Church in Chaos: What if this life is not the end?
1 Corinthians 15:12-34
What you believe doesn’t just sit quietly in your head.
It drives your life.
It shapes your decisions, your habits, your relationships.
Take something simple. Twenty-three years ago, I became convinced that Anna was the most wonderful woman I ‘d ever met. And that belief didn’t stay theoretical. It changed everything. And I committed to spending the rest of my life with her.
But here’s the thing:
That’s just as true when our beliefs are wrong.
On the evening of 30 October 1938, thousands of people across New York and New Jersey were suddenly gripped with terror. Phones rang off the hook. People fled their homes. Roads filled. Police were overwhelmed.
Why?
Because they believed aliens were invading the United States.
It turned out they had all been listening to the same radio station — WABC — which was broadcasting a dramatic reading of War of the Worlds by Orson Welles.
Nothing had happened.
But their belief made it real enough to run.
You see, what we believe shapes how we live —
for good… and for bad…
Whether it’s true… or completely false.
And that’s exactly why the apostle Paul is so concerned in this passage we just had read.
Because something has gone wrong in the church in Corinth.
Look at verse 12:
“But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?”
Now, the issue isn’t what you might expect.
They weren’t denying that Jesus rose from the dead.
Paul’s just spent the previous 11 verses making that clear — that’s something they all agreed on. It was as lawyers like to say common ground.
The problem was this:
They had started to believe that Christians themselves would not be raised bodily in the future.
They’d absorbed a very popular Greek idea — that God cares about your soul, but not your body.
That the physical doesn’t really matter. That the goal of life is spiritual experience, not embodied existence.
And once that belief took root…
It didn’t stay theoretical.
It worked its way out into their lives.
And that’s what we’ve seen over the past few months as we’ve worked through Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians. The church was awash with drunkenness, sexual immorality, excess, and division. In fact, Corinth had a reputation for it.
It doesn’t feel a million miles away from twenty-first century Manchester.
Because the pattern is always the same:
What we believe… shapes how we live.
And so Paul steps in.
He wants to uproot this false belief and replace it with truth — because everything is at stake.
And he does that in two ways:
First, he makes a logical argument grounded in the past.
And then, he makes an experiential argument grounded in the present.
You see, it doesn’t matter whether you’re a heady, logical sort of person or all heart, touchy-feely.
Paul has you both covered today.
- A Future that’s Guaranteed – vv. 12-28
So let’s start with the logical, heady argument from vv. 12-28. It has two parts.
And it’s a little complicated so let me give you a phrase to help you remember it.
It’s the old Three Musketeers motto: All for One and One for All.
- All for One
So, first part of Paul’s argument based in the past, vv. 12-19 – All for One.
Here’s the logic:
If no one is raised from the dead… (the “all”)
then Christ (the “one”) hasn’t been raised either.
The resurrection of Christ in the past and our future bodily resurrection stand and fall together.
Let me take you back to a moment that gripped the world.
August 2010.
Thirty-three miners trapped deep underground in the San José Mine after a catastrophic collapse.
Pitch black.
Crushing heat.
No contact.
Hours turn into days.
Days turn into weeks.
And slowly, a conclusion settles in:
No one survives something like this.
Families gathered above ground — grieving, waiting, hoping against hope.
Rescuers drill… not really expecting to find anyone alive.
And then — seventeen days in — a drill breaks through.
And returns with a note taped onto it: "We are well in the Refuge - the 33".
Fifty-two days later, the first miner, Florencio Avalos, was winched to the surface in a specially made capsule.
Now when that first miner emerged on 13 October. Alive. Breathing. Embracing his family. You couldn’t keep saying:
“No one survives something like this.”
That specific event meant that the general statement could no longer hold true.
Well, exactly the same sort of logic is being used by Paul in v. 13.
Some in Corinth were saying:
“There is no resurrection of the dead.”
That was their settled belief. Their general claim.
But Paul says — hold on.
You all agree on this, verse 11:
Jesus has been raised from the dead.
So how can both be true?
Because if no one rises…
Then Jesus didn’t rise either.
It would be like continuing to say that no one is getting out of that mine even after Florencio Avalos had been rescued.
In fact, it’s even worse than that because logic insists that, if there is no resurrection from the dead, then not even Christ has been raised – v. 13.
Think about it; the only way that the general statement that no one is getting out of the Chilean mine could hold true would be if Florencio Avalos hadn’t been rescued.
The only way to keep saying “no one rises”…
is to say “Jesus is still in the grave.”
All for one.
But if we do that the whole of Christianity collapses like a cheap pack of cards.
Paul’s preaching would be useless – v. 14.
The apostles – the eye witnesses to the resurrection would be liars – v. 15.
And we would remain dead in our sins – v. 17.
Because remember — Christ died for our sins – v. 3.
But if He stayed dead?
Well there are only two possible conclusions:
- Either Jesus was not the sinless person he claimed to be and his death was God’s just judgment on him for his own sins; or else
- Jesus was without personal sin, but his attempt to atone for our sins failed. He didn’t prove to be the perfect substitute that was required.
Either way — we’re still guilty, still lost, still facing judgment.
So Paul’s message in vv 12-19 is stark, but crystal clear:
All for One.
You cannot deny the future resurrection of believers…
without also denying the past resurrection of Jesus.
And if you lose that…
You don’t just lose a doctrine
You lose the gospel
You lose everything
- One for all – vv. 20-28
So that’s the negative side — All for One.
Now Paul turns the argument around… and it becomes wonderfully positive:
One for All.
Because Christ has been raised…
we can be certain we will be raised too.
Let me ask you a question:
Was Jesus’ resurrection unique?
Instinctively, we want to say yes, don’t we?
It feels almost wrong to say anything else.
But actually…
Jesus’ resurrection wasn’t unique.
It was just early.
Think about dawn.
When the sun rises, the first light breaks over the horizon.
And in that moment, you don’t say:
“Well, that was a nice bit of light… shame it won’t spread.”
No — that first light guarantees what’s coming.
The whole sky will soon be flooded with it.
The day is on its way.
That’s what Paul is saying in verse 20:
Christ has been raised… the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
It’s harvest language.
The firstfruits were the very first sheaf gathered in.
But here’s the key:
It wasn’t separate from the harvest
It was part of it
And guaranteed the rest was coming.
It’s the same crop - organically. The same life. Just the beginning.
Now do you see what Paul is saying here?
Jus’ resurrection isn’t an isolated miracle.
It’s the start of something.
Not a one-off event…
but the first moment in a great future event.
Our future resurrection is organically linked to Jesus’. It’s just that Jesus’s happened early.
And Paul takes it even deeper in verse 21.
He says, there are really only two humanities:
“In Adam… and in Christ.”
Adam is the head of the old humanity.
And we are all organically connected to him:
His sin became our condition.
His death – the just judgment for sin and rebellion - became our destiny.
That’s why death feels so normal… and so inescapable.
But wonderfully — a second man has come.
A new representative. A new head.
Jesus .
And through His life, His death, and His resurrection…
He rewrites the story.
So now there are two ways to exist:
- In Adam → sin, death, separation
- In Christ → life, resurrection, restoration
And here’s the staggering truth:
If you are in Christ - if you are organically linked to him by faith:
What happened to Him… will happen to you.
He rose.
You will rise.
He lives.
You will live.
That’s the logic of One for All.
Not wishful thinking.
Not vague hope.
But a guaranteed future when Jesus returns.
And what a wonderful day that’ll be. Look at vv. 25-26.
Every enemy will be put under Christ’s feet
And the last enemy — death itself — will be destroyed
Just imagine that.
The thing that has haunted every generation…
the thing that has touched every family…
the thing we fear, avoid, and cannot escape…
Gone.
Forever.
No more funerals.
No more hospital corridors.
No more goodbyes.
No more sin.
No more guilt.
No more shame.
Every tear wiped away.
Every broken thing restored.
Every sad thing made untrue.
But Paul is also clear — this is not automatic.
This is One for All…
…but only for those who are in Christ by faith.
Because verse 25 says:
He must reign until all His enemies are under His feet.
And that means there are only two futures.
Not many.
Not a spectrum.
Just two.
So let me ask you:
Which one is yours?
Are you still “in Adam” — living life on your own terms, trusting in yourself?
Or are you “in Christ” — trusting in the one who died and rose for you?
If you’re here and you’re exploring — you are so welcome.
But you need to know this:
The stakes couldn’t be higher.
If Jesus really did rise from the dead (and last week we saw that there is loads of evidence that he did)…
Then this isn’t just interesting.
It’s everything.
Because one future is unimaginably wonderful.
And the other… is the absence of everything good.
And for those of us who are Christians?
This should change everything about how we live.
If this is true…
If resurrection is coming…
If people are heading towards one of these two futures…
Then this is the most important news in the world.
If there were a fire in this building right now —
you wouldn’t sit quietly.
You’d warn people.
You’d act.
You’d move.
So let’s live in the light of this certain future.
- A future to live for – vv 29-34
Which brings us onto our second and final point – a future to live for.
Paul has argued for a future bodily resurrection on the basis of logic.
Now he turns to argue for it on the basis of personal experience.
And his point is: if there is no future resurrection of the dead… the Christian life is absurd.
And to make his point, Paul gives us two examples.
Now the first is really puzzling.
Verse 29: ‘ Now if there is no resurrection, what will those do who are baptised for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptised for them?”
What on earth does that mean? No less than forty explanations have been put forward in the commentaries.
Let me tell you what I think is most likely. Everything turns on what that word translated “for” means. People usually assume it means “on behalf of”. But it could equally mean “for the sake of”; and I think that’s more likely here.
People in Corinth were coming to faith and being baptised “for the sake of” the dead so that they could be reunited with them at the resurrection.
I guess the situation is fairly common - even today. Picture the scene.
A mother is dying.
She takes her son’s hand and says:
“Trust in Jesus… and one day I’ll see you again.”
She dies.
And her son can’t shake it.
He starts coming to church.
He joins an Alpha course (our next one starts this Wednesday by the way),
He listens.
He wrestles.
And eventually… he believes.
He’s baptised.
And as a result of his mother’s plea, her wish will one day be realised.
I think that’s what was going on in Corinth. And Paul’s point is that if there is no resurrection:
That hope is an illusion.
That decision is pointless.
That faith… is built on nothing.
The second experience Paul refers to is his own experience of suffering for the sake of the Gospel. Take a look at verse 30-32. Those sufferings would have been absolute madness if there is no future resurrection of Christians.
Think about who Paul was. He was born into great privilege. Both a Pharisee and a Roman citizen. Paul received an impeccable education under the tutelage of Rabbi Gamaliel. He was the first century equivalent of an Oxford double first graduate. The world was his oyster. Any job, anywhere.
But what did he do? He frittered it away in order to spend his life travelling around the Ancient Near East preaching a message that hardly anyone wanted to hear.
What’s worse, he did it for free. As we saw when we looked at chapter 9, Paul stayed up most nights making tents to pay his way.
Paul could have been rich beyond his wildest dreams (a seven-figure salary) but he became poor beyond our worst nightmares so that he could preach the gospel.
Pitiful - if there’s no future resurrection.
What’s more, you know Paul was a single man all his life. Now that’s quite normal for us. Manchester is the capital of single people with no religious belief. But in the first century, singleness was incredibly rare. In fact, it was seen as something shameful. Yet Paul willingly remained single with all the stigma that attached to it. Why?
Well back in chapter 7 we were given the answer – so that he could devote himself to sharing the good news of Jesus with others.
Pitiful behaviour if there is no resurrection.
And you know he suffered too. In v. 32, Paul speaks about fighting wild beasts in Ephesus. Now, that’s probably metaphorical. But listen to how he describes his sufferings in his second letter to the church in Corinth, chapter 11:
"Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked.”
