The Resurrection of the Dead
I. Denying the Resurrection (v. 1-34)
A. The Absurdity of Resurrection (v. 12; Acts 17:17-32; ch.24, ch.26)
B. The Centrality of Resurrection (v. 3-8, 12-19)
C. The Meaning of the Resurrection (v. 20-28)
II. Envisioning the Resurrection (v. 35-58)
A. It’s Not Strictly Platonic (v. 35, 42-49; Rom. 8:23)
B. A Lesson from Agriculture (v. 36-38)
C. A True Defeat of Death (v. 50-57)
III. Anticipating the Resurrection (v. 58)
A. Celebrating the Firstfruits (v. 20, 25-27)
B. AssumingtheHarvest (v. 42-44, 49, 58)
C. Tending to the Seed (v. 33-34, 58)
Questions for Further Reflection
1. Kid’s Question: What is the strangest thing you’ve ever believed?
2. What are your expectations about the resurrection? Have you given it much thought?
3. When you imagine the afterlife is it typically disembodied or embodied? “Where” does it take place?
4. What, in Paul’s mind, is the point of the resurrection?
5. What do you make of Jake’s claim that a lot of our “theology” is simply reading Plato into the Bible? How might you research this claim?
6. What does Paul’s Gospel of an embodied resurrection provide that the “resurrection-less” message is lacking?
7. Jake talked about living proleptically. In what ways do you live proleptically already? What reality are you living in?
8. What are ways we can edify (build up) one another and ourselves as we look forward to the resurrection?