Passed On To Us

 During a Homicide trial, the DA was examining a witness on the stand. The witness said he saw the victim lying on the ground, obviously dead. When the DA finished, the defense lawyer rose to cross-examine. He wanted to undermine the witness's credibility. "Sir, are you a doctor?" "No," replied the witness. "Well, are you a paramedic?" "No, I'm not," the witness stated. "Have you ever gone to medical school?" "Never." "Then tell me, sir. How do you know the victim was dead?" "I went to his funeral." It's hard to beat the value of an eyewitnesses. Especially in Christianity. Its eyewitnesses are the foundation of the gospel. Let's look at 1 Cor 15:1-11. 1aNow, brothers & sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you. The same gospel all the apostles preached. 1bIt's the gospel you received & took your stand on. They received it the same way everyone does. How? Look at Ro 10:14. 14How can they believe in the One they haven't heard of? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? Paul passed the gospel on to them. 2aBy this gospel you're being saved. Being saved? Yes, 2bIf you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Life tries to steal the gospel. Ours is to hang on to it for eternal life. Believe anything else? 2cYou've believed in vain. Only through Jesus can we come to the Father & eternal life. What exactly is the gospel of Christ? 3aWhat I received I passed on to you as of 1st importance. The gospel events are better attested than any other facts in all human history. Four witnesses recorded the facts. Two are enough in court to establish a fact. 3bChrist died for our sins according to the Scriptures. By the terms of God's 2nd Covenant, if He hadn't died, we couldn't be saved. Therefore, it's only through Christ that we can be saved. Only through His sacrifice. Only if He paid our sin debt. And the good news is that He did! It's a fact! Christ died according to the Scriptures. That's even more evidence. A Westmont College professor calculated the probability of one man fulfilling just the major prophecies about the Messiah.1 A committee of the American Scientific Affiliation reviewed his figures. His math was correct. His finding? The odds against one man fulfilling just Mic 5:2 (born in Bethlehem) is 1 in 300,000. And the odds of one man fulfilling just 8 of the major prophecies? 1 in 1017. If there were only 48 prophecies, it's 1 in 10157. There are over 300 prophecies. By one count, there are over 450 prophecies about Christ. Jesus fulfilled them all. You do the math. His life is fact. 4aHe was buried. No 1st C. witness denies that Jesus was buried. This too is fact. After He was buried, 4bHe was raised on the 3rd day according to the Scriptures. This too is fact. No "theory" other than Jesus' death & resurrection can explain His apostle's changed lives. When He was crucified, they were broken. Their hopes died with Him on the cross. All ran away & deserted Him. Peter, their leader, denied Him 3 times. In just 3 days, these broken men became lions willing to die for the living Jesus. Someone may be willing to die for a lie they think is true. But who willingly dies for something they know is a lie? No one. Look at the evidence. 3 times, Jesus told His disciples He was going to die. 3 times, He said He'd be raised on the 3rd day. How many disciples believed Him? None. When He was arrested, all deserted Him. At the cross, their hopes died with Him. After Jesus rose, 2 disciples on the road to Emmaus failed to recognize Him. When 1st He appeared to the 12, they thought He was a ghost. None of His disciples expected Him to be resurrected. Even after the others saw Jesus, Thomas still wouldn't believe. Some of the strongest evidence is that none believed. Even after Jesus told them. Jesus was crucified. Now, He lives. That too is one of the best attested facts in history. After Jesus' resurrection, 5aHe appeared to Peter. One of His 1st appearances is to Peter, who's still torn up from betraying Jesus! Isn't that like Jesus? Make a special trip to comfort a hurting disciple. 5bThen he appeared to the Twelve. In the upper room. Once with all of them but Thomas. When he wouldn't believe, Jesus came back. Just for him. He came back to reassure a doubting disciple & bring Him to full faith, too. Isn't that just like Jesus? 6aAt some point after that, Jesus appeared to more than 500 of the disciples at the same time! When? When He rose on a cloud & ascended back into heaven. 1 disciple might have been fooled. Maybe even 12 by a mass illusion. But 500? No way. Wouldn't someone find out the truth? None of the 500 wrote that it was a trick. Instead, they're ready to confirm it. Christ is alive. 500 people saw Him. All at once. Jesus lives. That's one of the best attested facts in history. No alternative theory comes close. 6bMost of the 500 are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Only a few had died. Anyone who wants to check if Paul is telling the truth could do so. No one wrote to deny it. Instead, 7aJesus appeared to James. This too is grace. Jesus' brothers & sisters didn't believe in Him. At one point, they thought him crazy. Why James? He's likely the strongest sibling. To convert the rest, Jesus appeared to James. He became such a strong believer that he led the Jerusalem church &wrote part of Scripture. Grace. Jesus then appeared 7bto all the apostles. Twice. Once to convince the disbelieving group. And again, to convince Thomas. It wasn't just Thomas who doubted. They all had to be convinced. It's strong evidence. And Thomas? He needed hard evidence. He had to put his hand in the wounds in Jesus' side & hands. The evidence is compelling. Jesus died. He was buried. And He was raised again. One more appearance may be the strongest evidence. As a Pharisee, Saul was vigilant for Judaism. As part of its strictest sect, he kept all the law. Saul was part of the Jewish leadership. And they entrusted him to persecute Christians wherever he could find them. And then came the road to Damascus, on his way to persecute Christians there. 8Last of all Jesus appeared to me, as to one abnormally born. Abnormal? Literally, miscarriage or abortion. Paul was such a strong disbeliever that his birth into Christianity wasn't normal. Jesus' appearance to Paul was His last appearance. And again, it's grace. The result? Paul is humble. 9aI'm the least of the apostles. In Acts 9:15, Jesus sent him to the Gentiles, making him their apostle. 9bI don't even deserve to be called an apostle. Why? 9cI persecuted God's church. At Stephen's stoning, Paul both approved & helped. That Jesus called him? 10aBut by God's grace I am what I am. And Paul had worked hard. 10bHis grace to me wasn't without effect. He'd founded churches in strategic locations in every part of the world he knew. 10cNo, I worked harder than all of them. No one suffered more than Paul did. No one traveled more or wrote as many letters in our Bible as Paul did. 10dYet it wasn't I, but God's grace was with me. Yes, Paul worked. But it was all God working through him. And his message? The same message all the apostles preached. 11aWhether, then, it was I or they, this is what we preach. There's one gospel. 11aThis is what you believed. This is what saved them. This gospel was passed down through the ages to us. We believe the same gospel. It's fact. Jesus died for our sins. He paid the price for sin that we couldn't. Jesus died on the cross. He was buried. And He was raised from the dead. He's the 1st fruits of the resurrection. Because of His sacrifice, we are reconciled to the Father. And we're adopted sons & daughters of the King. Because He lives, we will too. The Jesus they knew is the Jesus we know. A 4yo girl took a crayon & drew a picture on the wall. Her daddy saw it, lifted her onto his lap & said, "Is that a good thing to do?" "No," she said. "What does Daddy do when you write on the wall?" "You spank me." "What do you think Daddy should do this time?" "Love." That's what God did when He sent Jesus. We're saved because someone passed the gospel on to us. Each one reaches one. Will we keep God's love all to ourselves? Or will we pass it on? 1 https://empower.global/the-mathematical-probability-that-jesus-is-the-christ/ --------------- ------------------------------------------------------------ --------------- ------------------------------------------------------------ Passed on to Us - 1 Corinthians 15:1-11 Page 1 of 1