Without The Resurrection, There Is No Hope. Sermon by Carl Chin. July 5, 2025
Acts 2:22 to 24 (NLT)
“People of Israel, listen! God publicly endorsed Jesus the Nazarene by doing powerful miracles,
wonders, and signs through him, as you well know.
But God knew what would happen, and his prearranged plan was carried out when Jesus was betrayed.
With the help of lawless Gentiles, you nailed him toa cross and killed him.
But God released him from the horrors of death and raised him back to life,
for death could not keep him in its grip.
Someone known well by the public, who unexpectedly tragically dies young, generally gets a very public funeral service. Such a public service often gathers people the deceased knew and did not know. Tragedy has a way of gathering the masses.
At one such funeral service, a few beloved relatives spoke. The father said simply "I miss my son. It's not getting better. This sucks. Part of me wants to throw in the towel." A brother said "It is amazing I had such a brother, but, my brother was not a religious man, and for that reason he is not going to be with God. He is just going to be dead."
1 Corinthians 15:17-19
And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless and you are still guilty of your sins.
In that case, all who have died believing in Christ are lost!
And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world.
Paul is saying it does not matter how strong, brave or courageous you are in life. When you die without Christ, you are just dead.
We have hope. This life is not the end, but the beginning. Jesus Christ has conquered death if we have faith. He will conquer death and raise us to life. Because Jesus conquered death and raise us to life. Jesus conquered life to give us eternal life in paradise.
After Jesus' death, his friends were fearful. Jesus rose from the dead, which gave them courage.
All was lost before Jesus rose.
Peter reflected how Christ was raised to life. Peter saw that it was impossible to keep death's hold on Christ. He came to understand that Jesus' atoning death was essential for us. Without a resurrection we would only have a dead teacher.
What is the difference between Christianity and other religions? Jesus claimed to be God. He backed up His claims with power. He walked on water, raised the dead, and so much more. These signs and wonders were not in doubt even by those who put Him to death. No other religious leader has claimed this. Jesus is no longer in the grave. His tomb remains empty to this day. Jesus had and gave hope in eternity. Jesus did not come to bring more religious rules, but to give life more abundantly. Religious leaders can claim anything. Jesus backed up His claims.
Mad Mad Max movies were a series of post-apocalyptic and dystopian action films, from the late 70s, set in a setting of societal collapse due to war, critical resource shortages, and environmental collapse. These movies are dark, dreary, violent, and in a setting where goodness has no meaning. The movies showed depression, destruction, violence.
This is what life could be like, if we keep going in the direction we are going.
If we reject the Bible, God, what do we expect the outcome will be?
We have a hope. Christ came to bring hope, a new ending.
Death alone is a bad ending to a story. We have more. Christ died and rose again!
It is impossible to have a relationship with a dead man.
Christianity is not just a religion with rules. It is primarily about relationships.
Acts 4:33
The apostles testified powerfully to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and God’s great blessing was upon them all.
They continued to testify of God's grace.
Without a resurrection, evil would have won.
The story Lord of the Flies, shows what happens without influence of Christianity. What it would be like with no police, no courts, with horrible things happening.
Canada is a great and beautiful country. A wonderful place to come home to, when you travel away. We can be strong and mighty. Might is not what it is all about.
There was a battle going on between good and evil. Accusations, slander, inuendo, suspicion about Jesus. He was beaten, crowned with thorns, stripped of clothing, died a horrible death. But evil did not win. Jesus walked out of the tomb.
Acts 4:10
Let me clearly state to all of you and to all the people of Israel
that he was healed by the powerful name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene,
the man you crucified but whom God raised from the dead.
They had healed a man, and were questioned if what they had done was right. They healed, said Peter, because of Christ.
Are you a pessimist or an optimist? The church needs to be optimistic, always looking forward, never overwhelmed, a voice of hope. The church has no excuse to be pessimistic.
Outreach of the early Christian church was primarily based on the resurrection as a preclude to Christ's second coming. Jesus will come again!
Calvin Miller, who preached about Christ's second coming, stated only a living Jesus can be a coming Jesus.
The apostles experienced the reality if Jesus' death. They then experienced the reality of Jesus overcoming death.
Acts of the Apostles 1:11 NKJV
Men of Galilee,” they said, “why are you standing here staring into heaven?
Jesus has been taken from you into heaven,
but someday he will return from heaven in the same way you saw him go!”
The victory of the resurrection promise is the promise of future victory.
John 16:35
And Jesus said to them,
“I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger,
and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.
John 14:1-4
“Let not your heart be troubled;
you believe in God, believe also in Me.
In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you.
I go to prepare a place for you.
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself;
where I am, there you may be also.
And where I go you know, and the way you know.”
In the novel, "Jane Eyre, an Autobiography", Jane is an 8 year old orphan child, being raised by a cruel aunt. The aunt decides to send her to Lowood school under the care of the cruel, hypocritical master Mr. Brocklehurst. He instructs Jane and she responds.
“No sight so sad as that of a naughty child,” he began, “especially a naughty little girl.
Do you know where the wicked go after death?”
“They go to hell,” was my ready and orthodox answer.
“And what is hell? Can you tell me that?”
“A pit full of fire.”
“And should you like to fall into that pit, and to be burning there for ever?”
“No, sir.”
“What must you do to avoid it?”
I deliberated a moment; my answer, when it did come, was objectionable:
“I must keep in good health, and not die.”
Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre, an Autobiography
Jane had a response to Mr. Brocklehurst's attempt at Jane's obedience out of fear.
There is another alternative. Jesus gives us hope out of love, not fear. Jesus lives! It is hope in salvation. Hope of the coming of Jesus!
This hope should be our driving force as it was for the early church. He is coming again! This message is urgent. We need to understand it, and share it.
This past winter was a harsh winter. Spring showing through the snow lifted our spirits, gave us hope. It is impossible to stop spring. What seems dead comes back to life, without our help. Just as spring cannot be held back, death could not keep it's grip on Jesus.
1 Corinthians 15:51,52
Behold, I tell you a mystery:
We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed— in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.
For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
1 Thessalonians 4:16,17
For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout,
with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God.
And the dead in Christ will rise first.
Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.
And thus we shall always be with the Lord.
We who are still alive and remain will be with the Lord together.