Scripture Reading And Welcome

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Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved. If you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise you have believed in vain. For what I received I passed on to you, as of first importance, 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 Cephas, and then to the twelfth. After that he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all, he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born. This is the word of the Lord.

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You all can take a seat. Thank you, Carrie, so very much. She killed it as always.

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Um if um you are here and you do not have a Bible, we have a Bible to give you. So if you want to, I know I counted. We have ten. We have ten Bibles. I would like to see no Bibles because these are our gifts to you. If you do not have a Bible, we are going to go through that passage and a few verses after. Come and grab a Bible. Um, and if you are grabbing a brand new Bible, we will be on page 541 of said Bibles so that you can turn to the appropriate passage. Um, welcome to West Village. It is such a joy to be with you. Um, my name is Andrew Johnson, and this is our family just moved at the end of last May.

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So this is our very first Easter here with everybody. Um, okay. So far, so good. It's all downhill from here, Sharon.

The History Behind He Is Risen

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Um this is this is the exciting moment. I know you all were really excited. You've been amped, so let's open with gladness. He is risen. Okay, so this is the one day of the year that I can fool people into doing call and responses. So when somebody on Easter or Resurrection Sunday, when they say he is risen, then you have the opportunity to shout back with joy and acclamation. He is risen indeed. So let's practice again. He is risen.

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He is risen. He is risen.

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Okay, so that phrase that you just participated in isn't a meaningless saying that only the olds do. Okay, those who say they follow Jesus as Lord have been saying he is risen or Christ is risen for about 2,000 years. All right. So where is it coming from? Well, we get to see a little bit of it in Luke chapter 24, where it says the phrase, the Lord has indeed risen. Now, the Eastern Orthodox Church, they have a tradition that said that Mary Magdalene said it to the emperor Tiberius while in Rome. And while she was in front of him, she said, Christ is risen. The Byzantine Church says, well, we actually know that this phrase started on Easter Eve when Augustine was baptized in 387. And then, not to be outdone, uh, the Western or rather the Orthodox Church says that John Chrysostom said it in A.D. 400 in his Paschal Homily, where he said, Christos anesti, Lethos Anesti, Christ is risen. Truly he is risen.

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So he is risen. Neat. Cool.

Corinth And The Body Problem

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Why does it matter? Why does it matter? You might be thinking, of course, Andrew, you think it matters. You're a preacher type. It's Easter, and there's some weird law that requires you all to say this every year. What's the big deal? Why does it matter? Now, you might even call yourself a Christian, and in the back of your mind, you hope nobody judges you because you also are wondering, why does it matter? What's the big deal? Well, you've picked a great day to come together because we are going to answer this question. Now, a top leader in the early church by the name of Paul, we as Christians know that he has the title of apostle. So you might hear me say Apostle Paul or others talk about him as an apostle. He dealt with this head on in the start of 1 Corinthians chapter 15. So let's join his answer again. If you have one of these Bibles to decide, page 541. If you have a paper Bible, I can't help you if it's not that one. You just, good luck. It says that at the top, you can find it. The Apostle Paul is writing a group of Christians in an area called Corinth, and that's about an hour west of Athens, Greece. And this church in Corinth, they were kind of having the worst of times. They were having the worst of times, not because of an outside pressure or things other people were doing to them, but because they made some really terrible decisions. Terrible decisions. They'd written Paul about some of their issues, and, well, he was aghast at what they had written to them. And so this is his response. He's trying to deal with the issues that they have written about one at a time as he's working through this letter. So the section we're hitting today covered their question about the seriousness or the necessity of the resurrection. They had begun to believe some of the Greek influence in their lives, or rather, if they were Greek and they had become converts to Christ, they thought that bodies, these flesh and bone combo things that we're walking in, they thought they were bad and that they needed to be escaped forever. So because of that, they'd begun to believe that bodies couldn't and wouldn't be brought back from the dead, since they were corrupt and awful. Okay. So this is where they're coming from. Join me in verse one. Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preach to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved if you hold firmly to the word that I preach to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. All right, so Paul, he preached this thing called the gospel or the good news to his friends in Corinth, and they believed, and because they believed it, they were saved. If they really did believe it, like Paul told them, right, it's like holding onto a rope and climbing to safety. If they didn't believe what Paul taught, okay, we're looking at like a wild e coyote and roadrunner situation, right? Where he looks and he's not holding the rope any longer. And then he realizes it, and then he looks at the camera, and then he falls.

