Sermon Transcript:

I do hope and trust you've enjoyed this series on First Corinthians. We'll finish up next week with chapter 16, but first Corinthians 15 is a long, long chapter. It's actually the only chapter that I'll teach or preach from here where I won't read the entire chapter, and it's not because I'm ashamed of certain things. Sometimes preachers do that. They'll skip over certain parts because they're either ashamed of the text or they're not quite sure how to preach it or teach it. That's not the case. It is just so long. It is just so many verses that if I was to read the thing in the entirety, it would take up half of our time together. So I'm going to hit the highlights. I think we're going to hit all the subject matter that we would need to know about in order to understand first, Corinthians, 15 and what God has for us. It is a clear reminder, and even talking about the resurrection in the Gospel. And so I'm excited about this message. Let's start in verse one. This is Paul talking, and most of the time he has addressed certain issues. And now he's going to say, I want to give you the foundation. Let me remind you, dear brothers and sisters. And brothers and sisters is a familial term of the idea that we are brothers and sisters in the Lord. What does he want to remind us of the good news? Right? And we understand that we come to church for good news, the gospel. That is that same word throughout the New Testament I preached to you before you welcomed it then, and you still stand firm in it. So again, it's just that whole idea of that is our foundation, the Gospel. It is this good news that saves you. If you continue to believe the message I told you, unless, of course, you believe something that was never true in the first place, then he's going to really tell us, sort of the elements of the gospel in terms of a fact, since I passed on to you what was most important and what has also been passed on to me, Christ died for our sins, just as the scripture said. He was buried. He was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the scripture said, and he was seen by Peter and then by the 12. After that, he was seen by more than 500 of his followers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then he was seen by James and later by all the apostles, last of all, as though I had been born at the wrong time. I also saw him, for I am the least of all the apostles. In fact, I'm not even worthy to be called an apostle after the way I persecuted God's church. So a couple things I want to remind us of as we're reading this passage again. This is sort of the elements going all the way back historically. What are the elements of the gospel? These, these things are it right here? But one of the things you need to understand about the way Paul speaking is he's saying, Listen, I'm an apostle. If you remember about the New Testament, Jesus walked around with 12 followers whom He called disciples, and when he left to ascend into heaven, he really commissioned them as apostles. And then Paul saying, I was an apostle in undue time. What he means by that is I wasn't part of the original 12. I was on the road to Damascus, and I was persecuting the church, and that's when I saw the resurrected Lord. One of the passages we use to understand that an apostle is one who is an eyewitness to a resurrected Lord is a passage like this. Remember how I talk to you about how apostleship, as an office, the gift of apostle is really limited to those who were eyewitnesses to the resurrection. Alright, so what are these four elements? I want to go ahead and put those up there. I sort of try to number those off as we were going through them. And again, I know you probably know this. If you've been a part of a church, you say, Man, this is, this is what I understand. Well, good. This is the good news. This is the gospel. If you go to any church beyond ours, hopefully they are emphasizing these elements of who God is and who Christ is. It's that whole idea that he was crucified, our Lord and Savior was crucified, that he really was buried three days later. He really did come back in what's called the resurrection, and then he was seen by numerous people. That's why, again, people who are Christians are not people who are duped into believing something that is not reasonable or is not scientifically true. 2 billion people on the planet adhere to Christianity at some form, and they all hinge on this idea of the resurrection. So you have the the straight up facts that he died for our sins, and also that he rose again according to Scriptures. And we have the proof in the numerous witnesses. And again, Corinthians would have been written pretty early on, uh, 33 ad, or thereabouts, is when Jesus, of course, would have left us here on Earth. And these letters are written anywhere between 45 and 60 ad, that's why he can say with confidence. Listen, many of these witnesses, up to 500 are still around. So it's just so we can kind of remember this. I want to give a couple of pictures just to sort of so we could get in our memory a couple of things. First one is we understand bad news. You remember the news boys?

That was sort of the idea of the The Paperboy on the corner of the city streets, sort of having the news for the day. And so this was back when World War Two broke out. And what this is bad news, war is declared, and I understand that we needed to maybe get into it because it was a righteous cause. But at the end of the day, let's just be honest, wars bad, even if it's necessary at times. And so this was bad news. We also have, this is kind of a funny little picture, fake news. I'm not sure why he's so happy about it, right? But, but fake news. And then finally, we have good news, right? So this is a a picture of a of a newspaper that shows that the war is over,

and you can see, peace, it's over. This is the good news. And again, this is where we knew we were heading, all the way back to the Christmas story with with Mary being told who would come and his name would be Emmanuel, all the way to the Easter story, which is really the Gospel itself, the evangelical message. This is true, and this is good news. And if these things are true, and if the things define ultimate reality and daily reality, because a lot of times we think about heaven and Christianity as some sort of understanding of knowing where we're going when we die, that's part of it, but it begins now, and that's the gospel. So if these things are true, they define ultimate reality now and the future, and that changes everything about our lives, and so therefore we're called to walk in that. And I know you probably know that as Christians and as believers, alright, so skip a couple of verses and we'll pick it up in verse 12 of the same chapter. Again, I told you, it was a long chapter, hopefully I sort of touch on whatever thoughts or or problems or questions you might have, but tell me this, since we preach that Christ rose from the dead, which is what we've been talking about, the resurrection, why are some of you saying there will be no resurrection of the dead? For if there's no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, then all our preaching is useless, and your faith is useless, and we as apostles would all be lying about God, for we have said that God raised Christ from the grave, but that can't be true. If there's no resurrection of the dead, if there's no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless and you're still guilty of your sins. In that case, all who have died believing in Christ are lost. And if we hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pity than anyone in the world. But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. He is the first of a great harvest of all who have died. So you see, just as death came into the world through a man, now the resurrection from the dead has begun through another man, just as everyone dies, because we all belong to Adam, everyone who belongs to Christ will be given new life. But there is an order to this resurrection. Christ was raised as the first of the harvest. Then all who belong to Christ will be raised when he comes back, and after that, the end will come when he turns the kingdom over to God, the Father, having destroyed every ruler and authority and power for Christ must reign until he humbles all his enemies beneath his feet, and the last enemy to be destroyed is death. Alright, a lot there. So I want to kind of take it slow and maybe help us understand exactly what is going on here. I think first and foremost, let's just be honest that if the resurrection isn't true, then Christianity isn't true. That Jesus wasn't who he said he was. He isn't really the Son of God, and you and I are still stuck in our sin. That's why, when we are doing things like communion, the reason why we do communion regularly, and the reason why we do baptism regularly, is that we're proclaiming the death, burial and resurrection of our Lord and Savior until he comes again. So we see a picture of that, that we are actually dying to self and raised to walk in newness of life. And so if this is true, if the resurrection is true, that changes everything. If it's not true, we can see a lot of things that that bring about great hopelessness. Now, second point I want us to see is resurrection means hope. Resurrection means hope. Now, I wanted to find the word hope because, you know, Jesse and kidding us about the Cowboys, was talking about the fact that I hope the Cowboys win. We all do that. But I just want to, I just want to recognize that there's more than Cowboys fans in the room. There's a couple 40 Niners fans, and there's a couple of Eagles fans, okay, and so, yeah, okay. So there we have diversity here. Okay, so we're an equal opportunity offender here at Life Church. So, but one of the things I would just say is we all do this on Sunday, or whenever we watch our teams, we say, I hope that they win. And what we mean by that is that we, we would like for them to win. We really, we really want it to happen. That's not biblically the way the word hope is used. Hope is a foregone conclusion that we know is going to happen, and we're waiting for the day for that to come true. That's what we're mean by resurrection. Means hope. We know it's going to happen. They say, Well, how do.

Know what's going to happen, Pastor, because Jesus himself raised from the dead. And then also something else is going on here. Theologically. Did you see this? They reference Adam, and they say we're all of the seed of Adam. And some of y'all are sitting there thinking, I don't know. How does that work? Well, you understand that Adam and Eve were the first humans on Earth, and so biblically, we all come through the seed of Adam, and Adam and Eve messed up, and we all know that we're going to die. And so now he's saying, but if you're in Christ, then you have hope of the resurrection, because if you die in Christ, then resurrection is real, and it means hope. If it's false, then we have all kinds of concerns. He says this here, I want to read, I want to give you the list if, if it's false, if the resurrection didn't occur, then our message is empty, our faith is in vain. Then we're all just liars. We're all lost in our sin, and the dead are lost, and we are to be pitied more than anyone else. He'll go on later and say that if the resurrection isn't true, then we should all just eat, drink and be merry til we die, because, because it doesn't matter what happens in this life or in the next life, either we're just all just sort of floating beings in the universe. But if the resurrection is true, and if Jesus really came, and he really showed us the way back to our Father, and it was to have faith in Him, then that changes everything. And resurrection means hope. I want you to see this in this life and in the life to come. I told you a lot of times, Christianity is simply just alright. I went to some sort of church, and I know now where I go when I die, because I made some sort of commitment, or some sort of pastor or a priest told me something or baptized me in some way. No, that's not the point. That is ultimately reality. Yes, we want to go to heaven when we die, but resurrection and hope begins now. So it just really brings up the most basic question, do you and I, as we sit here in this room, do we actually believe that people can change? I know this is thrown out in all kinds of classes, sociological classes, philosophical classes, obviously theological classes.

