WHAT MAKES 1 COR.15:1-4 THE PERFECT SERMON FOR ALL TIME?
Roberta O'Hara: Found in 1Cor.15:1-4 is the perfect sermon for all time! It's perfect because it tells the whole story about why Jesus came. And it just happens to be the gospel that Paul preached where he wrote, "Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.
For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures"
Now before the death of Jesus that Paul began with in this passage, He came. In Gal.4:4,5 Paul said, "But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons."
Here Paul shows Jesus' words were true when in Mt.15:24 He Himself said, "I have not come but for the lost sheep of the house of Israel". Also showing by His being made of a woman Heb.2:16 to be true when in it we find written, "For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham." A man that Heb.2:14 says had the same flesh and blood that all men have.
And Jesus said He came so that we might have life abundantly- John10:10.
This message comes from the Genesis account where we are told about the events that would bring Adam to the point of realizing his own mortality. A realization that would only come after he ate the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. When Gen.3:7 says the "eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked". A realization made possible by God fulfilling His promise that "in the day ye eat thereof ye shall surely die".
A death that came to pass when God sent Adam from the garden. Because when he was sent from the garden he was no longer able to eat from the tree of life that kept him from realizing his own mortality.
This served God's purpose that by man experiencing the mortality he was made with he would seek after God by his own free will for it's remedy. This is why we see in Gen.4:26- "then began men to call upon the name of the Lord."
And Jesus lived by coming to earth as a man through the miracle of Is.7:14's virgin birth that was to be THE sign for Israel that He was Immanuel- God with us. And Mt.15:24 shows us that He came to teach Israel. Teaching them that it was not just that they must keep the commandments. But, that they must now believe in Him to have eternal life- Mt.19:16-21.
This was to show that the law Israel was instructed to keep was not for righteousness. But, was only used by God to keep them as a separate people until Jesus came and His earthly ministry was complete as Paul says in Gal.3:19.
And that trusting in Him would bring the fulfillment of the promise God made to Abraham that he would be the father of many nations.
Because through that promise it was shown to them that it must be by faith, and not by works, that they would be righteous. A message Paul taught Israel exhaustively in his letter to the Romans.
Now as we pick up where Paul started in 1Cor.15:1-4 we see that Jesus died for our sins. Sins that Paul said in Heb.9:15 were committed while under the 1st testament.
Because His death being the final once for all sacrifice for sins it brought an end to the need for the Old Covenant sacrifices for Israel.
This served as a remedy for several things. It would purge Israel's conscience from the dead works of the law because His sacrifice was the final once for all sacrifice that cleanses all who trust in Him from all unrighteousness according to 1John1:9.
Because when there is no more reminder of sins, as Heb.10:3 says was the purpose for those sacrifices, the consciousness of sin itself is purged.
And the worshipper now focuses solely upon the one he worships. Rather than a constant focus on what were once barriers for such worship. Barriers that kept Israel “shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed” as Paul said in Gal.3:23.
It had to come to an end for them so that a New Covenant could come to power. Paul explains in Heb.9:16,17 that for a testament, a will, to have force, the testator, the one who made the will, must first die. So that if the New Testament was to come to power the testator, who was Jesus, must first die.
Another purpose that was served by Jesus' death is found in Heb.2:14 where we are told that this is how Jesus destroyed the devil who held the keys of death. So that we no longer would have to live in the fear of death.
And in Rom.7 we are told that those Israelites who would now bring forth fruit unto God must be dead to the Old Covenant that Jesus' death made possible for them, before they are free to be joined with Jesus in the New Covenant. And that if they tried to be joined to both covenants they were an adulteress as vs.1-4 tells them. A person who can not do what he wants to do, that is to worship Jesus, because he won't let the law be dead to him as we see in vs.15-21. Who still needs deliverance from that body of death as vs.24 says. Which deliverance is made possible when the Israelite turns from the law in the Old Covenant to faith in Jesus as Rom.7:25-8:1,2 says.
And finally the fact that Jesus lives is His intercession for all who will trust in Him- Heb.7:17-25.
His conquering of death through His resurrection is the intercession that only the "power of an endless life" can do. For it is by this that He is the way, truth, and life for all who will by their own free will trust in Him to join with Him in eternal life.
His life becomes our life when we confess that He is Lord. And believe in our hearts that He has raised from the dead. He is Lord because He lives by the power of an endless life. And He has raised by that same power so that we know He lives.
See why I call this the perfect sermon? It's because it is the message God gave to the apostles to preach to us so that we who seek after God to find a remedy for our own mortality will find eternal life. And if we will believe this gospel message we will have the eternal life that Jesus came, lived, died, and rose again to provide for us.
And if you will trust in Him you will have eternal life. If you will trust in Him you will be free from sin's power which is by the law. If you will trust in Him you will be made a child of God who is therefore heir to His kingdom. If you will believe Paul's gospel you will have the immortality that the power of Jesus' endless life gives to those who trust in Him. If you will do this... then I will see you there or in the air!
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