Study in 1 Corinthians - Session 19
Study in 1 Corinthians - Session 19 • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 58:25
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· 34 viewsThe basis of the gospel and the importance of resurrection
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Rejoin the people in Corinth
Rejoin the people in Corinth
Something is happening with the believers are Corinth and their belief in who Jesus is. It appears they believe that Jesus might just be another god. So Paul is left with boiling the gospel down to its core to draw their attention to a fact that is indisputable in Paul’s mind.
I would advocate that we struggle with this today in modern “believers”. Jesus, a prophet, a good man, maybe even the Savior, but the idea that he is resurrected from the dead and because of that we can trust that we will be as well? As preposterous as that might sound to someone who truly trust in the Scriptures as truth, many really do feel that way about a historical Jesus. They were living within the lifetime of others who had literally seen a risen Jesus, makes we wonder if Paul thought later generations would struggle all the more.
When you start to think about this text, let me ask you how you would summarize what the gospel is?
1 Corinthians 15:1–2 “1 Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel
which I preached to you,
which also you received,
in which also you stand,
2 by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word (message) which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.”
to stand (maintain) v. — to hold one’s ground; maintain a position; be steadfast or upright.
Paul is about to introduce us to a systematic style of thinking about how he communicated to people the message of the Christ, and we should learn from it.
1 Corinthians 15:3 (NASB95)
3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
Stop for a moment and slow down and read that again in context and be curious.
What Scriptures did they have? Now how does that reshape for you how Paul taught these people about the Christ? How does that impact how you should share that same message?
Let’s look at one of the scriptures that Paul would have been able to reference.
5 But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed. 6 All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him. 7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth. 8 By oppression and judgment He was taken away; And as for His generation, who considered That He was cut off out of the land of the living For the transgression of my people, to whom the stroke was due? 9 His grave was assigned with wicked men, Yet He was with a rich man in His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was there any deceit in His mouth. 10 But the Lord was pleased To crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in His hand. 11 As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, As He will bear their iniquities. 12 Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, And He will divide the booty with the strong; Because He poured out Himself to death, And was numbered with the transgressors; Yet He Himself bore the sin of many, And interceded for the transgressors.
Yes, our focus should be on the redeemer from this text, but we can escape the fact that our sin is the cause of this.
4 and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,
5 and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.
6 After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep;
7 then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles;
Interesting that Jesus appeared to his brother James first. It was so significant in some way that Paul felt it important to call out.
8 and last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared to me also.
Think of “born again.” This meaning of untimely born provides the imagery of premature birth. Keep in mind Paul was born of the Spirit after the resurrection of Jesus. So if the other disciples were more timely born because of the time they had with Jesus, then Paul must have felt some sense of despair that he was not fully able to experience the birthing process of coming into reality like they had by being around Jesus.
9 For I am the least of the apostles, and not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.
Paul even thought proclaiming himself as an Apostle was estranged, seemingly some guilt leftover because of who he was before his encounter with Jesus on the Damascus road.
10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me.
Paul is expressing to himself and to those listening to his letter where his apostleship originates. His labor for this message of the gospel does not qualify him for this apostleship title, it is purely by the grace of God that Paul is accomplishing what is being accomplished.
11 Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.
Who is they? The people that also shared the gospel with the Corinthians like Peter.
12 Now if Christ is preached, that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?
This resurrection conversation was obviously a heated topic. But I have to ask myself, if Jesus is not resurrected than what was his purpose? Would he not have then just have been a prophet if resurrection was not possible? What then happens in a Jewish mind to someone if resurrection is not really a part of the good news? I mean, we look at books like Revelation, but what must a Jew who believes only in the Tanakh believe about their life after this one?
13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised;
Obviously there was a question about the resurrection among believers. Why do you think people were questioning this?
14 and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain.
Paul says that if there is no resurrection, then why would we spend our time following any of these religious practices.
15 Moreover we are even found to be false witnesses of God, because we testified against God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise, if in fact the dead are not raised.
Paul argues that if the resurrection is not true, then he is a false witness. We would be opposing God because in Paul’s mind the resurrection was not debatable.
16 For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised;
If the resurrection of Christ is not true, then the dead are not raised. Logic would say that why would we believe that only Jesus was raised if somehow that was an argument folks were presenting.
17 and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins.
18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.
If there is no resurrection, then people are simply going to perish. So in the Jewish mind this falling asleep is the preferred way of looking at this because to perish is a final thing.
19 If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied.
What a sad life to live it in this manner if there is no resurrection.
20 But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep.
Think of what the first fruits meant to a Jewish audience. Think of the festival.
21 For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead.
This is talking about Adam vs Jesus life.
22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.
We know based on the Genesis account that because of sin, life would now end and not last forever as it was first conceived.
22 Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”—
We see the tree of life in Genesis, where else do we see it in the Scriptures?
23 But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ’s at His coming, 24 then comes the end, when He hands over the kingdom to the God and Father, when He has abolished all rule and all authority and power.
Rule by whom?
What power does that entity have?
25 For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet.
26 The last enemy that will be abolished is death.
An enemy of Jesus is death. His millennial reign will be the rooting out of all the evil that exist today.
27 For He has put all things in subjection under His feet. But when He says, “All things are put in subjection,” it is evident that He is excepted who put all things in subjection to Him.
For Yahweh has put all things in subjection under the feet of the son of man.
6 You make him to rule over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet,
1 The Lord says to my Lord: “Sit at My right hand Until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.”
So what is Jesus doing right now, sitting at the right hand of the Father awaiting the Father to place the Father’s enemies as the footstool of Jesus.
28 When all things are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself also will be subjected to the One who subjected all things to Him, so that God may be all in all.
Once Yahweh is done with this subjecting, then Yahweh will be left with no one even pretending as if they have some control.
29 Otherwise, what will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why then are they baptized for them?
Such a strange practice that we have no antiquity to understand it. There are many thoughts about it, but none that are really supported.
30 Why are we also in danger every hour?
31 I affirm, brethren, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.
32 If from human motives I fought with wild beasts at Ephesus, what does it profit me? If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.
Remember we are talking about resurrection. If resurrection is not true, then what can we truly understand about the dangers we are put in? We would avoid anything that may cost our life for fear that our life would be over.
33 Do not be deceived: “Bad company corrupts good morals.”
34 Become sober-minded as you ought, and stop sinning; for some have no knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame.
Stop hanging out with those people in Corinth that are distracting you from this. You act as if you know Jesus, but upon primary beliefs like the resurrection you act contrary to what is real.
35 But someone will say, “How are the dead raised? And with what kind of body do they come?”
36 You fool! That which you sow does not come to life unless it dies;
37 and that which you sow, you do not sow the body which is to be, but a bare grain, perhaps of wheat or of something else.
38 But God gives it a body just as He wished, and to each of the seeds a body of its own.
Paul is using a physical example to help them understand the spiritual.
39 All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one flesh of men, and another flesh of beasts, and another flesh of birds, and another of fish.
40 There are also heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is one, and the glory of the earthly is another.
41 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.
42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown a perishable body, it is raised an imperishable body;
43 it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power;
44 it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.
The flesh is important, but having only a limited view of this flesh is in error. Do you have sunlight without the sun? We should be thinking of all that is produced by the creation as God intended. The principle of value in the seed is important here.
45 So also it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living soul.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.
46 However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural; then the spiritual.
47 The first man is from the earth, earthy; the second man is from heaven.
48 As is the earthy, so also are those who are earthy; and as is the heavenly, so also are those who are heavenly.
49 Just as we have borne the image of the earthy, we will also bear the image of the heavenly.
He is talking about Jesus here. Jesus remember when he was talking with Nicodemus about how he did not understand heavenly things?
50 Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.
51 Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed,
52 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 will be changed.
53 For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality.
54 But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, “Death is swallowed up in victory.
55 “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”
56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law;
57 but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.
Paul quotes from Hosea here. Reminding Israel that they had fallen away from their one true love. The way back is through Jesus, the Messiah.
