Encounters with Christ:
Jesus and Me
1 Corinthians 15:20-26
Easter morning. Our great morning of celebration. And what are we celebrating?
That Christ has defeated death and risen with a new body. And because He has defeated
death, we too, will be resurrected from the dead. I love Easter morning because it’s a
party. It’s a time to sing and praise God, a time to look death in the eye and spit at it and
laugh.
Do you love epitaphs? I love the ones that laugh in the face of death. For example,
in Boot Hill there is an old wooden grave marker that reads: “Here lies Les Moore, shot
four times with a forty-four. No Les, no Moore.” In England there is a head stone that
reads:
Anna Wallace
The children of Israel wanted bread;
The Lord sent them manna.
Old Clerk Wallace wanted a wife;
The devil sent him Anna.
And in Vermont some enterprising young widow put on her husband’s
gravestone:
Sacred to the memory of my husband,
John Barnes, who died Jan. 3, 1803.
His comely young widow, aged 23, has
Many qualifications of a good wife
And yearns to be comforted.
But the best epitaph might be the one Benjamin Franklin suggested be put on his marker:
Like the cover of an old book,
Its contents torn out,
And stripped of its lettering and guilding,
Lies here food for worms.
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But the work shall not be lost
For it will (as he believes)
Appear once more,
In a new and more elegant edition,
Revised and corrected by the Author.”
That epitaph is great because it combines both humor and truth. We do have a
new edition of ourselves coming. Like Christ, we will be resurrected from the dead and
we will live forever.
On a more serious note, listen now to how Charles Wesley captures the idea of
Easter in a hymn we sang earlier:
“Soar we now where Christ has led,
Foll’wing our exalted Head;
Made like Him, like Him we rise,
Ours the cross,
the grave,
the skies.
Alleluia!”
Charles Wesley, “Christ the Lord is Risen Today,” 1739
In that beautiful hymn, we see Charles Wesley evoke some powerful images:
some day we will fly to where Christ has gone first; we will be made just like Him and
we will rise from the dead just like He did. His cross was our cross, meaning that’s where
the payment for our sin was made, His grave was our grave, and because He traveled to
the skies, so shall we.
Christ is risen!... [MOUSDE CLICK] He is risen indeed!
Easter morning is all about hope and beginning life anew. Do you need some
hope this morning? Could life be a little different for you? Would you like the snow to
melt and the flowers and warmth to come? Easter is all about change, about escaping the
mundane, about living life in light of Christ’s victory over death. Look at the change in
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the followers of Christ. While He was in the tomb, they cowered in fear in the upper
room, but after they saw Him, they no longer were fearful, but became, I imagine, the
most courageous people the world has ever known – average people who lived life in
such a way that God was able to use them to change the world and face incredible trials
with amazing faith. And why? Because they knew… they had seen it… death had been
defeated. Jesus was no longer dead.
Over the past couple of weeks, we have been looking at how Christ interacted
with people and how that interaction affected them. For Judas, we saw that he hardened
his heart after seeing what Christ was all about and he ended his life in despair and
without hope. And then we looked at the contrast. We saw Peter who, in the midst of
despair, softened his heart and told Christ he loved Him. And so Peter ended his life
fulfilling his greatest desire: to lay down his life for Christ. Peter, having been forgiven,
had great hope and passed out of this life with courage. On Good Friday, we looked at the
Centurion who, while having Christ nailed to the cross, heard Jesus say those incredible
words: “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” And while watching
Christ die, his heart was softened to the point that he admitted the truth about who Christ
is. His interaction with Christ caused him to cry out, “Truly, this was the Son of God!”
This morning, the person whose interaction with Christ we want to look at is you.
As you have encountered Him over the course of your life, how has He changed you?
Have you stood at the foot of the cross and like the Centurion admitted the truth? Like
Peter, have you come to grips with the fact that your behavior reveals that you have
betrayed Christ, and need His forgiveness and grace? And where do you stand this
morning, in respect to your hope? When I read the words from Charles Wesley’s hymn,
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did they reaffirm the hope you have, or are you still afraid…afraid of the future and what
will happen when you die?
President Roosevelt said during World War II that “the only thing we have to fear
is fear itself.” The reality is that God has made it truly possible that the only thing we
have to fear is fear itself. This side of the cross, the side of the resurrection, death is no
longer our master and we have no reason to fear it.
I read recently that Pit Bulls sometimes bite people or other animals so hard that
the only way to get them to release their grip is to break their jaws. Well death and the
fear of death had us in their jaws, and Jesus had to break that grip in order for us to be
released from it. And that’s exactly what He did: Hebrews 2:14-15, one of my favorite
verses, tells us: “Since then the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise
also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the
power of death, that is the devil; and might deliver those who through fear of death were
subject to slavery all their lives.”
