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message from God's Word will be a blessing to you.
So would you turn to 1st Corinthians chapter #15 at this
time every year, maybe every few years, we take the opportunity
to be able to look at the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
And the reason why is because it's important for us to
understand why the resurrection of Jesus Christ was necessary.
As a pastor, why would this be something that you would feel
it's important to put in the rotation every couple of years
or so? Well, because when it comes to
the reality of the resurrection, I believe all of us have that
understanding. If you're sitting here this
morning here at Liberty Baptist Church that the direction of
Jesus Christ was real, but yet at the same time, I also believe
that there's not a lot of people, maybe nearly as many.
I'd be a better way of putting it that can explain from the
Bible why the resurrection of Christ was so important.
What's next week all about? Why are we even having a
Resurrection Sunday and Easter Sunday, if you will?
Why are we? It's because Jesus Christ is
risen and he is risen indeed. And it's not just that we know
that because we've repeated enough and that's what we
believe. It's because, well, that's what
the Word of God teaches, and we want to be be able to explain to
others why the resurrection of Christ is so important.
And 1st Corinthians chapter #15 perhaps gives us outside of the
Gospels, the greatest explanation of the reality of
the resurrection of, of Jesus Christ.
Now, again, I like going back to the well here over and over
again over the years to make sure that we are well versed in
our understanding of this great Bible truth.
And so we're in First Corinthians chapter 15.
We're looking at all kinds of different places in this
chapter, but we're going to start in verse #12 which says
this. Now, if Christ be preached that
he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no
resurrection of the dead? But if there be no resurrection
of the dead, then is Christ not risen?
Christ be not risen. Then is our preaching vain?
And your faith is also vain. Yay.
And we are found false witnesses of God, because we have
testified of God that He's raised up, that He raised up
Christ whom he raised not up. If so be that the dead rise not,
for if the dead rise not, that is not Christ raised.
And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain, you're yet
in your sins, and they also which are fallen asleep in
Christ or perished. If in this life only we have
hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.
But now is Christ risen from the dead and become the firstfruits
of them that slept. I don't know about you, but it's
amazing to me to think that around 50 to 68, when First
Corinthians was written, there were already people who were
denying the very resurrection of Jesus Christ.
This is not something that took place over 2000 years.
This is something that was still or something rather that was
already being taught and already being spoken of while the
apostles were still alive. This issue of the resurrection
wasn't true. And so Paul here in our text
says that if you were to take away the resurrection of Jesus
Christ, if you were to say to those who are skeptics, if you
were to say to those who are non believers that maybe would scoff
at the fact of a resurrection, if we were to concede to them,
well, the resurrection isn't important.
The resurrection really isn't a big deal if we were to concede
that argument, he says. You are pulling a thread that
you don't understand how much of the tapestry of the gospel will
actually be unraveled. And really the end result is if
there is no resurrection, there is no gospel.
You can't just say to moderate yourselves to the deniers, to
the skeptics, that there is no resurrection because as you do
so, and you say there is no hope for the life to come, well then
the Bible says that we are of all men, most miserable.
If Jesus is just about this life and there is no other life, well
then there's a problem because Jesus promised us there would be
another life, that there would be another life to come.
If Jesus had no preparation of this life to come, as he talked
about in John 14, as he talked about to the thief on the cross,
today you will be with me in paradise.
If there is no hope of that, then Jesus Christ himself was a
liar. And what are we left with?
We're left with a puddle of really, well, nothing.
We'll have religious platitudes. We can come to church, we can
sing the songs, we can do all the things, but yet there really
is nothing here. If there is no resurrection.
The resurrection of Christ is the very capstone of the gospel.
Without the resurrection, there is no gospel.
And that's why we celebrate next week.
That's why we celebrate an empty tomb.
That's why we'll go through the whole process over this next
week, considering the Last Supper and then considering
Christ on the cross, and then most importantly, next Sunday
morning, considering the resurrection.
Because all of them were necessary.
We can't take any of those elements away.
The fact of Jesus perfect sinless life, Jesus shedding his
blood on the cross and the resurrection, all of them are
necessary, necessary. But the resurrection, as I
mentioned, is that capstone that goes over all of it that
authenticates that who Jesus Christ is.
