Alan Lewis
Elon, North Carolina
October 2024
But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. 22 For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.
23 But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. 24 Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power.
25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death. 27 For he “has put everything under his feet.” Now when it says that “everything” has been put under him, it is clear that this does not include God himself, who put everything under Christ. 28 When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all (I Corinthians 15:20-28 NIV)
We have been studying I Corinthians 15. It is a long chapter. This is our fourth week in the chapter. I Corinthians 13 is the greatest chapter in the Bible on love. This is the greatest chapter in the Bible on resurrection. Today, we want to talk about the resurrection of Jesus.
Did He really rise from the dead? How do we know? How do you answer skeptics who say that He did not? If He did rise from the dead, what are the implications? What difference does it make?
Did Jesus Rise from the Dead?
The branch of study that deals with question is called apologetics. It is a defense of the faith. You may have heard of Josh McDowell. You probably have not heard of Simon Greenleaf (1783-1853).
Simon Greenleaf was a law professor. He taught at Harvard Law School. In fact, he was one of its founding faculty members.
He wrote Treatise on the Law of Evidence, which has been called “the greatest single authority on evidence in the entire literature of legal procedure.” He was one of the greatest legal minds of the time.
This treatise on evidence was first published in 1842. He later applied the rules of evidence, cross-examination, and other legal tools to investigate the crucifixion and the resurrection.
He wrote a book called An Examination of the Testimony of the Four Evangelists by the Rules of Evidence Administered in the Courts of Justice. It was published in 1846.
In this book, Greenleaf says, “According to the laws of legal evidence used in courts of law, there is more evidence for the historical fact of the resurrection of Jesus Christ than for just about any other event in history.”
Can you imagine a professor today at Harvard Law School saying today, based on legal evidence, that the resurrection is the best attested fact in history? We would not hear anyone say that today, but Greenleaf said it and he wrote the definitive work in his day on legal evidence.
Many have tried to disprove the resurrection but they can’t. All you would have to do is to produce the body of Jesus and the whole doctrine is destroyed but no one could do that.
Someone tried to do that in 2007. In fact, on March 4, 2007, the Discovery Channel put out a documentary called “The Lost Tomb of Jesus.” It claimed that the bones of Jesus were found but none of it was true.
In 1980, some construction workers accidentally uncovered a 2000-year-old cave outside of Jerusalem holding 10 coffins. The bones were said to be 2000 years old and were found in Israel.
They had the names Jesus, Joseph and Mary. In fact, Jesus is the son of Joseph in the coffin. There is a Mary buried there as well but there were problems.
The names “Mary,” “Joseph,” and “Jesus” are among the most popular names in the ancient Jewish world.
James Charlesworth of Princeton Theological Seminary says that there a first-century letter written by someone named Jesus, addressed to someone else named Jesus and witnessed by a third party named Jesus.”
Mary was the most common female name in the ancient Jewish world. About one in every four women in first century Judea had the name Mary.
We know that Mary was buried in Ephesus. Joseph was from Galilee, which is where he would have been buried. There were people in this family tomb that there not part of Jesus’ family (Mariamene).
The archaeologist who had supervised the initial 1980 dig of the tomb (Amos Kloner) said this was not Jesus of Nazareth.
There are many prominent atheists who set out to disprove the resurrection but ended up being Christians. Some spent their entire life trying to disprove the resurrection and were converted in the process.
They were converted trying to disprove the Bible. There are many who did this, but we will mention three. The first two were journalists.
Frank Morrison
Morrison was a British journalist. Frank Morrison was not his real name. It was a pseudonym. His real name was Albert Henry Ross (1881-1950).
Ross was an atheist. He did not believe that miracles were possible. He believed that miracles were not possible. He believed that there is no God.
After looking at all of the evidence, he became convinced that the resurrection actually happened. He wrote a book called Who Moved the Stone? It was first published in 1930. It was written by a former atheist.
Lee Strobel
Lee Strobel was another journalist. This was an American journalist. He worked for the Chicago Tribune as an investigative journalist. He is a former atheist. He was married. He had some marriage problems.
His wife became a Christian. He spent two years trying to disprove the resurrection. In 1981, he became a Christian. He wrote the book The Case for Christ. It is the result of his two-year investigation.
There is also a good movie about his life called The Case for Christ (2017) that you can watch. He is still alive. He is in his 70s.
J. Warner Wallace
Another example is J. Warner Wallace. He was a police officer in California. He was a detective. He investigated homicides. He investigated cold cases. He was also an atheist.
In 1996, he applied his cold-case detective principles to the death of Jesus and became a Christian. He wrote the book Cold-Case Christianity: A Homicide Detective Investigates the Claims of the Gospels. It was published in 2013.
Evidence for the Resurrection
Is the resurrection something that we just take by faith or can we prove it? We can prove it. The Bible says so.
