Our hearts are reminded of the facts of the gospel, our Lord's death, His burial, His
resurrection for our sins and according to the Scripture, and that He appeared and was
seen by those who were His followers.
We are reminded that He ascended then to heaven and there He is at your right hand at this
very moment and we worship.
Lord speak to us today as we think together regarding this marvelous truth of the resurrection.
Amen.
July 20, 1969.
In fact we'll make a little more specific.
How about 1054 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time?
Will you translate that into wherever you were?
What were you doing?
This is our, most of us, maybe 90 plus percent of us who are old enough to remember the date
were in front of a television set because on July 20, 1969 there were words beamed back
to the earth from the moon that said Houston Tranquility Base, the eagle has landed.
At 1054 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, Neil Armstrong stepped down off of that lunar module onto
the surface of the moon and for the first time in all of history a human footprint was
left on the moon.
One small step for a man.
One giant leap for mankind.
That was a thrilling moment and if you were in fact old enough to remember it, I dare
say that you'll never forget it as long as you live.
I remember there were some who said that was the greatest event in all of history.
But I want you to know as spectacular and as memorial as that event is, memorable as
that event is, it is not the greatest event in all of history.
I want to propose and assert this morning that the greatest event in all of history
was the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
Now there are other things about his life that we remember and which are crucial.
We remember his coming into the world, what we call the incarnation.
That means when he became flesh, when God became man, and we celebrate Christmas remembering
the incarnation.
The incarnation is absolutely crucial.
Nothing like it had ever occurred before nor can it ever occur again.
But apart from the resurrection, the incarnation means nothing.
When we might think about his cross death, his suffering, never before had anyone suffered
as he suffered.
Oh, there were thousands who were crucified.
But never had anyone who was innocent and sinless been crucified and who became sin
and bore the sin of all humankind in his body as he suffered and died.
Apart from that sacrifice and the shedding of his blood, there is no salvation.
But I believe that the resurrection even outshines the cross death of Christ.
Because if it weren't for the resurrection, the cross death would have no meaning.
Now in truth we cannot separate those events.
But I believe above all of those events in the life of Christ that we remember that the
resurrection is the greatest of them all.
And it is in fact the greatest event in all of human history.
If Jesus Christ is who he claimed to be, and if his death accomplished what he said it
would, then his being raised from the realm of death to live forever is the single most
important event in the history of the world.
In 1 Corinthians 15 the apostle tells us that if there were no resurrection, there would
be certain undeniable results.
I will begin reading in 1 Corinthians 15-12 where he says this, 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?
Paul was writing to correct a certain heresy or false teaching that had crept into the
church in Corinth apparently.
There were some who were saying there was no resurrection of the dead.
Paul writes to refute that.
He says if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised.
And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain.
Your faith also is vain.
Moreover, we are even found to be false witnesses of God because we witnessed against God that
he raised Christ whom he did not raise if in fact the dead are not raised.
For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised, and if Christ has not been
raised, your faith is worthless.
You are still in your sins.
Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.
If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men, most to be pitied.
The apostle tells us if there is no resurrection, then there are certain undeniable results
that you and I have to face up to who call ourselves Christians.
In the first place in verse 14, he tells us that our faith is vain.
That is, it is empty.
It is hollow.
There is nothing to it.
He says in verse 17, not only is it vain, it is worthless.
That is, nothing that has been promised as a part of our faith will come to pass.
He suggests that Christianity is only, if there is no resurrection, a state of mind,
and it has no reality to it.
Furthermore, he tells us that if there is no resurrection, we are still in our sins,
verse 17.
And if we are still in our sins, that means that we are alienated from God.
It means that what Jesus claimed to be and to do is invalidated, and we are still in
our bondage to our sin if there is no resurrection.
In verse 18, he says that another result of no resurrection is that those who have died
as believers are gone forever.
That there is no hope for them.
That they have perished.
And finally, in verse 19, he says, if there is no resurrection, this is a result.
Those who are living as believers, as Christians now, are pitiable fools.
The pagan is right if there is no resurrection.
