1 Cor No.31 The Resurrection No.1

Now brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you, otherwise you have believed in vain. 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, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the twelve.

After that he appeared to more than five hundred 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 the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born. For I am the least of the apostles, and do not even deserve 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 to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. Whether then it was I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed.

Now may God add his blessing to that reading from his holy word. Now I would be grateful if you would have your Bibles open at 1 Corinthians and chapter 15. If you ever have the privilege of flying to the far east, let me recommend that you go by an Arab airline.

There are three advantages in so doing. One, it is cheaper. Two, the service is very good.

And the third thing is this, they'll not fly over Mecca. You say, what do you mean by your third point? Well it's significant. Mecca is the place where Muhammad was entombed.

And because Muslims are more concerned than Christian people generally are about their holy places, they will not allow an airplane to fly over Mecca. Fortunately, we don't have the problem even if we controlled air flights across Israel, because in no way could an airplane do discredit to the Lord Jesus Christ by flying over the remains of his body. Because the fact of the matter is, and it's glorious, it distinguishes as Christians forever from our Muslim friends.

There just is no body of the Lord Jesus Christ anywhere in Palestine. To quote the eloquent professor of classics of one of the New Zealand universities, Professor Blaklock, if the bones of Jesus Christ lay bleaching somewhere under the Middle Eastern sun, then we do not have a faith. Or as the apostle Paul put it, even more eloquently, if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless.

And so is your faith. The Marxists have got problems with Lenin's body in Moscow. It keeps shrinking I'm told.

And Chairman Mao's in Peking suffers from the same predicament. But whether it's leaders of atheism or founders of great world religions like the Buddha and Confucius, they may have their problems regarding the remains of their founder. But not those of us who are followers of Jesus Christ, because there are no remains.

He was once dead, and then he was raised from the dead. And now in heaven at the right hand of the Father is our Savior who intercedes for us. Says Thomas Arnold, one-time headmaster of rugby school, I know of no one fact in the history of mankind which is proved by better and fuller evidence of every sort than the evidence that is given for the resurrection of Jesus Christ and for the great sign which God gave us, that Christ died and rose again from the dead.

Now it's the resurrection of Jesus that contains the whole of Paul's teaching in the 58 verses that constitute 1 Corinthians 15. And if there's one chapter on which you ought to be focusing your powers of attention and concentration in understanding the beauty and the splendor of the Christian gospel, it's the 15th chapter of 1 Corinthians. I hope you live in it.

I hope that you know its verses, if not off by heart, then at least the meanings that they contain, that they have been absorbed into your own understanding of the faith. Now we're not going to get through 50 plus verses this morning. What I want to do is to contain my remarks to the first 11 verses.

And if I was going to preach homiletically under three headings, which I'm not, then I might suggest to you that in the first two verses, there is the teaching, the talking of the Apostle Paul as he personally addresses the Christians at Corinth. From the third verse and down to the eighth verse, there is the teaching doctrinally of Paul as he spells out the significance of the death and resurrection of Jesus. And then from the ninth verse through to the eleventh, there is the testimony personally delivered by Paul as to what the benefits of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus have meant for him.

But as I say, I'm not going to preach under those headings, but I break it open for those of you who find hooks from Scripture helpful to hang your thoughts on. What I want to do immediately is to take you into the third verse through to the fifth verse of this 15th chapter. And there you find one of the most splendid creeds in the whole Bible that summarizes what we believe about Jesus.

You know what the word distill means. If you boil water down, you can distill it to its very essence. And if there happened to be any chemicals in the liquid, well ultimately you have the residue as a result of the boiling.

And here it seems to me is the boiled down statement, the essence, that's what the word creed means of the Christian faith. Listen to Paul as he summarizes it, or as my Sunday school teacher used to say, as he puts the gospel in a nutshell. For what I received I pass on to you as of first importance.

One, that Christ died for our sins according to the scripture. Two, that he was buried. Three, that he was raised on the third day according to the scripture.

Four, that he appeared to Peter and to the rest. Here are the four key factors that are basic to the Christian faith. Jesus was crucified.

Jesus was entombed. Jesus was raised from the dead. Jesus appeared to men and women who saw him after his remarkable resurrection.

Now as I say, that is a creedal statement. It is perhaps one of the earliest, if not the earliest piece of scripture that was ever written. You say, why do you argue that? Well, think it through with me.

Here is Paul writing to the Corinthians, and he tells us as he summarizes the gospel in those four statements, that what he has set down is not the result of his own intuition. Rather it is what he has received from someone else. What I received I passed on to you.

