This year I have had the opportunity to look at one of my favorite chapters of the Bible in depth. At my youth group, we spent Term 2 looking at 1 Corinthians 15, in the middle of the year I got to run a workshop for a Christian university camp on 1 Corinthians 15 and then last Sunday I got to preach on it.
Below is more or less what I said (warning: long post ahead). It does take parts from earlier posts on this blog, but I don't think it is against the law to re-use material. It may be easier to listen to this. The audio for this talk is online here.
The importance of the resurrection
At Youth Group we check in all the kids via a computer to keep track of attendance. Normally mine or Hannah’s laptop is used for this. One-time, last term Hannah’s friend Facebooked messaged her while check-in was taking place. The message was “Can you help me, I promise to read any chapter of the Bible you tell me to”. That is kinda the relationship Hannah has with this friend of hers. There was a senior boy[1] who was helping with check-in and he saw the message come up. Hannah asked him, “So what chapter would you tell your non-Christian friend to read?” Before I tell you his answer, what would your answer be? What chapter of the Bible would you get your non-Christian friend to read? What would you want to tell them? A Psalm? Something from the Gospels? John 3 maybe?
Without skipping a beat this senior boy said, “1 Corinthians 15 - if you don’t have the resurrection you’ve got nothing”. I think he was right on the money. As Paul says at the start of this chapter, if there was no resurrection then preaching is useless, your faith is in vain, Christians would be lying about God, we would all still be in our sins and we as Christians who believe this stuff should be pitied by others. If Jesus didn’t rise from the dead then Christianity is false and I don’t want a part of it.
Because Jesus rose from the dead on Easter Sunday, we can have confidence that we too will rise from the dead. On that first Easter morning, Jesus had a real physical, material body, and we too will have a real physical, material body built for a new earth, a new creation[3] which is going last forever.
Jesus' resurrection is the nail in the wall in which the painting of Christianity hangs. You take out that nail and it all falls and smashes to the ground.[4]
Jesus is the first fruit and future hope
We are told in our passage that Jesus is the first fruit. Some people get tied up in the nuances of what it means for Jesus to be the first fruit. Is it an Old Testament reference to Jesus being an offering to the Lord? or is it kinda like with olives when the first batch was meant to be the ripest and tastiest? All this could be true, but what I think really stands out with Jesus being the first fruit is that he is first. There is an order and Jesus is first.
If someone shows you their lemon tree and points out the first lemon on it, you would be silly to say “I wonder what fruit is going to come next”. The lemon tree will only produce lemons. The next fruit after the first one, also will be a lemon, and here Paul is saying the same thing. Jesus rose again from the dead and so will we. There is an order. Things happen in their own turn.
First Christ, the first fruit has already risen, then we will rise and then we are told lastly the great enemy to be destroyed is death (v26).
Having this belief about the order of things should affect our behaviour today. What we believe about the future affects our behaviour now. Paul points out in verse 29 that what the Corinthian church is doing with this strange practice of baptising for the dead assumes there is a resurrection. Their belief in the future is affecting their behaviour today. Paul also points out in verse 31 that the way he lives his life, how he is facing hardships and toil doesn’t make any sense if he didn’t believe in the resurrection. Why bother facing all the grief and pain if there is nothing gained, that would be meaningless. If you don’t believe in life after death, it is just life now and death later.
Having a future hope, one bigger than death, one in the assurance of who we are in Christ means we will live different lives to those under death. We have joy, we have confidence in the future, we have confidence that our lives have meaning and we live our lives here for God. Not worried about others opinions, not worried about our own status or identity but comfortable in knowing who our Father is and what He has done to save and rescue us. We are now a new creation where sin has no hold on us and has no relevance to us. Because of Jesus’ resurrection, we are told to stop sinning.
Now my debt is paidWe are to stop sinning, for we are now free from the curse of sin. Jesus’ resurrection proves it, we live now in this future hope.
It is paid in full
By the precious blood
That my Jesus spilled
Now the curse of sin
Has no hold on me
Whom the Son sets free
Oh is free indeed[5]
How we will be resurrected
Now, from verse 35 Paul shifts gears a little. After dealing with the fact that the resurrection happened Paul now turns to the how the resurrection will happen for us[6]. Paul could still be dealing with objections on the resurrection, cause in some sense it does sound really silly. The objector’s tone could be something like "Don’t you know that bodies decay when they die? Some people get decapitated, or burned what will happen to those bodies when your so-called resurrection happens? We all know that when bodies die, they only go one direction and they are not getting better"[7]. It doesn’t sound very reasonable at all. A modern-day skeptic may think that the Christian hope is built on nothing less than some B-grade zombie apocalypse.
