The Glory of the Resurrection
The Resurrection Gospel
1 Corinthians 15:1-11
For the next weeks leading up to Easter, I want us to study through the 15th chapter of 1 Corinthians. You’ve heard me say that this chapter is one of my favorites and it is all about the resurrection.
That needs to be clarified because it is not specifically about the resurrection of Christ as much as it is about you’re the resurrection of followers of Jesus. So in that regard, it’s about your future. This is your story. This is what God has prepared for those He loves.
And the short of it is the bodies of all those who love and follow Christ will rise from the dead. Those in the church will rise at the Rapture of Christ. Those from the Old Testament will rise at when Jesus comes and we will all be given glorified bodies. This is the promise of the Word of God. This is the end result of the Easter story. This is our hope.
Now, this was very important to the people living in the ancient world, because then as now, there were those who didn’t believe. There have always been lots of folks willing to mock and ridicule the faith.
And that is why Paul addresses the subject. He wanted believers to know that contrary to what popular philosophy taught, there was going to be a resurrection. This is the hallmark of Christianity. The Corinthians needed to know that. And so do you and I.
So in the 15th chapter of Corinthians Paul gives us 58 verses packed full of information on the subject.
Now it all begins in the opening verses with a look at the gospel because our resurrection is based on Christ’s resurrection. If Christ is not alive, we have no hope. Any discussion about the resurrection must begin with the resurrection of Jesus. It’s the foundation and even though the rest of the chapter is about our resurrection, we must start here.
Notice what it says
1 Corinthians 15:1-11
Here is the testimony to the resurrection of Christ compiled and delivered through Paul. He was the one that God used to go to Corinth and to preach the gospel. He loved the church and was deeply involved with them and taught them. And now he begins this lesson on the resurrection by taking them back to their conversion. It was “the gospel” they had received” and they were continuing in it. There they stood.
And as he writes to the church at Corinth, he calls upon five witnesses to share about the resurrection. This is the evidence, if you will, for the personal, bodily resurrection of the believer based upon testimony. First of all, he offers
1. The Testimony of the Redeemed
Paul says, “You were saved through the gospel” in verse 2. If you’re a believer you have, by virtue of your salvation, already expressed your belief in resurrection.
The subject up for discussion was the possibility of resurrection from the dead. Paul’s point is you believe there is based upon your acceptance of Jesus Christ as Savior.
Listen, a crucified Messiah is no Messiah at all. If all that happened was Jesus died and is still in the grave, He’s not the Savior. According to Romans 1:4, He is the Son of God with power. There’s no power demonstrated on the cross. The power is demonstrated in the resurrection.
Kenneth Latourette, one of the great Christian history professor says, “It was the conviction of the resurrection of Jesus which lifted his followers out of the despair into which His death had cast them and which led to the perpetuation of the movement begun by Him. But for their profound belief that the crucified had risen from the dead, and that they had seen Him and talked with Him, the death of Jesus and even Jesus Himself would probably have been all but forgotten.” No resurrection, and you have a case for the disappearance of Jesus from historical records.”
But He did rise and we believe in His resurrection, and salvation requires that. Most often we end the Roman Road at Romans 10:9-10, “If you confess Jesus as Lord and believe that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved.”
Therefore, the redeemed are the first witness to bodily resurrection. And by the way, that doctrine is unique to the Christian faith. We preach a resurrected savior.
There is no historical account of the resurrection of Buddha. In fact, the earliest accounts of the death of Buddha are records that he died in that “Utter passing away in which nothing whatever remains.” So long, Buddha.
Mohammed died on June 8, 632 A.D. at the age of 61 at Medina. His tomb is annually visited by hundreds of thousands of Muslims. There has never been any indication by any of them of a resurrected Mohammed. Out of luck, Mohammed.
What sets the church apart is we are saved because we believe in a resurrected Christ.
And every time you witness a baptism, you are given a glorious reminder of what it means to be “buried with Christ in a picture of His death, risen to walk in newness of life.”
So the first testimony to bodily resurrection is the testimony of the true redeemed church saved by faith in a risen Christ.
But there’s more. There is also
2. The Testimony of the Scriptures
verses 3 and 4
Notice the emphasis on preaching. He says here, “I delivered to you. . .”
In verse 1, it is “I declared to you” and “I preached to you”. In verse 2, it’s the same thing, “the word was preached to you.”
And what he is referring to is just the basic facts of the gospel. Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, that He was buried and that He was raised on the third day according to the scriptures.” These are the historical facts.
And Paul is underlining the fact that these are not only historical facts, they are scriptural facts. Twice he refers to the scriptures. What’s he talking about? He’s talking about the Old Testament.
Does the Old Testament talk about the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ? Obviously they do! When Jesus was walking on the road to Emmaus with two of His followers after the resurrection, and they didn’t know who He was, Luke says He started and Moses and the prophets and explained to them what the Scriptures said about Him.
Some of it was direct prophecy, some of it was type. Maybe He started in Genesis 22 with the sacrifice of Isaac which was a picture of a substitutionary atonement.
I would imagine He went to Psalm 22 to describe the details of the crucifixion and the very words that He said on the cross.
Surely He covered Isaiah 53 where you have the Lamb sacrificed for sinners, wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquity, the chastisement of our peace falls on Him and by His stripes we are healed.
Psalm 16 would have been appropriate where the resurrection is specifically prophesied.
So, you have the testimony of the church to the reality of a bodily resurrection. You have the testimony of the scriptures to the reality of a bodily resurrection.
Added to that you have
3. The Testimony of Eyewitnesses
verse 5
Now verse 5 takes to the very day of Christ’s resurrection and starting there, Paul records in chronological order, a number of post-resurrection appearances of the risen Savior.
And just as we depend upon personal testimony in a court of law, Paul presents these witnesses. And by the way, human courts function on the testimony of intelligent, confident, trust worthy, sound of mind, possessing integrity witnesses and that’s what Paul presents to us.
Professor Thomas Arnold was the author of a famous three-volume history of Rome, appointed to the modern history chair at Oxford. He says this, writing way back in the nineteenth century, “The evidence for our Lord’s life and death and resurrection may be and often have been shown to be satisfactory. It is good according to the common rules for distinguishing good evidence from bad. Thousands and tens of thousands of persons have gone through it piece by piece as carefully as every judge summing up a most important cause. I have myself done many times over not to persuade others, but to satisfy myself.
I have been used for many years to study the histories of other times and to examine and weigh the evidence of those who have written about them and I know of no one fact in the history of mankind which is proved by better and fuller evidence of every sort to the understanding of a fair inquirer than the great sign which God has given us that Christ died and rose again from the dead.”
Another writer said, “It is the best authenticated event in ancient history.”
And Paul is about to share with us the reason why. Paul gives us reasons why.
Verse 5, “And He appeared,”
Now we could stop right there. He appeared. What’s the best evidence that you’ve risen from the dead? Show up. He appeared. He was not merely the figment of their imagination. It wasn’t a mass hallucination because they wanted it to happen. He appeared. We already read about His appearance on the Road to Emmaus. We know about His appearance to Mary Magdalene and the other women at the tomb.
But Paul goes to the most credible witnesses of all. First is Cephas. This is Peter. In Luke 24:34 we find him saying, “He’s alive, He’s alive. He appeared to Simon,” the record says.
That’s rather amazing in itself. He first appeared to Peter. If you’ve ever messed up and failed the Lord because it was Peter who denied Him and there is in that little sentence all kinds of forgiving love and grace. Jesus needed Peter for strategic ministry.
Then He appeared to the Twelve. These are those who went on to preach the resurrection. They hazarded their lives because of their claim that Jesus was alive.
Then verse 6 says He appeared to more than 500 brethren at one time. In fact, the majority of them were still alive as Paul was writing the letter and they were living, breathing witnesses to the resurrection.
Then in verse 7 he adds a fellow named James. This is most likely James, the brother of our Lord. He will eventually become the pastor of the church in Jerusalem. He’s included because John 7 tells us the brothers of Jesus didn’t believe him. But now old James has come around. He can’t deny it because his brother was dead and now he is alive!
Then he appeared again to the apostles. This is most likely a reference to Acts 1 where it says He met with the apostles and instructed them concerning the Kingdom of God for a period of 40 days. So there is plenty of eyewitness evidence.
Now think about the character of these witnesses. These are men who gave the world the highest teaching it has ever known. These are men who held to that teaching and died for that teaching in the face of hatred and hostility and persecution. This is not a little band of defeated cowards, squatting somewhere in an upper room one day and a few days later running out, disappearing in the crowd. These are people who literally preached this message until their lives were snuffed out and they are credible. They are trustworthy. So the evidence mounts.
Next, Paul offers
4. The Testimony of Himself
verses 8-10
Here’s the unique testimony of Paul who also saw the resurrected Christ. He’s the writer so this is first hand. Now if you know anything about the timeline of the the New Testament, you know Paul came along after Christ. He was not a physical witness to the resurrection. He wasn’t there. So why should we believe him when he says he say him?
Notice what he says. “As by one born out of due time”. What in the world does that mean. We don’t use that phraseology very often.
How are you today? About like one born out of due time.
That little phrase can mean a premature birth, an abnormal birth or an out of the ordinary birth. The word is even used to refer to an aborted fetus. So what is Paul saying? I think he is saying a couple of things.
Remember he is talking about his apostleship and he says, “I really don’t belong in the normal place of an apostle”.
I think he may also be addressing his own appearance and deformities and physical problems. I have an idea he looked like anything but someone that God was blessing and using. Therefore in his own mind, he is Paul the miscarriage or Paul the abortion or Paul the deformed.
He’s a humble man. He is a dead, vile, worthless piece of flesh in his own eyes because he’s a persecutor of the church and yet, the Lord appeared to him also.
He referred to himself as “. . . the least of the apostles, and not fit to be called an apostle cause I persecuted the church of God.”
He is out of time and out of place, he is unworthy, he is deformed by his own sinfulness, but he saw Christ and it was all, according to verse 10, by the grace of God, strictly a sovereign act of unmerited love and forgiveness.
Now think about what we are learning here. There were people in Corinth who did not believe in the resurrection of Jesus, and because of that, they denied that believers would resurrect also. There primary argument was that the resurrection was a fabrication. People made it up to cover for Jesus. He claimed He would raise from the dead.
So when He was murdered his friends had to steal his body and put together this cover up. Peter and the other apostles and the 500 witnesses and all of those, they just made it up.
Then how do you explain Paul? He is a Christian-killer. He is an unbeliever, a sinner, unworthy, an apostate, a Christ hater and yet here he is talking about the resurrection and how he himself has seen the risen Christ.
His life has been absolutely transformed. He goes from persecuting the church and Christ to being persecuted for Christ.
There’s no explanation for that apart from the mighty work of God and the resurrection that Paul preached. He had no reason to preach if it weren’t true.
That’s what he’s talking about in verse 10.
He says, “I saw the risen Lord and by the grace of God I am what I am and I do what I do and I work the way I work because I am convinced that Jesus is alive”.
Then there’s one final witness here and that is
5. The Testimony of a Common Message
Verse 11
If you’ve got this many people making something up, you’re going to have a hard time controlling the message. Any lawyer will tell you how hard it is to go into a court of law and try to pull off a fabricated defense when you have all kinds of people coming from all kinds of directions having to tell the same lie? It can’t stand up because of the inconsistencies.
But Paul says listen to anybody you want to listen to. You can listen to me or the apostles or the church or Peter or any one of the 500 who saw Him and we’ll all tell you the same thing. That is a powerful evidence of His resurrection.
And it reaches even to us today. You may say, “Well I just wonder if Jesus really did rise from the dead.” Well ask someone.
You say, I can’t ask Paul or Peter or anybody he mentioned they all lived and died 2,000 years ago. Then ask someone sitting nearby. Ask any believer who has truly met the Lord and listen to what they have to say.
You may ask, “Do you really believe Jesus is alive?” I talked to him this morning! He’s doing fine! Sends you His regards. Said He’d love to meet you. Looking forward to it.
I love the words of the old hymn:
I serve a risen Savior, He’s in the world today;
I know that He is living, whatever men may say;
I see His hand of mercy, I hear His voice of cheer, And just the time I need Him, He’s always near.
In all the world around me I see His loving care,
And tho’ my heart grows weary, I never will despair;
I know that He is leading thro all the stormy blast,
The day of His appearing will come at last.
Rejoice, Rejoice, O Christian, lift up your voice and sing
Eternal hallelujahs to Jesus Christ the King!
The Hope of all who seek Him, the Help of all who find,
None other is so living, so good and kind.
He lives, He lives, Christ Jesus lives today!
He walks with me and talks with me
A-long life’s narrow way.
He lives, He lives, salvation to impart!
You ask me how I know He lives?
He lives within my heart.
Well, that’s the testimony of the redeemed, recorded for us in Holy Scripture. Added to that we have the accounts of the Apostles including Cephas and over 500 witnesses. Even James the brother of Jesus and Paul himself add their testimony.
But the question of the hour is, “What about you”? What’s your testimony of the resurrection. . .
