“A Changed Church” – 1 Cor. 15:50-58

So, the last couple of weeks I have started jogging again.  I know, it’s so obvious, right?  Now, when I say jogging, you might get the impression that I get up at 5 and get all stretched out, put on my high-dollar running shoes and my spandex pants and run for several miles.  That would be a mistake.  The picture you should get is more along the lines of what a baseball manager does when he leaves the dugout and jogs to the pitcher’s mound.

Have you seen this?  The guy is old and fat and so he jogs maybe 10 feet and then walks the rest of the way.  That’s the picture of me jogging.  But I’m trying and I have improved a little.  It just gets more and more difficult the older I get.  Most of you know what I’m talking about.  I remember when I was about 20, I looked down and noticed that I was a little too heavy.  I needed to lose about 10 pounds to get back down to high school graduation weight so I started jogging and practically the next day I had lost 10-15 pounds.

Those days are long gone.  My metabolism has gone way down and my cheeseburger count has gone way up and I just can’t do things like I used to.  I’m trying to make some healthier choices but I know I will never have my 20-year-old body back.  It is a fact of life that our bodies are going to get weaker and more decrepit the older we get and while we can make good choices and live healthier and longer if we do, we all know that at some point our bodies will finally just wear out.

Everything wears out, doesn’t it?  Your car wears out.  Your shoes wear out.  Your hair, well, my hair is completely worn out.  It’s just the way things are designed and while our bodies are incredibly designed and able to heal themselves and last an incredibly long time for what they have to endure, the honest truth is that someday, maybe someday soon, our bodies are going to die.

How’s that for an encouraging word from the pulpit today? James 4:14 says, “For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.”  1 Peter 1:24 says, “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls.”  Job said, “Man, born of woman is of few days and full of trouble.” (14:1)

Now, you’re not going to believe this but this message is actually meant to give you great encouragement.  I know.  It’s not working too well so far, is it?  But it will.  It will if you are a believer in Jesus because, while all of this is true and maybe some bad news, I have some really good news for you from the book of 1 Corinthians.  This is the last message in our sermon series entitled, “Our Church” and I had planned on preaching from chapter 14 on orderly worship.  The title of that message was going to be, “Our Church Is An Orderly Church.”

How boring does that sound?  In chapter 15, though, we see Paul starting to close out his letter to that church in Corinth and one of the last things he tells them is about something really exciting.  I had a hard time trying to decide what the title should be because there is so much good stuff in here.  I finally decided on, “Our Church Is A Changed Church” because I couldn’t fit, “Our Church Is An Excited, Awake, Mysterious, Eye-Twinkling, Trumpet- Listening, Imperishable, Immortal, Unmoving and Victorious Church” on the heading of my paper.

So, if you want to leave here a changed church, please turn to 1 Corinthians 15:50-58 and let’s see what Paul has to say about our physical bodies. If you love your physical body, this may be some bad news for you.  If you love this old world, this may be some bad news for you.  But if you are looking forward to something better in the way of a body and a world, then you might accidently say “Amen!”

I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. ⁵¹ Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— ⁵² in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. ⁵³ For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. ⁵⁴ When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” ⁵⁵ “Where, O death, is your victory?
    Where, O death, is your sting?”

⁵⁶ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. ⁵⁷ But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.  ⁵⁸ Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

When I read that, especially verse 55, I think about my favorite boxer, Muhammed Ali.  If you were around back in the 70’s to see Ali fight then you know how he loved to taunt his opponent.  That’s what Paul is doing here.  “Hey, death!  That all you got?  Where’s your victory?  Where’s your sting.”  But we will get to that in a minute.

This is an exciting passage or it should be to us but Paul starts out with what sounds like bad news.  He says this flesh and blood body will never see the Kingdom of God.  It will never make it to Heaven.  This body won’t make it in Heaven for a similar reason as we can’t live under water.  This body is not designed for it.  This body is designed for this mortal world and it is designed to do well most of the time for an average of about, what, 70-something years?

We are all perishable.  We are perishable like a ripe banana.  One day we look good and feel good and are used for great things and then we start to get those age spots on us and before you know it, we are unrecognizable.  These bodies are perishing.  They are physical and mortal.  How could they possibly be able to work in imperishable, immortal Heaven?

