The Glory of the Gospel

THE GLORY OF THE GOSPEL 1 Corinthians 15:50-57 50 I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.  51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—  52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the deadwill be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.  53 For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.  54 When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”[a] 55 “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?”[b] 56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.  57 But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. I know that there is fear in this world I know that there is fear in this country, this state and this community What are we afraid of? To be honest, its not just the unknow, but of death. Society tries to hide its presence Religion makes it a celebration BUT The Bible says that it’s the greatest enemy to to humanity Think about it. We are taught that we are at the top of the food chain That we are invincible That we can do anything that we set our minds to. I am not saying that that is a lie, but our enemy is DEATH There are 2 ways that we can look at death. The secular way or the Biblical way. In the secular world, we are taught to hide death Think about it. Think of the $$$ that makeup companies make Think of the infomeicals selling wrinkle cream Or the $$$ in Hollywood and Florida for cosmetic surgery to do what? Look younger To hide any external evidence of aging In 1846 former president John Quincy Adams suffered a stroke. Although he returned to Congress the following year, his health was clearly failing. Daniel Webster described his last meeting with Adams: "Someone, a friend of his, came in and made particular inquiry of his health. Adams answered, 'I inhabit a weak, frail, decayed tenement; battered by the winds and broken in upon by the storms, and from all I can learn, the landlord does not intend to repair.'" But when we look at DEATH Scripturally, we see the enemy! In Genesis 2:15-17 15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and to keep it.  16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat,  17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.” In 1 Corinthians 15:26  The last enemy that will be destroyed is death. & in 1 Coprinthians 15:54 we read 54 When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”[a] How do we gain this victory? Paul says, “it’s a mystery”, but he give us the key to ounderstanding this mystery. 1 Corinthians 15:54 54 When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”[a] Here we see the words perishable & imperishable In the KJV we read corruptible and incorruption What is perishable & corruptible? Perishable liable to perish : liable to spoil or decay Corruptibe 2: ROT, Spoil 1a: to become tainted or rotten  Think of a banana peel. While it groing and attached to its source of butrients it flourishes Once you pull it from its source it begine to corrupt Lets say you eat the banana and throw out the peel, you see that it will perish even faster It gets brown, gooey, shriveled and really gross. Why? Because in and of itself it has no life. Humans are the same! As we grow older and older we begin to whither. Technically, everything is perishable except for one thing……GOD 1 Timothy 6:16 16 He alone has immortality, living in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen, nor can see. To Him be honor and everlasting power. Amen. In the beginning, God created EVERYTHING and made us to have a relationship with us. We were made to be with Him and Him with us. Ever wonder why we feel or have felt a void in our life? Its because you were meant for something Its because your life has meaning. Its because you were to be Gods and He was to be yours BUT we rejected Him We shoes the one thing He told is to abstain from We turned our back on Him and started down a slope that seems would never stop all the way to perishability. The only way to stop this slope The only way that God could intervene was to retrieve humanity from its greatest enemy…….DEATH! To us it seems ludicrous It seems illogical It seems reckless Does that song make sense now. Before I spoke a word, You were singing over me Before I took a breath, You breathed Your life in me When I was Your foe, still Your love fought for me When I felt no worth, You paid it all for me There's no shadow You won't light up Mountain You won't climb up There's no wall You won't kick down Lie You won't tear down Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God Oh, it chases me down, fights 'til I'm found, leaves the ninety-nine I couldn't earn it, and I don't deserve it, still, You give Yourself away Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God, yeah A certain medieval monk announced he would be preaching next Sunday evening on "The Love of God." As the shadows fell and the light ceased to come in through the cathedral windows, the congregation gathered. In the darkness of the altar, the monk lighted a candle and carried it to the crucifix. First of all, he illumined the crown of thorns, next, the two wounded hands, then the marks of the spear wound. In the hush that fell, he blew out the candle and left the chancel. There was nothing else to say. John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. This in our eyes is RECKLESS A perfect God, sent His PERFECT Son to a filthy, sinful world to DIE for the very Creation that turned tehir back on Him. Why? Because He didn’t turn His back on us! 2 Corinthians 5:21 Modern English Version (MEV) 21 God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. In death, Jesus Christ retrieved humanity from death. In death, Jesus Christ gave the option to us. Romans 8:1  8 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. We are free from the power of sin Romans 6:6 6 knowing this, that our old man has been crucified with Him, so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we should no longer be slaves to sin. Jesus’ death on the cross shows the Love that the Father has for us (His creation) He sent his son to die for ungodly sinners (separated from the Father) in the most painful way imaginable! On the tree, Jesus shows the glory of God’s wisdom, His power, His holiness for accomplishing his plan and His LOVE BUT, what matters is what we do with it The Bible does not teach universalism. The majority of people will perish in the fires of hell, because they reject the Gospel. They reject the gift of the Father They choose to give in to death instead of fight and believe There are only two choices. Either Jesus bore your sin on the cross in its entirety or you youself will bear your sin forever and ever in a place called Hell. 1 Corinthians 15:57  But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. The voctory over the enemy of death is given in the incarnation of God himself. How could He accomplish this task? God had to put on the perishable John 1:14  The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, the glory as the only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth. In the incarnation, the imperishable nature of God is united to the perishable nature of humanity. God fills that darkness that we with His light and death is defeated. Remember my illustration a coupld of weeks ago. Darkness does not exist. Darkness is the absence of light and light always wins! When you walk into a dark room and flip on the light, what happenes? Drkness vanishes and light illuminates what was once dark (without light) Jesus went to the darkness, flipped on the light and is offering the inextinguishable light of God. No matter what happens in this world around us. No matter what virus comes and goes We have what many don’t have……HOPE Hope in the suffering Hope in the unknown Hope in the present Trust in God and in His plan If He cared for you enough to send His son to die so that you may live. He will care for you Matthew 7:9-11 9 “What man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?  10 Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a snake?  11 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him! EXPLAIN 1 Peter 5:7 7 Cast all your care upon Him, because He cares for you. Does this virus make you nervous or afraid? Cast ALL your care upon Him!