The Power Of The Resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:1-8)

Introduction:

Prayer:

Well it’s Easter!

And just like last week, Rob said then we were celebrating two holidays! April fools and Palm Sunday!

One Pagan and one Biblical!

And the same goes for today, many will celebrate the Easter bunny while others will celebrate a risen King!

One Pagan and One Biblical!

Today we are going to look at all three elements of the Gospel of Christ, with our main focus being on the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead!

I’m not going to presume any of you know what these terms mean and so we will look at each on in some detail and I hope this will give you a better understanding of just what happened when Christ was raised from the dead!

Much of this message will be informational, but at the end of the I pray the results will be transformational, that God would change your heart, That He will Open your eyes to see His wonderful goodness, to see His unfailing grace! To see His sufficiency!

Well lets get started this morning.

If you will turn with me to 1 Corinthians 15:1-8

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, 5and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep; 7then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles; 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. 10But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me.

Here we have Paul, is writing to those at Corinthian Church, they seem to brothers in the Lord, but something has happened!

Because he said this 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,

So what it going here? He is about to known something that is already known.

Well if we shoot through our text and look at the big picture of what is going on here we will see in v12 some are not following the entire gospel!

Look most of you sitting in here today have heard the gospel message from someone before, some have heard it heard it from me or someone else and this is what Paul is saying “What I’m about to say is nothing new to you” You are for the most part are believers, you have had the gospel preached, you received it and you stand on it and you are saved by. The Power of the Gospel! It has taken from Darkness to Light, it revealed to you good and evil, it’s delivered you from Sins power and condemnation. The Gospel.

Then he places some kind of an exception clause: unless you believed in vain.

Now this is not talking about losing salvation it’s taking about having a believed in vain, having a worthless faith or for some kind of personal necessity.

Kind of like if I believe then I can have my best life now! If I pray this prayer I can get my ticket to heaven.

Have you believed in vain today? Do you believe the whole gospel?

The fact is that here some lacked, a true saving faith in Christ, which failed to work it self out.

He is priming his people, he is trying to draw them in, he is trying to get them to evaluate themselves, before he gets in the gospel message again!

Listen we need to do the same, we need to evaluate our lives, our beliefs, our world-views, or understanding of the Gospel that saves us!

If you’re here this morning and the last time you stepped into a Church was Christmas, you better evaluate your life,

Stuart going to church don’t make you a Christian: Your right it doesn’t.

No, you don’t have to go to church to be Christian, but you must go to church in order to be an obedient Christian.