You can turn in your Bibles to the book of 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians. This morning we began a two-week investigation into the stuff of Acts 17 and Paul's proclamation there at Athens. One of the comments that is made or one of the statements that Luke observes there and then interprets or expands upon in Acts 17 verse 18 is that the Epicureans and the Stoics, in calling Paul an idle babbler, a seed picker, they insult him. And then there's something of a note there with respect to the proclamation of foreign gods and the fact that Luke interprets that as their response to Paul preaching Jesus and the resurrection.
And so we probably don't need to ask, what does that mean, Jesus and the resurrection? Hopefully we know what that means, but to investigate something of what we have there in that language, Jesus and the resurrection, what did that mean? What did that contain? What does that shorthand, if you will, for the gospel's proclamation and the content of it mean?
We can turn to 1 Corinthians 15 and we do find that. What was the content of Paul's proclamation when he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection to the Athenians? Well, it's the same stuff that one chapter later in Acts 18 he would have proclaimed to the Corinthians. And here he reminds that same audience, the Corinthian churches, of what Jesus and the resurrection is and why it is so absolutely vital for the life and the heartbeat of Christianity. 1 Corinthians 15, I'll read from verse 1 to verse 20a.
This is 1 Corinthians 15, beginning in verse 1. I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the Twelve. After that, he was seen by over 500 brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep.
After that, he was seen by James, then by all the apostles. Then last of all, he was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time. For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy 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 toward me was not in vain. But I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. Therefore, whether it was I or they, so we preach, and so you believed. Now, if Christ is preached that he has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?
But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty, and your faith is also empty. Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up, if in fact the dead do not rise. For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen.
And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile, you are still in your sins. then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.
The Glorious 'But Now' of Resurrection
But now Christ is risen from the dead and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. Amen. Well, let's go again to God in prayer. Heavenly Father, we rejoice now again that a second time we can gather in this place for the worship of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
We do pray again that you would bless us, that you would help us now as we seek to be informed, to be encouraged, to be roused in the things of the Scriptures. We would pray for that measure of the Spirit to help us in these things, that we might be all the more informed and built up in our faith with respect to a knowledge of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, and Lord, that you would cause us to leave this place living for His glory's sake. We thank you again for the many blessings over the past week, for strengthening those who were unwell, Good news with regards to doctors. We thank you for the news regarding John Kroll and this good news regarding his kidney.
We do just pray that you'd watch over him, that you would guard him, and that you would just keep good things coming to light with respect to his health. And each and every one that has been troubled and afflicted, that you would strengthen, that you would bless, that you would heal. And Lord, in the midst of the failing of physical bodies, we pray that you would uplift your saints and cause them to rejoice in the high things of gospel truth. We pray in the name of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen.
Introduction
Well, in 1 Corinthians 15, hopefully we have obviously a passage that is very familiar to you. Here we have the Apostle Paul defending the blessed content of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now, what's going on in the first letter to the Corinthians is that there are a number of issues. You know, the Corinthians are a growing church.
They're a church that is in need of the sanctifying and guiding power of the Holy Spirit. There's a sectarian spirit. There's sexual immorality. There's horrible conduct at the Lord's Supper.
There's an abuse of the revelatory gifts. There's so much going on. And at every point, the Apostle Paul is answering these issues, answering these problems with with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, with His cross, with His resurrection, with the glory of an incarnate Mediator and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And here in chapter 15, what the problem is is that there are some, and in fact, if we wanted to see what the problem is in 1 Corinthians 15, verse 12 gives us the problem.
Verse 12 is, now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? There's a measure of marvel here. The same sort of marvel that we might have in Galatians where Paul marvels that the Galatians are so quickly turning from the Gospel of Grace to another Gospel which is no Gospel at all. Well, it's a similar marveling here.
How does some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? If Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, why are you entertaining any sort of madness? And so that is why we have 1 Corinthians 15 in our Bibles, because some were teaching, some were being taught, and some were being carried off to entertain that there is no resurrection from the dead. And so we want to see here that when we see the Gospel, being referred to here.
Keep in mind the Jesus and the Resurrection language that we talked about this morning from Acts 17. What is, when we read that Luke narrating, commenting on this either misunderstanding or false accusation that Paul was preaching foreign gods, plural, what does it mean when he says, because Paul was preaching Jesus and the Resurrection? Well, we can draw an equal sign between the Gospel and Jesus and the resurrection.
The Gospel's Comprehensive Reality
We want to look at four things from this passage this evening. And the first, we'll give them to you as we move along, but the first thing we want to observe here is the comprehensive reality of the Gospel for all of Christian life. In verses 1-2 of 1 Corinthians 15, that's exactly what we have. The comprehensive reality of the Gospel for all of Christian life.
Notice, first of all, we see that in that the Gospel is that which is preached or proclaimed.
Gospel Is Proclaimed and Received
Moreover, brethren, verse 1, I declare to you the Gospel which I preached to you. As we move through these things, you'll see that at every single point, the Gospel is in view with all of these various things that touch upon it. It is the fact that the Gospel is front and center with respect to all things in Christian life. Christianity is no Christianity at all unless the Gospel is at every part and parcel therein.
Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preach to you. It is that which is preached. The gospel is the proclamation which comes to the ears of those in the context of that proclamation. We're just moving quickly. through some of these things because we want to get to some of the heart of the matter in the following verses.
But secondly, it is that which is believed in. So the gospel is that which is preached. That's the language that we have here. I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you.
And then secondly, it is that which is believed in, which also you received. You see, as he builds these clauses upon clauses, these phrases upon phrases, hopefully it brings to view this reality, the comprehensive nature of the gospel. First it's proclaimed, and then it's received. Now, before we look at the next three, basically this is what Paul is doing.
Paul is drawing them back to reflect upon their conversion and their abiding in the truth, in order to bring out the absolute folly of departing from this Gospel that was proclaimed, that was received, et cetera. So that when he gets to verse 12 and he says, he writes, how do some among you say there is no resurrection of the dead? How could you do that? How could you reject that truth?
How could you do that in light of all of these things that constitute the comprehensive reality of the Gospel for all of Christian life? So it is preached, it is that which is believed in, and
Gospel Is the Ground of Our Endurance
it is that in which we endure. Notice, the gospel which I preach to you, which also you received, and in which you stand. Our endurance in the Christian life hinges upon the gospel of Jesus Christ. You see, it isn't the case that the gospel is just that which is proclaimed and received and then Done, we move on to other things in the Christian life.
No, it is proclaimed, it is preached, it is received, that is, it is believed in, and it is that in which we endure, it's that by which we stand as Christians. Each and every breath we draw as Christians, we breathe gospel truth, gospel efficacy, gospel perfection. And when I say breathe, I mean the spiritual breath, if you will. Breath as it is, a metaphor for our Christian life.
Every step we take, every breath we breathe, we are breathing so by virtue of the Gospel. It isn't just delivered and then rested upon and then set aside, but rather, we endure in it.
Gospel Is That by Which We Are Saved
Fourthly, under the comprehensive reality of the gospel for all Christian life, it is that by which we are saved. Notice again the language progressing, which I preach to you, which also you received, and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preach to you, unless you believed in vain. So the Gospel is from first to last in the Christian life. It's at first proclaimed.
At some point in our lives, the Gospel was delivered to us. Now our conversion story may not be this amazing day where we can remember where the The veil was open and the light shone through and angels were playing and all those sorts of things. We can remember the day, the hour, the minute. No, but at some point in the history of our lives on God's good earth, we heard the gospel.
It was delivered to us. It was proclaimed to us. It was preached to us. At some point, by the grace of God, we received that proclaimed Gospel.
We received the truth as it had been preached or delivered to us. And it didn't stop there, but we have, up until this very night in Chilliwack, we have stood by it. We have endured in it. And it is at the last, and finally by that gospel, that we will be saved.
Now, this language here, by which also you are saved, salvation can have the three tenses applied to it. We are saved, that is past tense, we have been saved. And we don't suffer the loss, by God's grace, we don't suffer the loss of departing or being cast away from that salvation. We have been saved, and the Sovereign Christ, just like the Sovereign Father, holds us in the grip of His palm until that great day.
So we have been saved, past tense. We are being saved is a language that the Scriptures use as well. Not that we constantly are being saved, we fall away from that salvation, we need to be plopped back in, but we have the reality of progressive sanctification that we are being saved, we're being by God's grace, we grow in the grace and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ the Lord, unto that day of our final salvation, if you will, the future reality that we will be saved. The day of our future redemption is the language in Ephesians chapter 1.
And so there is past, present, and future tense with respect to salvation. And so we sort of have that in view here. By the gospel, you are saved if you hold fast that word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. Now that language at the end of verse 2 is not what we might call prescriptive for salvation.
In other words, it isn't by our holding fast that we are saved. but rather the proof, the testification of the veracity of our salvation is seen in that we hold fast and we are not believing in vain, but rather we are believing in faithfulness and in truth. So the comprehensive reality of the gospel for all of Christianity, what does this bring in view but the importance of the continual proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ? That's why in churches we continue to preach from 1 Corinthians 15, John 3.16, 1 Timothy 1.15, where we preach from those places in the scripture where the gospel is simple, where the gospel is clear, where the gospel is set forth. It's because we live and breathe by the gospel.
We don't believe it and then move on to an in-depth eschatology chart about what the trumpets of Revelation mean and we cast off the stuff of Christ's life, death, resurrection and ascension. No, we live and we breathe and we take our Christian steps by virtue of the gospel which is comprehensive. for the entirety of our Christian life. That's why we should never thumb our nose, or I don't even really know what that looks like. I know it's an idiom to thumb our nose at the gospel.
Maybe someone can show me afterwards. We never roll our eyes at the preaching of the gospel. Why? Because it is the Christian breath that we breathe.
That Savior, bruised, battered, beaten, bloodied upon Calvary's cross, but risen victoriously the third day, ascended to the right hand of the majesty on high, the blessed content of the gospel is the air that we breathe as Christians. And so whenever it is proclaimed, whenever it is preached, and it always ought to be, I think it's Spurgeon who said something like, any sermon or any preacher that does not preach Christ in every sermon is not worth his weight, or whatever Spurgeon said, something like that. There are sermons that a preacher might preach or sections of the Bible that a preacher might preach that directly in view or that on the face of it explicitly may not be the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm going to qualify this statement in a moment, but if you look at the book of Esther, just by a reading of the book of Esther, one might say, well, where is Christ there?
And so, in a preaching of Esther, how do you work in the Gospel of Christ? Well, you would exegete the book of Esther, and as you move along, you would always bring to bear upon the audience that Esther really is pointing us to Christ, and it has a Christward trajectory because God in His providential care, even through the motions and the movements of a pagan empire is protecting that national body from which the Savior would spring so that in the fullness of the times he might be brought forth to redeem guilty sinners. So you see, the gospel is to be preached. We are to have Christ set forth at every proclamation of the Word of God.
Certainty of the Gospel's Events
Secondly then, the certainty of the events of the gospel. I want you to observe that. So if in the first place we had the comprehensive reality of the gospel for all of Christian life in verses 1 and 2, well then in verses 3 to 8, we have the certainty of the events of the gospel. Now here Paul is continuing to stress the importance or to pack in the weight of evidence to inform this statement, this marveling in v. 12, where he says, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?
That is marvelous. Not in a good way, but in a bad way. I marvel that you are entertaining such a thing. Why?
Because v. 3-8, the certainty of the events of the Gospel. Now notice first, under this head,
The Primacy of the Gospel
notice the primacy of the Gospel for Christianity. The primacy of the Gospel for Christianity. It's given in this introductory statement, if you will, in verse 3. For I delivered to you, first of all, that which I also received.
Now, you may have heard this before, but Paul isn't saying that that's the first thing that he delivered to them chronologically. He's not speaking in chronological terms when he says, for I deliver to you first of all that which I also receive. The language is, for I deliver to you of first importance that which I also receive. That is the language here.
He's highlighting, he's bolding, he is underlining the reality of the primacy of the Gospel in the Christian life. I deliver to you of the utmost and the first importance that which I also receive. And you know, this is brought into view in other letters. We reference the Galatians.
You can turn to the book of Galatians for a moment. Just to see this reality. We have the primacy of the Gospel for Christianity, that it is the matter of first importance. Notice in Galatians 1, and this is what I was just referring to with the language of marveling, Galatians 1 at verse 6.
Now, this comes after he has rehearsed the gospel of Jesus Christ as that which delivers us from our sins and from this present evil age according to the will of God the Father. Now notice verse 6. that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ to a different gospel, which is not another. But there are some who trouble you who want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed.
