Our Hope in this Resurrection (Easter 2019)

I want to tell you I appreciate you singing. I know sometimes people ask us why we don't have a choir. We're not against a choir. It's just not how the Lord has led us in our music ministry. And I know that Brother Keith has taught you this. You are the choir. Every single one of you. And so for me when I hear you singing, sometimes I hear individuals and sometimes I just hear the masses behind me. It is a tremendous blessing to hear you sing truth and sing about our Lord. And so much of what we've sung this morning, all of it is just packed with truth and it really goes along with what we are looking at this morning in 1 Corinthians 15.

As I was worshipping phrase upon phrase would just remind me of passages that we're going to look at. And I think that's very, very fitting for where we're going. And I appreciate the worship as I always do. I'll go ahead and take your Bible and turn back with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. First Corinthians chapter 15. I know that many of you anticipate me leaving our verse by verse series through John when we come to particular events or times in the calendar and Easter being one of them. Brother Keith and I were talking earlier this morning and we talk often about the preaching schedule.

I look forward to the time when we can have an extended period of time to study Easter and I believe that will be next year. I believe we will take some time and look at some of these events that some of us are familiar with but some of us might not be quite as familiar with. But this morning we're going to take one message and we're going to look at this subject of Easter, look at this empty tomb, the resurrection. And I believe out of these verses the Lord will speak to you this morning.

And honestly we will be covering quite a few verses this morning in the message and obviously we will not be covering these verses in a verse by verse approach like we normally do. If we were dividing all of the verses that we will cover this morning, to be honest with you, this would be six, seven, eight messages. And for me as a pastor when I look at these verses in front of me my bones just start moving because I want to go verse by verse, word by word, to take a big block of scripture and zoom through it can be hard for me. Now I thought about an illustration that might help you this morning.

I go back all the way to my childhood days, my memory of growing up from the age of my birth until I was about 13 years old. I grew up in South Laurel on Gladiolus Circle. Those were some great memories in that neighborhood. We had a lot of good times playing hide and go seek with the neighborhood kids at night. You know I had this imaginary border or boundary in my neighborhood. I could go as far as I could hear my dad whistle. And oh and my dad came out and he whistled. I knew it was time to come home.

One of the memories I have of growing up in that part of town is I can remember those firemen coming around every so often and purging those plugs. I would see them take those tools and open those valves and just water would just go everywhere. Well to be honest with you when we look at all these verses I feel like we're going to just stick our minds, our hearts under a fire hydrant because there's so much because we will really zoom through verses 1 to 23. So I say that to prepare you and I ask you to be patient because we can read a verse or look at a word here that you might want to spend a little more time on.

But we're going to take quite a few verses and look at this message this morning around this resurrection. Now I want to take a few moments and give us some factual information that will help us get started in these verses. Really this will be considered introductory material. Some of you might not realize how important this chapter is, chapter 15 in 1 Corinthians. Truthfully this is one of the most important chapters in all of the scriptures. I consulted quite a few resources this week and one of the resources I look at from time to time is an old Presbyterian pastor. He's long since passed. His name was J. Vernon McGeehee.

And he was famous for preaching through the Bible on the radio. Every now and then you can catch some old recordings of J. Vernon McGeehee and I've enjoyed reading and listening to him through the years. Notice what he says about this chapter and I'm quoting. If you would select 10 of the greatest chapters of the Bible, which men have done from the beginning of the Christian era, you will find that 1 Corinthians 15 will be on your list and has been on practically all of the lists ever made. Now personally for me, I see two specific reasons why this chapter should be on that list.

First, chapter 15 addresses the very first heresy that crept into the church. Yes, the very first heresy that crept into the church and that was the heresy of denying the bodily resurrection of Christ. And the second reason why this chapter is so important, chapter 15 is the most thorough treatment of the resurrection in the entirety of the New Testament. Chapter 15 thoroughly covers the resurrection of Christ and the resurrection of the believer. The gospels, they cover the resurrection of Christ, but here in 1 Corinthians 15, Paul covers both, both the resurrection of Jesus and the believer.

Now this is just two reasons why I think this chapter is important. I'm sure in your own study you could add to that list or the reasons why this chapter is so important. And I wanted to share that with you because from time to time we come to portions of scripture that we need to see the preeminence, the importance of what is before us. Now that is what we'll be studying here this morning. I think it's obvious. The resurrection of Jesus Christ and the resurrection of those who are in Christ. But we will learn truthfully so much more. Now I'll go ahead and give you the title of the message. It is our hope in this resurrection.

Now you know we are looking at the Corinthian church. We're looking at how Paul dealt with the Corinthian church. And so everything here in the main truths pertain to this Corinthian church, this Corinthian situation. And you see before you how we will divide these verses. We will look at the Corinthian problem out of verse 12. Then we will look at the Corinthian consequences in the following verses, verses 12 and 13. Verses, verses 13 to 18. Then we will go back. We're not taking these verses in chronological order. We will look at the Corinthian solution in verses 1 to 8.

And then we'll jump back on the other side and we'll look at the Corinthian hope in verses 20 to 23. Now if that bothers you that we're not taking them in chronological order, I apologize. But I think you'll see how this comes together to show us our wonderful hope in this resurrection, the resurrection, the resurrection of Christ. Let's go back to our verses. I want us to read some of them. Some of them I will paraphrase because of time. Some of them I will allude to. But as we track along in the message, we will read them. And I think you'll have them in your mind. Paul addresses the Corinthian church in verse 1.

"Now I'll make known to you brethren," these are supposed to be Christians, "the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, and which also you stand, by which also you were saved, if you hold fast, the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain." So he's addressing these people as Christian, understanding that there were some who were professors but yet not possessors of this faith, this gospel.

And he gets specific starting in verse 3, "For I delivered to you as of first importance, that which was preeminent," is what he's saying here, "what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures. And then he appeared to Cephas, and he goes on to give a long list all the way down to verse 8. Now I'll jump over verses 9 to 11 because those are descriptions about Paul himself. Go back and read because he gives this testimony about what kind of a wretch he was when God saved him. But here's the problem.

Now verse 12, "If Christ is preached that he has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection from the dead?" That's the problem. And then verse 13, he transitions. "But if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain. Your faith is also in vain. Moreover, we are even found to be false witnesses or liars to God or of God, because we witnessed against God that He has raised Christ, whom He did not raise if, in fact, the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised.

And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless and you are still in your sins. Then those who have fallen asleep or have passed in Christ have perished. If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied." Or else, sorry for. And then three more verses. "But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who were asleep are have passed. For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead.

For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive." In the last verse, "But each in his own order, Christ the firstfruits, after that those who are Christ's at His coming." So you see how we will divide these verses. Again, we will zoom through a lot of scriptures and I encourage you, as I'm preaching and teaching and as you are taking notes, if something strikes your spiritual curiosity, note that and go study that on your own. Be a good student of what the Lord has put before us. So let's jump right into our message this morning. Let's look at our first major truth. What's the Corinthian problem?

We have this Corinthian problem. Now when I say Corinthian problem, some of you who know your Bible immediately think of the many problems the Corinthian church had. I've said this before, if the Lord can work in the Corinthian church, then He surely can work in our church. But remember, so many of the problems that they had. They had divisions in the church, serious immaturity in believers, and even immorality, gross immorality that the pagans rejected. That was in the church. They had lawsuits among professing believers. Some were abusing the Lord's supper and there were some who even rejected Paul's apostolic authority.

Oh, the list is just long of all of the problems. But yet there's more. There were some within the church who had a faulty view of the resurrection. Go back to verse 12. Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, now do some among you say that there is no resurrection from the dead? Now these who were at fault here, they did not deny the resurrection of Jesus. That wasn't the problem. They could not have been true Christians and denied the bodily resurrection of Jesus. That would have gutted the gospel in such a way that they could not have become true Christians.

These people who believed this error could not accept the resurrection of the believer in Christ after their death. This confusion stemmed from Greek philosophies that were within the culture that had permeated the church or had not been driven out of the minds and hearts of these in the church. At its fundamental teaching, most Greek philosophy taught that everything physical was evil. So for these Corinthians coming out of this Greek culture and religion, the idea of a physical resurrected body, it was repulsive. It just turned their stomach. It would have made their skin crawl.

Now some commentators that I referenced this week speculate that some of this in the Corinthian church, it could have come from a Jewish influence. The Jewish sect, the Sadducees, they taught that there was no bodily resurrection. Whereas the Pharisees, the more solid teaching in Judaism, it taught that there was the bodily resurrection. But for me, I don't think that's the case. I think this was primarily a Greek influence. The church there at Corinth was mostly Gentile and it came mostly from a Greek culture. So in summary, notice what we're seeing here in verse 12. Go back to the verse.

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? There was a group within the Corinthian church that did not believe in the bodily resurrection of the believer. And we will see that this is a serious, serious problem and Paul thoroughly confronts this problem within the church. But what might we learn here in application? You know me, I always ask the question, "So what? So what does this mean to you and what does this mean to me? What can we learn here?" We must see that we cannot allow the world to influence the teaching of the church.

We cannot allow the world to alter our doctrine or our theology in any, any, any way. I don't know how well you keep up with the news. There are some news obviously we do not need to pay much attention to. But there is some that we really do need to pay attention to. I really think we need to keep our ear open to what's going on around us in culture. Most of you know that I was raised in a United Methodist background. Many of my family are still Methodists. But I've been keeping up with the dilemma that the United Methodists are in.

They just had their national conference back in February and there really, simplistically, is a large divide between those who want to embrace homosexuality and the LGBT movement as Christian and those who do not. There is a sharp divide and there are some who are being very biblical, very conservative, and being very true to what the Word of God says. Now what am I trying to show you? Those who are embracing that teaching are allowing the world to dictate their theology above and beyond what the Word of God says. You might say, "Pastor, we're not doing that." No, I do not believe we are.

But that is a glaring example about how the world is dictating to a church what their theology and doctrine should be. And the world can never dictate to us what our theology and doctrine should be. And that's one of my jobs. One of my greatest jobs is to protect the church from bad doctrine and bad theology. And I thought that example would help you see. It would help you see how relevant verse 12 is to us. Let's move on. Notice our second major truth. All of this is building. Notice the Corinthian consequences. The Corinthian consequences.

Now after Paul names the specific problem in verse 12, he quickly moves to the consequences of this bad doctrine. It wasn't enough for Paul to point out their bad doctrine. He was obligated to point out the consequences of that bad doctrine or theology. This was part of the correction. This was part of Paul's motivation to move them to sound doctrine. And of course Paul did all of this out of love. He loved these people and he loved this church dearly. There ain't consequences which come straight out of these verses. Now I won't read them because we will just track through these verses as we look at these consequences.

And I want to take the time to give you the consequences and expound just a little. So first notice if there is no resurrection for the believer, which is what some said, then Christ has not been raised. And we see this stated two times in verse 13 and verse 16. What does Paul say? But right after verse 12, "But if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised from the dead." In verse 16, "For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ Jesus has been raised." And notice what Paul is doing here. Both of these are connected, the resurrection of Jesus and the resurrection of the believer.

They cannot be separated according to Paul. And if man denies one, he automatically denies the other and that is what they were doing. The second consequence, "If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is useless." The beginning of verse 14, "And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain." Our preaching is useless. To deny Christ's resurrection is to deny the entire message of the Bible. To be more specific, to deny the resurrection is to deny the gospel. And then to deny the deity of Christ and to alter the gospel of the deity of Christ is to destroy the totality of the message of the Bible.

So if we deny the resurrection, then our preaching is useless. And then third, "Our faith would be in vain." Go back to verse 14, "And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain." This would mean the entire Christian faith is useless. To believe would be useless or vanity. Everything concerning the faith and the church and the Christian life, it would be useless to deny either of the resurrection, the resurrection of Jesus or man. Then the fourth consequence, "We would become false witnesses." Look at verse 15, "Moreover, what is Paul saying?

And even more it builds, we are even found to be false witnesses or liars of God because we witness against God that He raised Christ." That would mean that all of the apostles, they were liars. That would mean that not only the apostles, but all who have taught the Word of God concerning Christ, they would be liars as well. And Paul goes on to say that they would be witnessing falsely against God. Why? Because they are denying the resurrection of Christ. This would be propagating a lie.

And then fifth, "Our faith is worthless." Look at verse 17, "And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is worthless." This speaks to the value of the faith. If Christ has not been raised, then the faith, the Christian faith, it is worthless. It is of no value. It is not something to value in life or in death. It is something to be trashed and treated as rubbish.

And then the sixth consequence, "We are still in our sins." Look at the second part of verse 17, "And if Christ has not been raised from the dead, your faith is worthless and you are still in your sins." If Christ has not been raised from the dead, then all who profess faith in Him are still bound by their sin. They are still bound by the sin debt, which they can never repay. And then seventh, "Previous believers have perished." Look at verse 18, "Then those also who have fallen asleep," that's passed away, "in Christ have perished." If Christ has not been raised, then the millions upon millions who have trusted in Christ, they have no hope.

Rather than life with Christ in eternity, they are perishing because there's no resurrection for the believer as well as Christ. And then eighth, the eighth consequence, "We are to be pitied." See if there's no resurrection, we are to be pitied. Verse 19, "If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied." If there's not a resurrection, then our only hope is Christ in this life only. We have no hope for eternal life, no hope after death. We are to be pitied or felt sorry for. So I know this is a lot in verses 13 to 18, but in summary, notice what we're seeing.

Paul is pointing out at length the consequences of this false teaching. Remember we've already established you cannot separate the two if you do not believe in the resurrection of Christ, you do not believe in the resurrection of man, if you do not believe in the resurrection of man, then you do not believe in the resurrection of Christ. And Paul is showing the road that this bad doctrine leads down. Paul is thorough, Paul is specific. Paul leaves no stone unturned. These are the many consequences of this type of error. Now an application of what might we learn here.

Oh brothers and sisters, friends, would you please write down one word, and that is the word consequences. Oh write this word down, consequences. There are always consequences to bad doctrine, always consequences. Here we see that to deny the bodily resurrection of the believer is to deny the resurrection of Christ and to do either of the two, it destroys the faith. It destroys it. Now an application I want to add a little more that will help us here. You know when we're dealing with conversion, true conversion, in our culture we have been inundated with decisionism.

We've been inundated with this dreaded profession of faith and so many people have walked down the aisle and prayed some cheap prayer and you know they just go out, they graduate from high school, graduate from God, and they go out into the world and they go sew those wild oats and they just pray for crop failure and then they come on back in a lot of churches and rededicate their life and just start serving the Lord. That's not biblical salvation. And when you think about it, that's what a lot of people do. They go out and you know boys will be boys and girls will be girls and we just pray for crop failure. Isn't that right?

You know a lot of churches do that with bad doctrine. They won't work hard to study what the Word of God says about doctrine and they ignore the consequences and oh sometimes when someone who's lived for the Lord and they got quite a few gray hair and they've worked hard in the life of the church, oh when they come along and they start pointing out bad doctrine and they start pointing out bad theology and they start being a herald and saying, "I know where that will lead," they get ignored.

Because a lot of people, they just want to do what they want to do in the life of the church and they want crop failure because they don't want to embrace the consequences of bad doctrine. See this serves as a warning. Oh, we have to be diligent and oh this shows me how serious my job is as a pastor and as an overseer and as an elder, one who teaches the Word and oversees the work of the church and I do not shoulder that responsibility casually. I know God has called me to do this work and I want to do the best that I can. Why? Because I do not want to be like the Corinthian church.

I do not want to allow a problem to creep in and then your sons and daughters have to deal with the consequences. Some of you here, you're suffering. Some of you here, you have suffered. You have suffered because of bad doctrine and you're licking your wounds and you're trying to heal and you're trying to recuperate. Look, I have seen it. I have watched it. I've been a victim. You might say, "Brother Chris, this really doesn't have anything to do with Easter." Oh brother and sister, it's all tied up in these verses and it just builds. Let's move on. I want us to see our third major truth. Notice the Corinthian solution.

Notice the Corinthian solution. Now like I said earlier, this might strike some of you funny that we are going back to verses before verse 12. For me, I see verses 1-8, the solution to the problem. To me, Paul is making his case before he states the problem. It seems to me that Paul is building up momentum. It seems that Paul is ramping up to address the problem, even sneaking up because these Corinthians would have never argued with anything from verses 1 all the way down to verse 11. So let's look at these verses and let's see how he is offering the solution before he presents the problem.

"Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preach to you." In other words, what is he saying? I'm just repeating myself. I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preach to you, which also you receive, which also you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preach to you, unless you believed in vain or you have a false belief. Before I deliver to you, as of first importance, what I also receive, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and then he appeared.

And he goes on to give this long list from Peter all the way down to himself. Now here, I want us to see what Paul is doing. He's giving two things which build up to the problem. First notice, he reminds them of the gospel. Isn't that what we see here in verses 1 and 2? Paul is reminding right away what he had previously given them. "I make known to you the gospel which I preach to you." Now we know that Paul evangelized these people. Paul was the one who started this church, and he was reminding them in general terms here of the gospel which he preached, which was supposed to have changed their lives.

Paul refers to the gospel, but doesn't give specifics concerning the gospel. But notice the specifics that he does give in verses 1 and 2. He preached. They received what he preached. They were saved. Yet he states that some of them had believed in vain. They were false converts. So to me, he is reminding them of what he had preached, and also how they had professed to believe in life change. To me, this is the first part of this two-part solution. In second notice, Paul exalts the gospel before them. And I want to read these verses again.

"For I, for I delivered to you that which was of most importance, that which I received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, and then on the third day he was raised according to the Scriptures, and then he appeared, and he gives us a whole long list." Now here, I believe Paul gets bold. I believe he gets more serious. He states what he did preach to them and that which was of most importance. To me, he is simply exalting this gospel message. He says that this gospel message is of first importance. But notice a difference here. Whereas in verses 1 to 2, he mentions the gospel.

Here in verses 3 to 8, he gets specific. He explains what I call the nuts and bolts or the components of the gospel. Now notice the details. First, Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. Now there's a whole lot we can say here, but we must see that Christ died as our atoning sacrifice. We sung about this atoning sacrifice earlier. He is the propitiation for our sins. He died in our place. He died for me on that cross. But listen, this wasn't a plan A. This wasn't a plan B, excuse me. This was a plan A because forever ago, God determined to sin his son. Christ died for man in our place according to the Scriptures.

And then Christ was buried. And he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures. There was no panic in heaven when Jesus was in the tomb. Although Mary and the other disciples, they did not know what to think or say or to do. God knew that this was all part of his eternal plan. Notice how Paul repeats all this. Christ died according to the Scriptures. Oh, he was buried and raised on the third day according to the Scriptures. And there are countless passages which speak about these events. And then Christ appeared to many. It wasn't just one, but he appeared over a period of 40 days. He appeared to Peter.

He appeared to the 12 disciples. Oh, he appeared to more than 500. Then he appeared to James and the other apostles. And last of all, he appeared to Paul. And oh, what a great picture of grace. Paul was a great persecutor of the church, but he revealed himself to Paul as well. This is the gospel that Paul exalts. So in summary, notice what we're seeing here. I believe Paul is sneaking up on their problem. He's reminding them of the gospel which changed their lives. And one of the essential components of this gospel was what? The resurrection on the third day. He did not say the resurrection was the most important component.

He did say that it was an essential component. It was essential, just as essential as Christ dying on the cross in man's place. So for you and for me in application, we must see that we can never be reminded enough concerning the gospel. We can never explain and define the gospel enough. Oh, not that we would invent new definitions for the gospel. No. We can never explain and continue to explain the age old gospel according to the scriptures. We can never say it enough. We can never sing it enough. I can never preach it enough. We can never teach it enough to our children and our teenagers. We can never exhaust this subject.

And for these Corinthians, the resurrection, it had been mutilated. And this mutilation, this perverting of the resurrection, what was it doing? It was destroying that very gospel that was supposed to save them. Now a question. What part of the gospel is being mutilated or even taken out of the gospel message today? Think about that. There's always an attack on the gospel folks there. That's why church history is so important because we learn that the devil does not create new lives. He just recycles the same old lives. But my question is what part of the gospel is being mutilated, even taken out of the gospel today?

And in my opinion, I think it's verse three. Go back to the verse. For I deliver to you as a first importance what I received, that Christ died for our sins. Oh, our sins. And I believe what's being mutilated and taken out of the gospel is this. Men are sinners. Young people are sinners. They're dying and on their way to a devil's hell. Listen. They're not out of Christ, it does not matter how moral a man is, it does not matter how much he may give away or what that young person may do or not do. If you are not born again, if you are not in Christ, you are in your sin. Mom and dad, please help me here. I love you.

Do not tell your son and your daughter. Do not tell your children they are good kids. Oh, they might do good things. That's called common grace. They are wicked sinners according to the word of God. And that's been yanked out of the message today. We must declare that people are sinners. Listen. Jesus only saves sinners, people. Many of you know that our friend, Ed Lacey, has been a mentor to us. Ed Lacey is a biblical evangelist and missionary. It's been a while since we've had Brother Ed here. I'm sure we'll have him back soon. He always prays for us. When I do talk to him, he always wants to know how things are going on here.

Brother Ed is very thorough, solid, theologically, biblically. And all he knows is the gospel well. I'll never forget one time he and I were talking about church and church problems. We were talking about a particular church. And old Brother Ed cut right to the chase. He asked one question. What did he say? Can you get lost there? He said no. He said, well, you'll never get saved there. Listen, folks. Listen to me. Listen to you, Pastor. We cannot take that man is a sinner out of a gospel message.

Mom and Dad, go home and explain to your sons and your daughters that they lie and they cheat and they steal and they're selfish because they're sinners. Now, can they be saved? Yes. But only lost people get saved. And that's what was going on in the Corinthian day. They were denying the resurrection, therefore destroying the gospel. And we have to guard the gospel. Let's move on to our fourth major truth. And I've been saying this all along. We're building. You might say, Pastor, when you're going to get to Easter, fourth major truth. Notice the Corinthian hope, the Corinthian hope. But now Christ has been raised.

See I love how Paul does this. To me, he's just building up. He's just building up. He sneaks up on them. They're agreeing with him all along. And then boom, in verse 12, he shows them the problem and then he shows them the consequences. And now he gives them the hope. But now Christ has been raised from the dead. The first fruits of those who are asleep are past or dead. For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive. Here we find ourselves on the back side apologizing the problem.

Again, to me, Paul is ramped up in verses 1 to 11 to get to the problem. Maybe he snuck up on them. Maybe he purposely snuck up on them because he never mentions the problem to verse 12. But here in verses 20 to 23, we have the bookend of the problem. He shows them how both the resurrection of Christ and the resurrection of man are tied and this is what I call their hope. Now there are three observations I want to make out of these verses. First, Christ is the first fruits. Go back to verse 20. But now Christ has been raised from the dead the first fruits of those who are asleep.

Now in the Old Testament, if we study the Jewish celebration, they had the festival of the first fruits. Of course, there had to be more fruits to follow the first fruits. And so Paul is using that language and that imagery and here Paul is saying that Jesus is the first fruit from the dead. And I'm quoting John MacArthur here. He says, and I quote, "The first installment of harvest to eternal life. This first fruit is a guarantee for all believers who have died. There is the hope of their resurrection. Secondly, Christ is the first fruits of many more fruits to come. Then second, Christ is their hope. These Corinthians, he is their hope.

Verses 21 and 22. For since by man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. And then he's repackaging what he says in verse 21 and verse 22. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all shall be made alive. Here we say Paul contrasts Jesus, the God-man with Adam, the first man. He states that death came by Adam, yet through Christ came a hope of a resurrection from that death. Verse 22 is clear and to the point. Paul states that all men who remain in Adam are in death and they die. But all men who are in Christ live and they shall be made to live, this is the resurrection. This is their hope.

And then third, notice Christ their future. Verse 23. But each in his own order. Christ the first fruits. After that, those who are Christ's, that's possessive language, at his coming. Here Paul again uses the phrase first fruits. He states that Christ is the first of many to be raised from the dead. But next Paul mentions Christ's second coming. Here Paul is saying that at Christ's second coming, those who are in Christ, they will be raised to meet him. That is the future of these Corinthians who are in Christ. The resurrection to be with Christ. So in summary, what are we seeing here? Paul is giving him hope.

Paul is showing these Corinthians a two-fold hope. First Christ is the hope from death and Adam. He plainly states that those who are in Adam, they die, they die in their sin. And then second Christ is the hope for their future. He plainly states that Christ is the first fruits of many to come, many to come. I'm so thankful that I'm a part of the many. And those who are in Christ have a confident hope in their future resurrection. Now an application some of you might not realize, but this has been fleshed out and been made real for us recently. Most of you know that our friend and brother Bruce Dowell passed away.

I still think about old Bruce. I've shared with some of you that I've got a couple of his old voice messages, voicemails on my phone. Every now and then I'll just press play and hear his old voice. He left me a voicemail when he was in the hospital. He just didn't sound himself. He sounded so sick because he was. But the one before that, he left me a voicemail and he said, "Well, brother, I just wanted to take you to eat breakfast." That was Bruce. What was Bruce saying? "I want some time with my friend and my pastor. I miss him. I do.

I know many of you miss him as well." Now some of you might not know, when I was dealing with the family concerning the funeral arrangements, I wasn't sure, but somehow I had heard through the grapevine that Bruce had requested, or was going to request, through some writings he left behind, that he was going to request to be cremated. You know I found myself in this passage and when I began to look at this passage, I said no no no no no no no no no no, we can't cremate old Bruce. Now his family did not want to do that and and it wasn't in his wishes. Why? What am I trying to show you?

When it came time that we lowered old Bruce in the grave, there is hope because Christ is alive. Bruce will be raised again. He's not going to stay in the tomb. Now I'll show you how good God is. Many of you know that there were two of our people, God's people, that were with brother Bruce when he passed. I think most of you know Bruce didn't have a wife. His sons couldn't be there. They had obligations with family and such. But you know God didn't let God's man pass away alone. I'm so thankful for God and the way he works things out providentially.

And you know one of the great things that took place as one of the men of our church is they were holding his hand and comforting him as he passed from this life to the next. What did they say? Bruce, the tomb is empty. Jesus is alive. We had just been studying the empty tomb and how Mary had come and discovered the empty tomb and he looked at Bruce and he said, "Bruce, it's okay. In Christ the tomb is empty. He is alive." And listen, I don't have a fatalistic view because I know what this passage says. "The grave will open up one day at the Second Coming and those who are in Christ will be made alive." That is our hope.

Now in conclusion, what might we take home with us this Easter morning? I might say, "Brother Chris, you sure given us a lot." How might we be edified today? How might we grow? What might we meditate on? I don't want to just conclude the message and pray and dismiss but I want to give us some additional thoughts that might help us no matter where we are. First, we take great comfort as born-again Christians that Christ is alive. What do we see back in verse 20? He has been raised. Jesus is alive. And we need to go a little further with this portion of verse 20.

We take comfort in the fact that Jesus is alive and He is sitting at the right hand of the Father. He is making intercession for those of us who are in Christ. The tomb is empty, yes. He is alive, yes, but He ascended back to the Father and He sits at the right hand of the Father and He is making intercession for those who are in Christ right now. And that is great, great comfort. He's not just alive. He is ruling and reigning there at the right hand of the Father. Second, we take great comfort that Christ is alive in us as believers. Through the person and the work of the Holy Spirit, Christ Jesus comes to live in His people.

We learn in our study of John that Jesus told His disciples that He would not leave them as orphans. He told them that He would come to be with them and end them. And for us, we must see that we are not alone. We are not alone. Christ lives in us through the person and the work of the Spirit. So we take comfort that He is on the throne and we take comfort that He lives within us. And then third, we take great comfort that Christ is working in the world to save sinners. Yes, He is working in the world to save sinners. Through the person and the work of the Holy Spirit, Christ Jesus is working to save the lost.

We learn in our study of John that the Holy Spirit convicts the lost of their sin and God's righteousness and the judgment that has to come. It is God the Father who draws sinners to His Son to save them. And personally, I believe on the authority of God's Word that Jesus Christ wants to save sinners. They are more out there than He wants to save. They are just like you and me. I've said it before, I'm so glad. There was a church in the 1980s that believed God could save a man just like me. How many people are out there just like you? Lost and in need of a Savior. And we take great comfort that Christ is working in the world.

I take great comfort that He can save our sons and our daughters. Those who we love. And then fourth, we take great comfort that after our death, we will be raised to meet Christ Jesus in our resurrected body. Of course, this only happens to those who are born again. Those of us who are in Christ. Go back to verse 22. "For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all should be made alive." Those of us who are in Christ, the grave is not the end destination. Listen, my friend, we will be raised with Christ. Now, what's the title of the message this morning? Our hope in the resurrection. Our hope. Is that your hope today?

There's only two kinds of people here today. Oh, there's only two kinds of people here today. Those who are in Christ and those who are in Adam. Oh, it's a harsh black line, folks. There's no gray area. There's no in between. You're either in Christ or you're in Adam. You're either in your sin in Adam or you're in Christ Jesus. And I say to you, if you're in Adam, if you're in your sin, seek the Lord while He may be found. Chase after the Lord. Chase after Him with due diligence while you can. And I pray and I trust that He'll save you and I believe He wants to save you. So what have we looked at this morning? Our hope in the resurrection.

Let's pray. Let's close out the message. And then we'll continue in worship as we take up our offering. We'll close out our service.