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Welcome to day five of our look at 1 Corinthians 15 verses 51 to 58 today. This
chapter, 1 Corinthians 15, it starts with an explanation of hope, the gospel. It
then goes into a long argument for hope, those four arguments that we looked at
this week, the hope of the resurrection, and now it ends.

Just when you think it's almost over, it ends with this awesome burst of hope.
Listen to verses 51 down to verse 57, "Listen, I tell you a mystery, we will not
all sleep, but we will all be changed, 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.

For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with
immortality. 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.

Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting? The sting of
death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.

But thanks be to God, he gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
These are great verses of hope, some of the great verses of hope in all of the
New Testament. The resurrection means more than just the raising of dead bodies
out of a ground, out of a grave, out of a graveyard.

It involves, Paul says here, a supernatural change. We will all be changed. We
don't just get these bodies back, patched together.

We'll be changed. In fact, he says it happens in a moment. It happens in the
twinkling of an eye.

And the picture he gives us here is the perishable puts on the imperishable.
It's like putting on a coat. But it's more than that.

It's more than a change of clothes. It's a change of you. Now what's he talking
about here when he says we will all be changed?

When does this happen? How does this happen? All of us, we all go to be with
Jesus immediately when we die.

If you were to die today, tomorrow, if you ever had a friend who's died who's a
believer, immediately the Bible says that we go to be with Jesus. To depart from
the body is to be present with the Lord. Jesus said to the thief on the cross,
"Today you'll be with me in paradise.

" So our spirits go to be with Jesus. But if you've been to a funeral, you know
that our bodies are left behind. Are they just discarded?

When Jesus was resurrected, his body wasn't left behind. They went to the tomb
and there was no body there. No physical body there.

Because it had been resurrected. It had been changed. When do our bodies get
changed?

Paul tells us here. It's at the last trumpet. At the last trumpet, when Jesus
comes back, when he finishes everything, at that moment, our physical bodies are
resurrected out of the ground to join our spirits with him in the air.

If you're still alive at that moment, you're immediately resurrected. You don't
have to die then and be buried. You're immediately resurrected in the body that
you have.

And you and I enjoy eternity with Jesus in those resurrected bodies. This
Thessalonians chapter 5 talks also about this same truth. It's an amazing truth
for us to even begin to picture.

It's the stuff of dreams in many ways. But the truth behind it is this, that
body that you're in now is not going to be discarded. It's going to be
resurrected.

And in that, we are guaranteed the truth of the forgiveness of Jesus Christ. In
the cross and in the resurrection, Jesus showed his power over death. So yes,
our physical bodies die.

And yes, you and I grieve when a friend dies, when a family member dies, because
we're going to miss them, because we're going to be separated from them for a
time. But if that person is a believer in Christ, if they've trusted their body,
their soul to him, then we don't grieve for their body, because that body is one
day going to be resurrected. It's a seed being planted of something that's going
to be resurrected for all eternity.

Paul says here, death is swallowed up in victory. Death is real, yes, but it's
swallowed up. Death is real, yes, but he says the sting is taken out of it.

It's not there anymore. When you think about someone you love who's died and you
feel grief that you're going to miss them, you should. But if you're thinking
about somebody who's died who is a believer and you feel doubt that somehow
they're not going to be with Jesus, that somehow because they're separated from
you, they're going to be separated from God.

These verses remind us, have no doubt, death is swallowed up in victory. Or if
you look at your own life and you think, I know I know Jesus. I know I have
faith in him, but I really wonder when I die, what's going to happen to me?

I know I believe this, but does he really have the power? He showed the power.
This is not a matter of guessing.

This is not a matter just of the words of Jesus. This is a matter of the power
of Jesus shown in his resurrection. He did it once.

He will do it again in your life. So what does that mean? What does it mean that
the sting of death is gone?

The power of the law is broken? Paul tells us what it means in verse 58. This is
what he's been heading towards the entire chapter.

In verse 58 he says, here's what it means for your life today, right now.
"Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm, let nothing move you. Always give
yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in
the Lord is not in vain.

" In this one verse, Paul reminds us that the future hope of the resurrection is
not just pie in the sky. It has an everyday impact on our lives. And the
indication to me in this verse is that those who were having false teachings
about the resurrection, they were lazy.

They didn't want to work in God. They didn't want to do the work of the gospel.
They were afraid.

They were afraid of what people might do to them or say to them. And so because
of that, the resurrection became something they were ashamed of and they began
to teach against. They were afraid of serving God.

They were afraid of how that might hurt them or the work that might mean for
them. Paul says, don't be afraid. In fact, because you know the truth of the
resurrection, here's what you do.

And he puts it in three very simple terms for us. Here's how to live your life
today because of the truth of the resurrection. Number one, he says, stand firm.

In fact, he says it twice. Let nothing move. You stand firm.

The truth of the resurrection changes us right now. You stand firm. It changes
things.

The truth of the resurrection changes tentative, doubtful persons into confident
and trustworthy Christians. When you find somebody you can count on as a
believer, it's because of the truth of the resurrection. That's what you trace
it back to.

The truth that we can stand on. If you stand firm, you've got to be standing on
something. If you try to stand just on a philosophy, that is not enough.

You cannot stand firm on human philosophy. You can't even understand a lot of
human philosophy. But even if you try to understand it, you can't stand firm on
something that's not a fact, something that's not reality.

You've got to have reality to stand on. And Paul says, stand firm. Let nothing
move you because you have the power of the resurrection to stand on.

And then he goes on and he says, always give yourselves fully to the work of the
Lord. The resurrection changes things. It changes listless and purposeless lives
into fruitful and abundant lives.

It changes you. It gives you new energy for living the kind of life that God
wants you to live. If you're struggling with energy, and who doesn't struggle
with energy to live out the life of God sometimes?

Yes, exercise. Yes, do those things that bring physical energy. But along with
that, look to the truth of the resurrection because it takes more than physical
exercise.

It takes spiritual truth to have the energy to live out the life of God. Look to
the spiritual truth of the resurrection. Because of that truth, you can, Paul
says, always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord.

How do you get to a place where the words always and fully can be a part of your
life? It's not based just on you. It's based on the life of God and the
resurrection.

You stand firm. You always give yourselves fully to the work of God. And then he
says a third thing, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.

The resurrection changes things. The resurrection changes frustrated, tired
workers into excited, fulfilled servants. The resurrection changes those who are
looking forward to nothing to those who are looking forward to everything.

Your labor in the Lord is not in vain. What you do for him now, it lasts. It
lasts.

It lasts in the heart and life of that person that you just served. It lasts not
just for a week or a month or a year. It lasts not just for a lifetime.

It lasts for eternity. Your labor is not in vain in the Lord. I often think for
those of you who serve Christ to give your life to him of that day in heaven
when you're going to meet someone that says to you, thank you for serving him.

That day when you didn't feel like serving, nothing in you wanted to serve, but
the truth of the resurrection caused you to be kind to me. The truth of the
resurrection caused you to bring food to me. The truth of the resurrection
caused you to tell the truth to me.

That day, even though you didn't want to live it out, the truth of the
resurrection caused you to live it out. Thank you for living by faith and not
just your feelings, but because you live by faith, I'm here to tell you right
now, thank you. I'm here to enjoy eternity with you.

Thank you for living by faith. Your labor in the Lord, it's not in vain. It
lasts into all eternity.

Jesus, thank you. All of this is built on what you did for us. The humility that
you had to go to a cross, but also the power that you displayed in your
resurrection.

Thank you. And Lord, we say to you at the end of this chapter, I say to you, I
don't want to live out a good Christian life. I certainly don't want to live out
a human selfish life, but I also don't want to just live out a good Christian
life, just doing the nice things, the right things.

I want to live the resurrected life, the life that has new power because of you,
Lord. I know the only way to do that is by looking to your resurrection,
standing firm on who you are. So today, Lord, in my decisions, regardless of my
feelings, regardless of my circumstances in my decisions, let me stand firm.

Let me give myself fully to the work of the Lord. Knowing that that labor is not
in vain because you are alive. You are a resurrected Lord.

Thank you, Jesus. In your name, amen. I know you're not going to want to miss
next week.

Next week is 1 Corinthians chapter 16. It is the last chapter. We're going to
finish it together this next week, the last chapter in this great book.