1 Corinthians 15:1-11 Of First Importance

You're listening to the podcast of Recast Church in Mattawan, Michigan. This week, Pastor Don Filsick preaches from his sermon series titled, 1

Corinthians, Sinful Church, Powerful Gospel. Let's listen in. Well, good morning and welcome to Recast Church.

I'm Don Filsick. I'm the lead pastor here. And here we are, church. We're gathered together in the name of our

Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He is our Lord. He is our Savior. He is our hope.

He is our love. And He is our King. Amen? So, this morning's scripture has us looking into something that Paul reminds us is of first importance.

And I just want to clarify for you that there's only one thing that can be first. There's only one thing that can be of first importance.

Only one thing that is that is possible for us to say is vital to us in that first sense.

So, we ought to listen up. We ought to pay attention this morning to 1 Corinthians. For the past several sermons in 1

Corinthians, the focus has been somewhat on the church. And that makes sense in a letter written to a church that is to correct them, what they were thinking and what they were doing wrong.

And so, the focus has been a lot on their behavior and their actions and correcting that. What did we do when we gathered together?

But now, we kind of turn a corner at the start of chapter 15 to more focus on their beliefs. And all of chapter 15 will be about resurrection.

God and His sovereignty has us in an extensive section about resurrection in the weeks leading up to Easter.

And so, we're just going to be kind of continuing to carry on in this series through 1 Corinthians. And God has orchestrated it.

I haven't. I'm not that great at timing. I mean, I can if I really needed to fudge things, but vacations and all that stuff come in here.

And I didn't plan it out super creatively, but I just think it's awesome the way that God leads us to seasons like this where I can just continue on in 1

Corinthians and we can have Easter focus. These first 11 verses will focus our attention on the gospel that comes through the proclamation of truth regarding Jesus Christ.

Our faith is rooted in the historical life, the historical actions, the historical death, the historical burial, and the historical resurrection of Jesus Christ.

And that was a lot of historical in there, but that's with emphasis to state that these things happened in real time.

They were verifiable. They happened on this planet, in this place. This is not extended mythology.

It's not fable. It's not moral tale. It is true history that we look at and that is the core of our faith.

Paul was seeking to establish unity in the church of Corinth over the gospel, the thing of first importance.

The gospel is the thing of first importance. For us as a church, let me just ask you and to challenge you to think through this this morning.

As a church, what is of first importance? What really holds us together? What is the cement of our unity?

I would contend to you that it must be the gospel or we are moving away from being a church.

And then for us as individuals, this is where it becomes challenging to us as we sit here and we listen to this message this morning.

For us, what is of first importance? It might be a little bit challenging to think through, but if you were, if somebody were to follow you along this week,

I'm convicted to say, I don't know exactly what somebody would designate as first of importance to me if they followed me all week long.

Some weeks they might say work. Some weeks they might say money. Some weeks they might say entertainment.

And now I'll leave it up to you and the Holy Spirit to designate to you this morning what you need to take on more of in terms of gospel orientation in your life.

But man, I hope that the gospel is shining through our lives to others around us, especially at this time and season where I just have a sense, and I'm no prophet, but I have a sense that the door might be closing.

It's not closed yet, but how many of you know what I mean when I say the door might be closing on the opportunity that we have to be bold with our faith?

I mean, we should always be bold with our faith, but where it's easy, where we can share our faith quite clearly with others around us, and most of us are not at risk of getting fired from our jobs or being kicked out of our neighborhood associations or anything like that because we are

Christian and we share our faith, but we can imagine times coming where that might be the case. And so, what would it look like for us to be gospel -oriented people where it's clear that the gospel is of first importance to us?

Let's open our Bibles or your scripture journals or your devices to 1st Corinthians chapter 15, and we're gonna be just looking at these first 11 verses, 1st

Corinthians 15, 1 through 11, to see what God puts as first in importance to us.

And like I like to say every week, Recast, this is God's holy word. Probably the most valuable time for you to pay attention is right now.

Right now, where we're gonna hear, it's gonna be my voice speaking, but it's the very words of the Almighty God that he has written and recorded for us.

So, 1st Corinthians chapter 15, verses 1 through 11, I encourage you to follow along and hear from him.

Then he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time, most of them who 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's pray as the band comes to lead us in worship this morning. Father, I thank you so much for the gospel, the simple message, a simple message that is profound in our lives, that has the impact and the push to move us from enemies of you to adopted into your family, from a life of hopelessness and futility and vanity and emptiness to a life of fruitfulness and usefulness in your kingdom of purpose.

