Sunday Worship Service January 22, 2023

Call to Worship Jeremiah 7:23b
Hymn JBC # 650 Serve the Lord with gladness
The Lord’s Prayer
The Lord’s Supper
Offertory Prayer
Scripture 1 Corinthians 15:12~34
Prayer
Sermon “In Christ all will be made alive”
https://youtu.be/TC9y2SICE40
Prayer
Hymn JBC # 134 Sing them over again to me
Doxology JBC # 671
Benediction


Today's Scripture passage is from 1 Corinthians chapter 15. This entire chapter is about the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The event of the resurrection of Jesus Christ after His death on the cross and burial in the tomb is the most important matter in the Christian faith.
It is from Jesus being raised from the dead that “faith in Jesus as God and Lord” began with the first disciples and then spread to many others and places.
If it had not been for the resurrection of Jesus Christ and His appearance to His disciples, the name of Jesus and all the great things He did while He was alive would have been forgotten, and eventually no one would remember Him.

However, the fact is, Jesus Christ did indeed rise from the dead and appear to His disciples and many others. Through His resurrection, it was shown that death is destroyed and has no power before God.
I believe that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the most important thing that Christians believe. At the same time, it is very difficult to communicate it, especially towards non-Christians.
It was the same in the time Jesus was resurrected.
In chapter 20 of the Gospel of John, we read that Thomas, one of the 12 disciples, was not present when Jesus appeared to the other disciples.
He (Thomas) did not believe the other disciples who said, “We have seen the Lord,” but said, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.” (John 20:25).

The resurrected Jesus also appeared to that Thomas who had said those things, and said to him, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.” (v. 27).
Such an encounter with the resurrected Lord awakened in Thomas faith in God, and he confessed that Jesus is Lord and God, saying, “My Lord and my God!” (v. 28).
The Lord Jesus Christ has indeed risen as the Gospels testify.
Our Lord is the One who died and rose again. The Lord Jesus Christ, who died on the cross to bear our sins and forgive our sins, was then raised from the dead.

We who live today do not have the experience of directly meeting the resurrected Jesus in the way that the first disciples did.However, through what is written in the Bible, through the work of many Christians throughout history who believed in the Risen Lord and preached His resurrection (sometimes at the cost of their lives), and through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we can believe that Jesus Christ did indeed rise from the dead.
Paul, writing to the Corinthians, reiterates the importance of the resurrection. Especially in today's passage, he writes,

“if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.” (v. 14).
Verse 19 reads as follows.
If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.

These words are an indication of how confident Paul was of the resurrected Lord. Paul was confident that through the resurrected Lord he was born-again as a new man and given life.
As an evangelist and apostle of Christ, Paul spent his entire life proclaiming the gospel of Christ. Paul's evangelism was accompanied by many difficulties, dangers, and persecutions.
Many did not readily accept the gospel that Paul preached. In particular, the resurrection of the dead was met with clear rejection.
When Paul went to Athens in Greece, he sought to preach the gospel of Christ to the philosophers there. We read about it in the 17th chapter of Acts.
At first the Athenian philosophers listened to Paul's message with great interest. But when the subject of the resurrection of the dead came up, they laughed at him and said, “We shall hear from you again concerning this.” (They were saying, “We can't listen to that nonsense any longer.”)
I believe that Paul experienced such rejection many times when he preached the gospel of Jesus Christ, not only in Athens but also in other places when he spoke about the resurrection of Christ.

If that were the case (if the resurrection of Christ is not readily accepted by people), then didn’t Paul think “when telling people about the gospel of Christ, I won’t talk about Jesus' resurrection. Because that's hard for them to believe” ?
It is clear that Paul never thought like that. Because as a Christian, Paul was convinced that the resurrected Christ was what sustained him and was the foundation of his ministry.
Paul's encounter with the resurrected Jesus completely changed the way he lived, and he became an evangelist of Christ by dedicating all his life. Being such a man, Paul had no choice but to open his mouth about the Lord's resurrection.

What about us today? Do we have confidence in the resurrected Christ? Are we proclaiming the risen Lord Jesus Christ?
Just as Paul did, when we believe and live the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and preach (proclaim) the gospel, we too wish to speak powerfully of the risen Lord Jesus Christ.
For it is the resurrection of Jesus Christ that keeps us spiritually alive even now and gives us great power.
The Bible tells us that those who believe in Christ will eventually be resurrected with Him and live.
People think that it is common sense that when we die, it's the end. But that is not what the Bible says. The resurrection of Christ destroyed death and made it lose its power, giving us hope that we too will ultimately live forever with the Lord.

1 Thessalonians 4:14 reads as follows.
For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.
The resurrection of Jesus Christ promises that we too will be raised to new life with Him and that we too will be resurrected.
That sounds very unbelievable. But let's look again at verses 20-22 from today’s passage.

20 But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. 22 For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.
The Bible tells us that the resurrection of one man (the One who is both God and man), Jesus Christ, was the beginning of bringing all people to life, to the resurrection life.
“Death came through a man” refers to the entrance of sin into all men through the sin of Adam and Eve, the first humans created by God.
God told Adam and Eve, the first humans, that they could take fruit from any tree in the Garden of Eden and eat it. However, God told them that they must never eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for if they did, they would surely die (Genesis 2:15-17).
Adam and Eve failed to obey what God said. Tempted by the serpent, first Eve and then Adam took the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and ate it. Despite being warned that they would surely die, they chose this path of death for themselves.
The Bible tells us that sin entered all of us though the first man, Adam. We may think to ourselves, “Adam and I have nothing to do with each other.”
However, the faith that the Bible conveys is that the first man, Adam, represents us all, and we are all connected to him.

Thus, death came to us through one man, but now, through the resurrection of the one man, Christ, we have been given the hope of resurrection, that we may all be made alive and live forever with the Lord.

As it says in verse 22.
22 so in Christ all will be made alive.

We will in the end be resurrected by the risen Lord Jesus Christ. Having been given such hope, we will no longer have the cold thought, “When we die, it's the end. So, since we only live once, I will just try to enjoy as much as I can!”
There is in Christ a sure life that transcends death. He is risen and has invited us into the hope and power of His resurrection. In the life of the resurrected Christ, we too are made alive.
Let us cherish the hope that lies beyond life on earth, the hope of resurrection that has been handed down from our predecessors in the faith, and in that hope, let us live each day filled with gratitude for the present.