Of First Importance (Questions on 1 Cor 15:1-11)

• 
  How has the hope of resurrection made a difference in your own life? Tell your story.
• Have you expressed/embodied your hope of resurrection during difficult times in your life? During good times?
• Can you explain the importance of the resurrection to non-Christians [skeptics, agnostics, atheists, non-believers]?  
• Why is the death and resurrection of Christ an eschatological reality/event of [ultimate] first importance (1 Cor 15:3-4) [the cornerstone which is central to everything, the climax and pinnacle of the entire Bible]? Do explain theologically and practically.
• How does this guarantee your own resurrection [and salvation] (1 Cor 15:20-22)?
• How does a bodily resurrection hold both creation and redemption both creation and redemption together (1 Cor 15:45)?
• 
  How might your emotion disclose your true eschatological condition?
• What makes you angry, fearful, jealous, worried, depressed, discouraged, dejected, disheartened, despair?
• Are negative emotions, harsh criticisms, and inability to forgive eschatological issues?
• Does the gospel give you hope and self-control [joy, gratitude (Gal 5:22-23)] to overcome yourself [as Christ ultimately did on the cross]?
• How might you take the resurrection for granted [which is practically denying the resurrection (1 Cor 15:12)]?
• How can you train yourself (1 Cor 9:25; 1 Tim 4:7) to think and live eschatologically?
• 
  Why did Paul write 1 Cor 15 (1 Cor 15:12)? Why did they deny it? Why do people deny it?
• Do you affirm the resurrection in your mind, but deny it--not embody/live it out in your life (1 Cor 15:33-34)?

• Does the gospel need reminding (1 Cor 15:1a)? Why?
  

• How does one become a Christian (1 Cor 15:1-2)? What did they receive and take their stand on?
• What has the gospel done for you (1 Cor 15:1-2)?
• What should you do in response (1 Cor 15:2, 11, 34, 49, 58; 1 Th 5:18)?
• What does it mean for you to "hold firmly" to the gospel you received and believed (1 Cor 15:2, 11)?
• What possible OT Scriptures "say" that "Christ died for our sins" (1 Cor 15:3; Isa 53:5-7, 11b, 12b)? "That he was raised" from the dead (1 Cor 15:4; Ps 16:9-11; 110:1)? ["According to the Scriptures" may not refer to any particular OT passage but to "Scripture seen as a whole."]
  
• Why does Paul emphasize the many witnesses of Jesus' resurrection (1 Cor 15:5-10, 12)?
• Why does Paul's own testimony show about him (1 Cor 15:8-10)?
• How do you connect grace and effort (1 Cor 15:10)?
• What is it to be "abnormally born" (1 Cor 15:8)? 
• Is he humble? 
• How might he be addressing and responding to their criticism and judgment of him (1 Cor 4:3; 9:3)?