or in Christ. And, but if he’s still dead in the grave, I can guarantee you, you’re in sin. That’s your status, that’s your position. That’s how God views you, “you’re still in sins,” Paul says. Well, I’m glad that’s not our condition.

Number four. A fourth problem Paul says you’re going to have if you reject bodily resurrection. That is it turns the departed into the damned. That means you’ll look at the departed ones, who’ve departed, having faith in Christ, and you’ve got to view them as damned before a holy God.

Look at it there in verse 18. “Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.” Boy what a radical contrast, Paul draws here. Fallen asleep, perished. The phrase “fallen asleep,” is if there is a resurrection. If there is a resurrection, when you and I leave this life our soul and spirit is with God our body sleeps temporarily in the grave. But if Christ be not risen, then when we leave here we perish. The word “perish” there means a state in which the soul remains under the weight of divine condemnation. That means when a departed one leaves, Jesus hadn’t risen form the grave, when the departed one leaves, they leave here in the fixed state of being under divine condemnation. Now if you hold to that, that’s what you have to believe about all your departed loved ones and friends who died in Christ. If you’re going to reject the resurrection.

Falling asleep in Christ, is to close our eyes in the joy of salvation. One of the, blessings of being a minister is that I’ve been at many bedsides, when a person’s taking their last breath. Its almost been incredible. Especially as we’ve become a larger church, how often I’ll just happen to go by when its in the last minute or two, or hour or two of a person’s life. And I don’t’ know why, maybe because God just wants me to see, as they leave here and go to be with him. But there is a huge difference between the man and the woman that I know knows Christ, and the person that does not. They fall asleep in the joy of salvation. Close their eyes in the joy of salvation. On the other hand, if Christ be not risen, then we have perished. That phrase “having perished” means to open our eyes in the torments of condemnation.

What a contrast Paul’s drawing here. But, if Christ is raised form the dead, then sin’s removed. You see, when Christ went to the grave, he went there because the wages of sin is death. But when sin was removed, Christ could rise. So if Christ is risen, then sin has been removed. Now follow with me, where sin if removed, death has no hold, that’s why he came out, sin was taken care of. Where sin’s removed, death has no hold, and also justice has not debt to avenge. The debt that justice must pour out on us has been taken care of. And so if Christ be raised, those who are Christians, the body sleeps, temporarily, the soul and spirit go to be with the Lord. But if you reject the resurrection, then you turn the departed into the damned.

Number five, Paul says, the fifth problem you’re going to have if you reject the bodily resurrection, it turns the merry into the miserable. Merry, m.e.r.r.y. You know I hate it when good words are stolen by the perverse people of our age. You can’t, you can’t, you certainly, you can’t use the word gay any more, they, they’ve stolen that one. Its one of the great words in the English language. Beautiful word, and, those who, who, promote the sin of sodomy have ruined that word. And they’ve been working on this word merry. I mean when you think about the word merry you think somebody is going to look at you and say, “you mean faire.” No, I don’t’ mean faire, I mean merry. There’s a difference. Merry means cheerful. Joyful, delightful. That’s what a Christian ought to be. Cheerful, joyful, and delightful. Unless like Adrian Rodgers says the most miserable man on earth is not the lost man on his way to hell, its the Christian, fallen out of fellowship with God. Now you’re not merry then. But walking with God in a right relationship with your Lord, you’re merry, you’re cheerful and joyful and delightful. And we should be the merry people of planet earth. Because we know in, first of all, because of who we know rather, and because of what we know. We ought to be the merry people, because of who we know, and what we know. We know him, the Creator, God of the Universe, and enjoy all of what He is and who He is, and we also know where we’re going when we leave here. its because of who we know and what we know.

You know, Jesus, or rather Paul says, look at verse 19, its where we get this from. He says, “If we have hoped in Christ in this life only,” in other words, living for Jesus, only affects this life, and then after this life is over, there’s no resurrection, there’s no afterlife, if that’s true, last phrase, verse 19, “we are of all men most to be pitied.” That’s a comparative word. He says, take every type of man on earth, every type of philosophy, teaching, or religion. And add them all up, if there’s be, if there’s no resurrection from the dead and Christ did not rise, we are more pitiful than any of the rest. Now I have heard it said and you have heard it said, and I understand what people mean when they say this. They will say, even if there’s not any heaven, I would still want to live for Jesus. Paul says you wouldn’t. Paul says, if there’s nothing after this life, the Christians would be the most miserable. Now listen. The text does not say that Christians are the most miserable. It says if you take Christ from Christians, you take their all in all. If you strip Christ away, if he’s dead and he’s not here, if he’s dead and he doesn’t live in my heart, and he’s dead and he’s not going to take me to heaven, take Christ, you take my everything.

