15:1 Now I would remind you, brothers,1 of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.
3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8 Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. 9 For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 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 that is with me. 11 Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.
The Resurrection of the Dead
12 Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14 And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. 15 We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. 16 For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If in Christ we have hope2 in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.
Footnotes
[1]15:1Or brothers and sisters; also verses 6, 31, 50, 58 [2]15:19Or we have hoped
51 Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 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. 53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. 54 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.” 55 “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”
56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
15:1 Now I would remind you, brothers,1 of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.
3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8 Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. 9 For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 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 that is with me. 11 Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.
The Resurrection of the Dead
12 Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14 And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. 15 We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. 16 For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If in Christ we have hope2 in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.
Footnotes
[1]15:1Or brothers and sisters; also verses 6, 31, 50, 58 [2]15:19Or we have hoped
51 Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 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. 53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. 54 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.” 55 “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”
56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
Joel Brooks:
I invite you to open your bibles to 1st Corinthians chapter 15. First Corinthians 15. Some of you might be wondering why we're going to 1st Corinthians, when we've been in Revelation. Well, over the next 2 Sundays, we're going to be finishing up our series on first Corinthians and our series through Revelation. For those of you who haven't been coming to the church that long, you might not know that we were actually almost finished with our series in first Corinthians, and we stopped one one sermon short in order to do our series on revelation.
Joel Brooks:
But we decided to bring them back together and close both as a unit because this week, we are going to be looking at the resurrection of the body in first Corinthians 15. And next week in Revelation 21/22, we are gonna be looking at the resurrection of the earth. Resurrection of the body this week, resurrection of the earth next week. If you really wanna get ahead, after this, we're gonna begin a study on Ephesians that will take us into the new year. So first Corinthians chapter 15, we'll begin reading in verse 1.
Joel Brooks:
Now I remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as a first importance that 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 3rd day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the 12. Then he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time, most of whom were 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.
Joel Brooks:
For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by God's, but by the grace of God I am what I am. And his grace towards 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 that is with me.
Joel Brooks:
Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed. Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has been not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We're even found to be misrepresenting God because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised.
Joel Brooks:
For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those who also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. Go to verse 51.
Joel Brooks:
Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, 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. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable and this mortal body must put on immortality.
Joel Brooks:
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. Oh death, where is your victory? Oh 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.
Joel Brooks:
This is the word of the lord. Thanks be to god. If you would, pray with me. Father, we are gathered here for no other purpose than to lift up high the name of Jesus and to hear from him through the power of your spirit. So speak to us.
Joel Brooks:
Lord, my words are death, but your words are life. And we need life in this place. So I pray that, at this moment, my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. But, Lord, may your words remain and may they change us. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus.
Joel Brooks:
Amen. A couple of weeks ago, I was actually in Montana and I was hiking. And I was hiking all by myself. And, I decided to hike up to a place called the Silver Run Basin, which is in the middle of the Beartooth Mountains. And it took several hours to get up there, but it was this gorgeous basin.
Joel Brooks:
The snow was still there, and and I decided this is a great place to just stop and have lunch. And, so I'm sitting there fighting off mosquitoes, but I'm enjoying this great lunch. And I can see a guy, another hiker apparently had gone up there, and he was somewhat in the distance. He was about a 100 yards away or so, and so I waved to him. Or I did the guy nod thing.
Joel Brooks:
I mean, guys don't wave, you know. But at a 100 yards away, that's all he needed, you know, was the nod, nodded back, and we had a connection. So, so he walked over to me and we talked a little bit. And, just for a few minutes, and, I asked, are you are you gonna go all the way up to the plateau, which was several 1000 feet higher up? And he goes, yeah.
Joel Brooks:
I think I'm gonna do that. So that's great. I think I'm just gonna sit here, you know, and I'm I'm really enjoying my time here. And he looked he looked really athletic and fit and, so so he he went off. About 15, 20 minutes later, I'm eating my lunch and I'm just thinking and praying.
Joel Brooks:
And I just thought, why didn't I share the gospel with this guy? I mean, we're literally alone in the middle of nowhere in the wilderness. He's got no place to go. Why didn't I share the gospel? And I came up with a number of excuses, but I didn't have any answers.
Joel Brooks:
Perhaps that's how you feel a lot of times when you feel the holy spirit prodding you to share the gospel. You can give excuses, but not answers to why you're not doing this. And so I thought, fine. Okay. Alright.
Joel Brooks:
Lord, if you allow me to catch up to him, I'll share the gospel with him. But he's got a 15:20 minute head start, Lord. But if I could catch up to him, I'll share the gospel. And, and I'm looking at the trail, Mike, there's no way I'll catch up to him. So I have to go straight up the mountain.
Joel Brooks:
And I just look and I go straight up about 3,000 feet, and I'm on I'm on all fours most of this time. And I'm literally just killing myself. You almost did not have a pastor. But but I go and and I could look over in the distance and I could see him on the trail that was switch backing, and I I wasn't passing him. I mean, he was pretty athletic, but but we got there at the same time.
Joel Brooks:
And, he was surprised to see me. And so the first thing I said is, would do do you wanna sit down? And so we, we we we sat down and, we began a conversation into which he said he was a NFL player, played for the Cincinnati Bengals, and so or used to, which explained why he was flying. And I'm praying, Lord, give me give me an opportunity, give me just some opening for the gospel. And so he we're looking at this gorgeous view.
Joel Brooks:
It's about 10,000 feet up, and he and he says, oh, man, you know, we should just so Instagram this, If you're into the shallowness of those things, I'm like, shallowness, Instagram, I'm in with the gospel. I mean, I was just like, I mean, that's, that's all you need. If you believe that from Jesus, through Jesus, to Jesus are all things, really any topic is an entry into the gospel, and and that was just put up on a platter, just talking about, yes, the shallowness of man and our need to put up a fake mask, and because we really need a rock solid identity, and I mean, so I just jumped right in. I shared the gospel with him for hours. We just got to stay and we hide together and shared for hours.
Joel Brooks:
And, and he asked, you know, really good questions, made a whole lot of progress with this. And then he he brought up this After we've been going through all this, he goes, alright. Well, what about homosexuality? What about sex? What about all the divisions in the church?
Joel Brooks:
And he brought up all of these things. He's like, how can I believe with all that? Explain that. The re the reason I share this is because Paul is anticipating these questions. He's anticipating these questions as he's bringing bringing this letter to a close.
Joel Brooks:
He can sense the objections. He he can sense the questions there. Because in this letter, he's brought up all the uncomfortable issues of Christianity. He's talked all about the sexual ethics and how they shouldn't sleep around. They need to keep sex within marriage.
Joel Brooks:
He's told them to quit taking one another to court. He's talked about the divisions of the church and they need to stop it. He's talked about how there needs to be a need for church discipline. They need to step up and to do that. He's talked about people getting drunk even during communion and how they need to love one another.
Joel Brooks:
He he's brought up a lot of difficult issues here, some uncomfortable issues. And so the natural question that's been percolating in people's minds is, well, why should I do any of this? Why? Why should I believe you? The rest of the world doesn't act this way.
Joel Brooks:
A lot of the things you're telling me to do really kinda sounds like nonsense. And if I were to be honest, some of the things you're asking me to do seem wrong. They don't even seem like the right thing to do. They're not just embarrassing. They feel wrong.
Joel Brooks:
So so why in the world should I do these things? And so Paul's been anticipating this. Perhaps this is a question, or the questions like this have been lingering in your minds as well. You think Christianity makes a lot of demands. A lot of hard demands.
Joel Brooks:
Christianity says some things that are pretty uncomfortable. Not just embarrassing, but, honestly, I've heard some of the things we've even gone over as we've gone gone through 1st Corinthians. And I gotta be honest, some of it even sounds wrong to me. Like, it's the wrong thing to do or to believe. So why should I do any of them?
Joel Brooks:
And Paul says, you shouldn't. You shouldn't do any of these things. That is if Jesus didn't rise from the dead. If Jesus didn't rise from the dead, I cannot think of one single reason you should listen or obey anything that I have said to you so far. If Jesus is dead, then certainly don't put any hope in trying to obey his teaching or his commandments, because there's no hope to be found there.
Joel Brooks:
You would be foolish to try to live out the commands of Jesus if Jesus didn't rise from the dead. He says, however, but if Jesus is alive if he's alive, this changes everything. If he's alive, then the only appropriate response that you have is to fall on your knees before him and obey. It all hinges on the resurrection. If Jesus did not rise, then you are still in your sins.
Joel Brooks:
Your faith is futile. Go eat drink for tomorrow you die. But if Jesus is alive, well, that's our only hope. So hear me. Christianity rises or falls with the resurrection of Jesus.
Joel Brooks:
Whatever objections you might have to Christianity, it really boils down essentially to the resurrection of Jesus. Did he rise from the dead? That is the question that every person in this room needs to answer. Now I'm not saying that your other questions you have are not valid. They're they're valid questions as you're going through all the ethical demands and all the teachings and the commandments in the bible.
Joel Brooks:
There are valid questions know, then will you trust him to give you answers for those things? Yes. Yes. That is the question we all need to grapple with. And so Paul, he reminds them here of the answer to that question.
Joel Brooks:
And the answer to that question is that Jesus has risen from the dead. Look at verses 34 again. Paul says, for I deliver 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, that he was buried, that he was raised on the 3rd day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the 12, then he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Now this is one of the clearest statements that we have of the gospel and all of scripture. One of the most clearest condensed statements of the gospel.
Joel Brooks:
At the heart of the gospel, it is not a instruction book of how to live. It's not a, if you wanna if you wanna live a better life, you better do these things. It's not a political agenda. It's not a new philosophy at the heart the gospel is news. It's news of a historical event that Jesus, the son of God, he came to this world.
Joel Brooks:
He lived a perfect life. He died. He was buried. He rose again. And now he has appeared to many.
Joel Brooks:
And there is no Christianity apart from this gospel. And I wanna belabor this point and just be crystal clear that when Paul here is talking about Jesus being raised or when he's talking about resurrection, he's not talking about some kind of metaphorical resurrection. He's not talking about Jesus as just spiritually raised from the dead. He's talking about Jesus was bodily raised from the grave, and all of our hope depends on this. When Paul goes on to say, you know, he appeared to Cephas, who is Peter, and he he appeared to the 12 disciples, and then he appeared to 500 brothers.
Joel Brooks:
He says most of whom are still alive. What he's doing is he's giving his evidence. And I love it when he adds that that little phrase there, most of whom are still with us. Most are still alive. In other words, he's saying, the witnesses are still here.
Joel Brooks:
And there's 100 of them. Ask them. Ask them about Jesus. Ask them if they saw Jesus. They'll say they saw him.
Joel Brooks:
Many of them talked with him. Many of them sat down and ate with him. This wasn't like some Bigfoot sighting. Okay? That's just some fuzzy picture.
Joel Brooks:
Many witnesses are out there. I love when Paul he was talking to to Felix and Agrippa in Acts and he he says, hey. You know what I'm talking about, king, for these things were not done in a corner. The resurrection resurrection of Jesus wasn't a small little event. People knew about it.
Joel Brooks:
People saw him. And then Paul says, I saw him. I saw him. And trust me, of all the people on earth who wanted to see Jesus alive, I was the last person who wanted to see Jesus alive because I was killing his followers. But, he appeared to me.
Joel Brooks:
He even appeared to me. And I've gotta admit, I was completely wrong, but I will gladly do so because He has given me new life. And, I will go through any imprisonment, I will take on any beating, because I have met with the resurrected Jesus. It's the rock solid ground on which Paul has built his faith. Now, I know that, in our modern culture, we like to think of first century people as kinda being primitive and superstitious people who would believe anything.
