Episode 299: The Necessity of the Resurrection | Dave Sloop

Introduction

Thank you, Brian. Good morning, everyone. Well, I used to say that you will never slide into godliness. It'll be a conscious decision, but Lila's trying to prove us wrong this morning; she slipped right in.

We are in 1 Corinthians 15 this morning, which is the second to the last chapter in Paul's first letter to the church at Corinth, and this happens to be the longest chapter we'll be looking at. Not only that, this is the longest chapter by number of verses that Paul, the apostle, ever wrote. And what's interesting about that is that this chapter has an unmistakable singular focus. There's one topic that 1 Corinthians 15 is dealing with.

What was so important to the apostle Paul that he dedicated 58 verses to make sure that the people of Corinth understood? We read it in verse 12, the first verse of our scripture reading this morning, and here's what it says:

How is it that some of you could say that there is no resurrection from the dead?

The Corinthian church wanted a Christianity without the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And some of you here this morning may rightly think, what does that even mean? Doesn't it mean to be Christian that we believe in the resurrection of Christ? Isn't that what we celebrate every Easter? Isn't that what gave birth to the early church movement was the fact that they saw him?

You'd be right to ask those questions, and that is precisely what Paul will say to them.

The Context of the Passage

Before we jump into exactly what Paul says, I want to ponder with you a question that I asked myself as I studied this passage this week. Here's the question:

How is it that a group of believers, genuine believers, by the way, believers, by the way, who were discipled and mentored by the apostle Paul himself, you would think that disciples of the apostle Paul would have a handle, have a grasp on the gospel? How is it that they, in such a short period of time, could so quickly devolve in their concept of what the gospel was?

To understand the answer to that question, we have to remember who he was writing to, where they were from, and when they lived. Paul was writing to a group of people that lived in Corinth, ancient Greece, and they were 50 miles away from a little city called Athens.

Do you know anything about that city? A few hundred years before Paul would write this letter, there was a man named Socrates, who had a student named Plato, who had a student named Aristotle. These men and others that would follow after them in Athens would give birth to ancient Greek philosophy. It set off this process known as Hellenistic culture, where Greek philosophy, culture, arts, politics, moved not just 50 miles away, but throughout the entire Western world.

In fact, Athens is known as the cradle of Western civilization. You and I have been deeply impacted by those philosophical ideas and thoughts. It is the birthplace of democracy.

Now, much of what those guys taught was diametrically opposed to the gospel, and what was happening in Corinth was Hellenistic Christianity. It was Greek philosophy and thought influencing Christian thought. It happened then, and it's still happening today.

If we don't think that we are capable of falling into the same snare, then we're not paying enough attention. You know, are churches all over the world, even in Roanoke, who deny the resurrection, who have robbed Jesus of His divinity, and who have stripped the Bible of its authority? It can happen.

So, with that context, and with some measure of humility, let's read Paul's words to the church at Corinth. Let's hear what he has to say.

He says in verse one of chapter 15:

brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand.

Paul says, I wanna remind you of something, and it's the gospel. Now, if I was to ask you, what does that word mean? What does the gospel mean? Most of us would say the gospel means? Good news. But do you know the historical context of that word? That in ancient times, when there was a battle, the winning side would send a messenger home to proclaim victory to his people. It was an announcement of victory from a battle that had already been fought, which you did not participate in, but which you would massively benefit from.

Paul says this is the gospel. It is not rules for living. It is not philosophical ideas to which you give mental assent. Those things are true, but that's not primarily what it is. The Gospel is an announcement of something that already took place. It is a battle that was waged and that was won, that you did not participate in, but that you massively benefit from. That is the gospel.

In verse three, Paul's gonna tell us exactly what that gospel is. Listen to what he says:

For what I received, I passed on to you as of first importance, that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures.

I want you to notice a couple of phrases that Paul uses. First of all, he says, I passed on to you what I received. In other words, what I shared with you was not my philosophical ideas. I'm not Plato. I'm a messenger of God who brought a divine revelation to you, which is why he repeats this phrase twice.

He says, Jesus died for our sins according to the scriptures. He was buried. He was raised on the third day according to the scriptures.

Gospel is not my idea. It was a divine revelation that I shared with you. Therefore, we don't tweak it and change it. This is the gospel.

