I want to do this final lecture in a kind of a reverse order, because at first glance, it may seem to you that as important as chapter 15 and to some lesser extent 16 may be, they're unrelated to everything that's gone before. It may seem that way to you. We've been talking about spiritual pride, an attitude that we have diagnosed as carnality, kind of spiritual carnality in the Church of Corinth, and the need over against that, the tremendous high priority that God has placed on love between the members of the Church of Jesus Christ.

Then all of a sudden, it seems like out of nowhere, he comes to this tremendous discussion of the resurrection of Christ. Fantastic teaching in and of itself, but how is it related to everything else that's gone before it? Is it just tacked on there? Well, one of the keys to dealing with scripture is that you'll almost never find that something is just plain tacked on. If it looks that way, you probably have missed something. And so dig a little bit deeper.

What I want to do is I want to come back to that. I want to start with chapter 16 and work our way back into 15 and then attempt finally to see how that's connected to everything that's preceded it. Again, tonight, because of the complexity of the material, I'm just going to be skimming along and leave you to do a careful reading verse by verse.

The final chapter of this letter of 1 Corinthians seems, at first, to be simply a matter of closing remarks, perhaps practical comments, typical of Paul. He usually ends with a lot of specific little details. Please tell so-and-so to do this. Make sure that that's accomplished. If you possibly can send me the books, I'd appreciate it.

And that sort of thing. That's there, for sure. There are some very specific, very practical kinds of comments here. I want to suggest to you there's something deeper. That in this final chapter, 1 Corinthians 16, you have four marks of the renewed church.

Four marks of the church that is operating under lordship. They're not the only four. It would be a fascinating study to try to put together what the renewed church, what the church under lordship would really look like, and go through all of the New Testament material. Michael Green did a lecture some years ago on the ten marks that he found in the Church of Antioch in the Book of Acts.

I find four in this final chapter. They're just sort of alluded to. You sort of have to distill out what is the principle involved. But the first paragraph, verses 1 to 4, he says, Concerning the contribution for the saints, as I directed the churches of Galatia, so you also are to do. On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up as he may prosper, so that contributions need not be made when I come.

And when I arrive, I will send those whom you accredit by letter to carry your gift to Jerusalem. If it seems advisable that I should go also, they will accompany me.

Very practical, very specific. But the principle there is that one of the marks of the church that is really operating under lordship is generosity in alleviating the needs of the saints.

Generosity in alleviating the needs of the saints. And look at the way that Paul assumes that will happen. It's not even debatable. This will happen. And I want you to get engaged in a regular program of giving. It is probable that it's from that paragraph that the church began the practice of collecting tithes and offerings as part of their Sunday worship. What he's saying is don't wait for the emergency. There will certainly be emergencies that come from time to time.

But don't wait for that. I want you to be laying up week by week, as you're able to, monies that would be used beyond your borders. Not just for your own people, but beyond your borders. He's talking to the church in Corinth, and specifically mentions the needs of the church in Jerusalem, which in a certain sense is the mother church. The mother church was in trouble. There was a famine going on.

We can read about that elsewhere. I won't go into details. But he's saying at least two things involved in this generosity. One is a regular program, not just responding to urgencies, and two, a concern that reaches beyond the local community.

Secondly, a second mark of the renewed church is what I'd call partnership in missionary outreach.

So that overlaps the first one. Meeting the needs of the saints may be a kind of an outreach program, but it goes beyond that. They're already members of the fellowship. He now speaks of specifically evangelistic or missionary outreach, and he involves himself with hospitality to the visiting firemen who may be coming through, the traveling itinerant preacher, the apostles and the prophets and the evangelists who are going around the countryside. And implicit in that is a principle of responsibility for undergirding their work.

He says, verse 5, I will visit you after passing through Macedonia, for I intend to pass through Macedonia, and perhaps I'll stay with you or even spend the winter so that you may speed me on my journey. Isn't that interesting? He's saying, may I come? Please, would you issue me an invitation? I'll be there. and you will put me up you know whether it's a weekend or a month or the whole week

no discussion I assume that's part of the package for I do not want to see you now just in passing I hope to spend some time with you if the Lord permits but I'll stay in Ephesus until Pentecost and I love this verse underline this verse for a wide door for effective work has opened to me comma, not but, he doesn't say but, he says man.

