RESURRECTION SUNDAY

Good morning Church!

Glad to be here worshipping the RISEN CHRIST THIS MORNING

BIBLES OUT…1 CORINTHIANS 15:1-9

As you know , we set aside this holiday to focus on the resurrection of Jesus!

But honestly, this is where our focus should be every single day

On the greatest news the world has ever gotten

THE GOSPEL!

And so Today will be like every other day…placing our focus on the Gospel!!!

In 1 Corinthians 15 we find the Gospel!

This verse is the Gospel simplified…If someone asks you “where is the gospel in the bible?”

THE GREATEST NEWS!!!

Today we are going to open up to this text in 1 Corinthians 15 and swim in the Gospel of Jesus all morning

1 CORINTHIANS BACKGROUND:

Who is Paul talking to??

Corinth Background:

Port town in Ancient Greece

Sat just 50 miles west of Athens

Major port town,

massively populated

Rich, prosperous

A meshing of many different cultures and beliefs

Common place for philosophers and self helpers to come and speak

Home to the temple of Aphrodite (the goddess of love and physical pleasure)

So this was also a culture steeped in sexual sin

This is a city that very closely reflects our nation today…

It was here in this place that the Lord called Paul to plant a church on his 2nd missionary journey (ACTS 18)

In fact after the church was planted, Paul spent 18 months in Corinth

But after he left and moved on to other regions…

The world outside this church (idolatry, sexual sin, lust, greed) is seeping into the church

So the elders begin to write to Paul and inform him of what they are seeing and when Paul responds, we get the first letter to the Corinthians

So all throughout this letter Paul is responding to issues coming up in the church where people who are Christ followers are still going and partaking in the actions of the unsaved…

Not only that, they have begun to be influenced by false teachers, who are questioning the teachings of Paul about JESUS

And one thing they are highly questioning is the RESURRECTION OF JESUS CHRIST.

So in chapter 15 Paul addresses this…

BY SHOWING THE HARD EVIDENCE FOR THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS CHRIST

Anybody in here a fan of those crime shows???

Where theses cameras follow around real life detectives and we observe as they try and solve these various crimes

And the whole point is…TRYING TO FIND OUT THE TRUTH (What happened?)

You ever notice, the first thing they do is look for witnesses…(WHO SAW IT?)

Thats really how they get to the bottom of the truth…a lot of the evidence for the truth comes through witness…

Put your detective hat on for a second and let me ask you…

If you were trying to find the truth, what truly happened, in a case you were working…

1- And you had written evidence that this event was going to happen before it happened…

2- Then it happened just as the written evidence said it would happen…

3- Not only that you had multiple eye witnesses that saw it happen…

4- And one of those eye witnesses was a person that this event directly happened to…

AND THEY ALL MATCH!

WOULD YOU SEE THE TRUTH??

YOU WOULD!

We got some people who work in the judicial system in here…if you had all that witness evidence you would be like this is a slam dunk!!

You would be confident that you knew the truth?

Today, Paul is going to show the people of the church of Corinth and us…

There is that much evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ!

YALL READY TO DIVE INTO THE GOSPEL THIS MORNING?!?!?!

STAND AND READ 1 Corinthians 15:1-9

The Gospel (v. 1-2)

Paul tells us here that the Gospel (is the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ)

And when its preached, is designed to illicit a decision in each one of us

As he is telling the saved Corinthians in the church…

I preached the Gospel to you and you : recieved it, stand on it, and are saved by it

But they could have not recieved it, they could not stand on it, and therefore would not have been saved by it

So if you do truly believe in the Gospel…

STAND ON IT!

IT IS THE FOUNDATION FOR OUR SALVATION!!!

IT IS TRUTH…

BUT IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTION ABOUT IT…I WILL REMIND YOU OF THE HARD EVIDENCE OF IT!!!

Paul is about to show us the evidence, the witness that we stand on.

If you have not placed your faith in Jesus open your ears today and here!!!

Paul is going to show us the evidence for the Gospel…

Starting with…

Written Witness (v. 3-4)

According to the Scriptures:

Paul is telling us…

WE HAVE WRITTEN EVIDENCE…WRITTEN WITNESS OF EACH AND EVERY ONE OF THESE GOSPEL ELEMENTS BEFORE IT HAPPENED!!!

THE OLD TESTAMENT TELLS US MANY TIMES IN GREAT DETAIL ABOUT THE DEATH, BURIAL, AND RESURRECTION OF JESUS!!!

