#9 The “IF Series”
“IF ONLY THIS
LIFE!”
TEXT: 1 Cor.
15:12-26
INTRO: The Christian faith rises
or falls on Jesus’ resurrection and the possibility of life after death. If there is no resurrection, then living
a life of sacrifice, righteousness, and honor is meaningless. If all we are is nothing more than
another animal form of life then we should be like the rest of creation, “dog
eat dog” world, or the “survival of the fittest.”
This life without the promise of an afterlife also
means lives that end early, or even at birth have no significant reason for
having existed at all. Death would
be a very sad reality, no hope of seeing that person again, no future, no
possible meaning except what ever living in the present could
create.
It is still possible to have religion without faith in
an afterlife, even in Jesus’ day the Sadducees who were the leading sect in
Judaism had no belief in an afterlife.
They did not believe in a resurrection, or angels! This required them to make up a story
about Jesus after His resurrection that the disciples had only stolen His body –
because if Jesus had actually rose from the dead everything they believed would
be proved to be false!
If there is no resurrection, there is no God, and
without Him this life would be horrible and everything permissible.
ILLUS: Dostoyevsky
reminded us in The Brothers Kararamazov that "if God does not exist, everything
is permissible." We are now seeing "everything." And much of it is not good to
get used to. -- William J.
Bennett, addressing the 20th anniversary celebration of the Heritage Foundation.
Christianity Today, Vol. 38, no. 7.
However, the very core of Christianity is based on the
reality of Jesus rising from the dead, and the hope that this gives everyone who
believes in Him that they too will rise from the dead one
day.
PROP.
SENT: The Bible
teaches us that the most fundamental truth that undergirds Christianity is the
resurrection of the dead. If Jesus
did not rise from the dead, then we of all people are to be pitied, and would be
miserable. Resurrection separates
Christianity from all other religions, for only Jesus defeated death, all other
religions have their founders still in their
graves.
I. THE FACTS! 1 Cor.
15:12-19
A. Reality! 1 Cor.
15:12-14
1.
The Christian faith is meaningless without a
resurrection!
a.
Paul clearly states this to the Corinthian
church.
b.
This truth is so critical that failure to have a resurrection means that
we are foolish to be a Christian!
2.
The Corinthians were waiting for Jesus’ return for those who were living,
but because some of their relatives had died they had lost hope of ever seeing
them again! After all, how can a
body that has dissolved be raised from dead?
a.
The idea that someone could come back after their body had wasted away
seemed ridiculous.
b.
While they knew Jesus had raised some people from the dead, those were
people who only just died. What
about all those whose bodies had decayed already, like some of their own
relatives or friends.
ILLUS: A workman of the
great chemist Michael Faraday accidentally knocked a silver cup into a solution
of acid. It was promptly dissolved,
eaten up by the acid. The workman was terribly disturbed by the accident. The
chemist came in and put a chemical into the jar, and shortly all the silver was
precipitated to the bottom. The shapeless mass was lifted out and sent to the
silversmith, and the cup was restored to its original shape. If a human genius can do a thing like
this why should we doubt that God can raise the dead? -- James S.
Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited (Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc, 1988)
p. 166.
3. If
a brilliant chemist can reconstitute a silver cup that had completely dissolved,
it is nothing to almighty God to raise a dead body
again!
a.
Even though earthly bodies decay and the atoms scatter, God can raise the
dead back again.
b. It
is the foundation to the Christian faith that there will be a resurrection from
the dead.
4. It
is our blessed hope!
B. Rejection! 1 Cor.
15:15-19
1.
Death only seems frightening because we can’t see the other side; but
Jesus death and resurrection certainly gives us a glimpse of what is
coming.
a.
Jesus had a real body when He rose again. He could be touched, He ate food, He
demonstrated that He was not a ghost, but real.
b.
The grave isn’t the final message!
c.
The disciples however were in a fog on that Easter Sunday morning, they
were in hiding for fear they would be next.
d.
They had only seen defeat, but there was more to the message of the
cross, there was also the message of the empty
tomb.
e.
They had failed to see the whole
message!
ILLUS: It
was
2.
Jesus wants us to know that our preaching is not in vain or
foolish.
a.
The Corinthians were missing an important
truth.
b.
Without a resurrection, we could only live for the
moment.
3.
And this would make life miserable.
II. THE FIRSTFRUITS! 1 Cor.
15:20-24
A. Restoration! 1 Cor.
15:20-22
1.
This reality of death is painful!
a.
Paul likens death in sin to a “sting” (1 Cor.
12:56)
b.
The poison of sin is like a sting; it hurts, and can even
kill.
c.
But Jesus took the sting of sin so that we could be free from death’s
power, and eventually death’s penalty as well.
ILLUS: A
little boy and his father were driving down a country road on a beautiful spring
afternoon. Suddenly out of nowhere a bumblebee flew in the car window. Since the
little boy was deathly allergic to bee stings, he became petrified. But the
father quickly reached out, grabbed the bee, squeezed it in his hand, and then
released it. But as soon as he let it go, the young son became frantic once
again as it buzzed by the little boy. His father saw his panic stricken face.
Once again the father reached out his hand, but this time he pointed to his
hand. There still stuck in his skin was the stinger of the bee. "Do you see
this?" he said. "You don't need to be afraid anymore. I've taken the sting for
you." And this is the message of Easter. We do not need to be afraid of death
anymore. Christ faced death for us. And by His victory, we are saved from sin.
Christ has taken the sting! First Corinthians
2.
Jesus who knew no sin became sin for us, so that we could be free from
the power of sin, and thus the penalty of sin which is
death.
3.
The promise we have is of a future
resurrection.
4.
This truth is unlike any other religion on earth, for every other
religion on earth still has their founder’s body in their grave, all except
Christianity.
5. We
do not live for only this life; there is a life to
come!
a. If
we only lived here and now, why live
unselfishly?
b. It
would not matter how we lived if there is no
future.
c.
The Sadducees had no hope for a future, and had no joy in serving
God.
B. Reward! 1 Cor.
15:23-24
1. Christ is the first fruits –
meaning His body is the first of those resurrected!
a.
There had been others raised from the dead; but all of them died again,
they were only risen with their existing bodies
intact.
b.
But our resurrected bodies will be more like Christ after He rose from
the dead.
c.
Jesus could eat, be touched, but walk through solid walls, and rise to
heaven, His body was different, He is the first fruits of those who will be
resurrected one day.
2.
Jesus’ body will never die and neither will ours one
day.
a.
The reward of faith in Christ will be
eternity!
b.
The reward is forever, all we need to do is embrace the one who saved us,
and we then belong to Him!
ILLUS: A
small orphaned boy lived with his grandmother. One night their house caught
fire. The grandmother, trying to rescue the little boy asleep upstairs, perished
in the smoke and flames. A crowd gathered around the burning house. The boy's
cries for help were heard above the crackling of the blaze. No one seemed to
know what to do, for the front of the house was a mass of
flames.
Suddenly a stranger rushed from the crowd and circled
to the back where he spotted an iron pipe that reached an upstairs window. He
disappeared for a minute, then reappeared with the boy in his arms. Amid the
cheers of the crowd, he climbed down the hot pipe as the boy hung around his
neck.
Weeks later a public hearing was held in the town hall
to determine in whose custody the boy would be placed. Each person wanting the
boy was allowed to speak briefly. The first man said, "I have a big farm.
Everybody needs the out-of-doors." The second man told of the advantages he
could provide. "I'm a teacher. I have a large library. He would get a good
education." Others spoke. Finally the richest man in the community said, "I'm
wealthy. I could give the boy everything mentioned tonight: farm, education, and
more, including money and travel. I'd like him in my
home."
The
chairman asked, "Anyone else like to say a word?" From the backseat rose a
stranger who had slipped in unnoticed. As he walked toward the front, deep
suffering showed on his face. Reaching the front of the room, he stood directly
in front of the little boy. Slowly the stranger removed his hands from his
pockets. A gasp went up from the crowd. The little boy, whose eyes had been
focused on the floor until now, looked up. The man's hands were terribly
scarred. Suddenly the boy emitted a cry of recognition. Here was the man who had
saved his life. His hands were scarred from climbing up and down the hot pipe.
With a leap the boy threw himself around the stranger's neck and held on for
life. The farmer rose and left. The teacher, too. Then the rich man. Everyone
departed, leaving the boy and his rescuer who had won him without a word. Those
marred hands spoke more effectively than any words.
-- James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited (Wheaton:
Tyndale House Publishers, Inc, 1988) pp. 119-120.
III. THE
FUTURE! 1 Cor.
15:25-26
A. Reigning! 1 Cor.
15:25
1. We
will rule and reign with Christ forever!
a.
Because Jesus took our place and paid the price for sin we no longer have
to fear death.
b.
The reward of those who put their trust in Christ is a forever
life!
c. We
don’t live for just this life, we live now to prepare for the
forever!
2.
What gives our life meaning today is the fact that we are indeed
preparing for an existence that goes beyond this
world.
3.
This is what makes life so important.
a.
The very way we live is a statement of faith in the future.
b.
Even how we prepare for death makes a statement of our
faith.
ILLUS:
Winston
Churchill chose to believe. Churchill arranged his own funeral. There were
stately hymns in
B. Restored! 1 Cor.
15:26
1. The final enemy we face is
death!
a.
But death has no power over those who belong to
Christ.
b.
Amazingly, we will be restored; only better than we are
now.
c. In
eternity we will have bodies like Jesus’ resurrected body, without pain, without
weakness, etc.
2. It
will happen when the trump of God sounds and Jesus returns
again.
a.
For those who had died already, we will be
raised.
b.
For those alive at the time Christ returns they will be changed
instantly.
3. Notice that Paul’s whole argument
is that our life today cannot be all that there is.
a.
There is more after death.
b.
There is therefore no fear about death.
c.
Those who perish before Christ returns we will see
again.
CONCLUSION:
“IF ONLY
THIS LIFE”
was all
that there was we would be a foolish people to live a sacrificial and godly life
today. In fact, if there is no
future resurrection, it doesn’t matter how we live now. But down deep all of us have an aversion
to death – because written into our hearts is a sense that we are not like the
animals around us, they simply live and then die. There is something more in us because
God make us to live with Him forever.
Sin destroyed that; and the result of sin was death, spiritual death –
which brought physical death with it.
But in Christ we have a savior who took our sins and will one day raise
us up to live with Him forever.
There is much more to come!