The Bible is quite clear that two of the main reasons Jesus came to earth were so
that He would die and be resurrected in order to deliver us who were afraid and enslaved
to death and to give us new life. In John 10:10, Jesus said, “I came that they might have
life, and might have it abundantly.” What He is implying is that we were dead and that
He came in order to give us life. Paul puts it bluntly in Ephesians 2:1: “You were dead in
your transgressions and sins.” Before a person admits, like the Centurion admitted that
Jesus is the Son of God, and all that implies, meaning God died on the cross in order to
pay for our sins, we are still in the jaws of death. When we die, if we die without faith in
Christ, we will have to face God alone and try to explain why He should love us, when
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we rejected Him. We will have to provide some sort of just payment for the things we did
wrong. But God sees the things we did wrong as beyond our ability to make up for.
Otherwise, why did Jesus have to die?
If you have stood at the foot of the cross and admitted your sin, if you asked
Christ for forgiveness, if you believe that Jesus has defeated death, you now have no
reason to fear the future.
Our future is nothing but hopeful. Easter morning is like VJ Day, when the people
of America poured out into the streets and laughed and danced and rejoiced that World
War II was at an end. Here we see a couple giving one another the kiss of fellowship. I
wonder if we should all stand now and give each other the kiss of fellowship. No, we’ll
save that for another time. The point is that those Americans celebrated the victory. Their
reason to celebrate was nothing compared to what we have to celebrate! Our war with
death has been fought and won! And each year we get to celebrate that victory.
Death will reach out and take one last swipe at us and strike this body down, but
we will rise, never to be struck at again. Death may swing at us, but it won’t hurt us.
Because Christ took the sting out of it. We have heaven and a new body awaiting us. And
that new body will be just like Christ’s.
Our Scripture reading this morning goes into some detail about how Christ has
done away with death and that because He was raised from the dead, so will we. Let’s
look at it. First, we see, that our resurrection will be like His. Verse 20 of 1 Corinthians
15, “But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are
asleep.” Christ is the first fruits, His resurrection is the promise of more fruit to come.
And the reason is that since death came through one person, resurrection will also stem
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from one person. Verses 21-22, “For since by a man came death, by a man also came the
resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive.”
But our resurrection will not happen until later. When we die, we go straight into
the Lord’s presence, but we will wait for our resurrection bodies until Christ returns to
earth. And then He will complete the process of defeating all enemies. Verses 23-25,
“But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ’s at His
coming, then comes the end, when He delivers up the kingdom to the God and Father,
when He has abolished all rule and authority and power. For He must reign until He has
put all His enemies under His feet.” 1 Thessalonians 4:16 says it in even plainer terms:
“For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the
archangel, and with the trumpet of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first.”
And then our passage concludes by saying that there is one last enemy that will be
defeated – or better yet, abolished. He has already defeated it, but He hasn’t yet sent it
away never to be seen again. And, of course, that enemy is death. Verse 26, “For the last
enemy that will be abolished is death.” Death is no longer master over us, but it still, as I
said before, takes a swing at us. But when Christ returns and gives us our resurrection
bodies, He will cast death and the place of the dead, Hades, into hell, the lake of fire, and
we’ll never see it again. Revelation 20:14 and 21:4 “And death and Hades were thrown
into the lake of fire. And He shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there shall
be no longer any death; there shall no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first
things have passed away.”
The question for you and me is: To what degree do we experience Christ’s
resurrection now? Because Jesus lives, do we have just enough courage to make it
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through the day, but not enough faith to stop worrying? Have we just enough love for
Christ to let Him love us, but not enough love to obey Him? Have we just enough faith to
come to church, but not enough passion to take our faith to the world? Jesus raised
Lazarus from the dead. He raised Jairus’ daughter from the dead. And now He has been
raised from the dead Himself and promises to raise us as well. If He is alive… and He is,
there is no longer anything to fear. If He is alive… and He is, there is no longer anything
to worry about. If He is alive… and He is, then there is nothing on earth that can stop us.
As Christ told Peter, “I will build my church; and the gates of Hades shall not overpower
it!” Matthew 16:18
The gates of Hades are the entrance to death today for those who don’t love God,
but that kind of death shall not take us. When these bodies die, we will shed them like an
unwanted fever and we will thumb our noses as the gates of Hades, and like the thief on
the cross, we will go straight to paradise. We will live forever! The body that awaits us is
like Christ’s resurrection body. It can’t even compare to this body: “Star differs from star
in glory. So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown a perishable body, it is raised
an imperishable body; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness,
it is raised in power.” 1 Corinthians 15:41-42
In the Gospel of John there is a very understated verse, but we shouldn’t miss it. It
should jump right off the page for us. When the disciples were still in hiding, Jesus
passed through a locked door and appeared to the disciples, and John says, “The disciples
therefore rejoiced when they saw the Lord.” John 20:20
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All their doubts and fears were relieved. Jesus was who He said He was. Jesus
had defeated death. Jesus will defeat our deaths. The disciples rejoiced. That’s Easter.
The disciples rejoicing.
He is risen…He is risen indeed! And our resurrection will be just like His. Let’s
go out rejoicing and let’s laugh at the gates of Hades. We will never pass through its
gates. So there is nothing in this life to fear, there is nothing that can destroy us. Our
greatest enemy, death, has already been defeated. That’s how powerful our God is.
“Soar we now where Christ has led,
Foll’wing our exalted Head;
Made like Him, like Him we rise,
Ours the cross,
the grave,
the skies.
Alleluia!”
Happy Easter.
Let’s pray.