Sermon Tone Analysis

The message of the gospel is centered around the Resurrection.

He’s not dead anymore.

He arose.

And that basically is the heart of the fifteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians.

And just as the heart pumps life blood to the body, so the resurrection is the very heart of the gospel pumping life into every other area of truth.

That is why the Gospel gives life, because the Gospel is living.

The resurrection is the pivot on which all of Christianity turns.

Take away the resurrection, Christianity comes out as wishful thinking and just another useless human philosophy.

Christians down through the ages have banked their destiny, have banked their life, have banked their hope on the fact that the shameful death of Jesus Christ was not the last word, but that He arose and triumphed over death and that when He said, “Because I live, ye shall live also,”

He granted to anyone who comes to Him by faith the same resurrection hope.

And it was this belief and this belief alone, frankly, that turned the heart broken followers of a crucified rabbi into the courageous martyrs of the early church.

It was the resurrection that gave birth to the fellowship of the saints that became the church.

And they found in those early years that they could imprison them and they could chastise them and they could beat them and they could verbally assault them and they could invent ways to persecute them and they could even kill them but they could never make them deny the reality of the resurrection.

The Resurrection has always been and will always be the cornerstone of the Christian faith.

And because that is true, the most fierce blows struck at Christianity in its history have been struck at the point of the resurrection.

Because if you wipe out the resurrection you get rid of everything.

You eliminate salvation, you eliminate the deity of Christ, you eliminate eternal life, you eliminate the consequence of death, you just wipe it all out.

And so the resurrection is always under attack.

Salvation is predicated on the Lordship of a Resurrected Christ.

True Christians have always believed in the Resurrection.

They had to in order to be saved.

The Corinthians did not have a problem with the Resurrection, their problem was they were denying the bodily resurrection of the Saints.

Because Christ literally arose, all Christians will literally, physically, bodily, and personally rise from the dead.

The Corinthian’s did not have a problem with the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, because they were saved, however, they did have a problem with the ramifications of the Resurrection.

And so 1 Corinthians 15 is written primarily not to prove the resurrection of Christ to Christians, listen, you are not a Christian if you have not already come to that conviction.

And it isn’t written to try to convince the unbeliever that Jesus really rose.

It is written to try to prove to the Christians that because He literally rose, they too will literally physically bodily personally rise from the dead.

That’s the thrust of the fifteenth chapter.

The Apostle Paul begins this doctrinal lesson with convincing the Corinthians of this fact and understanding.

So Paul is telling them, You already believe in the resurrection, right?

Right.

Therefore realize this, Christ is just the firstfruits of all them that slept, so if you already believe in the resurrection of Christ bodily and physically and literally, why are you hung up on your own resurrection?

That’s the issue of the fifteenth chapter.

With that in mind, Paul begins with the beginning of life, birthed by the Gospel, all the way through the end of life, eternalized by the Gospel.

Their Testimony of Salvation: vs. 1-2

1 Corinthians 15:1–2 (KJV 1900)

1 Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;

2 By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.

The Gospel was Preached.

The Gospel was Received.

The Gospel is Stood Upon.

You took your stand and you continue to stand on it.

You haven’t changed.

This is the permanent state in which you exist.

The Gospel Saved You.

Because of your commitment to this truth of the death and resurrection of Christ, you are the possessors of salvation.

Now you can see the impact of this statement to them only when you understand the point here.

He is reaffirming that they already believe in the bodily resurrection of Christ as the basis for everything he’s going to say in the rest of the chapter.

That’s the starting point.

Sometimes people will say, “Do you have to believe in the resurrection to be saved?”

I said it before, I’ll say it again … yes.

Absolutely yes.

And so these are saved people.

Now he says look, this is true of you already you believe in this bodily resurrection.

But he adds an interesting footnote at the end of verse 2. “If you keep … and I’ll read you the Greek rendering so you’ll get the thrust of it … if you hold fast what I preached to you, unless your faith is worthless, or unless you have believed without effect, or unless you have had empty faith.”

You say, “Whoa, boy, they received it, they stand on it, they’re being saved by it.”

Yes, if they hold fast to it.

You say, “Oh no, you mean you could lose it if you didn’t hold fast to it?

I thought you believed in the security of the believer?”

I do.

“Well what about this believing in vain?”

Paul also says that a true Christian is known by the fact that he continues to believe.

And somebody who goes along for a while believing and then changes to unbelief gives evidence that he never was saved to begin with.

He has believed in vain.

What do you mean?

He has had a worthless faith, a useless faith.

To put it another way, a non-committal faith.

How many people do you know who believe Jesus died and rose again but aren’t Christians?

I know a lot of them.

In fact, I meet people some times and I’ll say, “Do you believe in Jesus Christ?

Do you believe He died? Rose again?”

Oh yeah, I believe it.

They’re not Christians.

Why?

Because that’s a useless faith.

It has no commitment to it.

It’s like James says in

James 2:17–20 (KJV 1900)

17 Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.

18 Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.

19 Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.

20 But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?

“The devils believe in tremble.”

And James says you tell me about your faith, let me see its evidence.

And what is it evidence?

Continuance in the manifestation of faith in the life.

Their faith was worthless.

It was without effect.

It was empty, that’s what vain means.

It was empty faith.

It was empty because there was no commitment in it.

For example:

John 2:23 (KJV 1900)

23 Now when he was in Jerusalem at the passover, in the feast day, many believed in his name, when they saw the miracles which he did.

You say terrific, it’s a great revival.

The next verse says,

John 2:24 (KJV 1900)

24 But Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all men,

You see, it was a superficial empty faith with no commitment to it.

That’s the point.