If you will remain standing and take your Bibles, turn to the book of 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians chapter 15. I'm adding an extra verse to what is in the order of worship. 1 Corinthians 15, verses 12 through 20. This is the word of the Lord. 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 not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. 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. 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 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. But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. This is God's word. Let us pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for this day and for the gift of your scripture and the gathering of your people. And now, Father, we ask that you stamp with your own seal of approval and blessing on the reading and the preaching of your infallible word. Amen. Please be seated. Let me ask you something. What if you went to your computer this morning and there in your inbox and splattered over almost every web page you encountered was a spectacular headline report confirmed by multiple sources? No doubt. It was fact. The report was that the body of Jesus had been found in a tomb near Jerusalem. And we all know that there have been a number of false claims in recent years, supposedly asserting Jesus's body or bones have been located. But this report that you read on the computer is different. The remains have been confirmed as being that of Jesus of Nazareth, the central figure of the New Testament and the Christian faith. If this were to happen, what would your reaction be? Fear or anger or would it even matter to you? What would it do to your Christian faith? Would you still call yourself a Christian? Well, fear not, for we know that no one is going to find the body of Jesus anywhere in Jerusalem or any other place other than that the right hand of the Father in heaven until he returns. And he exists there as the God-man, truly and fully God and truly and fully man. And the reason that we know that this is true is because of the resurrection. The Apostle Paul will dedicate the entire 15th chapter of 1 Corinthians, all 58 verses, to the subject of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It's the longest doctrinal piece in all the New Testament. Now, last week, Dirk preached on the first eleven verses of this chapter. That passage set the stage for us by relating the basics of the gospel message that Paul preached wherever he went. Paul had schooled the Corinthian church in the basics of the gospel. It is the gospel which they receive and which they stand and by which they are being saved if they hold fast to the message that he preached to them. For he had delivered to them what was of first importance that he had 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 then Jesus appeared to Cephas, James, and all the apostles, and then to more than 500 brothers at one time, most of whom at the time, at the time of Paul, was teaching this were still alive, although some had already died. And then lastly, he appeared to Paul, the apostle. And so the rest of the chapter, the next 38 verses, and don't worry, we're not going to do them all today. The rest of the chapter is dedicated to the explanation of the bodily resurrection of Jesus and as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, our own resurrection. And we will start this process today and continue it for the next four weeks. Let me read to you the first eight verses of chapter 15 to remind you of what was presented last week and to set the stage for our passage this morning. Paul writes. Now, I would 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 preach to you, unless you believe in vain. For I deliver to you as of first importance what I also receive, 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 and then to the twelve. And then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive. though some have fallen asleep. And then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me." So Paul made a very positive presentation of the power of the gospel and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. So verse 12 must have come like a kick in the stomach for the Corinthians. Let me break it down into four little sections here. First, verses 12 through 14. Now, if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? And if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. What on earth was the Corinthian church thinking? What was going on there that they would be so skeptically rejecting one of the basic tenets of the faith? Paul was wondering how they could have been so foolish. He was thinking and writing to Corinth that if the resurrection of Christ had really happened as it had, then no one could argue philosophically that the resurrection was impossible. But the Greeks could. The Greeks could argue this. You see, they had been conditioned over many centuries by teachings popularized by Plato and other Greek teachers that the soul of a person was immortal. And while the soul was immortal, the physical body degraded the soul through its carnal evil desires, and the trials of a physical life. But they believe that at physical death, the soul was freed to return to its original state of purity. You get the idea? There's a bifurcation between the physical body and the spiritual body. And the physical body is always evil. That's what's dragging you down, folks. It's really not you and your spirit. It's this