Victory Over Death: The Resurrection Promise

• The Resurrection and Victory Over Death [00:26:50 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor outlines 1 Corinthians 15, focusing on verses 54-57 to explain how the resurrection abolishes death and sin, citing Isaiah and Hosea.
• Personal Testimony of Hope [00:25:20 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares that his father died 25 days prior, explaining how the hope of the resurrection provided him with an 'abiding, inexplicable sense of hope and joy' during Easter.
• The Rapture and Future Resurrection [00:31:47 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor explains the theological distinction between the soul going to be with Christ upon death and the future bodily resurrection/rapture where believers 'do an end run on the grave.'
• The Sting of Death and Sin [00:36:33 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor explains that death's power comes from sin, and the law exposes sin, but Christ absorbed the sting of death on the cross.
• Victory in Jesus Christ [00:42:46 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor highlights the Greek word 'nikos' (victory) appearing three times in the text, emphasizing that victory is a gift from God, not earned by humans.
• Victory Over Fear [00:44:55 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor argues that believers do not need to fear death because Jesus has triumphed over the terror of the tomb, citing Charles Spurgeon and Tony Evans.
• Victory Over Funerals [00:48:08 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares his personal experience of his father's death, explaining that while there is sadness, there is no despair because he knows where his father is.
• Victory Over Futility [00:49:03 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor introduces the final point based on verse 58, stating that labor in the Lord is not in vain because of the resurrection.
• Victory over Death and Fear [00:47:52 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor explains that believers go immediately to be with the Lord upon death, removing the fear of dying and allowing for victory over the sadness of funerals without despair.
• Victory over Futility and Meaninglessness [00:49:03 ▶️ 📄]
  > Citing 1 Corinthians 15:58, the pastor argues that because of the resurrection, labor in the Lord is not in vain, countering the cultural belief that life has no purpose or meaning.
• Following Christ's Leadership [00:55:28 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor concludes by identifying Jesus as the ultimate leader ('El Cid') who has won the victory, challenging the congregation to follow Him and appropriate that victory in their daily lives.

• Sermon Illustration [00:29:04 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor recounts a historical anecdote about the evening of June 18, 1815, at Winchester Cathedral. A man waiting for news of the Battle of Waterloo initially saw a signal through fog that appeared to say 'Wellington defeated,' causing gloom. When the fog lifted, the full message was revealed as 'Wellington defeated the enemy,' causing joy. The pastor uses this to illustrate how Good Friday seemed like defeat, but the Resurrection revealed the full victory.
• Sermon Illustration [00:30:52 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor tells a joke about a man reviewing test results with his doctor. The doctor says he has a terminal disease and '10' years to live. When the man asks if that means 10 days or months, the doctor replies, '9, 8, 7,' illustrating how quickly death comes.
• Sermon Illustration [00:35:21 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor references the iconic 1965 photograph of Muhammad Ali standing over a knocked-down Sonny Liston, taunting him to 'get up and fight.' He uses this to describe Paul's attitude in 1 Corinthians 15, where Paul is 'trash-talking' or 'taunting' death because Jesus has evacuated it of its power.
• Sermon Illustration [00:38:33 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor recounts a childhood memory of playing wiffle ball in a backyard filled with clover and bees. He learned that when a honeybee stings, it loses its stinger and dies, illustrating how Jesus absorbed the sting of death so that death itself 'died' and lost its power to hurt believers.
• Sermon Illustration [00:46:30 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor references a quote from Charles Spurgeon describing death not as destruction but as a 'fiery chariot' or 'loosening of the cable' that allows saints to ascend to God, emphasizing that death is stingless for the people of God.
• Sermon Illustration [00:48:13 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares a personal anecdote about the recent death of his father, noting that while he experienced sadness and loneliness, he did not experience despair because he knows his father is with the Lord.
• Sermon Illustration [00:48:26 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares a personal anecdote about the recent death of his father, noting that while he experienced sadness and loneliness, he did not experience despair because he knows where his father is and that he will see him again.
• Sermon Illustration [00:50:18 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor recounts a story about golfer Ben Hogan, who expressed immense joy and anticipation for playing golf each morning. The pastor uses this to illustrate the 'mentality of resurrection,' where believers eagerly embrace each day knowing their labor is not in vain.
• Sermon Illustration [00:53:17 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor tells the historical story of El Cid (Rodrigo Diaz), a Spanish hero who, while gravely ill and dying during a siege, instructed his commanders to prop him up on his horse with his sword held high. His soldiers, unaware he had died, were inspired by his apparent presence and won the battle. The pastor uses this to contrast El Cid winning as a corpse with Jesus winning as a living Savior.

• Pastoral Charge [00:26:50 ▶️ 📄]
  > Physically turn to the book of 1 Corinthians, chapter 15 in their Bibles.
• Pastoral Charge [00:49:03 ▶️ 📄]
  > To be steadfast, immovable, and always abounding in the work of the Lord.
• Pastoral Charge [00:56:01 ▶️ 📄]
  > To accept the opportunity to follow Jesus Christ during the upcoming prayer.

[00:00:04] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:00:04] Well, good morning, church family. Happy Easter Sunday. Really good to see you here this morning. It's an exciting day here at Faith Bible Church. It is Easter. We have four morning services. Typically, we only have three. Today, we have four. Our 8 o'clock was really well attended. This one, obviously, very well attended. And then we'll have two more at 11 and 1230. So as you leave here today and you want to encourage somebody to come to Faith Bible Church this morning, tell them they have two more opportunities to do so at 11 and 1230.
[00:00:31] So I want to welcome you to Gathered Worship.
[00:00:33] As you make your way in, maybe you're looking for a place to sit.
[00:00:36] We have overflow seating in the high school room upstairs as well as in the chapel and the fellowship hall.
[00:00:42] Also, if you're sitting here and you're tired of saving that seat for the person who's late, you can text them and let them know where that overflow seating is as well.
[00:00:51] A few spots down front and some other areas as well.
[00:00:53] But for the most part, I think we're going to start pushing people to overflow, so be aware of that.
[00:00:57] Hopefully you grabbed a bulletin on your way in today.
[00:00:59] There's a sermon outline in there, so you can follow along with Mark's message.
[00:01:03] There are some announcements about opportunities here at Faith Bible, ways to get involved.
[00:01:07] If you didn't grab a bulletin on your way in, make sure you grab one before you leave the building this morning.
[00:01:13] If you would now, please stand, greet a few people around you, and I'll call us to worship.
[00:01:46] All right, remain standing.
[00:01:49] Remain standing.
[00:01:50] This morning's call to worship is from Psalm 150.
[00:01:53] The psalm starts this way.
[00:01:55] Praise God and his sanctuary.
[00:01:58] Praise him in his mighty expanse.
[00:02:00] Praise him for his mighty deeds.
[00:02:03] Praise him according to his excellent greatness.
[00:02:06] Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.
[00:02:08] Praise the Lord.
[00:02:10] Bow your heads with me.
[00:02:11] Father, that psalm speaks to our desire today is to praise you, to acknowledge who you are, and to give you praise.
[00:02:21] We ask that Christ be exalted in this place.
[00:02:24] Lord, we acknowledge the victory that we have in the Lord Jesus who conquered the grave.
[00:02:31] Lord, he has risen today, and we are a people who will be changed forever.
[00:02:35] It's in his name we pray. Amen.

[00:02:37] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:02:37] Well, good morning, church.
[00:02:38] Whether you're in this room with us or you're in one of our overflow rooms or watching us from somewhere else, we have every reason to praise the Lord with great joy today.
[00:02:47] So we're going to sing this hymn together.
[00:02:49] Christ the Lord is risen today.
[00:02:51] Raise your voice, and let's sing it together.

[00:02:53] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]
[00:02:53] All right, you nailed that. Good job.

[00:10:26] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:10:26] Well, our Easter theme over the last six weeks or so has been the death of death in the death of Christ.
[00:10:32] And we've been looking at the reality, thinking together as a church body, about the fact that Jesus Christ took on man's greatest enemy, the enemies of sin and death.
[00:10:43] And he took them on, and he triumphed over them, and he put an end to the tyranny that is death.
[00:10:49] And Mark's going to be preaching this morning from 1 Corinthians 15, the passage he's looking at is a little bit later in that chapter, a little bit earlier in that chapter. It says this, for as in Adam all die, in Adam all die. And this is why the book of Genesis
[00:11:06] ends with Joseph's death, and the book of Deuteronomy ends with Moses's death, and the book of Joshua ends with Joshua's death. For in Adam all die. Yet the second half of that verse is in Christ, all will be made alive. And that's why the Gospels end with Jesus' resurrection.
[00:11:28] And that resurrection changes everything. I read something this week that says, if Christ is not risen, nothing else matters. And if Christ is risen, nothing else matters.
[00:11:40] Nothing else matters to us today. We serve a risen Savior. We look to a resurrected Lord. And so we want to continue to look to him as we worship, declare our love for him, declare the victory we have through his triumph over the grave and the hope we have of eternal
[00:11:56] life with him. Please stand. Continue to praise the Lord together.

[00:11:59] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_07]
[00:11:59] To the one who's conquered sin and death and hell in the grave.

