If Jesus rose from the dead, then you’re free from today’s concerns

“Believing Jesus rose from the dead isn’t going to pay my electric bill. Believing he rose from the dead isn’t going to fix my beat up car and make it run again. Believing in the resurrection of Jesus isn’t going to put food on my table. It doesn’t much matter if Jesus rose from the dead or didn’t. I have bigger, more immediate concerns to worry about.” I doubt many people would be bold enough to say those things out loud. But I think many people who call themselves Christians today are probably thinking something similar in their hearts. Easter Sunday is the day we celebrate Jesus’ resurrection from the grave and yet most of us probably can’t answer the simple question, “Why should Jesus and his resurrection matter to me?”

Oftentimes pastors will preach an Easter sermon proving to everyone that the resurrection actually occurred in history. That’s a good thing to do. There are incredibly solid arguments to prove his resurrection and it’s beneficial to present those to people and equip Christians with them. But my guess is that in an environment like we’re in this morning, proving Jesus’ resurrection isn’t that necessary. I suspect if pressed most, if not all, the people in this room would say, “Yes, I believe Jesus rose from the dead.” But if asked a simple follow up, “Why does his resurrection matter today?” Most of us would be struck silent. But that doesn’t bother us too much. As I mentioned, we have bigger, more immediate concerns to worry about.

This morning, I’d like to argue that Jesus’ resurrection 2000 years ago is bigger and more immediate than today’s concerns.

Main Point – If Jesus rose from the dead, then you’re free from today’s concerns

Text – 1 Corinthians 15:12-22, which can be found in your pew Bible on page 915

Prayer

In our text this morning, Paul is drawing out the logical conclusion of this church in Corinth’s false beliefs. He sets all the dominoes in a row. If you believe this, then this is what happens. If that happens, then this is what happens. If you knock over the first domino then it will cause a chain reaction that knocks over the last domino.

In a similar fashion, I’d like to set up the dominoes this morning and start knocking them over. The first domino is that Jesus rose from the dead. The last domino is that you are free from today’s concerns. And if you believe that first domino is true, but you don’t believe that last domino. Then somewhere along the chain there’s a break in your thinking.

Let’s walk through each of the dominoes and see if we can find where the error lies

Dominoes 1 & 2 – If Jesus rose, you will rise (vs. 12-13, 15-16, 20)

Paul is writing a letter to the Corinthians here who apparently believe there will be no future resurrection for them. Look at verse 12-13.

READ VS 12-13 Paul is clearly baffled by them because he says this again in 15-16

READ VS 15 -16

Some of them were saying “There is no resurrection from the dead.” Basically, some day maybe near, maybe far away, you will die. And what happens after that? Nothing. You’re gone. You’re done. There will be no life later. “There is no resurrection from the dead.”

But that argument doesn’t make any sense right? Because they are Christians. They are a church. Their foundational belief is that Jesus Christ died on the cross and rose from the dead. If you don’t believe that truth then you’re not a Christian at all. You must at least believe Christ rose from the dead.

And if Christ has risen from the dead, what does that demonstrate? The Bible repeatedly tells us that we are united with Christ and this passage uses the phrase “in Christ” multiple times. If Jesus died to show us that our sins died with him, then Jesus resurrected to show us that we will resurrect in him. Jesus’ death delivers us from sin. Jesus’ resurrection delivers us from death. If he rose, then Christians will also rise from the dead one day.

He gives us a good illustration to help us understand it. Look at verse 20

READ VS 20

Jesus is the “firstfruits” of the harvest. When you plant a field or a garden, there is sometimes a bit of trepidation about whether or not your plant will fruit, whether or not your work will actually yield a harvest. But what do we learn when that first fruit arrives? Oh yeah, the rest is coming. The first fruit that buds and grows tells you, this is the type of harvest that my work will produce. There will be much more like this first one.

