Scripture: 1st Corinthians 15:51-58
Video Link: https://youtu.be/4Iw4j_DrU6Q
Structure:
- Introduction
- The hope of resurrection
- The work of faith
- Conclusion
Introduction:
Good morning everyone.
Bishop Bill Frey once said: “Hope is hearing the music of the future; faith is dancing to it today.”
I like that. Hope is the capacity to imagine a good future. If you know, by faith, that something good is waiting for you in the future, it gives you positive energy in the present. The name for that positive energy is ‘joy’.
Today we conclude our series in 1st Corinthians 15, where Paul writes about the necessity and certainty of resurrection for the Christian faith. In these verses Paul summarises some of the main points of chapter 15 and he draws a connection between the future hope of resurrection and what that means for Christian faith in the present. From 1st Corinthians 15, verses 51-58, we read…
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 and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labour in the Lord is not in vain.
May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate God’s word for us.
Today’s message is about two things: The hope of resurrection and the work of faith. Bishop Frey used the imagery of music and dancing to describe the dynamic relationship between hope and faith. ‘Hope is hearing the music of the future; faith is dancing to it today.’
We might also use the metaphor of food. Hope feeds faith. Hope is not a quick sugar rush. True hope doesn’t pick you up and then dump you. Real hope is nutritious food for the soul, giving sustained energy over time.
The future hope of resurrection feeds our faith in the present, so we can go the distance in doing the work God has prepared for us as we hold to Christ.
The hope of resurrection:
Does anyone here watch Bear Grylls? He has a TV programme where he takes celebrities on an adventure in the wild. It usually involves doing something risky and eating something disgusting.
In pretty much all the shows I’ve watched, Bear makes a fire to get warm and to cook whatever he happened to find on the trail. But each time he demonstrates a different technique for getting the fire going.
In one episode he said he was going to start a fire using his own pee. It was a mystery to me how he would transform urine into fire. I’m pretty sure pee isn’t flammable, although I’ve never put that to the test.
Long story short, Bear did not pour his urine onto the kindling. Rather he peed into a clear plastic bag and then held the bag of urine up to the sun, refracting the light through his pee, just like you would concentrate light through a magnifying glass. This was enough to ignite some dry grass which he then fed with sticks and logs to get the fire going properly.
From pee to fire. Such a clever transformation. So obvious and simple in hindsight.
From verse 51 Paul reveals the mystery of resurrection. Namely that those who belong to Christ, whether they are sleeping in death or still living when Jesus returns in glory, will be transformed in the blink of an eye.
We might read that and think, how? That seems as unlikely as using pee to start a fire. But for God it is easy. In hindsight, post resurrection, I expect it will be obvious to us all.
As we heard last week, the transformation of resurrection happens to our bodies. The Christian hope of resurrection does not imagine a disembodied soul in the next life. The Christian hope of resurrection includes a transformed body, one that is suited to our new existence in the kingdom of heaven.
Just as a seed is transformed into a plant and a caterpillar is transformed into a butterfly, so too our earthly bodies will be transformed into heavenly bodies, only much quicker. The change is from a body that wears out and dies to a body that doesn’t wear out or die. That is the hope of resurrection for all who belong to Christ.
In 1977 the rock band Queen released a song called We are the champions. It is a victory song, intentionally written for crowd participation. Even now (nearly 50 years later) We are the champions is instantly recognizable and easily sung at sports stadiums around the world.
In verses 54 & 55 Paul offers his own victory song, where he writes: Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O death is your victory? Where O death is your sting?
Paul is referring to Isaiah 25 here, where the prophet says…
7 On this mountain the Lord will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations; 8 he will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove his people’s disgrace from all the earth.
It’s like Paul is saying: through Jesus’ resurrection, we are the champions. Through Jesus’ resurrection, we are on the winning side. Through Jesus’ resurrection, we have the victory over sin and death.
Of course, while it is true that in and through Christ we are the champions, it also needs to be acknowledged that we live in the now but not yet. Yes, Jesus has won the victory over sin and death on the cross. But we haven’t yet fully realized that victory. We still await the final victory when Jesus returns in glory. We are (in a very real sense) on the way to victory.
In verse 56 Paul explains his metaphor saying: The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.
If you think of a scorpion, it is the sting of the scorpion that causes death. Sin is like a scorpion’s sting. Sin leads to death. But if you cut off the tail of a scorpion it cannot sting you, it is essentially harmless. Likewise, if you get rid of sin, then death loses its power and cannot harm you.
