Hope Church LV Sermons
Easter 2012
Easter is a global celebration that ultimately revolves around three major questions. The first question is simply a question of then. What happened then? Because today we're gathering with what is probably just over a billion people globally. People all over the world and every tribe and tongue and people and nation, celebrating an event from history. An event from 2,000 years ago, one weekend, Jesus Christ, God in the flesh took sin upon himself and Jesus died on a cross. He was buried in a borrowed tomb. And three days later on Easter Sunday morning Jesus Christ rose again from the dead. And today as we gather in this place, we are but a small part of a crescendo that is happening all over the world celebrating the reality of what Jesus did then. But Easter is more than a celebration about an event that happened in the past. Because the second major question that Easter really deals with is what does what happened then mean for me today? I mean, it's wonderful that this event took place 2,000 years ago, but what does it mean for me in 2012? Pastor, we're living in the day of the Internet, the age of technology, social media, global connectivity. Are you trying to tell me that an event from 2,000 years ago when they didn't even have electricity somehow has bearing on my life today in 2012? That's exactly what Easter is about. But then there's a third question. And it's a question of eternity. You see, Easter is not just the celebration of what happened then and what it means today. But Easter also revolves around the question of how does what happened then not only impact me today but impact me for eternity, life after death, life beyond the grave. If you have your Bible, I want you to open it this morning to the book of 1 Corinthians in the New Testament. I want you to turn to chapter 15 because this particular passage in the Bible deals with all three of these questions that Easter revolves around. 1 Corinthians, chapter 15, if you don't have a Bible this morning, we're going to put these words up on the screen so that you can follow along as I read. We're going to begin reading in verse number 20. Here's what it says, "But now Christ has been raised from the dead. The first fruits of those who are asleep, for since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead, for as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own order, Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ that is coming then comes the end. When he hands over the kingdom to the God and Father, when he has abolished all rule and all authority and power." Three simple questions. The first one, what happened then? Paul opens this text of Scripture with a very simple little statement. He says, "But now Christ has been raised from the dead, but now." When he says, "But now at the beginning of that text of Scripture, it's not using the word now in reference to time, saying, "Well, just now or right now Christ has been raised from the dead." The way that Paul uses this in the Greek text, he's using it to refer to logic. It's as if Paul is saying, "Now we certainly know that Jesus Christ has been raised from the dead." And it's interesting that Paul with such simplicity and yet also with such certainty establishes the fact of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. I mean, that's not something that you hear about every day, right? I mean, it's not just every day you hear that somebody has come back to life after being dead. But here Paul with utter simplicity and yet complete certainty, Paul says, "We know for sure that Jesus has risen again." Now, how could Paul say it with such certainty? Well, let me tell you how, because the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is so overwhelming. As a matter of fact, it's so overwhelming not just biblical writers have stated about the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, but non-biblical, non-Christian historians. Let me give you an example. There was a historian in the first century whose name was Flavius Josephus. Josephus was a first century Jewish historian who was not a Christian. He was not a believer in Jesus Christ. He was Jewish, but he wrote his history record in favor of the Roman Empire. So here's a man, if there was anybody that was not going to write in favor of Jesus and the movement called Christianity, it was Josephus. He wrote as a Jew in favor of the Roman government and yet listened to what Josephus said in the first century about Jesus. Look at it on the screen. He said, "Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man." For he was a doer of wonderful words. He drew over to him many Jews and also many of the Greeks. This man was the Christ, and when Pilate at the suggestion of the principal ones among us, the Jews, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him, for he appeared to them alive again the third day. And even now, writing a few decades after the resurrection, even now the race of Christians so named from him has not died out. This isn't a Christian. This is not a biblical writer. This is a non-Christian Jewish historian, a secular historian from the first century writing about the resurrection of Jesus Christ as if it is a known fact. He doesn't explain it. He just simply states it with certainty. Jesus Christ appeared the third day. Well, how is it that both Christian and non-Christian historians can write about the resurrection of Jesus Christ with such complete certainty? Because the evidence is so overwhelming, and I want to give you a few of the evidences this morning for the resurrection. Because when you talk about the resurrection of Jesus Christ, some people believe it to be true, some people believe it to be a myth. I want to give you some evidences for the resurrection. Here's the first one. The tomb is empty. That's a pretty good argument. I mean, the tomb is empty. I read it this morning in the Gospel of Luke and in Mark in my personal quiet time. How the women on that Sunday morning went to the tomb where Jesus had been