The Life of Christ in the Synoptic Gospels
APPEARANCE OF THE RISEN LORD
The Life of Christ in the Synoptic Gospels
APPEARANCE OF THE RISEN LORD
Lesson Plan:
1. Why Christ Died (vs 1-3)
2. The Certainty of Christ’s Resurrection (v 4)
3. Witnesses to the Resurrection (vs 5-8)
4. Results of the Resurrection (vs 9-11)
5. Christ in Our Lives
Lesson Setting:
Time: Paul wrote the first letter to the Corinthians, A.D. 56 or 57
Place: Paul wrote from Ephesus, being moved to write by learning about misconduct in the
Corinthian church
Inductive Study of the Lesson (Acts 2:32):
a. Read our lesson, together with the Gospel accounts of the appearances of the risen Lord, at the
close of each Gospel; also Acts 1:1-9.
b. Regarding the end of 1 Corinthians 15:1, “wherein ye stand,” see also Romans 5:2; 2
Corinthians 1:24; Ephesians 6:11, 13, 14.
c. Regarding 1 Corinthians 15:2, compare Matthew 1:21.
d. Regarding Christ’s dying for our sins, see Matthew 20:28; Romans 3:23-26; 5:8-10; 2
Corinthians 5:14, 15; Galatians 3:10-14; 1 Timothy 2:6; 1 Peter 1:18, 19, etc.
e. Regarding Old Testament prophecies of Christ’s death and resurrection see Genesis 22; Psalm
16:10; Isaiah 53; Hosea 6:2; Jonah 2:10; Zechariah 12:10; and compare these with Matthew
12:40; Luke 22:37; 24:26, 27.
f. Compare with this passage other passages in which Paul insists on the resurrection of Christ:
Romans 4:25; 6:8; 8:11; 2 Corinthians 5:10; Ephesians 1:19, 20; 1 Thessalonians 4:14.
g. For the occasions when Paul saw Christ, see Acts 9:3-17; 22:14-18; 18:9; 2 Corinthians 12:1-4
h. Compare 1 Corinthians 15:9 with Ephesians 3:8; 1 Timothy 1:12-16.
The Certainty of Christ’s Resurrection and Therefore Ours: Introduction – What is Easter? It is the annual Christian commemoration of our Lord’s rising from the dead. The word is from Easter, the Anglo-Saxon goddess of light or spring in whose honor a festival was held in April. Is Easter important? Actually, the resurrection of Christ is, as the apostles considered it, the very foundation of Christianity. If our Lord rose from the dead, there can be no doubt that He accomplished all the lesser miracles reported in the Gospels; and if He accomplished those miracles He was undoubtedly divine. We should center and focus our thinking about the Lord’s death, burial and resurrection every Sunday of every week of every year, not just one Sunday a year, called ‘Easter.’ Yet, we can rejoice and be thankful that at least once a year a few unfaithful as well as unbelieving souls feel the need to pay respect to and honor the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In this regard, perhaps we should look positively upon Easter as an opportunity to preach and teach the Gospel of Christ. Why was 1 Corinthians 15 written? There does not appear to be any connection between this and the preceding chapters. Some members of the Corinthian church had denied the resurrection of the dead (1 Cor. 15:12). It is to be noted that even these skeptics did not deny that Christ rose from the dead, but they did not believe that they themselves were to rise from the dead. It should also be noted that even this disbelief, regarding such an important matter did not shut them out of the church. But Paul could not end his letter without treating this vital theme; and therefore, after reviewing, in the verses we are now studying, the historical evidence for Christ’s resurrection (evidence which they all admitted), he proves that the resurrection of all believers is involved in that of their Lord. Special Value of This Chapter: There is no other passage of the New Testament which treats the resurrection with such force and fullness. Perhaps it was the first written account of the resurrection of Christ. This chapter (1 Cor. 15) is one of the deepest and most mysterious in the Bible. It is a passage not only of argumentative force and inspiring hopefulness, but of chaste eloquence and simple literary beauty.
Scripture Reading: 1 Corinthians 15:1-3
1. Why Christ Died
What Does the Word “Gospel” Mean? – It comes from the Anglo-Saxon God-spel or ‘God-story,’ and was originally good-spel, translating the Greek word which is the same as our ‘evangel.’ “Gospel” is therefore ‘good news’ about God. What Was Paul’s “Gospel?”
