Sermon Tone Analysis

Over the last several Sunday evenings, I have been preaching from a section of Isaiah known as /Isaiah's Little Apocalypse/ which includes chapters 24, 25, 26 and 27.

In using this title, scholars and students of the prophecy of Isaiah mean that these chapters remind us of the apocalyptic type of writing that we find in the /Book of Daniel/ and /The Revelation/.

In other words, there is an unveiling of the future in a tremendously significant way.

So this is the little apocalypse and in this little apocalypse we saw last time that Isaiah especially draws our attention to a coming Tribulation of truly ‘biblical proportions’, the overthrow of the kingdoms of this world, and the establishment of God’s rule on earth.

Tonight we look at the most significant event that will take place at the end of the age—the resurrection of believers.

A more contemporary version of this passage—the New Century Version—gives us a good sense of what the prophet is saying:

/“Your people have died, but they will live again; their bodies will rise from death.

You who lie in the ground, wake up and be happy!

The dew covering you is like the dew of a new day; the ground will give birth to the dead.”/

(Isaiah 26:19, NCV)

As Christians we often see the resurrection as a New Testament doctrine.

Like many biblical doctrines, the theology of resurrection finds its fullest explanation in the New Testament.

However, like all Biblical doctrines, it finds its antecedents in the Old Testament.

Isaiah was confident that Israel’s believing dead will be resurrected.

Other prophets, like Daniel, teach us that the resurrection of Old Testament saints will someday be a reality.

/“And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.”/

(Daniel 12:2, ESV)

For a nation that has experienced the discipline of God through the aggression of her neighbors, this verse thus constitutes a glorious declaration of triumph for the Jews.

Those who have died are His; for that reason they shall live.

This is the great promise of God to His people—we shall live again.

To more fully understand the doctrine of the resurrection, let me ask you to turn to the 15th chapter of 1 Corinthians.

!

I. OUR RESURRECTION IS NOT IN DOUBT (1 Cor.

15:20-23)

#.

Christianity rises or falls upon the validity of the resurrection of Jesus Christ

#. this is why two thirds of the Gospels are devoted to that event

#. if Christ is not risen, then our faith is futile

#. the apostle Paul says it best when he writes:

* /“If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.”/

(1 Corinthians 15:19, ESV)

* ILLUS.

One commentator writes: /“To reject the resurrection eviscerates the gospel.

It disembowels the gospel and makes our faith in vain – literally without success – because we have put our hope in an unworthy object.”/

#. believing in the gospel includes holding firmly to believe in Christ’s resurrection

!! A. SOME DOUBTED THE RESURRECTION

#. there were evidently some believers in the church at Corinth who denied the validity of the resurrection—both Jesus’ and ours

* /“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, ESV)

* ILLUS.

In a world dominated by Greek thought and philosophy, the doctrine of the resurrection was often received with skepticism.

Most Greek philosophers and intellectuals considered the human body a prison, and they actually welcomed death as a deliverance of the soul from it’s earthly bondage.

Remember when the Apostle Paul went to Athens his message of the Gospel was received with interest until he got to the part of the resurrection of Jesus.

At that point some actually laughed at Paul.

#. nor was the doctrine of the resurrection universally held by the Jews of antiquity

#. most believed in it; some did not

#.

both the bible and contemporary historians of the New Testament era tell us that the Sadducees did not believe in a resurrection of the body

* /“There came to him some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection,”/ (Luke 20:27, ESV)

#. the Sadducees were the political conservatives of their day, they were aristocratic and the social group from whom the Jewish High Priest was chosen

#. interestingly to me, some of today’s greatest skeptics of the resurrection profess to be Christians

* ILLUS.

One of the most influential figures in New Testament Scholarship today is John Dominic Crossan.

He is closely connected with the ‘Jesus Seminar’—a theological think tank that over the last decade have spent their time debunking the New Testament.

Crossan’s blunt assessment of the resurrection?

/"I do not think that anyone, anywhere, at any time brings dead people back to life."/

Thomas Sheehan, another fellow of the Seminar, put it even more directly: /"Jesus, regardless of where his corpse ended up, is dead and remains dead."/

#. sadly, these are the men writing the books used by many of America’s

#. these are the men delivering the lectures at schools of religion and influencing the faith of a generation of Mainline Protestant denominations

#. they believe that the resurrection needs to be debunked and that Christ’s resurrection appearances were simply the pious of visions of believers who saw “with eyes of faith” what they wanted to see

#. they have “spiritualized” the resurrection

#. they claim that when we are saved we are “raised” or “resurrected” to a “new life” – a new way of living

#. the physical resurrection, they maintain, is absurd and that belief in Jesus' resurrection did not depend on what happened to his body

#. after all, intelligent, thinking people know that the dead cannot come back to life

* ILLUS.

Rudolf Bultmann, the godfather of modern theological skepticism, wrote: /“It is impossible to use electric light and to avail ourselves of modern medical and surgical discoveries and at the same time believe in the New Testament world of demons and spirits.”/

#. folks, all I can say to that is leave me alone in my ignorance and faith in God’s word!

#. there will always be doubters and skeptics

!! B. THE WORD OF GOD AFFIRMS THE RESURRECTION

#. the Scriptures teach that we will all take part in a bodily resurrection, and if God’s word says it I believe it whether-or-not it can explain scientifically, philosophically or theologically

#.

Christianity is in its very essence a resurrection religion

#. the scandal of the empty tomb is at the heart of our faith

#. the claim that Jesus actually rose from the dead on the third day is perhaps the greatest scandal of authentic Christianity in the face of modern secularism

#. the doctrine is hinted at in the Old Testament

#.

Old Testament saints looked beyond this life, but for the most part they trusted in God without clear information about His ultimate plan for them

#. but every once in a while we see a snippet of the doctrine

#. in the book of job, a statement which is familiar to most of us: /‘For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me’/ (Job 19:25–27)

#.

Psalms 16 and 17 give clear evidence of belief in the resurrection and for that reason they were quoted by Peter and Paul in their preaching in the early days of the Christian Church

#. thirteen hundred years after Abraham, Isaiah revealed that God would /“swallow up death forever”/ (Is.

25:8), and that at some point /“your dead shall live;… [their bodies] shall rise”/ (26:19)

#. nevertheless, the doctrine of the resurrection, while taught, is not developed fully in the Old Testament

#. the doctrine of the resurrection is, however, clearly taught in the New Testament

#.

Jesus preached the resurrection

* /“Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice, and will come out ... ”/ (John 5:28, ESV)

#. the apostle Peter based his Pentecost sermon on the resurrection of Jesus Christ

* /“Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know— ... God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.”/

(Acts 2:22, 24, ESV)

#. the apostle Paul affirms the resurrection in the strongest of terms

* /“But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep ... For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.”/

(1 Corinthians 15:22, ESV)

!! C. BECAUSE CHRIST WAS RESURRECTED WE WILL BE TOO

* /“For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.”/ (Romans 6:5, ESV)

* /“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.”/

(1 Corinthians 15:20–23, ESV)

#. all the dead will one day appear before God to be judged (Rev.

20:11–15)

#. this “recall,” however, is not what the Bible means by resurrection

#. resurrection is a transformation to a new state of being, and it is reserved for believers

#.

Our Resurrection Is Not in Doubt

!

II.

OUR RESURRECTION BODY WILL BE A SPIRITUAL BODY BUT WITH PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS (1 Cor.

5:35-49)

#. the Christians at Corinth had questioned the apostle Paul, /“How are the dead raised?

With what kind of body will they appear?”/