Sermon Notes "4/4/2010" If Easter then...Pastor Lonnie Wilkerson

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Pastor Lonnie’s Easter sermon was titled “If Easter then. . .”  The scripture reading was 1 Corinthians 15:1-34.  We deal with “if/then” statements every day:  Columbus said, “If I sail west, then I will end up in the east.”  Fermi said, “If we split the atom, then we will have continuing energy.” 

There are some consequences that follow this if statement: “If Jesus rose from the dead:”

How does this affect your life today?  If Jesus rose from the dead, then Christianity is true and every other religion is false.  Of all the claims which Jesus made, rising from the dead was the most stupendous.  In John 2:19 Jesus uses a metaphor—destroy this temple and I will raise it again in three days.  After the transfiguration, in Matthew 17, He told His disciples not to tell anyone what they’d seen until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.  In Matthew 26, He told them one of them would betray Him.  Mohammed is dead; Buddha is dead;  Jesus is still alive, at the right hand of the Father, and in the hearts of His followers.   Who and what do you believe?  Do you want to build your life on the words of a dead man, or on one who came back to life?

            If Jesus rose from the dead, then life does not end at the grave.  According to Naturalism, we live, we pay taxes, we die.  But life is much more than economic parity.  God made us immortal beings:  you don’t know any mortals.  Reincarnation is wrong: Hebrews 9:27 says “…it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” This one life has incredible value. 

            If Jesus rose from the dead, then we must have been in very bad shape.  It’s our sins which are so heinous that they could only be atoned for by God Himself.  Perhaps even our human failures can show our children the need for a Savior. God has no grandchildren, or cousins, or aunts or uncles: only sons and daughters. The greatest testimony that we can provide to the world is a changed life.  When we’re baptized we wear God’s watermark.

            If Jesus rose from the dead, then God loves you.  There’s not a lot of love out there in the big wide world.  God loves you whether you like it or not, with a perfect love you can’t get anywhere else.  Christ sacrificed everything for you.  God gives us the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ.