Faith_with_a_future

Jeff Green | Apr 13, 2006

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Faith with a future

by PastorDavid Spurrell,Lakeview Gospel Assembly

1 Corinthians 15: 14 “And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.”

Christian proclamation knows only one Lord. His name is Jesus Christ. Jesus is Lord, but He is always the crucified Lord. Christian faith also proclaims that Jesus the crucified One is also Jesus the resurrected One.

All that the Christian church knows, believes, and preaches depends on faith in the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. As the Apostle Paul teaches: “If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith, futile, you are still in your sins.”

Now the disciples “apprentices” had confessed Jesus as the Messiah before the resurrection, but the catastrophe of the crucifixion shattered their confessions and we see the disciples betraying, deserting and denying.

Without Easter, there is no message from or for the Christian church. It was the Risen Lord who rescued the disciples from their aimless wanderings, who restored their crushed faith, and who rejuvenated their hopeless spirits.

Because of Christ’s resurrection we have a faith with a future. We have a faith that is not futile but rather a faith with a future.

Remember Friday: it seemed that all was lost. Consider the specifics of that day. We hear crowds crying out “Crucify”; soldiers mocking “He saved others but He can’t save himself”; a prisoner jeering “Save yourself and us”; and an innocent loving man saying that he is thirsty. He questions why God has forsaken him at a time like this, and then he finally declares that it is finished.

A couple of friends bury the lifeless body of the one who had taught about life, love, truth, and goodness. It did in fact seem finished. Death had overcome life. Darkness had overwhelmed the light. The lie had eclipsed the truth. Hate had overthrown love, and evil had vanquished goodness. There was no hope in that kind of world.

But Christian faith proclaims that that is not the final reality. I think of the great old song “It was once an age of sin and death and the hissing snake of pride/Was wrapped around the world so tight. It seemed all good had died/And when they strung Jesus, the venom killed him dead/But come next Sunday morning, He crushed the serpent’s head”

That is the difference Easter makes. We have faith, with a future!

The resurrection of Christ means a guarantee of the believer's future. It is assurance that we too shall rise at the sound of the trumpet. For all who have their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, time shall be no more; we shall share in the glory of Christ's resurrection.

When you observe the world today, do you ever want to give up? Does it seem evil is winning? Do vice and murder and crime and indecency seem to know no boundaries?

Remember - greater is He who hath overcome death, hell, and the grave. The strong one has been vanquished by a stronger!

John 16: 33 "I have told you these things so that in Me you may have perfect peace and confidence. In the world you have tribulation and trials and distress and frustration; but be of good cheer. Take courage, be confident, certain, undaunted for I have overcome the world. I have deprived it of power to harm. I have conquered it for you."