1 Corinthians 15:12-28

1 Corinthians 15:12-28

Watch

Read

The Risen Christ, Our Hope

12 Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. 14 And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty. 15 Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up—if in fact the dead do not rise. 16 For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. 17 And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! 18 Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.

The Last Enemy Destroyed

20 But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. 23 But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ’s at His coming. 24 Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. 25 For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. 26 The last enemy that will be destroyed is death. 27 For “He has put all things under His feet.” But when He says “all things are put under Him,” it is evident that He who put all things under Him is excepted. 28 Now when all things are made subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things under Him, that God may be all in all.

The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982), 1 Co 15:12-28.

• Transcript

  Should be pretty close. Wonderful. Well, good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Welcome to Coffee and devotions is where every day you and I, we get together. Very important. We have a little bit of coffee and we get into God's word. And we grow in our love for the Lord together in this year, Lord willing, we'll see if we do it. We'll make it from the book of Acts to the book of fight Lehman. I'm so glad to be with you this morning. We're going to kind of get down to the root logic of things as we look at the resurrection. Let's have some coffee. We'll pray and we'll get into God's Word. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for this day. Thank you for your word. Thank you for the blessing it is to get to come to you and to hear from you. Lord, we pray that as we sit under your word, that your spirit would be our teacher that we would know and understand the things that you would have for us this morning. We pray that we might see Christ, in Jesus's name, Amen. All right, so here we go. First Corinthians chapter 15. We'll pick up at verse 12. First Corinthians 15. We'll pick up at verse 12. Now if Christ is preached that he has been raised from the dead, how do some among us say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ has not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty. Yes, we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom he did not raise up if in fact, the dead do not rise. For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile. You are still in your sins then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in this life, we have hope in Christ, we are of all men, the most pitiable. But now Christ is risen from the dead, as has become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since by man came death, by man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as an Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive by each one in his own order Christ the first fruits after word, those who are Christ's at His coming. Then comes the dead, when He delivers the kingdom to God, the Father, when he puts an end to all rule and all authority and power, For he must reign till he has put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be destroyed is death. For he has put all things under his feet, but when he says all things are put under him, it is evident that he who puts all things under him is accepted. Now when all things are made subject to him, then the Son himself will also be subject to him who put all things under him, that God may be all in all. Well, what a wonderful passage, we need to ask ourselves a What is this about? Be what's the best first to summarize this and see what are we called? To do in response to these words, right. So a, what is this about? Well, Paul takes things through their logical ends, right? He says, some of you don't believe that there's any resurrection of the dead, that nobody raises from the dead. Well, hold on. There's a problem with that or it's a false addressing an errant believer in teaching in the church. And he says, Hold on here, right? He says a series of different conditional ifs to get here. All right, if there's no resurrection from the dead, then Christ hasn't been raised. And if Christ hasn't been raised, then we those who are the eyewitnesses who saw this are liars because we testified in God that these things are true. And if Christ didn't raise from the dead, then you're still in your sins. If you're still in your sins, because there is no resurrection, the dead and we're false witnesses, then there's no hope for the people who have already died in Christ. If there's no resurrection of the dead, we're above all people. most to be pitied. Right, because that means our faith is a sham. There's no hope. It's just okay. Jesus paid for our sins in this life. What do you do? Who cares because there's nothing after this. He says, No, that's not the case. It does not what happened. The resurrection is true. The witnesses have told the truth. And God is doing these things. And so this is what the first part is about. Verses 12 through 19 and verse 20, he leans in to the truth, he says, But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep, right? It says, No more of these conditional statements no more questioning the resurrection. We're going to tell you the truth here. Christ is risen from the dead and he's the first fruits. So first, since by man death came by man, so also the resurrection of the dead. And he puts this even further in the next verse about Adam and Christ. This is a what he's done in Romans chapter five also right when he connects all humanity to Christ or to sorry, all humanity to Adam, saying an Adam, he's our representative head and in Him, we've all sinned. He does it again here in verse in chapter 15, verse 22, for as an Adam all die, all of us by our connection to Adam, we're all going to die. But verse 22, so in Christ all shall be made alive now I need to warn you here there's some people have taken that the second part of verse 22 and taken the all and and come to position called universalism, and said, Oh, see, everyone, just like everyone was an atom and everyone's gonna die. So now everyone is in Christ and everyone's going to get to live. Well, we need to read the next verse. But each one in his own order Christ the first roots afterwards, those who are Christ's at His coming. See, it's the resurrection of the righteous those who are in Christ when He returns, who will be raised to newness of life, for everlasting life. Now we can talk about later we'll come to other passages where it's going to talk about the resurrection of the dead of the unrighteous for judgment, and for eternal conscious torment. That's that's a difficult topic that we'll come to in later passages, but here it's focusing on the faith of the righteous, the faith of those who are united to Christ in First Corinthians and the church in Corinth. And so he says, When Christ returns, he's the first fruits and those who belong to Him will also raise again when he returns. And so he continues here and he says, in Verse 24, then comes the end, right, so we're talking about this is a theological area called eschatology, right, the theology of last things. So when Christ returns, he's going to raise the dead, right the dead are going to rise again. But things are going to change. Right this is this is some amazing things that happened here and 24 through 28, what are some things that are going to change when He delivers the kingdom of God? The Father, when he puts an into all rule and authority and power, he must reign toe he has pulled all enemies under His feet. Jesus Christ is going to return. And the father is going to subject all things to the sun, is we're going to keep reading through this and see that he is tying together both Psalm eight and Psalm 110, that King Jesus, that KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS is going to receive and conquer over all the kingdoms of this world. For he must reign until he has put all enemies under His feet. That last enemy that will be destroyed is death. Can't wait for that day. No more pain, no more sorrow. He'll wipe away every tear from our eyes. The wicked will be judged and He will establish a kingdom of righteousness that will endure forever. Verse 27, for he has put all things under his feet, that psalm eight verse six, but when he says, All things are put under him, it is evident that he who put all things under him is accepted. Jesus Christ has been accepted by the Father. And he's, we know that he's accepted by the Father because He has ascended up into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father now and he's going to come again to judge the living in the dead. And the father has subjected all things under his feet, he is presently now the king and someday he is going to return and he is going to establish His kingdom of righteousness. And notice what it says here, the very last verse. Now when all things are made subject to him, then the Son himself will also be subject to him, who put all things under him, that God may be all in all. Just a note here a Trinitarian note here of what theologians call functional subordination ism, right? So this is this is, this is heavy type theology, right? But there's an economic trinity and there's the ontological Trinity, right so the the economic trinity is how we see the Trinity operating the three persons of the Godhead the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, we know that these three are one equal, and power and glory, majesty. might, you know, there they are, one God. And if there's three persons in the Godhead, and so in the end, that's their ontological, but on their economic how these three persons of the Godhead interact with each other. We see the sun as functionally subordinate to the Father. That just like a wife in a marriage is any analogy is going to break down so please don't email me and say this is heresy. Right? But just like a wife and a marriage is ontologically equal with her husband, and yet functionally in the marriage she is subordinate she listens to her husband, Christ in a similar not the same way, in a similar way, willingly subjecting himself to the Father to the Father's glory, and the Father is glorified in the sons functional subjection to him. And here in verse 28, he says, that the sun himself will also be subject to him, who put all things under him, that God may be all in all right, the God might be supreme over everything, that God might be the one who is sovereign over all kingdoms, all nations, all people, because he's put everything right. So the Father gives the son, the kingdom, establishes everything puts all things under his feet, and what does the sun do? The sun then presents everything to the Father. See this is the harmony that happens within the Godhead. But the whole point of this what is that whole section about God is going, Jesus is going to return bodily and he is going to raise the dead again, bodily and he is going to establish the Kingdom of Heaven. On Earth. physically write the new heavens and the new earth our physical we're not just going to be disembodied souls flying around like the cartoons portray us with little angel wings up in heaven and stuff like that. No, no, we're our bodies are going to be raised again from the dead and we know that this is the truth because Jesus rose again from the dead. He's the first fruits of the resurrection. Well, what's the best first to summarize this? had a hard time with that one. Alright, I want to I let's see here, what would I underline? You know, this is a new Bible is so nice. I haven't marked it up yet. Actually, let me grab my old Bible. Give me one second. Grab my old Bible and see what I underlined over here. So yeah, in my old Bible, I have verse 19. underlined. If in this life, we only have hope and Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable. So I have 19 and I have verse 24. Then comes the end, when He delivers a kingdom to God the father when he puts an end to all rule and authority and power. Maybe you disagree. Let me know down in the comments, what would you what would you underline in your Bible? Well, last see calling what are we called to do in response to these words? Do you believe in the resurrection it when you read here, say the Apostles Creed? Do you believe in the resurrection of the dead? Do you believe that Jesus Christ is coming? He's coming and he's returning again one day. Do me a favor down the comments. If you believe this is true, right, two words, I believe. If you believe in the bodily resurrection, and bodily resurrection, down in the comments, types of words I believe, if you believe that Jesus Christ is coming again to judge the living in the dead, go ahead and write that down in the comments. I believe. Do you believe these things? When Jesus says to the woman, I am the resurrection in the life. He who believes in me though he might die, he will live and anyone who believes in me and lives in me shall never die. Do you believe? Do you believe that Jesus Christ is the resurrection the life do you believe he's coming again? As your hope you do? Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much. That you have sent us our King. The one who not has not only taken away our sins, but has given us hope for eternity. Thank You that You've promised you're returning again. And you're going to make all things right. Thank you for that you've already started this work and Jesus Christ. Thank you for all you have done. In Jesus's name, Amen. Well, may the Lord bless you today. May you walk in the joy and peace of Jesus Christ and I'll see you tomorrow. Bye Transcribed by https://otter.ai