Why Should We Believe The Resurrection Actually Happened? (1 Corinthians 15:1-20)
GIST: We should believe in the resurrection because it really happened, and it changes everything.
Today, we’re pausing our regular study in 1 Thessalonians to focus on what is actually the central celebration of the Christian faith: Easter—Resurrection Sunday! Because of that, I want to look at the first 20 verses of one of the most important chapters in the Bible about the resurrection: 1 Corinthians 15. (Yes, I know that’s a ton for me, but don’t worry; it still won’t be too long ☺️!) To get us started this morning, though, let’s just read the first two verses then we’ll break it down in chunks.
“1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you--unless you believed in vain.”
Paul starts this chapter by reminding the Corinthians about the gospel, the good news of Jesus’ salvation they heard from him and received and were now standing on. It’s the truth that had changed their lives and now defined them. Here he calls them to hold fast to this life-saving good news. However, the linchpin of this good news is what Easter is all about: the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Actually, this is something scholars, both Christian and non-Christian, have long asserted: if Jesus did not rise from the dead, putting your faith in Him is meaningless because it is not only His resurrection that proved definitively that He is God but it is that resurrection that provided us rescue from the sin that is destroying and condemning us.
Paul acknowledges that, too. In this chapter in particular, he dives deep into the question of why we should believe in the resurrection, and that’s something I want us to take some time to really consider together this morning as well. It is possible that you could have been coming to church your entire life and have never really thought about why the resurrection isn’t just part of our cultural mythology but the central reality of all human history, so let’s spend some time really thinking about why we should believe the resurrection actually happened. The really awesome problem we have when approaching that question though is there is SO much evidence for the resurrection, we couldn’t possibly address them all in the format of our service. To help with this, I’m also going to post some videos on our Facebook page later this afternoon that I highly encourage you guys to check out and which I hope will build on what we’ll just start to develop here this morning. All that being said, here’s our pretty simplistic gist for this morning: We should believe in the resurrection because it really happened, and it changes everything. ☺️ Yeah, I know, but believe me, there is a lot to unpack in that statement.
I. Because It Really Happened (1-11)
Let’s look at the next few verses from 1 Corinthians 15.
“1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you--unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures…”
Fulfillment of Scripture. In this section, Paul is outlining the gospel. Jesus came and died and rose again to take on Hell in our place. The assertion he makes to this is one we could literally spend the entire service breaking down (but we won’t because this is just point one ☺️), and that’s that all of this happened according to the Scripture.
As Paul starts building his case for the importance of the death and resurrection of Jesus, he starts by pointing out that this wasn’t something Christians just “came up with”. God has been revealing this all along throughout Scripture. The Old Testament—which is comprised of 39 books written over a period of about 1000 years—points to Jesus, the Messiah. Notice Paul doesn’t say “according to a Scripture”. He’s not talking about a single passage, but that the entirety of the Old Testament was pointing to Jesus. The crucifixion of Jesus isn’t reasonably denied and the evidence for His resurrection is solid—and this was pointed to all along.
Again, this is just the first part of point one, but let me give you some verses to consider this morning and look more into this week in your personal study (I’ll even include some hyperlinks for you ☺️).
Genesis 3:15. This is the first mention of the Messiah in the Bible, and it points to Him taking on pain as He defeats the serpent, Satan, once and for all. “...he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”
Psalm 16:10- The Apostle Peter quotes this Messianic psalm in Acts 2:23-28. Here David looks forward to not being abandoned in the grave. He is looking forward to resurrection, but it is only because the greater David, the Messiah would come and experience this first! “For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption.” Because the Holy One defeated corruption, death, Hell, in our place, we do not have to be abandoned in death either (more on that in a bit ☺️).
Psalm 22- This psalm is super special because Jesus quoted it on the cross. The psalm starts with: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me.” Psalms didn’t have titles, so people would commonly refer to them by their first line. However, when Jesus said those words, He was conjuring up in the minds of the Jewish community who had grown up singing these psalms the message in the rest of the psalm. Kind of like if I were to say: “amazing grace how sweet the sound”, most of us would immediately start thinking about the rest of the song. So, what does the rest of this psalm talk about? It actually describes the Messiah being crucified… hundred of years before the Roman Empire existed! Let me just read a few of the verses: and points to His crucifixion (see especially vs 16-18), 26-hearts living forever. “16 For dogs encompass me; a company of evildoers encircles me; they have pierced my hands and feet-- 17 I can count all my bones-- they stare and gloat over me; 18 they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.” Sound familiar? But what is the result of this undeserved death? Life. “... 26 The afflicted shall eat and be satisfied; those who seek him shall praise the LORD! May your hearts live forever!” Resurrection.
Isaiah 53- This is one of the clearest pictures of the suffering servant in the entire Old Testament and it points to both His death and resurrection. Let me just give you a little sampling: “5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. 6 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. 7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. 8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? 9 And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. 10 Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. 11 Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. 12 Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.”
Jonah 1:17 & Hosea 6:1–2- What about the 3 days thing? Well, we know Jesus applies the story of Jonah being in the fish for the 3 days and 3 nights to His death and resurrection (Matthew 12:38-41, 16:4 and Luke 11:29-32). We also have other pictures in the Old Testament of God bringing reviving life after three days like in Hosea 6: “1 "Come, let us return to the LORD; for he has torn us, that he may heal us; he has struck us down, and he will bind us up. 2 After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him.”
All this is to say Jesus’ death and resurrection weren’t something followers of Jesus just made up to promote some new religion. This had been the story all along! They just shared what they saw. And actually, I want to spend some time talking about the people who witnessed the resurrection because that’s where Paul goes next…and it draws attention to some of the moost vital and compelling points to consider→
“5 and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 Then He appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8 Last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared also to me. 9 For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. 11 Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.”
Witnesses. Paul is making this claim: we know this is true because people saw it. Lots of people actually. He lists that there were 500 brothers that same him at the same time! Many of these were still alive while Paul was writing this letter to the Corinthians.
Honestly, guys, we could spend a lot of time unpacking how significant this is, and I encourage you to check out the resources I’ll post on Facebook later so you can dig even deeper into this, but let me at least highlight a few reasons we have to trust this testimony.
1. Geographical Spread. Jesus was crucified and buried in Jerusalem. Christianity, which proclaimed His resurrection, then spread from… Jerusalem. Why does that matter? This was completely verifiable. Or to put it another way, it was falsifiable… if it hadn’t happened. Why? Because people could just go to the tomb. All you had to do to stop the claims of Christianity would be to present the body of Jesus, but that never happened. Why? Because there was no body! In fact, the earliest attempts to disprove Jesus’ resurrection hinged on the disciples stealing the body or Jesus not actually being dead (though He had endured the brutality of Roman crucifixion—modern medical professionals have completely debunked that one ☺️). There is no doubt of an empty tomb.
Furthermore, reports could have easily spread that the disciples had made this up, or that Jesus had in fact not revealed Himself to all these people. Instead, the testimony of His resurrection spread from these eyewitnesses.
2. Female Witnesses. Oh, and speaking of these eyewitnesses, all of the accounts of Jesus’ resurrection credit women as the ones to first find His empty tomb. We’ve talked about this before, but let’s not forget how big of a deal this is. In this society, the testimony of a woman was not well respected at all. In fact, oftentimes, it wouldn’t even be admitted as credible in a court of law. Why then, would the disciples, if they were trying to create some new religious movement, make up a story about Jesus being found by women? They weren’t ahead of their time. In their time, this would have hurt their testimony more than help it. So, why spread this? Because it happened.
There are other examples like this, as well. The disciples are very honest about doubting, and missing what Jesus obviously taught. These would have been embarrassing details to just make up. They would have done nothing to build the credibility of their movement. So, why are they here? Because they weren’t concerned with presenting a good public image of themselves, they were telling the truth.
3. Life Changes. And this trust was completely transformative. Think about it this way. When Jesus was arrested in the garden, what did the disciples do? They ran away. Then Peter, the lead disciple, the most outspoken of His followers, aggressively denied that he even knew Jesus three times! When Jesus died, they weren’t running around telling the good news. They were hiding behind locked doors in fear for their lives. They had given up. They were heartbroken and confused. They thought their belief in Jesus as Messiah was wrong. Then, after seeing the risen Jesus, what happens? They go from fear and denial to faith willing to face death. In fact, what happens to nearly all of His disciples? They are killed for their faith. They refuse to recant even though it cost them everything.
And it wasn’t just those who followed Jesus when He was alive. Two of the most influential voices in the early church were James and Paul. James, the son of Mary and Joseph—so Jesus’ half-brother. Mark 3:21 tells us that Jesus’ family thought He was crazy when He started His earthly ministry. But something changed. Paul was a persecutor of Christians. He wanted to wipe them out. Jesus’ resurrection changed everything for them. Both died because of their faithful witness for Jesus.
If in fact, this was just some story they made up, someone would have cracked. They weren’t celebrities because of their claims. They were pursued, persecuted, and put to death. Still, they remained faithful. Why? Because they were convinced this was true. Probably the only counter-explanation that would really account for this is that they were all convinced, but deluded. One way to account for this would be the hallucination theory. Unfortunately, that doesn’t hold up even with secular psychology. Sure, that could account for one person being convinced something was true. They could have hallucinated and thought they’d seen Jesus. But hundreds, if not thousands, of people all having the same hallucination at different times and in different places that was equally convincing? No. That just doesn’t hold up. What does? Them actually seeing Jesus.
Ok, so I know that was a lot to take in, so let me just quickly hit our second point before recapping very quickly in our takeaways. We should believe this because it happened and→
II. Because It Changes Everything (12-20)
Look at where Paul goes next: “12 Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14 And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. 15 We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. 16 For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.”
What’s at stake if Jesus didn’t rise from the dead? Well, sharing Jesus and all preaching would be in vain. It would not only be meaningless, but it would be lying. That would also mean faith in Jesus would be in vain, so there would be no hope after death because we’d still be stuck in our sin. Which means trying to live for Jesus now would be pitiable. We would be wasting our lives.
“20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.” But He has risen, and He’s the first of more to come. What is that talking about? Hope for us! We too will someday be with Him for all eternity if we trust in His death and resurrection and give Him control of our lives, if we let Him rescue us! Then we can echo the words Paul ends this chapter with: “55 "O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?" 56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 58 Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.”
Ok, real quick→
TAKEAWAYS
Jesus has risen! This isn’t just something we talk about on Resurrection Sunday. This is the central truth of history and ⤵️
This changes everything! Not only does it bring us hope, but it also shows us where hope is and isn’t found. I shared a quote from Tim Keller on Facebook yesterday that reminds me so much of what Flannery O’Connor have the Misfit say in “A Good Man Is Hard To Find”. He said, “If Jesus rose from the dead, then you have to accept all that he said; if he didn’t rise from the dead, then why worry about any of what he said? The issue on which everything hangs is not whether or not you like his teaching but whether or not he rose from the dead.” Where are you this Easter?
