Saturday July 24 730pm William Bell Resurrection of Christ 1 Cor 15

Hello, this is William Bell. Welcome to the All Things Fulfilled broadcast right here on the NOW Network. It is a delight to be with you and looking forward to another study from the Word of God. Before we get into that, we're going to make just a few announcements. We'd like to encourage you to tune in every Saturday from 6 30 p.m. until 7 p.m. Central Time and from 7 30 to 8 p.m. Eastern Time for the All Things Fulfilled broadcast. In addition, we encourage you to go to our website at allthingsfulfilled.com and there are over 600 videos there where you can continue to study, learn and grow in the Word of God. We also encourage you to visit our website at rainsroadcoc.org. Now, it has been a little bit of time since we were able to be with you and so we've got some new studies going on in terms of continuing on the resurrection and so we're looking forward to getting into that information. Trust and praying that you are having a great time and so we will continue our studies. Now, we've been talking about the resurrection from 1 Corinthians 15 basically giving you a foundation of some of those things and we talked about some of the objections that are raised when we speak about the subject of resurrection and some of those objections had to do with Matthew 27 and verse 51. Others had to do with Hymenaeus and Philetus which of course you know you've had time to review and to consider but those were just some of the objections that are raised prior to giving you the information that is going to help lay the foundation for what we have to share with you on the subject of the resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15. So, what I'd like to do at this point is talk about the resurrection of Jesus Christ and what that means, why it's important for us to understand it and how we should understand it as it relates to the resurrection. Now, having laid the foundation from that, we look at 1 Corinthians 15 verses 1-3 and as we talk about this, one thing we want to say is that we're not denying the biological resurrection of Christ. In other words, that Jesus did not come out of the tomb, that he did not experience re-entry into his physical body. That certainly was the case and as he said on one occasion, he says, touch me, feel me and see for a spirit does not have flesh and bone as you see I have. So, we're not anywhere near denying the resurrection of Jesus Christ. As a matter of fact, we affirm that wholeheartedly and we want that to be made clear that that is our stance on the resurrection, that that is our position and that we continue to advocate that. However, saying that does not mean that the resurrection of Christ does not have some applied meaning that extends the actual act of his resurrection from the dead into another sphere or realm where other activities are taking place and it's because this is sometimes misunderstood that we don't comprehend the fullness of the meaning of Jesus' death, burial and resurrection and that has caused many people to look at 1 Corinthians 15 from the perspective of it being just a chapter that talks about physical bodies coming from the ground and we're saying to you that is not the idea of the resurrection. That is not what the Bible presents to us on the resurrection but rather it is teaching something about the applied meaning of Jesus' death and when we say the applied meaning of Jesus' death, what we're saying is it has a much deeper meaning than what we understand typically about and what commonly has been taught is what I'm saying because I'm sure that some of you who are listening are already privy to the information that we're going to share and we certainly appreciate that as well but there are many more who all they've heard about the subject of resurrection is that these are bodies that are going to come out of the tomb. These are bodies that are only focused on what we would consider to be physical resurrection and we're going to examine this a bit more deeply as we look at the scripture. So first of all let's go ahead and let's read a bit of 1 Corinthians chapter 15 and as we read the chapter we want to focus on a couple of points and we're going to talk about verses 1 through 4. Now the Bible says, Moreover brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you which also you have received and in which you stand by which also you are saved if you hold fast that word which I preached to you unless you have believed in vain for I delivered to you first of all that which I also received that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures and that he was buried and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures. Now these verses need to be unpacked just a bit in order for us to see what the Bible teaches us relative to the resurrection of Christ and how the physical death burial and resurrection of Christ extends beyond the physicality of that act that it goes into something much deeper that affects things that relate to our humanity and our human experience much more deeply and much more impactfully. So let's look at the statement that says for I deliver to you first of all that which I also received that Christ died now watch for our sins Christ died for our sins. Well if you want to bring the element of sin into the picture then it shows you that Jesus' death was not simply about his rising from the tomb but it was also about something else that affected mankind so powerfully and so seriously that it actually resulted in man being separated from God and that is the subject and the matter of sin. The Bible says in Isaiah 59 verses 1 and 2 behold the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save neither is his ear heavy that he cannot hear but your sins have separated between you and your God and your iniquities have hidden his face from you that he will not hear. So what we have is the condition of sin that separates us from God. This is so very very important when we're talking about the because if sin is the problem then merely bringing a body out of the tomb is not the resolution is not going to solve that problem. So now let's talk a little bit more about what's involved but before we do that let's also see that Jesus' death was not only for our sins but it was also for our justification and what do we mean by for our justification? We're saying that it was also for our deliverance from sin for our justification from sin and so that means that the death of Jesus Christ has a deeper meaning than just his body came out of the tomb and people saw him etc. No there was something much more critical much more important much more impactful and unique about his death burial and resurrection and these are things that you could not say about anyone else who had ever been raised from the dead before not a single one of them was buried or died for our sins and not a single one of them was raised for our justification. That's the point that we want to convey and ask ourselves the reason why does Paul lead off the subject of resurrection with a discussion of sin if that has no value if that is no of no consequence to the subject at hand if it is totally unrelated to what is discussed in 1 Corinthians Now notice in Romans chapter 4 verses 24 and 25 when we focus on the statement that says he rose again the third day according to the scriptures this is an elliptical statement at least from my understanding and by that I mean something that was necessary to complete the meaning has been omitted or left out for emphasis in order to make the sentence flow a little better in order to emphasize what the point really is and whether or not you agree with that I'm going to support it with another text that clearly states what I've just suggested to you in Romans 4 and the verse is 24 the Bible says but also for us it is imputed to us who believe in him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead who was delivered excuse me who was delivered up because of our offenses and was raised because of our justification he says but also for us it shall be imputed to us who believe in him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead who was delivered up because of our offenses so that means if he was delivered up he was delivered up on the cross as the Bible says and I if I be lifted up will draw him into me so Jesus was lifted up on the cross that is referring to his death but what was he lifted up for the Bible says for our offenses secondly it says and was raised so now we're talking about his resurrection for our justification so he died for our sins and he was raised to deliver us from us in order to make us right before God to give us a proper standing before God we should not lose sight of that it's so very very important but here's what we don't see in the scripture we do not see where the Bible ever says that Jesus was raised from the dead to show us how our bodies are raised I'm very much aware that this is what many people believe first Corinthians 15 is all about but you see when you start off with the context as Paul did he tells you what the chapter is all about it's about Jesus dying for our sins and being raised for our justification now we also have what we call an inclusio where the writer begins with the subject and he ends with the same subject and that means that everything in between that if you look at it somewhat as brackets or a parenthesis it would mean that everything between those brackets and in this case the verses that enclose this or includes this means that he's dealing with the same subject all the way through and this is something that we should understand now let's look for example to see what is the focus of the chapter near the end near the terminal point of the chapter if we were to go down to isaiah i'm excuse me to first corinthians chapter 15 and look at verse 55 and following watch what the bible says oh death where is your sting oh hades where is your victory the sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the law the strength of sin is the law the sting of death is sin so what is he dealing with at the end of the chapter he's still dealing with sin but isn't he also dealing with justification from sin because in verse 57 he says but thanks be to god who gives us the victory through our lord jesus christ now what victory is that that victory is the victory over sin it is justification from sin so in the beginning of the chapter he deals with dying for sins and being raised for our justification in the end of the chapter he deals with dying for sin and being raised for our justification that means when you understand the meaning of an inclusio that everything that is included between those bracketed verses are all about deliverance from sin now just to give you a glimpse ahead that this is the case i want you to note a couple of things that paul says in first corinthians 15 that again emphasizes that he's dealing with sin in first corinthians chapter and the verses are let's say verses 14 and 17 notice that the bible says and if christ is not risen then our preaching is empty well what does that mean if preaching is empty if it's vain if it has no efficacy if it has no power then there is no deliverance from our sins remember what he said let's let's tie that back in to the earlier verses paul said more of a brethren this is verse one more of a brethren i declare to you the gospel which i preached to you which also you have received and in which you stand by which also you are saved if you keep in memory what i preached to you unless you have believed in vain so do you see the connection between the preaching and the standing before god between the preaching and salvation between the preaching and justification from sin that has to be evident to a person who takes the time to look at the chapter in romans chapter 1 10 verses 16 and 17 paul said for i am not ashamed of the gospel of christ for it is the power of god unto salvation to the jew first and also to the gentile for therein is the righteousness of god revealed from faith to faith as it is written the just shall live by faith so he's talking about salvation that comes through faith which in turn results in righteousness but that comes as a result of the gospel of christ the power of the gospel of christ and that's what paul leads with he says they were he had preached the gospel to them they were standing in the gospel they were saved by the gospel as long as they kept that in memory as long as they continued to follow it so you can see therefore in verse 14 when he says if christ is not risen then our preaching is empty that would mean salvation is empty justification from sin is empty life in christ would be empty next he says and your faith is also empty so you see their faith would account for nothing it would be of no account it would render the entire matter of salvation useless and void but now look at verse 17 he says and if christ is not risen your faith is futile repeating what he said in verse 14 but he says your faith is futile you are still in your sins do you see the connection between jesus rising from the dead and justification why is paul still dealing with that in the middle of the chapter because remember we said that everything between those verses in the beginning and the verses at the end which form that inclusio are all discussing the same thing so we actually deviate seriously we are tremendously when we turn from the meaning of these passages the guidelines of these passages both at the beginning of the chapter at the end of the chapter to start talking about something totally unrelated to those fundamental passages that we see in that paul is still dealing with the subject of sin in the very heart of whether or not jesus rose from the dead because that is the applied meaning of his death that is what we need to get under wraps when we're talking about first corinthians 15 as opposed to our belief and our understanding and our tradition that the only thing that is spoken of here relates to or that it even relates to i should say to correct myself a physical body coming out of the ground for the general resurrection now once again we're not denying that jesus's body rose from the dead that he came out of that tomb he had the same body he told him touch handle feel and see give me fish and honeycomb and he ate that in their presence he offered thomas the opportunity to put his hand in his side and feel the prince in his hands and later on the disciples wrote in first john that which we have seen we have heard seen with our own eyes which we have heard from the beginning that eternal life that was with the father from the beginning he says our hands have handled and our eyes have seen and we have touched so they had the empirical evidence that jesus's body rose from the dead so again that is not what we deny but what we are attempting to do is take us closer into the true meaning of jesus's death burial and resurrection now let me say this as we move through this material we're going to further explore that but without that foundation it would be a bit difficult to do and this is why as we study the parisia the coming of the lord time statements are so very very critical now remember as we focus on the applied meaning of jesus's death now you may have another way that you want to express that but that's how i'm going to express it in other words what did it all mean what was it accomplishing etc i mentioned that we need to talk a little bit about the time statement because those time statements help us to understand what is being talked about and what is not being spoken of so here's a very very critical time statement when we understand that the resurrection is concurrent with the parisian it's concurrent with judgment it's concurrent with the end of the age it's concurrent with the arrival of the everlasting kingdom etc all of those being concurrent events then when we see a passage that talks about the coming of the lord we should also be understanding that to be referring to the coming of christ and the time rather the resurrection of the dead so here's the text we'd like to look at and that is luke excuse me um matthew chapter 16 verses 27 and 28 matthew chapter 16 verses 27 and 28 and the context of these verses clearly demonstrate that we're dealing with in times matters um and that's very important to understand because jesus begins it in verse 24 saying if anyone desires to come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me for whoever desires to save his life will lose it but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it for what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul so you see we're talking about the eternal consequences of life here either you gain the whole world lose your own soul or what will a man give in exchange for his soul now jesus goes on to tell us what happens he says for the son of man is about to come that's the meaning of the text when we take it from the standpoint in which it was written the word mellow is used in the context and jesus was saying that he was about to come for the son of man is about to come in the glory of his father with his angels and then he will reward each according to his works assuredly i say to you there are some standing here who will not die till they see the son of man coming in his kingdom so jesus gave this statement he said number one he was about to come in the glory of his father with his holy angels and he was about to reward each according to his work so there's the judgment that's matthew 25 right dividing the sheep from the goats clearly a judgment text but then in verse 28 he says assuredly i say to you there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the son of man coming in his kingdom until they see the son of man coming in his kingdom so jesus is saying that before some in his presence died the resurrection was going to occur the coming of the son of man would occur the end of the age would occur the eternal kingdom would arrive where he sits upon his throne of glory all of those things would occur because they are concurrent in verse one and yet they would all occur within the lifetime of those disciples who were living at that time now that's about all the time that we have for the heart of the message but what i want to do is basically just review just a little bit so that you understand uh what we've shared with you in this lesson number one we pointed out that first corinthians 15 is all about jesus dying for our sins and rising for our justification that's the meaning of the verse and so it goes beyond without denying that he died and was buried but it goes beyond a mere coming out of the grave and so the example and the meaning is not to show us how bodies are raised but it's to show us how people come out of sin and death death that is related to sin that separates us from god if we are dead in sin we are separated from god secondly we pointed out that this was the meaning at the end of the chapter when he says the sting of death is sin the strength of sin is the law but thanks be to god who gives us the victory through our lord jesus christ so the victory is justification sin relates to death in sin and the strength of that was the law so until the next time we will continue this subject hoping that we've laid enough of a foundation for your understanding i'm william bell with all things will feel may god bless you and keep you and we'll be back on next week for another edition