6th Sunday after Epiphany
February 15, 2004
1 Corinthians 15:1-19

^15:1Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. ²By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. ³For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, ⁴that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, ⁵and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. ⁶After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. ⁷Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, ⁸and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born. ⁹For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. ¹⁰But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them-- yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. ¹¹Whether, then, it was I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed.

¹²But 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? ¹³If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. ¹⁴And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. ¹⁵More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. ¹⁶For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. ¹⁷And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. ¹⁸Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. ¹⁹If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men. (NIV).

Put on the Right Boots!

Did you hear about the Texas teacher who was helping one of her kindergarten students put on his cowboy boots? He asked for help and she could see why. Even with her pulling and him pushing, the little boots still didn't want to go on. By the time the second boot was on, she had worked up a sweat.

She almost cried when the little boy said, "Teacher, they're on the wrong feet." She looked and sure enough, they were. It wasn't any easier pulling the boots off than it was putting them on. She managed to keep her cool as together they worked to get the boots back on, this time on the right feet.

He then announced, "These aren't my boots." She bit her tongue rather than get right in his face and scream, "Why didn't you say so?" like she wanted to. And, once again she struggled to help him pull the ill-fitting boots off his little feet. No sooner they got the boots off and he said, "They're my brother's boots. My Mom made me wear 'em."

Now she didn't know if she should laugh or cry. But, she mustered up the grace and courage she had left to wrestle the boots on his feet again. Helping him into his coat, she asked, "Now, where are your mittens?" He said, "I stuffed 'em in the toes of my boots." Her trial starts next month. (Author unknown, joke sent through email).

  If you could read Paul’s letter to the Corinthians with a sense of humour, I think you might see the same sort of scenario. Like putting on the wrong pair of boots, those people had adopted a bunch of wrong ideas. And like that teacher, Paul tried to correct the situation with varying degrees of success and frustration. Unfortunately, while the story of the boots is hilarious, the situation in ancient Corinth wasn’t at all funny because wrong beliefs lead to serious problems.

  In today’s Epistle reading, Paul not only defends the doctrine of Jesus’ bodily resurrection, but gives a sober warning about the importance of sound doctrine. If I may put it this way, Paul is warning us to put on the right boots. Wearing the wrong boots may give you sore feet; but believing the wrong doctrine can cost you your salvation! Today, therefore, I want to move you to pay close attention to what Paul writes to the Corinthians: Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.

  What do we mean by doctrine? Doctrine is official, authoritative teaching. In the case of the Church, doctrine is simply the teaching of God’s Word. It’s the teaching of the prophets, of Jesus and of his apostles. Doctrine is the body of truths that we have received, believe and confess, for example, in the Apostle’s and Nicene Creeds. Paul is referring to Christian doctrine when he says, 3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. . . . this is what we preach, and this is what you believed.

  The implication, of course, is that you are not a Christian and will not be saved from judgment if you don’t really believe these things. This seems so simple and obvious. Yet we repeatedly run into a problem: human reason. History is full of examples of how we have held false beliefs because they seemed right to us and rejected truths because they didn’t seem right. For example, most people believed the earth was flat until the sixteenth century. Even today, in the U.S. of all places, there is a Flat Earth Society that believes that the earth is flat and that space exploration is a hoax!

  The same thinking applies to perhaps the most important Christian doctrine, the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ. It runs counter to human reason and experience. We have never seen someone rise from the dead for good. We may have heard about or even seen someone who was resuscitated after having been pronounced dead, but we’ve never seen or heard about anyone rising from the dead never to die again! And so the resurrection of Jesus is hard to believe. Even Jesus’ disciples couldn’t believe it until they saw and touched him!

  The Corinthians were Greeks, and Greeks at the time, thanks to all the philosophers like Plato, believed only in the continued existence of the soul. They spoke of the soul or spirit being released from the body at death, but categorically denied the resurrection of the body. We see that for example in the Acts when Paul was in Athens. They listened to him talk about Jesus up to the point where he spoke of the resurrection. Then they wrote him off as a quack. For them, Paul put on the wrong boots! For Paul, they had on the wrong boots.

