Of First Importance – In the New Year

Eastford Baptist Church
December 28, 2006

For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve.

(1 Corinthians 15: 3-5)

There are a lot of trivial facts floating around in our world. A good many of them arrive in the flow of emails that comes my way from day to day. A great deal of information that comes my way I simply call “useless facts.” While the information stated might be true, it probably won’t change my life to any great degree. So for what it’s worth, I thought I would share my top-ten collection of totally useless facts which I’ve collected during the year 2006:

1. Americans eat about 18 acres of pizzas each day.
2. It’s physically impossible to lick your elbow.
3. 50% of the people who hear that it is physically impossible to lick their elbow will try to lick their elbow.
4. It’s impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.
5. A duck quack doesn’t echo – and nobody knows why.
6. No word in the English language rhymes with “month, orange, silver, or purple.”
7. Each year donkeys kill more people than airplane crashes.
8. Walt Disney was terrified of mice.
9. Grapes explode when heated in a microwave.
10. Within 24 hours several people who read this will be cleaning grapes from the inside of a microwave.

So many useless facts – so little time to contemplate them all!

The story is told about the army of Alexander the Great invading Persia, & soon total victory belonged to Alexander & his troops. As they swept across the Empire the soldiers went through the villages & cities, taking whatever they wanted. In the capitol, some of them entered the palace of Darius, & one soldier found an attractive leather bag. He looked inside & discovered the crown jewels of Persia. But being ignorant of the value of precious stones, the soldier looked at them for a moment & concluded that they were simply worthless, shiny rocks. So he dumped them out on a pile of rubbish, but he kept the leather bag. He was seen time & time again, carrying his prized treasure, a leather bag, & boasting of the attractive container in which he carried his food.
We smile at a story like that, don’t we? But I wonder how many of us in life clutch worthless bags & throw away the precious stones? Paul says in the passage above that he passed on to us one piece of information that that is of first-importance - that according to the Scriptures, Jesus died, was buried, and on the third day he rose again. Here’s one fact that can potentially change the eternal life of every man woman and child on this planet – the fact of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Of all the other information that has come our way this past year – nothing will ever compare to this one piece of life-altering information.
Virtually every other fact of is irrelevant to our eternal destiny, which is the most important issue we face in this lifetime. When you think about it, despite the unending torrent of information we receive, there are very few things we really need to know to get along well in this life. I mean, we need to know our names, where we live, our phone number – and I’m sure that there are thousands of other facts we need to know in order to function properly in life. But as I reflect on the thousands pieces of information which have come my way this past year, nothing comes close to the simple statement that Jesus died, was buried but also rose victorious over the grave.
This coming year we will no doubt continue to be bombarded with a never ending stream of information. I will start another collection of useless but true facts. But at the beginning of this New Year and at the end of it, only one fact will hold the place of “first importance” - the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. May His name be gloried and this message of “first importance” be broadcasted to the world through our lives as we serve Him together this coming year.

Wishing you a Happy New Year,
PT