Experiencing the Greatest Change

Sermon. Carlisle Evangelical Free Church. Shad Baker.

1 Corinthians 15: 3-8, 35-38, 42-44, 58

1 Cor 15:3-8

3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8 Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.

Case for resurrection
- over 500 people saw Christ
- Apostles gave their life for this; why die for a life?
- we were created for a resurrected life
--created for something more
--we have a need for God that cannot be filled by/with this world

What does the resurrection mean for me? Two options:
1. Let's party today...because we only have this life
- limited
2. Let's die today...because we will live for eternity
- hope

- dying daily: not physical; speaking about putting to death his own will/desires/agenda

1 Cor 15:35-38, 42-44

35 But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?” 36 You foolish person! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. 37 And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. 38 But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body.

42 So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. 43 It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. 44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.

- seed must die in order for something else to grow
- what grows is greater than what is sown
- dying daily: allowing us to grow spiritually; can't grow if we don't die
- - only reason this makes sense is if we believe in the resurrection of the dead, most of all Christ's
- - Christ is proof of this resurrection
- - seed-to-TREE transformation
- - - transfigured life; Christ in me > just me
- - - - what would benefit others more: me or Christ in me?

1 Cor 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.

not only is this life raised in heaven
- but also now; saved from hopelessness in this life; we have life with a purpose
- must be a change if we really died to ourselves
- our labor is not in vain because what we do we can only do if we die to ourselves and let god use us. In doing so, God raises us up in a new, transfigured life that is greater in his glory than before

Where am I to die to myself and the world? Where do I seek to have control and refuse to let Christ rule?


Side note:
One of my favorite verses of all time is in this chapter, 1 Corinthians 15:10:

But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.

Amen.