Do I Cling To What's Most Important?

A Sermon By Jim Hammond from 1 Corinthians 15

I watched a moving video this last week that really made me think about what is really important in life. The opening scene gripped me and the rest of the movie was even better. The opening scene begins with ambulance lights and sirens. Immediately you are hearing the groans of a boy on a gurney moaning in pain. The emergency medical people are rushing about pushing the gurney and the I.V. stand. The father and mother looked panicked as they are following. The nurse stops them as they almost follow into the surgery room. She says they can’t go into the surgery room, but someone will report to them how it is going as soon as they can.

In the next scene you are seeing the father’s back as he bows down to his knees in the hospital chapel. There is a bible and stained glass on the other side of him as he gets to his knees.

Then another older kind looking gentleman comes into the chapel. He says, “It is good to be able to come in here and kneel alone. But sometimes you need somebody to kneel beside you. May I?”

“Please.”

“I’m Alexander.”

“John Brighten,” replies the father. “It’s my son Kyle. His appendix burst and I’m afraid of losing him.”

“Sometimes our burdens are so heavy that we can’t find the words to express what’s in our hearts. Do you mind if I say a prayer for your son?”

“Please.”

“You told us, Lord, that if there was anything we wanted to come to you. Well, we come to you now. This is John, Lord, whose heart is burdened and heavy laden. . .”

The camera shows John’s face as the man continues to pray. You can see that the father is visibly moved. A tear is running down his cheek.

The man continues his prayer, “He has a son, Kyle, whom he loves very much. And Kyle is sick. Kyle is deathly sick, so we’re asking you, Lord, to save Kyle. And we know you can do it through the blood that you shed for us. Heal him, Lord, and heal him now. This we ask in the Name of thy son Jesus, Amen.”

Then the older man says to the father with kindness. “Well, we’ve laid it out before him like he told us. The rest is up to him.”

“Thank you. Thank you so much, Alexander. Are you the chaplain here?

“No. No. But I’ve come here many times. Many times, but I uh, won’t be coming, uh, any more, not now, not now.”

John looks at him and asks, “What were you here praying about?”

“My wife, Margery. She had cancer and she passed away this morning.”

“I’m Sorry.”

“John, you are a lucky man. Margery and I wanted to have kids but we never did. You have a family. Love your family, John. Love ’em with everything you’ve got. And about Kyle. Trust God, John. Kyle will be alright.

The next scene you see is a high school graduation. You see the father and mother, John and his wife in the audience with a daughter. Then the name Kyle Brighten is announced and they cheer.

But that’s just the beginning of the video. The rest of the story is the real story. You see, John’s wife discovers she has Alzheimer’s disease.

I liked the video very much because it painted our world with strokes that are real. It painted it that way from the start. Alexander prayed for his wife, but had to say good bye. Alexander prayed for Kyle and Kyle was healed. You will have to watch the rest of the video A Vow To Cherish to see the rest of the story. I will let you in on this much. You might want some Kleenexes handy as you watch the movie. I will tell you something else; the sadness is made bearable because of the kind of hope you and I believe in. It is this hope we will be thinking about this morning. The hope we all need comes from the foundation of our faith, that which is most important to our faith.

In the study from the Bible today, we will be studying how Paul spelled out for us what is most important. In fact he used these words to describe it, “For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance” (1 Corinthians 15:3).

What is of first importance? What’s the most important fact of all history? Is there anything solid upon which we can place our hopes?

The hymn writer says there is:

My hope is built on nothing less

Than Jesus' blood and righteousness.

I dare not trust the sweetest frame,

But wholly trust in Jesus' name.

On Christ the solid rock I stand,

All other ground is sinking sand;

All other ground is sinking sand.

When darkness seems to hide His face,

I rest on His unchanging grace.

In every high and stormy gale,

My anchor holds within the veil.

Refrain

His oath, His covenant, His blood,

Support me in the whelming flood.

When all around my soul gives way,

He then is all my hope and stay.

Refrain

When He shall come with trumpet sound,

Oh may I then in Him be found.

