Sermon Tone Analysis

We gathered together last week to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus—Resurrection Morning!

Easter egg hunts and delicious Easter lunches.

Easter baskets and Easter dresses, all to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus.

We take one Sunday to celebrate the resurrection, and now we move on.

We’ve met our obligation to celebrate the resurrection one Sunday a year.

Easter is a big deal.

It’s a big, important Sunday.

But, if we understand the Resurrection, we would realize that every Sunday is Easter Sunday.

He is as risen today as He was last week.

He is Risen!

He is Risen, indeed!

This is not a once-a-year celebration; this is an every-day-of-the-year reality.

Jaroslav Pelikan says this about the resurrection:

“If Christ is risen, nothing else matters.

And if Christ is not risen—nothing else matters.”

-Jaroslav Pelikan

How true it is that the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead changes absolutely everything.

And if He wasn’t raised from the dead, that changes absolutely everything.

If Jesus wasn’t raised from the dead, if the tomb still held His bones, there would be nothing that differentiates Jesus from any of the leaders of other world religions.

Without the resurrection, there’s nothing to separate Jesus from Muhammed or the Buddha or Confucius or Mary Baker Eddy or Joseph Smith.

Without the resurrection, Jesus is just another dead religious leader.

Without the resurrection, there is no Church.

There’s no reason for us to be here this morning.

Without the resurrection, “nothing else matters.”

Last Sunday as we celebrated Resurrection Morning, Paul made a compelling case for the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

Kids, you should know that the resurrection of Jesus is among the most historically verifiable events in history.

Don’t let anyone tell you that Jesus was not raised from the dead or the that Bible is inaccurate or just a bunch of made-up stories.

What the Bible teaches is true, 100% accurate; it has been verified over and over again.

The Resurrection is a fact.

It’s truth.

Jesus was crucified, publicly.

After He died, publicly, His body was taken down off the cross, publicly.

He was placed in Joseph’s tomb, publicly.

After three days, the tomb was empty—publicly empty.

And Jesus appeared to the 12 disciples, publicly, and then to 500 of the brothers and sisters—this He did publicly, not in secret, not in hiding.

This was not mass hallucination.

It’s history.

It’s reality.

Jesus rose from the dead.

And so that means you and I have the hope of being similarly raised.

“The central, defining doctrine and claim of the Christian faith is the resurrection of Jesus Christ, whom God brought forth from the dead.

The resurrection of the dead refers to the promise based on the bodily resurrection of Jesus, that all believers will one day join Christ in the resurrection.

Believers will be transformed, that is, renewed both morally and physically with “spiritual” bodies adapted for eternal life with God.”

Some of the Corinthians were denying, not that Jesus rose from the dead (remember: they believed this re: 1 Corinthians 15:11), but they were denying that the followers of Jesus would be raised.

Virtually all ancient pagans believed that there was no resurrection whatsoever.

Some in Corinth were denying a general resurrection, likely because it made no sense within their surrounding worldview.

There was no room for belief of resurrection in the culture they’d grown up in.

But Christians—Jesus’ followers, Jesus-people—have to believe in, not only His resurrection but a general resurrection.

To deny the resurrection of Jesus is to deny the Christian faith.

To deny the general resurrection of believers is to deny that Jesus was raised from the dead.

And this is a problem that creates a bunch of other problems.

Paul wants the Corinthians (and us!) to imagine reality as if there was no resurrection from the dead.

This is an “It’s a Wonderful Life” scenario, getting a glimpse of how life would be in an altered reality.

Paul gives us a picture of what would be true if the resurrection wasn’t.

It’s grim.

It’s dark and depressing.

He poses the question: What if there was no resurrection?

If there was no resurrection:

Christ is not raised

Preaching is useless

Faith is in vain

God has been misrepresented

Faith is futile

We are still in our sins

The dead in Christ have perished forever

We are the most pitied

We have no hope

Our suffering is pointless

In fact, there’s no reason to do anything

In two sections (vv.

12-19 and vv.

29-34) Paul explores what the present and future look like without resurrection.

Let’s read these one at a time.

If you have your Bible (and I hope you do) please turn with me to 1 Corinthians 15 (page 1,788 in the red pew Bible in front o you).

A Resurrectionless Present

Some of the Corinthians have been saying “there is no resurrection of the dead.”

Paul questions, “Uh…how can you say that?

Are you sure you want to say that?”

And then Paul proposes a list of consequences of a resurrectionless present.

The biggest problem with asserting that there is no resurrection of the dead is that it means Jesus wouldn’t have been raised.

Paul has, as we saw last week in the first verses of 1 Corinthians 15, set forth the case for the resurrected Jesus—that He has indeed been raised from the dead and appeared to at least 512 of His followers after His resurrection.

Some have supposed that to say “Jesus was raised from the dead” was simply a fancy first-century way of saying, “God’s cause continues!” or “I still regard jesus as my leader and teacher.”

But that’s not it at all; that’s not the extent of it.

If there’s no resurrection of the dead, there’s no resurrection of Jesus, and if Jesus isn’t raised, we lose everything else.

It’s only the resurrection that makes the crucifixion appear anything other than a horrible end for another failed messiah.

Without a risen Christ, a resurrectionless present is grim and pointless.

If there is no resurrection, Paul says next, that both preaching and faith are useless.

Christian preaching and Christian faith are only as valid and as credible as the resurrection message on which they are founded.

Without the resurrection, as this verse highlights using the word twice, both preaching and faith are useless.

This is the same word used in verse 10 translated there as without effect.

If the present is resurrectionless, preaching and faith are both without effect.

They have no use.

They accomplish nothing.

They do nothing.

They are dead.

If there is no resurrection, Paul and anyone else who has preached and/or testified are false witnesses.

If there is no resurrection, if Jesus hasn’t been raised, than anyone who preached or taught or shared that He was would be false teachers and would therefore be under God’s judgment.

To give false witness is an offense against the law of God (the 9th Commandment—do not bear false witness).

God-fearing people, like Paul and the other apostles, wouldn’t willingly give false testimony about God.

It’s pretty serious: if there is no resurrection than any and all who have said Jesus was raised from the dead would be telling lies about God.