1 Corinthians 15 35 thru 58

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1 “Death, Where Is Your Sting?” 1 Corinthians 15:35-58 (September 21, 2014) 35

But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?” 36 You foolish person! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. 37 And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. 38 But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body. 39 For not all flesh is the same, but there is one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish. 40 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. 41 There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory. 42

So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. 43 It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. 44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. 45 Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 46 But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. 47 The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. 48 As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. 49 Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. 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: 55

“Death is swallowed up in victory.” “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. PRAY We are continuing our study of 1 Corinthians on Sunday mornings at Grace. Last week we covered the first eleven verses of chapter fifteen, and this morning we begin in verse 35, and if you’re wondering what happened to verses 12-34 Jim and I preached two

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2 sermons total on those verses back around Easter, so if you really want to know more about that part of 1 Corinthians you can look those sermons up online. But in our passage for today, just like those two sermons back in April, Paul talks about the resurrection. From the very beginning of Christianity two thousand years ago, the resurrection of Jesus Christ has been central to the faith. In fact Paul goes so far as to say this: “And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.” 1 Corinthians 15:17. Christianity, Paul says, is a gigantic waste of time, it’s worthless, if Jesus was not resurrected, raised from the dead. Why? Because Jesus’ body is the firstfruits. “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.” 1 Corinthians 15:20. In calling Jesus’ resurrection “the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep,” Paul is telling those in Corinth that what happened to Jesus in his resurrection will happen to those who die trusting in Jesus – they will be resurrected, too. That’s what we’ll look at this morning, first at Jesus’ resurrection but mostly at the resurrection that’s promised to all who trust in Jesus. Three headings: first, the doctrine of the resurrection provides a reason to believe in Christianity. Second, the resurrection provides reasons for hope. Third, the resurrection provides a reason to work. First, the doctrine of the resurrection provides a reason to believe in Christianity. Look at verses 35-36: 35 But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?” 36 You foolish person! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. If you are here this morning and you’re not a Christian, welcome. We’re glad you’re here. We actually put a lot of thought into crafting our Sunday morning gatherings with you in mind. We want this to be a place where people can come and safely investigate for themselves what Christianity is all about. And if you’re not a Christian probably you don’t believe that Jesus of Nazareth really was resurrected, raised from the dead, in Jerusalem two thousand years ago. In fact, this is the kind of claim that for so many in our culture is just unbelievable. How could any thinking person in this day and age believe someone dead three days could have been brought back to life? Once I met with someone who was not a Christian at all, and he told me that while it must be comforting for me to hold onto my Christian beliefs “like a child’s blanket” – those were his words. He was implying that anyone who could believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ was, mentally, on the level of a child. It’s a fairy tale; how could anyone seriously believe it? I’ve had many conversations like that over the years, and when I’ve pointed out to them that evidently the first Christians obviously believed that the resurrection of Jesus Christ did happen (we saw last week that Paul says there were more than five hundred witnesses to it), they wave it off with this answer: “Well, you have to have the mental capacity of a child today to believe the resurrection, and so of course back then they believed it, © 2014 J.D. Shaw

3 because two thousand years ago people were even more ignorant than they are now. They didn’t understand biology like we do now. They probably thought dead people got up and started walking around all the time.” Verse 35-36 show that can’t be true. When Paul writes about the resurrection to the Corinthian church, and reminds them that Jesus was bodily raised from the dead, the Corinthians don’t say, “OK – sounds right to me. Sure, I believe that happened to Jesus; dead people get resurrected all the time.” On the contrary, verses 35-36 show us, verses like verse 12 (where Paul writes: “12 Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?”) show us, and other sources from the first century show us that people back then were in fact incredibly skeptical of any claims that a man was raised from the dead. In the first century, Greeks and Romans would have never believed that a man could be raised from the dead, first of all because they did know a lot about biology, more than we usually give them credit for. They knew what death was and they didn’t expect the dead to get up and start walking around again. But even more so, no Greek or Roman would have believed in the resurrection because they didn’t want to believe in it. Their entire Platonic (from Plato) philosophical system of the ancient world was based on the idea that the body was bad, but the spirit, the soul, was good, and death was good because finally you wouldn’t have to live in your body anymore, and deal with all its passions and lusts. You’d be freed from the “prison-house of the soul.” No one would want to believe in the resurrection. Jews, on the other hand, believed there would be a general resurrection at the end of the world – God would raise all the faithful Jews from the dead and they would live forever with God. But none of them thought it would happen first to only one man, certainly not the Messiah. Here are the facts: no one in the history of the world before Jesus ever conceived of a singular resurrection, nor has there ever been a group of people less likely to believe in a singular resurrection than those people who lived two thousand years ago in the Roman Empire. And that includes us today. If anything, in America, with all our zombie and vampire movies and television shows, we are naturally more inclined to believe stories about people coming back from the dead than they were. Yet, hundreds and perhaps thousands of people went around proclaiming the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, and many of them continued to proclaim even though it cost them their lives. If you’re here today and not a Christian, then did you see how remarkable it is, that belief in the resurrection of Jesus went from impossible to dominant – it took over the Roman Empire in just a few centuries? When you see that it did happen like that, what could possibly explain it? And I think the only rational explanation is that the resurrection of Jesus actually happened. What else could cause such a shift in the worldview of an entire civilization? Many people saw the resurrected Jesus, and as hard as it was to believe these people were forced to believe it because the evidence was right in front of them. © 2014 J.D. Shaw

4 Then they went on to live by any standard amazing lives because they’d seen the resurrected Jesus. And that gets us to the second point. Second, the resurrection gives you reasons for hope. The doctrine of the resurrection is not just that Jesus was raised from the dead, but that one day all people who trust in Jesus will also be resurrected. And that gives us reasons for hope. First, in the resurrection, death is swallowed up in victory. In some very famous verses in chapter fifteen Paul writes about death. What is death? How should we think about it? So many of us are so far removed from it, we don’t know anything about it. One hundred and fifty years ago it was common for families to have many children, only to have most of them die before they reached adulthood. And when they died, it typically occurred at home, and wakes and visitations used to take place at home, but now people of all ages typically die in hospitals and funeral homes handle the burials. All people, including children, used to be around death, but now we do all we can to keep our children from even knowing it exists. Therefore, a lot of people under 20 maybe even under 30 have never even been to a funeral, never seen a dead body, and have never even been prompted to think about death. Death is for so many of us out of sight, so out of mind. In fact, even at most funerals you attend these days, they don’t even talk about death there. A dead body is lying there in the casket yet still no one talks about death. How insane is that? What is death? Death is the great enemy of mankind. About twenty years ago a movie came out, a Western, Unforgiven. Morgan Freeman, Gene Hackman, Clint Eastwood. And in it, Eastwood plays a hired assassin. And his character and one other gunslinger had just killed a couple of men. And they get together afterwards and talk about it, and Eastwood’s characters says, “It’s a powerful thing, killing a man. You take away all he’s got and all he’s every going to have.” And his partner says, “Yeah, but they had it coming.” Then Eastwood replies, “We all have it coming.” Death is the great enemy, and friends it is coming for all of us, and when it comes at the very least it will take away everything we have and everything we are ever going to have. Eventually it’s going to take away all your loved ones, every one you’ve ever cared about. Eventually death will take away everyone that ever knew anything about you. Eventually death will remove even a memory of you from the earth. That is a powerful enemy indeed. But Paul says, “No, it’s worse than that, actually, because we still haven’t talk about death’s sting.” And the Greek word translated as “sting” basically meant a venomous sting, like a scorpion’s sting. The focus is not so much on the sting itself but the venom delivered by the sting. If you are bitten by a rattlesnake, the bite itself won’t do much damage but the venom is what can kill you. Paul says that death had a sting – the law. When we die, it’s not just that we are stripped of everything that could possibly matter to us, but we have to stand trial. We will face © 2014 J.D. Shaw

