Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Last spring, around this time, I was trimming a tree in front of my house. It had overgrown. It needed to be shaped up. And my now son in law, Cain, was helping me.
[00:00:15] But I was up on a ladder, really focused. Limbs and leaves were flying everywhere as I cut into this tree, when all of the sudden I felt something like hot metal that stabbed me in the chest.
[00:00:33] And I screamed.
[00:00:35] That was a very manly scream.
[00:00:38] It was so manly that my daughter, Chorus, who was inside the house, heard me screaming.
[00:00:47] And she comes running outside and sees Cain just staring at me.
[00:00:53] That's what he does.
[00:00:57] Because she thought what she was about to see is some blood just gushing from my body. And so she's panicked.
[00:01:05] And for about five seconds I thought the same thing. I thought that something, a blade off of this saw had come off the saw and cut me in the chest.
[00:01:19] And I'm trying to figure out what's happening. And all of a sudden we see these red wasps flying everywhere, swarming. I realized I had been stung, which isn't really a big deal, but my granddad was very allergic to stings. Bee stings, wasp stings, anything.
[00:01:39] He nearly died one time in the emergency room. His actually, his heart actually flatlined from bee stings.
[00:01:49] And so anytime I've been stung, that sort of paranoia runs through my mind. At first, nothing ever has happened.
[00:01:56] But as my chest started swelling up very quickly and it was really hard to tell because I'm so jacked, you know, it was actually very easy to tell what was going on.
[00:02:10] I began thinking about that, what's going to happen? There's poison inside my body.
[00:02:16] Could this kill me?
[00:02:19] And I quickly went from thinking about the pain of the wasp stinging to the after effects of the poison and what was going to happen. And actually I was fine. It was painful and irritating for a few days, but eventually I was fine. And I let everybody know how painful it was and irritating it was all the time, but. But I eventually got over it.
[00:02:43] Well, Paul compares death to a sting.
[00:02:47] And the reality of death and dying is very painful.
[00:02:53] It's hard, it's difficult, but there's a poison beyond our death that is fatal, that is eternally fatal.
[00:03:06] And it's our sin.
[00:03:09] The sting of death is painful, but our sin and death is a poison that will kill us.
[00:03:18] And what we celebrate on Easter is that there is a victor who has conquered death.
[00:03:27] And because he has defeated this poison of sin, we can have hope.
[00:03:36] And after defeating sin on the cross, he's been raised from the dead. And because he is Raised from the dead. He has opened a door for us to be raised from the dead. But not just us, the whole world to be resurrected.
[00:03:52] That's what we celebrate, is that this painful thing called death has been defeated.
[00:04:00] But at the heart of death's defeat is the defeat of the poison of death also. And that's good news for us.
[00:04:12] And we see that in our passage today, beginning in verse 54.
[00:04:16] First of all, we see death's defeat.
[00:04:19] And death's defeat comes at the rule of Christ, which is what Paul is talking about here in these verses of chapter 15.
[00:04:29] Notice verse 54, when the perishable, this is the body, the physical, earthly things put on, imperishable, which is spiritual things. You see, there's a day coming where the spiritual will overwhelm the physical.
[00:04:47] And everything that we see, the earth, the physicalness of things, will be redeemed by this spiritual invasion which comes in the kingdom of Christ. When Jesus comes to rule and he says here, and the mortal puts on immortality, that the temporary that we see around us will put on eternal notice. He says, then shall come to pass the saying that is written.
[00:05:15] Death is swallowed in victory.
[00:05:20] The word swallow means to overwhelm or consume. It's the picture of drowning something.
[00:05:28] And there's a day when death will be overwhelmed, consumed, drown out from the world in which we see and know now.
[00:05:37] And this verse comes From Isaiah, chapter 25, verse 8, where there's this promise that God one day will swallow up death forever. It will no longer exist. He will overwhelm it, and the Lord will wipe away tears from our faces.
[00:05:55] He will overwhelm death, and then he will alleviate all of the effects of death on our life. The pain, the agony, the tears of death will be wiped away forever.
