Well, let’s take our Bibles and turn to 1 Corinthians 15. 1 Corinthians 15 and verses 54 to 57, but we’ll read verses 50 through 58, so follow in God’s word.
I want to speak today on the subject, death is dead. In a very real sense, death is dead. Although it’s present among us, and if Jesus tarries, we’ll experience it, it is dead in terms of its threat, in terms of its terror. It holds no terror to us. It holds no threat to us, because it has been conquered in the Lord Jesus Christ and we trust the one who says, “I am the resurrection and the life, and though a man die, yet shall he live.” Give death another name, because the Gospel has transformed it. So death is dead, and we’ll see that it’s something to celebrate in the verses we’re looking at this morning.
“Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does corruption inherit incorruption. Behold,” Take a look at this, “I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep.” Sleep’s a euphemism for death here. We shall not all die. “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 incorruptible and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality.
So when this corruptible has put on incorruption and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. Oh, death, where is your sting? Oh, Hades, where is your victory? The sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the law, but thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Therefore, my beloved brethren, will you be steadfast? Will you be immovable? Always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor, your work, your ministry is not in vain in the Lord? What a bracing word.
In preparing for my message this morning, I was reminded of the French girl who married the English man. Once she married him, she decided to change her nationality and so she was no longer French, so she became British. Some months later she was asked what difference it made, to which she replied, “Well, among many things I find that now instead of losing the battle of Waterloo, I won it. I like that.” Upon reflection, one of the great truths of the Christian life is that when you and I put our faith in Jesus, when we come into a relationship with Him, when we identify with Him, when we are united to Him, His victories become our victories.
And speaking of victories, none greater than His victory over death and His triumph over the grave. What He did, He did for us. And when you and I have a relationship with Him, that victory becomes ours. His resurrection becomes the grind of the hope of our own. That’s why Colossians 3:1 says, “We are raised with Christ.” That’s the language of the New Testament. When you and I are in relationship with Him, what He did, what He accomplished, what He gives is ours. And He rose from the dead and we are raised with Him. We enjoy spiritual life now through regeneration and we will enjoy physical life in the life to come through resurrection.
So the implication of Easter is profound that through Jesus resurrection on that third day, He adds to every single day of our life a sense of hope and purpose. He also provides for us a soaring sense of peace when that last day comes and we can say, “Oh, death, where is your sting? Oh grave, where is your victory?” For when it comes to death and dying, the Christian is no longer on the losing side.
That’s why I love the words of Charles Haddon Spurgeon, although these are words from a long time ago. He preached this message in 1876 in London. He said this, “Death, it is true that you are not destroyed, but our living Redeemer has so changed you that you are no longer death but something other than your name.”
I love that. The death of Jesus and the resurrection of Jesus has so profoundly changed our experience of death, we need to come up with another name because in many ways it’s glorious. In many ways, it’s just the translation from death to life, from earth to heaven. In fact, Spurgeon goes on, “Yes, our Lord has abolished death. The sting of death is sin, but our great substitute has taken that sting away by His great sacrifice.”
Death abides among the people of God, but it does so little harm that it is not death to die. It is not death to die if you’re a Christian, it’s actually life. Isn’t that what Paul said? “For me to live is Christ, and if that’s true, then to die is gain,” and that’s true, death becomes profitable. It’s not the end of all our dreams, it’s the beginning of the greatest dream, life eternal in the presence of God.
So let’s take this reality that Christ in His resurrection has so changed our calculus on death, that it’s no longer death to die. Death is dead, in the truest sense of that that it no longer threatens us, it no longer troubles us. It no longer terrifies us, because Christ has evacuated it of its power through overcoming it.
Hebrews 2: 14-15 tells us that through His death, He has indeed removed the fear of death. The good news of Easter Sunday is that Christ has neutralized death. In 2 Timothy 1:10, Paul says this, “Christ has abolished death.” That the Greek word there means to nullify, to cancel. We’ll still experience it if He doesn’t come back, but the experience of it holds no fear. It doesn’t threaten us, it can’t harm us. Give it another name because in many ways death for the Christian is the gateway to eternal life. Christ has disarmed it, neutralized it.
Death is like a ticking bomb. We fear it. We fear when it’s going to go off in our life. It’s going to take us away from our loved ones and if we’re without the hope of the Gospel, it’s going to end life. And all of our dreams and all of our accomplishments will seem like nothing. It’s a ticking bomb, but Christ has come into our world, into a world where men live under the shadow of death and He has defused the bomb and it’s rendered harmless. Neutralized.
When I was a police officer in Northern Ireland, I saw that happen on a couple of occasions where we had to cordon off a particular area because it was a bomb threat and the British army would arrive and the ATO officers, the army technical officers, would suit up and while everybody was running from the bomb, they’d walk towards the bomb and seek to defuse it so that it would render it harmless. That’s our image and that’s what Jesus did when He put on flesh and come into our world and died on a cross and rose from the dead. The end of that story is He has rendered death harmless. Death is dead in terms of its threat.
We come to see that in the passage we’re about to look at for a few moments here in 1 Corinthians 15: 54-57, where Paul bursts into jubilant celebration of the fact that, because Jesus has died and rose again, someday you and I will die in a state of corruption only to be in a state of incorruption. You and I will die because we’re mortal, but someday we will awake to a life that’s immortal and Paul celebrates that fact.
In fact, one writer puts it like this, Paul is so giddy. He’s so happy at what Jesus has accomplished in the resurrection that he kind of taunts death, or to put it another way, he trash-talks death. “Hey, death, where is your sting? Grave, where is your victory?”
Come on, show me what you got. Do your worst, because it’s not going to harm me or any other Christian who’s in Christ. He kind of pokes fun from the words of Isaiah and Hosea, he pokes fun at death.
See, death tends to taunt man, “I’m coming to get you and all that you have, you’re going to lose.” And that’s terrifying and it’s upsetting. Death taunts me, but it doesn’t taunt the Christian. It doesn’t bully us. We taunt it. Oh, death is that all you got? I’m in the company of He who is the resurrection and the life. So that’s where Paul’s at here. In the verses we’re looking at 54 to 57, he’s celebrating the resurrection.
In fact, if I was to outline the passage early on, he confesses the resurrection. He tells us it’s a doctrine of first importance that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures and the third day He rose again according to the scriptures and he confirms the resurrection. He makes arguments for it. It’s according to the scriptures. There were many witnesses to his resurrection.
And if you think about it, how do you explain the Christian life without the resurrection? If there’s no resurrection, why do Christians preach? Why do Christians suffer so joyfully? Why do Christians die so triumphantly? Because Christ who is alive is alive in them.
So he confirms the resurrection, then he clarifies the resurrection by explaining what the new body will be like. It’ll be a body marked by honor, not dishonor, by immortality, not mortality, by spiritual life, not fleshly existence.
Then he chronicles the resurrection. He actually pinpoints when it will take place. “I tell you a mystery, we shall not all sleep, we won’t all die, but we’ll all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet,” that’s 1 Thessalonians 4: 13-18. When Jesus comes, the dead will be raised, and if you’re alive as a Christian when He comes, you’ll be translated at that moment. It’ll happen in a split second.
So he confesses it, he confirms it, he clarifies it, he chronicles it, and now he celebrates it. Three things in our text, number one, the transformation. The transformation. Look at verse 54. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying, as it is written, death is swallowed up in victory.”
Now, Paul has already been transformed by Jesus. He who was once dead in his sin has experienced a spiritual resurrection in that he’s now alive in Jesus Christ and his life has been profoundly transformed. And its transformative power is rooted in a future hope. Paul keeps going and he encourages these Christians to be steadfast, immovable, and always abiding in the work of the Lord, because someday they will rise in power and glory into the presence of God.
Jesus Christ’s resurrection holds the promise of their own resurrection. They have experienced an immediate spiritual resurrection that awaits a future physical resurrection. And the ground of it is that Jesus, according to verse 20 and verse 23 is described as the first fruits. Christ, the first fruits.
What does that mean? Well, it takes you back to the Old Testament when one of the feasts that Israel kept was the feast of first fruits. And one of the ways they worshiped God and acknowledged His lordship over their lives was when the harvest was coming in, they took the first part of the harvest and they went to the tabernacle or the temple with it, and they offered it to God recognizing that it was His to give. And so they give Him praise for what He has given them that sustains life. So that kind of first fruit or that first cut of the harvest is the promise of a greater harvest to come.
So, Paul takes that image and he says, “Look, you know what you’ve got in Jesus’ resurrection? You’ve got the first among many resurrections. You know what you got in Jesus’ resurrection? You’ve got the first fruits of a greater harvest, a harvest that you and I will be part of at the end of history.”
Easter means that Jesus went first. Have you ever been there, you know, maybe you’re at the edge of the water with some friends and we’re all wanting to go into the water, but it’s cold and you’re kind of holding back. And you say to someone in the group, “You go first.” And when someone breaks the herd and goes in, everybody else tends to follow.
Or you’re mad enough with a few friends on vacation to decide, “You know what? Why don’t we go bungee jumping?” So you go up onto the bridge and you look down and you look at your friend and go, “You go first.” You see it’s good when someone else goes first, because they prove that it can be done. They give you a confidence that it can be done and then you’re ready to experience that yourself, whether it’s cold water or jumping off a bridge on a bungee jump. And you know what Easter says? Jesus went first. And in a metaphorical sense when it comes to this, “Come on in, the water’s not too bad.”
He took the jump and survived it and conquered death and come out the other side to say, “I’m the resurrection and the life. If you’re going to believe me and follow me, though you die yet shall you live.” Love that.
Two things about this transformation quickly. It’s necessity and it’s nature. Why do we need this resurrection and what will it look like? Well, the necessity is found in verse 50. “Now, I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does corruption inherit incorruption.
Although we’re saved today and indwelt by the Holy Spirit, so we’re justified and we’re sanctified, we’re not yet glorified. We are not yet fully saved. We are not yet fit for God’s presence. We’re in that flesh and blood experience which has been touched by the fall.
And Paul is saying, “You know what? In our presence state, we’re not fit for the residence of heaven and we’re not fit for the presence of God.” We need to put on immortality. We need to put on in corruption and that will make us ready because we’re fallen, we’re fleshly and we’re frail. We’ve got to put on a body suitable for the life to come, a body that’s not subject to death, a body that’s not dominated by the flesh, but by the spirit, a body that will live forever and reflect God’s glory in glory to come.
That phrase “put on” means to put on clothes. So the analogy would be this. Look, an astronaut… I’ve been to the Smithsonian in Washington DC and you get to see the suits that these men wore. It’s fantastic.
So an astronaut’s got to put on a space suit to be fitted for that environment in outer space that in his natural state, he is not fit for. He has to put on the space suit to get ready for space.
Or another analogy would be diving, scuba diving. The diver has to put on a scuba diving suit with some air tanks on his back so that he’s fit for an environment he’s not fit for in his flesh and blood experience. It’s kind of a good analogy. Put on. We need to put on eternal life. We need to put on a new body that will fit us for the life to come that’s everlasting.
So it’s necessary that there is a resurrection and you and I are part of it and it’s nature. “Well, this new body will be incorruptible,” says Paul. “It will be immortal.” I like the sound of that. Mine’s beginning to wear out.
It will no longer be subject to decay or death. In fact, Paul takes this analogy of like imagining your body was a seed. I mean I think they still do it in schools where often at some point in elementary school, the child brings home a little pot where they put some seeds into the soil and the whole point is to watch the miracle of life as it bursts forth, as the seed becomes a little flower, a little plant.
And Paul says, “I want you to imagine that, that when you bury a loved one, you take the seed of their body and you sow it into the ground.” Now, look how you sow it. You sow it in a state of decay and death and weakness, even ugliness. But as you sow it, you sow it in the hope of the resurrection that someday it will sprout forth. It will come forth in a new state of life marked by, not by dishonor, but honor, not by weakness, but strength. Not a natural body but a spiritual body.
What does he mean by that? It just means this body dominated by the Spirit. A body not subject to death or temptation, a body that’s in complete sync with the will of God.
I don’t don’t know about you, but I have to fight to be a Christian. It doesn’t come easily or naturally. The Spirit of God prompts it and develops it, but it doesn’t come easily. But when we get to heaven, being a Christian will be easy because we’ll have a body that’s spiritual.
Well, what a great hope. Is that not a good prospect this Sunday morning, in a world where we face death on a daily basis, in a world where there’s sickness and suffering, some of your managing loved ones or taking care of a child with disability? That’s the world we live in.
And although there are gleams of glory and there are moments of joy, at times, it’s very disheartening and discouraging and tiring and frustrating. That’s our world. A world of death and sickness and suffering, a world in which Christians are killed for simply being Christians in the world. But we got this hope that someday we’re going to be transformed and this lowly humble, humiliating body of ours will be changed into a body like unto His glorious body. That’s the promise here. That’s the promise of transformation.
I like what Brian Harbor says, “Death is not the end of the sentence of life, but merely a comma that will punctuate our lives with greater significance.” See, when you and I, if Jesus [inaudible 00:21:04] come to die, it’s a comma, it’s not a full stop. It’s simply the punctuating of our lives with the beginning of a new sentence of life with greater significance.
A couple of weeks ago I was coming out of the bedroom and I was on the top of our landing coming down the stairs and Jane was downstairs and she was looking at our wedding picture. If you’ve been to our home, we have a large picture framed in our dining room and it’s of our wedding day, kilt and all.
We’ve always enjoyed it, but we’ve hung it now in California for a couple of decades and the sun has done its work. It’s a little yellow and all of that. So I’m at the top of the stairs, I’m about to come down, she’s standing looking at the picture and she just looks at me and she goes, We are fading.”
I go, “Yes we are. I just looked in the mirror.” I felt like saying, “You speak for yourself,” but I couldn’t do that. We’re fading, folks. I don’t know. You agree with that? We’re fading. Time takes its toll. Our bodies wear out. They’re perishable, they’re subject to death.
But with this wonderful promise of a transformation, which takes us to the second thought, the triumph, the transformation is, that someday we’re going to be changed, because of the triumph that Jesus accomplished in His own death. That’s the end of verse 54. Death is swallowed up in victory.
Verse 57, “but thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Remember Paul trash talks death. Paul speaks smack to the grave, because of he can. What gives him such boldness? What arrogance? No. His hope and his confidence is based on an historical reality that Jesus died for our sins according to the scriptures, and on the third day, He rose again, according to the scriptures and we can confirm that. There are witnesses to that fact.
Christianity has changed the world and it can only be explained by the reality of a risen Christ. Although the fullness of this promise awaits the future, in a sense you won’t be able to fully say this until the rapture nevertheless that is so sure that we can enjoy that joyous anticipation even now. Death is dead to us. Jesus has abolished it, disarmed it, neutralized it in His own death and resurrection. It doesn’t hold any fear to us, its threat or its terror.
Isn’t that why John Wesley said of the Methodists, “My people die well.” Such an interesting little phrase. Christians who die of cancer, Christians who die of heart failure, Christians who die in automobile accidents, Christians who die at the hand of a sword or a gun, they die well because in their death they actually enter eternal life.
That’s why Richard Baxter, the Puritan upon his deathbed was visited by a pastor friend and the pastor said, “Well, Richard, how are you doing?”
To which he replied, “I’m almost well.” Now, he didn’t mean by that he was going to recover from his sickness. He meant by that, “I’ll soon be dead and I’ll be well.” That’s the triumph.
Paul stands over death like a soldier standing over a vanquished enemy poking fun, “Oh, death. Where is your sting? Oh grave, where is your victory? Jesus has triumphed over you and his victory is my victory.”
If you wanted a sporting analogy, I’m taking us back a bit into the ’60s, but there was no bigger trash talker and smack talker than Muhammad Ali. I used to love watching him on British television and you know what? What’s the iconic picture of him standing over Sonny Liston? As Liston lies listless on the mat and Ali stands over him talking smack like, “I told you. You had it coming and I told you it was coming.”
That’s where Paul’s at here. He’s standing looking into the grave he’s going, “Is that all you got? Boy, you’re not as big as people say you are. You don’t threaten me because you see, my savior, you once held Him but you could not hold Him. And He holds me and I’m gripped in His grace and I have the hope of eternal life.”
That’s the triumph that Paul’s rejoicing in here and He borrows from Isaiah 25:8 and Hosea 13:14 to talk smack. In fact, the metaphor he uses is, “Oh, death, where is your sting?” It’s as if death had stung Christ, but Christ had removed that sting so that death could no longer sting us. That’s what Paul’s saying.
You see, the sting of death is sin. That’s what Paul says here in verse 56, which means, why do you and I die? We die because of sin, not a medical complication, not of a natural process. We die because within the history of man, man rebelled against God. And according to Romans 5:12, because of one man’s sin, death entered the world. That’s the genesis of death. Adam’s rebellion. And death has spread across all men and all men sin. So all men deserve to die like Adam deserved to die because all have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory.
You want to understand death from a Christian perspective, from a Christian worldview, we die because we sin and God has judged our sin and the penalty of sin is death, right? Romans 6:23, “The wages of sin is death,” so the sting of death is sin.
And notice this ironically and interestingly, and the strength of sin is the law. Gordon Fee in his commentary in Corinthian says this, “Sin became more energized in our lives by our acquaintance with the law.” Now, the law is good and it’s holy and it’s just, but ironically, when you and I become acquainted by the law, it kind of provokes us to sin. It’s meant to prevent us from sinning, “Don’t do this. God condemns this. God commands this.” But because of our fallen nature, ironically, the law gives strength to our sin in that we are incorrigible sinners. And when God tells us not to do something, it’s the very occasion of us doing it.
It’s a bit like your child from the earliest time of their life, “Now don’t you do that,” and they go on to do it, bold-face disobedience. In the face of your law, they still sin and they get power almost from it because when they defy you, they feel powerful. Paul’s saying it ironically, the sting of death is sin and the strength of the power of sin is the law, but thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
The good news of Easter, my friend, is that Christ has removed this sting of death, death due to our sin. And if we remain unrepentant, then God’s wrath and hell and separation from Him forever on the other side of death, the second death, but Christ has removed the sting of death. Christ has made a way of escape from that reality and from that conclusion by His own bloody, sacrificial, sin-bearing, law-appeasing death on the cross. He died the just for the unjust, He died that you and I might be made righteous.
And the marvel of the Gospel, that the truth of what Jesus did on the cross and across that Easter weekend is that He marvelously and mercifully took the sting. He died for us. He bore the wrath of God for us. He took the sting and He absorbed its poison and its consequences.
Hebrews 2:9 says a beautiful thing, “He tasted death for all man. Tasted. What an interesting metaphor. He took the bitter cup of death, he drank it, He tasted it, He imbibed it and He conquered it, telling you, telegraphing to you that you need not fear death or the wrath of God if you shelter under Him and you are saved by Him.
Let me illustrate this and get to our last concluding thought. A little boy and his father were driving down a country road on a beautiful spring afternoon and suddenly, out of nowhere, a bumblebee flew into the car because the window was open. Immediately, the little fella in the car went berserk, panicked, was terrified because you see, he was allergic to bee stings. It could even threaten his life.
So, the Father thought quickly and acted immediately. He grabbed the bee and he squeezed it in his hand. And then he released it for some strange reason, which terrified the boy thinking that this bee could still sting him. But the father put the little boy at ease and opened his hand and showed the little fella the sting in his hand. He says, “Look, I took the sting. The bee can only sting once. I took the sting. You’re nothing to fear. It can’t sting you. It stung me.”
