Title: HE IS RISEN INDEED!

Focus: Jesus’ physical resurrection from the dead is central to the Christian faith and life. Christ’s resurrection is good news for all who believe in him.

Function: To move the people to embrace Christ’s resurrection as good news that comes with powerful benefits for daily living.

Text: I Corinthians 15:12-26

I was 17 years old and had just started a new job in the big city of Rotterdam. That’s when I met Pete. Pete was a man of the world—wise and adept in pursuing the pleasures the world offers. Pete was also a man unafraid to offer his opinion to anyone willing to listen to him.

So, when Pete discovered that I attended public worship services in a Christian church, he thought it was time that I faced up to the truth. First, he challenged the Christian belief that Jesus’ Christ was “conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary.” Pete then emphasized that I was an ignoramus and that it was time for me to get some proper sex education, because virgin births don’t make any sense.

While I was “chewing” on Pete’s advice about proper sex education, Pete aimed his barrel of objections at me again and told me in no uncertain terms that anyone who believed in the resurrection of Jesus Christ and in the resurrection of the body must be a moron. “We no longer live in the middle ages,” said Pete, “we live in the age of science, and thus we know better.”

Pete’s objections to the core confessions of the Christian faith have been around for centuries. Ever since the apostles spread the good news of Christ’s physical resurrection from the dead, skeptics, agnostics, atheists, philosophers and pagans of all “stripes” have tried to put back into the grave the risen Lord Jesus. And just when they think they have succeeded in their task of unbelief, they hear again that annoying acclamation “Christ is risen indeed!”

Today, I invite us all to join in that acclamation, for Jesus’ physical resurrection from the dead is central to the Christian faith and life. Christ’s resurrection is good news for all who believe in him.

It’s true: good people, religious people struggle with that notion of Christ’s resurrection. In Jesus’ days the Sadducees were among those denying the immortality of the soul or the resurrection of the body. And the apostles encountered the same resistance to their message of the risen Christ.

So when you meet people who make fun of you for believing in Jesus’ physical resurrection from the dead (as taught in the Scriptures and by the apostles) remember: you are in good company. Also remember the importance of declaring Jesus’ resurrection, for Scripture teaches us today that Christ’s resurrection is good news that comes with powerful benefits for daily living. Our marching song today is this: Christ is risen indeed!

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In his letter to the Corinthian church, the apostle Paul echoes two objections to the good news that Christ is risen indeed. In chapter 15:12 Paul writes: “But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you (that is, some of you who are part of the Christian community) say that there is no resurrection?” And in chapter 15:35 it’s clear that there are people in Corinth who are skeptical of the teaching about the resurrection from the dead. Listen: “But someone may ask,” How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?” Clearly, opposition to the notion about resurrection and skepticism about the resurrection has been with the Christian church for centuries.

Now note the apostle’s passionate plea with skeptics in the church and with unbelievers in general: “If only in this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.” These words are addressed to you and me and anyone else who claims to be a Christian. So, why does not Paul give us the freedom to believe whatever we wish about Jesus’ resurrection or about the resurrection of the body in general? Why is Paul so insistent on having the Christian church say “Christ is risen indeed!?

It’s simple: Jesus’ physical resurrection from the dead is central to the Christian faith and life. Christ’s resurrection is good news for all who believe in him! Note how Paul leads us down this road of denial and shows us how pathetic for the Christian church it would be to deny—in any form—the resurrection of Christ.

Listen: (vs.13) “If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised.” In other words, if human beings cannot rise from the dead, then it’s clear that the man called Christ cannot rise from the dead either.

Of course, if that’s true, then (vs. 14-16) our preaching is useless; then our faith has no substance or any basis. Then our preaching and faith is without truth and power. Then we are blabbermouths—we speak nothing but empty words.

And of course, if preaching and faith is without truth and substance, then we are in essence a bunch of liars or false witnesses about God, says Paul, “…for we have testified about God he raised Christ from the dead.”

Clearly, the reason why Paul takes seriously the world’s objection to the resurrection of Christ or to the resurrection from the dead in general is simple: If there is no resurrection, then Christians live a lie, then the Church has no basis for existence, and the good news about Jesus Christ is nothing but a hoax. For at the core of the Christian faith and life stands Jesus’ physical resurrection from the dead.

“But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead….” says Paul in vs. 20. Let me give you some reasons about the importance or significance of Christ’s physical resurrection from the dead. If you are a Christian then you may apply these reasons directly to yourself. If you are not a Christian, then I plead with you to listen and embrace the Scriptures so that you live and die in hope and live for evermore.

1. The resurrection of Jesus is for our justification. I know: ‘justification” is a big word, but you can understand it very easily by listening to the Scriptures. In Romans 4:18-25 the apostle Paul talks about the promise of God to Abraham and his descendants. Abraham believed God’s promises and God credited Abraham’s faith as “righteousness.” As a result, Abraham was a man of God—standing fully in a right relationship with God. That kind of relationship, that kind of right standing with God comes to all, says Paul, “who believe in God who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.”

Do you know what that means? Anyone who believes in Christ’s resurrection from the dead may share in the verdict pronounced by God: (Romans 8:1) “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus….” You know why? Because Jesus has paid the wages of our sins. By his death and resurrection the Lord Jesus paved the way for us into eternal life, into a new, a reconciled way of living with God.

Deny the resurrection, and you deny the NOT GUILTY verdict; Deny the resurrection from the dead, and you shut yourself out from the way of life eternal. Deny the resurrection, and you are to be pitied more than all people. But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead! Christ’s resurrection means our justification. Here’s another biblical reason for claiming the significance of Christ’s resurrection:

2. The resurrection of Jesus leads to our spiritual rebirth. In his letter to the churches, the apostle Peter writes (I Peter 1:3): “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead….”

You see, when we put our trust in the risen Lord Jesus Christ, God’s Spirit brings about new life, rebirth, new spiritual life—and that spiritual life fortifies our soul with a living hope.

Disbelieve or deny the resurrection of Christ, and you deny the Spirit of God to awaken in you new life. Then you remain dead in sins and trespasses. Then we are still without hope and to be pitied more than all people. No resurrection, no spiritual rebirth, no living hope. That’s why Paul says: “But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead!” Jesus’ physical resurrection from the dead is central to the Christian faith and life.

3. The resurrection of Jesus connects us with Jesus and his life-giving Spirit. As a branch, grafted into a tree, draws upon the life sap of the tree, so all who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ are spiritually grafted into Jesus and draw upon his life-giving Spirit—that is, the Spirit of God who raised Jesus from the dead. And it is the life-giving Spirit of God who enables us to live a new life today.

Listen: (Romans 6:3,4) “Don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.”

If we deny the resurrection of Jesus, we at the same time explain why our lives do not reflect the power of God’s Spirit. For by denying the resurrection, we deny any access to the life-giving Spirit of God. “But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead….” Here is one more powerful significant reason to uphold the physical resurrection of Christ:

5. Faith in the resurrection of Jesus leads to being united with him in his death and resurrection—not only in this life, but also in the life to come. That is, Jesus’ physical resurrection assures all who belong to him that they, too, shall be raised from the dead at the end of time, when Christ will make all things new.

Listen to the Scriptures (Romans 6:5) “If we have been united with him in his death (that is, uphold and believed in Christ’s resurrection), then we believe that we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection.” Christ’s physical resurrection leads to our own physical resurrection. Our lives today, and our eternal future that is to come are connected with the risen Lord Jesus Christ. That’s why we say, with the Scriptures and with the Christian church of all ages: Christ is risen indeed!

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.