This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

(upbeat music) - Welcome to the look we're going to have this week at First
Corinthians chapter 15. This is day one of our look through this chapter. And if
you need some good news this week, if you need some good news in your life, then
you chose the right week to listen.

First Corinthians chapter 15, of all the good news chapters in all the Bible,
it's one of the best news, good news chapters in all the Bible. It's a chapter
that's really all about the resurrection. It's all about the truth of, in one
sense, the truth of Easter.

It's about the good news of Easter and what that news means for your life. It's
about how important Easter really is. This chapter tells us that Easter, the
resurrection of Jesus, is right at the center of everything we believe, of
everything we are, and of everything we will be.

Easter is a celebration of the resurrection. And this is a chapter. First
Corinthians 15 that tells us that the resurrection is just more than some happy
ending to the Jesus story.

Like, wow, that's a great movie ending. He came up out of the grave. Instead,
the resurrection, not just instead, but also in a great way, multiplied ways,
the resurrection forms the foundation for the whole gospel story.

It's not just the end of the gospel story. It is the foundation for the gospel
story. What if they had found Jesus in the tomb, dead on that third day?

And Paul in this chapter is going to tell us what if after we die as Christians, we
just stay in a grave? There's nothingness. What if there's no resurrection?

Now, the reason that Paul wrote this chapter is because some people in Corinth
were struggling with exactly that. There were some people who were teaching
exactly that, that there was no resurrection. There's no life after this life.

And it gave Paul, through the power of the Holy Spirit, a wonderful opportunity
to proclaim the undeniably, vitally important priority of the resurrection of
Jesus Christ. This Good News chapter starts with good news. Remember the word
gospel and the word good news are the same word.

Gospel means good news in the Greek language. So let me begin and read to you 1
Corinthians chapter 15, verses one to eight. Now, brothers, I want to remind you
of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken
your stand.

By this gospel, you are saved if you hold firmly to the word that I preached to
you. Otherwise, you've believed in vain. For what I received, I passed on to you
as of first importance, that Christ died for our sins, according to the
scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day, according
to the scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter and then to the 12.

After that, he appeared to more than 500 of the brothers at the same time, most
of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to
James, then all the apostles, and last of all, he appeared to me also as to one
abnormally born. As we walk through this week, we're going to see what the
resurrection does for your life and my life.

And in these first verses, Paul reminds us that the resurrection makes the good
news good. What is it that makes the gospel a gospel? What is it that makes the
good news good?

It's the resurrection. And in one sense, these first verses form a mini gospel.
They give us the basic truth of the good news in just a few verses.

Good news, these verses say, Jesus died for your sins. Good news, these verses
say, Jesus was buried in the ground. And good news, these verses say, Jesus was
resurrected from the dead.

Why is that good news? Because the resurrection proclaimed the power of Jesus,
the power that he has over sin and over death. The resurrection causes us to see
the cross that those that day saw it as just a place of torture, to now see it
as a place of forgiveness.

The resurrection causes us to see the tomb that most people would just see as a
place of death, to see it instead as a place of victory. That's the power of the
resurrection and what Jesus did in his resurrection. And in these first verses,
Paul says, I want you to understand the good news, good news.

He died for you, he was buried for you, he was resurrected for you. But then he
also gives us some proof of that good news. Sometimes people in our scientific
day ask the question, do you have any proof?

Well, Paul walks through and gives us the proof of the resurrection and all the
resurrection appearances of Jesus. Several large groups are mentioned. We'll get
to that in a moment.

But as he walks through these people that were involved in the resurrection
appearances of Jesus, there are three individuals involved. And there's
something about looking at the lives of these three men that tell you and I the
power of Jesus in the resurrected life that he wants to give to us. He appeared
to Peter, he appeared to James, he appeared to Paul, he appeared to Peter.

Jesus in his resurrected body appeared to Peter. Remember, Peter is the one who
denied Jesus. You remember the story.

He denied him three times and then he went out and he wept bitterly. And the
scripture tells us that Jesus went after his resurrection, after Peter had
denied, he went and he had a personal meeting with Peter. And in that meeting,
he expressed to him his forgiveness.

Peter, who denied him, he appeared to him to let him know, Peter, I can give you
life. And then the scripture says he also appeared to James. Now, as you look at
the behind the scenes part of these verses, this is most likely James, the
brother of Jesus.

Not James the apostle, that's a different James. But James, the brother of
Jesus. Peter had denied him, James, his brother, had ridiculed him.

If you read the story of the gospel, James is, along with his family, amongst
those who ridicules Jesus for his ministry, who says, why aren't you with the
family? What are you doing, have you gone crazy? And James, his brother, who had
ridiculed him, Jesus goes and appears to his brother.

Imagine that meeting. He appears to his brother and lets him know, I know you've
ridiculed me, but I've got resurrected life for you. Peter, who had denied him,
James, who had ridiculed him, and last of all, Paul says, he appeared to me.

Paul, who had persecuted him. Paul, the one who had gone into churches and drug
people out, arrested them just for worshiping Jesus. Paul, the one who had stood
by and accepted and participated in the stoning of Stephen with the first
Christian martyr.

Paul, who had persecuted Jesus. Jesus appears to him on the road to Damascus.
And Jesus says to him, this resurrected life, I am offering it to you.

That tells me the story of the resurrection and what it means for my life. You
may look in your own heart and life and say, I've denied him. Well, he has
resurrected life for you.

You may look at your life and say, I've ridiculed him. He has resurrected life
for you. You may say, I've persecuted him or the people that follow him.

He has resurrected life for you. It's for everyone. It's offered to all.

As you continue to read through these verses, the proof in it to us is not just
in the individuals that he appeared to, but also the groups that he appeared to,
all the apostles at once. We're told that in the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke,
and John, tell us of the appearances of Jesus in the upper room with all the
apostles there. But this scripture also adds to the resurrection story, the fact
that he appeared at one time to more than 500 people.

I've often thought, what would that day have been like? Here is Jesus in his
resurrected body. They recognize him for who he is, but they also see there's
something more than they saw before.

And he's appearing and preaching to more than 500 people at once. In that crowd,
there had to be people that were pressing towards the front, wanting just to get
closer to Jesus, to touch him if maybe they could, if he would allow them. There
had to be those who hung out in the back, wondering, could this be for me?

How could I be involved in this? Is that really Jesus? There had to be those who
struggled with their doubts, and there had to be those who were overwhelmed by
their faith in a crowd of 500.

And when you think of the resurrection, right now you may be struggling with
doubt, doubt about the life that Jesus wants to give to you. The truth of the
matter is his resurrection is for you. And this Jesus who appeared to more than
500 at once, he wants to appear in your life right now.

This Jesus who appeared to Thomas, who we call Doubting Thomas because of his
doubt, he wants to appear to you right now. Or you may be one of those people
who right now is overwhelmed by faith in the resurrected Lord. He wants to
appear to you, to continue to strengthen that faith that you have in him.

The truth of the matter is he appeared to Peter, to James, to Paul, the
apostles, to more than 500. The truth of the matter is his resurrection power is
offered to all of us. And what Paul is saying in these first verses of 1
Corinthians 15 is without the resurrection, the good news is just news.

It's just the news of someone who died. It's not the good news of someone who's
been brought back from death to life and has the power to bring life to you and
I also. Without the resurrection, Jesus was just another man making promises
that he couldn't fulfill.

He promised that he would come out of that grave. And if he hadn't kept that
promise, then all the other promises were empty promises. The resurrection
though, because we know that it happened, we see that it happened in history and
the lives of all these witnesses, the resurrection makes the good news good.

Let's pray together. And as we're coming to the end of this study of 1
Corinthians, if you're not sure that you've accepted that good news of Christ's
forgiveness and leadership in your life, believed in him as the resurrected
director, manager, Lord of your life, do that right now. Just say to him, I want
the good news to be good in my life.

And so Jesus, I accept you as the resurrected Lord, the one who gave his life
for my sins to give me forgiveness, who was resurrected from the grave to give
me life. Accept the gift of the gospel and then live out that gift. Just pray to
him right now, Jesus, I want to live out the good news in my life today.

This is a bad news world many times. I want to live out the good news that you
have for my heart and life today. Help me to be a light to the people that are
around me today.

I pray this in your name, Jesus, amen. Tomorrow, we're going to see what the
resurrection says about your life.