  People still reject the idea of resurrection. Modern materialists deny any kind of life after death, so there’s no question of a resurrection. Some others believe in reincarnation which I suppose has some similarities to resurrection, but there’s quite a difference between reincarnating as a dog and Jesus’ resurrection. But what really puzzles me are Christians, who like the Corinthians, deny a bodily resurrection and turn it into something else. They put their mittens in the wrong pair of boots and then try to wear them!

  Brilliant Christian scholars have rejected the idea of a bodily resurrection and, through their writings, have changed the faith of millions of people. Take for example, Karl Barth, an extremely important Reformed theologian whose books have been used by thousands of pastors and other church leaders. He explains the resurrection, not as a physical resurrection, but simply as the fact that you will continue to exist in the mind of God.

  Another very important theologian, Rudolf Bultmann, explains the resurrection as a change in the believer. Jesus didn’t rise from the dead in his body but in the hearts and minds of his disciples. Jesus so inspired them by his death, that they were changed into new people. They expressed their individual resurrection as the “myth” of Jesus’ resurrection. As that thought inspires us, we too experience a sort of resurrection in ourselves. We gain a new understanding of our life and purpose, a new reason for faith. But we won’t literally rise from the dead.

  I really don’t know why anyone would believe any of that, yet such thinking has taken it’s toll. According to George Barna, about 40% of Americans believe that Jesus was crucified but that he did not physically rise from the dead. Even among so called “born-again” adults, 30% rejected the idea of a bodily resurrection. The statistics get even worse when you consider other Christian doctrines like creation, the Holy Spirit, sin and Satan. People simply don’t believe what the Bible says, even many who call themselves Christians.

  You see, it’s not only that people don’t believe in the resurrection or some other doctrine, but they don’t believe that doctrine is important. You can believe what you want, make your own truth, your own version of Christianity. That makes sense if the resurrection is all in our head, but if it is bodily then we have a problem. For Paul says, By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.

  We will be saved only if we hold fast the Gospel, i.e., the doctrine that Jesus and his apostles proclaimed. We can’t change it to suit us and expect God to accept it. God has promised to save us only through faith in Christ. Apart from Jesus’ death and resurrection, there is no other way to obtain forgiveness and be reconciled to God. Other “gospels” are of no use as Paul says to the Galatians. I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel-- 7 which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! (Gal 1:6-8. NIV).

  I think today, Paul would be arrested for writing hate literature and thrown in jail! Yet that word remains and continues to warn us against changing the doctrine that God has given us. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the only pair of boots that fit the Church! Anything else is wrong and will have a bad effect on us. A Lutheran theologian put it this way.

If the truth of God’s Word is to accomplish its divinely intended purpose, it must be taught and accepted as it is revealed in Holy Scriptures. Any change or corruption of these teachings will necessarily affect the influence they have on the hearts and the lives of men. Guided by wrong information, man will go wrong. Only the right doctrine can create the right faith in our hearts and lead us in the right way through life. (Koehler, A Summary of Christian Doctrine, p. iii).

  Is that not the sense of Paul’s words? If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. 19 If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.

  Now, I certainly don’t want to turn us into some sort of doctrine police. I don’t want you to run around looking for false doctrines to condemn. But I do want you to recognize the importance of correct doctrine. I do want you to desire to know true doctrine so that you can recognize what is false, avoid it and possibly refute it. This, not so that we can hold our noses in the air and say we’re better than others, but in order to save ourselves and others. False doctrine is not just the wrong pair of boots, it’s poison. It’s rebellion against Christ. It’s a matter of calling God a liar. It destroys faith in Christ and leads to eternal damnation. You would not eat what you know to be poison! Why believe what you know to be wrong?

  On the other hand, true doctrine is more than the right pair of boots. It is life-giving food! Paul wrote to Timothy, Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers. (1 Tim 4:16. NIV). Right doctrine makes us wise and saves us. It gives us hope and confidence. It strengthens faith and moves us to love and good deeds.

  Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. May God grant each of you the grace to hold fast to that saving Gospel!