We are in the home stretch of our series in 1 Corinthians. Our pattern is to take passage after passage and walk through the Bible together. And we are almost at the end, but not quite. Paul, I think, arrives at one of the most important and defining passages in the letter to Corinthians, the first letter to the Corinthians.
But I think this passage, if I could just. If I could just take a passage of the Bible and make it magically appear on the refrigerator of every member of the church, there's a handful I would do that with. But first Corinthians 15 would be one of those refrigerator door, bathroom mirror, car dashboard kind of passages, and I think you'll see why.
First Corinthians 15 at first is going to interrupt our lives with an odd reminder, and this is the odd reminder from one Corinthians 15, at least within our culture. The reminder is you're going to die.
Have you thought about that lately? You will. You are. There's probably some things going on your body reminding you of that right now. A knee that doesn't work, a back that's hurting, an allergy, whatever it is, it's like, yeah, this isn't going.
The trend is not upward anymore. I don't know when that was for you, but. But we all hit an age at which, like, we're going up the roller coaster and then we begin to come down the roller coaster and like this, I don't know where. I don't like where this ride is going to land. Right.
I don't want to go down there. And yet the Bible interrupts us and reminds us of that for our own good, in fact, so that when we receive that truth, we can receive a glorious, beautiful, life giving, life transforming truth from the word.
So we're going to walk through the rest of this passage together. But I want to begin by just reading the first two verses as Paul interrupts our lives. First Corinthians, chapter 15, verse 35.
This is God's word. But someone will ask, how were the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come? Verse 36. You foolish person.
What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. This is God's word.
Lord, I pray that as we open this passage together, Lord, would you. Would you, in a sense, remove the veil from our eyes and allow us to stare for just a moment into eternity, that we might receive this life giving, life transforming word. Lord, I pray that we would have the gift of spiritual sight to see these realities. By the spirit. In your name, we pray to amen.
Well, what do we do when death intrudes into our lives? It's almost always unexpected. This last week, I received an unexpected text when I was supposed to be on vacation that really changed the rest of my day.
It was that misses Linda Remple, who had been a fixture in our church and in my life, had passed away. I spent every week on Sunday mornings with Misses Remple. I spent also every other week in our house growing up with Misses Remple, as she was a member of the small group that my parents led growing up. And she was a dear, dear woman. She remembered my birthday faithfully, my entire childhood, as well as my sister's birthdays.
She remembered my anniversary when I was married 15 years ago. And then as I began to have kids, here's what's extraordinary. She even remembered my kids birthdays. Just an absolutely precious lady. And with one text message, one interruption, she was gone.
So what do we do in those moments when death intrudes on our lives? Often christians tend to respond with the default view of their culture and our culture, rather than with the Bible. I've seen a particular common response that I think sums up our culture's view of death. And it is this. I've seen this on some like, you know, stoic websites or whatever, and it's this latin phrase, memento mori, memento vivere, which is latin, and it means, remember, you will die.
So remember to live. And it's this like, okay, yeah, you are gonna die, but remember to live. Make it count. You know, like Yolo, you gotta have that main character energy. You gotta like, take control of your life.
Live before you die. Right? So many pop songs are about this, and strangely, Paul agrees with a lot of that.
6 · The pastor establishes the sermon's thesis by showing that Paul inserts a crucial middle term—resurrection—between the cultural reminder to acknowledge death and the exhortation to live fully, fundamentally transforming both perspectives
It seems that some in Corinth had died and others were unsettled, wondering, are they gonna miss Jesus return? What's gonna happen to them? So Paul says, should you remember that you will die? Yes, this is a good opportunity to do that. Should you remember to live in the meantime? Yes. But Paul, with one corinthians 15, inserts something profound in the middle of that phrase, something that transforms the way we think about death on one side and the way we think about life today.
Remember one more thing. Paul says in one corinthians 15, remember, you will rise again. So if I could state the big idea. This is the first time in 15 years of preaching that I've done a big idea in Latin. But there's a first time for everything.
This is the big idea. Memento mori. Remember, you will die. Memento resurrect. Remember, you will rise again.
Memento vivere. Remember to live.
7 · The pastor introduces the structure for the sermon by framing it around questions the Corinthians were asking Paul, beginning with their concern about why moral standards matter if we're leaving the body behind anyway
We're gonna walk through the passage with the questions Paul is answering from the church. The first question is this, won't we just leave all this behind? Why be too concerned about life? We're just gonna leave it behind anyway. Why give all these moral rules? Paul?
