Remember the Resurrection | 1 Corinthians 15:1–11

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SPEAKER_00 0:00

Amen. You may be seated. Well, once again, welcome. We're uh super glad that you're here. Uh grab your Bibles if you would. Let's take a few minutes and look together at 1 Corinthians chapter 15. 1 Corinthians 15. My name is Andrew. I'm one of the pastors here at at Life. And if you're new with us Um or I just don't know you, I would love to know you. Uh I feel like sometimes I stand in the back and see people that I'm like, I don't know if I know them. And uh if you want to be known by me, I'd love to know you. I know that's a weird way of saying it. It's like, hey, I'm gonna be your friend, but uh that's weird. So I just know that I want to know you if you want to be known and love to serve you. Uh but primarily my focus today is just unpacking God's word with you. So 1 Corinthians 15 is where we are. We're in a series that we're gonna continue through the Easter season. Today's the triumphal entry. This is Palm Sunday. Uh, a lot of times we will take uh a break and go to that and understand what's taking place there. But the way the Lord has orchestrated the calendar for our preaching and teaching, we land in 1 Corinthians 15 today and next week, which is Easter Sunday, and there's not a uh more extensive teaching on the resurrection uh outside of the Gospels, where it's uh historically recorded for us, but in the epistles, Paul wrote about the resurrection more in this chapter than any other chapter, and we want to understand what he has to say to us about that. So we're gonna look to it again, 1 Corinthians 15, verses 1 through 11. It's a new section. He just finished chapter 12, 13, and 14, kind of focusing on the worship gatherings of the church. Uh, remember that Beauty and the Broken is the title. He is trying to, through his apostolic influence, bring the gospel to bear on the church in Corinth, a real people in a real town get receiving a real letter that they read that they would have been challenged and convicted by. And he's trying to bring the gospel and their new identity in Christ to bear on them, to change them, to alter them, to help them refocus their affections and their practices. And so he's dealing with some issues. We've we've kind of dealt with those up to this point. And now he's focusing on a new one, primarily on this idea of the resurrection. And we're gonna see in a few moments that there was a there was a teaching going around. Somebody in Corinth was teaching that there is no resurrection of the dead. So there's no future resurrection. However, they package that. We got some ideas based upon the historical theology of that. But remember, we're listening to a one-sided conversation. If we're on the phone, we're with Paul. Paul's speaking, and we're just trying to fill in the gaps. But he says a couple of things that indicate to us that the church in Corinth was questioning whether or not there was going to be an actual bodily resurrection one day for uh those who are die in Christ. And he's dealing with that, and he's anchoring our hope in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. So he's gonna he's gonna lay some theology on the resurrection down for us, and then he's gonna turn and say, Because that's true, then this is true, and we're gonna get to that in the next few weeks together. But today we're just gonna focus on what I'm titling Remember the Resurrection. Remember the resurrection. I was thinking about this a few, uh maybe I don't know, maybe a couple years ago now. It was this early Sunday morning. I I have a tendency to wake up rather early on Sunday mornings. Uh I just wake up seeing all y'all's faces, and I just can't go back to sleep. And so I wake up and I come to the office, and one Sunday morning I came to church, and I had just, I think I'd just returned from a week off, and I entered into the offices, and I stood at the panel to enter in my code for the alarm, and I could not remember it. And I'm looking at all of these numbers, and I just started putting in numbers. I'm like, maybe it's this, maybe it's and sure enough, the thing starts beep, beep, and then it starts yelling at me like alarms about the sound. I remember what it said, and then it sounded like loud, it works. Our stuff is protected, and it's going off. It's about 4 30, 5 o'clock in the morning, it's going off. I just could see the headline Pastor gets arrested for burglarizing his own church. So I was like, I'm gonna call Chuck. Well, Chuck apparently doesn't sleep with his phone on. I think he should, right? Amen. He should sleep with his phone on. If I need Chuck at 2:30 in the morning, he should be available. And he wasn't, and good for him. He didn't answer, so I did the next best thing, and I called Jason, and he answered. And I know I woke him up and he said that tired voice. You know that tired voice where you tried not to sound tired, but you really are. Uh that was Jason. He's like, What's going on? He thought somebody died. And I said, Amen. He heard the alarm probably in the background, sirening off. And he gave me a he gave, listen, the reality is this, he gave me a code, put it in. I I don't know all that happened from then on. I was embarrassed, but here's what I know. I wasn't lacking the information. It was in there. Later that day, Chuck said, Your code is this, and I'm like, that's it. I knew I knew it. I didn't I