How confident are you of the resurrection?
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1 Corinthians 15
1 Corinthians 15
Now I make known to you, brothers, the gospel which I proclaimed to you, which you have also received, in which you also stand,
by which you are also being saved, if you hold fast to the message I proclaimed to you, unless you believed to no purpose.
For I passed on to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures,
and that he was buried, and that he was raised up on the third day according to the scriptures,
and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve,
then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at once, the majority of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep.
Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles,
and last of all, as it were to one born at the wrong time, he appeared also to me.
For I am the least of the apostles, not worthy 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 to me has not been in vain, but I labored even more than all of them, and not I, but the grace of God with me.
Therefore whether I or those, in this way we preached, and in this way you believed.
This is the creed provided by Paul to establish the official message of the Gospel.
Do you believe that Jesus really existed, really died, and really rose from the dead?
Why do you believe/not believe?
Is it really that important to believe? Can you be Christian and believe that Jesus didn’t exist at all, or can you be Christian and believe that maybe Jesus was just a popular person who maybe had something special going on with Him, but you’re not sure if He was really the Son of God?
How much of an impact does the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus have on Christianity?
And how much of an impact does it have on you personally?
The resurrection has an impact on your future:
But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.
For since through a man came death, also through a man came the resurrection of the dead.
For just as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.
But each in his own group: Christ the first fruits, then those who are Christ’s at his coming,
then the end, when he hands over the kingdom to the God and Father, when he has abolished all rule and all authority and power.
For it is necessary for him to reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.
The last enemy to be abolished is death.
If you believe that Jesus rose from the dead, then you have hope that someday you will, too.
But the resurrection doesn’t just impact your future...
The resurrection also has an impact on your present:
Now if Christ is preached as raised up from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?
But if there is no resurrection of the dead, Christ has not been raised either.
But if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain, and your faith is in vain.
And also we are found to be false witnesses of God, because we testified against God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if after all, then, the dead are not raised.
For if the dead are not raised, Christ has not been raised either.
But if Christ has not been raised, your faith is empty; you are still in your sins.
And as a further result, those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.
If we have put our hope in Christ in this life only, we are of all people most pitiable.
If according to a human perspective I fought wild beasts at Ephesus, what benefit is it to me? If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.
Paul didn’t just believe that Jesus is the Son of God, that Jesus lived, died, and is now raised again, seated next to God in Heaven. He bet his entire life on it! It was not just his private passion, it was his life.
Paul bet everything on the Gospel.
We also are called to bet everything on the Gospel.
If we truly believe that Jesus has the power to raise Himself from the dead, and He has sent the Holy Spirit to live within us, then we won’t just internalize this belief, we will also externalize it.
If we truly believe, then we won’t just hold our faith inside, we’ll live it out.
The resurrection doesn’t just change our future.
The resurrection changes our present.
So how confident are you in the resurrection of Jesus, and in your resurrection, too? How can you measure your confidence?
Measure your confidence the same way that Jesus did.
Close your eyes and imagine yourself in His place. Ask yourself one simple question: when would you give up? When would you walk away? You don’t have to raise your hand or stand up, just be honest with yourself. Jesus won’t look down on you for being afraid.
For only rarely will someone die on behalf of a righteous person (for on behalf of a good person possibly someone might even dare to die),
but God demonstrates his own love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
If Jesus loved even Paul, who persecuted Christians, don’t you think that He’ll look at you with compassion even if you’re afraid? We all experience fear. Jesus was afraid, too. But He was also brave. And He wants to empower you to be brave, too.
Here, you can measure your level of faith from 1 to 10. You can even count on your fingers how many questions you say yes to, and that’s a simple but effective way to measure your level of confidence in Jesus. This is not for you to brag about, this is just for you to be honest with yourself. So, with your eyes closed, imagine...
Jesus believed in His heart in the Scriptures, that God existed, that there is good and evil, and that all people would someday face judgement. Do you believe?
Jesus answered honestly when asked about His beliefs. If someone came to you asking about Jesus, would you accept this conversation?
Jesus occasionally went out of His way to share that faith, even at times when He wasn’t asked. Have you ever taken the initiative to share your faith with someone?
Jesus faced disgrace for His faith from strangers. If you knew a stranger would insult you for your faith, would you still share it?
Jesus faced disgrace for His faith from friends and family. His own brother called Him crazy (Mark 3:20-21 “And he went home, and the crowd gathered again, so that they were not even able to eat a meal. And when his family heard this, they went out to restrain him, for they were saying, “He has lost his mind!””). If you knew someone you cared about would insult you for your faith, would you still be open about it?
Jesus faced disgrace for His faith from public officials. Religious officials called him a devil worshiper and a blasphemer for His miracles and words (Mark 3:22 “And the scribes who had come down from Jerusalem were saying, “He is possessed by Beelzebul!” and “By the ruler of the demons he expels the demons!””). If you knew your faith would make you a public enemy, would you still live it out?
Jesus faced such stress from the burden He carried that He was sweating blood in the Garden of Gethsemane, knowing what He would soon endure, and not only would He suffer, He knew that many of those with Him would someday suffer a similar fate. If you knew your faith would put you through this, would you still live it out?
Jesus was imprisoned, blindfolded, beaten ,and spat on for His faith. If you were to be beaten and spat on for your faith, would you still live it out?
Jesus was beaten to the point that Scripture says He was unrecognizable. His beard ripped out, His skin torn apart with whips, His body oozing blood. If you faced the same fate, would you still live out your faith?
Jesus was nailed to a cross, naked and unrecognizable, crucified for crimes He never committed, a death reserved only for the worst criminals, a death so painful that there’s a special word in our language reserved for only this level of pain (excruciating). If you were facing the same fate, would you still live out your faith?
You can open your eyes now. Honestly? I'm not so sure about some of those myself. I’d like to think that I am, but I have doubts about that, especially when I step into 3rd person and look at myself from the outside. So...
Nobody does things like that for something they don’t really believe in, or for someone they don’t really love.
Why did Jesus do this? Because He didn’t just have faith that it was a price worth paying for you. He knew it.
And why have thousands upon thousands of Christians before you shared in Jesus’ suffering, too? Paul said, well after Jesus’ death and resurrection, well after witnessing first-hand how terrible persecution is, said not only that faith was worth it, he said...
For I consider that the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is about to be revealed to us.
For the eagerly expecting creation awaits eagerly the revelation of the sons of God.
He said that persecution wasn’t even worthy to compare to the prize we will receive! How can we live that confidently in the truth about the resurrection? Do we even need to?
Do we need to be that confident about the resurrection?
Well, Jesus Himself said:
Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone wants to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life on account of me will find it. For what will a person be benefited if he gains the whole world but forfeits his life? Or what will a person give in exchange for his life?
Ok… that’s a hard teaching.
How can we be that confident in the resurrection?
So, we established how confident you are, but what should you do about it? Hopefully you want your faith to grow, not to wither under fear. Perfect love casts out fear, the Scriptures say. Well...
There are 2 major ways in which you can grow:
Invest in the historical testimony of the Bible.
Invest in your personal testimony of the Bible.
You can study history and become more confident in the resurrection.
By studying history, you’ll find that there really were prophecies in the Old Testament fulfilled, you’ll find that the evidence for the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus is even stronger than most of the historical figures you learn about in school. There are people you study in school that you would call someone a lunatic for denying, and yet there’s more historical evidence for the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus than there is for them!
Here’s a link to a document that just has some neat things for you to explore about the resurrection:
What gets most people to be willing to die for the Gospel, though?
I’ve read a few books on this subject. Killing Christians. Dreams and Visions. Foxe’s Book of Martyrs. By the way, Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, you can see on the page there, was edited. Its stories were so condemning to the Catholic Church, the #1 persecutor of Christians throughout history, that stories were taken out of it, and the copies you buy today aren’t the original.
Also, Foxe’s Book of Martyrs is a collection of old stories, but the other two are not.
People—still today, in surprising numbers, and around the world—are being killed in simply for believing the Gospel.
Martyrdom isn’t an ancient phenomenon, it happens today.
Those famous words from Jesus, “take up your cross,” still hold true today.
And what did these Christians do when faced with death? Did they say “I read a blog article once that said Jesus really lived.” “I saw in a textbook how prophecies from the Old Testament came true.” No. They had a real, living relationship with Jesus. They loved Him, they walked with Him, they knew Him, and more important than anything... He knew them. They saw dreams, visions, or real-life healings and miracles. And so they didn’t just privately hold onto their faith, they lived it out, even if it meant death.
Personal experiences. Meeting Jesus for themselves. That’s what convinced me. My adventures through science and history only strengthened my faith, but it was my personal experience one night that really started the whole journey.
You can read the Bible all day long, but when you see someone healed? When you see someone’s life change? When you see something happen at the right time in the right place, or you have a dream or a vision? That sets you on fire.
So I gave you some links on building up the historical testimony for the resurrection, but how can you build up your personal testimony? Well, there are actually books you can read. The three I mentioned are a fantastic set to read. But ...
The greatest thing you can do to build your faith is write your own stories—put the Bible into action and see that it’s true.
When you search for me, then you will find me, if you seek me with all your heart.
God promises that we’ll find Him if we look with all our heart. But that takes time and effort. So let me give you a practical challenge.
This week, at some point:
Spend 30 minutes praying to find God.
Spend 45 minutes reading the Bible.
Spend an hour and 45 minutes researching Bible science.
I won’t give you specifics on how to do these things, or what specifically to pray. It might be really confusing at first. It might not produce any fruit at first. But remember that God’s promise is that you’ll find Him if you seek with all your heart. The average American spends over 6 hours a day on entertainment, and I’m only asking you to spend 2 and a half this week on the most important subject of all time. So not only are you spending only a sliver of your time with this, you might also not have your whole heart in it at first. So...
Don’t expect something to happen immediately.
But be persistent, and you will be surprised at what happens.
And to those of you thinking that you don’t need to do any of this… do it anyway! How will you know what impact it has unless you do it? Your faith might be weaker than you think it is, if you’ve never been tested.
If you reallllyy think you’re doing well… ask God to test you. 🥲
Start to look for God, and pray that you’ll find Him.