Dressed in His righteousness alone,

Faultless to stand before the throne.

Refrain

I. We Have A Solid Peg On Which To Hang Our Hope

Ravi Zacharias calls this most important fact upon which all hope rests, “The Peg On Which The Coat Of Christianity Hangs” and I agree with him. In a short radio message with the title, “The Peg On Which The Coat Of Christianity Hangs” Ravi Zacharias tells us the following:

Some years ago I, along with other evangelists, was at a lunch hosted by Billy Graham. He was narrating some of his most memorable experiences. He told a fascinating story of the time he was with the German chancellor, Konrad Adeneur. In the middle of their conversation, Adenaeur paused and asked Billy Graham this question: “Mr.Graham, do you really believe that Jesus Christ rose from the dead?” Billy Graham somewhat taken aback by the question said, “Sir, if I did not believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, I would have no gospel left to preach.” And he said Conrad Adeneur paused, walked over to the end of the room, looked out of the window, at the post-war ruins and said, “Mr. Graham, outside of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, I know of no other hope for mankind.”

An incredible statement from a world leader. “Outside of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, I know of no other hope for mankind.” He had seen what destructive capacity we have as human beings. Unless there was a God to rebuild us from our destruction and death, there was no hope.

I believe Adeneur was right.

On another occasion, in a different setting, Broadcaster Larry King was asked: “If you had one person to interview across time, who would it be?” Larry King said he would like to interview Jesus Christ. “What would you ask him?” said the interviewer. “I would ask Him if He indeed was virgin born. The answer to that question would interpret all of history,” said King.

He too was right. You see, both individual life and history must have a transcendent perspective if they are to be rightly interpreted. The birth and the resurrection of Jesus Christ give us just that.

Think of the contrasting views we live with. The existentialist lives for the moment, the traditionalist for the past, the utopianist for the future. Jesus fused every moment of history with meaning—past, present, and future. That means your life and my life, and every generation has purpose and meaning no matter how vast history's reach might be. We do not get lost in the drift of history, nor do we live just for the moment. God reminds us in the birth of Jesus that He is sovereign over life. He reminds us in the resurrection that He is sovereign over death.

Adeneuer and Larry king pointed to the logical connection between the Christian faith and knowing what life is about. The Bible states clearly and history substantiates that claim: We cannot understand how to live unless we know what happens after we die. We cannot understand the progress of history until we know that history is ultimately His story.[i]

Focus: There is one most important fact, without which we are without hope, the Resurrection of Christ. We cannot understand how to live unless we know what happens after we die.

Our Hope is based on a Historical Event.

1 Corinthians 15:1-2 (NIV) ¹Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. ²By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.

Notice a couple of things here. We are saved when we receive the gospel, and take our stand with Christ. However notice also Paul’s qualifier, “if you hold firmly” to the gospel, “otherwise you have believed in vain.” Paul is about to teach the essentials of the faith. If you stop holding to any of these essentials your salvation is in jeopardy. If you have your belief system messed up by false teachers and never get your thinking straightened out again, you can mess yourself up for eternity. He is about to teach the things you cannot let go. He is about to teach the things you must cling to. He is about to teach what he calls the things of first importance and if you don’t cling to these things, if you don’t “hold firmly” to these things whatever else you might have believed is in vain. It will do you no good. So, you might believe in God. You might believe God created you. You might even be trying to serve him. But if you stumble in your beliefs about what Paul is about to make very clear, the central teaching of the message, what he calls the Gospel. Watch out, those other beliefs get you nowhere at all! Now before I read what Paul clarifies, here’s the question to keep in mind as we read them. “Do I Cling To What’s Important?”

The Things of First Importance are Absolute Essentials

Now let’s read what’s absolutely essential, the things of first importance:

1 Corinthians 15:3 (NIV) ³For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,

Let me clarify so we don’t just gloss this over. It is not enough to believe that Christ came. That he was God’s Son and that he was a great moral teacher you are trying to learn from and follow and obey. Those are good, but we must believe what is most essential to believe. We must believe that Christ died for a purpose. That purpose is stated here. Christ Died For Our Sins.

