There is no “Christianity” without the Resurrection. Period.

[0:00] he's comparing a human body to a seed that when you plant it in the ground the seed dies and then grows into something entirely different the potential for that thing was still hidden in the seed but the seed had to break open in order for the real thing to grow through now you might assume that what he's saying is that the body dies and then the spirit is released and goes into heaven that's the kind of world view that a lot of us grew up with and unfortunately that's just not what the bible says [Music] this week is easter easter is the time of year in which we celebrate the true hope of christianity the resurrection of jesus and the inauguration of the new creation now the new creation has not been consummated yet but it is inaugurated and so we're celebrating the central hope of christianity what paul says in ephesians 1 is god's plan for

[0:48] the fullness of times to unite all things in heaven and on earth in jesus so if easter is about the resurrection and the resurrection is about renewed physicality and the overlap of heaven and earth then resurrection is absolutely crucially centrally important to everything that christianity stands for resurrection means that on the third day after his crucifixion jesus's tomb was found empty jesus body had been transformed and the grave clothes in which he had been wrapped were set aside and folded neatly as if to say i'm not going to need those anymore and there was no precedent for this even lazarus who jesus himself brought back to life came back to the same kind of life that he had before still wrapped in his grave clothes and presumably he died some years later put another way resurrection is the state of total overlap of heaven and earth it is

[1:38] the name given to the state of being something is in when god completes his plan to unify heaven and earth in that thing and if you've if you've and if you spend any time studying the bible you would know that one of the best passages to go to when you're discussing the resurrection of jesus is first corinthians chapter 15 and that's the chapter that we're gonna go through in this video and welcome back to the channel my name is tim i'm a pastor author and entrepreneur and on this channel we discuss how to rethink every second of our lives in light of what the bible really says about eternity if you want to live your life in constant amazement at god's goodness his grace and the beauty of his plans for the future then you are in the right place so go ahead and give this video a like hit that subscribe button and maybe even ring the notification bell or you can

[2:26] wait until the end of the video and make me earn it let's dive right in to the 15th chapter of first corinthians i'm gonna start right here in verse one and just read it to you now i would remind you brothers of the gospel i preached to you in 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 okay the rest of this little passage through the end of verse seven some people say the end of verse eight is what's called a creed this is super important because this is the some of the best evidence we have that christianity is true let me explain what i mean a lot of people will say that christianity was a myth that grew out of these teachings of jesus after hundreds of years of legendary development where the

[3:14] original things that he said kind of got twisted and turned around and people misunderstood what he was saying so then they made him into a god figure they deified him and they started worshiping him as though he wasn't actually saying those things himself maybe in a different day we'll talk about why that doesn't make sense but this passage here is really important because this is a creed that paul himself received he says i delivered to you as of first importance what i also received and the rest of this passage is is a a creed formula that was in greek very easy to repeat very easy to remember that is explaining the basic facts of christianity christ died for our sins according to the scriptures he was buried and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures the central fact of christianity the central thing that makes it what it is is the resurrection

[4:02] of jesus now what's interesting about this passage is that paul is saying that he received this if paul received this it means that this was a creed that had already been in circulation that had been defined written down and explained before paul wrote first corinthians or any of his other letters now first corinthians we know is one of the earliest letters that he wrote probably in the year 53 or 54 a.d meaning the first corinthians was written at the most 20 years after the events of the resurrection of jesus which means that if this was what paul received when he first became a christian then this was probably in circulation before about 40 a.d we're talking about the initial months if only and only a few years at the maximum following the events of the resurrection meaning that this isn't something that could have been invented

[4:48] years later hundreds of years later certainly not to try to make jesus into a god-like figure that he wasn't by claiming a resurrection that didn't actually happen my favorite part is in verse six after he's talked about the people that he started appearing to he says then he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time most of whom are still alive though some have fallen asleep for paul falling asleep is a really important metaphor that he uses to describe death so he's saying some of these people to whom he appeared aside from me and kephas which is peter or james some of these people are still alive and so if you don't believe me you can go fact check me paul's saying that this is of first importance it's what i received and it corroborates the central facts of christianity he continues on we're going to go down to verse 12 here where he says now if christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the

[5:36] dead if there's 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 birth 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 in this passage paul is emphasizing just how important christianity's uh truth claims are and how they hinge on the resurrection if the resurrection did not happen then there is no hope you're still dead in your sins i'm still dead in my sins any preaching about christ

[6:24] raising from the dead would be false and it would be leading to death because there would be no hope for this life or the life to come thankfully that's not where he ends in verse 20 he continues on but in fact christ has been raised from the dead the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep for as by a man came death by a man has also come the resurrection of the dead for as in adam all dies so also in christ shall all be made alive i'm going to skip down a bit here to verse 35 here in the same chapter and this little section the pericope up there is titled the resurrection body so here's what he goes on to say 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 some other grain but god gives it a

[7:12] body as he has chosen and to each kind of seed its own body for not all flesh is the same 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 stars differ from star in glory so it is 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 someday we're going to have to go really deep into this because there's a lot going on here but i want to point out a few things he's comparing a human body

[8:01] to a seed that when you plant it in the ground the seed dies and then grows into something entirely different the potential for that thing was still hidden in the seed but the seed had to break open in order for the real thing to grow through now you might assume that what he's saying is that the body dies and then the spirit is released and goes into heaven that's the kind of world view that a lot of us grew up with and unfortunately that's just not what the bible says in fact i just finished reading the passage that a lot of people refer to when they try to make that case as though we are not going to be physically resurrected it says it is sown a natural body here in verse 44 it is raised a spiritual body let's take a minute and then and observe the greek i like to look at the greek whenever i can because i think it's going to make more sense of the passage so let's cut all the way down here to verse 44. it is

[8:50] [Music] that little ikon part tsuke is where we get soul from whole other discussion we'll talk about this another time but that icon means like animated by powered by um where is it getting its it's power from and then it says it is raised soma pneumaticon numatas is spirit or numo right the the pneumo prefix is spiritual it's not saying it's spiritual in makeup it's saying that it is empowered by the spirit let's go back to the original passage he continues on thus it is written the first man adam became a living being that word for being is actually the word soul again it's nephesh in the hebrew 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

[9:38] man was from the earth a man of dust the second man is from heaven remember we talked in our last video about the fact that heaven is not a strictly non-material place when jesus rose from the dead he occupied a physical body and then he ascended into heaven still occupying that resurrected heaven and earth completely overlapping body paul continues on to say 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 this is really the clincher here and it's it's my favorite part of the passage here in verse 50 he says 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 again something that was not revealed

[10:27] before but is revealed now we will not all sleep but we will 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 oh death where is your victory o death where is your sting the body isn't done away with the mortality of the body is done away with a lot of people come to this passage trying to debate about the timing of when this will happen is there a rapture is it pre-tribulation is it post-tribulation is it like are you a pre-millennial and a millennial post-millennial how do you

[11:14] think that it's all gonna go down at the end but that's not paul's point that's an interesting conversation that we should probably have on a different day but that's not paul's point here paul's point here is to say fallible mortal destructive flesh and blood the man of dust can't inherit the kingdom of god but the spirit empowered one can the one who is resurrected and made to look just like jesus who held out his hands to thomas when he was resurrected and said see touch my hands feel my scars a spirit does not have flesh and bone like i do that is what we are hoping for if that weren't the case christianity would be false we'd be dead in our trespasses and sins there would be nothing for us to hold on to and we would have no hope either in this life or in the next easter is my favorite holiday and i think it should be the favorite holiday of every christian because the fact of the matter is that christianity rises

[12:03] and falls it hinges on whether or not jesus was truly raised from the dead and the implications of jesus raising from the dead mean renewed physicality for those who've trusted in him and not just those who've trusted in him but for the entire universe as god wants to restore all things in him and unite all things in heaven and on earth in him once again as you're celebrating easter this week i really hope that this is on your mind and you're thinking about it because this is the distinguishing fact of christianity and it is the reason that we can have hope not only for this life this 80 years at most that we get to live and enjoy this this world even the broken world that god's made but much more importantly all of eternity which extends out for millions then billions then trillions of years and never ends and it is in that life that we'll see all things in heaven and on earth united

[12:52] in christ because of his death his burial and most importantly his resurrection so if you're new to this way of talking about eternity and resurrection i can't recommend anything more than for you to buy my book you can go and get a copy for it yourself over at the overlap.life while you're there you can even join one of our challenges where we go through how this applies to our lives at work how this applies to our relationships how this applies to our rest you can ask me a question you can get one-on-one coaching you can even get on the phone with me there's a whole community of people that are building their lives on this truth and we want you to be a part of it we'd love to see you there further up and further in thanks for watching [Music]