Sermon for Easter - 1 Cor 15:1-11

 

Easter

                                                                                      1 Cor 15:1-11

                                                                                      4/9/23

 

 

          In 1 Corinthians chapter 6, the apostle Paul warns the Corinthians about sexual immorality.  In particular, he tells them that the men are not to have sex with prostitutes. Now this warning is not surprising.  Paul warns about the threat of sexual immorality in many of his letters.  The Greco-Roman world assumed that men had sex with slaves and prostitutes. This was considered normal.  It was a great challenge to convey to new Christians that now that they were in Christ, their way of life was going to be different from the world. They needed to live in ways that were true to God’s will.  In fact, Paul has just warned that the sexually immoral will not inherent the kingdom of God.

However, the language Paul uses to make this point is unusual.  He says, “The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power.”  He adds, “You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.” Throughout this section there is an emphasis on how a person uses the body.  The apostle makes the point that what a person does with the body matters.  After all the Lord has redeemed the body and will raise it up on the Last Day.

In this discussion, we get insight into the problem that Paul had encountered in Corinth – the problem that he addresses head on in our text from chapter 15.  The Corinthians had developed ideas which said that they were already saved. They already had salvation, yet this salvation was entirely spiritual and had nothing to do with the body. Since the body didn’t matter, they felt they were free to use their bodies in whatever way they wanted. After all, it was just the body. 

The Corinthians had pressed this idea all the way to its logical conclusion: they said there was no resurrection of the body.  Within the Greco-Roman world this thought made perfect sense.  It was a common belief that the spiritual – the non-physical – was good, while the body was a bad thing.  In fact, the body was often described as a prison from which the soul needed to escape. The goal was to escape the body forever, not to get the body back after death.

St. Paul had waited until the end of the letter to take on this very serious error.  In our text he begins to do so.  The fundamental error of the Corinthians was, of course, rejecting the resurrection of the body.  But this error showed they failed to understand how God had created them. And it meant they did not understand that sin can only be overcome when death has been defeated.

St. Paul begins our text by saying, “Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you--unless you believed in vain.” The apostle takes the Corinthians back to the beginning – back to the Gospel he preached to them.  And he reminds them what is at stake.  If they don’t still believe this Gospel, then they have believed in vain – they no longer have saving faith.

Paul continues by saying, “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.”  The apostle states again the confession of the Church that he had received, and that he had handed on to the Corinthians.

The first thing to note is that Christ died for our sins. Literally, he died “on behalf of our sins,” and in this language we find a reference to our text from Good Friday – Isaiah chapter 53. Christ did this in accordance with the Scriptures, because God’s Word says: “But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.”

Jesus died to provide the answer to sin that separates us from God.  Our sins of thought, word, and deed would incur God’s eternal judgment.  But God chose not to leave us there.  Instead, he acted in his incarnate Son, Jesus Christ.  He sent Jesus to die on behalf of our sins, just has he had foretold in Scripture.

Jesus had died and been buried. But he didn’t stay dead.  He was raised on the third day. Then he appeared at different times and places to a whole group of people: to Peter and the twelve; to more than five hundred Christians at one time; to James the brother of Christ; to the broader group of those called apostles; and finally, to Paul.  These had all been convinced to proclaim Jesus as Lord because they had met Christ risen from the dead.

The Gospel was about Christ crucified and risen from the dead.  So right after our text Paul asks, “Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?”  You can’t have Christ as preached in the Gospel without the resurrection of the body. As Paul goes on to say, “But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.”

God created us as a unity of body and soul. This was his intention for us.  When Adam and Eve disobeyed God in the fall, it brought death. It brought the separation of body and soul. Their sin caused this in death for them, and sin has caused death for every person since then.  Paul told the Romans, “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.”   He went on to tell them, “The wages of sin is death.” Or as Paul says in this chapter, “The sting of death is sin.”

Sin brings death.  And the power of sin can’t be overcome unless death itself is defeated.  This means that the answer to sin must be a bodily answer.  God provided this by sending his Son into this world.  Paul told the Galatians, “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.”  Conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary, the Son of God lived in this world as true God and true man.  Paul told the Colossians about Christ: “For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.”

Christ died on the cross to win forgiveness as he received God’s judgment against our sin.  But if Christ had not been raised, the power of sin would not have been broken.  The apostle says later in this chapter, “And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.”

Yet the early Church’s confession about Jesus is true.  Christ rose from the dead!  He is risen!  As Paul says later, “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.”  Adam had brought sin and death. But in Jesus God has given us forgiveness and resurrection.  Paul says, “For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.”

God sent the bodily answer of the incarnate Son of God. He accomplished both sides of defeating sin.  First, Christ won the forgiveness of sins by dying on the cross.  Then, he defeated death as he rose from the dead, body and soul.  Jesus’ resurrection has overcome death because he now lives bodily forever. 

Jesus was raised with a body that is incorruptible and imperishable – a body that can never die again. That is why he is the defeat of death. That is why he has provided final victory over sin.  Paul says in this chapter that Jesus is the firstfruits of the those who have died.  His resurrection is the first part that guarantees the rest will follow. And what will follow is a bodily resurrection.  On the Last Day, we will be raised with bodies like Jesus’ resurrection body – bodies that can never die.  Paul told the Philippians that we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, “who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.”

          We live in the present knowing that we have peace with God.  Paul told the Romans, “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” We are forgiven because of Jesus’ death.  We also live knowing that Christ is the firstfruits of our resurrection.  Jesus Christ has risen from the dead, and because he has, we will too.

          We know this because Christ has given us the Spirit. In baptism you received the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Spirit.  Paul told the Romans, “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.”  The Spirit dwells in you, and so he will raise up your body on the Last Day to be like that of Jesus.

          The presence of the Spirit means that the resurrection power of Christ is now present and at work in you. This speaks not only to your future, but also to your present.  Paul says in Romans 6, “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”  Notice how Paul sets in parallel God’s raising of Jesus and our walking in new life.

          The Spirit who raised Jesus from the now dead makes it possible for you to live this new life.  What does this look like? Well consider the beginning of this sermon. He helps us to turn away from sexual immorality – to avoid those situations where I will be tempted to have sex outside of marriage and to avoid going to those websites where I know there is pornography.  He also helps us to forgive those who wrong us.  He helps us to act in loving service as we put the needs of others before our own.  The Spirit is present to assist us in every way that we need, so that we can walk in new life – life that is made possible by Jesus.

          On this Easter Sunday, we rejoice that Christ has indeed been raised from the dead.  Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures in order to give us forgiveness. God raised him on the third day in a bodily resurrection.  In this way, God defeated sin’s power by conquering death forever.  Though the Spirit of Christ you already experience that power at work in your life now.  And on the Last Day when Jesus Christ returns in glory, you will receive the complete transformation that this power will work.  You will experience the resurrection of your body as it becomes like Jesus’ raised body, and you live forever with the Lord in the new creation.