The Lord of Life Can’t Be Contained

Preached by Noah Gwinn

May 4, 2025

Scripture Reading

1 Corinthians 15:20-34

20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. 23 But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. 24 Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. 25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death. 27 For “God has put all things in subjection under his feet.” But when it says, “all things are put in subjection,” it is plain that he is excepted who put all things in subjection under him. 28 When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all.

29 Otherwise, what do people mean by being baptized on behalf of the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized on their behalf? 30 Why are we in danger every hour? 31 I protest, brothers, by my pride in you, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die every day! 32 What do I gain if, humanly speaking, I fought with beasts at Ephesus? If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” 33 Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.” 34 Wake up from your drunken stupor, as is right, and do not go on sinning. For some have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame.


As the kids and those going down to the sermon translation are heading out, I’ll also just give one last plug for the High School missions trip fundraiser meal we’re hosting today. Following second service, you are welcome to come on downstairs and enjoy lunch with us! If you can’t stick around for that, you can feel free to pick up a meal to go after this service! We may have a few extra meals prepared for those who didn’t get an order in. Come and support our high schoolers and partner with us in the ministry we will be taking part in in Miami this June. We’ll tell you more about that downstairs. We’d love to have you! As well, if you placed a to-go order, you’ll be able to pick that up after the service in the lobby.

Before we dive into our sermon this morning, let’s pray and ask for the Lord’s help.

Heavenly Father…

INTRODUCTION

One of the greatest works of modern literature is a story that many of you will be familiar with. J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings is a story of a ragtag group of Hobbits and other fantastical creatures who are given the task of journeying across Middle Earth, keeping a powerful ring out of the wrong hands, and eventually destroying it in the fires of Mount Doom. And one of the main characters in this story is a wizard named Gandalf, the leader of this motley crew. With him by their side, they feel that they can do anything, go anywhere, and defeat any kind of enemy. But in part one of the story, Gandalf dies protecting them. And when Gandalf dies, the lives of those in the fellowship are marked by grief and despair. And this is really how part one of the story ends. I don’t think I need to call this a spoiler alert – Lord of the Rings has been out for over 70 years. But, spoiler alert, in part two of the story, Gandalf rises from the dead. He rises even more powerful than before, and that changes everything about everything.

Last week we looked at part one of 1 Corinthians 15. Like part one of Lord of the Rings, things look bleak without resurrection. But as we turn our attention to part two of 1 Corinthians 15 this morning, we see that everything sad is coming untrue. In this passage, Paul is reminding us that the resurrection of Jesus is in fact true, and that changes everything about everything. Yet at the same time, Paul is putting up a mirror in front of us, causing us to look at ourselves honestly. Far too often, it seems that we may believe the resurrection of Jesus affects our spiritual life, but not our everyday life. To put it another way, the resurrection of Jesus may affect our Sunday mornings, but does it affect our Monday mornings or Friday nights? Paul says it should. So, we’ll look at our passage this morning under two headings: the Death of Death and the Way of the Lord of Life.

THE DEATH OF DEATH

First, let’s look at the death of death. Look at verse 20 with me again.

20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.

Again, last week we looked at part one of 1 Corinthians 15. In part one, Paul outlines what life would look like if Christ had not been raised from the dead. If Jesus is still in the tomb and all of this is one big lie, our lives would be marked by futility, sin, death, and despair.[1] But in part two of 1 Corinthians 15, Paul begins with these incredible words: “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead.” Into the horror of our lives being marked by futility, sin, death, and despair, these ten powerful words are incredibly good news.

It's important to recognize that Christianity stands or falls with the reality of the bodily resurrection of Jesus. If the resurrection is a lie, Christianity is meaningless and pointless, no better than any other false religion or myth that was created to make people feel better about their life. If the body of Jesus did not rise from the dead, we have absolutely no hope, and we are of all people most to be pitied. But if the bodily resurrection of Jesus actually happened, we have all the hope in the world. And this morning, I think it’s appropriate to spend a few minutes talking about this because I want to make sure we’re all on the same page about this. So let me make a case for us that the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ is indeed a historical fact. Christian faith in the resurrection is not a blind faith but a faith, an assurance, in the historical event of the bodily resurrection of Jesus. How can I say this? Let’s nerd out for just a few moments.[2]

Well first, nearly all historians, both Christian and non-Christian, affirm that there was a man named Jesus who lived 2,000 years ago and was crucified under Pontius Pilate. This is, of course, recorded in the four Gospels, which, in addition to being our Scriptures are legitimate, reliable historical documents. But the life and crucifixion of Jesus is also attested to by ancient non-Christian historians from the time of Jesus.[3] The crucifixion of Jesus is so widely documented in ancient history that one non-believing scholar writes, “The fact of the death of Jesus as a consequence of crucifixion is indisputable.”[4] So, if the death of the man Jesus on a cross is historically verifiable, we have to then turn our attention to the crux of the matter, the resurrection.

