1 Corinthians 15 – We Will Rise (season six, episode seven)

Greetings and welcome to the Faith Chapel Podcast. My name is Jason,

and I am the pastor of Faith Chapel.

In the podcast, we are finishing our resurrection series today as we complete

looking at the text of 1 Corinthians 15.

The goal of this series was to glean information about the reliability of the

resurrection of Jesus and what that means for us now and in the future.

In this episode, which is taken from an Easter service from a few years ago,

we look at how Jesus's resurrection shows us that our resurrection will also be forever.

It's an eternal resurrection. Thanks for joining us today.

But it's an exciting exciting time

to be able to be in the presence of people who come to worship and celebrate

a risen savior and it it's just important to me to refresh our minds about what they experienced.

There was the emptiness. There was that empty tomb.

But then people started to have the idea or they started to have the experiences

of Jesus coming to be with them.

They had these experiences where Jesus showed himself to them.

And we're just going to take a look at a few of them that we find in the Gospels.

The first one we're going to look at is from Matthew chapter 28.

Matthew 28 · chapter mention

And again, these are the evidences that we have of the resurrection of Jesus.

There's more, but eyewitness testimony is really important to believing that

Jesus did rise from the grave.

And so the first testimony comes from an angel.

And the angel says to the women who are there to anoint Jesus's body for burial,

he says, Do not be afraid.

I know you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He isn't here.

He is risen from the dead.

Now, I've never seen an angel, or I really don't expect to until I get into

eternity, but I can imagine this being a very terrifying moment for these women that are there.

But the message that this angel has is glorious.

That the person that they are looking for, the person that they have been grieving

since his unfair trials, his arrest,

his crucifixion, was no longer in the tomb.

This is miraculous.

But it's just not heavenly beings that understand this message.

In Luke chapter 24, the Jesus

Luke 24 · chapter mention

appears to two men on the way to Emmaus on

the road to Emmaus these people see Jesus

and he talks them through everything and then finally he reveals himself to

them and they come back to Jerusalem to tell this story to the other disciples

and when they get there this is what Luke 24 verses 33 and 34 says,

Luke 24:33

there, these two men found the 11 disciples and the others who had gathered

with them, who said, the Lord has really risen.

Now, the two men aren't saying the Lord has really risen. It's the 11 disciples

of Jesus and the other people that are gathered with them.

So not only had he appeared to these two men on the road to Emmaus,

but he had also appeared to the people back in Jerusalem, the 11 disciples who were left.

Lastly, we find in the Gospel of John chapter 20, we have Mary Magdalene,

John 20 · chapter mention

and she finds the disciples and tells them, I have seen the Lord.

And Mary is, in her story, she is grasping at his feet.

She falls down at his feet and holds on to him.

This is important as we continue and finish our series on the resurrection.

1 Corinthians 15 is all about the resurrection of Jesus and what that means for you and me.

And the fact that Mary falls down at his feet and grasps them,

holds on to them, shows us one important aspect of our future resurrection.

All those who believe in Jesus will be brought back to life and we will have a body.

This is what Mary being able to hold on to Jesus's feet here means for us. It is a physical body.

This is why Jesus takes fish in front of the disciples and he eats it,

proving to them that he is not just a spirit, that he is not a ghost.

He is proving to them, this is my body.

And over the last two weeks, we have seen what this resurrection body,

what our future resurrection body is going and how it's going to resemble Jesus's resurrection body.

We are going to have a physical body.

And Paul talks about this because he says, it's like a seed that goes into the ground.

When it is planted, it does nothing until it first dies to itself.

And then the stalk pops up, then the leaves form, then the head of grain or the flower forms.

It does nothing unless it changes its form, unless it dies to itself.

And he uses the example of this physical being a plant and a seed to help us

to understand that's what our bodies will be like.

And these bodies, Paul has said, they will be imperishable.

They will not fall apart. We will not be succumbed to sickness.

We will not be succumbed to death again. We will have an everlasting body.

You see, right now, we have to put sunscreen on when we spend a lot of time

in the sun because it protects us from the wear and tear of the sun.

But in eternity, we won't need that.

Our resurrection bodies are imperishable. They are incorruptible.

And then last week we learned about how our resurrection bodies will be perfectly

in tune with the spirit of God.

Right now, we still have the poles of this earth, the poles of society to fall

short of God's glorious standard.

We still have the ability to sin, even though when we believe in Jesus,

our sin nature goes away.

But we still have the ability to fall short of God's glorious standard.

We are rebellious and we choose right and wrong for ourselves instead of choosing

right and wrong the way God tells us.

But in eternity, when our resurrection happens, we will be perfectly in tune with the Spirit.

The Spirit will lead us and we will always choose God's definition of right and wrong.

And that sounds like a really good place to be.

