Sermon in Minneapolis 20.04.2014

Grace beyond you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Let us begin our services this morning with opening prayer and Thanksgiving.

Risen is our sun in victory shining on the mount today. Beams of warmth from Him are streaming; sorrows and griefs are cast away. Gather now all birds of heaven, soar through pure refreshing air. Chirp and twitter, larks and sparrows on the vine branches fresh and fair.

Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for this beautiful warm blessing today, where the sun is shining so brightly in the natural sense, but more important and above all, we thank you for that Son of Grace which is shining so purely and with warmth from the heavens of grace. Jesus Christ, who is our Son of Righteousness, has won the victory. He has risen. He has paid the price of redemption. He has opened the door to heaven, and he has gained salvation for all mankind. And this gift of righteousness we can own by faith through the merits of your Son Jesus Christ here as children in your kingdom.

So we ask that you could be with us again this morning and bless this service occasion. Warm our hearts, cold and tired and often weary, doubting, undying souls. Nourish us with that everlasting bread of heaven and lead us and guide us on this narrow way of life. Bring us one day from this life to that eternal home there in glory one day. All of this we ask in the name of your dear Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Today is Easter Sunday. The theme is, rightfully so, Christ has risen. And I thought for today I would take an epistle text assigned for this day from Paul's first letter to the Corinthians and read it to you. Chapter 15, verses 12 through 22. And we will quieten to hear these words as follows in Jesus' name.

Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen? And if Christ be not risen, then our preaching is in vain, and your faith is also in vain. Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ, whom he raised not up.

If so be that the dead rise not. For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised? And if Christ be not raised, your faith is in vain, and you 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.

But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. Amen.

This letter of Paul was written to a small group of believers there in the city of Corinth. It was a seaport city, a cosmopolitan city, and in that city was much ungodliness. In fact, it has been stated that those who lived a very ungodly life lived the way of the Corinthians.

But God had his own small chosen people, a group of believers in that city. But even that group of believers was having their own challenges and issues, for which reason he had to approach them with several letters. Two are recorded for us in scriptures, and there is evidence that there are at least two others, which were not preserved in our Bible.

There were some who were coming in the state of drunkenness to the communion table. There was fornication. There was other sexual misbehaviors. Believers were bringing other believers to court. There was the debate over who was the most important minister. Some were following Paul, others Apollos, and so on and so forth.

But one issue that was coming up and Paul needed to and wanted to address was this matter of resurrection. Many were denying this as a possibility, that it could happen. And therefore Paul devotes this entire 15th chapter here in the first letter of the Corinthians to this topic, this theme, or this matter of resurrection. And he's wishing to establish and show how important this matter is. Our faith and salvation is based upon it. It's founded upon it. And that gospel which we preach, its basis is Christ's suffering, death, and resurrection from the grave.

And therefore he begins this 15th chapter by declaring to them the gospel, the good news, which is the glad tidings of Jesus Christ. Well, what is this good news of Jesus Christ? What is contained in this good message and glad tidings? And he said, this is the message that I have preached to you. This is the message that you have received. And in the possession of this message, you wish to remain. You wish to stand. And the reason why we wish to receive this message and the reason why we wish to believe it and remain in it, Paul says, is because by it we are saved. And otherwise you have believed in vain. So important is this gospel.

What is the content of this gospel, the glad tidings of Jesus Christ? So he says that by preaching this gospel, I have delivered you first from your sins, from unbelief, and translated you from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God's dear Son. So much power is contained in this message, the gospel message. And so I have delivered you, I have delivered it unto you first that which I have received.

So it is impossible for someone to declare or to preach or to offer this gospel, this living message, this glad tidings of Jesus Christ, if one hasn't first become a partaker of it, having not first received it himself or herself. So that is his prelude, or his introduction to the gospel.

But now he wants to go on to explain that, well, what is the content of this gospel? What does it contain? And why is it so important? And he says, this gospel therein contains this, that Christ died. It's a short, succinct statement, and Christ died.

If we could recall the events of Good Friday, and the events leading up to Good Friday, Jesus on Monday, Thursday evening, was led out into the garden, there in the garden of Gethsemane, led by the deceiver Judas Iscariot, came a band of soldiers, took a hold of Jesus, arrested him and brought him to be interrogated, to be examined, first by the Jewish high priest, trying to find fault in him, reason to put him to death.

Then they brought him to the Roman leader Pontius Pilate. Pontius Pilate says, I find no fault in him, and shifted him off to King Herod, who was the leader in the area of Galilee, from which Jesus had come, and where he lived. When Jesus opened not his mouth, he was then sent back to Pontius Pilate.

Then Pontius Pilate asked the group of people, who should we release on this day of Jubilee? And they shouted, Release Barabbas, the criminal from prison. What should we do with this man, holding Jesus by the hand? And they said, Crucify him. Crucify him.

Crucifixion was a very well-known method of suffering and death in those times, begun by the Persians, but we could say perfected by the Romans. First of all, they played with their victim, stripped clothes off the victim's back, and then scourged with a whip thirty-nine times. The Bible says, and they could read or number the bones, his rib bones in his body. His back was so torn up.

They dressed him up like a mock king, putting a scarlet red robe upon his shoulders, crown of thorns on his head, and then they put him in a coffin. And they said, then a branch in his hands, after using that branch to him, banged the crown of thorns deeply into his forehead. They spit, they reviled him, and mocked him.

Then they tore the robe off, opening up again the wounds that had begun to stick because of the coagulating blood. Then they had him carry his own cross, the cross member of the cross, weighing one hundred pounds, a roughly sawn piece of timber toward the hill of Golgotha, six hundred and fifty yards away.

Imagine each footstep, that heavy timber weighing down on his back, which had been shred by the scourging of the soldiers. Typically, these people die during the scourging, but he was still alive. And he couldn't make it the entire distance, so they asked that one person from the crowd to come and help him carry his cross.

When finally they reached the hill of Golgotha, he was then nailed by his hands, his feet, and to hang on the cross, shifting his feet from the way done is hands to then to his feet, back again to his hands, and then to his feet. This is the only way that they could breathe, hanging on the cross, as the birds would come and peck at the hanging body.

Insects would come into the wounds, and dust and dirt had covered, I'm sure, his body. Typically, they left these people being crucified for two, three days before they eventually expired. But the next day, or at sundown, six in the evening, was the Sabbath, the beginning of the great celebration.

And the bodies could not be on the cross, hanging on the cross at six o'clock that evening. They had to be removed. And so the soldiers came to put these three people to death by taking a sledgehammer and breaking their bones so they could no longer shift the weight from hanging by the nails on their hands, then to their feet, and then to their hands, rising up and down, one foot up, one foot down.

And the wood in the back, imagine scraping the open wounds on the back of the body. So they came and broke the leg bones of the two thieves on each side of Jesus. But when they came to Jesus, they noticed that he had expired. He had shouted, all is fulfilled. Father, now into your hands I give my spirit. And he slumped over and he died.

So the soldiers did not break one bone in his body. The Old Testament prophecy came true that not one bone would be broken. He died. And this is what is contained in this one short statement here in Paul's letter to the Corinthians, that Christ died.

So why did Christ need to die? Paul says the reason for our sins. For the wages of sin is death. That was the punishment that came upon all mankind, humankind. And now, he needed to correct this fall by suffering that punishment which belongs to all of us. He died. Why? For our sins.

And then Paul says, according to scriptures. We can find a statement after statement in the Old Testament giving basis and foundation to this that it was necessary that he die and would die. And then he was buried. He was taken down from the cross. He was wrapped in white linen. He was mummified according to the customs of those times. And he was laid into a cave.

He, according to the Old Testament prophecy, he suffered between two criminals. And after death, he came into the hands of a rich man. Joseph, Arimathea, requested the body of Jesus and wanted to give him an honorable funeral or burial. Wrapped him in white linen. Brought him into the cave. The cave was sealed shut with a one-ton, two-ton stone.

So no one could enter into the cave. And he was buried. So no one could enter therein and desecrate the body or steal the body. So he was buried. And then he rose again on the third day.

