Jesus dying for our sins would not have been good news if He had not been raised from the dead. If Jesus had not been raised, hope, for us, would have died and been buried with Him. But Christ was raised on the third day, and this is of “first importance.”

The Bible records twelve occasions when the risen Lord appeared to His disciples, and Paul lists six of them here in 1 Corinthians 15.

• “He appeared to Cephas [Peter]” (15:5).
• He appeared... to the twelve” (15:5).
• “He appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time” (15:6).
• “He appeared to James” (15:7).
• “He appeared... to all the apostles” (15:7).
• “Last of all... he appeared also to me” (15:8).

Other people that Jesus appeared to, but who are not mentioned here in 1 Corinthians 15, include Mary Magdalene, two disciples on the road to Emmaus, and the apostles on multiple occasions.

Hope is found not in something but in someone. Our hope is in Jesus who died and rose—not in an ethic, not in a more disciplined way of life, not even in a creed, but in a person, a saviour to whom you can come, a person in whom you will find hope.

And, in this chapter, Paul talks about the hope that Jesus brings. There is hope in Jesus because He died and rose again.

How does it strengthen your confidence in the resurrection knowing how many people encountered the risen Lord?