1 Cor No.34 The Resurrection No.3

1 Corinthians chapter 15, and beginning to read this morning at verse 21. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive, but each in his own turn.

Christ, the firstfruits, then when he comes, those who belong to him. Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father, after he has destroyed all dominion, 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 he has put everything under his feet. Now when it says that everything has been put under him, it is clear that this does not include God himself, who put everything under Christ.

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. Now if there is no resurrection, what will those do who are baptised for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptised for them? And as for us, why do we endanger ourselves every hour? I die every day. I mean that, brothers, just as surely as I glory over you in Christ Jesus our Lord.

If I fought wild beasts in Ephesus for merely human reasons, what have I gained? If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. Do not be misled. Bad company corrupts good character.

Come back to your senses as you ought and stop sinning, for there are some who are ignorant of God. I say this to your shame. Now may God add his blessing to that reading from his word.

Now I'd be glad if you'd have your Bibles open at 1 Corinthians and chapter 15, as we consider to work our way systematically through this highly practical letter which Paul wrote to the church at Corinth nigh on two thousand years ago. And he touches on subjects which are necessary for us to examine and to apply in the twentieth century, such as the mystery and the miracle of God's word. Now there has been quite a time lapse since last we looked into this fifteenth chapter, so maybe I ought to spend a moment or two just recapping on its contents.

It is, of course, as many of you will be fully aware, basically the chapter in the Bible which deals with the fact of the resurrection of our blessed Lord Jesus. It really doesn't matter about any other doctrine at all. If you were able to disprove the resurrection of Christ, then there is no such thing as Christianity.

You can take all the volumes that I have in my library in the vestige there and throw them away. There is no Christian faith. If Jesus Christ be not raised from the dead.

When I was in Turkana, as I mentioned earlier this past week, they generally have, I'm told, four and a half inches of rain a year. And four inches fell the few days just before I arrived. Maybe that's got something to do with my being British and them wanting me to feel at home, I don't know.

But some of those humble dwellings just collapsed as a result of the deluge of water that left the heavens. You see, there is no foundation to the buildings in Turkana. They're just made out of clay and grass and what have you.

And so it is the case with the Christian faith. If Jesus Christ can be demonstrated not to have been raised from the dead, if, like John Brown, his body still is a mouldering in the grave, then there is no faith at all. There is no Christianity, and it doesn't really matter what you believe about anything else that Paul has touched on in the first 14 chapters.

If what he says in the 15th is incorrect, then the whole business is a load of nonsense, or to quote Campbell Morgan, it's all just pure humbug. But we know full well, as the apostle makes the case so brilliantly, that far from the Christian faith resting on an insolid foundation, it rests on something that is firm. And you will discover from the 3rd right through to the 12th verse of this 15th chapter how he approaches the notion historically.

And he tells us about those people, starting with Peter and the apostles and 500 and the rest of the apostles and eventually James and then Paul himself, how all these gave testimony to the fact that Jesus visibly rose from the dead. They saw him, they touched him, they knew that he had come back, the most unique event in the whole history of mankind. He approaches the doctrine, I say, in the first 12 verses historically.

And then from the 12th verse and right through to the 20th verse, he approaches it hypothetically. You say, what do you mean by that? Well, a hypothesis is something that you put up in terms of speculation. Here in the 12th verse, for example, but if, whenever you get the word if in the English language, then you're leading on to something that is hypothetical.

Now, says the apostle, let's just imagine for a moment that this Jesus was not raised from the dead. What are the consequences? What are the grotesque conclusions that one would have to draw from such a notion? And you recall from past preaching on this subject how he lists them, a plague upon your preachers. If Christ is not raised from the dead, then there is no gospel at all.

Verse 14, our preaching is useless. And not only is our preaching useless, but your faith is in vain. You have been the subject of a con man.

And not only in terms of Jesus, but in terms of all the conspirators who have come together and suggested to you something that is absolutely unfounded. If Jesus Christ is not raised from the dead, then all these men, including myself, whose names I have mentioned, either individually or collectively, they are liars. And there is nothing at all that can in any way inspire hope as you poor miserable people in Corinth approach the grave.

Indeed, he goes on to say, those who have already died in between my first coming to Corinth and preaching the gospel, those who have died before the second return of Jesus Christ, they are of all men most miserable. They have got no hope at all. There they are, as I say, Corinthian John Browns with their bodies are mouldering in the grave, turning into ashes, whitened by the heat of the Middle Eastern sun.

