Life Without Easter (Resurrection)

I bet my life on the Resurrection (all out for Christ)

Primary Purpose: that one should put faith in the Resurrected Jesus

Secondary Purpose: see the centrality of the Resurrection to Christian doctrine and life

Intro: Life Without Easter

This “church” stuff is all well and good. I love the fellowship, the relationships, the music and singing together, helping people with stuff… that is all great.

But every now and then we get around to something like this weekend. Easter. We start talking about “resurrection” and some might prefer their Christianity without all that nonsense. Jesus was a good model and a good teacher, why do we have to get all mystical about something that may or may not have happened 2000 years ago.

Can’t we have Life without Easter?

Perhaps you know someone who would prefer Life without Easter. Church without all this Resurrection stuff. Perhaps you know that person really well… because that person is you.

This moment, the miracle of Jesus’ Resurrection, divides humanity in a way: those that believe events as reported on Resurrection morning… and those that construct an alternate set of events. Let’s step into the story.

A Savior Crucified

A man was killed. Some say he was killed for treason against the government, some say he was the victim of religious persecution, some say he just made too many powerful people too angry.

A man was killed, and it was surprisingly quick for government work, if messy as usual. But isn't that the lot of all men? To die sooner or later. I think he died young, for he was my age. I think he died innocent, even the sentencing judge said so.

I think he died loved, for many wept at his execution. All in all: a good life, and it is clear he will be missed.

This Jesus. A great could-have-been. A should-have-been. He could have been a King and led a revolution if he had seized the momentum of the previous weekend, led the cheering crowd to some victories.

Instead, he is dead... and in the days following, his disciples gather together in Jerusalem to decide what to do. Already there are some rumors flying, the body is missing, some hysterical women are shouting about angels... but no one really believes them.

The disciples gather together in a room to decide what to do.

A Room in Jerusalem - the crux of History

This is a crisis moment in history. Up to this point, there isn't a lot of debate about what happened. Some might fuss about the details of what Jesus did and didn't say... but pretty much all believe he was a man who lived and taught. Some might debate about the exact manner and drama of his death, but all pretty much agree he was executed, crucified.

But what happened from there? This is the crux of history. This is a moment that defines you and me and divides the world. What occurred in that room?

Let's walk through two possibilities. For both, we will have to use our imaginations and piece together the best explanation for what follows.

The Great Deception

The disciples seize on the story of the hysterical women, distraught over the missing body. Perhaps some of them secretly stole and hid the body. This is an opportunity to make some of Jesus' crazy claims come true. He said he would rise again in three days, let us agree that he did. We will carry out a Great Deception. We will proclaim that Jesus has risen from the dead, appearing to all of us here.

What do we need? Our core group has to be willing to go to our deaths swearing that this is true. And we need at least five hundred brothers and sisters to swear that they saw Jesus too. But one time of seeing Jesus would be suspicious... we need a decent block of time, like he was teaching us more or something. Let's say 40 days, then he can fly away into heaven.

Pinky promise, never tell, okay? Let each of us commit our entire lives to spreading this hoax: you two can be crucified for it, you three get to be thrown to the lions, you all get to die for it, John you can live the lie until your 90... and let's get hundreds of thousands of people to believe before we die.

Also, everyone make sure to write a ton of this stuff down and scatter letters and testimonies all over the world so no one can doubt our eyewitness testimonies.

Let’s pull off the world's greatest hoax… it’ll be hilarious

The Implications

This is not ungrounded imagination... people from the very beginning have thrown this out there. This was the official part line of the Jewish religious leaders, bribing the guards instead of punishing them.

Even some early Christians seemed to have taken to what we call today a "liberal interpretation" of Jesus' Resurrection. Deciding that this whole "resurrection" thing was, maybe, "a bit much," some Christians in Corinth were saying that there was no Resurrection.

Paul in 1 Corinthians 15 is a bit flustered by this, maybe offended. First he says “I was an eyewitness, the apostles were eyewitnesses’ and more than 500 others were eyewitness: people who are still alive and you can go talk to…”

This is one of the unique things about Christianity, by the way, it is a public claim. It isn’t based on a private vision, dream or a secret unverifiable magical trip. It is a public ministry followed by a public execution followed by a public resurrection. It was a long time ago to us, but this was current events to the authors and readers of these letters and testimonies we call the New Testament.

Paul says, throw a stick and you hit an eyewitness of the event, willing to undergo death and torture swearing to the truth of their testimony to the living Jesus. Historical verification, here.

Then he starts in on the drastic consequences of rejecting resurrection.

1 Corinthians 15:12-19

12 But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14 And if Christ has not been raised, 1 our preaching is useless and so is your faith. 15 More than that, 2 we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. 16 For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; 3 you are still in your sins. 18 Then 4 those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. 19 If only for this life we have hope in Christ, 5 we are of all people most to be pitied.

That last one hits home. We are of all people most to be pitied. For we have been deceived and we are living a lie.

Paul goes on to say, if this is all a lie, and if this life then is all there is, might as well embrace the only philosophy of life left to us "eat and drink for tomorrow we die." If all there is, we had better figure out how to milk it for all it is worth, how to squeeze any and every little drop of pleasure or moment of joy.

Self-sacrifice and the best of love simply goes out of the window, the gain-to-cost ratio simply doesn't make sense. All that awaits us is death and darkness, deserved for there is no one to save us... and we are in desperate need of saving.

Because, this at least, Jesus did. He pointed out that we are sinful. That I have deception, lust and murder in my heart... and that God sees that in my heart. I see that in my heart. I know, if everyone else is fooled, that I am guilty, I am broken.

I am in desperate need of saving. If Christ is not Resurrected, than I am still in need of a Savior. Any volunteers?

The Great Resurrection

I give you the other option. The other way history turned.

Into that room, filled with disciples hearing the rumors of Resurrection, ran two men, disciples, saying that Jesus had appeared to them also, walking on the road. Simon Peter burst in and told them Jesus had appeared to him. Then, in the midst of the room, appeared a man. Jesus himself.

Luke 24:36-49 picks up the story:

36 While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”

and they thought they saw a ghost... and he said "check it out, touch me..."

they were still skeptical, so he ate a fish...

And he said to them "Didn't I tell you... everything must be fulfilled."

And he "opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures."

He told them: this was always the plan. "The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations..."

"You are witnesses of these things."

And Jesus stayed and taught them for 40 days. This is the words of Doctor Luke, who sought out and interviewed the eyewitnesses and wrote up an "orderly account." Jesus sent the very Spirit, the Holy Spirit that had directed and empowered his own human ministry: and the disciples exploded, the church grew and spread like fire, covering the known world within a few generations and spanning the globe.

They spoke with power and conviction, knowing who they had seen and touched and walked with and listened to: the Resurrected Jesus Christ, their Savior and mine.

Instead of a Great Deception we have a Great Resurrection.

I Bet My Life

We can’t have Christianity without Resurrection, we can’t have Life without Resurrection.

There is no life without Easter

Than I have a choice before me and you have one before you. What to do with Jesus’ Resurrection. What do I believe happened on that day? What am I going to do about it?

I’ll tell you my play:

I bet my life on the resurrection.

I bet my life on a Living Jesus Christ

It is a matter of faith

Have I seen Jesus in the flesh with my own eyes? No, as Jesus said, blessed is he who has not seen and yet believes.

It is a matter of faith, but not a blind faith.

My faith springs from the testimony of those eyewitnesses who went to death and torture praising the Resurrected Jesus… testimonies that were then backed by miracles and power.

The Great Resurrection simply fits the facts better than any other explanation. The Great Hoax is ridiculous. I bet my life on the Resurrection

My faith grows from seeing Jesus Holy Spirit continue to descend upon His church, preserving and rescuing it over and over, calling and forming His people again and again to be the Body of Christ on earth until He comes again. We see a Living God continuing to move and act.

And my faith springs from seeing and knowing Jesus in my life. As I live and follow I see and know and hear him more.

I am literally betting my life on His resurrection.

Every moment of my life, my earthly existence, is slipping away... and I choose to spend those moments for him. In service to His calling. In obedience to His commands. In service to His church. Moment by moment, my life a living sacrifice to the Resurrected Jesus.

That may sound scary, but it is the least scary possibility in life.

The Royal Flush

For the poker players out there, you are playing Texas Hold-Em. Five cards are face up in the middle: 10, Jack, Queen, King and Ace of Diamonds. What do you call that? Royal flush. What do you do?

You go all in. It doesn't matter what cards you are holding. The winning hand is on the table. You go all in, there is nothing to lose and everything to gain.

I bet my life on the Resurrection. The winning hand is showing, so I am all in.

Firstborn of the Great Resurrection

What is there to win? What does Jesus' resurrection mean for us?

Just as we are included with Jesus in his death, we are included with him in his resurrection. Paul continues in 1 Corinthians 15 to call Jesus the first-fruit of resurrection, for this life is only the seed of the next, a perishable body sown in weakness, raised in glory, power, imperishable...

1 Corinthians 15:51-58

51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— 52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53 For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. 54 When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”

55 “Where, O death, is your victory?

Where, O death, is your sting?”

56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

58 Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

I bet my life on the Resurrected Jesus.

Let nothing move me, give myself fully, because I know that it is not in vain.

Invitation

We now worship in the presence of the Living Resurrected Jesus, to Him be all glory and power and honor.

If you are feeling a call to take a next step in following Jesus, a step of faith or a step towards faith or just finding out more: our purpose here is to help you do that. I invite you to come forward after the service, catch Pastor Rod or myself anytime, or just find someone who knows Jesus and ask.