The Importance of the Resurrection (Joe Penner)

Let me take you back to 1938. It's October the 30th, a Sunday

evening, and families are are gathered in their homes around

their radio. Radio had grown, had been

implemented and invented and brought in and it was becoming

very popular, in some ways even more popular than print.

And so people sat by the radios as they would listen to their

favorite programs and listen to songs and the radio, and they

would just hear the news and hear all these different things.

And one night, this night in particular was different from

others. A voice came through the

airwaves, a voice that was filled with urgency, dread and

panic. It was the voice of young Orson

Welles delivering what sounded like breaking news.

Ladies and gentlemen, we interrupt this broadcast to

bring you an emergency bulletin. He began to report about strange

explosions on Mars, followed by a mysterious object that landed

in New Jersey and and then became some of the chilling

details as he reported that alien creatures were emerging

from the object. They were giant.

They were menacing. They had heat rays that could

blast through anything in their path.

And reporters were on scene and giving details, shocking,

horrifying details of what was going on.

There were screams and and destruction and blasts.

Towns were obliterated and people were fleeing the

broadcast. It felt so real, so immediate,

that the listeners across America believed it.

People ran into the streets warning their neighbors.

Phone lines were jammed as people tried to get updates, and

some people even packed their belongings and began to flee,

convinced that the world was coming to an end.

But here's the thing. It wasn't real.

It was all a work of fiction. It was a story that had been

adapted from H GS HG Wells novel The War of the Worlds, and Orson

Welles had adapted it to sound like a radio broadcast in his

hopes that it would sound more realistic and more believable.

But he had no idea. At least he claims that people

would believe it as much as they did.

And so during this time, when there was already heightened

tensions because of wars and things going on in the country,

people believed it. And by the end of the day, the

nation was buzzing. Newspapers called it a scandal.

How could so many people have believed it?

Because at the beginning of the broadcast, he actually said,

this is a story. This is a story that I have

rewritten. But some people, whether they

missed that disclaimer at the beginning of the story or they

just got wrapped up in the story as it was going, they sort of

forgot and believed it. So many people believe the story

because it did feel so real. But no matter how real it felt,

it was just a story. And that's how many people see

the Bible. It's a great work of literature.

It has many great stories and fantastical tales, but that's

all they think it is, just a story.

And this includes how they view the resurrection.

Most people believe that Jesus was an important person, maybe

even a prophet, but definitely not God.

He was simply a man. And for this reason, they don't

believe in the resurrection. And so they come up with with

ways that they can prove it. Maybe Jesus wasn't actually

dead, or maybe the disciples stole his body from the tomb and

hid it. But he couldn't have risen from

the dead. That's just a story, brothers

and sisters. We cannot underestimate how

important the resurrection is to our faith.

This morning that we're going to see through Paul the importance

of the resurrection. Without the resurrection, our

message is meaningless. Without the resurrection, our

witness is worthless, and without the resurrection, our

faith is fruitless. Let's bow for a word of prayer.

Lord, how can we keep our ways pure?

By guarding it according to Your Word.

Help us by the power of Your Spirit to seek You with all our

hearts. Help us not to wander from Your

commandments. May we store up Your word in our

hearts that we might not sin against You.

We praise You and thank You for Your Word and ask that You would

teach it to us, that we would declare Your rules with our

mouths and delight in it more than riches.

May it be our joy to meditate on Your Word daily so that we don't

forget it and that You would be gracious to us so that we may

live and obey You as we study Your word together.

This morning, Lord, open our eyes that we may behold wondrous

things in Jesus name we ask, Amen.

This morning we're going to be reading in picking up in first

1 Corinthians 15:12–19

Corinthians chapter 15, verses 12 through 19.

And and as you know, we've been going through the book of first

Corinthians as a church. And this is a Paul, a letter

that Paul had written to a church that he started in this

city of Corinth. And and as you know, we've been

going through this book and someone actually asked me the

other day, how long have we been in the book of First

Corinthians? And so I went back and looked

and we started it back in the beginning of May.

So we've been going through the book of First Corinthians for

seven months. But don't worry, we're almost

done. We've got a month left and we'll

finish the Sunday before Christmas.

