I'm not going to read the whole chapter of 1 Corinthians 15, but as you probably know, this is about Christ's resurrection. The whole chapter is. But we will, for tonight, be reading verses 12 through 20. In the first part of 15, he talks about how the apostles preached Christ's resurrection and how there are witnesses to Jesus being raised from the dead. So look at verses 12 through 20, and this is God's holy and perfect word. Now, if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead. But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain, and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise, if it is true that the dead are not raised. Or if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile, and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. That's how far we'll read for tonight. Maybe you have heard of the word linchpin, or you know what it is when I talk about a linchpin. If you don't, we don't really use linchpins too often anymore in cars and so on, but a linchpin is the pin on the end of the axle that keeps the wheel on. So when somebody used to talk about a linchpin, they said it's a main thing that if it's pulled out, the wheel will fall off, literally. Or some of you might know what a cotter pin or a shear pin is in a snowblower. That's something that is connected from the drive to the actual metal that pushes the snow out, and if the shear pin breaks, then you got nothing. It's not gonna push any snow. It's not gonna blow any snow. We could say something similar about a timing chain or a timing belt on a car. If it breaks, the engine's not gonna work, just a big, heavy anchor. Now, if you're not very mechanically inclined, what I'm trying to say is here, there are a lot of things in life that are essential, and if they break, everything falls apart. It doesn't work. Whether it be a linchpin, or a shear pin, or a timing belt, or chain, we know of things in life that if you take them away, or if they break, nothing of that thing works. It's like that with Christianity and the resurrection. According to Scripture, the resurrection of Jesus Christ is a linchpin. It's absolutely central and essential to the Christian faith that Jesus was raised from the dead. If you take that out, nothing else works. It all falls apart. So that's what Paul is talking about in 1 Corinthians 15, and we talked a little bit also about the resurrection already in the Heidelberg Catechism, which we'll refer to as we go on. Now, so the main point is that the resurrection is an essential part of Christianity, a linchpin at the heart. But as we think about 1 Corinthians 15, let me give you a little context before we go into these words of Paul. Now, Paul is writing to the people in Corinth about 25 years after Jesus died and rose from the dead, 25 years later after Jesus' ministry. And in chapter 15 earlier, as I said, Paul is talking about the resurrection, about how the apostles preached that Jesus died on the cross and he was raised from the dead according to the scriptures, the Old Testament promises. But then if you look ahead to verse 12, what we started with, Paul is saying, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead? If Christ has been proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? Some of you are saying that. Now this is interesting. We don't know who the some of you are that were saying that there was no resurrection from the dead. Maybe some people in the Corinthians church had questions about it and they thought that a person who is dead, their body doesn't rise, but only their soul does or something like that. We're not sure who some of these people are, but we know that somebody in the Corinthian context denies some part of the resurrection of the dead. And that's what Paul is dealing with here. Now back then, an average Roman citizen, if you would go back in Paul's day, and you could just talk to an average person coming out of the market on the street, and you would talk to him about resurrection, a lot of Romans back then, the Greco-Roman people, would say, well, the soul is raised, but your body is a bad thing, and it dies, and it's gone. It just decays. Because the invisible part of you is good, but the material part of you, your body, is bad. It would stay dead, they'd say. What about today? What if you'd ask an average person on the street? Maybe you have somebody that you work with who is not a Christian at all, just a normal, average American person, and you'd say, you know, do dead people come back to life? You might get some philosophical answers. You might get some New Age answers about some reincarnation or something. But if you would go to a funeral with that person and point to a dead body and say to this person, who's not a Christian, just an average American, not a Christian person, the dead bodies like this, can they be raised from the dead? Most people would just say no. It's impossible. That person is dead. And so that's what Paul's dealing with. Some of them are saying there is no resurrection of the dead, something that people would say today, that they said back then. And then what Paul does, and you probably know this text, you've probably read this more than once, this is a very good central text in Christianity, 1 Corinthians 15, but Paul gives some hypotheticals. Let's say, for the sake of argument, that Jesus has not been raised from the dead, that there is no resurrection of the dead. Let's pretend, for the sake of my argument, that when a dead body dies, it will just always stay dead. Let's say that. Now, if you would go through this section that we read and underline or circle the ifs, and you have an ESV, there'd be seven ifs. If the dead are not raised, then this. Now I'm not going to go through all seven, but I mean, I am, but I'm not going to go in seven points. I'm going to summarize them to five brief points. So let's say, now we're going to follow Paul's logic here, let's say the dead are not raised. Let's say there's no resurrection of the dead. That means, of course, that Jesus has not been raised from the dead and Jesus is still dead. What's the first implication? Well, look in verse 14. If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain. That's the first place we stop and think about. So again, the logic is this, verse 13. If there is no resurrection from the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain. Now, that would be, our would be the apostles' preaching. If Jesus had not been raised from the dead, then Paul is saying their preaching is pointless. That word vain is also the word used in Ephesians 5. Let no one deceive you with vain or empty words. If Jesus has not been raised from the dead, then apostolic preaching is empty. Empty of content, one dictionary says. Actually, I read the message on this, and the message is a very loose paraphrase. It's hit or miss, quite often miss. But it's good here. If Christ has not been raised, then everything we've told you is smoke and mirrors. It's just empty of content. It's nothing. Why? Well, because Jesus' death and resurrection is at the center of the apostles' preaching. It's the linchpin of their preaching. And if you take the resurrection of Jesus out, then the apostles' preaching is a royal waste of time, a bunch of hot air. That's what Paul's saying. It's kind of like if we were stranded on an island in the Pacific. We were all there. And I was one of the few that believed rescue is coming. I would keep talking about it. I'd say, you know what, in three weeks we're not going to be here anymore. You can build some shelters and get some food, but we're not going to be here for the long run. And I kept on talking about rescue that's coming. If there was no rescue that was coming, my talk would be pointless, in vain. That's what Paul is saying about the apostles' preaching. If Jesus has not been raised from the dead, the apostles' preaching is empty, hot air. That's the first if. Now the next one is also in verse 14. And your faith is in vain. And then go in verse 17, he says the same thing. If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile. So basically, I'm going to put those two together in verse 14 and 17. If Christ has not been raised, our faith as Christians is futile. Faith is futile. And one of those words in verse 14, the word futile or vain, is the same one that Paul said about the preaching. It's worthless. Our faith is worthless if Jesus has not been raised from the dead. And in verse 17, that your faith is futile, it's the same word or it's the same kind of concept as in Ecclesiastes. Vanity of vanities. Your faith is meaningless, nothingness, empty of content. Does that make sense? Because the Christian faith, our faith, is centered in Jesus' death and resurrection, if you take Jesus' resurrection away from that, then your faith is just an empty thing. There's no content to it. There's no substance to it. You're believing in hot air, as it were, in nothing. Some things are silly to believe in. It's silly to believe in alien abductions. It's silly to believe that superheroes are actually real. It's silly to believe in Santa Claus. It's silly to believe that politicians are all truthful. And Paul is saying, if there is no resurrection, then your faith as a Christian is silly. It's meaningless. It's hot air. Like the preaching, if Christ has not been raised. Now there's another if. The third point for these ifs is in verse 15. Okay, so if Christ has not been raised, verse 15, then we, we as Apostles, Paul's talking for the Apostles, we are even found to be misrepresenting God because we, again the Apostles, testified about God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise if it's true that the dead are not raised. So if the resurrection is false, then the Apostles are liars. Their preaching is pointless, our faith is futile, and the Apostles are liars. That's what Paul's saying if Jesus' resurrection is not true. And another way to translate this from the Greek would be, they're false witnesses of God, the apostles are. They're perjurers. You know what a perjurer is? If you were on the stand in court and somebody asked you, were you there that night when somebody, so-and-so got beat up? If you saw it and you were there, but you said, no, no, no, I wasn't there, you would be giving false witness. You'd be a perjurer. Paul's saying if Jesus' resurrection is not true, the apostles are perjurers, they're false witnesses, breaking the ninth commandment. Because if you read through the New Testament, Acts specifically in their preaching, they're always talking about Jesus' resurrection. But if you take Jesus' resurrection away, they're just liars. They testified that God raised Jesus from the dead. But if the dead aren't raised, that means God didn't raise Jesus from the dead. Jesus died and is still dead. And the apostles are liars. Paul, Peter, John, James, Andrew, Philip, Thomas, they're all a pack of liars. If Jesus has not been raised, that's what Paul is saying. Now, two more. If Jesus has not been raised, this is in verse 17, the end, you are still in your sins. You're still in sin. The apostles are liars, your faith is futile, the apostles' preaching is pointless, and