A couple of weeks ago we finished up the first 4 verses of 1 Corinthians 15, the first half of the gospel message. The fact that Christ died for our sins, that He was buried, and that He rose on the third day are of first importance (15:3). This was the gospel Paul had preached to the Corinthians, they had received it, and they had taken their stand on it (15:1).
However, the next 3 verses are just as crucial to the gospel message. These 3 verses give concrete evidence of Jesus’ resurrection and should not be taken lightly. No one saw the actual resurrection of Jesus. No one was present in the tomb with Him when His body transformed into a resurrection body. But while no one saw the actual resurrection of Jesus, many people saw the resurrected Jesus.
In 1 Corinthians 15:5-7 Paul calls forth several witnesses to the resurrection, to establish beyond all controversy that Jesus was did rise from the dead. Paul does not give an exhaustive list of witnesses to the resurrected Christ. He does not mention the women (Matthew 28:9-10, Mark 16:9, John 20:14-16) who many believe were the first to see the resurrected Jesus. This week we will pick up our study in 1 Corinthians 15:5-8 and the eyewitness accounts of the risen Christ.
Our sermon this week will look at the faithfulness of Jochebed. Jochebed was a daughter of Levi (Exodus 2:1), and the mother of Aaron, Moses, and Miriam (Exodus 6:20; Numbers 26:59). To protect Moses from Pharaoh’s command that every male Hebrew child be killed, she placed him in an ark of bulrushes on the river. After Pharaoh’s daughter discovered the baby, Jochebed became his nurse. She is noted among the heroes of faith in Hebrews 11. This Sunday we will take a look at Jochebed’s story and five things we can take from her faith.