Today is the day of Pentecost. It is a day where the Holy Spirit shows up in mighty and powerful ways in the lives of the first church members. It is a day of excitement and mystery. It is a day with tongues of fire and the rushing of wind. On this day we celebrate that not only is Jesus our Lord sitting at the right hand of God, but today the Spirit of God dwells in us through the outpouring of the Spirit. The Spirit is calling out to you. What will you say?

We have reached the final week of Easter and the end of 1 Corinthians 15. The chapter has been a slow crescendo to the declaration of the death of death, the truest and most important meaning of Jesus’ resurrection and Easter Sunday. Death is indeed swallowed up in victory. Its stinger has been removed. And thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!

Today we talk about a passage in which Paul explains the resurrection body.

He walks right up to the place where angels dare not tread and puts his

foot on the line. Paul, just chapters before, reminds us that he is looking

into a dim mirror as he talks about that which is to come. However, here,

he speaks about what he is able to glimpse and what we are able to know

about the resurrection. As we continue our exploration of 1 Corinthians 15,

let us be mindful that there are many things we still do not know, and yet

there is much hope to be found in what we do know.

In our reading today from 1 Corinthians 15, Paul situates the gospel in the

larger story of the whole of Scripture—and even more importantly—in the

whole span of history. The resurrection is an event that the world has been

longing for since the day the Garden of Eden was closed. Christ’s death and

resurrection is an answer to the most fundamental problems of the world.

The problem of evil, sin, destruction, abuse of power, illness, and so much

more, the rotten fruit of which is death. As Paul puts it, this is the last

enemy to be destroyed.

Today we are continuing our Easter resurrection series on 1 Corinthians 15.

In verses 12-20, Paul asks the Corinthians why some of them are doubting

the general resurrection of the dead if they believe that Christ was

resurrected from the dead. It appears that they believe in the gospel

basics—Christ’s death and resurrection—but they have not understood the

implications of it. Today we explore the implications.

Today we begin a five-week trip through 1 Corinthians 15, a critical

chapter with 58 verses dedicated to the topic of resurrection. This is

easily Paul’s lengthiest defense of Christ’s resurrection and our future

resurrection in all his epistles. It’s an appropriate chapter to study

during the season of Easter as we continue to give glory to God for the

death and resurrection of Christ, through whom we are saved and in whom we

find our very being.

Dee Whitten began serving as the Executive Director of the NorthStar Church

Network in November 2013. This is an association of over 170 Baptist

churches in northern Virginia. The primary purpose of NorthStar is to

energize churches to carry out their God-given mission.

Prior to beginning his ministry with NorthStar, Dee launched a new church

in Fredericksburg called River Club Church. Dee also served for five years

as the Team Leader for the Empowering Leaders Team of the Baptist General

Association of Virginia, and he served for sixteen years as the pastor of

Mount Ararat Baptist Church in Stafford, Virginia.

Dee’s wife is Jane and they have two married daughters with five grandsons

and one granddaughter.

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Today is a day filled with joy and

hope, awe and wonder, promise and possibility. It is Easter Sunday! The

resurrection means that all things are now possible because the greatest

enemies of this world, sin and death, have been defeated. There is nothing

that is not possible through Jesus Christ who has been victorious and

invites us into his victory. The church is made up of resurrection people,

and today we explore what that means for us in the here and now.

David was born in Ft. Worth, TX and moved to Va. Beach when he was very

young. He came to Northern Virginia in 1990 to attend George Mason

University from which he graduated with a degree in English in ‘94. That

same year he married his Australian sweetheart whom he met a few years

earlier through an on-campus Christian ministry (The Baptist Student

Union). They have since had four kids: India, Elissa, Shayna, and Kieran.

David has served as an associate pastor, led a “church within a church” at

FBC Clarendon, led a couple of church plants, and is now leading a small

neighborhood based “Zoom” church. David has a Masters of Theological

Studies from the John Leland Center.

The Psalmist tells us that unity is “good and pleasant,” but the experience

of unity and harmony and peace seems so elusive, maybe even an illusion or

fantasy. In a world like ours, should we just give up on the vision of

unity? Not if we are followers of Jesus Christ! The Gospel of John records

that on the night before he gave his life for us on the cross Jesus prayed

that we might be one, not just for his sake, or for our sake, but for the

sake of the world.