The Most Important Thing
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Title: The Most Important Thing
Text: 1 Corinthians 15:1-11
Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,
and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.
Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.
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. Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.
Thesis: Everything in your life hinges upon what you believe about Jesus of Nazareth.
Introduction:
I honestly do not think I’ve ever preached a more important message than what I am about to deliver to you today. I don’t say that to say that I’m important, but that this word is vital.
This message, if we miss it, if I miss it, we can easily miss all that matters.
When I say everything hinges upon what you believe about Jesus, I mean it. Many of you have heard me say this over the past 9 months or so, “Your life imitates your theology.”
What you believe about Jesus shapes everything else in your life. It changes everything. If you don’t believe that, if you don’t understand what I mean by that, then you are rejecting the truth of God’s word.
He said
I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
We believe that here. We believe that everything hinges upon the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Everything in your life hinges upon what you believe about Jesus of Nazareth now, then, and forever.
Now.
Now.
Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.
Paul writes, “Now I would remind you” - In the original Greek, he’s saying, “I want to make it known to you, both those of you who might remember and those who don’t.
Remind is the Greek word “gnorizo”, which means to “make known” or “reveal”, but in this context, it could be read as, “I want you to understand, brothers, the Gospel I preached to you, which you received...”
Because the Gospel Paul preached to the churches mattered. It was the same Gospel, Good News, that was shared by all of Jesus’s disciples, now designated His apostles (His personal representatives) to the whole world.
This good news was key to their message. In fact, Paul said if anyone deviated from it, that person was to be condemned. It didn’t matter how good of a speaker a person was, how intelligent they seemed, or how much power they seemed to carry - this Good News was the most important thing.
He told the churches in Galatia,
But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.
In other words, if we happened to come back to you preaching a different Gospel, ignore us. If even an Angel should appear preaching a different Good News, a different means of salvation, that Being is false.
Don’t believe him! In fact, such a being is to be accursed - that word Paul uses, anathema, means to be condemned to an eternal punishment.
The Gospel matters. Everything hinges upon it.
And if it has been preached to you, and you received it, you believed it - if you
Romans 10:9 (ESV)
if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
You don’t just believe it in your heart, you testify to its truth - that’s standing on it like Paul refers to here. We call it our “testimony”. And your testimony - if you believe in Jesus is a powerful thing.
In fact, Paul shares his testimony within our text. It’s incredible what the Gospel does within a person’s life.
IF, if we truly receive it.
If we believe in vain, we can not expect this message to do anything else.
The writer of Hebrews says it this way:
For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.
If we believe it, we receive it, we stand on it, we are saved. Period. Nobody can take that from you!
Jesus said,
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.
It was preached, they received it, they stand on it’s truth, and they are saved. Can we say the same thing this morning? Do we hear the good news, believe it, stand on it, and believe we are being saved by it? (I hope so!)
But what is that Good News? I said it last week, so few people understand or know what the Gospel truly is. Paul gives it to us here:
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures,
“For I delivered to you as of first importance” - in other words, I gave you the most important, most vital, most powerful, most life changing thing.
What was it?
“that Christ died?”
No. People die all the time. That’s not to say their deaths are meaningless, but who would care if some Jewish guy died like a criminal 2,000 years ago? Unless that death has some very incredible, powerful, historic meaning...
“That Christ died for our sins”
The early church understood the purpose behind His death. He died as a sacrifice.
In the Old Testament Law, an animal would be taken as a sacrifice and after the people had placed their hands on the animal, in a symbolic act of transferring their sins upon it, he would then be led to the slaughter.
The New Testament writers, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, Peter, James, John, Jude… they all saw this connection in Christ.
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.
Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.
this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”—
And the list goes on. Our sin was placed upon Him on the cross. He paid our debt. He took on the responsibility of our rebellion. He was punished in our place.
In fact, Jesus’ last words in the Gospel of John
When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
When he utters the words “It is finished”, in the Greek that is only one word. “tetelestai”. (τετελεσται) and it literally means, “It’s paid in full.” They’ve actually found the word on ancient receipts where people have paid off their debts.
The cross is not just an ornament to hang up in a church or around your neck, it is a symbol of the sacrifice our God made for us, in order for us to be made debt free before the righteousness of The Father.
But Paul doesn’t stop there, he adds one more thing - and will say it again...
“In accordance with the Scriptures”
The Old Testament predicted all of this. All of it.
Isaiah 53:4–5 (ESV)
Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 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.