But let's read together First Corinthians chapter 15 verses 12

1 Corinthians 15:12–19

through 19. Now if Christ is proclaimed as

raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no

resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection

of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised.

And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in

vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be

misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that He

raised Christ, whom He did not raise.

If it is true that 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 futile and you are still in your

sins, then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have

perished. If in Christ we have hope in

this life only, we are of all people, most to be pitied.

Paul wants to emphasize here this morning the importance of

the resurrection. His first point is that without

the resurrection, our message is meaningless.

This is the message that Paul had broke, been proclaiming, and

Pastor Jonah taught us this last week, is that Christ died for

our sins, was buried, and then was raised on the third day.

And all of this was according to the Scriptures, meaning that God

was being faithful to fulfill all of his promises going back

to the Old Testament. This was the testimony of Paul.

This was the message that he was giving.

But he's saying if there's no resurrection, then this message

is meaningless. Because if there's no

resurrection of the dead, that means Christ didn't rise from

the dead. And if Christ didn't rise from

the dead, that means we preach in vain.

Look at verse 14. And if Christ has not been

raised, then our preaching is in vain.

Now Paul, again, I've been preaching this message wherever

he went, everywhere he went. This is the message he was

preaching. Christ died, was buried, was

raised on the third day everywhere he would go.

He says this back in chapter 4, verse 17.

That is why I sent you, Timothy, my beloved and faithful child,

and the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ as I teach

them everywhere in every church. He taught the same message

wherever he went, and this was his desire to spread the gospel

through preaching so that people would come to know Christ.

But if Christ hasn't been raised from the dead, which is the

message he's preaching, then his preaching is useless.

It's pointless, it's meaningless.

A dead Jesus equals dead preaching.

If Christ hasn't been raised from the dead, this also means

that we believe in vain. Look at 14.

He says if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is in vain

and your faith is in vain. Again, Paul was preaching this

message in hopes that people would come to faith in Christ,

that they would believe in Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

And people were they were receiving it, they were putting

their faith in this message. But Paul is saying if the

message that we're preaching isn't true, then your faith

means nothing. It's in vain.

No matter how sincere you are, no matter how truly you believe

it, it is meaningless. A dead Jesus equals dead faith.

Without the resurrection, our message is meaningless.

It is useless to preach in it, it preach it, and it's useless

to put your faith in it. Maybe you've heard of the name

Bernie Madoff. He died a couple years ago and

he is single handedly responsible for the largest

fraud in U.S. history. Bernie worked on Wall Street and

he gained a reputation as a successful and trustworthy

investor. And so families and

corporations, because of their trust in him, invested some of

them, their whole estate, all, all that they had, they invested

through Bernie trusting him. But he wasn't a success story.

He was a con artist. Instead of using people's money

for legitimate investments, he would get money from some people

and then he would pay others. This made him look successful,

and he's estimated to have defrauded investors out of $65

billion. And in 2008, when the financial

crisis hit, his whole scheme began to unravel.

But because of all of the fear and the unrest of what was going

on, people all wanted to pull their money out.

But he didn't have enough money to pay everybody.

And so he confessed what he was doing and was sentenced to 150

years in prison. And he died back in 2021.

But families and charities believed in Bernie Madoff.

They trusted him, and they probably spread the news of

Bernie. He's such a good investor, you

ought to invest with him too. But it was all a lie.

Families lost everything. Charities had to close their

doors, and some people even ended their lives because they

couldn't handle having given up and lost everything.

And it didn't matter how much they believed in Bernie.

The truth came out in the end, and all of their faith in Him

was meaningless. Brothers and sisters, the same

is true for us. If the resurrection is not real,

if it's not true, it doesn't matter how sincere we are.

It doesn't matter how passionate our preaching is.

It doesn't matter how strong our faith is.

If Christ didn't rise from the dead, our message is

meaningless. Thankfully, our message is not

meaningless. We can have the confidence that

Christ rose from the dead. Last week, Jonah talked about

this, talked about this gospel message.

