Better Than Being Good!

Text: 1 Corinthians 15:20-28

Focus: Easter

Function: To help people realize fully the grace given in the atonement.

Form: Theological teaching

Intro:

You heard the “Good for nothing” joke:

• Three boys talking about their dad’s expectations of them.
• One’s father was the principal of the school, he said, “Dad says my behavior reflects on him, so every semester that goes by that I don’t get in any trouble at school, I get to go to a ball game with him.”
• Another’s father is a policeman. He said: “Dad told me it might seem unreasonable for him to expect perfection out of me just because I am cop’s son. So, dad gives me 2 dollars every week that I don’t get in trouble at school.”
• The third boy’s dad was a preacher. He said: “Dad makes his living by preaching to do right and do good. He says that God will ultimately reward me for being good, so for now, I guess I am good for nothing.

(SHOW) Are we good for nothing? What is better than being good?

You know what? Everyone in the world has to deal with the fact of Jesus’ life.

Almost everyone knows about Him.

I know that in most Buddhist countries, instead of swearing with the name of Jesus, they most often say: “Holy Cow.” But the knowledge of Jesus is still there.

If one talks to a Muslim and that Muslim mentions Jesus they will say: “Jesus, upon him be peace.” They believe in the virgin birth and consider Him to be one of the greatest prophets.

Gandhi started out his education in a Christian Seminary, actually considering the calling of becoming a Christian and a pastor until he abandoned the faith because the English invaders claimed to be Christians, but they were oppressing the English people. They refused the very simple teaching of Jesus to turn the other cheek. But worse, they compromised NT Christianity with an English form of Civil religion. That is why he abandoned our faith. He said: “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”

I wish, by the way, he had met us. I am not saying we are the best, but we do know that what he was talking about, the command to turn the other cheek and love our enemies, are values that we are willing to die for. But that was something that he just wasn’t seeing in the Christians he knew.

The Brethren, then, started a mission in India and because of these values, the Church grew quickly there, because they saw Jesus and people who actually followed Him.

Now don’t get me wrong, there are believers across this country that love Jesus and don’t share those aspects of our values.

I was raised with this principle. My dad said to me: “Jesus taught us to turn the other cheek; I am telling you the same thing. If someone strikes you on the cheek, turn the other.”

I don’t know about you, but to a young man trying to prove himself in this violent world, that concept sounded ridiculous to me.

So Brian somebody, the classic bully, the kid twice the size of the rest of us, the kid who could make his nostrils flare like a demon decided that he and his imps were going to make all the kids bow down and worship him behind the metal lathe in shop class.

It was the classic bully story and I did my best to avoid him. This went of for a few weeks and after I thought I had escaped the test, they caught me and hauled me back in front of this monster. Trembling with fear, I refused to bow to him, telling him that I will only bow to Jesus, my Lord and Savior. And God did intervene; the bully was so shocked at my resolve that he just melted away.

But enough about us, let’s get back to Jesus and the question: “What is better than being good?”

Those last two stories are not off the subject. They address the question about the meaning of Christianity. To many people, maybe to most, the concept of Christianity is supposed to be the concept of being good.

I don’t think anything was and is a better witness to that than the earthquake in Haiti. Christians were already on the ground when it happened. Throughout the land, the places where there is respite from the poverty are the places where Christians are already doing Christ’s good works. They are preaching the good news of salvation through the shed blood of Jesus, the power of the resurrection over sin, bondage, addiction and death itself while overcoming the structures that have kept them in poverty for generations.

(SHOW) Christians are left here on the earth to do good. Ephesians 2:10: “He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.”

One could say instead of being good for nothing, we are good for eternity because Jesus saved us.

On Easter, we celebrate the fact that He saved us and we didn’t save ourselves.

Look at the verses leading up to the last one: (SHOW) Ephesians 2:7-9: “Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It's God's gift from start to finish! We don't play the major role. If we did, we'd probably go around bragging that we'd done the whole thing!”

I used to tell my kids whenever they went somewhere: “Remember who you are and who you represent.”

It was my way of saying, “You better be good!”

We better be good because it reflects Jesus Christ.

But I gotta tell you. This salvation that Jesus gave us is better than being good.

Look at verse 19 from our text: (SHOW) “If all we get out of Christ is a little inspiration for a few short years, we're a pretty sorry lot.”

Gandhi, Mohammed and many Westerners all accept the fact that Jesus was a good man. They accept that Jesus called us to continue His good works. He stood up for the poor and without raising the national debt, or raising taxes, He gave free health care to everyone!

He condemned religious leaders who hurt and marginalized other people’s sins without looking honestly at their own sins of greed, abuse of power and hypocrisy.

Ask an Atheist, or an Agnostic: “What do you think of Jesus?” And almost without a doubt the answer will be He was a good man, or the idea of Him is a great example for us.

Some, very liberal theologians try to say He was merely the “Christ light.” They imply that all He represents is a good way for people to treat each other.

Gandhi justified his rejection of Christianity because the ideas that Jesus taught, especially the golden rule: “Don’t treat others badly if that is how they treat you, instead treat them the way you want to be treated” weren’t practiced.

Talk to a person who doesn’t like a Christian who works with them, I mean a sincere Christian, and you will probably hear the phrase: “So and So is a goody two shoes.”

Goodness is the essence of God; it is His command for us to practice; it was personified in a perfect way, without hypocrisy, when God became a man and walked among humanity in Jesus Christ.

(SHOW) But the fact is, not one of us can actually match that standard that Jesus set. He raised the bar of perfection higher than is possible by any mere mortal.

In all of our desire to be good, to do well, to be thought of as kind, just, compassionate, generous, honest, sincere, in our passion, to be thought of as decent, moral and upright, none of us comes close to Jesus.

You see, there is the whole death and resurrection thing here that proves it.

And if all that is happening in our Christian faith is, (Re-SHOW) “a little inspiration for a few short years, we are a pretty sorry lot.”

If that is all there is, if we aren’t endowed with an human soul, if we are merely dust and water that can think, dream, hope, create, inspire as well as do evil, then being good has no meaning.

But we have to believe in eternity. We have to believe that truly evil people, like Hitler, will face a judgment for the incredible misery they created. If he “gets away with it,” if he dies the same as Jesus, even though Jesus’ legacy is a tremendous one of doing good, loving mercy and sacrificial, unconditional love which is the polar opposite of Hitler’s legacy of death, destruction and evil, in the end, both men would just be dead.

If that is life, then it is meaningless. Gandhi rejected Christianity because the so called Christians that had conquered his land and ruled his people taught that there was more to life than merely being born, living, doing either good or evil, or a combination of both and then dying with the same fate awaiting all of us.

Gandhi saw, even though he wasn’t a Christian that there is much more to human life, a much deeper spiritual experience than this one life, lived in a selfish existence with no consequence for doing evil.

God understands this also. The entire book of Ecclesiastes in the OT is devoted overcoming this philosophy that nothing really matters. Solomon starts out writing the book by echoing the same fears and cynicisms of modern philosophers who refuse to acknowledge God’s sense of justice. He says in (show) Ecclesiastes 2:13-16: But I did see that it's better to be smart than stupid, just as light is better than darkness. Even so, though the smart ones see where they're going and the stupid ones grope in the dark, they're all the same in the end. One fate for all—and that's it. When I realized that my fate's the same as the fool's, I had to ask myself, "So why bother being wise?" It's all smoke, nothing but smoke. The smart and the stupid both disappear out of sight. In a day or two they're both forgotten. Yes, both the smart and the stupid die, and that's it.

In our culture, we are becoming spiritual again and we are saying, if not for God, then at least for our children, we should be good and do well for each other.

But listen, to stop at being good, to stop at a moral call to do well and fight for justice is meaningless without the truth we see in this passage. It is merely a little inspiration for a few years.

Don’t believe for one moment that this idea of resurrection, miracles, the meaning of life, and the question of life after death is merely superstitious imagination is new.

Paul preaches this text because that is exactly what was happening in the Church in Corinth.

People doubted the fact of the Resurrection. If it didn’t happen, then we are still lost in our sins.

Living sacrificial lives is meaningless from an eternal perspective because the same fate happens to everyone.

Living sacrificial lives would only be beneficial in behalf of future generations.

There is a lot of theology in this passage. I love the way it says, (SHOW) “There is a nice symmetry in this: Death initially came by a man, and resurrection from death came by a man.”

People ask why we are so exclusive in our claim that salvation is in Jesus alone. Others may wonder, just as Gandhi did, if we merely use that thought as an excuse to place ourselves first. In light of what is happening in Haiti, in light of the fact that the main, perhaps only true care given in India itself happens at the hands of the Christian Church, I resent that remark. But I understand it.

England wrapped Christianity in its flag and the people in India resented Christ because of it.

The gospel was second place to their financial interests.

But Paul is speaking of living well, doing good, remembering that our reward is in heaven because of the fact of the resurrection.

Christians must place the gospel above their own personal interests.

Jesus is not the civic God of whatever nation wraps it in its own flag. (SHOW) Jesus is Savior of the entire world! You too!

In Adam, the father of all of humanity, sin has come to every single human being.

In Jesus, the Savior of all Humanity, forgiveness comes to every single human who calls upon the name of Jesus.

The theology is this, we are born in sin. That same passage in Ephesians says that we are born “dead in our sins.”

Through faith in Christ we rise from spiritual death to new life. We join God’s family in His Great adventure.

If Jesus didn’t rise from the dead, then life is meaningless and we are “good for nothing.”

But because of Easter, (SHOW) We are better than good, we are saved for eternity.