I Corinthians 15:12  Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?
13  But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen:
14  And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.
15  Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not.
16  For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised:
17  And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.

Leadership is important. The church in Corinth had not been following the truth. They had developed many false doctrines under the guise of the truth. Their church was not a light in a dark world. It was a blot that needed to be purged of the sins they had accepted as truth.
On the world stage right now, the U.S. has given Ukraine permission to use U.S. made missiles to attack inside Russian territory. Putin has responded with further warnings of retaliation. He has changed his country’s policy on nuclear weapon deployment. The U.S. has had extremely bad leadership for the past 4 years. God allowed the once powerful U.S. to be greatly diminished over that time period. We still have approximately 2 months of this current system prior to the new president taking office. God is allowing the situation in Europe and the Middle East to escalate. We know that the current president and vice president of the U.S. are not fit to manage an ice-cream stand. God knows that better than we do. He is showing the world what happens when He is rejected. We have the entire Bible, which often shows us that as well. The problem is that most people do not read their Bibles. Most preachers do not preach the whole counsel of God. They have been trained to speak smooth words. They want to make people feel good about themselves.
As we continue to look at God’s Word given to the saints in Corinth, we see that God is not interested in making sin look good. He is not interested in appeasing wickedness. He is holy and He wants to bless people. He requires holiness from us and He also provides the means for us to be holy. That means is through faith in the risen Lord Jesus Christ. If He is dead in a tomb in Israel, He cannot save us. If His soul and spirit went to heaven, but not His body, He cannot save us.
In Genesis 2 we learn that God first formed a body for Adam and then He breathed into him the breath of life and man became a living soul. God could have had a bunch of souls hovering around on earth, but he made man as a person and enabled man to glorify Him with a soul that was tuned to Him.
In heaven there are currently thousands of souls that are awaiting the day when they will be reunited with their resurrected bodies. That is God’s design for man. It is not the imagination of some person. AI is currently becoming quite a thing. For years man has been able to manipulate others through computer technology. They have cut and pasted to make it seem that a person was somewhere where they were not. They can alter words and phrases to make it seem a person said something he did not say. In heaven there is none of that. In fact, God did not cut and paste with man on this earth. He made man with a conscience and instilled in man the importance of knowing the true God. He also chose to give man the opportunity to choose whether he wanted to live within the parameters of God’s blessings or not. Those who choose to trust in God are rewarded now with eternal life and a peace that passeth all understanding and with a home in heaven after death. In that home, we who are saved, will have new bodies that will be the result of our corrupted earthly bodies being changed at the resurrection of the saints. In order for that to happen, we need a Saviour Who is also alive physically and Spiritually.
Thus in chapter 15, Paul was directed to speak to the importance of the resurrection of the dead, which was based upon the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. The saved and the lost will all be resurrected one day because Jesus Christ is alive to raise the dead and to judge them as well.
Another of the many false teachings in Corinth was with regard to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. There were those who did not believe in the physical resurrection of the body. We know that the Corinthian saints were living very carelessly. They did not take God’s Word seriously. They were quite willing to accept sin in so many ways.
In verse 13 those who want to deny the resurrection of the dead, also believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is not alive. That is not a good position to have. In verse 14, Paul pointed out the seriousness of this false view. The Corinthians had not taken the Word of God seriously. If Jesus Christ was not alive, then the apostles’ preaching was vain. What authority for preaching is there, if Jesus Christ is not alive? Preaching would be in vain if Jesus Christ is not alive. Many professing Christians currently believe that preaching is vain. They want their itching ears tickled, but they do not want to be told the truth. Without the risen Saviour, the Gospel message would be worthless. There would be no hope for humanity.
A dead Saviour is no Saviour at all. False religions have a dead Saviour. They have no hope. They trust in smooth talkers who can deceive them. They have no absolutes so they will pick and choose which part of the Bible they will accept and which part they need to revise. If we have no risen Saviour then there is no guardian of the Word of God. John 1 makes it clear that Jesus Christ is God. His Word is absolute and He is alive to continue to preserve His Word. He is the living Word of God.
In verse 15 Paul took this faulty view of the resurrection further. People need to stop and think through their positions. Of course lost people cannot see far enough to realize the disastrous consequences of their plans. We see that on the current world stage. Saved people cannot see that far either. The difference is that saved people do not rely on their own thoughts or ideas. They trust in the God Who is the Creator of all things. He knows everything.
If Jesus Christ is not alive, then the apostles were false witnesses. Paul stated that Jesus appeared to the apostles after His resurrection. If that was a delusion, then they were in trouble. If they claimed that God raised Him from the dead when He did not, then they were liars.
In our text, Paul argued truthfully that they would be in big trouble with God if they suggested that God raised up Jesus Christ, when He was still dead in a tomb somewhere. There were serious implications to accepting the lie that Jesus Christ is not alive. There are serious consequences for attributing something to God that is not of Him. He has warned of this several times in the Bible.
In verse 16 we are reminded of the interconnection between the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ and the resurrection of true saints. If there is no resurrection of saints, then there can be no resurrection of Jesus Christ. He is the firstfruits. He rose from the dead and just as He rose from the dead, the saints will also be raised from the dead by the Lord Jesus Christ.
Without the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, there is truly no hope. Then all we would have is the dreams of the Catholics or the Muslims or many other groups. There would be no assurance of a home in Heaven.
Paul taught the importance of knowing the true Jesus and of living according to His righteousness. That is not just a possibility, but it is the reality for those who are truly born again. The hope of man is in the resurrected Jesus Christ. He is in Heaven interceding for the saints today. He is there is person. He is described as the Lamb that is worthy to open the sealed book. There is a hope for the saved because Jesus Christ is alive. There is a motivation for the saved to live righteous lives because their righteous Saviour is alive. He enables the saints to follow Him. Those who are saved come to God in Jesus’ name. We do not make a mockery of that holy name. We exalt that holy name.
Pastor Bartel