1 Corinthians 15:12-28

throughout the series, ‘Approaching the Cross’, we have heard and considered the accounts left by the early church of the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Today, on the first Sunday after Easter we consider how the Apostle Paul, while writing to the church in Corinth spoke of the resurrection of Jesus. For him - and the early church - Jesus’ resurrection was not simply an historic event. Rather, it was a central pointer to the future resurrection of all people. Indeed, to use Paul’s term, Jesus’ resurrection was a ‘first-fruit’, that implied more to come. Jesus’ resurrection points us to a time when the last enemy, ‘death’, is completely destroyed and ‘all things’ are subjected to the gracious and self-sacrificial one. It is so sad when we simply argue for the resurrection as a historic event (which it is) and leave out the hope beyond hope that it points to.