Sermon preached on 31st March 2024 in St Andrews Cathedral, Sydney by The Most Reverend Kanishka Raffel, Archbishop of Sydney.
1 Corinthians 15 1-15
The Resurrection of Christ
15 Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. 2 By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.
3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance[a]: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas,[b] and then to the Twelve. 6 After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, 8 and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.
9 For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. 11 Whether, then, it is I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed.
The Resurrection of the Dead
12 But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14 And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. 15 More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised.
Sermon Transcript
Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. Hallelujah!
What a joy it is to meet together in this way, this Easter day as millions of Christians will do around our nation and around the world.
Christ is risen. Sins forgiven. Death defeated. The spirit with us. A new world coming. Hallelujah! What a saviour!
The resurrection of Jesus is described as the first fruits in the Bible. The first in the crop. Because Jesus is raised, so will we all be raised. Believer and unbeliever. The faithful and the skeptic. The repentant and the unrepentant. We will all be raised.
But not yet. The resurrection of all people is still ahead of us. And with it the coming of the kingdom of God, in all it’s fullness.
Jesus is the first fruits. He guarantees what is to come. The first fruits of the crop. But there is still so much more to come. For now we know all too well we live with sorrow and sickness, with war and injustice, with deliberate evil and unexpected tragedy.
In 2022 Palestinian Christians in Gaza were numbered at less than 1,500 and 50,000 in the West Bank and Jerusalem. Those in the West Bank have not been able to enter Jerusalem this Easter where their countryman walked the way of the Cross on Friday with a reduced number of Easter worshipers.
We cry out to God for the peace of Jerusalem for the release of hostages held by terrorists. We weep with Israelis and with Palestinians who grieve the loss of family members and the destruction of their homes and communities through war. We cry out for those in Ukraine, Sudan, Myanmar and the Middle East who suffer from wars not of their own making and we cry out for an end to despotism, war and tyranny.
We proclaim that Christ is risen and that the risen Christ is the guarantee of the day of justice on all wickedness cruelty and violence that in this world wreaks havoc and misery. We proclaim that Christ is risen and that he is Lord and judge of all and that he will one day establish his kingdom where there is no more war or crying or pain and every tear will be wiped away.
The news from around the world as well as here in Australia - tragic accidents, criminal violence, the stress experienced by so many just seeking to make ends meet and keep a roof over their heads means we cannot by any means be content with an Easter that is merely chocolate eggs and hot cross buns and a few days off. No, Christ is risen. Evil will not triumph, sorrow will not have the last say and sin and death will not keep us captive forever.
The apostle Paul writes to the church in Corinth and says “This is Gospel, good news of first importance.” Not a matter of philosophical speculation or merely personal religious interest. No, these things were according to the scriptures", that is the plan of God. God's response to a weary world broken by its rebellion against him and rejection of his word. The resurrection of Jesus is good news from God. The climax of his rescue and renovation plan for the world.
I have three questions:
• What is the Gospel?
• Can we believe it?
• Does it matter?
1. What is the Gospel?
Paul says here's the heart of the matter. Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures and was raised on the third day according to the scriptures.
Three times the Gospel accounts record for us the words of Jesus. That he must be handed over to the chief priests and the elders, they will kill him and on the third day he will rise again. Jesus taught that his divine mission, his purpose in coming, was to die at the hands of those he came to save and to be raised again." The Good Shepherd lays down his life for his sheep. Jesus said “I have come to give my life as a ransom for many.” And on the night of his arrest he said to his disciples as he handed them the cup, “This is my blood which is poured out for you for the forgiveness of sins.”
Is the Resurrection of Jesus good news? It is!
The Bible everywhere views human death not as merely a natural event but as a penalty, divine judgment on human disobedience. But...
Christ died for our sins, in our place, as our substitute, as our representative, on our behalf, bearing the penalty that we had deserved.
And he was raised to show that God has a plan for forgiveness, for a new beginning, to bring blessing to a world that has turned away from him. To renew the whole creation and to wipe away every tear. For now we live with decay and death, destruction and disease but the resurrection has put them all on notice. Death has a used by date because Jesus died for sin and was raised again.
The good news is that God is fulfilling his plan to ransom those captives to death and to bring home his lost sons and daughters, to forgive Sinners and adopt rebels and orphans into his own family. To renew the whole creation and free it from sin and sickness and death. Through the death and resurrection of Jesus. Paul says “This is the gospel I preached to you. This is the gospel you received and in which you now stand and this is the gospel by which you are saved if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you.” Trust in this. Trust in Jesus. Gospel.
2. Can we believe it?
Along with the climatic events in the life of Jesus. Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures and was raised on the third day according to the scriptures. Along with these climactic events, Paul mentions two supporting facts which point to their historicity.
- He was buried. We know where they laid him. No one denied the tomb was empty.
- He appeared. To Peter, to the twelve, to 500 others, to James and to Paul.
Let's consider this information purely as a matter of history for a moment. Tiberius was Caesar when Jesus was crucified. The Roman historian Tacitus wrote his account of the life of Tiberius about eighty years after the death of the emperor and that is regarded by ancient historians unequivocally as a reliable historical account. But historians similarly view these four statements in verses 3-5 of our reading from 1 Corinthians 15. These four statements that Christ died according to the scripture, that he was buried, that he rose on the third day according to the scriptures and that he appeared.
Historians regard these as an excerpt from a longer earlier Christian creed - that is Paul didn't write these words, he is using words that were already in circulation. He wrote them to the Corinthian church in the mid-50s A.D 25 to 30 years after the resurrection of Jesus but he says this is what he himself received verse 3 says. Which must be a reference to his visits to the Jerusalem Church in the mid thirties, a year or two after his conversion. In other words these words are evidence that the essential truths of the new movement around Jesus were widely agreed and circulated very rapidly after the first Easter. Within a couple of years, these facts were established and accepted. They were not stories that developed over time and became more elaborate with the passage of time. From the beginning it was proclaimed that Jesus was the Christ, the Messiah, that he died for our sins, was buried, raised and appeared.
It's not unreasonable of course to be skeptical about the resurrection. Though we sometimes think of first century people as gullible and naive because they didn't have access to Wikipedia, they were in fact much more familiar with death than we are. They knew death close up and they knew dead men didn't rise.
The idea that Jesus didn't really die but only fainted and recovered in the cool of the tomb, requires us to believe that when Jesus revived from the agony of crucifixion, he rolled away the stone from the inside and overcame the Roman guard. And when he appeared to the twelve, who were hiding in fear of their lives and showed them his nail pierced hands and feet and his pierced side, they thought he was the Lord of Life who had conquered death and devoted the rest of their own lives to proclaiming this message even at the expense of their own lives.
The New Testament records for us that all the disciples, and not just doubting Thomas, doubted when they first heard the report that Jesus was alive but they were all convinced, not by some inner light of revelation but because they saw him, they ate with him they talked to him and they learned from him.
The resurrection of Jesus from the dead is of course an unprecedented event in human history but the relative simplicity and straightforwardness of the accounts of the resurrection continue to have power because no one can deny that something happened. The preaching of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead irrevocably altered the course of world history. Jesus left no instruction manual, no army, no strategic plan yet the group of disciples who took up the message that Jesus was raised from the dead. Lord and Judge of humanity worthy to be worshiped as God in the flesh, according to their own enemies, turned the world upside down. Despite the fact that they were themselves for the most part ordinary men and women with no claim to religious authority or military power or political influence or economic resources.
Something profoundly and permanently changed them so that global history continues to feel their impact. The first believers in the resurrection changed their attitude to the nature and worship of God, to personal morality, government, war, welfare, work, marriage and the future within weeks. Social and political effects of the early Christian movement were so dramatic, widespread and enduring that Professor of Divinity at the University of Cambridge, the late C.F.D Moule, said...
There is a resurrection-shaped hole in history that remains an enigma for any historian who does not take seriously the explanation found in the New Testament.
Two non-Christian historians: Ed Sanders says it is entirely implausible that the New Testament testimony of the resurrection is a deliberate fraud and he considers it a fact that the apostles experienced the risen Jesus though he declines to draw any significance from that. Another Jewish historian of the Resurrection says the tomb was most probably empty and it is virtually certain that the Apostles believed that Jesus was raised from the dead.
Something profoundly and permanently changed them so that we continue to feel their impact. They said it was that Jesus had been raised from the dead. What do you think it was? Gospel. We can believe it.
3. Does it matter?
Paul makes the point that Jesus appeared to Peter and the Twelve, to James and the other Apostles, to 500 brothers and sisters and to Paul himself. About Jesus appearance to himself, Paul says this in verse 9. “For I am the least of the Apostles and do not deserve even 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 to me was not without effect, yet not I but the grace of God that was with me."
The death and resurrection of Jesus were events in history but the resurrection of Jesus is not only to be thought of as objective and historical. It is not less than that but it is more. It is also intensely personal. Paul mentions Peter by name for it was Peter, Cephas, who had so bitterly deserted and denied his lord. Jesus appears to him and John records the poignant account of their reconciliation in John 21.
James, Jesus half-brother: Mark's gospel, tells us at the time of Jesus' public ministry, James sought to take him into custody calling him insane and John tells us bluntly, James did not believe. Jesus appears to him and he becomes leader of the church in Jerusalem which was no great honour. The Jewish historian for the Roman Empire, Josephus records that James was executed by Caesar in AD62 for his Faith. And Paul the persecutor turned preacher, the sworn enemy of Jesus, turned into the humble servant of Jesus.
How can this be? Such welcome, such affirmation, such care and kindness towards those who betrayed Jesus, belittled and blasphemed against him. Paul has a word for it. Grace. It is the character of the Gospel, what Jesus has done. Dying for sin, being raised as victor over death. What Jesus has done he has done for the undeserving and he offers it freely by his grace. Forgiveness of sin, freedom from guilt, fearlessness in the face of death, life with God now and eternally. This is the offer of the Gospel. And the Grace of Jesus for forgiveness and adoption has been welcomed by millions and millions since those first believers began to preach that Christ was risen from the dead.
Tim Costello, former CEO of World Vision speaking of his own faith says this...
If you really believe in the resurrection, it frees you to take risks now. You do not have to have every experience, every pay rise and career promotion and squeeze everything into this one life. There is another life and you can live vulnerably, sacrificially for others.
Dear friends, the risen Jesus says to us on this day of all days, have we turned from self rule, from self-promotion, from self-obsession?
If you know you have not yielded to God, the rightful place in your life, as the author of your life, having appointed Jesus judge of all humankind before whom we will appear. If you know you have not yielded to the one who made you and loves you, Easter is a wonderful time to yield.
Chances are you believe you matter. God agrees. Death denies it. The resurrection affirms that you matter. Turn to Christ and live. Let us turn from sin from fear and guilt and shame and self. The Bible says “why would you die, turn to Christ and live."
Easter is precious because it is the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead that confirms that everything matters. The suffering of those displaced by war or brutalised by corrupt regimes, the woman who seeks refuge for herself and her children, the family that grieves the sudden death of a child. All of it matters. We are not just atoms plus time plus chance. The death of Jesus for our sakes says our moral choices matter. And the resurrection of Jesus says there is a day of resurrection which is also a day of judgment.
Justice matters. Kindness matters. You matter and the decisions we make matter. Especially the decision we make about God and life and death and eternity. Paul says he preached this Gospel to them they received it. Now they stand in it and they will be saved by it if they hold firm. There is news of what God has done. And there is receiving it, standing on it, holding firm to what God has done.
The Gospel is news to be trusted. Jesus is the Lord of Life and judge of all.
Have you put your trust in him? He is worthy to be trusted with your sins and fears, with your hopes and dreams, with your life and death. Have you trusted in Jesus?
If you wish to, you could pray the prayer that is printed on the inside cover of your order of service. I'm going to pray it now and you may wish to do so as well, for the first time or all over again, in your heart to God. On the inside cover, at the bottom of the page, let me pray.
Dear God I know that I am not worthy to be accepted by you. I am guilty of rebelling against you and ignoring you. Thank you for sending Jesus to die for me, paying my debt, bearing my punishment that I may be forgiven. Please forgive me and change me that I may live with Jesus as my ruler. Amen.
The resurrection of Jesus is good news according to the scriptures. Good news from God. Good news to a world steeped in sin and sorrow.
Hear the good news. Christ is risen. He is risen indeed!