Title: Living in a Fallen World… for Now!
Text: I Corinthians 15:19-26
Thesis: We live in a world of good and bad but because of Jesus Christ, we look forward to a new world that is all good. (Revelation 21:1-5)
Introduction
In St. Petersburg, Florida three police officers died tragically in the line of duty within a 30 day span. In each case law enforcement officers lined up to salute their deceased fellow officers. After the third tragedy, a reporter approached one of the officers and asked if he had a comment.
The reporter said the officer simply said, “We live in a fallen world,” and then he walked away.
That incident is just one of a myriad of incidents that happen every day, where we live and around the world. Despite my inclination to elaborate and illustrate extensively and colorfully I won’t, because you know every bit as well as I know… we live in a fallen world.
The world has been broken for a long time. In Genesis 1 and 2 the world is an idyllic place of serenity and beauty until Genesis 3, where all that changed when Adam and Eve ran off the rails and succumbed to Satan’s urging and disobeyed God. They virtually had it made living in a perfect world without restrictions or restraint except for one thing. They wanted that one thing and that one thing cost them everything. And so it is, between Genesis 3 and Revelation 21 people have lived and will yet live in a broken, fallen world of unspeakable evil and equally unspeakable good.
But before… it was all good.
It was a good world. The world was an idyllic place of serenity and beauty where God, Adam and Eve walked together in the Garden of Eden. But then Adam and Eve blew it…
But since then, the world is a fallen and broken place we might call “the real world,” where life is a mixture of good and bad. Whenever we find ourselves in a place of opposing tensions we may take a piece of paper and draw a line making two columns. Above one column we write: Pro’s and above the other: Con’s.
In the case of making comparisons in a fallen world we might title our columns: GOOD and BAD.
In our Good column we might list all the great things we love and enjoy in life like the births of our children and grandchildren, health, hobbies and pastimes, rewarding jobs and careers, a loving spouse, a comfortable home, friends… you get the idea.
In the BAD column we might cite hate in the world, bad health, child abuse, poverty, bigotry, human trafficking, lying and deceit, unfaithfulness, terrorism… once again, you get the idea.
My guess is that somewhere on our list of BAD things we would write down the word “death.”
The real world is where we live now. It is no longer an all good place. It is broken. It is fallen. It is imperfect and flawed and the presence of evil permeates our culture. And because of that we live with sin and all that goes with it, including death.
There will be sin and the suffering of sins consequences and death until we get to Revelation 21 where we get Genesis 1and 2 back.
In Revelation 21:1-5, God’s Word says: “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them and they will be his people. There will be no more tears, death, sorrow, crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.” And God said, “I am making everything new!”
The tipping point in history that makes the hope of living once again in an idyllic place of serenity and beauty is what we call the Gospel:
“Christ died for our sins just as the Scriptures said. He was buried, and he was raised from the dead. And he was seen by Peter, the twelve and more than 500 followers at one time. He was seen by James and later by all of the apostles.” I Corinthians 15:3-7
I Corinthians 15 is known as “the resurrection” chapter in the Bible. This entire chapter is devoted to affirming the defeat of death and our hope of a bodily resurrection from the dead unto eternal life.
Our text begins today with a discussion of what it would mean if Christ did not or was not raised from the dead. Some people simply did and do not believe in the afterlife and the resurrection from the dead.
So our text begins with a hypothetical question.
I. Facing the Hypothetical, “What If?”
“Since we preach that Christ rose from the dead, why are some of you saying there is no resurrection of the dead?” I Corinthians 15:12
Verses 12-19 identify five consequences that result from there being no resurrection from the dead. If Christ has not been raised from the dead then what?
If there is no resurrection…
A. Jesus is still dead… his bones are buried somewhere waiting to be uncovered by archeologists. 15:13
B. Our preaching, teaching and believing are a big fat waste of time. 15:14
C. The Apostles are liars and so are we, if we teach God raised Christ from the dead. 15:15-16
D. We are still guilty for our sins and as lost in hopelessness as ever. 15:17-18
E. We are to be pitied for being so embarrassingly duped. 15:19
To be pitied is one thing but to be looked upon as pitiable is another. It is one thing to be pitied in the sense that one feels sympathetic sorrow for your suffering. It is another to be looked upon with a mingling of pity and contempt. To be pitiable is to be looked upon with scorn. And to be pitied more than anyone else in all the world is have people shake their heads in disbelief that you could have been so foolish and consequently, deserving of contempt.
It seems most mass suicides are linked to religious cults and cult figures. And every time it happens we shake our heads. We ask, “How in the world did Jimmy Jones convince all those people to follow him to Jonestown, Guyana to form a socialist Eden on earth… a paradise free from the eyes of the media?” More than that, “How did he convince 909 people to drink the Cool Aid (actually it was not Cool Aid, it was Flavor Aid)? We ask, “Why would anyone get involved with the likes of David Koresh and get tangled up with a self proclaimed “last” prophet in the Branch Davidians?” We ask, “What were those 39 members of Heaven’s Gate thinking?” We ask, “Why do smart people get sucked into things like Scientology?”
We pity those people and we grieve the fact that they drug their children along with them and suffered the consequences of cult life and all its abuses. But we also feel a measure of contempt for being so gullible as to fall for such nonsense.
Paul says that if the resurrection is a ruse and we have errantly bought into it and are entertaining false hopes of resurrection and eternal life – then we are the most pitiable people on the planet.
It is notable that the bible does not argue the case for the resurrection of Christ. The Apostle Paul simply makes a factual statement.
II. Facing the Factual “What Is!”
“But in fact, Christ has been raised from dead. He is the first of a great harvest of all who have died.” I Corinthians 15:20
As I stated a moment ago, the bible does not argue or try to prove that Christ rose from the dead. The resurrection of Christ is presented as factual. It happened. Disbelief does not make it untrue.
