Lessons #523 and 524

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+ 1. It is best to use this note after you have listened to the lessons because there are +

+ comments given in the actual delivery not in the note. +

+ 2. The Bible abbreviations are as follows: CEV =Contemporary English version, +

+ CEB = Common English Bible, ESV= English Standard Version, +

+ GW = God’s Word Translation, ISV = International Standard Version, +

+ NAB=New American Bible, NASB= New American Standard Bible, +

+ NEB= New English Bible, NET = New English Translation, +

+ NLT = New Living Translations NJB = New Jerusalem Bible, +

+ NJV = New Jewish Bible, TEV = Today’s English Version. +

+AMP = Amplified Bible, UBS = United Bible Society +

+ 3. Notes have not been edited for grammatical errors. +

+ 4. Text is based on 1984 edition of the NIV +

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Gospel Paul preached (1 Cor 15:1-11 NIV 84)

… ³ For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, ⁴ that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, ⁵ and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. ⁶ After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. ⁷ Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, ⁸ and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born. ⁹ 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. ¹⁰ 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. ¹¹ Whether, then, it was I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed.

Recall the message of 1 Corinthians 15:1-11 that we stated in our last study is this: Be sure you are clear about the gospel message. We have been considering the elements of the gospel Apostle Paul preached that we indicated that a surface reading of what the apostle wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 suggests there are three elements to the gospel he preached but we stated that there are indeed five elements to the gospel the apostle preached although the second and the third element of the gospel components are intricately intertwined. The first element of the gospel the apostle wants us to recognize is that it is a message that is foremost about Christ before anything else. In effect, it is not even about us although we are the beneficiaries of the message but at its core it is a message about Christ as in the clause of 1 Corinthians 15:3 that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. A second element of the gospel concerns sin as conveyed in the sentence Christ died for our sins. Consequently, the second element of the gospel that should be conveyed to an unbeliever is that all humans are sinners. A third element of the gospel is about the solution to the sin problem that involves the death of Christ on the cross. It is this element that is given in 1 Corinthians 15:3 that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. It is with this element that we ended our last study, so we begin with the fourth element.

The fourth element of gospel message is the fact of burial of Jesus Christ. It is this fact that is given in the first clause of 1 Corinthians 15:4 that he was buried. This declaration is indeed part of what is included in the OT Scripture concerning the Messiah. We say this because Prophet Isaiah conveyed that the Messiah or the Servant of Yahweh was going to be buried in the grave of the rich as we may gather from Isaiah 53:9:

He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.

This fact of burial of Jesus Christ that we said is part of the Scripture the apostle had in mind supports our assumption that the apostle was primarily thinking of Isaiah 53 when he wrote the phrase according to the Scriptures we considered in 1 Corinthians 15:3. That aside, it is a fact that Jesus Christ was buried. His burial is described in Matthew 27:57–60:

⁵⁷ As evening approached, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who had himself become a disciple of Jesus. ⁵⁸ Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus’ body, and Pilate ordered that it be given to him. ⁵⁹ Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, ⁶⁰ and placed it in his own new tomb that he had cut out of the rock. He rolled a big stone in front of the entrance to the tomb and went away.

The prophecy of Isaiah concerning the identification of the Messiah with the rich is fulfilled in that Joseph of Arimathea was a rich man and he buried Jesus’ body in his own tomb that no one has even be buried hence the clause of Matthew 27:60 placed it in his own new tomb that he had cut out of the rock. This burial of Jesus’ body was referenced by Apostle Paul as he preached his longest recorded message of the gospel as we read in Acts 13:29:

When they had carried out all that was written about him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb.

Why is it important to assert as an element of the gospel that Jesus Christ was buried? One may ask. Is it not obvious that if someone dies the individual would have to be buried? You may ask. Well, the reason for this assertion is firstly to indicate that the Scripture about the Messiah being associated with the rich in his death stated in Isaiah 53:9 was fulfilled. Secondly, to convey that Jesus actually died on the cross. The Holy Spirit knew that there would be those who would deny that Jesus actually died on the cross. For example, there are those who claim that Jesus did not actually die but went straight from the cross to heaven or that someone other than Jesus was on the cross. Third, to set up the next important element of the gospel that we will get in the fifth element. Anyway, we should recognize that the information about the burial of Jesus Christ is not something that was not needed for the reasons we have given. This brings us to the fifth element of the gospel.

