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Want to invite you to take out your Bibles and turn with me to 1st Corinthians chapter 15 and Hold your place at verse 1 a few years ago.
I sat with a man who was an unbeliever in the Lord Jesus Christ and We were discussing various aspects about life and death And he shared with me something that I found quite interesting he He said that he had recently heard about a study that was done on People who had died and he said that in this study it showed that at death The Body weight of the person decreases slightly that you lose a little bit of weight At death and he said see Keith That's proof of an afterlife Because that's their spirit Leaving their body and I just remember thinking What more proof do we need? Than One who came out of the grave and why would he be so quick to believe? something so easily explainable as That in scientific.
I mean Bobby's worked at the funeral home forever.
We know what happens.
I worked for the funeral home for years We know what happens when the when the body dies.
There are things that happen that cause a decrease in weight.
It's a physical thing It's not the spirit leave the spirit has no substance And so as to leave the body and leave weight it but he was so quick to want to hold to something So so so physical Because he could not Trust in the simple message of the resurrected Savior And we come to first Corinthians 15 Oftentimes the focus we put on the resurrection of Christ and it is and we're going to talk about that today But one thing we shouldn't miss is that the focus of first Corinthians 15 is not so much the resurrected Christ But of our looking forward to our resurrection if the promise of first Corinthians 15 is that because Christ is raised So to will we be raised? So this morning I want us to read we're gonna start at verse 1 We're gonna go all the way down to verse 22 I wish we could read the whole chapter but we're gonna stop at verse 22 because that's where my my notes are going to take us to the focus of and and As we do I want us to just think about the argument Paul is making and it's simply this because Christ is raised So to will we who believe on him be raised as well.
Let's stand together and read verses 1 through 22 Now I would remind you brothers of the gospel I preached to you which you received 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 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received That Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures that he was buried that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures and that he appeared to Cephas then to the twelve Then he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time.
Most of whom are still alive though.
Some have fallen asleep Then he appeared to James then to all the Apostles last of all as to one untimely born he appeared also to me This is Paul writing speaking of himself For I am the least of the Apostles unworthy 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 towards 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 within me Whether then it was I or they so we preach and so you believed Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead How can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead then not even Christ has been raised and if Christ has not been raised Then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain 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 For if the dead are not raised not even Christ has been raised and if Christ has not been raised your faith is futile And you are still in your sins Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished if in Christ we have hope in this life only We are of all people Most to be pitied But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead the first fruits of those Who have fallen asleep? For as by a man came death by a man came has come also the resurrection of the dead for as in Adam all die So also in Christ shall all be made alive Father in heaven, I thank you for your word I thank you for the testimony of truth that it bears and I pray Oh Lord that I would be faithful to that truth this morning God keep me from error Keep me in the truth may it be that I decrease and Christ increases and the Holy Spirit would speak to the hearts of your people and Lord There are always those among us Who are not believers and I pray that this message would reach them as well and that your Holy Spirit would use it and bringing them to faith in Jesus name we pray Amen the title of today's message is Simply what is the gospel? I? have spent hours with Christians of various stripes Various denominations various backgrounds who could not answer one simple question What is the gospel in almost every instance? that I have sat with a group of people and Asked that question and oftentimes it will be in a small group setting whether I'm in a home or maybe at a restaurant We're sitting around a table and we'll be talking about faith and we'll be talking about the differences between you know Baptists and Lutherans and Methodists and whatnot at some point.
I just say what is the gospel? You know, what is the gospel and inevitably? Someone will say It's a death, burial and resurrection of Christ in a quote of 1st Corinthians 15 Because if we go back and simply think about what we just read Paul says I'm I'm Testifying to you of first importance the gospel I'm giving you the gospel and here it is Christ died according to the scriptures that he was buried and he was raised according to the scriptures And so when you ask them, what is the gospel some people say well, it's the death burial resurrection of Christ And that's a simple sort of if you will Scholastic answer it's almost what you think you'd find if you went into the Webster's dictionary and looked up the word gospel Well, the gospel is this and it's very simple answer but my question this morning and the question I want to seek to flesh out from this is What is it in 1st Corinthians 15? That constitutes the gospel that Paul is preaching Because some would say well, it's the death, burial and resurrection of Christ and while I would not argue with you.
