Good News: Christ Was Resurrected
1 Corinthians 15:1-11
Introduction:
Atheist Richard Carrier of Columbia University writes in his Internet article entitled “Why I Don’t Buy the Resurrection”— “So this is where we end up. We have no trustworthy evidence of a physical resurrection, no reliable witnesses. It is among the most poorly attested of historical events.”
Denial of the resurrection of the dead is nothing new. It has been going on for centuries.
A nineteenth century poet by the name of Charles Swinburne wrote:
From too much love of living,
From hope and fear set free,
We thank with brief thanksgiving
Whatever gods may be
That no life lives forever;
That dead men rise up never;
That even the weariest river
Winds somewhere safe to sea.
In Paul’s day, a motto that hung in Athens read, “Once a man dies and the earth drinks up his blood, there is no resurrection.” It’s no surprise then that when Paul preached the gospel at Athens and declared the truth of Christ’s resurrection, some of his listeners sneered at him (Acts 17:32).
When attacks and denials of resurrection like those I mentioned are heralded by the false teachers of the world, how do we respond? Do we remain steadfast and immovable in our firm belief in the resurrection of the dead, or do we allow the views of the world to shake us?
The view of the graveside reveals the reality of the good news we preach. If it doesn’t wash there, it doesn’t wash at all. Praise the Lord that God has given us an altogether different view of the graveside than that of the pagan world around us. We understand from Scripture that believers in Jesus Christ will be resurrected. As believers, we do not grieve as those who have no hope. For those who die in Christ, it’s like a farewell at the airport–we know we will see our loved ones again because of the promise of resurrection.
Unfortunately, the denial of the resurrection of the dead infiltrated the church at Corinth. The result—their confidence in the resurrection of the dead was being shaken. In response to this need, Paul wrote 1 Corinthians 15.
It is an important point of clarification to observe that the church in Corinth did believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The fact of His resurrection was not in question. The issue for the Corinthians was whether or not they themselves would be resurrected from the dead.
In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul presents arguments to prove our resurrection–that we will one day rise from the dead. He begins his argument with a reminder to the Corinthians of the gospel message he preached to them and how they responded to his ministry. Paul puts special emphasis on the fact of Christ’s resurrection. He wants believers to understand:
The doctrine of resurrection is absolutely essential to the gospel message.
If there is no resurrection, there is no good news and our faith is useless.
Paul reminds the Corinthians of their response to the gospel (15:1-2a)
Read 15:1-2
They have received and taken their stand on the gospel
They are saved by and are holding firmly to the gospel
By the gospel message, the Corinthians are assured of deliverance from sins’ power and condemnation—if they held firmly to the word Paul preached to them. Because of Paul’s use of the first class condition in the original Greek, “if” is better translated “since.” It is clearly Paul’s conviction that the Corinthians are holding firmly to the word he preached to them about Christ.
Paul warns the Corinthians about the useless faith of those who deny resurrection (15:2b)
Paul adds—“Otherwise, you have believed in vain.” Saving faith is faith in a resurrected Christ who will come back to resurrect us. This is not the faith of some who had infiltrated the ranks of the Corinthian church. Paul warns us against the faith of these people. Their faith is a useless, vain, non-saving faith. Faith is vain if it is belief in a crucified, non-resurrected Christ. Faith is also vain if it is a belief in a crucified, resurrected Christ who will not later come to resurrect the physical bodies of those who die in Him.
Paul repeats the essential elements of the gospel (15:3-11)
Paul shares with the Corinthians the message he received from God. Paul’s teaching carries God’s authority, it is not something of his own origination. These are not His words, but God’s. Paul shares this message as a matter of first importance. No other message is as important as the one Paul summarizes in verses 3-5 (Read 15:3-5). Paul uses four verbs to summarize the gospel.
Christ died for our sins.
Christ was buried.
Christ was raised on the third day.
Christ appeared before eyewitnesses.
The gospel message includes two main facts and the proofs of those facts:
Fact #1: Christ died for our sins.
