1 Corinthians 15 v 1-11

 This morning we enter the season of Lent, preparing to celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ from the dead. By believing and accepting this great event, you too may be released from the fear of death. But there’s a question you must answer. “Do you really believe this?”  The devil believes in God, and many people who never go near a Church do so, they just don’t want him to interfere in their life, but hypocritically expect to be accepted by him when they die.

In this passage Paul wants to establish the historical reliability of the resurrection, in order to give a firm foundation for his teaching. He is reminding the Church it was he who brought the good news, and which was not invented but given to him by the Lord.

The gospel always comes to us from someone who already possesses it, it was never an invention nor did anyone discover it for themselves, it was given by Jesus to the Apostles who took it across the world  The Church has the task of delivering that gospel anew.

Paul reminds them it was he who told them the  gospel of first, and they were ready to receive and accept it, and if they truly believed what he taught they would earn salvation.

 Paul stated they stood in the gospel; the function of the gospel is to give stability and power in a world so hostile to the faith. It was something in which they were being saved, and the glory of salvation is that gets better, and one of the wonders of Christianity is that it is limitless.

The essential basis of Christianity is that Jesus Christ died on the Cross for the forgiveness of sins of all people; that he was buried, but God raised him from the Dead as had been prophesied in the Old Testament Scriptures.

Having come to faith, it has to be guarded, for there are so many temptations pushed by those opposed; life has its valleys, from which at times it seems hard to climb out of.  This means we cannot be casual; the faith ,that collapses has not been true faith.

Paul tells how it was Peter and John who were the first men to see Jesus after his resurrection, but there were many others in the following days, someone of those were still alive to testify to what they had seen.

 The passage also shows us the humility of Paul himself.  The most precious thing, was that Jesus had appeared to him, which turned his life right round and gave it a new meaning and purpose.  He attributed all the success of his ministry to God, and never claimed any merit for himself.  He realised how much he meant in the cause of mission, but never saw himself as a lone missionary, but shared the gospel proclamation with the other Apostles.

We now have to look at how this applies to us in our present Christian journey.

How important is it to believe in the physical resurrection of Jesus?  For quite a lot of people it is an immense barrier to overcome; Christianity is fine for being kind, meek and mild and providing nice backgrounds for wedding and baptism pictures, but why bring in religion.  Why not just see it as a nice story instead of intimidating and upsetting people?

This chapter will not be fully explained in some Churches today as there will be a problem, namely that there are clergy who do not believe in the physical resurrection. This causes them to be hypocrites, and in fact to lie.

In every service, the Apostles Ceed is said, and most probably led by the Minister; which states, I believe in……………………. he descended to the dead and on the third day rose again.

A man who had challenged the resurrection in unpleasant terms was some years ago, being consecrated into his Office as a Bishop in York Minster. Later the same night, a bolt of lightning struck and blew out the rose window of the Cathedral.  When this was suggested to be God venting His anger, that was mocked and ridiculed by the liberal establishment, yet there was no such experience in any other part of the city; why the Cathedral. People have yet to learn you do not mock God.

People will say about a passage you can’t expect me to believe that, it is now 2025.  Yet they will believe many things even harder to understand. They will use a pocket phone to contact someone any place on earth just by pressing buttons on the phone, and the uninterrupted words will cross thousands of miles within seconds.  They certainly wouldn’t be able to explain how that happens, but accept it.

The New Testament was written by men of honesty and intelligence who had seen Christ crucified, dead and buried, finished, gone.  To them the future was dark and uncertain without any indication he was coming back.  If they preached they were risking their lives, placing themselves in jeopardy of being stoned or killed.

When told by the women that the tomb was empty, they dismissed it only to find out for themselves it was true, they saw the linen cloths there folded where the body had laid.  So the body had gone and they knew not where.

There have been several explanations suggested, none of which have any credibility.  The Apostles knew they faced death if it was found they had intervened, but they did not have anywhere to take it. 

The |Jewish authorities would not have been involved; they had a guard placed there and a heavy stone to keep the body in.  They, having denied the resurrection so would have been glad to have Jesus’ body to devalue him by exhibiting the body.

 Another suggestion was that grave robbers took it, but they would not have left the cloths and valuable precious spices untouched for they would have been worth a lot of money.

An even more popular thought was, that Jesus just play acted and swooned to be revived and do a Houdini act.   Jesus would not have been in any physical condition to do anything; he wasn’t even able to finish his walk to the place of execution, and had to have help from an onlooker having been lashed 39 times with a metal studded belt.  Would such a sinless, honest, man do such a thing; of course not?

In addition to all these theories, Jesus was seen by over 500 people after the crucifixion in various places. In our time, eminent lawyers have commented that it is the most well proven case in history, and any Court would conclude Jesus had risen.

Most people believe in the eternal, and desperately want to know what lies on the other side of death. The answer is quite simple. If you have accepted Jesus as your Savior, what lies on the other side is resurrection and life. If you have not accepted him, you have no hope at all. 

The Church generally has not preached this with the vigour it deserved; we have service liturgy which assures everyone the deceased will go to heaven, which is unequivocally dismissed in the Bible.  If people choose to live life without God and Jesus, that is their choice, but when they do so they have nothing left but vain speculations and idle dreams.  How sad it must be to come to the end of life and to believe that after death this is nothing at all.

 Paul’s argument is that it is foolish to follow Christianity, if you reject the resurrection from the dead. If there is no hope for the future, what purpose is there in setting aside the worldly pleasures to endure the isolation and scorn of being a Christian?. We may just as well sell of our buildings and do what the rest of the world does on a Sunday.

When you receive Communion this Sunday you are part of a tradition, which has been passed down from that Upper Room.  Many people have tried, and are now trying harder than ever, to take Christianity out of public life, but while empires have come and gone, the Christian Church has survived, and millions and millions of people have found their lives enriched by their faith, and the words of Jesus are still relevant, ‘the gates of hell will not prevail against it’.    There may be resistance in this and other Western nations, but in Africa, China and beyond there is massive turning to the Lord Jesus.   Continue to pray that this nation may once again become a truly Christian nation.   

We praise God’s Holy Name and pray He be  Glorified