The Death of Death and the Resurrection of Christ
Easter 2024 • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
For the longest time in my life, I had the perfect eyesight. I could see leaves on the farthest trees, the laces on the baseball, and the tiniest particles of dust.
But around the time I turned 28, I noticed that I was struggling to read. I was in the middle of my doctoral seminars and studying historical theology, so I thought it was just that I was just reading old books with small print.
I told Erin, and she encouraged me to get my eyes checked. The doctors quickly identified that my eyesight had changed, and I would need glasses. I remember ordering my first pair of glasses, putting them on, and realizing that life didn’t have to be the way I thought it was.
I could see clearly.
I didn’t realize that along the way I had lost the ability to see the leaves on the trees and the laces on the baseball and the tiniest particles of dust.
But, in a moment, I put on a pair of glasses, and I had a new perspective on life.
You know, it’s funny and kinda scary how we so quickly I normalized my lack of vision. What else have I missed? How easily do we normalize dysfunction or chaos or difficulty in our lives when a better option is available.
There is something that we normalize in our daily lives that we should not normalize. As a pastor, one of the ways I hear this most commonly is in this statement: “Death is just a normal part of life.”
Now, death is normal in the sense that it is inevitable as a part of human existence. But death is not simply something to be explained away as normal.
Death was never the intention of our God in creating us. Death was never meant to be the answer. Death is a sign of the brokenness and fracturing of the world. It is a consequence for the sins of man first in the garden and then pervasive in all of mankind.
When we normalize death have normalized something that the Lord never intended us to live with and He fully intends to cure.
“Death is an alien in this world, it did not enter into the original design of the unfallen creation, but its intrusion mars and spoils the whole. It is no part of the Great Shepherd’s flock, but it is a wolf which cometh to kill and to destroy.” // Charles Spurgeon
Tim Keller, in a book that he wrote after his terminal cancer diagnosis, mused. “To say "Oh, death is just natural," is to harden and perhaps kill a part of your heart's hope that makes you human. We know deep down that we are not like trees or grass. We were created to last. We don't want to be ephemeral, to be inconsequential. We don't want to just be a wave upon the stand. The deepest desires of our hearts are for love that lasts. Death is not the way it ought to be. It is abnormal, it is not a friend, it isn't right. This isn't truly part of the circle of life. Death is the end of it.”
So, what do we do? I want to read you a passage of the God who defeated the grave.
Read 1 Corinthians 15:20-26
But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits 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 firstfruits, 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.
Explanation
Explanation
In a war, an army does many things. Some of the triumphs of an army are (1) to defeat the enemy in battle, (2) deliver the people suffering under oppression, and (3) destroy the enemy in a way that keeps them from acting in the same way again.
Jesus does all three to death. Jesus victory over death is threefold.
He has defeated death. (past)
He is delivering his people from death. (present)
He will destroy death in his second return. (future)
Jesus has defeated death. (v20-21)
Jesus has defeated death. (v20-21)
Jesus defeats the truly undefeated foe. Death has a 100% perfect record against humanity until Jesus enters the picture. A new champion has arisen, and the dominion of death is over.
Death entered the world through Adam and Eve, because through them sin entered the world.
Charles Spurgeon would say that death is the child of our direst foe - sin.
We know this because it is what God warned Adam in the garden. Eat of this fruit, sin against my commands, and you will surely die.
Because they ate, they sinned and died. And death is passed down through them to every human on the earth.
Because we have sinned against God, death is our inheritance.
We have seen technological advances unfathomable for most of human existence. We have the greatest medicines, procedures, and practices ever known in the history of mankind. We can produce crops at such a rate that much of the world is fed. No technology, no medication, no political system, no storehouse of food, no ideology, and no education system has yet to help humankind defeat death.
We have, at best, pushed it back. We have not defeated death. We have simply delayed its inevitability.
On Friday, we see Christ on the cross. And his death had to signal defeat for his disciples.
But three days later, Christ arose from the grave, triumphant over it. No longer was death an undefeated foe.
Jesus is delivering his people from death. (v22)
Jesus is delivering his people from death. (v22)
One of my favorite passages in the whole of Scripture is Ezekiel 37. Ezekiel is a prophet of the Lord, and God tells him to go out into a valley. Long ago a battle had been fought in that valley, and many men lost their lives.
Ezekiel mentions that these bones are dry. They aren’t just dead - they are dead, dead. And God asks Ezekiel, “Can these bones live?” And Ezekiel replies, “Oh, Lord, only you know.”
God commands Ezekiel to prophecy over these bones, and slowly skin, muscle, and ligaments grow until in the valley is an entire army.
God can make life out of the oldest and dustiest of bones. And that’s good news for you and me, right?
You may say, “Connor, I am alive right now. Why do I have any need for Christ to save me from death.
You are marching toward death. You are closer to death now than you were when you walked in here.
Your death is a consequence of something even more sinister - your sin.
You have taken the things that God has given you and instead of worshipping Him, you have used them for yourself.
The only problem is… at some point in your life you begin to realize how meaningless everything that you can achieve, own, or hoard actually is.
Have you ever reached a moment in your life where you had everything that you needed and most that you wanted and you just felt… empty?
Ralph Venning // “Oh, learn to pity your own soul, for he who sins offends and wrongs God, but wrongs and destroys his own soul.”
Your sin has caused a spiritual death. The Bible doesn’t say that you are unfulfilled. The Bible says your are dead. Because no matter what you try to add to your life, nothing makes sense without Jesus.
God must make you spiritually alive before he can make you alive in him eternally.
Day by day, person by person, heart by heart, God is canning sinners out of darkness and into a marvelous light.
Jesus will one day destroy death forever. (v23-26)
Jesus will one day destroy death forever. (v23-26)
“Death,” Spurgeon would conclude, “tears in pieces God’s creation.” Therefore, God will not allow it to stand.
In our 1 Corinthians text, Paul says, “Jesus must reign.” He is compelled to rule and reign over all things.
One day, Christ will return - the Jesus who is very much alive. And he will completely eradicate death from existence.
Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God. And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.
From this fearsome view of Jesus, three things happen. Spurgeon notes that Jesus destroys the enemies of mankind in the same order than they entered the Garden.
Satan
Sin
Death
Invitation
Invitation
We worship a triumphant, glorious, victorious God.
We worship a God who saves. Give yourself to Him.
We can rejoice that Christ will return and destroy death.