[00:06:09] Death won't win.
[00:06:10] The word victory here, it means a decisive win, the end of a war.
[00:06:16] Right now, there's a war raging. Life and death. Ultimately life wins, death loses, and will be gone forever because life will swallow it up.
[00:06:30] And because of this promise that Paul has really unpacked in this whole chapter of Resurrection, Jesus has been raised from the dead. And if you're in Christ, you will be raised from the dead. The whole world will be resurrected when he comes to rule in life.
[00:06:46] Knowing this truth, Paul begins to kind of smack talk death here.
[00:06:54] Notice he says, death, you will not win.
[00:06:59] Verse 55.
[00:07:01] Oh, death.
[00:07:02] Oh, pathetic death.
[00:07:04] You think you're strong?
[00:07:06] Think you're powerful. You think you're terrifying.
[00:07:10] Where is your victory?
[00:07:14] Life will triumph death in a decisive victory. There will be no recounts.
[00:07:20] Death's not coming back on this day when Jesus comes to rule in life.
[00:07:25] But for a time, we know this death kind of flaunts its power.
[00:07:30] We go to funerals, we hear news that is devastating of death.
[00:07:37] We hear the diagnosis that is terminal.
[00:07:41] And we're not going to be in the doctor's office smack talking death in that way, in that moment, we don't feel like that. We don't want to do that. There's nothing in us that would want to do what Paul's doing here.
[00:07:53] Oh, Death, where is your victory? Death invokes fear and terror in our life even now. But what Paul wants to say here is there's a day coming when, when death will not stand on the podium. Death doesn't get the trophy in the end, death isn't the champion. Death isn't the conqueror. In the end, Paul looks at death and says, where you at?
[00:08:15] You lose. You're a loser, Death.
[00:08:19] And he continues the smack talk and he says, on this day, you will not hurt us anymore.
[00:08:27] Notice the verse.
[00:08:29] Oh, Death, where's your sting?
[00:08:32] Death brings with it a sharp sting, that pain being stung like metal that pierces your skin.
[00:08:40] It hurts.
[00:08:43] Shocking. At first, we felt the pain of death sting many in this room where you've heard the worst case scenario, your nightmare has come true.
[00:09:01] And in those moments when you got the news, there was that sting, right, where your whole being just kind of hurt in the moment.
[00:09:12] And maybe you didn't scream, maybe you did, but your whole inside was screaming, no, because you felt in that moment, there's nothing I can do. Death has come in your relationship, maybe to you personally, death has invaded and it has hurt you.
[00:09:35] It has hurt you severely.
[00:09:38] You look around this room and you think, no one's hurt by death like I have been hurt by death. How in the world would Paul say, where's your victory? Death has conquered me. I felt the pain of death. I felt the sting of death. Death has crushed my soul. How could anybody talk like this to Death?
[00:09:57] You see, in the world we live in now, the life we live easily convinces us that death wins.
[00:10:07] This sort of Christianity thing, Easter thing, what we're doing here, that's a mirage to some of you.
[00:10:16] And some of us have never felt that sort of pain.
[00:10:20] And so it's easy to convince us that death wins in this world. It hurts. It's terrifying.
[00:10:29] Even in. Even in this world where there's so much beauty and goodness, it is as if we live in this beautiful cathedral of Goodness and beauty all around.
[00:10:44] And yet we know there's mold growing on the walls.
[00:10:48] We see it, we smell it.
[00:10:51] Even as we try to enjoy life's goodness, the good things in life, we try to give ourselves over to those moments that are enjoyable.
[00:11:06] We say, this is the best time of my life. This is the best day of my life. But in the back of our mind, we know about the mold, the walls lurking, and one day we will breathe it in and die.
[00:11:24] Death ruins every good thing.
[00:11:28] Consider the relationships that you've had, the strongest bonds, where you've tasted God's goodness and fellowship.
[00:11:37] And there's a day coming where death's going to rip that away.
[00:11:41] We try to ignore it, but it's coming and it hurts and it's painful. And what Paul is trying to get at here is, yes, death has a sting. And yes, death at times wins the battle, but death will not win the war. Death will not win in the end because there is a day coming because he got out of the cave.
[00:12:06] There's a day coming when Jesus will come back and his rule will will be like the sun that rises in winter and evaporates the cold of death and melts away the ice of death. There is a day coming when Jesus will step foot on the earth again and death will vanquish. Death will go away forever. And all that we know here, the pain and the difficulty of death will be swallowed up, consumed.
[00:12:40] And all that we've experienced by death here will be. We don't get it now. Will somehow be leveraged to make eternity even better.
[00:12:49] We'll say, yeah, I experienced the worst of the worst, but now that would make heaven more glorious.
[00:12:57] When he comes to rule and reign, all deadness will go away.
[00:13:03] Some of y' all love winter. It's gonna go away because it's dead. Winter means dead.
[00:13:09] You get that, right? Look at the trees. They're dead.
[00:13:14] And then Jesus comes and they're full of green.
[00:13:20] Weeds will be replaced with flowers.
[00:13:24] Sadness with joy.
[00:13:26] Funerals will be replaced with parties.
[00:13:30] Memory loss will be replaced with perfect vivid recall of every good detail of life.
[00:13:44] Death will be gone.
[00:13:46] Death will be dead when Jesus comes.
[00:13:51] And that suffocating ache that some of you wake up every day and that person isn't there anymore.
[00:14:00] Look at me.
[00:14:02] When Jesus comes, absence will be replaced with presence.
[00:14:08] Loneliness will be replaced with first and foremost Jesus.
[00:14:15] And then all of the goodness that comes with the presence of others who will be in heaven with us.
[00:14:22] That's how Paul can smack talk death, but he gets at the heart of the reason here, when he talks about death's poison, which is your sin.
[00:14:34] So death's defeat comes at the rule of Christ. But there's something that has to be dealt with, and it's death's poison, which is our sin. Notice verse 56. The sting of death is sin. And so there is a pain in dying and having to deal with death, that is painful.
[00:14:50] But there's something worse than the pain of death, and it is the poison of your sin.
[00:14:57] So dying is painful, but if I die in my sin, that's a poison that'll kill me forever.
[00:15:06] And so he's asking here, okay, death, where is your sting? But then he explains, what is the sting of death? It is sin.
[00:15:16] You see, in Genesis, the first part of Genesis, God told Adam, if you sin, you will die.
[00:15:25] That's the consequence of sin, death. And what he meant is, if you sin, you will be separated from me, because that's what sin is. It is to separate ourselves from God. God is holy, God is perfect. God is right. To sin is to say, no, I'm right, and you're wrong, God. And so what God does is he lets us do that. He lets us sin and separate ourselves from him. And God says to Adam, if you sin, that's what's going to happen. And by the way, that's what happens to all of us when we sin. We separate ourselves from God.
[00:16:00] And what we deserve for doing that is to remain separated from God forever, to be banished, forsaken by God forever. That's what we deserve for our sin. Because in essence, that's what we want.
[00:16:15] I want to do what I want to do. Okay, separate yourself from me, you'll be separated forever. But then there's a punishment that comes from that, too.
[00:16:27] Because if God is holy and he's right and he's perfect, and for you to say to him, no, you're not.
[00:16:33] I know better.
[00:16:34] Well, there's punishment for that because you've just attacked his holy character.
[00:16:39] You don't attack God's holy character. And so the punishment for that is hell, which is to be separated from God forever and incur his just punishment.
[00:16:52] The Bible talks about eternal fire and torment. To be separated from God and endure the worst punishment you could imagine because you've sinned against a holy God. He's perfect, and that's what we deserve.
[00:17:07] And so, as hard as this life is and as difficult as death is the poison of your sin, to carry that into death, to die physically but still be in your sin, that sends you to hell.
[00:17:21] So that's the sting of death.