[00:24:00] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:24:00] Let's join our hearts in prayer together. This morning, I want to pray a prayer from Hippolytus of Rome, back from the second and third century.
[00:24:08] Great man of God from that time. This is an Easter prayer he prayed.
[00:24:12] Christ is risen. The world below lies desolate. Christ is risen. The spirits of evil are fallen. Christ is risen. The angels of God are rejoicing. Christ is risen. The tombs of the dead are empty. Christ is risen indeed from the dead, the first of the sleepers. Glory and power are
[00:24:31] His forever and ever. In the name of the risen Christ, the one death could not hold. Amen.
[00:24:38] Amen. You may be seated. Well, first of all, I just want to thank Joel and our worship team for leading us this morning. What a blessing, man. Thank you guys so much. What an encouragement to
[00:24:49] us. Joel does such an outstanding job shepherding our worship ministry. I'm so thankful for it for them. I want to thank you all for investing your Easter Sunday morning with us. I pray that you'll
[00:25:01] be richly blessed and encouraged by your time with us here this morning. Easter Sunday is always a very special day for me, as it really is for all believers. It's a spiritual highlight, really the
[00:25:13] high point of our year. But this Easter has a deeper meaning for me than any I've ever experienced.
[00:25:20] As most of you know, my father, Dale Hitchcock, went to heaven 25 days ago, and the hope of the resurrection has been more precious and real and rich to me than ever before. You know, Jay Reisner
[00:25:33] came up with our Easter theme for this year, the death of death. We decided on that weeks before my father died, and I had no idea at the time how meaningful that this would be for me personally,
[00:25:46] of the death of death. The reality of the resurrection and Jesus' total victory over death has literally flooded my heart with an abiding, inexplicable sense of hope and joy, and I'm so grateful for that. The resurrection's immeasurably more alive to me than it's ever been
[00:26:04] before. This is the greatest Easter I've ever experienced. G. Campbell Morgan, the preacher, once put it like this, Easter should put an everlasting smile on our face. And I know for any of you here today who may have lost a loved one recently who's a believer, that what I'm saying
[00:26:22] today, I know it resonates with you as well. And I pray the Lord will continue to flood your heart and life with peace. And this is a peace that we can only have because death is dead. The last
[00:26:34] enemy's been defeated. It's been abolished, terminated, swallowed up in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And that's our message this morning from our text in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. So if you'll take your Bible and turn there with me, 1 Corinthians 15, the great resurrection
[00:26:50] chapter of the Bible, the centerpiece really of the biblical teaching on the resurrection.
[00:26:58] Now, I'm going to just kind of give a quick overview of 1 Corinthians 15. You can see in your outline there, I have an outline of 1 Corinthians 15. You can look at that later.
[00:27:08] but this is this great resurrection chapter, and in the first verses there, Paul confesses the truth of the resurrection. I mean, this great statement beginning in verse 3, for I delivered to you as of first importance what I received, that Christ died for our sins
[00:27:25] according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures. Paul confesses the great truth of the resurrection. And he goes on and confirms that truth and corroborates it. Now, Jesus appeared to more than 500 brethren. He
[00:27:44] appeared to Peter, to the twelve. He appeared to James, to all the apostles. It's like one person described Jesus went on a resurrection tour. He appeared to many. You get down to verse 35 and
[00:27:57] following in 1 Corinthians, Paul clarifies the truth of the resurrection. He talks about what our resurrection body will be like, and he talks about the future resurrection. But when we get down to verse 54, we have Paul celebrating the truth of the resurrection. And that's what I want
[00:28:15] to focus on this morning in verses 54 to 57, the celebration of the resurrection. Let me read these verses for us, beginning in 1 Corinthians 15, 54. But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal would have put on immortality. Then will come about the saying
[00:28:35] 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,
[00:28:50] who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. May the Lord write His eternal word on our hearts this morning. The evening of June 18, 1815, a man stood in the tower of England's
[00:29:04] Winchester Cathedral. He was gazing anxiously out to sea. He was waiting to have a message relayed to him about the outcome at the Battle of Waterloo. Of course, the general, the English general, the Duke of Wellington was fighting against Napoleon Bonaparte and the armies of
[00:29:22] France. He's waiting anxiously to get word of the results and the outcome of the battle.
[00:29:26] and the ship begins to send the signal, and as the signal begins to come to him, a fog begins to set in, and the signal through this heavy fog he could see is Wellington defeated.
[00:29:40] The man signaled that to the other stations, and news spread across the countryside, and a blanket of gloom and doom hung over all of England. Wellington had been defeated.
