Easter
1
Cor 15:1-11
3/31/24
If
you were going to create a religion that you wanted to spread in the first
century world, Christianity would be the worst possible idea you could suggest. Let’s start with the events of Good
Friday. On Good Friday, Jesus Christ was
crucified by the Romans.
Now
the apostle Paul was clear that this was the heart of the Christian
message. He said earlier in this letter,
“For I decided to know nothing among
you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” Jesus was a Jew who had died as a criminal at
the hands of the Romans. Not only had he
died – he had been crucified. He
had been subjected to the most humiliating form of execution in the ancient
world. Completely powerless, he had been put on display as he died a slow and
agonizing death. Crucifixion was
considered such a terrible thing that it wasn’t spoken about in polite society.
The claim of Christianity was that
“Jesus is Lord.” Not surprisingly, this claim met with rejection and outright
scorn. Paul says in this letter, “For Jews
demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a
stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called,
both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.”
Greeks considered it to be folly – to be moronic. A crucified Jew as Lord was simply
absurd. Jews considered it to be a
stumbling block – a scandal.
Christianity preached a crucified Christ. Yet Judaism believed that the Christ was
mighty, powerful, and victorious. The
death of Jesus was the ultimate proof that he was not the Christ. It
demonstrated that he was in fact a false messiah rejected by God. In fact, hung on a tree, one could conclude
that he had been cursed by God.
And then Christianity proclaimed that Jesus Christ had
risen from the dead. This was the
central event that vindicated Jesus’ and his death. It meant that Jesus was the living Lord who
had been exalted to God’s right hand and would return to carry out the final
judgment on the Last Day.
The problem was that resurrection of the body was something
that only made sense to Judaism. In the
Gentile world – for the majority of people with whom Christians would interact
– the idea of the resurrection was absurd.
The physical body was considered a bad thing. It was described as a prison that a person’s
soul needed to escape. The last thing Gentiles wanted or believed in was
a resurrection of the body. When Paul
preached at the Areopagus in Athens, he was mocked when he mentioned the
resurrection.
Yet in spite of these obvious challenges, Christians
proclaimed the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We see this in our text this morning as Paul
deals with the Corinthians. We have our
text because the apostle was addressing yet another of the problems at Corinth.
Just after our text Paul asks, “Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised
from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of
the dead?” The Corinthians had been
influenced by their own cultural setting which rejected a physical
resurrection. They seem to have concluded that they had already experienced the
victory in Christ – one that was purely spiritual. Earlier in this letter Paul said to them
ironically: “Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich!
Without us you have become kings! And would that you did reign, so that we
might share the rule with you!”
In our text Paul returns the
Corinthians to the Gospel. He says, “Now I would
remind you, 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 preached
to you--unless you believed in vain.”
The apostle sets forth a contrast.
If they hold fast to the word he preached, then they are being
saved. If they don’t, then their initial
faith meant nothing. They are lost.
Paul begins by taking the Corinthians
back to the basics. He says, “For I delivered to you as of
first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our
sins in accordance with the Scriptures.”
Paul takes them back to what had been handed on by the apostles – the
tradition of the Church.
The starting
point was that Christ had died, and that he had died for a reason. He had died for our sins in accordance with
the Scriptures. The apostle tells us
that sin is the fundamental problem that confronts all people. We were created in the image of God in order
to live in fellowship with God. But
since the entrance of sin through Adam, this fellowship had been
destroyed. Paul told the Romans, “For there is no distinction: for all have
sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
Instead of fellowship with God, our sin brings God’s judgment. It brings physical death. And it brings the
eternal spiritual death of damnation.
However,
in the fullness of time, God had sent his Son into the world. Conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the
virgin Mary he was true God and true man here with us. God sent him to fulfill the Scriptures which
described the answer to sin. Jesus had
died on the cross as the fulfillment of Isaiah’s words about the suffering
Servant: “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.”
Jesus had taken our sins, and received
God’s punishment for them in our place.
Isaiah said, “But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed
for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us
peace, and with his stripes we are healed.” Paul summarized it this way: “For our sake he made him to be
sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness
of God.”
Yet if Jesus had only died, that would
have been the end of it. He would have been no different than Simon bar Kokhba.
Simon was a messiah figure who lead a revolt against Rome during the period of
132-135 A.D. In the end, the Romans
killed him. And that was that. You’ve probably never heard of Simon bar
Kokhba. He had no followers that
continued to proclaim him – who worshipped him.
He didn’t because he was dead – a false messiah who had led many people
to their own deaths.
But things were very different with
Jesus. Yes, he had died on the cross. Yet in our text Paul goes on to state how
he delivered to them … “that
he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with
the Scriptures, and that he
appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.”
Jesus Christ did not remain dead. Instead, on the third day he rose from the
dead. Paul goes on to provide a whole
list of witnesses who saw the risen Lord.
First there was Peter, and then the reset of twelve apostles. Then Jesus
had appeared to more than five hundred people at one time. Most of those people were still alive and could
confirm the experience. Then Jesus
appeared to his brother James, who had not been a believer during Jesus’
ministry. Then he had appeared to all
the apostles – all the believers who saw him and became witnesses. Finally, he had appeared to Paul himself.
The resurrection of Jesus had changed
everything. It showed that Jesus’ death
was not a failure. Instead, it was God’s
great action to forgive sin. The
resurrection showed that Jesus was the living Lord over all. And his
resurrection was the beginning of the resurrection of the Last Day – the Last
Day had started on Easter.
Jesus’ resurrection had changed
everything, and it meant everything.
Right after our text, Paul lays out the implications of Jesus’
resurrection. He says, “And if Christ has not been raised,
then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.” He says, “And if Christ has not been raised,
your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.” Finally he says, “If in Christ we have
hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.”
Paul is brutally clear about the
implications if Jesus Christ has not risen from the dead. All of this –
everything we do in the Church - is completely pointless. Yet in response to
this thought Paul declares: “But in fact Christ has been raised from the
dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.”
Paul and the apostles went forth to
proclaim a message that sounded like it was guaranteed to fail. They proclaimed
Christ crucified. They proclaimed the
resurrection of Christ, and the resurrection of the body. They proclaimed a message that they knew
would be rejected as absurd, moronic folly.
They struggled, and suffered, and died in order to proclaim this message
throughout the Mediterranean world.
They did this because they had met
the risen Lord Jesus. He had changed
everything for them. They now understood
that because of Jesus’ death they had forgiveness and peace with God. They also understood that Jesus’ resurrection
was the defeat of death and beginning of their own resurrection.
Paul says, “For
as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of
the dead. For as
in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. Adam’s sin had brought death to all
people. Jesus Christ is the second Adam
whose resurrection begins the resurrection for those who believe in Christ. The apostle adds, “But each in his own order:
Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to
Christ.”
Through
faith in the crucified Lord we have been justified. We are forgiven and know that the verdict of
the Last Day will be “not guilty.” Because of this we have peace. Paul told the Romans, “Therefore, since we have been
justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus
Christ.”
Because Jesus Christ has risen from
the dead, we know that death has been defeated.
Death cannot end our life with Christ.
Paul told the Philippians about death, “My desire is to depart
and be with Christ, for that is far better.” And in Christ’ resurrection at Easter we find
the model and pattern of what our resurrection will be like. Paul said that “we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,
who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious
body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to
himself.”
The Gospel is very simple. Paul tells us 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. Yet in this simple truth we receive
forgiveness, peace with God, and the defeat of death. We receive comfort in the present, and hope
for the future that carries us on through difficulties. By this we are being
saved, if we hold fast to God’s word that has been preached to us.
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