The Miracle of the Resurrection
1 Corinthians 15:1 – 11
Every day we wake up to the miracle of the resurrection. That’s what East Ohio Bishop Malone tells us. She goes on say “the resurrection of Jesus Christ is more than a fact and a promise. It is more than a triumph over tragedy, the conquering of the cross and a victory over the grave it is all of that and more.
Resurrection is about transformation. It is a life, our life, being transformed and renewed by the power of Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit, at work in us and in the world. The Resurrection story is our story, which sustains our living and gives us hope and joy.”
We should know that the resurrection is vitally important for many reasons: Jesus kept his promise to rise from the dead, so we can believe he will keep all his other promises. The resurrection ensures that the ruler of God’s eternal kingdom will be the living Christ, not just an idea, hope, or dream. Christ’s resurrection gives us the assurance that we also will be resurrected. The power of God that brought Christ’s body back from the dead is available to us to bring our morally and spiritually dead selves back to life so that we can change and grow.
The resurrection provides the substance of the church’s witness to the world. We do not merely tell lessons from the life of a good teacher; we proclaim the reality of the resurrection of a living Jesus Christ. Christianity is the only major religion that offers a living Savior because of the Resurrection.
In message lesson today we find Paul telling the Corinthians how the resurrection changed him and reminding them how the resurrection story changed them forever. Paul is not trying to prove the resurrection rather Paul is telling the Corinthians that that we as Christians will also be resurrected, we will be made new.
Paul tells us: Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, by which you are saved”
There are the three things that are of great importance the Gospel for our salvation:
- The Gospel preached to you
- The Gospel you accepted
- The Gospel on which you stand committed
The resurrection story is vital to our understanding of salvation. Without the resurrection none of the rest of the Easter story makes any difference. There had been others that claimed to be the messiah prior to Jesus and all of them died and some of them died the humiliating death on the cross just like Jesus.
They were buried like Jesus, most people are, but that didn’t make their efforts special or significant. The thing that makes Christianity different, special and real is not that we worship a person that was good and worthy of respect and that they died doing and being what they could to make a difference in the lives of others but rather that we worship a living savior!
If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man.
The vision of the resurrected Jesus on the Road to Damascus made a profound change in the life of Paul. He had once persecuted the church now in the desert he meets the resurrected Christ and became the great advocate of the church. The who once sought to destroy the church now planted churches all over the Roman world.
Paul describes God’s grace as coming to him when he was at war with God and when he was persecuting the church of God. There is an important principle here. God’s grace in your life did not become operational because you turned from your sins and began to seek after Him. God saved you when you were in the midst of your sins. God chose you before you ever chose Him.
You see the Easter story is not only about the events of Easter morning, when Mary Magdalene, Peter and John found the tomb was empty thus fulfilling the promises by Jesus that he would defeat death and rise again because that story is witness, it is testimony to the power of Jesus Christ to rule over all things and all people and to do so on behalf of all people because God doesn’t play favorites.
Few people in churches on this Easter will be surprised to hear that Christ is risen however it is important that we move beyond those stories and reconnect with the story in the most personal and intimate way, learning or relearning what this all means to us. Easter morning, Christian, is also about what came afterward for the betterment of all people.
You see we are just like those disciples on Easter morning that were trying to understand exactly what this means to them. We too are constantly trying to understand what this means to us.
They were learning, adapting and growing in their faith in a strange new world. We too strive every day with the realities of our lives within the world around us, knowing that Easter morning purchased for us the power to lean heavily into the risen Savior for the strength and comfort that only He can provide.
After his resurrection, the full realization of who Jesus was, and what he had come to do, begins to sink in for us. As his followers we absorb the wonder, grace and glory of his crucifixion and resurrection, we are transformed.
Believing in the name of Jesus does not refer to a general, vague sort of belief. Rather, it is specific and personal. To believe in Jesus means that we believe He is the Lord who gave Himself on the cross for my sins. To believe in Jesus means that we no longer rely on anything in ourselves. Rather, we trust only in The Miracle of the Resurrection because what Jesus did on the cross for our hope for forgiveness of sins and eternal life. The resurrection that made it real us and for the world.
Hear the Good News my Friends…….
We today are the beneficiaries of his mission and ministry that was handed on to others that came before us, who were and are also faithful channels of God’s own reconciling and renewing work handed down through the generations.
Max Lucado says that at Easter God put our sin on his Son and punished it there. “God put on him the wrong who never did anything wrong, so we could be put right with God. He did it because: “God so loved the world that he gave his only son”.
Aren’t you glad the verse doesn’t read: “For God so loved the rich”? Or “For God so loved the famous?” No we simply (and happily) read: “For God so loved the world!” And you are included in that love! Jesus Chose the Nails for your benefit!
He knew the price of sins was death. He knew the source of those sins was in us, and since he couldn’t bear the thought of eternity without you or me, he chose the nails. With a flex of the biceps, Jesus could have resisted but Jesus himself chose the nails. He knew that the purpose of the nail was to place your sins where they could be covered by his sacrifice, they were covered by His blood when He was nailed to the cross.
The greatest testimony of the power of the Resurrection, the risen and living Christ is the lives that he has transformed. Look around you and observe the witness of those you know who have experienced the risen, living Christ. Like Paul on the Road to Damascus, their lives have been transformed by an encounter with risen Christ.
When the living Christ touches your life, you know it, and you know that you are now a different person. Your joy and that peace that surpasses all understanding are the hallmarks of a new life in Christ. They are your gift by the grace of God.
So what does The Miracle of the Resurrection mean to us, to you well that, dear ones, is up to you. Jesus chose the cross for himself to give you the opportunity to have a new life, to live a life that has meaning and revels in service to others to him and to others. Easter morning is about being empowered and freed to do what God intends for you to do and become, for as long as you have a renewed breath in your body. Amen!