Bethel Baptist Church of Tillamook, OR
March 22, 2026
  • I Will Sing Of My Redeemer
  • Victory In Jesus
  • Christ Arose

  • INTRODUCTION

    Paul establishes the fact of the resurrection by four proofs in 1 Cor. 15:1-34:
    Historical fact where Paul lists those who were valid witnesses in that day in which he wrote.
    Logically for the believer the denial of the resurrection causes, like a chain of dominoes, everything to fall. It is essential to the Christian faith. Without it there is no faith.
    Theologically, Scripture identifies Christ as the Firstfruits. That means he is the Firstfruits of a coming harvest, and when the harvest comes at another season, it must be just like Christ’s resurrection. Firstfruits proves resurrection, and it proves a harvest will follow. But Christ is also Sovereign. Since He is the Sovereign of the universe, He is going to bring to life those that are dead. If He is Sovereign, which He is, He must conquer all enemies, and the last enemy He is going to conquer is death. He will conquer death by resurrection.
    Practically, if there is no resurrection , then why do we jeopardize our lives? Why do we live for the Lord? With no resurrection then we better play it safe; we better tone down the message so people don’t get offended and mad; we had better not suffer persecution and not live Godly in Christ Jesus. Paul showed the fallacy of such thinking. This is the philosophy of the world. Death is not all there is. There is a coming resurrection. It is appointed unto men once to die, and after that the judgment.
    Paul then establishes the nature of the resurrection in 1 Cor. 15:35-49:
    Demonstrated from the area of science using botany, zoology, and astronomy that the Creator made everything with a body, yet each body is adapted to its environment. Since God is a God of order, we may understand that the resurrected body will still be a body that is adapted also to its environment, yet is still a body, bearing a relationship to the body that died. It will be different evn though it will be similar, because it is going to be in a new sphere.
    Paul also shows some of the spiritual proof of what we know that this body will be like. The Corinthians know a spiritual fact because they are believers. They know the first Adam became a living soul, and the last Adam (Christ), a life-giving spirit. They know because they have experienced both the first birth, and the new birth in their lives. They have been born again by Christ’s instrumentality.
    The divine order is the natural first, then the spiritual. Today we are in natural, earthy bodies, fit for earth. We cannot be in two places at once because we are subject to one locality. But then comes that which is spiritual. We will have a spiritual body which will only be in one place at one time. But it will not be subject to the frailties that we now have in this body. Then the body will not control the spirit, but the spirit will control the body.
    Just as we have borne the image of the first Adam, we will bear the image of the last Adam in the resurrection, Rom 8:29
    Romans 8:29 NASB95
    For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren;
    1 John 3:2 NASB95
    Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.
    1 Corinthians 15:1 - Our earthly bodies are not fit for a heavenly existence; therefore a change of body is needed.

    1. The Scriptural Proof of the Nature of Resurrection, 15:51-57

    Paul will first look at new revelation which has been given

    A. God’s new revelation, 15:51-53

    (1) The mystery, v. 51

    “Behold” - listen closely
    “mystery” - something formerly hidden, but now divinely revealed. Two parts:
    (a) we will not all sleep (euphemism for death of a believer) - a distinction between living and dead.
    (b) we shall all be changed - includes both living and dead in Christ through a dramatic change to attain incorruptible and immortal bodies fit for the kingdom of God. This is to be effected by God’s power.
    Christ’s coming will break into history, directly affecting those who are alive at that time.

    (2) The speed, v. 52a

    (a) in a moment - the Greek word translated here is the source for the English word atom., at one time considered the smallest particle that could not be divided. Used this way, it refers to the smallest conceivable moment of time.
    (b) in the twinkling of an eye - the Greek word translated here is used in other ancient writings to describe the buzz of a gnat, the quivering of a harp string, or the twinkling of a star. It happens in a flash.

