Untitled Sermon (2)

Easter – “First Importance”

#425 Grace Church

4/21/19

SERMON:

------

It was a normal day like any other day in September 2017 . I was in the pickup line to get my daughter from school when I got the call. The test results are in – your biopsy came back positive for melanoma cancer.

I honestly couldn’t believe the words that I had heard. Melanoma, of course, is the most dangerous form of skin cancer. If it metastasizes, there is a 10% survival rate for the next 5 years.

I had gone to the dermatologist for a completely separate reason and while doing the exam my doctor had found a spot on my arm that was so small I had never even noticed it. And now I’m getting potentially life ending news?! That phone call began to rock my world. But at the same time, it was the kindest call I could have gotten. Because I would could have easily left that spot unchecked. But at the time they caught it, it had not yet broken through the layers of skin. Which meant that there was still a way to deal with my spot of death – a surgery to remove it and IF that’s done, the survival rate was at 98%.

You best believe I was making an appointment as fast as reasonably possible. The cancer was removed, and on a different day I got a different phone call that the test showed no more cancer. That was a day of celebration!

Easter is a day of celebration – it’s the good news of the amazing power of God to save us from the wretched disease of our sin through the cross and resurrection of Jesus.

There’s nothing more serious and more joyful in all the world!

We’re going to consider these things and what they mean for us today.

SCRIPTURE:

15 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.

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, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.

OPENING PRAYER:

LORD, would you show us today why Easter matters? Would you help us to hear through the busy noise in our lives the truth of what you’ve done? Speak to us like through a megaphone this morning.

SERMON:

I want you to see this -- The passage is clear – this is written for Christians – those who are following Jesus. It will undeniably apply to you too if are not a follower of Jesus yet – but it was actually written to the church, to the believers. Verse 1:

“Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved,

Paul’s concern is to remind the church of what they already know – about what they’ve already received and that which they are currently believing about Jesus –

He is reminding them because he doesn’t assume that past faith nor present faith will automatically equal future faith. And there is a devastating cost if you don’t persist in your faith until the very end.

So, 15 chapters into this letter to the church in Corinth, He goes back to the fundamentals and talks about this thing called the gospel.

What is the gospel? The gospel is some really good news that overcomes some really bad news.

In this text we see bad news – a diagnosis of terminal spiritual sickness. And we see the good news – the remedy of Jesus.

1. THE DIAGNOSIS: You need to be saved.

What do we need to be saved from? The truth is that we have multiple problems. This isn’t a one symptom only kind of a deal. It’s complex. There are layers. As we peel them back we see that our problems are deep and pervasive and deadly.

At the root level, we need to be saved from our sin (Verse 3). You might think of sin as just a list of forbidden things or actions. If you say this word, its sin. If you murder or steal, its sin. Therefore, if you can avoid doing the bad things, and if you strive to do good things, you can escape sin, you think. Oh but sin is so much deeper than a list of do’s and don’ts.

Sin is the impulse inside every one of us to doubt God and to trust ourselves.

It’s the impulse to resist God as creator and to live as our own God.

It’s the impulse to reject God’s truth and to live as truth-determiners.

Sin is personal. It’s the very air we breathe. It’s inside us, in our inner being, pulling us to do its bidding. It controls what we love and what we want and what we hate and therefore what we do.

There’s not a 10 minute stretch where I don’t have some impulse to doubt God – I doubt his provision, I doubt his wisdom about the way my life is unfolding, doubt his love for me, doubt his power to change things.

And I can doubt God while I stand on this stage and preach. And you can do any of these things right here while you sit at church listening to me preach.

Anything, absolutely any act or attitude which is owing to a lack of trust in God is sin, no matter how moral it may appear to men. God looks on the heart." John Piper

So you can be a flagrant sinner who just unashamedly is living your life to get whatever it is you want, no thought about God or his glory or truth as He defined it.

Or you can be a cleaned up, moral, even a religious church going person, who cares more about the way you look and come across than you do with actually believing the truth of God and His glory.

Both are in the same camp. Both the religious and irreligious person reject God as God. That’s what it means to sin.

See when we move away from a simple list of do’s and don’ts and into biblical Christianity, we see that we are far worse off than we thought. We sin so much we don’t even recognize it’s presence! And every generation, from Adam until now, has been infected with this disease of sin from birth. And like the deadliest form of melanoma, it spreads.

It starts off against God, but it spreads to others too.

Whether it’s you and your husband fighting over the money or it’s the gossip you passed on at work, or the harsh, angry words you said to your kids on the way over here this morning, or the greed that drives you to work 14 hour days, no matter how hard we try to keep it from spreading, its everywhere. Because it’s in EVERYONE.

That’s why Paul writes in “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” EVERYONE. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Literally we can say, “To sin is human”.

You know what I’m talking about because you know the thoughts inside your head that no one else knows about, and what you’ve done. You know what it’s like to be hurt by the sins of others. No one is immune from the plague of sin. AND…

This disease carries with it two disastrous consequences.