Joel Brooks:
They probably believed everybody rose from the dead and that wouldn't be a big leap for them. That's just not the case. People in the 1st century, they knew that when a person died, they stayed dead. They knew that. They had all of the scientific objections that we would have to the resurrection.
Joel Brooks:
People in the 1st century had those objections as well. But in addition, they had even more. They had serious theological objections to Jesus raising, rising from the dead. You had 2 main groups of influential teachers. You had the Sadducees and you had the Pharisees.
Joel Brooks:
The Sadducees were the largest and most influential of those two groups and they did not believe in any resurrection whatsoever. That whatever the future state would be, it would not be in any form of bodily resurrection. And then he had the Pharisees, which they did believe in a bodily resurrection in the future, but they were outright against just one person being raised apart from all of the people of God. They had strong objections to that. So there simply was no room in Judaism for the resurrection of Jesus.
Joel Brooks:
But then, Jesus came and He made room. He made room and He said, here I am. You know, one of the proofs, we hardly ever talk about this as a church, but one of the proofs to the resurrection is simply that you guys are here on a Sunday. You're here on a Sunday worshiping Jesus. Yet, for 1000 of years, the the people of God, they've they met on a Saturday.
Joel Brooks:
They met on the last day of the week and not the first. Matter of fact, that is the oldest law in Judaism because it's embedded in the creation story itself that on the 7th day God rested. On the 7th day he blessed, he made it holy. And so we are to observe the Sabbath and we are to keep it holy. And yet Christians, Jewish Christians who have been obeying that their whole life and their fathers have been obeying it and their fathers and their fathers all the way back, seemingly overnight without any controversy just changed and said we'll no longer meet on Saturday.
Joel Brooks:
We're meeting on Sunday because Jesus rose from the dead the 1st day of the week. I mean, that's astounding. Try to get the church to agree on anything. You know, change the color of a carpet to, you know, pick out a new hymnal. Here, they're changing the oldest law in Judaism seemingly overnight without any controversy.
Joel Brooks:
Why? It just seems appropriate since Jesus rose on this day. We should meet this morning and worship him. So just us being here is evidence of Christianity. And the whole rise of Christianity from just a few scattered disciples to overtaking the Roman Empire in just a few centuries cannot be explained apart from the resurrection of Christ.
Joel Brooks:
That Christianity would spread so rapidly. And this happened without, you know, the the greatest evangelism tools ever, Facebook, Instagram. Alright? You know, those mighty persuasive tools that we have to share our faith. Take a picture of coffee, Bible, hashtag blessed, put that out there.
Joel Brooks:
Wait for the conversions. People in the 1st century actually had to use other means to show people they were Christians. But Christianity spread because they were convinced Jesus rose from the dead, and they were given his spirit, and it emboldened them to share that. And not even the mighty Roman Empire could put an end to that. It's what 12 ordinary men could do, having seen Jesus.
Joel Brooks:
Now, there have been times, there have certainly been times in church history, where some small parts of the church have tried to deny the bodily resurrection of Jesus. They've tried to water it down, give it new meaning, tried to explain away what being raised from the dead meant. Being raised from the dead means that Jesus just now spiritually lives in our hearts. Being raised from the dead just means that his teachings endure forever. And I can understand.
Joel Brooks:
Honestly, I can understand, the temptation to believe those things because it certainly is easier to swallow. Certainly easier to say that. And also, that form of Christianity, if you wanna call it Christianity, is far less demanding. I mean, after all, if Jesus didn't really rise from the dead, can't you just pick and choose what you want to believe that he said? Can't you just kind of follow the teachings you like and discard the other ones?
Joel Brooks:
If he really didn't rise from the dead, if he really isn't the Son of God, but if he is who he is, said he was, and if he is alive, then the only appropriate response is to fall down in complete surrender. A dead Jesus can't give you life. You would still be in your sins. A watered down resurrection gives you a watered down hope. All of our hope depends on Jesus physically being raised from the dead.