I, and says the apostle, as I look around the Roman world and the Greek world in my day, if Jesus Christ, still hypothetically remember his argument, if Jesus Christ is not raised from the dead, then I see the Christian community as the most pitiable of all classes of mankind. He says that in verse 19. They're just like cripples who've got crutches under their arms and they're hobbling around on the supposed belief that Jesus was divine and Jesus has been raised from the dead.

Of all men, we would be the most pitiful in the world. Well, that's the way that the apostle is arguing. Here in 1 Corinthians 15, I say he's talking about the resurrection, he approaches it historically, he approaches it hypothetically, and then from the 20th verse right through to the 28th verse, he has, or perhaps even further than that, down to the 34th verse, he's going to approach it theologically and he's going to work out the implications of the fact that Jesus Christ not only was crucified, but he has been brought back from the dead and that will have some amazing consequences.

So that basically is what Paul has been referring to. And the latter part, the treatment theologically from the 20th verse, I shared with you at least certain of his teachings on the last occasion it was my privilege to preach from this beloved pulpit. Well then, here we have the whole thing set up in perspective.

Jesus Christ's body was very badly treated by the Romans. They used their whips, they tore his skin from off his back, they punctured those healing hands with their nails, they thrust their spear into his side, and then he was entombed in a sepulcher that didn't belong to him, and he's there for three days, but not a moldering in the grave. No, says the Apostle Paul, preaching his debut in Acts chapter 2, making his mark as an ambassador of the gospel, quoting the Old Testament, Thou wilt not leave thy Holy One to seek corruption.

You won't allow your Son, Lord God Almighty, just to decay in the tomb. No, you brought him back, the author of life, by the power of the Holy Spirit, you brought him back amongst us, our eyes have seen it, and to him we give testimony in front of all the people who were gathered on the day of Pentecost. Well, these are the areas that I want to investigate again with you this morning.

What does the resurrection of Jesus mean to you? There may be some who think that I am taking too long in this issue, but really, if that's your criticism, you reveal far more about yourself than what you reveal about the ineptitude of the preacher, because as I say, if the resurrection is not a vital part of Christian doctrine, then there is no doctrine. If you're not clear on the resurrection, my friend, then I mean this quite literally. Let's just sell up this tabernacle.

Let's go away from this place, because there is no doctrine at all. There is no dogma. There is no gospel.

Well, I put it to you again. What does the resurrection mean to you, personally? This is not mere theological speculation. I'm not just interested in enlarging your knowledge of some dogma that may have only secondary importance in the whole counsel of God.

Here is something that is vital, so I put it to you, young people in the gallery, all the friends downstairs, what does the resurrection of Jesus Christ mean to you? Now, it seems to me from these verses that there are two or three things that at least you must concede it means to you if you understand what Paul is referring to in his teaching. First of all, the resurrection of Jesus Christ means that I am implanted I am implanted into the life of Christ myself. Look at the 21st and the 22nd verses, and you'll see what I mean.

For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. Here are two individuals anonymously referred to in the 21st verse, made clear in the 22nd Adam and Christ.

There was a professor of Magdalene College, Oxford, who said in the 17th century that these two men are the foremost men in all history, and they have the rest of mankind hanging from their apron strings. You're either in Adam or you're in Christ. Naturally speaking, everyone is in Adam.

How do I mean? Well, Adam sinned in the garden of Eden, and he's thrust out of paradise along with his wife. And he goes east of Eden. He lives there in the barrenness of this world.

And as he has sinned, so you have sinned. That's what the Bible teaches so many, many times in both the Old and in the New Testament. So we are all born naturally in Adam.

But there are some who are also born in Christ Jesus. As in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But will you notice those alls don't necessarily refer to the same group of people.

All are in Adam, but not all are in Christ. Which camp are you in? Where have you been planted? That's basically the question behind the gospel message. I refer to being in Turkana.

Now that's a very, very barren area of God's earth. And as my little plane on Tuesday was hovering over the mission airstrip, the pilot said, look at that. And I directed my gaze towards where his finger was pointing.

And I saw amongst the barrenness of Turkana foliage and greenery, which was so unusual it caught your attention, simply because of the semi-desert of the rest of the land. And he says that's a result of Mr. Webster, the agricultural missionary there, who some of you have met. That's the result of his work.

