Essentials Of The Faith / Sunday Morning Sermon Series / Special Services / Easter Season 2002

Easter 2002

Intro:
    It's time to get out of debt!! What's the catch? Absolutely nothing!! You are pre-approved for GE BonusBack Loan.
    It takes only a few minutes to save so much.

 Sounds pretty good doesn't it? Especially if you are in financial trouble. Of course, the details are in the fine print on the bottom of the advertisement. 'You may not be pre-approved if after you respond to this offer we determine that you do not meet the application criteria required concerning your creditworthiness.'

 Creditworthy? If you are in financial trouble, you probably aren't creditworthy. If you were creditworthy, you probably wouldn't need the pre-approved BonusBack Loan from GE. This is more hype than hope for the person in financial trouble.

 Being on the 'Why am I even trying to lose weight diet plan' I have looked into nutritional supplements instead of eating a full meal.   I am sure some of you know what I am talking about.

 Ever hear of
     Power Bars. They advertise themselves as the 'ideal athletic food', providing 'lasting energy'.
     Balance Gold Bars claim it 'provides complete nutrition'
     Luna Bars say  'Its the whole nutrition bar for women'

 Tear off the wrappers of these bars and you'll uncover a chewy slab that's about as likely to improve your performance, sustain energy, provide specialized nutrition or help you lose weight as a Pop-Tart with a vitamin chaser.

 PowerBars at $1.75-$2.00 each have stats that sound good. 230 cal. (25 from fat) 20 gm sugar and 100% of the recommended daily allowance of vitamins C & E. However a low fat Pop-Tart and a multi vitamin delivers identical benefits w/ 40 less calories and for about $1.40 less.

 Meal replacement Bars are 40% carbs, 30% protein and 30% fat..with only 300 calories. Tests have been done at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in NYC to show that  these bars like Twinlabs Ironman and Powerbar were outperformed in weight loss by eating white bread.

 This too is more hype than hope for those who want to lose weight.

 These days you can't go anywhere without seeing billboards, tv, radio or magazines bombarding us with hype about  everything. Wear Calvin Kline jeans and you will be noticed by the opposite sex. Remember this one...Hi Karate cologne. Use it men and you'll be fighting off the women.

 Whatever happened to truth in advertising? If you are like me, you hate hype because you are almost always disappointed with the outcome of the claims. Hype raises our expectations and when the product or service doesn't meet those expectations, we are disappointed. But, do we continue to buy into hype, even when we know it will probably disappoint us? Yes!  Why? because we hope that just once we will not be disappointed with the results.

 And you know what? The church has been guilty of doing the same thing for years.

     'Try Jesus, He will make everything in your life all right'.
     'Come to first mega church where all your needs will be met.'
     Just send me a donation of $100.00 and I will send you this sacred prayer cloth used to wipe the sweat off my brow
     for the times I personally prayed for you. Use it and just see what God will do.

 Hype. Religious hype all while people today are looking for truth, for something that is authentic, that will live up to it's claims and not disappoint them. And people have little tolerance for a Christianity which is not wholly authentic. They don't want the shallowness they often  see in many churches today. They want hope, true, real, honest hope.

 And that is what I want to talk about briefly this morning.

Background

 1 Cor. 15 has been classified as one of the most important and crucial chapters in the whole Bible. Because it deals solely with fact, truth and hope.

Trans: Open you Bibles to 1 Cor. 15 where we will see the great hope of the Christian faith.

Read: 1 Cor. 15:1-2

 Paul begins by talking about the Gospel. He reminds the Christian that there was a sequence of historical events in their lives, relating to the Gospel.

     Paul preached it, what? The Gospel.
     They received it (that means they accepted and believed it)
     They stand on it (that means they staked their lives on it)
     And they were saved by it. (that means they found forgiveness of their sins and eternal life)

 These were all actual events that took place in their lives. Unless, of course, Paul says, you were just going through the motions and really didn't believe. But then  the problem was with you and not with the Gospel. No Hype.

Read: 1 Cor 15:3-4

 Paul reminds the Christian of the Gospel itself. In the most basic way, so as not to let this go over anyone's head, Paul presents the Gospel in it's simplest form. And as he does he presents only the facts...Historical facts, just like what he had done in vs 1-2.

What are the historical facts of the Gospel?

     Christ died for our sins
     Christ was buried
     Christ was raised from the dead

     All according to the scriptures, to the Word of God, prophesied hundreds of years earlier.

 Paul said this was of first importance. There is nothing more important to the Christian faith than the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. There is no greater celebration than Easter in the life of the church. No hype.

Read: 1 Cor. 15:5-11

 If a defendant in a court of law had this kind of evidence in his favor, even the lawyers on Law and Order couldn't convict him.

 Paul gives a list of some of the people who saw Jesus alive after his death and burial. He even said that many of them were still alive and could be questioned if need be to corroborate his story.  This kind of eye witness testimony is enormous. No hype.

Trans: But like many today who have been disappointed with the hype in the church, they perhaps didn't recognize the truth when it was presented to them.

 It seems some in the Corinthian church believed that Jesus rose from the dead, but thought all the talk about believers being raised from the dead was all hype.

Read: 1 Cor. 15:12-19

 To claim that there is no resurrection from the dead, even for Christians, is to say that  even Jesus Christ Himself, didn't rise from the dead.  And if that is true, if Jesus didn't rise from the dead...there is no Christianity. Nothing we do or believe as Christians is authentic, nothing is true.

 And  we place our trust on hype and live as if the hype was true, then we are to be pitied of all people because we will always be disappointed, in this life and in the next.

 But, Paul tells us in Rom. 5:3-5 'We know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance character and character hope. And hope does not disappoint us because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit whom He has given to us.' The true hope of the Gospel will never disappoint us. Why?

 Because Christianity does not stand on a set of ideals, but on facts. The Gospel is a series of facts concerning a person and that person is Jesus Christ. And the facts have a historical basis...Jesus died, he was buried and he rose from the dead...all according to prophesy in the Bible and witnessed to by hundreds of people. You see, folks, the truth, the historical facts of the Gospel, the reality of Jesus' resurrection of the dead brings hope that will not disappoint.

Read: 1 Cor. 15:20-26

 But, Christ has indeed been raised from the dead. It's a fact, it really happened, so there is a resurrection. That is good news...that is the Gospel.

 Since Jesus was raised from the dead...those who have received Christ, (remember that means to accept and believe what he said and done) then they too will be resurrected from the dead.

 Paul even explains how this happens. He uses the analogy of Adam and Christ.  He said if because of Adam's sin, all die, then because of Jesus' glorious resurrection from the dead, all those who believe in Jesus will be resurrected too. That is what first fruits means. Jesus was the first of many who will be raised from the dead to eternal life.

 The glory of the Christian life, it's true hope is  that it never views life as ending with death. Jesus, by his own resurrection has defeated the last enemy which is death.

 The greatest truth is that our resurrection from the dead has nothing to do with us and everything to do with Jesus. Let me give you an illustration by the late J. Vernon McGee.

ILL: Suppose you come to me and say. I have good news for you. I would like to see you become a millionaire. Cool, that would be nice. then you tell me your plan. All I have to do is work hard..three jobs and by the time I retire I will be a millionaire. Well I would like to have a million dollars but if you think by working three jobs you can get a million dollars you are wrong. that's not good news, in fact that's bad news.  However, suppose you come to me and say I have discovered someone who was interested in you, in fact he loved you so much that when he died he left you a million dollars. that my friend would be good news.'

 The Gospel, the good news, the true hope of eternal life is not something we must do. Paul tells us that the Gospel, the good news is what Jesus already did for us.

     He died..that's an historical fact.
     He was buried, another historical fact.
     He rose from the dead..another fact. The tomb was empty and he was seen alive by hundreds of people.

 Hope, friend, Hope, glorious Hope! And Hope does not disappoint for Christ is risen from the dead, defeated death itself so that the one who truly believes in Jesus Christ will have eternal life. That's real Hope!

Conclusion
 The Battle of Waterloo was significant in the war between England and France. The fate of all Europe weighed in the balance.  People awaited anxiously for word of the outcome. After the battle , light signals were sent across the water. 'Wellington defeated...' and then the fog rolled in. Those who received the message fell into despair. It was hours later when the fog lifted that the message could be sent again. 'Wellington defeated the enemy'.

 Satan has his own hype. It is that Jesus died, ok he was a good man, maybe a great teacher, but he died...end of story. And many have bought into the hype. But like the signal sent through the fog, it is only part of the message. Jesus rose from the dead! Jesus lives and so can we...forever.

 That means as Christians we are never to live a defeated life, never to allow despair to get the best of us. We live a life of hope...authentic, true and never disappointing.

As the Gaither song says..

 ' Because He lives, I can face tomorrow'
        ...and tomorrow and every tomorrow until he comes again or  we go to meet him face to face.