The Resurrection of Jesus | 1 Corinthians 15 | Pastor William Hixson

call your attention to 1 Corinthians 15

this morning.

And our usual practice is to do book

studies verse by verse, chapter by

chapter, going through books. We're

taking a big break from that. And for

those of you that are new, we're doing

two things at once. We're doing a series

on great texts in the Bible. And we're

going through different books of the

Bible, and we're picking one text from

that book and preaching it and then

moving to the next book. uh and we were

doing that. But the other series we're

doing is uh the uh the teachings of the

Bible on the resurrection of Jesus

Christ. That's a big one. That's an

important one. It's a major one. And so

that's something we've also been

involved in the last several months. And

1 Corinthians 15 is obviously an

important passage in regard to that

subject. And so for those of you that

are new and are just jumping into this,

we're mainly emphasizing the physical

bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ and

uh the results of that to us and the and

so 1 Corinthians 15 is a good place to

be. Now, this particular chapter is a

long one. It's 58 verses. And I'm not

going to go through all 58 verses in

this series. We've done that other

times, but I just want to emphasize some

things as we think about this chapter.

And I'm assuming you have some

familiarity about it.

But think about the value of it.

This is a long hard chapter, 58 verses

to teach and to hear or to read

personally. But there's an apologetical

value that's immense.

We need to know if we should be experts

in anything, it should be the

resurrection of Jesus.

One thing we should talk about with

people is not this issue, that issue,

some other issue. There's one issue if

you want to do personal work. Did Jesus

come out of the grave or not?

That's it.

Keep the main thing the main thing.

because if he came out of the grave he

is who he said he was and Christianity

is legitimate and it we should give it

if he didn't forget it so it's very

important subject and there's an

apologetical value in the sense that we

can defend the faith from this section

we should all be experts on the physical

resurrection of Jesus now you know

non-Christians when you try to talk to

them they want to jump around and talk

about everything else but

Be gracious, be loving, but say, "Look,

this is the most important thing. If

this isn't true, you don't need your

answers to the others. It's a

Christianity is of no value. If this is

true, it's of immense value. And so

stick with this. Even if you're an

expert on the other things,

focus on this.

The apologetical value, which means the

ability to defend our faith, is immense.

So I don't waste my time personally

defending this part of the Bible or that

part of the Bible or this issue or that

issue. I go I best as much as I can I go

right to this. The apologetical value

the theological value is immense. This

isn't my outline. This is my

introduction.

The theological value is immense.

Uh the uh um John Murray at Westminster

Seminary years ago said, "Our theology

should be practical and our practice

should be what?"

>> Theological. A great for that

Presbyterian theologian. It's a great

thing. Our theology should be practical

and our practice should be theological.

So this is a

there's a lot of theology in chapter 15,

but it's wearing workc clothes.

And the and the remember the last verse

it it hits every it sums up everything

in these 58 verses and it says therefore

my beloved brethren be ye steadfast

unmovable always abounding in the work

of the Lord for as you know that your

labor is not in vain in the Lord. That

therefore is very important.

What's the therefore therefore? It's to

connect the application with the other

54 verses or 57 verses.

So it's the theological value is very

important. The practical value, the

historical value is important.

We believe in the historicity of the

resurrection of Jesus. It's not just

something that's done uh in in uh some

kind of fantasy uh thought. if something

really happened in history. Either it

did or it didn't. If it didn't, just

throw the Bible in the waste can. If it

did, then you better know this book and

you better know this savior.

So, the the historical value is

important and we're going to look at a

lot of that to then. The prophetical

value is important.

Do you know that your body, if you're a

Christian, is going to be made like

Jesus's glorious body?

Now, if you don't know what his glorious

body is like,

then you don't know what your

current body is going to be like.

This is kind of important on a personal

level.

This is not reincarnation where you come

back as somebody else in another life.

This is resurrection where you retain

your own identity and personality and

you come back in the body you were born

with changed

and this chapter teaches that

it it it it's a in uh it says this

corruptible must put on incorruptible.

This mortal must put on immortality.

That's a change in this body.

Incorruptible means not able to age.

Immortal means not able to die.

So that's kind of good.

I'm looking forward to that. As I told

you before, that's when I'm going to

take up extreme sports. [laughter]

I'm leaving them all for my

incorruptible immortal body. I don't

need to do them now. I'll get my thrills

then.

So, so it's important to know that this

body has value

because it's going into eternity.

And so that's that's a practical value

that's important and we'll see as we go

through there. There's practical

applications today

on how I ought to treat my body because

it's going into eternity.

So there there's personal value, there's

this motivational value in the last

verse. Therefore, my brethren, that's

motivation.

Because of all of this,

this is how we should live.

We can know things but not be motivated

by them.

You know, a lot of things that you don't

those things don't motivate you. They're

just things, you know. But this is

something that's to motivate us.

It's to move us. It's to change the way

we think. Change the way we live. Change

our priorities. Change the way we use

our time. Change the way we look at

ourselves. Change the way we look at

other people. There's a motivational

value. There's an eternal value. We need

to know

just how important

the gospel is and salvation through

Jesus Christ is. And that every human

being that you've ever met or haven't

met,

from the fetus in the womb to the

oldest, sickest person you know, is

going to spend eternity someplace.

And every person you know, everyone, and

the ones you don't know,

are going to be resurrected.

There's not a human being on earth

that's not going to be resurrected.

But the resurrection is going to be very

different for some than for others.

John chapter 5 and and many other places

John 5 · chapter mention

and and so it's it's there's a eternal

value

as the old himwriter says that keep

eternity eternal values in view

eternity's values in view

that we can't know even know how to live

this life if we don't know about the

next life

and it's very important there's an

ecclesiastical value this is supposed to

change the way the Corinthians live

among themselves.

It's supposed to change the way we live

among ourselves. There's an individual

value. We we look at ourselves

individually. We look at our collective

body differently.

I'm looking forward to my resurrection

body.

Aren't you?

Are are you getting ready for that? Is

that something that motivates you today?

And so there's this this eternal value.

Uh there's an ecclesiastical value. The

church it we're all res we going to see

each other. We're going to be with each

other for eternity. We we want to

minister to one another in light of that

time.

So all these are values of this chapter

and many many more things that could be

said.

So

um I challenge you to spend a lot of

time in 1 Corinthians 15 1-58.

Anything you don't understand, mark it

down.

Read it till you understand it.

You don't understand it, read it again.

Pray, Lord, help me to get what this is

saying.

and read it again. Read it again until

you think you got it. And if you're have

questions, come to me and maybe I can

help you, maybe I can't. But the point

is this is important stuff.

And this practical value is very very

important.

Uh unfortunately I have an iPhone. I'm

sometimes wish they'd never been

invented.

But the thing with iPhones, if you don't

plug them in, they don't work.

They lose power.

And everybody in this room's had their

iPhone with them, but they've lost power

and the phone won't work.

And before iPhones, we could live

without them. But now we I got to get a

plug. I got to find plugs. We got to

plug it in. An iPhone that's not plugged

in is of absolutely no value

because it needs the electric to make it

work. Now, I'm going to ask you this

about your Christianity. Are you plugged

in?

Are you unplugged?

Is your Christianity is what you believe

changing the way you behave and the way

you act?

And sometimes we're just the battery's

running low. Sometimes we're unplugged.

Not that we've lost our salvation, but

we're not getting benefits from it. And

the the uh

where's the law socket? Well, it's in

the word of God.

It's in time alone with God.

We need connected to the source of

spiritual pl. And if we're unplugged

from that power, we need to regain that

power. And the part of that is chapters

like this. Lord, I need to reconnect

today before I start my day. I don't

want to go out of the house. I want to

be like the Puritans. Before you see the

face of man, see the face of God. I want

to open this book. I want your word to

be working in my life.

And I I have found I have found that

it's very important to start the day

right. If I start it wrong, the rest of

the day doesn't go right. I'm like an

unplugged idol.

The old Puritans said, "See the face of

God before you see the face of man." I

think they were right. Get plugged in.

Make sure you're full power.

And

it's very important. Now, the gospel is

the power of God to salvation according

to the book of Romans. There's power

and there's power and uh we need to plug

into that power and get ready for the

day and not be running on low and so

forth. False views or inadequate views

or less than full concept views of the

resurrection

will leave you unplugged.

It will

because unless we're sure of the next

life

and unless we are totally sure that the

next life for Christians is going to be

a million times better than this life

and that this life is just to prepare us

for the next life. Unless we have that

perspective, we are not plugged in for

that day

and it will not go as well.

And uh our Lord was raised not just for

himself but for to to be the first

fruits of them that sleep and our

resurrection follow his. And so we need

to know about his so that we can be 100%

sure about ours.

So all of these things are extremely

important. I think if you go through the

book of 1 and 2 Corinthians, almost

every problem that these people had

had an antidote in understanding the

resurrection of Jesus and their own

resurrection.

If they would understand who they are in

Christ and who Christ is to them, they

would have been on a different level.

Whether it's the schism and the

quarrels, I'm a Paul. I'm a Silas or

whoever, whatever it was there in 1

1 Corinthians 1 · chapter mention

Corinthians chapter 1 and all of that

kind of stuff. All of the stuff going

all the way through are the immorality

they were tolerating, forgetting that

your bodies are the temple of the Holy

Spirit, forgetting that your body's

going to be raised to take care of the

body.

Don't just do anything with this body.

All of that, all those applications and

many more are are

applications that can be made, should be

made on this particular subject.

So

I need to reinform myself.

I need to reinvigorate myself

to see my present life in light of my

future.

Some of you are saying my life's in

pits.

Okay. I'm so far down I have to reach up

to touch bottom. Okay.

And this pro this trial is never going

to end.

Okay,

that you're talking about this life so

it doesn't end. So you have it for the

rest of your life.

It's not the next life. And this life is

not the next life.

And so you can accept things that are

hard,

things that you didn't plan on, the very

things that you wish didn't happen

happen. And they are and you can't get

rid of them. You're like Job. Yeah. But

Job learned about what? The

resurrection, his own and his redeemers.

And that brought him through. If you

study the book of Job, and we've taught

Job several times in this church when he

said, "I know my redeemer lives, and at

the latter day he'll stand on the earth,

and I'll see him, and and and in my

flesh I'll see God." There's a change in

Job right there. There's a change in

thought. There's a change in tone.

He wasn't all there, but he was getting

there.

So, very important stuff.

Now, in 1 Corinthians 15, the timing of

New Testament events is very, very

important.

Very important. So, let's look at 1

Corinthians 15. I want to read the first

part, and I think we know much of this,

so bear with us if you know it.

Paul said, "Moreover, brethren,

I declare to you the gospel which I

preached to you, which also you've

received and in which you stand." He's

taking them back five years. But when he

came into Corinth in 51 AD,

that's an irrefutable date, by the way.

He came in 51D. We all know that. Told

you why it is in other messages.

other dates in the scholars use this

date to pick other dates because we know

this one's true.

You read the book of Acts, there's the

date and you know,

but anyway, we're now five years later.

So, these people got saved under Paul's

ministry. You see it recorded in Acts

18. They've been Christians for five

years.

And so Paul is bringing them back to

what he said five years before.

He says, "Moreover, brethren, I declare

to you the gospel which I preached to

you, which you have received. You have

believed the gospel. You have received

the gospel. You've repented and believed

the gospel and in which you stand." This

is what gives you strength.

Now the problem was

after Paul left

they started listening to other people

and what were other people influencing

them on. We know that if you've been in

this church other people came in and

said and this was according to Greek

philosophy they were mixing Christianity

with Greek or philosophical

concepts. what what was happening. There

were people in the church that were

saying, "Yes, Jesus arose from the dead.

The Messiah did. The son of God did, but

we won't."

No one was denying Jesus's resurrection,

but they were denying the resurrection

of everybody else.

That's the error that Paul is

confronting in this chapter.

And if you go to Acts 17, people laughed

at Paul because he preached Jesus in the

resurrection. Greek philosophy said

basically resurrection is undesirable

and impossible.

They believed in some kind of life after

death as a spirit being but not anything

like resurrection.

So that's the picture here in this

section and that's the background.

So Paul's correcting an error in

theology that has been uh percolating in

that church and it was affecting the way

they lived.

So again, they weren't denying Jesus was

resurrected. If they did, they would

have died to gospel and wouldn't be

saved. They're denying, yes, he was

resurrected, but he's the Messiah. He's

the son of God, but we won't be ever.

We'll live. We'll live after life, after

death, but we won't be resurrected.

So, they were mixing Greek philosophy

and the Bible. People do that today

everywhere.

They try to combine human thinking with

God's word and it gets all mixed up.

And I did that as a young person. I know

how that goes. Did that for a while. And

sometimes we still do things like that.

>> [clears throat]

>> So anyway, Paul said, Paul's trying to

regain in their minds and hearts the

truth that not only Jesus rose from the

dead, but is just as impossible for you

to come out of the grave as it was for

him because you're connected with him.

Your res your physical resurrection is

sure, Christian.

And so he says

in verse two, "By which you're saved, if

you keep in memory what I preached to

you, unless you believed in vain. For I

delivered unto you first of all that

which I also received that Christ died

for our sins according to the

scriptures." That's Old Testament

scriptures that predicted not only the

death but the vicarious death of the

Messiah and his resurrection.

and that he was buried and that he rose

again the third day according to the

scriptures.

So he points to the fulfillment of Old

Testament prophecies like Psalm 22,

Psalm 16, Isaiah 53 and many others that

predict the death, burial, and

resurrection of the Messiah. And that he

was seen of Cphus, that's another name

for Peter. And then of 12 and after that

he was seen above 500 brethren at once.

That's kind of important

of whom the greater part remain to the

present time but some are fallen asleep.

Now what's the present time when he's

writing that? 56 AD.

She's about 25 26 years after the death

of Christ.

body following me.

So it's about 25 26 years after Jesus

died and rose again. And so 500 people

saw him at once at the same time. So in

those in those 25 26 years a lot of them

died but a lot of them were still here

living witnesses.

After that he was seen of James. That's

the halfb brotherther of Jesus. then of

all the apostles. And last of all, he

was seen of me also as one born out at

due time. I was the last person to see

the risen Lord Jesus Christ. Now, at

that time of writing, he was the last.

John saw him when he wrote the book of

Revelation,

right?

But at this time, Paul was the last.

So when he wrote this,

now what's the practical applications of

all of this? And of course, there's many

more things that are said here. Well,

let's go back. Let's read the rest of

this section if I can. Verse 9. For I'm

the least of the apostle, not fit to be

called an apostle because I persecuted

the church of God. But for the grace of

God, I am what I am. And his grace which

was bestowed upon me was not in vain.

But I labored more abundantly than they

all. Yet not I, but the grace of God

which was in me. Therefore, whether it

were I or they, we so we preach and so

you believe. Now, that's the beginning

of Paul's

giving a background of uh the

resurrection of Jesus and the history

behind it and the history after it. And

then he goes to work on it. Okay?

But I want you to think about what he's

saying. And some of you know this

chapter, the resurrection of Jesus.

When

here's our first question. When did the

Christians first believe that?

Now we know

Easter, Easter morning, Easter

afternoon, Easter evening, right?

But when can we prove that?

Can we prove that Christians believe

that right away? Or was it just people

writing books? Somebody decide, I'll

write this book, this gospel, and I'll

make it up. And years later, they

imposed it on everybody.

There's a very interesting concept that

has gone on in history. liberals and

unbelieving scholars when they study the

Bible, they almost always, in fact, I

think it's almost always late

books of the Bible rather than early

date. They they they just love the late

date stuff except the book of

Revelation, that one, they early date.

There's reasons for all of that.

Behind that date, there's

presuppositions and all that kind of

stuff.

But uh when did people start believing

the resurrection? The answer of 1

Corinthians 15 is right away.

There's no big gap where somebody

invented it.

It happened right away. In fact, that's

what the gospels teach. It's it's it but

it's it's very very early. And that's

what First Corinthians teaches. And the

amazing thing is that first Corinthians

was written before the four gospels.

You said that that didn't make any

sense. Well, actually the four gospels

were written after many of Paul's

epistles. First, 2 Thessalonians, 1

Corinthians,

uh pro maybe even Galatians were written

before the epistles.

So, but this is interesting if you do

the chronology on it and study the dates

of the different books.

So, the resurrection of Jesus, when did

it begin to be believed? The answer is

right away. That's what first

Corinthians 15 is teaching. And that is

what modern scholarship even unbelieving

knowledgeable

modern scholarship

has come to.

This is a very interesting thing.

So the resurrection of Jesus, when did

it happen? And we'll find the answer in

this chapter right away. Well, I'll get

back to that. The reality of Paul's

conversion to Christianity. Was that

early or late?

Early.

Probably about three years after the

church began at Pentecost.

It was early rather than late. When did

the church begin believing? Early rather

than late. When did Paul begin get

saved? Early rather than late. When did

they recognize the deity of Christ?

Early or late? Matthew 16. You're the

Christ, the son of the living God. We

know who you are. Who do men say that I

am? Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong. Who do

you say that I am? You're the Christ,

the son of the living God.

Okay, Peter, you answered that one.

Well,

A+

the recognition of the daily

the deity of Christ was early.

That happened even before he died

and it certainly happened after he was

resurrected. Thomas said, "My Lord and

my God."

The rapture of the church, early or

late? I'm not going to get into that

one. That's a that's a people people

fight over that. But it is a question,

right? Does it happen before the

tribulation, the middle of the

tribulation, at the end of the

tribulation? Are you preerttrib mid uh

mid-trip post-trip or pre-wrath or many

other things that people think about?

Uh that is an issue. The timing issue is

an issue.

But the relationship of the books of the

Bible to the event historical events

they describe that is a issue

early or late. Obviously the earlier a

book is written the more accurate it can

be.

Uh, I'm pretty sure

that President Grant when he wrote about

the Civil War and he wrote a great book

on that. I have not read it, but

everybody says great.

He was dying of throat cancer because he

smoked all those cigars all those years.

And he decided, I I got to provide for

my family. So, he wrote this great book

on the Civil War. He finished it a

couple of days before he died.

But I'm pretty sure that Grant was a

better authority on the Civil War than

anybody at present time.

He was there.

And so the relationship of the books of

the Bible to the events they described

all in all early is good. Late or not

early is not good or might even be bad.

So when did the when did the apostles

begin to believe in the physical

resurrection? Early is better than late

and earlier the better.

There's all kinds of things that in life

early is good and late is bad. Sometimes

it's late is bad and early is good. How

about having a baby?

Early is not always good.

I was seven months old and I was four

pounds. That wasn't good. They had to

force feed me. Nobody would believe that

today because nobody force-feeds me

today. I take care of that.

So I was four pounds when I when I was

born in 1949.

And so I was two months early.

That was not good. Nine months is

better, but too early can be bad. too

late can be bad, right? There's a

window.

And so, it's very important if you're

staining your deck, uh, we got we had

some steps on our deck redone, you don't

you don't stain it right away. You let

let the wood dry out for 6 months or

whatever it is. And so, early is bad

that time. So in biblical things, it's

important to to u

realize early is usually good. Early in

the sense that things happen and the

people are there that are describing

those things

on your credit score. If you pay your

bills late, are they going to consider

that a good thing?

You pay it early. Yeah, that helps,

doesn't it? Or on time. So, there is a

time for every purpose under heaven.

Now, the Apostle Paul is establishing a

continuity and connection of witnesses

to a very important event, witnesses to

the resurrection.

And he's basically saying that these

ancient biblical prophecies uh uh in the

Old Testament predicted it before the

apostles experienced it. There's

multiple witnesses. There's credible

witnesses. Uh there's personal

witnesses. And he says, "I'm one of

them. I'm not just writing about

something that others saw. I saw him

myself." And he describes it three times

in the book of Acts where the risen Lord

Jesus and ascended Lord Jesus appeared

to him.

So

don't let anybody tell you

that the prophecies are after the event.

Somebody's making them up and just

pretending they were prophesied.

That's called Xeventu after the event.

That's easy to do. Make a prophecy.

Uh the prophecies in Isaiah, the

prophecies in Psalms 22, Isaiah 53,

hundreds of years before the event.

And only God can tell the future.

So only God can predict the future.

And so before the event is good.

Eyewitness testimony is important and

Paul's talking about that when it comes

to the resurrection

also saw him other people saw him his

half brother saw him and actually began

changed his whole position said yeah you

know my brother is God

my older brother is God I accept that

and so important stuff

um I want I want to put this in

perspective a little bit. We just had a

flood in Athens. Some of you that are

new to Athens, wasn't that an

interesting experience?

Did you wonder,

did I come to the right place?

And you know, that water coming down

Richland Avenue, I want to say we I've

lived here 50ome years and it doesn't do

that all the time.

But you know, in the in the mid60s, I

came here

for the first time

to check out Ohio University

because I was planning to come the next

fall.

