The Apostle's Creed Series #5

"I Believe in the Resurrection"
1 Corinthians 15:12-20

Last week we looked at an important but low point in our faith: the suffering, crucifixion, death, and burial of our Lord Jesus. This morning as we return to our study of the Apostles’ Creed I want us to look at what comes next, the high point of our faith:

"I believe in Jesus Christ, who rose again from the dead."

The resurrection is the foundation and cornerstone of the Christian faith. Disprove the resurrection and Christianity comes tumbling down like a house of cards. If Christ did in fact rise from the dead, it is the most sensational event in human history. If Christ did not rise from the dead, then the resurrection is the most successful hoax in human history, and we are poor deluded fools.

The apostle Paul put it this way in 1 Cor. 15:17-20, ""For if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins, and those who have died in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men." If Christ had merely died for us, he would have been at best a great man or prophet, and at worst a deluded fool. However, when he rose from the dead he proved himself to be our great savior!

Those who reject the reality of the resurrection have to explain the hundreds of people who claimed to have seen him after his death (1 Corinthians 15:6). They have to annul the testimony of those who said they placed their hands in his wounds as he stood before them, very much alive. More than that, they have to disbelieve the millions through the ages who have confessed to a common experience of having had their lives changed completely by Jesus’ living presence within them. They have to explain the transformation of the Apostles from a small band of scared followers to men who literally changed the world with their lives and message?

The thing which most confounded people living during the time of the early church was the tremendous courage, boldness, and faith of the Apostles and first believers. They were willing to be ostracized by friends and family, to live in daily fear of death, to endure prison, to live penniless and hungry, to sacrifice family, to be tortured without mercy and often to give their lives, all because of what they knew to be true: Jesus had risen from the dead. They weren’t intimidated by the rulers of this world. The fear of death no longer dominated them. The resurrection changed everything.

Seeing such courage and faith in the early church brought many people to trust Christ for themselves. It still happens. When the world today sees self-centered, sinful, fearful people transformed into persons of courage and faith, unafraid of the future, giving praise to Christ, it becomes the most powerful witness to the living Christ that we have.

Conversely, if the world sees a lack of that kind of courage and faith, it will lead them to disbelieve the reality of it all. If the world looks and sees us as people who can’t or won’t witness to the goodness of God in our lives, their skepticism is justified. People are attracted to a faith worth dying for, but they are repulsed by a faith that falls apart in adversity. The world of the early church was often baffled, even infuriated, by the defiant courage of the those believers. The world of our day often laughs at a Church filled with Christians who are afraid of death and afraid to share about the giver of life.

I believe in Jesus Christ, who on the third day rose from the dead... The reality of the resurrection of Jesus Christ should be the single most challenging and motivating principle of our lives. Nothing else has the potential to give us such hope and purpose, to make our lives so worth living, to change us so completely as the power of Christ to overcome death.

Jesus certainly understood its importance. His crucifixion and death was the reason for his coming, and his resurrection was the sign of the validity of his claims to be the promised Messiah and Son of God. To those who wanted to take his life he said in John 2:19, "Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days."When asked by the Pharisees to show them a sign to validate his claims, he foretold his resurrection by saying, "A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a miraculous sign, but none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth" (Matthew 12:39,40). He promised his disciples he would be rise from the dead when he said to them in Matthew 20:18-19, "The Son of Man will be betrayed. . . and crucified. On the third day he will be raised to life." Jesus understood that by his crucifixion he would overcome sin, and that by his resurrection he would overcome death and offer eternal life. He said in John 11:25, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die."

Friends, belief in the resurrection of Christ is not an option for the Christian. It is the central issue of our faith. The Bible says in Romans 10:9, "If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." notice that it says clearly that a belief in the resurrection is necessary for salvation. If you "...believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." There are many who say they believe in the resurrection of Christ, but in their heart secretly entertain it as myth. However, this scripture plainly says that your heart and mind must be convinced.

Jesus predicted his own resurrection, and he also predicted yours. Jesus said in John 5:28-30,"Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out. Those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned." (John 5:28-30). Paul followed this thought in 1 Corinthians 15:50-55, "I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, and I will tell you a mystery. We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will all be changed... When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, then the saying that is written will come true: ‘Death has been swallowed up in victory!’" Jesus Christ was the first to be permanently raised from the dead, but those who believe in him will soon follow.

"I believe in Jesus Christ, who on the third day rose from the dead." Oh friends, God's resurrection power is available to you, now. Believe it, accept it, live it. It makes all the difference in the world.