FBC Morning Light – April 18, 2022

A good Monday morning to you. I hope your Resurrection Day celebration was a blessing to you. I hope you were able to get to God's house and to meet with God's people. Most importantly, to just reflect upon the wonderful truth of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Resurrection of Christ and the Call to Steadfast Labor

Yesterday in our church, if you were able to attend, you know I preached a message on 1 Corinthians 15, and that happens to be a passage for our Bible reading today. I want to emphasize the way that chapter ends.

In chapter 15, Paul is dealing with the resurrection, and he's really arguing against some people who are saying that there is no resurrection. He points out the hopelessness of life if there is no resurrection, the hopelessness of those who profess to be Christians if there is no resurrection.

If Jesus didn't rise from the dead, they aren't going to rise from the dead, and it's all futile. Everything is futile. He also deals with the effects of denying the resurrection later on in chapter 15.

But he also argues very cogently and accurately for the fact that there has been a resurrection. Jesus did rise from the dead, and because he rose from the dead, we'll rise from the dead. As he ends that chapter, he talks about the glorious transformation that is going to take place in our bodies.

We will have resurrection bodies that will be like his. They'll be completely changed so that our bodies will be outfitted and prepared for eternity. There won't be any more of the decay of our bodies and the disease and all that stuff that takes life away from us, but in the eternal life that we will enjoy with Christ forever, there's going to be the transformation of the body, and it is all because of Christ's resurrection.

But what I want to really focus on is how Paul points out the fact that because of the resurrection of Christ now a couple thousand years ago, and because of our own resurrection that's coming sometime in the future, we don't know when that is going to be, that hasn't been disclosed to us, but it's coming, and we're confident of it, because of Christ's resurrection.

Because of Christ's resurrection in the past, and because of our resurrection in the future, he ends the passage by saying this, Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

Look at that again, listen to that again, Therefore, on account of the resurrection, now, today, in whatever responsibility you have before you, and whatever calling in life that's been given to you, whatever difficulties and challenges the life is throwing at you, now, because of the resurrection, be steadfast, immovable, and keep abounding in the work of the Lord.

Why? Because of the resurrection, your labor in the Lord is not in vain. It is real, and it is valuable, and it is blessed by God. It will be blessed for all eternity. Your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

So, invest your days well. And that really dovetails very nicely with the other passage in our Scripture reading for today, in Psalm 39. There's a couple of verses where the psalmist offers a prayer to the Lord regarding this life in which we live.

He says in verses 4 and 5, Lord, make me to know my end, and what is the measure of my days, that I may know how frail I am. We know the resurrection is coming, we know that this life is not all there is, but nevertheless, we have this life to live.

If we're going to live it to its fullest, as 1 Corinthians 15, 58 encourages us to be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, then I think we need to be very much aware of just how short this life is, and just how frail our human bodies are in this life.

He goes on to say, indeed, you have made my days as handbreadths, just so short. And my age, he says, is as nothing before you. It's nothing before you. I'm at that age in mid -60s, where to some who are watching or listening, you may say, you're still a kid.

You have a lot of years left before you're really old. And on the other end of the spectrum, there are some who are watching or listening who are saying, man, who is this old guy? Look at all the gray.

Man alive, this guy's really old. And to those who are looking at me as still a kid, you're thinking it ain't going to be too long before you're where I am. You're going to really feel your age, and it ain't going to be too awfully long.

But those on the other end of the spectrum are saying, man, it's going to be before I ever look like that, before my hair ever turns that gray, and all that kind of stuff. It's like you talk to a 15-year-old about how quickly life passes, and that 15-year-old says, man, it seems like eternity before I'm going to get my driver's license.

At our age, in our mid -60s, we're thinking, the time's coming very quickly when they're going to take my driver's license away. It may be 30 years, but that's going to be very quick. That's going to go by very quickly.

And that's our perspective at this stage of life. We're having a more accurate perspective of the way David, the psalmist, is looking at life, that my age is just a handbreadth. My days, they're nothing before you.

My age is nothing before you. And then he concludes that verse with, certainly, every man in his best state is but vapor, here and then gone. With that reality in mind, that life is so short, that this life is so short, and the reality that when this life is over, there is a life for eternity to be lived, then in this life, let's be steadfast and immovable and always abounding in the work of the Lord.

Why? Because this life isn't all there is. Our labor in the Lord is not in vain. Jesus rose from the dead, and because he rose, so shall you who are Christ's, you who are in Christ, who are laboring in Christ, you too shall rise.

In this brief life in which we live, let's pray to God that he keeps us aware of how quickly this life passes, and keeps us aware of how important it is that we are always abounding in the work of the Lord, because that labor in the Lord is not in vain.

A Brief Prayer and Benediction

Let's have a brief word of prayer, and get on with our day. Heavenly Father, we do thank you for this challenge from your Word to be steadfast and immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, all the way through this brief life that you have given us, and this we pray in Jesus' name.

Amen. I hope your week gets off to a good start, and that you will abound. Have a good day. God bless.