SERIES: Christ Is the Answer When the Church Is in Crisis
What Difference Does It Make?
SCRIPTURE: 1 Corinthians 15:1‑11
Introduction: Yesterday we received a letter from some close college friends of ours who spent three terms as missionaries to France. Diane wrote,
“My brother Keith died on November 3 in Cape Coral, FL. I want to share an account of something wonderful that happened the night of Keith’s death. Around 3 A.M. his wife Linda, my sister Gail, and my brother Craig, were all gathered around Keith’s bed as he lay dying. He was sleeping when he suddenly opened his eyes and began speaking. Much of what he said they could not understand, but they did understand him to say, ‘Hi, guys. So this is it. Wow! Hello, everyone.’ He talked on for about 45 minutes, but the family knew he didn’t see them or even know they were there. The radiant smile on Keith’s face let them know that he was experiencing something glorious. We miss him so much but can’t help but be happy for him and eager to know what he knows and be where he is when our time comes. What a blessed hope we have in Christ!”
Friends, that sort of experience is not unique. God has often given His children previews, while on their deathbeds, of their glorious reunion with loved ones. The reality is that those who have put their faith in Jesus Christ have a wonderful future after death. Of course, accounts of a bright light and feelings of peace have been reported also by unbelievers who have had near-death experiences. I am personally convinced that the best explanation is that the Evil One is active imitating the experiences of believers, trying to convince those who don’t know Christ that they, too, have nothing to fear after death, when they actually have a great deal to fear.
You know, if everyone, believer and unbeliever alike, could see what awaits us just five minutes after death, I suspect we would not only see a huge flood of unbelievers converting to faith in Christ, but I suspect we would see countless professing Christians experiencing a dramatic change in priorities, lifestyles, attitudes, and commitment. Do we really believe what the Bible tells us about life after death, and if so, has it impacted our lives?
The fifteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians is known as “The Great Resurrection Chapter” of the Bible. Just last Easter I preached from the first eleven verses of this chapter, the same text I am using today. But at that time I focused on the evidence for the resurrection of Christ; today I want to consider principally the impact of the resurrection of Christ on the Apostle Paul, and by extension on each of us. Thus, my title, “What Difference Does It Make?” What real difference does it make whether Jesus rose bodily from the dead?
It is important, however, to realize that this chapter is principally a treatise on the believer’s resurrection, rather than on the resurrection of Christ. Clearly there were some in the Corinthian church who doubted whether dead bodies have any future. In verse 12 he asks, “How can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?” He’s not talking to pagans here–he’s speaking to professing Christians, church members. They evidently believed in the immortality of the soul but had bought into the popular Greek view that once a person takes his last breath, it was curtains for the physical body.
Not so, says Paul, and he argues in great detail from Scripture and from reason that there is a future for our physical bodies, as well as for our souls. But before he can adequately defend the believer’s resurrection, he has to deal with Christ’s resurrection, for His paved the way for ours.
Follow with me as I read the first eleven verses of the fifteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians. I’m going to read from Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase, The Message. You can follow along in your Bible, or you can just listen.
“Friends, let me go over the Message with you one final time–this Message that I proclaimed and that you made your own; this Message on which you took your stand and by which your life has been saved. (I’m assuming, now, that your belief was the real thing and not a passing fancy, that you’re in this for good and holding fast.)
The first thing I did was place before you what was placed so emphatically before me: that the Messiah died for our sins, exactly as Scripture tells it; that he was buried; that he was raised from death on the third day, again exactly as Scripture says; that he presented himself alive to Peter, then to his closest followers, and later to more than five hundred of his followers all at the same time, most of them still around (although a few have since died); that he then spent time with James and the rest of those he commissioned to represent him; and that he finally presented himself alive to me. It was fitting that I bring up the rear. I don’t deserve to be included in that inner circle, as you well know, having spent all those early years trying my best to stamp God’s church right out of existence.
But because God was so gracious, so very generous, here I am. And I’m not about to let his grace go to waste. Haven’t I worked hard trying to do more than any of the others? Even then my work didn’t amount to all that much. It was God giving me the work to do, God giving me the energy to do it. So whether you heard it from me or from those others, it’s all the same: We spoke God’s truth and you entrusted your lives.”
What difference does it make whether Jesus rose from the dead? That’s the question we want to ask and answer from these first 11 verses.
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is an absolutely essential part of the Gospel.
I catch a hint of rebuke in Paul’s voice as he begins (verse 1): “Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the Gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved.” This is certainly not the first time they had heard this truth–they are having to be reminded of something they have forgotten. It’s as though a father is sitting down with his son and saying, “Now I want to go over your responsibilities around the house one more time….”
