The Resurrection (Part 2)

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.

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. 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.

And 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.

Roman 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 Muhammad didn't really exist, could you be a good

Muhammadan? Think about any, I think Sung Yong Moon, he just died last week, didn't he?

Sung Yong 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. But Jesus even knew that the Old Testament talked about a risen king,

Luke 18. Jesus said everything that is written by the prophets about the Son of Man will be fulfilled.

They will mock him, insult him, and spit on him. They will flog him and kill him. On the third day, he will rise.

That's just what the tenor of Old Testament taught. Luke 24, same thing. The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day.

The resurrection is true, or we are to be pitied. Certainty number three.

You know, one thing about Paul is he just won't stop until he's made his case. And so he says, first certainty, this is what the church has always believed.

Second certainty is scriptures teach it. Third certainty is there were eyewitnesses of the resurrection.

Be certain that Jesus was raised from the dead because there were eyewitnesses, proof. Verse five, and there we see our fourth verb there, died, buried, raised, appeared, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.

How do you establish the resurrection? He showed up later. And by the way, like creation, like salvation,

Jesus initiates when he becomes visible and appears. They could search for him all they wanted, but creation doesn't create itself.

People don't make themselves born again, and they don't find the glorified body of Jesus walking around when they want to.

He appears. Look at his own sovereign initiative. He appeared to Cephas. He didn't have to appear, but he appeared first to Cephas.

Now he appeared first to, in this grouping, first to Cephas, then to the twelve, then to the five hundred, then the other apostles.

He did appear to women first, didn't he? So it's not like he's not saying anything about that in particular, skipping over somehow he forgot it.

Now it could be that he goes to Cephas first because the Corinthians respected Peter.

It could be that he said Peter is the first one that he appeared to because in a Jewish court of law, if we're going to establish witnesses, two or three witnesses, we're going to have to have male witnesses.

Irregardless, the fact here he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.

So first he appears to Simon, and then he appears to the twelve.

Remember the twelve are the twelve apostles minus Judas. It's okay to call the eleven twelve because it's just a general term, general nomenclature for the twelve.

Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time. Where's that in the scripture? We don't know.

Most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Where are these people? Some are alive.

You go up to Jerusalem, if you'd like, from Corinth, and you could meet some of those people. I saw Jesus, the resurrected

Jesus. Or maybe some of those people have found their way down into Corinth, and some of those people are right there.

They're still alive. Twenty to twenty -five years later, people are still alive who have seen Jesus. Most are still alive.

And then he says something really, it's just very kind. For Christians alone, the word sleep is used for the death of a

Christian, because it looks like they're sleeping. Never used of an unbeliever, though some have fallen asleep.

Some are sleeping. Some of the Christians who saw him, they're dead. And so Paul is saying, this is true.

This is valid. The veracity of this really happened because there's overwhelming proof.

Then, it says in verse seven, he appeared to James. Remember the half -brother of Jesus who's the head of Jerusalem church?

They knew who he was. The same James in John 7, who didn't believe his brother, now believes his brother.

Jesus shows up and says, I'm the resurrected Messiah. And then to all the apostles.

You say, I thought the twelve were the apostles. What's that all about? The best way you can think about the word apostle, to send someone out.

Think about apostle, all caps. Who's the all caps apostle? Jesus, is called the apostle in Hebrews.

Capital A, apostle, is the twelve. But there are smaller apostles, like, who?

Barnabas, Acts 14, Andronicus, Geneas, Romans 16.

He appeared to other people. Why do we know that the resurrection is true?

It's because there are eyewitnesses. Number four, we need to get a move on here. Number four, certainties of the resurrection for our

Easter time here in September, is the apostle Paul himself testified to the resurrection.

You can be certain because Paul testified to this resurrection. Now, before we look at this verse, let me just say this to kind of get you to think.

When you evangelize, do you think you should include the resurrection? When you give your personal testimony, do you think you should give the resurrection?

When you're teaching Sunday school kids about Jesus, do you think you should talk about the risen savior? The answer is yes, yes, yes.

Matter of fact, I want you to talk about the resurrection so much, people that are visiting think the resurrection is another God. Did I just say that?

Okay, I want you to talk about the resurrection so much, they think Jesus was raised from the dead, the resurrected savior.

I don't know how many of you have been near someone who has died, but you will give everything in your power to somehow resuscitate that person, and we have no power over death, zero.

And yet Jesus raises himself from the dead. You bury a loved one, you say to yourself, built in even to the unbelievers who walk past the casket and kneel down and cross themselves, they're saying he's in a better place because when football games are on, nah, resurrection doesn't really matter much.

When there's immorality going on, resurrection doesn't really matter that much. But when there's people dead and dying, you want there to be a resurrection.

And Jesus is the only one who can raise people from the dead, and he has raised himself from the dead.

This is just the uniform message of Christianity. Last of all, Paul says in verse 8,

As to one untimely born, he also appeared to me.

Last of all. Now, I think that's last in order, and it's last in rank.

Paul says, Jesus appeared to me. Remember when that was? You should read Acts this week and see how many times Paul talks about the

Damascus Road experience. Can you imagine on your way to Damascus, and then there's Jesus, the resurrected

Jesus, and Paul said, he appeared to me as one who is untimely born. What does that mean?

The word untimely born is used one time in the New Testament, and it means miscarriage. It means stillbirth, or it means an aborted child.

Now, some scholars think this. They don't like Paul, and they gave Paul a nickname.

Remember, he didn't really look too good. Remember 2 Corinthians chapter, I think it's 10, 2 Corinthians chapter 10, 10.

He didn't really look too good, and they thought maybe he's got an eye problem. Remember, some of the other Corinthians said he can't talk very well.

Right? If you're a pastor that doesn't look good and can't talk very well, then you're pretty much to be pitied, because if you look good, well, they can just look at you, they can just drown out what you're saying.

But if you don't look good, they can listen to what you have to say, and then you're okay. So for Paul, it was, he looks gross, and he can't talk.

So some people think, some scholars, it could be true that this was the nickname given to Paul by these false teachers at Corinth, the abortion.

And Paul's like, you know what? I am. Whether they said it or not,

Paul is saying, I am. I'm like one untimely born. These other apostles, they had three years walking next to Jesus.

They would see Jesus say, Zacchaeus, get out of that tree. I'm going to your house for dinner. You're a Christian. They were there.

They had three years of gestation. But for Paul, he didn't have three years of gestation.

He was on his way to go persecute Christians, and on the Damascus Road, Jesus said, you're a

Christian. He didn't hang out with Jesus on a day -to -day basis like these men did.

Oh, he was taught by the Lord in another place, but in a different way. And so Paul says, as to one untimely born, he also appeared to me.

Lest we get too bogged down in potentials, one thing's for certain. Jesus appeared to Paul.

And then he says in verse 9, I think showing the rank more than the timing. He says in verse 9, for I am the least of the apostles.

Why? The apostles were building the church, and I was persecuting it. Unworthy to be called an apostle.

Certainly everybody's unworthy. But Paul all the more, because he's not building the church. He was trying to kill the church, because I persecuted the church of God.

That's what I was doing. But like John Newton, Paul received the grace of God.

And I think about that just for a second, and I say to myself, and I'll preach to you. When you say, or when someone else says, you know what,

I've sinned so much, and I've done so many bad sins, and I've done these particularly heinous sins.

I don't think God could ever forgive me. I'm unsavable. What would you say to them in light of this?

The Christian killer, the Christian persecutor, changed into, by the grace of God, the apostle

Paul. I am so happy that before time began, God not only knew of all my sins that I would commit, and all the skeletons in my closet, of even my thought life, and yet he sent his son to die for me anyway.

You think you're bad? You can be forgiven. Matter of fact, that's good that you think you're bad, because then you'll know

I can't save myself. I am the problem. I need a savior. I need someone who, by his own sovereign initiative, doesn't just show up, but to show up and save me.

So look what Paul says, unworthy to be an apostle, because I persecuted the church. And he's just talking about how the risen

Lord is so great, and how he condescends in grace. Even though ignoble past, he can save.

I don't deserve to be saved, Paul says, but I was saved. Why? How? Who? Verse 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 in me.

How many times you see the word grace in that passage? In verse 10, grace, grace, grace.

That is good news for sinners. We offer you grace. No wonder we'll even learn tonight in 1

Thessalonians. In the old days, people would say in Greek culture, greetings. Jewish culture, peace, shalom.

But grace is such a key concept of Christianity. That's how Christians greet each other. That's how Paul greeted the

Thessalonians, grace and what? Peace to you, grace, grace.

I don't know if you're one of two kinds of people when you hear the song Amazing Grace. Let's please sing Amazing Grace. One group of people says, well, you know what?

Doesn't seem so amazing to me, and we always sing it and just kind of try it. And unbelievers even like that, and I'm not too sure.

But Christians, when they hear about Amazing Grace, I think they're probably thinking like John Newton.

I'll never forget in his biography, John Newton said, what haunts me as a Christian today is knowing that I would take families, and I would send them to four different slave masters, and they would never see each other again.

And I live with the fact that I sent the mom to that master, the dad to that master, the kid to that master, and the other kid to that master, and I broke up a family forever.

God, could you possibly save a wretch like me? Should it be said at all that we want to change like Schuller did?

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a soul like me. Why would we want to do that?

Paul wouldn't want to do that. Anybody who knows how bad their sin is wouldn't want to do that. They want to hear about grace.

Because if you've been sinning a lot, you're forgiven much, and the praise is much. Look at Paul. I am what

I am. His grace towards me was not in vain. Some of you Corinthians chapter 15, verses 1 and 2, your faith is in vain because you didn't keep on believing the resurrection.

But I kept on believing the resurrection. I want you to keep on believing the resurrection. That faith wasn't in vain.

Why don't we start praying for our unbelieving friends? God, grace them. Send the hounds of grace to get them.

Grace them. I mean, I'm fine that grace is a name for a girl.

But here, this grace is saving grace. And so what did

Paul do? If you've been forgiven much, you don't try to work your salvation out. You try to respond with gratitude.

On the contrary, look at verse 10. I worked harder than any of them, though it was not

I, but the grace of God that was in me. I rented out the house of Tyrannus in Acts chapter 19, and I taught all day, every day for two years.

As I said, first service. Try that for an IBS class. That takes a lot of work, preparing seven classes for IBS every day for two years.

Plus, I worked manual labor. And I think the best way to work through it is backwards.

And so if you say to yourself, I don't really serve the Lord others very much. I don't really serve others very much.

I don't really have ministries that I do. Then I want to remind you about the grace of God, and I want to remind you about your sin, because if you realize how bad your sin is, how great grace is, then you'll say,

I'm not going to work, Lord, to keep my salvation. I'm not going to work to get my salvation. I'm going to work because I can't believe you saved me.

I'm indebted to you. Paul says it's not without effect.

It was labor and toil. I remember one man said, lots of Christians work, but not many toil.

Many work, but not many labor. And that's the whole mindset of, instead of somebody saying, you know, you ought to have a ministry.

There should be people running around saying, I've got to have a ministry. I've got to serve other Christians. But then what happens is, we look at other

Christians, and then they have faults, and we say to ourselves, I don't really feel like serving them. We have to see through them and say, I'm serving them because Jesus loves sinners.

I'm going to love them, too. Finally, number five. Certainty number five about Christ's resurrection.

This is a unified apostolic message. Be certain that this is what the apostles always taught.

So it's nothing new. It's nothing new. Similar to the first one, but he fleshes this out in verse 11.

Whether then it was I or they, other apostles, whether it was Peter, whether it was

James, whether it was anybody else, whether it was I or they, so we apostles preach, and so you believe.

We preach, you believe. All the apostles have the same thing.

You can read Peter. You can read the book of James. You can read the book of Hebrews. You can read the Gospels according to John.

You can read 1 John, and every apostle says it's the same Jesus, and the same faith in said

Jesus. I don't want to take too much time, but if you look at verse 11, when people say to me, why don't you do alter calls, verse 11?

Well, they don't say, why don't you do alter calls, verse 11, but they say, why don't you do verse alter calls?

No. You know what? It's that I thing's bugging me. I'm sure I could talk properly if I could just see straight.

I think of this verse. I don't do alter calls for lots of reasons, like they're not in the

New Testament, like they were started by a heretic, all kinds of other issues. It's minor, and I guess we have no alter here.

Those would all contribute. But here is the way people get saved.

We preach, and when God is pleased, he opens the heart of Lydia through preaching.

How do people get saved? Mood music, lock the doors, get everybody in here, every head bowed, every eye closed, nobody looking around.

Let's hope God is somehow working and let us see the evidence of it. No. So we preach, so they believe. We preach, you believe.

If you're not a Christian today, I don't want you to go to the prayer room. I don't want you to come to the front.

I want you to go and run to the only refuge you have, because if you don't repent, it will be better that you weren't even born than to try to pay for your own judgment.

Turn, run. Jesus, in his grace and in his love, has died on the behalf of sinners like you, and he was raised from the dead.

There's hope. I always remember my seminary professor talking about, can you imagine there's a football field, and you're standing in the center of the football field, and there's a

SEAL marksman or a Navy marksman. I don't know what these marksmen are even, what branch of the military, but they've got the sniper rifle on you, and you're at the midfield hash marks.

You're dead. There's no way out. And then he talked about this whole thing, but there was a tree there that he didn't see in the middle, and the guy stood behind the tree for salvation.

I thought, that is so right. There's one way to be saved, and that is to have your sins be paid for by Jesus, even though he didn't sin.

And so for us, if you'd like to evangelize, you don't need pressure tactics. You preach the gospel.

Can you give them urgings, and can you beg them, and can you plead with them? Yes. But God works through his word, and he either saves people or he hardens them, and that is his decision.

We preach, they believe. We preach, Isaiah 6, they don't believe. Our duty is to preach.

It's God's prerogative to save as he pleases. But for the Corinthians, in context, this was an apostolic message common to all.

So to recap it, here's what was happening. I don't really think I'm going to be raised from the dead. Paul says, you're going to be raised from the dead because Jesus was raised from the dead.

We have a great opportunity to talk about the risen Savior. By the way, I just try to say that.

Whenever I say Savior, I often just say the risen Savior. A man asked my old pastor, could you critique my message that I gave to 40 ,000 people at a large outside crusade -type event probably 15 years ago?

Could you please critique my message? The message was done and recorded, handed to my pastor. My pastor listened to it and said, good job talking about sin, good job talking about the sin bearer, but you didn't preach the gospel because you forgot the resurrection.

Died, buried, raised, appeared. Preach the resurrection.

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.

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