Christ is Our Resurrection

Churches are always more full on Easter. It's an interesting phenomenon. Easter and Christmas, more people come to church. Well, for Easter, I wonder if people like to come to see how others dress. We have a lot of cute children dressed in their dresses and in their suits. Maybe that's why you've come. Maybe you've come out of a sense of duty. You know that you should go to church at least those two days of the year. And there's a sentimentality, a remembrance of the Christianity you grew up with, and so these two days are ways to experience it. Well, I hope that everyone here has come because they love the Lord, because He first loved them. I hope we've come to rejoice and celebrate the resurrected King, the resurrected Savior who gives life to us who are dead. A lot of people want to come and celebrate Easter. They recognize it's good news. But it's only good news for some. See, the Gospel, the Easter story, the resurrection is a terrific story. It's terrific news. But it's also terrifying. To really think about everything that's being declared when Christ rises from the grave. It's terrifying. It means everything He said. It means that what He accomplished on the cross is true. It means we are sinners and that God hates our sin. God's wrath is against our sin and we are helpless. We need a Savior. It's terrifying for us for two particular ways, reasons. First, it reminds us of death. He rose from death. He rose from the grave. We have to think about death if we're going to think about the resurrection. And our culture especially does not like to think about death. We treat death like how other creatures, cultures have treated other sins. We talk about sex openly, while other cultures would not have talked about sex. But we are afraid to talk about death. You're called morbid if you even mention it. Our culture has been described in this way. We live life as if death were not waiting for us at the end. The reason is, it's scary. Death isn't the way it's supposed to be. It's abnormal. While we all die, we all know it's not the way it's supposed to be. It's scary and it's painful. We also have to recognize that in the resurrection, it isn't just that we have to think about death. We have to think about the fact that judgment comes after death. See, Christ died before he was risen. He died as an innocent man, as if a sinner. Christ was God himself who came down, lived a perfectly innocent life, but yet died as if a sinner. God counted all the sins of everyone who believes in him to his account. Every sin of every believer is put upon Christ and the wrath of God is poured out on all that sin. And to think about the resurrection, we have to think about death. To think about the fact that we will be judged by God for our sins if Christ has not been judged. Christians can come and celebrate the resurrection. I hope that if you have not come to celebrate the resurrection today, you will leave this place celebrating the resurrection. Because it is the good news that removes God's wrath from us. It's the good news that our sins are perfectly and completely forgiven in Christ. It's the good news that we no longer will die for our sin, but we will have eternal life. in Christ. This morning, we're going to think about the resurrection and the benefits of the resurrection. We just heard from John's account. John the Evangelist told us about the resurrection. His particular account that John Bowman read. We're going to be focusing our time in 1 Corinthians 15. If you want to go ahead and turn there, if you're using the Pew Bible, that's on pages 624 and 625. 1 Corinthians 15, 624. This is called the resurrection chapter. It begins with declaring the gospel that Christ died for sins and then three days he rose again. We're going to look and focus on the importance of the resurrection. Again, if Christ rose, it means he died. And if Christ rose, it means He's the Savior that died for sinners. And if He rose and died for sinners, that means we're sinners. And our only hope, our only forgiveness for our sins is Christ. So, the resurrection is central to everything we believe and do as Christians. It's a fundamental of the faith. It's an absolute. If you deny the resurrection, you lose everything else. It's not a sentimental doctrine. It's a foundational doctrine. That if you lose the resurrection, all else is lost. That's why Paul will say, if Christ is not risen, we are to be pitied above everyone else. Because if Christ isn't risen, our hope, our faith is in vain. We want to focus on the resurrection of Christ. Our message summarized is this. Christ rose from the grave to give us life as the victor over sin and death. Christ rose from the grave to give us life as the victor over sin and death. The passage we'll be focusing on is the end of 1 Corinthians 15, verses 50 through 58. This is really the summary of everything he said and the application thereof. And I'll be going back to the parts of 1 Corinthians and all of our scripture to really unpack this. But read along with me from 1 Corinthians 15, beginning in verse 50. 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. Lord bless the reading, the proclamation of your word. Our first point this morning, our first section we'll be looking at is just verse 50. Christ rose so that we would inherit the kingdom of God. Christ rose so that we would inherit the kingdom of God. Let me read verse 50 again. I tell you this, brothers, as I begin this summary declaration, I tell you this. He's speaking to Christians here, brothers, the brethren who are all adopted in the Son, Jesus Christ. Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Now, the two main phrases of this verse, they're parallel, they're synonymous. Flesh and blood is parallel with perishable. And the kingdom of God is parallel with Imperishable. He's repeating. He's both repetitious and redundant. Let's look at these phrases, these words. Flesh and blood. Now this refers to humanity's weakness and frailty. This isn't just speaking of our human nature. Human nature is not, by definition, sinful. Human nature was made good. But we, as sons of Adam, all rebelled against God. We all went our own way. We all have our stiff necks and are opposed to God. Flesh and blood is more speaking to our weakness and frailty in our own sin. This is a way of speaking about our frailty, about our corruption, about our perishable nature. We were not created to die, but now, as flesh and blood in this side of the fall, we are all sinners. Sinners cannot inherit the kingdom of God. And we can look at another passage from Flesh and Blood, Matthew 16. Jesus asks the disciples, who do you say I am? Peter says, you are the Christ. You're the Messiah. He says, you're right. Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you. Sinners cannot know that truth unless God gives it to them. This is really the way we speak. You've heard someone say, I lied. I'm only flesh and blood. It's just the way we are as humans now. We're all sinners. Sinners cannot inherit the kingdom of God because by definition, we're opposed to it. Now, this is the best definition of kingdom of God that I know of. The kingdom of God is the realm where God righteously rules over his people and his people respond with obedience praise the kingdom of God is the realm where God righteously rules and his people properly respond that's the kingdom of God now God is always ruling righteously he is always merciful he's always holy he's always right he's always just he doesn't mess up so what's the problem the kingdom of God we are we do not properly respond We do not properly acknowledge and obey and praise and thank Him. We were created for the kingdom of God. We were created to know Him, to be loved by Him, to love Him, to experience the joy of Him, to know His glory, to know His holiness, to see Him as He is, to see Him face to face, to walk with Him and to talk with Him. We were created for the kingdom of God. But We sinned. We decided we knew a better way to live. God's way wasn't good enough. He didn't actually know the best way to live within His creation. So, we decided we were going to make up our own rules, figure it out for ourselves. That got us cast out of the Kingdom of God. What's amazing about this is that God just doesn't leave us out of the Kingdom. He sends His own Son to go rescue us and bring us back. God doesn't want us to remain outside of his right rule. God doesn't want us to remain disobedient and not properly responding. So God sends his son to come after us, to die for us, to bring us back. It's a beautiful picture. The father is the rightful ruler of the kingdom and his son is the rightful heir. And God wants us to inherit The kingdom of God, he wants us to have a stewardship to be able to come back and praise him. And so he sends his son who dies for us, who rises again and then shares his inheritance with us. This is what Jesus is talking about in John three, a very popular passage. You cannot see the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God, same same thing unless you are born again. See, we're dead. You're born once from your father and your mother, and you're born dead in sin. You're born without the ability to truly respond to God. And so that's why Jesus says you must be born again. You must be born from above. You must be given new life. Because your dead life, your sinful life, it cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. You must be changed. We should desire thee to inherit the kingdom of God. We should desire to be under God, we should desire to know his rules, his regulations, his laws, because they're all good. He created us to enjoy life the way it was meant to be enjoyed. He created us to walk and live and move and breathe according to His ways, and they were good. See, that's when we'll experience true joy. When we're truly walking under God, we're walking according to His precepts. If you want true happiness, God created you to be happy. But you're only going to be happy if you're submitted to Him. See, this world is not a happy place. This world is not happy because it's full of sinners. It's full of us. We've all been hurt. We've been hurt by those who are closest to us because those who are closest to us are sinners. We've heard those who are closest to us because those who are closest to us are sinners. You've been hurt by Christians. And you judge Christ because of that. Friends, we're all sinners. If you truly want happiness, trust the one who is sinless. He will not fail you. He will not hurt you. He only gives you love and mercy and care. We long for a utopia of harmony, everyone living together, that's only going to happen when everybody is submitted to God. It's only when we are going to truly delight in God and be fully delighted in him that we will be delightful to one another. We need to seek the inheritance of the kingdom of God. Let's look at the second half of this verse. The imperishable will not inherit the perishable. These two terms are contrasted actually throughout 1 Corinthians 15. Perishable refers to those things that are decaying, corrupt and fruitless. The imperishable is that which is flourishing, it's alive. That which is decaying cannot inherit that which is alive. That which is sinful cannot inherit that which is