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Welcome to studies with Stearman. Join us as we look deeper into the Bible. Strengthen your faith with us even as we see the day approaching. And now here's Gary. Last week we left off at verse 19, 1 Corinthians 15 and verses 12 through 19, if you recall, have seven big ifs and we spent some time on that. Those ifs are interesting, particularly verse 12. Now, if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you, if there is no resurrection of the dead? Now those some among you, these people of Corinth came from a very disparate background. All different kinds of people, Greeks and Hellenistic Jews and very kind conservative Jews, all kinds of people culturally, Romans, people who traveled through Corinth because Corinth was an industrial city and it was a shipping city. If you can just get your mind wrapped around the concept of a sea coast where there are seaports and a lot of shipping and receiving, that was Corinth. Very mixed society. And a lot of skepticism, a lot of scoffing and particularly about the idea of the resurrection from the dead. I didn't mention this last week, but here's something interesting. If you go to the old religions of Mesopotamia, Medo, Persia, Greece, Rome, if you examine all of their pagan religions, you discover that they were built around the idea of the resurrections of the gods, particularly the myths of Isis and Osiris that go back to the myth of Ishtar and Tammuz going all the way back to Nimrod. You have the myth of the resurrection. Tammuz was supposedly killed and he was hacked to pieces. And there was a 40 day period of looking for the parts of his body which then were reassembled and he was finally resurrected. And so some people have said, well, the resurrection of Jesus is just a cheap copy of the resurrection of Tammuz or the resurrection of Osiris, Egyptian version of Tammuz. And some skeptics today, and I've heard this just within the last two weeks, some religious skeptics today say that the resurrection of Jesus is just an echo of the old myth of Ishtar and Tammuz. There are skeptics about the resurrection. There are people who don't want to believe that Jesus was resurrected from the dead. And it was true back in Paul's day as well. Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say among you, there's no resurrection of the dead? The ifs, Stoics, Epicureans, Platonists, Hellenistic Jews, Sadducees, they didn't Want to believe in a resurrection? Why would you not want to believe in a resurrection? I'll tell you why. It's really simple. Because if there was someone resurrected from the dead, as is professed in the life of Christ, then you have to pledge allegiance to Christ himself, the person of Christ. A lot of people don't want to do that. They want to be kind of free spirits, free thinkers, freewheelers. They want to be, hey, I did it my way. I don't need Jesus for eternal life. I think I'm pretty good and I think I can make it on my own. It's sort of that attitude. That's the attitude of the world today. And that's why when you witness to people, you have to convince them they're sinners, condemned to hell. You have to convince them there's nothing they can do to save themselves. You have to convince them that Jesus was born for a purpose, he died for a purpose, and he was resurrected for a purpose. You have to convince them that God's word is reliable. You have to convince them that they need to follow him. Well, that was true in Paul's day, it's true today. And he says, if Christ be preached, he rose from the dead. How, say some among you? There's no resurrection of the dead. It's sort of the old, we don't need no stinking resurrection. Objection. To paraphrase a well known line, I don't need a resurrection from the dead to get where I want to go. I'm doing just fine, thank you very much. Think about that. That's kind of the attitude then in verse 13. If there's no resurrection of the dead, Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, then is our preaching vain and your faith also vain? That is empty or worthless. Everything that happens depends on that one thing. It is literally the axle of the universe, the resurrection of Christ from the dead. Everything turns on that single point. If Jesus is not resurrected from the dead, nothing else even matters. It's all for nothing. And Paul operated on that principle with extreme strength. That is to say, he couldn't be shaken and he took hits for it. He was stoned to death. He was run out of city after city. He was arrested. He suffered for making that simple statement. And he says in verse 15, yea were found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ. In other words, he took a hit for testifying that whom he raised not up. If so be that the dead rise not. That's the fourth if for if the dead rise not then is not Christ raised, states that in the opposite manner. If there's no possibility of resurrection, Christ was not resurrected. The next if the sixth one, and if Christ be not raised, your faith is in vain. You're yet in your sins. In other words, you're dead. If he didn't rise, you're dead. It's that simple. If Jesus didn't rise, you're dead. You're a dead man. You're dead. Now think about how revolutionary that thought is. Think about the 21st century world, the culture of today. Walking down the street, you know, driving your car down the Northwest Expressway, looking at all those people talking on their C phones, eating their Big Macs, whatever they do while they're driving. If you rolled your window down and said, do you believe Christ was resurrected from the dead man? You're crazy. No, of course not. And you say, well, you're dead. You're dead and you don't even know it. That's the whole strength of the resurrection. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. Seventh, if. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we're of all men most miserable. And last week I mentioned that. That phrase in this life only is fascinating because it's aimed directly at a false doctrine which claims that the reason you're a Christian is to get blessed in this life. No, that's not the reason. The reason Jesus rose is to give you eternal life forever, period. It's not that you won't be blessed in this life, you will. But the real purpose of the resurrection is to make sure that you get resurrected, that I get resurrected on that basis. Then we start in the third part of this chapter, in verse 20. But now is Christ risen from the dead and become the first fruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die. And he spends a lot of time in Romans talking about this, even so in Christ shall all be made alive, but every man in his own order, Christ. The first fruits afterward, they that are Christ's at his coming. Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father, when he shall have put down all rule, all authority, all power. For he must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death, for he hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which did Put all things under him. And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also Himself be subject unto him that put all things under him. That God may be all in all. We're talking about the reconstruction of the universe because notice the way that ends to put all things under him that God may be all in all. That's an inclusive statement that includes the universe. This is stated so beautifully in Colossians, because when you go over to Colossians chapter one, verse 19, you have these words for it pleased the Father that in him that is in Christ should all fulness dwell. Fullness is in the Greek pleroma. It means including everything, excluding nothing. It pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell. And having made peace through the blood of his cross by him, to reconcile all things unto Himself by Him, I say, whether they be things in earth or things in heaven. And you that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled. There are two uses of the word reconciled there, which is the Greek apokatalaso, which means to totally restructure something, to change it from one thing into another. Christ's resurrection had the effect of altering the universe. The process is going on right now. The universe is in a broken state. It will be repaired completely. And that's what that phrase all in all means back here in First Corinthians. That God may be all in all. In other words, that the universe may be reconciled, rebuilt, reconstructed, and we are to be included in that. Why were you saved? This is a big question. Were you saved sort of as an act of sympathy by God? Or were you saved so that you wouldn't have to suffer? Why were you saved? What's the reason? What's the purpose? It's very obvious, if you study the Word, that you were saved so that you could make yourself useful. You will literally become part of the restoration of the universe. We'll all become part of the restoration of the universe. That he may be all in all, that God the Father may be all in all. We're going to become part of the new heavens and the new earth. We don't know exactly what part we're going to play. In some places we're called the armies of heaven. In other places we're just called the sanctified. But it's obvious we have a use and a purpose. He's calling out a people for his name, that is representatives. We are going to act in the judicial sense on his behalf. We're going to participate in the judgment of the universe. In other words, we're not going to just play harp and sit in the shade forever and ever. Amen. We're going to have functions of some sort in this reconciliation. So salvation is way more than just getting saved. Getting saved is just a very teeny first part of it. And after that you have eternal life to be of use to the king. That's the beautiful part of it. To me, we've been included. Verse 20. But now is Christ risen from the dead and become the first fruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. Christ is risen from the dead. By the way, the word risen there is really kind of an interesting word. That word literally means to be physically lifted up. It can't be used of something spiritual. It has to do specifically with lifting up something physical. As you would go say, maybe there's this heavy box on the floor and you walk over to it and you lift it up. That's a specific Greek word, to lift something substantial. And that's the word that's used in verse 20. Now is Christ risen from the dead? And the tense is Christ has been lifted up from the dead. It's been lifted up and it's become the first fruits of them that slept. Firstfruits, of course, is a Jewish festival, the festival of firstfruits. In the seven major Jewish feasts, you have Passover, unleavened bread, first fruits, Pentecost, trumpets, Yom Kippur, and Tabernacles. They are divided into two groups of three, with one in the middle. The first three, Passover, unleavened bread and first fruits, are spring festivals. Pentecost is a summer festival. Trumpets, Yom Kippur, and Tabernacles are fall festivals. But they outline the plan of reconciliation. They outline the plan of rebuilding. Christ is the first fruits. Turn to Leviticus 23 now, and let's look at what firstfruits mean. Leviticus 23 actually describes the feasts of Israel, and first fruits is mentioned in this chapter. All the feasts are laid out in a rather concise manner by date. In Leviticus 23, 4, 5, you have the description of Passover, 14th day of Nisan, 14th day of the first month. Unleavened bread is one day later, the 15th day of Nisan. And it's shown in Leviticus 23:6. And on the 15th day of the same month is feast of Unleavened bread unto the Lord, seven days you must eat unleavened bread. And you remember, Jesus came and said, I am the bread that came down from heaven. He is the bread that was broken for us on Passover. His blood was shed. He was put in the grave on unleavened bread. That is, his broken body went to the grave. By the way, this act is celebrated every year at Passover by the Jews who break the afikoman. They break the bread and they hide one piece and they share the other piece. And then at the end of Passover, the afikoman comes back out again and is distributed. The breaking of the bread is an integral part of Passover. It's unleavened bread. And I always point out, afikomen is a Greek word that means he comes. I just love that you can look it up. Table 3 Bagster's Greek Lexicon Table 3 of the Irregular verb stem endings of the verb to come. And right there in plain Greek, it says, afikoman, he comes. So this bread, when it was broken, was a token of his promise that he would come. Now, first fruits is given in Leviticus 23. It's the third feast, and it says, In Leviticus 23:9, the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, speak, the children of Israel, say unto them, when you come into the land which I shall give to you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then you shall bring a sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest unto the priest, and he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord to be accepted for you. On the morrow after the Sabbath shall the priest wave it. What is the morrow after the Sabbath? That would be a Sunday. And the priest comes out on a Sunday with the first of the barley harvest. It is the first little sheaf which is cut. In fact, in the Hebraic system of observation of full moons and harvests, there's a very complex ritual that involves going out and gathering the first barley sheaf, which is then presented on the morrow after the Sabbath as first fruits. And what you end up with, you go out and you test the grain, and you check the phase of the moon and all kinds of things, and you come back with a sheaf. The high priest then holds this sheaf of barley up on the morrow after the sabbath. And verse 12 says, and ye shall offer that day when you wave the sheaf, and he lamb without blemish of the first year for the burnt offering unto the Lord. So that's the Sunday following. Well, this exactly mirrors or patterns what happened To Jesus. Jesus was the Passover lamb. His broken body, the unleavened bread, was put into the grave. And then on firstfruits that Sunday, he arose from the dead. He, just like clockwork, Christ fulfilled the feast. Just click, click, click, just like a clock, knew exactly what to do and when to do it. And for centuries, the priest had been coming out and waving this sheaf called first fruits on a Sunday. And the signification of this sheaf is that there is more to come. If I'm the high priest and I have this little bound sheaf bound up with a ribbon, and I'm holding it, and I recite the necessary scriptures and so forth, and I wave this before the congregation of the Lord. The clear meaning is this is just the first fruits. And it means that there will be more to come, because the Lord is going to bless this sheaf and magnify it, and it'll become much, much more. That's the meaning. Now, the next feast in the seven feasts of Israel is seen in Leviticus 23:15. And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the Sabbath, unto the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering, seven sabbaths shall be complete. Even unto the morrow after the seventh Sabbath shall ye number 50 days. And ye shall offer a new meat offering unto the Lord. This is the offering of the two wave loaves. Fifty days after firstfruits, priest comes out with two loaves of leavened bread. And he waves them. And this is a summer festival. And what started out back on firstfruits as just a little sheaf of grain, now is two fully baked leavened loaves, meaning the called out, have been formed into two distinct bodies. And I believe that the two loaves represent the Jews and the Gentiles. So the feasts of Israel are simply a reminder of the reconciliation process. This process is going on and on and on. Have the two loaves been completed yet? No, they have not. God is still calling out people for his name. But the process began at Pentecost. After Pentecost, you go to the fall festival, the feast of Trumpets, Rosh Hashanah, and you read in Leviticus 23:23, the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, speak unto the children of Israel, saying, in the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall ye have a Sabbath, a memorial, blowing of trumpets, the holy convocation. And of course, this is the civil new year. And the meaning of the feast of Trumpets is that the world is about to be judged. In other words, the harvest has come to an end with those two loaves. The next thing that has to happen is that the world has to be judged. And if you've studied the Book of Revelation, you know that the trumpets, the Book of Revelation, are taken directly from. From the Feast of Trumpets. Those trumpets signify the days of awe, the 10 days of awe between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur in which the world shall be judged. Yom Kippur is the next one, verse 26 of Leviticus 23. And on the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, and on the 10th day of this seventh month, there shall be a day of atonement, Yom Kippur. Actually, it's Yom Kippurim, Yamim Kippurim, in the Hebrew days of atonement, because they had days of atonement. We have just one day of atonement when Jesus went to the cross. He is our singular atonement. He's our covering. Yom Kippur. The Jews, in their atonement, had to repeat it each year. And to this day, they are repeating the days of Toni Yomim Kippurim. Finally, in Leviticus 23:33, you have the feast of Tabernacles, or Sukkot. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, speak unto the children of Israel, saying, the fifteenth day of the seventh month shall be the feast of Tabernacles for seven days unto the Lord. The feast of Tabernacles is a celebration of the coming of the kingdom. And it's a very festive time of dancing and singing and building booths and decoration and inviting in guests and having great meals. And it looks forward to the establishment of the kingdom. So when in 1st Corinthians 15, Paul writes, but now is Christ risen from the dead and become the firstfruits of them that slept. You know what that word, firstfruits means? Firstfruits is literally that time when the priest comes out and waves that sheaf and says, this is just the first. There will be more to come. That's what it means, the first fruits of them that slept. The Bible uses the term sleep. The New Testament uses the term sleep in particular to speak of death. It's kind of a bad term in a way, because out of this term sleep or slept has come the idea that when you die, you sort of go to sleep and you'll be asleep maybe for, well, people who died, say, in the year 250, are still asleep right now. And they'll be sleeping and sleeping until the trumpets Blow at some point long in the future, and they'll wake up and they will have been asleep for a couple of thousand years, say, or nearly a couple of thousand years, when in fact, that's really not what is meant by sleeping at all. The Greek word is clematarion. Now that's the word where we get our English word cemetery. From the Greek word clematarion comes our word cemetery. Well, you know what the Greek word clementarion means? It means motel. It does. You would take your donkey and you would tie it up outside the Coinmaterion, and you'd go in and ask the Koimatarian keeper, do you have a room? Yes, I do. So you could go then and sleep for the night. You have place to stay until the next day. And so the idea of being given a place to stay until the daylight, staying overnight, is what Paul means by sleeping. It's not like being out of the picture. It's like having a place of temporary rest until the day comes. And that course is the day of the Lord. We have the summation of everything as typified by the blowing of trumpets. Rosh Hashanah, that's the day. And so think of sleep as the Lord giving you a room for the night until the daylight. And then, wow, look out. Everything happens the next day. It's not a place where you're sort of stashed away and you don't know what's going on. Christ is risen from the dead and become the first fruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. We live in a planet of death. You could call it the planet of the dead. It literally is. It has the illusion of teeming with life. I mean, everywhere you look, there is life, life, life, from the microscopic level all the way up to all of the edifices of man, built with billions and billions of dollars, you just have life, life everywhere. And because of that, there is the illusion that you don't need God. You've got life. And you don't really bother too much with the afterlife. If you are preoccupied with this life, you tend to look at the illusion and think of it as the reality. But in fact, by man came death. This world is a world of death. Common experience tells you that, in fact, if you really allow yourself to think of it, it's very depressing. It could be very depressing just because sooner or later it's all going to pass away. And yet in Christ, all are made alive. That's an astounding Thought it's just really amazing. But every man in his own order, Christ, the first fruits, afterward, they that are Christ's at his coming. What does this mean? Afterward, they that are Christ's at his coming. I suppose Paul's talking about the Rapture here. Well, he certainly could be. First Thessalonians 4, 15, 17 talks about the Lord descending from heaven with a shout voice. The archangel and the dead will be raised, the twinkling of an eye lifted up. We who are alive and remain will join them. We'll all be glorified, we'll all go to be with him. We'll go to where he is. But I think there's more than that in verse 23. I think the Rapture is in there. But I also think that afterward, they that are Christ said his coming goes all the way to the end of the tribulation period, the second coming of Christ. Paul is not making a sharp distinction here. He's including everybody that's going to be raised because that's what the priest did when he came out on Pentecost and he waved those two loaves. He was not just talking about Christians in that symbolism. He had two loaves, Christians and the