June 14, 2026 SERMON

Live the Difference

RESURRECTION REALITY 

1 Corinthians 15:1-28
 

I’ve skipped chapter fourteen because I’ve covered most of it in previous chapters. It speaks on the Gift of Tongues contrasted with Prophecy, the problem the church was having with tongues, Paul's personal worship, the purpose and place of tongues and prophecy in the Church, and the final rule “do all things in order.”

So now we come to chapter 15 where Paul discusses the fact of the Resurrection.

Read along with me: Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; 2 By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. 3 For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; 4 And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: 5 And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve: 6 After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep. 7 After that, he was seen of James; then of all the apostles. 8 And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time. 9 For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet 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 which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. 11 Therefore whether it were I or they, so we preach, and so ye believed.

12 Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen: 14 And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. 15 Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not. 16 For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: 17 And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. 18 Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. 19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. 20 But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. 21 For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. 23 But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming. 24 Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. 25 For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy that shall be tdestroyed is death. 27 For he hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith, all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which did put all things under him. 28 And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.

There were four folks were talking about death. One of them asked the other three, "When you are in your casket and people are mourning you, what would you like to hear them say about you?" 

The first man said, "I’d like to hear them say that I was a fine physician and a great family man." 

The second fellow said, "I’d like to hear that I was a wonderful husband and a schoolteacher who made a huge difference in our children of tomorrow." 

The third man replied, "I’d like to hear them say, ’Look, he’s moving!’"

I think most of us can empathize with that last fellow, but there is something better that I would like someone to say if I were lying in my casket. They are the words that Jesus spoke to Martha after her brother Lazarus had died. He said, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die." 

This hope of resurrection, this hope of conquering death, is at the heart of Christianity. As Christians we very much believe that our faith in Jesus makes a difference in this life, which has been our theme for the past 20 plus weeks. Every day we are called to live in a way that expresses our love for God and for others. 

One of the most important, most powerful and beautiful dimensions of Christianity is the hope it gives that physical death will not be the end, but through a resurrection we will enter God’s kingdom and experience eternal life. 

Probably the time when I’m most thankful that I am a Christian is when I’m doing a funeral service for someone whom I know was a believer in Christ, and I can say to the grieving spouse, to the children and the grandchildren, "It is not over. Because of the resurrection, this individual will live again in the eternal kingdom of Jesus."

Today, as we continue our journey through 1 Corinthians, we come to Chapter 15 where we will be exploring the first 28 verses. As we do, my hope is that the Lord will enable us to understand and experience the power of the resurrection in a fresh way, in a way that will provide hope and joy as we seek to follow Jesus Christ. 

 The Apostle Paul makes three basic points in this passage. The first is that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead. This is the heart of the Gospel, the good news that Paul proclaims. He gives us a concise summary in verses 3,4 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures. 

Jesus Christ crucified, buried and risen just as the Scriptures reveal; just as the Old Testament prophets had foretold. That is the Gospel; and from these events flow all sorts of great news. Jesus rising from the dead is the climax of the Gospel, and the most difficult part for people to accept. 

Paul gives an impressive list of eyewitnesses who can testify that they have seen the risen Lord. He mentions Peter and the other apostles, the 500 people who saw Jesus on one occasion; it may even be the folks who heard Him give the Great Commission at the end of Matthew 28.

There are folks hearing Him who might be skeptics, who might say, "Yeah, right, Paul." Paul’s writing about 20 years after these things happened and many of these witnesses are still alive. He says if anyone has questions, go and talk to these people who saw the risen Christ with their own eyes.

Paul, however, goes on to say, "Not only have I talked to folks who saw Jesus after He rose from the dead, but I myself saw Him as well. Oh, not in the same way as Peter and others did, but I saw Him." This appearance happened maybe two or three years after the resurrection, when the Lord Jesus met Paul, then known as Saul, on the road to Damascus. It was this very special encounter which enabled Paul to become an apostle even though 

he was not an eyewitness of the resurrection like the others. That is why he calls himself "one abnormally born." 

You might say that was just a vision; that Paul did not really see the risen Christ. I think Paul would respond, "Oh, it might have been a vision, but I really did see Jesus. And while the other witnesses may have been looking for Him, I certainly was not. I believed Jesus was as dead as anyone could be.

But, after what happened that day as I was heading for Damascus, I totally changed my mind. What I saw, heard and experienced proved to me that Jesus Christ is the risen Lord.