But Paul shows, from the observable world around us that this is foolish talk. Like the fool in the Old Testament[8], the fool here has failed to take into account the creative power of God[9]. Paul shows the answer lies in how God has arranged the natural order of things and in the everyday events[10]. The fool only had to consider the miracle of the yearly harvest to recognise the creative power of God[11].
But they are also similar. Everything the plant becomes is already inherent in the seed[12]. The plant isn’t the rejection of the seed, but the fullness of the seed.
And so, the Christian hope of the new body is like that. The resurrection isn’t a reconstruction[13], God isn’t going to try and somehow put all the pieces back together again like we are some sort of Humpty Dumpty. No, our body will die and then we will rise again in a new body, for the new creation. Unless we are still alive when Jesus returns, then we are told that bodies will change “in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye” (v52).
Our current body is described as perishable, it is weak, it is natural. I have learned this a few times in my life, but most recently I broke a bone for the first time. At Youth in week 1 of this term I fell over out there is the ditch playing some running game. Like any Ozzie bloke, I sucked it up, took some Panadol and tried to sleep that night. And five days of Hannah putting up with me, she sent me to the doctors to have it checked out. He said my rib was broken and I got some stronger pain killers and continued to try and sleep for the next few weeks.
But our resurrected bodies won’t be like that. They will be imperishable and glorious. Our current bodies are like our first parent’s Adam who was from the dust. But our new bodies will be in the form of our older brother (Heb 2:11, Rom 8:29) the man of heaven, we will bear Jesus’ image in our new never-ending bodies.
It’s like there is a dress code for the new creation. In order to be admitted, you must be imperishable. The new creation will never end, so you must be fit for that as well. You too must have a never-ending body.
Death sucks
Be immortal. This is what fairy tales are about. At least we are always trying to avoid death. In 2013
And there 16 people[16] who have had their bodies cryonically frozen[17] in the hope to come back in the same body one day. These smart people don’t get it. If their plan even works out, at best, they will come back moral ready to die again. They are essentially defrosting a seed and not letting it grow into a plant. This is foolishness, but death does that to otherwise smart people.
Death makes otherwise smart people say some foolish things. When we lost our baby at 20 weeks the nurse told us that he had gone to be a star in the sky. No one believes that. A star is a massive ball of gas millions of lightyears away burning at millions of degrees. No one believes a baby turns into that, the nurse didn’t and I definitely don’t. What am I five?
I was at a funeral last month and it sucked. A lady my age went to bed on a Friday and didn’t wake up. I worked with her for 12 years, I drove her to and from work for many of them. She came to my wedding, I went to hers. At the funeral, another work college on our IT team said with great confidence to me that she will see her again. I asked her “how are you so sure?” and her response was “after my father died, I heard him speak to me” so she knows she will see them again. That’s the best this lady had. You hear this as well when any celebrity dies. People always say, regardless of their moral character, that they have gone to a good place, but they don’t know that. They have nothing to base that on.
I had another work mate say at the funeral he was going to meet us at the wake, but he never turned up. He couldn’t do it. He bailed because facing death is scary. You don’t want to fight death, he will always win.
I know it is not popular to talk about death because there is Netflix to watch, and muffins to eat and never enough time to spend with little children with big eyes[19], but death and our own mortality is certain. If you are not prepared to die today, can I urge you to think long and hard on your eternity... You can’t beat death -- but as Christians, we know a guy who did, who gives us His victory.
As Christians, we aren’t strangers with death. Our God came down into the human predicament and experienced it first hand and then rose again.
At the funeral last month, the sister gave one of the eulogies, she was 38 weeks pregnant and spoke of the plans she had with her sister after her baby would be born, and then in anger, she said: “It’s just not fair”. And she is right. Death is not fair. No matter what David Attenborough or The Lion King told you about the circle of life, death is un-natural[20]. We were not made for death. It is only because we share in the image of Adam that we die, but there will come a day when we will share in the image of Jesus.
In Term 2 I give the wrap up talk for the chapter we are looking at today. Two hours before I gave that talk, l learned that my neighbours lost their child at 26 weeks. What do you say? Where is the hope? Right now, death is devouring and swallowing people up and it sucks and it is sad and it is painful and it is terrible.
Death is not fair and something inside us should cry saying that it is not right. And right now, we are not in verse 54, we are not clothed in immortality, and death the great enemy is on the side sitting just off the stage ready to take us all.
I gave this hypothetical at Youth[21]. Pretend you are an alien from the planet Neptune. You are doing a PhD in agriculture. You are researching if Earth is suitable for farming. You are sent to Earth to do some firsthand research but due to the planet alignments and your research funding, you can only stay from April to August. You end up landing in Australian near Canberra. You spend your time looking around, examining plants, looking for fruit, going to orchards and then the mothership comes and takes you home.
