The Rock of Our Faith

Series on I Corinthians

VII Manner of the Resurrection

A Establishment of the Resurrection, Text: 15:1-11

Title: The Rock of Our Faith

Introduction

At Chapter 15 a new theme is introduced: the resurrection. The question that had risen in the Corinthian church had to do with their own resurrection. What ultimately happens to those who believe in Jesus Christ? Paul will talk about the certainty of our resurrection and about the nature of that resurrection, but he begins with the resurrection of Christ. This is the foundation of everything else. It is the rock of our faith. All of the prophecies of the Bible are important, all of the fulfillment of those prophecies in the birth and life and death of Jesus are important, but dear friends, without the resurrection there is no confirmation. Without the resurrection there is no hope. Billy Graham in his book “World Aflame” tells the story of the french positivist philosopher Le Comte who was determined to start a new religion to replace Christianity. He said it would be as un-mysterious and plain as the multiplication tables. Carlyle the Scottish essayist replied, “Very good Mr. Comte! All you will need to do will be to speak as man never spoke, to live as man never lived, and to be crucified and then rise again the third day, then the world will believe.” I want you to see this morning that the resurrection is indeed the rock of our faith. Consider first the certainty of the resurrection and then the comfort of the resurrection.

I The Certainty of Christ’s Resurrection

There are multitudes in the world, and there may even be someone here today who does not believe that Jesus is alive; someone who does not believe that a very human Jesus with a material body and a reasonable soul is right now at the right hand of God the Father sending forth his Spirit. And, they may not believe that this same fully human Jesus will appear on the clouds of heaven when he comes to judge the world. If there are those who do not believe, the reason is that they do not believe the bodily resurrection of Christ. Paul says the resurrection is an essential part of the gospel. Jesus rose from the dead. This proves he conquered sin and death and that he is able to share that victory over sin and the grave with you. Now i want you to notice that Paul enumerates several parts of the gospel but he only focuses on the resurrection because it is the resurrection which is in doubt in the world. It is the watershed of our faith. and the stumbling block to all the religions of the world and all their leaders. One and only one boasts an empty tomb. In our post-modern age when truth is relative and your truth is not my truth the resurrection buries all the competition. it triumphs over all the wisdom of the world. If Easter means anything to modern man, it means that eternal truth is eternal. You may nail it to the tree, wrap it up in grave clothes, and seal it in a tomb. But truth crushed to earth shall rise again. Truth does not perish. It cannot be destroyed. It may be distorted. It has been silenced temporarily. It has been compelled to carry its cross to Calvary’s brow or to drink the cup of poisoned hemlock in a Grecian jail, but with an inevitable certainty after every Black Friday dawns truth’s Easter morn. The bodily resurrection is so foundational that this is where Paul begins in verses 3-9. He summons the witnesses because the Corinthians probably believed only in a spiritual resurrection. It is true that apart from God’s grace in the heart men will not accept this testimony, but i want you to notice the nature of these witnesses, 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, and that 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, as to one abnormally born. For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. They include Peter who denied Jesus, and the rest of the 12 who doubted, especially Thomas, and a wider circle of men also called apostles among whom was James, the brother of our Lord who with the rest of his family at one time thought Jesus was out of his mind. All these suffered persecution and death holding fast to the truth of the resurrection. The risen Christ also appeared not just to his intimates but to over 500 people. Among these were two forlorn souls walking along the road from Jerusalem to Emmaus. a stranger came and walked with them. As they discussed the recent event in Jerusalem they knew about the empty tomb, but, they said, sadly, we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Jesus then taught them about his resurrection from the Old Testament, and later as he ate dinner with them, they realized who he was. i am reminded of a story about the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. On one of the usually foggy London nights the report of the battle was signaled by semaphore from atop Winchester Cathedral. Due to the weather the people saw only the first two words. They were “Wellington Defeated,” and all London mourned the loss. But then the message was repeated and in the clearing air they saw the whole message. “Wellington defeated the enemy.” The mighty Napoleon was defeated. On the road to Emmaus two witnesses got the whole message. Mighty sin and death were defeated. Paul lists himself last as the one who had been persecuting Christ and his Church. The flavor of Paul’s thinking is revealed as he reminds us how unlikely it was that he should be transformed by the living savior. But above all Paul returns to the theme which is that the gospel rests on the resurrection. The resurrection reminds me of the story of a Lieutenant who saw a large ship approaching. The great ship, commanded by an Admiral came sailing near. He sent a message, “Steer 20 degrees starboard.” The Admiral replied that he was an Admiral of a great ship and that they should get out of his way. The message was repeated. The Admiral replied, “Don’t you understand who i am.” “Yes came the reply, but i am a lighthouse.” The resurrection is like that because if you don’t believe it you end up shipwrecked. Now as we have said Paul is going to talk about our resurrection in the rest of the chapter. The basis of our bodily resurrection is the resurrection of Christ, so let’s look at the comfort to be derived from this fact.

II The Comfort of Christ’s Resurrection

For this comfort we turn to where paul begins in verses 1 and 2 and 10 and 11, 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, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain…But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them-yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. Whether, then, it was I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed. With these reminders he is preparing the way for all that he will say. They received the truth of the resurrection. It wasn’t something they thought up. It is the gift of God, and the good news in a graveyard. They took their stand on the resurrection says Paul, reminding them that there is no other standing place in life but on the resurrection of Christ. They believed they were being saved from sin and death, but if Christ did not conquer sin and death in his bodily resurrection they were not being saved. They needed to hold firmly, tenaciously, to this truth of the resurrection because it was the only adequate answer in life. In the darkness and confusion that surrounded them, this was the only light shining. Otherwise they had believed in vain. In other words faith collapses completely without it, but with it faith is unassailable and invulnerable. Karl Barth once wrote, “The Easter message tells us that our enemies, sin, the curse, and death, are beaten. Ultimately they can no longer start mischief. They still behave as though the game were not decided, the battle not fought; we must still reckon with them, but fundamentally we must cease to fear them any more. Behold he is not here, he is risen as he said.” Now therefore let me make some practical suggestions. What is it that gives a widow hope as she stands beside a fresh grave? What is the only hope of the disabled, the amputee, and the disfigured? How can the parents of brain-damaged or physically handicapped children keep from living their whole lives in despair? Why would paralyzed people like Joni Erikson Tada write her song about dancing with Jesus, or blind Fanny Crosby write “Face to Face with Christ my Savior?” How can we see past the tragic deaths of Ethiopian Christians dying of hunger, or the martyrdom of missionaries? Where do the thoughts of young parents go when they work through the grief of losing a baby. Or where do families turn when their daughter is run over by a drunken driver, or their father is killed in an airplane crash? What single truth becomes their entire focus. What is the sole indispensable final answer to pain, mourning, senility, insanity, terminal disease, sudden calamities, and fatal accidents? That’s right, it is the resurrection of the body guaranteed by Jesus’ resurrection.

Conclusion

And so if we really believe in the resurrection of Christ we find in it our final resort. When all the other answers have evaporated, and when every other hope has faded, then like a great rock that fills our lives with meaning and blesses every sorrow, sits the resurrection of Christ. This is what we have received, and this is where we stand. This is what saves us, and to this we hold with our last ounce of strength. He is risen. In the drama “The Trial of Jesus,” John Masefield has the centurion Longinus report to Pilate after the crucifixion of Jesus. Longinus had been the officer in charge of the execution, and after his official report, Procula, Pilate’s wife calls the centurion to come and tell her how the prisoner had died. Once the account is given, she asks, “Do you think he is dead?” Longinus answers, “No, lady, I don’t.” “Then where is he?” asks Procula. Longinus replies, “Let loose in the world, lady, where neither Roman nor Jew can stop his truth.”