Transcript
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Welcome to the Gospel and Life Podcast. Do you believe Christ's resurrection is merely a symbol or an actual real historical event? Today, Tim Keller is teaching on why believing in the historical reality of the resurrection is the only way it will really change you. After you listen to today's teaching, we invite you to go online to gospelandlife.com and sign up for email updates. When you sign up, you'll receive our quarterly journal and other valuable gospel centered resources. You can subscribe today@gospelandlife.com.
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Turn in the bulletin to the passage of Scripture on which the teaching is based first Corinthians 15 now there's three basic things that Paul says about the Resurrection. Now the musicians know what they are, don't you? The musicians have heard this three times and they are so holy that tonight when they turn off the lights, they're going to glow in the dark. But you don't know what those three things are yet. And so just to get a little bit of the effulgence of the musicians to get your ear cut, let's read First Corinthians 15 for what I received, I passed on to you as of first importance that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter and then to the 12. And after that he appeared to more than 500 of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive, but each in his own turn. Christ the first fruits. Then when he comes those who belong to Him, Then the end will come when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father, after he has destroyed all dominion, authority, and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. Listen, I tell you a mystery. We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. And when the perishable has been clothed within the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true Death is swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, he gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. Now, what Paul does here is he answers three questions, and it's a long chapter, and I've only pulled a couple of pieces out. And you could do worse than to read the whole chapter on Easter Sunday, First Corinthians 15, maybe the great chapter in the whole Bible on the meaning of the resurrection of Jesus. And he answers three questions about Jesus. Resurrection. Did he do it, what did it do, and what should we do about it? See, did it happen? In other words, what did it accomplish and what should we do about it? Now, those three things hang together, though. I'd like to concentrate tonight on the last point. But see, here's how they hang together. First of all, Paul, in the first few verses, tries to explain that if you're going to get the benefits of the resurrection in your life, if it's really going to make a difference in your life, if it's really going to change you, you have to believe it actually happened. That's the reason he goes to the trouble in the very beginning of saying, look, I received. Now, these are technical Greek verbs. Actually, he chooses verbs when he says, I received and I passed on to you. These are verbs that mean I researched, I got information, and I passed it on. I talked to the eyewitnesses. I talked to 500, he says, 500 Christians who are still alive. When I'm writing this, which is 20 years after Jesus, death and resurrection, who are still there, you can still go and ask them. See, when Paul makes this sort of public claim in a publicly circulated letter, when he says, look, there are 500 witnesses. Go and talk to them if you want. They all saw Jesus at once after he had been raised from the dead. What is Paul doing? He was saying, it matters. It matters whether you believe it really happened. The average person in New York City believes the resurrection is a wonderful concept. It's a symbolism. It's a symbol of good triumphing over bad. It's a symbol that you can have a new start after a disaster. If you want a little example of it, of that view of the resurrection, it's in the New York Times lead editorial today. It says, well, Christians have always you know, celebrated the fact that here was a man who stood against, you know, tyranny. You know, if you. Since Christians are not supposed to be sensitive, that would be an insult, and therefore it's not. But if we were sensitive, it would be an insult because Paul goes to great pains and says, if you have a comfortable little life, the symbol of the resurrection, meaning just how good things overcome bad things, eventually might be of some comfort. But when you take deal in your life with concrete trouble, concrete trials, concrete real death coming at you, unless you believe in a concrete, real, physical, literal, historical resurrection, you're not going to be any different. You're not going to be able to handle real trouble unless you believe in a real resurrection. You can't believe the resurrection is just a beautiful symbol, but didn't happen literally or physically. Paul goes out of his way to say, like in verse 20, but Christ is risen indeed. That's why we say not just he's risen indeed, he's risen. Really risen, actually risen, his body rekindled, and he walked out. And Paul's here saying the reason he lays all these verses down in the very beginning is he says, unless you believe it, it's not going to change you. That's the first point. Now, the second point is, not only does he say you have to believe it happened, but he also says you have to believe or have to understand what it accomplished. The resurrection isn't just something that happened. It's not just a naked display of power. It accomplishes something. And what does it accomplish? Well, there's two things that Paul says happen that the resurrection accomplishes. The first one he says in verse 17, which I didn't print there, unfortunately, where Paul says, if Christ is not raised from the dead, you're still in your sins. In fact, he says it in a very vivid way. He says, if Christ is still on the ground, you are still in your sins. Why would that be? Because the resurrection proves that something is over. What's over? It says in Romans 4:25, Jesus was put to death for our sins, but he was raised for our justification. What's that mean? It means this. When you see death, when you get near death, when you go to a funeral of somebody you know, no matter who they are, in spite of the fact that this society will tell you death is natural. It's a normal part of living, you know, it's not. Death is unnatural. Death isn't right. We don't want to die. We don't want to see our loved ones die. There's something abnormal about it. Death forbids us to rise, but we want to rise, but it forbids us to rise. Death pulls us down. Death isn't right. That's the reason why that famous line of Dylan Thomas is so famous. Dylan Thomas says, we rage against the dying of the light. We rage. We know death isn't natural, but if it's not natural, then it's been inflicted. See, you know that death isn't natural. But if death isn't natural, then it's a judgment, then it's a punishment. And why? Well, the Bible answers that we have been put into a world that's built. It's built to work. If we live not for ourselves, but for others and for God, we're built to serve other people and to serve God. That's not how we live. We live to serve ourselves and use other people in God to reach our needs and to make our. To get to our goals. And as a result, the world doesn't work and we don't work. And death is a natural consequence. We're going against the warp and woof and fabric of reality. And the wages of that is disintegration. And disintegration is death. And therefore death has authority. Death is a judgment. When Jesus Christ died, Paul says, if he didn't rise, you're still in your sins. Why? Here's why. If Jesus Christ had died, death would still be owed. Death would still have authority. But when Jesus Christ rose, we already sang about it. Death in vain forbids him rise. The last hymn too is great. It talks about death in vain. Death can't. Why? Because justice has been paid. Judgment has been paid. Jesus Christ, when he died, rendered everything necessary. And therefore death in vain. Death has no power. Death has no authority over us. And therefore condemnation is done. See, the resurrection means condemnation is over. The resurrection means that your sins have been paid for. God has satisfied you. Actually, if you go to the Old Testament, on one day of the year, all the people gathered and the high priest came on Yom Kippur. And what did the high priest do? He went into the veil. What was behind the veil? The Holy of Holies. Where was he going? He was going to atone for the sins of the people. And everybody was nervous. Why? Because he was going back before the raw presence of God. Would the sacrifice be acceptable? So everybody waited with bated breath. And he went down. You know, he went to almost a certain death. He went into the veil. But after he had made the sacrifice, every year he came out, he came through, and everybody rejoiced why? Because it meant that their sins had been atoned for. But that was happening every year, over and over again, as the Book of Hebrews says, in a way that can never completely satisfy the conscience. But when Jesus Christ went into the earth and came out, that was God's way of saying to everybody, your sins have been paid in full. And that's the reason why, on the one hand, without the resurrection, you'd have absolutely no confidence that God looks at you right now and is satisfied and accepts you. But on the other hand, the resurrection does not just prove that something is over, it proves that something has begun. Because in verse 20:23, twice, we're told Jesus Christ is the first fruits. Now, what's the first fruits? Wow. Here's what the first fruits mean. There's a world. There's an eternal world, a world of complete justice, a world of complete love. A world where nothing gets old and dies and decays. A world of life and truth and beauty. But it's the ideal world, and this is the real world. And everybody knows that there's a concrete slab between the real world and the ideal world. But when Jesus rose from the dead, this was not just fireworks. This was not just a naked display of power. This was the ideal. Breaking into the real Jesus Christ is the first fruits. What are the first fruits? It's the first thing out of the garden. It's the first thing out of the grain. It's the first fruit of the vine. It's what's about to come. It's the reality. It's really part of the harvest, even though it's not in there in fullness. And what it means is the future of God has landed in the resurrection. A hole was punched in the pitiless walls of the world. And into a world of decay has come immortality. Into a world of darkness has come light. And when Jesus Christ says, believe in me and you'll receive the resurrection into your life, this is not just you're going to get inspired, you're going to get a little happy. You know, he's going to kind of give you strength to go through the day, lift up your eyes, give up your small ambitions. The Bible says that Christians and the church is God's eschatological beachhead. That means the future. Eschatology. Eschatological means his future has come in now. Partial but real. First fruits, but only first. But really fruits, but only the first. But into the world now, when you become a Christian, into your heart comes the fruit of the Spirit. Into your life comes the gifts of the Spirit. Into your heart comes real, divine future joy and love and glory. And when you have the gifts of the Spirit, it means that when you care for other people, when you counsel other people, when you witness other people, when you teach other people, you're bringing the life of the future into their lives. And the alienations of this world, the alienation where we're spiritually alienated from God and we're psychologically alienated from our own true selves, and we're socially alienated from other people, races and classes and nationalities, those things begin to get healed through the gifts of the Spirit, which are given to you because the future has come.