Harp, Help, And Hope - Implications Of The Resurrection
23 March 2008, By David J. Brown

In the midst of "Desert Storm," Sept. 27, 1991, Ruth Dillow from Illinois received a heartbreaking message from the military. Her son, Clayton, had stepped on a mine in the Persian Gulf and had been killed.

Mrs. Dillow wrote, "I can't begin to describe my grief and shock. It was almost more than I could bear. For three days I wept. For three days I expressed anger. For three days I experienced true loss. For three days people tried to comfort me, to no avail because the loss was too great."

But three days after she received that message, the telephone rang. The voice on the other end was unmistakably that of Clayton. "Mom, it's me, I'm alive!" Ruth Dillow said, "I couldn't believe it at first. But I recognized his voice and he really was alive." She said, "I laughed, I cried, I felt like turning cartwheels, because my son, whom I thought was dead, was really alive. I'm sure none of you can even begin to understand how I felt."

She's probably right in regard to you and me. Her son was dead … and then her son came back from the dead. Look at the change in her life knowing the truth about her son being alive. Imagine how much greater her shock if her son was truly dead, and then came back to life!

Text: 1 Corinthians 15:12-23

Preliminarily, what is a resurrection?
1. Resurrection is the creation of a living body from the remains of a dead one. Resurrection is not the creation of a new body to go with the soul-spirit - resurrection requires the use of at least a portion of the old body
2. Jesus is referred to as the "firstfruits" of those risen from the dead (20 & 23). How can that be if Jarius' daughter and Lazarus were brought back to life by Jesus? What about those who came alive when Jesus died? There are two kinds of resurrections: Those that Jesus and the apostles resurrected came back in mortal human bodies, they were still sinful, they ate, slept, got sick and they died later - that's not the resurrection Jesus had, and that's not the resurrection we will have.
3. Jesus' resurrection was a transformation into a glorified body, flawless, and timeless, and it can move back and forth between spirit and physical form. This is the resurrection we will experience when Jesus comes back. Those of us who are alive will be transformed without death.

What are the implications of the resurrection? There are three that I thought of for today - one for the past, one for the present, and one for the future.

1. PAST - THE RESURRECTION GIVES US A HARP
When I say harp, I mean harp in the positive sense of praise, and also harp in the negative sense to the world of what we keeping talking about.

• We had a harp back in Eden - praising God and fellowshipping with Him - no guilt, full love, full joy
• We threw down that harp - foolishly sinned and chose our own way - guilt, separation, no praise - we were cut off, hopeless, helpless, at war with God
• God made a plan. Jesus' death paid our death penalty and opened the way for us to be reconciled to God - no more angel or flaming sword
• When Jesus rose again, God reversed the decision of the Sanhedrin saying Jesus wasn't Messiah, the Saviour of mankind
• As you can see from the text, the resurrection was the final act, the completion of the plan. If Jesus hadn't risen from the dead, he would be a mere sinful man who had to die for his own sins, not the perfect, sinless God-Man who died for ours.
• Romans 1:4 says that Jesus was proven with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead. One man said that if Jesus death was the payment, then the resurrection was the receipt.
• If he wasn't God, but just a godly martyr, then our faith would be in vain (v. 14). Our faith is different from Islam, Hinduism, Taoism, Confucianism
  o The founders of those religions are all dead
  o Those religions teach a code of behaviour or conduct, and if you follow it, you will be blessed after life
  o Our faith says "it is not a matter of doing, it's a matter of done." Salvation is not a matter of gradual payment, but a once and for all exchange.
  
• For these reasons, we have been given an amazing harp of praise to God. Not just the old harp dusted off. An amazingly better harp because we are in a much deeper, complex and richer place than Eden - God died to push our sins out of the way, he hunted us down, sought us out, drew us to himself - he forgave us and saved us from the wrath to come. Even angels haven't been forgiven and reconciled. Angels haven't been made joint heirs with God's son. Angels won't be resurrected just like Jesus one day. Angels won't rule on the earth one day.
  
• For these reasons we also harp about the resurrection. It is one of the two great things that distinguish our faith from all others. A resurrected founder; a salvation by faith alone without works.

2. PRESENT - THE RESURRECTION GIVES US HELP
Read: Romans 6:3-6
We spoke about this a few weeks ago. When we received Jesus Christ as our Savior, we went through a quick process of identifying with Christ. It was like our spiritual self was transported back to the cross. A part of us - our old self - died with Jesus on the cross, and a new self came alive just like Jesus came back to life in a different and more powerful body. Body 2.0 - it was a little different looking because people didn't recognize him right away.

What happened to Jesus physically on that weekend is what happens to us spiritually at salvation - we die and we're then born again. We now have a new self. That is a huge help when it comes to living a life that pleases God. We don't have to be slaves of sin.

We also have the indwelling Holy Spirit - God is on board. Romans 8:11 says that the Spirit of God who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you. The power that brought the dead back to life is in us. The power that created the heavens and the earth is in us. Paul said in Philippians 3:10 - "that I may know Him (personal) and the power of His resurrection (powerful), and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death (painful)."

Yes, we have fellowship with God - we can upload our requests to our Father; we can download grace. But there is this element of power. Acts 1:8 - you shall receive power after the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses of me ….

I confess that I don't know what this power is really all about, how much we really have latent inside. I have a feeling that most of us don't really experience much of it - wrapped in cloth, stuffed away, considered dangerous like enriched uranium. We're afraid to live with resurrection power. It makes us look silly, not cool.

3. FUTURE - THE RESURRECTION GIVES US HOPE
Read: 1 Corinthians 15: 23, 51-58

Titus 2:13 - Waiting for the blessed hope, the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ

2 Corinthians 4:16-5:9 - Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal. For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a home not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our dwelling that is from heaven ... For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. So we are always confident, knowing that while we are here in the body we are absent from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him.

Romans 8:11 - But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

1 Peter 1:3 - Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

As we sit here today, we are not in God the Father's presence, we are not fully home, but we are on the way, and we can earn treasures on the way to enjoy when we get back home. I am worried that most of us don't think much about home - we are so taken up with the excitement of travel, and the glitter of Vanity Fair, that we don't think of how far away we are from Papa. Some of us may be disappointed to go home - to wake up in heaven.

I would like to be like the old man who conversed with God so often that when he died he just continued, "as I was saying Lord …"