8 · The pastor explains the Greek cultural context in Corinth, where resurrection was considered distasteful because Greeks viewed the body as a mere shell to be shed, making the Christian doctrine of bodily resurrection seem grotesque and ridiculous
And Paul knows that verse 35 is informed by the scoffers among the church. Now, Corinth was one of the chief cities of Greece. It was probably the foremost city in Greece behind only Athens, and Athens was only ahead of it because of its legacy, not because of its present exploits. So Corinth is the center of greek influence. And in greek life, the idea of a resurrection was gross. It was distasteful. It was.
Look. The Greeks saw the body as a shell and that after shedding the shell of the body, their spirit would be free to go into the afterlife. So the idea of the resurrection was weird and laughable and strange. It would be like announcing, don't worry. After you die, your old, broken down corpse will be resurrected, and you will walk around like some kind of Frankenstein's monster.
Doesn't that sound lovely? Everyone in Greek is going, gross. You're the Frankenstein cult. Like, that's what they thought of christians.
9 · The pastor connects the Greek denial of bodily resurrection to sexual immorality in Corinth, then draws a parallel to modern materialism, showing how both worldviews conclude that the body doesn't matter and lead to moral license
But one of the results of that view is that greeks thought, well, here's the reality, though. It doesn't matter a whole lot what you do with your body, which is what led to a lot of the sexual immorality in the church. In Corinth. It was like, well, listen, your body, it's a shell. It's going away anyway. Just use it to have as much fun as you can.
You're going to leave all of it behind anyway. Now, our context in 21st century America is very different, but we actually end up in the same place in America. The idea is that most often materialism. Now, I don't mean consumerism, although that's included. I mean materialism, meaning that. That this all we can touch and taste and see is all the reality that there is. There's no real life after death. There's no real eternity. It's just, well, you live and then you die, but it lands you in a very similar place. It's basically, well, look, if you live and then you die, what does it matter?
What you do with your body, right? You're just a product of time and chance. You might as well have as much fun as you can. Remember, you're gonna die, so remember to live it up. That's our default posture as a culture.
10 · The pastor introduces Paul's counterargument that resurrection is not a strange idea but is actually foreshadowed throughout creation, beginning with the seed analogy where transformation through death is the normal pattern
So Paul, against this, says, no, no, no, you're not understanding. In fact, the creation around you is hinting toward the future at what you will one day experience. Resurrection is not some strange, weird idea that's never been seen before. In fact, we see glimpses and pointers to resurrection all the time. The first pointer is, this transformation is woven into creation, and so it will be with us.
Verse 36. What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or some other grain.
11 · The pastor illustrates Paul's seed analogy with the local phenomenon of El Paso mountains transforming from barren to green after monsoon rains, showing that creation constantly demonstrates resurrection-like transformation
So Paul is saying, look. Look at the crops you yourselves are sowing. These pieces of grain, they go into the ground. But that seed, that kernel, has all the DNA of the plant that will be. So when it goes into the ground, you don't think, like, oh, it's just going to stay there. No, you plant it so it will grow, so that it will emerge, transform from the ground. And that, Paul says that is a pointer, a hint of resurrection embedded in creation.
I love how every monsoon season in El Paso, the mountain, briefly, at some point, will go from kind of a charred, a sun charred piece of, like, mercury rock, and then the monsoon will come. And then the next day, you'll drive through Trans Mountain and you're like, is this Hawaii? Like, it's just for a second, just for, like a day or two, but everything blooms. It's like the rain hits and boom, the mountain turns almost green, right? Paul is saying that you see that, that everywhere is a pointer, a hint, the transformative fabric that God has woven into creation.
12 · The pastor unpacks Paul's second creation illustration: just as God designs fish for water and birds for air, he will give believers bodies perfectly suited for the coming kingdom, demonstrating that God always fits creatures to their environments
And then second, here's a second illustration from creation. Life suits its place, so it will be with us. But verse 38. But God gives it a body as he is chosen in each kind of seed, its own body. So he's moving illustrations for not all flesh is the same, but there's one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, another for fish.
There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of heavenly is of one kind, and the glory of earthly is of another. There's one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars, for stars different from star in glory. And so it is with the resurrection of the dead. Now, if you like me, read verse 42 and you're like, so it is what? I still don't understand.
What is it? So it is. What is it? No, this is the illustration he's making. He's saying this.
Okay, you corinthians, you believe in Jesus coming kingdom. Do you note they would say yes. You believe that Jesus is bringing his kingdom? Yes. So here's the principle of creation.
God makes perfectly things suited to their place. Just as fish are made for the water, as birds are made for the air, the stars are made for the heavens. So it is that if the kingdom is coming, God will remake you to be fished fit for that coming kingdom. God always does this. There's no shambling corpses in heaven.
You're missing the point. God makes the right thing for the right place.
