Sermon Tone Analysis

I Corinthians 15:20-58

Last week we started chapter 15 of 1st Corinthians and we made it part way through our chapter, where The Apostle Paul was writing about the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, as sort of the first premise of his argument, and now he continues on and begins talking about our resurrection.

If you remember Paul presented evidence as if each fact was a witness in the courtroom as he was building his case.

And now in verse 20, he stops building his argument, and simply declares the resurrection as fact.

Look at it with me.

Christ has risen from the dead, case closed Paul would say, and not only that, not only was Jesus Christ resurrected from the dead, He was the firstfruits of more resurrections to come.

You and I hear the word firstfruits and we try to stretch our 21st century minds to understand what Paul is talking about, and perhaps we think of our own family gardens.

And we consider the first of the harvest, maybe some young radishes, or some new potatoes, the first few ears of sweet corn.

Those firstfruits, or first veggies are so exciting!

SO Jesus was the firstfruits has that sort of meaning, yet these Early Church Saints would have had a broader understanding…Jesus rose from the dead on the Feast of the First fruits.

Many of these believers came out of Judaism, those that didn’t, those that came from paganism still would have been very familiar with the practices and religious customs of that culture.

The day of first fruits wasn’t the day everyone went outside and checked their radishes, or dug down to see if there were any potatoes.

The day of firstfruits was a specific day on the Jewish calendar, always the day after the Sabbath, but not just any sabbath, the day after the sabbath that followed the passover sacrifice.

On the day following the sabbath, that followed the passover, the offering of firstfruits was given to God.

It was not a blood offering, it was a grain offering.

It didn’t have to be a blood offering, because the passover lamb had just been sacrificed for the atonement of the people....It is very significant that Jesus was resurrected on the feast of the firstfruits, because He was the passover lamb that atoned for our sins perfectly and wholly, making a blood sacrifice no longer necessary!

In Old Testament Judaism, on the day of firstfruits.

An offering was brought to the priest.

We read about it in Leviticus chapter 23...

So from those first few tender shoots of wheat that would come up from their land, they were to take from the best of it, a sheaf, or a bundle, wrapped with a string and offer that to the Lord, thanking Him for the harvest, acknowledging that it came from Him, but also trusting Him that it was OK to offer that up, because there was more to come.

Jesus rose from the grave, was resurrected from the dead, on the feast of firstfruits, indicating that there was more to come, He was the firstfruits of the resurrection that we will be a part of.

You and I Christian will one day be resurrected, receiving a glorified body.

Brothers, sisters, ... We will finally have the perfect body!

What is that going to be like?

I wish I knew more.

I love how this book reveals more and more about God and His love for us, but the more I read, the more I want to know.

I do know we are going to be like Jesus.

In 1 John 3:2 we read...

SO, we know we are going to be like Him!

When we see Him, we will be like Him.

Oh, man, doesn’t that make you want to read and reread all of the Gospel accounts of the post resurrection appearances of Jesus!?! We know that He could appear and disappear right?

Jesus could enter a room without going through a window or a door.

Wouldn’t that take some restrictions off of us?

I don’t want to be sacrilegious here, and my heart is not to be, but it fills me with wonder and amazement....was it like the old, old, star track, before it got weird, and Scotty could just beam Capt.

Kirk to different places?

His body would just kind of go fuzzy and de-materialize and end up somewhere else and all the little pix-elated dots on your TV screen would come back together?

I don’t know if that was what it was like!

But our resurrected bodies won’t be all Spirit either, right?

Because the resurrected Jesus wasn’t all spirit.

Eight days after He first appeared to them, Jesus appeared again to the Disciples, this time Thomas was with them, and He invites Thomas to put his finger here and look at his hands, touch His side to put his finger into His side, to examine the wound (Man, Jesus is cool) isn’t He, I think it’s cool and gross, but mostly cool, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary find the empty tomb and run to tell the Disciples, Matt 28 tells us that Jesus met them and they held Him by the feet and worshiped Him.

So glorified body, not just a spirit.

Other accounts tells us that some recognized Him while others didn’t... they were talking and walking with Jesus and didn’t, at least at first, know it was Him.

We read that He ate honeycomb and fish, so again, not just Spirit, resurrected Glorified Body, perfect body, see our bodies aren’t made for the eternal, they are just an earthly tent.

Paul tells us in second Corinthians...

Can you imagine if this was it?

If this was all that there was to life, if this was all that there was to us?

Like we read in Lamentations, if life under the sun was all there is to it?

I personally think it takes more faith to believe that.

If this earthly tent was it?

How hopeless!

Jesus was the first of the resurrection, and then us.

Now when?

And how?

That is an exciting topic, but it’s a whole Sunday morning all by itself, but Paul gives us a clue about the order of events in the next verse, check out verse 23...

SO Jesus first, after Jesus those who are Christ’s at His coming - which is speaking of the Rapture of the church and continuing on this first of the resurrection including all those that die in their faith in Christ - up to and including those that come to faith during the tribulation period,... not taking the mark of the beast, or worshiping his image, those that are martyred for their faith, then after that, as a separate event at the end, when He delivers the Kingdom to God the Father and puts and end to all rule and all authority and power.

The second coming of Christ (different from the rapture) when the Lord comes back with us, establishes His kingdom, but the fulfillment of this won’t be fully realized until the second resurrection, again, a whole separate teaching, but after the tribulation period, after the millennial reign, or 1,000 year reign of Jesus Christ, Satan will temporarily be released from the abyss, he will deceive the nations, they have the final battle with God, the Great White throne Judgement happens (all the stuff we see in Revelation 20) and death and Hades give up the dead, of the unsaved, that is the second resurrection.

Let’s keep going, verse 25

Paul clarifies this for us, when all things are put under the Son, that doesn’t mean that one day the Father will be subject to the Son, the Son will always be subject to the Father, equal to the father, remember submissive, does not mean less than.

Jesus is equal with the Father, but is, and will remain, submissive to the authority of the Father as part of the order of God.

OK, a bunch of stuff here, but I don’t want to get bogged down in it.

Verse 29 is where the Mormon church derives it’s heresy of baptising for the dead, it’s not an easy passage, commentaries often just note the number of different interpretations that there are… I think David Guzik says there are 30 different interpretations of it, I read other commentaries that say there are 200 different interpretations of it.

Fortunately, you guys go to church here, and I have the right interpretation of it.

Pastor Jim told me, Nicole confirmed it, so we’re good…no.

But here’s my thought..

First remember this is a corrective letter to a messed up church that has allowed things to get weird, our next verse says don’t be deceived, evil company corrupts good habits, Paul could be saying,...you guys have let the culture around you, the pagan customs and practices mess you up.

So maybe they were doing stuff like this.

But remember, they were saying they didn’t believe in the resurrection for themselves, even if Jesus had been resurrected from the dead.

So Paul could have been saying, if that’s the case, why bother with the baptism of the dead?

That is the Mormon philosophy, it’s why they are the ones to go to if you’re trying to chase down a genealogy.

The idea is what if some ancient relative died in their sins without getting baptised, we can trace it back and get dunked for them.

There’s lot’s of problems with that, but the biggest is that none of us are saved through baptism.

It’s not baptism that saves us.

If we look at the language here, Paul says what will THEY do who are baptized for the dead, why then are THEY baptized for the dead.

As in look, we don’t do this, but they do, speaking of the pagan religions around them.

Corinthians, even your messed up pagan neighbors understand there is a resurrection of the dead…Paul continues on with some logical arguments...

Why in the world live like this if the dead do not rise.

Let’s just eat drink and be merry.

Why should we suffer?

Why should we sacrifice?

Why serve one another, why not just serve myself?

Why give?

Why, why, why, would we forgive?

Why should I forgive if the dead do not rise?

If we aren’t resurrected why not just live for ourselves?

We’d be fools not to.

Paul says here...

Paul transitions here from what if the dead don’t rise, to what if they do!?! What then?

What if Jesus is the firstfruits of the resurrection, and there is life after this life and we are resurrected into that?

Should I really be glamming out my tent?

Putting a hot tub on the deck of my tent?

Building a deck at all onto the side of our tent?

That sounds ridiculous doesn’t it?

Those of you that have ever had tents, you know they are temporary, perishable, prone to decay.

They mold, they rot, they get destroyed by mice.

If you’re ever looking for a cheap tent, check the dumpster at your closest campground!

Paul says wake up to righteousness, Since there is a resurrection, you should be sharing the gospel.

First, you should repent, get baptised or go public with your salvation (don’t be a closet Christian - confess Him before men), seek to know God and do His will, and to make Him known.

Paul says some do not have the knowledge of God, and there’s no excuse for that, it’s shameful in a world that has a single Christian in it....vs.

35...

Don’t misunderstand this gang.

Our resurrected bodies are not just an improved version of what we have now.