The Village Church
Looking at the Cross and the Resurrection Together - Audio
(soft music) Father God, we do surrender all to you. Everything, our life, our stuff, everything about us, Lord, we want to surrender to you for you, Lord, I'm worthy of it, but we are not our own. So we are about with the price, your precious blood, and the life that we should not live, we live by faith in you, Lord. In Jesus, I will save you, I will sustain you. Father, as we come to the preach word, I pray that you will take my voice and make good name great. And this is not about Alex, this is not about my preparation, this is not about my reputation, but it's about your reputation, your name, your glory. In all spirit, use this broken vessel to make Jesus' name great. We must increase, and I must decrease daily, and fasting my prayer, amen. Well, happy Easter to everybody. All right. Well, every year around this time, Jesus gets a little more airtime in the media, around Easter time, and also around Christmas time. He gets a little more airplay. And on Tuesday night, this past Tuesday night, I saw something on the history channel called the real face of Jesus is what it was called. Now, I don't know how many of you actually, and I don't know how many of you actually saw this show, but basically what happened, you have these graphic designers. They were commissioned to come up with a 3D image of the face that's printing on the shroud of tutoring. Do you even know what the shroud of tutoring is? It's a 14-foot cloth, believe by many, to have wrapped the body of Jesus when he was crucified. And on this cloth, you have an imprint of a face and a whole body. And so these graphic designers were gonna try to pull a 3D image of this face out of this cloth, and it's six months to do it, and they did. They came up with an image, and they believed this image to be Jesus. I don't know, but that's what they said. And the main guy, the main designer, he said this, he said, "View through the lens of science. "The shroud of tutoring contains a cold "that when decipher provides actual physical evidence "that the resurrection of Jesus Christ "will it's an actual historical event." Through science, the resurrection can now be proven. Something that the Bible has been proclaiming for generations, something that Christians have believed for generations for all times that Jesus did rise from the grave. It's always been preached for centuries, and believed for all of those who know Christ. And this is what Paul talks about in 1st Corinthians 15. He begins by showing us that the gospel that we believe, the gospel that has been preached for generations and centuries, it tells that Jesus was rose from the dead. He rose from the dead on the third day. Jesus himself said, "Destroy this temple, "and in three days I'll rise it up his body." Paul meets his clear and the first of the reverses of this chapter. He gives us a summary of the gospel. What's the summary of the gospel? Jesus died the cross. Jesus was buried the grave, and Jesus rose again the resurrection. There were eyewitnesses to the resurrection. Any of you who have ever read through the gospel accounts know that there were eyewitnesses to it. He appeared to many people, to Peter, to 500 brothers at one time, to James. He also appeared to Paul, Acts 9. See, the resurrection is not a myth. It's not a fairy tale. It's not religious superstition. As that graphic designer said, "The resurrection of Jesus Christ "was an actual historical event." It happened, it happened. You see, our society, we love heroes. We love those who may appear to be saviors. Professional athletes, singers, movie stars. Everyone has a hero. Everyone know about the miracle in the Hudson. Have you heard about that story? You know, he had this airline pilot. He's safely landing this airplane on the Hudson River, and he was, he was named a hero, 'cause he saved lives, the miracle from the Hudson. He was praised for being the hero. We all have him. The movies that you watch. Braveheart, everyone loves Braveheart. William Wallace, the hero, the savior, the matrix, Neo, the savior, gladiator, nice of us. The Redeemer, the savior. All those guys died. They were heroes, but they all died, and they were in their graves. They did not resurrect. What about real life heroes? Martin Luther King, Gandhi, religious heroes, Muhammad, Buddha. All heroes, all did great things. They all died, but they never claimed that they were gonna rise from the grave. That's only one. Only one. There can be only one. And who is that? That's Jesus. Destroy this temple in three days, I will rise it up. No other person in all of history has made those claims. Destroy this temple in three days, I'm gonna rise it up. Now in our passage, we have a problem. Where's that problem? There were some in the Corinthian church who were Christians who were saying that the resurrection of the dead was not true. It wasn't gonna happen. It wasn't gonna happen. There was not gonna be a bodily resurrection. This array flag can't make that kind of statement. And listen carefully to what I'm about to say here because this is important. You see, there's the connection between the resurrection of Jesus and the resurrection of his people in the last day. You see, all Christian theology, diaphragm, truth is connected, like links in a chain. You mess up one link, you mess with other links. So you can't say to say that the resurrection of the dead didn't happen, there's not an isolated statement because if the dead does not rise, something else must be true. Something else must be true, if that statement is true. You know what that means? If the dead has not rise, then not Jesus, Jesus didn't rise from the dead either. You see what I'm saying