Sports fans understand the power of belief. No matter what sports team you follow, except for Cleveland fans, as a new season approaches there is belief that this year’s team will be different, and that breathes hope. Often, this belief will holdout even when all indications suggest hope should be abandoned. Yet belief holds on anyway. Belief has the power to get a person to cling to even the smallest thread of hope.
But what about us as Christians? We claim to have the greatest hope ever proclaimed. What is our hope?
1 Corinthians 15:14 “And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is futile and faith is empty.” (NET)
This may seem like a strange verse to answer the question on Christianity’s great hope, but this hope is strongly implied in Paul’s statement. In the surrounding verses, Paul is addressing individuals in the Corinthian church who rejected the idea of people being resurrected from the dead. Paul was admonishing them because the Jesus they professed faith in had risen from the dead. They were walking contradictions.
Their false belief negated the very purpose of preaching. To Paul, what is the purpose of preaching? Sharing the good news, that Jesus was dead and had risen to life again. The entirety of the Christian faith rested on this truth. And this truth is still our great hope today.
Jesus repeatedly shared with the disciples that His resurrection would take place. The Resurrection validates His words and the purpose for the event. Without the Crucifixion there is no forgiveness of sins, and without the Resurrection there is no victory over sin. That would reduce Jesus to a “good moral teacher,” even though Jesus claimed to be much more. “Jesus is alive” is the good news, making the Resurrection central to our faith.
The Resurrection is the good news because it reveals to us that Jesus came to do more than heal infirmities and teach moral concepts. Those things are important and should not be neglected, but they are the symptoms not the cause. The cause of the symptoms is the sinfulness of the human heart. It is from this corrupt heart that every form of sin pours through people’s actions. Jesus died for the forgiveness both the action and inward corruption. But through the Resurrection, Jesus has made it so victory could be achieved in our hearts. He died and rose again to cure the illness, which ultimately eliminates the symptoms. This is the good news.
Do you and I want to see revival? Then we must desire to lead others to the cure rather than applying topical creams to alleviate the symptoms. Many sermons are “how to live as a Christian,” but never offering the path to become a Christian. People come back week after week to the get their symptoms relieved, and we pat ourselves on the back because the number we have treated. But overtime it becomes apparent to everyone that while the numbers appear healthy when the people are not.
For revival to come we must move beyond applying ointment and start sharing the cure. Share Jesus, that He died and rose again for the forgiveness and freedom from sin. This will lead people from brokenness to wholeness, despair to hope, and death to life.
written by Jason Barnett. Jason is the pastor at Greensburg Church of the Nazarene, in Greensburg, KY. You can LISTEN to his sermons via The Dirt Path Sermon Podcast. FOLLOW him on twitter and The Dirt Path Facebook page.
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