Sermon Tone Analysis
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*IF CHRIST BE NOT RISEN*
*01-29-56B*
*I Corinthians 15:12-23*
Now, in your Bible, turn to the 15th Chapter of the I Corinthian letter.
And you can leave it open before you and follow the message tonight, the 15th Chapter of the I Corinthian letter.
This morning, we left off at the 11th Verse.
We take up now at the 12th Verse, and go through the 23rd.
And the sermon is divided is into two parts.
One: *IF CHRIST BE NOT RISEN*.
That’s the message delivered tonight.
And then, next Sunday when we pick it up, we give: *BUT NOW IS CHRIST RISEN*.
And if God shall help us, and if He gives that day and hour, by His grace, we shall give thee irrefutable proofs of the resurrection of Christ from the grave.
Now, the 15th of I Corinthians and the 12th Verse.
Let’s read it together.
Read it through the 23rd.
Do you see? That’s going to be the text and the passage tonight.
And we’re going to take it almost a verse at a time.
The 15th of I Corinthians, beginning at the 12th Verse, reading through the 23rd.
All right.
Together: Now if Christ be preached that He rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?
But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen:
And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.
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.
For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised:
And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.
Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.
If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.
But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.
For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.
For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at His coming.
Matthew Arnold was one of the great, great literary figures of England in the Victorian day.
When England had its highest glory in art, in literature, in empire, in kingdom, Matthew Arnold, I say was one of the great literary figures of the Victorian Era, the great climactic era of the British Empire.
And what if Matthew Arnold were right when he wrote, “Christ is dead.
For hence He lies in a lorn Syrian town, and on His grave with shining eyes, the Syrian stars look down”?
What if there be no raising of Christ and no resurrection of the dead?
The most colossal “if” in this universe is this “if” here.
In the 12th Verse: Now if Christ be preached that He rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?
And doubts don’t come one at a time.
They come by flocks.
They grow into multitudes.
Just like cormorants, just like vultures.
Whenever you see one, there’ll be another, and there’ll be another, and soon there’s a whole flock of them circling round and round and round, having found a decayed and corrupting corpse.
That’s what it is when you doubt.
You never doubt just one thing, one fundamental, one revelation, but they come by multitudes, and they circle and circle and circle.
And they go down and down and down.
Now, you look at this.
In the 12th Verse: Now, if Christ.
Now, look in the next verse: But if there’s no resurrection.
Now, the 14th: If Christ.
Now, the 15th: If so be.
Now, the 16th: If the dead rise not.
The 17th: If Christ be not raised.
The 19th: If in this life only, we have hope in Christ.
Look at those “ifs.”
There are seven of them.
If, if, if, if, and they go down and down and down and down.
And then each one of those “ifs” is followed by a tragic avowal.
You look at the first one.
The first one is in the 12th and the 13th Verses: If there’s no raising of Christ, then there’s no resurrection.
That’s the first “if.”
If Christ doesn’t live, then nobody lives.
And if nobody lives, then Christ doesn’t live.
They’re interlocked; they go together.
The first terrible “if” is this: If there’s no raising of the Lord and if there’s no resurrection of the dead, then the grave is locked.
All of our hopes and all of our aspirations and every dream that we have in life is destined to fall into a dark and unending grave.
Like Paul says here in the 32nd verse: If the dead rise not, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.
There’s not anything that matters.
Nothing.
Nothing at all.
Nothing.
Just a little life of an insect.
Compared to the vast eternity of God, here for a brief, short moment.
Then like a light, out forever.
What does it matter?
Nothing matters.
If, in this life only, we have hope in Christ, don’t worry about anything.
Don’t be concerned about anything.
Nothing matters.
The grave is the end of all, and by and by we fall into that open sepulcher, and that’s night and dark.
It’s annihilation.
It’s forever, done with and over.
That’s the first “if.”
Look at the second “if “ there in the 14th Chapter: And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, our preaching vain.
You can’t preach a dead Christ.
There’s no gospel to preach about a dead Christ.
Every great doctrine of this Bible is authenticated and validated by the resurrection of Jesus.
If there’s no resurrection of Christ, then every great revelation, and every great doctrine of the Bible is just an isolated fragment.
It’s a broken circle.
It stands separate and apart.
It has no meaning.
It has no cohesiveness.
There’s not anything to it but little bits, maybe, of moral teaching and a story.
But it all ends into abysmal and abject failure.
All of the great doctrines of the Bible, everything that a man preaches, is authenticated by the resurrection of Christ.
The deity of the Lord Jesus Himself.
In Romans 1:4: He was declared to be the Son of God -- God Himself.
By the power of the Holy Spirit in the resurrection from the dead.
If Christ is dead, He’s like any other man.
All of the men of every generation have died, and if Christ died and stayed dead, He’s just like any other man.
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