John Shelby Spong, retired Bishop of Newark New Jersey wrote in, A Call For A New Reformation:

1. The miracle stories of the New Testament can no longer be interpreted in a post-Newtonian world as supernatural events performed by an incarnate deity.
2. The view of the cross as the sacrifice for the sins of the world is a barbarian idea based on primitive concepts of God and must be dismissed.
3. Resurrection is an action of God. Jesus was raised into the meaning of God. It therefore cannot be a physical resuscitation occurring inside human history.

Transition: Not to be outdone by the good bishop from New Jersey, Robert W. Funk, founder of the Jesus Seminar, in a Keynote Address to the Jesus Seminar Fellows in the spring of 1994 writes:

• "Jesus did not ask us to believe that his death was a blood sacrifice, that he was going to die for our sins."
• "Jesus did not ask us to believe that he was the messiah. He certainly never suggested that he was the second person of the trinity. In fact, he rarely referred to himself at all."
• "Jesus did not call upon people to repent, or fast, or observe the sabbath. He did not threaten with hell or promise heaven."
• "Jesus did not ask us to believe that he would be raised from the dead."
• "Jesus did not ask us to believe that he was born of a virgin."
• "Jesus did not regard scripture as infallible or even inspired."

The Jesus Seminar has been receiving extensive coverage lately in such periodicals as Time, Newsweek, U.S. News & World Report, as well as on network television.

Transition: This is what some people are saying about our Lord. However, I would submit that our primary concern is not what post-modernist are teaching. Our primary concern this morning is what the Bible teaches and what the Church has always taught regarding our Lord and His resurrection.

For the first Christians, the resurrection of Christ was an indispensable fact. It wasn’t an embarrassing myth to be explained away. St. Luke records for us the history of the first century Church. In the book of Acts he writes, "He [Jesus] presented Himself alive after his suffering by many infallible proofs." (1:3)

In the same chapter the He tells us that Matthias, the Apostle who replaced Judas was to be appointed as a witness to testify of Jesus’ resurrection.

For the Apostles, the resurrection of Christ was the centerpiece of their message. On the Day of Pentecost it was the theme of Peter’s magisterial message when 3,000 people were converted. Later in chapter three, while preaching at the temple, he again takes up the same subject to prove that Christ is indeed the Son of God.

And when Luke summarizes the ministry of the Apostles he writes, "And with great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus." (4:33)

Now I’m a bottom line kind of guy. I want to know why. Why was this an issue with these early Christians? Why were these people compelled to make this a point of contention with their culture? Sometimes they were blunt, even rude. Why were they willing to suffer torture and even die for this doctrine? Their thinking is simple.

1. Jesus claimed to be God’s Son. He argued that God was His Father (Jn. 5:18). He said He came from the father and would return to Him when He left the world. (16:28) He claimed that whoever had seen Him had seen the Father. (Jn. 14:9) These were all claims to deity and the Jewish religious leaders hated Him for His bold proclamations.
2. These claims to deity are either true or false. Jesus can’t be part God and partly not God. Either He is who he said He is or He’s a liar.
3. If Jesus’ claims are false, He was both deceitful and blasphemous, a crazed idiot in desperate need of a frontal lobotomy, or perhaps even both.
4. If He was a blasphemer, God would be unjust to honor Him by raising Him from the dead.
5. But God did honor Him by raising Him from the grave. God vindicated His claims. By raising Christ from the dead, God proved to the world that His Son was Who He said He was.
6. Hence, Jesus is Who He said He was - the Son of God Who died for the sins of the world.

Transition: But again, I ask, "So what? When it’s all said and done why is this important?"

St. Paul put it this way, in I Corinthians 15:14ff, "If Christ has not been raised...then your faith is in vain. If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins."

St. Paul is saying what the early Christians said and believed. It’s what the Church has always, everywhere at all times has believed. If there was no resurrection, life is meaningless, for we have no hope. Our faith is empty, futile, vain, and raw hedonism is the only reason for living.

If we reverse his logic, St. Paul is saying the resurrection gives us hope that life is worth living, that there is a future, and this life is a brief preparation for life eternal.

Do you remember the film, City Slikers? Billy Crystal plays the part of a bored baby boomer. One day, he visits the school where his son attends. It’s "parent occupation day" and Crystal shares with the kids what he does for a living.

"Value this time in your life, kids, because this is the time in your life when you still have your choices. I goes by fast. When you're a teenager, you think you can do anything and you do. Your twenties are a blur.

Thirties you raise your family, you make a little money, and you think to yourself, "What happened to my twenties?"

Forties, you grow a little pot belly, you grow another chin. The music starts to get too loud, one of your old girlfriends from high school becomes a grandmother.

Fifties, you have a minor surgery -- you'll call it a procedure, but it's a surgery. Sixties, you'll have a major surgery, the music is still loud, but it doesn't matter because you can't hear it anyway.

Seventies, you and the wife retire to Fort Lauderdale. You start eating dinner at 2:00 in the afternoon, you have lunch around 10:00, breakfast the night before, spend most of your time wandering around malls looking for the ultimate soft yogurt and muttering, "How come the kids don't call? How come the kids don't call?" Any questions?

Fortunately, life isn’t that meaningless. The Lord’s triumphant over sin and death gives us hope that life is worth living. We can go on because He lives. We can face tomorrow because we know we’ll live with Him if we believe and live as though He died and rose again on the third day. Amen.