They have irrigated that area. They've brought water up from the river. And as a result, I discovered as I went around the plantations, there are acres and acres of land that were once barren in Turkana which now are yielding crops for those poor Turkana people, so they will have food and able to get along reasonably as a result of this agricultural miracle.

Now you see, the land didn't used to be like that. The seed has been planted into something that has been specially prepared. There's been transplantation.

Now, this is precisely the case with the gospel. You were born naturally in Adam, but supernaturally you can be re-transplanted. You can be dug out of Adam, so to speak, and put in Christ.

As Jonathan Edwards, a great preacher in America, said centuries ago, men are in Adam by nature. They are in Christ by faith. So, the resurrection of Jesus Christ means, first of all, that I can be implanted into the life of Christ, as in Adam, or die.

There's no hope. I mean, east of Eden, it's not a condition that will help me spiritually to grow. East of Eden, there's all barrenness.

If I'm like Adam, I'm going to decay, and there will be no hope for me at all, eternally. But, bless God, another Adam has come into this world. The second Adam, or better put, the last Adam.

And he has undone the folly of the first Adam. And here is a great possibility that instead of following the first Adam, you follow the last Adam. You're transplanted, you see.

Now, this is the reason, and if you've been following this series of expositions, this must be clear to you, why the apostle Paul speaks of the church in terms of the body of Christ. What are we here in wording tabernacle? Well, an assortment of different people. But understood from God's vantage point, we are part of the body of Christ.

Listen to the apostle Peter. He puts it perhaps even more clearly, certainly more shockingly. He says we're partakers of the divine nature.

That means to say there's a little bit of Jesus in me. It wasn't there originally. Let me put it a different way around.

I have entered into the very life of the Lord Jesus Christ, so it's not so much me that is alive, but Christ who lives in me. And that's possible only because of the resurrection. The Muslims can't say this.

They're not part of Muhammad. The Hindus can't say this. They're not part of their pantheon of gods.

But the Christian says this, and why does he know? Well, because the body of Christ is not a mouldering in the grave. The body of Christ is with the Father in heaven. And in a very remarkable way, spiritually we're in unity with him because his spirit, the Holy Ghost, indwells us and makes us partakers of his nature.

Now all this is possible because on the third day death could not keep its prey. Jesus, my Saviour, he tore the bars away. Jesus, my Lord.

Well, the first consequence of the resurrection of Christ personally applied is I am implanted into the life of Christ. But then again, look from the 23rd verse right through to the 28th, and I've no need to spend too much time as I've already covered this ground. I'm just bringing some conclusions to a head at this point.

As a result of the resurrection of Christ, not only am I implanted into his life, I am implicated in the eternal purposes of God. I'm implicated in the eternal purposes of God. The 22nd verse tells me that Christ has been made alive.

The 23rd verse goes on to say that Christ is the firstfruits. What are the firstfruits? You remember I gave you the illustration from the book of Leviticus. The firstfruits, the first sheaf of the harvest is taken into the temple by those grateful old Hebrew people, and they wave it before the Lord.

What does it signify? It signifies all the rest of the sheaves that are yet to be gathered in. So Jesus, when he's raised from the dead, he is the firstfruits. And he says, then, then, when he comes, when he returns, those who belong to him, they will also experience a resurrection as he experienced resurrection.

Between the waving of the firstfruit, the ascension, or rather the resurrection of our blessed Lord, to the time of his second coming and the second resurrection, almost 2,000 years have elapsed. How much longer to go? We don't know. But here is the apostle making reference to that period.

As a result of our Lord Jesus Christ being raised from the dead, then ultimately when he returns, there will be a general resurrection, and all believers shall participate in the resurrection life of Jesus Christ physically as well as spiritually. You see, the Bible does talk about the end of this present world. Again, the 24th verse, then the end will come.

When I was on the Seychelles, I was looking up into the starry heavens one evening. Dr. David Bacon, who heads up the work of Phoebus there, is an astronomer. He was pointing out various parts of the heavenly bodies of which I was absolutely ignorant and telling me something of the fascination of the stars and the planets.

Some planets, some stars they just go out. They're extinguished. It's part of the process of nature, if you like.

But planet Earth will not just go out. We are not caught up in some mindless evolution cycle. We are in the control of almighty God.

It was Jesus Christ, the Logos, the second person of the ever-blessed Trinity who brought the world into existence. He was there at the beginning. I, and says the Apostle Paul, he'll be there at the end.

