Christ is Risen, 1 Corinthians 15:3-8

Easter Sunday, 2013

Shiloh Lutheran Church 

I heard Benedict Groeschel tell of attending an Easter sunrise service. The setting was beautiful, at the top of a cliff overlooking the ocean, almost the ideal place to celebrate the Resurrection. But when the pastor stood up to preach, he began with these words: “It doesn’t matter whether or not Jesus truly rose from the dead.” It doesn’t matter whether or not the Resurrection really happened. This is similar to something I read from an Easter sermon a few years ago: “O my dearly beloved people, you must understand why the disciples were huddled together in the upper room, why they did not believe the women who returned with the joyous news that Jesus, our Brother and Friend, was no longer dead, but in a very real sense alive once more. It was because they, like all of us, were afraid of what was new, of God’s revelation of God’s new work among us of which we are always frightened because we, imprisoned in old prejudices, old comforts, and old conceptions of reality, naturally draw back. God wants us to reach out for the gift that God has prepared for us, to be born again, to arise from the captivity of the living death we so easily come to love, and to follow Jesus, who, in the deepest and realest sense, rose from the dead to bring us the new life we celebrate on this wonderful Easter morning” (quoted by S.M. Hutchins in Touchstone, April 2001, p. 8). It may not be true, but it’s such a wonderful thing anyway. Is this the message of Easter, that by accepting a new conception of reality we’ll be able to see that Christ is, in a very real sense, alive? Is that what makes this a “wonderful Easter morning?” Is that what we’re celebrating today?

Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 15 were prompted by problems in the church at Corinth. Most of them, in the earlier part of the letter, were related to order and unity, but now he’s concerned that some among them were undermining the doctrine of the resurrection. He says, in verse 12: “But tell me this--since we preach that Christ arose from the dead, why are some of you saying there will be no resurrection of the dead? For if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised either.” They weren’t attacking the resurrection of Christ directly, but by denying that the dead are going to be raised, they were undermining Christ’s resurrection as well. They were moving in a direction which would eventually lead them to deny the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Or, maybe they would continue to use the words, but empty them of meaning, like the preacher I quoted a few minutes ago.

Paul’s understanding of the resurrection is just the opposite of what this preacher was saying. First, he makes it clear that the resurrection of Jesus from the dead is not something new and novel. It is not “God’s new work among us,” but the fulfillment of all God has been doing since the Fall. This is why Paul stresses, twice, these words “according to the Scriptures.” He had been accused of sectarianism, of preaching a new, novel message. He’d been accused of leading people away from the hope of Israel, and he responded, over and over again, that he was not preaching a new message, but only a mystery which had been kept hidden until God chose to reveal it.

Paul told the Jews in Rome, when he arrived there as a prisoner: “It is because of the hope of Israel that I am bound with this chain” (Acts 28:20). He is bound because of the “hope of Israel,” not because of “God’s new work among us.” Christ’s death and resurrection is the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham that in his seed all nations on earth would be blessed. The gospel is the fulfillment of God’s great purpose of redemption through the ages.

The second thing to notice here is that the resurrection of Jesus is not based on a new “conception of reality.” To say that Jesus “in the deepest and realest sense, rose from the dead” is to say that He did not rise from the dead at all. Paul assumes here that Jesus’ resurrection took place in real history. If we had been there on Easter morning, we could have seen Him. We could have walked into the tomb and seen that the stone had been rolled aside. We could have seen the grave clothes lying empty in the tomb, and we could have walked over and touched them. Paul isn’t talking here about a special category of religious truth. He’s not talking about a visionary experience that the disciples had, which persuaded them that Jesus “in the deepest sense” was truly alive. They had seen Him and interacted with Him over a significant period of time.

Christ died and was buried. As far as the disciples were concerned, it was all over at that point. All their hopes about Him had been dashed to the ground. The two disciples on the road to Emmaus expressed their feelings about what had happened: “[Jesus of Nazareth] was a prophet who did wonderful miracles. He was a mighty teacher, highly regarded by both God and all the people. But our leading priests and other religious leaders arrested him and handed him over to be condemned to death, and they crucified him. We had thought he was the Messiah who had come to rescue Israel” (Luke 24:19-21). “We had thought.” But His death destroyed all that. The disciples had given up hope. They had no expectation that He was going to rise from the dead. It was all over.

But then something happened which completely changed them. These disciples who, immediately after the crucifixion were hiding out because of their fear of the Jewish leaders, were soon preaching boldly and facing death because of their certainty of the resurrection. What made the change? Do we really think they persuaded themselves to adopt a “new conception of reality” which then enabled them to convince themselves that Jesus was, “in a very real sense,” alive? No, their view was the same as Paul’s: “if Christ was not raised, then all our preaching is useless, and your trust in God is useless.... and if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless, and you are still under condemnation for your sins. In that case, all who have died believing in Christ have perished! And if we have hope in Christ only for this life, we are the most miserable people in the world” (1 Corinthians 15:14, 17-20). Without the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, there is no gospel to preach. Our faith is useless.

This is why Paul puts so much emphasis on the number of eyewitnesses who saw Jesus. He was raised, and then “he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living....” What’s his point here? Most of these eyewitnesses were still living when he wrote this letter. If the readers were in doubt about Paul’s words, they could easily speak to some of these five hundred who saw the risen Christ. And Paul himself speaks as an eyewitness. The Lord had appeared to him, not in a vision, but in the flesh. The resurrection of Christ had the support of a very large number of eyewitnesses. Anyone in doubt could go to these people and question them.