I would say this those three propositions Are not alone in this passage But are upheld in this passage by an entire Idea of what it means when Paul says here.
I am giving you the gospel Paul mentions witnesses scriptural affirmation and even the federal headship of Christ all within this this text Which is addressing the gospel So this morning what I want to do is I want to show you six Aspects of the gospel which we need to understand which are in this passage There are six aspects of the gospel that if you call yourself a believer in the gospel, you need to understand Because if I ask you what the gospel is and you tell me it's a death burial and resurrection of Christ I'm gonna I'm gonna come right back and say what is it about the death burial and resurrection of Christ that makes it good news That's what gospel means, right? Tell me what is it and those three things those three propositions that make that good news So now we know where we're starting Let's let's begin you have your your outline if you'd like to follow along six aspects of the gospel number one in death there is propitiation in death there is Propitiation he tells us here.
I delivered to you as first importance what I also received that Christ died for our sins Christ died for our sins when someone says the gospel is the death burial and resurrection of Christ The first thing that comes out is what death? and That seems counterintuitive in a sense because what does gospel mean? We've already said Good news, and we normally don't start good news with death We normally don't go up to someone say hey, I've got news for you somebody died unless maybe it's somebody you just didn't like I've got good news for you.
Somebody is dead And I know you've heard me say this before and maybe you think I'm a I'm just a broken clock and I'm just constantly Repeating the same thing But let me tell you I can't help it But to say that to understand the good news of the gospel you first have to understand the bad news of sin And that's what is the start of this death? Because the whole reason why Jesus died was because of sin and that's what the text tells us It says that he was delivered as a first importance what I first received that Christ died for our sins I Mentioned this on Friday, and I said I was going to mention again this morning.
So if you were here, you're gonna hear it again We have been told and we have often said and I imagine some of you have even said this to people That sin separates us from God Sin separates us from God and while I wouldn't repudiate that statement I say that statement is not enough because here's the picture that often comes up if I say a Child is separated from his father in like a like a department store What's happening? Well, the child is upset.
He's crying He's trying to find the father the father is frantic and upset and trying to find the child in there And they're walking all around the store trying to find one another That's what we often think of when we think of separation Beloved that's not the picture the Bible gives us about our relationship to God before coming to him in salvation The relationship that we have is war The child is not frantically searching for the parent The child has a blade stuck to the throat of the parent willing to take his or her life We hate God prior to him changing our heart.
You say beloved.
Well, Keith, how do you know that? Well, the Bible tells me I don't have to make this stuff up Romans chapter 8 verses 7 and 8 for the mind that is set on the flesh is Hostile to God for it does not submit to God's law.
Indeed.
It cannot those who are in the flesh cannot please God Hostility is hatred Hostility is a Desire for war James 4 for you adulterous people.
Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God the word enmity means war It means battle.
It means hatred and That is where every person is prior to conversion.
They don't have a Longing for God they have a hatred for God and here's how I know that and I've told you this before But just to remind you how do you know that the world hates God? read a little bit of scripture to the world and see how fast they spit on you and throw tomatoes on you and throw eggs at You and tell you I don't want to hear that And you say but it's just the Word of God But they hate it Because they hate the God of the word The unbelieving person is not only separated from God.
He is God's rebellious enemy.
So God as the eternal judge Has Judged the world.
This is why the Bible says that the world is condemned already.
He's judged.
The world is guilty and Yet in his mercy he chooses to save He sends his son who takes upon himself in death the punishment for the sinner and So now the sinner is able to be reconciled to God The war has been put to bed the peace the shalom of God has been raised and now the believer stands Justified before God because of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ in his death.
We are enemies We deserved his wrath, but Christ takes the wrath in himself and that's why the gospel begins with death Propitiation satisfy God first Because God is angry at sin, I don't know God get angry about anything.
Oh, yeah Read your Bible.
The Bible says God is angry with the wicked every day Who is it that satisfies the anger of God his son? Who is it that satisfies the wrath of God his son? So good news of the gospel begins with death and in death there is propitiation satisfaction appeasement of God the second thing in burial There is confirmation We say the gospel is the death burial and resurrection.
Why is the burial even in that sentence? Write this down for those of you who are taking notes.
The gospel would not be good news if it were not also true news The gospel would not be good news if it were not also true news So, what is the burial of Christ it is a confirmation of his death The Heidelberg Catechism asked this question Why was he buried question 41 the answer he his burial testifies that he really died His burial testifies that he really died Since the time of the resurrection there have been many myths about Jesus Christ about his resurrection But the one that has stood one of the firmest ones was that he just didn't die The Romans just didn't do it They tried to kill him and he fainted on the cross and he so fooled everyone by fainting that they put him in the ground But you know what? He wasn't really dead.
Let me tell you this about Roman soldiers.
They didn't bury Living people they would not have let him off that cross if he was still alive the soldiers were Professional executioners They did one thing really well They took lives and they knew what they were doing and again The issue I have that's called the swoon theory if you've never heard it the swoon myth or the swoon theory that Jesus didn't die On the cross he simply he simply fainted he swooned and appeared as though he had died But beloved know this by consenting to burial the Roman soldiers were giving testimony to his death Because they would not have consented to his burial Otherwise and thus in the early church the burial became an integral part of the gospel not only did he die on that cross, but he was buried in that tomb to demonstrate and Confirm his death thirdly in Resurrection there is vindication.
So we've seen in death.
There's propitiation in Burial there's confirmation but in Resurrection there is vindication When Christ rose from the grave there could be no doubt at that moment that everything He said was absolutely true.
He had claimed to be the Messiah and they mocked him In fact, they mocked him while he was suffering on the cross if you're really the Messiah come down Why didn't he come down because he didn't come to earth to come down He came to earth to stay there and take our sins.
That's why he came He didn't come to earth to come off that cross.
He came to earth to die on that cross But he didn't stay dead and he didn't stay in the grave Had he stayed in the grave there would be no reason to trust his testimony because he promised he would raise Had he stayed in the grave there would be no reason to believe in what he said because what he said would have been false Because he said he was going to rise.
In fact Paul acknowledges this We've already read it in verse 14 of this passage If Christ has not been raised Then our preaching is in vain and our faith is in vain means useless our preaching is useless and our faith is useless if Christ is still in that grave if Christ didn't raise from the dead then everything we believe is you might as well just give it up You might as well go home because you're here for nothing We do not serve a dead man in a dead tomb.
We serve a living Christ Through the resurrection there is absolute assurance of his message.
The gospel is not the promise of a dead prophet It is verified and trustworthy testimony of one who is alive Muhammad died stayed dead Buddha died stayed dead.
Jesus died rose from the grave Verified by witnesses which we'll get to in a moment and some people might ask Why are you a Christian and not a Jew or a Muslim and the answer is simply this because I believe in the testimony of Jesus Christ it is the most vindicated testimony and all of history Vindicated by his resurrection And Jesus is still alive today That's how his resurrection is different.
By the way, Jesus is not the only person ever rose from the dead Lazarus rose from the dead The widow's son at Nain rose from the dead Jairus his daughter rose from the dead.
What's the difference? They all died again.
You imagine that They died once and they had to come back do it again Jesus died once and he rose again forever This is why it's called the first fruits of the resurrection because it's the first fruits of a different kind of resurrection.
He rose forever And he's still alive today.
He is right now right now the intercessor for his people He's right now right now at the right hand of God forever making intercession for the Saints He is right now.
And why is that important? Because beloved he always lives to make intercession for us.
He's always before the father standing there on or sitting there rather beside the father on our behalf as Satan seeks to make accusations Christ stands as our defender forever.
So we see In his resurrection, there's vindication of his message and a continuation of his high priestly work Now that's the three that we're used to we're used to the death and death there's perpetuation burial there's confirmation Resurrection, there's vindication, but I submit to you There's three other things that are often left out of Paul's statement here And these are the three things I really want to kind of give to you this morning Hopefully as a as a thought to provoke you to even more thought about what is the gospel? Because the fourth thing that we see is in witnesses.
There's verification and Witnesses there's verification because Paul goes to great lengths in first Corinthians 15 To describe the fact that Jesus was not simply raised to an audience of one or just a few Were that the case it could be it could easily be argued that these people were in some form of collusion But if it was one person you could say it was hallucination if it was a group of people you could say there was collusion, but no he raised to 500 people and addition to this the behavior of those people goes on to bear even more testimony of his resurrection and This is one of the things that I often use in talking to people I don't use it as a as a Evidence to believe in Jesus because the Bible says men don't need evidence to believe in God The Bible says evidence is already there that every man already knows I just simply bear witness to their conscience that they know that they're sinners But when I'm talking to believers, I'm saying what is one of the great greatest evidences of our faith The fact that all of these people who believed on Jesus Christ having seen him raised were willing to go to their death still professing Christ Beloved many men will die for something that's not true, but not knowing it's not true No, man will die for a lie knowing it's a lie And certainly hundreds of people would not die for a lie knowing it's a lie.
Certainly somebody at some point would have said oh stop We were lying None of us saw him But that's not what happened over and over and over again these Christians who saw Jesus were put to the sword and to a man would not give up the truth of what they saw Because they had seen Jesus raise from the dead but the most powerful testimony in first Corinthians 15 is not the fact that 500 people saw him alive and Not that those people were willing to go and have themselves be killed for his living The most powerful testimony is the testimony of the writer himself because that's a guy who didn't want him to be alive Who's writing? Paul What was Paul's biggest problem? He hated the church.
What did Paul want to do? he wanted to destroy the church and he says but yet God was gracious to me and I have seen the risen Christ and if There's anybody in the world who you should believe.
It's me because I didn't want it to be true.
I Hated Jesus I hated his church and now I can do nothing but profess him.
Is this not testimony enough? that I Bring to you Christ He who hated the church he who persecuted the church have been converted the conversion of Paul is one of the greatest Testimonies in the history of the world as to the truthfulness of the claims of Jesus Christ Because he who wanted the church destroyed became the biggest advocate and missionary the church would ever know So in witnesses, there's verification of what has happened Number five in Scripture there's affirmation in scripture.
There is affirmation One of the most encouraging portions of this passage is when Paul says this he said he was he was Let me go back up and read it He says for I delivered to you a first importance what I also received that Christ Jesus died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures And he goes on to say that he was raised in accordance with the scriptures You see Paul goes in this portion of the text to say look Jesus died and was raised and none of us should be surprised by this because this is what the scripture said would happen and The scriptures that he's talking about because by the way, first Corinthians probably the first book of the New Testament written The only one Outside of first Corinthians that might be possibly older would have been James Gospels way later than this So really Paul is writing here in first Corinthians What would be the first account of this this gospel of the death burial and resurrection of Christ? This is one of the this is the likely oldest book in the New Testament and here he's writing So what scriptures he's talking about certainly not talking about what he's writing Even though it is scripture and certainly he's not talking about what would come later.
He's saying according to what? old Testament which they would have called the scriptures He's saying according to that Jesus died and according to that he was raised What passages are he referring to? Well, I think specifically Isaiah 53 we talked about it Friday night.
We went through Isaiah 53 Friday night That's the picture of the suffering Messiah who would die and be raised in heaven live everlasting We see that in Isaiah 53 We see it in Psalm 22 where it talks about the fact that he would have his hands and feet pierced that they would that they would Have the time where they'd be casting lots for his clothing all that's in Psalm 22 We see in Psalm 16 10 the promise that the Holy One will not see corruption and that he will not be Abandoned to death or to Sheol, which is the Old Testament picture of the the afterlife.
He won't be abandoned there.
He will be raised There's several references in the Old Testament to an everlasting kingdom Well who will sit on that throne he who is raised to life.
He will sit on the throne of David forever In fact Nathan's prophecy to David 2nd Samuel 7 16 in your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me your throne Shall be established forever How is the throne of David established forever Through Christ the Son of David beloved knowing the gospel comes from knowing the scriptures Knowing the gospel comes from knowing the word The Bible is the source of our knowledge In fact, that's the whole doctrine of sola scriptura is that the Bible alone is the only infallible rule of faith and practice for the believer Paul knows the scriptures.
He knows they're the truth He knows we should trust in them.
So he makes his appeal based on this He says, you know, Jesus died according to the scriptures and you know, he was raised according to the scriptures So wherein does he find the affirmation in the scriptures? That's part of the gospel Because if somebody says why do you believe in Jesus? It's as simple as this the Bible tells me It's just simple the Bible tells me God gave us his word and I trust in his word Very simple Finally in number six in Christ There is representation in Christ there is representation in death.
There was propitiation and burial.
There's confirmation in resurrection There is vindication and witnesses verification and scripture affirmation But in Christ there is representation and this is where I want to take you down to verse 22 I made you read all the way to 22 for a reason And I got to be honest with you.
I could spend a whole nother sermon on verse 22 But I won't do that to you I'll just make this the last part of this sermon because verse 22 says for in Adam all die So also in Christ shall all be made alive beloved The death brings propitiation The resurrection brings vindication, but these two events These two events are verified by the burial and the witnesses so what you have is two events the burial I'm sorry the death and the resurrection which are verified by the burial and the witnesses So that's sort of how those fit together and all that's prophesied by scripture.
But how does that apply to you? How does any of this apply to you? simply all of us are sinners both by nature and by choice But first by nature Because of our relationship to Adam he acted on our behalf when he sinned You ever notice that when the Bible talks about original sin when it talks about the first sin It always talks about the sin of Adam when really it was Eve who sinned Who brought the sin to Adam? Why is it that it's laid at the feet of Adam because Eve wasn't our federal head Eve wasn't our representative Adam was Adams the representative and it's in Adam that all die and that applies to everybody Is there anybody here? That's not a son or daughter of Adam raise your hand.
Don't put my down Anybody in here not a son or daughter of Adam I Could go on further anybody here not a son or daughter of Noah.
No, you're not that either because everybody else died Everybody here is a son or daughter of Noah Who was a son of Adam? We all share the same father Adam and Adam was not just a man.
He was the head of a race The human race I don't care what color yard that's not a race We are part of one race the human race and every one of us is a son or daughter of Adam No matter what color we are We're all sons or daughters of Adam all of the spectrums of colors that we see in people we're all bound up in the DNA of Adam and Eve and in Adam and Eve there was representation of all people and In Adam, there was a federal representation, which means he was the head.
He was the representative and when he sinned we all Sinned in him.
That's why it says Paul clearly in Adam all die If you don't believe in federal headship that passage does not make sense.
And here's the beauty Because it goes on to say but in Christ All are made alive because here's the thing everybody's in Adam by nature, but we're not in Christ by nature We're in Christ by new birth So we're in Adam by birth but we're in Christ by the new birth and Everyone who is in Christ is now under a new federal head a new representative Adam represents us in death Christ represents us in life somebody says Again, how does that apply? How can I apply this? Well, the Bible says if we're in Christ We'll be made alive right that's what he says all in Christ will be made alive Well, let's look at Philippians 3 as it says this indeed I count everything Paul says I count everything is lost because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my lord for his sake I suffered the loss of all things count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law but that which comes through faith in Christ the righteousness from God that depends on Faith you say well, how does that apply pastor? it's simply this when we give up our righteousness and we give up our claims to goodness and we give up our statements of holiness and we're willing to submit ourselves to God and say we are sinners and we are Desperate and we are in need and we have no good thing to bring to you.
We are Desperate for you.
God then says welcome home son You are in my son Remember those two men who went to the temple to pray one a Pharisee and one a tax collector and the Pharisee said look at all I have done look at all the good.
I have look at and I'm not like that other man I'm not like the the tax collector and what did the tax collector do? He beat his breast and he said have mercy on me.
Oh God a sinner Jesus said I didn't come to save the righteous and by that he meant the self righteous But I've come to call sinners to repent.
That's how we know we're in him If we have recognized our sin if we know our sin to be true And we know there's nothing we can do except for cling to the feet of Christ at the base of that cross That's how we know We're in him Every man in this world stands under one of two banners he either stands out under a banner that says condemned an atom or a banner that says saved in Christ two representatives two heads two ways the way of Adam and the way of Christ and I ask you today Under which banner Do you stand father in heaven? I thank you for your word.
I thank you for the truth.
I thank you for the glory of knowing That we can stand under the banner of Christ having been clothed in his righteousness alone Faultless to stand before the throne.
I Thank you Lord for Holy Week.
I thank you for this whole week.
I thank you that we have sought To know nothing but Christ and him crucified and I pray that we've glorified him in the preaching I pray that we've glorified you in the singing.