Get rid of all thoughts of a hoax. Christ has been raised.
Don't let anyone tell you any different. He has been raised. He is the first of a great harvest of all who have died.
There we are. Not only is Christ raised, but we too are raised with Him. It's an honest question, and it demands an answer. Was the resurrection of Jesus Christ a literal event, or was Easter nothing more than the wishful thinking of those who knew and loved Jesus? Today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll presents a compelling message for both doubters and believers alike. He raises the legitimate issue about the authenticity of the resurrection. Let's pick up the study that started with the last program beginning in 1 Corinthians chapter 15.
Be thinking about how you would respond to this all-important question. Was the resurrection of Jesus a hoax, or was Easter our only hope? You know, there were those that were a part of a church that Paul had founded that still doubted there would be a resurrection. And in 13 through 19, if you will, I think of a stack of dominoes on their end.
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. There are seven of them right here in these verses. If there is no resurrection, then this is the result. Verse 13, for there is no resurrection of the dead, domino number one, then Christ has not been raised.
Domino number two, keep reading. And if Christ has not been raised, then all our preaching is useless. It's all an empty message.
Nothing to it. Domino number three, then all our preaching is useless and your faith is useless. Here's the fourth domino. Look at it. We've been lied to by those we trusted. Look at verse 15.
It's what it says. And we apostles would all be lying about God. For we have said that God raised Christ from the dead, but that can't be true. Wrong. False. It's a hoax. They can't be trusted.
They're all a pack of liars. Number five. Look at the next one. Verse 15. We apostles would all be lying about God if we said that he'd been raised and he hasn't been.
Now 17. And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless. Hang on. And you are still guilty of your sins. You've not been cleansed from within. You're not a new creature in Christ.
And I'll tell you, he gets downright personal. Look at this sixth one right here. Verse 18. All dead believers are lost forever.
Look at it for yourself. Verse 18. All who have died believing in Christ are lost.
Think of those you've loved and lost. They're all lost. They died lost. There's no future for them.
There's one more, and it'll put a catch in your throat. Look at verse 19. If our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world.
It's only a hoax. The Christian life, it's a pathetic, cruel joke. We've gathered in vain, and we have done so throughout this generation and all generations before. All Christians who died living with terminal diseases, anticipating a change in healing and hope. No hope. My dear sister struggled with dementia toward the end of her life, and the light sort of went out. She who had been the life of the body, and we all hung on to the hope, all of that will change as soon as she breathes her last. There's no change.
There's no hope. How about those Christians killed in random shooting sprees that have happened around our country? Some of them believers, wonderful, but no hope for a future for them after death. How about the godly men and women who perished in 9-11 in the towers, in the plains? How about those ships at sea that were blown apart, bodies scattered?
They just died. It's all a hoax. What if? Now the good news, and I'm so grateful the chapter doesn't end in verse 19, push all those dominoes off the table and look at the verbal about-face that Paul makes in verse 20. But in fact, I love the way he says this. He writes this. But in fact, he moves from the hypothetical to the actual.
From the what if to the what is. In fact, these few words are like a huge hinge on a massive door of reason. And his thoughts swing on those words, but in fact, get rid of all thoughts of a hoax. Now he bears that stylus down on that piece of parchment and writes, Christ has been raised.
Don't let anyone tell you any different. He has been raised. Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and he was buried to prove that he had died. Christ has been raised according to the Scriptures, and he has been seen to prove that he has been raised. You see, those who go with the hypothetical and make up the story of the hoax claim that those appearances that he made, so-called appearances, were really hallucinations. They have a little time, a little trouble when they get to that verse that says he appeared to 500 at once.
500 hallucinations? I don't think so. Christ was raised, he says, no equivocation. Christ has been, but he isn't through.
Stay with the verse. But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. He is the first of a great harvest of all who have died. There we are. That's the second marvelous part of this resurrection message.
Not only is Christ raised, but we too are raised with him. You say, how does that work? Keep reading. Paul's writing follows through explaining what he just says. Look at verse 21.
So you see, I like the way he says it, like he's teaching a class. So you see, just as death came into the world through a man, now who would that be? Obviously Adam. Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin, so death passed upon all, for all have sinned. We get the death package by being born. We're connected to Adam at the hip. It comes automatically with our birth. You don't choose to belong to Adam. You are Adamic as you go back far enough and your humanity links you to him and that links you to death. Now death usually disturbs people.
I found that true. In fact, psychologists tell us the one place most people can never envision themselves is in a casket. We attend a funeral.
We love the one who has died and we are there to honor that person at that memorial, but I'm not going to be there. Wait, wait. You will.
One wag put it really well. He said the statistics on death are very impressive. One out of one dies. You're going to die.
I'm going to die. Our brain will go flat. Our breath will stop. Our heart will no longer beat. We'll wind up somehow in a tomb, in a grave, cremated or whatever. We're goners because we're linked to Adam. There's no hope beyond that unless of course, again, you read on.
Keep reading. So you see, just as death came into the world through a man. Now, here's the good news. Now the resurrection from the dead has begun through another man, not Adam. This other man is Jesus. Look at it. How do I know that?
My favorite line. Keep reading. Look at verse 22. Just as everyone dies because we all belong to Adam, everyone who belongs to Christ will be given new life.
So, think of it as a parenthesis. At birth, we pick up Adam's disease. Sin and with sin, death. Death haunts us all through our lives. Some die younger, some die middle aged, some die older, some die in tragic deaths, some live long lives and die of old age, we say. But death follows us. However, during this parenthesis, we have the marvelous opportunity to make a choice. Because you see, we belong to Christ, not by birth into this world, but by choice.
Crucial part of this message. Most have never heard this. Most believe there is no resurrection. It's the way they get around the fear of death. We just die and we're gone.
Oh, don't you believe it. That soul that is within you is eternal. We all have eternal life. We just don't all have the same destination where we will spend eternity.
It depends on the choice we make within the parenthesis. It's all about Christ. And what you do with Jesus. And when you believe in Jesus, he promises that you will have not only a new kind of life on earth, forgiveness, joy, relief, hope, assurance, the promise of life after death with him, but like my sister when she passed, absent from the body, at home with the Lord, healed, filled with hope, joyful, enjoying the presence of the Savior.
Why? Because in her life, she trusted in Christ. John Bunyan, who wrote the magnificent Pilgrim's Progress, put it so well when Christian, who has been walking through life with his pack on his back, which is a picture of sin connected to him, and he makes his way to the narrow gate and on up to the top of this precipice and he looks across it and he sees a cross and he sees an empty tomb and Bunyan writes, Thus far did I come, burdened with my sin, laden with my sin, nor could aught ease the grief that I was in till I came hither, must here be the beginning of my bliss, must hear the burden fall from off my back, must hear the strings that bounded to me crack, blessed cross, blessed sepulcher, blessed rather be the man put to shame for me, for you, for us. That's why there's hope. That's why death doesn't end anything. It transitions us from time to eternity. Talk about a promise of hope in Christ. That is our hope.
It makes no difference how you die. But when you do, if you have made that choice in life, you have hope now and it will become a reality then. Every week I spend some of my time reading messages from people who write me. Often those messages come through our Insight for Living ministry as people have read something I've written or heard something I've said and they just want to write me. Many of them say, I'm sure you'll never read this.
No, they'd be surprised. I read a lot of them. And not long ago I read this very moving letter, brief, touching. Dear Chuck, our 18-year-old son died by suicide last year on March 19. So the beginning of spring, March 20, has become a day of renewed hope. Don't miss that word.
She'll use it several times. A day of renewed hope. We have made it through the year.
I've learned when someone chooses suicide, they felt hopeless and helpless. In your blog, Insight for Today, which you titled Hope Revived, it reminded me that God is always near. He cares about me and my family and revives our hope again and again. Hope of seeing our son again. Hope for the family to heal. Your last words both comforted and broke my heart. You wrote, inevitably spring follows winter every year.
Yes, including this one. And she finishes her note with a simple thank you. I couldn't have written about hope if there were no resurrection. I would add my voice to the empty cries of those who grieve, having never trusted in the Savior, wondering where their loved one is gone.
That may be you. You may have lost a friend, family member, someone near and dear to you, just as I have recently. And without the hope in Christ, life is a bitter time of existence that finishes like a dead-end street. No.
We have a message that's greater than that. You can enter into it by trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ as your own Savior. Will you bow with me? Right where you are, just bow your head.
Close your eyes. Meet alone with your own soul. If there has never been a time in your life when you have made that choice to take the gift of eternal life that God offers his son, Jesus, this is the moment to take that gift. Receive him now, and you will know the joy of all your sins forgiven and the promise of an eternal home with him and with those around you today who love the Savior. Trust in him now.
Then connect with us that we might help you make that decision continue on through the rest of your life as you enter into a whole new world called the Christian way of life, which is not a hoax. It's a hope. Now stand with me as we end with a joyful declaration once again. We declare before the Lord our God, he is risen! He is risen! He is risen! He is risen! Christ the Lord is risen today, hallelujah!
Christ has broken every chain, hallelujah! He who gave for us his life, who for us endured the strife, is our past command today. We sing for joy. We sing for joy. We sing for joy. We sing for joy.
Oh God. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Sing for joy.
Who bore all pain and loss, comfortless upon the cross. He lives in glory now on earth, we sing for joy. We sing for joy. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Sing for joy. Take our sins and gild the way, hallelujah. That we all may sing for joy, hallelujah.
The angels sing for joy. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Sing for joy.
Hallelujah. Hallelujah, hallelujah, sing for joy. Sing hallelujah, hallelujah, sing for joy. Sing hallelujah, hallelujah, sing for joy. Because of the resurrection, we can sing for joy.
You're listening to a very special edition of Insight for Living. And to learn more about Chuck and this ministry, visit us online at insightworld.org. Well, Chuck has prepared us for Easter as Christians around the world celebrate our risen Lord.
And I'm especially mindful of the countless Christians in and from Ukraine who are spending Easter with unwanted circumstances. And so let me remind you that for many years, Insight for Living has been speaking into this part of the world. We've done so through Chuck's Bible teaching, translated into languages such as Polish and Romanian. These ministries are part of our long range strategic plan to make disciples for Jesus Christ in all 195 countries of the world.
We call it Vision 195. We just never know how God might use these daily programs to touch lives. And I'd like to encourage you with a recent note that read, Pastor Chuck, you were my husband's most favorite Bible teacher back in the 80s. He loved your Bible studies on the radio. He passed away in 1994 and he's with the Lord today. I am 84 years old and I'm secure in the knowledge that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. I thank God for the many, many people whom you have blessed over the years with His word.
Moments like these are made possible because loyal friends like you support Insight for Living. If God is nudging you to make a contribution, give us a call. If you're listening in the United States, call 800-772-8888.
And then one more thing. Remember, you're invited to join us online for Sunday service at Stonebriar Community Church. In addition to hearing Chuck's sermon, you'll get to hear the majestic performance by the choir and orchestra, presenting your favorite musical selections. You'll find all the instructions for listening online at Insight.org slash Sundays. I'm Bill Meyer. Join us when Chuck Swindoll launches our next series. We'll be talking about The Church Awakening, Monday on Insight for Living. The preceding message, Resurrection, Hoax or Hope, was copyrighted in 2021 and 2022 and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2022 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.
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