you're still in your sin if Jesus has not been raised. What does it mean to be in your sin still? Well, you kind of think of other scripture, right? Scripture interprets scripture. It means you'd still be living in your sinful condition. You'd still be slaves to sin, like Jesus talks about. You'd still be under the wages of sin. You'd still be dead in your sins, like Paul mentions elsewhere. If Christ has not been raised, then your sins are not forgiven, and you live in the realm of sin still, right now. Let's pretend that you were lost at sea. You have no water, no food, you're in a small raft, you're terribly dehydrated, you're almost dead, and a ship comes and rescues you. They give you new clothes, they feed you, they clothe you, they give you medical attention, and the captain would say, man, if we had not found you, you'd be lost at sea still. Paul is saying something like that to Christians. If Jesus has not been raised, you'd still be lost in your sin. You'd still be in your sin. Now one more thing. If Christ has not been raised, then you face the despair of death. That's in the last one for this evening. Verse 18. Again, if Christ has not been raised, verse 18, then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If Jesus has not been raised, then death for God's people is doom and destruction and despair. Those who have fallen asleep, fallen asleep means you're dead. Those who have died in Christ have perished. What famous verse does the word perish come in? John 3. Whoever believes in me should not perish, but have what? Everlasting life. So perishing here is the opposite of everlasting life. If Jesus has not been raised, you have the opposite of everlasting life. That would be to perish. If Jesus has not been raised, when believers die, they're just lost forever. They're goners. If Jesus has not been raised from the dead, then a Christian's death is like a dog's death or the death of a bird. Just nothing. Perish. And Paul says it's logical, look in verse 19, if in Christ we have hope in this life only, not in the future, we are of all people most to be pitied. If we have hope now, but not after death, then we are of all the people in the world the most to be pitied because we believe, if Jesus hasn't been raised, that means we would believe Jesus, or that we would believe in a lie, and our hope is based on a lie, and then when we die we stay dead. So our hope is just a sham, as well as our faith, and we are very pitiable people. So do you see the ifs here? This is awesome logic from Paul. Let me just summarize them again. Again, there's seven ifs, but I put them in five. If Jesus has not been raised, the apostolic preaching is pointless, your faith is futile, the apostles all lied, you're still in your sin, and you face the despair of death. That's what Paul is arguing here. Now as we transition a little bit, some of you may have heard Lee Strobel's story. You know who Lee Strobel is? He wrote The Case for Christ. And his story actually was put into a movie, and I think it's still on Netflix, and it's actually a good one. I don't think I'll ever recommend a movie from Netflix again from the pulpit, but that's actually a pretty good one, the Lee Strobel story. He was an average American, not a believer, but he was a hard worker. And his wife became a Christian. And he didn't want much to do with it, but it got him thinking about the Christian faith. And he was very resistant for the most part. And he opposed it for the most part. Until somebody told him, or until he came to realize that it's all, all of Christianity stands or falls with the resurrection of Jesus. And so he went out to disprove the resurrection. He said, look, if the resurrection is true, Strobel said, I'll become a Christian. And so he set out to disprove the resurrection, and you know what happened? He actually found out that the resurrection is true, and he became a Christian by God's grace. But Strobel understood the importance of Jesus' resurrection. That's what Paul is pressing home here. So what I want to do in the rest of the sermon is, I'll go in verse 20 in a minute, But I'm going to go in verse 20 and then I'm going to backtrack and flip the coin and say, but Jesus has been raised from the dead, therefore these opposite implications are true. I'll show you what I mean. So look at verse 20. Paul gives all this gloom, you know, what would happen if Jesus hasn't been raised, but then we have this awesome phrase in verse 20, but in fact Christ has been raised from the dead. If you highlight or underline in your Bible, That's a phrase you would highlight or underline. But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. However, or in fact, by way of contrast, Jesus has been raised. So the logic goes like this. If Christ has not been raised, it's our worst nightmare, and we live in a hopeless situation. But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. That's a good memory. It's not a verse, but it's a good memory phrase. You can put that to memory, right? But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. Even kids can remember that truth. Now, again, what I said is I'm going to go back. Paul goes ahead in chapter 15 and talks more about Jesus' resurrection. But I'm going to go back and remember the five things that I just mentioned? Those were implications. If Jesus hadn't been raised from the dead, those things would be true. But Paul says Jesus has been raised from the dead, therefore we can go back to those five things and see the opposite is actually true. So I'll show you what I mean. Since Jesus has been raised from the dead, apostolic preaching is not pointless but significant. Do you see what I did? The opposite there. Since Jesus has been raised from the dead, the apostles' preaching is essential, indispensable, invaluable, life-giving, and life-changing. It's powerful because it's based on truth. They preached the truth and resurrection, and it was significant. It wasn't pointless at all, but the exact opposite. And we can say that today, too, when the same truth is preached that the apostles preached, apostolic preaching today that is in line with what the apostles preached. It's significant today, isn't it? Even right now, when you hear preaching from Scripture like the apostles preached, it's not pointless, but it's significant, life-giving, life-changing. And like Paul says in Romans 10, faith comes by hearing, and hearing through the Word of Christ. That's what preaching does, it builds faith, it creates faith and strengthens faith. And so because apostolic preaching is significant, that's why you need to sit under true and good biblical preaching as much as you can, because it's life-changing and life-giving. That's why in Reformed churches we even, you know, in Reformed theology we even say that a mark of the true church is a pure preaching of the gospel, that Jesus died and rose from the dead. This is life-giving preaching. Now there's a little side note that I was thinking about this week when I was studying this. What does this all, as you think about the preaching and the resurrection, what does this tell you about preaching today that never talks about Jesus' resurrection? Never. I mean, if you'd go to a church for six months and you'd never hear about the resurrection, or if you'd hear sermons on the radio and they'd never talk about the resurrection, I, first of all, wouldn't call it true preaching. And I think we can take Paul's implications here and say that kind of preaching is fun and interesting and as exciting as it might be, without the resurrection it's a bunch of hot air. It's pointless then. It's a royal waste of time if the resurrection is not proclaimed. But apostolic preaching that mentions and preaches the resurrection of Jesus from the dead is significant. Now another implication, not just is the apostles preaching significant, but our faith also is valuable then. Since Jesus has been raised from the dead, your faith is a valuable thing. It's not vain or futile, but valuable. Now when I say your faith is valuable, I don't mean your faith is a work that earns a reward. I'm not saying that we're saved by the work of faith and that's a work. But what I mean is that faith is a gift of God by which we receive Jesus and all of his benefits and blessings. By faith we receive the forgiveness of sins. By faith we receive Jesus' righteousness. And that's what the Heidelberg Catechism says. Jesus' death has overcome death to make us share in the righteousness he won for us by his death. And we know that we receive that righteousness by faith alone. So faith, your faith in Jesus, is a valuable thing. It's not in vain. It's not futile. Think of how the Bible talks about faith, trust in God, trust in Jesus. It says without faith it's impossible to please God. We live by faith. We're saved by faith. Faith is a shield that gives us protection against the devil's arrows. By faith we inherit the promises of God. And the outcome of our faith is the salvation of our souls. Those are some scripture truths about your faith. That's why Peter in 1 Peter 1 can say, call faith more precious than gold that perishes. So because Jesus has been raised from the dead, you believe in Jesus' death and resurrection to save you, and because that's true, your faith is a valuable thing. It receives the gifts that Jesus gives by grace. If you would live in a village where there wasn't very much water, Well, let's say you do. You live in a village where it's pretty dry and you have this one bucket for your family and you have to go to this fresh spring to get water all the time, maybe a mile away. And the bucket that you have is kind of old and faded. It's a wooden bucket, but it holds water and it brings that precious water to your family. You would say that bucket's valuable, right? Even though you couldn't really sell it for much, it's a valuable thing because it brings that great water to your family. That's water you need to live. Faith is like that bucket. It receives that life-giving blessing of Jesus. Faith is a valuable thing. So your faith is more precious than gold and riches. And that's why in the Christian faith we can say that a poor person, a person who doesn't have very much money, maybe who's living paycheck by paycheck or even less, if that person has faith, we say that person is rich. Because faith is a valuable thing. It receives the blessings of Jesus. So I think this is worth remembering the next time you think it's so hard to be a Christian. Sometimes you maybe look at unbelievers and you say, man, I wish I could just live like that. But remember, unbelievers don't have faith, which is a valuable thing. It's good for you to remember the value of faith. And it's good for you also to remember that you need to nurture your faith by reading the Word, by praying to God about your faith, And you can thank God for your faith and rejoice that you do believe by his grace. Because faith is a valuable thing. Because Jesus has been raised. Your faith is in a true person and work. Now another implication. I'll keep these last couple a little bit shorter. The apostles told the truth. If Jesus had not been raised, then they're all liars. But in fact, Jesus has been raised from the dead, which means the apostles are truth-tellers. The resurrection happened and the apostles proclaimed it. When the Apostles preached and when the Apostles wrote, they were just proclaiming a true event that happened. Jesus died and was raised from the dead. And they're not false witnesses. They're just recounting historical truth. That's why we can trust the Apostles. Their language corresponds with reality. When you read Paul, and he talks about Jesus' resurrection, you say, oh, Paul is telling the truth of history. And Jesus said the same things that the Apostle said, that he would be raised from the dead. It's not like we just have a few words of a few Apostles that kind of match up with what might have happened, but we have many words from more than a few Apostles that match up exactly with what happened, and their words are right in line with Christ's, and you can trust their testimony. The Apostles are truth-tellers. And since Christ has been raised, just two more, since Christ has been raised from the dead, you're no longer in your sin. You're set free from the dominion of sin. If you trust in Jesus, we talked about this last week, His death rescues you from the slavery of the fear of death, and His resurrection follows that and gives you new life. That's what the Heidelberg Catechism says. By Christ's power, we are already raised to a new life. If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. So this is gospel, isn't it? When Jesus died, we died with him. We died to sin. And when he was raised from the dead, we were raised with him to new life. You're not in your sins anymore because you've been given new life through Christ's resurrection. This is a great gospel truth that we need to meditate on and hold on. that since I've been raised with Christ, I'm not in the dominion of sin anymore. I don't live in sin. Sin is not my master. I'm free from it. Now I know we still struggle with sin, and it's frustrating sometimes when we struggle with sin. Sometimes we get this, it's almost like a holy impatience for when we will be free from sin, and we don't have to struggle with our sins anymore. But we can be so thankful that Jesus has been raised from the dead, and we have new life in Him, and that we're not stuck in sin anymore, that we can actually fight it, that we can actually hate it, and live by the power of Jesus' resurrection. And, you know, this reality helps us sleep at night. I know, I commit sins, you commit sins, and they burden your conscience, and you have to remember, of course, that Jesus forgives you for them through His blood, you're forgiven. And you also have to remember this reality that you are a new creature in Christ. And that even though sometimes you struggle with sin and you stumble in sin, it's not your ruler, it's not your master, it doesn't have dominion over you because you have new life in Christ. So yes, you struggle, but be thankful that sin doesn't dominate you because you've been raised with Jesus through his resurrection. All right, the last one. Since Christ has been raised from the dead, death is not doom and destruction. It's not doom and destruction. But it's eternity with the Lord. So last week, again, we talked about this. Jesus' death in our place satisfied the justice and truth of God. He paid for sin. And again, the other part of it, after Jesus died, he rose from the dead. And so the Heidelberg Catechism says, by his resurrection, Jesus has overcome death. That's what we talked about this morning. We are more than conquerors through Christ because he has been raised from the dead and he conquered death. And I like how the Heidelberg Catechism puts it in the other place that we read. Christ's resurrection is a sure pledge of our resurrection. When Jesus was raised from the dead and his body was transformed and glorified, There is a resurrection of the dead for God's people in Christ. That's a great truth to remember. Christ's resurrection in the past assures the Christian of his or her resurrection in the future. The body that you're sitting in Your body is an essential part of who you are right now. As a human made in the image of God, your body is very important. If we die before Jesus comes again, our body will go into the grave. People will probably cry and mourn for a while. But when Jesus returns, he'll raise that body and make it new. He'll renew it and glorify it to be like his. His resurrection is a sure pledge of your resurrection, dear Christian. And so that's an awesome thought to meditate upon. We all have bodies that are far from perfect. We have aches and pains, we have difficulties in life, and sometimes our bodies slow us down and they're hard to live with. But as Christians, we can look forward to our new body, our renewed body, transformed body. There's no more aches and pains, no more imperfections, no more faults, no more flaws, no more difficult bodies to deal with. That's another blessing that comes through the resurrection of Jesus. His resurrection is a sure pledge of your resurrection when he returns. So again, I think you've probably read this text before. You probably understand some of the truths of Jesus' resurrection, but let me just summarize it. If Christ has not been bodily raised from the dead, there's no hope for anyone anywhere. But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. He has overcome death, He's raised us to new life in Him, and He's given us a sure pledge that one day our bodies will be transformed to be like His. Thanks be to God for this truth. Amen. Let's pray.