didn't lack the information. I just I wasn't recalling it when I needed it. You see the difference? It's not that I didn't have it, I just I wasn't bringing it to mind when I needed to bring it to mind so that I could use it for the purpose that it was given for me to use. And many times we're not lacking truth. Look at your church people. Some of you grew up in church, some of you have been coming to church, some of you know these things. It's not lacking truth, it's lacking remembrance. We don't drift because the truth isn't clear. We we often, most of the time, drift because we stop bringing it to mind when we need it. Our hope doesn't weaken because we don't know. Like, listen, you're you're in a trial, you go through it, you're losing hope, you say things that are crazy, and then somebody says, Well, don't you know this? And you're like, Yeah, I know that. I just I just forgot that. I just am not calling it to mind when I need it. So our hope doesn't weaken because we don't know. Our hope weakens because we don't bring the gospel to mind. We don't preach to ourselves again. That's why Paul begins this chapter with verse one, now I would remind you. Now there's some things that he is going to get to about uh the the implications of what he's about to remind them, but but they were slipping away from hope. They were questioning some things because they were not aware or being uh calling to mind things that they needed to remember. So he just starts with, I want to remind you. Now, again, the Corinthians were apparently drifting from the implications of the resurrection of Christ. In fact, you could see it in verse 12. He's like, if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? How is that possible? If Christ rose, then certainly those who follow him will also rise. So their teaching wasn't a denial of Christ's resurrection specifically, it was a denial of future bodily resurrection in general. They were likely influenced by the Greek thinking. The body is unimportant or bad, so all physical things are broken and bad and not important, and so salvation is spiritual only. So they were saying there's no future resurrection of believers, and he exposes their inconsistency. His logic is you believe Christ was raised, but you deny the resurrection for believers. That doesn't work, those don't go together. Because if there's no resurrection at all, then Christ himself could not have been raised. And if he's not alive, then we are a mess. So he reveals why he's writing this. Paul is writing because a wrong belief about future bodily resurrection was undermining the gospel itself. They didn't realize it, but their thinking was dangerous. Deny the resurrection, undermine Christ's resurrection, collapse the gospel, destroy hope. So to help with this, Paul is giving them some reminders, some things that they need to call to mind when they need them, of the truths that they've already received and believed. Okay? So he's going to show them the implications of the resurrection of Christ on their hope of future resurrection. So we're gonna read it, 1 Corinthians 15, verses 1 through 11. Let's unpack this together. These are God's words. This is the word for us today. May it come to bear on us, as he divinely desires for too. Verse 1. Now I would remind you, there it is, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preach to you, excuse me, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins, in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day, in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve, then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of them whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle because I persecuted the church of God, but by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace towards me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we preach, and so you believed. He's anchoring the hope that he's gonna get to in a few minutes, in a few weeks, when we study the rest of this. He's anchoring that hope of a future bodily resurrection in the reality of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And so here's the big idea that we're gonna unpack today. Remembering the reality of the resurrection of Christ stabilizes a believer's hope. Remembering the reality, calling to mind when we need it, rehearsing, going back to it, revisiting it, studying about it, singing about it, speaking to one another about it, remembering that reality, that it is real, that it's not a farce, that it's not a lie, that it's not a hoax, but remembering the reality of the resurrection of Christ. That's the truth, that's the doctrine, that's the theology that stabilizes our hope. That our hope of future is anchored in the reality of his resurrection. So Paul writes this again because some in the church were denying the future, and in doing so, they were unknowingly undermining the very gospel that they had believed, and they were weakening the hope of believers. So, according to Paul, first 11 verses of 15, what do we need to remember about the reality of the resurrection in order for our hope to be stabilized? What do we need to remember? That's the question I'm gonna try to answer over the next couple minutes for us this morning. We need to remember these four, these four truths about the resurrection or the proofs, let's call it that. The four proofs of the resurrection that Paul latches on to to then lead us to a stabilized hope in