Oakbrook Evangelical Free Church

Introduction: Resurrection Sunday!

Two main points:

The future resurrection of the dead, 15:1-34

Resurrection means a new creation of the body, 15:35-58

I. What is the gospel? 15:1-11

Death, burial and resurrection. The focus is on the resurrection.

What is their problem:

1. A group unable to believe in any form of life after death.

2. A group that held the resurrection already happened some time ago. But they were denying any resurrection, not just a future resurrection.

3. A group unable to accept the resurrection of the body from the dead. This view rests on Paul’s extensive elaboration in 35-49 on the nature of the resurrected body.

This would have meant the Corinthians had a dualistic anthropology

Thus, the resurrection of the physical body is not only impossible but unnecessary.

This view holds that Paul’s solution is to emphasize a final-end time resurrection of the dead in Christ at his coming. The present perishable body will be replaced with a new, imperishable “Spirit” body of God’s own creation.

“This view seems to best fit the evidence of the text and what is known about Greek philosophical ideas of body-soul dualism.

II. Three rounds of argument for the resurrection

1. Round #1, 15:12-19

What is the hope of the gospel if there is no resurrection then

A. No faith but He was raised and we have relationship

B. No forgiveness but He was raised and we have forgiveness

C. No future but He was raised and we have a future

2. Round #2, 15:20-28 Because Christ has been raised, all who belong to Him will be raised too.

Two points

Every believer has a wonderful future

A. Resurrection

First, Jesus’ resurrection is not merely a paradigm of the future resurrection but is actually the beginning of the future resurrection.

Christ’s resurrection is the beginning of a new creation in a new age. The whole future of God’s purposes is wrapped up in Christ’s resurrection.

Firstfruits: a metaphor drawn from the OT harvests.

A small portion of the anticipated grain harvest was offered up symbolically, dedicated the whole future harvest to God.

The firstfruits came first and contained in them the whole rest of the grain harvest to come.

Exodus 23:16 ” “Celebrate the Feast of Harvest with the firstfruits of the crops you sow in your field. “Celebrate the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in your crops from the field. Bring the best of the firstfruits of your soil to the house of the Lord your God.” NIV

Christ is part and parcel of the future resurrection of all who belong to Him. Christ alone now, the rest to follow.

Second, people will be raised from the dead in the future because they participate in and are identified with Christ now!

“in Christ” “belong to Christ”

Biblical anthropology in miniature:

Two Adam – Christ analogies: 21-22; 44-49

Both are historical figures and at the same time representatives.

Representative headship!

In same real sense all human beings are under the judicial sentence of death pronounced on Adam’s one trepass.

Adam’s free choice to sin brought the same condemnation of death on all of us.

And, only a divine act of new creation can provide a new order!

Christ brings to all who are “in Him” the same resurrection from the dead.

B. Kingdom Reign With Christ

Millennial issue: 15:24-28

pre-mil (Christ comes, resurrects, rules, end comes)

vs a-mill (no millennial kingdom)

vs post-mill (Cx comes, rules, resurrects at end of millennium)

15:24 “then” eita” implies an indeterminate duration between the

parousia and the end.

Has to be harmonized with Revelation 20.

“after he has destroy all dominion, authority and power…

2 Tim 2:12 “we also will reign with him”

Revelation 20:4 ” Then I saw thrones, and the people sitting on them had been given the authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their testimony about Jesus, for proclaiming the word of God. They came to life again, and they reigned with Christ for a thousand years.” NLT

Kingdom Reign, 15:27b-28

“so that God may be all in all” =

“For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen.” Romans 11:36

Not the ontological relation between the Father and Son in the beikng of God, but the incarnate, obedient Son’s mission as the “second man” who will subjugate all God’s enemies including death, to the Lordship of the triune God. Then, as man, will remit into the Father’s hands the authority given him for his mission as the messianic King. We must emphatically deny any notion of subordinationism in the Trinity itself, which would clearly lead into heresy.

This refers to the mediatorial office of Christ in his incarnation.

“When scriptures say of the Son that he is less than the Father, the Scriptures mean in respect to the assumption of humanity. When the Scriptures point out he is equal they are understood in respect to his deity.” St. Augustine

3. Round #3, 15:29-34 If there is no resurrection then hope, suffering and faithfulness are pointless,

A. If no resurrection then why hope?

1 Corinthians 15:29 “Now if there is no resurrection, what will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized for them?” NIV

Called the most difficult and obscure verse in the Bible.

40 – 200 different explanations depending on who you read.

Tempted to skip it.

But what does it mean?

Catagories:

1) Surrogate baptism

Living believers baptized for or in the interests of those who’ve died.

Proxy baptism. Not mentioned anywhere else.

2) Martyrdom as baptism

Changes meaning of baptized to sufferings and death.

A sort of baptism in blood.

3) For the dead is a reference not to a third party but to the ones who are getting themselves baptized…for the sake of their own dying bodies

If the dead are not raised then why bother being baptized. What would they gain?

4) Those who get baptized do it to join their departed loved ones (the dead) who’ve gone on before them.

Because of the prior witness of those who’ve gone on before them, they eventually come to Christ and are then baptized.

A dying mother would win her son to faith with the appeal “meet me in heaven”

This assumes baptism and salvation are linked.

Baptism implies future resurrection.

Some better than others. None of them satisfy.

5) Christians in Corinth practicing baptism in a way, not approved by Paul but doing so anyway that expresses a belief and hope in the final resurrection. Otherwise, why do it?

B. If no resurrection then why suffer

About the apostles’ suffering

Why would we suffer is we did not have an expectation of resurrection

Luther

“Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also; The body they may

kill; God’s truth abideth still; His kingdom is forever.”

Ignatius

“From Syria to Rome, by land and by sea, night and day, I am fighting with wild beasts. I mean these soldiers to whom I am bound, for they are like ten leopards.”

Belief that this life is all there is seriously affects our moral conduct.

Without the resurrection of the dead, life is reduced to seeking bodily pleasures as the logical lifestyle.

“Go for all the gusto you can get. You only go around once.”

“What’s wrong, nowadays, with a young man specializing in pleasure?” Sean Flynn, son of Errol Flynn

Hells Angels, “I have tried marriage, and the home and the kids, and it ain’t hitting on nothin’. What I like about the ‘Pagan’ is that every night you can get drunk, have a blast, and enjoy yourself. Broads and booze and everything they got to offer.”

Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, “Never put off until tomorrow the fun you can have today.”

The Corinthians are saying “We have the right to do anything we want.” 1 Cor 6:12; 10:23

When a Roman boy came of age his father gave him a special robe – a toga virilus and when he put it on he recited the words

“I have the right to do anything.” To show he’d come of age.

C. But our future resurrection is certain. So be faithful!

Warnings: Do not be misled

1 Cor 6:9-10, 13; 2 Cor 5:10

“Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither the sexually immoral nor idolators nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkdards nor thieves nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”

Principle: Bad company corrupts good morals. You will become like those you hang out with.

1 Peter 4:1-5

Principle: Disbelief in the resurrection affects our present moral life.

Stop sinning by denying the resurrection and pursuing pleasure.

A Truth: Some have not heard because you are too busy being self-centered and pursuing pleasure!

Guard your heart!

Prov 4:23 “Be careful what you think, because your thoughts run your life.” We will only be transformed as we submit to the Lordship of Christ.

Your heart is the fertile greenhouse of your life.

Your mind is the doorway to your heart – the strategic place where you determine which seeds are sown and which seeds are discarded. The Holy Spirit is ready to help you filter the thots that try to enter. He stands with you at the threshold. A thought approaches, a questionable thought. Do you throw open the door or your mind and let it in? Or do you close the door?

2 Corinthians 10:5 “we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ”

Piper – page 70-71 + 108f

“What this means is that we must not give a sexual image or impulse more than five seconds before we mount a violent counterattack with the mind. I mean that! Five seconds. In the first two seconds we shout, “No! Get out of my hand!” In the next two seconds we cry out: “O God, in the name of Jesus, help me. Save me now. I am Yours.”

Good beginning. But then the real battle begins. This is a mind war. The absolute necessity is to get the image and the impulse out of our mind. How?

III. Q & A

How are the dead raised? In what kind of body will they come?

Deals with the Corinthian objection of a raised physical body.

A. What Kind of Body, 15:36-49

A resurrection body is conceivable!

1. Seeds that died and then emerge in new God-given forms.

36-38 // 42

How can dead, decomposed, rotting corpses come back to life?

What bodies will they have?

Westminster Larger Catechism, 1647

“The self-same bodies of the dead which were laid in the grave, being then again united to their souls forever, shall be raised up by the power of Christ.”

Joni Eareckson Tada

“Somewhere in my broken paralyzed body is the seed of what I shall become. The paralysis makes what I am to become all the more grand when you contrast atrophied, useless legs against splendourous resurrected legs. I’m convinced that if there are mirrors in heaven (and why not?) the image I’ll see will be unmistakably ‘Joni’ although a much better, brighter Joni.”

Inside your body, even if it is failing, is the blueprint for your resurrection body. You may be dissatisfied with your present body. But you will be thrilled with your future upgrades.

2. Flesh: Different kinds of bodies with various kinds of splendor

39-41 // 43 – 49

Basic truth: Our resurrected bodies are the same bodies God created for us, but they will be raised to greater perfection than we’ve ever known.

We have a physical body and thus we already have a reference point for envisioning our new body.

Our new bodies will be tied to our current bodies in some way.

But, we will be surprised w/ new features and no glitches.

3. Bottom line: the resurrected bodies we will have will be like the resurrected body of Jesus! Christ is our resurrection prototype.

“so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven.” 15:49

Not only the reference point of our current bodies.

But the reference point of Christ’s resurrected bodies!

Phil 3:20-21 “for our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.”

1 John 3:2 “Beloved, now we are children of God and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.”

The difference between Adam and Christ is not that one was physical and the other was not.

The difference is that Adam was under sin and the curse and Christ was not touched by sin or the curse.

Luke 24:39 “I am not a ghost”

Christ walked on earth for 40 days after his resurrection showing us that his body was suitable for life on Earth.

Luke 24:13-35 Jesus walked and talked with two disciples.

They asked him questions, he taught them and guided them.

They saw nothing different about him to tip them off to his identity until he opened their eyes to see. They were prevented from recognizing Jesus earlier which they otherwise would have.

John 21 –

Jesus stood on the shore.

He called to them – his voice was human and normal.

Jesus started a fire and cooked fish which he caught himself.

Jesus ate fish with the disciples. No one saw fish doing through him.

John 20:15 Jesus looked like a man because Mary called Him “Sir”

John 20:19-23 Jesus interacted normally with the disciples.

He could be touched and hung onto and could eat.

But, apparently, he could walk through a closed door.

We aren’t told if we will be able to do this.

We not only learn about resurrected bodies from the resurrected Christ.

But, we learn about resurrected relationships!

Christ communicates with his disciples.

He has a personal interaction with

Mary Magdalene, John 20:10-18

Thomas, 20:24-29

Peter, 21:15-22

Jesus picked up his relationship with people from where they’d left off.

We will experience continuity between our current bodies and our current relationships, memories and relational histories.

B. How are the dead raised?, 15:50-57

Earthly Body Resurrection Body

Sown a perishable body Raised an imperishable body

Sown in dishonor Raised in glory

Sown in weakness Raised in power

Sown a natural body Raised a spiritual body

“spiritual body” he is not talking about a body made of spirit

Body means corporeal: flesh and bones

Spiritual is describing body.

First and foremost a real body.

Paul could have said, “sown a natural body and raised a spirit”

Our bodies will look and act like a regular physical body with some powers of a metaphysical nature, beyond normal physical abilities.

Flesh and blood can’t inherit the kingdom of God =

As they are now: cursed and under sin.

Our present bodies are fallen and destructible.

But they will be like Christ’s resurrected body.

Christ’s resurrected body was both physical and indestructible.

C. Application!

Stand firm

There will be opposition! Count on it.

There is a war going on.

Oh that Elisha’s Master would open our eyes to not only see the enemy but to see the forces of God arrayed on battle readiness.

Let nothing move you.

Not unbelievers.

Not Christians who surprise you.

Not physical illness

or psychological or emotional ups and downs.

Not friends

Not family

Always give yourselves to the work of the Lord

What am I giving myself to?

Am I giving myself enthusiastically to the Lord’s mission?

Spring cleaning is a time for spring evaluation!

Where am I spending my time, money and energy?

Am I supporting the work of the Lord?

Have I discovered my ministry?

What is my spiritual passion?