buried and they went there to mourn his death and to bring some spices and some things there to the tomb to honor the death of Jesus Christ. And the Bible says when they got to the tomb, the stone had been rolled away. There were two angels seated on the outside and they said, "What are you doing looking for the living one among the dead? He is not here. He is risen." And today you can travel to Jerusalem. They'll take you to the very place where Jesus was laid. And guess what? The tomb is empty. Now, an empty tomb by itself does not prove a resurrection from the dead. The disciples could have taken his body as some propose and hid him away. So in order for there to be proof of a resurrection from the dead, there not only needs to be an empty tomb, but there needs to be eyewitnesses that said, "I saw Jesus alive after his death." Well, Paul who wrote these verses in 1 Corinthians, Paul said, "I'm an eyewitness." Paul said, "I saw Jesus Christ alive after he died." But not only Paul, if you read 1 Corinthians chapter 15 at the beginning, we didn't read it this morning. You can read it later on today on your own, but if you read it at the beginning and you do some math, you'll find out that Paul lists that there were 516 different individuals that could give eyewitness testimony to having seen Jesus Christ alive after his suffering. Now, I don't have time to explain it or unpack it, but I'm going to make this statement. You can research it on your own. The Bible is the most documented sourcebook of antiquity. There is no other book of ancient writings from history that has stood the test of historical criticism like the Bible. So when the Bible mentions that there are 516 eyewitnesses, you need to understand that as a credible historical source. There's more documentation to support the writings of the New Testament than there is to prove Julius Caesar existed in Rome. It's a credible source. Now, if you were going to walk in a court of law and you had a case to prove, and you had an eyewitness who said, "I've seen it. I was there. I'm giving you my testimony. This is exactly what happened." Any credible eyewitness provides great evidence in a case. But if you got two eyewitnesses that both say the exact same thing, they both say, "I was there and they give the exact same testimony." It's almost an open and shut case. Close the door. It's over. The Bible says, "We don't have just two. We have 516 different credible eyewitnesses who will give a personal testimony that I saw Jesus Christ alive after his death." Lee Strobel was an atheist who worked for the Chicago Tribune out of a study to try to disprove Christianity became so convinced of the truth of Christ that he gave his life to Christ and he wrote a book called "The Case for Christ." In that book, Lee Strobel says, "If you took all 516 witnesses and you marched them into a court of law and you cross-examined each of them for just 15 minutes and you started on Monday morning after breakfast, it would take you until dinner on Friday evening to finish 129 straight hours of cross-examined testimony from 516 witnesses. You couldn't help but leave after 129 straight hours of the same testimony over and over again being overwhelmingly convinced of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. But there's a third evidence, not just the tomb's empty in the eyewitnesses or so many, but the movement that was happening. You see, in Jerusalem, the Bible tells us that that little group of eyewitnesses in six months became 100,000 followers of Jesus Christ. In six months, they went from a little band of followers to 100,000 people that had believed in the resurrection and begun to follow Jesus Christ. Historians and scholars go on to tell us that within 40 years, one generation, the gospel, the testimony of the resurrection had reached every corner of the known world. I want you to think about that for a second. The movement began in Jerusalem. Do you know where Jesus was crucified and buried? Jerusalem. If there was ever a city where there could have easily been the opportunity to squelch the movement in the story, prove it to be not true, it was Jerusalem. You see, the Jews knew exactly where Jesus had been buried because one of their leaders had given his tomb so that Jesus could be buried. The Romans knew where Jesus had been buried because they'd put a Roman seal guarding his tomb and put two soldiers outside the tomb to make sure nobody disturbed his body. If anybody wanted to disprove the resurrection, it was the Jews and the Romans because they led to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and yet they could not produce a body. That's all they had to do to stop the movement and it was over, but they could not produce a body. Why? Because there wasn't one there. He'd been raised from the dead. William Lane Craig, the great apologist said it this way. The simple fact that the Christian fellowship founded on the belief in Jesus' resurrection came into existence and flourished in the very city where he was executed and buried is powerful evidence for the historicity of the empty tomb. Let me give you one more. These eyewitnesses that were spreading this movement, initially there were 11 of them called the apostles and then Paul joined the 12th. These 12 men, did you know that all of them died for preaching that Jesus Christ had come back to life after he was dead? They all were murdered for their preaching of the resurrection of Jesus. Some of them were speared, some of them were stoned to death, some of them were crucified because they continued to preach Jesus is alive. Why would they give their lives for a lie? I know what some of you are thinking. You're thinking, well pastor, people today in the name of religion give their lives. It happened here in our own country on 9/11. People believing in a false religion gave their lives in something they believed in, but here's the difference. You see, the people on 9/11 who gave their lives as a sacrifice for their religion, they did it based on believing what they've been