The Resurrection

if Jesus didn't raise from the dead then being a Jesus follower being a Christian he says it's absolutely worthless he says it's meaningless paul tells us that if he's not the one who raised from the dead if he is not God himself then the absolute foundation of our faith crumbles then this whole book is useless then this whole reason we meet together it's like a house of cards that collapses in on itself hey we are so excited what a great way to start our Easter weekend can I get an amen man I am excited that you are here as you can tell you're like you're hopped up on some Red Bull or something and the answer is yeah I am all right but I'm excited and I'm excited that you're here and you may be like wondering well like who are you right if you don't know me my name is Andrew i am the campus pastor here and I'm excited that you are here with us as we get to talk about and we get to celebrate on this Easter weekend but here comes the question it's like why is Easter such a big deal and Easter is a big deal for a lot of reasons i don't know about you but my Easter weekend is pretty packed uh we started uh actually with a Good Friday service and some of you guys were there at our Good Friday service and we planned this like 3 months in advance to do a special outdoor celebration for Good Friday and it rained all right and I think God did it on purpose cuz it made it way more solemn and awesome it was great we just got rained on if Jesus going to hang on a cross we can sit under some rain it was fantastic but we started there and then if Saturday came and then Saturday I I had my first Easter with my in-laws side of the family and there's a bunch of niece and nephews egg hunts a bunch of craziness then we have a Saturday service two Sunday services and Sunday night I'll spend with my side of the family and nieces and nephews and egg hunts and craziness and when all this is over I'm about to go into a coma okay just a little self coma temporarily but Easter is a big deal and as big of a deal it is not just because of family gatherings it's not because of egg hunts it's not about the Easter Bunny but Easter is a big deal because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ and today as we gather together as we get to celebrate what he's done the question comes well why is the resurrection such a big deal you see often when we can get in our church bubble is sometimes we just think hey this is what I do i just show up for Easter we sing some songs i hear the message and I leave but the resurrection is such a big deal that it changes how we see everything in our life and today as we get into our passage that we're going to preach through today we're going to be in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 and if you have a Bible or your phone you can pull that up but the writer of this this chapter and of this book named Paul Paul gives us the case of why Easter is so important and why the resurrection in and it's so essential to everything we do and as Paul kind of starts to walk us down this path and walks us through why the resurrection is such a big deal he starts with showing us the historical resurrection now recently as I've been kind of scrolling Twitter and Instagram and Facebook and I'm not cool or hip enough for Tik Tok so I stay off of that one you got to do dance moves and that's where I draw the line okay but as I'm going through I've been seeing these memes lately and and they'll say things like "Do Christians really believe this?" and it'll show a picture of like a guy in a a a fish's belly seeing the story of Noah or it'll show like a sea parted in huge waves and people walking across it and and looking at Moses and the Israelites fleeing from Egypt and it's like set in a mocking tone like how in the world could you believe something so crazy and outlandish glenn Scriber in his book The Air We Breathe he addresses this type of idea of ho how in the world could we wrap our head around things that we can't explain with logic that scientifically we can't prove and as he walks through he says "Everyone comes to some point in their life where they have to believe some sort of miracle." Inside the Christian tradition in the church we believe the miracle that Jesus came here lived a perfect life died on a cross rose again and forgave our sins and that is a miracle that you believe in the other side is saying that that was all false it was a deception but somehow this guy fooled everyone and forever changed the course of history and everything we know it in our world today is affected by this guy Jesus and this book and everything we know is different because of it like even the CIA can't pull off that conspiracy theory all right and and what he gets to is in some ways we need to believe is what miracle are we going to believe in and so when we come to this passage and we talk about the resurrection what we're going to see is if we believe a guy raised from the dead then we can believe everything else in this book and what God does in our lives and Paul starts here in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 starting in verse one he says this "Now I want to make clear for you brothers and sisters the gospel I preach to you which you received on which you have taken your stand in which you are being saved if you hold to the message I preached to you unless you believed in vain." The first thing Paul shows us about the historical resurrection is that it was preserved you see through these first two verses he's saying "Hey this has been made clear to you i preached this to you you've received it you've taken your stand you've been saved by it you know this gospel in and out." And he's saying "And other people have written about this these other apostles and these other writers is Jesus James brother has talked about the resurrection is Matthew and Mark and Luke and John have written literature on it peter has talked about in his epistles and Paul's saying "You know this to be the case cuz we've preserved this for you." I have four children so I say a lot of things and yell a lot of things and give a lot of directions but when something's really important I say it a few more times than I say the other things and when I really want my kids to know something I repeat it over and over and over and over again and Paul is saying "This is an important thing and that's why I'm saying it over and over again to you but he doesn't stop there he continues on verse three not only is this historical resurrection preserved but he says "For I passed on to you as most important what I also received that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures that he was buried that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures and that he appeared to Cphus and to the 12 then he appeared to the other 500 brothers and sisters at one time most of them are still alive but some have fallen asleep then he appeared to James and to the apostles last of all as one born at the wrong time he also appeared to me paul continues on and shows us that not only was his historical resurrection preserved and but it was also passed on and it was passed on meaning that this was Jesus didn't resurrect and then see one guy and said "Now go tell everyone." But he saw a multitude of people have you ever played the telephone game like someone says one thing and then you tell the next person and and there's always that rude person who changes it on purpose okay like we'll start and be like "Pastor Andrew has a majestic mustache." All right and then halfway through a guy's like "Pastor Andrew hasn't hit puberty yet so he does not have a mustache it's fake." Right someone will mess that up but here's what Jesus did he didn't play the telephone game instead he appeared to 500 people at once and here's how you break the telephone game is when 500 people have heard the same message and what the message is when one person speaks out of turn the other 499 says "Hey that ain't right that's not what we saw." And Paul shows them this historical resurrection it was passed on to a multitude so it could be preserved and it could be continued to be passed on but not only was it passed on and preserved but he continues and wraps up this historical section in verse 9 he says "For I am the least of the apostles not worthy to be called an apostle because I persecuted the church of God but by the grace of God I am what I am and his grace towards me was not in vain on the contrary I worked harder than any of them yet not I but the grace of God that was with me whether then it is I or they so we proclaim and so you have believed." You see this gospel message this good news of God's grace it was preserved it was passed on but it was so that others would proclaim it and they proclaimed it and we still proclaim it to this day recently last month actually uh we took all four of our kids to Disneyland and when we did that me and my wife had to keep tight lipped about that cuz we have a good age we have 8 7 3 and 1 and we told the one-year-old everything cuz she can't tell anyone anything yet but the others were like "We ain't saying squat to you yet because we know you won't stop talking and annoying us about it." But then you'll go tell everyone like your teachers when we're taking you out of school for a week okay um they don't need to know that until the Friday before or sometime i'm just kidding um but we're like we we waited to tell them cuz we knew as soon as we would that's all they could talk about and Paul is telling us that the same thing happens with Jesus when we hear the good news of Christ when we hear about the resurrection we should be like a child overflowing with joy that we can't help but to tell others about this Jesus God man who raised from the dead but Paul moves on from this not simply being just a historical resurrection like it is but we also see that there was a spiritual resurrection aspect to this there are some people in our world today who have adopted a more newagy version of Jesus they're like I you know I like Jesus he was a cool dude he seemed loving his teaching was nice i could hang out with that guy i could you know sit on the back patio with him but the whole like being God thing and raising from the dead that's just a bridge too far for me to cross and and they want to kind of take the values of Jesus and the teachings of Jesus without the Jesus of Jesus and Paul said that that doesn't really work in verse 12 he continues on he says "Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead if there is no resurrection of the dead then not even Christ has been raised." And listen to this in verse 14 and if Christ has not been raised then our proclamation is in vain and so is your faith paul inspired by God to write these words to write these words down doesn't leave any ambiguity instead when he's talking about the spiritual foundation he or spiritual resurrection he shows us that it is the foundation of our faith he says "Hey guys if if Jesus didn't raise from the dead then being a Jesus follower being a Christian," he says it's absolutely worthless he says it's meaningless he says if Jesus was just a dude who taught good lessons then he was a fraud could he even do that well because Jesus also said crazy things if he's not God like I am the way the truth and the life and no one comes to the father except through me like that sounds like a guy who should be in a mental institution if he's not actually that guy and Paul tells us that if he's not the one who raised from the dead if he is not God himself then the absolute foundation of our faith crumbles then this whole book is is useless then this whole reason we meet together it's like a house of cards that collapses in on itself and Paul tells us that is the foundation the resurrection of everything we do but he keeps going in verse 15 he says "Moreover we are found to be false witnesses about God because we have testified wrongly about God that he raised up Christ whom he did not raise up if in fact 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 worthless and you are still in your sins those then who have fallen asleep in Christ have also perished if we have put our hope in Christ for this life only we should be pied more than anyone you see Paul tells us the spiritual resurrection is not just the foundation but he shows us it's also the future you see if Christ wasn't raised then not only is our current faith empty but there's also no hope for something beyond this our future has no hope that something better is coming and he even goes so far of those who have died trusting in Christ if he didn't raise from the grave they're just gone they're just rotting in their grave or sprinkled in the ocean he's like they're done there's no resurrection waiting them there's no hope beyond the grave and then he goes a little bit further he says if Christianity is just about making this life a little bit better if there's no resurrection no eternal life then Christians are he says the most pitiful people on earth because he says we have given up worldly pursuits and sometimes as in was the case of the apostles they have been persecuted for a lie i had the privilege of growing up in church and we were faithful we would always be at church there was no reason to miss we were drugged there like it just wasn't an option and I grew up loving the church and I say and my family I'm grateful for this and and my dad I always say he passed on two things to me is to go to church and love Jesus and to cheer for Arizona sports teams we'll come back to that one in a second all right one of those is good uh but in here and like but as I got a little older in my early 20s I think right before I was getting married I kind of had a FOMO about my sin like I should have done more of it okay this sounds ridiculous but I'm like maybe I should have uh Jesus forgives everything right so maybe I should have been a little more promiscuous when I was a teenager i'm no saint my wife is a saint i am not so I did some dumb things but I was like I could have been dumber i could have messed with the law more i could have tried to get a juvie record that would have got wiped away when I was 18 i could have experimented with more substances i was like I should have sinned more to have a cooler testimony as I grew up I realized God was sparing me from a lot of things cuz there was baggage that came with that and there was heartache and consequences that Jesus will wipe away your sins and clear you for eternity but that doesn't mean you're still not carrying stuff with you that you got to deal with but here's what Paul is saying he he actually says it in verse 15 we won't actually get this far today uh but he says in verse 32 that if the dead are not raised let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die if Jesus didn't raise from the grave then why in the world are we at church why in the world do we do this why do we try to be better people why do we try to follow Jesus he says it's all worthless but the good news is Christ has been raised and there are not only earthly but there are heavenly consequences for our sins as a result and that brings us to our last point of the resurrection is he shows us the historical resurrection the spiritual resurrection and lastly the eternal resurrection i mentioned that my dad brought me up to cheer for Arizona sports teams and he was a Phoenix native and I'm a native Phoenician and I think cheering for the Suns the Cardinals the Diamondbacks and ASU is a little glimpse of hell all right I'm just going to be honest this last sun season was rough okay and I still love them i'm wearing Devin Booker shoes i preach in them exclusively got four colors if you love me just add a fifth i'm just saying um but it's just another level of heartache and hurt cheering for my team so I'm not going to lie and here as Paul gets into this he he's going to show us that so often we get frustrated with temporary things like our sports teams that don't win tory Lavell blew a game a couple days ago where he didn't use his bullpen the right way and I was yelling at my TV we get frustrated with even things that seem a little more important like our entertainment or our hobbies and then we even things that maybe are bigger deal to our minds so we get frustrated with