Sometimes, there are supernatural and glorious things going on behind seemingly mundane situations.

In the same way, the passage before us this morning at first glance appears to be just a side note about a procedural question, about how to handle the collection of money. But behind these mundane procedures, there are battles for

God’s glory,

And truth about how God has constructed His world to be PROSPEROUS, and how God’s own INTEGRITY is to be displayed in the church.

Glory, Prosperity, and Integrity.

Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on March 16, 2025 to learn more.

What we trust and hope in determines who we are today. 

Thus Paul brackets his letter with two bookends: at the beginning, Christ crucified. Now he ends the letter with the second bookend - the resurrection.

All our obedience to his commands in between is then powered by faith in the first bookend, and hope in the second.

Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on March 9th, 2025 to learn more.

This morning Paul continues his teaching on the resurrection, still dealing with skepticism. It’s voiced in v. 35: “Well, if there IS a resurrection, then what kind of BODY would you have?” 

If asked open to the resurrection, that question is just fine. But the question is asked with skepticism, with a MATERIALISTIC assumption. Materialism is the philosophy so common then and now that says that the only things that are possible are what we see in the here and now. It excludes the supernatural, or that do not presently exist, but will. 

It’s a question that’s meant to be its own answer and shut you down in the process - the sort of gotcha question a supposedly intelligent person would ask you online or in a college setting. 

Paul’s answer - and his main point of this section - is that the very assumption of the question is foolish. 

Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on March 2, 2025 to learn more.

In the text before us, Paul wants us to REALIZE three truths about the resurrection, especially if we say there is NO resurrection. Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on Feb. 23, 2025 to learn more.

In the following passages, Paul gives us four realities that those 21 men pinned their confidence on. Four ways that Christ is FIRST. These four FIRSTS are not just theological concepts that stay up in the clouds.

They turn the world upside down, today. Let’s look at each, considering its importance as we go.

In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul is completing his teaching about Christ and Him crucified, with teaching on RESURRECTION - the belief that people who are dead and gone can be raised from the earth to new, physical life. Which is often the hardest part of the gospel to believe. For us, and for some Corinthians, who said that the whole concept of resurrection was a myth, an impossibility. So Paul previously gave us EVIDENCE of the resurrection. Today Paul unpacks the NEGATIVE implications of disbelieving this evidence. Listen to the episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on February 9, 2025 to learn more.

Today where we consider what’s happening in our church, and the opportunities and obstacles before us. 

And what’s happening now is nothing less than REVIVAL. GOD is on the move, out there, in the culture, and in HERE, at Grace. 

Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on Feb. 2, 2025 to learn more.

Paul has saved his final charge of gunpowder for ONE thing: the resurrection. This is because the resurrection of the dead is our POWER to fulfill God’s commission. Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on January 26, 2025 to learn more.

Throughout 1 Corinthians, Paul has had ONE thing on his mind: Christ crucified. He established that right up front, and then he applied it in many ways: with leaders, in conflict, in marriage, in lawsuits, in sexual ethics . . .

But today he gives us the HOW.

HOW to do this? 

Paul’s answer is: grace.

Listen to the episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on January 19, 2025 to learn more.

The thing that is of first importance, Paul has been telling

 Christ and him crucified - this good news raises us from the