[0:00] If you would open up your Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 15, it's in your New Testament, and it's on page 1142 of the Black Pew Bible in your pews in front of you.
[0:13] So 1142, and I'm going to read 1 Corinthians 15, 1 through 4. Now I would remind you, brothers and sisters, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved.
[0:36] If you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.
[0:59] May God bless the hearing of His word. When I was a boy, my family went to a relative's funeral, and I was standing with my mom as we were walking by the open gasket of our relative who had died.
[1:19] And my mom had me touch our relative's hand. And it was the first time I ever experienced corpse cold.
[1:32] I knew instantaneously, dead people stayed dead. There are some people that are brought back from the brink of death.
[1:47] They're resuscitated. Minutes go by, but somehow they're able to be brought back from the brink. The claim of the Christian faith is that Jesus Christ was dead.
[2:02] Corpse cold dead. And on the third day, He was raised from the dead. Dead people stay dead.
[2:13] Unless you're Jesus Christ. According to the Christian gospel, Jesus Christ died by crucifixion on Friday, Nisan 14.
[2:27] Nisan is the Jewish word for the month in spring. He was crucified on Friday, Nisan 14, 80-30, and was raised from the dead on Sunday, Nisan 16, 80-30.
[2:39] At the heart of the gospel of Jesus Christ are two vital claims. Christ died for our sins.
[2:53] And then He was raised from the dead on the third day. Christ died for our sins. Payment made. And Christ was raised on the third day.
[3:06] Payment accepted. Payment accepted. Both claims are absolutely necessary to make the Christian gospel good news. You remove either one, Christ's death or His resurrection, and you've got a worthless religion.
[3:27] But the gospel is this. Christ died for our sins, and was raised from the dead so that God could make a way for sinners to be rescued from His wrath and to be reconciled to Him in peace.
[3:48] The word gospel, we think of it as a religious term. But back in antiquity, back in the first century and before, it was not just a religious term. So it would be used in a military context where your army would win a battle and there would be this runner run into the town and they would announce the gospel of your army's victory.
[4:10] Or when there was the birth of an emperor, that news was announced as good news, gospel news. What you need to understand, in the first century, there were a lot of gospels.
[4:21] Just as in the 21st century. We just don't call them gospels, but we talk about them as good news. The good news of your political party that is proclaiming a hope for the future of our nation.
[4:37] The good news of the health industry. Did you know the U.S. health industry is a $5 trillion business? And there are a lot of people who are proclaiming good news for the future of your health.
[4:53] There's the gospel of hedonism that's proclaiming the hope in your next sexual encounter. There's the gospel, of course, of self. Where your hope is in yourself.
[5:08] All of these so-called gospels, though they espouse some kind of hope, they're actually hopeless. They're useless. When it comes to God's wrath, they provide no solutions.
[5:21] They just help you ignore it. Not the gospel of Jesus Christ, though. The gospel of Jesus Christ recognizes that our biggest problem as human beings is God's wrath.
[5:37] So this morning, I'm going to just unpack two parts, the two vital claims of the Christian gospel.
[5:48] That Christ died for our sins, payment made. And the second vital claim is that Christ was raised from the dead. And Christ's payment was accepted.
[6:01] If you're not a Christian in the room, what I want to show you this morning is the relevance of Christ's death and resurrection.
[6:11] You might not agree with it, but I just want to show it to you. I want you to see it. And if you're a Christian in the room, I want to help you be encouraged by the resurrection.
[6:23] Your Savior lives. He's alive. The gospel is of first importance. It's the most important message you will ever make a decision on because only the gospel gives you hope in the face of God's wrath.
[6:38] So let's look at this first vital claim of Christianity. It's in verse 3. Christ died for our sins.
[6:49] If you're here on Friday night, this is going to sound familiar, but not all of it. Christ died for our sins. For the gospel to be good news, you've got to be convinced of something.
[7:07] Sin. Sin is any thought, any feeling, any word, or deed that opposes God's holy character or opposes His perfect moral will.
[7:21] We commit sins in two ways. We commit sins by way of commission. We do what God says don't do. And omission. We don't do what God tells us to do.
[7:32] Jesus said, be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. And as soon as I say that, I'm guessing everyone in the room is saying, well, I'm not perfect.
[7:45] Well, anybody morally perfect in the room? Please raise your hand. You know, I was hoping there would be just one bold person because you know what I'd say?
[7:56] I'd ask that person, friend, do you live up to your own expectations, let alone God's? Imagine that God keeps track of your sins.
[8:09] And He keeps track of your sins with different sized black marbles. And every time you sin, whether that's omission or commission, whether that's in your head or with your mouth or with your body, you hear this plunk into a pickle barrel.
[8:28] Every one of those marbles, they're different sizes, but they're all black. And then every one is written the word wrath. Plunk. Plunk, plunk.
[8:40] You're going throughout your day. Plunk, plunk, plunk. Plunk. Could you imagine what happens in one day? How many black marbles you gain in a pickle barrel?
[8:54] How about a week? How about a month? How about a year? How about a decade? How many pickle barrels full of black marbles will you have?
[9:10] How about a lifetime? How about a lifetime? What this gets at is how much we sin. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
[9:23] And what we tend to do with all of this guilt for sin, real guilt for real sin against a real God is we tend to want to hide these pickle barrels full of black marbles.
[9:37] We want to keep them in places we don't see. We want to avoid them. We don't want to deal with them. We don't want to deal with them. But God's reaction to our sinning is far worse than a black marble.
[9:53] When we sin against a holy, eternal, just God, His reaction corresponds to that.
[10:05] He has a holy, eternal, just reaction. It's called His wrath. It's measured. It's precise.
[10:16] It's absolutely fair. Jesus talked about God's wrath in John 3, 36. He said, those who believe the Son have eternal life, but those who do not obey the Son, God's wrath remains on Him.
[10:33] In Romans 2, 5, we read this, that all those who have a hardened, penitent heart are storing up God's wrath for the day of wrath when God's judgment is revealed.
[10:44] You see, all of us, apart from Christ, we are piling up black marbles in pickle barrels. God's wrath fairly, justly stands against us.
[11:01] And the punishment for that is conscious, eternal, torment, fueled by God's wrath. The punishment fits the crime when you sin against eternal God.
[11:17] This is why there's no political good news that's going to address God's wrath. There's no economic good news that's going to help you on the day of wrath.
[11:32] There's no social, psychological good news for you. Your sin is real. God's wrath is real.
[11:44] And we've got to deal with it. God holds every one of us responsible. Do you know what our biggest problem is? God's wrath. And that's why two little words should start to sing to your soul.
[12:01] Christ died. In 1 Corinthians 15, 3, we read that Christ died for our sins.
[12:14] Christ died for our sins is really good news. It's the first vital claim of the gospel. Christ is a title. It means Messiah.
[12:25] And the Old Testament is full of prophecies of the coming Messiah. We looked at one Friday night. It was Isaiah 9, 6. You remember it. This is Christmas time. A son is given.
[12:38] A child has been born. A human being given to us. His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
[12:51] The government shall be unpunished shoulders. He's going to sit on the throne of David. His kingdom will be everlasting kingdom without no end. You see, what Isaiah 9, 6, and 7 was talking about is the coming of the Christ.
[13:03] Totally God, eternal. Totally man, sinless human being. Earlier in Isaiah 7, you will know this. He goes by a different title, Emmanuel.
[13:14] God with us. His name is Jesus. God in the flesh who lived a sinless life.
[13:28] And this perfect God-man is the perfect go-between a holy God and a sinful humanity who's piling up black marvels.
[13:41] The thing about this Emmanuel totally God, totally man is He died as a common criminal on a Roman cross.
[13:54] And the question is, why? Why would the sinless, perfect God-man die on a cross for our sins?
[14:10] When you hear those three words, for our sins, I want to put another three words in your head. Penal substitutionary atonement. Penal. Christ's death was a penalty.
[14:26] He suffered a penalty. The penalty of God's wrath. Substitutionary. He died in our place. He bore God's eternal wrath. It's atoning, which means He removed the penalty of sin by satisfying God's wrath.
[14:40] Check this out. The eternal second person of the Trinity, Jesus the Son, bore for six hours on that first Good Friday all of God's wrath for all of eternity on Himself so that there is no more wrath.
[14:56] Now, our biggest problem is God's wrath. in the good news of Jesus Christ addresses it head on.
[15:09] Payment made. He has made a way to remove all of your black marbles, all of your pickle barrels, all of it. And we're told this is in accordance with the Scriptures.
[15:27] In Isaiah 53, we have this wonderful prophecy of the coming of a suffering servant, the Christ. And that passage describes Him in the most amazing ways as a substitute.
[15:40] He would be pierced for our transgressions. On Him would be laid the chastisement that brings us peace. What this means is this.
[15:51] The death of Jesus has always been a part of God's plan. God's loving plan to rescue sinners has always, always had in mind centrally the death of His Son.
