Series: Journey to the Cross
Text: 1 Corinthians 15:1-14
Title: “What’s The Big Deal About Easter?”
Introduction
• Paul writes this letter to the church at Corinth approximately 22 years after the death of Christ.
o In that short time what we find is there are already people who are teaching that the resurrection of Christ either was not important or did not happen at all.
o This is a response by Paul not only to the fact of the resurrection, but also to its importance.
• Quotes
I. Without The Resurrection There Is No Gospel (1)
• Gospel – simply means “good news”
o The good news starts with the resurrection of Christ; a Savior that dies does not make sense.
John 12:34 -- 34 The people answered Him, “We have heard from the law that the Christ remains forever; and how can You say, ‘The Son of Man must be lifted up’?
• So the resurrection is the foundation upon which the gospel stands, and if the foundation is not founded on fact then that which is built upon it will never stand.
o It is the resurrection of Jesus Christ that makes Christianity unique over every other world religion.
II. Without The Resurrection There Is No Salvation (2)
• The gospel which they received is also the gospel by which they were saved.
o Saved – literally “are being saved” (present tense), can also be translated “being rescued from danger.”
o We all find ourselves in the same danger, which is the danger of being eternally separated from God because of our sin.
o Heaven is a perfect place, and we are anything but perfect, so if God were to just let us into Heaven it would no longer be perfect.
o So we have a problem, ok but what about good works? They are fine but it doesn’t matter how many good works we can do we will never be perfect.
• But the “good news” is that God did something about it.
Romans 5:8 -- 8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
o Jesus became our perfect substitute, and He traded us His perfect life for our sin and the punishment we deserved.
2 Corinthians 5:21 -- 21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
o And all God asks us to do is to confess and believe.
Romans 10:9 -- 9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
• Without the resurrection there is no salvation!
III. Without The Resurrection There Would Be No Witnesses (3-10)
1. The Witness of Scripture (3-4)
o Prophecies written hundreds of years before the birth of Christ told about His death and resurrection.
Isaiah 53:5-6 -- 5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
Psalm 22:14-18 -- 14 I am poured out like water, And all My bones are out of joint; My heart is like wax; It has melted within Me. 15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd, And My tongue clings to My jaws; You have brought Me to the dust of death. 16 For dogs have surrounded Me; The congregation of the wicked has enclosed Me. They pierced My hands and My feet; 17 I can count all My bones. They look and stare at Me. 18 They divide My garments among them, And for My clothing they cast lots.
Psalm 16:8-10 -- 8 I have set the LORD always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. 9 Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure, 10 because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay.
2. The witness of Peter and the other disciples (5)
o This one might seem a little bias, but consider the behavior of the disciples, especially Peter’s.
Mark 14:69-71 -- 69 And the servant girl saw him again, and began to say to those who stood by, “This is one of them.” 70 But he denied it again. And a little later those who stood by said to Peter again, “Surely you are one of them; for you are a Galilean, and your speech shows it.” 71 Then he began to curse and swear, “I do not know this Man of whom you speak!”
Acts 4:18-20 -- 18 So they called them and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus. 19 But Peter and John answered and said to them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge. 20 For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.”
o What changed? It was the resurrection of Christ.
3. The witness of over 500 (6)
o If you want evidence of mass people, how about over 500 at one time saw the resurrected Christ.
o Many of which were still alive as Paul was writing this.
4. The witness of a skeptic (7)
o Jesus’ brothers including James were very skeptical of whom Jesus claimed to be, and now James was a leader in the NT Church.
o What changed?
5. The witness of a changed life (8-10)
o Paul goes from being a persecutor of the church, hunting down and killing Christians; to an Apostle willing to give his own life in order to tell people about Jesus.
o What changed?
IV. Without The Resurrection There Is No Hope (11-14)
• It is the resurrection that is the proof that the sacrifice of Christ, in which we place our faith and our hope, was found to be acceptable by God.
Romans 1:4 -- 4 and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.
• John Philips in his commentary tells of a time when he was a young boy living in England during the Second World War. One day at church they had a guest preacher; Pastor Schutez was a well known German pastor who had escaped Nazi Germany as a wanted man. The pastor told a story about a time when he went to a rally held by some Nazi leaders. At the rally the speaker was going on about the Jews working the people up into a frenzy. And then he spotted the pastor in the crowd and turned on him. He said “Pastor Schutez, You are a fool! Fancy believing in a crucified, dead Jew!” The pastor jumped to his feet and replied, “Yes sir! I should be a fool if I believed in a crucified, dead Jew. But I believe in the risen, living Son of God.”
• Paul says quite simply, either you believe in an empty tomb or you have an empty faith.
Vs. 17
• The resurrection provides hope beyond just knowing that our sins are forgiven.
o The resurrection provides us eternal security and the power to live a life that is pleasing to God.
o I said earlier that good works are important, but only done with the power of God not trying to gain the good favor of God.
Romans 6:4-5 (NKJV)
4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection,
o Believer do you know the joy of walking in newness of life, living a life that is pleasing and honoring to God?
