1 Corinthians 15 Discussion

If you strip Christianity down to its load-bearing wall, Paul points to one claim: Jesus rose from the dead. That’s where we spend our time today as we work through 1 Corinthians 15 with Pastor Pleck and Pastor Holland, outlining the chapter and then observing, interpreting, and applying it in plain language.

We talk about why Paul calls the gospel “of first importance,” and why “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures” is not a soft slogan but a sharp statement about sin, substitution, and salvation. Then we follow Paul’s appeal to eyewitness testimony, including the staggering line about more than five hundred witnesses, and we discuss what that kind of public evidence is meant to do for Christians who doubt, question, or feel worn down.

From there the conversation turns into a thought experiment with real emotional weight: what happens if there is no resurrection of the dead? Paul’s answer is brutal and clarifying. Without the resurrection of Jesus, hope shrinks into survival, morality becomes optional, suffering becomes meaningless, and “let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die” starts to sound reasonable. We also tackle the confusing phrase “baptism for the dead,” not to build a shaky doctrine, but to see how Paul uses it to expose what people already believe about eternity.

We close with the payoff of resurrection theology: Christ reigns, every enemy will fall, and death is the last enemy to be destroyed. That’s why we can grieve with hope, work with endurance, and stay “steadfast, immovable” knowing our labor in the Lord is not in vain. If this strengthened your faith, subscribe, share it with a friend, and leave a review so more people can find the show.

Text us at 737-231-0605 with any questions.

Transcript

Pastor Plek 0:10

And welcome back to a chapter a day. Keeps the devil away. I'm Pastor Pleck. This is Pastor Hong. We're talking 1 Corinthians chapter 15. We're going to outline it. We're going to observe it, interpret it, and apply it so that you can be fully immersed in God's word today. Verses 1 through 11 talk about the gospel and Christ's resurrection, real definition of the gospel seen here. Then in verses 12 through 19, you have the consequences if there is no resurrection. And then verses 20 through 28 is Christ as the first fruits of the resurrection. And then you got 29 through 34, the practical implications of the resurrection. And then verses 35 through 49, the nature of the resurrection. And then finally in 50 through 58, the mystery and the victory of the resurrection itself. Okay, let's get into this incredible text of a solid 58 verses.

The Gospel As Primary Doctrine

Pastor Holland 1:03

All right, let's go. What do you see? I love that he says the gospel, um, the way he explains it here, that it's of first importance. And so he said, you know, it doesn't come first in a letter, we're chapter 15, but he kind of builds up to it. Um, even though it's not first in his letter, he says it's of first importance, um, really showing um, you know, like a hierarchy of importance for certain doctrines, and that the gospel is like, hey, this is a big deal. You gotta get this one right.

Pastor Plek 1:33

Yeah, you can get other stuff sort of wrong, or we call them primary, secondary, tertiary, even quadrant. Yeah. So this is a primary, and so yeah, get this right. If you know nothing else, Jesus died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures. Now, for those who are like anti um substitutionary atonement, how do they read this scripture and be like, this is the most important thing? Don't get this wrong.

Pastor Holland 2:07

Yeah. I don't know. It's like so clear. Died for our sins.

Pastor Plek 2:12

Yeah. Um, I don't know, I don't want you. Like, no, you're a good example. Stop talking about people's sins because people are not that bad.

Pastor Holland 2:18

Yeah. And it's like, well, there it is. Died for our sins. And he says, in accordance with the scriptures, and so it's like the Old Testament predicted, prophesied, foretold the crucifixion of Jesus, you know, his death in place of sinners to die in our place and for our sins. That's in the old testament. On the third day, in accordance with the scriptures. Yeah. Where does the scripture say he's going to be raised on the third day? Um, Jonah. Boom. The sign of Jonah. That's it. On the third day came out of the belly of the whale.

Pastor Plek 2:50

Belly of the whale.

Witnesses, Apostles, And Paul’s Past

Pastor Holland 2:51

Okay. How about this? Five hundred brothers at one time. So, you know, you needed for a reliable testimony in court, you needed two or three witnesses. And Paul's going, hey, we had got 500 of those. Yeah. So, like, not only did I was it just like I saw it, or I had one other person, or there's three of us. He said, We got 500 witnesses to this thing. And most of them are all still alive. Go talk to them. Yep. Okay.

Pastor Plek 3:21

Um, and I like how he said, Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared to also to me. But more than that, I kind of love the fact he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. James's brother? Yeah. So he appears to Caphas or Cephas, then he appears to James, then to all the apostles. Um, can you tell me the difference between the twelve and the apostles? Between the twelve and the apostles? Then he appeared to the Cephas, then to the 12. Then he appeared to more than 500 brothers one time.

Pastor Holland 3:56

Oh, oh, I see, I see. Then he appeared to Jesus.

Pastor Plek 3:57

So like in addition, who are the other apostles that aren't the 12? Is this the big A apostles or these little A apostles?

Pastor Holland 4:04

Well, you have um, so like uh Jude, uh the brother of Jesus and James. Yeah, you know, James is mentioned here. Jude's not mentioned, but Jude wrote the New Testament letter. Jude, he's the brother of Jesus, but was not one of the twelve. Right. Um, and then you have like um uh Luke. Luke was not one of the twelve. Um, but Luke, you know, is a biblical author. You have Barnabas, who's referred to, I believe, as an apostle um in the book of Acts, or yeah, where is Barnabas called an apostle?

Pastor Plek 4:44

So Barnabas would have been, I think, Acts 14. Is that where it calls him an apostle? Uh yeah. But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of it.

Pastor Holland 4:54

Okay. Um so you have Apostle um being very in a strict sense referring to the 12, but then slightly expanded, referring to also Paul.

Pastor Plek 5:05

In Galatians 119, but I saw none of the other apostles except James, the Lord's brother.

Pastor Holland 5:11

There you go. So you have James kind of included here, and so apostles, uh I think when it's you know, using this um what is it, verse nine? Um, no, no, no. Unworthy to be called an apostle. Oh, all the apostles, verse seven. So I think he's referring to this kind of slightly expanded circle of guys like James, Jude, Barnabas. Um we don't know how many exactly were all included in that, but that's what I would say.

Pastor Plek 5:42

Yeah. Um what about I I just love the fact that uh he's Kephas here or Cephas. Sorry for calling it. It's technically, I think you pronounce it with a K.

Pastor Holland 5:55

The Greek, if you're reading the Greek New Testament, if that's like if you're listening to this and you read Greek, you would pronounce it Khas, right? And that but in English with the C E, we usually pronounce Cephas. So that's why it's so weird because I use You want to say Kephas to sound like uh I know Greek. I know, like I'm cool, yeah, but everyone's like, what are you talking about?

Pastor Plek 6:14

Yeah, I know. It's like I'm a Greek speaker around here and I can read the Greek and I only see a big K whenever C is see I just said Cephas, but you look smarter than me now because you said Kephas.

Pastor Holland 6:22

Far smarter.

Pastor Plek 6:24

Um okay, so what about um uh how about I I love by the grace of God, I am what I am. Meaning like on the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called apostle because he persecuted the church. Like I just love how he owns his role in persecution. Yeah. I am what I am, but he's also it is what it is.

Pastor Holland 6:53

I worked harder than any of them. Yeah, just to be clear. If we're talking about who did the most, it was me. But it wasn't me, it was the grace of God in me.

Pastor Plek 7:04

Yeah. He kind of checked everybody there. He just totally Jesus juke to everybody. I that's why I love the humanity of uh of all these apostles.

Pastor Holland 7:14

I I think like he's just being realistic of like way more. I I wrote all these letters, I'm the one who planted all these churches. And ain't bragging if it's true, okay? Yeah. But it was God in me, so there you go.

If There’s No Resurrection

Pastor Plek 7:26

Well, it was I or they, so we preach so you believe. Okay. Um, all right, so I love how he gets right into the argument of like how some said there is no resurrection of the dead.

Pastor Holland 7:36

Mm-hmm.

Pastor Plek 7:37

What is the point?

Pastor Holland 7:39

Like this this gets into Remember the Sadducees believed no resurrection of the dead.

Pastor Plek 7:44

They were sad, you see. Yeah.

Pastor Holland 7:46

Yeah. But that that was already a thing that Jesus was dealing with in the gospels. Right. And then it comes up again in Acts, and now you see there's, you know, I don't know if these were kind of uh uh people not believing in the resurrection, like unrelated to the Sadducees, or if these were like kind of Sadducee disciples here.