Notice something else he says. He says, I delivered this to you as of first importance. In other words, there are some things as Christian brothers and sisters over which we can disagree. We did some baptisms today. There's a lot of debate over how we should baptize. Do you baptize infants or adults? Do you sprinkle or do you dunk? When we come to communion, do you dip or do you gulp? Or when it comes to the sermon, do you take notes or do you take naps? Today, I hope you choose notes.

But the point is, there are some things that we are able to disagree about and still be in the family together, but Paul is about to say there's a couple things that if you go outside the lines on this, if you disagree with any of the following three things, you are taking yourself outside the family.

He died for sins. He was buried. He was raised on the third day.

This is the gospel.

Do you notice one other thing that he says? He says, I passed on you what I received, and then he says, I want to remind you of the gospel which you received and upon which you stand.

Receiving, by the way, is one of two possible responses that we can have to this message. We can either receive it or we can reject it, but we cannot, as the Corinthian church wanted to do, reduce it. We cannot make it less than what it is.

By the way, we also can't add to it. It is God's divine message, and we do not have the freedom to tweak and change and bend it into a philosophical modern culture narrative. This is the Gospel, and it doesn't change. And Paul is going to tell us that as soon as you try to remove the resurrection from the gospel, you are going to have to ignore its proof in history. You're going to deny its obvious power in the lives of people, and you are going to lose its promise.

Evidence and Power of the Resurrection

Let's take a look, first of all, at what Paul has to say about the proof or the evidence for the resurrection. Starting in verse five, he says:

Jesus was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and He appeared to Peter, and then to the twelve. After that, He appeared to more than 500 of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then He appeared to James, then to all of the apostles, and last of all, He appeared to me also.

What is Paul doing here? He's saying, you can't casually dismiss the resurrection. If you want to deny that the resurrection happened, there are some facts that you're going to have to explain. Namely, an empty tomb, eyewitnesses, and massively transformed lives in an explosive Christian church movement that is inexplicable apart from the resurrection.

You cannot ignore those facts. First, we have the empty tomb. All they would have needed to do to shut down this movement would have been to produce a body, and they never could.

You say, well, maybe disciples hid it. Okay. But then you have eyewitnesses. Jesus was not here for a couple days appearing in isolation to one or two people. Jesus was here for forty consecutive days in His resurrected body, and in that time, He appeared to hundreds and hundreds of people. Sometimes it was just one. He appeared to Mary right outside the tomb. Other times, He would appear to all twelve of the disciples. Another time, it was two people walking on the road to Emmaus. And Paul mentions one time that He speaks to 500 people at once.

Hallucinations do not happen corporately, okay? That is not how it works. These are 500 people who all claimed to see with their own eyes the same thing, in the same place, at the same time. And then he adds this phrase: most of them are still alive.

Remember, Paul is writing sixteen to eighteen years after Jesus died. He says, go talk to them and see if they've changed their story. Because I'll tell you right now, there's not one who has changed his or her story. They went to their grave believing it. In fact, some of them went to their grave because they believed it.

Most of them. But then thirdly, you have the changed lives of the people who saw them. There were hundreds, then thousands, and now there are millions, billions.

However, Paul mentions three by name, and we're gonna look at each one. He mentions Cephas, Peter; he mentions James; and he mentions himself.

I want to talk about each one for a second. What do we know about Peter right before the crucifixion? He was publicly denying Jesus. He was saying, I don't even know the man. He was terrified.

What about after? He died? He was hiding in a room with ten of his best friends because they thought, we are next. They're coming for us. Then something happened, and then suddenly Peter became the fearless, bold leader of the early Christian movement. He was their spokesperson. He was speaking publicly about a man named Jesus who had raised from the dead. He was tortured. He was beaten. He was imprisoned. He was commanded to be silent about Jesus, and he would not. And it led to his death. And when he came to his death, he said, I am not worthy to be killed like my lord, and so they crucified him upside down.

How do you explain that? You see, these aren't just, this isn't folklore. These are historically documented events. We didn't see Jesus, but you gotta explain that fact. What changed that guy's life?

Then you have James. Do you know who he was? He was the biological half-brother of Jesus. In Mark three, we learn that he thought Jesus was, quote, out of his mind. In John seven, we learn that even Jesus' brothers did not believe in him. They were skeptics, and then something happened, and James would go on to be a key leader in the early Christian church.

In fact, we have a book in our Bible that bears his name. It's called James. Do you know what the first sentence of James is? James, servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. Can you imagine saying that about your brother? James was stoned to death because he would not stop talking about his brother who had risen from the dead and to whom he called people to worship. How do you explain that?

And finally, we have the apostle Paul, public enemy number one of the church. He could not stand the early Christian church movement. He persecuted the church. He killed anyone that adhered to the faith. He was standing at Stephen's stoning, giving his approval. Then something happened on a dusty road on the way to Damascus, and Paul would become the single most influential human being for the cause of Christ. No one will steal that title from him.

How do you explain that? Can you deny the resurrection? You certainly can. Can I prove to you that it happened? I cannot prove beyond the shadow of a doubt, but there are some facts you're going to have to deal with if you want to be intellectually honest. There is an empty tomb. There are hundreds of eyewitnesses. And third, there are massively transformed lives.

In fact, Paul, when he was standing before Festus and Agrippa in Acts 26, he's talking about the reason why he's preaching what he does. And at the end of his little speech, he says, I'm only saying what Moses and the prophets have always said—that Christ has to die, and he will be the first among us to rise. And when he says that, Festus says, Paul, you have lost your mind. All of your learning has caused you to go insane.

Listen to how Paul responds to Festus. Let me hold both my spots here. He says this:

I am not insane, most excellent Festus. What I am saying is true and reasonable. The king, referring to Agrippa, is familiar with these things, and I can speak freely to him. I am convinced that none of this has escaped his notice because it was not done in a corner.

In other words, Paul is saying with confidence, Agrippa, this happened in full view. Everyone knows what happened. If you want to be intellectually honest, you have to come up with some plausible explanation for the existence and the explosive growth of the early Christian church. I've never heard one that even comes close.

The Power of the Resurrection

That is the proof or the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ. But secondly, Paul talks about its power. I mean, the question is, how does the resurrection actually change someone? Because it's still doing it today, by the way. You and I are the product of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. How does the resurrection change? Is it simply that we get new data and we make a decision to live differently? We do receive new information, but it's more than that.

Listen to what Paul says in verse 17:

And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is futile, or that literal translation is profitless, and you are still in your sins.

The implication here is, of course, that Christ has raised from the dead, so your faith is not profitless; it's profitable, and you are no longer in your sins.

What does that phrase mean? Well, first of all, it means that you are no longer under sins' penalty. You have been forgiven of your sins. How does the resurrection secure our forgiveness? Jesus Christ died for sinners, you and me. If he stayed in that tomb, we would always wonder, did it work? Did God accept the sacrifice? Was it sufficient?

The empty tomb is God's top of His lungs declaration: you are forgiven. It was more than enough. It was sufficient, and he raised his son back to life.

If your sins ever condemn you—and they will—you look back at that empty tomb and you say, I'm forgiven. It is a final and finished work.

But that's not all Paul meant. When Paul says you are no longer in your sins, he does not just mean that you're no longer under its penalty. He also means you're no longer under its control.

Listen to what he says in verse 10:

But by the grace of God, I am what I am, and His grace to me was not without effect. There was something effective about it. He says, no. I worked harder than all of them, referring to the other apostles. He says, yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.

Paul is saying, I didn't just get new data. There was a power at work. It wasn't me just working hard. It was someone at work within me. He would say it this way in Galatians 2:20:

I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.

Do you know that? At the end of his life, after he was telling his disciples that he was about to go away, he said, it's better for you that I go because when I go, I send my Spirit, and His Spirit comes to live inside of us. And we have a new power for life.

Now, I am so grateful for the ministry of Young Life. And I know that in this room right now, there are some kids who are part of that ministry. Some of you may have just met Christ at a Young Life Camp this summer. Here's my message to you: your job is not to take this new information of the gospel and to try harder. Your job is to get to know the one who now lives inside you. You have a new power for life.

See, this is the power of the gospel.

The Promise of the Resurrection

Finally, Paul is going to tell us about the promise—the promise of the resurrection, what it points to. You see, the proof of the resurrection deals with our past; its power deals with today, our present circumstances; but the promise of the resurrection points to our future. What is the promise? Let's look at verse 18 and 19:

If Christ has not been raised, then those who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. In other words, those of our loved ones who have died hoping and trusting in Christ, we will never see them again.

