The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the central theme, emphasizing its foundational importance to the Christian faith. The sermon details the Gospel message as presented in 1 Corinthians 15, highlighting Christ's death, burial, and resurrection as proof of God's acceptance of His sacrifice. It contrasts the biblical account with secular portrayals like 'Jesus Christ Superstar' to underscore the necessity of the resurrection, explaining its implications for salvation, the existence of the church, and the future hope of believers. The message concludes by urging listeners to accept Christ's offer of eternal life, emphasizing His promises and the transformative power of His resurrection.
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Here's the one. So we turn over to First Corinthians. Fifteen, please. I say our message tonight will be back at the Acts, and our subject will be ignorant worship, ignorant of the bliss of sleeping saints, and also ignorant of spiritual gifts. We are taking up the word ignorant as we find it in the Acts. First Corinthians fifteen. For I delivered unto you, first is verse three, for I delivered unto you, first of all, that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.
Very significant how the Apostle Paul starts right out giving us what the Gospel is. This is a classic of a chapter on the resurrection. And it begins with a clear pronouncement of what the Gospel is and how people get saved through Christ dying for our sins according to the Scriptures. He was buried and raised the third day according to the Scriptures. Then the Apostle goes into various details relative to the resurrection, and he concludes with a note of triumph. And that's true with the Gospel.
He can't get outside this chapter without concluding, Amen, praise the Lord, because of its wonderful context. I suppose some of you may have seen the film, Jesus Christ Superstar. Well, I'll tell you now, you didn't see much, because that film, as far as we know, was released by two young Englishmen by the name of Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. And it was a rock opera, and that was the title, Jesus Christ Superstar.
Now it certainly was a success at the box office, but I believe here are two young men and many of their cast making money out of Jesus Christ's superstar. Presenting Christ as a wonderful hero, but I may shock you when I say this, I believe that that film or that opera was inspired of the devil. no born-again child of God could endorse it. Why do I say that? They left out the greatest event of all history of Jesus Christ.
Why? And the history of Jesus Christ would be an utter failure, a tragic failure, if His life ended the way the superstar opera ended with Christ in the tomb. That would be a tragedy. What did they leave out? They left out what all the four Gospels conclude with, the latter chapters of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. And that is the glorious resurrection of Jesus Christ. If Christ's life on earth ended where Superstar Opera ended, Christ in the tomb, then all our hopes, our aspirations for life after death are still in the tomb.
But thank God that Jesus Christ is not in the tomb. He's at God's right hand this morning, a living, loving Savior, and all our hopes are in Christ. And it means this, that its ultimate victory. And so this morning, We want to speak a little on the glorious resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. His sinless birth made possible his sinless life. His sinless life qualified him to die that sacrificial death.
And that death was so glorified to God and so perfect. that God accepted that sacrifice, and he proved his acceptance of it when he raised his son from the dead. And today he sits at God's right hand. His resurrection is absolutely essential. It's mandatory, because death could not hold him. Death had no claim upon him. And thus it was mandatory that Jesus Christ rise from the dead, which he did.
We were singing in our worship meeting earlier today that lovely hymn, Vainly they watch his bed, Jesus, my Savior. Vainly they seal the dead, Jesus, my Lord. He tore the bars away, Jesus, my Savior. Death cannot keep its prey, Jesus, my Lord. And up from the grave he arose, with a mighty triumph over his foes. He arose a victor from the dark domain, and he lives forever with his saints to reign. Hallelujah! First arose.
And that's our message for this generation and for this age of great. I intended during the week to go through the Book of Acts to see how many references there were to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. How often the word resurrection is used, or alive, arose. That was the message of the early church. They went forth to announce to the world that Jesus Christ lives, and is alive and at God's right hand at this very moment. The personally disciples saw and afterwards believed in, because they didn't really believe, until after they saw him in resurrection, they went back to their praise when Christ was placed in the tomb.
But afterwards they saw him, and it was not a bleeding, first defeated man, who had still to face death. No, but a person who had passed through death and conquered it and now is alive at God's right hand. His resurrection was the great public manifestation of his authority over physical decay and physical death. had he been raised by a power from without, and he was not raised by a power from without, like others, where he raised Lazarus from the young girl and the young man, those individuals were raised by a power from without of themselves, as well as three in the Old Testament.