Five times he received the forty lashes minus one for preaching the gospel. He would have been stripped and tied to a stake so that he couldn’t run or fall. And then a person trained in flogging would take a whip, probably with bits of bone and metal sewn into the leather and would lash Paul’s backs thirty-nine times. By the end it would be a bloody mess. He couldn’t wear a shirt. He’d be forced to sleep on his front for months. The pain would have been horrific.
And just as it was beginning to heal, Paul would go to the next city and do it all over again.
Imagine what Paul’s back must have looked like.
Paul would have been a fool to have accepted such suffering and hostility for a blatant lie.
If Christians won’t be raised from the dead, then Paul’s life was pitiful.
When I was lecturing up in Durham, I had a colleague called Adam - he actually went to Manchester Grammar and is now a top commercial KC in London. Adam often asked me questions about Christianity.
One day he said to me, “I don’t believe what you say about Jesus being the Son of God, but I can see why it’s good for you. It makes your life better.”
At which point I said, “But it doesn’t. If it’s a lie, then I’m crazy to believe it. I’m wasting my life.”
But Adam said: “No, you’re not. You’re living a good life. You’ve got a good job. A great girlfriend – Anna and I were just dating at the time. You have fun. Live in a nice flat. And you get a really good bunch of friends at church. That’s a good life.”
And he was right. And it got me thinking.
No one would have said that about Paul’s life.
Everyone would have agreed with verse 19.
For Paul, the Christian life would be utterly crazy if this life is all that there is.
Because if this life is all there is…
Then the logical thing to do is verse 32:
“Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”
Paul’s not saying here that, if there’s no resurrection, we should all go out, eat three Five Guys burgers and get drunk at Weatherspoon’s. That would be equally pitiable.
But he is saying that, if the dead are not raised, we should
live nice, normal, comfortable middle-class lives.
I don’t know about you, but I find these verses deeply challenging. Could you say, along with Paul:
“If only for this life I have hope in Christ, I am to be pitied more than all people.”
Or is your lifestyle more like the one described in v. 32 – maximising pleasure, minimising pain, playing it safe.
Listen, I know that some of you are embracing v. 19.
You have been mocked and laughed at by your neighbours and colleagues for telling them about Jesus.
You’ve made the hard decision to say ‘no’ to dating someone because they’re not a Christian.
You’ve decided not to buy that bigger house, that newer car, that sunnier holiday so that you can give generously to gospel ministry here at City Church and beyond.
But if you’re anything like me, that’s only part of the picture.
In a whole host of other areas, we’ve embraced the alternative lifestyle of verse 32 – maximising pleasure and minimising pain.
We’ve done everything we can to avoid trouble. So, yes, we invited our neighbour to the Easter service last Sunday but it was the neighbour with a church background rather than the staunch atheist.
We’re happy to spend a few years working in Manchester, I mean it’s a good place to advance our career. But we’d never consider turning down a promotion in London or Birmingham in order to make Manchester our long-term home so that we can be involved in planting churches. There’s just not enough green space in Manchester and it rains too much.
Singleness is something we tolerate for a while but it’s not something we’ll embrace as being good for the cause of the gospel.
Let me ask you. Let me ask myself.
Can we honestly say with Paul:
“If this isn’t true… I’ve wasted my life”?
If not, is that because we’ve got the wrong engine running our life.
Look at verse 33: “Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character”.”
We tend to think that we see things neutrally. That our perception is objective.
But each of us is profoundly shaped by:
The voices we listen to on Youtube
The lives we admire.
The posts we scroll through every day.
What company are you keeping?
What is the engine driving your life right now?
Is it feeding your desire for gadgets and comfort.
Telling you that success is to be found in a new job.
Happiness in a spouse or a sexual partner.
That this life is all that there is?
Paul says, verse 34, “Come back to your senses.”
Wake up.
Smell the fresh air of the gospel.
See reality clearly.
Let that be the engine that drives you.
Because this life is short, heaven and hell are real, and eternity is very long.
See life through the lens of a certain future resurrection.
Because if you do, you’ll be empowered to live a heroic life.
A life that looks pitiable to the world around you, yes.
But a life that echoes on into eternity.
My Christian friends, you don’t just have a future to believe in…
You have a future to live for.
