Show Notes
In this Eastertide episode of Peaceable and Kind, host Derek Vreeland invites us into a deeper understanding of the resurrection—not as abstract theology, but as the very foundation of Christian hope and daily transformation.
Grounded in 1 Corinthians 15, Derek gently unpacks what he calls the “resurrection scheme of things”—God’s powerful plan to conquer death, bring renewal, and begin His work of new creation in each of us. With pastoral insight and real-life reflection, he speaks honestly about doubt, shares stories of faith under pressure, and reminds us why the resurrection of Jesus is not just central to Christian faith—it’s our greatest hope.
Key Takeaways
The resurrection of Jesus is not metaphor—it’s the linchpin of Christian faith.
Without the resurrection, everything else falls apart; with it, everything changes.
Our future resurrection mirrors the risen Christ: new, immortal, and glorious.
Doubt is part of faith formation—what matters is wrestling with it in community.
Death is not our end—it’s been swallowed up by triumphant life through Jesus.
This episode reminds us that resurrection isn’t just a future hope—it’s a present reality that reshapes how we live, love, and trust in God’s promise to make all things new.
🎧 Listen now and be encouraged in your faith journey.
Scriptures mentioned in this episode:
Psalm 14:1
1 Corinthians 15:13-20
1 Corinthians 15:25-28
1 Corinthians 15:35-44
1 Corinthians 15:51-57
Article mentioned in this podcast: 8 Facts about Atheists: https://bit.ly/4m6PGnY
Preorder Derek’s new book, Incarnation: 8 Lessons on How God Meets Us here: https://amzn.to/42jSZAs
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Transcript
Narrator: Welcome to Peaceable and Kind, the podcast where we explore the transformation. Of living out Jesus’ call to peace and kindness in our everyday lives. Each week your host, Derek Vreeland, will delve into the stories, scriptures, and practical steps that help us embody these essential Christian virtues.
Derek Vreeland: Welcome back to another episode of Peaceable and Kind, where we are sowing seeds of peace. and kindness through an exploration of Christian faith, spirituality, and scripture. I am your host, Derek Vreeland. And if you are new to Peaceable and Kind I’m glad you have joined me for today’s episode. And if you haven’t already, would you subscribe wherever you’re listening to this podcast and leave a rating or a review? And if you do like what we’re creating here, if you’d be so kind to share this episode or a previous episode, that’s how you can help to spread the word about what we are doing here. We are in the season of Easter. We are in Eastertide. Remember, Easter is not just one Sunday. Even though that appears on our calendar, you know we have Easter Sunday, that was last month, but traditionally Christians have celebrated Easter for seven weeks. And so we’re in a series, in a in a mini-series, really, a mini podcast series Talking about the resurrection of Jesus. And I hope that you are experiencing joy this Easter season. Why do we give chocolate bunnies and Easter candy away? Well, it’s because the resurrection of Jesus Brings us so much life and joy. It is indeed a celebration. So today I want to talk about the resurrection scheme of things. Because the resurrection of Jesus, that is his very real, very physical literal historical resurrection. Well, it changes everything and it also validates everything. I mean, without the resurrection of Jesus Jesus himself is not proven to be true. Jesus said a lot of things. Jesus taught and did a lot of things One of the things he said is that he would be handed over to the chief priests and the elders, that he would be rejected, that he would die, and on the third day he would rise again. And so if Jesus didn’t rise from the dead, then he wasn’t telling the truth. And if he wasn’t telling the truth About his own resurrection, how could we believe his teachings? How could we believe his proclamation that the kingdom of God has come? So, in that sense, the resurrection of Jesus really is the linchpin of our faith. Without the resurrection, everything falls apart Now I know that some people do not believe in the literal resurrection of Jesus. Some people might call themselves Christians, but say, I don’t know if I can believe. something as fantastic as a dead person coming alive again. Some Christians would say, well I think that the resurrection is just a literary device. It is a metaphor. And I understand that. But it is the cornerstone. It is the linchpin of our faith to believe. That Jesus literally rose up on that first Easter Sunday morning. And we believe in the resurrection because of the witness. of those who saw the empty tomb, who saw Jesus in his resurrection. I love the gospel account of the resurrection of Jesus in John’s Gospel Because it says that both John and Peter raced to the empty tomb. There was this word on the street that the tomb was empty, and they raced. And it’s funny in John’s Gospel it says that John arrived first, which I think is funny. But John saw the empty tomb and he believed But right after that, Mary Magdalene’s at the tomb, and there she has this encounter with Jesus, if you remember the story Jesus appears to Mary and she thinks he’s just the gardener. And so Mary’s like, please tell me if you’ve taken his body somewhere, tell me where Jesus is. And then Jesus speaks her name. and she recognizes that it’s Jesus and she says, teacher, after he calls her by name And they have this beautiful encounter. And then Jesus tells Mary to go and tell all of his disciples. That indeed he has raised from the dead, he is risen, just as he said. And so Mary is commissioned by Jesus to be the first preacher of Easter, the first preacher of the resurrection of Jesus. So whenever people ask me, can can women really be preachers? I say Mary Magdalene was the first preacher of the resurrection. She went and proclaimed the good news. And then, of course, Jesus appeared to his disciples multiple times. And so we believe their witness. But I understand some people don’t believe. in the resurrection of Jesus or that resurrection is even possible. I understand that, but I am really surprised when people openly confess that they do not believe in God at all, or they don’t even believe in a higher power. They don’t believe in anything that’s sort of transcendent and out there. I’m always surprised by that. Psalm 14, 1 says that a fool says in their heart that there is no God. Now, I’m not here to pick a fight with atheists that would neither be peaceable or kind. I’m not going to argue with atheists, but I’m still surprised that there are people who would say, with reason, that they do not believe that God or a God exists. And Psalm fourteen one is on to something because regardless of an atheist’s educational background, there is a kind of foolishness in their claim To say, no, we believe that the only things that are real are the things that are in nature, in creation, that is in in material things. There is a kind of foolishness in that because the overwhelming majority of people who have ever lived throughout history across different cultures have believed in some form of transcendence or divinity or enlightenment Most people who have ever lived at any time have believed that there is something out there. And even though we live in a growing post Christian culture here in North America The belief in God still remains high. According to a 2024 Pew Research report, 4% of Americans claim to be atheists This was in an article entitled Eight Facts About Atheists. We’ll put a link to this article in the show notes if you want to read more. Now, the numbers are much higher in Western Europe, but in the US, theism, in a very broad sense, that is the belief in God. is still a belief shared by the overwhelming majority of people. And so these 4% who claim to be atheists I’m just surprised by that. Are they assuming that the other 96% of us are crazy or we’re not informed? I’m just surprised by that. My experience as a pastor has shown that people who don’t believe in God don’t do so for intellectual reasons. It’s not that they are philosophical atheists. It’s not like they’ve reasoned it out and just said, yeah, there’s no way that God can exist. My experience is that most people have become angry at the Christian God or frustrated with God, and it’s more of an emotional response. The people I’ve met who call themselves atheists are really just angry theists. And when people say to me, I don’t believe in God I often ask, tell me about this God you don’t believe in. And they’ll talk about a harsh, judgmental God, a old white man with a long white beard. Sitting on a throne in heaven, looking to hurl down lightning bolts at at sinners. And when people say I just can’t believe in that. I often respond, yeah, I don’t believe in that God either. I believe in the God Jesus made famous. I believe in the God revealed to us by Jesus. And so I just remain in a place of confusion and amazement. That there are still people who will say, I don’t believe in God. And nothing was more surprising to me than when a Christian pastor in our town resigned his position, announcing that he no longer believed in the God of the Bible. This happened some time ago. But he posted a blog when he resigned his pastorate, and in his blog he explained why he no longer believed in God. In fact, he had been a pastor for two years as an atheist. He was carrying on the best that he could, he felt trapped, he wanted to give the people what they wanted. So he would use Bible stories to make, you know, universal principles and things like that. But for two years, he didn’t believe in God while he was a pastor and a preacher. And in his blog, he describes how he came to a point where he rejected belief in God and the Christian faith. This is what he wrote in his blog. He wrote, Imagine two folders in your brain. One folder contains all the things that strengthen faith, and the other folder contains all the things about God that we don’t understand. God mandated genocide, Torah endorsed slavery, Heaven’s command to kill babies, etc. For me, and for years, the folder containing faith strengthening evidence was far larger than the folder containing faith depleting evidence. One by one, without me ever really being aware of it, things in the first folder were making their way into the second folder. Faith-building passages in the Bible were becoming faith-depleting passages. The folders were tearing. Then he goes on to say, I did not lose or abandon my faith because I wanted to justify an unholy lifestyle. I lost my faith in the course of doing my job as a pastor. I lost my faith by studying the Bible. I have to pause this episode for just a moment to tell you that I have written a new book. Incarnation, 8 lessons on how God meets us. This eight-week Bible study uses the uniqueness of the message translation to explore God’s presence with us. Link to pre-order is in the show notes. Now, this is a pastor that I knew. I had interacted with him on a couple of occasions before his resignation, and I didn’t know that he had intellectual struggles. regarding things the Bible was saying or the core tenets of the Christian faith. I really wish I would have developed a relationship with him. Where he would have trusted me enough to talk to me about some of his doubts. I would have loved to be able to help him wrestle with his doubt We don’t grow in Christian faith by ignoring our doubts. We grow in Christian faith by wrestling with our doubts And I’m confident that all of the quotes, all of the verses in his faith depleting folder All those questions that he had, I bet they have been answered at some time during the church’s history. I would have loved to introduce him. to the great theological tradition where he could have discovered the foundations of our faith Because Christians have been following Jesus for 2,000 years. Christians have believed in the resurrection of Jesus for 2,000 years. The doubts that this pastor had, other people have had. And we’ve wrestled with them and we’ve worked a lot of those things out. Now I love the Bible. You know that about me. A lot of the content of our podcast episodes are me going through passages of scripture. And we’re going to look at some scripture on today’s episode. I believe in the inspiration of Scripture, the sacredness of Scripture, the authority of Scripture, the usefulness of Scripture. I read the Bible every day. It gives such life to my soul. But the Bible isn’t the foundation of our faith. Jesus is This pastor rejected not only the Christian faith, but believe in God by studying the Bible. But the Bible really isn’t the foundation of our faith. What is most fundamental and foundational is Jesus. He is the cornerstone. His historical Incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection is the foundation of Christian faith. Now, I wouldn’t prefer it But hypothetically, we could practice Christian faith without the Bible. In fact, the very early church, while the New Testament was being written, they were worshiping Jesus. They believed in Jesus. without having what we now know as the Holy Bible with its sixty-six books. Yes, they had the Hebrew scriptures But that was never the foundation. Scripture was always a part of Christian worship and practice, even in the very early days. So again, I’m not advocating that we throw out the Bible. But the purpose of the Bible is to bear witness to Jesus, to lead us to Jesus And everything that we believe about Jesus hangs on the truth of his very real, very historical, very literal resurrection. And so I want to look at some verses in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. This is a long chapter in the Bible, but it’s where the Apostle Paul, I think, makes his strongest case. For the necessity and the foundation of the resurrection of Jesus. And as we have done in previous episodes, I want to walk through Some verses, and we’re not gonna look at all the verses, but some verses in First Corinthians 15 in the message Bible. As you know, I’ve been working on a Bible study series using the message. I spent two years in my Morning daily Bible reading in Eugene Peterson’s contemporary translation of the Bible called the message And the message is not a perfect translation, but then again, there is no perfect translation, because translation is a human activity, and so I don’t have a favorite translation In fact, I’m a big advocate for lots of different translations. One of the best ways to do Bible study is to study a passage of Scripture using different translations. And I like old translations like the King James Version. I like new and modern translations like the New Living. and the message. So the message really shouldn’t be your only Bible, your only study Bible, but Eugene Peterson in his translation is able to bring out some of the beauty and the nuance of Scripture. And to phrase things in such a way to see the truth of God’s word in a new way. So let’s walk through some verses in 1 Corinthians 15 from the message. Now, I’m going to start in verse 13, so I’m really just jumping into the middle or the beginning of this chapter But understand that Paul, he’s not necessarily trying to prove the resurrection of Jesus. Rather, he is trying to work to establish the necessity. of the very phenomena of resurrection, to refute the claims of those who deny its possibility. There were first century Jewish people, the Sadducees, who didn’t believe in a resurrection. Jesus and his family, his clan, and then his movement believed that at the end of this age there would be a bodily resurrection. And so Paul is trying to establish that fact, but in doing so says a lot about how important the resurrection