1 Corinthians 15: 12-22; 54-58
Theme: Resurrection
THE RESURRECTION IS THE VICTORY
This past week, I read on Yahoo news(April 14) about a new video game called "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse." While the game will be noted for its graphics and its movie-like quality, it will also be noted for nudity, obscenities and excessive violence and gore. The player of the game will play the role of Abaddon, a fallen angel. According to Revelation 9: 11, Abaddon is the ruling angel in hell. The player of the game, in the role of Abaddon, is supposed to stop the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. The player is to enlist three chosen mortals who will help to put an end to the end of the world. According to the article, "the chosen are a hooker named Jesse Horner, a serial killer on death row named Jimmy Ray Flint and a corrupt politician, Sen. Anderson Scot." Kelly Turner, the game's executive producer, said the game is "appealing to an adult audience that wants great game play, amazing graphics, mature story lines and a horror/action setting of biblical proportions."
You may be asking yourself about now, "why is he telling us about a silly video game on Easter Sunday?" Because, the philosophy of the game is that evil is good and good is evil and that evil and mere men can have victory over God. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are sent by God as a prelude to judgment, it is a divine act. The game represents the common mind set that we can defeat God. I want us to understand where true victory is.
Sin is always rebellion against God. Sometimes we sanitize our rebellion and make it cute. Unfortunately, we humans think we can trick, deceive, defeat or over come God. Rebellion against God has dire consequences. You have to ask yourself the question, do you really want to be on the wrong side? Do you really want to be among the cosmic losers?
God judges us and declares us to be sinners. No one likes to be judged. I might be inclined to join the mutiny if it were not for one little event: the resurrection. The resurrection puts a whole different twist on God and my sin. Jesus rose from the dead. The New Testament writers wrote about what they saw. It is the most outstanding, the most important moment in human history.
However, the resurrection, as extraordinary as it is, is just a down payment on the future. If God is powerful enough to raise Jesus from the dead, he is powerful enough to overcome our rebellion and to bring us to judgment. He is also powerful enough to save us as he has promised. The wise person will realize this and seek God’s gift of salvation. God became man so that we might have eternal life, why would we rebel against that? Christianity calls us to repentance and it calls to place our faith in Jesus Christ, the God-Man, the one who died, who was buried, and who rose from the dead.
All that Jesus said and did was verified by the fact that God had raised him from the dead. Jesus was our Passover, he was our sacrifice, He was the Lamb that took away the sins of the world. And God verified that this one was the Christ by raising him from the dead. His promises to us about eternal life were verified, for Jesus has promised those who follow him would have eternal life and resurrection. The resurrection is a historical fact. It is unique, no other religion claims that God had come in the flesh and dwelt among us, was killed and raised from the dead.
Is it really important that we believe in the resurrection? Isn't it just the stuff of stories and myths, isn't it just the idea that good over comes evil? Isn't it enough to be good, to live good lives? It’s the 21st century, can we really believe that someone rose from the dead?
Paul said if there is no resurrection, we have nothing to talk about. It is the resurrection that consumes Paul's life. His whole life revolves around it. Paul made a series of statements that show the seriousness with which he takes the resurrection. He lays it on the line, he said that if there is no resurrection then not even Christ is raised from the dead. The Christian faith is rooted and grounded in the idea that Jesus rose from the dead. But if Christ is not raised then our preaching is in vain and your faith is worthless and you are still dead in your sins and you have no hope. Paul is blunt, it is either the resurrection or it is nothing. If there is no resurrection then there is no hope. Even if the death of Jesus brought forgiveness, the dead simply died forgiven and go into nothingness if there is no resurrection.
Paul went on to say that "If we have hoped in Christ this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied." Why? Because every thing that we have hoped for and preached and trusted and taught and looked forward to and dreamed of is a lie if Christ is not raised.
However, Paul was sure of one thing, Christ did indeed rise from the grave and that the gospel message is true. He knew this because he had personally met the risen Christ on the Damascus road, he saw him and he heard him and conversed with him. His own experience told him that he had risen. In fact, it was in that moment when Jesus confronted Paul on the Damascus Road that Paul was converted and was called to be the Apostle to the Gentiles. Paul staked his very life on the resurrection.
The Apostles were willing to risk their very lives for the message that Jesus had risen from the dead. Paul risked his life many times to preach that message. Do you know anyone who would be willing to die for a lie? No, and neither do I. They risked their lives because of the reality of the resurrection.
The risen Christ died for our sins. No one really has to remind us that we are sinners. The question is, what do we do about it? And the answer is we can do nothing. It is in our nature to think that there is something that we can do for our sin, some deed to be done, some change to be made. But, the fact is, we are in such deplorable condition that we can't do anything about our sin. The Bible is clear, our sin against God has brought the wrath of God against us. We have been condemned by God. The trial has occurred, the verdict has been rendered, guilty and the penalty has been passed, Death!
But the most incredible thing has happened! God himself is willing to pay the price. We sinned against God, we broke his law. He is the offended party, the victim of our sin. He is also our judge. What has happened to us is the victim and Judge, after passing the sentence of death, became our substitute. God became flesh and he died for you. This is truly Good News. If it is true, then we are forgiven and our guilt has been removed. How can we know it is true? Because Jesus rose from the dead, Because He is risen.
The resurrection is victory over death and sin. It is also means that ultimately, God wins over evil. One day, God will bring history to its conclusion. And no matter how much we rebel, no matter how much we hate God or reject him, he wins. The resurrection is so powerful that all of us should understand.
I had a professor who liked to play chess. Once, he played against a world champion. He lost in eleven moves. The chess master told him he did well his first move and not bad on the second. But he lost on the third move. He did not understand. How could he have lost on the third move if it took eleven for his opponent to reach checkmate? The chess master said that the third move was so decisively bad that losing was inevitable.
That is what the cross is, the inevitable move against sin, guilt and death. It may take several moves to finish, but the Resurrection is the victory. It was proof that Jesus overcame death and that he defeated sin and the grave.
Jesus rose from the dead. That is the victory! He has set us free from our slavery to sin and death. I hope you are part of the victory. I hope you can celebrate that Christ has risen, he has risen indeed!