Everything that Lasts and Christ’s Resurrection (1 Cor 15:20–28) from South Woods Baptist Church on Vimeo.

Bombings, nuclear threats, and saber rattling have pushed many people toward their source for every answer to life—Google. By mid-week, the topic of World War III hit the search engine’s top spot. Fear of the unknown pushes multitudes to grab for shreds of hope that something will last beyond the madness of humanity.

Others hardly notice. Oblivious to news out of North Korea, Syria, or Russia, they live for the moment without thought to what might last beyond their next pursuit.

Not everything that we see will last. However, our reason for gathering today focuses on the certainty that some things do last. Despite the bravado of dictators and tyrants, everything that God intends to last will last. Jesus Christ’s resurrection makes it so.

We’re somewhat numbed to eternal things. Admittedly, when just a young fellow, aim in life was to get my driver’s license. I couldn’t see far beyond that goal that appeared almost an eternity away. Once achieved, the future took on broader stretches, looking toward a college degree, marriage, family, and a career. Now that I’m far enough down the road that the majority of my years have passed, I tend to take much longer looks at eternal things. The stuff that I’ve accumulated, the diplomas on the wall, and any accomplishments, seem far less important than earlier years. My grip on those things has loosened to hold tightly to the things that last.

Here’s where this matter squares with life. If we can think only about today or the satisfaction of holding a few things in our hands, we probably won’t think much about eternity. And if we don’t give thought to eternity, then all of the talk about the resurrection of Jesus this Easter Sunday may seem much ado about very little. Aside from traditional festivities, the message of Easter comes and goes on the calendar. Then it’s on to the next big event with Easter in the rearview mirror. Then what? Do you treasure what lasts? Some things we see do not last. But those who are in Christ do. And all that God intends us to enjoy forever will last, too.

Jesus rose from the dead so that everything that should last will last. That first includes those redeemed by Jesus from sin and death. It follows that the lasting things in creation will continue because Jesus rose from the dead. How does this happen?

1. Hear the decisive proclamation in the resurrection

No chapter in the Bible states more clearly the necessity of Christ’s resurrection than this one. Paul argues in verses 12–19 that if Christ was not bodily raised from the dead, then no one will live on in eternity. The exercise of faith is worthless without His resurrection. Yet Jesus’ resurrection makes certain the bodily resurrection of all whose faith is in Him (vv. 35–41). The mortal will put on immortality because Jesus conquered mortality.

But some in Corinth sneered at the idea of Christ’s bodily resurrection. Like the Athenians at Mars Hill, they denied that death could be conquered or that the body made in God’s image could last. They rejected the transformation by the power of Christ’s resurrection to so affect the body that we live on in eternity. Yet this truth remains central to the Bible’s message. What sin, Satan, and death robbed and marred in the fall, God restores forever through the death and resurrection of His Son.

(1) He is risen indeed!

“But now” makes sharp contrast from the argument against the bodily resurrection of Christ. “But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep.” The original language is more descriptive: ‘But now Christ has been raised from the dead first of those who have died.’ He presses two important truths that cannot be separated. Jesus has been raised from the dead. And His resurrection is the first of many. Death cannot hold those united to Christ. Those that should last because of what Christ has done on t[...]