The third thing to notice here is that the resurrection of Jesus leads to more than a new perspective, free from our old prejudices and old conceptions of reality. The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead changes everything. By raising Him from the dead, God set His seal of approval on Jesus’ death “for our sins.” Paul is listing things which are “of first importance,” and he begins with this: “that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures.”

There’s a great picture of what this means in the book of Leviticus. Leviticus is one of those books where people often get bogged down in their attempts to read the Bible, because it’s full of details about the Old Testament sacrificial system. But all these things look forward to Christ, and they’ve been perfectly fulfilled in Him. Once a year, on the Day of Atonement, the High Priest would choose two goats. One of them would be sacrificed, and its blood sprinkled in the most holy place, to atone for the sins of the people. But the other goat was kept alive. Here are the instructions about the second goat: “he [the priest] is to lay both of his hands on the goat’s head and confess over it all the sins and rebellion of the Israelites. In this way, he will lay the people’s sins on the head of the goat; then he will send it out into the wilderness, led by a man chosen for this task. After the man sets it free in the wilderness, the goat will carry all the people’s sins upon itself into a desolate land” (Leviticus 16:21-22). The first goat gives us a picture of sin being paid for, and the second (which is called the scapegoat) gives us a picture of our sins being carried far away “into a desolate land.” This is what the Psalmist has in mind when he says “He has removed our rebellious acts as far away from us as the east is from the west” (Psalm 103:12). He’s sent them far away, into a desolate land.

One of the main points of the letter to the Hebrews is that everything in the Old Testament sacrificial system points forward to Christ: “The old system in the law of Moses was only a shadow of the things to come, not the reality of the good things Christ has done for us. The sacrifices under the old system were repeated again and again, year after year, but they were never able to provide perfect cleansing for those who came to worship.... But our High Priest offered himself to God as one sacrifice for sins, good for all time. Then he sat down at the place of highest honor at God’s right hand” (Hebrews 10:1, 12). Our sin, the crushing load of debt we owed to God because of our rebellion, has been crossed out and carried into a desolate land, as far as east is from west.

Because Christ is risen from the dead, everything is different. When people talk about living in the power of the resurrection, often it’s clear that they’re thinking of something very dramatic, something that makes them feel good. But many times God carries us through periods of darkness and we’re not even aware of it. The thing that matters is not how strong we feel, but the reality of God’s strength. We don’t always feel resurrection power surging within us. William Cowper struggled with debilitating depression for most of his life. He was a friend of John Newton, the former slave trader who wrote the hymn, “Amazing Grace.” Cowper hungered for more of God, but he was often overwhelmed with a sense of his own weakness. We catch something of this in these lines:
O for a closer walk with God,

a calm and heav’nly frame,
a light to shine upon the road
that leads me to the Lamb.

But he also experienced God’s grace in the midst of his weakness. Listen to these lines that he wrote:

Sometimes a light surprises the Christian while he sings; it is the Lord, who rises with healing in his wings: When comforts are declining, he grants the soul again a season of clear shining, to cheer it after rain. In holy contemplation we sweetly then pursue the theme of God’s salvation, and find it ever new; set free from present sorrow, we cheerfully can say, “Let the unknown tomorrow bring with it what it may.”

William Cowper spent much of his life in darkness. He was plagued by fears and doubts over his salvation; more than once he was institutionalized after trying to take his life. But sometimes the light of the Lord took him by surprise and refreshed him and freed him from present sorrow, not because he persuaded himself to look at things differently, but because the risen Lord came to him in his need. But even in the darkest times, even in the times when he didn’t experience any immediate relief, the Lord kept him, and now he is in that place where there is no more sorrow or fear, and where the Lord’s presence is never hidden from him. Now he’s freed forever from the power and presence of sin, and his sense of the Lord’s presence is never clouded. If you’re discouraged and overwhelmed with a sense of your own weakness, take heart. Christ is risen. He will do what you cannot do for yourself. He is truly risen and is at the right hand of God the Father, interceding for us. The One who paid in full the debt for our sin is now living and interceding for us and has promised to be with us until the end.

As we celebrate the resurrection this morning, let’s remind ourselves of why we’re here. We’re here because God included us in this great work that He’s been carrying on since the Fall. We get caught up in the pressures of daily life, and we so easily lose sight of this. Does life sometimes seem like an intolerable burden to you? Do you sometimes lose your sense of purpose and wonder whether it’s all worth it? Take comfort in the certainty that Jesus is risen from the dead, and that if you belong to Him you are, right now, seated with Him in the heavenly places. You’ve been made part of something bigger than yourself, something beyond your wildest dreams. Jesus is risen from the dead, and we are risen with Him to new life. We’re here, also, because of our certain hope of a future resurrection. Often we don’t feel exhilarated with a sense of God’s presence, but we can rejoice in hope of sharing the glory of God, because “our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18). Whatever is happening at the moment, even if we go through terrible times of darkness, like William Cowper, we know that we are going to spend eternity in His presence, where there is no more suffering, or sorrow or death, and where He will wipe away all tears from our eyes. Christ is risen, and we will also rise from the dead with Him. And we’re here this morning because Jesus died for our sins and rose from the dead. We who were enemies have been reconciled to God, and we now have free access into His presence. When you feel weighted down with a load of guilt, when you feel unworthy to lift your eyes to heaven, remind yourself that Jesus died for our sins and is risen from the dead. Your sin has been carried far away, into a desolate land. Persuading ourselves that Jesus is “in a very real sense alive” is nothing but a psychological trick, and it will fail us in the end. It’s unbelief trying to pretend that it still believes “in a very real way.” What we need to know is the truth, and the truth is that Christ is truly risen from the dead. May God grant us a deeper realization of this truth.