Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20070902.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
1 Corinthians: Discipling Believers With Very Sinful Backgrounds
VIII. Overcoming Secularism's Denial Of The Bodily Resurrection
B. Overcoming Doubts About Christ's Bodily Resurrection
(1 Corinthians 15:1-11)

Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

The 1 Corinthians 15:1-11 passage we are set to study this morning asserts that the Gospel we are to believe to be saved from hell to heaven is the good news about a miracle: we are to believe in Christ Who died for our sins and bodily arose from the dead, 1 Cor. 15:1, 3-4.

However, many people reflect the view of David Hume who wrote: "A miracle is a violation of the laws of nature; and as a firm and unalterable experience has established these laws, the proof against a miracle, from the very nature of the fact, is as entire as any argument from experience can possibly be imagined . . ." (David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Chicago: Open Court, 1958, p. 126-127 as cited in Josh McDowell, A Ready Defense, p. 124)

If Hume is right, our faith is false, for John F. Walvoord noted in his book, Jesus Christ Our Lord, p. 191 that "From the standpoint of an apologetic for Christian theology, belief in Jesus Christ as the Son of God stands or falls with the question of His bodily resurrection."

Being sure if Christ ever bodily rose from the dead became even more important due to the release earlier this year of a film documentary entitled, "The Burial Cave of Jesus". It suggested that, "based on years of research by world-renowned archaeologists, statisticians, experts in ancient scripts and in DNA," a tomb found in Jerusalem's Talpiyot neighborhood in 1980 had been determined to have the bones of Jesus and His family, cf. Deutsche Presse-Agentur, Feb. 23, 2007 as cited on beliefnet.com. One coffin was inscribed with the name, "Jesus son of Joseph", two of the family ones had "Mary," presumably one being his mother and the other Mary Magdalene, and "Judah son of Jesus", suggesting Jesus wed and had a son according to this film by Simcha Jacobovici and three-time-Oscar-winning Canadian film director James Cameron (Titanic, The Terminator), Ibid.



One then may ask, "From the New Testament itself, does belief in the bodily resurrection of Christ in any way appear to be a HOAX, or is it CREDIBLE?! How can we KNOW so that we can know HOW to respond to the Christian GOSPEL that calls us to believe in the MIRACLE of Christ's bodily resurrection in view of charges that Jesus' tomb with its bones are with us today, and in view of the fact that many reject belief in miracles, anyway?!"

(We turn to the sermon "Need" section . . . )

Need: "Since our Christian faith stands or falls on whether Christ died and bodily arose again, does the New Testament supply any credibility for the claim that He MIRACULOUSLY, bodily arose?!"
  1. When Paul wrote 1 Corinthians 15, he addressed some believers who denied belief in the bodily resurrection, 1 Corinthians 15:12b.
  2. In starting to SUPPORT belief in the resurrection, Paul BEGAN to establish as FACTUAL the BODILY RESURRECTION of JESUS CHRIST: he repeated his Gospel that Christ died for man's sins, was buried and bodily arose according to Scripture and eyewitness reports, cf. 1 Cor. 15:1-11; Bible Know. Com., N. T., p. 541-542.
  3. In repeating that Gospel, Paul gave GREAT EVIDENCES for the VALIDITY of CHRIST'S BODILY RESURRECTION (as follows):
    1. In light of contrary Greek philosophy, Paul's preaching of the Gospel offers evidence of the truth of Christ's resurrection, 1 Cor. 15:1, 3-4:
      1. Greek philosophers in Paul's era thought the body was the source of human weakness and sin so that death was welcome in that it freed the soul from the body. Thus, a resurrection was unwelcome as it would mean that the soul had been put back into "the grave of the body," The Wycliffe Bible Commentary, 1971, p. 1255.
      2. So, for Paul candidly to preach a Gospel of Christ's death and bodily resurrection that rubbed against popular secular opinion, he must have been sure Christ that had risen, 1 Corinthians 15:1-4!
    2. In view of the great wickedness of Corinth, Paul's proclamation of Christ's death and resurrection as his SOLE Gospel CONTENT to the Corinthians greatly evidences the event's historicity, 1 Cor. 2:1-5:
      1. We before noted that "Corinth was noted for everything sinful," cf. Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, 1978 ed., p. 1619, "The City of Corinth."
      2. Yet, when Paul first arrived at Corinth, he determined to teach nothing but Christ crucified and raised, 1 Cor. 2:1-2 (with 15:1-4), showing he was convinced Christ had thus risen by way of his utter reliance on that Gospel for his secular hearers to trust to be saved!
    3. Due to the amazing conversions of Paul's Corinthian readers, people who had been so steeped in opposing Greek philosophy and sin, the historicity of Christ's resurrection is supported, 1 Cor. 15:1; 6:9-11:
      1. Some of Paul's Corinthian readers who had thus been saved from great sins like substance abuse, homosexuality, extortion were saved upon believing the Gospel he proclaimed, cf. 1 Cor. 6:9-11.
      2. Such transformations in folk with such decadence and influence by Greek philosophy that so strongly repelled belief in a resurrection supplies evidence that Christ's Gospel is both powerful and true!
    4. The fact that Christ's death and bodily resurrection fulfilled Old Testament prophecy greatly certifies the reality of Christ's bodily resurrection from the dead, 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 et al.:
      1. Paul reported his Gospel of Christ's death and resurrection had been taught in the prophecies of the Old Testament, 1 Cor. 15:3-4.
      2. Noting such details as Christ's being pierced in His hands and feet (Psalm 22:16b), that His clothes were parted, that lots were cast for untearable, knitted clothing (Psalm 22:18), and that He would live after having died as a sin offering (Isa. 53:10), just a few of the many predictions of that event written long before Roman times when crucifixion was not known, show the great accuracy of how Christ's death and resurrection fulfilled prophecy, and testify to the validity of those events, Ibid., Ryrie, ftn. to Psalm 22:11-18.
    5. Paul claimed over 250 witnesses still living [whom his readers could interview] had seen the risen Christ, strongly attesting to the validity of His resurrection, 1 Cor. 15:5-7; Ibid., Ryrie, ftn. to 1 Cor. 15:6.
    6. The astounding transformation of Saul of Tarsus from murderer of Christians to ardent missionary Apostle for Christ greatly testifies to the validity of the claim that Christ bodily arose, 1 Cor. 15:8-11:
      1. Paul who himself wrote this epistle initially ardently persecuted the Church (Acts 9:1), so, upon his conversion to faith in the crucified and risen Christ, Christians at first tried to avoid him, Acts 9:2-26.
      2. Yet, he became the hardest working apostle for the Gospel (1 Cor. 15:10), a great evidence for the validity of Christ's resurrection!
Application: (1) May we BELIEVE the GOSPEL that Christ died for our sins, was buried and bodily arose again according to the Old Testament Scriptures that we might be given God's gift of eternal life, 1 Corinthians 15:1-11; John 3:16. (2) Then, may we RECALL the evidences in 1 Corinthians 15:1-11 of the VALIDITY of Christ's death and bodily resurrection to stand FULLY ASSURED of the VALIDITY of our Christian faith!

Lesson: In its historical and cultural setting, the New Testament ITSELF gives GREAT evidences for the CREDIBILITY of the claim that Jesus died for our sins, was buried and BODILY AROSE from the DEAD, and that this GOSPEL is to be BELIEVED for ETERNAL SALVATION!

Conclusion: (To illustrate the sermon lesson . . . )

Ben Witherington III once worked with Simcha Jacobovici, the film maker who made the documentary film, "The Burial Cave of Jesus" that asserts Christ's bones are still with us today, and Mr. Witherington shows the problems behind the stands made by this film:

(1) First, Ben Witherington III claims "I have worked with Jacobovici--he is a good filmmaker, and he knows a sensational story when he sees one . . . Unfortunately, it is also a story full of holes and conjectures . . ." (Ben Witherington III, "An Empty Theory and an Empty Tomb," beliefnet.com)

(2) Witherington notes that Professor Amos Kloner from bar Ilan University who "oversaw the discovery of the tomb in 1980" and who "did extensive work on it in 1996 . . . came to negative conclusions regarding any links to the Jesus of the gospels. There is no likelihood that Jesus and his relatives had a family tomb,' he told The Jerusalem Post." (Ibid.)

(3) The "names on these ossuaries are very familiar Jewish names. Jude and Joshua (Jesus) were two of the most common names in all of early Judaism." (Ibid.) They could easily have been people who were not related to Jesus and His earthly family!

(4) Then, "the earliest followers of Jesus never called Jesus son of Joseph.' It was outsiders who mistakenly called him that!" (Ibid.) This argues that the "Jesus" in that tomb was not Jesus Christ.

(5) Witherington added that the "DNA angle is nonsense. No independent DNA control sample is available for comparison to what was garnered from the bones in this tomb. The most the DNA evidence can show is that several of these folks are inter-related . . . The DNA angle has been thrown in to make this project carry the significance of real scientific fact. Not so much." (Ibid.)

(6) The film violates the historical account of the New Testament. It suggests among other errant ideas that we should believe that Peter and John "knew Jesus didn't rise bodily from the dead but perpetrated a fraudulent religion, for which they and others were prepared to die," a view that is illogical! (Ibid.)

Christ indeed is risen, and our faith is not in vain. May we thus believe in Christ to have eternal life, and stand firmly upon the belief that He died for our sins, was buried, and bodily arose from the dead!