The Fulcrum of Our Faith
1 Corinthians 15:14-20
The Resurrection of Jesus Christ is the fulcrum of our faith.
The definition of fulcrum (as we’re using it today): “A person or thing around which all vital activity revolves and upon which everything else depends.”
The vital, central, integral component of our faith is the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. THAT is why today is such a huge day! Everything revolves around Jesus Christ beating sin, and death, and the grave and being raised from the dead as the Pioneer of our salvation.
The historical Resurrection of Jesus is what sets Christianity apart from every other religion or belief system, or ideology, or philosophy, or anything else. We follow the God-man who was born supernaturally incarnate, and who died being sinless, after living a sinless life, and who was raised from the dead all on our behalf. So, without the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, the entire Christian faith totally collapses, and Jesus becomes just another charismatic leader and great teacher. But the truth of the Resurrection changes all that. The monumental difference between the Christian Faith and every other belief system is the historically documented and proven Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
Listen to the emphasis the Apostle Paul puts on the Resurrection.
1 Corinthians 15:14–15 (NLT)
14 And if Christ has not been raised (from the dead), then all our preaching is useless, and your faith is useless.
THAT is how central the Resurrection is to our faith. Jesus Christ didn’t do what he did in order to teach you a “nice way to live.” He did it to pay for your sin and to beat sin and death and the grave on your behalf. And then, as he fills your life, as he abides in you and you abide in him, then you are transformed. But forbid that we would say that Jesus came just for this life.
And Paul continues.
1 Corinthians 15:19 (NLT)
19 And (what’s more) if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world.
Isn’t that interesting? I am so glad there is nobody standing in front of a church saying Jesus died so you can have your best life now. Can you imagine somebody saying that? What about this? Jesus died so you could have a Cadillac. You just name it and claim it. You blab it at grab it! You just have enough faith; you can get anything you want, and that’s why Jesus died. You’ve got to be kidding me!!!!!! That’s all kindling for the fire. This life is a vapor!!! . . . if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world.
Without the Resurrection, our faith in Jesus Christ goes the way of a thousand other religious ideas that have all come and gone.
BUUUTTT . . .
1 Corinthians 15:20 (NLT)
20 But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. He is the first of a great harvest of all who have died.
Every single comparison falls to the historical proof that Jesus Christ has been raised from the dead!!!
If you want to compare religions, you’ve got to find someone else that came from Heaven to earth, incarnate man, lived a perfect life, died on the Cross for your sins, and then rose again from the dead – then we can start comparing. Otherwise, follow Christ.
And listen to me, in love. If you have not yet put your faith in Jesus Christ as your personal Savior . . .
The Bible says you are already DEAD
You are part of the walking DEAD
How can you say, Dave, I’m dead? Because God is outside of time. Eternity means “no time.” God is outside of time. And so, if you have not received Christ as your Savior, then you’re as good as dead. Death means being separated from God, who is life for eternity.
Here’s how Ephesians 2 puys it in verses 4 through the first part of verse 5.
Ephesians 2:4–5(a) (NLT)
4 But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much,
5 that even though we were dead because of our sins . . .
even though we were dead because of our sins
You see, the Bible says sin = death
And so, if you have not dealt with your sin, then the Bible says you are already dead. The Bible describes you as the walking dead. And that was every single one of us before we put our faith in Jesus Christ. And we remained dead until we received, appropriated, the grace of forgiveness of sin and the righteousness of God in Christ.
Let’s look at all of Ephesians 2, verses 4-6.
Ephesians 2:4–6 (NLT)
4 But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much,
5 that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life (as a gift. We couldn’t earn it, we couldn’t deserve it, he gave it to us as a gift) when he raised Christ from the dead. (that’s the moment that we were given life – when Jesus Christ beat death and the grave on our behalf) (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!)
It’s only by God’s grace that you have been saved. You can't earn this. You can’t clean yourself up. There’s not enough cleaner! Jesus Christ died for you when you were dead. And then he gave you new life in the Resurrection.
6 For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus.
Our genuine faith in Jesus Christ unites us to him. Because we have been united to him through our faith. Our faith in Jesus (Romans 6 explains) identifies us so closely with Jesus that what Jesus has done becomes what we have done. And the righteousness of God in Christ becomes ours. We are clothed in the righteousness of God as Jesus was clothed in our sin. (We dealt with that on Good Friday.) It’s a gift.
