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.
Easter Sermon: The Evidence of the Resurrection
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God, our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen, hallelujah. Christ is risen.
It's joyful that we continue to celebrate this Easter season for 50 days after the day of the resurrection. We get to hear the stories of Jesus's appearance today, the appearance to Thomas, and look at the ministry of the apostles as they go out through the city of Jerusalem, then Samaria, Judea, and the ends of the earth.
This Easter season, we are taking a look at the theological implications of the resurrection and what it means for us as Christians by looking at the chapter that St. Paul writes to tell us the theological implications of the resurrection and what it means for us Christians, First Corinthians, chapter 15. This chapter is pretty long. There are 58 verses because St. Paul can't contain the joy of the resurrection in a normal sized chapter. We'll be breaking this up throughout the whole of the Easter season, and today we're looking at the opening section.
It reads:
"Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel, you are saved if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you, otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received, I passed on to you as of first importance, that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, that He was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Peter and then to the 12. After that, he appeared to more than 500 of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, and then to all the apostles. And last of all, he appeared to me also as to one abnormally born, for I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve 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 to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me, whether then it was I or they. This is what we preach, and this is what you believed."
This is a fascinating way to open up this long section about the resurrection. What I find interesting about it is the number of people that St. Paul feels the need to list who saw Jesus raised from the dead. He says, "I passed on this story." We hear the story we repeat every Sunday when we confess the Nicene Creed. And then he says, "He appeared to Peter, then to the 12. After that, more than 500 brothers at the same time, then James, then the apostles and then me."
Why did he decide to put in that long list? Why say all of these people saw Jesus? St. Paul is trying to remind the Corinthians that the resurrection of Jesus is not just a nice story. It is an event that really and truly happened, not a metaphor that tells us about our like coming out of the chrysalis like a butterfly. But 500 people saw Jesus. It's not this mystical thing that we gather around just because it sounds good. It was real. He says there is evidence that Jesus rose from the dead. And the reason he lists all these people is so you could go ask them if you wanted to.
St. Paul lists all of them because they are still alive when he is writing this letter, which is why he says most of them are alive, but some have still fallen asleep. St. Paul wants to make sure that every single Corinthian knows there are witnesses to this event, and if you don't believe, just go and ask them.
That was the testimony of the apostles as they go out and preach the gospel. It was not "we've got this wonderful mythology to tell you," but "I saw him nailed to a cross. We saw him buried in a tomb, and then he showed up the next day, on Sunday. We didn't expect it, but there he was just the same."
Well, why is that important? Why is that a big deal for us 2000 years later? Sometimes I think Christians believe that faith is something that we do despite evidence. The definition of faith for many people is a thing that you cling to despite all of the evidence of the world, just because faith is a thing that you need. And that has never been the message of the Christian church. It has never been that we should believe despite the evidence. It is always we believe in Jesus because the eyewitnesses saw him rise from the dead, and the Bible is especially concerned about telling us this.
It is not just First Corinthians, chapter 15, that tells us about this. I want you to think about all the other places in the Bible where they mention people's names, in particular, in the gospels, in the letters. In the Gospel of John, Jesus is in the Garden of Gethsemane, and Peter draws his sword and cuts the high priest's servant's ear off, and John goes, "His name was Malchus." Do I need to know the name of the dude in the garden? No, why would it matter to me whether his name was Malchus or John? But John's people, when he wrote this gospel to them, they could have gone to Jerusalem, found the guy named Malchus and said, "Did Jesus heal your ear?" And Malchus would have had to have said, "Why? Yes, he did."
Why do the Gospels mention names like Simon of Cyrene, who bore the cross of Jesus? So you could go and ask him, "Were you there? Did this really happen?" And he would have to say, "Yes, why?" Jairus, whose daughter was raised from the dead, we don't need to know his name, unless you want to go and see whether it really and truly happened. Why the names of all the Pharisees? Why the name of Pontius Pilate and the governors when Jesus was born? Why all of this? Because the New Testament wants you to know Jesus really and truly rose from the dead, and there were people there who saw it happen. They'll tell you they were there.
And it's not just the New Testament that is concerned about that. One of John's disciples, a guy named Ignatius, had some of the questions that lots of people have when they hear about Jesus for the first time. He writes a letter to the Virgin Mary. This is what he writes to Mary:
"The Christ bearer her Ignatius, you ought to strengthen and console me a neophyte and disciple of your John, from whom I have learned many things about your Jesus. Things wondrous to tell, and I am dumbfounded at hearing them. Yeah, right. My heart's desire is to be assured about these things that I have heard. By you, who are always so intimately close to Jesus and shared his secrets. Fare you well, and let the neophytes who are with me be strengthened in the faith by you, through you and in you."
What is he doing? He's saying, "Wait, you're his mom. You know who he was? Did this stuff really happen?" Mary responds:
"To my beloved fellow disciple, Ignatius, this humble, handmaid of Christ Jesus, the things you have heard and learned from John are true. Believe them. Hold on to them. Be steadfast in carrying out your Christian commitment, and shape your life and conduct on it. I will come to you with John to visit you, and those who are with you, stand firm and do manfully in the faith. Do not let the hardships of persecution shake you, and may your spirit be strong and joyful in God your salvation."
First time I read this letter, I was just like, what? Can you imagine being like in a catechism class, getting ready to be confirmed in the faith, and the Virgin Mary shows up? But that's what it would have been like—the woman who gave birth to Jesus comes to your class and says, "Yeah, I was there."
This is important, because without a real and true resurrection, without a Savior who died on a cross and rose from the dead, nothing we do here actually matters. We believe, not in a story, not in a nice spiritual claim, but in a Savior who invaded death, destroyed its power and paved a path through death to resurrection for all of us. If this did not truly happen, nothing we do matters. St. Paul wants us to know we are not basing our faith, our hope on a nice story, but on something that actually happened.
Now we have to ask what counts as evidence. That is the real problem that many of us think about when we think about American and Western society, because lots of people will tell us, "You don't have evidence. You just have the Bible." Materialists hold that the only thing that we can trust is scientific proof. You got to find it in archaeology, in tests in the lab or whatever. But they are actually not being truthful when they make that claim. If someone tells you that they only believe what science can prove, they're just telling us something that's a lie, because they believe the scientists, not the tests.
How many people who believe in science actually made the tests before they took penicillin for the first time? How many people believe that the Earth is round without having seen the roundness of the earth? How many people believe that gravity has a particular amount of force or light has a particular speed, without the test, or how electricity works, or any other scientific phenomenon? We all learned them out of a textbook, like in fourth grade, but we didn't do the tests, we didn't see the evidence, we just saw the testimony of the scientists.
What that means is, in the West, instead of believing people in white robes, which I'm not wearing today, we believe people in lab coats. Their testimony is evidence. The testimony of Scripture is not. And isn't that ridiculous? Testimony is evidence. The scriptures give our eyewitness accounts of what happened on that day.
Now, many Christians will also object to thinking about faith as based on evidence. They might quote from Hebrews, "Now, faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen," and the way they would say that is we have faith, and it's really just a hope. It's about something that can't be proved. Our hope and our faith is in something that is in the future, the resurrection of Jesus Christ and His return to call us from the dead. But we have that hope, not despite the evidence, but because of the evidence.
We believe the sun will come out tomorrow because we have seen it. It is a hope. It is a thing in the future, something not yet seen. We believe that Jesus will return on the last day, because the eyewitnesses saw him rise from the dead, saw him ascend into heaven, and the men who were standing next to them said, "This same Jesus who went up will return the same way you saw him go." Our faith is based on the testimony of the eyewitnesses who say that Jesus will come back for you to raise you from the dead.
Other people will point to the Thomas story, where we have Jesus going to Thomas and saying, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." This is actually something I see online all the time, when I'm flipping through reels or shorts. There's a guy named Alex O'Connor, an atheist YouTube guy who uses this story to say Christians actually are anti-evidence. They say blessed are the people who don't believe the evidence. But that's not what this story is about.
Thomas didn't believe his friends when they said, "I have seen the Lord." He didn't believe the people who were there and touched his side and were there with him. He simply said, "No, your testimony doesn't count as evidence. I will only believe if Jesus appears in front of me." His question was not, "I refuse to believe until I've seen evidence." It was "Your evidence doesn't count."
Jesus says, "Blessed are those who believe the testimony." How do we know? Because this is what John says next: "Now, Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book, but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing, you may have life in his name." He says, Jesus did a lot of stuff, but I wrote what he did so you can have faith. So my eyewitness testimony can tell you what he did and what he promises you.
That doesn't mean that there is no place for faith in the Christian life. Obviously, there is a leap from "I see the eyewitness testimony" to "Jesus died for me," and that is where the Holy Spirit comes in. The Holy Spirit comes through the eyewitness testimony to say, not only do we see the evidence of this, but it is a promise delivered to you, and that is where faith is. Faith is about not just "Jesus existed," but "he did it for me," which is why we gather, why we hear from the Word of God, why we receive the forgiveness of sins and keep doing this every Sunday, because it's about more than just having read the testimony. It's about the spirit applying that promise to you.
So St. Paul is very concerned to remind us, this is not a nice story, not a mythology, not a morality tale. People saw Jesus rise from the dead, and they carry on that promise through their eyewitness testimony, so you can believe and have eternal life in Jesus' name. Amen.
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