After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. (Acts 1:3 NIV)
Luke says that there are PROOFS for the resurrection. He says that there are MANY proofs, not just one and the proofs are strong. They are clear. They are convincing. The KJV reads “many infallible proofs.”
There is solid evidence for the resurrection. It is overwhelming. The case for Christ is strong. You can prove it. Luke uses the word τεκμήριον. It is the word for the strongest type of legal evidence in Greek. In today’s language, it would mean “beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Unfortunately, many Christians today do not know what the proofs are. There are proofs that you can use. Will they convince everyone? No. It is not because the proofs are bad. It is because there is a difference between proof and persuasion.
You can present someone with all kinds of evidence and they still will not believe. Some people are not open-minded. They do not care about the facts. Dale Carnegie said, “A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still.”
Jesus performed all kinds of miracles. He even raised the dead and they still did not believe. They just accused him of witchcraft. What are several facts which no one, not even atheists, can deny.
1) Jesus really lived
If you could prove that Jesus never lived, there is no resurrection. If Jesus was a myth, that would do away with the resurrection. The problem is that there are all kinds of historical evidence for Jesus.
Occasionally, some fool will claim that Jesus never lived but there is historical evidence for the existence of Jesus. There is first-century evidence for Jesus. He is mentioned by first century historians.
Josephus mentions him. He was Jewish. Roman historians mention him (Tacitus, Suetonius). No serious historian doubts that Jesus existed, including atheist historians. The most radical NT scholars agree that he existed (Bart Ehrman Rudolf Bultmann, D.F. Strauss).
2) Jesus died on a cross
The fact that he died and was buried is one of the best attested facts of history. Islam questions it. The Quran says, “they neither killed nor crucified him—it was only made to appear so” (4:157) but historians do not question this. The Quran was written 600 years later. The Gospels were written in the first century.
3) The tomb was empty
The tomb was empty on Easter Sunday. That is a fact that no critic can deny. You can visit the tomb of Jesus today in Israel and it is empty. No one has ever found the body of Jesus or explained why it was empty. The body could not have been stolen because it was guarded by Roman soldiers.
4) People claimed to see Jesus
You not only have the empty tomb; you have all of these appearances. Paul mentions these in I Corinthians 15. An empty tomb does not prove the resurrection. The appearances do.
he appeared to Cephas, 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. (I Corinthians 15:5-7 NIV)
This is just a summary. Before Jesus appeared to the men; He appeared to the women. The first to actually see Jesus alive was not the men but the women. The Easter story begins with the women.
Jesus not only appeared to people, but Luke says that He appeared to people for forty days. That is over a month. Jesus not only appeared to people, but He appeared to groups of people.
Paul says he appeared to five hundred at one time. Paul says that most of those were still alive when he wrote I Corinthians. You could interview them. You could cross-examine them. You could question them.
Jesus not only appeared to his followers (apostles). He appeared to complete skeptics. Thomas was a skeptic. He said that he would not believe that Jesus rose from the dead until he could verify it himself.
“Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.” (John 20:25 NIV).
Jesus appeared to Thomas. He appeared to believers. He appeared to skeptics. He appeared to unbelievers. Paul was an unbeliever. Jesus appeared to his brother James (I Corinthians 15:7). He did not believe until after the resurrection (John 7:5).
Jesus appeared not only to his friends but to some of his enemies. Paul was not just his enemy. He was the greatest enemy of Christianity. He was what we would call a terrorist today. He was out killing Christians. Jesus appeared to him supernaturally and stopped him in his tracks.
5) Lives were transformed
We saw this last week. Paul was completely transformed by Jesus. He went from being a murder to being a missionary. He went from being the greatest sinner on the planet to becoming the greatest saint and the author of more Scripture than anyone else in the NT.
Changed lives are another fact that no critic can deny. The apostles were from being timid and fearful to being bold preachers of the gospel.
They were willing to be martyred for their faith in the risen Savior. They were not just martyred for what they believed but for what they saw with their own eyes.
Implications of the Resurrection
If Jesus did rise from the dead, what does this mean? It means a lot of things. It means that Jesus is God. It means that the Bible is true. It means that Christianity is true.
It means Christianity is unique. In no other religion has the founder been raised from the dead. Buddha is still dead. Muhammad is still dead. Islam is the second largest religion in the world, but the founder of that religion is dead. He died in 632 and he is still dead. Jesus is alive.
Paul talked about what would happen if Jesus did not rise from the dead. Our faith would be vain. We would be false witnesses. We would still be in our sins. We would have no hope. Then, he talks about what it means that Jesus has been raised from the dead.
1) If Jesus was raised, we will be raised
But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. 23 But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him (I Corinthians 15:21-23 NIV)
Death is the result of sin. Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned (Romans 5:12 NIV). Death is universal. Death came to ALL people. In Adam ALL die.
No matter how much you exercise, no matter how much you take care of yourself and live responsibly, no matter how much broccoli you eat, no matter how many supplements you take every day, you are still going to die.
People die every day. We die different ways (heart attack, cancer, car crash, COVID) but we all die. Death is inevitable because of Adam. Hebrews 9:27 says that “It is appointed unto men to die.”
Every day, every month, every year we get closer to that appointment. When will that be? No one knows but we all have an appointment. That sounds like bad news.
Here’s the good news. In Christ ALL will be made alive. Death came from Adam. New life comes from Jesus.
Now, the Bible does teach that one day everyone who died will be raised from the dead. The worst sinner and mass murderer will be raised and stand before God. Revelation talks about the books being opened.
That is true but Paul here is specifically talking about believers being raised. It is an encouragement. If you are an atheist, you think this life is it. Once you die, it is over. Once we die, life is not over. We will all be raised.
We don’t have to fear death. Death will not be the end. Believers will be raised from the dead. Jesus had an Easter experience and so will we. Paul says that death is like going to sleep at night. We will be woken up one day. Jesus is the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
God raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by His power (I Corinthians 6:14 HCSB)
We know that the One who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and present us with you (II Corinthians 4:14 HCSB)
And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, then He who raised Christ from the dead will also bring your mortal bodies to life through His Spirit who lives in you (Romans 8:11 HCSB)
Now, Paul says that we are not going to all raise at the same time. He is not giving a prophecy chart. He is just giving an overview.
In his overview, he says that Jesus is the first one to be raised. He is the firstfuits, the first crop to be harvested.
Christ is the firstfruits but there will be latter fruits at his coming. Paul says in at the rapture, there will be another resurrection of believers.
The first resurrection took place in 33 AD. There are not any resurrections taking place right now. All you have to do is to visit a cemetery. The next one will not take place until Jesus returns again.
Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— 52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, THE DEAD WILL BE RAISED IMPERISHABLE, and we will be changed. (I Corinthians 15:51-52 NIV)
For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and THE DEAD IN CHRIST WILL RISE first. (I Thessalonians 4:16 NIV)
2) If Jesus was raised, evil will lose
You don’t see that as you look in the world today. There are all kinds of evil in the world. There is unimaginable evil. It looks like evil is winning. One day, every enemy will be banished.
There will be no more sin. There will be no more crime. There will be no more sickness. There will be no more sin disease. There will be no more sin death. There will be no more demonic activity. There will be no more Satan.
Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. 25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death. (I Corinthians 15:24-26 NIV)
All of this happened because of the resurrection. Because Jesus rose from the dead, He will reign one day over every enemy. He will put them all under his feet. It is not happening now.
Some say it is happening now. It has been happening since the resurrection of Jesus. There are churches that teach that doctrine. It is false. It is a lie. The one ruling on earth is Satan right now. He is the ruler of this world. He is the god of this world. All you have to do is watch the news.
Jesus is sovereign over Satan, but He is not ruling on earth right now. There is all kinds of authority, power and dominion which is against God right now. It has not been destroyed. There is still sin and death on the planet. Sin is rampant. People get away with all kinds of things.
Satan is at work in the world today. When Jesus returns to earth, He will return as King of Kings and Lord of Lords to rule and reign on the earth and Satan will be banished.
Jesus has not put his enemies under his feet right now but one day He will. He has not destroyed all dominion, authority and power. The resurrection of Christians is not taking place right now, but it will one day.
3) If Jesus is raised, God will win
Then THE END will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has DESTROYED all dominion, authority and power…. When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be ALL IN ALL. (I Corinthians 15:25, 28 NIV)
The resurrection of Christ guarantees that God wins. Satan loses. All of the enemies are defeated. Every knee bows to Jesus and confesses Him Lord. The Son delivers the kingdom over to the Father.
God is all in all. Creation is restored. God wins. Jesus submitted to the Father when He came to earth. When every enemy is defeated, He submits to the Father again and God becomes all in all.
I Corinthians 15:28 is one of the most misunderstood passages of the Bible. Some have used it to prove that Jesus is not God. They argue that He is inferior to God because He will submit to the Father in the end.
These are all weak arguments. Other passages prove that Jesus is equal with God. He said He was one with the Farther (John 10:30). He claimed equality with God (John 5:17-18).
Submission does not necessarily prove inferiority. Jesus submitted to his parents (Luke 2:51). Does that mean He was inferior to them? He was inferior positionally, as a child to a parent, but He was also their Creator.
The fact that Jesus delivers the kingdom over to e the Father does not mean that He has stopped ruling and now the Father rules in His place. Other passages say that Jesus will rule forever.
The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, which said: “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah, and HE WILL REIGN FOR EVER AND EVER.” (Revelation 11:15 NIV)
Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb… The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. 4 They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5 There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. AND THEY WILL REIGN FOR EVER AND EVER. (Revelation 22:1, 3-5 NIV)
When all creation is in perfect subjection (all nature, all people, all angels), He will submit Himself to the Father. He submitted Himself to the father when He came to earth. He will submit Himself to the Father at the end of the process. God will be all in all.
