Glory Accomplished by the God-Man Corinthians 15:1-11

One of the most tragic aspects of life is people who have no direction.

I remember having a conversation with my father about a professional athlete who found himself in all sorts of trouble.

My father said something wise. He said, this is what happens when you have no compass in life.

Historically, travelers and explorers used a compass to tell them where they were and where they needed to go.

If they didn't have a compass, they would look to the north star for direction. This was the natural way of knowing where one was located and where one needed to go.

And as we think about life, what is the ultimate compass of life?

The object that tells us where we are and where we need to go. The compass in life is the

Bible. The Bible communicates to us the meaning of life.

It tells us how we all got here. God created the heavens and the earth.

He created all living things, including you and me. When God created everything, he created everything just as it was supposed to be.

Genesis 131 says, God saw all that he created and it was very good.

At this time, at the earliest point of history, humanity lived at peace with God.

But then the bad news comes in. In the world we can see that there are serious problems and the

Bible tells us where these problems came from. In the Garden of Eden, where Adam and Eve enjoyed peace with God, they were tempted to sin by Satan.

They were told not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but they didn't listen to God. They went ahead and ate.

At this point, it was not only Adam and Eve who became sinners. Their offspring after them became sinners as well.

And you can see it right out of the gate in Genesis 4, Cain kills Abel. Every person down through the annals of history is a sinner by nature and by choice, including you and me.

But then the Bible, our compass, tells us the good news. 2 ,000 years ago,

God sent his son Jesus on a rescue mission to save sinners. And anyone who believes in him has one's sins forgiven and receives eternal life.

Those who belong to the Lord have a glorious future. The Savior of this world and the true king of this world will come down from heaven and come to this earth to dwell with his people forever.

This is where we are now. We await the return of the king to this earth.

Everyone here right now who believes this, you know this because you have the compass.

You know where you are and you know where you are going. As you look forward to that day when you meet

Christ face to face, you have a purpose. You have a reason to get out of bed in the morning.

You wake up every day knowing why you are here. You are to live your life to please him, longing for that day when you will be with Christ.

As followers of Christ, we understand the one who lived with the most unwavering focus during his time on earth.

Jesus knew his father's plan for him. The plan was always for him to preach and teach for three plus years during his ministry and then he would go to Jerusalem to die.

This morning is Palm Sunday. It is the start of Holy Week where during this week there was an unfolding of events that ended in Christ's crucifixion.

But before his crucifixion, Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, on a colt of a donkey as scripture predicted would take place in Zechariah 9.

And as he rode down the streets of Jerusalem, people shouted, Hosanna to the

Son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.

During Jesus' life, his eyes were always set on Jerusalem.

He knew his purpose and he was locked in to fulfill it.

His eyes were fixed on that week when he would be proclaimed king at the beginning and treated as a criminal at the end.

Over the next two Sundays we are taking a break from 2 Peter to focus on this grand historical event that this

Easter season every year recalls. Next Sunday we're going to zero in on the resurrection while this

Sunday we will look at an overview of this grand historical event that took place this week almost 2 ,000 years ago.

Where we are going to be this morning is in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 so I encourage you to turn there with me.

This letter that the Apostle Paul wrote, 1 Corinthians. We're going to be looking at verses 1 -11 of 1

Corinthians 15. And this sermon is titled, Glory Accomplished by the

God -Man. Glory Accomplished by the God -Man. And we're going to jump in here.

But before we jump in, let us read the text together. 1 Corinthians 15 verses 1 -11.

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 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.

Here's our big idea. What this text, this sermon is calling you to do. Understand that Christ's redemptive work changes everything.

His redemptive work changes everything. And we're going to see four reasons why in this text, and we'll see these unfold as we go through, and we're going to begin by zeroing in on verses one and two, where once again the

Apostle Paul describes the gospel that he preached, and that was received, and that was believed, unless it was believed in vain.

He reminds the Corinthians of the gospel. This Greek word translated gospel in English means good news.

In fact, the word evangelism, the Greek word is ungelion, that's where we get the word evangelical, evangelism, good news.

In the introduction, I went through the story of life, the story of this world.

Before there is good news, there is bad news. The bad news is that we are sinners deserving of God's judgment.

But the good news is that God sent his son Jesus to die in the place of sinners.

This was the good news that Paul proclaimed to the church in Corinth, as he writes in verse one, and the good news that has been proclaimed to us.

What Paul does is he tells them how they know they have received the good news. What he writes in verse two is that if you continue in the faith, then you know that you have truly believed in the gospel.

To not continue to follow Jesus is to show that you never truly believed.

First John 2 .19 tells us this. And this is the conversation that comes up.

Is it once saved, always saved? The one who truly believes this good news does not stop following Jesus.

Once the Holy Spirit enters a person, the Holy Spirit's presence continues with that person all the way to the finish line.

A few weeks back in 2 Peter, the apostle Peter told us of certain marks to look for to know whether or not someone truly has a relationship with Jesus.

And basically what Peter says is we know based on the fruit of the Spirit. And he listed eight qualities in 2

Peter 1. And these eight qualities are similar to the qualities that Paul writes about in Galatians 5.

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, self -control.

And one mark of a genuine believer, as we see here, is that genuine believers continue in the faith.

Sometimes you see people come to faith in Christ when they are young. And they continue all the way to the finish line.

And we at this church witnessed this over the last several years. And if you're new, you don't know about this couple.

But this couple is wonderful to think about, and that is Elvin and Susan Manson. Elvin and Susan Manson were at this church for decade after decade after decade.

In fact, Elvin was at this church for nine decades. Ninety -three years.

In an era of church hopping, he never church hopped. This was his church. One time

I was talking with him about the pastors that he went through in this church. And he's like, I didn't like that guy that much.

But he stuck it out. He was a man who persevered all the way to the finish line.

And Susan was in this church since she was 17 years old. And they continued and walked faithfully with the

Lord year after year, decade after decade. And that's why we call that building over there the Matson Building.

We named that building to honor them. But I've also seen the other side of this in my life.

And you have maybe as well. When I was an associate pastor at my old church,

Mound Evangelical Free Church, there was a young man, a couple years younger than me, who was a pastoral intern there.

We had a friends group at this time, and he was in that friends group. And I remember having deep conversations with him about the things of God.

By all accounts, this young man was a genuine believer. In the winter of 2014,

I remember that he taught a Sunday school class while he was a pastoral intern. And one day

I was shocked when my brother told me that he announced on his social media account that he was no longer a

Christian, but had become an atheist. I was stunned.

I noticed some rough edges in him, but I was stunned to find out that the faith he once espoused, he now rejected.

One thing became noticeable in his life. There was no longer any joy in him.

I would see pictures of him after this, and he would not crack a smile. He has remained committed in his unbelief ten years later, showing that he was never truly saved to begin with, even though I and others thought he was.

This is what Paul is saying in verses 1 and 2. To not continue to believe in the good news of what

Jesus accomplished is to show that you never truly believed. What Paul is also communicating in these verses is that this good news that he proclaimed, and we proclaim, the gospel, is the only hope for the world.

Let me say that again. The gospel, the good news, is the only hope for the world.

It sure is a bad news world out there. I mean, just look around. When you pull up the news in the morning, what you see every day is that this world is falling apart.

Look at what sin has done to this world, and every sinner, apart from Christ, stands condemned before God.

We see darkness all over the place, and this darkness starts in the hearts of every man, woman, and child.

As Isaiah 53 .6 says, All we like sheep have gone astray, everyone to his own way, but the

Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. It's a bad news world, and the reality of the darkness we have in our own hearts is obvious.

And we need to be delivered from God's judgment. He went to the cross. He died for our sins.

And what Jesus did at the cross is that he bore the holy wrath of his Father. He faced hell for you.