Paul’s total certainty of the resurrection of Jesus makes him puzzled by some of the thinking in Corinth. 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? This would mean if there were no resurrection of the dead, then Jesus Christ has not risen. 

Paul sees an intimate link between Jesus’ resurrection and the resurrection of those who are believers in Jesus. To deny one is to deny both. To say that one could not happen is to imply that the other could not happen. So, to say that believers in Christ who have died will not be resurrected is very serious stuff, because that implies that Jesus did not rise from the dead. 

If Jesus Christ has not been raised, then Paul says: Our preaching is useless. It makes no sense at all to go out there and tell others about a Christ who is still dead. Your faith is useless. Your confidence is not in a living Lord, but in a dead one. 

We apostles are false witnesses. Your faith is futile. A dead Jesus cannot help you. You are still in your sins and still carry the guilt for that sin because God did not accept Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. 

He goes on, those Christians who have died are lost. There is no hope for eternal life if Jesus is still in the grave. We as Christians should be pitied. We are nothing but fools to go through hardship and persecution for the sake of Jesus, if He is not the risen Lord. 

We have no reason to believe any of the promises Jesus made, because He is nothing more than a corpse rotting in a tomb. Paul says to deny the resurrection of Jesus is to rip the heart right out of Christianity and make it nothing more than an empty shell.

But Jesus has risen. Thus, all those terrible things Paul spoke of in Verses 13-19 are not true, and Christians who have died will rise from the dead. Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 

Paul then goes on to explain how this is going to work. In Verses 21 and 22 he says that Jesus Christ is the source of resurrection and life, just as Adam was the source of sin and death. 

In Verse 23, he says that Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, is the firstfruits, a Jewish term for the first produce that was harvested and offered to the Lord. Jesus’ resurrection is an important promise that those who trust in Him will be resurrected as well. 

Then, verses 24-26 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.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the beginning of the conquest of death. That conquest will be complete; death will be totally defeated when those who are believers in Christ are raised from the dead. 

Jesus’ resurrection marks the beginning of the end of the reign of sin and death. When the resurrection occurs at the end of human history, the battle with evil, sin and death will be over. The victory will be God’s, and we will be able to enjoy it throughout eternity. We know this will happen, because we know Jesus is risen from the dead.

The resurrection hope we are talking about belongs only to those of us who are Christians. Being religious or going to church is not enough. Unless we are trusting in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we will not defeat death.

What does this mean for us? Let me mention three things: First, a Jesus who did not rise from the dead is not the real Jesus. One thing which is clear in our text today is that the resurrection plays a very central role in the ministry of Jesus Christ. 

Now, that probably seems obvious to most of us, but there are folks who claim that the bodily resurrection of Jesus is just a myth. For example, in Peter Jennings’ special report, The Search for Jesus, Jennings featured Dr. Marvin Meyer who claims that the early Christians borrowed the idea of the resurrection from the pagan Roman mystery religions.

Members of The Jesus Seminar have suggested that Jesus did not really die on the cross that first Good Friday. Instead, He merely fainted, was put in the tomb and by Easter had been revived and came out, giving the disciples the impression He had risen from the dead. 

They don’t explain how He was able to move the huge stone which blocked the tomb entrance, or how He was able to overpower the Roman guards who were keeping watch, but these folks don’t like to be confused by the facts. They ignore the truth that there is more historical evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ than there is that Julius Caesar ever lived.

What I find most disturbing is that these people claim they are not attacking Christianity, but are just helping us see the truth about Jesus by stripping away some of the myth that has surrounded Him. I say “Baloney!” To talk about a Jesus who lived and died but did not rise from the dead is to talk about an imaginary Christ. 

A Jesus who did not conquer death is no more real than an Elvis Presley who is still alive. The real Jesus rose from the grave on Easter Sunday, and forty days later ascended to heaven, from which one day He will return to rule this earth as the living Lord and King. 

Any church which teaches that Jesus Christ did not rise from the dead is not a Christian church. It might be a church that does good things, it might be a church full of nice people, but it is not a Christian church. 

Any church that allows pastors and teachers who deny the resurrection to retain their positions in the church is not functioning as a Christian church. Christianity, the Gospel, is about the resurrection of Jesus Christ. To deny it is to rip the heart out of Christianity.