There Paul gives a list of people that Jesus physically

appeared to eyewitnesses of Jesus's physical resurrected

body. He appeared to Cephas, who was

Peter. He appeared to the 12 disciples,

he appeared to 500 believers at one time.

He appeared to James, he appeared to all the apostles,

and he appeared to Paul. All of this happened in

accordance with the Scriptures, meaning that it was a result of

God's faithfulness to his promises.

And since we can have confidence that Jesus truly did rise from

the dead, our message is not meaningless, but it is literally

the most meaningful message in all the world.

Therefore, we should put our faith and our trust in this

message, in this message of the gospel.

We should preach it with boldness, with confidence,

because it is the only message that has the power to save.

Paul's next argument is that without the resurrection, our

witness is worthless. No matter how sincere our faith

or our belief is, if we believe and tell others about something

that's not true, our witness means nothing.

It's worthless. Paul's desire throughout his

ministry to Christ was to be a faithful witness.

We see this. He wanted to be seen as someone

who was trustworthy. He held that in very hard

regard. He wanted to be a man of

integrity. We see this in many of his

letters. In his letter to the church in

Rome, he says, I am speaking the truth in Christ.

I'm not lying. My conscience bears witness

about the Holy Spirit. Second Corinthians, he says, the

God and Father of the Lord Jesus, who he is, who is blessed

forever, knows that I am not lying.

In his letter to the Galatians he says in what I am writing to

you before God, I do not lie. In his letter to Timothy he

says, for this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle.

I am telling the truth. I am not lying.

He wanted to be a man of integrity, a trustworthy man.

He wanted to speak the truth, and we see that in this passage

as well, His desire to be faithful.

Again, he had been preaching that Christ had been raised from

the dead. But if that isn't true, look at

what he says in verse 15 and 16. We are even found to be

misrepresenting God because we testified about God that he

raised Christ, whom he did not raise.

If it's true that the dead are not raised, For if the dead are

not raised, not even Christ has been raised.

What Paul is saying is that if Christ hasn't been raised, then

we're lying. And we can see how important it

was for him to be a man of integrity.

He would have. He would have been willing to

suffer himself rather than to be dishonest and to lie.

And indeed he did suffer for his faith.

He suffered imprisonments. He suffered beatings, often near

death. He suffered lashings.

He was beaten with rods, he was stoned, he was shipwrecked, he

was adrift at sea. He was in constant danger from

rivers, from robbers, from his own people, from Gentiles.

He was in danger in the city and in the wilderness.

No matter where he went, he was in danger.

Why would he be willing to suffer that way for something

that was not true? His desire was to be a faithful

and accurate witness because of his love for God, his devotion

toward God, and his reverence for God.

But if Christ hadn't been raised from the dead, if Christ is

still in the grave, then all of that suffering, all of that

work, all of that faithfulness in his preaching was worthless,

was meaningless. It was for nothing.

Have you, have you ever been told by somebody, have you ever

been given an account of something and at first you

didn't believe it, but it turned out to be true later on?

I'm sure you could, Pablo, if you think about it, we've all

had situations like that. You first hear something, you're

like, no way, There's no way that's true.

But then you're like, wait. And all of a sudden it comes

true and you realize that it is right.

I had that happen to me a few years ago where we as a family

had had gone to the beach here. We spent the day there, a

wonderful day together at the beach as a family.

And, and we came home and we parked the van in the garage and

we're all tired. So we went inside and, and you

know how it is at the beach, you get dirty and sandy.

So everybody's got to take a shower.

So I was in the shower and, and there's a knock on the door and

my oldest son says, hey, dad, where's the van?

What do you mean? Where's the van?

The van's in the garage. Like I, I don't even know how to

answer that question. Like open your eyes and go look

at the van. He's like, well, I was just in

there and it's not there. And mom says she can't find the

van. I'm like, you guys are crazy.

What is going on? Like I, I don't know what I was

thinking at the moment, but I did not believe it for a second.

I was like, you guys are crazy. So I got out and I was like, I'm

going to go show these people how to find a 4000 LB chunk of

metal. It's not that hard, you guys.

So I opened the garage door and it's like, there's no van.

So we walk around the yard and the parking lot and it's like,

where's the van? Where'd the van go?

