“My Lord What a Mornin!”  Easter Sunrise 4-8-07  I Cor. 15:19-26  Sponsored by Lake Murray Presbyterian, Dr. Ben Sloan

                I have said several times that this lake is about the same circumference as the Sea of Galilee.  We are also about the same latitude- which means the temperatures are fairly similar- though they get a Mediterranean breeze- we get a Gulf Stream breeze.  In fact I checked the real surface temperature online at both the Sea of Galilee (Lake Kenneret) and Lake Murray- both were 18 degrees Celsius= 64 degrees Farenheit.  This means it was chilly that first Easter—but they weren’t having a blizzard like they are in Michigan today.

                Paul talks about our hope that we have because of the resurrection.  This life is important, but it is not our only hope as Christians.  The resurrection of Jesus is a sign that our hope is secure. 

Ironically, there are people who really do not want to have hope.  Maybe they have had their hopes squashed.  Maybe they have been let down by parents, friends, their jobs, and they’ve about given up. 

So they are skiddish of all kinds of hope.  Some go so far as to try to kill the hope others have. 

But I would choose hope over hopelessness any day.  I would choose trust over worry any day.

But I also want to say the resurrection of Christ is a basis for hope.  Paul says it is a deposit or a guarantee of our hope.  As you buy a car hoping you might pay it off a bit at a time—but eventually do so,  so the resurrection is a downpayment into our greater hope.  Christ is the firstfruits of many other fruit to come.  The first apple is a sign that the apple tree will bring life.  The resurrection is a sign that God will indeed raise us up.

                The resurrection is also a sign of who will win in the end.  It is not death or sin or evil that will win in the end- but God.  All authorities that rail against God will one day be destroyed.  Maybe you remember the communist party in the Soviet Union.  Kruschev banged his shoe on the podium at the U.N. and said, “We will bury you.”  But Kruschev’s own daughter became a believer in Christ, and some say Kruschev was forced to abdicate because of his own secret conversion.  All evil powers will one day come to an end.  God will destroy those who use power wrongly, or who rail against Him.  Bosses who abuse their position of power to manipulate employees need to beware.  If you are exploiting your authority then beware.  On the other hand, those who seek to bless others will be blessed

                People have always wanted to destroy the Christian hope.  It is almost like the more lies they make up the more likely people will start believing the lies.  Machiavelli spoke about using lies like this to try to manipulate the masses.  This is what happened with the crucifixion- a lot of people told a lot of lies, and the impression was that surely some of them must be true.

In the early days the rumor was that the disciples came and stole the body. 

Note this means that the Romans and the Pharisees and priests- both enemies of the early church, did not deny the tomb was empty.  No one denied that a Roman guard was outside the tomb and that the tomb was sealed. 

The image was that these disciples, out of desperation came and stole the body.  But the picture we see of the disciples in scripture is that they were huddled together in the upper room with the door locked scared to death that they would be caught and persecuted.  These disciples were to scared to steal the body from the Roman soldiers.  But what seals the deal on this objection to the resurrection is that all of the disciples died for their faith but John, and he faced exile for his faith in Christ.

                The next lie was that Jesus didn’t really die.  This was written about 130 years after Jesus died.  It would be like someone today going back to the Civil War period and saying that Abraham Lincoln wasn’t really dead.  I still hear that Elvis didn’t die or that John F. Kennedy didn’t die, but is in South America somewhere.  I do get a kick out of reading when standing in the boring supermarket lines.  Some people believed this out of a well-wishing for Jesus. They didn’t understand how God-in-the-flesh could be killed.  But they didn’t understand Jesus was fully human as well as fully God.  A theory that came up similar to this was that Jesus merely fainted and recovered.  The problem was that he was declared dead by a professional executor.  He had a spear pierce his side just to make sure—and water and blood (a sign of a broken heart) came out.  Besides that, he would have had to unwrap himself from the hundreds of pounds of wrapping and spices, jump over to the stone, and push the huge, sealed stone away!  If Jesus was sick, all this would have made him sicker. 

                Another lie is that Jesus was put in a different tomb.  That would be highly unusual.  If we bury a celebrity today, we know where that celebrity is buried.  Besides, the Romans identified the tomb, according to the earliest accounts, and if they could find another that would fit, they would.

                Then there is what happened this year on the Discovery Channel.  The “documentary” that came out March 4^th on the Discovery Channel (by James Cameron and Simcha Jacobovici) called itself “The Lost Tomb of Jesus.”  There is no disputing that what they found was a tomb with ten people in it and that the tomb dated back to the first century, and that one of the guys name was similar to the name “Jesus.”  But then there are problems.  Jesus was from Galilee, and it is doubtful that the family tomb would be in Jerusalem.  The Bible records Jesus being buried in a new tomb (not with his father, Joseph or any other relatives).  First the names found were common names.  As one archaeologist put it, “It would be like finding a grave today with the name “George” on it and then saying it was George Bush.  Some say the name of Jesus is spelled differently.  It also has the bones of a child the son of Jeshu.  Most thinking people would say, “Aha, the Bible doesn’t say Jesus had a son (and surely it would have mentioned it if he did), so this must be a different person.”  But skeptics who want to disbelieve the Bible would say, “This must mean Jesus had a son.”  There is no Biblical or even early extra-Biblical evidence of Jesus having any kind of children.  Isaiah prophesied, in fact about the messiah (the real Jesus) “who can speak of his descendants” (Isa. 53:8).  All of this is to say that people really do not want to believe. 

I think it is an evil thing to destroy other’s hope with lies. 

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

But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.  For since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a human being.  For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.  But in this order: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him.  Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom of God to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority, and power.  For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.