Reason For Hope!

With me, would you bow in prayer before we look into the Word of God this morning. God of heaven, now we come to your Word, this Word that reveals to us what happened centuries ago, but this Word which is alive. This is not just a history of something that happened that makes no difference. All eternity is at stake on the truthfulness of these words. So I pray, Father, that you would work in our hearts today.

Give hope to those who have bowed to Jesus and recognize him as king. Give them hope because of the resurrection. And Father, I pray for those who may be here today who have never come to Christ, who have never come to the Lord Jesus, recognizing their sin, recognizing your judgment on their sin, and never recognizing Jesus as the only way to escape.

I pray that you would hold out hope to them, that they might see that Jesus is the only reason for hope in this world, a hope that will bring about our salvation and a hope that will carry us through each day. God, open our hearts, open our ears, open your word to us this day, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. The disciples were men who pinned all their hopes on Jesus.

He had promised them a kingdom and they had been absolutely convinced that that kingdom was coming. they were so convinced that they argued with one another as to who would occupy the most prominent places in that kingdom. He did marvelous things like stilling storms with just a word, feeding 5,000 people, more than 5,000 people with just a few fishes and some loaves, and even raising people from the dead. Surely he was a representative of God.

As one who obviously came from God, he welcomed sinners. He openly embraced those who were rejected by everyone else. He spoke with authority about the forgiveness of sins. Even Matthew, one of our gospel writers, was a hated tax collector whom Jesus called from his tax collecting to be a disciple. Had he not talked with them with authority about this whole issue of their forgiveness, Jesus had burst on the scene with great promise and power, and they had hoped so much.

Here was their Messiah. Here was their King. but then their hopes were shattered to pieces broken in a moment of time with no warning on the first day of the week the nation around him shouted his praises called him king Everything had been going well and then on Thursday night he had been arrested and dragged away Arrested, mind you, without putting up a fight. Arrested with no display of supernatural power against those who had come against him.

They hauled him away and handed him over like a common criminal. He was tried. He was crucified. He was hung on a cross like a common criminal in open shame, looking weak and powerless. And they all watched this from a safe distance. Messiah or blasphemer, king or criminal, it was all up for grabs now.

What were they to believe? They were so devastated that they didn't even have the courage to ask for his body. And when Joseph of Arimathea put Jesus into that tomb, their hopes went into the grave with him. for them it was the end of Jesus. For them, seriously, it was the end of all their hopes. All of their hopes dashed to pieces. Gone.

Three years out the window. Have you ever read a book and skipped ahead to a few chapters? Right? My dear wife has a habit of reading the end of the book before she gets there. Well, skip a few chapters in this story. And you'll see these discouraged, hopeless disciples transformed into confident and certain people.

What turned these despairing people into men free from fear and cowardice? What was it that did that? You see them actually in the book of Acts preaching before the very same people who crucified Jesus. They stand before the very people who crucified Jesus and look them in the face and said, You crucified the king. What happened to them? What happened to them?

What caused them to stand assured before the Sanhedrin, the council that had condemned Jesus, the very people who had condemned Jesus, weeks later, they're standing before the very same people, and they're saying this, no, we will not stop preaching Christ, no matter what you say. What happened to them? Well, we all know what happened to them. Jesus came back from the dead.

He was alive. He had appeared again in their midst and not only that but he spent 40 days with them teaching them See they had hope again but now it was a different kind of hope A hope that would not die. A confidence that were going to carry them through the rest of their lives. The resurrection of Jesus created men and women of undying confidence. In fact, one of the apostles, Peter, wrote this.

We heard it already this morning. Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. in his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead why did he write that what happened to these people well we need to realize that the resurrection of Jesus creates hope the resurrection of Jesus creates hope there's something about that resurrection that is utterly different. In fact, it is powerful and it is transforming.

Now, the disciples did not gain hope from the doctrinal precision of the people of that day. Now, most of the Jews of their day did believe in a resurrection. Most of them believed in a resurrection. They were committed to the doctrine of the resurrection. You know, when you read through the Gospels, you see these two groups, the Pharisees and the Sadducees.

These were the two leading theological schools of that day, and they had a continuing argument going on between them. Sadducees, there is no resurrection of the dead, right? They were the rationalists. You die, you go, you're in the dust. The Pharisees, on the other hand, were committed to a doctrine of resurrection, and so they would talk about that. They would fight about that.

