Easter Sunday 21

1 Corinthians 15:1–8 NLT

Let me now remind you, dear brothers and sisters, of the Good News I preached to you before. You welcomed it then, and you still stand firm in it. It is this Good News that saves you if you continue to believe the message I told you—unless, of course, you believed something that was never true in the first place. I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said. He was seen by Peter and then by the Twelve. After that, he was seen by more than 500 of his followers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then he was seen by James and later by all the apostles. Last of all, as though I had been born at the wrong time, I also saw him.

1. Paul begins by unpacking the gospel message he preached to people. The Greek word for gospel means “to announce good news” (Ceslas Spicq and James D. Ernest, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament [Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1994], 82). Notice that the announcement of the good news of Jesus Christ brings a past-present-future reality. For those who choose to put their trust and faith in Jesus as the Son of God and follow him, a Christian “receives” the good news (past), they “stand” in the gospel (present), and they put their hope in the gospel to “be saved” (future) (see 1 Corinthians 15:1–2).

2. Paul encourages the church at Corinth to “hold fast to the word I preached to you” (1 Corinthians 15:2). These believers were to firmly hold on to the message that Paul had proclaimed to them. Whether we are experiencing great joys and blessings in life or we find ourselves walking through seasons of darkness, difficulty, and pain, we are to hold on to the hope of the gospel firmly. What is it that we are to put our hope and faith in continually? As Paul states in verses 3–4, the most important truths are that (1) “Christ died for our sins,” (2) Jesus “was buried,” and (3) Jesus was raised from the dead after three days. All these vital truths took place just as the Scriptures foretold.

First, Jesus died for our sins(John19:16-30).Jesus’s death was not an unfortunate tragedy. The purpose of Jesus’s death was, as the Son of God, to cure us of our sin and to reconcile us to himself and the Father. Even amid the brutality and suffering of the crucifixion, Jesus was not a victim; rather, he voluntarily laid down his life (see John 10:17–18). The Father, Jesus, and the Spirit worked together not only to condemn sin (see Romans 8:3) but to provide a way to cleanse us from sin and to destroy sin’s power over us: “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed” (1 Peter 2:24). Through Jesus’s death, God “was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them” (2 Corinthians 5:19). This is indeed good news!

Second, Jesus was buried(John19:38–42). After dying on the cross, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus took the body of Jesus, prepared it for burial, and placed him in the tomb.

Jesus died and descended into hell among the dead and

Third, Jesus was resurrected(Luke24:1–7). Paul also details in this letter to the Corinthians the multiple accounts and numerous people to whom Jesus appeared after his death and three-day burial (1 Corinthians 15:5–8). Paul’s primary point in this passage is that Christ was raised from the dead. When telling the story of Jesus’s death, burial, and resurrection, many times we concentrate primarily on the facts and details of his death. However, without the resurrection, we would have no hope in life. Paul says, “And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. ... And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins” (1 Corinthians 15:14, 17).

Christianity is concerned, not with mere immortality,

nor with sheer survival,

nor with the transmigration of the soul,

nor with reincarnation,

but with resurrection from the dead.

For Paul, as for all the New Testament writers, this necessarily meant the raising of the whole person from the dead, not just his soul or his body or even his personality. Resurrection is consistently seen in the New Testament as a demonstration of God’s power over death.1

Application

Occupy Hope

Occupy

In the NLT verse 2 says “believe” the greek word means to allow to occupy, for the truth to have a new address in you.

κατεχετε ye 2 hold 3 fast, 4 κατέχω 2722 VPAI2P

Show picture of OCCUPY WS

These people changed their address in order for a wrong to be made right