_____________________________________________________________
Rev. Ronald C. Purkey claims no originality for this Bible study outline.
However,
every outline posted on this website has been taught by Rev. Purkey.
To see more Bible study outlines go
to page two: More Bible Study Outlines.
_____________________________________________________________
THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS CHRIST
SCRIPTURE:
INTRODUCTION: The glory of our Christianity is that it never views life as being
complete in this world. It always has its eyes lifted to the morning, and gazes
out upon the eternities, recognizing that we belong to eternity as well as to
time. So now the apostle deals with that great subject of the resurrection.
I. CHRIST’S RESURRECTION
A. Christ is the firstfruits.
(15:20-23a)
Verse 20: Christ literally rose from the dead [“slept” means died]. It was a resurrection of His body.
Jesus Christ died, was buried, and then rose from the dead. He walked bodily
out of the tomb.
Verse 21: Adam sinned and the curse of death was put on the whole human race.
The Second Adam overcame death and was resurrected from the dead. Jesus Christ
has become our blessed hope!
Verse 22: We will all die if Jesus delays. If this life is all we have, we are
of all men most miserable. But we, as believers in Jesus Christ, shall be
resurrected just like our Savior. We have God’s Word on that.
Verse 23a: That Christ is the “firstfruits” of the
Resurrection means that the resurrection of Christ is the down payment, or
guarantee, that Christians will also be raised from the dead. The Lord’s bodily
resurrection is the prototype of the future resurrection of all those who trust
in Him for salvation.
B. The harvest will come at the rapture. (15:23-26)
Verse 23: How wonderful that is! “Christ is risen
from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them
that slept” -- meaning the sleep of death. “For since by man came death [that man is Adam], by man came also the
resurrection of the dead.” “In Adam
all die” -- the proof that you are in the family of Adam is that you are
going to die unless the Lord comes to take you in the Rapture. “Even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” Jesus is the Resurrection and the Life.
Jesus Christ
is the firstfruits, and then “afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.” What is He coming
for? He is coming for His church.
Verse 24: “Then
cometh the end” -- the end of what? The end of the age.
How will the age end? There, will come the (1)
Great Tribulation, and then there is going to be the (2) millennial kingdom here on the earth. (3) Satan will be released again for a little while, then he will
be (4) cast forever into the lake of
fire, and the (5) Lord Jesus Christ will establish His
kingdom forever.
That will be
the eternal kingdom. Actually, the eternal kingdom is a further projection of
the millennial kingdom, only the millennial kingdom will be a time of trial. “Then cometh the end, when he shall have
delivered up the kingdom to God.” When will this take place? At the end of
the millennial kingdom, Christ will put down all rule and all authority and
power.
Verses 25-26: Jesus will finally put all
things under His feet, including death. In other words, to deny the
resurrection of the dead is to deny the future
Satan, the
author of death, will be destroyed by our great God. All things will be put
under our Savior’s feet. I’ll be glad when we get rid our old enemy, Satan.
Hell was prepared for Satan and his angels!
C. Christ will deliver all things unto the Father. (
Christ sealed death’s destruction with His own death on the cross and
resurrection from the dead. But complete victory over death will come when
Jesus Christ returns to defeat Satan, the one who introduced sin into the world
and brought the judgment of death upon the whole human race.
Fact, Not Fable
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the
cornerstone of the Christian faith. Without it we have no hope for this life nor the life to come. That's why it is important to
recognize that our belief in Christ's resurrection is not based on a religious
feeling or unfounded rumor, but on historical fact with solid evidence to
support it.
A century ago, a group of lawyers met in
In his book Countdown, G. B. Hardy
offers some thought-provoking questions about the resurrection: "There are
but two essential requirements: (1) Has anyone cheated
death and proved it? (2) Is it available to me?" Hardy goes on to declare
that only the tomb of Jesus is empty. And because Jesus conquered sin and
death, we who put our faith in Him will share in His resurrection.
"If Christ is not risen,
your faith is futile," Paul wrote in
II. THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY. (1 Corinthians 15:35-44)
A. The resurrection body is fashioned by God.
(15:35-38)
Verse 35: Paul has answered those who denied the
resurrection of the body by the resurrection of Christ whose body was raised
up.
Now the
question is, “How can a body that dies be raised up again and be the same?”
Paul says that we learn from nature that the bodies are not identical -- they
are the same but not identical.
