Beyond Death

Introduction

I hope you enjoy our presentation this evening, now we can go to study the bible together. To start our sermon tonight I would like to tell a little story about me. I grew up playing soccer almost every day thinking that one day I am going to be the best soccer player on the world. In my house when I was a kid my parents always taught me to be the best student in my class saying “being the best student, is the best for your future” I was taught that the only way to be successful in life is having good education and being the best student in my class, in my sport and in everything. I think the reason for this teaching is because we live in a world that constantly is influencing us to think in our future, so we should have plans for our future. But then we heard news like these.

Deathly shooting in El Paso, Texas.

The victims: Twenty people are death and more than two dozen are injured after a shooting in a shopping center in El Paso.

California church shocked after pastor commits suicide

Last night, the love of my life, the father of my children and the pastor of our incredible church took his last breath and went to be with Jesus. It wasn’t the miracle I was hoping for but he is now in heaven with his dad, free of pain, free of depression and anxiety. • He was an amazing husband, he truly made me better, made me feel like the most beautiful girl in the world, and he loved me so deeply. We fit so well together, we were one. He was an amazing daddy, his three boys are going to miss him so much. He had such a unique and special relationship with each of them. He was an incredibly gifted teacher, communicator, and pastor. He was special, one of a kind and will be missed by thousands of people all around the world. • Please pray for me and the boys. I don’t know how I am going to face this, I am completely heartbroken, lost, and empty. Never in a million years would I have imagined this would be the end of his story.

Those who knew Lina Marulanda really knew that as a child she had decided to build her world in such a methodical and private way that only she had the order and instructions to assemble the puzzle, so it will be very difficult to know with certainty the causes of her tragic death, on Thursday, April 22, when she decided to end her life by throwing herself from the sixth floor of the building where she lived in the area of ​​the Old Country, north of Bogotá.

No hay palabras, sólo un silencio entre los suyos, quienes seguramente tratan de atar algún cabo suelto, de confirmar si hubo alguna palabra de más, algún gesto que no se adivinó a tiempo; pero no, a Lina no le gustaba quedar en evidencia. Ni siquiera su maquillador, Álex Ramos, a su lado desde hace ocho años, percibió algún indicio de que algo la estaba atormentando: "Hace dos semanas me la encontré. Nos abrazamos, nos dijimos que ambos estábamos trabajando mucho. Me contó que estaba feliz con su matrimonio. No noté nada raro. Incluso hablamos de planes futuros en campañas y desfiles". La vida de Lina se desarrollaba de esta manera, cuando estaba en Caracol Noticias (del 2003 al 2007) se levantaba a las 4 a.m. para ir al gimnasio y cumplir con sus tareas como presentadora y publicista (en el equipo de mercadeo del Canal). No tenía problema en sacrificar sus tiempos, sus horas de sueño y hasta los momentos con los suyos para que la vida funcionara como quería. Y cuando las cosas no le gustaban se le notaba en los ojos. Esos enormes ojos cafés que también parecían cambiar de color cuando soltaba una de sus sonoras carcajadas.Su mejor amiga la define de la siguiente manera “Hay que ser realistas y decir que ella era caprichosa y terca, que le gustaba hacer las cosas a su manera y peleaba por sus ideas. Con lo amigas que fuimos, varias veces discutimos, no para dejarnos de hablar, pero sí defendiendo cada una su criterio". De eso, seguramente, también pueden dar fe las monjas del Santa María, el colegio de Medellín en el que estudió sus primeros años y donde comenzó a dar muestras de su carácter.

There are not words, only a silence among her people, who surely try to tie some loose end, to confirm if there was any extra word, a gesture that was not guessed in time; but not, Lina didn't like to be in evidence. Not even her makeup artist, Álex Ramos, at her side for eight years, noticed some indication that something was tormenting her: "Two weeks ago I found her. We hugged each other, we said we were both working hard. She told me she was happy with her marriage. I didn't notice anything weird. We even talked about future plans in campaigns and parades. " Lina's life developed this way, when she was at Caracol News (from 2003 to 2007) she got up at 4 a.m. to go to the gym and fulfill her tasks as a news reporter and publicist . She had no problem sacrificing her times, her hours of sleep and even moments with her people so that life would work as she wanted. And when she didn't like things, it showed in her eyes. Those huge brown eyes that also seemed to change color when she let out one of her loud laughter. Her best friend defines her as follows “You have to be realistic and say that she was capricious and stubborn, that she liked to do things her way and fought for her ideas. With the friends we were, several times we argued, not to stop talking, but each one to defend our criteria.

I believe these news are terrible and I wish nobody have to go through something like these, but in the text that we are going to study tonight we can be encouraged is something like this happen to us, but also reveals a problems that we have in our society. Let’s go to pray

Prayer

Dear Lord what a wonderful blessing is being part of your church and being available to present your word to my fellow brothers. I pray this evening that you help me to communicate your words in holiness, also We as your children can be confronted by the Scripture so we can change our lives to be more like you. Lord please use the text this evening to encourages us and to change us. In the name that is above every name I pray, Amen.

Purpose

Our daily routine can be affect by the resurrection that we will have one day with the Lord

Context

We are going to study this evening but before we do that, let me put you in the context of the book so you can understand what is Paul taking about in this chapter. Paul wrote this letter to the church in Corinth. How was this church? Probably this is worst church the New Testament. The spiritual situation of the people is was terrible, I think this is one of the church that you don’t want to be part of. People in this church had jealousy and strife. They had sexual immorality such as a son who was having sexual relations with his stepmom. there was a lack of love in this church and the list can going on and on.

When you got to chapter 15 Paul is addressing the problem about resurrection. There was people in this church that did not believe in the resurrection so the whole chapter is an answer to those who did not believe in the resurrection.

Having all this problems in mind we can go to read our text this evening.

1 Corintios 15.50–58 ESV

I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 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. 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: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

After studying this verses I founded two important ideas that Paul communicated to the people in Corinth in the verse 50, 53-54 we found the first idea. let’s read it

I love to study Paul’s letters because he writes for ideas and he repeats the same thing in different words over and over. So in our text the verses 50, 53 and 54 say almost the same thing. lets go to look at

1 Corintios 15.50 ESV

I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.

1 corintios

1 Corintios 15.53–54 ESV

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: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”

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In Paul’s mind there is two thing “the Kingdom of God and those that cannot inherit the kingdom”. In this three verses also we can see Paul making and emphasis in the word perishable. Why does Paul do this? In orden to understand why Paul does this we have to read verses 40 that says

1 Corintios 15.40 ESV

There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is of one kind, and the glory of the earthly is of another.

1 corintios 15:40

So the first main idea of the text is

The glory of earthly bodies

Paul tells us in this verse something simple and clear. There are two kind of bodies. heavenly bodies and earthly bodies and the glory for the heavenly body is one kind and the glory of the earthly body is another.

People in the church that did not believe in the life after death were looking for the glory of the earthly body thinking that they still will inherit the kingdom of God.

Those who did not believe in the resurrection said what Paul quoted in verse 32

People in the church that didn’t believe in the resurrection could say

1 Corintios 15.32 ESV

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.”

1 Corintios 32

In other word if there is not resurrection we can do whatever we want because we will inherit the kingdom of God, but Paul says there is not way! that is not going to happen because flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. If the only thing we seek is the glory of the earthly body we will not inherit the kingdom of God. That is was happening in the church in Corinth. People did not understand there is corruption on the body, its mortal and the Kingdom of God is for another kind of body. That’s the reason Paul does so much emphasis in the word perishable. Understanding this we can focus in the second main idea that Paul was teaching to the church.

The glory of the heavenly bodies

Paul is going to use the verses 51 to 57 to teaches us about the heavenly bodies. let’s read it.

1 Corintios 15.51–57 ESV

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. 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: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

1 corintios 15:51-

I love how Paul teaches and address the problems. Paul starts saying “behold” or listen or see. The next thing that I am going to say is really important. “we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed” the first sentence is to tell the people not everyone will die. He uses the word sleep that sometimes refers to people that is sleeping or going to sleep, and another times to refer to people that is death, just to explain that not everyone is going to die.

Verse 52 is to explain there is a change that everyone is going through and how fast is going to be this changed, when is going to happen and what should we expect. it’s going to be in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. That’s fast! it’s going to be quickly.

When is going to happen? when the last trumpet sounds. we don’t exactly know how is this trumpet but we know that we will listen it. What should we expect? he said the dead will be raise imperishable, and we shall be change.

This is incredible but to understand well this we have to pay attention to the word changed. It’s a weird word in greek, we just find this word in these two verses.

Let me explain you something about this word. When I was studying for this sermon I went through many bibles in English and Spanish. The bibles in Spanish translate the word changed for transformed. that cached my attention so I when to study the word and I question came to my mind. why Paul does not use the same word that He uses in or in methamorpho, after a lot time thinking I found the answer to my question and the best way to explain why I found is to the movie trasnformers.

I think many people is familiar with these kind of movies because they are really popular. In the movie you see that there is an amazing car that really quick transformed to a robot to save people and then transformed again to a car. So we see this transformation over and over but still is the same machine. In our text Paul is not telling us that. Paul use this specific word to teach the people in Corinth something beyond transformation. We won’t be transformed we will be change because we won’t be the same machine, the same body. It is going to be a body that is imperishable and inmortal that’s really cool isn’t it

When this changed happen Paul says vs 54

1 corintios 15:54-

1 Corintios 15.54 ESV

When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”

1 Corintios 15.54–57 ESV

When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Look at this when our bodies changed then the death is swallowed in victory, and those at the church that believe in Jesus and in the resurrection can ask this questions O death, where is your victory? and death where is your sting? and the will say thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

What a wonderful passage of the bible. I believe that this a text that we should memorize and preaching to ourself constantly. let’s conclude our sermon tonight

Conclusion

1 Corintios 15.58 ESV

Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

1 corintios 15:

looking the change of this verse to the others. In the others verses he was taking about the future and how is going to be our bodies in the kingdom of the Lord, but this verse is taking about the present. In the present Paul told the people of the church to be steadfast or firm, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. This sentence is what blows my mind because Paul is telling the people to invest their time, their lives, their bodies in the Lord of the Lord knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

Aplication

Everything we do in this life for the Lord matters.

Don’t see your life here in the earth like is everything because when we die is just the beginning of eternity

I am going to finish with this illustration do you know who is Leonel Messi? he is for a lot of people the best soccer player in the history. In a interview he said this

I would give everything to win the World Cup, it would be the greatest thing for me and for Argentina. I was lucky to get many important things at club level, but I would change all that for the World Cup,

I wish that you can see abounding in the work of the Lord like Leo Messi see winning a world cup and said: it would be the greatest thing for me and our church.