of Jesus is. It describes God’s resurrection scheme of things. It’s important to the work of God. So let’s jump in. 1 Corinthians 15, starting with verse 13. If there’s no resurrection, there’s no living Christ. And face it, if there’s no resurrection for Christ, everything we’ve told you is smoke and mirrors and everything you staked your life on is smoke and mirrors. Not only that, but we would be guilty of telling a string of barefaced lies about God All of these affidavits we passed on to you, verifying that God raised up Christ, sheer fabrications if there’s no resurrection. I wanted to start with these verses. This was verses 13, 14, and 15, because Paul is writing emphatically If resurrection at the end of the age is impossible, then Jesus was not raised, and then the witness of all of the disciples, of Paul himself. is nothing more than a cleverly devised hoax. Everything else that Jesus and the disciples taught us that’s recorded in the New Testament is nothing but smoke in mirrors if Jesus didn’t literally rise on the third day If the disciples of Jesus stole his body and cooked up a plan to fool everyone and to create a new religion, if this was just some type of hoax, You have to ask why. Why would the disciples do this? What would their motivation be? Because all of the disciples, at least we think most of them, all of them except for John, we’re not sure about John’s end, but we know that the majority of the disciples died a martyr’s death Why would they be willing to give their life for a hoax? Doesn’t make much sense to me. Let’s move on. Verse 16. If corpses can’t be raised, then Christ was it, because he was indeed dead And if Christ weren’t raised, then all you’re doing is wandering about in the dark as lost as ever. It’s even worse for those who died hoping in Christ and resurrection Because they’re already in their graves. If all we get out of Christ is a little inspiration for a few short years, we’re a pretty sorry lot The resurrection of Jesus truly is the linchpin of our faith. It is what holds everything together. Without it, we are truly just wandering about in the dark. Jesus came with a revolutionary message of the kingdom of God. God coming to rule and to reign. Not by the love of power, but in the power of love. Jesus came preaching and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, which was good news for the poor Which was good news for the mournful, for those who were mercy-giving, for the peacemakers. Jesus didn’t come to create Hallmark greeting cards with inspirational bits of poetry. He came to preach a revolution. that God is ruling and reigning and leading people in a new way. And if Christ didn’t rise on the third day, Then what are we left with? All of that preaching about the kingdom and God’s rule and reign doesn’t mean anything. Let’s move on. Verse 20. But the truth is that Christ has been raised up, the first in a long legacy of those who are going to leave the cemeteries. I love that poetic language. This verse, 1 Corinthians 15, 20, is one of the reasons I love the message. It has the power, translations like this have the power to stir our imagination. with the right combination of words. Most English translations use the phrase, Jesus is the first fruits of those who have died But the message gives us the imagery of people leaving cemeteries, not as subhuman zombies, nothing like that, but as. Full human beings reflecting the glory of the risen Jesus. I love that line. Let’s skip down to verse 25 Again, this is a long chapter. We can’t do all the verses. Skip down. Let’s look at 1 Corinthians 15, verses 25 through 28. He won’t let up until the last enemy is down, and the very last enemy is death. As the psalmist said, He laid them low, one and all. He walked all over them When Scripture says that he walked all over them, it’s obvious that he couldn’t at the same time be walked on When everything and everyone is finally under God’s rule, the Son will step down, taking his place with everyone else, showing that God’s rule is absolutely comprehensive. A perfect ending. The fear of death has no hold on us This is why we have such joy in reflecting on the resurrection of Jesus. It was the defeat of death. Christ has trampled down death by death. Through his death, he died, a real human death, went into the abode of the dead to destroy death. So as Christians, we recognize death as an uninvited guest, an intruder into God’s good creation. Death isn’t our friend, it’s our enemy. God is in the life-giving business, and so life is our best and most reliable friend. The problem for which the death and resurrection of Jesus is the solution is the problem of sin and death We don’t long for death as Christians, but neither do we have any fear of death. We believe it’s been defeated. Death as an enemy has been defeated through Jesus’ resurrection. Jesus indeed conquered death. Okay, let’s skip down to verse 35. This is kind of a big section. I want to take verse 35 all the way through 41. Some skeptic is sure to ask, show me how resurrection works. Give me a diagram, draw me a picture. What does this resurrection body look like? If you look at this question closely, you’ll realize how absurd it is. There are no diagrams for this kind of thing. We do have a parallel example in gardening. You plant a dead seed. Soon there is a flourishing plant. There is no visual likeness between seed and plant. You could never guess what a tomato would look like by looking at a tomato seed. What we plant in the soil and what grows out of it don’t look anything alike. The dead body that we bury in the ground and the resurrection body that comes from it will be dramatically different. You will notice that the variety of bodies is stunning. Just as there are different kinds of seeds, there are different kinds of bodies. Humans, animals, birds, fish. each unprecedented in its form. You get a hint at the diversity of resurrection glory by looking at the diverse bodies, not only in earth, but in the skies, sun, moon, and stars, all these varieties of beauty and brightness, and we’re only looking at pre-resurrection seeds. Who can imagine what the resurrection plants will be like? We have some freedom to speculate about what a resurrected body looks like because we’re not given a clear description in Scripture. Now with Jesus and his resurrected body We can see in the Gospels that people recognized him, sort of. So Jesus, when he rose again, rose into a new human body. but it was a different kind of human body, a glorified, a resurrected body. And so the Apostle Paul says, just like you wouldn’t imagine what a tomato plant would look like by looking at a tomato seed, you can’t even begin to imagine how beautiful and glorious our new resurrected bodies will be. There there’s a mystery here. Let’s move on. Verse 42. This image of planting a dead seed and raising a live plant is a mere sketch at best, but perhaps it will help in approaching the mystery of the resurrection body but only if you keep in mind that when we’re raised, we’re raised for good, alive for ever. The corpse, that’s planted, is no beauty, but when it’s raised, it’s glorious. put in the ground weak, it comes up powerful. The seed sown is natural, the seed grown is supernatural. Same seed, same body But what a difference from when it goes down in physical mortality when it’s raised up in spiritual immortality. So while we speculate and we can guess at what resurrected bodies will look like One thing we know is that our resurrected bodies, just like the resurrected body of Jesus, will be marked by immortality. Right? When we are raised, we are raised for good, alive forever. Let’s skip down to verse 51 But let me tell you something wonderful, a mystery I’ll probably never fully understand. We’re not all going to die. But we are all going to be changed. You hear a blast to end all blasts from a trumpet, and in the time that you look up and blink your eyes, it’s over. On signal from that trumpet from heaven, the dead will be up and out of their graves, beyond the reach of death, never to die again. at the same moment, in the same way, we will all be changed. When Jesus returns, when he appears, we’ll all be changed. Not removed from the earth, but remade with the earth. What God does with our physical bodies At the end of this age is a sign of what God will do with all creation. God’s going to remake everything. Everything is going to become new. All right, let’s wrap it up with 1 Corinthians 15, verses 53 through 57. I love this part. It sort of ends as a doxology of praise. In the resurrection scheme of things, this has to happen. Everything perishable taken off the shelves and replaced by the imperishable. this mortal replaced by the immortal. Then the saying will come true. Death swallowed by triumphant life. Who got the last word, O death O death, who’s afraid of you now? It was sin that made death so frightening, and law code guilt that gave sin its leverage, its destructive power. But now in a single victorious stroke of life, all three sin, guilt, death, are gone. The gift of our Master Jesus Christ, thank God. God’s resurrection scheme of things is to do away with death and to make all things new God raised Jesus from the dead to communicate to us God’s desire not just for creation but for new creation. And that death is not the end. Now, yes, death is still with us. We still attend funeral services We still contemplate our own mortality. There is coming a time when we will each breathe our last when our heart will beat for the final time. But we have no fear in that finality, because as Christians who believe in the resurrection of Jesus We believe to pass from this life into the next is to enter into God’s new creation. where death and sorrow and sin and guilt and the devil are all done away with. We were once subjected to death But now we have entered into God’s new creation. And through faith in Jesus, we’ve already got a jump start on new creation. If you are in Christ Jesus, behold you have entered into new creation. So God has already started that new creation project In the resurrection scheme of things, he’s already making us new on the inside, and then at the end, we’ll be made new on the outside. Well, I hope that this reflection on the resurrection scheme of things gives you hope today and that it increases your joy as we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus.
Guest: That’s all we have for today. Go in peace and be kind
This transcript was generated with AI and may contain errors.