What If Death Is The End?
Memory Verse: 'The last enemy to be destroyed is death. '
1 Corinthians 15:26
Sermon Sentence: The resurrection is not something that can be right for some people and wrong for others.
1 Corinthians 15:26
Sermon Sentence: The resurrection is not something that can be right for some people and wrong for others.
Day 1
Read 1 Corinthians 15:1-34
A good point in a discussion needs to have some weight behind it. In this chapter, Paul’s approach takes on some weight to it. He moves away from his traditional way of just teaching a point and then expecting them to just learn from it, to a way of discussing something that looks like he is on the defensive and shutting down some sort of argument against the idea. We understand that Paul has been questioned about the validity of the resurrection. So his goal here is to defend that teaching, but then show how it is a core teaching that can’t be compromised. There is way too much at stake for that!
He starts with explaining to them that this is the gospel. It is not part of the gospel…this IS the gospel. If you take this part of the teaching away, you lose too much! He reminds them that this is the very thing he preached to them. After he preached it, they received it. They agreed with him in this way of teaching. Notice that he does not allow room for them to be a part of this whole church thing without this piece. Maybe it is easier said this way: there is no following Jesus with the resurrection. He also tells them the resurrection determines where they stand currently. If you have been saved, then you are saved right now. But you have to accept the resurrection part for right now. The last thing he states is that the resurrection is what will be saving them in the future. To sum it all up, Paul makes the argument that if you are saved, are being saved, and will be saved in the future, you have to believe in the resurrection.
Why do you think this is a core part of the teaching of the Gospel?
Based on what you are seeing here, how would life be more difficult without the belief that the dead can rise?
How do these verses comfort you today?
How does this become part of your prayer today?
A good point in a discussion needs to have some weight behind it. In this chapter, Paul’s approach takes on some weight to it. He moves away from his traditional way of just teaching a point and then expecting them to just learn from it, to a way of discussing something that looks like he is on the defensive and shutting down some sort of argument against the idea. We understand that Paul has been questioned about the validity of the resurrection. So his goal here is to defend that teaching, but then show how it is a core teaching that can’t be compromised. There is way too much at stake for that!
He starts with explaining to them that this is the gospel. It is not part of the gospel…this IS the gospel. If you take this part of the teaching away, you lose too much! He reminds them that this is the very thing he preached to them. After he preached it, they received it. They agreed with him in this way of teaching. Notice that he does not allow room for them to be a part of this whole church thing without this piece. Maybe it is easier said this way: there is no following Jesus with the resurrection. He also tells them the resurrection determines where they stand currently. If you have been saved, then you are saved right now. But you have to accept the resurrection part for right now. The last thing he states is that the resurrection is what will be saving them in the future. To sum it all up, Paul makes the argument that if you are saved, are being saved, and will be saved in the future, you have to believe in the resurrection.
Why do you think this is a core part of the teaching of the Gospel?
Based on what you are seeing here, how would life be more difficult without the belief that the dead can rise?
How do these verses comfort you today?
How does this become part of your prayer today?
Day 2
Read 1 Corinthians 15:35-58
As spring approaches, you should really try growing something this year. It doesn’t have to have a purpose or a point to it, just do it for the joy of life. There are few things better than just starting each day caring for and searching for new life. I think it is so fulfilling just to bury a seed and wait and watch for it to poke through the soil and start to turn into some sort of plant. As you are waiting to see that first sprout, your mind wonders what in the world is happening under the soil. It is something that is worth the time and effort it takes as you meditate on the incredible way that God has designed life.
That is the analogy that Paul filters everything about life and death through here. He talks about the death of a seed as it is buried in the ground and the miracle of what we don’t understand begins to happen in a way that we could not explain. The reason that I think that you should do this as a practice for yourself is because of the incredible chance to spend time meditating on this truth and discovering what it means about you and your life. There is certainly a mystery that we fear called death and the fear is rooted in the fact that we do not understand or know what we feel we should know and understand. The thought goes like this: the resurrection would be easier to believe in if we just understood how it works. Give me the blueprint so that I know what to expect. This is the beginnings of the struggle of faith. Faith is the belief in something that you have can’t fully know with facts, but you trust with all of your weight. Think about that for a while, all of this good living and right doing really matters nothing if this is all that there is in life. Sure, it is good for humanity, but if humanity is temporary and you are temporary, then who really cares? Get what you deserve and gather all you can! But that is not the promise of the life that we live. We have faith in something far greater than this life and what happens right now.
