Well… I think I’ve covered enough ground in this letter… I think it’s time to remind you of what’s most important… to remind you why any of this letter I wrote even matters… I need to go back to that very first message I shared with you… back when I arrived in Corinth all those years ago… I need to go back to the most important thing I ever preached to you during that year and a half I was with you… the most important thing I could’ve shared with you… the most important thing I could share with anyone… that good new of God’s grace through the risen Christ.
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.
I’m sure you remember how I first came to you… as I said at the start of this letter…
I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom… instead… I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified (1 Corinthians 2:1-2). This good news about Jesus and his death in our place was what you needed to know above all else. But not just his death… as you well know… a Savior who dies and stays dead is no Savior at all…
Do you remember how Sabbath after Sabbath when I first arrived in your city – I went to the synagogue… and I told the gospel of Jesus… the good news that Jesus was the Christ that the Jews had been waiting for… the promised Savior that God had spoken of for centuries… and remember how after Silas and Timothy came it wasn’t just on Saturdays, but everyday… I spent all my time sharing this good news about Christ… and yeah… after a while most of the Jews were sick of hearing me preach… but that’s when I met most of you… Did you know that when I was at the end of my rope Jesus came to me and told me: Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent. For I am with you… (Acts 18:9-10).
And so I did… and by God’s grace that good news of a crucified and risen Savior reached your ears… and then your hearts… and I know how it took ahold of you… I saw it… I know how this gospel changed you… changed your life – became your life… in this good news you lived and took your stand against the world…
By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.
My great prayer for you is that you never let go of this good news I preached to you… that you never give in to the pull you feel from your former way of life… the pull you feel from the people you live with… the pull you feel to slip back into darkness. I know that pull. I fight it every day too. But if you give in… if you let this good news slip through your fingers and start believing in something else to save you… well… then all of this was for nothing… Remember?!
For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.
Don’t you remember how insistent I was about this? This was not some myth like the countless tales you heard of the gods when you were a child… the story of Jesus was real. And it was rooted in a historical record that you can still read today. I showed you the promises God had recorded in his Word… that first one in Genesis where God told Satan: I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel (Genesis 3:15)
Or in the Psalms where we see this promise point ahead to what we witnessed at the cross: They have pierced my hands and my feet… they divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing… My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? (Psalm 22)
Or maybe best of all you remember the words written by Isaiah… He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities… he was led like a lamb to the slaughter… for the transgression of my people he was stricken. And remember, Isaiah even wrote about his burial saying: He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death. (Isaiah 53)
But it wasn’t just his death and burial that the Scriptures foretold. Isaiah also wrote that: though the LORD makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days. (Isaiah 53). And again in the Psalms we hear King David add this word of prophecy: You will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay (Psalm 16).
It was just as Jesus had said it would be. He would die… but like Jonah in the fish, his time in the grave would be short… three short days and he would return to life never to die again! And you know it’s true! Not only did God promise it would happen long ago… it happened. And there are hundreds of people who saw him alive. Remember?!
He appeared to Peter, and then to the twelve – these were the same guys that were hiding in fear after Jesus death, and now look at them… they are willing to die for Jesus… you don’t die for lie you made up and know to be false… you know the only thing that could have given them that kind of courage was a living Lord. And it wasn’t just the twelve…
After 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. Go and ask around… Most of these guys are still alive. This wasn’t done off in a corner somewhere. Jesus showed himself to hundreds of believers at the same time… and if that wouldn’t convince you remember who else he appeared to:
Then he appeared to James… Yes even James, Jesus’ own brother… his brother who had been a skeptic all along… who refused to believe what Jesus said about himself… and now look at him… look at what seeing his brother – his Savior – risen from death… look at what it’s done in his life. Now James is one of the key leaders of this new Christian church.
Yes Jesus appeared to James… and then to all the apostles, all those Jesus had sent out to preach the good news… and then… well… last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born… 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.
If you really want proof that Jesus rose from the dead… look no further. I was his worst enemy… I hated Jesus… I was glad he had died… and I wanted nothing more than to destroy those fools who claimed to have seen him alive… I would’ve liked nothing better than to watch them die like he did… in fact… to my great shame… I did just that… I stood there giving my approval as Christ’s faithful followers were murdered… and I planned to do it again and again… in fact I was on my way to arrest a group of Christians when Jesus stepped in and changed everything.
I saw the risen Lord. I saw him as my Lord… and while he should’ve left me in darkness and condemned me forever for what I’d done… he did the unimaginable… he saved even me… and by the grace of God I am what I am… I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man… I was the worst of sinners… but… I was shown mercy so that in me… Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life (1 Timothy 1:13, 16).
And yeah, I’m talking about you… all of you. I know I’m not worthy to be called an apostle of Christ, much less even a Christian… but you know your own hearts as well as I know mine… you know the times you’ve crawled back into darkness and indulged your sinful nature… you know the immorality that continues to plague some of you… you know the bitterness and jealousy and envy that ruins your families and threatens this church… you know what you were… and what it’s so tempting to still be… as I said earlier in this letter this is what you were… sexually immoral… idolaters… adulterers… homosexuals… thieves… greedy… drunkards… slanderers… swindlers… you know the sin that used to be your identity…
But by the grace of God you are what you are now… by the grace of God I tell you that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God (1 Corinthians 6:9-11). By the undeserved, unearned, free gift of God’s love you are free from the sins that enslaved you and defined you. And even as you battle and stumble in the fight against those sins… you are forgiven… because you are a new creation. Holy in God’s eyes because of Jesus’ death. And free from the fear of your own death because of Jesus’ resurrection.
Yes by God’s grace you are what you are… and by God’s grace 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. You know that seeing our risen Savior Jesus changed me… you know that his good news of forgiveness… even for me… it changed me… from an enemy of the cross into a soldier in Christ’s army. But I take no credit… for even my labors were the result of God’s grace living in me… just as it lives in you… because you have the same living Savior I do.
And because you have a living Savior… a risen Savior who promised to defeat death and who delivered on that promise… well… you know that he’s gonna deliver on every other promise he’s ever made. He’s gonna forgive you no matter how often you mess up. He’s gonna welcome you to his house of worship no matter how long you’ve been away. He’s gonna feed you with his Word not just today but next week… and the week after that… and as often as you come to his Word. And he’s going to change your life.
No longer will your life be marked by shallow pursuits and sinful distractions… no longer will you live your life in the fear of God’s wrath or the fear of death… your life is changed… changed forever into a life that will last forever… a life that even the grave cannot hold forever… because Jesus promised that too… remember?!
Jesus said: I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies (John 11:25). He said: Because I live… you also will live (John 14:19).
And this promise… like all of his promises… it isn’t for you alone… This good news means you and every person you’ve ever known who died knowing Jesus… well… they will rise to life just like he did… just like you will… because you have a Savior who died for your sins and rose again from death forever.
Hold on to this good news… remember it as the most important thing in your life… and for your life… and Whether, then, it was I or they, – me, or some other Christian pastor or teacher – this is what we preach, and this is what you believed: the good news of God’s grace through the risen Christ! Amen.