And if Christ has power over death when it comes to the fact
that he could rise, then well, we have hope for eternal life as
well. But yet the world has always
mocked and denied the fact that there is this resurrection.
The world has always tried to find ways to be able to explain
away the fact that the resurrection is not real.
So what I want you to do is to put your ribbon, if you, you
have it this morning in First Corinthians 15.
And we're going to look at a few different places.
And 1st, I want to go to Matthew chapter 28.
So why don't you just go a few pages back to Matthew chapter
#28 and obviously we're at the end of the book of Matthew.
Christ is resurrected and there's been all of these
theories that are out there, and some of you may have remembered
some of these from me speaking on this in the past.
But one of those theories that is out there is the conspiracy
theory. The fact that the disciples
conspired together to make it look like Jesus Christ actually
rose from the dead, but well, he didn't actually erase from the
dead. Now the conspiracy theory is the
oldest of all the theories, and the reason why is because we
find it in the Word of God that when the tomb was found empty,
the conspiracy theory was already put into motion.
So Matthew chapter 28, look at verse #11.
And it said this. Now when they were going,
behold, some of the watch came into the city.
Where is the watch? The guards that fell is dead.
And here they are. They're coming into the city and
showed under the chief priests all the things that were done.
And when they were assembled with the elders, and had taken
counsel, they gave large money to unto the soldiers, saying,
Say ye, his disciples came by night, and stole him away while
we slept. And if this come to the
governors ears, we will persuade him, and secure you.
So they took the money and did as they were taught.
And this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until
this day, the idea that these disciples overpowered these
trained Roman soldiers move the stone away that was sealed and
that this was what actually took place.
And there's a lot of problems with this.
First of all, as I just mentioned, these guards were
trained Roman guards. I've heard different theories
about how many were out there, but it doesn't really matter
other than the Bible says that the watch was set.
We know that these men were trained.
And in their training, what do we see?
That there should have been no reason that 11 fearful disciples
disciples and that's what they were they were fearful disciples
came and overpowered these men and took the stone rolled it
away and all that. And they said this just take
some money and just tell people that the disciples overpowered
you. Now there's a problem with this.
And that problem is, is that really they should have given
their life for not having done that which they were required to
do. But what was said of them is
listen, if this gets into the hierarchies ears, we'll take
care of it. Don't worry about anything.
We will be the ones that. Take care of it.
And it says that from that time on, it was commonly reported
among the Jews that this was what took place.
But yet this conspiracy that supposedly took place, there's
several problems with it. And one of the main problems was
this. A lot of people saw Jesus after
he resurrected. I mean, a lot of people saw
Jesus after he resurrected. He say, well, pastor, how do you
know what we know from the Gospels?
Another place that we know is from First Corinthians chapter
15. So go back to First Corinthians
15. I told you, keep that ribbon
there because we weren't going to be gone very long.
First Corinthians 15. Look again at verse #4 Actually,
let's just start at verse #1 Moreover, brethren, I declare
unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also
you have received, wherein you stand, but by which also you
were saved, or you are saved, if you keep in memory that which I
preached unto you, unless you have believed in vain.
For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also
received. How?
That Christ died for our sins. According to the Scriptures, He
was buried and He the third day according to scriptures.
So what is Paul continually appealed to?
He died according to the scriptures.
He rose according to the scriptures.
This is what the scriptures prophesied, that he would die.
This is what the scriptures prophesied that he rise again.
This is what Jesus said of his own life.
He says if you take down this Tabernacle in three days it will
rise up again. This was being spoken of.
No one, Paul is saying, should be surprised by the fact that
Jesus died for our sins and rose again, because Jesus made this
quite clear. And the story, story of the
scriptures, if you will, makes it quite clear that this was
what was to take place when you take the balance of Scriptures
together. But in going with this
conspiracy theory, go on to verse #5 it says this.
He was seen of Cephas, and then of the 12.
After that he was seen of above 500 brethren at once, of whom
the greater part remain unto this present, but some are
falling under sleep. After that he was seen of James,
then of all the apostles. And last of all he was seen of
me also as one born out of due time, meaning he saw him on the
Damascus road, one who was not with the disciples.
He was born out of due time. He was born again after that
initial ministry of Jesus Christ and sometime later after that.
But what Paul is saying here is that there are far too many
people who saw Jesus Christ to be able to say that Jesus Christ
was stolen away. On top of the fact, there's a
quote that I think is very good about this that I think really
does put it into perspective. Men will die for what they
believe to be true, though it may actually be false.
They do not, however, die for what they know is a lie.
Could you imagine the disciples knowing that they stole away
Jesus Christ? But then 10 out of 11 of those
disciples that remained ended up becoming martyrs, and John
himself was also treated very poorly and put into exile on the
Isle of Patmos. These men who knew supposedly
that this was false, we're all willing to die for that
falsehood. People don't do that.
Now, they might believe something is false and die for,
but not knowingly understanding that they have perpetuated this
lie. And so we would reject this
conspiracy theory out of hand. Obviously, there's also the
swoon theory. Now, the swoon theory may be one
of my favorites and my favorites.
I don't mean that I agree with it, but it just is so outlandish
that it's hard to even really take seriously.
The swoon theory suggests that the cool, damp air of the tomb
somehow revived Jesus after three days and he decided to
exit. Despite not having access to
desperately needed medical care and nourishment, Jesus managed
to unwrap his dressings and then, in total darkness of the
tomb, locate and roll away the stone sealing the tomb entrance.
Still unnoticed by the guards, Jesus walked away on feet
punctured by cross nails to rejoin the disciples.
The idea that just being in that cool dark area revived him
again. Now there are so many problems
with this theory. I don't know that if we took the
whole 50 minutes or so of Sunday school to address them all that
we could properly do so. May I remind you that Jesus was
beaten to bloody shreds by a whip that was used by the Roman
guards? That cat of nine tails that
would have had pieces of glass or bone or metal inside of it
that was designed to embed in the flesh and then pulled across
to RIP flesh into shreds. Jesus had spikes driven through
his hands and his feet and he hung bleeding there for six
hours. The Romans thrust a spear into
Jesus side to confirm that he was dead.
Remember, they were surprised that Jesus was already dead.
And So what did they do? They thrust the spear in the
side and the liquid came out, the blood in the water.
So he wasn't just pierced in his hands and his feet, but he also
had the piercing in his side as well.
Jesus was prepared for burial with the the wrapping in the
spices, which would have had probably up to 20 lbs or maybe
even more of all of that. The heavy rock was in place of
the train. Roaming guards were vigilantly
guarding the entrance. And then after all that, he
walked several miles to a place called Emmaus to talk to two
believers who were there. Supposedly he did all of this
while he was in this state. Here's where we have to kind of
stop ourselves and admit this for a moment.
The world will say anything to deny the fact of who Jesus
Christ is and what Jesus Christ did.
They would say that we're outlandish for believing that
Jesus Christ rose from the dead, but they would think that a
swoon theory is just, well, something that, you know, kind
of makes sense. Well, it doesn't make any sense
unless you're trying to deny that, which is very obvious
right in front of you. And so there is that swoon
theory as well. There's a hallucination theory
that asserts that many people who saw Jesus Christ resurrected
just imagined it. They were under duress.
They were under stress, and as such, they just imagined that
Jesus Christ rose from the dead. Now there's a major problem with
this. You know, you can have a
hallucination and I can have a hallucination, but we can't have
a hallucination together. Do you understand what I'm
saying? The hallucinations don't happen
jointly. Could you imagine 11 disciples
all hallucinating the same thing at the same time in the upper
room? Could you imagine 500 people
hallucinating the same thing at the same time as they saw Jesus
Christ resurrected? There's absolutely no reason
that anyone should believe that that is the case, that
hallucinations are not corporate, they're personal.
How did so many people hallucinate the same thing at
the same time and give the same testimony of that which they had
seen? And if that was the case, let's
say they hallucinated the fact that Jesus rose from the dead,
then the real question is the where's the body?
Because if they're hallucinating these risen for the dead, that
means the body was still there. And the testimony of even the
unbelievers of that time was what?
That Jesus body is gone. That you have to have some
explanation for the fact of where Jesus body is.
So we take that out of hand as well.
There's the impersonation theory, the fact that those
appearances weren't really Christ, but there was someone
impersonating him. Once again, that still leaves
the problem of where the body would be.
There's no explanation. You know what that would be.
I would say also the disciples were very reluctant to even
believe it was Jesus at 1st, and Jesus beckoned them to examine
him. Jesus had no problem telling
Thomas to put his hands into his feet and put his hands in his
finger into his hands and into his side.
Jesus had no problem with close inspection.
I think of Jesus who was in an intimate setting with the
disciples by the seaside. When Peter and others said I go
a fishing and they were close by together, there was no way that
it could be an impersonation that took place in any way,
shape or form. Again the the travellers to
Emmaus, at first they were blinded to the understanding of
who Jesus was. But then when Jesus prayed, it
says in Luke chapter 24 that when he prayed, their eyes were
opened and they realized, wow, this was Jesus and he was gone.
And so we would reject that as well.
There's the spiritual resurrection theory, the idea
that Jesus's resurrection was not a physical resurrection, but
really it was just more spiritual.
It was more metaphorical. It really was a story about
something else. And you can apply the principles
to something else, but this didn't really happen physically.
Now, this appeals to a lot of people because it appeals to
their philosophical side, the idea that well, sure, there's a
story to be told here in the resurrection, new birth, new
life, but it's not as if that's really true.
It's really more allegorical than anything.
Again, that almost sounds reasonable to a certain extent,
but there's only one problem. The Bible doesn't present it
that way. The Bible does not present this
as allegory. The Bible does not present this
as a story that is meant to represent something else.
Jesus himself did not speak of a spiritual resurrection that had
nothing to do with the physical. Jesus promised that he would
return physically in Acts chapter 1, and we won't turn
there right now, but we could to Acts chapter 1 where Jesus made
it very clear that as he was to ascend into heaven is he was
going to come back. And what's the term?
In like manner, the idea is that this was physical.
Now, was there a spiritual element to the resurrection?
Of course there was. We're not denying that's the
case. Of course, what happened
spiritually there was of great importance, but yet to try to
make it into something that was not physical, again, to try to
appeal to the deniers and the skeptics of who Jesus is, is not
what we should be doing as believers.
And again, what happened to the body, what you know, what took
place to even die on the cross? These are questions that those
people could not answer. So to summarize how Paul talks
about the bodily resurrection this chapter, we could put it
this way. Some are saying there's nothing
after death. If that's true, then Christ
didn't raise from the dead. And if that's true, we're false
witnesses. And if that's true, our faith is
worthless. And if that's true, there's no
hope. You see what happens when you
start pulling on that thread, that you start pulling on it.
And again, we try to appeal, and I'm not saying we as in those
who are in this room, but we try to appeal to the skeptics and
the nonbelievers. We would do much better to just
cling, Cling and claim to what the Bible says and let the chips
fall where they may instead of trying to appeal to those who
are unbelievers. Because if we do so and try to
change what the Word of God says to appeal to them, what we end
up doing is really taking away from the supremacy of Scripture.
And we're trying to explain away the Scripture and telling people
they need to believe the plain reading of the Word of God.
Now, why was the resurrection necessary?
Now, we've talked about all these crazy theories here and
again, we've reviewed these in the past, but they're certainly
worth reviewing again here this morning.
But why was the resurrection necessary?
There are several reasons for it this morning.
You're good to write these down if you need to here this
morning. The 1st is this because God
always keeps His word? Why is the resurrect?
That's a good time for that, Ralph.
All right. Why is the resurrection
necessary? Because God always keeps His
word. The most basic of all arguments
of why the resurrection was necessary is because what God
promised that it would occur. You can go all the way to
Genesis chapter 315. I know we've looked there
before. We won't look again this
morning, but you could look there and see that even in the
very beginning, when it says I will put enmity between thee and
the woman, between thy seed and her seed, remember that
mentioning of her seed is very unusual.
Really, it points to the virgin birth between thy seed and her
seed. It shall bruise thy head, and
thou shalt bruise his heel. Now, with our understanding,
with the light that we have received, we look all the way
back to Genesis 315 and realize even in the garden.
And maybe we could put it this way on mankind's worst day.
There was still hope in the gospel on mankind's worst day,
when when we see the sin of Adam and Eve laid bare before us.
There was still hope in the gospel.
And God has continually brought these references to the
resurrection throughout God's Word, Psalm 18, Psalm 22, Isaiah
53, which Lord will and will read this morning during the
morning service. And then even if you were to go
to Acts chapter 2, and I think of Brother Sandy last week, as
he was going through Acts chapter 2 in our morning worship
time, he pointed back to all of those references that that David
wrote from the Psalms. And he's pointing to them and
trying to show the people of Israel that the death and the
resurrection of Jesus Christ was on the mind of God.
Even in the Old Testament and the Scriptures that they say
they held so, so tightly to really prophesied and told that
which happened right before them.
God keeps His word. Turn to Matthew chapter 12 very
quickly. Why don't you do that Matthew
chapter #12. And.
We'll go to verse #38 we'll make mention of this on Friday as
well because of the certainty of the three days and three nights.
But look at verse #38 Matthew chapter 12, verse #38 it says
this. Then certain of the scribes of
the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from
thee. But he answered and said unto
them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign,
and there shall be no sign given to it, but the sign of the
prophet Jonas. 4 As Jonas was 3 days and three nights in the
whale's belly, so shall the Son of Man be 3 days and three
nights in the heart of the earth, a literal 3 day and three
night period. Jesus says, I'm not going to
give you a sign, but if you really want a sign, it will
come. And this is what it is, is that
there will be 3 days and three nights where the Son of Man will
be in the heart of the earth. And by proxy, that helps us
understand that from that time, after the three days and three
nights, there would be what? A resurrection.
So if Jesus did not, there was no resurrection, then Jesus was
a liar. Because this is just one example
of the many examples of which Jesus Christ had said.
We understand this from the Bible.
We understand this from prophecy.
What was the standard of the prophet in the Old Testament?
If he was mistaken once, then God wasn't speaking through him.
That was the standard. Why do we hold the Word of God
to the standard of perfection? There are people that would say,
well, it really doesn't matter if the Bible is perfect or not.
It does matter and here's why. Because the Bible says it's
perfect. And so it does matter if it's
perfect or not because we hold it to the standard of which it
holds itself. We hold the profit to the
standard of which it holds itself.
What do we look at? Jesus in his life.
He, His Word, and He Himself as the Word, made clear that there
would be a resurrection. And because of that, we hold
this to be true. And when we try to go backwards
and try to moderate what we believe so to be able to placate
those who deny the Word of God, we get ourselves in trouble.
This Word of God has to be perfect, and every word that
Jesus spoke as the Word of God must be perfect as well.
Listen, Jesus is not a meteorologist.
He doesn't get to be right 50. Percent of the time.
Would you like to have that job? I think man, he.
Could be wrong all the time they get paid more than all of us
isn't that great? It's it's just baked into the
cake that they're going to be wrong most of the time.
That's not the way the word of God works.
That's not the way Christ in his words as the living word works,
God keeps his word. That's why the resurrection is
necessary #1 but it's not just because it is because God keeps
His word, but #2 because the resurrection proves His deity.
The resurrection proves that word.
Deity means that He is God. The resurrection proves that He
is God. Romans chapter 1 verses 3 and 4
say this concerning His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, which was
made of the seed of David according to the flesh, and
declared to be the Son of God with power according to the
spirit of holiness, by the resurrection of the dead.
So what's being said here? That the stamp of approval once
again on Jesus Christ and his deity is the fact that he rose
from the dead. Why?
Because we can't raise ourselves from the dead.
People would try and they could make what's mankind trying to
do, trying to extend his life. They go through cryogenics and
these kind of things that are out there today.
What are they doing? They're desperately trying to
extend their life. They're going through treatments
in this life. They're going through treatments
in the afterlife in the sense of after their body is considered
dead or right before it's considered.
I guess it would have to be after scissors dead to go into
cryogenic freezing and all these different things a mankind in
vain wants to extend. But who's the only one that has
power of life? He does and that's why the
resurrection is so important. His resurrection was the
authentication. He was God.
Only God, the creator of life could accomplish such a feat.
You know, it's interesting. I think one of the greatest
proofs of the resurrection is found in the Book of Revelation
as it deals with the deity of Christ.