told. They didn't know if it was true or not, but they believed it, so they gave their lives. These first 12, they knew. They said, I saw it with my own eyes. If it was a lie, if it was a myth, if it was a hoax, if it was some kind of cover up, they knew it was a cover up, and no one is willing to give their life for a cover up. The truth always comes out in the end. Why were these men willing to die? Because they believed what they had seen with their eyes. Jesus died and rose again from the dead. Listen to the way J.P. Moreland describes it. He said, when Jesus was crucified, his followers were discouraged and depressed, so they dispersed. The Jesus movement was all but stopped in its tracks. Then, after a short period of time, we see them abandoning their occupations, regathering, and committing themselves to spreading a very specific message. That Jesus Christ was the Messiah of God who died on a cross, returned to life and was seen alive by them, and they were willing to spend the rest of their lives proclaiming this. Without any payoff from a human point of view, they faced a life of hardship. They often went without food. They slept exposed to the elements. They were ridiculed, beaten in prison. And finally, most of them were executed in tortuous ways. For what? For good intentions? No! Because they were convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that they had seen Jesus Christ alive from the dead. Let me tell you what happened then. Jesus Christ died on a cross. He was buried. And on Easter Sunday morning, he rose again from the dead. It is a historical fact. But there's a second question. What does it mean today? I mean, Pastor, even if I agree with you and say I agree with the historical fact that Jesus died and rose again from the dead, it was still 2,000 years ago. What does it mean today? Well, Paul goes on in these verses to explain that. He begins by saying, "But now Christ has been raised from the dead." And the way he said that's very important, because in the Greek text, there were two verb tenses that he could have used to make that statement. One of them is called the Arist tense. And it just simply means an action happened in the past. If he'd used the Arist tense, it would have simply said, "But now Christ has been raised from the dead." It was in the past, it's over. But that's not the tense that he used. The tense that he used is what in the Greek is called the perfect tense. And it's a very important theological tense, because here's what the perfect tense means. The perfect tense means it's an action that happened in the past, but it has ongoing, continuous effect today and in the future. Paul said Christ has been raised, it was a historical event in the past, but it has ongoing, continuous impact in my life today. And then he begins to unpack what that impact looks like. In verses 21 and 22, listen to what he says, "For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead, for as in Adam all dies, so also in Christ all will be made alive." Here's what he's saying, "Because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, every person sitting in this room today, every person on planet earth now falls into one of two categories. Every person in the world is either in Adam or they are in Christ. Today, the people I'm looking at, you are either in Adam or you are in Christ." You say, "What's the difference?" Well, let me unpack it. What does it mean to be in Adam? I'm going to try to give you two statements to summarize it. There's a lot of theological truth we're trying to boil down into two statements, but let me give it to you. To be in Adam, number one is to be a human being. There's a lot of talk today on the news media. If you watch the news media very much at all, there's a lot of talk today about the issue of race. There's a lot of racial tension in our country right now. Can I take this weekend to just remind you of something very, very simple? There is only one race, and it is called the human race. We all come from the same place. If we trace it back far enough, we all have the same great, great, great, great granddaddy, and we all have the same great, great, great, great grandma, and their names are Adam and Eve. We all come from them. The reality of the human race is our problem is not one of the color of our skin. Our problem is the condition of our heart. To be in Adam means to be a human being. Every one of us are a part of the human race. We've all descended from Adam and Eve. But secondly, to be in Adam means to be separated from God. The Bible says, "In Adam, all die." What does that mean? Here's what it means. God created you, and God created me to live our lives in fellowship with Him. Here's what that means. You'll never know life apart from a relationship with God. God made you to love Him. God made you to be loved by Him. And you and I both were designed and created to live our lives out of the overflow of a love relationship with God. It's the only way you'll ever find the life that you're looking for is through an intimate love relationship with God. Nothing else will fill the void in your life. But only a relationship with God. When God created Adam and Eve, He placed them in the garden, the Garden of Eden, as a symbol of that relationship that they had with Him. It was a perfect environment. And God would come and enjoy fellowship with them on a daily basis. And I want you to turn over to Genesis chapter 2 or look on the screen and follow along. And I want you to read what happened in Genesis chapter 2. The Bible says in verse 16, "The Lord God commanded the man, saying, from any tree of the garden you may eat freely. But from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat from it. For in the day that you eat from it, you will surely, what does it say? Say it out loud. Die." It's pretty simple, right? It's about as straightforward as it can be. Adam and Eve, you got rain over the whole place. The garden is yours to enjoy. You can eat of any tree in the garden. You can enjoy any aspect of the garden. There's only one thing. Don't eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. For in the day you do, you will what? Die. Look over chapter 3 verse 6. It says, "When the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate. And she gave also to her husband with her and he ate." Now, they did exactly the opposite of what God said do. So verse 7 says, "And they died." Right? Is that what yours says? No, what does it say? "Then the eyes of both of them were opened and they knew that they were naked and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings. They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden." You see what the Bible teaches us here is that Adam and Eve did die. They died spiritually. In that moment when sin entered the world, humanity died to God. It means that we lost the ability to have a fellowship relationship with God. That's why Adam and Eve hid themselves. I don't know how long they've been in the garden six days or six weeks or six years have no idea. But what the Bible teaches us is as long as they were in the garden in the cool of the day, God would come into the garden and he would fellowship with Adam and Eve. But on this day instead of waiting in anticipation of that moment, we find Adam and Eve hiding themselves from the presence of God. Why? Because they died spiritually and they lost the ability to have a relationship with God. And now the Bible says, every person who's been born on planet Earth since Adam and Eve has inherited from Adam. Adam represented us in the garden. Every one of us have inherited from Adam spiritual death, meaning that we come into this world dead to God and alive to sin. It's why Paul said in Adam, all die. Every one of us come into this world dead to God and alive to sin. Let me show it to you more specifically. Romans 5 and verse 12. Look at this on the screen. Therefore, just as through one man, sin entered into the world and death through sin. So death spread to all men because all sin. You see what it says there? Through one man, Adam, death spread to all men. Every one of us comes into this world dead to God because of what we've inherited from Adam. You say pastor, hang on a minute. You started by trying to help me understand how an event 2000 years ago has relevance in my life today. And now you're going all the way back to Adam and Eve. And you're telling me that Adam and Eve have effect on me today. That's exactly what I'm telling you. Adam and Eve represented us in the garden. And since then, every one of us has been born dead to God and alive to sin. And here's the proof. Do you hear what Paul said? Death spread to all men because all sin. You know what the evidence is that you and I come into this world dead to God and alive to sin? We all sin. Let me ask you a question. How many of you have ever told a lie? Let me see your hand. Hold it up for a second. Come on, you're in church. You're all right. Lightning's not going to strike. Hold it up. All right, you can put them down. If you didn't raise your hand, then you can now. Because you just did. Right? Let me ask you a question. Who taught you how to do that? Who taught you how to lie? Where'd you run through that 101 class? Who taught you how to be dishonest? Who taught you how to be self-centered? Who taught you how to be selfish? Some of you woke up this morning to the sound of the rustling of an Easter basket and you rest downstairs to find a five or six year old kid with chocolate bunny all over their face. And you looked at him and you said, "Did you eat that?" And they said, "Who taught that kid how to lie?" You don't have to teach children how to lie. It just comes what? You know what you're saying when you say that? You're saying that they're just acting according to their nature. You know what that means? What we're really saying is that's just who they are. If you don't believe me, you come back next week and volunteer to serve over in our preschool department. We're not teaching them how to lie over there. We're not teaching them to steal the ball from somebody else. We're not teaching them to pull hair and to kick and to fight and to bite and all that kind of stuff. You don't have to teach kids that. They come into this world dead to God and alive to sin. We come into this world with a nature that is bent towards doing that which is opposite of what God would have us do. We inherited that from Adam and as a human being, I am separated from a relationship with God because of my sin and I am hopelessly lost. Here's what that means. There's not anything I can do about it. It doesn't matter how many times you come to church. You can wear out the seat that you're sitting in and it doesn't change the fact that you've already sinned against God. You can never miss an Easter service for the rest of your life and it doesn't change the fact that I'm dead to God and alive to sin. And because of my sin, I'm separated from a relationship with God. You see, God is holy and God cannot be in a fellowship relationship with sin. In Adam, I'm a human being separated from God, dead to God, alive to sin and hopelessly lost. But what Paul says is because of what Jesus did 2,000 years ago, now I have hope. You see, I don't have to be in Adam anymore. I can now be in Christ. You say, well, what does it mean to be in Christ? Well, first of all, to be in Christ means to be made alive to a relationship with God. I love the way J.B. Phillips translates 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 17. Look at it on the screen. For if any man is, what are the next two words? In Christ, he becomes a new person all together. The past is finished and gone. Everything has become fresh and new. By being in Christ, I'm forgiven of my sin. By being in Christ, I'm made alive to a relationship with God. How is this possible, you ask? What does that event have to do with my sin? Let me show it to you. Look at it on the screen. 2 Corinthians 5, 21, "He, God the Father, made Him, God the Son, who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." Listen, here's what that verse says. 2,000 years ago, God became a man. God entered time to redeem and restore that which we lost because of sin. He entered time in the person of Jesus Christ. He lived a sinless life and on the cross Jesus Christ died. But listen, don't miss this, for your sin and my sin. He took all of our sin on Himself. That's why the Bible says He became sin for us. It means that all of the wrath of God against sin was poured out on Jesus Christ on the cross. Adam represented me in the garden and because of Adam, I inherited a nature that was dead to God and alive to sin. Jesus stood as my substitute on the cross and on the cross Jesus took all of my sin on Himself and He died on the cross for my sin. But He did not stay dead. Listen, if all He did was die, we still have no hope for life. But Jesus defeated death. He defeated hell. He defeated the grave and He came out of the tomb as a testimony that God had accepted His sacrifice for our sins. And now because of Jesus, I can be made alive to God. To be in Christ means to be made alive to a relationship with God. Let me tell you what that means today. Number one, it affects who I am. You see, I'm no longer Vance the sinner trying to please God. I'm no longer Vance the sinner trying to make up for all my mistakes in the past and somehow earn a right standing before God. I'm not Vance the guy who's blown it, who's trying to somehow earn his way into heaven through my morality and through my good works and through my religion. No, let me tell you what I am now. I'm in Christ. Let me tell you what that means. If I was standing before you today in a black plastic bag, when you looked at me, what would you see? It's not rocket science folks. Come on, a black plastic bag. Why? Because I'm in it. I'm now in Christ. Let me tell you what that means. When God sees me, he does not see me as a sinner who's trying to do his best. He doesn't see me as Vance, the person that's blown it in the past, trying to earn his, no, let me tell you what he sees me as, as righteous as the son of God Jesus Christ himself. Why? Because I am in Christ. It changes who I am, but also it changes how I live. You see, I'm not even now Vance the Christian trying to live the Christian life. The great mystery of the gospel is that when I go in to Christ, he comes in to me. And now the Christian life is not me trying to live the life of Christ. No, the Christian life is literally the resurrected life of Jesus Christ being manifest in and through my life out of the overflow of an intimate love relationship. The intimate love relationship with God. Listen to the way Major Ian Thomas said it. The Christian life is nothing less than the life which he lived then, lived now by him in you. What he did then, it affects everything about me today. Let me tell you the second thing it means to be in Christ. It means to be made alive to a relationship with God, but here's the second reality. Every person is not in Christ. You see, every one of us were born into this world in Adam. That's why Paul says in the present tense in Adam all die, meaning all continuous. Every person who's ever been born is born in Adam dead to God alive to sin. But then he says, so also in Christ all will be made alive. It's a future tense describing a future possibility that is applicable only to those who are in Christ. You say, well, Pastor, how do I go from being in Adam to being in Christ? Let me read it to you in Ephesians chapter two. Ephesians chapter two in verse four says, but God being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us. Even when we were dead in our transgressions made us alive together with Christ by grace, you have been saved. Listen, and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, four by grace. You have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not as a result of works so that no man should boast. How do you go from being in Adam to being in Christ? Very simple. By faith. And what by his grace he did then. And when I say faith in what he did, I don't mean just believing some facts from the past. I mean an expression of faith that is a turning from my sin and surrendering everything I am to who he is and embracing with my whole heart the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's how you go from being in Adam to being in Christ but at least one last question. How does it impact eternity? Jesus closes this passage of Scripture with these words. Then comes the end. And the end that he's describing is the glorious triumphant second coming of Jesus Christ when he returns to bring the world as we know it to an end. Now when I say the end of the world I'm not talking about some glitch in the Mayan calendar. I'm talking about a real predetermined by sovereign God who had a plan of redemption that he put in place. The word end is a word that literally means completion. Meaning when his complete plan of redemption has come to an end Jesus Christ is going to return to this earth. And every one of us will stand before him either in Adam or in Christ. I'll stand before him either as a human being separated from God because of my sin. Doesn't matter how good I've tried to be. Doesn't matter the moral choices I may or may not have made. When he comes if I stand before him in Adam as a human being separated from God I enter eternity in a place called hell separated from God forever and forever. But if on that day I'm in Christ I stand before him clothed in the righteousness of Jesus himself because of what Jesus did by grace I will stand not because I deserve it. No but by the grace of God I will be ushered into an eternity in fellowship with God and with every other child of God from every corner of the world and will forever in eternity live out my relationship with him in fellowship with brothers and sisters in Christ. So here's the message for Easter. My response today to all that Jesus accomplished then ultimately determines my eternity. You see what he did then has great impact on my life today and my eternity and that is why we celebrate on Easter. [BLANK_AUDIO]