EASTER 1998

Now, let me interrupt and say, at this point, that what I am not saying is that because we wish for life after death and for life in its fullness that we should believe in the resurrection, as if we only believe it because we want it to be true. That is sentimentality, to believe what you want to be true. Fact is, few people really want Christianity to be true, certainly not at first. They don't wish to have to face God, even as a Savior, because they do not wish to surrender themselves to his rule, to submit themselves to his will, to awake one morning and find that there is no part of their lives, not even the deepest recesses of their thoughts that they can keep from Him. No, Christian belief in the resurrection is not wish fulfillment. There is much in Holy Scripture that offends the natural tastes of men and women. The newspaper yesterday included an article on the return to religion that some people say is happening among some prosperous middle-aged Americans in the 90s. But the religion that was described was not, by and large, the Christianity of the Bible. These folk wanted to add another dimension to their lives; they had no intention to surrender their lives wholly and without qualification to God. They had no intention of setting out to live that extraordinarily difficult and demanding life that Jesus said one must live if he would be Christ's disciple. No, we are not talking about wish-fulfillment. We are talking rather about facing the facts of our lives. Lewis himself wrote that he came to believe in Christ and the reality of his resurrection not because he wanted it to be true, but because he came to the conviction that it was true, whether he liked it or not!

But, do you see C.S. Lewis' point? There is a great deal about our lives as human beings, and a great deal about the most important part of our lives, the parts we care most deeply about, that cannot be explained at all, for which there is no reason at all, if we are simply creatures who exist in the world for a short time and then disappear, disintegrate into nothing at all. Our concentration on time, on the passage of time, on the shortness of time, is but one such feature of human life. Why is time so important to us unless, as the Bible teaches, God has set eternity in the hearts of men and women?

Another is the reality, so painful in the modern world, of man's craving for meaning and satisfaction in life. We might well suppose that modern man, especially in the Western world, with all of its technological sophistication, all of its creature comforts, its entertainments, its medical advancements, its wealth, would be almost boundlessly and ceaselessly happy. But he is not. She is not. Loneliness, alienation, addictions of various kinds -- drugs, alcohol, gambling, etc. --, fractured marriages and homes, crime, and on the list goes. And not just these terrible things; also boredom and the constant longing for something more. All of it, in one way or another, evidence of human beings unwilling to be content with a life that does not fulfill their deeper longings for love, and goodness, and true happiness. And all of those longings cannot stand in the face of the reality of death, since human beings think about death as little as they can, certain though it may be.

But why should man not be content with his lot. The other animals are. They give no thought to whether their lives fulfill the sense they have of their own meaning and significance as beings in this world. Why should man, unless, indeed, he knows, somehow he knows, he was made for something more, that his life means something much more than bare existence for a short time in this world. And so he lives, he must live, believing he matters much more, she matters much more than some piece of cosmic scrap thrown up by chance on the shore of eternity, a little piece of existence -- a collection of atoms --, almost nothing, which comes and goes in the blink of an eye with nothing after. Here is the point, here is Paul's point: no one lives, no one lives as if this were true. The person who really believes this commits suicide. But if we act as if our lives matter, really matter, how can we then stand up on our feet and deny the resurrection, the future existence of human beings, which is the only foundation upon which it is possible to base such a view of ourselves as all of us have?

Some in the modern world, as you may know, have attempted to be consistent. Have attempted to argue that human life really is meaningless, nothing more than an accident, a freak of time and chance, with no connections before and after in a universe that is nothing but matter, no God in it or above it. But it is the easiest thing of all to point out that all of them have completely failed to think or speak or live in consistency with this view of human life. Like the Apostle Paul we can say to all of them, if there is no resurrection, no future life for human beings, then why do they, all of them without exception, care so deeply about their lives and some about the lives of others? Why do they believe most firmly in right and wrong? Why are they so passionate about justice and injustice, they live as though their lives have meaning. But all of that is an illusion if human beings are mere creatures of a brief moment doomed to extinction, to nothingness. If there is no future, no judgment, no reward or punishment, no hope for life to go on, all that makes our lives important in this world is nothing but a dream.

What Paul is saying in vv. 29-32 is that the resurrection is real to him, because he has seen the risen Christ and knows that he came alive out of the tomb that first Easter Sunday; but it is also real to many who spend their lives largely ignoring the question or positively denying the reality of life after death. Actions speak louder than words: whether those actions are the actions of a man like Paul who lived his life in the expectation of being with God forever after serving him in this world, or the actions of someone who just lives as though human life had the meaning and the significance and the purpose that only the resurrection can give to it.

I cannot make you embrace the reality of the future resurrection and build your lives on it as Paul did. Some human beings do and, alas, many do not. But I can challenge you to face these facts: life with no future, life that just sputters to its end and is no more, is very definitely not the life you yourself live, it is not the way you think about your life, it is not the life you care to live. For you it is not a real life unless it is a life that possesses that meaning, that value, that purpose that only the hope of a future can give it. And, what is more, it is entirely reasonable that God, who made us, who put eternity into our hearts, who made us care about what we all care about so deeply, should have made a way for us to that future, to that fullness of life, to that fulfillment we spend our lives looking for.

That way is the way of faith in Jesus Christ, who took away our sins that had separated us from God by taking the punishment of them in our place, and then, when he had died on the cross and been buried, rose to life again, conquering death for all who trust in him. Sin has distorted human thinking greatly, but all of that reality is still there in human hearts. They know about sin because they are always accusing others of it and they know about life after death because, in many ways they don't even recognize, they long for it all their lives. We could never meet the standards of a holy God, sinners that we are, and we could never, in our own strength, conquer death. So God, in love, sent his Son to do those things for us. He made us for eternity and Christ restores that hope to everyone who believes in him, who will take that greatest of all gifts from his hand.

Now, do you believe that is true? Paul did, I do, but do you? Do you believe that Jesus of Nazareth lives and may be known by men and women today? Do you believe that he will give eternal life to those who believe in him and follow him? Do you believe that in this benighted world, with all of its woe, there actually may be found the bright hope of life forever and life to the full?

Let me tell you a true story. It concerns a man named Hien Pham, a bright young Christian Vietnamese who had served the American military in Vietnam as a translator. After South Vietnam fell to the communists Hien was arrested and accused of aiding and abetting the Americans during the war. When in jail he was subjected to indoctrination, against the West and for communism. He was cut off from anything in English and was allowed to read only propaganda in French or Vietnamese. As the months passed this onslaught began to take its toll. Hien began to buckle. Perhaps, he thought, he had been hoodwinked. Maybe there was no God, perhaps Christ was not real. Finally he reached a point where he decided to abandon his Christian faith. He would not pray any more or think of his Christian faith again.

The next morning, he was assigned to clean the latrines of the prison. It was the most dreaded chore in the place, shunned by everyone who could possibly avoid it, and, understandably, he began his task with dread and revulsion. As he cleaned out a tin can filled to overflowing with toilet paper, his eye caught what he thought was English printed on one piece of paper. He hurriedly washed it off and slipped it into his hip pocket to read it later. Not having been allowed to read anything in English for so long, and being so completely fluent in the language, he could not wait for a free moment to see what it was that he had found. In his bunk that night, after his roommates had fallen asleep, he got out the paper to read it in the light of a small lamp. On the top corner were the words "Romans, Chapter 8." It was a piece of a Bible. Literally trembling, he began to read.

Hien wept. He knew his Bible and he had not seen one, not even a page from one for a long time. And he knew that there was not a more perfect page of the Bible for him to find, to meet his need, than that page from Romans 8. He cried out to God for forgiveness, for having doubted him. This was to have been the first day that he would not pray to God but God had obviously had other plans for him.

It happened that some time later Hien was released from prison. He began to make plans to escape. He began building a boat secretly. Others were involved, some 50 others were planning to escape with him. All was going according to plan when, a few days before their attempt was to be made, four soldiers knocked at his door. They said that they had heard he was planning an escape. "Is that true?" they demanded. Hien denied it and concocted some story that apparently the soldiers believed; at any rate they left. But Hien was disappointed with himself, for his cowardice and his lies. He felt he had failed to trust the Lord who had so wonderfully come to help him when he was in prison and who clearly was able to deliver him from his enemies should he choose to do so.

He prayed that if the authorities returned he would be brave to tell them the truth. He was thoroughly shaken though, when but a few hours before they were to attempt their escape, the same soldiers appeared at his door once more. "We know you are trying to escape. Is it true?" "Yes, it is true," he said. "Are you going to imprison me again?" They leaned forward and whispered, "No, we want to escape with you!" They found themselves later at sea in a storm and Hien would later say that had it not been for the sailing ability of those soldiers they would not have made it. They made it safely to Thailand and years later Hien made it to America where he is a businessman today.

