First Presbyterian Church          Rev. Michael J. Imperiale

Salt Lake City, UT                April 11, 2004 

“A Life Saver”

I Corinthians 15: 1-22; Luke 24: 1-12

Easter Sunday

Introduction

She was only 17 years old. He stood there glaring at her with his weapon pointed at her. “Do you believe in God?” She paused. It was a life-or-death question. “Yes, I believe in God.”

“Why?” asked the shooter. But he never gave her the chance to respond. This precious teenage girl fell dead at his feet.

Another typical teenage girl had been mocked for her faith in Christ. Having been shot three times already, she was asked, “Do you believe in God?” “You know I do,” she said. “Then go be with him,” he said. She too was killed that day (see Rachel’s Tears by Nimmo and Scott, Thomas Nelson Pub. 2000).

This scene could have happened in the Roman coliseum. It could have happened in the Middle Ages. It could have happened in any number of countries around the world today. Five years ago this month, this particular story happened at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. On April 20, 1999, Cassie Bernall and Rachel Scott were among the12 students and 1 teacher murdered in the worst school shooting in our history.

Rachel has written in her journal, “I am not going to apologize for speaking in the name of Jesus. I am not going to justify my faith to them, and I am not going to hide the light that God has put into me. If I have to sacrifice everything… I will.”  

Christians have always been imprisoned, beaten or killed every day because they refuse to deny the name of Jesus. Whether Stephen, John, Peter or Paul in the first generation, Polycarp, Apollonius, or Probius in pre-Christendom times, John Huss, William Tyndale, or Anne Askew in early Reformation days, or the countless Christian martyrs in the 20th century (see Jesus Freaks, by dcTalk, Albury Pub. 1999), they gave up this life with the great hope of eternal life with their Risen Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Easter is the day we celebrate the essential difference that Christian faith offers above every other religion or philosophy the world over. Resurrection hope. Easter day brings us a faith that makes all the difference in this life and the next.

I. The Life-Saving Fact (vs. 1-11)

The apostle Paul wants to go over the life-saving facts of the gospel with us one more time. He rightly says that it’s the message that he proclaimed and that every Christian person has received and made it their own. It is this basic gospel in which we take our stand and by which our lives have been saved. So, here it is. Don’t miss it. If you miss this, you miss the whole thing!

“Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Lamb of God, the Holy One of Israel) died for our sins according to the Scriptures; he was buried; he was raised on the third day; he appeared to Peter and the Twelve; to many others; to James and to Paul.”

Last Sunday night, Peter Jennings an ABC News (and I use the word “News” lightly) aired a three-hour program on Jesus and Paul. They continued to give significant air time to Marcus Borg, Dominic Crossan and other academic “historians” as they sought to debunk the accepted authenticity and plain meaning of the New Testament. These Jesus Seminar “scholars” have been discredited by an overwhelming majority of Christian and secular scholars, teachers and preachers for more than a decade. Yet ABC still airs them as mainstream. Fortunately, they included N.T. and a few other evangelical or centrist professors.

The point is that we all need to be “reminded” of the basic gospel that has been preached and received in which believers have taken their stand throughout the generations of the church around the world. These basics will always be challenged by pseudo Christians or enemies of faith. Our world today is no safer for committed Christians than in centuries gone by. In fact, more believers have been put to death for their faith in the 20th century than in all the preceding 1800 years of church history. It’s estimated that 400,000 will die for their faith in 2004. Yet basic, Biblical, orthodox, historic Christian faith continues.

“That Christ died.” A Roman soldier told Pilate that Jesus was dead. To be sure, one of them pierced Jesus side with a spear. Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus wrapped Jesus’ body and place it in the tomb. People back then knew when someone was dead.

“Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.” Paul learned this from 10 years of studying the Old Testament after his coming to faith in Christ and then three years of learning from the original apostles in Jerusalem. Paul didn’t “make up” Christianity as some suggest. The purpose of the death of the Messiah is found all over the Hebrew Scriptures and throughout Jesus’ own teachings about himself. What a great Bible study Jesus had with the two on the road to Emmaus shortly after the resurrection in Luke 24:27! He died for our sins.

We have all done things that are wrong. We have failed to obey God’s laws. Because of this, every human being has been separated from God. Physical death and spiritual death are the result. And there’s nothing we can do about it. No matter what we try to do about it, death and destruction plague our world and our lives.

But God has done something about it. Jesus was not only a man, he was and is God’s unique Son. He was and is Almighty God become a human being for our sake. He has bridged the gap between the holy god and sinful humankind. Jesus feely offered his life for us, dying on the cross in our place, taking all our wrong thinking, wrong speaking and wrong doing upon himself, saving us from the consequences of judgment and death. When we receive the forgiveness of God in Jesus Christ, we are reconciled to God, redeemed by the Savior, given the gift of eternal life. Christ died for our sins.

“He was buried and he was raised on the third day. And he appeared to many.” Easter day is the proof that Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross was acceptable to God. His resurrection has become the source of new life for whoever believes. All who trust in the Risen Lord may have this new life and hope forever.

There will always be people who say that Jesus did not and could not rise from the dead. Most churches even have some who do not yet believe it. Hopefully, they’re moving in the direction of this saving faith. For the Good News of Easter is that Jesus Christ will save us if we firmly believe and faithfully continue in that belief.

Paul assures us in I Corinthians 15 that many people saw Jesus after his resurrection. There was Peter (the one who denied Jesus and was restored to pastoral ministry); the Twelve who all staked their lives (indeed gave up their lives) spreading the message of the Risen Jesus; there were five hundred followers at one time who saw the Lord; James, Jesus’ brother who first thought Jesus was crazy but then came to faith and led the early church community in Jerusalem – the Resurrection changed his mind; and Paul who persecuted and martyred Christians before the Risen Christ took hold of his life. The apostle John later writes to begin his first letter to the church, “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our own eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched – this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.” There was no doubt about the resurrection of Jesus. The women didn’t go to the wrong tomb; no one stole the body from the tomb. Jesus died, was buried and rose again.

This is basic Christianity. Take it or leave it.

Conclusion (vs. 12-22)

“But if Christ has not been raised from the dead, our preaching is useless, your faith is in vain, we are false witnesses, your faith is futile, you are still in your sins, and when you die you are lost. If Christ has not been raised, we are to be more pitied than all people.

Following Jesus often brings persecution, ostracism, and problems. Paul knew it. Peter, James and John knew it. Cassie and Rachel knew it. You and I know it. “But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead… Even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” All those who trust in Jesus Christ may have this sure hope, this certain future, this real life.

The resurrection is the center of the Christian faith and experience. Because Jesus rose from the dead, we know that what he said is true; we have the certainty and assurance that our sins (all of them – past, present and future) are forgiven; and we know that our Savior has conquered death – because he lives, we shall live also. Jesus is our life saver.

So, when someone asks you, “Do you believe in God?” what will you say and why?

Let us pray together.