Verse 36: The answer to the first question: the
how. He says in effect, “If you
only had sense enough to see it, you would see that in a seed which is planted,
there is dissolution and continuity -- a seed that is planted will produce
seeds which are essentially the same as that seed. But the seed itself has died
and disintegrated, so that the seed it produces is not the very seed that died.
It is like that seed, but it is not the same seed. In the seed that is planted
there is disintegration and yet there is continuity. It is a mystery, but it is
not impossibility.”
What is death?
Death is a separation. It is not the ending of the spirit or of the
personality. These do not die. The real “you” goes on to be with the Lord if you
are a child of God. It is the body that disintegrates. Death is a separation of
the body from the individual, from the person. The body disintegrates, decays,
decomposes. Dust to dust and ashes to ashes applies
only to the body.
Verse 37: Paul now answers the second question:
What body is raised up? The sowing of grain is the illustration. Christ
is the firstfruits, then
we’ll be coming along later. We are waiting for the rapture of the church when
Christ takes the believers out of the world. If at the time of the Rapture we
are already dead, we will be raised up. If we are still alive at the time of
the Rapture, we’ll be caught up and changed. Notice that the seed does not
provide itself with a new body, neither does the sower, but God
provides it!
Verse 38: Paul then moves into another area.
All of this is the mystery of life. Actually the mystery of life is greater
than the mystery of death. When you sow wheat, wheat comes up -- not barley or
corn. That little grain that forms on the stalk is like the one you sowed --
not identical, but certainly very similar.
Resurrection means to be raised from the dead
(John
The resurrection of Jesus is promissory in that as
we know He was raised, so we will be raised also. In that context, Jesus is the
only one who has received a resurrected body. That is why He is called the
first-fruit from the dead (1 Cor.
The resurrected body is not subject to death or
sin. We know very little about it except what was manifested by Jesus after His
resurrection; namely, that He was able to move about as He desired—in and out
of rooms without the use of doors. Other than that, the rest is conjecture.
(See 1 Cor. 15). -- Source unknown
B. The resurrection body is a glorified body.
(15:39-44)
Verse 39: Now Paul moves from the area of botany
to zoology. The difference between a dead body and the resurrection body is
greater than the difference between men and beasts, fish and birds. Paul says
that all flesh is not the same flesh.
Verses 40-41: Paul now moves into the realm
of astronomy and says that all the bodies of the solar system are not the same. The sun is not the same
material as the moon, neither is it the same as the stars. The stars differ
from each other. There is a solar system, a stellar system, planets, and suns.
Verse 42: The body that was given Adam was
always subject to death. Although he would not have died if he had not sinned,
his body would have been subject to death. However, by resurrection we get a
body that is incorruptible.
Verses 43-44: We will get glory and color
and beauty and power -- all of these things -- with the new body.
For centuries many of the world's distinguished
philosophers have assaulted Christianity as being irrational, superstitious and
absurd. Many have chosen simply to ignore the central issue of the
resurrection. Others have tried to explain it away through various theories.
But the historical evidence just can't be discounted.
A student at the
"For a very simple reason," I answered.
"I am not able to explain away an event in history -- the resurrection of
Jesus Christ."
How
can we explain the empty tomb? Can it possibly be accounted for by any natural
cause?
-- Josh McDowell, Evidence for the Resurrection
CONCLUSION: The Bible promises the resurrection of the believer and “God is not
slack concerning His promises.” The age in which we live is filled with people
seeking spiritual truth. Paul assured the Corinthians that their faith was
founded on the fact of Christ’s resurrection. Our obligation is to receive the
risen Christ as our Saviour and dedicate our lives to sharing with unbelievers
the fact of Christ’s resurrection and the promise of eternal life with Him.
THOUGHT
TO REMEMBER:
“Christ's resurrection is more than a
fact of history -- it's the proof of our salvation.”
REFERENCES: References
used in this Bible study are from the Believer’s
Bible Commentary, David C. Cook Publishers Bible-in-Life, Dr. Cliff Robinson
Bible Outlines, Dr. Lee Roberson’s Sermons, KJV Bible Commentary, Our Daily
Bread, The Bible Reader’s Companion Ed. 3, The Nelson Study Bible: New King
James Version, Thru the Bible with J. Vernon McGee, Wiersbe’s Expository
Outlines of the New Testament Ed. 4, Wiersbe’s Expository Outlines of the Old
Testament, With the Word Bible Commentary, and selected illustrations.
E-Mail: Ronald Purkey
·
Return to BIBLE STUDY OUTLINES