The Greatest Victory Ever Won
1 Cor 15.20-26,51-58
Easter Sunday, 31 March 2002, Milford Baptist Church

This time last year was the anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. And we were graced with the Hollywood version on television. Do you know the story? It's a love story about Jack and Rose, two young passengers on the ship. Rose is a young upper class woman who feels suffocated by the restrictions of her class. Jack is a free-spirited commoner who teaches Rose how to live life. They fall in love and ultimately, in the icy waters of the North Atlantic, Jack sacrifices his life to save Rose. At the end of the movie, recalling what had happened, Rose concludes with the words: "So Jack saved me. He saved me from everything that you can saved be from."

The ultimate enemy

Everything you can be saved from? Really? What about death? Rose would still grow old and die? Ten out of ten people die. That's the one certainty in life - we all die. Life is a dead-end street. And that can be a disturbing thought. I remember when it came to me. In the early morning light I was looking down at my beautiful wife as she lay sleeping, and it struck me: It's all down hill from here. Though still young, we've both reached our physical peak. It's all down hill - wrinkles, grey hairs, false teeth "until death do us part."

Have you thought about dying, about death? Most of the time we try not to think about it. Have you noticed how we employ euphemisms to avoid talking about it: people don't "die," they "pass away." Look at the cosmetic and exercise industries. Did you see the news this week? For four hundred dollars you can get a special injection to paralyse your facial muscles and eliminate frown wrinkles for several months. But sometimes you just can't avoid thinking about death. I remember sitting in a darkened room at St Joseph's hospice watching an elderly grey-haired man slowly weaken and die. Cancer had eaten away one side of his face. It was my father, who I loved. As I watched his laboured breathing, you know what I felt? Anger. I felt angry. Angry at the cancer. Angry with death. It seemed so tragic. Losing him like this seemed like such a defeat.

I guess that's how a small sniffling band of friends must have felt as they looked up at Jesus, spread-eagled and skewered on a cross. His death on Good Friday must have seemed like such a tragic defeat. But what looked like a crushing tragedy became an incredible triumph, a victory. Because Jesus didn't stay dead. On Easter Sunday, today, Jesus came back to life. He defeated death. Listen to this. Let's read 1 Corinthians 15.20-26, 51-58.

Here the apostle Paul says, "sin is the sting that results in death" (56). Our sin, our selfishness, our exclusion of God and others, is what makes death so painful, so poisonous. But Jesus gives us the victory over sin. He died for our sins (2), to take them away, to bring us forgiveness, so we can have victory over death (56). But notice that Paul says it's Christ's people - those who believe in him - who will be raised to new life (23). It's through faith in Jesus that his victory becomes our victory (2). We only have a place in the great ticker tape victory parade led by Jesus at the end of time if we are prepared to follow him, trusting him with our lives.

In the United States, George Wilson was apprehended for robbing a train and killing a guard. He was convicted and sentenced to death. Because there was such a cry against capital punishment at that time, the President actually granted Wilson a pardon. But, incredibly, Wilson refused to accept it. The prison door was thrown wide open, and he refused to step out. Now this had never happened before, so the Supreme Court was asked to rule on whether anyone could refuse a pardon. The Chief Justice handed down the Court's judgment: "George Wilson has refused to accept the pardon. We cannot conceive why he did so, but he has. Therefore, he must die." In much the same way, if we refuse to follow Jesus, if we refuse his gift of new life, death remains an enemy to be feared. But if we believe that Jesus died and rose again for us, and choose to follow him, we can truly say, "Thanks be to God, who gives us victory over sin and death through Jesus Christ our Lord!" (57).

Hope for the future

But I have a question. If God has given us victory over sin and death through Jesus, why do I still struggle with sin and selfishness and unbelief? Why did my dad still struggle with cancer and sickness and death? According to Paul, when will be raised to new life? When Christ comes back (23). Only then will death, "the last enemy," be destroyed (26). So because of Jesus' death and resurrection, we already have victory over sin and death. But not until Jesus' return will we have final victory.

In World War Two, during the "hunger winter," of 1944-45, it became apparent that the Nazis were already defeated. It was just a matter of time. For the Allies, victory was assured. But victory was not completed until VE day. Until that final victory, the Germans were still enemies; they still had power to inflict losses. In the same way for us, sin is still an enemy, but it is a defeated enemy. So that's why we still experience sin, loss, grief and death.

We live between Good Friday and Easter Sunday. It's Saturday on planet earth, but Sunday is coming. Some day what God did once in a Jerusalem graveyard will be repeated on a cosmic scale.  Some day the pain we feel and the tears we shed will be transformed. Some day the world we see wracked with violence and injustice in Israel or our own kitchen will be transformed. Some day these crumbling bodies of ours will be transformed (43) to become like Jesus' body: glorious (43), spiritual (44) bodies that will never decay or die (42). Some day we will get our loved ones back, and I'll see my dad again.

Back in World War Two Jurgen Moltmann was drafted as a teenager and sent to the German front, where the British soon captured him. He spent the next three years in detention, shuttled from prison camp to prison camp in Belgium, Scotland and England. Meanwhile Hitler's empire collapsed, exposing the moral rot at the centre of the Third Reich. And all around him Moltmann saw how Germans collapsing inwardly, giving up all hope, some of them even dying for lack of hope. "The same thing almost happened to me," he said. "What kept me from it was a rebirth to new life." He had no Christian background, but a chaplain gave him a Bible. Reading it, Moltmann became a follower of Jesus. He became convinced that although he was surrounded by decay, Jesus' resurrection was the sign that our world will one day be renewed, perfected. That hope saved him. That hope transformed his life behind the barbed wire. The resurrection of Jesus does not dispel the shadows in which we live, but it bathes them in light. As Moltmann experienced, it can transform our daily existence. "Sunday is coming," Paul says, "Hang in there."

Help in the present

But Jesus' resurrection on Easter Sunday morning doesn't just give us hope for the future. Jesus is alive with us and he offers us help in the present. Paul says, "Thanks be to God, who gives us victory over sin and death through Jesus Christ our Lord!" (57). Literally, these words mean, "Thanks be to God, who keeps on giving us victory ..." Through Jesus, God gives us strength to defeat sin and selfishness right now. We have the Spirit of Jesus, the Holy Spirit, who helps us in our weaknesses. He gives us truth and wisdom, comfort and strength, love and life. And we have the Body of Christ, the church, "brothers and sisters" (58). In fact the church is a preliminary statement, a foretaste, of what we will see when Jesus returns: the gathering of God's people with God in their midst. Through the Spirit of Jesus and through the Body of Jesus, God offers us help us now to overcome the power of sin.

In view of this, Paul urges us: "So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and steady, always enthusiastic about the Lord's work, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless" (58). What we do now has eternal repercussions. Let me ask you: What is the Lord asking you to do for him? Give your life to him? Lay your life down? Forgive that person who has hurt you? Seek forgiveness from that person you have hurt? Step out in faith, out onto the water, where you know you can't stand unless he helps you? Persevere in your job, your calling, even though you feel the nails. Reach out in love to someone who needs you? Remember, Paul says, what we do now has eternal repercussions.

The Last Battle is the seventh and last of C.S. Lewis' books about the magical and mystical land of Narnia. The story is about a struggle between the good young king Tirian and the forces of evil. The last battle in this war ushers in a new world. King Tirian finds himself surrounded by once-dead friends. And suddenly he feels two strong arms thrown about him, he feels a bearded kiss on his cheeks and he hears a familiar voice: "What, lad! Art thicker and taller since I last touched thee?" It is his father, the good king Erlian, but not as Tirian had seen him last when they brought him home pale and wounded from his fight with the giant. Nor even as Tirian remembered him in his later years when we was a grey old warrior. This was his father, young and merry, as he could just remember him from the very early days when he himself had been a little boy playing games with his father in the castle garden just before bedtime on summer evenings. Together they join the parade entering this new resurrection life with the king of kings. For them, Sunday had arrived. Death had been defeated. Perfect, eternal life was just beginning.

For us it's Saturday. Life is hard. But Sunday is coming. The day is coming when we who are following the king of kings will also join him, and all the others who have gone before us, in that great victory parade through a perfect new heaven and new earth, where there is no more death or pain or sin or sorrow. And truly then we will have reason to "sing and shout." "Thanks be to God, who gives us victory over sin and death through Jesus Christ our Lord!"

1 Corinthians 15.

1 Now let me remind you, dear brothers and sisters, of the Good News I preached to you before. You welcomed it then and still do now, for your faith is built on this wonderful message.2 And it is this Good News that saves you if you firmly believe it--unless, of course, you believed something that was never true in the first place.3 I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me--that Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said.4 He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, as the Scriptures said.5 He was seen by Peter and then by the twelve apostles.6 After that, he was seen by more than five hundred of his followers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died by now.7 Then he was seen by James and later by all the apostles.8 Last of all, I saw him, too, long after the others, as though I had been born at the wrong time.9 For I am the least of all the apostles, and I am not worthy to be called an apostle after the way I persecuted the church of God.10 But whatever I am now, it is all because God poured out his special favour on me--and not without results. For I have worked harder than all the other apostles, yet it was not I but God who was working through me by his grace.11 So it makes no difference whether I preach or they preach. The important thing is that you believed what we preached to you.

The Resurrection of the Dead

12 But tell me this--since we preach that Christ rose from the dead, why are some of you saying there will be no resurrection of the dead? 13 For if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised either.14 And if Christ was not raised, then all our preaching is useless, and your trust in God is useless.15 And we apostles would all be lying about God, for we have said that God raised Christ from the grave, but that can't be true if there is no resurrection of the dead.16 If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised.17 And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless, and you are still under condemnation for your sins.18 In that case, all who have died believing in Christ have perished!19 And if we have hope in Christ only for this life, we are the most miserable people in the world.20 But the fact is that Christ has been raised from the dead. He has become the first of a great harvest of those who will be raised to life again.21 So you see, just as death came into the world through a man, Adam, now the resurrection from the dead has begun through another man, Christ.22 Everyone dies because all of us are related to Adam, the first man. But all who are related to Christ, the other man, will be given new life.23 But there is an order to this resurrection: Christ was raised first; then when Christ comes back, all his people will be raised.24 After that the end will come, when he will turn the Kingdom over to God the Father, having put down all enemies of every kind.25 For Christ must reign until he humbles all his enemies beneath his feet.26 And the last enemy to be destroyed is death.27 For the Scriptures say, "God has given him authority over all things." (Of course, when it says "authority over all things," it does not include God himself, who gave Christ his authority.)28 Then, when he has conquered all things, the Son will present himself to God, so that God, who gave his Son authority over all things, will be utterly supreme over everything everywhere.29 If the dead will not be raised, then what point is there in people being baptized for those who are dead? Why do it unless the dead will someday rise again?30 And why should we ourselves be continually risking our lives, facing death hour by hour?31 For I swear, dear brothers and sisters, I face death daily. This is as certain as my pride in what the Lord Jesus Christ has done in you.32 And what value was there in fighting wild beasts--those men of Ephesus --if there will be no resurrection from the dead? If there is no resurrection,       "Let's feast and get drunk,for tomorrow we die!" 33 Don't be fooled by those who say such things, for "bad company corrupts good character."34 Come to your senses and stop sinning. For to your shame I say that some of you don't even know God.

The Resurrection Body

35 But someone may ask, "How will the dead be raised? What kind of bodies will they have?"36 What a foolish question! When you put a seed into the ground, it doesn't grow into a plant unless it dies first.37 And what you put in the ground is not the plant that will grow, but only a dry little seed of wheat or whatever it is you are planting.38 Then God gives it a new body--just the kind he wants it to have. A different kind of plant grows from each kind of seed.39 And just as there are different kinds of seeds and plants, so also there are different kinds of flesh--whether of humans, animals, birds, or fish.40 There are bodies in the heavens, and there are bodies on earth. The glory of the heavenly bodies is different from the beauty of the earthly bodies.41 The sun has one kind of glory, while the moon and stars each have another kind. And even the stars differ from each other in their beauty and brightness.42 It is the same way for the resurrection of the dead. Our earthly bodies, which die and decay, will be different when they are resurrected, for they will never die.43 Our bodies now disappoint us, but when they are raised, they will be full of glory. They are weak now, but when they are raised, they will be full of power.44 They are natural human bodies now, but when they are raised, they will be spiritual bodies. For just as there are natural bodies, so also there are spiritual bodies.45 The Scriptures tell us, "The first man, Adam, became a living person." But the last Adam--that is, Christ--is a life-giving Spirit.46 What came first was the natural body, then the spiritual body comes later.47 Adam, the first man, was made from the dust of the earth, while Christ, the second man, came from heaven.48 Every human being has an earthly body just like Adam's, but our heavenly bodies will be just like Christ's.49 Just as we are now like Adam, the man of the earth, so we will someday be like Christ, the man from heaven.50 What I am saying, dear brothers and sisters, is that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. These perishable bodies of ours are not able to live forever.51 But let me tell you a wonderful secret God has revealed to us. Not all of us will die, but we will all be transformed.52 It will happen in a moment, in the blinking of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown. For when the trumpet sounds, the Christians who have died will be raised with transformed bodies. And then we who are living will be transformed so that we will never die. 53 For our perishable earthly bodies must be transformed into heavenly bodies that will never die. 54 When this happens--when our perishable earthly bodies have been transformed into heavenly bodies that will never die--then at last the Scriptures will come true:       "Death is swallowed up in victory.       55 O death, where is your victory?             O death, where is your sting?"

56 For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power.57 How we thank God, who gives us victory over sin and death through Jesus Christ our Lord! 58 So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and steady, always enthusiastic about the Lord's work, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless.