For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised;

and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins.

Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.

If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied.

1 Corinthians 15.16-19

 

For two-and-a-half years, I’ve been preaching through the Gospel of John. That journey has all led to what I preached on last Sunday – the crucifixion and death of Christ. Like a tsunami, since the first chapter – when John the Baptist introduced Jesus as “the Lamb of God,” we’ve known it was coming. But it doesn’t make it any easier. The appalling injustice, the unconscionable hubris, the greatest sin, all rolled into one.

 

And yet, God planned this. Jesus willingly submitted Himself to this. The sovereign Lord knew this would be the only way to rescue His fallen creation, whom He loved, from an eternal prison of sin and death. With one divine sacrifice, Jesus paid for all our sin. The gulf created by sin between mankind and God was bridged. Our ‘death sentence’ was paid! Such love! Graham Kendrick’s song “Amazing Love” captures it beautifully:

 

My Lord what love is this, that pays so dearly?
That I, the guilty one, may go free!

Amazing love, oh what sacrifice; The Son of God given for me
My debt He pays and my death He dies, that I might live…

 

We rightly focus on Christ’s death, even remembering it regularly by celebrating (an odd way to refer to His death!) Communion. It was Christ Himself, just hours before His death, who instituted this commemoration! What it gained for us was incredible! A relationship with our holy Creator God was open to us! We could have a relationship with the eternal God!

 

But listen: As wonderful as what Jesus did for us at the cross was, if not for the event which followed on the third day, our joy would be shrouded in eventual sorrow: We would know our God in this life, but in this life only. When it was over, so would be that relationship. As Paul poignantly put it in his letter to the Corinthians, If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied.

 

This is where God’s mercy (not giving us what we do deserve) meets God’s grace (giving us what we don’t deserve!). In two weeks (if Jesus doesn’t come for us first), I will preach on what happened on that ‘third day.’ The resurrection is what gives us unquenchable hope. Even as we watch – and wince – a world consumed in the suffering and misery and despair that sin brings, we proclaim a gospel of hope, not for the years of time alone, but for eternity (those words come from one of my favorite hymns, “Now I Belong to Jesus”)!

 

One way to think of this is that ‘it’s Friday (crucifixion day), but Sunday (resurrection day) is coming! S. M. Lockridge (the S. M. stands for Shadrach Meshach!) was Pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in San Diego for 40 years. He is known for a stirring oration focusing on those words:

 

It’s Friday: Jesus is praying, Peter is asleep. Judas is betraying…but Sunday’s a Comin’.

It’s Friday: Pilate is struggling, the Sanhedrin is conspiring, the crowd is vilified…they don’t even know that…Sunday’s a Comin’.

It’s Friday: The disciples are running in every direction like sheep without a shepherd, Mary’s crying, Peter’s denying, but they don’t know…that Sunday’s a Comin’.

It’s Friday: The Romans beat my Jesus, they robe him in scarlet, they crown him with thorns, but they don’t know, Sunday’s a Comin’!

See Jesus walking to Calvary, his blood dripping, his body’s stumbling, and his spirit’s burdened, but see, it’s only Friday, Sunday’s a Comin!

It’s Friday: The world’s winning, people are sinning, and evil’s grinning.

It’s Friday: The soldiers nail my Savior’s hands to the cross; they nail my Savior’s feet to the cross; then they raise him up next to criminals…

It’s Friday, but let me tell you something…Sunday’s a Comin’!

It’s Friday: The disciples are questioning, “What has happened to our King?”, and the Pharisees are celebrating that their scheming has been achieved, but they don’t know…it’s only Friday. Sunday’s a Comin’!

It’s Friday: He’s hanging on the cross, feeling forsaken by his Father, left alone and doubting, can nobody save him? Oh, it’s Friday, but…Sunday’s a Comin’!

It’s Friday: The temple veil ripped from top to bottom, the earth shook, the rocks split and tombs opened. The centurion screamed in fear, ‘Truly He was the Son of God!’… Sunday’s a Coming!

It’s Friday: The earth trembles, the sky grows dark, my King yields his spirit.

It’s Friday: Hope is lost, death has won, sin has conquered, and Satan’s just a laughin’.

It’s Friday: Jesus is buried, a soldier stands guard, and a rock is rolled into place, but it’s Friday, it is only Friday…Sunday is a Comin!

People are saying, ‘As things have been, so they shall always be. You can’t change anything in this world’… but Sunday’s a Coming!

It’s Friday: Satan’s doing a little jig saying ‘I control the whole world’… but Sunday’s a Coming!

 

As you look around at a decaying, dying world, remember what happened on Friday – that’s the key to our gospel message to the world. Tell people about Jesus dying on the cross for their sin! But never forget what happened on Sunday. We live and share Christ with the joy of an unshakable hope, based on Jesus’ absolute promise: “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life!” (John 6.47)