Everything’s Changed

INTRODUCTION

Good morning! If we have not met, my name is Daniel and I have the honor of serving as the pastor here at Taylor Road Baptist Church. If you’re new with us, I want to extend a warm welcome to you…I’d love to meet you after the service in our guest connect area…I’d love to give you a gift as a way of saying “Thank you” for worshipping with us today.

If you have a copy of God’s Word, I want to ask you to find 1 Corinthians chapter fifteen.

Twenty-five years ago this September, everything changed. Do you know what I’m talking about? 9/11…that’s right. It’s hard to believe that it’s been a quarter of a century! Man, we’re getting old!

But, for those of us who were old enough to really know what was going on, that day has been burned into our memories. You know exactly where you were. For the VAST majority of us, we had never experienced anything like that in our lives. We’d never seen that on our own soil. We’d never felt those feelings of fear and anger and, really, patriotism before.

But, those few hours that Tuesday morning changed everything—it changed the way we fly. It changed security protocols. It changed my wife’s family. She had a cousin die in the second tower. For a period of time it changed our daily lives. And, for an even more brief period of time, it brought unity to our nation. Do you remember the members of the House and the Senate standing on the Capitol steps singing “God Bless America?”

But, all of that was short-lived. You probably didn’t wake up this morning thinking about 9/11. In fact, you probably don’t even think about it except for that one day every year. You may go to NYC and visit the memorial and experience the emotions of the museum and being there at ground zero…but…let’s be real…it really doesn’t have an impact on your daily life. It affects one day a year and if you fly or go to big events you’ve just gotten used to everything and don’t think about that day 25 years ago.

>>TRANSITION<<

Two thousand years ago, an event took place that changed everything. And that event doesn’t just serve as a yearly component or holiday to the “story” of Christianity.

The resurrection of Jesus is not an afterthought. Everything hinges on the resurrection. Your eternity hinges on it…even your daily life hinges on it…whether or not you realize it.

The resurrection changes everything.

This morning, I want us to take a look at Paul’s writing to the Church in the city of Corinth in 1 Corinthians 15. Now, I want to set the context for you because that’s important. There were, in the Church, false teachers who were teaching that once believers die, that’s the end. That there is no hope beyond the grave.

One of the core teachings of the Bible, specifically, the teaching of Jesus, is that what happened to him on Easter morning—His resurrection from death to life—will one day happen to all of those who have been born again. One day, those who have been saved and have died, whose souls have gone on to be in the presence of the Lord…one day, when Jesus returns, our bodies will be raised from the dead.

This is foundational to the gospel and to the hope that we have as believers. That one day…what happened to Jesus will happen to us. Death will be swallowed up.

This is why Paul writes, beginning in verse 3…

1 Corinthians 15:3–5 “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.”

As of FIRST IMPORTANCE…and, yet, for many people who claim the name of Christ—the resurrection of Jesus is just an afterthought. It is something that, maybe, we think about once a year. Its life-changing power is not something that we walk in every single day.

Paul’s whole argument to the Corinthians who have been influenced by this false teaching of no resurrection from the dead is this—if you don’t believe in the bodily resurrection of the dead (this future hope) then you can’t believe that Jesus, Himself—fully God and fully human—was bodily raised from the dead.

1 Corinthians 15:13 “But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised.”

And, as we see, here in 1 Corinthians 15, if Christ has not been raised from the dead, the implications of this are devastating.

If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised, and if Christ has not been raised…

1) Everything is pointless.

1 Corinthians 15:14 “And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.”

Everything (preaching and faith…the fact that we’re here singing and all dressed up…walking through struggle/hardship/tragedy…and praying) is pointless (vs. 14)…why worship a dead man? Why long for the return of somebody who’s not coming back?!?! Why talk about a dead guy all the time? Go join another religion if you want to do that.

2) We are lying and misrepresenting God.

1 Corinthians 15:15 “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.”

I’m a pastor. I’ve been called to preach the gospel. If Christ hasn’t been raised from the dead...then I’m just an imposter.

Listen…God says, in the OT, that when the Messiah came He would die and rise again. If Jesus didn’t do that, then I and thousands of other preachers throughout the centuries have spent their lives saying he did, then we have done nothing but commit blasphemy…the unforgivable sin.

3) We are still lost in our sin.

1 Corinthians 15:17 “And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.”

What? I thought Jesus’ death on the cross was enough to take the punishment of God’s wrath for my sin! The cross is where our sin was paid for. The resurrection of Jesus is proof that God was satisfied in the substitutionary death of Jesus and the full payment of sin. The cross was the payment. The resurrection was the proof. If he had stayed dead, he would have just been another human who died.

Listen to what Paul says in Romans 4:23–25 “It (righteousness) will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.”

If Jesus has not been raised from the dead…

4) There is nothing (for us) beyond the grave.

1 Corinthians 15:18–19 “(If Christ is not raised) 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.”

And, here’s the sticking point…many of us will say “Oh, of course I believe that Jesus rose from the dead. Of course I do.” But…do you live every day like that?

Listen to me…you’re going to live every day of your life in such a way as if there is nothing beyond the grave…or you’re going to live every day of your life as if everything is beyond the grave.

This is why this matters…

Because Jesus has been raised from the dead...

1) Our standing before God can be changed.

The gospel is clear. God is clear in His word. Every single human being is guilty of sin and every human being, because of our sin, is separated from God because He is holy. But, because of Jesus’s substitutionary death on the cross, in our place, and because He took our sin and He gives us His righteousness and He has been raised from the dead…We can be forgiven of our sin and welcomed into a relationship with God!

Remember Romans 4:25…You can go from guilty, condemned, slave to sin to a forgiven and free child of God!

2) (As Christians) Our relationship to sin should change.

1 Corinthians 15:32–34 “What do I gain if, humanly speaking, I fought with beasts at Ephesus? If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.” Wake up from your drunken stupor, as is right, and do not go on sinning. For some have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame.”

Listen to what he’s saying…he’s saying, “stop living your life like this is all the life you’re ever going to have! Stop justifying sin

Paul says in the book of Romans that, when we were born again, we already experienced a “first” resurrection. We died to our old flesh/our sin and were raised to walk in newness of life. So…Christ put our sin to death on the cross…live like you’re dead to sin…like sin has no power over you.

3) Our relationship to this world should be changed.

1 Corinthians 15:22–28 “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. For “God has put all things in subjection under his feet.” But when it says, “all things are put in subjection,” it is plain that he is excepted who put all things in subjection under him. When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all.”

Paul’s focus is on the return of Christ. Because Jesus rose again from the dead…he will return again.

If these things are true…and you believe them to be true…how does this truth shape the way you live every single day? Let me ask you a question—what are you living for?

Live life to the fullest—squeeze every bit of joy and fun out of life.

REPEAT MAIN IDEA: You’re going to live every day of your life in such a way as if there is nothing beyond the grave…or you’re going to live every day of your life as if everything is beyond the grave.

He rose from the dead…he’s coming again. I will stand before Him. I will stand before him and give an answer for how I have spent my time as a Christian. Where I’ve spent my time. Parents…are we raising our kids to know more about the baseball fields or in growing in the love of and for and knowledge of the God who loves them, created them, and sacrificed His only begotten Son to save them. How I’ve loved. How I’ve witnessed. Men—how you’ve led your family. Loved your wife. Wives—how you’ve loved your husband. Your children.

Am I living a life that is getting as much out of this world as I can or am I living in such a way that I know what the world that is coming has infinite more joy in store for me?

THE RESURRECTION CHANGES EVERYTHING. IT CHANGES OUR STANDING BEFORE GOD. IT CHANGES OUR RELATIONSHIP TO SIN. IT CHANGES OUR RELATIONSHIP TO THIS WORLD.

If you are within the sound of my voice this morning—whether in this room or watching online—and you have never confessed your sin, turned away from your sin, and surrendered your life to Jesus for salvation, I am pleading with you. Call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ today and be saved. Don’t wait. Don’t put it off. One day it is going to be too late. And, when it’s too late, you will find yourself spending eternity separated from the presence of God enduring the wrath of God in hell.

Christian—are you living in the power of the resurrection? Are you living today—every day—as if you have a new standing before God? As a child of God? Are you living every day dead to sin…living in the freedom and the power of the risen Christ? Are you living every day as if Jesus might come back today? Where are you investing your time?