And this is our world. Everything we see with our eyes tells us that death always wins and conquers everyone and everything. And we live like this, under death every day. We look both ways before crossing the road, we put a seatbelt on in the car, we mourn when yet another species is going extinct; we sometimes see doctors when we are sick, we hear news stories of people dying all the time[22]. But the resurrection says death doesn’t win, God wins. You and I know that the alien should have stayed just a little bit longer. They should have waited for Spring, as that is when the first fruits come and a massive harvest follows. As Christians, we need to have this mindset. The sun always rises after the darkness. Springtime always follows Winter.
The world says it is life now and death later. You have to grasp and experience and try because it is death later. You only live once, there is a fear of missing out so you have to experiment now, and don’t worry about the cost. You need to write your bucket list because when you're dead, you can’t do anything afterwards. But this passage is saying “no”. There is death now and life after.
The great final enemy of death will be killed. Death will die and we will rise again. When we put on the imperishable then we can taunt dead:
“O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (v56-57)God gives us the victory that Jesus achieved. Jesus rose from the dead and conquered sin and death and we get to share in that victory. On that day Death will not get a resurrection, we will.
Christians now may mourn, but we do not mourn as those without hope. Jesus felt the full sting of death and came out the other end. Jesus clothed Himself in death so we can be clothed in life. Death may hurt, but it is not fatal. We have hope. It maybe Winter but Spring is coming.
Your work in the Lord is not in vain
So, Paul ends this chapter on another imperative. In verse 34 we are told in light of Jesus’ resurrection to stop sinning, here in verse 58 we are told in light of our resurrections we are to use our present bodies for the work of the Lord.
As a Christian, we are called to not sit around and wait for Jesus to return. God’s plan to save the world didn’t stop at you. If you are a Christian, you are saved from God’s wrath and your sin and death. But you are also called to something. What we do in this present world really matters. If there is going to be a continuation of who we are now and who we will be in the future then this present life is important and this world is not irrelevant[24]. Our life in this world sets out the opening chapters for a story that will not end[25].
Paul reminds the Corinthians as he did at the start of this chapter to stand firm, to let nothing move them. In verse 1 they have taken their stand in the gospel and in this last verse they are to remain steadfast in that belief. Then there is the encouragement for them, and us, to do the work of the Lord because it is not in vain.
What I think “the work of the Lord” is, is something Paul has already mentioned in the last chapter (1 Cor 14:12). In 14:12 Paul tells the people to use their gifts to build up the church. That is what “the work of the Lord” is. I think the work of the Lord is anything that contributes to building up the church[26].In other parts of the Bible we are definitely told to do good works (Eph 2:10, 2 Tim 2:21, 3:17, Titus 2:7, 14). Read Titus 3. Three times in that chapter we are told to do what is good. But I think “the work of the Lord” is a little bit more specific. I don’t think it only means we are to speak the Gospel to others, to pray and read our Bibles, it sure includes that, but it is also broader. As one commentator said doing the work of the Lord probably includes anything that would be done because you are committed to Christ, especially something that takes effort[27] which a non-Christian wouldn’t do.
Or as another person puts it:
Every act of love, gratitude and kindness; every work of art or music inspired by the love of God and delights in the beauty of his creation; … of course every prayer, all Spirit-led teaching, every deed which spreads the gospel, builds up the church, embraces and embodies holiness rather than corruption, and makes the name of Jesus honoured in the world—all of this will find its way, through the resurrecting power of God, into the new creation which God will one day make.[28]And the work you do in building up the church is not in vain. I don’t know if you are in some sort of organised ministry. You may have had an off night and at the end of it all you think “what was that all about? Did we even do anything of value?”. I have had nights like this. Or you may meet one-on-one with someone - and in your last session you didn’t stay on topic, the conversation was only surface level and you think “What good was that? What was achieved?”
But here Paul is saying, that the work and labour, the time and effort you put into spurring others to love and good deeds (Heb 10:24), encouraging others to show the fruit of the Spirt (Gal 5:22-23), pointing people to Christ, building up the Church, as you disciple others... all of that is not in vain.
It’s not in vain because building up the church is never in vain. Now I don’t mean St Matts when I say church, I mean the border church, Church with a capital C, the collection of saints that God has redeemed, that God has saved to be His people. Jesus said that the gates of Hades, which is the place of the dead, will not stand against the church (Mat 16:18). The Church is going last till Jesus returns and then forever and ever and ever. The Church has overcome the place of the dead, because we follow a guy who rose from the dead. We follow a guy who conquered death, who walked out of the grave and is now seating at the right hand of the Father for us.
We are now free to live a life under Him, in the confident hope, in the rock-solid confidence that we will rise from the dead. Not because we are great, but because Jesus is great and we get His victory. So, we now live lives investing in the building of the Church, using our gifts in many and various ways, not for ourselves but for each other and the lost. If you want a life not wasted, then invest in the building of the Church, because the Church is going to last forever. As you live like this you will impact people’s lives as you encourage, edify and evangelise others. To push the seed/plant theme: You could be like a sun flower in a courtyard of an old people’s home, you can mean things to people on a daily basis[29].
I’ll finish with this. A few years ago, now two people I knew died within weeks of each other. One was a legal academic who had been at ANU since the 1960’s. He was an expert in the Australian Constitution. At one time his text book was the definitive guide to the Constitution. When he died, he got a write up in the Canberra Times[30]. I once converted him… to use a PC instead of a mac. That seems hardly important now.
Another guy I knew died just after this academic. This guy was given two years to live but he didn’t make half that. During this time his body deteriorated and he lost the ability to walk. He was a Christian and in this time I received a few emails from him. He was a guy who knew how to die well. A month before he died, he said that “at the base of God’s promises to His people, is God Himself, this gives us the courage and sense of purpose in using the gifts God has given us in building up his Church and the opportunity in extending His Church on earth until the Day of Christ’s glorious return”. He got it.
This guy was not given a write up in the paper, but I do know that his name was in the only book that mattered, the Book of Life. I have rock solid confidence that on the Last Day he and I will rise in glorious bodies... and walk.
Prayer
Heavenly Father,
we thank you for the certain hope we have in our victory,
which we have received because of what Jesus, the firsts fruits, has done for us.
May we now live our lives in seeking to encourage, edify and evangelise those around us,
to build up your Church,
to make your name great,
as we await the new creation with our new bodies,
where we will be with you forever.
Amen
[1] I told this senior boy I was using this story as my into to my talk and so he and his parents came to the 8am service to hear it!
[2] I took the “flip the script” line from Voddie Baucham (19th Nov 2006) The Reign of the King over Death (1 Cor 15:1-11) I downloaded this talk years ago but I couldn’t find it online anymore
[3] Rory Shiner (2011), one of his talks from Engage 2011 (Katoomba Easter Convention)
[4] Jonny Gibson, Courage in Death (KEC2014)
[5] Man of Sorrows (2013), Hillsong
[6] Fee, Gordon D. The First Epistle to the Corinthians (NICNT), p779
[7] Rory Shiner (2011), one of his talks from Engage 2011 (Katoomba Easter Convention)
[8] Fee, Gordon D. The First Epistle to the Corinthians (NICNT), p780
[9] Garland, David E, 1 Corinthians (Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament), p729
[10] Fee, Gordon D. The First Epistle to the Corinthians (NICNT), p780
[11] Taylor, Mark, 1 Corinthians (The New American Commentary)
[12] Rory Shiner (2011), one of his talks from Engage 2011 (Katoomba Easter Convention)
[13] Wiersbe, Warren W. Be Wise (1 Corinthians), p170
[14] Google vs Death (Sep 30, 2013)
[15] N. D. Wilson (2013), Myth Wars: C.S. Lewis vs. Scientism
[16] Cryonically preserved people - Walt Disney actually didn't get frozen.
[17] Not “cryogenically frozen” as the movies say, see here
[18] Taken from the movie Taken (2008). A few people enjoyed this reference
[19] I think the "small child with big eyes" bit was a refence to a line in Sarah Kay’s poem If I should have a daughter
[20] I think I took this off Driscoll, no idea where in particular
[21] Rory Shiner (2011), one of his talks from Engage 2011 (Katoomba Easter Convention)
[22] Hannah would like credit for this idea
[23] I really liked this line from Rory Shiner (2011), one of his talks from Engage 2011 (Katoomba Easter Convention)
[24] N. T. Wright, Paul for Everyone: 1 Corinthians, p228
[25] R. E. Ciampa and B. S. Rosner cited in Mark Taylor, 1 Corinthians (New American Commentary)
[26] Garland, David E, 1 Corinthians (Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament)
[27] Ciampa, Roy E. and Rosner, Brian S, The First Letter to the Corinthians (Pillar New Testament Commentary)
[28] N.T Wright cited in Orr, Peter (2013). Abounding in the Work of the Lord (1 Cor 15:58): Everything We Do as Christians or Specific Gospel Work? Themelios, 38(2), 206. This article is interesting. Peter Orr argues that the Wright quote I use doesn’t support his idea that “the work of the Lord” is edify and evaglise (I added “encourage” later to this set as rhetorically I think three e’s sound better), however, I take this Write quote (at least the parts I use of it) to land where Peter Orr does. Maybe I have missed something.
[29] I took this line from Rives' poem Compliment
[30] Constitutional lawyer Leslie Zines dominated Australian National University (June 20, 2014)
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