[00:17:23] That's the poison beyond death that will kill you forever.
[00:17:28] Well, how do we know that we have this poison in us? Well, notice. And the power of sin is the law.
[00:17:35] What he's getting at here is there's a diagnostic, there is a scan on your life that tells you that you've been infected with this poison called sin. And it is the law of God.
[00:17:48] We often think about the law of God as the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments were written to show God's righteousness, his perfection.
[00:17:58] If you're going to be like God, you have to obey his law, which is summarized in the Ten Commandments. There's like 600 laws, but it declares he is righteous and he is good.
[00:18:11] And to sin against him is to sin against righteousness and goodness. And the law just starting with the Ten Commandments says that everybody here has done that.
[00:18:22] Everybody here has sinned against God. Read the Ten Commandments.
[00:18:27] And James tells us that if you fell in one spot of the law, you fell in the whole law.
[00:18:34] It's like a pane of glass.
[00:18:36] You don't get to say, well, I've just disobeyed some laws. No, if you've broken one, you're unrighteous and you've sinned against God and you deserve his judgment.
[00:18:46] You don't just, you break a plane of glass. You go, well, I just dinged it in this one spot. I didn't know. You ruined the whole thing.
[00:18:55] For instance, let's imagine today if you went home and that hundred thousand dollar sports car that you've always dreamed of was in your driveway.
[00:19:05] The General Lee would be in my driveway.
[00:19:11] And then your kid on their bike.
[00:19:16] You know how the handlebars, the rubber on the side rubs off and then it's just metal.
[00:19:22] They come in next to that car, that sports car that you want it so much, and they just ding it with that handlebar on that bike.
[00:19:33] Nobody in here is going to run over to that sports car and go, oh, it's okay, buddy, you just dinged it in this one spot.
[00:19:40] No, you're going to say to your child, you just ruined the whole thing and I can't afford to fix this thing.
[00:19:50] It's the same thing with the law.
[00:19:53] You lie once, you lust once, you commit idolatry and worship something else once.
[00:20:02] Which we, we're just be honest. We do that all the time. We do those things all the time.
[00:20:08] So we're guilty of breaking the law. And you can't afford to fix it yourself.
[00:20:13] You can't repair what you've broken. And so this is the power of sin. We've all sinned. We've all separated ourselves from God. And the law says, yes, it's true. Don't argue with God, shut your mouth. It's irrefutable. You are a sinner and you deserve to be separated from God. So how in the world again does does Paul talk like this?
[00:20:36] He's like a boxer who's been beaten and bruised. And bruised.
[00:20:41] Little Tennessee came out there bruised and he smack talk. It's like Rocky, you know, Rocky 3 gets beat all to heck by Clubber Lang.
[00:20:55] And then in the next fight he's in his face with his gloves down saying, you, you ain't so bad. You ain't so bad. Remember that 80s?
[00:21:05] How does someone do that to death? How does someone say to death, you ain't so bad? Paul would say, to live is Christ, to die is gain. How does he do that? Death is terrifying. And by the way, death has done much to devastate Paul.
[00:21:21] And then Paul would call himself the chief of sinners. So he admits, I'm guilty, I deserve hell.
[00:21:30] He's the one convicted of a crime that deserves a death sentence. And yet he's mocking the evidence here.
[00:21:39] You're not so bad, Death.
[00:21:43] He's not scared of death. To live as Christ, to die as gain.
[00:21:47] Where's your sting, Death? I know, it's the power of the law. Where is it? How does he talk like this? Well, we see in verse 57, God's victory, Jesus, life, death and resurrection. That's how he can talk this way, is because he knows Jesus. Notice verse 57. But thanks be to God. So in light of death's sting, which is sin, which convicts us all, he stops and he says, thanks be to God.
[00:22:16] It's not generic, right? It's not generic. Good vibes, everything's going to work out okay. No, the law devastates. You're a sinner, you're going to hell. There's no way around it. You can't just good vibe that.
[00:22:33] No, he says, thanks be to God, because it is God who does something. Notice. Notice the words. Who gives.
