What If It Never Happened?

In the late 1700s Thomas Jefferson published a Bible in which he sought to remove all of the supernatural elements and condensed the Bible into what he called the real moral teachings of Jesus. So he took all of the supernatural out of the Bible all of the miraculous out of the Bible and basically edited a version which basically condensed to the moral teachings of Christ. At the end of the life of Christ, according to this edited Bible, this is the way the story ends with words something like this. There they took Jesus and rolled a great stone in front of the door of the Sepulcher and departed. That's it. I am glad that's not where the story really ends. I'm glad that the real Bible does not end the story there, but we know that it goes on. We know that the angels said to the women who appeared at the tomb early on that resurrection morning. Do not be afraid where I know that you're looking for Jesus who has crucified. He is not here for he has risen as he said. I'm thankful that the story then goes on to talk about many appearances of the Lord Jesus. And then his ascension back into heaven and goes on to talk about his second coming someday for us. What a glorious day. That will be I'm thankful that we haven't even seen the end of the story yet, but we have a risen savior who lives for us and who is coming for us. The liberals may say that the fact of the resurrection is not important. The skeptics made doubt whether or not the resurrection ever really happened. And even some believers in Christ made devalue the resurrection kind of just tacking it on to the end of the gospel. But I'm here to tell you this morning that the resurrection is critical to everything we believe. It is critical to everything the Bible teaches. If there is no resurrection, everything we believe and live for and hope for crumbles around us. Paul says that very thing in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. And I invite your attention to that passage of scripture where Paul addresses what it would be like if it really never happened. What if it never happened? What if it never really happened that Jesus never really came from the tomb? What would happen if that were the case? Paul addresses that in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. Basically, Paul is dealing with a denial of the believers' resurrection in the church at Corinth. He's been dealing with several problems that have arisen in the church that he's heard about or that have been written to him about. And one of the last ones is somebody has been teaching that there's no resurrection of believers. Paul realizes how closely that is tied to the resurrection of Christ. And so he argues back from the resurrection of believers to the resurrection of Christ. And he argues that if there were no resurrection of Christ, this is what it would be like. So we're going to see the dark side today, the dark picture of what it would be like without the resurrection. I'm going to preach for the next. Oh, who knows how long I'm going to preach for a while on what it would be like if there were no resurrection. We're going to talk about no resurrection. We're going to assume that Jesus never rose from the grave for a while, okay? We're not going to end there. But we're going to assume that for a while. We're going to see what Paul says it would be like if there were no resurrection. First of all, if there were no resurrection, if it never really happened versus 12 and 13, we would have no living Christ now. 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. You see how he moves from the topic of if there's no resurrection from the dead, if believers are not raised, then what we're really saying is neither has Christ been raised. And it's that point is intended to carry some shock value to it. If there's no resurrection, then we have no living Christ either. Christ is not even raised from the dead. Now, think about that for a moment. Think about what life and Christian experience could there even be such a thing, would be like if there were no Christ in heaven right now. Because if there were no resurrected Christ now, no living Christ now, we would have no intercessor. No intercessor. Hebrews chapter 7 says it this way, talking about what Christ is doing for us in heaven right now. Therefore, he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them. The word intercede means that he prays on our behalf. He prays for you and he prays for me. That's what intercession is. But he lives in heaven now to pray for you and to pray for me. There's a wonderful example of that in the Bible. The night before Jesus died, he's in the upper room with his disciples, and he suddenly kind of out of the blue says, one of you is going to deny me. And Peter is first to speak and Peter says, Lord, is it? I will never deny you. I will go to death with you. I'll go to prison. I'll go to death. I will never deny you in Jesus says, Peter, before the cut cross three times you will deny me. And then he went on to say in Luke 22, but Satan had desired to sift you as wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith failed not. Now, as disastrous as Peter's denial was, it could have completely wrecked his life. Had it not been for the fact that Jesus prayed for him. And God answered Jesus prayer, and although Satan did shake him to the core, and doubting where he was, six weeks after that denial, he would be the fearless preacher on the day of Pentecost, where 3,000 people would come to know Christ. How did that happen? Jesus had prayed for him that his faith would not fail. He ever thought about how much happens in your life, or does not happen because Jesus is praying for you. Jesus is praying for you, but if there's no resurrection, we have no intercessor. Secondly, we have no advocate. Not only do we have no intercessor, we have no advocate for John chapter 2. The Apostle John says this about what Jesus is doing for us in heaven. He says, my dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense. That's an advocate for us. We have one who speaks to the Father in our defense. Jesus Christ the righteous one. And verse 2 goes on to tell how he's the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and also the sins of the whole world. But Jesus speaks on your defense. He is your defense lawyer, your advocate in court. You see, there are some legal things that are happening in heaven. There are some hearings that happen in heaven. The Bible indicates that Satan, even though he has been cast out of heaven as far as being an anointed chair or an angel there, still has access into the presence of God, like he did in Job's day and will, according to Revelation 12, until the middle of the tribulation time. He will have access into the presence of God, and he's called in Revelation 12 the accuser of the brethren. And I think he does today much what he did during the time of Job. He accuses Christians who sin before the throne of God. Now, the Bible doesn't tell exactly what he says in that accusation, in that charge that is brought against us, but we can imagine that certainly he would call attention of the Father to the one who has sinned, whether it's you or me or whoever it might be, and say, I, God, know the penalty for that sin. The penalty is death. I demand that the penalty be enforced, and then a defense lawyer rises in our behalf. And that defense lawyer is Jesus Christ the righteous, according to 1 John 2. He defends us. He takes our case in heaven. He argues for us against the prosecuting attorney, Satan. And again, the Bible does not tell us what he says, but we can imagine that he would well call to the Father's attention, although the Father does not need to be reminded. Yes, Jesus might say, my child has sinned. He or she has done said, thought something that is terribly wrong. That much I will freely admit, but Father, you and I both know that I died to pay for that sin. And that sin, because that person as my child has been forever wiped away, it cannot be held against them anymore. And God strikes the judicial bench with his gavill and says, case closed. The advocate wins once again. The defense lawyer always wins that case. Jesus is doing that for you and for me in heaven. If there is no resurrection, we have no advocate. No one to argue our case when Satan accuses us in heaven. If there is no living Christ now, we have no burden bearer either. We have no one to help bear our burdens in life. Peter said in 1 Peter chapter 5 and verse 7, cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. So whatever anxiety, whatever cares, whatever worries you are facing in your life right now, whatever difficulties and trials and adversity you're going through right now, you can cast all of that on him because he cares for you. He will help you bear your burden. Not only is he praying for you, not only is he defending you before God. He also will help you carry your burden because he cares about you. If no one else cares about you, he cares about you, but if there is no living Christ, you have no one to help carry your burden. Not only that, we have no one to strengthen us. If there is no living Christ, there is no one to strengthen us. Paul said in 1 Philippians chapter 4 and verse 13, I can do everything through him who gives me strength. And he said in Galatians 2, verse 20, I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. If there is no living Christ in heaven right now, there is no resurrection. There is no one to strengthen you. There is no one to live his life through you and to give you the strength and help you need to live daily life and to live in a way that glorifies God. If there is no resurrection, there is none of that available to you. Do you see what it means? On a very practical level, for your spiritual life, what the resurrection means? If there is no resurrection, there is no living Christ. If there is no living Christ, we have no one praying for us. No one defending us, no one burying our burdens, no one giving us strength for each day. What a miserable life it would be if there were no resurrection. Paul goes on to say however, if there is no resurrection, if it never really happened, then not only do we have no living Christ now, but we have no gospel. We have no gospel. Look at verse 14. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. In other words, if there is no resurrection, we have no gospel to preach. Our preaching is useless. It's in vain. There's nothing to preach if there's no resurrection. There really isn't. There is no gospel apart from the resurrection. Paul has very clearly defined the gospel message in the first part of this chapter. Look back at verse 1 for just a moment where he says, no brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preach to you, which you received and on which you've taken your stand by this gospel you are saved. If you hold firmly to the word I preach to you, otherwise you've believed in vain. What he's saying there is the continuing in the faith, showing evidence of truly being born again is that indeed. It is evidence. It is the evidence that we truly come to know Christ. If we don't have any of that evidence in our lives, then our faith is not genuine. But then he goes on to explain what the gospel is in verse 3. For what I received, I passed on to you as a first importance. And here it is. Here's this gospel. I preached the gospel you believed that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried and that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures. And notice that the gospel is the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. Without the resurrection, the gospel is not complete. By the way, I hear people talking about the full gospel a lot. Well, this is the full gospel. This is as full as it gets. The death, burial, resurrection of Christ. That's the gospel message. But without that, there's nothing to preach. Without the resurrection, the gospel is left incomplete. There is no gospel to preach. I am so thankful that I have more to preach to you than just good moral living or political commentary or a social agenda that I think you should vote for or live for or whatever. I'm so thankful there's more to do from this pulpit than that. Because of the resurrection, we have a gospel to preach and the gospel that Jesus died for your sins, that he died to pay all the penalty of your sin, all that you owe God, all that you've done to come short throughout your whole life. Jesus paid for all of that. And he really died and he was buried to show that he really was dead, but he didn't stay there. He came out of that tomb victorious over death, victorious over sin. That is the gospel. That is the message to preach. But if there's no resurrection, there's no gospel to preach. There's also no gospel to believe. You see there at the end of the verse, in verse 14, if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless. And so is your faith. Your faith is empty. There's nothing to believe if there is no resurrection. If there's no resurrection, you reach out trusting in faith and find nothing. The moral teachings of a dead teacher or hero is not enough to save you or to save me. The gospel must include and does include the resurrection. And it is the resurrection that gives power to the gospel. Truth, veracity, authenticity to the gospel. And so there is no gospel either to preach or to believe unless there is a resurrection. So Paul continues to argue very darkly. If you say there's no resurrection, then you have no living Christ now. You also have no gospel to preach or to believe. But he goes on. He's not done yet. Painting this dark picture. If there is no resurrection, then there is no trustworthy Bible either. Would you look at verse 15? He says more than that, we, speaking of the apostles, the writers of the New Testament, 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. Again, he's arguing from a disbelief in the resurrection generally back to the fact that if you're saying that, then you're also saying Christ is not raised. And if Christ is not raised, if there is no resurrection of Christ, then you can't believe anything you read in this book. Do you know that? Paul is saying we apostles in verse 15 are found to be false witnesses, but he's placing himself in a long line of Bible writers who have said the same thing because the apostles were not the first ones to talk about the resurrection. The Old Testament prophets were. So the Old Testament prophets cannot be believed if there is no resurrection. Just a few examples from the Old Testament. Isaiah chapter 53, that great chapter, Isaiah writes 700 years before the birth of Christ. And he writes about the Messiah, the death of the Messiah, but he also writes this verse, verse 10, yet it was the Lord's will to crush him and cause him to suffer. And though the Lord makes his life a guilt offering, speaking of his death, he will see his offspring and prolong his days. And the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand. The Father who has caused him to be an offering to die for our sins will see his offspring. He will see those who will trust in Christ and he will prolong his days. He will raise him from the grave in other words. And he will continue to live. He will prosper in his hand. And so the Lord prophesying, God prophesying through Isaiah, if there is no resurrection, we certainly can't trust what Isaiah said. But neither can we trust what David said. When David also prophesied, at least on a couple of occasions in Psalms about the resurrection, Psalm 1610, because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay. Holy one, rightly capitalized because speaking of the Messiah, Psalm 16 is the Psalm about the Messiah, the one who would come to be the deliverer, the Savior, for Israel and for us too. And this prophesies that he will not see decay. His body will not decay in a grave somewhere. He will be alive. Psalm 110, verse 1, David says much the same thing. The Lord, Jehovah, God the Father says to my Lord, Adoniah, the anointed one, the Messiah. The Father says