In the Gospel of Matthew he uses the word “fulfill” almost a dozen times (10-11) to show that Christ fulfilled the Old Testament prophecies spoken about Him.
Whether it’s Jesus’s flight to and from Egypt as a baby in Matthew 2:14-15, or Jesus’ use of parables in Matthew 13:35, the Gospel continually points to Jesus fulfilling the Old Testament’s words about Him.
Jesus, Himself, refers to the Old Testament predicting Him in Matthew 26:56
But all this has taken place that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled.” Then all the disciples left him and fled.
But Paul doesn’t stop there, he goes on… stating
that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,
The fact Paul mentions Jesus’ burial only further confirms His actual death - that Jesus was, in fact, physically dead. You don’t bury men who are alive.
We believe Jesus gave up His spirit, as I mentioned - once everything was fulfilled. He was dead. He’d suffered an incredible beating, the pain he’d feel from the crucifixion alone, struggling to exhale was typically how a crucified person would die - having to push or pull themselves up to release their breath...
Not to mention Jesus had a spear jammed through His side and into his heart by a professional soldier, people don’t typically survive such things.
So Paul clarified, He was buried, because He was dead! But that’s not the end of the good news. He didn’t stay dead according to the Scriptures.
We saw this last week, in Isaiah, the prediction of a resurrection:
Isaiah 53:10 (ESV)
… he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
We also see it in the Psalms
Psalm 16:10 (ESV)
For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption.
Psalm 22, which has much of the crucifixion within it - it even begins “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” which is what Jesus cries out on the cross - this Psalm spends the first 21 verses speaking of the person’s death, only to have him rescued, and telling his brothers that God had rescued him.
It’s no coincidence, then, when Matthew gives his account of the resurrection he quotes Jesus saying:
Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.”
But why? Why does Paul appeal to these Scriptures - the Old Testament - why does he connect us back to that when sharing the Gospel? Aren’t we New Testament only now? Why should we care about the Old Testament?
Because the Old Testament points us continually towards Christ, towards the Gospel.
Because the apostles didn’t just make this story up and try to sell it to the world.
Because He was predicted, He was prophesied, and it matters, because if He truly is who He says He is, who the apostles say He is, then it truly is Good News.
Not just Good News that He can change your life, that He becomes a part of your life, but that He’s coming back for you one day. We have hope when all hope seems lost, that Christ, our risen Savior, who loved us enough to die for us, rose again, and is coming back.
Everything hinges on what you believe about Jesus, it matters now, as much as it mattered then.
Then.
Then.
and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.
It’s not that the disciples believed Jesus’ body had vanished, but He actually appeared to them. It was a bodily resurrection, too, not just some phantom or ghost that appeared to them.
Some people try to say that this is the case, that Jesus’ ghost or some sort of hallucination took place - some sort of self-inflicted, guilty conscious of Peter’s infected the others. But hallucinations don’t work that way.
Guilt does not work that way. Also, ghosts don’t work that way.
Because unless you get your understanding of the paranormal from the movies, Ghosts don’t eat, they have no need to.
But Jesus did eat.
In Luke 24:41-43
And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate before them.
At the end of John’s account, he also has breakfast with the disciples, some bread and fish, on the shore by the sea. In fact, he’s the one who cooks the breakfast!
Ghosts don’t do that. Ghosts don’t have physical bodies that need nourishment.
They also don’t have physical bodies you can touch, and feel their scars...
Of course, we always remember Thomas who said he wouldn’t believe until he saw his hands and side, and Jesus shows up and says,
Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.”
to which Thomas replied, “My Lord and my God!”
Luke also confirms Jesus appeared to Peter first, after His resurrection. The disciples who had been on the road to Emmaus, in Luke’s account, return to the rest of His followers to hear them
saying, “The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!”
So Paul is continuing to tell the same thing the disciples had already told.
But he goes on...
Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.
500 hundred brothers and sisters were eyewitnesses of Jesus’s resurrected body. 500!
Paul is probably referring to what took place in Matthew 28:10, when Jesus says He will meet with them in Galilee. Matthew says the 11 went (of course, Judas was dead by this point), and it was likely not just the 11, but all of Jesus’ disciples.
Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted.
It was there Jesus tells these men
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Now, this is why that all matters - 500 people do not have the same mass hallucination. 500 people can not keep the same story straight, unless they all actually witnessed the same thing.
Last Sunday, 46,108 people were in attendance at the Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees game. Over 46,000 people! You know what, if you went and asked any one of them what happened during the game, most are going to be able to tell you the final score was 4-3 in favor of the Red Sox.