    (3) The time, v. 52b

    “at the last trump” - What is it? It is not the seventh trumpet of Revelation 11, but a trumpet signifying the end of the church age, followed quickly by the last week of Daniel 9, the time of Jacob’s (Israel’s) trouble. The church is distinct from Israel. Consider the following:
    (a) This trumpet sounds before the wrath of God descends on the world; the seventh trumpet sounds at the very end of the time of God’s wrath, 1 Thess 1:10
    1 Thessalonians 1:10 NASB95
    and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath to come.
    cf. 1 Thess 5:9-10
    1 Thessalonians 5:9–10 NASB95
    For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we will live together with Him.
    (b) The trumpet of God is not the seventh trumpet. Rev. 1:10
    Revelation 1:10 NASB95
    I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like the sound of a trumpet,
    It was the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ,
    Revelation 4:1 NASB95
    After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven, and the first voice which I had heard, like the sound of a trumpet speaking with me, said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after these things.”
    The church is only seen in heaven after Revelation 2-3.
    The seventh trumpet is sounded by an angel.
    (c) This trumpet sounds for resurrection; the seventh trumpet sounds for judgment.
    (d) This trumpet is short followed by immediate action; the seventh trumpet is long, introducing the final judgments of God over a period of time.
    (e) This trumpet is for the church; the seventh trumpet is for the world.
    (f) In fact, the seventh trumpet of Rev. 11:15 is not the last trumpet by anyone’s scheme:
    Matthew 24:31 NASB95
    “And He will send forth His angels with a great trumpet and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.
    This speaks of the God’s chosen people, the Jews, being gathered together to begin the time of Messiah’s reign on earth after the Great Tribulation!
    The question arises, “So what did Paul mean?” Dr. Ironside interprets Paul’s phrasing as a familiar military expression of the day:
    Addresses on the First Epistle to the Corinthians Lecture XXXVII: The Rapture of the Saints (1 Cor. 15:51–58)

    That expression was very familiar to the people who lived in Paul’s day. It was in common use in connection with the Roman Army.

    When a Roman camp was about to be broken up, whether in the middle of the night or in the day, a trumpet was sounded. The first blast meant, “Strike tents and prepare to depart.”

    Addresses on the First Epistle to the Corinthians Lecture XXXVII: The Rapture of the Saints (1 Cor. 15:51–58)

    The second meant, “Fall into line,” and when what was called “the last trump” sounded it meant, “March away.” The apostle uses that figure, and says that when the last trump of this age of grace sounds, then we shall be called away to be forever with the Lord.

    At the trumpet’s sounding...

    (4) The act, v. 52c

    (a) The dead will be raised imperishable.
    Then
    (b) we will be changed, 1 Cor. 15:35
    1 Corinthians 15:35 NASB95
    But someone will say, “How are the dead raised? And with what kind of body do they come?”
    Paul has answered the question.

    (5) The principle, v. 53

    That which is perishable must be changed to imperishable. This refers to the saints who have died previous to the sounding of the last trump.
    That which is mortal (alive at that time) must put on immortality, those who are alive at the last trump,
    Romans 8:10–11 NASB95
    If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
    1 Timothy 6:16 NASB95
    who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see. To Him be honor and eternal dominion! Amen.
    God alone possesses immortality; we in Christ are changed, given bodies fit for eternal existence with God when Christ comes for His own.
    Now Paul will show that the Old Testament revelation is in accord with the New Testament revelation...

    B. God’s former revelation, 15:54-57

    (1) Resurrection fulfills Scripture, vs. 54-55

    (a) It fulfills Isa 25:8
    Isaiah 25:8 NASB95
    He will swallow up death for all time, And the Lord God will wipe tears away from all faces, And He will remove the reproach of His people from all the earth; For the Lord has spoken.
    (b) It fulfills Hosea 13:14
    Hosea 13:14 NASB95
    Shall I ransom them from the power of Sheol? Shall I redeem them from death? O Death, where are your thorns? O Sheol, where is your sting? Compassion will be hidden from My sight.
    Through the resurrection, the sting of death that began in the Garden of Eden is going to lose its power forever.
    Point: Nowhere in Scripture does it say that death does not have a sting. But there is a coming day when the sting—the sorrow of death—shall be removed, but not until resurrection will it be done away.
    As believers, we still sorrow but not without hope!

    (2) Resurrection counteracts the Law and gives us victory, vs. 56-57

    The sting of death is sin. If no sin, then no death. Death comes only because of sin.
    Three different kinds of sin and three different kinds of death:
    (a) Physical death - a person dies physically because of original or imputed sin, through Adam, Rom. 5:12
    Romans 5:12 NASB95
    Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned—
    This is why you do not have to do something to be lost. You are already lost. You have to do something to be saved, and that is to receive God’s way of salvation which is in His Son, Jesus Christ.
    (b) Spiritual death - this is because of our sin nature. God cannot have fellowship with us because our nature is contrary to His nature. We are spiritually dead in trespasses and sins. There must be a new birth—a new nature—before God can fellowship with men.
    (c) Eternal death - this comes because of personal sin. But it is not any personal sin, but one personal sin that will send a man to the lake of fire forever and ever. That one sin is the rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ, John 16:8-9
    John 16:8–9 NASB95
    “And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment; concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me;
    There is no other sin that will send a man to hell but that he has rejected the Savior, God’s only means of salvation.
    “The sting of death is sin” - Apart from sin death could have no sting to it. Our Lord could have laid down His life at any time and taken it up again, John 10:17-18
    John 10:17–18 NASB95
    “For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again. “No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father.”
    and there would been no sting to it because there was no sin.
    “the power of sin is the law” - Paul is writing to Gentile believers; the law he is referring to is God’s law: Ezek. 18:4
    Ezekiel 18:4 NASB95
    “Behold, all souls are Mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is Mine. The soul who sins will die.
    This is the law that puts us six feet under.
    But it is the Savior who gives victory over everything: over sins, over the law which says the soul that sins must die, and over death through resurrection. Jesus died for our sins. He broke the power of the law by meeting its demands, and He conquered death by resurrection.

    C. Concluding exhortation, v. 58

    (1) Admonition, v. 58a

    Paul has established the glorious truth and reality of resurrection. Now he gives one concluding exhortation.
    Satan would love to get you to stop abounding and to quit working. Don’t fall for it. Paul, having established the doctrine, shows this correct doctrine is to govern our life and practice. The only thing that will correct wrong living among God’s people is correct doctrine.

    (2) Reason, v. 58b

    This is the reason why believers are to be “always abounding in the work of the Lord.”
    We are going to be rewarded someday. How do we know? Because there is a resurrection which will make all things right and give us the reward He has promised. Let this truth stir us on to greater things in the Lord.
    For any here who have never believed the gospel, the good news, that Christ died for your sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He rose again on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He was seen and is alive today—a living Savior—why not accept Him right now and be saved?
    The gospel will not change; the message of grace throughout this entire age will remain the same Jesu Christ is the Savior of the world. He is the way, the truth, and the life.
    Someday soon in a period of time so swift that it is impossible to divide it any faster, the trumpet will sound and the dead in Christ will rise first, then we who are alive and remain on that day will be caught up into the clouds to meet the Lord in the sir. The true church—the body of Christ—will be gone. The day of grace will be over. The tribulation will come upon the whole earth. Then the only way a person can be saved is to suffer martyrdom or to endure faithful through the entire tribulation period. There is salvation no other way. I am not trying to scare you, but to warn you. The decision is yours but eternity is in it.
    Why not come to Christ now? 2 Cor. 6:2
    2 Corinthians 6:2 NASB95
    for He says, “At the acceptable time I listened to you, And on the day of salvation I helped you.” Behold, now is “the acceptable time,” behold, now is “the day of salvation”—

      • Romans 8:29NASB95

      • 1 John 3:2NASB95

      • 1 Thessalonians 1:10NASB95

      • 1 Thessalonians 5:9–10NASB95

      • Revelation 1:10NASB95

      • Revelation 4:1NASB95

      • Matthew 24:31NASB95

      • 1 Corinthians 15:35NASB95

      • Romans 8:10–11NASB95

      • 1 Timothy 6:16NASB95

      • Isaiah 25:8NASB95

      • Hosea 13:14NASB95

      • Romans 5:12NASB95

      • John 16:8–9NASB95

      • John 10:17–18NASB95

      • Ezekiel 18:4NASB95

      • 2 Corinthians 6:2NASB95

  • It Is Well with My Soul
Bethel Baptist Church of Tillamook, OR
revrlcasper@gmail.com
(503) 842-5598
https://bbc-tillamook.faithlifesites.com
20 members • 1 follower