[16:08] In God's love, God has made a way to rescue sinners and remain just through the death of Jesus Christ. This is good news.
[16:20] This is the power of the cross. This is the first vital claim of the gospel. This is payment made. But I've got to ask you something.
[16:35] Can you really know? How do you know that Christ's death on the cross satisfied God's wrath for your sin?
[16:49] How can you know that? Well, let's move to the second vital claim. Payment accepted. Christ raised.
[17:04] He was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures. 1 Corinthians 15. 4. The He of He was raised, of course, is Jesus.
[17:15] Emmanuel. Totally God. Totally man. Crucified on Friday. Nisan 14. Laid in a tomb. The tomb of Joseph of Arimathea. If you touched him, corpse cold.
[17:34] No brain activity. All of his vital organs were no longer functioning. They had ceased. He would be clinically dead. The Bible is claiming very clearly He was raised.
[17:52] He was raised on Nisan 16. Where did this take place? The tomb of Joseph of Arimathea.
[18:03] This is the tomb on Good Friday. There are these women who were at the cross. They saw Jesus crucified. They saw His body brought down. They were with Joseph of Arimathea when they brought Jesus' body to the tomb.
[18:20] That's the site of the resurrection. That's the empty tomb. When? Early Sunday morning on Nisan 16. Before dawn. These three women witnessed something.
[18:34] They were coming back to prepare, finish preparing His body. and the stone that covered the entrance of the tomb had been rolled away.
[18:46] There was an angel and the angel said, what are you doing looking for the living among the dead? He's not here. He's risen.
[18:59] Not being resuscitated. not some kind of just the spirit of Jesus being raised.
[19:13] Not the good thought of Jesus being raised from the dead. Not a group hallucination of Jesus being raised from the dead. This claim is that Jesus was bodily raised from the dead.
[19:30] and dead people don't, they're supposed to stay dead. Except Jesus. How did that happen?
[19:42] Some of you in the room may say, well, that's ridiculous because dead people stay dead. Scientifically impossible.
[19:54] Being raised from the dead does not comply with the laws of nature. And you know what I would say? Spot on. This is not complying with the laws of nature.
[20:11] The bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is supernatural. It is a miracle. It is a working, miraculous working of God to raise God the Son from the dead.
[20:30] at the heart of the Christian faith are claims. And this claim of the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ is a miraculous claim.
[20:44] Now, if the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ is true, it changes everything. It's extraordinary. it's absolutely vital to the Christian gospel.
[20:56] You remove the bodily resurrection of Christ and you are left with a dead, worthless Christianity that can't do anything. But if it's true, but if the resurrection is true, if Jesus really was raised from the dead practically 2,000 years ago, what it would mean is that he is alive today.
[21:26] In 1 Corinthians 15, 5-8, if you kept on reading, the apostle Paul who wrote this, he wants to persuade us of something. Notice, I'm going to try to emphasize a repeated word.
[21:43] In verse 4, we read, and that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas. It's another name for Peter. And after he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.
[21:59] So that's another appearing. Verse 6, then he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.
[22:11] Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles he appeared. last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.
[22:24] Do you know what all this appearing is about? This is eyewitnesses. The apostle Paul is writing to this church in Corinth, and he's saying, hey, I know you've got some questions about the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
[22:36] I know 500 people that you can talk to who are alive today. I've got their cell phone numbers, I've got their email addresses, you just name it, I'll get them to them so you can talk to them.
[22:49] It's the eyewitness testimony of the risen Christ. If I were a defense attorney living in the first century and I had to defend the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ, do you know what I would do?
[23:05] I would subpoena all 500 plus witnesses. And I would just have them just take the stand one at a time. Start with Mary Magdalene. I went to the tomb early Sunday morning.
[23:19] I was expecting to find the tomb shut still. I wasn't sure how to open it up, but when I got there, stone had been rolled away and there was an angel there. I was overwhelmed.
[23:32] I started to weep. I was outside the tomb and then I heard my name spoken by Jesus.
[23:45] I dropped at his feet. I started to touch him and he said, stop touching me. Or I'd bring up Cleopas. Luke 24, one of the two who is walking away from Jerusalem with another guy and they're on their way from Jerusalem on their way to Emmaus and they were talking as they went and all of a sudden, Cleopas would say this, we were walking and a third person came up and started asking us questions about what had happened in Jerusalem and we're like, you haven't heard?
[24:17] Jesus is crucified, we thought he was the guy, we thought he was the Messiah and now it's the third day? Cleopas would go on to say, and then he started to explain to us all that was true of the Christ from the scriptures and did our hearts burn.
[24:38] We sat down to eat and it's when he broke bread that I recognized him. It was Christ and then he was gone. And then there's Thomas, doubting Thomas.
[24:53] Yeah, I definitely doubted him. I said, I got a seat with my own eyes. And then he appeared to us and he came up to me and he said, Thomas, put your finger here in my hand.
[25:09] Put your finger here where the spear went into my side. I believed on the spot. My God and my King.
[25:23] Then I'd bring the other, the 11 disciples through. Get them up on the stand. Have them share each one after another, how Jesus appeared to them, how he appeared to them in the upper room, and how he said, does anybody have anything to eat?
[25:39] And he ate broiled fish with us. You see, the Gospels go to great lengths to share eyewitness accounts of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
[25:52] And the question is, is it true? Did it happen? And it's the question that you need to answer this morning. is Jesus risen from the dead?
[26:05] Is he alive? The entirety of the Christian faith rises or falls on the miraculous bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ.
[26:16] No resurrection, no Christianity. No resurrection, no rescue from God's wrath. All of those black marbles and all of those pickle barrels still stand against us.
[26:30] In 1 Corinthians 15 17, Paul writes, if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you're still in your sins.
[26:46] What the resurrection of Jesus Christ does is it declares that the payment Christ made on the cross was fully accepted by God.
[27:00] payment received, proof of purchase, the resurrected Christ, which means this, Christ died on this on 14, payment made, Christ was raised on this on 16, payment accepted, purchase received.
[27:19] All of God's wrath for all of our sins can be completely forgiven and pardoned. we read here that he was raised on the third day.
[27:42] That phrase third day is significant. Did you know that the reason why the Christian church gathers on Sunday and not on the Sabbath Saturday is because it's the day that Jesus was raised?
[27:55] the Lord's day, the first day of the week. Every time we gather church, we're saying he's alive. And then there's Jesus' own predictions.
[28:12] In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus predicts his own death and resurrection three times. Mark 8. 31, Mark 9. 30 and 31, Mark 10.
[28:24] 33 and 34. three times before he dies and is raised. Now, if you're a skeptic in the room, you might be thinking something like this.
[28:36] Well, maybe that Gospel writer put those predictions in after the fact to make it look like Jesus fulfilled his own words because he wanted to make it look like Jesus is totally God, totally man.
[28:54] Another explanation, is this. They're accurate. That's how they were recorded because that's how it happened. That Jesus himself said three and different times that he would suffer and die and on the third day be raised from the dead.
[29:17] Do you know what that means? Jesus predicted the manner of his own death, which you're like, well, some people can do that.
[29:31] And then he predicted that he'd be raised from the dead. Nobody does that. And then he predicted the day he'd be raised from the dead. dead. What does that say about Jesus?
[29:43] He's one of a kind. Totally God, totally man, willing to give his life payment, and three days later, take it up again.
[29:54] Payment received. the gospel has these two vital claims, Christ's death and Christ's resurrection, and both are displays of God's power.
[30:12] Beyond Jesus' own prediction, his resurrection on the third day is in accordance with the Scriptures. Maybe you're aware of the Old Testament passages that speak of Christ's resurrection.
[30:27] Here are three. Psalm 1610, Psalm 1101, Isaiah 5310. But Jesus himself points to Jonah chapter 117.
[30:39] Jonah chapter 2 verse 1. Jesus himself in Matthew 12 points to Jonah, a book of the Old Testament. And he says that Jonah was in the belly of the whale three days and three nights.
[30:54] It's a sign of the Son of Man being in the belly of the earth three days and three nights. You see, what Jesus is saying is, my death and my resurrection is in accordance with the Scriptures.
[31:10] Which means not only Christ's death is part of God's plan, but Christ's resurrection is part of God's plan to rescue sinners from his wrath in order to reconcile them to himself in peace.
[31:23] There's no other gospel. There's no other good news. You cannot find refuge and help from God's wrath in anything else. The gospel is God's power unto salvation.
[31:39] God's salvation. God's salvation. God's salvation. God's salvation. God's God's God's salvation. God's salvation. We've looked at these two vital claims of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
[31:59] Let's close by applying it. Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures and Christ has been raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures.
[32:14] Both display God's love and power to rescue sinners from his wrath and to reconcile them to himself in peace.
[32:26] These are the two vital claims. You remove either one, you don't have Christianity. You have nothing that can save you from God's wrath. So what difference does that make?
[32:40] So what? Who cares? If you're a non-Christian in the room, maybe you grew up in a family that never went to church, never heard the gospel before, you're not familiar with the Bible, this is all new to you, I'm so glad that you are here.