Some time ago I told a story about an incident that happened while I was helping a group of men in our church tear down an old house where one of the farmers intended to build his retirement home in town. Everyone was on the roof tearing the house down from top to bottom. We were tearing off a layer of cedar shingles. Albert Marcuson, well into his 80’s at the time, was not able to be on the roof but he busied himself picking up and piling the old shingles.
At lunch we all sat down under a big shade tree. Albert immediately set about removing his shoes. We were initially amused but came to feel a little bad for him when he could not get one of his shoes off… He finally pulled off the stubborn shoe along with his sock. Upon closer inspection he found that he had stepped on five nails and every nail had gone between his toes.
Now… you could scoff and laugh your head off in derision saying something that outrageous could never happen but that would never change the fact that I was there and I saw it. When I say, “Albert stepped on five nails and every nail went between his toes,” I am making a truthful statement. Similarly, in the mind of the Apostle Paul, when masses of people saw Christ dead and buried and over five hundred people saw the resurrected Christ… deny it all you wish but quite a few people saw it and in fact it is the truth. So Paul says, “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead!”
Then he goes on to make another compelling comment. The Word of God says, “Jesus is the first of a great harvest of all who have died.” The Bible compares the resurrection of the dead to a harvest.
We do not have to have agricultural backgrounds to understand the concept of harvest. In the plains states, including eastern Colorado, during a wheat harvest you may see a dozen combines with 30 foot long headers, circling a vast field in sync. They each unload on the go, auguring the wheat from the combine bin into grain carts or grain trucks. The very first grain of wheat that drops from the auger into the grain cart is the first of a great harvest of wheat to follow.
The very first apple plucked from the tree is the first of the harvest of apples. The very first tomato plucked from the vine is the first of the harvest. Jesus Christ was the very first of a great harvest of Christians who will be bodily plucked from their graves and raised into eternal life.
In explaining why this works the Bible compares our respective links to Adam and to Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul explains how just as death came into the world through a man, Adam, life came into the world through a man, Jesus.
A. We are linked to Adam in sin and death.
[Just as] everyone dies because we all belong to Adam… 15:22a
When Adam sinned, we all sinned… it is as if Adam introduced a virus into our human DNA, infecting us with deadly sin that ends in death.
And just as in Adam we sin and die… in Christ we receive life.
B. We are linked to Christ in life.
Everyone who belongs to Christ will be given new life. 15:22b
When Jesus came he brought the antidote… and so in Christ sin and death are overcome by his life. Because Jesus rose from the dead all who are in Christ will also experience bodily resurrection.
So when does all this happen?
III. Facing and Fine Tuning the timing “When?”
When this will all happen is called the Second Coming of Christ.
Dr. George Sweeting, President of Moody Bible Institute in Chicago tells of noticing an unusual combination of bumper stickers on a car in the visitor’s parking lot. One read: “Jesus Is Coming!” and the other: “Escape To Wisconsin!” Despite Wisconsin being a desirable destination, I think Jesus might have a different destination in mind… like Colorado.
The language in our text speaks of the coming of Christ as a harvest.
As I noted earlier…
A. Jesus first…
“He was raised as the first of the harvest… 15:20b and 15:23b
Then…
B. All believers at Christ’s second coming
“Then all who belong to Christ will be raised when he comes back.” 15:23b
The Second Coming of Christ is when the rest of the harvest takes place.
Jesus said, “The Son of Man [Jesus] will appear in the heavens… and he will send out his angels with the mighty blast of the trumpet, and they will gather his chosen ones from all over the world – from the farthest ends of the earth and heaven.” Matthew 24:31
A more complete description of that event in I Thessalonians further explains, “And now, we do not want you to know what will happen to the believers who have died so you will not grieve like people who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and was raised to life again, we also believe that when Jesus returns, God will bring back with him the believers who have died. We tell you this directly from the Lord: We who are still living when the Lord returns will not meet him ahead of those who have died. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of the archangel, and the trumpet call of God.
First the Christians who have died will rise from their graves. Then together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Then we will be with the Lord forever. So encourage each other with these words.” I Thessalonians 4:13-18
Conclusion:
I read an anecdote from a pastor from Spokane, Washington. He was engrossed in preparing his sermon when his little daughter came in and asked, “Daddy, can we play?”
He answered, “I’m awfully sorry Sweetheart, but I really need to finish this… can you give me an hour and then I can play?”
She said, “Okay, when you’re finished I am going to give you a great big hug.” He thanked her and she left the room only to make an immediate U-turn and gave him a bone-breaking hug. He said, “I thought you were going to give me a big hug after I finished.”
She answered, “Daddy, I just wanted you to know what you have to look forward to!”
Easter is kind of like that… Easter is the bone-breaking hug that gives us something to look forward to.
When Jesus rose from the dead… that was his Easter!
When Jesus comes again and we are raised from the dead… that will be our Easter!
I spoke earlier of what Milton called, Paradise Lost, the story of how Adam and Eve botched things for themselves and for us all. Paradise was lost. The Garden of Eden closed. Serenity and beauty lost to a real word of good and bad… a broken and fallen place. But I also spoke of a time when by the grace of God, through Christ we will once again enjoy all that was originally lost.
Here at the words from Scripture that describes that place: Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. I heard a shout from the throne saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people and he will live with them and they will be his people! He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things will be gone forever.”
And the one on the throne said, “Look, I am making everything new!” Revelation 21:1-5
That’s why I said at the onset… Once we lived in a paradise called Eden. Now we live in the real world the once good world is now infected by evil. But then, we will live in a new world that is all good!
