Collab Series: The Resurrection of the Dead | 1 Corinthians 15

You're listening to the Bridgetown Church Podcast with

Pastor Casey Kendall, where our vision is Jesus, our mission is

people, and our cause is love. Thanks for tuning in.

Let's dive in. It's great to be back with you

guys Sunday. It's always, it's a homecoming

for a Pam and I. We love you dearly.

Today, our text, we're going to be in First Corinthians chapter

1 Corinthians 15 · chapter mention

15. We'll take a little off ramp to

the Philippians, but our main text is going to be First

1 Corinthians 15 · chapter mention

Corinthians chapter 15. As you guys turn there, one of

my favorite quotes about the church body, about the church

gathering. It reads like this.

In very large gatherings, I remember that God is there and

he makes it small and very small gatherings.

I remember that God is there and He makes it grand.

In either scenario, God is here. He's in the lives of His

believers, in the lives of His children.

He's here in the church. And I don't know where you're at

today, but God called you here to church this Sunday morning to

hear something because He loves you very much.

So come with expectant hearts, come with open ears and eyes

willing to see Jesus, and He's going to move in your life.

Amen. With that being said, First

1 Corinthians 15 · chapter mention

Corinthians chapter 15, we're going to start in verse one and

then we're going to jump to verse 12.

Hear the word of the Lord. Paul the Apostle writes this.

Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I

preached to you, which you received, in which you stand,

and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the

word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also

received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the

Scriptures. That He was buried, that He was

raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.

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? 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 are still in your sins,

Then those 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. Verse 20.

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 an Adam all die, so also

in Christ shall all be made alive, but each in his own

order. Christ the firstfruits then at

his coming those who belong to Christ.

Then comes the end, when he delivers the Kingdom of God, the

Kingdom to God the Father, after destroying every rule and every

authority and power. For he must reign until he has

put all his enemies under his feet.

The last enemy to be destroyed is death, for God has put all

things in subjection under his feet.

This is the word of the Lord. Let's pray.

Father, thank you for your word. I pray that you would speak to

me and through me to your people.

Give us ears to hear your voice. By your Spirit convict hearts

comfort and courage and build up your people and their most holy

faith. We love you and we worship you

now in Jesus name, Amen. I'm going to take it back to the

the glory days for me. 2007 yes, I'm a baby. 2007 summer of 2007,

specifically the sequel of a generation just came out on

Disney Channel and you know what it is?

High School Musical two baby. So there I am, just finished my

freshman year of high school. High School Musical 2 comes out

and it is the sequel of The Generation.

I wasn't at all interested in it.

Obviously I'm a young freshman guy, too cool for school, wasn't

at all interested, but the girls I was crushing on certainly

were. So by, you know, just wanting to

crush on them, I had to be familiar with it.

Fast forward to today, I am now the proud father of two little

girls because I married one of those crazy junior high girls

that was obsessed with High School Musical.

So you can imagine what movies are playing in our house, High

School Musical too. That's my daughter's Maddie.

That's her favorite movie right now.

There's an opening song, High School Musical too.

It's where all the students at Eastside High are sitting in the

classroom, bored out of their mind, counting the minutes until

summer arrives. The clock's ticking.

They each start to chant, and they start to pound the desk and

they chant Summer, summer, summer.

Which leads to the opening number about school's out.

Let's live the greatest sum of our lives.

Now. As silly as this is, this number

captures the mindset of the typical student pretty well.

I know that you can vividly remember dividing the school

year according to your breaks. That's the only way you made it

through the school year. You would tell yourself, I just

need to get to winter break and then spring break and then

finally summer. I can do this.

It's almost here. I can withstand this test

because summer is around the corner.

In this situation, it's the anticipation of what's to come

that enables the student to continue on.

It drives the student to keep going because they anticipate

finally being free for summer, so they keep moving forward in

hope and anticipation of the coming break.

There's moments like this in all of our lives, even outside of

school. Here's some examples. 2 engaged

lovers. A man and a woman anticipating

their wedding day and the rest of their lives together, which

enables them to endure the chaotic planning process.

A pregnant woman anticipating the joy of being called mom?

It enables her to endure nine months of a rough pregnancy.

A businessman anticipating the next golf outing and then

drinking a cold one with the boys enables him to endure

another bad quarter of sales. There's these moments in our

lives where we're put through the ringer, yet we are hopeful

that things will get better because we feel that we can see

change on the horizon. So a question I have for you,

Church believer. Where do you anticipate your

life heading from here on out? What are you anticipating in

your life at this current moment?

Is it your next vacation? Is it the end of summer breaks?

Your kids go back to school? Parents, what exactly drives you

now as a Christian to endure hardship and suffering?

What do you anticipate in the near future that will enable

enable you to endure in the present circumstance?

I want you to take a look at your world and your social

sphere today, the culture that's all around you.

What in the world is going on? It's crazy out there, right?

It's nuts. 24/7 doom scrolling on social media and a polarizing

news cycle that's focused on the worst of humanity.

It's bred a culture of fear and anxiety about the future.

And this is to be expected of people outside the Church of the

World, for they have no hope. But in recent days, I've had

friends, I've had family members, I've had even seen

people on that social media presence.

I've seen this fear and anxiety reach the doorstep of the

church. It's no longer just out there.

It's crept into the church because the culture that we're

living in is so anxiety filled, so fear driven and it's hard to

withstand it. Church Bridgetown, I want to let

you know that we have an opportune moment right now to

meet that fear and anxiety with a message of hope.

We, the church, the people of God have the truth, the message

of hope. So this morning we're going to

study the that biblical hope. Here's that biblical hope ready.

It's what the Scripture calls the resurrection of the dead.

The resurrection of the dead. Your whole Old Testament foresaw

it. And the New Testament authors,

the apostles, the writers, they explain it.

This is the common thread that runs through the text of

Scripture. It's this hope for the

resurrection of the dead. And we, the church, have this

message of hope. So we want to study that this

morning in First Corinthians chapter 15, we're going to see

1 Corinthians 15 · chapter mention

how this truth, this hope was the driving force behind Paul,

the apostles life. And this morning I'm praying

that this would be the beginning of a prospective shift for you

believer that we would be a people of hope and not acquiesce

to the fear and anxiety that's going on in the culture around

us. Amen.

So let's get down to it. First Corinthians chapter 15

1 Corinthians 15 · chapter mention

verses one through 4. Paul starts his argument in

First Corinthians 15 talking about the gospel.

He says, I remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you,

which you received and which you stand and by which you are being

saved. If you hold fast to the Word, I

preach to you, unless you believed in vain, For I

delivered to you as a first importance what I also received,

that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures,

that he was buried and that he was raised on the third day in

accordance with the Scriptures. We'll stop there for now.

Here in this portion of the text, Paul reminds the

Corinthian church about what is of first importance, What's

primary? The gospel.

The gospel's primary. It is the message about Jesus

that saves and redeems humanity from the very that redeems

humanity from sin. And it's the very foundation of

our lives. As believers.

We must be clear about what we believe.

And to continue, continue to endure in that belief, we need

to be clear about the gospel. Now, Paul calls this gospel the

first, most important thing, the primary thing.

Now, right now, we're in the middle of a series called

Collab, and the emphasis is collaboration in the people of

God. Different speakers coming in to

Bridgetown to bless you as you bless them.

Together we link arms and we go forth on mission into the world

to preach the gospel, to teach the gospel, to make disciples of

all nations. We work together.

Now collaboration, my friend, is going to require unity in the

church, the people of God. So that's why Paul starts off

his argument with the gospel. First, let's be clear about

this, the primary thing, the gospel.

Here's the key. If we're going to get unity

across denominations and theological traditions, we need

to be clear on what unites us. And the key is the gospel.

We're not. This isn't unique to us.

This is actually a struggle in the early, early church, like

the Apostles church, even in their time.

Acts chapter 15, we see this thing called the Jerusalem

Acts 15 · chapter mention

Council where it's come to the attention of the Jewish

believers and the Jewish leaders there, Peter, James and John,

it's come to their attention that, Oh my goodness, the

gospel's gone to the Gentiles, non Jews.

They've believed in Jesus. The Holy Spirit's filled them

just as he's filled us, but they're not not Jews.

And so there is this struggle. How is the family of God, which

is now made-up of Jew and Gentile?

How are they going to unite into one family and work together

when they come from different backgrounds, different

traditions? What do we do about this?

So they have a debate, they talk, they discuss in Acts

Acts 15 · chapter mention

chapter 15. Go read it.

That's your homework where the leaders get together and they

say, you know what God and his wisdom, he's given the gospel to

the Gentiles. It's made clear to us now he

desires all to be saved, both you and Gentile alike.

So you know what, we're not going to lay the the demands of

the law on the Gentiles, for they never received the law.

Heck, we can't even do it. Why would I put a burden that we

are people, the Jews, who received this law.

We can't even fulfill it. Why would he put this burden on

the Gentiles, these new believers?

So they write a letter to the Gentile churches to which Paul,

Apollos, Barnabas, Luke, you name it, they carry this letter

to the different churches. And here's what the letter says.

We welcome you new believers, you Gentiles, into our family.

We want to be united with you. All we ask is that one you

believe the gospel and do these things.

Refrain from food offered to idols, refrain from eating what

is strangled, refrain from eating what is drained with

without draining the blood, and do not commit sexual immorality.

It's interesting, these criteria that the apostles give to the

Gentiles, these are Jewish sensitivities.

Essentially what Paul, what the leaders of of the Jerusalem

church are saying to the Gentile churches is as we work together,

as we work in, in unity for the gospel message, be willing to

sacrifice your preferences and your secondary opinions for the

sake of the church as a whole, because the gospel's primary.

So what unites the people of God?

Well, it's the Gospels of first importance.

Periphery doctrines and personal liberties, my friends, are of

secondary importance and matters of conscience.

So many churches, so many believers divide over what

translation of Scripture you're using, whether you can lift your

hands during worship, whether you gather on a Sunday or a

Saturday or a Wednesday. It needs to be done this way,

this way, this way. That is not the basis of unity

in the Scripture. That's not the basis of the

unity in the church. Those are secondary issues,

matters of preference. That awesome.

I'm glad God has met you there. But we need to be willing to

sacrifice those secondary preferences for the sake of

what's primary, and that's the gospel.

So what this means is that we must get the gospel right.

If that's the key, if that's what unites the people of God,

it must be made clear. So Paul gives a three-part

composition, a three-part foundation of what the gospel

is. And he says this, here's what I

delivered to your first importance, that Christ died for

our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried

and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the

Scriptures. That's it.

That's the three-part foundation of the gospel.

There's so much more expansive benefits from that gospel.

But if you leave believe these three points, hear me right now.

If you believe these three points, that Jesus died for your

sin, that he was buried, that he rose again from the grave

bodily, guess what? You're a Christian.

That's it. And we sit here and say, oh, but

I mean, how can God forgive them for everything that they've

done? How can God forgive me?

God has never asked you to clean your life up first before you

come to him. All he's asked to do is repent

and believe. Believe these three points.

Christ died. Christ was buried.

He rose again from the dead. Here's an explanation of these

three of each. Each part of this three-part

composition. One, Jesus died bodily for sin.

He dies as an offering. What he does is he lives a

perfect life on humanity's behalf everywhere you failed

everything you should have done right.

Jesus does right, lives a perfect life in complete

obedience to God. He goes to the cross and on that

cross he dies in your place, taking your sin, your stupidity,

my stupidity, the things that we've done over and over and

over again are disobedience to God.

He takes that on his back. Well in a in a great exchange

gives us his perfect life on the cross.

He dies in our place, taking in the judgement of God, which is

death for the wages of sin is death.

Jesus dies bodily on the cross for our sins.

He was bodily buried. He physically died and he was

physically buried in the tomb of the Jewish official Joseph of

Arimathea Third Point, Jesus was bodily raised.

He was bodily raised. Three days later, after he was

buried, he physically resurrected from the dead by the

will of the Father and in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Why does this matter? Why does the bodily resurrection

of Jesus matter? If you believe in these three

essential points of the gospel and confess the risen Jesus as

Lord, you are by definition a Christian.

Everything else is just gravy baby.

It's just slicing on the cake. Whatever your preferences are

and must make way give way to these primary points.

A principal thread that I want you to listen and and think

about understand as we navigate the rest of the sermon.