Father, I thank you for the simple message of Jesus Christ who came here, died for our sins, was buried, and rose again on the third day.

Father, I pray that that message would have its way in our hearts, that dramatically impacts the way we live, that we would never grow bored of hearing the gospel, that it would be the very thing that saturates our hearts and minds and lives with power and with force, that sets our feet on solid ground so that we can launch out into a week of service to others, because in the gospel the oxygen mask has already been applied to us so that we can just go around giving oxygen free to everyone else.

Father, I pray that we would live that way, we would live in a boldness of proclamation of the glorious truth that rescued us and then in turn has the power to rescue others around us through their faith and their belief and their trust.

Father, I pray that you would, even now, in that joyfulness of the gospel, allow our voices to mingle now and praise to you in gladness for what you have done for us.

Let our exuberance and our joy and our fervor and our boiling over with praise and gladness be a byproduct of that very gospel that we have believed, that knowing what we what we deserved in the eternal fires of hell to what we've been rescued to eternity with you, that that would just light our hearts with gladness and joy this morning together in this gathering and we ask this in Jesus name, amen.

I encourage you, just like every week, to get comfortable but re -find your way into your Bible, into 1st

Corinthians 15, 1 through 11. It's good for you to have that on your lap so you can see the things that I'm saying over the remainder of our time is coming from God's Word but if at any time during the message you need to get up and get more coffee or juice or donut holes, while supplies last back there and if you need the restrooms those are out the double doors down the hallway on the left -hand side but we're gonna dive in here.

This section is the basis for a longer argument that's going on all throughout chapter 15 and we can be tempted to think that the only purpose

Paul has here in this section that we're looking at is an isolated reaffirmation of the gospel and particularly the resurrection.

I was taught this primarily as apologetics, primarily as a defense of the faith. Here's all the evidences for the the resurrection and here's all the people that he appeared to and as if that was the primary reason that this exists is so that I could win an argument with a non -christian or something but he starts with,

I want to remind you, remember this is to the context of the Corinthians, he's speaking into this church and he says,

I want to remind you fellow Christians in Corinth of the gospel that I originally brought to you, that I originally preached and we could read it like a friendly reminder right but this passage will serve as support for a longer correction to the church in Corinth.

You see some in Corinth were teaching falsely against the resurrection of the dead which is kind of hard for us to wrap our minds around that that someone would a group would call themselves a church and not believe in resurrection but here is purpose in reminding them of the gospel is to highlight that the gospel by which we are saved has resurrection at its very core.

What he's going to state kind of later in this passage is that it's vain or empty to believe spiritual things about God or Christ without hope in the resurrection.

He's going to seek to establish the resurrection of Jesus Christ as a historical event as a demonstration that the dead are indeed raised as evidenced by the resurrection the specific resurrection of Jesus Christ our

Lord. So as we take this section apart it stands alone as a beautiful reminder of the good news that has saved us or that has the power to save us and rescue us if we trust in it by faith but this good news doesn't just save us into a waiting room where we twiddle our thumbs waiting for Jesus to return right that's not that's not what he saved us unto but the rescue of Jesus saves us into work in the here and now for him amen we've all got a role to play we've got responsibilities it's not just waiting for that you know the sweet by and by but there is there is work that he desires for us and the gospel is the fuel for the work that he has for us in the here and now our outline for this this morning for those of you that like to take notes is this number one continuing in the gospel we find that in the first two verses one and two the second point is confirmation of the gospel verses three through eight and the third is the changing power of the gospel verses nine and eleven and look at all those

C's I alliterated for us this week just to prove that I can from time to time I just I just choose not to most of the time so yeah thank you yeah you appreciate that all right keep that in mind so if I'm alliterating

I'm alliterating for the back corner over there but our first point is this continuing in the gospel verses one and two in these first two verses

Paul is reminding them of the origin of their faith in Jesus Christ it took someone proclaiming that message in speech for them to believe but here he is again telling them something that they already know it says

I'm reminding you and he knows that they know and how does Paul know that the church in Corinth knows these things well he knows because he's the one who originally told them he's the one who proclaimed the gospel to them so I'm reminding you of those things that were first those those things that I brought to you of first importance that were the foundation of your faith early on and well

I think that Paul treats them as though they are believers I think he remains relatively agnostic or agnostic just a big word that means without knowledge he remains relatively agnostic when it comes to knowing with certainty whether any individual belongs to Jesus by faith and trust in the gospel in other words it's a little hard for us a little hard for us to determine whether somebody else is a

