“The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach” (Acts 1:1).

“I have considered the days of old, the years of ancient times” (Psalm 77:5).

“And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights” (Genesis 7:12).

“And it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life: that he may learn to fear the LORD his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them” (Deuteronomy 17:19).

“Now if Christ be preached that He rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?” (I Corinthians 15:12).

Our text comes from one of the mountain-peak chapters of Scripture, expounding the great theme of the resurrection—first the past resurrection of Christ, then the future resurrection of those who “are fallen asleep in Christ” (v.18).