The fundamental issue he reminds them of is the Gospel. Gospel means “good news,” i.e., the good news about how sinful people can get rid of their guilt and find the power to live godly lives in the middle of a society that seems to be getting more godless all the time. That’s news worth sharing and news worth believing, because when you embrace this Good News, it will make an eternal difference.
I want to ask and answer four questions from this first paragraph:
1. How does the Gospel accomplish its work? Four steps are mentioned: (1) “I preached it,” (2) “you received it,” (3) “you have taken your stand on it,” and (4) “you are saved by it.” If it weren’t for the preaching or sharing of the Gospel, no one would receive it; if people don’t receive it, they obviously cannot stand on it, i.e., make it their foundation for faith and practice; and if they don’t stand on it, they cannot be saved by it. And if people are not saved by the Gospel of Jesus Christ, they are not saved at all.
Perhaps the term “saved” is a fuzzy one for you. To be “saved” really means “to be found and rescued.” That implies that people are lost, and the picture the Bible paints is that we have indeed lost our way spiritually. We are broken–emotionally, psychologically, and relationally–and like Humpty Dumpty, we can’t be put back together again, at least without God’s help. But God has offered the help we need in His Son, Jesus. He came to find us, rescue us, and heal our broken lives.[i] And if we put our faith in Jesus, He has promised to let us live with Him for all of eternity.
2. What is the content of the Gospel? Verse 3 tells us, “For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.” That, friends, is the Gospel in a nutshell. If you want to share good news with someone, tell that person that Jesus died for his sins, that He really died, but that He actually rose from the dead. If a person believes that with his whole heart, he is a Christian, a member of God’s family; if he does not, he is not a Christian, no matter what else he may believe or how he may live. We don’t have the right to change the Gospel or to make up our own, though many have tried. This is the Good News.
3. Where did the Gospel come from? Paul clearly states he didn’t originate the Gospel; rather he received it from God and then delivered it to us. It is God’s Gospel, not ours. No human being would have ever devised a plan of salvation like this one, for human religion always tries to obtain salvation the old-fashioned way–to earn it. But the Good News of the Christian Gospel is that salvation is a free gift–costly to Christ but free to us.
4. How important is the Gospel? Paul asserts that it is the most important thing he ever taught. Consider his statement in verse 3, “I passed on to you what was most important.” Of all the great truths he mentions in the dozen NT letters he wrote, Paul says this truth of the Gospel is the most important. Jesus died for our sins, was buried, and rose again. One can know everything else about theology and doctrine, but if he doesn’t have this straight, he’s just another lost sinner.
Of course, it is one thing for Paul to claim that Jesus rose from the dead; it is another for him to prove it. Some people are satisfied with a mere affirmation, but others want to know, “Why should I believe that such a unique event ever took place?” Gratefully, God does not demand that we believe this most phenomenal of all events just because it is an article of the Christian faith. He has provided us with sound evidence of its historic reality.
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is one of the best documented events of history.
The evidence lies in two particular areas.
The proof of the resurrection from Scripture. (3-4) I’m not going to dwell on this point because we examined it carefully in the Easter sermon last year, but I will summarize it this way: over and over again, either directly or indirectly, literally or in figures of speech, the OT Scriptures foretold Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection. This is really remarkable, because many of these prophecies were written five, ten, or even 15 centuries before the events of Passion Week. There is simply no human explanation for these supernatural predictions.
Of course, for centuries skeptics have claimed that the prophecies were made ex post facto, after the fact, i.e., they were written after the death and resurrection of Christ and then put into the book of Isaiah or Psalms or the Minor Prophets. That won’t work anymore, however, because the Dead Sea Scrolls proved once and for all that all those books predate the Christian era.
But in addition, we are offered another kind of proof which can’t be so easily dismissed by skeptics.
The proof of the resurrection from the testimony of eyewitnesses. (5‑8) This, too, I only mention in passing because of our extended treatment of it earlier. In verses 5‑8 we have recorded for us a number of post‑resurrection appearances of Christ. “He appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also.” And there are still other appearances which Paul does not mention, like Jesus’ appearance to various women and to the two Emmaus disciples, as recorded in Luke 24.
The point is that Jesus left no doubt about His resurrection, and the impact on His disciples was so great that they were changed almost instantaneously from a little band of sniveling cowards into a courageous company of spiritual soldiers that no persecution could silence. They, in turn, turned the spiritual world upside down in a short period of time.