Why is sin mentioned? Why is sin a problem? Until we understand the problem of sin, we will never grasp the significance of what Christ did for us. The word for sin here means, “to miss the mark.” We have all missed the mark. God set a standard for us and all of us have missed it (Romans 3:23). Because we all sin and thereby fall short of God’s glory, we are under a severe penalty. The wages we earn by our sin is death (Romans 6:23a). Until we understand our desperate need, we will never grasp why what Jesus did on the cross for us is such good news.
Why is the death of Jesus so unique and significant? Paul tells us that Christ died for us. He died as our substitute. He took our place, bearing on the cross the penalty of sin we deserve—death—in order that we might live.
Illustration:
Boarding the SS Dorchester on a dreary winter day in 1943 were 903 troops and four chaplains. World War II was in full swing, and the ship was headed across the icy North Atlantic where German U-boats lurked. At 12:00 on the morning of February 3, a German torpedo ripped into the ship. "She's going down!" the men cried, scrambling for lifeboats. A young GI crept up to one of the chaplains. "I've lost my life jacket," he said. "Take this," the chaplain said, handing the soldier his jacket. Before the ship sank, each chaplain gave his life jacket to another man. The heroic chaplains then linked arms and lifted their voices in prayer as the Dorchester went down. The chaplains died so that their fellow soldiers might live. In a similar way, Jesus died for us. He took upon Himself the penalty we deserve in order that we might live.
Proof: Christ was buried.
The fact of Jesus’ death is proven true in two ways. The first proof of death is the historical account recorded for us here—Christ was buried. Burial is a proof of death.
Proof: The Scriptures
The second proof of Jesus’ death is Scripture. Christ died according to the Scriptures. Many years prior to Jesus’ death on the cross, prophets of old predicted He would die for the sins of the world. Christ’s death is clearly a part of God’s plan all of the time:
Psalm 22, in amazing detail, predicts several of the events associated with Jesus’ crucifixion.
Probably the most familiar prediction of Christ’s death in Old Testament Scripture is Isaiah 53:5-6- “But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”
Fact #2: Christ was raised on the third day.
Why is the resurrection of Christ such a critical part of the gospel message?
Romans 4:25 tells us, “He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.”
Christ’s resurrection is the proof of God’s acceptance of Jesus’ sacrifice for our sins. Jesus’ resurrection demonstrates that God’s justice and holiness have been satisfied. Because Jesus lives, God can credit the righteousness Jesus provides to the account of every person who responds to that offer by trusting in Christ. If Jesus was not resurrected, it would indicate God did not accept His sacrifice and there would therefore be no righteous standing before God or deliverance from sin’s penalty.
How do we know for sure that Jesus has in fact been resurrected from the dead?
Proof: The Scriptures
Like Jesus’ death, His resurrection was predicted many years earlier in the Old Testament Scriptures.
Psalm 16:10- “…because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay.”
At Pentecost, when the apostle Peter addressed the crowd, he quoted this Old Testament passage as proof of David’s anticipation of the resurrection of the Messiah (Acts 2:25-31).
Jonah 1:17- “But the LORD provided a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was inside the fish three days and three nights.”
Jesus cited the text in Jonah as a sign that was given of what would happen to Him.
Matthew 12:40- “For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”
The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is well attested to in the Old Testament Scripture. Remember what Jesus said to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus—“ ‘How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter His glory?’ And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning Himself” (Luke 24:25-27).
Proof: Christ appeared before eyewitnesses.
The second proof of Jesus’ resurrection was His physical appearance before several eyewitnesses (Read 15:6-11). Paul does not list here all of the post resurrection appearances of Jesus, but rather provides a sample selection to prove the reality of the resurrection. The list of appearances Paul cites shows that Christ appeared to individuals, small groups, and large crowds.
The six confirming eyewitnesses include: Peter, the twelve (at that time only 11), 500 brethren at the same time (most of whom are still living—“You can ask them to tell you what they saw”), James (probably not a believer at the time- John 7:5), all the apostles, and Paul himself (not a believer at the time).
