Alive Foreveremore

a) Today is the day on the church calendar when we celebrate Easter & the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. The word resurrection means to stand or rise again. And our Lord’s resurrection is the hinge & foundation of our faith. That’s not just my opinion, it’s what God’s word tells us.

b) Today I want us to be reminded of the glory of our Lord’s resurrection. And as always, we are going to begin this morning by hearing God’s holy word in 1 Cor. 15:1-26. Read & Pray

I’ve titled today’s message: “Alive Forevermore”

a) The resurrection, the idea that our bodies will be part of the world to come, is 1 of Christianity’s distinct beliefs. John 1:1 says the Word became flesh & dwelt among us. The Eternal Son of God stepped into time & space & became like us, adding a human mind, body & soul to Himself.

b) He was born of a woman, but conceived by the power of the HS, making Him fully God & fully man. But we again see the body’s importance not just in our Lord’s life, but in His death & resurrection. His resurrection reveals that the body is central to God’s eternal plan of salvation.

c) Scripture declares the resurrection of the body isn’t just something Christians will experience. Jn. 5:28-29 says when Christ returns all who are in their tombs will hear His voice & come out. Acts 24:15 says: “there will be a resurrection of both the just & unjust.”

d) But for whatever reason, this church in Corinth began to deny or doubt the resurrection of the body. They weren’t denying Jesus rose from the dead (we see in v1 & v11 they believed He did), but they had come to believe that they & other believers would not be raised from the dead bodily.

So what is Paul’s response to this false belief? 1st, he reminds them & us of the gospel.

a) In v1-11 Paul reminds them of the gospel he preached & they believed. He says 4 things about the gospel. 1st in v3: Christ died for our sins in accordance w/ the Scriptures. Rom. 3:23 tells us, “for all have sinned & fall short of the glory of God.” And Rom. 6:23 says “the wages of sin is death.”

b) Scripture says every sin we commit deserves death. God issued that warning to the 1st man & woman in the Garden of Eden, but they disregarded His word. They sinned & as we read in v21 death entered the world through Adam. Not just physical death, but spiritual or eternal death.

c) And apart from God’s work to save us, apart from God’s Son coming into the world to take away our sin, we all face a certain spiritual & eternal death. That’s the bad news. But here’s the good news of the gospel: Rom. 6:23 doesn’t end by saying: “the wages of sin is death”

d) Rom. 6:23 ends by saying: “but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” God sent His Son to save sinners like us. Jesus lived the holy, perfect life God requires of us that none of us could ever live. And by living a perfect life, Jesus was the perfect substitute for us & our sin.

e) On the cross, Jesus allowed our sins to be placed on Him. He who knew no sin became sin & took the penalty & punishment our sins deserve. And the Lord Jesus did this willingly. As Jesus says in Jn 10:18: “No 1 takes my life from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.”

f) But 2nd, Paul reminds them & us in v4 that Christ was buried. Our Lord’s death was not a magic act. It was not an aberration. The Lord Jesus didn’t just appear to die, nor did He play dead. Jesus, the God-man was physically tortured shedding His blood until His last breath & His heart stopped.

g) Matt. 27:50 says He yielded up His spirit. The gospel accounts tell us that Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for Jesus’ body. And Nicodemus came w/ 75 lbs. of spices & they took Jesus’ body & bound it in linen cloths w/ the spices & they laid him in a new tomb. Jesus died & was buried.

h) The end of Matthew’s gospel also tells us that the Jews were worried that someone might take His body & claim He was still alive. So Pilate gave them a guard of soldiers who sealed the tomb & set a guard to watch over the tomb. Jesus not only really died a physical death, but he was buried.

i) 3rd, Paul reminds us at the end of v4 Christ was raised on the 3rd day in accordance w/ the Scriptures. Notice, Paul says all of this happens in accordance w/, or according to, the Scriptures. Jesus’ life, death, burial & resurrection were the fulfillment of God’s OT promises.

j) But our Lord didn’t just live a perfect life to be our perfect sacrifice. Our Lord did not just die a death in our place to take away our sin & the penalty & punishment for our sin. Our Lord wasn’t just buried in a tomb. 3 days later, Jesus was raised to new, eternal, resurrection life!

k) Then 4th Paul says in v5-11 Christ appeared in His glorified, resurrected body to many. He appeared to Peter, to the Apostles & to more than 500 people at 1 time. Paul says many of the 500 were still alive & could verify they saw the resurrected Jesus w/ their own eyes.

l) Paul says the risen Lord also appeared to James & then to Paul himself on the road to Damascus. Now there’s Biblical & historical evidence that proves Jesus’ resurrection. But maybe the most impactful evidence is found in 2 sources: the 1st witnesses of the resurrection & Jesus’ disciples.

