1 Corinthians 15:3,4 - The message of first importance

So what is the message on which we stand? Namely that "Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, and that he was raised according to the Scriptures". 

We do well to pay close attention to each part of this. First He died for our sins according to the Scriptures. Our most basic problem is sin. It is your most important problem, it is my most important problem, and it is the person next door's most basic problem. No one's greatest problem is health, financial, relationship or famine, it is sin. Now God may well use these issues as a gateway to dealing with the most fundamental problem. When the paralytic man was lowered through the roof to Jesus, Jesus both healed him and forgave his sins. God needs to deal with sin in our life. There is no lasting way forward unless that problem is addressed, and this is what the Father did through Christ on the cross. Note also that He died according to the Scriptures. Jesus was not doing something new in the sense that it bore no relation to anything that had gone before. Rather He was the fulfilment of the law and the prophets.

After the cross He was buried. There is no room for any swoon theories, or anything else that in anyway minimises the fact that Jesus died on the cross. Islamic teaching is completely wrong on this matter. 

Then He was raised on the third day, again according to the Scriptures. It is the resurrection that Paul will focus on in this chapter. Now remember that at the start of 1 Corinthians Paul says he preached only the cross. When Paul talks about the cross he means both the death and resurrection of Christ. The two go together, and neither makes any sense without the other.