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Right?

What The Gospel Actually Is

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Their belief had no purpose. And now that they don't see that they are holding a rope, then they crash. Paul affirms their hold onto a solid rope called the gospel and their belief in what he preached. So, great question to ask is well, what is that rope, right? What is the gospel? What did he tell them? Scholars believe that Paul used a common hymn that was being passed around the churches as he walks through that hymn to talk with them. All right. So, verse three, imagine each of the things that he hits is like a thread in that rope. All right. Verse three, for what I received, I passed on to you as of first importance, right? Here's the hymn start. That Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. He hits four things in a small amount of space. One, the gospel is about Jesus, who is the Christ, the Son of God. This little phrase means that Jesus is the Messiah, the promised hope for all of humanity, fully God, fully man, and he was sent to save us all and bring everyone who believed in him into an eternal kingdom. So when Paul says Christ, right, he's actually said something that was a really loaded word, right? And that's what he has brought. Okay, to Christ died. He didn't sleep, he didn't fake it, he didn't fool the guards so that they thought he was dead, but he didn't actually die. And they took his sleeping body. No, no, no. He died. Jesus died on the cross. His heart stopped completely. Life left him. The guards stabbed his side. Out of the side came water and blood separated. That is something that only happens in bodies that are dead. Jesus was dead dead, okay? But he died with a purpose. What is the third thing? Jesus died for our sins. This is one of those things that we are saved from. When I use the word sin, this is our selfishness, our arrancy, our mutinous actions against God Almighty. That all sin, it has a hold on all of creation. Brokenness is evident in all people and all things, everywhere, and intervention is needed. Jesus' death on the cross actually addressed that need. And so, through his completed work, we are free from sin. And the fourth thing, Paul's hitting, he isn't making this up. This is spelled out in the scriptures. When he says scriptures, it's like, I don't want to say the first half, but it's the first part of what we know as our Bible. It is the Old Testament. These are the divine writings that they had at the time. And these scriptures, those first 39 books of the Bible, those make clear that a Savior would come and he would save his people and bring in an eternal kingdom. So the prophecies that were made about Jesus, Jesus fulfilled them, they became true. And this is all in one verse. Awesome. Moving on, first part, verse four. That he was buried, right? So his body was buried in a tomb. The tomb was sealed, and there were Roman guards placed all around it. Roman soldiers, I don't know if you know this, Roman soldiers were pretty good at their jobs. Okay? And so the Roman soldiers were placed outside the tomb to make sure that nobody could come and steal the body, because Jesus said he would raise from the dead. And so the Roman soldiers were placed outside of it, so none of the disciples and their shenanigans could get in there to take the body. All right. Here's the other thing: if the Roman soldiers failed at their job, they failed at their post, they would die. Because they were supposed to be really, really good at following orders. Okay. But Jesus was buried. He was for real dead. He was for real buried. And then the second half of verse 4, that he was raised on the third day, according to Scripture. Again, this is a really vital point.

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Jesus was dead, he was buried, and he came back to life. He rose from the dead. He is risen. Half of you are awake.

Buried And Raised On The Third Day

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This is good. Okay. I don't know how I can kind of move on from that to say more than that, right? As if Paul's casually mentioning that a fully dead man came back to the life, and then we're supposed to yada yada yada past that. We're not going to jump past this, but he adds the phrase that we have to understand that this was according to scriptures. This was told about. So he has now beaten sin and he's beaten death, things that we as humans haven't ever figured out how to beat on our own power and our own ingenuity. Jesus is risen. So if this is the claim, if this is the claim, were those Corinthians supposed to take it on blind faith? Are we supposed to take it on blind faith? No, we aren't. Here's the thing: the risen Jesus was actually seen as risen. Okay, verse 5. And that he appeared to Cephas and then to the 12. Cephas is Peter. He's one of the 12 apostles. Jesus didn't live his leave his risen state to just one guy, and then everybody was supposed to trust him. Peter saw him. The 12 saw him. Everybody was in on seeing Jesus risen from the dead, verse six. After that, he appeared to more than 500 of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Okay. 500 plus people. Let's imagine this. I have a crazy story that I am going to try to convince you of. If I come to you and tell you the crazy story, you might be distrustful of me, single person. But what if we bumped that number up to over 500 people? If 500 people are all saying the exact same crazy thing with the exact same crazy details, it makes it really hard to argue what they're talking about. And then Paul slides in, this one, don't let this skip you. Paul slides in that in fact, some of the people who saw Jesus rise from the dead at the time of this letter, they were still alive. Hey Corinthians, if you doubt this, go get on a boat. Go on that long journey. Make your way to meet some of these people because you can talk to them. They saw him alive.

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Verse 7.

Witnesses And The Case For Belief

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And then he appeared to James and then to all the apostles. James here is the brother of Jesus. He is the leader of the known church that is centralized in an area called, well, Jerusalem, right? He wasn't one of the twelve. And in fact, not too much longer or not too long ago, he was actually a doubter in Jesus as Lord. And he doubted that Jesus was Lord right up until the time that he saw his dead brother walking around. Doubter to believer to leader in the church telling people this good news. And if we haven't bumped this number any higher, it says, and all of the apostles. Okay. Um, I'm not going to spend too much time on this. This group is likely listed because the 12 were all apostles, but not all of the apostles were the 12. Okay, you can play this math game later. There will not be a test. Okay. So short summary: a silly, absurdly large number of people actually saw the resurrected Jesus walking around, eating, existing, and doing normal alive person things. It was witnessed. Verse 8. And last of all, he appeared to me, Paul, also as to one abnormally born, for I am the least of the apostles, and I do not even deserve 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 to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God that was within me. Okay, so Paul, he, when he talks about being one abnormally born, he's not talking about a like a physical deformity. It's it's his timing that he didn't see Jesus as in his risen state in the 40 days after Jesus rose from the dead. Um, Jesus actually appeared to Paul at a later time as Paul, formerly known as Saul, was on his way to a different town to beat up and maybe even murder some Christians. And Paul says, I am a persecutor of people who claim to have seen and followed this risen Lord. And I was going to do some murderous stuff. Jesus in his risen form visited me, and now I am out to say, I have actually seen the thing, the person that they claimed.

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Amen. And so even Paul believed.

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Verse 11 whether then it is I, again, Paul writing, or they, all of those people that he just listed, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed. Paul tells his readers if you have heard about the risen Jesus from Pedro, Jimmy, the 12, the apostles, 500 plus people, me, we all saw him alive after he died. We have preached this gospel to you. And if you, Corinthians, say that you believe that, then good, he is risen.

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Right, this pivotal fact is the good news that you have believed. Verse 12.

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But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. Okay, basic premise here. Jesus resurrected. You Corinthians say people can't resurrect. Jesus was a person. So how can he resurrect if no person can resurrect?

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Paul teases this out.

Paul’s Story From Persecutor To Apostle

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He doesn't, Paul's so funny, right? He doesn't just leave a line and say, Do you get it, everybody? Nod your heads. Good. No, no, no, no, no. He is gonna beat it into them. Okay. Nicely. Okay, verse 14. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless? Ha! And so is your faith. Paul has already confirmed that the gospel message that all of the leaders in the church preach, because they all saw Jesus alive, if they are wrong about seeing Jesus alive, then the central message of what was preached had no purpose. It is useless. It's not going to lead anywhere. Right? It's the rope that's not there. And if all the things that Paul and company taught were bad, then everything that the Corinthians said that they believed in were also useless, also had no purpose. They aren't going anywhere. So Paul says to them, What rope are you holding on to?

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And I say to you, What rope are you holding on to? Verse 15. More than that.

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We are then found to be false witnesses about God. For we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead, but he did not raise him, if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile, you are still in your sins. If Jesus is still dead, then everyone who has ever preached that he rose from the grave is a liar.

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All right, let's take our potential liars. We're going to leave them on a shelf. Because his argument has been building to verse 17.

If Christ Is Not Raised

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If Christ has not been raised, your faith. Is futile. You are still in your sins. This is the core of the Easter message. When I say he is risen, you say if Christ had not been raised, then what does that mean about Jesus? He's a great teacher. He has good messages. He's re he gives really helpful moral advice. But all that stuff about the kingdom of God coming in power and changing everything, well, it stopped when his body hit the grave. If he died and stayed dead, then the kingdom of this world is still reigning. We, those who believe in him, we don't have hope. We have nice sentiments about a nice guy. He sure isn't God because death beat him. He doesn't have more power than death. Death actually still reigns. He's still dead. Furthermore, don't you love a good furthermore? Furthermore, anyone who has placed their faith in a tryhard who couldn't actually do what needed to be done, they're not holding a rope and they are looking down at a pit that they think they climbed out of. They are holding on to nothing. They're not going anywhere else but down. And if this isn't clear enough, the key part about faith was that our sins have been paid for by a savior who has risen. If he hasn't raised, then our sins remain. We are all still stuck. Christians often say, and I say this, what I mean is I have often said to you all here in this gathering that Jesus' death defeated our sins, hooray, and then his resurrection defeated death. While that is true, his death on the cross must have the resurrection. I want to read a couple quotes out of this book. It is called Raised. It is written by our friend Brad Watson, who just spoke to us at the leader retreat uh last month, and Jonathan Dodson. Here is what they say. Good Friday needs the twin sister of Empty Tomb Sunday to be good. The cross requires the resurrection for faith in Christ to be fruitful. Without the other, they each lose their power. Without the resurrection, we literally have no hope to be freed from our sins. It remains. And Paul doesn't let up and he keeps pouring it on. Thanks, Paul. Verse 18. Then those who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are a people. We are of all people most to be pitied. The afterlife isn't just a dream for this Corinthian, for these Corinthians. If Christ hasn't raised, it's not just a dream for them, it's a dream for everybody who had died before them who believed in Jesus, because they are still lost. There is no hope. And to tie together all of this misery, a hope that stays on this side of the dirt makes anyone who believed someone to be pitied. Right? Like like crazies who swear that the alien spaceship is coming down to save them.

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And if somebody tells you this, you might think of this person, wow, poor guy. Maybe he'll get some help soon. Right? Why? Because Home Fry's beliefs are fruitless.

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And when I say something like this about the man who believes that an alien spaceship is coming back for him, we should be regarded with the same level of pity. People should look at us as we talk about this risen Lord, and I promise you they think, oh, poor guy.

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I hope he gets some help soon. If Jesus had not risen from the dead, our belief is fruitless. Back to our author friends, Brad and Jonathan.

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Um if Jesus did not rise from the dead, then he cannot exercise victory over sin, death, and evil. He cannot maintain our innocence before God, impart us new life through the Spirit, or return to make the world new, all things that Jesus said he would do without the resurrection. Jesus' teachings are a sham. Half-baked ideas from a wandering Jew with a Messiah complex. But with the resurrection, his teachings and actions have power to overturn sin, death, and evil, and create a whole new humanity.

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Verse 20.

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But Christ indeed has been raised from the dead. The first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. Christ has risen, meaning there is hope. We have hope. Our hope isn't just stuck on this side of the dirt, but on the other as well. Death has been defeated, sin has been beaten, evil has an end, humanity isn't trapped. We have hope. We have hope. That rope is actually leading out of the pit to safety, and it's going straight to Jesus. Verse 21. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man.

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For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will me all will be made alive.

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Paul he closes this argument with a hammer. If no one can be resurrected, then Jesus wasn't raised. If he did raise, then that means all who place their faith in Jesus will be made alive. And the best part of a renewed humanity isn't just that we get to ex to escape this broken life, but that we get Jesus forever and ever. We get the King of Kings welcoming us with open arms, showing us the love and the joy and the satisfaction that we have been searching for for our entire lives. It's in him. We have declared with joy that Christ is risen because everything is made better through him. That broken relationship with God, it's restored.

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That broken relationship with one another, reconciled.

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That broken internal monologue where you wonder about fear, self-doubt, guilt. These are just the things I dealt with before my morning coffee. All of those things are healed in Jesus. That broken world that we each have to find our way in instead of pain.

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We have hope. We have hope.

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Now I am not aiming to step up here and blow smoke up your backsides with some Pollyanna-ish view of everything just because Jesus has resurrected. I'm not trying to look at everything like I'm looking through blinders. We all see the brokenness around us.

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In our world, in our relationships, in us. We get it. We know we're busted. But here's the deal. Because Jesus is risen, we have hope.

Two Closing Hopes And A Call

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And I am not going to re-preach Paul's message here. There are two things that I want us to pull out as we close. One, we have hope that this is not all there is. Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again. Even the brokenness that is all around us, and it seems to prevail. We have hope that Jesus has gone to prepare a place for us, for those who have placed our faith in him as Lord, for those who have believed that he is risen. John 14, verses 2 and 3 tells us that he is making us a new place and he's coming back so that we can be with him. We get him. It is really, really wonderful. It is not a dream, and it's all possible because he rose from the dead. And the second thing, and I will forever, forever think this is crazy. Join me in the crazy thinking. He has invited us to participate in bringing this newness into the world. It's nuts. Right? As his body, he has sent us out to go and be the church. He's called us his royal priests, his hands, his feet. That he says, I want you to go and take my love and my grace that I have given to you. And I want you to go and bring that into the world. Participate in bringing the newness to everyone everywhere. We get to sow the key, the seeds of the kingdom where we live, learn, work, and play. We get to work with Jesus as a community, as his body. We belong to one another. We believe in him. We belong to him. And he has sent us out to bless this world in his name.

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And I think it's frankly insane. But what a joy. Brothers and sisters, friends, family, guests who have come to check Jesus out. He's good. Jesus is so good. He loves you so much.

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And he has already come to begin making all things new, and he is going to continue to make all things new, including you.

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Including you. Will you choose to have faith in a risen Lord? Will you choose to have faith that he brings hope? As the band makes their way up, I'd like for us to respond in a moment of prayer.

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As we go into this response, there are two questions. Well, really, I always say two questions and then I like add bonus questions. So I think it's four. I don't know. If you have not come to Jesus for this hope, I want you to reach out in belief and grab hold of the rope that is going to lead to Jesus.

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So our question is have you come to Jesus for hope? What rope are you holding on to?

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Second set of questions. If you have believed in him as Lord, you have believed that he is risen.

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Where is his joy present in your life?

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If you believe that he is risen from the dead, where is his joy present in your life? And where else do you want to experience his joy? Okay, with these questions, we are going to take a moment to pray. The band will play quietly behind us, and this is going to be your opportunity to go to Jesus, to talk to this risen Lord. The Holy Spirit is waiting. Let's go and talk with him. And then I'll close this.

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You are present. We give you praise. Because you are worthy of praise. You are Lord. And you ask that as we continue moving forward, that you are present in our minds and our hearts. You can let us see you and with joy see all the hope that you bring. For Lord, for my friends who haven't yet come to you. Show them that in you is hope. And you're worth it. And then we pray, Jesus. Amen.

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So we're gonna respond in a couple ways. First, we will take communion together. We remember that his body was broken for us. We remember that his blood was shed for us.

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But we declare in the taking that it is the twin sister of Empty Tomb Sunday. That he has risen, and we have hope he is coming again. Oh, what a joy. If you would like to take communion, it is available there. The communion holders, one will say to you, his body broken for you. And one will say to you, his blood shed for you. Remember his sacrifice. Remember that he has risen and is coming again. If there's something that is stirring in you and you want to pray with someone about it, we are going to have some folks over here and over here who would love to pray with you.

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And if one of those two or that one of those couples happens to be Tim and Michelle Sparrow, if you could go over there, thank you very much. This is what you do when you forget to ask ahead of time. You just do it from a mic.

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And it makes it all okay.

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If there's some burden you have, if there is something that God has stirred in you, if you just need somebody to pray with you, please come to the side, pray with us. If you've heard about this Jesus that you don't know as Lord, and you're realizing you need to grab hold of that rope for life, please come talk to us.

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We would love to pray with you and invite you into that life. Because it is good. And finally, the band is going to lead us in an opportunity to praise our King because he is good.

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Jesus, I ask that you be with us as we respond to the good news that you have died, that you have risen, and that you will come again.

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Lord be praised, and we love you. Amen.