[00:29:52] But then the fog began to lift, and the message was sent again, the full message, and he realized the message actually was Wellington defeated the enemy. He relayed that to all across England and again they broke out in joy and happiness and delirium. Wellington had won
[00:30:09] and on Good Friday it seemed like the message was Christ defeated. But on that third day Jesus came up out of the tomb and the full message was revealed, Christ defeated the enemy. And that's
[00:30:22] the message of Easter. Christ has defeated the enemy. Christ has defeated death. Death is dead in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Now, I want to look at these verses this morning before us, and I've got just a couple of simple points to unpack these verses, the triumph and the thanks.
[00:30:40] We'll begin in verse 54 with the triumph, the triumph over death. You know, there's a story I read this week about a man who was reviewing his test results with his doctor. And the doctor said
[00:30:52] to him, he says, I'm very sorry, sir, but you have a terminal disease. And the man says, well, doc, how long do I have to live? The doctor said, 10. The guy said, well, 10 what? 10 days, 10 months,
[00:31:04] 10 years? The doctor said, 9, 8, 7. Death is a universal enemy, isn't it? And it comes too quickly. I mean, all the pictures of life in the Bible are of how quickly it passes. It's like a
[00:31:22] vapor that appears and just goes away. It's like a shadow that comes forth and flees.
[00:31:28] Death's a universal enemy, and it often comes too quickly. But according to Scripture, there's going to be an entire generation of people that will not die. They're going to do an end run on the grave. Notice the context here. Paul has said earlier, back up in verse 50,
[00:31:47] flesh and blood can't inherit the kingdom of God. You have to have a new body to be in heaven. You have to have a body that's fit for that heavenly environment. And he says down in verse 51,
[00:32:00] I tell you a mystery will not all sleep. Everybody won't die. We'll all be changed. In a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet, for the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised
[00:32:10] imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. Paul's looking at that future event when those who've died in Christ are going to be resurrected. You know, when a believer in Christ dies, that the soul, the spirit,
[00:32:30] the immaterial part of us goes immediately to be with Christ. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. But the body is placed in the ground, and someday when the Lord Jesus comes,
[00:32:42] that body is going to be raised, an immortal, imperishable, incorruptible body, and rejoined with a perfected spirit. And those of us who are alive when that event happens are going to be caught up and transformed in a moment of time, body, soul, and spirit. And I pray that we're
[00:32:59] the generation that will experience the coming of Christ and the rapture. We'll do an end run on the grave. We'll never taste death. But there's going to be a future resurrection of the dead, and there's going to be a future rapture of those who are alive. But while the resurrection is going
[00:33:16] to be fully realized in the future, it has invaded the present. That's what Paul wants us to see here in these verses. And he quotes two Old Testament texts that prophesy the cessation of death.
[00:33:30] Notice verse 54, but when this perishable will have put on the imperishable and this mortal will have put on the immortality. Then will come about the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory. Now, this is kind of an amended form, a quotation of Isaiah 25,
[00:33:50] verse 8. Back in Isaiah 25, verse 8, it actually says there that He will swallow up death forever.
[00:33:58] Paul here substitutes the word victory for forever. And of course, the meaning is the same.
[00:34:03] But the point here is that death is swallowed down in triumph.
[00:34:10] When someone that we love dies, it looks like death has swallowed them up.
[00:34:14] It looks like they've been swallowed up by death.
[00:34:17] But for the believer in Jesus Christ, death has been swallowed up.
[00:34:21] Death has been swallowed up in victory through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
[00:34:27] As Paul says in 2 Timothy 1.10, Jesus has abolished death.
[00:34:33] He's brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.
[00:34:37] Death is swallowed up.
[00:34:39] Now, notice Paul then goes on and loosely quotes Hosea 13, 14 from the Old Testament.
[00:34:46] Oh, death, where is your victory?
[00:34:48] Oh, death, where is your sting?
[00:34:51] Now, this is fascinating the way this is stated.
[00:34:54] Paul is unrestrained here in what he says.
[00:34:56] The way this is really stated here, he's saying, death, where's your victory?
[00:35:01] Grave, where's your sting?
[00:35:02] He's basically mocking death. He's taunting it. I mean, to put it in our language today, I guess, Paul is trash-talking death. I mean, he's talking smack to death here, basically, saying, you know, death, where's your victory? Grave, where's your sting? In the light of the resurrection of Jesus
[00:35:21] Christ. As I read this this week, I thought about that iconic photograph. It's the most iconic photograph in all of sports. It's that photograph of Muhammad Ali in 1965 standing over Sonny Liston that he knocked down there in the first round. If you've seen that picture, you can just see his
[00:35:40] face. I mean, it's all scrunched up. He's got his glove like this. He's standing over Sonny Liston, and he's saying to him, get up and fight. And I won't say the rest of what he said here in church
[00:35:49] today, but he said, get up and fight. But he's standing over Sonny Liston, just taunting him to get up and to continue the fight. One person I read this week kind of translated it or
[00:36:01] paraphrased it like this. Paul's saying, come on, death, show me what you've got. You've got nothing left because Jesus has evacuated you of your power. Where, oh death, is that victory that everybody fears? Where is that sting? It's gone. Paul's taunting death in light of the resurrection.
