“The Power of the Empty Tomb” (Part Three)

This week, in the aftermath of Easter celebrations, we are looking at a great resurrection text—1 Corinthians 15:1-4. To this point, we have examined the power, history and doctrines of the Gospel. Today, we end with…

The Authority of the Gospel (vv.3-4)

“According to the Scriptures”

The authority of the gospel message is that it is rooted in the Scriptures. Not only is it history and theology, it is also the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy as well…

• Christ’s Death is predicted in Psalm 22, Isaiah 53, Lev.16 (in the pictures of atonement)
• Christ’s Resurrection is predicted in Psalm 16:10 (“For You will not abandon my soul to Sheol; Nor will You allow Your Holy One to undergo decay.”)

The Old Testament prepared the way for the resurrection and showed its necessity. Why is it so important? Because we are dead in trespasses in sins (Eph.2). We don’t simply need forgiveness, we need to be raised from the dead. It’s the life-giving power seen:

• in the passion of Christ,
• in Jonah’s deliverance form the belly of the fish,
• in Aaron’s rod that budded.

All point to the fact that dead people need life. The authority of the Gospel is that it is God’s declared—and only—solution to that problem.

Without the resurrection, there is no salvation, no messiah, no gospel, no life. D. A. Major wrote:

Had the crucifixion of Jesus ended His disciples’ experience of Him, it is hard to see how the Christian church could have come into existence. The church was founded on faith in the messiahship of Jesus. A crucified Messiah was no messiah at all. He was one rejected by Judaism and a curse from God. It was the resurrection of Jesus, as Paul declares in Romans 14, which declared Him to be “the Son of God with power.”

Church historian Kenneth Scott Latourette wrote:

It was the conviction of the resurrection of Jesus which lifted his followers out of the despair into which his death had cast them and which led to the perpetuation of a movement begun by him. But for their profound belief that the crucified had risen from the dead and that they had seen him and talked with him, the death of Jesus and even Jesus Himself, would probably have been all but forgotten.

For the follower of Christ, today and every day of the year is a celebration the victory of our Lord over death and the grave. That is the power of the gospel. That is the power of an empty tomb.