Victory In Jesus (Part 1)

Thanks for tuning in to No Compromise Radio with pastor and author, Dr. Mike Avendrop. Today on No Compromise Radio, we'll be hearing Pastor Mike open the Word of God in a recent message he preached at Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston, Massachusetts.

Now let's join Pastor Mike in progress as he preaches through the Scriptures verse-by-verse with No Compromise.

The Need for Resurrection and the Question of Changed Bodies

Well, it wasn't that long ago when I was in Zambia, Africa and I was talking to a group of pastors, about 150 pastors, about preaching. I said, you know, it's interesting, our charismatic friends will raise hands during songs and I said, but, you know, as long as I've been preaching for 15 years, during public Scripture reading or preaching, I've never looked out and seen somebody raise their hand while I was preaching.

Maybe they wanted to ask me a question, but it wasn't a holy hand regarding worship. So we talked and then we went and had lunch and I came back for the next session that afternoon and I began to preach and I was reading the Bible and all of a sudden I looked up and there were 150 guys going like this.

I thought, that is awesome. This passage today is going to make you want to do that very thing. Turn your Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 15, victory in Christ Jesus. Victory over death, victory over sin, victory over the law.

When Jesus returns, how will your body be changed so that it is fit for heaven? That's exactly what Paul is talking about in 1 Corinthians 15. Today verses 50 through, we'll probably get through about 57.

Victory in Christ Jesus. Remember if you go back to verse 12 of the same chapter, people were asking a question. What were they asking? Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?

People were saying, you know when your body dies, that's it. Maybe you have a spirit that goes into heaven, maybe that continues on, but your body can't go to heaven. The body that you put in a ground and it's corrupting, that body can't go to heaven.

Paul says, listen, Jesus was raised from the dead. You follow Christ as he raises you from the dead. If you take a look at verse 3 of the same chapter, 1 Corinthians 15 verse 3, for I deliver to you as of first importance.

Everything in the Bible is important. Some things are most important and this is a particular truth that falls into that category. What I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures and that he appeared to many.

So big picture 1 Corinthians, Paul is writing to this church and he's saying, of course your bodies can be raised from the dead because Jesus was raised from the dead. And then they begin asking questions.

What will that body look like? How will it function? Will we recognize the body? And so Paul is working through these issues. The question is, what about people not whose bodies are in the ground? They've already died, their spirits with God, they're waiting for their bodies.

That's not the question anymore. In chapter 15 verses 50 to 58, here's the question. When Jesus comes back and some people are still alive, what will happen to their bodies? What will happen to those who are alive at Christ's coming?

Will there have to be a change? And that's exactly what we're going to look at today. Your body goes to heaven. The dead bodies are changed, that's what Paul talks about in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. They're not of disadvantage because their bodies in the ground, their spirits in heaven.

They'll get their bodies, glorified bodies. And if some of us make it till the Lord's return, we will have our bodies changed as well. Now looking at you as a congregation, and I know I'm looking at you through my eyes that aren't so good anymore.

Our bodies, friends, aren't good enough to inherit heaven. I know some of you think you have, you know, you're fairly attractive or fairly handsome or fairly pretty. But the older you get, you realize this body can't make it to heaven.

And so today we're going to do this. In verses 50 through 53, we'll set up the passage, the need for a transformation, this necessity for transformation. And then we're going to hit verses 54 and following which just end up being a praise unto God.

Paul is so thankful that he just praises God. This is good for you if your body's decaying, if you're older, if you buried a loved one lately or will in the future. You're going to be happy to see these verses that Jesus is victorious over death, over sin, over Satan, over the law.

And Paul can't stand it. He is so thankful. By the way, this is good for us because some of us are fairly dour people, fairly sour people, fairly down people. I heard one man said that, you know, if you're a Christian, you've been forgiven all your sins and you just don't come across as a rejoicing person.

Maybe you should send a missionary to your face. These verses serve as the missionary that need to get sent to your face. I'm not after externals only, but the deep abiding joy that Paul has, I think is pretty contagious.

I think he's so happy and so excited that there's victory. Think about all the places in the world where there's loss. Football loss, baseball loss, family loss, financial loss, and the biggest loss of all, death.

