In the sermon titled 'The Importance of 1 Corinthians 15,' speaker David Green underscores the crucial nature of the resurrection of Jesus Christ as presented in 1 Corinthians 15. The chapter addresses the gospel's core message: Christ's death, burial, and resurrection. Green emphasizes that the resurrection is not only a foundational truth for the church in Corinth but also the most certain fact in history. He outlines various testimonies supporting the resurrection, including those of the apostles, over five hundred witnesses, and Paul himself. Green argues that without the resurrection, the Christian faith crumbles, highlighting that the power and life of the church are rooted in this truth. The sermon challenges believers to recognize the importance of the resurrection in their faith and to be prepared to defend it against skepticism.

Okay, if you have your Bibles, let's And in 1st Corinthians chapter 15 we're going to read verses 1 through 11 today. Now I make known to you brothers the gospel which I proclaimed as good news to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast, the word which I proclaimed to you as good news, unless you believe for nothing. For I delivered to you, as of first importance, what I also received, 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 Cephas, then to the twelve. After that he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep. After that he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared to me also.

For I am the least of the apostles, and not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God, I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain, but I labored even more than all of them. Yet, not I, but the grace of God with me, whether then it was I or they, so we preach, and so you believed." In this text, we find perhaps one of the most important passages of Scripture that we find in all of the in all of the letter that Paul wrote to the Church of Corinth. I've been excited about getting to 1st Corinthians 15 for a long while and in fact, in fact it's It's almost a shame that in a lot of circles when people think of 1 Corinthians, they think of maybe the passage about the head covering, or they might think of a passage about the fornicator, something like that. But this, our minds ought to go here when we think of Paul's letter to the church at Corinth.

To remember that there would be no church at Corinth were it not for the gospel of Jesus Christ. And in particular, in particular, the Gospel of the resurrected Christ. Because let me tell you, If you're telling someone about Jesus, you tell them that Christ died for sinners, that's good. But if you don't ever get to the point where you tell them that Jesus was buried and he rose again, you've not gotten the complete gospel. You've not gotten all of it.

The resurrection, the resurrection is what this chapter is about if we get down to it. And I hope you've had time to refresh yourself and read and reread chapter 15 to consider that this was very important to the first century Christians. And it ought to be important to us as well. Indeed, when we think about this and consider it, as we look at the first century church and First century Christians, faith in the deity of Christ was not a blind leap into the dark. Only God could defeat death and they knew it.

They knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that Jesus Christ had risen bodily from the tomb. They had seen Him, they had touched Him, and they had eaten with Him. They had been with Him alone, and they had been with Him in crowds. They had been with Him in closed rooms, and they'd been with Him in the open. As we consider the resurrection of Jesus Christ, it is not too much to say that Christ's resurrection, the resurrection of our Savior, is the most certain fact in all of human history.

And we have that laid out here in chapter 15 in these first 11 verses. During that 40 day period between His resurrection and His ascension, Jesus ate with the disciples, He walked with them, He talked with them, He communed with them to prove that He was truly the Son of God risen from the dead. And chapter 15, The title of my sermon is The Importance of 1 Corinthians chapter 15. It's devoted to this one truth, one glorious truth, that Jesus has risen again. Without this truth, our religion is nothing.

Maybe that's the reason, maybe at least one reason, the reason perhaps, why the church of Jesus Christ, the true church of our Lord Jesus Christ is such a mystery. I mean look at it when Jesus commissioned them, that early church in Matthew chapter 28. Matthew chapter 28. Matthew chapter 28. Tell me how this makes sense from an earthly standpoint.

In Matthew chapter 28, beginning verse 16, he says, But the eleven disciples proceeded to Galilee to the mountain which Jesus had designated. And when they saw Him, they worshiped Him, but some doubted. Jesus came up and spoke to them saying, All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to keep all that I commanded you, and behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." How does this make any sense for Jesus to take a group, a group of eleven people, to bring them away to a mountain and tell them. This group of eleven, the Bible says that When they saw Him, they worshiped Him, but some doubted.

They were a group, but they weren't a very good group, it would seem. Jesus took them up there and He says, all authority has been given to Me in heaven and earth. Jesus says, I've got all authority. But He says to them, go, you go. Make disciples of all the nations.

Eleven people? And some of them are sitting up there doubting? Go! Make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. By the way, notice he says, name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

He doesn't say names. That's another sermon for another time. But just notice the wording there. Teaching them to keep all that I commanded you and behold I'm with you always even to the end of the age. They had no standing armies, no large buildings, no great amount of money, no fortresses, no kingdom on earth to work with.

But he gave them these instructions, this commission. Right before he ascended in Acts chapter 1, somebody's phone is going off. Acts chapter 1 verses 7 and 8. He said to them, it is not for you to know the times or seasons which the Father has set by His own authority, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. You shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria and even to the end of the earth." Again, here they are, a group, not even a they didn't even have any Real estate.

They had to borrow a building to meet in a room. I never willing to die over not just anything, but something. Willing to go to jail, willing to be beat up, willing to take this truth. The truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the gospel of the one who had died, was buried in rose again, to the far corners of the earth, even if it cost them what little bit they had in this life. And though the powers that be, whether they were civil or religious or demonic, demonic, whatever it may be, tried to stop them through slander, through through trying to take away what they had, trying to destroy their name, trying to destroy their churches, even trying to sometimes, even trying to imitate them and cause confusion.

None of those things worked and the gospel kept spreading. Spreading because these men and women were convinced that what they had was real notice what Luke said about it in in in in there in acts if we back up just a little bit As he started out this text here in Acts chapter 1, verse 1 he says, Verse 1, he says, The first account told Theophilus, I composed about all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day that he was taken up to heaven, after he had by the Holy Spirit given orders to the apostles whom he had chosen, to whom He also presented himself alive after suffering by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over 40 days and speaking about the things concerning the kingdom of God. As Dr. Luke, the beloved physician, wrote to Theophilus, this account here of the early church in the book of Acts, and he begins to tell, he says, remember the first account, he's talking about the Gospel of Luke, what we know it as. But notice, he says there that in verse 3, he presented himself alive after his suffering by many convincing proofs.

I love this text, and I know I've preached from it before. And I'll continue preaching from it again and again and again and again because we cannot let go of this truth that Jesus is alive, that Jesus rose again. And in this text, Luke puts it here, he showed himself alive after many convincing proofs. The term is translated convincing proofs in the LSB, and in most of your modern translations it's convincing proofs. In the King James the term is translated Infallible proofs.

It's the same term in Greek. But what's interesting about the Greek is this. It's used only one time in the entirety of the New Testament, and it's only used here. And the meaning is many criteria of certainty. You can't get any better than that.

We might say, without a shadow of a doubt. It's significant that the God-breathed scripture applies it only to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Are there scoffers in this world? Absolutely. They're all over the place, from National Geographic to the Discovery Channel to the atheists and agnostics that are in the classrooms of the high schools and the elementary schools and the higher educations across this land.

But let me tell you, the tomb is empty. And you can go to the Holy Land of Israel. You can tour all up and down the Middle East. You will find sites that you can visit. I've never been there, but I've seen enough of it.

I've been told enough about it. You can find places that are marked off, where things happen. You can go to the River Jordan where Jesus was baptized. You can find places. They'll say, well, this is where he lived, this is where he died, this is where this happened and that happened.

But one thing that you won't find, you won't find the body of Jesus. You won't find the body of Jesus. You won't find the body of Jesus. He lived, He died, He was buried, He rose again, and He ascended back into heaven. The Bible is true.

Men and devils can take our Bibles. They can slander our good name. They can take away our freedom. They can take property. They can do all sorts of things to God's people, and they have throughout history.

Go back and you can read through the church history and see what terrible things they've done to God's people, but understand something. Persecutions, imprisonments, all of those things. All over the world, they're happening even now. All the way up until death. But they cannot.

They cannot take away Jesus. They cannot produce proof of a dead Jesus. And to the divided carnal church at Corinth, this is what they needed to be reminded of, that Jesus is alive. When Paul arrived in their city, this is what he preached. Just like he preached at every city.

Some of them though, they got settled in. And what happens in a lot of churches, they get settled in. And instead of theology, it became meology. Theology is the study of God. Meology is all about me.

Worship becomes all about my wants, my preferences. And we see that in Paul's letter to the Corinthians. They were bickering and arguing over who was the better preacher, who had the best gifts, who brought the best food to the... It's almost terrible to say it, but to the Lord's Supper potluck. It was all about me, myself, and I, the unholy trinity of every church problem.

Every church needs chapter 15, but especially a church like Corinth who thinks that they know everything. Paul writes this to inform them, to remind them the foundational truth upon which they stood, unless, of course, as he put it, that they had believed unless they had believed for nothing. John MacArthur rightly pointed out, because it is the cornerstone of the Gospel, the resurrection has been the target of Satan's greatest attacks against the church. If the resurrection is eliminated, the life-giving power of the Gospel is eliminated. The deity of Christ is eliminated.

Salvation from sin is eliminated and eternal life is eliminated. The life of the church is destroyed and indeed if Christ did not live past the grave. Those who trust him cannot hope to do so either." A lot's at stake here. And sometimes as we read through the Bible. We get to 1st Corinthians, we begin reading, and we get bogged down in the problems that's going on at Corinth.

It's easy to rush through it. It's one of the reasons I never preached through 1st Corinthians before. It's not a fun book to preach through. But oh, let us not rush through 1st Corinthians chapter 15. Even those of us who are seasoned saints, we may gloss over this and think this is elementary stuff.

Sometimes we need to remember the foundation. We ought to take this like Paul does with this church who had been established years ago and remind them And let us remember we're not above being reminded either on these things And while we may not have the same troubles as Corinth The fact is that we are in an age where lots of people think they know so much more than the Bible's missed me. That was a balloon, folks. Not a gun. I'm safe.

Ha ha ha. We live in an age where so Many people think they know so much more than the Bible. And so there's so many skeptics, so many atheists, so many Agnostics. How will we answer them when they come and say, How do you know? How do you know that Jesus is alive?

We got to be able to tell them something better than the song. The song that said, you may ask me how I know he lives. He lives within my heart. There's a better answer than that. There's a better answer than that and the Bible gives it to us.

There's a better answer than he lives within my heart. He ought to live within your heart. But the Bible gives us so much more than that. So this message is just an introduction. What Paul does in this text, and I want to bring this out to you and we'll look at this as we move on into this, in this series within a series if you will, as He calls witnesses to the stand about the resurrection of Christ.

About the resurrection of Christ. And so in these 11 verses, we've got five sets of witnesses about the resurrection. You can jot these down and this will be how we'll consider this. First of all, in verses 1 and 2, 1 Corinthians 15, The testimony of the church and the apostle. Notice what he says here.

Now I make known to you, brothers, the gospel which I proclaimed as good news to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, by which also you were saved, if you hold fast the word which I proclaimed to you as good news unless you believed for nothing. So the first set of witnesses is the testimony of the church and the Apostle. But that's not all. Secondly, the second group of witnesses that's being called here in this passage is the testimony of the Scriptures. Verses 3 and 4.

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received the Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures he was buried he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures Now in Paul's day when he wrote this, he was talking about the Old Testament. Definitely a witness. But we've got also the New Testament as a witness. So we'll look at that. But thirdly, thirdly, we have the testimony of eyewitnesses.

Notice verses 5 through 7. That he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve. After that he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep. After that he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. And so we have eyewitness account.

You don't know anything from history, Go to the first-hand accounts, to the accounts of the men and women who were there. And we'll do that. We'll find that the testimony of eyewitnesses, that's what Paul does here. And then fourthly, we have the testimony of Paul himself. He's a special witness.

Verses 8 and 9 there, and 10. He says, and last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared to me also, for I am the least of the apostles, and not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God, I am what I am. His grace toward me did not prove vain, but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me." And so we have Paul as a special witness. And then finally, fifthly, we have the testimony of a common message, verse 11.

Whether then it was I or they, so we preach, and so you believed. And so we have the fifth, final testimony that we're looking at being called to the witness stand of the resurrected Christ and that is the testimony of a common message and that includes, that includes Not only all those in his day, but multitudes that have come since that time, and including those who have been saved and who are saved in our day as well. And so we'll look at these things in the messages to come. The resurrection of Christ. It is not a blind faith or a leap in the dark.

There are convincing proofs that we can call to the witness stand as it were and we can see indeed that we do serve a risen Savior that Jesus is alive and I'm looking forward to this as we dive in to 1st Corinthians chapter 15 and really get into this study. I'm looking at our blessed Savior who is alive. And so we point you to Him. If you've never trusted in Him, we point you to Him. He is the only hope that you have as a sinner my God and a blessing to the preaching of his word.