Opening Prayer

Before we hear the Word read and preached and received, let’s ask the Lord’s blessing upon those very things. Pray with me if you would. Heavenly Father, we do thank You and praise You for this, Your Word. We pray that You would give us a great hunger for it. We would long and anticipate and be excited to receive what you have for us here.

We thank you that you have condescended to speak to us as to your children and we pray that we would with a tent of hearts, Lord, Listen to those things that you tell us through your word, by your spirit. Lord, help us to know, as we do so, that you are truly our God, and that we are truly your people, and that you are for us and not against us. Lord, help us to know the truths that you have to tell us, that we have to believe. Lord, we thank you for the faith that you’ve given us.

Increase our faith, we pray. We ask these things. Hear us, we pray. Minister to us through your word, for the ones who hear and the one who speaks, for our good and for your glory. We ask this all in Christ’s name and all God’s people said together, amen, amen. 1 Corinthians 15, starting in verse 1. Please give your full attention. This is the word of our God. 1 Corinthians 15, verse 1.

1 Corinthians 15:1-22

Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are now being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that He was buried and was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas and then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James and to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.

For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy 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 towards me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me, whether then it was I or they. So we preach, and so you believed.

Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testify about God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise, if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised.

And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.

So for the reading of God’s word, may he indeed add his blessing upon the preaching of it at this time.

Resurrection Sunday

It’s so good to see you all here this morning, this Resurrection Sunday as it were. Of course, we like to celebrate these things and recognize them every Sunday, Lord’s Day by Lord’s Day. The Incarnation, the Resurrection, the Session of Christ is ruling and reigning. Today we are looking at just that, the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, the capstone of the Christian faith. Again, those of you who are familiar, who have been around for a while know that we focus on these things. We love and long to proclaim the truths of the Resurrection and the birth, not merely at certain times of the year, but Lord’s Day by Lord’s Day, as every gospel-centered church should do.

The Centrality of the Resurrection

And when we confess our faith weekly, those truths that we declare to be true, Christ really entered into His creation, was crucified, dead, and buried, and He actually resurrected from the dead. In the creed that we confess to believe, and we confess that we believe, what, about Jesus, that on the third day he rose again from the dead, right, as part of the core teaching, one of the foundational doctrines of our most holy faith, drawn from the apostles’ teaching, sent by Christ as they were to deliver his word and summarize for us, handed down to us in the creeds that we confess, particularly the apostles’ creed. And we come this morning to the capstone, that one thing that holds the rest of the ark together, right?

We all know about the structure of an ark, right, as it’s built up, the stones that make up an ark. What holds all those stones together and supports the weight and possible to hold up, it’s the capstone, right? It’s the centerpiece that bears all the weight, that holds them all together. And we see this morning, as you already know, the capstone of Christianity is the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

And we confess about Jesus that on the third day again he rose from the dead. It’s imperative to be believed. The resurrection of Christ is what separates biblical Christians from non-Christians. The history of church is littered with those who sought to throw off the teaching of God’s Word and to abandon the belief that Jesus actually, bodily, physically rose again from the dead to life. Whether it’s the slide of the mainline churches historically or the theologically liberal teachers or non-believing theologians that have all asserted these things, believing the resurrection, it’s not that important. In an effort to be modern or sophisticated at different times in history, many have abandoned the core teaching of the scriptures. Many have caved to an unbelieving world and sought to throw off what the secular world sees as old-fashioned or unscientific or mythical. But still keep some of the vestiges of religion or religiosity. Have you sensed this maybe in the things that you’ve read or seen? We don’t want to offend you. You can still keep the religion, but don’t believe those silly things.

As if that’s not offensive in and of itself. And these are the people that say things like that. They say things like, well, we know that people aren’t conceived by virgins and they don’t come back to life and rise from the dead, but we still want a moral code. And that’s what’s important after all, right? The being good part of the whole endeavor.

Many, most and many mainline churches caved to this kind of thinking years ago, revealing their allegiance to the opinions of man rather than their allegiance to God’s Word. And you see, for those who think this way, it doesn’t matter if Jesus really rose from the dead or not, or really if He ever even existed. What matters is His teaching, or the teaching that came from the story about Him.

Have you heard this kind of thing? I’m sure you probably have. Especially this time of year, we see articles in magazines and things on the computer. And this is the worst kind of scenario because people are willfully deceived into thinking they’re doing good. They’re holding to something good, the really good part. But they’re self-deceived, they’re self-deluded, they’re self-righteous. It was actually kind of a virtue signaling, trying to keep the whole thing together, but abandon what really matters.

And we’ve all probably felt this kind of sentiment at some point, either directed at us, or we’ve seen it directed at others. Again, that religious stuff is fine for you personally, that’s fine. But don’t take it too seriously. And certainly don’t think that it really matters to anyone else, and especially don’t think that it’s really relevant in a real public world. Again, it’s usually a thinly veiled but smug dismissal in all kinds of varieties under the guise of the church or Christianity, like rejecting or denying what defines that faith, what defines that thing, but still claim it as their very own. It’s very confusing and strange.

And so the question that we’re faced with in all of this is can you be a believer? Can you be a Christian if you don’t believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ? There are popular figures we hear cropping up here and there and the excitement that they may be coming to the faith. This is really the crux of it. Can they answer this question? Can you be a Christian if you deny the resurrection of Christ?

I know that can seem like a harsh challenge, especially for people who don’t love and care for people that we do love and care for, who’ve been wrongly taught, deceived, otherwise polluted in their thinking. But let’s look at our past. Let’s look at what the Apostle Paul and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit tells us, what it says about this very question.

Because believing or denying that Christ rose from the dead has eternal consequences. It’s not like, oh, shall I like Chevy or Ford? This has true consequences in life. Believing or denying that Christ rose from the dead makes all the difference in the world. It’s a matter of life and death.

The Centrality of the Resurrection in the Gospel

As we work through this passage, it’s a big passage and we’re going to summarize for sure, but let’s work through it. We’ll see a number of things. We’ll see that Christ tells us in the first four verses about the centrality of the resurrection, the foundational nature. It’s at the heart, it’s core to the faith, verses 1 to 4. And then secondly, in verses 5 to 11, we’ll see the fact of the resurrection, its historicity, its truth. And then in verses 12 to 19, we see the futility if the resurrection is not true, if it did not happen. The futility and vanity of it. Everything is lost. There’s no hope without it. And then in verse 20, we see something of the absolute necessity of the resurrection, right?

And so in broad strokes, we have the truth of what happened and the consequences. It really happened and it really matters more than anything else that we could think of. So we think about not merely those who are hostile to the Christian faith or think of those who can perhaps have, they want a modified, my own way of Christianity without Christ. And maybe even those close to us, as we consider these kind of things, maybe even some of you have not settled this question in your own hearts.

The question is, can you be a Christian without believing in the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead? God’s given us an unequivocal answer to this question. It’s not fuzzy, it’s not obscure, it’s not hidden. And for your eternal life, you want to be on the right side of the answer to this question. Well, as I said, some people don’t think that the resurrection is even important. It doesn’t really matter.

Some people think that Jesus was, you’ve heard it, a great moral teacher and that it’s his teaching that’s the good stuff, that’s the important stuff. But Jesus claimed to be the Son of God. He claimed himself to be divine. And so someone is not great, they’re not a great moral teacher if they think that they’re God and they’re not God. The claim isn’t unique in and of itself, we know through history. History’s full of people who have, thinking they were a god, or that they were the messiah to come, or the son of god, right? We can think of a catalog of people.

The first name that comes to my mind, of course, is David Koresh. I remember 20, 30 years ago, thought himself to be the messiah. But whether it’s David Koresh or any handful of other peoples, the thing about them all is that they’re still dead. They still remain in their grave.

And even Augustine, the fourth century theologian, said, Jesus is either God or he’s mad. Crazy meaning. If he’s not God, then he’s not good. And all that moral teaching, all the morality that people want without the resurrection is based on the claim that he was God. And so when we think about the resurrection and the Bible’s teaching about the resurrection, we have an answer to the question, is the resurrection important? And Paul says it’s of supreme importance. Nothing is more important from a passage. Again, listen to Paul starting in verse 1.

He says, Now I want to remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved. If you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. Verse 3, for I deliver to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that He was buried and He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. And so you see this, it’s a great summary of the Gospel. If someone asks you and you haven’t memorized this yet, take them to this passage. This gives you a summary of the Gospel, Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures. He was buried.

He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. The bodily resurrection is one of the prime elements of the Gospel. And in verse 3 there, I’m sure you’ve heard it, it’s of first importance, utmost, most prominent importance, he says. Paul’s saying that the resurrection is the very essence of the Gospel there in verse 3. And look at verse 2, we see that one of the ways he emphasizes this, he says, now it reminds you of the gospel I preach to you, which you receive, which you stand, and which you are being saved, right? And by which you are being saved, right? Without it, you see the resurrection of Jesus. It’s not possible to be saved at all.

And to fail to see and affirm this isn’t a problem or failing of the gospel. But with the person who doesn’t think it’s that important, who denies it, this distorts the gospel and replaces it with something man-made. So the gospel of the Christian church depends on the resurrection. Without it, it’s not good news. Christianity, the gospel without the resurrection is not good news. And if a church doesn’t affirm and preach and confess the resurrection from the dead of Jesus Christ, it can’t be called a Christian church. So the first thing we see highlighted by Paul is the importance of the Resurrection. The Resurrection is central to the Christian faith.

The Historical Fact of the Resurrection

And then next we see in verses 5 to 11, he goes on to show that it’s of utmost importance, and then he shows that it is true, that it’s fact, that it’s historical, it actually happened.

Paul isn’t just making this up. Paul brings witnesses to bear. Who does he bring? He appeared to Cephas, to the 12, then to more than 500 brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive. Then he appeared to James, and then all the apostles, and then he says, he adds this, and he says, last of all to me, but he adds this piece of information you hear there, when he says, he mentions more than 500 that Jesus appeared to, and he says, most of whom are still alive.

Why would he say that? Why would he add this piece of information? It’s a challenge. It’s a challenge as if to say, go find them and ask for yourself. This wasn’t a small thing. He appeared to all these people. They’re alive. They’re still around to confirm what I’m saying. And then Paul mentions himself in verse 8. Last of all, to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. Right? One untimely born, he says. Who would have planned it like that? Who would have planned it out for me, Paul says, or for the church? I was ravaging the church. I was seeking to destroy the church. And this is why I want you to think of me, who I was, and the change born out of Christ getting hold of me. And that should give you a powerful testimony that Christ has been raised from the dead, right?

Paul’s putting himself forward as evidence of the resurrection. And the fact that Paul is a Christian and a possible can’t be explained except for the miracle of a new heart given and divinely given faith. He’s been transformed. And that for him is powerful proof of the resurrection that he puts forth. The resurrection is not optional. It’s definitive of the Christian faith. The resurrection is central, foundational. It’s historically true. It’s a fact.

The Futility Without the Resurrection

And we see in verses 12 to 19 the futility if it is not true. And so think about it like this. It’s a good question to ask when somebody’s proffering something they’re offering or challenging.

What do we lose or reject or deny? If we reject or deny, what do we lose denying the resurrection? What is lost? As I mentioned earlier, some people think, well, you just lose the resurrection. It’s not that big a deal. It can be moral in what Jesus taught. And this, of course, is falling. Because running through Jesus’ teaching is his teaching on the resurrection, right? It’s central in his core and what he’s saying in the culmination and the need.

And so Paul in our text is saying that you lose everything. What do you lose if you deny or reject the resurrection? You lose everything. And he says that if it’s not true and he goes through, then we are liars. We bear false witness. If it’s not true, we lose everything. Our faith is worthless. It is vain. It is futile.

This is completely contrary to the idea that you can be a Christian without it. You can take the morality and not the manner. You can take the Christianity without the Christ. Things that we’ve heard, these are like echoes of phrases that people have said. And Paul says, no, you can’t. You can’t do that. Without the resurrection, you have nothing. You’re just whistling past a graveyard, trying to assuage the truth that you deny but you know, trying to construct a system of your own making to help you feel good and justify the rebellion and rejection of God’s Word.

And this is extremely dangerous. It is harsh. It’s dangerous. It’s harshly dangerous. And so Paul says that apart from the resurrection, you’re standing in quicksand. You have no firm foundation. In fact, you’re living a lie, he says. Verse 19, if in Christ we have hope, in this life only we are of all people most to be pitied. So people who say these things, they have a problem with Paul on the face of it. And just think of Paul. Why is that the case? All that he went through, think of Paul, all that he went through for the sake of the gospel of Jesus Christ. All the beatings and the lashings and the stonings that he catalogs, the scars that he had to prove that he went through, and consider his status. He’s a Hebrew of Hebrews. The perfect pedigree, training, and status that went with it. He had it all.

If Christ has not been raised, then Paul was certainly pitiful. Giving away all of that, counting it as rubbish. Or think of yourselves and your giving and your commitments to the things that you’ve done and gone through in your lives because of your faith in Jesus Christ, your stand for the Lord, your identity with Him. Paul says that when you grasp the Gospel and you taste the sweetness of the Savior, all of those burdens become blessings. They’re blessings. They’re badges of belonging. They’re badges showing to whom you belong, to our Savior.

Everything depends on the resurrection. Without it, our faith is futile, God’s Word says. And the enemies of God have been attacking and attacking and attacking for 2,000 years, and yet the resurrection stands undefeated. Why? It’s because it is true that on the third day he rose again from the dead. Because it’s true.

And if you’d like help answering those challenges or those questions or interacting on any of these things, please ask me afterwards. I’d love to show you how. We can have a discussion. It’s a glorious thing. Because the truth is, you know, if you’ve never done this, if you give just a little effort, you’ll see that it’s not that hard at all. And it’s really not that scary at all.

And the challenges that come almost entirely are actually childish, lame, foolish responses. And almost none of them, in the vast sea of detractors and attackers of the faith, virtually none of them have ever thought much about their attacks beyond what they’re putting forth, right? Or what to do when they get just a little pushback. And almost universally, you’ll find that they fall apart. It’s just the slightest resistance. Because they’ve never been resisted. They’ve just been blurted out and you’ll just receive it and collapse. Don’t do that.

Let us be people, brothers and sisters, who stand for the truth, who stand for the gospel, for Jesus. Let us be people who give a reason for the hope that we have in Christ as we’re commanded to do. The enemies of the gospel have been attacking the truth of the resurrection for 2,000 years, and it stands undefeated. It is victorious because it’s true. On the third day, He rose again from the dead.

The Absolute Necessity of the Resurrection

And then lastly, let’s look at verse 20. verse 20 says, but in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, right? If this is not the case or futile, this is a bad situation. Verse 20, but in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.

And so what are the firstfruits? Agricultural term, of course. The firstfruits, it refers to the first part or the sample of a crop. And that first part shows what? It shows the nature and quality of the rest of what the crop will be like. And it shows also that the final fruits are guaranteed.

So our lives will pattern our Savior’s life. Suffering and then glory. And as he’s raised, been raised and resurrected, we too will be raised unto glory. And the glorious thing is that we already begin to share in the resurrection life and power of Jesus Christ, even before then. And as he did with Lazarus, he does with us. He calls us to come out and to come forward into newness of life and to know him in his resurrection power. And it’s precisely because of His resurrection as the first fruits that we have the great confidence that death has been defeated in Christ, in the complex of His work. And we have a great confidence that He will one day raise us up from the dust of the earth and give us resurrection bodies. No more pain, no more sorrow, no more tears, no more mourning. So praise your Lord and King and Savior, brothers and sisters. He is worthy of your praise. He is worthy of your lives. Live for Him.

And then one last thing before we close. It is crucially important, right? If you’ve got to thinking this is ethereal or abstract, crucially important thing, look back at verse 17. where it says, and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. This is why we need the resurrection, brothers and sisters. This is why we need the resurrection to be saved, right? Verse two, by which you are being saved. If there is no resurrection, we are still in our sins. There’s no resurrection, there’s no salvation.

And I want you to think in terms of what Paul is saying, thinking of that Old Testament sacrificial system, which is the context and the environment of their operation and their thinking, certainly for Paul. And I’m sure you recall, after very careful preparations, right, the high priest, the one guy, the once a year, would go in to offer sacrifice for sins into the Holy of Holies, carefully prepared. And as the priest worked and moved throughout the different parts of the temple, the people could hear him, remember, because of the bells on his robes, they could hear him ministering, but they couldn’t see him.

They couldn’t go in, even to watch. They had to stay outside as the priest offered the sacrifice for their sins. But they could hear the bells. They knew that he was still alive. And this gave them hope. Hope that God was accepting the sacrifice that the priest was making for them and not rejecting it and not taking the priest out. The people had hope. They need to some extent what they deserve, right? Punishment for their sins. And so they come and they wait and they long and they hear and they hope. They had hope as they heard Him going about the business, in the inner place, making the sacrifice, pouring the blood of the sacrifice on the altar and so forth. And then to conclude after that, what would happen? Do you remember what happened?

The priest would come out. And he would raise his hands over the people, having made the sacrifice, having been accepted by God, and say, the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. That’s the Aaronic Benediction.

It was a proclamation that Yahweh had accepted the sacrifice that was made. The sacrifice was accepted and their sins were declared forgiven. And this is what happens in the resurrection, right? Otherwise, you are still in your sins if it’s not true. This is what happens because of the resurrection.

Remember the disciples, they were dismayed. They were rattled and they were depressed for three days. They heard nothing from their high priest, right? And they assumed that he was dead because he was dead. And then on the third day, he rose again from the dead. And recall the first thing that Jesus said to his disciples when he appeared to them, do you remember? He appeared to them on the evening of the first day of the week and he stood among them. And remember what he said?

Peace be with you. Shalom be with you. The sacrifice has been accepted. Your high priest, the true high priest, gives the benediction. As you trust him for your sins, as you trust him, they are forgiven. He brings new life, right? And we end where we began. If he is not risen, then none of this is true, and you are left in your sins before our holy God for ourselves.” But we believe that on the third day, Jesus rose again from the dead.

And what a wonderful blessing that is, not merely to believe that this is true of Jesus, but to personally know the Jesus of whom it is true, right? Not just an abstract thing out there, but for you to know this, to believe it, to trust it. And knowing this Jesus, He has become your Savior, right? The resurrection was the promise of Scripture. The resurrection is everything, brothers and sisters.

And because of it, we, His people, are given various benefits, right? There’s the benefit of declaring us righteous before God in our justification, right? Because He has been raised and overcame death, we now share in the righteousness He obtained for us. What’s His is ours because we’re united to Him.

And so how certain can you be that you’re righteous? That’s the question that comes sometimes in the struggles of our lives, right? Especially with the lingering, remaining sin that clings to us. There’s a connection between your standing before God and your righteousness and the resurrection. And so when the devil or your own heart harasses you and asks, are you really righteous? Are you really righteous? Remember, tell the Psalm 3 to David, they would say to him, God doesn’t care about you. We have those thoughts and we have that harassment. Are you really righteous? How are we to respond to that? That’s not with our subjective feeling, but the objective truth, the objective question, is the tomb empty? Did Jesus rise again?

And that’s your answer, brothers and sisters. That’s your answer to the lies that come to us outwardly and inwardly. And then there’s also the benefit of our sanctification, right, making us more and more like Jesus in our daily lives. By Christ’s resurrection power, we also are already raised to newness of life. And so do we feel ourselves, right, do you feel this, you’re just grinding away in the dregs of life, of daily life, not feeling very holy? The answer is what?

It’s to trust that Christ has already made you alive and to go forth out of that life following Him in faith wherever He calls you to do. And then finally, there’s the benefit of glorification. He’s established and declared you righteous as an act of God. He’s working in you, in your sanctification, to change you. And there’s also the benefit of glorification, the final entrance into God’s heavenly and holy presence apart from sin for all of eternity. And to this, the accusation comes often as well, even sometimes from our own hearts.

Is this make-believe? I have to grind away at work. I have bills to pay. I have diapers to change. I have meals to prepare, a house to clean. My body struggles to keep going day by day. How does this impact my life? How does this impact my life today? And I think most of us, if we remember and believe just a little that this is true, it would radically change your life. It would radically change our lives.

If you trust it, that it’s true. So we need to be constantly corrected by His Word as to the truth and what is true about Him and true about us. We can’t frame the truth of Scripture around the stuff of our lives. We have to take the stuff of our lives, the drama and traumas of our lives, and frame that around what is most true and eternal and certain in life.

Because it is promised by our loving Father. And remember, brothers and sisters, Christ’s resurrection is our sure pledge to us of our blessed resurrection. Because He rose, He will raise me. Your Savior rose, and you will be raised as well. Because He was glorified in God’s presence, I too will be glorified. Right?

And so without the resurrection, the weight of your sins would crush you. And oftentimes it still crushes us because of our lack of belief and our lack of faith. But with the resurrection we are assured that all Christ did, all that Christ did is declared ours in our justification. It is applied in our sanctification and it will be experienced in our glorification at the consummation.

And so remember that this week. Remember that as you go back into the world. Let us never forget and let us remember that He was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification. And let us praise Him that all that needed to be done has been done by this faithful Savior who was raised from the dead on the third day. He is risen, He is risen indeed. May we rejoice and praise Him for all of our days now and forever. Amen.

Closing Prayer

Let’s pray. Our Heavenly Father, we do praise you and thank you for your work in our lives. Pray that you would give us hearts that believe, hearts that trust you, hearts that are given over to live our lives for this one who died for us. Be with us for the remainder of this service, we pray. Strengthen us in our weaknesses in this life and give us eyes to see truly what awaits us in glory. That would pull us through and we would rejoice even here in the sufferings that we go through. We thank you, Lord. Beloved, we ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.