Jesus is the first fruit of resurrection. He demonstrates, this is the type of harvest that my work produces. I have resurrected. Those who place their faith in me and are part of my tree and my vine, you will also be resurrected at the harvest time.

Christian, it’s very clear. If you believe in the resurrection of Jesus, then you believe that one day you will be resurrected as well. If one day you will rise, what does that mean?

Dominoes 2 & 3 – If you will rise, you have a promised future (vs. 18, 21-22)

That’s a pretty straightforward and logical progression right? God tells you that you will rise one day. That means you have a guaranteed and promised future. The Corinthians who believed there is no resurrection did not have this promised future to look forward to. If Christ has not been raised, then you will not be raised, and…Look at verse 18.

READ VS 18

If you don’t believe there is resurrection, then you have no future. As I said earlier, one day you will die and that’s it. You vanish or as it says here, you perish. Gone eternally. Paul says that must be what happened to all the Christians who have already died (when he says, they “fell asleep” it means they died and when he says “in Christ” he means as Christians). If there is no resurrection then those saints who have passed away are not living with Christ today. They have nothing. No existence.

But we know that Christ has risen and that we will rise and that means that those saints are alive today. If someone you love had faith in Christ alone for salvation and they passed away then we can rejoice that they are living with God today. And that has implications for you. It means that you have a promised future that is not death. Your future is not decay and non-existence. Your future is not sorrow, isolation, and shame. Your future is joy with Christ and a perfectly reconciled relationship with God. That’s what you, Christian, have to look forward to. It’s a guarantee.

READ VS 21-22

This means that any lie Satan or your flesh tries to tell you about your future is false. The fear that wells up in your heart and tells you that your life is uncertain is wrong. Maybe you look to your future and experience anxiety. You think I don’t know how things will turn out. This could go well. This could go poorly. I could be hurt. I could be disappointed. And honestly, those things are genuine possibilities. I’m not here to tell you that Christians will never get hurt, will never go through troubles, and will never be disappointed. But I want to tell you that none of those things will ever be your end. They will never be the last thing you experience. There is always something coming next. And the last thing will be good. It will be resurrected life.

Silvi and I enjoy watching movies occasionally and one of our favorite types of movies is the based on a true story thriller, a movie based on real life events where someone went through terrible perils, but made it out on the other side. And I’m not going to lie, we have a habit of checking to see what happened to the person at the end of their story before we start watching the movie. We want to know if they make it. They’re about to go through horrible suffering and perilous circumstances and it can be pretty nailbiting, but the reason we’re able to watch it with hope instead of with crippling anxiety is because we know how the story ends.

Your promised future is how God shows you how the story will end. So practically speaking, you have to have a hard conversation with someone you love or you have to make a crucial decision about your future. And you’re afraid. You think to yourself, this could go very poorly. That’s true. I won’t lie. It might go poorly. But Christian, you have a promised future. Whatever perils you may go through in this life, they will not be your end. There will always be life on the other side.

You have a hope in your promised future. If that promised future is certainly coming then it impacts how you live today.

Dominoes 3 & 4 – If you have a promised future, you can live for tomorrow (vs. 19)

Paul says something so profound in verse 19. Look at it with me.

READ VS 19

He’s highlighting how living for the wrong thing is pathetic. It’s sad. If you put all of your hope in something and it turns out to be a lie. That’s awful. That provokes pity from everyone.

Many of you will remember 15 years ago a man named Harold Camping predicted the end of the world would occur May 21, 2011. His followers banked their entire life on this being true. They sold all of their possessions. They quit their jobs. They pulled their kids out of school or dropped out themselves. What was the point of planning anything for the future if it would all be over soon. When May 21st came and went without incident. It was crushing. The people impacted were honest, kind, and sincere people, but their lives were now in complete ruins. They had to rebuild from scratch. They had been deceived by placing their hope in the wrong thing. May 22 was always going to come. In fact it was practically guaranteed that it would come, but they weren’t prepared for it. It’s pitiable.

