After the Resurrection – Implications of the Certainty of the Resurrection

Jim Curtis (Mosaic Baptist Church - Evatt congregation)

It is difficult to know what to do with Paul’s testimony to the practice of ‘being baptised on behalf of the dead…’ (1 Corinthians 15:29). What follows, however, is Paul’s witness to the life he lives, and encourages in others, as he to trust in the new hope of the resurrection. Paul ‘faces danger’, ‘fights beasts’, and changes the way he lives (stops ‘sinning’). In essence, because the dead will be raised, Paul is sowing his life in this world as a seed fallen to the ground. This is no vain investment. Paul is willing to give his life for others and the gospel because he believes his earthly body will rise (as Christ’s did) in a new form. Once again, Paul taps into the ‘first Adam’ image and now aligns himself with the ‘Christ image’.

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?

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

1 Corinthians 15:29-34 [NLT]

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On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.

Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”

Now Thomas (also known as Didymusa]), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!”

But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”

A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”

Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”

Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believeb] that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

Jn 20:19-31 [NIV]

John 20:19John 20:19-31-31John 20:19-31

Phil Waugh - (Mosaic Senior Pastor)

The opening of 1 Corinthians 15 sees Paul reaffirming the God-declared Good News that he has always preached to this church community. His story is not changing. As Paul begins this account, he affirms the ‘first importance’ of the death and resurrection of Jesus. This is not a fringe or marginal aspect of Paul’s account of God’s activity in our world. Rather it is central that Jesus died and rose again. Neither is this relegated to a spiritual or other-worldly reality. Paul goes out of his way to affirm the historic reality of the resurrection by listing those he knows who openly testify to the resurrection of the Christ.

Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.

For what I received I passed on to you as of first importancea]: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.

For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve 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 to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. Whether, then, it is I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed.

1 Corinthians 15:1-11 [NIV]