holy and good and right. Dead cannot inherit what is living. Fruitless people cannot inherit that which is flourishing. This is the beauty of the resurrection. We get what we don't deserve. As sinners, perishable, as sinners corrupt and decaying, we deserve death and judgment. But we believe in Christ and his death for our sin and his resurrection, we receive forgiveness. We receive life. We receive eternal life. We receive a life that is incorruptible, imperishable. For as Christ has risen as the heir of the kingdom, and at the imperishable one so that he can share his rights as the son with us. Our second section, Christ rose to give us eternal life, Christ rose to give us eternal life, let's look at verses 51 through 53. Behold, I tell you a mystery, he's really trying to get our attention. Behold, look out. Watch this. I tell you a mystery. He's trying to entice you. Listen. We shall not all sleep, but we shall 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 immorality. This verse is speaking of the benefits of the resurrection. This verse is speaking of the resurrection of Christ and that the resurrected Christ, he's going to return. That is when he will complete the reconciliation. Let's look at verse 51. What does it mean to be asleep? This is a metaphor for being dead. This is throughout the New Testament, throughout the ancient Near East and Greek literature, that being asleep is a metaphor for being dead. Now, what does it mean that we shall not all sleep? Is he speaking of all Christians? Is he speaking of all people? Is he speaking of Christians of that particular time? Or is he speaking of all Christians of all times? Now, there is a sense in which he could have been thinking there was an immediate or an imminent return of Christ. We're not really sure what he's thinking of, other than the fact that Christ will surely return, and we don't know when. The resurrection and the return of Christ are linked together. By necessity, we have to think of the resurrection and the return. Really, if we're going to think about Christ, it's all together. And all hinges on the resurrection. The resurrection is the definitive demonstration of all of their gospel truth. If he rose from the grave, he died on the cross. If he died on the cross, he lived the perfect innocent life as a human being. If he lived the perfect life as a human being, he was born and he was born of a virgin. And it wasn't just a man who was born. It was God who took on a human nature like us in every way. But without sin, it's just a full gospel. But it doesn't end with a resurrection, it ends with a return. To save us, the son became like us. He lived the life that we did not live and cannot live. He died on our behalf because he knew that was the only way we could possibly be forgiven. He rose again and he's going to return. And when he returns, we shall all be changed. When he returns, he's going to reconcile all things to himself. If you're not a Christian this morning. The return is scary. The resurrection is scary. Because when Christ returns, your account of sin will be made evident to you before God. All the sins that you have committed throughout your whole life, they're going to be opened up. And you're going to see your sin like you've never seen it before. And it's going to bring shame upon you. Because you realize how offensive your life has been to the one who created you. That's the beauty of the gospel. I pray today that God will open up your account. that he will convict you of your sin, that you will see the offensiveness of your sin. And before Christ returns, you will take that account and you will trust Christ with it. That's the beauty of the gospel. All our sin we give to him and all of his righteousness he gives to us. When he returns, he will judge us for every deed, every thought, every word. You can just start to think about all the things you've said that you're embarrassed of in front of other people. Think about all of your sin revealed before the holy God when he returns. Friends. Trust Christ with your sin. Throw it at the cross and let his blood wash it white as snow. Let his resurrection give you the hope of eternal life. If you're a Christian. Know that you have peace with Christ. Know that your sin is no longer counted against you. Death is no longer scary. Well, you're no longer going to be double minded when Christ returns. That's why that's my favorite thing about heaven. When Christ returns and he reconciles all things, I'll no longer be double minded. I'll no longer have two natures warring against one another. My sin and the Holy Spirit battling. My having to choose God's way or my selfish, sinful way. When he reconciles all things, he's going to change us. He's going to make us imperishable, incorruptible, perfect. The way we were meant to be. Let's look at the temporal clause, when in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye, it's going to be sudden. It's going to be sudden, it's going to happen in a flash, a trumpet. will resound. This isn't a melody. It's not gonna be jazz. It's gonna be a loud, booming warning. That's what the trumpet was for. To get the troops at arms. When the trumpet resounds, God and his host is coming to judge. So the last line that we sing, and it is well with my soul, is so moving. And the Lord haste the day when my faith shall be sight when Christ returns. The clouds be rolled back as a scroll. The trump shall resound and the Lord shall descend even so. It is well of my soul. It shouldn't be well of my soul. It shouldn't be. Because I know that I have sinned and I know that when he descends, when he comes out of those clouds, when he comes to judge, I should be judged. But it will be well with my soul because I know he has died for my sins and he's risen again and he's coming to bring me back home to be a child and see him face to face. Even so, the scariest moment that anyone could possibly imagine, even that even then, It is well with my soul because Christ has declared me innocent and forgiven in his child. If we do not have Christ. It is not well. Let's look at the thrust of this passage, we shall be changed, it said two different times, we shall be changed when Christ comes back. This is not just a void of sin. We're actually going to be changed into a glorified state. And Christianity isn't the only religion that believes in change. Every religion wants change. Even atheistic evolution as a religious group, they want change. So there's a great movement called the progression. It's the atheistic evolution minds of the last century. They believed in progressive change. They believed that through the right education, the right training, that all people would change. That all we need to do is teach people. They thought they had moved out of the age of the barbarians. They had become into the age of the Enlightenment. The age where all people can be made good and we can have a utopia. The turn of the age drank this Kool-Aid and it led to such bitter wars. They believed that all people could be good and we would have become better and better. And this age led us to the two world wars. The first one, meaningless, meaningless deaths. Thousands upon thousands were killed in a war that no one we know what started it. But but what for? And we can think of World War Two. Some of the greatest atrocities of mankind, the Holocaust, the ruthless Russians, the Japanese punishing and abusing the Chinese. There was no progression in how good we are. There was only progression in technology. We progressed in our capacity and our capability, but we were still sinners. We progressed in our greater ability to sin. At the basic root of all of us, we're still sinners. The only thing that was progressive at the turn of the century was that we gained technology. So that's who we are. We're sinners. That's why I say, are you comparing me to Hitler? If I had the capacity to do what Hitler did, I would do it. I don't I don't think anyone's probably that evil and devious and deceived. But think about what you do with freedom. Children, think about what you do when your parents aren't looking. What kind of ideas come up in your mind? Do you immediately try to think, what can I get away with that mom and dad won't see? If you're a traveler on business, what do you do when you're away from home and out of your routine and away from your friends that you would not do in your own home? You see, there's a greater capacity. There's a greater freedom. And we take freedom. And we use it to sin. Think about what happened when you went to college. College students, how are you using your new freedom? Is it to be self-invested or is it to invest in others? This is the real progress of humanity. We were once able not to sin. Adam had the choice. He was sinless. Adam was good. He was righteous. There was no sin about him. And he had the ability to not sin. But he failed. Therefore, all of us, we don't have that option. We are not able not to sin. That's the progress. We do not have the capacity or the ability now to not sin. And left to ourselves, that's where it stops. But when Christ returns, He renews us. He makes us whole again. He then makes us imperishable and incorruptible, and he makes us so that we can no longer sin. Like I said, that's what I'm looking forward to having the most. To worship God without the double mind and the double heart. To worship God without battling sin and selfishness. To be washed white as snow, to have every tear wiped away, to have our brokenness healed. to take off the filthy rags and put on the beautiful bride's gown that God will give us to make us whole and pure again. He has risen to give us new life, and we are too long for that new life. Third, verses 54 through 57, Christ rose to share His victory over sin. Christ rose to share his victory over sin. This is referring back to those promises that Christ will return when the perishable puts on the imperishable and the mortal puts on immorality, immortality. It's very important. Let me read that again. One letter changes everything. Take my glasses off, make sure I get this right. 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. Oh, death, where is your victory? Oh, 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. Notice the changes. clear here. The perishable cannot inherit the perishable, so God makes the perishable imperishable. He changes. He elaborates. We were unfit for the kingdom of God, so God comes and he fixes us so that we are fit. That's beautiful news. We don't have to fix ourselves. If you think that's what it means to be a Christian, let me just correct you. You cannot fix yourself enough to be acceptable to God. You cannot fix yourself enough to be fit for the kingdom of God. You can only see that you need to be fixed and trust Christ. You can only see your need for forgiveness and trust Christ. We do we do not have the power to fix ourselves. We are unfit for the kingdom and we are not fit to fix ourselves. The change fulfills a promise. That one day there'll be victory over death or one day, one day be a victory over sin. Sin is more powerful than us. That's why Paul describes us as slaves to sin. It's our master. We need someone who is more powerful than sin to come and conquer it, to be victorious over it, to break its chains, to break its power. What says here, the power of sin is the law. Well, God spoke the law, the. Death. It uses the law to show us that we're condemned, the law was given to us as good, and if we obeyed it, we would be good, but we can't. The power of sin is the law, the law is good, but. We cannot obey it. Sin points us to the law and shows we cannot obey it. Sin is the sting Of death. This. This is the heart of it. Sin is the sting of death. See, sin causes death, but the real fear is that if you die a sinner, you die to be judged by God and your sin. That's why death is so scary. It's the sting of your sin that makes it so scary if you die still in your sin. You die in judgment. You die judged and left in eternity in hell. Because your sin is still with you. There's a young girl, she was stung by a bee. She went to the hospital because she swelled up and couldn't breathe. They gave her a shot and the doctor said, you were lucky this time. The next time you get stung, you'll probably die. So this girl had a great fear of bees. She's playing in a room one day and a bee is buzzing around. She's paralyzed. Because she knows if this bee stings her, she's dead. Her dad hears the whimpering and the crying and comes in and grabs the bee. Then he lets it go. He says, Dad, why did you let the bee go? Now it can sting me. And he says, no. There's a stinger. There's no more fear. The stinger is gone, I have taken it for you. He's able to show her I loved you enough to take away the sting. So now she's no longer afraid of that. Friends, we look to our savior. Just like he pointed to Thomas, here's my wounds. If you're afraid of death, if you're afraid of the judgment, look to Christ. He's able to show you his wounds. He's able to let you see by the eyes of faith that he has died for your wounds, for your sins. He's been nailed to the cross. His head has been scarred by a crown of thorns. He has died for us. He has taken away the sting of death, which is our sin. Christ is risen. So that we may have victory over death. Finally, Paul's application and all this, the therefore passage, Christ rose to give us confidence to persevere. 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. Christians, speaking to the beloved brethren, the church, the children of God, make your footing sure. Make sure you're building your life on the rock, Jesus Christ. Make sure Jesus Christ, the reign of the Father, is the sure and steadfast anchor of your soul. Make sure the resurrection of Christ defines who you are and what you do. Everything else will lead you to a lie. Everything else will lead you astray. So the bounding and the work of the Lord. Supposed to be serving Christ, we're called to go into the nations making disciples, we're called to be his laborers, we're called to be his ambassadors. The most beautiful thing about being called into the work of the Lord is that we're storing up treasure where Roth, where Moss and Russ do not destroy. We're storing up treasures that are eternal. We're supposed to be abounding the work of the Lord because we know he's risen, we know he's going to return and he knows we know he's going to have us give an account for everything we've done, either evil or good. Now, maybe you're here and you fit a different demographic. You're what some call a holiday Christian or a CEO, Christmas and Easter only. I don't know why you're here today. You may come to church occasionally. You come to church infrequently. I pray that if you are confessing Christ as your Savior, that you will start building up an immovable, a steadfast foundation. That you will see that your need is for the Saints. Your need is for other Christians to invest in you. Your needs reminded every Sunday that Christ rose from the grave. If you're going to be immovable and steadfast, you have to be constantly reminded of God's good work of his resurrection. Because everything else in the world is telling you something else. That's why. Israel's greatest sin constantly over and over again was being stiff necked because they continue to forget. We are a forgetful people. We need to be constantly reminded of the record of the resurrection, and we do that in our regular fellowship. If you're not a Christian, I'm going to give you the exact opposite advice that Paul gives Christians here. Don't remain steadfast. Don't remain steadfast in your sin. Instead, run to Christ with your sin. Do not remain stiff-necked. Do not remain unrepentant. Do not let this day go where you've heard the Gospel and I pray the Holy Spirit has convicted you. Do not let the day go without going to Christ and begging Him who quickly answers that He would forgive you for your sins. That His death would be counted to your account. That His resurrection would be yours. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Lord, I continue the prayer that You would speak. I pray that Your Spirit has been moving. I pray that Your Spirit has been convicting and converting We trust the power of Your Word, just rattle on. I pray that for anyone who does not know You here, that their account would just be opened enough for them to realize their great guilt and shame before You. And I pray that Your Spirit would come and make quick of their death, that Your Spirit would come and give life so they can confess You, so they can know You. Lord, I pray for this church that we would constantly be reminded of the resurrection. We would constantly be reminded that He is our Head and we will only be happy when we are in Him. Help us to be united under Your great Headship. And help us, Lord, to not love the things of this world, but to long for Your return In Your holy name we pray, Amen.