Guess what I saw?

I saw the West Green

totally flooded.

And you know how those buildings are

above the ground and then there's people

park cars under them on the West Green,

the brick buildings. I saw cars with

water up to their top of the car.

I saw students diving into the water.

Who would want to dive into flood water?

I don't know.

I saw that with my own eyes

because the river wasn't diverted yet.

The river, the old river used to flow

right where

uh Baker Center is now. That would be

right in the middle of the river in the

old days. You old-timers know that.

And so it the West Green was flooded

and I remember that some cars were about

half submerged.

And I know Len and Tanya, you were

probably here then. Mick and Kathy were.

John Swain, if you weren't here, you

knew knew people that were. You were up

at Columbus probably.

And I remember that. And I forget a lot

of stuff.

I forget all kinds of things. But I

remember that. That was impressive.

Something I didn't expect. I'm coming

here to college.

Now they done a lot of work. They moved

the river and c army corps of engineers

moved everything. And so it' have been a

lot worse the last few weeks if they

hadn't have done what they did.

So, but I I remember that I'm an

eyewitness

and I'm still here to tell you

and so are other people here in this

church that collaborate what I'm saying.

If you don't believe what I'm saying, go

into the mall that hardly anybody goes

to anymore and look at those pictures on

the wall. You'll see some of them.

So, all of this is kind of interesting.

And when Paul was writing Corinthians,

remember Corenth is in Greece

and there were Christians in Greece that

Paul had led to the Lord in 51 AD, 21

years after Jesus died and rose again.

And now it's five years later.

Just like there are people in Athens

that remember what happened back in the

19 mid60s about the flood. There's all

kinds of people walking around. They're

baldheaded. They're gayheaded, but

they're still there.

And so Corinthians was written when

others over 250 at least who had seen

him were still living.

This is this is important as to the

validity

of Corinthians

as well as of the resurrection.

So I remember very well my impression of

the West Green of Athens and later I

lived in the combo center. I was one of

the I was the first class freshman that

lived in the combo center.

It was right in there with the flood. It

was up high, but it was there.

I remember that stuff.

The people who saw Jesus remembered.

So, you have living people in churches

all over uh Israel, all over the ancient

world. And just like I remember the west

green of Athens looked like Venice,

they remembered the resurrection

and they can collaborate

and the local churches in Jerusalem.

There was thousands of people in those

churches

and could collaborate.

As Paul said,

this thing wasn't done in a corner.

This was publicly done.

And do you remember and let me turn to

turn to this just for if you will bear

with me. Hold your place in 1

Corinthians and look at Acts chapter 10

Acts 10 · chapter mention

if you would. Some of you may have seen

this and noticed it. Some of you may not

have. You remember when Paul went to

Cornelius's house, a very famous

uh point in history where

Jewish the Apostle Paul witnessed to

gentle gentile people, a gentile

centurion and all these other Gentiles

in his house.

I I said Paul, I meant Peter. I'm sorry.

Acts 10:34,

Acts 10:34

he Peter's there. Everybody sitting

there waiting. Then Peter opened his

mouth and said of a truth I perceive.

10:34 of Acts. God's no respector of

persons. First time Peter ever preached

to Gentiles.

He preached to pro Jewish proelites from

all over the world in Pentecost. First

time he ever preached to Gentiles.

Never did that before.

But in every nation, he that fears him

and works righteousness is accepted by

him. It took that vision of uh food and

animals coming down from heaven and I

said, 'Lord, I've never eaten Chinese

food.

I've never eaten Italian food. I'm a

good Jew. No, you get the point now.

You're going to go to Gentile home.

You're going to start eating these other

food. The food laws are gone

and I'm accepting Gentiles.

The gospel is going out.

And so Paul is saying in verse 30,

Peter, I'm sorry, getting Peter and Paul

reversed in my mind.

Verse 36, the word which God sent to the

children of Israel, preaching peace by

Jesus Christ, he's Lord of all. That

word I say, you know, he these people

were not totally illiterate as to who

Jesus was and what he did.

Do you think of them that way? They were

Gentiles. They weren't Jews, but they

were living in Cesaria.

They heard about it. And Peter is here

telling I'm not telling you something

you don't know.

Sometimes when we read this, we think

this is the first time they heard any of

it. No, they heard it,

but now they're hearing it where God's

dealing with Cornelius.

And isn't that what we need? When

somebody win, when we win somebody to

the Lord, God's been dealing with them

before you ever start talking to them.

That word I say, you know, which was

published throughout all Judea and began

from Galilee after the baptism of John's

preached, how God anointed Jesus of

Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with

power, who went about doing good,

healing all that were oppressed of the

devil, for God was with him. They knew

all that.

It might have been hearsay.

As Paul said later, this thing wasn't

done in the corner.

And so it wasn't here. It might have

been hearsay, but it was well known even

among unbelievers. And we are witnesses

of all things which he did both in the

land of the Jews and in Jerusalem, whom

they slew and hanged on a tree. him. God

raised from the dead the third day and

showed him openly, not to all the

people, but to witnesses chosen before

by God, even to us who did eat and drink

with him after he rose from the dead.

And he commanded us, the risen Christ,

to preach to the people, and to testify

that it's he who's ordained by God to be

the judging jud of the judge of the

living and the dead. to him give all the

prophets witness that through his name,

whoever believes in him shall receive

the remission of sins."