Christianity is not a set of principles. Christianity is not a religious system. Christianity is not a moral code. Christianity is knowing a person, Christ, the Son of God, and as I know him and fellowship with him, I do have moral standards. I do follow principles, but as a result of knowing him, they those, principles, and those standards in themselves do not comprise Christianity. So if he is not risen, then we neither have him now nor have a hope for the future. So Paul’s right. We are of all men most to be pitied. We’re the most miserable people on earth. If Christ be not risen. And if he’s not risen, that means he’s a bold blatant liar. He’s no better than Adolf Hitler or Jim Jones. And I wish the liberal theologians would face that, when they talk about well the bodily resurrection, that’s not really true, and that’s not really important, well then Jesus is a bold liar. He’s not worthy of any consideration, Christianity is a joke.

But we know he is risen. But you see, if you believe in a dead Christ, that he’s not risen, then you’re still in sin, you have a standing as a sinner before God. You’re under the curse of the law, you’re cursed as a transgressor of God’s holy unalterable divine law. You’re right now unreconciled to God, you stand as an enemy before a holy God. You have no hope whatsoever of anything after this life but eternal punishment and you’re without God in this world, and generally that means there is no holy spirit living in your heart. You see when people say, well, even if there’s not a heaven, I’d still live for Jesus. What they don’t’ realize, if there’s no heaven, it means Jesus didn’t rise form the grave. And if Jesus didn’t’ rise form the grave, there’s no holy spirit living in your heart. Because he lives in your heart in the person of the holy spirit, and you wouldn’t have that joy that the Holy Spirit gives and that peace that the Holy Spirit gives and that love shed abroad in your heart by the Holy Spirit, you wouldn’t have any of that. You wouldn’t have this book. Cause men don’t’ risk their lives writing this truth for a man that’s still dead. You wouldn’t have the scripture to comfort you and guide you, you would be without God in this world. So friend, this life down here would be the most miserable, and our hope for the future would be no hope at all. Paul says, if he did not rise form the grave, everything we have is gone. We would be of all men most miserable.

Now let’s look at that again. real quickly, you’re still in sin, you’d still be under the curse of the law, you’d be unreconciled to God, you’d have no hope, and you would be without God in this world, yet you would be subject to all the trials and persecutions that go along with being a professing Christian. Now wouldn’t that be something. You profess to be a Christian, you get the trials and persecutions, no joy, no peace, no love, no scripture, no Holy Spirit, no eternal life, miserable. If you reject the resurrection. This isn’t a small thing, this is a huge thing.

One of the reasons historically speaking we know Jesus must have risen is because the early Christians died over that fact. They said he’s God, he rose form the grave, and Nero and other great Roman emperors said we’re the gods, you worship us, and they said, we respect you as our authority, but we can’t worship you as our God. And so during periods of time, the thing to do was for, for Roman entertainment they would all assemble in the coliseums and they would bring Christians out and they would throw them to the lions. Historians tell us that sort of in the warm up, in the preliminaries, they would take average Christians that no one knew and they would throw them out there and let the lions and the bears just devour them. But for the main event they would bring out a pastor or an Apostle. That was known in the community. He would be devoured by the wild beasts as the Romans cheered and mocked and laughed. For a dead man in a grave. No. I serve a risen Savior. He’s in the world today. I know that he is living, whatever men may say.

What a glorious truth. You see, since he is risen, we have a confident hope of his fellowship now, and of a future, listen, that is in every respect immeasurably superior to this life.

You see, you remove the resurrection and you remove the heart of the gospel, and you remove the hope of heaven. You see, the resurrection is not just important, it is of first importance. Everything we believe hinges upon it. Everything. So no wonder Paul spent such an exhaustive, extensive time first defending the resurrection.