There are times when we have news that we want to share and we just can’t wait to tell someone! My wife Lori spent time with our family last weekend for a bridal shower and found out that four of our nieces were all expecting babies this fall within a few short days of each other! It was happy news that she couldn’t wait to share with me.
Our celebration today is about the good news of Jesus Christ that the eyewitnesses of His life, death and resurrection could not wait to share with the world! Our Scripture reading today in 1 Corinthians 15:1-11 was one of the earliest creeds the early church passed on to one another. It was a powerful statement of the life of Jesus Christ and what He has done for us!
Remember that they were “eyewitnesses of His Majesty” In 2 Peter 1:16 the apostle Peter assures us of the credibility of their witness. “For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His Majesty” The life, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ are all facts of history! The question today is what will we tell others about the man called Jesus Christ?
We celebrate the resurrection today because Jesus died for our sins on the cross, then He rose from the grave demonstrating that God had accepted His sacrifice on our behalf, and that He was truly the Son of God, just as He claimed to be. Listen very carefully to the creed again and watch for the phrase at the end:
1Corinthians 15:1-11
Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you — you believed in vain. For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: 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, and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles. Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time. For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. Therefore, whether it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.
The fact that Jesus died on the cross and rose again is a life-saving message!. The message continues to go out to people to believe in what Jesus has done for you!
Lee Strobel was an atheist until he used his skills as a journalist to investigate this man named Jesus Christ. After thoroughly researching the facts, he came to the conclusion that He wanted to repent of his sins and ask Jesus Christ to be His Savior in 1981!
This is his conclusion on what Jesus did for him “If Jesus overcame the grave, he’s still alive and available for me to personally encounter. If Jesus conquered death, he can open the door of eternal life for me too. If He has divine power, He has the supernatural ability to guide and transform me as I follow Him. As my Creator who has my best interests at heart, He rightfully deserves my allegiance and worship.”
After learning of all the amazing facts of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, He claimed the Bible Verse in John 1:12 that says “Yet to all who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God.” His formula was
Believe + Receive = Become
John 3:36 “He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”
The message of resurrection day is for people to believe.
May our resurrection celebration today help you to believe in what Jesus Christ has done and receive His salvation!
Through the resurrection of Jesus we are lifted up and redeemed. And this is the message of this historic day that we call “Easter Sunday” (Resurrection Sunday) that all mankind know and confess that Jesus is Lord and Savior.
How are we all doing at sharing this creed that the early believers suffered persecution for? We are living proof that their testimony was true and that it was shared from generation to generation to generation. They wrote the New Testament under inspiration of the Holy Spirit so we would have a permanent record of our Savior, who rescued us from our sins!
In January 2016, the National Public Radio ran a heartbreaking interview with Robert Ebeling. Ebeling was an engineer who worked on the 1986 Space shuttle Challenger. It was a launch that resulted in the death of all seven occupants. Before the accident, Ebeling and four other engineers pleaded for the launch to be delayed; they told their superiors that they anticipated the precise failure that would destroy the shuttle. Yet the engineers’ pleas were refused. That night, Ebeling even told his wife, Darlene, “It’s going to blow up.” Three weeks after the explosion, he and another engineer, spoke to NPR. It was not until later that Ebeling was identified by name 30 years later in another NPR article, which said:
Ebeling retired soon after Challenger. He suffered deep depression and has never been able to lift the burden of guilt. In 1986, as he watched that haunting image again on a television screen, he said, “I could have done more. I should have done more.” He said that until he died. He told The Houston Chronicle in 1987. “I have headaches. I cry. I have bad dreams. I go into a hypnotic trance almost daily.” The data he and his fellow engineers presented, and their persistent arguments, weren’t enough to sway managers and NASA officials. (Howard Berkes, “30 Years After Explosion, Challenger Engineer Still Blames Himself,” NPR The Two-Way blog, 1-28-16; www.PreachingToday.com)
Ebeling had deep regrets that not only did people reject their message, but that they didn’t do enough to get that message heard.
It might be the way the writers of the Bible might of felt, who witnessed Jesus alive after the resurrection.
2 Corinthians 5:11-12,15 “Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are well known to God, and I also trust are well known in your consciences. For we do not commend ourselves again to you, And He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.”
Galatians 1:10-12 “For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ. But I make known to you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ.”
Don’t leave this earth with regrets. If we die without sharing the good news of Jesus Christ, we will regret it. We will also regret it if we don’t consider Jesus Christ and learn about Him for ourselves.
Today, we are going to enjoy hearing the testimony of two people that have learned about Jesus Christ and have put their faith and trust In Him. They want to follow the New Testament pattern of sharing their belief with others by being publicly baptized! This is such a great picture of exactly what we are celebrating today! Romans explains this picture this way:
Romans 6:1-11. “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin.
Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise, you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”