1 Corinthians - Week 26

0:00 You, as you were coming out this morning, you may have had, I know it's a Sunday, but you may have had the TV on in the background. You may have had on the London Marathon on BBC. Did anybody have that on on their way out? Or was it all kids programs before you came out, perhaps? It's on today. And my iPad's just died. It is on today, and let me show you a picture from a few years ago, a slightly younger and a slightly lighter Chris, at London Marathon in 2012 with my friend Paul there at the starting line. And I remember this day very well.

0:41 I remember the excitement on the start line. I remember trying to keep up the pace, the crossing Tower Bridge, the running up the mall at the end. But I also remember the three or four months before it too, and how everything in your life needed to be rearranged for this goal, these 26 miles on this day, whether that was your social life, whether that was your family life, whether that was your diet. I wish I'd done that a little bit better. Whatever it was, it all needed to be rearranged. It all needed to be turned upside down. It all needed to be aimed at this place, at this day, for this goal. And a word that actually comes in our passage this morning is the Greek word telos, which really sums that up, captures that.

1:27 It's the final goal that you're aiming to achieve, and you line all of everything else up to the whole of your life up to actually achieve and look forward to. So that's the London Marathon. But Paul, this morning, as we continue in 1 Corinthians 15, as we continue in this amazing argument that he builds about the resurrection, that's what this passage is all about too. It basically is the question, what is your goal? What is the telos of your life? What is your life lined up towards? What is this aimed up towards? And that's what we're going to pick up this morning.

2:09 And we're going to continue in part two of our three parts in this chapter. So let's pick up where we left off. And we're going to look at verses 12 to 19. 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? And if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead, but he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either.

2:55 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile. You're still in your sin. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ. Listen to how important this is to Paul. We are of all people most to be pitied. As I mentioned last week, verse 12, the first verse here, that's where we find the crux of the matter of what's going on in this church in Corinth. Some in the church are saying very clearly that there is no resurrection of the dead, influenced by the prevailing worldview of Greek culture and philosophy that they live in in the city of Corinth, especially concerning, as we talked about, the corrupt, the dirty, the evil body, and aspiring then to retain the appearance of sophistication and super spirituality.

3:52 They've ditched their belief in resurrection bodies, And they've reduced the resurrection of Jesus just to some sort of vague metaphorical symbol of, I don't know, perhaps the power of God in us as a people or something like that. And look at the way then Paul responds to their claim. He simply could have said in his horror, you're absolutely wrong or you're talking nonsense, but he chooses to speak to them in the language that they will understand and get. He goes into this in rhetorical argument. And what he gives them here in these verses that we've just read is clearly recognized as a key element of rhetorical argument. This is the refutation of their position. In other words, what he's saying is this. If what you say is true, here are the logical consequences of your position.

4:51 Here's what happens when you pull away at the thread of the resurrection in the gospel tapestry. Or here's what happens when you try to pull the Jenga block. Those people who have been reading Being Human with me will know what that is talking about. When you pull the Jenga block of the resurrection out of the base of the gospel tower. First Paul says, if there's no such thing as resurrection of the dead, then there's no such thing as the resurrection of Christ. you cannot deny one without denying the other. We'll see that Paul always sees Christ's resurrection and then the resurrection of his people in Christ as two things which go together, which can't be separated. You can't deny one without denying the other.

5:35 And if Jesus has not actually been physically raised from the dead and is instead simply lying in a grave somewhere in Palestine, well then Paul says, our preaching to you and therefore the entirety of your faith, which is based on our preaching, is empty, is futile, is delusionary, and is completely devoid of power. As well as that, he says, if Christ hasn't been raised from the dead, then what you're actually saying is this, that every eyewitness to the risen Christ, myself, Peter, the 12, James, they're false, they're fake. They are out and out liars. The foundational witnesses of your faith are charlatans. That's what your logic suggests. As well as that, if Christ hasn't been raised, the reality is, Paul goes on, you're still in your sins. Because the gospel is absolutely powerless to save if Christ hasn't been raised. Forgiveness that you think you have, that's a delusion.