They would debate about it. They both were on the same supreme council that condemned Jesus at least they agreed on that we don't like this guy but they were often debating with each other about the resurrection and no doubt as you walked around the temple courts you would hear rabbis teaching their disciples about this resurrection the resurrection from the dead was not a big deal they all believed in it the disciples had even witnessed resurrections you remember that they had followed Jesus they are with him all the time. They had seen him raise people from the dead.

In fact, the most famous was a guy named Lazarus. And nobody disputed that Jesus raised him from the dead. Not even the Supreme Council of the Sanhedrin. They didn dispute it They said oh my he raised someone from the dead What are we going to do now Now everybody going to follow him No one disputed the fact that Lazarus had been raised from the dead They had all seen it But what happened to all those people that Jesus raised from the dead They all died.

They died again. Lazarus probably lived for another decade, maybe two. And he went the way of all flesh. And so they and others had witnessed corpses resurrected, physical life restored to bodies. why then did Jesus resurrection give them some hope remember they had seen these other resurrections and it didn't make any difference why is it that when Jesus is resurrected suddenly they're transformed and they have great hope because the resurrection of Jesus was not merely the resuscitation of a corpse.

It is not God reversing the laws of nature. That is not what happened. This was something unheralded. Now, if we want to get a glimpse of it, turn in your Bibles, first of all, to Acts chapter 4. Acts chapter 4. John and Peter had been in the temple courtyard and they had healed the lame man and they were out there preaching about Jesus and the resurrection from the dead and so forth so when we come to chapter four we see some people that are upset with them but I want you to notice something this is very important to see and as they were speaking to the people the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them greatly annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead.

That little the is important. They were preaching the resurrection from the dead. Why was the Sanhedrin so exercised about these men? Because they debated this whole idea of resurrection before. They had debated it before. The Sadducees and the Pharisees on the council, they had always talked about this.

But see, the Christian message, the message that these men were preaching was different because it challenged the very core of the Jewish belief in the resurrection because they saw the resurrection as happening in the future. Their debate on the resurrection was, will there be a resurrection at the end of the year? history on the last day. That is the resurrection, when all will be raised.

It was to be the last redemptive act of God for his people. And so they anticipated a future resurrection, the very last thing that God would do in his redeeming purposes for who they believed were his people, the Jews. But these disciples of Jesus were preaching that the resurrection that they were looking forward to, that resurrection had already occurred in Jesus.

That's what you need to see. They were preaching the resurrection from the dead. They were saying what you're looking for way down in the future the last act of god's redemption it's happened it happened in jesus the resurrection of the dead had occurred the very resurrection of the dead that they were looking for had occurred in the one that they had labeled a blasphemer now do you see the the problem here he's a blasphemer and here's what they're saying no he's not he's experienced It's the final resurrection that you think is only going to happen to the people who are vindicated before God.

It happened to him. They were not proclaiming the return of their beloved teacher, Jesus. That's not what they were saying. Rather, the longed-for resurrection that you're looking for in the future, it's already happened in this one called Jesus. Now, you've got to let that sink in a little bit. Right?

The final resurrection has occurred. In this one man, Jesus the Messiah. The resurrection of the dead was no longer a theological hope for the future, but God had acted in Jesus. Therefore, this is where we connect with the story, therefore it is not possible to remain neutral. If any of you are sitting here saying, ah, maybe, maybe not. There's no maybe, maybe not. if what they're saying is true, you cannot remain neutral.

You cannot say, oh, it's no big deal. It is a big deal. It has eternal consequences Because the future has arrived The future has arrived in the resurrection of Jesus Now turn over to 1 Corinthians with me for a moment 1 Corinthians 15. 1 Corinthians 15 is this gigantic tower of a chapter in Scripture that talks about the resurrection. It's the most, it devotes, this is the most ink spent on interpreting the resurrection of Jesus.

This was written some 20 years after the resurrection to a group of people who were disciples of Christ, who had been called by the gospel, who had believed in this resurrected Christ, who were now followers of him. And now there was some doctrine coming into the church that said, oh, the resurrection is no big deal. It's not possible for anyone to be raised from the dead.

Right? These are people in the church bringing in their philosophy that said it's impossible for anyone to be raised from the dead. By the way, does that sound familiar? I read something just the other day. Someone wrote a letter to the editor, some philosophy professor, who said you don't have to believe that Jesus was raised from the dead. It doesn't have to be literally true.

