Not in Vain
Not In Vain - 1 Cor 15 • Sermon • Submitted
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· 11 viewsThe reality of the resurrection gives this life new meaning such that what is done in the Lord is no longer meaningless.
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Not in Vain - 1 Cor 15:50-58
Not in Vain - 1 Cor 15:50-58
The title of this entire series through 1 Cor 15 is the title of tonights sermon… These three words - NOT IN VAIN - are intended to summarize this: that in light of our future resurrection from the grave, the Christian life, in all it’s trials, sufferings, and efforts is not meaningless. Or to put it simply, our life in Christ is not in vain. This theme been in Paul’s sight throughout the entirety of this chapter.
For this reason Paul opens this chapter saying:
1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.
if we believe in this good news, and do not deviate from it, then we will have eternal life even after death - but if we deny the gospel… then all our life and whatever faith we might have, is meaningless
In tonight’s text, here at the end of this magnificent chapter and the end of our time in this series, Paul returns full circle to show us that in light of our resurrection from the dead that we receive because of the work of Jesus… all that we do in this life is not in meaningless:
As we read through the end of this chapter please, stand for the reading of God’s word.
50 I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.
51 Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,
52 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.
53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.
54 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.”
55 “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”
56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.
57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
58 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.
Not in Vain - 1 Cor 15:50-58
Not in Vain - 1 Cor 15:50-58
I want to ask a question, and I want you to try to answer it as best as you can… (we’ll talk more about it in SG’s) but for now…
What do you value most in this life?
Each of us will value different things to different degrees,
but there are some things that people pay good money for that the rest of us would consider an absolute waste!
I want to share just a couple of the weirdest things that have ever been sold online for good money:
A celebrity’s half eaten french toast sold on online for $1,025
A cornflake shaped like the state of Illinois sold for for $1,350
Okay so clearly while cornflakes and french toast are not worth absolutely nothing… but they certainly aren’t worth over $1,000… but they were to someone.
But what things in life are important to you, such that you would not just pay for it a ridiculous amount of money for it, but you would dedicate your entire life to it?
Maybe for some it’s future career
and so you give yourself to your studies…
and you have a a plan go to college to receive the best education
and you might even put off the company of family and friends because you need to work hard in order to obtain that dream job
but you will work and work to get that job
Or maybe for others it’s not the career that matters, but the wealth that is gained through that work that is most important
so you will live your life looking always trying to make the most money
and you might cut corners to get ahead
and again, you will work and work and work, just so you can try to get more money
For some, what is most valuable is status:
be it fame
popularity among peers
or even the status of obtaining the “American dream” where you are married, have a solid job, drive a reliable car, and have your own house.
But you are going to need to work to get there
For others maybe what we value most is the pleasures we have in this life…
where one lives for the weekend
or for vacation
and even one day, for retirement
But until weekend, vacation, or retirement… you need to work… and work hard is what you’ll need to do…
The Scriptures are not silent about such pursuits…
In fact there is an entire book that is all about these things: It’s the book of Ecclesiastes
and if you don’t know what this book is about, let me give you the summary of the book in it’s entirety:
2 Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity. 3 What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun?
The word vanity here, is similar to the word that Paul has been using throughout this chapter…
The niv translates these verses this way
The New International Version Chapter 1
2 “Meaningless! Meaningless!”
says the Teacher.
“Utterly meaningless!
Everything is meaningless.”
3 What do people gain from all their labors
at which they toil under the sun?
While we may have called the half eaten french toast, or the state shaped cornflake, a meaningless use of money, the writer of Ecclesiastes says that all work that is done here under the sun is just as meaningless…
And yet, people give their lives to these things all the time…
But why is all our work under the sun meaningless?
Well he he goes on explain the vanity of work throughout the entirety book, but the answer to why all our labor is meaningless is summarized near the end of the book:
7 and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it. 8 Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher; all is vanity.
What is he describing?
Well in Gen 2, what did God make man out of
- dust
And how did he give him life?
- he breathed on him… giving man his life and spirit…
What is being described here is the death of every person… and in death, he says all our work becomes meaningless…
This frustrating end is the result of the curse:
19 By the sweat of your face
you shall eat bread,
till you return to the ground,
for out of it you were taken;
for you are dust,
and to dust you shall return.”
7 and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it. 8 Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher; all is vanity.
1) If all we have to look forward to at the end of this life is death, everything we do with our life is meaningless.
1) If all we have to look forward to at the end of this life is death, everything we do with our life is meaningless.
Death makes every work that we do a vain effort…
yeah we might work to put food on the table, but if we die, isn’t our work still meaningless
sure we may work to cure cancer, but what’s the point if we all die regardless of whether its cancer or heart failure
Yeah we might even become famous today, but tomorrow when you die you will be forgotten, and all your work and toil will be futile…
You might even enjoy the weekend, or vacation, or retirement, or whatever pleasure you are working to obtain… but then again you may not if you die before you reach retirement… so if you work for pleasure, then your work is in vain…
The idea that one day you will die, is one that is often ignored, especially in your youth…
So me try to illustrate why death makes our work here in life meaningless:
Minecraft
There’s no redo…
there’s no second chance
In death, all our work all our efforts, all the things that we valued that have been done outside of Christ, all of it is lost forever.
