This passage of Scripture describes five sad consequences if Christ is not risen from the dead and is not alive today as the only Lord of the universe with all authority in heaven and on earth. What I would like to do this morning is show you these five consequences, and then take just one of them and use it to unfold a very powerful and often-neglected incentive for us to believe in Jesus Christ as the living Lord and the greatest treasure of your life beyond the grave and forever. My hope and prayer is that many of you for your everlasting good will be won over by him this morning. Not me, but him, because he is alive and here and able to persuade you that he is true and the greatest treasure in the universe. The text begins in verse 12 by pointing out that in the community in Corinth, some were saying, There is no resurrection of the dead.
Nobody rises from the dead.
And then he begins the list of five consequences if this is true if Christ is not raised from the dead. Now let s be sure before we see these, that we know what Paul really believes. But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep. In other words, this apostle of Jesus is persuaded that Jesus did rise from the dead, and that his resurrection is the guarantee of our resurrection that s what first fruits from the dead means. The first fruits were the first pickings of the harvest which showed that there is a harvest this resurrection signifies the certainty of our resurrection.