Pastor and 1st Lady Mims

Mims Chapel Church

Week 9, January 26

LESSON 9

HOPE ONLY IN THIS LIFE?

Lesson Text:

1 Corinthians 15:3-19

Memory Verse

"If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of al/ men most miserable."
(1 Corinthians 15:19)

Key Terms
Creed • A statement that Christians would recite to summarize their beliefs (Strobel, 2003, p. 37).
Reductio ad absurdum • An indirect argument which serves to prove something by showing the contrary to be absurd or impossible.
YOLO • Acronym for the phrase "you only live once."

Suggested Emphasis

The Resurrection of Christ is the very core of the Christian faith. "The resurrection is the supreme vindication of Jesus' divine identity and his inspired teaching. It's the proof of his triumph over sin and death. It's the foreshadowing of the resurrection of his followers. It's the basis of Christian hope" (Strobel, 2003, p. 32). As we examine the hope of the believer, we must turn to the significance of the resurrection to our faith. The apostle Paul understood this, and dedicated the fifteenth chapter of his first letter to the Corinthians to defend the doctrine of resurrection.

Emphasis 1:

The Early Creed That Affirmed
the Resurrection

The chapter begins with Paul's recitation of what appears to be an early Christian creed (1 Cor. 15:3-5). Scholars speculate that this credal statement "goes back to within a few years of Jesus' crucifixion, having been given to Paul, after his conversion, in Damascus or in his subsequent visit to Jerusalem when he met with the apostles James and Peter" (Strobel, 2003, p. 37). Paul reminds the Corinthians that he had "delivered" to them these general doctrinal points about Christ: namely, that he died for our sins, he was buried, he rose again on the third day, and he
appeared to numerous witnesses. The apostle then gets a little distracted describing his own ministry (1 Cor. 15:8-10), but ultimately summarizes the matter: All the apostles preached the same message, and that is the message all Christians believed.

Emphasis 2:

How Can Christ Be Risen If There
Is No Resurrection?

The apostle then turned his attention to some false teachers who were denying that there would be a general resurrection of the dead. "Who these were is unknown. They may have been some of the philosophic Greeks, who spurned the doctrine of the resurrection (see Acts 17:32); or they may have been some followers of Sadducean teachers; or it may be that the Gnostic philosophy had corrupted them" (Barnes, 1983, p. 287). Whoever they were, the fallacies of their doctrine were completely exposed. "But tell me this—since we preach that Christ rose from the dead, why are some of you saying there will be no resurrection of the dead? For if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised either" (1 Cor. 15:12,13, NLT). This is reductio ad absurdum—a proposition that is proven by deriving absurdity from its denial. The apostle pushes the argument to its logical extremity: "And if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless and you are still guilty of your sins. In that case, all who have died believing in Christ are lost! And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world" (1 Cor. 16-19, NLT).

Emphasis 3:

No Hope Without Resurrection Strung out to its logical conclusion, a denial of resurrection leaves us without hope. "While Christian hope expresses itself in different ways, the source of this hope is Christ's resurrection, through which God has overcome the last and greatest enemy—Death. Without this hope that God will conquer Death, human hope is limited to this life only" (Matera, 2015, p. 13). What would be the point of this holiness lifestyle? If the dead be not raised, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die (1 Cor. 15:32). Why not live a life of sensuality and decadence? This is the real YOLO mentality, the hedonistic philosophy. But this is a lie of the Enemy. We know " it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment" (Heb. 9:27). So, the life we are living now has eternal repercussions. As the old Saints used to say, "we are living to live again."

Missions Application Questions

What are the major doctrinal points of the creed that Paul quotes from?
How did Paul use logic to dispute the notion that there is no resurrection?
Without the hope of resurrection, what kind of lifestyle would we be likely to adopt?

World Missions Prayer Points

Let us pray that we rediscover some of the historic creeds that have informed the Church for generations.
Let us pray to remain persuadable by the logic of our teachers and counselors in Christ.
Let us pray for the conversion of people who only believe in what this life has to offer.