Easter 2023 | Jeremiah Lepasana | What is your hope in life and death? | 1 Cor. 15.3-6

On this Easter Sunday, we asked the simple question, what is your hope in life and death? We spoke of the need for a hope that not even death can extinguish.  From 1 Corinthians 15, we saw that the Resurrection of Jesus carries with it three hopes: 1) a historical hope, 2) a cosmic hope, and 3) a personal hope. First, we saw that the central question of Christianity is "did Jesus rise from the dead?" Today, we can often be tempted to categorize Jesus as one option among many in the marketplace of spirituality. However, the first Christians who saw and touched Jesus remind us that the resurrection happened in history. As Dr. Tim Keller said, "If Jesus rose from the dead, then you have to accept all he said; if he didn’t rise from the dead, then why worry about any of what he said? The issue on which everything hangs is not whether or not you like his teaching but whether or not he rose from the dead."Second, we saw that the resurrection provides not only a historical hope, but also a cosmic one. The Apostle Paul argues that Jesus is the "firstfruits" of resurrection, an agricultural picture meaning the first of the harvest. Because Jesus came back from the dead, we can believe that this world matters. God cares deeply about the material conditions of this world.  Theologian, NT Wright argues, "Easter means that in a world where injustice, violence and degradation are endemic, God is not prepared to tolerate such things—and that we will work and plan, with all the energy of God, to implement victory of Jesus over them all."Third, we saw that resurrection is also a personal hope. In 1 Corinthians 15 and Romans 6, we see that in baptism the full benefits of Jesus' death and resurrection are applied to you and me. He is not a detached deity, but a loving Savior, who loves personally and particularly.