Transcription
[music] [music] Will the Lord be with you? If you have a Bible, or someone around you does, uh, would you turn with me to the book of 1 Corinthians? We are going to be in chapter 15 this morning, and we're going to be covering verses 12-34. 1 Corinthians, chapter 15, verses 12-34.
And through this series, Paul has been writing a letter to a church in the city of Corinth, and what we find in this letter is that Paul is addressing a number of issues. This is not a perfect church by any stretch of the imagination. We see that Christians sometimes have a lot of issues, have a lot of problems. And it can even be in the local congregation there can be a lot of issues. And so Paul has been, um, addressing each of these one at a time.
And so we've seen him looking at division, schism in the church. We've looked at lawsuits in the church, literally one brother suing another brother in the same congregation. We've seen sexual immorality being addressed, where there are, this church was affirming certain sins that were, that were sexually immoral. We see that there's ongoing issues of things even within, um, the church that God has given us that was meant to unify things, like communion. The thing that we just partook of together, literally even that became a divisive issue in the church. Or, or the gender roles, they became divisive. The order of the church became divisive. Even spiritual gifts that God has given every believer so that we could encourage and serve one another, even these spiritual gifts became a divisive issue.
And so Paul has been just addressing one after the other, giving us a lot of instruction, a lot of biblical principles to help guide us. Because what we find is that, that this church, the Corinthians, they sometimes look a lot like us. And some of the things that they were divisive over, that they were arguing about, are many times what we as Christians are arguing about. And so Paul has been addressing these things and hopefully he's been helping us think through some of these controversial topics.
But as we get to 15, chapter 15, we find Paul is finally giving us the solution. And he's been echoing this throughout his letter. But what he shows us is that ultimately, the way that we come out of division and find true unity in the body of Christ is when we identify and center our lives around the gospel of Jesus Christ. The gospel is the good news of salvation found in Jesus Christ. And when Christians make that the central issue, when that is the message, that that is the heart cry of God's people, we will see true unity. We will see people that not only will believe it, but they will experience for themselves and they will live it out.
And so last time, if you remember, in verses 1 to 11, Paul basically just gives us the gospel. He reminds the Corinthians that the gospel is the message in which they are saved. It is the message in which they stand, and it is the message that they must hold on to. So the gospel is not just something that you can hear one time. It's something that you need to remind yourself of. It's something that you need to abide in. You need to hold on. Stand fast in this message, the good news of salvation found in Jesus Christ.
And then he goes on and explains it point by point, reminding us that not only should it be central, but it's historical. And so what he told us is that, "For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures." So he reminds us that the gospel at its core, the content is historical. There is an individual named Jesus who was the Christ, the king, the Messiah, the promised one that the prophets had had have been prophesying and and foretelling. And we see that he comes and he died on a cross for your sins, for my sins, for everything that we have ever done wrong. He died for that. He took your penalty. He paid the fine on your behalf. He satisfied God's wrath. He was buried, physically buried in a tomb. This wasn't spiritual. This isn't symbolic. He actually died on a cross. He was detached from that cross. He was put in a cold tomb. And then on the third day, he rose from the dead. And he actually appeared to numerous eyewitnesses. And Paul, the writer of this letter, is one of those eyewitnesses.
So he, he's been telling us that this is the message that the church must stand on. This is the thing that every time someone gets up here to preach, you must hear that message. If you don't hear the gospel proclaimed from our church, you need to find a new church. You need to find a better church that will keep this message central: salvation found in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
So as we come now to verse 12 to 34, if you just remind yourself of that he just was saying that the source of our salvation and in which we stand as a church is found in this message, the gospel. He then goes on to address an issue within the church and their conception of the gospel. And what we find is that some of these Corinthians were questioning whether that the dead would really rise at the end of the age. And Paul here is going to remind us that not only did Christ rise from the dead, but his resurrection is directly linked to our future hope and our future resurrection. And if Christ is not risen, we will not rise.
And so what he reminds us in this section of scripture is that Christ's resurrection changes everything for us. And so what he's going to do, and he's going to actually maybe stretch us and and maybe challenge us a little bit this morning. But I think what Paul has us doing here is ask the question, "What if?" What if Christ is risen? And also the other side of the question, "What if Christ is not risen?" And so those are the things that I want you to think about this morning. What is at stake? Why is the gospel, and why specifically is the resurrection so important for us as Christians? What does it mean for our lives now and forever? What does this mean for us?
And I think what we find in verse 12 is that if Christ is risen, anything is possible. Just let that sink in. I'm not being hyperbolic here. Literally, if Christ, if this person, Jesus of Nazareth, 2,000 years ago was really dead and then rose from the dead, claiming to be the Son of God, the one who has all power, all authority, that he has conquered sin and death. If he has really risen from the dead, then anything is possible. There's nothing that he cannot do.
Just look at verse 12. It says here, "Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?" See, what's going on here is that some of these Corinthian Christians, they're questioning the future resurrection. There's been these prophecies, and I want to read a couple of them that the Jews would have been aware of, that there's been this hope that at the end of the age, the righteous, those who have trusted in the Lord, will be physically resurrected from the dead. When, when God's kingdom comes, His people will be raised. And sometimes people actually kind of miss this. Sometimes even Christians get this wrong. Sometimes we think that our ultimate hope is to be in heaven in the clouds and be like spirits or something like that. That's not the ultimate Christian hope. The ultimate Christian hope is resurrection. It is to be physical. It is to be glorified and it is to be with God in His kingdom, where heaven and earth are united, reunited after they have been separated from Eden.
But just listen to a couple of these prophets. Isaiah 26:19 says, "Your dead shall live; Together with my dead body they shall arise. Awake and sing, you who dwell in dust! For your dew is like the dew of herbs, And the earth shall cast out the dead." So this is a, a celebration, um, hymn that they are singing in, in Isaiah's prophecy, talking about this hope that at the end, the dead will live. And then likewise in Daniel 12, verse two, another prophet. So both of these prophets are written hundreds of years before Jesus. And it says, "And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, Some to everlasting life, Some to shame and everlasting contempt." So Daniel is also giving us this clear emphasis that at the end of the age, from the dust, the physical bodies will awake. There will be a resurrection, and the righteous are going to go to everlasting life. That is going to be in God's kingdom. And there will be those who will be sent to eternal separation from God, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
And so we see that this is the Jewish and the Christian hope, that our ultimate hope is that at the end, Christ will return, and we will be raised physically from the dead. If we have gone on, if we have passed away before that time, every saint will be resurrected and glorified. And so why is it then that that it seems as if Paul is addressing this to these Christians? Well, it's, it seems as if, likewise with all of the other issues in this book, the reason that he's addressing this is that they are doubting there's a future resurrection because they're letting the culture inform their theology. They're letting the world tell them what is possible, what is impractical, what is foolish to the world. Right? Remember early on, the, the wisdom of the world is foolishness to God. We are reminded here that the world will constantly say, "You can't believe this. It's not possible. God didn't say that." That's what the enemy wants us to hear.
But see, Greek philosophy was prominent in Corinth. And what they believed was that the, the physical was really not that important. In fact, many of them had a very negative sense of the physical, of the body, of, of the things that are, that are tangible. And they would think, "Well, the spirit might go on." So they were spiritualizing this resurrection, like, "Well, maybe spiritually we will be vindicated or something like that." And Paul is saying, "No, no, no. Don't allow culture to inform here. You need to understand that he, God will literally physically, bodily raise his people from the dead." And the point that he makes here is that if Christ was raised by God, why could he not raise us? Have you thought about that for a second? Once again, if God can raise Jesus from the dead, why would you ever question whether he could raise us?
And I, one step further back. Just think about this. If God created the universe from nothing, some people are like, "You know, they really have a bad, a hard time with Jonah and the whale, or in the great fish, whatever you understand that to be." And like, "How could God? That just seems, that just sounds like so foolish." Once again, if God can literally create everything from nothing, you don't think that he can raise a dead person that he gave life in the first place? He gave life out of death. He gave creation out of nothing. It doesn't seem improbable at all to me if God can do that.
And you're like, and if you're still skeptical of, "Well, how can God bring everything out of nothing?" Well, here's the thing. If you're the atheist, you still have the same problem because everyone holds to this, or at least modern cosmology is all saying that the universe had a beginning, that the, the past is not infinite. That there is a finite past where the universe had to come into being. And so you either have a cause, something that caused the universe to come into being, or you have the universe that comes into being uncaused. So what, how can you have an a, a universe come into being with no, no cause? See, that seems to be more improbable than a God who is all-powerful, all-knowing, who has the capability of creating the universe. But that's my point. If God can create the universe, if God can raise Jesus from the dead, he can raise us.
And more than that, he can also do the impossible in our lives. There's nothing that our God cannot do. Nothing is too big, and nothing is impossible. And that even means in your own immediate life. Are there things right now that you are putting God in a box and you're saying, "I know you say you did this in your word, or I've heard the stories, or I saw this happen in, in somebody else's life, but God, you would never do that for me." Are you telling yourself that lie right now? Or do you believe God's word that it says that there is nothing too hard for him? Jeremiah 32:27, "Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is there anything too hard for Me?" Are you thinking that there's something too hard for our God? Or likewise, Luke 1:37, "For with God nothing will be impossible." There is nothing impossible with our God.
See, do you see how important it is? If Christ is risen, we have a God on our side. We have a God who loves us. A God of the impossible. And He says, "I want to live in you. And I want to do amazing things through you. All you must do is trust in Me. Surrender to Me. And I will pour out My grace on this world." What if we lived every single day in the reality of we serve a God of the impossible? We serve a God who can raise the dead back to life.
See, God's power, it transcends death and the natural order. And I think it's important that we think about this same question that was asked to Ezekiel the prophet. Because remember, he gets this, the vision of the valley of dry bones, and he sees all of these dead dry bones everywhere. And you hear this question, and it says, "He said to me, 'Son of man, can these bones live?'" So I answered, "Oh, Lord God." You know, maybe that's you. Maybe you're asking that question. Can someone really physically die and have been raised back to life? God's word says it repeatedly: Yes. God exists, and God can raise the dead back to life. There is nothing too hard, nothing too big, nothing that is impossible for our God.
Because here's the thing. If you deny this reality, if you deny the resurrection, then what you really are doing is you are denying God's power, His promise, and His presence. And in fact, you see this in the New Testament whenever Jesus was going performing miracles. You see the one thing that keeps Him from doing the impossible in people's lives, it was their lack of faith. In Mark 6, verses 5-6, it says, "Now He could do no mighty work there, except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them, and He marveled because of their unbelief." See, Jesus was performing miracles all over the place. He was showing that He had power. He had the authority over the dead, over the sick, over the demonized. He had authority over all of it. But there was this one group that they didn't have faith. They didn't trust Him. They wouldn't surrender their lives to Him. They wouldn't hand it over. They kept clinging on to the things that they were trying to control. And He says, "Because of your unbelief, because you are unwilling to trust Me, there will be no power for you."
So if that's you right now, I want to encourage you not to believe in fairy tales, but to look at the facts, read God's word, ask the question, "Can these bones really live?" And if God, if He convicts you and encourages you and says, "Yes, it is true. I can," then I want you to trust in that. I want you to live in that reality today and forevermore. I want you to believe this, and I want you then to experience the impossible. I want you to know that there is nothing that is impossible for God. Whether that's your home life right now, whether that's your marriage, whether that's something going on with your kids, your finances, an addiction, anxiety, whatever is going on in your life right now, I want you to be able to hear this very clearly: God is bigger than it. Christ is above it. He is Lord over all.
And so if Christ is risen, anything is possible. So that's the first thing. But then verses 13 to 19, this is where it shifts for us. And this is the real sobering reality for our lives. So what if Christ is risen? Well, anything is possible. But if Christ is not risen, nothing matters. Sometimes we don't really think about what if Christ is, [snorts] not risen. See, it is Jesus or bust. It is Christ or nothing. Just listen how Paul describes it. I'm going to just give you this long list of what he basically shows us. If Christ is not risen, what that means for us today, and then I'm going to just take them, um, one at a time.
If Christ is not risen, our message is meaningless. Our witness is worthless. Our faith is futile and foolish. Our sin is sovereign. Our loved ones are lost. And our existence is empty. That's what Paul shows us in 13 to 19. Let me just read verses 13 and 14 here. It says, "But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty." Do you hear that? Paul is really, really clear. He says that if you want to disprove Christianity, look at the resurrection. The resurrection is the cornerstone of the faith. The gospel does not exist without the resurrection. That's just a man who died on a tree. That's all that happens if there's no resurrection. But if there is a resurrection, then he has something to say for our lives. He has something that really truly matters for us.
But here's the thing. If Christ, once again, if he is not risen, what does it matter what I have to say up here? I could talk about these things, but it's meaningless. Our message has no weight, no power, no authority if there is no God who can raise the dead back to life. But more than that, our witness is worthless. In verses 15 to 16, "Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up—if indeed the dead do not rise. For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen." So what we see here is he's also saying that it not only is our message worthless, that you shouldn't waste your time here, you shouldn't come here because all we're doing is doing like a book study is essentially all that we're doing. It's a book club. It's a, it's a social gathering. That's all church becomes if this message is meaningless. And likewise, we are bad witnesses. If there is a God and Christ has not been risen, well, then we are false witnesses of God. We are lying. We are actually charlatans and and false teachers. If Christ has not been risen, or if God does not exist, then all we are doing is believing in fairy tales.
And that's why it leads to the fact that our faith would be futile, would be foolish. No one wants to believe in fiction. We want to believe in the truth. We want to proclaim the truth. We want to live for something that is true. And so just look at verse 17. "And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile." It says that your faith, the things that you lean on, that you trust, that you believe, it's, it's, it's futile. It's, it's pointless.
And then he goes, if you just drop down to verses 30 to 31, it says, "And why do we stand in jeopardy every hour? I affirm, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily. Why would people waste their time and risk their lives for this message?" Do you know that right now in Nigeria, there are so many Christians that are being killed, slaughtered, murdered for this message? That they believe that Jesus is king, that He's the Christ, that He died for their sins, and that He really rose from the dead. And so they will face hostility and oppression. They will literally allow themselves to be beheaded because they have a hope in the resurrection. But if Christ is not risen, do you not see how foolish that is? Why? Why would you waste a little time that you have on this earth? Our life is but a vapor. Everyone here, you have about 80 years. Actually, less on average for the average human. You have less than 80 years. And then you are gone. Why would you risk it on, on trying to serve other people, of sacrificing your body, sacrificing your life, sacrificing your own finances? It makes no sense to do these things if Christ is not risen. You need to do whatever makes you happy in this moment.
And more than that, in 17, it also says that you're, you are still in your sins. See, not only is our faith, is it futile and foolish, but our sin is sovereign. Now, in Christ, you have forgiveness. You have peace with God. You are offered grace and mercy. You don't have Jesus. You know what? You get condemnation. You aren't forgiven if Christ is not risen. Your shame is still with you because no one has overcome it. No one has taken it from you. That is all on you now. And if there is a God, you will be judged now for every single thing that you have ever done, said, or thought. All the worst moments of your life. Like I mentioned this last time, if we just were to just display every single thing you have ever thought, said, or done that you would be embarrassed or or ashamed of, if we were to put that on the screen right now, I said that nobody would be here next week. That's what you are stuck with for life. If Christ is not risen, you are still in your sins. Sin is sovereign if Christ is not risen.
And then in verse 18, we see our loved ones are lost. It says, "Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished." People here in this room have had loved ones who knew Jesus that have gone on and passed away. If Christ is not risen, they're gone. They're lost forever. They're nothing but a memory. And eventually you will be gone, and you will be a memory, and then you will be forgotten. Paul doesn't sugarcoat it for us here. Do you really feel the weight? If Christ is not risen, you can hold on to your loved ones as long as you can, but eventually we all have to say goodbye. And without Christ, it is a good, uh, really, it's a, it's a bad goodbye, and there's no see you later. But in Christ, it is see you soon. That is Christ. That is the resurrection. That is why this is so foundational.
And then this leads to the very final thing with all these other things that we've mentioned in verses 19 and 32. "If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable." And then verse 32, "If, in the manner of men, I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what advantage is it to me? If the dead do not rise, 'Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.'" He is saying here that if Christ is not risen, our existence is empty. You have no purpose. Without Christ, there is no meaning. Think about this. Really think about this for a moment. If God does not exist, why are you here? Because of a cosmic accident. The universe somehow has these constants and these quantities that just randomly exploded to create a universe that eventually cooled off to allow a planet that allowed for certain chemistry to take place that you are now a, a random byproduct of nature. No one cares about you. The universe doesn't care about you. And eventually, you die. You're on a small speck of dust in an infinite universe. And no one will hear your cries echo throughout this dark world. That's what it's like without Christ. We are all here for a moment and gone. Five billion years from now, the sun will die out. The solar system won't even exist. So maybe you're thinking, "Well, at least we can have a generation that will maybe travel to Mars." Doesn't matter if you don't have a sun, and eventually there's going to be the heat death of the universe. Eventually entropy will be complete, and there will be nowhere to go in this universe if there is no Christ.
But we have a Christ who is risen. We have a hope that Christ is coming back, that He will redeem the universe. He will restore all things. And so that is why it's so important that we feel the weight first of what is at stake if Christ is not risen. So if Christ is risen, anything is possible. If Christ is not risen, nothing matters.
But here's the hope that we have. Verse 20, "Christ is risen." That's what you have to hear this morning. Which side are you on? Are you on the "anything is possible" or "nothing matters" side of things in life? Because Paul, he lays it out on the line for us and he says, "Christ is risen. Rise from the dead. Believe it. Rise. Awake yourself to this reality."
See, in verse 20, it says, "But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep." See, what Paul starts to explain here is that he is the firstfruits and the last Adam. Firstfruits, if you aren't familiar, firstfruits are when you would have a harvest, and you would, you would take the first sampling of the crop, the first fruits of the crop, and you would be able to taste and see what the quality would be of the rest of the harvest. And what he's saying here is that when Christ rose from the dead, when He defeated sin and death, when He had a glorified, perfected body, He says that's the firstfruits for us of the resurrection. That is a taste of what our experience will be like in the future, that we will be perfected. We will be glorified. And next week, we're going to look at more detail about our glorified bodies. But that is the, the first fruit, the taste of what is to come for all those who are in Christ.
And it also says He is the last Adam here. See, at the very beginning in Genesis 1, we see that God creates everything. And at Genesis 3, we see that man sins, falls short of the glory of God. Adam rebels. And because of Adam's sin, we now experience what we see in this world: pain, suffering, sin, and death. Because of man's sin, we all now follow suit with Adam. We sin. And because of that, the wages of sin is death. We all deserve death. But then Christ comes as the new, the final Adam. And He says, "I have a new way. I have come to die for you so that you can live. I didn't sin like Adam. I have always chose holiness, righteousness, sinlessness. I have always taken the way so that I now will offer you the way in Me so that you can find salvation, eternal life in Jesus Christ." So Adam is now replaced by Christ. So Christ is the firstfruits. He is the last Adam, offering eternal life.
And once again, this was not merely religious faith for Paul. It's so important that you're not just hearing this as like this is a story that he had heard from somebody and he thought it was really catchy. This was historical fact for Paul. Don't forget that Paul encountered Christ. He's not hearing the message like we are for the first time. He was walking on or traveling on the road to Damascus to kill Christians. By the way, Paul hated the church. He hated Jesus. And the only reason he is a Christ follower is because he encountered the risen Christ. He saw that He truly was the one who He claimed to be. That He is the one who has conquered sin and death. That He is the King of Glory. That He has all authority in heaven and on earth. And when Paul saw that, he couldn't do anything but give his entire life to this mission and message. And so that's why majority of the New Testament is Paul writing to the churches. Paul telling us about the one he encountered on the road, a, a persecutor of the faith to a proclaimer of the gospel. That is what we find in Paul. So whenever he is talking about that Christ is really risen, he says, "I saw it. I experienced it. I, I heard Him. I touched Him. I know that it is true."
And then Paul dies for this belief. By the way, Paul suffers persecution, suffering, hostility, oppression, opposition, and he dies. He is beheaded for his belief, for his message, proclaiming Jesus is the Christ and that He rose from the dead. Do you understand that? This is not religious fiction or faith. This is historical fact rooted in Christ.
And now, because of that, it says, not only did He rise from the dead, but now He reigns. He rose. He reigns. And now it says He is defeating in verses 24 to 28. He is defeating every enemy. He is putting every single enemy under His foot. Whatever enemies are going on in your life, Christ is working. He is defeating them. The gospel is advancing. The kingdom is growing. Christ is getting closer every single day. We know that His kingdom will come. His will will be done on the earth. We know that Christ is coming, that He reigns, and He will defeat.
And that's why we see verses 33 to 34, this exhortation, this encouragement, not only to recognize Christ is risen, but our responsibility: "Rise from the dead." Verses 33 to 34. "Do not be deceived. Evil company corrupts good habits. Awake to righteousness, and do not sin; for some do not have the knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame." So what Paul is saying here is that if Christ is risen, you need to awake from sin. If He really is the one who conquered sin and death, you have no reason to live in sin anymore. He is the one that can allow you to live free. He gives you true freedom from your sin, but also awake to apathy.
If Christ is risen, I'm hoping I'm jarring some of you and waking your and shocking your senses a little bit to understand this. If Christ is really risen, if a guy was in the ground and he really rose from the dead and he has all authority, are you not excited? Does that not change everything for how you do life? How you look at your spouse, how you look at your kids, how you think about your job, how you think about everything you do in this life, what things you value and spend your time on? If Christ is risen, you need to awake from apathy. Stop pretending like this isn't that big of a deal. This is the most important thing that you could ever spend your time thinking about. The resurrection is everything.
And that's why it says you need to avoid bad company. Even you're like, "That's a little weird." Was because there are so many people that are asleep, that are spiritually dead in this world, and they do not recognize the beauty, the glory, the majesty that is our Lord, and they are going to find themselves asleep on the day of judgment. They're going to find themselves spiritually dead when the risen ones come to life. We see that we need to avoid bad company. Believe there are people in your life that do not trust in the Lord, that are that are calling you back into sin, back into the current of the world, saying, "Do you really believe that people can be raised from the dead?" If you are surrounding yourself with those people, they will corrupt you. They will lull you back to sleep, spiritually speaking. And so you must wake up. You must live in resurrection power today.
Not only did Christ rise, not only will we rise physically from the dead, but if you were in Christ, you have now risen to new life right now. You were spiritually resurrected. You were spiritually dead and came to life when you trusted in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. Romans 6:4 says, "Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life." Are you walking in resurrection power, in newness of life today?
Hey, and the final passage I want to read for you is Ephesians 5:14. It says, "Therefore," he says, "Awake, you who sleep, Arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light." He is saying this to Christians. He says, "Awake and arise from the dead church. Proclaim the message that Christ is risen." Our lives become a testimony of His victory over death. And if Christ truly has over death, then everything matters. Once again, if Christ is not risen, nothing matters. But if Christ is risen, everything matters. Every moment we need to take every thought captive. Every moment we need to redeem for the kingdom. So because Christ is risen, we are empowered to live beyond doubt, live beyond fear, live beyond sin. Rise today and let nothing limit what God can do through you. Christ is risen. Do you believe it?