nasty old physical existence. And the exalted life is to be found in the spirit alone. And this is what every Greek person understood and believed for the most part. Now, Paul is working upstream against that. That's what allowed many Greeks to live in such a debauched lifestyle in the flesh. In fact, Paul was aghast at some of the things the people in the Corinthian church were doing in the flesh. They could live any way they wanted to in the flesh while expecting an eventual purity of the soul. But Paul's Christian teaching was that God made both mortal body and the spiritual soul, and that the humanity created in God's image was permanent. blended both together. Regeneration itself is not just a complete renewal of the soul, but of the whole person. And resurrection is a vital part of the Christian's future. See, Paul had rightly taught the Corinthians that the eternal state is not mere continuance of a disembodied soul. It also involves a new resurrected body. suitable for the new environment of heaven. And Paul was not about to compromise with the Corinthians who said that the resurrection of a dead body is impossible. He begins by saying if there is no such thing as a bodily resurrection, then Christ's resurrection must be denied. If it cannot happen, then it did not happen to Christ. And if that is true, then Paul's preaching and teaching is in vain and their Christian faith is no faith at all. Well, let's move to verses 15 to 17. 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. 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. If the bodily resurrection was not true, the whole structure of the faith would crumble. Because there would be no guarantee that who Christ was or what he did had lasted beyond his death. There would be no evidence that his sacrifice had been accepted by God or that life beyond death exists. And if all of that is true, then the rest of the teachings and the doctrines of the faith would be a misrepresentation of God himself. It would make the apostles liars and the foundations of the church just so many pillars of sand. And so, Paul, relentlessly drives home the point. Was Christ resurrected or was he not? There are only two possibilities. Either he was or he wasn't. And of course, there is still a middle way, by the way, that many people advocate. Many people back in the time that this was written, as well as today. In our own very midst, in our own very Christian church, there is the so-called middle way. for the interpretation of the resurrection. The middle way holds to a spiritual resurrection, but no resurrection of the body. To a first century Greek, this would be completely useless, but to a 21st century self-defined person of faith, this would be acceptable. Faith validity is tested by the reality of its object. You say that again. Faith's validity is tested by the reality of its object. A dead Christ needs no forgiveness, no deliverance from sin's penalty at the hand of God's wrath, and no power to combat sin's rule in our daily experience. And if there is no forgiveness of sin, there is no way that we will be ready to meet God. or to live with him beyond this world. Our sin is so great, so great, that we ourselves could never atone for our faults and sins, even if we had an endless amount of do-overs. Only a perfect representative and substitute for our rebellious sinful wills could open up a way to reach God. Verses 18 and 19 say this, Then those also who have fallen to sleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. If Jesus died and remained in the tomb, then when we die, we too will remain dead and damned. If Jesus has not been resurrected, then there is no difference between believers and non-believers. The purpose for trusting in Christ is for the forgiveness of our sins, because it is from sin that we need to be saved. If Christ was not raised, his death and our faith in him was in vain, and our sins are still counted against us. If Christ was not resurrected, then he did not achieve the forgiveness for our sins, or salvation, or reconciliation with God, or spiritual life, either now or for eternity. To have hope in this Christian life would be to teach, to preach, to suffer, and sacrifice for nothing. Jesus is not alive. He cannot grant us eternal life and cannot improve our earthly existence. Now, where would we receive our joy, our satisfaction and our peace? And then first 20 comes in to rescue us all on all these down notes I've been giving you. Here it is, but in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. The first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. I like this characterization of Jesus as our firstfruits. Paul reverts back to the Old Testament book of Leviticus to make his point. He recalls the passage that speaks of an annual ritual of the firstfruits, and it serves as a link between the historical fact of the resurrection and the personal expectation of the result of the resurrection and the life of every believer. The ceremony of the first fruits went like this. A representative sheaf of the first grain to be harvested. You got it. It's like this. It's being waved in the temple. It was brought to the priest for him to wave it before the Lord. So that the people might be accepted in the Lord's sight. This was called the wave offering, a presentation of the first fruits. Four weeks later, an offering of the new grain was to be presented. This was a token of the harvest that was to come and thanksgiving to the Lord for his faithfulness in