Sunday Morning Service

I Corinthians 15:1-22

Audio Access Available Above

“The Case For Resurrection” • 4.5.15 • Calvary Christian Fellowship, Resurrection Sunday Morning Service

Intro.

- There is no mystery. There is no hidden agenda. We are here today to honor the King of all creation, the Savior of the World, the Risen Son of God, Jesus Christ!

- In seeking to wrap our minds around the Resurrection event and it's meaning, we turn ourselves here to the book of First Corinthians and the Apostle Paul.

- Paul has concerned himself with various issues within the church including a question that had been raised concerning the possibility of the raising of the dead.

- The Greek culture at large had become more and more set against such supernatural possibilities and it's possible that the church, in seeking to remain relevant, softened it's stance.

- With both theological fists cocked, the Apostle Paul delivers a knockout punch that they could not have seen coming! Generally, I share the whole outline with you in advance.

- Today, I'd like to reveal that as we go. Paul begins his argument regarding the validity by noting that it had been

Intro.

I. Received Personally (v.1,2)

• I Corinthians 15:1,2 : "Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain." : Paul has been speaking about the primacy of prophecy, the forthtelling of the Word of God, in the church.

- Without so much as a seque, Paul runs right into the center of prophecy's purpose, which is to declare the gospel of Jesus Christ to the church.

- To "declare," coming from a Greek word meaning to make something known, is done in a repeated fashion. "I declare to you today the gospel that I preached to you then!"

- Paul is saying that the gospel was good enough when he met them and it was good enough now! The gospel can never change! It has worked throughout the ages and will until Christ returns!

- Our part in the gospel is to mimic the Apostle Paul by declaring and announcing the gospel.

- The Corinthians reveal the propper response. They received and stood fast in it!

- They were currently standing in and upon it and they would be saved finally and fully in the future because of it! These are bold claims!

- Their adherance to it would be proven by their continued confidence in the gospel, otherwise, their belief initially would turn out to be empty.

- This is Paul's first witness: Paul's gospel had moved them personally! They existed as a church and had their confidence of eternal standing with God because of the Gospel!

- This brings us to Paul's next argument in that he asserts that the gospel is repeated in scripture perpetually! Take a look at verse 3.

II. Repeated In Scripture Perpetually (v.3,4)

• I Corinthians 15:3,4 : "For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,  and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures," : The gospel did not originate with Paul. It was not his idea!

- Had it been man's idea, it would have ended with a destruction of Roman rule and the power of military conquest! That's not the gospel!

- What did he deliver to them? What had he received from the Lord Himself?

- First, Christ died for, on behalf of, in the place of sinful man, dying for the sins of humanity, according to the scriptures.

- Genesis 3:15, Genesis 22, the Levitcal sacrificial system, Numbers 21, Psalm 22, Isaiah 53, et all, are passages written thousands of years prior to Christ's death!

- When He died, He was buried. He physically experienced death and his body was treated the same as every other body that has ever died. It was buried away, in His case, in a tomb.

- But the gospel means nothing until the very next phrase: He rose again the third day  again, according to the scriptures!

- Psalm 16:10 and Psalm 49:15 are the prominent, explicit verses which refer to the Lord's bodily resurrection from the grave.

- Paul may also be referring to the implications left us by the Prophets who predict Christ's reign on Earth and in heaven far beyond, His earthly life!

- Perhaps Paul considers the stories that intimate a resurrection reality. Abraham was willing to lay down his only Son because he believed that if he killed him, God would raise Him! (Heb. 11:9)

- Paul's point is that the scriptures, the Old Testament, points to a bodily resurrection!

- You cannot choose to believe in the Bible without affirming that the Bible you believe teaches the resurrection!

- The Corinthians had believed and been saved by the gospel personally. The scriptures they believed repeated the theme perpetually. Note next that the case was recorded publically!

III. Recorded Publically (v.5-11)

• I Corinthians 15:5-7 : "and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles." : When you talk about Cephas, you are talking about Peter, the eldest member of the disciples.

- The twelve refer to the Lord's disciples minus Judas Iscariot. These are the men that spent every waking hour with Jesus for three years!

- These men are not the paradigms of belief that you would think that they should be. They had to be convinced of the Lord's resurrection, but were graced by Jesus nonetheless!

- The gospel accounts record a body that could be seen (John 20:20). It could be touched and examined. (John 20:25-27) Best of all, this body of His could take in food! (Luke 24:42,43)

- He was not just "seen" for a short time. Jesus spent long periods of time instructing them in the scriptures, walking and talked with them at length!

- Some of His most endearing moments were shared with the doubting disciple, Thomas and the denying disciple, Peter.

- He didn't just talk to the guys that "made it." He comforted and met His disciples in their failures as well!

- Then, just to disprove any notion that this was a sympathetic hallucination, Jesus met with 500 brothers at one time! Today, we can't answer the question of when this happened.

- Paul speaks of it as though it were a well documented event that the early church knew about and part of the reason he doesn't detail it is that the better part of 500 people were alive to report it!

- Some had died, but if you wanted to hear about it at that time, you could simply have asked!

- Do you think anyone did? Did anyone expose a liar among them? Did the authorities conduct an investigation to debunk these claims?

- If it was attempted, it most certainly failed, otherwise, we would never hear the end of it!

- Paul rounds out this section by asserting that the Senior Pastor of Jerusalem Christian Fellowship, and the half brother of the Lord, witnessed His resurrection as well!

- James and his brothers had been unbelievers during the Lord's earthly ministry. They had attempted to convince Jesus to go public early in His ministry, so as to force the issue for Him.

- John's gospel reports that the brothers did not believe in Him (John 7:5), but what a change! James became the first Pastor of JCF and his brother Jude wrote something for the end of the Bible!

- Finally, Paul lets us know, that Jesus was seen by all of the Apostles, the ones that He would send out into the World to preach and teach the gospel!

- To this point, Paul has provided sympathetic witnesses to the resurrection. Peter down to James could all have been in the category of people who needed to see Jesus!

- Their lives were radically touched by Him. He gave them hope and to have Him resurrect would have made their lives worth living.

- One could argue, though not very convincingly, that these people could mentally have convinced themselves to believe what they all knew to be a lie because they wanted it to be true!

- That's why this next part is so important to comprehend! Take a look at verse 9.

• I Corinthians 15:9-11 : "Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time. For I am the least of the apostles, who am 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 toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. Therefore, whether it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed." : Paul is asking his reader to count him in as a personal eyewitness to Christ's resurrection.

- He believes that you should consider him infererior, premature. The words are difficult to comprehend because they are so evocative.

- This phrase seems to indicate that Paul considered himself analogously, to an attempted abortion in comparison with a healthy and natural birth that the disciples experienced!

- He was the least of the Apostles in importance or measure because he persecuted the church! And this might be a great understatement.

- Paul was not "seeking" Jesus or on a spiritual quest of discovery! Paul was a devoted Anti Christian crusader!

- When Paul was on his way into Damascus to find the Jews that had defected from Judaism to the "Way," he was not looking to join them.

- Later in describing his campaigns, he offered testimony which interprets the phrase in Acts 8:3 which says that Saul "made havoc of the church."

- He was relentless, entering every house that was suspected to have Christian ties. (Acts 8:3) He was ruthless, hauling both men and women into prison. (Acts 22:4)

- Listen to the words of his own testimony that he shared in the courts of Caesarea.

• Acts 26:10,11 : "This I also did in Jerusalem, and many of the saints I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests; and when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them and I punished them often in every synagogue and compelled them to blaspheme; and being exceedingly enraged against them, I persecuted them even to foreign cities." : I can hardly imagine how Paul slept at night given the record that he amassed! He produced Christian martyrs!

- He was responsible for making men and women blaspheme the name of Christ, presumably torturing people toward that end! How could he sleep at night and face his conscience?

- Because Jesus had hunted him down and made him a different man! "By the grace of God I am what I am!"

- Paul did not laud his own efforts to come to Christ. He did not speak highly of his experience or his acknowledgement that changed his life!

- He says in the same way that he compelled people to blaspheme, God's grace compelled him to be a different man!

- Paul was born again by the power of God through the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit and in Christ, old things that we are guilty of committing are nailed to the cross of Jesus Christ!

- That is grace! That is what a risen Savior offers to you and I, sinners, whose records are wiped clean and whose stains have been washed in the crimson blood of Calvary's cross!

- That grace changed Paul and it worked out through him as well! Paul, by the grace of God, could point to a record of work that exceeded that of all the other Apostles!

- This is no boast on the part of the Apostle! He is simply stating a matter of record!

- How is this possible? Those who are forgiven much, love much! Those who truly grasp the power of God's grace are found to be the most effective servants!

- And by their testimony, the church of Corinth, the church of Galatia, etc., was born! May I add that you can actually personalize this passage as well if you have believed in Christ!

- They have preached. You have believed! That is how you and every person since has been saved! Paul moves now to the ramifications practically! Look at verse 12.

IV. Ramifications Practically (v.12-18)

• I Corinthians 15:12-18 : "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? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty. Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up—if in fact the dead do not rise. For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable." : There were people who had come to challenge the veracity of a bodily resurrection even a few years relatively from the time that it happened! It's nothing new.

- Some had even come into the church, believe it or not, and wondered aloud at the possibilities but had not considered the implications.

- If there is no resurrection or possibility of resurrection, then Christ is not risen! You might think, "Well, what about that?"

- Can't we just accept the moralilty of the Word and leave the supernatural, miraculous to the side?" That sounds so good to our naturalist ears. That seems like a reasonable compromise!

- We can accept divine truth, so long as it's only a little more humanly possible! We're fine with God, so long as He fits into our box! Paganism! Idolatry!

- If Jesus is not raised from the dead, then our preaching, our declaration, our announcement of a new life is empty and your faith which is built upon it is is empty too!

- The spiral from there leads downhill precipitously. The Apostles were liars. Your sins remain unatoned for, unpropitiated! Every hope you had of seeing dead loved ones is gone!

- If you only have hope in Christ that could not have possibly raised from the dead, then we are the most pitiable people that have ever lived!

- LIterally, there is nobody more miserable than a person who believes in a Christ that did not raise! What could be worse than that!?

- We are skipping out on every debaucherous exercise, believing that our bodies honor a God that cannot defeat death! Imagine all the trouble that you are avoiding with a chaste life!?

- That is what they were without the resurrection! Thankfully, Paul doesn't end there! He has shown that the resurrection had been receive personally.

- It was repeated in the scriptures perpetually. It was a matter of record publically and has powerful ramifications practically.

- Paul finishes his masters thesis noting the resurrection yields results permanently!

V. Results Permanently (v.19-22)

• I Corinthians 15:20-22 : "But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive." : There is no doubt. Paul says this triumphantly, emphatically and truthfully: Christ is risen from the dead! There can be no other conclusion!

- Anyone who believed that a resurrection was impossible before this section began, has run quietly and quickly away because their case has been utterly obliterated!

- Christ is RISEN, then, now and forever more! Be convinced. Be filled with exceeding joy!

- There are two ways that this effects us. First, Jesus became the firstfruits for those who have fallen asleep. What are firstfruits? A Jewish person knew where to look!

- Leviticus 23 records the various feasts that the people of God were to observe. Three days after the Passover, the Feast of Firstfruits was to commence.

- This coincided with an offering from the barley harvest, and would have been an offering from the first crops of the season. In giving this, they came by faith believing that God would bring more.

- Jesus is the fulfillment of the Firstfruits Feast. He is the first of a new kind of person to come forth from death! All who fall asleep, a euphemism for Christians who die, will rise just as Jesus rose!

- He rose from death never to die again! We will follow in His way, raising from death into eternal life with Christ, never to be touched by death again! What a promise!

- The second implication comes from the federal representation of Adam. Jesus can promise new life because He is a new representative.

- Adam was the first representative and we are related to him, by virtue of the fact that we die! That is Adam's legacy! We inherit his nature and as humans, we die. Not so with Christ!

- For in Christ came resurrection, so that all those in Christ are made alive! You were all once in Adam alone, and some now are in Adam alone. You have death to look forward to!

- But for those of us in Christ, we look past death and into the life that we have in Him to be realized for all of eternity!

Conclusion

- The resurrection gospel had been received by the Corinthians personally! It had touched their lives indelibly changing them forever!

- It had been repeated in scripture perpetually, explicitly, implicitly and prophetically! The actual event was recorded publically, witnessed by over 515 people!

- It's neglect has powerful ramifications personally, leading people to utter despair of hope. But for those who have believed, it yields results permanently!

- Once you are in Christ, you are promised a life that never ends and a future that can never be counted! All of this is true because Jesus Christ has risen from the grave!