As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches to you any other gospel or preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed. You see, the importance of the Gospel comes right out of the gate. As the Apostle Paul is penning this letter to the Galatians, he marvels that they're so soon turning away from the grace of Christ to a different Gospel, which is no Gospel at all. And then he pronounces anathemas, you know, curses, devoting to destruction anyone who would preach another Gospel that is not the true and saving Gospel of Christ.
The importance is clear there. This is the stuff of first things. This is the stuff of delivering of first importance matters of the Christian religion. Notice as well in Galatians 3 v. 1, O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified?
Hopefully you see the importance and the weight of the gospel there. Oh foolish Galatians, first of all, for departing from the true and saving gospel, or entertaining a departure from it. Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth? And notice this interesting language.
Before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified. It's interesting language because obviously Jesus Christ was not portrayed before the Galatians as crucified. That is, they didn't witness the crucifixion with the eyes of sight. Paul is using this language of the proclamation of the Gospel, that the proclamation of the Gospel is so powerful, it is so effectual, it is so important to our point right now, that it is as if Jesus Christ is crucified before our very eyes when the Gospel of Jesus Christ is proclaimed.
See, this is why Calvin could see in the Lord's Supper an argument for a Galatians 3 type of reality. We shouldn't thumb our nose and roll our eyes and neglect or slight the Lord's Supper. Why? Because it is as if Jesus Christ is clearly portrayed among us as crucified.
We have a living symbol of the death of Christ set before us at the table of the Lord. and it is of the utmost importance. Not because of the bread and the wine, but because of what they are emblematic of, because of what they symbolize, the gospel of Jesus Christ. So Paul writes, I deliver to you first of all that which I also receive, that is, that which is of first importance. Notice secondly then, the certainty of the events of the gospel.
Secondly, under this head,
Biblical Testimony to the Gospel
notice the biblical testimony to the events of the gospel. Where does Paul go first? Where does Paul go first in order to argue for the veracity that simply means the certain truth of a thing? Where does he go to argue for the veracity of the events of the Gospel?
Notice he goes to the Scriptures. Not only do we have that, where he goes to argue for the certain truthfulness of the events, but we see those events as the content of the Gospel brought out. Notice the language in verse 3. That Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.
So you see, the certainty of the events of the gospel are brought out by the Apostle Paul here by virtue of, or with respect to, the biblical testimony, the scriptural witness to those events. And you know what he's doing here? Now it's easy for us to say, of course. Of course Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. was buried and he rose again the third day according to the scriptures because, you know, we have Matthew through Revelation and it clearly says that.
Of course, Paul, why are you being so obvious? Remember, Paul didn't have, they didn't have, the Corinthians did not have a completed New Testament canon. He's going back to, and He's pointing them to, He's calling into evidence the Old Testament Scriptures. The Old Testament.
In the Old Testament, we have Christ proclaimed as the One who would give His life for guilty sinners, the One who would be buried, and the One who would rise again. Paul is going to the Word of God in order to show forth the veracity, the certain historical truth with regards to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Now, you know what that Gospel is. Paul gives us what the Gospel, a definition of the Gospel here.
That Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures. If anyone asks you what is the Gospel, that is the Gospel right there. That blessed historical truth that in the fullness of the times God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who are under the law, and the content of that redemption is seen in the historical events of His death, His burial, and His resurrection, and it is efficacious and perfect and glorious for all who believe in His name. Paul goes to the Scriptures, to the Word of God.
You know, that is among many other applications that brings forth the importance, the absolute importance of the Word of God. Yes, the light of nature shows that there is a God who is to be trusted, worshipped, fallen down before and gloried in. But you see, without the Holy Scriptures, we don't know, we don't have the information on the God that we are to worship, how we are to worship Him, and how we are to approach Him. We only have that in the Scriptures.
We have that in the Scriptures as it sets out for us that special revelatory content wherein the Gospel of Jesus Christ is promised in the Old Covenant, executed in the New Covenant, and exegeted and opened up and theologically commented on in the New Testament so that we can, as Christians, avail of the glorious simplicity and the majesty of God's plan of redemption in Jesus Christ the Lord. The scriptures are absolutely vital. I noted this morning for anyone who is here, and if you remember, I made a note that the Epicureans were like deists, the deists of the 17th century, and that our Baptist forefathers added a chapter in our confession that the Presbyterians didn't have and that the Congregationalists didn't have. And what it argues for is the absolute necessity of the Scriptures to bring a man, a woman, a boy or a girl to salvation in Jesus Christ.