providing another year's crops. The point Paul is making is that the resurrection of Christ is the first fruits of the resurrection of all his redeemed people who have fallen asleep in him. Firstfruits was a celebration and a guarantee of the full harvest yet to come and it was an expression of the faithfulness of God to all believers. Philippians chapter 3 verses 20 and 21 says this, but our citizenship is in heaven and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself. Well, by way of application, I would like to briefly touch upon the implications of the resurrection. Let's talk about the nature of the resurrection. The resurrection of Jesus and the resurrection that we will experience was and is not simply coming back from the dead like Lazarus. If that was the case, then Jesus would have been subject to weakness and aging, and he would have died again just like all human beings die. Rather, at his resurrection, he put on a new humanity, a new kind of human life. This is a life made perfect, no longer subject to weakness, aging, or death, but able to live eternally. The body that was resurrected had put on immortality. From the biblical account, Jesus' resurrected body was and is fully physical, yet able to overcome physical barriers, like walk through doors and disappear bodily, as he did among his disciples. And yet Jesus, after being resurrected, showed that he had a typical physical body. He appeared as just another traveler on the road to Emmaus. He ate bread and fish. He showed the disciples his wounded hands and side. He invited Thomas even to touch his hands and his side. He prepared breakfast for his disciples. and displayed other typical physical activities. The resurrection also provides us with proof that there will be a renewed physical creation. It gives us clear proof of the goodness of the material world that God originally made. According to 2 Peter 3, verse 13, we as resurrected human beings will live in a new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. In Romans 8.21 Paul tells us that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. And Jesus' resurrected body affirms the goodness of God's original creation of man. Not as a mere spirit like the angels, but as a creature with a physical body that was very good. By the way, this also explodes the myth of platonic dualism. The body is evil and the spirit is good. And the false Christian documents known as the Gnostic Gospels. You remember the heresy of the movie The Da Vinci Code, right? Hasn't been too long ago. One of the subplots was that the fledgling church of the third and fourth centuries conspired to exclude the Gnostic Gospels from inclusion in the canon of the New Testament with titles like the Gospel according to Mary, the Gospel of Thomas, of Judas and Philip. The Gnostics, through these so-called Gospels, They tried to convince everyone that they were orthodox books, but they were not. And one of the principal reasons for that was that Gnosticism was founded upon Platonic dualism. That only the spirit is real. The physical body is just a temporary carrier of the spirit in this world. That the spiritual world is good and the physical world is evil. But wait a minute, God says when he created the physical world that it was very good. Well, the resurrection explodes, platonic dualism and all such nonsense. Let's look at the doctrine of the resurrection. That's the nature of the resurrection. Let's look at the doctrine of the resurrection. I think I have four points here I want to talk about briefly. I don't want to get bogged down in too much detail. And as you can imagine, many, many books have been written about these very points. But I do want to point out some crucial things that I think are helpful to understanding the idea of the resurrection and what it does for us. First, the resurrection of Jesus Christ ensures our regeneration. As Casey read this morning from First Peter, chapter 1, verses 3 through 5, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. In this statement, Peter directly connects Jesus's resurrection with the new birth or the regeneration of all believers. In his own resurrection, Jesus earned for us a new life like his. And that includes our new birth and the renewal of our spiritual nature. When we become Christians, we don't immediately receive all that our new life in Christ entails. But we are made alive in what is called new resurrection power. Our bodies are still subject to weakness, aging, and death, and yet we are now imbued with a new resurrection power. As Paul says in Philippians 3, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. When God raised Jesus from the dead, he claimed for us the spiritual fruits of being raised with Christ and deserving of the benefits of his resurrection. We see this again in Ephesians chapter one, verses 19 through 20. Paul writes. What is the immeasurable greatness of God's power toward us who believe, according to the working of His great might, that He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places? This seems to result in the power of believers to gain a greater degree of victory over sin that remains in our life, and gives us a greater power for God's use in His kingdom. And we see also in Romans chapter 6 when the Apostle writes, We were buried therefore with Jesus by baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. So this is the first doctrinal point, that Christ's resurrection guarantees our spiritual and physical regeneration. The second