1 Corinthians 15:3 | "The Day Life Died"

This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.

Here at Faith, we have spent the last few years working our way through Matthew's gospel.

In the last few weeks, we have been considering Jesus' words to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things and be killed.

We've been considering what that looks like, what that means for us as followers of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And tonight we stand at the foot of his cross.

He was raised between the heaven and the earth.

As though both rejected him.

Despised by men and refused by God.

And as though abuse were not vile enough, they covered him with spittle.

And as though spittle were not contemptuous enough, they plucked out his beard.

And as though plucking out his beard was not brutal enough, they drove drove in great nails.

And as though the nails did not pierce deeply enough, he was crowned with thorns.

And as though the thorns were not agonizing enough, he was pierced through with a Roman spear.

It was Earth's saddest hour.

And it was humanity's deepest, darkest day.

At three o'clock in the afternoon, it was all over.

The Lord of life bowed his head, and the light of the world flickered out.

Tread softly around the cross, for Jesus is dead.

Repeat the refrain in hushed and softened tones.

The Lord of life is dead.

The day of which Pastor Criswell spoke is the day that life died.

That's our theme this evening.

Take heart.

Take heart, my friend.

For life died.

Our theme is the day life died.

Our text is 1 Corinthians 15, verse 3, where the Apostle Paul wrote, For I delivered unto you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins, in accordance with the Scriptures.

1 Corinthians 15:3

1 Corinthians 15 is known as the resurrection chapter of the Bible.

But few realize that this resurrection chapter of the Bible begins and ends with the theme, the concept of death.

15, 3 says Christ died.

1 Corinthians 15, 55, O death, where is your sting?

This chapter of 1 Corinthians says far more about death than just those phrases, but in those phrases we find a parallel to all of Scripture from beginning to end.

For in Genesis, Adam died, and in Revelation, death is no more.

And we live somewhere in the middle.

We live somewhere in the middle where death still exists.

Death still claims its victims.

Death remains an active enemy.

That's why the middle of this chapter states that the last enemy to be destroyed is death.

You might wonder why this is Good Friday.

Death is not yet destroyed.

It's still our enemy, and it's the enemy that overtook the one we call Lord in Christ.

How then can it be good Friday?

I want to tease that out a bit this evening, for it's the essence of 1 Corinthians 15 and even all of Scripture.

You see, this chapter begins with the Apostle Paul reminding the church in Corinth of the gospel preached to them.

And it was a corrective reminder.

They needed correction.

You see, Corinth was a messed up church.

They had problems with their doctrine that led to problems with their gatherings as a church, and then problems living out their faith in a pagan world.

So the Apostle Paul took them back to the very beginning when they first heard the good news, the good news that saves, the good news that strengthens, the good news that secures those who believe.

That good news is called gospel.

The gospel is good news because it announces the hope of salvation in Christ.

But what comes next is simply astounding.

I would remind you, he says, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received in which you stand, and by which you are being saved.

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received that Christ died.

We remember Christ's death this evening because it's the first element of the gospel's good news.

So here then is our fundamental question.

How is the death of Christ good news when death is our enemy?

Now let's make sure that we understand what we mean when we say that Christ died.

Why is that significant?

Why is his death different from the billions of other deaths in earth's history?

Well, there's all kinds of questions, answers to that question, but I would like to single out one for us to consider.

And that is this answer.

Christ's death is significant because he is life.

Jesus said that he is the life in John chapter 14, verse 6.

John 14:6

John writes in chapter 1, verse 4 of his gospel: in him that is in Jesus was life, and the Son has life in himself.

In Acts chapter 3, verse 15, the Apostle Peter preached that the author of life was killed on the cross.

Acts 3:15

Good Friday is the day that life died.

And this is of first importance.

It is of primary importance for comprehension of the gospel.

It is vital for understanding what is good about Good Friday.

The gospel begins with death claiming victory over the author of life.

Good Friday is the day that life died.

It is finished.

Jesus said those words after three hours of darkness.

I remember about 40 years ago sitting in my parents' car as we drove out of Williston, North Dakota.

As we went out of town, we passed a sign that said, last one out, turn off the lights.

We might chuckle about that because Williston's a completely different city today.

But no one chuckled on that first Good Friday when the lights did go out.

You see, at his birth, the angels of heaven lit up the night sky with blinding brilliance.

But the ground shook and the world went dark as the author of life hung upon the cross.

The one who holds all things together by the power of his might suffered for the world's sins.

It wasn't an electrical grid going out.

It wasn't the blowing of a transformer.

It wasn't a geomagnetic storm.

Darkness shrouded the earth because life was dying as he paid the price for sin.

And when life died, death appeared victorious as it claimed another victim.

Maybe victim, though, isn't the right word.

We use that term for someone who has no choice in the matter.

We use it for the travesty that comes upon a person who has no control, no power, no authority.

Instead, they are the ones who are overpowered.

And we certainly could assert that death has its victims in that kind of sense.

We could rightly say that when cancer takes a loved one who has otherwise been relatively healthy, or a drunk driver claims a life, that those are victims of death's power.

And from a personal perspective, we feel as though all deaths are classified as victims of death's reign over this world, don't we?

But what if we tried to think of death from a biblical perspective?

What do you think we would find?

If we tried to think of a theology of death, what would we find?

Well, if we started at the beginning, we would find first that death is a consequence.

You see, God placed Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, and he said to them, You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat.

And on the day that you do eat, you will die.

See, God's good world did not include death.

Death entered as a consequence of personal choice.

Adam and Eve chose death over obedience.

They chose death over trust in God's word.

You see, it's more than more than cause and effect.

There was a violation that took place.

Parents do well when they teach their children about the consequences of actions.

Because children then learn that life's decisions carry consequences.

Sometimes long-term consequences.

Satan deceived Adam and Eve into believing that God, God didn't mean what he said.

You're not going to really die.

So they chose to believe Satan's lies over God's truth.

They decided to disobey God's command, which meant choosing the consequences of sin over the blessing of obedience.

That's why the New Testament tells us that sin came into the world through one man and death through sin.

And so death spread to all men because all sinned.

Now that's where we start to get a little fidgety and uncomfortable about this idea of death.

Because God suddenly, with this verse, tosses us into the middle of something that is far away in the past, and he does it in a condemning way.

See, by itself, death is vague and ephemeral.

It's sort of real and not real all at the same time.

It exists in that way until death begins to stalk you.

Or a family member, or until it creeps in like a thief and steals the life of one you love.

Well, death becomes very real then.

But in a biblical sense, death becomes real when we sin.

It's because we're human.

We have an innate sense, don't we, that life doesn't continue forever.

Why would we be searching for the fountain of youth if we didn't?

We begin dying the moment we start living.

And we understand why that is when we read our Bibles.

Death is a consequence of our first parents' choice to believe the snake instead of the Creator.

And as their children, we bear the results of their choice.

Death is our enemy.

And sometime, somewhere, that enemy will come upon us and vanquish us.

Yeah, that may not seem fair.

But we we understand how this works.

The next generation of people after us will bear the consequences of the decisions of today's politicians.

Governments today will decide how life will be lived for our children tomorrow.

We endure life with the consequences of others' choices all the time, but those choices and those consequences still feel somehow distant from us.

But when we begin to make the choices, knowing that we will bear the consequences, somehow reality becomes quite present, doesn't it?

When we have to choose surgery or therapy, chemotherapy or healthier living, fighting the end or hospice, choices and consequences become quite real, don't they?

Listen to Romans 5, twelve again.

Just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin.

So death spread to all men.

Death stalks us because of one man.

Adam.

In that we all face the consequences of another person's choice.

But then notice what happens next.

Because we all sinned.

We might be able to justify using the term victim for death if not for that last phrase.

We could argue that human beings are victims of death if death exists merely because of the consequences of someone else's decision.

But that all changes when it becomes my decision.

I am no longer a victim of death scourge if I choose sin over obedience, if I choose rebellion over faith and trust.

I suddenly become the one learning to live with the consequences of my choice.

I, Jason Holm, will die because I have chosen to sin.

That's what Ezekiel tells us.

God says the soul that sins shall die.

And as a byproduct of my choice, others will one day suffer the pain when death comes to claim its due.

That's why reading the beginning of God's book is essential.

It reminds us of that reality.

In Genesis 3, Adam was reminded by God that their choice, that their choice meant they would die, returning to the dust from which they were created.

And the next thing that happens is Adam and Eve's son chooses sin over obedience by killing his brother.

Shortly after that, another murder follows by another descendant of Adam and Eve.

And then in Genesis chapter 5, one of the most depressing chapters in all of Scripture, we read this refrain over and over and over again.

Genesis 5 · chapter mention

And he died, and he died, and he died, and he died, and he died over and over again.

And so God started over.

He wiped the slate clean and began again with Noah and his family.

But by that time, sin and death were so innately joined with humanity that a fresh beginning could not solve the problem.

Death still pursued every human being, and every human being still chose sin.

And so everyone dies.

The annals of biblical and world history prove that death is the victor.

That's why the psalmist could write in Psalm 49: truly, no person can ransom another or give to God the price of his life, for the ransom of their life is costly and can never suffice that he should live on forever.

In other words, you would have to die forever to pay for your sin, to ransom yourself.

Testimony of God's word and the facts of earth's history proves that death is your enemy.

Death is the hunter, and you are the hunted.

And there's no escape.

Death's victory is assured, you cannot escape its snare.

I can imagine how the demons must have must have howled with enthusiastic delight as the Son of God hung upon that cross.

I can imagine how how Satan, the great deceiver, the tempter, the prowling and devouring lion roared in delightful victory as death claimed another life on that Roman cross.

Only there was one problem.

That life had not sinned.

Remember that that part of Romans 5 that death spread to all men because all sinned?

But in Jesus that path was broken.

For he did not sin.

Death had no claim on him, for he did not sin.

First Peter chapter 2, verse 2 says, He committed no sin, neither was deceit found anywhere in his mouth.

1 Peter 2:2

But we all made our choices, didn't we?

We have chosen sin and thereby chosen the consequences.

Indeed, there's only been one genuine victim of death.

And that was Jesus, the Messiah, the sinless Son of God.

Yet even that is not entirely accurate, is it?

Can we truly say that one is a victim if he willingly lays down his life for another?

You've probably heard of John chapter 10, verse 11, where Jesus says, I am the good shepherd.

John 10:11

The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

Don't don't rush past that little word for.

We've already sung of it tonight.

In place of.

On behalf of his death.

For my death, his robes.

For my robes.

He bears the consequence for my Sin.

He bears the consequence for my choice.

Jonathan Edwards put it like this.

It must, it was to come to this.

Either we must die eternally, or the Son of God must spill his blood.

Either we or God's own Son must suffer God's wrath, one of the two.

Either miserable worms of the dust that had deserved it, or the glorious, amiable, beautiful, and innocent Son of God.

The fall of man, he says, brought it to this.

It must be determined one way or the other.

And it was determined by the strangely free and boundless grace of God that his own son should die so that the offending worms might be freed and set at liberty from their punishment.

Here is grace indeed.

Well may we shout grace, grace at this.

That is why today is good Friday.

Death is our enemy that has yet to be destroyed.

It still seeks us.

It haunts us.

It works to frighten and demoralize us.

But if we believe that God gave his only begotten son for us, that the sinless Son of God died for us, if we trust in the Son's death in our place, then his death is not merely another in the name of endless obituaries.

No, in that case, his name becomes gospel.

And his death becomes good news.

Listen again to Jonathan Edwards.

God did not do this for friends.

God did this for enemies and haters of him.

He did not do it for loyal subjects, but for rebels.

He did not do it for those that were his children, but those that were the children of the devil.

He did not do it for those that were excellent, but for those that were more hateful than toads or vipers.

I don't know what he had against toads.

God did not do it for those that could in any way be profitable or advantageous to him.

He did it for those that were so weak that instead of profiting God, they were not able, even in the least, to help themselves.

Edwards continues, God has given fallen man such a gift.

Though he has sinned, though he's chosen the consequences of death.

Yet God requires that no amends are to be made to him.

He requires of man no restoration.

If they will but receive his son from him, he requires neither money nor price.

He is to do no penance in order to be forgiven.

God offers to save him for nothing.

Only if he will receive the salvation that is offered.

That is freely through Christ by faith in him.

This, my friend, is why the scriptures say that of first importance is that Christ died for your sins.

Don't leave here this evening without placing your trust in the one who bore your consequences.

Lord Jesus, we are astounded to consider that you, the sinless one, would take on such wrath, eternal wrath for us.

It's astounding, it's incomprehensible, and yet you are the one who said it is finished.

And so your death becomes glorious.

The cross becomes life.

And death is crushed to death.

Thank you, Lord Jesus, for willingly taking it upon yourself that while we were yet sinners, you would go to the cross and die for us.

Thank you for Good Friday.

Amen.

That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.

Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.

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