Easter Sermon (1 Cor 15:3)

WHAT IF? (1 CORINTHIANS 15:3-28)
During a neighborhood party, Joe got into an argument with his neighbor, about presidential politics. Finally, the neighbor asked me why Joe was such a dedicated Republican.

Joe told him that his father and grandfather were both Republicans and he was carrying on the family tradition.

“That's it?” said the exasperated neighbor. “What if your father and grandfather had been horse thieves?”

“Well...” Joe replied, “I suppose then I'd be a Democrat like you.”

There are more “ifs” in 1 Corinthians 15 than any chapter in the Bible – 12, to be exact (1 Cor 15:2, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 19, 29, 32, 32, 37, 44). The critics and atheists got it wrong with Christianity. Most of their debates with Christians and the attacks against Christianity center on whether there is a God. In truth, Christianity does not fall and rise with the existence of God; it does with the resurrection. The resurrection is implicit in the Old Testament but central to the New Testament.

Why is Christianity and not Judaism the staunchest defender of this teaching? What is so unique about the resurrection? What is the evidence for the resurrection?

The Resurrection is Supported by Testimony
3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. 6 After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, 8 and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born. 9 For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them-yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. (1 Cor 15:3-10)

A defendant was on trial for murder. There was strong evidence indicating guilt, but there was no corpse. In the defense's closing statement the lawyer, knowing that his client would probably be convicted, resorted to a trick.

“Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I have a surprise for you all,” the lawyer said as he looked at his watch. “Within one minute, the person presumed dead in this case will walk into this courtroom.” He looked toward the courtroom door. The jurors, somewhat stunned, all looked on eagerly. A minute passed. Nothing happened.

Finally the lawyer said, “Actually, I made up the previous statement. But, you all looked on with anticipation. I therefore put to you that you have a reasonable doubt in this case as to whether anyone was killed and insist that you return a verdict of not guilty.” The jury, clearly confused, retired to deliberate. A few minutes later, the jury returned and pronounced a verdict of guilty. “But how?” inquired the lawyer. “You must have had some doubt; I saw all of you stare at the door.” The jury foreman replied, “Oh, we looked, but your client didn't.”

The resurrection is not only a hard story to make up; it is virtually impossible -psychologically, morally and emotionally. One would have to continuously be in a state of self-denial, speak with conviction on an uncertain subject and, more importantly, act as if it is the gospel truth.

Paul states that the belief, evidence and the testimony in the resurrection are rock solid because Jesus appeared to the apostles and more than 500 believers who were still alive at the time of writing (v 5) and also to him. However, Paul’s argument is not on the appearances Jesus made, but the difference it makes. He testifies to the transformation that took place in his life. Before he persecuted the church (v 7); now he labored for Christ – not only that; he worked harder than before and than all (v 10). The mighty Paul did not speak out of pride, but out of humility; he calls himself the “least of the apostles” (v 9). The word “labor” does not merely mean “work,” but “work hard,” being weary and feeling fatigue from hard work, toil and labor.

Christianity could hardly make an impact around the world if believers such as Paul did not see or feel the power of the resurrection working in their hearts and lives, but were just sorry that they have betrayed Jesus or persecuted the church. They would have lived their lives a little short of Judas’ ending – not hanging themselves, but not hanging their heads high either. Losers and liars could not go out to face the critics and the lions without the courage, the joy and the peace that Jesus’ resurrection brings; instead, they would experience the cloud of depression, the sense of failure and the meaninglessness of life brought by Jesus’ death, except for the resurrection’s transforming power.

Paul has every reason to be prideful. I sincerely believe Paul was the one of the greatest minds and thinkers ever born, if not the greatest, humanly speaking. However, a humbling change came over him inconsistent with his great learning. Paul prides himself as one “thoroughly trained in the law of our fathers” (Acts 22:3) under Gamaliel, one of only seven Jewish doctors to have been honored with the title of Rabban, which is higher than Rabbi or Master. It’s been said in the Talmud that “since Rabban Gamaliel died the glory of the law has ceased.” He also claims he is “a Hebrew of Hebrews” (Phil 3:5) and “a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee” (Acts 23:6) and “lived as a Pharisee” (Acts 26:5). In contrast to his pedigree and schooling, all of the other apostles were fishermen or men lacking, yet Paul says he is the least of them all.

The Resurrection is Sensible in Theory
12 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? 13 If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14 And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. 15 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. 16 For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. 19 If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men. (1 Cor 15:12-18)

Various polls show that 65 percent to 80 percent of Americans believe Jesus -- body and soul -- rose from the dead on Easter Sunday. (“A Debate for the Millennia: Did Jesus Rise From the Dead?” Washington Post, March 31, 2007)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/30/AR2007033001919.html

The resurrection is a controversial subject but it is not a Christian invention; it is an old subject and a key belief out of the Old Testament. The resurrection is central to Christianity but it is as old as the Bible, older than Judaism and recorded in the oldest book of the Bible - Job. The skin-wrapping bones Job attests, “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God” (19:25-26). However, the Sadducees denied the resurrection of the body but both the Pharisees and the Essenes believed in it. Reenacting the polarizing viewpoint in the Bible, liberal Christians today deny it while conservatives believe it, and Orthodox Judaism embraces it while Reformed Judaism denies it. Those who believe it think it happened literally, those who deny it say it is not literal but is merely a metaphor for a person’s greatest comeback from defeat – not literally a comeback from the grave, not unlike the symbol of the phoenix rising from the ashes.

A belief in bodily resurrection is the thirteenth principle in the Thirteen Principles of Faith of Maimonides central to Orthodox Judaism, the second of the Amidah, the central thrice-daily Jewish prayer is called Tehiyyat ha-Metim (“the resurrection of the dead”) and closes with the words m'chayei hameitim (“who gives life to the dead”) i.e., resurrection, and the Talmud says that “All Israel have a share in the World to Come...but a person who does not believe in...the resurrection of the dead...has no share in the World to Come.” (Sanhedrin 50a)

Why is it so hard for modern Jews to believe in the resurrection while Christians take up its defense? Where did it go awry for traditional Jewish belief?

Conservative Judaism's liturgy includes the traditional Hebrew text affirming belief in bodily resurrection, but Reform and Reconstructionist Judaism reject the resurrection. Accordingly, they have modified the text to read from the specific “God who gives life to the dead” (the belief in the resurrection) to the general “God who gives life to all.”
http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/excerpts/levenson_resurrection.pdf

Paul uses 6 “ifs” in the passage and one “if in fact” (v 15) sandwiched in between. The first three “ifs” end with a climax statement – the uselessness of preaching and faith. A transitional “in fact” (v 15) is followed by the second set of three “ifs” that end with another climax statement:
v 12 – “if (but/and) 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?” (introduction)
v 13 – “If (but/and) there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised.” (supposition)
v 14 – “if (but/and) Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless/kenos and so is your faith.” (statement 1)
v 15 – “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.” (statement 2)
v 16 – “if (for) the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either.” (the previous supposition repeated)
v 17 – “if (but/and) Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile/profitless; you are still in your sins.” (statement 3)
v 19 – “If (in) only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.” (statement 3)

Let us sort through the mouthful of words Paul throws at us. First, he said that our preaching and faith are in vain – alike a Seinfeld resurrection, a faith about nothing. The speaker and the audience believe in nothing and have nothing to show. The same Greek word for “useless” (“kenos” - v 14, 1 Thess 3:5, James 2:20 – theologically speaking, the kenosis theory is Jesus “empting himself”) is translated elsewhere as “empty” or “empty-handed” (Mark 12:3, Luke 1:53, 20:10-11, Eph 5:6), “vain” (Acts 4:25, 1 Cor 15:58, 2 Cor 6:1, Gal 2:2), “without effect” (1 Cor 15:10), “for nothing” (Phil 2:16), “hollow” (Col 2:8) and “failure” (1 Thess 2:1).

Can you imagine wasting so much time and even all the time, energy and resources in keeping a lie going? We may as well go to the beach and the malls or for early bird luncheon. What’s the point of going to church? Why not sleep in or watch football?

The word “false witness” is “pseudo-martur” or “pseudo/false” + the noun “martur/martyr or witness” - the same word for the false witnesses who came forward at Jesus’ trial (Matt 26:60). If the resurrection is a fake, we are no better than the people who bear false testimony. The word “testified” or “martureo,” the verb form to the noun “martur/martyr,” means “give evidence,” “bear record” or “provide testimony.” A witness cannot manufacture or falsify evidence, he can only give evidence. He could be charged for providing false evidence or obstructing justice. If the resurrection is not true, then we are no longer innocent or misled, but part of the conspiracy and the problem, not the solution.

Finally, without the resurrection there is no victory over sin. We are still dead in our sins (John 8:21) and slaves to sin (Rom 6:6) and there would be no forgiveness (Matt 9:2) and hope (v 19). However, if centuries of Jewish belief are a lie, then Jesus’ resurrection is not possible and faith is futile. If there is no resurrection, we are no different from a hamster in a cage running for food and wasting one’s life. We are not only pitiful; we are “to be pitied more than all men,” the most pitiful people in the world – emphasizing the word “all” (pas). The Greek rendition is “most miserable of all men we are.” This Greek word occurs one other time in the Bible, translated as wretched (Rev 3:17).

Jews and Christians must be telling the biggest lie in the word without winking, blinking, thinking if there is no resurrection - they are masters at self-denial, self-hypnotism and self-improvement! All is hogwash and a sham if Christ is not risen.

The Resurrection is Sobering if True
20 But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. 22 For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. 23 But each in his own turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. 24 Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. 25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death. 27 For he “has put everything under his feet.” Now when it says that “everything” has been put under him, it is clear that this does not include God himself, who put everything under Christ. 28 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. (1 Cor 15:20-28)

One of the best “What if?” stories is a Christmas movie, not an Easter movie. In the movie “It's a Wonderful Life” Jimmy Stewart wanted to end his life when his bank went bankrupt, so an angel granted his wish to his dismay as he watched how life unraveled without him.

With his wish granted, George Bailey did not lose the hearing in his left ear, but he was not present to save his nine-year-old brother, Harry, who fell through a frozen pond either. The young George was not there to interfere when his boss almost mistakenly poisoned a child with tainted capsules. The adult George could not stop his father’s bank business from failing or stop the town miser from keeping the renters renting instead of owning. He did not marry his sweetheart, his town’s name is changed to the tyrant’s name, a friend he did not help with a loan became a prostitute and his brother he did not save could not save an entire ship of men in war. The angel succeeded in convincing George not to give up his life or give up on life but to return to face his troubles and struggles with these words: “You see, George: you've really had a wonderful life. Don't you see what a mistake it would be to throw it away?”

Death is real if the resurrection is not. This passage mentions “death/thanatos” twice (1 Cor 15:21, 26), the “dead/nekros” seven times (1 Cor 15:12, 12, 13, 15, 16, 20, 21) and “die” once (v 22). But what if the resurrection is true? Paul says that because Jesus lives, as the song goes, we can face tomorrow, all fear is gone, He holds the future and life is worth living. Christianity does not consider the departed dead or deceased, but “asleep” or “sleeping” (1 Thess 4:13), resting and not ruined. The same Greek word affirms the same state the dead Lazarus (John 11:11), the martyr Stephen (Acts 7:60) and some of the five hundred witnesses to the risen Jesus who were no longer living (1 Cor 15:6) are in, and it is also the same word for the sleepy guards guarding Jesus’ body (Matt 28:13) and the slumbering disciples in Gethsemane accompanying Jesus praying (Luke 22:45). Because the dead is just asleep, they will wake up and not worry about the decaying flesh, the decomposing body and the disintegrated person. Without Christ, people are lost, or the Greek word (apollumi) for “destroyed fully” – not only lost, but perished.

In contrast to death, Christ is the first-fruits of the “sleeping.” What is a first-fruit? A first-fruit (the Greek word is always singular) is the first yield, crop, harvest, produce. For the Jewish sacrifice, it is the first and the best offering reserved for God.

One day all things will come to an end. The bottleneck of life and all things will end in a screeching halt and big crash. Life won’t be like the wheels of the bus that go round and round, up and down, on and on. Time will collapse, curtains will fall, life as we know it will meet and greet its Maker. Before Jesus hands over the kingdom to God the Father, he will destroy “all” dominion and “all” authority and power” (Greek). “Rule” is “arche,” “exousia/authority” is “jurisdiction” and “dunamis/power” is “force.”

Paul states a bizarre 12 times the word “all” to emphasize Christ’ sovereignty and supremacy and that all things will come to an end, not a halt:
- For as in Adam “all” die, so in Christ “all” will be made alive (1 Cor 15:22 - twice)
- He has destroyed all dominion, (all) authority and power (1 Cor 15:24 - twice)
- He has put all his enemies under his feet (1 Cor 15:25 -once)
- He “has put “everything” under his feet…”everything” has been put under him… “everything” under Christ (1 Cor 15:27 - thrice)
- When he has done (all) this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put “everything” under him, so that God may be “all” in “all” (1 Cor 15:28 – four times)

The devil is “the enemy” (Matt 13:39) but never the last enemy. Why is death and not Satan the last enemy? Jesus’ death at the cross has crushed Satan’s power over sin and sinners. One of the most frequent reference to this reference is that Jesus will make them, his enemies, his footstool (Matt 22:44, Mark 12:36, Luke 20:43, Heb 1:13, 10:13) or footrest, Heb 1:13 says he is waiting or the time for his enemies to carry his leg!

The subject of feet is a taboo in many cultures. It is smelly, humiliating, even scandalous in some countries. Getting down on one’s feet is identified with proposal to lovers, but in the Gospels it is for begging or pleading (Matt 18:29, Mark 5:23, Luke 8:41), thanksgiving (Luke 17:16) and worship (Matt 28:9) and for Paul it means complete subjection, surrender and sentencing. Romans 16:20 says, “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet” and Ephesians 1:22 notes, “God placed all things under his feet” and His “enemies” are but a “footstool for His feet,” a theme recurring five times in the Scriptures (Ps 110:1, Luke 20:43, Acts 2:35, Heb 1:13, 10:13).

Finally, there six references to “subject/put under” in verse 27 and 28: in verse 27 - “put everything under his feet,” “put under him” and “put everything under Christ” and in verse 28 – “done this,” “subject to him” and “put everything under him.” In the gospels, the demons and spirits were subject to him (Luke 10:17, 10:20).

Conclusion: Are you dead in your transgressions and sins (Eph 2:1)? Do you know the Lord of both the dead and the living (Rom 14:9)? Jesus is the

Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy (4:12). What is your choice?