In the sermon titled 'The Resurrection of Christ: The Testimony of the Common Message,' David Green explores the evidence and significance of Jesus Christ's resurrection. Drawing from 1 Corinthians 15, the sermon discusses various testimonies supporting the resurrection: the testimony of the church, the scriptures, eyewitnesses, and Paul's own transformation. The sermon emphasizes the common message of the gospel across different cultures and denominations, asserting that despite theological differences, the core message of Christ's death, burial, and resurrection remains consistent. This commonality serves as a testament to the truth of the resurrection, which is central to Christianity. The sermon also touches on the historical context, highlighting that many eyewitnesses were still alive when Paul wrote his letters. Overall, the sermon underscores the resurrection as the cornerstone of the Christian faith.

Stand, by which also you are saved if you hold fast the word which I proclaimed to to you as good news unless you believed for nothing. For I delivered to you as a first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and then he was buried, and then he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and then he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve, and 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. 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 so you believed." This is of course the infallible, the inerrant, the all-sufficient Word of the Living God. And as we look at this text, this portion of Scripture, we've been through 1st Corinthians for a long while. We know that this text is a very exciting text, and we've been in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 for a little bit. In fact, today is March 1st.

We started at the beginning of February, looking at the evidences of the resurrection of Jesus Christ as brought out in this text. And so on the 1st of February we looked at verses 1 and 2. As Paul in this text he brings out witness after witness of the resurrection of Christ. And so in verses 1 and 2, the first witness that he brings out is the church, the testimony of the church. And as he's writing this, he's taking ink to papyrus and he's writing this letter to them.

He brings out the church as a witness and the testimony of the truthfulness of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The church at Corinth, as imperfect as they were, as much trouble as they were in, they were a testimony to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. That church is no longer in existence, but even then and over the course of the 2, 000 years that have come and gone since, there have been multitudes of groups of Christians and churches that have been in existence that have been in existence all over Europe and Asia and Africa and on into North and South America and all over this world all the way to our present time. And yes, as we brought that sermon out, Sovereign Grace Baptist Church is a testimony of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. A group of believers changed lives who are in existence today.

Then as we carried on in verses 3 and 4, the second sermon, brought out the fact that Paul pointed out that this message of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the witness of the resurrection, the testimony is given of the Scriptures. In the time of the writing of the letter to the church at Corinth, most of What they had was the Old Testament only. But those old writings, Moses and the prophets, they testified of Jesus Christ, His life, His death, and yes His resurrection. And then in the Third witness that we pulled out, the third message, this third group, if you will, was from verses 5 through 7. And this is the testimony of eyewitnesses.

Paul did not rely on ear witnesses or second hand witnesses. No, he's pulling from eyewitness accounts. The eyewitness accounts of Cephas and the twelve apostles and James. Don't forget about the 500 who saw him alive at once. Real people who saw Jesus alive after his resurrection.

Some of them were even alive at the time that Paul wrote this letter, because he was writing just a mere few years after the resurrection. While people who were alive at the time that Jesus had risen from the grave, these people were still alive. Some were dead, yes, but some still alive. They could tell you about it. You know, we often think of history as being so ancient.

Did you know that there are people, there are people who are still alive, not many, but there are still people who are still alive when World War II was going on. There are people who are still alive during the Korean conflict and Vietnam. And there are people, you young, youngins might find this hard to believe, but there are people who were alive when the twin towers fell. People who were alive before the internet, before Google. People alive before the iPhone.

People alive before the iPhone. History is not so far distant. And In Paul's day, he could write this letter and he could say, hey, there are eyewitnesses. Some of them are dead, but many still alive. So he wrote this eyewitness account, testimony of eyewitnesses.

Accounts, testimony of eyewitnesses. My fourth message came from verses 8 through 10. That was last week. We looked at the testimony of Paul, verses 8 through 10. Paul was an apostle, but not one of the original twelve.

He was previously an unbeliever, a persecutor of the church, but Jesus had appeared to him not just once, but on more than one occasion, making him a valuable witness to the resurrected Lord. To the resurrected Lord. And so, today, we think about the evidences for Christ's resurrection in this fifth message. I want us to take verse 11 and see the testimony seen in the common message. The testimony of the common message.

That's the title of the sermon today. Look there, verse 11. He says, whether then it was I or they, so we preach, and so you believed. Without exception, As he brought out these witnesses, as he called out these testimonies, he sums it all up and he brings out this last piece of testimony. He says, whether it was I or they.

