Sunday, January 8, 2017

1 Corinthians 16

(1) Now regarding your question about the money being collected for God’s people in Jerusalem. You should follow the same procedure I gave to the churches in Galatia.

  • Money being collected:
    • Acts 11:27-30: During this time some prophets traveled from Jerusalem to Antioch. One of them named Agabus stood up in one of the meetings and predicted by the Spirit that a great famine was coming upon the entire Roman world. (This was fulfilled during the reign of Claudius.) So the believers in Antioch decided to send relief to the brothers and sisters in Judea, everyone giving as much as they could. This they did, entrusting their gifts to Barnabas and Saul to take to the elders of the church in Jerusalem.
    • Acts 24:17: After several years away, I returned to Jerusalem with money to aid my people and to offer sacrifices to God.
    • Romans 15:25-27: But before I come, I must go to Jerusalem to take a gift to the believers there. For you see, the believers in Macedonia and Achaia have eagerly taken up an offering for the poor among the believers in Jerusalem. They were glad to do this because they feel they owe a real debt to them. Since the Gentiles received the spiritual blessings of the Good News from the believers in Jerusalem, they feel the least they can do in return is to help them financially.
    • 2 Corinthians 8:1-21: Now I want you to know, dear brothers and sisters, what God in his kindness has done through the churches in Macedonia. They are being tested by many troubles, and they are very poor. But they are also filled with abundant joy, which has overflowed in rich generosity. For I can testify that they gave not only what they could afford, but far more. And they did it of their own free will. They begged us again and again for the privilege of sharing in the gift for the believers in Jerusalem. They even did more than we had hoped, for their first action was to give themselves to the Lord and to us, just as God wanted them to do. So we have urged Titus, who encouraged your giving in the first place, to return to you and encourage you to finish this ministry of giving. Since you excel in so many ways—in your faith, your gifted speakers, your knowledge, your enthusiasm, and your love from us—I want you to excel also in this gracious act of giving. I am not commanding you to do this. But I am testing how genuine your love is by comparing it with the eagerness of the other churches. You know the generous grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty he could make you rich. Here is my advice: It would be good for you to finish what you started a year ago. Last year you were the first who wanted to give, and you were the first to begin doing it. Now you should finish what you started. Let the eagerness you showed in the beginning be matched now by your giving. Give in proportion to what you have. Whatever you give is acceptable if you give it eagerly. And give according to what you have, not what you don’t have. Of course, I don’t mean your giving should make life easy for others and hard for yourselves. I only mean that there should be some equality. Right now you have plenty and can help those who are in need. Later, they will have plenty and can share with you when you need it. In this way, things will be equal. As the Scriptures say, “Those who gathered a lot had nothing left over, and those who gathered only a little had enough.” But thank God! He has given Titus the same enthusiasm for you that I have. Titus welcomed our request that he visit you again. In fact, he himself was very eager to go and see you. We are also sending another brother with Titus. All the churches praise him as a preacher of the Good News. He was appointed by the churches to accompany us as we take the offering to Jerusalem—a service that glorifies the Lord and shows our eagerness to help. We are traveling together to guard against any criticism for the way we are handling this generous gift. We are careful to be honorable before the Lord, but we also want everyone else to see that we are honorable.
    • 2 Corinthians 9:2, 9-12: For I know how eager you are to help, and I have been boasting to the churches in Macedonia that you in Greece were ready to send an offering a year ago. In fact, it was your enthusiasm that stirred up many of the Macedonian believers to begin giving … As the Scriptures say, “They share freely and give generously to the poor. Their good deeds will be remembered forever.” For God is the one who provides seed for the farmer and then bread to eat. In the same way, he will provide and increase your resources and then produce a great harvest of generosity in you. Yes, you will be enriched in every way so that you can always be generous. And when we take your gifts to those who need them, they will thank God. So two good things will result from this ministry of giving—the needs of the believers in Jerusalem will be met, and they will joyfully express their thanks to God.
  • God's people in Jerusalem:
    • Several factors account for their poverty:
      1. After their conversion to Christianity, many Jews in Jerusalem would have been ostracized socially and economically.
      2. The “experiment in community sharing” described in Acts 2:44-45 and 4:32-35.
      3. They supported a large number of widows (Acts 6:1-6).
      4. Persistent food shortages culminated in the famine of 46 AD in the time of Emperor Claudius (Acts 11:27-30).
      5. The Jerusalem church supported a proportionately large number of teachers and probably provided hospitality for frequent Christian visitors to the holy city.
      6. Jews in Palestine were subject to a crippling twofold taxation--Jewish and Roman.
  • Galatia:
Galatia
Above map from
https://openoureyeslord.com/2015/04/09/come-over-here-and-help-us-sermons-on-1-thessalonians/

(2) On the first day of each week, you should each put aside a portion of the money you have earned. Don’t wait until I get there and then try to collect it all at once.

  • First day of each week:
    • Early Christians met on Sunday, not the Jewish Sabbath (Saturday). They knew that all days were alike to the Lord (Colossians 2:16-17) but wanted to celebrate the day Jesus rose from the dead (Luke 24:1).
    • Acts 20:7: On the first day of the week, we gathered with the local believers to share in the Lord’s Supper. Paul was preaching to them, and since he was leaving the next day, he kept talking until midnight.
  • Set aside a portion:
    • They were to put it into the common treasury so there would be no last-minute scramble when he came.

(3-4) When I come, I will write letters of recommendation for the messengers you choose to deliver your gift to Jerusalem. And if it seems appropriate for me to go along, they can travel with me.

  • Appropriate for me to go along:
    • Paul did accompany them to Jerusalem (Acts 20:16-21:17). This was his last, ill-fated trip to Jerusalem, during which he was imprisoned (Acts 21:31-33) and eventually shipped to Rome (Acts 27:1).

(5) I am coming to visit you after I have been to Macedonia, for I am planning to travel through Macedonia.

  • Coming to visit you:
    • Paul purposely delayed his second trip to Corinth:
      • 2 Corinthians 1:23: Now I call upon God as my witness that I am telling the truth. The reason I didn’t return to Corinth was to spare you from a severe rebuke.

(6-10) Perhaps I will stay awhile with you, possibly all winter, and then you can send me on my way to my next destination. This time I don’t want to make just a short visit and then go right on. I want to come and stay awhile, if the Lord will let me. In the meantime, I will be staying here at Ephesus until the Festival of Pentecost. There is a wide-open door for a great work here, although many oppose me. When Timothy comes, don’t intimidate him. He is doing the Lord’s work, just as I am.

  • Timothy:
    • Paul had trouble with the Corinthians Christians not respecting his authority as an apostle and as a minister of the gospel. What might they do to a young, timid man like Timothy? So, Paul asks the Corinthian Christians to respect Timothy when he comes.
    • Acts 16:1-3: Paul went first to Derbe and then to Lystra, where there was a young disciple named Timothy. His mother was a Jewish believer, but his father was a Greek. 2 Timothy was well thought of by the believers in Lystra and Iconium, so Paul wanted him to join them on their journey. In deference to the Jews of the area, he arranged for Timothy to be circumcised before they left, for everyone knew that his father was a Greek.
    • Acts 19:22: He sent his two assistants, Timothy and Erastus, ahead to Macedonia while he stayed awhile longer in the province of Asia.
    • 1 Corinthians 4:17: That’s why I have sent Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord. He will remind you of how I follow Christ Jesus, just as I teach in all the churches wherever I go.
    • 1 Timothy 4:12: Don’t let anyone think less of you because you are young. Be an example to all believers in what you say, in the way you live, in your love, your faith, and your purity.

(11-12) Don’t let anyone treat him with contempt. Send him on his way with your blessing when he returns to me. I expect him to come with the other believers. Now about our brother Apollos - I urged him to visit you with the other believers, but he was not willing to go right now. He will see you later when he has the opportunity.

  • Apollos:
    • Acts 18:24-28: Meanwhile, a Jew named Apollos, an eloquent speaker who knew the Scriptures well, had arrived in Ephesus from Alexandria in Egypt. He had been taught the way of the Lord, and he taught others about Jesus with an enthusiastic spirit and with accuracy. However, he knew only about John’s baptism. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him preaching boldly in the synagogue, they took him aside and explained the way of God even more accurately. Apollos had been thinking about going to Achaia, and the brothers and sisters in Ephesus encouraged him to go. They wrote to the believers in Achaia, asking them to welcome him. When he arrived there, he proved to be of great benefit to those who, by God’s grace, had believed. He refuted the Jews with powerful arguments in public debate. Using the Scriptures, he explained to them that Jesus was the Messiah.
    • 1 Corinthians 1:12: Some of you are saying, “I am a follower of Paul.” Others are saying, “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Peter,” or “I follow only Christ.”

