Sermon Brief
Date Written: April 18, 2014
Date Preached: April 20, 2014
Where Preached: OPBC (AM)
Sermon Details:
Series Title: A Series from 1 Corinthians
Sermon Title: The Importance of the Resurrection
Sermon Text: 1 Cor 15:1-23 [NLT]
Introduction:
What we have learned so far is that the believers in the church at Corinth were under spiritual duress & the Apostle Paul wrote this letter to address the issues they were facing!
Paul encouraged them by letting them know how much he loved and cared for them AND that he believes God is NOT done with them!
Several weeks ago we saw Paul reminding them about the foundation he had laid for them…a foundation of Jesus, & that anyone who attempted to build on that foundation must use WORTHY building materials…
Then we looked at the final part of ch3 (v18-23) where Paul was admonishing & warning the church to realize & KNOW what they had in Jesus! He warned them to NOT be deceived by false teaching…
Then last week we made a leap forward in the letter, all the way to the final 18 verses of chapter 11 where we learned to not pervert what God holds sacred:
Paul admonished them about their IGNORACE of God’s sacred…
Paul proper administered INSTRUCTION about God’s sacred…
Paul warned them about being IRREVERENT toward God’s sacred…
This morning we are going to leap forward once again in Paul’s letter and we are going to jump all the way to ch15 and look at the 1st 23 verses of that chapter!
This past Friday was a very solemn and holy day for ALL believers AND for those within our membership who participated in our Good Friday services! We came together as a body to remember and commemorate what Jesus did for us…
We learned ALL about the sacrifice He made on the Cross of Calvary… we connected the act of the Lord’s Supper to what Paul called in this letter, “the message of the Cross” and that the message of the Cross was central to our faith.
As we have learned Paul was up against tremendous odds in dealing with this church. First he was NOT present among them and although they loved and respected him, he was NOT there on day to day basis that would enable him to counter any teaching that was contrary to the Gospel.
Paul was battling a heresy being taught that was dismissive of the message of the Cross. These new teachers had convinced many within the fellowship that the message of the cross was too harsh and unnecessary, and it had been made non-essential to these believers.
Paul goes on the offensive here as he is in most cases within this letter, but when we read Paul’s words we find out that he cared deeply for all whom he had worked and that this was a letter of love to them.
He saw them straying from the truth and from the foundation he had established when planting the church several years before… the foundation found in the ‘message of the Cross’ in that Jesus died on Calvary, was buried in a borrowed tomb and raised to life on the 3rd day…
This foundational message was being replaced because many believed it too simple and to shameful to teach, so they shaped a message that eliminated the cross, his death and resurrection.
Well let me put it this way, there were tell-tell signs that a drift had occurred… there had been a shifting of beliefs within the body of believers and Paul knew that this was BAD for the fellowship!
These false teachers had convinced MANY that the msg of the cross was NOT important to salvation… in fact Paul saw their teaching revealing that the message of the Cross was viewed as foolish or a stumbling block.
These views had caused MANY members of this fellowship to stray from the truth… to drift from the foundation of Christ as Him being the source of their redemption.
They had literally begun to slide off the foundation laid in Jesus by Paul several years before! The cross was NO LONGER being viewed as central to their faith and salvation…
But Paul wanted them to understand that they could NOT accept this teaching, but must come to the truth of what God intended and it was that the resurrection was VITAL to the message of the cross and without the resurrection, all they were doing was useless!
IMPORTANCE Re-Established - V1-4
1Let me now remind you, dear brothers and sisters, of the Good News I preached to you before. You welcomed it then, and you still stand firm in it. 2It is this Good News that saves you if you continue to believe the message I told you—unless, of course, you believed something that was never true in the first place. 3I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. 4He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said.
The message of the Cross that Paul lays out in v.3-4 reveal the central core to the Christian faith. Without these things, all else is futile…
Paul wants to take these believers BACK to when he came and when he shared this message with them… He wants them to remember the ‘Good News’ he preached to them when he first came to Corinth…
He wants them to remember how they had accepted the ‘Good News’ as truth and that ‘Good News’ was the foundation upon which Paul planted a church…
This ‘Good News’ was the foundation this church had stood upon for the past several years and now there were men coming trying to build something vastly different on this foundation… in fact their teaching was chipping away and seeking to discard the very foundation upon which the church had been established.
This issue represents a major problem and a HUGE shift in teaching for this fellowship. We can know that what was being taught when Paul writes this letter was different by the way Paul addresses them in v1 when he wrote, “…let me remind you now…”
He wanted to bring them back to where they had first experienced Christ. He had come to Corinth many years before and had established the Good News and started a church within this city, but now that Good News he had established was being changed, subverted and treated as foolish!
Paul wanted to RE-ESTABLISH the importance of this good news with this fellowship. Re-establish the importance of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ! The central core of their faith… people were attempting to change that core and Paul wanted to re-establish with these believers the importance of that foundation!
You know when heresy enters the church it does not come in boldly challenging the truth, but it comes in subtly and subversively using bits of truth but add or subtracting from the truth so as to shake people from the foundation OF the truth!
There are still MANY today who profess to be Christian but yet deny the resurrection, they say everything from how impossible it is to how unimportant it is…
They say things like, “All we need is to live with love and treat each other like we want to be treated, that is what Jesus wanted right?”
The truth is that IS how Jesus wanted us to live…we have established that as our purpose verse and we have developed a purpose statement to go with that verse that we will reveal at the Business meeting next week at our church fellowship.
We are called to live a life of love… we are called to love others as we want to be loved. Those are basic tenants of the Christian life. BUT when someone says that is ALL we need… they have missed out on the truth of the matter. You see we NEED Christ’s death on the cross, burial in the tomb and resurrection from the dead…
It is BECAUSE of that we can live a life of love…
It is BECAUSE of that we can love others as we love ourselves…
We can love because God first loved us is what the Apostle John tells us in one of his letters. The love first shown by God to humanity was that God so loved the world He gave His Son…
God sent Jesus to be the propitiation for our sin… to be the atoning sacrifice for our redemption! We can love because God loved first and that love was made evident in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ!
Paul wanted to bring these believers BACK to the established foundation and RE-ESTABLISH their connection with the Good News and the importance of the message of the Cross!
But not only did Paul wish to bring the people back and re-establish that connection, we can also see Paul wanted to also re-examine this importance to ensure it stuck this time… to ensure that they would NOT fall prey to heresy and false teaching. Let’s look at v12-19 where Paul re-examines the importance of the message of the Cross.
IMPORTANCE Re-Examined (closer look)_v12-19
12But tell me this—since we preach that Christ rose from the dead, why are some of you saying there will be no resurrection of the dead? 13For if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised either. 14And if Christ has not been raised, then all our preaching is useless, and your faith is useless. 15And we apostles would all be lying about God—for we have said that God raised Christ from the grave. But that can’t be true if there is no resurrection of the dead. 16And if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised. 17And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless and you are still guilty of your sins. 18In that case, all who have died believing in Christ are lost! 19And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world.
Now Paul had taught them that the message of the cross was important and now he was asking them a point blank, in your face, question in v12
12But tell me this—since we preach that Christ rose from the dead, why are some of you saying there will be no resurrection of the dead?
This was Paul being blatantly honest with these believers. This was no time for kid gloves or dancing around the issue, Paul goes straight for the issue and wants to re-examine it with them to make sure that they can see the truth found in this message.
Paul says since we have taught you this and you have believed it to be the truth…why are you now questioning it? Why are you contradicting what you learned as truth? Here he is calling out all of the believers who had fallen for this false teaching and challenging them to re-examine what they were saying…
Paul then goes on and examines the fallacy of what they were beginning to believe and teach. Look at v13, 16
13For if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised either.
16And if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised.
Paul examines their logic that the resurrection was not real or was really NOT important and he offers this one very powerful observation… if the resurrection is NOT real, then Jesus is dead!
He mentions this two times in a few short verses… I believe for effect… He wants them to examine what they are teaching and beginning to believe and to honestly understand what their teaching means… if the resurrection is NOT real, then Jesus is DEAD!
Once Paul establishes this basic premise he moves onto why that is a very BAD thing…look at v14, 17
14And if Christ has not been raised, then all our preaching is useless, and your faith is useless.
17And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless and you are still guilty of your sins.
What Paul says here is that if Jesus is still dead, then why are we preaching? If Jesus is dead our faith is worthless! If Jesus is dead then all you believe brings you no redemption for your sin and you are still guilty of your sin before God!
If the resurrection was not real, then Jesus was dead and if Jesus was dead – all of what we are doing as believers is trivial and useless and we are all still mired in the sin that held us in bondage and bound for an eternity of punishment from God.
This was Paul telling these people that IF what they say is true about the resurrection, then it doesn’t matter how they live their lives here in this world, they are already eternally doomed and can do NOTHING about it.
This means that all they were teaching was empty… Paul was getting them to re-examine what they were teaching and to see the fallacy of what they were sharing!
He wanted them to see and understand that without the “Good News”… without the message of the Cross… no teaching was valid or worth anything! Even his…the message of the cross was EVERYTHING!
Then in v19 Paul sums up the futility of any faith that is void of the message of the cross… he says: 19And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world.
Now I want you to understand that Paul was using this approach for dramatic effect. Paul was NOT saying that their teaching plus the message of the cross would have been ok…as Paul would have said, “MAY IT NEVER BE!!”
No… what Paul was saying here is that the message of the Cross… the teaching that taught Jesus died on the cross, was buried in the tomb and raised to life on the 3rd day… that WAS the message…and that was ALL the message! No other addition or subtraction was valid…
These teachers had chipped away at the Good News and had taken these believers down the road denying the truth of the Good News and they were using their own intellectual arguments because they saw the simple message of the cross as foolish…
Paul wants these believers to know and understand that the message of the Cross IS the central core to the faith and without it we are simply to be pitied because we are hopelessly lost!
His point here was that heresy these men had brought into the church was VOID of substance based only on human intellect and understanding and it leaves them LOST and without hope… no matter how they package it, it was hollow and brought NO redemption or forgiveness into their lives!
Paul takes them back to re-establish their connection with the foundational message he had brought to them when he had come and started the church…
Paul then FORCES them to re-examine what is being taught and that the substance of this new teaching is empty and does NOT save you from your sin, but leaves you mired in sin and guilty before God!
Finally we find Paul seeking to RE-ESTABLISH the importance of the message of the Cross. He had revealed the truth they had heard when they had come to Christ and he had revealed that this teaching they were NOW hearing was a false teaching and empty of value for their souls…
So now Paul wants to RE-ESTABLISH what is truly important for the believer… and that is the message of the Cross!
IMPORTANCE Re-Established (what it accomplished) v20-23
20But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. He is the first of a great harvest of all who have died. 21So you see, just as death came into the world through a man, now the resurrection from the dead has begun through another man. 22Just as everyone dies because we all belong to Adam, everyone who belongs to Christ will be given new life. 23But there is an order to this resurrection: Christ was raised as the first of the harvest; then all who belong to Christ will be raised when he comes back.
Look how Paul begins this part of his letter… 20But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. Paul just lays it out there as a matter of fact! Basically he says, “Well you wrong… Christ DID raise from the dead… He IS alive! I know because I have met Him on the road to Damascus!”
Christ IS risen and that is JUST the start… because Christ has risen and conquered death, all those who accept Him as Savior will no longer be held captive by death, but shall also conquer death and will be risen to life eternal! Jesus is but the FIRST of these coming eternal resurrections!
You see many had been raised from the dead before Jesus, but Jesus was the first who was raised from the dead NEVER to die again! Jesus raised a young man to life when his mother was taking him to be buried… but that young man eventually died again.
Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead BUT eventually Lazarus succumbed to death once again… but Jesus was raised from the dead and overpowered the grip death had on this world!
For those who follow Christ … death is NO longer the end, but it is a new beginning! Death no longer holds a choke hold on our lives because we know that in Christ we will be raised to a new and eternal life with Him!
Paul then makes a point here in v21
21So you see, just as death came into the world through a man, now the resurrection from the dead has begun through another man.
His point here reveals that sin and death entered the world thru the wisdom of Adam’s choices… when we look closer at what Paul was saying we can see that human wisdom and human intellect lead to choices that result only in sin and death. There is an emptiness to human wisdom… Adam is proof of this… and these teachers fall into that category!
BUT… in contrast to human wisdom, we find that the resurrection came into this world… that is the resurrection to eternal life… thru one man… Jesus the Christ! Jesus surrendered to the wisdom and leading of the Father and He accomplished victory over death!
With human wisdom… only sin and death are the reward, but when we seek Godly wisdom and surrender to Christ, we receive a resurrection from the dead that brings life eternal with Christ in heaven… a place He has promised for us and a place He has promised to come and get us and take us to it!
Paul clarifies this point a bit further in his next statement, v22:
22Just as everyone dies because we all belong to Adam, everyone who belongs to Christ will be given new life.
Because of Adam’s choices death is in this world and until God destroys death on that last day… death comes to all of humanity. In Hebrews we learn, “…it is appointed upon man to die once and then the judgment…” this means that we are all going to face death!
Unless we are here when Jesus comes again, we will ALL have to face the ugly enemy of death! BUT Paul tells us that even tho’ death hovers out there to pounce on all of humanity, those who know Christ as Savior… death’s grip is not permanent, but in Christ we receive ‘new life’… a life eternal!
Then Paul completes the explanation here by setting the order of things straight… in v23 Paul says:
23But there is an order to this resurrection: Christ was raised as the first of the harvest; then all who belong to Christ will be raised when he comes back.
This order was the God took the initiative and Jesus came and gave His life so that we could know the redemption of God in our lives! What does this verse tell us about redemption?
It tells us that unless Christ died on the cross… unless Christ was buried in that tomb… and unless Christ was risen from the dead that NO ONE would be able to know the redemption of God!
This was God’s plan… Jesus was the 1st of MANY to know the resurrection to eternal life! But until Jesus did it… it was NOT possible to know eternal life! But when Jesus did it, it was for all! Past, present and future!
All who serve and know Christ will experience resurrection to eternal life with God in heaven! All who do NOT serve or know Christ will not receive this resurrection to eternal life in heaven, but Scripture tells us they will be condemned to an eternity of weeping and gnashing of teeth!
Paul wanted the believers in Corinth to know and understand that the message of the cross was VITAL to their redemption and that they cannot separate the death of Jesus on the cross from being a Christian… they go hand in hand and without Christ’s death on the Cross… there is NO Christian!
CONCLUSION:
So what does this mean for us today here in the 21st century? Many today want us to ‘update’ our message and to ‘reform’ it to a more palatable word for the world. The message of the cross is still as offensive and foolish to the world as it was in Paul’s day!
What Paul says and does here lets us know that the message of the Cross is at the very center of who we are as believers and that without the message of the cross… without the RESURRECTION of Christ… this all means NOTHING!
A gospel void of Christ’s death, burial and resurrection is NOT a gospel at all, but merely a human philosophy! Human philosophy can and will only lead to sin and death, but the message of the Cross, as foolish as the world believes it to be… leads to a resurrection to eternal life for all who receive it!
What can we learn from Paul’s teaching?
The gospel is Non-negotiable! We are NOT allowed to change the message of the gospel
The message of the cross is vital to the Christian faith, without it the Christian faith is empty and useless
ANY message devoid of Christ’s death, burial and resurrection is empty and leads to destruction
Human wisdom leads to death but the wisdom of God leads to eternal life and victory over death!
So why is Easter Sunday SOOO very important? WITHOUT the resurrection – our faith falls apart! Today we celebrate the resurrection of our Savior! Today we celebrate the good news and redemption given to us BECAUSE Jesus died, was buried and was raised to life eternal…
What about you this morning? You have heard that the message of the Cross is not only vital but it is the ONLY message for the believer to know redemption… have you openly rec’d the message of the Cross…
Have you confessed with your mouth and believed in your heart that Jesus died on the Cross, was buried in the tomb and was raised to eternal life on the 3rd day?
If you have done that you have been saved… but if you have NOT made that confession, I want you to know that TODAY God has brought you here so that you would hear this message and respond to His calling on your heart!
This morning if you want to experience victory over sin and death… I call on you to step out as Jason begins to play our hymn of invitation and I pray you would come and give your heart to Him today! I want to ask ALL of us to stand as Jason leads us in our hymn of invitation!