You see, because the deists said that one can be saved simply by our knowledge of God revealing himself in creation. We do not need the aid of special revelation. And so our Baptist forefathers said, of course, no. I am the way, the truth, and the life, Jesus Christ proclaimed before a listening audience.
Peter, contending with the Jews in his day in Jerusalem, said that salvation is in no other than that name given in the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no other name under heaven given by which we might be saved. Save for Jesus Christ the Lord. The scriptures come to us with the sweetness of the gospel and they disclose the glory of Christ in giving himself in his death and in his burial and in power and in great victory, rising again the third day that all who believe in him might not perish but have everlasting life.
Have you ever thought, and hopefully you have, okay, so in the Old Testament, Where do we go to see Christ? Christ would probably say to the law, to the prophets, and to the psalms, so the entirety of the Old Testament. But there are some verses, aren't there, that specifically speak with a clarity, with respect to a direct and explicit promise of one who would come to give his life for guilty sinners and to rise again the third day. You can investigate many of those on your own time, but they begin right at the outset of Revelation in Genesis 3. the skull crushing the seat of the woman who would crush the head of the serpent.
And revelation builds upon that. Psalm 22, Isaiah 53 with regards to the death of Christ. That's just a quick handful of verses that... You know, Isaiah 53, no doubt you've heard this before.
Isaiah 53, you may have that in the marginal notes as a verse that's in view when Paul is saying Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. If you ever consider Isaiah 53, and let's just say you're, you know, if you think about someone just transplanted in front of Isaiah 53, perhaps it's a persecuted brother and sister in Christ. They were once, like every Christian was, they were once an unbeliever living in the jungles of Indonesia. and a Christian missionary comes to them, preaches the gospel of Jesus Christ. They don't quite have a full Bible, let's say, yet.
Maybe they have the gospel accounts, and then someone brings to them Isaiah 53, but just on a piece of paper that perhaps they wrote out because they couldn't bring a full Bible. whatever happened. And they just happened to read Isaiah 53. Without knowing that Isaiah was written 750 years prior to the coming of Christ Jesus, dying upon Calvary's cross for our sins, they would think that it is a New Testament theological reflection upon what is going on at Golgotha's cross. Because Isaiah speaks and writes and promises with such a glorious character of Him being bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement for our peace is upon Him, All of those things that the prophet brings out.
Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. Beautiful. And He rose again, or He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures. Psalm 16, I think your marginal reading, if you have the biblical references, might even reference Genesis 1, 9-13, where we have the first fruits coming out of dry earth on the third day.
Later on in the passage, we have surely a more theologically developed approach to first fruits, but that third day language is at the outset of creation. Christ being the new creation, He is, as it were, those things that spring out of dry earth, the first fruits of our second creation, of our regeneration. But getting back to the text then, we have that second aspect of the certainty of the events of the gospel, the biblical testimony to the events of the gospel. And then we have, notice, the eyewitness testimony to the events of the gospel.
You see, Paul is building an argument here to drive these Corinthians to reflect upon the folly that it is to deny the resurrection of the dead. Notice the language here. after the biblical witness to the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, the Gospel, we have v. 5, in that He was seen by Cephas, then by the Twelve. After that, He was seen by over 500 brethren at once, of whom the greater part remained to the present, but some have fallen asleep. After that, He was seen by James, then by all the apostles.
Then last of all, He was seen by me also as by one born out of due time. You see, the argument is airtight. The argument is inescapable. There is no wiggle room to say, you know, yeah, but, you know, there could be some doubt, I don't know, these false teachers might be right.
No, the scriptures, first of all, proclaim and promise, and those scriptures are God-breathed, they are inspired, they are inerrant, they are infallible, so their witness is good on their own, but if that isn't good enough for you, we have the eyewitness accounts, many of which feed the biblical testimony in the first place. Christ was seen. Christ was made known by many infallible proofs. In fact, that's the language of the book of Acts.
In Acts 1, we have the language of the infallibility of the demonstration of Jesus Christ Himself to His own resurrected glory. Notice in Acts 1, verse 1, the former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, until the day in which He was taken up, after He, through the Holy Spirit, had given commandments to the apostles whom He had chosen, to whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God." You see, Christianity isn't an agnostic religion. It doesn't call upon potential adherents to seek after the secret things that are hidden in a conundrum and wrapped up in an enigma and listen to the gurus and all that sort of stuff. No, it is the stuff of simple disclosure by the sovereign Christ following his sufferings whereby many infallible proofs to many witnesses over the course of 40 days he made himself known.
Christians don't lurk in the darkness to propagate the machinations of a false religion. We operate upon the revelation of God Most High, that revelation which is fed and built up by Christ showing Himself by many infallible proofs. This is to cut to the heart of these Corinthians later when Paul will say things like, if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile. You're still in your sins.
Those who have fallen asleep, your loved ones, they've perished. And we're, of all men, the most pitiable. It's to cut to the heart there, to reflect back on this and say, wait a minute, yes, the Scripture's foretold and promised and disclosed. And the reality is that all of these saw the risen Christ.
The disciples, the apostles, the 500 brethren at once. You know, I think there might even be something to the fact that Paul is saying, go talk to these people. All of the 500 haven't perished. All of the apostles had not perished.
They had not yet died, that is. Some, yes, have fallen asleep. But he says, the greater part remain to the present. Go talk to them.
If you don't believe the biblical witness, which you should, you should not be a sinfully obstinate Thomas who would not obey the Scriptures, the words of Christ, the miracles of Christ, what He cast His eyes upon. Be diligent if you will not follow after those things and go and talk to one of these brethren that still remain and say, what did you see? And they'll say, I saw the Christ. Don't be unbelieving but believing.
It's glorious, the eyewitness testimony to the events of the gospel. I love the language of Peter in 2 Peter 1. 2 Peter 1, we have that language in verse 16. And Peter's setting before the audience that he's writing to that they did not follow after cunningly divide fables when they made known to them the power and the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty. Don't you love that language?
We didn't follow after cunningly devised fables. If you're here tonight and you're a Christian, take great hope in that your salvation and your comfort as a Christian does not rest upon cunningly devised fables. It rests upon the revelation of God, eyewitnesses prior to the completion of the New Testament canon, These eyewitnesses could have been summoned and spoken to. But our religion does not rest upon cunningly devised fables.
When the apostles made known to the recipients of their letters, to the recipients of their proclamation, the glory, the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, they were eyewitnesses to His majesty. They weren't the Gnostic ascertainers of the ethereal whatever out there in the universe. They saw, they touched, they handled Christ. Read 1 John 1, that word of God which our hands touched. which our eyes saw, we beheld His glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
The eyewitness testimony testifies to the certainty of the events of the Gospel.
Grace Foundational to Gospel Delivery
Thirdly, I want you to notice from the passage, the grace, this is back in 1 Corinthians 15, now the grace that is foundational in both the delivery and reception of the Gospel. Notice that this is delivered to us in the language of the apostle Paul with respect to his own apostolate, but as well to the receiving of the gospel by the Corinthians. Notice in verse 9, For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy 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 toward me was not in vain, but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.
Therefore, whether it was I or they, so we preach and so you believe." You see, Paul is connecting the proclamation and the reception of the Gospel to the grace of God. And so this continues to argue for and to feed the argumentation and to hopefully dispel the folly of rejecting the resurrection of the dead. Because by the grace of God, I proclaim this message, we proclaim this message, and you received it. It is to shun the grace of God.
It is to stick your hand in the face of God's grace or to turn your back to the amazing and the free grace of God to entertain anything that rubs against the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ that He most certainly was raised the third day in power and in great victory. The gospel or the grace that is foundational to the gospel is there in both the delivery and in the reception of it. Isn't this just wonderful language by the Apostle Paul? I am not worthy to be called an apostle because I persecuted the church of God.
You see, the Apostle Paul realized that it was by grace alone, that he was saved and that he was called into the apostolate. He says that he doesn't even deserve it. You know, Paul didn't somehow gain his apostolate by being a good guy, by being a good Jew, or a good, what do you call someone from Tarsus? A Tarsian?
But he didn't gain his apostolate by being good, by being the best, by being a fabulous orator, by being X, Y, and Z, but rather by God's grace. He was plucked out from the horror and the despair and the wickedness and the darkness of sin, saved by grace alone and planted into his apostleship so that he might proclaim the riches of Christ died, buried, and risen. And so he realizes that it's the grace of God by which he had his apostleship, by which he preached, and by which you also, Corinthians, have believed.
The Unconquerable Hope of the Gospel
And lastly, we have the unconquerable hope of the gospel. Notice the unconquerable hope of the gospel in verses 12 to 20. First off, we see here what is the crux of the matter, what is going on in Corinth. Now, if Christ, verse 12, is preached that he has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?
So Paul poses the question that addresses the problem, and it is delivered in that flavor of marveling. I marvel that you've so quickly turned. to use the language of Galatians, from an apprehension and a glorying in the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead to a doctrine that completely rejects that blessed reality. Notice in the following verses here, Paul builds logical argument upon logical argument. He's using these if this, then that statements.
These logical statements in order to see what the absolute absence of hope would be. We would notice first that
All Hope Lost Without the Gospel
all hope is lost if there is no gospel. If this Jesus and the resurrection, the truth of Christianity is false, then there is no hope. All hope is lost if there is no gospel. Listen to the language here.
But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. He starts with a very simple logical argument here. If you reject the resurrection of the dead, but you uphold somehow that Christ is still risen, you can't hold one and not the other. If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen.
He goes on, and if Christ is not risen, you see the building of logical argument. If then, and then from that then there becomes another if. And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty. You see a preaching of the word, so-called, that removes from the preaching of the word the reality of the resurrection, or we may say this, the liberal Christianity that treats the resurrection as just some sort of subjective, spiritual, ethereal reality.
It didn't really happen, but if you believe it, that's great, because it helps you to walk old ladies across the street and mow your neighbor's lawn, so it carries some ethical value. It's madness. If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty.
If there is no resurrection of the dead, then we might as well close down this church because our preaching is empty. And you might as well cast off your faith because your faith is empty. You see how your faith hinges upon, your faith relies upon the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and the resurrection of the dead. Because Christ is risen, therefore there is the resurrection of the dead.
He continues to build upon this argument and to elaborate and to expand. Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up, if in fact the dead do not rise. You see, Christian preachers are liars if we are proclaiming the resurrection of the dead when there really is no resurrection of the dead. We know, of course, that there is, and to let the cat out of the bag, there is the resurrection of the dead.
So our preaching is not empty, and our faith is not empty, and neither are we found liars, those Christian preachers who proclaim the resurrection of the dead and the risen Christ. Why? Because he is risen, and so are all those who believe in him. Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up, if in fact the dead do not rise.
For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. You see how he turns, or he reiterates rather that first logical objection. If the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. Now notice, and if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile, you are still in your sins.
You see, there is an exclamation mark in your Bible. There isn't an exclamation mark in Greek, but there's one in your Bible to bring forth the Greek language that is emphatically bringing this forth to the reader. to emphasize this reality that if you reject the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead, which by virtue of doing that, then Christ is not risen, then you are still in your sins. You are still under the wrath of God and divine condemnation justly rests upon you. You're still in your sins.
Not only does the condemnation of God still rest upon you, but you have not been liberated from the power of sin, but you are marked by a perpetual iniquity dead in your trespasses and in your sins. You see the implications here. As we move to a close, the language continues. Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.
You know, if all of this hasn't yet worked for the Corinthians up until this point, hopefully they'll reflect upon this, that their family members, their friends, those who they love, who have died in Christ, they've perished and there is no hope for them. You know, sometimes there's different things that will pull the heartstrings, that will rouse the spirits of Christians back to a proper way, back to a proper reflection upon the old paths and upon those things which are good and true. And here Paul is pulling on many. The vanity of preaching, then, if there is no resurrection.
Your faith is empty, then, if there is no resurrection. Your loved ones then have perished, and there is no future for them in the eternal state. If there is no resurrection, then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ, that is, died in Christ, have perished. And then we have this last argument before the blessed hope, 19.
If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable, because we've wasted our lives then in believing a lie. We've wasted our lives then in believing in the vanity of this faith that doesn't have that which marks it as a full faith. We have been wasting our time taking in Christian preaching. If there is no resurrection of the dead, which means then there is no Christ who has raised again, we are, of all men, the most pitiable.
We could have spent our pursuits after... We could have been Epicureans. We could have sought after pleasures. We could have sought after those things which, you know, put to death the troubles and the injuries of the body and the soul, and sought after a physical pleasure in this lower plane.
But you see, now there is. Since the events of the Gospel are true, we have an unfailing hope. Paul in verse 20 brings this section not necessarily to a close, but our consideration closes well at verse 20. Notice there is this wonderful but.
You know, usually when you see, or oftentimes, when you see a but in your Bible, a B-U-T but in your Bible, we have something glorious that follows. One of the, probably the most, you know, beautiful examples is Ephesians 1 to 3. which is followed by Ephesians 4. We're dead in our trespasses and sins. We walk according to the prints of the power of the air.
We're the sons of disobedience. The children of wrath. Following after the lusts of our flesh. Then there's that glorious but.
But God, who is rich in mercy because of the love with which He loved us, made us alive in Christ Jesus. By grace, you have been saved. We have a wonderful but here. But now Christ is risen from the dead and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
You see what Paul is doing here. With one fell swoop, he is reversing all of the hypothetical hopelessnesses of the previous verses. Our preaching is not empty then. Our faith is not futile then.
Christ then is risen because we will be risen. We are not of all men the most pitiable. We are not still in our sins. Why?
Because Christ is risen from the dead and has become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. Our hope, brethren, is built upon this Jesus and the resurrection. The hope of hopes. In fact, there is no true and lasting hope save for that which rests upon and is in this Jesus Christ and the resurrection.
Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. He was buried and He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures. Hope of hopes is in that. You know what hope is?
I think we can water down hope. I'm going to close in a minute and 13 seconds. We can water down hope when we apply to it a fleshly and a human and a weaker understanding. You know, I've used this imagery before and I'll probably use it till I die, but being a Vancouver Canucks fan for a number of years, I hope that they'll win the Stanley Cup, but let's be honest, they never will.
You know, that's not the hope that we have in Christ. We don't just hope with this hope that, you know, we want, we strongly wish something to happen, but, you know, there's the possibility that it never will, but we really hope that it will happen. That's not a Christian hope. Our Christian hope is characterized by the certain and insuperable expectation that what God promises will most surely come to pass.
God has promised that all those who believe in this Christ, who is risen from the dead, will be those after having fallen asleep, after having died in Christ, will be raised with that One who is our forerunner. The certain expectation that the promises of God will come true because they will, because God is truth and cannot lie. And in Jesus and the resurrection, we have that hope that cannot be stolen away, that we rest upon, that we glory in, and that we will take to our dying breath. And in due time, we will be brought forth from deadness to life in that resurrection reality where we'll cast our eyes of no longer faith but sight upon the risen Christ and the glory of his person.
Application
Well, brethren, hopefully we gain an appreciation of what Jesus and the resurrection means, and if you're here tonight and you're a Christian, you glory in this hope of hopes, you glory in this Christ, the only one who brings us into the presence of the Father, the only one in whom we have hope, the forgiveness of sins and everlasting life. If you're here tonight and you don't know this Christ, you need to understand that outside of him there is no hope. So stop dilly-dallying, stop dangling upon a proposition, stroking your metaphorical beard or your real one, wondering if maybe someday in the future I could consider this Christ of hope. Believe on Him.
Today is the hour of salvation. Now is the time to rest solely and alone upon this risen Christ for your salvation. And you will know the hope of hopes, that certain expectation that the promises of God are true, they are yea and amen. in this risen Christ. Let us pray.
Closing Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank you for your truth. We thank you for what we read here in 1 Corinthians 15. We rejoice in the hope that we have in Christ Jesus, knowing that it is certain, and knowing that it is beautiful, that it is glorious, that in Him we have certainty of salvation. We pray because it is possible only with you that by your grace each and every one would leave these two doors singing the praises of Christ, rejoicing in their hearts, rejoicing in the inner man and even in the outer self, that He is our Savior, that He is our Lord, that in Him and in Him alone we have the forgiveness of sins and everlasting life.
We do pray that you'd help us in this upcoming week to rejoice in you, to rejoice in our Christ and to live in such a manner that we bring glory to you. We pray in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.