Echo’s of the empty tomb
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Title: Echo’s of the empty tomb: Why the resurrection matters!
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 15:12-20
Occasion: Resurrection Sunday
Date: March 31, 2023
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Scripture Transitions Sermon Title|Quotes |Emphasis
Read 1 Corinthians 15:12-20
Written Prayer
Heavenly Father,
As we gather on this blessed Resurrection Sunday, our hearts are filled with joy and gratitude for the resurrection of Your Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ. We humbly come before You, seeking Your wisdom and guidance as we delve into the truths of 1 Corinthians 15:12-20. May Your Holy Spirit illuminate our minds and strengthen our faith, affirming the foundation of our hope in Christ's victory over death. Let us be renewed in the assurance that because He lives, we too shall live, and our proclamation of the gospel is not in vain but is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.
In Jesus' name, we pray, Amen.
Ephesians 1:2 “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
The title of my sermon today is:
“Echo’s of the empty tomb”
Friday we discussed the echo’s of the cross but today we will explore the echo’s of the empty tomb.
By "echoes of the empty tomb," I'm referring to the profound and ongoing influence of the resurrection.
It's an event that profoundly shapes our existence, resonating through every aspect of our lives and extending its impact into eternity.
This concept captures the idea that the transformative power of the resurrection doesn't just alter our current state of being but also promises continuity and effect into eternity.
The big question for us this morning is:
Why does the resurrection matter?
Maybe you’re thinking and asking yourself today:
What significance does the resurrection of Jesus have for me today in 2024?
How does the resurrection impact the way I’m experiencing the world.
How does the resurrection impact what’s going on in my family, my career, my personal relationships, my dreams, and my deepest longings?
Paul in our passage answers the question “what does the resurrection impact in my life today?” with one word: EVERYTHING!
The resurrection has everything to do with your human experience and longings in this life.
And today, God, 1 Corinthians 15 does not leave us in the dark about the impact of the resurrection on the human experience, but rather God speaks LIFE and TRUTH and HOPE into it.
God floods our broken human experience with resurrection life, hope, and the possibility of Healing and restoration.
So there are six echo’s of the empty tomb that directly impact us today.
Paul lays them out this way.. 1 Corinthians 15:14
1 Corinthians 15:14 (ESV)
if Christ has not been raised…
In other-words, Paul lays out six things that would be in utter chaos if Christ did not rise from the dead.
Then Paul masterfully ends with v20 by reversing the whole paragraph.
1 Corinthians 15:20 (ESV)
But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead…
So let’s start with a brief overview of these 6 echo’s of the empty tomb:
1. Verse 14: 1 Corinthians 15:14
1 Corinthians 15:14 (ESV)
if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain.
But since Christ has been raised , my preaching is not in vain.
2. Verse 14: 1 Corinthians 15:14
1 Corinthians 15:14 (ESV)
And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.
But since Christ has been raised, our faith is not in vain.
3. Verse 15: If Christ has not been raised…
1 Corinthians 15:15 (ESV)
We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ,
But since Christ has been raised, the apostles are not false witnesses about the work of God through His Son Jesus Christ.
4. Verse 17:
And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.
But since Christ has been raised, we are not still in our sins.
5. Verse 18:
Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.
But since Christ has been raised, the dead in Christ have not perished (died).
6. Verse 19:
If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.
But since Christ has been raised, we are not to be pitied.
So I know Paul lays out all of these things in negative terms, but what I want you to see today, is how each of these six reversals ( these echo’s of the empty tomb) meet us this morning in positive, hopeful, and in freeing and joyous ways!
So far we have just used negatives: "preaching not in vain . . . faith not in vain . . . etc."
Now we need to see what God has really done for us in raising Jesus from the dead on this Resurrection Sunday.
We see this only when we transfer all these negatives into positives.
I'm going to switch the order around this time because when the resurrection starts meeting us where we are and meeting our needs, there is a kind of pattern that fits our experience.
I want to follow that pattern as we look to each of our human experiences and hopefully find in the resurrection of Jesus, what really satisfies our longing hearts.
At the core, what we are really after in life.
Underneath all of our efforts to make a name for ourselves, the tireless pursuits of career, money, and fame
I want to show you here how the empty not only speaks into what we are experiencing in life, but what our hearts and lives are really after.
1. We Are Forgiven for Our Sins
First, 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.
I put this first as the basic need and longing of our hearts because if God holds our sins against us—and we 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 forgiveness.
How is the resurrection connected to our forgiveness?
The simple answer is: It is the death of Jesus that takes away our sin, because he bore our sins and took our judgment (that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures1 Co 15:3.)
Yes! BUT!