things like politics and like the economy and like how am I going to provide for my family and the list can go on and on and on but Jesus is about so much more than all of those things and Paul picks this up in verse 20 and he says "But as it is," he says "Christ has been raised from the dead he is the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep." He says "For since death came through a man the resurrection of the dead also comes through man." And here's who he's referencing in 22 for just as in Adam all die that's who death came through so also in Christ all will be made alive but each in his own order Christ the first fruits afterward at his coming those who belong to Christ you see Paul starts to break this apart and he talks to tell us about what this eternal resurrection is actually like and the first part of this is he shows us that the eternal resurrection will be done through Christ you see the resurrection of Jesus Christ was not this oneoff random miracle that we'll never see its impact again instead what Paul says it's the first fruits it is the preview of how all followers of Jesus will one day be raised through the power of Jesus Christ and then Paul compares that to the very first human in Adam and Adam and Eve right they sinned at the very beginning of creation my kids are like "Man if I was Adam and Eve I wouldn't have sinned." I'm like "Bro if you were in your bare feet you would have made the same decision they did which is the same decision all of us did." And Paul is saying "But that they messed up and they brought sin into our world they brought death into our world." But here's where Paul is getting he's saying "Jesus is so powerful jesus is so glorious he is so holy that by his resurrection one day we'll be resurrected into a new and perfect body one day we'll be resurrected into a new and perfect earth one day we'll be resurrected into a new and perfect heaven." and see where this leads starting in verse 24 and through the end of our section today he says "Then comes the end." He's talking about the end of time as we know it the end of the stock market the end of your financial wos the end of your financial comfort the end of everything the end of your job if you don't think you're going to make to retirement right he said "Then comes the end when he being Jesus hands over the kingdom to God the Father when he abolishes all rule and all authority and all power all the political powers we know today will all be abolished for he must reign until he puts all his enemies under his feet the last enemy to be abolished is death for God has put everything under his feet now when it says everything is put under him it is obvious that he being Jesus who puts everything under him is the exception and when everything is subject to Christ then the son himself will also be subject to the one who subjected everything to him so that listen to this so God may be all in all you see Paul is building this he shows us his historical resurrection he shows us his spiritual resurrection but in this resurrection it will be done through Christ but here this church it will be done for Christ this is important because you see this resurrection that we one day will experience as followers of Jesus Christ as Christians it is not going to be for our glory there are a lot of false teachings and false religions out there that say when you're dead and gone you're going to become like a god you're going to own your planet you're going to be comfortable you're going to be awesome people will worship you and no no no no that's not what he's saying this will be a resurrection that we get to be in the presence of God this will be a resurrection that we get to worship him at the heavenly host around us this will be a resurrection that we get to experience the overwhelming fulfillment of his holiness this will be a resurrection that we get to lay at the feet of King Jesus for all of eternity i know we're Baptists but we can do better than that all right paul shows us the historical resurrection it was preserved it was passed on and it was proclaimed throughout history until today and it's still being proclaimed he shows us a spiritual resurrection is the foundation of our faith but is also the future of our faith and this eternal resurrection is through the power of Christ but it is also for the eternal glory of Christ and you see when we come to this question why is Easter such a big deal because of the resurrection why is the resurrection such a big deal because of everything Paul just said here that it changes everything about how we live our lives it changes everything about what we do with our lives and as we ask that question here comes the next thing so what do we do with all of this how do I leave this place whether I've never said yes to Jesus once or I've said to Jesus for thousands of times well if you've heard nothing else today and I think I yelled enough so you heard something but hear this this is our big idea of this text for today is if the resurrection isn't true our work is all in vain everything Paul says it over our belief is in vain our proclamation is in vain all of it is in vain but if it is true we rest upon his reign if it's not true you're spinning your wheels everything you're doing it's meaningless but if it is true we know the God of the universe that unlocks it all for us you see Paul here makes a case that the resurrection truly happens and that it's the most important part of our faith because without it everything else doesn't matter and because it happened we rest upon the work that he has done on the cross in raising from the grave and not the work that we do in vain trying to spin our wheels to get to a better life that we can't accomplish on our own about 6 months ago we are preparing and we are in the middle of a big transition in the life of this church but in the life of me personally and my family too we had spent the last nine years starting our Phoenix campus and we got the privilege of pastor over there and as Jackie our lead pastor kind of moved out of the day-to-day operations here at Surprise the elders called me over here to preach full-time and to lead our staff here at our Surprise campus and as we're getting ready to sell our house and four kids moving is a nightmare never doing it again and I said "All you're leaving after we bought this last house in surprise." But as we're getting ready to move and as we're doing all our life all this kind of stress and excitement was all coming together and I think more excitement that I'm like "I got this i'm good." Then this one Saturday happened few weeks before we officially sold our house and moved to North Surprise it was a Saturday morning and my youngest daughter was about 6 months at the time she woke up a little early after she'd been up through the night my wife up with her and me sleeping very calmly but she was up early and I'm like I'm going to be a great husband loaded my daughter into the car and she had talked about these special cinnamon rolls at Sprouts so I went to Sprouts got the cinnamon rolls got flowers i'm like man am I awesome loaded back up in the car and and I look to my right parking lot's totally empty i see that I can just drive straight through the parking lot no don't have to back up just so inconvenient just drive straight through what I didn't realize is a spot that I was in used to be a handicap spot they repainted it they took out the pole but one thing they didn't take out was this cement block right in front of it as I gas up my Honda Odyssey with all its power I went over that cement block my first instinct was to reverse and boop right back over it didn't work as well the block moved with me as I got out of my car and see literally sitting on top hearing scraping hearing money coming out of my bank account i looked as a rebar was up against my tire i thought it pierced through everyone looking around and then my six-month old daughter in the car called my wife she had to have neighbors come over pick up as they watch the kids it was such a mess then I called roadside assistants was there about 30 minutes you know when someone does something stupid and you watch it you make a face like "How the heck did they do that?" I was the idiot they were thinking about okay I'm not going to lie i was angry i was humiliated i was embarrassed i haven't told many people in this story so I thought besides my wife knowing I'm gonna tell our entire church on our Easter services and that's going to be it like Josh doesn't even know the story but I was so low in that moment literally went across in the parking lot from Starbucks and just watched people judge my van for 4 hours until a dude with a lift came on roadside assistance he was from Iraq he might have been an angel but then he asked for a tip after so that was weird so I don't know but here's why I say all that in that moment God said "Hey as you go into this next season of your life if you think you're going to be driving if you think that every bump you into you can get out of it if you are going to be the one that works to do all this to lead your family to lead a church to lead inside me and you think you can do it better than me this is your picture of what it's going to look like how often are we running into things running over things spinning our wheels scraping up our life destroying the things around us in the emotions of anger and humiliation and grief and everything else comes around us and Jesus is just up in heaven saying "Hey this is why I died for you this is why I raised again because you're not capable of cleaning up the mess you've made of your sin our sin has put us in a grave our sin has destroyed the relationships around us it has bound us for an eternal death separated from the almighty creator for all of eternity and your work of trying to be a good person trying to lead your family the right way trying to make money trying to be successful all of it is meaningless if you're not first coming to the throne of God to the feet of Jesus to watch how he can do what only he can do in just a few minutes we're going to witness a baptism and we're going to see baptisms throughout all our services this weekend of people who are publicly declaring "I can't do this on my own i've tried it doesn't work but I know the savior of the universe who died on a cross for me who rose again so that I could have a new life in him both here on earth but I could have a glorious resurrection and a new life with him for all of eternity so in just a minute we're going to pray and before we get to the baptism I'm going to give you an opportunity and an invitation to say yes to Jesus today don't push it off don't wait till next Christmas Eve or next Easter do it now stop spinning your wheels stop running into cement blocks and start letting the Savior of the universe do what only he can do [Music]