And as we finish up this series, especially on this day where we celebrate the

resurrection of Jesus, there are just a couple of more points that Paul is going to make.

And so we're gonna be in the last seven or eight verses of 1 Corinthians chapter 15 today.

1 Corinthians 15 · chapter mention

But before I read, let me pray.

Gracious Heavenly Father, I come before you today and I ask you to transform us.

By your word. Spirit, come. Give us ears to hear what we need to hear. We need you.

Jesus, I pray this in your name. Amen.

Starting in verse 51 of 1 Corinthians 15, Paul writes, But let me reveal to you a wonderful secret.

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 the trumpet sounds, those who have died will be raised to live forever,

and we who are living will also be transformed.

For our dying bodies must be transformed into bodies that will never die.

Our mortal bodies must be transformed into immortal bodies.

So Paul begins this by saying, let me tell you a secret. it.

Let me reveal to you what's really going to happen.

And when Paul uses a phrase like this in his writings, he's meaning,

I'm going to tell you something straight from God that you would not know unless God reveals it to you.

And that is that at the last day, there are going to be people who believe in

Jesus that are on this planet, but it does not exclude them from eternity with God.

Paul says here that those who are dead in Christ will rise.

And then those of us who are still on this planet,

those of us who are still living in our mortal perishable bodies,

we don't get left out, but he is going to come and he's going to transform us

into our immortal bodies.

And so this is important because we need to understand that no matter when Jesus comes back,

those of us who truly believe in him, and Paul gives us an example of what a

true belief in Jesus is, when we confess Jesus Christ as Lord with our mouth

and we believe that God raised him from the dead,

we will have a resurrection body.

We will have a body that is imperishable in eternity.

And so when Jesus comes back is when this transformation happens,

when our perishable body becomes imperishable through the change like a seed becoming a plant.

This is what happens. And it doesn't matter if we're in the ground or if we're

still alive. When Jesus comes back, all true believers in him will be transformed.

This helps us to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus.

Because Jesus lives, we can face tomorrow knowing that our eternity is going to be with God.

That our eternity is going to be better than we could even possibly imagine.

That our eternity is secure in his victorious right hand.

And this is so important to Jesus walking out of the tomb. Yes, we celebrate that.

Yes, he has victory over death. Yes, he defeated sin at the cross.

Yes, we are victorious because of him.

But the marvelous thing is that God wants to be with you forever. ever.

He wants to be with you so much that he would die on the cross and he would

defeat death by walking out of the grave.

This should blow our minds.

He who created us, who knows every thought in our head, who knows how many hairs of ours are gray,

he who knows every single thing about us, cares about you enough to want you

to be in eternity, to want you to have an imperishable body.

And he proved it by walking out of the grave.

Paul continues along this same theme in verses 54.

Then when our dying bodies have been transformed into bodies that will never

die, this scripture will be fulfilled.

Death is swallowed up in victory.

Oh, death, where is your victory? Oh, death, where is your sting?

This is a scripture verse that I use every time I do a funeral.

I love this verse, but we can get the wrong context out of it.

And so I'm going to break it down for us.

So he tells us the when. When Jesus comes back at that moment,

when we have our imperishable bodies, that's when death is swallowed up in victory.

That's where death has no sting. And so those of us who are living on this side

of eternity, there is still a sting in death.

It does hurt.

There is a separation there. So please don't take this to mean that death is

not a momentous event in our lives who are left behind.

Because it is and it does feel like a sting. and sometimes it feels more than that.

But what he is saying, when Jesus returns, that's when our bodies put on imperishability.

That's when our bodies are transformed. That's when death is swallowed up in victory.

The Thessalonians were dealing with a similar situation that Paul is talking about here.

And he wants to encourage the Thessalonians because Paul got ran out of Thessalonica

before he had the full time to say everything he needed to say.

And so in teaching them about the resurrection of the dead from chapter four,

verses 13 and 14, we read,

and now dear brothers and sisters, we want you to know what will happen to the

believers who have died so you will not grieve like people who have no hope.

For since we believe that Jesus died and was raised to life again,

we also believe that when Jesus returns, God will bring back with him the believers who have died.

So the Thessalonians here were grieving intensely because they didn't understand

the hope of the resurrection.

Their grief was like people who don't know what's next, who don't know Jesus

as their Lord and Savior.

Their death felt hopeless.

And please see what Paul is saying here.

He is not saying, do not grieve, but he's saying, don't grieve as people who

have no hope because death is swallowed up in victory.

Oh, death, where is your victory? Oh, death, where is your sting?

Because he lives, we can face tomorrow.

Because he lives, all fear is gone.

Doesn't mean it doesn't hurt. It just means we grieve with hope.

And Jesus walking out of the tomb is our hope.

But turning back to 1 Corinthians now, Paul has two more things to say.

The first one is, for sin is the sting that results in death,

and the law gives sin its power.

But thank God he gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ.

And again, that's what this weekend is about. This weekend is about the forgiveness

of our sins and the resurrection of not just Jesus's body, but our body as well.

And so while we live on this earth, the law is telling us what we should and shouldn't do.

And when he says law here, this is the law of Moses. It's found in the first five books of the Bible.

But the law gives sin its power. Paul says that we, he would unknowingly sin before.

He doesn't, he goes through this list of sins that he does and he processes

through them in this way.

You see, if I didn't have the law, I wouldn't know the depth of my depravity.

I wouldn't know how often I fall short of God's glorious standard.

But since I have the law and I can choose to follow it or not,

I have guilt because the sin or the law finds me guilty.

The law finds me guilty because I can't keep it perfectly.

I fall short of God's glorious standard.

And so the law gives sin its power because we know now what we shouldn't do.

But God gives us victory.

Through the death and resurrection of Jesus, sin is nailed to the cross.

Death, it's a mic drop moment when Jesus walks out of there.

It is finished. It is over. And that is our slavery to sin.

And Paul reiterates that over and over again in his letters.

Thank God he gives to us this victory.

And lastly, because he lives, because he walks out of the tomb and because that

is our gift for those of us who believe in him, we have work to do.

So my dear brothers and sisters, Paul writes, be strong and immovable,

always working enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you

do for the Lord is ever useless.

Because we have the hope of eternity, because we know our sins are forgiven,

because we know that an imperishable body is waiting for us,

nothing we do is useless when we do it for the Lord.

So stand strong in this.

Be immovable in your belief in the resurrection of Jesus. us be immovable in

your belief in your own resurrection.

Stand firm in that and work for the glory of God.

Whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.

It is not useless. It will end up with you having a new imperishable body.

Nothing you do is in vain when you do it for God, When you pursue him.

So pursue him, stand strong, be immovable, and work enthusiastically for it.

And this is what we have seen this weekend. I've already thanked people for

it, but working for the Lord is so important.

Whether it is understanding that we are to be fishers of men,

whether it is cleaning up after the Easter egg hunt, whether it is coming up

and reading on Good Friday,

whether it is the youth performing and leading the service this morning, It is not in vain.

It is not useless. It is for the glory of God.

And we who believe in Jesus, who trust in his goodness and in his love,

we will be rewarded with a body that gets no more back pain.

We'll be rewarded by God wiping every tear from our eye.

We'll be rewarded because of God's radical love for us.

I have a CD playing in my van right now. And yes, I'm old enough to have CDs.

But it is a CD by Matt Marr, who is a contemporary Christian artist.

And when my kids were in the vehicle, probably about a month ago,

after we had started this series on 1 Corinthians, I said, this song right here

prompted me to think about what this looks like in a sermon series.

It is the song, Christ is Risen, and I would like to read to you a few lyrics.

It says, Oh, death, where is your sting?

Oh, hell, where is your victory?

Oh, church, come stand in the light.

The glory of God has defeated the night. Sing it again. Oh, death, where is your sting?

Oh, hell, where is your victory? Oh, church, come stand in the light.

Our God is not dead. He's alive. He's alive.

Those words are so important to me.

And it's because of Jesus's death on the cross.

And it's because he defeated death by walking out of the tomb.

And it's because he took the wrath that we deserve upon him.

And God gifts to us a resurrected body that these words matter.

And so as we go about our day, as we celebrate with family or as we take part in other festivities,

Please understand that this day matters, not just one day on a calendar, but every single day.

One of the youth asked during a youth group lesson recently,

why we don't have our worship services

on Saturday like they do in the Old Testament. It's a great question.

And the answer is because the believers in Jesus started meeting on the first

day of the week. to remember every single week that Jesus rose from the grave.

And so it's not just today that we can say happy Easter to people in this building.

It is every Sunday. It is every Monday.

It is every day of the calendar year that we can shout out victoriously,

Christ is risen. Let me pray.

Gracious Heavenly Father, we come before you today and we thank you for the

gifts that you give to us.

Your radical love for us is so unimaginable.

Thank you, God. Please give us more and more understanding of your goodness

and your grace, of your law and your justice.

Give us more and more ability to connect with people and to become fishers of men.

And because you live, we can face

whatever comes today and tomorrow and throughout the rest of eternity.

To your glory, always and forever. Amen.

Thank you again for joining us in our discussion of Paul's description of the

future resurrection of believers and how Jesus living forever shows us that

we also will live forever.

If you would like more information about Faith Chapel and its ministries,

please visit the website gofaithchapel.org.

Next week, we start a new series, which we will learn how to view Genesis as history.

Join us as we look at the historicity of the first 11 chapters of Genesis. Have a great week.