He used similar language, you remember, in the 11th chapter and the 23rd verse when he was describing the setting up of the communion service. For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you. He doesn't supply the word from the Lord in the third verse of the 15th chapter, but it would seem that he is claiming that this creedal statement comes from the same source.

What I received I pass on to you. I could do a bit of arithmetic from Galatians chapter 1 this morning, but time is not on my side. But those of you who are interested in the study will appreciate that the apostle makes reference to 14 years and to 3 years in Galatians chapters 1 and 2. And from dating the first time that Paul went to Jerusalem, A.D. 49, if memory serves me right, you can discover that when Paul was converted, it was probably in either A.D. 32 or A.D. 35.

One year after, or possibly three years after the death and the resurrection of Jesus. Now this is phenomenal. Here he is claiming that what he is preaching as the creedal statement of Christianity, he got from the lips of the Savior.

He derived his message from the Lord Jesus. And this he received, he passes on. You remember the statements, that Jesus died, that Jesus was buried, that Jesus was raised, that Jesus manifested himself.

The word that in the original is used in a sort of emphatic repetition, almost in the way that a lawyer might set down a legal statement. And indeed the idea of, of the law and setting up something which is binding, is basic to Paul's writings in the third through to the fifth verses. Even those verbs, what I received, I passed on to you, are legal terms.

And so what you've got here is one of the most important statements of the creed of the early Christians. And as I say, those of you brought up in a free church tradition, who are somewhat sensitive to the repetition of creeds, let me disabuse you of your problem. It's a very biblical thing to boil down what you believe to a statement which you can remember, and then you are able to give a reason for the hope that you cherish as an intelligent Christian person.

So here is the apostle putting down this fourfold statement of an early creed. And he makes reference by implication to the source from which he drew it. Not manufactured by himself, rather he received it from the Lord.

But within those verses is not only by implications the reference to the source from which he drew it, but also to the scriptures which foreknew it. For what I received, I passed on to you as of first importance, that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. And then he repeats that phrase in the fourth verse, that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures.

What scriptures are these? Well, the apostle Paul is knowledgeable about the contents of the Old Testament. Indeed, at the time of writing, those are the only scriptures that are available. And when you read the 53rd chapter of Isaiah, what do you define, what do you find there? A projection of the life of the Messiah, and of the achievements that will be his as a result of his death.

You remember how the writer goes on as he pens those majestic words in that 53rd chapter, surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. It pleased the Lord to bruise him. He has laid on him the iniquities of us all.

And that's basically what Paul is latching on to, as he says that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. And then he makes reference to the entombment, and to the resurrection. And you might recall at the end of Isaiah 53, and also in the Psalms, there are many other verses that one could quote, but Psalm 1610, you get the Lord, although Psalm is speaking for the Lord Jesus, thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, nor wilt thou suffer thy holy one to see corruption.

According to the scriptures, the prediction was made when Messiah comes, he shall be savagely killed, and miraculously, and marvelously brought back from the grave. So you see in this creedal statement, there is reference to the source from which Paul drew it, and to the scriptures which foreknew it. But then, if I can continue, there is also some comment about the supporters who review it.

What do I mean? Well, he goes on, having set down the creedal statement in the third and fourth verses, to say that he appeared, the Lord Jesus manifested himself, and this appearance was to people who Paul knew personally, sometimes individuals, sometimes groups. For example, he tells us, first of all in the fifth verse, the Lord Jesus appeared to Peter, who was the leader of the disciples. And then, using the generic term, and not pushing it mathematically, the apostle speaks of the Lord Jesus appearing to the twelve, when Judas and Thomas were away.

And then he says, after that he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James. What is Paul doing? Well, you see, he has, first of all, appealed to the fact that Jesus revealed the gospel to him, and then he finds that he has another anchorage for the gospel that he preaches, because it has been previewed, so to speak, in the Old Testament scriptures.

But then he's able also to appeal to men who actually saw the risen Christ. And have you noticed two very interesting things about the evidence that he calls forth in those fifth and sixth verses? The first one is negative. He doesn't make reference to any woman.

Now, why is this? Because women were the first of the sexes at the scene when our Lord Jesus was raised from the dead. Why is it that Paul bypasses the testimony of Mary, Magdalene, and the other women? Well, remember, he's writing to a Greek community, and he's writing two thousand years ago. Women have not had then the emancipation which, rightfully, they came to have as a result of the proclamation of the gospel.

And the testimony of a woman, rather than adding credibility to what Paul was here arguing, would have detracted from it. And so Paul just appeals to those men who saw the Lord. And then secondly, you will discover here that reference is made to two appearances of Jesus, of which there is no other information given in the gospels.

