Sunday 20th April 2025

Jamie Boland

The Undoing Of Death

1 Corinthians 15:1-8

This Bible reading is from one Corinthians chapter 15 verses one to eight. Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preach to you. Which you received and on which you have taken your stand by this gospel. You are saved if you hold firmly to the word I preach to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain for what I received.

I passed on to you as a first importance that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. That he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter and then to the 12. After that, he appeared to more than 500 of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living those, some have fallen asleep.

Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all, he appeared to me also as to one abnormally born.

Thank you, Wendy. I think I would've struggled to read after watching that. I was quite emotional. I'm sure some of us were. So let me say this once more for the benefit of the camera. It's gonna be on YouTube. Jesus is risen. He is risen. Amen. Amen. The title of our message today is The Undoing of Death.

Let's pray.

Father, we just stand in awe amazed. Jesus Christ gave his life for us. The darling of heaven was crucified to bring many sons to glory. Father, we thank you for his supreme sacrifice, his death for us. That we could stand in your presence, be filled with your spirit, be called sons and daughters of the most high God.

Father, we thank you for this wonderful glorious truth that Jesus Christ is alive forever. He will be alive, reigning forever more at your side. Father, we pray. Bless this time to us now in your word. In his name, amen. Amen. I want you to put yourself in the, the place of the disciples. Imagine their situation.

It's three o'clock on Friday. We call it Good Friday, but it wasn't looking too good from where they were standing. Events have unfolded at breakneck speed. Things have happened so quickly, they don't even know where to begin. The night before Jesus had washed their feet and then together they've shared a Passover meal.

And perhaps they're thinking at that time, is this the time that Jesus is gonna finally reveal himself as king? Is this the time when he's gonna lead God's people into the glorious freedom of which the prophets had smoke spoken? But at that moment, you are. You're standing there. Jesus is dead. Your experience is one of despair and blackness.

You're numb, you're lost, and you are thinking, God, what has just happened? God, with everything that is just unfolded. God, what is happening from where you're standing? There is no human hope left. It seems like Satan has had his way, the long awaited Messiah. He's died, the despise death of a common criminal.

Nothing we can do as his disciples can bring him back. And here we are standing. We are left in the wreckage, in the darkness, in the silence, and there is nothing that can rebuild this wreckage. Nothing that can lighten this darkness. Nothing that can break this silence. Nothing except an act of God. This is the space between Good Friday and Easter.

Now we know how the story unfolded. Yeah. The church only exists because Jesus Christ rose from the dead. The church was built around this proclamation that Jesus Christ has defeated death. We are fortunate enough to stand on this other side of Easter, and so we don't experience that same darkness and despair that disciples felt.

But this doesn't mean that our lives are any less difficult. We still struggle with sin. We still wrestle with feelings of forgiveness. We face uncertainty. We face moments that leave us wondering where is our hope? And everyone is, every single one of us here is still confronted with the specter of death.

Easter is about good news, and the good news is the resurrection of Jesus Christ speaks into all of these things. What I want to do today is focus on two separate things that flow out of Easter. The first one is hope. The second one is assurance. Let's think first about hope. In our reading today that Wendy brought the Apostle Paul, he speaks of what is most importance and what he calls this message of first importance that Christ died according to the scriptures for our sins.

That he was buried, that he was raised on the third day, and that he appeared to many. He didn't just appear to a few people. He appeared to many. Now we can read this and it sounds like really good theology, but can I tell you it's much more than that. This is hope. This is life one Corinthians 15. It's this long chapter and what Paul does, he draws out many wonderful truths about resurrection hope.

Let me pick up from verse 14. Paul says, if Christ has not been raised. Our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. Can you see how Paul doesn't mince his words? If Jesus didn't rise from the dead, then our hope is empty and our faith is in vain, and much worse than that, death still reigns.

Continues, unchecked, unabated. It just consumes everything in its past and it seems to have the final say and understand Paul isn't trying to discourage us. He's trying, in fact, to do the opposite. What he wants us to do is think deeply about how powerful the resurrection is. Paul then goes on to say in verse 19.

If only for this life, we have hope in Christ. We of all people are most to be pitied. Christianity rises and falls on the resurrection. If Jesus didn't rise from the dead, then everything we do as believers, if worship our prayers, our trust, it's all meaningless. Everything we do. If Jesus didn't rise from the dead, we are simply wasting our lives.

But the resurrection did happen and because it did, our faith is not empty and our hope is not in vain because death is not the end. Can I tell you? A lot of people talk about the Christian faith as being blind. Faith. That is not true. We do not cling to a maybe kind of faith. We are standing on a sure and living hope.

Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, and this is where Paul lands in verse 20. He says, the Christ has indeed been raised from the dead. The first fruits of those who have fallen asleep for since death came through a man. The resurrection of the dead also comes through a man. For as in Adam, all die. So in Christ, all will be made alive.

But each in turn, Christ the first fruits. Then when he comes, those who belong to him. Now you can see I've highlighted this phrase. First fruits basically means that what happened to Jesus is just the beginning. His resurrection is a preview of what's to come for every single person who believes in him.

Now, a simple way to remember it is this, what happened to him? Will one day happen to us? What happened to him will happen to us. Death could not hold him down, and it will not hold us down either. Praise God as the first fruits, Jesus is the first to rise from the dead, and the point of the first fruits is that there will be many, many more.

You pluck the fruit, the first fruits, it's the first of a great harvest, and that great harvest will be that day when those who belong to Jesus are raised to new life just as he was. The good news of the resurrection is that we get new bodies. Who wants a new body? Yes. I notice the young people don't put their hands up.

They're still moving into their prime. Now think about this. Our bodies bear witness that we are slowly dial dying. Yes, our joints ache. Our backs hurt. Our eyesight is fading. I just got a new prescription. For some of us, our hearing is gone. Exactly. We've got to get up at 3:00 AM to go to the toilet and 4:00 AM now I'm speaking here about you, not me.

The point is we are in a state of decay. Death is at work in us, but death does not have the final say. What happened to Jesus will happen to us. He is the first fruits of a whole new creation. And for him that new creation was a glorious resurrected body. Listen to how Paul expresses his hope in Romans chapter eight.

We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves who have the first fruits of the spirit, we groan inwardly. I can hear some of you groaning. We groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship the redemption of our bodies for in this hope we were saved.

So what's the hope that's expressed here? New bodies. These bodies in which we now experience physical death will one day be redeemed. When Jesus comes in the blink of an eye, we will be transformed. Isn't that great news? The Apostle John spoke of this. He said, dear friends, now we are children of God and what we will be has not yet been made known, but we know, we know.

How do we know the resurrection? We know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him for, for we shall see him as he is. Now you can see the words I've highlighted now and not yet. This is the whole shape of New Testament, what we call eschatology. Something has happened now, but we await something that is not yet a future fulfillment.

Now we are children of God. We're born again. We have the first fruits of the spirit, but we await a glorious resurrected body now, but. Not yet. We're gonna talk a little bit more about this next week. Most of us here are physically struggling in one way or another, and so a glorious resurrected body is indeed good news.

The bad news is we have to wait, and as we wait, we groan. We groan because our bodies will still break down because death is still at work in us. We're still subject to death. Paul says. For As in Adam, all Die. Sow in Christ, all will be made alive. Now, I shared about this two weeks ago, death entered this world as a consequence of human choice.

It was an alien intrusion into God's good world. God makes this world and everything he's made is what? It's good. It's very good. And then sin enters through human choice. Death came through one man, Adam, and life, eternal life also comes through one man, Jesus Christ. The unavoidable reality of life is this.

People die. Death and taxes, they're the two certainties in life. Everybody dies and because of this, we live in a time when people just think, Hey, death. It's just a natural part of life. It's just the way things are. We are born, we live, we die. Let me say this. Death may now be a normal part of life, but it is not a natural part of life.

It is never something that God intended to reign over us in. Paul. Instead, Paul says, it's an enemy that needs to be destroyed. An enemy is not something you want in your life. Yeah. We were never meant to be comfortable with death. It is an enemy that stands in stark contrast to all of God's purposes. The Bible tells us precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.

Do you see what that says? We had a funeral here a couple of weeks ago. Well, last week people mourn when someone dies. Can I tell you, God himself grieves when people die. Do you see this? Precious in the side of the Lord is the death of his saints. God grieves when his people die. Now, this is something we see vividly in John chapter 11.

We know the story. Jesus has a friend named Lazarus. Lazarus has died. His sisters Martha and Mary. They'd sent word to him saying, Lord, the one you love is sick. Now they believe Jesus. He can heal the sick. They've seen it and so they send a messenger. Lord, the one you love is sick. Come, Lord come. But Jesus delays.

In fact, we know he deliberately delays. Now, can you imagine how that felt for them? We're on the other side of this story. We know what's happened. Can you imagine the space that they're in? Why hasn't Jesus come? Understand their emotions, the disappointment, the confusion, the feeling of being forgotten.