Joel Brooks:
Because when we look at Jesus, what we see is our future. And if you see Jesus still in the grave, your future is still in the grave. But if you see Jesus as resurrected, that is a promise of the future you will enjoy is a resurrected life with him. Paul, he he says in verse 20, says that Jesus is the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. Now, now we're not gonna look in great detail at this because this past Easter, that's that's what I preached on was this text here and what it meant to be the first fruits.
Joel Brooks:
The first fruit is that, you know, you plant a garden, it's that first tomato or it's that first green bean. It's that that first fruit that comes. And when you see it and when you taste it, you're getting a taste of what's to come. That's why it's called the first fruit because you know many other fruits are coming just like it. Another way to think of first fruits that might be more appropriate for, for our culture is to think of it as a prototype.
Joel Brooks:
Jesus is the prototype. We have our current bodies, this current model that's full of death and decay that begins dying by the age of 20. But someday, we will be given a new model. How do we know that? Because we've seen the prototype.
Joel Brooks:
We've seen that the new model exists when we look at Jesus, and we've seen the body that we will someday be given. He's the prototype, assuring us that the new model will follow. And so what awaits us is a physical bodily future. Now we're gonna look at this in much more detail next week as we look at what a new heaven and a new earth looks like, but we can safely say with certainty from this text and from many others throughout scripture, that our future will be a physical future. It'll be a physical future.
Joel Brooks:
It's not one where we're gonna be sitting in the clouds, playing harps, existing in some disembodied state forever ever in some perpetual worship service trying to act like we're not bored. Alright? That for many of us, that is our view of heaven. We'll talk more about that next week, but that is not your future as believers. When Jesus rose from the dead, he didn't hover over the ground.
Joel Brooks:
He wasn't a spirit just floating around. There's a reason his body wasn't still in the grave anymore. His body had been resurrected. And He talked and He sat down with people and and He cooked and He ate fish. He had the scars, meaning there was a part of his old body that was transformed into his new.
Joel Brooks:
And he said, touch them. Touch me. Mary hugged him so hard he had to ask her to let go. But it was a very physical resurrection, And that's what our future is going to be like, not just disembodied spirits. Now, most of our views of heaven and our, what we would say, our forever state, they're actually what the Bible would describe as a temporary state.
Joel Brooks:
Where for a brief while, our spirits are temporarily in Heaven awaiting for the final resurrection, where spirits and our new bodies will be joined together. But that's not our forever state. That is our temporary state. But unfortunately, Christians, many Christians today do not see that as their future. There's so much confusion and ambiguity, when Christians think of their forever state and what it's going to look like.
Joel Brooks:
And as a result, there's such a watered down hope because we don't know what to think. Often, modern Christians are more influenced, if we were to be honest, we are more influenced by talk shows or by whatever book about heaven happens to be in the airport as we're walking through, than we are concerned with scripture. Scripture's teaching on what it will be like. Time Magazine did a survey among Christians who believed in the resurrection of Jesus. The resurrection of Jesus and also believed in their future resurrection.
Joel Brooks:
And in this survey, they found that only one third of Christians who believe that they will rise from the dead, believe that it meant a bodily physical resurrection. 2 thirds of the Christians today believe it is just a spiritual resurrection that awaits us, that our afterlife is only spiritual. And so we hear things like this at funerals, and perhaps you have heard these. Said by what? Well intentioned people, sometimes even by well intentioned pastors.
Joel Brooks:
But as they're looking, perhaps, in the open casket and grandpa's there, they'll say things like this. Now we know that grandpa is not really there, but that grandpa has gone to be in heaven. And I'm thinking, if that's not grandpa, then who or what is it? Who or what is it? Because the Bible does not teach that our bodies are just a shell that hold together our spirit that is trying to escape to be forever in heaven.
Joel Brooks:
That's Plato. That's not Jesus. That is not the Bible. The Bible teaches us that when God created us, he created us both body and spirit fused together. Then when you go back to Genesis 2, you see, God, he fashions Adam out of the ground, and then he blows his spirit in him.
