SPEAKER_01: We're reading from 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verses 50 through 58.
SPEAKER_01: I tell you this, brothers, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.
SPEAKER_01: Behold, I tell you a mystery.
SPEAKER_01: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.
SPEAKER_01: For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.
SPEAKER_01: For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.
SPEAKER_01: When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written.
SPEAKER_01: Death is swallowed up in victory.
SPEAKER_01: O death, where is your victory?
SPEAKER_01: O death, where is your sting?
SPEAKER_01: The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.
SPEAKER_01: But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: 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.
SPEAKER_01: This is the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Join me as we pray for the service this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Father God, I come through you this morning, humbled to be able to make our request known to the risen one who has conquered death, conquered the grave, who's seated at the right hand of the Father, interceding for believers on our behalf at all times.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I pray this morning for the word delivered from our brother Robert this morning, that it would land on further soul.
SPEAKER_00: I pray that people's eyes would be opened, hearts would be softened, and people would come to saving grace and knowledge of you, prompted by the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: I pray, God, this morning, that as Robert delivers the message, as always, that he would be made less and you would be made more, that you would be glorified by everything said on this page, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: We pray these things in your name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: Good morning.
SPEAKER_02: Welcome to Harlan.
SPEAKER_02: My name is Robert.
SPEAKER_02: I am one of the pastors here.
SPEAKER_02: If you have not already done so, let me invite you to open your copy of God's word to 1 Corinthians.
SPEAKER_02: We are in chapter 15.
SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna say he is risen.
SPEAKER_02: I know some of you know the response.
SPEAKER_02: I would like everyone to reply with He is risen indeed.
SPEAKER_02: He is risen.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: I just wanted to hear us proclaim that truth this morning.
SPEAKER_02: And He is risen.
SPEAKER_02: He is risen indeed.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, amen.
SPEAKER_02: This morning we have the blessed privilege to work through a sermon text where we get to see some very real implications of the very thing that we are celebrating today, and that is the rise of our Savior, Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_02: And as we dive into the text and we work through these few verses here in the latter part of chapter 15 of Paul's first letter to the church at Corinth, we're gonna see the impact of the resurrection, we're gonna see the hope of the resurrection, and we're also gonna see as we pray during our guided prayer this morning, that there are very real present-day realities and implications to the resurrection that we get to experience in this life.
SPEAKER_02: And one of those is laid out so clearly for us in this text in verse 58, and that is the very fact that our labor and efforts of obedience before God the Father, they are not in vain.
SPEAKER_02: Rather, they are for the fruit of what the Lord has for us.
SPEAKER_02: So let's dive into the text and we are going to begin in verse 50 and work through verse 53 as we see the impact of the resurrection.
SPEAKER_02: The resurrection is a beautiful thing, it is a gorgeous thing.
SPEAKER_02: The gospel is the good news for all of the world.
SPEAKER_02: There is no hope for the world outside of the gospel.
SPEAKER_02: It provides hope to the hopeless and rest to the weary.
SPEAKER_02: And we gather here every Sunday, as Pastor Dylan alluded to in the welcome, we gather here every Sunday to rest in the hope that is the gospel, that is made possible by the life, death, and resurrection.
SPEAKER_02: And today's sermon text, as you'll see in verse 50, it does not start with the hope of the gospel.
SPEAKER_02: It starts with the power of sin.
SPEAKER_02: You see, every one of us, you and I, male and female, mankind, all of us, regardless of how squeaky clean your past is.
SPEAKER_02: Right?
SPEAKER_02: You can look to your past and say, man, I haven't ever done anything too bad, or how squeaky clean you may feel like your present reality is that you are now.
SPEAKER_02: I want to be clear from the beginning of our time together this morning because we see in verse 50, you have no standing before the God of creation on your own.
SPEAKER_02: I don't care how clean you think you are, you have no standing.
SPEAKER_02: Fields of thought all around the world communicate to us that we can be good enough.
SPEAKER_02: And I would use quotes around good enough.
SPEAKER_02: We could be good enough.
SPEAKER_02: A loving God could never punish a good person, as to communicate that it's your righteousness or your ability or your works that gains you standing before God the Father.
SPEAKER_02: And we as mankind, man and woman, male and female, all different ages, we have tried all sorts of things to restore our broken relationship with God the Father.
SPEAKER_02: We have tried all sorts of things.
SPEAKER_02: Tried to be good enough.
SPEAKER_02: Some people even tried to do this balancing act of man, if I just do more good today than I do bad, I'll be good.
SPEAKER_02: If I just do more good tomorrow than I do bad, then I will be good.
SPEAKER_02: I am golden before God the Father.
SPEAKER_02: The gospel teaches the opposite of that, the exact opposite of that.