The first is death. Everyone in this room has probably been touched by death in some form. You’ve lost family. You’ve lost friends. Because of death, we all live with a certain sense of foreboding – what does this day hold? It’s like a dark cloud, that looms over everything we do, casting its great shadow over our families and our friends and our futures.

Over 200 people who woke up this morning ready to worship have had their lives cut off by suicide bombers.

And you might go to a funeral and you hear people trying to make sense of death, rationalizing it as if it is simply a natural part of the circle of life.

But if you’ve walked through watching someone you love die ---- every fiber in your being screams that this is not NATURAL. This is not right. This is WRONG ON EVERY LEVEL imaginable. WE were meant to LIVE!

Death is a signal to us that the world is not how it should be – Something is very wrong.

Theologically speaking, we DIE because of the presence of sin. Our bodies are dying because we’ve cut ourselves off from God. If your lying in the hospital bed, hooked up to an oxygen tank, and you grab a hold of the wires and twist them and turn them and squeeze, you are going run out of air.

That’s what sin has done to our bodies – spiritually speaking, we were created to breath the oxygen of God, and we’ve cut ourselves off. And in its place, we’re breathing in the pollution of the world and the smog of sin is killing us.

It’s no wonder that tells us that “the wages of sin is death”. In the very beginning God told Adam he would die if he disobeyed God’s word, and that’s exactly what has happened. Adam’s sin has spread through the history of the world and Adam’s death has spread with it.

It’s amazing that we can fly a person to the moon but and we can FACETIME talk across to the other side of the planet, but not one DR has been able to find the cure for death.

From Adam to Noah to George Washington to our great grandchildren – we all need saving from death.

The second consequence of our sin is that we will face the judgment of God.

Our sin doesn’t just destroy our bodies, that’s the symptom. It’s presence in us is the ultimate offense against the holiness and righteousness and justice of God. We are taking the breath that God gave us and using it to stab Him in the back. So sin is act of treason against God.

I asked my kids a few years ago why God couldn’t just forgive sin….why can’t he just be like, ah its no big deal? Go on your way…..and they were like, hmmmm. I’m not sure.

I said to them something like this, “Imagine a judge who sits on his chair and listens to cases all day long. The first trial of the day is in and all the evidence points against him. He’s undeniably guilty. The jury finds him guilty. But the judge says, nah its no big deal. Get out of here before I change my mind.

The second trial of the day comes in and the evidence is presented and the defendant is unmistakably guilty. No question. And the jury finds him guilty. But the judge says, yeah but cmon, do we actually expect people to follow the law? You can go free. And the defendant is released.

And this scenerio repeats itself with the third and fourth case and every trial for the rest of the day. What would you think about that judge?

He’s CORRUPT! He’s not exercising justice!

Judges who don’t judge rightly are not qualified to be a judge! In the same way, God MUST PUNISH OUR SIN.

FOR HIM TO OVERLOOK YOUR smug arrogance and your out of control anger and your pornographic lust and your selfish complaints and your lazy “I’ll get to it laters” would make him NOT JUST AND THEREFORE NOT GOD. And that’s impossible. God MUST judge sin.

“…it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment…”

And so the diagnosis for whole world is grim:

Infected by sin.

Fatal in all.

Guilty as charged.

Judged by God.

We need to be saved. YOU need to be saved. This is personal.

This is a matter of first importance. It’s the disorienting call to tell you that you have cancer. But there’s good news behind that – there is a remedy for this disease that will save you.

2. THE REMEDY: The Gospel – Jesus saves

3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received:

Paul’s not just a doctor – he’s actually also a patient. A fellow sinner who has himself been given the life-saving remedy from sin and death and judgment -- AND IT IS FOUND IN BELIEVING THE TRUTH OF THE GOSPEL. This is the medicine that gives life to the dying soul.

This is of FIRST IMPORTANCE. Not your bank account. Not your 401k. Not your stocks. Not your favorite sports team. Not your house value. Not your resume. Not your kids’ obedience. Not your marital dreams.

Get this piece right and everything else starts to fall into place.

The matter of first importance is the Cross and the Resurrection – the gospel.

THE CROSS:

A. Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures

Oh there is nothing more important for us than this! What Paul reports in these 5 words has changed the face of human history forever – CHRIST DIED FOR OUR SINS.

What does this mean? He became a substitute for us.

In the Old Testament, the people of God offered up sacrifices as a means of being reconciled to God. describes the once a year Day of Atonement. Two male goats were taken and killed as a sin offering to God – one for the sins of Aaron and one for the sins of the people. Then a third goat was taken and they prayed over the goat, confessing the sins of the nation of Israel over this animal, and then it was released out into the wilderness.

In the divine plan of God, Jesus became the sin bearer so we can go free. “the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

On Good Friday, we sang together the song, “The Wonderful Cross”. Do you realize that apart from this transfer taking place, we are getting dressed up and coming together to sing about a man getting murdered in a horrific way? That’s kind of twisted. There’s nothing Wonderful about that cross.

But what makes the cross wonderful – and what makes GOOD FRIDAY GOOD – is that Jesus was indeed GOD saving us, the substitute for the sinner – absorbing the full righteous wrath of God against sin, so that we can go free.

He was the willingly sacrifice for the sins of His people. He willingly allowed himself to suffer the torture of the cross by the hands of men so that he could willingly bear he cup of wrath for the sins of God’s people. ON THE CROSS – God was saving us from sin, from death – God was even saving us from Himself -- GOD.

Listen to what he’s done!!

--In his death, Christ defeated sin.

24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.

Sin can no longer keep us from relationship with God.

--In his death, Christ defeated death:

“Death is swallowed up in victory.”

“O death, where is your victory?

O death, where is your sting?”

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Death will no longer have the last word for the Christian.

--Through his death, Christ defeated judgment.

“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

All of the punishment that we deserve was taken by Christ.

--In Christ, we have the promise of eternal life

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

And what is thoroughly amazing is that we don’t need to just take someone’s word for it. We can KNOW this is true. Because Paul doesn’t conclude his good news with philosophy, but with historical facts: JESUS WAS BURIED // JESUS ROSE AGAIN

B. He was buried (v4)

Why would this be included? Because the burial of Jesus demonstrated that he didn’t simply pass out on the cross, that he wasn’t barely alive and rehabilited back to health, he was dead and buried.

C. He undeniably rose again

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, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.

Paul is laying out his case. The evidence shows that Jesus rose from the dead. This was the plan all along and now it’s happened just like Jesus predicted in . The tomb is empty.

Now that may seem impossible or like a fairy tale to some – because most people that die stay dead. But all of the evidence shows that Jesus rose again.

Paul says that he appeared to Cephas (that’s a reference to Peter), then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time – did all 500 people mass hallucinate at the same time, the same way? There’s exactly zero counts of that ever happening in history, which is one less occurrence than the resurrection.

Paul even goes out of his way to say that most of these brothers who saw the Lord were still alive. They could give verifiable testimony of their encounter with Christ. Many brothers who followed the Lord were ostracized and/or martyred for their faith, so there wasn’t a lot of incentive to make this up. It was a public event, not done in secret. This wasn’t four guys getting drunk and making up a crazy story that got out of control.

Easter is the pinnacle of the Christian celebrations because it proves that Christ did all that he promised.

God has been both just by punishing sins AND the justifier of the ungodly.

We have forgiveness with God for every wicked thing we’ve done – and we’ve BEEN made alive in Christ to live for Him like we were meant to all along.

And just as Jesus died and rose again, so will WE rise again on the final day to enter into God’s glory – HERE’S THE KEY WORD:: IF

IF – MASSIVE WORD IN THIS SENTENCE.

IF you do the surgery, you will live.

IF we continue to hold fast to this gospel, you will live.

Go back up to verse 2 --

and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you. —unless you believed in vain.

Paul’s saying if you keep taking your medicine, not forgetting, not ignoring, if you keep taking it consistently, If you keep turning from your sin in repentance and you keep receiving what Christ did for you by FAITH – you will be saved.

Let me speak personally to you now:

--- To the Christian who is weighed down by your sin – look to the POWER of the RESURRECTION.

You don’t have to keep living like that.

When Christ was raised, you were raised with him in the newness of life. The life of sin you were bound to before Christ is gone and you’ve been given new power to resist sin and glorify God. This Easter, let the cross help you remember the cost of your sin and turn from it as you turn back to God.

--- To the Christian who is weary, weighed down by life – look to the HOPE of the RESURRECTION.

Christ is the first of those who are going to be resurrected. He’s coming back to get all of those who are His. Set your eyes on the great hope of the future.

Everyone will rise.

To the skeptic, look to the TRUTH of the resurrection -- then let me ask you: what is your answer for the empty tomb?

The apostle Paul says he was raised. Peter says he was raised. Luke said he was raised. The history of the church says he was raised. Even secular historians like Josephus have recorded Jesus’ life and death and the empty tomb. What do you say?

And before you take up the task, be warned that many have gone before you and have come to the place of faith in Christ trying.

That Jesus wasn't really dead? Medically impossible.

That Jesus' disciples stole the body? There were trained soldiers guarding his tomb. Read the end of Matthew’s gospel.

That Jesus' disciples were lying? All of them gave up their lives in martyrdom except 12. They did that for a known lie? Never.

That Jesus' disciples were deceived? All 500 people he showed himself to deceived at the same time? Not even in states where marijuana is legal would this be possible.

There is only one explanation for the empty tomb that makes any sense and it’s that Jesus kept his word --- that God raised him from the dead. Which means HIS WORDS ARE TRUE, HE IS KING.

And if you bow your knee before him today you will never have to fear the cancer of His judgment.

Would you consider doing that today? Following Jesus?

You aren’t too young. You aren’t too old. You aren’t too far gone. You haven’t missed your window. Today is the day. Right now is the time.

You are being offered the gift of the gospel – This is truly of first importance.

ALL YOUR SIN FOR HIS GRACE – WHAT A GLORIOUS EXCHANGE.