WWUTT 1618 Raised on the Third Day According to the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 15:6-11)

The Scriptures as the First Witness to the Resurrection

In the 40 days between his resurrection from the dead and his ascension into heaven, Jesus was seen alive by hundreds of witnesses. But the first and most important witness is the scripture when we understand the text.

This is when we understand the text, studying God's word to reach all the riches of full assurance in Christ. Thank you for subscribing. And if this has ministered to you, please let others know about our program.

Here once again is Pastor Gabe Hughes.

Thank you, Becky. We come back to our study of 1 Corinthians chapter 15. And as with yesterday, I'm gonna begin by reading the first 11 verses from the Legacy Standard Bible. This is the word of the Lord through the Apostle Paul writing to the church in Corinth.

Now I make known to you brothers, the gospel which I proclaimed as good news to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, by which also you are saved. If you hold fast, the word which I proclaimed to you as good news, unless you believed for nothing.

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the 12.

After that, he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep. After that, he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. And last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared to me also.

For I am the least of the apostles, and not worthy 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 did not prove vain, but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me.

Whether then it was I or they, so we preach, and so you believed.". What a wonderful opening to this fantastic chapter. And we looked yesterday at verses three through five, these statements that Paul makes with regards to the gospel, summarizing it in this way.

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received. This is it, the beginning of our Christian faith is right here, believing that Jesus Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures.

Not just that he died. Yes, it is a historical event. It is written down in the New Testament, but this was according to what was prophesied in the Old Testament. You've heard preachers, particularly Andy Stanley, who is known for this, say that we must unhitch from the Old Testament.

If you unhitch from the Old Testament, you cannot know the truth, the authenticity of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now, it may not be that when you came to faith, you understood all the prophecies that had been made and what Christ had fulfilled.

But if you dismiss that, if you cut it off, then you are cutting off a very important segment of the gospel, that God had planned for this to send his son, that he would die for us as an atoning sacrifice.

We cannot cut that off. The understanding that it is by the shedding of blood that there is forgiveness of sins. That's stated in the Old Testament, it's recaptured again in the New. That's summarized in the book of Hebrews.

Without the shedding of blood, we can't be forgiven our sins. And so all of this is in fulfillment of what the scriptures said. Christ died according to the scriptures. You cannot begin the Bible in Matthew.

The Bible begins in Genesis. And we see that Christ is the fulfillment of everything that God had set in motion from before the foundation of the world. Through his divine plan and sovereign decree, it would be through the death of his son that he would reconcile all men to himself.

And saying all men, meaning people from all over the world, all kinds of men, every tribe, tongue and nation on earth, which we see fulfilled in the book of Revelation. That's what John sees. People from all over the world, around the throne, worshiping God in glory.

And all of this accomplished in Christ. He died for our sins according to the scriptures. And we looked at some of those scriptures yesterday. Those things that had prophesied the coming of Christ. You know, I can't believe that I forgot the very first one though.

Among those scriptures that I mentioned that prophesied Christ's death for us, I missed Genesis 3 .15. The first declaration of the gospel. What we refer to the Greek term for it is the Proto-Evangelium, which means it's the first gospel.

It's where in the curse that God is giving to the serpent, he says that I will put enmity between your offspring and the woman's offspring. You shall bruise his heel and he shall crush your head. And that in itself was a prophecy concerning Christ, that he would indeed be bruised.

We looked at, you know, Isaiah 53, that he was pierced for our transgression. So he would be indeed afflicted, but it would be for our benefit. His death on the cross, put to death by the very people that he created in his own image.

And this would be in submission to the will of the father, and it would be for our benefit so that whoever looks upon the son and believes, our sins are forgiven and we have everlasting life. Verse four, not only was he crucified for our sins, according to the scriptures, but he was buried and he was raised on the third day, according to the scriptures.

There were a couple of more prophecies that I missed there as well. So we mentioned like in Isaiah 53, talking about what kind of tomb he would be buried in and whom he would be buried with. We have in Psalm 22, the mention of the kind of death that he would die.

He would be pierced through his hands and his feet and that there would be the Romans that would be gambling over his garments. They cast lots for my garments. It doesn't say Romans there, but of course we see that happening at the foot of the cross.

It recounted in all four gospels, them casting lots for his garments. There's the statement in Psalm 16 about his resurrection, that his body would not see decay. And Peter pointed to that Psalm in his sermon at Pentecost in Acts chapter two.

There are a couple of other references to resurrection that I missed. One of them is in Daniel 12, and this is what we read. First couple of verses there in Daniel 12. Now at that time, Michael, the great prince who stands guard over the sons of your people will stand and there will be a time of distress such as never happened since there was a nation until that time.

And at that time, your people, everyone who was found written in the book will be rescued. And many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, those to everlasting life, but the others to reproach and everlasting contempt.

And those who have insight will shine brightly like the brightness of the expanse of heaven and those who lead the many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever. Now that's not necessarily concerning the resurrection of Christ.

It's the resurrection of the dead who are in Christ, but nonetheless, we have that mention of resurrection there in Daniel 12 that is fulfilled in Christ. Hosea six is a little more specific. So here's what we have at the start of Hosea six.

Come, let us return to Yahweh, for he has torn us, but he will heal us. He has struck us, but he will bandage us. He will make us alive after two days. He will raise us up on the third day that we may live before him.

So let us know, let us pursue to know Yahweh. That seems a little more specific there concerning that prophecy, right? So there's a couple of more prophecies about resurrection. I could have mentioned yesterday and just forgot.

I just missed those. So Daniel 12, Hosea six, if you are writing those things down, he was buried and he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures. There's another prophecy and it's not a direct prophecy.

It's an implied prophecy concerning the resurrection of Christ on the third day, but I'm not going to mention it here. It's actually going to come up again as we continue on through Corinthians. So you got to come back for more study and then you hear about another prophecy that's implied about Christ's resurrection on the third day.

And I also mentioned yesterday, of course, Jonah, the sign of Jonah pointing to Jesus being raised on the third day. He said, no sign will be given to this generation, but the sign of Jonah, who after three days and three nights was in the belly of the great fish.

So will the son of man be in the heart of the earth? So that was prophetic. As Jesus pointed to that, that was a prophecy concerning the Christ. And like I said, we'll see a couple of others coming up or at least one in particular, one pertaining to general revelation.

I'll give you a hint about that, but also pointing to the resurrection of Christ. We'll get to that as we go through 1 Corinthians here. So then Paul mentions the witnesses to Christ's resurrection. The first witness to his resurrection is the scriptures.

The Bible said Jesus would be raised and either God's a liar or he did it, right? So the Old Testament, God, through his prophets, talking about the Messiah who would come, who would die, the kind of death he was going to die.

The purpose of this death was to atone for sins. So the wrath of God is no longer on us who believe in Jesus Christ. Our sins have been atoned for. They have been washed away. He has cleansed us of all our uncleannesses.

All of this has been done in Christ. Amen. So even all of that was prophesied there in the Old Testament and God did it. He fulfilled it in his son. So the first witness, the first testimony to the resurrection, the death and resurrection of Christ is the scripture itself, Old Testament scripture.

Of course, we read it in the New Testament, but the New Testament has its authenticity even in those things that were proclaimed from the Old Testament. The New Testament fulfills the Old. So the Old Testament is talking about things that are to come.

The New Testament is testifying to those things that have come and fulfilled that which was prophesied. You need the New Testament to show that those things that were spoken about in the Old happened and you need the Old Testament to show that those things that were going to come would happen.

God fulfilling all of these things in the fullness of time, in his good timing. So then the next witness to Jesus' resurrection is Peter. That's the first name that gets mentioned here. And he appeared to Cephas then to the 12.

Now the women are not mentioned first. And we know that the women were the first to the tomb. They saw the tomb empty. Mary saw Jesus before the disciples did. Now, remember the women find the empty tomb.

The angels tell them to go and tell his disciples. Mary doesn't see Jesus until after the disciples had saw that the tomb was empty. At least that's according to what we have in John 20. So after Mary reported to the disciples what they had witnessed, Simon, Peter and John went running to the tomb and found it empty.

And then in John 20, 11, Mary was standing outside the tomb crying as she stooped to look into the tomb. And there were two angels in white sitting, one at the head and one at the feet where the body of Jesus had been lying.

And they said to her, woman, why are you crying? And she said to them, because they have taken away my Lord and I do not know where they have laid him. And when she said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there and did not know that it was Jesus.

And he said to her, woman, why are you crying? Whom are you seeking? And she thought it was the gardener. She said, sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you've laid him and I will take him away.

And Jesus said to her, Mary. And when he said her name, then she recognized him and said, rabbi, or rabboni, which means teacher. And Jesus, of course, spoke to her again there saying, stop clinging to me for I have not yet ascended to the father, but go to my brothers and say to them, I ascend to my father and your father and my God and your God.

So the women were the first witnesses to this, but whom Paul refers to here are the men because who are gonna be the first people that they will go to to get eyewitness account, to know that these things really came to fulfillment, that they really happened.

They're gonna go to the men first. They're not gonna go to the women. Men's testimony was admissible in court, but a woman's testimony was not. So if people want to hear about the resurrection of Christ in the empty tomb and witnessing his body and seeing him ascend into the heavens and all this other kind of thing, they're gonna go to the men first.

That's where they're gonna go. So that's who Paul mentions. In no way here is this meant to lessen women or say that their testimony is not important. He just knows that when people are told of this, they're gonna go talk to the men first.

So these are the men whom Paul mentions. He says Cephas, Peter. Cephas, a name that we've seen mentioned in first Corinthians already. The Corinthians knew who Peter was. Then to the 12. And that doesn't mean there was Peter and then 12 others, but that Peter was part of the 12.

So he was appeared to, looking for a single man, talk to Peter. You want more? Go look at the 12. And that includes Matthias, because Matthias who was appointed to this position in place of Judas, after Judas killed himself, he was even witness to the resurrection of Christ.

I believe I mentioned that at the end of the devotional yesterday. So then in verse six, after that, after Cephas, after the 12, he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time. Over 500 people at one time had seen Jesus alive.

Now brothers here, this is probably not in the brotherhood sense. This is specifically talking about men. So we're only referring to the men here. Many other women had seen Jesus alive. Well over a thousand people had witnessed Christ alive between his resurrection and his ascension into heaven.

After all, he was around for 40 days. If you read that in Acts chapter one, you'll see the time that we've got there. From his resurrection to his ascension into heaven, Jesus was alive post-crucifixion.

He was alive with his disciples for 40 days before he ascended into heaven. And so there were many others that witnessed him alive during that period of time. Even in his ascension, it was more than just the 11 or the 12, if you gather Matthias with them, there were more than just the 12 on that mountain that day that Jesus ascended into heaven.

There were likely at least 120 because that's the number that we're given of the number of people that were in the upper room later. When they cast lots and appointed Matthias, when the Holy Spirit came upon them, it mentions that there were 120 in all, including the women.

And Jesus' mother was numbered among them as well. So they were likely all there on the mountain and could have been many more than that that were witnessing Jesus' last words to them before he ascended into heaven.

So all these people, all these eyewitnesses that we have to Christ being alive after his death and resurrection. And Paul is saying, you can go talk to any of these people and they will tell you what they saw.

He says of those 500 brothers, most of whom remain until now. So some of them have died. Some have fallen asleep. I mean, some of the disciples had been martyred. So it could have been that some of these Christians were martyred for their faith and it could be that they just died of old age, but there were still people around.

You can still go check these eyewitness accounts. Paul is writing this letter at the time of these eyewitnesses that you could go to any of them and verify, I saw Christ crucified. I saw the place where he was buried.

I saw him alive again from the dead. The first witness is scripture. The next witness, Peter, the 12 apostles, and then more than 500 brothers to whom Christ appeared at one time. And verse seven, after that, he appeared to James, the half brother of Jesus.

And the scriptures tell us that his siblings, during his earthly ministry, his own siblings did not believe him. John 7, five, not even his brothers were believing in him. It wasn't until after his death and resurrection and he showed himself even to his own half siblings that they came to faith and believe in who he really was.

So you have the testimony of James and James will tell you when you go to James, he will say, yeah, I didn't believe him. We all thought he was crazy. We all tried to get him to stop what he was doing and come home and take care of his mother.

We have that account in the gospels. And yet he dies on a cross. He rises again from the grave. He showed himself to me. And by the grace of God, I now see my half brother in the flesh is the Lord God himself who put on flesh and dwelt among us.

James will testify to you of these things. He appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Now that one is a little confusing. That reference is a little confusing. So when we have this reference to Jesus appearing to all the apostles, are we talking about all of the sent ones?

Because that's what the word apostle means. So remember we read in the gospel of Luke about the 72 that Jesus had sent out. Luke 10, one, after this, the Lord appointed 70 others and sent them in pairs ahead of him to every city and place where he himself was going to come.

So now the Greek word that's used there for them is apostles because they were sent. So is that what this is in reference to? Or are there other apostles, others that are called apostle more than just the 12?

Is James being referenced here as an apostle? Was Barnabas an apostle? Because of the qualifications that we have of the apostles, they are to have seen the risen Lord. They had to have been personally appointed by Christ himself and they perform miracles authenticating their apostleship.

So isn't it likely that there were more than just the 12 and the apostle Paul who were able to do such things? And that's up for debate. I would say the safest, most conservative estimate to the number of apostles that there were is the 12 plus Paul, so 13.

If you wanted to add James and Barnabas, then you've got 15. And maybe you could say there were a dozen others that are unnamed. But one thing is for sure, you would not be able to say that there are any apostles today.

The apostles of the first century church period, when what we refer to as the apostolic age, the time during the life of the apostles, which came to a conclusion with the death of John in Ephesus at the end of the first century, okay?

So it's that period there in the first century, the apostolic age, that was the time of the apostles. That was the time when God appointed apostles, they preached the gospel, they verified their apostleship through the miracles that they performed.

There would be no other apostles appointed after them. How do we know that? Because of what Paul says in the next verse, verse eight. And last of all. So we're talking about those people to whom Christ appeared.

Paul lists the names. The last one to whom Christ appeared was Paul. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared to me also. And that's it. Paul was the last one. He was the last one to see the risen Christ.

And then Jesus would not show himself again until his return. And as he gave this warning in Matthew chapter 24, there are many who are gonna come in my name and they're gonna say, look, there is the Christ.

Do not believe them for his lightning shines from the east as far as the west, so will be the coming of the son of man. So his next return is gonna be seen by the whole world. He's not coming in the secret places.

He's not appearing to a select few group of people. His return will be seen by everybody. Those who see him who believe in him will marvel and those who do not believe will fear for judgment has come upon them.

Paul talks about that at the beginning of 2 Thessalonians chapter one. So Paul is the last apostle appointed. Therefore, anybody who today calls themselves an apostle, they are lying because Paul had plainly stated there would be no more apostles appointed after him.

And then in verse nine, for I am the least of the apostles and not worthy to be called an apostle. Why is that? Because of all the apostles, he was the only one who persecuted the church of God. But it's by the grace of God, Paul says, that I am what I am.

God showing mercy to him, forgiving him and even appointing him to this place of apostleship. As Jesus had said to Ananias in Acts chapter nine about Paul, I am gonna show him how much he must suffer for my name.

And his grace toward me did not prove vain, but I labored even more than all of them. Yet not I, but the grace of God that is with me. Paul has done even more work than the rest of the apostles have done for the advancement of the gospel throughout the Roman empire and even throughout the world.

And this is not him boasting because remember what he said back in chapter one, it is not for us to boast. We boast in him alone. It is God's doing that you are in Christ Jesus. It's God's doing that Paul is an apostle of Jesus Christ, boasting not in himself, but the grace of God.

Verse 11, whether then it was I or they, whether it was me or the other apostles. So he's not putting himself above the other guys, whether it was I or they, we preach and so you believed. Heavenly father, we thank you for the good news that has been preached to us.

And may we go out and preach it to others for how will they believe unless they are told. We call the world to repentance of their sin and to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And those who believe in him will not perish, but be saved from the judgment of God and have everlasting life with you in your eternal kingdom.

It is in the name of Christ that we pray, amen.

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