[00:36:23] Now in verse 56, he kind of drills down more deeply and he says, The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.
[00:36:33] So he's saying here that it's by sin that death gains authority over us.
[00:36:39] It's by our sin that death gains authority over us because the wages of sin is death.
[00:36:46] And then he's saying here that it's the law then that exposes sin for what it really is.
[00:36:51] So these are all tied together, death and sin and the law, but the resurrection gets rid of all three of them. But death gets its power from sin. It's sin that's the real stinger here when he says,
[00:37:05] oh death, where is your sting? And so if sin is robbed of its power, if Christ dies for our sins and pays for our sins, then death also is robbed of its power. And of course the law is just simply
[00:37:19] the mirror where you and I are shown what we really are. It's the mirror that shows us how we fail to meet God's demands. So the sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. And the
[00:37:35] sting of death here, the sting of death is sin, reminds us that the cause of death, ultimately of your death and my death, if Christ does not come back, is not ultimately medical. The cause
[00:37:48] of our death is moral. We don't simply die because of medical complications or normal human processes. We ultimately die because of a deadly poison called sin. Romans 5.12 tells us death came through sin. Of course, Jesus died. He died, but unlike others, Jesus didn't die because of
[00:38:13] His sin, He died for sin. He became sin for us, that we could become the righteousness of God in Him. So Jesus took the sting of death when He died for our sins. He's drawn out the poison,
[00:38:27] and He's absorbed it into His own person on the cross. He took its full sting for us.
[00:38:33] So there's no sting of death for us if we're in Jesus Christ. When I was growing up, every vacation we ever took was to my grandparents' house around Springfield, Missouri. They lived in a few different houses there, but every vacation we ever took our entire lives was to
[00:38:51] that area. And the house I remember the most when I was a young boy was in a place called Willard and Willard School District. And I had an uncle who was only seven years older than me,
[00:39:02] and he loved baseball. I loved baseball. I mean, back in the 60s, it's hard for you to imagine now growing up, but baseball was bigger than football. And they all loved the St. Louis Cardinals there
[00:39:12] in Springfield, Missouri. So we would go out in the backyard, this huge backyard, and we had what seemed to me at the time these epic wiffle ball games. You know, the plastic ball, and we'd play
[00:39:23] baseball, I mean literally wiffle ball out there for hours and hours. All these friends of my uncles from all over the neighborhood, and all me and all my cousins. It was wonderful times, I remember. But the backyard, though, was filled with clover. And so there were always tons of bees
[00:39:39] out there buzzing all around. And literally, I think this is probably a true statement. I think almost every game we ever played was temporarily interrupted by the screams of somebody that got stung by a bee. We'd have to kind of wait for a few minutes, you know, kind of get everything
[00:39:53] settled down. But the first time I remember someone getting stung, I saw the bee flying around, and we all began to, you know, run away in sheer terror. And it wasn't until later that night when I told my dad what happened that I learned that once a bee stings someone, it loses
[00:40:11] its stinger. And in fact, he even told me when a honeybee stings someone, it can't hurt anybody else too, because very quickly that bee's going to die. And so as the bee tries to pull out that
[00:40:24] stinger out of the skin, it injures itself so severely that not long after that time it dies.
[00:40:30] Now, knowing that changed my entire outlook on bees and bee stings from that time on.
[00:40:35] So I knew if somebody got stung by a bee, I knew that that bee had no danger for me whatsoever.
[00:40:42] And what Jesus did through His death and resurrection should change our view of death.
[00:40:48] Death is now powerless to hurt us because Jesus took its sting.
[00:40:53] He absorbed all the poison of death for us.
[00:40:56] And death actually died like a bee that once it stings, it dies.
[00:41:01] When the sting of death, when it stung Jesus, it not only was absorbed by him, but it died.
[00:41:09] Now look, for all of us here, we know this.
[00:41:11] When a loved one dies or a close friend dies, death still brings heartache.
[00:41:16] It still brings tears and pain and separation.
[00:41:20] I mean, it brings often a sense of loneliness and a sense of emptiness.
[00:41:24] Death can still buzz around us, and it can make a lot of noise and scare us, but it can't hurt us anymore. All death really does for those of us who are believers is just
[00:41:35] simply open the door to glory for us. The sting of death is gone. Now, the only proper response to this triumph that we have in Jesus Christ is thanks. And you see that in verse 57. He closes
[00:41:53] this classic chapter here with a stirring doxology. Paul erupts here in celebration and thanksgiving for the resurrection. Now, I want you to notice something here. You have the word victory in verse 57. You have that same word up in verse 54. You have it again in verse 55. So three times you have
[00:42:14] the word victory. Now, it's interesting here because it's the Greek word nikos, which we get our word Nike from that. Nike was the goddess of victory. But this word here, Nikos, only occurs three times in all of the writings of the Apostle Paul, and they're all right here, right here in
[00:42:32] these three verses. He's highlighting this triumph and the victory that we have through Christ.
[00:42:38] And notice here, he says, thanks be to God who gives us the victory. Notice it's given to us.
[00:42:46] a gift of God in Jesus Christ. You and I can't take any credit for the victory. We don't earn it.
[00:42:54] We don't merit it in any way. It's His gift that He gives to all who will believe, to all who simply receive the gift. He gives it freely. It's also important to see in verse 57, this is in the
[00:43:08] present tense. So the victory is already ours. You know, in verse 54, He says, you know, this perishable is going to put on the imperishable. This mortal is going to put on immortality. But He wants us to know that we share that victory already today. It's already done. So we could
[00:43:26] translate verse 57, but thanks be to God who keeps on giving us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. And did you notice here in this entire chapter that Jesus Christ here has the last word?
[00:43:40] It's through our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus, not death, has the last word for those who are in Him. I love Revelation chapter 1, near the end of that chapter. John has seen a vision there on the
[00:43:53] island of Patmos of the radiant, resurrected Christ. And think about this, John, the disciple Jesus loved, the one who leaned against Jesus' chest there at the Last Supper, he sees the radiant resurrected Christ, and he falls down at the feet of Jesus like a dead man. Someone said
[00:44:11] years ago, it's better to be dead at the feet of Jesus than alive anywhere else. Falls like a dead man. What does Jesus say to John? Do not be afraid. I am the first and the last of the living one.
[00:44:24] Behold, I was dead, and I am alive forevermore. I have the key to death and to Hades. Jesus has the power. He holds the keys to death and Hades through His triumph and His victory. Jesus has
[00:44:38] the last word. But through the resurrection, you and I have victory. Now, we have victory through the resurrection over all kinds of things. There's all kinds of things we could mention here this morning, but let me just mention three things that you and I have victory over through the
[00:44:55] resurrection of Christ. The first one is we have victory in the face of fear. We have victory in face of fear. You and I don't have to fear death. Now, death may seem really far off to many of us
[00:45:10] here if you're young and you're healthy, and praise God for that. But some of you here that are advanced in years, or maybe you've gotten a bad report or diagnosis from a doctor, you may
[00:45:20] be thinking a lot about death, and you may be fearful of it. In Hebrews chapter 2, the writer of Hebrews says that people fear death all the days of their life. Now, it's talking about people
[00:45:34] who don't know the Lord. As believers, we shouldn't fear it. But I'll talk to friends of mine sometimes. They don't know the Lord. They're trying to be real brash and, you know, have a lot
[00:45:42] of bravado. And they'll say to me, I'm not afraid to die. Sometimes in my braver moments, I'll say to them, well, you ought to be. You should be afraid to die. If you don't have Christ, I mean,
[00:45:51] you have no idea how afraid to die you should be. But they want to kind of puff themselves up and make themselves feel good and kind of bold and strong. But I can promise you in their quiet
[00:46:02] moments when they lie in bed at night, especially as they get up in years, they lie there in bed and they think about going out into a darkness and a blackness of eternity. They don't know where
[00:46:11] they're going. They fear death. But you and I don't have to fear death because Jesus is risen.
[00:46:17] We have victory in the face of fear. We no longer have to fear it. Jesus has triumphed over the terror of the tomb. Let me read a quote to you from Charles Spurgeon. This is a beautiful quote.
[00:46:30] I know I say that a lot, but this one's good. And maybe no Easter sermon is complete without a quote from Charles Spurgeon, that great prince of preachers. But listen to what he says.
[00:46:40] Death, it is true that you are not yet destroyed, but our living Redeemer has so changed you that you are no longer death, but something other than your name. Saints die not now. They are merely
[00:46:53] dissolved and departed. Death is the loosening of the cable that the ship can sail to the fair havens. Death is the fiery chariot in which we ascend to God. It is the gentle voice of the
[00:47:06] great king who comes into his banqueting hall and says, friend, come up higher. Behold, on eagle's wings we mount. We fly far from this land of mist and cloud into the eternal serenity and brilliance
[00:47:20] of God's own house above. Yes, our Lord has abolished death. The sting of death is sin, and our great substitute has taken that sting away by His great sacrifice. Stingless, death abides among the people of God, but it so little harms them that to them it's not really even death
[00:47:40] to die. That's what God has done for us through Jesus Christ. Because of the resurrection, we have victory in the face of fear. I remember hearing Tony Evans one time say that for a believer in
[00:47:52] Jesus Christ, you die, you go to heaven so quickly to be the Lord, you don't even know you died.
[00:47:58] You don't even know you died. You're immediately in the presence of the Lord. We do not have to fear death. Because of the resurrection too, we have victory in the face of funerals.
[00:48:08] So we can have a victory over fear for our own death. We can have victory over funerals when other people die that we love. Again, I just experienced this here recently. You know, the death of my father. Experienced profound sadness, some emptiness and loneliness from that. He's been
[00:48:26] around for 64 years of my life. But I can assure you, I never experienced despair. And the reason I never experienced despair is, I know where he is. I know who he's with. And I know that I'm
[00:48:39] going to be with Him and see Him again. And I can assure you that means the world to me. It changes everything. And I know that it means the world to many of you as well who've been to a funeral
[00:48:51] recently for someone that you love very much, who knows the Lord. We don't have to despair. We don't have to have a fear of our own death. We don't have to have fear of the death of others. But
[00:49:03] finally, we can have victory over in the face of futility. Don't miss verse 58. I didn't read that earlier, but this is the capstone to this chapter. Notice the word, therefore. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor
[00:49:25] is not in vain in the Lord. So many people today in our culture, you just go around that their life, that they believe that life has no purpose, that it has no meaning, that it's all just futile.
[00:49:39] you know there's a soaring suicide right to rate today in our culture especially among younger people how tragic that is they think life is futile but because of the resurrection because we live again notice he says be steadfast and movable abounding in the work of the lord
[00:49:58] knowing your labor is not in vain what you do for the lord's not in vain it's going to live on you're going to live on you're not meaningless and what you do is not meaningless since death
[00:50:10] is dead, everything we do is infused with purpose and meaning. Nothing we do is futile or vain.
[00:50:18] I was reading a book this week, and I thought I'd share this story with you. It greatly encouraged me. If you're a golfer, you'll really like this story. But it's about Ben Hogan. He had been
[00:50:28] called the greatest ball striker ever to play golf. He wrote a series of five articles back in the 1950s in Sports Illustrated, and then later wrote a book called Ben Hogan's Five Lessons.
[00:50:39] But toward the end of the book, he writes about his joy for the game of golf.
[00:50:44] And here's what he says in the final chapter of that book.
[00:50:47] I've always thought of golf as the best of all games.
[00:50:51] Whether my schedule for the following day called for a tournament round or merely a trip to the practice tee, the prospect there was going to be golf in it made me feel privileged and extremely happy,
[00:51:03] and I couldn't wait for the sun to come up the next morning so that I could get out on the course again.
[00:51:10] He lived with this mentality, I can't wait for the sun to come up to see another day.
[00:51:15] The writer who mentions this story says this, the mentality that says I can't wait for the sun to come up, that is the mentality of resurrection.
[00:51:25] So when I think of always abounding in the work of the Lord, I think of Ben Hogan and the loud cracks from his persimmon woods that echoed over the hills as he practiced each day,
[00:51:35] taking delight in shot after shot.
[00:51:39] He says that same kind of joy should mark our daily lives.
[00:51:43] Even if we don't have the privilege of being a professional golfer, we can be always abounding in our lives.
[00:51:51] Everything we do matters.
[00:51:52] None of it is meaningless.
[00:51:54] The life to come colors the mundane tasks of everyday life with an eternal hue.
[00:52:00] Our work becomes a symphony of praise as we labor in our callings with the sure knowledge that God is with us.
[00:52:07] and God is for us. Look, the sun that came up on that resurrection morning, on that Easter morning, should change everything. You and I should have an excitement and a passion and a purpose for life
[00:52:21] that as we get up every day, whatever we do, however mundane it may seem, that nothing that we do is meaningless or vain because of the resurrection. We ought to get up every day and
[00:52:33] and grab life, and grab the gusto that it gives to us, and attack life, and attack the calling that God has placed upon us. That's the kind of life you and I should live in light of the
[00:52:45] resurrection. Nothing that we do is vain. Be steadfast, immovable, abounding in the work of the Lord. Nothing you do is in vain in Him. So because of the resurrection, you and I have victory. We have victory in the face of fear. We have victory in the face of funerals. We have
[00:53:00] victory in the face of futility, the futility of life. It changes everything for us. Some of you may know the name El Cid. Rodrigo Diaz was a Spanish hero, and he was known as El Cid. By the
[00:53:17] way, El Cid, I'm told in Spanish, means the Lord or the Master. I remember as a little boy, I watched a movie, El Cid. It came out in 1961, Charlton Heston and Sophia Loren. So it was a powerful
[00:53:28] movie. I remember watching it as a boy. But El Cid was the Spanish hero in the war against the invading Moors. The Moors were Muslims from North Africa that came in to take Spain. His greatest
[00:53:40] victory was the Battle of Valencia in June of 1099. The beautiful city of Valencia is there on the Mediterranean coast, and Moorish kings had besieged the city. El Cid was inside the city. He was 56 years of age. He was gravely ill, probably many think dying of starvation due to the siege.
[00:53:59] He was propped up there in his bed, and during the night he called all of his commanders together to give them the strategy the next morning to break the siege. So in the morning before these
[00:54:09] Moorish kings and their troops were awake, and the commanders of the Spanish army came in and propped El Cid up on his horse, and they braced him in the saddle with his sword held high.
[00:54:22] And as the sun came over the hills, they rode into the camp of the Moors, crushing them and scattering them all over the countryside.
[00:54:30] Now, after it was all over, it was revealed that El Sid had actually died during the night.
[00:54:36] And he told his commanders to prop up his body and brace it in the saddle with his sword held high.
[00:54:41] That was the strategy.
[00:54:42] He knew he was going to die.
[00:54:44] And his soldiers, not knowing that he was dead that next morning, were so inspired by the side of their leader riding out before him.
[00:54:52] before them that they broke the siege of Valencia. I like what one person said that I read about this.
[00:55:00] He said, El Cid won his final battle as a corpse. Think about that. He won his final battle as a corpse. But praise God, we don't have a dead savior, a dead conqueror. The one who leads us
[00:55:13] in triumph was dead and he's alive forevermore. He wins his greatest victory, not as a corpse, but as a corpse that's come to life. And this passage tells us our Lord Jesus, He's our El
[00:55:28] Sid. He's the Lord. He's leading us in victory. He's leading the charge with sword held high.
[00:55:37] And the question for each one of us really here this morning is, are you following Him? He's won the victory. Are you following Him? Are you living your life in such a way that you're appropriating
[00:55:49] and realizing and experiencing and sharing the victory that you have in Jesus Christ through His death and resurrection.
[00:55:56] He's leading.
[00:55:56] He's leading the charge.
[00:55:58] Are you and I following?
[00:56:01] If you're not following Him today, I want to give you the opportunity as we pray to do that.
[00:56:05] Let's go to the Lord in prayer.
[00:56:08] If you're here today and you've never accepted that victory that Jesus accomplished for you when He died on the cross and rose again, I want to give you the opportunity this morning to receive it,
[00:56:18] to accept it.
[00:56:20] Here's a beautiful Bible verse Romans 10, 9, if you'll confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. Confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord. Believe
[00:56:35] in your heart that He's alive, that God raised Him from the dead. You'll be saved. Your sins are washed away. You'll be forgiven. You'll be given life. Look, this morning, let His victory become your victory. He'll give you the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. He'll give it to you this
[00:56:54] morning as a free gift if you'll just simply take it. Take it now if you've never done so.
[00:57:00] Oh, Father, we thank You for a towering, triumphant Christ who's triumphed over the terrors of the tomb, who leads us in victory. Oh, Father, may we follow Him in the power of

[00:57:14] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:57:14] His resurrection. In His victorious name we pray. Amen. Let's stand together and declare that all of our hope was in Christ and in Christ alone.

[00:58:11] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]
[00:58:11] Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

[01:02:18] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[01:02:18] Thank you so much for being here with us today.
[01:02:19] If you're visiting, I'm out these doors.
[01:02:21] There's a welcome center you can find to get some more information about our church.
[01:02:25] I'll be down front, our elders and pastors who are present will be down front with me.
[01:02:29] We'd love the opportunity to meet you.
[01:02:31] Maybe you accepted Christ as your Savior this morning.
[01:02:34] We'd love to talk with you about that and meet you this morning.
[01:02:37] Let's bow for the benediction, this great resurrection benediction from Hebrews 13.
[01:02:42] Now the God of peace who brought up from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the eternal covenant, even Jesus our Lord, equip you in every good thing to do His will,
[01:02:52] working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever.
[01:02:59] All God's people said, Amen.
[01:03:02] Amen. God bless you all.
[01:03:03] Happy Easter.