The Resurrection of Jesus: Life is the Final Answer to Death (1 Corinthians 15)

Hello, friends.

This is Pastor Creighton.

Thank you for tuning in to Newsong Church's Sermon Podcast.

At Newsong Church, we want to see Jesus lifted high in Port Perry, Ontario, as we worship, grow, and serve.

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Our second lesson this morning is taken from the book of First Corinthians, chapter 15.

1 Corinthians 15 · chapter mention

But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.

For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead.

For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.

But each in his own order, Christ the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.

Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father, after destroying every rule and every authority and power.

For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.

The last enemy to be destroyed is death.

But someone will ask, how are the dead raised?

With what kind of body do they come?

You foolish person, what you sow does not come to life unless it dies.

And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain.

But God gives it a body as He has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body.

So is it with the resurrection of the dead.

What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable.

It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory.

It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power.

It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.

If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.

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.

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.

The word of the Lord.

Even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

Let's pray.

Lord Jesus Christ, by your death you took away the sting of death.

Grant to us your servants so to follow in faith where you have led the way, that we may at length fall asleep peacefully in you and wake up in your likeness for your tender mercy's sake.

Amen.

Please be seated.

To begin this morning, I want to read from a note that was sent out to the congregation of St.

Peter St.

Paul's from Reverend Michelle.

Reverend Michelle writes, Dear beloved in Christ, our dear brother, the Reverend Canon Brent Stiller, has passed from this life into his eternal home early Friday afternoon.

He was peaceful and surrounded by his family.

We are deeply grieved at the loss of our beloved priest, pastor, and friend, and our hearts ache for grief, but for the grief of the Stiller family.

At the same time, we rejoice for Brent, who is in the presence of the one he loved, worshipped, trusted, and served.

The Apostle Paul wrote, Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death.

For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

We know these words are true for Brent, who lived and loved his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

As difficult as this time is, we need not fall into despair.

We Christians are people of great hope because of Jesus Christ.

Our faith can and will sustain us through the trials we face.

Your sister in Christ, Michelle.

As difficult as a time as this is, we need not fall into despair.

It's easy to despair, isn't it?

That's not a hard thing to do.

Whether it's mourning Brent's loss or the loss of someone we love, we care about.

It's easy to despair.

Because experience teaches us that life works in one direction.

It passes from life to death.

The final answer, it seems to us, to life is death.

This is not a news flash, is it?

The ancients understood this.

I'm gonna quote for some uh ancient Hebrew wisdom literature.

I know you were eager to hear from some ancient Hebrew wisdom literature this morning.

The ancients recognize that life seems to work in one direction, and that comes with implications.

Short and sorrowful is our life, and there is no remedy, so it seems, when life comes to its end.

What keeps us from constantly falling into despair in this mortal life, in this seemingly futile life?

Well, one option, the wisdom literature presents, is we pursue pleasure.

Let none of us fail to share in our revelry.

Everywhere, let us leave signs of enjoyment, because this is our portion, this is our lot.

In other words, let's make the most of life while we still have it.

Because if we experience enough pleasure, maybe we can put off the feeling that all of this is pointless.

Or Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, we didn't read this verse, but he quotes this philosophy: let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.

Maybe we pursue pleasure to put off the inevitable, or maybe we pursue power.

Way before Nietzsche and Foucault and some of these guys were developing our modern idea that there's a will to power, that might makes right.

This ancient author writes, Let our might be the law of right, for what is weak proves itself to be useless.

Let's squash everyone we can to get what's ours.

Maybe that's what this feudal life is all about.

In the midst of all these options, these options and more, the question is this Do we dare hope for anything more?

Is there any final answer to despair?

This morning the Apostle Paul says, yes.

And we find his yes in 1 Corinthians 15.

Open your Bible or open your order of service with me to 1 Corinthians 15.

We didn't read from this morning.

1 Corinthians 15 is a lengthy passage, and I like the way that our prayer books parses up the main flow of his argument.

But Paul begins 1 Corinthians 15, verse 1, by stating his purpose.

1 Corinthians 15:1

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

What Paul has to write to the Corinthians is not a matter of opinion or wishful thinking.

It is a matter of the gospel.

It is a matter of the good news of Jesus.

And what does Paul have to say about the gospel?

Verse 3, Paul says, Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures.

The gospel begins with our need.

We are sinners.

We have transgressed God's law.

We have done what we ought not to have done, and we have not done what we have ought to have done.

We are like wayward sheep.

But because of his great love for us, the great love with which God loved us in Christ, he took our sin and our penalty upon himself and did away with it on the cross to fulfill his promise in the scriptures.

Christ died.

Verse 4, Christ was buried.

Paul wants us to understand that the gospel is a historical reality.

Folks could go and visit Jesus' grave.

In fact, they did.

Jesus didn't appear to have died, he was actually buried.

And as historically real as his death was, so too was his resurrection.

Again, verse 4, he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures.

Resurrection is a historical reality too.

It fulfills God's purposes and promises and moves his plan of salvation forward.

And finally, Paul says the gospel's a matter of Christ's appearance.

He appeared to his disciples.

Goes on to say, He appeared to Peter and James.

He appeared to over 500 at one time, Paul says.

That is what they'll tell you.

And they won't qualify that.

They won't add any caveats.

Well, wouldn't it be a nice thought if he were alive?

It's kind of like he's alive in our hearts.

Go and ask them, Paul says.

They will tell you he is risen.

The Lord is risen indeed.

Alleluia.

So the question is this, verse 12.

If this is all the case, if the gospel is founded upon Christ's death and resurrection, how can the principle of resurrection be denied?

That's what seemed to be happening amidst this congregation gathered in first century Corinth.

The resurrection, the reality of the resurrection, seemed to have been denied, at least by some.

And Paul wants it to be understood that a denial of the resurrection is a denial of the gospel itself.

The resurrection is not an appendage to the gospel.

It's not like a, wouldn't that be the nicest ending we could have?

No, this is the gospel.

This is the good news.

And it leaves us with no reason to despair.

Paul wants the Corinthians to know.

He wants us here at New Song to know this morning that Christ is risen.

By the power of God, he gives new and everlasting life.

He is answered death with life.

And what is true for Christ is true for those of us in Christ.

Everlasting life is the final answer to death.

The hope of the resurrection is this: life is not futile.

There is no need to despair.

Jesus' resurrection opens to us a whole new way to see and experience this wonderful world that God has created around us.

In Christ, everlasting life has the final answer to death.

I think there are four things Paul wants us to know this morning about the resurrection, four reasons we have to take heart, to not fall into despair.

Paul wants us to know that the fact of the resurrection is our ultimate hope.

Paul wants us to know that the how of the resurrection is the power of God.

Paul wants us to know that the result of the resurrection is an imperishable body.

And Paul wants us to know that the victory of the resurrection is our assurance.

So, friends, let's track with Paul together and find some hope this morning.

The fact of the resurrection is our ultimate hope.

Let's look at verses 20 to 26 here.

Counter to this denial of the resurrection, Paul has this to say.

But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead.

Again, Paul wants it to be understood.

This is not speculative.

This is not wishful thinking.

This is real.

Take it seriously.

This is a historical reality.

I mean, sometimes I think we fall into the trap of thinking first-century people were gullible.

They were just simple or dull.

They would believe any tall tale that came their way.

Oh, really, Gorsh?

Someone really rose from the dead?

You don't say.

They knew how life worked, just like we know how life works.

We have every evidence to think that life only gives way to death.

It doesn't work in reverse.

Paul wants us, Paul wants his audience to know something extraordinary has happened.

Something that is reversing our understanding of life itself, and this has unbelievable importance for those of us who claim Christ is our Lord.

Verse 21 for as by a man Adam came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead.

For as in Adam all died, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.

We just wait for it.

Just as Christ was raised from the dead, so too those of us who are in Christ will also be raised to everlasting life in him.

The fact of the resurrection is our ultimate hope.

It's not a nifty little footnote to the Christian faith.

This is the Christian faith.

Paul wants us to know that the how of the resurrection is the power of God.

This Paul is anticipating an objection in verse 35.

Someone will ask, well, how are the dead raised?

With what kind of body do they come?

This is a reasonable question.

It's like, Paul, have you seen someone who's passed away?

Their body doesn't really keep all that well.

But this isn't, I think, a genuine curiosity.

I think this is the sort of question that's, well, it's meant to make a statement, isn't it?

It's meant to make this seem so improbable, even silly.

I think Jesus was asked a similar kind of question in Matthew chapter 22.

Matthew 22 · chapter mention

He's asked a question by the Sadducees who deny any kind of life after death on principle.

He's asked a loaded question that's meant to make the doctrine of the resurrection seem so silly.

But Jesus gives them an answer.

He says, You are wrong because you do not know you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God.

See, the resurrection is not a matter of our limited human understanding, it is a matter of the power of God at work.

To deny the resurrection is to deny the power of God Himself, the limitless power of the Almighty.

And friends, I have to think if God can speak creation into being out of nothing, God can surely raise a collection of dust and clay from the ground and make for them a new body.

Resurrection is the power of God.

Paul wants us to understand that it's the power of God at work to raise up new life from death, and he gives an illustration.

He says, this principle is at work all around us already.

Verse 36.

You foolish person, how what you sow does not come to life unless it dies.

And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain.

Paul's giving an illustration, like planting a seed.

That seed has to undo its seedness to become the tree or grain of wheat it was always intended to be.

Maybe if you're a biologist, you'll say, well, Paul, your understanding here is not strictly accurate.

A seed doesn't die.

I mean, Paul's not writing a science test, he's making a point.

And that's aside from the question here.

Paul wants us to recognize that God's power is at work in the world around us presently.

God gives it a body as he is chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body.

If we wonder how the resurrection can take place, Paul gives us an answer.

It takes place by the power of God.

And as limitless as his power is, so limitless is our hope in him.

The fact of the resurrection is our ultimate hope, the how of the resurrection is the power of God, the result of the resurrection is an imperishable body.

Verse 42.

So it is, Paul says, with the resurrection of the dead.

What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable.

It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory, it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power, it is sown a natural body, and it is raised a spiritual body.

Kind of like we're floating around, like Casper the Friendly Ghost or something.

No, Paul's not saying that this is an incorporeal existence.

He's trying to make a point that our experience, our embodied experience of life right now has only ever been a temporal experience.

We know that because we feel it in our bodies.

We can feel our bodies giving way.

But one day, eternity will be in our bodies.

It will be a body fully animated by the Holy Spirit.

And we need to understand that when Paul describes spiritual, he's not talking in vague terms, he's talking with reference to the Holy Spirit.

This is a body that has become the way it was always meant to be, the truest us, the truest body we can have.

Eternity, the author of Ecclesiastes writes, is in our hearts, in our deepest center of being, and one day the same will be said of our bodies too.

Eternity will be found in our incorruptible flesh, free from sickness and suffering and death.

The result of the resurrection is an imperishable body for us, just like our Lord Jesus.

And finally, Paul wants us to understand that the victory of the resurrection is our assurance.

See, taken together, the fact of the resurrection, the how of the resurrection, the result of the resurrection should lead us to the conclusion that death is a Christian's enemy and not our friend.

We ought not to count death as a desirable solution to the suffering of this present life.

When our time comes, we ought, yes, to have peace in Christ at our death, but we must not make our peace with death, merely as a fact of life that will never be answered or undone.

Death undoes God's good creation, and you are a good creation.

Christians must look forward still to death's final defeat on the last day where Jesus returns and the dead are raised, and the kingdom is fully realized on earth as it is in heaven.

Paul writes, verse 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.

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.

This is our great assurance, saints.

The power of God at work in the resurrection of our Lord Jesus undoes death.

And it undoes our despair.

And it means new and everlasting life for all of those who are in Christ by faith.

The fact of the resurrection is our ultimate hope.

The how of the resurrection is the power of God.

The result of the resurrection is an imperishable body.

And the victory of the resurrection is our assurance.

A couple of weeks ago I watched a film called All Quiet on the Western Front.

It's the remake if you've seen it.

Now it is a brutal watch, so be warned.

I enjoy a good war movie, but this was a brutal watch.

The uh All Quiet on the Western Front takes place in the waning days of the First World War.

And it this version cuts between two storylines.

One is a young man fighting on the front lines, and uh the other is is the delegation to uh Versailles signing the treaty that ended the First World War and it it it capitulated to the uh the the Allies.

The Allies won the war, so to speak, with the signature there.

And it's cutting back and forth, and at a certain point, towards the end of the movie, the German delegation signs uh unconditional surrender.

The war is won, in other words, for the Allies.

But this surrender doesn't fully, isn't fully realized until 11 o'clock the following morning, right?

And that's Remembrance Day for us.

So now we cut back to this soldier fighting on the front line, and uh he's still in the thick of the carnage.

He's still fighting the war, a war that's already been won, but he's fighting nevertheless.

I can't help but think here we are, the war having been won by the resurrection of Christ, victory being assured, signed for by his blood, and yet we still rage against the carnage of death.

It doesn't mean that we'll stay here forever.

It just means that final victory is on its way.

And we can rest assured through the cross and resurrection of Christ that this is the case.

And because that's the case, Paul writes, Therefore, my beloved sisters and brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

Be steadfast.

This Greek word conjures up the image of a rider on a horse.

Be secure, be resolute, be immovable.

Maybe this calls to mind Psalm 62.

My soul finds rest in God alone, my salvation comes from him.

He alone is my rock and my salvation, he is my fortress, I will never be shaken.

The trials and tribulations of this life can serve to shake us.

Paul wants us to be reminded that we have an immovable foundation, which is our hope in the resurrection.

Because this is the case, Paul says, be always abounding in the work of the Lord.

Go over and above, go beyond.

Our post-communion prayer calls us to this.

We ask, Heavenly Father, assist us with your grace to do all the good works that you have prepared for us to walk in.

We do these good works knowing our labor is not in vain.

What we do in life is not futile, worthless, or useless.

Because the final answer to our work in the Lord is not death, but everlasting life.

When I think of these four things being steadfast and immovable, abounding in the work of the Lord and knowing our labor is not in vain, I can't help but think of our brother Brent.

Here was a steadfast man, secure and resolute in his hope in Christ.

I remember a number of our conversations.

I remember duking it out about theology in his office pretty regularly.

He wasn't above that.

But our conversations always seem to return to this passage, 1 Corinthians 15.

Here was a man who was steadfast in this hope.

And we enjoyed so much talking about the reality of the resurrection.

Brent was an immovable Christian man.

Maybe he was immovable in more senses than one sometimes.

But here was a man who was not shaken.

He knew his Lord.

He knew his Savior.

He was steadfast.

He was immovable.

And friends, he abounded in the work of the Lord, didn't he?

Where are we sitting right now?

He said yes to the Lord's call.

He said yes to everything it would cost him, knowing that he would receive from the Lord, as it were, 30 and 60 and a hundredfold.

Brent knew his labor was not in vain.

We do not sit here this morning and worship this morning and carry out our mission as a parish in vain.

Because Jesus is risen.

The Lord is risen indeed.

Hallelujah.

Every challenge and difficulty he faced was worth the while because Christ has risen, and this we get to proclaim as our gospel hope.

The resurrection of Jesus changes everything about how we see and experience the world around us.

Here's where I want us to land this morning.

I want to quote from Brent's Easter Sermon 2021.

I usually found when I met with Brent, he made sure to have the last word.

So I figure it's probably appropriate for me to give him the last word here.

Oh my gosh.

Brent says this to conclude his Easter sermon.

Last week I finally got around to getting an eye exam.

So I had the test, I got my script, and in about a week's time I picked up my glasses.

Boom, he says.

I couldn't believe the difference.

Clearly, for some time I'd been living each day with a skewed view of what laid in front of me.

But when I put on these glasses, my perception changed.

Colors were more vibrant, perhaps because images were more clear.

My eyes, my interpretive mental hardware had adjusted over the last few years, and I had learned to think what I saw and the way in which I perceived life was normal.

That's just how it was.

But of course that wasn't true at all.

What is so essential on this Easter Sunday, and every day for that matter, including this second Sunday of Epiphany, is that members of the church know who they are, the truest us, found in Jesus, who is risen.

And it's because of this that we can be the church and live in love with a wild, reckless hope and confidence in whatever we may face in life.

Friends, we know that Brent faced his final days of life with this hope.

The resurrection changed everything about the way our brother saw and experienced the world.

He lived his life proclaiming this hope.

And so now our commission in Christ is to do the same.

Yes, I will miss my friend.

There is no need to despair.

In Christ, everlasting life is the final answer to death.

For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

Amen.

Thank you for listening today.

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