Transcript

One of the greatest proofs for the reality of Christ’s resurrection is the changed lives of people. One author wrote this, “During the course of nearly 40 years, I have traveled to virtually every continent and seen or heard some of the most amazing testimonies of God’s intervention in the most extreme circumstances.

“I have seen hardened criminals touched by the message of Jesus Christ and their hearts turned toward good in a way that no amount or rehabilitation could’ve accomplished.

“I have seen ardent followers of radical belief systems turned from being violent, brutal terrorists to becoming mild, tenderhearted followers of Jesus Christ.

“I have been in the Middle East and marveled at the commitment of young people who have risked their lives just to attend a Bible study.

British author A. N. Wilson, was once known for his scathing attacks on Christianity and mockery of its truths.

But in 2009 he celebrated Easter at a church with a group of other church members, proclaiming that only Christ is the One that makes sense out of life and its challenges.

Wilson said at that service, “My faith has surprised no one more than myself…My belief has come about in large measure because of the lives and examples of people I have known—not the famous, not saints, but friends and relations who have lived, and faced death, in light of the resurrection, in the quiet acceptance that they have a future after they die.”

That is what the resurrection does for us, giving us that quiet acceptance and assurance of a future and hope beyond the grave.

By the eyewitness accounts of those who saw Christ after He rose again in this passage we see the impact of the resurrection in changing and transforming people’s lives. And the resurrection continues to impact hearts and change the lives of those who believe.

1 Corinthians 15:5: “And that He was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve.”

The resurrection of Christ is supported by the most powerful line of evidence that we human beings know anything about. It is supported by direct, unquestionable eyewitness evidence, the kind that is employed in every courtroom in America.

Eyewitness testimony is a conclusive kind of evidence. In these verses, the apostle reviews briefly this line of evidence.

Paul mentions six different episodes of Christ’s appearances after He rose again. Even this brief survey is not exhaustive. There were other appearances beyond these.

The Lord appeared to a variety of people on different occurrences. He appeared to believers and unbelievers and doubters; to tough-minded people and tenderhearted souls.

Several people saw Him on more than one occasion. He appeared to people alone, and to groups of people of varying sizes. He appeared in the morning, afternoon, and evening.

Over a period of forty days He kept appearing and appearing and appearing again and again. Acts 1:3 says, “He shewed Himself alive after His passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days.”

The number, variety of circumstances, the eyewitness testimonies, the empty tomb, all the confirming proofs that surround the appearances are overwhelming evidence for Christ’s resurrection. This kind of evidence would stand up in any court of law. There is no doubt that Christ is risen from the dead.

But people do doubt. Sometimes the believer’s faith gives way and we wonder, doubt, and question things. The Corinthians were doubting.

That’s why Paul wrote an entire chapter of 58 verses about the resurrection and included the eyewitness testimony of those who saw Him after He had risen.

A chicken decided to lay an egg on a busy freeway. The rooster said, “Here’s how you do it. You lay it on the line and you do it in a hurry.”

That’s what Paul does here with these eyewitness accounts. He lays it on the line in a hurry, in just a few short statements. But each appearance is packed with meaning. The resurrection had a profound effect on each of these people listed in these verses.

And it’s important to notice the repetition in this passage of “He was seen” in verse 5, “He was seen” in verse 6, “He was seen” in verse 7, and “He was seen” in verse 8.

The risen Lord was seen with their own eyes. He appeared to each of these people and they saw Him and knew Him and knew He rose again.

In verse 5, Paul says “He was seen of Cephas,” or Peter. We’re not told here the exact time or location for His appearance to Peter.

According to the Gospels, we know it was sometime after His appearance to Mary Magdalene. Mark 16:9 states that the Lord “appeared first to Mary Magdalene.”

Later on Resurrection Day, after the Lord showed Himself alive to the two on the road to Emmaus, Luke 24:33,34 says about these two men,

“And they rose up the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together…Saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon.”

When they get to Jerusalem that evening, before they could speak and tell the eleven about the Lord appearing to them, the disciples began excitedly telling them that the Lord was risen indeed and had appeared to Peter. So likely sometime during the afternoon of Resurrection Day the Lord appeared to Peter in Jerusalem.

But it was a private meeting, just Peter and the Lord. Peter was hurting at this time. He had denied his Lord in that black night before the crucifixion. Three times he had professed that he did not know him, and he did so with curses and oaths and in anger.

You can imagine how Peter must have been feeling all through this time after the crucifixion for 3 days when he was suffering from guilt and remorse over his denials.

I think it is for that reason the Lord appeared to Peter privately. The Lord found him in his brokenness, in his heartbreak, in his hatred of himself, and the Lord showed Himself alive to personally to Peter to comfort him.

In that appearance to Peter, we see Christ’s forgiving grace and love. We should all be thankful for this. We all need it. We see how Peter may have forsaken the Lord, but the Lord had not forsaken Peter. Christ did not appear to Peter because he deserved to see Him the most, but more so that Peter NEEDED to see Him the most.

And also, because of his role as a leader among the apostles, the Lord appeared to him personally, as Peter would lead the apostles in being witnesses of the resurrection.

Post-resurrection, Peter became a different man. He powerfully and fearlessly proclaimed Christ’s resurrection. After healing the lame man in the Temple, Peter boldly told the crowd that gathered, “But ye denied the Holy One and the Just…And killed the Prince of life, whom God hath raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses” (Acts 3:14,15).

The Lord was also seen “then of the twelve.” Here Paul is grouping together several appearances that our Lord made to the twelve apostles.

On resurrection evening, the Lord appeared to the disciples as they were fearfully gathered together without Thomas present. A week later He appeared to them with Thomas present. Later, He appeared to seven of the twelve by the Sea of Galilee.

Notice though how Matthias is numbered with the twelve here before he was officially installed as twelfth apostle.

Christ was seen of the “twelve” after His resurrection and before His ascension, after Judas killed himself and before Matthias was appointed in Acts 1 when there would have still been only ELEVEN apostles.

Luke 24:34 again says, that the two from Emmaus when they found the disciples in the upper room that “they found the eleven gathered together, AND THEM THAT WERE WITH THEM.” Matthias was there with the eleven at that time and saw the risen Lord on Resurrection Day.

But the Holy Spirit considered Matthias one of the twelve even before his official appointment in Acts 1, as he was with the other 11 when Christ appeared to them in the upper room. This shows that it was the will of God for Matthias to be the twelfth apostle of the kingdom who would sit on one of the 12 thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel.

And it also shows how the Apostle Paul was never meant to be one of the twelve. He had his own unique calling and apostleship, as the apostle of the Gentiles for the dispensation of grace.

Before the twelve saw the resurrected Christ, John 20:19 says, “the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews.” But after the Lord appeared to them, they boldly, bravely and openly proclaimed that Christ was risen.

You see the change in these men in Acts 4:33 where it says, “And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all.”

Max Lucado writes this: “Remember the followers’ fear at the crucifixion? They ran. Scared as cats in a dog pound. Peter cursed Christ at the fire.

“Emmaus-bound disciples bemoaned the death of Christ on the trail. After the crucifixion, ‘the disciples were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders.’ These guys were so chicken we could call the Upper Room a henhouse.

But fast-forward forty days. The deserters have become a force of life-changing fury. Peter is preaching in the very precinct where Christ was arrested.

“Followers of Christ defy the enemies of Christ. Whip them and they’ll worship. Lock them up and they’ll launch a jailhouse ministry. As bold after the Resurrection as they were cowardly before it. “Explanation: Greed? They made no money. Power? They gave all the credit to Christ. Popularity? They were persecuted for their beliefs.

“Only one explanation remains, a resurrected Christ…The courage of these men and women was forged in the fire of the empty tomb…”

1 Corinthians 15:6 says, “After that, He was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep.”

You have QUALITY witnesses with the solid, godly character of Peter and the twelve, and now you have QUANTITY witnesses. He was seen by ABOVE or over 500 people at once.

And this appearance I think took place in Galilee. In Matthew 28:10: “Then said Jesus unto them [the women at the tomb], Be not afraid: go tell my brethren that they go into Galilee, and there shall they see Me.”

Matthew 28:16 then says, “Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them.”

I think the 500 probably saw the Lord here on a mountainside in Galilee.

But regardless of when and where, remarkably, at the same time and the same place, over 500 witnesses saw Christ alive after His resurrection.

Now I’ve never heard of a trial that had over 500 witnesses. To put this in perspective, if we were to call each of them to the witness stand one by one to be questioned and cross-examined for just 15 minutes each, and we went around the clock without a break, it would take from breakfast on Monday until dinner on Saturday to hear them all.

After listening to 125 straight hours of eyewitness testimony of 500 people all saying the same thing, no one could walk away unconvinced. That’s how strong the case is for the resurrection!

When Paul wrote this letter it was about 25 years after the crucifixion and resurrection. Most of the 500 who saw the Lord after He was risen were still alive, Paul says, but some had fallen asleep, or had died.

What Paul is telling the Corinthians is that “You don’t have to believe that Christ was raised from the dead just because I say it; there are several hundred people still living who saw Him alive, you can go ask them yourself if you want to.”

The skeptics at Corinth could have tracked down and visited some of these witnesses and heard firsthand from them too about seeing Christ after He rose again.

1 Corinthians 15:7 says, “After that, He was seen of James; then of all the apostles.”

After appearing to the 500, He was seen by James, Paul says. This is James the half-brother of our Lord. This is the only record we have of the Lord appearing to the 500 brethren and to James, the brother of the Lord. James was the son of Joseph and Mary.

Verses 5 and 6 speak of the Lord appearing to believers. With James and Paul we see that the Lord also appeared to unbelievers.

During the Lord’s earthly ministry, John 7:5 says “For neither did His brethren [or brothers] believe in Him.” Like his other brothers, James did not believe that Jesus was the Messiah or the Son of God.

But now this member of Christ’s own family and household, who did not believe in Christ before, after His Christ’s appearance to him after He rose again, then James believed and became a powerful witness to His resurrection.

He was a witness right out of Christ’s family. We do not know when he appeared to him. It would have been fascinating to have been there, and heard what he said, and how he revealed himself to His brother.

And it is this James who wrote the Epistle of James and in that letter you see how reverently he refers to the Lord Jesus. He calls him “Lord” and the “Lord Jesus Christ,” and the “Lord of Glory,” and James calls himself a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Before the resurrection, James was a skeptic and unbeliever, but after the Lord appeared to him, James was totally changed and transformed and solidly a believer in Christ and the fact that He had risen from the dead.

Paul next says the Lord “was seen of James; then of all the apostles.” The twelve have already been mentioned. So who are these apostles? These apostles are linked with James, who became the leader of the Jewish kingdom church.

So I believe these are secondary kingdom apostles, men who were called apostles but not of the twelve apostles. James was the head of this group of secondary apostles.

Sometime during His 40-day post-resurrection ministry, Christ showed Himself alive to these men and they were used by the Lord to spread Israel’s great commission and be witnesses of their Messiah’s resurrection.

1 Corinthians 15:8-9 says, “And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time. For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.”

The whole foundation for our faith, for preaching, ministry, and mission is the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And we praise God, as we see again and again here that “He was seen,” “He was seen,” “He was seen,” “He was seen.” Christ is risen from the dead.

We preach Christ, a living Savior, who takes away all our sins when we believe and gives us a home and hope in heaven. We proclaim the One who is the only Savior, the only way to God, who is God and Lord over all.

Paul gives his own personal testimony here, adding his own firsthand witness to the other eyewitness accounts of the resurrection, and telling us what the resurrection meant in his own life. Paul’s life is one of the greatest testimonies to the life-changing power of the resurrection of Christ.

And Paul’s witness brings a new level of objectivity. Because some critic might say, “Well of course His followers fabricated the resurrection. They wanted to it so badly to be true that they created and invented the story.”

But Paul was not someone who was a follower of Christ, he was a total unbeliever. He hated Christ. He not only didn’t believe, he persecuted those who did believe in Christ and in His resurrection, and had them put to death.

But Paul said “I saw Him.” Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 9:1: “Am I not an apostle, am I not free, have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord?”

Paul’s testimony is different. The twelve went through the Cross to the resurrection.

Paul went the reverse way: from the resurrection to the Cross.

Paul saw Him on the road to Damascus, when he got slammed to the dirt by that bright light and the blazing, glorious, resurrected Christ appeared to Him and spoke to him.

He saw and believed in Christ and His resurrection that day. And he had no reason to invent this.

Paul adds “as of one born out of due time.” “Born out of due time” speaks of a premature birth or to be born ahead of schedule, or even aborted.

Deuteronomy 32:29,35: “O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!…To me belongeth vengeance, and recompence; that foot shall slide IN DUE TIME: for the day of their calamity is at hand.”

The words “due time” in Scripture often speaks of judgment and calamity. This passage in Deuteronomy points forward to the latter end of Israel’s program in the 7-year Tribulation and the judgment and calamity that will take place in that day.

Pastor Don Webb said this in his book “Basic Bible Doctrines”: “The meaning of Paul being ‘born out of due time’ had to do with God aborting him from a path of rebellion and destruction that would have led only to judgment—for both him and the nation Israel.

“The ‘due time’ was that of judgment, and Paul’s salvation represented God intervening with a dispensation of grace.”

The time of Israel’s calamity was at hand after the stoning of Stephen. Instead, God intervened and appeared to Paul and he was saved, and he was born out of due time, born ahead of and out of the scheduled judgment and God ushered in a dispensation with Paul that had been kept secret since the world began.

God stopped the due time of Israel’s prophetic clock and Paul was born out of it into a new time and program, the dispensation of the grace of God. After the Rapture, God will continue Israel’s prophetic clock, picking up with the prophesied Tribulation.

Paul went on and wrote that he was “the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.” He felt unfit for ministry as an apostle because of his vicious and hate-filled persecution of the kingdom church.

When Paul says things like this in his epistles and in Acts, you know he had memories in his mind of the believers he arrested, tortured, and had put to death. He saw those people in his mind and it broke his heart.

This made Paul feel unfit and not qualified to be called or bear the title of an apostle. So, with his words here, he bows and buries himself in the dust in recognizing that he was the least of the apostles and not worthy to be called one.

1 Corinthians 15:10: “But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.”

Paul could not forget that for which he had been forgiven, and it continually reminded him that “by the grace of God I am what I am.” Paul understood more than most the miracle of God’s grace.

Paul knew he didn’t deserve all God had done for him in saving him and using his life. It is always by the grace of God we are what we are in the Christian life.

Many feel that they’ve lost the right to be used of God. They might have fouled up their life, and messed up everything, so they wonder how can God use me?

Paul is a great encouragement that no matter what has happened in our lives that God can still use us by His grace.

Paul contrasted what he was in verse 9 with what he is in verse 10. What made the difference between what he was and what he is was the resurrection of Christ. The radical change in his life is a testimony to the truth that Christ is risen indeed.

Paul went from an anti-believer, anti-Christ, violent, hateful persecutor to a soft-hearted, loving, go-for-broke apostle sharing the gospel of the grace of God and that Christ is risen from the dead all over the world.

No reasonable explanation is plausible other than the fact that Christ rose again. This radically and permanently changed the course of Paul’s life.

Seeing Christ was an irreversible turning point in his life. The grace of God cut him off from his old life and made him a new man in Christ.

It changed him from the old Saul of Tarsus into a new man, the Apostle Paul, the Apostle of the Gentiles, who wrote 13 books of the Bible, evangelized and founded churches all over the world, and who was the most remarkable missionary that ever lived.

His transformation was all due to the resurrection of Christ and the grace of God. And Paul gives God and His grace total credit for the change that took place in his life.

And God’s grace put him under the deepest obligation, and he labored tirelessly to serve the Christ who saved him and who lives.

Paul labored more abundantly than they all to show his love and gratitude toward the One who had rescued him. Paul kicked it into high gear and was determined to live for his Lord and tell others about His resurrection.

“Labored more abundantly than they all” means more than just the twelve, he’s referring to all the other eyewitnesses: Peter, the rest of the twelve, the 500 brethren, James, all the other apostles. Out of his gratitude for God’s grace he outworked all of them put together in getting the message out about Christ’s resurrection.

His salvation was by the grace of God, and God’s grace worked in and through Paul as he served the Lord. He did not boast in his own spirituality or power, but in God, because it was all “yet not I, but the grace of God with me.”

He did it all empowered by the grace of God. This is the power of the church, “the grace of God which was with me.” Just like Paul, all that we are and all we ever accomplish for the Lord is by the grace of God, and He deserves the glory for it all.

And the grace of God can do the same thing in our lives, as it did in Paul’s, in shifting our course, redirecting our energies into living for the Lord and serving Him by His grace and power. We do so because He saved me from all my sins and because He lives. And because He lives, we know that NOTHING done for Him is EVER in vain.

As verse 58 of this chapter says, “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye KNOW that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.”