[00:22:42] God does this. And the word gifts points to grace.
[00:22:46] It's something we don't deserve. It's his unmerited favor. We deserve hell, but God gives something different.
[00:22:52] We deserve judgment, but God gives something different.
[00:22:56] You can't achieve it. You can't do it yourself.
[00:23:00] Notice it's the victory through our Lord. Jesus Christ. So Jesus has done something. And it is a victory that he has accomplished that God gives to us.
[00:23:11] So Jesus runs the race and wins.
[00:23:14] So Jesus fights the enemy and wins.
[00:23:19] So Jesus is the one on the podium.
[00:23:22] Jesus is the king that defeats the enemy and takes all the spoils of victory.
[00:23:28] And then God, through him, gives it all to us.
[00:23:33] And it is a victory over death.
[00:23:36] And it's good news because you and I know we can't defeat death.
[00:23:41] When you're lying in your casket, there's nothing you can do. You're dead.
[00:23:47] And you've been in those moments with that loved one where you've wanted to just reach into them and change it.
[00:23:54] You don't have the power over death. You can't do anything about it. So here, notice the verse. God must give the victory. And he has through Jesus Christ. And he's done it in three ways.
[00:24:07] Jesus has neutralized death's poison in three ways. Remember what we've talked about so far. First of all, Jesus takes the power of the law away.
[00:24:17] The condemnation that the law puts on us. He takes it off of us by doing everything the law says. So if the law communicates God is perfect, God is righteous. To get into heaven, you got to be perfect and righteous. Well, Jesus does that.
[00:24:34] Jesus took on flesh and he lived a perfect life. A life you could never live. To sum up the law, it means to love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your mind, all your soul, all your strength, everything you are. You've got to love God and you got to love your neighbor as yourself. None of us have done that. But Jesus, he did it perfectly.
[00:24:52] Why does the Bible record Jesus living a whole life up to 33 years? Why?
[00:24:58] Why don't we just get this over with? He comes at 33 and he dies on the cross and we go to heaven. No, he's living a perfect life.
[00:25:05] He's offering to God an unblemished life.
[00:25:09] So he lives a perfect life that you couldn't live. So he fulfills the law for you.
[00:25:16] And this is why we believe in justification by faith in Christ alone.
[00:25:21] For the one who believes in Jesus, it's not just that your sins are forgiven, you get to go to heaven. You're credited with his life.
[00:25:31] He gives you his life in your account.
[00:25:35] Means you're not just balanced back out to zero.
[00:25:39] No, you're credited with 100% righteousness when you believe in Jesus, as if you've never sinned and you've never disobeyed.
[00:25:48] So Jesus takes The poison of death by obeying for you.
[00:25:52] And then Jesus takes the power of sin away. Number two, by dying in your place. So he lives for you and then he dies for you.
[00:26:00] You see, we got to get this around this time of year, there's a lot of emphasis on the physical pain of Jesus going to the cross, which is true.
[00:26:12] He takes on flesh and he dies in flesh as a substitute. That's got to happen.
[00:26:18] But there's more going on there as we see him choking on his own blood, suffocating on the cross.
[00:26:25] Sometimes when we focus on that and we forget what's going on behind the scenes, because on the cross, Jesus cried out, my God, my God, my Father, why have you forsaken me? So it's not just the physical pain. It he is being forsaken by God the way you and I deserve to be forsaken by God. He is enduring just wrath and judgment of God that you and I deserve. On the cross. He is taking death's stinger and he is injecting himself with it and he is dying under its poison that would kill us.
[00:27:07] And so we come to the cross and we say, the gig's up.
[00:27:11] I'm a sinner. Jesus having to die for me proves it. I've been outed on the cross. I am that bad.
[00:27:17] And we're free to confess that you're here on Sunday and you're in your pastels and all that you're trying to. I'm glad these people don't know who I really am.
[00:27:27] Oh, the cross says the gig's up. You're on blast.
[00:27:32] Jesus died for you. You're really that bad. But guess what? When you believe in Jesus, you. You have been crucified with him, and you've been to hell and back already in him because he died for you. And so you can say with Paul here, death, where's your sting? Where's your sting?
[00:27:53] I'm not going to hell because Jesus died for me. Yeah, all those things you say are true and worse. It's worse.
[00:28:01] I'm worse than you would ever know.
[00:28:05] Oh, Jesus died for me. I've already been damned to hell and buried in him. That is the sting of death being removed from your life.
[00:28:16] The third way Jesus defeats death is he rises from the dead.
[00:28:22] And this is the declaration of death's defeat. That's what Easter is. It's not just some sort of cool sci fi conspiracy thing at this time of year. We get really into all the evidence that demands a verdict and all of that. And all of that's true. It's good. Give yourself over to that. It'll help your faith.
[00:28:43] But it's more than that.
[00:28:45] I want you to get this. Today, Easter is God's declaration that he has accepted Jesus as the payment for your sin.
[00:28:56] That's what he's doing on Easter.
[00:28:59] Jesus is sinless. He dies for your sin. God raises him from the dead because he didn't deserve to die to say, now your sin is forgiven.
[00:29:09] Jesus is raised from the dead by the Father to say, your payment has been made.
[00:29:15] And what that means is, in the tomb on Easter morning, when Jesus eyelids, once matted with blood, began to twitch and the heart in his chest thumps and his lungs are filled with musty air in a Middle Eastern cave, And his bare feet hit the floor and he walked through the opening where the stone was rolled away, he was walking from death to life.
[00:29:56] But here's the important thing for you and I today.
[00:30:00] As he walks through the hole in the ground, he turns to you and I and says, and you can come too.
[00:30:10] I paid for your sin. I lived the life. You can come to.
[00:30:15] You can walk from this sin.
[00:30:18] Cursed death, tomb of a world that will never make you happy, and it will always leave you disappointed because the mold on the wall will ultimately kill you.
[00:30:29] He turns to you and I says, come on. Come on out of the tomb. Believe in me and you can walk from death to life forever and never know death again.
[00:30:40] To have your sins forgiven.
[00:30:43] The venomous serpent that waits at the door has been defanged.
[00:30:47] He can't stop you. Come to life. Come to me.
[00:30:52] Know what it means to be satisfied, to have life beyond this dingy tomb of this world cursed with sin.
[00:31:01] That's what he does for us on Easter.
[00:31:04] And I want to zero in on this. If you would believe in Jesus today, here's what would happen if you said, I can't do this myself. It's his cross, his life, his resurrection, not mine. I'm helpless. When you believe in him and you trust in him alone, the Spirit unites you to him and you are seen as in him forever. That means his life is yours. You're covered in his life, so you stand before the Father. Even though you're guilty, you're covered in Jesus. His cross is yours. You can say, I've already been to hell. I've already endured wrath.
[00:31:38] The cross that becomes yours and Easter is yours.
[00:31:42] You will be busted from your casket one day, just like Jesus when you believe in Him. All that is his and all that he is becomes yours. And that means your righteousness problem that you don't have is solved. That means that your sin problem is solved because he died for your sin. That means your death problem is solved. And that means that your funeral is just a comma in your story. It's not a period.
[00:32:11] Because Easter Resurrection has already gotten the last word. And that's where you're headed.
[00:32:20] What could be more relevant?
[00:32:24] You like to think that there's something out there that's going to make me happy.
[00:32:29] There's something out there that's going to do it. It's going to be this relationship. It's going to be this thing. It's going to make me happy.
[00:32:35] Oh, the promise that you could be a former corpse one day.
[00:32:40] What is more relevant?
[00:32:43] You've caused yourself more pain than anyone else. I've caused myself more pain than anyone else to know that I could have my sins forgiven.
[00:32:55] Death is still painful, but it's not poisonous.
[00:32:58] We're not swelling up and waiting to die for those in Christ. We're waiting to live, truly live with Jesus.
