The Gospel Truth: Christ died, was buried and rose again on the the third day.

1 Corinthians 15:1-20

1 Corinthians 15:1-20

This morning I am going to be preaching out of 1 Corinthians 15 but I just cannot go through the Resurrection Sunday service without reading the account of our Lord’s resurrection from the Scriptures. So before we get to our sermon I want to go ahead and read the Resurrection event from Mark’s Gospel chapter 15:42-16:15.

Mark 15:42-16:15 42 Now when evening had come, because it was the Preparation Day, that is, the day before the Sabbath, 43 Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent council member, who was himself waiting for the kingdom of God, coming and taking courage, went in to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. 44 Pilate marveled that He was already dead; and summoning the centurion, he asked him if He had been dead for some time. 45 So when he found out from the centurion, he granted the body to Joseph. 46 Then he bought fine linen, took Him down, and wrapped Him in the linen. And he laid Him in a tomb which had been hewn out of the rock, and rolled a stone against the door of the tomb. 47 And Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses observed where He was laid. 16 1Now when the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, that they might come and anoint Him. 2 Very early in the morning, on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb when the sun had risen. 3 And they said among themselves, “Who will roll away the stone from the door of the tomb for us?” 4 But when they looked up, they saw that the stone had been rolled away—for it was very large. 5 And entering the tomb, they saw a young man clothed in a long white robe sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed. 6 But he said to them, “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He is risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid Him. 7 But go, tell His disciples—and Peter—that He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him, as He said to you.” 8 So they went out quickly and fled from the tomb, for they trembled and were amazed. And they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid. 9 Now when He rose early on the first day of the week, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had cast seven demons. 10 She went and told those who had been with Him, as they mourned and wept. 11 And when they heard that He was alive and had been seen by her, they did not believe. 12 After that, He appeared in another form to two of them as they walked and went into the country. 13 And they went and told it to the rest, but they did not believe them either. 14 Later He appeared to the eleven as they sat at the table; and He rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who had seen Him after He had risen. 15 And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.[1] Let’s pray.

Last week we looked at that event we all know as the Triumphal Entry. It is the event where Christ rode a donkey into Jerusalem and was declared by His disciples to be the King of Israel; the long awaited Messiah of Israel. But then five days later He was illegally tried, lied about, convicted to death, scourged by the Roman lectors, mocked, forced to carry His own cross then crucified on a that same cross before many of those who had been shouting Hosanna to the king when He rode into town. So I asked the question; what is so triumphant about that triumphal entry? We came to the conclusion that the great triumph, the greatest victory in all of history is that because He took to the cross sinners are saved. The triumph was not obtained by the sinner but for the sinner by Christ on the cross. The triumph is real, the enemies of God are changed into children of God (Romans 8), and we are reconciled to God by the righteousness of Christ. That is the triumph of the Triumphal Entry. Today we will be looking at 1 Corinthians 15:1-20 determining the benefit of the greatest triumph in human history, the benefit that comes with the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 15:1-11 Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, 2 by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. 6 After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. 7 After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles. 8 Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time. 9 For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy 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; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. 11 Therefore, whether it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.

There are four very quick things I want to point out in these first 11 verses. First, Paul says that believing the Gospel saves. Second, Paul defines the Gospel in the simplest of terms. Christ died for our sin, He was buried (definitely dead) and He rose again the third day. You just can’t get simpler than that. I could go on to explain that His death was a sacrifice for our sin, substituting His life for ours as payment for sin (substitutionary atonement). And I could go on to explain that His resurrection is the evidence that He lived a perfect life because His sacrifice was an acceptable sacrifice or He would not have risen again. But we don’t have time for me to say all that so we will go ahead and say that this is the gospel message in its simplest form and believing this saves; Christ died for sinners, He was buried and rose again the third day and believing this message saves. That is the first and second thing we see. The third is that Paul says two times, in verses 3-4 that this is according to Scripture. So the Gospel message is all according to Scripture and the evidence He is recognizing is the Word of God. For Paul and the first readers he is talking about the Old Testament’s claim that the Messiah would come into the world die and rise again. Isaiah 53 makes it clear about His death and you can go all the way back to Job a contemporary of Abraham and read this about His resurrection in Job 19:25-27 25For I know that my Redeemer lives, And He shall stand at last on the earth; 26And after my skin is destroyed, this I know, That in my flesh I shall see God, 27Whom I shall see for myself, And my eyes shall behold, and not another. How my heart yearns within me![2] So Paul is pointing out Scriptural evidence of the truth of the Gospel and the fourth thing we see is that he also gives eyewitness evidence of the resurrection in verses 5-11. He was seen by Peter, the twelve, then 500 at one time and then Paul himself on the road to Damascus.

I believe that what Paul is making clear is that the Gospel is the message of salvation, literally the good news, and without the death of Jesus for our sin and the resurrection of our Lord from the grave there is no Gospel and without the Gospel there is no salvation and the Triumphal Entry would not have been triumphant.

