“The Resurrection: What Difference Does It Make?”
(1 Corinthians 15:12-20)
Easter Sunday
Rev. Todd A. Linn, PhD
Henderson’s First Baptist Church, Henderson
- Take God’s Word and open to 1 Corinthians 15.
I love Easter Sunday! You know, every Sunday is like Easter Sunday. Every Sunday we celebrate the resurrection…testimony…This morning we are going to be reading about the resurrection and what difference it makes.
- Stand in honor of the reading of God’s Word.
12 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?
13 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.
15 Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up — if in fact the dead do not rise.
16 For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen.
17 And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins!
18 Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.
19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.
20 But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
- Pray.
Introduction:
On Thursday, I pulled up CNN on the internet and read the headline: “QUEST: Why the Royal Wedding Matters.” I suppose the article went on to prove why the wedding mattered, but I never found out because the royal wedding does not matter much to me. Maybe it matters much to you! But Paul sets out to do something similar here. He teaches why the resurrection matters.
Some of the Corinthian Christians had a rather strange view. They believed that Jesus rose from the dead (verse 11), but they did not believe that anyone else would rise from the dead. Paul says in verse 12, “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?” That phrase there at the end of verse 12, “resurrection of the dead” refers to the future resurrection of Christians. Paul is asking, “How do some of you say that there is no future bodily resurrection of believers?”
Now I don’t know why they held this view. It could be that they were influenced by pagan philosophies or false religions which taught that the body was intrinsically evil and therefore has no place in the future. It could be they were influenced by the Sadducees who denied any resurrection at all. But the bottom line is that some of the Corinthian Christians believed Christ was raised from the dead, but while they believed Christ was raised from the dead, they did not believe His followers would be raised from the dead.
The Bible teaches that when the non-Christian dies his soul goes immediately to hell, but when the Christian dies his soul goes immediately to heaven; to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:8). The soul goes to heaven. I don’t know what a soul looks like, but the soul goes to be with Jesus and others who have died as believers in Christ. These souls will be able to recognize one another, but this is not their final state. When Christ returns, when He comes again, He will return with all of these souls, all these who have died as believers, and then He will raise up their dead bodies in whatever state of corruption they are, He will raise them up and change them in the twinkling of an eye to a new body, a glorified body, like unto the Lord Jesus’ glorified body. Then the soul receives this new body and remains in this new glorified body forever and ever. It is a fantastic biblical truth that awaits future fulfillment.
The problem here is that there are some Corinthian Christians who, while believing Christ rose from the dead, did not believe that the bodies of Christians would rise from the dead. Paul shows that one cannot hold this position. Christ rose from the dead and, because He rose from the dead, so will all believers in Christ rise from the dead. Christ’s resurrection guarantees the Christian’s future resurrection. Paul sort of argues backwards. He says, “If there is no future resurrection of Christians, then we can never say that Christ rose from the dead (v.13).” The two resurrections—the recent resurrection of Christ and the future resurrection of all believers—go together. One cannot have one without the other. To the Corinthians he might say, “This more recent resurrection of Christ in which you believe, is a precursor to the future resurrection of all believers.” So all of Christianity stands or falls on these two resurrections. They go together.
The resurrection of Christ makes possible and guarantees the Christian’s future resurrection. Now in making this point, Paul teaches much more than this. He teaches more broadly the significance of the resurrection. He answers the question, “What difference does it make?”
**The Resurrection Makes All the Difference in Three Areas:
1) The Christian Faith (12-16)
You can back up in Chapter 15 and read the essence of the Christian faith. It is, in essence, believing that “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures (vv.3-4).” This is the essence of Christian faith. Remember that Christian faith is an objective faith. We believe in content.
Some people speak of faith as though it were something you drum up. For example, I have “faith” that everything is going to be okay. This is a blind faith. There is no object, just a kind of feeling that we hope against hope that all will be well. The Christian faith is not that. The Christian faith is believing is an objective faith. There is content. The content is the Gospel. We believe Christ died for our sins, was buried, and was raised from the dead. So Paul says is, “If Christ is not risen, you have no faith. There is no content.” That’s verse 14:
14 And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty.
Hear the force of this conclusion? There is no content, no object. The Christian faith is grounded in the content of the Gospel message. No Gospel message, no faith. This is why we must challenge those who say they don’t believe in Christianity and we ask, “Well, what do you believe?” They say something like, “Well, I believe that when we die, this is going to happen or that is going to happen.” We will help them by asking a follow up question: “And on what basis do you believe that? What is the content of your faith? Where did you get this idea? Is it something you just feel and are you willing to trust your own feelings about this matter?” The Christian faith is an objective faith that rests upon the object, the content, the truth of the Gospel. This is why Paul says we need to think this thing out. No resurrection means no faith. No resurrection means no Gospel.
This is the message we’ve been preaching! We’ve been going around proclaiming Christ has risen. And if Christ hasn’t risen then our preaching is invalidated. Our testimony is not credible. That’s verses 15-16:
15 Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up — if in fact the dead do not rise.
16 For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen.
The puritan preachers were known for preaching long messages, sometimes lasting a couple hours. By the way, the Secret Church simulcast Friday evening was outstanding. David Platt led in six hours of solid Bible teaching and we were blessed beyond measure. I was so keyed-up I didn’t get to sleep until 3 AM and rose at 6 AM to prepare for a counseling appointment here at the church. But the puritans frequently preached these long, carefully reasoned sermons with many, many sermon points. One puritan introduced his next sermon point with the word, “Now, 57thly!” Sensing that he had perhaps a few too many points in his morning message, when he returned Sunday evening, he introduced his sermon by saying, “I realize I may have had a few too many points in my morning message so tonight my message will be pointless.”
