Baptist Fellowship Church

The Evidences for Christ’s Resurrection

1Corinthians 15:1-11

Greek philosophy believes that the body is bad and that the soul is trapped in the body. The soul is finally released upon death. That is why Paul in Acts 17:32 while discussing the issue of resurrection with the Greeks, met with resistance in belief. They could not believe in resurrection.

Many who do not believe in the resurrection have come up with fantastic ideas to disprove its occurrence. There is the “Swoon” theory, in which Jesus was thought to have fainted and revived after that. Imagine after being pierced at the end, not to mention all the suffering prior to that. There is the “wrong tomb” theory, where everyone seemed to have mistaken an otherwise wrong empty tomb. Imagine the Roman guards keeping watch on the wrong tomb or collaborating with those down and out Christians! Imagine the number of people having made that mistake. Then there was the “theft” theory by the followers of Jesus. There were lots of difficulties with this theory including overcoming the guards and making everyone keep quiet about the theft, as well as making unbelieving Jews keep quiet about that event! Whatever theories that have come up including a collaboration theory have been deemed too fantastic to believe. The simple fact of the resurrection is far easier to believe than all the conspiracies involved.

Why is the resurrection so important to us?

Our whole belief and faith hinges on the resurrection. No other religion has this miracle to prove the validity of their religion. All other religions are man-made, with doctrines all written by a single man. The Bible has the “collaboration” of God, non other, to write all 66 books! It was not a one-man authorship but one-God.

There were witnesses to the resurrection, some of whom were still alive at the writing of the Corinthian epistle. Furthermore, they were reliable witnesses who would give up their lives for this belief. If the resurrection were untrue, it was unlikely so many people seeing Jesus at different times from different walks of life would have all been willing to die for a lie! There were Cephas (Peter), the twelve apostles, the five hundred, James (probably Jesus’ half brother), and by Paul.

In these 11 verses alone, in Corinthians, we see the presentation of the Resurrection, its importance (vv. 1-2), the message (vv 3-4), the witnesses (vv 5-7), and the results (vv. 10-11).

The Corinthians did not deny the resurrection of Christ but the resurrection of believers. Paul linked Christ’s resurrection to that of the saints. He reminded them they were brothers. He reminded them of the gospel and that they had wholeheartedly received his message about Christ. That was the gospel on which they stood (vv 1-2).

Verses 3 and 4 were the classic definition of the gospel message. This was underscored by the phrase, “according to the Scriptures.” Paul delivered what he had received. It did not come from social reforms; it was a life changing message, from Christ Himself to Paul.

Verses 5 to 9 list various groups of witnesses. No women were mentioned although they certainly were witnesses of this event. This was because Paul was presenting his arguments like a legal document so that women were excluded as they could not be legal witnesses at that time of this epistle.

Finally, what was the result of the Resurrection?

There was the principle of Grace, Verse 10, “But by the grace of God, I am what I am.” Paul had become an apostle not through human effort but by God’s grace. There was the power of Grace. Paul continued to say, “and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.” Paul may appear arrogant in what he seemed to say, but, in fact, he was saying that he had traveled further than anyone and endured much suffering. Yet he attributed everything to the power of the Grace of God.

Mr and Mrs ET Chua

This entry was posted on Friday, March 21st, 2008 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Sermons. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.