And between his first resurrection and the Parousia, the second advent, he reigns. You say Jesus Christ reigns in this world? Yes, indeed. You say, but there's many evidences of sin.

I will agree. But nonetheless, through his church, Jesus Christ invisibly is reigning in this world. All authority has been given unto me, he says to the disciples, Matthew 28, the last few verses, in heaven and on earth.

Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel. He tells us in, what is it, Luke chapter 11 about the binding of the strong man. We're informed in Corinthians that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds.

Time and time again, the authority of Christ is placed over against the authority of the evil one. And always the conclusion is brought down that Jesus Christ reigns. He reigns within his church.

China will have to give up her millions for whom Christ died to the claims of the cross. Missionaries were expelled in China in 1948-49. 300,000 Christians were reckoned to be the total number of the church.

Since that curtain, that bamboo curtain has been lifted in the last year or so, the estimated number of Christians is not in terms of hundreds of thousands, it's in terms of millions. Don't tell me that Jesus Christ cannot work out his reign and his rule in China or amongst the Turkana tribes people. Ask of me, says the Father, God to the Son, and I will give you the heathen for your inheritance.

Who controls the destinies of nations? Who has our own destiny in his hands? None other than Jesus Christ. Ah yes, the reign might be invisible as far as those who are insensitive to spiritual things are concerned, but he is there. Human story is his story.

And ultimately, he will work out his purposes. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. It does not belong to the devil.

The only rights the devil has are squatter's rights. And one day, eternally, he shall be evicted and placed into the abyss forever. And this renewed earth shall be covered with the glory of God as the waters cover the sea.

Now, the Bible says he must reign. And that invisible reign will become visible when he shall return and every eye shall behold him. And every intelligent being shall bow their knee and use their tongue to confess what? That Jesus Christ is Lord.

What is invisible now to millions of people shall be visible on that final day. Then the end will come when Jesus shall gather his elect, his church, and present it before his heavenly Father. And when ultimately his subordination to the Father shall be terminated and God, Father, Son, and Spirit shall be all and in all reigning on a new heaven and a new earth.

Now listen, the resurrection of Jesus Christ not only implants me or makes it possible for me to be implanted into the life of Christ, it implicates me in the purposes of God. I get so excited when I think about all that God has in store. And I just pray day by day, Lord let me not be so earthbound, let me not be so materially centered that I don't realize that all that I might on the human level consider to be precious and lasting is going to be burned away and you're going to renew the heaven and the new earth, and you have a destiny for your people, and all this swings on the pivotal thought that Jesus has been raised from the dead.

And I'm implanted in his life. And I'm implicated in his eternal purposes. And what's more, let me suggest in concluding that I am impelled to live differently.

I am impelled to live differently. Paul, having sketched out those final purposes of God in those 25th through to the 28th verses, now goes on from the 29th to the 33rd to apply what he's been arguing. And he makes some comment about this rather vexed question about being baptized for the dead.

In the 29th verse, not an easy issue to settle for us looking back without sufficient information. It could be taken in two ways. If there is no resurrection, if Jesus was not raised from the dead, then it's ridiculous being baptized for the testimony of a dead man.

You could take it that way. Or you might see it in terms of ancestor worship in which the Corinthians were somewhat immersed, as are some people today. And there was the thinking that maybe they could be baptized by proxy for those who had died before.

Paul doesn't in any way countenance this. Rather he says, well, if that is the case, what will those do who are baptized for the dead if there is no resurrection? It would be a ludicrous thing. And there is elsewhere in Paul's letter to the Corinthians, the end of the 11th chapter, the suggestion that there are other things he has to set in order and correct about the Corinthians when he comes back the second time to visit them.

And maybe this whole idea about baptism from the dead he straightens out. But here he's speculating and showing it just to be a nonsense if Jesus has not been raised. Ah, but my friend, let's apply this to us.

If Jesus has been raised from the dead, and I've been baptized in water, and I have been raised out of the water, denoting that I've got spiritual life, and I'm involved in the purposes of God, then I'm going to live differently. Of course I am. The redeemed community are to live like redeemed people.

That's the point of the resurrection. We are a new nation. We are a new community.

And then the apostle Paul in the 30th verse, he speaks about his own lifestyle. The reason why he lives as he does is because Jesus has been raised. He said, if that was not so, then why do we endanger ourselves every hour? And he's very serious.

I die every day. I mean that, brothers. Verse 31.

I mean that, brothers. I die daily. As I move around the Roman Empire, I'm stretched physically and mentally.

There are times when I'm almost at breaking point. Why do I live like this? Well, I'm impelled to. Because the message of salvation that I bring is a message that is vitally required by the Romans and the Jews and all the Gentile nations.

Therefore, I will hazard my life that the message of the crucified and the resurrected Christ might be broadcasted around the whole world. You see, because Christ is raised, my friend, there are certain things that I am impelled to do. And if I don't feel that impulsion, then it's questionable as to whether I really understand the significance of the resurrection.

Let's move on to the 32nd verse. He refers to this problem he had at Ephesus when it was almost as though all the opposition were united against him, as though they were ferociously wild animals. And says, Paul, if the dead are not raised, then it would be ridiculous that I face such dangers as I did in the Greek city of Ephesus.

Rather, quoting from Isaiah, he says, my philosophy should be that of the carnal man. Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. If there's no resurrection.

If, as we're taught, and sometimes in your schools, and if they teach you this, disbelieve it. And even tell them that the pastor of the tabernacle told you to disbelieve it, because it's a load of rubbish. If you are taught that there is no principle of the divine being, there is no God in this world, before whom one day you will have to give an account, then your philosophy might well indeed be, let's eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.

If I'm like a beast, and there's no hope of eternal life, if I'm not made in the image of God, then why not live like a beast? Where is this morality? Why have any sexual moral behavior? Why stop any bodily appetite from being satisfied? If I'm just like a beast, like one of those dumb animals in the jungle, then let me live like that, says the apostle. But I'm not. I'm in the image of Christ.

I've been raised. I've been implanted into Him. I'm implicated in the eternal purposes of God, therefore I won't live like an animal.

I won't even live like a carnal Corinthian. I'll live like one who's following Jesus Christ, because He's my resurrected Savior, and He's in the glory, and one day He's coming back for me. Now, says the apostle in the 33rd verse, don't be misled.

And now he quotes a little bit of Greek philosophy. Bad company corrupts good character. You've been listening too much to what those pagans have been saying in Corinth.

The idea of the in Greek philosophy of the resurrection was a nonsense, and some were taking pagan notions from Corinth, and bringing them back into the church, and says, Paul, no. No, don't get so familiar with pagan people that their practices and their beliefs are imported into the church, as though you can make a sort of pagan stew with a bit of paganism and a breath of Christianity. Bad company corrupts good character.

No, he says, you live differently. Differently in your lifestyle. Differently in your beliefs.

So, you see, my dear young and older friend, how very, very important it is for us to consider the doctrine of the resurrection of Christ. It's got practical repercussions. Because He is raised, I personally, us collectively, we collectively are implanted or can be implanted into His life.

It's not just a question of Adam, and us by nature being sons of Adam. It's a question of the last Adam, and by faith being incorporated into Him. Are you there? And if you're implanted into His life, then also you're implicated in the eternal purposes of God.

You've got a destiny that's glorious, so don't get too earthbound. Keep your eyes upon your final goal. And live with that in mind, and not with earth in mind, because the earth is going to be renewed.

And what is more, as a result of the resurrection of Christ, then we are impelled to live differently. You remember my comment about John Brown's body? Mouldering in the grave? That's not the end. It wasn't the end of Lydia Warr.

When I inter her body tomorrow, and thank God again for her life, although there'll be a lump in my throat, for I love that lady, it won't be adieu, it will be au revoir. Now, that body of hers, it needed to die. It was riddled with disease.

One could see it. But you see, she's going to have another body. Like unto the one before, there will be some continuity and some discontinuity.

But moreover, it's going to be like the glorious body of our Lord Jesus Christ. And so we will be saying au revoir to our friend, until we we meet again. What will the body be like that you're going to have, and I'm going to have, and how will we receive it? Ah, well, I'll tell you about that next week.

But you work out now the implications of the resurrection personally for yourself during these next few days. Amen. With those tremendous concepts which stretch our comprehension to breaking point in mind, we take our leave of one another, blessing you that never do we take our leave of yourself.

We thank you again for the crucifixion and the resurrection of the Christ. We bless you. So many of us here, we've been implanted into Him.

We're implicated in the divine purposes, and we're impelled to live differently because of that. Thank you, Father, for all that you have done for us. In His name, Amen.