We are told that on one occasion, 500 brothers were gathered together. Some have tried to suggest that this was the day of Pentecost, but the reasoning seems to me absolutely illogical. There was an occasion when 500 men, together at the same time, saw the risen Christ.

And then reference is made to James. James, presumably the brother of our Lord, who'd been amongst the rest of Jesus's brothers and sister, who when they came on the scene of his ministry, during his earthly life, they were embarrassed. And it would appear that they never recognized who Jesus was.

But one of the resurrection appearances of our Lord was to his own, so to speak, kith and kin. He appears to James. And James is converted and ultimately becomes the president, the main pastor of the Christian church at Jerusalem.

Well, all these things the apostle is bringing forward as evidence for this unique claim of the Christian religion over and above every other religion. Jesus Christ, buried. Jesus Christ, raised from the dead.

The man, Jesus Christ, the God-man, whose sacrifice at Calvary atones for the of ordinary people such as Paul. Ah, you say, but you've forgotten in your listing that he makes reference to one other person. No, I haven't forgotten, but it seems to me so important that it deserves some comments on its own.

For from the seventh verse onwards, the apostle goes on to say, And last of all, he appeared to me. I have reason to suggest that the apostle Paul was an emotional man. There are some who think he was just a giant intellect and had no warm blood flowing through his veins at all.

All I can say about that argument is that they've never read Paul. They've never read his epistles. They've never seen this man in the acts of the apostles, with tears coursing down his cheeks as he takes his leave of the elders at Ephesus, never to see them again on this earth.

Here is Paul, and he lists these men, groups of men, individuals who've seen the Lord, and then with his quill almost trembling in his fingers, he writes, And last of all, he appeared to me. He never forgot that, did Paul. There on the Damascus road, years before he writes to the Corinthians, Jesus Christ stopped him, unhorsed him, brought him down to the dust, so that from the lips of the apostle, the future apostle, came the words, Who are you, Lord? And the reply was, I am Jesus, who you are persecuting.

And ultimately, it all became clear, as Paul recognized who Jesus Christ was, and what Paul had been doing in persecuting the church, had offended the risen Christ. And so Paul makes reference to the final resurrection appearance of the Savior on this earth. Last of all, he appeared to me.

I, Paul, one time Pharisee, religious bigot, student of Gamaliel, graduate of the University of Tarsus, I give you my solemn word, you Christians at Corinth, Jesus Christ appeared to me also. People can treat the ones who taught them yesteryear sometimes very badly. The months go by, maybe a couple of years gallops on, and the ones who were taught and benefited from ministry can become a little top-heavy, and claim to know more than their teacher.

And that was one of the cutting things that Paul had to endure from the Corinthian Christians. He'd been there some years before he wrote this letter, and the following letter. By the grace of God, he'd lifted them from a hotbed of permissiveness, magic, Eastern mysticism, and he'd brought them by the grace of God into a full understanding of who Jesus was.

But the years had gone by, and some upstart had commenced criticizing Paul. He's not a proper apostle, you know. You can read the criticisms in the 10th chapter of the second epistle.

He's a man who, when he speaks, his speech is not very, very weighty. He stumbles at times with his words. His letters might be powerful, but his presence is contemptible.

There was an assault on the authority of Paul, on his apostolic office, and Paul makes indirect reference to it when he says, I, and this Jesus appeared to me also as to one abnormally born, or as the A.V. puts it, one born out of due season. It was a rude comment. If I was to translate it literally from the Greek, it would be like this, as one who was born as a result of a miscarriage.

They were saying of Paul that he is to a proper apostle what an aborted fetus is to a healthy child. How unkind can you get? And yet Christian people sometimes can become very unkind and very cocksure. But this is the magnanimity of Paul.

This is the greatness of his heart. He latches onto the very criticism that is thrown at him, and he absorbs it. And he is daring enough to say in the ninth verse, yes, I'm not the least of the apostles, or rather I am the least of the apostles.

They all stand preeminently in front of me. Not one of them was guilty of doing what I have done. I am the least of the apostles.

I'm abnormally born. I'm like someone who has been delivered as a result of a miscarriage. All these deficiencies I will admit to at the human level.

I don't even deserve to be called an apostle. Why? Because I persecuted the church of God. Paul never forgot the days when he had almost annihilated the Christian community in some of the areas in Palestine.

The forgiveness of sin, says Charles Hodge, Puritan commentator, the forgiveness of sin does not obliterate the memory of it, neither does it remove the sense of unworthiness and ill desert. Paul never forgot the looks on the faces of those women whom he caused to be widowed because he had their husbands put to death. He never forgot the personality of Stephen as he withstood the blows of the stones as they were railed at him.