Christian do you get what I'm talking about how many of you just kind of look at the world around you you've hung around the church for a while and you've just recognized that you're not a very good measure of people spiritual content like what's going on in their hearts in Romans 8 16

Paul writes that and you don't need to turn over there but you could jot that reference down and look it up later it's a it's a good reference

Romans 8 16 Paul writes that each person must depend on internal confidence that they indeed are resting and holding fast to the gospel that they are indeed saved by faith in the gospel this is what he says in Romans 8 16 to quote him the spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God what

I'm getting at is that Paul was slow to give anyone confidence lest they trust in his endorsement what's

Paul's endorsement do you really care what Paul thinks about your eternal state do you really care what Dom thinks

I mean you meet me with me in my own office and you say I just don't really know where I'm at him do you want to hear me say yeah you're in yeah you're okay you're all right with God is that is that valuable to you does that really matter

I don't have the keys to heaven over your life I mean it's uh it's more important that the spirit himself bears witness in your spirit that you are his

Paul was slow to give confidence lest they trust in his endorsement and I'm also slow to give confidence to anyone that they are saved

I can see only external evidences that's the same thing that you can see you don't ever see a changed heart you can't point to somebody say your heart has changed what you can do is see the externals and how many of you know that anybody can fake kindness for a season at least you know

I'm talking about you can fake good deeds you can attend church without believing in Jesus Christ or trusting in him fully for your for your salvation you can even have a testimony of your conversion without being converted

I had a I had a suite mate in college just to give you an illustration a story it's true story

I had a suite mate in college who played baseball for the Christian liberal arts college that I attended the the college itself was going through a slump back in the 90s when

I was attending there and I went to a Bible college for two years transferred to a Christian liberal arts graduated with a bachelor's degree there and I was there my junior year and I had a room with a bunch of freshmen and sophomores because they had a requirement on campus that your first semester there you had to stay in the dorms it was just kind of like oh so my suite mate across the bathroom from me like two guys in one room two guys in another and the bathroom in between and he was there on a scholarship to play baseball and he gave over the course of that semester zero evidence of the

Spirit's life within him and it culminated in conversations where he told me outright I don't believe any of this hocus -pocus

I don't believe the gospel I don't believe Jesus and I asked him I said how did you how did you like fill out your application your application required you to say that you have a relationship with Jesus Christ how did you manage that and in a moment of honesty he said

I talked with a Christian friend from high school and I gleaned enough to fudge a testimony on the application to get through and then he went off to spring break in Florida he came back

I met the love of his life packed up partway through his sophomore year and ran off with a girl and her son he didn't have me fooled but he had the school fooled and how many of you know that Paul here acknowledges he could be fooled

I believe that the elders of this church who read your membership applications read your testimony we could be fooled I can be fooled and I'm actually quite gracious if you give me a credible testimony

I just believe you you tell me that you have given your life to Christ I'm gonna believe you and then I'm gonna then we're gonna talk about the fruit and we're gonna see the fruit over time but I'm not gonna call you a liar

I'm not gonna not gonna not gonna get a mind too deep but here in Corinth in Corinth Corinth has had a borderline wild spring break going on in their church and Paul's acknowledging it so he's reminding them

I preached the gospel to you you seem to have received it I trust that you're standing in it and it is saving you as long as you keep holding to the word the gospel that I preached unless and then he adds this caveat at the end unless you believed in vain so from this from these two verses verses 1 & 2 we can glean the following insights about the good news of Jesus Christ five insights here

I'm pretty brief and pretty quick coming at you the first is it must be preached so if you're taking notes this is kind of like in verses 1 & 2 this is the structure it must be preached news is a spoken message news requires words nobody is sharing the gospel when they are digging a well in Africa like that's not the gospel it is not the gospel that you are feeding the hungry down at the food at the food pantry or that you're going down to the gospel mission and volunteering that is not the gospel it's nice it's kind it's good works but it is not the gospel

I've said this often but the gospel comes to a person through spoken a spoken proclaimed message about Jesus Christ it must be spoken to be the gospel the gospel is not good works done for people the gospel is not doing a good job for your employer the gospel is not being a good neighbor a good brother a good citizen the gospel is a good message about Jesus Christ the content of that message is going to come in the second point the second big movement of this text but for now

Paul tells us that the gospel is something preached to the Corinthians with his mouth he spoke it you are not you are not proclaiming the gospel if you are not either writing words or or speaking words words are required the second thing is that the gospel must be received so it's it's proclaimed it must be preached but it also must be received and this might seem obvious to most all of us but this this speaks to the moment of conversion that it's received when it's received it's both believed with mental assent and trusted with our will belief is kind of I would say more the mental side but when combined with trust we get faith faith that rescues us that can save us by trust in the message

