Sunday Sermon: According to the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 15:3-4)

You are listening to the teaching ministry of Gabriel Hughes, pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Junction City, Kansas. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday on this podcast, we feature 20 minutes of Bible study through a New Testament book.

On Thursday is our Old Testament study, and then we answer questions from listeners on Friday. Each Sunday we are pleased to share our sermon series, presently going through the letters to the Corinthians.

This is the sermon that was preached last week from our pulpit. Here's Pastor Gabe.

The Gospel of First Importance and the Scriptures' Witness to the Resurrection

First Corinthians 15, beginning in verse 1. Paul says,. Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel that 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 that I preached to you, unless you believed it 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 five hundred 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.

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 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.

Whether then it was I or they, so we preach, and so you believed. Let us pray. Lord, as we come to these scriptures this morning, I pray that we would see the proof, the evidence, the truth of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Son of God who came to earth, taking on the form of a man, and being found in human form, he humbled himself, and became obedient to the will of the Father, even obedient unto death.

And God raised him from the dead, and he has ascended into heaven, where he is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. And God has given him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

I pray that this truth becomes all the more apparent to us as we study this in the scriptures this morning. We ask for your spirit to be upon us, to understand your word, and to bind these words to our hearts.

We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you. You may be seated. So through the ministry of When We Understand the Text, I often field a lot of questions by email, by Twitter or Facebook, people who would ask various questions about things that are happening in the world around us.

There's lots of theology questions, lots of doctrinal questions that come to me as well, but sometimes things specifically tie into current events. So there might be a question to the effect of something like, how is it that the church should respond to social justice, to racism that is going on in the world today, to these riots that are happening in the streets because somebody believes that they have been unjustly treated, or their race or their ethnicity is not getting the rights that they deserve?

How do we respond in this culture in our world today to the sexual mores that are constantly changing, constantly shifting more liberal, men who think that they're women and women who think that they're men, people who believe that they can marry anyone that they choose regardless of sex or gender?

How is it that we respond in our world today to the bloodiness of abortion, to violence that is happening in abortion mills, children that are being killed by the thousands every day at the hands of such murderous cultural influences like Planned Parenthood?

How do we respond to murderous dictators like the leader of North Korea or leaders in the Middle East or the president of China that would put their own people to death to advance their own murderous causes?

How do we respond to the growing irreligion that is happening in the world today? Whenever we see one religion survey after the next, we see that those who identify themselves as non-religious are growing all the more even in our own society.

How do we respond to a president that just says whatever is on his mind and seems not to be able to bridle his tongue whatsoever or growing unrest within the two-party system that we have in the United States?

People backbiting and clawing at one another, trying to advance their own political causes. How do we respond to these things that are happening in the world today? How do we respond to athletes that are kneeling during a national anthem instead of showing a proper respect?

Or we respond to head coaches that would abandon one team for another one simply because they get a larger paycheck. These are exactly the kinds of questions that I would receive by email. Some of them you might consider to be quite relevant and pertinent.

In other words, other questions you might look at and go, well, what's the point of that? And to every one of these questions, my response is always the same. Preach the gospel. How do we respond to these things that are happening in our world today?

No matter how big or small you might consider the situation, preach the gospel. The gospel is the solution and the answer to all of it. And the Lord even assured us as he said to his disciples, in this world, you will have trouble.

So don't think when I say preach the gospel, that I mean that that's going to actually solve all the problems in this world in the sense that they won't be there anymore. As Jesus said, you will have tribulation.

But take heart, I have overcome the world. The apostle Paul in his final letter to Timothy in 2nd Timothy assured him of all of the trouble that was going to happen in this world. He also said to Timothy that those who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.

That there will be false teachers that are going to rise up and attempt to lead many people astray. Why are there so many false teachers in the world? Because God said that there would be false teachers in the world.

It is a fulfillment of exactly what the Bible says we would experience as we go out holding out the gospel of Jesus Christ. There would be those who would attempt to malign the truth. There are those who are going to do evil.

But the gospel is the only message that saves. That would save a person from being led astray by the message of false teachers or be led into despair because of all the evil and the atrocities that happen in this world.

Only the gospel can rescue. Only the gospel gives us hope from this world into the next. That we know this world is not our final resting place. As the old spiritual says, this world is not my home. I'm just a passing through.

And our hope is heaven and glory with Christ Jesus our Lord. Not in anything in this world that is wasting away. As our Lord Christ has said, heaven and earth will pass away. But my word will never pass away.

It is by that word, the glorious gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ that we are saved and we are being saved. And we will be delivered into his eternal kingdom. If you believe on the name of Jesus Christ.

So Paul brings to the attention of the Corinthians the message of this gospel. The gospel is the solution to the disruption that has been going on in the Corinthian church. It is also our hope in which we stand.

As he says again that we read the two verses we looked at last week. 1 Corinthians 15, 1 and 2. I would remind you brothers of the gospel I preached to you. Which you received, in which you stand, by which you are being saved.

If you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. You don't believe this to serve yourself. You believe to the glory of God. It is all to his glory and to his righteousness.

That we are the body of Christ. That we are growing together in our understanding of these things. You know there are so many different things that are going on in the world that we might know the perfect Bible verse for.

And we could speak directly into that situation and we should. But we should have an understanding that those that are outside the walls of the church are not immediately going to be persuaded when you would say something to them about what the Bible says about the sin that they are living in.

They don't care about what the Bible says. They are in rebellion against God. That's exactly why they are walking in the sin that they are in. So you can speak to that particular situation. You can say the Bible says this about homosexuality.

The Bible says this about abortion. The Bible says this about the sexual immorality that you are walking in. The Bible says this about the greed that you are pursuing. The pride that you are storing up for yourself.

The animosity that you have against your fellow man. But ultimately what that person needs is not what the Bible says about their particular sin. What they need is the gospel of Christ. That Christ died for sin so that if they would repent and believe in Him, they will be saved.

Their sins will be forgiven. And then once they have a new heart and a new mind, which is granted to them in the Spirit of God, then they're able to receive the instruction with conviction and know by the Spirit of God they will be corrected in their lives of the places where they have been in rebellion.

But it's not until they come to believe on Jesus Christ that they'll believe anything else that the Bible says about the sin that they are walking in. So when I say to you that the Bible says to not be in strife against one another, I hope that your hearts are convicted in that and that you would seek to desire the unity of the bond of peace, which is in the Holy Spirit of God, and not want to be divided.

This is the gospel in which we stand and by which we are being saved. These are the things that we talked about last week. So we are being shaped in the holiness of God. It is by the Word of God that we heard and we repented and we believed.

And it is by the Word of God that we are also being sanctified, being grown in holiness, being made more and more like our Savior Christ. Look at verse 3. What's most important? The gospel. 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 and he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures.

So Paul lays out here in verses 3 through 11, a defense of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And he appeals to three witnesses. The first witness we just read, verses 3 and 4, the first witness is the scriptures.

The second witness is the multitude of people that Jesus appeared to between his resurrection and his ascension into heaven. That's in verses 4 through 7. And then in verses 8 through 11, his appeal is to his own personal witness.

Paul, who saw the risen Christ appear to him on the road to Damascus, he says in verse 8, last of all is to one untimely untimely born, he appeared also to me for I am the least of the apostles. And we'll talk about why Paul refers to himself that way when we get to that particular section.

Let's come back to verses 3 and 4. So we'll look at this first witness first. It is the scriptures. All of this is being tied into the authenticity and the truthfulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The scriptures testify to it.

The apostles and the other witnesses who saw Jesus alive, they testify to it. And thirdly, the apostle Paul himself testifies to it. I saw the risen Christ and I can testify from myself that the gospel changed me and it will change you also.

Verses 3 and 4, for I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received. The gospel is of first importance. We as a church are built upon the gospel of Jesus Christ. In Matthew chapter 16, when Jesus said to Peter, on this rock, I will build my church.

Peter is not the rock on which Christ built his church. It was the truth claim that Peter made. You are the Christ, the son of the living God. And it is on this truth that the church is built. And so when you go to our website and you read through our mission statement, the first thing that you have on there is a declaration of the gospel that we believe.

