And He Rose Again On The Third Day
Text: 1 corinthians 15:1-11 Speaker: Pastor Matthew Ude Festival: Easter Passages: 1 corinthians 15:1-11
Audio Sermon
Full Service Video
1 corinthians 15:1-11
The Resurrection of Christ (Listen)
15:1 Now I would remind you, brothers,1 of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.
3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8 Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. 9 For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 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. 11 Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.
Footnotes
[1] 15:1
(ESV)
Jesus died for our sins and on the third day rose from the dead
This is what we received
The story is told that Martin Luther once was down and depressed and mopping around the house. SO his wife Katie dressed all in black, as though she was mourning.
When Martin Luther saw her he asked, “who died.”
Katie responded, “I assumed from the way you’ve been acting that Jesus was still in his grave.”
Have you forgotten that Jesus lives? And if He lives, why are you sad, or depressed, or gloomy?
This is what we received from our fathers and their fathers before them all the way back to Paul and the apostles. This is what we have and what we hold most dear. That Jesus died for our sins according to the scriptures and on the third day rose again.
This morning we are all very much like the whos from whoville. All the trappings of Easter have been stolen from us. The church is empty, the organ is silent, no Easter brunch, no Easter egg hunt with the kids. We can’t even join hand in hand to sing together.
The question is, is that what made Easter Easter? If so then Easter was already gone, if that is all that Easter was than it was already pointless.
But we have something better, something that no virus, no war, no famine, no depression can take from us. We have something we have received and in which we rejoice even when everything else is gone.
That Jesus died for our sins and on the third day rose from the dead. He lives who once was dead
Now I know that Christians are going to be sad. Things happen in life. Bad things happen. Sad things happen. Some of us have clinical depression. Chemicals that shouldn’t be there are in our brain making us sad. It is foolish to think that if you are a real Christian you will walk around all day every day with a smile on your face singing songs of joy. That simply isn’t life.
But I also know that no matter how bad life gets, no matter how dark or dismal or depressed we have received this that, “I know that my redeemer.”
This is what we preach.
There was one Easter Sunday when I happened to be in London. I’m sure no one will be shocked when I tell you there are no CLC churches in London. There might be some Lutheran churches there but I do not know of them. So I thought I would go and listen at Westminster Abby. I listened to the whole sermon and I had one question for the pastor afterwards. Is Jesus alive? It was an Easter sermon but I didn’t hear any reference to Jesus resurrection.
Paul seems shocked and dismayed in our text. The Corinthians are asking that question, but they are asking it for real. Did Jesus really rise from the dead?
Paul’s response seems almost incredulous, “how can you ask me that? How can you doubt it?” This is the first thing I preached to you, and the thing I continue to preach to you. And not only me, but Peter and the apostles, and all who preach to you.
This is what we preach, and this is really the only thing we preach. That Jesus died for your sins and rose again on the third day.
This is what we preach, on Easter Sunday, and every Sunday. The basic core message of every sermon. That we are sinners, but Jesus died for our sins and rose again the third day.
This is the message that is preached not only every Sunday, but every funeral, and every wedding. A funeral service isn’t about the person who died, and a wedding sermon isn’t about the bride and groom.
For I gave to you that which I also received, that Christ died for our sins and rose again on the third day.
Let us pray . . .
Lord may it never be that anyone should ever be able to ask of our church, “Did Jesus rise from the dead,” Let this truth, your truth, your resurrection be the truth which lives in our hearts and minds and upon our lips. So that anyone who meets us, if they know nothing else about us, might know this, “I Know that My Redeemer Lives”
This is what we believe
This is what we have received. Not by the mouth of one or two. But by the witness of many
First “according to the scriptures.” Notice how Paul repeats that twice. All this happened according to the scriptures. That is it was foretold by the Lord thousands of years ago. It dates back even to the time of Job, who in the midst of his suffering prophesied about the resurrection, “I Know that my redeemer lives”
And in many other places, God, who does not lie, spoke to us through the scriptures to make it certain that His son would die for our sins and rise again on the third day.
He did this so that we might believe, and believe not with a shaky or uncertain hope, but with a sure and certain hope, with the absolute certainty that we will receive that which we wait for, the resurrection of the dead.
Secondly, This resurrection was confirmed as Paul reminds us by the apostles, of whom the greater part were put to death for their faith. Now they suffered and died cruelly, but God allowed his servants to be so cruelly treated for our sakes. For in their suffering they proved the firmness of their faith. They proved that what they preached and believed was not a lie. Tather that they had seen the Lord, who was dead, and was now alive. And more than that, they had eaten with Him and touched him and heard him.
So that once again, what we believe and preach, that Jesus died for our sins and rose again on the third day, is proven a sure and solid truth, a foundation upon which we can and do stand in all the storms of this world.
Thirdly Paul says not only the apostles but the women and over 500 of the brethren, saw Him alive. And most of these were still alive, so that the Corinthians if they had any doubts could go and speak to them and know the certainty of that which Paul preached and which we believe.
This is what we have received, this is what we preach, this is what we believe and on which we stand. That Jesus died for our sins and rose again on the third day. I know that my redeemer lives. Amen