Master Teacher: 2nd Quarter 2015

LESSON 1 FOR WEEK OF APRIL 5, 2015

FULLY ALIVE

UNIFYING TOPIC:

Resurrection Guaranteed

LESSON TEXT

I. A Reminder of Good News (1 Corinthians 15:1–11)

II. The Resurrection of the Dead (1 Corinthians 15:20–22)

THE MAIN THOUGHT

For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. (1 Corinthians 15:22, KJV)

UNIFYING PRINCIPLE

People need to be reminded of important events that shape their identities and actions. What kind of event can make such an influence on their lives? Jesus’ resurrection provided tangible evidence of the possibility of resurrection for those whose identity is formed by Christ Jesus.

LESSON AIM

To explore the meaning of Christ’s resurrection and to show how His death has brought about forgiveness of sins and the gift of eternal life

LIFE AIM

To help believers understand the implications of the resurrection for their lives and for the life of the Church

BEFORE YOU TEACH

Consider. . .

Focus for College and Career—Young adults may be challenged by skeptics because of their belief in the resurrection.

Focus for Adult Christian Life—Older adults appreciate Christ’s sacrifice but may also wrestle with the dynamic between working for God and God working through them.

Supplementary Study Materials

For further reference, see today’s lesson from Boyd’s Commentary, New National Baptist Hymnal, 21st Century Edition, #56 (NNBH, #516), and God’s Promises Bible.

Teacher Helps

For teaching supplements visit http://www.rhboydpublishing.com.

First Step: Begin class by having your students discuss why people are so fearful of death.

Second Step: Discuss the meaning and significance of first fruits as a description of Christ’s resurrection (1 Cor. 15:20). Compare and contrast the reference to Adam in 1 Corinthians 15:22 with the one found in Romans 5:14.

Third Step: Ask your students how they think unbelievers really view the Christian belief that Christ arose from the grave on the third day. Do most unbelievers think the resurrection is fact or fiction?

Fourth Step: For College and Career: Ask your students how they can best communicate to their unsaved friends that Christ’s resurrection is real. For Adult Christian Life: Ask your students to give examples of how they witness to the reality of a risen Savior.

Fifth Step: Conclude the class with prayer. Pray that your students will be able to fully understand the accounts of Jesus’ resurrection.

God’s Word in Life

People today greatly fear death. The fact is, though, that no one in this world can stop death. We have absolutely no control over it. We cannot avoid or escape it.

Nonbelievers, however, spend little time working on avoiding their spiritual death (the second death). But the truth is, they have one hundred percent control of what happens, and they can stop it. They work out in physical fitness centers, eat healthy foods, and spend hundreds of dollars on vitamins and supplements to postpone the first death. But they avoid church, don’t read their Bibles, do not develop a relationship with Jesus, and do not try to secure eternal life so as to avoid the second death. It is imperative that Christians concentrate on witnessing to the unsaved. Their priority must be securing eternal life in Jesus Christ more than worrying about their physical death (see Rom. 10:8–10; Rev. 2:10–11). †

— EXPOSITION —

Introduction

Paul’s first letter to the Corinthian church comes to its climax with an extended reflection on the security and hope that we have in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He takes a potentially frightening subject—the death of the Christian believer—and connects it to the hope we have in the fact that Christ was raised from the dead. Paul had personally encountered the resurrected Christ, and therefore, he could attest that He now lives. Because of Paul’s testimony, Christians today can also trust in the coming resurrection of the dead.

In essence, death is just a transition from this life to an eternal life with Christ in heaven. This truth must be an integral part of our daily lives. Moreover, the central message of the Christian faith must be regularly announced from the pulpit to a dying world. Christ, who now lives through the Spirit in the heart of every Christian, needs to be shared with the world, and with hearts that are not familiar with the love of Christ. He arose from the grave with all power so that dying people might one day live forever with Him.

I. A Reminder of Good News

(1 Corinthians 15:1–11)

The central truth of Christianity is that Jesus Christ rose from the dead on the third day. Moreover, He lives today and reigns at the right hand of the Father. But how can we be certain of this? As our text for today opens, Paul reminded his readers that there were many eyewitnesses who had personally seen the risen Christ: Peter, James, and the rest of the Apostles, as well as more than five hundred other disciples (see vv. 5–7). Paul also had seen Him: And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time (1 Cor. 15:8, KJV). Leon Morris observed: This muster of witnesses indicates the importance Paul attached to the resurrection of Jesus. . . . He does not give a complete list of witnesses, but he gives enough to show that the fact is extremely well attested (1 Corinthians [Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1985], 203). Paul also made it clear that Christ saves those who believe in Him from death and empowers them to preach His salvation to a world dying in sin. For Paul, this is a true historical fact that must be told to the world. Therefore, he exhorted his readers to announce this Good News.

Christians today are not personal witnesses to the resurrected Christ, but they can be personal witnesses to how He has raised them up from the sins of this world to His salvation. He now lives in the heart of every Christian. When God’s love in Christ enters the heart of an unsaved person, darkness turns to light and that heart is filled with the hope and love that come from serving the risen Lord. When the love of Christ enters the heart of the unsaved, it brings about rebirth. This power drives out hate and replaces it with the love of God.

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After Paul attested to the fact that he was an eyewitness to the risen Christ, he reminded the Corinthian church that their faith is grounded in the resurrection: Therefore whether it were I or they, so we preach, and so ye believed (1 Cor. 15:11, KJV). He wanted them to experience the joy that comes from serving a risen Savior. He also wanted them to know that death is not the end. He stated in his second letter to the Corinthians that death is about being absent from the body, and . . . present with the Lord (2 Cor. 5:8, KJV). But how is this a good thing? According to Philip Towner, On the one hand, Paul speaks negatively of death. Death is a tearing down and dissolution of human embodiment in physicality [2 Cor. 5:1]. Human relationality is also destroyed. . . . On the other hand, Paul can describe Christian death almost as a rite of passage. It implies movement in God’s direction, and is a necessary step or stage to fit us for existence (the ‘building from God’ and ‘our heavenly dwelling’) with God (Corinthians, Second Letter to in The New Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, Vol. 1 [Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2006], 751).

Paul then said that it was nothing but God’s grace that saved him for work in the Church of Jesus Christ. He wrote, But by the grace of God I am what I am: and His grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me (1 Cor. 15:10, KJV). Paul wanted to make sure that the grace of Christ was not bestowed upon him in vain. So, he proclaimed to the world that Christ now lives to save anyone who believes in Him.

PREACH

(Greek: euangelizō)

This Greek verb means to proclaim good news. In secular contexts, it also meant to declare a victory or to deliver news of peace. The Good News that the Church proclaims is that the Jesus Christ lives today.