“Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen: and if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not. For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: and if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable,” 1 Corinthians 15:12-19.
These verses came before me while Rev Samuel Fitton was preaching a really excellent message on the resurrection of Christ yesterday morning — ‘Proofs of the resurrection’ from 1 Corinthians 15:4. I would encourage everyone to listen to it.
In various forms across the world many have sought to witness to the truth of Christ’s resurrection from the dead on the third day as stated by the angel to “Mary Magdalene and the other Mary” was they came “to see the sepulchre”.
“And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. And go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead; and, behold, he goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him: lo, I have told you,” Matthew 28:5-7.
Many of these events smack of superstition and man-inspired notions of how we should remember the Lord’s death and resurrection.
We have been told how we should do that in the simple gathering around the `table of the Lord’ of which Paul sets down God’s will in 1 Corinthians 11:23-34. It is thus we show “the Lord’s death till he come.”
In 1st Corinthians 15, Paul is rehearsing the truths of the gospel. “Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; by which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain,” 1 Corinthians 15:1-2.
Ministers ought to note that they need to often repeat the simple, central truths of the gospel, especially when error has enter the congregation.
GOSPEL TRUTH is God’s antidote to SATAN’S LIES!
In considering the verses of our text, please note:
I. THE TRUTH OF THE RESURRECTION HAS ALWAYS BEEN ATTACKED.
There have been many which have said, like these foolish people in Corinth, “there is no resurrection of the dead”.
1. It is a hated truth because it declares the defeat of the devil. So said Peter. “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil,” Hebrews 2:14.
Likewise, Paul spoke of the triumph of the cross. “Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it,” Colossians 2:14-15.
As we have seen here in Ulster on many occasions, neither the devil nor his agents like to admit they have suffered defeat but will strongly and repeatedly deny they have been ‘bested! The devil knows if he can overthrow faith in Christ’s resurrection he will have succeeded in pulling down the whole gospel edifice!
2. Likewise, it is hated for it declares the deliverance of sinners. The Psalmist said: “Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive: thou hast received gifts for men; yea, for the rebellious also, that the LORD God might dwell among them. Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation. Selah,” Psalm 68:18-19. That this is a reference to Christ’s resurrection and ascension may be seen in Paul’s use of these verses. “But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. (Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.)” Ephesians 4:7-10.
The last words of the Saviour are recorded in Acts 1:8. “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight.”
The apostles, and those servants of God who have since walked in their footsteps, have been witnesses of the gospel and the means of delivering sinners from the captivity of the devil and sin.
The Lord Jesus, in His sermon in His home town of Nazareth, said this: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord,” Luke 4:18-19.
Paul, on the road to Damascus was told of God’s will for his life. “But rise, and stand upon thy feet: for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee; delivering thee from the people, and from the Gentiles, unto whom now I send thee, to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me,” Acts 26:16-18.
Conversion to faith in Christ is the first stage of that wonderful liberty which will reach its zenith at the return of Christ.
“For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body,” Romans 8:18-23.
3. Again, it is hated for it defies the criticism of the skeptics. The apostles were sorely tried by those who hated this truth. “Then came one and told them, saying, Behold, the men whom ye put in prison are standing in the temple, and teaching the people. Then went the captain with the officers, and brought them without violence: for they feared the people, lest they should have been stoned. And when they had brought them, they set them before the council: and the high priest asked them, saying, Did not we straitly command you that ye should not teach in this name? and, behold, ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this man’s blood upon us. Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree. Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins,” Acts 5:25-31.
Proved to be True
In the 1740s, while studying at Oxford, English poet Gilbert West and the Baron George Lyttelton set out together to disprove two major events in Christian history: Saul’s conversion and the Resurrection of Christ.
After a year of painstaking research, each eventually concluded that Saul was genuinely converted and Jesus genuinely rose from the dead, and they were converted and became Christians.
This work is Gilbert West’s letter reporting his findings to Lyttelton. West examines the prophecies of the Old Testament and the credibility of the New Testament, concluding ultimately that Christianity is indeed divine revelation.
I am sure that throughout the ages similar experiences are to be found amongst doubters!
Here is where you may read that work by Mr West in pdf format:
Observations on the History and Evidences of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ
Gilbert West searched and found this Christian truth to be just that and wisely embraced the gospel message and became a Christian. But how many futilely persist in their rejection of this fact and thus put eternal life from them and tragically perish everlastingly.
II. PLEASE NOTE THAT PAUL CHALLENGED THE LIE CIRCULATING IN THE CORINTHIAN CHURCH
All too many preachers, including Free Presbyterian Church ministers, feel that controversy and challenging the enemies of the gospel is not part of their duty as ministers.
That was not the view of our church founders! More importantly, it was not the view of the apostles. Paul here acts in accordance with the exhortation of Jude, “The servant of Jesus Christ.”
He said: “Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ,” Jude 1:3-4.
1. For this reason Paul did not ignore this error amongst the Corinthians. Whether those to whom Paul referred when he said: “how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead,” were of the same wicked character as those Jude wrote of, is doubtful. It would seem to me that these deniers of the resurrection in Corinth were but part of that sad ‘clique’ of members of the church that had backslidden and fallen into serious sin and error. Certainly Paul issues no directions regarding them whereby they would be disciplined as he did regarding the man who was engaged in “fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father’s wife,” 1 Corinthians 5:1. Of that man Paul commanded that such should delivered “unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus,” 1 Corinthians 5:5.
I would think that the deniers of the resurrection were but stupid people who had embraced a lie from the devil, not realising the theological ramifications of such a lie.
2. Such a lie denied an ancient truth. Belief in the resurrection of the body did not begin amongst the worshippers of Jehovah with the resurrection of Christ. No, it was an integral part of the creed of the Old Testament church.
Job, lived before Moses wrote the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible. He would only have had an oral account of the truth of God. Nevertheless, he was familiar with the doctrine of the resurrection and believed it!
“For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me,” Job 19:25-27.
Let me emphasise that there was no written account of these truths that are here uttered by Job for what he says in verses 23-24 shows this to be so.
“Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book! That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever!” The truth he then utters was not to be found in a book in his day!
3. To deny the doctrine of the resurrection is to deny a principle evidently working in the creation all around us! “But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come? Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die: And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain: But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body,” 1 Corinthians 15:35-38.
There is a resurrection which takes place every autumnal harvest time in the fields around us! Anyone who has ever dug up potatoes or gathered them, knows that amongst the new potatoes one finds the skeletal remains of the seed potato that was planted in the Spring! Thus Paul demonstrates that ‘nature’ testifies of that which blind men deny.
The hymn states the matter correctly.
Summer and winter, and springtime and harvest,
Sun, moon and stars in their courses above,
Join with all nature in manifold witness
To Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love.
How many sing these words but don’t believe them?
3. The truth referred to by Job is the comfort of the people of God throughout the ages. What he testified of was later referred to by David. “As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness,” Psalm 17:15.
It is a common thing in Scripture for ‘death’ to be spoken of as a ‘sleep’.
“And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever,” Daniel 12:2-3.
“These things said he: and after that he saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep. Then said his disciples, Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well. Howbeit Jesus spake of his death: but they thought that he had spoken of taking of rest in sleep. Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead,” John 11:11-14.
“But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord,” 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17.
It is referred to as a ‘sleep’ for it is not the permanent state of the believer but a mere resting until the time of the Saviour’s return in glory and great power and it is a state from which we will be awakened and refreshed as easily, indeed more so, as one wakens up a sleeper in the morning.
O happy day when we are awakened by the shout of Christ to the glorious morning of the resurrection.
Paul declares: “I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord,” 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17.
III. FINALLY, PLEASE NOTE THE DREADFUL CONSEQUENCES OF REJECTING THE TRUTH OF CHRIST’S RESURRECTION
In a stark manner, Paul gently but lovingly, set forth the dreadful consequences of there being no truth in the gospel doctrine of the resurrection of Christ!
“If Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not. . . . If Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.”
1. If the resurrection of Christ never happened, preaching the gospel is a vain and empty exercise. If its central truth is a lie, then how vain is the urging of people to believe in a lie? Those engaged in such preaching are ‘false witnesses’ and liars and deceivers.
How sad and empty would be my own life, since I was ordained a gospel minister on April 20th, 1968, fifty seven years ago, and I have sought to carry out the duty laid upon my shoulders all those years ago!
2. Furthermore, the faith of those who believe the gospel message is vain. Faith in the gospel is merely trusting in a spider’s web to stop you falling into hell! Our sins yet remain to be punished at the final judgment!
3. Sadly, those who died believing the gospel are all lost and that for all eternity! Whatever the gospel preacher said at their funeral service, extolling their faith in Christ was an empty, worthless, wretched claim!
4. If we are trusting in Christ for heaven, we are of all men most miserable. Our hope is futile and baseless. Heaven we will never see and the eternal miseries of hellfire await us.
BUT, the deniers of Christ’s resurrection are liars and deceived by their own lies!
But it is true, the Saviour did rise from the dead on the third day, praise the Lord!
“But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. . . . For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming. Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death,” 1 Corinthians 15:20, 22-26.
The gospel of the resurrection of Christ is of God and no lie for GOD CANNOT LIE. The hope of eternal life has been promised to those who believe the gospel by the “God, that cannot lie,” Titus 1:2.
Thus the believer can shout in holy joy with godly Philip Doddridge:
Yes, the Redeemer rose,
The Saviour left the dead,
And o’er our hellish foes
High raised His conquering head.
In wild dismay
The guards around
Fall to the ground,
And sink away.
Lo! the angelic bands
In full assembly meet,
To wait His high commands,
And worship at His feet.
Joyful they come,
And wing their way
From realms of day
To Jesus’ tomb.
Then back to heaven they fly,
The joyful news to bear.
Hark! as they soar on high,
What music fills the air!
Their anthems say:
“Jesus, who bled,
Hath left the dead;
He rose to-day.”
Ye mortals, catch the sound,
Redeemed by Him from hell;
And send the echo round
The globe on which you dwell.
With Christ we rise,
With Christ we reign,
And empires gain
Beyond the skies.
Amen and Amen.
Rev Ivan Foster (Rtd)
Monday, 21st April 2025