SPEAKER_02: Those are lies.
SPEAKER_02: Those are not truths.
SPEAKER_02: Let me read you two passages of scripture.
SPEAKER_02: One's from Romans 3.23.
SPEAKER_02: Many of the kids in this room might know this.
SPEAKER_02: This is one that they've been working to memorize.
SPEAKER_02: It says, For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
SPEAKER_02: John 14, 6, we see Jesus speaking.
SPEAKER_02: He says, Jesus said to them, I am the way, the truth, and the life.
SPEAKER_02: No one comes to the Father except through me, not your good works, not your ability to do more right than wrong, through me, Christ alone.
SPEAKER_02: The depravity of man, according to Scripture, communicates this comprehensive nature of sin that makes man, man and woman, incapable of saving ourselves, which is emphasized in the words that we see in verse 50 here in our sermon text when it says, Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_02: Paul, in in all of this, he is pointing to the Corinthians what is going to happen in the end with the return of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: He also refers to physical death for those who have put their faith in Christ alone.
SPEAKER_02: And he he does that in verse 51.
SPEAKER_02: And he uses language here in verse 51 and in other places.
SPEAKER_02: If you've been here for the last several weeks, you've seen this, and I've talked about this before.
SPEAKER_02: He uses language fallen asleep.
SPEAKER_02: And he recognizes that upon the return of Jesus, the physically dead Christians will be raised again.
SPEAKER_02: They will be raised again to walk in the newness of life for eternity.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 51, in my opinion, it seems so little, but it is one of the most encouraging passages of scripture in all of Scripture.
SPEAKER_02: It is so encouraging.
SPEAKER_02: If you are a follower of Jesus, it's not that if you will be changed into a glorified state, it's not, it's not if, right?
SPEAKER_02: Glorified state is the final stage of salvation where we are completely conformed to the likeness of Christ.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 51 tells us as a believer, it's not if that will happen, it's when.
SPEAKER_02: It will happen.
SPEAKER_02: Flip with me over if you have your copy of scripture.
SPEAKER_02: I want you to turn there because we're going to be there for just a moment.
SPEAKER_02: Flip with me, flip with me over to 2 Corinthians chapter 5.
SPEAKER_02: Just one book further towards the back of your Bible.
SPEAKER_02: 2 Corinthians chapter 5.
SPEAKER_02: I'm going to read for us verses 2 through 8.
SPEAKER_02: And when I hear the pages uh done flipping, I'll I'll go ahead and read.
SPEAKER_02: 2 Corinthians 5, verses 2 through 8.
SPEAKER_02: It says, For in this tent, it's referring to the physical body there with tent.
SPEAKER_02: For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling.
SPEAKER_02: If indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked.
SPEAKER_02: For while we are still in this tent, again, our our bodies, we groan, being burdened, not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.
SPEAKER_02: He who has prepared for us this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.
SPEAKER_02: So we are always of good courage.
SPEAKER_02: We know that while we are at home in the body, we are away from the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: We are at home in the body, we are away from the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: It says, For we walk by faith, not by sight.
SPEAKER_02: Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: Paul is expressing his desire in this passage to be with Jesus in glory.
SPEAKER_02: He has a desire to be with Jesus in glory, to no longer be in the sinful state that is his physical body, but to be in the glorified state that I just mentioned a few moments ago.
SPEAKER_02: And in doing so, he points out three possible realities for the timeline of this taking place, of what is to come in this passage.
SPEAKER_02: And let me point those out to you.
SPEAKER_02: The first one is swallowed up by life, right?
SPEAKER_02: That is Jesus coming back right then, right then, and Paul's body being swallowed up by life in victory.
SPEAKER_02: Swallowed up in victory, as some of your translations might phrase it.
SPEAKER_02: Which, from what we see in the two letters to the church at Corinth, and what we see in all of Paul's writing, that is his most desired option.
SPEAKER_02: Lord Jesus, come back now.
SPEAKER_02: That is Paul's most desired option.
SPEAKER_02: And then we see away from the physical body and with the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: For him to die and to be with Christ in paradise in the immediate.
SPEAKER_02: You've heard Paul and you've heard us speak of the words of Paul.
SPEAKER_02: To live is Christ and to die is gain.
SPEAKER_02: His physical body being buried, waiting for the return of Jesus, while he in his spirit is with Jesus in eternity in paradise.
SPEAKER_02: And then the third one we see, and I read this one twice on purpose, walk by faith, not by sight.
SPEAKER_02: What we also know from Paul's life, and we should be encouraged by this, this was his least desired option.
SPEAKER_02: This was his least desired option to be in his physical body away from the Lord, to continue in difficulty and suffering, as we will see later on in the sermon text, to pursue obedience.
SPEAKER_02: This was his least desired option.
SPEAKER_02: Let me just ask you is there anyone in this room that is tired?
SPEAKER_02: Not just physically tired, not just emotionally tired.
SPEAKER_02: I would even say spiritually tired.
SPEAKER_02: Are you tired?
SPEAKER_02: Are you tired of enduring whatever it is that you're having to endure?
SPEAKER_02: Whatever it is that this life is throwing at you, whatever it is that you're battling right now in this moment that you brought into this room that nobody else may even be aware of.
SPEAKER_02: Are you tired?
SPEAKER_02: I know that you are.
SPEAKER_02: I know many of you are.
SPEAKER_02: I've had multiple conversations with people sitting in this room this week who have expressed to me in tears often, this week I am tired.
SPEAKER_02: I want rest.
SPEAKER_02: I wanted to ease up.
SPEAKER_02: Hear this.
SPEAKER_02: You are not the only person in the room that feels that way.
SPEAKER_02: And if that's not encouraging enough, that's why I brought out 2 Corinthians 5 for us.
SPEAKER_02: Paul, the apostle Paul himself, in the weariness that was life, proclaims throughout his writings, and we see it here in 2 Corinthians 5.
SPEAKER_02: I want to be with Christ right now.
SPEAKER_02: Right now.
SPEAKER_02: He's not saying to uh carelessly live your life, he's not saying to pursue physical death.
SPEAKER_02: I'm not saying that.
SPEAKER_02: He is emphasizing in today's sermon text, and we see it in 2 Corinthians 5 and other places, brothers and sisters, you will spend eternity with Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: You will be new, you will be immortal, as we see in this passage, sinless, and you will be with Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: So when you're tired and you're beat down and you feel like you're trapped by sin, by temptation, by suffering, be reminded the perishable one day will make way for the imperishable.
SPEAKER_02: Be reminded that this mortal body one day will put on immortality, and you will be standing at the feet of your glorious Savior, declaring, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.
SPEAKER_02: I've reflected on that truth a lot lately, and over and over again, the Lord has brought me to Revelation 1.8, which says, I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord, who is and who was and who is to come the Almighty.
SPEAKER_02: And this week, as I reflected on that passage in light of what today's sermon text says, it just hit me like a brick.
SPEAKER_02: Do you realize that one day we will not only experience him who was, which we see in Revelation 1.8.
SPEAKER_02: Do you realize that one day we will not only experience him who is, but we will experience not him who is to come, but him who has come.
SPEAKER_02: Him who has came.
SPEAKER_02: Verses 52 and 53 of today's sermon text give light to that.
SPEAKER_02: The trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised, and perishable, and we shall be changed.
SPEAKER_02: For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.
SPEAKER_02: To quote John Bloom, he says this, and so shall the great question of history, the question of who is the Son of Man, receive a climatic answer when the Lord God sends the Lord Christ to bring a close history as we've known it and inaugurates his everlasting kingdom.
SPEAKER_02: All we who wait for this blessed hope say, Amen, even so come, Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Brothers and sisters, be encouraged.
SPEAKER_02: Be encouraged because we can proclaim amen.
SPEAKER_02: We may not know the day, the time, or the hour, but we can proclaim amen.
SPEAKER_02: Even so come, Lord Jesus come.
SPEAKER_02: We see the impact of the resurrection as we look to eternity and we see that we are to live in the hope of the resurrection.
SPEAKER_02: That's what we see in verses 54 through 57.
SPEAKER_02: And the question that we must pose, why?
SPEAKER_02: Why are to we to live in the hope of the resurrection?
SPEAKER_02: And it's been said multiple times from this platform already, both in our guided prayer time and in the songs that we sing.
SPEAKER_02: We have hope in the resurrection.
SPEAKER_02: Why?
SPEAKER_02: Because death has been put to death.
SPEAKER_02: Death has been put to death.
SPEAKER_02: Think about the last time that you went to a funeral for someone that you cared about.
SPEAKER_02: Just this last week, I got a call about a dear brother from back home and an elderly gentleman that passed.
SPEAKER_02: And those are never, even with believers, those aren't fun calls to get.
SPEAKER_02: You think about things like, man, I wish I would have called him, or I wish I would have spent more time with him.
SPEAKER_02: And then you go to the funeral and you're you're at the funeral, and there's this desire to see them alive, right?
SPEAKER_02: This desire to see them alive, to sit with them one last time over a meal or over a cup of coffee to hear their voice again.
SPEAKER_02: Sometimes we even say voicemail so we can hear the person's voice again, to embrace them.
SPEAKER_02: We grieve when we lose people to this thing called physical death.
SPEAKER_02: But guess what?
SPEAKER_02: Death loses.
SPEAKER_02: Look at verse 55.
SPEAKER_02: Paul, in essence, is laughing in the face of death.
SPEAKER_02: Death, you think you have victory?
SPEAKER_02: No, sir.
SPEAKER_02: Death, you think you have sting or can bring sting?
SPEAKER_02: No, sir.
SPEAKER_02: My boys love playing basketball, and they're they're in here.
SPEAKER_02: They love playing basketball.
SPEAKER_02: And I'm not the best basketball player.
SPEAKER_02: I can still beat them.
SPEAKER_02: Right?
SPEAKER_02: I'm not the best basketball player.
SPEAKER_02: But one thing I've taught them to do well when playing basketball is to talk smack, right?
SPEAKER_02: To talk smack.
SPEAKER_02: I'm not necessarily 100% proud of that, but maybe, maybe a little.
SPEAKER_02: Paul is talking smack to death.
SPEAKER_02: He is talking in a similar way to death.
SPEAKER_02: He has the potential to laugh in the face of death.
SPEAKER_02: Brothers and sisters, you have the potential to laugh in the face of death.
SPEAKER_02: Not because of anything that we have done, but because of everything that Jesus has done.
SPEAKER_02: We can't read verse 55 without taking into consideration verse 50.
SPEAKER_02: And I know today it's it's Easter Sunday and we focus on the resurrection of Jesus as we should.
SPEAKER_02: But we must not overlook the reality that death is laughable, not just because of the resurrection.
SPEAKER_02: Death is laughable because of the life, the perfect life of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Death is laughable because of the death of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: And death is laughable because of the resurrection of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: You see, without the perfect life of Jesus, there is no spotless lamb.
SPEAKER_02: There is no spotless lamb.
SPEAKER_02: Without the death of Jesus, there's no broken body or shed blood to celebrate and to remember.
SPEAKER_02: There's no atoning blood.
SPEAKER_02: And without the resurrection, there is no defeat of death.
SPEAKER_02: We grieve physical death.
SPEAKER_02: But Christians should not grieve without hope.
SPEAKER_02: There is sting in physical death, but know that the major sting of death is not physical in nature.
SPEAKER_02: Hear me when I say that.
SPEAKER_02: The sting of physical death is the reality that eternal judgment begins upon physical death.
SPEAKER_02: Eternal judgment begins.
SPEAKER_02: George Herbert said it this way in one of his poems.
SPEAKER_02: Death used to be an executioner, but the gospel has made him just a gardener.
SPEAKER_02: Sit with that for a second.
SPEAKER_02: Used to be an executioner.
SPEAKER_02: But the gospel has made him just a gardener.
SPEAKER_02: In other words, without the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, physical death would be the final executioner that brought us to the gates of hell.
SPEAKER_02: But is no longer an executioner.
SPEAKER_02: He's just a gardener with faith alone in Christ alone in his life, death, and resurrection.
SPEAKER_02: Physical death no longer leads us to our demise.
SPEAKER_02: It is a gardener.
SPEAKER_02: If we are uh followers of Jesus, it is a gardener that leads us into glory.
SPEAKER_02: For the person who fear experiences physical death without faith alone in Christ alone, there is certainly torment.
SPEAKER_02: There is torment.
SPEAKER_02: But for the person who experiences physical death with faith alone in Christ alone, it is simply a step into the glorious realities of eternity with Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: But how can this be?
SPEAKER_02: There's the cost to our sin.
SPEAKER_02: We see that in verse 50.
SPEAKER_02: If you are an old hymn person, I love this 18th century hymn, Rock of Ages.
SPEAKER_02: I'm not going to sing it for you, but let me read you some of the gospel saturated lyrics.
SPEAKER_02: Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to the cross I cling.
SPEAKER_02: Naked, come to thee for dress.
SPEAKER_02: Helpless, look to thee for grace.
SPEAKER_02: Foul I to the fountain fly.
SPEAKER_02: Wash me, Savior, or I die.
SPEAKER_02: While I draw this fleeting breath when my breath, when my eyes shall close in death, when I soar to worlds unknown, see thee on thy judgment throne.
SPEAKER_02: Rock of ages cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: Illustrated another way.
SPEAKER_02: It's as though there's a lot of open fields around here, maybe not as many as there used to be, but you'll you'll understand this.
SPEAKER_02: It's as though you're standing in the middle of an open field all alone, right?
SPEAKER_02: All alone.
SPEAKER_02: Nobody is in sight.
SPEAKER_02: There is no way out of the field in sight.
SPEAKER_02: You searched high, you searched low, you searched right, you searched left, and nothing.
SPEAKER_02: There's no way out.
SPEAKER_02: You failed, and you tried again, and you failed, and you try again, and you failed, and then you hear gunfire.
SPEAKER_02: And time slows down like something out of a movie.
SPEAKER_02: A shot rang out, and a bullet that was the final fang of death was racing towards your body.
SPEAKER_02: And you and your depravity, and in an effort to escape death, just like we mere sinful beings often do, instead of fleeing from death, you step towards the very object that is leading to your spiritual demise.
SPEAKER_02: And at the last minute, Jesus steps in front of the bullet and he takes it for you.
SPEAKER_02: In that moment, your eternal death was spared.
SPEAKER_02: And you brought nothing into that field but your brokenness and your depravity.
SPEAKER_02: The stupidity that we display over and over again to continue to embrace sin over and over and over again.
SPEAKER_02: You fled to death.
SPEAKER_02: Some of you may still be doing that very thing, fleeing to death, ensnared by sin, enslaved to sin, living in submission to sin.
SPEAKER_02: But what Christ did for us in that moment is he dethroned sin and death once and for all.
SPEAKER_02: And if you're a follower of Jesus through the Spirit's prompting in your life and you're professing faith alone and Christ alone, you were rescued by no merit of your own, no work of your own, rather by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: See, every single one of us, we are hopeless pray in the face of death.
SPEAKER_02: We are in the grips of its gnarly fangs.
SPEAKER_02: It was as though sin and death has clamped down on you and sunk in its fangs as far as they can go.
SPEAKER_02: Ball game over, but Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: But Jesus invited into thy salvation by taking the weight of sin upon himself and defeating sin and death.
SPEAKER_02: If you're not a follower of Jesus here today, know this.
SPEAKER_02: Going to church doesn't make you a follower of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Belief and confession in Christ alone does.
SPEAKER_02: Don't miss this.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus took that bullet for you.
SPEAKER_02: And through the work of the Spirit, he is pleading with you.
SPEAKER_02: Come to me, come to me, come to me.
SPEAKER_02: That's the very reason that Paul can proclaim what he proclaims in this passage.
SPEAKER_02: And so can you, if you're a follower of Jesus, that to live is Christ and to die is gain.
SPEAKER_02: We don't have to be scared of physical or spiritual death anymore because our uh redemption, it's it's holistic, it's physical and it's spiritual, it's physical.
SPEAKER_02: You will receive a transformed body.
SPEAKER_02: You too will be resurrected.
SPEAKER_02: We we've seen that over the last several weeks as we work through this passage.
SPEAKER_02: Unless Jesus comes back before you pass, at which point your mortal body will put on immortality, as we see in the text.
SPEAKER_02: Let this decrepit body pass away.
SPEAKER_02: I was in a conversation with some guys about this in the four-year, talking about running.
SPEAKER_02: I run and there's puddles when it rains, and I'll go and try to jump over the puddle like I could 10 years ago.
SPEAKER_02: And instead of clearing it by four feet, I land right in the middle of it.
SPEAKER_02: Right?
SPEAKER_02: My wife points out every day how many more gray hairs I have on the side of my head.
SPEAKER_02: We're not excited about our bodies getting old and falling apart.
SPEAKER_02: But from a spiritual standpoint, who cares?
SPEAKER_02: Right?
SPEAKER_02: This broken body, it's not my eternal body.
SPEAKER_02: Praise God.
SPEAKER_02: Romans 8:11.
SPEAKER_02: If the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your immortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you.
SPEAKER_02: Christ is not simply in the bill business of dealing with our physical bodies, with our fears, with our with our shame, with our sin or our discomforts.
SPEAKER_02: Yes, he deals with those things, but he deals with more.
SPEAKER_02: You don't have to fear eternal torment.
SPEAKER_02: If you have put your faith in Christ, he dwells in you, right?
SPEAKER_02: He dwells in you.
SPEAKER_02: Don't miss that.
SPEAKER_02: The Spirit dwells in you.
SPEAKER_02: And as you pass from this life to the next, you will stand before God the Father and give an account.
SPEAKER_02: And at the end of that, you will be declared not guilty.
SPEAKER_02: He is here for the glorification of your body and for the glorification of your soul.
SPEAKER_02: And in glory, we will experience the final stage of our salvation.
SPEAKER_02: The final stage where the believer is completely transformed into the likeness of Christ, both physically and spiritually.
SPEAKER_02: And we should long for that day.
SPEAKER_02: Now let's look at some present implications as well.
SPEAKER_02: We are to labor with purpose because of the resurrection.
SPEAKER_02: In the words of the 20th century Englishman DM Patton, the work is solemn, therefore don't trifle.
SPEAKER_02: The task is difficult, therefore don't relax.
SPEAKER_02: The opportunity is brief, therefore don't delay.
SPEAKER_02: The path is narrow, therefore don't wonder.
SPEAKER_02: The prize is glory, glorious, therefore don't faint.
SPEAKER_02: It's so easy to look to eternity, and we should, right?
SPEAKER_02: We should we should know the realities of the resurrection and we should look to eternity with hope, with blessed hope and assurance.
SPEAKER_02: But Paul says in verse 58, don't miss the present-day implications of the resurrected Christ.
SPEAKER_02: Laboring in this text, it's not simply laboring in vocational ministry.
SPEAKER_02: It is laboring for the glory of Christ.
SPEAKER_02: That could be pastoring, yes.
SPEAKER_02: That could be living as a missionary, yes.
SPEAKER_02: That could also be being a faithful mom and dad, discipling your kids at home.
SPEAKER_02: That could also be serving as a teacher, right?
SPEAKER_02: That could also be seeing the need of a neighbor and meeting that need and pointing them to Jesus while you do.
SPEAKER_02: Laboring obedient in obedience for Christ is what he's getting at.
SPEAKER_02: And no matter how great you may think the labor is, or how small you may think the labor is, what we know from this passage of scripture is that if it's in obedience to Christ, it is not in vain.
SPEAKER_02: It is not in vain.
SPEAKER_02: Some of you have labored so faithfully and you've been met with nothing but hardship.
SPEAKER_02: And you say, But Robert, you don't know what I have been through.
SPEAKER_02: You don't know about the child I lost.
SPEAKER_02: You don't know about how hard my marriage is.
SPEAKER_02: You don't know about the health diagnosis I've received because I'm not telling anyone about it.
SPEAKER_02: You don't know about my financial hardship, you don't know about my emotional difficulties, you don't know about this question that's in my life, and I don't know what to do.
SPEAKER_02: And even if you did, you've never experienced it.
SPEAKER_02: So you have no idea how I feel.
SPEAKER_02: And you're right, I don't.
SPEAKER_02: And I will never pretend to, but guess what?
SPEAKER_02: He does.
unknown: That's right.
SPEAKER_02: He does.
SPEAKER_02: When we labor in the path to obedience and suffering comes, it is so easy for us to lose sight of the purpose of our labors.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 58 is pointing to an absolutely critical implication of the resurrection.
SPEAKER_02: Our labor is not in vain, even when it's hard.
SPEAKER_02: It's worth it.
SPEAKER_02: It's doing something.
SPEAKER_02: And in order to labor well, we have to have a healthy theology and understanding of suffering.
SPEAKER_02: And I get it.
SPEAKER_02: When we labor and we are met with nothing but pain and suffering, it is so easy to lose sight of the uh the reality that we see in this verse that our labor is not in vain.
SPEAKER_02: As a dad, if you're a parent, you'll get this.
SPEAKER_02: As a dad, one of the most difficult things is to see your kids hurting.
SPEAKER_02: My kids cry, it hurts, right?
SPEAKER_02: When my little girl cries, you better believe I'm melting.
SPEAKER_02: Just this last week, this is kind of a silly example, but just this last week, she had a princess ball at school.
SPEAKER_02: She has dozens of princess dresses.
SPEAKER_02: I'm talking about boxes full of princess dresses.
SPEAKER_02: But when it came time to pick out what she was going to wear, she didn't have the one that she wanted to wear.
SPEAKER_02: So you know what dad did?
SPEAKER_02: I went to Target and bought her the dress that she wanted to wear.
SPEAKER_02: Silly example.
SPEAKER_02: Here's a harder example.
SPEAKER_02: Some of you know the story because I've shared bits and pieces of it before.
SPEAKER_02: Man, Claire had so many complications early in life.
SPEAKER_02: She had so many when we're going to the glorious um ultrasound that you find out the gender and all that.
SPEAKER_02: We were told her she didn't have a cerebellum.
SPEAKER_02: There was a black hole in her brain.
SPEAKER_02: So many difficulties.
SPEAKER_02: She was born with a tumor, the size of two golf balls behind her eye.
SPEAKER_02: Praise God, she is well and beautiful.
SPEAKER_02: She's probably turning red.
SPEAKER_02: She's in this room.
SPEAKER_02: But it's one of those things where you pray and you ask God to heal, and you ask God for this, that, and the other.
SPEAKER_02: At the same time, we were processing moving overseas.
SPEAKER_02: The Lord did not allow that because of health things going on in our family at the time.
SPEAKER_02: And we pray and we ask and we wonder, man, we're not getting what we want.
SPEAKER_02: God's not giving us the good things.
SPEAKER_02: I heard John Piper one time say, God gives us good things and He He prevents us from serpents, right?
SPEAKER_02: And sometimes the things that we see are good are really serpents.
SPEAKER_02: And now looking back on it, Claire's health is what God used to redirect my wife and I's labor from overseas to 3580 Getwell Road.
SPEAKER_02: And we can praise God for that.
SPEAKER_02: Praise God for that.
SPEAKER_02: I firmly believe that one of the reasons that Paul gives us this warning in the Corinthians, he gives the warning to the Corinthians, and we can see it today, is because he knows that poor theology leads to of suffering, leads to suffering being misunderstood and laboring being abandoned.
SPEAKER_02: When we don't understand suffering, it can lead to us abandoning the labor that he has put before us.
SPEAKER_02: And Paul knows that, and he's communicating this to the Corinthians to plead with them, to remind them that your labor is not in vain.
SPEAKER_02: Think about Paul for a second.
SPEAKER_02: You can read about his sufferings all throughout the New Testament.
SPEAKER_02: In Acts 21, you read about him being beaten, right?
SPEAKER_02: You read about him being arrested, defamed, verbally accosted, taken into their hands, accused harshly, treated harshly.
SPEAKER_02: And he's saying, Your labor is not in vain.
SPEAKER_02: So brothers and sisters, as hard as this is to read and to proclaim when the cancer doesn't go away, when the parent dies or the child dies, when the disease riddles your body, when suffering seems not to last for a moment, but it is lasting a lifetime.
SPEAKER_02: It does not mean that God is not good.
SPEAKER_02: God is good.
SPEAKER_02: God is good, and it does not mean that your labor is in vain.
SPEAKER_02: Your labor is not in vain.
SPEAKER_02: Take heart, the perfect, spotless Lamb, Jesus Christ, stepped in front of the spiritual death that was getting ready to steamroll you.
SPEAKER_02: And he took it.
SPEAKER_02: Not only that, he conquered it.
SPEAKER_02: And because of that, you can be restored to a holy God.
SPEAKER_02: We can be adopted as sons and daughters of the one true king.
SPEAKER_02: And if you're here this morning and you say, I am a Christian and I am suffering, you are not alone.
SPEAKER_02: Even in 2 Corinthians, Paul reminds them, he says, For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the afflictions we experience in Asia.
SPEAKER_02: For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself.
SPEAKER_02: This is Paul despaired of life itself.
SPEAKER_02: Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death, but that was to make us rely not on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead.
SPEAKER_02: If you can identify no other purpose in the thing that you are laboring in right now, the thing that you would identify as the most difficult and suffering thing you've ever had to deal with, if you can proclaim no other purpose on that other than it is teaching you to rely on him who will raise your body, it is worth it.
SPEAKER_02: It is worth it.
SPEAKER_02: Salvation didn't stop at the moment of conversion, which is the moment the Spirit opens our eyes to the reality of our sin and we put our faith in Christ.
SPEAKER_02: Salvation continues in sanctification, which is when we grow in Christ's likeness.
SPEAKER_02: Salvation didn't stop at sanctification.
SPEAKER_02: Salvation continues into glorification, which I referred to earlier.
SPEAKER_02: It's the final stage where a believer is completely conformed to the image and likeness of Christ.
SPEAKER_02: Therefore, we can proclaim, do not lose heart.
SPEAKER_02: Because as sure as your conversion is, as sure as your conversion is, equally as sure is the glorified state that is to come.
SPEAKER_02: Christ is real, be steadfast, we see in verse 58.
SPEAKER_02: Christ is real, be immovable, we see in verse 58.
SPEAKER_02: Christ is real, abound in the work of the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: Christ is real, your labor is not in vain.
SPEAKER_02: Christ is real, he is resurrected and with you in the midst of your suffering.
SPEAKER_02: As you walk in this broken world, he sits with you and he comforts you and he reminds you of the glorified state that is to come.
SPEAKER_02: If you're here this morning, maybe you came because someone invited you.
SPEAKER_02: Maybe you came because you wanted to make your mom happy or your grandma happy.
SPEAKER_02: I don't care why you came.
SPEAKER_02: Praise God that you're here.
SPEAKER_02: Please, please, please understand that when you walk out of this room, you walk out those doors, right?
SPEAKER_02: You grab your donut, donut hole.
SPEAKER_02: I think Marcus ate about 30 of those this morning, so there may not be any left.
SPEAKER_02: Grab those things.
SPEAKER_02: When you go back out the doors to your day-to-day life, know this.
SPEAKER_02: If you're not a follower of Jesus, meaning you have never responded at the prompting of the Spirit to confess with your mouth and to believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, then you will not experience the joys of the resurrection.
SPEAKER_02: You will experience the sting of death and the eternal condemnation that comes with that.
SPEAKER_02: Death is still the executioner for you.
SPEAKER_02: There is no impact on your life because of the resurrection.
SPEAKER_02: There is no hope for you in the resurrection.
SPEAKER_02: In your labor on this earth, it most certainly will be in vain.
SPEAKER_02: This text reminds us, I thought about it this way last night and added this in this morning.
SPEAKER_02: The text reminds us as Christians what we have been rescued from, which is sin, and rescued to, which is glory.
SPEAKER_02: However, at the same time, it communicates to the non-Christians what you're stuck in and enslaved to, which is sin, and what you're destined for, which is spiritual eternal death.
SPEAKER_02: But take heart, Jesus did a work that you couldn't do.
SPEAKER_02: As I have said multiple times, on purpose, over and over again throughout this sermon, as we see in this text, you have nothing to bring to your salvation.
SPEAKER_02: We are a rights-based people.
SPEAKER_02: We we think we have rights and we run governments that way.
SPEAKER_02: And that's a beautiful thing for governments, but that is a poor theology when you think about Christ.
SPEAKER_02: You have zero rights before the God of creation.
SPEAKER_02: Zero.
SPEAKER_02: And that's not harsh.
SPEAKER_02: That is that God is that good.
SPEAKER_02: You have zero rights before him.
SPEAKER_02: We have nothing to claim before him except our death.
SPEAKER_02: The only thing that we can bring into that field that I mentioned earlier, the only thing that we can bring into that field is our sin.
SPEAKER_02: It's our sin.
SPEAKER_02: But guess what?
SPEAKER_02: Jesus invites you to bring your sin to his face, his feet.
SPEAKER_02: And he is bore the weight of that for you.
SPEAKER_02: Confess in him.
SPEAKER_02: He can be your savior and your Lord.
SPEAKER_02: And then you too will be able to stare down suffering, to stare down difficulty, to stare down whatever it is that this life throws at you and proclaim it is doing something.
SPEAKER_02: You too will be able to live in the hope of the resurrection.
SPEAKER_02: You too will experience that glorified state.
SPEAKER_02: And you too will be able to laugh at death like Paul does when he proclaims death.
SPEAKER_02: You think you have victory?
SPEAKER_02: No.
SPEAKER_02: Death, you you think you can still bring sin?
SPEAKER_02: No.
SPEAKER_02: And we'll be able to say, I will be with Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Think about this.
SPEAKER_02: I will be with Jesus, not for a moment, but for eternity.
SPEAKER_02: Brothers and sisters, be encouraged by the reality that you will spend eternity with Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Another way to think about it is the same God that created you, right?
SPEAKER_02: The same one that knit you together in your mother's womb is the same God that has provided rescue for you from your sin.
SPEAKER_02: How mind-blowing is that?
SPEAKER_02: Brothers and sisters, I pray today that you, if you're not a follower of Jesus, that you would uh the the Spirit would have used something today to prompt the response in you.
SPEAKER_02: I'd love to have that conversation.
SPEAKER_02: In just a moment, we're gonna participate in the Lord's Supper, and Pastor Dylan's gonna guide us through that.
SPEAKER_02: I'd love to have that conversation with you.
SPEAKER_02: There's nothing that you can do that would bring more joy to my heart, or even the person sitting next to you or the person that invited you, than for you to respond today to put your faith in Christ for the first time.
SPEAKER_02: And believers in the room, let me just encourage you.
SPEAKER_02: Tattoo this on your forehead, maybe not really, but write it on your mirror.
SPEAKER_02: Death has no victory.
SPEAKER_02: It has no victory, death has no stink.
SPEAKER_02: Because we serve a good God who sent us the perfect, spotless Lamb, who died the death that we deserve, bore the weight of sin, and is resurrected and seated at the right hand of the Father, as Kevin prayed a moment ago, interceding for us at every moment.
SPEAKER_02: Let's pray and then we'll continue to worship through the Lord's Supper.
SPEAKER_02: Father, we are so grateful for who you are.
SPEAKER_02: We're grateful for the gospel message.
SPEAKER_02: God, I'm thankful for this passage of scripture that that points us both to our brokenness, the very real brokenness that we are apart from Christ.
SPEAKER_02: It gives us the bad news, God, but it also gives us the good news.
SPEAKER_02: And that is that because of what Christ has done, we have the opportunity to be able to proclaim the same thing that Paul proclaims in this path is death, where is your victory?
SPEAKER_02: Death, where is your sting?
SPEAKER_02: And know that there is no victory, and that there is no sting for those who are have been made new by Christ.
SPEAKER_02: We love you.
SPEAKER_02: Thank you for the blood.
SPEAKER_02: Receive our worship this morning.
SPEAKER_02: In Christ's name we pray.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: Now going to