"So also, it is written, 'the first man, Adam, became a living soul; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit"! (I Corinthians 15:45)
 
Last week, we continued our study on what many consider the most important chapter in all the Bible (I Corinthians 15), because it sums up, simply and clearly, the "good news" of the gospel of Jesus Christ, by which one might (and must!) believe and be saved--and answers the most important question everyone at some point in his or her life asks: "What happens when I die?"
 
The apostle Paul claimed in I Corinthians 15:3 that he was "delivering to the Corinthians (and thereby to the whole world) a message 'of first importance, that He had received from God,' 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"!  This is the message of the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ that he preached to the Corinthians, which they "received, in which they stood, and by which they were saved, if (he said) they held fast to what he preached"!  The same message he would later declare (in II Corinthians 5:21), "that God (the Father) had made Him (Jesus Christ, the Son) who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him!"  And later to the Romans (in Romans 10:9) that if one "confesses with the mouth and believes in his heart that God has raised Him from the dead, he would be saved"!  The same basic message that John wrote about (in John 3:16) that "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him would not perish but have everlasting life"!  This, the inspired message revealed by God to the writers of the Bible upon which, and about which, and for which all the sacred Scripture, the entire Bible, was written!
 
And yet some of the Corinthians still apparently didn't believe in the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ!  And while others believed in the resurrection of Christ, they didn't believe in the coming resurrection of their own bodies, or of other believers one day!  And so Paul wrote the book of I Cornthians, and specifically I Corinthians 15, not only to set the record straight about the gospel message of salvation through Christ alone, but to give explicit and convincing evidence that would stand up in any civil court hearing, and through the test of time, about the bodily resurrection of Christ, the reality as well of the bodily resurrection of believers one day--and the consequences for everyone of us if Christ didn't in fact rise from the dead!  And here's what he wrote: "If the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised, and if Christ hasn't been raised, your faith is worthless, and you are still in your sins!  And those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished!  And if we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied!"  Wow!
 
But he goes on to declare, with triumphant eloquence and unabashed affirmation (in verse 20): "But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first-fruits of those who are asleep!  For since by a man (Adam) came death, by a man (Christ) also came the resurrection of the dead!  For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive!  But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ's at His coming"!
 
And so Paul declared that He's coming again!  In I Thessalonians 4:16-17, he wrote that there's coming a day "when Christ will descend from heaven with a shout, with a voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first!  Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord!  Therefore comfort one another with these words!"  Paul also goes on to write about the coming millennial reign of Christ upon the earth!  "For He must reign," he writes in verse 25, until He has put all His enemies under His feet!  And he declares that the last enemy to be destroyed is death itself!"  Wow!
 
Hallelujah!  Christ is risen!  And because He lives we too shall live!  It's the foundation of our Christian faith and the basis for our hope and conviction that we too will rise bodily some day!  MacArthur writes that "the ultimate act of salvation is the raising of those at the last day who are in Christ"!
 
It's no wonder that the apostle Paul closed this portion of his text, in verse 34, by "casting shame" on the Corinthians, and by extension, on us too, for not sharing more deliberately, and more freely, with those who have no knowledge of God, and His Word, the glorious message of the gospel of Christ, and of the reality of the bodily resurrection of both believers and unbelievers on that day to come--with believers destined for eternal bliss in heaven and unbelievers for damnation and eternal separation from God!  Jesus Himself said, in John 5:28, "Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, and will come forth, those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment"!  
 
Erich Sauer was quoted as saying that "the graveyards of man will become seed plots of the resurrection; and the cemeteries of the people of God become, through the heavenly dew, the resurrection fields of the promised perfcction!  Spurgeon called it "God's acres"!
 
Romans 8:22-23 says, "For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.  And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body"!
 
And that sets the scene and the tone, for our lesson last night on I Corinthians 15:34-49, where the apostle Paul begins by addressing two follow-on questions raised by the Corinthians, and a likely mystery for us as well: "How are the dead raised?  And with what kind of body do they come?"
 
MacArthur notes that these questions might have been raised in sarcasm and with a great deal of skepticism by the Corinthians who found it hard to imagine how "a rotted, decayed, corrupted bunch of whatever could ever all come together again from the grave, and be re-assempled"!  And so they asked, in effect, "You mean God is going to go through all the debris scattered all over the earth and sort out what goes where?"  When someone dies, his or her body decomposes and no one could possibly put it back together again, one would naturally think!  The Corinthians  were living in the midst of the Hellenistic culture which didn't have a good view of the body to begin with.  "Hellenistic dualism," notes Constable, taught that the body was "only husk of the real person that dwelled in it, and that the more a person could live without it the better"!  And that kind of thinking must have influenced the thinking of the Corinthians!
 
So how did the apostle Paul respond (in verse 36)?  "You fool!  That which you sow does not come to life unless it dies, and that which you sow, you do not sow the body which is to be, but a bare grain, perhaps of wheat or of something else!"  And so he goes on to illustrate the reality of the resurrection with a lesson from nature, comparing a grain of seed that must first be planted into the ground and decompose and die before producing a unique life of its own  (a tree or a stalk of grain)!  A diferent form and yet, in some sense, still connected to the seed!  "God gives it a body just as He wished, and to each of the seeds a body of its own," Paul says in verse 38! (MacArthur reasons that the Corinthians "shouldn't have any more of a problem with the resurrection concept than they had with the concept of a harvest!")
 
Paul goes on, in verses 39-41, to describe the diversity and uniqueness of God's awesome creation!  "All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one flesh of men, and another flesh of beasts, and another flesh of birds and another of fish.  There are also heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is one, and the glory of the earthly is another.  There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differ from star in glory!"  Wow!  
 
And so, just as there are vastly different bodies and forms in God's created universe which are suited for all kinds of existence in this life, so God can (and will!) design a unique and different body perfect for resurrection life! And the "glory" of the resurrected body will be infinitely beyond anything we can conceive of in the earthly body!   Paul writes, in verses 42-44, that "it is sown a perishable body (but) raised an imperishable body; sown in dishonor (but) raised in glory; sown in weakness (but raised in power; sown a natural body (but) raised a spiritual body; and so if there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body"!
 
And so Paul shows how the resurrection of believers is not simply a resuscitation of dead bodies but a powerful, supernatural re-creation of new glorified bodies!  Constable writes that "these verses help us understand that it is not the body that goes into the ground that is raised from the dead but an entirely new type of body," and so he concludes that "it doesn't matter what condition the body is in at death--whether lying peacefully in a coffin, or buried at sea, torn to pieces as a result of a tragic accident, or cremated!  The Lord will raise it up as a new body!  Just as every seed having it own body!  Unique and different, but recognizable!  Just like the resurrected body of Christ!
 
Jesus, in fact, used the same analogy of the harvest when He told His disciples (in John 12:23-24) that "the hour had come for the Son of Man to be glorified"!  "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit"!  Some kind of transformation took place when Jesus died and was resurrected, giving us some insight into what our own resurrected bodies will be like on that "great day coming bye and bye"!  In His resurrected body, Jesus could appear and disappear!  He could walk through walls; transport Himself from one place to another just by a thought!  Eat fish and honeycomb; sit down with His diciples and show them the scars in His hand; speak and be understood!  He was who He was, and yet in a glorified state!  And Acts 1 tells of how He "presented Himself alive after His suffering to the apostles He had chosen by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days, speaking of things concerning the kingdom of God...and then being lifted up and recieved by a cloud and out of their sight"!  Then, having "two men in white clothing" standing by them and saying, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky?  This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven"!
 
And finally, in verses 45-49, the apostle Paul answers the question raised by the Corinthians more specifically about "what kind of body" by noting that the resurrection body of Jesus is the prototype for the believer!  Beginning with a quote from Genesis 2:7, ""The first man, Adam, became a living soul; the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit!"  Through the first Adam we received our natural bodies, but through the last Adam (Christ) we will receive our spiritual bodies in resurrection!  Adam's body was the prototype of the natural, Christ the body of the resurrection.  We will bear the image of His body fit for heaven as we have born the image of Adam's body on earth!  
 
I Peter 1:3-5 says, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again for a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you!"  Wow!
 
Paul writes in Philippians 3:8-11 and 20-21, "...I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death in order that I may attain to the resurrection of the dead!...For our citizenship is in heaven from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humbe state into conformity with the body of His glosry, by the exeretion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself!"
 
I John 3:2-3 says, "Beloved, now are we the children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we shall be, but we know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him as He is!  Everyone who hgas this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure!"
 
And Matthew 13:43 adds: "Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.  He who has ears to hear, let him hear!"
 
D.L. Moody wrote this: "Thank God, we are to gain by death!  We are to have something that death canot touch; when this earthly body is raised, all the imperfections will ve gone; Jacob will leave his lameness; Paul will have no thorn in the flesh; we shall enter a life that deserves the name of life, happy, glorious, incorruptible, "fashioned like unto His glorious body," everything that hinders the spiritual life left behind!  We are exiles now, but then we who are faithful shall stand before the throne of God, joint heirs with Christ, kings and priests, citizens of that heavenly country!"  Wow!
 
Christ is risen!  Hallelujah!  And "we shall behold Him, we shall behold Him, face to face, in all of His glory...!"
 
Lowell 

"For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead!" (I Corinthians 15:21)
 
Last week we embarked on what many people consider to be the most important chapter in the Bible (I Corinthians 15), because it sums up the "good news" of the "gospel of Jesus Christ," by which sinners like you and me might believe and trust in Christ, and be "saved," and further answers the proverbial question which everyone at some point in their lives asks: "what happens to me when I die"?
 
The apostle Paul claimed that he was "delivering to the Corinthians (and therefore to us as well) 'of first importance' what he had received from God, 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 goes on to declare that because He lives, we too will live"!
 
This is the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ which Paul writes that he "preached to them, which they received, in which they stand, and by which they were saved, if they hold fast to what he preached"!  The message of the gospel, about which he would later write (in II Corinthians 5:21) that "God (the Father) has made Him (Jesus Christ the Son) who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him"!  The same message the apostle John wrote about, in John 3:16, that "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life"!  That Paul wrote about, in Romans 10:9, where he says, that if you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved"!  And, in Philippians 3:7-10, that "whatever things were gain to him, those things he counted as loss for the sake of Christ, and that he counted all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus His Lord, for whom he suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish so that he might gain Christ, and now be found in Him, not having a righteousness of his own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that he might know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His suffering, being conformed to His death, in order that he might attain to the righteousness of the dead"!  
 
And so, in I Corinthians 15, the apostle Paul goes on to give infallible evidence, and proof, that would stand up in any civil court hearing, that Christ was truly raised from the dead, with a supernaturally resurrected body that key witnesses saw up close and personal, one they touched and heard speak, and ate with, and eventually saw, on the day of Pentecost, "taken up in a cloud to heaven"!
 
And yet some of the Corinthians, we learned, still didn't believe in the resurrection of Christ!  And while others believed in His resurrection, they didn't believe in the bodily resurrection of believers!  And so the apostle Paul wrote I Corinthians 15 to set the record straight about the message of the gospel, and of the reality of the bodily resurrection of believers!  And he also wrote, in verse 12-19, of the awesome consequences for them, and for us, if Christ wasn't in fact resurrected!  And here's what he wrote!  The words speak for themselves: "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?  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 vain, your faith also is vain!  Moreover, we are even found to be false witnesses of God, because we testified against God that He 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; you are still in your sins!  Then those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished!  If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied!"  Wow!
 
And that set the scene, and the tone, for our lesson last night, on I Corinthians 15:20-35, where Paul responds: "But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first-born of those who are asleep!"  Again, wow!  Philips puts it this way: "But the glorious fact is that Christ did rise from the dead; He has become the very first to rise of all who sleep the sleep of death!" Could anyone imagine more glorious and wonderful words? He is risen!!  He is risen indeed!  Gloria in excelsis deo!
 
Colossians 1:18 says, "He (Christ) is also head of the body, the church, and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead!"
 
I Thessalonians 4:14 says, "For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus!"
 
"First fruits"?
 
Constable explains that Paul uses the metaphor "first fruits" to describe the resurrection of believers some day!  He notes that "the Jews (according to Leviticus 23) celebrated Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month of their sacred calendar; and it just so happened that Jesus would die on the day that the Jewish fathers killed the Passover lamb, which was a Friday!  The Jews offered a sacrifice of "first fruits" the day after the Sabbath, the day that Christ arose!  The first fruits that the Jews offered following the Passover were only the first fruits of the crops that they offered later.  Paul saw in this comparison the fact that other believers would rise from the dead just as Jesus did!  And so He used the metaphor to assert that the resurrection of believers (those who are asleep) is absolutely inevitable!  God Himself guaranteed it!"
 
Paul writes in verses 21-23, "For since by a man (Adam) came death, by a man (Christ) also came the resurrection of the dead!  For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive!  But each in his own order; Christ the firstborn, after that those who are Christ's at His coming!"
 
"And then comes the end, Paul writes (in verses 24-28)...when He hands over the kingdom to the God and Father, when He has abolished all rule and all authority and power!  For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet!  The last enemy that will be abolished is death!  For He has put all things in subjection under His feet.  But when He says 'all things are put in subjection,' it is evident that He is excepted who put all things in subjection to Him.  When all things are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself also will be subjected to the One who subjected all things to Him, so that God may be all in all!"  Whew!  Confused?
 
The "end"? Immanuel's Constitution and By-Laws describes in more detail "the future," and the order, of the "end times"!  Beginning with the Rapture, when "we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds (speaking of the "dead in Christ, who will rise first,"! according to I Thessalonians 5:16-17) to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord!  Christ will then bring a 7-year period of wrath upon the earth, known as the Tribulation, and at the end of this period of judgment He will bodily return with the church to set up a kingdom to rule in righteousness for a thousand years, in what will be known as the Millennium (described in Revelation 19:1-20:6, and in Matthew 13:41-43).  The kingdom will end in rebellion against Christ and His people (according to Revelation 20:7-9, after Satan is released), but the rebellion will fail in the face of Christ's victory over Satan and all who oppose Him (Revelation 20:9-10).  The unbelieving dead of all time will then be raised and given eternal bodies to face God at the Great White Throne Judgment, after which they will be thrown into the lake of fire for eternal judgment!  Believers, on the other hand, will enter a new heaven and new earth prepared for them to enjoy perfect, everlasting fellowship with God!"  Whew!
 
And so that describes "the end" (which Paul talks about in verse 24-28), "when Christ hands over the kingdom to the God and Father...when all things are subjected to Hims, so that He may be all in all"!
 
Finally, "in the end," Constable writes, "God will be the head of everything!  Romans 11:36 says, "For from Him and through Him, and to Him are all things!  To Him be the glory forever, Amen!"  MacArthur writes, "Christ will continue to rule because His reign is eternal, but He will reign in His former, full, and glorious place within the Trinity, subject to God the Father in the way eternally designed for Him in full Trinitarian glory"!
 
In verse 29, the apostle Paul returns to writing about the resurrection of the dead, noting first that some of the Corinthians--even those who claimed not to believe in the resurrection--were apparently involved in "baptizing for the dead"! This was a practice common among some of the pagan religions of that day which had somehow infiltrated the church of Corinth as well!  And so Paul here exposed the illogic of some of the Corinthians who claimed not to believe in the bodily resurrection of believers but who still participated in "baptism for the dead"!  And especially since no one can be saved by baptism to begin with!  And so not even a living person can be saved by baptism, much less a dead person!
 
Paul then shared how he was willing himself to "die daily" and face and endure suffering and danger every hour because he believed that Christ would raise him and that his resurrected body would continue beyond the grave.  And if there was no resurrection (quoting Isaiah 22:13), he reasoned, one might just as well "eat and drink, for tomorrow we may die"!
 
And so Paul is clear in pointing out that how one believes about the resurrection affects the way one lives!  "Become sober-minded, as you ought and stop sinning; for some have no knowledge of God (or therefore of salvation through Christ, and the hope for life after dead with a resurrected body), and he says that he "speaks this to their shame," implying that they need not only to have a hope for the future themselves but to share it with others, who have no hope!
 
The resurrection of the dead also gives us hope for being reunited with our loved ones someday as well! Just as David demonstrated after losing the son he had with Bathsheba. II Samuel 12:15-23 records how he fasted and wept while his son was sick but still alive, but once dead returned to normal living because he believed he would be resurrected and see him again some day!  "I will go to him, but he will not return to me," he told those who questioned his response!
 
And David later prayed (in Psalm 17:15), "As for me, I shall behold Your face in righteousness; I will be satisfied with Your likeness when I awake!"
 
"What tremendous power the resurrection has, and what wonderful hope it gives," MacArthur writes!  Jesus rose from the dead; He is alive; and we also shall live because one day He will raise us up to be with Him eternally! What greater incentive; what greater motive could we have for coming to Him, serving Him, and for living for Him!"
 
He is risen!
 
"And because He lives, I can face tomorrow, because He lives my fears are gone; for I know, I know He holds the future, and life is worth the living, because He lives...!"
 
Happy Easter, fellow MOBsters!
 
Lowell

In last week's lesson, on I Corinthians 14:26-40, the apostle Paul eatablished some basic principles which were to govern how the church, and specifically the church of Corinth, was to function!  "When you assemble together (as the church), let all things be done for edification," he wrote--whether someone has a psalm to read, something to teach, a revelation from God, even the gift of a tongue (or another language to speak), or a gift to be able to interpret the words spoken by the one speaking with a tongue"! This was Paul's way, Constable notes, of "calling a halt" to any more chaos and confusion in church proceedings, particularly from someone speaking gibberish in the church!  Paul stresses the importance of doing it all in a proper way, and by following the guidelines he outlined! No more than two or three ought to be speaking in tongues, and it should be done in sequence, with nobody speaking at the same time!  One speaking in another language ought to be told if there's an unbelieving person present who speaks in that foreign language; and an interpreter should be assigned in such a case so the rest of the congregation would be able to understand what he was saying as well!  And if no interpreter was present, the person with the gift for speaking in another language was to remain silent so as not to disrupt the worship! And so it should all be done with order and dignity, and carried out in a way that everybody involved, and present, would benefit!
 
Paul, you'll remember, also noted that "if prophets were present" (as was still the case apparently at the time the book of I Corinthians was written), two or three of them ought to be allowed to speak, but again, one at a time!  And if while one was speaking God gave "a revelation" to one of the others, the one speaking should defer to the one hearing from God, again so that all might benefit!  Paul added that "those with the gift of prophecy" should be allowed to speak as well, "so that all might learn and be exhorted"!  Stressing again the orderliness of the process, "because God is not a God of confusion but of peace"!
 
And, finally, Paul makes it clear that "women were to keep silent in the church (referring specifically to the worship service), and if they have a question, rather than interrupting the service, they should wait until they're back home, where they can ask their husbands"!  This, Paul writes, is "as it is in all the churches"!  And it's again so as to abide by the principle of maintaining order in the church!"
 
The apostle Paul apparently knew that he would receive "some flack" and negative reactions from some of the Corinthians concerning these "rules"--and particularly from "the prophets, and the tongue-speakers, and some of the women"--notes MacArthur.  Just like the reactions we might expect as coming from those outsiders and even some church members in our day about such rules!  But Paul held firm in his stand and wrote that those who had a problem with what he wrote "should recognize that the things that he wrote were from the Lord"!
 
Paul then closes out I Corinthians 14 by reiterating his wish that the Corinthians would "desire earnestly to prophecy, and yet not forbid speaking in tongues (presumably speaking in "other languages"), but again with a bottom-line understanding, and acceptance, of the importance of "doing everything properly and in an orderly manner"!
 
And that sets the scene for the apostle Paul to move from addressing church conduct to addressing church doctrine, and writing what many consider to be the most important chapter in the Bible, because it deals with the doctrine of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ and the ramifications this has for all of us as we contemplate what happens to us after this life on earth!  MacArthur notes that Job raised this same proverbial question long ago: "If a man dies, shall he live again?"  And then claims, and rightly so I would surmise, that "every human being with a functioning brain who has ever lived has raised (at some point) the question of immortality, if only to himself!  "Is there life after death?"  I Corinthians 15 answers that question directly!
 
As I shared with our group members Tuesday night, I distinctly remember grappling with this very question as a kid, and coming to the conclusion that there must be something out there after this life!  It just never made sense to me to think that when one dies there's nothing more!  No consciousness or awareness of anything!  Just nothingness!  A total void!  For all eternity?  Doesn't make sense!
 
And so the message from the Bible, and from I Corinthians 15 in particular, ought to fascinate, and reasonate, at some point and on some level, one would think, with every human being--since it addresses this crucial issue head on--and offers not only a logical alternative, but the greatest news one could ever hear! How there is, in fact, something after this life that's worth seeking and finding!
 
The apostle Paul begins his thesis by stating that he is "delivering" something to the Corinthians which is "of first importance"!  Who could disagree?
 
It's about "the gospel"!  The "good news" of the Bible!  Which he says He "preached" to them, which they "received," and in which they "stand," and by which they were "saved, if they held fast to the word which he preached"!  ("Holding fast" gave evidence of the genuiness of their faith and salvation, Paul noted!)  And while he doesn't share from whom he received the gospel message here, it's clear from his other writings that he received it, as a revelation, directly from the Lord!  In Galatians 1:11-12 he says, "For I would have you know, brethren, that the gospel that was preached by me is not according to man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation from the Lord!" (And it's a worhty reminder, as II Timothy 3:16-17 declares, to realize that "all Scripture is given by inspiration from God and is profitable for showing us, among other things, what to believe and how to live!)
 
And what is that "gospel message" that Paul "delivered" (by inspiration from God)?  Paul gives the most simple and explicit definition here in all the Bible!  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"! Paul would later write, in II Corinthians 5:21, that "God (the Father) made Him (Jesus Christ, the Son) who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him! John 3:16 say, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life! And in John 1:12, "But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name!"  Paul wrote in Romans 10:9 that "If you confess your sin and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved!" 
 
And so that's the basic message of the gospel! But the best news of all is that that Christ was resurrected from the dead, and that we too (as believers) shall rise and live eternally with God!  Jesus told His disciple, in John 11:25, 15, "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me shall live even if he dies!"  And so the resurrection of Jesus Christ is centerpiece of I Corinthians 15, and of Christianity!  Because He lives, we too shall live for all eternity!  MacArthur notes that the resurrection "is the pivot on which all of Christianity turns and without which none of the other truths would matter"!  It's foundational to the Christian faith, and that it's impossible to be a Christian and not believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ"!
 
And yet some of the Corinthians apparently didn't believe in the resurrection of Christ, while others believed in Christ's resurrection but not in the bodily resurrection of believers!  They were influenced, among other things, by the philosophers of their day!  Like the "men of Athens," and the Epicureans who Acts 17:32 says "sneered" when they heard the apostle Paul preaching in the midst of the council of the Areopagus about the "resurrection of the dead"!  They didn't believe there was any kind of afterlife!  And, sadly, some of this same skepticism and unbelief influenced the thinking of some of the believers, and infiltrated into the church of Corinth!  Which was why Paul wrote II Corinthians 15! To set "the record straight" about the gospel of Christ and of the reality of the resurrection!
 
And he used the experiences and the testimonies of those who saw, and heard, and touched, and ate with the risen Christ!  Evidence that would stand up in any court room hearing!  (The historian Thomas Arnold of Oxford wrote, "I know of no one fact in the history of mankind which is better proven by fuller evidence than the great sign that God has given us that Christ died and rose again from the dead!")  And here's a summary of the evidence!  "He appeared, Paul writes, to Cephas, then to the twelve.  After that to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now...then to James (the brother of Jesus,who apparently didn't believe until He saw the resurrected Christ"), and last of all to himself"!
 

• He first appeared to Mary Magdalene (in John 20:14-18), who reported to the disciples that she had "seen the Lord"!
• Then (in Luke 24:27) to "two men, including Cleopas, on the road to Emmaus, with Jesus "explaining to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures," whom they later recognized as the risen Christ, and recalled how "their hearts burned within them as He spoke"! (Love this account!)
• Then, in John 20:19-20. when He suddenly appeared in the midst of the disciples, except for Thomas (through "locked doors"), "showing them His hands and His side" with "doubting Thomas" later saying he would "not believe unless he would see the imprints on His hands..."!
• Then, in John 20:27 again to the disciples, this time with Thomas present, who "reached in to see His hands and His side," and could only offer a God-inspired response: "My Lord and My God"!
• Then appearing to His disciples by the Sea of Tiberius (in John 21) where they were fishing but caught nothing until Jesus told them to "cast their nets on the other side," resulting in catching so many fish that they "couldn't haul them all in"--and recognizing Him as their risen Master!
• Then, of course, in Acts 1, where He apppeared to His disciples again, just prior to ascending up into the clouds," but not before letting them know that "they would receive power after the Holy Spirit would come upon them and be witnesses for Him both in Jerusalem and in Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth"!
• Last of all, he appeared to Saul (who became Paul) on the road to Damascus, and you know the rest of that story!

These accounts prove, according to Paul, that the resurrection of Christ was not just a "spiritual thing," but one of flesh and blood, with a resurrected body, with supernatural attributes and abilities!
 
And so Paul presented His case to the Corinthians (in verses 12-19), speaking like an attorney, about the consequences if Christ wasn't, in fact, resurrected from the dead!  (Note the sequence and the logic, and the sheer eloquence, of his case!) "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?  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 vain, your faith is also vain!  Moreover, we are even found to be false witnesses of God, because we testified against God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise, if in fact the dead are not raised!  For if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; and you are still in your sins!  Then those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished!  If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied!"  Wow!  
 
But Paul has something more to offer in next week's lesson that begs to be included in this lesson!  And so I'm including it here as the cap-stone!  And it's a "game-changer"!  I Corinthians 15:20!  "But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep!"  He is risen indeed!
 
The Bible Hub sums up I Corinthians 15 as "a powerful affirmation of our future hope in Christ!  The reality of the resurrection assures us of our own resurrection and the ultimate defeat of death!  As we journey through life, facing various trials and uncertainties, let us hold firmly (there it is again!) to the gospel of Christ, knowing that our labor is not in vain!  Our future is secure in Christ--death is defeated, and victory is ours!
 
Wow!  You get it? Among other things, understanding the reality, and the centrality of the resurrection should motivate us, like nothing else, to wnt to share the gospel (and II Corinthians 15!) with others, emphasizing the hope and victory found only in Christ!"
 
Looking forward to the Easter Concert where we can remember and recall again the awesomenss of the resurrection of Jesus Christ--and the "wonder of it all"!
 
And we can sing with real gusto: "Knowing You, Jesus, knowing You, there is no greater thing!  You're my all, You're the best,  You're my joy, my righteousness...and I love you, Lord..."!
 
Happy Easter, fellow MOBsters! He is risen!  Hallelujah!
 
Lowell