Now, Peter wasn't telling them something

they hadn't heard before, but he was

telling them when God had been preparing

them to hear it,

right?

God, we don't we're not alone in the

work of the Lord. We're looking for

people that God's preparing to hear

before we ever meet him or talk to them

because if God doesn't work, we're dead

in the wall.

And so, you know what happened the rest

of them? These people got saved and they

got saved by Paul Peter preaching the

resurrection.

And so, all of this is very precious.

All of this is very good.

So the church at Corinth had a similar

experience in 51 AD.

They were Gentiles. They may have just

been hearing for the first time.

Remember Corinth is a long way from

Judea.

And but they heard and Paul preached and

they believed. And so Paul's going back

and telling them how it was in the

beginning when he was with them. And 5

years have passed. It's now 56 years. Uh

56 AD.

And

that brings us to this. Go back to 1

Corinthians 15. And some of you have

heard me say this, and I I want to bring

this before I'm done.

Paul in 1 Corinthians 15,

he's writing this in 58 56 AD

and he's quoting

an early creed.

You you may not have heard this. You may

not have thought about this,

but I want you to notice something in

verse three.

I delivered to you first of all that

which I also received that Christ died

for our sins according to the scriptures

that he was buried and rose again the

third day according to the scriptures he

was seen of Cphus and then of the 12

that's an early creed that's that those

verses those verses in verse three four

five

and maybe and six

are weren't written by Paul.

They was they were a creed that people

were saying

in churches

before Paul ever got to Corinth.

Say what?

So how do you know this?

Paul is quoting something earlier than

same some something that happened before

his own salvation.

There were Christian people around Judea

and Samaria that were reciting verses 3

to7 before he was even saved.

He's just quoting that.

He's quoting what others were saying

about the resurrection and the

appearances of the Lord to the apostles.

This is an amazing thing. He's quoting

an earlier do document that he's

inserted into this letter to the

Corinthians.

Now, when I was a boy in the 1950s,

we said the pledge of allegiance.

put her hand on her right hand on her

heart, stood up. Every single school

day, we looked at the flag, we stood up,

take your caps off, put your hand on

your heart, and we recited the pledge of

allegiance every day.

Every day.

That's a 31word pledge.

And we were required to memorize that.

And some of you have done the same

thing.

But the pledge of allegiance was

actually written in 1892

by a Baptist minister and a Union Army

officer

and uh but they started using in schools

and every school did it

and but we were saying it but we weren't

the author of it and we didn't even know

who the author was. But that's something

everybody said.

Paul was not the author of these

particular verses,

but he's quoting the verses that

everybody was saying before he was even

saved.

So think about this a minute. Paul's

writing this when he's writing this he's

writing this in 56 uh he's writing this

in 56 AD

but he's quoting something that was

being said

earlier than his writing of first

Corinthians which is one of the first

books in the New Testament to be

written.

This goes back. This goes way back.

And it's not just Bible believing

Christians that say it.

Modern scholarship.

I'm talking about people who are not

Christians who would never be qualified

by because of their unbelief to become a

member of this church because they're

not saved. They don't pretend to be

saved.

But they're scholars,

historians, Greek scholars,

they know this.

They know this. They know this about 1

Corinthians uh 15.

And what I'm giving you is the from Dr.

Gary Habermass minimal historical facts

about Jesus. He's got three volumes.

It's about 3,000 pages and he's working

on a fourth volume.

guys studied it his whole life. The

resurrection you can see YouTubes from

uh

and he said this he wrote this for five

decades as Dr. Gary Habbermass, he got

his PhD from Michigan University on

this. For five decades, my contention

has been that at the end of Jesus's

life, there's a significant body of

evidence and data that specialist

scholars of almost every religion and

philosophical persuasion who publish on

these areas recognize as being

historical. In other words, people don't

believe the Bible said this is history.

This Paul Paul's writing here is real

history. There's no fake in this.

And in their mind, it's beyond debate

how early this is and how reliable it

is. And somewhere he quotes a Buddhist

scholar. This is a Buddhist scholar, not

a Christian.

Buddhist tradition differs fundamentally

from that of Christianity. Buddhist

possess nothing that corresponds to the

New Testament. The bulk of the selection

in this book, that's the book about

Buddhism,

was written about 600 to 900 years after

the Buddha's death.

Big gap between Buddha's death and they

said Buddha was saved.

What's this one? This goes clear back to

the beginning.

Paul's quoting a creed, something was

read in the churches. And by the way,

the New Testament is full of these.

Now, we normally don't teach on this. We

don't normally think about it. Uh,

Philippians 2:6-11 is an early Christian

Philippians 2:6–11

hymn. 2 Timothy 2 11-13, Romans 1:3-4,

Romans 1:3–4

Romans 10:9. All those are creed

Romans 10:9

statements or hymn traditions with a

high christologology that precede the

writings of the book therein. Hebrews

Hebrews 1:3

1:3. These are fascinating things.

The Jesus seminar is a bunch of

highulutin, well-educated

with all kinds of they got more degrees

than a thermometer, but they unsaved

people, most of them. But this is what

they say about 1 Corinthians 15:3-8.

1 Corinthians 15:3–8

Most members think the components of the

list reported there were found before

Paul's conversion.

So he's saying other people were saying

this before he Paul even got saved.

And Bartman, who was a professing

Christian turned atheist and he's a

Greek New Testament scholar, thinks that

the he's he's not writing this because

he believes Jesus really rose from the

dead. But he does believe that the early

Christians thought he did.

and he said that he thinks that the

earlier apostles could well have passed

on the credle conditions to Paul after

Paul's conversion. Now, he's an

apostate, but he knows historically you

can't fudge this. He's honest that way.

So, he believes that Paul's quoting

something that churches were saying

before Paul even got saved. And when

Paul visited James in in Jerusalem in

Galatians 18 1 18 and 20, five or six

years after Jesus's resurrection, they

shared this with him.

So what I'm saying is these verses in

the early part of of Corinthians predate

uh Paul's conversion and predate the

writing of first Corinthians which makes

it very very very early and therefore

very very credible.

Now you don't you have to believe more

than that the early Christians believe

Jesus arose from the dead early to be

saved. You have to believe that he rose

from the dead.

Believing that they believed it won't

save you, but believing that they

believed it helps you see the reality of

it by God's Holy Spirit.

Wait a minute. There's some veracity to

this. There's some credibility to this.

It's really big.

This is better than anybody. Certainly

better than what the Muslims got.

Certainly better than what the Buddhists

got. Certainly better than what the

Mormons got. Certainly better than what

the Jehovah Witnesses got. This is

something that goes back genuinely goes

back

and it certainly helps us. And I'm

thankful that this is in the Bible.

The early church believed in the

resurrection. But Paul before Paul was

even saved and he persecuted the church

that he he he Paul mentions that how he

persecuted the church before he was

saved.

And he hated the resurrection. He hated

that Steven taught it. He hated that the

church taught it. He's trying to stamp

it out until Jesus overwhelmed him on

the Damascus road.

But they believed it before he did.

Here's

an atheist biblical scholar. You didn't

know there were such a thing. They're

all over the place.

I had I had an atheist for Old Testament

at OU. I had a a Bible believer for New

Testament at OU. I'm talking the 1960s.

The Old Testament guy said, "I proved

the Old Testament's not true, so now I'm

going to teach you Marxism."

No, no thanks.

And he was the sweetest guy. Brought

donuts to the class for everybody. real

smooer,

but

he wouldn't call on any Christians to

refute anything he said. You I've had

there f there were several Christians in

the class. We'd have our hand up the

whole period and once he knew we were

Christians,

no calling on us. He had an agenda.

And so there's people with an agenda and

they don't know the Lord. But at least

they know some things. They know I can't

argue with this. I can't fight with

this. I still don't believe in Christ.

But this is true.

And so Habermas is quoting this atheist

biblical scholar. I can't even say his

name. He's European. Gird Ludman. and he

said, 'I do not I do insist, however,

that the discovery of preauling

confessional formulas is one of the

great achievements of recent New

Testament scholarship.

And he's not talking about

fundamentalists. He's not talking about

Bible believers. He's talking about

these university professors

that got more degrees than a

thermometer, but they study the they

they say this happened.

And so they're they're still like

everybody else lost. And yet they know

the chronology of this. This is early

early early.

So if even skeptical scholars

acknowledge

uh the earliest teaching of Jesus death

and resurrection o occurred quite soon

after the events of his death and

resurrection. That's a big deal for

Christians. This is not something people

made up. This is something this is not

something that people invented.

This is something God did

and revealed.

So the apostles were almost surely the

source of these verses in verses three

and following.

Now don't get this mixed up with the

apostles creed.

We had a whole series in this church

years ago on the different creeds. It's

important for us to know some of the

early creeds of the church, but the

Apostles Creed is misnamed. The earliest

form of the Apostles Creed is 2 century.

And I won't I'm not going to go down

that road, but this is not the Apostles

Creed, but it was believed by the

Apostles

uh before Paul was even saved. The

Apostles Creed is a pretty good creed,

by the way. It's very brief, but it's

not inspired.

And all of this doesn't prove the

resurrection of Jesus. But it does prove

that the early Christian church, the

earliest Christians did believe in the

resurrection of Jesus. The people who

were there, who knew him the best,

all were doing what Thomas did. My Lord

and my God.

Very important.

Now,

Acts says Jesus showed himself alive by

many infallible proofs. How can you eat

with somebody for 40 days and deny the

resurrection?

I don't know if any infallible palable

proof. Now, application to us. Let's

let's just make the application to

anybody's listening online.

Are you saved?

Have you have you bought into this old

thing? The Bible was written so long ago

and made many different copies and

nobody knows what really had pissed off.

Have you bought into that kind of stuff?

Guarantee you haven't looked into it.

If you're saying that, I know right away

you have not looked into it.

So, are you saved? Have you You don't

even have to look into it. I got saved

before I ever knew there was anything

like this. But it's good for us to know

and and we we need to take time to God's

word and make serious sustained

reflection on the prophecies and

promises of the Old Testament and on the

writings of the Gospels and on the

credibility and authenticity of what the

Bible's teaching.

And even the number one enemy of the

early church

was said by the early church when Paul

got saved, he's preaching the faith he

once destroyed.

And why Jesus overwhelmed him

with his resurrection?

Now, you and I have probably never tried

to destroy Christianity,

but we may not be preaching the faith we

once destroyed, but I'll guarantee you,

we're preaching the faith we once

ignored.

We

had a heart, an appetite for everything

else.

Say to my shame, I had a Bible given to

me by my church and I had it on my desk

when I was at OU.

I bet I didn't open it five times in

four years.

Closed Bible is not going to do you any

good.

Uh, I never tried, maybe you never tried

to destroy Christianity,

but you may not be preaching the faith

you once destroyed, but you could be

preaching the faith you once ignored.

Other things were more important to you.

You had other priorities,

other interests.

And local churches are sometimes

mixtures of good and bad. Now, this is

the other thing from First Corinthians.

They believed in the resurrection, but

they didn't believe in their own

resurrection. They're mixed up. That

kind of church is dangerous.

That kind of church is dangerous.

Uh,

rat poison is only 5% in a bunch of

cornmeal.

You got a lot of cornmeal.

You got that poison in there.

And so may God help us to

shut off all the things that have kept

us back. We need to know this book. We

need to fall in love with this book.

We're not worshiping the Bible. We're

worshiping the one the Bible tells us

about.

But we let that book speak to us. We let

that book change our life. We let that

book tell us about things that we need

to know.

I'm I'm two minutes over. Bear with me.

I'm almost done.

When I first came here, there was

already a Bible class going on in Athens

high school. That might really shock

you.

But one of our elders, Mike Dunn,

who was a history, I believe it was

history he taught. He was a golf coach

at Athens High School. He was an elder

in this church. And he started that

Bible class. And we'd get reports from

that Bible class.

That Bible class lasted six years in

Athens High School, kind of under the

radar. You got permission to do it till

one person complained and that killed.

But during those six years,

many young people came to know the Lord.

And some of them were families that were

atheistic. Some of families were

hostile to Christianity.

If you know about Carol Harbaugh,

you know about Marie Brunk, you know

about Mike Brunk, if you know about um

uh some of these people,

they were at that class, Alan Lewis,

many of those young people are now

serving the Lord on the mission field or

preaching in local churches

and all over the place. I think Robert

Pal even may have come to them

and God touched their hearts

because some Christian

had enough faith

and a vision these young people need to

hear about Jesus

and I'm going to try to tell them and he

did.

I just talked to Michael on the phone.

He lives up in Northern Ohio. has been

gone from Athens many years, but we

talked about how wonderful that class

was.

Well, enough of this for today,

but I hope that this has been a help to

you. Just get confidence. There's a

credibility here that a lot of people do

not know.

And some people say, "Oh, that's just

how do we even know Corinthians is

real?"

Do you realize the Chester Batty

manuscripts have chapter they got all of

Corinthians and all of second

Corinthians? Now there's some gaps in

it,

but those manuscripts are in Dublin.

I've seen them there at the in a museum

there. They're in the University of

Michigan and a few of them are

scattered. You've got all these New

Testament manuscripts.

P46 is dated about 200.

Take that home with you. 200 225.

But people say, "Oh, it's thousands of

years. 2,000 years." No, we got 200

years max. Maybe 225

of copies.

And they're they're not the only copies,

but they are really good copies.

So, we know Paul said this and we know

that Corinthians heard it.

That's not up for debate.

So would you talk to people and they're

skeptical? Use Corinthians.

It's a good thing to use.

God's put it here. Use it.

Our Lord Jesus

is said to raise the dead according to

the scriptures. And he he was raised

from the dead according to the

scriptures. And 1 Corinthians is

scripture. And thank God for its

preservation as well as many other books

of the Bible that are clearly preserved.

I'm not saying sometimes copious didn't

air or sometimes errors and we know all

that. But uh there's enough copies to

check them against each other. We are

very sure of some of these things.

If you don't know the Lord as your

savior, maybe God maybe maybe I hope you

got shook up a little bit. I didn't know

that. I didn't know that.

I hope I I I hope I p the bubble by

God's grace on your um

on your invisible shield that you built

up against the penetration of the gospel

to your heart. Let it penetrate.

Let it impact you. You don't have to

know everything. You just have to know

God loves me. Jesus died for me. There's

a credible record of that event. It goes

way back to the people who were there.

It's not a fantasy. It's not a fiction.

It's real. Now, the whole inspiration of

the Bible, inherency of the Bible,

credibility to Bible, that's a whole

other issue. But this is

this is very important to know. We don't

have to be ashamed at all. Now, if you

forget all these things I've said today

and you just remember it's the word of

God. I'm going to give people the word.

That's that's okay.

You had to be a big scholar and win all

the arguments to win somebody to Jesus.

You can win the argument, lose the

person.

Trust the word to do its work

and it will work. But we have to be sure

oursel to be able to minister to others.

Father, we thank you for the time we

spent today. challenge us with these

great truths from your word. Forgive us,

Father, for any apathy or lethargy that

we might have. May we be students of

scripture. May we uh learn your word and

learn what it says. May our theology be

practical and our practice be

theological. May we be people who don't

just want to know things, but want to

minister to others in need and use us

for Jesus' sake. We pray. And if there's

anyone here that's not yet a Christian,

may they be born again through the word

of God

today.

May they stop trusting their wisdom,

stop trusting their merit, begin

trusting Christ who died for them and

rose again. Amen.

>> Let's stand. Turn to page 472. [singing]

Lord, as we go from [music] this place,

loving you [singing] more,

trusting [music] you more.

May the power of your [singing] love and

the light of your word shine to a sin

darkened world. As we go [singing] from

this place,