The Resurrection Message

By the time I made it to seminary in 1970, it was obvious the church was not too concerned with heaven.  It was the beginning of an era when the church did not want to be regarded as being other worldly.  There was not really much need to worry since the church was in the process of becoming too earthly.  The church which was being accused of having been too other worldly was moving toward becoming a church that could only see what was in this world.  Service took the place of spirituality.  Sermons about life after death were reserved for the final words at the cemetery.   

At some point the church seems to have come to a place of being embarrassed to preach the resurrection of Jesus and the life that is promised in the heavenly place.  It became something which was out of step with the secularism of the culture and the church out of its desire to be attractive and to blend with culture started watering down what was left of any proclamations about the resurrected Jesus.  Easter Sunday sermons became messages about difficult things being made new instead of of preaching which announced that death has been overcome by the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.  

I Corinthians 15 makes it clear that the resurrection of Jesus is the primary doctrine of our faith.  Without the resurrection of Jesus, the church has no message and the only task remaining for it is to lock the doors after a final benediction.  The message that Jesus has died for us and has risen from the grave is a message which shakes the foundation of every power of evil and, yet, even now a congregation is fortunate to hear it boldly proclaimed at least one Sunday out of the year.  Anyone wanting to hear about heaven needs to go to a funeral instead of the church.