The Resurrection Is of First Importance

Order of Service

• Announcements
• Hymn — Crown Him with Many Crowns
• Call to Worship — Psalm 30:1-2, 11-12
• Hymn — Crown Him with Many Crowns
• Prayer of Invocation
• Confession of Faith — Colossians 1:15-20
• Scripture Reading — Luke 24:1-12
• Hymn — Christ the Lord Is Risen Today
• Pastoral Prayer
• Special Music — Give Me Jesus
• Offertory Prayer
• Hymn — Worship Christ the Risen King
• Sermon
• Closing Prayer
• Hymn — Up from the Grave He Arose
• Benediction

---

Sermon Title: The Resurrection Is of First Importance

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 15:1-11

I. The Resurrection Is of First Importance Because It Is Permanent

A. Paul passes down an already-established creedal statement about Christ's death, burial, and resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:3-4)

1. Paul is writing around AD 55, yet a common confessional statement about Christ was already firmly established in the early church
2. This creedal tradition was likely received by Paul directly from the original apostles

B. The Greek verb tenses illuminate the permanent nature of the resurrection

1. Christ's death and burial are in the aorist tense — past, completed, closed
2. Christ's resurrection is in the perfect tense — past event with ongoing, present ramifications; he was raised and still is raised at the right hand of the Father
3. This is why Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:19-20 that if Christ is not raised we are most to be pitied, but in fact Christ has been raised (perfect tense)

C. God's people are people of the book because they serve a God who is a God of the book

1. Oral tradition alone is insufficient — the Greco-Roman world depended on it and much was lost
2. God commanded his word to be written: Habakkuk 2:2, Jeremiah 30:2, Revelation 1:11
3. Over 6,000 New Testament manuscripts confirm the reliability of what was written
4. 2 Timothy 3:16 — all Scripture is breathed out by God; the resurrection account bears God's own signature

D. To deny the resurrection is not to reject folklore but to deny what has been firmly established in writing from the beginning

II. The Resurrection Is of First Importance Because It Is Public

A. Christ appeared to a sweeping array of witnesses (1 Corinthians 15:5-8)

1. He appeared to Cephas (Peter), then to the Twelve
2. Then to more than 500 brothers at one time, most of whom were still alive when Paul wrote — verifiable eyewitnesses
3. Then to James, then to all the apostles, then to Paul himself

B. Paul's appeal to living witnesses is a bold evidentiary claim — go ask them yourself

1. In civil cases a written document may suffice; in criminal cases, many witnesses strengthen the prosecution
2. Christians possess both: the written Scripture and hundreds of eyewitnesses — case closed

C. The resurrection is a public, historic, worldwide event that puts all people on notice

1. Paul's sermon at the Areopagus in Acts 17:30-31 addresses not fellow Jews but the Epicurean and Stoic intellectual elite
2. God commands all people everywhere to repent because he has appointed a day of judgment, giving assurance of this by raising Christ from the dead
3. The resurrection erases the excuse of ignorance for every tribe, nation, and tongue

D. The resurrection is God drawing a line in the sand across the whole earth — repent and live, or reject and perish

1. Like Joshua's call to Israel: choose this day whom you will serve (Joshua 24:15)
2. God's notice of judgment comes not through vengeance but through his most gracious condescension — giving his Son to die and rise
3. Illustration: the eviction notice with an attached check that pays the debt in full — the warning comes with the means of escape
4. Today is the day of salvation; Christ has not yet come to judge the living and the dead

III. The Resurrection Is of First Importance Because It Is Personal

A. The resurrected Christ appeared to Paul personally (1 Corinthians 15:8-10)

1. Paul calls himself the least of the apostles, unworthy because he persecuted the church — the chief of sinners
2. Yet the grace of God transformed him entirely; his labor was not his own but the grace of God working within him

B. Christ deals with what is most personal about every person: sin

1. Sin is the most private thing about us — we guard it behind locked doors and keep it hidden even from those closest to us
2. Adam and Eve's first instinct after the fall was to hide — from each other and from God
3. We hide sin because we fear its exposure: the shame, nakedness, and judgment that it brings

C. Christ on Good Friday faced exactly what we most fear

1. He did not die privately like Julius Caesar or in secret — he died naked, mocked, and shamed before the eyes of men and the holy gaze of God
2. Good Friday is called good — not bad — because it is Christ at Calvary bearing our shame, and not us
3. The death and burial are aorist — done, closed; the guilt and shame of sin have been dealt with once for all

D. The resurrection means sin is no longer the most defining and personal thing about the believer — Christ is

1. We no longer hide behind closed doors; we bring Christ out into the open in all our relationships
2. Easter Sunday opens the doors that shame and guilt had locked shut, ushering in forgiveness, joy, and peace now and forevermore
3. 1 Corinthians 15:3 — Christ died not merely for us in general but for our sins specifically and personally