Sermon Tone Analysis

OPENING

Pastor Paul had been advised by his doctor to lose 30 pounds or risk serious health consequences.

The good pastor took his new diet seriously, even changing his driving route to the church building to avoid his favorite bakery.

One morning, however, he arrived for Bible study carrying a gigantic devil’s food cake.

The class chuckled and chided him, but the good pastor’s smile remained angelic.

“This is a very special cake,” he explained.

“I accidentally drove by the bakery this morning and there in the window were a host of goodies.

I felt this was no accident, so I prayed, ‘Lord, if you want me to have one of those delicious cakes, let me have a parking place directly in front of the bakery.’

And sure enough,” he continued, “the eighth time around the block, there it was!”

It’s funny how we can convince ourselves that OUR WILL is actually GOD’S WILL.

That’s why we need the Scriptures to give us clarity on WHO God is and WHAT God says.

And that’s what we have been doing in this letter we call 1 Corinthians in this teaching series entitled “A Beautiful Mess”.

These people had been forgiven much - made BEAUTIFUL by the Lord Jesus who cleansed them of their sin.

BUT…they were still a MESS.

Some of the Corinthians were picking sides over which pastor they liked better (Paul, Apollos, Cephas) - as if these guys were really trying to compete rather than work together for the Kingdom.

They had people claiming Christ who were living in sexual sin while many in the church acting like that was okay, rather than confronting, correcting, and restoring them.

Some Christians in Corinth were taking other Christians to court rather than asking spiritual leaders for help to resolve the relational strain.

Many were more concerned with their own FREEDOMS than the FAITH of younger believers.

And some were even getting drunk at the Lord’s Supper, while others refused to wait on others for the meal but jumped in and got the best food first.

And some were flaunting God’s spiritual gifts to spotlight themselves rather than using them for the GOOD of the Church.

And today, as we close in on the end of this letter with only 2 chapters left, we see why all this matters - because we serve...

The Resurrected King.

After all, if Jesus died and stayed dead, the teachings of Jesus and the apostles of Jesus couldn’t be trusted BECAUSE, according to the apostles of Jesus - He predicted not only His death, but His physical resurrection from the dead.

And as we have said many times before, If He rose from the dead, we can trust what He said, BUT…if He didn’t raise from the dead, then either Jesus or His apostles were liars and we don’t know WHAT we can trust.

If Jesus didn't rise, then our faith is futile...but if He did rise, then our faith is so firm, that difficult days & even death cannot shipwreck our future hope.

So, let’s PRAY dive in and talk about Our Resurrected King!

PRAY

1 Corinthians 15:1–4 (CSB)

Now I want to make clear for you, brothers and sisters, the gospel I preached to you, which you received, on which you have taken your stand and by which you are being saved, if you hold to the message I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.

For I passed on to you as most important what I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,

What IS the gospel?

This is it - the GOOD NEWS - Christ died for our sins, buried, and He was raised on the third day.

That’s the Gospel - the Good News in a nutshell.

And Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection wasn’t just a New Testament teaching.

It could be found in the Scriptures - meaning the Hebrew Scriptures - the Old Testament!

You didn’t know that?

Yep! (Read how Peter quotes Ps 16:10 in Acts 2:25-31; also see Hosea 6:2).

Isaiah 53, written 700 years before Jesus lived, died, and resurrected.

Isaiah 53:8b–9 (CSB)

For he was cut off from the land of the living; he was struck because of my people’s rebellion.

He was assigned a grave with the wicked, but he was with a rich man at his death, because he had done no violence and had not spoken deceitfully.

This is strange language, because this man would DIE because of the rebellion of the Jewish people, he would be assigned a grave with the wicked - he would die with criminals and was supposed to be buried with them…BUT…he was with the rich man at his death.

The New Testament fills in the gaps as it explains how Jesus died between 2 thieves (Mt 27:38, Mk 15:28, Lk 23:32-33).

But before being buried with them, Joseph - “a rich man” - asked the Roman procurator who had Jesus crucified, for permission to bury Jesus in his own brand new tomb instead (Mt 27:57–60).

Isaiah 53:10–11 (CSB)

Yet the Lord [YaHWeH] was pleased to crush him severely.

When you make him a guilt offering, he will see his seed, he will prolong his days, and by his hand, the Lord’s pleasure will be accomplished.

After his anguish, he will see light and be satisfied.

By his knowledge, my righteous servant will justify many, and he will carry their iniquities.

This is the Gospel message about Jesus, the Christ (aka Messiah), according to the Old Testament Scriptures.

And Paul is NOT the only one who shared this Gospel message.

In fact, he wasn’t the first to believe that Jesus was the Messiah who suffered, died, and was resurrected.

There were many others before him.

So Paul continues, that “that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,...”

1 Corinthians 15:5–8 (CSB)

and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve.

Then He appeared to over five hundred brothers and sisters at one time; most of them are still alive, but some have fallen asleep.

Then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles.

Last of all, as to one born at the wrong time, He also appeared to me.

Cephas (pr.

K-fas) is referring to Simon Peter (Lk 24:34).

Cephas is the Aramaic term for Greek “Peter”.

[F1]

The 12 is referring to the apostles Jesus had called - now minus Judas the betrayer.

The 500 could be referring to others who met with the apostles, seeing and hearing Jesus on the mountain in Galilee (Mt 28:16-21).

James is actually better translated as “Jacob” (Greek Iakōbos) most likely the half-brother of Jesus (Mt 13:55; Gal 1:19; 2:9; Ac 15:13; Jas 1:1; Jude 1) who becomes one of the elders in the Church of Jerusalem.

Jesus appeared multiple times after that to all the apostles and others between the 40 days of His resurrection and ascension (Acts 1:3; Jn 21:1-14).

Paul tells his story multiple times in the writing we call Acts (Acts 9:1-9; Ac 22:6–11; 26:12–18).

Here’s what we read in Acts.

Acts 9:4–6 (CSB)

Falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” “Who are you, Lord?” Saul said.

“I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting,” he replied.

“But get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”

And that leads to Paul, the MVP of the other team, exchanging jerseys and joining the team he previously considered the arch rival.

Imagine a Bull Gator taking off the orange and blue and putting on the glorious Garnet and Gold and become a “Legacy Chief”.

WHY did Paul change teams?

His answer?

Jesus appeared to me.

1 Corinthians 15:9–11 (CSB)

For I am the least of the apostles, not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.

But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain.

On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.

Whether, then, it is I or they, so we proclaim and so you have believed.

Paul is grateful for God’s grace given to him, knowing that he didn’t deserve it.

And now, he doesn’t care who gets the credit, but only that whether it was him or the other apostles (whether…I or they) whom people hear about Jesus through, what matters is that they have believed the GOOD NEWS of Jesus!

But evidently, some where walking away from what they had been taught, and this was a great concern to Paul.

Some of them were even denying the future resurrection of those who had died.

1 Corinthians 15:12–14 (CSB)

Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say, “There is no resurrection of the dead”?

If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation is in vain, and so is your faith.

It’s unlikely that Paul was referring to poof-be-gone concept of what happens at death, since almost everyone in that day believed in life after death.

But the Greek/Roman concept of life after death focused on a disembodied immortal soul, but not a physical resurrection of the dead.

[F2] As such, people within the Greek philosophy viewed the spiritual as good and the physical as bad, so the idea of being shackled to a resurrected body was sickening to them.

[F3]

On the Jewish side, Pharisees believed in resurrection, but Sadducees did not (Mt 22:23; Acts 23:8)

Christians - those who follow the teachings of Jesus - believe in a body/soul unity - like the resurrected Jesus (Jn 6:44; 11:25).

In fact, we see the significance of that major philosophical difference between Christians & Romans when Paul shared the GOOD NEWS of Jesus with the people of Athens.

When Paul told them about Jesus rising from the dead, some were intrigued and wanted to hear more but for others, “When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some began to ridicule him.”

(Acts 17:32).

The resurrected King is the foundation of our faith, and Jesus didn’t rise, then our faith...is in vain - empty - false.