Sunday, April 1, 2018

The Hope of Easter: New Creation, New Life! - I Corinthians 15:20-26


The Hope of Easter: New Creation, New Life!
I Corinthians 15:20-26
Introduction: In the mid-third century Cyprian of Carthage wrote in a letter,
     This seems a cheerful world, Donatus, when I view it from this fair garden, under the shadow of these vines. But if I climbed some great mountain and looked out over the wide lands, you know very well what I would see–brigands on the high roads, pirates on the seas; in the amphitheaters men murdered to please applauding crowds; under all roofs misery and selfishness.
     It is really a bad world, Donatus, an incredibly bad world.  Yet in the midst of it I have found a quiet and holy people.  They have discovered a joy which is a thousand times better than any pleasures of this sinful life. They are despised and persecuted, but they care not. They have overcome the world. These people, Donatus, are the Christians — and I am one of them.
The effects of the Fall are all around us, but our sure hope gives joy for the journey! Question: Is the hope believers have reasonable, or is it just wishful thinking? After all, there is so much suffering in this life, and believers are clearly not exempt (just look at our prayer list if you have any doubts!). Even so, we have hope, even so, we trust Him. Why? Because Jesus is Lord, and our hope is based on history and anchored in the faith that God is in control and that He will bring His story to pass as He has promised. One over-arching theme of Scripture is that God is good, and the Bible reveals His steadfast commitment to bring His design in Creation to pass.
       Paul began this great 15th chapter of First Corinthians by talking about the Good News about Jesus and the historical witness to His resurrection (1-11). The believers in Corinth believed this, it was at the heart of the gospel Paul preached to them, but they were apparently struggling with the idea of a future resurrection for believers. Greek philosophy saw the body as inherently evil and the physical world as something from which we needed to be delivered. We often are just like the Corinthians in this sense. We talk about “heaven” but we seemingly forget the hope of a future resurrection and the new life for which we were created in the New Earth. Jesus’ resurrection is the guarantee of the promise of our future resurrection!
       “But in fact Christ has been raised…” The promise of resurrection and New Life is our hope, and that hope empowers us to live joyfully now as pilgrims in a fallen world. It means we can live victoriously today, in this life, enjoying the blessings God gives us now—“just a foretaste of glory divine”—knowing the best is yet to come!
The present age is Eastertime! It began with the resurrection of the Redeemer, and will culminate in the resurrection of the redeemed and the restoration of all things. Between is the spiritual resurrection of all who have been called into new life through faith in Christ. So we live between two Easters, and in the power of the first Easter we look toward the last Easter! (Erich Sauer, Triumph of the Crucified.)
The Maine* Idea: The Resurrection of Jesus gives us a firm foundation for our faith and a sure hope for our future. Because He lives all fear is gone!
I. Resurrection Faith: Jesus’ victory over death is the foundation of our faith (20,21). The tomb is empty, He is alive! Herman Bavinck’s systematic theology is titled in its English translation, Our Reasonable Faith. Our faith is reasonable, because it is based on the irrefutable historical fact of the resurrection of Jesus!
20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead…
        Paul begins this paragraph answering the hypothetical questions he asked in the preceding context (15:12-19). He said there that IF Christ is not raised, IF the resurrection never happened and tomb wasn’t empty, THEN our faith would be useless, we would still be dead in our sins. The false teachers in Corinth struggled with the idea of the resurrection. Sound familiar?  Many today question the historicity of the resurrection. If the resurrection is not true, we have no hope. IF! But, as 15:1-11 shows emphatically, He is alive!  Verse 20 states forcefully, But now Christ HAS BEEN raised from the dead…” The ESV translates, “BUT IN FACT Christ has been raised…” That is Paul’s point here: the resurrection is a fact of history (as Ignatius proclaimed in a letter, heading to his execution, in AD 107, just a few years after the death of the last of the apostles).  The eyewitnesses in the Biblical record, and also those from the end of the apostolic era, people like Ignatius, who spoke to the eyewitnesses of the resurrection, all of this is compelling testimony that would be convincing proof in a court of law.
       In the first 11 verses of I Corinthians 15 Paul presents powerful eyewitness testimony to the resurrection of Jesus. Remember the apostles in the days before Jesus arose. They were scattered when the Lord was arrested in the Garden. Peter three times denied that he even knew Jesus! And then after the resurrection these same men stood before the crowds and the authorities and preached boldly that He is Lord, and that He had risen from the dead.  When arrested, threatened, imprisoned, and beaten, they said they could not stop preaching what they had seen and knew. They were eyewitnesses! How do you explain that transformation?  The only reasonable explanation is that they spoke what they knew to be true, they had seen the resurrected Jesus!  As Ignatius said, “These are facts of history!”  
      In I Corinthians 15:6, “Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep…” Do you see what Paul is saying? He is saying, “I am a witness, as are the other apostles, but there are also hundreds of others who saw the resurrected Jesus.” As he is writing this letter he says, some have died, but most were still alive. “If you doubt me, if you still need to be convinced, talk to them, ask them if this is true!”  “But now Christ HAS been raised from the dead...” The tomb is empty, Jesus is alive!
       Note too that Paul is also pointing out the humanity of Jesus, “For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead...” (I Cor 15:21).  We need a balanced, biblical understanding of who Jesus is. The Eternal Word, God the Son, did not just appear to be human. He actually took upon himself a human nature. Why would He do that? As Adam sinned, and as the representative head of the race brought all humanity under the curse, so also Jesus, the last “Adam,” did not sin, he said “NO!” to the tempter and “Yes” to the Father, so that all who trust in Him, all who are “in Christ,” have forgiveness and new life.  Such grace, such love, for God to become a man, knowing exactly what would happen, what had to happen for the Father’s plan to be fulfilled. And he did it! Hallelujah! And so, He has been raised from the dead and became...
       “…the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep…” (I Cor 15:20,23). In the Old Testament, the first part of the harvest, called the firstfruits, was set apart and given as an offering to the Lord.  It was part of the harvest and connected with it in that sense. It guaranteed that the rest of the harvest would follow.  Jesus’ resurrection is connected here with the future resurrection of believers. As certainly as Jesus was raised from the dead, so also the rest of the harvest will follow.  That is talking about us, and every other person throughout history who has trusted in Him!
       “For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead…”  It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to recognize that all is not right in the world. We pick up the newspaper and immediately we read about the chaos and suffering in so many places and so many lives. We are constantly reminded that hurting people are all around us—and believers in Jesus are by no means exempt from that. It all started with Adam and Eve. Paul said in Romans, “By one man sin entered into the world and death through sin, and death spread to all men because all have sinned…”  It wasn’t that way in the beginning. God created the universe and called it “good.” Humans were uniquely made in the image of God, the pinnacle of God’s good creation. But then Adam sinned, and the consequences of his fall have been passed down through the ages to every human.  This is part of the reason it was necessary for Jesus to come in human flesh. Eternal God took upon himself a human nature so that he could be our substitute. Tested and tempted, yet without sin, He bore our sins in His body on the Cross.  But Jesus did not stay dead, the tomb could not hold him, he arose!  The resurrection of the Redeemer, the firstfruits of the resurrection harvest, is the basis of our hope as we live in that victory now, and look ahead to the resurrection of the REDEEMED… The Resurrection of Jesus gives us a firm foundation for our faith and a sure hope for our future. Because He lives all fear is gone! Our “Resurrection Faith,” leads to our...
II. Resurrection Hope:  In the power of the first Easter we go to meet the last Easter! That is our hope, and it is expressed here in two phases. First, we hope in…
       The Resurrection of the Redeemed (22,23). In Christ we will be made alive!
22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. 23 But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. 
      For as in Adam all die Adam sinned as the first man, the representative head of the human race, and all of his descendants by birth and by choice are sinners. That includes us. There is none righteous, no not one. There are none that seek after God..All have sinned and come short of the glory of God (Rom 3:10,23). Paul wrote,
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins  2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience-  3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind (Ephesians 2:1-3).
That is the doctrine of “total depravity.” It doesn’t mean that we were as bad as we could possibly be. It does mean that every part of our being is affected by sin, our heart, our motives, our mind, all of it is fallen. Consequently, there is none who do good, no not one. There are none who seek after God. That is a problem that we could not solve on our own. In Adam all die. The wages of sin is death.  That is why our mission is so urgent. Every person in our sphere of influence, everyone in your oikos, your extended family, is either saved, or in darkness. That is not popular theology, but it is the truth. We are His witnesses! So we must step up, and step out!
       Popular “theology” would say, I am ok, you are ok. We all worship the same god, we just call him by different names. People are basically good. Biblically, apart from faith in Jesus, the only way to the Father, the only name under heaven by which we must be saved, apart from Him every human is lost, condemned, and headed toward hell. That is the human condition. We would have no hope. “BUT GOD...” He didn’t leave us in our hopeless state. He made a Way where there was no way.
       The consequences of living in a fallen world are all around us. I’ve shared before the story of my Hebrew professor, Al Groves, who died of melanoma that metastasized to his brain. He blogged over his last months, sharing the lessons God was teaching him and his family on the journey. His wife, Libby, wrote a book about the experience called Grief Undone: A Journey with God and Cancer. She wrote,
God hates death even more than we do. That’s part of the reason Jesus came. The wonderful news for us is that Jesus broke death’s power by dying and rising from the dead. He did it not only for Himself but also for all who are united to Him...”
      He showed His love by coming to die. Adam brought death to all; Jesus brings life, and the resurrection to true life, to all who are His, all who believe.  That is good news.  It means we are included in his story if we know Him.  The present age is Eastertime! It began with the resurrection of the Redeemer, and will culminate in the resurrection of the redeemed...  So, we live between two Easters, and in the power of the first Easter we look toward the last Easter!
       Secondly, our hope looks for the Restoration of all Things (24-26). The Gaither song says, “Because He lives, I can face tomorrow, because He lives all fear is gone…”
24 Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every 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.
       God’s creation was all good in the beginning – human rebellion brought sin and death. Finally, the day will come when sin will be no more, and the rule of God will restore Creation to what it was designed it to be, to the glory of God.  When you read about the Garden of Eden before the Fall, and then turn to the end of the Book of Revelation, you can’t miss the idea that God will bring His design in creation to pass. And it is not that we go to heaven forever living in a place that is all white like Flo in a Progressive Insurance commercial! No, heaven comes to earth! Read Revelation 21:1-5,
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.  2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.  3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.  4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away."  5 And he who was seated on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new."
It is not that we go to heaven forever to be with God, God brings heaven to earth, and He restores everything to be the way He intended it in Creation, before the Fall, when He said it was all “good.” That is the “big story,” and it is good news!
       There is a sense in which the kingdom is already present, and yet we await the day when God’s rule will be established over all – a day when God himself will wipe away our tears – and there will be no more sin, no more sorrow, no more death. We live, now, in anticipation of the fulfillment of that promise. Dallas Willard said,
Those who have apprenticed themselves to Jesus learn an undying life with a future as good and as large as God himself. The experiences we have of this life as his co-conspirators now fill us with anticipation of a future so full of beauty and goodness we can hardly imagine… (The Divine Conspiracy P.375).
Yes, “The suffering of this present age is not worthy to be compared to the glory that will be revealed in us... That day is still future, but it is not in doubt! As surely as the tomb is empty our hope is sure in Jesus.  “The life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God…” (Gal 2:20).  He’s alive! So, in the power of the first Easter, His resurrection, we go to meet the last Easter, the sure promise of our resurrection.
What is God saying to me in this passage?  We have a “resurrection faith” based on the historical truth that Jesus died and rose again. We have a resurrection Hope because His victory over death means our victory is certain. The Resurrection of Jesus gives us a firm foundation for our faith and a sure hope for our future. Because He lives all fear is gone!
What would God have me to do in this passage? The evidence is clear: Jesus is alive.  The truth that He conquered death leaves no doubt that He is who he claimed to be, and it assures us that He can do what He promised to do.  Paul invites us in Romans 10:9,10 to respond, “Confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, and you will be saved.” There are no questions, no doubts, no “ifs” in that statement. That is God’s promise to you!
       Perhaps you have believed and received the gift of salvation, and yet the truth is that you are so overwhelmed by the trials in your life or in the lives of those around you that you feel hope-less.  It is true that as we read in Romans 8:22 For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.” But the gospel means Hope!  Our resurrection faith points through the darkness and pain, through the veil of tears, to the end of this story, to our sure hope: Because He lives, we will live also! That is not wishful thinking; it is a promise, from God himself.
       We struggle, but we are not defeated. We mourn, but not as those who have no hope. We are discouraged, but we don’t despair. Paul reflected our hope when he wrote, “The suffering of this present age is not worthy to be compared to the glory that will be revealed in us.”  The present age began with the resurrection of the Redeemer, and it will end in the resurrection of the redeemed… in the power of the first Easter, we go to meet the last Easter.  If you have trusted in Jesus, the same power that raised Him from the dead is at work in you!  “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you…” (Romans 8:11).   That is your sure hope if you know Him!  Think about that! Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  In Him we have a blessed hope!  AMEN. 

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