We think, well, what is the wrath of God? The wrath of God is what people in hell experience. They experience for all eternity the displeasure of God.

Where once you believe in Christ, this displeasure that he has towards you is turned towards favor.

Remarkably. And when he hung on that cross at Golgotha for six hours, what he experienced as he hung on that cross for the first time ever was the displeasure of his

Father. Think about that. They enjoyed this sweet fellowship for all eternity. And in that moment, he experienced

God's anger because of what he had on him. He took our sins upon him in that moment, in that time.

Jesus came to deliver us from sin, Satan, and the luring of the world, and the consequences of belonging to this darkness, to deliver us from this to sweet fellowship with him forever.

So what we've seen in this first point is understand that Christ's redemptive work changes everything.

And the first reason why is that in a bad news world, good news is proclaimed. The second reason why you are to understand that Christ's redemptive work changes everything is this.

In the darkness, God predicted the coming light. And let's look at this in verses 3 and 4 where once again

Paul writes, 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.

It's hard for us to imagine this, but at one time, as I mentioned already, there was no sin.

There was no pain. There was no death. There was no evil. There were no thorns and thistles on this planet

Earth. In the Garden of Eden, there was perfection as God and man dwelled together.

But then darkness entered the world when Adam and Eve sinned. But even though there was darkness,

God in his great mercy had a plan. As he brought judgment to the world, he told of the light that was coming.

He predicted it right away and throughout the rest of the Old Testament. What Paul writes in these verses is that Christ died and was raised according to the scriptures.

What does he have in mind here as he's writing this? Because at this time, the New Testament is being written.

So when he is describing the scriptures, what he is describing is the Old Testament, the first 39 books of the

Bible. In the first two verses,

I already talked about the death of Christ. In our third point, I'm going to talk a little bit about the bodily resurrection of Christ.

In these events, the death and resurrection of Christ were predicted long before they happened.

The Old Testament, long before Christ came, predicted that he would come to die and rise for sinners.

And let me give you a few of these passages that predicted his coming. The first one is right out of the gate,

Genesis 3 .15. That prophecy predicts that he would crush the head of the serpent.

Satan would bruise his heel, but he would crush the serpent. And the bruising of his heel is describing his crucifixion.

It was a severe thing that happened to Jesus, but it was far less severe than what happened to Satan.

To be bruised in the heel is far less than to be crushed in the head. And that's what

Jesus did when he died on the cross. He crushed the head of Satan. That comes from Genesis 3 .15.

And then in Psalm 22, King David describes his experience of suffering. And as he describes his experience of suffering, one can tell that he is describing not just his experience, but also the experience of the future

Messiah. And that's where Jesus quoted, My God, my

God, why have you forsaken me? That comes from Psalm 22.

And then we have Isaiah 53, the prophet Isaiah. This is the passage that Keith read this morning.

This is the most vivid description of the suffering of the Messiah. And what is remarkable is that at this point in history, crucifixion had not yet been invented.

Think about how remarkable that is. 700 years before he was crucified, Isaiah 53 makes this vivid prediction.

And Isaiah makes it clear that the suffering on the cross was intended to pay the penalty that people deserve for their sins.

It was the will of the Lord to crush him. He was pierced for our transgressions.

That's what this passage is communicating so clearly. And then we go to Zechariah 1210.

The prophet Zechariah wrote this concerning the future Messiah. I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and please for mercy, so that when they look on me, on me whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for me as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over me as one weeps over a firstborn.

So the Lord is communicating here, they're going to weep bitterly over me. This is describing the crucifixion of the

Lord, the Messiah. Once again, the crucifixion is described.

And once again, described before crucifixion was even invented. And what the prophet

Zechariah also describes is that the people of Israel would reject the Messiah at his first coming.

But at his second coming, the people will receive him. They will look on me whom they have pierced and weep and receive him.

And what I have mentioned to this point are passages predicting Christ's crucifixion.

But now let's look at a passage that predicted his resurrection. And that is Psalm 16 verses 9 and 10.

The psalmist writes, this is David, King David. There the psalmist is pointing ahead to the future resurrection of the

Messiah. From Adam's fall to Christ's coming, 4 ,000 years passed.

And the scriptures foretold that Christ would come and as predicted, he finally did come. 2 ,000 years ago the light shined in the darkness.

As John 1 verses 4 -8 says, There was a man sent from God whose name was

John, John the Baptist. He came as a witness to bear witness about the light that all might believe through him.

He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.

The light is Christ. When Christ came 2 ,000 years ago, he indeed was the light that came to shine in the darkness.

And anyone who believes in him belongs to the light and will shine with him forever.

As Colossians 1, 12 and 13 says, He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and has transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved

Son in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. So think about that.

On planet Earth right now, it's really simple. Life is complicated, but this is as simple as it gets.

Every person on planet Earth right now is in one of two categories. You're either in the darkness or you are in the light.

And what scripture communicates is that a majority, even most of the people are actually in the darkness.

But if you believe in Christ as your Lord, Savior and treasure, if you truly belong to him, you are in the light.

So understand that Christ's redemptive work changes everything. And the second reason why is that in the darkness,

God predicted the coming light. The third reason why that you are to understand that Christ's redemptive work changes everything is this history -altering event, the death and resurrection, actually happened.

Let's see this in verses 5 through 8. He appeared also to me.

In these verses, Paul is describing the appearance of Jesus after his resurrection.

And it's almost like against the rules as a pastor to talk about the resurrection the Sunday before Easter. But we're going to do it a little bit here.

We're going to get into this just a little bit here today. Jesus first appeared to women, but the first disciple that he appeared to was

Peter. Here he's called Cephas. Then after appearing to Peter and the other disciples,

Jesus appeared to more than 500 followers of Christ at one time. Some of these people, as of the writings of Paul, could be talked to, and they would say they saw the risen

Lord. Then after Jesus appeared to James, his brother, and the other apostles, then lastly

Paul says that he appeared to him. Paul's encounter with the resurrected

Christ was the most unique of all. In order for one to be appointed to be an apostle, that person needed to witness the bodily resurrection of Christ.

That is, to see him alive after his death. The 12 disciples minus Judas, who was replaced by Matthias, these were of course witnesses of the resurrected

Christ. But God had big plans for Paul. Paul, he set aside for him that he would be the apostle to the

Gentiles, proclaiming the gospel, covering the entire Roman world.

As the story goes in Galatians 1, Paul describes the story of his conversion. Paul's conversion is described by him and the author

Luke three times in the book of Acts. This is the story that you have heard.

Paul is on his way to Damascus to persecute more Christians, and suddenly a bright light appears.

Jesus says to Paul in Acts 9 .4, who at this time is called

Saul, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?

From that point forward, Saul, now called Paul, followed Christ and served him. But what we need to understand is that this event actually happened.

Paul is detailing it in these verses. He is telling us all the people that Jesus appeared to.

This is a historical event. A good historian details the events.

He appeared to this person, and then to this person, and then to this person. There is a reason Paul is doing this right here.

He didn't just appear to one, you'll notice. Last week we talked about Muhammad. The angel supposedly appeared to Muhammad.

I don't doubt that, but it's only one angel appearing to one man. What's interesting about scripture is that the

Lord's servants, angels, and in this case the resurrected Christ, they appear to many people, which just gives it further validation.

Now, I'm not going to say much more on this, because next Sunday, on Resurrection Sunday, we are going to look closely at the bodily resurrection of Jesus.

But just wanted to whet your appetite here this morning. So understand that Christ's redemptive work changes everything.

And the third reason why is that this history -altering event actually happened.

And here's the fourth and final reason why you are to understand that Christ's redemptive work changes everything, and that is this.

To believe in Jesus enlists you in the greatest mission. To believe in Jesus enlists you in the greatest mission.

Let's look at this in verses 9 -11, where Paul writes, 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. In this we read,

Paul confesses how unworthy he is to follow Christ. As I mentioned,

Paul was one of the chief persecutors of the church. When Stephen was martyred, Paul was there giving approval to Stephen's martyrdom.

He says that he is not worthy to be called an apostle, because he persecuted God's church.

But what is amazing about Paul's story is that God not only saved him, He transformed him.

And some have said that the greatest Christian who ever lived is the apostle Paul. This chief persecutor of the church.

So if you ever look at someone in life and say, man, this person is really going down a bad path. The Lord may have big plans for this person, and we just don't know it.

Which is, we need to pray for that. Lord, turn this person's heart toward you. May this person do great things for you in the future, just as happened with the apostle

Paul. Paul was a completely changed man from before his conversion to after.

It's interesting that when he goes to Jerusalem, they're like, what? Paul? Yeah, he really was changed.

And it's remarkable to think about. And God doesn't just save us and take us to heaven. You ever wonder that?

He doesn't just save us, okay, you're saved, you're going to heaven. He leaves us here.

I mentioned Elvin and Susan Madsen. He left them here for almost 90 years after they were saved, because they were saved as children.

God has a plan for us after He saves us. He uses us in His service.

He enlists us in His service. He gives every one of us a ministry.

Every one of us is unique. Just like every snowflake is unique, and you can look out the window later today and see that.

Just as every snowflake is unique, every one of us is unique. Every one of us has a ministry.

There are no two ministries that are exactly alike. God has a purpose for you once He saves you.

In 2 Timothy 4 -5, we are called to fulfill your ministry.

Not someone else's ministry. Your ministry. Your ministry is to follow

Jesus and to help others follow Jesus. Generally speaking, that's what your ministry is, but then there's a specific aspect of it to accomplish that.

The Lord uses you sometimes to be an instrument to bring people to salvation. Other times, He uses you to help others mature in Christ.

He uses you to help and bless others. I mentioned the blessing that I experienced this week as my friend

Adam fixed my car. It's remarkable all the different ways the

Lord can use people. The different gifting He gives so that we can be a blessing to other people.

The Lord's plan is that our life is one where we encourage others to grow in the Lord. As we desire to grow in the

Lord. You are not here to live your own life how you want. You are here to live for Him.

As 2 Corinthians 2 verses 14 -15 says, The love of Christ controls us because we have concluded this.

That one has died for all. Therefore all have died. And He died for all that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who for their sake died and was raised.

Christ rules your life and commissions you to do His work. Philippians 1 .22,

If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me.

Do you think of your life that way? Fruitful labor. You're making a difference.

That's why you're supposed to be here. You're supposed to be making a difference for God and for people. 1

Corinthians 6 .20, You were bought at a price. The price is Christ. What He did for you at the cross.

You were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.

Paul lived this. He knew that Jesus was crucified to pay for his sins. He knew that he was following a risen

Savior. And he lived accordingly. His life truly had meaning because of what

Christ did on his behalf. And the commission that Christ gave him. Paul is telling the

Corinthian church in these verses, and us, that he worked harder than any of them.

Now this sounds like he's got a brain the size of Jupiter. I worked harder than any of them.

Sounds arrogant. But it's not arrogance. He was able to be faithful to the

Lord because God saved him in Christ. And his life was one where he was empowered by the

Holy Spirit. So in other words, by the grace of God, I am what I am. Without Him, I'm nothing.

With Him, He accomplished great things through me. He's acknowledging the reality of it.

And we should desire to be able to say this about our lives. Can we say, by the

Lord's grace, He's accomplishing things through me? It was through Paul's efforts and the efforts of others that the

Lord accomplished much. And this is where the quote for humility comes in. Humility is not thinking less of yourself.

It's thinking of yourself less. It's understanding, in the whole scheme of things,

I'm small. In the whole scheme of things, the only reason I'm able to do what I'm able to do is because of God.

But we can also acknowledge that the Lord is doing things through me. That's what Paul is doing here.

It was through Paul's efforts and the efforts of others that the Lord accomplished much. If you think about it, the whole

Roman Empire was turned upside down because of Paul and the other ministers of the

Gospel. They changed the place. People go from living lives on their own, doing their own thing, living for themselves, to surrendering their life to Christ and sacrificing their life for Christ.

This small sect of followers of Jesus outlasted the mighty Roman Empire.

This is what the Gospel does. If you think about America, Christians are going to outlast the

American Empire because we serve an eternal king.

I love our country, and I know the people in this room love your country. It's one of the greatest countries in the history of this world.

But America is temporary, and we need to understand that. Christ is going to reign, and he's going to reign over an eternal kingdom.

And as we do what God calls us to do, as we live the way he calls us to live, he's going to keep transforming people, he's going to keep building his kingdom, and this is the kingdom that is eternal.

Sometimes I ask the question, why is it that people come to this church? It's the coffee shop, right?

Oh wait, we don't have one. It's the rock band, right? No, we don't have one. I mean, there's lots of reasons.

It's the programs. I mean, we have some programs, but why is it that people come to this church?

We don't have the attractions that a lot of churches have. The reason people come to this church is because of the

Word of God. It's the Word of God. And it's not just the

Word of God. It's people living out the Word of God. It becomes contagious. People start reflecting Christ, and people are attracted to that.

They're not attracted to things that are external. They're attracted to things that are deep, that are lasting, that you see in the people who come here as they're transformed by the

Word of God. We are here to spread the good news in our community, and we support missionaries who do this all around the world.

But this is what we are enlisted to. We are given the greatest calling, the greatest mission this world has ever seen.

We are here to be and to make disciples of Jesus Christ wherever we go.

As I've heard a pastor say one time, we are here to be and make disciples of Jesus Christ.

Okay, so in summary here, understand that Christ's redemptive work changes everything.

And in this text, we've seen four reasons why. In a bad news world, good news is proclaimed. In the darkness,

God predicted the coming light. This history -altering event actually happened, which if it didn't happen, we're all wasting our time.

And lastly, as we have just seen, to believe in Jesus enlists you in the greatest mission. This morning, we have

Holy Week on our minds, and the text that we looked at this morning reminds us of what

Christ accomplished during this week 2 ,000 years ago. He came as a king on Sunday, riding in to Jerusalem on a donkey, and then showed himself to be our

Savior only a handful of days later as he was crucified on the cross. This is what this week is all about, and so we need to be mindful of it as we go through this week.

And just as Paul recounted the reality of what Christ did and the transformation that he experienced, may we too live transformed lives for Christ's sake.

2 ,000 years ago, the God -man accomplished glory, and remarkably, as we follow him, we get to share in this glory as well.

The next Sunday is Resurrection Sunday, and we are going to focus exclusively on the reality of the bodily resurrection of Jesus, which is described in four

Gospels, but we're going to look at the Gospel of John in John 20. But as we close, let's close in prayer at this time.

And if you bow your heads with me, thank you. Father in Heaven, we do thank you for this time that we've had to feast on your word from 1

Corinthians 15, verses 1 -11, and what a treasure it is that we've seen this morning that this event that happened 2 ,000 years ago, the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, we feast on this understanding that our very lives depend on it.

It is the hope of the world. It is the good news. And my prayer is that everyone in this room would have a sincere relationship with Christ, that everyone in this room would believe in this good news, that Christ died in their place, that he suffered in their place, that he paid the penalty for their sins in their place, so that they never have to.

My prayer is that everyone here would have that saving faith in Jesus Christ.

And help us, Lord, everyone here who knows Christ as their Lord, Savior, and treasure, that we would understand our mission here is to follow the example of Paul.

He worked hard for the sake of Christ. And help us to do that in the different places you have placed us, with the different ministries that you have given us.

Help us to fulfill these ministries with all our might through your power.