But, look at what Paul says.  He says, “Lean in a little closer.  I want to tell you a mystery.”  When Paul says he wants to tell us a mystery he means to tell us something that had once been hidden, but now is revealed.  Don’t you love it when a great mystery is revealed? 

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Senior, was a doctor. As such he was very interested in the use of ether. In order to know how his patients felt under its influence, he once had a dose administered to himself.

As he was going under, in a dreamy state, a profound thought came to him. He believed that he had suddenly grasped the key to all the mysteries of the universe. When he regained consciousness, however, he was unable to remember what the insight was.

Because of the great importance this thought would be to mankind, Holmes arranged to have himself given ether again. This time he had a stenographer present to take down the great thought. The ether was administered, and sure enough, just before passing out the insight reappeared. He mumbled the words, the stenographer took them down, and he went to sleep confident in the knowledge that he had succeeded.

Upon awakening, he turned eagerly to the stenographer and asked her to read what he had uttered. This is what she read: "The entire universe is permeated with a strong odor of turpentine."  (Bits & Pieces, November 12, 1992)

Aren’t you glad Paul has a real mystery to reveal?  He says that we are not all going to die but we will all be changed.  Now, if you have never heard this taught, this may sound strange to you and if you have heard it before I hope it gives you great encouragement.  Basically, what he is saying is that there are two ways to get to Heaven.  I will add that there are also two ways to get to Hell.

I know when I say there are two ways to get to Heaven that most of you cringe and you should.  Technically, there is only one way for our souls to get there and that is by grace and through faith in Jesus Christ.  But that being understood and assumed, you then have two ways to go from there.  Most of us are probably going to die.  Pretty much everybody up to this point has died.  Okay, Elijah and Enoch are exceptions but everybody else has.  But not everybody will.

Paul is referring to the rapture.  Verse 52 -in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye we will all be changed.  One of these days; maybe today; maybe before I finish this message or even this sentence, God the Father is going to say, “That’s enough!  Bring my children home” and we who are believers will be raptured.  That word “rapture” is not in the Bible.  It is what we call it when Jesus meets us in the air. 

1 Thessalonians 4:15-18 talks about this as well.  Listen to what it says.  “According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. ¹⁶ For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. ¹⁷ After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. ¹⁸ Therefore encourage one another with these words.”

One of these days, you will be talking to an unbelieving friend and in the middle of your sentence…you’re gone.  You will be driving your car, you will disappear and the car will crash.  You will be on an airplane and I hope you’re not the pilot because everybody is going to wonder what happened to you.  I hope it happens while I’m trying to jog so I don’t have to do that anymore but it may happen at any time. 

Are you ready?  Are you doing what you want to be doing when that happens because it says it will happen in the twinkling of an eye.  I heard a preacher not too long ago spend about 20 minutes explaining how fast that really is.  He got into so much detail about how fast a twinkle is and how fast light goes from the front of your eye to the back and blah, blah, blah…it’s gonna be fast.  That’s all we need to know and I hope it is today.

There is an old hymn from the early 1900’s that says, “Jesus is coming to earth again; what if it were today?
Coming in power and love to reign; what if it were today?
Coming to claim His chosen Bride, all the redeemed and purified,
Over this whole earth scattered wide; what if it were today?”  (Leila N. Morris)

Isaiah 62:5 says, “as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you.”  What if it were today, my dear family?  Are you ready?

The rapture is one way to get to Heaven.  Death is another.  Now, there is no reason why the rapture couldn’t happen today.  It might happen at any second.  There are no prophecies that need to be fulfilled.  There is nothing else that has to happen.  We are just waiting on the Father’s good and perfect timing.  But in the meantime, we could also die at any time.  We are not guaranteed another breath.  I know it may sound morbid to some but it is just the truth.  Much crazier things have happened than for someone to be sitting peacefully in church and their heart just stop.  

For some people that would just ruin their day.  Don’t you just hate it when that happens?  I mean, you had plans.  You were going to go to Dos Chiles for lunch.  Then have a nice nap.  But, no, you had to go and die.  For some people, the thought of death…scares them to death.  But look at what Paul has to say in verse 54.  “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”

In Revelation chapter one, Jesus says, “I was dead but now I’m alive and I hold the keys to death and hell.”  He says, “I am in control of death now, not the other way around.”  We no longer have to fear death.  Woody Allen once said, "I am not afraid of death, I just don't want to be there when it happens."  We don’t have to live like that anymore if we are believers in Jesus.

Now, look at how Paul taunts death as he quotes Hosea 13:14. “Where, O death, is your victory?  Where, O death, is your sting?”  What does he mean by that?  What is the sting of death?  He tells us in the next verse.  The sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law.

Have you ever been to the funeral of a person who never claimed to be a believer of Jesus?  Somebody whom we have to assume was not a Christian?  Those funerals are the worst.  There is so much crying and so much grief.  Somebody is usually drunk.  I have seen family members fighting in the parking lot.  The songs are sad.  The eulogy is sad.  Everything is sad. 

Now, think about the funeral of somebody who was proud to call Jesus their Lord and Savior.  Those people put the fun back in funeral, right?  Sometimes it’s hard not to call it a party and it should be.  I want my funeral to be that way.  I’m not going to be there so y’all get together and have a good time.  I’m not kidding.  I will be mad at you when I see you in Heaven if you don’t have karaoke at my funeral.  I want you to play “Glorious Day” at the funeral and afterwards, please stick around for the karaoke party.  Maybe play some spoons, that way Jeff can finally win a game.

Paul says the sting of death is sin.  Those who don’t have God’s forgiveness of their sins have everything in the world to dread.  In fact, they have everything out of this world to dread too.  Even people who claim there is no God or who say that there is no afterlife all have this thought in the back of their minds that says, “But what if I’m wrong?”  That’s the sting.  That’s the dread.  That has to hurt.  That’s why they don’t want to die and why their loved ones feel so miserable.

“The power of sin is the law,” Paul says.  Even when somebody dies who doesn’t believe in the Bible, they still have the law of their conscience and they know they have done wrong and it makes the thought of death so horrible.  Romans 2 says, “Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law. ¹⁵ They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them.”

They have every reason to fear death but look at what Paul continues with in verse 57.  This is when the fireworks go off and the cheerleaders jump out with their pompoms and I’m pretty sure somebody might even say “Amen”.  But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.  Aren’t you glad that it doesn’t say, “But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our good works”?  It doesn’t say that God gives us victory because our good deeds outweighed our bad deeds or because we are Baptists or because we did anything.

Our salvation, our forgiveness, our ability to spend eternity in Heaven has nothing to do with who we are or what we do.  It only depends on Jesus Christ and all we have to do is believe – fully trust – in Him as our Savior.  Yes, Paul, thanks be to God for that!

Paul ends this beautiful passage as he often does, with a word of motivation.  If all of this is true; if everything Paul has said is right and we don’t have to worry about where we are going to spend eternity and what our bodies are going to look like or how we are going to get there then we ought to be able to trust God that He is going to protect and provide for us while we are here.

“Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.”  Stand firm, he says, when you and your church are under attack.  Stand firm when your nation is morally crumbling.  Stand firm when your president declares that boys should be able to go into girls’ bathrooms.  Stand firm when abortion becomes law.  Stand firm when gay marriage is celebrated and affirmed.  Let nothing move you or your convictions.  We don’t answer to this world. Our reward is in Heaven and our labor is not in vain.

The only bad news I have today is for unbelievers.  As I said before, there are two ways to get to Heaven, rapture or death for the believer.  But for the unbeliever, there are two ways to hell.  You may make it all the way to the end of this world and it says that the sky will part – not the clouds, but the sky itself - and you will look up and see Jesus riding on a white horse with a sword in His hand.  The raptured church will be with Him and it will be too late for all those left behind.

The other way is the way everyone before us has gone and that is through death.  Either way, scripture tells of a Great White Throne judgment where unbelievers will face Almighty God and it is at that time that it says that every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that He is Lord.  But it will be too late for you if you are seeing that throne.  Just like there is a real Heaven, there is also a real Hell.

2 Peter 3:9 says, “God is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”  Repentance means to turn away from your sin, ask for forgiveness of it and never do it again, asking Jesus to be Lord of your life and the Savior that you believe in and rely on.  Do that today.  We are not guaranteed another breath.