Making Sense of 1st Corinthians CH15b

All over the world, there are physical reminders that a man named Jesus claimed to be the Messiah, the Son of God. All over, there are church buildings with crosses on top of steeples—monuments all these years later that He was killed on a cross for making the claims He made. Big cathedrals with stained glass telling the story not only of His death but also that He came back from the dead. Little churches with depictions of His life and death and resurrection in artwork and on flannel boards. For two thousand and twenty-one years, people have gathered in those buildings to worship Jesus—to be reminded of His grace and forgiveness. To grow in their faith. To comfort each other and remind each other of the hope He promised us. It’s why we’re here today—this is the only hope for the world. Without the hope that comes from Jesus, everything else is meaningless.

But a lot of those churches are practically empty. Not only because of all the vacant seats but also because of true emptiness. Lack of faith. Lack of commitment, lack of faithfulness. Too many of those big, pretty churches are no longer holding onto the actual message of Jesus they were built to embody. 

Those empty churches are a lot like the individual people who lead them and attend them.

Some have buried their faith under the rubble of a constantly changing culture—everything has become relative, subjective—their faith changes with the winds of popular opinions, they let culture bend and twist what they believe instead of looking at culture, current events, science, and the wishy-washy human heart through the standard of God’s Word. Without an objective standard, reality quickly becomes meaningless. 

Some have buried their faith under politics—they wrap their national flag around the cross and don’t seem to know the difference between their political ideas and their theology. If you were to follow them around and listen to their conversations, you would think politics was their god—because it seems to be the only thing they think about it. Whatever your heart clings to and confides in—whatever you trust in and obsess about—that is really your God, your functional savior. When all I see are angry political comments, I have to wonder who’s really sitting on that person’s throne. 

Some have confused the Gospel—that God sent His Son to die for the sins of everyone who would believe in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus—they confused that Gospel with all kinds of religious ideas. They confuse the Gospel with ritualism (that somehow, doing certain religious activities will save them), or they confuse it with legalism and moralism (that somehow, trying really, really hard to be good and keep God’s Commandments will save them). Ask most people why they think they would go to heaven and they’ll say, “I don’t think I’m a bad person, I think I’ve done pretty good.” That’s not the Gospel of Jesus. None of us are good enough, that’s the whole point. Jesus did it for us. He died for our sins. Has nothing to do with how good or bad you are. So, if that’s the case, why bother trying to be good? Why obey God’s commandments? Why do the right thing? Do you have a good answer to that question? Here’s a pretty good answer: Why do the right thing? Because it’s the right thing. Duh! Why would you want to do the wrong thing? God made the world to work a certain way—it will go better for you if you pay attention to what He said. But it won’t save you.

Some people confuse the Gospel with intellectualism (that studying the Bible and learning as much as possible can save you). It’s good to know things, to study God’s Word, beats the heck out of being ignorant, but it won’t save you.

Some confuse the Gospel with mysticism, but they don’t usually call it that, they call it “worship,” singing with lots of emotion, “Spirit filled praise,” singing songs they like (or hymns they like, or chanting, or meditating), trying to work up a spiritual vibe. If they don’t “feel some kind of spiritual presence, they don’t feel close to God. God never promised that worshiping Him would always be a spiritual high. Our emotional response is not what saves us.

Now there’s nothing wrong with these things in themselves, but they are not the Gospel. They will not save you. And they’re not supposed to be the point. People have invented so many ways to get the simple message of Jesus wrong—it’s almost as if there really is an army of devils who tirelessly work 24 hours a day, seven days a week, from the moment we’re born, until the day we die, to spin our heads around and keep us confused. There is. We have a real enemy and he has recruited many, many people to help keep us focused on the wrong things. A lot of the people who are in charge of those empty churches all over the world have been recruited.

We’ve been taking a close look at 1st Corinthians, a letter Paul wrote to one of the first churches in the earliest days of Christianity. They were Christians. They were saved. But they were already confused about a lot of the same things our modern churches struggle with.

They liked going to church, they were all about it. But some of them had started to spiritualize the realities of what Jesus had done and who He is. Spiritualize.