(13) Be on guard. Stand firm in the faith. Be courageous. Be strong.

  • Clarke: “The terms in this verse are all military: Watch ye, watch, and be continually on your guard, lest you be surprised by your enemies … Stand fast in the faith - Keep in your ranks; do not be disorderly; be determined to keep your ranks unbroken; keep close together … Quit yourselves like men - When you are attacked, do not flinch; maintain your ground; resist; press forward; strike home; keep compact; conquer … Be strong - If one company or division be opposed by too great a force of the enemy, strengthen that division, and maintain your position … summon up all your courage, sustain each other; fear not, for fear will enervate you.”
  • Be strong:
    • Ephesians 6:10: A final word: Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.
    • 2 Timothy 2:1: Timothy, my dear son, be strong through the grace that God gives you in Christ Jesus.

(14-15) And do everything with love. You know that Stephanas and his household were the first of the harvest of believers in Greece, and they are spending their lives in service to God’s people. I urge you, dear brothers and sisters,

  • Stephanas:
    • 1 Corinthians 1:16: (Oh yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas, but I don’t remember baptizing anyone else.)

(16-17) to submit to them and others like them who serve with such devotion. I am very glad that Stephanas, Fortunatus, and Achaicus have come here. They have been providing the help you weren’t here to give me.

  • Stephanas, Fortunatus, and Achaicus:
    • These were the three men who brought the questions of the Corinthian Christians to Paul. Paul asks that as they are sent back by him with his letter, they be received as devoted servants of the Lord.
  • Fortunatus:
    • Fortunatus and Achaicus were common names for slaves or freedmen (former slaves).
    • Clarke: “This man is supposed to have survived St. Paul; and to be the same mentioned by Clement in his epistle to the Corinthians, as the bearer of that epistle from Clement at Rome to the Christians at Corinth.”

(18-19) They have been a wonderful encouragement to me, as they have been to you. You must show your appreciation to all who serve so well. The churches here in the province of Asia send greetings in the Lord, as do Aquila and Priscilla and all the others who gather in their home for church meetings.

  • Aquila and Priscilla:
    • Aquilla and Priscilla were a married Jewish couple who ministered with Paul at Corinth. Now, having been forced from Rome, they were in Ephesus with Paul, and sent their greetings to the Corinthian Christians.
    • Acts 18:1-3, 18, 24-26: Then Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. There he became acquainted with a Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, who had recently arrived from Italy with his wife, Priscilla. They had left Italy when Claudius Caesar deported all Jews from Rome. Paul lived and worked with them, for they were tentmakers just as he was … Paul stayed in Corinth for some time after that, then said good-bye to the brothers and sisters and went to nearby Cenchrea. There he shaved his head according to Jewish custom, marking the end of a vow. Then he set sail for yria, taking Priscilla and Aquila with him … Meanwhile, a Jew named Apollos, an eloquent speaker who knew the Scriptures well, had arrived in Ephesus from Alexandria in Egypt. He had been taught the way of the Lord, and he taught others about Jesus with an enthusiastic spirit and with accuracy. However, he knew only about John’s baptism. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him preaching boldly in the synagogue, they took him aside and explained the way of God even more accurately.
    • Romans 16:3-5: Give my greetings to Priscilla and Aquila, my co-workers in the ministry of Christ Jesus. In fact, they once risked their lives for me. I am thankful to them, and so are all the Gentile churches. Also give my greetings to the church that meets in their home
    • 2 Timothy 4:19: Give my greetings to Priscilla and Aquila and those living in the household of Onesiphorus.
      • They were faithful and consistent to the very end. 2 Timothy is Paul’s last letter, written about 14 years after he had first met Aquila and Prisca (Priscilla). Nothing negative is said about these two believers in any of the writings of Paul or Luke. As far as the record shows, between Paul and Aquila/Priscilla there was always harmony. What about you? In what spiritual condition will you be in 14 years from now? May we not leave our first love and may we not lose the joy of our salvation.
  • In their home for church meetings:
    • The early church met in houses, because they had no meeting places of their own until the third century.
    • Colossians 4:15: Please give my greetings to our brothers and sisters at Laodicea, and to Nympha and the church that meets in her house.
    • Philemon 1:2: and to our sister Apphia, and to our fellow soldier Archippus, and to the church that meets in your house.

(20-21) All the brothers and sisters here send greetings to you. Greet each other with a sacred kiss. HERE IS MY GREETING IN MY OWN HANDWRITING—PAUL.

  • MY OWN HANDWRITING—PAUL:
    • Paul had a secretary (amanuensis) write the letters as he dictated them.
    • Romans 16:22: I, Tertius, the one writing this letter for Paul, send my greetings, too, as one of the Lord’s followers.
    • Galatians 6:11: NOTICE WHAT LARGE LETTERS I USE AS I WRITE THESE CLOSING WORDS IN MY OWN HANDWRITING.
    • Colossians 4:18: HERE IS MY GREETING IN MY OWN HANDWRITING—PAUL. Remember my chains. May God’s grace be with you.
    • 2 Thessalonians 3:17: HERE IS MY GREETING IN MY OWN HANDWRITING—PAUL. I DO THIS IN ALL MY LETTERS TO PROVE THEY ARE FROM ME.

(22) If anyone does not love the Lord, that person is cursed. Our Lord, come!

  • Cursed - Anathema)
  • Our Lord, come:
    • From Aramaic, Marana tha. Some manuscripts read Maran atha, “Our Lord has come.
    • Maranatha” became the common greeting of the oppressed believers, replacing the Jewish greeting shalom (“peace”). Every day, we should expect Him to come, and every day we should long for Him to come.
    • F. F. Bruce: “If this word is divided as Marana tha, it means “Our Lord come”; but if we divide it Maran atha, it means “Our Lord has come.” It is an Aramaic phrase which found its way into the liturgy of the church from its earliest days.”

(23-24) May the grace of the Lord Jesus be with you. My love to all of you in Christ Jesus.

  • Some manuscripts add Amen.

Friday, January 6, 2017

1 Corinthians 15

Key words/phrases: “I”, “me”, “my”, “but”, “if”, “all”, “so” (therefore), “raised”, “just as the Scriptures said”.
Key verses: 1 Corinthians 15:3-6, 22, 58: I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said. He was seen by Peter and then by the Twelve. After that, he was seen by more than 500 of his followers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. … Just as everyone dies because we all belong to Adam, everyone who belongs to Christ will be given new life. … SO, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable. Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless.

Paul also addresses another group of problem children in the Corinthian church - those who, like the Sadducees, deny the resurrection and, therefore, the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Plus, some were attacking Paul’s apostleship, which he strongly counters with his own testimony. Notice the frequency of the words I, me, my, most of which I’ve enlarged for emphasis.

Outline chapter 15 - the resurrection of believers (W. E. Vine):

  1. 15:1-11: The Resurrection of Christ, an essential truth of apostolic testimony.
  2. 15:12-34: The Resurrection of Christ a guarantee of that of believers who die, and all an essential part of God’s plan.
  3. 15:35-50: The nature of the resurrection of believers.
  4. 15:50-58: The effects, future and present; the assurance of victory over death.

This chapter makes the most complete treatise on the resurrection of the dead in all of Scripture. Of course, we’ve already covered a lot of this in our previous studies in 1 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians and Revelation. Since the bulk of this chapter is about the resurrection of believers, here a few relevant verses from other parts of the Scripture:

  • Job 19:25-27: “But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and he will stand upon the earth at last. And after my body has decayed, yet in my body I will see God! I will see him for myself. Yes, I will see him with my own eyes. I am overwhelmed at the thought!
  • Daniel 12:2: Many of those whose bodies lie dead and buried will rise up, some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting disgrace.
  • Matthew 22:29-32: Jesus replied, “Your mistake is that you don’t know the Scriptures, and you don’t know the power of God. For when the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage. In this respect they will be like the angels in heaven. “But now, as to whether there will be a resurrection of the dead—haven’t you ever read about this in the Scriptures? Long after Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had died, God said, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ So he is the God of the living, not the dead.”
  • John 5:28-29: Don’t be so surprised! Indeed, the time is coming when all the dead in their graves will hear the voice of God’s Son, and they will rise again. Those who have done good will rise to experience eternal life, and those who have continued in evil will rise to experience judgment.
  • John 11:23-26: Jesus told her, “Your brother will rise again.” “Yes,” Martha said, “he will rise when everyone else rises, at the last day.” Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this, Martha?”
  • John 12:24: I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat is planted in the soil and dies, it remains alone. But its death will produce many new kernels - a plentiful harvest of new lives.
  • John 14:3: When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am.
  • Acts 17:18, 31-32: He also had a debate with some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers. When he told them about Jesus and his resurrection, they said, “What’s this babbler trying to say with these strange ideas he’s picked up?” Others said, “He seems to be preaching about some foreign gods.” … For he has set a day for judging the world with justice by the man he has appointed, and he proved to everyone who this is by raising him from the dead.” When they heard Paul speak about the resurrection of the dead, some laughed in contempt, but others said, “We want to hear more about this later.”
  • Acts 26:8: Why does it seem incredible to any of you that God can raise the dead?
  • Romans 6:5: Since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised to life as he was.
  • Romans 8:10-11: And Christ lives within you, so even though your body will die because of sin, the Spirit gives you life because you have been made right with God. The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you.
  • 2 Corinthians 4:14: We know that God, who raised the Lord Jesus, will also raise us with Jesus and present us to himself together with you
  • 2 Corinthians 5:1-2: For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands. We grow weary in our present bodies, and we long to put on our heavenly bodies like new clothing … So we are always confident, even though we know that as long as we live in these bodies we are not at home with the Lord. For we live by believing and not by seeing. Yes, we are fully confident, and we would rather be away from these earthly bodies, for then we will be at home with the Lord. So whether we are here in this body or away from this body, our goal is to please him.
  • Philippians 3:20-21: But we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives. And we are eagerly waiting for him to return as our Savior. He will take our weak mortal bodies and change them into glorious bodies like his own, using the same power with which he will bring everything under his control.
  • 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18: And now, dear brothers and sisters, we want you to know what will happen to the believers who have died so you will not grieve like people who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and was raised to life again, we also believe that when Jesus returns, God will bring back with him the believers who have died. We tell you this directly from the Lord: We who are still living when the Lord returns will not meet him ahead of those who have died. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, the believers who have died will rise from their graves. Then, together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Then we will be with the Lord forever. So encourage each other with these words.
  • 2 Timothy 2:17-18: This kind of talk spreads like cancer, as in the case of Hymenaeus and Philetus. They have left the path of truth, claiming that the resurrection of the dead has already occurred; in this way, they have turned some people away from the faith.
  • 1 John 3:2: Dear friends, we are already God’s children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is.

(1) Let ME now remind you, dear brothers and sisters, of the Good News I preached to you before. You welcomed it then, and you still stand firm in it.

  • Amplified Version: AND NOW let me remind you [since it seems to have escaped you], brethren, of the Gospel (the glad tidings of salvation) which I proclaimed to you, which you welcomed and accepted and upon which your faith rests,
  • BUT:
    • Left out of the New Living Translation is the fact that the first word in this chapter in the Greek is de - to indicate a change of subject.
  • Good News I preached:
    • In verses 1-11 we have the restatement of the gospel and the witnesses of the resurrection.
    • Acts 13:32-33: “And now we are here to bring you this Good News. The promise was made to our ancestors, and God has now fulfilled it for us, their descendants, by raising Jesus. This is what the second psalm says about Jesus: ‘You are my Son. Today I have become your Father.’
    • Romans 1:1-4: This letter is from Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus, chosen by God to be an apostle and sent out to preach his Good News. God promised this Good News long ago through his prophets in the holy Scriptures. The Good News is about his Son. In his earthly life he was born into King David’s family line, and he was shown to be the Son of God when he was raised from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit. He is Jesus Christ our Lord.

(2) It is this Good News that saves you if you continue to believe the message I told you - unless, of course, you believed something that was never true in the first place.

  • If you continue:
    • Dr. Constable’s Expository (Bible Study) Notes: “Paul did not entertain the possibility that his readers could lose their salvation by abandoning the gospel he had preached to them. The NIV translation captures his thought well. “If they “held (hold) fast” to the gospel that they had received (“the word which I preached to you”), they would continue to experience God’s deliverance as they lived day by day. Their denial of the Resurrection, a major aspect of the gospel message they had heard, might indicate that some of them had not really believed the gospel.”

(3) I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to ME. Christ died for our sins, JUST AS THE SCRIPTURES SAID.

  • Passed on to you:
    • Acts 18:1, 11: Then Paul left Athens and went to Corinth … So Paul stayed there for the next year and a half, teaching the word of God.
  • Most important:
    • Among these “most important” things was the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. Certainly, the virgin birth of Jesus, salvation by grace through faith and many other great truths of salvation could have been included, but Paul was reminding them of these facts to establish the truth of the resurrection.
  • Passed on to ME:
    • When and where did Paul receive the gospel?:
      1. From the believers in Damascus (Acts 9:19 - Afterward he ate some food and regained his strength. Saul stayed with the believers in Damascus for a few days.)
      2. Directly from the risen Christ (Galatians 1:12 - I received my message from no human source, and no one taught me. Instead, I received it by direct revelation from Jesus Christ.)
      3. In Arabia (Galatians 1:17 - Nor did I go up to Jerusalem to consult with those who were apostles before I was. Instead, I went away into Arabia, and later I returned to the city of Damascus.)
      4. From Peter in Jerusalem (Galatians 1:18 - Then three years later I went to Jerusalem to get to know Peter, and I stayed with him for fifteen days.)
  • Christ died:
    • Shroud of Turin
      Shroud of Turin
    • That is an undeniable fact of history. Pilate checked with one of his Roman officers to be sure Jesus was dead before handing his body over for burial. What is so often denied, even by many Christian leaders, is that He rose from the dead and ascended to heaven.
    • John 10:17-18: “The Father loves me because I sacrifice my life so I may take it back again. No one can take my life from me. I sacrifice it voluntarily. For I have the authority to lay it down when I want to and also to take it up again. For this is what my Father has commanded.”
  • For our sins:
    • For our sins” is a definite doctrinal statement and explains the reason for his death. “He gave himself a ransom for all.” He took the sinner’s place and bore the sinner’s judgment.
    • Haddon Robinson, “Empty Proof - Our Daily Bread” (8/8/1997): When Jesus cried, “It is finished!” (John 19:30), He uttered the Greek word tetelestai, which means, “Paid in full.” The payment for sin that God demanded has been paid, and the empty tomb is proof that the payment was received and the debt satisfied.
    • Jesus did not die as a good example; He did not die because He was a nice martyr; Jesus Christ died for our sins. We hear about illnesses, addictions and disorders, but we don’t hear much about sin. Yet, the truth is that Jesus Christ died on the cross for the sins of every man, woman and child that has ever lived. Sin is the reason Jesus went to the cross.
    • Isaiah 53:10-12: But it was the Lord’s good plan to crush him and cause him grief. Yet when his life is made an offering for sin, he will have many descendants. He will enjoy a long life, and the Lord’s good plan will prosper in his hands. When he sees all that is accomplished by his anguish, he will be satisfied. And because of his experience, my righteous servant will make it possible or many to be counted righteous, for he will bear all their sins. I will give him the honors of a victorious soldier, because he exposed himself to death. He was counted among the rebels. He bore the sins of many and interceded for rebels.
    • Matthew 20:28: For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
    • Romans 4:24-25: for our benefit, too, assuring us that God will also count us as righteous if we believe in him, the one who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was handed over to die because of our sins, and he was raised to life to make us right with God.
    • 2 Corinthians 5:15: He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them.
    • 1 Timothy 2:5-6: For, there is one God and one Mediator who can reconcile God and humanity - the man Christ Jesus. He gave his life to purchase freedom for everyone. This is the message God gave to the world at just the right time.
    • 1 Peter 2:24: He personally carried our sins in his body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right. By his wounds you are healed.
    •  1 Peter 3:18: Christ suffered for our sins once for all time. He never sinned, but he died for sinners to bring you safely home to God. He suffered physical death, but he was raised to life in the Spirit.
  • AS THE SCRIPTURES SAID:
    • Throughout the Old Testament, we find the sacrificial, atoning death of Christ. The prophets looked forward to that great event as the supreme fact of revelation. God had declared in Leviticus 17:11, “for the life of the body is in its blood. I have given you the blood on the altar to purify you, making you right with the Lord. It is the blood, given in exchange for a life, that makes purification possible.” Yet, we know that it was not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should put away sin. Only through the propitiatory death of Christ could this be accomplished, and, thank God, it has indeed taken place, and all in accordance with the Scriptures.
    • David Lipscomb: “The double appeal to the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 15:3,4) in so brief a statement is deliberate and important. The magnificent prophecies of the Old Testament which so accurately foretold the death of the Son of God are so important that they deserved and received mention even ahead of the apostolic testimony about to be cited. As to what Scriptures were meant, Psalms 16:10; Isaiah 53:10; Hosea 6:2; Jonah 2:10 (see Matthew 12:40), Zechariah 12:10,13:7 are among them, besides all of the typical things such as the sin offering and the Passover sacrifices.”
    • Genesis 3:15: And I (God) will cause hostility between you (Serpent) and the woman (Eve), and between your offspring (see John 8:44) and her offspring. He (Messiah) will strike your head, and you will strike his heel (exactly what crucifixion did to ones heel!).”
    • Isaiah 53:9: He had done no wrong and had never deceived anyone. But he was buried like a criminal; he was put in a rich man’s grave.
    • Luke 24:25-27: Then Jesus said to them, “You foolish people! You find it so hard to believe all that the prophets wrote in the Scriptures. Wasn’t it clearly predicted that the Messiah would have to suffer all these things before entering his glory?” Then Jesus took them through the writings of Moses and all the prophets, explaining from all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.
    • John 19:24, 28, 36-37: So they said, “Rather than tearing it apart, let’s throw dice for it.” This fulfilled the Scripture that says, “They divided my garments among themselves and threw dice for my clothing.”So that is what they did. …  Jesus knew that his mission was now finished, and to fulfill Scripture he said, “I am thirsty.” These things happened in fulfillment of the Scriptures that say, “Not one of his bones will be broken,” and “They will look on the one they pierced.”
    • Acts 8:31-34: The man replied, “How can I, unless someone instructs me?” And he urged Philip to come up into the carriage and sit with him. The passage of Scripture he had been reading was this: “He was led like a sheep to the slaughter. And as a lamb is silent before the shearers, he did not open his mouth. He was humiliated and received no justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth.” The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, was the prophet talking about himself or someone else?” So beginning with this same Scripture, Philip told him the Good News about Jesus.