And BECAUSE we are united to Jesus by faith, God has raised us from the dead, and he has seated us with Jesus IN the heavenly realms.
And so, the Resurrection of Jesus Christ becomes the source of your resurrection life, and your resurrection life begins the moment you surrender your life to Jesus and put your faith in him as your Savior.
And this resurrection life that Jesus offers you today is for both this life and for eternity. I make fun of the people who make millions and millions of dollars, telling people that Jesus will make this life better. Listen, we live in a sin-cursed world. John 16, verse 33 says, “in this world, you will have Cadillac’s and BMW’s. In this world, everything will go right.” No – it doesn’t say that! John 16:33 (NKJV) says, . . . In this world you will have tribulation: but be of good cheer (Jesus says), I have overcome the world.” And so, we say, “We want to be identified with you, Jesus, because this world has nothing to offer us.” And so, the resurrected life is for this life. But this life is not guaranteed tomorrow – but eternity is. It absolutely is. And not only for us, and for both us and for all creation. All of creation is waiting for eternity for the resurrected life of ours to begin. This next set of verses is a great set of verses. (Romans 6, 7, and 8 are great chapters to study after you get saved.)
Romans 8:19–24 (NLT)
19 For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are.
. . .
21 the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay. (that’s the Resurrection)
. . .
22 For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.
23 . . . We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us.
24 We were given this hope when we were saved . . .
“This hope we have as an anchor for the soul.” It was our foundation verse when we started this church: Hebrews 6:19 (NKJV). This word “hope” means “A confident expectation based on solid certainty.” And the picture of this hope is the anchor ship. It’s the pioneer ship. Come to Israel with us. We’ll go to Caesarea and we’ll look at the harbor there, and it’s a tough harbor to get in. And so, they would send a pioneer ship into the harbor with the anchor. And then, they would drop the anchor and secure it tight, and then the merchant ship would just crank that rope, and he would just move right to the anchor because you can’t sail into the harbor. That’s the picture of Christ being the anchor of our soul. That anchor is anchored in Heaven, and we’re just going to move right toward it. Listen, God is holding on to you. If you’re his, then God is holding on to you, and he is pulling you to the anchor, I promise you that.
For those who have surrendered their lives to Jesus by faith, there is waiting for us a very real, tangible, resurrected life in a very real resurrected creation.
And most importantly, it is with a very real and very personal, intimate, tangible relationship with the living God.
THAT is WHY the Resurrection is the fulcrum of our faith. That’s why everything revolves around the Resurrection.
The Apostle Paul (in Philippians 3) says that he willingly discarded everything else in this life in order to experience the Resurrection from the dead. Philippians Chapter 3 is the Apostle Paul’s “Personal Testimony.” And he says this in verses 8-11 of that chapter.
Philippians 3:8–11 (NLT)
8 Yes, everything else (in this life) is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. . . . (Everything else in this life is worthless. It’s a matter of priorities. We’re in this world, but we’re not OF this world. We’re citizens of Heaven, and we recognize the fact that all the things of this world are temporary. And that one day we’ll step out of this temporal world and enter into an eternal world. And when Paul realized that, he said everything else in this life is worthless, including his religion.) Everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else (It means willingly throw everything overboard. It doesn’t mean you have to go sell everything. It means you let go of it, that this is not why you’re living.), counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ 9 and become one with him. (become identified with him)
(9) I no longer count on my own righteousness (that’s his religion) through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. (That’s the righteousness that we talked about, us being clothed in his righteousness and him being clothed in our sin – that’s all Romans Chapter 6) For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on (hard work and perfect church attendance, and leisure suits – NO!!) faith. (our righteousness depends on faith that comes by God’s grace, and we choose to receive it by faith)
10 I want to know Christ (Greek word GINOSKO – it means an ever-increasing, intimate knowledge – I want to know Jesus better, and better, and better) and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. (because the same power that raised Jesus from the dead lives in us) I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death, 11 so that one way or another (any path I have to take through this life – it doesn’t matter – whatever path I take, one way or another) I will experience the resurrection from the dead! (Paul realized it was all about the Resurrection. He realized that everything in our life revolves around the Resurrection and the Resurrection should be our goal because this life’s a vapor, that life is for eternity.)
On Friday, Jesus Christ died on the Cross to pay the full penalty for your sin – in your place. On Sunday, Jesus Christ conquered sin, death, and the grave, and he rose from the dead as the Forerunner of all those who would put their faith in him as Savior. And when you begin to grasp what this means, I promise you will say with the Apostle Paul: I would be willing to discard everything in this life, counting it all as garbage, in order that I could gain Christ and become one with him . . . So that – by any means possible – I would experience the resurrection from the dead. It’s just a priority thing. It doesn’t mean you don’t get to still live this life, but it means your sights are set on the Resurrection and the resurrection life.
And so, the last question is how do we receive this incredible, eternal, resurrection life? How do we receive such a great gift of being identified with Christ so that our sin is paid for and death and the grave is beaten on our behalf, and we have an assured place in Heaven with him for eternity? The most famous verse in the Bible tells us how.
John 3:16 (NLT)
16 “For this is how God loved the world: (your Bible might say For God so loved the world . . . But that word so can be translated either God loved the world so much, or God loved the world in this way. They are both correct translations.) He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
The word believe here means “to put your full faith and trust in.” In WHO Jesus Christ IS. Who he says he is, and your full faith and trust in what he has done. Your salvation and your eternal life (your resurrection life) is all by God’s grace. God had to do it all on your behalf because you were stuck among the walking dead. You can’t clean that up. God loved you when you were his enemy when you were dead in your sin. And Jesus Christ rose from the grave to resurrect you from the walking dead.
And God has done it all ON your behalf in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It’s through the payment of Jesus on the Cross and the victory in the Resurrection. All you have to do is receive it by faith. That’s what the Bible says. All you have to do is put your full faith and trust in the work that Jesus has done in your place, and we turn from sin and turn from the world and say, “Jesus, I want you more than I want the world. I want eternity more than I want this vapor of a life. I want to be with you in glory.” And if you will surrender your life to him AS your Savior and your Lord – and if you will – he will give you, by his grace:
forgiveness of sin
right standing before God
a real, resurrection life – for eternity.
The definition of fulcrum (as we’re using it today): “A person or thing around which all vital activity revolves and upon which everything else depends.”
The vital, central, integral component of our faith is the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. THAT is why today is such a huge day! Everything revolves around Jesus Christ beating sin, and death, and the grave and being raised from the dead as the Pioneer of our salvation.
The historical Resurrection of Jesus is what sets Christianity apart from every other religion or belief system, or ideology, or philosophy, or anything else. We follow the God-man who was born supernaturally incarnate, and who died being sinless, after living a sinless life, and who was raised from the dead all on our behalf. So, without the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, the entire Christian faith totally collapses, and Jesus becomes just another charismatic leader and great teacher. But the truth of the Resurrection changes all that. The monumental difference between the Christian Faith and every other belief system is the historically documented and proven Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
Listen to the emphasis the Apostle Paul puts on the Resurrection.
1 Corinthians 15:14–15 (NLT)
14 And if Christ has not been raised (from the dead), then all our preaching is useless, and your faith is useless.
THAT is how central the Resurrection is to our faith. Jesus Christ didn’t do what he did in order to teach you a “nice way to live.” He did it to pay for your sin and to beat sin and death and the grave on your behalf. And then, as he fills your life, as he abides in you and you abide in him, then you are transformed. But forbid that we would say that Jesus came just for this life.
And Paul continues.
1 Corinthians 15:19 (NLT)
19 And (what’s more) if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world.
Isn’t that interesting? I am so glad there is nobody standing in front of a church saying Jesus died so you can have your best life now. Can you imagine somebody saying that? What about this? Jesus died so you could have a Cadillac. You just name it and claim it. You blab it at grab it! You just have enough faith; you can get anything you want, and that’s why Jesus died. You’ve got to be kidding me!!!!!! That’s all kindling for the fire. This life is a vapor!!! . . . if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world.
Without the Resurrection, our faith in Jesus Christ goes the way of a thousand other religious ideas that have all come and gone.
BUUUTTT . . .
1 Corinthians 15:20 (NLT)
20 But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. He is the first of a great harvest of all who have died.
Every single comparison falls to the historical proof that Jesus Christ has been raised from the dead!!!
If you want to compare religions, you’ve got to find someone else that came from Heaven to earth, incarnate man, lived a perfect life, died on the Cross for your sins, and then rose again from the dead – then we can start comparing. Otherwise, follow Christ.
And listen to me, in love. If you have not yet put your faith in Jesus Christ as your personal Savior . . .
The Bible says you are already DEAD
You are part of the walking DEAD
How can you say, Dave, I’m dead? Because God is outside of time. Eternity means “no time.” God is outside of time. And so, if you have not received Christ as your Savior, then you’re as good as dead. Death means being separated from God, who is life for eternity.
Here’s how Ephesians 2 puys it in verses 4 through the first part of verse 5.
Ephesians 2:4–5(a) (NLT)
4 But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much,
5 that even though we were dead because of our sins . . .
even though we were dead because of our sins
You see, the Bible says sin = death
And so, if you have not dealt with your sin, then the Bible says you are already dead. The Bible describes you as the walking dead. And that was every single one of us before we put our faith in Jesus Christ. And we remained dead until we received, appropriated, the grace of forgiveness of sin and the righteousness of God in Christ.
Let’s look at all of Ephesians 2, verses 4-6.
Ephesians 2:4–6 (NLT)
4 But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much,
5 that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life (as a gift. We couldn’t earn it, we couldn’t deserve it, he gave it to us as a gift) when he raised Christ from the dead. (that’s the moment that we were given life – when Jesus Christ beat death and the grave on our behalf) (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!)
It’s only by God’s grace that you have been saved. You can't earn this. You can’t clean yourself up. There’s not enough cleaner! Jesus Christ died for you when you were dead. And then he gave you new life in the Resurrection.
6 For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus.
Our genuine faith in Jesus Christ unites us to him. Because we have been united to him through our faith. Our faith in Jesus (Romans 6 explains) identifies us so closely with Jesus that what Jesus has done becomes what we have done. And the righteousness of God in Christ becomes ours. We are clothed in the righteousness of God as Jesus was clothed in our sin. (We dealt with that on Good Friday.) It’s a gift.
And BECAUSE we are united to Jesus by faith, God has raised us from the dead, and he has seated us with Jesus IN the heavenly realms.
And so, the Resurrection of Jesus Christ becomes the source of your resurrection life, and your resurrection life begins the moment you surrender your life to Jesus and put your faith in him as your Savior.
And this resurrection life that Jesus offers you today is for both this life and for eternity. I make fun of the people who make millions and millions of dollars, telling people that Jesus will make this life better. Listen, we live in a sin-cursed world. John 16, verse 33 says, “in this world, you will have Cadillac’s and BMW’s. In this world, everything will go right.” No – it doesn’t say that! John 16:33 (NKJV) says, . . . In this world you will have tribulation: but be of good cheer (Jesus says), I have overcome the world.” And so, we say, “We want to be identified with you, Jesus, because this world has nothing to offer us.” And so, the resurrected life is for this life. But this life is not guaranteed tomorrow – but eternity is. It absolutely is. And not only for us, and for both us and for all creation. All of creation is waiting for eternity for the resurrected life of ours to begin. This next set of verses is a great set of verses. (Romans 6, 7, and 8 are great chapters to study after you get saved.)
Romans 8:19–24 (NLT)
19 For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are.
. . .
21 the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay. (that’s the Resurrection)
. . .
22 For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.
23 . . . We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us.
24 We were given this hope when we were saved . . .
“This hope we have as an anchor for the soul.” It was our foundation verse when we started this church: Hebrews 6:19 (NKJV). This word “hope” means “A confident expectation based on solid certainty.” And the picture of this hope is the anchor ship. It’s the pioneer ship. Come to Israel with us. We’ll go to Caesarea and we’ll look at the harbor there, and it’s a tough harbor to get in. And so, they would send a pioneer ship into the harbor with the anchor. And then, they would drop the anchor and secure it tight, and then the merchant ship would just crank that rope, and he would just move right to the anchor because you can’t sail into the harbor. That’s the picture of Christ being the anchor of our soul. That anchor is anchored in Heaven, and we’re just going to move right toward it. Listen, God is holding on to you. If you’re his, then God is holding on to you, and he is pulling you to the anchor, I promise you that.
