Markham Baptist Church Sermon


Markham Baptist Church 110 Church Street Markham ON L3P 2M4

Preached in Markham Baptist Church, April 11, 2004.

1 Corinthians 15:12-22

RESURRECTION:
WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE?

Nora wanted the cup with the cowboy on it. I handed her the cup with the butterfly on it. “No daddy, I want the cup with the cowboy on it.” But they are both the same size cups, they are pretty much identical. What difference does it make?

I was showing John how to cut the grass, saying, “When you cut the grass you want to go along parallel with the driveway, not the house.”

“Why dad?” he asks, “What difference does it make?”

Our son Mark will only eat President's Choice© chocolate chip cookies – he will not eat homemade chocolate chip cookies, he will not eat Nabisco© chocolate chip cookies.

We’ve asked him a million times, what difference does it make? What difference does it make?

It’s a classic human question. In fact, it is a question that Paul faced in the first century concerning the resurrection. I wonder if it's not a question that some of you are asking on this Easter morning. What difference does it make that Jesus rose from the dead? What does it change in our world and in our existence that Jesus rose from the dead? What difference does it make?

This is the question that the Corinthians are asking. And one that Paul answers for us in the 15th chapter of his first letter to that church - 1 Corinthians 15:12-22.

What difference does it make that Jesus rose from the dead? Paul answers the question with a series of negatives beginning with verse 14: “If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless.”

That is, if Christ has not been raised then we have nothing really to say to the world. What do we have to offer to the world if Christ has not been raised from the dead? How would our faith be any different say from that of the people of Islam? Or the Jew, or the Buddhist? We really don’t have anything to say if Christ has not been raised from the dead.

You may say, “Well we still have the Sermon on the Mount. All the great moral teachings of Jesus. Surely those stand on their own without the resurrection."

No they don’t. Think for a moment: Jesus began the sermon on the Mount saying, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, the people who realize that they cannot live life on their own and depend on God – theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

Now, think, if Jesus didn’t rise from the dead then that message isn’t true. It means that the world is right that the aggressive and proud are the ones we should emulate because they are the ones who will be victorious in the end.

Oh well, another will say, we still have the writings of Paul – 1 Corinthians 13: “Everyone loves to quote that beautiful passage about love. "Now these three remain, faith hope and love, but the greatest of these is love.” We really don’t need a risen Saviour to prove that.

NO! If Jesus didn’t rise from the dead all of that is simply sentimental nonsense. Love isn’t strong at all - might makes right.

We have nothing to proclaim to the world – no truth - if Jesus Christ has not been raised from the dead. In fact Paul says in verse 15 of our text if Jesus has not been raised from the dead then we are out and out liars!

But, if Christ has been raised from the dead then we have the most dynamic, life-changing message the world has ever known. And this certainly is the case.

So we can respectfully ask people – “Show me Mohammed.” The reply has to be – well we can’t he’s dead, but you can read his book. Or we can ask, “Show me Confucius,” and the reply has to be – “Well we can’t, he’s dead. But you can read some of his writings.”

But when people ask us, “Show us Christ,” we don’t need to hesitate – we don’t need to stutter – we can say with all certainty that Jesus is alive and because He lives, you can read His book with the assurance that every word He speaks is true!

Not only this about our proclamation it proves Jesus’ words true – but the resurrection gives us a boldness in our proclamation. There is a vitality and life to the message that we proclaim because Jesus is alive.

You know, people say, "Give us some evidence that Christ rose from the dead. Prove to us that the disciples didn’t take the corpse of the dead Jesus and make this whole thing up. Prove to us that the people who saw Jesus in his resurrection body were not hallucinating," – as if 500 people (see I Corinthians 15:6) could have the same hallucination – but they say, "Prove to us the resurrection."

And we point a steady finger to the early disciples – and say, look for yourselves at that quivering, shivering, frightened group of followers who during and after the crucifixion run away and hide.

What do you think transformed this timid bunch of fishermen into a group of bold proclaimers of Christ? There can only be one answer – they came face to face with the risen Lord. He met them in the room in which they were hiding and Jesus said to them – “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.”

And so they went – to the ports and the countryside, to the synagogues and town squares, to the prisons and the palaces. They went everywhere and they refused to be stopped. Their message all through the world was – He was dead but now He’s alive!”

Wouldn’t it be great if it could happen again? If you haven’t been praying for a fresh passion for Christ, if you haven’t been praying that we as a church would be energized by the truth that Jesus is alive – the old fashioned word is revival – if you haven’t been praying for it – start!

Well how do we get this energy, how do get this boldness in proclamation? - you have a vision of the risen Lord, victorious in all his majesty. You realize that he is the one who was once dead but is now alive for evermore!

You see it makes a difference – Christ’s resurrection makes a difference to our proclamation – we can trust His words to be true, and we can proclaim the message with boldness.

So Paul says, “If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless.”

But there is also this, says Paul - There is a difference in our faith. Again in verse 14: "If Christ has been raised, our preaching is useless so is your faith."

If Christ has not been raised then everything that you have placed your hope in, everything that you have believed in about Jesus Christ is just a sham. If he hasn’t been raised from the dead.

But if he has been raised from the dead – then we can have a steadfast faith in His presence. His resurrection means that Jesus Christ is still alive, He is still around, still available. The one who welcomed children, sinners and societies cast offs is still alive today and still welcomes such people. The one who elevated women to a place of honour and respect is still alive today and still regards women with the same degree of respect. The one who healed the leper and raised the dead is still alive today and seeks to bring His healing power into our lives.

