The Power of His Resurrection

1 Corinthians 15:12–13 NKJV

Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen.

1 Corinthians 15:14–15 NKJV

And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty. Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up—if in fact the dead do not rise.

1 Corinthians 15:16–17 NKJV

For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins!

1 Corinthians 15:18–19 NKJV

Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.

1 Corinthians 15:54–55 NKJV

So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?”

1 Corinthians 15:56–57 NKJV

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

Gallup poll: present religious persuasion and participation of men and women in the continental United States.

1945, 75 percent of people would have identified themselves in membership or in attendance with a church.

Today, that is now 47 percent.

In the same time frame, those who never attended would have identified themselves making up 9 percent, and today that number has risen to 30 percent.

Article in the Los Angeles Times that bore the heading “Why [America’s] Record Godlessness Is Good News for the Nation.”[2] A cynical piece concerning the secularization of our country.

We stand on the Truth of the Gospel that Jesus Christ was Resurrected!

There are three words that define the Resurrection: incomparable, indispensible, and inescapable.

The Resurrection is Incomparable!

He is not just resurrected like Jairus’s daughter, the widows son, or Lazarus

John 11:25 NKJV

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live.

Revelation 1:18 NKJV

I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death.

“Every day, some new ‘ism’ arises. But not all ideas are of equal value. Not every opinion can be given due weight. Once we succumb to ‘the dictatorship of relativism,’ as it has been properly called, and attempt to survive by accommodating ourselves to every passing [idea] and fad of modernism, our ship is lost.” And then he says, “We do not need a Church that will move with the world but a Church that will move the world.”

The Resurrection is Indispensible!

Christ’s Resurrection is confirmation to us that the Father has accepted His great sacrifice for us!

Romans 4:25 NKJV

who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification.

Romans 4:25 TPT

Jesus was handed over to be crucified for the forgiveness of our sins and was raised back to life to prove that he had made us right with God!

The Resurrection is not a theological appendix to the Crucifixion. Nice to have, but has no real application.

Christ’s Death and Resurrection are Interwoven!

One does not exist without the other!

1 Corinthians 15:1 NKJV

Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand,

1 Corinthians 15:3–5 NKJV

For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve.

There is no salvation for sin, unless Jesus is Alive!

This is why Paul says, Our preaching is useless, and your faith is in vain if Christ is not raised!

God’s dikaiosyne is not an attribute but a power, namely, “a power that brings salvation to pass.” Thus, “righteousness” does not mean moral perfection.

Isaiah 25:8 NKJV

He will swallow up death forever, And the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces; The rebuke of His people He will take away from all the earth; For the Lord has spoken.

1 Corinthians 15:54 NKJV

So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”

Death is not natural- that’s what humanity teaches us.

Death is the result of sin.

1 Corinthians 15:22 NKJV

For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.

Romans 6:23 NKJV

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

1 Corinthians 15:57 NKJV

But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

GIVES US!

God accepted Christ, and now the very righteousness that used to condemn us when we were apart from Christ – this righteousness is justifying us in Christ! The resurrected Christ is the proof and the “receipt” for our justification!

The Resurrection is Inescapable

It is inescapable because it makes clear that eternity is a reality for all of us!

Hebrews 9:27 NKJV

And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment,

Ecclesiastes 3:11 NKJV

He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end.

The only way to deprive death of its terror, is freedom from sin. And that is found in Christ alone.

Acts 17:31 NKJV

because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.”