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Easter Season · Sixth Sunday of Easter · Year B

Acts 10:25-26, 34-35, 44-48

The Resurrection of Christ

Saint Peter and the Centurion, Thomas Charles Barfield
Saint Peter and the Centurion, Thomas Charles Barfield, 1917Private collection
A watercolour: the Roman centurion Cornelius kneels on the tiled floor of his house and takes Peter’s hands, while soldiers, servants and Peter’s companions look on.On Peter’s arrival Cornelius met him, and falling at his feet, worshipped him. But Peter made him get up, saying, Stand up; I am only a mortal.Thomas Charles BarfieldA Leicester history painter and art master, a founder of the Leicester Society of Artists; an oil of the same composition hangs in St Peter’s Church at Claybrooke Parva, given in memory of his wife.Private collectionIn private hands; the oil version is in St Peter’s Church, Claybrooke Parva, Leicestershire.Private collection

Overview & Insights

“Christ died for our sins… he was buried… he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.” (1 Corinthians 15:3-4)

Chapter 15 functions both as a crescendo of this letter and as the high-water mark of Paul’s theological exposition. It provides the theological key that reveals Paul’s mind to his audience and explains the structure of his ethics. For Paul, everything he has said in this letter hinges on the historical reality of Christ’s bodily resurrection from the dead. Christ’s resurrection stands as the climactic point, without which his suffering and death have no significance, and because of which God’s restorative grace toward his creation is now revealed. Because of Christ’s resurrection, Christ’s followers have hope for eternal life in God’s presence—a life that has already begun and has proved its power in Christ’s community. Believers who have become parts of Christ’s body and recipients of his Spirit have assurance that they will be raised from the dead with Christ.

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Take it further: Acts 10:25-26, 34-35, 44-48

Commentary

Background & Word Study

The Church Fathers

Questions preachers ask

What is the gospel Paul delivers in 1 Corinthians 15?

Paul sets down the earliest creed, that Christ died, was buried, and rose, appearing to Cephas, the Twelve, and to Paul himself, the last of all.

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