ROJC 1 Corinthians 15:5-8

Intro:
1) There are so many paintings, pictures, assumptions of what Jesus Christ looks like. In a way, because of how Christ has been portrayed through these pictures and movies, that we assume that He’s going to look this way when we finally see Him. However, what I’ve been educated on is that He is probably not going to look anything like how He’s been portrayed. Because of where He was born, the culture that surrounded Him and the nature of the people He was born into, it’s very likely that He would look extremely different than what people have made Him out to be.
2) In any case, regardless of how He looks, it will still be breathtaking and amazing to finally see Him. This is our Savior. The Man who died for us on that cross. He’ll know everything about us and declare His love for us. That’s amazing. Of course, we’ll have to wait until either He returns to earth or until God finally decides to take us home.
3) But what would the effect be if we were able to see Him today? How would we react? How would we feel? How would it strengthen our faith to see our Messiah in person? After doubting His death and resurrection, it’d be amazing to see Christ and prove to all those doubters how they were wrong. Seemingly, it always takes people having to see with their own two eyes if something is true.
I. Seen
1 Corinthians 15:5-8- “and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present but some have fallen asleep. After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles. Then last of all He was seen by me also, as one born out of due time.”
1) Even though Christ will not be seen until He returns to earth again, where at that moment “every eye will see Him,” it was testified by Paul that after His resurrection, He was seen by plenty of individuals. He was showing the church in Corinth that it wasn’t just Him or a select few who had seen Christ. It wasn’t as if they were hallucinating. Christ had actually been seen by hundreds of people!
2) Now even though the church in Corinth may not have necessarily seen Christ, Paul was giving in full detail specific individuals who did. He names Peter, James, the 12 disciples, and all the apostles. He then goes on to say that over five hundred people had been able to see Christ after His resurrection. And look at verse 6. It’s important to realize and underline that of those five hundred who had seen Christ, most of them were still alive! Some had passed away, but most of the five hundred were still living!
3) What this indicates is that if the church in Corinth had any doubt whatsoever, it was very simple for them to reaffirm their faith in the resurrection of Christ by simple approaching any of the remaining five hundred who were still alive and hear from their own mouth and personal testimony of how they saw Christ, alive and in the flesh. At that time, believers, Christians had the luxury of being provided the tangible evidence and visible facts of a living Christ to defend their belief in a risen Savior.
4) How many more Christians would there be today if we could resort to that sort of affirmation? If we could bring our non-believing friends to a physical Savior and say, “This is Christ,” have them shake His hand and put their fingers in His nail pierced hand, what do you think is the probability of them finally believing and accepting the truth of Christ’s sacrifice and resurrection? But we don’t. We have a viable weapon of truth in the Bible, but as I’ve mentioned, seemingly that’s not enough for a lot of people. They always need visual and physical confirmation.
5) And that’s understandable. We can’t get angry that we don’t have anybody alive today that has actually seen and talked with Christ in order to help strengthen and defend our belief in a risen Christ. We have the Word of God but with the closed mindset of our society it’s hard to make them believe. But that’s why our faith is so remarkable. The fact that we believe in a risen Savior, without tangible evidence is astounding. That is unbelievable faith. It is a faith that God and Christ appreciate even more.
6) We are then reminded of Thomas who stubbornly held that “unless I see in His hands the print of the nails and put my finger into the print of the nails and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.” Even a disciple refused to believe. If a disciple of Christ who walked, talked, was taught first hand by Christ would refuse to believe, it’s understandable that millions of others down throughout history would refuse to believe as well. But after that declaration of unbelief Christ revealed Himself to Thomas, had him place his hand into His side, and finally, Thomas cried out shockingly, “My Lord and My God!” It was then that Christ said in verse 29 of John chapter 20, “Thomas because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
7) The first “believed” is in the perfect tense. This means that after Thomas had finally seen and touched Christ, He finally and permanently believed. Sadly, it took Thomas having to touch Christ to finally believe. The second “believed” is a constant participle meaning that it is a greater blessing for those who has not seen as Thomas has, but yet still continue to believe.
8) Going back to 1 Corithians 1: 5-7, let’s take a look at the verb “seen.” The Greek word for “seen” is optanomai. It is in the aorist tense which means that Christ was completely seen and the indicative mood indicates that there was no question that He was seen. The disciples, the apostles, the five hundred who had seen Christ had not just seen a part of Him, or a glimpse of Him. There was no way that their eyewitness testimony could be questioned. They had seen Him. End of story.
1) If we had Christ to resort to and fall back on, how much easier would it be to witness to others and convince them of the truth of the death and resurrection of Christ? We don’t, but that doesn’t mean we should be discouraged. Right here in the Scriptures, we are told of how hundreds of people 2000 years ago actually did see Christ. And as we learned last week, despite what many people believe, there are no holes in the Bible, the Word of God is the truth and there is no denying that. If it says that Christ was seen by hundreds then He was seen by hundreds.We have a risen Savior. And even if people refuse to believe it, they have a right to. Even Thomas refused to believe. But, we can take encouragement in the fact that just like Thomas those who hold themselves in unbelief will one day be shown the truth. Christ will make Himself real to them. In one way or another, the holes in His hands and His pierced side will make the grandest statement of all: we serve a risen Savior because Christ is alive.