6:39 If the person of Jesus simply died a tragic but ultimately ordinary and powerless death. Because it's God's raising Christ from the dead that is our guarantee that his work at the cross actually achieved what it was meant to achieve. That the debt has been paid. That sin has been fully atoned for. God raising Christ from the dead is that guarantee. But if it's not there, well then, you're still in your sin. And then lastly, if there's no resurrection of the dead, then all of those who've fallen asleep in Christ are simply gone. Lost forever.

7:20 All your loved ones who put their faith in Christ, it's game over. Paul doesn't hold back with his overall assessment of where their logic takes them. If what you're saying is true, then, if it's only for this life that we've placed our hope in Christ with nothing beyond, if there is no resurrection of the dead, we are more to be pitied than the rest of humanity. What are we doing here? This is just an exercise in futility and delusion. We have no hope at all. We are wasting our time. Let's go and get on with something better.

8:03 That's what Paul clearly says here to those who are saying there is no resurrection from the dead. Those who are trying to de-resurrection the gospel. Says it to those in Corinth in his own time here and his words continue to ring out loud and clear to all of those who try to de-resurrection the gospel today. You subtract the resurrection, he says, and you're left with absolutely nothing. those today who try to tailor it to be more palatable to prevailing materialist worldview that we live in those who turn the real historical event of christ bodily resurrection into some sort of metaphor to make it more credible to soften its supernatural and its exclusive sharp edges to fit in with our more pluralistic times to domesticate the gospel what they end up doing is only unraveling the whole thing or demolishing the whole thing in their vain attempts. And what they are left preaching is empty and powerless

9:18 and quite frankly pathetic because it saves no one. Let's pick up again, verse 20. But, Paul says, Christ has indeed been raised from the dead. The first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in turn, Christ the first fruits, then when he comes, those who belong to him. Then the end will come when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority, and power.

10:04 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death, for he has put everything under his feet. Now, when it says that everything has been put under him, it's clear that this does not include God himself who put everything under Christ. When he has done this. Then the son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him so that God may be all in all. There's a little bit of complexity in that, so let's work our way through it. Paul moves here from his refutation, that part of his argument, into this part of his argument, which is called a confirmation. It's literally saying, this is what happens if what you say is true, but actually this is the reality.

10:59 And it's a declaration of how things really are and what a declaration. Christ has indeed been raised from the dead. And if we just, we look at this picture, I'm just amazed when I look at it and I see the scope of what it is that Paul is talking about here. Let me tell you, he says what that means for humanity. Yes, absolutely. but let me tell you what that means for the whole universe as well. Let me paint for you in cosmic brushstrokes the picture of the unstoppable chain of events set in motion by the resurrection of Christ. And he starts with what it means for us.

11:41 Christ's resurrection is the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep, of those who have died in him. What a beautiful metaphor, just bursting with hope and bursting with assurance for so many of us sitting in this room this morning. In fact, for all of us, but probably for some of us in particular right now. The first fruits were the celebrated first part of the year's crop to emerge. Grain, wheat, grapes, olives, whatever. And they were celebrated in the community because they were a sign, because they were an assurance, they were a pledge, a guarantee that the rest of the crop was going to follow in the same way. So Paul is saying here, when it comes to resurrection body, Christ's resurrection body is the first fruit, is the prototype, is the guarantee that all of those who have fallen asleep in him or will fall asleep in him in the future will be part of that same crop. Will in all certainty be raised in resurrection bodies too because he has been raised to glorious life.

13:01 It is only a matter of time. Only a matter of time before all those in Christ do too. It is an absolute foregone conclusion, an absolute inevitability. Paul then builds on the first-friars metaphor by going back to the Genesis story, the story of the fall that he brings out here. Death, he says, came through one man, Adam. Now the resurrection of the dead also comes through one man, Christ. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. All of us, every single one of us, it's a 100% figure,

13:48 are united to Adam in our shared humanity. And all of us, like Adam, barring Christ's return in our lifetime, will follow our human prototype and die like him. But now, in the same way, all of us who are in Christ by faith will follow him, our prototype into being made alive. All that is true of Christ is 100% guaranteed going to be true for those who are in Christ. As I've said, it's not a question of if. It's merely a question of when the rest of the bumper crop pushes through. and then Paul then goes on to deal with that when and the why of the when.

14:41 Here is God's proper order of things. That's what he is outlining here in these verses. The proper order of things that follow out of Christ's resurrection and here's the why of that proper order and so we can see that and he gives it here for our reassurance and our hope. you know those maps that you that you see i don't know in a in a park or in a zoo somewhere and it says you are here and then you sort of work out where you have to go based on that that's a good starting point that's what paul is doing here he's literally saying you are here in the big picture of god's redemptive story that's what paul is doing and so he says each in turn christ the first fruits then when he comes those who belong to him the guaranteed resurrection of those who belong to Christ will happen in God's timing and plan when Jesus makes his promised return to bring God's kingdom rule to earth so on that big map of God's story of redemption and restoration, we are right now in an in-between time of waiting. Jesus' death and resurrection has established his kingship. It's inaugurated his decisive kingdom rule and reign.

16:08 He is king. As I've said, it has set in motion the unstoppable chain of events. But we've got to understand that that victory, the scope of that victory is not instantaneous. There's a story about Winston Churchill in World War II, that on the night that the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, he realized that the United States would have to now enter the war alongside the Allies, which meant for him with the military might of the US In his own words, I went to bed and slept the sleep of the saved and the thankful. It would take years before the war was won, but he was right. And that's where we are in cosmic terms with far more certainty than Churchill ever was. We wait in the now and not yet of the kingdom of God.

17:13 And often the waiting is painful. And often the waiting is sorrowful. But we wait already celebrating the victory won and the certainty of its resurrection benefits to come. And as we wait, this is the reality that we can sleep the sleep of the saved and the thankful. Pauline draws on two Psalms as we move on through this. Psalm 110 and Psalm 8 to help us understand why we currently wait, because Jesus still has victory work to complete on our behalf as the true human being. Both Psalm 110 and Psalm 8, if you look them up after this today or in your home groups or cell discussions this week, both of them use this phrase, under his feet. Psalm 110 is that messianic psalm that I mentioned last week.

18:11 It's the psalm that talks about the Messiah that prophesies about him. And it says, the Lord God says to my Lord, Messiah, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. Psalm 8 though, Psalm 8 is different. Many of us will know that Psalm. It's about humanity. It's that Psalm, who is man that you're mindful of him. But it also says in that one, You made them rulers. That's humanity of the works of your hands.

18:47 You put everything under their feet. So here is what we, human beings made in the image of God, were designed and purposed to do. We were designed and purposed to rule and reign over creation and under God. But you just have to turn on the news for 30 seconds to realize that we have made quite a mess out of that. We have failed miserably in our calling. Jesus then, as the true human, is now, post his resurrection, at work fulfilling the calling of humanity on our behalf, bringing about, in his words in Matthew 19 that we looked at just a few months ago, the renewal of all things. For now we wait. We wait.

19:44 As he reigns as king and puts all his enemies under his feet. Rulers, authorities, powers of this dark world, spiritual forces of evil, philosophies, idols, everything and anything that stands in opposition to the king and to his victorious kingdom. As Paul has already said in chapter 2, the rulers of this age are already in the process of coming to nothing. And the final enemy to be destroyed, to be annihilated, is death, Paul says. At that moment of Christ's return, death itself will be conquered, and all those in Christ will be raised in resurrected bodies. And not only that, in the words of Romans 8, all of creation, all of creation will be liberated from its bondage to gay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. And we'll look and talk much more about that in the third part next week when we look in detail at what Paul says about our resurrection bodies.

21:09 And then he closes this part, the end will come. The end will come. The end does not mean the end of the story and then we close the book and that's it done. It means that word that I gave you at the beginning. It means the telos. It means the goal, the purpose of all that God has achieved in Christ. Flowing out from the resurrection. The telos that the son will hand over that renewal of all things kingdom to the father.