The Sox avoided a sweep by the Yankees. 46,100 people can tell you the same story - Yankees lost. Okay, big deal.
Now, trim that down to 500 people. They’d all tell the same story, right?
This is why Paul appeals to this many people. That’s a good sized crowd. And he has this little caveat “most of them are still alive”, sure, some are dead, but most are still alive.
So if you don’t believe what Paul is preaching, guess what, you can go ask around - there were 500 people in Galilee that day. Surely somebody who knows somebody who was there could introduce you to them, and you can investigate for yourselves.
Of course, nobody ever discredits this. Many scholars, liberal scholars, even now, have to concede that Jesus appears to have somehow come back to life after being dead.
It’s not just enough that He died, but He rose again - proving His divinity.
There are no accounts that I’m aware of, where those disciples who witnesses the resurrected Christ ever recanted of their story, ever changed their story, or ever stopped telling their story.
In fact, most of them died after being tortured, dying as martyrs still insisting that it was true.
It mattered to them, greatly, then. And Paul concludes with the eyewitnesses, speaking of his own experience.
Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.
Paul is, of course, referring to his encounter with Christ on the road to Damascus, mentioned in Acts chapter 9.
And falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.
Paul didn’t just have a vision - he witnessed the glorified Christ, much in the same way the disciples saw Him on the mount of Transfiguration in Luke 9:29.
But this encounter left Paul temporarily blinded. This encounter also has some eyewitnesses who could confirm it. The man Paul went to stay with, Ananias (Acts 19:17) and Barnabas (Acts 9:27).
In fact, earlier in this letter to the Corinthian Christians, Paul refers to this encounter as well, when he defends his apostleship.
Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are not you my workmanship in the Lord?
This encounter changed Paul, and converted him from a dangerous religious zealot to a meek preacher and teacher of Scripture and apostle of the risen Christ.
But his statement, “as one untimely born”, Paul is making a very self-deprecating statement here, the Greek wording would be to refer to that as someone born prematurely, or possibly even a miscarriage.
Paul’s saying, I’m not someone who is worthy of the calling that’s placed on my life, but Christ appeared to me, and it changed me. We’ll dive even more into that in a moment, but we must understand this fact:
As much as the Gospel changed Paul’s life, as much as the death and resurrection of Jesus changed Peter’s life, the rest of the disciples, it has the power to change your life as well.
Now, as much as then, changing us forever.
Forever.
Forever.
For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.
Again, we have to pause and ask, “Are these the words of a man who wants to persecute Christians?” Are these the words of a bloodthirsty, religious fanatic who condoned the stoning of Stephen?
Or is this a man who has been made humble after having an incredible encounter with a God so far greater than he ever could have imagined, so much more merciful than he ever deserved, so much more gracious than his mind could have fathomed?
Paul’s encounter with the risen Christ changed - not just his beliefs, not just his mind, but his very life.
In fact, he admits, he’s not worthy of his calling because he was a persecutor of the church. Paul’s sins were very real to him. He knew the evil that hides within the hearts of men, because he knew what evil resided once in his heart.
In spite of this, or perhaps because of this - to demonstrate God’s unending grace, His steadfast love, His undeniable work of sanctification within a person’s life - Paul was made an apostle.
Even though he had not been with Jesus during his earthly ministry, he saw the risen Christ and was commissioned as the last apostle with a ministry to the Gentiles.
He speaks of it to the Galatian Christians this way.
Galatians 1:15–16 (ESV)
But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles...
To clarify, this doesn’t mean that Paul doesn’t see himself as an apostle, or that his apostleship is lower than anyone else’s - the call upon his life was the same as the call upon Peter, James, John, and so on.
Paul often defends his apostleship, he often states he’s given the same rights as the other apostles, as he does even earlier in this same letter, back in chapter 9
This is my defense to those who would examine me. Do we not have the right to eat and drink? Do we not have the right to take along a believing wife, as do the other apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas? Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working for a living?
In other words, he’s still saying, “Hey I am an apostle, you guys,” but not by my own doing. Christ is the one who made this happen, so recognize that.
They may not see him as an apostle, but he clearly is one. Not by his own will, but by that of Christ, Himself, who called him and made him an apostle.
And, I can testify to this myself,
Romans 11:29 (ESV)
...the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.
In fact, Paul goes on and clarifies, that it is only by God’s grace he was made an apostle...
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.
Paul clarifies for us, as his readers, and for the Corinthian church, it’s God’s grace that’s made his ministry possible.
Grace alone transformed him from the persecutor, the religious zealot who’d tear people from their homes, try to make them blaspheme, into a zealous preacher, a meek teacher of the Good News of God.
In contrast of himself with the apostles, Paul says he worked harder than any of them.
He’s not bragging here - he’s not saying he had a more fruitful ministry, or anything like that. They had a 3 year head start, in case we forget. They’d been with Christ 24/7, 365 for 3 years. Paul didn’t get that, not in the same way.
He was converted after.
So he has to work harder than the rest, to catch up with them. The word Paul uses for work here, “ekopiasa” (εκοπιασα) means he “labored to the point of weariness”. It’s a word that one scholar says originated from the expression of “the joyful pride of a skilled craftsman.”
It’s not the life Paul saw for himself, but it’s the life he loves, it’s the joy in his heart, that he gets to share the good news of Jesus, the Gospel of truth, of God, to the Gentiles. That he gets to share the love of God with all who will hear him.
That he gets to find new ways to share the gospel. Like when he’s in Athens, and he sees all these temples to false gods, and he begins to think - “How do I take this culture and point them to Jesus?” and so he preaches, “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious, because I’ve seen all your objects of worship.”
“I saw your altar to an unknown god, but let me tell you about the God who made Himself known...”
And then he gives them this...
The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”
and that man he appointed was Jesus Christ, a risen savior.
Do you understand? Paul’s life was a life centered on the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the point everything he taught circled around it, to the point his very life would end because of it!
This is a model for all of us! This is a goal for all of us - to take the Gospel that changed our lives, and to take it, stand on it, believe it, be transformed by it, share it, spread it and like a wildfire it will spread!
That’s the Gospel. That’s what it does for those who will receive it and believe it. It’s what it did for Paul, who concludes...
Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.
The gospel Paul preached, the gospel the apostles preached, that’s what we must believe. That’s what we must cling to. That’s what we must stand on.
If we truly believe it.
But now we come to the sad news, the bad news. And that is, quite simply, not everyone will. Not everyone who says they do believe will allow that belief to shape them and change them and bring them to repentance - to changing their life for Him, for His Gospel, His truth.
Jesus Himself said,
“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.
and He goes on and says,
On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
They may know of Jesus, but does Jesus know them?
Those who do not enter by the narrow gate are those who try to make their own path, their own entrance into eternity.
That way is wide and it leads to destruction. The gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.
Many will say, “But God didn’t I do this, didn’t I do that?” Didn’t I go to church on more Sundays than just Easter? Didn’t I participate in the potlucks and the youth group? Didn’t I do this thing for you, or that thing for you?
And it won’t matter at all if you didn’t know Him, if you didn’t have a relationship with Him. If you know Him, so what? Does He know you?
Every day, people miss heaven by 18 inches. The distance from their heart to their brain. They know Jesus, they know the Bible, they know what goes on in a church, even, but they don’t love Jesus. They don’t love their Bible. They don’t love their church - which, by the way, is supposed to teach them the Bible, and grow them closer to Jesus.
Enter by the narrow gate. He is that narrow gate. He said
I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.
He said,
John 14:6 (ESV)
... “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
There is no other way to be saved. None.
If we do not believe in Him, accept Him, live for Him, it doesn’t matter that He died for you - you’ve not received Him.
Believing the truth of the Gospel makes a change now as it did then, and it’s impact on your life lasts forever.
Conclusion:
I’m going to move to close, but if you are here and you have made a lot of mistakes, you’ve been living for yourself, you’ve not been living for Christ, today is a great day to change directions.
Today is a great day to change your life. The Bible calls that repentance. It doesn’t matter if you’re perfect, nobody is perfect. I’m not perfect.
I have a 3 year old son, he just turned 3 on Friday. He’s finally getting the hang of using the bathroom, but every now and then, guess what? Messy pants. I still love him.
I just want to clean him up.
God’s a good father, and he loves you in spite of your mess, too. He will clean you up in His timing. Don’t worry about that. Don’t wait, don’t hesitate. Hear the Gospel, one more time, and let it change your life.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
Jesus died on a cross taking our sins upon himself, was buried, rose in victory from the grave, all according to the Scriptures.
He did it for you, He did it for me. He did it for us.
If you believe that today, I’m not going to ask you to raise your hand, I’m not going to ask you to make eye contact with me while everyone else has their heads bowed and eyes closed, I’m going to just simply ask you to grab the hand of the person next to you, and pray together.
And make that decision today to follow the risen Jesus.
Stand with me as I close in prayer.