Saints, did I say, with your remembered faces, dear men and women whom I sought and slew, ah, when I reach the heavenly places, how will I weep with Stephen and with you? He didn't forget. He knew what he was. At the human level, the product of a miscarriage, like the fetus as a result of an abortion.

But, and here Paul will magnify the grace of God and the miracle resurrection power of the Christ, by the grace of God, I am what I am. And his grace to me was not without effect. It was of the free, unmerited, undeserved grace of God that he stopped me on that road to Damascus, that he unhorsed me and gave me his gospel.

And I want to say, says Paul, to his eternal credit, as he makes reference in the latter part of the tenth verse, that the grace of God that which was poured into his personality was not wasted. We talk a lot about waste in the 20th century, and God knows we need to be reminded. We waste the trees of the forests.

We have ecological problems because of the waste that we put into our rivers and into our lakes and, and what have you. But the greatest waste in the whole history of the universe is the waste of grace. When God stops a man, when God apprehends a woman and fills them with his spirit, and they do absolutely nothing about it, but says Paul, that wasn't the case.

I'm not proud of what I did, but God has raised me by his grace to be an apostle. And the very grace that is embedded in that apostolic ministry, I have used, and I have used, and I have used. In fact, he says, and he's not immodest, I have worked harder than all of the other apostles.

And the Greek word there has to do with a craftsman who's proud of the finished product. He's worked himself to a state of nervous exhaustion, but it was all worthwhile. And Paul scans Asia Minor and Macedonia, great tracts of country, like large counties, if you please, in the United Kingdom sense.

And he says, I worked hard there. I proclaimed the gospel there. Later on, some three years later, when he writes to the Romans, he will say, in the whole of Asia Minor and Italy, there is nowhere else for me to work.

I want to go to other lands, because I have fully preached the gospel. You can put together the ministry of Peter and the ministry of Thomas and the ministry of Matthew, and all the rest. You can draw a line, and you can add it up.

And Paul says, by the magnificent grace of God, my work has been even more blessed than all theirs put together. But I acknowledge that on the human level, I'm just like a bloody fetus. I'm repugnant because of what I have done.

But God, in His magnificent grace, He lifted me. He filled me with His Spirit, and He sent me on to preach. To preach what, Paul? Well, to preach the very creedal statement, Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ crucified. Jesus Christ buried. Jesus Christ raised from the dead.

Jesus Christ manifesting Himself to men and women. That's what I preached, the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so he rejoices in what God has done for him, whether it's the other apostles or himself who preach, when people are converted.

But, and with this I close, let me take you back to the first two verses of this chapter. For it seems to me that the apostle, the aged apostle Paul, is opening his arms to his brothers, to his children in the faith in Corinth. He's had to deal with a great deal of controversial matters.

He's put them right about bringing lawsuits against one another, about their sexual misconduct, about the mess that they were making when they came to the communion table with some of them drunk. He's had to put them right on their misuse and abuse of spiritual gifts. But all that's now over.

All the questions he's answered, now he embraces them as a warm-hearted pastor. And he says, now brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel. This is the thing, he says in the third verse, which is of prime importance.

This is the superlative thing. This is the gospel I preached to you. Remember, I made reference to it in the first chapter.

This gospel which you received, this gospel on which you took your stand, this gospel by which you are constantly being saved. Hold firm to this gospel, says Paul. Hold firm to the word I preached.

Otherwise, you have believed in vain. Here is a pastor talking to the church. He's taught doctrinally.

He's testified personally. Now he recommends that they continue in the gospel that he has brought to them, and they too are to proclaim it. And now I ask you, do you recognize this gospel? Do you realize that the resurrection is not the tailpiece of the gospel, it's the centerpiece? You can take your airplane, as I say, to the Middle East, and they'll bypass Mecca.

But they've no need to be careful about flying over the remains of Jesus, because as they say in my native Yorkshire, there ain't no remains there. God raised Him, raised Him in the power of an endless life. And there's a man in the glory who intercedes for sinners, the man who died for you and for me.

And this is of key importance. All your debate about secondary issues need to be brought into their own perspective. This is the superlative thing.

Jesus Christ died and was raised again. And that message, says Paul, is to be preached by the Christian community throughout the whole world. And I ask you, do you believe it? And are you preaching it as best you can? To others.

Yourself. Amen. For what I received, I passed on to you as of prime 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, and that He appeared to Peter.

Father, for the simplicity of that early Christian creed, we thank you. And as it caused Paul's heart to burn and to wish to tell others who were ignorant of its contents, so may it cause our hearts to burst into flame. And may our lives be spent out working to the limits of our ability in endeavors to reach others with the gospel of the Christ for His sake.

Amen.