-Christ died for our sins

John 19:1–3 “Then Pilate took Jesus and flogged him. And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head and arrayed him in a purple robe. They came up to him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and struck him with their hands.”

John goes on to tell us…

John 19:16–19 “So he delivered him over to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus, and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called The Place of a Skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha. There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them. ””

Jesus was crucified on the cross for our sins with 2 thief's one on each side of him

But before that…

John tells us that that Jesus was Rejected, beaten, mocked, and pierced to the cross…

We can find the WRITTEN WITNESS FOR THIS EVENT IN THE OLD TESTAMENT!!!

Written 700 years before the birth of Jesus Isaiah prophesied …

Isaiah 53:3–8 “He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 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. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people?”

Understand something Church, Isaiah is talking about crucifixion in 700 BC… Crucifixion wasn’t a means of execution in Rome till 300 years after Isaiah wrote these words…

Even before Isaiah King David said in Psalm 22:16–18 “For dogs encompass me; a company of evildoers encircles me; they have pierced my hands and feet— I can count all my bones— they stare and gloat over me; they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.”

-Christ was buried

Matthew 27:57–60 “When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who also was a disciple of Jesus. He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate ordered it to be given to him. And Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen shroud and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had cut in the rock. And he rolled a great stone to the entrance of the tomb and went away.”

Isaiah 53:9 “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.”

-Christ was raised

Mark 16:1–6 “When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. And they were saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?” And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back—it was very large. And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed. And he said to them, “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here. See the place where they laid him.”

Again I take you back to Isaiah 53.

Isaiah 53:10 “(DEATH)Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, (RESURRECTION) he (Messiah) shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.”

700 years before the birth of Jesus, GOD TOLD US THAT HE WOULD BE RESURRECTED!!!

Paul is telling the people in the church of Corinth…THE GOSPEL is part of a master plan of God

And Jesus fulfilled it to a “T”

Here is the written witness to prove it

Everything was done in accordance with God’s word

Exactly as He promised it

BUT HE ISN’T DONE!!!

Eye-Witness (v. 5-7)

These are recorded eye witness accounts!!!

By James, Peter, the 12, 500 plus people at one time!

All have an eye witness account

THE 4 Gospels don’t end with the Death of Jesus…

Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John all end with Jesus Resurrected!!! teaching His disciples!! walking amongst the earth!!!!

AND IF THAT ISN’T ENOUGH EVIDENCE…PAUL SAYS “I HAVE MORE!”

Personal Witness (v.8-9)

Paul is a personal witness!!!

He says “I HAVE SEEN THE RISEN CHRIST”

ACTS chapter 9 Jesus meets Paul on the road to Damascus, where Paul is heading to beat, and imprison, and kill Christ followers…

Listen I am an uncommon witness…

I wasn't a follower of Jesus…in fact i was part of the crew that hung Him on the cross…

I was in charge of eradicating His followers after His death…

I was responsible for eliminating the gospel…and here I am preaching it to you…

BECAUSE I SAW THE RISEN CHRIST WITH MY OWN EYES!!!!!

If you are in this room today and are questioning the resurrection…

maybe you have been a Christ follower for awhile and your still being influenced by the philosophy of the world…

Your questioning the resurrection…understand that with out the resurrection we have no good news...

VERSE 12-14…and 20

STAND FIRM ON THE GOSPEL AGAINST THE TEACHINGS OF THE WORLD…IT IS TRUTH!!!!

And if you are in this room this morning and you arent a follower of Jesus…

HOW MUCH MORE EVIDENCE DO YOU NEED TO PLACE YOUR FAITH IN TRUTH???

(SAY THE GOSPEL HERE!) Jesus was beaten, nailed to cross (begging for forgiveness of the men holding hammers)

Buried in a tomb

RAISED TO LIFE!!!

HE IS RISEN!!!

I leave you with this quote from theologian John MacArthur:

“A follower of Buddha writes of that religious leader, “When Buddha died it was with that utter passing away in which nothing whatever remains.” Mohammed died at Medina on June 8, 632, at the age of 61, and his tomb there is visited yearly by tens of thousands of Muslims. But they come to mourn his death, not to celebrate his resurrection. Yet the church of Jesus Christ, not just on Easter Sunday but (but every single day), celebrates the victory of her Lord over death and the grave.”

PRAY!