Gentlemen,
When celebrating Resurrection Sunday in the 1st Century, Christians would greet each other with “He is risen”! The usual reply would be, “He is risen indeed”! We continue that tradition today … in fact, 2 billion believers on our planet exchanged that greeting with each other throughout today … but this begs the question, “What difference does it all make”?
For the past 11 years I have taught “Research Project” for Biola University. This has been the capstone course for adults seeking to complete their college degree. The course gives them an opportunity to integrate much of what they learned in previous courses by researching and writing what is essentially a 5-chapter, 40+ page “mini-thesis.” They cannot graduate without passing this course.
Chapter five is titled, “Conclusions and Recommendations” … which forces each student to answer two questions about their topic and research:
- So what? (conclusions)
- Now what? (recommendations)
The historical events that we celebrate today … Resurrection Sunday … force us to ponder these same two questions.
Fortunately, the Apostle Paul answers these questions for us. In 1 Corinthians 15, he invests 57 verses to strongly lay out his case for the “So what?” of the empty tomb. I urge you to invest some time today to read and contemplate his conclusions.
Verse 58 begins with the word “therefore” … and we all know what that means, right?! … stop and ask, “What’s it there for?” In this verse Paul simply lays out the “Now what?” of the Resurrection … his Spirit-directed recommendations for our lives today.
If you want to dig even deeper, then check out this article by Thomas Schreiner, a Pauline scholar from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary … but don’t read the article until you have first read 1 Corinthians 15!
We will conclude our discussion of the Letter to Pergamum tomorrow evening … Then, if time permits, be prepared to share some of your thoughts and reflections about Resurrection Sunday.
Shalom!
~ tr
OC Bereans 
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