Let’s move on to 1 Corinthians 15:12-19 12 Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. 14 And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty. 15 Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up—if in fact the dead do not rise. 16 For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. 17 And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! 18 Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.[3]

We are not going to get into the problems in the church at Corinth this morning but there were those in the congregation influenced by Greek philosophy that did not believe in a resurrection from the dead of any kind. Paul is making a statement here that if you do not believe in the resurrection then you do not believe that Jesus rose. Then He gives 7 facts concerning this. 1. Our preaching is in vain, it is empty and pointless. You may say that about my preaching anyway but if you hang in there you will eventually see the point. But if Jesus did not rise from the dead then what is the point in preaching something that did not happen? 2. If Christ did not rise from the dead then your faith is as empty as my preaching. We are believing a lie 3. Paul, me and everyone who has ever preached or shared the Gospel message that Jesus died for our sin, was buried and rose again is a liar. It gets kind of personal here. 4. Your faith in Christ is absolutely useless because you are still dead in your sin. The only hope you have is in your own innate goodness. Good luck with that. 5. If Christ did not rise then there is no life after this life. So those who have died before us are just so much dust in the ground and will never be anything else. 6. If Jesus did not rise from the dead then we are a pathetic people, believing a lie and without hope. 7. In verses 13 and 15-16 we see that if there is no resurrection of Jesus Christ then there is no resurrection for anyone because everything in scripture is a lie and Scripture says that He rose from the grave. We would be most pathetic because we have put our faith in a lie.

The bottom line of what we have seen thus far is if the gospel is not true, if Jesus did not die for our sin then rise again on the third day making everything we believe to be a lie then our belief system is no different than any other man made religion. We would be like the secular humanist/atheist who says “eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die” (Paul said that in verse 32 of this chapter.) Or we will be bound up with working our way to heaven trusting in our own goodness and hard work. Remember if there is no resurrection Jesus was not a sufficient sacrifice and there is no justification before God so we are still in our sin. We would be no different than the Jehovah Witnesses, the Mormons, the Jews, the Muslims, or the Buddhist and Hindu hoping someday to do enough to warrant making it to heaven or stop the endless cycle of rebirth reaching nirvana or nothingness. Those are the two choices, live this life doing what you want because there is nothing to look forward to or work really hard to make it to heaven not knowing if you have ever done enough.

However let’s read what Paul said next. 1 Corinthians 15:20 20 But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.[4] Do you see what Paul just did? In verses 12- 19 he says: If Christ did not rise because there is no resurrection then…verse 20: But Christ did rise so there is a resurrection and everything you believe, everything that the Scriptures say are true and all the historical evidence of Jesus resurrection is true. Therefore the preaching of the gospel is not in vane, it is not empty it is powerful. The Gospel is the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes. Preaching, and I mean the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ not platitudes from the pulpit, is the proclamation that God is good and man is not so there is a separation between the holiness of God and the perversion of man; sin. Jesus died for that sin as the substitute for all who will believe. The law of sin and death was thereby fulfilled. He was buried and rose again the third day and that is the power by which men, women and children are changed forever and for always. Since Jesus rose from the dead our faith is not empty, it is placed in the One who is the glory of God, the exact image of the person of God. Since our Lord rose from the grave then I am a preacher of the truth of God; it is not empty nor in vain; IT CHANGES LIVES. Since the Lamb of God who was slain from the foundation of the world rose from that grave the third day, there is remission of sin. We who believe and repent are forgiven and there is now no condemnation for those of us who are in Christ Jesus for the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set us free from the law of sin and death. He is our substitute. Because Jesus Christ has risen from the dead those who have died in Christ before us are not simply in the ground as so much dust. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord and one day our bodies will be resurrected just like Jesus who is the firstfruit. Because we have a risen Lord then you had better not pity me. I am miraculously and wonderfully changed, I am a new creation. Whether it is in a moment in a twinkling of the eye at the last trumpet sound when I am changed or if I am resurrected from the grave, I will bodily stand before my Lord Jesus Christ the Lamb of God, the Redeemer and proclaim, Worthy is the Lamb of God who was slain but now lives.

Without the death of Jesus for our sin and without His resurrection there is no Gospel. Without the Gospel there is no salvation. But since Jesus did die and rise again on the third day, all according to Scripture and eyewitnesses our message of the gospel is powerful for salvation, our faith is not empty because it is in the risen Lord who is God. Because He rose we proclaim the truth that changes lives, and there is complete remission of sin. Because He rose we will rise. Because He rose we do not live a pitiable life, we are made new creations ready to stand before our Redeemer in the end.

So what is the benefit for us today of the Resurrection of Jesus 2000 years ago. Very quickly, we have life in Christ Jesus. And according to Jesus we have a life in Him that is abundant. We have abundant life that is hopeful because there is reconciliation with God, we are no longer enemies of God but children of God. We have the assurance that we will stand before the Creator God clothed in Christ’s righteousness instead of the filthy rags of our own good works. We can now “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature” convinced that what we preach, what we proclaim is truth. The curse of sin has been broken, death has been defeated, sin no longer has a hold on us, the gospel message that Jesus died, was buried and rose again the third day changes lives. Let’s pray.

[1] The New King James Version. (1982). (Mk 15:42–16:15). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

[2] The New King James Version. (1982). (Job 19:25–27). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

[3] The New King James Version. (1982). (1 Co 15:1–19). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

[4] The New King James Version. (1982). (1 Co 15:20). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.