I can believe that Jesus died for my sin I rather I can believe that Jesus died for sins without believing that he died for my sins you see what

I'm saying you can't believe facts without making it personal I can believe that Jesus died for sins but keep my trust in my own good works or my own righteousness or my church attendance or my tithing or my my when saving faith is a complete and utter trust in what

Jesus has done receiving the gospel is hearing it believing it is true and placing my trust in that good news alone for my rescue from sins third the gospel places us in a new position

I love this one the phrase in which you stand the gospel is where you stand

Corinth he says it shows that the gospel is like a location like saying you stand in an elevator you stand on a rock it's a it's a place a place thing in which you stand in this case

Paul was trusting due to the profession of faith at Corinth that they now stand in a place called the gospel where the gospel is received the people stand in a new place their feet our feet taken from the unstable shifting sand of sinful priorities our feet taken from the ever -moving target of cultural acceptability our standing no longer in hopelessness and moved away from the ever -present hopelessness of a life lived without any true measure of success what is the measure of success for the world today is it is it how much you enjoy and how much you squeeze out of this life is it money is how much you money you have at the end is it is even in a in a more like what sounds right to our ears is how much you loved like somebody even on a on a positive side and kind of moving towards well at least some spiritual notions is well how much you loved if you loved well then that's a good target but how many know that's a tough target

I guess shifting that's moving right I know the gospel places us in a different place and we are placed on the solid foundation of love and grace toward us in Jesus Christ a firm foundation on which we can launch out into lives of service and love for others because our foundation is stable our foundation is rock -solid in the gospel of Jesus Christ amen so the fourth thing is the gospel saves us progressively when once it's received by belief and trust once conversion has happened and we've we've trusted in the gospel then it saves us progressively as a highfalutin word sanctification a process kind of in that whole salvation realm salvation is a process that begins at a point in time but it can be really easily confused but it's not hard to illustrate from everyday things

I became a pastor back when I was hired by Berean Baptist Church in 2005 April actually

April 1st was my first day as a pastor what does that say April Fool's Day I kind of expected it to be a joke and maybe it's still proving to be

I don't know but April April 1st 2005 Berean Baptist Church hired me but I can also it can also be said that I'm still increasingly becoming a pastor

I mean I became I got that title on a day but that didn't make me a pastor it was it was a title that was given to me but it was a it's a progressive thing that has been going on in my life a point in time never confers to us our full identities because we are always changing and we are meant to be always growing we are rescued at a point when we genuinely receive

Jesus Christ and we genuinely receive the gospel but we are also being saved by the progressive work of sanctification by which

God is making us more and more like him throughout the twists and turns of life more

Christlike more like his son so the gospel saves progressively fifth the gospel is evidenced by holding fast to the

Word of God the very gospel that it that it that saves us when it's truly received it is evidenced by a perseverance it's important to identify that Paul is not saying that perfection or sinlessness or always getting it right is required to maintain your salvation no often people with more sensitive consciences will read between the lines of what

Paul is saying here and think that they need to do a bunch of things to prove to others that they are Christians and they begin in that that process begins in their heart to trust themselves for their salvation how much they give how much they attend church how good they are how much they give to the poor and that's exactly the opposite of what following the logic of this passage ought to produce in our hearts what is

Paul saying that one truly saved will hold fast to they say they will hold fast to their good works hold fast to their church attendance hold fast to tithing no look with me at verse 2 and by which you are being saved if you hold fast to what what does the text say next to the word to the word

I preached to you the word preached to you in context is the gospel that's what he's talking about holding fast and keeping the gospel the thing in front of you the one who has truly received

Jesus Christ a Savior will continue to hold to the gospel their trust will remain in Christ and his cross trust in the empty tomb will be our hope his sinless perfection credited to us our filthy sin laid upon him there him paying the punishment is our substitute in our place

I think all of us have experienced probably in our lifetime someone who seemed to have a strong faith in Christ and they then deconstructed before our very eyes a word that you it's more common today than it was a while ago and some would say some might be tempted to think oh they lost their salvation and despite it being very nuanced

I would say no they never had salvation to begin with they may have known the gospel they may have even believed it was true as in the end of verse 2 as it declares there but they never received it by faith

I find it interesting that Paul speaks this way over a very jacked up church this place is messed up and this shows me that he had room in his understanding of the gospel for a really messed up Christian yes that's possible it's possible that maybe you all are just messed up but you're actually in the faith and he had trust that God would correct them if that's the case but what he's warning them against here you need to understand what is he warning the church against what's he warning us against a gospel less

Christian a gospel is Christian that is not a thing church a

Christian that doesn't believe in the sacrificial death of Christ is not a thing if there's that's they're not a

Christian a Christian that rejects the resurrection of Jesus it's not a thing are you getting what I'm saying like that's not that's not real but you can't say

I'm a Christian I just don't believe in resurrection I'm a Christian but I I just don't believe in that whole bloody atonement thing that's that makes you outside of the realm of a

Christian at that point one might believe a lot of things about Jesus but that is empty belief like as in even the demons believe many facts and things about Jesus but they do not trust him they do not rest in him they do not hold fast to the message with any sense of hope now there's a type of belief that is just factual assent to things without trust without resting in him recast church the instruction from this first point is simply this continue in the gospel continue in the gospel keep that your thing make that your one thing

I say this often I'm kind of I get up here and I'm a one -trick pony there is one message

I want you to hear loud and clear over a lifetime of preaching the gospel that Jesus died for our sins that he was buried and then he rose again on the third day

I hope you hear that through me regularly hold fast to that message hold fast to the cross and the empty tomb by which you are being saved and this leads

Paul into a very simple and formulaic creed of that which is a first importance to the Christian message the gospel itself the gospel message is so simple and yet it's very rich in its implications so our second point is the confirmation of the gospel verses 3 through 8

Paul delivered to them mail he had received from someone else I delivered that to you which

I also received namely who was it that he heard it from who did he receive it from Jesus Christ himself he's saying in verse 3 that he was not the author of the gospel it was a message given to him now it must be some level of hyperbole or exaggeration that he said to them earlier in this very letter that he preached nothing to them but Christ and him crucified he also included burial and resurrection in his original message by what he's reminding them of here but the atoning work of Jesus his work on the cross clearly took center stage in Paul's messaging wherever he went the cross was central but here is the simplicity of the gospel message that church has worked so hard to complexificate over the years

I like to use the word complexificate because it's not a real word but it makes it complicated so you get what I'm saying so we have made it so complex have we not where I mean the gospel includes things like you know in our world today and the global Christian scene the gospel includes wells in Africa it includes buying a goat for somebody in a village it includes the the the meals that we hand out right and we give to people or it includes giving money to that guy holding the cardboard sign at the corner and we have a tendency to to wrap a bunch of things up in the gospel including our good works right if we're not careful there are things lodged in our own hearts that we need to be ready to be convicted of when

I give you these three simple points of the gospel it's such a simple message church that we ought to be able to communicate it anywhere at any time and here it is are you ready for it how concise can you state the gospel in how many words can you state the gospel here it is

Christ died for our sins Christ was buried and Christ really raised there's a gospel and and honestly

I would I would contend to you as I'm gonna go through these that Christ was buried as kind of an addition in case they might think he didn't really die you can get it even shorter

Christ died for our sins and rose again victorious on the third day that's the gospel message it's a message about him not a message about me it's not about my goodness it's not about my worth it's not about what

I can accomplish it's not about what a bargain he got when he bought me not at all

Christ died why for our sins this is the first one here in this simple declaration a confirmation of the gospel

Christ died for our sins this simple statement is a profound declaration regarding the death of Jesus in accordance with the scriptures why does he say in accordance with the scriptures scriptures like Isaiah 53 jot that note down and if you've got one of those scripture journals or whatever you're taking notes

Isaiah 53 and go back and read that his death was an atoning substitution for our sins the little phrase for our sins is just packed there's so much there and it is unpacked in various Old Testament and many many many

New Testament passages but the simple way to state this is he died to remove the consequences of our sins by bearing the punishment that they deserved him dying in our place him taking the punishment in our place that we deserved church hallelujah hallelujah my sins are gone and I bear them no more because Christ died for my sins it gives me chills to say that it also is just shocking it's scandalous it's startling that he would pay attention to me and come to me in my need and rescue me have you experienced it do you know it is that where your trust rests today is that of first importance to you the second thing is he was buried

Christ was buried I believe that this is an extra on the set with intention many times we see the gospel being the atoning death and victorious resurrection of Jesus with no mention of his burial

I don't believe that you have to mention the burial in order to be proclaiming the gospel you just have to have him really dead so Paul has an agenda here this entire text is setting him up to tackle a belief among the

Corinthians that Jesus was raised or wasn't raised that's what they're saying he wasn't raised and if they remain in that disbelief then they're on go their original reception of the gospel is called into question by Paul they may well have just had an empty or a vain belief that was just kind of at the level of what the demons believe just kind of like facts about Jesus and we'll just can this fact we just are just gonna dismiss his resurrection and so he mentions the burial to remind them that he was dead dead not just mostly dead right miracle max doesn't make a pill that's gonna solve this one he's really dead his burial on the mention of the third day in verse 4 serves to emphasize that he was certifiably dead this matters and it certainly matters in the case of the

Corinthians otherwise we are just following a charlatan of cheap parlor tricks who claimed resurrection but was was actually really able to endure and overcome torture really well that's what you know he was able to overcome that that tomb and he probably didn't die he just kind of survived the whole thing and then tricked them into thinking you know came back three days later after taking a snooze a nice rejuvenating nap in the tomb and then

I don't know why people believe these things but that's what some people believe that he just swooned and then he wrote like rose and all of a sudden looks victorious after that kind of torture

I just don't think so and that's the third thing Christ really raised he was raised on the third day as Paul says here in the text and again according to the scriptures he appeals to a handful of Old Testament passages that give hope that God's Holy Messiah will not be left to decay or rot in the grave

Psalms that state this Messianic Psalms that declare that the Messiah will not see corruption in the grave the the resurrection is of course in this text the topic of question and so it receives the most treatment here verses five through eight each verse serves as an occurrence an event a historical event of describing the resurrection and his appearance to real -life people he's basically saying this is verifiable

Paul is not saying Jesus is raised in our hearts you know how we we kind of get this um this notion like I hear it occasionally like oh

I was just out in the woods and I saw I mean the wind was going through the trees and I was just like mom

I was just confident she was there with me or I was I was driving on a country road and deer jumps out in front of me in the dark and well the wheel just swept outside I was yeah my best friend was there with me to save me just kind of like you know and it was like what what any of you are here those kind of things you just kind of like okay like what are you talking about like and we have this idea of like a kind of romanticized view of like oh the the the ghosts of the dead guide us or direct us or something he's having none of that he's having none of that kind of notion about Jesus like oh he's just he's just raised spiritually which is probably what the

Corinthians are stating here that Jesus just ray rose from the grave they didn't like physical their entire culture was physical was bad it's full of pain it's full of frustration so Jesus probably his resurrection was just I don't think they were doubting it they were just basically saying it wasn't physical in nature it was just you know kind of a spiritual presence with us or something like that guys the grave was empty tomb was empty his body raised to new life

Paul's gonna go on in this chapter to explain that body to us in a in a way that says like his body we will one day be raised like him amen that's the hope and not only that but in this text

Paul says you struggle to believe this and he starts naming names this is safest you can go check with him he's still alive he's among us like you can go talk to him

Peter is his name and and and the 12 you can talk with them and verify they saw hit his empty tomb and then they saw him raised from the dead 500 people at one time says

Paul many of them still alive that you can go ask them James the brother of Jesus and by this time the leader in the

Church of Jerusalem an accessible guy go talk with him if you're doubting this and then he says he appeared to all the

Apostles the designation Apostle was reserved for all people who met both of these criteria two criteria to obtain the title

Apostle in the church the first is that they saw the risen

Lord they met him they saw him with their own eyes and second they were sent out by him or commissioned on his mission not everybody who saw him resurrected became an

Apostle but those he specifically sent out were Apostles and there were 12 disciples but there are more than 12

Apostles all the disciples are indeed Apostles but not all

Apostles are disciples does that make sense to you so the Apostles like Paul for example was not one of the original 12 but is indeed an

Apostle and last of all says Paul last of all last of all

Jesus appeared to me says the Apostle Paul the word last means what it sounds like and I believe that that's why he's stating it because he's not just kind of like self -deprecating with this word to say like you know

I was just the lowest of them so I was last and kind of like no because he's gonna he's gonna use a different word for that he is gonna self -deprecate himself by saying

I'm least but here last is not a metaphor the word last certainly means what it sounds like it is obvious to me that Paul quite literally thought of himself as the last of the

Apostles there are no more those who were eyewitnesses to the resurrected Christ were called to the task of founding the church at that early stage it was very very vital and important and key that they could testify as eyewitnesses of the resurrection that was so central that that God called out a certain group of people during this stage of history of human history in the church's history to let the world know and to spread the gospel and to plant the church this lets us know that what

Paul experienced on the Damascus Road is more than a mere vision but the resurrected Jesus met

Paul there in his glory and Paul is indeed self -deprecating here to demonstrate a humility that all who truly understand the gospel should exhibit if you really get the gospel a humility will follow your life he demonstrates significant surprise in the rest of this text that Jesus would come to visit him that Jesus would come to call him and the word translated in verse 8 one untimely born that's one

Greek word a one untimely born is a Greek word for a baby born too early whatever he meant by it it was likely self -deprecating he's kind of kind of just putting himself not putting himself down in a like woe is me kind of way just basically saying like I'm really not that big of a deal he likely meant that he was odd among the

Apostles so I'm even thinking a play on the name Paul I don't think I haven't heard many people declare over the years what the name

Paul means it means little one how'd you like that to be your name the little guy that's

Paul and I think what he's doing here is a bit of a riff on that I was like I was like a boy baby born too early

I'm kind of the runt of the Apostles he's saying but verses 5 through 8 serve as confirmation of the gospel and this is found in the fact of the facts rather of his death his burial and his resurrection now people have challenged me in the past regarding the falsifiability of the gospel there's a branch of scientific inquiry that asks the question how could your presupposition about the scientific theory or your hypothesis how could it be proven false what would it take to prove you false and that's a that's a that's a newer term falsifiability and kind of like scientific inquiry if there is nothing that could prove your theory false then you must be an error somewhere says the theory because you are closed off to the truth that's where the theory comes from and that's the idea or the notion behind it this method of falsifiability has been leveled against religious presuppositions by atheists and I even had someone sit in my office and level this against my faith what would it take to prove your faith false done what would it take what would it take to prove your faith to be false

Church is there anything is your faith falsifiable if you have nothing then you are just blindly following Christ without an open mind at all without any interest or curiosity or and I recommend curiosity but the answer for us as Christians to this one ought to be pretty easy it ought to be easy if you can do this one thing

I would step down from this pulpit never preach another sermon and go my way trying my best to live my life with no more faith and be hard life but if you could do this one thing it would falsify everything

I believe you know what it is show me the bones of Jesus show me where his body lay in decay show me that place and my faith is worthless it's in shambles and the whole the whole wall falls on that one truth and that is my hope but guess what

I'm confident you can't do it you can't do it our faith is based on historical facts either he died and was raised again or he didn't and we are all wasting our time and everything comes to that hinge and that leads to the last section of the text in remembering his encounter with the risen with the risen

Christ Paul launches out into a testimony of the personal change that is that that truth the gospel has wrought in his life so the changing power of the gospel and I think most of us in this room have experienced it this versus 9 through 11

Paul here is again denigrating himself to some degree far from boasting in his calling far from boasting in his usefulness or his wisdom his value to God and his causes no

Paul says he is last of the Apostles and least I'm the last one kind of like kind of like the

Indiana Jones I'm dating myself but when he slides under the door that's kind of like this just barely got through says

Paul last one and kind of the runt of the litter on top of it but we say last but not least and Paul says over his life last and least unworthy due to his persecution of the church he has caught up remembering his life of past sin here in this text and he never seems to want to miss an opportunity to boast in the life -changing power of the grace that he has found in the gospel of Jesus Christ his

Lord he's always eager to let us know last least unworthy persecutor but by the grace of God and when it comes to Scripture and when it comes to grammar in the

Bible I like big butts and I cannot lie my wife was on vacation this last week so she didn't catch that one before it got into my manuscript but if you look at the text this is a really big but with one

T verse 9 for I am the least of the Apostles unworthy to be called an

Apostle because I persecuted the church but by the grace of God I am what

I am and his grace toward me was not in vain on the contrary I worked harder than any of them though it was not

I but the grace of God that is in me all the change all the shift but by God's free gift by his grace

I am now an apostle says Paul and his grace was not empty but it produced a usefulness and it's meant to produce a usefulness in us and Paul worked hard he has worked harder he says than all the other

Apostles and I don't believe that he's boasting here he's saying that it was all by God's grace and catch this

Paul says I worked but it wasn't me that worked that's a weird phrase that's strange how can he say this and I believe he can say this because of one truth that has challenged the church down through the ages and it's simply this

God is sovereign God is sovereign

Paul is not being dumb or inconsistent in what he's writing here no he is running up against the limitations of the ability of language to express the sovereignty of God and our will and our work we work and it is

God working in and through us the reason the church has spent so much of our history arguing about this topic is

I believe in part because we lack analogy for the interface between the will of God and our walking we just don't have any analog to the world around us where that is the case we all of the all of the stories all of the anecdotes all of the things that we can think up to illustrate this all break down so we are unable to give analogy for it it is not

I but Christ who lives in me and yet I work hard and all of it is by his grace the good that I do he gets the credit and so Paul brings it back to humility in verse 11 he could care less who they believed whose voice it was that was proclaiming the glorious message of the gospel as long as they have believed the one consistent message that all of the

Apostles share they all preach Christ who died for sins was buried and was raised again on the third day and that's the consistent message he says of all the

Apostles so here's what Paul was saying on this final point the grace of God in the sacrifice of Jesus was the bridge in Paul's life from murderer against God to minister for God Jesus is the bridge between our uselessness and our usefulness

Jesus is the bridge between self -serving and others serving Paul was transformed from enemy of God to Apostle of God and the cross of Christ bridged that massive massive divide what bridge is he has he what is he had to bridge in your life to bring you from what you once were to what you are and are becoming see grace surprised

Paul grace wrecked Paul it took him off of his game he was heading he was just heading 180 miles per hour against Christ he hit the wall when he met him he was turned around and went exactly the opposite way and it should surprise us as well the gospel should surprise us grace should surprise us if you're not surprised that Jesus would save you then

I'm not sure that you are understanding who you are in your unrighteousness and who he is in his righteous perfections the gospel is the life -changing power of God to draw us up into his saving work and we cling to that hope day by day and he continues to save us day by day so let me ask you church do you have that which is a first importance

I would be ignorant to think that there is nobody here who has believed in vain that your belief has been at some level assent to mere facts like the demons not not demonic but like the demons and that they actually believe in assent to a lot of facts without an ongoing life of day -by -day trust in what

Christ has done for us and if that describes you and you're kind of just saying man I don't really know like it seems like there's a lot of mental assent in me but there is just not the trust day to day

I would encourage you to skip communion this morning and feel free to find me in the back and come and talk with me after the service or maybe there's someone here that isn't even pretending to be saved you're here here and you're just trying to figure things out you're trying to figure out who

Jesus Christ is and what he's done I'd encourage you also to come and talk with me or come and talk with Dan who was up here praying the elder on duty or come and talk with Dave Dave would love to talk with you after the service but for the rest of us who have received the truth for those of us who have been granted eternal life and our

Lord and Savior and have not believed in vain but the fruit of faith is being worked out day by day and our life's ups and downs not with perfection but with holding fast to the gospel he is your trust if I were to ask you why do you think you're going to get to heaven you would just say

Jesus or nothing I only hope is in Christ if that describes you then

I encourage you to come to the tables to remember remember the awesome and simple gospel by which we are saved and being saved and let's consider the call to proclaim this glorious message of salvation to any and all who will listen to us while we still can so come to the tables as a declaration that you needed

Jesus to be the bridge from your life of opposition to him to a life lived for him and then let's live out the gospel this week remembering his body broken for us when we take the cracker and his blood shed for us as we take that cup of juice and don't forget the empty tomb eternal eternal life is promised to all who come through receiving this simple gospel message and so we celebrate this amazing grace together this morning as we reflect in our hearts and in our minds and we reflect out to the world around us as we leave this place

Christ died for our sins Christ was buried and Christ rose again on the third day let's pray father

I thank you so much for the gospel message I thank you for the hope and the stability that it brings to a life

I just think of my own life and I I just I can be so flighty and things here and there and you're you are the stabilizing influence of my life to bring me to a place of wholeness a place of love a place of being loved and the ability to launch out into ministry and service to others because I'm in I'm in a good standing

I'm in a good place I've got hope and I've got trust and I don't have to compete with anybody else in this room trying to trying to prove myself over others that hope that's been given to me in the cross is the very basis by which

I am useful in this world father I pray that that's increasingly true of us that we are a people who go out from this place with joy and with gladness recognizing that our sins are no longer on our shoulders but have been placed on Christ and he has taken them away cast them into the sea as far as the

East is from the West so our sin is in your eyes when you look upon us you see the work of Jesus Christ the finished work of Jesus Christ the the law keeper the one who finished the law that I could not keep father

I thank you for this gospel message and I pray that you would give us boldness give us increasing knowledge of the limit of our days and to take advantage of them to be bold with this gospel message be clear about it in our hearts and then to be clear about it about it in our speech to co -workers and neighbors and family around us you know how many days were given here to live we do know that we are right now alive and able to bear this message as many days as you give us

I pray that you would make us a people of this first importance that you have loved us by sending your son

Jesus Christ to die for our sins to be buried to be raised again on the third day