here? There's a connection that no Christian truth is isolated from all the other parts of the truth, other Christian truth, they're all connected together. If the dead did not rise, not even Jesus rose from the dead. This is what Paul is saying here. He's going to give them the logical consequences if the resurrection was not true. If it was not true, this is what it means. See, I know all of us here, we're Bible-believing Christians. We live in the Bible Belt. We know the resurrection happened. I mean, it's in the Bible, Alex. Yeah, of course we believe it. We know it's true, but I sometimes wanted to do you to re-value the resurrection as much as we value the cross. Think about the songs that we sing. How many songs are just about the resurrection? Celebrate in the resurrection. When you share the gospel with folks, when I share the gospel with folks, do we make the cross central only? Do we say Jesus died for your sins? See, he hung on the cross for your sins. You know, yeah, he rose from the dead on a third day. Do you value the resurrection as much as we value the cross? It has to be mean, the resurrection has to be, has to mean more to us than it's a holiday. But once you're a holiday in which we celebrate the resurrection, we have to see it, celebrate it every day, just like we do the cross. It's like we talk about the cross. Y'all talk about the resurrection too. 'Cause it is important to our faith. You see, the cross without the resurrection means nothing. Do you know that? There's not enough for Jesus just to die on the cross. He had to rise again. He had to rise again. Religious leaders die all the time. But none of them rose from the dead. And if the dead has not risen, then Christ himself did not rise. And what are the consequences? If the resurrection is not true, the first consequence is preaching is in vain. What I'm doing now means nothing. If Jesus didn't rise from the dead. All I am is just a motivational speaker making you feel good about yourself. If the resurrection isn't true. You see, my words don't have power. No preacher's word has power. It's the content of the preaching that's important. And if the resurrection isn't true, then preaching is empty. It's all empty, has no power, has no effect, has no place. And preachers themselves, we are liars. You are a liar. Why? 'Cause we misrepresent God. If the resurrection isn't true, we're liars. Do you understand that? If it ain't true, we are liars. We false testify about God to doing something that he didn't do. If it ain't true. Paul says in Romans 10, 7, that faith comes from hearing the word of God. But if the preaching is in vain, the faith is in vain. The faith that it produces is in vain. That's what he says here. You have your Bibles, let me find it here, verse 14. And if Christ has not been raised and not preaching is in vain, and your faith is in vain. If the gospel isn't true, we are all victims of the greatest con in the history of the world. Do you realize that? We've just been conned. And everything we do is for nothing. If it ain't true, our faith is empty if Christ did not rise from the dead. Your faith is fruitile, he says. And guess what? You are still in your sins. If Jesus did not rise on the third day, we are still in our sins. We are still doomed if the resurrection isn't true. We are still lost. Paul goes on to say that those who have died, believers who have died, perished the resurrection isn't true, isn't true. That's what he says in verse 18. That those who have fallen asleep in Christ are perished if the resurrection didn't occur. They're gone. The loved ones that are believers are gone if the resurrection isn't true. They're lost forever. And finally, the final consequence is that we have empty hope. There is no real hope. Let's get verse 19. He says, if in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are the most miserable people in the world. Wow. Wow. Wow. The believers hope or return to life. And then with Jesus and the kingdom of God will not happen if the resurrection isn't true. And all we're doing will be for nothing. The ministry, this church, coming to worship every Sunday, going to Sunday school, going to Bible studies, then in ministry, sharing our faith, nothing without the resurrection. We have lived a lie. And we are the most miserable people in the world because of it. If the resurrection isn't true. Paul says later in this chapter that bad company corrupts good morals. You know what else? Bad theology will corrupt your Christian life. It will. These folks in this church who was saying the resurrection of dead is not true. That's bad theology. That's bad doctrine. And it's shipwreck, it could shipwreck your Christian life. Because when I said last week, what you believe does impact how you live? It does. It shapes how you live. What you believe has an impact on how you live this life. What you believe about Christ impacts where you live your life. If you believe you can lose your salvation, how would that impact your life? You're going to try to be perfect. That's what I'm talking about. If salvation can be lost, then you're going to try your best not to lose it. You're going to work hard. You're going to do all the good works you can do to not lose that salvation. That's what I'm talking about. What you believe impacts how you live. If you believe all you have to do is be a good person. Then you never ever see your sin. You never ever think you need a need of a savior. I'm good. I help people. I gave money to Haiti. I do good things. I'm not that bad of a person. You never see your sin. That's what I'm talking about. What you believe does impact how you live. And at this church, yes, the Bible has called us to defend the case of the widow and the author. We will do that. But we will stand firm on Christian truth. We're not going to believe anything in everything. We're going to believe sound Christian truth. And we will defend it. We will defend it. You know, as I studied this passage this week, the spirit revealed something about me that I haven't really thought about before. And if I always counsel people to learn how to take their sins to the cross, just take it to the cross, man. Take your sin to the cross. I also told them you got to learn how to live at the cross as well. You got to learn how to live there too. Take your sin to the cross and learn how to live at the cross. But I ask myself, is that where Jesus really wants us to live? Is he really want us to live at the cross? I came across to old him and listen to these words from him. It says, "Christ is risen. "He meets our eyes. "Savior, teach us to rise. "Savior, teach us so to rise." I see now that as we take our sins to the cross, we are reminded that Jesus as a crucified savior, he died for all of our sins, past sins, present sins, and future sins. But we are not to live at the full of the cross. Why? Because he's no longer hanging on the cross. He is no longer in the grave. He is a resurrected savior. Set him at the right hand of God the Father almighty. And as a resurrected savior, he destroyed the power of sin over us. And sin is no longer our master. Sin is no longer your daddy. Sin no longer has the meaning over you. Sin is no longer your boss. He conquered it. And so through the spirit, you take your sin to the cross and then the spirit helps you to rise up from the cross and you see your resurrected savior who has conquered sin for you. He does it off your shoulders and you move on. You have to look at the cross and the resurrection. Together, you look at them both. Paul says in Romans 5, 4, 25, Jesus was crucified for our sins, but he was resurrected for our justification. You see, that's the connection. No resurrection, no justification. That's the connection. It's them both. And so when you share your faith, you better bring up the resurrection too. 'Cause it's together. That's the gospel. That Jesus died for my sins and he also rose again. And he's smiling down on his people now in heaven. Crucified savior, a resurrected savior, embrace them both across in the resurrection. This is what Paul says in verse 20. In verse 20, he says, but in fact, but in fact, Jesus has been raised from the dead. Now, Paul, he's moving away from these ill statements. He's bringing us to statements of truth, statements of fact, the certainties of the resurrection, the positive consequences of the resurrection. And he says, Paul's rolling up his sleeves here. Now it's time for me to tell you, this is what the resurrection really means for you, that Jesus continues to live as a resurrecting savior. The tomb was empty. He's no longer in the grave. And he is the first fruit so those are raised from the dead. Verse 20 says, but in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. The first fruits are those who have fallen asleep. To turn first fruits, it's a form in turn. Now it indicates the nature and the quality of the rest of the crops that came out of it. You see, one Christian writer says that in the Old Testament, if you know anything about the Old Testament, you knew that the first fruits were the earliest crops gathered and God required Israel to bring those first fruits to him as an offering, thanking him for all his faithful provision. And so Jesus, he is the first fruits of those who are raised from the dead. His resurrection guarantees your resurrection, your resurrection. We are the fruits that will follow the first fruit Christ in the last day. That's the connection. Acts says, Acts 2, 24 says, God raised Christ up, put in an end to the agony of death. It was impossible for him to be held by death. You feel the impact of that? It was impossible for him to be held by death. If death was a scrape jacket, Jesus bust out of it like that because he's Jesus. He's the man. He's everything I'm not. He conquered death. He defeated death. Death meant its match when it came up with Christ. The death of death and the death of Christ is what we have here. Verse 25 says, Christ must reign until he put all his enemies under his feet and the last enemy to be destroyed is death. You see, death is the one thing that reminds us of our mortality. You know, as I shared this morning with the, when we were meeting and praying in the back, that we were traveling to the zoo, the Nashville Zoo on Friday, and we almost got in a bad wreck. We almost went to Ben here. You know, this other car cut in front of this camera. This camera went off into the meeting and then span around. It almost flipped over and we were the next lane right beside it. A few feet from meeting our maker. Death reminds you that none of us is gonna live forever. None of us are gonna live forever. And in our culture, we want to find ways to avoid it. We want to find ways to live longer. You may think you have control of your life, but you really don't when you think about it. And every time you hear stories of death, every time love wants to pass away, you feel it. You feel it right here, man. Life is short, just like death. My whole family and I could have died just like that yesterday, just like that. But if you are a believer, if you know Jesus, death's grip over you is a loose grip. Even though we would die our physical death, when Jesus comes back, when Jesus comes back, when Jesus comes back, we will resurrect from the dead and death will finally be completed to destroy. You see that? Death is not your master. And for Christians, that's great hope. Death for us is victory. It's how we