He is Risen
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In recent years I have heard a lot of people trying to claim that all Christian holidays are stolen from pagans. They do this with Christmas and Easter. But ultimately when put to test with the historical record - the claims do not hold up. The claims are something like Christians appropriated traditions from germanic pagans who worshiped Eostre, and Eostre had bunnies and painted eggs. Or they swap out the name Eostre for Ishtar and make basically the same claim. They further claim that the name Easter comes from this pagan goddess. (whose entire mythos is debatable.)
This is really popular in recent years. In the most recent years these easily debunked claims have exploded on social media - TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, etc. I have even heard in from coworkers in the past.
Some Christians have jumped on this and making their hill to die on a crusade against easter. I have heard pastors mentioning this and trying to remove the pagan elements from our faith and our holidays.
The problem with all of that is that none of it is true. Christians were celebrating the Resurrection of Christ long before the gospel made its way to the germanic region where these aforementioned pagan rituals came from.
The name Easter most likely comes from the name of the month that the celebration of Passover generally fell. (It’s not all that different than calling Independence Day July 4th, or Cinco De Mayo. The name Easter is no more pagan than the name Thursday or the month of August. And frankly much of this really falls apart when you remember that Christians who do not speak a language that has Germanic influence call Easter something more biblical… they call it Pascha - or Passover… because it is.
And I could go on about how the claims about Eostre and Ishtar are either fabricated or misunderstood and that they have have no actual historical basis… like at all… whatsoever.
I can provide you with resources if that’s an issue that someone in your life is harping on but regardless of how much someone insists on it they are not true.
But those aren’t really all that important to me.
I don’t need the bunnies. I don’t need eggs. I don’t even need the name Easter. And while Easter baskets, egg hunts, chocolate bunnies, and other easter traditions are tons of fun… they frankly are not that important to most Christians celebrations on this day. But what is important to Christians in their celebration… the Resurrection of Christ.
And our text this morning demonstrates to us that we can lose all of our traditions… we can lose the bunnies, or eggs, the chocolate, the baskets, the parades, the brunch, etc. but we cannot lose the Resurrection.
We gather this morning, and every Sunday morning because Jesus Christ, God who took on human flesh, was crucified dead and buried, placed in a tomb with a great stone rolled in front of entrance, which was sealed and guarded by soldiers - and on the first day an angel rolls back the stone sits on it leaving the guards stunned, to proclaim to the women who came to see the tomb and he says
5 But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. 6 He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay.
The tomb was empty. Jesus Christ who was crucified rose from the dead. Take the bunnies, the eggs, and everything else and we still have a Risen Savior, a Conquering King, a glorious God.
And those who “…confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)
Any church that is gathering this morning that does not preach that God became stepped into time became a man in the person of Jesus who actually came in the flesh, and actually crucified on the cross, and that he was bodily raised from the dead is wasting their time.
I’ll even add on that any church that gathers on Sunday that preaches Jesus as anything other than God in the flesh, who has bodily raised from the dead would be better off closing their doors - and they have entertained the spirit of the Antichrist.
2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.
If I’m not here proclaiming Christ in the flesh who died for the salvation of sinners and raised in the flesh for the salvation of sinners, to the glory of God then it would be better for me to have stayed home to watch the Cubs vs. the Diamondbacks… even though I think Sunday baseball games are dumb.
That might sound harsh but let’s look at what Paul teaches us here.
First in verse 3, Paul teaches us of the purpose of Jesus passion.
3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,
Christ died for our sins.
And then he was raised on the third day
Paul opens in verses 5-6 with giving the proof of the Resurrection of Jesus.
Jesus appeared to Cephas, or Peter. And the 12 disciples. Then to 500 brothers at once. Then to James. Then to all the apostles, then to Paul himself. Paul is teaching the readers of this letter that Jesus appeared in the flesh to many. He’s giving them verifiable evidence for the resurrection of Jesus. He writes in verse 6 that many of the 500 that Jesus appeared to were still alive. Paul is telling them “you can go investigate this yourselves.”
Some might say well good for them but how can I investigate this today?
Well… *hold up Bible*…
Now concerning what Paul is writing here:
Paul is addressing the one of the biggest blunders someone can make in response to the gospel message which is the statement:
Some might say, “What does it matter if Jesus actually raised from the dead? The gospel message is a good story and it leads people to live good lives. Jesus taught good things, is it really important for him to have raised from the dead.”
The answer is absolutely it does matter.
But also this the worst part of Pascal’s Wager.
If you are not familiar with Blaise Pascal. He was a 17th century french mathematician, a philosopher, inventor, scientist, and catholic writer. Not really a theologian, but he wrote about matters of faith at times. He wrote a book called Pensees. It was compiled after his death, and it sort of reads more like a collection of sayings rather than a book. But most people who know anything Pascal or this book know of what’s come to be known Pascal’s Wager.