It's scripture that is laid out there as the foundation upon which the church is built, even in our own mission statement as a church. The gospel is of first importance. The gospel is what I will preach to my dying breath, God willing, for it is the gospel that has saved us and it is the gospel that grows us in this salvation that we have received in Christ.

It is of first importance. Earlier this week, I got in a discussion with somebody, someone who read something on my blog and contacted me, had a problem with something that I said. Fancy that. And they said to me, the way that you should be solving this problem is you should be encouraging people to seek a licensed counselor, somebody who has received an education on how to educate someone else in this particular problem that they have.

That's what you should tell them first. And then when they receive the proper mental healing that they need, then you can share with them the gospel. And I said, let me repeat back to you what you just said.

And this was a person who claimed to be a Christian. So you said the thing that this person needs most of all is for someone to take the time and go get educated and get four years of schooling, get their bachelor's degree, a couple more years of schooling, get their master's degree, several more years of schooling and get a doctorate.

Then they need to start a practice. Then they need to make the awareness of their practice known so that they can, by word of mouth, appeal to some other people and say, hey, I've got this practice in which I'm helping people in this particular problem.

And then somebody who has that problem can be told about that person's practice and then they come into that practice and they pay money, a lot of money, to get the mental help that they need. And over months or years or however long this take, finally come to a place in which you decide that they're finally at a certain mental level where now they can hear and understand the gospel of Christ and maybe somewhere 10, 15, 20, 25 years down the road, they can finally be healed in their soul and in their spirit of the sin which has caused them to be fallen from God.

And if they die in that sin, that they're going to go to hell, but they need to wait 25 years before they can finally hear the message that's going to save their soul from death. Is that what you're saying?

I didn't hear from that person again after that. The gospel costs no one money. The gospel doesn't cost anybody time and energy in schooling in order to receive it and understand it. The gospel of Jesus Christ is free and must be declared for all men and must be declared now.

It is of first importance. There is nothing else that needs to be done before the gospel of Christ is proclaimed. Jesus came in his first words speaking, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And that is the same message of the gospel that we should carry to the world.

And I'm not saying that if somebody is in deep, emotional hurt, that licensed counseling cannot help them. But that's not first. The gospel is first. Because only the gospel saves. You give a person licensed professional counseling without the gospel, or the gospel is secondary.

And all you've provided for that person is a comfortable seat on their way to hell. But that is not actually saved anyone or solved any problem that is in their life. There are all sorts of things that you can give to a person to make them happy or lethargic, or make them enjoy life for a little while until their body finally passes.

And then what happens to their soul after that? The gospel is powerful enough to not only save the soul from death, but even heal your spirit of its hurt and its aches and its longing. The gospel does not guarantee us that we will not experience suffering.

But the gospel does guarantee us that there is no reason to despair in that suffering. For it is Christ that ultimately will have the last say, the last word. And in Christ alone, our hope is found. We will be rescued from the grave.

We will be rescued from the trials and tribulations of this world into his eternal kingdom, whereas we read about in Revelation 21, there will be no more tears. There will be no more hurt, no more pain.

All suffering will pass away for Christ has made all things new. The gospel is of first importance. And Paul says, I delivered to you as of first importance, what I also received, the same gospel that saves you is the same gospel that saves me.

It's not any different for any other person. Everyone needs the gospel. To be told you are dead in your sins and your trespasses. If you appear before God now in those sins, he will condemn you to hell, the judge who is the creator of all the universe.

But it is by Christ who has offered up a just sacrifice. His blood shed on the cross for our sins, so that all who believe on his name will not perish, but have everlasting life. And these are the words that Paul puts that gospel message in.

Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures. That he was buried and he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures. Notice that Paul's first appeal to the truthfulness of the gospel is not eyewitness account.

He does get to eyewitness account, but that's not his first appeal. His first appeal is not even to his own testimony or his own experiences. He does appeal to that, but that isn't first. His first appeal is to the scriptures.

Because if it didn't happen according to the scriptures, it doesn't matter what your eyes saw. It doesn't matter what you experience in your own personal flesh, or what neurons were firing in your brain, or what sort of chemical reaction happened in your neurons.

It's accordance with what the scripture says, with what God's word has proclaimed. If God's word says it, it's true. Let's go to Luke chapter 24. So from 1 Corinthians 15, flip to the left a few books to the gospels, Luke chapter 24, Matthew, Mark, Luke, third book in the New Testament, Luke chapter 24.

As I said to you last week, the gospel of Luke is Paul's account of the gospel. Very much like Matthew and Mark. In fact, those three, those first three gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke are called the synoptic gospels.

Synoptic means the same. There's a lot in these three gospels that looks a lot alike. It's the same message that was preached by the apostles. This is the gospel the way that Paul preached it. Whenever he would go into those Gentile cities, and he would be preaching the gospel of Christ, it would look like the way that we read it in the gospel of Luke.

Chapter 24 is where we read about the resurrection of Christ. And Jesus showing himself and revealing himself to his disciples. Let's start at the very beginning. Luke 24, verse one. On the first day of the week at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared, the women that had come to anoint the body of Jesus.

Verse two, and they found the stone rolled away from the tomb. But when they went in, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel.

And as the women were frightened and they bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but he is risen. Remember how he told you while he was still in Galilee that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.

Verse eight, and they remembered his words. They didn't understand when they saw the open tomb, when they saw the empty tomb, when they saw two men standing there in dazzling apparel, two angels that were witnessing to them, they didn't get it until the angels reminded them of what Jesus said.

And what Jesus spoke wasn't even anything new in the sense of how he was going to go to the cross and die and be resurrected from the grave. He was speaking what was prophesied about him in the Old Testament.

And when he spoke to them the scriptures and how they pertain to him, how he was going to be the fulfillment of the law and the prophets, once the angels reminded them of what Jesus spoke, they remembered his words.

Verse nine, and returning from the tomb, they told all these things to the eleven, that would be all the apostles minus Judas, for he had hung himself, and to all the rest. Verse 10, now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles.

Mary the mother of James would be Mary the mother of Jesus, James his half-brother. But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. Verse 12, but Peter rose and ran to the tomb, stooping and looking in, and he saw the linen cloths by themselves, and he went home marveling at what had happened.

It doesn't say he believed it. It said he marveled at what had happened. The women saw it. They didn't know what to think until the angels reminded them of the words that Jesus spoke. They came back and told the apostles about it.

The apostles didn't believe it. Peter goes and he looks into the tomb. He still doesn't believe it. He's marveling, but he doesn't get it. So where do we go from here? The road to Emmaus. Verse 13, that very day, two of them were going to a village named Emmaus about seven miles from Jerusalem, and they were talking with each other about these things that had happened.

I think it's very significant that Luke writes down that Emmaus was seven miles away. Why is that significant? Because how did Jesus die? He was beaten to death, beaten, scourged, nailed to a cross, hung there for three hours, was stabbed in the side with a spear to verify that he was dead.

Then he was taken down, wrapped, placed in a tomb. So this guy who was beaten has holes in his hands and his feet, and a spear run through his side is not just going to hop up and go for a jog from Jerusalem to Emmaus.

So Luke points out it was seven miles to indicate that this resurrection of Christ that has happened is miraculous. He wasn't revived by the cool air of the tomb, which some critics have referred to as the swoon theory.

He was just laid in the tomb, the cool air of the tomb revived him, and now he's going to go on a jaunt for seven miles. But that he was indeed dead and resurrected from the grave and has this glorified body in which he is walking with those disciples as they go.

The disciples were talking with one another about these things that had happened, and while they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them. Verse 16, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him.

And he said to them, this is conversation that you're holding with each other as you walk. And they stood still and they looked at him. And I mean, you can see it like this happening. What are you talking about?

And they just stop and look at him. And they're looking sad. They stood still looking sad. Then one of them named Cleopas answered him, are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?

All this stuff that has transpired over the last 10 days or so. Or over the last week. You have the triumphal entry into Jerusalem, Jesus on the donkey, the people shouting, Hosanna, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

Such a commotion arose in Jerusalem over this that there were people that were coming to the place where Jesus was passing by and saying, who is this? What is this about? This is Jesus of Nazareth, the prophet.

And then Jesus performed many other miracles, preaching in the temple. You had the cleansing of the temple that happened during that week as well. Jesus turning over temple tables and driving out the merchants with a whip.

The commotion that that caused. Jesus being arrested, being tried in the middle of the night, but then brought before Pilate and Pilate taking him before all of the Jews and saying, what should be done with this man?

Crucify him, crucify him. Well, I'll give you a choice. I'll let free Barabbas or you can crucify Christ. Yes, give us Barabbas. Crucify him. And then Jesus was beaten again, was given a cross that he had to carry himself to the place of the skull.

Couldn't do it. So a man named Simon carried the cross the rest of the way. Jesus was nailed to that cross. He was hung according to the gospel of Mark on a roadside so that all who passed by it would see him hanging there.

This was the way that the Romans crucified criminals, the way that they killed criminals by capital punishment. So they would stand as like a signpost, as a warning to all who would attempt to rebel against the Roman empire.

And so everyone passed by, they saw these things. Jesus was taken down from that cross. He was buried quickly because the Sabbath day was coming upon them. And he was buried in the borrowed tomb of a rich man, Joseph of Arimathea.

Everyone knew Joseph and where that tomb was. And then that Sunday morning, the tomb was empty. Friday, there's a body in it. Saturday, body still there. Sunday morning, empty. All of Jerusalem knew about it.

And so they say to this man, who they do not recognize as the risen Christ, they say to him, are you the only one in Jerusalem, the only visitor who has no idea what has been going on these last few days?

And Jesus said to them, what things? I'll put you to the test here. You tell me about these things. And they said, concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet, mighty in deed and word before God, and all the people and our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be contemned to death and crucified him.

But we had hoped, we had hoped that he was the one that was going to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it's now the third day since these things happened. Moreover, some women of our company amazed us.

They were at the tomb early this morning. And when they did not find his body, they came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels who said he was alive. Some of those who were with us, they went to the tomb and they found it just as the women had said, but him they didn't see.

And Jesus, who they don't recognize as Jesus, said to them, Oh, foolish ones, foolish ones who are slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?

And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures, the things concerning himself. Notice that Jesus' rebuke was not, Oh, you foolish ones, didn't you see the empty tomb?

Don't you know there's not a body in it? You saw it with your own eyes. Why don't you believe it? That wasn't Jesus' rebuke. Why don't you believe what the prophets said? The scriptures testified that this was going to happen.

I told you it was going to happen. That very week before being led to the cross, right after, right, right after Jesus said to his disciples, all the things that were going to happen to himself. Peter says, and Jesus just said, I'm going to rise again on the third day.

And what's Peter say? No, Lord. No, I'm not going to let you do this. I'm not, I'm not going to let you go and be crucified in this way. And Jesus responding to Peter, get behind me, Satan. For you're not speaking with the mind of a man.

Or messing that up all the way through. Jesus said to Peter, get behind me, Satan. For you are not thinking with the mind of God, but with the mind of man. Jesus just said, I'm going to be turned over.

I'm going to be put to death. But don't worry, I'm coming back. And even then the apostles doubted. So it is not to their senses. It is not to their experiences that Jesus appeals to when he calls them foolish ones.

It's the scriptures that were written hundreds of years ago. This God who has always been faithful to fulfill his promises. He is doing that even now. It was necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory.

And altogether they came to the village where they were going, verse 28. And Jesus acted as if he were going farther. This is a common trait that Jesus does, by the way. Where he acts like he's going to pass them by.

He's done this before. When you read in Mark's account, Jesus walking on the water and coming out to the disciples in their boat. It says in Mark's account that he meant to pass by them. He was just going his own way.

Strolling right past the disciples before they called out to him. Because this is the way that God revealed himself to Moses in the book of Exodus. He put him in the cleft of a rock and put his hand over the rock and passed by him, proclaiming his glory.

And so Jesus did that with the disciples and he did that even here. He meant to pass them by. But they asked him to stay. They urged him strongly, verse 29. Stay with us, for it is toward evening and the day is now far spent.

So Jesus went in and stayed with them. And when he was at table with them, he took bread and he blessed it and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened and they recognized him and he vanished from their sight.

They said to each other, did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road? While he opened? He opened to us the scriptures? See, I take that as they're walking with Jesus, they're hearing him explain the scriptures, speaking in a way that only Jesus spoke.