Now in our third and last paragraph Paul tells us that …
The resurrection of Jesus Christ had an immeasurable impact on him. (9‑11)
The last eyewitness of the resurrected Christ mentioned in verse 8 was Paul himself. He saw the living Christ on the Damascus Road and that experience changed him completely, and for good. He never forgot it and never got over it. In verse 9 he says, “I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.”[ii] Here’s the amazing thing:
Though once the Church’s chief persecutor, Paul became her chief ambassador. Many of you know the story of the Damascus Road experience. It is first told in Acts 9, but I want us to hear it from Paul’s own lips, as told years later to the crowd when he was arrested on the steps of the temple in Jerusalem:
(Acts 22:3‑21) “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city. Under Gamaliel I was thoroughly trained in the law of our fathers and was just as zealous for God as any of you are today. I persecuted the followers of this Way to their death, arresting both men and women and throwing them into prison, as also the high priest and all the Council can testify. I even obtained letters from them to their brothers in Damascus, and went there to bring these people as prisoners to Jerusalem to be punished. About noon as I came near Damascus, suddenly a bright light from heaven flashed around me. I fell to the ground and heard a voice say to me, “Saul! Saul! Why do you persecute me?”
“Who are you, Lord?” I asked.
“I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. My companions saw the light, but they did not understand the voice of him who was speaking to me.
“What shall I do, Lord?” I asked.
“Get up,” the Lord said, “and go into Damascus. There you will be told all that you have been assigned to do.” My companions led me by the hand into Damascus, because the brilliance of the light had blinded me.
A man named Ananias came to see me. He was a devout observer of the law and highly respected by all the Jews living there. He stood beside me and said, “Brother Saul, receive your sight!” And at that very moment I was able to see him.
Then he said: “The God of our fathers has chosen you to know his will and to see the Righteous One and to hear words from his mouth. You will be his witness to all men of what you have seen and heard. And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name.”
When I returned to Jerusalem and was praying at the temple, I fell into a trance and saw the Lord speaking. “Quick!” he said to me. “Leave Jerusalem immediately, because they will not accept your testimony about me.”
“Lord,” I replied, “these men know that I went from one synagogue to another to imprison and beat those who believe in you. And when the blood of your martyr Stephen was shed, I stood there giving my approval and guarding the clothes of those who were killing him.”
Then the Lord said to me, “Go; I will send you far away to the Gentiles.”
Friends, there is only one possible explanation for the radical change that occurred in Paul and led to his becoming the greatest missionary and theologian of the Christian faith over the next 25 years, until he died a martyr’s death in Rome, and that is: the Jesus he knew had died in Jerusalem was now alive and well.
Of course, Paul never ceased to be amazed that, of all people, Christ would have called him to the high office of apostle. He not only considered himself to be the least of the apostles, but felt he was not even fit to be called an apostle, because he had persecuted the church, the church that belonged to God Himself. Now we need to balance this statement with the vigorous defense of his apostleship that Paul offered in several of his epistles. There were enemies of the Gospel who tried to undermine Paul’s theology by claiming he was not really an apostle; after all, he hadn’t walked with Jesus through Galilee and Judea, as had the other apostles.
In those situations Paul defended his apostleship and claimed to be the equal of the Twelve, not inferior to them. But when his theology was not being attacked and it was just Paul alone with his thoughts, he realized that he had a past like no other apostle. Therefore, he needed grace like no other apostle.
By the way, do you ever feel like you have a past like no one else, no other member, no other elder, no other deacon, no other Sunday School teacher? Do you ever feel like no one would want to listen to anything you had to say about your faith if they knew your past? Well, if that’s true, you also need grace, but thankfully that grace is available.
That brings us to the second immeasurable impact we see on Paul’s life.
Though Christianity’s hardest worker, he was her most humble recipient of God’s grace. In verse 10 Paul writes, “By the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace to me was not without effect.” Paul may have been a mess when Jesus found him, but He didn’t leave him that way. Paul became a godly man and a great ambassador for the Christian faith, but he never forgot how it happened–it was by the grace of God. He continues, “I worked harder than all of them, (i.e., the Twelve), yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.” No one worked as hard as Paul for the sake of the Gospel. The original text here should probably be understood in the sense, “I worked harder than all of them put together.”
When you look at this man’s life, his accomplishments are almost unimaginable. He took three missionary journeys that covered the bulk of the then-known world. He planted churches in many of the great cities of the Roman Empire. He wrote more of the Scripture than any other author. He refereed disputes between church leaders. He mentored and then appointed elders and deacons in the churches. He bore witness before the highest of government officials, including Caesar himself. And he did all that in a career that didn’t begin until he was probably in his late thirties and ended by martyrdom in his sixties! He worked 24/7, 52 weeks, year in and year out.
But then he doesn’t even take credit for his own hard work, for that, too, he acknowledges is due to the grace of God. It was God who gave him a good mind; it was God who taught him truth; it was God who gave him a functioning body; it was God who gave him energy. And the motivation all goes back to the resurrection. He saw Jesus alive after He was dead.
My final point this morning comes in the form of a question:
How has the resurrection of Jesus Christ changed your life?
