The Foundation of Our Faith - 3/23/08
“The Foundation of Our Faith” 3/23/08
1 Corinthians 15: 3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. 6 After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, 8 and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.,
1 Corinthians 15: 13 If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14 And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. 15 More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. 16 For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. 19 If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men. 20 But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
Today we celebrate the most amazing event in human history – the resurrection of Jesus of Christ. Paul describes this as being of first importance, saying that if Christ did not rise from the dead then our faith is useless and we are still in our sins and those who have died are lost. There is no Christian faith without the resurrection. Without it Jesus is just another religious teacher who lived and died.
Yet many people have a hard time accepting it as literal. It goes against the modern materialistic world-view, where miracles just don’t happen. It challenges us to consider who Jesus is, for if he did rise from the dead he is much more than a prophet or great teacher. It is no wonder, then, that there have been many attempts to cast doubt on the resurrection of Jesus,
The guards at the tomb being told to say that the disciples stole the body.
The Jewish leaders or the Romans moved the body.
The women went to the wrong tomb.
Jesus didn’t really die.
The resurrection appearances were visions.
The recent documentary reporting the supposed discovery of the family tomb of Jesus, complete with his bone box.
Prof. Amos Kloner, the Jerusalem District archeologist who oversaw work at the tomb when it was uncovered in 1980, told The Jerusalem Post that the documentary's claims were "impossible" and "nonsense," and that there was "no likelihood" that Jesus and his relatives had a family tomb.
Frank Morrison, who was an agnostic journalist, attempted to write a book refuting the resurrection of Christ. After much investigation, his opinion changed and he became a believer in Jesus Christ. This is how Morrison described what happened to him:
“This study is in some ways so unusual and provocative that the writer thinks it desirable to state here very briefly how the book came to take its present form. In one sense it could have taken no other, for it is essentially a confession, the inner story of a man who originally set out to write one kind of book and found himself compelled by the sheer force of circumstances to write another.
“It is not that the facts altered, for they are recorded imperishably in the monuments and in the pages of human history. But the interpretation to be put on the facts underwent a change”
Those who would deny the resurrection have evidence they must explain:
The tomb was empty
The appearances
The change in the disciples
The conversion of Saul of Tarsus
So if we accept that Jesus did indeed rise, what does it mean for us today?
It validates Jesus’ claims to be God
It means he is alive and with us today
It guarantees our own resurrection
