INTRODUCTION
BEGIN WITH EASTER VIDEO
SLIDE #1
This is a joyous occasion we celebrate today! Today is Resurrection Sunday! On this day we celebrate the greatest moment in the history of mankind! It is the time in which we celebrate God raising His Son Jesus from the dead.
The Resurrection of Jesus is the most important event in human history. The resurrection of Jesus is the most important event in history because this one event still impacts us today. Because of this event, we can have the opportunity to spend eternity with the God who created us and who loves us with all He has.
SLIDE #2
ROMANS 5:8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
The resurrection of Jesus puts a stamp of authenticity on Jesus as being the one and only Son of God, the one and only truth and the one and only way to God.
When you go to the tomb of Confucius, it is occupied, when you go to the tomb of Mohammed, it is occupied, when you go to the tomb of Buddha it is occupied, when you go to the tomb of Jesus, it is EMPTY!
The resurrection of Jesus is also one of the most attacked events in the Bible. That is understandable, the event is incredible in itself and if you are a follower of another religion, or if you are a god unto your self, the resurrection would have to make you think about your position.
Once you understand that God raised Jesus on the third day, you have a quite a predicament if you have not given your life to Jesus yet.
Today I want us to focus our thoughts on why the resurrection is the foundation of the Gospel of Jesus. When God builds a church, it is centered on the resurrection.
There are some serious implications that would result if the resurrection indeed did not happen.
Today as we look at the resurrection, I hope that if you are one of those who are skeptical about it’s’ validity that you will examine this issue with an open mind. If you are already one who embraces the resurrection, I hope today will be further cause for celebration.
SLIDE #3
SERMON
I. THE RESURRECTION WAS THE FOCAL POINT OF THE GOSPEL (1-4)
• Let us look at 1 Corinthians 15:1-4
• SLIDE #4
• 1 Corinthians 15:1 - 4 (NASB) 1Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, 2by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. 3For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,
• In these first four verses, we are giving the importance of the subject at hand.
• In verse 1 we are told that this GOSPEL which when received and stood upon saves us!
• Verse two continues by saying we are to also hold fast to this gospel unless we believed in vain!
• Now look in verses 3-4 for the message.
• Naturally there are many facets of God’s work in Christ that Paul both preached and taught about, but he wants here, in 15:3-5, to emphasize the centrality of four of these major points. Each of these is introduced by the term “that”.
• The message was that Christ died for OUR sins according to the scriptures and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the scriptures. And finally, that He appeared! THIS IS THE FOCAL POINT OF THE GOSPEL!
• Now let us look at the issue of His appearances.
• SLIDE #5
II. WITNESSES OF THE RESURRECTED CHRIST (VERSES 5-11)
Why does Paul go to the trouble of listing those who witnessed the risen Jesus?
This letter was written around 57 Ad, Jesus died and was raised in 30 AD, and it had been over 25 years since the resurrection by this time. Some of the people for whatever reason, most likely societal pressures were starting to doubt the possibility of resurrection.
Paul wanted to the people to remember there were many people who saw Jesus after the resurrection!
These were objective appearances; they were not the figment of someone’s imagination. Paul is giving a list of those who would have been known to the Corinthian church, and these are not all who saw Jesus, but a fraction of the appearances.
SLIDE #6
Acts 1:3 says, “To these He also presented Himself alive after His suffering, by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God.
In the context the writer of Acts is telling us that Jesus appeared to the Apostles and done all the things spoken of. Let us look at some of the witnesses listed in our text.
SLIDE #7
1 Corinthians 15:5 (NASB) 5and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.
He appeared to Peter (Cephas was the Hebrew name), then to the 12 (which was the early church name for the Apostles).
We need to realize that the disciples were hiding in fear of their lives when Jesus was crucified (John 20:19). They did not expect Jesus to be alive after He was crucified, even though He told them on several occasions He would be raised on the third day.
All these men (the Apostles) went from fearing their lives to fearlessly proclaiming Jesus in the streets of Jerusalem. Peter was so afraid he denied Jesus 3 times on the night He was betrayed. THE ONE WHO WOULD DIE FOR HIM.
Slide #8
1 Corinthians 15:6 (NASB) 6After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep;
Paul mentions the appearance to over 500 at once (probably at the ascension) and he says that many of them are still alive at he time but some have died. Paul seems to know these people.
SLIDE #9
1 Corinthians 15:7 (NASB) 7then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles;
SLIDE #10
He appeared to James, the brother of Jesus who was one who did not believe in Jesus. JOHN 7:5 says, “For not even His brothers were believing in Him.”
After this event, James becomes one of the leaders in the church in Jerusalem; he later dies for his faith in his brother, Jesus.
These are not all the appearances. There are 12 specifically reported appearances in the New Testament. NOW PAUL HIMSELF
SLIDE #11
1 Corinthians 15:8 - 9 (NASB) 8and last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared to me also. 9For I am the least of the apostles, and not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.
Paul speaks of himself last. Paul was a man who persecuted the church; he was there when Stephen was stoned to death for his faith. Jesus appeared to Paul on the road to Damascus in Acts 9:3-6, 17; 22:14; 26:16. Paul’s life was never the same.
The word that Paul uses for “appeared” in verse 8 is the same word that is used in verse 5 and 7 to indicate he had the same type of bodily appearance as the others had. Paul went from persecutor to proclaimer of the faith.
Paul was so changed by what he experienced seeing Jesus that he dedicated his life to preaching the gospel to the point of exhaustion.
He was very thankful for the chance to serve Jesus, he felt unworthy of the honor and he was humbled by it.
If Jesus had not been raised, if His body was taken by His followers, they would not have died for what they knew was a lie. If the opponents of the gospel had taken Him, they would have produced the body to stop Christianity in its’ tracks.
As we look at verse 12, Paul gets right to the heart of why he is writing this part of the letter.
SLIDE #12
1 Corinthians 15:12 (NASB) 12Now if Christ is preached, that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?
The issue at hand was that people starting to doubt that a bodily resurrection is possible. In the next few verses, Paul is going to share with us the implications of the being no bodily resurrection.
SLIDE #13
III. WHY THE RESURRECTION MUST BE THE FOUNDATION OF THE GOSPEL MESSAGE. (VERSES 12-19)
Paul list six implications if the resurrection of the body was not possible. As we look at these 6 implications, we will see why the resurrection is the foundation of the Christian faith.
SLIDE #14
1. If there is no resurrection, then Christ has not been raised. (13, 16)
SLIDE #15
1 Corinthians 15:13, 16 (NASB) 13But if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised; 16For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised;
Jesus was killed, buried and left in the tomb for three days. His soul left the body, the body had no blood flow, and it was cold and lifeless. These things would make resurrecting Jesus as difficult as it would any other dead body. Jesus had the same body that we possess. Jesus ate and drank after He was resurrected.
Verse 16 tells us the same thing. After 25 years, there was no evidence presented to suggest Jesus was not resurrected.
The second implication….
SLIDE #16
2. If Christ has not been raised, then the message is not true and the messengers are false messengers. (14, 15)
If Christ had not been raised, the message of the gospel has no power, there is nothing to it, and we would be just another false religion offering false hope.
Paul tells us if Jesus was not raised from the dead, then the preaching of the apostles was in vain. The word “in vain” means, empty, hollow, devoid of reality, meaningless.
Without the resurrection being true, the Bible itself would be false.
SLIDE #17
1 Corinthians 15:14 - 15 (NASB) 14and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain. 15Moreover we are even found to be false witnesses of God, because we testified against God that He raised £Christ, whom He did not raise, if in fact the dead are not raised.
Paul says if we are proclaiming that God did something He did not do; then we (Christians) are false witnesses.
No resurrection = no power.
SLIDE #18
In verse 14 and in the first part of verse 17 we are told the third implication
3. If Christ has not been raised, then our faith is in vain. (14,17a)
SLIDE #19
1 Corinthians 15:14, 17a (NASB) 14and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain. 17and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; …
Our faith is based on nothing. The whole gospel is based on nothing.
In verse 17 Paul uses a different word for “vain” than he uses in verse 14. The word he uses in verse 17 says our faith is USELESS without the resurrection.
God’s love, God’s promises, God’s plan of salvation is all worthless, useless if Jesus was not raised.
All of Christianity rises and falls with the resurrection. Without the resurrection our faith in God, His church, eternal life have no foundation. We are just another group of people who are following some cleverly devised tales; we might as well have had a holy salamander give us the gospel.
If Jesus is not the Son of God who was raised on the third day, we better shut the church down and do something else with our time. You cannot be a Christian and not believe in the resurrection of Jesus.
SLIDE #20
Verse 17b gives us the 4th implication.
4. If Christ has not been raised, we are still dead in our sins. (17b)
SLIDE #21
1 Corinthians 15:17 (NASB) …you are still in your sins.
What cleanses us from our sins? The blood of Jesus, the sinless Son of God.
SLDE #22
HEB 10:4 For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
HEB 13:12 Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people through His own blood, suffered outside the gate.
Do you want to be dead in your sins?
The 5th implication is a very depressing thought for those who have lost loved one who were Christians.
SLIDE #23
5. If Christ has not been raised, then those who have died before us are condemned (18)
SLIDE #24
1 Corinthians 15:18 (NASB) 18Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.
When The Bible uses the word “perished”, it means a person has died without salvation, it denotes a person who will spend eternity in hell apart from the loving God who made them.
JOHN 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
The perishing being spoken of here is not physical death, it is dying lost.
If Jesus has not been raised, then your lived one will not be either, they along with ALL of us will be eternally separated from God.
The 6th implication is a sad one also.
SLIDE #25
6. If Christ has not been raised, then we are to be pitied. (19)
SLIDE #26
1 Corinthians 15:19 (NASB) 19If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied.
We are to be pitied most of all because all of our hopes and dreams of heaven will end in disappointment.
How depressing, you live and you die and that is all, what a waste.
Everything we believed in meant nothing if there is no resurrection. We all wasted our time and our money for something that was not true.
CONCLUSION
As we look at the implications that Paul lays out for is, it is very apparent that the resurrection of Jesus is indeed the foundation of the gospel.
If you believe that God sent His Son to die redeem us from the curse of sin, if you believe there is a God in heaven and that Jesus was His one and only Son, then you only have one logical choice to make today, that is to give your life to Him!
The good news is that Jesus was raised from the tomb! The good news is that we do not have to suffer an eternity away from Him.
Because He lives, we can claim all the promises in the Bible if we belong to Him and live for Him.
The resurrection of Jesus makes it possible for you to enjoy the bounties of heaven. It allows you the opportunity to have a new start, to start all over again with a clean slate.
For those who have been immersed into the kingdom of God, are you living like you believe it?
If you have not accepted Jesus as your lord and savoir, what are you waiting for?
Praise God that He loves us so much that He gave us His Son!
SALVATION PLAN.
