Would you open your Bible please with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 15 as we think this
morning regarding the drama of the resurrection.
I'm going to begin reading in verse 20 of 1 Corinthians 15.
But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep.
For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead.
For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive, but each in his own
order Christ the first fruits.
After that those who are Christ at his coming, then comes the end when he delivers up the
kingdom to the God and Father when he has abolished all rule and all authority and power.
Occasionally an event occurs which is so dramatic, so significant, so historic that it changes
everything from that point on.
As you look back through human history there are a number of events that you might point
to that would fit that description.
Perhaps the invention of the wheel, whenever that was, would fit that description.
Nothing has ever been the same since.
Insurance rates have skyrocketed since the wheel was invented.
Think of the invention of printing and what that means, communications and so on.
Or for that matter the dropping of the atomic bomb in 1945.
Nothing in the world has been the same since then.
Or you might look more recently to the launching of Sputnik in 1957, that Soviet satellite
that revolutionized the way we think about space.
Nothing can ever be the same again after events like these.
It's like the mixing of paint pigments to make a desired color.
Once those pigments have been mixed they cannot be unmixed, it's forever changed.
Or you might compare it to an egg that has been cracked open, it can't be put together
again.
On a more personal level it's like the birth of a child.
Nothing is ever the same in your family after the birth of a child.
Or for that matter after the death of a loved one.
It changes everything from that point on.
Whether in the global or the personal realm, some events change everything from the moment
which they occur.
I would like for you to consider with me today how uniquely this applies to the resurrection
of Jesus Christ.
Resurrection is an event which splits history.
Its results are so powerful that it has sent shockwaves that have reached to heaven and
to hell.
They have reached from the beginning of time to its end.
Think with me today of the unfolding drama of the resurrection and how it affects every
one of us this morning.
The drama of the resurrection began on the first Easter 2,000 years ago.
Jesus Christ's body had laid in the grave since being removed from the cross.
Cold, silent, and stiff.
It laid on that slab of stone, tightly wrapped in burial cloth with a separate piece covering
his face.
And then on that morning, the first day of the week, suddenly perhaps with a flash of
blinding light and eternal energy, that body over which death had held sway for those three
days and three nights was transformed into a new one of a kind resurrection body.
The spirit and soul of the God man returned to eternally inhabit that glorified body of
flesh and bone.
A body which was unlike any that was seen before.
And then he left the tomb in a blaze of dazzling radiance.
An angel with the appearance of lightning and dressed, it is said, in snow-white garment,
rolled away the stone from the grave and sat on that stone, causing the guards, the Roman
guards who were there to shake with fear and to become like dead men.
The angels announced to some women who had come with burial spices the good news of Jesus'
resurrection.
And later they repeated it to Peter and John.
On that first Easter Sunday, Jesus himself appeared five times.
The first time was to Mary Magdalene, quietly, personally, in the garden where she was weeping.
She had returned to the sepulcher after reporting the disturbed grave to the disciples.
And there she wept, wondering where the body of her Lord had been taken to.
Everyone records that Jesus met her there in the garden.
That was his first appearance as the resurrected Lord.
And then he appeared once more to Mary, the mother of James, to Salomni, and Joanna as
they returned to the city from the grave site.
Matthew, Mark, and Luke all record that appearance.
Perhaps it was in the afternoon then that Jesus found Peter someplace alone.
And there he appeared to Peter and restored him to fellowship.
Luke and the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians records that appearance to Peter.
And still later in the day, he appeared once more, this time to two of his disciples who
had been from the city of Emmaus and were in the city of Jerusalem over the weekend
for what had occurred.
But now on the first day of the week, they walked discouraged back to their home village.
And late in the afternoon, a stranger came and walked with them.
That stranger was Jesus.
And it was not until he broke bread with them at their evening meal that they recognized
him and he vanished from their sight.
But Mark and Luke record for us that appearance of our Lord.
And then it was later that day, in the evening, when ten of the apostles were gathered together,
that Jesus came into their midst.
The doors being shut, he simply entered the room through the walls.
And Mark, Luke, and John record for us his conversation with them on that occasion.
Subsequent appearances occurred over the next 40 days.
There were at least five of them.
It was one week after Easter Sunday that Jesus appeared again, according to John and to Paul
in 1 Corinthians 15.
This time he came to his disciples, particularly to show himself to Thomas, who had missed
that first meeting Easter Sunday night.
And then again he appeared to the eleven on a Galilean mountain, where he gave to them
what is called the Great Commission.
That appearance is recorded in Matthew and Mark.
John then tells us of yet another time when Jesus met with seven of his disciples by the
Sea of Galilee.
They were fishing there.
He prepared a breakfast for them and invited them to come and dine with him.
Then they recognized who it was and ate with him.
It was on that occasion that Jesus spoke to Peter to feed his sheep.
And then Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 15 that there was yet another time when Jesus
appeared to 500 believers at once.
In fact, it was over 500 of them.
And then we know of yet one final appearance when he seemingly appeared to James.
And then all of the disciples, Acts 1 and 1 Corinthians 15, tell us of that appearance.
It was then that he was lifted up from them into heaven in what is called his ascension.
As we examine these appearances of our Lord in those 40 days following the first Easter,
it is specified that at least 538 individuals saw him personally before he returned to heaven.
After that, there were at least three others who saw him.
Stephen saw him at the time of his martyrdom.
Paul saw him on the road to Damascus and later in visions to encourage him.
And then he appeared near the end of the first century to the Apostle John on the Isle of
Patmos as he gave to John the great revelation, the apocalypse of Jesus Christ.
As we think of the drama of that first resurrection, we remind ourselves that we have not followed
a fairy tale.
We have not followed a cunningly devised fable.
But rather we today, 2,000 years later, are the recipients of a record of an event that
has shaken the world in which we live.
This gospel is the means of salvation for all who have accepted its facts of Christ's
death, burial, and resurrection for our sins and who have trusted personally in the living
Christ for salvation.
Here in 1 Corinthians the Apostle begins this 15th chapter by saying,
Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received,
by which also you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which
I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.
It is this gospel of Jesus Christ's death, burial, and resurrection, and faith not just
in the content of the message but in the person of the message that saves the individual.
On this Easter Sunday I may well be talking to some friend who is here.
While you have heard of the resurrection, you have celebrated Good Friday perhaps many
times in your life.
Though you feel you have heard the gospel, I want to ask you in your heart, have you
trusted in the living Savior, Jesus Christ, as your own Savior from sin?
Are you relying upon Him alone today for the salvation of your soul?
Salvation is by grace.
It's a gift to us.
And we receive it through faith.
And we must be careful not to mix together with that faith works on our part in which
we try to please God.
Whether it be some religious work or some moral reformation trying to clean up our lives,
or whatever it may be, we must lay works aside.
And as the hymn writer has said, just as I am without one plea, but that thy blood was
shed for me, O Lamb of God, I come.
I come.
Have you come to Him today with that one plea, recognizing that His blood was shed for your
sins, that He paid the price that you could never fully pay in suffering for your sins?
Have you come to Him to receive the free gift?
And is your reliance, your trust in this Christ whom we declare to you today in this message?
The drama of the resurrection of Jesus Christ means that this gospel we preach is available
to all who will receive it.
Now the second thing I want to say to you this morning is this, that the drama of the
resurrection continues to unfold each time a person does trust in Christ.
The resurrection event occurred 2,000 years ago, but the drama of it continues yet today
every time a single person in sin trusts the Lord Jesus Christ.
Turn over with me to the book of Ephesians and notice the second chapter in the first
verse where it says, and you were dead in your trespasses and sins.
And it goes on to say in verse 4, but God being rich in mercy because of His great love
with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, our transgressions,
made us alive together with Christ and raised us up with Him.
By grace you have been saved, He says.
My friend, the only way any of us is ever saved is by a personal and spiritual resurrection
in the inner man.
For by our natural birth into the world we are born dead.
We are insensitive to God.
We are estranged and cut off from God.
We are without life.
Even when we were dead in our trespasses, says the Word of God, we were quickened together
with Christ.
There was a resurrection of sorts on the inside of us.