Here is the question we face today. What is real? What is true? Is Christ real? Is the future resurrection real? Hien Pham will tell you, oh, yes, they are real; the most real things in the world. And they are proved real a thousand times a day, even in the lives of those who deny them, but so much more wonderfully in the lives of those who embrace them. You do not have to deny the deepest longings and convictions of your heart -- God put them there. But you must have Christ to satisfy them. No one else conquered the grave but he. No one else can give you victory over it.

You were made for something far greater than you have so far experienced. You know you were. The longing for it lies within you and the capacity for it too. These things you know because God has left a witness to them in your own life. But who can give that something greater to you? Jesus Christ can, for he has proved by his resurrection from the dead that he has authority over death and can bring to eternal life all who trust in him. We finish where we began with Paul's rhetorical question: But what will they do who know there is meaning to their lives if there is no resurrection?

EASTER 1998
1 Corinthians 15:29-32
April 12, 1998

In his letter to the church in the Greek city of Corinth, the Apostle Paul has so far dealt with a number of problems in that church and a number of points concerning which the Christians there were confused. And now, near the end of the letter, he takes up one more. In chapter 15 his subject is the resurrection of the dead -- the prospect of human beings, of human bodies, rising to life again at the last day. The folk in Corinth had been confused by some teachers who had come among them teaching that there was no resurrection. If you look back to verse 12 you will see Paul raises the issue in just that way. He says that "some among them are saying that there is no resurrection." Apparently only some of the Christians in Corinth had been confused on this point. And we don't know exactly what these folk did believe. It isn't really important for our purposes to know that. Paul is talking about the resurrection, that is the main point. And his argument here is that the proof, the demonstration of the resurrection of Christians at the end of time, is the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

You cannot say that the resurrection of the body cannot occur because it has occurred. You cannot say that it cannot occur in an individual Christian's case, because Christ rose again precisely to make possible the resurrection of his people in due time. This is his argument in verses 12-28.

But then he comes to these very interesting verses that we read. "If there is no resurrection" what will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized for them?"

Now, what makes this argument interesting is the fact that we don't know exactly what Paul is talking about. That is, we don't know anything about this practice of "baptism for the dead." Nothing like that is ever taught in the Bible. Paul doesn't teach any such doctrine or practice of baptism for the dead. Indeed, he does not associate himself with this practice. As you see, he doesn't say, "what will we do who are baptized for the dead." He says, "what will those do, or they do who are baptized for the dead." Apparently this was not a practice that Paul approved of or participated in. We know that heretical sects a hundred years later were doing something like this. If someone died unbaptized, others would be baptized vicariously, in their place. It would be a complete mistake, a real error to approve of such a practice, but apparently there were some folk who did such things. Whether this was what was happening in Corinth we cannot say. But, apparently, as v. 29 suggests, these folk who were being baptized for the dead or approving of this practice of baptizing for the dead were the same people who were giving an ear to the folk who were denying the resurrection.

It isn't all that important to know exactly what these people were thinking or what they were doing in their baptisms for the dead. For it is clear enough what Paul is doing. He is pointing out the inconsistency of participating in such a practice while denying the reality of the resurrection. The actions of these people were proof, a kind of argument from experience, that they were inconsistent in denying the future resurrection of Christians.

It would be similar to pointing out that the man who is going around buying lots of life insurance ought not to be preaching that the world will end next Tuesday! His practice is inconsistent with his teaching. The two things cannot be held together. And, what is more, we all naturally suspect that his practice is the more reliable indication of his true belief. In buying life insurance he is, as we say, putting his money where his mouth is. He doesn't really believe the world will end next Tuesday, or he wouldn't be buying life insurance.

In the same way, Paul is saying these folk give away their true hope and belief by this practice of baptism for the dead. They may say they don't believe in a future resurrection, but they sure act like they do! The resurrection is more real to them than this teaching against it.

Then Paul goes on to make the same point in a different way. He uses himself as an illustration. All that he has done to spread the good news of Jesus Christ, all that he has suffered, all the dangers he has faced, -- to what point, to what purpose, if Christ really did not rise from the dead and if there is no future resurrection either for Paul or for those he has persuaded to become Christians. Instead of facing dangers of every kind and suffering all manner of persecution and hardship, he should have simply kicked back and taken it easy: "eat and drink, for tomorrow we die." If there is no real future for us -- for us as human beings -- and we need a resurrection, a bodily resurrection, if we are to have a future as human beings! -- if there is nothing afterward, if death is the end, what is the point?

As the poet has it:

Is this the whole sad story of creation,
Told by its toiling millions oe'r and o'er,
One glimpse of day, then black annihilation,
A sunlit journey to a sunless shore?