Can any of us really change? Can we go from darkness to light? Do you believe that? Do you believe that about yourself? I know many of y'all have experienced it as I have. Now I want to be honest, some things aren't meant to change. I don't know if you've ever been in one of those meetings, whether it's with a loved one, a spouse, or maybe at work, and they're trying to, like, make a round thing go into a square hole right, or reverse a square thing going around hole. It doesn't matter. It's like, Man, this just isn't working. This just isn't me. I'm not good at numbers or in front of a group or whatever it is that you're being asked to do that really goes against everything in your story, your background, how God wired you and how experience wires you. Some of those things I don't think are meant to be changed. Some of those things are meant to be seen in their redemptive light. So you have to ask yourself, are there things about my personality and story and upbringing that really God is never going to call me to change. I may always be a strong willed person, but I but you have to ask yourself, am I using how God wired me for His glory, or am I just all about self? That is a good question to ask, and you can change how you are utilizing your gifts for God's glory instead of for your own glory, but we understand that we can change when it comes to morally what God is calling us to do, because Christ is working in us for His will and for His good purpose. So here's the deal. Oftentimes we we meet the moral law and all we feel is like death. It's like a dagger to us, like, oh, I failed again. Okay, the 10 Commandments, okay, I messed up there. Or my teacher had me do all these assignments I messed up there. Or at work, they had me do 15 things, and I could only get to 10 em by the end of the day. Or at my home, I can't get my kids to all these different functions, or I can't afford to pay for these extracurricular activities, like our neighbor, or I had 15 things to do that. I didn't even cook a good meal. I just gave him ketchup and packs and Okay, well, just slow down. Alright,

there's grace for all of that. The goal is not to be sinless. Sometimes we think that with Christians, right? Okay, I'm going to go to church, I'm going to clean up, I'm going to get my life right, and I'm going to be, I'm going to be one of those good people. I'm going to be, you wouldn't really say this, but you're sort of thinking like I'm going to I'm going to figure out a way to get over this hump of all the bad stuff that I do. So I don't do this bad stuff anymore. I don't think these bad thoughts anymore, and I'm just here to tell you that won't happen this side of heaven. The goal is not to be sinless, because only one was sinless, that's Jesus Christ himself. But the goal is to sin less. You see what I did there, if you want to know if you're being the next word we're going to see is transformed more into His likeness day to day, ask yourself, not, am I all of a sudden sinless? Because that's not going to happen. But am I fighting sin? Am I really? Am I really?

Really getting over some things. Are there mile markers in in my life that I can point back to in months and years ago, I was a part of this, and I'm no longer doing that. I was sinning in this way. I'm no longer sinning in that way, in the same way anymore, that because, why? Because God's working in me. He's got me. He's doing good work in me. And so I'm not sinless, but by gosh and by God's grace, I am sinning less. Resurrection means change is possible. Please. Do we believe that this morning, cuz so many people in your life and in my life and my workforce and your workforce and home and school, they're like, Oh, you're always going to be that guy or gal who just struggles with this, or can't do this right? Or he's like, no, no, no, no, God's wired me and made me and so what would he have for me, and how can I do this world, this life, in such a way that brings honor and glory to Him? Resurrection means change is possible, not only in this life, but in the life to come. So I do want to really mention because resurrection at its core means that something is coming back to life. I got another picture I want to throw up here. This is Concordia, seminary. Cemetery, not seminary. Sorry, cemetery.

So sorry. I went to seminary. And they used to seminary, and they used to always say that's where preachers go to die. It was always really hard. And it's like, oh my gosh. And so no, this is right here. This is our local cemetery. It's our old cemetery. Got a lot of gunslingers in there. I'm sure if there were stories to tell. And from what I understand, there are some some people who do like little tours of the of the of the graveyard at night and try to scare you or whatever. But you have to ask ourselves, why is it Historically and traditionally we have put people in the ground? Do you know? Why? Do you know why, as Christians, we do this, we do this in hope you understand this, right? The reason why we bury people Six Feet Under is not just for tradition. The reason why I put headstones, and a lot of times, if we have the money, we'll go ahead and put a put a whole slab to show their whole body. Is why? Because we're saying we believe the grave is not the end for this person, that they're going to be raised in judgment or raised to life. And so resurrection is the hope. That's why, when you and I go to cemeteries, the reason why we'd even go back to a cemetery and visit our loved ones is because, why we actually believe? Because it's true that we will see them again, that this isn't the end. And I'm remembering whatever good memories we may have had with them here on Earth, but we know, my gosh, that they will be raised from the dead. He's like, Well, how do you know that? Why do you believe that? Because Christ Himself was and he was the first fruits. And it says this here, and it gives us whole illustration. I'm not going to go into it about how things grow, and how we put a seed in the ground, and at some level, that seed dies, and that creates a germination for a plant, and then it's able to provide whatever fruit or shade is there in that plant, in the same way Christ Himself had to go first, and that we have to die in order to be raised. That's why Christianity, we believe in resurrection, because we believe it's worth it to come to a community to say that old man, that old woman, we want that person to die so that when I'm raised, when I am come out of the waters of baptism, that I'm ready to walk a new life. We are hope as Christians and as believers. Is in the resurrection. If this is not true, right? We're to be pitied. We're a bunch of liars. We might as well just kind of let it all hang out and do whatever we want, because there's no real hope in this life or in the life to come, which is obviously not what we hold to. Third and final thing I want us to look at is transformation. We're going to skip a lot of verses, but it really is a more fuller understanding of the resurrection. And it says this beginning in verse 41 let me reveal to you a wonderful secret. We will not all die. You say, Wait a second. No, no, no, I've been to the hospital. I've been there with grandma or grandpa, my aunts or uncle, or even maybe my child, they really died. We will not all die, but we will all be transformed. It will happen in a moment, in the blink of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown, for when those trumpet sounds. Those who have died will be raised to life forever, and we who are living well will be transformed. For our dying bodies must be transformed into bodies that will never die. Our mortal bodies must be transformed into immortal bodies. Then when our dying bodies have been transformed our bodies that will never die, the Scripture will be fulfilled. Death is swallowed up in victory. Oh death. Where is your victory? Oh death. Where is your sting for sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power. Remember how I told you that the law gives sins its power, because what will happen is you and I will hear law, and we'll just hear judgment, or you're not good enough, or you don't measure up, and so it kind of gives it power, but thanks be to God. Grace does what Thank.

God, He gives us victory over sin and death through who not our own power, not our own willpower, but through our Lord, Jesus Christ. So my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable, always work enthusiastically for the Lord. For you know that nothing you do for the Lord is Ever useless. Boy. That's such good news. He tells Jesus he wants to reveal this, this, this wonderful secret, which really just means a mystery that he's now sort of beholding. He uses this phrase elsewhere in Ephesians. He's saying, You won't die. And again, you think, man, no, no, no. Like pastor, what do you what are you thinking? We people die? Yes, but if you've ever been there, and I know many of y'all have, and some of y'all haven't, we've ever been there at the end, when a believer goes, it is a much different experience than if you've been there at the end, when someone who is uncertain about their future goes. And what it's saying here is that in the cosmic realm, Jesus Himself, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to God, our Father, they will come and when death comes to provide its final sting of death that is snatched away and your loved one, my loved one, is now caught up into heaven to be with Christ forever. He said, How do you know that? And how would you believe that? Why do you believe that? Because Christ Himself was the first fruits of that. And so when the trumpet sounds, we will see the graves open up. And I know some people have been cremated in the ashes scattered. I mean, that'll all work itself out, but we know that the picture of going into the grave and coming up out of the grave is biblically what's going on here, this idea that when the trumpet sounds, those who have died in Christ will come back and we will be transformed, transformation. And so then what happens is, is that, yes, we may get through a lot of pain in this world, as we as we take our dying breaths, and you and I have been there in the hospital with the tubes surrounding our loved ones, and we've watched them kind of fight and fight and fight until they until they give up their spirit, right? We've, we've, we've either been there or we've seen it, or we understand it. And so what it's saying here is that biblically, the hope is that man death doesn't come in and give them a second death that they are now caught up with Christ. Why? Because death lost its power because of the resurrection of our Lord and Savior. That's why we can be strong and immovable. It's not because we've sort of gritted ourselves by you know, you understand what it is to pull yourself up by your bootstraps and sort of grit yourself through a certain season in life. Maybe you've done that in a marriage or in a schooling or in a workforce, but But you also know what it means to be able to rest in confidence because someone else has got you, and that's what's going on here in the scriptures. It says the reason why, dear brothers and sisters. Verse 58 we can be strong and immovable. And the reason why we're able to work enthusiastically for the Lord and come and worship and give of our time and money is that we know that nothing that we do for the Lord is Ever useless. Third and final point I wants to see this morning is transformation is real. Boy, it's so real. And just like resurrection, power, transformation, power and the reality of what it can do. It is for the now and the hereafter. I love that because it gets to the heart of our desire

to be transformed, to change. So we're going to see the three sort of overarching points from this scripture this morning. Number one, gospel is real. Number two, resurrection is real. If it happened for Christ, it's going to happen for us. And number three, what transformation is real?

We all want to be transformed at some way into a watching world, right? Even if it's just in minor ways. All of y'all, you got up this morning, you try to put your best foot forward, you know. And you got yourself dressed, you maybe took a shower if you're lady, you put on makeup, you did your hair. Why? Because you want to transform yourself in the best sense of the word to be what to prepare yourself to engage a watching world. I think there's something healthy and normal about that.

But I want to see too, like what you may also think of transformer this again. You know, when I was a kid, you know, this was a big deal, and of course, it's made its rounds and several movies, and they get worse as they go. I just want you to know that, so just watch the first one or so, and then they get worse as they go. But

if you go back and think about this, and again, I don't know what it is for little girls, whether it's, you know, with with makeup and dress ups, with with with dolls and all those kind of things. But for a guy, when we were running with our transformers, and we had them in our hands, and we were running in the in the field or in the playground, we really thought, somehow I'm going to transform, right? I mean, that's how we sort of thought, and we did this a number of different ways, even if we didn't do this with transformers. We did this with like cowboys and Indians or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or Jedi characters or whatever it was. Why? Because we had that sort of childhood, sort of imagination that maybe somehow I can transform to jump high enough or be.

Strong enough to defeat, you know, whatever enemies I have before me, I think it gets to the heart of identity questions we struggle with today. I mean, one of the things that's so true about the Bible is is that it really does address all that we need to be addressed for a life of godliness. I mean, think about just some different trans arguments that we're seeing in our culture today, and they're not new. The Bible speaks to identity issues. We have a new identity in Christ, and therefore are being transformed. And if people don't know about the gospel, or they're not thinking rightly about who God is and what Christ has done for them, and that can include us as well, then we'll think we'll have to somehow change our own identity. And Christ is saying, I know what you're going for there. You're going for this idea that something's not right in you and something's not working out right, and you're trying to find your identity. But if you only look to self, or you only look for the world, you will find that that will lead to a dead end street. And so that's why we have the gospel power to say, Okay, what do we as Christians have to offer a world that's confused, even in issues such as well, but I have this desire to be transformed, and we can actually come in and say, good, good. But, but you don't have to do all this other stuff you can let Christ Himself transform you into the image of His Son. Where do I get this from Romans 12, one and two says And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies right? All these arguments really come down to who has control over our bodies. I plead with you to give your bodies to God, because of all he has done for you, let them be a living and holy sacrifice, the kind he will find acceptable. This is the true way to worship him. Don't copy the behaviors and customs of this world. See how relevant the Bible is. Romans, 12, one and two. But let God What if you know this verse? But let God transform you. Let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think, then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. Boy, we're all sitting here asking God, what do you have for me? What do you have for me today? What do you have for me this week? Maybe some of y'all are thinking a little further ahead, months and years to come, and I'm here to tell you, here's what He has for you, he has for you and me to be transformed more and more into the image of His Son every day.

See the resurrected life, the transformation life, the Gospel, life, it doesn't begin at some distant part of the future. I just want you to hear me say this. It begins now. And so that's when we have a moment here to pray, and we have a moment here of a song of response, and the kneelers are always open you and I need to ask ourselves, God, what are you working on me on how is it that I need to be transformed into the likeness of your son, not by my own strength, but you working your will and your way in me as I surrender to You, everything, my mind, body and who I am, everything that'll be our prayer this morning. So let's pray, Father. We, thank you for your word. We, thank you that you care enough about us to

come to earth in the form of a human,

and that that human, Jesus Christ, showed us the way to get back to you, I just pray right now for those around the room that are struggling for hope, really just hanging on,

struggling to believe in this transformation.

God, we just pray right now that you grant faith and hope, real hope all across the room

and enlarge our hearts. Calls our hearts to soar in love and affection for you, because we know when we do that, that we will not be able to not be changed. We ask this in Christ's name, Amen.