And he continues,

if only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.

He's saying, listen, my life makes zero sense apart from the resurrection of Jesus Christ. I lost everything. Paul surrendered it all. In fact, he expands this thought in verse 29:

Now, there is no resurrection, why do we endanger ourselves every hour? I die every day, he says. And then he goes on, if the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink because tomorrow we die.

In other words, if there is no resurrection, then just let's live it up. Get as much money as you can, get as much pleasure as you can because this life is all there is. But, of course, Christ did raise from the dead, and so the opposite of this verse is true.

There will be a great reunion one day when we are face to face with those that we love who have hoped in Christ. And we are not to be pitied but to be envied more than everyone. Why? Because this life is not what it's all about. There is more than just this life—or maybe a more biblically accurate way to say that would be to say this:

This life will be here, and then it will be gone. James says, you are a vapor. Our lives, in the scheme of eternity, will be like the blink of an eye. That is not to say that this life doesn't matter. The choices and decisions we make, and the sacrifices we give in this window of time will impact eternity.

But the question is, what are you hoping in? What are you building your life on? There are so many treasures in this world that can distract you and knock you off the horse. Paul says, don't take debate. There is more. And when we get in touch with the promise of the resurrection, we can say along with Paul what he says in 2 Corinthians 4:17:

These light and momentary troubles...

Let's pause right there. Do you know Paul's life? He lost it all—reputation, status, wealth, home. He surrendered family. Paul was beaten, tortured, stoned within inches of his life, and then eventually decapitated. Light and momentary troubles—that's how Paul described what he was going through.

Do you know why? Because Paul understood the promise of the resurrection. And if you understand the promise of the resurrection, then you can say, along with Paul, the rest of verse 17:

These light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.

How does the resurrection secure this promise? Look at verse 20:

Christ has indeed raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.

You know what a firstfruit is? It is the sign that the harvest is here, and it is the guarantee that there is more to come. That's how Paul saw the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It was the firstfruits. He was the first one to go, but he won't be the last. There will be more. We will go be where he is.

In fact, Jesus promised that:

I go to prepare a place for you that where I am, you may also be.

Do you know that promise? When you know that promise, you can look life in the face, whatever it throws at you—suffering, trials of every kind, you can look death itself in the face and say, bring it on. Because whatever you throw at me, you're just achieving for me an eternal glory that far outweighs any pain or suffering I will endure in this life.

This life is not what it's about. We are promised something better and greater, and it's certain because the tomb is empty.

I don't know all of you, but I would imagine that some of us, like the Corinthians, need to be reminded of the gospel. Paul, in the first couple of verses there, says it's the gospel on which you have taken your stand, your foundation. Is that what you're building your life on? You and me—I'm speaking to myself, too. Is this what we're building our life on? Is this your foundation? Or have you put your trust and hope honestly in something else? Maybe you need to be reminded. I know I did this week.

And perhaps there are some here who have never trusted in this gospel message and the one to whom it points, Jesus Christ. Maybe you are like Peter—a coward. Maybe you've been afraid of what people would say if you were to accept this message. Maybe you're like James—a skeptic—just couldn't get there intellectually. Or maybe you're just a downright enemy of the Christian faith.

The beauty of those three examples is that there's room for everyone. And my message to you is this: Jesus is alive. And you can have an encounter with Him today. And you can know that hope. You can know that promise. And you can no longer be in your sins. You can know that you're forgiven, and you can be free from its control, and you can get a new power inside you. Do you know that?

I want to encourage you today. We're about to have a time of prayer, and there will be people on either side up here who would love to pray with you because you can begin that new life today in the blink of an eye. What's holding you back?

Let's pray.

Conclusion

Father, thank you for this incredible promise. God, thank you for the proof, the historical evidence for the resurrection, that we don't merely have to have blind faith but that you've actually given us something we can sink our teeth into—that it's not just divine revelation, but it's also rooted in history.

God, most of all, thank you for the promise that you're the firstfruits of those who will raise from the dead. We will be with you. As Paul said, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. It's in His name we pray. Amen.