Here's the principal thread. I want you to understand that

true belief, saving faith when we believe in Jesus, our lives

are bound to him. So it brings out this principle,

if Jesus than us, whatever is true of him becomes true of us,

our saving faith. Romans 6 verses 3 through 4 says

Romans 6:3–4

this. Paul says when you were baptized

into Christ, you were baptized into his death and into his

resurrection. When you believe in Him, your

life is bound to Him. It's inseparable.

So whatever happens of Jesus will happen to you.

So here's Paul's argument. Here's where we're headed.

If Jesus rose again from the dead, then by definition, you

who believe will also rise again from the dead.

Everything hinges upon what happens to this Jesus.

What do you believe about him? So let's move on.

In verses 12 through 19, Paul says, now if Christ is

proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say

that there is no resurrection from the dead?

But if there is no resurrection from 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 your you are still in your

sins, then those 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. So here's what's going on.

Apparently some in the Corinthian church were peddling

the idea that there actually is no such thing as a resurrection

from the dead. So in response, Paul gives a

rational defense of the resurrection.

He's he's going to use a series of if then conditional

statements. And his argument cuts two ways.

If it is not true of Christ, then it's not true of us.

And if it's not true for us, then it most certainly isn't

true for Christ. He's a very rational, logical

man. What's going on in the

Corinthian church is the problem of dualism.

Dualism. What that does is it separates

the body, reduces it to two parts, spirit and body, spirit

and body. There's a particular version of

dualism that was spreading in ancient Grecian, the ancient

Grecian Empire, and by definition the Roman Empire,

called Platonism. You know that philosopher Plato,

they, what is it the Sicilian from like a Princess pride calls

him a moron. The Princess pride.

Go watch it. That guy, the philosopher Plato,

he had this thought, this theory that there's a difference

between the physical world and the world of forms or ideas.

The physical world was like a prison to your spirit and that

when you die, you were, your spirit is released from this

corrupt prison of the physical world and goes back to the realm

of ideas, the perfect realm, the realm of, of, of, of, of the

spirit. And we can see that the vestiges

of that in our culture today, even in the church, a lot of us

believe that when you die, you go to heaven and you're going to

stay there. My friends, what we're going to

talk about today, what we are talking about today, and I

encourage you to explore in the Scripture, is that's not the

biblical teaching of the resurrection.

You don't live in heaven forever.

That's the vestige, the leftovers of this idea called

Platonism. It's not true.

Back in their day, the apostles had to contend with a thought

called Gnosticism. Here's what Gnosticism believe.

There's Jewish mysticism. It was the idea that on the

cross, the body of Jesus, it was crucified.

He died, but his spirit returned to God.

Again, this idea that his body is still in the ground

somewhere, it's still in the tomb, his spirit left to the

perfect realm with God, and he's just there forever divorcing the

body from the spirit. You can even read in the

Scriptures the Sadducees, one of the Jewish parties at the time,

it says there that they didn't believe in the resurrection of

the dead. The Pharisees did, but the

Sadducees didn't. They believed it was symbolic or

metaphorical, maybe a symbolic resurrection of the nation of

Israel, but not this isn't true for every person.

Nobody gets resurrected from the dead.

This way of thinking leads to problems in Corinth.

See, what we're studying is First Corinthians chapter 15,

1 Corinthians 15 · chapter mention

the 14 chapters before this. Let me tell you what Paul's

dealing with in the Corinthian church.

This divorce of the body and the Spirit was most likely their

source of problems. Chapters one and three, the

Corinthian church is forming factions over popular teachers.

I am of Apollo's, I'm of Paul. I like that guy's preaching

better than that guy. I like Chris's preaching better

than Casey. I like Casey's preaching better

than Chris. I like you name it.

That's what's going on in chapters 1 and 3.

Chapters 5, they're tolerating sexual immorality in the church

where a man has his father's wife and he's sleeping with her.

That's his mom. And they say to the world, look

how accepting we are. Chapter 6, they're suing each

other over church disputes, embarrassing the church before

non believers. Chapter 8, they're stumbling

each other's faith by arguing over food, eating food to idols

or not. Am I allowed to eat meat?

I saw that guy, he had a drink in his hand.

We're not supposed to drink. I saw that guy was using the

NIV. No it's not.

It's not a biblical translation. NKJV only bro.

Chapter 11. They're impartially dividing

between the rich and the poor during the communion feast.

The rich are eating to their fill while the poor go hungry.

They're getting drunk at the communion feast.