The fifth element of the gospel message concerns the resurrection of Jesus Christ, that is, being raised from the dead never to die again. It is this element that is conveyed in the clause of 1 Corinthians 15:4 that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.

The word “raised” is translated from a Greek word (egeirō) with a range of meanings. The word may mean “to wake from sleep” as it is used to describe what the disciples of the Lord Jesus did when He was asleep and there was violent storm during a boat ride of the disciples with the Lord as we read in Matthew 8:25:

The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!”

The word may mean “to raise up from sickness,” that is, to restore to health as in the promise of healing through prayer of faith given in James 5:15:

And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven.

The word may mean “to cause to return to life” after death hence means “to raise up.” The raising up to life is of two kinds. A person who died but is caused to return to life, that is, resuscitation, might still die at a later time as was the case with Lazarus that Jesus Christ raised from the dead as referenced in the record of John 12:17:

Now the crowd that was with him when he called Lazarus from the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to spread the word.

The other kind of being caused to return to life involves a state where death could no longer occur or be experienced by the one raised up from the dead. It is this kind of returning to life after death that is best describe with the word “resurrect” that is applicable to Jesus Christ. In effect, when Apostle Paul used the Greek word translated “raised up” from death in our passage of 1 Corinthians 15:4, he meant that Jesus resurrected, no more to die and so involved exaltation as Apostle Paul stated in Philippians 2:9:

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name.

Apostle Paul used a perfect tense of the Greek word we considered to convey something that happened in the past with the result continuing to the present. In effect, Jesus was raised from the dead and continues to be alive even as we speak. The apostle not only stated the present reality of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, but he also used a passive voice in the Greek, implying that a subject that was involved in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The subject involved in the resurrection of Jesus from death is identified by the apostle as God as we may gather from the record of 1 Corinthians 6:14:

By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also.

The apostle’s use of the word “God” as responsible for the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, must be recognized as the work of the Triune God. This is because the Lord Jesus indicated that He would raise Himself from the dead in the sense that He would take up His life after He had laid it down in death as we read in John 10:17:

The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again.

The Holy Spirit is involved in resurrection of Jesus as stated in Romans 8:11:

And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.

The involvement of God the Father in the resurrection of Jesus is recorded by Apostle Paul in Galatians 1:1:

Paul, an apostle—sent not from men nor by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead—

Thus, we can see that all members of the Godhead are involved in the resurrection of Jesus.

The resurrection of Jesus occurred on the third day as in the phrase of 1 Corinthians 15:4 on the third day. This phrase is one that is used several times in the Scripture. It has a ceremonial significance that it is used in describing the preparation of Israel for God’s appearance to them as we read in Exodus 19:10–11:

¹⁰ And the LORD said to Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow. Have them wash their clothes ¹¹ and be ready by the third day, because on that day the LORD will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.

It is used to describe two events of the OT Scripture that foreshadowed the resurrection of Jesus Christ on the third day. Thus, it was on a third day that Abraham saw the place of offering his son Isaac as we read in Genesis 22:4:

On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance.

It was on the third day that Abraham tried to offer his son believing that God would raise him from the dead which figuratively is what happened as we read in Hebrews 11:19:

Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death.

It was the third day that Jonah was delivered from the belly of the big fish as implied on what is stated in Jonah 1:17:

But the LORD provided a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was inside the fish three days and three nights.

That Jonah’s experience foreshadowed the resurrection of Jesus on the third day is implied in the Lord’s comparison of His resurrection to Jonah’s experience as we read in Matthew 12:40:

For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

The phrase the third day is taken as a Semitic idiom referring to an unexpectedly short period of time as may be gathered from Jesus’ statement regarding the period of time the disciples would not see him and after which they would see Him, using the phrase “a little while” as we read in John 16:16:

“In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me.”

Anyhow, the phrase the third day became an important one in the declaration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ by the early church. There are, of course, many theories scholars advance for such use but there is no clearly stated biblical reason for such usage. Regardless of the reason, the fact is that the declaration of the gospel involved reference to the resurrection of Jesus Christ on the third day in keeping with His declaration of being raised on the third day as we find, for example, in Matthew 16:21:

From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.

The resurrection of Jesus occurred on the third day, and we should understand how that is counted in keeping with Jewish method of counting days. Jesus was buried before sunset, implying that he was in the grave before the end of the Jewish day at sunset. Therefore, his first day was part of the day He was crucified. The second day began on the evening of the Friday of His crucifixon and ended on the evening of the Sabbath. The third day began after sunset on the Sabbath day, that is, Saturday. Since it was at the early morning of the first day of the week, that is, Sunday, that His disciples discovered He had resurrected, Jesus must have resurrected sometime after Saturday evening and early part of the first day of the week. This counting explains the fact that Jesus was in the grave three days and three nights although we do not know the precise time He resurrected.

Be that as it may, Apostle Paul conveyed that the resurrection of Jesus Christ on the third day is in keeping with the Scripture as we read in 1 Corinthians 15:4 he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.

What does the apostle mean in the phrase according to the Scriptures? The apostle must have had in mind the OT Scriptures as he wrote the phrase. We say this because when the apostle used the Greek word (graphē) that means “writing,” that is, “a brief piece of writing” it is as a reference to our sacred scripture that he used in one of two ways. The apostle used it as a reference to a specific passage of the OT Scripture as he did in referencing Prophet Elijah in his defense of the doctrine of election as we read in Romans 11:2:

God did not reject his people, whom he foreknew. Don’t you know what the Scripture says in the passage about Elijah—how he appealed to God against Israel:

Another usage of the Greek word by the apostle is as a reference to “scripture in its entirety” as he used it in stating a purpose of what was written in the OT Scripture in Romans 15:4:

For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.

In the phrase of 1 Corinthians 15:4 according to the Scriptures, the apostle used it in the first way, that is, as a reference to a specific passage of the Scripture since the entire OT Scripture did not say what the apostle referenced. The problem, of course, is to determine the specific passage or passages that the apostle would have had in mind when he wrote the clause of 1 Corinthians 15:4 that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.

The apostle would have had in mind probably two specific passages when he wrote the clause we are considering. He would have thought of the Scripture that specifically referenced the resurrection of Christ that is given in Psalm 16:10–11:

¹⁰ because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay. ¹¹ You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

Of course, it is also possible that the apostle would have thought of the prophecy of Isaiah that implies that the Messiah would resurrect as stated in Isaiah 53:10–11:

¹⁰ Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the LORD makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand. ¹¹ After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities.

This passage notwithstanding, it is probably the case that the apostle’s mind focused on the passage of Psalm 16:10-11 since that seemed to be the passage that the early church referred to when there is need to prove from the Scripture that the resurrection of Jesus Christ was already predicted. This we may deduce from the fact that when Apostle Peter preached his sermon on the day of Pentecost, he argued that Jesus Christ, not David, was meant in the prediction of rising from the dead and so he quoted Psalm 16:10-11 in Acts 2:27–28:

²⁷ because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay. ²⁸ You have made known to me the paths of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence.’

Apostle Paul probably did not only think of Psalm 16 that was concerned with the resurrection of Christ but also a passage that implies the resurrection would take place on the third day, assuming the phrase according to the Scriptures modifies not only the clause of 1 Corinthians 15:4 that he was raised but also the phrase on the third day. If this was the case, the apostle would have also thought of Hosea 6:2:

After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will restore us, that we may live in his presence.

The clause on the third day he will restore us, no doubt, within the context of Hosea refers to the restoration of Israel but it is also a prophetic reference to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This may be deduced from the fact that Apostle Paul in referring to the resurrection of Jesus Christ used the same phraseology on the third day as Prophet Hosea. Besides, the same phraseology is used by Jesus to refer to His resurrection in Luke 24:7:

'The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.'"

Hence, it should be recognized that the Holy Spirit speaking through the prophet addressed not only the restoration of Israel but also the future resurrection of Jesus Christ that guarantees that spiritually dead people would be made alive and restored to God who created them. Although we cannot be certain that the apostle had also in mind this passage of Hosea 6:2 but the point is that when the apostle wrote the phrase of 1 Corinthians 15:4 according to the Scriptures he probably would have had in mind at least the two passages of Psalm 16:10-11 and Hosea 6:2.

Anyway, the resurrection of Jesus that occurred on the third day as Apostle Paul stated in the clause of 1 Corinthians 15:4 that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures on the third day is at the heart of the gospel message or an indispensable element of the gospel message. Because of its importance, let us briefly consider the subject of resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is necessary for us to limit our consideration of resurrection to that of Jesus Christ because we are dealing with the gospel message. You see, the subject of general resurrection was predicted in the OT Scripture, as for example, in Daniel 12:2–3:

² Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt. ³ Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever.

So, God revealed that there will be a general resurrection in which some would enjoy life with Him forever and others would experience everlasting punishment. The good resurrection, so to say, would be based on a person’s response to the gospel message. But the gospel message is centered on the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Therefore, it is necessary at this point in our study not to go into the subject of general resurrection but to consider five reasons the resurrection of Jesus Christ is important in the gospel message or Christian faith.

First, the resurrection of Jesus Christ proves without a shadow of doubt that there is a God in heaven who is all powerful. Some people are skeptical about the existence of God but the fact of resurrection of Jesus Christ should put to rest that skepticism unless, of course, a person rejects the concept of resurrection of Jesus Christ. There could not be resurrection of Jesus Christ, if God did not exist. So, the fact that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead is a demonstration of the power of the Almighty God. It is for this reason that Apostle Paul referenced resurrection as a demonstration of the power of God the Father in his apostolic prayers on behalf of the Ephesians as recorded in Ephesians 1:17–20:

¹⁷ I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. ¹⁸ I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, ¹⁹ and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, ²⁰ which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms,

That the power of God the Father is demonstrated in the resurrection of Jesus Christ is conveyed in the clause of verse 20 which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead. The same reference to the power of God in the resurrection of Jesus Christ is made in connection with God the Holy Spirit as communicated by the Holy Spirit through Apostle Peter in 1 Peter 3:18:

For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit,

The clause but made alive by the Spirit is a reference to the resurrection of Jesus Christ brought about by God the Holy Spirit. The point is that the resurrection of Jesus Christ shows there is the supreme God in heaven whose power is evident in the act of resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Second, Christ’s resurrection confirms that He is the Son of God. It was after Apostle Paul encountered the resurrected Christ that it became clear to Him that Jesus is indeed the Son of God. No wonder when he began to preach in Damascus, he immediately declared that Jesus is the Son of God, as we read in Acts 9:20-22:

²⁰ At once he began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God. ²¹ All those who heard him were astonished and asked, "Isn't he the man who raised havoc in Jerusalem among those who call on this name? And hasn't he come here to take them as prisoners to the chief priests?" ²² Yet Saul grew more and more powerful and baffled the Jews living in Damascus by proving that Jesus is the Christ.

Later, when the apostle wrote his epistle to the Romans, he also indicated that resurrection is indeed a confirmation of the fact that Jesus is the Son of God, as we read in Romans 1:4:

and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.

A commentator says that verbal phrase declared with power to be the Son of God does not mean that Christ somehow achieved or gained His Sonship. Instead, it means that His nature as God's Son was made clear by His resurrection from the dead. Nonetheless, the verbal phrase with power to be the Son of God may be interpreted to mean that Jesus Christ was shown to be God’s Son in a powerful way or that He was shown to be God’s powerful Son. Regardless of how one interprets the phrase, the fact remains that resurrection proves that Jesus Christ is God or proves His divine nature in contrast to His human nature that was referenced in Romans 1:3:

regarding his Son, who as to his human nature was a descendant of David.

It is important to prove the divinity of Jesus Christ because without His divinity He could not be a true mediator between God and man that He is, as stated in 1 Timothy 2:5:

For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.

If Jesus Christ was an ordinary human being, there is no way for Him to atone for our sins since a sinner could not by his own death atone for the sins of others. That aside, the fact is that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is a confirmation of His deity. It is in a sense the last and highest of His miracles that proves He is the Son of God. The Holy Spirit through Apostle John had indicated that the miracles of Jesus Christ prove that He is the Son of God as the purpose of his gospel as recorded in John 20:30–31:

³⁰ Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. ³¹ But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

But resurrection is an undeniable ultimate proof that He is the Son of God. By the way, there are those who assert that there were resurrections in other religions so that Christ’s resurrection does not prove His deity. For example, there is the claim that such individuals as Apollonius of Tyana (died A.D 98), Sabbatai Sevi (died 1676), Rabbi Judah (died A.D.200), and Kabir a fifteenth-century religious leader who combined facets of the Muslim and Hindu religions that died in 1518.¹ The problem with these individuals is that there is no evidence of their resurrection of the type the Holy Spirit through Apostle Paul provided in the passage of 1 Corinthians 15:5-8 that we will consider at the appropriate time.

Third, the resurrection of Jesus Christ is an event that vindicates His various claims during His earthly, teaching ministry. There are several claims that Jesus made during His teaching ministry and some of these He vindicated before His death on the cross, but others could only be vindicated if His resurrection occurred. Jesus claimed to have divine authority to forgive sins and this He proved through His miraculous healing of a paralytic, as recorded in Luke 5:24-25:

²⁴ But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. . .." He said to the paralyzed man, "I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home." ²⁵ Immediately he stood up in front of them, took what he had been lying on and went home praising God.

The teachers of the law and the Pharisees recognized that only God could forgive sin so were offended by Jesus’ claim of divine authority to forgive sins. Therefore, when He healed the paralytic, He answered their objection to His claim of divine authority to forgive sins. However, there are many other claims Jesus made that only His resurrection could vindicate. Let me mention three of these. Jesus claimed that He had the divine authority to give His life for us and to take it up again, according to John 10:17-18:

¹⁷ The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life — only to take it up again. ¹⁸ No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father."

The disciples who heard Him make this claim were certain that He was crucified by the Romans in collaboration with Jewish authorities and buried. Therefore, if Jesus did not resurrect then it will appear that He did not willing give up His life. Furthermore, without resurrection they would not have believed His claim of divine authority to take up His life again. Another claim of Jesus Christ is that He is the resurrection and that faith in Him guarantees someone eternal living, as we read in John 11:25-26:

²⁵ Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; ²⁶ and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?"

Again, Jesus not only made a claim of being the resurrection and life, but He also promised that anyone who believers in Him will live eternally. If Jesus did not resurrect, this claim would be meaningless and so anyone who believes in Him would not be assured of eternally living with Him. But because He resurrected, His claim is vindicated and so His promise can be trusted. Still, Jesus Christ claimed that He is the only way to the Father in John 14:6:

Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

If there was no resurrection, death would have defeated Jesus so His claim to be the life would ring hollow. Furthermore, no one could accept the claim that it is only by Him that anyone comes to God the Father. But since He resurrected, there can be no doubt that He is what He claimed to be. Therefore, anyone who rejects His claims does so at the cost of eternal peril of life outside God. In any event, the third reason for attaching great importance on resurrection of Jesus Christ is that it vindicated His claims during His earthly ministry.

Fourth, the resurrection of Jesus Christ assures us that God accepted His sacrifice on the cross on our behalf so we can be in good standing with Him or be put right with Him as the Holy Spirit stated through Apostle Paul in Romans 4:25:

He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.

The word “justification” is translated from a Greek noun (dikaiōsis) that appears only twice in the Greek NT. In its other occurrence although it is translated “justification,” the sense of the word is that of acquittal or removal of guilt as it is used in Romans 5:18:

Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men.

Anyhow, the fact is that resurrection of Jesus Christ is the basis of our justification in the sense of being put in right relationship with God that involves freeing us from guilt of our sins.

Fifth, it is the resurrection of Jesus Christ that sets Christians apart from all those who claim to worship the supreme God. It is that which gives certainty to Christians that we are the only ones in true relationship with God. You see, without the resurrection of Jesus Christ, Christianity will be just another religion of the world that is meaningless and so there will be no hope for mankind. Apostle Paul makes this point in 1 Corinthians 15:14, 17:

¹⁴ And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.

¹⁷ And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.

Therefore, you should recognize that resurrection of Jesus is the most important element in the Christian message. Christianity is intricately connected with the miracle of resurrection. If resurrection is untrue then Christianity is the longest and worldwide lasting deception that the world has ever known, but men and women who have experienced the life in Christ know that their faith is real, hence, resurrection cannot be false and so it is very important to accept the truth of resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Anyway, we have considered five reasons the resurrection of Jesus Christ is important in the gospel message but there is an important observation we need to make concerning the subject of resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is that the message that declares the resurrection of Jesus Christ is discomfiting to people. You can preach all you want about morality and for sure some will be angry with you, but when you speak of this fact of resurrection you will draw fire from all quarters both fallen angels and mankind. It was as the apostles focused on this fact of resurrection that some Jewish leaders felt great discomfort as we read in Acts 4:1-2:

¹ The priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to Peter and John while they were speaking to the people. ² They were greatly disturbed because the apostles were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead.

When Apostle Paul preached at Athens, people did not so much ridicule him until he mentioned the resurrection of Jesus Christ as we read in Acts 17:32:

When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, “We want to hear you again on this subject.”

It is discomfiting to people if resurrection of Jesus Christ is made an issue; but why? It is because there is no other human being who has ever been resurrected and so people find it difficult to accept hence the question of Apostle Paul to the audience of King Agrippa that he defended the charge of the Jews against him as we read in Acts 26:8:

Why should any of you consider it incredible that God raises the dead?

So, one gets the idea that the message of resurrection of Jesus Christ is discomfiting to unbelievers. It is because of importance of the resurrection of Jesus Christ in the message of the gospel and how discomfiting the subject is to people that we can safely state that it is one of the doctrines of the Christian faith that has drawn fire from the pit of hell through the pens of human authors. It is true that the doctrine of virgin birth draws hostile reaction from the unbelieving world, but it seems to me that the attack on the doctrine of the resurrection of Jesus Christ is more intense as evident in more developed theories against the doctrine. We will mention two of these, so you have an idea of why we make our assertion regarding the intensity of the attack on the doctrine of resurrection of Christ.

A first and the earliest theory that is advanced by critics to deny the resurrection of Jesus Christ is that Jesus’ disciples stole and hid His corpse and so deceived the world about His resurrection. This theory was first advanced by the Jewish authorities when they learned about the matter of the empty tomb, as we read in Matthew 28:12-15:

¹² When the chief priests had met with the elders and devised a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money, ¹³ telling them, "You are to say, 'His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep.' ¹⁴ If this report gets to the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble." ¹⁵ So the soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed. And this story has been widely circulated among the Jews to this very day.

There are several problems with this theory of stolen body of Jesus Christ. It is beyond belief that well trained Roman soldiers who knew the consequences of failing to guard what is entrusted in their care would all fall asleep so that the disciples could come and steal the body of Jesus without waking up any of them as they rolled the stone away from the tomb. If the body of Jesus was stolen, why is it that the authorities did not offer to scout about Jerusalem to produce the corpse in order to end the disciples’ claim. Add to this, is the fact that the disciples were frightened and despondent so with such despondency it makes no sense for them to do such a thing and then to deceive themselves into believing and preaching that Jesus resurrected as well as be willing to die for such a lie, as the critics contend. Perhaps, the most fatal nail to this theory is the presence of the burial cloth in the empty tomb of Jesus as Apostle John described in John 20:6-7:

⁶ Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, ⁷ as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus' head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen.

This description given by John about the burial cloth of Jesus is one that cannot be explained away by the claim the disciples stole Jesus’ body. For it is impossible for them to have carefully removed the burial cloth on Jesus’ head and folded it neatly so that it is separated from the linen that wrapped His body. There is no way that the disciples could have removed the body and left the burial cloth undisturbed. Physically, it makes no sense whatsoever and so cannot be true.

A second theory states that Jesus did not actually die, but he had lapsed into coma and later revived by the tender care of His friends and disciples only to later die a natural death. This is what is known as the “Swoon Theory.” This theory faced similar difficulties as the first. If Jesus slipped into coma for two days and was revived by His disciples, one has to explain how they were able to get to the tomb that was guarded by the soldiers. The soldiers could not have been bribed to grant the disciples access to the tomb because of the implication of the body being taken away from their custody. If Jesus eventually died a natural death, His tomb will still not be empty and if His body was moved elsewhere then one has to prove that there was another tomb in which Jesus was buried. But the greatest difficulty to this theory is due to the request of the Jews to ensure that no body was left over on the cross during their Holy Day. They requested the death of Jesus and the other two crucified with Him to be hastened, but when the soldiers came to break Jesus’ bones, He was already dead and as if to be certain, they verified it by puncturing His chest thereby allowing the gushing out of watery fluid and blood, as we read in John 19:31-35:

³¹ Now it was the day of Preparation, and the next day was to be a special Sabbath. Because the Jews did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down. ³² The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other. ³³ But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. ³⁴ Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus' side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. ³⁵ The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so that you also may believe.

John asserts that he was an eyewitness to what he testified so we should believe that Jesus actually died as verified by the thrusting of the spear on His side. A person whose side or chest cavity was pierced with a sword could hardly be said to be in a coma. By the way, we gave only two of these theories used to explain away the resurrection of Jesus Christ, but we have given a fuller treatment of these theories in our study of the gospel of Luke. If you are interested in more detail, I suggest you listen to lesson #565ff on line at the website of Berean Bible Church, Bay Springs, Mississippi. In any event, with our discourse of the importance of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we have finished our consideration of the fifth element of the gospel message, so we move to the information the apostle provided that supports this fifth element of the gospel message. This we will do in our next study. Let me end by reminding you of the overall message of the passage we are considering which is: Be sure you are clear about the gospel message.

05/26/23