Spoken Word no. 244
“Resurrection Scenario”
Brian Kocourek, Pastor
April 24th, 2011
Ecclesiastes
3:1 To
every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: 14 Now. let’s skip
forward to Verse 15 That
which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already been; and God
requireth that which is past.
Revelation
1:8 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the
Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.
Revelation
21:1 And
I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth
were passed away; and there was no more sea. 2 And
I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven,
prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And
I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is
with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God
himself shall be with them, and be their God. 4 And
God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more
death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for
the former things are passed away. 5 And he that
sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me,
Write: for these words are true and faithful. 6 And
he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I
will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. 7 He that overcometh shall inherit all things;
and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. 8 But the fearful, and
unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and
sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake
which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death. 9 And
there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of
the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew
thee the bride, the Lamb's wife. 10 And he carried
me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great
city, the holy
Revelations 22:1 And he shewed me a pure river
of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of
the Lamb. 2 In the midst of the street of it, and
on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve
manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree
were for the healing of the nations. 3 And there shall be
no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his
servants shall serve him: 4 And they shall see his face;
and his name shall be in their foreheads. 5 And there
shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for
the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.
6 And he said unto me, These sayings are faithful and true: and the
Lord God of the holy prophets sent his angel to shew unto his servants the
things which must shortly be done. 7 Behold, I come quickly:
blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book.
8 And I John saw these things, and heard them. And when I had heard
and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which showed me
these things. 9 Then saith he unto me, See thou do it
not: for I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them
which keep the sayings of this book: worship God. 10 And
he saith unto me, Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the
time is at hand. 11 He that is unjust, let him be
unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is
righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still. 12 And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward
is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be. 13 I
am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. 14 Blessed are they that do his commandments, that
they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates
into the city. 15 For without are dogs, and
sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth
and maketh a lie. 16 I Jesus have sent mine angel
to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the
offspring of David, and the bright and morning star. 17 And
the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let
him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. 18 For I testify unto every man that heareth
the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things,
God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:
19 And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of
this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of
the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book. 20 He which testifieth these
things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.
21 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.
Let us pray… Dear
Father we have read from Thy Holy Word this morning that you indeed are the Alpha
and Omega, You are indeed the first and the last, and that which was and that
which is to come, for you are “the Great I Am”. And we know that you o God, change
not, and you are the same yesterday today and forever. Then we can trust that
what you did in your Son at the First coming of the Messiah ministry, the
ministry of Christ, the Anointed One, you indeed have done in this latter Omega
time and ministry. Then help us to see
what is left for us in this hour to yet partake of, for we have yet the
resurrection ministry that you fulfilled in your son Jesus Christ in the Alpha
to be yet repeated in this last time Omega. Show us the scene Father, and the
things that we can look forward to as we see the earth going through its birth
pains getting ready to be made over into the New Earth, and readying itself to
receive the New Jerusalem which shall come down from Heaven like a comet as
your prophet told us it would. We know Father in the natural the woman must
change fully into her wedding garment before the great time of union, and we
see that your Bride has adorned herself in your Word, and now it is time for
the earth to strip her self of her mantle, her outer clothing to be dressed in
the glorified spoken Word condition that she will need to be in to receive the
Bride and Groom. O, father, let it be done unto us according to Your Word.
Amen.
Now, this morning I would like to look at the Time of
the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, when God raised Jesus from among the dead and
I wish to examine the time that the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ spent with
his Followers, His Apostles and Disciples that he met with and taught during those
40-50 days that he spent with us during that resurrection period. We know
William Branham taught us that the “Alpha must repeat in Omega”, and since God
has already duplicated the ministry of His Son in the person of William Branham
in this last hour, therefore, we must look with eyes of revelation to see that
those things that must still come to pass in order to complete the Omega
ministry I this hour.
Now, remember brother Branham said in paragraph 184 of his
sermon, The
Spoken Word is the Original Seed, ““God
has promised Malachi 4 for this last day, and Malachi 4 has not yet has been fulfilled, but it must be fulfilled for it is a
germitized Word of God, spoken through Malachi the prophet. Jesus referred to
it. It is to be just before the
coming of Christ the second time.”
Now, we know that this
word fulfillment means to be completed, and just a few years later brother
Branham said, Works is faith expressed 65-1126
P:127 Then the works that the Holy Spirit is
doing today by these visions never failing, promises never failing, all the
apostolic signs promised in the Bible of Malachi 4, and, oh, the Revelations
10:7, all of that is being fulfilled
and proved by scientific, every other way. (Therefore, if it is
being fulfilled, then we know that it all has not yet completed, for we have
yet the great burning and the great gathering together unto Him for the change
of the body and the rapture of the saints. Then brother Branham tells us,) And if I haven't
told you the Truth, these things would not happen. But if I have told you the
Truth, they bear record that I've
told you the Truth. He's still the same, yesterday, today, and forever,
and the manifestation of His Spirit is catching away a Bride. Let that faith,
revelation, fall into your heart, that this is the hour.
Now, we are going to
go ,more into detail to the scientific bearing witness to the things he
foretold us would happen, but I am still perhaps a couple weeks of study from
presenting this to you. And what I wish to present and how I wish to present it
is to show you the things he foretold would happen, then show them in the
Scriptures for we know that Brother Branham took every vision back to the
Scriptures, and then I wish to present the scientific evidence by word and
pictures so that you can see and identify that what you are receiving is “Thus
Saith the Lord, by the Lips of His Prophet and by the Voice of God through His
Holy Word”. Then woe to us to deny what God is doing.
Now, this morning, we
will examine the days of the resurrection when Jesus stood back here on earth
after having been Resurrected by God His Father. And for those who believed
that Jesus raised his own self from the grave, let me tell you that there are 26
different Scriptures that say otherwise. Paul taught us that God raised up
Jesus from the grave.
Acts
2:24, 32 This Jesus
hath God raised up
Acts
3:15, 26 God raised
up his son Jesus
Acts
4:10 Jesus of Nazareth whom
God raised from the
dead,
Acts
5: 30 The God of our
fathers raised up Jesus,
Acts
10: 40 Him God
raised up
Acts 13:23, 13:30, 13:33, 13:34, 13:37 God raised him
Acts
17:31 But God raised
him from the dead:
Ephesians
1:20, 2:6 God raised up
Jesus
Romans
4: 24, 6: 4, 8:11, 10:9 God hath raised him from the dead
Galatians
1:1 God the Father,
who raised him from the dead;)
1Corinthians
6: 14, God raised up
15:15 God raised up
Christ
2
Corinthians 4:14 He
that raised up the Lord Jesus from the dead
Colossians
2:12 God who hath
raised him from the dead
1
Peter 1:21 God
raised him up
1
Thessalonians 1:10 raised
up his son
Now, that we have established just who raised up Jesus
from the dead, and it wasn’t His own self, let us look at the time of this
resurrection to see the scene that prefixed the timing of this great
Resurrection from the dead..
Matthew
27:50 Jesus,
when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost.
Now, there is a
period here. That brings to conclusion the ministry of Jesus Christ
pre-resurrection. In other Words, what took place before his death was one part
of his ministry, and we could call that his earthly ministry. But what takes
place after this death, after his yielding up his spirit back to God, and His
death is altogether another ministry.
So Matthew concluded
one thought here, the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. But when he begins the
next sentence he is also beginning another thought, and that thought is the
beginning of another ministry, and that is what I want for you to see here this
morning if in fact we are to understand the Resurrection ministry of Jesus
Christ, and then to be able to look at this Omega time we are living in to see
what the indicators are for us to be looking for and readying ourselves for
this great time we have laying just ahead of us.
We do not wish to be
like the Apostles who went into hiding, and who were so confused that they
entered into a time of great fear and hiding. And remember what I taught you in
the series called the end-time neurosis, that anxiety will lead to
In his sermon, “Christ Revealed
in His Own Word” Brother Branham said “Men now and
people today are in such a neurotic condition, the whole world.”
So we see that this neurotic condition
is to be a world-wide mental condition that has come upon mankind like a trap,
and that is exactly what we were taught by Jesus in the scriptures as we see in
Luke 21: 34 "Be careful, or your
hearts will be weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness and the anxieties of
life, and that day will close on you unexpectedly like a trap.35 For it will come upon all those who
live on the face of the whole earth.
Just as we see the Laodicean condition of
Revelations
3:14 of being naked, blind and miserable is a universal condition as
well. Brother Branham said "a person who would
walk around naked and then doesn’t know it, is either mentally gone or demon
possessed." So the term neurotic which he used comes
from the word neurosis. Now, “Neurosis” according
to Noah Webster is defined as: “Any of
various Psychic, or mental, functional disorders characterized by one or
several of the following reactions: anxiety, compulsion, obsession, phobia,
depression, disassociation and conversion.”
Therefore, we can see that there are 7 attributes which when one leads
into the other it brings the person to neurosis.
And we are warned in 2 Timothy 3: 1
as we will read from the Amplified version, "But
understand this, that in the last days there will set in perilous times of great
stress and trouble - hard to deal with and hard to bear. Now
Brother Branham said “the hybrid foods and the
tensions that are rotting the bodies” and thus the minds of the
people.
So tensions or stress are to be a part of
the end time scene that we are experiencing right now. And this was the same
tensions and stress the apostles were feeling for they had lost the one Who
they had trusted was the Messiah, and yet the powers of the government came
down against Him and that was it, or so they thought.
Now, Jesus had set the tenor for what was to come, and
he said in Mark 13:8 right before the end of his own persecution,
trial and the ending of His life the following: For nation
shall rise against nation, and kingdom
against kingdom: and there shall be earthquakes
in divers places, and there shall be famines
and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.
Now, we know that he was speaking of the end of the
world, but how did the apostle know that it was not the end of their world.
Many of the things he warned them of they were afraid that these same things
were going to take place in their day as well.
We see the same warnings in Matthew 24:7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:
and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
Matthew 24:3 And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the
disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be?
and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world? 4 And Jesus answered and said unto them,
Take heed that no man deceive you. 5 For many shall come in my name, saying, I
am Christ; (I am anointed) and shall deceive many. 6 And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things
must come to pass, but the end is not yet. 7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences,
and earthquakes, in divers places. 8
All these are the beginning of sorrows.
9 Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake. 10 And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. 11 And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. 12 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of
many shall wax cold. 13 But he that
shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. 14 And this gospel of the kingdom shall be
preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.
So we have a setting of doom and gloom that was given
to the people by Jesus Himself that the end of the world would be in such a
chaotic state that it would seem that every man would be at the that of his neighbors,
and we are seeing that condition right now, in Greece, and Iran, Libya,
Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Jordan, Yemen, and Egypt, not to mention Saudi
Arabia, Afghanistan and Iraq. And all across Europe the people are rising up
against there governments and even in this country, the United States, there is
a tea party formed which is the beginning of a people revolution against the
autocratic government we have entered into. These are just signs of the times,
these are just manifestations of the spirit of the age we are entering into.
These things are just fulfillment of the prophecies of Jesus that he pointed
out to us, and having said these things to his disciples, they did not put the
picture together completely, and thus seeing the Roman legions in most
countries, and the oppression of the nations under
So now we have the
setting to begin our examination of the Resurrection ministry of our Lord Jesus
Christ as we begin with verse “51 of Matthew 27. Now, remember, Jesus was now dead and off the
scene as much as they knew and understood. “And, behold, the veil of the
temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the
rocks rent; 52 And
the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, 53 And (now, listen. This word and is a conjunction and we
know that a conjunction is going to link two things, so we must take notice
what two things are being linked here by this word and.) And the
graves were opened; and many bodies
of the saints which slept arose, 53 And came out of the
graves after his resurrection, and went
into the holy city, and appeared unto many.
So we have the earth
quake that rent the ground, which means it was not just a tremor, but it split
the earth, it literally moved the earth and split it, so this was an earth “quake”
of tremendous force here. And we see that when this happened, the graves opened
up, and then many of those believers who were in the graves were quickened by
that great earth quake and it says that they came out of the greave, but I want
you to notice that they did not come out of the grave at that time for Jesus
was still dead on the cross when the earthquake took place. But that earth
quake started something. And it says that those who were in the grave were
awakened and came out of the grave after Jesus rose from the grave. Why? because
he was to lead captivity captive. He was the to be the first fruits of the
resurrection.
And mean while back
at the ranch so to speak we see the centurion look at what was taking place and
he said, this has got to be more than just an ordinary man here, this has got
to be who he said he was, the Son of God.
54 Now
when the centurion, and they that were with him, watching Jesus, saw the earthquake, and those things that
were done, they feared greatly,
saying, Truly this was the Son of God.
So we see the scene for the resurrection begin with an
earthquake, and not just an earth quake but one that shook the entire world and
rent the earth and moved masses of the earth which such force that the greave
were opened.
Now, it is possible that when such force is exuded, it
causes great damage to other places on the earth as well.
Brother Jack Bell called me the other day and as we
talked about his heath, I mentioned hearing about br. Louie Weatherford, that
he had to have a couple stints put in because he suffered a heart attack.
So the earth can receive a jolt so hard that it will
cause the earth to move and split and do great damage even very far away from
the epi-center. And so we see the resurrection began by the earth quake that
jolted the earth so great that it split open the graves. And many of the saints
that had been sleeping in the earth were quickened back to earth again and were
resurrected after Jesus came forth first.
So this earth quake not only shook the earth, but was felt in that other
dimension as well. Whew, that was some earth quake.
Now, the Bible is replete with very powerful
earthquakes that shaped the events of Bible times, and the one at the time of
the crucifixion was only one of them as we see below. I have listed only a few
of them below for your understanding.
1. The first one was on the third
day of creation.
2. At the
time of Noah and the flood
3. At the
destruction of
4. The
earthquake when Moses was up on
5. The
earthquake that swallowed Korah and his rebellious lot in the wilderness
6. At the Fall
of
7. Elijah
on
8. The
Crucifixion in
9. The
Resurrection in
Now there are other earthquakes that took place
during the time of the early church, but to save time we will not get into them
except to mention when Paul was in prison in Philippi etc. What we see happening today concerning the earthquakes we see can be
attributed to what Jesus spoke of in Mathew 24 which he called the beginning of
sorrows (birth pains).
And then in the
book of Revelations we see the earthquake when the Sixth seal opens to bring on
the judgments. I believe this is the great Alaskan earthquake that literally
was felt around the entire earth as brother Branham placed great significance
in it, and it took place in conjunction with the opening of the seals, and of
course the sixth seal itself. Now, remember there was an earthquake when Jesus
died on the cross but there was also a great earth quake when he was risen from
the dead. And I believe that the
Now, that we have laid out the scene of
the resurrection, and how it began, let’s look at the events of the
resurrection itself.
Luke
24:1 Now
upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the
sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and
certain others with them. 2 And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre. 3 And they entered in,
and found not the body of the Lord Jesus. 4 And it
came to pass, as they were much perplexed thereabout, behold, two men stood by them in shining garments: 5 And as they were
afraid, and bowed down their faces to the earth, they said unto them, Why seek ye the living among the dead?
6 He is not here, but is risen: remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in
Galilee, 7 Saying, The
Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.
8 And they remembered his words, 9 And
returned from the sepulchre, and told all these things unto the eleven, and to all the rest.10 It was Mary Magdalene, and Joanna,
and Mary the mother of James, and other women that were with them, which told
these things unto the apostles. 11 And their words seemed to them as idle tales, and they believed them not.
12 Then arose Peter,
and ran unto the sepulchre; and stooping down, he beheld the linen clothes laid
by themselves, and departed, wondering in himself at that which
was come to pass. 13 And, behold, two of them went that same day
to a village called Emmaus, which was from
John
20:1 The
first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto
the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre. 2 Then
she runneth, and cometh to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple, whom Jesus
loved, and saith unto them, They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre,
and we know not where they have laid him. 3 Peter
therefore went forth, and that other disciple, and came to the
sepulchre. 4 So they ran both together: and the other disciple
did outrun Peter, and came first to the sepulchre. 5 And
he stooping down, and looking in, saw the linen clothes lying; yet went he not
in. 6 Then cometh Simon Peter following him, and
went into the sepulchre, and seeth the linen clothes lie, 7 And
the napkin, that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but
wrapped together in a place by itself. 8 Then went
in also that other disciple, which came first to the sepulchre,
and he saw, and believed. 9 For as yet they knew not the
scripture, that he must rise again from the dead. 10 Then
the disciples went away again unto their own home. 11 But
Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping: and as she wept, she stooped down, and looked into the sepulchre, 12 And seeth two
angels in white sitting, the one at the head, and the other at the feet, where
the body of Jesus had lain.
13 And they say unto her, Woman, why weepest thou?
She saith unto them, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where
they have laid him. 14 And when she had thus said,
she turned herself back, and saw Jesus
standing, and knew not that it was Jesus. 15 Jesus
saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou? She, supposing him
to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me
where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away. 16 Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned
herself, and saith unto him, Rabboni; which is to say, Master. 17 Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I
am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I
ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God. 18 Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that
she had seen the Lord, and that he had spoken these things unto
her. 19 Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the
week, when the doors were shut where the
disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. 20 And
when he had so said, he shewed unto them his hands and his side. Then were the
disciples glad, when they saw the Lord. 21 Then
said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto
you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. 22 And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost:
And
the first thing he told them to do after they received the Holy Ghost was to
remit the sins of others. 23 Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose
soever sins ye retain, they are retained. 24 But
Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when
Jesus came. 25 The other disciples therefore said unto him, We
have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the
print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust
my hand into his side, I will not believe.
26 And after
eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and
stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you. 27 Then saith he to Thomas, Reach
hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust
it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing. 28 And
Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God. 29 Jesus
saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed
are they that have not seen, and yet have believed. 30 And
many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book: 31 But these are
written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and
that believing ye might have life through his name.
John
21:1 After these things Jesus shewed himself again to the disciples at the
Acts 1:1 The
former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do
and teach, 2 Until the day in which he was taken up,
after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles
whom he had chosen: 3 To whom also he shewed himself
alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty
days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God: 4 And,
being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart
from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye
have heard of me. 5 For
John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost
not many days hence. 6 When they therefore were come
together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again
the kingdom to
1 Corinthians 15:1 Moreover,
brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also
ye have received, and wherein ye stand; 2 By which
also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye
have believed in vain. 3 For
I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ
died for our sins according to the scriptures; 4 And
that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: 5 And that he was seen of
Cephas, then of the twelve: 6 After that, he was seen of above
five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this
present, but some are fallen asleep. 7 After that,
he was seen of James; then of all the apostles. 8 And
last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time. 9 For I am the
least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I
persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace
of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in
vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of
God which was with me. 11 Therefore whether it
were I or they, so we preach, and so ye believed. 12 Now
if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that
there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 But if
there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen: 14 And
if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. 15 Yea, and we are found false witnesses of
God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised
not up, if so be that the dead rise not. 16 For if
the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: 17 And
if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.
18 Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. 19 If in this life only we have hope in
Christ, we are of all men most miserable. 20 But
now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. 21 For since by man came death, by man came
also the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in
Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. 23 But
every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are
Christ's at his coming. 24 Then cometh the end,
when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he
shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. 25 For
he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. 26 The
last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. 27 For
he hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith all things are put
under him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which did put all things under him. 28 And when all things shall be subdued unto
him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things
under him, that God may be all in all. 29 Else
what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at
all? why are they then baptized for the dead? 30 And
why stand we in jeopardy every hour? 31 I protest
by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily. 32 If after the manner of men
I have fought with beasts at