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Hope Through the Resurrection - J. Kennedy · Faith On A Hill

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  And Christ all then walk sand all the ground is sinking sand the ground is sinking sand.
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  Your hope is in vain.
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  Has anyone ever told you that?
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  That's not something we we want to think about.
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  That's not something that is a pleasant thought to anyone.
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  But how about this thought?
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  There's no hereafter.
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  There's no God on the other side that's going to judge you.
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  There's no resurrection from the dead.
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  There's no end time.
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  You do what you want.
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  You live the life that makes you happy, and that's all you have to worry about.
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  As long as it makes you happy, then it's good.
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  How many of you have heard that before?
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  We might, in our minds, think of those as two separate things, but they're not.
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  And when we open our Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 15, and if you would join me there, 1 Corinthians chapter 15, Paul shows us that there is a direct connection between denying
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  the resurrection, denying the resurrection of Christ, and a lack of hope.
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  Now, as Paul is writing to the church in Corinth here, he is addressing a problem that has arisen.
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  A problem where members of the church and those around them
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  Have been espousing the false claim that not only is Christ not risen from the dead, but there is no such thing as a resurrection from the dead.
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  We pick up in verse 12 where Paul writes, Now, if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?
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  But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen.
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  Now, tonight, as we consider the proofs that
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  Paul, or rather, the applications that Paul draws out from this statement, I want us to keep in mind the idea of hope.
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  To keep in mind the idea of something worthwhile.
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  Now let's get into this with verse 14 starting.
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  And if Christ be not risen, then is notice this, our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.
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  As Paul is listing the
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  Problems that occur, the consequences of this belief that Christ is not risen and that there is no resurrection of the dead, he says, number one, every word that you've believed
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  from my mouth is a is worthless.
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  Every word that we have preached is worthless.
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  And not only that, but your faith, your confidence, your hope, your trust in the Lord, it's worthless.
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  He tells these Corinthian brethren that if they want to hold to this idea, then they have to give up the thing that they have been fighting to keep, the thing that they have been
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  struggling to hold on to.
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  If they want to hold to this idea, then there is no hope.
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  We continue in verse 15.
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  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.
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  Paul says here very plainly that if it is the case that the dead do not rise, if it is the case that Christ is not risen from the dead, then he's a liar.
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  But not only is Paul a liar, but he says God is a liar.
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  Now, when we think about God, when we think about what makes God God, what do we think about?
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  The fact that he is a God of all truth, right?
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  That he is a God of honesty.
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  That he is not a God of lies, of deceit, but that he is open and honest with us.
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  But here Paul is saying that if Christ is not risen, then God's a liar.
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  Because God espoused, confirmed, promoted the fact, the truth, that Jesus rose from the dead.
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  We continue on.
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  Verse 16, for if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised.
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  And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain.
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  And notice this, ye are yet in your sins.
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  Another consequence.
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  He draws back to the idea of their faith being in vain, but he also connects it, he connects that faith being in vain to the fact that they're still in their sins.
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  Without Christ,
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  We cannot escape our sins.
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  Without the resurrection of Christ, every single human being is still in his or her sins.
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  Verse 18.
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  Then also they, then they also rather, which are asleep in Christ, are perished.
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  The final consequence that Paul mentions here is the fact that if the dead do not rise, if there is no coming judgment day, when all that are in the grave will hear his voice and
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  will be raised to meet the Lord in the air, to be judged on that day, if that's not happening, then all those loved ones, all of those who uh have gone on before us.
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  That have been faithful to God, the ones that we're looking forward to seeing, they're dead and gone.
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  And not just dead and gone, but they're never going to be seen again.
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  There is no hope of a reunion.
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  Now you might be sitting here saying, Jacob, this is a Wednesday night.
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  If we don't want to deal with something that's hopeless tonight, we want to recharge our batteries.
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  We want to be leaving here encouraged, right?
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  Well, then don't stop where we stop.
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  Keep reading with me.
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  Verse 18.
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  Or verse 19, rather, if in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.
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  But notice this, Paul doesn't leave them here.
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  He doesn't leave them with verse 19.
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  He says and gives a contrast here in verse 20, but now is Christ risen from the dead and become the first fruits of them that slept.
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  Paul says, these men that are trying to teach you false doctrine, these individuals that are trying to tell you that Christ did not raise from the dead, that there is no
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  resurrection of the dead, they're wrong.
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  They're dead wrong, and your hope is secure in Christ.
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  Brethren, we have hope.
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  Stop and think about that.
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  We have hope.
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  In a world full of turmoil, of uncertainties, in a world full of confusion and violence, we as Christians have hope.
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  A hope that is secure in the fact that Christ rose from the dead and in rising from the dead said, I can take you with me.
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  I can take you with me to my Father's house.
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  You don't have to stay here.
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  You don't have to go to hell.
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  You don't have to go to that place of torment, but you can be in heaven.
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  Now, if that's not an encouraging thought, I don't know what is.
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  If it's not an encouraging thought to know that Christ rose from the dead to offer us salvation, I don't know what is.
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  But praise be to God that he did.
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  We sang the song, How Shall the Young Secure Their Hearts?
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  It's going to be trusting in the Word.
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  It's going to be listening to the one who gave us His Word to follow His steps.
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  The one who did not stay dead.
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  The one who did not remain in the tomb, but on that third day he rose from the dead.
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  Every Sunday we remember the Lord's sacrifice.
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  We call it the Lord's Supper.
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  We partake of the bread and drink of the juice, and we remember his body that was broken, or rather, that was beaten.
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  We remember the blood that he shed on our behalf, but we also remember the fact that he was buried.
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  He died on that cross, was buried, and on that third day, what'd he do?
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  He rose and gives us hope.
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  The Bible, the gospel, it is the good news for man.
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  Why is it the good news for man?
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  Because it is hope for man's salvation.
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  You don't have to stay in your sins.
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  And as you look at your life tonight and compare it to the mirror of Scripture, and you realize that you are still in your sin, that you have never done what is necessary, what
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  the Lord requires to contact that saving blood, then we urge you, don't just let the word of God go in one ear and out the other.
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  Truly hear it.
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  Truly listen and understand.
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  believe that Jesus Christ is in fact who he said he was, the Son of God, the one who rose from the dead, the one who died for you.
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  Believe that with all of your heart.
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  Confess his name.
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  And don't just stop there.
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  Don't just stop with that belief.
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  Don't just stop where many of the denominational world say, that's good enough.
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  Just have faith.
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  That's good enough.
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  Just believe that Jesus is the Christ.
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  That's good enough.
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  No, the Bible continues.
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  You can't stay where you are.
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  You can't stay in your sin.
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  You have to change.
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  To repent, to what we might call make a 180.
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  Turn from that old way of sin to follow after Christ and be baptized into his death.
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  Baptism, that symbol of how he was buried.
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  We are buried.
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  About how he rose from the dead, different, changed.
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  We rise from the dead, different, changed.
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  Our old man of sin stays down in that water.
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  And we choose every day to walk in the footsteps of Christ, to follow his pattern.
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  And as a Christian tonight, if you look at yourself in the mirror of scripture and you say, I haven't been following the pattern, I haven't been putting God first in my life.
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  I haven't been doing what I know I need to be doing, and I want to make it right with God.
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  Don't leave here tonight having any doubt.
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  God is not a God of doubt, but he is a God of comfort, of hope, of assurance.
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  If we can help you to have assurance tonight, come forward now as we stand and as we sing.
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  Jesus the Savior came down from above, came to green mercy and love.
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  It's by him that I glorify the Christ beyond Galvine.
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  On the crossy Brainfather for gifts.
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  What they don't know what they do for sea.
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  We might live and depend on you.
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  And he depend on you.
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  His blessed will do Will you be crowned with a faithful and true and he depend on you?
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  He is preparing with home for his faithful and home.
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  Are you preparing to stand by his side or in that?
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  They read in you tone others a story of love showing them what they should do.
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  These are the precepts that come from above, and he depend on you, and he depend on you.
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  That is it will to do Will you be crowned with the faithful and true and he depend on you?