How do you think that you would live differently if you believed this world was all that there was?
Imagine someone asked you the question that Paul seems to be answering in this passage: How would you explain the life after death thing to them?
How does this become part of your prayer today?
As spring approaches, you should really try growing something this year. It doesn’t have to have a purpose or a point to it, just do it for the joy of life. There are few things better than just starting each day caring for and searching for new life. I think it is so fulfilling just to bury a seed and wait and watch for it to poke through the soil and start to turn into some sort of plant. As you are waiting to see that first sprout, your mind wonders what in the world is happening under the soil. It is something that is worth the time and effort it takes as you meditate on the incredible way that God has designed life.
That is the analogy that Paul filters everything about life and death through here. He talks about the death of a seed as it is buried in the ground and the miracle of what we don’t understand begins to happen in a way that we could not explain. The reason that I think that you should do this as a practice for yourself is because of the incredible chance to spend time meditating on this truth and discovering what it means about you and your life. There is certainly a mystery that we fear called death and the fear is rooted in the fact that we do not understand or know what we feel we should know and understand. The thought goes like this: the resurrection would be easier to believe in if we just understood how it works. Give me the blueprint so that I know what to expect. This is the beginnings of the struggle of faith. Faith is the belief in something that you have can’t fully know with facts, but you trust with all of your weight. Think about that for a while, all of this good living and right doing really matters nothing if this is all that there is in life. Sure, it is good for humanity, but if humanity is temporary and you are temporary, then who really cares? Get what you deserve and gather all you can! But that is not the promise of the life that we live. We have faith in something far greater than this life and what happens right now.
How do you think that you would live differently if you believed this world was all that there was?
Imagine someone asked you the question that Paul seems to be answering in this passage: How would you explain the life after death thing to them?
How does this become part of your prayer today?
Day 3
Read Ezekiel 37:1-14
If you have reached a time for a midlife crisis, then you will probably remember when Blockbuster went out of business. There was a day that we had to drive to the video store and there would be this large wall of newly released movies, which is why we were there most of the time. We wanted to catch a copy of the new movie being released. The wall always had movie covers so that you could see the graphics and descriptions of the movies, and then back behind these were the clear, plastic, blank cases that would contain a copy available to be rented. If there was no copy behind the original case, that meant the movie was not available to rent. Sometimes you could get lucky and ask if anyone had dropped off a rented copy at the front desk and they just had not had time to set it out.
When Blockbuster went out, I remember wondering how in the world we would be able to see movies now. It seemed that the era of movies was over and gone. Looking back on that now, it seems pretty silly to imagine that as an idea that we needed, in light of how many different ways there are to watch a movie now, but then also how that was even a viable idea considering all things from today’s perspective.
Ezekiel is seeing a lot of dead, dry bones in this passage. Although he may have known some of the people that had passed on, that is not what he seems to be struggling with in this passage. Ezekiel is struggling with the death of the whole “house of Israel’ or an entire people group. It didn’t seem there was a way something like that could end, and then when it did, it didn’t seem there was any hope at all. But God had a plan and an idea…therefore giving a hope. It was the word of God that was going to go forward and bring back life. Death and defeat could not stop the words of God. There was a proclaimer left and his name was Ezekiel. And since death had not and could not end what God was about to say, then Ezekiel delivering the message of God was going to work a pretty crazy miracle!
Many popular Christians songs have referenced this story in the last five years. Does this story apply to you and if so, how?
In verse 14, the Hebrew word for “Spirit” is “ruah”. It is the same word we saw in Genesis 1 when God breathed on the formed human and he became animated. As you understand the work of the Holy Spirit in 1 Corinthians 2 from last week, how does this idea carry over to what we experience now with the Holy Spirit?
How does this become your prayer today?
If you have reached a time for a midlife crisis, then you will probably remember when Blockbuster went out of business. There was a day that we had to drive to the video store and there would be this large wall of newly released movies, which is why we were there most of the time. We wanted to catch a copy of the new movie being released. The wall always had movie covers so that you could see the graphics and descriptions of the movies, and then back behind these were the clear, plastic, blank cases that would contain a copy available to be rented. If there was no copy behind the original case, that meant the movie was not available to rent. Sometimes you could get lucky and ask if anyone had dropped off a rented copy at the front desk and they just had not had time to set it out.
