THIRD QUARTER 2026
SABBATH SCHOOL INSIGHT #8
AUGUST 22, 2026
"THE POWER OF THE RESURRECTION".

 

One good Friday evening several years ago, a popular Evangelical minister was to be one of seven ministers preaching back-to-back sermons at his home church, a black church. He rose to the pulpit and immediately “rolled into high gear,” he said. Upon immediate reflection on his sermon, he declared, “I was good.” His impression of himself was confirmed as, at the conclusion of his sermon, the congregation “broke loose,” he said. “Cries of joy and Hallelujahs filled the church.” Turning to the older pastor next to him, he asked, “Can you top that?”  To which the older pastor replied “this old man is going to do you in.” The old man got up and for one hour and a half preached one line over and over, “Its Friday but Sunday’s Comin’.” The popular evangelical pastor said it was the way the old preacher said those words. He began softly “It was Friday; it was Friday and my Jesus was dead on the tree. But that was Friday, and Sunday’s Comin’…It was Friday and Mary was cryin’ her eyes out. The disciples were runnin’ in every direction, like sheep without a shepherd, but that was Friday, and Sunday’s comin’. His volume rose and so did the response of the congregation. He continued thus for 90 minutes and finished his message, yelling at the top of his lungs, “It’s Friday!” to which the congregation, with one accord, yelled back, But Sunday’s Comin’!” What is it about the resurrection of Jesus that produced such a response? What is the importance of the resurrection, and how does the resurrection fit in with the story of redemption?

Sunday’s Lesson: Proclaiming the Resurrection of Christ 

The opening paragraph of Sunday’s lesson, says, “ Paul begins 1 Corinthians 15 by focusing on the gospel. He speaks about the gospel: (1) which he preached to the Corinthians; (2) which they received; (3) in which they stood; and (4) by which they were saved (1 Cor. 15:1-2, NKJV). This opening prepares the reader for what comes next in the chapter and shows how essential Christ's resurrection is for our salvation (see also Rom. 10:9-10). His resurrection is such a vital part of the gospel message that denying it contradicts one's faith in Christ.” We will explore this vitally important topic in this week’s lesson, the gospel in the resurrection. 

Sunday’s lesson focuses our attention on the historical truth of the resurrection given us in both the Old and New Testaments. Paul says,  ^“For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,  and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3,4, NKJV*). After His resurrection, Jesus referred to the “Scriptures” in Luke 24. We recall the story; it is the third day after the crucifixion and two very downhearted disciples were walking on the road to a village called Emmaus, away from Jerusalem where Jesus had been crucified. The resurrected Jesus drew near them and walked with them. ^“And He said to them, ‘What kind of conversation is this that you have with one another as you walk and are sad?’  And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.  And they said to one another, 'Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scripturesto us?’”  (Luke 24:17,27,32). Later that evening, He met with the disciples and said, “‘These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me.’  And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures” (Luke 24:44,45). When Jesus spoke these words, there were only the Old Testament scrolls—Moses (The first five books of the Bible), the Prophets (Isaiah, Hosea, and others), and the Psalms. All of these predicted Christs death and resurrection. 

By speaking of Christ’s dying for our sins “according to the Scriptures,” Paul draws us back to a point in far back in time, a point where in the Garden of Eden a promise was made. Speaking to the serpent, God said, “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise [crush] your head, and you shall bruise His heel” (Genesis 3:15). This is the first Old Testament reference to the cross and the resurrection. Satan’s head was undeniably crushed when Jesus rose from the dead. Crushing the head is far more serious than crushing the heel. Christ bears the scars of the nails, but He triumphed over the grave. He crushed Satan’s head in so doing. The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary on Genesis 3:15 says, “…enough was revealed [to Adam] to be an assurance to him that sin would not last forever, that the Redeemer would be born of the woman’s seed, that the lost rulership would be regained, and that the happiness of Eden would be restored. From the first to the last, the gospel of salvation is the central theme of the Scriptures.” The serpent who was more cunning than any beast of the field preyed upon the woman and the man God created. In Genesis 3:15, a promise was made to us immediately of not just the cross, but the resurrection. “As soon as there was sin, there was a Saviour. From the opening of the great controversy in heaven, Satan has maintained his cause through deception; and Christ has been working to unveil his schemes and to break his power. It is He who has encountered the deceiver, and who through all the ages has been seeking to wrest the captives from his grasp, who will pass judgment upon every soul.”—Ellen G, White, The Desire of Ages, p 210.

Isaiah ultimately foreshadows Jesus’ miraculous resurrection in the following passage,  ^“Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, And the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand.  He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, For He shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, And He shall divide the spoil with the strong, And He was numbered with the transgressors, And He bore the sin of many, And made intercession for the transgressors” (Isaiah 53:10-12).

According to the SDA Bible Commentary on this passage, “that Christ would ‘see’ His seed clearly implies the resurrection. ‘Prolong His days,’ clearly affirms Christ’s resurrection from the dead.” The spoil referred to in Isaiah evokes salvific imagery and refers to all that had been lost as a result of sin. This would  be restored. By his resurrection, Christ became heir of all things and shares His inheritance with those He has rescued from the hand of the enemy. This can only be possible not only because of the cross but also as a result of the resurrection. Praise God, He was faithful to the promises He made to the Patriarchs. “Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus,  who was faithful to Him who appointed Him, as Moses also was faithful in all His house.” (Hebrews 3:1,2). This is the power of the cross and the resurrection. Several New Testament texts point us back to the Old Testament’s giving evidence of  the resurrection. “Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God  which He promised before through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures, concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh,  and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead” (Romans 1:1-4).

Monday’s Lesson: The Risen Christ, Our Only Hope!

The title of Monday’s lesson is the same as the section heading in many of our Bibles, which places emphasis on the salvific importance of the resurrection. Paul begins this section of the chapter with an acknowledgement of his unworthiness in comparison to the grace of God, “ For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.  But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain…” (1 Corinthians 15:9,10). Paul understood the truth that no man of himself is worthy of being called to the service of God. For Paul, his realization of the forgiveness of God produced not only an awareness of sin but a deep gratitude to God and hence he gave thanks that the sacrifice of Christ was not lavished on him in vain. With this lead in he addresses the issue at hand, a disbelief in the resurrection and why it is a critical part of the story of redemption. “ Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?  But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen.  And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is vain and your faith is also vain.  For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen.  And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins!  Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.  If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.” (1 Corinthians 15:12-14, 16-19). Some translations say, “we are of all men most miserable.” Paul’s choice of words— vain, futile pitiable, miserable—may seem to be an exaggeration. He seems to be saying that if we do not believe that Christ was resurrected, His death was in vain, hence salvation is not possible. But is it an exaggeration? We can only assume so if we fail to recognize the existential crisis that we have because of sin. In Romans chapter 8 Paul uses a similar word, “ For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope” (v. 20). The tense of the Greek verb indicates that the event took place at a particular time,  at the fall of Adam and Eve. The consequences were dire. When man, the crowning jewel of God’s creation, sinned,  the course not only of man, but of all creation—his entire sphere of influence —came under the sentence of death, eternal death. Reading the surrounding texts in Romans 8 is clarifying as they clearly refer to entire work of redemption, whose pinnacle is the resurrection. “ For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God.  because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God” (vv. 19,21). The revelation of the sons of God will be the public manifestation of the entire work of redeeming grace in all its fullness (See 1 Corinthians 15:51-53). Speaking of the corruption Peter says, “ For David says concerning Him: ‘I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for He is at my right hand, that I may not be shaken. Therefore my heart rejoiced, and my tongue was glad; Moreover my flesh also will rest in hope. For You will not leave my soul in Hades, Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption.’” (Acts 2:25-27). This is a reference to Psalm 16:10.

All creation was subjected to sin and its consequence, eternal death, from which there is no resurrection—to corruption. Paradise was lost as a result of rebellion against God. But praise God, Jesus provided a way of escape—escape from the power, the presence, and the penalty of sin. He did not see “corruption” but was resurrected because, as Paul says,“For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” (Romans 8:2,3). There were two counts against Satan, sin, and death. Only by the resurrection of Jesus could that last count be erased, “who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification” (Romans 4:25).

Tuesday’s Lesson: The Last Enemy Destroyed, Christ the Firstfruits

^“But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead.  For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. The last enemy that will be destroyed is death” (1 Corinthians 15:20-22, 26). A similar passage is found in Romans chapter 5, “For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life” (v. 10). This phrase “saved by His life,” I  believe, refers to His resurrection if the chronology of the text is carried through. The plan of redemption did not end when Jesus cried, “It is finished.” The plan of redemption continued until Sunday morning at the resurrection and continues now with our heavenly High Priest, who ever lives to make intercession for us. Paul later says, “For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ” (v. 17). “Much more” is a total erasure of Satan’s plunging the world into sin. It is the cross of Christ but much more it is the resurrection. Much more it is His continued intercession for us in the Heavenly sanctuary. 

It is our privilege to respond like Paul to the completeness of the sacrifice of Christ. He desires ^“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” (Philippians 3:10,11).

We read this regarding the two who walked with the resurrected Lord on the road to Emmaus:

“The night is dark, but the Sun of Righteousness is shining upon them. Their hearts leap for joy. They seem to be in a new world. Christ is a living Saviour. They no longer mourn over Him as dead. Christ is risen—over and over again they repeat it. This is the message they are carrying to the sorrowing ones. They must tell them the wonderful story of the walk to Emmaus. They must tell who joined them by the way. They carry the greatest message ever given to the world, a message of glad tidings upon which the hopes of the human family for time and for eternity depend.”—Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, p  801.

Yes, it was Friday, but praise God, Sunday came! 

 

—Andi Hunsaker

 

*NKJV throughout.