You ever hear anyone say something like, “I don’t know if Jesus was literally the Son of God but He certainly made a big impact with His teachings—did a lot of good.” “It doesn’t matter if Jesus actually died on a cross or really came back from the dead, or if He really existed at all—it’s the idea of new life and resurrection that has power for all of us.” Spiritualizing who Jesus is and what He came to do.

C.S. Lewis famously said, “Jesus was either a lunatic, a liar, or Lord—pick one.” He claimed to be God, asylums are full of people who think they’re God—so He was either crazy, or He was lying to get people to follow Him, to have power over them (those are not good choices! A madman or a liar!). The only other possibility is that He is actually who He says He is. That He’s God Almighty. The Messiah. King of kings and Lord of lords. For real. No spiritualizing. 

Jesus said He is the way, the truth and the life. That no one can get to God unless they go with Him. No spiritualizing allowed. You have to actually believe in the literal message of the Gospel: That Christ died for our sins—that sin is a real thing that leads to death. That He was buried just like all people die and are buried. But that He was raised to life on the third day. That He actually appeared in the flesh to people who knew Him. These are not popular ideas—they’re too exclusive, too miraculous. What if I want to believe something else? Jesus says “no.” You have to actually trust in this message, faith comes by hearing the Gospel and believing it, then you have to stand firm in that belief. You have to hold on to that belief—that’s how you are being saved—otherwise your faith doesn’t mean anything. If you don’t believe me, reread the first few verses of chapter 15, the part we talked about last week. 

We can’t save ourselves. No matter how hard we try. Not by trying to be good. Not by doing the right things. Not by trying to know the right things. Not by trying to have spiritual experiences. And certainly not by spiritualizing everything Jesus said until it stops being true or meaning anything real at all.

Paul is going to focus on resurrection in today’s text—the heart of the Gospel. He’s going to explain real slow for everyone in the back that unless Jesus really died and really came back from the dead—there is no Gospel. No hope. If there is no resurrection, Jesus was a fraud and we should all go home. It either really happened or it didn’t.  No spiritualizing.

Chapter 15, verse 12:

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

The overly intellectual Jews, known as the Sadducees, the ones who controlled the Temple, they were the highest level religious leaders—they didn’t believe in the resurrection of the dead. They were skeptical of any supernatural activity at all. 

The overly intellectual Greeks, known as the philosophers, followers of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle—they spiritualized everything. They thought the material world was evil and gross and the heavenly realm of the gods was the only place to find truth and meaning.

So, the really smart people, even the ones who called themselves Christians, tried to reconcile the claims of Jesus and the apostles with the way they saw the world. They spiritualized the resurrection. 

We do the same thing. We do. We talk about going to heaven, as if that’s the goal. We talk about our bodies just being a shell for our spirit. We go to funerals and say things like “that’s not grandma anymore, she’s in her eternal rest with Jesus now.” What if I told you that no one is in their eternal rest now? No one. Eternal rest hasn’t started yet for Christians. 

You might be thinking I’m off my rocker. Stick with me.

What if I told you the ultimate goal of the Gospel isn’t for us to go to heaven? What if I told you the ultimate goal of the Gospel is for us to be ready to stand before God when He comes back down here? (I’m starting to feel like Morpheus talking to Neo about the Matrix—although he never actually says that in the move). What if I told you the actual hope of all who are in Christ—the actual hope for Christians—is that our physical body will be resurrected from the dead and we will live on the earth with Jesus. Physical body. Material world. No spiritualizing. NO MATRIX.

Yes, the people who die in Christ are with Him in paradise. Right now. True. But they’re waiting for Jesus to come back in glory just like we are. They’re waiting for the resurrection of the dead, too. That’s the actual hope of all Christians. Not to be absent from our body in some spiritual state in heaven—like a ghost or an angel or something.

Or are you like the Sadducees and Greek philosophers who don’t really believe in a physical resurrection? Let’s keep reading...

Verse 13:

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. 

If there is no actual resurrection of the dead—if you’re not going to be raised from the dead in your actual body at the end of time when Jesus actually returns—then the Gospel is wishful thinking. This whole Jesus thing is a bunch of nothing. Your faith is a bunch of nothing. Stop believing in Jesus if you don’t think you’re going to be resurrected from the dead. If you’re not going to rise from the grave, then Jesus didn’t either. He was a fraud. 

Actually, it’s even worse than that. We’re calling God a fraud. 

Verse 15:

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. 

It’s all or nothing. Either we’re going to be raised from the dead when Jesus returns at the end of time, or there is no God and we should all stop fooling ourselves. 

Verse 16:

For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. 

Jesus is either who He says He is, or He doesn’t matter at all. God’s Word says He came out of the tomb and appeared to hundreds of His followers—which proved everything He said was true. If there is no resurrection, then none of it is true. Just the mutterings of a madman or a devil. 

If you just spiritualize all this faith stuff, make it about disembodied spirits floating around in heaven thinking nice thoughts—Paul says those ideas have real consequences...

Verse 17:

And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are 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. 

Well, that sounds pretty bad. If you don’t believe in the physical resurrection of your body when Jesus comes back, then Paul says you might as well not believe in the resurrection of Jesus at all. And if you don’t believe in the resurrection of Jesus—then your faith is meaningless and you're still in your sins. You have no hope. Not for you and not for anyone else. Everyone who dies is just dead. Why do you call yourself a Christian if you don’t believe what Christ said? If you don’t believe what Christ did? If you don’t believe in what He’s doing? If you think this is all just to make you feel better in the here and now—to make you a better person, fulfill your dreams and desires, whatever—Paul says he feels sorry for you. If that’s all we got, we don’t have anything. It’s all a hoax. 

I know that all sounds like a bunch of bad news. A bunch of depressing downers. Paul’s not going to leave us hanging in the dark, though. Thank God for verse 20:

But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.

This is why Paul started this chapter with a reminder of what the Gospel actually is. Christ died for our sins, He was buried, He rose from the dead—it really happened. He has over 500 witnesses. Don’t fall for lies that say anything else. All our hope is in the resurrection of Jesus Christ and it actually happened. For real. It might be hard to believe—most of us have never seen a resurrection. Everyone else who has ever died might have stayed dead—with a few miraculous exceptions—but those people all died again. Jesus is different. He died, He came back, He’s not going to die again—and He promises that means something for you. 

We’re all going to die, it’s a sad reality. You’re going to die. When you do, your soul is going to go somewhere—leave your body and go to heaven, paradise—you’re going to be with the Lord. But that’s not the end of it. You’re not going to spend forever on some cloud playing a harp. Your soul will one day be united with your body—your body—a better body than you currently have but recognizably you. A you that doesn’t know corruption or sickness or pain—you’re going to be resurrected just like Jesus. And you won’t die again.

He was the first-fruits of the resurrection of the dead. This is a worship phrase—first fruits. Every year, at harvest time, God’s people would bring the first ten percent of their crops to the Temple and offer it to God. This was to signify that the whole crop belongs to Him, it’s all His so He can bless it. 

Christ became a man and died for our sins. He rose from the dead and offered His body to God as the first fruits of the resurrection harvest. So follow this: We are connected to Christ in our baptism. His resurrection is our promise of resurrection. Jesus was offered to God as the first fruits of the resurrection, so we belong to God and God will bless us and keep us.

Paul’s entire argument hinges on the unbreakable connection between Christ’s resurrection and the resurrection of all believers on the Last Day. The hope that started at Easter points to the end-time reality of the entire church, the body of Christ, being raised from the dead.

We seem to forget all this sometimes. We act like the final Christian hope is for the soul to be with Jesus after the body dies. That does happen but that’s not the end of the story. Paul says if that was the end of the story, then it wouldn’t be a story worth telling.

Imagine if all we meant by Jesus rising from the dead was that He died and His soul went to heaven. That’s not the Gospel. That’s just a bunch of spiritualized nothing.

But in fact, Christ HAS been raised from the dead. In His body—scars and all. And you will too. On the Last Day, Christ will raise you from the dead, in your own flesh, and will give you eternal life—you and everyone who believes in Jesus. This is most certainly true. This is the Gospel. Hold on to this hope. Stand firm.

Our church may be small. We may have too many empty seats. But let’s not be an empty church. Let’s be full of faith in the reality of what Christ has done and what He is doing and what He promises to do. No spiritualizing. 

Never doubt this. Christ has been raised from the dead and so will you. There is no greater truth or better news than this. AMEN