I don’t want you to think this morning that if you aren’t doing what Paul did, you are a sorry phony only paying lip service to the resurrection. Paul was unique. Paul worked harder than the Twelve Apostles put together, and I’d be overjoyed if I could just measure up to just Bartholomew or Thomas. Nevertheless, the risen Christ must make a difference in our lives. Does He?
Well, He certainly does in our funerals. We had a memorial service here two weeks ago for a dear lady named Glo. And did she ever glow–in life and in death. That service was a celebration. Her husband and both her children praised her, and the congregation rejoiced in knowing her. There were a few tears, but I think most were tears of joy. Friend, if you want to know the difference the resurrection makes, go to the funeral of an unbeliever and see the despair and hopelessness. But when the body of a believer is placed in the ground, the confidence of fellow-believers is that this is just a temporary resting place, and the difference shows!
The resurrection also makes a difference in our giving. What would be the point of giving 10% or 15% or even more, as some believers do, of their income to the spread of the Gospel if there is no resurrection? There are lots better things one could do with that money. Frankly, I don’t think it’s an accident that immediately after this Great Resurrection Chapter, the very first thing Paul says (1 Cor. 16:1) is, “Now about the collection for God’s people…,” and he starts discussing financial stewardship.
And the resurrection makes a difference in our serving. Those who have really grasped the glorious future that is theirs through Christ don’t have to be bullied into serving or even coaxed; on the contrary, they usually have to be told to slow down! And what about our priorities, and our goals, and our attitudes? In fact, there is hardly an aspect of our lives that isn’t impacted by the strong confidence that Jesus rose from the dead and will someday raise us from the dead.
On the other hand, when one sees professing Christians living no differently than their unbelieving neighbors, divorcing at the same rate, engaging in the same entertainment, just as concerned about getting rich and collecting more toys, paying only lip service to their faith—one cannot help but wonder if they understand anything about the power of the resurrection.
Let me close with some words from the Apostle Paul that come from his second letter to the Corinthians, chapter 4. Paul shares some of the tough struggles and persecution he faced as an ambassador for Jesus, but he makes it clear he isn’t about to quit sharing the Gospel. Listen to his words, again from The Message (2 Cor. 4:13-18):
“We’re not keeping this quiet, not on your life. Just like the psalmist who wrote, ‘I believed it, so I said it,’ we say what we believe. And what we believe is that the One who raised up the Master Jesus will just as certainly raise us up with you, alive….
So we’re not giving up. How could we! Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without his unfolding grace. These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us. There’s far more here than meets the eye. The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow. But the things we can’t see now will last forever.”
Friends, remember that–when you sit next to the death bed of a loved one, or when you lose your job, or when some other crisis faces you. “These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us.” All because Jesus died for our sins, was buried, was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and will one day raise us up to spend eternity with Him. That’s really good news!
DATE: January 27, 2002
Tags:
Resurrection
Gospel
[i]. Sadly, some who think they have received the Gospel, really haven’t. And that is why Paul adds in verse 2 the condition, “if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.” Believing the Gospel is not just an intellectual decision or an emotional feeling. Believing the Gospel is a matter of holding fast to the truth that Jesus died for our sins, was buried and rose again.
Sometimes we put so much stress upon the “security of the believer,” (and that is a precious truth which I believe with all my heart), that we forget the believer is defined by God as the one who holds fast to the truth. We simply must be honest and acknowledge that it is possible that some have “believed in vain.” Verse 2 says so. They may have believed the facts but never allowed the facts to penetrate their hearts so as to produce a change of life. In John 6:66, following Jesus’ great discourse on the bread of life we are told, “As a result of this, many of His disciples withdrew, and were not walking with Him anymore.” Were these genuine Christians? I think not, yet earlier they were said to have believed. Clearly, simply believing facts intellectually never saved anyone.
Our Lord repeatedly spoke of sham believers who had useless, non‑saving faith. The parable of the sower tells us that some of the seeds of the gospel fall on shallow or weedy soil, and that weeds often look like wheat, but are not. Jesus spoke of many kinds of fish being caught in the same net, with the good being kept and the bad being thrown away. He spoke of houses without foundations, virgins without oil for their lamps, and servants who wasted their talents and so were “cast out.” He warned of gates and paths that seem right, but that lead to destruction. And, most disturbingly, He claimed, “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me.’” (Some of these thoughts borrowed from John MacArthur, First Corinthians, 400).
[ii]. In verse 8 Paul also refers to himself as “one abnormally born.” The Greek term here is the word for a miscarriage or an abortion. He says, in effect, “I was like an abortion because of the violent and unnatural way I was brought into the world of faith.” You see, the Lord’s appearance to Paul was not only post‑resurrection but also post‑ascension. In fact, Jesus didn’t appear to Paul until several years after the events of Passion week. All the others to whom Christ appeared were believers, with the possible exception of James, who was at worst uncommitted, whereas Paul was a violent, hateful unbeliever.