While Jesus was alive, he predicted that, following his death, he would raise bodily on the third day. Christianity asserts that this is, indeed, what happened. On the Sunday following Jesus’ death, his tomb was found empty. And this is a big deal. So in the Gospels, when the tomb is found empty on Sunday, do you remember who finds the tomb empty? Two women! Now, this may not be surprising or terribly meaningful to us today, but this would have been absolutely shocking in the first century. Let me explain. In the first century, unfortunately, women were not seen to be credible witnesses in court. Because the ancient Roman world did not have a biblical view of men and women both being created in the image of God, women were not valued as they should have been, and therefore deemed untrustworthy. So, let me ask you – if the early disciples were making all of this up, would they have crafted a story where the primary support of the central feature of their religion – the resurrection of Jesus – hinges on the testimony of women? Of course not! They would have invented a story with witnesses that the people would have seen as reliable. Unless, of course, what the Bible says is actually true. I mean, within weeks of the death of Jesus, the disciples were already preaching the resurrection in the very city Jesus had been crucified and buried in. If the tomb was not really empty, people could have just gone to the tomb, shown that the body was still there, and the early Christian movement would have been squashed. In fact, this would have been extremely advantageous for both the Jewish leaders and the Romans to do. But it never happened – nobody ever could find a body.

Soon after the death of Jesus, and throughout history, there have been those who have argued that the body of Jesus was stolen from the tomb. But there are holes in this theory as well. First of all, the Jewish leaders were afraid of the disciples stealing Jesus’ body, so they actually asked for a Roman guard to be placed outside of the tomb. Typically, this would have meant that there were anywhere from 16-30 trained Roman soldiers stationed outside the tomb. It is wildly unlikely that a small band of fishermen would be able to overtake at least 16 Roman soldiers, roll away the stone used to seal the tomb, and steal Jesus’ body. As well, it would have been normal practice for these Roman soldiers to be put to death for failing to do their job if someone would have broken the Roman seal on the tomb and taken the body on their watch. They had every reason to protect the tomb. Their lives were counting on it.

Another piece of evidence is something Ron pointed out on Easter. Earlier in chapter 15 of 1 Corinthians, Paul notes that the resurrected Christ appeared to over 500 people at one time, many of whom were still alive at the time Paul wrote that. That’s a lot of people. Enough people to be valid eyewitnesses, don’t you think? Even today, an eyewitness testimony in court is incredibly valuable. Imagine if there were 500 eyewitnesses that testified the same thing in court! There would be no question in the mind of the jury. And the fact that many were alive at the time of Paul’s writing is his way of saying, “look, if you don’t believe me, just go ask all of them!”

A last argument for the resurrection I’ll mention is that all of the disciples were brutally persecuted for their faith, and church tradition says that all but one was put to death defending the claim that Jesus had resurrected from the dead. They were stoned, crucified, and thrown into boiling oil. Would they all have gone to incredibly agonizing deaths like these for something they knew was a lie? Hardly likely.

I could go on. But church, the point that Paul is making in 1 Corinthians 15, and the point I’m trying to show you now is that although the idea of resurrection is almost literally unbelievable to us, the resurrection of Jesus actually happened, and we’re not crazy for believing it. If you believe in the bodily resurrection of Jesus, you aren’t unscientific or unintellectual. Christian faith is not blind faith. It actually takes more faith, in less evidence to believe that Jesus did not rise from the dead.

So like I said earlier, Jesus has truly resurrected from the dead, and that changes everything about everything. Picking up again in verse 20.

20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. 23 But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.

What Paul is doing here is drawing a line of comparison between Adam and Jesus. He’s calling back to the fact that when Adam sinned at the beginning of the story of Scripture, his sin didn’t just affect him. In that moment, he represented all of mankind, and so now all of mankind is plagued with sinfulness and brokenness. And the whole Old Testament is leading us to ask the question, will we ever have another representative? Is there someone who can right what Adam wronged? And Paul answers this question in 1 Corinthians 15 with a definitive YES! Just as Adam sinned and plunged humanity into sin and brokenness, Jesus has come as the second Adam to do what the first Adam could not do and rescue us. Just as what was true of Adam in his sin and condemnation was once true of us, if we are in Christ what is true of Christ is true of us. Specifically, we see in this passage that if you are in Christ, just as he was resurrected bodily, you too will be resurrected. Bodily.

