Table of Contents
Introduction
There is only one reason to come to church on a Sunday morning.
How can you say that? There must be several reasons. We come to worship, to fellowship, to pray, to learn, to share experiences.
That is all true. But there is one thing that, if untrue, renders null any and all other reasons to show up. The one reason is this: Jesus Christ has been raised from the dead. If this one fact is untrue, then:
- Our worship is unworthy
- Our fellowship is false
- Our prayers, learning, and shared experiences are pointless, meaningless, empty.
The resurrection of Christ is the cornerstone of Christianity. The resurrection of the dead is the foundation upon which Christianity rests. Apart from the resurrection of Christ, the Christian faith is useless and sad.
Apart from the resurrection of Christ, the Christian faith is useless and sad.
This is the argument of the apostle Paul as he is writing to a group of believers that would test the patience of any minister—the Corinthians.
Chapter 15 of 1 Corinthians is the last section of what we’d consider the main body of this letter, as chapter 16 begins some final matters of business and greetings. He began the letter having to chastise the Corinthians for divisions in their church based on foolish pride; they had been playing favorites among those who were ministering to them, saying things like, “I’m team Paul” or “I’m team Apollos” or “I’m team Cephas.” And as if jealousy and strife weren’t enough, the arrogance had also led to an immorality that would make even the Gentile pagans blush. The Corinthians were confused at the sort of company they should keep. They had just about everything backwards. Some were sleeping with anything that moved, while others were wrongly withholding their bodies from their spouses.
The Corinthian world was upside down. When they judged and shunned, it was toward the wrong set of people. When they overlooked and accepted, that, too, was the wrong set of people. They couldn’t agree on what they should be eating, where they should be eating it, and with whom they should eat in worldly settings. In church settings, their behavior was so offensive to God that He sent a judgment of sickness and even death because of the way they treated each other during the Lord’s Supper.
Despite all this, the Lord in His grace had gifted the Corinthian church with incredible spiritual gifts. But they used their gifts like children do: My gift is better than your gift. I want that gift, not this gift.
That bring us up through 1 Corinthians 14. And if all of that weren’t enough for a lifetime of ministry pains, Paul has to close with this message (I’m paraphrasing): By the way, all of this time, all of these actions, all of this energy, all of these resources—everything you’ve made your life out to be—is a waste based on what I’ve heard about the way you Corinthians are thinking. Your actions, as bad as they are, are nothing compared to the issue I’ve got to close this letter with. Because if you follow this line of thinking to its logical end, all of our lives are entangled in this pathetic pursuit.
In chapter 15, Paul then says this (again, paraphrasing): I’ve given you my life’s work, which consists of preaching the gospel of Jesus and the power of His resurrection. How is it possible that that some of you are now saying that there is no resurrection from the dead?!
Here are Paul’s exact words:
Now if Christ is preached, that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain. Moreover we are even found to be false witnesses of God, because we testified against God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise, if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied. (1 Corinthians 15:12–19)
That’s quite the list of consequences. No resurrection means:
- Christ isn’t who we think He is.
- What we preach and what we learn from preaching is valueless.
- What we know about God is false, and what we teach is blasphemous.
- We’re stuck with what to do with our sin, and the Corinthians had some “good” ones.
- Everyone we’ve ever loved and hoped to see again is dead and gone.
- In sum, this whole system is miserable and pathetic, and so are we for participating in it.
It’s no wonder then, that in a list of what the Bible calls elementary principles of God’s words, resurrection from the dead would be in the list.
That list is found in Hebrews 5:12–6:2, the basis for our Oracles of God sermon series that we have been in for a while now. We have already covered the first four principles and now turn to elementary principle #5: resurrection from the dead.
Movement from Death to Life
Given what I’ve just said about the resurrection of Christ—that it’s the cornerstone of Christianity—you might ask why this isn’t the first principle in the list. It’s not toward the end of the list because it is unimportant. It is at the end of the list because, chronologically speaking, life after death requires two things: life and death. The principles move us from death to life:
- Principle #1: Repentance from dead works (in other words, Get away from dead things! Get away from dead living!).
- Principle #2: Faith toward God (Have faith in the living!).
- Principle #3: Baptisms1Also translated as “washings.” (identity in the death of Christ).
- Principle #4: Laying on of hands (movement from identity in death to identity in the work of Christ, the work of His hands, His actions in His church).
- Principle #5: Resurrection from the dead (movement toward eternity).
- Principle #6: Eternal judgment (again, movement toward eternity).
If everything we’re doing here is worthless apart from resurrection, then how much should you know about the resurrection? How much do you know about the resurrection? Can you see why you should be excited about a series on the resurrection? Can you see why you should work hard, even, at studying the resurrection?
As on other occasions when introducing a topic, I’ve prepared a little pre-quiz. See how well you do with these 10 pre-study questions below.
Did the Resurrection Actually Take Place?
We will spend the coming weeks exploring such things as this pre-quiz mentioned. And one of the things we’ll have to wrestle with is did the resurrection even take place? And if it took place, and if it’s so important, did the Gospel writers even get the details right? If we’re going to base our entire earthly lives and all of eternity on this, can we please agree on some simple facts like who saw the empty tomb first and how many angels there were? We’ll have to defend the trustworthiness of the eyewitness accounts against those who say they contradict.
Before we take up these things, there’s one more necessary matter we need to consider.
The Necessary Death of Jesus Christ
We’ve said that resurrection from the dead is a necessary doctrine. When talking about resurrection from the dead, we will be discussing primarily the resurrection of Christ from the dead, as it is His resurrection that is the basis of all of Christianity, and it is His resurrection that gives any other resurrection meaning. However, before we can enter into a discussion about resurrection, we must examine that which is first required if there is to be a resurrection: death.
There is no resurrected Christ without a dead Christ. That’s why the title of this sermon is “Necessary Doctrine, Necessary Death.”
Let’s conclude by considering the death of Christ.
The events surrounding the resurrection of Christ do not piece together as easily as those events surrounding His death, but I promise we’ll put that puzzle together.
But now, I ask you to worshipfully and solemnly read and consider Gospel accounts of the crucifixion of Christ. In the text below, I’ve compiled all accounts of Christ’s death from the four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John). If we read each account separately, the chronology is mixed, so we’d be bouncing back and forth in time. Instead, I’ve put the events in order for you, so that you can simply read, in order, what we know from the four Gospels about the story of His death and burial.2That which is recorded here is my own rendering of the chronology of the events surrounding the death and resurrection of Christ. My chronology was checked alongside that of John Cheney in his work Jesus Christ, the Greatest Life Ever Lived: A Unique Blending of the Four Gospels. While our renderings of the crucifixion agree essentially, our chronology of resurrection events differs. You can find these events in Matthew 27, Mark 15, Luke 23, and John 19.
We begin with the moment Jesus is handed over to be crucified:
The Death and Burial of Jesus Christ
Wishing to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas for them, and after having Jesus scourged, he handed Him over to be crucified. The soldiers took Him away into the palace (that is, the Praetorium), and they called together the whole Roman cohort. They dressed Him up in purple, and after twisting a crown of thorns, they put it on Him; and they began to acclaim Him, “Hail, King of the Jews!” They kept beating His head with a reed, and spitting on Him, and kneeling and bowing before Him. After they had mocked Him, they took the purple robe off Him and put His own garments on Him. And they led Him out to crucify Him. They pressed into service a passer-by coming from the country, Simon of Cyrene (the father of Alexander and Rufus), to bear His cross.
And following Him was a large crowd of the people, and of women who were mourning and lamenting Him. But Jesus turning to them said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, stop weeping for Me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For behold, the days are coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never nursed.’ Then they will begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us,’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us.’ For if they do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?”
Two others also, who were criminals, were being led away to be put to death with Him.
They took Jesus to the place called the Place of a Skull, which is called, in Hebrew, Golgotha. When they came to the place called The Skull, there they crucified Him and the criminals, one on the right and the other on the left. But Jesus was saying, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took His outer garments and made four parts, a part to every soldier and also the tunic; now the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece. So they said to one another, “Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it, to decide whose it shall be;” this was to fulfill the Scripture: “They divided My outer garments among them, and for My clothing they cast lots.” And sitting down, they began to keep watch over Him there.
Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It was written, “Jesus the Nazarene, the King of the Jews.” Therefore many of the Jews read this inscription, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, in Latin, and in Greek. So the chief priests of the Jews were saying to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews’; but that He said, ‘I am King of the Jews.’” Pilate answered, “What I have written I have written.”
The soldiers also mocked Him, coming up to Him, offering Him wine to drink mixed with gall; and after tasting it, He was unwilling to drink. And those passing by were hurling abuse at Him, wagging their heads and saying, “You who are going to destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save Yourself! If You are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” In the same way the chief priests also, along with the scribes and elders, were mocking Him and saying, “He saved others; He cannot save Himself. He is the King of Israel; let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe in Him. He trusts in God; let God rescue Him now, if He delights in Him; for He said, ‘I am the Son of God.’”
Those who were crucified with Him were also insulting Him. One of the criminals who were hanged there was hurling abuse at him, saying, “Are You not the Christ? Save Yourself and us!” But the other answered, and rebuking him said, “Do you not even fear God, since you are under the same sentence and condemnation? And we indeed are suffering justly, for we are receiving what we deserve for our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” And he was saying, “Jesus, remember me when You come in Your kingdom!” And He said to him, “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.”
But standing by the cross of Jesus were His mother, and His mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw His mother, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to His mother, “Woman, behold your son!” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” From that hour the disciple took her into his own household.
Now from the sixth hour darkness fell upon all the land until the ninth hour. About the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabacthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” And some of those who were standing there, when they heard it, began saying, “This man is calling for Elijah.” After this, Jesus, knowing that all things had already been accomplished, to fulfill the Scripture, said, “I am thirsty.” Immediately one of them ran, and taking a sponge, he filled it with sour wine (a jar full of sour wine was standing there) upon a branch of hyssop and brought it up to His mouth. But the rest of them said, “Let us see whether Elijah will come to save Him.” Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And Jesus, crying out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit,” and He bowed His head and gave up His spirit. Having said this, He breathed His last.
And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth shook and the rocks were split. The tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; (and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they entered the holy city and appeared to many). Now the centurion who was standing right in front of him, and those who were with him keeping guard over Jesus, when they saw the earthquake and the things that were happening, became very frightened and said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!”
Then the Jews, because it was the day of preparation, so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away. So the soldiers came, and broke the legs of the first man and of the other who was crucified with Him; but coming to Jesus, when they saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs. But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out. And he who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true; and he knows that he is telling the truth, so that you may also believe. For these things came to pass to fulfill the Scripture, “Not a bone of Him shall be broken.” And again another Scripture, “They shall look on Him whom they pierced.” And all the crowds who came together for this spectacle, when they observed what had happened, began to return, beating their breasts. There were also some women looking on from a distance, among whom were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the Less and Joses, and Salome. When He was in Galilee, they used to follow Him and minister to Him; and there were many other women who came up with Him to Jerusalem.
When it was evening, because it was the preparation day, that is, the day before the Sabbath, there came a rich man from Arimathea, a city of the Jews, named Joseph, a good and righteous man, a prominent member of the Council (he had not consented to their plan and action), who himself had also become a disciple of Jesus, but a secret one for fear of the Jews; and he gathered up the courage and went in before Pilate, and asked for the body of Jesus. Pilate wondered if He was dead by this time, and summoning the centurion, he questioned him as to whether He was already dead. And ascertaining this from the centurion, he granted the body to Joseph. Nicodemus, who had first come to Him by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds weight. So they took the body of Jesus and bound it in clean linen wrappings with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews, and laid it in Joseph’s own new tomb (in the garden in the place where he was crucified), where no one had ever lain, which he had hewn out of the rock; and he rolled a large stone against the entrance of the tomb and went away. It was the preparation day and the Sabbath was about to begin, therefore because of the Jewish day of preparation, since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there. Now the women who had come with Him out of Galilee followed, and saw the tomb and how His body was laid. Then they returned and prepared spices and perfumes. And on the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment.
Now on the next day, the day after the preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered together with Pilate, and said, “Sir, we remember that when He was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I am to rise again.’ Therefore, give orders for the grave to be made secure until the third day, otherwise His disciples may come and steal Him away and say to the people, ‘He has risen from the dead,’ and the last deception will be worse than the first.” Pilate said to them, “You have a guard; go, make it as secure as you know how.” And they went and made the grave secure, and along with the guard they set a seal on the stone.