Deaths Last Stand

Easter Sunday April 20, 2003 Pastor Jim Parisi

F.I.C.C. Sunrise Service. HHM Sunday Service

"Deaths Last Stand”

[1 Cor 15:55-57] 55 "O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?" 56 The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

I am going to chronicle for you DEATH’S BIOGRAPHY in a message entitled “Deaths Last Stand!”

You are going to have to use your imagination. I want to speak of death as though he were a person.

I. BIRTH AND EARLY YEARS. We turn our attention to death’s birth.

I believe we can pinpoint the exact date of death’s birth! It was conceived in Adam and Eve’s temptation and birth the moment Adam & Eve first sinned.

For scripture tells us: “...by one man (Adam) sin entered into the world and death by sin.”

The parent of death is sin and the grandparent of death is Satan.

You see, there once was a time before death’s birth that this old world was a pleasant place to live.

There were no thorns; no thistles. No pain; no travail. No labor. No suffering

The fruit of the land yielded itself willingly. The human body was made perfectly to last throughout eternity. But Death changed all that in one instance!

After sin entered man the human body begins to decay and deteriorate. All because of Sin and Death

Death brought along with him pain, suffering, lawlessness and a people turning away and separating them selves from God.

Death was very active in his early years. It doesn’t take us long at all to see him surface with Cain and Abel.

As Cain strikes down his own brother in a field and leaves him there to be devoured by death.

Death rapidly becomes the strongest predator on the face of the earth –

Relentlessly tracking down each victim, catching and wrestling him down to the rot and mire of the grave!

Death is seen day and night going to and fro throughout the earth stalking his prey. How many examples are there?

Ahab & Jezebel along on their murderous plot devised against the devout Naboth the Jezreelite,

He went into the fire with the 3 Hebrew children expecting to have their charred bodies, only to be robbed of victory by the Fourth Man in the Fire, which was the Son of God!

That’s alright--he knew that he would eventually get these 3 Hebrew boys and would have another encounter with the Fourth Man. He would have to be patient.

The devil knew there would be a time of battle and humanity would stand in the balance.

At the mere mention of Death’s name, mortal man trembled! He puts fear in the minds of children as they sleep.

What power death has now over man because of the fall.

Death could boast that of the billions of men and women who had lived on this earth,

Only 2 had escaped his clutches -- Enoch and Elijah!

He strikes terror in the hearts of mankind...calling them to the grave with his cold voice

II. DEATH’S MOST AMBITIOUS UNDERTAKING.

In his wanderings throughout the earth,

Death received word, a report that this Fourth Man in the Fire, the man that saved the three Hebrew boys.

Was coming to set the captives free.

The Very Son of God had taken upon Himself human flesh and came to dwell among mortal man.

One foolish thought struck Deaths mind: If He has come in the flesh, He’s mine!!"

Though disillusioned in his previous attempts, death feels certain the time is right. This Son of God has come to Jerusalem as the Messiah.

The living God has taken flesh upon himself and now is conquerable.

He is playing right into Death’s hands. "He’ll be mine within a week" Death sunrises!

I can see Death as he goes along with the guards to the Garden of Gethsemane.

His fierceness is kindled… as he sees the One who has eluded him so long.

He snarls and roars, trying his best to intimidate and terrorize this Son of God,

Jesus looks him straight in the eye and does not flinch!

There is not one indication of fear. This Jesus has the look of a conqueror! A mighty warrior.

It is Death that feels a tremor of fear! Could it be that he has finally met his master!?

I can see Death as he goes along with the crowd from the garden to the house of Caiphas and then to Pilate.

Pilate, that pompous guardian of the region who would dare sit in judgment of this Perfect Dignitary of the Universe.

I can hear Death whisper into Pilate’s ear: "Just Kill him. Give Him over to me. I know how to handle this trouble-maker!