m) The resurrection account is built on the testimony of women. To our ears we’re like: “OK so what?” But, in the 1st C. a woman’s testimony wasn’t recognized as legally binding. In fact, during the time of Jesus’ resurrection, a woman wasn’t even able to testify in a Jewish court of law.

n) Why does that matter? B/c if Jesus’ resurrection was truly just a big lie or a cleverly devised myth, women would have never been presented as the 1st witnesses of the risen Christ. But a 2nd piece of evidence for the truth of the resurrection is the transformation of Jesus’ disciples.

o) If Jesus wasn’t raised from the dead, why would they lie? We normally lie to gain something or to avoid pain. But their testimony gained them nothing on this earth, but cost them everything, for many their life. The only reason they would lose these things is b/c they were telling the truth.

p) See, the Apostles were dying not for a principle, but for a person. If the disciples didn’t believe Jesus rose from the dead, their willingness to die makes no sense. But the resurrection changed everything. They went from hiding, fearful men to fearless missionaries willing to die to tell others about the risen Jesus.

q) As Paul says in v9, he was persecuting the church & overseeing the arrest & killing of Christians.

r) But when he saw the risen Christ, Paul became 1 of His greatest witnesses. So, Paul’s 1st response to this false teaching about the resurrection is to remind them of the gospel.

2nd, in v12-20 Paul reveals the implications if there is no bodily resurrection from the dead.

a) 1st he says in v13, & he repeats this in v16, if you deny the resurrection of believers, you must also deny the resurrection of our Lord. Why? B/c Christ was truly human & died a human death & what’s true of Him is true of us. If we are not raised bodily, then neither was He raised bodily.

b) 2nd he says in v14: "If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain.” If the Lord Jesus didn’t rise from the dead, then what I’m doing right now is useless & what you’re doing right now is useless. We are wasting our time preaching about a dead man who can’t save anyone.

c) 3rd he says in v14: “If Christ has not been raised…your faith is in vain.” The Christian faith is built on the truth of who Jesus is: the eternal Son of God who took on flesh & became like us. It’s built on the truth Jesus did to save us. If Christ was not raised, then our faith is simply in a good moral teacher or a prophet who died & was buried. And that makes our faith useless.

d) 4th Paul says in v15: “If Christ has not been raised…we are found to be misrepresenting God b/c we testified God raised Him from the dead.” Not only would my preaching & our faith be useless, but even worse, we would be liars & false witnesses about who God is & what He has done.

e) Now in our culture lying has become widely expected, if not accepted. But Paul understood the seriousness of bearing false witness. According to OT law, a false witness was to be put to death. And if Christ was not raised, then the women & the Apostles & us are all false witnesses.

f) 5th he says in v17: “If Christ has not been raised then you are still in your sins.” If Christ has not been raised from the dead, we’re back to where we started. We’ve all sinned & fallen short of God’s glory. If Christ was not the perfect sacrifice, then He’s not our Savior. Then there’s no cause to rejoice & worship today or any day, but only a fearful expectation of God’s coming judgment.

g) 6th Paul says in v18: “If Christ has not been raised the dead in Christ have perished.” Not only would our faith be futile, so too would be the faith of those who died trusting Christ. There’s no hope of them being in God’s presence now, nor of us seeing them again. If Christ was not raised from the dead, then He’s not coming again & He can’t give eternal life to the living or the dead.

h) 7th & finally in v19: “If Christ has not been raised then we are to be pitied." If Christ wasn’t raised the Christian hope is a false hope. As Paul says down in v32: “Let us eat & drink for tomorrow we die.” Either Easter is the turning point of human history that brings the hope of being reconciled & accepted by God, or we are to be pitied for worshipping a dead man.

3rd, look at what Paul says in v20-28. We see 4 results of Christ being raised from the dead.

a) Look at v20: “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead.” He is risen! And listen to what the risen, glorified Lord Jesus says in Rev. 1:18: “Fear not I am the 1st & the last & the living one. I died & behold I am alive forevermore & I have the keys of Death & Hades.”

b) He is risen! And when God raised Him from the dead, Jesus was vindicated & revealed to be the Son of God. As Rom. 1:4 says, He “was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by His resurrection from the dead.”

c) And b/c Christ has been raised & His sacrifice for us & our sin has been accepted by God the Father, the reverse of the implications we saw in v12-20 are true. Our preaching & faith are not in vain. We have been saved from our sin. We are not false witnesses. The dead in Christ are alive.

d) We are not a people to be pitied, but to be envied. But, Paul also shows us 4 more results of Christ being raised from the dead. 1st, in v21-22, Jesus’ resurrection proclaimed Him as the last & greater Adam. Rom. 5:12 says when Adam sinned, death entered the world & spread to all men.

e) But now, Paul writes in v21-22, “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.” When Jesus rose from the dead, resurrection life came into the world.

f) 2nd in v23, Jesus’ resurrection declares those united to Him by faith will 1 day be resurrected. When Christ returns, He will transform our bodies to be like His glorious resurrection body. Later Paul says in v52 that when Christ returns, “in an instant, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet…the dead will be raised imperishable & we will be changed.”

g) Christ is the firstfruits. He’s the 1st part of the resurrection harvest. That harvest has come & Jesus’ resurrection is the guarantee the rest of that resurrection harvest is coming. How? Later in v45 Paul says Christ became a life-giving spirit. United to Christ by faith, He gives us His resurrection life.

h) 3rd in v24-25, His resurrection proved He was the promised King & Judge to rule over all creation. In Isa. 11:1–9 God promised to raise up a King anointed w/ God’s Sprit & who would rule in righteousness. He also promised He would be a Judge ruling over creation w/ perfect justice.

i) In Acts 2:33–36 Peter says the risen Christ is that King. In Acts 17:31 Paul says the risen Christ is that Judge: “God has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom He has appointed & of this He has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” The risen Christ is the King & Judge that every person will 1 day stand before to give an account.

j) 4th & finally, His resurrection also guarantees God will 1 day transform all creation. Rom. 8:18–25 says creation itself is groaning right now under the weight of the curse of sin. Creation longs for God to transform the universe & for sin & the curse of the fall to be removed. Creation longs for the children of God to be revealed & the former things to pass away.

k) But this is only possible b/c Jesus Christ rose from the dead. These are just a few of the reasons why His resurrection matters. It changed everything. And that’s why we not only celebrate Easter today, but every day. United to Christ by faith, His resurrection life is dwelling in us by the HS.

l) As 2 Cor. 5:17 says if anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation. United to Christ, we have already begun to experience the age to come & new, eternal, resurrection life. Not yet in its fullness, but truly. See, resurrection life is not just a future promise, but a present reality.

m) And b/c of that, if we are in Christ, we should be the most joyous, hope-filled, loving people. Why? B/c we know this is a gift we never earned, nor deserved. We have a future inheritance that awaits us. In Christ, we know death can no longer harm us.

n) The resurrection is not just a fact to be believed, but something to be experienced & lived out. Christianity & eternal life is about knowing the 1 true God & Jesus Christ whom He sent. To be a Christian is not just to believe in a set of beliefs. It is that, but it’s much more than that.

o) In Phil. 3, Paul says it’s to count everything as loss b/c of the surpassing worth of knowing Jesus as Lord. It’s to suffer the loss of all things & count them as rubbish to gain Christ & be found in Him. Not having a righteousness of your own, but through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God.

p) The resurrection is not just something to believed. It’s something to be lived. It’s to know the power of His resurrection. It’s to have the same power that raised Jesus from the dead come into your dead soul & raise you up to new & eternal, resurrection life.

Let me end this way.

a) An Italian minister tells the story of a man who died years earlier who didn’t believe the Christian faith & there was a resurrection from the dead. This mean wanted a slab laid over the top of his grave w/ an inscription that read: “I don’t want to be raised form the dead. I don’t believe in it.”

b) But, when he was buried an acorn fell into his grave. Many years later that acorn to be a towering oak tree. And as it grew through the grave, it split open that slab. The minister said: “If an acorn can split such a slab, what can the acorn of God’s resurrection power do in your life?”

c) Think of the things you see as immovable slabs in your life. Your background. Things done to you. Your bitterness. Your selfishness. Your addiction. Your insecurity or fear. Your loneliness. Your hopelessness. Your self-doubts. Those things can be split just like that slab.

d) So what must you do to be saved? Rom. 10:9 says “if confess w/ your mouth that Jesus is Lord & believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead you will be saved”. Not just from your sin & guilt & shame & eternal punishment, but to a saving relationship w/ your Creator & Redeemer.

e) Today, the resurrected Lord Jesus says, “Come to me & I will give you rest for your souls.” Have you come to Him? Will you come to Him? He alone died & lives forevermore & has the keys of life & death.”

f) Maybe you’re here today & you’ve believed in Him & His resurrection, but you’re not experiencing that resurrection life. Come to Jesus. The more time you spend w/ Him & seek & trust Him & pray to Him & read His Word - the more His resurrection life will be stirred up in you.

g) The good news of the gospel is Jesus was delivered up to death for our sin & He was raised so we might be justified or made right or accepted by God. And He is risen! Let’s pray.