LIVES GIVEN AND RESURRECTED
1 CORINTHIANS 15:29-49
INTRODUCTION: The 15th chapter of 1 Corinthians is an intense doctrinal study on the resurrection. We continue our part by looking at the importance of giving our lives for Christ, and God’s response of resurrecting our lives for Him.
I LIFE GIVEN FOR CHRIST – 1 CORINTHIAN 15:29-34
A Paul Develops The Principle of Belief and Behavior
1 Belief and Behavior are linked
2 Belief determines our action
3 Behavior is the natural growth of our belief.
a Jesus mentioned that the thought of adultery was sufficient enough to have sinned in adultery.
b So then why do we have adulterous people
1 Behavior flows from thought and belief
2 We think sinfully, therefore we act sinfully
B Actions evident of a resurrection
1 Baptism for the dead
a What a can of worms here huh!
b This opens up all kind of issues.
1 Our practice regarding baptism
2 Practice of other regarding baptism
c One of the most wonderful things about the Word of God is that it is so very often its best commentary
1 There is another area of the Scripture that deals with the issue of baptism and death
Matthew 20:22-23 "You don’t know what you are asking," Jesus said to them. "Can you drink the cup I am going to drink?" "We can," they answered.
23 Jesus said to them, "You will indeed drink from my cup, but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared by my Father."
Mark 10:38 "You don’t know what you are asking," Jesus said. "Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?"
Luke 12:50 But I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is completed!
2 Christ Himself associated baptism with death, saying that his own crucifixion was a baptism.
3 SO what Paul is saying is that why would one go through baptism, a public association with Christ, risking death, if the dead are not raised. We wouldn’t!
ILLUSTRATION: -- 03/23/06, The Jerusalem Post: Senior Muslim clerics said Thursday that an Afghan man on trial for converting from Islam to Christianity should be killed regardless of whether a court decides to free him. Abdul Rahman, a 41-year-old former medical aid worker, faces the death penalty for becoming a Christian under Afghanistan’s Islamic laws. His trial, which began last week, has caused an international outcry. US President George W. Bush said Wednesday he was "deeply troubled" by the case and expects the country to "honor the universal principle of freedom."
Diplomats say the Afghan government is searching for a way to drop the case, and on Wednesday authorities said Rahman is suspected of being mentally ill and would undergo psychological examinations to see whether he is fit to stand trial. But four senior clerics interviewed by The Associated Press in their mosques in Kabul said Rahman deserved to be killed for his conversion.
"He is not crazy. He went in front of the media and confessed to being a Christian," said Hamidullah, chief cleric at Haji Yacob Mosque. "The government is scared of the international community. But the people will kill him if he is freed." "He is not mad. The government is playing games. The people will not be fooled," said Abdul Raoulf, cleric at Herati Mosque. "This is humiliating for Islam. ... Cut off his head."
Raoulf is considered a moderate cleric in Afghanistan. He was jailed three times for criticizing the Taliban’s policies before the hard-line regime was ousted by US-led forces in 2001.
2 Daily Service
a Each day – Paul dies
b Dead to himself and alive to Christ
c Why live a life not my own daily
3 Constant Danger
a Why do people go back day after day?
b Why do missionaries put their lives at risk on a regular basis?
THE BATTLE IS WORTH THE REWARD!
Church we need to understand that whatever it is that we are going through, or will go through, it is worth it in the end!
1 Corinthians 2:9 (NIV) 9 However, as it is written: "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him"--
C Paul’s Warning Concerning the Resurrection
1 Corinthians 15:33 Do not be misled: "Bad company corrupts good character."
1 Doubt about the resurrection permits believers to stray
a If someone can get you to doubt the resurrection you will go in one of two directions
1 False teaching regarding our life in Christ
2 Reject Christ altogether
a) Do not be misled
(1) By others
(1) Or by self
(a) When we dabble in things we know are wrong, they get a hold on us
b) Bad company
(1) Associations with evil
(1) Affects even the best of us!
II LIFE RESURRECTED BY CHRIST – 1 CORINTHIANS 15:35-49
A The Question of How The Resurrection Happens
1 Problem with our thinking
a Think we are going to be raised with the same stuff we died with.
1 Yuck!
2 I wouldn’t want that
3 Neither would you
4 What we have now is diseased, crippled, and weak
b New bodies look like the old, but have different materials
B The Greater Within Us – Examples all around us
1 Seeds and plants
a The seed is not the plant
b Seeds differ radically from the plants that come from them.
c God causes the plant to rise from the death of a seed different from the seed, yet alive in itself.
2 Flesh of nature
a Every animal has a flesh different from every other animal.
b Is it so difficult for God who gives such a diversity of flesh, give man a new body at the resurrection
Probably the greatest error man makes concerning the resurrection is:
Matthew 22:28-32 Now then, at the resurrection, whose wife will she be of the seven, since all of them were married to her?" 29 Jesus replied, "You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God. 30 At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. 31 But about the resurrection of the dead--have you not read what God said to you, 32 ’I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead but of the living."
C The Changes God Makes
1 From corruptible to Incorruptable
a Corruptible things age, deteriorate, die, decay, and decompose.
b Incorruptable things never age, never deteriorate, never die, never decay, and never decompose.
2 From dishonor to glory
a Ultimate dishonor is death
b To return to the dust we were created out of
c Scripture says we are raised in glory
1 Able to dwell in the presence of God
3 From weakness to power
a Sickness, disease, and a variety of infirmities and limitations
b Ultimately the human body becomes so weak, it dies.
c Resurrected we will have a mind and body filled with strength, might, health, authority, and control. It will be a perfect body, never subject to disease, accident, or suffering.
4 Man may and will die a natural man, he is raised a spiritual man – fit for heaven and eternal life.
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