The Resurrection

What would you say is the biggest Christian Holiday of the year? Based on how many people celebrate it, how elaborate the celebrations are and how much influence it has on the culture around us? You wouldn’t say Easter would you. Probably the answer is Christmas. People decorate their whole homes, they sing songs about it, there are whole radio stations that only play Christmas Music for an entire month of the year. People travel all over the place to visit family, schools close for at least a week. It’s a big deal.

I would argue that while we should definitely make a big deal about Jesus’ birth, it makes me sad to think about the comparison of how people celebrate easter. Do you hear Easter songs on the radio? Are people’s houses extravagantly decorated for easter? Now to be fair a lot of the way that we celebrate Christmas isn’t really reflective of the meaning of the holiday, but you get my point.

I would argue that we should be making Easter the focal point of the Christian calendar. Because as important as the birth of Jesus is, it was all leading up to this. His entire ministry reaches its climax in His death and resurrection. Which does the Bible say more about, Christmas or Easter? Well Christmas is predicted in a few places in the Old Testament. We have prophecies about where He would be born, what tribe He would belong to and that He would be born of a virgin. Then in the New Testament we have two accounts of the birth of Jesus, in Matthew 1:18-25 and Luke 2:1-7.

By contrast the crucifixion is predicted in incredible detail in the Old Testament, much more detail than the birth of Jesus. The crucifixion and resurrection is recorded in all four gospels not just two of them. Also the resurrection features prominently in the New Testament Epistles where they hardly touch on the subject of Jesus’ birth.

So the Bible seems to make a pretty big deal about the death and resurrection, and it is my strong conviction that we should be doing the same. Yet even within Easter I feel that sometimes we get the emphasis wrong. Look behind me, what symbol is on that wall? It’s the cross. We don’t put the empty tomb up on our wall do we. We don’t wear empty tomb necklesses. We tend to emphasize strongly the atoning death of Jesus that paid for our sins. Now obviously I’ve gone to great lengths in many sermons to show how important I think the death of Jesus is and how it saves us from our sins, but I think that sometimes when we get to Easter weekend we neglect that the Resurrection is actually even more important. I’ve got the Bible to back me up here to. Consider the Words of Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:1-26

1 Corinthians 15:1–26 ESV

Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed. Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.

So you can see quite clearly that Paul feels strongly about the importance of the resurrection. As Disciples of Jesus who want to live by the inspired word of God we need to ask ourselves what this passage and others like it teach us about the importance of the resurrection. I’d like to highlight three things today:

The Importance of the Resurrection

The Evidence for the Resurrection

The Assurance of the Resurrection

The Importance of the Resurrection

Now before we dive into some of this passage I’m going to need to peal back the curtain a little bit and let you in on a first century Jewish Theological debate that’s important background for this passage. You may be familiar with two of the most influential Jewish groups of Jesus’ day, the Pharisees and the Sadducees. What you read mostly about the Pharisees in the New Testament is their major disagreements with Jesus and their incredibly strict standards for observing the Jewish law. The Sadducees we don’t read as much about in the New Testment but there’s a few things you should know about them. They actually believed that there were only five inspired books of the Bible, the ones written by Moses (ie. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.) Since they didn’t believe that the Psalms and the Prophets were the inspired word of God they also didn’t believe in what the prophets said about the afterlife, in such passages as Daniel 12:2

Daniel 12:2 ESV

And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.

So God would one day raise the dead to judge them. We’ll talk more about this idea later in the sermon, but the important part here is that the Sadducees don’t believe this. This led to a frankly hilarious scene when Paul is brought before the Jewish council and uses this debate to his advantage in Acts 23:6-10

Acts 23:6–10 ESV

Now when Paul perceived that one part were Sadducees and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, “Brothers, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees. It is with respect to the hope and the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial.” And when he had said this, a dissension arose between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the assembly was divided. For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, nor angel, nor spirit, but the Pharisees acknowledge them all. Then a great clamor arose, and some of the scribes of the Pharisees’ party stood up and contended sharply, “We find nothing wrong in this man. What if a spirit or an angel spoke to him?” And when the dissension became violent, the tribune, afraid that Paul would be torn to pieces by them, commanded the soldiers to go down and take him away from among them by force and bring him into the barracks.

