I.  Introduction

1. Added to the Nicene Creed at Second Ecumenical Council at Constantinople in 381 AD.
2. Many people and philosophers rejected Christianity because of their notion that the resurrection from the dead is absurd and impossible.  There were many philosophies outside of Christianity and heresies in the first church concerning the resurrection of the dead - 2Timothy 2:17-18  "And their message will spread like cancer.  Hymenaeus and Philetus are of this sort, who have strayed concerning the truth, saying that the resurrection is already past; and they overthrow the faith of some."
3. One of the deans of the School of Alexandria, Athenagoras, rejected Christianity initially because of the faith in the resurrection from the dead.  However, when he began to study the Holy Scriptures and learn about Christianity, he not only believed in the resurrection, but wrote an apology defending the resurrection from the dead titled, On the Resurrection of the Dead.
 

II. Old Testament Prophecies

1. The belief in the resurrection from the dead preceded the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Job 19:25-27  "For I know that my Redeemer lives, and he shall stand at last on the earth; and after my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold and not another.  How my heart yearns within me!"

Isaiah 25:8  "He will swallow up death forever, and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces; the rebuke of His people he will take away from all the earth; for the Lord has spoken."

Isaiah 26:19  "Your dead shall live; together with my dead body they shall arise.  Awake and sing, you who dwell in dust; for your dew is like the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead."

Ezekiel 37:1-14

Daniel 12:2  "And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, some to shame and everlasting contempt."

Hosea 13:14  "I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death.  O Death, I will be your plagues!  O Grave, I will be your destruction!  Pity is hidden from My eyes."

2. Also, there are verses in the New Testament that show that the resurrection of the dead was part of the Jewish doctrine.

Matthew 22:23-32; Mark 12:18-27; Luke 20:27-39 - The dialogue of our Lord Jesus Christ with the Sadducees about the resurrection.

Acts 23:6  "But when Paul perceived that one part were Sadducees and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, 'Men and brethren, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee; concerning the hope and resurrection of the dead I am being judged!'"

III. New Testament Explanation of the Resurrection

John 5:28-29  "Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth - those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation."

John 6:39-40  "This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all he has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day.  And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day."

John 6:54  "Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise Him up at the last day."

Acts 24:15  "I have hope in God, which they themselves also accept, that there will be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and the unjust."

1Corinthians 15:12-58 - The Resurrection Chapter

Ephesians 5:14  "Therefore He says:  'Awake you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light."

1Thessalonians 4:13-18

IV. What will happen at the resurrection?

1. Our Lord will come at a time that no one knows, only the Father - Matthew 24:36, 42; Matthew 25:13; Acts 1:7
2. There will be the sound of the trumpet - 1Cor 15:52; 1Thess 4:16
3. The Lord will come "awesome and full of glory" (Liturgy of St. Basil, St. Gregory, and St. Cyril) and all will see him - Hebrews 9:27-28; Titus 2:13; Matthew 24:30-31; Matthew 16:27; 1Thess 4:16; Revelations 1:7
4. Resurrection from the dead, incorruptible, in a glorious body that is incorruptible and immortal - verses referenced above; 1Cor 15:52; Revelations 20:12
5. The Judgment, each one according to his works - verses referenced above; Revelations 20:12-13; Matthew 16:27; Romans 2:6-10; Psalms 62:12; Proverbs 24:12

V. Why is the resurrection in the body essential to our faith?

1. God's love for man.
God's intention when He created man was for man to live with Him forever as God created man - body, soul, and spirit.  If there is no resurrection, then we are no different than animals whose bodies die and decay without a resurrection.
 
2. God's justice.
The entire human nature is closely involved in spiritual life - the body, soul, and spirit.  For example, we lift up our hands in prayer; we bow down asking for forgiveness; we make the sign of the cross; we do both righteous deeds and commit sins by each component of our human nature.  Therefore, in the judgment, we are judged as a complete human with the spirit united with the body because it is unjust to reward the spirit alone, or condemn the spirit alone when the body also had a part in the deeds that were done.  The martyrs and saints who suffered for the sake of Christ, had a hope and comfort in this resurrection that their sufferings would not be forgotten, but that God would reward them according to what they suffered in the flesh.  (1Thess 4:13-14, 18)

3. "The last enemy that will be destroyed is death." 1Cor 15:26, 50-56; Rev 20:14
Death, both physical and spiritual, came through sin.  Through our Lord Jesus Christ's resurrection, there was victory of the spiritual death.  In the resurrection at the last day, the physical death will be no more.

VI. We have an assurance that this resurrection will occur.

1. God has declared that it will occur.  God's promises are true and "with God all things are posssible."

2. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the firstfruits of the resurrection.
John 14:19  "A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me.  Because I live, you will live also."
1Cor 15:20  "But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep."
1Cor 15:22-23  "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.  But each one in his own order:  Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ's at His coming."

If He is the firstfruits, there are more to come in the resurrection at the last day.

VII.
The First and the Second Resurrection

What we have been speaking of until now is the Second Resurrection at which time is the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Judgment.  However, in the Book of Revelations, there is a First Resurrection described in Chapter 20.

Revelations 20:5-6  "But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished.  This is the first resurrection.  Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection.  Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years."

We are now living in the first resurrection.  The person who has a part in the first resurrection is the one who lives the life of repentance, purity and holiness.  When he/she departs, his soul will rest in Paradise until the Second Resurrection when he/she will live with Christ forever in the heavenly Jerusalem in a glorious body.  Whoever lives this type of life is dead to sin and has died with Christ.  There is no resurrection without a cross, just as our Lord Jesus Christ carried the cross and rose from the dead on the third day.

Sin = death and separation from God
Repentance = life and return to God

Romans 6:8-9  "Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more.  Death no longer has dominion over Him."

Philippians 1:21  "For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain."

Philippians 3:10-11  "that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead."

We as Christians choose to live with Christ in this life that we may live with Him in the eternal life and obtain the gift of God.

Romans 6:23 "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."

May God guide us in a life of repentance and grant us a part in the first resurrection.  May God help us in carrying our cross with joy, knowing that we shall be risen with Him and live an eternal life in His love and glory, which  "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him." (1Cor 2:9)  Glory to God forever. Amen.