This is what Paul has in mind earlier in this chapter when he said:
16 For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.
Again, if all we have to look forward to at the end of this life is death, everything we do with our life is meaningless....
but then comes the truth
20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
What we have in today’s text is three assurances of this truth and then the implication of this truth for those who of us who are alive today:
2) The resurrection of every Christian will happen.
2) The resurrection of every Christian will happen.
And in v 50-57 Paul gives us three assurances that we will be raised
the kingdom of God necessitates that we be raised
the Scriptures foretold that we would be raised
the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished our victory over the sin and death such that we will be raised
First of all:
The kingdom of God necessitates that we be raised
Paul comes and says it in the clearest way that he can
50 I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 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. 53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.
Jesus told us the same thing in Jn 3:3-5 when talking to Nicodemus
3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” 5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
This is something that any OT teacher would understand, for no man… or that is to say, flesh and blood, could never enter into the presence of God.
For this reason, Moses couldn’t enter the tabernacle at the end of Exodus
And this is why Isaiah was terrified when in a vision he found himself in the temple…
For if flesh and blood (that is to say any mere man) enters the presence of God… he will die…
Thus Paul says
50 I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.
But just as God made a way for the priest to enter his temple, so too has he made a way for us to enter his kingdom.
And Paul tells us how this will happen!
51 Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 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. 53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.
An important word here is mystery
That is to say, at one time this truth about our transformation in the resurrection was hidden, but Paul is saying here, that the mystery has been revealed…
and the way we will enter into God’s kingdom is we will be changed in the resurrection on the last day…
and it’ll be a sudden and quick transformation
What is the next assurance we are given?
Paul tells us in v 54
54 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.”
55 “O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”
2. The Scriptures foretold that death would be destroyed
Here we see two different scriptures being quoted
the first being from Isa 25 and the other from Hos 13
But the point is this,
Those the reality of the resurrection was a mystery, God has given his people hints as to this reality even before Jesus came to die…
And you’ll remember that Jesus’ own resurrection was foretold from Scripture… and he accomplished this, and there were hundreds of witnesses that attested to this reality
And though our resurrection has yet to happen, we can have confidence that we too will be raised. For God’s word has declared it.
And even though death still has it’s victory and sting today, we can still mock and insult death today because God has promised that in the end, Death will be consumed and defeated, and all those who are in Christ, who have fallen victim to Death, will be raised.
Our confidence that we will be raised is this:
1 - God’s kingdom necessitates that we be raised
2 - God’s word promised that death would be defeated
and finally,
3. God accomplished our victory over sin and death for us in the person and work of Jesus
56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
The mystery revealed here by Paul, is that we would have new bodies
The evidence of the mystery of the resurrection if found through the OT when God that he would defeat death...
And the way God would do this is demonstrated in Christ’s sinless death and victorious resurrection…
And it is in light of this glorious reality that Paul gives us this final word of instruction:
58 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.
Steadfast, and immovable… meaning not swaying from the doctrine of the gospel
meaning, not wandering from the instruction of the Lord,
but instead, abounding in the work of the Lord,
… doing all that God says…
knowing this, that in the Lord, our labor is not in vain
3. In light of our resurrection from the dead, our work that is done in the Lord is not in vain.
3. In light of our resurrection from the dead, our work that is done in the Lord is not in vain.
Sure, all of our work that we once did outside of Christ may have been in vain at one point because of death.
But now in light of the revelation of God’s plan that is revealed in the gospel, and now that we see clearly that Jesus’ resurrection means that we too will be raised, we can have confidence that our life now has new meaning. Our life has today has significance, and is far from meaningless…
2 Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher,
vanity of vanities! All is vanity.
3 What does man gain by all the toil
at which he toils under the sun?
While our good works do nothing to save us, we need to know that we are saved so that we would abound in good works…
So Paul instructs us to abound in the work of the Lord…
meaning this…
Cling to the word, and do not deviate from it, but instead, meditate and delight in it day in night, for there is nothing sweeter than God’s instruction
Abounding in the work of the lord means, repenting and turning from sin, and denying the passions of the flesh
Abounding in the work of the Lord, means forgiving your enemy just as Christ Jesus forgave you and died for you
Abounding in the work of the Lord means giving thanks to God in all circumstances
Abounding in the work of the Lord means loving your neighbor
Abounding in the work of the lord means doing all this while remembering and proclaiming the gospel of grace that you recieved apart from works
for
12 Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.
Our works are not in vain, for God will reword those who do not waiver in their obedience and love towards him
Even Paul had this confidence such that in the end of his own life he would say:
6 For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. 7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.
Our work in Christ is not in vain…
it has a purpose…
and we can be confident that God will raise us on the last day, and he will reward us with the crown of righteousness.
So be steadfast, imovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
This sentiment is captured so well in a poem by CT Studd where he writes
Only one life, ye only one,
now let me say, “thy will be done”;
And when at last I’ll hear the call,
I know I’ll say, “‘twas worth it all”;
Only one life, ‘twill soon be past,
Only what’s done for Christ will last.
58 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.
Small Group Questions
What do you value most in life? In light of death, is what you value meaningless? Please explain.
What are the three assurances we saw in tonights text that gives us confidence in knowing that those who are in Christ will be resurrected?
In light of the resurrection, there is a kind of work that is not in vain. What kind of work is does Paul tell us is not meaningless? Are you engaged in this kind of work?