doctrinal point concerning the resurrection is that it ensures our justification. In Romans chapter 4, verses 24 and 25, Paul writes that it will be counted to us who believe in him That is the father who raised from the dead Jesus, our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for what? For our justification. He was raised for our justification. Does that make the resurrection necessary? You better believe it does. Otherwise, you're still dead in your sins and trespasses and you're not justified. To a holy God. The resurrection of Jesus was the expression of the Father's approval for Christ's work of redemption. As Philippians 2 reminds us, he humbled himself, set aside his prerogatives, and emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. When Jesus was raised from the dead, the Father thought of us, the believers, as in some way being raised with Christ, and in some way deserving of Christ's resurrection. And if, as the Ephesians 2.6 says, the Father raised us up with Him, that is Jesus, then His declaration of approval with Christ is His declaration of us. who are, as Romans 3.23 says, justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. So the second doctrinal point is clearly that the resurrection ensures our own personal justification. The third doctrinal point is that at the appointed time, in fact, we will receive perfect resurrection bodies. At the appointed time, we will receive perfect resurrection bodies. Now, I don't want to get into all the details. Am I going to be resurrected as an infant or a teenager or who you are now or any of that? Those are side questions that clearly aren't given to us. Therefore, we shouldn't even talk about them or speculate about them. Jesus was raised bodily from the grave. And Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 6.14, he will also raise us up by his power. 2 Corinthians 4.14 says, he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. We have read that in verse 20 of our passage this morning, that Jesus Christ is the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. Dr. Wayne Grudem defines this concept of firstfruits this way. I really like this. This makes sense to me. I have a hard time with Leviticus. I don't know about you. Maybe some of you are much more scholarly than I am. But Dr. Grudem always gives words that are understood by 21st century believers. Here's what he says about first fruits, just as the first fruits or the first taste of a ripening crop show what the rest of the harvest will be like for that crop. So Christ, as the first fruits shows what our resurrection bodies will be like when in God's final harvest. He raises us from the dead and brings us into his presence. Now, I hesitate to say this because it's a minor point which we all like to argue about, but I'm going to do it anyway, because some of you are thinking about this resurrection stuff and what am I going to be like? After Jesus' resurrection, he still had nail prints in his hands and his feet. And he had a hole in his side where they took a spear and jammed it in. People sometimes wonder, will they retain marks or scars from serious injuries at the resurrection, their own resurrection? We probably will not retain such wounds or injuries. This is my humble opinion. But our bodies will be made perfect, incorruptible and raised in glory. So why does Jesus retain the marks in his body? Well, apparently they were and are unique reminders of his suffering and his death for all of us. So the third doctrinal point is that we will receive perfect resurrection bodies. The fourth and last doctrinal point I want to make this morning is that both the father and the son participated in the resurrection. Some texts, such as all of those that down here up front are copying down the references, Acts. Chapter two, verse twenty four, Romans six, four. First Corinthians, six, fourteen. Galatians, one, one and Ephesians, one, twenty, these texts. affirmed that God the Father specifically raised Christ from the dead. Other texts, like John 2, verses 19 to 21, and John 10, verses 17 to 18, seem to say that Jesus himself participated in his own resurrection. Most Orthodox scholars contend that it is best to conclude that both the Father and the Son were both active and involved in the resurrection. So those are our four doctrinal points. And finally, I want to talk briefly about the ethical importance of the resurrection. This is the part that impacts you. I mean, all of this impacts you, the doctrine does too, but this specifically here and now in where you are impacts you. Morality, and we get these confused all the time, morality and ethics. I wish we'd get this straight. Language is meant to be precise, isn't it? And when we have sloppy language using the wrong words, we convey wrong meanings to people, especially people that you and I run into who aren't Christians. And we're trying to share the gospel with them. We need to use specific terms. Terms have a meaning, just like marriage did. Marriage used to have a particular meaning, didn't it? What meaning does it have today? There's no meaning at all. You can you can say whatever you want to. We have blessed the marriage of same sex couples. The next will be polygamy. The next after that will be marrying your favorite pet. You think I'm kidding when you can redefine words? to your own desire and taste, then there are no limits. There is no definition. So let's talk about morality and ethics. Morality is the term we use to express how we behave. Is