“What If…?” – 1 Corinthians 15:12-20

I have some questions for you this morning. Some of them are ridiculous questions but I am asking them for a reason. I want you to think through the ramifications of these. What if we kept growing all through our lives? What would be the ramifications of that? Really old people would be really tall people. Now they sell clothes based on how old you are. Doorways and ceilings would be much higher. Cars would have to be different; much bigger. I know it’s ridiculous to think of but, again, I have a reason for asking.

What if animals could talk? That might be fun in some ways and helpful when they have to go to the vet but could also be pretty embarrassing, right? I can just hear Bo saying, “Have ya seen how fat this guy is?” Or here’s one for you. What if I actually caught a fish and what if that fish could talk? I’d pull him out of the water and he’s cussing me out. But maybe I could make a deal with him if he would tell me where the big fish are, I’d let him go. Pretty ridiculous.

Here’s a better one. What if it was impossible to lie? Uh-oh. Guys, now what are you going to say when she asks if this dress makes her look fat? But just think. We would have no use for lawyers or judges or courts at all. The cops would just politely ask, “Excuse me sir, did you just kill that lady?” “Well, yes I did.” “Okay, off to jail you go.” And think about what would happen to Washington D.C. Nobody would want to be a politician anymore. No more cheating on tests at school. No more passwords to get online. There would just be a question pop up. “Is this really Todd Blair?” Okay, go ahead.

Alright, I asked those questions to ask you one more serious question and I want you to think about the ramifications of this question as well. What if Jesus died but never rose again? What if God sent His Son Jesus to be born of a virgin, live a sinless life and die on a cross and that was the end of Him? What would change? Before you answer, I want you to turn in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians 15 and we will see that I am not the first to ask this question. Paul asked it a long time ago and also answered the question better than I ever could as well. In his letters to the Corinthian church, Paul was writing to Christians but Corinth was a Greek city and most Greeks had a real problem believing in any kind of resurrection.

In Acts 17, Paul was preaching in Athens and declared the fact of Christ’s resurrection and some of his listeners actually laughed at him. So, the truth of the resurrection of Jesus was too important to allow incorrect attitudes to creep into the church and Paul addresses this head-on in 1 Corinthians 15:12-20.  If you didn’t bring a Bible, you can use the one in the pew there in front of you and you can even take it home if you need it. We would love for you to have it. 1 Corinthians 15:12-20 says, “But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. 15More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. 16For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. 17And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. 18Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. 19If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. 20But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.”

It’s funny to me that some people have a hard time believing that Jesus rose from the dead on the third day. They have no problem with God creating the universe with His voice. No problem believing that He parted the sea, caused a great flood and made a donkey speak. Sure, Jesus was born of a virgin and lived a sinless life but no way He died and came back to life. That’s scientifically impossible! That’s right. It is scientifically impossible. But we aren’t talking about science. We are talking about Almighty God, the inventor of science. We are not talking about natural power but supernatural power and God has made it plain in His Word that Jesus died on a cross and then three days later, came back to life.

He died. He was dead. No brainwaves, no heartbeat, dead. He didn’t faint. He didn’t swoon. He didn’t pass out and then get His second wind. He was DRT – dead right there. But we know from passages like Lois read this morning; passages found in all four Gospels that Jesus rose again and if that were not the case, Paul tells us some things that would happen. He answers the question of what if Jesus had NOT risen from the grave. In fact, in verses 13-19 he gives us seven disastrous consequences that would result. Look at verse 14. If Christ had not been raised then our preaching is useless and some of you have had those two words running through your head for a while now, “useless preaching.” I heard a preacher say one time, “I understand that it's my job to talk to you. Your job is to listen. If you quit before I do, I hope you'll let me know." (Bits & Pieces, May 28, 1992, p. 13) I have found that there are always going to be people that think all preaching is always useless. And some preachers aren’t too sure of it themselves. But without the resurrection, the Gospel (the Good News) would be bad news. There would be nothing worth preaching. Without the resurrection, the Gospel would be an empty, hopeless message of meaningless nonsense. Unless our Lord conquered sin and death making a way for men to follow in that victory, there is no Gospel to proclaim. (MacArthur, pg. 411)

Paul goes on. He says if Jesus had not risen, our preaching would be useless and so is our faith. If we had faith in a risen Savior that had not risen, then what good is our faith? Our faith is only as good as the object of our faith. A dead Savior can’t bring life. If Jesus had not risen, then Hebrews 11, the faith chapter would be the fool’s chapter and I would have to say, “Well, thanks for the effort, Jesus, but what good did you really do for me?”

Not only is our preaching useless and our faith worthless but Paul says we are also a bunch of liars. All of us who believe in the resurrection of Jesus are now liars as well as all the people in the Bible that saw Him as well. In 1 Corinthians 15 it says that after His resurrection, Jesus appeared several times to the disciples as a group but also to Peter and James and then 500 folks at one time, then even to Paul years later. But if Jesus didn’t rise again then all of them are liars as well as us who believe today. We’re all a bunch of liars. Including Jesus Himself. And if we are lying about that, then nobody should listen to us about anything.

So, the theological problems of Jesus being dead are at least that our preaching is worthless, our faith is useless and we are a bunch of liars but there are some personal problems that come with that as well. If Jesus has not been risen then Paul tells us in verse 17 that we are all still lost in our sins. What does it mean to be lost in our sins? Well, Romans 6:23 says that the wages of sin (what we deserve for our sins) is death, meaning eternal death in Hell. The purpose of trusting Christ is for forgiveness of our sins because it is from our sins that we need to be saved. Paul said earlier in this chapter that Christ died for our sins, was buried and raised on the third day. If Christ has not really been risen then His death was in vain and our sins are still counted against us. And Paul is the biggest liar of all because he said in Romans 4 that God “raised Jesus our LORD from the dead. 25He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification” which means to be justified before God. Acts 5 says, “The God of our ancestors raised Jesus from the dead…that he might bring us to repentance and forgive our sins.”

If Jesus is still dead then that’s bad news for us and bad news for all of our loved ones that have died believing in Jesus as well. Paul continues with the bad news in verse 18. Then those who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. They are right now in Hell forever. Paul, Peter, James and John; Martin Luther, John Wesley, Spurgeon, Moody; my mother, your mother all rotting in Hell if Jesus didn’t take off those grave clothes, fold them up and lay them there in the tomb and walk out.

Lastly, Paul says that if Jesus never rose again then we who are believers are to be pitied more than all other men. And he says that because, make no mistake, living the Christian life is not easy. There are sacrifices to make and there is suffering to endure when you become a follower of Jesus. As true believers we give up a lot of things that the world enjoys but we have peace and joy even in the difficult times of life and we have that peace and joy because we serve a risen Savior. BUT if Jesus is still dead, good grief, everybody ought to feel so sorry for us. We are delusional. We are addicted to the opiate of the masses (as Karl Marx described religion). We have no hope. We have no forgiveness, no Savior, no life here or in the afterlife. And our lives are a joke and a charade and we should be pitied. Oh, woe is me!

If that’s true then let’s eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die. (1 Cor. 15:32) There is nothing to look forward to. Let’s just live our best lives now as my “buddy” Joel says. If Jesus is dead then God is a liar and a fool and nothing makes any sense anymore. We might as well get all we can in this life since there is no other. I’m heading off to the bar to get drunk. Anybody want to go with me?

Okay, wait a minute. Wait a minute. Maybe we ought to think about this for a second. I started off by asking the question of what if Jesus had not risen from the grave. Let me ask another question. What if He has? What if it’s true? What if Jesus really did die on that cross but was laid in a tomb and the power of Almighty God brought Him back to life three days later? What if He laid there dead and then opened His eyes early that Sunday morning, sat up, took off the grave clothes, folded them neatly, told an angel to roll away the stone over the door and walked out of that tomb like a Boss? What if that happened?

What if scripture is right? What if the wise men were right? What if the angels told the shepherds the truth? What if the angel sent to Mary wasn’t lying? What if Simeon was telling the truth? What if Paul really did see Jesus and have his life changed? What if it’s true what Paul said in verse 20 that Jesus has indeed been raised from the dead? What if Jesus is alive and He is still changing lives today like He has yours and mine?  If Jesus is alive then our preaching and our faith is not useless. If Jesus is alive then we are not liars. If Jesus is alive then – hallelujah! – we are not dead in our sins and we have been forgiven and we have hope that when this life is over we will see not only our loved ones who were also Jesus-followers but we will also see Jesus Himself!

What if we really can have peace and joy in this life even when the doctor gives us bad news? Even when there is no money in the bank and the kids are acting crazy and the spouse leaves us for another? Following Jesus can be hard sometimes but not following Him can be hard too. This life is hard and I would rather struggle to be more like Jesus and have peace and joy than to do what I think is best and be miserable in this life.

Not to mention the promise of eternal life in Heaven when we die! That’s kind of a big deal. John 3:16 says that God loved us so much He sent His only Son, Jesus, to die on the cross and all we have to do is believe in Him and we will have eternal life in Heaven when we die. Now, that belief will manifest itself in a changed life. It is more than just a head knowledge about Jesus. It is a complete surrender to the risen Savior of all our hopes and dreams and rights and allowing Him to change us to look and act more like Him every day. It won’t always be easy but nothing worth doing in this life is.

And as Heaven is more wonderful and beautiful and colorful and perfect than we could ever imagine, Hell is more awful. There is a real Heaven and a real Hell and Hell is being completely separated from God and everybody else for all eternity in constant torment. And it’s what we deserve but Jesus paid the price we could never pay so we don’t have to go there. Yea, I hear ya. “Oh, Todd, that kind of talk is no way to build a church, especially on Easter.” Well, I’m not trying to build a church. Jesus said He would do that and since we know He is alive and not a liar, I will let Him do that. I’m trying to fill up Heaven and I love you too much to not tell you the whole story. I won’t sugarcoat it, especially on Easter. You’ll probably have enough sugar today anyway.

What if today you said, “Well, I don’t understand everything there is to know about this whole Jesus and Christianity thing but I will step out on faith and try it. I will ask God to forgive me of my many sins.” 1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” “All unrighteousness” means everything you have ever done that is displeasing to God, even that thing you did that is so awful. Jesus died for that sin too. What if today you allowed the Holy Spirit of God to come into your life and take control of your life, guiding you to make wise decisions? I know it’s hard to give up control but how has that worked out for you so far anyway? When we truly believe in Jesus, His Spirit is now that voice inside of us that says, “This is the right way. Walk in this way.” (Isaiah 30:21)

He wants good things for you. He wants you to have peace and joy in this life and He wants you to have all the treasures that Heaven holds. It won’t always be easy. Ask the Apostle Paul or any of the disciples or even Jesus Himself. He is alive today and asking you to believe. What if you answered “yes” today? Do it right now as the music plays.