(4) He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, JUST AS THE SCRIPTURES SAID.

  • Buried:
    • We often say, “dead and buried” to emphasize that the person is beyond a shadow of a doubt dead.
    • S. Lewis Johnson, Jr. - Wycliffe Bible Commentary: “It blasts the swoon theory; he really died; and it leads naturally to the empty tomb, a witness for the resurrection which has never been effectively denied.”
    • Matthew 27:57-60: As evening approached, Joseph, a rich man from Arimathea who had become a follower of Jesus, went to Pilate and asked for Jesus’ body. And Pilate issued an order to release it to him. Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a long sheet of clean linen cloth. He placed it in his own new tomb, which had been carved out of the rock. Then he rolled a great stone across the entrance and left.
    • Mark 15:44-45: Pilate couldn’t believe that Jesus was already dead, so he called for the Roman officer and asked if he had died yet. The officer confirmed that Jesus was dead, so Pilate told Joseph he could have the body.
  • Raised from the dead:
    • Peter Larson said, “The life of Jesus is bracketed by two impossibilities: a virgin’s womb and an empty tomb. Jesus entered our world through a door marked ‘No Entrance’ and left through a door marked ‘No Exit.’ ”
    • The physical resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ is the very foundation of Christianity. His risen body still bore the print of the nails and the wound in the side (John 20:27). Long years afterward, John saw in the midst of the throne “a Lamb that looked as if it had been slaughtered.” (Revelation 5:6) - The marks of His death will be upon His body forever.
    • Many “professional” Christians deny the bodily resurrection of Christ. Some teach that the disciples simply lied and created a fabrication in order to bolster the faith of those they preached to. Others say that they were confused, or simply saw a vision of what they ‘thought’ was the resurrected Christ. Still others say that Christ didn’t really die at all, but simply swooned and recovered in the dampness of the tomb. And others “spiritualize” the matter; and say that it was His spirit and not His body that rose, or that He simply symbolically rose “in our hearts”. All of these different alternatives constitute a denial of the preaching of the apostles of a literal, bodily resurrection. Paul faces this denial head-on; and in methodical point-by-point manner, shows what is truly at stake in a denial of the bodily resurrection of Jesus.
    • Charles T. Russell, founder of the Jehovah’s Witnesses organization, in denial of the bodily resurrection of Christ states, “Our Lord’s human body was, however, supernaturally removed from the tomb … whether it was dissolved into gases or whether it is still preserved somewhere as a grand memorial of God’s love … no one knows” (Millennial Dawn: The Time Is at Hand, p. 129). If, according to the Watchtower organization, the body of the Lord Jesus was not raised from the dead, then what part of Jesus was raised? Jesus corrected this false view by saying, “Look at my hands. Look at my feet. You can see that it’s really me. Touch me and make sure that I am not a ghost, because ghosts don’t have bodies, as you see that I do.” ” (Luke 24:39)?
    • Ray Stedman: “Everyone here who is a Christian knows that the fundamental question upon which Christianity ultimately rests is, “Did Jesus Christ actually, literally, and physically, rise from the dead?” Everything hangs on that question. Well, that is the theme of this chapter, and this section of First Corinthians is one of the most significant passages in the Word of God that states that question most profoundly. As you read it, you see that there is a whole chorus of voices from the 1st century that say loudly and clearly, “Yes, he did rise from the dead. We saw him; we talked with him; we handled him.” (John says that in his letter {cf, 1 John 1:1}.) “We ate and drank with him, {cf, Acts 10:41}. It was unmistakably Jesus. We recognized him by the marks of crucifixion still in his body, in his hands and in his feet. Our encounters with him were so frequent, so full and so satisfying that we have never been the same since. When he rose from the dead it completely changed our lives.” Christianity has always rested, therefore, on that powerful evidence of eye witnesses who saw him alive from the dead. (1 Corinthians 15:5-11 They Saw Him Alive)”
    • In 1965, Dr. Hugh Schonfield wrote a book entitled The Passover Plot. In this book, he theorized that Jesus did not really rise from the dead, but that His disciples came and stole the body - while an entire company of Roman guards slept!
    • Luke 24:39: Look at my hands. Look at my feet. You can see that it’s really me. Touch me and make sure that I am not a ghost, because ghosts don’t have bodies, as you see that I do.”
    • Acts 4:10: Let me clearly state to all of you and to all the people of Israel that he was healed by the powerful name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, the man you crucified but whom God raised from the dead.
    • Acts 5:30: The God of our ancestors raised Jesus from the dead after you killed him by hanging him on a cross.
    • Acts 17:31: For he has set a day for judging the world with justice by the man he has appointed, and he proved to everyone who this is by raising him from the dead.”
    • Romans 4:25: He was handed over to die because of our sins, and he was raised to life to make us right with God.
    • Romans 6:4, 9: For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives We are sure of this because Christ was raised from the dead, and he will never die again. Death no longer has any power over him.
    • 2 Corinthians 4:14: We know that God, who raised the Lord Jesus, will also raise us with Jesus and present us to himself together with you
    • 2 Corinthians 5:15: He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them.
    • Galatians 1:1: This letter is from Paul, an apostle. I was not appointed by any group of people or any human authority, but by Jesus Christ himself and by God the Father, who raised Jesus from the dead.
    • Ephesians 1:19-20: I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms.
    • 1 Peter 1:3-4: All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by his great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Now we live with great expectation, and we have a priceless inheritance - an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay.
    • 1 Peter 1:21: Through Christ you have come to trust in God. And you have placed your faith and hope in God because he raised Christ from the dead and gave him great glory.
    • 1 Peter 3:18: Christ suffered for our sins once for all time. He never sinned, but he died for sinners to bring you safely home to God. He suffered physical death, but he was raised to life in the Spirit.
  • On the third day:
Three days
Above image from
https://gracethrufaith.com/topical-studies/holidays-and-holy-days/solving-the-three-day-three-night-mystery/
    • Luke 24:5-7: The women were terrified and bowed with their faces to the ground. Then the men asked, “Why are you looking among the dead for someone who is alive? He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead! Remember what he told you back in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be betrayed into the hands of sinful men and be crucified, and that he would rise again on the third day.
    • John 2:18-21: But the Jewish leaders demanded, “What are you doing? If God gave you authority to do this, show us a miraculous sign to prove it.” “All right,” Jesus replied. “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” “What!” they exclaimed. “It has taken forty-six years to build this Temple, and you can rebuild it in three days?” But when Jesus said “this temple,” he meant his own body.
    • Acts 10:40-41: but God raised him to life on the third day. Then God allowed him to appear, not to the general public, but to us whom God had chosen in advance to be his witnesses. We were those who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.
  • AS THE SCRIPTURES SAID:
    • Psalm 16:10: For you will not leave my soul among the dead or allow your holy one to rot in the grave.
    • Isaiah 53:10: But it was the Lord’s good plan to crush him and cause him grief. Yet when his life is made an offering for sin, he will have many descendants. He will enjoy a long life, and the Lord’s good plan will prosper in his hands.
    • John 20:8-9: Then the disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in, and he saw and believed — for until then they still hadn’t understood the Scriptures that said Jesus must rise from the dead.
    • Acts 17:2-3: As was Paul’s custom, he went to the synagogue service, and for three Sabbaths in a row he used the Scriptures to reason with the people. He explained the prophecies and proved that the Messiah must suffer and rise from the dead. He said, “This Jesus I’m telling you about is the Messiah.”
    • Acts 26:22-23: But God has protected me right up to this present time so I can testify to everyone, from the least to the greatest. I teach nothing except what the prophets and Moses said would happen— that the Messiah would suffer and be the first to rise from the dead, and in this way announce God’s light to Jews and Gentiles alike.”

(5) He was seen by Peter and then by the Twelve.

  • Seen:
    • Paul did not mention the women who came to the tomb - the testimony of women was not accepted in court.
  • Peter:
    • Luke 24:31-34: Suddenly, their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And at that moment he disappeared! They said to each other, “Didn’t our hearts burn within us as he talked with us on the road and explained the Scriptures to us?” And within the hour they were on their way back to Jerusalem. There they found the eleven disciples and the others who had gathered with them, who said, “The Lord has really risen! He appeared to Peter.”
  • The Twelve:
    • They were still called “the twelve,” though Judas was not one of them. It was common to call the apostles “the twelve.”
    • Mark 16:14: Still later he appeared to the eleven disciples as they were eating together. He rebuked them for their stubborn unbelief because they refused to believe those who had seen him after he had been raised from the dead.
    • John 20:19-20, 26-28: That Sunday evening the disciples were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders. Suddenly, Jesus was standing there among them! “Peace be with you,” he said. As he spoke, he showed them the wounds in his hands and his side. They were filled with joy when they saw the Lord! … Eight days later the disciples were together again, and this time Thomas was with them. The doors were locked; but suddenly, as before, Jesus was standing among them. “Peace be with you,” he said. Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and look at my hands. Put your hand into the wound in my side. Don’t be faithless any longer. Believe!” “My Lord and my God!” Thomas exclaimed.

(6) After that, he was seen by more than 500 of his followers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died.

  • 500:
    • Eyewitnesses to the resurrection were living at the time he was writing this first letter to the Corinthians.
    • Ray Stedman: “I think this occurred up on a mountainside in Galilee, for even before his crucifixion the Lord had said that he would meet his disciples in Galilee after the resurrection. The first message he sent by the women at the tomb was, “go and tell my brethren to go to Galilee, and there they will see me,” {cf, Matthew 28:10}. Now you can imagine that word of that spread rapidly throughout the whole believing community and everybody who could get away headed for Galilee. Who would have wanted to miss that most exciting of all Christian meetings? So it is no wonder there were five hundred or more waiting for him on the mountainside, and to them he appeared.”
  • James:
    • This refers to the Lord’s step-brother who did not believe in Him until after the resurrection - not James the Apostle who was killed very early (Acts 12).
  • All the apostles:
    • This is the occasion recorded in Acts when He led his disciples to the Mount of Olives. While he was speaking, they noticed his body rising from the ground. To their amazement, he ascended into the heavens until a cloud received him, and he disappeared out of sight. They stood there gazing into the sky, and two strange men, whom they afterwards realized were angels, said to them, “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why are you standing here staring into heaven? Jesus has been taken from you into heaven, but someday he will return from heaven in the same way you saw him go!” (Acts 1:11).

(8) Last of all, as though I had been born at the wrong time, I also saw him.

  • Last of all:
    • This does not mean that Jesus appeared to no one else afterward, because he also appeared to John at a much later time (Revelation 1). It has the meaning of “last in this list which I am giving.”
  • Born at the wrong time:
    • The Greek term here is used of an abortion or miscarriage. Even though he had been commissioned by the risen Christ, Paul felt unworthy having persecuted the church.
  • I also saw him:
    • Acts 9:4-6: He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul! Saul! Why are you persecuting me?” “Who are you, lord?” Saul asked. And the voice replied, “I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting! Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”
    • Galatians 1:12: I received my message from no human source, and no one taught me. Instead, I received it by direct revelation from Jesus Christ.

(9) For I am the least of all the apostles. In fact, I’m not even worthy to be called an apostle after the way I persecuted God’s church.

  • Amplified version: For I am the least [worthy] of the apostles, who am not fit or deserving to be called an apostle, because I once wronged and pursued and molested the church of God [oppressing it with cruelty and violence].
  • Least of all the apostles:
    • Ephesians 3:8: Though I am the least deserving of all God’s people, he graciously gave me the privilege of telling the Gentiles about the endless treasures available to them in Christ.
    • 1 Timothy 1:15: This is a trustworthy saying, and everyone should accept it: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”—and I am the worst of them all.
  • Persecuted the church:
    • Acts 9:2-5: He requested letters addressed to the synagogues in Damascus, asking for their cooperation in the arrest of any followers of the Way he found there. He wanted to bring them - both men and women - back to Jerusalem in chains. As he was approaching Damascus on this mission, a light from heaven suddenly shone down around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul! Saul! Why are you persecuting me?” “Who are you, lord?” Saul asked. And the voice replied, “I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting!
    • Galatians 1:13: You know what I was like when I followed the Jewish religion—how I violently persecuted God’s church. I did my best to destroy it.

(10-11) But whatever I am now, it is all because God poured out his special favor on ME - and not without results. For I have worked harder than any of the other apostles; yet it was not I but God who was working through ME by his grace. SO it makes no difference whether I preach or THEY preach, for WE all preach the same message you have already believed.

  • I … THEY … WE
    • Notice how he is now including himself with the other apostles by using the word “WE”, further defending his apostleship.

(12) BUT tell me this - since we preach that Christ rose from the dead, why are some of you saying there will be no resurrection of the dead?

  • Some of you are saying:
    • Greek philosophy accepted the immortality of the soul, but rejected the resurrection of the body. In Corinth, many of the Christians believed in Christ’s resurrection, but they rejected the idea of their own resurrection.
    • In Paul’s day, there were three Greek philosophies:
      • Stoicism - soul merged into Deity at death; destruction of personality.
      • Epicureanism - no existence beyond death; materialistic.
      • Platonism - immortality of the soul; denied bodily resurrection.
    • Acts 17:18-21, 32: He also had a debate with some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers. When he told them about Jesus and his resurrection, they said, “What’s this babbler trying to say with these strange ideas he’s picked up?” Others said, “He seems to be preaching about some foreign gods.” Then they took him to the high council of the city. “Come and tell us about this new teaching,” they said. “You are saying some rather strange things, and we want to know what it’s all about.” (It should be explained that all the Athenians as well as the foreigners in Athens seemed to spend all their time discussing the latest ideas.) … When they heard Paul speak about the resurrection of the dead, some laughed in contempt, but others said, “We want to hear more about this later.”

(13) For IF there is no resurrection of the dead, THEN Christ has not been raised either.

  • IF … THEN:
    • Craig S. Keener, 1—2 Corinthians: “Paul uses reductio ad absurdum: if there is no resurrection (i.e., of believers in the future), then Jesus did not rise (15:12-13), a point on which he dwells at length (15:12-19, where Paul provides rhetorical emphasis through a series of seven if-then statements).”

(14) And IF Christ has not been raised, THEN all OUR preaching is useless, and your faith is useless.

  • IF:
    • We can follow Paul’s logic point-by-point (https://enduringword.com/commentary/1-corinthians-15/):
      1. IF there is no principle of resurrection, then Jesus did not rise from the dead.
      2. IF Jesus did not rise from the dead, then death has power over Him and defeated Him.
      3. IF death has power over Jesus, He is not God.
      4. IF Jesus is not God, He cannot offer a complete sacrifice for sins.
      5. IF Jesus cannot offer a complete sacrifice for sins, our sins are not completely paid for before God.
      6. IF my sins are not completely paid for before God, then I am still in my sins.
      7. Therefore, IF Jesus is not risen, He is unable to save.
      8. Worse still, IF Christ is not risen, then those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. IF there is no principle of resurrection, then the dead in Christ are gone forever.
      9. Worst of all, IF Christ is not risen, then in this life only we have hope in Christ, and we are of all men the most pitiable. IF there is no principle of resurrection, then the whole Christian life is a pitiful joke! IF we don’t have something beyond this life to look forward to, why hassle with the problems in being a Christian?
  • Our preaching is useless:
    • So-called “modernists” who pretend to be Christians while denying the resurrection are not Christian at all in any New Testament sense.