Paul also makes a connection between sin and the Law of Moses. Ironically, it is the law which gives sin its power. Romans 7 sheds some light on what Paul means here…
7 What shall we say, then? Is the law sinful? Certainly not! Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” 8 But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of coveting. For apart from the law, sin was dead.
Even though the Law is good, it cannot save us. It can only show us our guilt and accuse us. The thought of having our faults revealed and being judged tends to fill us with fear and dread.
Returning to 1st Corinthians 15: To keep it simple, with the return of Jesus, death is destroyed and sin can no longer touch us. Through Jesus, we have victory over death. Knowing that, one day, God will destroy death in all its many forms gives us something good to look forward to; it gives us hope and that hope feeds our faith, it helps us to obey God in the present.
This hope of transformation through resurrection is not a long shot. It is not like the hope of maybe winning Lotto one day. For those who belong to Jesus, the hope of resurrection is a sure thing because it doesn’t depend on luck or our own ability or goodness.
Our hope of resurrection depends on what Jesus has already accomplished through his own death and resurrection.
One thing we notice as we read these closing verses from 1st Corinthians 15 is that Paul doesn’t play the fear card. Paul keeps it positive. Paul doesn’t threaten his readers with hellfire and brimstone. He doesn’t say, turn or burn. Paul uses the carrot and not the stick.
Some of us may have become Christians out of fear, because we wanted to avoid the pain and torment of hell (as our uninformed minds imagine it). God is gracious and he will still accept you on the basis of wanting to avoid hell but really a relationship which is based on fear is not ideal.
It’s not what God wants. God is love and he would prefer that our relationship with him be based on faith, hope and love, not fear.
Hope feeds faith like a river waters the land or like bread nourishes the body. And our faith needs to be fed and watered if we are to find the strength to do the work God has prepared for us. And what is that work? Our work is to believe in the one God has sent, to believe in Jesus.
The work of faith:
Recently I came across a short story by JRR Tolkien (of Lord of the Rings fame). The story is called ‘Leaf by Niggle’.
Niggle is an artist who lives in a society that does not value art. This does not stop Niggle from painting though. He loves beauty and painting for its own sake. Niggle is a perfectionist and spends many hours over the details.
He has a vision of a great tree with a forest and mountains in the background. But Niggle is better at painting leaves than he is at painting trees. He is always reaching to capture his grand vision of the tree but never quite getting there. Part of the problem is that Niggle has many mundane chores that prevent him from devoting his time fully to his master piece.
To make matters worse, Niggle has a kind heart and is not able to turn away from his neighbour in need. His neighbour, Parish, is lame and Parish’s wife is sick. When Parish’s roof starts leaking Niggle is imposed upon to help. In the process Niggle catches a chill and dies before he can finish his painting.
After Niggle dies, the precious canvas on which he painted his tree is used to cover the roof of his neighbour’s house and is all but ruined, except for a small corner which has a perfectly painted leaf on it. The ‘Leaf by Niggle’ is put in a museum but after a while the museum burns down and Niggle’s painted leaf is destroyed. Niggle is soon forgotten by the people of this world.
In the afterlife, Niggle hears two voices. The voice of Justice and the voice of Mercy. Justice and Mercy are debating with each other about what should become of Niggle. The severe voice of Justice talks about how Niggle wasted his life and was always distracted, never accomplishing much. He never finished his painting of the tree.
But Mercy, a strong but gentle voice, points out that Niggle was kind hearted and helped his neighbour in need. What’s more, Niggle did not paint for fame or money. He painted for the love of art and beauty. Mercy and Justice agree to send Niggle to a kinder place for ‘a little gentle treatment’.
When Niggle arrives in the heavenly country he finds the tree in his vision, the tree he had been trying to paint all his earthly life. Except now the tree is alive, it is not just a painting. And behind it is the forest and the mountains he had imagined on earth.
Parish joins Niggle in the afterlife and together they work to make this good place even better. The place is named “Niggle’s Parish” and becomes a garden of healing for people as they make their transition into eternity.
Most of us can identify with Niggle. We all have a dream or a vision of what we hope to accomplish in this life but none of us seem to be able to fulfill our aspirations. The demands and interruptions of this world get in the way, as do the limits of our skill and capacity. This life becomes marked by frustration, bitterness and gall until we find ourselves asking, what is the point?
I like Tolkien’s story though, because it is hopeful. It reminds us this life is not all there is. It imagines a future in which our efforts in this life are not wasted but put to good use in the next life.
Said another way, our purest aspirations in work will come to complete fruition in God’s future. In paradise, the work you do will be useful, bringing you (and others) joy and satisfaction. You will not be frustrated by a lack of time or ability, for you will perform with all the skill you can imagine. [1]
Some might hear Tolkien’s story of Niggle and think: ‘Phew, the pressure is off. I can cruise through this life and it doesn’t matter too much because it will all be sorted in the next life.’ Well, that’s not the point of the story. Nor is that what Paul is saying in 1st Corinthians 15.
In verse 58, Paul writes…
Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labour in the Lord is not in vain.
Some in the church in Corinth were saying there is no resurrection of the dead. Paul counters this by encouraging the Corinthians to stand firm in their belief in the resurrection. Let nothing move you; let nothing shift your hope in the resurrection, because those who hold to their faith in the risen Jesus will realise the deeper meaning and purpose of their life.
The hope of resurrection is not supposed to make us complacent or apathetic. The hope of resurrection is supposed to inspire and energize our work of faith in this world. What we do in this life matters for eternity because it is not just our bodies which are transformed and resurrected. The fruits of our labours in the Lord are also transformed and resurrected.
Whatever you do in love and faith in this life, bears abundant fruit in eternity. In fact, we could think of the faith and love we share in this life as an investment paying dividends in heaven.
As Jesus says in Matthew 6…
19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Where is the treasure of your hope? What vision of the future captivates your heart?
Conclusion:
Given that hope feeds faith, how then do we get a seat at the restaurant of hope? By holding fast to our belief in the resurrection of Jesus and taking time to feed our mind and soul on what we know of resurrection life from the Bible.
Over the past few weeks we have done just that…
In the resurrection those who abide in Christ will be given new supernatural bodies. Bodies that do not get sick or wear out or fail. Bodies that are well suited to eternity. Let the hope of a resurrected and transformed body feed your faith and your soul.
In the resurrection those who abide in Christ will receive a share in God’s kingdom. We will enjoy a paradise in which God’s will is always done perfectly. A place of joy and peace and abundance. No more poverty. No more grief. No more homelessness or war. Plenty of good things to go around for everyone.
Let the hope of heaven coming to earth motivate you to love your neighbour and care for the environment.
In the resurrection those who abide in Christ will experience the redemption of their life’s work. Your purest aspirations in work will come to complete fruition in God’s future. The work you do will become useful and satisfying. Your true calling will not be frustrated by a lack of time or ability.
Let the hope of having your life’s work fulfilled and made fruitful sustain your labour in the Lord now.
In the resurrection those who abide in Christ will be reunited with loved ones who are also in Christ. Parents who have lost children too soon will see them again. Orphans deprived of their parents’ time & love will be cared for. You who are widows and widowers will meet your husbands and wives once more.
Let the hope of restored and properly functioning relationships inspire you to be kinder, more patient, more honest, more gracious and more forgiving with those near to you today.
But the greatest hope, the most nourishing hope, of resurrection is the indescribable joy of intimacy with God. The ravages of loneliness in this world will pass like a bad dream. In the resurrection we will be so close to God, so immersed in his love, that we will know instinctively what the Lord wants and be willing and able to do it.
Let the hope of intimacy with God fill you with wonder so that your soul overflows with whole hearted worship and praise.
“Hope is hearing the music of the future; faith is dancing to it today.”
May the music of heaven give you the rhythm and joy you need to dance through this life. Amen.
Questions for discussion or reflection:
What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?
- Discuss / reflect on Bishop Frey’s quote: “Hope is hearing the music of the future; faith is dancing to it today.” What does this mean? What does this say about the relationship between hope and faith?
- What does Paul mean when he says, ‘the sting of death is sin and the power of sin is death’?
- Why does Paul focus on the hope of resurrection (rather than the fear of hell)? What is your relationship with God based on? Does anything need to change?
- How do you feel hearing Tolkien’s story about Niggle? In what ways does the story ‘Leaf by Niggle’ relate to 1st Corinthians 15:58?
- What does it mean to share faith and love in this life? How might we do this?
- Where is the treasure of your hope? What vision of the future captivates your heart? How does the hope of resurrection influence your faith in the present?
[1] Timothy Keller, ‘Every Good Endeavour’, page 96.
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