Sermon

1 Corinthians 15:1-28 — The Reality of the Resurrection, Part One

April 20, 2003

In my lifetime there have been several memorable moments of liberation.

One of my prize possessions is a little piece of rock that came from the Berlin Wall in Germany. In November of 1989 the iron curtain fell in Eastern Europe. One of the most powerful visual symbols of those days was the literal tearing down of the wall that had been erected to divide communist East Berlin from free West Berlin.

We were able to visit Berlin just about a year after that event, and there were still remnants of the wall in the city. As we were walking near the place where the infamous check-point Charlie had stood, we came upon a man who was knocking chunks out of the wall to sell to tourists. We struck up a conversation with him and he gave us this part of the wall.

Many of us were transfixed to our televisions on April 9th when we watched that statue of Saddam Hussein in the middle of Baghdad pulled down by American troops and jubilant Iraqis.

Certainly these were powerful moments of liberation. But today we celebrate a moment that swallows them all in significance. We celebrate the morning when Jesus shook off the shackles of death and rose from the dead. This moment, this event, became the touchstone for the Christian proclamation of what God had done for us in Jesus. It is the ground and source of our hope as believers.

In 1 Corinthians 15 Paul reminds the Corinthians of the core reality of the resurrection.

He reminds the Corinthians that this was the gospel (the good news) he had preached to them when he established the church at Corinth (v. 1; cf. Acts 18). He reminds them that they received it then and they took their stand on it.

Note that the primitive proclamation of the church is not merely the teaching or ethical instruction of Jesus, important as these things are. It is not merely the miracles and powerful demonstrations of the Spirit of God that transpired in Jesus’ life and ministry, as important as these are. The core of the Christian message was not the Sermon of the Mount but the cross and the empty tomb.

Paul says, in v. 2, “By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise you have believed in vain.” All is vain, if the Christian proclamation is devoid of the cross and resurrection.

In vv. 3-4 Paul recounts the nitty-gritty of the tradition that was passed on to him.

That Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. Cf. Isaiah 53:4-6:

4 Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.
6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

That he was buried. Cf. Isaiah 53:9:

9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.

That he was raised again on the third day. Cf. Psalm 16:9-10:

9 Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure,
10 because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay.

By the way, your question may be the same as my daughter’s who asked why if Jesus was crucified on Friday and was raised after three days, the resurrection did not happen on Monday. But the reckoning of days in the Jewish mind was from sunset to sunset. So, Jesus was in the grave on Friday, Saturday (beginning at sunset on Friday) and part of Sunday (beginning at sunset on Saturday). And on the third day (Sunday) the tomb was found empty.

The reality of the resurrection is made sure by the fact that Jesus in a transformed appearance made himself known to his disciples. To Peter, the very one who had so vehemently denied him, on the night of his arrest, and to the rest of the Twelve, minus the traitor Judas (v. 5).

In v. 6 Paul makes an interesting claim: that Jesus appeared to over five hundred of the brothers at the same time. If the resurrection was a hoax, a fiction created by zealous but delusional disciples, how could Paul and others believers make such a claim that could be so easily refuted? Unless, it is true.

In v. 7 Paul notes that Jesus then appeared to James, then to all the apostles. James was Jesus’ own half-brother and the leading elder of the church at Jerusalem. We know from the historian Josephus that James died a martyr’s death for the sake of Christ. If the claims of Jesus were not true, how do we explain the devotion of those who knew him best?

Last, in v. 8, Paul notes that Jesus also appeared to him (Acts 9, 22, 26) as one “abnormally born,” that is as one nearly still-born or nearly aborted. In v. 9 Paul says that he does not even deserve to be called an apostle because he persecuted “the church of God.” How God still delights in making his enemies his friends! In v. 10 Paul says, “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect.” There is no pretense, no play-acting, before God. We are who we are: sinners in a desperate state purchased by Christ. Paul marvels at how God was able to use someone like him, who had so openly opposed the cause of Christ, along with the other apostles to proclaim that core gospel message of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. Finally, he says, “this is what we preached, and this is what you believed” (v. 11).

You see he is reminding the Corinthians of that original message that had so captivated their hearts and minds. This was the gospel that they had received and had saved them. But some were beginning to cast doubt on the gospel. Some were apparently challenging and even denying the ground of Christian hope.

The message Paul proclaimed was that God had gloriously raised Jesus from the dead and that one day there would come a general resurrection in which all believers would participate. Christ was the trailblazer, the pioneer who paved the way for what was to happen to all who are in Christ. But as time passed and the return of Christ did not come on the human timetable some began to question the gospel. Some began to doubt that the general resurrection would come and even that Christ had risen. It did not take years and years for heresy to arise. All the heresies of today were dealt with in the very first generation. Some began to deny the historical reality of the resurrection and spiritualize its meaning. They began to say or think things like, “Well, all this resurrection stuff sounds pretty far- fetched and weird. This isn’t the way the natural world works. But still the ethical and moral teachings of Jesus are pretty sound. It helps you live a good life. And the church community does a lot of social good, so I’ll just sort of cross my fingers behind my back and be a Christian, even though I don’t really embrace all this resurrection and miracle talk.”

Listen to Paul’s response in vv. 12-19. Again, Paul says without the reality of the resurrection “our preaching is useless and so is your faith.” If Christ has not been raised Paul says then he and the other apostles have been “false witnesses” (v. 15). To deny the resurrection is to deny the teaching authority of the church. It is to deny the truth of scripture. To deny the hope of resurrection for all believers is to deny that Christ has been raised (v. 16). It is to deny that we have been released from the bondage of sin and its foul wages (v. 17). If the resurrection is a fraud then “all those who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost” (v. 18). Their lives and their hopes were completely meaningless. Paul’s exclamation point comes in v. 19. If we have hope only for this life, “we are to be pitied more than all men.” Yes, Christ gives us hope and joy and contentment beyond our wildest imaginings in this life. Yes, the abundant life does not just begin “in the pie in the sky, by and by” but we enjoy it “by the pound, on the ground, while we’re still around.” But take away the resurrection and the faith is a charade.

You, no doubt, recall the Iraqi information minister. All through the war he stood before the cameras and denied the reality of what was going on. Even while the US army was taking the airport and driving tanks and armored vehicle into the middle of Baghdad, he was standing there flatly denying the reality of the situation. Paul, says that those who deny the resurrection of Jesus and the resurrection hope of believers stand in a similar position. They can keep saying it all they want. They can deny the faithful accounts of those who saw the risen Jesus with their own eyes. They can deny the other-worldly power that filled the disciples and emboldened them to preach the gospel at the cost of their own lives. And, yes, they can point to an ongoing skirmish here and a pocket of dark resistance there. But one day they will find that “the game is over.” Christ is Victor!

Paul proclaims this in v. 20 when he says: “But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen alseep.” Just as in the Springtime we can trace that first bud and bloom of the crocus or the redbud or the dogwood and know that soon the whole plant will burst into flower, so Paul says the resurrection of Christ was just the first budding of what is to come. Now, God’s timing is not ours. But rest assured there will come a day when his plan will be brought about. God’s plan of restoration began at the sin of Adam in Genesis 3. As Adam was a representative man whose sin and disobedience brought rebellion into humanity, so Jesus Christ is a representative man whose perfect obedience set in motion the reversal of the effects of the curse on humanity: “For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive” (v. 22). Then in v. 23 Paul makes explicit God’s plan: “But each in his own turn, Christ the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him.”

Finally, in vv. 24-28 Paul reflects on what will happen at that final consummation. Christ the Victor, having destroyed “all dominion, authority and power” in opposition to God the Father. And having placed all the enemies of hell under his feet like a footstool, the last of these enemies being death itself (vv. 25-27a). Finally, the Son will do something that is most amazing. He will take all that he has conquered and he will present it to the Father. “When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all” (v. 28). Here we see Jesus at last as always the servant, who does not consider equality with God as something to be grasped but empties himself.

In the end, the final pronouncement within God’s own self will be: To God be the glory! There will be forever this process of the Father putting all things under the Son's authority and the Son giving all the glory back to the Father and the Spirit proceeding from and rejoicing in this glad fellowship.

And every Easter morning till the Lord comes we gather to look at the first bloom of what is to come. To remember the power and truth and hope of the resurrection. To see again this symbol of liberation and know that the wall is falling, the tyrant is toppling, and soon God will be all in all.

Jeffrey T. Riddle
Pastor, Jefferson Park Baptist Church

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Sermon

1 Corinthians 15:1-28 — The Reality of the Resurrection, Part One

April 20, 2003

Jeffrey T. Riddle Pastor, Jefferson Park Baptist Church

Jeffrey T. Riddle
Pastor, Jefferson Park Baptist Church