(15-19) And we apostles would all be lying about God - for we have said that God raised Christ from the grave. But that can’t be true IF there is no resurrection of the dead. And IF there is no resurrection of the dead, THEN Christ has not been raised. And IF Christ has not been raised, THEN your faith is useless and you are still guilty of your sins. In that case, all who have died believing in Christ are lost! And IF our hope in Christ is only for this life, (THEN) we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world.

(20) BUT IN FACT, Christ has been raised from the dead. He is the first of a great harvest of all who have died.

  • BUT:
    • Paul has been reviewing all the negative consequences if Christ were not risen, but now he switches to the positive consequences of the fact that Christ did in fact rise from the dead.
  • IN FACT:
    • The only historical fact that could have produced Christianity was the resurrection of Christ. If you deny the bodily resurrection, you deny the very heart and foundation of Christianity.
  • First of a great harvest (first fruits in the KJV):
    • Repeated in verse 23 for emphasis.
    • Then Comes the End by Ray C. Stedman: “Paul is referring here to the ritual that was given to Israel in the 23rd chapter of the book of Leviticus, where on the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which followed the Passover, on the morrow after the Sabbath, there would be the offering of the first fruits of the barley harvest. The Jews were commanded to bring a sheaf of grain, the first of the harvest, to the priest, who would wave it before the Lord. That was the exact morning of our Lord’s resurrection. There, in the feasts of Israel, you have a prediction that the resurrection of Jesus would be the first fruits of the harvest. Paul’s argument is that not only did Jesus rise from the dead on the exact day predicted by the ritual, but, furthermore, his resurrection is a sample and a guarantee of the entire “harvest” of resurrection, which would include ours as well.”

(21) SO you see, just as death came into the world through a man, now the resurrection from the dead has begun through another man.

  • Death came through a man:
    • If it had not been for Adam’s sin, death would never have come to mankind. Notice that it's not Eve’s sin!
  • Resurrection:
    • Resurrection refers only to the body (verse 44). In Greek, it is anastasis nekron, “standing up of the body”. The “soul” cannot stand up. The soul is the life-force. Animals have a “soul”.

(22-23) Just as everyone dies because we all belong to Adam, everyone who belongs to Christ will be given new life. BUT there is an order to this resurrection: Christ was raised as the first of the harvest; then all who belong to Christ will be raised when he comes back.

  • An order:
    • Christ will rise first, then Christian bodies will rise at Christ’s coming (the Rapture), then Jewish believers of the Old Testament and believers of the Tribulation will rise at the Second Coming just before the Millennium (Daniel 12:2).
    • The word “order” here comes from tagma, a military term. Christ was the first to rise leading the way for us (verse 20).
  • First of the harvest: Repeated from verse 20 for emphasis.
  • When he comes back:
    • Then Comes the End by Ray C. Stedman: “Many have felt that people who die before the coming of the Lord either lie asleep in the grave until he comes, or they drift around in a disembodied state. (Some have even suggested that perhaps God gives them a kind of a temporary body, a sort of a “heavenly bathrobe” to wait for until their good clothes get back from the cleaners.) But I think this is to misread what the Scriptures are saying. It is my understanding that there is a difference between time, in which we now live, and eternity, which is a different kind of existence. Eternity has no past or no future as time does. If we understand that difference, then we can see from many Scriptures that when a believer lays down his life here and STEPS OUT OF TIME INTO ETERNITY, the first event to await him is the coming of the Lord for his own, and, therefore, the resurrection of his own body. So there is no waiting for those who go to be with the Lord … If you want a little more explanation of that, I would suggest the chapter, “Time and Eternity,” in the book I have written, Authentic Christianity, which goes into that more at length. I believe that it is the explanation of many baffling and difficult passages in the Scriptures. It has given great hope and anticipation to my own life to see, in those terms, that when we step out of time into eternity, the first event which we face is that wonderful moment when “the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout.” ”
  • Then:
    • 2 Corinthians 5:8: Yes, we are fully confident, and we would rather be away from these earthly bodies, for then we will be at home with the Lord.
    • 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17: For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, the believers who have died will rise from their graves. Then, together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Then we will be with the Lord forever.

(24) AFTER THAT the end will come, when he will turn the Kingdom over to God the Father, having destroyed every ruler and authority and power.

  • The end:
    • Then Comes the End by Ray C. Stedman: “Beginning in Verse 24, the apostle moves on to that final scene, to the time when Christ has returned into time and reigned already for 1,000 years of millennial peace and righteousness on the earth. He will have completed his work, subdued his enemies, cast the devil and death and Hades into the lake of fire (as we read in the book of Revelation), and then delivered the kingdom back to the Father.”

(25) For Christ must reign until he humbles all his enemies beneath his feet.

  • Reign:
    • Paul here refers to the one-thousand-year reign of Jesus described in Revelation 20:1-6. After that time, there will be a final, Satan inspired rebellion (Revelation 20:7-10), which Jesus will crush and finally and forever put all enemies under His feet.
    • Ephesians 1:22-23: God has put all things under the authority of Christ and has made him head over all things for the benefit of the church. And the church is his body; it is made full and complete by Christ, who fills all things everywhere with himself.
    • Revelation 20:1-6: Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven with the key to the bottomless pit and a heavy chain in his hand. He seized the dragon—that old serpent, who is the devil, Satan—and bound him in chains for a thousand years. The angel threw him into the bottomless pit, which he then shut and locked so Satan could not deceive the nations anymore until the thousand years were finished. Afterward he must be released for a little while. Then I saw thrones, and the people sitting on them had been given the authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their testimony about Jesus and for proclaiming the word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or his statue, nor accepted his mark on their foreheads or their hands. They all came to life again, and they reigned with Christ for a thousand years. This is the first resurrection. (The rest of the dead did not come back to life until the thousand years had ended.) Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection. For them the second death holds no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him a thousand years.
  • Humble his enemies:
    • Psalm 110:1: The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit in the place of honor at my right hand until I humble your enemies, making them a footstool under your feet.”

(26) And the last enemy to be destroyed is death.

  • Death:
    • Revelation 21:4: He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.”

(27) For THE SCRIPTURES SAY, “God has put all things under his authority.” (Of course, when it says “all things are under his authority,” that does not include God himself, who gave Christ his authority.)

  • SCRIPTURES SAY:
    • Psalm 8:6: You gave them charge of everything you made, putting all things under their authority.

(28) THEN, when all things are under his authority, the Son will put himself under God’s authority, so that God, who gave his Son authority over all things, will be utterly supreme over everything everywhere.

  • Under God’s authority:
    • Then Comes the End by Ray C. Stedman: “During this present time, our Lord Jesus is singled out, as it were, from the persons of the Godhead as the supreme object of worship, and we are invited to worship him and give honor to him. … But there is coming a time, Paul says, when the work of the Son in subduing a lost creation will be finished. When the full results of the atonement of the cross have been completed and all the harvest of the earth is gathered, then, according to this account, the Lord Jesus returns the kingdom to the Father in order that “God [the three-fold God, Father, Son and Spirit] may be everything to every one.” ”
      The trinity
      Above image from: www.generationword.com/diagrams_and_charts.html

(29) IF the dead will not be raised, what point is there in people being baptized for those who are dead? Why do it unless the dead will someday rise again?

  • Baptized for the dead:
    • Then Comes the End by Ray C. Stedman: “It evidently refers to some form of proxy baptism, but it is noteworthy that the apostle does not refer to it as though it was something that the Christians in Corinth practiced, because he puts it in the third person: “Otherwise what do ‘people’ mean” (not what do “we” mean by being baptized on behalf of the dead), but what do “they” mean, that is literally what he says. “If the dead are not raised at all, why are ‘they’ baptized on their behalf?” He returns to the first person in the next verse, so that it is clear it is some practice that some people were engaged in that he does not necessarily approve of or disapprove of. He simply refers to it as a practice. It would be a shame to miss the significance of the point he is making because we do not understand what that practice he refers to was.”
    • Paul does not approve of the practice; he merely says that if there were no resurrection, why would the custom exist? The Mormon practice of proxy baptism for the dead – erroneously based on this passage – is neither Scriptural nor sensible.
    • Richard W. DeHaan gives this brief summary of the meaning of this passage:
      “Inasmuch as the Bible makes it clear that baptism in itself has no saving efficacy, it is obvious that these words cannot be construed as an endorsement of proxy baptism for people who have died. Baptism has no part in obtaining salvation, and nowhere do the Scriptures even hint that people can be baptized in behalf of someone else. In the light of the verses that immediately follow, it is not difficult to arrive at the true meaning of this verse. Paul is affirming that if there is no resurrection, it is folly for people to receive Jesus Christ, be baptized, and thus take their place among Christ s people, filling the ranks of those who have died. Why should a person open himself up to the ridicule, hatred, persecution, and many sacrifices involved in the Christian life if there be no resurrection? It is perfectly valid to translate the preposition hyper (for) as “instead of.” As saints died, the Church was not being depleted, for new people were constantly receiving Christ, expressing their faith in baptism, thus filling the places left vacant by those who had died” [from his booklet, Christian Baptism, published by the Radio Bible Class].

(30-32) And why should we ourselves risk our lives hour by hour? For I swear, dear brothers and sisters, that I face death daily. This is as certain as MY pride in what Christ Jesus our Lord has done in you. And what value was there in fighting wild beasts - those people of Ephesus - IF there will be no resurrection from the dead? And IF there is no resurrection, “Let’s feast and drink, for tomorrow we die!”

  • Beasts … of Ephesus:
    • Greek: “fighting wild beasts in Ephesus”.
    • He is referring to the riot at Ephesus of an angry mob shouting, “Great is Diana of the Ephesians” (Acts 19:28) and he likened them unto beasts.
    • 2 Corinthians 1:8-10: We think you ought to know, dear brothers and sisters, about the trouble we went through in the province of Asia. We were crushed and overwhelmed beyond our ability to endure, and we thought we would never live through it. In fact, we expected to die. But as a result, we stopped relying on ourselves and learned to rely only on God, who raises the dead. And he did rescue us from mortal danger, and he will rescue us again. We have placed our confidence in him, and he will continue to rescue us.
  • Feast … die:
    • That was the philosophy of Epicureanism in that day, and it is widespread today. “Live it up. Get it all now. Don’t bother with giving yourself and wasting your time on doing things for God. Enjoy yourself. If it feels good, do it! He who dies with the most toys wins.”
    • The Greek historian Herodotus tells of an interesting custom of the Egyptians. “In social meetings among the rich, when the banquet was ended, a servant would often carry around among the guests a coffin, in which was a wooden image of a corpse carved and painted to resemble a dead person as nearly as possible. The servant would show it to each of the guests and would say, ‘Gaze here and drink and be merry, for when you die such you shall be.’ ”
    • Isaiah 22:13: But instead, you dance and play you slaughter cattle and kill sheep. You feast on meat and drink wine. You say, “Let’s feast and drink, for tomorrow we die!”

(33) Don’t be fooled by those who say such things, for “bad company corrupts good character.”

  • Bad company corrupts good character:
    • Lot is an Old Testament example of a righteous man who was corrupted through his association with the ungodly (2 Peter 2:7-9 and Genesis 19).
    • Paul warned the Corinthians not to associate with nor listen to those who did not believe in the resurrection. Those who did not believe in the resurrection could easily fall into the trap mentioned in the previous verse: “IF there is no resurrection, “Let’s feast and drink, for tomorrow we die!
    • This quotation is from a Greek comedy with which the Corinthians would have been well acquainted and probably had quoted it themselves. Paul used it to warn his readers, that if they kept company with people who denied the resurrection, their character would eventually suffer: “Bad company corrupts good morals.”
    • We have a saying today that a “person is known by the company he keeps” and it was evident that some of the Corinthians were associating themselves too closely with pagans.
    • Proverbs 13:20: Walk with the wise and become wise; associate with fools and get in trouble.

(34) Think carefully about what is right, and stop sinning. For to your shame I say that some of you don’t know God at all.

  • Think carefully:
    • Albert Barnes said this means, “Arouse from your stupidity on this subject!” Rather than living for the present, as their pagan friends were probably encouraging them to do, they needed to live for Christ, expecting the soon return of Christ.
  • Don't know God:
    • In English this is the term “agnostic” from “a” “gnosis” - “not know”. There were some in Corinth who by their actions, attitudes and theology showed they were never believers! They rejected Paul’s gospel, Paul’s apostolic authority merged the gospel into Roman culture, which eventually resulted in the corruption we see in "Christendom" today.

(35) BUT someone may ask, “How will the dead be raised? What kind of bodies will they have?”

  • What kind of bodies:
    • Joni Eareckson Tada in her book “Heaven Your Real Home” says, “Trying to understand what our bodies will be like in heaven is much like expecting an acorn to understand his destiny of roots, bark, branches and leaves. Or asking a caterpillar to appreciate flying. Or a peach pit to fathom being fragrant. Or a coconut to grasp what it means to sway in the ocean breeze. Our eternal bodies will be so grand, so glorious, that we can only catch a fleeting glimpse of Lima beans, kernels of wheat. Peach pits. Acorns and oak trees. Examples in nature are what the Bible invites us to use since. “what we will be has not yet been made known” (1 John 3:2). One of the best ways to understand the resurrection is to take a field trip after the apostle Paul’s lesson in nature: Go find an acorn on the ground, look up into the billowy skirts of the tree from which it fell, and then praise God that ’so it will be with the resurrection of the dead.’ ”
    • Paul proceeded to show that the resurrection of believers was not simply a resuscitation of dead bodies, as with Lazarus, but instead a powerful re-creation of new, glorified bodies like that of the risen Christ.
    • The Greek word soma (body) occurs 10 times in this section compared to zero times in the first 34 verses. The apostle proceeded to offer two sets of analogies (seeds and types of bodies), which he then applied to the resurrection of the dead.

(36) What a foolish question! When you put a seed into the ground, it doesn’t grow into a plant unless it dies first.

  • A seed:
    • Look at a tree and then look at the seed from which it came. Same DNA. Common origin, but significantly different. Such is the difference between the body which is planted and that which is raised. The body will be like that of Jesus at his resurrection. He could eat, but he didn’t have to. He could vanish, walk through walls, change his appearance and yet was not a ghost.

(37) And what you put in the ground is not the plant that will grow, but only a bare seed of wheat or whatever you are planting.

  • Seed of wheat: John 12:24: I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat is planted in the soil and dies, it remains alone. But its death will produce many new kernels - a plentiful harvest of new lives.

(38-41) Then God gives it the new body he wants it to have. A different plant grows from each kind of seed. Similarly there are different kinds of flesh - one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish. There are also bodies in the heavens and bodies on the earth. The glory of the heavenly bodies is different from the glory of the earthly bodies. The sun has one kind of glory, while the moon and stars each have another kind. And even the stars differ from each other in their glory.

In the several few verses, Paul gives contrasting pairs:

  • Planted…raised
  • Buried…raised
  • Brokenness…glory
  • Weakness…strength
  • Natural human bodies…spiritual bodies
  • First man, Adam…last Adam
  • Adam…Christ
  • Living person…life-giving Spirit
  • Natural body…spiritual body
  • First…later
  • First man…second man
  • Earth…heaven
  • Earthly people…heavenly people
  • Earthly man…heavenly man
  • Dying bodies…bodies that will never die
  • Mortal bodies…immortal bodies
  • Death…victory

(42) It is the same way with the resurrection of the dead. Our earthly bodies are planted in the ground when we die, BUT they will be raised to live forever.

  • Earthly bodies: Our bodies are fitted for time, subject to decay, weakness, losing its ability to function, groaning and complaining.
  • Planted in the ground: Just like the seed planted in the ground in verses 36-37.

(43-44) Our bodies are buried in brokenness, BUT they will be raised in glory. They are buried in weakness, BUT they will be raised in strength. They are buried as natural human bodies, BUT they will be raised as spiritual bodies. For just as there are natural bodies, there are also spiritual bodies.

  • Natural bodies:
    • They are buried as natural (psychikon) human bodies (soma) but they will be raised as spiritual (pneumatikon) bodies (soma).
    • The Greek word psychÄ“ means “soul”; the word psychikon means “pertaining to the soul.” Psychikon refers to the life force — the biochemistry and brain function of an animal. Paul uses the word to refer to the type of body we now have, as opposed to a body animated by spirit. In 1 Corinthians 2:14, Paul says that the psychikos person cannot understand spiritual things. James 3:15 refers to psychikos wisdom; it is the sort of wisdom that an animal might have. Jude 19 uses the word to say that psychikos people follow their instincts; they do not have the Spirit.
  • Spiritual bodies:
    • When the disciples saw Jesus after He was resurrected, they thought they had seen a ghost. Jesus assured them, “Touch me and make sure that I am not a ghost, because ghosts don’t have bodies, as you see that I do.” (Luke 24:39). Jesus did not become a spirit, but was raised with a spiritual body. In heaven, we will not be “spirits,” but we will have spiritual bodies. After Jesus died and rose from the dead, He didn’t have two bodies, one natural and another spiritual. He had one body—a natural body that had been transformed into a spiritual body. Jesus showed His disciples the marks of the nails in His hands and feet and the wounds in His side that proved it was the same body that had undergone a radical change. Similarly, when you are resurrected, your body also will be changed and perfected.
    • We know that Jesus’ post-resurrection body was a body that could be touched, since He instructed Thomas to touch His wounds. We see that Jesus could eat after His resurrection and that He could pass through walls and closed doors. He could be present one moment and gone the next. He could communicate, had full recall of His pre-resurrection life, yet was sufficiently different in appearance that people who knew Him well did not recognize Him in His post-resurrection state. Jesus’ post-resurrection traits give us some idea of what we will be like when we join Him in that state.

(45) THE SCRIPTURES tell us, “The first man, Adam, became a living person.” BUT the last Adam - that is, Christ - is a life-giving Spirit.

  • SCRIPTURES tell us:
    • Genesis 2:7: Then the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person.
  • A living person: Greek: “a living soul”.
  • Life-giving spirit:
    • Paul’s point is that Christ gives life through His resurrection.
    • Romans 5:14-19: Still, everyone died - from the time of Adam to the time of Moses - even those who did not disobey an explicit commandment of God, as Adam did. Now Adam is a symbol, a representation of Christ, who was yet to come. But there is a great difference between Adam’s sin and God’s gracious gift. For the sin of this one man, Adam, brought death to many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and his gift of forgiveness to many through this other man, Jesus Christ. And the result of God’s gracious gift is very different from the result of that one man’s sin. For Adam’s sin led to condemnation, but God’s free gift leads to our being made right with God, even though we are guilty of many sins. For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and his gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one man, Jesus Christ. Yes, Adam’s one sin brings condemnation for everyone, but Christ’s one act of righteousness brings a right relationship with God and new life for everyone. Because one person disobeyed God, many became sinners. But because one other person obeyed God, many will be made righteous.

(46-47) What comes first is the natural body, then the spiritual body comes later. Adam, the first man, was made from the dust of the earth, WHILE Christ, the second man, came from heaven.

  • Made from the dust of the earth:
    • Genesis 2:7: Then the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person.

(48-49) Earthly people are like the earthly man, and heavenly people are like the heavenly man. Just as we are now like the earthly man, we will someday be like the heavenly man.

  • Like the heavenly man:
    • Believers will be like Jesus (and unlike Adam) in the resurrection.
    • 1 John 3:2: Dear friends, we are already God’s children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is.

(50-51) What I am saying, dear brothers and sisters, is that our physical bodies cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. These dying bodies cannot inherit what will last forever. But let ME reveal to you a wonderful secret. WE will not ALL die, but WE will ALL be transformed!

  • Reveal … secret:
    • The secret is that the generation of people living on the earth when Jesus Christ comes back to claim his own will be instantly changed and taken to be with him forever. The same will be true for all the believers down through human history who have died physically. They will be resurrected, transformed and they too will be with the Lord forever.
  • ALL: All born-again Christians, not all humans!
  • Not ALL die:
    • There is a generation of Christians that is never going to die. Some who will not die, but will instantly, suddenly, without warning, be changed -- “in a moment, in the blink of an eye.”

(52) It will happen in a moment, in the blink of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown. For when the trumpet sounds, those who have died will be raised to live forever. And we who are living will also be transformed.

  • In a moment:
    • Greek “en atomi” - it’s that part of time which cannot be divided. We get our word ‘atom’ from this word.
    • In other words, when the Rapture happens it will take place faster than anyone can observe.
    • Wikipedia: Planck time, theoretically the smallest time measurement that will ever be possible, is the time light takes to travel one Planck length, and is 5.39 x 10-44 seconds.
  • Last trumpet:
    • Ironside: “When a Roman camp was about to be broken up, whether in the middle of the night or in the day, a trumpet was sounded. The first blast meant, “Strike tents and prepare to depart.” The second meant, “Fall into line,” and when what was called “the last trump” sounded it meant, “March away.” The apostle uses that figure, and says that when the last trump of this age of grace sounds, then we shall be called away to be forever with the Lord.”
    • Robertson and Plummer, A critical and exegetical commentary on the first epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians: “We need not suppose that St Paul believed that an actual trumpet would awaken and summon the dead. The language is symbolical in accordance with the apocalyptic ideas of the time. The point is that the resurrection of the dead and the transformation of the living will be simultaneous, as of two companies obeying the same signal.”
    • Dr. Thomas Ice: “If the seventh trumpet in Revelation and the last trumpet in 1 Corinthians 15:52 are supposed to be a reference to the same thing, then why are there many more months of judgment that follow the supposed last trumpet in Revelation 11? The view that equates the last trumpet in 1 Corinthians 15:52 with the seventh trumpet of Revelation does not harmonize in any way. The context of 1 Corinthians 15:52 is very different than the context of Revelation 11:15. 1 Corinthians 15:52 better harmonizes with 1 Thessalonians 4:16, which says, “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first.” Both passages speak of the rapture and judgment is absent from both. The trumpet in both are the last or final command that the Lord gives to the church, resulting in the translation of all Believers.”
    • 1 Thessalonians 4:16: For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, the believers who have died will rise from their graves.

(53) For our dying bodies must be transformed into bodies that will never die; our mortal bodies must be transformed into immortal bodies.

  • Our:
    • The first Christians thought Christ's return to be in their lifetime. Paul thinks he too may perhaps be alive when it happens. The simple fact is that Paul did not know when Christ would return. He was in the exact position in which we are. All that he knew, and all that we know, is that Christ may come at any time.
  • Immortal bodies:
    • What Paul really meant was that our personality will survive. We will still be ourselves, but sinless. But, at the same time, all things will be new, and body and spirit will alike be very different from earthly things.

(54) THEN, when our dying bodies have been transformed into bodies that will never die, THIS SCRIPTURE will be fulfilled: “Death is swallowed up in victory.

  • Death … victory:
    • Isaiah 25:8: He will swallow up death forever! The Sovereign Lord will wipe away all tears. He will remove forever all insults and mockery against his land and people. The Lord has spoken!
    • Revelation 1:18: I am the living one. I died, but look - I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and the grave.

(55) O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”

  • Death: Death and Hades (the grave) go into the lake of fire in Revelation 20:13.
  • Death … sting:
    • From the Septuagint Greek version of Hosea 13:14: “0 Unseen, where is your sting?”.

(56) For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power.

  • The Living Bible gives a clearer translation: For sin -- the sting that causes death -- will all be gone; and the law, which reveals our sins, will no longer be our judge.

(57) BUT thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ.

  • Gives:
    • Ray Stedman: “I want you to notice that is put in the PRESENT TENSE. It is not past, “who gave us the victory.” It is “thanks be to God who keeps on giving us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” I do not know anything that means more to me as a Christian than the fact that every day I can lay hold of the grace of Jesus Christ. He is not a distant Savior who lived twenty centuries ago. He is alive, and I meet him every day. When I find myself having failed, faltered, and sinned, I come again and receive from him the cleansing that he has won for me on Calvary. My sins are washed away anew. I am forgiven once again, and given a clean slate to start over again from that moment. That gives me new power to say, “No!” to all the evil, afflictions, and pressures of my life. I know that that evil is put away; it will never come back to haunt me; I will not have to face it at the judgment seat of God.

(58) SO, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable. Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless.

  • SO:
    • In conclusion, knowing that Christ rose again and assured those of us who are saved that we will spend eternity with him, here is how you’re to live! The word “So” or “Therefore” points back to the fact and truth of Christ’s resurrection and the assurance that those who are in Christ share that resurrection and victory.
  • Be:
    • The word “be” is an imperative and should be understood as “continue to be.” Paul urged the Corinthian Christian to continue to “be strong and immovable” in their faith, not to listen to those who deny Christ’s resurrection - and ours.
  • Be strong and immovable:
    • He doesn’t want us to be “on again off again” when it comes to our walk with Him. That means don’t quit … don’t give up!
    • Ephesians 6:14: Stand your ground
    • Peter 5:12: … Stand firm in this grace.
  • Nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless:
    • We may not see the immediate results of our investment, but one day we will when we reach out to Christ.

No one, except Jesus Christ, has come back from the dead to tell us what is on the other side. However, His testimony through His apostles is sufficient to give us confidence that there is life and bodily resurrection after death. We will live that life in an changed, immortal body. Therefore, we need to be certain of our salvation and make sure that those around us will share eternity with us with Christ and that a present, daily, close walk with Jesus will be our experience.

NOTES: