The Difference Maker :: 1 Corinthians 15:20

By

But now Christ has been raised out of the dead (v.20).

1. Now we see what a difference a day makes! 

Yesterday, we were weeping. 

Today, we are rejoicing. 

Yesterday, we knew Christ was dead and buried. 

Today we know he is not dead; he is risen! 

Can you imagine a world or our church without this good news? 

Yesterday we thought death was the end of it all. 

Today we know it is just the beginning.


Yesterday, the world witnessed the arrest, mockings, beatings, torture of Jesus. It witnessed God bleeding and dying on the cross. It witnessed a centurion thrusting his spear into the heart of God, and water mixed with blood flowing from his side. It witnessed burial in a new tomb and the setting of the stone. It witnessed the Roman centurions taking their stand. God was dead and buried! 

I wonder how horrified and ashamed I really would have been to witness and hear our Lord dying like this, to realize why he died like this. Jesus was innocent, unlike you and me. We could find no fault in him (Lk 23:4). He truly was the son of God (Mt 27:54). He deserved life but was given death at the hands of sinful men. 

Think how traumatic witnessing all of this must have been for the disciples who did see it. Think of your own sins, your own fears, your own griefs, your own shame, your own death ... think of what all that would mean without Easter.

What a difference a day makes!  


This is what Paul was thinking of when he wrote chapter 15 of his first epistle to the Corinthian church. In our reading, Paul underscores an answer to a question we all should ask ourselves ... just like the angel did to Mary at the tomb ... why are you weeping? 

2. Brothers and sisters in Christ, do you recognize the difference a day makes? 

Without the resurrection, God’s promises are all null and void. Without the promise, we wouldn’t have faith in Christ. Without faith in Christ ... we would be dead and buried. 

But he is not dead. He is risen! 

What a difference a day makes.

Without the resurrection of Jesus, all the great texts of Scripture would be meaningless. The first promise in Eden would be meaningless. The promise to Noah, meaningless. The promise to Abraham and Sarah, meaningless. The promise to David, meaningless. The promise to the remnant of the exile, meaningless. Christmas would be meaningless. All of scripture would be meaningless. Our very life would be meaningless. 

But now, because he is risen, it is all meaningful. 

3. What a difference a day makes! 

Through the resurrection we now see we are not destined to die, we are destined to live forever with Christ. 

The Christian faith is fixed to a living Christ. The resurrection asserts that our living faith is not misplaced when it is placed in this living truth. Because of the resurrection, we understand why Christ came from heaven to earth to begin with. We understand why he had to die. We understand why only he could fulfill the scriptures. We understand ourselves. 

As the apostles all proclaimed, the saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners (1 Tm 1:15). 

And this is how he saves us. Behold, he is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (Jn 1:29). Only a perfect lamb could take away the sin of the world. ... So for our sake, (God) made him to be sin who had no sin (2 Cor. 5:2l). (Christ) then borne our griefs and carried our sorrows ... He was pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities ... He was oppressed and afflicted ... he poured out his soul to death (Is 53:4-12), even death on a cross (Phil 2:8).

But our lives don’t end there. 

4. What a difference a day makes!

Death could not hold the author of life (Acts 2:24) because he is the way, the truth, and the life. He is the resurrection and the life. In him is life. And all who believe in him will not perish but will have eternal life. He came so that you may have life and have it abundantly. 

Hallelujah! Thank God He is risen!

A church without Easter is a church that is trapped in its own rites and ceremonies, a church demanding that you work out your own salvation. A church without Easter is a church that is dying. A church without Easter is a church that preaches vanity. As Paul writes in our epistle, If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We (would be) even found to be misrepresenting God because we testified about God that he raised Christ (vv.14-15). 

But it is not in vain, because he is risen! 

There are an awful lot of people today who don’t believe in the resurrection of Christ. They scoff at us and mock us for believing Christ rose from the dead. That is a terrible shame. Maybe someday they will see the difference a day makes.

The resurrection gives us living hope, as Peter confesses: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled and unending, kept in heaven for you (1 Pt 1:3-4).

5. This is difference a day makes!

Now we know death is not the end. Not only that we are in fact already alive in Christ. Just as He was raised up from the dead, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 

See, Christ was not raised like Jairus’ daughter, the widow’s son at Nain, or like Lazarus at Bethany ... all to walk again in this life and to pass through death a second time, but he was raised by the glory of God, lifted up into the glory, which he had at the beginning with the Father (Jn 17:5), with a name that is above every name (Phil 2:9)

Now, like Mary Magdalene and all the other women who came to the tomb, we know that we too will see our risen Lord in the flesh and that all these things are true (Jn 20:18). Let us therefore celebrate (this) festival, not with old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth (2 Cor 5:8). 

Our love for God should now be especially concerned with heralding this resurrection Gospel! We want you through the Spirit in this Gospel to possess the faith of the living Lord, the hope of the resurrection, the peace of forgiveness, and love for the lost. We want all the world to possess it.  

So come, see the place where they laid Him. 

SEE THE DIFFERENCE A DAY MAKES. 

He is not here! He is risen! Hallelujah! In Jesus' name.

Popular posts from this blog

The Good Shepherd Comes to Rescue and Restore - Ezekiel 34:11-16

By
  For thus says the Lord Yahweh, “Behold, I myself will search diligently for my sheep and I will seek them. As a shepherd seeks out to care for His flock in the day he is among His scattered sheep, so I will seek out to care for my sheep, and I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on the day of cloud and thick darkness. 500 years ago today, Martin Luther answered the Roman Catholic Church and the Roman Emperor who questioned his teachings. If he were to recant and take it all back, the Diet of Worms would barely be a blip in history. If he did not recant, he would be putting his own life in absolute, mortal danger. Being held captive by the clear Word of God as found in Holy Scripture, Luther stood up before the authorities of the church and the of world and gave his famous “Here I Stand” confession. He rested his case on Jesus as his only Shepherd - not the leaders of the Church or the Government. He relied solely on the Good Shepherd who promised neve...
Read more

The Mind of Christ :: Philippians 2:5-11

By
The next day, the large crowd that had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming into Jerusalem, took the branches of palms and went out to meet him and began crying out: Hosanna! Blessed is the one coming in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel (Jn 12:12-13). No story has ever had a bigger buildup to a greater letdown than this one. The Jews were all of the same mind: They had been looking forward to this day for more than a millennia. And here he came! Jesus of Nazareth in Galilee (Mi 5:2)! The prophet like Moses (Dt 18:15)! The son of David (2 Sm 7:12)! Our Messiah (Is 61:1) ... Here he came, riding into Jerusalem on a donkey (Zec 9:9), fulfilling the scriptures. Zechariah, Micah, Isaiah, Deuteronomy, Samuel, the Psalms. This is the day the Lord has made! Let us rejoice and be glad in it (Ps 118:24). ... These things are written so that you will believe Jesus is the Christ, the son of the Living God and that by believing you will have life in his name (Jn 20:31...
Read more

The Eyes Have It :: Luke 10:23-24

By
What do you see? What do you hear? These are the questions of the day on this Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity. What do you see? And what do you hear?  Before we get ahead of ourselves by jumping to conclusions and declaring you can see and hear just fine ... you need to know ... not everybody sees what you see or hears what you hear. Every week your pastor gives three sermons: the one I write, the one I preach, and the one you hear. And each of you might be hearing a different sermon than the person next to you. More than that, some of you may be seeing one thing and others may be seeing something completely different. And some of us will just fall asleep not seeing or hearing anything at all.  As Jesus tells the disciples ... For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to witness what y’all see and they didn’t witness it, and to hear what y’all hear and they didn’t hear it (v. 23-24). That is to say they longed to see Jesus, living, dying, rising, ascending. They long...
Read more