get to the other side. It's not the end of life for us. It's the beginning of life. And if you're here and if you don't know Jesus, he was like, well, I don't believe that stuff. It's true. It's true. The gospel is true. It's true. One of the many issues people have, one of the many, there's a lot of issues folks have for Christianity. Now, they're one of the major ones that goes back to the Garden of Eden, goes back to Adam. You see, the fall. A lot of people take issue with the belief that they are not sinners because of what Adam did. Well, well, I got a whole me responsible for what he did. I mean, I wasn't there. It ain't like I was in the Garden. If I was dead, I already did the right thing. Really? It's not fair, guys. It's not my fault that Adam messed up. How can you hold me accountable for what another man did? You see, if that's you this morning, if that's where you are this morning, I want to get you to look at the fall. Look at Adam along with the Gospel, along with Jesus. And when you do that, your perspective will change. You see, verse 21 says, What is he talking about there? What does that mean? It means in the real sense, Jesus is the second Adam. And in the real sense, Jesus is the clean up man, cleaning up the master Adam messed up. And when Adam sinned against God, death and sin did come into the world. And so in Adam, we all die, both spiritual and physical death, if you don't know Christ. But Jesus, when he came on the scene, he came to make all things new. You see, he was obedient to God where Adam failed, all the way to the cross. And all those who received Jesus as their Lord and Savior are made alive, both spiritually and in the last day, your bodily reservation. That's what Jesus did. Through a man, all are made simple. And through a man Jesus, many will be made righteous. Those who are the many, those who receive him as their personal Lord and Savior. You see, most of you know the story of Lazarus, and that's one of my favorite chapters in the Bible, John 11. Jesus was free of Lazarus. He became ill and he dies. Jesus says, Lazarus has fallen asleep. And when Jesus finally gets to Bethany, Lazarus was already dead four days. He was in the tomb four days. Now, that's a long time. Because what's happening in that tomb in four days, the smell, the body is starting to decompose. It was an odor. But listen to what Jesus says when he shows us on the scene, beginning in verse 38, John 11. He says, "Then Jesus deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, a stone laid against it." Jesus said, "Take away the stone." Martha, the sister of the dead man, said, "Lord, by this time there will be an odor. He was been dead four days." Jesus said to her, "Did I not tell you if you believed you would see the glory of God?" He said, "Took away the stone." And Jesus lived up his eyes and said, "Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always heard me. But I say this on account of those standing around. That they may believe that you sent me." We have said these things. He cried out with a loud voice. Lazarus, come out! The man who died came out. His hands and feet were bound with linens. His face was wrought with the cloth. And Jesus said to them, "Unbind him. Let him go." Lazarus, come out! Dead four days, body decomposing. And Jesus just called him out of the tomb. And what Jesus did here for Lazarus, he does for us spiritually. And in the last day he'd do for us with our new bodily resurrection. See, before he came to know Christ, all of us were dead spiritually. Your soul was dead in your trespasses and sins. And when he called your name, when he called your name, your soul woke up. I hear it. Hear our come, Jesus. The Spirit brought life to your dead soul and you received Jesus as your Lord and Savior. Did you hear it this morning? If you don't know Jesus, is he calling your name? Did you hear it? See, many of you here this morning, you have one of your new Easter apples. Looking good, I may say. And one of the things you know about Easter outfits, you're not going to have the same Easter outfit next year, are you? Are you going to keep the same outfit? Some of you are going to go get new outfits. Some of you are going to be a little bigger next year or get stains on it or something. Hey, come on. Let's flow with me. And every year you get a new outfit. Every year you got to get a new outfit. Jesus, why don't you just love that phrase. But Jesus will give you an outfit that's beautiful and free. And when you receive him as your Lord and Savior, he takes away all your sins. You see, the outfit he gives you, you don't have to put it on your credit card. You don't even have to put it on their way. He gives it to you for free. And when he takes away your sin, he gives you all of his righteousness. All of his goodness. He gives to you. He gives you his righteous Easter outfit. You don't have to replace it every year. It's beautiful. It covers you for the rest of your life. What did him say? This is all my hope and peace. This is all my righteousness. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. That's your Easter outfit. And if you don't have it, you can get it. All you got to do is say, "Jesus, I set you as my Lord and Savior." Let's go to the Lord now. Pray. Father God, I thank you that, Lord, you're good. I praise you that you are a faithful God. And I pray that as we prepare for the Lord's table, that you help us to remember the resurrection. That you're not in the grave. And I pray that we change our lives. Change to where we live. Change what we believe. That our Savior is a resurrected Savior. That he's in heaven right now. Alive and well. And getting ready to come back as a conquering King. In Christ in my prayer, amen.