1 Corinthians 15:1-8: The Foundation of Our Faith

1 Corinthians 15:1-8: TheFoundation of Our Faith

The passage of Scripture we’ll be looking at today is 1 Corinthians 15:1-8. Hear now the words of the Living and True God:

1 Now I would remind you, brothers, 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. 

May God bless the reading of his Word.

Let’s pray: Father, we’re told that there are different kinds of soils on which the seed of your Word falls—thorny soil, rocky soil, soil on a path, and good fertile soil. And it’s only when the seed falls on that last kind of soil that it actually produces fruit. So, please, help us to be that fertile soil this morning, so that the seed of your Word can take root and bear fruit in our lives. It’s in Jesus’ name we pray, amen.I imagine most of us are well aware that Easter is a celebration of Jesus being raised from the dead—an event we call “the resurrection.” And there’s good reason to put so much emphasis on celebrating the resurrection. It’s with the resurrection that Christianity stands or falls. Jesus rising from the dead as at the very heart of the Christian faith. 

You might compare it with the way a physical heart functions in a person’s body. Each of our bodies needs a heart in order to go on living. Our bodies can’t function without a heart. Even though it’s possible to lose a hand or a leg or even an eye and still go on living, it’s not possible to live without a heart. If something happens to your heart that keeps it from being functional any longer, you die. Similarly, the resurrection is just as essential for Christianity as the heart is for the body. As the Apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:17, “[I]f Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.”

Yet, if Jesus did rise from the dead, then all the rest of Christian beliefs and Christian teachings logically follow. If Jesus rose, we can safely conclude that everything he taught is true. So, if we can demonstrate beyond a reasonable doubt that Jesus rose from the dead, that would, in effect, demonstrate the truth of Christianity. 

So, someone might wonder, why should we believe that Christianity is true as opposed to Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, or any other world religion? Because of the resurrection. It all comes down to that. As a Yale theologian named Jaroslav Pelikan once said, “If Christ is risen, then nothing else matters. And if Christ is not risen, then nothing else matters.” Everything comes down to whether or not Jesus rose from the dead. 

That’s why I’d like to turn our attention this morning to an early Christian creed we find in 1 Corinthians 15—and specifically in verses 3-7. Although the letter of 1 Corinthians was probably written sometime around 55 AD, what we read in verses 3-7 is actually a creed that Paul’s simply passing along and that’s actually been dated to within 5 years of Jesus being crucified, which would put this creed sometime between 33 and 38 AD. And by way, even secular, non-Christian scholars believe this creed was written during that timeframe. Even though they have no interest at all in demonstrating the truth of Christianity, the overwhelming majority even of secular scholars believe this creed was formulated within 5 years of Jesus’s crucifixion. And that’s significant because 5 years isn’t anywhere close to enough time for a legend to develop. So, Jesus rising from the dead wasn’t a legend that gradually developed over the course two or three hundred years but was instead something that Christians universally believed from the very beginning. 

So, let’s look first at how Paul introduces this creed in verses 1-2. He writes, 1 Now I would remind you, brothers, 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. 

Now, I appreciate Paul saying in verse 1 that he desires to “remind” his readers about these foundational teachings. Even though his readers are already Christians—as we can see by the fact that Paul calls them “brothers”—Paul understands that even Christians still need to hear the fundamental truths of the gospel over and over again. You see, the reality is that we leak. Just like a bucket with a small hole in the bottom, we have a tendency to leak. We hear the glorious truths of the gospel about who Jesus is and what he’s done to rescue us from our sins and are filled with joy and gratitude—but then…it kind of leaks out of us. We gradually lose sight of these glorious gospel truths and therefore need to be freshly reminded of them on a regular basis. 

And that’s what Paul does for his readers in this passage. He reminds them of the gospel. That’s the main idea we see here. Paul reminds his readers of the gospel.  

And he refers to it as “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.” So, us being saved from our sins is conditional upon us holding fast to this gospel message. If we don’t hold fast to the gospel throughout our lives, that reveals that we never truly had saving faith in the first place. The genuineness of our faith is demonstrated as we continue to persevere in our faith all the way to heaven. 

Paul then writes in the first part of verse 3, “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received…” So, Paul had already “delivered” this message to the Corinthians once, and he now desires to share it with them again. He also speaks of what he’s about to set forth as a message of “first importance.” There’s nothing more important than what he’s about to share. Paul also identifies this as something he “received.” So, what we’re about to read isn’t something Paul himself wrote but rather something that was written earlier and that Paul’s simply passing along. 

And here’s what that is. Verses 3-8: 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. 

Now, obviously, there’s a whole lot here. But the first element of this I’d like us to notice is where Paul says in verse 3 that “Christ died for our sins.” Jesus dying on the cross wasn’t merely some sort of tragic accident but was something Jesus endured very deliberately and for a specific purpose. He died, as it says, “for our sins”—that is, to suffer the punishment our sins deserved. The Bible teaches that each one of us has sinned against an infinitely worthy God and therefore deserves a punishment that’s infinitely terrible. Yet Jesus suffered that punishment in our place on the cross. His death made atonement for our sins. 

We then read that this took place “in accordance with the Scriptures.” It was all predicted in the Old Testament in passages like Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53 hundreds of years before it happened. These prophecies demonstrate that it was all a part of God’s perfect plan. Verse 4 then tells us that Jesus was buried, which served to confirm that he really did die. Yet he didn’t stay dead but, as verse 4 says, “he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.” 

However, someone might wonder, how do we know that this gospel message of the death and resurrection of Jesus is actually true? And the answer is provided for us in verses 5-8. We can be confident that Jesus really did rise from the dead because he appeared to dozens—and actually even hundreds—of people afterwards. 

These include “Cephas,” which is another name for Peter. Jesus also appeared to “the twelve,” which refers to the twelve apostles. He then, as verse 6 says, “appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.” Now, think about that. Jesus appeared not just to a handful of his closest followers but to hundreds of people—“five hundred brothers at one time.” 

Yet it gets even better, because the verse goes on to say, “most of whom are still alive [at the time of Paul’s writing].” So, it’s not as though all of these witnesses were now dead and therefore no longer able to confirm or deny the claims being made about them. On the contrary, if Paul was going around saying something about what they saw that wasn’t true, most of them were still alive and therefore could easily sound the alarm about Paul spreading misinformation. Yet we have no record of anything like that taking place. Instead, Paul seems very confident that anyone who talks to these witnesses will discover that everything he’s saying about them is absolutely true. 

It would be kind of like me saying that the general manager of the Panera down the street told me that the store will be undergoing renovations next week. Now, that would be silly for me to say if it weren’t true. Because, if you wanted to, you could go down the street and check with that general manager yourself and find out whether I had accurately represented him or not. Lying about that would be incredibly foolish because the lie would be so easy to expose. Similarly, the claim Paul makes here about these eyewitnesses still being alive is basically a challenge to anyone who doubts him to investigate his claims for themselves. The claims he’s making can be easily verified by anyone who desires to do so. 

We then read in verses 7-8 that Jesus appeared also to James, then to all the apostles, and then even to Paul himself. So, we have all of these people claiming to be eyewitnesses of the resurrected Jesus—saying that they saw Jesus alive from the dead. And by the way, there are also non-Christian writers from the first century who likewise say that there were many people during that time who claimed Jesus appeared to them. So, it’s a well-documented historical fact, acknowledged even by non-Christian writers, that these people at least believed they saw the resurrected Jesus. So, what are we going to do with this well-documented historical fact? We have to do something. What are we going to do? 

Well, there are really only three options. We could say, number one, that these witnesses were correct and that they really did see Jesus alive from the dead. Or we could say they were lying. Like, they knew they didn’t actually see the risen Jesus but said they did anyway. Or a third possibility is that they were mistaken. Although they genuinely thought they saw the risen Jesus, they didn’t really see him. Those are the only three options. 

Now, I’d like to suggest this morning that the only option of those three options that makes any sense is the first option—that these people who claimed to see Jesus alive from the dead were telling the truth and were absolutely correct in their belief that Jesus had risen. This would imply, of course, that Christianity is true. 

Now, regarding the second option, why would it be unreasonable to think that the second option is true? How can we be sure these people who claimed to be eyewitnesses weren’t lying? 

Well, first of all, the eyewitness accounts we have in the four gospels lack any signs of legendary embellishment and actually include quite a few embarrassing details. These details include the New Testament writers admitting that they were relatively clueless during Jesus’s earthly ministry about even the most basic aspects of Jesus’s mission. If you read the four gospels, the disciples come across as pretty dim-witted. In addition, they also record Jesus calling Peter “Satan” in Matthew 16:23. That’s embarrassing. And it’s even more embarrassing when Jesus is arrested and—what do all of his disciples do? They run away. Even Peter, who talked a big game prior to that point, ran away and later denied three times that he even knew Jesus. 

So, this is something historians call the criterion of embarrassment. The idea is that if someone’s willing to report something that causes them significant personal embarrassment, they’re probably telling the truth. I remember this one time while I was in college, one of my friends was asked very directly by another friend if he picked his nose. He was actually asked this at the lunch table in front of 5-6 people. And he was a Christian and didn’t want to lie. Yet he was kind of stuck since he had just been asked this question in front of everyone. So, he rather sheepishly admitted that he did, in fact, pick his nose. And I absolutely believe he was telling the truth. Why? Because people just don’t lie about embarrassing details like that. Although it might be very common for people to lie in order to make themselves look good, I don’t think I’ve ever heard of anyone lying to make themselves look bad. And that’s why we can believe that the New Testament writers were telling the truth—because they were very open about all of these embarrassing details. 

And one detail the New Testament writers included related to the resurrection specifically was the fact that it was women who were the first to discover the empty tomb after Jesus had been buried. Now, why was that embarrassing? Because, in the culture of the day, women weren’t considered reliable witnesses at all. Their testimony wasn’t even admitted into a court of law. It was basically worthless. Yet the New Testament writers were very honest about the fact that it was women who were the first to witness the empty tomb. That would have been deeply embarrassing to admit in the first century. Yet it’s a sign to us today that they were telling the truth. 

In addition, even more significantly, the people—and specifically the apostles—who claimed to see the risen Jesus were also willing to die for their claim. Many of them did die. Peter was crucified upside down, Paul was tortured and beheaded by Nero, James the brother of John was put to death with a sword as recorded in Acts 12:2, Thomas was killed with a spear in India, Andrew was crucified in Greece on an x-shaped cross, and there are also many other reports of just about all of the other apostles dying as martyrs as well. According to church tradition, the only apostle who didn’t end up dying as a martyr was John. And even though some of these church traditions are admittedly more reliable than others, we can say with absolute confidence that all of the apostles were at least willing to die for their testimony about Jesus—since they all traveled to places and engaged in ministry in ways that put their lives in extreme danger. 

Keep in mind also that it’s not like they were getting rich or enjoying any other earthly benefits from their testimony about Jesus. Rich “prosperity gospel” televangelists weren’t a thing back then. There were no television broadcasts to bring in advertising revenue and no lucrative book deals or book royalties for the apostles to earn. The only thing their testimony earned them was suffering and—in most cases—death. 

So, we have to wonder, why would they be willing to endure such suffering and death for their testimony if they were lying? Who in their right mind would be willing to die for a lie? These men had absolutely nothing of any earthly value to gain by lying, and they had everything to lose. So, why in the world would they say they saw Jesus alive from the dead if they didn’t believe it was true?

I mean, I guess it’s possible that one of them might have had some psychological problems that would make him willing to die for a lie, but all of them were willing to die for their testimony. Even when they were staring death in the face, not a single one of them recanted their testimony. If they were lying, surely at least one of them would have called it quits prior to martyrdom. Like, “Okay guys, you got me. I was just trying to pull one over on you by claiming that I saw Jesus alive from the dead. No need to kill me.” Yet not a single one of them said anything like that. They were all willing to die. 

Now, someone might object that there have been plenty of religious people throughout history who have been willing to die for their religion. For example, the Muslims who hijacked planes on September 11 were willing to die for their religious belief. And while that’s true, the key difference is that those people weren’t in a position to know whether what they were dying for was true or not. They merely died because they believed religious teachings that were passed on to them, not because they themselves were eyewitnesses of anything. 

Yet the apostles were categorically different in that they were in a unique position of actually being eyewitnesses of the truth claims they were dying for and therefore being able to know their message was true rather than merely believing it was true. So, whereas there have indeed been plenty of people throughout history who have been willing to die for religious teachings that were passed on to them that they merely thought were true, the apostles were willing to die for truth claims of which they themselves were eyewitnesses. 

So, I believe that sufficiently addresses the question of whether these “eyewitnesses” were lying. But what about option three? Were these men who claimed to see Jesus alive from the dead simply mistaken about what they saw? 

Well, that would explain them being willing to die for their testimony. But it wouldn’t explain several other historical facts. For example, it wouldn’t explain the empty tomb. If these people were mistaken about seeing Jesus alive from the dead, then Jesus’ body would still be in the tomb. And the Jewish religious leaders would have been more than happy to produce Jesus’s body and put it on public display in order to demonstrate to everyone that Jesus was still very dead. They could have easily been like, “Hey everyone, don’t listen to what Jesus’s disciples are saying about seeing Jesus alive from the dead. They’re obviously just imagining things, because—see?—here’s his body right here.” But the Jewish leaders didn’t do that. They didn’t produce Jesus’s body. Why not? Because they had no body to produce. 

In fact, we have record of the Jewish leaders accusing Jesus’s disciples of stealing his body. Now, if Jesus’s body was still in the tomb, the Jewish leaders wouldn’t have made that accusation. So, we actually have rock solid evidence that the tomb was empty because this evidence comes to us not from early Christians but from the opponents of Christianity. And by the way, the accusation that Jesus’s disciples stole his body is refuted by what we just discussed about the disciples’ willingness to die for their testimony. 

In addition, it’s also significant that the apostles didn’t merely see Jesus alive from the dead. They also had opportunities to interact with him extensively and even to touch him. Remember how Jesus invited Thomas to put his finger into the nail holes in his hands and to reach out his hand and put it into the spear hole in his side. Jesus also ate food in front of the apostles in order to demonstrate that he wasn’t merely some sort of ghost but had actually been raised physically from the dead. 

Not only that, as we consider whether those who claimed to be eyewitnesses were simply mistaken, you have to remember that several of these individuals weren’t initially followers of Jesus but rather were quite skeptical about Jesus’s teachings. For example, think about James and Jude—the biological brothers of Jesus. These men considered Jesus to be an embarrassment to their family and even mocked and ridiculed him during his earthly ministry. Yet, somehow, after Jesus was crucified, they experienced a radical transformation and came to believe that everything he taught was true.  

Let me ask you something—those of you who have brothers. What would it take to convince you that your brother was the Messiah? I imagine you’d be quite skeptical about anyone making that claim but even more skeptical about your own brother making that claim. Because you know your brother too well to believe that he’s any kind of Messiah. I mean, what about that time, growing up, when he peed his pants at the supermarket or the time he wore socks with Crocs and thought that looked cool? Like, are you really going to tell me that my dorky brother is the Messiah? So, I’m sure we can all understand why Jesus’s brothers were skeptical about the claims he made about himself. Yet something happened after his crucifixion that made them change their views of him completely. And they said this “something” was that they saw Jesus alive after death. They weren’t looking for a risen Jesus or expecting a risen Jesus. Yet they nevertheless saw a risen Jesus. 

We could also say something similar about Paul, who went from hating and persecuting Christians to becoming the greatest Christian missionary who ever lived because he had an experience on the road to Damascus that he was convinced was an encounter with the risen Jesus. So, what’s my point? Well, the fact that these eyewitnesses were formerly quite skeptical but then saw something they weren’t at all expecting to see makes it all the more likely that their experiences weren’t the result of an overactive imagination but rather were genuine encounters with the risen Jesus. 

And when you take that and combine it with the empty tomb, I think we can decisively say that option three is off the table. It’s simply not reasonable to believe that these eyewitnesses were mistaken. So, if these eyewitnesses weren’t lying and if they weren’t mistaken, the only option we’re left with is that Jesus really did rise from the dead and, therefore, that everything he taught is true and that Christianity itself is true. 

Now, I do want to acknowledge that, over the past 200 years or so, skeptical scholars of previous generations have proposed several alternative theories that attempt to explain away the evidence I’ve set before you today. However, all of these alternative theories are so weak that, these days, even skeptical scholars admit that none of these alternative theories are believable. It’s very rare to come across any scholar today who specializes in the study of these things and holds to any of these alternative theories. 

Skeptical scholars today have basically given up trying to come up with alternative explanations for the historical facts we’ve discussed today. Instead, they basically just say that the resurrection didn’t happen because it couldn’t have happened. Following their own naturalistic worldview, they say that it’s simply impossible for someone to come back from the dead. So, they rule out the resurrection before they even consider any of the evidence for it. And I just don’t think that’s a reasonable way to approach evidence. A good detective follows the evidence wherever it leads—and I’m simply suggesting that we should do the same with the resurrection. 

At the same time, let me be clear that simply embracing the conclusion that Jesus rose from the dead falls short of what the Bible requires. According to the Bible, we’re called not just to embrace a conclusion or an intellectual proposition—we’re called to embrace a Person, the Person of Jesus himself. So, if you haven’t yet done that, will you do that even today? Will you turn away from your sins and put your trust in Jesus alone to save you from those sins and give you eternal life?  

And for those who are already Christians, let me remind you that the resurrection of Jesus isn’t merely something we should remember and rejoice in on Easter but is something that should make all the difference in the world for our everyday lives. 

For example, even as we often face significant trials in our lives, Jesus’s resurrection is a wonderful reminder of what’s in store for us in the future. Just as Jesus was raised from the dead and given a glorified resurrection body, we also will one day be raised up and given glorified resurrection bodies as well—and be able to enjoy God and behold his glory for all eternity. So, regardless of how severe the trials we face in our lives might sometimes be, we have a hope—rooted in the resurrection—that transcends them all. 

In addition, Jesus’s resurrection also gives us incredible comfort whenever a Christian friend or family member dies. As much as we might miss them, we understand that—because of Jesus’s resurrection—death for that person isn’t the end but merely the beginning of life like never before. We also understand that we’ll see them again in the future and spend eternity with them. So, in the words of 1 Thessalonians 4:13, we grieve, but not as those who have no hope. 

Moreover, Jesus’s resurrection should encourage us to live transformed lives. Romans 6:4 says that Jesus being raised from the dead is a picture of what happens within us at conversion. Although we were once spiritually dead, God makes us spiritually alive with the result that we should walk, Paul says, “in newness of life.” 

And finally, as we look at the world around us and how broken it is in so many ways, Jesus’s resurrection is a guarantee that, one day, God will make all things new. That’s what God says in Revelation 21:5: “Behold, I am making all things new.” In the verses right before that, we’re told that this means that death will be eradicated and that there will no longer be any kind of mourning or crying or pain. Everything that’s wrong with this world will be made right, and everything that’s broken will be made whole. So, what an encouragement that is in the midst of all the brokenness and heartache that abounds in our world today. And Jesus’s resurrection is the beginning of that cosmic renewal. As one theologian has written, “The resurrection is not just a surprise happy ending for one person—it is the turning point of history and the beginning of God's new creation.”  

So, the resurrection is amazingly relevant for our everyday lives. We might say that it’s an event in the past that makes all the difference in the world for the present because of the glorious things it secures in the future.