1 Corinthians 15 - The Gospel in a Nutshell
Tom Shrader examines 1 Corinthians 15:1-8, calling it 'the gospel in a nutshell.' He explains that Jesus appeared to destroy the works of the devil through His substitutionary death for our sins, His burial, and His physical resurrection. Paul's eyewitness accounts demonstrate that Christianity stands or falls on the literal resurrection of Christ.
“Christianity is fundamentally a doctrinal belief system - what makes a Christian Christian is not what we do, but what we believe.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: The Gospel in a Nutshell
Recorded: December 12, 2002
Duration: 42 min
Themes: gospel, resurrection, salvation, sin, death, victory, truth, hope, doubting faith, questioning beliefs, new believer, seeking truth, pastor, teacher, struggling with sin, young adult
Scripture: 1 John 3:8, 1 Corinthians 15:1-8, 1 Corinthians 15:55-57, Romans 10:9, 2 Corinthians 5:21, Genesis 3, Galatians 1:12, Hosea, Isaiah
Theological Themes: substitutionary atonement, bodily resurrection, soteriology, christology, incarnation, biblical authority, apostolic witness, redemption
Full Transcript
I want to respond to something that we looked at in the discussion over the last two weeks as we looked at Genesis chapter 3. During that time, we looked at 1 John chapter 3 verse 8. You don't need to turn there because we're not going to spend much time there. I just want to read it to you. Obviously I had read this because I think I've taught 1 John. I know I've taught 1 John at least once. But for whatever reason, I guess because it's Christmas time, it just caught my attention.
1 John chapter 3 verse 8 says this: "The Son of God appeared for this purpose that He might destroy the works of the devil." When I say that phrase, the Son of God, obviously we're talking about Jesus, that Jesus would appear. Jesus' appearance is what we're about in the midst of all of this Christmas hoopla. That's what we're talking about as we're celebrating the birth of Christ. He appeared, and John tells us here very succinctly, very clearly as well, that He appeared for this reason: to destroy the works of the devil.
The Purpose of Christ's Coming
We are in the process, Susan and I, last Monday closed on a new house. We haven't moved in almost 21 years. So I call this the body bag house. That's how we're coming out of this one. So better get used to it. She certainly was enthused about that term. But in this process, we're cleaning, and Susan has been cleaning out rooms and throwing away stuff. I think she, and we're not very far into it, let me be technically accurate, she's not very far into it. She's filled, I think, as of the other day, 10 dumpsters in the back trash can.
She's in Haley's room, and years ago, at Christmas, I was teaching Christmas Eve, and I read something. We're driving home, and Haley said—and one of the things, if you have young kids, I'll just tell you something, on this stuff that they do, put a date on it. And this is something we didn't date. But we're driving home, and Haley said—I would've guessed she was about 10 at the time—and she said, "Where did you get that that you read tonight?" And I said, "Well, I got it in a book," and she said, "Well, where is it?"
So I got the book, and I showed her the book, and it was a John MacArthur book, and I thought it was a little much, and she said, "Well, can I read that book over Christmas?" And I said, "Sure." And so she did. I came in one night, and she had taken that quote and gone down to the computer. My point is, we were cleaning out the other day and found this, because she used to have it on her wall, and then she had it in different spots, but it is computer-generated, and it's that quote from that night, a little frame, pretty sharp-looking.
Jesus Was Born to Die
Haley wrote this, "Here's a side of the Christmas," and this is the MacArthur quote: "Here's a side of the Christmas story that isn't often told. Those soft little hands fashioned by the Holy Spirit in Mary's womb were made so that nails might be driven through them. Those baby's feet, pink and unable to walk, would one day walk up a dusty hill to be nailed to a cross. That sweet infant's head with sparkling eyes and an eager mouth was formed so that someday men might force a crown of thorns onto it. That tender body, warm and soft, wrapped in swaddling clothes, would one day be ripped open by a spear. Jesus was born to die."
That was the quote that she heard. I was so encouraged that when she heard this, it struck her that way, because it strikes me that way. If ever somebody was going to tattoo on their forearm, "born to die," it is Christ. That was His whole point. That's His earthly ministry. That's what He announces over and over again. He came to seek and save the lost. "Name Him Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins."
When John uses this phrase, in 1 John 3:8, "the Son of God appeared for this purpose, that He might destroy the works of the devil," that's what we're talking about. When we talk about the works of the devil, we're talking about all that comes in this package: the sin, the rebellion, his domination and rule of the world. But ultimately, we're talking about the power of death, the power of sin, and the power of destruction in a person's life.
Turning to 1 Corinthians 15
So what we're going to do this week and next, as we prepare for Christmas, is something a little bit unusual. We're going to ask you to turn to 1 Corinthians 15. If I say to you, 1 Corinthians 13, you would say the love chapter. If I say to you, 1 Corinthians 15, you would say the gospel. What else? The resurrection. It is the resurrection. That's what Paul is writing about in 1 Corinthians 15, the resurrection.
Now keeping in mind those words from 1 John, He appeared to destroy the works of the devil. Look at 1 Corinthians 15 and verse 55. Paul's quoting from Hosea and quoting Old Testament verses from Isaiah as well. He says this: "O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."
The Victory Over Death
So Jesus came, His purpose was to destroy the works of the devil, and what Paul tells us is, He did, that there is no more sting in death. I have had the experience, and it cuts two ways, I've had the experience of sitting with people and watching them as they're very, very sick, as they're dying, watching non-Christians. You watch, and very often you will see a bitterness there, you'll see a fear there, and just the very thought and the word death, the very concept of it, throws a great fear into them.
Conversely, I have sat with men and women who are Christians in physically agonizing situations, and I watch just a peace that comes over them. We had a gentleman in our church a couple of years ago now, and he struggled for quite a while with just sickness. At the end of his life, and we knew he was at the end, in fact, I went in to see him one afternoon, and he had
kind of drifted in and drifted out, and they had told him that when you go to sleep tonight, you will not wake up. That's the nature of this—it's a respiratory issue, and you just won't have, when you go to sleep tonight, that is it. And I will tell you that for those two days leading up to it, and that day, there was just a grin on his face that you could not get off. You could not wipe that grin away, because he knew the reality of this. He knew the conquering of death.
Interestingly enough, the next morning I called out, I said, "How'd he do?" He said he stayed up all night. And then it was a little bit later that morning that he fell asleep, and exactly when he fell asleep, he passed away. He passed from here—now get this now, this is a big deal—he went from here, absent from the body, to be present with the Lord. That's a big deal. That ought to put a smile on your face, too, and you understand that reality.
Christianity Is Primarily Doctrinal
And this is important. This is doctrine. Listen, and this is kind of a pet peeve of mine. What makes a Christian Christian is not what we do, but what we believe. Christianity is primarily a doctrinal system, not a behavioral system.
If you say—I hear this all the time—"So-and-so's a strong Christian man," and I'll say, "Well, they bench press 220, or what's the deal?" And they'll say, "No, no, no, he's a good dad, he's a good husband, he's a good businessman." There's lots of pagans that are that. There's lots of pagans that are good dads and good husbands and good businessmen. There's a lot of, I presume, Buddhists and Hindus. There's a lot of Mormons that are good dads. That's kind of a hallmark of it—good dads.
But that's what we're talking about. We're talking about the Christian faith as it's defined in the scripture. We're talking about Jesus Christ as the only Son of God. Christianity is fundamentally a doctrinal belief system.
Now, let me make sure that you understand—out of that flows all sorts of behavioral changes, right? You see that. We're not minimizing that, but it's the doctrine that we rest in. We don't rest in our feelings, we rest in our thoughts. It's not our behavior. That's why I think it's so interesting that Paul writes right after it, the last verse of chapter 15: "Therefore my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord."
So there's the message. Now what? Because the doctrine is true, now you stand, now you're immovable.
The Perfect Introduction to Christmas
What I want to do is take this week and next and spend some time here in 1 Corinthians 15. And as I look at it and think about it, it is a magnificent introduction to Christmas because we're looking at something that is absolutely the reason that Jesus was born. I heard it again the other day—used to hear it all the time but hadn't heard it for a while: "Jesus is the reason for the season." That's exactly right. And the reason for this season is that He might appear so that He could destroy the works of the devil.
Ray Steadman writes this: "Everyone who is here that is a Christian knows the fundamental question upon which Christianity ultimately rests is, did Jesus actually literally physically rise from the dead?" Everything hangs on that question. Everything hangs on that question.
A Story About Generational Differences
I was teaching at the Tempe the other day, and the group gathered was very young. I used an illustration talking about holding grudges and sitting in a session, and the guy said, "Well, there's a, you know, that goes back to when Jimmy Carter was president," and you know, blah blah blah. It didn't get much reaction, and then afterwards I was talking to them. They said, "We were born when Carter was president. We don't really know Jimmy Carter very well." And I said, "Oh, well, just think of a gas line and two dollars and twenty cents a gallon and twenty percent interest rates, and you got it." That didn't help them come to mind either.
It was really funny because I was talking about—remember the old odd-even days that we had? And these kids had never even heard of that. "There's no way—you mean you can only buy gas on a certain day?" But it's very—I said, "You know he's a Democrat. You know that's what you got." So we're just kidding about that stuff, you know? Okay, sorta.
My Introduction to the Resurrection
But I go back to that—that was right when I became a Christian. I became a Christian in 1980. When I became a Christian, one of the guys that was really hot at the time and still is around but in a different venue was Josh McDowell. And I remember going down to ASU to the track stadium, and that track stadium—those bleachers were filled in the end, and out on the track was filled, and there was a platform out there, and Josh was debating somebody. And I mean it was hot.
Shortly after that we went up to Scottsdale Bible Church and Josh was teaching this series called "The Resurrection Factor." It became a book—I think it's almost positive it's out of print. I would go down to Central Christian because there's no place you're gonna find more used books than there and see if you can find it. It's a handy little book to have. Now if you don't care that you have the book on its own, it's the section in "Evidence That Demands a Verdict" on the resurrection. It is a great section.
But I remember, and it was so—timing obviously perfect for me individually, it was everywhere, but perfect for me in that very moment as I'm becoming a Christian. I'm being schooled in the resurrection. I'm being schooled that it actually literally physically took place. And I saw immediately how important it is.
The Critical Nature of the Resurrection
If you're here today and you're antagonistic toward me or toward the faith, then I'll tell you where to attack us: attack us at the resurrection. Because if you can disprove the resurrection, this whole thing comes tumbling down. If Jesus Christ did not rise from the dead, then this whole Christian faith is a joke. In fact, your life—
The Resurrection: Essential to Christian Faith
Is it important to the Christian faith? It is the Christian faith. Listen to these words from the Apostle Paul: "If you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved" (Romans 10:9).
What that verse says by implication, and I think clearly as well, is that if you don't believe in the resurrection, you're not saved. So every Easter when we go through this dance where you have all these people who call themselves Christians and they want to talk to us and say the resurrection doesn't really matter, we don't really believe Jesus rose from the dead, it's a metaphor for spring and everything coming back to life—if you're here and you're one of those people, or you're part of a denomination where you have half of the pastors, male and female, who don't believe this stuff, then what you're dealing with is a pagan, not a Christian.
Let me read it to you again: "If you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you'll be saved." If you don't believe God raised Christ from the dead, you're not saved. You're not a Christian. This is the heart of the Christian faith.
Understanding the Church at Corinth
Let's work our way through First Corinthians 15, verse 1: "Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you." The new NIV says "remind you." Paul is saying to this church—and let me give you about thirty seconds on the church at Corinth.
Corinth was a very pagan city, very similar in our day and age to San Francisco and Las Vegas all rolled together. Very pagan city. Anytime you would see a Corinthian depicted in a play, they would be depicted as a drunk. Sexuality was all over the place. There was the goddess Aphrodite. You had a thousand prostitutes that were priestesses in this temple. They would come and practice their religion nightly with the guys in Corinth. It was a very pagan city.
Out of that very pagan city comes this church with obviously a lot of this background and baggage with them, and now they're operating in the city. Corinth was one of those churches that seemed to always struggle. We don't have time to develop it, but in chapter 5 of First Corinthians, Paul says you have a guy in your church that the world wouldn't even allow this behavior to go on—he's sleeping with his mother, probably a stepmother—and Paul is saying you don't even deal with that. So they had all sorts of issues, and yet Paul addresses them as "brethren," which means they believe and he believes that they're Christians.
What the Gospel Does
So he says, "I'm reminding you of this. I told you about this before. It's the gospel which you received, in which you also stand, and by which you were saved."
There's something really interesting here. He tells us first what the gospel does, and then he tells us what the gospel is. Maybe that makes sense. I think I would have done it the other way. I would have said, "Well, here's what the gospel is, and now here's what it does." Doesn't matter, but Paul does it this way.
So he says to these people, "You got this gospel. You heard it. You stood in it. I preached it to you." We know a little bit earlier in this book he says when I preached this word, it sounded like foolishness to many of you. "I came into the city"—Paul came in out of being run out of town, beaten. He was humiliated in Athens, lands in Corinth. He says, "I came in fear and trembling, and I preached to you Christ and Christ crucified," and it sounded like a foolish message.
The Foolishness of the Gospel
Sometimes we miss that. Let me just make this point to you: the scripture is very clear. Paul spends a great deal of time in First and Second Corinthians saying that the lost world finds the gospel foolish. Stop and think about this story.
Here's God—one God, three persons. One of those persons is coming to this earth. We don't know how to get Him down. We don't just beam Him down. We have the other person, the Holy Spirit, come and impregnate a virgin. This guy then is in that womb. He's born, but He doesn't sin. He lives a perfect life. He does miracles. He dies. They bury Him. He rises from the dead 2,000 years ago. If you believe in it now, He died for you. That's a tough sell. That's a hard thing. That does sound a little foolish, doesn't it?
Here's what sounds reasonable: you do the best you can, and then God—if you do the best you can, God will work that thing through. That sounds reasonable. It's wrong, but it sounds reasonable.
Paul is saying, "Listen, I finally determined I'm going to preach this gospel. You stood in it, you accepted it, and you live in it today, and then you were saved by it."
The Gospel in a Nutshell
Now here's the gospel. Chapter 15, verses 3 and 4. I remember so many things about Larry Wright, and just little things that he would say. But whenever Larry would come to First Corinthians 15, verses 3 and 4, he always called it this, and in one of my Bibles at home I know I have this written: "the gospel in a nutshell." That's what he always said—the gospel in a nutshell.
Here it is: "For I delivered to you, as of first importance, that which I also received." How did he receive it? Well, Galatians 1:12 tells us that he received it from Christ Himself. What Paul's saying here is, this wasn't something that I thought up. This wasn't something that
Christ Died for Our Sins
We sat around and brainstormed. I received this. This was something that I got, not from human sources, but from Christ Himself. And here it is. Here's the gospel. That Christ died for our sins, according to the scripture. That He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day, according to the scripture.
So here's what we said. The gospel is what saves us when we believe in it, not just mental assent, but we put our faith and trust in that. The gospel is what saves us. The gospel is what we stand in. Now he tells us what the gospel is. There's three aspects to it, and then he adds a fourth point here.
Here's the first one. Christ died for our sins. Now some very interesting things in this gospel in a nutshell. Nowhere does he mention the life of Christ. He doesn't mention a miracle, he doesn't mention a teaching, he doesn't mention anything about that. Not even a reference to the life of Christ. We know, obviously, that those things are important. We've got the gospel there.
The Indisputable Death of Christ
But listen. Here's what he says. Christ died, and then Paul does something here that on our own we would have never been able to do. He links Christ's death and your sin. See that? Christ died for our sins. Why did Christ die? For our sins.
That Christ died is pretty much indisputable, I think. Most people, and I have no idea what the number would be, I would assume that the number would be in the very high 90s. 95, 97, 99 percent of people believe Jesus lived. There just are not many people, I don't think, who would doubt that Jesus lived. And most would say there's not a 2,000-year-old man walking around. So most all of those who said He lived would have said He died. I would say the number would be total. In other words, if 99 percent of the people believe He lived, 99 percent of the people believe He died. Indisputable, I would say.
Paul doesn't leave it at that. He links together Christ's death and our sin. Here's why He died. He died for our sin.
The Substitutionary Nature of Christ's Death
In the very next letter, 2 Corinthians, chapter 5, Paul writes to the same audience, different letter. He says this, "He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him."