to the Messiah, Jesus Christ, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet, indicating that he will be resurrected. He will sit at the Father's right hand till all his enemies are put down. So you can't believe David if there's no resurrection. But we can go back even further. Isaiah writes around 700 or so. David writes around a thousand BC. We can go all the way back to 2,000, 2,100 BC to a man named Job who wrote about the resurrection. When he said, I know that my Redeemer lives and that in the end, in the end times, he will stand upon the earth. The Redeemer lives and he will stand upon the earth as God brings history to a human, or human history to a conclusion. And so Job prophesies the same thing. Basically my point is this, we can't believe the Old Testament if there is no resurrection. You have no trust, trust were the Old Testament. But you also cannot believe the apostles because it is the apostles who wrote the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. They all foretell about the resurrection. You can't believe the Gospels if there's no resurrection. It is the apostles who preached in the book of Acts that Jesus was raised from the dead. You can't believe the book of Acts if there's no resurrection. It is those same apostles who write the epistles, the letters of the New Testament, Romans, First Corinthians, right on through Jude. And they talk about the resurrection. They base their message on the resurrection. You can't believe the epistles if there's no resurrection. And it is the apostle John who sees the risen Christ and rights of the revelation of Jesus Christ. In the last book of the New Testament, you can't believe the book of Revelation if there's no resurrection. You see what I'm saying? You can't believe the Bible. You can trust none of the Bible if the resurrection is called into question. Because if what those men said about the resurrection is wrong, then how can we really trust anything else they said? And be sure that that's right. But here's the clincher. If there is no resurrection, not only are the prophets wrong, not only are the apostles wrong, Christ himself was wrong. If there's no resurrection, you cannot believe what Christ himself said. You see, there are a lot of people who say, well, you know, it doesn't really matter whether Jesus came out of the tomb literally physically bodily. His presence lives on with us in our hearts. What a wonderful thought. It doesn't really matter whether he's physically resurrected or not. You know, his presence is still with us. I can feel him and all of that. And he's such a good moral teacher and I can live by what he teaches. No, no. If Jesus did not rise from the dead, then we can't believe anything he said. He lied. He's not a good moral teacher. He's not even a good man. Because if there's no resurrection, Jesus lied. In the very first part of his ministry, Jesus said in John chapter 2, tear down this temple in three days. I'll raise it again. He was speaking of his body. John tells us. And then I want you to see at the very end of his ministry as he and his disciples are making their way to Jerusalem where he will die. Notice that Jesus very carefully lays out step by step what's going to happen to him. He's trying to get his disciples to grasp exactly what's going to happen when they get to Jerusalem. Look at these verses in Luke 18. Jesus took the 12 aside and told them, we are going up to Jerusalem and everything that is written by the prophets about the Son of Man will be fulfilled. Now here it is. You're going to take it off one by one. He will be handed over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, insult him, spit on him, flog him and kill him. But he doesn't stop there, does he? On the third day, he will rise again. Now that's coming straight from the lips of Jesus. Just days before he died as he explains to his disciples exactly what's going to happen in Jerusalem. If there's no resurrection, please understand now I'm saying this reverently. If there is no resurrection, Jesus Christ is a liar. He is not a good man or a good teacher if there is no resurrection. If I can't believe what the prophets said, if I can't believe what the apostles said, if I can't believe what Jesus himself said about the resurrection, I have nothing to trust in this book. No trustworthy Bible. Do you see how the whole message of the Bible rises or falls on the resurrection? If there is no resurrection, there's no trustworthy Bible. Fourthly Paul says if there is no resurrection, there is no salvation either. No salvation. Look at it in verse 16. 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. There's no salvation. No forgiveness of sin. If there is no resurrection. Now why is that so? Why is salvation so closely tied to the resurrection? And if the resurrection is gone, so is any opportunity to be saved. But why? No opportunity to be right with God and to be in heaven unless there's a resurrection. Why is that so closely tied? Paul tells us in Romans 4.25. Look at this verse on the screen. He was delivered over to death speaking of Christ for our sins and was raised to life for our justification. You see the little preposition 4 in that verse appears twice. It can be and probably should be in this case best translated because of why did Jesus die? He died because of our sins. Why was Jesus raised? He was raised because of our justification. Now catch the meaning here. What Paul's really saying is it's not that Jesus was raised in order for us to be justified. Jesus was raised from the dead because his death had already made satisfactory payments and our justification is settled in the mind of God. That's why Jesus was raised. He was raised because of our justification. You see my friend when Jesus died on the cross, what did he say from the cross? One of the seven sayings was it is finished. It is finished. You see all that was needed. What he was literally saying is it is paid in full. All that is needed for your salvation to pay for your sins was accomplished in the death of Christ. Paul makes it clear in Romans 5 when he says we are justified by his death. How much more being justified by his death shall we also be saved by his life? He says we are justified by faith in his blood. He says it is Christ's death which justifies it is Christ's death which makes the payment for sin. Then why the resurrection? Why is it so crucial? Because the resurrection was God's way of saying I am satisfied with that payment. That payment is indeed satisfactory for your sins. And so like the prophet said in Isaiah 53, the father will see his offspring and prolong his days. He will be raised from the dead because he made a satisfactory payment for your sin. You see the real question in salvation is not is God satisfied with me. A lot of people think that's what salvation is all about and they're asking the wrong question. If you're here this morning and you're trying to figure out is God satisfied with me? Am I living good enough? Am I doing enough? Am I morally enough? Am I doing more good than bad? If you're trying to figure out is God satisfied with you, it's a wrong question. The real question for salvation is God satisfied with what Jesus did on the cross. Because that's the only plan that God ever devised to make payment for your sin. And so the real question is, is God satisfied with what Jesus did on the cross and the resurrection forever answers that? Yes, he is satisfied. He is satisfied because God looked at the payment that was made, the sacrifice that was made, and he said that is sufficient payment for sin. I will raise him from the dead. That's my seal of approval on what Christ has done on the cross. There's a beautiful picture of that in the Old Testament worship system. In the Old Testament sacrificial system. Once a year, the high priest would go into the temple and go back where no other priest could go and he himself could not go but one time a year. And that was in the holy of holies, the innermost room in the temple which was a place that symbolically represented the very presence of God and where God met with his people and once a year that high priest would take the blood of an innocent animal that had been killed on behalf of the nation of Israel. And he would take that blood back into that holy of holies and sprinkle it on a box called the mercy seat that contained the law of God that condemned the people of God and the blood covered over that punishment that was demanded. And God was satisfied when he saw that met with the priest there for gave the people covered their sin for another year. Now that only that high priest could go into that room once a year and the people would anxiously wait outside to see if he came out. Because if something happened wrong in there if he didn't offer the right sacrifice and by the way this happened in the book of Leviticus if the priest did not do what he was told to do then God could kill him right there on the spot. So the people waited anxiously is God satisfied with this offering of blood for our sins and when that priest walked back out it was a huge sigh of relief. God was satisfied with the payment we are covered for another year. Oh when Jesus Christ went into the holy of holies at the cross and laid down the price and the payment the blood sacrifice for your sin and mine. He didn't stay there. He came back out. He came back out through the curtain. He came back out and we know that he came out of the tomb and what was happening there was God was saying as we nervously anxiously await is the payment satisfactory. God was saying yes it is satisfactory. The payment is in full. It's exactly what I demand and by raising his son from the dead Jesus Jesus you have satisfactory paid for sin the Father is saying. So without the resurrection there is no salvation because there is no satisfactory payment for sin. Then Paul wraps it up by saying this if there is no resurrection not only is there no living Christ now no gospel no trustworthy Bible no salvation there is no hope there is no hope at all. Verse 18 then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost there is no hope for our departed loved ones if there's no resurrection. You see when he when he says those who have fallen asleep in Christ he's talking about those bodies have been laid to rest those who have died in Christ but if there's no resurrection then he says there's no hope for them they're lost. I know that sometimes when a fellow believer dies we speak of having lost someone and I understand what we mean by that expression I say the same thing what we mean is that basically we will no longer get to be with them here we'll no longer get to talk with them and see them and spend time with them and in