Well, no preacher hopes that what he does is pointless! But this is what Paul is saying here in verse 14. “If Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty.” It is pointless. Our testimony is invalidated because the essence of our message is the Gospel, Christ died, was buried and rose again. If that isn’t so, we have no message.
Do you see the inconsistency of the position that one can somehow be a Christian and deny the resurrection of Christ? There are many people who profess to be Christians, some of them teaching in universities and divinity schools and pastoring churches. They say, “I am a Christian, but no, I do not believe in the resurrection. How silly!” Paul says, “No resurrection, no Gospel.” If Christ is not risen, no Christian faith. The resurrection makes all the difference in the Christian faith. Secondly, the resurrection makes all the difference in:
2) The Christian’s Forgiveness (17)
17 And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins!
If Christ did not rise from the grave, then your sins are not forgiven. Jesus Christ had to not only die for your sins; He had to rise from the dead for your sins to be forgiven. Write down there in your notes Romans 4:25. It says that Jesus Christ “was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification (NIV).”
Jesus had to die for our sins, but He also had to rise from the dead. We could not be forgiven for our sins by Christ’s dying only. He had to also rise again. He was “raised to life for our justification,” that we may be declared righteous, not guilty of our sin.
Christ’s resurrection was the Father’s “stamp of approval” on the work of Christ upon the cross. The resurrection was the Father’s way of saying, “I am pleased with the work of My Son.” It was the exclamation mark upon all that Jesus Christ did. Put in grammatical terms, Christ’s death seemed at first like a period. The empty tomb was like a question mark. And the resurrection was an exclamation mark! It was the Father’s stamp of approval on Christ’s work.
Christ’s resurrection proves that His death was an effective substitutionary sacrifice for sin. Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures. He had said, “This bread is My body, broken for you. This cup is the New Covenant of My blood, spilled for you. I died for you.” He was delivered over to death for our sins and raised to life for our justification. The resurrection was the Father’s way of saying, “I accept the sacrifice of My Son as full payment for your sin. My wrath against sin was previously directed toward you, but that wrath has now been absorbed by My Son who died in your place so that now, not My wrath but My favor is directed upon My Son and through My Son to all who believe.” God’s approval of Christ at the resurrection means that God’s approval is extended to all who are united to Christ.
The resurrection makes all the difference in the Christian faith. The resurrection makes all the difference in the Christian’s forgiveness. Thirdly, the resurrection makes all the difference in:
3) The Christian’s Future (18-20)
Paul reasons that if Christ did not rise from the dead, then there is no hope for a future existence beyond the grave. Verse 18:
18 Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.
The phrase “fallen asleep” is a sweet, Christian euphemism for death. It does not mean “soul sleep.” Again, 2 Corinthians 5:8, “To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.” Philippians 1:21, “To live is Christ, to die is gain.” Philippians 1:23, “I have a desire to depart and be with Christ.” When the Christian dies, his soul goes immediately to heaven.
But Paul says this is not the case if Christ is not risen. If Christ is not risen, then those who have fallen asleep in Christ, those who have died in Christ, “have perished.” Right now. He says they are gone. If Christ is not risen there is no future beyond the grave at all, not even as a soul in heaven. No afterlife. No heaven whatsoever. All who have died as Christians are gone. This is why he says what he does in the next verse, verse 19:
19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.
Because there’s no life after this life—if there’s no resurrection of Christ. So if Christ is not risen there is no eternal life whatsoever for the Christian. All we have is this life. And if that is so then we may as well live as Paul says later in verse 32, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!” This is the way many people live, a life void of any future hope at all.
This is the way of the modern skeptic, the way of the humanist, and the way of the existentialist. They live only for this life. What a tragic existence. Life become meaningless.
This was the view of Ernest Hemingway who wrote of life as meaningless existence. He wrote, “It’s as though we are a colony of ants living on one end of a burning log.” That’s the way people live without Christ. There is nothing to look forward to. Perhaps this view of meaningless existence is what led Hemingway to take his own life, one morning getting up in his mansion and putting a shotgun into his mouth and blowing his head off. After all, we are all but a colony of ants living on one end of a burning log. What a tragedy. The existentialist ends at verse 19. But the Christian goes on to verse 20:
20 But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
Here is Easter. Christ is risen from the dead. And he has become “the firstfruits” of those who have died in the Lord. Paul works out this teaching more fully in the verses that follow. The firstfruits is a term referring to the first sample of a harvest that promises what the final harvest will be like. Christ’s bodily resurrection is a foretaste of the Christian’s bodily resurrection. Christ’s resurrection is a precursor of what will follow; the Christian’s resurrection. We will have eternal life that will one day culminate in the receiving of a new, glorified body.
This truth encourages Christians to persevere when things aren’t going so well. Paul says “This slight momentary affliction is working for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison (paraphrase, 2 Corinthians 4:17).”
Living he loved me,
Dying he saved me,
Buried he carried my sins far away,
Rising he justified, freely forever.
One day he’s coming,
Oh glorious day!
- Stand for prayer.
Afterwards: Our ushers are handing out a booklet for each of you. We encourage you to use this booklet this afternoon and evening when you are with family and friends. Talk about Easter. Talk about the resurrection.
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