Now, Paul is not suggesting that on the cross, Jesus sinned. Here's what he's saying. He's saying that on the cross, Jesus was treated as though He was a sinner, and on the cross, Jesus was treated as though He was guilty and the recipient of the punishment for all of the sins of all of the people who would ever live who would believe in Him. See that? This is a huge point. This is a gigantic point. We're at the heart of the gospel here.
Here's a theological term, substitutionary atoning death. Very simple, substitution, Jesus was in your place, He substituted for you, He made atonement for your sin through His death. That's the agony of the cross. Some of you, I know this is familiar, but others of you, this is new. For all of us, I don't think we ever grow weary of this. This is a huge statement.
The True Agony of the Cross
The agony of the cross. I was born and raised Catholic grade school, Catholic high school, Catholic college, lots of Catholic training, and we embrace this phrase, the agony of the cross. I never understood it, but we embraced it. What I thought it meant was just the sheer physical anguish of the cross of which there was a great deal of physical anguish. There's no question here.
Jesus is taken. We know the night before He died, He sweats drops of blood. He's taken, He's beaten, He's tortured, He is tied. Probably you see the pictures of Him carrying the cross, He was probably not, it would seem unlikely He was carrying a cross, probably carrying a cross bar through the city, crown of thorns on His head, taken out, and then He would be nailed to that bar, that bar would be attached to a pole that would be existing, and there He would hang.
You've been in Catholic churches, and I say Catholic churches, I'm not picking on them, I'm saying typically there, you don't see a cross. In a Protestant church, you'll see a cross, but you'll never see Christ on it, rarely. In a Catholic church in particular, you'll see a cross, you'll see Jesus on it. You'll usually see a depiction like this, with Him hanging here, one foot typically over another, nailed through that with some sort of a garment on. A very inaccurate, might be great art, pretty inaccurate depiction.
The Physical Reality of Crucifixion
He would have been naked, probably. He would not have had His feet nailed in that position. They would have been attached some way, but there would have been a little ledge, would have been a little ledge for Him to rest on. He would have been nailed more in a twisted position, more like this, where He would rest on this platform, and He would hang there, and as He hung there, He would inevitably, the weight would lean Him forward, and it would start to put pressure on His lungs, and He would push up off of this seat to get His breath.
That's why, remember, they came along, and there were the prisoners, and they broke their legs? They didn't die from the breaking of the legs, now the legs are broken, now they slump forward, now they suffocate. And this crucifixion, when we think of crucifixion, and rightly so, we think of Jesus' crucifixion, and we think that's pretty typical. Well, it was typical in the sense of what we've talked about. What is atypical is, Jesus was on there, what do we think, three hours or so. Crucifixion was designed so that the person could literally live there for weeks. If they would feed you, and they would give you nourishment, your body could live in that position for weeks, if they prepared it so.
Beyond Physical Suffering
Well, that's anguish, that's pain, that's suffering. I don't think that's the agony of the cross. I have no way of knowing this, but it seems to me that there were thousands, tens of thousands of people who died as equally agonizing physically, maybe more physically agonizing death. The agony of the cross is not all this stuff we just talked about.
The agony of the cross is that He who knew no sin became sin. When Jesus, and we can't explain this fully, we're in the mystery here of how...
When Jesus is on the cross, in a sacred transaction for which all of us who are Christians are forever grateful, our sin, the guilt of our sin, was thrust upon Him at that moment. So that He cried out, "My God, my God." The only time in His entire earthly ministry that He refers to God the Father as anything but the Father. Every other time it's the Father. But He is now separated, as He anguishes in this sin, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" As all of the guilt of that moment is thrust upon Him, and He takes what you deserve, and I deserve. So when He says, "It is finished," He means the sin for all of His people, for all time is done, it's paid for, it's finished. That's the agony of the cross.
Christ Was Buried and Raised
Christ died for our sin. Christ was buried. What do you do with a dead person? You bury them. Nothing there that's unusual. But this is unusual: Christ was raised from the dead. Empty tomb.
You know that every year tens of thousands of Muslims go to Muhammad's tomb. And Muhammad, what's left of him, is there. Christians make a pilgrimage to what they think is the tomb of Jesus. The distinction between that and every other person that's ever walked the earth is it's empty. He was raised. That's what we're going to talk about for the next 10 or 15 minutes, and then all of next week. This whole idea of the resurrection.
According to the Scripture
But there's a phrase that Paul adds. He died for our sin, according to the Scripture. He was buried, and Christ was raised, according to the Scripture. This was not an accident. This was part of God's plan.
Remember what we saw last week in Genesis 3, when the serpent is now being addressed by God after Eve has been deceived in Adam's sin? And here's what God says, "I will put enmity between your seed and her seed." Now obviously, at that point in time, they didn't go, "Oh yeah, that's got to be the virgin birth." We're sitting here looking back, and we see how all the Scripture, beginning as early as Genesis 3, and all through the entire Old Testament, it points to the Messiah, the Messiah, the Messiah. It points to Jesus.
As we take Jesus, and we look at these Scriptures, they are fulfilled in the person of Christ. This was God's perfect plan. It's not that all of a sudden God goes one day, "Oh man, this isn't working out. I got to come up with plan B." This was all done according to the Scripture. So Paul adds that phrase.
The Gospel Defined
So there's the gospel in a nutshell. When somebody says to you, "Do you believe the gospel?" here's what we're talking about. Do you believe Christ died for your sin, and do you believe He was buried, and do you believe He rose from the dead? And do you plan for your life accordingly? And do you prepare for death accordingly? Are you trusting anything else?
In that old way, it's not going to work this way, but if it did, if God were to say to you, "Why should I let you into heaven?" and your answer is, "Well I did this, and I did that, and I went to a Bible study over here, and I gave the United Way, and I did this, and I worked at church." All of those answers are going to get you is a front row seat in hell. I'm in heaven, not because I earned it, not because I deserve it, but I believe in Jesus Christ who died for my sin, and that's why I'm acceptable to You.
The Challenge of the Resurrection
What obviously is curious, apart from the gospel, is this idea of Christ rising from the dead. Again, when we're talking about foolishness, that's a hard sell, because we don't see that very often. We talked about it before, Thomas Jefferson, obviously others, but those guys, as smart as they were, couldn't get their arms around this. They couldn't deal with supernatural.
It's basically the modern world you live in wants to deny all of that. This popped into my head, so always dangerous and could be wrong. They want to deny all the supernatural, but they'll turn on a guy on TV who's talking to your dead brother. How silly is this? We're going to say all this is nuts, but this guy here can contact your cat. I don't think so.
The Eyewitness Testimony
Most powerful testimony you can get is an eyewitness. So Paul understands you and I are going to struggle with this idea of the resurrection, so here's where he goes, verse 5. Then after He rose from the dead, He appears first to Peter, then to the twelve, and then to 500 or more, then to James, then to all the apostles.
First to Peter. Let me read you this. I'm not sure where I got this. This looks like it could have been MacArthur. "We are not told why the Lord appeared to Peter first or separately, but it was possibly because of Peter's great remorse over having denied his Lord. In going to Peter first, Jesus emphasizes His grace. Peter had forsaken the Lord, but the Lord had not forsaken him. Peter did not appear to Peter because Peter deserved to see Him most, but perhaps because Peter needed to see Him most."
Peter's Moment
Can you imagine the moment with Peter? And again, the other day, Monday has become my day. It's not just my day off, it's just my day. Whatever it means to veg, I've added a new dimension to it on my Monday. I literally do nothing on Monday. I'm tired on Monday, and I literally lay around the house. I will go from the couch to the bed, the bed to the couch, stopping in the kitchen. That's what I do.
I was looking, because I know I have a copy, and I found it, of Witness for the Prosecution. Remember that old movie with Charles Lawton? If you've never seen that movie, Christmas time, what a great movie to rent. Just a great movie. I like that movie. So I'm looking for it, and I'm moving some tapes around, and I find a videotape that says, "Save First Pictures." I put it in, and it was a videotape I shot the day, December 2nd, 1983, the day I got our first
The Power of Eye Contact and Conviction
I found an old VHS video camera and put in a tape. I'm watching, and there's Sarah and Haley and Tyler. There's Haley, just two years old, and Sarah about to turn four. Haley's running around crying, calling for daddy. I put on a record and they're singing and dancing. It was incredible - I hadn't seen it in years. There's my dad, December 30th, 1983, sitting there in my chair with Haley on his lap. It was incredible to see.
When the girls were small and they would misbehave, depending upon the depth of how I wanted to communicate with them, I would have them look at me. I'd say, "Look at me. Look up here at me." If I really wanted to get through to them, I would take them and hold them out like this, and their little legs would dangle. I always thought this must feel as intimidating as it could be. But I would say, "Look me in the eye," because something about that eye contact communicates.
Peter's Moment of Recognition
Here's Peter in the gospel. A little servant girl says, "You knew Him, didn't you?" He says, "No, I never knew Him." Another one says the same, and he responds, "No, I never knew Him." A third time: "No, I never knew Him." The rooster crows. At that moment, the gospel tells us that Jesus looked at Peter - their eyes connected. What do you think he felt at that moment? I'm talking about Peter now.
What do you think he felt the next day as they paraded Jesus through the city? Peter apparently wasn't around much for this. John was around, bringing reports back, and certainly it was spreading through the city that they had killed Him and buried Him. How do you think Peter felt Saturday morning? Imagine the load and the guilt.
The Desperate Need to See Him
Sunday, the gospel tells us, when Peter hears that Jesus - or at least the tomb - is empty, he races to that tomb. Can you imagine? Look, it's not that Peter deserved to see Him; he needed to see Him. Why? Because the guilt of his sin was so real at that moment. Was there any hope? And Christ appears to Peter.
Let me make that point to you as well, because you may be in your life where you desperately need to see Him. You will not see Him physically until that day that you go to be with Him, but you can see Him now, alive in this Word. He's alive.
The Testimony of 500 Witnesses
He appears to them. He appears to 500 people at one time. We have no idea who they were, where they were, or the occasion for this. We don't know anything about it. We do know this: Paul says - and I think this demonstrates on Paul's part a clear understanding of human nature - he says, "Listen, I would think if I was you, I'd want to talk to them." And he said this: "Most of them are still alive." He's saying, "Go ask them."
There's a magnificent chapter in Chuck Colson's 1983 book *Loving God* called "Watergate and the Resurrection." He talks about how the Nixon men, with all the powers of government around them, the powers of armies to send out, all that they needed - with all this power around them, the minute John Dean began to crack, every guy ran and got a lawyer. He said, "With all this power, we couldn't cover up for a minute."
The Evidence of Transformed Lives
That does not necessarily guarantee the authenticity of the fact of the resurrection through this practical teaching, but here's the practical teaching: There is not one of these people that gives us one record that they ever recanted from seeing the risen Christ. Not one of them ever goes away. In fact, here is Peter who denied Him, here is Peter who was hiding, here is Peter and the others who were absolutely living in fear. Christ appears to them and they go from cowards to saying to the powers of the day, "Do whatever you want to do, there is no other name under which you can be saved."
Now, is that evidence of the resurrection? I think it is helpful. The resurrection evidence that you need is in 1 Corinthians 15:4 - "He rose from the dead." That's it.
The Final Appearances
Then He appears to James - James was His half brother. Then He appears last of all, Paul says, "Last of all to one untimely born" - he is speaking of himself. "Last of all in these appearances, He appeared to me, least of the apostles."
We have to close with this. Paul's description here of himself is that he is least of the apostles. A little bit later he describes himself as least of the saints, and a little bit later he describes himself as the chief among sinners. It's not that Paul had low self-esteem; it's that Paul had an accurate picture of who he was, an accurate view of who he is.
The Heart of the Gospel
He goes on, and beginning in verse 13, "What if this didn't take place?" That's what we'll look at next week. I want you to see this: The Son of Man appeared to destroy the works of the devil. He did it. How did He do it? Through His death, His burial, and His resurrection. If you believe in that, you will be saved.
Father, help us see this truth. Thank You for this truth. God, we understand that to the world this is foolish. We thank You for opening our eyes to see this truth so that we see it and understand it, we accept it, we believe in it, and because of that we will be saved. Father, we love You because You first loved us. God, help us understand this is real, and now help us take this gospel to the world, especially this season, this Christmas season, where there are all sorts of opportunities. God, give us the courage to speak and the words to say. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.