There are many adversaries. Two things go together. A wide door for effective work and many adversaries. Wherever there's a wide door for effective work, there are going to be adversaries. Where it's a narrow door for very ineffectual work, Satan's got much better things to do.

Where there's a wide door for effective work, he'll henchmen. Implicit in there, he's inviting them to own a sense of responsibility for undergirding that effective work and for standing with him in prayer, in fasting, in whatever it takes, spiritual warfare against the adversaries. So the second principle then goes beyond the sharing of needs to the specifically missionary or evangelistic outreach.

And it is a mark of owned responsibility, shared responsibility.

He goes on, when Timothy comes, see that you put him at ease among you, for he's doing the work of the Lord as I am. Not only Paul is going to be welcomed, but so is Timothy. So let no one despise him. We know from Paul's letters to Timothy he was a young man, and it was sometimes hard for people to accept the authority of this young man. He encourages both Timothy and Titus not to let anybody overlook their authority.

Speed him on his way in peace that he may return to me for I'm expecting him with the brethren. As for our brother Apollos, I strongly urged him to visit you with all the other brethren, but it was not at all his will to come now. He will come when he has opportunity, not when you invite him, but when he's ready. He will come and you will put him up. You begin to sense of the relationship.

Then we come to a third mark, and I would call it a quality of love in all of our relationships. And he just mentions this, but we'll see, again in context, how absolutely central it is. He says, be watchful, stand firm in your faith, be courageous, be strong, and let all that you do be done in love.

But all that you do be done in love. Be watchful. Sounds like James, doesn't he? Be sober, be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, is prowling around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. He says, be watchful. You know, you're going to come under attack.

Stand firm. Stand firm in your faith. Be courageous. Be strong. But the overriding principle here in the midst of all those other attributes is let everything you do be done in love. And that comes right out of what we've been seeing, the high priority of love amongst the brethren.

So quality of love in all of our relationships. And then fourthly, eager submissiveness to godly leadership.

Eager submissiveness to godly leadership. And that's how he ends the whole book. Now, brethren, you know that the household of Stephanus were the first converts in Achaia, and they have devoted themselves to the service of the saints. I urge you to be subject to such men and to every fellow worker and laborer. I rejoice at the coming of Stephanus and Fortunatus and Achaia, because they have made up for your absence, for they refreshed my spirit as well as yours. give recognition, give honor to such men.

Anybody remember where we met Stephanus before?

Paul mentioned him in the first chapter as one of the very few people that he had personally baptized. He said, I was not one who exercised the ministry of baptism for the most part, with one or two exceptions. And Stephanus was one of the exceptions. He mentions him in chapter 1 and verse 14. And I just find that an interesting aside. You know, you can sort of sense the pride that Paul has to be feeling that one of those few people with whom he had that personal, in-depth ministry has now attained to such godly leadership that he can be commended as one to be honored within the fellowship.

It's no greater pleasure for one called into the ministry than to see those whom he has discipled moving into that kind of position. So those four marks, as I say, they don't exhaust the picture by any means. But any church that doesn't have these four characteristics, I would have to indict as being less than fully renewed, less than fully yielded to the lordship of Christ. Generosity in alleviating the needs of the saints, partnership in missionary and evangelistic outreach, a quality of love in all of our relationships, and an eager, get that, an eager submissiveness to godly leadership.

I suspect that's the one we have the hardest trouble with these days. Because everything in our society is talking about our rights. Who's going to tell me? Nobody's going to lord it over me. Nobody's going to presume to tell me what to do. We've just come through what's been called the me decade. And we really need to come to grips with it. It's a willing and eager submissiveness to godly leadership. I note that all four of these characteristics, when you stop to think about it, are directly antithetical to that spirit of arrogance and pride and self-sufficiency

and glorying in my gifts and my insights and my ministry, whatever it might be, they're the exact opposite. You can't have any one of those four except from the operation of the Holy Spirit in precisely the fashion that we've been studying these last several weeks.

Now notice the last verse of chapter 15.

Because he comes to a summary statement regarding the resurrection and that there's a transition comment now into these closing remarks. And the verse says, Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. Now in Paul's mind, whatever he has to say in chapter 15 is going to be the foundation out of which this pattern will emerge.

Or, if you like, we've called it for the purposes of entitling this talk, chapter 15 is going to be the root out of which grows the fruit of chapter 16. So it becomes very important to watch that, doesn't it? Let's back up then

and take a look at chapter 15 in some detail.

Now I would remind you, brethren, in what terms I preach to you the gospel which you receive, in which you stand, by which you are saved, if you hold it fast, unless you believe in vain. Quite a sentence. You might like to diagram that.

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, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve, then he appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.

For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God which is with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we preach, and so you believe.

This is what is called in theological terms the kerygma, the summary statement of the gospel, the absolute bare minimum facts of the gospel.

You may recall from the very first lecture on this book that 1 Corinthians was written around 56 A.D.

and that Paul had previously visited the city of Corinth, and we dated that during his second missionary journey, which would put it in 49 AD. Now notice what he says here, I delivered to you, that is to say, when I was there before. What I'm now writing, I previously said to you verbally. When I was in your midst, this is what I preached.

All right? So we can date that. This is what I was preaching in 49 A.D. But notice that he goes on to say, what I delivered to you I also received.

From the other apostles, the original 11, after Judas had killed himself, the 12, it was still called the 12, even though there was one missing, and by direct revelation from the Lord himself. You might want to read again Galatians chapter 1 as Paul outlines the fact that he received this gospel by direct supernatural revelation from God. But then it was also confirmed in meeting with the eleven, with the other apostles.

So now notice what he's saying. He's saying, here's a summary of the gospel written in 56 A.D. But it's the same gospel that I preached to you in 49 A.D. But that's the same gospel that I received from others probably around 40 A.D.,

which puts it back within about seven years' time of the death of Jesus. You see what we're saying? There is no time for development,

as is sometimes charged. That the thing changed and distorted on down through the generations. Absolutely not. The bare kerygma, the essential facts of the gospel were in this form at the very earliest. As far back as you care to go, this is the way the gospel was preached. And if you want to state the summary, it comes down to a very, very simple statement.

That in accordance with the prophecies of the Old Testament, or as the Jews would have called it, with the prophecies of Scripture, in accordance with the prophecies of Scripture, One, Christ died for our sins. Two, he was buried. And three, he was raised again on the third day. That's the gospel.

We can't get it more simply than that. That's the gospel. In accordance, this is the fulfillment of the whole prophetic expectation. This is the fulfillment of the whole Old Testament hope. You can go all the way back to the third chapter of Genesis. the fall of Adam and Eve and in the midst of pronouncing judgment on them God also promises though it's not an entirely clear promise there's an obscurity to it but it becomes clear by retrospect that he will save them he will send the offspring of the woman who will bruise Satan's head even though he himself will be bruised in the process this is the fulfillment of all of that prophetic expectation and promise in accordance with the scriptures, one Christ died for our sins.

He was buried, and he rose again three days later.

I dwell on that because I think a lot of confusion surrounds all of this. Christians get a confusion between preaching the gospel, or as we might call it, doing evangelism, and what from a New Testament point of view would have to be called witnessing.

Let's make that distinction. Witnessing is sharing with somebody else what has happened to me. That's all I can witness to, is what I have personally seen, heard, or experienced. In a court of law, your eyewitness report concerns only what you can personally attest to having experienced. Witnessing is sharing what has happened to me. You know, I used to be this way, then I met Christ, and now I'm this way. That's my witness.

Okay? I was sinking deep in sin, far from the golden shore, you know, back to peaceful shore, whatever it is.

You can go to the peaceful shore, I'll go to the golden shore, all right?

And then Christ met me, and, you know, okay? That's my witness. That's not the gospel.

The gospel is not what happened to me six months ago or ten years ago. The gospel is what happened to Christ 2,000 years ago. Are you with me? Let's get that very clear. That's not to deny the importance or the function of witness. We are commanded. You know, you shall be my witnesses, right? We're commanded to share what has happened to us.

but what has happened to us is not the gospel. The gospel is what happened to Christ.

This is what I preached to you. I delivered to you what I also received. That, in accordance with the scriptures, Christ died. That's the gospel. Christ died for sins, was buried, and rose again. His rising again was God's imprimatur upon him.

Can you imagine Christ walking out of that tomb if he was not who he claimed to be? It was God's endorsement of his claims to being the Son of God incarnate in human flesh. Moving amongst us not only to reveal who God is, but to effect for us the reconciliation that overcomes our sin. That's what Christ claimed he was about. And he said the proof positive of that claim is destroy this temple, and he referred to his own body, and in three days I'll raise it up again. They didn't understand that at the time. You remember the incident.

They thought he was talking about the temple of Herod, which had taken 40 years to build, and they laughed at him. But John comments in a parenthesis, no, he was referring to his own body. My body, Jesus says, my physical human body is now the temple of the Holy Spirit. This is where God now dwells amongst men. Destroy this temple, and in three days I'll raise it up again.

They destroyed it, and in three days he raised it up again. That's the proof of the pudding. That's God's imprimatur upon Christ's claims. Notice the implication of that. just to tie this in again with all that we've been talking about in the last several weeks. If this is the gospel, this is what we better be trusting.

And if, as an alternative, you are trusting your insights, your gifts, your abilities, your ministry, all of the marvelous experiences that you've had, you may very well be missing the point.

You see what I'm saying?

You see how this ties in with the problem in Corinth? That here was a people who had heard the gospel but had somehow moved a little bit off of it and had become so infatuated with their own experiences of supernatural power that those were the things they were trusting. I speak in tongues. I prophesy. I see visions. I do miracles.

I can heal.

If that's the basis of my faith, if that's the basis of my hope, I'm in trouble. Because that's not the gospel. That may be related to it. That's not the gospel. The gospel is nothing that I've received in terms of an expression and a manifestation of the Holy Spirit. The gospel is what Jesus Christ has done for me as a totally unworthy sinner.

Are you listening?

Paul summarizes, then, in this passage, a series of resurrection appearances that took place with one exception during the 40 days after Easter.

He appeared first to Cephas, or Peter.

It must have been quite an encounter. We don't know anything about it except that reference. But you remember Peter, Lord, I'll go with you to death. Jesus says, you aren't going to make it till morning. And he doesn't. He doesn't make it till morning. What was that encounter like? Remember when the cock crowed?

When Peter remembered the words of Jesus and went out and wept bitterly. Jesus knew what I was like. He loved me anyway. Here I thought I'd make it. He knew I wouldn't make it. He loved me anyway. What was that?

When Jesus came and met face to face with Peter. He says he appeared to the twelve. Again, I remarked that's a summary statement. There were only eleven of them at the time. Judas had hanged himself.

He doesn't mention for some reason that unknown couple on the road to Emmaus.

He appeared to 500 brethren, more than 500 at one time. And this interesting comment, he says, most of them are still alive. Some of them have fallen asleep, some have died. But most of them are still alive. You can go and check. You can see what it's like. Now, you don't go and make a claim that somebody appeared to 500 brethren, most of whom are still alive, if he didn't appear to those 500 brethren.

In fact, there's a fascinating footnote to the whole business. You remember that Jesus had told them to wait until they were endued with power from on high? You remember? In the city of Jerusalem? And how many were waiting in the upper room?

120. What happened to the other 380?

we don't know we don't know but what we do know is that after the day of Pentecost when the apostles finally got up and got moving and started out to evangelize the world in town after town the proclamation of resurrection preceded them

take that they're sitting around for 40 days waiting for the Holy Spirit 380 guys didn't sit around went back home and said guess what I've seen a man come back from the dead when the apostles came into town people had already heard about him

that can be documented that's a fascinating footnote he says he appeared to James James was Jesus' half-brother the son of Mary and Joseph and James was not a believer but can you imagine growing up in the same household with Jesus, but not believing until the resurrection? Then he got convinced.

And then he says, last of all, not during the 40 days, but a considerable while after, he appeared as to one untimely born, also to me.

If you trace that first chapter of Galatians and also much of 2 Corinthians, it seems to me that this is Paul's principal claim to his own apostolic authority. Namely, that Jesus Christ appeared to me in a resurrection appearance even though it was not during that 40-day period when he was with some regularity appearing to the apostles and disciples. Paul is saying, I too became an eyewitness after the fact. And a lot of scholars have suggested that it was, in fact, God's intention that Paul be the one to take Judas' place, rather than Matthias, who was elected with no word from God that they ought to do so in Acts chapter 1.

That's another whole discussion. We'll leave that.

The appearances, these many appearances over this period of time, are demonstrable proof of the claims of Christ.

The sufficiency and acceptability to God of his sacrifice

and the triumph of redemption over sin, death, and dissolution. That's the absolute centrality of this. We're not talking about a fable. We're not talking about a fairy tale. We're not talking about a philosophy that some scholars got together and cooked up in some ivy tower somewhere. Nobody was more surprised than this little band of frightened apostles when Jesus appeared back to them. He absolutely shattered their worldview. They figured it was all washed up.

And he comes back and presents himself alive. That is the rock bed foundation stone on which the New Testament is built. If Jesus didn't walk out of the grave alive Easter morning, then you can kiss the whole thing goodbye.

And Paul says he appeared. He appeared not just once, not just to some superstitious women. He appeared over and over again to groups of varying sizes over a period of time. He even appeared after the fact to me. 500 people saw him in one place at one time and you can go and ask them and you can't do better than that, friends. An eyewitness report has got to be considered innocent until proven guilty.

You search the New Testament I don't think you'll find room for the accusation that is so often made that it was somehow exaggerated. It's either a fact as stated or it is a blatant lie. It is a conspiracy. and a lie, or else it's exactly as they claim.

In the next paragraph, he develops an argument

that if Christ has not been raised,

if this is not true, if we're either lying or somehow there has been some colossal deception,

if Christ has not been raised, then seven things follow.

Let me just summarize this quickly. Number one, our preaching is in vain.

Without this, our preaching is just a pretty fairy tale at best, or a hopeless self-contradiction at worst. There is no Christian message apart from the resurrection.

Two, your faith is in vain. Without this, you might hope that God is loving and forgiving. You might hope that Jesus is his son. You might hope that heaven awaits. You might hope that there's justice in the universe or meaning and significance to existence, but it's an empty hope. You have no basis for believing any of those things. You can spin out your own fantasy in as many different directions as you like, but you have nothing to substantiate it.

If the resurrection is not true, Christianity doesn't hang on anything. It just collapses. Number three, and most devastating of all, if Christ is not raised, then we, who claim he is, are misrepresenting God. Think about that.

The God whose very essence is unqualified holiness.

about whom to utter falsehood is blasphemy punishable by death.

The God who says, I, the Lord your God, am one God, and I will share my glory with nobody else.

And we come along, we apostles, and we claim that that God has, in fact, shared his glory with a human being named Jesus, because that human being, believe it or not, is God.

and the reason we claim that is that he came back from the dead now if that's not true

we're misrepresenting God and that's blasphemy

sometimes you hear people say that the apostles exaggerated a little bit in order to make their real message more palatable more believable have you ever heard that said? that they exaggerated it You know, they embellished the story a little bit in order to make people more ready to believe the message of Jesus.

But think about that. What that says is that the message of Jesus is not his claim to divinity, but the message of Jesus is something else, a way of life, an ethic, the golden rule, if you will, the Sermon on the Mount. The thesis is the apostles embellished the story of resurrection in order to claim that Jesus was in fact a divine figure so that people would believe his real message, which was to love your neighbor as yourself, to love God, and so on.

What they're saying is that in order to get people to believe his real message, they blasphemed against God.

And his real message, when you strip away the claim to divinity, turns out to be nothing but straight Judaism, which everybody believed already. That seems a great deal of effort.

Can you imagine going to all the effort of concocting this incredible story, facing persecution and in most cases martyrdom, in order to get people to believe a message which they already believe?

That's absolutely beyond belief. We're actually misrepresenting God, for we claim that he raised Christ from the dead. Fourthly, if Christ has not been raised, then the dead are not raised.

You only go around once in this life, so grab all the dust all you can.

That's all there is. There ain't no more. The dead are not raised. If Christ isn't raised, there isn't any resurrection. Forget it. Fifth, if Christ is not raised, then you, you are hearers, you Corinthians, you believers, you Christians, you, sorry about it folks, are still in your sins.

There's no atonement, there's no forgiveness, there's no reconciliation.

Sixth, those who have already died are utterly dead.

They're gone. That's a little bit stronger than saying that they're not raised. That goes a step beyond that. He's saying they're not. Period. That's it. They're gone. They're a fading memory. The tail end of the smile on the Cheshire cat. They're all gone.

And seventh, he says, If Christ has not been raised, then we of all men are the most to be pitied. Why? Because we have forsaken everything. We have risked everything. on the assumption that he has been raised. As a matter of fact, on the experience of seeing him come back from the grave. But if that's false, then we've risked and given up everything for nothing.

And as I've already said, they did that literally. They were thrown out of the synagogues. They were thrown out of their families. They were cut off from the political process. They suffered persecution lifelong, and almost every single one of them paid for his confession with his life. He was crucified upside down. John was boiled in oil.

Paul himself was almost certainly beheaded.

We're of all men, most to be pitied if Christ has not been raised. Can you imagine anything more foolish than staking our lives, our futures, and our hopes for eternity?

on the idea that a man has come back from the dead if he hasn't come back. What a pitiful bunch of apostles.

But, verse 20,

in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead.

But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead and therefore the opposite of every one of those seven statements is true.

And Paul develops this final argument

that since Christ has been raised from the dead, then all those who have joined themselves to him, or Paul's language, who are in him by faith shall be made alive.

For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. That's not all, meaning every human being, but all those who are in him, all those who belong to him, all those who have put their trust in Christ. All those who are in him shall be made alive if he's alive. Now let me ask you a question.

Are you alive in Christ?

Who said hallelujah? Paul thinks he's alive in Christ. Are you alive in Christ?

Not quite absolutely. Yes and no is the answer. Let's look at what follows.

All shall be made alive, verse 23, but each in his own order. Christ the first fruits, then when?

Then at his coming, those who belong to him. Then comes the end when he delivers the kingdom of God the Father after destroying every rule and authority and power, for he must reign until he's put all his enemies under his feet and the last enemy to be destroyed is death, and so on. Are you alive in Christ? The answer is yes and no. Yes, certainly. Yes, certainly, and the whole New Testament bears witness to it, we have begun to be alive in Christ.

But no, not fully. Not perfectly and not finally. There is a final redemption to which we look with great joy and expectancy. When He returns, then those who belong to Him shall come fully alive as he is alive. You see that?

This is the key to this 15th chapter. Don't miss it. At his coming, we receive the fullness of life. And then comes the end. There's an order of things here. He destroys all his enemies. Last of all, he destroys death itself. And then he goes on to say he subjects himself, Christ subjects himself, and all of us who belong to Him, to the Father, in the final verse of the paragraph, God becomes everything to everyone.

Verse 28. Or in the King James Version, that God may be all in all. See the order of things there. We're going to pull this all together in just a minute. I need to comment on the next verse, which is a very difficult one. Verse 29. Otherwise, what do people mean by being baptized on behalf of the dead?

If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized on their behalf? And so on. He goes on for the paragraph about all that. I would just caution you not to try to create a theology on that paragraph. We don't know what he's referring to. What he is clearly doing is referring to something he's not commending. He's not saying that you ought to be engaged in baptism on behalf of the dead. He simply says some people are. It appears to us, our best guess is, that that probably refers to a practice which was very short-lived of people getting baptized on behalf of those who had already become converts but for some reason had not yet undergone Christian baptism.

In the early church there was a fairly lengthy period of preparation for baptism. And you can imagine that somebody might have become a convert, begun the process, entered into discipleship and learning and so on, and then for some reason died before they got there. It appears that there was for a very short while a practice of being baptized on behalf of such people. Paul is not commending that. The practice did not continue, and we mustn't construct a theology on it. All he's doing is referring to that as yet one more indication of the fact that people did anticipate resurrection from the dead. Otherwise, why would they bother?

Do you see that? Okay. Let's move on to the final part.

Verse 35, and the rest of the chapter.

But someone will ask, how are the dead raised? with what kind of body do they come, you foolish man? What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body which is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. But God gives it a body as he is chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body. For not all flesh is alike, but there is one kind for men, another for animals, another for birds, another for fish.

There are celestial bodies and terrestrial bodies. The glory of the celestial is one, the glory of the terrestrial is another. There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, another glory of the stars, for star differs from star in glory. Paul waxes eloquent at this point.

The point,

the point.

What was raised when Christ was raised?

What was raised when Christ was raised from the devil?

I'm asking you. What was raised?

His physical body. His physical body, which had begun the process of deterioration. It had begun to rot. You remember the women who came? They said, he's going to be smelling.

His physical body was raised.

But then why are we collectively called the body of place?

That's the imagery that he's used all the way through this book. Especially in the immediately preceding section. We are the body of place. What was raised? His body was raised. What was raised?

We're united to him by faith, right? But how? How are we united to him?

To his humanity? To somebody else?

To the spirit. We are now related to him spiritually. We are united to him in spirit. He has already given those who belong to him a new spirit.

Or, if you like, the Holy Spirit has regenerated our spirit. Our union with Christ at this point is a union of spirit. We are related to him, we're united to him by virtue of the Holy Spirit making us one with him. But, that isn't the whole story. We will be united to him even physically. When our redemption is complete. When, as John says, we see him as he is, we'll become like him.

When he returns, we'll see him as he is and we'll be like him. We'll be united to him physically as well as spiritually. We will share fully in the resurrection redemption. that's the final piece of the puzzle that doesn't mean we're an extension of his fingers that means that we become for the first time fully and perfectly what we have been confessing about ourselves by faith all along namely we are cells in a living body

totally yielded to his headship do you remember I asked the question some weeks ago if Jesus Christ is the head of the body how come the body is spastic huh because there's some barrier in our yieldedness because there's some area that we're holding back we're not fully relinquished do you see what Paul is saying when Jesus Christ returns the dead are raised those who are still awaiting at that time will undergo a change at that point their redemption will be complete it will include their physical bodies, we will physically become part of His cosmic body.

United to Him not only spiritually, but indeed physically. What was raised when Christ was raised? His body was raised. But we are His body.

I see you struggling.

Do you see the image? You take a grain of corn and you plant it in the ground. What happens? It looks like it's deteriorating. It looks like it's dead. The husk falls off, begins to shrivel up. It looks like it's all over. But it isn't all over.

It begins to grow. It sends down roots. It begins to come up in a green shoot. And after a while more, it begins to produce more corn. Now what is produced? Has one grain of corn become many corns?

Or has it become much of the same?

A little corn has become much corn. Right? A little wheat becomes much wheat.

A little rice becomes much rice.

You with me?

A little Christ becomes much Christ.

You see what we're saying?

Christ died, went into the ground. Looked like it was all over, deteriorated. It wasn't all over. He reproduces himself. We become literally part of that one new man.

Cells in his body. Totally yielded to his headship. Totally available to the Father in a way that none of us have ever done. The church has never experienced this yet fully, perfectly. That's when redemption is absolutely complete. Okay? What's begun on a spiritual level, yes, we have received new life.

Yes, we do live in him, but it's incomplete. It's only in the spirit. It's going to absolutely include even our physical frame. It's going to be renewed. We're going to have bodies like his body so that it's as one new cosmic creation that Christ submits himself to the Lordship of the Father and all of us with him.

That's not a denial of personality. That's a fulfillment of it. Turn one page and look at 2 Corinthians, the first chapter. Verse 22, he says this, He has put his seal upon us and given us his spirit in our hearts as a guarantee. Or in King James, as the earnest. the down payment same thing as in Ephesians 1

talks about the earnest or the guarantee the down payment verse 14 the Holy Spirit is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of his glory can I summarize all of this

it's not so much that your individual bodies will be raised. That is true. And praise God. But that's not the whole story. It's not just that our individual bodies will be raised, but that Christ's body will be raised.

Are you with me? You catch that distinction? Not just my little individual self, as important as that is to me. It's more important to me than it is to you. Not just my individual body,

but it's that my union with him is totally complete. That Christ's body is right.

And that leads to the final statement, which seems to me to be the piece that draws this whole book together,

that it's the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ as a single individual seed that begins to germinate and release the power for the body of Christ to be all that God calls us to be in Him.

Can I say that again?

It's the death. Remember, this is what I preached to you, Paul says. I delivered to you. This is the Gospel. This is the Kerygman. Do you remember right back at the beginning we said, I determined to preach nothing amongst you but Christ crucified. It is the death of Christ as an individual solitary seed.

The death of Christ, which began to germinate and reproduce itself, which releases the power of God for us corporately to be what we claim ourselves to be, the body of Christ in all that God calls us to be.

And that's what he's been calling us to, prophets of God. What is the answer to spiritual pride? What is the answer to carnality? What is the answer to arrogance? What is the answer to self-centeredness? What is the answer to short-sightedness? What is the answer to compromise? What is the answer to sin? What is the answer to the flesh? What is the answer to the world, the devil, to sin in the grave?

It's the death of Christ.

Effectively working in me, but more than in me, in all of us.

It's the power of God released in and through us because Christ died for our sins.

And when he was raised as an individual, that's only the first fruits. The redemption is complete when all of us come to share in that resurrection. And so the chapter ends.

It says in verse 51, Lo, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep. We shall not all die, in other words. Some of us will be alive when Christ returns. But we shall all be changed. In a moment. in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet for the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised imperishable and we shall be changed and this perishable nature must put on the imperishable and this mortal nature must put on immortality when the perishable puts on the imperishable and the mortal puts on immortality then

shall come to pass the saying that is written death is swallowed up in victory O death where is thy victory O death where is thy sting the sting of death is sin the power of sin is the law but thanks be to God who gives us the victory to our Lord Jesus Christ

extraneous to the whole argument you know an addendum haphazardly thrown on unrelated to the rest of the book no it's the very essence of it Paul says I would remind you my brethren of what terms I preach to you the gospel because the answer to absolutely every single specific issue that we've been talking about is to be found in the death of Christ.

Because the terms in which you believe that gospel, unless you believe it in vain, are the terms in which you're going to find your power for victory. Thanks be to them. He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Say hallelujah to that. Hallelujah.

let's stand and pray together

scripture says in verse 49 just as we have borne the image of the man of dust

we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven

Father in heaven we bow before you this night

we look back upon this book in all of its richness and complexity

it has rebuked us

it has challenged us it has encouraged us it has frustrated us

it's left a lot of questions unanswered

and yet two things at least emerge out of it

one is the incredible wonder of the redemption which we have already experienced in Christ

Lord we can't even begin to find words to thank you adequately for your love for us

thank you for your love for me thank you say hallelujah to you hallelujah

and then Lord our minds and hearts and spirits are stretched almost to the point of breaking as we try to consider that even greater wonder of the redemption which still lies ahead.

Of what it means to be so totally liberated from the power of sin, the power of the devil, the power of the grave, as to be absolutely one with Christ.

We thank you, Father. We can't imagine that.

and yet we're haunted by it. We recognize this to be your word. We recognize this to be the fulfillment of every dream that we have.

We anticipate it with electric gladness.

We thank you that in this Lord Jesus Christ we find the power to be what you call us to be. The mode of power to love each other as you'd have us love. To be transformed into that people, that body of Christ that you call us to be.

We look forward to that redemption in its completeness.

With a great sense of thanks to that.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Amen.

Thank you.