The
Only Hope that Matters!
I Corinthians
15:1-11
Introduction: Everyone
wants something to hope for, but for many it is simply wishful thinking that
“hopes” it will all work out. Someone said nothing in the world arouses more false
hopes than the first few hours of a diet! (Even Celtic fans may have started
the season with hope, but alas…). A
pessimist would agree with the little boy who said “Hope is wishing for
something you know ain’t gonna happen!” The only hope that matters is one that
is based on truth. The Bible
defines “hope” as a confident expectation about the future, a confidence that
God will accomplish the Good Work that He has begun. In the sermons of the
apostles in the book of Acts, there is one historical truth that is repeatedly
mentioned, which, by its very emphasis lies at the heart of the Christian message
and the sure hope the apostles shared. It’s
the truth that we celebrate today: the resurrection of JESUS CHRIST. John MacArthur said:
“Just as the heart pumps life giving blood to
every part of the body, so the truth of the resurrection gives life to every
other area of Gospel truth. The
resurrection is the pivot on which all of Christianity turns and without which
none of the other truths would much matter.
Without the resurrection Christianity would be so much wishful thinking,
taking its place alongside all other human philosophy and religious speculation.”
Paul
affirms the necessity of the resurrection in 15:13,14 “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.” Along with a lot of practical problems in Christian
living, the Corinthians apparently had a serious doctrinal problem in terms of
the future resurrection of believers.
The fact that Paul starts this great chapter affirming the evidence of
the resurrection of Jesus may imply that some were even beginning either to
question the importance of His physical resurrection or even if it really
happened at all. Paul says it is the very foundation of our hope.
Context: Chapter 15 of I
Corinthians is the most fully developed chapter in the Bible on the theme of
the resurrection. The empty tomb is the
basis for our hope as Christians. It
explicitly links the resurrection of Jesus, with the future resurrection of
believers. It also defines the basis and power of our life as believers. A German theologian by the name of Erich Sauer
said it this way:
“The
present age is Eastertime. It begins
with the resurrection of the Redeemer, and will end with the resurrection of
the redeemed. Between lies the spiritual
resurrection of those called into life through faith in Christ. So we live between two Easters, and in the
power of the first Easter, we go to meet the last Easter.”
The Big Idea: Because Jesus
lives we have a sure hope for the future and the power to live with true joy
today.
I. First of all, we
have a hope that changes lives (15:1-2)! He starts off saying “Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I
preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also
you are saved…” The first line of evidence that Paul
presents is not stated explicitly but is clearly implied. The very fact that the Corinthian believers,
and all believers for that matter, had received the Gospel, believed in Jesus,
is strong evidence of the power of the gospel, which is the power of the
resurrection of Christ (Ephesians 1:19,20): “…and what is the
exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the
working of his mighty power which he worked in Christ when he raised him from
the dead…”
Paul preached the Gospel among them, they
received it, stood in it and were saved by it (15:1-2). Christians aren’t perfect, they are sinners saved
by grace. And they know it, for God’s
Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are His children. Notice in our passage that Paul calls the
Corinthians “brethren,” he recognizes them as fellow Christians. “I declare to you…” he is reminding them of the message they heard
and believed: the death of Jesus for our sins, his burial and
resurrection.
This was the life changing message that impacted
them in the past: “which you received…”
There was a specific moment in their history when they heard the Good News of
the death and resurrection of Jesus and they believed it. Whether or not you
can remember and identify the precise moment, that is true for every believer.
“…in which you stand…” It was
not simply something that happened in the past, but they continued to stand in
the truth. Its not that Christians simply were saved, they are
saved, they have eternal life as both a promise and a present
possession.
“In
which you are saved if…” The context
of I Corinthians 15 definitely points also toward the future, and completion of
the promise of salvation in the resurrection of believers. Notice the qualifier: “…if you hold fast to the Word which I preached to you, unless you
believed in vain.” This is not a denial of the eternal security of true
believers. It is a warning however that
saying you believe is not necessarily the same as truly trusting Jesus as your
savior and Lord.
There are a tremendous number of
conflicting ideas that people believe
to be true – just believing doesn’t make it true. The only hope that matters is a hope that
is based on truth. Paul is showing
the Corinthians the evidence for the truth of the Gospel, including the historical
fact of the resurrection. The evidence
is clear, yet most people deny the implications of the evidence. Like the story of the man who was
institutionalized because he thought he was dead. The psychiatrist had an idea, he began
repeating a question to the man, “Do did men bleed?” He answered every time,
“Of course not, dead men don’t bleed!” Then the Dr. took a pin and pricked the
man’s finger, and he started to bleed.
His conclusion in the light of the evidence? “What do you know, did men do bleed!” Consider the evidence, including the evidence
of lives transformed and empowered by the Good News. Because Jesus lives we have a sure hope for
the future and the power to live joyfully today.
II. A Hope based on
Scripture (15:3-4). Paul emphasizes the truth that the Good News
of Jesus was not something that men made up, in fact His coming, death, and resurrection
had been anticipated for centuries. The Old Testament Scriptures repeatedly
predicted the coming of the Messiah, a deliverer, king, and Savior. By the time of Jesus’ birth, for the most
part, current interpretation had missed the idea that it was necessary for the
Messiah to suffer and die. A key aspect
of the apostles’ preaching was to point the church back toward that scriptural truth.
Paul says, “I delivered to you that which I also received…” He brought
authoritative teaching, not something that he conjured up in his own mind. He
simply delivered to them what God had revealed! It’s my prayer that as the
Bible is preached from this pulpit we will do the same! My ideas aren’t worth much. God’s Word is
priceless, it’s true, and it can give us real Hope, a Hope based on facts, the
only Hope that matters, that is, if we’ll receive it.
Paul writes,
“Christ died for our sins according to
the scriptures…” He is
emphasizing the fulfillment of God’s promises so he uses the title “Christ,” or
“Messiah.” It’s so familiar to us we easily forget this it is not part of Jesus’
name, rather it is His title, “the Anointed One —the One predicted as the
deliverer of Israel by the Old Testament writers. Andrew said it in John 1:41, "We have found the Messiah " (which translated means Christ.).
Then in John 1:45 Philip found Nathanael and said to him, "We
have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the Prophets wrote-- Jesus of
Nazareth, the son of Joseph."
This
promised Messiah, “…died for our sins…” This is the heart of
the Gospel message: the sacrificial substitutionary death of Jesus. John the Baptist anticipated this truth when
he saw Jesus in John 1, “Behold the Lamb
of God, who takes away the sins of the world.” Isaiah the prophet had
predicted the coming of a suffering servant when he said: “All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his
own way, and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” It all happened “according to the
Scriptures”—as it had been predicted and planned by God himself. You might think, “well that doesn’t sound
very fair!” It wasn’t fair, Jesus chose
to give his life for us, The Good Shepherd “laid down His life for His sheep.” It was
the only way that a Righteous, Holy God could justify sinners. The wages of sin
is death, and we are all sinners. Jesus, the only human that lived his entire
life without sin, took the punishment that we deserved so that we could have
life. “Greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his
friends…” We’re saved by grace, God’s unmerited favor. I like the acrostic for “grace,”: G.R.A.C.E. = “God’s riches at
Christ’s expense.” Jesus
paid it all, all to Him I owe!
But that is not the end of the story! Today we celebrate the truth that He “…was raised the third day, according to the
Scriptures…” A second proof of the
truth of the Gospel was that the resurrection of Christ happened in precise
fulfillment of the Scriptures. What had
been foretold with respect to the Messiah was fulfilled in the experience of
Jesus. One of my favorite scenes in the
Bible is at the end of Luke, where the two disciples on the road to Emmaus are
confused by the death of Jesus, and the reports that the tomb was empty. Suddenly
a stranger begins to walk with them on the way, asks some questions, and then
begins to teach them in Luke
24:25-27…
“Then He said to
them, ‘O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets
have spoken! 26 Ought not the
Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?’ 27 And beginning at Moses and all
the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning
Himself.” (See also Luke 24:44-46).
Preaching
on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2 Peter argues from the Old Testament
scriptures, Psalm 16 among other texts,
that everything happened according to the prophecies God had given in ages
past. The scriptures revealed that
Messiah, Christ, must be raised, Jesus was raised, therefore His claim to be
Messiah is true, Jesus is the Christ! (see Acts 2:25-31).
Paul makes a great summary of the truth, when,
under arrest, in his testimony to Agrippa, he says in Acts 26:22-23…
"Therefore,
having obtained help from God, to this day I stand, witnessing both to small
and great, saying no other things than those which the prophets and Moses said
would come -- 23 "that
the Christ would suffer, that He would be the first to rise from the dead, and
would proclaim light to the Jewish people and to the Gentiles."
***
Because Jesus lives we have a sure hope for the future and the power to live
joyfully today.
III. A Hope
confirmed by witnesses (15:5-11) – Scoffers to this point might argue that all
this is circumstantial evidence. Paul
next calls on his third line of evidence: eyewitness testimony! Eyewitness testimony is powerful, in fact in
the Bible it was required to have the testimony of two or three witnesses to
confirm truth. I’ve transcribed in the
back of my Bible the English translation of a letter that was written in AD
107, perhaps ten or 12 years after the death of the last of the Apostles, by Ignatius
of Antioch as he was being carried to Rome as a prisoner, expecting to be
thrown to the lions. It is as relevant today as it was then:
“If
you come across someone who says that Jesus Christ never lived, or that he is
just an idea, or a concept, or a myth- shut your ears to him. Jesus Christ was born to a human family, a
descendant of David. His mother was
Mary. He was persecuted and crucified
under Pontius Pilate, a fact testified to us by some who are now in heaven, and
some who are still alive on earth. How
can this be a phantom, or an illusion, or a myth? These are facts of history!
It is
also a fact that he rose from the dead (or rather, that his Father raised him
up). And that is the most important fact
of all, because His promise is that the father will also raise us up, if we
believe in Him. So if Christ is not alive neither shall we be. There is nothing left for us to hope for if
he is just an idea of a fantasy.
In any case, if he only appeared to rise from the dead—why should I be
in chains for this “myth”? Why should I
die to support an illusion? I am
prepared to die for him, the true and real Son of God. But no one is prepared to die for a shadow.”
He heard from eyewitnesses and knew in his
heart that it was true. Eyewitness testimony is compelling. Paul invites the
Corinthians (and us!) to consider the eyewitness testimony to the resurrection
of Jesus.
First
Paul points to the first of the apostolic witness (he doesn’t even mention the
women who got there first!). In 1 Corinthians
15:5 “…and that He was seen by Cephas,
then by the twelve…” (vv. 5-7). “Cephas” is of course the Hebrew name of Peter
– he who had denied Jesus 3 times – became the first witness of the
resurrection! That is GRACE! Our God specializes in second chances, after
the resurrection Peter became a fearless proclaimer of the Gospel (read the
first 10 chapters of Acts!).
Then by the twelve… after that He
was seen by over 500 brethren at once!
Paul was writing just twenty years or so after the resurrection and he makes
the point that the majority of these witnesses were still alive as he wrote this
letter to the Corinthians – if anyone had doubts they could go and speak to
them personally and hear their stories about seeing the resurrected Jesus!
Finally Paul mentions another witness in vv. 8-10, a special witness, “then last
of all he was seen by me, as one born out of due time…” Humanly speaking, the transformation of Paul
is inexplicable – he was a zealous persecutor of the Church, and then on the
road to Damascus he has an encounter that changed his life forever: he met the
resurrected Jesus. The zealous persecutor of the church became a fearless
proclaimer of Messiah Jesus! That 180 degree
change in direction simply could not be explained away then and it can’t be
explained away now. The only explanation is that Jesus conquered death, and He
is Lord.
That
is the common message: Every true apostle, prophet or pastor has preached the
same message for 2000 years: God’s revealed plan was carried out to the letter:
Christ, the incarnate Son of God, died for our sins and was buried, and was
raised again the third day.
What is God saying to me in this
passage?
Do you have strength for today and hope
for tomorrow? You can! And I’m not talking about wishful thinking or
self-reliance. Because Jesus lives we have a sure hope for the future and
the power to live with true joy today.
The truth of the Gospel hangs on the fact of the resurrection of Jesus. The evidence is clear, the question is, how
will we respond? A book is entitled,
“Evidence that demands a verdict.” There is no need for us to judge the evidence-
it is compelling. The real verdict will
be how we respond to what God has done for us in Christ.
What would God have
me to do in response to this passage? Do
you think that you just happened to come to church today? God planned this moment – in your life and in
mine. It may be that you have been an
interested listener, considering the Christian message for some time. The facts: Jesus proved that He is the Messiah
by dying for our sins, according to the scriptures and being buried, and then
raising from the dead the third day. He proved that He is the Son of God, now the
question is, what will you do with
Jesus? Won’t you receive the gift of eternal life that He purchased in His own
blood? Won’t you submit to His Lordship, recognize that He is King of all
creation? Who ever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. That’s truth,
the only hope that matters.
AMEN.
No comments:
Post a Comment