What a profound affect seeing Christ resurrected had on these people! Consider for example how “the twelve” were affected. After Christ’s death, they locked themselves in a room and were terrified of what might happen to them. After seeing the resurrected Christ, they boldly proclaimed the good news of Christ’s death and resurrection. Neither ridicule, nor prison, nor torture, nor even threat of death could quiet these men. What happened? They saw Jesus resurrected.
The last mentioned witness of the resurrected Christ is Paul. Paul describes himself as one abnormally born. I believe this is a reference to the time at which Paul saw Jesus resurrected. Compared to the other apostles, Paul saw Jesus a lot later than they did. All the other apostles were with Jesus during his earthly ministry. Paul saw Jesus not only after His resurrection, but also after His ascension.
Paul was not only the last apostle to see Christ, but he was also the least of the apostles. He didn’t even regard himself deserving of being called an apostle. Why did Paul feel this way? Paul was an unbeliever and a zealous persecutor of the church before he saw Christ. At the death of Stephen, Paul was there giving approval to his death. Acts 8:3 says about him, “But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off men and women and put them in prison.”
Paul was last, least, and undeserving of being called an apostle, but just the same, neither the Corinthians nor any other group of people for that matter can discount Paul’s ministry or “write him off” because of his past. The grace of God was at work in Paul’s life and made him what he was.
By God’s grace, when Paul saw Jesus resurrected, he became a believer and was commissioned as an apostle. By God’s undeserved favor toward Him, Paul went from being the most zealous persecutor of the church to being the most hardworking apostle for the church.
Paul gives testimony that God’s grace was not without effect in his life. The energy and zeal Paul previously put into persecuting the church, Paul redirected to serve the church in the preaching of the gospel. In fact, Paul put forth even greater energy and zeal as the grace of God energized him for his labors. Paul mentions that he worked harder than any of the other apostles. Paul doesn’t mention the fact of his being the hardest working apostle as a matter of personal boast, but as a means of proclaiming what God has done by His grace to His glory.
In the final analysis, whether an apostle was last, least, or hardest working didn’t really matter. The important thing to Paul is that the gospel is preached. Paul and all the other apostles preached the gospel, and this is the message the Corinthians believed.
The gospel is:
Jesus died for our sins, was buried, was raised three days later, and appeared.
What are the implications of this passage for our life today?
Where are you this morning? Have you, like Paul, experienced the transforming work of God’s grace in your life? Have you, like the Corinthians, responded in faith to the gospel message? God’s work of changing lives isn’t just for people in ages past. This morning, we heard one of many present day examples of how faith in Jesus Christ in response to the gospel message continues to bring both the hope of salvation and a changed life. If you have not yet done so:
1. Trust in Jesus, believing that He died and was raised for you.
What does God ask us to believe in order to be saved from sin and given the hope of eternal life?:
We must believe that Jesus died for our sins.
We must believe that Jesus was resurrected.
Believing that these facts are true is a must for anyone who desires to be saved.
We must believe in Jesus–We must trust in Him.
Do you believe in Jesus? What does it mean to believe in Jesus? To believe in Jesus means more than giving intellectual assent to the facts about Him. To believe in Jesus is to come to the end of ourselves and to the end of thinking that we can somehow make it to God based on what we do. To believe in Jesus is to trust fully in Christ and what He has done as our only way to be saved and to receive eternal life. Have you trusted Christ as your personal Savior?
Illustration: Airplane. When we fly in an airplane, what are we doing to hold ourselves up? Nothing. We trust the airplane to get us to our destination. So we must fully rely on Christ, trusting Him to bring us to God.
Many object, “That seems to easy. Don’t I have to do something. Is trust in Christ really enough?” Friends, there is nothing we can do to make it to God. Our good works will never be good enough to earn us eternal life.
Jesus clearly taught that even the best of those who do good are not good enough to reach God on their own merit. He said, “For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of God.”
Here are some more verses that show us there is no way we can work our way to heaven: Romans 3:23- “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:10- “There is no one righteous, not even one.” Romans 3:20- “Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather through the law we become conscious of sin.”
