What If There Had Been No Easter?

1 Corinthians 15:12-20

INTRODUCTION

Harry Houdini was an amazing man. He had the flexibility of an eel, the lives of a cat, the genius to sneer at fetters and laugh at locks.

He had been sealed in coffins, canvas bags, milk cans, beer barrels, riveted into boilers and other prisons, but he always escaped.

That is until October, 1926. He was taken to the prison house of death. His wife continually tried to contact him, but on the 10th anniversary of his death, she turned off the light over his portrait.

Jesus was different. On the third day He stirred in that dark tomb. His body pulsated with life and He left the cloth wrappings that had been around it like a cocoon forsaken by a butterfly. He passed through the rocky walls of that tomb alive forever more.

The angel rolled away the stone - not to let Jesus out but to let the disciples in.

But consider this paralyzing question - What if there had been no Easter? What if Jesus is not risen? Paul addresses that question.

I. PREACHING WOULD BE PROFITLESS

1 Cor. 15:14

“And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.”

1. Preaching would be an exercise in futility. Why? Because a dead redeemer is no redeemer at all.

2. The liberal does not seem to realize this. A liberal preacher said, "His body lies in a nameless Syrian tomb. but His deathless spirit goes marching on." That man might as well step out of the pulpit and get an honest job.

3. One cannot have true Christianity without the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ anymore than he could have mathematics without numbers or music without the musical scale.

1 Cor. 15:1-4

“Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; [2] By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. [3] For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; [4] And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:”

Listen, There is no gospel to preach without the resurrection.

II. FAITH WOULD BE FOOLISH

1 Cor. 15:14

And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.

1. Faith is no better than its object.

2. How foolish to put faith in a dead man. Mohammed died - he's dead; Confucius died - he's dead; Jesus died and rose again.

Romans 1:4

And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead:

A teacher asked her pupils, "Who is the greatest living man?" Some wrote the names of famous men and prominent persons, but one little boy wrote Jesus. The teacher replied, "I said living man." "He is living, teacher," the boy answered.

III. DISCIPLES WOULD BE DECEIVERS

1 Cor. 15:15-16

Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not. [16] For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised:

1. It was not that they were merely mistaken, but they were liars and frauds. All of the Scriptures that they would have written would be a bundle of lies.

Can you imagine that Peter was a rascal, Paul a con artist, and John a deceiver?

Remember these witnesses suffered and died for their faith. Even secular history tells us this. Martyrs and hypocrites are not made of the same stuff. Martyrs and hypocrites are not made of the same stuff.

Men may live for a lie, but they will not knowingly die for one. Men do not go to prison and to the flogging post for what they believe to be a fairy tale.

People tell lies to get out of trouble not into it.

2. It is said of these early Christians long ago:

"They live each in his native land, but as though they were not really at home there. They share in all duties like citizens and suffer all hardships like strangers. Every foreign land is to them a father land, and every father land is a foreign land. They dwell on earth but are citizens of heaven. They obey the laws that men make, but their lives are better than the laws. They love all men but are persecuted by all."

IV. SIN WOULD BE SOVEREIGN

1 Cor. 15:17

And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.

1. The resurrection shows that God has accepted Calvary's sacrifice as an atonement for sin.

Had anything been lacking in that sacrifice or in the character of Jesus' like He would still be in the tomb - just another religious teacher.

2. Without the resurrection your hope of forgiveness would not be worth half a hallelujah.

Romans 4:24-25

But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead;

"Living - He loved me,

Dying - He saved me,

Buried - He carried my sins far away;

Rising - He justified, freely forever:

One day He's coming - O glorious day!"

V. DEATH WOULD HAVE DOMINION

1 Cor. 15:18

Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.

1. If this is all there is, then life is a bad joke. Our loved ones have died and gone forever.

2. The early Christians were persecuted above the ground in the coliseum of ancient Rome. They were forced to go beneath ground in the Catacombs to pray and to bury their dead. There are at least 60 of these Catacombs known. In total they are 600 miles in length. They are about 8 feet high and 3 to 5 feet wide. Both pagans and Christians bury their dead there.

Here are some of the hopeless inscriptions on pagan graves:

Live for the present hour since we're sure of nothing else.

I will lift up my hands against the gods who took me away at the age of 20 though I had done no harm.

Once I was not. Now I am not. I know nothing about it and it is no concern of mine.

Traveler curse me not as you pass, for I am in darkness and cannot answer.

3. But how different were the graves of the Christians. Some of their bodies had been mutilated and some had their heads severed.

Here lies Marcia, put to rest in the dream of peace.

Lawrence, to his sweetest son, bourn away of angels.

Called he went away in peace.

Victorious and peace and in Christ.

4. A seminary professor took his preschooler into a funeral home to see the body of his mother. "She's just sleeping, Daddy. I've seen her like that before. Wake up, Mommy, wake up." "Son, when Jesus comes, He will wake her up."

5. On Philip's grave marker - "Yes, Lord."

6. Death is only a shadow if you know the Lord. It may frighten you, but it cannot hurt you. Keep your face to the light, and it will fall behind you.