Joel Brooks:
And it says after those two things have happened, after body and spirit have come together, he created man. Man is the fusion of body and spirit. That's who we were at our genesis and that's where what we will be in our forever state. There's a reason that Jesus didn't come and just die a spiritual death and only spiritually rise again, but he died in body and was bodily raised because he's not just redeeming our spirits, he's redeeming our bodies to be forever wed in a glorious future. And so perhaps a better way, you know, at a at a funeral, is to say that we know that this isn't all of grandpa, that Grandpa is only partly here, and that his spirit has temporarily gone to heaven, where he is now awaiting the resurrection of his new body.
Joel Brooks:
That's the hope of Paul. That's the hope of all the prophets. It's the hope of Isaiah in Isaiah 26 when he says, your dead shall live. Your bodies will rise. You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy.
Joel Brooks:
You wanna know what your hope is? Someday when you die and you are buried, that God will say, you who dwell in the dust, awake. Awake and sing for joy. We'll get to to that next week. This is the hope that makes us no longer fear death.
Joel Brooks:
Now realize that death is not something that, you know, you like to talk about at the dinner table. It's not something we like to deal with in our culture. Something that we like to sanitize. As much as possible, we kinda sterilize death. We we kinda remove it and make it out of sight, out of mind.
Joel Brooks:
And so if somebody dies, we call an ambulance. An ambulance comes, gets the body, takes the body away. Funeral home, they go, they prepare the body, they dress the body. And then the next you see the body is at the funeral, if it's an open casket, in which the person looks beautiful. They look like they're just sleeping.
Joel Brooks:
And that's it. It's all very sanitized. Yet, we are not many generations removed. Not many at all, from where, if somebody died in your home, a family member died, it was the family that prepared the body. It was the family that dressed up the body.
Joel Brooks:
Often, it was the family who then would take the body and bury the person on the property or take the body to a graveyard. I mean, if that were to happen now, kids would be in counseling for the next few years. And and and they might need to be in they they might have should have been in counseling. But we are ill equipped to deal with death. We want it removed from sight, removed from mind.
Joel Brooks:
We usually deal with death in 1 of 2 ways. We either go through life trying to deny it or we go through life trying to befriend it. Deny it or befriend it. We deny death by simply doing our very best to not think about it. Because the the thought, the very thought that someday you will cease to exist, the very thought that the lights would just go out, nothingness, is so terrifying we cannot cope.
Joel Brooks:
And so we go shopping instead or just look at endless Instagram photos, something to distract us from the reality of death. And even if we don't believe in just annihilation, just the lights go off, the other view of death is, I think, even more scary and that's an uncertain future. Perhaps a judgment where we're gonna stand before our creator God and have to give an account of our life and we're terrified of that, so we just don't think about it. That's just something you remove. But you you can't deny death forever.
Joel Brooks:
Someday, you'll be forced to deal with it. For those of us who are not denying death, we try to treat death like a friend. We try to befriend it. And we go all lion king. You know, it's just part of the beautiful circle of life.
Joel Brooks:
We sing that. We we try to dress up death and we try to make it beautiful, say death is natural, it's a beautiful thing, it's part of the wonderful circle of life. You know how you you live and then you die and then you become fertilizer and then something else grows up out of you, which lives and dies and becomes fertilizer. And it's this beautiful, beautiful cycle. And you try really hard to convince yourself of that.
Joel Brooks:
Does that sound beautiful? I mean, let me be really honest. And when when, I've been married 21 years, and when I think that someday, either Lauren's gonna have to bury me or I'm gonna have to bury her and one of us is gonna turn to fertilizer, that is not a beautiful thought to me. It's not. So we either try to deny it or we try to pretend it's beautiful, but Christianity has another way.
Joel Brooks:
Christianity does not see death as something we deny, but we stare at it. And also, it doesn't say that death is beautiful. It says it's ugly. Christianity sees death as unnatural. We were not meant to die.