What does that mean. Well it would help to look of the scriptures that Paul is referring to when he says, Christ did for our sins, “according to the Scriptures.”

Isaiah 53:4-6 (NIV) ⁴Surely he took up our infirmities

and carried our sorrows,

yet we considered him stricken by God,

smitten by him, and afflicted.

⁵But he was pierced for our transgressions,

he was crushed for our iniquities;

the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,

and by his wounds we are healed.

⁶We all, like sheep, have gone astray,

each of us has turned to his own way;

and the LORD has laid on him

the iniquity of us all.

Do you cling to these Essential Beliefs?

Christ died for your sins. He was pierced for your transgressions. He was crushed for your sins. And that punishment he received instead of us brought us peace with God if we’d have it. His wounds bring us healing.

Let’s look at the absolute essential that makes the already mentioned essential viable. Without the essential he speaks of next, the rest of the gospel would be rendered meaningless, useless and in vain.

1 Corinthians 15:4-11 (NIV) ⁴that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, ⁵and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. ⁶After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. ⁷Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, ⁸and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.

⁹For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. ¹⁰But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. ¹¹Whether, then, it was I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed.

Belief in the literal death, and the literal resurrection is absolutely essential.

SEE WHAT HAPPENS

One lady wrote in to a question and answer forum. "Dear Sirs, Our preacher said on Easter, that Jesus just swooned on the cross and that the disciples nursed Him back to health. What do you think? Sincerely, Bewildered.
Dear Bewildered, Beat your preacher with a cat-of-nine-tails with 39 heavy strokes, nail him to a cross; hang him in the sun for 6 hours; run a spear thru his side...put him in an airless tomb for 36 hours and see what happens." Sincerely, Charles.

We laugh, and this is a funny response, but it doesn’t really use the best answers for the skeptics. We must remember that the Romans were experts at crucifixions. They invented it. They invented the means by which they could ensure death, and a slow torturous death at that. It surprised the Roman authorities when they were told Jesus was dead after just 6 hours. Being experts at crucifixions they knew how to make sure Jesus was dead. So they thrust a spear in his side. What puzzled them was why water and blood flowed out. They were also puzzled as to why Jesus died so quickly. It is modern medical doctors that shed some light. The water and blood flows out when there is a rupture of the heart. Here’s why. The physical suffering Jesus endured was not by itself what killed Jesus. It was the spiritual suffering that took place that was too much for Jesus earthly body to handle. When Jesus went to the cross, he was literally taking the sins of the world into himself. As a result he was receiving the punishment due to sin. He cried out , “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me.” The father had to distance himself from that sin. Jesus had never had this experience before. It was unique, the punishment for the world’s sin was coming to him. The “hell” he endured, the separation from his Father was too much for his earthly body to bear. He died.

Belief in the literal death, and resurrection of Christ is absolutely essential. If you don’t hold firmly to this, if you don’t take your stand here, then the bible says, everything else you believe, you believe in vain! But if you do believe these essentials, if you do hold firmly to them, cling to them for life, the Bible gives you an amazing confidence. It gives you amazing assurances.

Vain Belief is Belief without the resurrection:

· ²Otherwise, you have believed in vain.

· ¹⁴And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.

· ¹⁷And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.

· ¹⁹If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.

We don’t have a Vain Belief

⁵⁴ “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”

⁵⁵“Where, O death, is your victory?

Where, O death, is your sting?”

⁵⁶The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. ⁵⁷But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

⁵⁸Therefore, 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.

The Resurrection Assures the Believer of many things.

· God Can

· God Did

· God Will

God can bring life to the dead. God can wash us clean and make us whole. God can deliver this world from it’s spiraling destruction. He has a plan, and he can bring about redemption. He can save for himself a community for life eternal. He can rescue out of the darkness and the ashes of destruction. God did. God can raise people from the dead because he DID raise Christ from the dead, never to die again! God can break into history, the resurrection shows us He DID. God can bring meaning out of the moments of despair. The resurrection proves this is not the end. All is not lost no matter how tragic our circumstances. God DID, and God will. Christ’s resurrection makes us look forward to a bright future, not a dim one. No matter how dim things get now with suffering, and injustice, and problems, and struggles, God WILL bring us through if we but hold firmly to what we believe. God Can, God DID, and God WILL.

