The Good News

INTRODUCTION

Good morning and welcome again to First Christian Church. I am Pastor Shane, and I am so excited that you have joined us on this resurrection Sunday morning. We are glad that you are here with us today.

Today, we will look at 1 Corinthians 15, starting in verse 1, so I invite you to turn there with me this morning. If this is your first time with us, we are in the middle of a series in 1 Corinthians. Today, we are jumping ahead to chapter 15.

I love a good action movie. Something where we see a hero save the day, fight the bad guy, and come out on top. But some of the most impactful movies or stories are ones where we see the hero of the story be willing to give themselves up to save everyone else. This sacrificial love of the hero touches something deep in us, an understanding of that kind of love that has been woven into our hearts and souls.

Today, we are going to talk about a love just like this. A love that calls the hero of the story to lay down their life for the lives of others. Would you pray with me this morning?

PRAY

Today is Resurrection Sunday. It is the day that we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Here at First Christian, we celebrate the resurrection every week, but we acknowledge that this week is a little different. Today, Paul is going to talk to the church at Corinth about this Gospel that we call the good news. Let’s read chapter 15:

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.

1 Corinthians 15:1–11.

Paul is beginning by drawing their minds back to the gospel that he preached to them. Paul came preaching the true gospel of Jesus Christ. There is no other gospel that can be shared that will lead you to eternal life with Christ. Paul is reminding them that the gospel was preached to them, and when they received it, they embraced it. Meaning that they heard the Gospel preached and in response, they received the Gospel into their lives. They believed the Gospel to be the truth and followed after Jesus Christ.

Paul even makes it clear that the Gospel should be, and is, of first importance for the church. A couple of weeks ago, we talked about the need for spiritual maturity. In the analogy that Paul made, the Gospel was described as the milk for spiritual newborns. We said that we must mature from milk to solid food, but that milk was still part of our diet. We still consume milk, but it is not the primary source of food for us.

Paul is really getting to the same point here. For the church, the gospel is of the first importance. Without the gospel, there is no church. So, what is the Gospel? It is verse 3, “Christ died for our sins.” The message of the Gospel, the good news, is that Christ died for us. This was and is following the scriptures. Isaiah 52 and 53 give us a description of what the Messiah, the redeemer, would go through.

Behold, my servant shall act wisely; he shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted. 14 As many were astonished at you— his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind—

Isaiah 52:13–14.

The scriptures tell us that Jesus will be high and lifted up. He will be exalted. He will bring reconciliation to the world. But we also see that the messiah will be beaten. And this beating will disfigure Him to the point that he is unrecognizable as a man. We have to understand that Jesus was not just killed for our sins, but He was beaten as punishment for sin. Historically, we know that the Romans would give 39 lashes, and they would have used the cat of nine tails to do so. It was a whip with pieces of bone or shards of pottery at the end of it. This would sink into the skin and rip the flesh of the person being punished. This could have left the back so torn that the spine would have been exposed. This beating was so brutal that it would have left Jesus unrecognizable.

Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 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. 6 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.

Isaiah 53:4–6.

What is significant about the death of Jesus? Isaiah tells us that He has borne our grief and our sorrow. He was pierced for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities. Jesus took the punishment meant for us. Our sin caused us to deserve this death, but Jesus took it upon himself to pay for our sins.

The chastisement that He took brought us peace. His wounds bring healing to us. It is through the beating, punishment, and death of Jesus that we have peace. We are healed through his wounds. This is the upside-down promise of scripture. Someone stands in our place, taking the punishment we deserve, the beating we deserve, and we get healing through it.

Matthew records the fulfillment of this in chapter 27:

Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. 46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” 47 And some of the bystanders, hearing it, said, “This man is calling Elijah.” 48 And one of them at once ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine, and put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink. 49 But the others said, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him.” 50 And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. 51 And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. 52 The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, 53 and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many. 54 When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, “Truly this was the Son of God!”

Matthew 27:45–54.

Just as scripture foretold, Christ dies for the sins of man. Paul continued in 1 Corinthians 15 that Christ died, was buried, and was raised on the third day. That third day is what we are celebrating today. We are celebrating that Jesus not only died for our sins, but on the third day he rose again. His burial tells us that He really did die. And the appearance to a long list of people tells us that he really did come back to life. Our faith is not founded on a myth, but on the truth of the Gospel. It is founded on the real occurrence of the events we are looking at today.

If you were just to casually read what we are looking at today, you may miss this important fact that Paul is pointing to. He includes the names of many who saw the resurrected Christ. Paul is saying, if you don’t believe me, you can go and ask these people yourself. Peter, James, the other disciples, the 500 people at once, and even Paul are first-hand witnesses, eyewitnesses, of the resurrection. Paul is telling them they can go directly to the source and find out if he is telling the truth.