The argument is that reality is either that there is a God, or that there is not a God. And you must wager on whether or not to believe it him. There’s a lot of problems with his wager - but bear with him. This results ultimately in
It has 4 possibilities.
God is real and you believe in him. This is the best scenario.
God is not real and you believe in him. This is the most moral scenario. But still presented by many as positive.
God is real and you do not believe. This is the worst.
God is not real and you do not believe.
That second scenario is not as good as many have presented it. Some have suggested, that this is the moral route. Even if God doesn’t exist if you have lived a life according to the Bible, you have loved your neighbor, you have sought to consider others as more important than yourself then you still lived a good life.
But that’s contrary to what Scripture says. In the lens of the Christian faith - we base everything on whether or not Jesus rose from the dead.
Paul says that person is the most to be pitied. As Paul writes in verse 32 - if the dead are not raised, and Christ is not raised, then eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we all die.
And this idea is the part of the text where I want to focus most of our attention this morning. There is significant proof for the Resurrection of Jesus - as long as you don’t dismiss all the evidence - as many are prone to do.
1211The resurrection is a fact better attested than any event recorded in any history, whether ancient or modern.—15.185
Charles Spurgeon
But why does the resurrection matter? The Resurrection of Jesus changes everything.
The church of Corinth had a plethora of issues one of them is that people were denying that there is a resurrection of the dead. This was a common belief among the Sadduccees who opposed Jesus. This is why when the Sadducees come to trick Jesus they specifically focus on the resurrection and who will be married to whom in the resurrection.
The church in Corinth is having similar issues with the resurrection here.
Paul responds to them in saying that is there is no resurrection from the dead then Jesus hasn’t risen from the dead. And if Christ has not been raised from the dead then the Christian faith is a farce.
13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14 And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.
If Christ has not been raised from the dead then his preaching and his ministry are in vain. If Christ has not raised from the dead then the book of Acts isn’t a story of heroes of the faith it is a tragedy. If Christ is not raised from the dead then we’re wasting our time this morning.
But Paul continues on in verses 15 and 16 to say that it’s not just simply a waste, but if the dead are not raised and Christ is not raised then we are misrepresenting God.
15 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. 16 For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised.
The Bodily Resurrection of Jesus is the lynchpin of the Christian faith. Because Jesus has been raised from the dead we will too.
17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.
If Christ is not raised then Good Friday is the saddest day of all time. We are the most to be pitied.
19 If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.
If our faith is just about stolen traditions, and bunnies and moral living then it’s not great that we lived a moral life… it’s pitiful.
But let’s turn this whole text around…
And this is what Paul does from verse 20 on.
He states that since Jesus has been raised from the dead we will too. Since Jesus has been raised from the dead those who have fallen asleep in Christ will do.
Since Christ has been raised from the dead. It changes everything. Since Christ has raised from the dead our faith is meaningful and joyful. Since Christ has raised from the dead there is salvation from sins.
All mankind dies because of Adam’s sin, but man can only be made alive again by faith in Christ Jesus. Paul states that those in Christ shall all be made alive.
There is no hope for those outside of Christ. This morning we joyously celebrate Jesus’ victory over the grave. But those who do not have faith in Jesus do not have that hope.
They are dead in their trespasses and sins. The wrath that all of our sins deserve awaits those who do not have faith in Christ.
I mentioned a whole lot of Easter traditions that love to celebrate… the greatest Easter tradition that we can observe is the one started by those who visited the tomb… to declare that the Lord Jesus is not dead, but he is risen.
Since Christ has been raised from the dead we have a living hope, (1 Peter 1:3). Our hope is not in the economy, nor the stock market, our hope is not in the president, our hope is not in our retirement, or our investments, it’s not in our talents, it is not in our friends or family…
OUR HOPE IN THE THE LIVING CHRIST JESUS.
To return again to our Scripture from Good Friday…
17 When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, 18 and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.
He died - and he is ALIVE forevermore.
As the old hymn sings Because he lives I can face tomorrow, because he lives all fear is gone, because I know who holds the future, life is worth the living just because he lives.
I began this morning by making the comment that some have tried to undermine our celebration of Easter by appealing to a misunderstanding of holiday traditions - and what I had stated is that the bunnies and the eggs and the chocolate do not matter - they are super fun and who doesn’t love watching a child discover their easter basket, or find the golden easter egg? But what is really important to Christians about Easter is that the Tomb is Empty and Jesus is risen. But we don’t only celebrate that on Easter - as Christians we gather and celebrate that glorious event every Sunday - every Lord’s Day we proclaims the death and resurrection of Jesus until he comes again. So while extra easter traditions are fun - even if we were to lose them - our joy and our faith is in Christ.
Close by reading verses 24-28.
Jesus is King. He is Risen. He is reigned. He is putting all of his enemies under his feet. And he will return again.