And we're asking all these questions, you know what's going on? And these are questions we can ask when we are going through stuff as well. Have you ever asked God, where are you when I hurt? Why didn't you stop this? God, can't you see what's happening in my life? And these are honest questions. Questions we wrestle with.

Can I tell you? They're questions that God welcomes. It's not a lack of faith to question because you bring those questions to him. By the time Jesus arrives at their home, Lazarus has been dead four days. Now that's four long days of mourning their beloved brother through tears of anguish. His sister Martha says, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.

Jesus, if you would come on time, he would not have died.

Can you see though, you know she believes in Jesus. She knows he has the power to heal the sick, but right now she's hurting. She's hurting. She needs this outlet, Lord, where were you? You could have done something about this. Do you know? As he's standing outside the tomb of Lazarus, Jesus knows that just by saying the word, he's friend will once more be alive, and this is why he came.

In fact, this is the very reason he delayed. And yet despite knowing what's about to happen, he doesn't dismiss Martha's sorrow. He allows her to speak. We're then told that Martha's sister Mary, she fell at his feet weeping Now, now get this picture. It's a picture of grief, unrestrained, this display of uncontrolled emotion, and John tells us that Jesus was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled.

Three times. It says this, not once, not twice, but three times. Some translations say that Jesus was moved with indignation. Others say that this deep anger welled up inside of him. It's welling up within him. You see, Jesus is there and he's angry That death has taken his friend and he's angry that it broke the hearts of those who have gathered there to mourn him.

Precious in the side of the Lord is the death of his saints, and John says, Jesus. Wept. Now, these two simple words, they remind us that our savior understands grief. He knows what it means to feel pain, and he is moved by our pain. When you hurt, he's hurting there with you. Do you believe that? He's not indifferent.

He's not removed. He's there with you and he grieves with you. He feels your pain. Yes. And even though he holds power over death, death is not something he's comfortable with. So, you know, he could have simply allayed all their fears and said, Hey guys, cheer up. Everything's gonna be okay. Hey, Lazarus, come.

But that's not what we see. Jesus doesn't trivialize the moment. Instead he enters their grief. Death is an enemy that causes heartache and pain even to the son of God. Are you getting this? Lord, where were you Lord? Why didn't you stop this? You know, Jesus never answers Martha's question. Instead he responds with a powerful promise.

He says, I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live even though they die. And whoever lives by believing in me will never die. This is our hope, though. We die, yet we will live. Death will not rain. You know, Jesus stood at that tomb of Lazarus and he declared victory over death.

But can I tell you, talk is cheap. So he proved it. He raises Lazarus and then he goes into death and he conquers it himself. And the resurrection of Jesus gives us hope. Why? Because what happened to him will one day happen to us? For those who put their trust in Jesus, birth life and death is not the full story in Christ.

We are born, we live, we die. We truly live. But for now, we groan. Yes, it would be nice if God intervened in our time and in the way we'd prefer, but that's not what we see in this story because that's not the promise of God. The promise is that one day though we die, yet we will live. This is the hope that Easter brings.

Amen. We should say Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hall, let's talk now about assurance. I'm gonna change direction. And when I speak of assurance, I mean the assurance of forgiveness. Let's go back to one Corinthians chapter 15. I'm gonna read from verse 17. If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile. You are still in your sins.

Then those who are sorry, then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ. They're lost. They're gone. If only for this life, we have hope in Christ. We are of all people most to be pitied. What's the root cause of death? Sin. Okay. If you sin you die. Death had no power, death had no hold on Jesus. Why? 'cause he's without sin.

But if death has been defeated, then it naturally means that sin has been dealt with. Are you following that? If death has been defeated, then it means that sin has been dealt with. And so Paul argues, if Jesus has not been raised, then we're still in a world with sin reigns and this foundational Christian life, a, a belief that God has dealt with sins in Christ is based on thin air, and that's nothing more than wishful thinking.

So in what way does the resurrection assure us that sin has been dealt with? I want us to consider a single verse from the book of Romans that speaks into this. It's Romans chapter four, verse 25. Paul writes, he Jesus was delivered over to death. Now, the Greek grammar here has a divine passive of meaning.

The one doing the delivering is God. It's a divine passive. It's not directly stated, but it's God doing the delivering. Okay. He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification. Now, usually Paul speaks of the cross as the place where we're justified, but here he says that the resurrection is for our justification.

What I'm gonna do, I'm gonna unpack this verse. I'll start with this word delivered over. Lemme press my button. It's a single word in the Greek, the word paradime, it means to hand over, to deliver or to betray. It indicates the act of transferring someone or something to the care power, or jurisdiction of another.

Now, it's interesting 'cause this Greek word is used three times in the gospels in connection to the Easter story. It's used first in relation to Judas Iscariot. Judas delivers over. The word paraia, Jesus to the chief priest for 30 pieces of silver. Now, some people have questioned, why does Judas do this?

Why does he deliver him over? Now, one theory, and that's just a theory, is that he really did believe Jesus is Israel's Messiah, and that somehow he might force Jesus' hand to stand up revolt against Rome. Okay, now picture this for Judas. The time is right, it's Passover. Hundreds of thousands of Jews they've swelled into Jerusalem.

What are they celebrating? The deliverance of Israel from the hands of Egypt. So you know, God is sovereignly supernaturally, you know, set them free from the hands of this oppressive superpower. And so naturally, now's the perfect time for Messiah to stand up and deliver God's people from the hands of Roman oppression.

And Judas is thinking, well, Jesus is not moving according to my time table. I need to speed things up a little. So what he does is he hands him over to the religious authorities. You know, perhaps he's hoping Jesus is gonna rise up, fulfill this expectation to deliver God's people. Instead, what we see is his actions with the beginning of the events that would lead to Jesus' death.

In Matthew chapter 26, we read. Then Judas Iscariot went to the chief priest and asked, what are you willing to give me if I deliver him over to you? That's that Greek word, paradime. So they counted out for him 30 pieces of silver. From then on, Judas watch for an opportunity to hand him over. So that word is used twice in this verse, these verses.

Now, this same word is also used in connection with the chief priests. John Chapter 11, after Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead, the religious leaders, they meet together and they plot to have Jesus killed the end of chapter. They have a meeting of the Sanhedrin, and this is what they say. Here is this man performing many miraculous signs.

If we let him go on like this, everyone's gonna believe in him, and then the Romans are gonna come take away both our place and our nation. Do you see the problem for them? Jesus is too popular. If things continue this way, we all lose better that one man die than the whole nation perish. Judas hands Jesus over to the religious leaders.

They try him. They consider him worthy of death. In Matthew chapter 27, we read. Early in the morning, all the chief priests and the elders of the people made their plans to have Jesus executed, so they bound him, let him away, and handed him over to Pilate. There's another use of that word. We know what Pilate does four times he declares that, you know, Hey, this guy's innocent.

He doesn't want anything to do with him. Tries to release him. Eventually, though he caves in, gives into their request. The religious leaders in Matthew 27 26, it says, Pilate released Barabbas to them, but he had Jesus flogged and what handed him over to be crucified. So here we see this word, paradime.

It's used three times in connection with the Easter story. Each group has handed Jesus over for their own different reason. You know, Judas perhaps wants Jesus to rise up, reveal himself as Messiah. The religious leaders, they want to keep their positions of power and authority, and poor pilot just wants to keep the peace and keep his job.

Now when you look at Easter from this vantage point, it can be very easy to see that it's these human actors who are forcing events and calling the shots. Yeah, we're the ones that are doing things. Judas hands him over, the priests, hand him over, pil, hands him over. We're in control. Good Friday is our doing.

Can I tell you that's not true? They're not calling the shots. Who's in control here? God's in control and he had a very different reason for Good Friday. Let's look again at the first part of Romans chapter four, verse 25. He was delivered over to death for what? For our sins. Judas Pilate, the religious leaders, they've all got their own reasons for handing him over so too does God.

He was handed over to death for our sins. Now, here's something interesting. This Greek word mite. It's also used twice in the the Greek translation of Isaiah 53. Now, you can open your Bibles in the English. It's not immediately evident, but the Greek translation reads Isaiah 53 6, the Lord has delivered him up for our sins.

His soul was delivered up to death. Now, understand, this is a prophecy made 700 years before the birth of Jesus Christ, and it's making one thing clear. That it's God and God alone who's orchestrating the events of Good Friday? Not Judas. Not Pilate, not the religious leaders. God foretold that this is what he would do.

It was his will to crush him for our iniquities. Who delivered him up? Yahweh delivered him up. Let's now look at the second part of chapter four, verse 25. He was delivered over to death for our sins. That's the first day of Easter. The second day, he was raised to life for our justification. Now, as I said earlier, Paul, you know, normally says justification is affected by the cross, but here he says it's the resurrection.

That's for our justification. And so the question is, what does he mean? Now, I think a clue lies in the events of Yom Kippur. You know what Yom, Yom Kippur is? What do we call it in English? The day of Atonement. Okay, let me bring up a diagram of the tent of meeting. Now, I'm assuming most of us are familiar with the tent of meeting the tabernacle, the Old Testament priesthood, Levitical system.

Now you can probably see, you've got the, the altar where the, the place where they wash the bronze altar, where there's some sacrifices made. And this is the tent of meeting. Okay? Only certain people can go in there. Only certain people can be inside the perimeter. Most of the nation is outside and only, well, the priests can go into one part, but only the high priest on one day of the year can access the presence of God.

Now, for the high priest to enter God's presence, what does he have to do? He has to do certain things. He first has to present a sacrifice for the sin of the nation. Okay, but there's a strict process to follow, firstly. He has to wash himself. He has to be clean. Then he's gotta put on these special robes.

He would then sacrifice a ball for his own sins. The high priest would then enter the holy, uh, the most holy place, which as we know, was a separate part or separate area in the tabernacle. Now, once inside, he would sprinkle blood on the arc of the covenant. Now the blood is a reminder of what. That something or someone has to die 'cause that's the penalty of sin.

He would then come outside the tent, take two goats. The first goat is what? The scapegoat. The other would be taken inside the tent, kill on the altar. After this, the high priest would return to the most holy place, this enclosed area within the tabernacle, and he would spread the goat's blood on the cover of the arc.

Now this is for the sin of the people. Now during this time, the high priest is all alone inside the tent. People see him go in and they won't see him again until when after he comes back out. Everything he does inside that tent is sight unseen. Now, if the high priest presents himself before God without the ceremonial washing, without a sacrifice for his own sin, sin, then he can't stand in the presence of God.

Yeah, he's gonna go in. But he's not gonna come back out. He has to do things God's way, otherwise he's gonna die. But if he does it the way the law requires of him, then he can stand before God, offer a sacrifice for the sin of the people. Now here's the point. As he's doing this, the people are standing outside the tent.

You've got some priests that are in here. Most of the people are outside here. They know it's the Day of Atonement. They know what's going on.

So he goes in, he makes a sacrifice for the sin of the people they see nothing. At what point do they know their sins forgiven? At what point do they know that God has accepted their sacrifice for sin? Is it some kind of special feeling they get? No, they know they're forgiven. The moment the high priest comes out of that tent.

Because you can't enter the presence of God and come back out unless you've done everything you know the way it's prescribed by the law. If he doesn't do it right, if he doesn't do it God's way, then he's not coming back out at all. Can you see how this entire system was pointing forward to Jesus? Hmm.

Can you see how you know this picture that God has painted through the events of Yom Kippur, Jesus has lived his entire life in accordance with God's law. And at his, at his death, what does he do? He enters the real, most holy place. He goes into the presence of the Father in heaven, and he stands there and he says, father, I'm not here for me.

I'm here for them. What does a priest do? They mediate on behalf of others, and Jesus stands before the Father in heaven. And he says, father, forgive them. Father accept my sacrifice for their sin. And how do we know that the father accepts the death of Jesus for our sin? We know because that in death he goes into the presence of God and he comes back out the other side.

Are you following this? Is this clear? Yes. Just as the high priest goes in and comes back out, Jesus goes into the presence, the real, most holy place before God as a sacrifice for human sin. How do we know that sacrifice is forgiven? He comes back out the other side. He enters death. He has risen again. The resurrection is to tell us to confirm that sin has been a tone for and that we stand forgiven.

God could have said, I accept your sacrifice. Jesus, sit at my right hand, but we'd never know that we're forgiven. Does that follow? Yeah. It's a confirmation. We stand forgiven. We're justified before God. We've been made righteous. The very next verse in Romans is chapter five, verse one. It says this, therefore, since we've been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, listen to this language through whom we have gained access into this grace in which we now stand.

That is tabernacle language. The high priest has access into the presence of God through Jesus, through grace, by faith, we now access God's presence. Jesus has made a way, so we have assurance. The resurrection confirms that sin has been dealt with. There's now no condemnation for those in Christ, and we have hope because sin has been dealt with death's, been defeated, and we have eternal life.

Death has been undone. This is the good news of Easter. Let's pray.

Father, we thank you as we sang earlier, what? What should I gain from his? What? Reward. I cannot have an answer. Your dying breath has brought us life. Jesus. We know that it is finished. The resurrection confirms that you died a death for sins, once for all the righteous, for the unrighteous to bring us to God.

Father, we thank you that death doesn't have the final say, and that though we will die, yet we will live. Father, we thank you that we can begin to enjoy the fruit of eternal life even now through your spirit in us. Holy Spirit, may we once again this Easter, surrender our lives to Jesus. That Christ may be formed in us, the hope of glory and that you would be exalted in our lives.

In His name we pray, amen.