Text: 1 Corinthians 15:1-8
Message for March 31 , 2002
by Pastor Glenn Layne

Easter Message
More Than Five Hundred

Each year at this time the media turns a brief attention to the realm of religion, and let's face it: this has been a dismal year for religion. A simmering world war is in progress that is more like something from the 11th century than the 21st-a religious war (at least that's the way the enemy sees it.) War in the name of God is not exactly good news, and since baseball starts in this week, we'll count that as right over the plate, strike one.

At home, a furor is waging in the Roman Catholic Church about predatory priests-and the role of the church hierarchy in covering up the crimes of its clergy. That's low and inside, but it catches the corner, strike two.

Then we have what looked to be at least a double-a religious revival in reaction to the attack on America. But sorry, that was a swing and a miss. After 9/11, there was a brief sense of national revival. Now there is some evidence of a minor backlash against the faith. Long-term, we have this news: According to ARIS (the American Religious Identification Survey, conducted by the City University of New York), the proportion of the population identifying themselves as Christian was 86% in 1990 had declined to 77% in 2000. 14% of Americans describe themselves as non-religious.

Short-term, the survey also revealed a mild backlash against the faith, especially in communities closest to New York, which is ironic since that's where the most significant church growth post 9/11 have also been observed. The question-where was God on September 11?-hits home hard in households that lost a loved one.

So now here we are on the highest day of the Christian calendar and the prospects for the role of faith seem dim. Three strikes, and you're out!

And on that Friday, it seemed that Jesus was dead and gone as well. It seemed that He and all He stood had perished on that cross.

For the reality is that we are not here to observe a religious holiday; we are not here to check the polls on the popularity of Jesus, we are not here as preservers of the tradition, but as captives of the liberating truth that JESUS LIVES and that death could not hold him. That's a truth that lives on no matter what the current wave of opinion might be.

But the waves do come. Some try to redefine Him. A group of mediocre scholars make the news on a regular basis for something they call the Jesus Seminar. They meet periodically to decide which parts of the gospels are real and which parts aren't. Every time they get together they whittle off a little more. (I think they're down to the commas and the periods at the end of sentences!)

They, like generations of so-called experts before them, try to squeeze Jesus into a mold of their making. They, like all who have gone before, will fail. There is something irreducibly untamable about Jesus. He always confounds the one who thinks they have Him cornered.

The thought they had Him before. When they took His limp body from the cross, His enemies clucked their way home, convinced that was that. He dearest friends wept as they took that body and put it in the freshly hewn tomb of Joseph of Arimathea.

What happened next was carefully preserved. It was first spread by word of mouth, from person to person, but also in open air preaching like that of Peter on the day called Pentecost. Others wrote it down. Some say that Matthew was the first, writing as early as 10 years after the events. Others say it was Mark, and that he wrote his gospel say 15 years after that. Paul, who wrote the words we heard a few moments ago, wrote no later than 53 AD, a mere 20-23 years after the events.

I am satisfied that the Jesus they wrote of is the real Jesus. I am convinced that the Person we meet in the gospels could not have been created by the most imaginative writer. And the fact that we have five early writers-the four gospels plus Paul-who give us such a coherent and compelling image of Jesus-attests that this is the real Jesus.

I am satisfied with the real, living Jesus…and I want you to know why. I am satisfied with this living Jesus, this Jesus faithfully represented in the words of the Scriptures…and I want to share him with you. I am satisfied with the resurrected Jesus…and I want to give you a glimpse of His resurrection power.

1. I am satisfied with His power to change lives (I have a satisfied heart!)

Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15:1-2:

Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. 2By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.

Paul is writing to the believers in the Greek city of Corinth. As Greeks, they shared the attitude of the Greek philosophers like Plato, who believed that there is life after death, but that there is no future for the body-no future resurrection. But Paul says, whoa, if there's no future resurrection, then what do we make of the fact that the very heart of the good news of Jesus is the conviction that Jesus died and then rose from the dead?

This business of rising from the dead means that Jesus is the life-giver. That in Him we have a type of life that is beyond anything we encounter in our regular lives.

In our regular lives, when someone dies, they're gone. We know that in this life a funeral is a farewell. We hope one day will we join them, but we'd be unbalanced to say the least that we expected them to show up at our doorstep in three days.

Not only did Jesus "show up", He returned in power. And it's still the power of life: life in Himself and life-giving power.

A few weeks ago, we had the ladies of the Walter Hoving Home in Pasadena here on a Sunday night. These are women in a Christian home overcoming the effects of drug abuse, alcoholism and prostitution. These are women who self-inflicted some grievous wounds. They sang and shared their testimonies. Over and over again it was the same: I did this, I hit bottom, I had one chance and Jesus took me and changed me and is still changing me. All the programs in the world didn't do. Education didn't do it. Getting arrested didn't do it. Nearly dying didn't do it. Having children didn't do it. Jesus did it. Not an idea about Jesus, but the living Lord Jesus Himself-that's what made the difference!

People, I have a satisfied heart! I am satisfied with His power to change lives. I have seen it myself. I am a changed man myself. I have a satisfied heart.

2. I am satisfied with His power to answer the great questions of life (I have a satisfied soul!)

Dallas Willard, who is a professor of philosophy down at USC, says that every great philosopher and moral teacher has to grapple with this question: what is the "good life"? How Jesus handled this is interesting: not only does He deal with it in His words (such as in the Sermon on the Mount), He deals with it in His live as well. The good life, Jesus tells us, is found in the pursuit of the Kingdom of God, and God's righteousness. The good life is found when you love Him with all you are, and love people with all you have.

Then we see this embodied in His own life. Loving the Father and doing His will was what He was all about. His prayer was that people would come to live this way as well: "I pray that they may know You, the only True God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent." (John 17:3)

Is there a God? What is He like? Why am I here? Is there a purpose to life? What happens when we die? These are the Big Questions. And there's not one of the Big Questions that I can't see the answer to-in Jesus Christ. What is God like? Look at Jesus. What's life about? Knowing Him and making Him known. He has broken the death barrier and come back from it victorious.

I have a satisfied soul! I am satisfied with His power to answer the great questions of life. Nothing else comes close. Atheism denies the imprint of the divine on the human heart; existentialism is simply atheism lying to itself about meaning. Buddha leaves me cold and Hinduism says good and evil are just illusions. Islam preaches a God of fate but never love, although the human heart cries out for love, not fate! No, in Jesus, I have a satisfied soul.

3. I am satisfied with the evidence for His life, death and resurrection from the dead (I have a satisfied mind!)

1 Corinthians 15:3-8 says,

3For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. 6After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. 7Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, 8and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.

Paul writes, "People, this is really, really important. It's all true. Christ died, but His death wasn't in vain. He died there on that cross for our sins. It was central to God's plan-and it was no accident. As a matter of fact, in the Old Testament you'll find clues about this written centuries before the fact.

"He was also buried. He didn't just swoon and then wake up. He didn't have a 'near death' kind of experience. He was DEAD people, so they buried Him. As a matter of fact, to make sure, the Romans stuck Him with a spear, right to the heart. He was DEAD and BURIED.

"But that was NOT the end. Three days later, on that Sunday in Jerusalem, He rose from the dead. It wasn't just that His body was gone. Again, there are hints about this in the Old Testament. A bunch of people saw Him. One was Peter. Then the gathered bunch of remaining apostles. Later there were five hundred people-count 'em-five hundred people who saw Him alive. Most of those people are still alive-go ask them yourself! Oh, He also appeared to His brother James. And finally, a few years later, He also appeared to little old me, on my journey to Damascus."

Paul's emphatic on two points:

1. The death, burial and resurrection of Jesus are real historical events. This is not a story we tell each other to comfort each other. It's the real deal. If you had a video camera, you could have recorded His death at Golgotha, His burial in the tomb-and even the resurrection itself. A man who was dead was no longer dead-His corpse was transformed into a glorious resurrection body, full of more life than anyone anywhere has ever known before.

2. The whole series of events was hinted at in what we now call the Old Testament. Notice he says it twice:

• He died for our sins "according to the Scriptures"
  
• He was raised the third day "according to the Scriptures"

Paul doesn't list the passages he has in mind, but here are some reasonable guesses:

His Death

Perhaps Paul had in mind Isaiah 53:5-9, which says, in part,

5But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities…and by his wounds we are healed. 6We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. 7 For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was stricken. 9He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.

His Resurrection

Again, we can't be sure, but maybe Paul has in mind Psalm 16:10:

…You will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One [a title of the Messiah] see decay.

There are other Old Testament hints we could follow…in Hosea and back in Isaiah, in the Psalms and even in Jonah. But the main point is this: those writings, penned centuries before the time of Jesus, gave clues as to the coming events of His death, burial and resurrection.

But there's another line of evidence for His resurrection: the eyewitnesses.

• And there were plenty of witnesses!

We have Peter, the 12, more than 500, James (Jesus' brother) and finally Paul himself.

If there had been only one witness to the risen Jesus, that witness would be suspect. If there were only one document claiming His resurrection, that document would not be credible. What we have with the resurrection of Jesus is a multitude of early witnesses, both individuals and the documents recording their experiences.

And as Paul points out here, in addition to individuals seeing the risen Jesus-people like Peter, James and Paul himself…in addition to the inner circle of the 12…there was one occasion when 500 people saw Him. 500!

When was this? Well, the best guess is that it occurred in Galilee. Jesus had told them to meet Him at "a certain mountain" in Galilee. That could have been Mt. Tabor, not far from Nazareth, or maybe Mt. Meron, northwest of Capernaum. Or maybe it was just the slopes above the Sea of Galilee, just above Capernaum-the same place where Jesus had given His Sermon on the Mount. In any event, says Paul, there were 500 people there. 500! Five hundred witnesses, which he says, as of 52 AD, "most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep [died]." Go ask them, he seems to be saying. If you have any doubts, go to Galilee and ask one of this multitude. They saw Him; they heard Him; they knew Him before, they are not fools and could not be fooled. Jesus, once dead, returned from death full of life.

Oxford Scholar Thomas Arnold comments, "I know of no one fact in the history of mankind which is better proved by fuller evidence than the great sign that God has given us that Christ died and rose again from the dead."

Another Brit, Sir Edward Clarke, an attorney, wrote,

As a lawyer I have made a prolonged study of the evidences for the events of the first Easter day. For me, the evidence is conclusive, and over and over again in the high court I have secured the verdict on evidence not nearly so compelling.

I am one hardheaded guy. Years ago, I wanted evidence to believe in the whole God thing. A friend obliged, and I had more evidence than I knew what to do with. It was sitting there in my lap, just as compelling as 500 witnesses to the risen Lord. I had a moment-maybe three minutes-that I asked myself what I'd do with all this compelling evidence. I was tempted to chuck it. I knew that if I accepted the evidence as true, it would totally change my life. I would no longer be the center. I would have to hang out with those church-types. God would be my boss. I wasn't sure it was what I wanted.

But being hardheaded, I gulped and realized that I had to surrender. Jesus had won. The evidence was overwhelming. I couldn't measure truth based on my personal convenience. I was in. And that day, May 12, 1971, was the beginning of a new life for me.

And I have a satisfied heart. And a satisfied soul. And yes, a satisfied mind. I would not trade knowing this living Jesus for all the gold at Fort Knox.

500 witnesses? More than 500! I have more than 500 witnesses in my own life.

And down the centuries this Jesus has proven Himself to be real not just for 500, or 5000 or even 5 million. It is estimated that over 3 billion people, today and down the years have found in Him their answer and their peace. The risen Jesus still rises among us, and He walks among us. You will find Him at the ICU bringing an aged child of His home. You will find Him bringing courage to a teenager at Columbine and an accountant on Flight 93. You will find Him in the faithfulness of a priest giving last rites to a fallen firefighter in New York just as the debris buries him as well.

You will find Him at the retreat on the mountaintop or by the river, enfolding new sheep into His fold. You will find Him in the kindergarten and the preschool as He opens the eyes of a little girl to the wonders of knowing the Good Shepherd. You will find Him at the wedding and the funeral; at the moments of sudden changes in life and at the times when all seems to be constant.

You will find Him in a hundred lands. He speaks Mandarin and Malay; Urdu and French; Swahili and Swedish. He is not dead; when He rose from the dead, it was to ever live. He is seated at the right hand of His Father, and yet is among us as well. You will find Him in the slums of Manila and Rio and as well in Monaco and Malibu. He is in the jungles of Guatemala and in the business suites in the Sears tower. As we speak, millions pray in His name, and their prayers are heard and answered.

So it is no surprise to me that His tomb is empty. 500 witnesses? So many more! I am a witness! While I was not there, and did not see with my eyes, I have seen with my heart and my life and yes my mind. And from the core of my being this I know:

HE IS RISEN.
HE IS ALIVE.
HE IS AMONG US.
HE IS LORD! JESUS CHRIST IS LORD!

© Copyright 2002, Pastor Glenn Layne, www.templecitybaptist.org