that sense we've lost something and we have but you know they're not lost we know where they are they're in heaven with Christ and they're certainly not lost in the sense Paul's talking about here where they're gone hopelessly forever separated from God because of the resurrection we know that they are now with Christ and they will be with him forever there is there is no hope for our departed loved ones if there's no resurrection but thank God if because of the resurrection because Christ has been raised when you have a loved one who knows the Lord that dies there's hope hope and in the Bible hope is a certain looking forward to that which God has promised in the future it's not well I hope it's going to be nice today it's a certain looking forward to what God's promised a certain future that hope is because of the resurrection but notice Paul also says not only is there no hope for a departed loved ones there's no hope for ourselves verse 19 if only for this life we have hope in Christ we are to be pitted more than all men what if it doesn't what if it's not true what if it never really happened what if there is no resurrection what if we're placing our hope in Christ that someday we will be with him forever but there is no resurrection there is no heaven there is no afterlife or future however you want to refer to it what what if that's the case then everything we've placed our hopes in is gone and we are of all people to be most pitted you see when you've staked everything on an eternal destiny in heaven with Christ because of the resurrection if that's not true then why not just live for what we can get here when a missionary has left this country and the opportunity to to be with family on a regular basis and given up possibilities for career to be able to go to a place that may involve hardship and spread the gospel and tell others if if they've done that and given up all of that and there's nothing at the end that's what Paul's talking about I mean if there's nothing in heaven then why not just live for all the gusto you can get here if in this life only we have hope in Christ we are of all men to be most pitted what's a pretty dark picture isn't it if there's no resurrection there's no living Christ now there's no gospel there's no trustworthy Bible there's no salvation there's no hope and then he comes to verse 20 verse 20 but I love this but Christ has indeed been raised from the dead the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep so everything he's talked about in verses 12 through 19 is just like a bad dream if it's not really true because Christ has been raised from the dead and so that dispels everything he's just said in verses 12 through 19 because Christ has been raised we do have one who's interceding for us pleading our case in heaven bearing our burdens giving us strength to live because Christ has been raised we do have a gospel to preach in a gospel to believe because Christ has been raised we can trust all that the Bible says because Christ has been raised we can have salvation and because Christ has been raised praise the Lord we have hope that we'll see our loved ones again and we ourselves will be with Christ W. E. Sankster who in the mid 1900s was a great British preacher Methodist preacher who in that day in England was really seeking to call back his own denomination to a belief in the Bible preached for 16 years in Westminster Chapel to crowds of 3000 every Sunday during World War II actually used the the basement of that church for a bombshell turn he and his family lived in a restroom in that building Sankster toward the end of his ministry began to lose his muscle strength and it was eventually discovered that he had a disease that caused his muscles to atrophy and slowly little by little he began to lose all of his ability to function in the midst of that suffering he pleaded in one of his writings this way in a prayer to the Lord he said let me stay in the struggle Lord I don't mind if I can no longer be a general but give me just a regiment at least he eventually began to lose his voice his ability to speak he could not and stand up any longer and so he had to quit preaching and one Easter morning just a few weeks before he died he took a pin with a very shaky hand wrote his daughter and this is what he said on that Easter Sunday morning it is terrible to wake up on Easter morning and have no voice with which to shout he is risen but it would be still more terrible to have a voice and not want to shout well you have a voice this morning I have a voice this morning and we have a Christ in heaven who has been raised from the dead and I hope you have a desire to shout this morning that Christ is risen if you have no heart for that if you have no passion for that no desire for that I wonder if you're even saved and I'd like for us to do something this morning that the Eastern churches do the church in Ukraine for instance our sister church in Kubanka Krasnoseoka have already done this eight hours ahead of us when they celebrate Easter the pastor or the leader in the church will say Christ is risen and the congregation will respond he is risen indeed and we have a voice to shout that this morning so let's do it okay I'll do my part if you'll do yours I'll say Christ is risen you answer me he is risen indeed okay Christ is risen Amen thank God for that let's pray together