And so at first we thought, well, this is a prank.

Somebody in our family stole one of our key fobs and is hiding

the van somewhere. And it's, that's a, that's a

pretty far extent to go, but we, we have that much faith in our

friends and family. So after calling about everybody

that we thought would do something like this and they're

all like, no, seriously, we didn't, we didn't do that.

We called the cops. We realized that our van had

been stolen. And so later on that night,

after midnight, we finally were able to find it.

And the cops drove me out to Northwest and Comber where the

van was parked. And we picked it up.

And so apparently the story is that a homeless man had gone

into our garage, stolen our van, drove to Northwest, took $30.00

out of my wallet, bought himself some dinner, tipped the seat

back and just slept. And that's where the cops found

him. So anyway, we were thankful to

get our our van back. There was nothing wrong with it.

But going back to to my son's testimony, I don't know that I

was still would have believed him.

It was like so unbelievable in the moment that I don't know I

would have believed him. But once we found the evidence

that proved that his testimony was true, and this is the same

of the resurrection after Jesus rose from the dead, there were

so many people who doubted. Everybody doubted.

Want to know why? Because dead people don't rise

from the dead. Thomas doubted the testimony of

the witnesses. The disciples doubted the

testimony of the women. The disciples on the road to

Emmaus doubted. And the disciples again doubted

when he appeared to them all in the room, when when he took some

food and ate it to prove that he was alive.

And even Paul must have doubted Jesus's resurrection because he

fought so hard to persecute the church and to bring them into

prison. But after appearing to so many

people in so many different ways, and seeing him ascend into

heaven, they could no longer deny that Jesus Christ had truly

risen from the dead. Christ's resurrection was so

evident to his disciples that they all gave their lives in

spreading the gospel as witnesses of all that God had

done through Christ. Without the resurrection, their

witness would have all been worthless.

It would have all been meaningless and empty.

But because the resurrection was true, they had a message of true

worth and of true value. We brothers and sisters can have

the confidence to believe the testimony of these disciples

that Christ truly did rise from the dead.

And this should give us confidence to be faithful

witnesses to tell others of what God has done through Christ to

save people from their sin and give them the hope that they too

will rise from the dead. And when we tell others, when we

share our witness, we are being faithful messengers and being

faithful and true to God. Paul's next argument is that

without the resurrection, our faith is fruitless.

Now we've seen that if Christ didn't rise from the dead, then

the message we have is meaningless.

If Christ didn't rise from the dead, our witness is worthless.

Now we see that if Christ didn't rise from the dead, our faith is

fruitless. Without the resurrection, our

faith accomplishes nothing. It serves no purpose at all.

It doesn't benefit us in any way.

This is because sin remains unforgiven.

Look at verse 17. And if Christ has not been

raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.

Jesus died to take the payment and the penalty for our sin.

And when Jesus was raised, it showed that God had accepted his

sacrifice. And now that Jesus is seated at

the right hand of God, he can plead for us and he is just to

call us just justified through his sacrifice.

But Paul's point is that Christ if Christ hasn't been raised

from the dead, your sin remains unforgiven.

It doesn't matter how strong your faith is.

If Christ is still buried somewhere, your faith is

fruitless. If Christ has not been raised

from the dead, the grave remains unopened.

Look at verse 18. Then Paul says then those also

who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.

If Christ hasn't been raised from the dead, then we won't be

either. And that means that that

everybody who has put their faith in Christ and died has no

hope. They've perished.

They're done. The grave remains unopened.

There is no hope in any next life.

This is all there is, which means that life remains

unfulfilled. Look at verse 19.

If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all

people most to be pitied. Now, you may have heard this

line of thinking before, but some people will say, you know

what? Even if Christianity isn't true,

if everybody in the world practiced it, it would still

make the world a better place. And while that is true to some

degree, that's not what Paul says.

He doesn't say, you know what, it's noble for us still to

follow all this stuff. No, he doesn't say that.

He says if our faith is founded on a lie, that Jesus was raised

from the dead when actually he wasn't, then we are of all

people most to be pitied on the earth.

He goes on to say later in the chapter, if the dead are not

raised, let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die.

His point is exactly what the world says.