The resurrection demonstrated the Power of God. God was able to do what he said He would do. (15:3-4) Paul says it more than once, the events took place “according to the scriptures” (3, 4) as predicted and in full harmony with the revelation given earlier by God. The resurrection of Christ is the PROOF that God CAN save us (15:2, 14, 17); the FACT God DID save us, and the ASSURANCE God WILL Save us!

Christ’s resurrection affirms for us the truthfulness of his claims.

He IS who he said he was. At the funeral of a friend Jesus made an amazing claim.

John 11:25-26 (NIV) ²⁵Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; ²⁶and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

Jesus gave a glimpse of the truth of his claim shortly after he said it when he commanded that his deceased friend Lazarus come out of the tomb.

John 11:38-40 (NIV) ³⁸Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. ³⁹“Take away the stone,” he said.

“But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.”

⁴⁰Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?”

Like I heard one preacher put it, that was the day JESUS RAISED A BIG STINK. He said in a loud voice, “Lazarus, Come out!” and he did. All the rotting flesh with the smell of death suddenly was filled with the warmth of life. Jesus told the disciples to remove the grave clothes from the man that walked out of the tomb.

I have several questions I wish I could ask about that episode.

1. Was Lazarus bummed? He was going to have to suffer and die once more. Was he bummed that he came back to this earth?

2. Did the stench of death that had permeated the grave cloths still remain on them and fill the tomb even though Lazarus had been made resurrected?

3. Was Jesus careful to be specific when he said in a loud voice “Lazarus, come forth.”? The reason I ask this one is that one day he’s coming back and he is not going to be so specific. The scriptures tell us in 1 Thessalonians 4:16: For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.

As great as this miracle was, it was nothing as great as the resurrection of Christ himself. Lazarus was not the first fruits of all who were raised. Jesus was. Lazarus would die again. Jesus would not. Lazarus was raised back into his regular earthly body. Jesus was raised in an imperishable body. It was similar, yet different!

C. Because the Believer’s Resurrection is sure:

1. No Suffering is without Hope (15:19)

1 Corinthians 15:19 (NIV) ¹⁹If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.

Christianity works! It really is powerful how it works for this life. God’s power enters in and puts order back into messed up lives. Self control is restored to the addicted. Peace comes to those who are anxious. Love fills the heart, enough love to forgive the offender, or the unlovely. Christianity really does work NOW. But Paul is saying something profound here. If it works only for this life, so what?! We of all people ought to be pitied. Why did he say that? Listen. In Paul’s day, and to a lesser degree, to us in our day and culture, Christianity comes with its own pressures. In Paul’s day, if you declared yourself a Christian you could lose your job, your friends, your family, and even your life. Paul understood what it meant to follow Christ. Yes it was personally fulfilling but it comes with a tremendous temporary price tag. It comes with suffering. Don’t you mistake it. Christ knew that true followers will pay a price to follow Christ. The price for following Christ is the price of sharing in Christ’s suffering for the cause of Christ. Paul understood this very well. There is a calling upon our lives. We don’t merely accept Christ for what he does for us. We enter into the whole deal. Our lives are then offered to Christ for his cause. We begin to carry other people’s burdens. That price is tremendous. It isn’t easy to hurt when someone else is hurting. It isn’t easy to stand up for what is right. It isn’t easy to be labeled by others who misunderstand Christianity with “Oh, you are one of those.” In Paul’s day, and in some places today to identify with Christ and Christians means real suffering. Now if there is no eternal payoff then from Paul’s perspective we are of all people to be pitied. If there is not resurrection, all that suffering is for nothing! But Paul didn’t believe this for a second. There is a glory that outweighs the worst of the suffering this world dishes out. Resurrection is real, we can look forward to it. We can look forward to the joy set before us as Christ did even while we suffer. That’s the solid peg on which to hang our hope.

2. No Sacrifice is Wasted (15:30-32)

1 Corinthians 15:30-32 (NIV) And as for us, why do we endanger ourselves every hour? ³¹I die every day—I mean that, brothers—just as surely as I glory over you in Christ Jesus our Lord. ³²If I fought wild beasts in Ephesus for merely human reasons, what have I gained? If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”

Why do we live out the sacrifice required to follow Christ? Why do we pick up our cross daily? Why do we deny ourselves? From Paul’s perspective, none of it would be worth it, if there wasn’t a sure hope. Paul gladly sacrifices because he is fully convinced that the pay off later is worth it. Because of the solid hope we have, self-sacrifice is never entirely unselfish, for the giver never fails to receive. Because of the resurrections, whatever we sacrifice, even if it is our life, is never entirely lost.

You must be convinced of this to live the way Christ lived, or Paul lived. Paul didn’t live out the Christian life because of the pay off now. Paul is quite frank. There isn’t enough pay off now, to justify what he was going through if this life was all there is. Face it. This isn’t heaven. In fact, for many who are trying to follow Christ in this world, they get exactly what Jesus promised they would get in this world—persecution and suffering.

Paul is also clear here. If this life is all we are living for, then he wouldn’t make the sacrifices he was making. He would take it easy. He’d eat. He’d drink. He’d live for present pleasure, for the pay off now. But he didn’t because he was fully convinced this life is but a vapor. There was a cause greater than himself. There is a reality beyond the grave. There is a pay off waiting that is so grand, he says, the glory then, won’t even be worth comparing to the suffering here (see Romans 8:17-18).

3. No Labor for the Lord is in Vain (15:54)

1 Corinthians 15:58 (NIV) 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.

We are the current generation of a long line of broken bodies and shed blood offered because our hope has been made sure by the sacrifice we received. We don’t give up even when there is no fruit now, because the resurrection assures us that it is not in vain. The main point of this chapter is this. Even when there is no pay off now, don’t give up, the resurrection assures us that the pay off is worth it.

Maybe you have not realized till now that these were the absolute essentials of the faith that you must cling to. Maybe you have been skirting the edges of faith, but you have never declared your allegiance to the truth of who Jesus is, and what he has done. If this is you, I urge you to pray this morning and declare your allegiance to Christ. I urge you to cling to what is most important. In order to help you do this, I will pray a prayer. If you would like to pray a prayer declaring your allegiance this morning then repeat this prayer after me as I pray it.

Dear Lord,
Thank you for making clear which things are of first importance.
I want to cling to what is most important.
I know now that if I don’t cling to these I will believe in vain.
I believe Jesus came to die on purpose for my sin, in order to take them away.
I receive what Jesus Christ did for me on purpose.
I believe that Jesus paid the penalty for my sins when he died on the cross.
I believe Jesus truly was the Son of God, and that He died and was buried.
I believe the offer he made me.
I believe that entering into the waters of baptism identifies me with His death and burial.
I believe that my sins were buried with him and taken away.
I believe that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead and is alive forevermore.
I believe that coming out of the waters of baptism identifies me with his resurrection.
I thank you for my resurrection to a new life forevermore.
I receive what has been passed on to me.
It is here that I take my stand.
I stand on the truth of this Gospel, that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
He was crucified,
He was buried,
and He DID raise from the dead
I believe the resurrection of Jesus is the PROOF that God CAN save us.
I Believe the resurrection is the FACT God DID save us,
and I believe the resurrection of Jesus is the ASSURANCE that God WILL Save us!
I look forward to living forever with you in glory.
Thank you in Jesus Name, Amen!

[i] A Slice of Infinity, http://www.gospelcom.net/slice/transcriptdetail.php Copyright (p)(c) 2000 Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM). Reprinted with permission. "A Slice of Infinity" is a radio ministry of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries http://www.sliceofinfinity.org