But Jesus Christ's resurrection was a self-resurrection. He raised himself from the dead. He said, I have power to lay down my life. I have power to raise it again. This commandment have I received from my father. Yes, he laid his life down voluntarily, and he took it up, sharing his authority that resident Jesus Christ was power, the power that enabled him to rise from the dead. And today we have the case of the church.
In other words, the church today evidences clearly and unmistakably that Christ is a living, glorified man at God's right hand. If his personal resurrection was a monument to the fact that he was life and in him was life, So the very existence of the church today is a monument to the fact that Jesus Christ lives. He's the head over the body of the church. You wouldn't be able to find one born again Christian. You wouldn't be able to find one person who was saved and knew it if Jesus Christ were not that God's right hand this morning, a living man.
Every kind of God and the church corporate is evidence that Jesus Christ lives. We were singing, He lives, He lives, Christ Jesus lives today. He walks with me, He talks with me along life's ways. He lives, He lives, salvation to impart. You ask me how I know He lives. He lives. within my heart. At the age of nineteen Christ came into this heart of mind, and I was a new creature.
All things passed away. All things became new. And when every born-again Christian knows of a certainty that Jesus Christ lives. Now getting back to our chapter here, I'm just going to run down And I think there are about ten P's in this chapter, which indicate ten divisions. That's the way this chapter has been outlined. First of all, we notice the preaching of the cross, the preaching of the resurrection in verses one to four. But then you have the proof of that resurrection in verses five to eleven, where you have these five hundred and twenty-seven witnesses.
The Apostle Paul tells us there that Christ was seen by who? First of all, he was seen of twelve, then of five hundred brethren at one time, then he was seen of James, then of the Apostle, and says the Apostle, finally he was seen of me as one born out of two times. So you have five hundred and twenty-seven witnesses to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And according to law, the witness of a person who was alive when the crime was committed stands in the books as valid.
And regardless of what many women say today, if there are many court records and a person was guilty of a crime, And the people who in that day saw that person commit that crime and that too is in the records, it stands valid today. No one can deny. There were five hundred and twenty-seven witnesses who were alive when Jesus Christ was here, and they saw him. And you'll have to call every one of them a liar if Jesus Christ didn't come forth from the dead. He lived.
God's word declared that. You had the proof of it in these witnesses. Then the prophet called the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Christ is risen in verses twelve to nineteen. If he were not risen, and this passage was referred to in the worshiping, if he were not risen, our preaching would be in vain. But thank God it's not in there. If Christ had not risen, then it simply means that our faith is vain, for instead our faith is solid, because Jesus Christ did rise from the dead.
And if Christ be not risen, we're false witnesses of God. But the opposite is true. We're faithful witnesses of the resurrection. because Jesus Christ did rise again. And if Christ be not risen, we are yet in our sin, because forgiveness of sins is impossible apart from what is in Christ. But the fact that Jesus Christ is alive, every Christian can say, my sins are forgiven. There's no doubt about that. And then again, If Christ be not risen, those who have fallen in Christ of perish.
And every time a preacher at the graveside has committed the body to the earth until the resurrection morning. On all the words of comfort there have been spoken at funerals down these pages, when preachers have tried to encourage the loved ones, that the one who has fallen asleep is with Christ if you were born again, and they who are saved nightwise will be reunited in a coming day, and how that message of comfort has dried the tears of many eyes, and death give the burden and sorrow for many a heart.
And if Christ is not alive, it's a lot of mockery. a lot of lies and mocked us if Jesus Christ is not living. And as Paul says, they perish. And he says, we are of all men most miserable. If only in this life we have hope in Christ. And thank God, friend, we're not miserable. We're happy because Jesus Christ lived. Then you have the pledge of the resurrection, verses twenty to twenty-two. The first fruits, Christ the first fruits, and it says they're all in Christ are made alive, just as all in Adam die.
No, you can't deny the fact that all in Adam have died or will die. The reason you're here, the swarming is because you're in Adam. Adam was your federal head. Admiral Adam sinned, as you know, and because Adam sinned, the human race has sinned. Sin entered the very blood of Adam and Eve the day they disobeyed God, and their sin was passed on there to their sons and their children and so on down the generations from father to child, from father to child. And the consequences of sin and the evidence of that in heaven sin, that fallen nature, is seen in the sickness and death of human beings today.
And every cemetery you see, every grave you see, is evident that in Adam all die. But how comforting all in Christ are made alive. Here is a fact, undeniable, that if you're saved by the grace of God, you've been quickened by the Holy Spirit. He says, you have been quickened who were dead in trespasses and in sin, and spiritually all in Christ are made alive. Isn't that a wonderful thing? I think it's a glorious truth.
Then you have the program, verses twenty-three to twenty-eight, Christ the first fruit, then all that are Christ's at his coming. In Revelation twenty, you find two resurrections referred to, the first resurrection and the second resurrection. The first resurrection includes all those who by faith in Christ although in the Old Testament came to God by way of sacrifice, shall be raised from the dead, including the tribulation saints, including who might have died in faith during the millennium.
All those from the beginning who died in faith until the end of the millennium, These are all who have died in Christ. He says, that's the first resurrection. And then after that, you have the resurrection of the unjust. We do not have any scripture to encourage us to believe that any believers will die in the millennium because it's distinctly plain that they shall die if one shouldn't. A child shall die at a hundred years of age.
Showing the long liberty of the millennial scholars of the earth. Methuselah lived nine hundred and sixty-nine years. He didn't live the thousand years because that remains for the thousand years of Christ's reign over the earth. There is a first resurrection and there is a second. The first resurrection is of all redeemed. The second resurrection is of the wicked dead from pain on down who will stand at the great white throne judgment. So you have God's remarkable program. First Christ is coming.
Christ the first fruits. His being raised from the dead was the first seed of a mighty harvest yet to follow. then the rapture, then the tribulation sings, and then Christ reign over the earth, that in that very chapter of Corinthians, first Corinthians fifteen, then come at the end when Christ shall deliver up the kingdom to the Father, and God shall be all and in all. This is God's program associated with the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
If Christ did not rise, then there is no rapture to look forward to as Christians of the Blessed Home. Then the world will continue as it is, or destroy itself. But it's not going to be destroyed by plagues, man-made, or by man's armaments. God's going to destroy it. And that day is not far off. Oh, how dark are the days that are before us. Things are waxing worse than worse. And God is going to execute the judgments given to us in the Book of Revelation and their fear.
And then after softening up the nations of the earth with some of those judgments, Christ shall come at the battle of Armageddon. And then, after destroying all his enemies, ridding out of his kingdom all that offend Jesus Christ shall reign. For a thousand years, then the new heavens and the new earth were in dwell of eternal righteousness. The righteous and the new heavens, the wicked in the lake that burneth with fire of brimstone, This is the second death. That's God's program, and it's all contingent on the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
I would not know how to read my Bible if Jesus Christ were not living. All these things are going to happen just as sure as Jesus Christ rose from the dead. And if you say, I don't believe those things are going to happen, as you've mentioned, then you do not believe that Jesus Christ rose from the dead. That would be a sin unforgivable. Then you have also the picture in verses twenty-nine to thirty-four. He uses baptism as a picture. In other words, why go through the form if there's no reality?
When a person is baptized, they're buried with Christ, and they're raised with Christ. Now, if we were to carry out baptism the way some people believed in prophecy, those who say that Christ did not rise from the dead, then all we would do here at the chapel, and we'd only do it once, because the authorities wouldn't permit us to do it again the second time. We would just put people down in the water and leave them there. No, the very fact, according to Scripture, you bring the people up, out of the water, symbolizing the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
And if Jesus Christ is not alive and is not coming against then baptism as an ordinance is only a farce with no real meaning. There is the picture. in baptism. God gives us that picture. The resurrection of Jesus Christ and the ultimate resurrection of our bodies. Then you have the pattern in verses thirty five, forty nine. There is a spiritual body. And I want you to notice this. It doesn't say there is a spirit body. The redeemed are not going to be spirits. It says there is a spiritual body.
Take the Lord Jesus after he rose from the dead. He wasn't a spirit. He had a spiritual body. They handled him. He could eat something. Just to prove to him, I don't believe we're going to eat literal food in heaven when we get our new bodies. But here is the occasion when the Lord Jesus Christ in order to satisfy the unbelief of his disciples, he ate this, and a pot of a honeycomb, to prove to them that he was the same Christ.
Yes, a spiritualized body. And you know that spiritualized body wasn't hindered by any obstacles. He appeared in the midst of the disciples. The door was being shut or locked. And he vanished from them. And as he is now, so we shall be. All who are saved are going to have spiritualized bodies. A spiritual body means there's form, there's recognition. That's what the Bible teaches. The natural body that we were born into this world with was adapted to this life, the physical body.
But the spiritual body that we'll get on the resurrection will be adaptable to the spiritual realm, the presence of God and the new heavens and the new earth. How wonderful that is in verse forty-four. He says, it is sown a natural body. It is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body and there is a spiritual body. Now, the Bible's very plain on that. We're all here this morning because we've got a natural body. But I wonder how many have the seed within their heart of a new spiritual body, a body like unto his own glorious body.
When you plant the bulb of a lily, what do you expect? Are you, say, a lily? And that's what he's getting at. You sow grain, the chance of wheat. What do you get? You get wheat. And so the same is true. We're sown a natural body and we'll rise. We'll reap a spiritual body. Something that's recognizable, something that you can see, something with form and something with features. The Apostle Paul takes this up in Second Corinthians five one.
He says, For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands eternal in the heavens. For in this we grow on actual bodies, earnestly designed to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven. A house speaks of a place to live. Supposing you were unfortunate and had your house destroyed by fire, you lost everything, but a kind friend told you, well, I'll build you another house. I'll build you another house.
And so he does. The lot is clear off, and he builds you another house. And when it's finished, he says, here's your little house. Can you charge that man with being wrong? He had violated his promise because the same material in the new house is not the same material that was in the old house? No. The material in the new house serves the same purpose as that of the old. And these houses, these bodies, are just the place where our sale and spirit dwells.
and we express our souls and spirit through these natural bodies. And when we get our new house, it'll be with new material, but it'll be very much like the old in appearance, and it'll serve the same purpose. Our new spiritual bodies will inhabit or have within the spirit and the soul. Then, The spirit, soul, and body will be deathless and for the first time immortal, no separation. We are not immortal yet because we've got a soul that's eternal.
Our spirit is eternal, but our body is still mortal and can experience death or separation. But when Jesus comes to me, get our new body, and our souls and spirits in half of our new body, then we'll have immortality. There'll be no death and no separation. That's why your Bible says in Second Timothy, one, concerning Christ who only hath immortality, dwelling in the life which no man can approach unto, Jesus Christ is the only person in the universe who is immortal. All the others have not as yet received their new bodies.
And when we receive our new bodies and our souls and spirits are united to those new bodies, we'll be like Christ, and that's what the Bible says. We shall be like him. We shall be like him. We'll be immortal then, inseparable. No separation of spirit and soul from body. because our bodies will be then eternal, just like our spirits and our souls. Then you have the purpose of this resurrection, that we might be changed, that we might be changed. And that's also suggested in the illustration we've given concerning the hearts.
What a change that will be when these bodies of our humiliation will be changed into the likeness of His glorious body. So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption. It is raised in incorruption. It is sown in dishonor. It is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness. It is raised in power. And in the germ, the very ashes of our bodies, a handful of dust, gone in the coffin, there is the germ of life. And the days go that come, this will not happen to the unsaved as to eternal life.
There's no life germ in the ashes of a sinner. It'll be the power of God that will raise that person from the dead to stand before the great white soul in judgment. But in the believer, The very ashes of the redeemed are precious to God, and in them there is a germ of life that will respond when Jesus Christ comes and calls his churches by whom to be forever with himself. All this is included in the purpose of the resurrection, that we might be raised and changed into his likeness.
Then you have the power of the resurrection. Death is swallowed up in victory as you have in verses fifty-four and fifty-seven. Death is swallowed up in victory. And the practical effect of it is, I beseech you, he said. Be steadfast. Therefore, be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, for as much as he knows that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. And I want to conclude with the purpose of his resurrection. And this embraces us all, and is of importance to you, if you're not a Christian.
He came to seek and to save that which was lost. That's why he came into the Word. To seek and to save that which was lost. friend he's at God's right hand this morning engaged in this very business of saving the lost and he wants to give you something yes he wants to give you life I give unto my sheep eternal life the nation I repel he wants to give you rest he says come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest He wants to give you joy.
He wants to give you peace. He wants to give you everlasting life. He wants to give you his spirit. He wants to give you his word. He wants to give you his house in heaven. He wants to give you himself. These are things that he wants to give you. Politicians make all kinds of promises. And I don't know how many times in my life I've heard when the campaigning is going on, as the different candidates have been introduced by the chairman of some great rally and political gathering, ladies and gentlemen, the next peasant of the United States, and a lot of them never get to occupy that office.
But I can say this, I can introduce to you the next righteous ruler. of this world without mistake. And that's Jesus Christ. The righteous and politicians make promises they can't perform. Jesus Christ can perform every promise He makes. And so many say, I'll do this for you, and I'll do that for you, and I'll give you this, and I'll give you that. But it all goes by the board. They make these promises when they're not in office. Jesus Christ is now in office. And He's promising you all this and much, much more.
You have to choose, Pandora. Then who are you going to choose this morning? No mere mortal, failing, frail man. But Jesus Christ, the righteous. Will you cast your ballot this morning? Down the centuries there's been that campaign going on between God and Satan. And God is bidding for your souls, and he's paid the price. Satan is bidding for your souls, and who's going to win? And I don't know any better way to put it than the colored man put it.
when he told how he got saved, then he said, God voted one for me. Satan, he cast his vote for me. And he said, I'd done cast my vote for the Lord. And I was elected. Two for one. Yes, God and Jesus Christ this morning has been campaigning down the centuries for the souls of men and women. He's campaigning this morning right here. Will you elect Jesus Christ on the basis of what he's done and his promises? For he says, him that comes unto me, I will in no wise counsel.
He'll reach your every need. If you satisfy your longing soul, then you'll fill the hungry heart with gladness. A man one time was driving his automobile. Oh, he thought it was an automobile, a big Cadillac. He saved up all his money to get a Cadillac. And he just worshipped that automobile. But somehow something went wrong, and he stalled on the railroad tracks in a big train. An express was roaring down the tracks. Now he had to make a decision. I haven't got time to get out, and I couldn't push it off alone.
But I know how to get in my car. I don't want to lose it. All the time sitting there, he's making up his mind. Am I going to get out and be saved? Or am I going to sit here and be killed? Every moment he hesitates, he's in the path of death and destruction. And this morning, friend, every moment you hesitate, you're in the path of death and destruction. All that you would say this morning, I want this. I'm going to get out behind the wheel of everything that I possess in this world.
It's going to be destroyed anyway. I want my soul saved. I've made it my mind I'm going to get out. I'm going to accept Christ and I'm going to do it in a hurry. But every second I wait, I'm in the path of death and destruction. Oh, death, you can't sidetrack it. There's no detour for death. It's rolling down the rails of time, and soon the human race will succumb to its power. The only way you can be saved and saved by the grace of God and delivered from death and destruction is by letting go all that you think and believe and try to do to save yourself.
And say, Lord Jesus, I will trust thee. I'll trust thee with my soul. I'm guilty. I'm lost. I'm helpless. But thou canst make me bold. And this morning I'm going to make the move I should have made long ago. I've been hesitating. It's a wonder God hasn't cut me off. It's a wonder death hasn't overtaken me long before this. But I can't run the risk. I can't play the fool any longer. I'm going to get hurt. And you're saved. Will you take Christ? Will you take him right now?
He's a living, glorified man at God's right now. He wants to save you. And that's the purpose for his resurrection. To save you. To keep you. And to change you into his likeness in the coming, glorious day. Why miss such a golden opportunity to be saved East of Sunday morning? A living glorified Christ can be yours, and all that's in him, and time will not permit us to tell you all that you have in Christ, if we had a week, we couldn't tell you all that you have in Christ. Will you take them?
Will you trust them? Will you trust them now? He never breaks a promise. He can't make a mistake. He says, him that comes unto me, I will in no wise cast him. Take him out of his word. In your heart come to Christ, and he'll not cast you out. He'll take you in. May that be your experience this morning. For Christ's sake, let us pray. Our Father, in the name of the Lord Jesus, we've come before you. We ask thy blessing upon thy word. We thank thee for thy word. We bless thee for the person thou dost enable us to lift up.
And the Lord Jesus himself could say, If I be lifted up from the earth, I'll draw men unto me. We trust that some this morning have been feeling the tug of the Spirit. The tug of it is in Christ, seeking to draw them away from themselves. and dwelt unto him who loved them and gave himself for them. So we ask in the name of our risen glorified seeker to bless thy word. May another soul today receive him and follow in the train one of that mighty army that's marching on to eternal triumph.
O God, we do trust with someone. We accept our blessed Lord Jesus Christ this morning. Accept him now. We ask it in the Savior's name. Amen. Shall we sing and closing? Two hundred and twenty-six. Two hundred and twenty-six are familiar hymns. If you're not a Christian, we trust you will become one this morning. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. If you've trusted them during the service, will you come and tell us, or if you haven't trusted them, and you'd like to be saved, you think we can help you?
We'll be delighted to take the Bible and show you how you may be saved and know it. Shall we stand? Thank you. Thank you.