future bodily resurrection. Number one, the resurrection is confirmed according to Paul. I'm gonna put it this way, by the resilient existence of the church, by the resilient existence of the church. This is the testimony. If you if you will think of it as a maybe a courtroom potentially, Paul is calling his first witness, he's calling up the church, and he's giving them, he's reminding them don't forget about your existence, don't forget about the reality of you are a people. Now I remind you, brothers, not not acquaintances, brothers. That's a term of endearment, that's familial, that's brothers and sisters, that's in Christ, that we are brothers in Christ. I want to remind you of the gospel that I preached to you, that I delivered to you, that I declared to you, that I proclaimed to you, and you received it, and in which you are currently standing, and by which you are being saved. So here's the reality salvation comes through the gospel. The gospel is the power of God to save everyone who believes. Romans 1:16. It is the gospel who bring that brings new life. It is the reality that Jesus Christ died, that he was buried, and he rose again. That's the truth. And so Paul gives a fourfold description of their salvation process. He preached it, so from that they received it. A decisive past act, not discovered, it was handed down and received. I proclaimed it, you heard it, and the Spirit of God regenerated you, and you said, That's true. I accept that. And in which you stand, that's the perfect tense. That's an ongoing position with abiding results, not just an entry point. The gospel is not just the gate that we walk into to get on a path. The gospel is the path, it is the gate, it is the entirety of the entire journey, it is where we stand, it is the ground we live on. So it was preached, and we received it, and we stand in it, and by it we are being saved. That's an interesting tense. Present passive. So here we have the idea of where salvation exists in the past. We were saved when we put faith in Christ, and there's a future reality that we're waiting for. We will be saved from this world. But in the meantime, he says we are still being saved. It's an ongoing protection, it's an ongoing transformation. It's that we are still being held, guarded, and rescued by the gospel. We are standing in and being saved by the gospel if you hold fast. That's interesting. Present active perseverance, then he says, is an evidence here. Remember that this is holding fast unless you believed in vain. Now here's the reality of that statement: not that true salvation is lost if you let go, but here, holding on is a profession that is exposed as being genuine. This is not that true salvation is lost, but that false profession is exposed. So he's not saying hold on or let go. He's saying, if your faith was genuine, not empty, if your faith was real, if your faith was not in vain, if your faith wasn't fake, if your faith wasn't uh a weak, but it was genuine faith, then it will be evidenced by a holding fast to the gospel. This is uh uh being preserved or the perseverance. No one is going to go to heaven and say, I'm glad I I'm sure glad I held on. Sure glad I held on. It's not like a roller coaster uh seatbelt that loosened up and was going through loops, and you were just holding on for dare life, hoping that at the end of it you'd be like, ooh, I'm sure glad my grip didn't let go. I made it. That's not what's happening here. No one's gonna say when they get to heaven, I made it. It was tough, but I held on. No. True belief, genuine belief, that belief that's not vain, is evidenced by an enduring faith that perseveres in holding true to the gospel and not deconstructing it or running from it. That's what he's saying. So here's the gospel. It was preached to you, you received it, in it you stand, you are being saved by it, and because your faith was genuine, you are continuing to hold on to it and holding fast to it. So Paul is arguing this. Here's what he's getting at the existence, the endurance, and the perseverance of the church is evidence of a living Christ. Justification is here, you received it, sanctification is here, you stand in it, preservation uh is here, you are being saved, and perseverance is here, you hold fast. This is a full-orbed doctrine of salvation that flows from the resurrection. So the resurrection is what makes the salvation and the sanctification and the preservation and the perseverance take place in a Christian's life. Without the resurrection, this people isn't a people. Without the living Christ, if Christ were not raised, there is no gospel to receive. There's no gospel for Paul to preach. If Christ is not raised, there's no ground to stand on, there's no gospel to stand on, there's no power to sanctify and keep us and protect us if Christ is not raised. If Christ is not risen from the dead, there's no grace to persevere. We're not gonna hold fast because there's nothing to hold fast to. We're holding fast to heir or man-made legend. But the church has endured, it has endured extreme persecution. The church has endured floods of false teaching. The church has endured moral and internal failure, and yet it remains and it's thriving and it's expanding and it is moving forward. That reality demands explanation. So the existence and endurance of a gospel-shaped people points to a living Christ. The very existence of believers is evidence that the gospel is real. Lives changed by Christ point to the power of his resurrections, his resurrection. Think of this. The Corinthians themselves were living proof of the gospel's truth. They had been brought out of spiritual blindness and death into the light and life of Christ. And that transformation testifies to the power of the risen Savior. Their salvation and their place in the church were not accidents, they were evidence that Christ is alive and still saving. And he's saying, You guys know this. You guys know this. I preached this to you, and the Spirit of God showed you that it's true, and you received it, and you believed it, and you're standing in it, and you're holding fast to it. Don't leave that. Don't leave this idea of the resurrection. Anchor your hope in that. And even with all of the immaturity and all of the struggles that Corinth was going through, the fact that the Corinthian church still existed was a testimony to the power of the gospel. Think about the mess they were in. Think about the influence from culture they were in. And yet they still endured as a people that God was using and the Spirit was manifesting himself in. That was existence, that's uh proof that there is an ex a real, risen, living Savior. Only a living Christ could take a broken, sinful people and form them into a redeemed community. Think about it this way: the continual existence of the church is proof that Jesus is alive. For 2,000 years it has endured opposition and persecution and false teaching and human weakness, and yet it remains. No one has ever been able to explain how a dead Savior produced such a living, moving faith. People who willingly give their lives to follow him. The only explanation is that he is not dead, he is risen. Think about it this way. Let me give you an illustration of this. In Acts chapter 5, the apostles were arrested for preaching this message. They were being tried. There was a council gathered to try them. And a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, it says in verse 34, who is held in honor by all the people, and he stands up and he says some profound words. Listen to what he says for a second. He says, Men of Israel, this is the Pharisee talking, well regarded. Men of Israel, take care of what you are about to do with these men. For before these days, Theudis rose up, claiming to be somebody, and a number of men, about 400, joined him, and he was killed, and all who followed him were dispersed and came to nothing. So this dude rises up, he claims to be a religious leader. 400 people follow him, he was killed, and everybody dispersed. After him, Judas the Galilean rose up in the days of the census and drew away some of the people after him. He too perished, and all who followed him were scattered. Now listen to these words, please. Verse 38. So in the present case I tell you, keep away from these men and let them alone. For if this plan or this undertaking is of man, it will fail. But if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You might even be found opposing God. What was he saying? He was saying, Let their leader Jesus die, and they scatter like all of the other previous Jesuses. Let their Savior die, leave them alone, quit messing with them. In a few months, they will have forgotten that they followed Jesus. They will have all scattered. This will come to nothing. We don't want to mess with this. Just let them die. Give them enough rope, they'll hang themselves. And guess what? 2,000 years later, the followers of Jesus are still thriving and gathering, and God is continually adding to them. Why? Because He is not like those other Jesuses or Saviors. He died and he rose again. Amen? That's what he's saying. Alright, that's number one. That's enough. So the existence of the church is powerful evidence, but it raises a deeper question. Where did the message come from? Now, number two, the resurrection is confirmed by the revealed truth of the scriptures. The revealed truth of the scriptures. Now look what he says. The testimony of the scripture he gives now. So, witness number two, hey, the church, I'm calling up. Look at you. You exist. That's proof that he's alive. Number two, though, verse three and four for I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins. Whole sermon given to those words right there could happen right now. He died for our sins. Now look at the next phrase in accordance with the scriptures. That he was buried and that he was raised. Raised on the third day, in accordance with the scriptures. Twice. He references scriptures. I delivered what I received. This is creedal language. Some believe this was an early church confession, kind of like what we sung about, or what we would say. This is authoritative apostolic tradition rooted in divine revelation. And the structure is pretty precise. Christ died for our sins, substitution and atonement. He was buried, confirmation of real death. He was raised, vindication and victory, according to the scriptures, divine necessity. The resurrection then is not merely an event in history, it is the fulfillment of God's eternal redemptive plan. The phrase appears twice, according to the scriptures, or in accordance with the scriptures. This means the cross was planned. This wasn't plan B. This didn't happen on accident. Listen, the Jews didn't kill him. They were the instrument God used, but God had this plan from the beginning. The burial was expected, and the resurrection was promised. I'm going to take a journey with you real quick. This will be most of our time together this morning, but go to Isaiah 53 with me. If you have your Bible, Isaiah 53. Turn there. I want you to see this. I'm not going to put it on the screen on purpose because I want you to see it on the pages of your copy of God's Word. And in Isaiah 53, we have the prophecy of how, 52 and 53, of how he will be pierced for our transgressions. So he will die according to the scriptures. In accordance with the scriptures, he will die. Look at it, and I'm going to jump right in the middle. This was a prophetic word about the coming of Christ. In verse 4, he says this surely he has borne our griefs, carried our sorrows. This is Jesus he's referencing in prophecy. Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. And look at verse 5. He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we, all y'all have gone astray like sheep. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. So when Paul says he died for our sins in accordance with the scripture, Paul has in mind Isaiah 53, I believe. That's his death. Now jump down with me to verse 9. And they made his grave with the wicked, and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence and there was no deceit in his mouth. What does that mean? That means they buried him among the dead in a rich man's tomb. They buried him there. By the way, he didn't need it, he only needed to borrow it for a few days. There he was. They made his grave with the wicked. So he was dead for our sins. He was buried in accordance with the scriptures, Isaiah 53, 9. And now look at what it says. Verse 10, there's some living language that is given. Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him. He has put him to grief. Look at this. When his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring. All of a sudden, in verse 10, there's a shift that Isaiah gives us that doesn't sound like he's dead anymore. Dead men don't see his offspring, but this one does. He shall see his offspring, he shall prolong his days. That's living language, that's risen language. Yes, he was dead, and yes, he was buried, but he's going to see his offspring. He's going to have his days prolonged. The will of the Lord shall prosper in his hands out of the anguish of his soul. He shall see and be satisfied. By his knowledge shall righteous, the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and shall bear their iniquities. There's a living language. Clearly, he died. He bore our sins. He was buried among the dead, and yet he's seeing, and his days are being prolonged. What is that? That is a prophetic way of saying there is coming a Savior who will die for the sins of his people, be buried in a tomb among dead people, but then will be brought back to life, and his days will be prolonged. So I think Paul, in his understanding now of Isaiah, having grown up understanding these prophecies, is like, that's what that meant. In accordance with the scriptures, Jesus rose again. Now, that's not the only place we see that though. Let me show you a couple cool verses real quick. We're getting geared up for celebrating the Easter resurrection Sunday coming. But look at what Jesus himself said on the road to Emmaus after he rose again. He rebuked the unbelief of people, and he points them back to the Old Testament. Look at this, Luke chapter 24. Jesus says to them on the road to Emmaus after he rose, O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that who the prophets have spoken. What did they say? Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory? And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them all the scriptures, the things concerning himself. So Jesus had this understanding, starting with Moses and all the prophets, that splattered throughout all of the Old Testament scripture that Paul had in mind in 1 Corinthians, there was the evidence of a dying Savior, a buried Savior, and a risen Savior. One more place, two more places, maybe three. Who knows? Matthew 12, look at this. Here, when people demanded proof, Jesus points to scripture. They said, Prove to us that you're gonna rise again. Here's what he says: an evil and adulterous generation seek for sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. Wait a second, you're telling me that the story of the guy swallowed by a fish speaks to the resurrection of the Savior? Yes. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. It was a prophecy. It was a shadow of things to come that will reach their ultimate fulfillment in the Savior Jesus Christ when he is raised from the dead three days later. And Jonah is a type of Christ in the prophetic word. You're not convinced yet. I can tell. I'm gonna give you one more. Peter preached the same truth of Pentecost when he anticipated, uh, or or quoting David, who anticipated, by quoting Psalm 16. In Acts chapter 2, verse 31, Peter's preaching on the day of Pentecost. And he is saying, Do I have Acts 2 up there? I don't think I have Acts 2 up there. So we're gonna read that one too now, because it's up there. I have to now. But here's what David, uh Peter says, quoting David, for he so foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades or the place of the dead, nor did his flesh see corruption. So Peter is saying, David in the Old Testament, remember King David, Old Testament, wrote Psalm 16, says, David foresaw that Jesus would be buried, spend three nights in death, but would not be left there, and his flesh would not see corruption, because he would rise again. Alright, now Acts 26. I told you one more. I got one more. There it is. Acts 26, Paul himself said this. Say nothing but what the prophets and Moses said would come to pass. Who said it? Moses and the prophets. Old Testament scripture, that the Christ must suffer, and that by being the first to rise from the dead, he would proclaim light both to our people and to the Gentiles. Starting with Moses and the prophets. Here's the reality: no genuine, honest student of Old Testament would be able to deny that splattered throughout all of the Old Testament scripture, the truth of Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection would be a reality that they would one day see. And so when Paul says this isn't made up, this isn't something we came up with. We didn't go away into a room and make this up. This is anchored in scripture. This is something that thousands of years earlier was foretold would happen. These are the these are the doctrinal realities that the early church was anchoring their hope in. The resurrection then was necessary because it was the fulfillment of prophecy. It was planned, not accidental. It was authoritative, not debatable. And when you go back after the resurrection and read those, you're like, oh, that's what he meant. For example, how many of you are the kind of people who like watching a movie multiple times, like two, three, four times? Anybody here like that? I'm like a one time, that's it, I saw it. I don't want to watch it again. But listen, when you watch a movie, let's just go Lord of the Rings, right? Like epic trilogy, Lord of the Rings. That's the kind of movie when you watch twice or even several times and you re-watch it and you realize now that you know the ending, that the ending was being hinted at from the beginning, and there were lines that you missed that suddenly matter now that you watch it again. Why? Because you now know how the story ended. And so what we have, this incredible grace, is that we live on this side of the cross in history. And what we get to do is we get to know how the story came to fulfillment in Christ. And then we go back and we read the Old Testament, we're like, that's why Jonah was only three days in the belly of a whale. I thought he should be in there longer. He was pretty stubborn, but he was only there three days. Why? Because he was a type of Christ that would show how Christ would rise from the dead. And now we begin to see hints of it throughout scripture that this was not an accident. Jesus, God did not be like, man, they killed my son. I guess I'm gonna have to raise him from the dead now. That's not it. It's not like, well, I guess we'll I all my other plans failed. I guess I'll just send Jesus to the cross and then I'll see if I can get him back alive. No, none of that was the plan B, plan C, or plan D. He had one plan, and his plan was fulfilled as it was foretold in Scripture. So our faith in the future resurrection is anchored in the resurrection of Christ, which is proven to be true because Old Testament scripture has revealed that it would be true. Amen? Man, this is more than just some feel good about yourself religion. We're not just trying to meditate and feel good and pat each other on the back. We have a faith that is anchored in something providentially given to us, the resurrection of Jesus Christ. So we have that. So we rest our faith there. Okay, so the resurrection was not an accident. It was promised, it was planned, and it was revealed by God in his word. But Paul doesn't stop there. Notice what else he does. Again, these last two I'll give you quick, but number three, the resurrection is confirmed by the reliable testimony of the witnesses. This is interesting to me. Objective, visible manifestation. He appeared. Verse 5, then he appeared. So he was killed for our sin. He was laid in the in the tomb of a borrowed tomb of a rich man among the dead. He was raised from the dead, and then he appeared to Cephas. That's Peter, by the way. I don't know why they call him Cephas. I wonder if he didn't like the name Cephas, and Paul loved using it because of that. You know, I don't know. It's Peter. He appeared to Cephas, then to the 12. Then he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive. I'll give you their phone numbers if you want them. You can call them, message them on Instagram, let them know hey, I got a question about this thing that you said. Some of them have fallen asleep. That means they died. That's a way of saying Christians who died. Then he appears to James, which we think is probably his half-brother, his brother from Mary and Joseph, their biological son, their other son. And I think that's important because who would have doubted the significance of Jesus more than the brother, right? Like we brothers, I have three of them, we're the quickest to call out the fakeness of some claim. Like as soon as Nick says, I did this, I'm like, you lie, bro. I go to his church in Burbank and they tell me, oh, Nick tells me he did this. I'm like, that's a lie. He did not do that. So he appears to James. Why? Because James became a powerhouse for God and the message of the gospel. So he appears to him, and then to all the apostles, and last of all, to one untimely born, he appears to me. That's Paul. What's going on here? This is a legal cumulative testimony, multiple witnesses, different settings, independent encounters, consistent message. Here's what's cool about this. Here's what I think Paul is getting at. Christianity, anchored in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, invites scrutiny. It invites it. It's falsifiable. Think about this. All of these crazy people go around telling everybody Jesus rose from the dead, and the only thing his opponents needed to do was produce the body. Exhume them, pull them out, put them on a stake in the middle of Jerusalem and say, These people are crazy. There's his body right there. And they couldn't do it. And all of a sudden, this timid group of hundreds of people who followed him, who Gamaliel said, if Jesus is just another man, they'll scatter. They did not scatter, they united even to the point of death and martyrdom. The apostles were killed for believing in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It was falsifiable and never proven wrong. It is historical, it is public. Go ask them. I'll give you their names. Go see if his story and her story don't line up. And if they don't, throw it out. And yet it did. No other religious claim rests on this kind of verifiable resurrection evidence. Christianity rests on public, verifiable historical evidence, not private imagination. And in a courtroom, one witness matters, but many witnesses change everything. If one person testifies, you question it. If multiple people multiple people, independent but consistent and credible, say the same thing, that's how the truth is established. Not two, not three, but hundreds of witnesses. And they all said, even up to the point when the fire was lit under the wood, on the wood under them, and their bodies were thrown to the lions and the wild animals, they still claimed we saw him alive. And we're not changing the hope that we have of the future resurrection. Not built on a rumor, but built on testimony, not irrational, reasonable trust, and credible testimony, not a myth. The resurrection was seen, not imagined. Christianity is not blind faith, it is grounded faith. So the resurrection is not a private claim, it's a public reality seen and testified to by many. But Paul doesn't just point out that to uh point to others, he now turns to himself and look at the last point. The resurrection is confirmed by the radical transformation of a life. Paul's point is this look around. Just look around. You exist. You didn't scatter, you exist and continue to exist. You received and believed and are being saved by the gospel that is true because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Look back, look to Scripture. Scripture said this would happen. Don't trust Scripture as a good book. If it's not true in the resurrection, then it's a false book, and every bit of it should be thrown out and used for fire kindling. Listen to the reliable testimony of the witnesses historically claimed. And let's just go through history. Every year we're at Easter, they try to re-scurry up some truth about Jesus didn't really die. He swooned. He came back to life. It was a shallow grave. The dogs ate him up. He came back to life and he ran away and married somebody and had children. Da Vinci Code fans out there. Listen, let's just look at this and study this out in a historical way. And now let's look at one life that was so radically transformed that there's no other conclusion other than this. Jesus must have risen and shown himself to him. Look at it in verse 9. For I am the least of the apostles. That's not false humility. Unworthy to be called an apostle. I don't even I don't deserve this. I I think I can't imagine what Paul must have, and I'm gonna read into this a little bit. But if Paul was writing this himself, the teardrops would have landed on the pages. I just I want to remind you that this isn't just this isn't just uh TED talk to pep you up. This is this is my story. I am an apostle, but I'm unworthy to have that title. Because I persecuted the church of God, and there's some things about my past that I don't want to be brought up, but but I'm ashamed of. But verse 10, here it is. This is the key, this is the hinge, this is everything. But by the grace of God, I am what I am. That's your story, too. Just put your name there. This is what I was. I'm not worthy to be called a child of God. I'm not worthy to be adopted into his family. We knelt and prayed, and I entered in in my heart to the throne of God in prayer, and I sat there and felt unworthy to be called a son and welcomed into his presence. Good, because it's not your merit that got you into that room, it's not your merit that got you into the apostleship. It is by the grace of God. What happened? On the road to Damascus, Saul of Tarsus met a risen Savior, and he said, You're mine. Let's go. And here he says, His grace towards me was not in vain. Wasn't in vain. On the contrary, actually, he says, I worked harder than any of them. I don't work because I'm earning his grace. No, I work from a place of being in his grace. I worked harder than any of them, any of the other apostles, any of the other messengers, any of them, but it was not I. It's not I that did it. It's not I that did this, it's not I that worked this, but the grace of God that is with me. I don't know if you're in the habit of highlighting, underlining, or putting neon lights around verses in your Bible, but this would be one to do. This is one that should flash every time you open it. And this should be the one that you take and say, This is my story. Who transforms lives like that? How does that happen? Paul's not declaring a self-made, self-improved, self-reformed. He didn't go to some support group and find help for getting over his addiction of killing Christians. He was transformed. Not that any of those things are necessarily wrong. I'm just saying that's not what changed him. What changed him was the grace of God. What changed him was the power of the gospel. What changed him was an interaction with a risen Savior. And he says, I worked hard, but I did it by grace. It's not a contradiction, it's grace-fueled effort. So it's a constant reminder. His life was a constant reminder of his unworthiness and it fueled his passion for the work of ministry. So we see that in Paul's life. Nothing could have taken Saul of Tarsus and made him Paul the Apostle other than the reality of the risen Savior, Jesus Christ. Nothing is more powerful than a changed enemy. If someone opposes something, fights it, rejects it, tries to destroy it, that's Paul. I want you to think Osama bin Laden. I want you to think terrorist. I want all Christians dead. That was Paul. If Saul of Tarsus walked into this back of back wall doors today, we would not be like, hey, Saul, we've got some coffee in the back. Come on in, have a seat. Security guards would be doing all sorts of crazy things, and we would be worried. We'd mark him, we'd probably run. Why? Because he had no other intention other than to arrest everybody that was a Christian and throw them in prison. That guy became the greatest messenger for the gospel the world has ever seen. He was transformed. You don't ignore that kind of transformation. This this would be somewhat similar to me all of a sudden showing up on Sunday in a Dodger hat. And you would be like, bro, what happened? And I'd be like, Matt finally converted me. He just was incessant and just constantly on me. Pastor Matt wouldn't let me go. That would be what this is. They said, Paul, Saul? Is that you? What are you doing? And his answer was always the same. I met Jesus. He's alive. He rose from the dead. He called me, and by the grace of God, I am what I am. Paul himself is the final argument. Christianity's greatest persecutor became its greatest missionary. I love how he ends it. I have no time to talk about it, but whether then it was I or they, so we preach, and so you believed. Whether it was me or other messengers, you got the gospel message, including the resurrection of Christ, preached to you, and you believed it. Don't leave it. So the existence of the church, the scripture written thousands of years earlier, the historical testimony of the witnesses, and the transformation of every life, especially the life of the Saul of Tarsus who killed Christians, is evidence that there is a reason to have hope, that the promises of future resurrection are true because the fulfillment of his resurrection actually happened. There is a reason to have hope. There is a reason to believe, there's a reason to trust. There is a reason to do so. It's not farce, it's not hoax, it's not religious mumbo jumbo. It is a true, authenticated, falsifiable, if able to be falsified reality of a risen Savior in which we anchor our hope and have hope of the future. So three quick truths to life to give you. I'll throw them up there. Go ahead and throw all three of them up there if you would for sake of time. Number one, have I believed and been transformed by the gospel? Have I believed it? That's the question for you. I don't, I'm not asking, do you accept it in your brain? I'm asking have you thrown yourself in trust upon the Savior? Believed and been transformed as the gospel does? If you have it, Jesus died for your sin. Jesus Was buried and then he rose again. And if Jesus died to take away sin, he had to then rise to show that the effect of sin was defeated. And that's why he rose again, because all who sin die. The wages of sin is death, but Jesus rose victorious. Death no longer has to be the end of your story. Eternal life can be it by trusting in the Savior who died in your place on the cross. Number two, how am I being reminded of the resurrection? Paul was a grace in the life of the Corinthians to serve them and reminding them of the gospel. Who in your life serves you in that way? What church do you go to? What group do you run with that reminds you regularly? Look again, Jesus died and he rose. Jesus died and he rose. It must, it's gonna be fine. Hope's gonna it's rough. Life may be tough, but in the end, Christ wins. He is the conqueror, he is the victor. The gospel needs to come to bear on our lives regularly. How am I being reminded of the resurrection? And then lastly, who needs me to share this gospel with them? No recipients here. We're conduits. We don't hide the jewel of his grace. We spread it, we share it, and we tell others about it. Because remembering the reality of the resurrection of Christ stabilizes a believer's hope. Amen? All right, we did it. Let's pray. Thank you, Father, for giving us the truth that Paul lays for us on these pages. Ah, there's hope. There's forgiveness. There's salvation. There's eternal security. There's a future resurrection, all that we can have confidence of because Jesus rose again. Thank you. And as we finish our service together singing about that, be glorified in it. We love you in Jesus' name. Amen.