1 Corinthians 15:1-58
The Resurrection of the Dead
1Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. 2By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.
3For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. 6After 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. 7Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, 8and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.
9For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10But 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. 11Whether, then, it was I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed.
The Resurrection of the Dead
12But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. 15More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. 16For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. 17And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. 18Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. 19If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.
20But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. 22For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. 23But each in his own turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. 24Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. 25For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26The last enemy to be destroyed is death. 27For he "has put everything under his feet." Now when it says that "everything" has been put under him, it is clear that this does not include God himself, who put everything under Christ. 28When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all.
29Now if there is no resurrection, what will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized for them? 30And as for us, why do we endanger ourselves every hour? 31I die every day—I mean that, brothers—just as surely as I glory over you in Christ Jesus our Lord. 32If I fought wild beasts in Ephesus for merely human reasons, what have I gained? If the dead are not raised,
"Let us eat and drink,
for tomorrow we die." 33Do not be misled: "Bad company corrupts good character." 34Come back to your senses as you ought, and stop sinning; for there are some who are ignorant of God—I say this to your shame.
The Resurrection Body
35But someone may ask, "How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?" 36How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. 37When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. 38But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body. 39All flesh is not the same: Men have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another and fish another. 40There are also heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; but the splendor of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is another. 41The sun has one kind of splendor, the moon another and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendor.
42So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; 43it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power;44it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.
If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. 45So it is written: "The first man Adam became a living being"; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. 46The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. 47The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven. 48As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the man from heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. 49And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven.
50I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— 52in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. 54When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: "Death has been swallowed up in victory."
55"Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?" 56The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
58Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.He has risen...
John 20:1-9
The Empty Tomb
1Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. 2So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don't know where they have put him!"
3So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. 4Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. 6Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, 7as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus' head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen. 8Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. 9(They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.)
Acts 1:1-11
Jesus Taken Up Into Heaven
1In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach 2until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. 3After his suffering, he showed himself to these men and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. 4On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: "Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. 5For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit."
6So when they met together, they asked him, "Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?"
7He said to them: "It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."
9After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.
10They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. 11"Men of Galilee," they said, "why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven."
Acts 4:1-4
Peter and John Before the Sanhedrin
1 The priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to Peter and John while they were speaking to the people. 2 They were greatly disturbed because the apostles were teaching the people, proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead. 3 They seized Peter and John and, because it was evening, they put them in jail until the next day. 4 But many who heard the message believed; so the number of men who believed grew to about five thousand.
John 16:7
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit Connection
7 But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.
Acts 25:19
Paul on Trial Before Festus About Believing in the Resurrection
19 Instead, they had some points of dispute with him about their own religion and about a dead man named Jesus who Paul claimed was alive.
All the New Testament authors believe in the resurrection of our LORD and Savior Jesus Christ...All the authors do not come out in writing and write "Jesus was resurrected from the dead."...But the authors did believe that He did in fact return to life for a period of forty days, after His death...For instance, James the brother of Jesus, also called James the Just, wrote one of the Books of the New Testament...He opens his epistle and New Testament Book writing "James, a servant of God, and of the LORD Jesus Christ...Jude, another brother of Jesus, writes a Book in the New Testament -the Book of Jude...He opens his epistle, "Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James."...Why would two brothers and a brother of Jesus, open their own letters to other believers as servants to Jesus Christ (their own Brother), unless they believed that their Brother had resurrected, and was the Messiah?...It is very hard to fool your brother or brothers over your lifetime since you know them so well and have been with them so much...And you grow up knowing both their talents and their faults...
St. Paul, another author of the New Testament, believes in the resurrection...St. Paul was neither a brother or one of Jesus' Twelve Disciples...In fact, he originally opposed Jesus and His teachings and gave approval to the death of Stephen a follower of Jesus (Acts 8:1)...Yet, Paul writes the most detailed account of the resurrection in the New Testament...Not being with Jesus and not meeting Him (as far as we know), St. Paul would have gotten much of his information on Jesus from the people and disciples that knew Him...He met with St. St. Peter and St. James (whom he calls brother of our LORD (Galatians 1:19))...He would also meet the risen Jesus on the road to Damascus...And St. Paul, believing that Jesus is our Messiah, would have gotten some of His information from the Old Testament, about the Messiah...If you believe all of the things that St. Paul believed about Jesus, that He is our Savior from our sins, and is our way to heaven -then Easter is our most important holiday...
