Victory Over Death / 1 Corinthians 15:19–26, 51–57 / Pr. Ted A. Giese / Sunday April 20th 2025 / Easter Sunday / Mount Olive Lutheran Church

Mount Olive Lutheran Church / Pr. Ted A. Giese / Easter Sunday April 20th 2025: Season of Easter / 1 Corinthians 15:19–26, 51–57 “Victory Over Death” [7:30am Sermon]

“If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.

But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at His coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes The End, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.”

… 

“Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 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. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. 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.”

        “O death, where is your victory?

               O death, where is your sting?”

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Let us pray: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in Your sight O Lord. Amen.

Grace peace and mercy to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Good Christian Friends there was a popular children’s prayer perhaps you prayed it, perhaps you prayed it with your children, “Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep; If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take,” in a very important way it taught what we hear in our Epistle Readings this morning, a Christian attitude toward death and the power of God to save us from it. 

The first of these Epistle Readings, the one for our Easter Sunrise Service this morning from 1st Corinthians and was likely very familiar, as it is a regular reading from our funeral Service here at Mount Olive, it’s the one where Saint Paul says, “Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.” This passage points to The Last Day and the ultimate resurrection that will occur there for all people.[1]

The Epistle Reading for [the second] Service, also from 1st Corinthians chapter 15, explains that Jesus being raised from the dead, is now the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep, which is to say Jesus’ Easter Sunday Morning resurrection from the dead is not temporary, He is the first one to have experienced the eternal resurrection from the dead, which Paul refers to as the firstfurits meaning there will be more fruit to come for those who have fallen asleep. This is the way Saint Paul talks about death for the Christian, falling asleep. And if one has fallen asleep they can wake up, the Last Trumpet then that Paul talks of in this reading, is the heavenly alarm clock alarm that cock-a-doodle-doos us out of the bed of our grave on The Last Day. Easter Sunday then is the day that helps us put Jesus’ death on the Cross of His crucifixion of Good Friday into perspective, helps put our future death and the death of our loved ones who died with their faith in Christ Jesus into perspective, giving us a new attitude about it because as Christians we believe teach and confess that death is not the end for us. Jesus’ death and resurrection take the sting out of death for us and transforms the whole experience for the Christian into something different, something we can face with courage and hope.

As Christians we do not seek our deaths, we don’t chase after our death or hasten it on, we don’t look to speed it up but as we see it approach — even if it should sneak up on us unexpectedly — we need not fear or dread death the way others do. Because of Jesus, we are called to see past the Valley of the Shadow of Death[2] to what awaits us on the other side; to what awaits us after our rest in Christ, when our bodies have been awakened from their graves in the Resurrection of all Flesh on The Last Day. And trusting in his Living Redeemer what does the longsuffering Job yearn for when he looks forward to That Day? Job says, “After my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me!”[3]

These ancient words from Job and the more recent yet also ancient words from Saint Paul inspired a verse of one of our hymns which I often sing as one of the last parts of the Commendation of the Dying, that is when I’m blessed to be with one who is on the verge of their physical death and their blessed spiritual rest in Christ,

Lord, let at last Thine angels come,

To Abram’s bosom bear me home,

That I may die unfearing;

And in its narrow chamber keep

My body safe in peaceful sleep

Until Thy reappearing.

And then from death awaken me,

That these mine eyes with joy may see,

O Son of God, Thy glorious face,

My Savior and my Fount of grace,

Lord Jesus Christ,

My prayer attend,

My prayer attend,

And I will praise Thee without end.[4]

“That these mine eyes with joy may see!” What kind of eyes are these? These are not spiritual eyes, these are physical eyes of flesh, made new in the resurrection, no longer dead, no longer wasted away in decay but alive, with all the vibrancy of the New Heavens and New Earth shining through. The same sort of eyes you will have on That Day, the same eyes Jesus had on that first Easter Sunday when He walked out of the tomb, the same eyes that Jesus, your Saviour “who will transform [your] lowly body to be like His glorious body by the power that enables Him even to subject all things to Himself,”[5] promises to give you on That Day when He says, “behold, I am making all things new.”[6] This, dear ones, is what Jesus and His resurrection promises you. That after a restful time in the Spirit with the Lord on the Last Day to awaken to a new physical life devoid of all the aches and pains and illnesses and troubles of this current life, that you will not just be given new eyes, but new everything: that you would be given your body, mind and soul back from the ravages of death all made new from top to bottom. Where you’ll be able to feel a hug and give a handshake and hear a laugh and taste what’s set before you in perfection on That Day which will have no end. No more pills to take, no more fuss to make, thoughts words and deeds made new, made perfect and imperishable just as the Lord Jesus is perfect and imperishable in His resurrection, “death is swallowed up in victory,” never to touch you again, never to trouble you ever again.

But like I said, as wonderful as that all will be, we do not rush our way to the end; we live our lives as the Lord wills it seeking each day to conform our will to His will more and more, for the good of our neighbour and to the glory of God. This is the tension of the Christian life and the fuel that drives us forward along The Way. This is why Saint Paul in his letter to the Philippians’ writes how he desires to, know Jesus and the power of Jesus’ resurrection, and to also share Jesus’ sufferings in this life, becoming like Jesus in His death, that by any means possible he may attain the resurrection from the dead. So Saint Paul says, “Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me His own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. [Therefore] let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained.” And so Paul concludes this thought saying, “Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us.”[7] Whether we are young or old we endure what the World throws at us, pressing on, suffering as Christ suffered, living lives of love and service to others as Christ Jesus did taking Jesus as our first and best example and looking to those in our midst like Saint Paul, and those in our Christian life today, who are keeping in step with Jesus. And so we live for today with an eye on tomorrow and on The Last Day which is to come. And when we do this life becomes worth the living, a reward as we await our rest.  

When Peter, James and John struggled to stay alert the night before Jesus’ Good Friday crucifixion and Jesus asked them, “Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation,” He concludes His request with these words, Jesus says, “The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”[8] And this is the challenge we face. We face temptation daily. We impatiently want results without work; we want others to serve us before we volunteer to serve others; Rather than walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death on God’s clock, with His timing for us, at His pace, some are tempted to skip to the end, in prideful stubbornness refusing help altogether in the face of death.

And for Peter and John on Easter morning when word came to them that Jesus was raised from the dead, they ran to the tomb to see Him; yet they didn’t see Jesus when and where they desired, they had to wait until the appropriate appointed time later that day in the evening. Their weak flesh one moment lazy the next moment impatient struggles to resist temptation just as we struggle in our flesh. Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, much in the way of His incarnation and birth, didn’t unfold on the schedule of man, and was not determined by the lazy flesh or by the impatient will of man but rather in accord with  God’s perfect will and in His patient time.[9]

I recommend to you to take a little time today or tomorrow and read the rest of chapter 15 of 1st Corinthians from which our two Epistle Readings come today. It is a wonderful part of the Bible uniquely focused on Jesus’ resurrection and our own promised resurrection in Him.

When it comes to death on the one hand we want to avoid it while on the other hand we want to control it, we are impatient with it and seek dominion over it, but that is not our domain. So while Saint Paul teaches us that, “The last enemy to be destroyed is death,” Paul also teaches us to be patient reminding that God “gives us the victory [over death and the grave] through our Lord Jesus Christ.” This is something to be thankful for. This victory is not ours to win, it is won by Christ Jesus for us, and He gives this victory to us, both now and at The End in full. Some of you are experiencing grief over the death of ones you love that died with their faith in this same Jesus, listen carefully: be encouraged, keep the faith, hold fast to the Lord and remember He is faithfully holding on to you, and when your last hour comes and Jesus promises to take you to Himself where you will begin that promised reunion with those who have gone on ahead of you.

So while that old children’s prayer “Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep; If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take,” may seem morbid to some people these days nevertheless it reminds us that we are in God’s hands even in the face of death, and that as such we have nothing to fear for ourselves or for our loved ones with faith in Christ, Easter Sunday and the Resurrection of our Lord teaches us to have the right attitude toward what is to come, a trust and hope that you will see them again in Christ and that on The Last Day you will see them again not just spiritually but physically with your own two eyes, just as you will likewise look upon your Lord Jesus in the flesh, as the hymn writer says “And then from death awaken me, That these mine eyes with joy may see, O Son of God, Thy glorious face, My Savior and my Fount of grace.” Christ is risen! He has risen indeed! Alleluia. Amen.    

Let us pray:

Lord have mercy on us, Christ have mercy on us, Lord have mercy on us, “take our minds and think through them, take our lips and speak through them, take our hearts and set them on fire; for the sake of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, Amen.

[1] 1 Corinthians 15:51–56
[2] Psalm 23:4
[3] Job 19:25–27
[4] Lord, Thee I Love with All My Heart, Lutheran Service Book, Concordia Publishing House 2006, hymn #708 stanza 3.
[5] Philippians 3:20–21
[6] Revelation 21:5a
[7] Philippians 3:10–17
[8] Matthew 26:41
[9] John 1:13

Photo Credit: Main photo blue tinted composit of stained glass of Jesus risen from the tomb from flickr.