Pretty ordinary stuff.  Travel plans of a 1^st century Jewish apostle.  Why did the Holy Spirit include them in the Bible?

I will visit you after passing through Macedonia, for I intend to pass through Macedonia, and perhaps I will stay with you or even spend the winter, so that you may help me on my journey, wherever I go. For I do not want to see you now just in passing. I hope to spend some time with you, if the Lord permits. But I will stay in Ephesus until Pentecost, for a wide door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many adversaries (1 Corinthians 16:5-9).

Paul is explaining how he intends to get to Corinth for the collection (1 Corinthians 16:1-4). He’s writing from Ephesus, east across the Aegean Sea from Corinth.  He plans to continue ministry there, then journey by land northwest to Macedonia, probably visiting the churches in Thessalonica, Philippi and Berea located in that province..

Finally, he’ll go south to Corinth.  His Corinth plans are uncertain.  “ . . . perhaps I will stay with you or even spend the winter.”  “I hope to spend some time with you, if the Lord permits.”

Like a lot of plans, they changed.  Trouble in Corinth compelled him to make a quick trip to Corinth.  The trouble grew into a major crisis which took two more letters (the “lost” one and 2 Corinthians) and two visits from Titus to mend.

But we know nothing of that here.  His uncertainty about his Corinth visit, however, may imply tensions exist.  So, perhaps does “if the Lord permits”—implying “if the Lord changes the Corinthians’ hearts”.  These tensions become glaringly obvious in Paul’s second letter to the church.

The purpose for his staying at Corinth is surprising: “so that you may help me on my journey, wherever I go.”  “ . . . wherever I go” suggests Paul already has in mind what will become clear later:  he wants to go to Rome, then on to Spain.

Whatever his destination, he hopes for the Corinthians’ help—food, money and a few men to insure a safe and successful trip.

Meanwhile, he’ll remain in Ephesus until Pentecost because “a wide door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many adversaries.”  As long as opportunity remains for it, he’ll stay.  Yet already, before the city-wide riot (Acts 19:23-41), “many adversaries” have appeared.

Tensions with the Corinthians move him to urge their cooperation regarding Timothy . . .

When Timothy comes, see that you put him at ease among you, for he is doing the work of the Lord, as I am. So let no one despise him. Help him on his way in peace, that he may return to me, for I am expecting him with the brothers (1 Corinthians 16:10,11).

“ . . . see that you put him at ease” is literally “see that he is without cause to be afraid”.  Paul is concerned that the Corinthians may mistreat Timothy and give him cause to fear.

Why should they “put him at ease”?  Because, as is Paul, Timothy “is doing the work of the Lord.”  This is why “no one [should] despise him (treat him with contempt).”  Nor should they despise Paul, because both he and Timothy are doing the Lord’s work.

Finally, Paul mentions Apollos, one of the Corinthians’ favorite preachers (1 Corinthians 1:12; 3:5).  It may be that the church was imploring him to visit.

Now concerning our brother Apollos, I strongly urged him to visit you with the other brothers, but it was not at all his will to come now. He will come when he has opportunity (1 Corinthians 16:12).

Surprising that Paul would “strongly urge” Apollos to visit, since, in the Corinthians’ minds, he was Paul’s competitor.  Paul, however, was concerned for the well-being of the church, not winning a popularity contest.  But, writes Paul, “. . . it was not at all [Apollos’] will to come now.

* * *

When we look back on Paul’s ministry, we see the life of an apostolic superstar.  This reminds us that in the actual living of it, it, at best, looked pretty ordinary.  Some of it was made up of ordinary travel plans.  Only after the fact, when we look back at all the pieces, and see how they fit together and what they produced, can we really catch the overall impact.

So it is with our lives.  While not on the level of an apostles’, they have significance.  The Lord is using them to have eternal impact for his glory and his saving work in the world.  But mostly, they seem composed of ordinary stuff.

Take parenting, for example.  In the morning, getting kids ready for school.  In the evening, feeding them dinner, nagging them to do their homework, supervising conflicts, getting them to bed–to say nothing of laundering their clothes, taking them to their sports’ events, teaching them about the Lord, taking them to church, and so on.  Pretty ordinary stuff.

Or take our work.  Most of us aren’t brain surgeons.  Who of us will discover the cure for cancer or engage in diplomatic relations that will bring peace to the Middle East.  Our careers are far more common.

Yet, if we live our lives with faith in Christ and live in obedience to his teachings, he turns the ordinary stuff into extraordinary for the glory of his saving work in the world.  That is, of course, a faith statement.  We won’t see the “sight” of it until after our lives here end and we can look back . . .

Sheriff’s deputy Rick Grimes wakes from a coma to discover the world overrun by zombies.  (A zombie, if–like me–you don’t watch the hit TV series “The Walking Dead”, is a ” fictional undead being created by the reanimation of a human corpse”.)

I’m with the Corinthians’ anti-bodily resurrection stance,  if Paul is talking about “the reanimation of a human corpse”.  Here’s the twin question . . .

“Someone will ask, ‘How can the dead be raised to life? What kind of body will they have?'” (15:35 GNT).

Paul anticipates the Corinthians’ skeptical question.  They ask from disbelief.  Which is why he calls them foolish.

“You fool! When you plant a seed in the ground, it does not sprout to life unless it dies. And what you plant is a bare seed, perhaps a grain of wheat or some other grain, not the full-bodied plant that will later grow up.  God provides that seed with the body he wishes; he gives each seed its own proper body.  And the flesh of living beings is not all the same kind of flesh; human beings have one kind of flesh, animals another, birds another, and fish another.  And there are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies; the beauty that belongs to heavenly bodies is different from the beauty that belongs to earthly bodies. The sun has its own beauty, the moon another beauty, and the stars a different beauty; and even among stars there are different kinds of beauty.  This is how it will be when the dead are raised to life. When the body is buried, it is mortal; when raised, it will be immortal.  When buried, it is ugly and weak; when raised, it will be beautiful and strong.  When buried, it is a physical body; when raised, it will be a spiritual body. There is, of course, a physical body, so there has to be a spiritual body” (15:36-44, GNT).

Resurrection surrounds us.  Flowers in the garden.  Bushes in the yard.  From seed.  Seed transformed into something more, something beautiful.  Varieties of flesh–human, animal, fish, birds.  Heavenly bodies.  Different from each other glory.  So with resurrection.  More than the body buried. Different glory.  Fit for eschatological life.

Dr. Gordon Fee (Professor Emeritus of New Testament Studies at Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia)explains “spiritual body”:  “The transformed body . . . is not composed of ‘spirit’; it is a body adapted to the eschatological existence that is under the ultimate domination of the Spirit.  Thus for Paul, to be truly pneumatikos (spiritual) is to bear the likeness of Christ (15:49) in a transformed body, fitted for the new age” (The First Epistle to the Corinthians, p. 786).

Christ is the basis for these transformed bodies . . .

“For the scripture says, ‘The first man, Adam, was created a living being’; but the last Adam is the life-giving Spirit.  It is not the spiritual that comes first, but the physical, and then the spiritual.  The first Adam, made of earth, came from the earth; the second Adam came from heaven.  Those who belong to the earth are like the one who was made of earth; those who are of heaven are like the one who came from heaven.  Just as we wear the likeness of the man made of earth, so we will wear the likeness of the Man from heaven” (15:45-49, GNT).

Adam:  every human’s first parent–“created a living being”, “made of earth” and “from the earth”.  So we who “belong to the earth” are like Adam, “physical.”  The “last Adam” is “the life-giving Spirit”, “from heaven”.   So we who are “of heaven” are like Christ, “spiritual”.  Now “we wear the likeness of the man made of earth”, then “we will wear the likeness of the Man from heaven”.

Corinthians thought the  “body” must be sloughed off for the full spiritual to be realized–a “spiritual” (pneumatikos) they’d already entered.  In heaven we’re not a bunch of spirit-beings surfing on celestial clouds.  Even so, these bodies must be changed . . .

“What I mean, friends, is that what is made of flesh and blood cannot share in God’s Kingdom, and what is mortal cannot possess immortality. Listen to this secret truth: we shall not all die, but when the last trumpet sounds, we shall all be changed in an instant, as quickly as the blinking of an eye. For when the trumpet sounds, the dead will be raised, never to die again, and we shall all be changed. For what is mortal must be changed into what is immortal; what will die must be changed into what cannot die” (15:50-53, GNT).

Resurrection won’t be “The Walking Dead” or even “merely” the dead rising.  Fundamental transformation in human composition must occur.  And, Paul prophecies, it will.  Not everyone will die, but “we shall all be changed”.  The “seed” of our human body will be transformed.  For when the trumpet signals  the End, it will call the dead from their graves and  transform our bodies into “what cannot die”.

“So when this takes place, and the mortal has been changed into the immortal, then the scripture will come true: ‘Death is destroyed; victory is complete! Where, Death, is your victory? Where, Death, is your power to hurt?”  Death gets its power to hurt from sin, and sin gets its power from the Law.  But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!” (15:54-57, GNT).

At the End, when the dead are raised and the immortal has overtaken the mortal, death itself will be destroyed.  Paul refers to Isaiah 25:7,8–“On this mountain he will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations; he will swallow up death forever“–and Hosea 13:14–“I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death. Where, O death, are your plagues? Where, O grave, is your destruction?”   Fee captures Paul’s triumph:  “Take that, death; for when mortality is clothed with immortality, you have lost both your victory and your sting” (The First Epistle to the Corinthians, p.803).

Sin is the poison that brings us to death.  It’s not decay or disease.  Sin empowers death.  And that sin became more energized through God’s Law, which we repeatedly break.

“But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!”  That victory becomes ours to share in, not only through Christ’s death, not only through his resurrection, but his return which ushers in the final victory.  God has won the victory through Christ.

“So then, my dear friends, stand firm and steady. Keep busy always in your work for the Lord, since you know that nothing you do in the Lord’s service is ever useless” (15:58, GNT).

For Paul, doctrine always must result in practice.  Or, to put it another way, faith must produce obedience.  “So then”–because God gives us complete victory over sin and death, including the triumph of body-transformed resurrection–“stand firm and steady”.  With similar words he began this chapter–“I would remind you . . . of the gospel which I preached to you . . . in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you” (15:1,2). 

Here his exhortation isn’t warning (“you’re being saved if you hold fast to the word”) but motivation (“since you know that nothing you do in the Lord’s service is ever useless”–because of the triumphal End). “Keep busy always in your work for the Lord.”  Nothing is lost.  No act of service is ever erased by death.  Because death is swallowed up by victory!

* * *

At first, I thought I should simply copy Paul’s magisterial words; let them speak their glory for themselves.  Now that I’ve written comment, I think I may have been correct at the start.  Nevertheless, one final thought (well, two . . . ) . . .

There’s no escaping death.  It comes to us all whomever we are.  Our only hope is Christ who died for our sins, was buried, rose on the third day, and appeared to many.  When he comes again, we who are his will be bodily raised and, like Paul, we will taunt death:  “Death, where’s your victory now?  Huh?  Death, where’s your poison-sting today?  Come on, tell me!”  Then we will thank and praise God who gives us this victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.  When I say in the face of death “our only hope is Christ”, I mean our only hope as humans who all die.  Our hope isn’t medicine or technology or surgical advances.  None can stop aging.  None can stave off death.  This body is wasting away.  Christ is our only hope for resurrection-transformation.  Turn to him and be saved.

Finally, why wait to taunt death?  In the words of Isaiah, taunt death now:  “Hey shroud that enfolds all peoples, hey death that like a sheet covers all nations, the Lord will swallow you up forever!”  Or, in the words of Hosea:  “Hey death, the Lord has redeemed me from your power!  Where are your plagues?  Where’s your destruction?  Beaten!  Ha!”

Oh, by the way, Easter’s near.  Happy Resurrection Day!  A great day to taunt death by worshiping the resurrected Christ!

Some groups set dates for Jesus’ return.  One, at least, actually went to a mountain top to be ready.  That’s not the “ready” of which I write.  Based on Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 15:29-34, “ready” means this:  future resurrection should shape our present behavior.

Paul is still confronting the Corinthians’ “no resurrection” stance.  Here he does it with a series of rhetorical questions . . .

Otherwise, what do people mean by being baptized on behalf of the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized on their behalf?” (15:29, ESV).

In 15:20-28 Paul affirmed it: “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead . . . “.  Here he asks rhetorically, like a defense attorney, “Otherwise, what do people mean by baptized on behalf of the dead?”

No other  biblical and no  historical reference to“being baptized on behalf of the dead” exist, leaving us to guess at the practice. Commentators, naturally, have.  But none of their dozen ideas seem really plausible.  Why add mine?

The practice existed and Paul’s rhetorical question clearly means that being baptized for the dead is senseless if there’s no resurrection for the dead to attain.

“Why are we in danger every hour?” (15:30, ESV).

Second rhetorical question.  Not “cool” danger like Jason Bourne (The Bourne Identity spy thriller series), more like never-ending, dismal danger.   “[I have been] in danger from rivers, danger from bandits, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers and sisters . . . ” (2 Corinthians 11:26(.

Why would anyone in his right mind put himself in such danger daily if there’s no resurrection?

“I protest, brothers, by my pride in you, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die every day!” 15:31, ESV).

Paul boasts about Corinthians’ conversions (not in himself but in the Lord’s work through him (2 Corinthians 1:14), but adds to his danger-question above:  “I die daily”–meaning, “Every day I face the real possibility of losing my life!”  A casual reading of Acts misses that.  Paul’s-eye-view gives us the real picture.

“What do I gain if, humanly speaking, I fought with beasts at Ephesus? If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die” (15:32, ESV).

Again, reading Acts reveals successful ministry with one troublesome opposition, hardly calling for this “beasts at Ephesus” metaphor.  But listen to Paul”s confession:

We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life.  Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.  He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us,  as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many” (2 Corinthians 1:8-11).

If there’s no resurrection,  Paul would gain nothing by enduring such hardship  Anybody with a brain would party, not suffer, if the grave marked life’s end.

“Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals” (15:33, ESV).

The statement is more than a generic proverb.  It aims right at the Corinthians’ conduct.  Hanging around with those who deny future resurrection (even if it is one another!) corrupts good morals (literally, “customs, habits”).  Future resurrection should produce right behavior.  Remove the hope of resurrection and you’ve removed a powerful  impetus for that right conduct.

For example, why sacrifice for someone else if this life is all we’ve got?  Why endure suffering for righteousness’ sake if only the grave awaits?  With no resurrection, we “only go ’round once in life”; so let’s party man!

“Wake up from your drunken stupor, as is right, and do not go on sinning. For some have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame. (15:34, (ESV).

Being deceived (15:33) is like being drunk (15:34).  A translation that better expresses Paul’s imperative:  “Sober up!”

How are they “sinning”?  By denying the truth of the resurrection, by boastfully showing off their spiritual gifts, by not pursuing love, and primarily by not having (that is, rejecting) knowledge of God.  This the ultimate put-down.  The Corinthians boast of their “spirituality.”  For Paul to charge some of them as having no knowledge of God is to “shame” them, as he intends.

* * *

I don’t remember, in 44 years of ministry, ever preaching on this particular paragraph nor hearing a sermon on it.  Maybe we preachers shy away from it because of “baptism on behalf of the dead”.  What preacher wants to admit he doesn’t know what a text is about?

That’s a shame, because this paragraph makes a pivotal point:  future resurrection should shape present behavior.  In other words, believing we’ll be bodily resurrected frees us to behave more Christianly.

For example and most obvious:  believing we’ll be bodily resurrected frees us to sacrifice and even suffer for the cause of Christ.  Sacrifice money I could spend on food or clothing or health clubs?  If we’ve got only this life and this body, giving away money for Christ’s sake is a hard sell.

Even harder is suffering.  Few of us face that possibility, of course.  But obey Christ’s call to a mission field where Christianity is outlawed and suffering becomes a real threat.  Not many are so noble to heed the call without the promise of resurrection.

A second example is more personal:  joyful hope in the face of physical illness or disability.  I have to admit, knowing that my body will be resurrected whole isn’t a cure-all.  I still want to walk now, in this life.  I think of that often and get discouraged easily.  But without future resurrection despair would dominate every day.  With it, I have tangible hope that rests on the historical, bodily resurrection of Christ.

Lord, we debate against intellectuals who debunk resurrection.  Soon we’ll celebrate Easter with great joy.  But move us also to live “resurrection-ready”.  Not by standing on a mountain top looking up, but willingly sacrificing for your sake now, even enduring suffering with joyful hope, believing that one day . . .

” . . . the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.  When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory” (1 Corinthians 15:52-54, NIV).

Amen.

It’s a big but (no jokes, only one “t”).   Paul, after pointing to the logical consequences of the Corinthians’ nobody-gets-resurrected notion (1 Corinthians 15:12-19), writes the big good news “but” . . .

But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep (1 Corinthians 15:20).

“[I]ndeed” translates the Greek nuni, a word that adds force to what follows.  It puts “Christ has . . . been raised from the dead” in bold-face type, underlined and yellow-marker highlighted.  Enough entertaining “no resurrection”.  Christ has been raised!  He was and continues to be (what the perfect tense of egneretai means) raised.

What, though, does “firstfruits” mean?  Decades ago my father grew tomatoes.  When little green ones appeared on the vine, and then when one or two grew large and turned red, we knew those vines in that small garden would soon produce a harvest of juicy, red New Jersey tomatoes.  The first little ones were “firstfruits”.

“Celebrate the Feast of Harvest with the firstfruits of the crops you sow in your field. Celebrate the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in your crops from the field” { Ex. 23:16).  The first feast was to be celebrated “with the firstfruits”–both a thanksgiving for the harvest begun and a faith-celebration for the harvest to be fulfilled.  The second feat was a celebration of that fulfillment.

So Paul proclaims:  not only has Christ been raised, he’s been raised as “the firstfruits” of all having-died-believers in him.

For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man.  For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive (1 Corinthians 15:21,22).

Okay, let’s say Christ has been raised.  It’s a bit of a stretch to say that his resurrection guarantees ours.  Here’s Paul’s reasoning–and it, too, stretches our faith.  “For since death came through a man . . . For as in Adam all die”.  The apostle’s answer to “Why death?” is Adam, father of us all.

Now I don’t want to get mired in the question of “the first human”.  But, unless we’re willing to accept that a bunch of us all appeared at once, it’s reasonable to say there was a first.  Later in Romans 5:12, Paul will explain, ” . . . sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned”.  That is, drawing from the Genesis 3 narrative, Paul explains “Why death?”  Answer:  Adam sinned.  Therefore, dust-made-Adam would return to dust.  And since we are all Adam’s descendants, we will sin and death comes to us all.

Unfair?  Maybe.  But this is Scripture’s explanation for death’s existence.  Adam represented us all, and his disobedience to God doomed us all.

But ” . . . the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man . . . in Christ all will be made alive.”  Like Adam, Christ is the believer’s representative.  His resurrection means those “in Christ will be made alive”.  My body will die.  But, because of Christ, it will be raised.

“But each in his own turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power” (1 Corinthians 15:23,24).

There’s a God-ordained sequence.  As with agricultural firstfruits, so with resurrection firstfruits.  Christ, “then when he comes, those who belong to him”.  Literally, the Greek say “those who are His”.  How does one come to belong to Christ?  By receiving in faith this gospel:  “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures . . . was buried . . . was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures . . . and appeared . . . ” (1 Corinthians 15:3-5).

The resurrection of those belonging to Christ will mark “the end” with two accompanying, shattering events.  One, Christ will destroy “all dominion, authority and power”.  Here Paul means the dominion, authority and power of death, but surely includes all dominion, authority and power opposed to him.

Secondly, then, Christ will “[hand] over the kingdom to God the Father”.  Here is a mind-stretching reference to the Trinity with the Son (who is God) eternally subject to the Father (though both are God)!  Paul explains in the next verses . . .

For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.  The last enemy to be destroyed is death.  For he “has put everything under his feet.” Now when it says that “everything” has been put under him, it is clear that this does not include God himself, who put everything under Christ.  When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all” (1 Corinthians 15:25-28).

There is no question in Paul’s mind:  having been resurrection, Christ now reigns.  In line with that, Jesus-resurrected told his disciples, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me . . . ” (Matthew 28:18).  At the same time, his enemies remain–until he puts them all under his feet.  He will destroy them all.  “The last enemy to be destroyed is death.”  Those belonging to Christ will never die again, because death itself will be destroyed.

C.K. Barrett comments, “The Son has been entrusted with a mission on behalf of the Father, whose sovereignty has been challenged, and at least to some extent usurped by rebellious powers.  It is for him to reclaim this sovereignty by overcoming the powers, overthrowing his enemies, and recovering the submission of creation as a whole.  This mission he will in due course execute, death being the last adversary to hold out, and when it is completed he will hand the government of the universe back to his Father” (The First Epistle to the Corinthians, p. 360).

The ultimate purpose of Christ’s mission (carried out in his incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, ascension and return) is “that God may be all in all”.  In other words,  God reigning unopposed in all his goodness forever.

* * *

My father’s tomato “firstfruits” didn’t come with trumpet blasts.  Silently, the  process of tomato-ripening progressed.  I hardly noticed.  I went to school, played my games, ate my meals and slept in my bed.  Meanwhile, out in the backyard, “firstfruits” grew on toward harvest.

Christ’s “firstfruits” resurrection didn’t come with trumpet blasts.either.  It  set in motion an inaudible,  irrevocable, incredible harvest:  Christ’s return, the resurrection-harvest  of all believers from all times and places, the death of death and God all in all.  We hardly notice what’s happening.  The process doesn’t show up on our smartphones or military technology.  But it’s in motion now! 

It’s moving toward something bigger and better than we can even imagine.

And, in Christ, we’re caught up in it.