*Death Gobbled Up* (2)
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God gives saints VICTORY over sin and death through the Lord Jesus Christ. How? Through Jesus’ Death-Defeating death and resurrection, which ensures our future bodily resurrection.
One Word: VICTORY!
Death Stings
Sin Dominates
Jesus Conquers
+++++++++++++
Good morning, Living Grace!
It is good to be back with you again. I hope you all had a joyful Easter last weekend.
My name is Tim, and I am finishing up my pastoral residency at The Orchard in Barrington. It’s a privilege to open up the Word with you all today. My wife Emily and I have always felt such love and warmth each time we have come here, and we highly esteem Pastor Cary for his pastoral heart and fervor.
Would you turn with me in your Bibles to 1 Cor 15:50-58?
Read?
Lets pray.
Gratitude… the presence of the Lord. Make us earnest, active, repenting, believing listeners and doers of your Word; Sanctify us in truth...
Form us into SAINTS--holy ones--who are FULL of thanksgiving,
Marked by gratitude,
Stemming from our VICTORY
in the Lord Jesus Christ.
For a Jesus-freak like me, Easter may be my favorite holiday—because I get to go to church more than any other week of the year, and I have great reason to invite all my friends to come along with me!
Holidays like Easter are days meant for joyful feasting and celebration,
rejoicing in all that God has done for us in Christ.
But for many,
Many in war-torn lands,
Many who are grieving loss,
holidays like Easter can be painful reminders of what once was.
Our text this evening, gives us a glimpse into a future celebration,
a royal banquet in heaven,
where God will have a surprising portion,
and we God’s people will know a PERFECT and unfading joy, freed from all the sad effects of sin and death.
We will consider 3 life-altering realities from 1 Corinthians 15 together.
Death Stings Because of Sin
Sin Dominates Because of the Law
and
3. God Triumphs Because of the Resurrection
First,
1) Death STINGS because of sin!
v.56 “The STING of death...”
Ever since Adam and Eve fell in the garden,
- Death has reigned in this world, subjugating all to its sting, a lethal Sting.
Death, the Enemy of all living, STINGS us.
It hurts us.
Grieves us, stabs us, pierces us in the depths of our being.
Death poisons, devours, and consumes us, with no end to its appetite.
And throughout history, Death HAS had the victory over billions of lives, not just human, but of every kind and species.
It doesn’t take long scrolling news and media sources to see report after report about Death.
There is no end to breaking news reports, no end to rising death tolls.
No end to new tragedies,
new mass-shootings
new manifestations of the ancient struggle between ethnic and religious peoples
If you were an alien from outerspace visiting the earth and read earth’s headlines for a month,
you very well might deduce
that this invisible, international Power,
Death
is King,
the Emperor of earth
A Sovereign Dictator
in whose tight grip all nations lie,
thirsty for Jewish and Palestinian blood
Ukrainian blood
Asian and African
Disease, Death’s number 1 hitman,
ravages lives, seemingly indiscriminately
even the most physically healthy find themselves unable to flee the advances of Disease into their bodies, their organs, their minds…
Ransacking your body, your mind, even today!
Reading history of ages past, Death seems invincible;
Living life in the present, Death seems victorious.
A Scorpion with a Stinger so venomous,
that all who die,
stay dead, corrupting in the grave
becoming skeletons soon forgotten by the living
Why is death so powerful and so painful?
Our text today gives us the answer.
And it is this:
v.56 “The STING of death is SIN.”
Why does death even exist?
SIN!
Why is death so sharp and cruel?
MUCH more than just an inevitable part of a life-cycle?
SIN!
The VENOM, the POISON in Death that tortures and taunts humanity,
is the dark reality of sin that pervades our world and our human nature.
Imagine Death as a giant Scorpion,
Its gnarly stinger, pulsing with poison,
The sharp tail poised to prick and pierce its victims
This Stinger, with all its bubbling venom,
is SIN with its accompanying GUILT!
“Sin,” in the words of the great commentator Matthew Henry,
“Gives VENOM to death’s dart:
Sin alone empowers death to HURT and to KILL.”
Henry adds:
“Sin UNFORGIVEN and NOTHING else, can keep any soul under his power.” (end quote)
Sin makes Death STING.
Before the first sin, there was no death
But ever since Death was summoned to earth through human rebellion,
it generally hasn’t been a pleasant experience.
The body’s normal functioning shuts down
Pain and disability might ravish the body
One feels the weight of all that is being left behind...
The unknown ahead haunts us
It is because of SIN that death becomes something so terrible and fearful
it is SIN that kills hope beyond the grave
and provokes FEAR in the face of the future judgment
In fact, the author of Hebrews tells us that sinful humanity is enslaved through the fear of death.
The Big Think — a science organization with naturalistic and atheistic experts --- corroborate this.
they concur that FEAR of death is a global human phenomenon.
a shared experience across virtually ALL cultures and peoples
Why do we fear death?
Isn’t it just a NORMAL part of the circle of life? “Everybody dies; its just a NATURAL part of being human”, we hear.
And yet, that doesn’t help us when we’re actually face to face with death itself.
THIS is why human beings FEAR in the face of death:
We all KNOW we are sinners,
We know we have offended our Creator and broken His laws
And deep inside, our guilty conscience KNOWS we aren’t ready for eternity
Unforgiven sin terrifies the soul at whose door death is knocking!
And because of SIN,
people grieve as those who have no hope,
No assurance of life and reunion beyond the grave
NO certainty of JUSTICE being served,
after grievous crimes committed, while the criminal escapes a sentence
Sin makes death a cause for despair!
The STING of death IS SIN.
DEATH stings because of sin.
The apostle builds on this sobering reality, explaining where sin’s POWER comes from:
Where sin draws its STRENGTH, its control over our lives.
Paul’s answer here is surprising...
He doesn’t say, the POWER of sin is the devil, with his vicious accusations and enticing temptations
He doesn’t say, the POWER of sin is your depraved flesh with all its evil desires
v.56 “The sting of death is SIN, and the POWER of sin is the LAW.”
The POWER of sin is the Law.
Which brings us to our second point:
2) Sin dominates because of the law.
Death Stings Because of Sin
Sin Dominates Because of the Law
v.56 … the power of sin...
Sin is not just the BAD we DO;
Sinful is what we are by nature.
Our wills in bondage to corruption,
bent on doing evil
inclined toward pride and selfishness
unable and unwilling to trust and obey God
Sin is an indwelling presence that lurks within us,
a force that dominates the inner life of the unbeliever,
and wages war within the believer.
a sinister virus that seeks to control our lives, to make us walk according to the flesh, rather than the Spirit
HOW does sin dominate humanity?
The race of beings who bear God’s very image
and were created to freely love God and one another in fruitfulness and peace?
This is how:
The power of sin is the LAW.
God’s commandments GIVE sin its leverage over us,
its DOMINATING power.
How does the law of God do this?
By presenting to us—fallen creatures—God’s PERFECT standards,
yet with NO power to meet them
Declaring God’s righteous decrees,
while offering no HELP to do them.
In doing this, God’s law burdens us,
THREATENS us,
and
CONDEMNS us,
and in so doing,
AROUSES greater evil within us.
The “Power of sin is the Law”!
Think of a POWER lifter named “Senor SIN”, with a gargantuan torso and biceps.
the flexed ARMS of SIN hold two boulders, the 10 Commandments written on them
This hulk of a man, “Senor SIN” corners you,
Confronts you about your performance of these commandments
“No other gods but the LORD?”
I know your heart’s devotion to the Cubs; to social media over Scripture
I know your obsession with your bank account
your work!
I see how you treasure personal comfort at the expense of serving others!
Your family and friends get more attention from you than God Himself!
Your idols abound!”
Sin, continues his interrogation:
Adultery? Jesus said LUST counts.
GUILTY!
Murder? Jesus said anger and hate count!
GUILTY!
Don’t bear False Witness? White lies count!
GUILT GUILTY GUILTY!
“You know where the GUILTY go!”
Rom 4:15 says “the Law brings WRATH”.
It condemns EVERY sinner to death and hell, under the righteous punishment of God.
It brings the CURSE of God upon every sinner…
because “Cursed is everyone who does not abide by EVERYTHING written in the law and DO them” (Gal 3:10)
The power of sin is the LAW.
The Law exposes our sin and guilt before the Holy God
The Law burdens us with commands and prohibitions we could NEVER keep perfectly
And so the Law brings wrath upon us and curses us with a sentence of eternal condemnation.
But does all of this change our sinful hearts and make us HOLY?
Make us RIGHTEOUS?
QUITE to the CONTRARY!
God’s law further arouses our sin!
Rom 7:5 teaches:
Romans 7:5 (ESV)
For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death.
The LAW of God:
You can think of the 10 Commandments,
rather than constraining our sinfulness,
provoke greater evil within us!
For people outside of Christ, knowing what God demands,
leads to greater wickedness
rather than genuine worship
This is why:
As sinners are confronted by the Law,
their sin takes on the character of rebellion or self-righteousness.
No longer guilty of mere “mistakes” in blissful ignorance
Sin becomes an outright rejection of God’s expressed will
Or, worse yet, a self-righteous striving for godliness, leading to a spiritual facade that covers a decaying heart
Furthermore, sinful human beings are allured by the forbidden!
- We are made CURIOUS by the off-limits!
And sinners LOVE breaking commandments in order to assert their independence.
To demonstrate their supposed FREEDOM from God’s “oppressive” rule!
The natural person HATES God’s standards, and ENJOYS sin!
Enjoys sexual “liberty”
Unhindered access to worldly pleasures
And so in the face of God’s HOLY precepts,
will defiantly plunge deeper into their heart’s desires.
Further, God’s rules stimulate SIN in the hearts of unbelievers
because they KNOW they can’t OBEY them
They’re TOO HARD, TOO DEMANDING
So, they say, “we may as well indulge!”
“If it’s impossible to keep,
I may as well break all of it!”
The POWER of sin is the LAW.
SIN DOMINATES humanity—and it does so through the righteous, holy, and good Law of God!
1) Death STINGS because of sin
2) Sin DOMINATES because of the law
and the whole world lies under the power of evil, destined for judgment as a result.
But thank God,
In our passage of Scripture this evening/morning,
We are given a radiant beam of HOPE.
In the midst of a whole lot of BAD news,
It gives a report of GOOD news, really GOOD news—
Death, with its impressive RESUME and track record
isn’t victorious after all.
There is a POWER stronger, mightier, than all the forces and hosts of Death’s army
A Prince who has in fact conquered Death
Disarmed the Dictator, and slain him
A King of kings who shares His victory with ALL who pledge allegiance to Him
and gives them protection from death’s sting
a STINGER He will one day, tear off completely,
as He Himself gobbles up Death, never to be seen again.
HERE is the Good News, the prophetic promise of what is to come:
Look with me at 1 Cor. 15:50-54
1 Corinthians 15:50–54 (ESV)
I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.
[Namely, your current “perishable” body, your aging and decaying “flesh and blood” is unfit for heaven.
To take your current body to heaven,
would be like taking a fish and planting it in the middle of a gorgeous garden, with no pond or river in view.
It doesn’t have the kind of body to survive, let alone enjoy the glory of such an environment.
The apostle Paul continues:
“Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.”
[When Paul says, ‘We shall not all sleep’, he uses ‘sleep’ to refer to human death, indicating that there will be people alive when the events he is describing will happen.
That is,
At some point in the future, it could be even tonight/this afternoon!!!
1) A heavenly trumpet will blast. Every ear will hear it,
- like one of those monthly warning tornado sirens,
- a deafening blast of angelic brass.
2) Instantaneously summoned by the Trumpet, those alive, and those dead in their tombs,
- will be raised up,
- clothed in resurrection bodies
- changed from mortal flesh into immortal glory
Paul explains:
v. 53 “For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:
And here we come to the decisive verdict;
and the FINAL undoing of Death:
the end of v.54
“Death is swallowed up in victory.”
Death, who for millennia, swallowed up human lives through an untold number of ways,
will itself be SWALLOWED up
Gobbled up
DEVOURED by God himself
in a final victory,
an ultimate TRIUMPH over hell.
Then God Himself will take up His taunt against His vanquished Foe.
“O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”
As we already considered, v.56 goes on to describe what Death’s Sting is, and what Sin’s Power is…
“The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.”
And then, the great apostle bursts out in exuberant praise:
“BUT…
BUT THANKS BE TO GOD!!!!
THANKS BE TO GOD,
who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Notice what Paul doesn’t say in this expression of thanksgiving:
Paul doesn’t say, “Thanks be to God, who WILL give us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
As though it were entirely future...
Thanks be to God who GIVES us the victory:
something present,
something actively being given
a VICTORY accomplished, secured
and yet awaiting a final completion!
What is this victory, and how do we come to experience it?
The VICTORY GIVEN by God,
to His saints
is a spiritual victory
and a legal victory.
Brothers and sisters in Christ,
fellow SAINTS of the most High God,
we once WERE spiritually dead in our trespasses and sins,
in which we once walked.
We once were dominated by sin,
slaves of sin
defeated by death
heading for hell
Legally, before God’s courtroom,
we were guilty,
condemned
under God’s judgment
BUT GOD,
being rich in mercy, with the great love with which He loved us,
GAVE US His Son, our Savior
the Lord Jesus Christ
To share in our flesh and blood
Be tempted in every way as we are
Face the devil in face to face combat
And successfully CONQUER every attack,
And fulfill every jot, every tittle of the Law of God which stood against us with its demands
And as God’s Obedient Son
Our Captain and Commander
Our 5-star General
He laid down His life as a willing sacrifice
for the rescue of our sin-stained souls.
Jesus died upon the cross, entered into the realm of the dead,
to defeat Death through death
Conquering sin and hell,
By rising bodily from the dead,
Proving Death could not hold him down.
Nor have the victory over His indestructible life.
Proving that SIN was atoned for in full,
His sacrifice accepted
Our GUILT carried away, our debts paid for
for all enlisted in His army.
Not only that, but in Jesus’ victorious resurrection, there was a PROMISE and a PATTERN.
In the words of Jesus himself:
John 6:39–40 (ESV)
And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.
For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
Whoever LOOKS on Jesus Christ,
BELIEVING in His name,
Will share in His final resurrection life, clothed with bodies of glory and immortality.
And until that day,
Until vv. 51-55 of 1 Cor 15 are fulfilled,
God the Father gives VICTORY over the power of sin,
and victory over the sting of death
to all His holy people,
who abide in His Son.
Friend, you may call yourself a Christian,
you may even go to church,
you’re here tonight/this morning!
a Christian Singles meeting (worship service)
You may have even prayed a prayer,
done an altar call
been baptized in the triune Name
But your life is not marked by the victory in Christ!
OR of the gratitude and thanksgiving, that flows like a fountain,
from the heart of one sharing Christ’s title of eternal life
partaking in Christ’s divine nature
having escaped from the corruption that is in the world
How does this victory look like in day to day life?
Well look at the apostle Paul!
Early in this chapter he says, (1 Cor 15:30-32)
Why are we in danger every hour? I protest, brothers, by my pride in you, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die every day! What do I gain if, humanly speaking, I fought with beasts at Ephesus? If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”
Paul is in DANGER every hour.
Paul, figuratively, spiritually speaking, DIES every day!
Even willing to fight with wild beasts in the Roman games;
attacked many a time by hostile mobs and enemies to the Gospel
The point is, his HOPE is NOT in this life.
His priorities are not in securing a comfortable retirement
His time and decisions are oriented toward eternity
the KINGDOM of God, the salvation of all people
And so, knowing the certainty of his future resurrection, Paul is willing to give ALL for the sake of Christ
pour himself out
run with endurance so as to win the race
and abound in the work of the Lord,
knowing that
“only one life, twill soon be past, only what’s done for Christ will last” (CT Studd)
How are your priorities?
How is your life organized, oriented?
Is your north star the Resurrection of the Dead? The triumph of RIGHTEOUSNESS over evil,
the VICTORY of eternal LIFE over death?
Brothers and sisters,
This world is subject to the sting of unforgiven SIN, the sting of a death without hope
This world is dominated by sin, sin which reigns, using God’s law to condemn and deceive
But JESUS CHRIST THE LORD CONQUERS.
HE Has conquered.
HE currently CONQUERS.
And He will one day CONQUER in consummate MAJESTY.
And He shares with us His victory,
calling us MORE than conquerors by His love
OVERCOMERS of the world, sin, and fear
triumphant warriors,
clothed in His righteousness
while sowing linen garments of our own good deeds
in which His glory and grace will shine for all eternity.
So like Paul, this Thanksgiving season,
GIVE THANKS to GOD for the victory that is GIVEN YOU in Jesus.
Be STEADFAST, IMMOVABLE—enduring every trial, every tribulation, every temptation,
your feet firmly planted in the assembly of the righteous, united to the army of saints.
And do not be slothful in zeal,
But ALWAYS abound in the work of the Lord: serving him,
serving your local church
loving your neighbors
fulfilling your calling
knowing that in the Lord, your labor is not in vain.
Pray.