And my friend, I want to tell you if the Gospel’s true and I believe it to be true, I’m living it. Jesus Christ stands before you and I this morning. He opens his hand and it’s nailed-pierced, because He died on a cross and He entered the realm of darkness and He emerged in the other side to tell us, “I took the sting. I bore your sin. I carried your sorrow. I took the wrath of God. I absorbed it. I drank the poison. I took the sting. I satisfied the law of God.” It’s beautiful, isn’t it? The triumph.
Don’t let death taunt you. Don’t let death bully you. Don’t let death rob you of life or the hope of eternal life. It will whisper in your ear, “I’ll get you in the end. It won’t be long now.” And for people outside of Christ, that’s terrifying. Terrifying.
But for those of us in Christ, that taunt means nothing to us. In fact, we can turn around and taunt death. “Oh, death, stop it. Death. Where’s your sting? Grave, where’s your victory? Do you know I’m a follower of He who is the resurrection and the life? You only got the harm Him. You can’t harm me, because he died in my place.
I made reference earlier to my time in the RUC in Northern Ireland. And you know what? There were times I was frightened. We were more likely to be killed off-duty than on-duty. There were several ways the IRA would kill us. None of them were good by the way. Some of them would be quick and easy, like a shot to the back of your head, maybe a car explosion or in some cases, they kidnap you and torture you for several days trying to extract information and then they kill you, leave you by the side of the road in a bag for your mother or your wife to find you.
I can tell you when I lay on my bed at night, when I put on that uniform at Antrim Road Police Station, a cold sweat would come over me once in a while. Churchill is right. Anyone that tells you he’s not afraid of death is a liar. Death taunts us and the prospect of it frightens us.
But I was able to manage that, as a follower of Jesus Christ, because I knew that the worst death could do, in reality would be the best thing that could happen because it would be absent from the body and present with the Lord. And my experience with death would be the blink of an eye and I would open my eyes in God’s presence to a life I can’t even begin to imagine.
Don’t let death bully you. I didn’t. Because you see, we have the triumphant message of Jesus Christ, which brings us quickly and finally to the thanks. This is just to put a fine point on it. The transformation and the triumph leads to an expression of thanks, verse 57, “but thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Jesus, not death, will have the last word. And Paul lets Jesus have the last word, which causes him to just burst out in jubilation and celebration of what Christ has achieved on his behalf. The crucifixion is not a defeat needing a resurrection to reverse it. It’s a victory while the resurrection quickly follows it.
Now, here’s the thing to notice as we close. This is in the present tense, verse 57. “Thanks be to God who gives us and keeps on giving us constantly the victory.” So that would remind me, while I have so much to look forward to in the future, I don’t want to overlook what I’m enjoying in the present and the difference that Jesus makes in my life and your life.
In fact, if you go to verse three where the verb is used, raised, that’s in the perfect tense in the Greek, and you say, does that matter? Well, it does in the sense that it means this. It’s a perfect tense, and the Greek means an event that happened in the past that has continuing ramification for the present.
He was raised and that happened and it happened two millennium ago, but Paul wants us to note that the benefit of that and the good of that and the results of that are still true to this day. You and I can tap into them and enjoy them and live them because while Christ rose from the dead, He ascended to the right hand of God. And according to John 7:30-39, “Once He was glorified, the Holy Spirit came and in-dwelt you and me, and brought life where there was death and brought light where there was darkness and brought hope where there was despair and strength, where there was weakness.” You and I are living a life in Christ that is for nigh as well as for leader. We’ve been born again onto a living hope.
I don’t have time to explain this to any degree, but if you go to verse 30-32, Paul talks about having fought beasts in Ephesus that may be physically true, but probably more metaphorically true that Paul, in his missionary journeys faced all kinds of threats and challenges to his life. But one of the reasons he’s able to face those threats without fear is that he’s a man in Christ who has the hope of resurrection. He’s unstoppable because the worst thing the world promises to do to him is the best thing that can happen to him.
Then you go to verse 51 of our text, and it talks about death. We shall not all die or sleep, but we shall all be changed. But unless Jesus comes back soon, we will die. But we don’t die as those without hope. We die well, in the words of John Wesley, because Christ has transformed death into a door into God’s presence. It’s not a dead end, it’s not an abyss, it’s a door into future life.
And in here in verse 58, because of the resurrection, we can be steadfast unmovable, and we’re very enthusiastic people. We’re always abounding in the work of the Lord. We parent our children with a smile. We go to work whistling. We get about life with a passion most of the time, because our lives count and what we do will [inaudible 00:39:30] us an eternity. And whatever we do for Him, whatever we sacrifice for Him, He’ll reward. So we’re always abounding in the work of the Lord because our life isn’t in vain. Our life’s not in vain, our work is not in vain.
So Christ gives us the victory over fear, funerals and futility. Bring it on. I love being a Christian because it gives me a resource and a reason to live, and it gives me a strength and a courage in the face of death.
As the team gets ready to come up, let me finish with this story. Comes out of Spanish history, actually. The city of Valencia on the coast of Spain on the Mediterranean, many centuries ago was under siege. The Moors, the Muslim kings, had come to take it, 38 of them were with their formidable combined armies. They assaulted the city for almost a week. Inside the city, the leader, Rodrigo Diaz, was planning the city’s liberation, was thinking through how they can survive this critical hour.
He himself wasn’t a well man. He was sick with the fever. He was near death, but He planned throughout the night the city’s liberation. He was propped up by pillows. He worked long hours. And at last, the strategy was complete. As the sun rose the next morning, before the Moors knew what was happening, Diaz mounted his white stallion charged out of the city, followed by his troops with his sword held high. Before they knew it, the advanced guards of the Moors were slaughtered and they rode on into the Moor’s camp and the fight was on, and the battle took place.
And throughout the battle, the Spanish soldiers took inspiration and courage in the sight of Diaz on his white horse with his sword held high. When the day was done, 22 of the 38 Muslim kings were dead and 10,000 of their troops slaughtered. Then it was realized to everyone’s utter amazement and shock, that Diaz had died during the night. He had left word that he be propped up in his horse with his arm extended with the sword in it to lead the troops into the fight.
His name was also El Cid. That’s who El Cid was, Rodriguez Diaz. In fact, El Cid comes from the Arabic, Sayyid. Sayyid. There you go, right there. It means Lord, means master. Isn’t that an amazing story that I don’t know if I need to preach the application? The lifeless body of the Lord of Valencia led his troops to victory, inspired them to be courageous in the midst of the heat of the battle. Come on, you don’t need me to preach the application. Our Lord is living, is triumphant, is seated at the right hand of God and about to march out of heaven at the end of history to bring about a great victory.
I love following Him. I’m glad I’m a follower of His. Are you? He’s alive and He can make you alive. He promises you that to die is not to die, it’s to live, because His victory can be your victory. Amen?
Amen.
Lord, we thank you for this announcement of good news, this gospel that Paul celebrates and is giddy about and taunts and smack talks death over. Lord, we pray as we close this service and we enter into the rest of this day, that we would take the joy of this and the hope of this with us, in the midst of a world marked by sickness and suffering, in the midst of a world that faces death on a daily basis, in the midst of a world where Christians are slaughtered like lambs. But we thank you, we’re [inaudible 00:44:18], and we haven’t surrendered, because we’re more than conquerors through Him who loved us and conquered death for us.
[inaudible 00:44:29].
Lord, we need to give death another name because it has been so transformed and changed in what Jesus did, it’s something other than it once was. We thank you Christ has conquered it, evacuated of its power, is living so that we might enjoy endless life.
Lord, for those of us that know you, may we be always abounding in the work of the Lord. May we be fearless, and may we be happy in our deaths. For those that don’t know you, we pray that today they would find Him whom to know is life eternal, and they would come out from under the shadows of death into the light of the gospel and the joy of a life brimming with promise, brimming with meaning, and a life that extends beyond the grave for Jesus’ sake. Amen.