1 Corinthians 15:12-33 Don't Sneer at Miracles!

1 Corinthians 15:12-33  But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?  If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised.  And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead.  But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised.  For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.  Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost.  If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.  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 all will be made alive.  But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him.  Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power.  For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.  The last enemy to be destroyed is death.  For he “has put everything under his feet.”  Now when it says that “everything” has been put under him, it is clear that this does not include God himself, who put everything under Christ.  When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all.  Now if there is no resurrection, what will those do who are baptized for the dead?  If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized for them? And as for us, why do we endanger ourselves every hour? I face death every day—yes, just as surely as I boast about you in Christ Jesus our Lord.  If I fought wild beasts in Ephesus with no more than human hopes, what have I gained?  If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. ”Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.  ”Come back to your senses as you ought, and stop sinning; for there are some who are ignorant of God—I say this to your shame.

 

In the above focus, Paul addresses that some people in the church of Corinth hold the idea that there is no resurrection of the dead.  He asserts that if Christ is not raised from the dead, their faith in Jesus Christ and his salvation work on the cross is dead. If there is no resurrection of believers from the grave, their faith in Christ is useless.  For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either.  In Paul’s view, this mistaken idea of no resurrection propagated by some in the Greek church of Corinth destroys the Good News.  If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.  The Good News' essential tenant is that Christ's work on the cross and his subsequent resurrection is THE WAY to eternal life with God.  Jesus Christ's resurrection reveals clearly that there is a new and eternal life awaiting those whose faith rests in Jesus’ work on the cross. If what these Greek Christians believed was actually true, then Christians are of all people most to be pitied.  Of course only a small contingent of the Greek church held this proposition that there is no resurrection.  This idea of no resurrection emanated from the Greek culture.  A prevalent view of many Greeks at that time is that death brings the dead’s spirits under the control of a Greek God, Hades. Hades is a place where the shades of the dead live, a place not very well defined in the Greek culture.  The living are to keep the memory of these shades alive by placing food and gifts on their graves.  In some ways, the memory of them keeps them in existence.  This Greek idea of the afterlife seeped into the Corinth church.  Of course, probably only a few of the Gentile members in the Corinth church held this aberration to the Good News.  Paul asserts such an idea attacks the basic foundation of Christianity.  Some maybe thought a resurrection of these wandering shades might come to fruition if the living created a baptism for them.  Maybe then they would escape the control of Hades, rescuing them by this substitutionary baptism.  If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized for them?   But Paul is very clear about who is in control of all things, the living and the dead.  Christ has put everything under God's feet.   Not under any Greek God or any other spirit.  Eternal life is accessible to all people, even the worst of sinners or the most wayward soul who has ever lived.  Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst.  But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life.  (1 Timothy 1:15-16)  Because of God’s great patience, the dead who are found in Jesus will be raised to new life.  They are the born-again people who have been prepared by God through the work of the cross to receive eternal life with him.  THE DEAD WILL BE RAISED FOR SURE!