Well, if you think of three days, you think of 72 hours. It wasn't 72 hours, but it was two full days and part of a third. So it was, if you look at the calendar, we've got Friday, Saturday, Sunday. And so it was over the span of touching those three calendar days.

And this we can see also again and again in the Old Testament. And the example that first comes to mind is the prophet Jonah. As Jonah was in the belly of the whale for three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the bosom of the earth.

So he rose again on the third day and again according to Scripture. And we could find many places in Scripture. And the psalmist says in this way that his body will not be left in Sheol or in hell. And his body will not see corruption. This is only one example of this matter of indication of resurrection according to the Old Testament Scriptures.

But then he rose victorious from the grave. And then from that open grave, that open sepulcher, went forth two messages. One is the message of faith and the other is the message of unbelief.

And Paul is now wishing to address this matter of doubting this possibility of resurrection. And there are many lies that began to be spread around and still are being spread in the world today. And so the Apostle Paul is establishing the basis of this fact that Jesus rose from the grave.

And we remember that according to the evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, some of them mentioned that the first eyewitnesses of this empty tomb, this open sepulcher, were the two women, Mary by name, who wanted to come and pay homage to the body, anoint his body, and perhaps bring flowers and a wreath as well as we would do nowadays to a grave site.

And it's kind of interesting that Apostle Paul, here in this list of witnesses, does not mention women. Why is that? Well, perhaps because in society at that time, women were not even accepted as witnesses in court. So Paul doesn't even mention the very first witnesses, which were the two women. But the evangelists do. Several of them, if not all of them.

So they came early in the morning and were wondering in their minds, how are we going to be able to move that heavy stone? It takes a group of soldiers to move it, weighing, was it one ton or was it two tons? And lo and behold, they arrived to the grave site and the stone had been moved.

They look inside, there is no body. There they can see the white linens in the exact same position in which Jesus was wrapped three days prior. Just like he was still there, no body in the linens, but the linens were there in the same position.

And then the angel came and appeared unto them. The one who you are looking for is not here, but he has arisen. Go to Galilee and tell the disciples that I will come and meet them.

But now, that is the message or the record of the evangelists. But here, what is Paul's statement? He said in this way that he was seen first of Cephas. Well, who is Cephas? Well, it's actually Apostle Peter. And this is his Hebrew name. Cephas means rock. And Peter also means rock.

So Peter had a name in Hebrew and also in Greek, both the same. One is Peter and one is Cephas. So we remember that after the women brought news to the disciples, it was Peter and John who came running to the grave site to see with their own eyes the tomb is empty. The body is not there. It has arisen.

But then Jesus appears. And he appeared unto them and spoke to them. So he is seen first by Peter and then by the twelve. Jesus appeared to the disciples who were in fear, had locked themselves in a room, shuttered the windows.

Suddenly, Jesus appeared. He didn't unlock the door. He didn't open the windows. But he was there. He was suddenly there. And they were fearful and astonished. And they thought they were seeing a vision. It must be a ghost. It must be a spirit.

Jesus said, Calm down. Don't be afraid. I'm not a ghost. I'm not a spirit. You're not seeing a hallucination. Give me some bread to eat, some honey, and some fried fish. A ghost or a spirit doesn't eat. But I am the real Lord Jesus, the resurrected Lord Jesus. And they watched as he ate that food and swallowed that food.

At that point, he didn't allow them to touch him. But then Thomas, we recall, here it says he was seen of the twelve. We know that Judas Iscariot had already denied his Savior and was no longer part of the twelve. But they still used that term twelve to include his closest group of believers, the twelve apostles, the twelve disciples.

Thomas was not there the first time. And he said that, I don't believe it. Unless I can see him with my own eyes, unless I can touch him with my own hands, I will not believe it. It's impossible.

They gathered again behind the same locked doors in a room. And Jesus appeared, just for Thomas' sake. And he told Thomas, Thomas, come, take your finger and put it into the wounds that are in my hands, that are in my feet, and take your fist and thrust it into the wound that was left by that spear that is in my side.

Do not be in doubt or disbelieving, but believe. Thomas, he said, because you have now seen, you believe. But now Jesus then speaks to us that, but blessed are you, blessed am I, blessed are all of us today, when we have not seen with our own human eyes, but yet, however, we believe.

So then he goes on that, seen by the twelve, but then he was seen by five hundred brethren at one time. We don't know for sure exactly what this occasion may be, but there is some speculation that perhaps this was that event on the Mount of Olives, when Jesus, forty days later, after his resurrection from the grave, ascended into the glory of heaven.

His parallel service, which it was mentioned in that last verse of the last song before our sermon began, as was written by Heikki Usela. And I'm sure they were wonderful services, but sorrowful services when they saw their Lord and Savior depart.

And if there were unbelievers there, even though Jesus was in their midst, they did not see him. The Bible says that he only appeared to his own, only to the believers, between Easter morning, from the time of resurrection, for the next forty days, until his ascension. Only he was witnessed by his own, the believers.

So, point after point after point, Paul is giving testimony and giving witness that there was the open grave. It was empty. The linens were there. The body was not there. He was seen by many people, one after another.

And then it says here, and after that he was seen by five hundred at one time, and the greater part, when Paul wrote this letter, had already passed away. After that he was seen by the Apostle James, one of the apostles, and last of all, he was seen by me, as one who was born out of due time, or one who was in the process of being born, or in the birth canal, we could say.

We don't know for sure exactly what is being referred to here, or what Paul is referring to, but some have said that it must be that when Jesus appeared unto Paul, Saul at that time, when he was on his way to the city of Damascus.

And he was going there with that reason, for that purpose, that he would capture all of the followers of Christ, Christians, imprison them, and eventually have them put to death, one by one.

And as he was going on this mission, suddenly Saul was struck blind. He fell to the ground and heard a voice. He didn't recognize the voice, but it was the voice of the resurrected Lord.

Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? Why are you kicking against the pricks? I have a mission for you. You are one of my chosen. Go to Damascus, and there it will be told you what you should do.

And there in Damascus, Ananias, a believer came and preached that gospel to him, and he was translated from darkness unto light. So when Paul was there on the city of Damascus, he was awakened. He didn't see Jesus. He heard the voice. He didn't even recognize the voice.

But it began the turning point in his life. It began his, we could say, birthing process, or he was now in a state of being awakened. It wasn't until Ananias preached the gospel that he was converted and became a child of God.

And so then we come to our text. And Paul begins to now establish the importance of this matter of resurrection. And this is the message of Easter Sunday. And this is the reason why even this text was chosen as a text for this, we could say, the most important day of the year in Christendom.

So Paul says, Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, so there are some who were able to comprehend and did accept and believe that, well, yes, I believe that it's possible that God's Son could rise from the dead.

Well, what about everyone else? That was too much for them. That's impossible, many stated and professed. So Paul is now wanting to explain this matter of resurrection. How it is possible. And how it is important. And why it is important.

Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how is it possible that some among you say that there is no resurrection from the dead for everyone else? But if there's no resurrection of the dead, in general, if there's no resurrection for you and I one day, well then there would be no resurrection for Christ either, Paul is saying.

And if we go by deduction backwards that, and if Christ did not rise, then our preaching is in vain. If Christ hadn't risen, if those disciples hadn't come, or had come and not saw the open tomb, the empty tomb, and the risen body, our preaching today would be in vain. We might as well have stayed home on Easter Sunday morning. Our services would have no purpose or any validity.

So important was this matter of resurrection. That's what Paul is saying here. So if Christ had not risen, then our preaching and services today would be worthless, in vain. And our faith would be in vain. We would be believing upon emptiness. Nothing. No foundation. No foundation would we have to our preaching and to our faith.

And so, in vain, we, those who said that they witnessed the resurrected Jesus, would be false witnesses. And they would be actually liars. Because you have testified of God, that He raised up Christ, and that He is the Son of God.

But if there would be no resurrection, He would not have been risen. And if so be that the dead, in general, would not rise up. For if the dead rise not, in general, then Christ would not have been raised.

And if Christ be not raised, your faith is in vain, and we would still be in our sins. There would be no forgiveness of sins. It would be impossible to get those sins blotted out, and have payment for our sins. That punishment which was told to Adam and Eve, on the day you eat of that tree, you will surely die. The wages of sin are death.

And so Christ had to die. But not only die, but rise again, to complete that work of salvation, and pay the price of redemption, to open the doors to the glory of heaven.

And they which have fallen asleep in Christ would have perished. They would have not gone to heaven, but they would have all gone to condemnation and hell. All of those Old Testament saints, that had passed away, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Adam and Eve, Noah, all of the prophets, would have passed away in vain, and all perished with no hope of heaven.

So important is this matter of resurrection. Resurrection from the grave.

And Paul goes yet on to say, and if in this life only, we have hope in Christ, so if we believe that there is only this temporal life, and no life hereafter, which many of the atheists, and other religions of today may preach, that we are just like an animal or a tree. The tree falls in the forest, and eventually it just decays and rots, and there is no more remains of it.

But this isn't so. Paul says that if we have hope only for this temporal life, we are the most miserable, pitiable, of all people here today on this earth.

And so, he goes on to say, but these are all false notions, that people have professed, and proclaimed, and spread about. But he goes on to say, but this is the truth.

But now, Christ has risen from the dead. And he has become the first fruits of them that slept.

So what does this mean? The first fruits of them that slept. It's kind of interesting that, right at the time when Jesus was captured, and then put to death, was the time of Passover, which was a seven-day long celebration.

And on the day that Jesus then died, was the day of the first fruits. It was the day that the first grain that was ripening was then harvested, and brought as a sacrifice, as, we could say, a forerunner, or an indication, of the full harvest that was later to come.

So Christ was the first one.

Well then we ask that, well, what about when Jesus, during his public ministry, he raised Lazarus from the dead, he raised Jairus from the dead, and was there yet a third one that he raised from the dead? Well, this wasn't resurrection. This was resuscitation. He brought them back to life.

But they were in the same human body. And in that same human body, they again eventually died the second time.

But now Christ, he was put into the grave. He rose again, as the first fruits, sanctifying the grave as a blessed resting place for us. He rose again, now in a new body, in a body of resurrection.

Similar in many ways. I can still see the prints of the nails in his hands and the feet, in his feet, and also the wound in his side. But now it was in perfect body of heaven's glory.

Sown and, we will one day be sown in weakness, but we will rise in glory. We'll be sown as a mortal person, but rise as an immortal person. Sown in weakness, rise in strength. Sown in dishonor, rise in honor.

We will rise in that body of resurrection life, Christ's body of resurrection.

So, so important is this matter of resurrection. As Paul writes to the Romans, that this was proof of Christ's divinity. He rose for our righteousness' sake.

And through this matter of resurrection, we are able to, or a person is able to receive new birth, be able to be born again, be converted and become a child of God.

And through this matter of, and power of resurrection, as Christ rose from the grave, and ascended into heaven, one day, there'll be that final resurrection for all people.

There'll be a resurrection for all people. Some will rise onto condemnation in hell. But for those who died in living faith, they will rise, and go and meet the Lord, and be with him forever, there in heaven's glory, in a new body, without sin, without weakness, without defilement, be in glory.

There with Christ in heaven forever.

So, so important is this message of Easter. And this is what brings us hope, security. This is what can warm our cold, dark, maybe doubting and tempted hearts even this morning.

Christ died for you. He has risen. He wishes to approach you. Just as he approached Thomas, so lovingly, there behind locked doors. Come, Thomas. Do not be doubting, but believe. Even you. Just as you are. Just as you find yourself.

Uplift your hearts and believe. Sins forgiven, in Jesus' name, and precious blood. The battle has been fought. Victory has been attained. The tomb is empty. Christ has risen. He lives, and we can live through him.

In Jesus' name, amen.

The Lord bless us and keep us. The Lord make his face to shine upon us and be gracious unto us. Lord, lift up his countenance upon us and give us your peace.

In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost, amen. Amen.