Religious truth can be conveyed whether the facts are true or not. For example, my father used to tell us the story, Aesop's Fables, he always did this with my brother and me, of the brothers who could not agree. They were always fighting. So he would tell us this story about these boys who were fighting, and so their dad took a stick and gave a stick to each one and said, break that stick.

So they broke it. He says, okay, he bundled some sticks together and gave it to them and said, now try to break it. And they couldn't. And the moral of the story is, if you stick together, you're unbreakable. Now, those things never happened. That was just a made-up story.

Does it convey truth? Yeah, it does. it does not have to be true to convey truth question can you say the same thing about the resurrection can you say the same thing does it matter here here listen to paul in first corinthians 15 20 to 26 as he's telling us it matters for us but in fact christ has been raised from the dead verse 20 but in fact christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead For as in Adam all die so also in Christ shall all be made alive but each in his own order Christ the firstfruits then at his coming those who belong to Christ Then comes the end when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power.

For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. Now here's what he's saying to them. You who say there's no resurrection. Paul says, because of the resurrection of Jesus, our resurrection is guaranteed. the resurrection of his people, a resurrection to eternal life, a resurrection to a life no longer subject to disease or death.

And he says Christ is the first fruits. It has to happen. He's the first fruits. Now that was a common term in their agriculture, in their agricultural culture. The first fruits were more than a pledge or a promise of the harvest to come. Remember, in the Old Testament, you would start the harvest, and instead of keeping the very first part of that harvest for yourself, you took the very first part of the harvest and went to the temple and offered it to God in the belief that the rest of the harvest would go well.

So the first fruits were more than a pledge and promise of the harvest. They were the actual beginning of the harvest. And the act of reaping had already begun. The grain was being cut. Here's what he's saying when he uses the term first fruits. The resurrection of Jesus and of those who belong to him are two parts of a single event.

Two acts of a single drama. Two stages in a single process. The resurrection that happened to Jesus is the resurrection that's going to happen at the end of the age. It's already happened in him. And it will happen to those who belong to him. For sure.

Why? because he is the first part of that final eternal resurrection see jesus resurrection is not an isolated event that gives to men and women the warm confidence and hope that they will be raised again from the dead it is the beginning of the future resurrection already it's more than just it happened to him it happens to us no wow the final resurrection has happened that's how i can be sure that I will be raised if I believe in Jesus I will be raised at the end of the age why there it is there's the end of the age standing in front of us it's happened in him it will happen to us so the resurrection of Jesus gave hope because it was the emergence of a new order of life God did not merely cause a disturbance in the normal course of events He didn't just, he didn't reverse the laws of nature. It's the manifestation, it's the revelation of something that is utterly new. That's why they had hope, right?

Now think about this. Lazarus raised from the dead, he dies later, he had to ok is there any hope in that? right, so you kill me and somebody kills me for preaching the gospel and let's say one of you has the gift of resurrection, so you come and make me alive terrific they can kill me again maybe you can't next time or I'll die again but this is different, you can kill me I'm going to be raised eternally. You do what you want with this body because someday this body is going to be raised and it's going to look just like Jesus.

It's going to be a body that will never die again. You can do what you want. There's coming a day that I know because I see Jesus that I will be raised to life eternal. No death, no disease, no enemies, nothing. A body that lives eternally. so there's this whole new order of life but that doesn't just create hope for them realize that it creates hope for you here's one let me just give you some reasons why there's hope first and important there's hope for reconciliation with god first corinthians 15 if you're still there.

Let's look at the first eight verses. Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preach to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved. All right, what does he mean when he uses that term being saved? What he means is you're saved from the wrath of God. Now some of you may be here thinking there is no wrath of God.

I'm here to tell you, read your Bibles, God hates sin, and God will punish sin and there's no doubt about that he will bring down the full force of his wrath on sinners what is Paul saying here he's saying there's a gospel there's some good news that will save you from that wrath in fact you'll be reconciled to God he becomes your friend By the way, he doesn't just stand back and say, okay, all right, you're all right. No, because of the gospel, he embraces us in love. He becomes a father who loves us and is for us in every single event in our life.

That's what being saved is, if I can just give you a short definition. So this is what you've received in which you stand and by which you are being saved if you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. You've got to keep believing the gospel that I preached to you. What is that gospel? For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins, died for our sins, in accordance with the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day, in accordance with the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve, then he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time most of whom are still alive though some have fallen asleep then he appeared to james then to all the apostles last of all as to one untimely born he appeared also to me drop down to verse 16 for if the dead are not raised not even christ has been raised and if christ has not been raised your faith is futile and you are still in your sins then those also who have fallen asleep in christ have perished if in christ we have hope in this life only we are of all people most to be pitied.

