Resurrection!

SERMON OUTLINE:

Proved by the message of the Gospel (vs 1)

Proved by his testimony (vs 5-9)

Proved by scripture (vs 3b-5)

SERMON BODY:

Ill:

• Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola have always battled to be the world’s best-selling drink:

• But in two countries were they have failed;

• In Peru they are outsold by ‘Inca-Cola’,

• And in Scotland ‘Irn-Bru’ continues to be more popular.

• When they both tried to conquer the Chinese market,

• Both companies encountered problems with translation:

(a).

• Coca-Cola (Ke-Kou-Ke-La ) translated as “Bite the wax tadpole”

• So they experts got busy and they researched the 40,000 Chinese characters;

• They managed to find a close match.

• Ko-Kou-Ko-Le;

• Which translates as “Happiness in the mouth”.

(b).

• When I was growing up as a kid Pepsi-Cola had a very famous catch phrase;

• Which was “Come alive with Pepsi”

• Unfortunately when translated into Chinese it read

• “Pepsi brings your ancestors back to life”.

Well what Coca & Pepsi cannot do, Christians believe God can and has and will do!

• The Christian hope is not just salvation for the spirit,

• Like Jesus the Bible teaches we too shall have a physical resurrection!

• God will resurrect our bodies and unite it with our spirits;

• Never forget salvation will be a full & complete process!

Ill:

• In the Bible;

• There are a number of accounts of People Raised miraculously from the Dead;

• Let me emphasises the word ‘miraculous’ – it required the power of God almighty!

• A few quick examples.

• i.e. Elijah raised the son of the Zarephath widow from the dead (1 Kings 17:17-22).

• i.e. Elisha raised the son of the Shunammite woman from the dead (2 Kings 4:32-35).

• i.e. A man was raised from the dead when his body touched Elisha’s bones (2 Kings 13:20, 21).

• In the New Testament Jesus spoiled every good funeral he ever went to;

• He kept ‘interfering’ and bringing the dead person back to life!

• i.e. Jesus raised the son of the widow of Nain from the dead (Luke 7:11-15).

• i.e. Jesus raised the daughter of Jairus from the dead (Luke 8:41, 42, 49-55).

• i.e. Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead (John 11:1-44).

• In our recent studies in the book of Acts (History book of the early Church);

• We studied the apostle Peter who raised Dorcas from the dead (Acts 9:36-41).

• And we will study Eutychus who was raised from the dead by apostle Paul (Acts 20:9, 10).

Ill:

• We live in a world dominated by new life and death:

• Birth Rate/Death Rate:

• (According to The World Factbook (CIA)

• https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/index.html)

• 131.4 million births per year

• 55.3 million people who die each year

• 360,000 births per day

• 151,600 people die each day

• 15,000 births each hour

• 6,316 people die each hour

• 250 births each minute

• 105 people die each minute

• 4 births each second of every day

• Almost 2 people die each second

We live in a world that constantly is experiencing both death and new life:

• And different people and different cultures;

• Have a variety of beliefs regarding death and the after-life.

• This letter (1 Corinthians) was written to the Church at Corinth;

• To people who were Greek.

• To people who had been influenced all their lives by Greek culture and philosophies ;

• Regarding death and resurrection.

Ill:

• In his book ‘Fan The Flame’ by J. Stowell;

• He tells of when he was in West Africa - Timbuktu to be exact.

• He met some missionaries and they were telling him;

• That in that culture the larger the women were the more beautiful they were thought to be.

• In fact, a young missionary who had a small, trim wife;

• Said that the nationals had told him she was a bad reflection on him

• And he obviously was not providing well enough for her.

• A proverb in that part of Africa says that;

• “If your wife is on a camel and the camel cannot stand up, your wife is truly beautiful”.

TRANSITION:

• When the apostle Paul went to Corinth, Greece;

• He discovered that they too had some very different ideas regarding life and death;

• Ideas that were very different to that of the Jewish faith;

• And therefore very different from the Christian faith;

• Which is rooted in Judaism;

• And therefore we share a common understanding on many issues.

Ill:

• The Jews thought of the ‘Soul’ as a breathing body;

• The body and soul were one like Siamese twins.

• The signal ‘SOS’ (‘save our souls’) actually comes from Jewish/Hebrew thinking;