The one who lives for the pleasure of the moment is the wise one if there is no resurrection.
How tragic, futile, and miserable life would be apart from the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
But he was raised from the dead.
He was raised from the dead, unlike any before him.
There were those before him who were brought back to life.
In fact, Jesus himself brought others back to life, but there was none who was resurrected
like he was.
He is one of a kind.
He is totally unique.
As he rose from the dead, he was in a new type of body.
We do not understand the details of that, but there were certain chemical and molecular
changes in his body.
Physical and material, and yet supernatural, able to pass through solid objects as we know
them, able to cover distances in an instant of time, fitted not only to exist in this
world but in the realm of the spiritual as well.
Jesus is the only body like that in all of the universe now.
His body is no longer limited to the realm of the material.
His body is not subject to death.
His body is what we call glorified.
That does not mean unreal.
If he were here today, you could touch him if you wished.
If you were to take a photograph of Jesus, he would show up on the photograph.
It is a real body, but it's a glorified body.
It is composed of tangible matter, and yet it is able to defy the laws of physics as
we understand them.
It is a supernatural body.
The truth of this, the greatest event in the history of the world, makes the following
statements possible.
If you will notice, what I'm simply going to do is restate in the positive the negatives
that we've already looked at in 1 Corinthians 15.
The following statements can be made because of the truth of this, the greatest event in
the history of the world.
Statement number one, we have a gospel with power to it.
Is our preaching, our witnessing in vain?
The answer is a resounding no.
We have a gospel, a message with power to it.
It is not empty.
It is not hollow, but substantive.
Our preaching of it is not futile, but it's meaningful and it's productive.
This message is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who responds to it in genuine
faith.
The apostle Paul wrote, I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for
salvation to everyone who believes.
For in it, a righteousness provided by God is revealed from faith to faith.
He furthermore wrote, for the word, the message of the cross is to those who are perishing
foolishness.
To us who are being saved, it is the power of God.
We have a gospel with power to it.
It does bring forgiveness of sin.
It does bring freedom from guilt.
It does provide sense and purpose to living.
It does transform the life.
I would invite you to turn with me to 1 Thessalonians 2.
Notice what Paul writes to these dear children in the Lord as he recalls his ministry among
them.
1 Thessalonians 2.13, and for this reason we also constantly thank God that when you
receive from us the word of God's message, you accepted it not as the word of men, but
for what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe.
Notice that.
Our message, our gospel is one that works.
There is power to it.
And to share it with others is not a futile act, though you may not see immediately the
result you would like to see.
When you witness to someone else, when you share this message with someone else, it plants
a living truth inside of them.
And they cannot escape it.
It is powerful.
And it does its work when someone believes it.
What is that work?
Well, in the first chapter of 1 Thessalonians, he summarizes it in verse 9 when he says,
For they themselves report about us what kind of a reception we had with you, and how you
turned to God from idols, to serve a living and true God, and to wait for his Son from
heaven whom he raised from the dead.
What was the work that the gospel produced?
It was a turning in the lives of those people to God, away from their idols, their empty
religion and what they had trusted in the past.
The gospel worked in them to turn them toward God, that then they might serve him who is
living and who is true, and that they might wait with anticipation for the coming of his
Son whom he raised from the dead.
And that gospel will do its work today in anyone who believes.
It is a powerful message because Jesus rose from the dead.
There's a second statement we can make because of his resurrection, and that is that our
faith rests solidly on historical fact and spiritual truth.
Is our faith in vain?
The answer is no.
Peter writes, we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power
and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.
Because Jesus Christ has been raised from the dead, our faith rests solidly on historical
fact and spiritual truth.
To become a Christian is not to take a blind leap into the dark.
Rather it is a reasonable step of trust in a trustworthy God who has made certain promises.
One does not have to throw away his mind to become a Christian.
The truthfulness, the veracity of the Bible can stand the closest test of its severest
critic who will honestly look.
Such a man was Frank Morrison, an agnostic journalist.
He was determined to write a book refuting the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Therefore he investigated all that he could about this historic event.
