Subject: THE REALITY OF THE RESURRECTION
scripture: 1 Corinthians 15:12-20.
Text: 1 Corinthians 15:12: "...how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?"
The foundation upon which the Christian faith rests is the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Do away with the resurrection of Jesus and you do away with genuine Christianity. Water down and minimize the resurrection and you not only undermine the foundation on which true Christian faith is built but you rob the Gospel of its saving power. The Apostle Paul puts it well when he says that "if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable." There is no person on earth in a more miserable position than is a professing Christian who does not have a living Saviour for his Lord.
If Christ be not risen, our faith is indeed vain, and we are yet in our sins. Why so? Because in the Christian life our hope of salvation is in Jesus Christ. We believe that He took upon Himself our sins that we might be reconciled unto God. We believe that it is by grace that we are saved through faith and that not of ourselves ... "not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour..." (Titus 3:5-6). Our hope of salvation and deliverance from the power of sin is in Jesus Christ. But if He is not risen, if sin was able to do away with Him completely yonder on the cross, then we have no Saviour; we have no living Lord who can break the power of canceled sin and supply us with daily grace and strength to resist temptation and live the Christian life. If Christ be not risen, then our Saviour is dead, we still have our sins standing between us and God, the whole doctrine of salvation by faith is without foundation, and we who profess Christ as our Saviour are indeed yet in our sins.
Not only so, but if Christ be not risen, our hope of immortality is gone; the loved ones whom we thought had died in the Lord and Whom we expected to meet yonder in Heaven will not meet us: they have perished, and so shall we. If Jesus, the One Who lived the only absolutely perfect life which was ever lived on this earth, was not able to get through the valley of death, if death clutched Him with a bony claw such that He could not shake it off and step forth into the light of eternity, then how can anyone else expect to do so? If Jesus be not risen, then what hope is there for any of the rest of us? When we consider further that the very nature of the Christian life is one whereby we are united with Christ, then did He not rise, our hope of immortality is utterly destroyed.
Paul puts it exactly right: if Christ be not raised, then our faith is vain, we are yet in our sins, and our hope of immortality is gone. "If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable." The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the foundation upon which our faith rests. Do away with the resurrection and you undermine the whole Christian faith and rob the Gospel of its saving power. Christianity stands or falls with the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Yet despite this plain fact there have been those from the early days of Christianity right on down to the present day who have named the Name of Christ but have either denied the resurrection or have sought to water down the doctrine to such a point that they rob the Gospel of its saving power. Some of the Christians at Corinth were among this group; perhaps I should say "some of the church members" for in the light of the New Testament I do not see how anyone could be a Christian at all unless he honestly believed in the resurrection. Some of the church members at Corinth said that there was no resurrection of the dead. In our Scripture Paul seeks to show them how utterly absurd it is for them to name the Name of Christ unless there is a resurrection.
Doubts concerning the resurrection have been with us since that first Easter morning in the long ago. I suppose there will continue to be those who express their unbelief in immortality right on down to the end of time. Just this past week I read of how recently Dr. Nilbur Smith, editor of Peloubet's Select Sunday School Notes and seminary professor, sent out questionnaires to an outstanding group of Americans concerning their belief in the bodily resurrection of Jesus. Among the group there were 144 who were members of churches. Of those 144, 88 replied and of those 88 who replied, though they were all members of Christian churches, only 28 said that they did believe in the resurrection. Forty-one of them said that they did not believe in the resurrection and the others said they either had no opinion or else did not know.
Perhaps it comes as something of a shock to some of you to realize that there are many members of all the major denominations in America who do not believe in the resurrection. But it is so. If we add to that number those who have tried to water down the resurrection to something less than the New Testament says that it is, the number is legion.
Sometime ago I was asking a friend of mine about a minister who used to be looked upon as one of the outstanding preachers of our conference. "How's he doing now?" I asked. My friend replied that he thought the teeth had gone out of his sermons and that now he was just gumming his congregation, so far as he could tell. Well, a lot of folks have tried to take the teeth out of the doctrine of the resurrection and have tried to water it down to such a point that it would amount to very little in a practical way.
There are those who have tried to spiritualize the resurrection and who have affirmed that the body of Christ did not rise at all. In some way which they cannot explain they say that the disciples came to believe that Jesus was still alive, that death could not end such a life as He lived, even though they reject belief in the resurrection of His body. In 1835 a young German scholar by the name of David Friedrich Strauss published a book which has made a profound impression on many people right on down to the present day. It was his contention that miracles are inherently impossible, that many of the stories about Jesus were legends rather than accounts of actual events, and that the resurrection stories, rather than being true accounts of an actual resurrection, express men's confidence that the quality of Jesus' life is above death and cannot perish from the earth. Strauss was a radical and many of his conclusions have been completely rejected by competent scholars. But the general attitude which he had toward the life of Christ and the resurrection has, in one form or another, seeped into the thinking of vast numbers of church members in practically every major denomination in our country. The number of those who name the Name of Christ, yes, even of church leaders, who have tried to so spiritualize the resurrection as to do away with the bodily resurrection is legion.
Then there are those who look upon eternal life as the living on in memory of those who are left behind when death comes and in the influence one has on the future generations. When I come to the end of my journey here below, the logical conclusion of this type of an attitude is that so far as I as a conscious, individual person am concerned, that is the end of me. But my friends and loved ones will remember me. I will live on in their memories. And my influence on the lives of others will continue to be felt perhaps many, many generations after I have passed from the view of mortal sight. In this way I will be immortal. You may think this sounds ridiculous, but you might be surprised how many people there are who have their names on the rolls of The Methodist Church who have such an idea of immortality as this. Just a few months ago I received a large number of brochures or tracts from a well-known and influential organization in The Methodist Church. On the front page in large letters were the four words: "How To Live Eternally!" That's a great title, a great subject! I want to live eternally, don't you? And here was a four-page tract which suggested by its title that it was going to tell me how to live eternally. I read it. Do you know what it suggested that I do if I would live eternally? Why, make a contribution to our Methodist colleges, perhaps help erect a building or set up a scholarship or endowment fund which would continue to minister to the needs of future generations long after I had gone down to the grave.
I believe in Christian education. I believe in helping to support our colleges. I readily acknowledge the fact that when we die, some of our loved ones and friends do remember us for a time at least. I agree that the influence of our lives will continue to be felt in the lives of generations yet unborn. And I believe that the quality of Jesus' life was and is such that it cannot perish.
But having said all of that, we need to recognize clearly that when the New Testament spoke of the resurrection, it was speaking of none of these things primarily. The resurrection life referred to in the New Testament is a personal thing, an experience which the person who has departed from this life has for himself. It includes the continued existence of the individual personality beyond the grave, an existence in which I shall continue to be myself and shall be conscious of that fact and in which you shall continue to be yourself and conscious of that fact. The resurrection life referred to in the New Testament is a life in which we are just as much or more ourselves than we are in this world, a life in which we continue to be individual persons who can communicate with one another and recognize one another, a life in which our powers, instead of being lessened, are increased.
And the foundation upon which the Christian faith rests is that of the bodily resurrection of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. There may be those who would seek to alter their interpretation of the resurrection of Christ to fit into their own private little systems of thought and fancy. But the resurrection of which the New Testament speaks and on which the Christian faith is built is the literal resurrection and transformation of the body of Jesus which was nailed to the cross, which had the spear thrust into the side, and which, after being taken down from the cross, was laid into the tomb there in the garden.
Many may doubt that Christ arose in any such fashion. Many may try to water the facts down to make them more acceptable to those who believe nothing except what they can explain in terms of their own experience. Many may doubt that there is any resurrection, as did those Corinthian church members in the long ago. But doubting a fact doesn't alter a fact. Refusing to believe the reality of an event which actually took place does not do away with the event or change it one particle. For centuries people thought the earth was flat and Columbus was looked upon as being wrong-headed because of his insistence that it was round. But the world kept right on being round anyway despite all the doubts and arguments of the skeptics.
So it is with the resurrection of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ: all the doubts of all the skeptics of all generations cannot shake one particle or alter one bit the glorious reality of the world-shaking event which took place on that great resurrection morning when Jesus' body was transformed and He came forth from the tomb alive forevermore, Glory Hallelujah!
And because the resurrection of Christ is a reality, it ought to bless our souls this morning to consider some of the evidence which substantiates it. If one honestly and adequately examines the evidence, instead of asking the question, "Did Jesus really rise from the dead?", he will say rather with Paul, "How say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?" Just what evidence do we have anyway that the Lord Jesus did rise from the grave and that the resurrection is a reality?
We might note first of all that Jesus Himself believed in the resurrection of the dead, and not only taught it and assumed it throughout His ministry, but said specifically that He, Himself, would rise on the third day as the Scripture records that He did.
To the Sadducees who came to Him with a question concerning the resurrection and who said there was no resurrection, Jesus said, "Ye do err," and told them plainly that the dead are raised. The most reassuring words ever spoken to mortal man concerning the certainity of the resurrection fell from the lips of Jesus Himself.
Then concerning His Own resurrection Jesus told the disciples that on the third day after His death He would be raised from the dead. So far as we know He said nothing about living on in the memory of His disciples as a part of His teachings concerning His resurrection, though if ever a man would have lived on in the memory of those who knew him, certainly Jesus would have. So far as we know he did not try to comfort His disciples concerning His death by talking about how His influence would continue on after His crucifixion, though certainly no other person has ever walked this earth whose influence continued marching down the centuries as did the influence of our Lord.
In speaking of His resurrection, Jesus told His disciples that He, Himself, would rise on the third day - not just memories of Him, not just His influence, but He, Himself, the same person who was then speaking to them. In speaking to the Jews He said of His physical body, the temple of clay in which His Spirit dwelled, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." The chief priests and Pharisees remembered that He had said that He would rise from the dead, and it was for that very reason that they had Pilate place a guard at the tomb. People may have different ideas as to what lies in store for them beyond the grave, but Jesus did not stutter when He spoke about what would happen the third day after He was put to death. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John all tell us that He said He was going to rise from the dead on the third day.
Now I do not know what kind of authority mankind in general wants supremely as evidence that the resurrection is a reality. But for my part when Jesus says something clearly and plainly, then that is evidence of the highest order in my book as to the truth of it. Personally, I will take the word of Jesus in preference to the testimony of any other person who ever walked the face of the earth. In all the years of my Bible study and my trying to follow the Lord, I have never yet found a single time when Jesus led me astray nor have I ever found a single one of His teachings which would not stand up under the test of eternal truth. Therefore, to me one of the greatest evidences of all concerning the reality of the resurrection is that Jesus Christ believed in it and taught it.
Then a second great evidence which stands as a witness to the reality of the resurrection is the empty tomb. There are many famous and historic tombs in the world, tombs such as those of George Washington or Abraham Lincoln or John Wesley or some of the other outstanding characters of history. In all of these cases the tombs are famous and visited by vast numbers of people in every generation because they contain the mortal remains such as they are of these famous people.
But there is only one tomb on earth which is famous and outstanding because it could not hold the mortal remains of the One Whose body was placed therein, only one tomb in all of history which is significant because it is open and empty. And that, of course, is Joseph's tomb, wherein the crucified body of our Lord was laid on that dark Friday in the long ago. The morning of the third day following the crucifixion, that tomb plunged into the limelight of history and has been famous ever since because it was not capable of holding the body of the Lord Jesus, and He departed from it leaving behind the grave clothes in which His dead body had been wrapped.
From that first Easter morning the tomb there in the garden became a celebrated spot. It was actually a cave hewn out of rock in the side of a low hill. Its roof was around seven feet high. Within to the right of the entrance is a stone couch, slightly hollowed, and about 24 inches high, on which the body of the Lord was placed. The city of Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 A. D., but the sepulchre remained intact as evidenced by the fact that when the Emperor Hadrian rebuilt the city in the second century, he ordered that the tomb be desecrated by filling it with rubbish and then buried under a mound of earth. Then pavement was placed over the dirt and an altar to the goddess Venus erected upon it. According to the historian Eusebius, Emperor Constantine had the heathen altar, the dirt and rubbish removed, and the sepulchre cleansed in the fourth century, then erected a church over it. And down through the unfolding centuries to the present day, multiplied tens of thousands have made their way to Jerusalem and visited the most famous tomb in all the world - the only sepulchre in all of history which has become famous because the morning of the third day found it open and empty, its occupant having risen from the dead.
The more one thinks about it, the more does one realize how significant the empty tomb is. Through the years it has stood as an evidence of the reality of the resurrection which, so far as I know, none who do not believe in the resurrection have ever yet been able to explain.
What happened to the body of our Lord and Saviour that third morning in the long ago? Well, the Scriptures say that He rose from the dead. Accept that explanation and the entire story fits together and makes sense. But deny that He rose from the dead and how are you going to explain that empty tomb?
You might say that the chief priests bribed the soldiers into saying that the disciples of Jesus came by night and stole His body away. But that's not so, because the disciples truly believed that He rose from the dead, believed it so strongly that they were willing to lay down their lives in preaching the Gospel of the resurrection.
You might say that the enemies of Jesus came and stole His body. But they were the very ones who were so concerned that His body not disappear that they had Pilate set a guard of Roman soldiers to watch the tomb. And if they had His body, then they would only have had to produce it to make the disciples the laughing-stock of the country when they began to preach that Jesus had risen from the dead.
Of all the reading I've done on the matter and in all that I've heard, I have never yet heard a sensible and adequate explanation for the empty tomb except the one recorded in the Gospels, namely, that Jesus did rise from the dead. And, in my humble opinion, those who try to explain the empty tomb in any other way have a problem on their hands that they will not be able to provide an adequate answer to if they work on it until Jesus comes again. Only the risen Christ can adequately account for the empty tomb.
A third great evidence testifying to the reality of the resurrection of Christ is mentioned in the first chapter of Acts where we read that Jesus "shewed Himself alive after His passion by many infallible proofs, being seen (of the apostles) forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God." What were the infallible proofs of His resurrection? Two of them were that He appeared to His disciples time and again, and walked with them, and talked with them, and ate with them, and instructed them, and then ascended up into Heaven while they stood watching. They saw Him again and again. They heard Him speak. To be with a person and to see him and talk with him is pretty good evidence as to his reality.
In the 15th chapter of 1 Corinthians the Apostle Paul gives a brief summary of the appearances of Jesus following His resurrection in these words: "For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the scriptures: and that He was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve: after that, He was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep. After that, He was seen of James; then of all the apostles. And last of all He was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time."
Prior to that first Easter morning, the disciples were afraid and hid for fear of the Jews. But before long they were boldly proclaiming the Gospel of Christ at the risk of their own lives, with the central doctrine of their message being the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. The transformation of their own lives and the Gospel they proclaimed can be explained on no other basis than that they had come to believe in the reality of the resurrection. And the reason they believed so completely that Christ was alive was that they had seen Him, they had talked with Him, they had been in His Presence, and He had been with them so unmistakeably that the proofs of His resurrection were infallible.
The reality of the resurrection of Christ! We have already mentioned three of the great evidences which testify to the truth of the fact: First, the fact that Jesus believed in the resurrection and said that He would rise from the dead; second, the fact of the empty tomb; and, third, the eye-witnesses who saw the risen Lord as He revealed Himself a number of times before ascending into Heaven. But perhaps the most important evidence of all to the reality of the resurrection in this our day is contained within the very nature of the case: namely, that since the grave could not hold our Lord and He arose from the icy clutch of the Grim Reaper, we have a living Saviour Whose Presence has been a reality not simply to the disciples in the long ago, but to the Christians of every generation since that first Easter morning. Though we may not see the body of Christ with these mortal eyes of ours, yet we today may have an awareness of His Presence just as surely as did Peter and Paul and James and John in the long ago. The testimony to the reality of the resurrection of Christ is not only to be found in looking back two thousand years through the long corrider of time: it is also to be found through an examination of Christian experience here in the present.
You remember the words of Jesus: "If a man love Me, he will keep My words: and My Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make Our abode with him." You remember His words: "...he that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and will manifest Myself to him." (John 14: 23,21.) Jesus has promised to manifest Himself unto those who truly love Him and keep His words. And His Presence in the world today in the hearts and lives of those who love Him is - for them at least - one of the greatest of all evidences of the reality of His resurrection.
The song-writer puts it in the words of the wonderful hymn:
"I serve a risen Saviour,
He's in the world today;
I know that He is living,
Whatever men may say;
I see His hand of mercy,
I hear His Voice of cheer,
And just the time I need Him,
He's always near.
"He lives! He lives! Christ Jesus lives today;
He walks with me and talks with me
Along life's narrow way.
He lives! He lives! Salvation to impart;
You ask me how I know He lives?
He lives within my heart."
How can a person know beyond a shadow of a doubt that Christ arose from the dead and is alive forevermore? He can know it by coming into such a relationship with Christ himself that Christ will come unto him and make His abode with him, living within his own heart and life.
The Apostle Paul describes the experience in the familiar words found in Galatians 2:20, "I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me."
I remember the testimony of Dr. Franklin Parker, great teacher and Christian that he was, as something along this line came up in class at Candler School of Theology one day. He said in effect to us students: "Young men, I know that Christ is alive, not because I read it in a book somewhere, but because I have walked with Him for 65 years."
If there is any question in our minds along this line, the words of Albert Schweitzer concerning Jesus come to us as a challenge and an invitation at this point: "He comes to us as One unknown, without a name, as of old by the lake-side He came to those who knew Him not. He speaks to us the same word, 'Follow thou Me,' and sets us to the task which He has to fulfill for our time. He commands. And TO THOSE WHO OBEY HIM, whether they be wise or simple, He will reveal Himself in the toils, the conflicts, the sufferings which they shall pass through in His fellowship, and, as an ineffable mystery, they shall learn in their own experience Who He is."
Beloved, I have found this to be true in my own experience, stumbling and faltering though it may be. I have made the wonderful discovery that as I hear the call of Jesus, "Come, follow Me," and as I obey that call and set myself to the life and the tasks which He bids me do, there has come an increasing awareness of His Presence and an increasing assurance of the reality of the things "not seen."
The resurrection of our Lord and Saviour is a reality: not only the very foundation of our Christian faith, but one of the most glorious facts in the entire universe. And because Christ lives, we too can live and have a future as bright as the promises of God if we will but answer His call, take up our crosses and follow Him. Let us pray...