Sermon Tone Analysis

Important facts

Facts to receive, facts to believe, facts to obey.

Facts, truth, they matter.

Believe in God

He was there in the beginning and spoke all things into existence (Gen1:1)

Believe in the Bible

As God’s inerrant word given through the prophets and the apostles as inspired by the Spirit so we can have everything to take us from glory to glory! (2Tim3:16-17)

Believe in Christ

Must believe in Christ as you believe in God (Jn14:1, 6)

Believe in simple Christianity

There is one Church that Jesus Christ built (Mt16:18)

Believe in the gospel

it has things to believe, things to obey.

For it is the power of God unto salvation (Rom1:15-16)

Believe in baptism

It is for the remission of sins (Act2:38)

It is an appeal to God for a clear conscience (1Pt3:21)

It is the place where we are circumcised with circumcision not made with hands (Col2:11)

Believe in Lord’s supper

Do it in remembrance, in proclamation, in celebration and in fellowship (Mt26:26-27; 1Cor11:26)

Believe in virgin birth

As foretold born of a virgin (Mt1:23)

Today, we will look at why we believe, or should believe in the resurrection of Jesus.

It is an essential for if there was no resurrection than:

Our faith would be futile (1Cor15:14, 17)

Our sins would still be upon us (1Cor15:17)

Those who died in Christ would have perished (1Cor15:18)

And, we would be most pitiful (1Cor15:19)

For us to get a good understanding, we need to look at context so open your bibles to 1Cor15 with me, I want to read 1Cor15:1-19.

I know it is a long section, but it is important we grasp the context.

THE RESURRECTION - OUR HOPE (1Cor15:1-19)

1Cor15:1-3 “1 Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, 2 by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.

3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,”

1Cor15:4-7 “4 and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.

6 After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep; 7 then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles;”

1Cor15:8-11 “8 and last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared to me also.

9 For I am the least of the apostles, and not fit 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 did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me.

11 Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.”

1Cor15:12-15 “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, not even Christ has been raised; 14 and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain.

15 Moreover we are even found to be false witnesses of God, because we testified against God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise, if in fact the dead are not raised.”

1Cor15:16-19 “16 For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised; 17 and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins.

18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.

19 If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied.”

(Transition) so, in context we have reasons why we should believe in the resurrection, and this morning we will now get into some details.

Numbers

Character

Strength

All that help us to further understand why we believe, or should believe in the resurrection.

Numbers

Numbers matter to establish a matter (Deu17:6; Mt18:19).

And the witnesses, the number of witnesses of the resurrection matter.

The more witnesses, the stronger the testimony is established (Deu17:6)

or you can look at a New Testament passage

Today in our society, in our judicial system the number of witnesses help to solidify a matter.

The more witnesses there are the stronger the evidence.

Many witnesses of the resurrection (1Cor15:3-8) and more

Cephas (Lk24:34)

Jesus had appeared to the two men on the road to Emmaus and after the encounter they went and found the apostles and they prophetically told them that the Lord had appeared to Simon.

The twelve (Lk24:36-43; Act1:2-3)

It was after that the Lord appeared in the midst of the apostles and spoke to them.

Just like right before the ascension

The five-hundred (Mt28:10, 16-17)

Jesus had appeared to the women and told them to go tell the apostles and to go to Galilee.

And, by Paul (Act22:6-10)

we know the passage in Act9:3-6), but hey, let’s look at another account.

This was not all of them, other witnesses:

Mary of Magdalene (Mk16:9; Jn20:14)

The other women (Mt28:9-10)

Apostles minus Thomas (Jn20:19-24) then Apostles with Thomas (Jn20:26-29)

The seven by the sea (Jn21:1-23)

Apostles at the ascension (Act1:3-12)

(Transition) so over the 40 day period, of which Mormon’s say Jesus came to the America’s we have more than 500-witnesses who saw Jesus after his death.

Some believe they were deceived, and we are gullible to believe, but then that brings us to the character of the witnesses.

That is what we want to look at together now.

Character

Character, the mental and moral qualities distinctive to an individual.

So, let’s look at the character of the witnesses of the resurrection.

Character of the unbelievers, the skeptics and the enemies

Some did not believe, but came to believe (Jn7:3-5; Mk3:21; Act1:14)

Jn7:3-5 “3 Therefore His brothers said to Him, “Leave here and go into Judea, so that Your disciples also may see Your works which You are doing.

4 “For no one does anything in secret when he himself seeks to be known publicly.

If You do these things, show Yourself to the world.” 5 For not even His brothers were believing in Him.”

and Mk3:21 “21 When His own people heard of this, they went out to take custody of Him; for they were saying, “He has lost His senses.”

-Some thought him as crazy.

But the end, well Act1:14 “14 These all with one mind were continually devoting themselves to prayer, along with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers.”

Some were skeptical, but came to believe (Jn20:24-28)

jn20:24-26 “24 But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came.

25 So the other disciples were saying to him, “We have seen the Lord!”

But he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.”

26 After eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them.

Jesus came, the doors having been shut, and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.””

Jn20:27-28 “27 Then He said to Thomas, “Reach here with your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand and put it into My side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing.”

28 Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!””

One was an enemy who came to believe Him as Lord (Act9:1-2; 26:9-11)

Paul consented to the death of Stephen, he was breathing murderous rage and was persecuting the church.

Then:

Act26:9-11 “9 “So then, I thought to myself that I had to do many things hostile to the name of Jesus of Nazareth.

10 “And this is just what I did in Jerusalem; not only did I lock up many of the saints in prisons, having received authority from the chief priests, but also when they were being put to death I cast my vote against them.

11 “And as I punished them often in all the synagogues, I tried to force them to blaspheme; and being furiously enraged at them, I kept pursuing them even to foreign cities.”