For those who have surrendered their lives to Jesus by faith, there is waiting for us a very real, tangible, resurrected life in a very real resurrected creation.
And most importantly, it is with a very real and very personal, intimate, tangible relationship with the living God.
THAT is WHY the Resurrection is the fulcrum of our faith. That’s why everything revolves around the Resurrection.
The Apostle Paul (in Philippians 3) says that he willingly discarded everything else in this life in order to experience the Resurrection from the dead. Philippians Chapter 3 is the Apostle Paul’s “Personal Testimony.” And he says this in verses 8-11 of that chapter.
Philippians 3:8–11 (NLT)
8 Yes, everything else (in this life) is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. . . . (Everything else in this life is worthless. It’s a matter of priorities. We’re in this world, but we’re not OF this world. We’re citizens of Heaven, and we recognize the fact that all the things of this world are temporary. And that one day we’ll step out of this temporal world and enter into an eternal world. And when Paul realized that, he said everything else in this life is worthless, including his religion.) Everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else (It means willingly throw everything overboard. It doesn’t mean you have to go sell everything. It means you let go of it, that this is not why you’re living.), counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ 9 and become one with him. (become identified with him)
(9) I no longer count on my own righteousness (that’s his religion) through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. (That’s the righteousness that we talked about, us being clothed in his righteousness and him being clothed in our sin – that’s all Romans Chapter 6) For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on (hard work and perfect church attendance, and leisure suits – NO!!) faith. (our righteousness depends on faith that comes by God’s grace, and we choose to receive it by faith)
10 I want to know Christ (Greek word GINOSKO – it means an ever-increasing, intimate knowledge – I want to know Jesus better, and better, and better) and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. (because the same power that raised Jesus from the dead lives in us) I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death, 11 so that one way or another (any path I have to take through this life – it doesn’t matter – whatever path I take, one way or another) I will experience the resurrection from the dead! (Paul realized it was all about the Resurrection. He realized that everything in our life revolves around the Resurrection and the Resurrection should be our goal because this life’s a vapor, that life is for eternity.)
On Friday, Jesus Christ died on the Cross to pay the full penalty for your sin – in your place. On Sunday, Jesus Christ conquered sin, death, and the grave, and he rose from the dead as the Forerunner of all those who would put their faith in him as Savior. And when you begin to grasp what this means, I promise you will say with the Apostle Paul: I would be willing to discard everything in this life, counting it all as garbage, in order that I could gain Christ and become one with him . . . So that – by any means possible – I would experience the resurrection from the dead. It’s just a priority thing. It doesn’t mean you don’t get to still live this life, but it means your sights are set on the Resurrection and the resurrection life.
And so, the last question is how do we receive this incredible, eternal, resurrection life? How do we receive such a great gift of being identified with Christ so that our sin is paid for and death and the grave is beaten on our behalf, and we have an assured place in Heaven with him for eternity? The most famous verse in the Bible tells us how.
John 3:16 (NLT)
16 “For this is how God loved the world: (your Bible might say For God so loved the world . . . But that word so can be translated either God loved the world so much, or God loved the world in this way. They are both correct translations.) He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
The word believe here means “to put your full faith and trust in.” In WHO Jesus Christ IS. Who he says he is, and your full faith and trust in what he has done. Your salvation and your eternal life (your resurrection life) is all by God’s grace. God had to do it all on your behalf because you were stuck among the walking dead. You can’t clean that up. God loved you when you were his enemy when you were dead in your sin. And Jesus Christ rose from the grave to resurrect you from the walking dead.
And God has done it all ON your behalf in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It’s through the payment of Jesus on the Cross and the victory in the Resurrection. All you have to do is receive it by faith. That’s what the Bible says. All you have to do is put your full faith and trust in the work that Jesus has done in your place, and we turn from sin and turn from the world and say, “Jesus, I want you more than I want the world. I want eternity more than I want this vapor of a life. I want to be with you in glory.” And if you will surrender your life to him AS your Savior and your Lord – and if you will – he will give you, by his grace:
forgiveness of sin
right standing before God
a real, resurrection life – for eternity.