There was that resurrection that enabled us to believe on Christ and to answer His command,
come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden.
Be sure about it, there is no such thing as a self-resuscitation, just as that is impossible
in the physical realm.
And there have been those who were going to try it, you may recall.
People who were going to try to come back from the dead or even communicate from the
dead, but they cannot, it's impossible.
Just as it cannot be that anyone would resuscitate himself, so we spiritually cannot make ourselves
alive.
It is that sovereign work of God touching us, enabling us to believe on Christ.
My friend, when you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, there is a resurrection that takes
place in you.
It is a resurrection of your inner man.
You are made a new person in Jesus Christ.
The resurrection drama continues to unfold to this very day, every time an individual
trusts in the Lord for salvation.
But then think with me too, the fact that the resurrection drama unfolds as the believer
in Christ is inwardly transformed to be like his Lord.
The Christian life begins with that initial resurrection, that being made alive together
with Christ that Paul talks about in Ephesians 2.5.
But that's not the end of it.
It's not intended to be the end of it.
There is a resurrection drama that continues to unfold throughout the life experience of
the Christian.
Turn back with me to Romans chapter 6, where we have been studying on some Sunday evenings
over the last few weeks.
I don't have the time to go into the detail about the baptism here, but just remember
that this is not water baptism he's talking about.
Baptism means identification with, union with.
He says in Romans 6.4, Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism unto death,
in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we
too might walk in newness of life.
For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, certainly we shall
also in the likeness of his resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified
with him, that our body of sin might be done away with, that is rendered inoperative or
powerless, that we should no longer be slaves to sin.
So he says in verse 11, Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ
Jesus.
Therefore do not let sin reign as king in your mortal body, that you should obey its
lusts.
And do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness.
But present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments
of righteousness to God.
What are we talking about here?
It is that drama of the resurrection that continues to unfold as the believer is transformed
into the likeness of his Lord.
As Paul says in 2 Corinthians 3 and 18, it is from glory to glory that we are changed
into the image of Jesus Christ.
That is the resurrection power my friend, at work in your life as a Christian.
It began with your resurrection from the dead to faith, but that resurrection drama continues
because you have been raised from the dead to walk in newness of life, that is a life
with a new quality, a new freshness about it.
So that now you are dead to what you used to be, and you are alive to all of the potential
in Jesus Christ.
Therefore present all that you are, the members of your body, your potential, your abilities,
your spiritual gifts, present everything you are, everything you can be to God as those
who are alive from the dead in Christ.
That is the resurrection drama as well.
We sing the little chorus, oh to be like thee, oh to be like thee precious Redeemer, pure
as thou art.
That is the hard cry of the genuine Christian, and it is a cry that is being fulfilled in
a progression of steps through a process called sanctification as we walk with Jesus Christ
in yieldedness to his Lordship in our lives.
That drama of the resurrection continues to unfold as we are changed into the image of
him who was raised from the dead.
Then think with me once more regarding this, that the drama of the resurrection will further
unfold with the resurrection of the righteous.
Let's go back to the text where we started in 1 Corinthians chapter 15.
What began 2000 years ago is not finished by any means.
The apostle tells us in verse 22, as in Adam all die, that's why we are born dead in trespasses
and sins, because we are the children of Adam.
And in Adam we all die, and we all died with him in his sin.
But even so in Christ all shall be made alive.
I take that to mean the same all.
Just as in Adam all died, so in Christ all will be made alive.
But he says, each in his own order.
The word order means a military rank.
It might be a battalion in military terms.
It is a grouping.
He says everyone in his own place with his own group will be raised.
And then he says Christ the first fruits, that's the beginning.
Historically that has happened.
The first fruits refers to that which is the first installment of more to come.
The first fruits is the guarantee which represents all of the rest.
So it began with a guarantee, Jesus Christ the first fruits, he was raised.
Then he says after that, those who are Christ's at his coming, and we live in between those
two phrases.
He has not come again.
That is what Paul has in mind.
But he says that there will be a resurrection at the coming of Christ.
Those who are his, I take that to mean those who are redeemed.
Those who belong to him in that special peculiar sense being purchased with his precious blood
from sin.
