Reality of the Resurrection

Turn to 1 Corinthians 15 - Page 1142

Today we begin a new study about the Resurrection. called the Resurrection Life. what the Resurrection of Christ means for me. We will do this by studying the whole chapter of 1 Corinthians 15.

If you had to pick a list of the 10 greatest chapters in the Bible, I believe you would need to put 1 Corinthians 15 on that list because of its doctrinal content,

because it is the definitive chapter on the Resurrection, our Resurrection, Jesus' Resurrection,

the Resurrection as it pertains to the whole gospel message.

It is just one of the greatest chapters in scripture.

As you know, the Corinthians were a group of people, a church, in a city that was riddled with problems.

And Paul writes 1 Corinthians to corrective their errant perspective on a number of behavioral and doctrinal issues.

And evidently, they were confused in regards to the Resurrection.

And perhaps that's why Paul made this section so long

because this was so vital,

so important, that he wanted to take his time,

belabor the issue.

Because the Resurrection is not just Jesus' Resurrection,

but because of Jesus' Resurrection, that guarantees our resurrection.

It's part and parcel of the gospel, i

s the redemption of our physical bodies.

And thus, he writes about the Resurrection.

1 Corinthians 15:1-11 “1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8 Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. 9 For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. “10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. 11 Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.”

The Corinthians were confused about the resurrection

Now, why was there confusion in the Corinthian Church about this issue?

By the way, I find there's a lot of confusion today in church,

in churches, regarding the Resurrection,

regarding life after death.

I've done a lot of funerals over the past several decades.

And I listen to people-- I listen to churchgoing people as they talk about the death of a loved one.

While i Know emotions are a factor, but we seemed to be missing somehitng about what the resurrection means.

Well, if you are a Bible-believing Christian,

your body will, one day, though it is in the process of decaying and decomposition and will turn to dust, at some point, will be raised.

There will be a resurrection.

But I find that even believers are very sketchy when it comes to the details of this, like the Corinthians.

But back to the question.

The Why were the Corinthians so confused about the Resurrection?

Answer-- they lived in a Greek culture.

The Greeks thought the body was a prison.

The Greeks abhorred the idea of a resurrection.

Paul had been in Athens, and when he was in Athens, which is a city just a few miles away from Corinth--

and he was on the Areopagus on Mars Hill-- p

art of Paul's message was the resurrection from the dead. And they laughed at him.

They thought that was so bizarre.

Because to a Greek, the idea that you would ever want this body to come alive again was absurd.

Because the Greeks taught and thought that the body was a tomb for the spirit.

Death liberated the spirit.

And so why would you ever want to be shackled and imprisoned, entombed again in a physical body?

That's how they saw it.

So they did not believe in or entertain the thought of a resurrection. That's the culture of Corinth, a Greek culture.

The Romans didn't believe in resurrection.

Also, it was culturally a Roman province, and the Romans did not believe in a resurrection.

You remember when Paul stood in Caesarea, and he preached to Festus, and he talked about the resurrection from the dead? He spoke about the death, burial, and Resurrection of Christ and that I believe in the resurrection of the dead, he said.

Acts 26:24–25 (ESV)

24 And as he was saying these things in his defense, Festus said with a loud voice, “Paul, you are out of your mind; your great learning is driving you out of your mind.” 25 But Paul said, “I am not out of my mind, most excellent Festus, but I am speaking true and rational words.

And Festus interrupted him and said, Paul, your much learning has made you mad. Dude, you have been hitting the books, reading so much, it just drove you nuts. I mean, that's crazy. That's absurd. So the Greeks didn't believe in a resurrection, the Romans didn’t either.

The Sadducees – Did not believe in the resurrection.

The Sadducees, the Pharisees did.

But the Sadducees were pure materialists.

They did not believe that there were angels or spirits, and they didn't believe in the Resurrection.

They did believe in the concept of Sheol, but no physical body in the afterlife.

In fact, they came to Jesus one time with a trick question. They said, we had this guy, and he was married to a gal. (Matthew 22: 23-33)

All of theses people did believe in some type of an afterlife, but it was different then what Christianity was.

Christianity holds to an afterlife, where our bodies will be resurrected.

Both the saved and the unsaved.

The saved will be resurrected to a life of eternity in the presence of Christ.

The unsaved will be resurrected to eternal torment and darkness.

Christ’s resurrection is fact because:

1 Corinthians 15:1-2 “1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.”

gospel means the good news, which I preach to you, which you also received.

I preached it.

they heard it.

then received it.

they internalized it.

they believed and were saved

1. The Evidence of Christians in Corinth.

Evidence number one for Jesus' Resurrection-- number one,

the fact that there were believers in Corinth, that in this pagan city,

there were some who believed the message the Paul preached.

And in believing the message that Paul preached,

which is the death, burial, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ,

it totally transformed their lives.

That's the first evidence, is the existence of Christians in Corinth.

You believe the gospel?

Inherent in the gospel is the Resurrection of Christ from the dead.

You see, a dead savior can't save.

A dead savior does no one any good.

The idea that Jesus

lived a good life,

He was a good person,

He taught some wonderful things,

then He died,

He's dead and never came back. So what?

That's a philosophy.

That's not transformative.

What is transformative is Jesus who died got back up,

which means he can conquer death.

If he can conquer death

Anybody that has the power to do that has the power to do anything else he promises.

So if He promises he can transform your life, then He can and he will if you let Him. So that's the first line of evidence-- the existence of Christians in Corinth.

Look at the next couple of verses....

1 Corinthians 15:3-4 “3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,”

This statement is widely accepted as the earliest church creed,

which began circulating as early as AD 30-36, shortly after Jesus’ resurrection.

Considering the early age of this creed, there was not sufficient time between the crucifixion and the creed for any legend about Jesus’ resurrection to accrue.

In addition, the witnesses mentioned were still alive and available to be questioned about the facts surrounding the resurrection.

The early date of this creed also proves that the church did not corrupt the truth about Jesus with fables and folklores.

Rather, the early church simply clung to the plain and incontrovertible facts of Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection.

Evidence number two-- the prediction of the Resurrection found in the scripture.

2. The Evidence of Fulfilled Prophecies.

1 Corinthians 15:3 “3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures,”

When did Paul receive that? When did Paul receive the gospel first?

Well, the Damascus road was his moment of transformation.

He had heard from Stephen about Jesus, but when he really embraced the gospel was the Damascus road.

He received it.

Then he spent three years in Arabia,

working through the theological implications of that,

internalizing it, before he went out and shared with the rest of the world.

So he heard it. He received it. He was transformed by it. "

1 Corinthians 15:3-4 “3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,”

The scriptures predicted the suffering of the Messiah. Isaiah 53-- graphic detail, the suffering serpent.

Actually, the end of Isaiah 52 and then Isaiah 53. In graphic detail, wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities. +

Isaiah 53:5 (ESV)

5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.

Isaiah 53:9 (ESV)

9 And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.

Peter did on the day of Pentecost.

He reached back to Psalm 16, quoting what David said in the Psalm.

PSALM 16:10 “10 For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption.”

And Peter makes the point that David wasn't talking about himself

because he died, and his tomb is here in Jerusalem, and his body did decay.

So when he said you won't allow your Holy One to see decay,

Peter said David wasn't talking about himself.

He was talking about the Son of David,

the ancestor of David,

Jesus, the Messiah, who did not see decay. He was in a tomb and rose again. So he quotes Psalm 16.

But still, you don't have three days.

But, where exactly does the Old Testament predict the Resurrection of Jesus Christ on the third day?

Jesus himself goes back to the book of Jonah and announces beforehand,

Matthew 12:40 “40 For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”

However, there's nothing in Jonah that announces the burial and residing of Jesus or the Messiah in the tomb for three days prior to a Resurrection.

Hosea 12:10 “10 I spoke to the prophets; it was I who multiplied visions, and through the prophets gave parables.”

But interesting-- in the prophet Josiah, Josiah said that God spoke through the prophets in similitudes or in parables. So that's why we believe and we know that there are types in the Old Testament that are fulfilled in the New. So let me throw something out at you.

Turn to Genesis 22 Page 19 in the Pew Bibles

In Genesis chapter 22, there's the story of Abraham sacrificing Isaac or almost sacrificing Isaac.

Genesis 22:1-2 “1 After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 2 He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.””

But the wording is interesting. Take your only son. Sounds a lot like John 3:16-- "for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son."

Take now your son, your only son, whom you love-- the very first time the word of "love" is used in the Bible,

it's used there in Genesis chapter 22.

And it's remarkable because the first time in the Bible the word "love" is used,

it's used of a father sacrificing his only begotten son on a certain mountain, the mountain of Moriah.

Fast forward a few thousand years.

Jesus was crucified on Calvary, Golgotha, Mount Moriah.

OK. So Abraham goes-- probably he was down in Hebron-- he goes toward Mount Moriah,

which would become Jerusalem eventually.

Genesis 22:4 “4 On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar.”

What does that mean?

It means that for three days, Isaac was dead in the mind of Abraham.

Take your son, your only son, and kill him.

And he said, OK, I'll do it.

So he's taking his son, and he travels to Moriah for three days.

For three days, his son was dead to him. He knew that he was going to kill his son.

But Abraham had a little bit of a, quandary didn't he?

Because God promised him that through that son, Isaac, all of the promises of God would be fulfilled throughout history.

So if I kill him, how is God going to fulfill the promise? Well, the Book of Hebrews answers that question.

Hebrews 11:17-19 “By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.”

So he's taking his son. His son is dead to him for three days. He takes his son up the mountain

Genesis 22:7-8 “7 And Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” 8 Abraham said, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So they went both of them together.”

He built the alter

Laid the wood on the alter

Bound Issac and laid Him on the alter

He's going to follow through.

He has the knife lifted up.

Genesis 22:13-14 “13 And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 So Abraham called the name of that place, “The Lord will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.””

That was a prophecy, a prediction.

In the mountain of the Lord, Mount Moriah, Golgotha, Calvary, it was seen. So once again, back to 1 Corinthians 15.

1 Corinthians 15:3-4 “3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,”

So line of evidence number one-- the Resurrection of Jesus Christ saved people in Corinth. Number two-- the evidence of the scripture. Thirdly:

3. The evidence of the post-resurrection appearances.

Evidence number three-- post-Resurrection appearances. Jesus appeared to people after he had risen.

1 Corinthians 15:5-8 “5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8 Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.”

Paul lists a number of people who saw the risen Savior.

None of these were expecting a resurrection, especially not Paul.

The sheer number of witnesses argues against the possibility of hallucination. The moral integrity of the witnesses—men who gave the world its highest moral teaching—precludes the possibility of fabrication.

To doubt the resurrection of Jesus you have to say that all of these witnesses were deceived or deceivers.

that is Peter, then by the 12th. "After that, he was seen by over 500 brethren at once, of whom the greater part remained to the present, but some have fallen asleep."

Fallen asleep is a euphemism for death because the corpse looks like it's sleeping. It's a nice way of saying they died.

And then verse 7. "After that, he was seen by James, then by all the apostles."

and then in verse 8 it was Paul.

Now, that's eyewitness testimony, post-Resurrection eyewitness testimony.

So we see that the reality of the resurrection is that it happened. The many eyewitness prove it was not a hoax or a legend. The idea that menthousand years before Christ prophesied it. and the Changes lives of the Corinthians prove it.

IMPLICATIONS:

The Resurrection Changes Everything.

But look at these post-Resurrection appearances.

Think about Cephus. (Peter)

Remember, Jesus thought that it was important that he had a special meeting with Peter after the Resurrection.

in John 21 Jesus ask Peter, do you love me?

He asked him three times.

He was restoring the apostle who fell. So he was seen by Cephus.

In John 21 we see Jesus comes to redeem the person who denied him a few days before.

Peter was changed by the resurrection of Jesus. Peter is a different person when we turn to the book of Acts. He is bold , courageous, on fire for Christ.

What about James

James, in particular, is fascinating.

Brother of Jesus, we talked about it when we went through the book of James.

Seemingly, it seemed, an unbeliever while Jesus was doing his public ministry.

John chapter 7 says even his own brothers did not believe in Him. But something radically changed him.

He was in the upper room waiting for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

He became a pillar in the church in Jerusalem.

What happened? Jesus appeared to him, personally, and James fell down and worshiped him.

Think about Thomas....

Then by the 12th, Jesus appeared to his disciples on the night of the Resurrection, but thomas was not there. In the 20th chapter of John, Jesus appeared to 10 of the disciples when thomas was not there. and when they said he was alive

Then he appears to the disciples 8 days later and Thomas was with them, and he saw the risen lord.

There Thomas meets the resurrected Lord, touches His wounds and is changed and believed.

Then there is Paul

1 Corinthians 15:8-11 “8 Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. 9 For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. 11 Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.”

We are introduced to Paul in Acts as he holds the coats for those stoning Steven

The he becomes the greatest enemy and persecutor of all Christians.

He hated them and wanted them dead.

Then Paul meets the Resurrected Lord on the Damascus and is changed.

By God’s grace Paul becomes the goes form the greatest enemy to the greatest missionary Christianity has ever known.

While the other twelve disciples go and become witnesses, we see Paul makes a great impact on the world through planting churches and preaching the gospel.

What was the common denominator in these changes, and others was the ressurection.

The ressurection changes things, it can change you.

There is a story of a man who claimed to have seen Jesus while he was shaving.

His pastor asked him, ''What did you do when you saw Jesus?''

The man began to respond, ''Well, I quickly finished shaving and then...''

when the pastor cut him off.

''You didn't see him,'' said the wise preacher.

''Because if you had seen Jesus you would not have kept shaving.

For people who've truly seen Jesus don't go back to doing the same stuff they were doing before they saw Him.''

If you are here are you wounded and wayward from your own sins,

I want you to see Him with big wide open arms...saying come home, come home. Don't go back to your old life of wandering.

If you are struggling with the issues of life and just need a place to rest, see Him today with big strong shoulders to lean on, saying, '

'Come unto Me all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest.'' Don't go back to your life of doubt and confusion.

And if you are lost in your sins and you've never been saved, see Him today with a heart of love and forgiveness saying, ''Come. Come. Come now let us reason together says the Lord, though your sins be as scarlet they can be as white as wool.'' And don't go back to your old life of sin.

In every case, if you'll see Jesus, you'll never be the same again.

We Need The Gospel Continuously.

look again at the opening words of this foundational passage...Now I would remind you.

Why does Paul begin that way. Because they were forgetting. They were prone to forget.

1 Corinthians 15:1-3 “1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.” 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures,”

Paul is again sharing them the gospel, Reminding them of it.

Because the gospel is more than just getting saved.

It is about always remembering that the gospel is something that should not be forgotten.

It must be first importance in our lives, and our church.

The Gospel of Jesus is not only the FIRE that ignites the Christian life, it's the FUEL that keeps Christians going and growing each day of their lives.

it is that same message of grace that saves us and sanctifies us.

C. S. Lewis: ''The gospel is the old, old story that should never feel like the same ole story.''

The good news that saves you is also the good news that sustains you in your walk with Christ.

We come to God through the power of the Gospel

and we live for God through the power of the Gospel.

That's why we don't we don't move on from the Gospel to greater things.

There is nothing greater, nothing more important than the Gospel.

So how doe do that??????

We must preach the Gospel to ourselves daily

1 Corinthians 15:1 “1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand,”

We must remind ourselves of the Gospepl every day.

To preach the gospel to yourself, then, means that you continually face up to your own sinfulness and then flee to Jesus through faith in His shed blood and righteous life. (Jerry Bridges, The Discipline of Grace)

It is to wake up each day and acknowledge your weakness; utter inability to save yourself.

It is to wake up each day and acknowledge you stand only by God's grace.

It is to wake up each day and acknowledge all your sins, all your wrongs, all your failures, past, present, and future have been covered by Jesus' death. He paid the ransom!

It is to wake up each day and acknowledge you have peace with God.

It is to wake up each day and acknowledge you don't have to live in guilt,

that the sins that tempt you even now are the reason Jesus suffered and died,

that because of the gospel you have power to die to the old self and put on the new self,

that you don't have to be afraid of death,

because you will be raised as He was raised.

It is to wake up each day and acknowledge, to embrace, you do not belong to yourself,

for you have been bought with a price: the shed blood of Christ.

You are wonderfully His and nothing, no one can take that away from you.

What would your day be like if those gospel-centered, gospel-rooted, those gospel-informed truths were “of first importance” in your heart and mind?

How do they speak to the fear, the anxiety, the regret, the bitterness, the desires, the anger, the confusion, the pride we all battle with, on a daily basis?

The Gospel the resurrection are the key.

The reality of the Ressurection is that it changes us.