Resurrection Transformation

1 Corinthians 15:1–58 ESV

Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed. Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For “God has put all things in subjection under his feet.” But when it says, “all things are put in subjection,” it is plain that he is excepted who put all things in subjection under him. When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all. Otherwise, what do people mean by being baptized on behalf of the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized on their behalf? Why are we in danger every hour? I protest, brothers, by my pride in you, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die every day! What do I gain if, humanly speaking, I fought with beasts at Ephesus? If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.” Wake up from your drunken stupor, as is right, and do not go on sinning. For some have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame. But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?” You foolish person! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body. For not all flesh is the same, but there is one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish. There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is of one kind, and the glory of the earthly is of another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory. So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is 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. Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

Introduction

“Death is only the beginning.” This is said in the action movie The Mummy (directed by Stephen Sommers [Universal Pictures, 1999]) to emphasize the Egyptian belief of the afterlife. In the 2009 movie Sherlock Holmes (directed by Guy Ritchie [Warner Bros, 2009]), the dark character Lord Blackwood also says these words before his supposed execution. The phrase gives us an idea that there is more than this life, and that life continues after death.

Implication from last weeks message - Life Now

Lazarus is different though in not the transformation - healing

What other implications for our lives?

60 - The Resurrection Has Implications on Our Lives.

1. In his commentary on 1 Corinthians, Leon Morris provides the context of chapter 15 and what the Corinthian church was wrestling with, saying, “They may have held the typical Greek view of the immortality of the soul and rejected any idea that the body would rise. Death for such meant the liberation of the soul from its prison in the body. … They may have held that the resurrection life believers live now is all the resurrection there is” (Leon Morris, 1 Corinthians, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries 7, 2nd ed. [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1985], 205–6). Paul wants to show the theological and practical problems with this thought. “For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins” (1 Corinthians 15:16–17). Paul wants to stress that the resurrection of Jesus and the coming resurrection of all believers carries significant weight for the life of the believer.

So, everyone in the ancient world believed in an after-life, but usually some sort of disembodied spiritual experience. - Today, there are a lot of people who do not believe in even an afterlife

Greek thought the Body was evil, but the spirit of a person was pure and that is what will last forever.

Paul, here is not arguing for an afterlife - But a bodily, physical resurrection after-life.

Paul insists on this, and that there are implications that are different than just expecting an after-life as a disembodied soul.

Paul insists that there were many reliable witnesses to the resurrection of Jesus. - The readers can check his sources.

Paul insists that if there is no such thing as bodily resurrection, then neither did Jesus rise from the dead.

One negative implication - In other words the Implication if there is No Resurrection of the Body - Then Christianity is a scam.

“Too many pew sitters in contemporary conservative churches think of and represent heaven as an “air-fairy,” ethereal kind of existence to which they do not really look forward. Even referring to the life to come simply as “heaven” points out a serious misconception. The biblical hope is for believers to experience all of the wonders and glories of a fully re-created heavens and earth (Rev. 21-22). We will enjoy one another’s fellowship as well as God’s presence in perfect happiness. We will not sit on our private clouds with wings and harps periodically to dispel our eternal boredom! The new earth is centered in the new Jerusalem, a city of bustling activity.” - Craig Blomberg.

Quotes from Commentary about

- Explanation of Flesh and Blood.

“Frail mortal humanity cannot survive in God’s eternal perfect holy presence. “Flesh and blood in verse 50 was a stock idion in Jewish circles for a “mere mortal” and does not contradict what Paul has already stressed, that the resurrection experience is a bodily on.” - Craig Blomberg

Ok Paul, You believe in a bodily resurrection, but How?

61 - We Expect Transformation because of the Resurrection.

Paul uses a number of analogies to explain the How question. Basically we need a Transformation - Metamorphisis.

62 - Butterfly Transformation Video

- Idea in Judaism - Humans are not given a soul, but are a soul

“Paul’s teaching about the bodily resurrection arises out of a Jewish anthropology in which the “soul” is the animating principle of human life. In mainstream Jewish thought human beings do not have a soul, they are a soul.” - L.J. Kreitzer - Dictionary of Paul and His Letters.

63-67 - Picture Illustration of Corruptible Nature "Living Soul," When You Become a Believer - With the Seed of the Holy Spirit - Then the Transformation into a Spiritual Body.

68 - Illustration of Jesus' Body with Texts.

- A Physicality - could eat, drink, could be touched.

- A transcendence to it - Could walk through walls, appear, disappear.

- Recognizeable - The Disciples eventually recognized him.

- Jesus went through a glorification process - "Not a Twinkling of the eye?" - His comment to Mary Don't touch me yet as my full glorification has not happened yet.

Healing is a foretaste of Transformation Power, but it is a foretaste, it restores our corruptible body, but does not Transfrom it completely. It is a taste of the Now, but not yet in its fullness

Lazarus is different though in not the transformation - healing

- This Transformation is for New Heaven and New Earth Living. Ruling over Creation with Christ as was intended in the beginning. - Image Bearers of Christ - We were meant to be bodied creatures ruling over a physical world.

So What is the Implication of the Transformation

69 - Implication # 2: Living With Hope.

1. The resurrection is not just a moment in biblical history but the beginning of what God is going to do in us. Through the resurrection, believers have an eternal hope. Salvation, not going to hell, being saved, born again, or any other Christian concept of salvation hinges on the resurrection. Paul stresses this importance in 1 Corinthians 15: “Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?” (1 Corinthians 15:12).

1. N. T. Wright describes the importance of the resurrection: “With the resurrection of Jesus a new world has dawned in which forgiveness of sins is not simply a private experience; it is a fact about the cosmos. Sin is the root cause of death; if death has been defeated, it must mean that sin has been dealt with. But if the Messiah has not been raised, we are still in a world where sin reigns supreme and undefeated so that the foundational Christian belief, that God has dealt with our sin in Christ, is based on thin air and is reduced to whistling in the dark” (N. T. Wright, Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church [New York: Harper Collins, 2008], 247).

Implication #1 - We have Hope - An Expectation. Jesus, when he was raised from the Dead gave us a concrete picture of what Life is like beyond the grave. The end is not the end. - We know the end of the story of our own lives, but also of the World.

Implication #2 - Mike I believe will talk more about this one.

Corinthian View - material is evil, spirit is pure. So what you do with your body in this life does not matter.

Paul and the resurrection - vs 56-58 - What we do in our body today matters, because there is continuity. Yet we need a total transformation. - But here I want to emphasize, because the Resurrection, or the after-life is not just about you.

We are being transformed to fulfill God’s plan for humanity to be His image bearers to care for the earth, which has the curse of sin removed from it.

Conclusion:

- Do you have hope in the Resurrection? Are you ready for a transformation?