No, says Paul, you yourselves don't really believe that -- not really. No matter what you say when you are standing on your feet in debate, you don't really believe that! You live your life here as if there were a future, something beyond and after death. But, without Christ, without the resurrection of Christ, there can be no certainty of that, and, in particular, there can be no certainty that what lies beyond for you or for me will be better than what we have found here in this world, in this life.

Now, what I find intriguing about Paul's argument here, his argument from human inconsistency, is that it is just as easy to find occasions to use it today, it is just as valid an argument today. People today -- whatever they may say their beliefs are, whatever they may affirm or deny when you ask them about the future -- they live in the hope of something more beyond death. That is what is real to them, and their words and their deeds prove it over and over again.

Sometimes those beliefs in life after death are easy to spot. Randy Johnson after a great pitching performance raises his eyes and fist to the heavens to salute his late father, whom Randy says he knows watches his games. Or, a number of sportscasters of late -- not, I suppose, the most religious group of fellows taken as a whole -- assured us that Harry Caray, the famous Cubs baseball announcer who died of a heart attack a month ago, would be singing along with "Take me out to the ballgame" when it was sung at the Cubs home-opener.

We hear things like that all the time, don't we? We particularly are used to hearing such things at funerals. At the funeral for the schoolgirls who were shot to death in Jonesboro, Arkansas, they sang the Celine Dion hit from the score of the movie Titanic, "My heart will go on." And all sorts of things were said about the children living on and about their loved ones seeing them later and so on. And the really striking thing about all of this is that it is as common for irreligious people to say such things as for religious people and as common for people who are only nominally religious as for people who are serious about their faith.

And, like Paul, it is entirely appropriate to ask: why do people speak this way? Why do they speak and act, why do they comfort themselves in the hope of something in the future, unless they have reason to believe that there is a future for human beings after death?

But, sometimes the belief that people have in a future life as human beings, a life after death, is not so obvious, is not so easy to spot. Sometimes people act in ways they would never associate with a belief in life after death, in the continuing existence of human beings, but, in fact, there is no other way to explain their actions. Not really.

Sometimes it is in little things that people give themselves away. For example, in the strange way in which human beings are amazed at time and how time flies and how quickly life passes.

C.S. Lewis speaks about this in a letter he wrote to a young man who was considering Christianity. C.S. Lewis was the Oxford professor, the celebrated writer, and the defender of Christianity, whose story was told in the recent movie Shadowlands. This young man had long thought that Christianity was disproved and that no sophisticated, twentieth-century person could believe such primitive superstition any more. But then, at Oxford, he ran into a number of very sophisticated, highly educated Christians who completely turned the tables on him. It was no longer a case of him challenging the Christians to give a reason for their faith, but now they were challenging him to give a reason for his unbelief, and, particularly, to give a reason for why he did not and could not live in consistency with his unbelief. The things that were most important to him -- love, morality, a meaningful life -- he could not explain and he could not defend from his unbelieving standpoint. He wrote to C.S. Lewis about all of this and Lewis replied and in that letter, among other things, Lewis said this.

"A wish may lead to false beliefs, granted. But what does the existence of the wish suggest? At one time I was much impressed by Arnold's line 'nor does the being hungry prove that we have bread.' But surely, tho' it doesn't prove that one particular man will get food, it does prove that there is such a thing as food! That is, if we were a species that didn't normally eat, weren't designed to eat, would we feel hungry? You say the materialist universe -- he means a universe without God -- is 'ugly'. I wonder how you discovered that! If you are really a product of a materialist universe, how is it you don't feel at home there? Do fish complain of the sea for being wet? Or if they did, would that fact itself not strongly suggest that they had not always been, or would not always be, purely aquatic creatures? Notice how we are perpetually surprised at time. ('How time flies! Fancy John being grown-up and married! I can hardly believe it!') In heaven's name, why? Unless, there is something in us which is not temporal." [A Severe Mercy, 92-93]

"Put a cow in clover and it is content. Place a man in a material paradise and he is content only for a short time. Then comes that strange thing we call boredom. Man is made for something vastly more than for material things. He has a heart shaped like a wineglass and will not rest satisfied till his Almighty Creator pours in the wine of his love and grace. Something deep in man screams when he is told that he is only a higher animal. Every pore of his body cries out that he is made in a more noble mould." [Maurice Roberts, BOT 380 (May, 1995) 4]

"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose... What, then, shall we say... If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all -- how shall he not also, along with him, freely give us all things? ...

"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life...will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

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