Scripture Reading: 1 Corinthians 15:50-58
I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 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 be changed. 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:
“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.
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.
When Life Feels Meaningless: Hope in Christ's Return | 1 Corinthians 15 Sermon
A Sermon on 1 Corinthians 15:50-58
Grace, mercy and peace to you from God, our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Today is the last day of the series that we have been working on, working our way through First Corinthians, chapter 15. This is the resurrection chapter of Paul's letters where he talks about a whole bunch of different things that relate to the implications of Christ's resurrection for us and the promise of our own resurrection.
Over the course of the series, we began with a sermon about the eyewitnesses of the resurrection. That this isn't just a story that happens to be passed down, but it was there. There were people who saw Jesus die and then saw him alive, and their testimony is handed down to us through the Holy Scriptures.
Next, we talked about the goal of the Christian life, that our goal is not to die and go to heaven, but follow the path that Christ paved by dying and rising. Salvation for the Christian is resurrection, not a spiritual existence.
The next passage reminded us that that means death is still the enemy. For Christians, it is not the doorway to eternal life. We wait for death to be defeated by our Savior, Jesus Christ.
After that, we talked about how our bodies matter, if Jesus came to save not just our souls, but also our bodies. Our bodies matter now before the resurrection and after the resurrection.
Last time, we talked about what that resurrected body would look like, how it would be changed to be like Jesus's perfect body.
And today, we are going to look at the final passage of this chapter where he talks about death finally being swallowed up in victory on the day of Jesus's return.
The Scripture Text
So we look at First Corinthians, chapter 15, beginning at verse 50:
I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I tell you a mystery. We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound. The dead will be raised imperishable and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true. Death has been swallowed up in victory, where O Death is your victory, where, oh, death is your sting. The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.
The Mystery Revealed
I love this passage of First Corinthians, chapter 15. It tells us of this, what St Paul calls a mystery. The mystery is that something revealed that you cannot get from observing the world, and that is the promise that when Jesus comes, something really cool is going to happen when the dead are raised, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, all of us will be changed, and that means not just those who have died and buried, but also those of us who are living when Christ comes and the trumpet blasts, we who are here, will see Jesus and be changed.
And many of us, when we think about the return of Christ, we think about it as something far off, probably because it's been about 2000 years, and we expect it may be several more, but it could be any moment. It could happen at any time, and if we are especially blessed, he may interrupt my sermon, which is what I would like, because it'd be nice to see him come and have the joy of that trumpet blast, seeing Christ with the voice of the archangel, and then all our bodies be changed, because there will be one generation that does not die before Christ returns, one generation that will see him coming with the clouds, before the voice cries out and all the bodies of all people rise up out of the ground to stand before him at the judgment seat.
What an amazing day. What a joy, what hope that we have in Christ and Saint Paul gives us some imagery talking about the mortal, putting on the immortal, the perishable, putting on the imperishable. When he comes that will happen to us, because our current bodies are mortal. They are perishable. And I know you feel that in your bodies. On the day he returns, they will be immortal and imperishable. And when that happens, the saying will come to pass: Death is swallowed up in victory. What a day, what a joy. All of the things that bother us gone forever.
The Sting of Death
And what Saint Paul reminds us at the very end is that while we wait for this joyous promise, there is still a sting in our lives. He says, "The sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." And we do feel that sting. We feel the sting and the power of death now while we wait for our final deliverance.
This is why I read this passage at every single interment that I go to when the body is in the casket above the grave and we are about to lower it into the ground. This is the passage I read where it starts in verse 51: "Listen, I tell you a mystery." I read this because at that moment the sting of death is most clear, the power of death is most visceral. And we need a time where everybody can speak to death and say, "You have not won. You may have gotten one casualty. You have maybe taken one person, but the victory is not yours." And we speak to death, and we say, "You will not win forever. Death will be swallowed up in victory." And we cling to that promise as we lower our loved one into the ground, knowing that Christ's death and resurrection is the sure and true victory, and on the day he returns, death will be swallowed up forever.
When Labor Seems in Vain
But it's not just there that we feel the sting of death and the law. We feel it every single day, and that is why Saint Paul ends this passage with an encouragement. After talking about all of this stuff about the resurrection, he says, "Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain."
And this is the final encouragement for all of the promise of the resurrection. He says, with all of this in mind, stand firm, be abounding in God's work, because your labor is not in vain. And isn't that what we need when we feel the power of sin and the sting of death in our lives? Because so often our labor actually does seem to be in vain. We work and we grind and we try and we go out and we serve and we take care of people, and then, you know what? We gotta do it the next day too. And it's like, did anything I do yesterday matter? Because I just got to keep grinding. And the results that I wanted, maybe they weren't there, maybe they were, but it doesn't matter, because I've got a new set of tasks and a new grind for today, whether it's in your work or in your home, in your family life, taking care of your house, all of these things, it's just the work doesn't end, and every time you solve a problem, there's a new one. Sometimes, every time you solve a problem, there's 10 new ones.
And I can see it in our leaders, in our church. They work hard, and you know the kinds of things they do, the really rewarding and wonderful things they do, revising policy. This is what you come to church for, right? You join the leadership so that you can talk about the rules for using the fellowship hall. It's great, isn't it? You feel like this overwhelming power of the Spirit moving through you as you think, "Should we use the word 'shall' or 'will' here?"
And it's a grind, or when you have to fix the light bulb that was fixed a month ago. And you think, "What are we doing here? This all seems to be in vain. I just keep working and striving, and it all continues to fall apart."
The Corinthians' Struggle
And I bet these Corinthians were feeling similarly. They have joined this promise with Christ, become a part of this Christian church, and this whole body thing, being a Christian, it isn't as powerful or as strong as they might like it. Saint Paul has been writing to them through this whole letter, telling them, "Well, you don't get to use Jesus for your own status. You don't get to lord over other people. You don't get to show off your spiritual power. All you gotta do is serve and love." And they go, "What? I thought Jesus was supposed to give me victory. His resurrection give me power. Here every day, I just kind of got to grind on and love and serve."
The Promise That Sustains Us
And so the resurrection becomes a way to encourage them, saying, "This is all part of something bigger. It is not just the daily grind. It's not just the work that you do every day. All of this is marching towards a day when Christ returns and makes all things new."
Whether you're grinding through the policy changes in the handbook at First Lutheran Church, or you just have to show up every single day at work, or it's the house that you take care of, or the family that you feed, and it just seems like it's never ending, this promise is that there is an end. That the work that God gives us, serving and loving and caring for the people and things around us, there is a purpose and a point. Christ is coming.
And if it all seems like nothing, it all seems like it might be in vain, look ahead. There's a mystery. When Jesus appears with the trumpet blast, we will all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye, when the last trumpet sounds, the dead will be raised and we will be changed. The perishable will put on the imperishable, the mortal will put on immortality, and death will finally be defeated forever.
What We Cling To
This promise is what we cling to when we don't want to grind anymore. It's what we cling to when it just doesn't seem like things are going our way, or the joy of the work is gone, or you're overwhelmed by what you have to do and you just need to take a break. But new problems never stop coming. It's what we cling to, because we know that Christ is coming soon.
And this is what Christians have always clung to through the face of overwhelming odds. And I think about the book of Revelation, which we've been reading through during the Easter season, and the power of the words that John gave to the Christians who would face the Roman persecutions that would follow the publication of this book, when you get Emperor Diocletian going out through the whole empire, hamstringing Christians, you know, right leg cut them in the hamstring, left leg through the Achilles tendon, and they go, "Is this grind worth it? Is this horror worth it?" As they face lions, soldiers and crucifixions. And John shows them not an image of escaping an emperor or an empire or the pain of that day. He shows them a vision of a city descending from heaven, new Jerusalem, with the lamb at its center, Christ, our great king.
And it's the same vision that Paul gives us, just with less imagery, of a Savior who will appear on the last day and make all things new. And at that moment, the sting of death and the power of sin will be gone because Christ will make us new. He will give us the victory that we finally need.
In Jesus' name, Amen.
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