And his opinion changed.
He became a believer in Jesus Christ.
This is how he describes it in his own words.
This study is in some ways so unusual and provocative that the writer thinks it desirable
to state here very briefly how the book came to take its present form.
He continues, in one sense it could have taken no other, for it is essentially a confession.
The inner story of a man who originally set out to write one kind of book and found himself
compelled by the sheer force of circumstances to write another.
That was in the preface of his book entitled Who Moved the Stone.
A man who will honestly look at the facts must be convinced of the truthfulness of this
event.
He may not believe in Jesus Christ as Savior, as did this man, but he will have to admit
that there is no fact in all of history about which we know more in the ancient world than
those events surrounding the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
A Christian never has to be ashamed to confess that he believes what the Bible teaches.
Skeptics and critics over and over have been embarrassed as additional facts have come
to light perhaps through the archaeologist regarding what the Bible says.
And they find that the claims that they had against the Bible were undermined and collapsed.
That has happened over and over and over again.
No one who comes to the Bible and confesses what it says will ever need to be ashamed
because our faith rests solidly on historical fact and spiritual truth.
In contrast to the other religions of the world, which are based many times upon historical
fallacies and spiritual deceit.
There is a third statement we can make because of the resurrection of Christ, and that is
we are delivered from our sins.
Are we still in our sins?
Praise God, we are not.
Sins are those deeds, words, or thoughts which expose the heart problem of every human being.
That is the predisposition to do what is morally wrong in the eyes of God.
When we say we are sinners, we are not saying that a man may not do some act that is in
a relative sense a good act or a kind act.
But the heart of every human being is predisposed to do what is wrong.
All of us are sinners, the Bible says, by birth as well as by choice.
We inherited a sinful nature which expresses itself as early in life as we can exercise
our will.
The Bible says, Behold, I was brought forth in sin, and in iniquity my mother conceived
me.
He is saying when he was yet within the womb of his mother, he was a sinner.
And like all of the rest of us, when he was old enough to express that sin within him,
he did.
We have all sinned.
And our sins bring upon us judgment from God, our Creator.
For God the Creator is holy and righteous, and He is justly offended by our sins.
The Bible says that our sins alienate us from God.
They leave us separated and living with an inner vacuum.
We are cut off from the one who is the very source of life.
Our sin brings us to death, both physical and spiritual.
Roman 623, the wages of sin is death.
Therefore, how wonderful it is that we can state that by faith in Jesus Christ and because
of His resurrection from the dead, we have been delivered from our sins.
We have been delivered from their penalty at the cross because He paid the penalty for
us.
He was delivered over for our transgressions, Paul writes to the Romans, and was raised
again on account of our justification.
In other words, when He died on the cross, God delivered Him over to death to die in
our place as our substitute, to bear our penalty.
And then God raised Him from the dead to prove that His work on the cross had been sufficient
for us and that now we can be declared righteous in the eyes of God, the sight of God.
That is good news, my friend, for every one of us who recognizes that He's a sinner.
For that is not good news for the self-righteous, but it is good news for the one who understands
His sinfulness because it means that He can be delivered from that condition in which
He lives because of Jesus Christ's death and resurrection.
Not only have we been delivered from the penalty of our sins, but because of the resurrection,
we have been delivered from its power too.
For when Jesus Christ died on the cross, God identified us with His death.
And when He was buried in the ground, God identified us with His burial.
And when He rose from the dead on that first resurrection day, God identified us with Him
in His resurrection so that now we have been raised from the dead, we who have trusted
Christ so that we might walk in newness of life.
We have died to sin.
We are no longer its helpless subjects and slaves.
We may still choose to obey sin, but we are not its slaves.
We can choose to walk after Jesus Christ in obedience because of the resurrection.
We have been delivered from our sins, and that is good news.
Friend of mine who pastors a large Presbyterian church in the St. Louis area in his bulletin
this morning had these words which I appreciate.
After the dark sorrow filled pain of Good Friday comes the bright celebration of Easter.
Death could never hold Jesus captive.
In glorious fashion, a movement which seemed shattered and in a heap of dust rose again
with Him.
Discouraged disciples became ecstatic.
Hope was reborn in the glorious colors of the rainbow.
Jesus Christ was risen and so were their lives and their futures.
The story rings true for us today nearly 2,000 years later.
Then He says this, what I especially like, we are a resurrection people.
We are a resurrection people whose past, no matter how dark, has been forgiven.
The present takes on new meaning, and the future is one of great anticipation.
That's what I'm saying when I say we have been delivered from our sins.
Because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
There is a fourth statement that we can make.
Because He rose from the dead.
That is those who have died as believers are secure.
They are safe.
Have those who have fallen asleep in Christ perished?
Never have they perished.
They are not lost.
They are absent from the body.
But they are very much present with the Lord.
And we will once again enjoy their company as we have in the past.
In the future resurrection.
We have turned to 1 Thessalonians.
I invite you to look in the fourth chapter with me of this great book.
Beginning in verse 13 where the apostle writes, we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren,
about those who are asleep.
That is those who died as believers.
That you may not grieve as do the rest who have no hope.
Because He doesn't say we are not to grieve.
But He says we are not to grieve like those who have no hope.
There is a difference in the way people grieve.
One can grieve with hope.
For if we believe, or better since we believe, that Jesus died and rose again, even so God
will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.
Are they today in their grave?
Their body is in a grave, but they are not.
They themselves are with the Lord.
Notice it says God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.
He goes on to explain, this we say to you by the word of the Lord that we who are alive
and remain under the coming of the Lord shall not precede those who have fallen asleep.
The Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel,
and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first.
Notice He is talking now about their bodies being raised.
He is bringing them back from heaven with Him.
Their bodies will be raised.
And somewhere between there and there they are going to be united again to new bodies.
And then He says, verse 17, we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with
them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the
Lord.
I don't know about you who have lost loved ones who are with Christ, but I still weep.
I still mourn from time to time.
And I don't mourn because my loved ones are in heaven.
How could one mourn for that?
But I mourn because of the separation.
That's what I don't like.
I don't like not being able to talk with them.
I don't like not being able to see them smile and be able to embrace them.
I don't like that separation.
Dear friend, I want to tell you something.
Our loved ones who are dead in Christ, who are asleep in Christ, are safe and secure.
And one day, one day we are going to be with them again.
And there won't be any more separation.
There's not going to be any more longing after one another because we will be together and
with the Lord.
And we can say that with assurance because Jesus has been raised from the dead.
That brings me to the last statement that I want to make from our text today.
It is this, we who live for Christ in this world are wise.
Are we of all men to be pitied, as he suggests, if Christ has not been raised?
Hardly are we to be pitied.
We who live for Christ in this world are wise.
Those who live life apart from the resurrected Lord are the ones to be pitied.
It is tragic to live a futile life or even a fruitful life as the world may define that.
Only then to go to hell and to lose one's soul forever.
Now that is pitiful.
If there is anything that should cause mercy to well up within our hearts, to cause compassion
to come to our lips for the lost, it is the fact that not only are they living life now
apart from our Lord, but they face an eternity apart from him.
No, it is we who live for Christ in this world who are the wise ones.
You remember that statement that's been made at least a generation ago when I heard it
for the first time.
Only one life will soon be passed.
Only what's done for Christ will last.
Every deed done in his name, every word spoken for his sake, every sacrifice that we willingly
and joyfully make for his work, every pain, every persecution endured in his place will
one day be rewarded.
We who live for Christ in this world are the wise ones.
I invite you to turn to 2 Corinthians 5 as Paul writes to the same group of people as
he wrote the first book of Corinthians.
But in his next letter he says in verse 10, we must all appear before the judgment seat
of Christ.
2 Corinthians 5, 10, that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body according
to what he has done, whether good or bad.
He is not talking here about unbelievers.
He is talking about Christians before the judgment seat of Christ.
The purpose for this examination is rewards.
And we may have gain or we may suffer loss of rewards on that occasion.
And that causes Paul to be moved to some fear in verse 11.
Then in verse 14 he says, the love of Christ controls us.
Having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died.
And he died for all that they who live should no longer live for themselves, but for him
who died and rose again on their behalf.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, our Savior died for us all.
Not so that then we might be able to live for ourselves in this world, but that we might
live for him who died for us and rose again.
And when you and I purpose to live that way and we make decisions in life indicating that
we are choosing to live for him in this world, we are wise.
We are not those to be pitied.
We are making the best possible use of the brief years that we have in this world.
These are statements that we can confidently make because Jesus is alive today.
However one looks at history, whatever barometer you may use, if you are honest and you include
the historical life of Jesus Christ in your measurement, I believe that you must agree
with me that the greatest event in the history of the world is his resurrection from the
dead.
I can tell you what the second greatest event in the history of the world would be for you.
That would be the day when you open your heart and receive him as your Savior in life.
You can go back and compare the man on the moon.
You can go back to the discovery of atomic power.
You can go back to the Reformation if you are a historian.
You can go back to the flood in Noah's day.
That was a historical event of unparalleled proportion.
But I want you to know the second greatest event in the history of the world for you
will be that day when you trust the Savior.
I know that many of you have done that, but others of you have not.
Some of you know you should.
You thought about it.
You've struggled with that.
You've been convicted in your heart that you ought to, but you've not done it.
Some of you perhaps have never really thought about it.
Maybe today for the first time God has put that thought in your heart that that's your
need.
This day, this Easter Sunday of 1989, could be the second greatest historical event in
your life if you would trust the Savior.
Whoever we are here today, we are inseparably linked to his resurrection.
In 1 Corinthians 15, the apostle Paul writes, as in Adam, our first father, as in Adam all
die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
The resurrection of Jesus Christ means that every person who has ever lived will one day
be resurrected to stand before God.
Some will stand before him to enter into life and his kingdom, and others will stand before
him in the resurrection for death and eternal separation.
You and I can know we can choose today when we will stand before God.
We come to Jesus Christ.
It means that we stand before him in the resurrection into life, our past forgiven, our future assured.
I hope you will be there with us.
Let's pray.
Just as surely as the resurrection of Christ is an historical event, so is the resurrection
of you in the future.
I don't know when that will be, but it will come.
One day every one of us will give account of himself to God.
I hope that you can stand before him knowing that because of Jesus Christ the record of
your sins has been cleansed.
You stand before him righteous, justified, legally declared right with God.
Say how can I know that?
How can I prepare for that by trusting Jesus Christ today, right now as your Lord and Savior?
I want to give you an opportunity to do that in the closing moments of this service.
As we sit here quietly, I wonder where you are seated.
In your own heart you would invite Jesus Christ to enter your life to be your Savior, to be
your Lord.
If you will turn from your sin and trust in him.
There is a difference between knowing about him and trusting him.
Trusting him involves a submission to him.
Will you do that today?
Tell him so.
For Jesus, the eyes of all of us have never seen you, yet we have believed, most of us.
I trust that there are some here who in these quiet moments are choosing now to believe
in a saving way.
May your Holy Spirit work in their hearts enabling them to do that.
With our heads bowed and our eyes closed, I wonder if there is someone or several who
would say, at this moment, on this Easter Sunday, I receive Jesus Christ as my Lord
and Savior.
To indicate that, I lift my hand.
Is there one or several who would say, today that is my decision.
I want to trust the Savior, young or old.
God bless you, sir.
Is there another?
Will you stand before him for life or for judgment?
Make your decision now if you have not done it before.
Is there someone else?
Father in heaven, we thank you for the promise.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved.
Saved from sin, saved from hell, saved from death, saved for certain.
We worship you on this Resurrection Sunday because of the affirmations of our faith that
the resurrection brings.
I pray that we, your children, will live life wisely by living it for you.
May we enter into every day saying that because Jesus lives, I can live today and I can face
tomorrow.
May our hearts each day fellowship with you, our living Lord.
May our faith be more than just a creed that we confess, but a vital living relationship
with you that truly saves.
We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.