Pastor Plek 8:07

It feels like they're in Corinth, so the Sadducees' impact would probably be minor, but minor, yeah. You know, I don't know. But the fact it it you know, there was like there's nothing new under the sun, so the Sadducee teaching just spurred it little little ahead and be like, there's no resurrection of the dead. We love Jesus that he died for us, but if he didn't raise, if he's not raised from the dead, then who cares? Yeah, exactly.

Pastor Holland 8:29

If he's just Jesus the moral teacher, Jesus the wise prophet, then like we're wasting our time. Right. And let if he didn't rise from the dead, then it's all it's we're all screwed.

Pastor Plek 8:40

All right, so let's talk about that. Why is does Jesus have to be raised from the dead? What does that show us?

Pastor Holland 8:47

If God doesn't raise the dead at all, then like, hey, we have no hope of heaven. And that's why he says, you know, um, let us eat and drink for tomorrow uh we die, right? Right. Um, what verse is that?

Pastor Plek 9:01

Uh that's way down there. Uh yeah, that's verse 32.

Pastor Holland 9:07

32, there it is. Yeah. Um let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die. If there's no hope of heaven, there's no eternity, and also this means there's no final judgment. Right. We're all just gonna go on the ground. What reason do we have to live moral lives? What hope do we have in suffering?

Pastor Plek 9:24

Like what is the point of anything other than just try to get the most at Was it perhaps a maybe a Gnostic teaching where you become spirit, you're just a spiritual person now, or you know, a spirit being, and so you don't have a resurrection of a physical body, and so you get to go, your spirit goes to be with Jesus. That's kind of how I I would have now granted, I wasn't there for the argument, so I don't know, but that's probably what I would be thinking of, like a little Gnostic, you just became enlightened to the nth degree, and you achieved a certain set of like heaven, whereas everyone else gets to experience a hellish spiritual life. Yeah. Um that's how that's that probably the argument that I think he's refuting.

Pastor Holland 10:04

Yeah, I just think for the uh let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die gives you that more like nihilistic sense of like it doesn't matter, like there's just nothing after this life. So just hey, live it up, yeah, YOLO.

The Puzzle Of Baptism For Dead

Pastor Plek 10:16

Oh, for sure. Because like, why I love I love how he goes, what do I gain if humanly speaking I fought with beasts at Ephesus? Uh meaning, like if I had to go to the arena at Ephesus and then I die there, nothing was accomplished. It's nothing. Yeah. All right. Um or just yeah, yeah, exactly. All right, then the next thing that what is up with baptism for the dead? Come on.

Pastor Holland 10:44

Baptism for the dead. If the dead are not raised at all, verse 29, why are people baptized on their behalf? I don't know.

Pastor Plek 10:51

All right, I'm gonna give you two options. Option one, uh-huh. There was a certain sect of people that were like, hey, my buddy died. You know what? I'll be baptized as a proxy for him. And Paul thought it was ridiculous, so ridiculous, he didn't even think it needed refuting. But the fact that people did it showed that they believed in an afterlife and while and why they valued it. Yeah. Other option is that as soon as someone, uh, a member of the early church, like was given up to die by a beast in Ephesus or whatever, or to be burned or whatever, another convert would step up forward and say, Let me take his name in place. So I will die. I too am the next. So if you died in the arena, I would feel overwhelmed by conviction and I'd be like, I will die for Holland, or I will be baptized, and I'd you know, dump water on my head or something to show I'm uniting with would you do that for me? I would do that for you. Let's go. And then I would be like, You can count me in with old Holland, and I would go and die and be baptized for the dead, meaning I'm being baptized just like you, and I'm also gonna die just like you.

Pastor Holland 12:05

That's interesting. I think so. Okay, so it doesn't say we don't know. We don't, we're making that up.

Pastor Plek 12:09

Yeah.

Pastor Holland 12:09

I another thought. So, like the more correct me if I'm wrong. I'm pretty sure Mormons do this as like a normal part of their religion, but related to you have to be baptized to be saved. Yep. And so if you die before baptism, then someone has to get baptized, like a family member or something like that, like a kinship baptism or something, uh to like make it count for you so that you can be like saved and get your afterlife benefits. So I don't think that obviously Mormonism insurance benefits. Yeah, right. Uh now Mormonism, you know, is like a more recent cult that's come up. But way back then, a similar idea, I feel like if you're like, hey, there, you know, we're rewarded for our faithful obedience, you know, in this life. And if someone was gonna get baptized, but then they got crucified or beheaded beforehand, uh I could see a family member being like, all right, they were gonna be baptized. Let me get baptized for them to make sure they don't miss out on their bonus treasures in heaven or something. So Paul doesn't like um commend this, he doesn't command it, he doesn't really give any commentary on it other than people are doing it, and therefore that proves you believe in an afterlife. Yeah, you believe in an afterlife and and a resurrection, essentially.

Pastor Plek 13:20

And we do this in sermon illustrations all the time. We'll say, like, you already believe in you know, uh unity when you you know cheer for your team or something, like you, you know, you defend your team.

Christ Reigns Until Death Falls

Pastor Holland 13:32

And we're not necessarily commending that thing, we're just saying the fact that you do this proves that you already believe in unity. Yeah. And now let me give you a true biblical point based on that. And that's what he's doing. He's saying the true biblical point is there is a resurrection, and then he gets into what the resurrection body is gonna be like, which is kind of cool.

Pastor Plek 13:48

Okay. Um other observations here. I love how like death is the final enemy, which I thought was really cool, which is why we, whenever we grieve, we don't grieve like those who have no hope. And we can kind of like a little bit of taunting of death. Death is swallowed up in victory. Oh death, where is your victory? Oh death, where is your sting? And so we are we defeat death and we defeat the power of sin in the law because of the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. If you ever wonder why you've heard churches name victory, whatever church, it's because right here, victory through Jesus Christ.

Pastor Holland 14:25

Uh what do you think about this? He must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.

Pastor Plek 14:33

So does that mean he stops reigning?

Pastor Holland 14:36

So he he's um one, I mean, it sounds like he's reigning right now. Yeah. Right? Okay. And so, and that sounds like he's putting enemies under his feet right now. Like more and more enemies. Yeah.

Pastor Plek 14:48

Perhaps more than are gonna reign with him. Wait, what? Meaning narrow is the way that leads to life if you find it. So he's gonna have a lot more under his feet than those reigning alongside him in hell.

Pastor Holland 15:02

Uh perhaps, perhaps, perhaps. But I I think of his enemies too, also as like um like demonic forces of darkness that are, you know, reigning over the nations of the world. And as the Great Commission goes out, people are preaching the gospel and churches are being planted, and those demons are being dethroned in a sense, because the nations aren't worshiping pagan gods anymore, they're worshiping Jesus. And so as the gospel spreads throughout the globe, I like that, his enemies are being put under his feet. Um what verse are you looking at? Uh, verse thir twenty-five. And then once they're all under his feet, meaning like the gospel has thorough has reached all the nations, um, then uh then is like, hey, here's the return of Christ, and he puts death at the final enemy to it.

Pastor Plek 15:49

And then he glorifies everyone's body. And nice.

Pastor Holland 15:52

I like that. That's that's my thought on verse 25 and 26.

Pastor Plek 15:58

For God has put all things in subjection under his feet.

Pastor Holland 16:03

Yeah, and this section's cool too. It says, All things are put in subject. It's kind of confusing. It is plain that he is accepted, meaning God the Father, who put all things in subjection under him. Um, so you see God the Father in this um authority over Jesus for a time. I I say for a time because I think this is related to Jesus' incarnation and becoming a man. I think before he became a man, there was no sense of subjection whatsoever in the Trinity. I'm okay with that. Yeah. And so, but now with him uh reigning as a man, uh the resurrected Jesus in heaven, ruling over all things, they're brought into subjection under him. Jesus is subject to the Father, and then all things are all in all, it says that God may be all in all. I can go with that.

Pastor Plek 16:54

Let's look at some uh nature of man situation here. What do we got?

Pastor Holland 17:02

Um man, there we we have physical bodies that will die and then we uh we'll be resurrected.

Pastor Plek 17:08

Yeah, nice. Um, how about Adam? We were made in the image of Adam in the sense of made from dust, and we're made in the image of Christ in our spiritual life. I thought that was uh just an interesting take for verses 45 through 49.

Pastor Holland 17:26

Yeah. Uh another one, just unrelated bad company ruins good morals, verse 33.

Pastor Plek 17:32

Yeah.

Pastor Holland 17:33

He kind of throws that in there as like um related to the let's eat and drink for tomorrow we die.

Pastor Plek 17:40

So the people who are teaching you that don't hang around those people.

Pastor Holland 17:42

Yeah. Um, if you're hanging around people who don't believe in the resurrection, you're gonna bit get sucked into kind of a worldly way of thinking about life.

Pastor Plek 17:51

Okay. How about the the 500 brothers, a large group of unnamed witnesses? A bunch were alive at the time of that writing, have it adding a lot of weight. We as people need real people to validate miracles.

Pastor Holland 18:07

Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I mean, without witnesses, uh it's this the story of Jesus loses a lot of credibility, right? And he has a lot of witnesses, though. Like, really, the idea that you needed two or three to be like, okay, this is reliable. And he goes, We have 500. Like that's you know, astronomical, crazy level of witnesses who saw the resurrected Jesus. Uh okay.

Pastor Plek 18:32

Um, let's see. Character of God? Um how about people can be transformed and victorious through Christ? Like, I I thought that was just kind of cool. I love the victory in Jesus thing uh in verses those last several verses. Um okay, yeah, let's get to character of God. Um how about God is the sovereign raiser of the dead? Love it. He raised Christ, he will raise us, and honestly, if we're not raised from the dead, nothing matters. Just die and hit delete.

Warnings, Work, And Final Hope

Pastor Holland 19:07

Yeah. Um I love that uh just the according to the scripture part, the first part about uh the death and resurrection of Jesus, that God has, you know, he's revealed the gospel, um, he's made his plan of salvation known to us. The scriptures point to it, Old Testament and New Testament. God wants us to know him and believe in Christ.

Pastor Plek 19:28

And how about through Christ, God puts all enemies under his feet, including death, including the demons, including anything bad. All sad things come untrue.

Pastor Holland 19:42

Amen.

Pastor Plek 19:43

All right. What else? Anything else there for God?

Pastor Holland 19:49

I think the reality just of, you know, this is so it's such a hopeful thing that there is a resurrection, that there is eternal life, that um, you know, to the to the point where it ends, like uh therefore be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. This life is not just eat and drink, tomorrow we die, but it's like this reveals the um just the hope that we have in God and the encouragement to keep going. It's good.

Pastor Plek 20:18

All right, how about let's get to some application. Uh, sin to avoid or confess, a promise to claim, an example, follow, command obey, or knowledge to believe. How about sin to avoid? Don't deny the resurrection or live in ignorance. This is an original wake-up call to righteousness. Don't sin.

Pastor Holland 20:38

Yeah. Um, don't uh surround yourself with bad company that'll ruin your good morals. Nice.

Pastor Plek 20:45

Um, how about follow Paul's example of being hardworking?

Pastor Holland 20:49

Yeah, I worked harder than any of them. There you go. Um be like Paul. But make that be your ambition that you can say you worked harder than everybody. Yeah, and it would be true.

Pastor Plek 21:00

Yeah. Like I worked, I actually literally worked the hardest of anybody here.

Pastor Holland 21:03

But also make sure that it's the grace of God in you, not you. Um example to follow, uh, verse 11. Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believe. Preach the gospel. Hey, nice. Tell people about Jesus, he's alive.

Pastor Plek 21:16

All right, how it knowledge to believe. God is the giver of life, the giver of victory. Uh, raising Christ is kind of what he does, and he subdues all things under Jesus' feet.

Pastor Holland 21:29

I like hold fast to the word, verse two. Right? He says, um by which you're being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preach to you. So hold fast to it, hold tightly to it, think of it, meditate on it, you know, reflect on and enjoy the gospel truce that we have in Scripture.

Pastor Plek 21:51

Right. Okay. Um I think that's about all I got here. I think that's you know, I I like the biggest one is just let's believe in the resurrection, have hope. Like That's why we don't grieve like those who have no hope. We have defeated death. That's right. Hey, thanks so much for joining us. We'll see you next time on a chapter a day.