“Jesus Christ lived the life you should have lived and died the death you should have died as your Substitute, so that God can receive you not for your record and for your sake, but for Jesus’ record and for His sake.”
Easter 2016 1 Cor. 15:1-8
Intro – “He is risen…” Let me begin with a question: what is the most important thing about the Christian faith? What is the one thing that really sets it apart from all other major world religions?
Probably depends on who you ask. If you did a survey here this morning, you’d get a whole range of answers, including:
• the uniquenesss of Jesus Christ, that He is God the Son…not just a good man from history…
• the gospel of grace vs. a works salvation…
• Xny is God reaching down to people vs. religion where people try reaching up to God…
…all those things are true, good and important…
But if you asked the writers of the NT, in particular the Apostle Paul, you would probably get this answer: the most important thing about the Christian faith is the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the tomb…
And the two main reasons the resurrection of Christ is the most important thing is:
1) res of Christ is the unique claim of Christianity over other major world religions: Buddah did not rise from the dead, Muhammad… Confucius… Krishna…did not rise from the dead…only Jesus rose from the dead…
2) is also the pivotal truth upon which our whole faith rests…
-the res. completed the salvation work of JC…
-without the res. this whole Christianity thing has been an elaborate hoax…fake, phony…
1 Cor. 15: 17-18 Paul says: “And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost.”
v. 20 But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead.
That’s why Christians make such a big deal about Easter…why there’s this big focus on Good Friday and Easter Sunday…
…because the legitimacy of our faith rests on this one thing: the historic event of the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ from the grave three days after He died on the cross…
In 1 Cor 15, Paul connects the resurrection to the gospel of JC…which Christians believe is the only gospel that can really save a person because it is the one centered on Jesus Christ, His life, death AND His resurrection…
-so I would like you to read about that gospel with me from I Cor. 15:1-8…which you will see on the screen…Read
This Gospel vs. Other Gospels
V. 2 talks about “this gospel” which means there are other gospels…and there certainly are:
I will briefly mention 2 main “other gospels” around today:
1. all roads lead to heaven gospel…
-everyone goes to heaven… doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you are sincere…
eg. Alpha course…many people say, “well, the gospel is good for you…so have at it…believe away…but it’s not true for me…” to which we must answer: the gospel is either true for everyone or it’s true for no one…
2. self-atonement plan gospel…
-good people go to heaven; bad people go to hell…
-goal therefore is to be good enough to get to heaven…
but “good” is a relative term…the standard of goodness is unclear, so it’s up to us to decide what determines “good”…
-eg. just over 3 years ago Audrey had her accident on the ice…broke ankle and wrist…went through several grueling physio training sessions at the hospital…
-the physio therapist gave her this way to learn how to maneuver stairs with her crutches: -going up stairs: good leg out front: “good go up to heaven…”
-going down stairs: bad leg out front: “bad go down to hell”
Acc to the Bible, what is The Gospel of the Resurrection?
1. We were created by God and are accountable to Him
Rm. 1:20, 3:19
-it all starts with God…humanity is not independent. We did not create ourselves and we are neither self-reliant nor self-accountable…people like to think they are…answer to no one…captain of our souls; masters of our fate…
We’ve learned in the past few weeks from Genesis that we were made in the image of God, which we have lost and God’s mission is to restore us to that image…that original perfect design and relationship with Him.
Because He created us, and because He is God, God has the right of ownership over us and He has the right to expect that we worship Him and Him alone…
-we are made by Him, owned by Him, dependent on Him and therefore we will have to answer to Him and Him alone… “one day every knee will bow, tongue confess…”
2. all of us have sinned against God, are separated from Him and deserve an eternity in hell
Rm. 3:23, 6:23, 5:12
- if we don’t get this foundational truth… then we will go off on all sorts of wrong directions in our beliefs…this is the divergence point; the fork in the road…
-it is absolutely imperative that we understand both the nature and depth of our sin, because if we approach the gospel thinking that sin is something God takes lightly…some innocent mistakes we’ve made that He can overlook…then we will never understand what we have to be saved from…
Bible teaches that sin is the rebellion of a much loved humanity against its good and holy Creator…
It is not enough to say that Jesus came to save us from our sins, if by that we mean that He came to save us from our isolated and innocent mistakes in an otherwise pretty good life.
It’s only when we realize that our very nature is sinful, that we are as the NT says “dead in our transgressions and sins”…that we see just how good the good news is and how much we need to be saved…
Rm 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Contrary to popular belief, all people do not automatically go to heaven when they die…only those who choose to believe in Jesus Christ and His salvation…
Someone has said the gospel message is this: you are more sinful than you ever realized… and you are more loved by God than you can ever imagine…
3. God loves all of us with an indescribable love…
Rm. 5:8
-the heart of the One true God, the God of the Bible, is a heart of love for the people He created…He loves us all so much that He was willing to come to earth, live a perfectly sinless life, and then die on the cross so you and I could be saved…
-He did this out of sheer and indescribable love for you and I…nothing that we know on earth can compare to this kind of love: we can’t fully understand it’s depths: we can only respond to a God like this with humility, gratitude and receptivity…we can only say thanks to JC and receive His great offer of salvation, free, undeserved and unconditional…
4. God the Father placed on Jesus Christ the judgment that we deserve: He condemned Christ for my sin and yours
Rm.5:6-8…
-everything has been done that had to be done to absorb the wrath and condemnation of God against sin -- all done by JC thru the cross and resurrection…”it is finished…He is risen…”
-“Substitutionary Atonement” – Christ died in my place
-this is the very heart of the Biblical gospel…what Christ did on the cross…
-this is where the “good news” of Christianity gets really, really good…
God Himself did something about our sin problem by coming to earth and dying in our place for our sin, taking our punishment upon Himself, securing forgiveness for our sin and making us righteous in God’s sight so we are qualified to share in God’s eternal kingdom…
Tim Keller: “JC lived the life you should have lived and died the death you should have died as your Substitute, so that God can receive you not for your record and for your sake, but for Jesus’ record and for His sake.”
eg. The Judge and the Friend (Alpha story)
There was once two boys who were best friends.
They played together. Went to school together. Grew up together. Even went to university together. They were virtually inseparable. Until their careers took very different directions.
One became a lawyer; the other a criminal. As one was promoted to a judge, the other sank deeper and deeper into a life of crime. Eventually the criminal was caught and sent to trial.
On that day in the courtroom he came face to face with… his old best friend, the judge. And so the judge had a dilemma. He loved his friend, but he had to enforce justice.
So he fined him the appropriate penalty for the offence. It was a huge fine. There was no way he could ever afford to pay what he owed.
But then the judge did something remarkable. He took off his judges robe, went down, stood with his friend, wrote a cheque and covered the cost of the fine. He paid the penalty himself.
That’s what God has done for you through Jesus Christ…
“Who loved me and gave Himself for me…” Gal. 2:20
Listen to this: The work that Christ did on your behalf at the cross is complete; “it is finished”. Through His life, death and resurrection, Jesus Christ accomplished your salvation.
There’s nothing you need to add to it… to earn it or deserve it…nothing! It’s all done by Jesus Christ for you…
Let this sink in: at the cross, Jesus took all our sins on Himself as if they were His own, so that now God gives us the righteousness of Christ as if it were our own. Our holy Lord exchanged places with us sinners. God the Father puts us in Jesus’ place of approval -- Jesus puts himself in our place of condemnation, and God accepts the exchange.
Substitutionary atonement: Christ died in my place…
“He loved me and gave Himself for me…”
Your only part is to open your heart and believe this by faith and receive the finished cross-work of Christ.
5. We have to respond by believing in Jesus Christ and placing our faith in Him alone to save us and not ourselves or anything else…
The Bible says: if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Rm.10:9
• When you do this, you are saved forever, permanently -- not because your behavior is so perfect, but because your Savior is perfect…not because of your goodness, but because of Jesus’ goodness…not because we are holding on to Christ as much as He is holding on to us.
Going to ask you to make a decision today…to place your faith in this gospel and become a friend and follower of Jesus Christ…
Listen: when I invite you to believe this gospel, to embrace Christianity, to become a follower of JC, I am NOT inviting you into • moralism…(trying to be good)…or into • religion (reaching up to God), trying to be right with God by human effort…)
Rather, God is inviting you into a living, personal, loving relationship with Himself, that is secure and safe and accepting, complete…finished…nothing left to add by you…
-perhaps you’ve placed your faith in a different gospel from the one the Bible teaches…1) the all roads lead to heaven gospel or 2) the self-atonement plan gospel…
-if so, you need to place your saving faith solidly on Jesus and His substitutionary atonement…
** come to Christ today…and discover the eternal difference Easter can make in your life…unwrap the gift of salvation…
Prayer to Receive Christ
Lord Jesus Christ, I am sorry for the things I have done wrong in my life. Please forgive me for my sin. I now turn from everything that I know is wrong.
Thank You that You died on the cross for me
so that I could be forgiven and made clean and righteous.
Thank You that You offer me forgiveness and the gift of eternal life. I now receive that gift.
Please come into my life by Your Holy Spirit,
to be with me forever.
Thank You, Lord Jesus. Amen.
If you prayed that prayer and meant it for the first time in your life…then please let me know…
• come and tell me
• give me a call, send an email
• fill out a welcome card, drop it in box at back…
Worship…