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Many years
ago, there were two brilliant young men in England, one named Lyttleton and the
other named West. They got together and one of them said, “If we could
disprove two things we could destroy Christianity – the conversion of the
Apostle Paul on the road to Damascus and the resurrection of Jesus. Lyttleton
said, “I’ll spend a year investigating the conversion of the Apostle
Paul.” West said, “I’ll spend a year investigating the resurrection of
Jesus. Then we will meet again to report our findings.” A year later they met
and Lyttleton said to West, “After a year of investigation, I am convinced
that the Bible story of the conversion of the Apostle Paul is true.” And not
only
that, he said, “West, I, too, have been converted.” Then
West said to Lyttleton, “I have been investigating the resurrection of Jesus
for a year; and Lyttleton, I, too, have discovered that the resurrection of
Jesus Christ is a fact. Undeniable. And it may surprise you to know that I have
received Him as my Saviour; I’m saved.”
Attorney
Francis J. Lamb subjected the New Testament evidence to the jural tests,
questioning each statement exactly as would be done in a court of justice where
human life was at stake, and judge and jury were alike determined to discover
the absolute truth in the procedure. After doing so, Lamb affirms: “Tested
by the standards and ordeals of jural science, by which questions of fact are
ascertained and demonstrated in contested questions of right between man and
man, in courts of justice, the resurrection of Jesus stands a demonstrated
fact.”
There were
those in Paul’s day that questioned the believer’s resurrection from the
dead. Notice verse 12: "Now if Christ
be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no
resurrection of the dead?"
It was not that
they denied the resurrection of Christ for Paul had stated in verses 1-3, that
they had heard, believed, and received the Gospel which is the message of the
death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. What they had problem with was the
believer’s bodily resurrection. As William
Barclay stated, “They said flatly, ‘Dead men do not rise again.’”
But in verse 13 Paul declared that if there be no resurrection then Jesus
was not raised from the dead. Notice: "But if there be no resurrection
of the dead, then is Christ not risen."
Roy L. Lauren states: “The two
resurrections are tied together as cause and consequence.” (First
Corinthians, Where Life Matures, p.273)
Paul was saying that the
resurrection of Christ showed the possibility of the believer’s resurrection
and also provided the guarantee of the believer’s resurrection. Once
establishing the fact of the believer’s resurrection, then Paul begins to
establish the importance of Christ’s resurrection. In verses 13-19 Paul gives a
series of “if’s” that show the importance of the resurrection of Christ. He
shows what it would mean “if” Christ had not been raised from the dead. What
would it mean if Jesus were not raised from dead?
Let me point out 3 truths from our text.
1. OUR DECLARATION OF THE RESURRECTED
CHRIST WOULD BE FALSE
In verse 14-15 Paul talks about
the preaching of the resurrected Christ and the preachers of a resurrected
Christ. He tells us that if Jesus is not raised from the dead then both are
false. If Christ be not raised then:
A. The Message Is Destroyed
Paul says in verse 14, “And is Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain.”
The word “preaching” speaks of a proclamation, by implication, the proclaiming
of the gospel message of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. The Gospel is to be the heart and
soul of preaching. Charles Spurgeon, in his Lectures
to My Students said in closing as he dealt with the subject
“Sermons—Their Matter”: “Of all I would wish to say this is the sum; my
brethren, preach CHRIST, always and evermore. He is the whole-gospel. His
person, offices, and work must be our one-great, all-comprehending theme.”
When
interviewing Dr. A. J. Gordon as a prospective pastor of a Boston church, the
pulpit committee asked: “If you are called to the pastorate of our church will
you preach against the cards, the theater, and dancing?” “I will,”
solemnly affirmed Dr. Gordon. He was called. Months passed and he didn’t say a
word against the cards, the theater, and dancing. The official board of the
church said, “Almost a year has gone by and you have said nothing against
cards, the theater, and dancing. We wonder why.” Dr.
Gordon replied: “Gentlemen, it is true that I have said nothing against these
things, but I have preached Christ who is the only Savior from all evils. When
He comes into one’s heart all evil things vanish from the life like the mist
before the hot breath of the noonday sun.” Dr. Gordon understood the
heart and soul of preaching. Preaching is more than talking about things, it is
the proclaiming of Jesus Christ who died for our sins and rose again from the
dead.
J.H. Jowett fitly described
preaching when he said, "We are not appointed to merely good advice, but to
proclaim good news."
After church one Sunday morning, a young fellow announced to his mother, “Mom,
I’ve decided I’m going to be a preacher when I grow up.” His mother said,
“That’s wonderful. What made you decide that you wanted to be a preacher?”
“Well,” the boy replied, “I have to go to church anyway and I figure it will be
more fun to stand up and yell than to sit and listen.”
In some cases “preaching” is nothing more than someone standing up and yelling.
But preaching is more than yelling. It is a matter of telling. It is
telling about a Saviour who died for our sins and rose again from the dead. Paul tells us in verse 14 that if
Christ is not risen, then our preaching is in “vain.” The word “vain”
means “void, empty of content, as a shell without a kernel.” If Jesus is not
a resurrected Christ, then I as a preacher have lost the content of my
preaching. I have nothing to preach about. My message has been destroyed and
rendered void. The death, burial, and resurrection is the heart and soul of my
preaching. If Christ is not raised from the dead, then I am left without a
message. I suddenly find myself with a message that has no content. Also notice
that if Christ be not raise then:
B.
The Messenger Is Deceptive
Paul adds in verse 15: “Yea,
and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that
He raised up Christ: whom He raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not.” The
words “false witness” speak of the bearer of an untrue message. In other
words, if Christ is not raised from the dead, the preacher that tells you that
God raised Jesus from the dead is telling you something God did not do. He
is being deceptive and dishonest. He is being a “false witness,” a liar,
cheat, crook, and deceiver.
If Jesus did not rise from the dead on the morning of the third day, then Peter,
Paul, James, John, and all the apostles were a hoax. Every preacher through-out
the ages, Wesley, Spurgeon, Moody, Whitefield, Edwards, Knox, has been a
religious charlatan. Every missionary; Carey, Judson, Paton, have led millions astray. Every poet and hymn-writer; Crosby, Chapman,
Wesley, Watts, have been nothing but false witnesses. What they have declared,
written and proclaimed is false.
The resurrection of Jesus from the dead has been the theme of every preacher,
missionary, poet and hymn-writer I have named and if Christ is not a living,
resurrected Saviour they all, including me, have been a deceiver. All we have
preached, promoted, proclaimed has been a hoax.
Secondly:
2. OUR
DEPENDENCE ON THE RESURRECTED
CHRIST WOULD BE FRUITLESS
In verse 16, Paul once again reminds them of the importance of the believer’s
resurrection: "For if the dead rise not, then is Christ not raised.”
If there is not the bodily
resurrection of the believer’s body the implication is devastating. It would
mean that not only that our declaration of the resurrected Christ is false but
even worse; our dependence on the resurrected Christ is fruitless.
A. There Is No Saving Of Our Souls
We read in verse 14, “and
your faith is vain,” and also in verse 17, “And if Christ be not
raised, your faith is vain.” The word “vain” used in verse 17 means
“profitless.” Each of us in this place have placed our eternal destiny on
the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. It is upon these truths that we
depend on for salvation. If Jesus was not raised from the dead, then what we are
trusting in and depending on is vain, futile, and fruitless.
Since April 2, 1972 I have depended on nothing but the finished work of Jesus to
save me, a finished work that includes His resurrection from the dead. Through
these many years I have joined William Bradbury in saying:
My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus name.
On Christ the solid Rock, I
stand—
All other ground is sinking sand,
All other ground is sinking sand.
If Jesus is not risen from the dead, then my faith has been in vain. I am lost
and on my way to hell. Each one of you that is trusting in Christ is lost and on
your way to hell. Our faith has been in vain. It doesn’t matter what we did when
we knelt at an old fashion altar, whatever we felt or experienced, it has all
been a lie. Our faith has been a joke. All I have had is a false sense of
security.
B. There Is No Forgiveness Of Our Sins
As verse 17 tells us, “ye are
yet in your sins.” I have often sang:
You ask me why I’m happy,
Then I’ll just tell you why;
It’s because my sins are gone.
But if Jesus is not a risen and living Saviour, I am still under the penalty and
power of sin. My sins have never been forgiven, they have never been cleansed,
and they have never been washed away. I am still condemned before God. I am
still separated from God. I am a sinner and all my sins have never been atoned
for and I am guilty before God.
Notice verse 18: “Then they
also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.” All of our loved
ones that believed and put their faith in the death, burial, and resurrection of
Christ all died and went to hell. Their faith was vain, their sins were not
forgiven, and each one of them died, deceived and eternally damned to an eternal
hell.
If Christ has not been raised from the dead then we have been depending on that
which cannot save us and has been responsible for many going to hell and
perishing. There is no redeemed life unless there is a risen life!
3. OUR
DEDICATION TO THE RESURRECTED
CHRIST IS FOOLISH
Paul sums it all up in verse 19: “If
in this life only we have hope in, we are of all men most miserable.” The
word “miserable” means “to have mercy on, to be pitied.” If Jesus is not
risen from the dead, then we are to be pitied.
A. The Life We Have Consecrated To Christ Has Been Foolish
If in this life, this present life, it all has been false, then all we
have done for Christ has been a waste of time and a foolish adventure. We are to
be pitied to have given our life to Christ. Men like Jim Elliot, who went to
the jungle of Ecuador and was brutally murdered by the Auca Indians, was a fool.
Elliot once said, “A man is no fool to give up what he cannot keep to gain
what he cannot lose.” If Jesus did not rise from the dead, then Jim Elliot was
a fool.
I am a fool to go day and night, read, study hour after hour, sacrifice a normal
life in order to be a preacher and pastor. I was a fool to work a part time job,
do without just to go to College to study and prepare for the ministry. I have
been a fool to move my family into parsonages, apartments, and houses that the
average church member would not consider living in. I have been a fool to go out
in the middle of the night to talk to people about their problems. I am to be
pitied if Jesus is not alive.
If Jesus is not alive, you are to
be pitied to come to church week after week, hear a false message, believe in
that message, work and serve for a
cause that is nothing more than a joke.
B. The Life We Have Contemplated In Christ Is Foolish
There is not only this life in which we have been foolish, but our “hope,” the
life we have looked forward to, contemplated and anticipated, has been nothing
more than a dream, wishful thinking, if Jesus was not raised from the dead. A heavenly home without sin,
death, sickness, heartache, sorrow, and tears has been nothing more than a myth,
and we have been a fool to believe such a thing exists for us in the future. If
Jesus is not risen from dead, then my preaching has been stupid, what we have
believed in has been stupid, all our giving, work, and sacrifice has been
stupid. If Jesus has not been raised from the dead we all have been nothing but
morons.
In closing, let me share with you a blessing I received as I prepared this
message. It sums up what I have to say about all I have said. I had put on a CD
(Gospel Music) to play in the background as I studied. I sat there at my desk
thinking about the implications if Jesus had not risen. I confess to you that
the importance of the resurrection had not gripped my heart quite like it had at
that moment.
There was a lot of things at stake if Jesus was not alive. My preaching has been
in vain. My faith has been in vain. I am still in my sins. My hope is in vain.
But then my ears picked up on the song that was being sung:
In the early morning stillness of
that third day,
Through the darkness the ladies made their way,
Up the hill through the garden to the grave
Where they heard holy angels proclaim
He’s not here, He arose like He
said,
He’s not here, You want find Him among the dead,
He’s not here, He’s conquered sin’s prison,
He’s not here, He’s risen.
I could not help it, but I shouted aloud. My preaching is not in vain; He’s
alive! My faith is not in vain; He’s alive! My sins are forgiven; He is risen!
My loved ones have not perished; He is alive! It all has not been in vain. Jesus
is risen from the dead! We might wonder what if, but thank
God we do not have to despair for He arose again from the dead!
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