What does Tribe teach about life after death?
Drawn from the messages where it was actually addressed: the words said from the front, the passages taught, and where to hear the whole thing.
At Tribe, the teaching on life after death starts with the resurrection of Jesus as a real, physical, past event that has direct implications for every person who belongs to him. Brian has worked through this from 1 Corinthians 15 and the post-resurrection appearances of Jesus in Luke 24, and the picture that emerges is specific: the resurrected body is not a ghost or a metaphor. It is tangible, recognizable, and capable of eating broiled fish in a room with friends, yet no longer bound by the physics that govern this one. Paul's seed analogy is central to how Brian frames it. What goes into the ground and what comes out are the same thing in origin but transformed into something altogether different, the way a bulb and a rose are related but look nothing alike. As Brian put it, "Put the bulb of your body in the ground and up comes the rose of your resurrected body."
On the question of timing, Brian has taught from 1 Thessalonians 4 that Jesus will return visibly, with a trumpet blast, and gather his people to meet him in the air. Those whose bodies have already given out are raised first; those still living are changed in a moment. The implication Brian draws for right now is captured in a line he gave the room plainly: "Death is in the rearview mirror. We've already done all the dying we're ever gonna do." For anyone in Christ, the dying that matters has already happened, and what lies ahead is something Paul calls being made alive, a word Brian notes is a farming word, the same language used for a seed going into soil and becoming something entirely new.
The larger frame Brian has placed around all of this is that total victory is the actual destiny of those whose lives are in Christ. He holds that alongside an honest acknowledgment, drawn from John 16:33, that trouble is real and the chip still bounces in this life. But the resurrection of Jesus as the first fruits of that harvest means the final destination is not in question. Whatever has felt stuck, broken, or unformed along the way does not determine the ending.
Taught from 1 Corinthians 15:35-49 · 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 · 1 Corinthians 15:20-23 · Luke 24:31-43 · 1 Corinthians 15:50-53
The passage taught · 1 Corinthians 15:20-23
20 But now Christ has been raised from the dead. He became the first fruits of those who are asleep.
21 For since death came by man, the resurrection of the dead also came by man.
22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.
23 But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then those who are Christ’s, at his coming.
World English Bible
Messages that go deeper
- May 11, 2025 Our Destiny is Total Victory A Mother's Day sermon exploring resurrection, the Feast of First Fruits, and why Scripture says total victory is the destiny of every believer in Christ.
- November 7, 2022 New Body Coming Brian Hunter walks through 1 Corinthians 15 and Luke 24 to explore what the Bible says about resurrection bodies, when we receive them, and why it matters now.