1 Corinthians 15:35-58, Called to Anticipate

Theological Proposition/Focus: God is the God of life and hence the God of the resurrection.

Homiletical Proposition/Application: We should live in anticipation of the resurrection. Even though we cannot fully comprehend resurrection we have confidence because our Savior has gone before us and has promised that we will be transformed and resurrection is just the beginning.

Introduction:

Image: What is it you anticipate?

How I felt the night before we left for Africa.

Body

Anticipating our resurrection requires that we accept a future we cannot fully comprehend (35-44).

The resurrection naturally leads many to a foolish question, "how?" (36).

Let me start by noting how important intonation is in a statement. Imagine I tell you that I am planning to go flying today. Some of you might not know that I have a pilot's license and respond in a scoffing manner "oh yeah, how are you going to do that?" Others who know that I like to fly airplane might respond in inquiry "oh yeah, how are you planning to do that?" In verses 35-36 Paul is employing rhetorical devices. He has just argued that the resurrection is real and matters so now he deals with the scoffers he expects. those who ask "oh yeah, if the resurrection is real then explain it to me, how in the world is my dead rotten relative going to come to life again, they have been gone for 2 years!" The fool is not the one who inquires about how God will do something, the fool is the one who uses how as a way to deny that God will do something.

More carefully, the fool is the one who fails to take God into account. In fact, our NIV translation has attempted to soften the blow a little by stating "how foolish" the Greek is ἄφρων σὺ, a vocative adjective followed by the second person pronoun. You fool! The word fool here probably has Old Testament connotations. In the Old Testament the fool was the one who failed to take into account the transcendent God of the universe. Think Psalm 14:1 The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” Similarly, Jesus called the rich man who failed to account for God a fool in Luke 12:16-21

16 And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. 17 He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’

18 “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. 19 And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’

20 “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’

What we need to understand is that questions are not bad. Questions that fail to bring God into account are bad. You are allowed to ask how, but only if you are willing to accept the answer God did it. We need to be careful that as we ask questions we are ready to accept the answer.

The simple answer is "God does it" but some analogies help to explain (37-41).

The picture of a seed reminds us that the old does matter, but the new is radically different.

Paul begins his refutation of the scoffers by reminding them that the world they know is full of examples of radical changes that take place. A seed often looks nothing like the plant but through a radical change, the seed grows into something extraordinary.

We know that a seed does not actually physically die in the ground, but that does not weaken the analogy.

In fact, the analogy may be stronger because in a sense the seed does die in that it ceases to be a seed and is incapable of ever returning to being a seed. A hard lifeless seed becomes a beautiful full plant. In fact, as Paul notes, when you plant you expect the final result to look nothing like what you planted while at the same time being completely distinguishable from another seed. How does this happen? You might answer genetics but then I could ask how does that happen. Eventually, we are stuck, the only reasonable answer is God does it. So, is it so hard to believe that God can give a resurrection body? `

The second analogy Paul uses is an analogy to argue that God creates different bodies for different purposes, wouldn't he create us a spiritual body for spiritual life?

various animals have different bodies.

In all cases God has equipped the creature for the life the create is supposed to live.

We cannot really understand but should accept that our resurrection body will be imperishable, glorious, powerful, and spiritual (42-44).

All together I am reminded of John 4:24, the resurrection will provide means of worshipping God beyond our comprehension.

"God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth .”

Image: The phrase you don't know what you don't know.

When I was in graduate school working on my PhD I remember one of my brother's friends upon finishing calculus his senior year of high school stating. something like "well that all made sense to me, I think I fully understand math, there really isn't anything else that I could learn." I just laughed. The reality is that you don't know what you don't know and I quickly realized that the more I learned the less I knew.

When it comes to resurrection we cannot comprehend because everything that we know or experience seems to have an expiration date. We are bound by the knowledge that we have gained in our experience and that experience is finite so we cannot fully comprehend resurrection.