The Significance of Jesus’ Resurrection

1 Corinthians 15:12-20

April 20, 2003

            Take your Bibles this morning and turn with me to 1 Corinthians 15:12. 1 Corinthians 15:12. We will be reading from verse 12 through verse 20. Follow along with me as I read the text. Read text. Let’s pray.

            This morning my goal and my prayer is that you will see in this text at least six reasons to glory in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The resurrection of Jesus is a doctrine that anyone who has ever been to Sunday school is familiar with. It is a doctrine that most people associate with Christianity. It is a doctrine that most people take for granted. And it is my prayer this morning that you won’t take it for granted, at least not for these next 30 minutes or so, and, hopefully, not for the rest of your life extending into eternity.

            The resurrection from the dead is not a doctrine that all have readily accepted. In fact, to the people of Paul’s day resurrection was an absurd idea. Greek philosophers denied the reality of resurrection. That is why it says in Acts 17:32 when Paul was preaching about the resurrection that when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some began to sneer. When they heard this doctrine, that Jesus Christ had been raised from the dead, and someday all men would be resurrected, some to life and others to judgment, they sneered. They mocked. They disregarded the Apostle Paul. Resurrection from the dead was absurd to them.

            In Corinth Paul faced this same challenge. There were those in Corinth who taught that no one got raised from the dead. To them, resurrection was not possible. There were people influencing this church from within that taught that there was no resurrection. That is what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:12. He writes, Now if Christ is preached, that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? Paul is essentially asking how these people in the Corinthian church could say there is no resurrection of the dead when the Gospel message is that Christ was raised from the dead. The heart of the Gospel is the resurrection of Christ from the dead. That is what this Sunday is all about. Yet there were some in the Corinthian Church who denied the resurrection of the dead, both the resurrection of Jesus and our future resurrection. So Paul asks, “How can you deny the resurrection? All of us who are apostles preach the resurrection of Christ from the dead. If that is the heart and soul of our message, how are you preaching that there is no resurrection and at the same time staying in the church?”

            To deal with the challenge Paul reiterates the Gospel message at the beginning of chapter 15. In verse 3 he writes, For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures. And then he catalogs a list of witnesses to the resurrection. In case there were any doubters Paul lists all the people they could ask to check out the story. And the whole account is according to the Scriptures. This is not an invention of Paul’s own mind. He received this message and it was according to the Scriptures. This is the message that was preached in verse 12.

            There are those in our day who also deny the reality of Christ’s resurrection even though God’s Word is clear about it. Many theories abound about what happened on that Sunday morning nearly 2000 years ago to explain away the resurrection. Some say that Jesus never died, and He escaped out of the tomb. Still others say that the whole account was made up or borrowed from Eastern Religions. Others would suggest that the disciples dreamed the whole thing up. They had good intentions and truly believed what they taught, but it was not reality. These are some of the theories have been suggested to deny Christ’s resurrection, and many of them have come from within the church.

            John Shelby Spong, retired bishop of Newark, an Episcopal Church, has many times denied the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ. Spong is no minor figure in the modern church. He has written several well-read books, countless articles, been a professor and teacher at many prominent schools including Harvard, appeared on all the major network television stations on high-profile programs, and been the chaplain for graduate students at Duke University. He is, to public America, a representative of the church, and a high-profile, well-respected representative. He also is one such person who has denied the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He has been quoted as saying, “Resurrection is an action of God. Jesus was raised into the meaning of God. It therefore cannot be a physical resuscitation occurring inside human history.” In other words, Jesus never rose from the dead in space and time. Jesus came to represent the meaning of God to us, but He Himself was not God nor did He ever rise from the dead according to Bishop Spong.

            What are we to make of such assertions? Is it important that we make anything of them? How do they impact the church and the meaning of Christianity? What is the significance of Jesus’ resurrection?

            Jesus’ resurrection is one of the most significant doctrines in Scripture. All of the doctrines of Scripture are significant and important, but if you were to list the most essential doctrines of Christianity on which you would never allow room for argument, the resurrection of Jesus would have to at least tie for the first spot on that list. There is no biblical Christianity if there is no physical, bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ.

            Why is this doctrine so significant? Why should we think often of this doctrine and savor its richness and truth? Why should we love to discuss and meditate on and revel in the resurrection of Jesus Christ?

            The passage we read this morning gives us six things that would be true if Christ had not been raised from the dead. And so to see why the resurrection is essential, we will follow Paul in his discussion of what Christianity would be like without the resurrection of Jesus Christ. There are six consequences for Christianity if Christ has not been raised from the dead. Six consequences that we must understand to more fully appreciate the reality of the resurrection.

            As we look at these six consequences, bear in mind verse 20. But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep. Paul is using hypotheticals for the sake of argument here. We will get to verse 20 where Paul reverses these six consequences with the fact of the resurrection. But first, let’s begin with the first consequence for Christianity if Christ had not been raised, bearing in mind that He has, in fact, been raised.

1. Preaching the Gospel Is Vain (v. 14)

            Number one. If Christ has not been raised, then preaching the Gospel is vain. Look at verse 14. Paul writes, If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain. If the resurrection of Jesus Christ is a sham, a hoax, then preaching the Gospel is vain. It is empty, meaningless. There’s no point to it.

            David Brainerd was a missionary to the American Indians in the 1700s. He lived a difficult life filled with sickness. Finally at the age of 29 he died of great illness. Before his death he would often find himself waking up in the middle of the night coughing up blood. He spent his life in the wilderness, for the most part, ministering to people who never really accepted him or the Gospel. He preached the Gospel to them because he cared for their souls, and ultimately it brought him pain and illness and death at an early age.

If Christ has not been raised, then David Brainerd’s preaching was in vain. All of his effort to convert the Indians to Christianity was vain. Every sermon he preached was a complete waste of time if Christ has not been raised from the dead.

If Christ has not been raised from the dead, if Easter morning had never happened, all of your evangelism, all of your sharing the Gospel, all of your preaching and handing out flyers and discussions with others about Christ are vain. It’s all meaningless. It has no value if Christ has not been raised.

2. Faith In Christ Is Vain (v. 14)

            Not only, though, is preaching the Gospel vain, meaningless, and empty, but so is faith in Christ if He has not been raised. Look again at verse 14. Paul says, If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain. If the resurrection didn’t happen, then faith in Jesus is meaningless. Becoming a Christian is vain. It is pointless. It serves no purpose.

            The Christian Gospel offers people eternal life, forgiveness of sins, and eternal rewards and joy beyond anything the human mind can conceive. The Bible promises infinite reward for the one who seeks God with his whole heart through Jesus Christ. But if Christ has not been raised, then having faith in these promises of God is vain. It’s futile and profits nothing.

            If I promised you a million dollars if you could hold your breath for 60 seconds, and you put faith in my promise, your faith would be vain. It would be vain because I don’t have a million dollars to give you if you held your breath for 60 years, let alone 60 seconds! The promise will not be fulfilled no matter how long you hold your breath or how much you believe in the promise.

            Believing the promises of God given in the Bible through the blood of Christ would be vain if Christ had not been raised. It would be foolish to have faith if what we believed in was a fantasy, a myth, something of our own imagination. People who believe things that are clearly not reality we call mentally ill, insane. People who believe they can jump off buildings and fly we put in institutions because what they believe is vain, meaningless, empty. It is vain because it is a lie. Which brings us to Paul’s third point.

3. The Apostles Are False Witnesses of God (v. 15)

            If there is no resurrection from the dead, the apostles who witnessed the resurrection and who spread the Gospel were liars. They were false witnesses. Preaching is vain and believing the message is vain if the message is a lie. If the message has no relevance because it is a lie, then proclaiming it and believing it is vain.

            The information minister in Iraq was a person who exemplifies preaching a message that is a lie. As the U.S. tanks sat behind his hotel in Baghdad, he boldly proclaimed that no U.S. troops were even in Baghdad. The only benefit we might receive from someone like this is some comic relief because we cannot fathom that someone could so boldly proclaim an obvious lie. It would be vain to believe him, and all of his proclamations were vain because he was a false witness.

            How much more does this apply to the preaching of the eternal Gospel of God? Paul says in verse 15, Moreoever we are even found to be false witnesses of God, because we testified against God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise, if in fact the dead are not raised. The testimony of the apostles and of all preachers of the Gospel since is that God raised Jesus from the dead to take away sins and to destroy the works of the devil. We proclaim and believe that God raised Jesus from the dead. But if we tell people that God raised Jesus from the dead, and God did not raise Jesus from the dead, then we are false witnesses of God. We lie about God. We claim He did something that He did not do if Jesus was not raised.

            This is a serious charge. It is a serious thing to impugn the character of God. It is a serious thing to say that God did something that He did not do, especially if you are attempting to profit from it personally. You cannot use God to meet your own ends. The apostles claimed that God raised Christ from the dead, but if God did not raise Christ, then the apostles made false claims about God and stand as liars.

            The ramification of this is that if Christ has not been raised, we should just throw away our Bibles and never think of them again. If the apostles lied about the foundation, how can we believe anything else they taught? How can we follow their “moral” teachings at any point if they fail at this foundational point? If Christ has not been raised from the dead, the apostles are false witnesses of God, false prophets, and our New Testament is a book of lies.

            Paul then goes on to reiterate the second point – that faith is vain if Christ has not been raised. In verse 17 he says, If Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless. A slightly different way of putting it than in verse 14. There he used the word vain but here he says worthless. It is a similar word, a synonym in Greek. The idea is foolish, vain, useless. If Christ has not been raised our faith is not only empty and to no purpose, but it is also useless and does us no good. Faith in Christ is stripped of all of its value if Christ has not been raised. The Apostles are false witnesses of God and our faith then is meaningless if Christ has not been raised.