I just love that whole moment so much. So I feel it’s very likely in our passage in question that Paul is addressing either Sadducee converts who are trying to retain their belief that there’s no resurrection, or some other group that has similar beliefs. He’s defending the future resurrection of the dead by the fact of Jesus’ resurrection and in the process explains the vital importance of Jesus’ resurrection. Let’s read what he says about it:

1 Corinthians 15:12–19 ESV

Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.

So Paul throws the gauntlet down and sets the stakes: It’s all about the resurrection. If Jesus didn’t raise from the dead than there’s no gospel, and there’s no hope for any of us fools because we’re still just as helplessly lost in sin. “We are of all people most to be pitied.”

The Evidence of the Resurrection

So the question becomes natural then, if everything about our faith hinges on whether or not the resurrection actually happened, do we have good reason to believe that the resurrection really happened? Well what if I told you that this chapter of 1 Corinthians actually contains some of the most compelling evidence for the resurrection? That’s because this letter by Paul was actually written earlier than any of the four Gospels. Before Matthew, Mark, Luke or John were written this letter was sent to the Corinthian Church. Not only that, but by analyzing the language that Paul uses in verses 1-8 and the way he introduces it, it’s clear that he’s sharing something he heard from someone else and it was probably a creed of the very very early church. In fact some have dated it to within 3-5 Years of the crucifixion. Or in other words in less than half a dozen years after Jesus was crucified people were saying this:

1 Corinthians 15:1–8 ESV

Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.

That’s very early evidence that Jesus’ followers were convinced that He really rose from the dead, which is a major part of the evidence for the resurrection. I’m gonna share with you guys a handy acronym for remembering five facts that most historians, even ones who do not believe in Christianity, believe are very certain. I stole this acronym from Mike Winger aka the Bible Thinker.

A Death by Crucifixion

Ladies find the tomb empty

Independant appearances of Jesus alive after death

Violence endured by the Apostles

Enemies of Christ converted

So first, pretty much everyone agrees that Jesus was in fact put to death by crucifixion at the hands of the Romans. Only really silly people argue that Jesus either didn’t exist or wasn’t crucified. This is an important first step of arguing for the resurrection because otherwise Jesus showing up to people later isn’t really very miraculous.

Second, most scholars agree that the female followers of Jesus found Jesus’ tomb empty. One of the reasons why people believe this is a historical fact is because of something called the “criterion of embarrassment,” which basically says that if someone is making up a story that isn’t true they are unlikely to invent details that would embarrass them. At the time of the resurrection women were very undervalued members of society, and in fact they were not even permitted to be witnesses in a trial. In other words if the gospel writers were inventing the story of the empty tomb they wouldn’t have made up that it was women who found it. Most likely this detail is there because that’s how it really happened.

Third, and where this Corinthian passage comes in, most scholars agree that there were multiple eye witnesses who saw Jesus alive after He was crucified. There’s too much evidence to early that is too easily falsified for it to be otherwise. There are a lot of bizarre theories about how this happened, but most scholars agree that it happened.

Fourth, the apostles didn’t exactly get rewarded for their belief in the resurrection. There seems to be no motivation for the disciples to lie about the resurrection given that they were beaten, imprisoned and most of them killed for what they were preaching. Why didn’t any of them under torture admit that they were lying? No, instead these Jewish men were willing to endure all kinds of terrible suffering they believed so strongly in the resurrection.