[32:57] Or maybe you have grown up in the church and you're maybe your parents are Christians. Maybe you have been coming to church all of your life and you've been hearing what this preacher has been saying again and again and again, but you've never decided.
[33:14] You're not a Christian. Your parents are Christians, but you're not a Christian. Whether you are coming out of a non-Christian context or a Christian context and you are not a Christian, you need to decide.
[33:31] whether the Christian gospel in all of its miraculous claims is true or not, you need to decide that yourself. Don't let someone else decide that for you.
[33:44] You need to decide that. And then when you decide, if you decide no, that's not true, decision respected.
[33:56] Grieved, but respected. But if you decide that it is true, you will then need to renounce all other so-called gospels.
[34:09] You've got to turn from those in order to turn to the one true gospel of Jesus Christ by which you alone can be saved. And then this is what you say.
[34:22] Romans 10 9, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
[34:39] You call out to him, the risen one who is alive. You say, Lord Jesus, I don't want to have to deal with these pickle barrels of black marbles for eternity.
[34:56] I will take what you're given. I believe you are Savior and Lord risen from the dead, and at that moment you will be saved.
[35:12] Today's the day. If you haven't put your trust in Christ alone before, there's no better day than Resurrection Sunday to do that. And I would urge you to do that today.
[35:25] I'll be down here after the service. You can come down and talk to me. I'll be happy to pray with you unto that end. Remember that Jesus is alive, and when you become a Christian, you are entering into a relationship with him as a 21st century disciple, follower.
[35:45] There's nothing like it. But if you're a Christian in the room, what difference does the resurrection make for you?
[35:57] I want to encourage you. If you came into the building with some degree of doubt, you've been wrestling back and forth with, is this Christianity thing true or not? I find there's no better help than making a beeline to the empty tomb.
[36:14] And to be able to ask yourself, well, is it true? Is the tomb empty? Is Jesus risen from the dead? And that historic event, miraculous, it is a tremendous source of encouragement for those who are wavering.
[36:36] So if you're a wavering Christian, focus on the resurrection of Christ, that it happened, it's true, and then you put your doubt in the grave.
[36:50] Maybe you came into here discouraged. You're a Christian, you've been slogging it out with sin, you're more aware of how many decisions you make that are not pleasing to God, that are pleasing to God.
[37:04] You know what? I've got good news for you. Christ's death and resurrection. Romans 6 says that the moment you believed Jesus, you were united to Christ in his death and resurrection, which means you are now dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus, which means sin is no longer your master.
[37:34] And sin no longer condemns you. All of those pickle barrels full of black marbles have been removed by Christ's death and resurrection. if you're struggling with sin, make a beeline to the gospel.
[37:50] Christ's death and resurrection. You've been united to Christ in his death and resurrection. Or maybe you came into this sanctuary this Easter Sunday and you are hopeless because of some situation that you're facing with relationships or financial situation or some kind of vocational situation.
[38:13] Can I have you repeat after me? Christ is my risen and reigning high priest and king the anchor of my soul.
[38:29] There are no dead ends if you have a living Savior. If your Savior lives, there are no dead ends. He's always working on your behalf.
[38:41] Finally, this is for more of a select group. Those whose earthly tents are wasting away.
[38:56] You're piling up the mileage. Christ's bodily resurrection from the dead sets a precedent because we too will be made like him.
[39:13] In 1 Corinthians 1551, later on in this passage, the Apostle Paul writes, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet, those whose bodies are clothed in what is perishable will put on the imperishable.
[39:33] Those bodies of mortality will put on immortality. You will receive a resurrected body that doesn't creak anymore.
[39:46] In fact, 1 John 3 2 says, when he appears, we will see him and we will become like him as he is in his resurrected glory.
[39:57] Take one, Christian, tuck it in and be encouraged. It wouldn't be true if Jesus hadn't been raised from the dead.
[40:11] There are a lot of so-called gospels out there, but there's only one gospel. The gospel of Jesus Christ, payment made, payment received, Christ died, Christ raised, that can deliver sinners from their greatest problem, God's wrath, and then reunite them to himself in peace.
[40:38] What a savior. He is risen. Let's pray. risen Lord Jesus, there is none like you, and because of who you are and what you have done, it is our joy to confess you as our Lord and live with you as the treasure center of our lives, the controlling center of our lives.
[41:11] Lord, we are no longer our own, but yours, and we will follow you with joy all the days of our life until that twinkling of an eye, and we are with you, wearing immortality.
[41:33] Amen.