Death Is Swallowed Up In Victory

Death is swallowed up in Victory

1 Corinthians 15: 54

Reading for The New Testament lesson – 1 Corinthians 15: 12-22, 54b-57 (3 readers: 1 and 2 plus a Narrator)

1 We proclaim that Christ has been raised from the dead,

2 How can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead?

1 If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised;

2 And if Christ has not been raised from death, then our proclamation has been in vain and you have nothing to believe. More than that, we are shown to be lying about God, because we testified that He raised Christ from death

1 But if it is true that the dead are not raised to life, then He did not raise Christ. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised.

2 And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is futile and you are still lost in your sins. It follows that those who have died within Christ’s fellowship are utterly lost.

1 If our hope in Christ is good for this life only and no more, then we deserve more pity than anyone else in all the world.

2 But the truth is that Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died.

1 For since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead has also come through a human being.

2 For as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ.

Narrator – Death has been swallowed up in victory. 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, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

The Sermon

I’ve come to the conclusion that St Paul in his many letters is almost arguing with himself, he’s rambling again, and the more I thought about it the more I became convinced that this was the case.

After all that’s what a letter is – a response to either something you have heard or a letter you have received.

Paul wrote a number of letters to the Church in Corinth and the 2 we have today is an amalgamation of what’s left, but unfortunately we don’t have the letters written to him.

Tonight’s 2nd lesson from 1 Corinthians 15 is a classical example of Paul arguing with himself, and what an argument, it’s something that periodically goes through all our minds –

death is swallowed up in victory? - it’s a phrase difficult to swallow, something very hard to get to grips with, sometimes even hard to believe especially when death hits you in the face.

Paul is writing to the Corinthians defending the core of the Christian faith to counteract and to explain that however hard it might be the Resurrection of the dead is fundamental to our belief.

The feedback he got from Corinth is in that verse: ‘How can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead?’

And Paul’s response hits it on the head: If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised.

Christ the 1st Fruits from the dead… and so we follow… death is swallowed up in victory.

A young child was diagnosed with terminal cancer and the parents knew that he would soon die; the child also knew that his death would be soon.

One night he was sitting in his mother’s lap watching television with her and he looked up into her eyes and said, “mummy does it hurt to die?”

The young mother was overcome with grief and had to leave the room for a moment to gather her emotions, she stood in the bathroom and prayed, “God what can I tell him?”

She felt that the Lord gave her a word for him, so she went back into the room and said, “honey do you remember how so many times you have fallen asleep in front of the television and then the next morning you wake up in your bedroom?

Well I will tell you what happens - When you go to sleep your father comes in and with his strong arms he picks you up and carries you into your room.

And then the next thing you know you wake up in your bedroom.

Well death is just like that - When you die, you fall asleep and Jesus gathers you up in His strong arms and carries you to heaven.

And then you wake up in another room!” (1)

This heart reaching story paints a vivid picture that brings beauty within the ugliness of death.