Sermon Tone Analysis

I Believe --- Resurrection Life

1 Corinthians 15:35-59

“So will it be with the resurrection of the dead.

The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.” 1 Corinthians 15:42-44

Well, I hope that you all had a wonderful week.

It was my hope and prayer that you took some time during the week to read these wonderful stories of forgiveness proclaimed in the Bible.

If you did not have a chance to read, there will be copies of the Scriptures on The Seed of Faith table in the back.

Before we read the Apostles’ Creed, let us pray.

God of creation, You have created us to be in a love relationship with You.

Help us to turn our hearts to you this morning so that we can truly experience a resurrection life.

Amen

Join with me as we read The Apostles’ Creed.

The Apostles’ Creed

1.

I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth;

2. and in Jesus Christ, His only (begotten) Son, our Lord;

3. who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary,

4. suffered under Pontius Pilate; was crucified, dead and buried;

He descended into hell;

5. the third day he rose again from the dead;

6.

He ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty;

7. from thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

8.

I believe in the Holy Ghost,

9. the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints,

10. the forgiveness of sins,

11. the resurrection of the body,

12. and the life everlasting.

Amen.[i]

We need to remember that during a time when a Creed was written, they were written to defeat a false teaching and to proclaim what a person or group believed.

When the Apostles’ Creed was written, there were many false teachings.

There are many false teachings today.

That is why it is important for us to know what we believe and why we believe what we believe.

There was a teaching in the early church called Gnosticism.

In some ways, the teachings of the Gnostics are still with us today.

Gnosticism comes from the Greek word “gnosis” meaning “knowledge.”

The Gnostics believed that people were saved through special knowledge.

They viewed the physical or material world as evil and corrupt.

The Greeks believed that body or flesh was just a prison for the soul and that only the soul was immortal.

The early church put line eleven in the Apostles’ Creed in order to proclaim that God is the creator and what God created was good and the body is part of God’s creation.

When God created Adam and Eve and breathed life into their lungs, God said that His creation was very good.

What God creates is good --- very good!

Turn to your neighbor and tell him or her that they are good!

The resurrection of the body is truly a mystery.

After Jesus rose from the dead, the disciples on the road to Emmaus did not recognize Him.

Mary was told not to hold on to Him

The problem is that we were created very good, but sin separates us from God.

Therefore, God sent His one and only begotten Son, Jesus, to suffer under Pontius Pilate, to be crucified, dead and buried.

But the Good News, the greatest news of all, is that Jesus rose from the dead; and conquered sin and death forever.

Jesus invited the disciples to eat breakfast on the beach.

Jesus told Thomas to put his hands in his nail scars and to put his hand into the place where the speared pierced His side.

If Jesus had a resurrected body, be certain that you and I will, too.

The resurrection of the body is truly a mystery.

As I studied this Scripture this week, I read how one early church father by the name of Origen, thought that the resurrection of the body meant the body of Christ the church.

The resurrection of the body is a mystery and some of the most profound writings on the resurrection are found here in chapter 15 of 1 Corinthians.

If you have your Bible, turn with me to Paul’s words on the resurrection.

Paul begins with the resurrection of Christ, then turns his attention to the resurrection of the dead and, finally, his longest teaching on the resurrection of the body.

I Corinthians 15:1-8; 12-17; 35-59

Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. 2 By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you.

Otherwise, you have believed in vain.

3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance; that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve.

6 After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep.

7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, 8 and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.

But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?

13 If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised.

14 And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.

15 More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead.

But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised.

16 For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either.

17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.

But someone may ask, “How are the dead raised?

With what kind of body will they come?”

36 How foolish!

What you sow does not come to life unless it dies.

37 When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else.

38 But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body.

39 All flesh is not the same: Men have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another and fish another.

40 There are also heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; but the splendor of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is another.

41 The sun has one kind of splendor, the moon another and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendor.

42 So will it be with the resurrection of the dead.

The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; 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.

45 So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit.

46 The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual.

47 The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven.

48 As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the man from heaven, so also are those who are of heaven.

49 And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven.

50 I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.

51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— 52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.

For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.

53 For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.

54 When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”55“Where,

O death, is your victory?

Where, O death, is your sting?”56

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.

57 But thanks be to God!

He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

58 Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm.

Let nothing move you.

Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.”[ii]

RESURRECTION HOPE

A brazen preacher once told their congregation, “Someday every member of this parish will die!”