Our Living Hope 4/17/22

This Resurrection Sunday morning I declare to you what humanity declares improbable — actually, they declare with absolute certainty that it is impossible…

That on the third day after His crucifixion, Jesus rose from the dead.

In fact many sneer at what we are celebrating today.

But what they sneer at, we celebrate.

We hold onto with joy unspeakable and full of glory.

It is our living hope.

He, Jesus, is our Living Hope.

Over the past several months we have faced many difficult losses.

Only by clinging to our Living Hope have we been able to get through the pain and the sorrow.

We have had several men in our church die.

This morning we have several widows among us.

Some of which became widows in the last several months.

How can these widows deal with their loss?

How can anyone deal with loss?

Not just the loss of a husband, but the loss of a son like the previous pastor of this church and his wife (the Broadheads) when their son died a few weeks ago.

Or the loss of a brother, like the Broadhead’s daughter who lives here in Blairsville, or my wife who lost her brother this past year.

Or the loss of a father, like Sister Patty just a few weeks ago, and Eric and his family at the beginning of December.

How can anyone deal with the loss of a daughter, a mother, a friend?

How do we cope with death?

How can we possibly handle such devastation?

Those of us who are in Christ, do so through hope.

The Living Hope about which we just sang.

Jesus Christ is that living Hope who defeated death and the sting of death.

Who according to Hebrews 2 has defeated the FEAR of death.

Who according to the end of this chapter has given us complete victory over death:

1 Corinthians 15:54–57 (NASB95) But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, “DEATH IS SWALLOWED UP in victory. 55 “O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY? O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING?” 56 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.

We anchor our lives in Jesus, the Living Hope when we:

Receive, by faith, the good news of the resurrection

Stand in the hope that the Good news of the Resurrection gives

Personally experiencing the salvation the Good News of the Resurrection brings

Tenaciously hold to the Good News of the Resurrection

Receiving by faith, the good news of the resurrection

1 Corinthians 15:1a (NASB95) Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, …

Have you RECEIVED the Gospel, the Good News of the Resurrection?

NOT, have you heard about it — have you RECEIVED it.

From the start I have to say that, to many, this Good News of the Resurrection seems unbelievable.

Being able to receive it requires faith.

Unfortunately many have stumbled right here.

Many have rejected it.

And they have lost out.

To many, the idea of a resurrection of the body seems foolish.

Maybe they could believe in a revival of someone who seemed dead, or who were very close to dead.

But to believe that someone who has been dead for 3 days has not only come back to life — but will never again die?

AS I said a few minutes ago, there are those who sneer at the mention of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

Up until Jesus, everyone who came back to life from the dead, were just revived — not resurrected.

We put our hope in the resurrection — not revival.

We aren’t going to come back to life only to die again.

We will come back to life in a glorified body NEVER to die again.

But many, many sneer at such a declaration.

In Acts 17 we read of the Apostle Paul declaring the message of salvation to the philosophers and “religious” seekers at Mars Hill in Athens. He said in:

Acts 17:30–31 (NASB95) “Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, 31 because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.”

The crux of what Paul had to say about salvation rested on believing in the resurrection. Listen to the response in:

Acts 17:32 (NASB95) Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some began to sneer, …

On another occasion, when Paul preached to the Roman governor, Festus, that Christ had risen from the dead, Festus interrupted him at that point and dismissed him with the words “You are out of your mind” (Acts 26:24).

Paul responded that he was not insane, that his words were true and reasonable.

Even among Christians, the teaching of the resurrection of the body may pose problems of belief.

How will God raise someone who has been dead for centuries and whose corpse has completely returned to the dust?

How will He raise those who have been cremated, whose ashes have been scattered to the wind?

How will He raise those blown apart in warfare?

Or lost and disintegrated in the bowels of the deep ocean floors?

But if we don’t believe in the resurrection, our text says:

1 Corinthians 15:19 (NASB95) If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied.

If our only hope in this life is money, power, fame, pleasure, politicians — OH! how we are to be pitied!

So, the hope WE have in this world is a living Hope — the hope of resurrection.

That hope is founded on faith.

Have you RECEIVED that Gospel of Hope?

How can we know we have RECEIVED the Gospel?

We must, WE MUST believe the Resurrection Sunday account.

Romans 10:9–10 (NASB95) that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; 10 for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.

Have you received and believed that Jesus rose from the dead?

Everything flows from that decision.

By standing in the Hope that the Good News gives

Once we believe, we must, as our text goes on to say, “take our stand.”

1 Corinthians 15:1 (NASB95) Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand,

To me that says that the good news of the resurrection of Jesus Christ brings stability to our lives.

There’s a lot of slipping sand, a lot of quicksand in our life.

But believing in the resurrection puts us on solid ground.

We live in a dangerous world, but we stand in Christ.

But the view of the future that sees it as something which should terrorize Christians, pulverize them with the fear of some impending collapse that is on the horizon is wrong.

Friends, our security is not based on the political scene.

It’s not based on who’s next elected as president.

It’s not based upon the economic order.

Our stability is in Jesus Christ and nothing else.

In Christ we stand — EVEN in dangerous times.

And we CAN stand.

Even if our political freedom is taken, Christ cannot be taken from us.

If the economy falls, Christ will not fall away from us.

Why, then, should we become so absorbed in that which is temporary and fail to realize our place in the permanent?

This is a seducing time. But in Christ, we have a place to stand.

This is a hurting time, but in the midst of our hurts, we can stand in Christ.

Former General Superintendent George Wood tells of being in a place of business, talking to a young woman who was assisting him.

He happened to see the beautiful wedding band she had on her hand and commented to her on its uniqueness and beauty.

She looked at it, acknowledged the compliment, and turned her hand over and said, “But it has a crack in it. And right now, it’s symbolic of our marriage. We are separated.”

He thought, “There are so many people who bear that testimony today.”

Somehow, I know, from those of you who are going through this experience, that in Christ you have a place to stand.

When life is cracking and you feel cracked, in Christ we stand.

This is the good news in which we stand. We have received it, we stand in it.

We take our stand of hope on the Gospel of the Resurrection for the here and now.

We have hope for our loved ones and ourselves.

1 Corinthians 15:16–18 (NASB95) For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised; 17 and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.

WE DON’T believe they have perished.

Because as Vs. 20 says: 1 Corinthians 15:20 (NASB95) But now Christ has been raised from the dead…

As says: 1 Thessalonians 4:13–14 (NASB95) But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.

So we stand, we have stability through our belief in the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

By personally experiencing the Salvation the Good News brings

1 Corinthians 15:1–2 (NASB95) Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, 2 by which also you are saved, …

It is the gospel of Jesus Christ that saves us.

Often, the verb that is used of the word “to save” in the New Testament is used in the past tense—“We were saved.”

It is also used in the future tense—“We shall be saved.”

Here, it is being used in the present tense—“We are being saved.”

Right now, we are being saved.

What are we being saved from?

We’re being saved from death, unto life.

We’re not headed toward the grave as an ultimate destination.

The principle of life in Jesus Christ is at work in our mortal bodies.

We are being saved from the dominion of Satan, to the dominion of Jesus Christ, the Lord of lords and King of kings.

We’re being saved from sin unto righteousness.

That process is at work in us now.

We are being saved from hopelessness.

By tenaciously holding to the Good News

All this happens, stability, salvation ...

“If we hold firmly to the word preached to us” (1 Corinthians 15:2).

God, who through the Holy Spirit, inspired the writing of these words …

… is conscious of the fact that there are Christians who have a very weak grasp and hold upon Jesus Christ.

God’s grasp on them may be tight, but their grasp on Him needs to become tighter.

I compare what Paul is saying here to grabbing hold of a live electrical wire with a lot of voltage.

When I get a hold of that wire, I not only have a hold on it, but it has a hold on me.

Only, with a live electrical wire, it is to my disadvantage to have such a hold.

But Jesus comes, not to electrocute us, but to charge us with His presence.

When He has a hold on us, we have a hold on Him.

This is the presence of the good news, what is done in our life.

Consequences of not believing in the Resurrection

In verses 12–19 the Apostle Paul goes on to give us the consequences if the Gospel of the Resurrection is false.

The first consequence of Christ not being raised from the dead is that our preaching is useless—it’s like beating the air, the preaching is useless.

Paul doesn’t so much mean the form or mode of preaching, but the content of the preaching, what we preach.

The content of what we say is useless. It is vain.

Secondly, our faith is empty.

What we believe is devoid of all content.

It’s been robbed of everything that fills it.

It’s empty.

Not only that, but, thirdly, the apostles were liars.

And beyond being liars, they were false witnesses of God.

Lying has come to be a very prevalent part of our lives.

2 years ago a pandemic began — a pandemic of constant lies.

The news media has constantly and consistently lied to us.

And social media has done everything it could to undergird the news media by further propagating lies and stifling the truth.

Dr. Anthony Faucci lied to us.

The CDC lied to us.

Our government has — and continues — to lie to us.

Lies are told everyday.

Every time we turn on a television or radio, listen to a commercial, most of the time we’re listening to a lie or a camouflaged PR statement of a lie.

So we’ve sort of gotten used to lying in our culture.

You may have found this—that the toothpaste or the mouthwash you are using did not produce the anticipated social results you had envisioned.

Lying.

For a Jewish rabbi in the first century, to think of misrepresenting God was an unthinkable thought.

It could only represent the highest sin, the sin of idolatry.

So when Paul says, “We would be found misrepresenting God,” he’s not speaking of a Madison Avenue PR-type.

He is speaking as a man who knows what it’s like in the Old Testament to be accused of being a false witness of God.

So he recognizes the heavy consequences.

“The apostles are all liars if Christ is not risen.”

Not only that …

The fourth consequence, “our sins are unatoned for.”

We still are in bondage to the guilt of our sins.

Sin is still loaded upon us.

Fifth, our departed Christian loved ones are lost.

All this talk at the graveside about awaiting the resurrection is a whole lot of hokum.

All this comfort which has been extended to Christians in a time of bereavement is just so much psychological self-deceit.

If Christ did not rise, those who have died in Christ are lost.

There is nothing coming beyond that grave.

The sixth consequence is, if Christ is not raised, then our faith in Christ is pitiable.

“We of all men are most to be pitied” (1 Corinthians 15:19).

Here Paul is thinking of the fact that the Christian must be looked upon as slightly touched, a person who’s given to believing fables as reality, a person to whom, therefore, pity should be extended because of the weakness of their mind.

Of all men, most to be pitied.

There is no Christian life without the Resurrection, is what Paul’s saying.

“Throw the whole thing overboard if the Resurrection didn’t occur.”

But the empty tomb tells us that Jesus DID rise from the dead.

Our lives are full because of the resurrection.

The apostles didn’t lie — they told the truth!

Our sins are atoned for.

Our loved ones who died in Christ are in the presence of the Lord awaiting the Great Reunion Day.

And we haven’t lost our minds because we believe in the resurrection — we are the only ones sane in an insane world.

Our Living Hope

So, have you:

Received, by faith, this good news of the resurrection?

Are you standing in the hope that the Good news of the Resurrection gives?

Personally experienced the salvation the Good News of the Resurrection brings?

Tenaciously holding onto the Good News of the Resurrection?

If you have let me speak the Name of Jesus over you.

Song: In Jesus’ name

Closing Prayer

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