            If Christ has not been raised, then preaching the Gospel is vain, faith is vain and worthless, and the apostles themselves are false witnesses of God. These are serious implications. Paul now begins to make it more personal. In verses 17-19 he expands on the ramifications of our faith being worthless. What would it mean if our faith were worthless, which it would be if Christ had not been raised? If Christ has not been raised, then, fourthly, we would still be in our sins.

4. We are still in our sins (v. 17)

            Look at verse 17. If Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless, you are still in your sins. This is the fourth implication if the resurrection never had happened. We would not have our sins forgiven. Worthless faith does not bring about forgiveness of sins because it is worthless, it is useless. It has no use to us and provides us with no benefit.

            One of the greatest uses and benefits of our faith is forgiveness of sins. If Christ had not been raised, however, our faith would have no use at all, including bringing us to God by removing the sins that are charged against us.

In Colossians Paul talks about our sins as if they are written on a sheet of paper that contains the charges against us. In Colossians 2:14 Paul says that God has taken that sheet of paper, as it were, that listed our sins, and that He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. But if Christ has not been raised, then our sins have not been nailed to the cross. The list of charges against us still stands and we are guilty before a holy God.

In Romans 6 Paul writes a profound passage on our relationship to sin as Christians, and in Romans 6:11 he wrote, Consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Why should we do that? How can we do that? The whole basis of this is that we know that Christ was resurrected, and therefore we know that we have died to sin and are alive to God. But if Christ has not been resurrected, then we are dead in sin, not dead to sin. Sin is master over us. We are slaves of sin. We have no capacity to do what is right or just. We are enslaved, and our master is sin.

This is the point Paul is making in 1 Corinthians 15:17. If Christ has not been raised then we are dead in sin. We are still in our sins. Our sins have not been forgiven. We have not been set free. We are not alive to God. We will not be resurrected. Our faith is useless, and we are still in our sins.

5. The dead in Christ have perished (v. 18)

            Not only are we still in our sins, but believers who have died have now perished. They are not with the Lord. They have no life at all. They are dead. There is no hope to ever see them again, fellowship with them again, or worship Jesus with them again. All believers who have died are simply decomposing corpses that will never see life again.

            On a side note, if you’ve ever wondered what verse 29 of this chapter means, I think this statement is a key to understanding it. But that’s another sermon.

            Let’s read verse 18. Paul writes, Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. Paul says, “We talk about them as if they have fallen asleep in Christ. We talk as though their bodies are just awaiting resurrection and now sleeping. But in fact they have really died if there is no resurrection. They’re not sleeping; they have perished if they will not be raised!”

            One major use or feature of our faith is that when we die, we have hope beyond the grave. Paul says later in this chapter in verse 55, O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? Death does not have the victory over us and has no sting because of Christ’s resurrection. But if Christ has not been raised, then death gets the victory. Death has a great sting. If Jesus Christ had never been resurrected, death would be the victor. Death would have the ultimate victory and the last laugh. But this is not the final implication. There is one more.

6. Christians are the most pitiable (v. 19)

            Number six. If Jesus had never been resurrected, Christians would be the most pitiable people in the world. Look at verse 19. Paul wrote, If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied. This verse is a sermon in and of itself. If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied. Most to be mocked. Most to be laughed at. Most to be locked away in the asylum as fools. If we Christians have faith in Christ, and we die, and there is no resurrection, we are of all men in this world the most to be pitied. That statement goes against almost everything the modern American gospel teaches. And to be understood we must look at it like this:

            We must ask: Who do we pity? We pity fools. We pity them because they make a mess of their lives with foolish decisions. We pity people ridden with diseases. We pity the poor and homeless and destitute. We pity the drunks who ruin their families and homes and bodies with alcohol. We pity orphans who have no families. We pity people who have a lot in life that is miserable, pitiable, a lot that we would not choose if it were up to us. That’s who we pity. So why does Paul say that of all these pitiable people, the Christian is the most pitiable? Why is the Christian, if he has hoped in Christ in this life only, more pitiable than the drunk? Why is the Christian more pitiable than the homeless, if the Christian has hoped in Christ in this life only?

            I think Paul answers this question in verse 31, when he says, I affirm, brethren, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily. If there is no resurrection from the dead the Christian life is the most pitiable life because the Christian chooses to die daily for the sake of a hope that is empty and worthless. The Christian, the true, biblical Christian is pitiable because he gives up everything this world has to offer and gets nothing in return if there is no resurrection from the dead. If Christ has not been raised, then we are of all people the most pitiable, the most foolish, the most laughable. We are the laughingstock of creation if Christ has not been raised from the dead.