Today, you can’t go to Paul or any of the other apostles in person, but we can trust in the word of God. If what we read was not true, the Church would not have carried on. We can trust that the word is true, and we can trust that the Gospel still has the power to change.

Notice something about how Paul describes himself in this passage. Paul says that last of all, Jesus appeared to him. Paul, who would go on many missionary journeys and write most of the New Testament letters we have. Paul, who is a pillar of the Christian faith. Paul, whose writings are still shaping how the Church as a whole thinks about issues of the faith. Paul describes himself as the least of the apostles. Why? He persecuted the church.

You see, the Gospel does something amazing. The Gospel can give us all a before-and-after story. Paul starts this passage by reminding the church of the importance of the Gospel. He reminds them, that just as scripture had predicted, Jesus died, was buried, and rose again. That the Gospel must have first importance for us, knowing that the Gospel is the foundation of the church. The foundation of all that is doen by the church is the Gospel, the good news, of Jesus Christ. After reminding them of what happened, he points them to the power of the Gospel.

This morning, April 20th, 2025, I want to remind you of the power of the Gospel. Paul says he is the least of the apostles because before he was an apostle, he was an enemy of the church. Before he was a follower of Jesus, Paul was the number 1 enemy of the early church. We know of the missionary journeys of Paul, the intense focus he had to take the gospel to the world around him and to the edges of the known world. But we also know that before Jesus changed the life of Paul, he was focused on squashing out this little sect of Judaism. Paul had a singular focus on rounding up the followers of Jesus. He wanted to take this group that was claiming they had found the messiah, and put them in jail, effectively ending this offshoot that had come out of Jerusalem.

Verse 10 tells us what happened, though, “but by the grace of God.” Paul’s before was not enough to cancel what Jesus could do through him. Paul had not been disqualified from following Jesus because of his animosity toward the church. The grace of God, the unmerited love of God, changed the heart of Paul. The Gospel gave Paul a before story that would change his after story forever.

It is because of the grace of God that Paul went from a persecutor of the church to an apostle. He is what he is because of what Jesus has done. His life was changed and transformed; he had a new purpose in life, not to persecute the church, but to be on the front lines of the church as it spread around the world. He went from jailing believers to being in jail for being a believer. Paul had been given a new life through Jesus. Before Jesus, he was a persecutor of the church. After he encounters Jesus, he is used by God to take the good news to the world.

Paul is reminding the church that our first love should be the Gospel message. It is of first importance. Why? Because the gospel isn’t just evangelism, it isn’t just reminding us of the sacrifice of Jesus. The gospel changes us, and it is step one in our discipleship. The Gospel is the reminder that just as Jesus rose out of the grave, just as He was resurrected, God can and will raise us to new life. The gospel is the good news of Jesus. If we follow Jesus, the Gospel is the building block of our faith.

Maybe today you do not know Jesus as your savior. You have never decided to follow Jesus as your Lord and Savior. Make today the day that you follow Jesus.

CONCLUSION

I am reminded this morning of a story about one of my favorite pastors. Charles Spurgeon was a 19th-century pastor in England. Today, many refer to him as the prince of preachers; his work still impacts the world in 2025. One message that he delivered in 1866 stuck out to me this week. In a room full of orphans, he delivered a message based on Psalm 51:7, which says, “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.” This sermon, entitled “The Wordless Book”, introduced the world to an evangelism tool called the Wordless Book.

It is a simple tool. It starts with the black page. This black page represents our sin. It has corrupted the world, it has made us dirty and unclean. Not just a little dirty, but dirt that has sunk in and cannot be scrubbed off with human effort. Our sin has so marred and stained us that we are unable to become clean on our own. We try to, though. Humans will try to cover their sins or clean them off themselves, but it is all to no avail.

The next page is red. This red page represents the blood of Jesus. This is what we have talked about today. That on a hill 2,000 years ago, our savior bled and died. Jesus laid down his life; he shed his blood for our sins. And through this shed blood, through this sacrifice, our sins are washed clean. Through the blood of Jesus, we can be washed clean.

This brings us to the final page. The white page. Through the blood of Jesus, we can be made white as snow. There is no other way to be washed clean. It is only through the blood of Jesus. Only through knowing Jesus as your lord and Savior are we made clean from sin.

So are you cleansed by the blood of Jesus? Have you been washed by the blood of the lamb? As we stand and sing a final song of reflection, if you are saved, we can rejoice that our sin stains have been washed and made white as snow. But today if you do not know Jesus as your savior, I would love to speak with you. I will be standing in front as we sing