This is true, BUT the connection with the resurrection is extremely important.
Romans 4:25 puts it like this.
Romans 4:25 (ESV)
Jesus was delivered up [to death] for our trespasses and raised for our justification.
This means that by his death he paid the penalty for our sins and purchased our acquittal, our justification, our forgiveness.
And since the achievement of the cross was so complete and the work of our justification so decisive, God raised Jesus from the dead to validate our forgiveness and to vindicate his Son's righteousness and to celebrate the work of justification.
But we still seek for acceptance don’t we?
We still get defensive, easily offended, and fearful of others.
This shows that on the ground- many of us are still trying to prove ourselves to each other, and earn that acceptance that our hearts long for.
This is where the resurrection is so important: If we find ourselves doing this, set your mind on the resurrection so that you can began to experience the freedom from looking for man's acceptance.
Everybody in this room this morning needs forgiveness, and deep inside, even when we don't think about it, we long for it.
We long to be accepted by God.
That’s is why so often we seek after the acceptance of man. We long for acceptance!
We fear the alienation of our guilt.
But Paul says, because Christ rose from the dead, we are no longer in our sins.
Ephesians 1:7 “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,”
2 Corinthians 5:21 “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
This is the first and most basic longing of our hearts.
2. Our Faith Is securely anchored
Second, from verse 14, instead of saying negatively that our faith is not in vain, we can positively say that because of the resurrection our faith is firmly grounded.
Or, to make it more personal, because of the resurrection of Jesus there is someone we can trust undoubtedly, unquestionably, and unequivocally!
I know this to be true because it’s been my own experience, I believe that deep in the heart of every person here today, we yearning for someone that we can count on through thick and thin.
Someone who is absolutely trustworthy. Dependable!
(Example of my parents leaving me after school in the rain and had to walk home.)
Someone who, if you put your faith in him, it won't be in vain.
He won't let you down.
He will always be there.
We want it because we were made for it!
God put man and woman in the garden of Eden to glorify God by trusting him for everything they needed.
That need has never changed, in spite of sin.
Now, that we (christians) are no longer in our sins, this longing too is satisfied by the resurrection of Jesus.
The resurrection of Jesus gives us the confidence to take Christ at His Word, and to trust that He will never abandoned us.
Hebrews 13:5–6 “I will never leave you nor forsake you (abandoned you).” So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?””
We have a firm faith in Christ because of the resurrection.
You might be here today, and you might feel alone, scared, and that there is no one you can count one but yourself because you’ve been let down so much.
You have been let down by everyone you ever have ever known; your parents, your spouse, your children, maybe even your church.
Friend can I encourage you today:
There is someone you can count on this Easter.
Someone absolutely trustworthy.
Someone who will never let you down.
His name is Jesus.
Jesus is alive to be trusted.
Galatians 2:20 (ESV)
And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
3. The Apostles Preach What Is True
Third, 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.
We are being taught that there is no absolute truth (or objective truth)—something that is true all the time and everywhere whether people know it or like it.
It seems as though it is becoming harder and harder to find convictional Christians are willing to stand for truth. Call truth truth. Call a lie a lie. Call good good and call. Bad bad. Call righteousness, righteousness, and call sin sin.
Christians who are willing to stand against the issues of abortion, Intersectionality, Homosexuality, Feminism, Transgenderism, individualism, paganism, and other “isms”.
Without the conviction in absolute truths that can form the foundation of society, the only end will be anarchy where everyone does what is right in his own eyes. (We have seen the results of this in history, read the book of Judges)
Therefore the need for truth is a deep need of the human soul and human society.
And 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.
4 & 5 We Are to Be Envied
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 we are to be envied.
Our preaching is not in vain—it is full, purposeful, credible, valuable, impactful.
If Christ is not raised, then living for him, doing what he says, following his will is self-deception.
We are just deceiving ourselves!
We should be pitied like insane people who live by hallucinations.
BUT since Jesus has been raised and is alive and reigns as king forever, all our obedience, all our love, all our self-denial, all of our sacrifice, all of our our life service to Jesus is not just not-to-be-pitied, but it is to be envied and desired.
I love what the apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4:17
2 Corinthians 4:17 (ESV)
For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison,
Listen friends, there is in every one of us the desire that our lives be well spent—that our lives count for something, that they 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—pitiable.
Paul understands this.
That's why he ends this whole chapter on the resurrection (v. 58) with the words:
1 Corinthians 15:58 (ESV)
Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
NOT IN VAIN!
That's the longing of our lives, isn’t it?.
I have spent enough time with the dying to know that this is what is weighing on the heart in last days on earth…
“O Lord let not my life be misspent. Let me not come to my grave and say, "I've wasted my money, my time, my creativity, my service, MY LIFE”!
It does not have to be.
Christ is risen and everything done in his name—by his strength and for his glory—is not in vain.
Rather it’s It is desirable. Significant. Valuable. Most important of all, Eternal!
Lastly, We now come to the final echo of the empty tomb.
6. Those Who Have Fallen Asleep Are Alive
But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
I like how another translation words it (NLT):
But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. He is the first of a great harvest of all who have died.
All of us yearn to live forever in joy.
That we not come to an empty end after a full and valuable life.
That we not become a zero, or even worse, damned.
That’s why it can be very awkward at funerals especially those funerals of loved ones who spent their entire life in vain pursuits. Living for themselves.
Family members and friends desire so strongly that their loved ones live forever in joy.
They want me to assure them that their deceased loved ones will have this place and eternity. I can’t of assure them of course.
But they are terrified of what awaits them in eternity.
And so Paul says in verse 18 that because Christ is raised those who have fallen asleep in him—those who have died in faith—have not perished (eternal punishment).
Or, positively, they are alive with Christ in heaven, waiting for their glorious bodily resurrection, which will be like Christ's!
They will live forever.
They live the way Christ lives.
They will enter into the joy of their Master.
Can you say with job today Job 19:25-27
Job 19:25–27 (ESV)
For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth.
And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God,
whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold,
What confidence? What great news!
The question is, do you understand what this great news is?
Do want to know what the greatest news in the world is?
(The Gospel)
The greatest news in all the world is that God sent His Son to take on our humanity, to share in our pain, to sympathize with our weakness.
The greatest news in all the world is …He was tempted in every way as we are yet he never sinned!
The greatest news in all the world is …He willing went to the cross in order to satisfy the payment for sin, which is death.
The greatest news in all the world is …At the cross Jesus took our place and became our substitute, He took on the wrath of God, and at the cross atoned for the sins of those who would trust in him.
The greatest news in all the world is …Jesus was buried in a borrowed tomb.
And on the third day, to authenticate the payment for sin (The stamp of approval, The deed to salvation if you will), Jesus rose from the grave!
Proving that everything he said is true and everything he came to do on earth to reconcile sinners to God it is finished!
The greatest news in all the world is …God did not only raise him from the grave but Christ was raised to sit at the right hand of God to ever-live to intercede for His people, and to ever-live among His people, and to rule and reign over His people and His Kingdom forever and ever, amen!
The question is, have you believed in this great news?
Conclusion:
Why does the resurrection matter?
Because In raising Jesus from the dead God gave us forgiveness and glorified Jesus as the all-sufficient forgiver;
Why does the resurrection matter?
Because God gave us a friend to count on and glorified Jesus as utterly trustworthy;
Why does the resurrection matter?
Because God gave us guidance and unchanging truth and glorified Jesus as the absolute foundation for truth and righteousness;
Why does the resurrection matter?
Because God 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;
Why does the resurrection matter?
Because finally God gave us everlasting joy that will not be ended by death, and He glorified Jesus as the author of life, the victor over death, and the great harvest of all who have died! (the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.)
Why does the resurrection matter?
The Psalmist in Psalm 16:9-11 that we read for our call to worship at the start of service tells us why (NLT):
-Psalm 16:9–11 (NLT)
No wonder my heart is glad, and I rejoice.
My body rests in safety.
10 For you will not leave my soul among the dead
or allow your holy one to rot in the grave.
11 You will show me the way of life,
granting me the joy of your presence
and the pleasures of living with you forever.
Do you have this kind of joy and confidence in eternity, today?
If not…
I urge you with all my heart this morning, come to Christ with repentance and faith and what you will find for the first time in your life- the straight path you have been searching for, the indestructible joy you have been longing for, and the unwavering satisfaction and rest that you have been laboring and thirsting for.
And not just for here and now, but for eternity!
Lift up your heart with me today and say with the choirs on earth and in heaven:
Revelation 5:12 (ESV)
“Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing! Amen.”
PRAY
Written Prayer:
Heavenly Father,
As we stand in the light of the glorious resurrection of Your Son, Jesus Christ, revealed to us through Your word in 1 Corinthians 15:12-20, our hearts overflow with gratitude. Oh the echoes of the empty tomb! What You have conquered death, assuring us of the hope and victory we have in Christ. We pray that this truth transforms our lives, stirring in us a deep, unwavering faith and propelling us towards obedience and love. For those among us who have not yet placed their trust in Jesus, let today be the day of salvation. May the reality of the resurrection open hearts to the beauty of Your grace, leading to repentance and the joy of eternal life with You. In the powerful and precious name of Jesus, we pray, Amen.