Death Doesn’t Win

Intro:

There’s one thing every person in this room understands, whether we talk about it or not—and that is the reality of death.

Some try to avoid it.

Some soften the language by saying things like, “they passed away” or “They’re in a better place”

But deep down, we all know… death feels final.

It interrupts families.

It breaks hearts.

It leaves questions.

And if we’re honest, it brings a certain fear.

Because no matter how strong you are, no matter how much faith you have, death has always seemed like the one thing no one escapes.

And that’s why Easter matters.

Because Easter is not just about a religious holiday…

Easter is about one enormous truth…

**Death does not get the final word.**

Long before Jesus came to earth

Long before His crucifixion…

Long before the empty tomb…

God made a promise…

And that promise is found in Isaiah 25…

Before we read this chapter, let me give you just a little bit of context so we understand what we’re stepping into.

The book of Isaiah was written during a time of real uncertainty and fear for God’s people.

Nations were rising and falling.

There was instability,

threats from enemies,

and a lot of anxiety about the future.

But when you get to this section—Isaiah 24 through 27—it shifts.

These chapters are sometimes called “Isaiah’s little apocalypse.”

That just means they give us a glimpse of how everything is going to end…

God’s final victory,

His judgment on evil,

and His restoration of His people.

Isaiah 25 is really a song of praise.

It’s written almost like the people are already celebrating something God hasn’t fully done yet… but they know He will.

They are praising God in advance for His victory.

And in this chapter, you’ll see a few powerful images:

God defeating His enemies

God being a refuge for His people

God preparing a feast (a picture of joy, restoration, and fellowship)

And most importantly for us today… God defeating death itself

I am going to read the entire chapter, but we are just going to mainly focus on 1 verse…

Read Isaiah 25…

Meat:

The verse that I’d like to focus on this morning is…

Isaiah 25:8 NKJV

8 He will swallow up death forever, And the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces…

Think about that…

Hundreds of years before Jesus was even born…

God promised, “One day, I’m going to deal with death once and for all.”

Which means that…

1. God saw the Problem of Death

Before we can appreciate the promise, we need to understand the problem.

Death was never part of God’s original design.

When God created the world in Genesis, everything was good.

There was no sickness.

No suffering.

No funerals.

But sin entered the world… and with sin came death.

And ever since that moment, death has been the shadow hanging over every human life.

It doesn’t matter:

how wealthy you are

how healthy you are

how young or old you are

Death comes for everyone.

And here’s what makes it so heavy… it feels unstoppable.

You can fight disease.

You can attempt to delay it.

But you cannot defeat it on your own.

That’s the human condition… … And God saw it.

God saw the pain.

God saw the tears.

God saw the grief that death causes.

And in six words… Isaiah gives us a powerful message…

“He will swallow up death forever…”

Which means… When God saw the pain, the tears, the grief that death causes… He was not ok with it…

And so…

2. God Made a Promise About Death

Listen to it again…

“He will swallow up death forever…”

That’s is a strong statement…

God didn’t say He would manage death.

He didn’t say He would reduce death.

He said He would **swallow it up.**

That means:

completely remove it

fully defeat it

permanently deal with it

**Forever.!**… Not sure if you realize this or not… but forever is a very long time…

Now imagine hearing that in Isaiah’s day.

People were still dying.

Graves were still being dug.

Tears were still falling.

And yet God said, “This is not how the story ends.”

Which should bring us encouragement as well…

Because we still live in a world where:

people get sick

tragedies happen

we stand beside graves and watch caskets get lowered into the ground…

And at times it can feel like death is still winning.

But Easter reminds us:

**We are not at the end of the story yet.**

God made a promise… and…

3. The Promise was Fulfilled in Jesus

We go from Isaiah and fast forward to that first Easter morning…

Jesus had been crucified.

Buried in a tomb.

A stone rolled in front.

To everyone watching, it looked like death had done what it always does… it won.

But early that morning… something happened.

Read Matthew 28:1-8…

The stone was rolled away.

The tomb was empty.

And the Angel gave the announcement that Jesus is alive.

That moment changed everything.

Because Jesus didn’t just escape death…

**He defeated it.**

This is exactly what Isaiah was pointing to…

When Jesus rose from the grave, He began the fulfillment of God’s Promise…

“He will swallow up death forever…”

Death tried to hold Him… and it couldn’t.

The grave tried to keep Him… and it failed.

We will talk more about this part in the next service…

But, if Jesus had stayed in the grave, then death still wins.

But because He rose…

4. Death has been Defeated

Now, we still experience death, don’t we?

We still go to funerals… I went to a celebration of Life yesterday…

We still grieve.

We still feel the pain of loss.

So what does it mean that death has been defeated?…

It means that…

Death is no longer the end…

but rather, it’s a doorway…

For the believer, death does not lead to defeat… … It leads to life.

That’s why the Apostle Paul was able to say things like:

“O death, where is your sting?”

Or “To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord”

The sting of death has been removed.

Yes, it still hurts when a loved one dies… but it no longer has the final say.

And when tears are flowing from our eyes because of the pain that death causes… guess what…

5. God also deals with the Tears

Isaiah doesn’t stop with death…

He says… “And the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces…”

This promise is also found in…

Revelation 21:4 “…God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.””

That means God doesn’t just deal with the event of death…

He deals with the pain it causes.

Some of us may be dealing with some sort of grief right now…

Maybe it’s fresh.

Maybe it’s years old but still tender.

I want you to know that…

God sees every tear.

Not one is ignored.

Not one is forgotten.

And there is coming a day that we won’t have to deal with…

anymore funerals

no more hospital rooms

no more terminal diagnosis’

no more goodbyes

That’s the hope of the resurrection.

Closing:

But here’s the kicker…

This promise is 100% true… but it must be received.

Everything we’ve talked about this morning

the promise…

the resurrection…

the victory over death…

It’s all true.

But it’s not automatically applied to everyone.

Isaiah said, “He will swallow up death forever…”

But the reality is…

That victory only belongs to those who belong to Him.

So the question is simple… do you belong to Him?

Not have you been around church,

not do you know the story…

but have you truly given your life to Jesus Christ?

Because this morning, you are either in that victory… or still outside of it.

So don’t assume, and don’t put it off… make sure today that you truly belong to the One who conquered death.

Prayer: