The challenge of the ressurection

Text:

English Standard Version Chapter 15

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Scripture Reading: 1 Corinthians 15:50–58

Introduction: In his journal John Wesley tells of his mother’s death. “We stood around the bed and fulfilled her last request: ‘Children, as soon as I am released, sing a psalm of praise to God.’ ”

How powerful our lives would be if we would radiate such hope and faith in the hour of our death. Actually, there is no reason why we can’t; we are all partakers of the same hope.

Throughout this chapter we have seen Paul seek to prove and to explain the resurrection. Now in these closing verses he presents the challenge of the resurrection. The word “therefore” in verse 58 introduces our practical duty. Great truths ought to lead always to noble living. Paul tells us here that the resurrection should challenge us to three things.

1. The resurrection should challenge us to faithfulness

2. The resurrection should challenge us to diligence

3. The resurrection should challenge us to confidence

Point I. The resurrection should challenge us to faithfulness (v. 58).

1. Paul’s words are, “Be steadfast, unmovable.” These words spur us to have a firmness, a stability in faith.

2. The resurrection should cause us to remain loyal to Jesus regardless of our circumstances.

A. Corinth was a hard place to live the Christian life. In this seaport town and center of pagan worship, temptations and trials constantly confronted the Christians.

Some Corinthian Christians had started to return to there old way of life.

b. However, Paul still asserted that the resurrection was motivation enough to keep the Corinthians true to Christ.

B. Just as the Corinthians were barraged with temptations, so are we.

a. It is not easy for us to live a consistent Christian life in our town.

b. But we must stay true to Christ.

c. A very simple and perhaps overworked illustration of how we need to act is that of a postage stamp. It takes a beating every time it goes to work. It may be pounded, crushed, and hidden under a pile of other mail with none to see or care. Yet it sticks to its task until the work is done.

Do you dare to be a “postage stamp” Christian.

d. Through fair weather and foul, through lickings, poundings, and obscurity, stick to your faith.

Point II. The resurrection should challenge us to diligence (v. 58).

1. Paul says we should be “always abounding in the work of the Lord.”

A. What is the work of the Lord?

a. It is doing good to others in the name of Jesus Christ.

The story goes something like this. A man in a small town noticed an elderly widow who came to church every Sunday at First Baptist Church Columbus. She always slipped in quietly, sat near the back, and left before anyone could speak with her. Her clothes were clean but worn, and her hands trembled as she held her, Bible.

One winter morning, the man saw her struggling to start her car in the parking lot. The engine wouldn’t turn over, and the cold wind cut through her thin coat. He could have hurried home—but instead, he walked over, gently asked if he could help, and stayed with her. After a while, it became clear the car wasn’t going anywhere.

So he did something simple but costly—he handed her his own car keys.

She resisted at first, embarrassed and unsure, but he smiled and said, “Ma’am, I want you to take my car. I’ll figure something out.

Tears welled up in her eyes as she took the keys. She drove home that day not just with transportation—but with a renewed sense that God had not forgotten her.

Later, when asked why he did it, the man simply said, “Jesus didn’t just tell me to love people—He showed me how. And sometimes love looks like inconvenience, sacrifice, and giving away what you might need… so someone else can see Him.”

Sermon takeaway: When we do good in the name of Jesus, it’s rarely about grand gestures—it’s about reflecting His heart in real, tangible ways. Sometimes the clearest picture of Christ someone will ever see… is you.

b. Jesus went about doing good.

c. He fed the hungry, helped the sick, befriended the outcasts, and sought the lost.

d. We should follow his pattern.

B. To what extent are we to be involved in the work of the Lord?

a. We are to “abound” in his work.

b. This word describes a river that runs over its banks. It has flooded the countryside.

c. The resurrection should challenge us to work diligently for the Lord.

d. Some people abound in the work of their political party, civic club, or fraternal order.

e. God should have first claim on us.

Point III. The resurrection should challenge us to confidence (v. 58).

1. Paul motivates us to persevere when he says, “knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. [1].”

a. We need such a reminder that our work is not wasted when we work for him.

A. Many lives are empty and meaningless.

a. People continually give their first-rate loyalty to second-rate causes.

b. Their priorities are out of order with their values.

A pastor wakes up on a beautiful Sunday morning. The sun is shining, the sky is clear, and he thinks to himself, “I just need a break.” So instead of going to church, he gets somebody to fill in for him and quietly drives out of town to a golf course where no one will recognize him.

Up in heaven, an angel looks at God and says, “Are You going to let him get away with this?”

God says, “Just watch.”

The pastor tees off on the first hole—and hits a perfect shot. The ball sails through the air, lands on the green, rolls straight to the hole… and drops in. A hole-in-one.

The angel is confused. “Why would You bless him like that?”

God replies, “Who is he going to tell?”

C. The resurrection guarantees that our labor for the Lord is never wasted.

a. The view of life of the writer of the book of Ecclesiastes was this: “Vanity, vanity, all is vanity.”

b. In contrast is the view of the apostle Paul, who stands on this side of the cross and the empty tomb and says, “Our labor in the Lord is not in vain.”

c. The difference between an empty life and a fulfilled one is serving the Lord in the certainty of the resurrection.

Conclusion:

When Dr. W. E. Sangster, England’s great Methodist preacher, lay dying with muscular atrophy, he reminded a friend that all his life he had preached that Jesus was adequate for every crisis. Now that he had only a few days to live, he wanted his friend to know that Christ was indeed adequate in the hour of death. He said to him, “Tell everyone it is true; tell them for me that God is wonderfully near his children when they come to the end of life’s road.”

· Do you know Christ? Have you received him as your Lord and Savior?

· If not, do it today. Don’t wait until it is to late.

· He is the one who lived, who died, and who rose again.

· He lives evermore as both Lord and Savior.

[1]The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2025), 1 Co 15:58.