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Pastor Timothy Patoka 2 Sunday Of Easter – April 8, 2018 The Least Of All To Be Pitied 1 Corinthians 15:12-22 nd

1) Christ’s resurrection assures our present forgiveness 2) Christ’s resurrection assures our future resurrection Last week was a big day for us here at Grace Lutheran. Not just for us, but for Christian churches throughout the entire world because Easter is one of the biggest days of the Christian calendar. If you were able to celebrate with us here at Grace-Tucson, you saw that firsthand. We had a sunrise service in our courtyard as we considered the empty tomb with the bewildered women. We had one of the biggest breakfasts in recent history. We heard homegrown talent showing their Easter joy in song and music. And it was all topped off with our festival worship where we learned what a privilege it is to call Jesus our eternal high priest who has risen from the dead. It would be safe to say that Easter morning is the most festive Sunday morning we have here at Grace-Tucson. But what makes Easter so important within the Christian calendar is not solely because of that one morning’s celebrations. It is because of its lasting significance it has for Christians today and forever. Nowhere is this better laid out than in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, the great resurrection chapter of the Bible, where the Apostle Paul lays out point-by-point why we continue to celebrate Easter today. This morning we’re just looking at a handful of these verses from this great chapter. And it is in these verses we see that out of all the people in the world, those who call themselves Christians, who believe that Christ indeed rose from the dead, are the least of all to be pitied. For Christ’s resurrection assures us of 2 things – that we have forgiveness today and we will too will rise from the dead.

1) Christ’s resurrection assures us of our present forgiveness.

One of the things I’ve come to appreciate from the Apostle Paul is how he communicates eternal truths in an organized manner. And we see that before us in our verses for this morning. Apparently there were some Christians in the city of Corinth who were saying that Christ had not risen from the dead. The Apostle Paul takes this opportunity to lay out the full implications of what that would mean for the Christian faith. If Christ had not been raised from the dead, then no one would be raised from the dead (1 Corinthians 15:13, 16). Those who say that Easter is when God raised Jesus from the dead are false witnesses about God (1 Corinthians 15:15). For they are claiming that God did something which he didn’t do. If Easter were not true, then the Christian faith would be a sham – it would have nothing to 1

Pastor Timothy Patoka 2 Sunday Of Easter – April 8, 2018 offer – because it would be founded on nothing but empty promises and pipe dreams (1 Corinthians 15:14). And what could a believer expect from God? Nothing! For God can’t keep his word about bringing a person back to life, how anyone trust him to forgive sins? We would still be in our sins and, as a result, have nothing to look forward to in death (1 Corinthians 15:17-18). To put it simply as the Apostle Paul does, “If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied” (1 Corinthians 15:19). Everything a Christian hopes and believes in is tied to Easter’s empty tomb. If Jesus did not rise from the dead, then we have nothing to hope for in this life or the one to come. If Easter were not true, we would be the most of all to be pitied for our faith would be nothing more than a house of cards waiting to fall down. nd

Sinful forces try to tear the Christian faith apart by going after Easter’s truths for that reason. Science and logic do not allow Christ’s resurrection to happen.

What happens when a person breathes their last breath? That’s it. They’ve passed away. Now there are certainly times when a person is pronounced clinically dead only to come back around. But by the time you get to 3 days in a grave, no one expects a person to come back to life. Tales of the walking dead are just that – tales, works of fiction. When people, bound by the rules of science and logic, look on those who say that Jesus has truly risen from the dead, they often pity us for our simplistic minds. We see Jesus’ resurrection come under attack from the people around us. We live in an increasingly post-Christian world where people are tolerant of everything except the Christian faith. What flak would you get from classmates or role models if they found out what you believe to be true? How would your boss react if you witnessed at work? Pity and perhaps separation.

Maybe Christ’s resurrection is under attack within your own heart. Hebrews chapter 11 defines faith as the “confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1). Where does your confidence and assurance in Christ’s resurrection stand? To believe in Christ’s improbable resurrection certainly requires faith. A faith that perhaps brings you to self-pity at times.

Yet Christ’s resurrection is not the cause for pity. It is the assurance that, of all people, we are the least to be pitied for we have the assurance of forgiveness today. Because Christ has risen, we can take all those organized points that the Apostle Paul earlier laid out and flip them around. There will be a resurrection of the dead. Those who say that God raised Jesus to life are faithful witnesses of real events. The Christian faith doesn’t offer pipe dreams. It offers real promises that all 2

Pastor Timothy Patoka 2 Sunday Of Easter – April 8, 2018 our sins are forgiven. Each and every one has been washed off our tainted records.

And because of that forgiveness death is not the end. It is a sleep from which we will wake up one day to eternal life. This is what Thomas and the other disciples learned in the locked room when they saw the risen Lord. This is what gave Paul the strength to say such strong words to King Agrippa and Festus. Like them, we too can be assured that Christ’s resurrection assures us of our present forgiveness. nd

2) Christ’s resurrection assures us of our future resurrection.

Christ’s resurrection also assures us of our future resurrection because his was the firstfruits. The Apostle Paul tells us this when he writes, “But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:20-22). When I think of that term, firstfruits, I think of the first part of a farmer’s harvest. But the firstfruits are a bigger deal than that. In Old Testament society where freezers and packaged foods did not exist, the firstfruits were a sign that the rest of the harvest was coming in short order and food would be in great supply. And in Exodus chapter 23, there are guidelines listed for the Festival of the Harvest where believers would offer their firstfruits to the Lord. But what was the deeper meaning of what the believers did in the Festival of the Harvest? They were showing their confidence in the Lord that he would provide for their needs with the soon-coming harvest. They could give up the firstfruits and still be sure that their needs would be covered.

I was trying to think of a comparison for today. And I thought of the monsoon rains since we have freezers and packaged foods that do not rot for months or years. In the weeks leading up the first monsoon rains, triple digits are the norm whenever the sun is out. But when that first rain comes? There is great rejoicing. We don’t worry if more rain is coming or not. We know it will! For that first rain is the promise of more rains to shortly come. As we get assured with the first rains of the monsoon season, so the farmers of old were assured when they saw the firstfruits of the harvest. They knew the rest was soon coming.

It is with this understanding that we know Christ’s resurrection is the firstfruits, the assured promise, of our future resurrection. Again the emphasis goes on Christ because, as Paul told us earlier, death is what we would expect otherwise.

Just as Adam willfully sinned in the Garden of Eden and died for it, so you and I willfully sin against God. But death will not be the end for us because of what 3

Pastor Timothy Patoka 2 Sunday Of Easter – April 8, 2018 Christ did before and on Easter. He willingly kept all of God’s laws without exception. He endured our punishment on the cross and died because of it. And he rose from the dead to show that he has the power to save all those who believe in him. And what does God promise those who believe in Christ? As the Apostle Paul tells us, “For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:21-22). Those who call Christ their Savior and believe that he rose from the dead, just as he said on Easter Sunday will be made alive again. nd

And that is a great promise to have in a world where death is present. I often hear that people don’t like to go to cemeteries or hospitals because of their association with death. I can understand where they are coming from. No one likes to be reminded that we are mortal. It’s because of this that people do all sorts of things to postpone the day of their death because ultimately they fear death. Yet death is not to be feared. Death is not the end. And once we take that to heart that Christ’s resurrection is the promise of our resurrection, we see again how we are the least of all to be pitied. Death is the gateway to heaven. Hospitals and cemeteries are not where people cease to exist. They are were people fall asleep with the promise that one day they will rise up to enjoy heaven’s joys with both body and soul together.

Because Easter is more than one big day of celebration. It is the lasting significance of Christ’s resurrection to prove that Christians are the least of all people to be pitied. Christ’s resurrection assures us of our present forgiveness. God raised Jesus from the dead just as he said. Therefore we can trust what our Lord tells us in his Word, specifically about the validity of our faith and the forgiveness that we receive through it. Our sins are taken away as surely as Christ left the tomb empty. Christ’s resurrection also assures us of our future resurrection. His rising from the dead is the firstfruits, the promise, of the bodily rising we too will have. It is because of this that our attitude towards death is no longer full of fear. For what follows death are the joys of heaven. This is the confidence that the disciples and Thomas learned in the locked room. This is the strength that led the Apostle Paul to say to King Agrippa and Festus that he wanted them to be just like him except for the prison chains. Because those who call Christ their Savior indeed are the least of all to be pitied. Amen.

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