21:40 To God and will subject himself again to God. Who put everything under his feet in the first place to do that. So that, what's the telos? so that God may be all in all. The source of all things and the goal of everything too. This is where everything is going. This is where the story is inexorably going, Paul says. And that all follows on.

22:12 That all flows out of. That is all because of the reality that Christ has indeed been raised from the dead. And so to our last few verses this morning. Now Paul changes tack again. If there's no resurrection, what will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized for them? And as for us, why do we endanger ourselves every hour? I face death every day.

22:45 Yes, just as surely as I boast about you in Christ Jesus our Lord. If I fought wild beasts in Ephesus with no more than human hopes, what have I gained? If the dead are not raised, well, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. Do not be misled. Bad company corrupts good character. Come back to your senses as you ought and stop sinning. For there are some who are ignorant of God. I say this to your shame.

23:18 So having made his declaration of the truth and the eternal ramifications of that truth that Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, Paul returns again in these last verses that we're gonna look at, back to refuting their claims again. But this time, rather than talking generally, he talks in more specific terms about them in the Corinthian church and about himself and his life. Without the resurrection, he's asking, do the lives that we live right now make any sense? That's what he's asking. And he highlights first here this very strange thing, what he calls baptism for the dead. Now, the best way for you and your home groups and cell groups this week to completely waste your time is to spend all of the night debating the various theories about what Paul is going on about here. Top Bible scholars and theologians admit themselves that they are taking a best guess approach and no theory is particularly satisfactory to anyone. Is it some sort of practice of proxy baptism for believers who have died before they got baptized?

24:34 If it is, it's certainly not a practice that lasted very long. Is it people getting baptized rather in response to the witness of Christian loved ones who have died, these Christian loved ones who have died in the full expectation of their resurrection, and then these people have got baptized with part of their motivation being because they want to join with the loved ones that have died? Or is it something else? Well, I would say this, if we are still interested about this in the age to come, I'm sure we could maybe make an appointment with Paul and ask him what he was talking about. But until then, I think it's better that we try and stick to seeing his point. He's not endorsing here whatever's going on. Let's make that clear. He is observing it and he's saying very simply, what you're doing, Corinthians, what this is you're practicing, It makes absolutely no sense whatsoever without the resurrection.

25:31 It just does not line up. Next Sunday evening, I think there's a few of them upstairs now in a baptism class. 13 people will be fully immersed under the water in front of me here, signifying the burial of their old selves with Christ. But then crucially, crucially, both theologically and medically, they will be lifted back out of the water to signify what? To signify their resurrection with Christ to new life with him. We don't cheer and applaud when they go down under the water. We cheer and applaud when they come back out of the water.

26:13 And that again makes no sense without the resurrection. Paul then turns the lens on himself and says, do you honestly think, do you honestly think if the resurrection is just some sort of metaphor, if it's just some sort of spiritual symbol that I prepared myself to face death day in, day out the way I'm currently doing in Ephesus? Do you honestly think that would be the case? Just to tell news of a Jesus who actually died but who somehow lives on in our hearts. Why on earth, he's saying, would I do that? I fought wild beasts in Ephesus for the sake of the gospel, he said. Now those Corinthian readers would have known that Paul, as a Roman citizen, couldn't be speaking literally here. There's no way he would be thrown into the Colosseum or any sort of arena like that.

27:14 He's drawing instead on that imagery of the gladiators in the Colosseum to describe the colossal spiritual, emotional, and physical battle he has fought in proclaiming the gospel in the face of severe opposition in enemy territory. All the daily threats of violence, of potential death, all of that struggle for nothing. If there's no resurrection, well then Paul says, quoting their prized Epicurean philosophers, let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die. Why seek to live for anything apart from what brings pleasure and enjoyment today? A very apt, ironic swipe at a group of people whose behavior, as we've seen throughout this letter around eating and drinking and pleasure seeking were causing huge problems within their community. And what Paul's saying is this, you might not realize it, you might not see it, but those problems are stemming from the fact that the resurrection is missing from your mindset, is missing from your vision. And he quotes again, this time from a famous Greek poet and playwright, menander. Bad company corrupts good character.

28:40 Again, his choice of quote and source is dripping with irony here. The fact that he's using their pagan poet and playwright and quoting him back to them. You, Corinthian church, you're living proof of his saying. You've allowed the worldview of your city and your neighbors to creep in and distort your beliefs on this central tenet of the gospel. Instead of you going out as witnesses and uncorrupting their thinking with the truth of the resurrection, you've allowed the opposite to happen in your desire to appear spiritual and relevant and sophisticated. You think that you are full of knowledge, but in holding this belief, you betray your ignorance. Your ignorance of God, of the plans of God, of the power of God, of the character of God. Don't be deceived, he says.

29:43 Come back to your senses. Wake up. Sober up. I say this to shame you in the hope that that shame wakes you up. Put the resurrection back at the very center of your faith and your thinking and your life. That's what he's saying to them. Next week we will listen in as Paul builds his resurrection argument to its magnificent crescendo and brings all of this together. But as we draw to a close today, let's ask ourselves,

30:22 how might we too need to listen to that call from Paul and ask, is there anything in it for us? Is there some way we need to wake up? Is there some way we need to sober up? Is there some way we need to come back to our senses with this glorious picture of our sure and certain future that Paul's laid out in these verses. Set in unstoppable motion by Christ's resurrection. Let me lay them out for you. Christ's return.

30:59 Resurrection bodies for us when Christ returns. Christ's defeat of every enemy, including death. Christ's renewal of all things. Christ's handing over the kingdom to God so that God might be all in all. Us taking our place as citizens and heirs in that eternal kingdom, in our resurrected bodies, dwelling in the full presence of God, living each day in the fullness of his glory. This is the trajectory. This is the telos of our lives. This is our reality in Christ.

31:49 to our lives then, right now, today line up on that trajectory? Do they line up on that goal, on that tell us? Or are we sleepwalking alone? With daily lives more lined up actually on the let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die trajectory. or maybe the more subtle life is short, or you only live once trajectory. Are we allowing ourselves to get so caught up in? Are we allowing ourselves to get so intoxicated by the world's distractions,

32:32 and the world's pleasures, and the world's ambitions, and the world's fears, that our resurrection reality, our eternal kingdom, citizenship reality, is being squeezed out of our present reality. And so our lives are pretty much indistinguishable from those around us. If that's the case, we need to do all that we can to wake ourselves up. Day in, day out, we need to be making the space to fill our minds, to fill our imaginations, our hearts, to fill each other's minds and imaginations and hearts with the reality of who we are in Christ and where we are headed in Christ. Do we make any space or time for that? We need to read God's word. We need to meditate on God's word.

33:31 We need to sing. We need to worship. We need to pray. We need to share. We need to declare this gospel to one another, we need to allow ourselves the space to get reassured together, to get excited together, to get stirred up together, to get filled up together, to allow the Holy Spirit to transform our minds with truth, to fill our imaginations with truth. With the depth and the breadth and the wonder and the glory of the reality. of the hope that Paul lays out here in these verses. How do we need to wake up?

34:19 But then if we do this, if we make this space, if we day in, day out, seek to fill our imaginations and our hearts, well then we can live with clear eyes and full and excited and expectant hearts. We need both. And let's seek to live our lives today in light of our resurrection. Transformed, distinctive lives that seek his kingdom first. Transformed, distinctive lives that have a totally different perspective on everything in life, on our time, on our relationships, on our money, on our work, on our successes and on our failures, on our suffering and on our loss.

35:16 Transformed, distinctive lives shaped and empowered by that truth. Christ has indeed been raised from the dead and lives that are fully, courageously, expectantly, passionately, aimed at that telos, aimed at that goal that we pray, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Let's pray. Father, by your spirit, show us where we need to come back to our senses show us how we need to wake up by your word and your spirit as we open ourselves up to it as your church fill our hearts we pray clarify our vision we pray and may the resurrection of Christ and all that is inevitably, certainly gonna follow from it. May that shape every aspect of our day-to-day lives in the here and now we pray. In Jesus' name, amen.