Because what is Satan interested in doing during the tribulation
period He's interested in at that 3 1/2 year period,
mimicking the very resurrection that the Antichrist also wants
to show that he can resurrect as well.
And of course, we understand that that is not, there'll be
smoke and mirrors more than anything.
But the idea is, is that what God has done?
Satan always loves to copy. Satan loves to copy that which
God does. And of course it's always a
cheap imitation, but that's what is the case.
And think of all the deities that are worshipped in the world
today, but only Christ has resurrected from the dead.
There's a song that I've heard sung before, but I, I like the
sentiment of it. It says I walk by the tomb of
Buddha. Looked inside and saw his bones.
Traveled on to see Muhammad still wrapped up in his grave
clothes. Then I journeyed to a garden
where old Joseph left him lay. The precious Lamb.
God's own begotten was no longer in that grave.
If you knew him like I know him. You know He's alive if you felt
Him, like I feel him resurrection deep inside you
know He's living and death has died.
Jesus deity is proved by the resurrection #3 it also proves
His power. The resurrection proves the
power of Jesus Christ. We often use the term, you'll
hear me say that Jesus Christ has power over death and the
grave. Again, mankind does not have
power over death and the grave. Only God has that power and He
has that power. Revelation one, verse 18 I am he
that liveth and was dead, and I'm alive forevermore, Amen.
And have the keys of hell and death.
Who holds those keys? That would be Jesus Christ even
in First Corinthians 1555. We'll go back and read more of
First Corinthians 15 in the second, but it says, O death,
where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
The hope of the resurrection is real.
Why? Because of the power of God, a
power of which we do not possess.
And again, if he couldn't raise himself from the dead, then how
would he have the power to save us?
And that's what Paul is arguing in our original text in first
Corinthians chapter 15. If he doesn't have that kind of
power, then. Well, we're of all men most
miserable. The power of God.
Compared to the power of man can't even be explained that
there's no parallel that I can give you to be able to explain
to you the power of God versus the power of man.
You know, I, I think of the power of their studies.
I think I've told you this before about the power of the
Apollo 11 computer versus the power that you have in your
iPhone. Somewhere along the line, it's
been said that there's 100,000 times more computing power in
this phone that all of us have in our pockets just about then
there was the Apollo 11. I can't fathom that, but that's
the case. But that doesn't explain it.
I think of the power of which comes from one of these light
bulbs up here, which now, because they're LEDs are
probably what, 1315 watts, something like that.
Compare that power to the power of the sun.
That's a huge gap, much larger than the Apollo 11 to an iPhone.
But that gap doesn't explain it. I think of the power of our sun,
which according to what we're told is one of the smaller stars
compared to some of those very giant ones that would dwarf our
sun. And that doesn't explain it.
The power of man compared to the power of God.
I'll tell you, you want to get your brain smoking like, you
know, the gears just could, you know, start to smoke after a few
minutes. Just just dwell on that,
meditate on that, how powerful our God is.
That God is so powerful that he could take death and resurrect.
It's amazing. It's absolutely incredible that
the resurrection proved the power you can trust Christ to
have the power to give us life after death.
There's nobody else with that kind of power to accomplish that
kind of job. There's so many that on their
deathbed recognize and realize maybe not perhaps that Christ
was real, but they recognize their way of living was wrong.
I love reading. I don't know, maybe that love
reading is the best way of putting it, but I take interest
in reading the stories of those right is about they're about to
pass and you see the stories of believers who pass with great
peace. I've sat at the bedside of
believers who at this church die with great peace and comfort in
their last moments. But then you read of those who
reject Christ in those last moments.
They may not realize they needed Christ, but they realized that
their way was not the right way and there was nothing that they
could do in that moment. And you realize Christ has the
power to be able to resurrect. What great comfort that we have
from that. That's why First Thessalonians,
we read the fact that we don't sorrow as other people sorrow.
Those who have no hope of the fact that there is going to be
that time, that great resurrection that will take
place, and that we will be reunited with those who have
called upon Christ as their Savior.
That when Christians have funerals, it's not the same as
the world's funerals. Why?
Well, because we know Christ has the power to resurrect.
I've told you the story before, one of the very first funerals
that I was a part. Of as a.
Minister I didn't do anything in the funeral, but I went with
Brother Turner to a funeral in Florida and he asked me if I
wanted to go along with him to be able to observe.
And it was a very difficult funeral.
There was a an accident that took place and there's a young
woman who died. She was in her 20s.
And there was some suspicion about the boyfriend who was in
the car as well. Nothing was proven, but yet you
could tell the animosity that was there.
You could feel and you could cut it with a knife.
And I remember the family as they looked at this woman who
had been cut down very early in life.
And as a pastor, I typically if there's an open casket, we, we
try not to have the family there when the casket closes it.
It's something that it's best that the family does not
observe. But this family wanted to be
able to be there when the casket was closed, to be able to have
the pallbearers take to the hearse, to be able to go to the
graveside. And I'll remember this for the
rest of my life. And I was probably no more than
23 years old. So, you know, 3 or 4 weeks ago,
right? But I was no more than 23 years
old or so. And I will never forget for my
life as that casket closed, the scream that came from her sister
to know that she wasn't going to see her sister again.
And it was as if she buckled right there.
And I remember Pastor Turner coming to be able to to help
her, to assist her from literally falling down on the
ground because she knew in that moment there was no hope,
because there was no power in the way that they had believed.
But it is true that when you see the death of the brethren, and
of course we sorrow when believers die because we'll miss
them for now, but we know we'll be reunited.
I think of my own mother when she passed away here in
Massachusetts here several years ago now.
And then we flew to Florida, flew her body to Florida and,
and I did the funeral, had several people tell me you
really shouldn't do the funeral. And I thought I have to, it's my
mom. I felt a solemn obligation to be
able to do so. And it was a sad day.
It was one of the hardest days of my life.
But I will tell you this, there was a piece as I stood before
those people to be able to tell them, many of them Lutherans,
that I had known when I was younger, to be able to preach
the gospel and say to her, this woman is with Jesus today by her
profession of faith that she knew Jesus Christ not because of
a Lutheran Church, not because of a Baptist Church, not because
of anything else, but because she had accepted Christ as her
personal Savior. And I made sure of that.
I talked to her about that. The power of Christ, it proves
His power. Acts 224.
Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death,
because it was not possible, he should be holding of it.
Can we put it this way? Death couldn't hold him down.
Death couldn't hold down Jesus Christ.
He has the power over death, and death has died, if you will.
Because of Jesus Christ. And This is why this next week
is so exciting for us to be able to remember that which Jesus
Christ did. It proves His power.
And then 4th and finally this morning, Why is it necessary?
Why? Why is the resurrection
necessary? Because it is necessary for
salvation. The understanding of of the
resurrection, the fact that Jesus Christ resurrected is
necessary for salvation. Again, if there was no
resurrection, we have no hope. That's so clear in First
Corinthians chapter 15. Go to Acts chapter 4.
Now Acts chapter 4. It's good to get our Bibles a
little bit of exercise here. Acts chapter 4 verse #10 Acts
chapter 4 verse 10 says this, Be it known unto all, to you all,
and to all the people of Israel, the that by the name of Jesus
Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from
the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you hold.
I love the boldness of Peter here.
What a difference once the Spirit is in his life and what a
difference when he is allowing his Spirit to work through him.
He says you have crucified him. He has no problem naming names
here, does he? You've crucified, but whom?
What God raised from the dead by him does this man stand before
you hold? Speaking of the miracle that
took place in the previous chapter of the man who was
sitting by the gate and who received the ability to walk
through the power of God, verse 11.
This is the stone which is said it not of you builders.
Which has become the head of the corner.
Now that goes back to Psalm chapter 18, verse #22 and Peter
will also refer to this in his epistles as well.
Peter was very clear that Jesus was the cornerstone, that He was
not the cornerstone. He said, why is that important?
Well, the Catholic Church would tell you that Peter was the
cornerstone of the Church, but Jesus was very cool rather.
Well, Jesus was clear who the cornerstone was, and Peter was
under no pretense of who the cornerstone was, because he
referred to the Old Testament. He repeated here in the New
Testament, and then also in his own epistle said it as well.
But look at verse 12. Neither is there salvation in
any other, for there is none other name under heaven given
among men whereby we must be saved.
And where does that all link with the fact that He was
crucified and that He rose from the dead?
The resurrection is a necessary element of the gospel message.
You take out the crucifixion, you ruin the gospel message.
You take out the perfection of Christ before the crucifixion,
you ruin the gospel message. You take out the resurrection of
Christ, you ruin the gospel message.
It is necessary for salvation. Peter understood this.
Paul understood this. You go to Romans chapter 10
where it makes it clear that we must call upon Christ to save
us. The risen Savior is the one who
we call upon. Now go back.
To First Corinthians chapter #15.
Now I want to read those last few verses with you.
We can't cover all of First Corinthians chapter 15.
I'd encourage you. It's a great chapter to read
this week. You might need to take it in a
couple bites because it is a larger chapter, but it'll be a
great chapter to read. Running up to Easter Sunday
verse #51 says this. Behold, I show you a mystery.
We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a
moment, in a twinkling of an eye, at the last trump.
For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised
incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and as mortal must
put on immortality, so when this corruptible shall have put on
incorruption, and as mortal shall have put on immortality,
then shall be brought to pass. The saying that is written,
death is swallowed up in victory.
Victory, O death, where is thy sting?
O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, the
strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God which
giveth us the victory. Through our Lord.
Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren,
be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the
Lord. For as much as you know your
labor is not in vain in the Lord.
So is death real. It is real, but it's sting has
been taken away. Is the grave real?
Yes, but it's victory has been taken away.
Why? Because of the resurrection of
Jesus Christ. And there will be another
resurrection, that we will be risen and we will be changed and
we have glorified bodies and we won't deal with the problems of
these bodies. And probably all God's children
say Amen about that. I got up out of bed last night
and I started stooping over like this and my wife made some kind
of comment made me feel real bad about how old I was.
But I thought, you know what a glorified body sounds pretty
good. Amen.
That we don't deal with the difficulties and the aches and
the pains and even going to to Revelation and 21 and 22 and
considering the glories of heaven and what it is, why the
resurrection is what helps us ensure that this is the case.
And that's why it says in verse #58 therefore.
If you were. To summarize the entire chapter,
this this great defense that Paul gives.
Of the resurrection, because remember, there were people who
are already doubting the resurrection in his time.
People are already doubting it. He says, therefore, my beloved
brethren, be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in
the work of the Lord, for as much as you know that your labor
is not in vain in the Lord, you say, well, pastor, what does
that have to do with the rest of the chapter?
Well, let me give you this and we'll be done because of the
resurrection. Stay strong because of the
resurrection, Stay strong, be steadfast, be unmovable, abound
in the work of the Lord. Because of the resurrection, we
can stay fast and where we are because of that resurrection, we
can move forward in the work in which He's called us to do.
Remember Acts chapter one, verse 8?
And ye shall receive power to do what?
To go to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the uttermost parts of
the earth. That is true for us today.
We've received that power, and we could call it resurrection
power, if you will, that has been given to us.
For as much as you know, your labor is not in vain in the Lord
as we work for the Lord, as we serve the Lord, as we do what
the Lord has called us to do. The same Lord who had the power
to resurrect and is the same Lord who wants to empower you to
do his work. That's a great promise for us.
You know, if I said to you, maybe you're in a difficult
situation and I'd say to you, why stand behind you?
That might give you courage and it might not depending on the
situation. I don't know.
But it's as if Jesus Christ is saying, as you serve me, I stand
behind you and I stand with you. That ought to encourage the
believer, that ought to embolden the believer, that empowers the
believer to continue to do that which God has called us to do.
Is the resurrection necessary? Oh yes, Oh yes.
The world wouldn't say so, but we know that it is.
Why? Because God keeps his word,
because the resurrection proves his deity, it proves his power,
and because the resurrection is necessary for salvation.
Thank you for listening to the sermon from the pulpit of
Liberty Baptist Church. If this message was a blessing
to you, or if there's any way we can serve you, please let us
know by contacting us at info@mylibertybaptist.org.
Or you can visit us this Sunday at 800 Washington St. in Easton,
MA. May the Lord bless you as you
grow in His Word.