Paul’s life was  literally sacrificed, placed on the altar to do God’s will: to spread the Good News to the whole world.  If I fought wild beasts in Ephesus with no more than human hopes, what have I gained?  If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.  Why should he face the hardships of a Christian missionary if the dead are not raised.  Why should he face stoning, beatings with rods and whips, and the dangers of persecution by the hands of the Gentiles and the Jews if there is no hope of eternal life.  Why should he not live as others: eat, drink, and be merry.   If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.  However, Paul’s hope in the resurrection and in the new life God had given him was so strong that he would not stop spreading the Good News in every community he visited.  He believed life itself rested in Jesus.  Jesus alone was the mystery of God and in Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.  Paul’s transformational experience on the road to Damascus had changed his view of Jesus Christ.  Jesus was no longer just a man to him; he was God and all power rested in him.  So Paul went from Gentile city to Gentile city in Asia and Europe, preaching the Good News.  He discovers in Corinth that some were preaching that there is no resurrection, holding ideas about death that spawned from their culture.  Paul knew this leaven would destroy the church of the living God.  This idea of no resurrection clearly reveals their rebellious nature to God’s control over their lives.  Rather than God’s plan for righteousness and perfection, they were promoting an alternate path to God and to the kingdom of heaven.  Such an idea was so wrong, so destructive to the church that Paul was weeding out this tare.  Come back to your senses as you ought, and stop sinning; for there are some who are ignorant of God—I say this to your shame.  The carnal flesh will never know God; Paul is telling these people who hold onto this carnal view of the afterlife to come to their senses.  This is not what Christ taught.  He told his disciples that He would die and be raised to life after three days.  When they came together in Galilee, he said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men. They will kill him, and on the third day he will be raised to life.” And the disciples were filled with grief.  (Matthew 17:22-23)  If Jesus Christ believed in the resurrection, then why are these supposed Christians preaching an alternate way to God?  Jesus knew the born-again life would never die.  When the new life begins in Jesus Christ through faith in his works, it does not linger in death, but has the life of Christ through the works of the Holy Spirit embedded in their new life.  Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life.  The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die.  Do you believe this?”  (John 11:25-26)  The resurrection is Christ himself; a perpetuation of life comes through the resurrection.  In death, time stops, but God never stops; his life is evident in death, for He is always present with people, in death or life.  What Jesus said is true, even though they die, whoever believes in me will never die.  The Greeks sneered at this idea that there will be a physical resurrection; they could not believe such a thing was possible, but Jesus spent some time with those who loved him after his resurrection.  He wanted them to touch him, to look at his scars on his hands and feet, to place their hands in his pierced side.  He asked them to feed him fish, just as He ate before his death.  Jesus wanted his beloved to understand that the resurrection was real and that He was the first fruit of this resurrection and that they too will follow this journey, from death to eternal life.  The Greeks who were embedded in serving mystical gods and spirits could not conceive of such a thing as resurrection.  Paul in Athens talked to them about their shrine to the unknown god, telling them that this unknown god is the real God, not made by precious metals or jewels to worship.  God was the God of eternal life, the God of the resurrection, and the God who will eventually judge all people’s lives.  “Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design and skill.  In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.  For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed.  He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”  When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered.  (Acts 17:29-32)  In their philosophical pride, they sneered at such talk as the resurrection.

What they could not accept or believe is that there is but one God, the Creator of everything that is, in heaven and on the earth.  For them there were many gods who controlled the existence of mankind.  The nature of these gods were closely alined to the flesh; they had the attributes of mankind: anger, bitterness, envy, biases, affections, hatred, carelessness, and other, good and bad traits.  But Paul was preaching the one God who controls all of life and to know this God, one must be born-again in the name of Jesus CHRIST.  The God he introduced to the Greeks was holy, righteous, full of love, mercy, and grace for all people everywhere.  His God was kind and patient toward all people.  He wanted to be their everlasting Father in his eternal family.  Paul’s  God would even forgive the sneering Greeks and the rebellious Jews.  God came to the world through the person of Jesus Christ.  He came to a sick and dying world through Jesus Christ.  He came to humans.  All of them needed restoration to their Creator; they needed a doctor who could heal their souls.  Jesus ministers to the outcast, the lonely, the poor, the rebellious, the tax collectors and in essence for a sick humanity.  God wants ALL people to be saved and to COME to a knowledge of the truth.  For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all people.  (1 Timothy 2:3-6)  Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane before his crucifixion prayed, “Your will be done Father, not my will.  I will pay the ransom price for the sins of ALL MANKIND.  Whosever believes IN ME AND MY WORKS WILL BE SAVED."  Paul preached this message of Christ with unmatched fervor.  He was willing to give his life to God, whether in death or life. So from his lips, the Jews and Gentiles alike heard the Good News.  For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.  Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.  (1 Corinthians 1:21-24)  The Greeks felt they were too sophisticated to believe Paul’s ministry about the resurrection.  What did Paul know compared to their many gods, for them Paul was a mere man propagating something absurd.  But Jesus' resurrection was real;  Paul found that to be true on the road to Damascus when Jesus stopped him in his tracks, causing him to go blind.  He had seen the light of the RESURRECTED ONE.  No one could convince him after that experience that Jesus was not resurrected.  Friends around this breakfast table, we know that most of you believe strongly in the resurrected life.  You wear the garments of the new-born, and you will never die, for Jesus the One you trust is the resurrection.  Hold fast to that hope, let the light of Christ shine through your life.  Let the love of God, the mercy of God, the grace of God be your testimony in everything you say or do, for HE IS RISEN, INDEED.  HE IS RISEN IN YOU!  Love, Dad and Mom