When Blockbuster went out, I remember wondering how in the world we would be able to see movies now. It seemed that the era of movies was over and gone. Looking back on that now, it seems pretty silly to imagine that as an idea that we needed, in light of how many different ways there are to watch a movie now, but then also how that was even a viable idea considering all things from today’s perspective.
Ezekiel is seeing a lot of dead, dry bones in this passage. Although he may have known some of the people that had passed on, that is not what he seems to be struggling with in this passage. Ezekiel is struggling with the death of the whole “house of Israel’ or an entire people group. It didn’t seem there was a way something like that could end, and then when it did, it didn’t seem there was any hope at all. But God had a plan and an idea…therefore giving a hope. It was the word of God that was going to go forward and bring back life. Death and defeat could not stop the words of God. There was a proclaimer left and his name was Ezekiel. And since death had not and could not end what God was about to say, then Ezekiel delivering the message of God was going to work a pretty crazy miracle!
Many popular Christians songs have referenced this story in the last five years. Does this story apply to you and if so, how?
In verse 14, the Hebrew word for “Spirit” is “ruah”. It is the same word we saw in Genesis 1 when God breathed on the formed human and he became animated. As you understand the work of the Holy Spirit in 1 Corinthians 2 from last week, how does this idea carry over to what we experience now with the Holy Spirit?
How does this become your prayer today?
Day 4
Read Daniel 12
We know about the passages in the New Testament that point to the resurrection of Jesus. This gives way to some teachings that then use that truth to tell us of our own resurrection from the dead through the work of Jesus. But many people are not aware of the references in the Old Testament that Jesus points to in Matthew, Mark, and other places. Also, John uses a few references from the Old Testament in Revelation as well. The passage you just read can be found in Revelation 12:4 and other places in the book as well. When you think about it, it makes sense that references are made to the Messiah raising from the dead, even though we probably could not call those from memory. But like this passage in Daniel, the Old Testament followers of God would have also had a belief in the idea of resurrection of the followers of God. It may not have been as obvious, but think about the incredible faith it would take to believe in this and not have the testimony of Jesus own death, burial and resurrection like we do now.
What do you think the original readers would have thought about what Daniel was saying when they did not have anything to expound on this teaching other than this text?
Do you think it would have been harder to believe in a resurrection of the believers in Daniel’s day, without Jesus' example?
How does this become part of your prayer today?
We know about the passages in the New Testament that point to the resurrection of Jesus. This gives way to some teachings that then use that truth to tell us of our own resurrection from the dead through the work of Jesus. But many people are not aware of the references in the Old Testament that Jesus points to in Matthew, Mark, and other places. Also, John uses a few references from the Old Testament in Revelation as well. The passage you just read can be found in Revelation 12:4 and other places in the book as well. When you think about it, it makes sense that references are made to the Messiah raising from the dead, even though we probably could not call those from memory. But like this passage in Daniel, the Old Testament followers of God would have also had a belief in the idea of resurrection of the followers of God. It may not have been as obvious, but think about the incredible faith it would take to believe in this and not have the testimony of Jesus own death, burial and resurrection like we do now.
What do you think the original readers would have thought about what Daniel was saying when they did not have anything to expound on this teaching other than this text?
Do you think it would have been harder to believe in a resurrection of the believers in Daniel’s day, without Jesus' example?
How does this become part of your prayer today?
Day 5
Read John 11:1-45
This is a great story. I could spend a lot of time writing about this story and the application of it. But I encourage you to sit and spend some time with these truths. Easter is over. That was last week. And it would be foolish to leave it as “last week" and think about things that we associate with mattering today at the expense of moving past the idea of the resurrection. Here is my suggestion:
After reading this passage, go to Youtube and look up the song “Come Out Lazarus” by Steven McWhirter. Maybe listen to it a few times. Then spend some time in prayer.
https://youtu.be/hw5T2NvbSnI?si=k0nHTE7dkGfsknOO
How does this become your prayer today?
This is a great story. I could spend a lot of time writing about this story and the application of it. But I encourage you to sit and spend some time with these truths. Easter is over. That was last week. And it would be foolish to leave it as “last week" and think about things that we associate with mattering today at the expense of moving past the idea of the resurrection. Here is my suggestion:
After reading this passage, go to Youtube and look up the song “Come Out Lazarus” by Steven McWhirter. Maybe listen to it a few times. Then spend some time in prayer.
https://youtu.be/hw5T2NvbSnI?si=k0nHTE7dkGfsknOO
How does this become your prayer today?
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