OUR REASONABLE FAITH:
Easter Means Hope!
I Corinthians 15:1-11
Introduction: Everyone wants
something to hope for, without hope, comes despair. For many “hope” is simply
wishful thinking, “hoping” that things will all work out in the end. Someone
said nothing in the world arouses more false hopes than the
first few hours of a diet! (With our dinner plans firmly in place, let’s change
the subject!). A pessimist would agree with the little boy who said
“Hope is wishing for something you know ain’t gonna happen!” The only hope that
matters is hope that is based on truth. The Bible
defines our “hope” as Christ followers as a confident expectation about the
future, a calm assurance that God will accomplish the good work that He has
begun. Herman Bavinck’s theology in the English translation is entitled, Our
Reasonable Faith. In the sermons of the apostles in the book of Acts, there
is one historical truth that is repeatedly mentioned, which, by its very
emphasis lies at the heart of the Christian message and the sure hope the
apostles shared. It’s the truth that we celebrate today: the
resurrection of JESUS CHRIST. John MacArthur said:
“Just as the heart
pumps life giving blood to every part of the body, so the truth of the
resurrection gives life to every other area of Gospel truth. The
resurrection is the pivot on which all of Christianity turns and without which
none of the other truths would much matter. Without the resurrection
Christianity would be so much wishful thinking, taking its place alongside all
other human philosophy and religious speculation.”
Paul affirms the necessity of the resurrection in 15:13,14
“But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not
risen. 14 And if Christ is not risen, then our
preaching is empty and your faith is also empty.” Along with a lot of
practical problems in Christian living, the Corinthians apparently had a
serious doctrinal problem in terms of disputing the future resurrection of
believers. The fact that Paul starts this great chapter affirming the
evidence of the resurrection of Jesus hints that some were even
beginning either to question the importance of His physical resurrection, or
even whether it really happened at all. Paul says it is the very foundation of
our hope.
Context: Chapter 15 of I
Corinthians is the most fully developed chapter in the Bible on the theme of
the resurrection. The empty tomb is the basis for our hope as
Christians. It explicitly links the resurrection of Jesus, with the
future resurrection of believers. It also defines the basis and power of our
life as believers. One of my favorite quotes by theologian Erich Sauer brings
out the idea:
“The present age is
Eastertime. It begins with the resurrection of the Redeemer, and will end
with the resurrection of the redeemed. Between lies the spiritual
resurrection of those called into life through faith in Christ. So we
live between two Easters, and in the power of the first Easter, we go to meet
the last Easter.”
The Big Idea: Because Jesus lives, we
have a sure hope for the future and a reason to live with joy!
I. First of all, we have a hope-giving message that changes
lives (15:1-2)! He starts off saying,
“Now I would remind you, brothers,
of the Gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, by
which you are being saved…”
The first line
of evidence that Paul presents is not stated explicitly but is implied. The
fact that the Corinthian believers (and all believers for that matter) had
received the Gospel, believed in Jesus, and been changed, is evidence of
the truth of the gospel, and the power of the resurrection of Christ. He wrote
elsewhere of, “…the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who
believe, according to the working of his mighty power which he worked in Christ
when he raised him from the dead…” (Eph 1:19,20).
Paul
preached the Gospel among them, they received it, stood in it, and were saved
by it (15:1-2). Yes, they had problems. Christians aren’t perfect, we are
sinners saved by grace. And we know it, for God’s Spirit bears witness
with our spirit that we are His children. Notice in our passage that Paul
calls them “brethren,” he recognizes them as fellow Christians. “I
declare to you…” he is reminding them of the message they
heard and believed: the death of Jesus for our sins, his burial and resurrection.
This was the life changing message that impacted them in the past: “which
you received…” There was a specific moment in their history when they heard
the Good News of the death and resurrection of Jesus and they believed it.
Whether or not you can remember and identify the precise moment, that is true
for every believer.
“…in which you stand…” It was not simply something that happened
in the past, but they continued to stand in the truth. It’s not that Christians
simply were saved, they are saved, they have eternal
life as both a promise and a present possession.
“In which you are saved if…” The context of I Corinthians 15
definitely points also toward the future, and completion of the promise of
salvation in the resurrection of believers. Notice the qualifier:
“…if you hold fast to the Word which I preached to you, unless you believed
in vain.” This is not a denial of the eternal security of true
believers. It is a warning however that saying you believe is not
necessarily the same as truly trusting Jesus as your Savior and Lord.
There are a tremendous number of conflicting ideas that
people believe to be true – just believing something doesn’t
make it true. The only hope that matters is a hope that is based
on truth. Paul is showing the Corinthians that our faith is
reasonable: Consider the evidence for the truth of the Gospel, including the
historical fact of the resurrection. The evidence is clear, yet most
people deny the implications of the evidence. Like the man who was
institutionalized because he thought he was dead. The psychiatrist had an
idea, he began repeating a question to the man, “Do did men bleed?” He answered
every time, “Of course not, dead men don’t bleed!” Then the Dr. took a pin and
pricked the man’s finger, and he started to bleed. His conclusion in the
light of the evidence? “What do you know, did men do bleed!”
Consider the evidence, including the evidence of lives transformed and
empowered by the Gospel. Because Jesus lives we have a sure hope for the
future and reason to live with joy.
II. A Hope based on Scripture (15:3-4). Paul emphasizes the truth that the Good News of Jesus
was not something that men made up, in fact His coming, death, and resurrection
had been anticipated for centuries. The Old Testament
Scriptures repeatedly predicted the coming of the Messiah, a deliverer, king,
and Savior. By the time of Jesus’ birth, for the most part, current
interpretation had missed the idea that it was necessary for the Messiah to
suffer and die. A key aspect of the apostles’ preaching was to point the
church back toward that scriptural truth.
Paul
says, “I delivered to you that which I also received…” He brought
authoritative teaching, not something that he conjured up in his own mind. He
simply delivered to them what God had revealed! That’s the desire of every
pastor that stands in this pulpit! We’re not here to entertain. My ideas
aren’t worth much. But God’s Word is priceless, it is truth, and it can
give us real Hope, a Hope based on facts, the only Hope that matters, that is,
if we’ll receive it.
Paul writes, “Christ
died for our sins according to the scriptures…” He is
emphasizing the fulfillment of God’s promises so he uses the title “Christ,” or
“Messiah.” It’s so familiar to us we easily forget this it is not part of
Jesus’ name, rather it is His title, “the Anointed One —the One predicted as
the deliverer of Israel by the Old Testament writers. Andrew said it
in John 1:41, "We have found the Messiah…" Then
in Jn 1:45, Philip found Nathanael and said to him, "We have found
Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the Prophets wrote-- Jesus of Nazareth,
the son of Joseph."
This promised Messiah, “…died for our sins…”
This is the heart of the Gospel message: the sacrificial, substitutionary death
of Jesus. John the Baptist anticipated this truth when he saw Jesus in
John 1, “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.” Isaiah
the prophet had predicted the coming of a suffering servant when he said: “All
we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way, and
the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” It all happened
“according to the Scriptures” — as it had been predicted and planned by God
himself. You might think, “well that doesn’t sound very fair!” It
wasn’t fair. Jesus chose to give his life for us. The Good Shepherd
“laid down His life for His sheep.” It was the only way that a
Righteous, Holy God could justify sinners. The wages of sin is death, and we
are all sinners. Jesus, the only human that lived his entire life without sin,
took the punishment that we deserved so that we could have life. “Greater love
has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends…” We’re saved
by grace, God’s unmerited favor. I like the acrostic for “grace,”:
G.R.A.C.E. = “God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense.”
Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe!
But that is not
the end of the story! Today we celebrate the truth that He “…was
raised the third day, according to the Scriptures…” A second
proof of the truth of the Gospel was that the resurrection of Christ happened
in precise fulfillment of the Scriptures. What had been foretold with
respect to the Messiah was fulfilled in the experience of Jesus. One of
my favorite scenes in the Bible is at the end of Luke, where the two disciples
on the road to Emmaus are confused by the death of Jesus, and the reports that
the tomb was empty. Suddenly a stranger begins to walk with them on the way,
asks some questions, and then begins to teach them in Luke 24:25-27…
“Then He said to them, ‘O
foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have
spoken! 26 Ought not the Christ to have suffered
these things and to enter into His glory?’ 27 And
beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the
Scriptures the things concerning Himself.” (See also Luke 24:44-46).
Preaching on the
day of Pentecost in Acts 2 Peter argues from the Old Testament Scriptures,
Psalm 16 among other texts, that everything happened according to the
prophecies God had given in ages past. The Scriptures revealed that
Messiah, Christ, must be raised, Jesus was raised, therefore we can know that His
claim to be Messiah is true, Jesus is the Christ! (see Acts 2:25-31).
Paul makes a
great summary of the truth, when, under arrest, in his testimony to Agrippa, he
says in Acts 26:22-23…
"Therefore, having
obtained help from God, to this day I stand, witnessing both to small and
great, saying no other things than those which the prophets and Moses said
would come -- 23 "that the Christ would suffer,
that He would be the first to rise from the dead, would proclaim light to the
Jewish people and to the Gentiles."
So, the Big Idea: Because Jesus lives, we have a sure hope
and reason to live with joy!
III. A Hope confirmed by witnesses (15:5-11) – Scoffers to this point might argue that all this is
circumstantial evidence. Paul next calls on his third line of evidence:
eyewitness testimony! Eyewitness testimony is powerful, in fact in the
Bible it was required to have the testimony of two or three witnesses to
confirm truth. I’ve transcribed in the back of my Bible the English
translation of a letter that was written in AD 107, perhaps ten years after the
death of the last of the Apostles, by Ignatius of Antioch as
he was being carried to Rome as a prisoner, expecting to be thrown to the
lions. It is as relevant today as it was then:
“If you come across
someone who says that Jesus Christ never lived, or that he is just an idea, or
a concept, or a myth- shut your ears to him. Jesus Christ was born to a
human family, a descendant of David. His mother was Mary. He was persecuted
and crucified under Pontius Pilate, a fact testified to us by some who are now
in heaven, and some who are still alive on earth. How can this be a
phantom, or an illusion, or a myth? These are facts of history!
It is
also a fact that he rose from the dead (or rather, that his Father raised him
up). And that is the most important fact of all, because His promise is
that the father will also raise us up, if we believe in Him. So if Christ is
not alive neither shall we be. There is nothing left for us to hope for
if he is just an idea or a fantasy.
In any case, if he only appeared to rise from the dead—why should I be in
chains for this “myth”? Why should I die to support an illusion? I
am prepared to die for him, the true and real Son of God. But no one is
prepared to die for a shadow.”
He himself heard from
eyewitnesses. He knew in his heart that it was true. Eyewitness testimony is
compelling. As Paul wrote, he invited the Corinthians (and us!) to consider the
eyewitness testimony to the resurrection of Jesus.
First Paul points to
the first of the apostolic witness (he doesn’t even mention the women who got
there first!). In 1 Corinthians 15:5 “…and that He
was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve…” (vv. 5-7).
“Cephas” is of course the Hebrew name of Peter – he who had denied
Jesus 3 times – became the first apostoloic witness of the resurrection! That is GRACE! Our God specializes in
second chances, and after the resurrection Peter became a fearless proclaimer
of the Gospel (read the first 10 chapters of Acts!).
Then by the
twelve… after that He was seen by over 500 brethren at once! Paul was
writing just twenty years or so after the resurrection and he makes the point
that the majority of these witnesses were still alive as he wrote this letter
to the Corinthians – if anyone had doubts they could go and speak to them
personally and hear their stories about seeing the resurrected Jesus!
Finally Paul mentions
another witness in vv. 8-10, a special witness, “then last of all
he was seen by me, as one born out of due time…” Humanly speaking, the
transformation of Paul is inexplicable – he was a zealous persecutor of the
Church, and then on the road to Damascus he has an encounter that changed his
life forever: he met the resurrected Jesus. The zealous persecutor of the
church became a fearless proclaimer of Messiah Jesus! That 180 degree
change in direction simply could not be explained away then and it can’t be
explained away now. The only explanation is that Jesus conquered death, and that
He is Lord.
That is the common
message, the Gospel that the church has preached for two- thousand years: God’s
revealed plan was carried out to the letter: Christ, the incarnate Son of God,
died for our sins and was buried, and was raised again the third day.
What is God saying to me in this passage? Do you have strength for today and hope for
tomorrow? Because Jesus lives we have a sure hope for the future
and the power to live with true joy today. Like the song says, “Because
He lives, I can face tomorrow, because He lives, all fear is gone!” The
truth of the Gospel hangs on the fact of the resurrection of Jesus. The
evidence is clear, the question is, how will we respond? A book is
entitled, “Evidence that demands a verdict.” There is no need for us to judge
the evidence- it is compelling. The real verdict will be how we respond
to what God has done in Christ.
What would God have me to do in response to this passage?
1. Christ died for
our sins, was buried, and rose again the third day. That is the Gospel, and it
really is GOOD NEWS! Have you believed? Have you trusted in Jesus as the Savior
and Lord of your life? Are you a visitor, perhaps you are here to see what
Easter is really about. Did you just happened to come to church today? We
are glad you are here! But know this: God planned this moment – in your life
and in mine. You have heard the truth. Do you believe? Jesus said “My
sheep hear my voice and follow me.” The facts are clear: Jesus proved that
He is the Messiah by dying for our sins, according to the scriptures and being
buried, and then raising from the dead the third day. He proved that He is
the Son of God. Now the question is, what will you do with
Jesus?
2) Believer,
will you live by faith, trusting God and walking with Him, come what may? He is
Lord. Life can get hard, but in the Gospel we see His love, and we can trust
Him. We know the end of the story! Because He lives, we can face tomorrow!
3) We
have been entrusted with a mission – to bring the Good News of the death and
resurrection of Jesus to the world. Let’s determine to always be
ready to give a reason for the hope that is in us! AMEN.
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