Finally there’s the conversion of people hostile to the gospel after the death and supposed resurrection of Jesus. We think especially of James and Paul. James because he was the brother of Jesus and didn’t believe that Jesus was the Messiah until after the crucifixion and resurrection. What motivation would he have to convert (and I’ll remind you face intense persecution because of it) unless he had good reason to believe that the resurrection actually happened. Likewise Paul went from being a persecuter of the church who was actively trying to destroy it to one of its founding members and the apostle to the gentiles.

So we can rest assured that our faith is in tact, because we have good reason to believe the resurrection really happened. How else do you explain the evidence? And we know that if Jesus was raised from the dead that we can have assurance of the future resurrection as well.

The Assurance of the Resurrection

Remember my digression earlier about the whole debate between the Pharisees and the Sadducees about whether there was a future resurrection? Well Paul’s whole discussion in this chapter about the certainty and importance of Jesus’ resurrection is ultimately to argue that because Jesus was raised from the dead we can be confident that the same will happen to us. We read on:

1 Corinthians 15:20–26 ESV

But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.

So what does Paul mean by “firstfruits” in this passage? The Festival of firstfruits was a festival where the Israelite people would take the very first crops of the season and offer them to God in thankfullness. It was an expression of their confidence that just as God had provided this first harvest He would provide them with more. Jesus is the firstfruits of the resurrection because He is the first to be raised and has ascended to God to show us that we also will be raised from the dead, and that those of us who are His followers will be raised to the same glorious life that He was.

Now I should point out that Jesus was not literally the first person to be resurrected in the Old Testament:

The Lexham Bible Dictionary Historical Narratives

• The widow’s son in Zarephath (1 Kgs 17:17–22)

• The Shunammite’s son (2 Kgs 4:18–37)

• The man thrown into Elisha’s grave (2 Kgs 13:20)

In the New Testament:

The Lexham Bible Dictionary The Foundational Resurrection of Christ

• Jairus’ daughter (Mark 5:41)

• The young man at Nain (Luke 7:14)

• Lazarus (John 11:38–44)

So how is he the firstfruits? Because the nature of His resurrection is different fromt he nature of their resurrections. They were raised back to their ordinary mortal bodies and all died a second death. Jesus on the other hand was raised with an immortal perfected body. This is the point Paul makes later in this same chapter in 1 Cor 15:42-43

1 Corinthians 15:42–43 ESV

So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power.

This is the hope that we have in Jesus. Banish any thought of us hanging around on clouds in flowing white robes playing harps for all eternity. That’s not the future that the Bible describes. The Bible describes a future where God creates a New Heaven and a New Earth, and those who call Jesus Lord get to live in the New Earth. What will this New Earth be like? Well there’s not a lot of details in the Bible except to say that God will present on the earth in a way that He never has been in His full glory, and that we will be immortal and in perfect bodies and that there will be no death or pain or sorrow again. I like that a lot better than the cartoon heaven you see on tv and in movies, don’t you?

Conclusion

So then, what do we do differently because of the resurrection? Everything! Everything is different now. The death and resurrection of Jesus was the turning point of history. If Jesus really raised from the dead than everything He said about being God and about our need to repent to enter the kingdom of heaven is true. We need to live our lives dedicated to Him.

Consider this moment in Acts 2:32-39

Acts 2:32–39 ESV

This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing. For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says, “ ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.” ’ Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”

So we need to turn away from our sins, believe in Jesus and be baptized in His name. Why baptism? Well part of the significance of Baptism is the act of participating in the death and resurrection of Jesus. Paul makes this connection in Romans 6:1-4

Romans 6:1–4 ESV

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

So we participate in the death and resurrection of Jesus now and live in newness of life now as a foretaste of the resurrection to come. Not living like the walking dead like we did before when we were lost in transgressions, but living truly alive in Christ.

If you have not yet made a commitment to live for Jesus and follow Him I encourage you today that we worship a living God who gives us eternal life and that there’s no time like now. And if you haven’t yet been baptized I encourage you to make that step now. We have a baptismal right here that we can fill with water.