THE HEART OF WORSHIP
Opening Prayer
I praise You, God, for Your mighty power today.
Read 1 Corinthians 15:1–11
The Resurrection of Christ
15 Now, brothers and sisters, 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 Cephas, and then to the Twelve. 6 After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters 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.
9 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. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. 11 Whether, then, it is I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed.
New International Version (NIV)
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
Recall the time when you first found the Good News of Jesus convincing. Expect to have your faith strengthened.Just before Easter 2017 the BBC published a survey claiming that 50 percent of the population did not believe in Jesus’ resurrection. We all know such people. There is nothing new about that. In addition to their other problems, the church in Corinth had to deal with some who were doubting the same thing. This is not right, says Paul. Jesus died for our sins, was buried and physically rose from the dead. Take anything out and there is nothing left. That is as true now as it was then. What we believe matters. Paul gets this from the Scriptures; in his case the Old Testament, but for us the whole Bible: our authority.
The resurrection of Jesus is not fiction, not an idea dreamed up by the early disciples. There were plenty of eyewitnesses, many of whom were still alive. None of them were expecting it, so it’s hardly wish fulfillment on their part. They all believed that Jesus had died and were massively surprised when he rose. They were not primitive, superstitious people; they knew as well as we do that dead people don’t come back to life. But this was different, a one-off event where God did something totally new. There is good solid historical evidence for the resurrection. We can confidently believe that it happened.
Apply
Do some of your own research for historical evidence for the resurrection of Jesus. You can even check out the NUA film series on our website for further information: www.scriptureunion.org.
Closing prayer
Pray for a renewed confidence in the resurrection of Jesus and the ability to speak persuasively about it.
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