Secondly, Paul says that because of the resurrection, we don’t need to fear death. Now, I tend to think being afraid of dying is a very natural emotion. Oh, I know there are folks who claim to be unfazed by the prospect, but I suspect most of them are like Woody Allen who said, "I’m not afraid to die, I just don’t want to be there when it happens." 

It is important to come to grips with the truth that it is a universal reality, that 100 years from now it is unlikely that any of us will still be alive. So, we don’t need to be comfortable with the thought of death, but as Christians we should not be afraid.

When someone close to us dies, Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 4:13 that it is OK to grieve for that friend or family member, but we should not grieve as those who have no hope. The reason we can face death with courage and hope is the resurrection. 

Because Jesus Christ has been raised from the dead, we know that we who are believers will one day be raised as well. My body will one day be put in a grave, not to rot, but to wait for that marvelous day of resurrection.

I love the way John Bunyan describes death in The Pilgrim’s Progress. Before Christian and Hopeful are able to enter the heavenly city, they must first cross the river which represents death. Christian is afraid he will sink as he steps into the water, but Hopeful who is a few yards ahead says, "Be of good cheer, my brother, I feel the bottom and it is good." 

Folks, it is not pleasant to cross that river of death, but if we are a believer in Christ, we will not sink, the bottom is solid and good. As the old spiritual says, “Jordan’s river is chilly and cold, chills the body, but not the soul.” Death is not something a Christian needs to fear.

The third thing we can learn from what Paul says is that we need to stop pretending this life is all there is. I think one of the most important verses in our text is 15:19 If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men. 

This is something that I am afraid a lot of us have a hard time swallowing. You see, often we are grateful for our Christian faith because of how it makes our lives better right now. Because I am a Christian, I right now have all sorts of wonderful friends who are kind, generous and fun to be with. 

Because I am a Christian, I right now enjoy a marriage where both Sandy and I are committed to Christ. Because I am a Christian, I right now get to read all sorts of interesting Christian books, listen to all sorts of inspiring Christian music, and get to attend all sorts of exciting Christian events. Because I am a Christian, I try to follow the commands that God has given in the Bible and I 

think my life right now is better because of that. 

Surveys say that on average, people who go to church do indeed enjoy better health, have happier marriages, are more successful in their careers and have more money than people who don’t go to church. I enjoy being a Christian. Even if there were no resurrection, even if we all just die and stay dead, I have a feeling I would still choose to be a Christian, because it is a good life.

I think the Apostle Paul would be a little shocked by that type of thinking. He might say, "T, you are a little mixed up. Yes, I found a lot of joy in this life, too, but it is only a shadow of what is ahead for those of us who are believers in Christ.”

 
At most times in history, and in many parts of the world today, Christians have understood very clearly what Paul means when he says that Christians are pitiful fools if there is no resurrection.

People in places like China, Sudan, Indonesia and India would have to be nuts to try to follow Jesus if they did not believe in the resurrection. Their life there is not easier because they are Christians; it is harder, and yet they look forward to what is ahead.

I read about two friends who have served as missionaries in Delhi, India, for a number of years. The church they currently attend is served by one pastor and four young men in their early 20s who are students and kind of associate pastors. Two of these young men were trapped by a Hindu mob and were nearly beaten to death. It has become a dangerous thing to be a Christian in northern India. 

Yet, because they are committed to serving the Lord and the people of India, they stay there with their two young children, possibly risking their lives. 

Wouldn’t it make a lot more sense for them to move back to America? Aren’t they being rather foolish? No, not if there is resurrection.

Because Jesus has risen from the dead, because we too will one day rise from the dead, obeying Jesus is more important than even concerns of personal safety.

We need to remember that because the resurrection is a reality, our preparations for the next life are more important than our plan for this life. What kind of car we drive is not nearly as important as how we treat the people around us. 

How much money we have in the bank is not nearly as important as our willingness to share whatever we have with others. How successful we are in sports, academics, or other activities is not nearly as important as how faithful we are in serving the Lord in His church. What other people think of us is not nearly as important as what God thinks of us. 

Because the resurrection is a reality, the most important goal we can have is that one day, when this life is over, the Lord will say to us, "Well done, good and faithful servant."

Yes, the resurrection is a reality. Jesus Christ really did rise from the dead. Those of us who trust in Him as Lord and Savior will really rise from the dead one day. That is a reason to celebrate. 

In Jesus’ Name Amen!