5 the judgment seat of Christ, and we will have to give an account for violation of the law of God we’ve ever committed. And, friends, it will not go well for us. We have all sinned, we have all fallen short of the glory of God, we have all repeatedly broken God’s law, and we will be judged. Death, as horrible as it is, is not the end, for there will be a judgment before God and a punishment in hell that follows death for all who die under the venomous sting of the law. That’s horrible news, that’s depressing news, but that’s not the final word on death. Verses 54-57: 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. In the resurrection of Jesus Christ, death itself has been defeated – we see the death of death itself in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Why? Because in the resurrection, the sting of death is gone – if you have trusted in Jesus Christ to die for your sins, then the law has been fulfilled. You no longer have to fear judgment. No matter how many times you messed up in your life, you are free, because Jesus took all the punishment you deserve and now all God has left for you is love. “The terrors of law and of God, with me can have nothing to do; the Savior’s obedience and blood hide all my transgressions from view.” And I love how Paul puts it – quoting Isaiah, he says that death has been swallowed up in victory. What does that mean? What happens when you swallow something? If it’s food, you digest it, and it becomes a part of you. It will nourish and energize you, it will give you life. Paul is saying that death can give you life? What? Think about it like this: we have a phrase we use when we’ve gone through tough times, traumatic times, with other people – we went to war together. Sometimes we use “war” a little too flippantly, like when old high school football buddies talk about their playing days – “we went to war every Friday night.” Other times, we mean it literally: “I served in Iraq with him; we’ve been through war.” And those circumstances do create bonds that are really hard to break. Well, imagine if you go through death with someone. Death, though defeated, is still traumatic. It’s still scary. You can’t see the other side, but must trust it’s there. But if you go through it hand in hand with Jesus, then don’t you know that death will only make heaven all the more wonderful for having gone through it with him? Death will be swallowed up in victory – death will have taken its best shot at you, and it will hurt, but there will be no sting in it. And on the other side all death will have done is drawn you closer to Jesus, made you love and trust him more, and, by the way, knit your heart even closer to all the others who have gone through death with Jesus too. Second, our resurrection bodies will be wonderful. Now maybe some of you were really paying attention when I said a few minutes ago that no one ever considered the © 2014 J.D. Shaw

6 possibility that one man could be resurrected from the dead before Jesus was and you thought, “Wait a minute! Aren’t there other resurrections from the dead in the Bible? Didn’t Elijah raise a boy from the dead? Didn’t Jesus raise people from the dead? Didn’t Jesus resurrect Lazarus?” And the answer is, “No, he did not!” Jesus didn’t resurrect Lazarus; he resuscitated Lazarus! What happened to Lazarus had to be a resuscitation because he lived only to die again. When Lazarus was resuscitated, he kept his old body, it’s just that it was repaired. But Lazarus isn’t still walking around today. Jesus, however, received a new body in the resurrection. Therefore, we won’t be ghosts in the resurrection – we won’t be floaty, spirit things hovering three feet off the ground. We’ll be solid, we’ll have bodies. We’ll be physical. We’ll touch, taste, run, dance with our new, perfect resurrection bodies. And it’s in the qualities of this resurrection body that we see so much of the reason for hope in Christianity. Verse 42: 42 So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. “Perishable” may not the best translation; it’s not just that our bodies can perish, but it’s that they are perishing. They are decaying. Not to be bleak or morbid, but the plain fact, friends, is that right now every single one of our bodies is wearing down. Some of us feel it more than others, but all of us, as we inevitably age, are going through the process of decay. Right now, all of us, are decaying. Not matter your age, you are experiencing every day diminished capacities, increasing weakness, quicker exhaustion – and one day it will finish and death will come. But Paul says that resurrection bodies will, not just be imperishable, but will reverse the process of decaying. Right now, Paul says, our bodies as we age go from weakness to weakness. But somehow, Paul says, our resurrection bodies will go from strength to strength. We won’t wear down, we won’t just maintain, we will only grow stronger as we live in eternity. We will discover new capacities, new strengths, new abilities. So, right now human beings have five senses – and as you age you lose some of them. You lose your ability to see, you lose your ability to hear, you lose your ability to smell and even taste as time goes on. So you might start with five but end up with 2.5, then you die. But in the resurrection, it’s not just that we get our five physical senses back – the resurrection bodies that we will receive are more physical than our current bodies are. Now, we have five senses now – maybe after the resurrection we’ll have five hundred. Maybe five thousand. Who knows what we’ll be able to do? There are hints in the New Testament, where Jesus appears in rooms with locked doors and where people at first can’t seem to recognize his face. We don’t know for sure, but the resurrection body is way, way better – more physical, more substantial, better than we are right now. Then, Paul says this – verse 43: “It [our current body] is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power.” What does that mean? Paul says

© 2014 J.D. Shaw

7 that our current bodies, our current lives, are now susceptible not just to disease and injury, but also to sin. Friends, we don’t work right. In our lives, we constantly struggle with sin and its effects. In our emotional lives, we’re all over the map – sometimes we’re up when we should be down, sometimes we’re depressed and we don’t know why, sometimes we’re angry when we should be ashamed, on and on. In our relationships, we’re always messing up, saying the wrong thing, hurting feelings, letting others down, holding onto bitterness. Our hopes and our ambitions are often all screwed up – we are often cavalier about important things and place way too much emphasis on junk that doesn’t matter. We don’t repent and forgive as we should. But in the resurrection, what is sown in dishonor, in failure, in defeat, will be raised in glory and power. All that will be fixed, and fixed perfectly. Our hearts, our emotions, our thoughts, that let us down so often now, will be perfectly ordered then. I know of one pastor who he ministered in the same church fifty years, and so he’d seen this over and over in his congregation how certain people seemed to be perpetually messed up. And he gave some advice to ministers and counselors who tended to think that they could fix anyone. He said, “God is not so optimistic. There are some who will die [totally messed-up people, yet still be] true Christians. (In some ways perhaps I am that, and have no hope of ever [fixing] myself ... Indeed, [I am called] to live with my oddities and partly put up with them, not to say help other people put up with them, and partly rise above them to show that grace is better employed wrestling resignedly, realistically, [and] cheerfully with our problems than demanding from God heavenly solutions on earth.) .... Think of the mess the world is in. Suppos[e] there were gods in other universes, and our God was showing them round His [universe] and telling them what His Son came to do two thousand years ago. He would have a pretty red face, wouldn’t He, if He showed them the earth only, and not the masses of glorified saints in heaven?” Because of the resurrection, Christians can be the most joyfully realistic people on the planet. Realistic, in that we see how broken the world is, and we know that until Jesus returns it will never be fixed the way we want it to be fixed. We know our energies and capacities are wearing down and one day will wear out. Our eyes are wide open, we are realistic. But also joyful, because we know there is hope, and one day God will make everything right. Third, the resurrection will happen in an instant. “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.” 1 Corinthians 15:51-52. By the way, verse 51 was the motto we had for our church nursery at my church in Starkville – right outside the bed baby room, we had a bulletin board, and on it we had pictures of babies, and it said: “We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.”

© 2014 J.D. Shaw

8 Paul is not making a point about church nurseries, but instead that when the resurrection happens at some point in the future it will happen instantaneously. Only two things can happen to a Christian: they will either die, and their souls will go into the immediate presence of God, or they will be alive when the resurrection happens, and their bodies will be transformed into the resurrection body, and then those saints in heaven will then receive their resurrection bodies, and we’ll all enter the eternal, heavenly age together. Fourth, in the resurrection, the relationships we have on earth will continue. In verse 37, when Paul compares our earthly body to a seed, and the resurrection body to a full-grown plant, he’s saying that there’s continuity between the two. A sunflower seed and a sunflower are different, but you can look at them both and recognize that they are related. In the same way, the earthly body and the resurrection body are different, but we’ll be able to recognize one another in heaven because there is a continuity between them. Therefore, after the resurrection, we will be able to recognize and be reunited with our loved ones. Friends, have you lost someone you love? Did you never get a chance to really love someone you lost? Are you worried about what’s going to happen when you do lose someone? If that’s you, then don’t you see? If the resurrection is true, then in Christ you can’t really lose anyone. You’ll get them back, and virtually everything you can do with your loved ones right now you will be able to do with them in the resurrection. You’ll be able to laugh, hug, touch, kiss, and hold hands in the new heavens and the new earth. Death won’t stop any of it. Death – our greatest in enemy. But Jesus has defanged it; and now for Christian all death is now is a servant. All death does is give usher us into the presence of Jesus Christ where we have powerful bodies and, for all eternity, we get to enjoy the presence of God while we eat, drink, hug, and dance with those whom we love. No wonder Paul says, “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” What’s Paul doing there? He’s mocking death – he’s saying, “Death, I taunt you. Death, I take the football and shake it in your face and spike it in front of you. I hotdog before you, death. I do the Icky Shuffle. Do you worst to me – go ahead, kill me. All you’ll do is make me better than I’ve ever been.” Now, tell me, in light of those glorious hopes of the resurrection, do you really have anything to fear? Can anything really, truly bad happen to you? If God will not abandon you to the greatest enemy, death, and if God is going to give you in the resurrection everything you could possibly want, do you think he will abandon you right now? Isn’t that the Christian’s fear? No so much about what will happen to us after death, but that God won’t provide for and give joy to us and our loved ones right now? That’s why we must focus on the hope the resurrection provides. Romans 8:38-39: “38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Third, the resurrection provides a reason to work in Christianity. Now, Christians are to be joyfully realistic about life on earth, but that doesn’t mean that we just accept © 2014 J.D. Shaw

9 everything as is. We don’t just give up. Verse 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.” Paul says, “Therefore.” Very important – therefore, because of the resurrection, abound in the work of the Lord, and don’t abound in work that is in vain. What does he mean by that? We all, to some degree, are tempted to work really hard at things that don’t matter. Remember Solitaire and Minesweeper, which used to come on all the Windows PC’s? Who hasn’t spent a lot of time and even taken pride in sweeping the mines a little quicker than the time before, or getting a higher and higher score on Solitaire than the time before? The problem: that’s all in vain. It’s all in vain because it doesn’t matter, it won’t last, and it won’t satisfy. No one cares what you’re high score on Solitaire was 20 years ago, no matter how much time you spent playing it. Paul says Christians must in this life be about God’s work; it’s the only work that’s not in vain. That’s where your energy, your focus, your desire, your heart must be – loving your neighbor as yourself, worship, giving, serving others, prayer. All these things; that must be your focus. Why? Because these are the only things that will make it into eternity. 10

According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. 11 For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— 13 each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. 14 If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. 15 If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire. 1 Corinthians 3:10-15. It absolutely kills me how I and a lot of other Christians I know pour ourselves into things that are in vain. When it comes to those of us who have careers, we are all guilty of going beyond providing for our family in, finding joy in, and serving others through our work. If we only worked for those reasons, we would bring glory to God and none of our work would be in vain. But instead, what do we do? We try to make a name for ourselves in our work. We try to find meaning for our lives through our work. We run away from problems elsewhere in our lives by burying ourselves in our work. You know what that’s called? That’s called trying to get your work to save you, and friends work, while good in and of itself, is a horrible savior. It absolutely kills me how we as Christian parents pour ourselves into our children. Now, our children aren’t in vain; they are eternal creatures like we are. They are worthy of our love and labor. But we invest it so often so foolishly! We invest so much time and energy into their academic development (we’ll hire tutors and make sure they’re in the © 2014 J.D. Shaw

10 best schools and that they do their homework, we’ll stay on them about that), into their athletic development (make sure they’re on the best teams and get the best coaches and equipment), and into their social development (do what we can to see that they have the right friends, right Greek organization). But generally speaking even for Christian parents the spiritual development of our children gets the scraps. Whatever is leftover, if anything, that’s how much energy we’ll put into their life with Christ. We can train our children to take tests and kick a ball, but we refuse to invest the time and energy with them to pray, serve others in our community, and read the Bible. Giving, serving, loving, worshiping: that’s laboring for the Lord and because of the resurrection then we can be sure it will never be in vain. Because of the resurrection, we need to examine everything we do in the light of eternity. “And whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward.” Matthew 10:42. “Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves wit3h money bags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys.” Luke 12:33. Let everything else get the scraps, and pour yourself into the labor that will never be in vain. A good exercise would be to regularly imagine your funeral at the end of your life. Do you want it to be a celebration? What cam make that happen? What can help guarantee that when death comes for you it only comes for you as a servant? Two things: first, did you place all your hope in the resurrection of Jesus Christ? Two, did you abound in the labor of the Lord? PRAY

© 2014 J.D. Shaw