The Resurrection

Five Tragic Consequences

(I Corinthians 15: 1 – 58)

Four Religions with founders

Islam: Muhammad = Born June 8, 570 ADS; Saudi Arabia. Died June 8, 632 ADS; Medina Resting Place Green Dome in Medina. Abraham’s Son Ishmael

Buddhism: Born 563 BC; Died 483 BC; North India today Southern Nepal. Resting Place: “Buddha’s Cremation divided among 8 royal families enshrined by King Ashoka into 84,000 Stupas “Buddha’s Relics”

Judaism: Abraham = Born 1800 BC in Ur Kasdim; Died 1600 BC Hebron, Resting Cave of Machpelah

Christianity: Jesus Christ = Born 04 BC Bethlehem of Judea; Died 33 AD Jerusalem.

The Gospel I Corinthians 15: 1-5

Vs. 3 Died Vs. 4 Buried, Vs 4 Raised, Vs. 5 Appeared Before: Cephas, Twelve, 5+ Thousand

Resurrection

Five Tragic Consequences

I. No Legitimate Gospel vs. 12 Preaching is in Vain: Either the Tomb is Empty or the Gospel is Empty

II. No Reasonable Faith vs. 14 III. No Reliable Resurrection vs 15 “All Liars” Our Testimony is False; The Old Testament Cannot be Trusted” IV. No Real Forgiveness vs. 17Sin Remains “No Redemption”

V. No Eternal Life vs. 18 Old Testament Saints Have Perished.

The Resurrection

The Corinthian Christians were not denying Jesus’ resurrection; they were denying our resurrection. They were influenced either by Greek philosophy (which considered the resurrection undesirable, thinking the state of “pure spirit” superior), or by the thinking of the Sadducees (which thought the world beyond to be just wishful thinking). The bottom line is that the Corinthian Christians believed we lived forever, but not in resurrected bodies.

The Risen Existence:The Spirit of Easter

Belief in the resurrection is an act of rebellion against the evil, corruption and oppression that can so easily swamp us. Believing in the resurrection can be a refusal to accept that the world is as it is, that it can never change and that we must accept it simply as it is. Believing in the resurrection allows us to see the world with a long view, a perspective that looks backwards to the resurrection and forwards to the end times, recognizing traces of resurrection and end times in what is happening now. Believing in the resurrection can and should transform not only how we view the world, but how we live in it. We should become people in whom others can see new life, and people who introduce that new life wherever the world is stultifying and life-denying. Resurrection makes a difference not only to Jesus and the earliest disciples but also to us, as we live out our lives day by day By Jewish reckoning, a part of a day was considered to be a whole day. And it was common Jewish idiom to refer to even a part of a day as “a day and night.” So three days and three nights might refer to as much as seventy-two hours, or as little as twenty-six hours (one full twenty-four-hour day, together with one hour of the preceding day and one hour of the following day). This explains why Jesus could be said to be in the tomb “three days and three nights,” when he was buried late Friday and arose early Sunday