Resurrection, therefore...

Easter morning lays some great imperatives before us concerning how to live the Christian life.

In the light of Jesus’s resurrection Paul tells us: ‘Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labour in the Lord is not in vain’ (1 Corinthians 15.58).

Be immovable

The first instruction we are given, in the light of Christ’s resurrection, is that we should ‘stand firm, let nothing move you’. At the beginning of the chapter, Paul spoke of the Corinthians as having ‘taken their stand’ (v.3) on the gospel. So in the light of Christ’s resurrection he is urging them not to be led astray by false teaching, but rather to ‘sit tight and don’t allow yourself to be moved’ from the gospel that he has taught them.

What is this gospel that they are to hold firmly to? ‘For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scripture’ (vv.3,4).

Paul teaches, as of first importance, penal substitution — Christ died for our sins. It is a doctrine under attack today. But it is good news and it is biblical. The Old Testament teaches it (Isaiah 53.5,6). The Lord Jesus taught it (John 10.10,11). Peter and Paul taught it (1 Peter 3.18, Galatians 3.13).

Paul teaches Christ was raised bodily on the third day. This too is good news and it is vital for the resurrection guarantees that our sins are forgiven through Jesus’s death (v.17). For the believers in Corinth there were many temptations to being led astray but one in particular mentioned in (v.12). ‘Dead men don’t rise — it is impossible!’ Things don’t change. Today many so-called Christians claim that the resurrection of Christ didn’t actually happen! Bishop John Shelby Spong, the recently retired US Episcopal bishop said, ‘ If the resurrection of Jesus cannot be believed except by assenting to the fantastic descriptions included in the gospels, then Christianity is doomed. For that view of resurrection is not believable.’ But Paul, who lived at the time of Christ, and not 2,000 years later, says that Christ did really rise from the dead.

On April 2 1982, Argentina invaded and occupied the Falkland Islands, a British dependency. Margaret Thatcher, the British Prime Minister ordered a Task Force be assembled, and on April 5 it sailed 8,000 miles to the Falklands. On June 20, after much heroic fighting and many deaths and injuries, the Falklands were once again in British hands. If I wrote a book about any aspect of this war, and if I got any part of it wrong, there would be many eyewitnesses, people who fought in the war, who could and would correct me. Even 24 years after the events memories are vivid and true. Paul wrote this letter in 53/54 AD, about 20 years after the Christ’s Passion. If Paul exaggerated the facts or made up anything, he would have easily been shown to be wrong. But he was not wrong. The witnesses corroborated Paul’s statement (vv.3-6). The gospel is true. So, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Be immovable.

Be industrious

In the light of the resurrection, secondly, ‘Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord’ (v.58). This is a command for God’s people to go the extra mile in working for the Lord.

But you may ask, rightly, what is the ‘work of the Lord’? The work of the Lord is, firstly, work; it is toil, it is labour, it is service!

The ‘work of the Lord’ is not earning our salvation, it is not adding to what Christ has so wonderfully done on the cross. Jesus declared, ‘It is finished!’ (John 19.30). His work of salvation is complete!

Works do not save us, nor do they help to save us. It is God who saves us, by his free grace. We are not saved by good works. But we are saved for good works (Ephesians 2.10). The work of the Lord is the work that the Lord gives us to do.

In this we often overlook a crucial truth. ‘The servant does not choose his tasks. Our concept of serving God may be doing what we would like to do — for God. We tell God what we will do for him, and what we will not do; where we will go for him, and where we will not. We even tell him what must not interfere with our plans. In doing this we forget he is the Master, and that the Master assigns the task. Our part is to give ourselves to him, accepting the assignment he bestows.’ ‘The work of the Lord’ is any service done for him that he has given us to do. It could be helping in the crche, preaching, giving hospitality, praying, serving tea and coffee or moving chairs. This is all ‘work of the Lord’. Are you giving yourself to the work of the Lord’?

Our verse not only tells us to commit ourselves to do the work of the Lord, but to be out and out in it. ‘Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord.’ The Message renders it, ‘Don’t hold back; throw yourself into the work of the Master’. So we are to do the work of the Lord wholeheartedly, with all our strength, at all times; we are to exert ourselves serving him, we are to go the extra mile in toiling for the Lord. This will be tiring, it may be boring, it may be tough. At times it will be discouraging! Hard work is not very popular in our hedonistic country, but we are not to be half-hearted in working for the Lord!

Have you come across this poem called My Turn in the Nursery?

Last Sunday was my turn in the nursery to work.
My heart wasn’t in it; my feelings were hurt.
A child from its mother did not want to part
And it cried a lot with its broken heart.
I prayed that soon the hour would end,
That I would relax — no more children to tend.
Soon the hour was over; it felt good to be free.
I said, ‘Once a month was too much for me!’
The very next Sunday as I sat in the pew
Heard a very good sermon, but visitors were few.
Down came a woman and her soul was saved.
She was the mother of that crying babe!
Then it dawned on me that I had been a part
Of one being saved — giving God her heart.
From that day on I would never dread
Working in the nursery while souls are fed.

Will you be industrious? Will you ‘give yourself fully to the work of the Lord’ no matter what it is?

You may be thinking, ‘I would like to be industrious, but what can I do?’ For a start you can pray! All Christians can pray. You can pray for the work of the Lord in your own local church and around the world. There are no valid excuses for not doing the works that the Lord himself has prepared for you! If you are not currently ‘abounding in the work of the Lord’, pray about it and ask the Lord to show you what you should be doing. Be industrious!

Be encouraged

Now Paul motivates us to stand firm and to work, ‘because you know that your labour in the Lord is not in vain’.

Imagine a builder working on a house. Imagine that he is digging the trenches for the foundations — it is mid-winter and he is cold, it is raining and the work is hard. What, I wonder, would encourage him to keep going with the work? What would encourage him not to cut corners but to do the work thoroughly? What might encourage him to do the work cheerfully?

Perhaps the owner is returning to the site today, maybe to inspect the work or to compliment him? Perhaps he is getting paid today? Perhaps he is building the house for someone famous and he counts himself fortunate to be given the job? Many things could encourage the labourer, if only he put his mind to such things.

Serving the Lord wholeheartedly is hard work, it is exhausting, and it can be dispiriting, for example when people remain unsaved, or leave the youth group, or when people don’t appreciate our efforts. But take it to heart, ‘you know that your labour in the Lord is not in vain’. Christian, we have a reason here why we should not only begin to work for the Lord, but why we should persevere. What did Paul mean, ‘your labour in the Lord is not in vain’?

Christ is risen! Paul has gone to great lengths to teach that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead, he is alive. Hallelujah! Listen to Charles Spurgeon: ‘If it could be proved tomorrow that Napoleon still lived, there might be some hope for his party, but with the chieftain dead the cause faints. But, we are not fighting for a dead man’s cause; we are not contending for a worn-out dynasty, or a name to conjure by, but we have a living captain, a reigning king, one who is able both to occupy the throne and to lead on our hosts to battle.’ Consider what we are a part of. We are serving a risen Saviour!

Three men were hacking away at the rock face in a quarry on the outskirts of London. A stranger came by, and asked them what they were up to. The first looked bored and tired and said, ‘I’m cutting this rock into regular slabs’; the second, weary and fed up, said, ‘I’m chiselling rocks’; the third, cheerful and enthusiastic, said, ‘I’m building a palace for the King of England!’

Listen to the Lord Jesus himself: ‘Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End’ (Revelation 22.12).

Opening up 1 Corinthians 15.58

Be immovable

Be industrious

Be encouraged

Richard Peskett

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