The Good News That “Christ died for our sins” (v 3) and “rose again” (v 4) from the dead. The first is man’s only hope of salvation, and the second is the proof of Christ and therefore the confirmation of that hope. All of Paul’s sermons were enlargements of this text. Paul had only one sermon. Four Steps In the Process of Giving and Receiving This Gospel: (a) Preaching (v 1). The Good News must be proclaimed; men will never discover it for themselves. (b) Receiving (v 1). The seed sown must be taken into the good soil of honest hearts before it can spring up in saved lives. (c) Standing fast (v 1). The Gospel received must be tested by experience, practical use, trial and temptation, before it is thoroughly a part of our lives, just as the growing seed must be exposed to the winds, rains and heats. (d) Being saved (v 2). This is the permanent condition of the obedient believer, but it is subject to the proviso,
v 2 ... “unless ye have believed in vain,” that is carelessly, hastily. The faith that lasts must be a well-grounded faith, just as the seed that lasts must be a well-grounded seed. What Was the Foundation of Paul’s Gospel, His ‘Good News?’
This Gospel was not original with Paul, but something he had “received” (v 3), from Christ’s immediate followers, who had received it from Christ Himself. Therefore it was not Paul’s invention or delusion. And in Paul’s preaching it was “first of all [first in the order of time and importance. The first item of his preaching was] that Christ [had] died” (v 3), (a) for our sins, to atone for them, (b) according to the Scriptures, fulfilling such prophecies as that in Isaiah 53.
Atonement: The central foundation of our faith. Atonement means ‘at-one-ment.’ Man’s sins inevitably separate him from God. God, with all His love, must be offended by wrong-doing. God all mercy is God unjust. When God, in Christ, entered the world, suffered all our human temptations, conquered them all, and was at last slain by human sin, He showed in the plainest possible way both God’s absolute hostility to sin and His entire eagerness to help men out of sin and into His forgiving love. Atonement is the fact that Christ’s death is constantly drawing men to God and making them ‘at one’ again, even as Christ said it would (Jn. 12:32).
Scripture Reading: 1 Corinthians 15:4
2. The Certainty of Christ’s Resurrection
What is the second item in Paul’s gospel, his ‘good news?’ – That Christ, After Burial, Rose Again “the third day according to the scriptures” (v 4) [For the spiritual prophecies of Christ’s resurrection consider ‘e.’ under Inductive Study]. How can we answer the Jewish assertion (Matt. 28:11-15) that the disciples stole Christ’s body while the guard slept, thus creating the mere appearance of a resurrection? It would have been death for any Roman guard to sleep at his post: The character of the apostles (James, John, Peter, and the rest) absolutely forbids the idea of such a trick. Think what they suffered for their faith in their risen Lord.
How can we answer the theory that Christ did not die on the cross but only fainted, and was put into the grave alive? – The coming of blood mixed with water from the spear-wound in His side indicates, as physicians say, a ruptured heart. And if such a theory is true, what became of Christ? If He lived, it must have been in hiding, carrying on an acted lie that would have been impossible for Him. What disciple would have suffered martyrdom for such a deception?
How can we answer the theory that Christ’s enemies stole His body? – They would have brought it forward as soon as His resurrection began to be talked about, and thus have nipped Christianity in the bud. How Could the People of Corinth Have Tested Paul’s Statement about the Resurrection? It was made only twenty-five years after the event. There were plenty of witnesses still alive who could be interrogated about what they themselves has seen and heard. Jerusalem was by no means difficult to access from Corinth, and abundant opportunity existed for disproving the assertions of the apostle if such disproof were possible.
How Do the Gospel Accounts of the Resurrection, Written Later than Paul’s Letter, Confirm His Statements? – Two of them, Matthew and John’s, were written by eye-witnesses. Mark’s was virtually dictated by Peter, another eye-witness. Luke had an abundant opportunity to get information from eye-witnesses, and he has been proved to be an entirely trustworthy historian by his Acts. The few little points in which these four narratives disagree prove that they were written honestly and independently, and are no more than we might expect in accounts of such troubled times. The Gospel accounts, brief and simple as they are, are packed full of graphic and natural touches that proclaim eye-witnesses, such as the honor of Christ’s first appearance being given to a woman, in that age when so little was thought of women, whereas a false narrator might certainly have made Christ appear first to John or Peter or the Sanhedrin; such as John’s outrunning Peter to the tomb, but hesitating there in awe while the more impulsive disciple rushes in first after all; such as the breaking of bread at Emmaus, the episode of Thomas’ doubt, Peter’s swimming to the shore to meet his Lord at the lake, John’s following after Christ as He walks away with Peter. By all the tests of an honest narrative the Gospel accounts of the resurrection are true history.
Scripture Reading: 1 Corinthians 15:5-8
3. Witness to the Resurrection
But Paul could do better than to point to written testimony; there were many living witnesses of the resurrection, whom he names with a rapidity which shows that the Corinthians knew about them already and needed only to be reminded. How Many Separate Appearances of the Risen Lord Does Paul Name? Six or perhaps seven: (a) “He was seen of Cephas” [Peter] (v 5). We have no detailed account of this interview, which is only mentioned in Luke 24:34. Doubtless what took place between the Savior and the repentant apostle was too sacred for Peter to tell even Mark for the latter’s Gospel. (b) “Then of the twelve” (v 5). The twelve was the formal name of the apostles, without regard to number. This refers to the two appearances in the upper room at Jerusalem, first to the ten apostles (Thomas being absent, and also, of course, Judas Iscariot), and then a week later to the eleven apostles, Thomas being present. (c) “Above five hundred brethren at once” (v 6). This was the general gathering of Christ’s disciples in Galilee, not described in the Gospels, but appointed by Christ in Matthew 28:7, 10; Mark 16:7. The appearance to the eleven described in Matthew 28:16-20 is recorded as the sequel to this summons, and implies the presence of a larger assembly. Some of these five hundred were dead, for Paul was writing a quarter of a century after the event; but most of them were still alive (v 6), showing that probably the majority of Christ’s disciples were young, a significant thought to consider. (d) “After that, he was seen of James” (v 7). This was not James the apostle who became the first martyr, but James our Lord’s brother who after the death of the other James became an outstanding leader in the Jerusalem church of God. This interview with the risen Lord, mentioned only here, was probably what finally convinced James that Jesus was actually the Messiah, for he had been among the unbelievers (Jn. 7:5). (e) “Then of all the apostles” (v 7). This was the final appearance and ascension from the Mount of Olives. (f) “And last of all [implying a long series – Paul could have named other appearances] he was seen of me also [on the Damascus road at the time of his conversion], as of one born out of due time” (v 8), one untimely born. Paul’s thought is this: when Christ appeared to the other apostles, they were living and growing in His kingdom; but Christ took him when he was altogether lifeless and unformed, and breathed into him the breath of life.
What Appearances, Recorded in the Gospels, Does Paul Omit? – Those to Mary Magdalene, the two of Emmaus, and the seven disciples by the Sea of Galilee. How may we be sure that these all actually saw Christ, and did not merely imagine that they saw Him? They were not expecting to see Him, but were surprised and incredulous. They would not have recorded their doubt, such as that of Thomas, and of the two of Emmaus, and of all the apostles (Lk. 24:11) if it had not been real, for it was not at all to their credit. There was no time to work themselves up to the state of ecstasy that sees visions, for Christ rose on the third day. They could not have been hypnotized into such a belief, for at one time the risen Christ was seen by more than five hundred at once. It is impossible to explain away so many and so varied appearances. Moreover, they were many at first but grew less during the forty days and finally ceased abruptly at the ascension. If the appearances had been imaginary they would have increased in number and complexity with the growth of imagination and the passage of time. Indeed, it may be said with all confidence that there is not in all history a fact that is more strongly proved than his most important of all facts – the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Scripture Reading: 1 Corinthians 15:9-11
4. Results of the Resurrection
Paul saves for the last the most convincing proof of the resurrection that he personally could give, though with modesty he only hints at it. It was the resurrection that transformed him from a persecutor into an apostle.
What change did Christ’s resurrection work in all the apostles? – Before the resurrection, according to their own accounts, they were all timid and distrustful. At the arrest they all forsook Jesus. Peter denied Him. After the resurrection they preached Christ so boldly that three thousand converts were won in a day. From that time “Jesus and the resurrection” (Acts 17:18) became the glad basis of apostolic testimony. The apostles had everything at stake, and they possessed abundant means of investigation. We know that such keen and able men as John, Matthew, Peter, James, and Thomas would not have allowed anything but a well-proved fact thus to transform their lives.
Why Is This Transformation Especially Convincing In the Case of Paul? – Because he possessed the most powerful and lawyerlike mind of them all, and because he had so bitterly persecuted the church of God. Paul never forgot the misery he had wrought in haling men and women to prison (Acts 8:3) , carrying them in chains even from distant cities to Jerusalem (Acts 9:2), dividing families, causing tortures and probably many deaths. His evil past made him ‘less than the least of all the saints.’
Yet Out of All This What Did Paul Become Through the Power of the Resurrection? – “I labored more abundantly than they all” (v 10), he truly declares, though at once he qualifies the seeming boast by ascribing all his achievements to “the grace of God.” The work of an apostle of the Gentiles must necessarily have been more arduous than that of an apostle of the Jews. Read Paul’s summary of his sufferings and perils in 2 Corinthians 11:23-28, the hazardous journeys, the shipwrecks, the poverty, the stoning, imprisonments, beatings, sicknesses, and judge whether a man of his shrewd intellect would have endured all this for the sake of an unreality.
How Does Paul Sum Up His Argument? – “Whether it were I or they [that deserve the palm of supremacy in labors and sufferings], so we preach, and so ye believed” (v 11). On many points the apostles and their followers differed strongly, for they were men of convictions and of original thinking, and sects began almost as soon as Christianity began. Yet, even today many modern religious sects and even many unbelievers accept the great fundamental Christian teaching of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Paul would not have ventured to make that assertion in the face of men whom he knew to be eager to pick holes in anything he said, unless he had been perfectly sure of his ground.
5. Christ in Our Lives
Some acknowledge all these proofs of the resurrection of Christ, but do not see the connection with our lives. “Christ was divine,” some say, “and we are human. How can one argue from one to the other?” How Is That Question To Be Answered? (a) It was to answer just such questions that Christ’s favorite name for Himself was “the Son of Man.” Though He was perfect God, he was also perfect man. He was as human as you or I, suffering our temptations and sorrows and needs, and exposed to death just as we are. (b) Christ exercised His divine powers for others but never for Himself, though to do the latter was a temptation at the start, and in Gethsemane, and all the way between. It was not true that “He saved others; Himself He could not save;” but it was His glory that, though He saved others by working miracles, He did not use His exceptional powers to save Himself. It was as typical man, therefore, that He rose from the dead. (c) At the same time He is, as He Himself declared, “the resurrection and the life.” Because He lives, we shall live also (Jn. 14:19). He has given us the assurance that our resurrection is involved in His, and that He will raise us from our deaths (Jn. 6:39, 40). By His own resurrection He proved His right to make such a promise and His power to keep it. Therefore What Is the Christian View of Death? That it is only passing through a closed door into the next room of our Father’s house.
Illustration: On a tombstone near Dublin, Ireland has been placed a beautiful description of a grave: “The inn of a traveler on his way to Jerusalem.”
Illustration: While in the Alps, a hunter on the Mer de Glace fell into a deep crevasse in the ice, and crept along under the immense mass for a long distance, following a stream till he came to a barrier beneath which the water plunged. He had no choice but to fling himself into the swift, cold current and let it carry him wherever it would. There was darkness for a minute, and then he found himself born into the free air and the lovely sunshine of the vale of Chamouni. This is somewhat of a parable of the Christian’s death.
The Sunday Spirit: What, therefore, is the ‘Sunday spirit’ that we should put into our lives every day? The life of a true Christian is continually full of Sundays. The partial and imperfect and temporary are always being taken away from us and buried, that the perfect and eternal may rise out of their tombs to bless us. It is thus that all our sorrow and failures and losses and misfortunes are transformed. Every first day of the week, Sunday, says to us, “Set your affections on things above. Lay up your treasure there.” The ‘Sunday spirit’ is one of confidence in the future, and perfect peace in the present.
