Oct 6, 2017
Paul could be a patient pastor, but there were a couple of things he wasn’t going to put up with. One was anybody attempting to alter the message of the gospel in any way. He felt so strongly about that one that he issued a curse on anybody who tried. “…even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God's curse! (Galatians 1:8 NIV). The second thing Paul was unwilling to tolerate was the questioning of the validity or veracity of the resurrection of Jesus. And then, as now, there were many who had a difficult time getting their heads around the idea of someone bodily raising from the dead. And in Corinth, it was especially difficult because their Greek culture taught that the body of man was evil, while his soul was good. So, the idea of there being a resurrection of what was essentially evil, made no sense to them. They believed that when you died, your soul went to be with God, but your body was left behind. But Paul begged to differ – because that kind of thinking, as logical as it may have sounded – was in direct conflict with the promises of Scripture and the reality of Christ’s resurrection. So, as we unpack 1 Corinthians 15, verses 12-34, we will see Paul take on this false belief head-on.