Sermon Tone Analysis

I CORIN.

15:12-34

“Ain’t No Grave Can Hold Me Down”

 

           I.

*The resurrection has personal implications.*

A.

Serious Personal Implications For Our Preaching

              B.

Serious Personal Implications For Our Believing

              C.

Serious Personal Implications For Our Witnessing

              D.

Serious Personal Implications For Our Dying

 

          II.

*The resurrection has historical implications.*

A.  Concerning The Past

                      B.  Concerning The Future

 

         III.

*The resurrection has ethical implications.*

That may be poor grammer but it great theology.

Its a wonderful divine truth and a soon coming reality.

If Jesus Christ rose again from the dead we will, if we don’t then Jesus Christ did not, they both hang together.

If Jesus rose again from the dead that is the assurance that every believer is going to have a resurrection, but if dead men do not come back from the dead then the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the cruelest hoax ever perpetrated on the human race.

That is the substance of the argument that Paul gives in these verses.

He is saying to us that the two go together: the resurrection of Jesus and our resurrection.

The foundation of the Christian faith is the resurrection of Jesus.

The cornerstone of what we believe as children of God is the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Now this is a subject that is very important and it is of vital interest to every one of us.

All of us know we’re going to have to die unless Jesus Christ comes again, so it becomes extremely important whether or not the resurrection is true.

Admit the resurrection of Christ and you admit the other, deny the resurrection of the believer and you deny the resurrection of Jesus Christ; they both go together.

Now there are certain implications that are to be made as a result of what we believe about this.

If you do not believe that people come back from the dead that has certain implications.

If you believe, according to the scriptures, that dead men do come back from the dead that has certain implications.

So I want us to consider the implications of what we believe about the resurrection from these verses.

First of all, what you believe about the resurrection has *PERSONAL IMPLICATIONS.

*There are certain deeply personal implications that are made on the basis of what you believe about this entire matter.

For instance it has implications concerning our* preaching*.

Paul gives a series of “ifs” in the opening verses that I have read.

Several times he says “if” and he raises the unthinkable alternative, the possibility that maybe Jesus Christ did not rise again from the dead, the possibility that Jesus Christ may still be buried somewhere in a forgotten tomb in Jerusalem.

So in this series of “ifs” he raises the personal implications and the first of these is an implication concerning our preaching.

He says in */verse 14,/* /If Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain.

/Now the Bible says that it pleases God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.

If you will study the preaching of the early apostles for instance, as given to us in the book of Acts, you will find that the theme of the early preachers was without fail the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The apostles proclaimed that as they keynote of every message that they delivered.

You see, the resurrection is the keystone of all of the preaching of the believers and it is that which makes the content of the Christian gospel altogether unique.

Now other religions have messages of ethical content, they have messages that have to do with personal behavior and personal morals and values, but there is something unique about the preaching of the Christian faith because we believe that we have a Savior who not only died on a cross to pay the penalty for our sin but also that He rose again in order to give us the dynamic to overcome sin and to live the victorious life.

But Paul says all of that goes out the window if there is no resurrection.

If the resurrection of Jesus is not true, and if you and I are not going to be raised from the dead one of these days, I’ve wasted twenty-three years of my life.

I would be just as well to be on a street corner somewhere hawking newspapers as to preach the gospel if it is not true.

In fact, ladies and gentlemen, if it’s not true you’re wasting your time, there is no point in coming to church, there is no reason for you to come and listen to men proclaim the Bible, the gospel, if the resurrection of Jesus is not true.

There’s no need to give money to the causes of Jesus Christ.

The whole thing washes out if the resurrection of Jesus Christ is not true.

But if it is not true then our preaching is vain, it is meaningless.

But here’s a second thing; it has a personal implication in that if the resurrection is not true then your*/ believing/* is in vain.

He says in verse 14 your faith is also vain.

Down in */verse 17/*, if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain and you are yet in your sins.

Faith is only as legitimate as its object.

It is the object of the faith that is essential.

*/Romans 10:9 And again in Romans 4:25,/* He was raised again for our justification.

You and I have put our trust in that truth, you and I have committed ourselves to the reality of the resurrection of Jesus Christ but, friend, if Jesus Christ is not alive then we are believing in a fairy tale, if Christ did not literally come from that grave on the third day then our faith is useless, it is vain.

Well what does that mean, Preacher?

Well it just simply means we’ve been believing in something that has no substance, like people believe in the Easter bunny.

it means we’ve put our trust in something that cannot help us, it means, according to Paul, that we are still in our sins.

John 8:21 (NKJV) “Then Jesus said to them again, “I am going away, and you will seek Me, and will die in your sin.

Where I go you cannot come."”

What a serious statement that is from the lips of our Lord.

Sin, the great tragedy of man’s existence; sin, the great horror of the soul of man; sin, the chain that binds us; sin, the cover that blinds us; sin, the shackles that hold us down; sin, the great tragedy; sin, the great problem in the hearts and the lives of individuals.

Well, you see, ladies and gentlemen, if Jesus did not come back from the dead we have no message that deals with the problem of sin in the human heart.

That’s why it is a serious matter.

Our preaching is vain if Jesus is still dead.

Our faith is vain if Jesus Christ is still dead.

And then number three I want you to notice he says also that our *witnessing* is false if Jesus is still dead.

Did you notice that in */verse 15?/* Paul says we are found false witnesses of God.

He says, We’ve been testifying of God that He raised up Christ from the dead.

He said, Whom He raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not.

In other words all the apostles were false witnesses, all of the apostles were liars.

In fact Jesus himself was a liar if He didn’t come back from the dead.

He consistently said to His apostles, They’ll kill me, they’ll put me in the ground, and the third day I will rise again from the dead.

Now you can’t have it both ways.

You cannot say that Jesus Christ was a sincere man on the one hand and deny the resurrection on the other hand, because if Jesus did not come back from the dead as He said He would He was a liar and He was not a good man.

So, ladies and gentlemen, our witnessing today is a waste of time if Jesus is not alive.

Auka Indians.

And it was the story of how the sister of Nate Saint, Rachel Saint, went back and for these 32 years has buried her life as a witness for Jesus Christ among the very tribes that took the life of her own brother.

And I thought about that dear saint of God and I thought about how that many of God’s people have faithfully, under dangerous situations, borne witness to the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

But you see, folks, if Jesus is still dead all of that goes down the tube, it’s all a mockery, it’s all a fake, and you and I are fakes when we tell people that if they repent of their sin and believe in the living Lord Jesus their lives will be changed, their sins will be forgiven and they’ll go to heaven when they die.

Oh, friends, what a serious matter it would be to deny the resurrection of Jesus.

But I want you to notice something else.

It also has serious personal implications for our *dying*.

Look at */verse 18./*

That means those who are dead in the Lord, those who have already died in the Lord.

Now that gets very close to the hearts of most of you who are sitting in this building .

I would suppose that most of you have had the experience of losing a loved one.

Some of you have lost a dad and he’s already gone on, others of you have lost a precious mother and she has gone on, some of you have had the heartache and the sorrow of seeing one of your own sons or daughters die, be snatched away, and they’ve already gone on.

Now the question is, Will you ever see them again?

Will you ever seen them now that they have died?

Well, friends, if Jesus Christ didn’t come back from the dead Paul says those who are asleep in Jesus are perished, and he’s simply saying you’ll never see them again.

If Jesus came out of that tomb, then you will see them again.

And I want to tell you what, friends, that’s what gives believers hope, that’s what keeps you going in the heartache and when the tears go coursing down your cheeks as you face the loss of your own loved ones.

It is the truth that one of these days we’re going to see them again.

Many of us preachers have known what it is to walk into services and hear some little choir, some group of singers, sing, I’ll meet you in the morning.

But, friend, you’re not going to meet them in the morning if Jesus Christ is still dead.