Remember these are only notes so do not expect full sentences, perfect grammar or even perfect spelling! (Remember too that British spelling is not the same as American spelling!)


1 Cor15:3-4  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.

First importance.
Foundation of Christian faith.

If foundation is insecure, then the whole building collapses.
May seem at first difficult to believe - Christ rose from the dead.
Did God once really do such a thing?

Teaching of the N.T:
Christ died in the weakness of our humanity - body like ours - subject to tiredness and temptation and death.

He rose in power and glory - never to die again.
Not mere miraculous resuscitation of a corpse.

Died and his life blood poured out for us, raised in the power of the Spirit, so that he might pour out upon us the Holy Spirit of love and  grace.

Died bearing the judgenent we deserve and rose again so that we might share in his righteousness.

In Paul's words:
Sown in dishonour, raised in glory.
Sown a physical body, raised a Spiritual body
- a body whose life giving power was the Spirit of God.

Resurrection of Jesus was the  beginning of a new creation - raised in the Spirit.

Can we really believe that?
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In the beginning the Spirit breathed life into the world.
We see life all around us - grass, flowers, trees, fish, birds, insects, animals and human beings.

There has not always been life.
Once there was just bare rock and sea
- no-one doubts that.

Also the Bible says: earth was without form and void - none of the beautiful intricacies of life.
Raging storms over lifeless and fishless oceans.

How did life get started?
Greatest mystery of science.

If once God brought life out of dead matter, why should we be surprised if he should raise the dead?
How did he bring life to being at first?
Bible: Spirit of God moved over the face of the waters.
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What would happen if mankind went wrong and pushed the Spirit of God out of the life of the world?

• World would return to chaos, destruction and death.
• We see that process throughout history.
• We try to better ourselves, and we do partly succeed.
• But wars and suffering get more terrible.
• Inevitable result of man's decision to rule his own life without any reference to the ways of God.

We see it in our own lives.

We may try to make ourselves better

•     - and we may succeed to a certain extent
•     - but selfishness and fear soon come back to us.

Hopeless?
Paul describes the condition of this world in which we have all had our share by saying:
Ep 2:1 as for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins,

And then:
4 but because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions-- it is by grace you have been saved.

The greatness of God - which will be seen one day by all creation
    - is not just that he is all powerful (everyone in the world already knows that, because he created the universe)
    but that he loves us with such a great love as to humble himself for our sake and suffer that which we deserve.

A great man is not the man who is very rich or very powerful,
    but the man who at great cost to himself cares for others.

So too the greatness of God is seen supremely in the cross of Jesus.

Of course the glory of God is seen in the amazing universe.
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John Polkinghorne - past President of Queen's College Cambridge - famous scientist - in conversation with me - discussing the amazing structure of universe, said: 'the real wonder is greater than that - it is the gospel of Christ where he died for our sins'.

It is there, that the glory of God is fully revealed.
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Jesus was raised in the Spirit - that same Spirit who brought life to the world in the beginning.

We must participate by opening our lives now.

• Except a man  be born of water and the Spirit.....
• You must open your life to that which water baptism signifies - that is what
• It is to be born of the Spirit.

If any man be in Christ he is a new creation... Ie has his part in God's great purposes.
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Yet in the Corinthian church there were those who denied that Jesus rose bodily.

So Paul has to stress the foundation.

If Christ is not raised - 3 things follow:

1Cor15:14 if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.
1. Our preaching is in vain - waste of time. I am waisting my life doing what I do.
Message:
All that is `in vain' - if Christ did not rise - message is in vain - simply not true.
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2. If Christ is not raised then our faith is vain.

3.    1Cor15:15 more than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised.
If Christ is not raised then Peter, James and John were liers.

Important.
No sensible person even if they are atheists doubts that Peter, James and John actually existed and preached the Resurrection of Jesus.

They were not talking about something that had happened long ago.
They were not  dreamers and mystics who were trying to make a new religion.
Ordinary men who were proclaiming something that they had just witnessed with their own eyes.
1 John 1:1 that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched-- this we proclaim concerning the word of life.

Telling truth or lying?

All prepared to die for what they proclaimed.

Do we really believe they would have been prepared to die for something that they knew to be untrue?
    - had not seen, touched, or heard.

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Yet to believe in the resurrection does not mean we will fully understand it.

Read stories of Jesus meeting the disciples - mystery.
Why this mystery?
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2 chapters earlier.
1 Cor13. Paul says that when we look forward we see in a glass darkly.

We cannot fully grasp the resurrection of Jesus because it points forward to that great day when heaven and earth are re-united.

Spirit and body, God and man are brought back together.

1 Cor13:9-12  9 for we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. 11 when I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. 12 now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
Vs 9. Know in part now.

But in heaven we will see things that go beyond our human languages.

Foretaste of heaven in seen in the risen Jesus - in this world - but not controled by this world.
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Now many would like to believe but find it difficult.

Two disciples walking on the road to Emmaus.
Many today - heard that Christ is risen but still living in fear of the things of this world letting them down.

The two disciples invited him in.
Took bread.
Nail prints?

Recognised him.
Filled with joy.
Didn't our hearts burn within us as he explained in all the Scriptures as to how it was necessary for the Christ first to suffer and then enter glory?
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We too need to invite the Lord into our lives.
Open our hearts and Bible, then Spirit can do his work.

Rev 3:20 here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.