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On Tuesday we said goodbye to my Uncle Merv.
He died on his 98th birthday and I think in a way everyone was surprised.
We kind of thought he'd go on forever.
Merv was an institution.
For everyone else at the funeral, Merv had always been there.
Literally.
There was nobody older in the building.
But now he's gone.
After a long and in many ways impressive life, Merv Campbell has, as we so politely put it,
passed away.
Dead.
With that in mind, and I know for lots of us in the past few weeks there have been similar
close encounters with bereavement, there's been sadness and loss;
with that in mind, we come to 1 Corinthians 15, which is famous in the New Testament as
the resurrection chapter.
The chapter that focuses our hope;
on better things to come.
In a mental survey I conducted of Easter sermons I've preached and heard, 1 Corinthians 15
is the second most popular passage for Easter Sunday, after John chapter 20.
And interestingly, I think, it's most often preached as Paul's great argument for the
resurrection of Jesus: that hundreds of people saw him alive, who of course the Corinthians
could check with if they didn't believe it.
But the interesting thing is, and the angle I want to follow for a while this morning,
the interesting thing is that the Corinthians don't seem to need persuading of the death
and resurrection of Jesus at all.
When it comes to those things, says Paul, you already believe it.
This is bread and butter stuff.
They need convincing of the death and resurrection of us.
You said you believed this...
Here's the point.
He says right at the start of the chapter, I'm talking to you as people who have already
believed...
the gospel of Jesus.
Take it from verse 1.
"Now brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel, the good news...
the message I preached to you, which you received...
and on which you have taken your stand."
And verse 11 he says it again.
Doesn't matter who preaches it, this is what you believed.
Which is what?
That Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures.
Verse 3.
Literally dead.
A corpse.
But more than that.
That Christ was buried.
Verse 4.
Which is what you do with dead bodies.
And get this, this is what they've believed: that he was raised on the third day, alive!
That he appeared to Peter;
and then to the twelve;
Verse 6, after that, to more than 500 of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are
still living, though some have fallen asleep.
And again, the point is...
they believe that already.
That's not the problem.
You might be struggling to believe that, but the Corinthians weren't.
Then Jesus appeared to James.
Verse 7.
And finally, says Paul, to all the apostles.
And to me.
Last on the line.
And even if you Corinthians haven't taken any notice of a single thing I've said since,
he says this is what all the apostles preach.
And this is what you already believed.
Now here's the problem.
And here's I think the key to figuring out 1 Corinthians 15.
For us, 2000 and a bit years later it's stretching it to get our minds around believing Jesus
himself rose from the dead.
They've believed that.
What they don't believe...
is that they will as well.
So how is it, then in verse 12, how is it if you've already believed Christ was raised
from the dead, if you've agreed with that, how is it some of you can say there's no resurrection
of the dead?
If it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can you say there's no
resurrection of the dead?
Which is apparently what they're saying.
Which again, sounds like what a lot of people say today.
In fact, you'd have to say in spite of the kind of platitudes that get spoken at funerals
like she's in a better place now...
in spite of that kind of popular politeness, is what most Australians are thinking: that
there's no resurrection of the dead.
And yet I reckon - and this is just a theory, so you can take it as that - I reckon that
in Corinth it's something different.
Not that there's no resurrection of the dead because they're kind of cynical atheist disbelieving
types, but that they're right at the other end of the scale.
I wonder if it's the same kind of problem Paul's fighting over at Ephesus.
It's just a boat trip across Aegean Sea over in Ephesus.
Paul says to Timothy, there's a teaching that's spreading like gangrene.
He says there's a wrong teaching about the resurrection and it's spreading around and
it's destroying people's faith.
He says, stamp out the false teaching of Hymenaeus and Philetus who are saying the resurrection
has already happened, that if you're spiritual enough...
you've got it all already, and that some have missed out.
Hymenaues and Philetus saying, we're resurrection men...
already, and you're not.
We, in other words, have passed from death to life.
We, in other words, are so spiritual...
that there's nothing more to come.
We, in other words...
have even beaten death.
What a crazy inflated claim.
Which reminds me of the guy who said he'd trained his dog to go without drinking.
Which worked really well.
Except just when he was getting good at it, the stupid dog died on him.
Of course, you can only play the super-spiritual "I've got eternal life already" card until
something goes wrong with your body.
And it will.
There are people saying much the same today.
If you have enough faith, God will heal you.
My friend Dave McDonald as he battles with cancer, he says people are telling him that
constantly.
So the question is, of course, if that's always going to be the case, what will you die of
in the end?
Terminal lack of faith?
Does it mean when you do finally die...
you've somehow failed, and so it's your fault?
Maybe it's a genuine confusion.
They've heard that in the gospel there's the promise of eternal life.
That Jesus said, if you believe in me, you've passed from death to life.
And so their plan, and it's kind of a nice one, is that they won't get sick, they won't
get old and frail, they won't get hit by a falling meteor...
if they're faithful, they'll just keep living.
I wonder if that's what they're thinking?
My friend Carol, she was unconscious in intensive care with raging viral encephalitis;
a 23 year old, just married.
And the pastor from another friend's church was there saying to her husband, God wants
to heal her, if only she has enough faith.
Which was a lot to put on unconscious Carol.
And then when she didn't make it, a double load on her young grieving husband.
As if our confidence in eternal life means we're going to go on in this life now.
See, the point is it's only the kind of stuff you can say as long as things are going well
for you, isn't it?
And it's only the kind of stuff you can say in the first generation of Christianity.
Think back to their attitude in chapter 4.
They thought they had it all.
Remember Paul's words to them?
And his biting tone...
Vs. 8: "Already you have all you want!
Already you have become rich!
You have become kings - and that without us!
How I wish that you really had become kings so that we might be kings with you!"
He says, we apostles, we are fools for Christ.
You are so wise.
We are weak.
You are so strong.
We apostles, we're hungry, thirsty, in rags, homeless, working hard, cursed, persecuted,
slandered.
And you Corinthians...
apparently, or so you think in your easy lives, you're spiritual royalty.
Likewise, chapter 13, with their speaking in tongues.
Paul says, you think you're speaking in the tongues of angels when it would be far better
for everyone if you'd just speak so you could be understood, with love.
So maybe...
these super spiritual Corinthians are thinking to themselves...
we're fit for eternity already.
And odd as it sounds to our ears, their simple plan is, they'll just keep living, as they
are, because of their super spiritual faith.
Now one of the reasons I'm pushing that way as we look at the passage is the huge number
of times Paul emphasises that the resurrection he's talking about is actually the resurrection
of dead bodies.
It's resurrection of the dead.
The Greek word they use for corpses.
We're not just looking at a vague kind of idea of a wafting spirit resurrection.
And we're certainly not looking at a plan to just keep living.
14 times: every time bar 1 that he mentions resurrection it's resurrection of the dead;
resurrection from the dead.
13 more times he mentions bodies.
Physical bodies that are going to stand back up.
Like Jesus did.
Because they've died.
Like Jesus did.
The dead will rise, says Paul.
We'll stand again, with new and better bodies.
And we know that because of Jesus.
Read from verse 13.
"But if it's preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you
say there's no resurrection of the dead?""
If the dead are not raised...
if that's not what happens, if that's inconceivable, verse 13, "If there's no resurrection of the
dead, then not even Christ has been raised.
And if he hasn't been raised, then our preaching is useless, and so is your faith."
This is no small quibble.
If they're right;
then everything's out the window.
For if God isn't going to raise dead people, verse 16, then he didn't raise Christ either,
and your faith is futile, and you're still in your sins.
And those who have already fallen asleep in Christ...
because some have already died...
then if the dead are not raised, they're lost.
If only for this life we have hope in Christ, even if you're thinking that with enough faith
this life is going to last for ever...
even then, if only for this life we have hope in Christ, we're pitiful.
And pathetic.
And to be pitied more than all men.
Now it turns out that the Corinthians are actually inconsistent.
The Corinthians, in verse 29, they've started this bizarre custom of being baptised on behalf
of people who've died.
Which interestingly Paul doesn't critique because it's a dumb idea...
but because it's so inconsistent.
He says to them, you're saying when you're dead you're dead.
So why are some people getting baptised for the dead?
If the dead are not raised, how can than help?
Or what about us apostles, says Paul.
See, one thing you really need to do if you're convinced that your current flesh and blood
is the vehicle for eternity, then you'll really need to protect it, won't you?
Yet Paul says, we apostles, we endanger ourselves every hour.
We're reckless with our bodies.
Because we're confident, says Paul, that when the time comes we'll have new bodies.
We'll have resurrection bodies.
Not now, but then.
Paul stakes his life on the fact that there's more to come.
He stakes his whole life...
on resurrection.
Everything...
built on the fact that Jesus died and rose in the past.
And so he himself will die and be raised in the future.
Otherwise, says Paul in those famous words in verse 32, let's just party.
"If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink.
For tomorrow we die."
And yet, says Paul, we know the dead are raised.
Because we know what happened to Jesus.
We jumped over verse 20 to 28.
But it's the heart of the argument.
How can some of you say there's no resurrection of the dead when you look at what happened
to Jesus?
He's like the first ripe fruit on the tree.
Verse 20: "But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead...
the firstfruits, of those who have fallen asleep."
"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 will all be made alive.
but each in his own turn."
See, here's the point.
The Corinthians, it's like they're jumping the queue.
They've got things right out of sequence.
Stand back and wait your turn.
"But each in his own turn," verse 23, Christ the firstfruits...
then when he comes, then on the last day...
then...
those who belong to him.
And not, as you Corinthians might be thinking, any time before that.
Now is that good news?
Or is it bad news?
The good news is, you can live with a totally confident hope that if you belong to Jesus,
on the last day you'll be raised with him.
The bad news is, it's not yet.
And you're not immune as a Christian to the tyranny of death.
Not yet.
And if you pretend you are, if you take the view that with enough faith you get to bypass
anything tough...
like so many Christians will still tell you today...
you're missing the sequence.
See, ask the question as a Christian, "Has death been defeated?",
and the answer's got to be both yes and no hasn't it?
Yes Christ has.
No, we haven't.
And we're constantly living in that tension.
With the one thing marking us out as different is that we actually have reason for hope.
And so when we grieve, it's different.
Notice the time notes in verse 23 to 28?
It's all about then.
It's not about now.
"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."
And the last enemy, verse 26, the not yet destroyed enemy...
the last enemy that we just long to see destroyed...
is death itself.
At which point, then and only then...
everything will be wrapped up.
Restored.
And handed to back to the Father.
Mission accomplished.
No more tears.
No more death or mourning or crying or pain.
For the old order of things will have passed away.
What do we have now?
We have the firstfruits.
The promise of the harvest to come.
Hope.
Because of Jesus who really did die;
who really did take our sins on himself, and who really did rise.
Paul says, get the timing right.
Christ the first fruits.
Us later.
When tears and death are finally put aside.
When wrongs are finally righted.
When the perishable will finally, at last, in the end, be clothed with immortality.
Now that's the journey Paul takes us on from verse 35 to 58.
And it's quite a ride.
He says, but someone may ask, as I'm sure you might be inclined to, But how?
Paul, you're saying the dead will rise.
But how?
With what kind of body will they come?
Look, there are a whole lot of other questions I'd be asking as well.
Bryce Courtney said the other night, he's been diagnosed with terminal cancer, and he
says he wants to be buried upright in a cardboard box with a tree planted above it.
But I want to ask questions like, what if that's an apple tree?
What if your body rots and fertilises an apple tree and someone else eats the apples?
Then the atoms that made up your body...
become part of their body.
How's the resurrection body going to work out then?
Or if you're cremated and your ashes scattered?
What then?
What if your dad died aged 79 and you live to 85 and you're both raised: who's older?
Now Paul doesn't answer those questions.
But take a look what he does say.
Jesus was raised with a body.
So we'll be raised with a body.
A body that's somehow the same.
But somehow fundamentally different.
That somehow has atoms and molecules in it like the raised Jesus had...
who walked and talked and was seen;
who ate fish for breakfast.
Who said to Thomas put your finger in the nail holes.
And yet could somehow appear in a locked room.
Paul says, the resurrection body is as different to what we are now as the stalk of wheat is
to the seed.
How are the dead raised, verse 35 - "With what kind of body will they come?"
To which Paul says, there are all sorts of bodies.
You sow a seed.
It dies.
But something green and vibrant and very different comes out of it.
Just as God determines.
There are all kinds of flesh.
All different.
All kinds of planetary bodies;
with different kinds of glory.
So many different ways of being.
All put there by God.
What makes you think he can't do resurrection bodies?
And that's how it's going to be, verse 42.
The body sown is perishable.
It's temporary.
It's weak.
It's dishonoured.
In fact, it's all the things Paul has said before typify him as an apostle.
In contrast to the so impressive Corinthians.
Paul's going to wait for the resurrection for his glory.
And he's prepared to.
But he knows the dishonour and the weakness come first.
Whether it's in his cross shaped apostolic ministry or his physical death.
The body raised is imperishable;
it's sown in dishonour and weakness;
it's raised in glory and power.
Sown a natural body.
Raised a spiritual body.
Which he says follows on just like Christ followed Adam.
First we get Adam's body of dust;
then we get a heavenly body like Christ.
And just as we've borne Adam's likeness, verse 49, here's what we look forward to...
so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven.
Because in spite of what the Corinthians might think, in spite of what they might be claiming...
flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God.
Nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.
We're just not fit for it any more than you'd try driving your Diahatsu Charade across the
Nullarbor.
And so even if Jesus comes back while you're living, he says, you'll need to be changed.
Because the perishable, he says in verse 53, must be clothed with the imperishable...
and the mortal, it must be clothed with immortality.
And when that's done, he says, when that's happened, then and only then will the saying
be true...
that death has been swallowed up in victory.
In the meantime, death's still with us, even though the sting's been taken.
In the meantime, death's still there, even though Christ has died for our sins.
In the meantime, death's still there, even though we have the certain hope of resurrection
afterwards.
In the meantime, no matter how faithful...
we're still subject to sadness and decay and crying and pain.
Friends, do you struggle with that?
Do you expect better if you're faithful?
Paul says the thing that keeps marks us out isn't our Teflon coated glossy lives with
nothing going wrong...
it's our hope.
And the fact that even though we face death...
we know the sting is gone.
Because sin has been dealt with at the cross.
The judgment is gone, because it's been taken up by Jesus and been fully absorbed.
That the victory is and will be ours...
through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul's pushing for lives marked by real hope.
Not in the over-enthusiastic way that says this life's all going to be okay.
That says, Christians won't get sick or suffer or die.
That Christians won't be humiliated or disappointed or persecuted or even lose their lives like
the apostles.
It's not our hope to be freed from that.
But a hope that's summed up in those four words that he uses over and over again: resurrection
from the dead.
The hope that that resurrection for Jesus means one day, resurrection for his people
as well.
And the fact that if you're convinced that one man lay dead three days and then came
back...
then that's got to change everything.
If that's not true, eat, drink and be merry while you can.
Unshakeable.
Always giving ourselves fully to the work of the Lord...
because we know of all things, our labour in the Lord is not in vain.