Jews. And there are going to be literally millions of Jews who will become the spiritual leaders of planet Earth during the tribulation period, all the way up to the second Coming. And then notice, then cometh the end. What is the end? Well, the end is very, very clear. It goes all the way to the end. What, to the end of the tribulation? Maybe farther than that. How about to the end of the kingdom? You go to the end of the kingdom a thousand years after the tribulation. And that's when the books are opened. That's when the great white throne of judgment happens. And that's when the kingdom is delivered to God. And so you can see that Paul's writing about a very broad scale picture of things. Just like the seven feasts of Israel go literally from the Lamb back in the Garden of Eden, you remember Abel sacrificed a lamb. The feasts of Israel go from the lamb all the way to the final yielding up of the kingdom to the Father. He must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet. When is he going to put all enemies under his feet? When he comes back. After the tribulation? No, because we read in the Bible that after the tribulation Christ comes back, sets up the kingdom which goes for a thousand years. And at the end of that thousand years, there is a rebellion. Satan is loosed There's a rebellion at that time, and then Satan has to be put down finally. Well, that's still way over a thousand years into the future. So this process really could be said to be, I suppose, just picking up speed right now. In other words, it's not like we're at the end of the process. We who are alive in the year 2007 and hoping for the return of Christ, we're not at the end of the process at all, because the end of the process is going to go over a thousand years into the future. We are being included into the process. That's the point I think Paul is making here. It's the point he makes everywhere. If you have eyes to see and ears to hear, he reminds everybody, hey, you have been identified with Christ, you've been buried with him, and you're going to be raised with him, and you are a called out body and you are included in the process. And the process still has to go a ways before it gets completed. The interesting thing is if you look at the feasts of Israel, Passover, unleavened bread, first fruits, Pentecost, that was the birth of the church. And if you go back to Acts chapter two, it's interesting to look at a couple of things. Acts chapter two says, and when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came sound from heaven as rushing, mighty wind. The day of Pentecost was fully come. Pentecost, of course, Shavuot is called the festival without a date. And it's the only Jewish festival that shifts on the Jewish calendar. So that if the Jewish calendar is truly kept the way it's supposed to be kept, there is about a possibly three, possibly four day shift in the date of Pentecost. You never know what date it's going to occur on from year to year. All you know is that this year it's going to be at a certain time. And so sundown of that day, you cloister yourself and you begin to pray to God and you begin to recite the rituals of Shavuot. And for the Jews, this means the recitation of what's called Tikkun Leil Shavuot. Among other recitations, there is the belief that goes way, way back that at midnight or in the middle of the night, you stay up all night. In the middle of the night, for a brief moment, the heavens will open up. And at that point, whatever you're praying to God will be heard and received. So you get like a 1 second shot if you stay up all night. Tikkun leil Shavuot, it's the recitation for the night of Shavuot is what that means. And the next morning, as the sun comes up, Pentecost is fully come. That's what this means in Acts chapter two, when the day of Pentecost was fully come. It's the next morning, the sun is rising, and at this point, then, boom, there comes a sound from heaven. Now, it's interesting to me that at the crack of dawn, and the Jews are not specific about when during Tikkun leil Shavuot, the heavens are opened. But they say the heavens are open. It's fascinating that that actually happened in Acts chapter two. It was not just a myth, it was a historical occurrence. The heavens were open and boom. The Spirit came and appeared upon the apostles like tongues of fire. They were filled with the Holy Spirit. They began to speak with other tongues. And you know the rest of the story. But this is what is meant by every man in his own order, Christ the firstfruits afterward, they that are Christ's at his coming. Every man in his own order means you are placed at a particular place, a particular time in the festival calendar. If you identify yourself with anything at all in terms of feasts of Israel, it should be Pentecost. If we identify ourselves with any feast of Israel, it wouldn't be Passover, wouldn't be unleavened bread, first fruits, it would be Pentecost, wouldn't be trumpets, it wouldn't be Yom Kippur, just Pentecost. We identify ourselves with that. You know, it's funny. The Lord appeared to Noah after the flood on the 27th day of IAR. And for the next week, the Lord had various interactions with Noah. The Lord appeared to Noah on 27er, spoke to him for about a week. At the end of this series of transactions with Noah, he delivered the Noahic covenant to Noah. And guess when he did that. He did that on about the third of Sivan. Well, guess what that is. That's Pentecost. Why would the Lord give the covenant to Noah on Pentecost? Hmm. Moses received the law of the Lord. Guess what day? Third day of Sivan. Ooh, Pentecost. David. King David, who is the very embodiment of the kingdom. King David founded the kingdom. Christ's going to come back and sit on the throne of David. David was born on Pentecost and he died on Pentecost. What are the odds? Isn't that amazing? King David the church, of course, was born on Pentecost. I think there's a very good possibility that it will end on Pentecost. That's not to be dogmatic, but I think it's a very good thought. The Book of Ruth really talks about this whole process, a great love story. Ruth, with Naomi's help, appeals to a kinsman Redeemer named Boaz, who is a type of Christ. And she lays at his feet at midnight, and I believe on Pentecost, because that's the tradition, he discovered her there at midnight and says, who's that lying at my feet down there? And then the next day, the next morning when the sun was up, Boaz talked to Ruth and he said, okay, I agree. I will go appeal as kinsman Redeemer for you. And you could say that when the day of Pentecost was fully come, Boaz had this conversation with Ruth. This is fascinating because Ruth typifies everything to do with the new birth and the harvest. And it's all about Pentecost and the Redeemer. So it's not an accident that things happen the way they do. And you can see how much is hidden in what Paul writes here. Every man in his own order. First Corinthians 15, 23, Christ, the first fruits. Afterward, they that are Christ at his coming. Then cometh the end when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God. And we're going to talk more about that in just a moment. Because this delivering up of the kingdom to God involves a process. And the process is envisioned as the opening of the book or books, specifically the Book of Life. And there are other books that are opened at that time when the kingdom is delivered up. And this whole idea of being written in the Book of Life is Central to understanding. First Corinthians 15. This whole notion of the resurrection is tied up with the Book of Life. Now, the order of the resurrections, First Corinthians 15, 20, 28, then, is preoccupied with making you understand how you fit in the big picture. That's why you need to know about the feasts of Israel. You need to know about Pentecost, you need to know about the traditions of Pentecost. And we've just barely touched on them. You need to know where you fit. For he must reign, verse 25, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. You remember Psalm 110. The Lord saith unto my Lord, sit at my right hand. Remember, until all this is finished and concluded, Jesus is sitting at the right hand of the Father positionally. Right now. And he's going to be sitting there until everything is put in order and the kingdom is going to be given over to the Father. He must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. And if you stop and think about it, there will be death even in the kingdom, even in the Davidic kingdom, that thousand year reign of Christ on earth, there will be death. Death then is going to continue to run for quite a while. You and I have already received the gift of eternal life. There are people who will be born 500 years from now who will still die. In other words, Paul is looking at the huge big picture here. The last enemy that should be destroyed is death. We're in the process, you and I, of experiencing the destruction of death. In other words, I'm never going to see death. My body may die. I could drop dead here in five minutes and you would say, oh, Gary, dead. Don't you believe it for a second. I'm alive. I'm never going to see death. We're all alive. And so this idea of destroying death is still in the process of coming to its end. For he hath put all things under his feet, but when he saith, all things put under him is manifest. That he is accepted, did not put all things under him. And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also Himself be subject unto him that put all things under him. That God may be all in all. The metaphysics of those verses is beyond human comprehension. The Lord was one in days past. The Lord is one. That's the Shema. Shema yisra' eloheinu aronoi echad. Hear Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one and yet he became three. Or he is three. Why? Well, because he's doing a work. He's doing a work of reconciliation. And when that work is all finished in some way we don't even understand, he's going to be one again. And not only is he going to be one, but the entire universe is going to be one again. It'll run like a clock. Everything will be perfect. And that's what's meant by all in all. Or as it's put in Colossians chapter two, apocatalasso, the reconciliation or rebuilding of everything until it's perfect. But the beautiful part is we are included in this situation. We are not spectators, we're part of it. By the way, a preachy side note here would be Christians should not think of themselves as Specific. And yet a lot of Christians do. You know, you say, I'm a Christian, I go to church on Sunday. What do you do the rest of the week? Well, I work. And you parcel up your life. You divide it this way, and you go to church on Sunday, where you spectate. You watch this guy perform, right? And then when it's all over, you say amen. You go out to the parking lot and you fire up the old Buick, and you head as fast as you can for the cafeteria. The spectator church. The spectator church. But we're not spectators. We should not think of ourselves as spectators. Everyone here should think of themselves as part of the process. I am woven into the whole process of rebuilding the universe. Praise the Lord. And that's what Paul is trying to. If you read through what he's saying to the Corinthians, he's saying, you guys get serious. You're arguing over all this stupid stuff, and you need to just realize who you are and get serious. That's basically what the book of First Corinthians is all about. You've got divisions in your church. If I were there, I'd slap your face. Basically, here's what you need to be doing. He never encourages people to behave as vassals or slaves in church who are subject to some higher authority, like some priest or some preacher. The church has equality. It's the body of Christ. Everybody is equal in the church. We end this thought, but we haven't really ended it yet. Verses 20 through 28 are going to be deeply revisited in the verses to come. He's going to reiterate this only on a much deeper level. Verse 29 changes the subject for just a moment. But then after that, we're going to go back to the subject of the resurrection from a mechanical perspective. Else, what shall they do which are baptized for the dead? If the dead rise, not at all. Why are they then baptized for the dead? That seems like a really, whoa, sharp left turn. We've been smoothly going along here with Christ, the firstfruits. And then in verse 29, we come to this thing that says, else, what shall they do which are baptized for the dead? And you say, what does that have to do with anything? Well, what Paul is doing in these verses is talking about the program, the pattern, and the moral implications of the resurrection. And what he's doing here is saying is mentioning somebody called they. Else, what shall they do which are baptized for the dead? Who are these they? This mysterious they? What this says, verse 29 really says otherwise, what are they going to do these people who have been baptized on behalf of the dead, if the dead are not raised at all, why indeed are they baptized on behalf of the dead? Baptism for the dead is an ancient pagan practice. And it rises out of the idea that my Uncle Rufus wasn't a particularly religious man, but he was a nice guy. He ran out in front of that wild ox and just got trampled into the dirt. And he never had a chance to say please or thank you or anything else. He's just one moment alive, and the next moment he was dead. During his lifetime, he never really was a. What we would call a religious man. I really would like to think of him as going to a nice place because I loved Uncle Rufus, and he helped me out, you know, and gave me money a few times. And I really think he should go to a nice place. Even though during his life he never showed any inclination to be religious. I think I'm going to go down here to the temple and offer up a couple of denarii for Uncle Rufus. And while I'm there, I'm going to get dipped for him, too, if that'll help. And it might help. And that ancient pagan practice rises out of the desire that, boy, everybody should go to heaven. To this day, there are people who baptize for the dead. And it totally overlooks the meaning of the word baptism. Remember what baptism means in Greek? It means to be identified with. Baptizo is a Greek word that means to be identified with. In other words, when you're dipped, you are in the Christian faith. You're making a public profession of the fact that you have been buried into the death of Christ and raised again into newness of life. You have been identified with Christ by faith, not by water. So this process of identification is personal if in fact, it's extended to the second person. Because somebody gets baptized for you in the hope that they'll save you. They're doing so on the basis that they believe, you know, there is some kind of hope of resurrection from the dead. And that's what he's talking about. He says, even the pagans here live in the hope of the resurrection. But what if the dead don't rise at all? These people are just exercising futility. And what Paul is doing here is arguing the moral implications of the resurrection. In other words, they're not going to accomplish anything. Because baptism is identification. And why stand we in jeopardy every hour? Verse 30, if Christ was not raised from the dead, you'd be foolish to put your life in Danger. I protest by your rejoicing, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord. I die daily. He said, if after the manner of men, I have fought with the beasts at Ephesus, what advantage it to me if the dead rise not? Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. And here he's mocking the Epicurean Greeks, eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die. And he's saying, I was in Ephesus. I taught at the school of Tyrannus for two years, right there in the shadow of the temple of Diana and near the philosophic teaching hall of Greek, Epicurean and Stoic schools. And they used to dance around saying, hey, eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we may die. In other words, live for today and notice. He calls men beasts. He says, I fought with the beasts at Ephesus. And he did. He had a lot of battles with the Ephesian pagans. He refers to them as beasts and not as men, which, you know, you could spend a long time talking about what that means. But it has been said that man without God is not man, he's an animal. Paul pretty much reflects that idea. Verse 33. Be not deceived. Evil communications, evil companionships, corrupt good manners, awake to righteousness and sin not, for some have not the knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame. He said, there are people among you who still have not acknowledged the physical resurrection of Christ, because after all, that is the subject. He says, there are people among you who have not yet tumbled to the necessity of believing that Jesus rose physically. Now I wish I had more time, because we return in verse 35 to the subject of resurrection, only this time it's not the first fruits, it is a seed. Let's take a little magnifying glass and run up there where the high priest is holding that barley up, and pick one little grain of barley out of that sheaf, put it on a table and look at it. He says. But some man will say, how are the dead raised up, and with what body do they come? Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not made alive except it die. And here Paul is talking about dissolution and reconstruction. Dissolution and reconstruction. In other words, the body cannot be glorified unless it's dissolved. He's talking about continuity, too. Dissolution and continuity. And he uses the figure of a seed. And everybody knows what a seed is. It's kind of a delicate little thing, really. If you have a seed and you want it to sprout up, you kind of have to keep it in the right place. Place. You can't really freeze it too much. You can't leave it in water so that it rots. It has to be kept in a nice, cool, dry place. And yet you know when you look at that seed that the minute you put it in the ground, it is going to begin to dissolve. This is Paul's idea about the how of the Resurrection. The seed dissolves and it grows up into a new body. This takes us directly to the Book of Life, because in our era, starting with Crick and Watson back in the 50s, and coming up to today's genetic engineers, it has been discovered how to decode the human DNA. The human DNA is composed of four amino acids, adenine, cytosine, thiamine and guanine, which are just called A, C, T and G. And I've always thought that's really funny because I remember that as act and G. God. So it's an act of God, four amino acids. And the Human Genome Project has decoded DNA and written it into what's called the Book of Life. And it's a book maybe a couple inches thick that is just page after page after page of organic chemistry. But it is the human genome. And the scientists now pride themselves on the fact that they have decoded the Book of Life. Well, the Book of Life is central to the Bible. And the whole idea of this body that I'm in as a book of life is central to the resurrection and to redemption. What's going to happen to me if I fall off a cruise ship in the middle of the night in the Gulf of Mexico and drown? And then I am subsequently consumed by dozens of sea creatures and eventually become molecules spread all through the sea. How can I possibly be resurrected? Because my name is written in the Book of Life. My true genome is known in heaven. It's quite an easy thing for the Lord simply to reconstruct me, only this time, the right way. On Rosh Hashanah, people greet each other. The Jews greet each other, and they say, lashana tova tika tevu. May you be inscribed for a good year. And the implication is, may you be inscribed for a good year in the Book of Life. Sometimes they may say, lashanah tova tikatevu va tehatenu. May you be inscribed not only for a good life, but may you be sealed for a good life. In other words, may your name be written in there and never erased. That's the story of the Bible. That's the story of the Resurrection. That's a story of Jesus Christ, physical resurrection. The Book of Life is the thing that gives you immortality. If you're written in the book of Life, it's not just your name, it is your genome. It is you. And if you're in there, you're going to be around forever. That's why in the end, when the books are opened and the kingdom is given to the Father, they check all the books and all the redeemed are written in that book of life. And it's not just their name, it is their essence, written in the book of life. That's what it means. And we don't have time to complete this thought. We're going to complete it next week. But that's what Paul's talking about when he talks about a seed. He says, thou fool, First Corinthians 15:36. That which thou sowest is not quickened unless it die. It has to be dissolved in order to obtain continuity. And it is the process of dissolving and continuity that is typified by being written in the book of Life. Is your name written in the Lamb's Book of Life? You don't have a thing to worry about. You're going to sprout up to newness of life and perfection because you've been written in that book and that book has your genome in it. Some scientists may say, well, we, the Human Genome Project, we have figured it out. And by the way, we can cure diseases with genetic engineering. We can create new super plants and we can do this and we can do that. They don't have the foggiest notion, like kids, you know, playing in their dad's car when he thoughtlessly left the keys there. And they're going to get themselves in trouble. That's written. But what else is written is the book of life. The Lamb's Book of Life. It has everything to do with resurrection. That's what it's all about. It's the story of your own personal resurrection. Now, next week we get to the exciting part of this thing, starting in verse 35 and going to the end of 1 Corinthians 15. So I hope you will rejoin me for that. And it's going to be a lot of fun. It's the most encouraging story in the Bible. Your personal physical resurrection to glory, the blessed hope.