Easter Sunrise
Sunday Morning Bible Study
April 4, 1999
Introduction
As we’ve worked our way through the gospel story, we’ve stopped here on purpose. Jesus has been crucified. He’s buried in a tomb. What if the story had ended here? What if Jesus had not rose from the grave?
If Jesus had not risen from the grave, our lives would be radically different.
1 Cor 15:1-20
:2 unless ye have believed in vain.
Today it seems that there are plenty of us who want to just believe in something. We don’t care whether it’s real or true, we just want something to believe in.
Perhaps it all started with Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny. We’ve learned to believe in things, even if they’re not real.
We want to be successful and wealthy, so we believe in the "American Dream", only to find out sometimes that not everybody makes it to the top.
We want our leaders to be moral and upright. So when someone looks squarely into the camera, points his finger and declares that he didn’t commit adultery, we want to believe him. And then we find out he was lying.
If you stop and think about it, we know very well what it means to believe vainly in something. And if we think about it long enough, we can get pretty cynical, to the point that we simply don’t want to believe in anything.
Is our Christian faith something that we’re believing in vain? Is it just another one of those things we’ve talked ourselves into but in the end has just been a waste of our time?
:3 how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures
This is the essence of the gospel.
:5 And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve:
Cephas – Peter
One of the greatest proofs of the resurrection has to do with the testimony of the witnesses. One reason why we know that the resurrection of Jesus from the dead is true is because there were people who were witnesses to the event.
Could it have been a delusion? Mass hysteria?
The problem with this theory is that Jesus didn’t just supposedly appear once to a single person, but to groups of people. All the persons in the group would see Him at the same time. It happened many times over a period of forty days. Most of His appearances had not been anticipated by those who saw Him. In fact, on the first Resurrection Sunday, the disciples had all been hiding in an upper room. They weren’t standing around waiting for Him to appear. They thought he was dead.
Maybe the disciples just made up the whole story.
The problem with this has to do with the amazing fact that these apostles continue to tell the same stories all through their lives. And this was despite the fact that they split up and all went different directions. Except for John, all of them died horrible martyr’s deaths, each one going to his grave without ever changing his story. I can see one or two guys being stubborn enough to hold on to some made up story, but ALL of the disciples? I don’t think so.
:6 After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once …
Paul is reminding them of the great extent to which Jesus had been seen. He wasn’t just seen by the twelve apostles, but hundreds had seen Him after His resurrection. And Paul reminds the Corinthians that at the time of his writing them, most of the witnesses were still alive to say it was true.
:8 And last of all he was seen of me also
Paul too had seen the risen Jesus on the road to Damascus (Acts 9).
:14 our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.
If there is no resurrection, then we are wasting our time. But it’s not false, it’s true.
:15 Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God
If God doesn’t raise people from the dead, then the apostles are all liars. If they are all liars, why would anybody bother listening to them?
:17 your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.
It’s the resurrection of Jesus from the dead that proved that our sins were paid for. It’s easy for a person to say they’re going to pay for your sins by dying for them, and stay dead. But the real proof that all your sins were paid for was the fact that Jesus didn’t stay dead. He had enough "life" to be able to cover your death, and come back to life Himself.
Our sins are paid for. God will never again hold them against us. The price has been paid.
John Newton (1725-1807) had been the captain of a slave ship. After he came to know Jesus, he quit the shipping business and became a pastor. He’s the author of "Amazing Grace". He wrote:
In evil long I took delight,
Unawed by shame or fear,
Till a new object struck my sight,
And stopp'd my wild career:
I saw One hanging on a Tree
In agonies and blood,
Who fix'd His languid eyes on me.
As near His Cross I stood.
Sure never till my latest breath,
Can I forget that look:
It seem'd to charge me with His death,
Though not a word He spoke:
My conscience felt and own'd the guilt,
And plunged me in despair:
I saw my sins His Blood had spilt,
And help'd to nail Him there.
Alas! I knew not what I did!
But now my tears are vain:
Where shall my trembling soul be hid?
For I the Lord have slain!
A second look He gave, which said,
"I freely all forgive;
This blood is for thy ransom paid;
I die that thou may'st live."
Thus, while His death my sin displays
In all its blackest hue,
Such is the mystery of grace,
It seals my pardon too.
With pleasing grief, and mournful joy,
My spirit now if fill'd,
That I should such a life destroy,
Yet live by Him I kill'd!
My sins crucified Jesus. But in dying for me, He paid for my sins. The resurrection is the proof.
:18 Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.
This is one of the things that continues to hit me each time I am a part of a funeral service for a Christian.
This is what our faith is all about. We do not believe that the person has simply ceased to exist. We do not believe that they are going to come back as somebody’s pet dog. We believe that they are alive and with Jesus and that one day we will be together with them.
Why do we believe this? Is it just another case of wishful thinking? No. We believe this because Jesus rose from the dead. We too will rise from the dead.
:19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.
Because we believe that there is life on the other side of death, we Christians live with a goal in mind. We are aiming our lives towards heaven. There’s a reason why we are going to do certain things and not do others. It’s all going to be worth it.
(2 Cor 4:16 – 5:1 KJV) For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. {17} For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; {18} While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal. {5:1} For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
The hard times we face up to day in and day out are going to be worth it. Nothing can compare with what God has prepared for us in heaven. And we know it’s all true because Jesus rose from the dead.
Lesson
Don’t despair.
Illustration
A MISSIONARY was sitting at her second-story window when she was handed a letter from home. As she opened the letter, a crisp, new, ten-dollar bill fell out. She was pleasantly surprised, but as she read the letter her eyes were distracted by the movement of a shabbily dressed stranger down below, leaning against a post in front of the building. She couldn't get him off her mind. Thinking that he might be in greater financial stress than she, she slipped the bill into an envelope on which she quickly penned "Don't despair." She threw it out the window. The stranger below picked it up, read it, looked up, and smiled as he tipped his hat and went his way.
The next day she was about to leave the house when a knock came at the door. She found the same shabbily dressed man smiling as he handed her a roll of bills. When she asked what they were for, he replied: "That's the sixty bucks you won, lady. Don't Despair paid five to one!"
Charles R. Swindoll, Growing Strong in the Seasons of Life
We have something real and substantial to hope in. There’s no gamble in it. It’s a sure thing. And it’s going to pay off. Heaven is a real place. It’s worth the wait. And it’s a sure thing because Jesus rose from the dead.
He is risen. He is risen indeed.