Beat Death!
1 Corinthians 15:53-57
Message #3
Have you ever heard of anyone who was afraid of beating death?
I have only heard of one guy afraid of beating death. It was a guy who had an especially difficult mother-in-law who had a tendency to make this guy’s life miserable. And one year his mother-in-law went with him on a family vacation to Israel. And sadly, while they were in Jerusalem, the mother-in-law died. And so, the man went to the local mortuary to see what it would cost to fly his mother-in-law’s body back to the United States. And the mortuary told him, “The bad news is it will cost $10,000 to fly your mother-in-law’s body back to the United States. The good news is, you can bury her here in Jerusalem for only $1,000.”
The man immediately said, “I’ll pay the $10,000 to fly her back to the United States.”
And the mortuary man said, “Are you sure? You can have her buried here in Jerusalem for only $1,000.”
And the man replied, “Yeah, but you buried one guy here who came back to life, and I can’t risk that happening.”
So, other than that guy, I don’t know anyone who would be afraid of conquering the last great enemy, death. Death is real – every one of these bodies must die. And can’t you see in our culture the desire to beat death or at least stretch it out as long as possible? Or at least look like we’re not as close to it as we actually are?
The question is – Can we beat death? And I can tell you one thing for sure. We cannot beat death by eating only wheatgrass and seaweed. We cannot beat death by running twenty minutes a day and sleeping upside down. We cannot beat death with Pilates and Botox, no matter how much of either one of them we do.
We cannot beat the consequences of sin on our own and cannot beat death on our own. The Cross proves to us – from God – that we cannot beat sin on our own and the Resurrection proves to us – from God – that we cannot beat death on our own. And it is because we cannot beat the consequences of sin and death on our own that God came to earth in the person of Jesus Christ to do it – for us.
That is how much God loves you! If you ever wonder if the God of Heaven loves you, the answer is in the Cross. If you ever wonder what to do about death the answer is in the Resurrection!
Because of God’s immeasurable love for you, God came to earth, as a man. Matthew Chapter 1 says – Jesus would be called “Immanuel” which means “God With Us.”
But Jesus did not leave the glory of Heaven and become a man in order to be a “good supplement” for your life.
Jesus did not take your sin upon himself and pay the full penalty required in order to help you be able to “do all things” that you want to do in this life.
Jesus did not rise from the dead in order to be a Good Teacher and give you some good guidelines to live by.
Jesus Christ came and died and rose from the dead in order to beat death – for you.
You had no way to overcome the consequences of sin in your life. And so, Jesus came to pay those consequences for you on the Cross. And you had no way to beat death on your own so Jesus rose from the dead to beat death for you! There was no other way God had to beat death on your behalf.
If you have a Bible, turn it to Romans Chapter 6 and look down at verse 23 – it says, The wages of sin is death. And this death, in Romans 6:23, is actually speaking of eternal separation from God, (God must first and foremost be holy, and so no sin can be in his presence), which is the justly due consequences of your sin. And Jesus conquered that death on your behalf so that you could be with him forever.
And then the end of Romans 6:23 says – “but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord”
Jesus Christ beat death by offering you eternal life. That is what Jesus Christ came to do on your behalf and that is the free gift that God offers you by you putting your faith in Jesus – as your Savior. And the moment that Jesus Christ beat death on your behalf IS the Resurrection that we’re celebrating today.
There’s a somewhat more difficult theological term in the Bible that is most often translated – baptism. The Greek word is BAPTIZO, and it means much more than what we think of as Baptism.
It means to become so identified with something - that a permanent change takes place in you.
It’s about a life-changing identification and that is what happens when we put our full faith and trust in Jesus – AS our Savior.
By faith, we become so identified with Jesus that what he did – we did – in him. What he accomplished, we accomplished – in him.
That is how Jesus beat death for you and you receive it simply by putting your full faith in Jesus as your Savior and when you do, his victory over death becomes your victory over death.
We see it here in Romans 6, verses 3-5.
Romans 6:3–5 (ESV)
3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into (identified with) Christ Jesus were baptized into (identified with) his death?
4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism (identification) into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
Look closely at the end of verse 5. . . . we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection LIKE HIS.
What does that mean – A Resurrection LIKE HIS?
Don’t you know somebody who thinks Heaven is some ethereal place where spirits are floating around like Casper the Friendly Ghost? Many people, including many Christians, have a very non-biblical view of Heaven.
But, after the Resurrection, Jesus lived on this earth IN his resurrected body for forty days. Why did he do that?
His work was finished. The work of paying for your sin on the Cross was finished. The work of beating death for you in the Resurrection was finished. Why did Jesus hang around for forty days? Certainly, part of it was to prove, undeniably, by history that the Resurrection absolutely occurred, without question. But don’t you think Jesus might have wanted to show us something of what the Resurrection will look like?
For forty days, Jesus (in his Resurrected body) “lived in relationship” with those he loved. He walked with them and he talked with them. He ate with them and he even “messed with them” (jokingly) more than once. And when he walked with them, he was not floating like some kind of transparent “ghost,” and when he ate with them, you could not see the food going down into his stomach, because he wasn’t “see-through.”
He lived here for forty days in his own Resurrected body, and in some ways, his Resurrected body was very different. But it was still a very real body. Jesus lived a very real life and he still had very real relationships with those he loved and the Bible is clear – so will we.
Again, Romans 6:5 says For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection LIKE HIS if we will accept (by faith) the free gift of Jesus Christ beating death for us.
Famous Bible scholar, R.A. Torry (the builder of Biola College), sums up the Bible’s teachings about eternal life like this. “We will not be disembodied spirits in the world to come, but redeemed spirits, in redeemed bodies, in a redeemed universe.”
Redeemed – meaning bought back. Redeemed from the curse of sin and death. That is what Jesus was accomplishing on the Cross and in the Resurrection. He was buying back our spirits that would otherwise have to face separation from God – because of sin. He was buying back our bodies so that he could glorify them for us to live forever with him. And he was buying back all of creation so that we could have a place to live forever with him.
Jesus Christ died on the Cross and rose from the dead to offer you new – resurrected – eternal life because it was the only way possible for you to beat death. Jesus Christ met death head-on and he beat it on your behalf.
Death had its day. Death had its shot. And for three days, death thought it won.
And then the ground began to shake and the stone was rolled away. God’s love for you and his power over death could not be defeated. Now death, where is your sting? Our resurrected King has rendered you defeated forever.
Turn over to 1 Corinthians 15, and look at verses 53-57.
1 Corinthians 15:53–57 (ESV)
53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. (This is what Jesus was accomplishing for you. Not a better job. A better eternity in glory. And if you get a better job, so be it. Be happy. But he came to pay the price so that your perishable body could put on an imperishable body. He came to beat death so your mortal body could put on immortality.)
54 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”
55 “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”
56 The sting of death is sin . . .
57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory (meaning the victory over sin & death) through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ beat death on your behalf. He paid for every sin you have or ever will commit in your place. That’s the day we’re celebrating. It’s the entire gospel message that is caught up in it. And it should move us through life – undeterred.
In the Resurrection, Jesus beat death in your place so that you never have to face real death! Yeah, this body you’re IN – it has got to go.
But 2 Corinthians 5:8 says for the Believer, “to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.”
THAT is no real death. That’s not even a sting. Your last breath here becomes your first breath in the presence of Jesus.
Guys, I’ve been asked to be with a lot of people who are dying and I’ve been with a lot of people who have died. And I’m telling you the truth, it’s different. It’s different when a believer is about to go into the presence of the Lord. There’s this hum of excitement in the room. There is an underlying celebration because the believers in the room are like, “Any second, he’s going to be with Jesus!” Right?
Listen, death leaves a gaping hole in you. Death sucks the life out of you. Jesus Christ came to take that away, to take that sting away. And we grieve, 1 Thessalonians says, we grieve death, but not like those with no hope. That Believer that you’ve loved and lost, you could be with him very soon.
That’s what Easter is about. That’s what the Resurrection is about.
Because of God’s immense, immeasurable, indescribable love for you, Jesus Christ paid for your sin on the Cross and he beat death in your place at the Resurrection. Because without Jesus doing that, your sin was going to require that YOU spend an eternity separated from the presence of God for eternity in a place the Bible calls hell.
That is the only other option. Don’t let the world water this message down. We’re talking about eternal life and death here.
And being separated from God – THAT is real death.
And so, Jesus made sure you had the option to miss it. To avoid it. To beat death.
And God loved you so much that he took your place on the Cross so that you could join him in the Resurrection. Jesus beat death – for you and that victory over sin and death is offered to you freely by the God who created you and who loves you enough to conquer sin on your behalf – on the Cross and to beat death – on your behalf in the Resurrection.
How great a love! And he won it all for you while you were his enemy. The God of Creation loves you enough, that he came, as you, took upon your sin, paid for it completely, faced death on your behalf, and beat it. And then offers you this gift that you receive by faith, and that faith supernaturally unites you with him, so his victory becomes your victory!
And Jesus did it all so that you could live forever with him in a very real life, in a very real Heaven.
That is God’s amazing grace! By God’s grace, you are saved through your faith. Grace is only amazing when you realize how vile your sin is. Salvation is only important when you realize how true the option is. That’s what we’re celebrating today.
Ephesians 2:8–9 (ESV)
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,
9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
That’s God’s grace – he did it all. You receive it through faith.
Do you know that person who is so misunderstanding that they say this – “I think I’m a pretty good person, I think God will let me in.”
Listen, you don’t think very highly of God if you think you’re good enough to be in the presence of a Holy God. You can’t get clean enough. There’s not enough cleaner. No sin can be in the presence of God. And so, by God’s grace, he made a way for you to take on his righteousness and enter his presence, and it’s through identification with Christ by your faith and by your faith alone. His victory over death becomes your victory over death, by you placing your faith in him as Savior and Lord. That’s why we’re here. That’s what drives us.
You CANNOT beat death on your own, no matter how many or how good your works are. The only one who has ever beaten death is Jesus Christ and his victory over death becomes your victory over death by you placing your faith in WHO he is and WHAT he’s done on your behalf.
Romans 10:13 (ESV)
13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
YOU can beat death today – by placing your full faith in Jesus Christ as your Savior and your Lord. Death does not have to be your enemy. It’s a conquered foe. I want to give you a chance to do that.
On April 29, 1979, the first time I was ever in a Christian church, I walked what we call the “sawdust trail” – I walked that aisle to the Cross. I am eight days away from following Jesus for forty years. And that day that he saved me, I knew how lost I was. I knew how lost I was, and I knew how “found” I had become. And I’ve never turned back, not for a day. And he’s been faithful every day for forty years. And in a way that I’m careful how I say it, I can’t wait to see him!! (My family hates it when I say that).
I remember the day, forty years ago, that I made that trek. And I want you to have a day to remember the trek. I want you to say, “It was that day. It was that day I surrendered completely to Jesus. That was the day I pushed aside all the craziness of this world, all the distractions, and said, ‘I want to beat death. I need my sins paid for and a place in eternity reserved for me.’”
Make that stand and say, “Today, Jesus, today, today, today is it. I’m going to surrender to you and receive the gift that you’ve already given me and follow you until I see you face to face.”
The salvation is in your heart. I want to encourage you, and exhort you, put your faith in Christ to beat death, and then make a public stand about it. Stand up and say, “I’m a new creation, Jesus Christ has saved me and I’ve beaten death.”
You can pray like this: “Lord Jesus, I’m a sinner. I need to be forgiven. I can’t do it myself. I receive your free gift of paying for my sins and beating death on my behalf. Please come into my life and fill me with your Spirit. I make you my Savior and my Lord. In your own name, Jesus, amen.”
I have only heard of one guy afraid of beating death. It was a guy who had an especially difficult mother-in-law who had a tendency to make this guy’s life miserable. And one year his mother-in-law went with him on a family vacation to Israel. And sadly, while they were in Jerusalem, the mother-in-law died. And so, the man went to the local mortuary to see what it would cost to fly his mother-in-law’s body back to the United States. And the mortuary told him, “The bad news is it will cost $10,000 to fly your mother-in-law’s body back to the United States. The good news is, you can bury her here in Jerusalem for only $1,000.”
The man immediately said, “I’ll pay the $10,000 to fly her back to the United States.”
And the mortuary man said, “Are you sure? You can have her buried here in Jerusalem for only $1,000.”
And the man replied, “Yeah, but you buried one guy here who came back to life, and I can’t risk that happening.”
So, other than that guy, I don’t know anyone who would be afraid of conquering the last great enemy, death. Death is real – every one of these bodies must die. And can’t you see in our culture the desire to beat death or at least stretch it out as long as possible? Or at least look like we’re not as close to it as we actually are?
The question is – Can we beat death? And I can tell you one thing for sure. We cannot beat death by eating only wheatgrass and seaweed. We cannot beat death by running twenty minutes a day and sleeping upside down. We cannot beat death with Pilates and Botox, no matter how much of either one of them we do.
We cannot beat the consequences of sin on our own and cannot beat death on our own. The Cross proves to us – from God – that we cannot beat sin on our own and the Resurrection proves to us – from God – that we cannot beat death on our own. And it is because we cannot beat the consequences of sin and death on our own that God came to earth in the person of Jesus Christ to do it – for us.
That is how much God loves you! If you ever wonder if the God of Heaven loves you, the answer is in the Cross. If you ever wonder what to do about death the answer is in the Resurrection!
Because of God’s immeasurable love for you, God came to earth, as a man. Matthew Chapter 1 says – Jesus would be called “Immanuel” which means “God With Us.”
But Jesus did not leave the glory of Heaven and become a man in order to be a “good supplement” for your life.
Jesus did not take your sin upon himself and pay the full penalty required in order to help you be able to “do all things” that you want to do in this life.
Jesus did not rise from the dead in order to be a Good Teacher and give you some good guidelines to live by.
Jesus Christ came and died and rose from the dead in order to beat death – for you.
You had no way to overcome the consequences of sin in your life. And so, Jesus came to pay those consequences for you on the Cross. And you had no way to beat death on your own so Jesus rose from the dead to beat death for you! There was no other way God had to beat death on your behalf.
If you have a Bible, turn it to Romans Chapter 6 and look down at verse 23 – it says, The wages of sin is death. And this death, in Romans 6:23, is actually speaking of eternal separation from God, (God must first and foremost be holy, and so no sin can be in his presence), which is the justly due consequences of your sin. And Jesus conquered that death on your behalf so that you could be with him forever.
And then the end of Romans 6:23 says – “but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord”
Jesus Christ beat death by offering you eternal life. That is what Jesus Christ came to do on your behalf and that is the free gift that God offers you by you putting your faith in Jesus – as your Savior. And the moment that Jesus Christ beat death on your behalf IS the Resurrection that we’re celebrating today.
There’s a somewhat more difficult theological term in the Bible that is most often translated – baptism. The Greek word is BAPTIZO, and it means much more than what we think of as Baptism.
It means to become so identified with something - that a permanent change takes place in you.
It’s about a life-changing identification and that is what happens when we put our full faith and trust in Jesus – AS our Savior.
By faith, we become so identified with Jesus that what he did – we did – in him. What he accomplished, we accomplished – in him.
That is how Jesus beat death for you and you receive it simply by putting your full faith in Jesus as your Savior and when you do, his victory over death becomes your victory over death.
We see it here in Romans 6, verses 3-5.
Romans 6:3–5 (ESV)
3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into (identified with) Christ Jesus were baptized into (identified with) his death?
4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism (identification) into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
Look closely at the end of verse 5. . . . we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection LIKE HIS.
What does that mean – A Resurrection LIKE HIS?
Don’t you know somebody who thinks Heaven is some ethereal place where spirits are floating around like Casper the Friendly Ghost? Many people, including many Christians, have a very non-biblical view of Heaven.
But, after the Resurrection, Jesus lived on this earth IN his resurrected body for forty days. Why did he do that?
His work was finished. The work of paying for your sin on the Cross was finished. The work of beating death for you in the Resurrection was finished. Why did Jesus hang around for forty days? Certainly, part of it was to prove, undeniably, by history that the Resurrection absolutely occurred, without question. But don’t you think Jesus might have wanted to show us something of what the Resurrection will look like?
For forty days, Jesus (in his Resurrected body) “lived in relationship” with those he loved. He walked with them and he talked with them. He ate with them and he even “messed with them” (jokingly) more than once. And when he walked with them, he was not floating like some kind of transparent “ghost,” and when he ate with them, you could not see the food going down into his stomach, because he wasn’t “see-through.”
He lived here for forty days in his own Resurrected body, and in some ways, his Resurrected body was very different. But it was still a very real body. Jesus lived a very real life and he still had very real relationships with those he loved and the Bible is clear – so will we.
Again, Romans 6:5 says For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection LIKE HIS if we will accept (by faith) the free gift of Jesus Christ beating death for us.
Famous Bible scholar, R.A. Torry (the builder of Biola College), sums up the Bible’s teachings about eternal life like this. “We will not be disembodied spirits in the world to come, but redeemed spirits, in redeemed bodies, in a redeemed universe.”
Redeemed – meaning bought back. Redeemed from the curse of sin and death. That is what Jesus was accomplishing on the Cross and in the Resurrection. He was buying back our spirits that would otherwise have to face separation from God – because of sin. He was buying back our bodies so that he could glorify them for us to live forever with him. And he was buying back all of creation so that we could have a place to live forever with him.
Jesus Christ died on the Cross and rose from the dead to offer you new – resurrected – eternal life because it was the only way possible for you to beat death. Jesus Christ met death head-on and he beat it on your behalf.
Death had its day. Death had its shot. And for three days, death thought it won.
And then the ground began to shake and the stone was rolled away. God’s love for you and his power over death could not be defeated. Now death, where is your sting? Our resurrected King has rendered you defeated forever.
Turn over to 1 Corinthians 15, and look at verses 53-57.
1 Corinthians 15:53–57 (ESV)
53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. (This is what Jesus was accomplishing for you. Not a better job. A better eternity in glory. And if you get a better job, so be it. Be happy. But he came to pay the price so that your perishable body could put on an imperishable body. He came to beat death so your mortal body could put on immortality.)
54 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”
55 “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”
56 The sting of death is sin . . .
57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory (meaning the victory over sin & death) through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ beat death on your behalf. He paid for every sin you have or ever will commit in your place. That’s the day we’re celebrating. It’s the entire gospel message that is caught up in it. And it should move us through life – undeterred.
In the Resurrection, Jesus beat death in your place so that you never have to face real death! Yeah, this body you’re IN – it has got to go.
But 2 Corinthians 5:8 says for the Believer, “to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.”
THAT is no real death. That’s not even a sting. Your last breath here becomes your first breath in the presence of Jesus.
Guys, I’ve been asked to be with a lot of people who are dying and I’ve been with a lot of people who have died. And I’m telling you the truth, it’s different. It’s different when a believer is about to go into the presence of the Lord. There’s this hum of excitement in the room. There is an underlying celebration because the believers in the room are like, “Any second, he’s going to be with Jesus!” Right?
Listen, death leaves a gaping hole in you. Death sucks the life out of you. Jesus Christ came to take that away, to take that sting away. And we grieve, 1 Thessalonians says, we grieve death, but not like those with no hope. That Believer that you’ve loved and lost, you could be with him very soon.
That’s what Easter is about. That’s what the Resurrection is about.
Because of God’s immense, immeasurable, indescribable love for you, Jesus Christ paid for your sin on the Cross and he beat death in your place at the Resurrection. Because without Jesus doing that, your sin was going to require that YOU spend an eternity separated from the presence of God for eternity in a place the Bible calls hell.
That is the only other option. Don’t let the world water this message down. We’re talking about eternal life and death here.
And being separated from God – THAT is real death.
And so, Jesus made sure you had the option to miss it. To avoid it. To beat death.
And God loved you so much that he took your place on the Cross so that you could join him in the Resurrection. Jesus beat death – for you and that victory over sin and death is offered to you freely by the God who created you and who loves you enough to conquer sin on your behalf – on the Cross and to beat death – on your behalf in the Resurrection.
How great a love! And he won it all for you while you were his enemy. The God of Creation loves you enough, that he came, as you, took upon your sin, paid for it completely, faced death on your behalf, and beat it. And then offers you this gift that you receive by faith, and that faith supernaturally unites you with him, so his victory becomes your victory!
And Jesus did it all so that you could live forever with him in a very real life, in a very real Heaven.
That is God’s amazing grace! By God’s grace, you are saved through your faith. Grace is only amazing when you realize how vile your sin is. Salvation is only important when you realize how true the option is. That’s what we’re celebrating today.
Ephesians 2:8–9 (ESV)
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,
9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
That’s God’s grace – he did it all. You receive it through faith.
Do you know that person who is so misunderstanding that they say this – “I think I’m a pretty good person, I think God will let me in.”
Listen, you don’t think very highly of God if you think you’re good enough to be in the presence of a Holy God. You can’t get clean enough. There’s not enough cleaner. No sin can be in the presence of God. And so, by God’s grace, he made a way for you to take on his righteousness and enter his presence, and it’s through identification with Christ by your faith and by your faith alone. His victory over death becomes your victory over death, by you placing your faith in him as Savior and Lord. That’s why we’re here. That’s what drives us.
You CANNOT beat death on your own, no matter how many or how good your works are. The only one who has ever beaten death is Jesus Christ and his victory over death becomes your victory over death by you placing your faith in WHO he is and WHAT he’s done on your behalf.
Romans 10:13 (ESV)
13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
YOU can beat death today – by placing your full faith in Jesus Christ as your Savior and your Lord. Death does not have to be your enemy. It’s a conquered foe. I want to give you a chance to do that.
On April 29, 1979, the first time I was ever in a Christian church, I walked what we call the “sawdust trail” – I walked that aisle to the Cross. I am eight days away from following Jesus for forty years. And that day that he saved me, I knew how lost I was. I knew how lost I was, and I knew how “found” I had become. And I’ve never turned back, not for a day. And he’s been faithful every day for forty years. And in a way that I’m careful how I say it, I can’t wait to see him!! (My family hates it when I say that).
I remember the day, forty years ago, that I made that trek. And I want you to have a day to remember the trek. I want you to say, “It was that day. It was that day I surrendered completely to Jesus. That was the day I pushed aside all the craziness of this world, all the distractions, and said, ‘I want to beat death. I need my sins paid for and a place in eternity reserved for me.’”
Make that stand and say, “Today, Jesus, today, today, today is it. I’m going to surrender to you and receive the gift that you’ve already given me and follow you until I see you face to face.”
The salvation is in your heart. I want to encourage you, and exhort you, put your faith in Christ to beat death, and then make a public stand about it. Stand up and say, “I’m a new creation, Jesus Christ has saved me and I’ve beaten death.”
You can pray like this: “Lord Jesus, I’m a sinner. I need to be forgiven. I can’t do it myself. I receive your free gift of paying for my sins and beating death on my behalf. Please come into my life and fill me with your Spirit. I make you my Savior and my Lord. In your own name, Jesus, amen.”