He has been raised from the dead and we can thus have faith in His presence in our lives.

Oh what strength it brings to everyone of us. Think of all that we face in life.

To every one of you the resurrection of Jesus makes a difference, for He now is alive and He says to us all “fear not; I am alive. I am with you, nearer to you than hands or feet, nearer to you than the closest earthly friend, I am with you, I am with you always. I am with you whatever comes.”

So whatever your task, whatever your duty, what ever your responsibility, fear not. Go to that task, go to that responsibility without hesitating, for His divine presence is with you.

And isn’t it true, because we serve a risen Saviour – we have a certainty of faith. We can say with Paul – I know. I know. "I know whom I have believed and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day." (I Timothy 1:12)

We can be certain of His presence, and we can be certain that His promises are true. Because He rose from the dead, we know that His promises are alive and still relevant. And for those of you who don’t know Christ they are still offered to you today,

“Come to me all who are weary and find life difficult and I will give your rest.” It is still as true today as the day it was spoken because Jesus has risen from the dead.

"I am the door, if anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture." That is still as true today as the day it was spoken because Jesus has risen from the dead.

"Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled neither let them be afraid." O what peace is ours because our Lord has risen from the dead, to know that one who gave Himself for you and me and now sits at God’s right hand interceding on our behalf brings great peace to everyone who believes.

What difference does it make that Jesus rose from the dead? It makes a difference in our faith. It is because we serve a risen Saviour that we have certainty in our faith in His presence and His promises.

What difference does it make that Jesus rose from the dead? It makes a difference to our proclamation. It makes a difference to our faith. And then this. What difference does it make that Christ rose from the dead – Paul says in verse 17 that it makes a difference in our standing before God. He says “If Christ has not been raised your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.”

What is the thought behind this? Well, Jesus said that He had come to seek and save the lost. How was He going to save the lost? By dying for them upon the cross. He would die the death we were to die. Scripture says that the penalty for sin is death.

And what if the cross was the end of it, what if He died on the cross and then was buried and that was it? It would mean that God did not accept the sacrifice, it would mean that you and I are still lost in our sins, that we have not been proclaimed righteous in God’s eyes.

But Jesus Christ did rise from the dead and that means that God did accept His sacrifice, the penalty was paid in full, the legal claim of sin has now been met. And so now clearly, Jesus Christ is free from the penalty, having paid it and now He lives forever more. And so it is with all those who believe in Him.

So Paul writes, in Romans 8:33 and 34: "Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus who died, - and then he adds triumphantly - more than that, who was to life – is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us..”

The apostle is saying that Jesus Christ has delivered a knock down blow to sin. We cannot be condemned because Christ died in our stead, and Paul puts a double force on it when he says, “More than that, who was raised to life.” His resurrection proves that the sacrifice was accepted and we are free from the penalty of sin.

So if Satan should come to you and say, “What about your sin? Surely you are condemned,” you say, “Jesus died for it.”

And if Satan should come a second time and say, “What about your sin? Surely you are condemned,” you say, “Jesus lives, and His life is the assurance of my being cleansed from my sin; for if the penalty had not been paid He would still be dead.”

What difference does the resurrection of Jesus Christ make? It makes a difference in our proclamation, it makes a difference in our faith, it makes a difference in our standing before God, and finally this it makes a difference as we face death.

Paul says in verse 18, and 19, "Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ we are to be pitied more than all men."

He is saying if this life is all there is, then we are completely nuts to give our lives to Christ Jesus and the outside world has every right to shake their heads at us in pity. I mean, we would be fools to let ourselves be even slightly inconvenienced for the sake of the faith if it only had to do with this life.

But Christ has been raised and this makes a difference in the way we face death. The fear of death is gone, we now understand that what awaits us is not a dark nothing but a life, rich and full.

Do you know what we read in Hebrews 2:15 it says there that Jesus Christ came to “free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.” And at Easter we always recall those first words that Jesus uttered when he returned from death, “Fear not.”

The dreaded horror of that unknown no longer has dominion over us. Jesus has taken the sting out of death by demonstrating that death is not the end but the beginning. We put our faith in the Risen Lord who promised, “Whoever believes in me will live even though he dies.”

Dr. James Kennedy tells of a time when he was telling of his faith in Jesus to a man who did not believe in Jesus Christ. Dr. Kennedy questioned him, “You don’t’ believe that Jesus Christ is alive from the dead? “No I don’t” said the man.

“Well then I challenge you to invite Him to come in and take over your life, to become the Lord and Master and Savior of your soul.” “But He is dead,” he complained.

“If He is dead, then nothing will happen, But if He is alive, then, well, everything will happen.”

And Dr. Kennedy says he’ll never forget it, as the two of them sat on the couch in his living room, and the man began to pray, eyes wide open, saying, “O Christ if you are there, if you are alive from the dead, then come into my heart and save me.”

And suddenly he leapt to his feet, he asked, “What did you do to me?” "I didn’t do anything to you."

He put his hand on the back of his neck and said, “The hair is standing up on the back of my neck. What happened to me? I feel different."

"You just asked the risen Christ to come into your life." And then Kennedy quoted our Lord, “Behold I stand at the door and knock: If any man open that door I will come in to him."

And that’s the ultimate test isn’t it? I mean if someone were to ask you "What difference does it make that Jesus is risen from the dead?" you could say "It makes a difference in my proclamation – it makes a difference in my faith, it makes a difference in my standing before God, it makes a difference in my view of death."

But more than all this – it makes a difference in me – in fact it makes all the difference in the world for He once was dead but now He is alive in me forevermore.