            Those are Paul’s six implications for Christianity if Jesus never rose from the dead. Preaching is vain. Faith is vain and worthless. The Bible and the Apostles turn out to be nothing but lies and liars. Christians are still in their sins. The dead in Christ have perished without hope. And Christians are the most pitiable people on the face of the planet. If Christ has not been raised, then we will not be raised, and if we will not be raised, then let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.

            But the glorious truth of Easter Sunday morning is the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The glorious truth is that these six implications are completely reversed in verse 20. Paul turns them on their head when he says, But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep.

            Those six things are not true! Paul’s emphatic statement is that Christ has in fact been raised from the dead. So these six terrifying, depressing, hope-crushing implications are completely reversed, and when they are reversed, they are profoundly powerful and full of hope. Think about the reverse.

            The preaching of the Gospel is glorious, not vain. Preaching is not empty and meaningless and futile. No! The opposite is true. Preaching is full of meaning and serves a great purpose in God’s plan! When we share the Gospel it is not vain and meaningless and to no purpose. It serves God’s purpose in Christ. Evangelism is one of the most meaningful activities in all of life!

            Our faith is infinitely valuable and full of meaning, not vain. Our faith is the most meaningful thing we possess! Our faith is not worthless, but it is infinitely valuable. There is nothing in the world that can compare to the value of our faith! The faith that God has given us as a gift is the most valuable gift we could receive!

            Third, the Apostles are true witnesses of God. If they are not false witnesses, they are true witnesses. This means that absolute truth exists. Truth is not subjective. Either Jesus did rise or He didn’t. There is no middle ground. There is no way to say the apostles give their angle of truth. Either they are true witnesses or false witnesses. If Jesus has been raised, and He has, then the apostles are true witnesses and their message demands our obedience and full allegiance. When we speak the apostles message we testify truly of God, we command a hearing because we speak the words of truth. We speak God’s message when we accurately speak the apostles testimony about Jesus. There is no one who can say it is our version of the truth. The element it must come back to is, “Did or did not Jesus rise from the dead?” If He didn’t, then what I believe is a lie. If He did, then it is true, and anything that contradicts it, denies it, rejects it, or adds to it is a lie. The fact is that Christ is now risen, and the Bible is therefore true. Our faith is rooted in the historical fact of the resurrection. Since that fact is true, our faith is proven true.

            Fourth, we are no longer in our sins if we have faith. Christ has truly set us free from sin since He has risen from the dead! We can be assured that we are free from sin. When it feels as though sin is our master, we know that God is our master because Christ is alive! Because of the resurrection we know that we are no longer in our sins. What stood between God and us has been taken out of the way and nailed to the cross, and we are alive to God.

            Fifth, those who have fallen asleep in Christ have not perished. The loved ones we know who have passed out of this mortal body are in the presence of the Lord if they were believers. They have not died; they are merely asleep. Someday their bodies will rise never to die again. And when we die, we have this certain hope that we are only going to sleep, as it were, our spirit is going to be with the Lord, and we will not perish. Hope lies beyond the grave because Jesus has been resurrected.

            Finally, we are of all men most to be admired, not pitied. Yes, it is true that we die daily. And yes, we give up our lives so that we may keep them. It is certainly true that David Brainerd gave up everything the world could have given him and died at the young age of 29 because of his service to God. And he is not to be pitied for that. That is not a tragedy. That is something to be desired. That is glorious. To give up everything for Jesus is to be sought, not pitied. It is a privilege to give up your life and save your soul. It is a blessing to endure persecution for the sake of righteousness and the name of Christ. Christians are not to be pitied, for they inherit all things with Christ. Whatever we endure in this life is nothing compared to the glory that awaits us.

            The resurrection of Jesus Christ makes all the difference in the world to Christianity. It is a doctrine worth our time and hearts and minds. It is a doctrine we should savor and love and cherish and cling to. Without it there are disastrous consequences, and we should be locked away for being false prophets and madmen.

            But we know that Now Christ has been raised from the dead! Christianity is living life based on that fact. There is a resurrection. We know that because Christ was resurrected, His physical body was made alive, and He walked out of the tomb. And we live with our eyes fixed on that prize – the resurrection from the dead. The apostle who wrote 1 Corinthians also wrote in Philippians 3:7-11 that he gave up all things and counted them rubbish so that he might attain to the resurrection of the dead. Everything in his life was bent on resurrection. If there was no resurrection, then Paul’s whole life was a joke, a waste of time, pitiable. We must live our lives in such a way that if there were to be no resurrection of the dead, our lives would have been an absolute joke, utterly pitiable, and hopelessly futile. We must live this way because Jesus Christ’s resurrection proves that there is a resurrection of the dead, and our lives are only useful and meaningful when lived in light of that truth. Let’s pray.

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