Hope Of The Resurrection

INTRO: Today we are commemorating resurrection Sunday. In one sense, it is the most glorious of all days ever! Without the resurrection, Christianity is foolish. We ought to all go back to the world’s way of thinking: Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die. And when we die, it is all over. But in every rational human being there lies this innate knowledge that it is not all over when we die.
For the last good number of years we have been going through 1 Corinthians 15 on resurrection Sunday. In 1 Corinthians Paul deals with a number of issues that needed correction in the Corinthian church and one of those matters was regarding the resurrection. In 1:10-6:20 he deals with various church division issues. You see, as soon as there were churches, there were divisions. Then in 7:1-40 he deals with marriage related problems. In 8:1-11:1 he deals with the Christian’s rights. In 12:1-14:40, he deals with problems related to spiritual gifts. In 15:1-58 he deals with the resurrection. In 16:1-4, he talks about financial collections in the church and in 16:5-24 we have concluding matters.
So, in the last number of years I have been working my way through 1 Corinthians 15. It is the resurrection chapter of the Bible. And here is how I outline this chapter. From 1-11, we have the importance of the resurrection declared (read). In verses 12-19, we have the denial of the resurrection refuted (read). Trent spoke to you about that last year. In verses 20-34 we have the hope of the resurrection restated and in 35-50 we have the resurrection questioned, and Paul gives answer to those questions.