Joel Brooks:
It's part of sin. Sin has brought death on us. Death is the enemy. That's the scriptural view of death. Death is an enemy.
Joel Brooks:
It's the ultimate enemy. It swallows up everything. Nothing escapes it. No matter who you are, no matter how great you are, how much money you have, how educated you are, no matter what your social status is, you will die. Death always has the victory.
Joel Brooks:
Death is relentless when death comes for us. It is a ugly powerful enemy that exalts over every person that triumphs over. That's the Christian view of death. But we believe this. Jesus has defeated that enemy.
Joel Brooks:
Jesus has vanquished that foe. He has conquered death through his own resurrection. Look at verses 54 to 57. 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. Oh, death, where is your victory?
Joel Brooks:
Oh, 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. Christianity does not try to ignore death. It doesn't try to beautify death. Christianity sees death for what it is, an enemy, but it is a defeated enemy.
Joel Brooks:
Now notice here that Paul who's quoting from Isaiah, he doesn't say death is gone. Death is still there. Death is still there. It's still the enemy. But now it's been swallowed up in victory.
Joel Brooks:
No more will death exalt over its foes. It can't because Jesus has defeated it. The grave is powerful as it was. It could not hold Jesus back. It no longer has the ability to hurt us.
Joel Brooks:
Death has lost its venomous sting. I don't know if you could get this, but the tone here is that Paul who's quoting Isaiah, they are mocking death. They are actually making fun of death. They're going, hey, death, Where exactly is your victory? Oh, mister death, mister big scary death, where is that sting?
Joel Brooks:
This is the song of those who have triumphed. It's the gospel we believe. We have no hope apart from this. A week ago, I'm sure you guys have heard it on the news, but there was a drive by shooting that was just next door. It was almost in a parking lot.
Joel Brooks:
Multiple people were shot. A 2 year old child was killed. And so this past week, we have had a number of reporters coming over to our church, different news crews coming. They asked if they could come here today and film us. I said, no.
Joel Brooks:
But they said, but we heard We heard that you were going to preach a message that was specific to the death of this 2 year old child. Is that true? And what are you, as a church, planning on doing about this event? And I said, well, the message isn't specific towards that, and the church isn't doing anything specific towards this. The church is going to do what the church has been doing for the last 2000 years, and that is we are going to proclaim the gospel.
Joel Brooks:
And I said, because when something like this happens, when some senseless, violent tragedy like this happens, it awakens us up to the horrors of this life and to the fact that this world is broken. I mean, it's it's not just sick. This world is broken. And there's not what what I told the reporter, I said there's there's not any amount of money we can throw at it. There's not many any amount of education we can throw at this.
Joel Brooks:
There's not any amount of legislation we can throw at this because the fundamental problem is the human heart. And none of those things touch the human heart. None of those things can fix a broken world. None of those things give us hope, but the gospel does. And so this Sunday, we will proclaim that Jesus is the Lord and that Jesus, he died and he rose again.
Joel Brooks:
And because of that, we have the hope of a bodily resurrection. We also have the promise of a new life beginning now, changed hearts beginning now. So if you wanna know the hope that we have and what we're gonna proclaim, it's simply the gospel. That's what Paul's getting here at the end of his letter. We could talk all about the different things you're supposed to do.
Joel Brooks:
We could talk about all of these different things we've gone through in 1 Corinthians, but don't forget the engine of Christianity. Don't forget the heart. Don't forget the actual hope. And it's that we worship a savior who has conquered the grave. And that is a unshakable hope and that gives us a certain future.
Joel Brooks:
Pray with me. Lord Jesus, we ask that our view our view of the future would be shaped by your word, not through whatever we see posted or proclaimed on the Internet or TV. Not by whatever, new book of the month is about Heaven. Because we want a real hope, and You give us 1. We are here today in this place to worship the resurrected Jesus.
Joel Brooks:
Thank you for the life that you give us, and how when we look at you, we see our certain future. And God, I pray that through the power of your spirit, you would give every person here the boldness to go and to proclaim that message. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen.