The Resurrection (Part 1)

Thanks for tuning in to No Compromise Radio with pastor and author, Dr. Mike Avendroff. Today on No Compromise Radio, we'll be hearing Pastor Mike open the Word of God in a recent message he preached at Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston, Massachusetts.

Now let's join Pastor Mike in progress as he preaches through the Scriptures verse by verse with no compromise.

The Resurrection as a Doctrine of First Importance

First Corinthians chapter 15. If you're new to the church, we're just preaching verse by verse by verse through First Corinthians. We're several years into the book and we just want to pick up where we left off last week.

Now last week's message was important. I would like to say it was very important, not because it was my message, but spiritual gifts in First Corinthians 12, 13, and 14 is an important topic. But this is a more important topic.

We'll see even from the text, this is going to be called more important or of first importance. While spiritual gifts are important, everything in the Bible is valuable. There are some things more important than others.

There's a hierarchical truth structure to the Bible. And so today we're going to hone in on one of the most important doctrines of all the Bible and that is the resurrection. And so the most important doctrine is the gospel and the resurrection is a component to that gospel.

And that's why Paul's going to call this of first importance. And so what's going on in the Corinthian church is this. They had a problem with what they were doing in the church. That is tongue speaking without interpreters, prophesying, not waiting for their turn.

There was order and chaos. It was bad behavior. It was carnal behavior. But now Paul moves from First Corinthians 12, 13, and 14 of ethical misconduct to a belief system that had gone wrong. There actually were people in the Corinthian church who thought the resurrection of the body would not take place.

And Paul wants to let them know in First Corinthians 15, the resurrection is true. You will be resurrected and don't buy into any Greek body, bad spirit, good stuff. That was probably at Corinth. Don't buy in into anything today where people say modern day Sadducees.

You know what? I just want to live my life today. And this whole idea about being resurrected and standing before God on judgment day, that puts a crimp in my sexual immorality. That puts a crimp in my bad business behavior.

That puts a crimp in my sin. I don't want to think about the resurrection. I want to think about my hedonistic life today. So no matter where we're coming from, back in those days or today, you need to know and it's important for you to know that the resurrection is true.

The resurrection of your body. And if you look at verse 12, Paul gives us really the purpose or the reason of the chapter a little bit later. He doesn't say it in verse 1 or 2. He tells us in 12. So if you'd like to know what First Corinthians 15 is about, 12 will help you.

And this is about the resurrection of not Christ primarily, but of us. And then he'll use the argument, Christ must be raised, then we will as well. First Corinthians chapter 15, verse 12. Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead?

So did you get that? People were saying in the church, no resurrection. You're not going to be raised from the dead. We eat, drink and for tomorrow, eat and drink and tomorrow we die. And that is upsetting.

Second Timothy chapter 2 says this upsets the faith. This is upsetting because then you live differently if you're living with an eye towards eternity and judgment and accountability. That's a lot different than if it's just today we live, tomorrow we die.

And so Paul is going to say in verses 1 to 11, of course there's a resurrection from the dead because Jesus was raised from the dead. How do we know there's a resurrection? How do we know it's true? Because Christ himself was raised from the dead.

And so that's the focus today. And that's why the sermon is called Easter in September. Now there are certain holidays that I really don't like because I think they're just kind of made up stuff, you know, Kwanzaa just made up or I don't know if Columbus Day is made up.

I'm not sure about that one. But some holidays don't really thrill me. And in the sense, don't throw any rocks to hit my other eye quite yet, but in a sense Easter doesn't thrill me because every single day we worship the risen Savior, don't we?

It's not wrong to have a resurrection Sunday service up from the grave he arose. But I know Steve Cooley, Pastor Steve, he always likes to sneak in a resurrection songs throughout the year. You know, like, you know, this is, this is not Easter, but it is Easter.

It's resurrection Sunday. Jesus is raised from the dead and your body is going to be raised from the dead. And if anybody tries to tell you that's wrong, you like the Corinthians should be reminded the certainty of the resurrection according to the scriptures.

So let me do this. Let me give you an outline today from first Corinthians 15, one to 11. That's our section today. As Paul moved from bad behavior to bad belief, which by the way, leads to bad behavior.

Let me give you five certainties about the resurrection. That will be our outline this morning, five certainties that Paul gives the Corinthians and then by implication you so that you can be certain you can with white knuckle grip say, I believe Jesus was raised from the dead and I will be too.