Now here's what he's saying. If Jesus has not been raised from the dead, let's forget about religious truth. It goes beyond more than, okay, Jesus wasn't raised from the dead, but there's some really cool religious truth from that. Here's what he's saying. If he's not actually raised from the dead, you're lost. You're not reconciled to God.

It's impossible. Why is that true if Jesus was never raised from the dead? Why is that true? That you are still in your sins and under the wrath of God. So, Jesus never was raised from the dead. I can be okay with God, right?

No, it's impossible. Why? Why is that true? Because death is the penalty for sin. Death is the penalty of sin. And if for some reason, someday, they would unearth this tomb, and they would find somewhere inscribed, the tomb of Jesus. and find the dust of his bones there then we lost You know why Because if death is the penalty of sin and Jesus never came out of the dead that means he's no different than you, no different than me.

Right? He can't save us. He's paid the same price you and I have. He's dead. Paid for his sins. If he was never raised from the dead.

But the good news is he did come from the dead, which means that God accepted his payment. It's like this trumpet sound that says, Jesus is raised from the dead, therefore there is a payment for sins. Raised from the dead, never to die, not resuscitated. End time resurrection, therefore there's hope. In 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 30, in this very same book, here's what we read. and because of him that is God, and because of God, you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.

He is my righteousness. If he's dead, he's not my righteousness. Well, what difference does that make? Well, there was an author centuries ago by the name of John Bunyan. Some of you may have heard of him. He wrote Pilgrim's Progress.

He wrote a number of books, and one is called Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners. Here in this book, he describes the agony he had about whether he was really belonging to God or not, whether he belonged to God or not. And one of my most favorite passages are found in that book. And I want you to listen to this, because if you believe that Jesus is raised from the dead, then you have hope here today.

You have hope. You blew it this week. You blew it this week. You sinned against God. What hope do you have? You've never come to Christ.

What hope do you have? Listen to what Bunyan says here. Because if Jesus isn't alive, this can't be true. Here's what he said. One day as I was passing into the field, the sentence fell upon my soul. Thy righteousness is in heaven.

And I thought, I saw with the eyes of my soul, Jesus Christ at God's right hand. There, I say, was my righteousness. Do you hear him? There is my righteousness. so that wherever I was or whatever I was doing, God could not say of me He lacks my righteousness For that righteousness was in front of him I also saw moreover that it was not my good frame of heart that made my righteousness better nor yet my bad frame that made my righteousness worse.

For my righteousness was Jesus Christ himself, the same yesterday, today, and forever. Now did my chains fall off my legs indeed. I was loose from my afflictions and irons. My temptations also fled away. So that from that time those dreadful scriptures of God left off to trouble me. Now went I also home rejoicing for the grace and love of God.

You see, he could point to heaven and say, My bad frame, I'm horrible today. Did that make my righteousness less? He says, no, my righteousness is there. It's at the right hand of God. I can rest. It's not what I do.

There it is. Can I tell you, and folks who are part of the congregation, you've heard me say this a hundred times, so here's 101. If I did not believe that, that Jesus was raised from the dead and my righteousness was at the right hand of God, I could not preach every Sunday. In my early years here, before I fully grasped that, Saturday night was torture for me.

I would not sleep on Saturday night because I would keep saying to myself, who are you to get up and preach to those people? Look at the week you've had. But I learned this. There was my righteousness. In Christ is my righteousness. In the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ, there is my righteousness.

If he were dead, then my righteousness would count. then I would not. I don't think I'd get out of bed in the morning, much less preach. But there, there's hope for reconciliation because there is the living righteousness of God. You have hope that you can really change. Romans chapter 6. Turn there very quickly.

