The Necessity of Resurrection | 1 Corinthians 15:12-19
1. Without the resurrection our faith is empty (v.12-14)
12 Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14 And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.
Romans 10:9: Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
1 Peter 1:21: Who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.
1. Reducing the resurrection to a symbol
2. By attempting a natural explanation
3. By living as this life is all there is
2. Without the resurrection our witness is false (v.15)
15 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.
Acts 2:32: This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses.
Acts 10:40-41: 40 But God raised him on the third day and made him to appear, 41 not to all the people but to us who had been chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.
3. Without the resurrection our hope is lost (v.16-19)
16 For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. 18 Then those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.
1 Thessalonians 4:13–14: 13 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. 14 For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.
19 If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.
John 11:25–26: 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me,
though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
1. Hope that our sins are forgiven
Romans 4:25: Who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.
2. Hope that our lives have eternal purpose
3. Hope that death is not the end
1 Thessalonians 4:14: For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.