13 · The pastor transitions to Paul's description of resurrection bodies, corrects common Christian misconceptions about eternity (floating in heaven as spirits), and clarifies that the intermediate state is a waiting period before the bodily resurrection when God renews creation
Now, what's the point? The point is this resurrection is not some weird, bizarre idea. It's something that actually is hinted at in creation. All around us, there are reminders everywhere. God does this. He brings life from seeming death. He makes things suited for their place. And if all we've said is true, God will do the same for you.
Question number two. But what will our new life be like? They still were struggling with this, so Paul jumps into the details to help them. Verse 42. So it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable. What is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor. It is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness.
It is raised in power. It is sown in a natural body. It is raised in a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. Now, too many christians, let me just say this, do not truly understand eternity, even though that's kind of our whole thing, right?
That we're supposed to be the heaven people. But so many misconceptions. I mean, and Paul addresses a few of them here. I mean, one of the conceptions is we're going to go up to heaven. Revelation says, no, heaven's gonna come down.
The heavenly city's coming down. And God will renew creation or we die. And then we're just an ethereal spirit forever. And Paul's like, no, no, no. Second Corinthians five does say, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.
But in a sense, we wait there in God's presence. The language of this text says asleep, and then we will rise. So the spiritual presence of us being with Jesus is not the culmination. In fact, that's the sleep period, the waiting period before God renews creation, including our bodies.
14 · The pastor explains the first contrast Paul makes—perishable versus imperishable—using personal anecdotes about bodily decay to illustrate how current bodies wear down, then emphasizes that resurrection bodies will be gloriously unfading and imperishable
But again, they're just like, I don't understand. I don't understand how this works. So Paul says, okay, let me break this down. Your new body will trade the perishable for the imperishable, right? He has to help them. Okay, take this thing. It's gonna be different. Take this thing. It's gonna be different. So the first thing he picks is perishable versus imperishable. Now, I don't know about you, but every day our body does something to remind me that it is perishable.
Right? There are wounds. There are issues. I was with some dads yesterday at our community group cookout, and we were joking as, I guess, as a dad thing to do about our ailments, our various ailments, comparing them. And I thought, man, I never imagined doing this at age 13. This is going to be like how I hang out with other guys. Just compare ailments. But that's the reality, right? You could tell I've got, like, I've jacked my wrist up somehow. I don't even know how I did this.
Jen asked me, how did you hurt your wrist? I said, just living. Living my life, doing normal things. And now my wrist won't work, right. This is just the reality.
We are slowing down. We are that toy that you leave out in the sun all summer, and it just gets melted by the end. It's rained on, melted, sandblasted, doesn't even look the same. That is us right now. So Paul says, you know, perishable, but our heavenly bodies will be raised imperishable, meaning they will not decay, they will not fade, they will not wear away.
And we will find a life, this new life, that is gloriously unfading and imperishable. That's the first thing.
15 · The pastor explains the second contrast—dishonor versus glory—showing that we currently hide parts of our bodies we're ashamed of, but resurrection bodies will have every part gloriously perfected as God originally designed
Second, our dishonor will be traded for glory. Now, this gets at the reality that in our own bodies, we all have parts of our bodies, right? Now that we hide. We have features that we hide, right? The other day, my four year old was asking questions. Dad, why don't you have any hair? Why do you have a spot on the back of your head where it's very smooth? And what do I tell him?
Like, well, son, you might have this one day, so just be careful, bud, you know, watch your comments here, right? We all have places with our bodies and lives, beings that we hide, right? That we hope nobody sees that yet. Here's the beauty. Our resurrected bodies, every part of them, will be as glorious as God designed them to be without decay.
Without rot, without corruption.
16 · The pastor illustrates the glory-transformation by contrasting photos of Linda Remple as a young woman with how he knew her in old age, realizing he may not recognize her in the resurrection when she is restored to full glory
I got a vivid illustration of this when we were at the visitation for Misses Rembl this week, where I got to see a bunch of pictures that I'd never seen of her. I'd always known her growing up as an older lady, but at this visitation, I got to see these wonderful photographs of her at her wedding, right? She's this young woman full of life, and she had a very stylish collection of, like, sixties glasses. I was like, man, these are cool. Again. Like, these are awesome. And I had this thought, man, when I get to heaven, I don't even know if I will recognize Misses Rumpel, because all of that will be reversed, and she will be as glorious as God always intended for her, to be. Dishonored, traded for glory.