our morality good or is it poor? Do we behave well or not so well? It's the measurement of how we behave. is the study of what we should do, what we should and ought to do. So philosophers talk about ethics and not morality. They're not sociologists. They are people who are gauging what folks ought to do. In the light of the resurrection, there are three things that we ought to do. So I'm talking ethics now. First, we should continue to be steadfast in the Lord's work, steadfast in the Lord's work, especially the work of spreading his gospel to a lost and dying world, because this effort is not in vain. Everything we do to bring people into the kingdom of God will have eternal significance because we shall all be raised when Jesus returns. And we all will spend eternity with him. and prove out the value of our resurrection. The second ethical point is that we should live our lives and operate in such a way so as to focus on our future heavenly reward as our goal. We should think and act with the ultimate goal in mind. Jesus says in John 14 verses 2 through 3, in my father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself so that where I am, you may be also. You too will be resurrected. We ought to act as we are resurrected beings of the Savior. Yes, we are to take care of our business and relationships on a daily consistent basis. But we do so in the context, the setting of the resurrection, Christ's powerful resurrection and our ensuing resurrection. Colossians 3 verses 1 through 4 says this. If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ and God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. The third ethical point is that we ought to stop yielding so easily to sin. All of us, we give in to this, don't we? Constantly. We think we're doing well and we're only fooling ourselves. And this is obviously tough to do. In fact, it's impossible to do in our own power. We're dragging around our old sin nature like a ball and chain, and we can't get rid of it by ourselves. But we should be making some sort of progress to put on the armor of God and to battle and combat our own sin. Complete victory will come only through the power of Christ. Ephesians, Chapter 2, verses 8 through 10, says this. Hang with me. I've just got a few more words left. For by grace, you have been saved through faith. And this is not of your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of works so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works. which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. And so, as a result of our promised resurrection, we ought to observe and resolutely obey three ethical points. We should continue to be steadfast in the Lord's work, especially as soldiers of the gospel message. Secondly, we ought to focus on our future heavenly reward as our goal. And third, we ought to work to stop giving in to sin so easily. Brothers and sisters, let me conclude by saying the Buddha died in 490 B.C. Do you know that? The Buddha died in 490 B.C. When he died, he was cremated and parts of his remains were scattered in several places. No resurrection there. Muhammad, the founder of Islam, died on June 8th in the year 632 A.D. His body lies in a grave in a mosque in Medina called the Green Dome Mosque. You can visit there if you so desire. In fact, many thousands do visit his grave every year. But they come to mourn his death and not to celebrate his resurrection. Neither Buddha nor Muhammad nor any other religious leader has ever been bodily resurrected. They had no power to resurrect themselves nor do they have the power to save anyone. The story is told of an African Muslim who became a Christian And his friends asked him, why have you become a Christian? And he answered, well, it's like this. Suppose you were going down the road and suddenly the road forked in two directions and you didn't know which way to take. And there at the fork, there were two men. One was dead and one was alive. Who would you ask which way to go? The British minister W.E. Sangster began to lose his voice and mobility in the mid-1950s. He had a disease that caused progressive muscular atrophy. He recognized the end was near, so he threw himself into writing and praying. In the midst of his suffering, he pledged, Let me stay in the struggle, Lord. I don't mind if I can no longer be a general. But give me just a few soldiers to leave. Sangster's voice eventually failed completely and his legs became useless. On an Easter morning, just a few weeks before his death, he took a pen and carefully wrote his daughter a letter. And in it, he said this. It is terrible to wake up on Easter morning and have no voice with which to shout he is risen. but it would still be more terrible to have a voice and not want to shout. Let us pray. Our Lord and our God, you have honored us by calling us through the proclamation of your gospel, not by human wisdom or reasoning, but by your power. Remind us that all that we are and will be is tied to the reality and truth of the crucified Christ, the crucified and risen Christ, the first fruits. He is that first fruit of our resurrection. Father, help us to run our race that is set before us, that we might somehow be able to claim the prize that is imperishable, our resurrection from the dead. We ask that you make us more like Jesus. Give us courage for what comes our way and mold us and make us into the people and the church that you intend us to be. Be our sword and our shield in the authority of Christ we pray. Amen.