1 Corinthians 15:20-34 - The Reality of Eternity
Notes
Transcript
Introduction:
Good morning, if you have your bibles let me invite you to open with me to 1 Corinthians 15.
If you don’t have a Bible just slip up your hand and one of our church members will be glad to bring you one.
We will begin reading in verse 20 this morning.
If Jesus did not resurrect from the dead, we have no hope of resurrection life.
If Jesus did not raise from the dead, death is permanent.
If Jesus is still dead, This sermon is in vain.
Your faith is in vain.
We are all still in our sins.
And Christians are of all people most to be pitied.
That was the point of verses 12-18 which we studied last week.
That exploration of a hypothetical scenario, however, was the set up for what follows in our text this week.
lets begin with verse 20.
20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
21 For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead.
22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.
23 But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.
24 Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power.
25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.
26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death.
27 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.
28 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.
29 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?
30 Why are we in danger every hour?
31 I protest, brothers, by my pride in you, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die every day!
32 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.”
33 Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.”
34 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.
Lets Pray
There is a direct and inseparable connection between the real, physical, historical resurrection of Jesus AND the promise and power of resurrection for Jesus followers.
This is the big idea of 1 Corinthians 15 as a whole and of this paragraph.
Truth #1 Jesus’ Resurrection Guarantees Our Resurrection
Truth #1 Jesus’ Resurrection Guarantees Our Resurrection
Paul calls Jesus’ resurrection, “the firstfruits”
1 Corinthians 15:20 (ESV)
20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
1 Corinthians 15:23 (ESV)
23 But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.
When God asked the Israelites to give their firstfruits for sacrifice in the temple, he was asking them to give firstfruits on good faith that the full harvest was still to come.
Jesus died, was buried, and then got up from the grave as the firstfruits of a future harvest of resurrection life still to come.
In other words, Jesus’ resurrection was the prequel to the resurrection of all his people.
Jesus taught this when he resurrected his friend Lazarus.
When Lazarus died, Jesus came to consul Mary and Martha as they grieved.
I want us to look at the interaction between Jesus and Martha.
21 Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” 23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24 Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” 27 She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”
Do you believe this?
That Jesus is the resurrection and the life.
Whoever believes this, though he die, yet shall he live.
This is the fundamental claim of the gospel message.
You will die never to rise again unless you believe in this Jesus.
Jesus IS THE way, the truth, and life.
After teaching that foundational teaching, Jesus went on to provide a small scale, temporary, isolated display of what would one day be large scale, and eternal, and for all who trust in him.
38 Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. 39 Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.” 40 Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” 41 So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.” 43 When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” 44 The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”
The miracle of Lazarus’ resurrection was astounding,
but it was but a foreshadow.
Lazarus would live and die again, and his body would be buried once more at a later time.
Jesus’ resurrection was going to be different.
It was a permanent victory over death’s sting.
Jesus rose again never to die again.
Jesus rose victorious with a glorified physical body never to see corruption or death again.
What Jesus promises everyone who believes in him is a resurrection like his.
He is the resurrection and the life, whoever believes in him, though he dies, yet he shall live.
Jesus promised this to us…,
And then Jesus himself conquered death with his own resurrection.
Paul calls Jesus the first fruits, but Paul also refers to Jesus as the new Adam.
Look at verses 21-22
21 For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.
Paul is helping us to understand
what Jesus accomplished
by comparing and contrasting it to what Adam caused.
Adam made an unrighteous decision in the Garden which brought a curse
His unrighteousness had a corrupting effect on all his children after him.
All of us born of Adam are born into a sin nature like Adam,
and all of us are doomed to the same fate.
We die.
Adam was supposed to be a representative of God’s perfect image,
he was supposed to exercise the authority God gave to him to rule over God’s creation…, but he marred the image, failed to rule, and filled the world with sin.
By Adam’s disobedience, Death reigned.
But now, a new man has been born.
God the Son took on human flesh.
A new Adam who perfectly represented God’s image.
And this new Adam, Jesus of Nazareth,
lived a righteous life,
died the cursed death,
and rose again victorious
so that all his children by faith in him might inherit his righteousness and his resurrection life.
Paul is saying that just as Adam’s sin effected all his children after him…,
Now, Jesus’ resurrection effects all his children after him.
All Adam’s children inherit death…
All Jesus’ children by faith will inherit life.
The power of Jesus’ resurrection will spread
And it will reverse all the corruption that Adam’s sin and our sin caused.
Jesus is the new representative of a new humanity.
What he accomplished, he accomplished for us, and united us to him.
This is Paul’s primary point.
Truth #1 Jesus’ Resurrection Guarantees Our Resurrection
Truth #1 Jesus’ Resurrection Guarantees Our Resurrection
but that is not all that it does.
Read on in verse 24.
24 Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power.
25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.
26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death.
Truth #2 Jesus’ Resurrection Guarantees His Eternal Reign
Truth #2 Jesus’ Resurrection Guarantees His Eternal Reign
There is a coming end to the world as we know it…
Every rule,
every authority,
and every power that opposes God will come to a full end.
Paul says there is coming a day where Jesus will destroy all the opposition.
There is coming a day where Jesus the King will present to God the Father a purified kingdom with no sign of sin, nor presence of Satan, nor curse of death.
This coming end will be total victory over everything and everyone evil.
Every king,
every president,
every world religion,
every false god,
every demon,
every cancer cell,
every disease,
every disability,
every temptation,
every covetous thought,
every ounce of pride,
every form of abuse,
every form of loneliness,
all depression,
all anxiety,
all hatred,
all pain,
all grieving,
anything and everything that came as a result of sin’s corruption will be overwhelmed and destroyed by the sovereign power of King Jesus.
This will be total domination and final judgment.
It will include every unbeliever who refuses the grace of God offered in Christ Jesus.
All enemies of God will come under final judgment.
All unbelievers are enemies of God and will find themselves on the wrong side of this victory, unless they repent and believe in Jesus.
The extent of Jesus’ reign will be complete and total reign over all things including death itself.
26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death.
This is the promise, and we have no reason to doubt that it will be fulfilled.
If Jesus can get up from the grave on the third day,
he has power over the grave on the last day
If he can get up from the dead,
he has power to do away with death.
The final destruction of death itself will be the inauguration of our our resurrection life.
That is the coming end, but what is Jesus doing now in the mean time?
Paul is careful to note here, its not as though Jesus is in heaven, out of control, twiddling his thumbs until some future day.
He is active in his reign as king right now.
look at verse 25.
25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.
This sentence assumes that Jesus is reigning right now.
Paul assumes that Jesus rules like a King right now,
but right now he is progressively putting all his enemies under his feet.
He is working to expand his kingdom through us, his kingdom ambassadors.
There is a sense in which with every individual person who repents and believes, a spiritual resurrection happens, and Jesus expands his kingdom just a little bit more.
With every baptism we celebrate the advancement of King Jesus that takes a little more enemy ground.
There is a sense that even as you are fighting for holiness, God is empowering you by his Spirit of resurrection life,
Your fight for holiness is due to Jesus’ reign.
With every sin repented of, Jesus is putting more of God’s enemies in your life under his feet.
Jesus overwhelms and overcomes his enemies right now in the lives of his followers who take up the spiritual armor day by day and push back the forces of evil in our hearts and in the lives of our loved ones.
We Christians are waging a spiritual war that we know will result in total victory, because we know we serve a resurrected Savior.
34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?
36 As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers,
39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Why are we more than conquerors?
Because all things are in subjection to King Jesus.
Paul makes this point in verses 27-28
The wording is a bit confusing, but the primary point is clear:
27 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.
28 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.
Here is the point God the Father put all things in subjection to and under the feet of God the Son, King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
This does not mean, however, that God the Father is under subjection to God the Son.
God the Son does not rule over the Father, or act contrary to the Father’s will.
This is somewhat of aside point, but Paul wants to give some trinitarian teaching here.
Paul is simply confirming what Jesus himself said about the relationship between God the Father and God the Son.
God the Father gives authority to God the Son, but the Son and the Father are always united and have always been united as one.
Jesus prayed in this way in John 17.
1 When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you,
2 since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.
3 And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
4 I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.
5 And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.
Paul’s comment here reflects this holy and eternal dynamic.
God the Son took on human flesh.
God the Father gave God the Son in human flesh all authority over all flesh to give eternal life.
God the Son will give back to the Father all that he conquers on the last day.
Father, Son and Spirit will glory in one another as they had done before the world existed…,
As Paul says in verse 28… in the end God will be all in all…, only now you and I are invited to the fellowship of the eternal personhood of God.
The resurrection of Jesus guarantees this.
It guarantees our future resurrection and his eternal reign both now and forevermore…,
God will be all in all.
and all of this should matter to us.
Verses 29-34 make a big pivot to dismantle some weird practices happening in Corinth, and then to really press in the practical implications of Jesus’ resurrection and reign.
Truth #3 Jesus’ Resurrection and Reign Should Influence How We Live
Truth #3 Jesus’ Resurrection and Reign Should Influence How We Live
The first thing Paul does in verse 29 is to call out a strange practice in Corinth and the inconsistencies of their heresies.
Look at verse 29
29 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?
This is a strange verse.
One commentator referenced at least 13 possible interpretations that scholars debate over.
The plainest reading suggests that there is some group in Corinth who is baptizing on behalf of people who have already died….
The ironic thing is that those same people are saying that there is no future resurrection of the dead to hope for. …
But they are participating in the act of baptism which symbolizes death and resurrection, for people who in there view will never resurrect.
If that is how we are to read this verse, Paul is certainly not condoning or affirming the practice of being baptized on behalf of someone else.
That contradicts both Paul and Jesus’ teaching on baptism and on salvation.
Rather, if this is the right reading, Paul’s aim is to simply show how inconsistent and foolish such pagan heresies are.
Some Corinthians are denying that there is a future bodily resurrection, yet they are being baptized for their dead loved ones, in hopes it some how helps their eternal future.
It is an absurdity.
And Paul aims to make this primary point that the future resurrection of believers is true,
and our confidence in future resurrection should make a difference in how we live and the decisions we make.
Thats what the rest of this section goes on to articulate.
Future resurrection should effect our daily life.
verse 30.
30 Why are we in danger every hour?
31 I protest, brothers, by my pride in you, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die every day!
32 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.”
What difference should resurrection make in our lives as members of St. Rose Community Church?
Well firstly, Resurrection Changes Our View of Difficulty and Death
Paul’s ministry placed him in dangerous situations.
Paul’s ministry placed him in difficult situations.
thus, Paul asks the question, “Why are we in danger every hour?”
The pre-supposed answer is, “because we will rise again”
Paul says he dies every day, meaning he dies to himself.
He dies to his self-governance,
He dies to his independence,
He dies to his sinfulness,
He dies to his natural wants of the flesh.
In Galatians he writes:
20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Paul plunges himself into ministry situations like Ephesus,
Where he says he fought the beasts.
Its unlikely he is talking about real beasts in the colosseum here since he would have likely died if that were the case.
He is more likely talking about the opposition, and persecution, and false teachers in Ephesus.
Im sure their are some pastors out there in difficult church revitalization situations who might identify with that claim, “I fought with the beasts….”
Either way, his point is that his confidence in future resurrection is the only reason he would willingly embrace the difficulty and potential early death in his ministerial life.
Resurrection changes our view of Death and Difficulty precisely because future resurrection changes our view of the meaning of our lives.
the end of verse 32 is a pointed representation of how the Christian worldview changes everything for us.
1 Corinthians 15:32 (ESV)
32 .... If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”
There are two ways to live our lives.
We can eat and drink.
We can seek to satisfy our physical cravings.
We can live for comfort.
We can live for ease.
We can live for whatever the world says we should live for.
We can scroll through media all day as if this life is all there is.
OR
We can seek a higher, fuller, more lasting joy.
We can drink from the living water of our relationship with Jesus.
We can eat the living bread of the word of God.
We can eat and drink from the spiritual depths of God’s love for us for tomorrow even if we die, we shall live.
Future resurrection life is the lens through which Paul saw his own life and made his own decisions.
and in verses 33-34, Paul turns to the reader and begins to give short, snappy, imperatives.
These are takeaways to the paragraph if you will… and so we are going to let Paul drive home the takeaways this morning.
What do we do with all this?
#1 Wake Up to the Reality of Eternity
#1 Wake Up to the Reality of Eternity
look at verse 34:
1 Corinthians 15:34 (ESV)
34 Wake up from your drunken stupor, as is right, and do not go on sinning….
Our spiritual tendency is a slow drift into a drunken stupor.
We sleepily coast along in life forgetting the most important things,
As we drink the intoxicating drink of all the world offers…
we slowly become distorted in our vision,
and clouded in our thinking.
Paul urges the reader to wake up and to stop sinning.
It may seem like a harsh way to say it, but this is a gracious word.
Paul’s exhortation means that there is opportunity to wake up and repent!
this means repentance is offered as a gift.
You don’t have to sleepily coast along in the Christian life as if the future resurrection is not true.
You don’t have to waste your life.
By the grace of God, according to the power of God’s Spirit you can wake up…
Do you feel that you need to wake up this morning….
Do you feel like you are in a sleepy spiritual stupor?
What does living in light of eternity look like for you?
If eternal life with our God is true,
If Jesus reigns,
How does it effect your calendar,
your disposition toward your spouse
or treatment of that co-worker or church member who has wronged you?
How does it effect your parenting, your prayer life, your evangelism, your anxieties, your highest ambitions?
What does waking up to the reality of eternity look like for you this morning?
In verse 33, Paul acknowledges sometimes its not just that we are asleep to the hope of future resurrection…. sometimes we are deceived by the surroundings we are immersed in.
33 Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.”
#2 Surround Yourself with a Community Focused on Eternity
#2 Surround Yourself with a Community Focused on Eternity
Paul suggests that one of the contributing factors to Corinthian deception was the company they chose to keep.
They were easily influenced by their surroundings
They were deceived by those whom they were around.
Its true for them,
Its true for us,
Find brothers or sisters whom Paul would call good company…
Find people in your life who encourage you to spend your life for Jesus,
We all need this.
We all need friends in the context of our faith community who will call us to wake up…,
not sing us to spiritual sleep because they like the company in their spiritually apathetic lives.
You are impressionable…
Your smart phone influences you…,
Your family, your friends, your co-workers influence you…
And your church family can influence you for good…
33 Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.”
You need a village of people in your life who will remind you that Jesus reigns, and that resurrection life is worth every sacrifice.
Lastly,
#3 Share the Message with Urgency
#3 Share the Message with Urgency
34 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.
As Paul calls the believers to wake up…,
He acknowledges that there are some in their midst who have no real knowledge of God at all.
The lifestyle and doctrine of the Corinthian church, had made it easy for some in their midst to fellowship with them without having any real knowledge of God.
And Paul says this is to your shame.
To be so much like the world…, that a church does not or cannot notice when someone in their midst does not have any knowledge of God at all.
May it not be so at our church.
Jesus’ Resurrection Guarantees Our Resurrection
Jesus’ Resurrection Guarantees His Eternal Reign
Jesus’ Resurrection and Reign Should Influence How We Live Our Lives
Lets