Those who are Christ's at his coming will be changed to reflect the glories of Christ
completely in the inner man and the outer man.
The spirit and the soul and the physical body changed to be completely like him.
He talks more about that later in the chapter in verse 50.
He says, now I say this brethren, the flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God,
nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.
You and I are never going to get out of this world the way we are now.
It's impossible.
Something has to happen to us because now we live in that which is perishable.
We live in flesh and blood and that cannot inherit the kingdom of God because the kingdom
of God is eternal and we are perishable.
Something has to happen.
So he says in verse 51, behold I tell you a mystery.
That is something is going to be revealed now which has not previously been exposed.
We shall not all sleep.
That means die.
It's a metaphor.
But we shall all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet.
Identify that with his coming mentioned earlier.
For the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised imperishable.
And we, assumption, we who are alive remaining, we shall be changed.
For he says this perishable must put on imperishable and this mortal must put on immortality.
And so the apostle tells us here of that future event that will take place at the coming of
Christ.
When we will be changed and made like him, the dead in Christ will be raised to be with
him.
And though Paul doesn't mention it in this very same context, that next phase of his
coming that we sometimes call the second coming of Christ when he comes down to the earth
to reign, at that time all of the rest of those who are his will be raised from the
dead.
In the event that is before us in 1 Corinthians 15, it's the resurrection or the rapture
of the church, a unique and distinct body in this age.
But when he comes back to the earth to reign, all of those who are Christ, from the time
of Adam down through all of those centuries of the Old Testament, up through the end of
the tribulation period, excluding the church of course, which has already been dealt with,
already been resurrected, all who are Christ when he comes again to the earth will be raised.
Those who are Christ will be raised at his coming.
My point is this, that the resurrection drama will further unfold one day at his coming
and we will be changed or resurrected and will inhabit bodies which are intended and
made and created to last forever and to enter into the kingdom of God.
But there is one final point that we have to make and that is that the resurrection
drama will be consummated at the resurrection of the wicked.
He says in verse 24, then, and notice that he is taking these in order, he says, each
in his own order, Christ the firstfruits, after that, now he says in verse 24, then
comes the end.
That is the completion, the final installment of everything, the end.
Some understand this to mean then come the end ones.
What's his theme?
What's he talking about?
The resurrection of all.
Well, who are these who are resurrected in the end?
The end being described as when he delivers up the kingdom to the God enfothered.
That refers to after his millennial reign has been completed.
When the promises of the Abrahamic covenant have been fulfilled, the promises of the Davidic
covenant have been fulfilled.
When the son of David has reigned and reigned for that thousand years as the word of God
predicts he will.
And he then delivers the kingdom back to the father at the end of that.
Then the end comes.
And who are these who are resurrected at the end?
It is all of those who have died in sin.
It is the wicked.
All outside of Jesus Christ, all of them, all of them will be raised from the dead.
Jesus himself speaks to this in the fifth chapter of John if you want to look back there
quickly with me.
As we look down the whole way of time we are looking down to the very end of it now.
Just before time stops and eternity emerges.
Now in John 5 and verse 26 Jesus says, for just as the father has life in himself even
so he gave to the son also to have life in himself.
And he gave him authority to execute judgment because he is the son of man.
Do not marvel at this for an hour is coming.
You see it's not here yet.
It's coming.
Remember we said last week an hour is an event.
It's an occasion.
It's not 60 minutes.
He says an hour, an event is coming, a time is coming in which all who are in the tomb
shall hear his voice and shall come forth those who did the good deeds to a resurrection
of life and those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment.
Now if one were simply to take the words of Jesus here without the additional revelation
that is given to us in the New Testament you might conclude that there is a general resurrection
at the end of time when at one time, one occasion all people are resurrected.
Because of what the New Testament continues to reveal about resurrection we know that
is not the case.
The resurrection to life or the resurrection of life is what I've described to you already.
But now he comes to the resurrection of judgment.
Those who have committed evil deeds, that is the wicked, they will be resurrected.
That resurrection is described to us further in Revelation chapter 20 where it is described
as the great white throne, judgment of God.
When all the wicked dead are brought forth from their tombs and their graves from the
sea, they are brought forth in bodies that will last for eternity where they will dwell.
And they are brought before the throne of the living God and they are judged based upon
the works of their lives.
The books are opened it says.
You're only beginning to understand how that kind of information can be kept.
Some physicists say that locked into the blocks of this room, into the atomic structure of
these blocks, there is the potential that every word that's ever been said in this room
could be extracted.
It's there.
The record is there.
It's everywhere.
We're learning the miracle of the DNA which says that every cell in your body has that
personal imprint of just you and there's no one else that is like you.
You are absolutely unique in your makeup.
This is becoming a tool for those who study forensics.
It's more accurate than a fingerprint.
Every cell in your body says one thing that you are you and you are no one else.
And you as an individual will one day stand before God.
You will stand with the redeemed to rejoice in salvation and to enter into the kingdom
of God or you will stand with the condemned in this final consummating act of resurrection
as the drama stops at the end of time.
You will stand before a holy God to give account of your life and all of its works will be
brought before you.
The evidence, the proof will all be there.
There will be no excuses, there is no escape and you will receive from God an eternal judgment
fit exactly for you.
And here are those awful words of the one who loved you and gave his life for you.
Depart from me into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
The drama of the resurrection ladies and gentlemen continues to this very morning.
That drama is taking place in the hearts of some right here now who within the inner person
lies lostness and guilt and fear.
Fear of that day, hoping it isn't so, wanting to believe that the preacher is wrong, that
Jesus didn't mean what he said.
And yet nagging within is that conviction of sin and of judgment.
And Jesus Christ the resurrected Lord holds out his arms to you and says, whosoever will
may come.
Come unto me all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest, he says.
Will you come today and experience that resurrection of the inner man?
Will you be quickened from your death and trespasses and sins never to die again?
Will you come to him today?
I submit to you that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the most significant, the most dramatic
event in the history of the world.
And whoever you are this morning, you cannot escape that event.
Because it does and it will impact you.
Its implications are written on your life.
Now you have the opportunity to receive him, to bow the knee before him, to give yourself
to him in faith.
One day you will have no choice.
Do it now, it means salvation.
Bow the knee then, it means condemnation.
Which will it be?
Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, may all of us hear today the words of Jesus and the words of Paul.
And I pray that we will understand how the resurrection impacts us personally and directly.
If there are those here today who at this point are headed toward the resurrection of
the lost unto judgment, oh my prayer is that they today would give themselves to Jesus
Christ, recognize him for who he is as the Lord of Heaven, and would trust in him for
what he did for them at the cross, would embrace him who loved them and gave himself for them.
May there be some today who would be brought from the dead spiritually to enter into eternal
life.
Then may all of us who know Jesus, all of us who belong to him, who are his and who
anticipate his coming, Lord may we be living so that that drum of the resurrection is unfolded
daily in our lives as we are transformed into your lovely likeness.
Our heads bowed, our eyes closed.
I wonder if there is someone here who would say, Pastor, God has spoken to my heart.
And I recognize that today I need to trust the Savior.
If I were to die now, my resurrection would be with the lost, the condemned.
I want to change that.
I want to trust in Christ today.
By the uplifted hand, will you indicate that to be your decision, the desire of your heart,
and say today I would trust Jesus Christ as my Savior?
Is there one here who would say that?
This will be my resurrection day from the dead of sins and transgressions.
Would you stand together with me please?
Father God, as we stand before you this morning, we do so with joy in our hearts because of
this event, this drama that has unfolded and is unfolding and will continue to unfold until
the end of time.
We thank you that we are a part of that, we who are saved, and that we have a wonderful
event to anticipate in the coming of the Savior on this Easter Sunday morning.
We give ourselves a fresh to you.
We pray that you would live your life through us Lord, to touch those around us.
How desperate so many people are, how hungry they are, and how blind.
May we be a light to them, a touch of Jesus' love.
May they find in us that which would make them desire Jesus.
God may we be the extension of your very life throughout our community this week.
Live your resurrected life through us, your body we pray.
Amen.
God bless you, word is missed.