Romans 6. Listen to these words in verses 1-7 abound by no means. How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We are buried, therefore, with him by baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

Do you hear what he says? We've been united with Christ in his death and raised with him, so we can live a new life. what do I say to a man who's sitting in my office talking to me and weeping and saying there's no hope for me I can't change the things I've done are in are unutterable what can I do I cannot change yes I believe Jesus in my righteousness but I want to change I want to walk in newness of life what can I say to him I say there is real hope for you you can change because you have been raised with Christ if he's still in the grave no one can change you might as well just get used to being the slave to your desires but he says no you've been raised with Christ there is real hope for change you can have hope in the face of death I'm going to ask you to turn back one more time to first Corinthians 15 this last time I'm going to ask you to turn anywhere okay 1 Corinthians 15 again we come to the end of that chapter that chapter that talks about the resurrection and I would encourage you this day go home and read that chapter just read it written to a people who were starting to doubt whether Jesus was raised from the dead you can see how important it was and so when he comes to the end of this chapter he writes this in verses 55 through 57 oh death well let's look up a little bit death is swallowed up in victory oh death where is your victory oh death where is your sting you know that's that's a question everybody has at every funeral death always wins doesn't it death always wins no it doesn't death has been swallowed up in victory death where is your victory oh death where is your sting the sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law but thanks be to god who gives us the victory through our lord jesus christ there's hope in death you see because of jesus resurrection the law cannot accuse me anymore i have been delivered And when I die, I know that I will be raised again, because Jesus has won the victory over death. He's won the victory over death.

Not only can you have hope in death, but you can have hope that life has purpose. Verse 58, therefore my beloved brothers be steadfast immovable always abounding in the work of the Lord knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain if you work for the risen Lord none of what you do is in vain how many of you here sitting here thinking life is just got no purpose. Right?

I wake up. I go to work. I come home. I eat. I go to bed. I wake up.

I go to work. I eat. I go to bed. Life is meaningless. I get a paycheck. I can entertain myself for a while, but at the end of the day, I'm dead.

Right? Bumper sticker. He who has the most toys wins. Wrong. You don't take your toys with you. You leave them all behind.

You leave everything behind Why even go on Here why Because if you serve the risen Lord it doesn matter what you doing Listen some of you folks dear people you go to work every day for Honda You go to work every day for Whirlpool You go to work every day. If you do it for the Lord, right? Colossians chapter 3. Work for the Lord, not for men. If you work for the Lord, it is not in vain.

Not one day of your toil is in vain. Not one bit. You teach. You're a nurse. You're a secretary. Whatever it is that you do, right?

It's not in vain if you do it for the Lord Jesus Christ. There are some men who think that they preach the gospel and it's all in vain unless they build a big church. Right? it's all in vain unless they start in a small town and move up to bigger things. None of it's in vain if you do it for the Lord. There's real purpose in life. You don't have to go through life saying, oh, it's all absurd.

Why even try? You've got real purpose because Jesus has been raised from the dead. So here's the question. Do you possess invincible, unconquerable, undying hope? if you have hope and you do not believe that Jesus was raised from the dead you might as well admit right now that it silly to have hope Can I be honest with you Some of you may be saying okay you can believe in that resurrection stuff and it might give you hope but I still have hope without it, and I'm saying, you have no reason for your hope.

You have no reason at all. You're going to die. You're going to turn to dust. There's no resurrection. Let's face it. You're going to work your whole life.

You're going to die. Put you in the grave. You're done. So if you have hope, you're silly. You have no reason for it. None.

None. You might as well just admit it. Life is purposeless. There's no sense in it. If I have hope, that's stupid. But if Jesus is raised from the dead, there is real hope.

You see, there is real hope. Listen, you cannot be neutral towards Jesus. To say, I'm not sure, is to say, no. You've got to understand that the only reason for hope can be found in the living Lord Jesus Christ, who can save you and give you purpose for living. The disciples of centuries ago lived their lives in hope because Jesus emerged from the grave, bringing with him a whole new way of life, a whole new realm of existence.

And like them we can live life differently We can live life truly in hope we can reach the end of the road and have hope even there in Jesus is the only real reason for hope father thank you for your word we are thankful today that Jesus was raised from the dead we we thank you that in Jesus, you brought the future to us. In Jesus, the new age has invaded the old, and we can begin to taste the wonderful fruit of the age of eternity. We thank you that in Jesus, we can be assured that we will be raised from the dead, those who belong to him.

Now, Father, I pray that you have communicated, ministered, given us by your grace and your spirit real hope today. And for those, father who do not believe i pray that you would help them to face the implications of their lives that without jesus their hope has no base at all god bring them to jesus i pray we thank you for your great word to us we thank you for the revelation of jesus to us we pray now that we would leave here truly rejoicing in the hope of the resurrection of christ we pray these things in his living name. Amen.