In Christ Shall We Live

Standalone Sermons

• 4/9/23

1 Corinthians 15:12-28

Immanuel – 4/9/23 – Easter

On Thursday evening we had a beautiful Maundy Thursday service remembering Jesus’ last supper with His disciples – the night He washed their feet. Christ’s love felt tangible in this room as we considered His great humility and love.

It was then incredibly moving to see that same humility and love demonstrated as people served one another. It’s enough to make this pastor proud. I am certainly blessed to call this my church family.

But even while blessings abound, so do sorrows. Funerals bookend my Easter, one yesterday and one on Tuesday. And it’s only been a month since we said goodbye to Ralph Arnold. In this age, loss is an ever-present reality and death visits every home.

This is precisely why Easter is the pinnacle of the church’s joy. For on that Sunday some 2,000 years ago, the crucified Christ rose from the grave. Though Christ was slain, it was not He who was defeated, but death itself.

So we rejoice in God who raises again His saints to life. Rejoice that if you are in Christ, you will not end in death. Rejoice, that though your soul may be heavy with sorrow, Christ’s resurrection is an enduring proof of God’s abounding love for you. May your mournful clouds scatter before the brilliance of Jesus’ victorious life.

Purpose

1. What does Christ’s resurrection mean for us?

2. When will we share in Christ’s resurrection?

3. What will the resurrected life be like?

Read 1 Corinthians 15:12-28

The passage begins with a rhetorical question: If Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?

Paul is arguing that we do not end when our bodies die. There is more: life beyond death, a resurrection. And how do we know this is true, that the dead will rise? Because Jesus proved it when He rose from the grave.

When we jumped right into verse 12, we lost some context. In the verses immediately preceding, Paul discussed the very many witnesses to Jesus’ resurrection – more than 500 people. Paul wrote this letter to the Corinthian church just over 20 years after Jesus’ death and resurrection, which means that anyone reading the letter could listen to hundreds of eye-witness accounts of Jesus’ resurrection.

One witness would be unreliable. Two witnesses could still leave a shred of doubt. But more than 500? A court that would not accept such profound corroboration would be fundamentally corrupted. Thus Paul’s words, If Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead (by more than 500 people), how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?

What If?

But then Paul does something you might not expect. He actually considers what it would mean if death was the end, like every atheist believes. He considers the terrifying thought that Christ truly died that dark day on Golgotha.

For clarity’s sake, Paul is imagining a universe where a god exists, but where that god does not resurrect the dead. If that were our universe, the following six things would be true.

1. Verse 14 – His preaching, and mine, is in vain. All this talk of resurrection, and its many hopeful implications, is utterly meaningless. All I give to you every Sunday is a bunch of hot air.

2. Verse 14 – Our faith is in vain. Believing in eternal life is as valid as believing in the easter bunny. Christ rested His entire ministry upon His resurrection. No resurrection, no Christianity.

3. Verse 15 – We are misrepresenting God. I – and any who claim a resurrection – would be a false teacher, a blasphemer, a pathetic dealer of deception.

4. Verse 17 – You are still in your sins. Without Christ’s resurrection, there is no forgiveness, no removal of guilt, no redemption from sin. Instead, all you have is condemnation.

5. Verse 18 – Those who have died have perished. Paul uses a Greek word there that can also be rendered, destroyed. In other words, Paul is saying that without the resurrection, we are all damned.

6. Verse 19 – Of all the people on earth, we Christians are most to be pitied. It’s pathetic what we chose to spend our lives on: suffering for the sake of myths, counting others more significant than ourselves. If there is no resurrection, then we should be squeezing every drop of glory and pleasure from this fleeting life.

If the dead are not raised, the desires of our heart and the hopes of our life are worthless. All we have is the gospel of Carl Sagan and Neil deGrasse Tyson, that our molecular make-up will one day return to the stars from which they came. But with no resurrection, who will be there to care about it?

Christ Has Risen!

Oh but the light has shattered the darkness! We need not despair! Christ is risen! What does that mean for us? Just take these 6 negative hypotheticals, and flip them into their positive truths.

The preaching of Christ crucified and resurrected is not in vain, but filled with glory! No! I give my life, as an ambassador of Jesus Christ, to faithfully proclaim this gospel reality; and there is nothing in it that misrepresents God! The deepest meanings in all the universe burst from that empty tomb. Our God is a God of resurrection, and Christ has risen, and if you believe, then so shall you!

People need to hear the resurrection of Christ proclaimed. They need to hear about the God who loves giving life to the dead.

As Jesus said: “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.” -John 5:24-26

If we have received the Christ’s words, then they have been written upon our hearts. Now we must proclaim them! It is not in vain, God is making all things new. Anyone who hears the words of Christ and believes, will pass from death to life.

For our faith is not in vain! Because Jesus rested His entire ministry upon His resurrection – and He did indeed rise – then we know that with all that we are, we can trust Him! His resurrection guarantees the promises of God, assures us of His unfailing faithfulness, and secures a resurrection for all who have placed their faith in Jesus, crucified and risen.

Since God promises to raise us, just as He has raised Christ, that means there is forgiveness. God cannot bring sinners into His holy presence lest we perish. So, if we are to live forever in His presence, it means we must be forgiven. Christ’s blood was more than sufficient to cover our wickedness. As far as the east is from the west, God has removed your sins from you (Psalm 103:12). There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1)! We need not die in our sins!

And if there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ, there is no punishment, there is no hell, there is no everlasting death. Before His face we shall be utterly exposed and entirely unashamed, as God’s unrestrained favor is lavished upon us for boundless ages of everlasting, unfading, immortality in the presence of Christ.

Are we then to be pitied? Never! For we are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession. He has called us out of the darkness and into His marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9)! Every suffering, every self-sacrificial act, all of it is supremely worth it! Yes, we count everything as loss for the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus our Lord (Philippians 3:8)!

If only this dying world could see God’s offer of reconciliation through His resurrected Son. Oh, we would not be pitied, but envied; a holy envy that draws the nations to Christ.

And indeed, it is Scripture’s promise that the nations will be drawn to Christ by the resurrection power spilling forth from His empty tomb.

Behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” -Revelation 7:9-10

Christ has risen, and so shall the faithful from every nation rise!

But when? That is the question Paul begins to answer next.

Read vs 20-22

The Day of Resurrection

I love how Paul says, those who have fallen asleep. He is not using language of death, or perishing, like he uses for those who die in their sins. No, for those who have died in Christ he uses language of sleep, a brief rest, a moment of slumber. Unlike the dead, the saints will soon be awakened.

Christ is the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep: meaning, His resurrected life is like the very first apple to ripen on the tree. When you see that first red apple, you know the rest, laden upon the branch, will soon burst into color. Again, Christ’s resurrection is proof of ours, evidence that our death has been and will be defeated. We will wake!

And we will wake because Christ is recreating man. Before Christ, we were all born with hearts bent towards sin and hands eager for wickedness. We were born into Adam’s death. But through faith in Jesus Christ we are born again, new men and women remade into the image of Christ, born to a living hope. We were reborn to never die, but to live.

For now, though our souls have been united with Christ, we remain clothed in Adam’s body. Therefore, these bodies must die. But upon the resurrection, we will receive a new body, a glorified body in the unfiltered likeness of our Lord.

At the close of history, when Christ returns, shall such resurrection glories break upon us.

Read vs 23

In all of Scripture, Paul gives us the clearest description of how God will bring history to a close. The end begins with Christ’s bodily return. As Paul wrote to the Thessalonians:

For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. -1 Thessalonians 4:16

Christ will return and then the dead will immediately rise, the resurrection of those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end.

Read vs 24-28

First comes Christ’s return, without delay the resurrection of the dead follows. And when the dead finally rise to life everlasting, then death has forever been defeated. Christ slays that greatest of humanity’s foes, and throws death dead into its own grave.

Death’s final defeat is the kingdom of Christ consummated and completed. For upon death’s defeat, Jesus hands the kingdom over to the Father. It is a kingdom without enemies, for like verse 25 says, every enemy has been defeated. While the Son of God reigned from heaven – since He had not yet returned – He toppled every rule and every authority and every power that stood against God, all things having been put in subjection to Him.

Last of all, when Jesus gives up the kingdom, it will again demonstrate His great loyalty and obedience to the Father. Jesus will happily, joyfully, lovingly, subject Himself to the Father. All things in heaven and on earth will forever be ordered as all things were meant to be.

And like the end of verse 28 says, God will be all in all. This small phrase bursts with wonders too great for our present understanding, and yet they electrify our every nerve of hope.

All in All

If ever eternal life sounds dull – like, what will you do for ever and ever? – this little phrase, God will be all in all, casts aside such shadowy thoughts.

God will be all in all. This is no animistic declaration. This means that every living being is filled with the Spirit of God. Knowledge of God erupts from every heart, every thought birthed in worship, praise pouring forth from every mouth, and all hands given to humble service of others.

God will be all in all. Every place that we look, we will marvel at the works of God. In the forests and stars and animals and oceans: the abundance and beauty wrought by the Creator of the new heavens and new earth will fill us with worship. There will not be a moment where you are not flooded with the thought, O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth (Psalm 8:1)!

God will be all in all. We will marvel at the works of God wrought in the faces of sinners, redeemed, now glorified. Some we loved, some departed before us, most we will rejoice upon meeting; all we will love, and they will love us. Chapters of friendship will never close. Precious moments of fleeting fellowship we now know, might just last a millennium then. Oh, what amazing grace to have lifted the despised, the broken, the rebellious, and brought them as treasured sons and daughters into resurrection glory!

God will be all in all. The deepest longings of every soul perpetually satisfied by the unfettered love of Father, Son, and Spirit. This is our resurrection hope, our eternal reward.

So incredible the magnitude of such wonders that Paul prays,

That according to the riches of His glory He may grant you to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. -Ephesians 3:16-19

What despair we would know if Christ had not been raised. Oh, but He has. Christ is risen! Our bodies will die, but when Christ appears, so shall we appear, and we will be like Him, and we will rejoice in His presence.

There is no hope, no love that is greater than this. May we indeed have the strength to comprehend what is the breadth and length and height and depth of the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge. And may we, even today, be filled with all the fullness of God!

From Thine Easter Day by Mary Lowe Dickinson

If broken down are stony gates of pride,

If shrouding bands of earth are torn away,

If sin and wrath and scorn in thee have died,

Mourn not the past. The folded shroud beside

Angels will watch; — it is thine Easter day.

Rise, new-born soul, and put thine armor on;

Clasp round thy breast the garment of the light;

Gird up thy loins for battle. In the fight

He leads who upward from our sight has gone;

It is His day; there's no more death nor night,

No dark, no hurt, no more sharp shame nor loss;