In a similar fashion, if you build your entire life around the idea that there is a next life coming after you die and you are wrong, then you are of all people most to be pitied. If you spend your life worshipping God with others, preparing your life to meet him, giving away your time and energy to serve him, and longing for the day when you will finally be in his presence, but that future never comes, then you are pitiable.

But Paul tells us the opposite is true. If you live as if today is the only thing that matters, if you’re collecting goods and pleasures to increase your satisfaction in this life, if your plan is to amass the most comfort, the most experiences, and the most enjoyment in this life as if this life is the only one that exists, BUT THEN THE NEXT LIFE COMES, you are of all people most to be pitied. You lived your life as if May 21st would be the end, but then May 22 arrives.

We look around and we see everyone in this world fighting for more treasures here on earth. “I have to get more money” “I have to be able to afford a certain lifestyle” “I have to get away on another vacation” “I have to find someone that I can marry” “I have to be respected by my coworkers” “I have to experience peace and quiet and be in perfect comfort” “There are so many things in this world I want to build my life around” But if Christ rose from the dead, it means this life ends and a new life is coming. If Christ has been raised then all of the promises of God are true and all the promises of this world are false.

Consider your work. Consider your efforts each day. Consider how you make your decisions.  Are you living with expectations of the future? Or are you believing the pitiable lie that what I experience now is ultimate?

One of the last dominoes I want to line up in our series is this.

Dominoes 4 & 5 – If you live for tomorrow, your sin is left in your past (vs. 17)

Read vs 17

Paul’s statement is true and it means that the inverse statement is also true. “Christ has been raised. Your faith is not futile. And you are no longer in your sins.” I really appreciate his use of the word “still” in verse 17. It means there was a time you were living in your sins. And if Christ has not been raised, you are STILL living in your sins. But because the opposite is true, Christ has been raised, then there was a time you were living in your sins and you are NO LONGER in your sins.

But what does that mean that we’re no longer in our sins? Let me read to you what Paul tells us elsewhere that living in our sins looks like. This is what he says in Ephesians 2:1-3.

“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.”

So first of all it means, you used to be dead. That is you had no spiritual life. You were unconcerned with God and his glory and you were uninterested and incapable of calling out to him for life. Next it says you followed the course of the world and followed the devil. Wherever everyone else said you ought to go, you just did that. You valued whatever everyone else valued. You chased the same dreams that everyone else chased after. Whatever shiny little thing Satan bounced in front of your eyes, you made achieving it your life’s goal. And lastly, if you had any desires whether they were physical desires like pleasures or if they were desires of the mind like grand achievements, you just followed them as a slave to having those desires met. That’s what Paul means when he tells you that you were once “in your sins”.

But now every single one of those things is untrue. Because Christ resurrected we are not STILL in our sins. We are NO LONGER in our sins. Instead we are people who have a future and live for the blessed hope of tomorrow. We are no longer dead. We have been made alive with Christ. We have a new concern in our hearts for God and his glory and we actually have the ability to live for him. We no longer run after the same things that everyone else is chasing after. Satan’s temptations don’t have power over us like they used to. And now that we are no longer in our sins, you aren’t a slave to your own heart’s desires.

Honestly, that’s probably the most gratifying part of being made new. I don’t have to do all the things that I want to do anymore. Don’t you remember that time in your life? That time when if you craved something you just had to have it? You didn’t have the ability to say no to your own desires? Because Christ has risen from the dead and because we’re living for a promised new tomorrow. Our sinful desires are no longer behind the wheel. Christ is. We’re able to follow the new desires His Spirit puts in our hearts.

But that’s only one way that we have left our sins behind us. We’ve been knocking over the dominoes leading up to this point. We’ve said that if Christ rose from the dead, that you will rise from the dead. If you will rise from the dead, then you have a promised future. If you have a promised future, then you can live for tomorrow. And if you live for tomorrow, then your sin is left in the past. If Christ has risen from the dead and has given you new life in him, then your sin cannot prevent you from your promised future. Let me say that again. If Christ has risen from the dead and has given you new life in him, then your sin cannot prevent you from your promised future.

Your past sins have absolutely no bearing on you now. Christ conquered those when he rose from the grave. Satan wants to weigh you down with guilt, but that’s a lie. Christ forgives each of those sins. There is no sin that is greater than his forgiveness. Your past sins won’t prevent you from your promised future.

Your current sins cannot prevent you from your promised future. There are sin struggles right now that you are engaged in. Praise God so many are actively fighting against sin, but you’re struggling. Bitterness keeps creeping back into your heart. Pride and arrogance keep creeping back into your heart. Cynicism or laziness or hopelessness or a lack of compassion or lust keep creeping back into your heart. And you feel as if they will overwhelm you and that these sins will become who you are. But that’s not true. Christ has been raised and you have a promised future where your sin loses and Christ’s new life wins. Fight your sin with that truth in mind. Your current sins cannot prevent you from your promised future.

Even your future sins cannot prevent you from your promised future. If you’re like me perhaps you fear what sins you may commit in the future. I know what evil there is in my heart. I know that I am always one sinful act or one sinful word away from ruining my life. And it pains me to know that I will most certainly commit a multitude of sins in my future. And yet, even those fearsome unknown sins are not strong enough to topple my promised future. There is only one place I can possibly end up. I have certainty that I will one day be perfectly holy and in my Father’s presence. How can I be so sure? Because Christ rose from the dead. And I too will be made alive in him.

And this brings us full circle to where we began.

Dominoes 5 & 6 – If your sin is left in your past, you are free from today’s concerns (vs. 14)

READ VS 14

Satan is trying his absolute hardest to tell you that the gospel of Jesus’ death and resurrection is meaningless. That’s what the word “vain” here means. You sit here listening to a sermon and Satan is trying to scream at your heart “Those words are meaningless. His preaching is completely meaningless”. He wants you to think that none of this matters. It’s hypothetical religious mumbo jumbo. It won’t matter when you walk out the door. It won’t matter when the troubles of home resurface.

Satan even wants you to think that your faith is in vain. Your faith is meaningless. That gospel you claim to believe in? It doesn’t mean anything. It’s just a silly thing for us all to pretend is true on Sundays. But in real life, the rest of the week, it doesn’t matter what you think about these things. They’re all meaningless.

And Paul in our passage confesses that if Christ had not been raised from the dead Satan’s words would be true. Our preaching would be in vain. And our faith would be in vain. They would both in fact be meaningless. But Christ HAS been raised from the dead. Therefore none of this is in vain. It all means something.

Because Christ has been raised from the dead. You are sure of where your life will end up. You aren’t living day to day in fear or uncertainty. You know that your end will be good. You will have new life with God forever. You’re not under the power of sorrow and hopelessness. You are free to live for that next life. You aren’t banking all of your efforts on the fact that this life is all there is. You’re storing up treasures in heaven. You know that sin’s power is behind you and it’s powerless ahead of you. Christ has forgiven every deed. He will conquer every sin in you. You will one day stand holy and blameless before him. The truth of the resurrection transforms how you live today.

You’re right. Believing Jesus rose from the dead most likely won’t pay your electric bills. Believing in his resurrection won’t suddenly make your beat up car run better. And maybe it won’t put food on your table. But the resurrection of Jesus reminds us that these immediate concerns aren’t nearly as big as they pretend to be.

In this life, we will have great physical needs. We will go through suffering. We will face difficult decisions. And one day we will even die. But if Jesus Christ rose from the dead, then none of those concerns have any ultimate bearing on our lives. Not one. We will be raised with Christ. We have a promised future. We can live with that future in mind. Our sin is in our past. And today’s concerns aren’t that concerning.

Prayer