17 · The pastor explains the third contrast—weakness versus power—distinguishing between physical weaknesses (diseases, disabilities) and spiritual weaknesses (tendency toward sin), showing that resurrection will heal both dimensions fully and finally
Third, weakness, traded for power. Now, Paul has two aspects of this in mind. The first is physical weakness. Places our bodies do not work right. That because of the, the effect of sin and the fall, we have problems with our bodies. Not even just things. I don't like the way my head looks or whatever, but problems like we have illnesses, diseases, weak hearts, bad backs, horrible allergies of some kind or another, kidneys not functioning, liver is not working correctly, right. And Paul says every place of physical weakness in our lives will be traded for gloriously perfect and powerful parts of our body as God designed without corruption, without decay, gloriously strong. I mean, think of the person with the weak heart who can't participate in physical activities, man. They will be able to run. The weak lungs strengthened to be able to run along the beach again.
Right? This is what Paul is saying. We are to look forward to and further the weakness that comes from being in a body of sin that we all inherit from our first parents, a tendency toward sin, that our flesh is not just the physical weakness, but our flesh is our spiritual weakness. If you could say it that way, that inclines us away from what is good and what is right. We each have areas like this, tend toward anger, or tend towards selfishness, or tend toward ungodly desires, or tend toward this or tend toward that right.
That we think, ah, finally, I didn't feel this natural inclination in my flesh toward this thing. If only that, we're gone. Well, here's the good news. According to one corinthians 15, one day it will be, and the heart that is perfectly reformed to pump blood to every part of our bodies, our spiritual heart will be, in a sense, renewed, that we will be given fully. And finally, this heart that desires the Lord and does not desire sin, anymore.
No more temptations. Oh, man, I cannot wait. How wearying. Sometimes temptations are where you fight a struggle day after day after day, seeking to pursue the Lord in that day, on that day, power, spiritual power, fully upon us, and it will go away forever.
18 · The pastor clarifies the fourth contrast—natural versus supernatural (or spiritual)—emphasizing that resurrection does not oppose body and spirit but rather adds supernatural glory to the body, rejecting a body-minus-spirit view of eternity
Fourth, the natural traded for the supernatural. Now, the ESV translates it as the natural for the spiritual. But it's hard to capture the meaning of this phrase. What I want you to understand is that it's not as though natural and spiritual are opposed to each other, as if the body and the spirit are opposed to each other. So, natural meaning defined by our current nature, and spiritual or supernatural defined by the new spiritual, eternal vitality, that is more than what is natural in creation. So a better contrast, I think, is natural versus supernatural.
So it's not as though eternity is glorious, because we have the spirit minus the body equals glory, but rather we have the body with glory added to it that results in eternal glory. That's what Paul is saying.
19 · The pastor applies the resurrection hope to bodily decay by contrasting the world's response (denial or fighting aging futilely) with the Christian response of acknowledging brokenness while looking forward to the glorified body, using each physical failure as a reminder of coming restoration
Now. What does this matter? Well, I think I want to drop into one application here, friends. I know that there are so many of us in church that deal with the perishable in our bodies, the dishonorable, the weak, the mortal. Look, and the way that the world gives us to deal with this is either to ignore and pretend like we're not aging. You know, our bodies are not breaking down. We just. You know, I mean, look, man, sometimes it happens that you see people, as they get older, they just start dressing younger and younger, right?
They're like, hey, how's it going, fellow kids? You're like, I think you're, like, too old for that, maybe, right? Like, it's just. That's one way to deal with it in our culture or to just fight it with every fiber of our being. But I'm gonna try everything. I'm gonna try every supplement. I'm gonna try new wardrobes, new haircuts. I'm gonna buy a new, young car, right? I'm gonna just fight it. I'm gonna.
But it's a losing battle, guys. I hate to say this. Nobody's won yet. And so, rather than doing that, what we do is we acknowledge our brokenness in this current body, but allow it to lead us to look forward to the body that is to come. And we say every time we injure ourselves and it doesn't get better, one day that'll be fixed, every time our heart doesn't work correctly and we go in for a cardiology exam, we say, one day that'll be fixed.
Every place in our body, every disease, every weakness, every difficulty will be gloriously changed forever.
20 · The pastor transitions to the question of how resurrection becomes possible for individuals, addressing both believers and non-Christians who want to participate in this hope
Third, how is this possible? How does this happen? I want to get in on this. Maybe you're not a Christian and you're thinking, I'd like to get in on this. How do I get in on this?
21 · The pastor reads Paul's Adam-Christ typology, contrasting the first Adam (from dust, producing a kingdom of dust) with the second Adam, Jesus (from heaven, producing a kingdom of heaven), establishing that those united to Christ will bear his image as those united to Adam bear Adam's image
Well, verse 45. Thus it is written, the first man, Adam, became a living being. The last Adam became a life giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual that is first, but the natural and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust. The second man is from heaven, as was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust. As is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.
