{"id":384,"date":"2010-04-08T09:37:43","date_gmt":"2010-04-08T14:37:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/?p=384"},"modified":"2010-04-08T09:37:43","modified_gmt":"2010-04-08T14:37:43","slug":"he-is-risen-indeed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/2010\/04\/08\/he-is-risen-indeed\/","title":{"rendered":"He is Risen Indeed!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>He Is Risen!<\/p>\n<p>How do we know Jesus was raised from the dead? And why is this of any importance?<\/p>\n<p>Paul answers both of these questions in 1 Corinthians 15.<\/p>\n<p><strong>How Do We Know Jesus Rose from the Dead?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In verses 5 to 8 Paul present evidence for the resurrection from eyewitnesses. He mentions:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Peter      (called \u201cCephas\u201d in verse 5). Peter is one of the twelve disciples \u2013      indeed, the apparent leader of the disciples during Jesus\u2019 earthly      ministry. But, after boasting that he would die for Jesus, he denies that      he even knows Him three times the night of His betrayal. Peter is a      failure \u2013 yet Jesus appears to him.<\/li>\n<li>The      Twelve (verse 5) \u2013 that is, all His closest companions of the last few      years. Yet these too all are failures, for they all scattered in fear      after His arrest.<\/li>\n<li>More      than 500 at one time (verse 6). Paul is writing 20-25 years after the      resurrection took place. So while some of these witnesses have \u201cfallen      asleep\u201d (meaning they have died), most are still alive. The evidence is      there. Anyone can check it out.<\/li>\n<li>James      (verse 7). This most likely is not either of the men named James who were      among the Twelve, but Jesus\u2019 half-brother, who in Acts 15 is prominent in      the Jerusalem church. There is no evidence that any of Jesus\u2019 brothers      believed Him to be the Messiah prior to His resurrection. Indeed, other      passages (Mark 3:20-31 and John 7:5) indicate the opposite. Perhaps it is      this appearance itself that leads to James\u2019 faith.<\/li>\n<li>All      the apostles (verse 7). In order to be an apostle, one must have witnessed      the risen Christ (1 Corinthians 9:1); perhaps Paul here is not talking      about a specific incident, but a series of appearances to everyone else      who is an apostle.<\/li>\n<li>Paul      himself\u00a0 (verse 8), to whom Jesus      appeared years after He had ascended (Acts 9:1-18).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Paul is saying, \u201cThe resurrection of Jesus is the linchpin of history, one of the key central moments in God\u2019s plan to redeem a people for himself. Test the claim! Investigate it! Talk to the eyewitnesses! Evaluate their lives; have they proven themselves trustworthy? In fact Christ has risen!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Note carefully:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Paul      is not claiming, \u201cWe had a vision of Jesus\u2019 spirit, and this vision so      inspired us that we are changed men and women!\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Nor is      he claiming, \u201cWe have strong faith, and even His death could not      extinguish our faith that Jesus is the Messiah! We know He must be alive!\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Paul instead claims that the physical body of the crucified Jesus was resurrected, made alive, given new life. He is making a historical claim, and encouraging his readers to verify the fact by talking to eyewitnesses. In years to come, Paul himself and many of these other eyewitnesses will face death because of this claim. They could avoid suffering and death if they only say, \u201cWhat I saw was just a spirit, not a risen physical body.\u201d But they don\u2019t. They die holding to this truth.<\/p>\n<p>He is risen indeed.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Why is the Resurrection Important?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In this chapter, Paul also gives six reasons why the resurrection is vitally important.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Unless      Jesus is risen, Paul\u2019s\u00a0 preaching      is in vain, it is pointless (verse 14).<\/li>\n<li>Unless      Jesus is risen, the Corinthians\u2019 faith is also in vain, pointless (verse      14). Why? He explains in the third reason:<\/li>\n<li>Unless      Jesus is risen, you are still in your sins (verse 17). If there is no      resurrection, the Gospel is false. No payment for sins has been made. Note      that Jesus\u2019 death is vital; without the shedding of blood there is no      forgiveness for sins (Hebrews 9:22). But the resurrection is also vital. A      dead Christ is no Christ. A dead Christ does not save from sins, for there      is no evidence that the penalty paid is sufficient. There is no evidence      that He has any power over death.<\/li>\n<li>Unless      Jesus is risen, the apostles and the Scriptures are false witnesses (verse      15). They claim that He rose from the dead, and thus they are liars if He      did not. All Scripture is then unreliable (verse 4).<\/li>\n<li>Unless      Jesus is risen, those who have died believing in Jesus have perished. They      had no hope. No matter how courageously they died, they were fools, for      they trusted in a lie. In his own life, I suspect Paul has in mind      Stephen, the first martyr, whose death he witnessed (Acts 7).<\/li>\n<li>Unless      Jesus is risen, we are of all men most to be pitied (verse 19). We are      pitiful fools.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>The key item, the item on which all else hangs, is the third. We cannot separate Good Friday from Resurrection Sunday. Jesus\u2019 death and resurrection go together. There is no payment for sins unless Jesus is risen.<\/p>\n<p>All men die. So the fact that Jesus died is not notable.<\/p>\n<p>That He died cruelly and unjustly is notable but far from unique; millions and millions more have died similarly,<\/p>\n<p>That He died for your sin and mine to give us new life in Him is mind blowing and life changing.<\/p>\n<p>But that is only true if He rose from dead. That is only true if He continues as our faithful High Priest who \u201calways lives to make intercession for us\u201d (Hebrew 7:25).<\/p>\n<p>Jesus died for our sins according to the Scripture (1 Corinthians 15:3).<\/p>\n<p>Jesus rose from the dead according to the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 15:4). In history. In fact.<\/p>\n<p>He is risen indeed.<\/p>\n<p>(This is an excerpt from Sunday&#8217;s sermon. The audio for the sermon is available at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.eqotw.org\/media\/?p=360\">this link<\/a>.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>He Is Risen! How do we know Jesus was raised from the dead? And why is this of any importance? Paul answers both of these questions in 1 Corinthians 15.&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,15],"tags":[31,154,1338],"class_list":["post-384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-devotions","tag-1-corinthians-15","tag-apologetics","tag-resurrection"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=384"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}