1 Corinthians 15:1-11
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 the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.
Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, song, epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. The Epistle reading for March 31. Easter Sunday comes from First Corinthians chapter 15, verses one through 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 a first important 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 surface, then to the 12. Then he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as 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 ends the reading. First Corinthians chapter 15, I think is one of the most important passages in Scripture for the Christian church right now. And I think so because it gives us a good correction, for the way that we talk about eternal life. And we'll talk about it in a little bit, and I'll go through it. But what Paul is trying to do right here is correct an error that the Corinthians had the Corinthians were saying, that there is no resurrection from the dead. Not that Jesus didn't rise from the dead, but that human beings don't rise from the dead. That is, salvation is not your body comes out of the grave, and returns to life. Instead, salvation is when your soul goes to heaven. Now Paul, is trying to tell them, This is not how it works. And he begins with the gospel of Jesus Christ and reminding them what happened with Jesus. So let's dive in. 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. So this opening paragraph is to remind them that what he's about to tell them is nothing new. They already heard this, Paul preached it to them, probably over and over and over again, Paul told them, yes, Jesus died. And then he rose physically, bodily from the grave, and appeared to all these people. And so he's saying, this is the gospel that made you a Christian. You heard it from me, and then you received it, then in which you stand, you believed it. And then by which you are being saved, it now saves you this message of Christ's resurrection. That is, as long as you hold fast to what I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. So what he's reminding them is, this is nothing new. You You don't need to hear this again. But I guess I have to remind you of it anyway. Because you guys are denying that there's a resurrection from the dead. And if there's no no resurrection from the dead for everybody, then why was Jesus raised? He continues, For I delivered to you as a first importance what I also received. Now this is important, he says, as of first importance, the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is of first importance in the Christian church. It lays the pattern for salvation. It is the heart and center of the gospel, without a bodily death and a bodily resurrection, there is no salvation. He continues, 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 then he appeared to surface, then to the 12. Now, if you've been a Christian for a while, you probably have heard the stories, right? If you go to the Holy Thursday, Monday, Thursday services, and then the Good Friday services and the Easter Vigil services and all those things, you've heard the stories of Christ went to Jerusalem, he, he initiated Holy Communion, he was tempted in the garden because 70 arrested on Good Friday will remember his death, his torture, his mock fake trials, and, and then he is, dies on the cross is laid in the tomb. And he rises to new life on Sunday. And then on Sunday, we begin all the readings about Jesus's appearances, he appears to the women outside the tomb, he appears to Thomas and then to Peter and the 12. And these are all the stories that are written down in the gospels that St. Paul is referring to. He says, This is what I was told. And it is also what I told you the most important thing, he died, and he was buried, and He rose. Now, he lists a number of people that Jesus appeared to first itch to surface that is Peter. Then he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Okay, so why is St. Paul running through a list of the people that Jesus appeared to? Well, if you're saying there's no resurrection of the dead, which means then that Jesus wasn't raised from the dead? If you're saying that, how would you be corrected? Well, you could actually go and talk to the people who are there, right? Now, I want you to imagine the craziness that is so foreign to us, of being able to go and actually talk to a person who saw Jesus die, and then saw him alive again. And that's sort of the weird thing about the Christian church during that era, is that you the authority of the gospel wasn't based on a book. It was based on the eyewitness testimony of the apostles, like you could go to Peter and say, Hey, dude, you're saying some pretty crazy stuff. Did this really happen? Were you actually there? And he'd be like, oh, yeah, I know. It's not right. This is, can you even believe it? If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I would never believe it. And there are 500 people that you can do this to. And the interesting thing is that this also happened for a good period of time afterward, you get people, historical figures, who would say, Yeah, I was a disciple of John Polycarp, he would say, I was a disciple of John, I learned at his feet, I spent time with him. I know this is the truth, cuz I talked to someone who was there. And what this says, is that the Christian church doesn't base our faith without evidence. People were there. They saw Jesus die. They saw him rise from the dead. We have proof. It's eyewitness testimony. And then they wrote it down for us so that we can have it preserved for 2000 years. We can look at the testimony of the men and women who were there and say, they saw this, they wrote it, we have it. Evidence of Christ's resurrection. So then St. Paul continues, last of all is one untimely born, he appeared also to me. St. Paul was talking about his appearance as Jesus appeared to him in on the road to Damascus, and he was called to become an apostle and follow Christ and preach to the Gentiles.
This is an amazing vision and appearance of Christ to St. Paul. And what I think is also amazing is that Christ It has not stopped appearing to people. One of the cool things about the Muslim world these days is that Jesus is appearing to hundreds and 1000s of Muslims, to tell them to follow him. It's happening everywhere. And it's it's so joyful, that Christ still goes out to people who would otherwise be his enemies and appears to them and calls them to salvation. Paul continues, for I'm 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. What an amazing joy, that the grace of God extends to the people who fought God's Church, the people who would have destroyed it, who would turn Christians in who would kill them, the grace of God goes out to them, and we can go from enemy to brother in Christ in just a moment. Paul continues, on the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I but the grace of God that is within me. And so he says, The converts zeal comes out here, right. For people who grew up in the faith, often it becomes banal, almost boring part of the background. But for someone who discovers it, and the beauty of the gospel, and has a before and an after, they can be so on fire and excited. And so there's joy in that. And St. Paul says, I worked harder than any, but he gives the glory to God instead. And then finally, he returns to the main point, whether then it was I or they, so we preach, and so you believed. So it goes back to the main point. The gospel here is that Jesus died physically and Rose, physically, His death and resurrection is the center of the gospel. Whether it's the apostles that preach it, or Paul or the 500 eyewitnesses. That is the heart of the gospel. And that's what we celebrate on Easter Sunday. You should come and check it out. 8:30am and 11am on Sunday, at first Lutheran Church, we'll see you there. Bye.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai