Well, good morning, friends. Christ is risen. He's risen indeed. Would you open your pew Bible
with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. That's page 903 in the pew Bible.
We're going to be looking at 1 Corinthians chapter 15 this morning.
As you turn there, page 903, let me pray for us as we come to God's Word together.
Father, you have caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus,
our Lord, from the dead. Let our minds and our hearts grasp not just the reality,
but the significance of his resurrection this morning, that we might be people of the resurrection,
full of hope, living hope, as your Word says. In Christ's name and by the power of the Spirit,
we pray. Amen. Amen. Well, 1 Corinthians 15 is a long chapter. We won't look at all of it this
morning, but I'm going to begin by reading 1 Corinthians 15 verses 1 through 19. But keep
your pew Bible open because we'll look at more of the verses as we go, but we'll start with verses
1 through 19. This is the Apostle Paul writing to the church in Corinth around 53 or 54 AD, and he
writes this,
and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve, and he appeared to more than 500 brothers
at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James,
then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.
For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy 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, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.
Whether it was I or they, so we preach, and so you believed. Now, if Christ is proclaimed as raised from
the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no
resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised,
then our preaching is in vain, and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God
because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise, if it is true that the dead
are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not
been raised, your faith is futile, and you're still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep
in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope, in this life only, we are, of all people,
most to be pitied. Hope's a funny thing, isn't it? Most often when we think of hope, we think that
it's something that we do, right? I hope it doesn't rain today because we're going to have an epic Easter
egg hunt in our backyard, right? I hope that I pass my exams. I hope I meet someone and fall in love.
When we think about hope, we usually think that it's something we do, and it sort of feels like
something that's not too far off from wishful thinking, right? But notice that the Apostle Paul
talks about the Christian's hope not as something that we do, but as something that we have.
This is true across the New Testament. Hope isn't something we do. It's not wishful thinking
about the future. It's something that we have. It's a certain future. Hope in the New Testament is
something solid, reliable. It's sort of like an anchor fixed to a point that will not give way,
but will keep you secure and steadfast until you arrive at the destination.
Now, you don't need me to tell you that we live in an age of deep anxiety and fear and unrest.
I feel it just as much as you do. But what if, rather than living in fear and unrest,
we could live in hope, solid hope, steadfast hope, hope that takes our wildest dreams and actually
makes them look like child's play? That's what 1 Corinthians 15 is all about. It's all about the
resurrection of Jesus Christ and the certain hope that we have in him because of it.
In a nutshell, what Paul's going to say in the rest of this chapter is that because Jesus Christ has
been raised from the dead, there's hope. There's certain hope. There's hope for the world and there's
hope for you. But before we get to those two main points, we have to consider first what Paul says
if Christ hasn't been raised. That's the paragraph we just read. If Christ has not been raised,
then he says we're hopeless. No resurrection of Christ, no hope. Now, it would seem that some
Christians in Corinth had begun to believe that the physical body, the material world, especially our
material bodies, they had begun to believe that it doesn't really matter. You see this earlier in the
letter of 1 Corinthians. As Paul grapples with certain ethical questions with the Corinthians,
they seem to think that it's the spirit or the soul that's the only important thing. And if that's
true, then it doesn't really matter what we do with our bodies. You can eat what you want to eat. You
can sleep with whoever you want to sleep with. Who cares? It's just your physical body. That thing
doesn't matter. But Paul in this letter is saying, no, God made your physical body. God will redeem your
physical body. And in fact, you don't belong to yourself anymore. You belong to Christ.
Christ. But here in chapter 15, this downgrading of the importance of the body at Corinth has seeped
into their thinking even about the resurrection of the body. It seems they were thinking something
along the lines of the resurrection of a body. That's weird. Who needs the body?
But think a minute, Paul says, if there's no resurrection of the body,
then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ hasn't been raised, he says, then our preaching
is in vain and your faith is in vain. In other words, it's all empty. The Christian message,
the preaching is empty, and the Christian life, the faith is empty. To remove the resurrection from
Christianity is sort of like removing all the air from your car tires, right? You might sort of clump
along for a few blocks. You know, if you ever had a flat tire, you're like, you know right away, right?
It's like, and you're like, you can go for a few blocks, right? But eventually you just grind to a halt.
And then you've got to replace your rims, which is really expensive. Don't do that.
I've been there. Takes a lot of money. But why is that? Why is it like taking all the air
from the car tires if we get rid of the resurrection? Well, as far as the Christian
message, the preaching goes, Paul says, if there's no resurrection, then we're misrepresenting God.
You know, you can't read the New Testament for long until you realize that what all the apostles
and the earliest followers of Jesus were saying was not that Christ had been sort of spiritually
preserved through death. They were not saying that they had had some kind of strong impression of
Jesus living on in their hearts after death. No. What they said and what they meant was that Jesus
rose bodily from the grave and they met him. And it's hard to go on trusting a message when you don't
really believe the central thing about it. So the preaching is empty if there's no resurrection.
But the faith is empty too, Paul says. Why? Well, because, he says, then you're still in your sins.
If Christ died and stayed dead, Paul seems to be saying, then maybe his death would have been the death
of a martyr, but it would not have been the death of a redeemer.
You see, Jesus claimed during his earthly ministry that his death would be our ransom
from sin and death. But if his death was the end, then we have no reason to think that his crucifixion
achieved anything along those lines.
So then, if Christ has not been raised, we Christians are, as verse 19 says, of all people,
most to be pitied. We don't really have any hope.
So, Christian, on this Easter Sunday, remember the centrality of the resurrection.
All of life for the Christian really is nothing more than a witness in word, in deed, in affection.
All of our life, corporately and individually as Christians, is really nothing more than a witness
that Jesus Christ is risen.
But if you're here and you're not a Christian,
can I submit to you
that you're also in the same boat?
That is, if there's no resurrection,
admittedly, Christianity is pretty empty.
We should probably just go straight to the egg hunt, right?
But what about what you believe, friend?
Without the resurrection,
do you have hope?
Or the older you get,
do you also feel the air
leaking out of your tires, as it were?
You know, this seems to happen
kind of in a progression.
You get into the school you always wanted.
You land a dream job.
You get your first big success.
But then the glory of that starts to wane.
And it doesn't quite satisfy.
So you trade success for duty
and for doing something good in the world.
And you try that,
and then you see,
no matter how hard we try to live moral lives,
lives of duty,
of service,
of justice,
that at the same time,
there's also just an intractable brokenness in the world.
And at times,
there's no better word to describe it
than evil.
Not all the world,
but there's something in the world
that's broken.
And then you have that moment
when you realize that the brokenness,
the warped nature of things,
isn't just out there,
but it's in here too.
And what is there to do about it?
And the air keeps leaking out,
and your tires get lower and lower to the pavement.
And then maybe you get a phone call
that a loved one has died.
And then the air really starts leaking out.
And you realize one day,
someone else will get a call,
and it will be news of your death
that's getting passed along.
And then maybe,
no matter what it is that you believe,
you start to realize that
if the only hope we have
is hope in this life only,
it all starts to look pretty empty,
pretty vain.
But wait,
the apostle Paul says,
wait,
that doesn't have to be the end of the story.
Yes,
if Christ has not been raised,
if there's no resurrection,
it's pretty bleak for all of us.
But let's pick up in verse 20
of our text.
In verse 20,
Paul says,
but,
in fact,
Christ has been raised from the dead.
The first fruits of those
who have fallen asleep.
for as by a man came death,
by a man has come also
the resurrection of the dead.
For as in Adam all die,
so also in Christ
shall all be made alive,
but each in his own order.
Christ the first fruits,
then at his coming,
those who belong to Christ.
Then comes the end,
when he delivers the kingdom
to God the Father,
after destroying every rule
and every authority and power.
For he must reign
until he has put all enemies
under his feet.
The last enemy to be destroyed
is death.
For God has put all things
in subjection under his feet.
But when it says,
all things are put in subjection,
it is plain that he is accepted
who put all things
in subjection under him.
When all things are subjected to him,
then the Son himself
will also be subjected
to him who put all things
in subjection under him,
that God may be all in all.
Let me translate.
Paul's saying,
there's hope.
There's hope for the world
and there's hope for you.
First, consider how this paragraph
points us to hope for the world.
There's talk here, right,
of kingdoms,
of rule,
of authority,
of power,
of all things being subjected to God.
And all that language
kind of seems a bit foreign to us.
But what Paul is saying
is that because of the resurrection
of Jesus Christ,
one day,
the world,
in all of its brokenness,
will be put right.
All the misuse of power,
all the destructive twisting of authority,
all the hurt and suffering
and death that that causes,
one day,
it will all be put to an end.
And God's kingdom,
God's way of power and authority,
a way of goodness
and rightness
and compassion
and love,
one day,
that will be all in all.
No more injustice,
no more oppression.
God
will be all
in all.
The creator
will put creation
right again.
It's a bit like a broken bone,
you know.
You know,
if you're out of shape,
like me,
and you go to the gym,
and they put you
on a new diet,
and they give you
an exercise plan,
all of that's probably
going to do you much good,
right?
But what if your leg
is broken?
Well,
the new diet
will be good for you,
probably,
and many of the exercises
might be good, too.
But there's still
a deep brokenness
that needs to be fixed,
right?
Your broken bone
needs to be reset.
It needs to be mended.
It needs to be put right again.
And the Christian hope
rooted in the resurrection
of Jesus
is that God will one day
put it right again.
Not just this thing
or that thing,
but the whole thing.
In another passage,
Romans 8,
Paul puts it this way.
He says,
for the creation waits
with eager longing
for the revealing
of the sons of God.
For the creation
was subjected to futility,
not willingly,
but because of him
who subjected it in hope
that the creation itself
will be set free
from its bondage
to corruption
and obtain the freedom
of the glory
of the children of God.
For we know
that the whole creation
has been groaning
together
in the pains
of childbirth
until now.
All of creation
is groaning
and grinding
and waiting,
Paul says.
Don't we feel that?
God will set it free
and release it
from its bondage
to decay.
Even death,
the last enemy,
will be destroyed.
But how,
you might ask,
is the resurrection
of Jesus connected
to all that?
How does the resurrection
of Jesus connect
to any of that?
Well,
the answer is found
in that little word
in our passage,
that little word,
firstfruits.
Sort of a strange word.
Anybody here
grow up on a farm?
No one, right?
We're in urban New England.
No one does.
No one does a farm.
Firstfruits
is sort of a strange word,
right?
It's a term from agriculture.
It's a term from farming.
And the firstfruits
literally were just that.
They were the sort of
first part
of the coming crop
that you would harvest.
So if you had an olive grove
or a fig tree
and the sort of growing season
was coming to an end,
the firstfruits
were that initial
sort of batch
or basket
or plucking
of olives
or figs
that you could pick
and enjoy.
And here's the thing.
The firstfruits,
that first initial part
of the harvest,
would be like an indication
of what was to come
with the rest of the harvest.
So if you got
a good initial batch
of olives,
you'd expect a good year,
a good harvest.
It was a bit of a guarantee
of what was to come.
Now we do sort of get this
living in New England,
right?
Because our winters
are so dreadfully long
and dark,
right?
We spend months
in the cold
and then sometime
around February
we all think,
why do we live here?
Why aren't we moving
to like Virginia
or North Carolina
or St. Vincent,
you know?
The trees are bleak,
the grass is withered,
and then one day,
pushing up through the dirt
is a crocus.
This little flower,
seemingly where it doesn't belong,
this little like burst of color
amidst all the dead grass.
And then you know,
then you know,
the winter's passing away
and the spring is coming.
it's the first fruits
of what's to come.
It's the guarantee.
Paul says the resurrection
of Jesus Christ
is just like that.
It's the indicator.
It's the guarantee
of what's to come.
It's the advance
in breaking
of a coming harvest.
Now think with me
about the life
and death of Jesus.
In Jesus,
God took human flesh
and lived among us.
And he taught
and he healed
and he loved
and he instructed.
And what did we do?
How did humans respond?
You know,
sometimes we can think
to ourselves,
I wish God would just
make himself clear.
I wish God would just
quit hiding
and let me know
he's there.
And the truth is,
God did just that
in the person of Jesus.
And he even had it
all written down
so that we could
keep reading it
generation after generation.
God's not trying
to hide
or be secret.
There was no secret.
There was no hiding.
God came right
into our midst
in the best way
we could understand how
in our own flesh
and said,
this is what I'm like.
This is who I am.
But what did we humans do?
We saw him.
We heard him.
And then we rejected him.
Humanity ended up
doing its worst to Jesus.
We crucified him.
The living God
walked in our midst
and we consumed him
in our anger
and jealousy
and hatred
and fear.
It was as if
all the injustice
of human history
and all the twisted
self-centeredness
of humanity
was gathered up
into a single moment
and we unleashed it
on the very God
who made us
and who loves us
but whose presence
and rule
we wanted nothing
to do with.
And what was God's response?
Imagine if God
had given us
what we wanted
in that moment.
Imagine as we
crucified God,
God turned and said,
okay,
you want this world
without me.
You can have it.
Thy will be done.
What kind of world
would it be?
A scary place.
But that's not
what God did.
Instead,
God bore
the full verdict
of our enmity
and hatred,
went down
into the grave
and then he issued
a new verdict.
In the place
of the death
that we dealt,
God spoke life.
And in the place
of our hatred
and jealousy,
God spoke forgiveness.
God said,
you've done
your worst.
Now,
my will be done.
And Jesus Christ
rose from the dead,
overturning our evil
and our death
and in its place
bringing forth
goodness and life.
In other words,
in the resurrection,
God put it right.
And that putting right
on Easter morning
was,
as Paul says,
the first fruits.
As in Jesus Christ,
one day,
over all creation,
every injustice
and every evil
and every disordered
rule and authority
will be overturned
and put right
through the one
who was raised,
the Lord Jesus Christ,
who bears in his own
resurrected body
the verdict of God,
the verdict of God
that human evil
and injustice
don't have the last word.
No,
that God will
be all in all.
Now,
is that just wishful thinking?
That God could overturn
the deeply entrenched
brokenness of the world
and set creation free
from its bondage
to decay?
Is that just
some wish dream?
not if Christ
has been raised
from the dead.
It's as certain
as the crocus
speaking of the coming spring.
And that means
if the bodily resurrection
of Christ
is true,
then all those
deep longings
you and I have
for justice
and for a world
made right and whole,
all those deep longings
that are so deep
in our heart
we can't escape them,
they're not just daydreams.
They're harbingers,
they're signs
within us
of what's actually
to come
and of which
God gave the guarantee
in raising his son
from the dead.
And that means
when we act
on those longings,
when we love
and when we serve
and when we even sacrifice,
you know,
we're not just
arranging deck chairs
on the Titanic
because if everything's
just going to
peter out
into the frozen waste
of an ever-expanding universe,
what more are we doing?
But if Christ
has been raised,
every act of love
and justice
and service
is enacting
the future.
We're witnessing
to what will be true
forevermore.
We're saying
there's hope
for the world
in the resurrection
of Jesus Christ.
But it's not just
hope for the world,
friends.
It's hope for you.
Paul says
in verse 20
that all this
isn't just about
kingdoms
and rule
and authority
and putting
the world
to rights.
It's also about
those who have
fallen asleep,
which,
as you probably guessed,
is Paul's way
of talking about
those who have died.
what hope is there
for you and me
facing the very real,
ultimately inevitable
prospect
that we will die?
Now, many religions
have some sort of notion
of an afterlife,
whether it's sort of
existing in a spiritual state
or being reincarnated
into a different life
altogether
and sort of going
through cycles
where you can eventually
sort of be united
with sort of the oneness
that is the universe.
There are lots of ways
of thinking about
the afterlife,
but Christianity
is actually quite unique.
Christianity says
not just your spirit
or your soul,
but your body
is going to be
rescued from death.
A number of years ago,
a French philosopher
named Luc Ferry
wrote a book
called A Brief History
of Thought,
A Philosophical Guide
to Living.
And in this book,
which is quite interesting,
he sort of traces
different worldviews
and different philosophies
and sort of what makes
them able to carry
the weight of living
and ultimately
of facing death.
And even though
he's not a Christian himself,
he writes in that book
about how Christianity
was actually incredibly unique
because only Christianity,
he says,
is the one philosophy,
the one worldview
that says
we will eventually see
the face
of our loved ones
face to face.
Not spiritually,
not metaphorically,
but actually
because of the resurrection
of the body.
And then he goes on
sort of as a historian
of philosophy to say,
and in the first century
and second century
and third century,
Christianity just swept
the field.
No one could compare to it.
There were beautiful systems
of thought.
There was a beautiful system
of thought called Stoicism,
which was about sort of
self-control
and determination
and ultimately
this hope
that the good
that you do
will sort of
echo out into the world
and you'll be sort of
combined with the one,
the sort of all soul
that guides
and governs all.
But Ferris says,
that might be a nice thought,
but it can't hold a candle
to seeing your loved ones
face to face.
But how could that be?
How could that be?
How could there be hope
for you and me
in the face of death?
Paul puts it this way.
He says,
For as by a man came death,
by a man has come also
the resurrection of the dead.
For as in Adam all die,
so also in Christ
shall all be made alive,
but each in his own order.
Christ, the firstfruits,
there's that word again.
Then it is coming,
those who belong to Christ.
Paul's sort of saying,
it's your birthright, you know.
It's your birthright
that you gained
from our first parents in Adam.
It's your birthright to die.
That's what you get
for being a human.
Mortality.
But there's a new family
you can be part of.
Because a second Adam,
a new Adam has come.
And in this new Adam,
in Christ,
death has been overcome.
He actually went through death
and was raised.
And if you belong to him,
you too will be raised.
Now does that seem
too hard to believe?
They scratch their heads
about that in the first century too,
you know.
Later in this very chapter
in 1 Corinthians 15,
Paul kind of speaks
to that very question.
How can the dead be raised?
What sort of body
could that be?
Well, Paul says,
you know,
when you put a seed
in the ground,
what happens?
The seed dies, as it were.
It sort of nearly falls apart.
But then something wonderful happens.
From the ground,
up springs new life.
Now just think.
Think of all the bodies.
God the creator has made.
Think of the millions
of species of animals
and plants
and birds
and fish,
each with its own unique,
perfectly suited body.
Think of the stars
and the planets.
If God is able
to make earthly bodies
and heavenly bodies,
don't you think
this God could make
a resurrection body?
And that's just
what he's done.
It's not wishful thinking
because God's already
proved he can
and will do it.
On Easter morning,
when the tomb
was found empty
and the risen Jesus
met the disciples,
he wasn't just showing them
what the Father
had done for him.
He was showing them
what was going to be true
of them
because of him.
He had broken down
the door.
He had put the crack
in the dam.
He was the firstfruits,
the guarantee that,
yes,
God can and will
do it.
Do you wonder
what this resurrection body
will be like?
Again,
later in this chapter,
Paul will speak
to that too.
He says,
right now,
our bodies are perishable.
They wear out.
They get old.
But what is raised
will be imperishable.
They'll never get old,
wear out,
or die.
Right now,
he says,
our bodies carry
the weight of dishonor,
of shame.
How deeply we feel that.
How deeply we're coming
to understand
how our bodies
carry
the wrongs
that we've done
or the wrongs
that have been done to us,
the trauma
and the sin
and the scars.
Paul says,
our bodies right now
carry that.
But in the resurrection,
he says,
we'll be raised in glory.
The body will no longer
carry the weight of sin.
Right now,
he says,
our bodies are weak.
There are things
we wish to accomplish,
goals we wish to reach
that we know
will never complete.
I read somewhere
that that's basically
the definition
of middle age
when you realize
that you're not going
to accomplish
all your goals.
If you're 20,
sorry,
it's coming.
You know,
we're weak.
And we're weak
not just because
of good creaturely limits.
There's good limits
to our life,
but we're weak
because of the fallen
weakness
of our present bodies.
But these bodies,
Paul says,
will be raised in power.
Imagine having the freedom.
The freedom
not to exceed
our creaturely limits,
but to live
within them
and to accomplish
the very things
for which you were created.
This is the Christian hope
grounded in the resurrection
of Jesus Christ.
Because he has been raised,
so will all those be raised
who belong to him.
And that means something
very powerful.
It means that the frustrations
of this life,
the limitations
of this life,
all the things you never
got to do in this life,
they're not the final word.
Paul will end this chapter
by saying,
therefore,
my beloved brothers and sisters,
be steadfast,
immovable,
always abounding
in the work of the Lord,
knowing that in the Lord
your labor is not in vain.
The work of this life,
Paul is saying,
is not in vain.
It's not empty.
Even when it seems incomplete,
even when it seems riddled
with setbacks and disappointments,
it's not in vain.
Why?
Because of the resurrection.
Because the future
that God has in store
is not some alternate reality
or some escape
or wholesale rejection
of what's happened
in this life
or in your life.
No, the deeds
that you have sown,
the labors you have expended,
the weariness
that is gathered
in your bones
as you've run this race
with endurance,
none of it's in vain.
Because God's going to take
what's perishable
and what's weak
and yes,
what's even dishonorable
and he's going to sweep it up
and make it new
in the resurrection.
The question is,
will you and I
on this Easter Sunday
give ourselves
to the resurrected Jesus
to belong to him?
As Paul says in verse 23,
can you and I say,
can you say
that you belong
to Christ?
If you are a Christian,
then that's true of you
and you have this hope.
So live it,
brothers and sisters.
Live it out.
Be steadfast.
Be immovable.
Always abounding
in the work of the Lord
and do it with joy
and peace
and faithfulness
because you have a hope
that cannot be taken away.
A hope that's as certain
as the coming of spring.
A hope of a world made right
and you made new
right in the midst of it.
But if you're here
and you're not a Christian,
then I wonder,
what would it take for you
to consider
giving yourself
to the risen Christ?
Perhaps you need
to spend more time
considering the historicity
of the resurrection of Jesus.
After all,
if this is what's at stake,
isn't it worth
taking just a little time
to consider
whether it's true?
There's actually
a book table at the back
Pastor Matt mentioned
with lots of great resources
to do that.
Take one.
Consider it for yourself.
No one should go through life
without seriously considering
the claims of Jesus' resurrection.
This is your chance.
But of course,
belonging to Christ
is more than just
an intellectual endeavor, right?
You can believe
something is true
without really giving
your allegiance to it.
I believe that the Chiefs
won the Super Bowl this year.
But my heart still belongs
to the Philadelphia Eagles,
as silly and strange
and as perpetually heartbreaking
as that will be, right?
What keeps you from giving
your allegiance to Jesus Christ?
What keeps you from belonging to Him?
You know, whatever it is,
however you would answer
that question,
and we all have to answer
that question at some point
in our life,
whatever it is that keeps you
from belonging to Him,
I hope you see,
I hope you see that long before
you and I ever considered
whether or not
you should give your life to Him,
He decided to give His life for you.
And who else would do such a thing?
Your work,
your friends,
your family,
these are all good things,
but none of them
ever gave themselves
so fully for you
as He did.
Whatever it might cost you
to belong to Jesus
is nothing compared
to what you gain.
a lover of your soul,
a friend in the darkest night,
and hope like an anchor
that cannot be shaken,
the defeat of sin and death
and resurrection life.
Friends, let's give ourselves to Him.
Let's pray.
Father, in the midst of the busyness
of a holiday weekend
and just the general busyness
of our lives
and the noise of so much
that crowds in around us,
we pause just for a minute now
in silence and stillness before you,
asking for your Spirit to come
and open our hearts to you.
Amen.
Father, by your Spirit,
help us to live
as people of the resurrection
and open the eyes
of the hearts of those
who want to believe in you
but who have such a hard time doing so.
Lord, come with your grace.
Make yourself real.
And draw your people to yourself,
we pray.
In Jesus' name.
Amen.
Thank you.