Paul is going to tell us that praise is the response to the fact that we get our bodies raised from the dead. Whether we die, God raises our bodies, or whether we're alive and God changes our bodies. Verse 50, let's take a look at why we need transformation.

Verse 50, I tell you this, brothers, and Paul is introducing this topic. It's an important topic, that's the way he talks when he wants to emphasize something. I tell you this, brothers. Flesh and blood, Jewish idiom for our nature that's frail, that's passing away, it's ephemeral, it's weak, it's sinful.

This kind of flesh and blood, he's not talking about blood like platelets. But this flesh and blood here cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Our bodies are not fit for heaven.

The best body builder, the prettiest model, their bodies aren't good enough to go to heaven. Paul says we are weak, that's what flesh and blood means. We're aging, we're breaking down. This is not the body that inherits heaven.

What's the thing that you see at the beach, the sign at the beach, at the store? No shirt, no shoes, no what? No service or no admittance. No change of body, no admittance to heaven. We've got to trade in these bodies and they're going to have to be upgraded.

Paul goes on and he says in verse 51, what's going to happen to living believers when Christ returns? What happens to their bodies? We just looked at in previous passages what happens to the dead body in the ground.

What about the living body? What about translating bodies? Dead bodies can't make it to heaven without being changed and neither can living bodies either. Verse 51. Behold, or literally look, listen. Grabbing the reader's attention.

I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep. A nice euphemism for Christians who die, only used of Christians. They're dead but terminology here is just sleep, used many times even in this chapter. But we will all be changed.

So to go to heaven, your body has to be changed. And it's a mystery. What is a mystery? Mysterious, kind of spooky truth. No, mystery in the Bible is simply this. Something that God knows that we couldn't know until God tells us.

And so you look at the Old Testament. What about the resurrection of the dead? Not much is told about the resurrection of the dead. The resurrection of the dead is not mentioned much in the Old Testament.

Daniel 12, yes, and some other illustrations. But this mystery that was covered in the Old Testament, now Paul says, I'm going to tell you. Here's the mystery. I'm going to disclose to you what's going to happen.

We won't all die, the text says, or sleep, but we shall all be changed. Can you think in the Old Testament? Somebody that was just walking along in their body, alive, and then God just beams them straight up to heaven.

Okay, forget the beaming part. I'm a person of my culture that they're translated to heaven. All of a sudden they're in a chariot, and the next thing you know, vroop up to heaven with their body. Elijah, right?

And who's the other person? Just walking along with God, and he walked with God, and then one day God took him. Enoch. So see, there's some vestiges of this kind of thing in the Old Testament, but we really don't know much about it.

One day the guy's just walking with God, the next day he's in heaven. Two saints were caught up. What about people today? And Paul says, here's the mystery unveiled. Not everybody is going to die. One day Jesus is going to come back.

For Paul, he thought about the imminent return of Christ. He thought this could happen any time, this could be very soon. Paul didn't make it. We might not make it, but there will be Christians sometime, either some of us or in the future, who will be alive when Jesus comes back.

Now you say, okay, here we go, pre-trib, post-trib, defib, there's all kinds of things going on. Paul isn't stressing here the exact timing, when it's right. When the timing is pre-trib, post-trib, second coming.

That's not his point. His point is this, because I don't want you to make that the major point of the passage and miss the real major point. Some people at the end of the world will be alive. And God will take them up, they won't die.

They're not going to die, they're going to be changed. A transformation at the time of the Lord's return. Pretty fascinating. Not everyone will face death. Paul writes to the Thessalonians, those in the ground, they're not at a disadvantage, the body's in the ground.

And now he's saying those who are alive when the Lord returns, they won't be at a disadvantage, because there's going to be a change. And the word change there is the change of another of the same kind.

Not an exchange, not a substitution, but a transformation. A translation. I'm looking at some of you, and some of you could die in the next week or today, and some of you might not ever die. What will happen to your bodies, God?

We'll change them. Well, it happened fast. My body's gradually decaying, will it gradually get better? No, it's going to happen fast. That's what the next verse talks about. It's going to happen quickly.

Whenever I used to go rent horses to ride when I was younger, I always got the horse named Molasses. Or Stubborn, I don't know what they're called. This is exactly the opposite. If you were going to pick a horse, and it was going to be called Lightning, that's the idea here.

Not a process, not gradual. The language here just adds up to fast. Let's take a look. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet, for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.

So let's parse this out a little bit. In a moment. Here's the Greek word for in a moment. A-T-O-M-O-S. Atom. Atom, back in those days, something meant that you couldn't split it, couldn't be divided.

And of course, then science picked up on the term and said, let's pick that word atom for our word atom. But originally it meant something that couldn't be divided, something that couldn't be split. The time is so short, whatever that time is, you can't cut it in half because it just happens fast.

It's language for something that can't be cut. Not going to take a long time when this happens. Furthermore, look at the phrase that comes after that, in the twinkling of an eye. I might say to you, in a second, in a split second, in a nanosecond, that's how fast it happens.

Rapid. You can move your eye faster than you can move any other part of your body, and so Paul uses this terminology. The translation of our body, transformation is going to be very, very quick. Something else comes along too, for the trumpet will sound.

The trumpet. To activate this, the trumpet starts. So just imagine if you're at the Olympics, 100 meter dash, and the guy stands by the starting gate, and he's got a gun with blanks, and he pulls the trigger.

And once that sound happens, everybody runs. This trumpet is similar to that. Once the trumpet sounds, everything starts to happen. Now, the Lord's return isn't specifically mentioned in this verse, but everything about it is talking about the Lord's return.

And the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. Who's doing the changing? God, of course. But like a good Jew, Paul doesn't always say, God does something. Paul says things to guard God's name occasionally, and not say the word God.

He does it many times. Sometimes he says it, sometimes he doesn't. Here, he doesn't say it, because the focus is on passive voice. Who's the agent? God is. Now, when I was a kid, I played trumpet. I played sousaphone when I got a little bit older.

It seemed easier than the trumpet. My claim to fame was the Jaws solo, right? Tubas don't get solos, except for that. Now, let's just think for it like a Jew for a minute. Let's think like an Old Testament Jew.

Trumpet sounding. When you think of a trumpet, if you're Jewish, if you know the Old Testament, what pictures come to mind when you think of trumpet? Paul's writing to these folks, and he said, the trumpet's going to sound.

You think, okay, what's a trumpet? What's the difference? Was it trombone? Is it some kind of, I don't know, what are these other instruments? French horn? Trumpet? What were trumpets used for in the Old Testament?

I'll tell you a few things. One, it was an end-time instrument. When you hear the word trumpet in the Bible, often and regularly, things are about over. So when we hear Brian Casey play, we just think all the time, it's almost over.

That's the idea. Listen to what Jesus said in Matthew 24, and he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds from one end of heaven to the other.

How about this with the trumpet, the end-time's instrument? For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, and the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God, the dead in Christ will rise first, then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.

How about the Old Testament? Joel 2, blow a trumpet in Zion, sound an alarm on my holy mountain, for the Lord is coming, he is near. Zephaniah, the great day of the Lord is near, hastening and fast, a day of the trumpet blast and battle cry against the fortified cities, against the lofty battlements.

When you hear trumpet, here's what you should be thinking. This is the end. Well, what also should you be thinking? When there was trumpet sounds in the Old Testament regularly and often, here's what it meant.

Not just it's the end, God is showing up. Now, you put these two together, it makes perfect sense. It's the end because Jesus is returning. Remember on the mountain when Moses went up to get the commandments?

What was going on at the mountain below? What was going on at the mountain above? No hand shall touch him, he shall be stoned or shot, whether beast or man, he shall not live, right? If he touched something unholy there, touched something holy rather, when the trumpet sounds a long blast, they shall come up to the mountain.

On the morning of the third day, there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast so that all the people in the camp trembled. And as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and God answered him in thunder.

When you think trumpet, you should think to yourself, the end is near and God is close. You could also think triumph, you could also think festivity, all those things are true. The trumpet sound should make you say to yourself, the end is near, God is coming back, Jesus is going to be here, there's a time of triumph, Revelation 19, and there's a time of festivity for the believers.

