Sermon text: 1 Corinthians 15:1–20
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.
It was a few weeks after Easter, and just a few weeks earlier, just as Lent was to begin, a local congregation from the inner city of Chicago made national news with its theme for Lent: “Fast from Whiteness” was the theme. The congregation consisted of a small handful of very aged members, led by an aged white person in some kind of clerical capacity, who decided that for Lent the congregation would avoid using all liturgies and songs and music of white European origin.
A few weeks after Lent, and as Easter was now underway, a Lutheran pastor — a real one, a person that actually exists on the roster — went to work out with his friend, and his friend turned to him and asked him if they had done any of that “fasting from whiteness” stuff for Lent. The question caught the pastor off guard. But after getting over the initial shock that his friend would even bother asking the question, he replied, “Well, friend, we’re a diverse congregation, and we’re not very smart, and so we just focus on one question that really matters: Did Jesus really rise from the dead or not?”
The pastor’s reply wasn’t a come-to-Jesus moment for his friend. But in the moment, it was enough to determine: to know just Jesus Christ, Him crucified and risen again. Paul himself writes the fundamental importance of the fundamental, important things. Right? First Corinthians 15: “In fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.”
Now, the Corinthian congregation, as you know, was a congregation at odds with itself. It was marked by quarreling and divisions about who was most important, who had the greatest gifts, and, surprisingly, over whether or not Jesus had actually risen from the dead. So Paul wrote in First Corinthians chapter 1: “I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers.”
He goes on to provide the antidote for any quarreling in a congregation. He tells them fundamentally to go back to the basics, to understand what is of “first importance,” and how God works in the world and in the church to accomplish His will: the forgiveness of sins and everlasting life to sinners. Paul reminds them that God works through “what is foolish in the world,” what is weak in the world, and even things that don’t exist — that are not — in order to accomplish His will. Paul tells them to turn away from this kind of pride that competes with others for status and power and wealth. That’s not how the Lord’s kingdom works.
He makes the argument throughout the epistle to the Corinthians. And when Paul stepped into the Corinthians’ mess, he told them that the first thing to know is that he knew nothing among them except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Fifteen chapters — chapter 15, sorry about that — follows the same pattern that Paul had set out time and again in the earlier parts of the Epistle to the Corinthians. Chapters 12 and 14 consist of an exposition of spiritual gifts and how they are to be used: not as a source of pride and power, but rather to build up and unify — not divide and tear down — the congregation.
After yelling at them, disciplining and urging them to put gifts in their proper place and for the proper service of the Lord God, he returns in chapter 15 to “the things of first importance” — and things that all Christians should hold in common, one with another, if they are in fact true Christians. While our reading stops at verse 20, the goal — the epistle, the whole epistle driving the epistle — is the final verse of chapter 15, the final verse of this very long epistle: 15:58 — “Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.”
As is often the case in the Bible, Paul begins and ends this morning’s lesson, 1 Corinthians 15:3–20, by using contrasting language and images. In the very first verse of 15 — which wasn’t in our reading — he writes, “Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand.” He takes them, in the midst of all their secondary questions and arguments about gifts and tongues and what kind of music and what sort of service they should have — he takes them back to the fundamental proclamation, the doctrines of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
He writes: “Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.” So Paul says of them, “you stand,” and of others he says, “they have fallen asleep.” Together they describe Christians standing and Christians falling. But Paul’s message is that what enables us to stand will be crucial to which direction we will fall. And we will all fall. We will fall asleep — we will die in the Lord Jesus Christ — or we will fall away from the Lord Jesus Christ and die in our sin. It’s that simple for Paul and the gospel.
Quite frankly, Paul had already warned the Christian: “Let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.” Fall. That’s another way of saying, “Pride goes before the fall.” Here in 15, as earlier in the epistle, Paul is concerned with one chief thing: that the Christians in the congregations of the city of Corinth not fall away from Christ, but fall to Christ and to sleep in the Lord.
From the reports he was receiving from members of the congregation — Chloe’s people — it appeared that many were ignoring the doctrines that Paul had set in place just a year or two before on his missionary journey. He stopped, and he stayed in the city of Corinth for 18 months: every day teaching in the synagogues, every night teaching and preaching, holding various services for 18 months. The entire congregations were participating in a sort of theological intensive seminar, so that by the time he left 18 months later, they were firmed up in the things of first and most importance.
Paul had stayed there 18 months teaching theology and Scripture. Yet in the time since his departure, many of the members were lured away from the fundamental teachings of the Christian faith. It appears from what we know that they were not so much denying the gospel outright as they were setting it aside and not giving the gospel its proper due, while falling into various theological errors. Falling, by the way, as you might know, is usually a bad thing — not because of the fall, but because of what comes immediately after the landing. And that’s what Paul’s principally concerned about in the book of First and Second Corinthians.
This past week, incidentally, I heard a news report that in the United States, 32,000 people die of falls each year among older adults. About 36 million falls are reported annually, of which approximately three million older adults are treated in emergency room departments because they had a serious fall. Falling is dangerous. And what’s true of the physical realm is also true of the spiritual realm. Think of how many of our babies grow up to be teenagers who fall away from the church and from Jesus Christ. They’ve taken a fall. They have time to recover. Not so much for those of us getting on in years. Falling spiritually is even more dangerous than falling physically. It’s just a fundamental spiritual fact, just as it is a fundamental physical fact.
So how do we avoid folly? Well, Paul tells us there’s two things. One is being awake and aware of the world and the danger around us and around our loved ones. The second is paying attention to the first things of most importance: that is, the actual gospel, the teachings of Jesus Christ as given to St. Paul.
Notice St. Paul simply passes on what he’s received. He didn’t come up with anything new. He doesn’t brag about any such thing. He says, “This is what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.” I preach to you, and one of the things of first importance: the Son of God took on flesh and was born of the Virgin Mary. Jesus lived a perfect life of obedience to the law in our stead. Jesus Christ was crucified as the atoning sacrifice for our sins and the sins of the world. On the third day He rose again. And last: He appeared to real-life people, by the hundreds, over 40 days, to verify that it was in fact Him who had died and Him who had been raised back to life.
Now, the modern liberal critical scholar chalks up the resurrection accounts to an imaginative myth. Or they say that Jesus only passed out, fainted on the cross, only to come to as they were putting Him into the tomb. Some say it was mass hallucinations. Others argue that another figure arose and it’s a case of mistaken identity. Yet what the gospels record actually happened, in accordance with what had been written in the Old Testament scriptures, and was verified when Jesus appeared to lots and lots of people on lots and lots of different occasions.
Between the scriptures and the eyewitnesses, the Christian can stand firm on the things of most importance: that He was crucified for our sins, that He died, and on the third day rose again. And the early Christians understood the importance of the actual physical resurrection of Jesus Christ. They understood the importance of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ as the atoning sacrifice. So they imported the language of First Corinthians chapter 15 into the creeds — specifically the two creeds that we use in church service and are contained for us in the Small Catechism of Luther: that is, the Nicene and the Apostles’ Creed, wherein we say, “He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried. And on the third day He rose again” — straight out of 1 Corinthians chapter 15.
And Epiphany — Epiphany is about the appearance of the Son of God born in flesh. And Paul joins his message to the original proclamation of Christ as the Son of God in flesh. He wrote about Christ’s post-resurrection appearance: that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then He appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive. Paul wrote: “Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.”
Paul makes it clear that Jesus is not a mythological god like the Greeks and Romans worshiped. He’s no Greek and Roman god. He is truly of flesh and blood, life and death. He is the real flesh and blood, the real man who came into the world to save us from our sin. Yet still, church bodies, congregations, members of congregations — humans and the like — all fall away from the truth from time to time and think little or nothing of the resurrection and its application to daily life.
To these people, and to people of our age, Paul writes: “Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say — or I’m going to add, act as if — that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is 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. If Christ did not rise, you will not rise. If Christ did not rise, your sins have not been forgiven.” The resurrection is the evidence of the forgiveness of sins. Paul says that here in chapter 15 as well. And Luther pointed out that where there is the forgiveness of sins, there is by necessity life and salvation. And where there is no forgiveness of sins, there is no life and there is no salvation.
If Christ did not rise from the dead, Paul argues, your faith is in vain. And then he throws in the extra: And what about those who have fallen asleep? What about your loved ones who have died? “Those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished” — if Christ himself was not raised from the dead. The capstone of Paul’s argument is this: church business is just a sham if Christ has not been risen from the dead. And he summarizes it this way: In Christ we have hope — hope in this life only, if Christ has not been raised. Your faith is worthless; 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.”
What’s left if Christ is not risen from the dead? Then all we have is just a nice sentimental memory. Christ is some mythical do-good to follow after. The Christian religion has one fundamental concern: that we and our loved ones who fall asleep do so in Christ. Why? Because we stood upon the gospel truth, clung to it in true Christian faith in good times and in bad, in strength and in weakness. In the language of the Bible, we’re all going to fall asleep. But for all who believe — you included — you will rise to stand before the throne, the throne of the Lamb, for your sins are forgiven and the resurrection is true. Amen.
May the peace that surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.