Castlebar Christian Fellowship

VICTORIOUS JESUS
1 Corinthians 15:50-58
Intro
As long as I can remember I've always loved sport, especially team sports, and especially football (soccer)! I've always supported Man United in fact I've got a collection of Man U shirts going back as far as 1985, that's when Liverpool used to be good. I can remember 1992 when United just missed out on winning their first league championship in a quarter of a century. I was devastated. The taste of victory was so close and we missed it. Thankfully the next year they did it, they won the league for the first time in 26 years and I was on top of the world. I recorded every news item reporting on it on video and watched them lift that Premier League Trophy over and over again, with a big smile on my face every time. At last they'd done it and victory was sweet!
(Another moment that stands out for me is 1999 when United won the treble. I remember watching United play Bayer Munich in the European Cup Final with a supporters club in a hotel just outside Belfast. They went a goal down early and played rubbish for most the game, and with the clock on 89 min's it looked over, hope was fading away fast. The Liverpool and Arsenal fans had that smug look on their faces (Chelsea fans didn't exist in 1999). Then the miracle happened. Teddy Sheringham grabbed an equaliser in the 89 min and a minute later Ole gunner Solksier grabbed the winner and snatched the trophy for United! I couldn't believe they'd done it. Everyone went crazy! Once again victory was sweet, sweet, sweet!)
These victories where great moments for me, but they were also fleeting moments, they quickly passed and life got back to normal, and really when I think about it these moments didn't change my life that much!
This morning I believe God wants to focus us on the greatest victory of all, a victory that does change lives and futures, a victory that brings real and lasting hope into the most hopeless situations And it's not a victory that was won by any sports team, or army, or political party... and it's not a victory that was won lightly... It's the victory that's been won by our Lord Jesus. Which is a victory that eclipses all other victories by far and this morning God wants us to know that we can share in this victory, we can celebrate this victory, because this victory can make a difference in our everyday lives, this victory changes our future and gives us eternal security, this victory liberates us from our greatest fears, this victory gives us the strength to overcome anything hurled at us by life, or people, or even the old devil himself, and this victory fills us with a hope that can be found nowhere else but in Jesus!
Over the last few months in this series on the resurrection we firstly looked at how the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus is what makes true Christianity good news... Then secondly we looked at how Jesus' resurrection secures our future resurrection... Thirdly we looked at the second coming of Jesus and how he is going to destroy all that opposes God and set up his eternal kingdom of love, peace and safety for his redeemed people... And fourthly we looked at how Jesus is going to miraculously raise for us a new body fit for his eternal kingdom when he returns. A body that will no longer be characterised by weakness - like the one we have now - instead it will be a fortress of power...! Paul continues with this theme in these following verses:
[V50esv] "I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. "
These bodies that we're in now cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Flesh and blood cannot inherit the eternal kingdom of God. "Flesh and blood" simply means "human nature as we know it now"-mortal, perishable, sin-stained, decaying. Something as fragile and temporary as the body we now have will not be the stuff of the eternal, durable, unshakable, indestructible kingdom of God. This is why we need new spiritual bodies for God's eternal kingdom, bodies that are free from all the limitations put on us by sin... Bodies that no longer reflect weakness, but power! Bodies that are imperishable instead of perishable. Bodies that are glorious like Jesus instead of dishonoured by sin. Bodies that are spiritual rather than natural.
When Paul says that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God it reminds me of something Jesus said to a man called Nicodemus in John 3. Jesus said to him: "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." On down the chapter a little bit Jesus again says: "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit."
See the thing is these new bodies are only for those who have received new life from Jesus... Have you been BORN AGAIN? For Jesus says; "unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." When a person is BORN AGAIN they are given a new nature that will eventually have total victory over the old nature of sin and death. You will know if this has happened to you, because you will have new desires...something will have changed in you... it's a real experience... it's an act of God's grace...!
This new birth which is the work of the Holy Spirit alone is our guarantee of inheriting this new body when Jesus returns. As Paul says in his letter to the Ephesians: "In him (JESUS) you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory." Part of this inheritance is our new, imperishable, glorious, powerful, spiritual body! When Jesus returns he will raise for us a new body to clothe our new nature so that we will stand in total victory, having all things made new! The apostle Peter links the new birth with our future resurrection when he says: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be BORN AGAIN to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." What a hope we have in Jesus! Paul continues:
[V52-53esv] "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 all be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality."
A story is told of a group of soldiers during the American Civil War. The group had to spend a winter night without tents in an open field. During the night it snowed several inches, and at dawn the chaplain reported a strange sight. The snow-covered soldiers looked like the mounds of new graves, and when the bugle sounded a man immediately rose from each mound of snow, dramatically reminding the chaplain of this passage from 1 Corinthians.
Can you imagine what this day is going to be like? It used to be common to name church graveyards 'God's Acre', because of this hope that weak, dead, perishable bodies buried into the ground will one day be miraculously raised up, as new powerful bodies, totally transformed, when our Lord Jesus returns! When we die we know according to scripture that our spirit departs to be with Jesus, but when he returns he will raise for us this gloriously new body which our spirit will then inhabit forever. Or perhaps we will still be alive on earth when he returns! Well in that case we will be changed in an instant!
