All, Rise!

But we believe the dead can rise! Butch has told me that you all have covered the entire Apostle’s Creed including the Resurrection of Jesus. But now, here we are at the very end of the creed and we have another type of a resurrection, but not a different one.

And so, what does it mean? Well, taking a line straight from Paul, “but we do not want you to be uniformed brothers and sisters about those who have fallen asleep.” The belief in the Resurrection of the Dead is the cornerstone to the Christian faith, ultimately in the Resurrection of Jesus himself but then also of believers. So then, first turn with me to 1 Thessalonians so we can get a big picture of what this is going to look like and mean.

I was so excited to be preaching over this topic, the resurrection of the dead, because I believe this is one of the most underappreciated and under taught belief in the Christian faith. We all know that we have a “hope” as Paul calls it in when he reminds the Thessalonians not to “Mourn as those who have no hope for those whom have fallen asleep”. But I think we sell our selves way short when it comes to this “hope”. We simply chalk it up to “When we die we go to Heaven.” Which sounds nice, but our hope is so much greater than that! Our hope is found in Christ, through whom we will receive a physically resurrected body just like his when He returns!

To know what the resurrection of believers means and looks like we have to look at the big picture and then focus in on the smaller picture.

The Big Picture

1 Thessalonians 4 ESV

Finally, then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more. For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God; that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you. For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you. Now concerning brotherly love you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another, for that indeed is what you are doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more, and to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one. But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.

Turn with me to . The believers at Thessalonika were being lied to by some people who had told them they had missed the second coming, and therefore missed the second resurrection. Paul wants them to know that they certainly haven’t missed it, and they will know for sure when Jesus returns. *Read Passage*

Exegete passage and explain it. Jesus will return, you won’t miss it! He will bring back believers with him. We will meet them in the sky, NOT A RAPTURE, going to meet the king to bring him back here. Believers will rise and be given a new body, then we will be transformed and given a body like his Glorious Body .

The Little Picture

Now that we’ve seen the big picture, let’s zoom in on what is actually going to happen. Turn to .

1 Corinthians 15 ESV

Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed. Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For “God has put all things in subjection under his feet.” But when it says, “all things are put in subjection,” it is plain that he is excepted who put all things in subjection under him. When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all. Otherwise, what do people mean by being baptized on behalf of the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized on their behalf? Why are we in danger every hour? I protest, brothers, by my pride in you, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die every day! What do I gain if, humanly speaking, I fought with beasts at Ephesus? If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.” Wake up from your drunken stupor, as is right, and do not go on sinning. For some have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame. But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?” You foolish person! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body. For not all flesh is the same, but there is one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish. There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is of one kind, and the glory of the earthly is of another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory. So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

In Corinth, again the people were being lied to. Some people had come along and tried to convince them that the Resurrection was not real. Not just the resurrection of believers, but the Resurrection of Jesus and they were starting to believe it. The very keystone of the Christian faith was being called into question, and so Paul steps in to defend in. In the first part of Chapter 15, Paul makes a convincing argument for Jesus’s resurrection, but then in the second half he tells the people what the resurrection of Jesus means for them and for us. Starting in verse 20: READ PASSAGE TO 24 Exegete. Jump to 35-38, 42-48. Exegete

Apple seed and apple.

How they saw Jesus, and couldn’t recognize him. Maybe it’s like seeing the apple and not knowing what seed it came from? We’ll do the same. We’ll look back and not even recognize how we came from such frail dusty bodies.

The body must die to rise up into a new body.

Why The Resurrection is Important

15:12-19 - We are lying about God, those who are asleep are lost, we are still in our sins

It gets worse! 29-32. If no resurrection, what are we doing here? It’s all pointless! He even quotes their own poet. If there is no hope in the resurrection of the dead then we might as well eat and drink and do whatever we want because tomorrow we die. A meaningless existence.

That’s not even the biggest reason why the resurrection of the dead is so important. 50-56. The Resurrection of the dead, means that death itself is defeated!

Conclusion

Most Undertaught and underappreciated doctrine

Look at the beliefs around the world

Resurrection, sort of? But no Jesus!

Nothing

Just “going to a good place”

Reincarnation

The world can have all those things! Just give me Jesus! Because I need a God who...

lived the life I did and knows my pain and suffering

loves me

will die like me and for me.

who brings my dad back to life!

and therefore gives me hope that death will one day be defeated!

Just take it all! And give me Jesus!

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