Introduction:
A. The story is told of an old man named Fred who had been a faithful Christian and was in the hospital, near death.
1. The family called their preacher to come stand with them.
2. As the preacher stood next to the bed, Ol’ Fred’s condition appeared to deteriorate and he motioned frantically for something to write on.
3. The preacher lovingly handed him a pen and a piece of paper, and Ol’ Fred used his last bit of energy to scribble a note, then he handed the note to the preacher, and a few minutes later, he died.
4. The preacher thought it best not to look at the note at that time, so he placed it in his jacket pocket.
5. At the funeral, as he was finishing the message, he realized that he was wearing the same jacket that he was wearing when Ol’ Fred died.
6. He said, “You know, Ol’ Fred handed me a note just before he died. I haven’t looked at it, but knowing Fred, I’m sure there’s a word of inspiration there for us all.”
7. He opened the note, and read, “Hey, you’re standing on my oxygen tube!”
B. In case you didn’t know it – all of us are going to die of something someday.
1. You and I are terminally ill.
2. At this very moment, you and I are in the process of dying.
3. It’s just a matter of time, unless Jesus returns before that moment.
4. The death rate is 99.9 – the exceptions have been Enoch and Elijah.
C. I don’t say that to depress us this morning, but to encourage us.
1. “What are you saying, David? How can the subject of death be encouraging?”
2. The subject of death is encouraging because death is not the end, it is just the beginning of something so much better and more wonderful.
3. We, Christians, should not let death take us by surprise, nor should we let death worry us.
4. Death is a reality that we know is coming, but what happens after death is just as much a reality that we should look forward to.
D. As we turn to 1 Corinthians 15, we turn to the last of the major issues that Paul addressed at Corinth – the resurrection of the body.
1. Unlike some of the other issues Paul has addressed, this one is not about behavior but about belief.
2. Paul is deeply concerned about their beliefs about the resurrection.
3. Without the proper understanding of these things, then their belief and our belief is truly in vain.
4. So let’s take a look at the wonderful truths that Paul lays out in this chapter about Jesus’ resurrection and ours as well.
I. The Gospel Account ( 15:1-19)
A. Over a century ago, Lord Lyttleton and Gilbert West set about to discredit Christianity by disproving Paul’s conversion and Christ’s resurrection.
1. After examining the facts, both these men confessed their faith in Jesus.
2. Lyttleton concluded that the most ardent persecutor of the church would have required a personal confrontation with the resurrected Christ in order to be turned from his opposition to him.
3. How wonderfully ironic that the most extended discussion of the doctrine of Christ’s resurrection and its implications for us would come from the pen of a man who once ridiculed the claim.
B. Paul begins chapter 15 by reminding the Corinthians that the doctrine of the resurrection is at the heart of the gospel that he had preached among them and that they had believed and received.
1. His concern for them was that they “hold firmly to the word” that Paul had preached so that they would not have believed in vain.
2. The preaching of the gospel revolves around the fact that “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures” (15:3b-4).
3. The gospel (which means “good news”) is not a set of behavioral responses imposed on us by God.
4. Rather, it is a message of love, grace and peace.
5. By means of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, God is wooing and winning our hearts by the lengths to which He has gone for our sakes.
6. In emphasizing that the death, burial, and resurrection occurred “according to the Scriptures,” Paul was appealing to OT prophesies concerning the event.
C. Additionally, Paul also cited numerous eyewitness reports of the resurrection, including his own.
1. Now we certainly would like to have more details about some of these appearances of Christ.
2. Certainly, in that day, these accounts were widely circulated and well-known.
3. By mentioning the fact that many of the eye witnesses were still alive, Paul was challenging the Corinthians to check out these stories for themselves.
D. In beautiful humility, Paul commented on his own experience with the risen Christ.
1. Paul admitted that he did not deserve Christ’s appearance to him, because he had been a persecutor of Christ.
2. But the appearance of Christ to him was a matter of divine grace, and that grace had enabled and inspired him to serve Christ.
3. Paul and his fellow apostles had preached and are preaching the same gospel with equal emphasis on the centrality of the resurrection.
4. So Paul wrote, “”this is what we preach, and this is what you believed” (vs. 11).
E. But it appears that some there at Corinth were denying a general resurrection of the dead.
1. Paul insisted that such a doctrine was inconsistent with the gospel.
2. Paul asked, “But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?” (vs. 12).
3. The reasoning that Paul lays out is extremely precise in logical terms.
4. He does so in the hope that it would shock them into rejecting such a view of the resurrection.
5. Paul led them down this logical road – If there is no general resurrection, then the following things are true:
a. Christ himself has not really been raised (15:13),
b. Preaching and faith focused on Christ are in vain (15:14),
c. Paul and the other apostles were bearing false testimony about the workings of God (15-15-16),
d. The faith of the saints at Corinth was in vain and had not delivered them from sin (15:17),
e. Deceased Christians have simply perished, for they have no hope of being raised from the dead (15:18),
f. Anyone serving Christ is foolishly wasting their time and should be pitied (15:19).
6. That certainly is a powerful indictment of any position which denies either Christ’s personal resurrection or a general resurrection of the dead.
7. Would the Corinthians really be horrified to see what this false doctrine being taught by some really meant? Paul hoped so.
II. Christ Arose (15:20-34)
A. Against the denial of the resurrection by some, Paul proceeded to affirm the doctrine of the resurrection with bold assurance.
1. He wrote, “But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.” (15:20)
2. Paul said to them, “Yes, Christ has been raised! This doctrine is at the heart of the gospel you have embraced. More than that, it is the promise of your own victory over death.”
B. We know that death became the common fate of all humans through the sin of Adam.
1. But now we have been assured that resurrection from the grave will be the shared fate of all through the resurrection of Christ (15:22-23).
2. At the second coming of Christ, “the end” will be written to the drama of human activity on planet earth.
3. The curtain will come down on history as Christ’s final enemy (death) is destroyed and the kingdom is delivered up to the Father (15:24-28).
C. Some have speculated that chapter 15, verse 29 is perhaps the most obscure and difficult verse in the entire Bible.
1. Paul wrote, “Now if there is no resurrection, what will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized for them?”
2. What was going on here? Were the Corinthians practicing some sort of vicarious baptism on behalf of people who had died unimmersed?
a. It is not inconceivable, although we have no historical evidence of such a practice in the first century.
b. It would seem strange for Paul to refer to such a custom without denouncing it, for it stands against everything that signifies personal responsibility in salvation.
3. Was Paul making some obscure reference to the baptism which now-deceased Christians had received in hope of their future resurrection? We don’t know.
4. We must admit that it is beyond our ability to formulate a definitive interpretation of this verse, because we simply don’t have enough information.
5. But although we do not know what being “baptized for the dead” refers to, we can know the significance of it to Paul’s argument.
6. If there is no resurrection, then nothing done on the behalf of the dead is of value.
D. Paul then asks why he would expose himself to such dangers for the sake of the gospel if there is no resurrection.
1. Why carry the burden of daily ministry for the church if there is no resurrection?
2. In fact, if Christianity has no sure hope of a future life, we would be better advised to live by the pagan motto, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die” (15:32b).
3. But we know that there is a resurrection, and so Paul counsels those who share the hope of the resurrection to avoid the corrupting company of those who deny the resurrection and thus avoid their sin of false teaching.
4. So Paul wrote, “Do not be misled: ‘Bad company corrupts good character.’ Come back to your senses as you ought, and stop sinning; for there are some who are ignorant of God—I say this to your shame.” (15:33-34)
III. Our Resurrected Bodies (15:35-58)
A. All of us have wondered about our resurrected bodies, haven’t we?
1. What will they be like? What of a cremated body? What about someone eaten by a wild animal or buried at sea? Questions of this sort seem to be without end.
2. How did Paul respond to the questions? “How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body.” (15:36-38)
3. The Corinthians with such knowledge and insight should have been able to discern the answer to these questions from the events of nature.
4. Paul employed several analogies to illustrate the resurrected body.
a. First, he offered the seed analogy – the new body will be related to and in some ways similar to the seed from which it came, but certainly not the same.
b. Second, he offered the different flesh analogy – each creature has a body appropriate to its nature and environment.
c. Third, he offered the heavenly bodies analogy – God gives all things in creation a body which reflects the proper “glory” of its estate.
B. So Paul wrote, “So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.” (15:42-44)
1. All this amounts to saying that our resurrection bodies will be like Christ’s resurrection body.
2. Such a change in bodily form is necessary to share in the eternal kingdom of God.
3. Paul continued, “I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.” (15:50-53)
4. How exciting!
5. Whether a person dies before the Lord returns or is alive at His coming, his or her earthly body will need to be changed into the form which is appropriate for a never-ending existence.
6. When all this is accomplished, death will have been defeated. Death will have neither “victory” nor “sting.”
7. Sin is the cause of death, and the occasion of sin is our failure in relation to divine law.
8. “But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (15:57)
9. This takes us right back to the opening lines of the chapter – the gospel – the good news that God has taken the demand laid on us and has fulfilled it through the sacrifice of His Son.
C. The ultimate offense against God – at Corinth or in our present situation – is in being blind to our lostness, hopelessness, and helplessness.
1. But when our helplessness apart from Christ is acknowledged, God’s mercy reaches us and redeems us.
2. He gives us what we could never have achieved – redemption and righteousness through Christ that is validated through the resurrection.
3. Christ’s resurrection is the guarantee of our own.
4. And what should be the believer’s response to all this?
5. Verse 58, “Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.”
Conclusion:
A. Does the resurrection matter? Of course it does.
1. If a person does not accept it, he or she can neither believe in nor live by the tenets of Christianity.
2. A sound faith and a righteous life go hand in hand.
B. I have officiated at over 60 funeral during my ministry.
1. The youngest was a baby boy just 5 ½ weeks old, and the oldest have been 94.
2. And I’ve done funerals for people in almost every decade in between.
3. It is always an honor and a privilege to minister at the time of a person’s death.
4. God has given us such hope about the after life.
5. I know that God cares, and I know that God has wonderful things in store for us in eternity.
C. I want to end with this true story:
Many years ago, when quite young, Paul’s father had one of the first telephones in their St Louis neighborhood.
1. Paul was too little to reach the phone, but he would listen with fascination when his parents talked into it.
2. Then Paul discovered that somewhere inside this wonderful device there lived an amazing person; her name was "Information, Please" and there was nothing she did not know.
3. "Information, Please" could supply anybody’s number and the correct time.
4. Paul’s first encounter with this genie-in-a-bottle came one day while his mother was visiting a neighbor.
5. Playing at his father’s tool bench in the basement, Paul banged his finger with a hammer. The pain was awful, but there was no use in crying because there was no one home to give sympathy.
6. He walked around the house sucking his throbbing finger, when he thought of the telephone!
7. Paul ran for the footstool in the parlor and dragged it to the landing.
8. Climbing up, he lifted the receiver and held it to his ear. “Information, Please,” he said into the mouthpiece. Then a small clear voice spoke into Paul’s ear: “Information.”
9. “I hurt my finger,” Paul wailed into the phone. “Isn’t your mother home?” the operator asked.
10. “Nobody’s home but me” Paul blubbered. “Are you bleeding?” the voice asked. “No,” he replied. “I hit my finger with the hammer and it hurts.”
11. “Can you open your icebox?” she asked. He said he could. “Then take a little piece of ice and hold it to your finger,” said the voice.
After that, Paul called “Information, Please” for everything!
1. He asked her for help with his geography and math homework.
2. Then came the time when Paul’s parakeet died. Paul called and told her the sad story.
3. She listened, and said the usual things grown-ups say to soothe a child, but Paul was inconsolable.
4. He asked her, “Why is it that birds should sing so beautifully and bring joy to families, only to end up as a heap of feathers on the bottom of a cage?”
5. She sensed his grief, and said quietly, “Paul, always remember that there are other worlds to sing in.” Somehow he felt better.
When Paul was nine years old, his family moved from St Louis to Boston.
1. Paul missed his telephone friend very much. “Information, Please” belonged in that old wooden box back home, and he somehow never thought of trying the shiny new phone that sat on the table in the hall at his new home.
2. As he grew into his teens, he appreciated the memory of how patient, understanding, and kind the information lady was to have spent her time on a little boy.
3. A few years later, on his way west to college, Paul’s plane landed in St Louis.
4. He had about an hour between flights. He spent 15 minutes on the phone with his sister, who lived there now.
5. Then without thinking about what he was doing, Paul dialed his hometown operator and said, “Information, Please.”
6. Amazingly, he heard the small, clear voice he knew so well: “Information.”
7. He hadn’t planned this, but he heard himself asking, “Could you please tell me how to spell predicament?”
8. There was a pause, then came the soft spoken answer, “I guess your finger must have healed by now.”
9. Paul laughed. “So it’s really still you,” he said. “I wonder if you have any idea how much you meant to me during my childhood.”
10. “I wonder,” she said, “if you know how much your calls meant to me. I never had any children, and I used to look forward to your calls.”
11. Paul told her how often he had thought of her over the years and asked if he could call her again when he came back to visit his sister.
12. “Please do,” she said. “Just ask for Sally.”
Three months later Paul was back in St Louis, on his way home for Christmas Break.
1. A different voice answered, “Information.”
2. He asked for Sally. “Are you a friend?” She asked. “Yes, a very old friend,” Paul answered.
3. “I’m sorry to have to tell you this,” she said. “Sally has been working part-time the past few years because she was ill. She died five weeks ago.”
4. Before he could hang up she said, “Wait a minute. Is this Paul?”
5. “Yes,” Paul replied. “Well, Sally left a message for you. She wrote it down in case you called. Let me read it to you.”
6. The note said: “Tell Paul I still say there are other worlds to sing in. He’ll know what I mean."
(Story found in “Life Everylasting” by Robert Leroe)
D. Brothers and sisters, our God has another world for us to sing in, and what great singing we will do there, along with whatever other wonderful things God has in store for us.
1. Christ indeed has risen and so will we.
2. Let us live every day with the hope of the resurrection keeping us faithfully serving the Lord.
3. And let us remember that our labor in the Lord is not in vain!
Resources:
The (Im)Perfect Church (Studies in 1 Corinthians), Rubel Shelly, 21st Century Christian, 1983.
First Corinthians (Interpretation – A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching), Richard Hays, John Knox Press, 1997.
1 Corinthians (The NIV Application Commentary), Craig L. Blomberg, Zondervan, 1994.
1 Corinthians (Bible Study Guide), Charles R. Swindoll, Insight For Living, 1977.
“The Resurrection of the Dead” Sermon by John A. Huffman, Jr., October 8, 2006.
“Life Everlasting” Sermon by Robert Leroe (SermonCentral.com)