And whether it was Cephas or Paul or any one of the twelve, whether it was a prophet or a missionary, whether it was an apostle, a pastor, a deacon or one of the 500 or anyone else the preaching and teaching of the churches the early Christians it was all the same. It all centered around this fact, the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Indeed, it was the same message for the Jews as well as the Gentiles. Look with me over in Romans chapter 1. Romans chapter 1 verses 15 and 16.

Oh, 15 through 17. Well, 15 through 17. In this way, for my part, I am eager to proclaim the gospel to you who are in Rome, for I am not ashamed of the gospel. For it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, everyone who believes, to the Jew first, also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith as is written, but the righteous will live by faith.

See it's the same message. Everyone. There wasn't a message for the Jews and another message for the Greeks. Now, it is a fact that The way in which it's presented is a little bit different if you compare the way that the message was preached say on the day of Pentecost to Acts chapter 17 when Paul was on Mars Hill, there's a difference. And the difference is that when they were among the Jews, the Jews knew something about the Old Testament.

They knew a lot about the Old Testament, but the Greeks knew nothing. They were totally ignorant about creation and the things of God and they knew nothing. But the Jews knew something and so the presentation was different, but the message itself, the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Gospel was the same. And I'll tell you this as well.

There are some fellows out there, and sometimes they'll get into this, they'll say, well, do you believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ or the Gospel of Paul? They have no clue. They have no clue what they're talking about. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the Gospel of Paul, and the gospel of Paul is the gospel of Jesus Christ. There's no difference.

The testimony that is given here in 1st Corinthians chapter 15 and verse 11 is the testimony of the common message. Peter and Paul and the 500 and James and all of the others, they were preaching the same message. There were disagreements among the brethren, that's a fact. But the preaching of the gospel was not a part of it, not the churches of Jesus Christ. In fact, in fact, Philippians chapter 1, Philippians chapter 1 and verses 12 through 18, Philippians chapter 1, beginning of verse 12, he says, here now I want you to know brothers that my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel, so that my chains in Christ have become well known throughout the whole Praetorian Guard and to everyone else.

That most of the brothers having become confident in the Lord because of my chains have far more courage to speak the Word of God without fear. Some to be sure are preaching Christ even from envy and strife, but some also from goodwill. The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel. The former proclaimed Christ out of selfish ambition, rather than from pure motives, thinking to cause me affliction in my chains. What then, only in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed and in this I rejoice, yes, and I will rejoice, For I know that this will turn out for my salvation through your prayers and the provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ according to my earnest expectation and hope that I will not be put to shame in anything but that with all boldness Christ will even now as always be magnified in my body whether by life or by death." And so Paul was going through some things and in fact because he had been incarcerated, some of the brothers said, oh this is great opportunity for us.

We're going to go and preach in such a way as to make Paul look bad and Paul says, hey you know what, you all do whatever you're gonna be doing. I'll rejoice because Christ is preached. Do it through selfish ambition. I'm not I'm not going to get distracted. I'll just be happy that Christ is preached.

With the God that we had the same, the same kind of outlook in life, the same attitude. Obviously, there were the commonality of the message that Paul could say that. I'm just glad Christ is being preached. But when we look at the full picture of the New Testament, we know that there were heresies that were springing up even in the New Testament. Some regarding the gospel, some regarding Christ, but these were the exception and not the rule.

When those came out, these were squashed very, very quickly. We know from reading and teaching in Galatians, for instance, in Galatians chapter 1, Galatians chapter 1, verse 6, He says to them, I marvel that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ for a different gospel, which is really none other, only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But if we were an angel from heaven should proclaim to you a gospel contrary to the gospel we have proclaimed to you let him be accursed." And so he says there's some who are preaching another gospel. This was not a common thing, but there were some who were coming in. But in the main, in the main, the common message among the churches, the common message among Christians, regardless of where they were or who they were, was Jesus Christ.

They were was Jesus Christ on the cross, died for the sins of people, buried and rose again the third day. You see, the message of Jesus Christ was the same whether it was Paul, Peter, Apollos, the 500, the 12, didn't matter. You could be in Ephesus or Corinth. You could be in Philippi. You could be in Asia Minor or in Jerusalem and you would hear the same gospel is proclaimed in Rome and all of the other regions.

There was no centralized head, no board of directors, each church was an autonomous independent church, but the same gospel was being preached. And so it is as you fast-forward through church history, 2, 000 years as churches sprung up all over this world again, whether they be in Australia or the Amazon or Papua New Guinea or America, Canada, Philippines, wherever. Disagreements would Philippines, or wherever. Disagreements would happen over church government. The amount of water that should be used in baptism, the elements of the Lord's Supper, all sorts of things.

You find that in church history. And I'm talking using the word church extremely loosely, because not everything that assembles itself together is a church. But I'm talking about groups of Christians would come together, different names, The gospel being preached. Go into a church in the Alps, you'd hear the same message in a church in Africa. The message that we preach today is the same message that they're preaching in Papua New Guinea.

We're not comparing notes. There's no centralized office that says here's how it should be. No human authority that tells us what to preach. This is a testimony that Jesus is indeed and in fact risen. And so it is across the world, across denominations.

I'm not talking about the fringe cults and all that, I'm talking about mainstream Christianity. Whether Baptist or Presbyterian or Methodist, guess what? Christ was preached. Christ is preached in Calvinist churches and in Armenian churches. I know that sometimes hard to swallow, especially whenever we, I grew up in a sovereign grace Baptist Church, never knew anything different, but I learned real quick, Many of my brothers and sisters that sat beside of me in the pews throughout all my life were saved in places that weren't anything like what I grew up in.

Some of them were saved in Methodist churches, some of them were saved under Arminian preaching. How do we account for that? The only way is that Christ was preached, and it's in evidence, not to the messengers in all of those places. The reality is, the reality is that there's some pretty messed up messengers and all of them including in some of the Baptist churches. But the evidence is this right here in 1st Corinthians chapter 15 and verse 11, the evidence that we have is that we do indeed serve a risen Savior, that there risen Savior, that there is a common message among all Christians.

None of us have everything right. None of us have everything right. Not even you and not even me. But there's something to be said in the fact that this message is consistent among all of God's people everywhere, and that is the gospel message. Except for a few isolated heresies, the message of Jesus has been consistent across all groups of Christians on all continents throughout all of history for 2, 000 years.

This stands as a testimony of the risen Lord. Again, just piggybacking off of my message from earlier, We know the apostates have a terrible, terrible time with the gospel, but we're not talking about the apostates. I'm talking about believers in Christ. Believers in Christ sometimes get things terribly wrong. Sometimes believers in Christ get things wrong like the age of the earth.

Get things wrong like the head covering. Get things wrong like the amount of water that needs to be in the baptistery. Gets things wrong like church government, but believers in Christ always, always get the gospel right. They have to. As Paul wrote to the church at Corinth, he thought that this was He thought that this was important to write this text to them.

And as we kind of bring this to a close, not only this text, but this series within the series. We think, all right, well, Paul thought it was important to write this to them, and they were in the middle of squabble over, over preachers, and they were in the middle of issues with discipline case over a member that was in a fornication and they were having all sorts of problems and after writing so much he gets to chapter 15 and he writes this text which is evidences of the resurrection And he's not done writing about the resurrection, but he kind of lays the groundwork here, verses one through 11. He felt it was important to write this here and after writing so much. As we sit here some 2, 000 years later, the question might be why is this all important for us? A lot of churches don't take the time that I've taken to go through these 11 verses.

While it's true that it is a common message to preach on the resurrection of Jesus Christ, there's some places where they don't go deep into this to talk about the evidences of it. So we might preach it like devotionally, Jesus Christ died and buried and rose again. And so they kind of surface level it, but never really get into hammering away at the evidences that are lined out here. But I've taken time on this because I believe it's important not only to know the fact of it, but also the reality as to why, to really kind of understand the evidences that are lined up here. The reality is that the resurrection of Christ is not just a part of Christianity.

And this goes along with verse 11, the common message. It's not only a part of Christianity, it is Christianity. If you take away the head covering, for instance, a church is still a church, A Christian is still a Christian. But if you take away the resurrection of Jesus Christ, There's no Christianity. It's gone.

You can't have Christianity. You can't have a church without the resurrection of Jesus Christ. You see. There is a spiritual war that is happening, and not only in this country, but all around the world. There are skeptics out there, atheists and agnostics.

We live in an age where it's good to question everything and people will question everything. And if you've never been asked the question, why do you believe the resurrection of Jesus Christ, buckle up, you will be asked that question. How do you know that Jesus was resurrected from the grave? And I hope that you can now with greater confidence point to this letter that Paul wrote within just a few years of the resurrection and point to the evidences when many eyewitnesses were indeed still alive. What a great joy it is to know that we serve a risen Savior.

That though there are many doubters out there, we can know beyond a shadow of a doubt that Jesus is alive. To know that the tomb is empty. To know that Jesus not only did die, that he was buried, that he rose again, but he ascended back up into heaven and is one day coming back for his people. The question is this morning, Do you believe it to be true? Are you fully trusting in Jesus this hour?

We point you to Him, the only sure hope that you have. The only hope for you as an individual, the only hope for our nation, Jesus Christ, the one who is alive today. Let's dismiss in prayer. Brother Barry, would you please.