By the way, if there's someone here who says they're a Christian and they do not believe in the literal bodily resurrection of Christ Jesus, you are not a Christian. This is central to Christianity. You must believe in the revealed Jesus of scripture who was raised from the dead and we'll get into that a little bit more later.

So I hope if you're an unbeliever, you hear these claims of Christ and that you repent and believe in this God. You have to believe in the God of the Bible. Faith and faith won't do. Spirituality generally won't do, but it is faith in the risen savior who is our substitutionary sin bearer.

The Church Received the Gospel of the Resurrection

Five certainties about the resurrection that you need, that you must not abandon. Number one, let's just skip ahead here just for a second of my notes. Number one, be certain that the church has always been taught the resurrection of Christ Jesus.

In particular, this is Corinthians, but for us it's the same thing. The Corinthians were taught this before. You've been taught this before. I can say you've been taught this as a kid. The resurrection of Jesus is a central truth that you have been taught.

By the way, when you look at Paul in Acts, sometimes read Acts this week if you want a homework assignment. Paul preached about the resurrection so often, they thought he was preaching two gods. Remember in Acts 17, they thought he was preaching strange deities, because Paul preached Jesus and he preached the resurrection.

And Jesus is masculine and the resurrection, where we get the word Anastasia, is feminine. He talked about Jesus and Anastasia so often, he must be preaching two gods. Because for Jesus, for Paul, it was linked.

And Paul taught the Corinthians this. He was there for 18 months. And see what it says in verses 1 and 2. Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you which you received. Remember Acts 18?

He was there 18 months. In which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. The church of Corinth had been taught the gospel.

Go to chapter 1 if you would, just for a second. I want you to see early on in chapter 1 of 1 Corinthians verse 17. This was something that Paul had taught. Obviously it was important doctrine and he had taught it to them.

And he said, I pass this along. It was like a baton that I was given and I pass to you and you took it. You received it for me. 1 Corinthians 1 .17. For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.

Corinth, when I showed up, I had a message and the message was good news. And when you think about the gospel of good news, this isn't good news. Ready? It isn't be better parents. Work on your communication.

Be nicer to people. Help the poor. Love one another. That's not the gospel. The gospel is good news proclaimed about what God did, not what we're supposed to do, not what we could do. We're sinful, fallen, depraved, unable.

And so this is the message of what God did. You're a general fighting back in those days and you send your runner up to the front lines. You send your herald up. He does a little I spy business and he says, you know what?

The enemy's almost destroyed. We're winning. We're going to win. And he runs back to the general and he proclaims to the general, good news. He doesn't talk about himself. Well, this is what I feel. And this is what I was feeling in my heart at the time.

And this is how I understood this emotionally. No, that's bad reporting. The reporting is of the facts. It's external. It's outside of yourself. And he says, we're winning. That's what the good news is.

It's a proclamation of news. Not to do anything. Oh, of course, the response is believe. But here, this is just good news preached to you. Can you think of other times where we have just good news, just bellowed forth, super happy about it?

Josh and Natalie, a week ago, I was at Sunday night, no, last Sunday morning. That's why they weren't here at church. I thought they were backsliding, but she's given birth to a baby. Liam Noah was born.

That's good news. How about this? Maybe this was bad news for some of you, good news for some of you. Ronald Reagan was elected president in 1980. It's good news. Well, maybe it's not good news. It's old news, that's for sure.

Good news is something that's told of forth. And it's proclaimed about Christ, the substitutionary representative who dies for the sins of his people and was raised from the dead. Here's what Paul says of the Corinthians, I was there and I taught you that.

And by the way, you received it from me. Now some other weirdos have come in and started teaching. There's no resurrection from the dead. Wait a second, Paul says, I handed you that baton and you said, yes, I believe that.

But see, there's a faith that doesn't save. It's a faith that stops believing. And it says in the text, do you notice? Which you received, verse one, in which you stand, by which you are being saved progressively.

If you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. There is a faith in Christ Jesus that doesn't save. And it's a faith that doesn't remain. It's a faith that doesn't hold fast.

It's a faith that doesn't keep on believing. When you think about your salvation, if I were to ask you today, are you a Christian? And you were to immediately say to me, yes, I know I'm a Christian because in 1985 I asked Jesus into my heart, therefore I know I am.

Paul would say, well, I'm glad you didn't deny him in 1989, 1985, whenever that was. But here's what he would say. And so I'll say to you, are you believing right now? Because if you're not believing right now, you're not standing.

It's a faith that is abortive faith. It's a faith that says, get me out of hell only. But it's not a faith in this good news. Are you believing right now? That's what Paul would say, because there's a faith that doesn't save.

But too much of Christianity today is we just got to get them in, get them sealed, sign sealed and delivered it in. Prayed the prayer, walked the aisle, signed the card, you're in, good. If someone ever comes to you and they've come to me many times, Mike, I'm struggling to know if I'm a Christian.

I don't say to them, tell me when you got saved back in those days when you accepted Jesus into your heart. I never do that. Let's talk about what you think about Jesus right now. And are you believing in this Jesus, a substitutionary atoner right now?

Some of these people at Corinth were saying they believe the joyous proclamation of God's redemption early on, but now they're saying, well, you know what? No, I'm not too sure about the resurrection.

And they were being influenced. Paul says, this is the gospel that saves you. Don't you like the word salvation? It is so great. Somebody says, when did you get saved? You could also approach it this way.

This is always fun to do. This is theological fun. Want to know what I like to do in my spare time? This is it. Mike, when did you get saved? Oh, I got saved in eternity past when the father and the son and the spirit with an eternal compact and eternal redemptive promise agreed that I would be saved.

When were you saved? I was saved at the cross when Jesus died for all my sins. I got his righteousness. He got my sins. It was an act of imputation of substitution. When were you saved? It was 1989, around September, when God crushed me and regenerated me and made me born again.

When are you saved? Well, I'm being saved right now, saying no to sin and yes to righteousness in a progressive way. And I will be saved when I'm glorified and I meet God face to face. Which one are you talking about?

Well, the one that Paul is talking about here, by which you are being saved. I think it's the one where he saves us by regeneration, which leads us obviously into progressive sanctification, in which you're being saved if you hold fast.

This has nothing to do with you can lose your salvation. This has everything to do with Paul has the means and the end in mind. The end is you can't unsave yourself because you didn't save yourself. And the means to keep yourself saved is by believing through grace, by responding to God through grace.

He who endures till the end will be saved. True or false? Does that mean you can lose your salvation? No, it means if you endure to the end, you'll be saved. That's the means to get to the end by using these warning passages to keep us on this road.

Paul's not saying you can lose your salvation. He's saying some have abandoned the gospel and never believed initially. Second certainty found in verses three and four. Be certain that the resurrection of the body is true by believing in the resurrection of Jesus because the church initially received it.

Secondly, the scriptures have always taught the resurrection. Be certain about Jesus's resurrection because the scriptures have always taught his resurrection. And when I say scriptures, we're going to see the Old Testament.

Verses three and four. I want you to see if you can see the refrain that's here. It's twice given. And I deliver to you as of first importance that I also received, or what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures.

Let me read verse five as well. And that he appeared to Cephas then to the twelve. All right, let's think about this for a second. According to the scriptures, according to the scriptures, which scriptures were those?

Those Old Testament. Paul says Corinthians, the resurrection of Jesus is true. Therefore, there's got to be a resurrection because the Old Testament has always taught that. The Old Testament has taught the Messiah would be raised from the dead.

Now, don't you like this where he says, I deliver to you as of first importance what I also received? That again is language. That's Lord's Supper language of First Corinthians chapter 11, where Paul says under oath, someone gave this information to me as a courier and I received it.

I signed off on it. You ever sign off on those UPS deals and you just don't even really have to sign. You just put an X there and they take it off, take it away. And I received that. And then I gave it to you.

So Paul receives it from Jesus and then gives it to them. He said, I received that. And he says it's of first importance. More important than anything else, more important than eschatology, more important than ecclesiology, the gospel of God's salvation.

And there's four key verbs that you should be able to see in verses three, four and five. These are the four key verbs. Died. Buried. Raised. Appeared. And they all are Christ centered words. Christ died.

And it doesn't say they buried him. Keeping the focus on Christ, he was buried. And then he was raised. And then he appeared. So four key verbs. And if you know these four words, you can really summarize the gospel.

Died. Buried. Rose. Appeared. And the first and the third are modified by the second and fourth. The first one, died, is confirmed by the burial. And the third one, appeared, third one to be raised, is confirmed by the appearance.

So let's work through this, these four key verbs here, all about Christ and how he's a subject of these verbs. The first verb is to die. According to the scriptures, according to the general tenor of the Old Testament, he could say, well, according to the scripture, Psalm 22.

According to the scripture, Psalm 16. According to the scripture, Isaiah 53. But he doesn't say that. He says according to the what? Scriptures. The general tenor of the scriptures teach sin, sacrifice, atonement.

The general scriptures teach that Jesus, the Messiah, the Lamb of God, would have to die. And you see that in your text right there. And Christ died for his sins, according to the scriptures. You say, well, you've got more problems, Mike, than you've got I problems.

You've got bigger theological problems. Obviously, Jesus didn't sin. Because if he did, he would have to pay for his own sins in Calvary. But he didn't sin. He was sinless. He was spotless. Never, ever, ever sinning in thought, word, or deed.

So now substitution is true. Jesus died for our sins, according to the scriptures. Jesus, the representative human and the substitute. This has Romans 5 and Galatians 1 and Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53. Substitution language everywhere you look.

He died on our behalf, in our place. According, as Acts chapter 2 would say, to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God. The scriptures, true or false, teach that the climax of all the world would be the cross.

The scriptures point to this sin bearer, Isaiah 53 and Psalm 22. Yes, they do. Now, the tradition said these scriptures were Psalm 16 and Psalm 110 put together. But I think we're talking about general Old Testament teaching bears witness to the fact that Jesus was to die and to be raised from the dead.

Paul, before King Agrippa, Acts 26. I stand to this day testifying both to small and great, stating nothing but what the prophets and Moses said was going to take place. That the Christ was to suffer and that by reason of his resurrection from the dead, he should be the first to proclaim light both to the Jews and to the Gentiles.

Peter, on Pentecost, said he looked ahead and spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that he was neither abandoned to Hades nor did his flesh decay. Here's what Paul says, Corinthians, you're denying that there's a resurrection for your bodies.

I'm saying to you, of course there's a resurrection. I taught you about the resurrection when I got here. And the scriptures teach about the death of Christ and the resurrection, that here is the sin bearer, he died in our place.

And how do we know he died? Look at the second key word that I already told you about, the verb, he was buried. That's rare to find in scripture, he was buried. Peter, excuse me, Paul preached in Acts 13, they laid Jesus in a tomb.

Now, some people were saying Jesus didn't really die. You know, swoon theory, et cetera, docetic people, he didn't really die. He died on the cross and was buried with finality. In fact, he died because you bury dead people.

Third verb is found, raised, right? So we've got died, buried, raised. And he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures. Now here's something really cool here, died and buried are kind of point in time.

Right, you die at a split second and then you're buried and it's kind of like static in time, point of time. But this is a different word, this is a perfect tense and it means that he was raised and he continues on in a raised fashion.

He's always raised, matter of fact, Jesus is in his body now, his glorified body with five marks on those. He's in a permanent state of being raised according to the scriptures. You say, well, what scripture would say that maybe he was buried for three days and then was raised from the dead?

What about this whole three days bit? Well, could it be here, Matthew 12, Jesus said, an evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign. And yet no sign will be given it but the sign of Jonah the prophet.

For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so shall the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Well, here's what we know for sure, Jesus was raised from the dead.

He died, he was buried, and he was raised from the dead, and it is essential to Christianity. Well, I'm a Christian, but I don't believe in the resurrection. No, you're a liberal trying to make yourself like a conservative Christian, but you can't be that.

You have to have a risen savior. Because think about what happened on the cross. When Jesus said it is finished, justification happened. But how do we all know it worked? God confirmed it and made evidence to the fact by raising Jesus from the dead.

Romans chapter 4 verse 25, because of his resurrection, we know justification was complete. I have a question for you. If Buddha didn't really exist, could you still be a good Buddhist? I think the answer is yes.

If Mohammed didn't really exist, could you be a good Mohammedan? Think about any, I think Sun Yung Moon, he just died last week, didn't he? Sun Yung Moon, could you say to yourself, I don't think he really existed, but we'll just be good Moonies.

Without Christ, the risen savior, Christianity, I'll just say it, it's a complete farce. It's a farce. Without Jesus being raised from the dead, even if there was a Jesus, Jesus not being raised from the dead shows us one fact, and that fact is Jesus was a sinner.

But since Jesus was raised from the dead, justification has happened. We can be forgiven people. I don't know about you, but I have a lot of skeletons in my closet. And I have a lot of sin that I personally don't want to pay for.

Every sin in the universe will be punished. God is just. And so the sin is either punished on you or it's punished on Jesus, the substitute. It would be a wretched group of people who would have to say to themselves, let's get together and sing some songs to this God on Sunday.

Knowing that the death knell was right around the corner and that we were going to be dead soon and then paying for our sins.

How sad. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Ebendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life transforming power of God's word through verse by verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 8 .30 and 11 a .m. and Sunday evenings at 6 p .m. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston, Massachusetts. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

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