Also, one has to believe in miracles to believe in God and in the resurrection of His Son...In believing in miracles, and how I believe in different miracles, makes (in my opinion) the resurrection of Jesus, the Grand Miracle...If you are one who believes that one miracle is about the same as another miracle, then all miracles are the same...Put another way, if you believe that all miracles are alike and are similar -in the sense that they break the Natural Laws of Nature, then a miracle is a miracle...But if you believe that maybe some miracles are more powerful or dynamic than other miracles, then the resurrection is different...To me, when I reflect on all Jesus' miracles, the Grandest of Miracles, or the Grand Miracle is the resurrection...It is the most important fact in human history...For without the resurrection, life is random...That means, we are all here by mere chance...Man, therefore, has no Holy Spirit...And man then has no soul, or use of a soul...We have no connection to God, because there is no God...How sad...
St. John and St. Peter believe in the resurrection...Mary Magdalene on the first day of the week, and while it was still dark, went to the tomb and saw the stone was removed from the entrance...So she ran to St. Peter and St. John and told them that someone had taken Jesus from His tomb...She thought that someone had stolen the body, and that was probably the reason His body was gone (so she thought)...So St. Peter and St. John run to His tomb...St. John reaches the tomb first...St. John sees that His tomb is empty...Both John and Peter see that the tomb is empty...St. John also sees that there are strips of linen folded (or neatly rolled up and separate from the linen)...Unlike Mary's thinking, St. John did not think Jesus' body was stolen...By seeing the empty tomb, and the strips of linen (that Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus had wrapped Jesus in (John 19:40)) folded up by itself, separate from the other linen -John knew something else had happened in the empty tomb...He had risen...Why would robbers or a robber take the time to neatly fold up Jesus' burial clothes?...Robbers would not take the time and care and neatness to fold burial linens...St. John saw these things and believed...
St. Peter and St. John were teaching the people in the Acts of the Apostles about Jesus' resurrection near the temple ran by the Sanhedrin (whom opposed Jesus and His followers)...They were arrested for their preaching of how Jesus died on the cross and was resurrected...They were seized and put in jail for this teaching...
St. Luke believes in the resurrection...He writes in the Acts, that Jesus was on earth for forty days after His death and crucifixion...After Jesus' resurrection, His physical presence would not be as important to His disciples, Mary Magdalene, and His other followers, as it had been...They knew He was still alive...Those who saw Him one, two or three times, or more after His death, then His physical body would not be as important to those who did not see Him (after His death)...They would know, somehow He was still alive...He had risen, to all those who saw Him...They would learn that His Spiritual Presence in the person of the the Holy Spirit was more important...I think, those who saw Him after His resurrection have an advantage over those who haven't seen Him after His death...I am glad St. John wrote about St. Thomas and how he wanted to see Jesus, after His resurrection (I certainly can relate to this, so often)...But Jesus seems to be telling us the Spiritual is more important than the physical...
It gives me inspiration when St. Paul, is on trial with Festus...Festus tells us, he cannot really find out, see or hear what Paul has done wrong...Festus is actually asking King Agrippa, "Why is Paul on trial?"...Then Festus tells us Paul is on trial for believing in a dead Man, named Jesus, whom Paul claims is alive...Now that is belief in the resurrection of Jesus Christ...
We must learn from His resurrection...In one of the oddest and strangest things that Jesus said on the night of His arrest to His disciples...It is good that I AM going away (from you)...He said this to His friends and disciples...They certainly knew that He was (and is) the Greatest Teacher ever to walk this earth -yet it is better that He goes away and leaves them (and us)...(When He says to St. Thomas, blessed are those who have not seen Me, and believe -I think this is related somehow to His physically leaving is good for us (John 19:29))...He is telling us that there is so much more to life, especially eternal life than the physical body...There is something Spiritual, that we can get only from God His Father through His Son...And maybe this reason it is best He goes away as He is now back with His Father...His Father is Grand...He wants us to realize that there is more to life than the tent of the physical body...The body houses the Spirit...Our physical bodies will one day leave this earth, like His did...So His resurrection gives us faith, hope, and love...These are the things we need in life the most...
The most important fact, in our history, is the resurrection of Jesus Christ...He is our way, our truth, and our eternal life...