15:11 Therefore
whether it were I or they, so we preach, and so ye believed.
12 Now if Christ
be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no
resurrection of the dead?
13 But if there be
no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen:
14 And if Christ
be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.
15 Yea, and we are
found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised
up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not.
16 For if the dead
rise not, then is not Christ raised:
17 And if Christ
be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.
18 Then they also
which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.
19 If in this life
only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.
20 But now is
Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.
At church right now we are studying through the two letters
that Peter wrote. In one of them he says "Paul wrote many things difficult
to understand which unstable men twist to their own destruction." It's
true. He had a unique way of writing that takes some tenacity to follow and
decipher sometimes and almost all false teachings in the Christian Church are
based on twisting what Paul said.
However today is not a complicated Paul day. Today it's easy.
:)
The largest sect of the Jewish religion were the Sadducees.
Today we would label them the liberals. They did not have a high regard for the
sacred text. One doctrine they held that makes that obvious is that there is no
resurrection from the dead. Once dead it's all over. Much like evolutionists
and atheists today they held that we have one life to live and then
nothing.
That is logical for evolutionists and atheists but not for
Jews. The reason being the Old Testament has several accounts of the dead
becoming undead. To deny any possibility of returning from the grave was to
deny their own prophets and sacred writings. In addition Jesus himself raised
several people from the dead including Lazarus who had been dead for four days
and sealed in a tomb.
It appears some of these "dead forever" believing
Jews had an influence on some in Corinth. It is interesting to note that Paul
doesn't point out any of the facts I just did. He goes right to one very simple
point. Jesus is alive. Witnesses saw Him die, it was confirmed by the unbiased
Romans, and then more witnesses saw Him alive after. Then Paul takes the point
further. If Jesus is dead, what hope do we have? If Jesus is dead who are we
following? Who are we believing in? Who are we trusting? If Jesus is still dead
God can't be trusted either because He promised to raise Him up. If there is
nothing after death, Jesus is dead and if Jesus is dead roll up the carpets and
pull down the steeple because we have nothing left. No risen Lord equals no
forgiveness, no heaven, and worst of all no hope of ever seeing the Man we
killed ever again.
But He is alive. :)
See it matters what we believe because the ripple effects of
one false belief can have serious implications we never even considered. Never
fall for the idea truth does not matter because Jesus is the Truth and every
error we believe followed to it's conclusion is an attack on the Truth as it is
in Jesus. Any denial of His plain teachings means you are following a god of
your own making.
He's alive. Very much alive. I talked to Him this morning and
sooner than we think the promise He made in John 14 will be a reality.
"Let not your hearts be troubled. You believe in God,
believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so I
would have told you. I am going to prepare a place for you and if I go and
prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you to Myself that where
I Am there you may be also."
That's why Paul talked about himself and he wasn't just
talking to Corinth. He was talking to us too.
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