Making Sense of 1st Corinthians CH15a
We’ve been slowly walking through 1st Corinthians since Easter. On Easter, because it was Easter, we looked at chapter 15—the resurrection chapter. Now here we are, 21 weeks later, back at chapter 15.
Throughout the entire letter, Paul has been reminding them of what it means to follow Jesus. That it’s all about doing for other people what Christ did for us. Laying down our lives for other people. Everyone who follows Jesus, follows Him to a cross. Crosses are painful. Serving each other, intentionally doing for others—chapter 13 was a deep dive into what that looks like. Patience, kindness, showing grace, not holding people’s mistakes and sins against them. The impossible selfless standard of love—what it means to be the church.
They were a jacked-up little church, they seemed to be doing everything wrong. But Paul didn’t come to them with condemnation. Some of his words have been hard but everything has been said to encourage them in their faith—to build them up, not tear them down. And now it’s like he just looks them in the eye and says, “I’m trying to encourage you in your faith—what is your faith? What is it?”
They’ve been going to church. Getting together to worship, celebrate Communion, sing praise songs, listen to people talk about the Word of God. They’ve been doing this every week, multiple times a week, even. For years. Why? What exactly is it that they believe? What is their faith?
If I asked you the same question, what would you say? If you had to take out a piece of paper and write it down—what would you write? “This is the Gospel…” “This is what I believe.” What would it say? If someone found your little note a hundred years from now, would it do them any good? Can you articulate your faith clear enough that if someone else believed what you believe it would do them any good?
That’s what Paul starts off talking about in chapter 15. I call this sermon “That Gospel.”
Verse 1:
Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.
Some of them had failed to put it all together—the hope that comes from the Gospel, what it all means. Salvation is a past tense, present tense, future tense thing. You were saved when you heard and believed the Gospel—past. You are being saved as you continue to believe and hold fast to your faith—the faith you received, in which you stand. The implication is that if you can stand in your faith then you can also fall—you have to hold on, hold fast, keep believing, keep standing. Those who do will be saved, in the future, at the end of time, when Jesus returns in glory to judge the living and the dead. Past, present, future. Were saved, are being saved, will be saved. Paul talks about our salvation in all three of these ways.
I was saved when I was fourteen-years-old. I was flirting with the idea of being an atheist, my family never went to church and I thought it was stupid that so many people pretended to believe in God. One night I was standing in my backyard looking at the stars and all of a sudden I could no longer sustain the disbelief that all of reality just happened on its own. It was like walking on the beach and coming across a sandcastle, trying to pretend that the wind and the waves randomly arranged a perfectly shaped medieval fortress complete with moat and flags. The universe was too interconnected and filled with purpose to have happened without a creator. “The heavens declare the glory of God” according to Psalm 19—I was experiencing that. I started reading the Bible and found out about Jesus, the cross and the resurrection. I believed and I was saved. But that wasn’t the end of it. I started going to church, I read the Bible, I made Christian friends, I persisted in my faith, fought through doubt and sin, repented—turned back to Jesus over and over. I was being saved. All with the great hope that one day, even if I die, that Jesus would return and I would be raised from the dead. I would be saved when all is said and done.
That’s my story. What’s yours? You have to know your story. You have to tell your story. You have to make it interesting so someone can listen to it. When did you really start to believe in Jesus? When did the Gospel become real to you? When were you saved?
My kids were baptized before they were a year old—but that’s only the introduction to their story. There came a day when their faith became real to them. Baptism might have been when their house was wired for electricity, but there came a day when those wires were connected to the power grid and the lights actually came on. Ask them about it. They can tell you their story. Even though it’s still being written. They were saved, they are being saved and they will be saved on the last day when Christ returns.
Paul has his own “come to Jesus” story in Acts chapter 9. It’s a pretty manly conversion story. He’s going around killing Christians for blasphemy and Jesus shows up, knocks him to the ground, and blinds him. One day he’s on the fast track to really be someone in the religious leadership of the Pharisees—I mean, he’s kicking butt and taking names. The next day Jesus shows up and completely changes his life. Paul goes from being the biggest threat to Christianity to become the biggest threat of Christianity—he spreads the Gospel more than any of the other apostles. And he pays dearly for it, eventually dies for it. He must have really believed it.
But what did he believe? What’s the big idea of the Gospel that was worth giving up his entire life for? Here it is, the shortest, most complete summary of the Gospel in the Bible...
Verse 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, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.
That. That Christ died for our sins. That He was buried. That He was raised on the third day. That He appeared. What Gospel? That Gospel.
Paul says he delivered that Gospel to them. He was just the delivery man. It is of first importance—it’s the most important thing. Nothing is more important than the Gospel. It seems like this was an early form of a creed—something all the Christians had memorized. We should probably memorize this, too. Let’s say it together, try to get it stuck in our head:
“That Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.”
Why did Christ die? He died for our sins. Whose sins? Ours. Who are we? We’re the ones who believe that Christ died for our sins. We hear the Gospel and we believe it and boom!—we become one of the people that Christ died for their sins. That Christ died to take away your sins is the Gospel’s first biggest idea. The atoning sacrifice of the Son of God for His people. There’s no Gospel without this.
He died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures. What Scriptures? No doubt he has Isaiah 53 in mind, “Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.” And Psalm 22, which describes the crucifixion, and talks about faith being proclaimed to a generation yet unborn. There are a lot of Old Testament passages that he could be referring to.
That Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried. It’s mentioned in all four Gospels that Jesus actually became a dead person and the body had to be disposed of like any dead body. Both the Apostle’s Creed and the Nicene Creed testify that Jesus was buried.
That Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.
Again, what Scriptures say the Christ would come back from the dead on the third day? Jesus had said many times in the Gospels that He would be killed and would rise again on the third day but they didn’t have the Gospels yet when Paul wrote this letter. Almost, but it would still be a few years. Hosea 6:2 says this, it was the hope of all Israel,
“After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him.”
Jesus Himself referred to Jonah’s three days in the belly of a fish as a prophecy of the Son of Man’s three days in the heart of the earth. Psalm 16:8 also talks about God not abandoning the Messiah to death and the grave.
Paul wants us to understand what this means for all of us. In raising the Messiah from the dead, God also promises to raise and give life to everyone who is in Christ. “In Christ” is a reference to our baptism. Romans 6:11 says that everyone who is baptized is baptized into Christ’s death and is united with Him in His resurrection.
What’s the Gospel? Let’s say it again: “That Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.”
According to Jewish law, testimony had to be established by two or three witnesses. Jesus came back from the dead and appeared to Cephas—Cephas is the Aramaic way of saying Peter. If you remember how Peter had left things with Jesus before the crucifixion—the whole denying Him three times thing—it’s an amazing mercy that Peter was one of the first people Jesus visited after the resurrection.
If you’ve read the Gospels, you probably notice that Paul left some people off his list of eyewitnesses. The first people to see Jesus alive were women. You might think it’s strange that Paul doesn’t mention them here but the truly strange thing is that the Gospels do mention them. At that time, women weren’t allowed to be official witnesses. So Paul wants to go on record saying the claims of the Gospel are true beyond any doubt. Above reproach. Jesus actually died. Was actually buried. And physically appeared before actual eyewitnesses. He says, “Cephas and then the twelve.” By “The Twelve” he means the twelve disciples who had followed Jesus for all the years of His earthly ministry. The day of Easter, Jesus appeared to ten of the disciples—Judas had hung himself and Thomas wasn’t there. Then a week later, Jesus showed up again when Thomas was there. I think we should assume the man who replaced Judas was there, too—Mathias. There were probably a number of others hanging out, too—including the women. I mean, it was pretty big news that Jesus had come back from the dead. I imagine Lazarus was there saying, “I know exactly how He feels!” Justus, who got passed over for that twelfth spot was probably happy to be there and see Jesus again. His mom wouldn’t have missed it for the world.
Jesus told them to meet Him in Galilee, I’m sure a pretty big crowd followed them to the mountain where Jesus shows up to give them their final Great Commission just before He ascends back to heaven. That might be the scene Paul describes next when he says in verse 6:
Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.
The law required two or three witnesses for truth to be established. Paul’s like, fine, how about more than 500? If you don’t believe me you can go ask them yourself. Most of them are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.
Why does he say “fallen asleep, when he means died? When Jesus showed up and brought the dead back to life He would say, “They’re not dead, they’ve just fallen asleep.” But Lazarus had been dead for four days. Jairus’ daughter had actually died, too. Why did Jesus say that? I think the reason is because He wants us to think of death as temporary. Like every night you lay down and go to sleep fully expecting to wake up in the morning. It’s a reminder of the resurrection every single day of your life.
Verse 7:
Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.
James was Jesus’ oldest half-brother. The son of Joseph. He had not been a believer during Jesus’ ministry. There were a couple of times that he actually tried to get Jesus to stop embarrassing the family with all that Messiah nonsense. How awesome is it that Jesus makes a special appearance to his half-brother to make sure he knew the truth. Make sure he believed in the Gospel that could save him. Like, “brother, I know you never thought any of this was true—but look. It’s all true.” James became the leader of the church in Jerusalem after that. He was known as “Old Camel Knees” because of all the time he spent on them praying to his brother and Lord.
Verse 8:
Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.
1 Corinthians 15:1–11
Paul was going door to door looking for Jesus followers to shut down. Right now in Afghanistan, there are Taliban soldiers going door to door looking for Christians—anyone who has a Bible app on their phone is in danger. They think they’re doing God’s work. They think they’re doing something good and noble. Paul was going around killing Christians, too. One of those Christians was a young man named Stephen. Before Stephan died, he told everyone about Jesus and asked God to forgive them for stoning him. Paul was one of the men in the mob.
What an unlikely candidate to become the greatest apostle. Paul always called himself the least of the apostles but come on… between him and his protégé Luke, they wrote most of the New Testament and started more churches than anyone else. God used Paul to take the Gospel to the world. To change the world.
Paul didn’t deserve the grace God gave him. None of us do. That’s what grace means. This world doesn’t know anything about grace. This world only knows how to be offended, how to cancel, how to boycott, how to answer violence and hate with violence and hate.
You are only here by the grace of God. Me too. You are only who you are by the grace of God. Who are you? A forgiven child of God, brother of Jesus, filled with the Holy Spirit, with the promise that you’re going to rise from the dead just like Jesus did.
Paul says the grace God showed him was not in vain. He took that grace and ran with it. He stood in his faith. He held fast. He believed the Gospel and did more with it than anyone else he knew. It was eventually going to cost him his head. His life makes no sense from a natural, faithless perspective. He gave up everything, for what?
For the Gospel. That Gospel. The one we’ve been talking about. He gave his life so you and me could know about it. “So we preach and so you believed.”
You might feel the same way about yourself that Paul felt about himself. Not worthy. Least of all the believers. Not qualified. How could God use me to do anything important?
Can you pass on to others what was given to you? You can. Can you tell the story of how your faith came alive in you? You can. Can you be brave enough to say the Gospel out loud when someone comes knocking on your door and demands to see your phone?
Let’s say this one more time together, what is the Gospel? “That Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve, and by faith He has made Himself known to me.” AMEN
Prayer: Thank You… Help us to be bold and confident and clear in how we speak of the Gospel. It’s not about how we are better behaved than anyone else. It’s not about us at all, it’s about what Christ has done for us. Help us to have opportunities to tell the story of how faith became real to us. Help us to have the courage to make our story interesting, pointing to Jesus and not ourselves.