The Church Risen 10/19/08

Sermon Series: 1st Corinthians – The Church _____________
Text: 1 Corinthians 15:20-29
Title: The Church Risen

Theme: This is a message of solid assurance. Paul’s argument to us is that because Christ has been raised we can be sure of that resurrection as it attains to us. Resurrection is fact based on Christ, the first fruit, who folded the door open and oversees an orderly resurrection.

Introduction: I remember when I became a parent that as my kids began to grow and learned to talk and started to experience the world they asked some of the hardest questions. Things like: Why is water clear? Or why do men go bald? Some of these questions seem pretty innocuous at the time and then you find out that slowly out of these questions, matched up with their own experiences they are building their worldview. They are figuring out how the world works and maybe even more importantly how it is supposed to work.

Transition: When we become new people in Christ there is a process which is very mush similar to those early years as toddlers and young children when we were figuring out how everything was supposed to work. As we search scripture and experience God in new and different ways we slowly build a heaven-view an understanding of how God works in the world and even more importantly how He operates in and through the lives that He has given us. There are a few scriptures that I think are ah ha moments as we experience scripture for our lives. This passage today is one of those for me. Paul has been spent this entire chapter answering a question from the Corinthian Church on the fact of Jesus’ bodily resurrection. Apparently some of the people these Christians have been listening to have tried to tell them that there is no resurrection of the body. Paul’s impassioned plea has been that the fact of Christ’s resurrection, of which there were plenty of witnesses some of whom are still alive at the time of this writing, is proof that there is a resurrection which we all can look forward to. In the passage we read today Paul is continuing this lecture and including a mini – lecture on end times teaching.
In this paragraph we are taught some lessons about having a Christian heaven-view, and it should fill us with hope and joy as we face this world and the next.

I. Lesson 1 – Christ’s bodily resurrection is fact.
a. Paul has already told these Christians that Christ’s resurrection was a fact observed by a lot of eyewitnesses.
i. Some of these witnesses are still alive at the time of the writing of this letter.
b. In verses 12-19 – Paul has stated that if Christ’s resurrection was not a fact then:
1. His preaching would be in vain
2. We would be misrepresenting God
3. Our faith is futile
4. We would still be in our sins
5. The saints who have already died were not raised
6. We are to be pitied.
c. In other words without the bodily resurrection of Jesus from the tomb our faith is worse than worthless it is powerless and makes us into fools.
d. A lot of people today may make noises like they believe that Christ’s resurrection is a fact but they don’t live as if it is a fact. In other words the historicity of the bodily resurrection of Jesus has been whittled down to little more than a bump on the philosophical model that we build our lives around. A lot of modern people if backed into a corner would say one of two things about the resurrection either: it took place in a spiritual sense and is a much too supernatural concept to have physically happened or they simply don’t believe it and think that it is a product of ancient legend.
i. There is no room for either of those beliefs in evangelical Christianity. The verb which is used here that says Christ has been raised from the dead is in what is called a passive perfect form. That means that this event took place in a past time chronologically but has continuing effect in the present period. If I believe that Christ rose from the dead than there is implications for my life. Which leads us into lesson 2
II. Lesson 2 - Christ’s resurrection is a guarantee of our own
a. Paul declares that Jesus is first fruits of those who have fallen asleep – which is Greek idiomatic for died.
b. The word used here is a very old word and one which Paul also used in Romans 8:23 and used to describe the Spirit’s work in believers. One of the meanings for this word recorded in old papyri was that of entrance fee or legacy duty. It is like saying that our entrance is paid for by the first fruit. What an apt description of the work that Jesus has done our behalf. As first fruit of the dead He has paid our entrance fee into resurrection. How incredible is that. In Colossian s Paul carries the same idea saying that Jesus is first born of the dead.
c. I remember when I was a kid on of the favorite activities around our neck of the woods was going to the roller skating rink. There were times when our 4-h club went there and one of the things that I thought was so cool was that when our 4-h leader paid our way we just walked through the little swing gate and got this glow in the dark stamp on the back of our hand to show that we had a right to be there. Even if we left the rink when we came back they could see that our entrance had already been paid because we were marked.
d. Paul makes the same argument here for the viability of Christ’s sacrifice that he did in Romans 5:12 following
i. Through the disobedience that Adam exhibited in the exercise of his freewill sin entered into the landscape of the human condition. Since that introduction to disobedience all men and women have chosen to be disobedient. This rips apart the relationship that God had originally formed man to fulfill with his creator and taints the rest of creation. This cycle was broken when Christ came, put on complete humanness, lived in perfect harmony with his Father and then sacrificed himself on our behalf.
ii. Paul carries this argument one step further here by saying that he not only broke the cycle of sin and disobedience he also blazed the trail of resurrection which is in step with us.
III. Lesson 3 – Christ’s resurrection is a promise of his return
a. All things are under his power
b. In our Weds. Night study we have been sorting our way through Revelation and one thing has become crystal clear – when you are dealing with unrevealed prophecy and symbolic language there is not much that is clear. But Paul and the rest of the New Testament is crystal clear that when Jesus comes back his second campaign will have a totally different nature than his first.
i. His earlier mission to mankind was marked by incredibly powerful submission.
1. He submitted to the humanity which he allowed himself to be clothed in and felt hunger pain and all of the various other human weaknesses that come from wearing mortal flesh.
2. He submitted to the government institutions. He paid taxes and allowed them to arrest and try him.
3. He submitted to His heavenly Father – by going through with the horrible and purposeful mission for which He had been sent.
4. He submitted himself to ridicule, torture and the sacrificial altar which had been upended and made into a cross.
ii. His next mission to mankind will be marked by incredible power and authority.
1. “For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.” (1 Thessalonians 4:16, ESV)
2. ““When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.” (Matthew 25:31-32, ESV)
3. Revelation 19:11-16
4. This passage this morning tells us about his coming that:
a. He will destroy every existing rule and authority.
b. All of his enemies will be put in complete subjection.
c. After an orderly tying up of all things in a neat package he will place them in his Father’s hand.
d. And the last thing destroyed is death itself.
c. Christ’s resurrection is a promise of his return in power, glory and authority but it is also a promise that death will one day be a distant memory and we will have very little recollection of the rot, corruption and disease that marked this part of our existence.

Conclusion: During the course of our lives we will make all kinds of promises. When we were kids we and we were very serious about our promise we said something like “cross my heart and hope to die.” As adults we stand up in marriage ceremonies and make promises that we intend to last all of our lives. But if you want a promise you can really bank on you have to look at the one that is marked by Jesus’ bodily resurrection – we can know for certain that He is coming back – and I can hardly wait.