The Resurrection of the Dead
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Announcements: WE are coming back together on June 14.
Announcements: WE are coming back together on June 14.
You should be receiving a letter early in the week if you haven’t already, that will detain the procedures we are going to be following as we gather together. If you are someone who doesn’t feel comfortable in a group of people yet due to Covid-19 or possible health complications, I’m glad to tell you that we will have a facebook live feed going during the service and you can watch along live. You will still be able to give online or by mail. But we are thrilled to be able to gather in person to worship the King of Glory. If you are able to help with sanitizing and organizing the building per our guidelines, we would love your help. I will put out a video explaining this and when we will be setting up.
You should be receiving a letter early in the week if you haven’t already, that will detain the procedures we are going to be following as we gather together. If you are someone who doesn’t feel comfortable in a group of people yet due to Covid-19 or possible health complications, I’m glad to tell you that we will have a facebook live feed going during the service and you can watch along live. You will still be able to give online or by mail. But we are thrilled to be able to gather in person to worship the King of Glory. If you are able to help with sanitizing and organizing the building per our guidelines, we would love your help. I will put out a video explaining this and when we will be setting up.
SING
SING
Introduction:
Introduction:
Paul is writing this letter to respond to the common Greek belief that only the soul was immortal and that there was no resurrection of the dead. Paul had been mocked in Athens because the Greeks held to this belief. The issue in Corinth was that this false belief had bled into the church. So you had these Christians claiming to believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ but questioning the resurrection of the dead. Do you see an in-congruency there? Paul uses logical argument and deep theological truth to explain to them their folly and call them back to right belief regarding the resurrection of the dead. Let’s read together what it says in the Word of the Lord, I Corinthians, chapter 15, verses 12-34.
Read Scripture:
Read Scripture:
Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.
But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For “God has put all things in subjection under his feet.” But when it says, “all things are put in subjection,” it is plain that he is excepted who put all things in subjection under him. When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all.
Otherwise, what do people mean by being baptized on behalf of the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized on their behalf? Why are we in danger every hour? I protest, brothers, by my pride in you, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die every day! What do I gain if, humanly speaking, I fought with beasts at Ephesus? If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.” Wake up from your drunken stupor, as is right, and do not go on sinning. For some have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame.
Pray
Pray
I. Without the resurrection, it all falls apart.
I. Without the resurrection, it all falls apart.
Right before Paul begins this passage with a series of if/then statements, he approaches them from a logical argument, extrapolating out their beliefs.
They hadn’t followed the trail all the way to the end and looked at what their questioning of the resurrection of the dead said about what they claimed to believe. Today many people in churches subscribe to beliefs that they seem to be able to prove by scripture but if you follow those beliefs to the logical conclusion, you find them to be problematic. This is part of the reason why studies of systematic theology and apologetics are so key for Christians. Not just what we believe, but why, and how.
Verses 12-19
The resurrection is a key and necessary part of the gospel. In our previous passage, Paul gave historical proofs for this in the scriptures, the appearances of the resurrected Christ, and his own testimony. Now Paul turns to personal, doctrinal, practical proof.
Why the resurrection is key:
Without resurrection you don’t have Christ’s resurrection. If Christ is not resurrected you don’t have:
forgiveness… you are still in your sins
your faith is empty… in vain
the dead are in condemnation and judgement under the guilt and power of sin
if no resurrection then only hope in this life then we should be pitied more than any… if we believed and taught something untrue and staked our lives and eternities on it.
II. Christ’s resurrection in relation to our resurrection.
II. Christ’s resurrection in relation to our resurrection.
Verse 20-28
Christ’s resurrection is a guarantee of our resurrection.
First-fruits
Paul explains Christ’s resurrection as the first fruits or example of the greatness of the future resurrection of believers.
Adam is representative of sinful humanity. Recap the garden and the fall.
In Christ all will be made alive while the unbelieving dead are raised for judgement and the believers… those in Christ to eternal life with him.
And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
III. The truth of the resurrection as our motivation for spreading the gospel.
III. The truth of the resurrection as our motivation for spreading the gospel.
v. 29-34
If Paul didn’t believe this was true, he would not have risked his life to spread the message. In his letter to the Corinthians that we refer to as 2nd Corinthians, he lists some of the specific dangers he faced.
Are they servants of Christ? I am a better one—I am talking like a madman—with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death. Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to fall, and I am not indignant?
If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness. The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, he who is blessed forever, knows that I am not lying. At Damascus, the governor under King Aretas was guarding the city of Damascus in order to seize me, but I was let down in a basket through a window in the wall and escaped his hands.
Paul - verse 32 - fought wild beasts… Intense oppostion.
Jesus suffered and died for human sin in submission to the will of the Father. At the end of the present age when Christ returns victoriously, he will submit all things that have been entrusted to Him to God the Father.
The being baptized for the dead thing....
Verse 34 is sobering. Paul chastises them in their arrogance. He wants them to sober up and quit sinning. They were so proud of their knowledge and yet there were many who didn’t know. How tragic if our boasting and arrogance in our spiritual knowledge misses those among us who really don’t know the Lord and we fail to pass on the true gospel to them. How tragic that someone would sit in church and Sunday school for decades and then die and find themselves in hell because they had all of the head knowledge but didn’t know Jesus… didn’t know Him and follow Him in the way the Bible says those who truly know Christ will follow Him.
It’s so easy to spout facts and have someone say a prayer but if they don’t know what it means to follow Christ, are they better off? I fear in our hyper programmed church culture in America that we are providing entertainment and babysitting while damning people to an eternity apart from Christ because we just don’t want to bring it up.
Conclusion:
Conclusion:
REWORD QUOTE: In more modest ways, understanding Paul’s theology of resurrection should affect our personal and corporate prayer life. How often do our lists of requests involve almost exclusively physical or material needs? How many of us could commend one another as John did Gaius in praying that his circumstances in this life might find him as healthy physically and materially as he already was spiritually (3 John 2)?
PRAY
PRAY
SING
SING