This next part is so great. Listen to this, starting in verse 24:

24 Then comes the end, when he [Jesus] delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. 25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death. 27 For “God has put all things in subjection under his feet.”

From these verses we learn a few incredible truths. First, Jesus the King is reigning from his throne right now. Verses 24 and 25 tell us that he is right now reigning over a Kingdom that he will deliver to his Father when all who are in Christ are raised to life.

Second thing we see is that this reigning is not passive. Jesus isn’t sitting on his throne in heaven twiddling his thumbs waiting for us to do all the work of ministry and evangelism and discipleship before he returns. No, Jesus is, right now doing the work of destroying every rule and every authority and every power. He is, right now, putting all his enemies under his feet. This calls back to Psalm 110 which gives us the image of Jesus the king, having defeated all his enemies, using them as a footstool for his feet. What power!

Third thing we learn. The resurrection of the people of God will be the ultimate triumph of Jesus over death. Yes, he defeated death when he resurrected from the dead himself, but there will be a day when death will be no more. There will be a day when Jesus hammers the final nail into death’s coffin. The death of death is coming, and Paul is telling us that that moment will come with our resurrection. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. Even the great enemy that is death will be put in subjection under the feet of Jesus. Wow.

Here's what this means for you and for me. For all who are in Christ, there is nothing that rules over your mind, your body, your heart, your will, your desires – there is nothing that terrorizes you now that Jesus is not destroying and will not destroy. Even when we can’t see it or don’t feel it. Church, Jesus is in the business of destroying the enemies of his people. The thoughts you have that try to convince you that you have no worth, or that the world would be better without you will be destroyed. The chains of temptation to look at things on your phone that you hate that you can’t stop looking at will be broken. Loneliness, disease, fear, insecurity, addiction, anxiety, depression, anger, jealousy, pride… will all be put to death. The only thing any of those will even be good for is a footrest for the King of Kings and Lord of Life. Church, what plagues you? As surely as Jesus Christ rose from the dead, your sin and suffering will be six feet deep, and you will be in the presence of Jesus himself. Unshackled, unbound. By a man came death, but by the man Jesus Christ all who are in him shall be made alive. If you are in Christ, this is what we are promised when he returns.

THE WAY OF THE LORD OF LIFE

So that is what Paul has to say about the death of death. Now, let’s look at what he says about the way of the Lord of Life. Based on all of that wonderful truth about the resurrection of Jesus, and Jesus putting death to death and reigning over all things, Paul is eager to tell us that that should deeply affect the way we live in the here and now. Here’s what he says starting in verse 29:

29 Otherwise, what do people mean by being baptized on behalf of the dead? (I know that’s confusing. We’ll come back to it.) If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized on their behalf? 30 Why are we in danger every hour? 31 I protest, brothers, by my pride in you, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die every day! 32 What do I gain if, humanly speaking, I fought with beasts at Ephesus? If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” 33 Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.” 34 Wake up from your drunken stupor, as is right, and do not go on sinning. For some have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame.

Now, what Paul does here is he’s outlining examples of ways that the resurrection should affect not just our Sunday mornings but our Monday mornings and Wednesday afternoons and Friday nights. So the first example he offers is a baptism on behalf of the dead. Now, like I said, this could be terribly confusing for us. Sounds pretty wacky, right? What Paul is doing here is taking a practice that the Corinthian church would have been familiar with and using it to show – even people who have this weird theology of getting baptized on behalf of dead people – even their weird practice bears witness to the fact that there will be a resurrection of the dead. He’s not condoning it, but he is using it as an example.

But he quickly moves on and speaks about persecution. He asks them, essentially, “if the resurrection were not true, why would I be putting myself through this? Why would I be putting myself in danger constantly for the sake of the gospel if this is all a sham? Why did I endure what felt like fighting with beasts in Ephesus if none of this matters or if this isn’t true?” One Bible scholar translates what Paul says in verse 31 as “from day to day I court fatality.”[5] He wouldn’t be doing this if he didn’t have rock solid assurance in the resurrection.

His point in all of this is clear: the resurrection has changed everything about everything for Paul, and he wants the same to be true for them. He wants them to see that not only must they confess the resurrection with their lips, but true confession of the resurrection of Jesus, and therefore of their own resurrection, should change everything about everything for them too.

He meets them with hard words – “wake up from your drunken stupor, as is right, and do not go on sinning. For some have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame.”

Some within the Corinthian church have become drunk on their bad theology, and it has led them to sin, showing that some of them had no knowledge of God. May that not be true of us here. Here at Community, we agree with Paul and believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross, in our place, for our sin. He was buried and rose bodily on the third day securing our resurrection as well. May our orthodox doctrine flow from our heads to our hearts to our hands and feet. If the resurrection is not true, your best life really is now. But if the resurrection is true, it should change everything about everything for us.

This could all sound very abstract, so what would this even mean practically? Here are some examples:

  • Based on the good news of the gospel being true, we should be all the more engaged in evangelism and mission. When Jesus returns, there will be no more time to share the gospel. We must go forth in mission now. Talk to that coworker. Pray for the nations.

  • Based on the good news of the gospel being true, we should raise our children in the Lord. Our dinner tables are more than just places to eat. They are places to host conversations about the Lord with the little minds he has blessed us with.

  • Based on the good news of the gospel being true, we can have a contentedness with life, knowing that the idea that you only live once is silly and that we will have an eternity ahead of us where we can laugh and play and eat and drink and enjoy our lives. We don’t need to try to cram as much into life as possible here and now. We have forever to explore God’s good world.

  • Because of the good news of the reign of Christ over all of life and promising to destroy sin and suffering forever, we don’t need to deny our pain or numb our pain in the present.

  • Indeed, based on the good news of the gospel we can learn to lament the brokenness of the world rather than become embittered by it. Let God hear your pain and suffering.

  • Based on the good news of the gospel being true, we should be all the more passionate about hospitality and welcoming those who are far off and need the community that we have here. Sin alienates. Your living room or dining room could be a place of gospel community.

  • Based on the good news of the gospel we should be the kind of people who build one another up not tear one another down. Jesus did not die for his flock to remain fractured. Jesus died to purchase gospel unity in his body. Let us be people who speak to others and about others in a way that builds up the body of Christ.

  • Based on the good news of the gospel our voices should be raised loudly in song declaring the praises of our God. We have an opportunity to do that in just a few moments and I want to hear you sing like you’re singing to the one who saved you from a life of futility, sin, death, and despair. I want to hear you sing like you’re singing to the one who will put death to death and give you resurrection life. Because that’s exactly who you’re singing to.

If you are here this morning and you long for resurrection life, you long for the brokenness in you and around you to be dealt with once and for all, let me encourage you to trust that Jesus Christ went to the cross in your place and for your sin. His death ensured the death of your sin and, one day, your suffering. And that his resurrection ensured your resurrection. If you are tired of futility, sin, death, and despair, turn to Christ today.

CONCLUSION – COMMUNION

As we move toward communion now, I want to zero in on one verse from our passage and one more way the gospel should impact the way we live now. Look at the second half of verse 32.

If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”

If the resurrection – if the gospel – is not true, all that we have is the here and now. So we might as well fill it with as many pleasures as we can, for tomorrow we die. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead. And when Jesus raises us from the dead, this is what Revelation 19 tells us is waiting for us:

6 Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out,

“Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. 7 Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready….

9 And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.”

We do not need to live by the motto, “let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die,” because we have a feast awaiting us on the other side of resurrection. A feast with the greatest food, the best wine, and the most glorious host. A feast with no dietary restrictions, no family drama, no relational tension. And this morning we get a foretaste of that feast as we come to the Lord’s table as one body together. A body bought with the blood of Jesus and raised to walk in newness of life by the very Lord of Life himself. Church, the Lord of Life can’t be contained. Our God has risen from the grave, and one day he will raise us from our own graves, never to die again. And that changes everything about everything.

I’ll invite the music team and the communion servers up as we pray together.

Heavenly Father…


[1] This is clear from 1 Corinthians 15:17-19 but was helpfully distilled by Jeremy Treat in his sermon “Resurrection.”

[2] Much of the following is inspired by Neil Shenvi’s helpful article, “4 Points of Evidence for the Resurrection” on www.crossway.com.

[3] I have in mind here primarily Josephus and Tacitus.

[4] Gerd Lüdemann, What Really Happened to Jesus: A Historical Approach to the Resurrection, 17.

[5] Anthony C. Thiselton, The First Epistle to the Corinthians: A Commentary on the Greek Text, 1250.

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