The Resurrection Changes Everything!

April 1, 2018

          In September or October last year I was going over the church calendar for 2018 when I noticed that Easter would fall on April Fool’s Day. I was excited! This is a first in my lifetime! These two days haven’t collided since 1956.

          Why in the world would I get worked up over something like that? I can sum it up in this entry from Twitter this week:

Good Friday, Jesus: I totally died for your sins.

Easter Sunday, Jesus: (rolls stone from cave opening) April Fools![1]

          I suppose some folks might be offended by such an entry, but I’m not. I understand that Christianity just doesn’t seem to make sense to some folks. In fact, that sentiment is not new to 21^st Century America. It’s been around as long as the New Testament itself.

1 Corinthians 1:18-25 (NIV84) 

¹⁸ For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.
¹⁹ For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”

²⁰ Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? ²¹ For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. ²² Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, ²³ but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, ²⁴ but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. ²⁵ For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength. [Take off jester hat.]

Later in the same letter, Paul outlined the Gospel (good news) he preached: (1) Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, (2) he was buried, (3) he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures (1 Cor. 15:3-4, NIV84).

It’s that last part that is problematic to many people. We’re used to people being born and we’re used to people dying. We’re not used to used to people coming back to life after they’ve been buried for three days.

And yet this truth is central to Christianity. The Apostle Paul explained it this way, “If Christ has not been raised, (1) your faith is useless… (2) you are still guilty of your sins… (3) we are to be pitied more than all men” (1 Corinthians 15:17-18, NLT).

Without the resurrection, which we celebrate this Easter morning, we’d be a bunch of useless, lying, pitiful people! And I’m not talking about a father’s first impression of his future son-in-law!

Seriously, though, those words would describe Christians if Christ hadn’t risen from the dead. But the resurrection changes everything. Let me explain.

The Resurrection Changes Everything!

Useless

1. If Christ has not been raised, my preaching is useless
2. If Christ has not been raised, your faith is useless
3. If Christ has not been raised, there is not forgiveness and we are still guilty of our sins.
4. In fact, if Christ has not been raised, doesn’t the concept of sin even matter?

Lying—If Christ has not been raised, we are lying about God

Pitiful –If Christ has not been raised, we are to be pitied more than all other people

1. There’s nothing better coming after this life
2. If Christ has not been raised, our motto in life should be, “Let’s eat and drink, for tomorrow we die (1 Corinthians 15:32).

I do not believe myself to be a useless, lying, pitiful person! I believe that I’ve built my life on fact, not fiction. I believe I’ve built it on truth, not fantasy.

How can I be so sure? Investigation and study—the pursuit to make sure that what I’m trusting is worthy of my trust. How about you? What do you trust today? Let’s look at some evidence about Christ. Don’t simply take my word for it.

• The fact that Jesus died by crucifixion is attested to not only in the Bible, but also by…
  • a Jewish historian named Josephus,
  • a Roman historian named Tacitus,
  • a Greek author named Lucian,
  • and the Talmud—a Jewish Rabbinical text
• Belief in the resurrection
  • Paul
  • Oral tradition of the early church
  • Written documents
    • Gospels
    • Apostolic fathers—these guys were the church leaders that took over for the apostles and were trained by them.
  • The apostles’ willingness to die for their beliefs
    • They were transformed to the point where they willing to suffer and die for saying Jesus rose from the dead and appeared to them.
    • Think about this: Before Jesus’ crucifixion, they left him and hid.
    • After Jesus rose from the dead and appeared to them, they suddenly got super‐brave and started acting like a bunch of tough guys.
    • They willingly put themselves in danger by attesting to the resurrection in public over and over again.
    • The apostles’ died for their own testimony that they had personally seen Jesus alive after his crucifixion.
      • Here’s why this is important: Martyrs might die for what they think is true.
      • But nobody dies for what they know is false.
    • The disciples of Jesus died for what they knew was either true or false.

          I love this contemporary testimony about the resurrection from Chuck Colson. He served as special counsel to President Richard Nixon from 1969 to 1973. He became a Christ follower while serving time in prison in the wake of the Watergate scandal. He said, “I know the resurrection is a fact, and Watergate proved it to me. How? Because 12 men testified they had seen Jesus raised from the dead, then they proclaimed that truth for 40 years, never once denying it. Every one was beaten, tortured, stoned and put in prison. They would not have endured that if it weren’t true. Watergate embroiled 12 of the most powerful men in the world — and they couldn’t keep a lie for three weeks. You’re telling me 12 apostles could keep a lie for 40 years? Absolutely impossible.”

          God, in his wisdom, chose the resurrection of Christ to be the pivotal point in history. It sounds like foolishness.  Christians have a long history of being called fools. In Jesus’s day, the religious types knew that no Messiah dies like a loser. And the intellectuals knew that no one rises from the dead. So, when Christians started claiming that a disgraced and condemned criminal was the living ruler of heaven and earth, everyone knew who to laugh at.[2]

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C.S. Lewis said that Christ was either a liar, a lunatic, or he was Lord. 

• If Jesus knew he wasn't the Son of God but claimed to be the Son God, then he was a liar.
• If Jesus thought he was the Son of God but wasn't the Son of God, then he was a lunatic.
• If Jesus claimed to be the Son of God because he is the Son of God, then he is the Lord.

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Which do you believe? A.W. Tozer said, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.”

Who do you say he is?

 All of us here today probably fit into one of three categories:

1. Those who believe
2. Those who are unsure
   1. Seekers—want to find the truth
   2. Non-seekers—it doesn’t really matter one way or the other
3. Those who do not believe

You could not have picked a better day to come to church!

For those of you who are already Christians, you know why today is so important. And for those of you who are not yet Christians, I’m so glad that you’re here and that I’ve had the opportunity to share this message with you.

I know it sounds a little farfetched. I mean, seriously, people do not come back to life after being dead for three days. Usually, that’s true. But not in the case of Christ. He is God’s son. God in the flesh, born a babe, lived as a man, died a martyr, and rose the savior of the world.

A savior is simply someone who saves, rescues or delivers someone else. Christ lived, died and rose again to save me and to save you from the disease of sin.

Sin is more than just wrong choices, bad decisions, and willful acts of disobedience against God’s will. It’s that and more. Sin is missing the mark or deliberately stepping over the line, but it is also a power at work inside every human being. As strange as it may sound, sin seems to have a will of its own. Like an addiction, sin takes hold of us and causes us to act in ways we never wanted. Jesus’ death and resurrection dealt finally and definitively with the reality of sin. Not only can we be forgiven of our sins but we can also be liberated from the power of sin.^[3]

As you consider my words this morning, keep this question in mind: did Jesus rise from the dead? If he didn’t, then you can discount everything I’ve said and everything we’ve done here this morning. You can write us off as misguided folks who are nice enough, but out of touch fools.

But, if he did rise from the dead, then it changes everything for you. It means God exists, he loves you, and he sent his son to be the savior, deliverer, and rescuer you need. It means there’s more to this life than just this life. It means the sense of ought and ought not that you live with is the impression of God on your soul and not just some arbitrary moral standard someone created. It means the faith of your parents, grandparents, children, friends, or neighbors is real. It means God hears your prayers and that you can be forgiven. It means you can never sin so much that you are outside the reach of His grace. It means you can have a clear conscience.

If Jesus rose from the dead…it changes everything!

 As you consider the Christian faith, know that it begins and ends with an historical event – the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Some of you are convinced of that fact and some of you are not convinced.

Now, however, I want to speak to the group of people who are in the middle…on the edge of deciding whether you believe this. Today I want to give you an opportunity to take a step of faith and confess Jesus as your personal, risen savior.

We do that through prayer. Praying doesn’t make you a Christian. It is simply how you communicate to God that you are going to shift all your trust from yourself or from whatever you may have believed in the past to what Jesus did on your behalf through his death, burial, and resurrection when he paid the price for you sin.

If you’re ready to do that because a light bulb came on or a barrier fell down while I was speaking…know that it wasn’t my skill at work; it was the Holy Spirit getting your attention because you were open to hearing the truth today.

If that’s you, would you pray this prayer after me?

Heavenly father, I believe Jesus is the savior of the world. I believe he’s my savior. I believe that when he died on the cross, he died for my sin. So today, I’m transferring my faith in myself, my ability to be a good person, my good intentions and what I used to believe…I’m transferring all of this to what Jesus did when he died on the cross and rose again. I’m placing all my faith in Christ as my savior and my Lord. Forgive me of my sin, receive me into your family. Thank you for hearing my prayer. Amen.

Now, if you prayed that prayer with me, I have a booklet I’d like to give you.

Stand up with me. As you leave, look at someone near you and say, “He is risen!” Happy Easter!

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[1] Tom Bodett, March 30, 2018, https://twitter.com/TomBodett/status/979899971087618048.

[2] Rebekah Earnshaw, When Easter and April Fools’ Day Collide, The Gospel Coalition, March 31, 2018. https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/easter-and-april-fools-day-collide/

[3] Adapted from notes in Romans chapter 3 of The Voice Translation