And every person who's alive on earth who's a Christian, when that trumpet sounds, there will be a radical change. Why? Verse 53, for this perishable body must put on imperishable and this mortal body must put on immortality.

Notice the language of clothing, language of putting off clothes and putting on clothes is regular in the Bible and here you need new clothes to enter heaven. The new clothes would be your new body. This must happen.

The dead will rise in bodies that aren't subject to corruption at all. You've got to have a body to go to heaven that's compatible with heaven. We learned last week that's like Christ's resurrected body.

Praise God for the Promise of Victory Over Death

So what's the response? Now let me give you the five trumpet blasts of praise that result from the new resurrected body. The truth that you get a new body if you make it to the end, you get a new body if you don't as well.

Five trumpet blasts of praise. Important today for those of you who are weaker, older, sick, breaking down, important for you when you go to a funeral, you go to a funeral, you plan a funeral. Number one, first trumpet blast of praise.

Praise God because he keeps his word. In other words, the new body was promised in the Old Testament, God keeps his word. He prophesied that you would get a new resurrected body in the Old Testament and God's faithful.

Let's take a look, verse 54. When the perishable puts on imperishable and the mortal puts on immortality, there shall come to pass the saying that is written, chapter and verse. This is an Old Testament verse, Isaiah 25, 8.

Death is swallowed up in victory. Imagine that. Prophesied in the Old Testament, you get a new body. Death swallowed up in victory. Imagine that. These truths aren't just intellectual truths. These truths help you live well.

These truths help you die well. These are the truths that I needed when I was standing there in 1989 in Nebraska outside as they buried my father and I'm crying. The only thing I really remember is I couldn't see well because my tears are freezing in my eyes.

I have no idea what's going on. I don't understand anything. I don't know anything about the Bible. I'm not a Christian. At the time when you're the saddest, Paul says, listen, death is swallowed up in victory for the Christian.

Death is dead. I always like to give a little something for the kids, so this is the kids' moment. So if you're young, it's for you. Ding dong, death is dead. Ding dong, death is dead. The death of death.

God keeps his promises. The promise was in Isaiah 25 .8. Let me read it to you. He will swallow up death forever, and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, including maybe frozen tears, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken.

And if the Lord speaks, he's going to do what he says, and he has said in Isaiah 25, I'm going to swallow death whole. Death is done. You get new resurrected bodies, and if you die on this earth and you get a resurrected body, death is over because you're alive.

The language of Isaiah in Isaiah 25 .7, just before this, it's like you take a death shroud when somebody dies, and you finally just have to take that shroud, that sheet, and you pull it up all the way over their face.

Paul could be saying, you know, when it comes to death, the death shroud is put over death itself. Now, if you look at the passage there, swallowed up in victory, why would he use language like that? Swallowed up.

Well, when you swallow something, if there's a predator that swallows an animal with overwhelming power, nothing is left behind. So you've got the big anaconda, the 10-foot anaconda, and it comes and it swallows a rabbit.

When that rabbit is halfway through the anaconda, weeks later, just like a big bulge in there, what percent of victory do you grant the anaconda versus the rabbit? Hamas, we won. England. Israel's England.

Did you know that in Bible prophecy? Gog and Magog. Excuse me. Hamas says, we win this latest skirmish. Israel said, no, we win. Who wins? If something's swallowed, you all say, the thing that swallowed the other thing, obviously, is the victor.

No wonder cannibals not only kill people in their tribe warfare, but to make sure everyone knows that they're completely destroyed, they eat their flesh. Overwhelming power, overwhelming victory, overwhelming defeat.

Death is swallowed. That's the language. How glorious is it going to be? Some of you are old enough to know what a newspaper is and some of you are old enough to know that you used to read newspapers and you'd start with what section?

The obituary to see if you're still alive. How about the death of obituaries? Obituaries swallowed whole. No trace left. Jesus triumphs over death. He triumphs over death at the cross and he triumphs over our death by giving us a new body, whether our body's in the ground and it's raised, first Thessalonians, or whether we're still alive at the return of Christ.

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Ebendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life-transforming power of God's Word through verse-by-verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 8 .30 and 11 a .m. and Sunday evenings at 6 p .m. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston, Massachusetts. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

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