QT 19 Jul 2010

1 Cor 15:1-8 (NIV) 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. 2 By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.

3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. 6 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. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, 8 and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.

NOTE: The interjection here seems to be different from the others, I need to check that later. I'm not sure this was in the letter from the Corinthians that he is addressing, or he is just changing subjects from his long discussion on the gifts of the spirit, maturity, and worship. The subject of the discourse shows up later in the section -- that some people doubted the resurrection -- I suppose they would be Christian Sadducees. Paul boils the gospel down into a nutshell; Christ died for our sins, was buried, and rose from the day, all in accordance with scriptures. And he appeared to multiple people after his resurrection from the dead. He actually appeared to one of the women first, then to Peter. And the angel spoke to the other women as well, but Paul primarily focuses on the men, which culturally makes the argument less debatable. At the end of the list is Paul. He is a witness of the fact of the resurrection. Later, he will talk about some of the dangers he has faced taking the message to others, and makes it very clear, that if it there is no resurrection, he would have been wasting his time. In fact, he says he would be worse than a fool. The message of the gospel is clear, Jesus died for my sins, and he rose from the dead, and my hope is in my resurrection of the dead as a result of what Jesus did for me.