RC Resurrection Study

Since we just celebrated Easter, I thought it would be appropriate to spend some time considering the significance of Jesus’ resurrection and it’s implications for us today.

To do that, we’ll look though certain passages in 1 Corinthians 15, so if you have your Bible or an app let’s turn their together.

We’ll start by reading the first 8 verses.

1 Corinthians 15:1–8 ESV

1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8 Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.

1. The Significance of Jesus’ Resurrection

So there are a few important things in this passage to highlight:

Resurrection is in “accordance with scripture”

Resurrection is essential to the Gospel

But before we talk about those important points, I think we should get on the same page about the concept of resurrection.

i. Defining Resurrection

So, what do you think of when you hear resurrection?

What does resurrection mean to you?

Do you only think of Jesus, or do you also think about your final destiny?

“(Resurrection) meant, very specifically, that people already dead would be given new bodies, (they) would return to an embodied life not completely unlike the one they had had before.”

Wright, Tom. Paul for Everyone: 1 Corinthians. London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 2004. Print.

How does this conception or resurrection differ from how you thought about it? How, if at all, does it effect your view of death and life after death? “Life after life after death”

ii. Resurrection & the Gospel

Paul says that the Gospel is comprised of 3 crucial elements: the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. The Gospel certainly comprises of more than this, but it is no less. I want to think of the Gospel in two categories and apply the resurrection to it.

First, how does the resurrection effect the way we preach the Gospel to ourselves?

Second, how does the resurrection effect the way we share the Gospel with others? Is the resurrection a part of our “Gospel presentation?” Do we make it to the resurrection, or are we fixated with his death?

iii. Resurrection & Scripture

What do you think it means that Jesus’ resurrection was in accordance with the Scriptures?

What Scriptures do you think Paul is referring to? What was written at this time?

Do you think this is a clear thread running through scripture, or do you think it’s challenging to identify?

“Nor does it mean that Paul could quote half a dozen ‘proof-texts’ of passages from the Old Testament which predicted that the Messiah would die and rise again, though he could certainly have done that. No. The Bible which Paul had known and loved as a young man was like a story in search of an ending; and when Jesus rose from the dead the ending was now revealed. This was where it was all going.”

Wright, Tom. Paul for Everyone: 1 Corinthians. London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 2004. Print.

Okay, let’s transition to talk more about the implications for Jesus’ resurrection upon us today. Let’s look down to verse 12.

2. Living in Light of the Resurrection

1 Corinthians 15:12–20 ESV

12 Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14 And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. 15 We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. 16 For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. 20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.

i. Resurrection & World-view

There is some really important background to the reason that Paul is spending so much time explaining the resurrection with such depth. The Corinthians were in a Greek society that was permeated by philosophy that made an unchristian distinction between body and spirit. The core of the philosophy and world-view of their culture viewed material as wicked, and spirit as holy. They viewed bodies as prisons or shells that kept people from achieving true spiritual greatness. So to the Corinthians, their culture sought to transcend the material body for a “greater” spiritual body. NT Wright says “The resurrection is the foundation of the Christian counterculture.” I think that applies to the ancient Greek world and philosophies but also applies to today.

So how is the doctrine of resurrection (Jesus and ours) countercultural today?

Paul insists that the fundamental logic of Christian proclamation demands belief in the resurrection of the dead; therefore, Christian hope necessarily affirms rather than rejects the body. To proclaim the resurrection of Christ is to declare God’s triumph over death and therefore the meaningfulness of embodied life. That is why, according to Paul, our future hope must be for a transformed body in the resurrection, not an escape from the embodied state.

Hays, Richard B. First Corinthians. Louisville, KY: John Knox Press, 1997. Print. Interpretation, a Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching.

ii. Jesus’ Resurrection & Our Resurrection

1 Corinthians 15:20 ESV

20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.

What do you think it means that Jesus’ resurrection is the “firstfruits?”

“But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. He is the first of a great harvest of all who have died.” (NLT)

In verses 45-49 Paul paints a comparison and contrast between our likeness with Adam, and the second Adam, Jesus.

1 Corinthians 15:48–49 ESV

48 As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. 49 Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.

iii. Resurrection & Vocation

1 Corinthians 15:50–58 ESV

50 I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall 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 shall be changed. 53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. 54 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass 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 brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

Paul describes the culmination of history and coming of the Kingdom of God in full at the Second Coming of Christ. He shows that not everyone will have died before this event, and those that remain will be transformed, with an imperishable, resurrected body. What I find most interesting is the way that Paul ends this section. Paul ends this climatic, passionate, discourse on resurrection by connecting and grounding it with vocation and everyday life.

“Work of the Lord” doesn’t mean “ministry”, missionary work, non-profit work, etc. The original word is a broad term that is inclusive of all kinds of work and labor. Any work that a Christian does, should by seen as “the work of the Lord.”

The resurrection affirms and dignifies work as something that is good and that has eternal value.

How does the resurrection and it’s implications create dignity and eternal value in the work that we’re doing?

How can we encourage one another in our work and to see the dignity and eternal value therein?

“...if there is continuity between who and what we are in the present and who and what we will be in the future, we cannot discount the present life, the present body and the present world as irrelevant. On the contrary. It is a matter of the greatest encouragement to Christian workers, most of whom are away from the public eye, unsung heroes and heroines, getting on faithfully and quietly with their God-given tasks, that what they do ‘in the Lord’ during the present time will last, will matter, will stand for all time. How God will take our prayer, our art, our love, our writing, our political action, our music, our honesty, our daily work, our pastoral care, our teaching, our whole selves—how God will take this and weave its varied strands into the glorious tapestry of his new creation, we can at present have no idea. That he will do so is part of the truth of the resurrection, and perhaps one of the most comforting parts of all.”

Wright, Tom. Paul for Everyone: 1 Corinthians. London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 2004. Print.