A REFRESHER COURSE ON THE GOSPEL
AND THE RESURRECTION
1 CORINTHIANS 15:1-11
INTRODUCTION: Memory of significant events is achieved through repetition. Our minds are tremendous tools to harness, and use information. There is no greater piece of knowledge today than that of the gospel. The words of the gospel have the power to changes lives, families, and even nations. The gospel will change every church which embrace its importance, and every leader who stands firm by it. The Apostle Paul knows this, and as he comes to the close of his letter to the Corinthian Church, wants to remind, refocus, and rekindle their heart to the Gospel.
What is the gospel?
Intellectually, the gospel is the events of the death burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Legally, the gospel is that verifiable witness to the events of the gospel.
Practically, the gospel is the individual transfer of my faith and trust from myself or anyone or anything else to Jesus Christ and what He did on the cross, in the tomb, and afterwards for my eternal life.
The gospel in general and the resurrection in particular is the keystone for all of Christianity. Once removed or adjusted, replaced or redefined, socialized, or diluted, the church will crumble from the heights Jesus meant for her, and will simply fade away losing its distinctness and replace it with the veil of good intentions, the paving blocks on the road to hell according to Samuel Johnson.
To this Paul says NO! The gospel is important enough that it bears repetition and is absolutely essential to victorious Christian living.
I THE REASON TO REMAIN FAITHFUL – 15:1-3b
A Remain faithful because of the gospel
1 The Good news of what Jesus did
a Died for your sins
b Provided a place for you in heaven
2 The good news of what Jesus has yet to do
a Jesus has yet to return for us
b Jesus has to remove us from this planet
B Remain faithful because of your salvation
1 The gospel saved us out of our former life
2 The gospel saved us to a new and living hope
3 The gospel is a daily experience
a Not am I saved
b But my progress since I have been saved
1 “are saved”
a) Present tense verb
2 Looks beyond our salvation and into our sanctification
C Remain faithful in order to be effective
1 Paul encourages us to take our stand for the gospel
a To defend the gospel of Christ
1 Not speaking of militancy but of apologetics
2 Not speaking of belligerence, but of speaking the truth in love
3 Do not let attacks on the gospel of Christ go unchallenged
2 Paul tells us to hold firmly
a Effectiveness comes from contact
b Effectiveness comes when the gospel is fresh on our minds
D Without the gospel everything else we do is in vain
1 Without cause
2 Think for a moment, if we have not dealt with eternal things, what good is it to deal with only temporal things.
3 The worst disease mankind can have, or the worst scenario mankind can comprehend is the least of our worries when compared to hell!
II THE EVIDENCE BEHIND THE REASON – 15:3b-8
A Death According to The Scriptures
Psalms 22:14-18 14 I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax; it has melted away within me. 15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; you lay me in the dust of death.
16 Dogs have surrounded me; a band of evil men has encircled me, they have pierced my hands and my feet. 17 I can count all my bones; people stare and gloat over me. 18 They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing.
Isaiah 53:1-6 1 Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? 2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. 3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 4 Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. 6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
Daniel 9:26 26 After the sixty-two ’sevens,’ the Anointed One will be cut off and will have nothing. The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed.
Zechariah 12:10 10 "And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son.
1 The death of Jesus is a Biblical Event
a Declared in the Bible
b Received by revelation from God to Paul
1 Corinthians 11:23 23 For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread,
Galatians 1:12 12 I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.
2 The death of Jesus is a Sacrificial Event
a God passed on the importance of Christ’s death to take away our sin.
b This is the most important of Gods to date
B Resurrection According To The Scriptures
Jonah 1:17 17 But the LORD provided a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was inside the fish three days and three nights.
Genesis 22:1-5 1 some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, "Abraham!" "Here I am," he replied. 2 Then God said, "Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about." 3 Early the next morning Abraham got up and saddled his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about.
4 On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. 5 He said to his servants, "Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you."
Book of Mark
1 Very little in the Old Testament concerning the resurrection of Jesus.
2 By saying the resurrection was according to the Scriptures, Paul was also declaring that the Gospel of Mark was also Scripture, as it was the only account of the life of Christ available at that time!
3 Just as the death of Christ was a Divine act
a By God the Father
b For our behalf – taking away our sin
4 The Resurrection of Christ was a Divine act
a By God the Father
b “raised” means to “stand up”
1 Paul tells us to take our stand on the gospel – the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, because God took his stand on the VERY SAME EVENT!
2 We stand either against our greatest enemies, of for our greatest victories
3 When Jesus stood, He stood for both – the Devil had been defeated, and mankind had been redeemed
C Jesus revealed His victory beyond question
1 He revealed it to Peter
2 He revealed it to the “12”
3 He revealed it to 500 plus
4 He revealed it to James
5 He revealed it to all the apostles
6 He revealed it to his most adamant enemy on the planet – Saul of Tarsus!
III LABOR FOR THE MESSAGE
A Paul says he was born – converted, “out of time
1 Not as part of the 12
2 Not to complete the 12
3 But as an extra to the 12
B Paul says he did not deserve what God did to him
1 Did what other Apostles did not do – he persecuted the church
2 His activities made him unworthy to be called or named an Apostle
Now we, just as Paul, need to be careful that we do not let our perspective of ourselves get in the way of God’s perspective of us
C Paul’s Perspective for Labor
1 God called me to be what I am
2 I will work hard to be what God has called me to be
3 I will accomplish what God desires with God’s strength
Is that your perspective?
Do you believe God called you to be what you are? Then you are a Christian
Do you work hard to be what God has called you to be?
Resist against those things a Christian should avoid
Absorb those things a Christian should immerse himself in
Are you doing what God wants you to do in your own strength or in His?
At the resurrection Jesus stood for us!
Here at may very well be the last days; we need to stand for Christ.
The message of the gospel should overwhelm us all!
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