This isn't good. So Paul 14 chapters before

chapter 15, he's dealing with these issues in the Corinthian

church. Divorcing the body from the

Spirit can lead to the incorrect assumption that God isn't

concerned with what we do with our bodies.

On the contrary, church, He does care about what we do with our

bodies. He actually delights in the

body. He delights in your human body.

How do we know that while the doctrine of creation is at

stake, guys? Gordon Fee, he's an academic

scholar and a believer. He makes this correct statement.

God in the beginning made humanity, embodied.

He gave Adam and Eve a body. And what does he call it?

Very good. This is very good.

He doesn't say, oh, this is a mistake there.

They're supposed to be a spirit. No, my friends, God in create in

the created order makes man and woman in his image and he calls

it very good. He makes them embodied.

So as the redeemed people of God, he very much cares about

how we live in these bodies. Romans chapter 12 verse one says

Romans 12 · chapter mention

present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to

God. God cares about what we do with

our bodies. We cannot divorce the spirit

from the body. So with the remainder of our

days in this body, God has called us to participate in the

renewal of all creation. In the renewal of all creation.

We're on mission here in this body.

For you who believe we are on mission and this mission

entails, you guessed it, preaching the gospel.

We're on mission here to preach the gospel of that three fold

formula that Paul said 10 verses earlier.

Jesus lived for you, died for you, and rose for you.

That's what we're here for. Here's what's at stake.

Paul says if Jesus is not resurrected, remember this

principle thread we talked about earlier?

If Jesus, then us. If Jesus, then us, whatever is

true of him, will be true of us. If the resurrection of the dead

is not bodily, if it is merely symbolic or some sort of

spiritual metaphor, then Jesus, who is fully human, he has not

been raised from the dead. And if Jesus has not been raised

from the dead, your sin has not been paid for and you are still

under the curse of death, and you will face judgement.

I will face judgement. My sin is not forgiven if he's

still dead. Death winds and the summation of

your life ends at about 70 years and some change if you're lucky.

If Jesus, Paul says, is not raised from the dead, we're

wasting our time here on a Sunday afternoon.

We should be at the beach right now.

Let us eat, drink and be merry, Paul says.

For tomorrow we die. If Jesus is not raised from the

dead, He actually says we of all people Christians, are to be

most pitied. Why?

Because I'm in prison, suffering for the name of Christ.

They keep beating me up, dragging me out of town like I'm

dead. What?

Why am I doing this if this isn't true?

Guys, Paul is a very rational, logical man.

He doesn't have blind faith. He's seen the resurrected Jesus.

He knows it to be true. That's why he's willing and even

anticipating suffering and enduring for the sake of this

gospel, for the sake of the risen Jesus.

That's what's at stake if Jesus is not raised.

You guys have better things to do on a Sunday.

If Jesus is still dead, that's Paul's argument.

There's hope, though. This isn't the end.

Let's move on to verse 20. But in fact, Christ has been

raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen

asleep. For as by a man king, death by a

man has come also the resurrection of the dead.

For as an 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 of God the Father to God the Father, after

destroying every rule and every authority and power.

For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his

feet. The last enemy to be destroyed

is death. For God has put all things in

subjection under his feet. Here's the hope.

Jesus is resurrected from the dead today.

He's physically embodied, He's got a body, and he's divinely

exalted. He has become the first of a new

type of human, what Paul calls the first fruits.

Elsewhere, he'll call him the first born, your spiritual older

brother. Just as humanity inherited death

from Adam, humanity now inherits life from Jesus.

Jesus has become a new representative for humanity.

See an Adam, he sinned and disobeyed God.

God curses him with this wages of sin called death.

The curse is not sin, the curse is death.

I don't know if you guys have checked the news or the

statistics, but do you know what the the rate of death in the

world is today? It's 100%.

It's 100%. I hope you live to your 108 and

get everything you've ever wanted in this life, but you're

going to die by virtue of you being human.

You've inherited Adam's curse. You're going to die.

Jesus comes along, the new humanity dies for that curse,

dies for that sin, and then resurrects from the dead and

says I've beaten it. He becomes a new type of human

in Jesus. He's our new representative and

humanity inherits life eternal. Scripture says that Jesus, he

actually holds the keys to Hades, which is the underworld

and death. He unlocks and the door is open.

He shuts the door and the door is closed.

He has all authority over sin and death.

When believers become bound to Jesus through your faith, his

life, death, and resurrection becomes yours.

It's yours. Because remember, as he is, so

will we be. As he is, so will we be.

This is the hope of the resurrection of the dead, that

Jesus is not dead, but he's alive.

And for you have put your faith in Jesus, you've bound your

lives to him relationally. It is no longer I who live, Paul

writes, but Christ who lives in me.

Me and him are intertwined, and he's risen.

So I know that I will rise again from the dead, no matter what

happens to me. This isn't the end.

Where is Paul pulling this from? He transitions to Then comes the

end when Jesus will return and judge the living in the dead.

Here's where Paul's pulling it from.

He's pulling it from the Gospels from the words of Jesus himself.

This is your homework for the week.

John chapter 5. You don't have to turn there but

John 5 · chapter mention

listen up. John chapter 5.

John 5 · chapter mention

Jesus says this, for as the Father raises the dead and gives

them life, so also the Son me gives life to whomever.

I will do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when we

who are all an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs

will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to

the resurrection of life, and those who have been evil to the

resurrection of judgement. What Jesus is talking about

there is this concept of the day of the Lord, the day of the

Lord. One day soon when Jesus returns,

he will use that authority that he's been given reason from the

dead to resurrect the rest of humanity.

On the day of the Lord two things happen.

The resurrection of the dead, Everybody, both good and bad,

you will live again. He will resurrect the dead.

The second part of the day of the Lord is called the

judgement. The judgement of the wicked and

the vindication of the righteous King Jesus with that authority

that is had He has will sit enthroned in the judgement of

humanity. Those who have believed in the

gospel remember that threefold message.

Those who have believed in the gospel and have confessed him as

Lord will live forever. But those who have rejected that

gospel, the threefold message and have not acknowledged Jesus

Lord will be destroyed. For you who don't believe today,

I'm very sorry, but by virtue of you hearing my voice, you are

not held accountable for this message.

God brought you here today to hear it because He loves you and

He wants you to believe. King Jesus will judge the living

and the dead, and he will resurrect those who died with

this hope of being with Him forever.

So what's this do in Paul's life?

What is this hope of the resurrection do for Paul?

Well, Philippians chapter 3 verses 7 through 11, Paul writes

Philippians 3:7–11

this. Whatever gain I had, I count as

lost for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as

lost because of the surpassing worth of knowing Jesus Christ my

Lord for His sake. I have suffered the loss of all

things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ

and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that

comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in

Christ, the righteousness of God that depends on faith that I may

know Him and the power of His resurrection and may share in

His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death.

Here's the kicker, verse 11. That by any means possible I may

attain the resurrection from the dead.

It's been there in scripture the whole time.

What motivates Paul for radical ministry?

His hope to attain the resurrection of the dead, the

anticipation for Paul of eternal life, enables him to endure

suffering and eventually death for the sake of Jesus.

He's sincerely believed that death is not the end, but a

power that had been dishoned by the exalted, risen Jesus.

You want radical ministry in your life?

The key is the hope of the resurrection of the dead.

I don't care what happens to me in this body.

I believe something's coming. You see, Paul's driven by this

hope. Here's some examples.

In the book of Acts, his Co worker Luke is documenting this

biography of Paul's missionary journey, Acts 17.

Paul is in the Areopagus debating with Greek

philosophers. They're listening to him good.

They're going back and forth. They're talking about Jewish

law. They're talking about what it

means to be good. Who's bad.

All of a sudden they ridicule him when he gets to one point.

The resurrection of the dead, they go, the resurrection of the

dead. You don't understand, Paul.

The body dies and the spirit is released.

The spirit's free. Paul goes, no, the resurrection

of the dead. They listen to him up to that

point. Acts 24.

Paul's in chains at an illicit trial, like Jesus before Roman

governors Festus and Felix for the resurrection of the dead.

Acts 26. Paul's on trial before King

Agrippa and he says, O King Agrippa, I have done nothing

wrong. Let me tell you this, Acts 24,

Acts 24:21

verse 21, he says it is respect to the resurrection of the dead

that I'm on trial before you today because of my belief in

the resurrection of the dead, that life is in Jesus alone.

I'm on trial before you right now.

People were dumbfounded and shocked that this guy really

believed that the dead would rise again.

But this is the biblical hope of the scriptures.

This hope would actually end up costing Paul his life as he

appeals to the Roman emperor Caesar.

Church history tells us that he makes it to Rome, lives

throughout the rest of his days in house to rest before he's

beheaded for the sake of Jesus. My friends, family, Bridgetown.

When we remember that the day of the Lord is quickly approaching.

And with it, the resurrection of the dead.

Our days take on new meaning. They take on new meaning.

Paul's response to Corinth in chapter 6, when he criticizes

them, when he chastises them for the lawsuits, for suing each

other over trivial church relationships.

Paul's response to them is this. He says they're in chapter 6.

Don't you know that you're going to inherit the world?

Don't you know that you're going to judge angels?

Guys, this is small potatoes. Just say you're sorry to one

another and love each other. Cultivate a greater vision for

your lives, not just the temporary, but focus on the

eternal. When we do that, when we have

this hope of the resurrection of the dead, the day of the Lord

approaching, we can leave empire building behind, anxiety about

the future, what's going to happen to you?

What's going to happen to America, What's going to happen

to the world? The fear of death can be left

behind. You ever stop to wonder when you

read about these people martyred for the sake of Jesus in the

Scriptures and then even in the world today?

I sit there and I think, God, how could they do that?

I don't have that right now. How can they sit there in the

face of persecution, make a stand and say kill me?

It's because of this hope of the resurrection of the dead.

May God move me. May God move us to that place

with the greater vision of the resurrection of the dead, the

hope that is to come so that it dispels any fear of what happens

to me here. Later on in that same chapter,

Philippians chapter 3, verse 20, Paul says this.

Philippians 3:20

But our citizenship is in heaven and from it we await A Savior,

the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be

like his glorious body by the power that enables Him to

subject all things to himself. Paul talks about this idea of

citizenship. Citizenship.

This is probably the most polarizing and anxiety inducing

social issue today, especially locally here in Southern

California. Believer, hear the word of the

Lord regarding your citizenship. You belong to heaven.

I don't know how else to be clear, you belong to heaven.

You don't belong here. You're not home yet.

I'm not home yet. We are on exile.

We are on mission here as we await the return of the Lord.

Your citizenship, Paul says, is in heaven.

Why is it in heaven? Because you're bound to him

through faith. Where is he right now?

In heaven? Seated at the right hand of the

Father. That's Paul's argument is

logical. It's rational.

It's reasonable your citizenship is in heaven because that's

where crisis. Listen to the Faith Life Study

Bible note regarding this passage.

It says Roman citizenship was highly prized.

Does it sound familiar? Roman citizenship was highly

prized, but Paul encourages believers to embrace a far

better identity as citizens of God's Kingdom.

Most residents of Philippi probably lacked Roman

citizenship because they were poor.

For any believers who did hold Roman citizenship, Paul's

statement here represents a challenge to look beyond their

earthly status and show highest allegiance to Christ.

This is why Peter, the Apostle Paul's cohort, he says, live

righteously throughout the time of your exile.

He's going to use this term in his letters over and over again.

The time of your exile, the dispersion, your exile, your

exile. You're sojourning, you're

strangers, you're aliens, you don't belong here.

Our hope is in heaven where Christ is, and he will return

one day. You ever wander in the garden

after Jesus rose from the dead? We have this scene in the

Gospels of Mary weeping at the tomb of Jesus.

She turns around and hears a voice, and she interprets it to

be the gardener. And she says, Sir, tell me where

you've taken him. The tomb is empty.

Tell me where you've taken his body, please.

Jesus responds in his loving tone.

Mary, Mary, she immediately knows it's him through tear

stained eyes. She gets up off the ground.

She grabs a hold of him. Have you ever wondered why Jesus

says this? Mary, don't cling to me yet.

I don't get Laura, I thought you're welcome to everybody.

Why did you say don't cling to me yet?

Well, because it's not over. Something has to happen first.

This is one part of the gospel that we often overlook, but it's

probably one of the most powerful moments, the ascension,

the ascension to heaven. Jesus tells Mary, don't cling to

me yet because I must ascend to my Father and your father.

Why? So that your citizenship can be

in heaven. Do you know what Jesus is doing

right now? It says he's exalted as that new

type of human, divine human with a spiritual body.

He sits enthroned as King and the only time he stands is to

intercede for you as priest again.

Whatever is true of Jesus is true for you and I.

So where is he now in heaven, enthroned, my friends, church

men and women, believers, your citizenship is with him.

And at his return, at that day of the Lord, he will resurrect

your body and it will be like his.

A little aside as we're about to wrap up the rest of chapter 15

is your homework. Go read it throughout this week.

This is the greatest portion of scripture on what the nature of

the resurrection body is like. So what is it like?

How are the dead raised? Well, my friends, are heavenly

citizenship. It's not naturalized.

We must be transformed to inhabit the age to come when

earth and heaven unite. We're not disembodied spirits

floating around. We're not chubby little cherubs

on clouds. No, the resurrection body is a

completely new kind of spiritual body and it's not the perfect

you. The resurrection body is not you

at your healthiest. That's your peak here where you

are 100% healthy. If you had taken all the

vitamins, exercise, day of your life, I would have been 100%

healthy. No, my friends, that's not the

resurrection body. It's more as well than character

transformation. A lot of people like to think

that the resurrection body, it's, well, moral purity.

When I get there, my sin, my sin is gone.

I'm sinless. I'm consciously righteous.

It's more than that. The heavenly body, Paul says in

First Corinthians 15, is divinely human.

It's a spiritual body, meaning it's physical.

It's a body of glory according to Scripture, and the best

example we have of this is the resurrected Jesus himself.

Paul writes. He was seen by the 12.

He was seen by 500 people at one point.

We visited him 40 days after he resurrected from the dead.

He's able to appear in rooms and then just disappear.

People recognize him, but they don't.

He's different. This spiritual body is immortal.

It's incorruptible. So whatever your theological

tradition calls it, whether it's glorification, deification,

theosis, we must understand it is a body of glory that is both

human and divine, and it is yours.

It is your future for you who believe in Jesus because

whatever is true of Jesus becomes true of you.

Now, what do we do with this an application?

I understand that all of this sounds idyllic.

I'm not naive to that. Many of you are sitting here in

your mind. Maybe you're thinking, I get

that. That's great, That's great.

But you don't understand what I'm going through right now.

It's been very tough. It's been very rough.

Listen to Pastor Dave Lomas of Reality San Francisco talk about

biblical hope. Biblical hope looks square at

reality as it shows itself on the daily.

It looks at all the facts and then looks at God's promise.

Then, without denying the facts or turning away from reality, it

lives out a vision of life based on God's promise.

It is a vision of life that guides itself by faith in God's

promise, irrespective of whether the situation looks optimistic

or pessimistic. Biblical hope doesn't deny the

pain in this body. Biblical hope doesn't deny the

frustration and the hurt that you're experiencing the sorrow.

Biblical hope looks square at reality, and then it looks at

God's promise. I will resurrect you from the

dead. I will.

So are you physically sick today?

Are you physically tired? Are you physically sick and

tired? Frustrated.

Maybe you're emotionally broken. Maybe you're emotionally

detached where you don't feel anything at all.

Are you mentally exhausted, overcome with anxiety about what

the future holds are for you? With Paul in Romans 8, he

writes, We've grown in this body awaiting our redemption.

We've grown in this body awaiting the new life.

Church, you're not home yet, but God promises you that one day

there will be a grand homecoming at the day of the Lord, where

the dead in Christ will rise and we who are still here will be

transformed into a new body like Jesus, and we will see him as he

is. So let's have a perspective

shift. My, my friends, we are in the

world, but we're not of it. We're on mission to preach,

teach, and disciple the gospel to those who would hear What

this tells us. What the resurrection,

resurrection of the dead tells this church is that it's never

hopeless. It's never hopeless.

John 1125 Jesus, the tomb of Lazarus, speaks to Mary and

Martha, his sisters, and he says to them, Your brother will rise

again. I am the resurrection and the

life. Whoever believes in me, though

he die, he will live. And everyone who lives and

believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?

The Christian life is never hopeless.

If God can raise the dead Christ to life, he can raise anybody to

life again. And that's you that you

included. We hope you.

Enjoyed this message? And we'd love for you to join us

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see you next week.