I invite your attention to 1
Corinthians chapter 15. Verse 12 is my text, and this
message is the third in this series on Christ has been raised
from the dead. Now, the synopsis of the entire
series is inside your bulletin. So if you want to follow along
today, it is a synopsis, it's not great detail, but we're going
to be expounding some more scriptures this morning concerning the resurrection
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. But looking in 1 Corinthians
chapter 15, and again, go first of all to verse number 1, and
then we'll work our way up to verse number 12. Paul writes
in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verse 1. Moreover, brethren,
I declare to you the gospel, which means good news, which
I preached to you, which also you received, and in which you
stand." Notice the three things Paul here says about the gospel. He says, I preached it to you,
You received it and you stand in it. And then he says the fourth
thing about it in verse 2. By which, that is by the gospel
also, you are saved if you hold fast that word which I preached
to you unless you believed in vain. There are some people And
sadly, we all know of some who have said, we believe the gospel,
they follow the Lord in baptism, they joined the church, and then
10, 15, 20 years later, where are they? Back out in the world.
They never truly believed the gospel. When you believe the
gospel, you hold on to it. The gospel is Christ. You never
let Him go. And Paul says, some have believed
in vain. They had a head knowledge of
this gospel, but did not have Christ in their hearts, and they've
gone their ways. He says furthermore in verse
3, For I delivered to you first of all that which I received. This gospel, was not of Paul's
manufacture or invention. He did not make it up. He received
it. And Paul delivered to others
what he received. What I preach to you today is
what I have received. It's been handed down through
the years. And this gospel has these points. First, that Christ died for our
sins according to the Scriptures. Who are our? Our sins. The sins of everybody in the
world? No. Those who believe the Gospel. Christ died for their sins. You
have no hope, you have no confidence that Christ died for your sins
unless you believe the Gospel. And second, verse 4, that he
was buried, and third, that he rose again the third day according
to the Scriptures, or just as the Scriptures said he would.
And then fourth, and that he was seen by Cephas, that is Simon
Peter, and then by the twelve, and that he was seen by over
500 brethren at once. of whom the greater part remain
to the present, but some have fallen asleep." That is, they've
died. Which, for the child of God,
is falling asleep. It's not death, as many people
think of death to be. For us, dying is going to sleep. A good sleep. It's the sleep
of one who has worked hard all day long and you're tired and
you go and you lay your head on your deathbed and you go to
sleep and you wake up in glory. Well, some have fallen asleep.
And after that, he was seen by James, then by all the apostles,
and last of all, he was seen by me also as by one born out
of due time. Now, he was seen by many people.
We're going to come to that point in this morning's message. But
the point that I stress is this, not only Did Christ die? Not only was He buried, not only
was He raised from the dead, He was seen. Anybody can say
He was raised from the dead. But when you see Him walking
around 500 people at one time, this is important. He was seen
by many people. We're going to consider some
of them this morning. But now my text in verse number
12. if Christ is preached that He
has been raised from the dead. That's my text, and that is my
subject. I am preaching to you this morning
that Christ has been raised from the dead. It's a glorious truth
to us. It's part of the gospel that
we preach to you. Now, in the synopsis you will
see that we thus far have considered First, Christ's resurrection
fulfilled Old Testament prophecies. Second, Christ's resurrection
was prophesied by Christ himself. Third, Christ's resurrection
is declared and described in all four Gospels. And today,
the fourth point is this. The resurrected Christ was seen
by many witnesses and on various occasions. He was seen. Many
people saw Him. Let's consider some of these
people who saw the resurrected Christ. Locate back to the book
of John chapter 20. John's Gospel chapter 20. Now this continues with Mary
Magdalene. You can read of her in verse
number 1. On the first day of the week,
Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark,
and saw that the stone had been rolled away from the tomb. Then
she ran and came to Simon Peter. Observe. She did not see or hear
the angels who were at the tomb. She walked, she looked in, she
saw that the tomb was empty, and off she ran. to see Peter
and John, and told them, They've taken away my Lord, and I know
not where they have taken Him. Now they ran to the tomb, and
they saw, sure enough, He's been raised from the dead. Now we're
going to consider Jesus Christ appearing to many people and
we begin with Mary Magdalene. Evidently she was the first person
to whom the resurrected Christ appeared. The first person. She was dear to him and he was dear to her. He had cast demons
out of her. and she became a very faithful
follower of the Lord. Now consider in verse 11 of John
chapter 20, verse 11. But Mary stood outside by the
tomb weeping. She evidently had followed or
come with Peter and John. Remember, John was younger than
Peter and he could run faster than Peter. John got to the tomb
first, looked inside and saw that Jesus was not there. Then
Peter came up because he was old, he could not run as fast,
and he ran up and he just walked right on in. And they saw the
garment that Jesus had been buried in, it's lying there, and then
they saw his handkerchief that had been over his face, all folded
up. all folded up neatly and laid
in a special place, which was proof that his body had not been
stolen. His body had not been stolen.
Alright. Now, when they run back to the tomb, Mary Magdalene evidently
comes back with them. And she stood outside by the
tomb because Peter and John had gone back to their house. She
stayed. Then Mary stood outside by the
tomb weeping. And as she wept, she stooped
down and looked into the tomb. We get the impression that this
tomb did not have a very high doorway. You had to stoop to
look down into it. And so she stooped to look into
the tomb. after weeping outside. And she
saw two angels. This is the first time she saw
those two angels. She saw two angels in white sitting
inside the tomb. They're not sitting on the stone
outside the tomb like the other women saw them. They're sitting
inside the tomb. One at the head and the other
at the feet of the place where the body of Jesus had lain. And
then they said to her, Woman, why are you weeping? She had not heard yet He was
raised from the dead. She thought somebody had stolen
His body and she wanted to know where He was. And so she's weeping. Her eyes are full of tears. Why
are you weeping, woman? She said to them, Because they
have taken away my Lord. It's interesting. She did not
say they took away His body. She said, They took Him away. They took Him away. And I do
not know where they have laid Him. Now when she had said this,
she turned around and saw Jesus standing there and did not know
that it was Jesus. Now you may ask, did she know
Jesus? Of course she did. Then how could
she turn around and see Jesus and not recognize Him? I'll give
you at least two reasons. At least two reasons. First,
her eyes are full of tears. Full of tears. Her vision is
blurred because her eyes are full of tears. She looks, and
then she quickly turned around. She did not look at Him long.
You say, Preacher, how do you know that? It's written right
here. Well, I did not read that. You
will later. But just bear in mind, she is
looking inside the tomb. She turned around. She saw Jesus. She did not recognize Him. She
turned back around to look inside the tomb. Verse 15, Jesus said to her,
Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking? She, supposing
him to be the gardener, said to him, Sir, if you have carried
him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him
away. She thought he was the gardener,
the person who kept the grounds, the groundkeeper. Jesus said
to her, now notice, the first time he spoke, he called her
woman. This time he called her Mary. Mary. Interesting name. The word Mary means bitter. Comes from the word Mara. Bitter. Oh, she had bitter tears at this
moment. She has felt that bitterness
has been brought into her life. Mary fits her name now pretty
well. He said to her, Mary, then she
turned. There it is. She turned. Because
a moment ago, she turned around, she looked with eyes full of
tears, then turned back to look inside the tomb. Now, when he
calls her woman, she doesn't look at him. She keeps looking
inside the tomb. Oh, Mr. Gardner, if you've taken
him away, tell me where, I'll come and take care of him. Then
Jesus said, Mary, and now she turns around, you see this? And
she turned herself. And she said to him, Rabboni,
which means teacher. She called him teacher. He had
been the one who had been her teacher. And he is still the
one who still is her teacher. She calls him by a term of great
respect. Jesus said to her, Do not cling
to me. Because evidently, when he called
her by name and she saw that it was Jesus, She was probably
going to obey the impulse to reach out and embrace him and
hug him. I mean, you know what? If you had a loved one who was
given up for dead, and all of a sudden was back to life, you'd
be grabbing a hold of that one and hugging him or her, would
you not? She evidently is wanting to grab hold of Jesus as though
to say, I will never let you go! Never let you go! And he
said to her, Do not cling to me. He's not saying you cannot
touch me. He's saying, Do not cling to
me as though you will never let me go. Why? For I have not yet
ascended to my Father, but go to my brethren and say to them,
I am ascending to my Father and your Father, and to my God and
your God. God is God to Jesus in a different
way than He is to us. And the Father is Father to Jesus
in a different way than He is to us. For example, Jesus is
His only begotten Son. We believers are adopted sons
and daughters. Therefore, I've got to go to
my God and your God and my father and your father." Mary Magdalene
came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord and that
he had spoken these things to her. So, it is interesting. The first person to whom Jesus
appeared, the first person was not Peter, not Andrew, not
John, not James. It was a woman, a woman. Jesus appeared to a woman, but
not just any woman. There were a number of women
who financed the ministry of Jesus Christ. Remember, He made
three preaching tours around Galilee. He had 12 men with him. They had to eat, had to have
clothes. Somebody had to take care of
them. It was these women. These women financed this ministry
of Jesus Christ. And now Jesus Christ, when he
makes his first appearance, he comes back to his tomb and there
is Mary Magdalene. He appears to her first. Now,
there is another appearance, and this appearance is to Simon
Peter. Paul said he appeared to Cephas,
that is Simon Peter. Where did he appear to Simon
Peter? Locate in your Bible Luke chapter
24. Luke the 24th chapter and the
34th verse. Luke 24, 34. And you read these words. The
Lord is risen indeed and has appeared to Simon. Where was
it? We're not told. We're not told. When was it? We're not told.
Evidently, it was after, well we know that it was after he
appeared to Mary Magdalene and he evidently appeared to Simon
Peter second. Alright? Now, The third instance
is in the same chapter of Luke's Gospel, Luke chapter 24, and
I want you to go to verse number 13. Luke's Gospel, chapter 24,
verse 13. Now behold, two of them, Jesus'
disciples, were traveling that same day to a village called
Emmaus, which was about seven miles from Jerusalem. These were disciples of Jesus,
they had been there in Jerusalem, They evidently lived in Emmaus,
seven miles away, or else that's where they were staying, and
they're going to walk back. Now, seven miles, all right?
I mean, that's, you know, the distance from here to beyond
Frederiksted. I think the post office is five
miles from here, if I'm not mistaken. But anyway. That's a long distance. No automobiles, not even bicycles. They're walking and it's kind
of getting toward late in the day and they're going to walk
that long distance. And they talked together of all
these things which had happened. Jesus had been crucified and
buried And now they say that the stone was rolled away, and
somebody said he's been risen, he's not in the tomb. And so
here they are, they're walking along, they're talking about
these things. These things that had happened in Jerusalem about
Jesus. Verse 15, So it was while they
conversed and reasoned. They're wondering, how could
all this happen? You know, what did happen? We're
not really sure what happened. We've heard the reports. Jesus
himself drew near and went with them. Perhaps he came from a
side direction. or perhaps He caught up with
them. And now there are three men walking on that road. The
two men, one of them's name is Cleopas, we do not know the name
of the other, and now Jesus is walking with them. But their
eyes were restrained so that they did not know Him. They looked at Him, but they
did not recognize Him. Their eyes were restrained. And
he said to them, What kind of conversation is this that you
have with one another as you walk? And you're so sad. Why are you so sad? You hear
walking along talking and you're so sad. Why is that? Then the
one whose name was Cleopas answered and said to him, Are you the
only stranger in Jerusalem? And have you not known the things
which happened there in these days? And Jesus said to them,
What things? As if he did not know anything
at all about what had happened in Jerusalem. He was in the middle of the arena.
And yet, he's asked, What happened? What happened in Jerusalem? Something
happened in Jerusalem. And they said to him, the things
concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet, mighty in
deed and word before God and all the people, and how the chief
priests and our rulers delivered Him to be condemned to death,
and they crucified Him. But we were hoping that it was
He who was going to redeem Israel, meaning, We thought he was going
to overthrow the Romans. We thought he was going to be
a great king and redeem us from the bondage of our nation to
the Romans. Indeed, besides all this, today
is the third day since these things happened. Yes, and certain
women of our company who arrived at the tomb early astonished
us when they did not find his body, they came saying that they
had seen a vision of angels who said, he's alive. I mean, imagine. These women said, he is still
alive. That's what they said to us.
And certain of those who were with us went to the tomb and
found it just as the women had said, but they did not see him. They did not see him. Then Jesus
said to them, O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe
in all that the prophets have spoken. Oh, He has just given
them a rather sore rebuke. You claim to be followers of
God, and yet you have not believed what God's Word says. Why are
you so slow to believe the truth? You're acting foolishly. Ought
not the Christ to have suffered these things and to have entered
into His glory? Have you never read Isaiah chapter
53? He was stricken and smitten of
God. Did you not hear Him on the cross?
When he said, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Did
you not know he was quoting Psalm number 22? His death was according
to the scriptures. He died just as the scripture
said. Should not he have died that
way? The scripture said he would.
And then verse 27. And beginning at Moses and all
the prophets, he expounded to them and all the scriptures the
things concerning himself. He preached the message. Okay,
now, they're walking seven miles. Let's say that Jesus joins them
after they've walked a mile or two. They got five or six miles
to go. It's gonna take a while to go.
He's gonna preach a message to them. In the scriptures we have
a number of messages. Matthew chapter 5, 6, and 7,
the Sermon on the Mount. He gives the gospel of his kingdom.
Would you not have loved to have been there, you know, and to
heard that Sermon on the Mount, or anything that Jesus taught
and preached? In the upper room, With his disciples,
he gives what is called the Upper Room Discourse. He tells them,
I've got to go. I've got to leave you, but I
will send the Holy Spirit, the Comforter. It's a rather lengthy
message. I would have loved to have heard
that message. On the Mount of Olives, he preaches
a message or teaches a lesson, which with Jesus would be the
same thing, regarding the end times. I'd like to have heard
that message. And it's reasonable to say, if
he preached the message, I would have loved to have been there
and heard what he said. Do not consider me disrespectful
if I say that if I could hear one message that he preached,
I'd want to hear this one. This one. And beginning at Moses
and all the prophets, Moses wrote, pardon me, the first five books
of the Bible, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. First five books of the Bible,
Moses wrote those. Jesus, in this long walk, he's
going to preach a message and teach a lesson. And he begins
with what Moses wrote And He's telling them the things concerning
Himself. Now what could that be? What
could that be? We do not know for certain because
we were not there. But for example, the Tree of
Life in the Garden of Eden, that's Jesus Christ. The Tabernacle. That altar where they slew the
animals? That's Jesus Christ. That altar
was a type and a symbol of Him. We have an altar, Paul says,
it's Christ. There's a lamb on that altar.
It's going to be sacrificed and its blood shed. You see that
lamb? That lamb points to Jesus Christ. Behold, the Lamb of God who takes
away the sin of the world. There's a priest. He's going to make a sacrifice
at that altar. Well, Jesus Christ is that priest. That priest points to Him. You
say, well preacher, which is he? Is he the altar or is he
the sacrifice or is he the priest? He's all three. And he's more
than that. Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed
for us. Now, I do not know what all Jesus
talked about. We just know that beginning at
Moses and all the prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, the earlier
prophets, He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things
concerning Himself. Jesus Christ is the only preacher
from God who preached Himself. The only one. Paul the Apostle
speaks for the rest of us when he says, we do not preach ourselves. We preach Christ who preached
Himself. We preach Christ Jesus the Lord.
And this is the reason why that when I preach to you, For the
years that I've been here, whatever the text, I've tried to find
Christ in it. If it's an Old Testament text,
I look for Christ in it. We have endeavored to preach
Christ to you regardless of what the text is. That's what Jesus
did. And beginning at Moses, and in
all the prophets, He expounded unto them, explaining to them
in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. Verse 28,
Then they drew near to the village where they were going, and Jesus
indicated that He would have gone farther. But they constrained
Him, saying, Abide with us. Jewish hospitality required this.
There were no hotels, no motels, no inns in those, well, a few
inns, but only in the, usually in the bigger towns. But if you
saw someone who was in your town and he might be pitching his
pallet or his bed in the courtyard of the town. Hospitality said,
Come into my house. Come into my house. May rain.
Well, they constrained him. They said, Abide with us, for
it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. And Jesus went
in to stay with them. He's going to spend the night
there in Emmaus. Now it came to pass, as he sat
at the table with them, Not only do they want to provide his lodging,
but also his meal. So, they go get bread, probably
get out the bread and the wine, and they bring it, put it on
the table. And Jesus took the bread, blessed
the bread, broke the bread, and gave the bread to them. Notice. He took the bread in his hand.
He blessed it. He prayed. Then began to break
the bread. Then he handed it to them to
eat. Then their eyes were opened and
they knew him and he vanished out of their sight. How did they
know it was Jesus? Because when he put out that
hand with the bread in it and they took the bread out, there's
the nail prints right there in his hands. And they know it's
him. They know it's him. And he's
gone. He's gone. He vanished out of
their sight. And they said to one another,
did not our heart burn within us when he talked with us on
the road? And while he opened the Scriptures to us, our heart
burned within us. I hope your heart does. When
you hear this gospel, my heart burns when I hear of Jesus. So they rose up that very hour,
and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven and those who
were with them gathered together, saying, The Lord is risen indeed,
and has appeared to Simon. And they told about the things
that had happened on the road, and how he was known to them
in the breaking of bread. That's how they knew it was him.
That's how they knew it was him. When he took that bread and broke
it, Well, the spike goes through the hand. Whether they're looking
at this part or this part, they see the nail prints. They know
it's him. He was known to them in the breaking
of bread. And I hope that in the breaking
of bread here today, in the preaching of the gospel, I hope that he's
made known to you. This is the Jesus that I preach
to you. Why do you seek the living among
the dead? He is not here. He is risen,
as he said. Come see the place where the
Lord lay and go tell his disciples. So that's what I'm going to do.
I'm telling you now, he's risen. He's risen. Oh God, our Father,
to the glory of your name, to the honor of your Son, Jesus
Christ, help us to rejoice in our risen Savior, in whose name
we humbly pray, amen.