He is risen!
These familiar words from Easter are used as we celebrate the resurrection of our Savior. Jesus, who died and was buried, is
alive. He lives forever and is seated at
the right hand of the Father where He makes intercession for us.
This is GOOD NEWS!
Another word for good news is “Gospel,” and I want to look
with you today at what exactly is contained in the Gospel.
In the two thousand years since that morning, errors,
arguments and confusion have been added to the story of the resurrection. Some still look for His bones, the remains of
His body. Some still spread the story
that the disciples stole the body.
Others suggest that maybe He was not really dead when they put Him in
the tomb. The really radical fringe
claims He was not a historical person.
These claims and confusion do not bother us. We are the redeemed. We know the Lord and His power in our
lives. However, ours is not a mindless,
blind faith. Historically, we know Jesus
rose from the dead. Historically, we
know He lived and taught in Judea some two thousand years ago.
When conflict from within and without threatened to derail
the Church in Corinth, the Apostle Paul wrote a letter to help, correct and
strengthen the Church. That letter is 1
Corinthians. Toward the end of the
letter, Paul gives a synopsis of the Gospel.
In his brief summary, we have laid out for us what is essential to the Gospel. In 1 Corinthians 15:1, Paul says:
Let me now remind you, dear
brothers and sisters, of the Good News I preached to you before. You welcomed it then, and you still stand firm
in it.[i]
Paul wished to remind his fellow believers of the Good News
he preached to them. They still stood firm
in it, but the reminder was necessary. It
is also good for us to be reminded.
Celebrating Easter is a reminder.
We remind ourselves every year and will continue to do so until Jesus
returns lest we forget the glorious Good News.
This Good News is essential, critical, necessary. Here is what Paul says about it.
It is this Good News that saves you
if you continue to believe the message I told you—unless, of course, you
believed something that was never true in the first place. (1 Corinthians 15:2)
The Gospel is essential because it is by believing the
Gospel that we are saved. This is why
Paul goes on to say what exactly is contained in the Gospel. He says:
I passed on to you what was most
important and what had also been passed on to me. (1 Corinthians 15:3)
Notice here that he says, “I passed on to you what was most
important…” What follows is an outline
of the truths that are essential to the Gospel.
As an outline, it does not contain all the details. However, it does contain what is necessary.
What is necessary?
First, Christ died for our sins.
Paul says, “Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures
said.” (1 Corinthians 15:3)
The details not included here are the content of what “the
Scriptures said.” All the many prophecies of a coming Messiah and the promises
of God to His people are included in the phrase, “just as the Scriptures said.”
The prophecies about Christ’s coming are a great source of
encouragement, and are convincing evidence for the reasonableness of our faith. Many have tried to number the prophecies
concerning the Christ, also called the Messiah.
In his Encyclopedia of Biblical
Prophecy, J. Barton Payne itemized 127 Messianic predictions involving more
than 3,000 Bible verses, with a remarkable 574 verses referring directly to a
personal Messiah![ii]
1 Peter 1:10-11 speaks about these prophecies when it says:
10This salvation was
something even the prophets wanted to know more about when they prophesied
about this gracious salvation prepared for you.
11They wondered what time or situation the Spirit of Christ
within them was talking about when he told them in advance about Christ’s
suffering and his great glory afterward.
According to this passage, the prophets told about the
sufferings of Christ in advance. Isaiah
53 is a very good example of this, offering a picture of Christ’s sufferings
written 700 years in advance.
The sacrifices of the Old Testament Levitical worship are a
picture of the necessity of blood to pay for sins. The fact of Christ’s sacrificial death in our
place is an essential part of the Gospel.
Much truth and Scripture is brought to bear on this single essential
point, “Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said.”
The first truth necessary to the Gospel is that Christ
died. The second truth flows naturally
from this first truth.
Paul states the second truth:
4He was buried, and he
was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said.
As in the case of His death, Paul states that the
resurrection was “just as the Scriptures said.”
The death, burial and resurrection of Jesus are essential to the
Gospel. Just as the Scriptures foretold
His suffering, the Scriptures foretold His resurrection and the glories to
follow. Once again, Isaiah 53 is a very good
example of this. Verse 10 says:
But it was the LORD’s good plan to
crush him and cause him grief. Yet when
his life is made an offering for sin, he will have many descendants. He will enjoy a long life, and the LORD’s
good plan will prosper in his hands.
His life will be made an offering for sin, and then He will
enjoy a long life. The previous verse of
Isaiah 53, verse 9, says that He would be put in a rich man’s grave, but in
direct contradiction to that statement is the statement that He will enjoy a
long life. These statements assume the
resurrection. In addition, Psalm 16:10
said of the Messiah, “For you will not leave my soul among the dead or allow
your holy one to rot in the grave.”
The fact that the resurrection was “according to the
Scriptures” ties the teachings of the Old Testament to the teachings of the New
Testament. However, without the
resurrection, Christianity would have no meaning. Paul strongly makes this point in 1
Corinthians 15. In verses 14 and 15, he
says:
14And if Christ has not
been raised, then all our preaching is useless, and your faith is useless. 15And we apostles would all be
lying about God—for we have said that God raised Christ from the grave.
The truth that Jesus rose from the dead is central to our
faith. It is our foundation.
Because of the importance of the resurrection to our faith,
Paul offers evidence. He says:
5He was seen by Peter
and then by the Twelve. 6After
that, he was seen by more than 500 of his followers at one time, most of whom
are still alive, though some have died. 7Then
he was seen by James and later by all the apostles. 8Last of all, as though I had been
born at the wrong time, I also saw him. 9For
I am the least of all the apostles. In
fact, I’m not even worthy to be called an apostle after the way I persecuted
God’s church.
Paul and the Apostles, except for John, all gave their lives
in testimony to the fact of the resurrection.
They believed it to be true. In
addition, Paul was writing when other eyewitnesses were still alive, and he
lays out the invitation for the serious sceptic to interview any of the more
than 500 eyewitnesses. Historically,
more than enough evidence exists for us to know beyond a reasonable doubt that
Jesus rose from the dead.
The resurrection proved that Jesus was who He claimed to
be. John 19:7 says, “The Jewish leaders
replied, ‘By our law he ought to die because he called himself the Son of God.’” As a good answer to this, Romans 1:4 says, “…and
he was shown to be the Son of God when he was raised from the dead by the power
of the Holy Spirit.”
The resurrection also proved that Jesus accomplished what He
promised. Romans 5:9-10 says:
9And since we have been
made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us
from God’s condemnation. 10For
since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we
were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son.
To sum up what I have said so far, the death, burial and
resurrection of Jesus Christ are what make up the Good News, the Gospel. These are the essentials.
“So now we can rejoice in our
wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us
friends of God.” (Romans 5:11)
Because of the resurrection, we know we have new life. Because of the resurrection, we can
rejoice. We can celebrate.
[i] Unless
otherwise noted Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living
Translation. Copyright © 1996, 2004,
2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used
by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Steam, Illinois
60188. All rights reserved.
[ii] https://billygraham.org/decision-magazine/november-2006/the-promise-of-the-messiah
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