22 · The pastor explains Paul's Adam-Christ typology, showing that Adam is the prototype of the earthly kingdom leading to death, while Jesus is the prototype of a new creation, and all who follow Jesus will inherit his resurrection life and image rather than Adam's death and decay
So how does it happen that people stuck in the decay and wrought of this fallen creation can become eternally glorious and renewed? It is through Jesus. That's Paul's whole message. In one corinthians chapter 15, Paul poetically, powerfully contrasts Adam and Jesus and what we, in a sense, receive from them, inherit from them. So he says, look, the first Adam came from dust, and to dust he will return. But the second man came from heaven, and he took on dust and returned to heaven.
And then he says, the first Adam was a prototype, in a way, of all those who are from the earthly kingdom will follow. But Jesus is the prototype of a new kingdom, of a new creation, so that all that follow him will be part of that new creation. The first Adam and all who came after him bear the image of the first Adam. But Jesus has all who will follow him bear his image. So he's saying, listen, you inherit a family resemblance from Adam, but you will inherit a family resemblance if you are in Christ, from Christ.
So the king, maybe this is a helpful way to say it. The kingdom of dust led by Adam, to which you were born into, will not be your destiny, but rather the kingdom of heaven, led by the one who came from heaven and came into the dust, will return. He will bring all those from the dust to the new creation. Right? That is what he's saying.
And that is glorious.
23 · The pastor illustrates Christ's uniqueness with a pandemic analogy: just as researchers look for the person who doesn't get sick to find the cure, humanity infected with sin and death looks to Jesus, the one person who conquered death, who himself is the cure that can spread to all who follow him
Now, look, one of the things that happens in every pandemic is they try to find people who are not getting sick because they're like, okay, why? If we can replicate what's going on in that person, we can spread a cure to everyone. So you got some people looking at the illness and some people looking at the healthy and you want to replicate those who are not sick so that more and more people, or immune or not sick or recover. And so it is, in a sense, with Christ, all of us infected with the disease of sin and death, look to the one person who is not.
Look for the one person who holds the cure. And more than that, even who is the cure for death itself. You look for the one person who went into death and rose out of it. That's the person we're going to follow, and that is Jesus Christ. His cure can spread to all who will follow him.
24 · The pastor addresses non-Christians directly to clarify that Christianity is not about adopting Jesus' moral teachings but about being spiritually united to his resurrection life, warning that moral effort alone cannot produce resurrection
Now, if you're not a Christian, I want you to understand something really important. Following Jesus. Following Christ is not following a teacher merely or a system of belief merely. It's not as though you can adopt some of Jesus teaching, and that's kind of the whole thing. You know, we may believe some weird stuff about heaven, but really the teaching and the good morality is the key.
No, that's a complete misunderstanding of what Christianity is. Christianity means following Jesus and being connected to the resurrection life of Jesus. It is not our adherence to his system of teaching that gives us life. It is our unity with him, him that gives us resurrected life. All those spiritually connected to Christ will be connected to his resurrection life.
And no amount of loving your enemies, no amount of, oh, I'm trying to be nice to people, you know, and try to do the golden rule. Look, that's good, that's fine, but that will not bring you resurrection life. The only thing that will is being united to Jesus Christ, the resurrection. And so, friend, if you're there and you're like, okay, I'm trying to figure this Christianity thing out. Don't miss that.
25 · The pastor applies the union-with-Christ logic to believers, drawing a series of parallel statements to show that every aspect of Jesus' resurrection reality becomes the believer's own reality, making resurrection not an optional doctrine but the foundation of Christian hope
And if you're a Christian, well, take heart. Take heart, brother and sister. Look, this is what you know, this is what one Corinthians 15 tells you. If Jesus is alive today, so will you be. If Jesus rose from the dead, so will you.
If Jesus walked out of the tomb, so will you. If Jesus lives in the heavenly kingdom, so will you. If Jesus reigns, so will you reign with him. Look, friends, Jesus, the living resurrected king, his resurrection is not a nice bonus. His resurrection is everything for us as christians.
26 · The pastor transitions to the climactic moment of Christ's return, noting Paul's rising intensity as he moves toward describing the actual event of resurrection
Next question. How then will it happen? Paul gloriously takes us into the moment, the moment of Jesus return. Because he, you can tell he is ramping up. He almost can't stop himself from going here.
27 · The pastor reads Paul's description of the resurrection moment: at the trumpet sound, in an instant, the dead will be raised imperishable, the living will be transformed, and death itself will be swallowed up in victory through Christ
Verse 50. I tell you this, brothers, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Beholden, he says, 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 all be changed.
For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. 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. O death, where is your victory? O 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.
28 · The pastor unpacks the trumpet imagery as the herald of the returning king, explains the instantaneous nature of the transformation (in a nanosecond), and uses the seed-to-flower analogy to show that the dead will rise gloriously transformed to meet the descending kingdom, emphasizing that believers themselves will be as glorious as the renewed creation
Now, look, we go to the final moment of this creation, when the trumpet sounds. Now, trumpet, that's an important term because trumpets were symbolically heralds of what is to come. So when the king was entering a city, the first sign you would have of the king's entrance was a long, clear trumpet blast, like at the edge of the city. And you know the king was coming, or in battle, when you could not see, maybe you're beleaguered and you're fighting to hold on and the reinforcements and the king are coming, and you hear that single, clear note behind you, and you knew the king was coming with his reinforcements, and your victory was sure.
That is the illustration Paul is using, and he says, it will happen like this. It will happen in the twinkling of an eye, literally meaning the moment your eyes jitter from one focal point to another, which your eyes are doing dozens of times, hundreds of times a minute, maybe a couple, several times a second. Within a nanosecond, the trumpet will resound and the king will return. And his return will be heralded in an unmistakable way across all creation. And in that moment, those who have died, those who have been waiting, those who have been asleep, in the language of the text, will rise.
Christ calls the harvest out. Christ calls all the seeds into the ground to come out of the ground and meet him in the air. And as they rise, they are transformed not into the kernel, but into the flower, not into the little speck of DNA that went into the ground, but gloriously into trees and plants and things that explode into life. That's the illustration. And the new kingdom coming down will be met by bodies fit for it among the people of God.
Look, if you think, man, heaven's going to be amazing, creation's going to be amazing, so will you be in Christ. I mean, that's extraordinary.
29 · The pastor builds dramatic tension by portraying death as having an undefeated record across all human history (trillions to zero) until Jesus, the one person who conquered death by bearing others' sins despite having none of his own, then rising three days later
Look, we're not going to be in that moment wondering who has triumphed. There will be no question who has triumphed. And Paul, he takes us to death to stare at it in the face. Because think about it. For generation after generation, death has gone undefeated. Every person, every generation, every continent has succumbed to death. Death's record is, if you're like a fighter, prize fighter, it would be not five to one, not 20 to zero. It would be trillions to zero, over and over and over.
Doesn't matter what the medical advances of the age were. It doesn't matter how powerful and impactful the person's life was. It doesn't matter if you were famous. It doesn't matter if you were poor, poor or rich or beautiful or ugly. No one in the history of creation has yet defeated death.
And yet that's not quite true, is it? There has been one. One person in the whole of human existence that has ever defeated death. One person who undeniably, as we covered a couple weeks ago, undeniably has risen from the dead. One man, the man, Christ Jesus.
And he. Well, the power of death, it says, is sin, meaning sin equals death. Sin leads to death. But he had no sin, so he deserved no death. And yet he sought death.
Out. He went looking for it. He offered himself to it, not for his own sake, but for the sake of all those who were sinners held captive by the power of sin and death. And he bore their sins on his body, paying the penalty to the very last. And then three days later, rose again.
30 · The pastor uses a prize fight analogy to show death's unbroken winning streak until Jesus, then imagines the resurrection as the scoreboard spinning backward as saint after saint moves to the victory side, culminating in death itself being swallowed by Christ's triumph
And listen, imagine it like this, as if, you know that moment at the end of the prize fight where maybe it's a split decision. Judges are conferring, and then the referee goes, winner, like this person. Everyone claps, right? Look, up until this point in human history, there's been no suspense. You have death on one side, and you have any human on the other.
Oh, here comes Julius Caesar. He was pretty powerful. Winner, death. Right? Oh, here comes this great king.
Winner, death. Here comes some foremost scientist of the age. Winner, death, over and over and over. No suspense, foregone conclusion until Jesus. And in that moment, the winner, Jesus Christ, son of heaven.
Right? That is what Paul is saying. And as a result of that moment, on that day when Christ returns, the scoreboard, which is trillions to one, will begin spinning backwards and over and over, saint after saint, generation after generation, continent after continent, will move to the victor side of death's record. And in the end, death, who has swallowed generations and families and continents with its disease and war and famine and pandemic. In that moment, death itself will be swallowed by victory.
Death itself will be swallowed by the victory of Jesus Christ, the son of God, redeemer, savior, lord and king, and here. Amen. Amen.
31 · The pastor steps into direct pastoral address to ensure Christians grasp that Christ's victory over death becomes theirs not through human effort or righteousness but purely through grace-fueled union with Christ, who shares his triumph with them
And here's what I do not want you to miss, Christian. His victory means yours. Look, for centuries, we've looked for ways to beat death, to cheat death, to live longer, to escape it. We look for maybe I could do this, maybe I could do that. And nothing we have done has worked.
Attempts either to destroy the sin in our lives, to somehow keep enough law that we would be acceptable in God's sight to be mystical or spiritual enough to ascend to a higher plane. All of it, failure, failure, failure. And yet, notice in this moment how the church of Jesus Christ conquers, not through their smarts, not through their righteousness, but through Jesus Christ. Right? The victory is his, but the glorious good news is we share it with him.
No, that's wrong. He shares it with us like that. Does that make grace so much more amazing, to realize we are part of this moment because of his grace toward us?
32 · The pastor transitions from the theology of resurrection to its practical implications, framing the remainder of the sermon around the question of how resurrection hope affects present living
So then, friends, how should we live differently? Well, let me ask the last question. Why does it matter today?
33 · The pastor reads Paul's concluding exhortation to be steadfast and immovable in light of the entire resurrection argument
Verse 58. Therefore, he's saying, in light of all of one corinthians 15, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable.
34 · The pastor explains Paul's pastoral diagnosis: the Corinthians' instability—being tossed by circumstances, new theologies, and cultural currents—stems from failing to cling to resurrection hope, which is why Paul emphasizes resurrection as of first importance to produce steadfastness
Now, look, Paul is such a wise pastor and leader. He is diagnosing the corinthian church's problems even from a distance. And he sees that one of the chief issues the Corinthians are having is that they are getting pushed and pulled, tossed back and forth by every, every circumstance in life, every new theology, every new cultural current. They are just getting tossed around, right? They are just getting, what about this? And then something will happen, and then they'll be sad, like, oh, no, somebody died. What if Jesus doesn't come back?
They're gonna miss the resurrection, and then something else will happen over here, and they're just getting tossed back and forth, so susceptible to every wind of doctrine. And Paul is diagnosing that much of their instability in life flows from their lack of clinging to the resurrection of Jesus Christ and its implications. That's why he says, I deliver to you what is of first importance, the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Meaning that the resurrection has this glorious effect on the Christian that makes us steadfast and immovable no matter what life throws at us.
35 · The pastor illustrates life-destabilizing moments with the experience of receiving a devastating medical diagnosis or losing a loved one, showing how even Christians feel their feet move and existence become painful, though he clarifies that grief is appropriate since Jesus himself wept
Look, I have been there where you get a medical diagnosis that you fear deeply implications for your life or the life of your loved one or the life of your child. And you think, life's never going to be the same after this. And you feel in that instant, your feet that seem so steady, they move. And you begin to wonder, what will happen to them? What will happen to me? What will happen to this loved one?
How will this go? Or maybe worse comes to worst, and they are taken from you. They pass on. And you're wondering, how can I continue to live? How can I continue to exist?
Even existence feels painful in that moment. And look, and I'm not saying that grief is not real. Jesus wept at the tomb of his friend Lazarus even as he knew he would raise him. So grief is appropriate.
36 · The pastor applies the steadfastness principle by showing how resurrection hope enables Christians to remain steady even in devastating loss—they may grieve deeply but ultimately stand firm, dry their eyes, and taunt death with its lost sting, urging the congregation to return to this passage repeatedly for stability
But there is a way for the Christian, more than any other kind of person in the world, to remain steadfast and immovable. No matter what life does, no matter what death takes, no matter what happens next, the Christian says, with Christ, I will rise with him. Right? If Jesus rose from the dead, so will I. And that moment of fear and instability, while we may feel it, while we may weep for a night or a month or a year, we dry our eyes, stand tall, and say, death, where is your sting now? You will not take my hope in Jesus Christ.
There is a way, brother or sister, if you have felt unstable, if you have felt tossed back and forth, if you have felt like man, some days, it just feels like the ground is shifting beneath me constantly as I try to stand up. It's like we were at white Sands recently, and you're trying to, like, climb up one of those dunes and your feet are going, whoa. If that's what life feels like for you, I can relate. But the good news of one corinthians 15 is this. Jesus really did rise.
And if he did, you really will rise, too. And that changes everything. So, friend, let me encourage you. This should be a refrigerator passage, a bathroom mirror passage, a passage that you go to again and again and again.
37 · The pastor explains Paul's second exhortation—to abound in the Lord's work—by diagnosing the Corinthians' problem: they were constantly distracted by temporary pleasures (sexual immorality, wealth, luxury), causing their eternal work to diminish while their temporal pursuits increased
And the second effect is be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain. One of the issues in Corinth is that they kept getting distracted constantly by what the world was holding out and offering them. Right? They're like, yeah, I like Jesus, but I also kind of like this, you know, this kind of free spirited, sexual immorality stuff. That sounds fun, right? Like, they're just.
They're going, like, over here, like, oh, you know what? Yeah, I love Jesus, but, like, making a lot of money and having, you know, a really choice vintage on Sunday afternoons, which is a real thing in one corinthians. That sounds like something I would like to pursue. Right? In other words, the work they did out there for things that are temporary increased.
And the work they did for things that were eternal diminished and faded. And Paul's trying to refocus them. He's trying to refocus them on the right kind of work.
38 · The pastor applies Paul's exhortation by giving Christians a discernment question for all their activities: will this crack and fade in eternity, or will it become more true, solid, and beautiful when viewed from eternity's perspective?
And he says that everything you do, Christian asks the question, what will eternity do to this? Is this a thing that will crack and fade and blow away? Or is this a thing that will become truer, more solid and more beautiful when viewed in eternity?
You need to make sure you're about the right work.
39 · The pastor uses the church's decades-long care for Linda Remple—a widow with a disabled daughter who had nothing to offer materially—as an illustration of work that will grow more beautiful in eternity, contrasting it with careers and resumes that will fade, and urging the church to continue investing in eternal work
And listen, I just want to encourage us as a church, I want to encourage you as a church with the way that you serve misses Remple as an illustration of this. So our church cared for Misses Remple as a widow for decades. She lost her husband in middle age, and she had a daughter with severe disabilities, and she never learned to drive either.
And so, week after week, I watched, I hope some of you are in here. I watched our kids ministry teachers be so patient with her daughter, Karen. And I watched ride schedule after ride schedule go out in the email for who's going to pick misses Remple up? Who's going to drop her off home? Who's going to bring her to community group? And I watched person after person engage with her. Look, Misses Remple had nothing to offer you from a human standpoint.
She was not wealthy. She had lost her beauty by then. And yet you as a church, loved this dear woman. And the reality is this, brothers and sisters, that she represents the kind of work that will only grow more beautiful when seen from eternity. Look, our careers and our resumes are going to crack and fade and be forgotten. But the precious soul of misses Remple will live on with Christ for eternity.
And the beauty of the church's care for her will become more beautiful when we see her. And the design of God in eternity. Put your work, church, into the work that will not perish, will not fade, but will last.
40 · The pastor tells the story of Linda Remple's first car wash experience at age 80+, where she laughed with pure delight throughout the entire experience, capturing both her joy and the simple kindness of Carlos and Gloria taking her through something she'd never experienced
Let me end with this one more misses Rumpel story. Carlos and Gloria Gomez were some of the most faithful people to give Linda a ride from church back home. And so Carlos said last year, he asked if they could go through a car wash on the way home because it was near her house. And she said, sure. But what Carlos and Gloria did not know is that misses Remple, because she could not drive and never owned a license, that she had never been through a car wash in her life. She was largely confined to home and church or the doctor. And so they went through the car wash.
Now, she knew what she would experience to some degree. There's going to be water, there's going to be soap, there's going to be little machines worrying around, so don't be concerned. And she's like, okay, great. So they go in the car wash, and as soon as the car wash begins, you know, with the colored foam and the lights flashing, she begins to laugh. Just laugh with Carlos.
Tell me yesterday, just with delight. Just overjoyed, I mean. And she continued laughing, Carlos said, until they were out of the. He thought, okay, surely at least the big blower is at the end. She'll stop.
No, the blowers came, and she's like, oh, watching the water crawl across the car, and she's delighted. She couldn't stop laughing. She loved it. First time in her life. And Carlos thought, man, I'm so glad I got that moment with her.
41 · The pastor concludes by using Linda Remple's car wash experience as an analogy for resurrection: just as she couldn't fully grasp the delight until she experienced it, Christians can't fully grasp resurrection glory from Paul's description but will be overwhelmed with joy when it happens, then restates the sermon's thesis in its Latin formulation
But here's what I want you to get from one corinthians 15. One corinthians 15 is like that because Paul can look, he can give us some of the components of what we're going to experience. He's going to say, your body's not going to be like this. Your body is going to be like this. This will be there.
This won't be there. And it's kind of like we lay it out and we go, okay, I mean, that sounds good, but we're church on this side of eternity. We are like misses remple before entering the car wash, where we're like, sure, okay, sounds good. But in the twinkling of an eye, what we will see and experience will be beyond all that we can imagine. And I cannot but imagine that we will laugh with delight.
So, brothers and sisters, memento mori, meaning, remember, you will die. Memento resurrect. Remember, you will rise again. Memento vivere. Remember to live in light of it.