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Good Monday morning to you my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
My wife and I have just passed the 47 years of marriage mark, and yet I’m sure there are still things about my dear wife that I do not know, especially things in the story of her life before we met. I’m sure it’s true for you and your best friends also. The disciple John concludes his account of the story of Jesus with these words: “Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room enough for the books that would be written.” (John 21:25)
In the days since Easter, we’ve looked at several of the miraculous appearances of the resurrected Jesus, but it’s possible, according to what John wrote, that there were other appearances of which we have no record. Does that trouble you? In fact let’s look today at what the Apostle Paul wrote more than 20 years after Jesus’ resurrection: “…what I received I have passed on to you as of first importance: that Jesus 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, and that He appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that He appeared to more than 500 of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all He appeared to me also…” (1 Corinthians 15:3-8)
Let’s dig into this powerful statement today.
Notice Paul says this is of ‘first importance’. Paul wants his readers, through all time, to prioritize as extremely important, in fact most important, what he states here: The validity of Christianity hinges on the identity of Jesus as God incarnate; the certainty of His death, burial, resurrection; and the reality of His ascension back to heaven where He currently reigns in authority over all and is daily redeeming those who trust in Him fully. Without ANY of those essential pieces of the story of Jesus, He cannot be a Savior for anyone. Watch that friends! Because of those truths He is the ONLY Savior for any and every person who will trust in God’s truth and in Jesus’ completed atonement work. The eternal destiny of every person hinges on these truths, my friends! Oh I hope you can embrace this truth with all your heart, mind and soul! Sadly, most of the people of the world do not believe it, and are on their way to an eternity separated from God.
Did you notice twice Paul uses the phrase “according to the Scriptures”? Why is that important? The Scriptures that Paul refers to here are both the Old and New Testament portions of God’s Word which point us to Jesus. His identity, His coming to earth, His life here, His death, burial, resurrection and even His ascension, are all predicted and explained in ‘the Scriptures’. The Scriptures are God’s Word to humanity and are truthful. Jesus Himself several times stated that what He was doing was so the Scriptures would be fulfilled. (Matt. 26:53,54)
Finally, do you notice the number of specific appearances of the resurrected Jesus which Paul mentions here? I see 6 of them, how many do you see? Let’s see if we can find in the Bible, when and where they happened.
First is: “He appeared to Peter…”. Well we know of at least five times when Peter was among the group when the resurrected Jesus appeared to them: Easter evening (John 20:19), one week later when Thomas was with them (John 20:26). A few weeks later on the shoreline of Lake Galilee (John 21:1-22). Then there are at least two and perhaps three different appearances of Jesus to the disciples in Acts 1:1-11, and we’ll look more closely at those this week.
The way Paul writes it in 1 Corinthians 15:5, it almost sounds as though Jesus made a special, private appearance to Peter and we have no record of that in any of the Gospel accounts. If so, perhaps Peter told Paul about it in the years they got to know each other after Jesus ascended to heaven and Peter & Paul became the two most respected spokesman of the resurrected Jesus, across the Roman Empire.
Did you notice Paul wrote “and then to the Twelve” in vs. 5? That phrase, “the Twelve” is often used by Luke to describe the original 12 disciples whom Jesus personally selected (Luke 6:12-16). However, we know that Judas killed himself early in the morning, after he had betrayed Jesus (Matt. 27:1-5), so that would leave only 11. Most Bible scholars believe Paul used the phrase “the Twelve” to refer to those remaining 11 disciples, simply because that is how they were known by many people, and Luke had used that identifier for the disciples. We know Jesus appeared to His disciples several times as mentioned already today, and we studied them together a few days ago.
Next in 1 Corinthians 15:6 Paul writes: “After that, He appeared to more than 500 of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep.” This one confuses many people, for there is no record, in any of the four accounts of Jesus’ life, that tell of Jesus appearing to such a large group of people. This is why I began today with what John writes at the end of his account of Jesus’ life, when he says Jesus did many other things which are not recorded for us.
Now, it is possible that what we looked at yesterday in Matthew 28:18-20, may be this event. While Matthew tells us the disciples were present, he does not restrict it to ONLY the disciples. We have several records of Jesus speaking to very large crowds of people, on the hillsides overlooking lake Galilee, where we presume Matt. 28:18-20 took place. For instance, Jesus’ famous ‘sermon on the Mount’ in Matthew 5-7, or the time Jesus fed a huge crowd with a little boy’s lunch, (Matt. 14) so it’s not hard for us to imagine that if the disciples, and probably some of the women, had gathered to meet with the resurrected Jesus on the hillside, many other people may have quickly gathered there also.
Paul then writes: “Then He appeared to James…” (1 Corinthians 15:7). Now who is this ‘James’ and when did this happen? We know there were two of the original 12 disciples who had the name ‘James’. One is John’s brother and they were both the sons of Zebedee. (Mark 1:19) The other is named “James the son of Alphaeus” (Luke 6:15). Most Bible scholars believe Paul is not referring to either of these men, since both of them would have been included in the other appearances of the resurrected Jesus, when all the disciples were together. Then who is this James, and why would it be so important that Jesus would appear to him privately?
You remember I’ve mentioned several times that Mary had other children after she bore Jesus, and Mark names them in Mark 6:3, and one of them is ‘James’. None of Mary’s children believed Jesus was who He, or she, claimed Him to be, until after the resurrection. This James, not only changed his attitude and believed Jesus was the Son of God, the Savior of the world, he actually joined with the disciples, and then he became a leader of the followers of Jesus after His ascension.
Paul got to know this James fairly well and they had several meetings together, the most famous of which is recorded in Acts 15 when Paul and Barnabas came to Jerusalem, to meet with the leaders of the Jesus movement, to debate the issue of what criteria were needed for Gentiles to be considered Christians of equal standing with Jewish Christians! On that occasion after Paul had made his defense of the authenticity of Gentile Christians, Acts 15:12,13 says “The whole assembly became silent as they listened to Barnabas and Paul telling about the miraculous signs and wonders God had done among the Gentiles through them. When they finished, James spoke up: ‘Brothers, listen to me…'” That James is the same James Paul refers to as having seen the resurrected Jesus in 1 Corinthians 15:7!
As we see here, this James is so respected by all the Jesus followers, James is the first to speak and the one who issues the final verdict that Gentile believers in Jesus are to be respected as fully redeemed Christians, just as much as Jewish believers in Jesus. One other thing about this James…he is author of the book of the Bible which bears his name, in the New Testament! Thus we see that even though we have no specific record of this appearance of the resurrected Jesus to his ‘1/2 brother’, it was monumental, for we presume it was in this encounter that James came to recognize Jesus as the Son of God, and yielded his life to Jesus as his Savior and his Lord!
Finally, Paul points to his own encounter with the resurrected Jesus when he writes: “…and 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…” (1 Cor. 15:8,9) Do you know where in the Bible you can find the account of this remarkable encounter between Paul and Jesus? YES! That’s right, Acts chapter 9. While we don’t have the exact time we believe it to be fairly soon after Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, perhaps only 2 or 3 years or so after Jesus’ ascension. We’ll look more closely at that event in a few weeks.
That day was life changing for Paul in every way, which is why he refers to himself as an apostle who is ‘abnormally born’. That does not mean that Paul was born with a birth defect or by C-section or something. No Paul is saying that he was brought into the group of the Apostles by the resurrected Jesus Himself, in that unusual Damascus road encounter. And that he, an enemy of the Gospel of Jesus, was born-again by the Holy Spirit of God as he finally trusted in Jesus, the one he had hated, to be his Savior and Lord.
Now in closing it’s important we understand WHY Paul made such a big deal about the resurrection of Jesus, not only here in 1 Corinthians 15, but in all his preaching and his writing. Look at vs 14-19 “And if Jesus Christ has not been raised from the dead, our preaching is useless and so is your faith…and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men!” I invite us to ponder that statement all day today my friends.
It was critical to Paul that he list all these appearances of the resurrected Jesus Christ, because if the resurrection is not true… our faith in Jesus is meaningless and there is no hope of eternity in heaven with God! We’re going to dig more deeply into that truth tomorrow. For today, I urge us all to express our deep gratitude to Jesus, that while He has not appeared to us physically in person, as He did to those Paul mentioned, His resurrection is true and we are grateful that we have so many documented accounts of His encounters with real people like you and me!
Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Click to read today’s chapter: I Corinthians 15. (At the top you can choose a different translation.)
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Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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