Our Victory Over Death Through Jesus Christ

Sermon based on 1 Corinthians 15:55-58

Saint Mark's, Watertown

Pastor Karl Walther

April 23, 2000

Jesus himself promises us: Because I live, you also will live. Everlasting thanks be to God!!! Amen.

God's Word for our special festival consideration this morning is the Apostle Paul's triumphant declaration and application of Christ's resurrection-- First Corinthians, chapter fifteen, verses fifty-five through fifty-eight:

"Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O 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.

This is your Easter assurance and exhortation from God himself.

Part One: Death Appeared To Conquer Us

Dear fellow Christians-- for whom Easter is not only the highest festival every year, but also your unique joy every day of your lives:

If you look at things as a struggle between life and death, between health and the grave, it really seems like death and the grave are winning. Consider that with me for a few moments this morning....

Death really does appear to be winning the victory over life. Do you realize that every year about one percent of the population of the planet expires? That makes about sixty million people, about twelve Wisconsins: dead. Here in Watertown we have that percentage beat; here about one and a half percent of people die every year. That's usually three hundred or three hundred fifty people annually: dead.

Now at first you might think, "Well, that doesn't sound too bad. Somewhere between ninety-eight point five and ninety-nine percent of people continue to live-- plus babies are born." But all of this death accumulates. Of the forty or fifty billion human souls that have ever lived, thirty-four or forty-four billion are dead.

I'll put it another way: there's not one person in the world alive right now who saw the year eighteen seventy-nine. Everyone who saw the Civil War is dead; everyone who saw the Revolutionary War is dead; everyone who knew Christopher Columbus is dead; everyone who lived under the Roman or Greek Empires is dead. And in turn, not one of us is liable to be alive to see the year twenty-one-twenty. So, death does appear to be winning the victory over life.

The graveyard seems to be winning, too. Do you realize that there are probably more graves around our town than there are people in our town? The other night I took a drive out to Lutheran Cemetery-- just northeast of town, off County M. I counted, by estimate, more than five thousand headstones out there-- more or less twenty rows, two hundred fifty headstones long. And many of those headstones serve two graves. And Lutheran Cemetery, run by Saint Mark's and Saint John's, that's what? -- maybe one-fifth? -- of all the graves in town? You see, the graveyard does appear to be winning the victory over life and health.

And the thing is: that's also true for you. Someday you are liable to be lowered into some grave. Sometime after your seventy-fourth birthday if you are a guy, sometime after your seventy-eighth birthday if you are a gal-- statistics suggest that that's when you will die. So, one or two of you young people who are here today might just see the year twenty-one hundred. Most of us probably have some decades left. Some of us, though -- any of us, really -- may not be here and alive in order to worship even next Easter.

It's all very sobering, isn't it? And it's incumbent upon us to ask: Why? Why must we die? Well, as far as the physical causes go, they say heart and arterial ailments will take half of us. Cancer will take another sizable slice of us. And other ailments or tragic accidents or even just old age could take the rest of us.

But the real reason we'll die is deeper than that. The real reason we'll die is an old-time ailment, a congenital cancer, a whole-life heart disease of ours: which we've had from the womb, which we've inherited from our parents. It's sin. And ever since we contracted that sin virus -- ever since we were conceived and had our beginning -- the clock's been ticking: tick! tick! tick! toward our death. Doesn't that really explain why we all die? Doesn't that really explain why we all are approaching the grave?

So, to overcome death and the grave, we really need to overcome sin. It's all got to be taken away-- our every dirty deed, our every wicked word, our every damnable desire, but even the sinful predisposition toward perversity that has been a part of us our entire lives. There is an alternative pathway to this, though; we could try to get rid of God's law. You see, if we could get rid of God's Law, against which sin is-- if we could fulfill the Law, that too would enable us to overcome sin and death. But tragically, being sinners, fulfilling the law is impossible for us to do for even a moment-- let alone our entire lives.

You see, then, that Paul analyzed things rightly when he asked: "Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?" and then noted: The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. As long as God's Law is there, unfulfilled, the Lord will hold us accountable for sin. And as long as we're sinners, God will punish us with death and the grave.

Part Two: Christ Conquered Death For Us

If only someone could fulfill the law for us-- and do away with it.... If only someone would take our sins away from us-- and deliver us from death and the grave.... If only someone had gone through death and lay in the grave-- and returned to life, so that through some connection to him we might also have hope of doing the same....

Thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!

Don't those words just thunder! Are there any more powerful words in the universe? "Thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!" Does anything else really -- really! -- matter?

You see, there is somebody who fulfilled God's Law for us, and so canceled it. It's Jesus Christ! God testifies clearly in Colossians chapter two, verse fourteen: He canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross.

So, God can no longer hold you responsible for your infractions against the First Commandment: "You shall have no other gods." God cannot hold you punishable for your trespasses against the Second Commandment: "You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God." God can't hold you to blame for your transgressions against the Third Commandment: "Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy." Christ fulfilled that Law and did away with it-- nailing it to the cross.

Similarly, there is somebody who took our every sin away from us. It's Jesus Christ! God states explicitly in Colossians chapter one, verse fourteen: In God's Son we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

So: your greed? It's gone! Christ died and rose. Your gossip? It's gone! Christ died and rose. Your lust? Your impatience? Your disobedience? Dead and gone! Dead and gone!! Dead and gone!!! Christ died and rose!!!!

And finally, there is someone who went through death, and lay in the grave, and returned to life, and shares that with us. It's Jesus Christ-- to whom we belong as Christ-ians. God puts it this way in Colossians chapter three, verses three and four: Your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

And so, a bright morning is coming when, after a restful night, Jesus will wake you up. On that day you'll do breakfast with Jesus. Eagerly and excellently you will labor usefully for Jesus. You will, after work, relax with Christ. In the evening, in the banquet hall, you will enjoy the best of food and the finest of wines with Christ. And after hours of pleasantry, Jesus will tuck you in.

"Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O 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. Victory's yours! The law is gone! Your sin is gone! Death can't conquer you! The grave can't keep you in! And nothing else really matters!

Part Three: We Stand Firm & Work Hard For Christ

And if nothing else really matters, this must really matter: also in your present-day life. Actually, it simplifies things a great deal. If Christ fulfilled the law for you, if Christ forgave your sins for you, if Christ conquered death and the grave for you, you have only two tasks left in your whole life. You need to cling to Christ. And you need to work hard to get others to cling to Christ.

You need to cling to Christ. I mean: you could make Bill Gates' money, but if you lose Christ, you lose everything. You could collect Albert Einstein's credentials or garner Michael Jordan's fame, but if you forfeit Jesus, you forfeit absolutely everything.

And how is it that you cling to Christ? God gives us only one means to do that-- his Word. So, do you know God's Word better now than you did five years ago? How about ten? Have you advanced in God's Word since your confirmation?

If -- after an honest assessment -- you have advanced in God's Word: good! Keep doing whatever you're doing, only all the more of it!

If not, you've got to start reading God's Word. Go home today and find your Bible. If you can't find it, go out tomorrow -- there's a Christian bookstore in town -- and buy one. I suggest a Bible like this one; it's got lots of good notes and maps and charts. And first thing in the morning, maybe over breakfast, read a chapter of the New Testament. And don't quit reading chapters of the Bible until Christ comes back for you.

Is that a little beyond you right now? That's okay! You join me for classes, then: something we call Bible Information Class -- it's also a membership course -- Thursday evenings, at seven o'clock, downstairs in the Parish Center, starting May fourth. Further information is listed under "Special Applications" in your folder, attached at the very end of our order of service. And listen: you will never regret showing up for those classes.

All of this, by the way -- all of this attachment to Christ through his Word -- is simply a matter of following God's words through Paul to us today: Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Thee deeper you sink your roots into the Scriptures, the more impossible it will be for Satan to get a hold of you.

So, your first task is to cling to Christ yourself. The second thing you need to do -- more than anything else in the world -- is to work hard to get others to cling to Christ.

Yes, your job as a Christian is to aim to get others connected to Christ. Again, you could be the best businessman, beloved by co-workers and customers alike, but if you do nothing to put people in connection with Christ, you'll lose them eternally. You could be the most priceless parent, whose children and grandchildren sing your praises, but if you do nothing to put them in connection with Christ, you'll lose them eternally.

And how is it that you can labor to get people to cling to Christ? Well, prayer is a good start! Why don't you sit down today or tomorrow and write a list for yourself of two or three people -- or seven or eight -- who are near and dear to you and need to know Christ? And why don't you take a minute or two every day to pray for them?

Of course, prayer by itself will not bring people into Christ's kingdom. You will need to speak to them. It might be that sometime Satan will put your loved ones through some suffering-- at which time you can proclaim to them the comfort Christ is. Alternately, you might be able to invite your family member or friend either to church or -- all the better -- to the Bible Information Class I mentioned before. Tell them: "You know, I've been thinking of attending a set of classes at our church, but I really don't want to go alone. I really would like you to come with me."

Can you use some more encouragement and experience toward getting this sort of thing done? Or are many of your family members and friends already churched-- such that you could consider supplying yourself to our church to reach some of the dozens of souls I know who are dying to know Christ? If so, join me and the other pastors at our Evangelism Seminar in a few weeks-- the middle three Monday evenings of May, at seven o'clock, upstairs in the Parish Center, starting May eighth. This information is also listed under "Special Applications" at the end of our order of worship. I'll even feed you a snack those nights.

All of this, by the way, is not just my idea. It's really a matter of following God's words to us today through Paul: Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

That, then, is the meaning of this Easter festival. Although death appears for all the world to have conquered us, Christ in contrast conquered death on our behalf. Now we stand firm in that faith and work hard for that Lord-- because his words are really the only ones worth insisting on, and his work is really the only kind worth doing! Amen.

Jesus himself promises us: I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Everlasting thanks be to God!!! Amen.