All this will happen in an instant, in the flash of a camera, in the blinking of an eye. We will be raised with new bodies. Or we will be transformed forever. Someone will be drying their hair in front of the mirror and BANG they will see themselves, totally changed, looking back at them. What a shock! What a glorious day! Someone will be standing in McHale Park and the trumpet will sound and they will be transformed in the twinkling of an eye! Someone will be standing at the checkout in Tesco's and in the beep of a scanner they will be changed and clothed with immortality, and all across the world graves will be bursting with life as the dead in Christ are raised! Can you imagine what it will be like on earth on this glorious day? What a moment this will be for those who belong to Jesus. "For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, (Paul says to the Thessalonians) with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. (All our friends and family in Christ, we will be re-united with them, we will all share this experience together) Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. (when he says, "with the Lord," he means in the sense that we can see and hear and touch him with our bodies-with eyes and ears and hands, something like what we have now, but far, far greater. We can only imagine. This is our hope-to be with the risen victorious Jesus with a body like his glorious body.) Therefore encourage one and other with these words."
Let me encourage you this morning - what a future we have because of Jesus. No matter where you're at now or what you're going through. There's plenty in this world to get us down... BUT there is hope in Jesus great enough to lift our spirits above it all! There's a lot of hopelessness is this world, but there's a lot more hope in Jesus! If you are trusting in Jesus then you have a victorious future in him! God wants to impart hope into your life today, he wants to fill you with hope! He wants us all to live the rest of our days on earth filled with this all-surpassing hope!
And guess what it only gets better. In Jesus our hope grows brighter and brighter. Paul continues:
[V54-57esv] "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."
Someone has written:
"There is a preacher of the old school but he speaks as boldly as ever. He is not popular though the world is his parish and he travels every part of the globe and speaks in every language. He visits the poor, calls upon the rich, preaches to people of every religion, and the subject of his sermon is always the same. He is an eloquent preacher, often stirring feelings which no other preacher could, and bringing tears to eyes that never weep. His argument none are able to refute, nor is there any heart that has remained unmoved by the force of his appeals. He shatters life with his message. Most people hate him; everyone fears him. His name - is Death. Every tombstone is his pulpit, every newspaper prints his text, and someday everyone of you will be his sermon."
I was out at Bertra Beach one day. Clearing my head from all the stuff... I was enjoying God and his creation, and I looked at all the beauty around me, and I said to myself, where is the effect of sin here? It's beautiful...! And then I saw a dead little bird and it reminded me. Death hangs its dark shadow over our existence in this world, even in the most beautiful of places. Death has touched us all. Death has brought tears to all of our eyes. Death has separated us from people we love. Death is most people's greatest fear. We fear our own death and we fear the death of those we love. Sometimes we see it coming, other times it comes unexpectedly. We try our best not to think about it, but it's always there hanging over us. Death comes from many different directions - cancer, old age, road accidents, suicide, war, murder, starvation and I could go on. Many don't know what lies beyond death. That's one of the reasons people fear it so much!
BUT THROUGH JESUS OUR GREATEST FEAR BECOMES OUR GREATEST HOPE!
In fact God gives us a song to sing at death and it goes like this: "Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is you sting?" Jesus defeats death with one gulp!
In Jesus we can look death in the eye with confidence and say; what have you got on us now death because look! Jesus has defeated you. Jesus has taken your sting on the cross, when he died in my place for my sin! You don't scare me anymore. You don't have the final say anymore. You are defeated. So what have you got to boast about, you've lost all your power! You're just like a little bee who has lost its sting - your days are number. You stung the wrong person when you stung Jesus on that cross because he overwhelmed you 3 days later... And when he returns he will swallow you up once and for all! Listen to these words from Isaiah 25: "And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread out over all nations. He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the LORD has spoken. It will be said on that day. Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the LORD; we have waited for him; let us rejoice in his salvation."
"Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." It's time to shake of the grave clothes and live in the victory of our Lord Jesus... For if Jesus can overcome death then surely he can overcome any difficulty you might be facing! There is victory in Jesus this morning!!!
Call to Action
[V58esv] "Therefore, my beloved brothers, (Paul says) be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labour is not in vain."
We are not to live in the future, with our heads in the clouds, detached from the present world. We're not called to live in a heavenly bubble. As the half true cliché goes "we're not to be so heavenly minded that we're of no earthly use." Instead the biblical idea is that we are to be eternally minded so that we can remain of earthly use. In other words, we are to live now... but always in light of the future, as citizens of heaven but fully engaged in serving God in this world. We are to devote all our energies towards gaining our eternal reward! Our unshakable future hope should fuel how we live today!
Our hope in Jesus should keep us steadfast and immovable. Our salvation and our future is settled in Christ! Nothing can rob us of our glorious future in Jesus. Therefore we are to keep ourselves firmly rooted in what he has accomplished, and what he has promised, not allowing ourselves to be blown about by the things of this world. Or uprooted by whatever hurricanes we may encounter in our journey through life. Jesus will return. We will be raised. He will clothe us in immortality. We shall be changed into his likeness. He will overcome death. He will finish what he started. He will bring us all home to glory! We will live with him forever. Such assurance should strengthen and encourage to keep going, to never give up, to always be abounding in the work of God, knowing that in Jesus our labour in not in vain... So in the words of Paul to Timothy: "For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Saviour of all, especially those who believe." Or in the words of the apostle Peter: "Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ." So allow this hope to motivate you into action.
THIS LIFE IS NOT ALL THERE IS!!! So we must not live like this life is all there is. We need to make sure our priorities are eternal! Maybe the reason you're discouraged is because so many of your hopes are earthbound! Maybe you're lacking joy because you're too focused on the here and now. Maybe the reason you're apathetic towards serving God is that your hope is not fully set on what God has promised... Do we set our minds on things that are above (Colossians 3:2)? Do we live like our citizenship is in heaven? Are we waiting eagerly for our Saviour to return (Philippians 3:20)? Do we feel like death would be more gain than loss (Philippians 1:21)? Or are we so entangled with this world that leaving it is the worst thing we can think of? Do we really believe that our future reality is infinitely greater than anything this world can offer us...?
We need to allow our glorious and certain future in Jesus to motivate us in our service of Jesus today!