Is trusting in Christ all that is needed for a person to have eternal life? Yes! Scripture teaches this principle over and over again. Allow me to give two examples:
Romans 4:3-4- “What does the Scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.’ Now when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation. However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness.”
Ephesians 2:8-9- “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith–and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God–not of works, so that no one can boast.”
If you were to die today, and God were to ask you, “Why should I let you into my heaven?” Would your response be, “I trust Jesus as my Savior from sin and my only way to heaven” or would it be, “I have done this, this, and this.” The first is the response of faith. Those who trust in Christ will have eternal life with God in heaven. The second response is one of rejection of Christ and unbelief. Those who trust what they do will never make it to heaven and will remain separated from God forever.
Allow God’s grace to have its effect, making us hard working witnesses for Christ.
Notice that it is by God’s grace that Paul worked hard. Paul’s ministry was energized by the undeserved favor of God, not by flesh. When God’s grace energizes and motivates us, we will work hard at sharing the gospel too. Are we working hard at sharing the good news with our neighbors, relatives, friends, and co-workers?
Many, when a challenge is given to evangelize, don’t feel motivated to work hard at spreading the gospel, but instead experience a negative emotion. Why is that? I wonder, is part of the problem that much of what we observe or think about evangelism is the product of what the flesh produces? I wonder, what difference would it make if evangelism were the entirely the product of God’s grace operating in our lives as it was for Paul? Consider some of the differences that exist between evangelism by the flesh and evangelism by the working of God’s grace in and through us.
GRACE FLESH
How do we motivate?:
Under grace, we challenge people to Under the flesh, people harang
consider all that Christ has done for them. others for what they are not doing and push them to do more.
What is our motivation?:
Under grace our motivation is Under the flesh, our motivation
Christ’s love for us and what He has is guilt for what we haven’t
done for us. done & still need to do.
We also tend to be driven by
applause of men and desire to
“get a notch in our belt.”
How do we look at those without Christ?
Under grace, we look at unbelievers as being Under the flesh, we look down
just like us before our eyes were opened to the on unbelievers in a
truth of the gospel and we trusted in Christ. condescending manner.
We consider ourselves to be like beggars
telling other beggars where to find the Bread of
Life. Like Paul, we consider ourselves to be last,
least, and undeserving.
What is our method?:
Under grace, we understand God saves people. Under the flesh, we think
We understand that salvation is God’s work somehow that “we do it.”
and that people are saved by God’s grace. We depend on our methods
We therefore depend on God– on our programs, and on our.
we depend on God in prayer; fancy arguments.
we depend on God by using His Word whenever
we can as we are witnessing to people,
understanding the power of the gospel
to save; we depend on Christ’s presence
and His power to help us overcome
our fears and doubts.
Under grace, we share not only the Under the flesh, there is a
gospel, but our lives as well as tendency to share without
the demonstration of our love genuine love and concern
for those with whom we are
sharing
Under grace we work hard, but trust Under the flesh, we work hard and try to
God to bring about the results. produce results ourselves.
What is the result:
Effectiveness & joy Ineffectiveness & frustration
We give our lives to share the gospel We give up or try harder with little result
The message is simple–Jesus died for our sins and three days later was raised that we might be saved through trusting in Christ. The gospel message is simple, but the process of sharing it can be intimidating and difficult. How can we overcome the fear and obstacles that come our way? The example of Paul answers our question. We need to look to God for His grace to energize and embolden us to effectively share the good news. It’s when we trust God for His provision that we are able to overcome the obstacles that the enemy tries to put in our way.
May God’s grace not be without effect in our lives. May God’s grace have its full effect making us hard working witnesses of the good news of Jesus Christ. May we be faithful in sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ with the love of Christ and with the power of the Holy Spirit, leaving the results to God. By God’s grace, may we work hard at sharing this simple message both by our life and by our lips: Jesus died for our sins and three days later was raised. When we trust in Him, He gives us life both abundant and eternal.