This is exactly the way the world lives, right?

Since there's nothing on the other side, since life doesn't

matter, let's just enjoy this life.

He's saying they're actually right.

If there's no hope beyond the grave, then what does it matter

how we live? If our faith in Christ is based

on a lie, it is totally fruitless.

It accomplishes nothing. Now, if you're old enough, you

may remember the Y2K scare in 1999.

People feared that when it became 2000 at midnight, there

was going to be a global crisis. And this is because at the time,

there were a lot of older computers being used.

And what they did was for for the date that rather than having

a four, 4 digits for the year 1999, it was just two digits,

99. And so the fear and the worry

was that when it went to 2000, it would just be 00.

And so the computers are going to be confused and they're going

to revert back to 1900 rather than 2000.

And this is going to cause a global crisis, that this is

going to cause malfunctions in the banking and, and in

utilities and, and in transportation and government

systems. People began preparing for the

worst. You know, maybe you remember it,

maybe you did it. I don't know.

Some people began stockpiling food and clothing and, and, and

they basic necessities. Some people bought bunkers,

started getting survival gear. A lot of people emptied their

bank accounts, thinking again that the banks were going to

collapse. Some people quit their jobs and

go, well, this is the end of the world, I don't need a job

anymore. I don't know how that worked

afterwards, if they were able to get it back or not.

Well, what actually happened? Well, we're all here, so we know

the world at an end. But that transition to 2000 went

pretty smoothly, actually. They began to prepare in advance

and to get ready for it. And there was only a few minor

glitches, but people had no proof or evidence.

They had no way of of knowing that their fears were going to

come true, But they still believed it.

They still put their faith in that belief anyway.

But it accomplished nothing. For all their faith, for all

their fear and anxiety and worry, it was not able to bring

their fears to reality. And this is true for us as

believers as well. If the resurrection is not true,

no matter how much you believe it, no matter how much you put

your faith in it, no matter how much you how strong your faith

in your belief is, it doesn't matter if Christ didn't rise

from the dead. Your faith is fruitless.

Thankfully, we can have hope in the resurrection.

Paul has given us confidence to believe it, and he does this a

number of ways by giving many different proofs for the

resurrection. We think first of Christ's

physical appearances, all these different people that Christ

appeared to gives us confidence to go.

All these, not all of these people could have been deceived,

right? All of these eyewitnesses give

us confidence to believe that Jesus truly rose from the dead.

And the fact that it was in fulfillment, Christ's

fulfillment of the Old Testament, helps us to see that

this is actually God's plan from the beginning.

When the disciples began to tie all of these references, all of

Christ's life, death, and resurrection back to the Old

Testament, they were able to see this is God's plan the whole

time. And Christ actually fulfilled

all of God's Old Testament promises.

We see the work of the Holy Spirit in the book of Acts.

We see how the Holy Spirit worked in and through these

disciples and in and through these believers through miracles

and wonders proving that their message was true and the

disciples own commitment to give their lives as a testimony to

all that God had done to be willing to die for their faith.

All of these evidences for the resurrection of Christ give feet

to our faith. We can have confidence that our

sins are forgiven through faith in Christ.

We can have confidence that Christ rose from the dead, and

we will as well. We can have confidence not just

in this life, but also in the life to come.

And since we can be confident that Christ truly has been

raised from the dead, we can be confident that for those who've

placed their faith in Christ, we too will be raised from the dead

on the last day. And this wonderful hope gives us

confidence to be able to endure difficulty, hardship, struggles

in this life, knowing that we have hope with Christ in heaven.

That's just what just Justin Martyr did.

Justin Martyr is considered one of the early heroes of the

Christian faith. He was born around the hundred a

hundred ADS so just shortly after the life of Christ and and

the disciples. But he didn't grow up knowing

about Christ. He grew up in a Pagan family and

spent much of his youth searching for what the meaning

of life is, and he studied all the great philosophies of the

day and yet always felt that craving in his heart unanswered.

And one day, as Justin was walking along the seashore, he

met an elderly man who changed his life forever.

This man told Justin about Jesus, the promised Messiah, the

fulfilment of the Old Testament prophecies and the true source

of wisdom and light. And for Justin, it was as if a

light switch had been flipped on and he embraced Christianity

wholeheartedly. He became a bold teacher and

defender of Christianity and and wrote defending articles

defending the Christians in the way they lived in their

practices against those who are trying to slander them.

He argued that Jesus was the Lagos, the the divine Word, the

ultimate reason for the ordered universe.

But his boldness came at a cost. Around 165 AD, during the reign

of Emperor Marcus Aurelius, Justin and six of his students

were arrested and they were brought before the Roman

authorities and ordered to renounce their faith and worship

the Roman gods. But Justin stood firm, saying no

one who is rightly minded turns from true belief to false.

And for his unwavering faith, Justin was scourged and

beheaded, becoming one of the early church's most well known

martyrs. And to this day, he's remembered

as a courageous defender of the faith, a man who sought the

truth, found it in Christ, and held onto it no matter the cost.

And his story reminds us that a faith worth living for is a

faith worth dying for. Brothers and sisters, since

Jesus Christ has been raised from the dead, put all your

faith and your trust in Him. Our message is the most

important message in the world, since it's the only message that

can save us from God's wrath. Our message and our witness are

true because they faithfully tell of God's work through Jesus

Christ. Our faith in Christ is powerful,

and through it we have forgiveness of sins, the promise

that we will be resurrected, and meaning and purpose in this life

as well as the one to come. And this gives us confidence.

Confidence to live for the glory and honor of our Savior, even if

that means dying for our faith. Faith in Jesus as our Lord and

Savior is a faith worth living and dying for.

Have you placed your faith in Jesus Christ as your Lord and

Savior? One day everyone will be raised

from the dead and will stand before the judgement seat of

God. The Book of Revelation records

this for us. Then I saw a great white throne

and him who was seated on it. From his presence, earth and sky

fled away, and no place was found for them.

And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the

throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened,

which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged by what

was written in the books according to what they had done.

And the sea gave up the dead who were in it.

Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were

judged, each one of them, according to what they had done.

Then Death and Hades were thrown into the Lake of Fire.

This is the second death, the lake of fire, and if anyone's

name was not found written in the book of Life, he was thrown

into the lake of fire. If God were to open those books

and judge any one of us on the basis of our deeds, our works,

each and every one of us would be guilty.

But for those who place their faith in Jesus Christ as their

Lord and Savior, they will be be declared innocent because of

their faith in Christ, because of their faith in His sacrifice.

And if you're here today, you're not here by accident.

God loves you. He wants you to experience the

joy that comes through knowing Christ.

He wants you to experience the peace of having all your sins

forgiven, all your guilt removed, of knowing that your

sins are forgiven through Christ.

He wants to give you the confidence that one day you'll

be raised from the dead, not to be thrown into a lake of fire,

but brought into heaven to enjoy His glorious presence for all

eternity. I encourage you today to put

your faith and trust in Christ as your Lord and Savior, and we

would love to talk with you about that.

If you want to come up and chat and you have any questions about

what it means to be a follower of Christ, I would love to chat

with you about that this morning.

Don't wait. Talk to somebody today, a

friend, a family member, a loved one, someone who is a believer

who can who you can ask questions and talk to.

We encourage you today to do that.

Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for

the hope that we have in the resurrection of Christ.

We thank you that he Ray he was raised from the dead, that

through the power of your spirit, you raised him from the

dead. And we can have the confidence

too that through the power of that same Holy Spirit, we too

one day will be rise from the dead.

Lord, we thank you so much for this wonderful hope.

We pray that that this hope would give us confidence to be

willing to forsake the things of this life, to be willing to

suffer and in to endure hardship because of your gospel.

Or we pray that you would unify us as a church in this message,

this message of Christ, his death, his burial, his

resurrection, that that we would find unity in Christ by the

power of your Spirit to work together to build your Kingdom.

As we seek to spread this message, Lord, would you

strengthen us to be bold witnesses, to be faithful

witnesses, and Lord, that you would work powerfully in and

through our testimony, that you would bring people to faith in

Christ and save people to yourself.

We pray and ask this in Jesus name, Amen.