Sermon Text: 1 Corinthians 15:12-28

Below is a sermon manuscript from April 20, 2025. Watch the sermon here.

Introduction

My wife is a teacher. She has been in situations where she has her own classroom and subbed. She is often referred to as Mrs B. Relationships matter, but in a substitute situation there is not much time to build a relationship. My wife would show pictures of her family. This started out alright until a few years went by. That’s when my wife showed a picture of her husband, me, and a little twerp said “Haha, yeah right Mrs. B. Who you trying fool. That’s your dad!” 

I have data that shows that I am her husband. There is evidence. Our relationship is backed up by facts and dates. Here is the reality, when it comes to the Christian faith. The fact that we can have a relationship with Jesus. The idea that Jesus is who he says he is. It also has evidence and facts. Theologian Michael Horton says it like this,

No other religion bases its entire edifice on datable facts. The events it reports either happened or they didn’t, but the result is that the gospel creates heralds, not speculative pundits, mystics, and moralists^[1]

The importance of this reality and the truth of the resurrection in history is exactly what Paul wants us to know about in our passage this morning. Let’s look at it together and come away encouraged by its truths.

If there’s no resurrection…

Christ has not been raised

Discounting the possibility of resurrection means a denial of the message of what Jesus came to accomplish. The gospel is the good news of Jesus Christ. That good news tells us that the Son of God became man and came to live a perfect life in our place, fulfilling the demands of the law and the righteousness of God for us and took on the punishment for our sins so that all who trust in Him will live. It tells us that God raised Jesus from the dead after three days.

It is common to dismiss the resurrection outright because it is a supernatural event. We may think “of course people back the would believe that, but we have moved past that.” There’s a bit of what C.S. Lewis called “Chronological snobbery” in all of us. We think that we so far beyond those who have come before us. But it was difficult then. It’s not like people just came back to life. 

Resurrection was just as preposterous to an ancient individual as it is to a modern person. People aren’t supposed to rise from the dead—this is true regardless of anyone’s cultural or historical context.^[2]

There is a reason it’s a big deal. And even here it seems people are struggling with this idea. For the Jews, there were a couple references to a future resurrection (Isaiah 26 and Daniel 12) in the Old Testament. 

Stephen Um says this,

The Jews did believe that at the very end of the world everything would be renovated. They anticipated the new heavens and the new earth at the end of time when there would be bodily, physical resurrection. However, they did not have a worldview to accommodate a belief in a bodily, physical resurrection in the middle of history.^[3]

And the Greek’s would have really been offended by the idea. The soul was more heavily prized than the physical body. To be physically resurrected would have been worse than winning the national championship with a coach you can’t stand. Wait, a win is good but this means we’re stuck with him… The Greeks wanted to be liberated from their bodies, not trapped in them. But that is just what makes the resurrection so amazing, the physical matters. 

But we might ask, what would it take for us to believe that someone raised from the dead today? May you would say “it would take me seeing it with my own eyes. Maybe you would say, I actually need to physically touch the person. But what if you told others and they said “no, you just made up the whole thing.” 

Anthony Flew, one of the most respected atheistic philosophers within the last fifty or sixty years, claims: “The evidence for the resurrection is better than for claimed miracles in any other religion. It’s outstandingly different in quality and quantity from the evidence offered for the occurrence of most other supposedly miraculous events.”^[4]

Denying this has profound consequences. Paul continues.

We are still in our sins

First he says this means that we are still in our sins. We might think, why? If you are familiar with Christian teaching you have heard that Jesus paid for our sins on the cross. You may have heard that Jesus say that “it is finished.” If that’s true then why does the resurrection matter so much? The truth is that we cannot neatly separate the cross and the resurrection. If we have the cross without the resurrection then Jesus failed on his mission. How can we have any indication that our sins are really atoned. Without the resurrection, sin and death win. For Christians this means there is no victory over sin, we are still defined by our sin. It rules over us and we have no hope to fight against it. 

Previous Christians perished

But there is more. If we are still in our sins then we only have hope for this life only. This means that previous Christians have perished. This is what Paul means by those who have fallen asleep in Christ. It’s not talking about those who hard a long day and jumped into their bed. Those who are asleep here is similar to us say “passed away.” The point is that there is no hope for them. Think about that reality for a second. The loved ones that 

I had a childhood friend reach out a few weeks ago asking for recommendations on how to teach your kids about heaven. Her dad had a short time left, and her young kids were struggling to understand. He has since died. There is great hope for him and for them to see him again, if the resurrection is true. But if Jesus didn’t rise from the dead, then there is no hope. There may be memories for those who have loved him, but even within a generation or two, many of those will fade away. 

We have wasted our lives

This may be depressing, and it is. In fact, Paul says that if there is no resurrection, then we have wasted our lives. Later on in the chapter, he says that we might as well eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. A number of years ago, people said “YOLO,” meaning you only live once, to emphasize the need to have experiences and live for the moment. Paul was basically saying the same thing. 

Since Jesus has been raised…

Jesus is proof of our future resurrection

Jesus is proof of the future resurrection. Scripture refers to him as the first fruit. Think of growing apples and wondering how things will go this year. You begin to see the first apple come, and it looks great. It gives you hope of even more. It helps you see that – maybe even despite the conditions – it looks like the crop will be good. Jesus is said to be the first fruit of the future resurrection. How can Christians know that they will have new bodies? Because Jesus does. Many other parts of this chapter describe what those bodies will be like. When Jesus rose from the dead, it pointed to the harvest to come.

We have victory over sin and death

Christians have hope because of Jesus’ victory. We know we participate in it not simply because Jesus has a new body. But it’s because of what it tells us. Think about it. It doesn’t necessarily follow that because Jesus lives, then we will. But it does when Jesus’ ministry was teaching about what he came to accomplish. He came to save sinners. He came to bring the kingdom. In his conversation with Martha, who was grieving the death of Lazarus, we see this exchange in John 11:23-26

Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”

The resurrection gave tangible proof that his ministry was a success. As Scripture teaches, he was raised for our justification. Easter reminds us that when others say “there is not hope, you’re God is dead.” We can be assured that these statements are just as foolish as the leaders of Jesus day thinking they had victory. For Christians, we are just as victorious as Jesus because we belong to him. For Christians, we are just as righteous as Jesus because he came to do what we couldn’t do. For Christians, the power of sin has been defeated. We can find victory over sin, even in this life, because of God’s transforming work in us.

We have hope for eternity

What this victory provides is hope for not only this life but for eternity. As Paul says later on, “death, where is your sting, where is your victory?” We see in Romans 8 that we are more than conquerors through him who loves us. His victory when applied to us does not have a countdown clock marching toward expiration, not they have a beginning in when it was accomplished – at the cross – they have a time when it was applied to us personally – the moment we repented and believed – but what has begun in us will continue forever. We get a foretaste now of what things will be like forever. We get a relationship with God, we get transformation from being slaves to sin to being free to live righteous lives unhindered by the power of sin, but this is imperfect in this life. The hope of eternity is not only the truth that it will continue but that 

This season for some is known as allergy season. Maybe you love this time of year, yet it is annoying. You see the beauty, smell the flowers, but also deal with the itchiness, runny nose, and sinus pressure. The season’s beauty is here and can be experienced, but you realize that it will be even better without the allergies. This is a bit like our hope as Christians. We have been forgiven. We can experience the love and closeness of God. We are being transformed. Yet there are still the lingering effects of sin. We often don’t feel forgiven. We can even feel distant because we are living in sin. But we have hope that one day sin will be no more. One day we will be in God’s presence unhindered by our sin. 

Our lives matter

This also means that our lives matter today. Christians belong to the new age that is breaking in. One day all things will be in subjection to Christ. He is sovereign over all right now, but Christ’s reign is not on earth as it is in heaven. There is still sin and brokenness. But one day they will be no more. Christians have an opportunity to show what that future day will be like. We live now as citizens of heaven, adopting its customs and policies. 

As we said before, this extends to not only our ministry—telling people the good news about Jesus—but everything on this earth matters. The resurrection declares that God is at work redeeming and renewing. It gives value to what we do in the here and now. 

Conclusion

Let me end with an illustration. Without the resurrection, this is all there is. We are part of an age that is marked by sin and death. But with Jesus coming, there is a new age that has dawned. An age where there is victory over sin and death. Right now we live in the in-between. We come into the world marked by sin and death. We belong to the old age and are united to Adam. But because the resurrection is true, we can belong to the age that is breaking in and one day will be fully realized. Even as we gather today, as Christians who belong to the new age, the church is a distinct reflection of what is to come. And now, as we take the Lord’s Supper, we remember him ushering in this amazing reality, and we look forward to when we will experience it fully. Are you part of this? Have you turned from your sins and trusted in Jesus as your savior? I hope you have. 

---

^[1] Michael Horton, Pilgrim Theology: Core Doctrines for Christian Disciples (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2012), 45.

^[2] Stephen T. Um, 1 Corinthians: The Word of the Cross, ed. R. Kent Hughes, Preaching the Word (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2015), 266.

^[3] Stephen T. Um, 1 Corinthians: The Word of the Cross, ed. R. Kent Hughes, Preaching the Word (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2015), 266.

^[4] Stephen T. Um, 1 Corinthians: The Word of the Cross, ed. R. Kent Hughes, Preaching the Word (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2015), 266.