Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Introduction

Introduction

This week I found myself deep into the comment sections of a blog post written by Scot McKnight on patheos.com,

titled “Women and the Public Reading of Scripture.”[1]

McKnight was responding to an article that was written by the popular, theologically conservative blogger, Tim Challies.

Patheos.com would be a good example of a left leaning theologically liberal website community.

As the debate raged in the comments section, one commenter wrote,

I could deny the trinity, deny the divinity of Christ, deny that he came in the flesh or that he was really raised from the dead and I would get a more sympathetic hearing from most of the commenters than I would if I advocated Challies' position [on women not reading scripture in church].

Sadly, instead of anyone rejecting this dramatic statement, one commenter went on to write:

None of those positions deny the humanity and equality of half the human race.

They are abstract beliefs that don't directly impact living, breathing people.

That's why I'm so quick to dismiss garbage like this, it is not just a theological game.

It appears that many in this comment section, who would consider themselves Christians, consider the divinity and humanity of Christ and the reality of his resurrection as “abstract beliefs that don’t directly impact, living, breathing people.”

For them, a discussion on the resurrection is just a “theological game.”

Yet consider the practical implications that Paul shares with us if we deny the resurrection.

Paul believes that if there was no resurrection then all our hopes would be dashed and we should plunge into grief.

Our faith would be annihilated.

Our preaching and any gospel communication would be in vain.

Those who died before us would have all perished.

We would all be left in our sins.

As a result of being left in our sins, we might as well live a life entirely focused on our own desires and the temporal happiness of the moment.

We would be living lives of delusion and the world should show us pity more than anyone.

To some, apparently that is just a “theological game” with no practicality for living, breathing people.

And yet, Paul’s entire point in the next section is that [Purpose Statement] the reality of our future resurrection is motivation for our present holiness.

Resurrection: our future reality (15:20-28)

These few verses offer the believer a simplified eschatology.

(1) Christ has been raised.

(2) Believers will be raised.

(3) Christ will be ultimately victorious and will reign over all.

Christ has resurrected as the “firstfruits” (15:20,23a).

Firstfruits[2], in the Old Testament, were given to God out of gratitude for his blessings and in acknowledgment of the fact that he created everything that exists and deserves the first and the best.

Therefore, an offering of firstfruits was brought.

This offering was evidence of a couple of things.

It showed gratitude and submission to God as the sovereign creator.

It also was evidence of a greater crop.

These firstfruits were simply a small portion of a much greater harvest.

As well, these firstfruits were evidence to the quality of the remaining harvest.

Let me offer a pretty benign example.

If Linda saunters downstairs and hands me a ball of cookie dough, there are a few things that I would likely conclude.

First, that my wife loves me.

Secondly, that this small and amazing ball of joy indicates that there is more cookie dough awaiting my presence in the kitchen.

And finally, that the cookie dough upstairs is going to taste the same as the cookie dough ball I just inhaled.

And so it is with Christ being the firstfruits.

His resurrection is both evidence of a much greater resurrection to follow.

As well, his resurrection is like the many others that will follow.

“Christ himself is the firstfruit of the power of the resurrection, and his victory over death is the guarantee that believers too will experience resurrection.”[3]

This is similar in thought to what Paul writes in Romans.

“we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies” ( ESV).

In presently having the Spirit within us, we have a small foretaste of a much greater reality in the future.

And so it is with Christ’s resurrection.

We look forward, with anticipation, to our future resurrection because Christ is the firstfruits.

Christians will be resurrected (15:21-22,23b).

There is an implication for Christ being the “firstfruits.”

The implication being that those who are in Christ will as well be resurrected.

Paul will draw this conclusion at the end of verse 23, but to lead the reader there, he first connects Christ and Adam.

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.

( ESV).

Paul’s concern is not in pointing to the fact that Adam’s sin brought death, although that is true.

His reason for referencing Adam is to show the universal affect his actions had.

Because of Adam’s individual decision to sin, all mankind has been born into a state of sin and misery ever since.

So then, one man’s actions had universal consequences.

The same is true of Christ’s resurrection.

All die in Adam.

All are resurrected in Christ.

While all are resurrected due to Christ’s resurrection, not all are resurrected to the same eternal fate.

Some will be resurrected to “always be with the Lord” and others will be resurrected, only to be thrown into the lake of fire.

Resurrected to life.

[Paul encourages the believers in Thessalonica not to grieve like others without hope] since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.

15 For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.

16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God.

And the dead in Christ will rise first.

17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.

18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.

( ESV).

Resurrected to death.

[In , Christ is seated on the throne and John] saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened.

Then another book was opened, which is the book of life.

And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done.

13 And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. . . .

And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

( ESV).

Christ will reign (15:24-28).

In one very real sense, at the cross and in his resurrection, Christ has already entirely defeated sin and death, Satan and the demons, and the entire world philosophy that has raised its’ fist against him in opposition.

But, history still needs to catch up to this reality.

In essence, Satan and the world are fighting a battle that’s already been won.

I believe it was this victory that Christ proclaimed when he went and proclaimed victory to the spirits in prison (in ).

Peter writes, “Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, 19 in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison [and a couple of verses later ties this victory to the] resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him” ( ESV).

He is already reigning, but there will be a moment, in history, where this reign will no longer be of any confusion to anyone.

Paul tells us, once Christ is raised and then everyone else is raised, “then comes the end” ().

Everything that the incarnation and the death of Christ was intended to accomplish will be done.

The people of God will have been redeemed.

The broken affairs of the universe will be restored back to the way they were before the Fall.

“Christ will deliver the kingdom to God the Father” ().

Christ will have fulfilled his role as redeemer.

He will have fulfilled his role as mediator.

He will have completely subdued “every rule, and every authority and power.”

He will then, finally and ultimately, defeat death.

His resurrection was a defeat of death, and the final resurrection will be a display of Christ’s power over death once again.