So it's gonna be 1 Corinthians chapter 15 verses 50 to 57 for a sermon I've entitled Triumph Through Transformation. Just follow along as I read. Here's what it says. Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. But I tell you a mystery, we will not all sleep, but we will 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 will be changed. For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. But when this perishable has put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about 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 to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Listen to the following words that were penned long ago. There is one preacher left of the old school, and he speaks today as loudly and as clearly as ever. He's not a popular preacher, though the world is his parish, and he travels over every part of the globe and speaks in every language under the sun. He visits the poor. He calls upon the rich. You may meet him in the inner cities and find him in the very highest circles of society. He preaches to people of every religion and no religion. Whatever text he may have, the substance is always the same. He's an elegant preacher. He often stirs feelings which no other preacher could. He brings tears into eyes that are little used to weeping. He addresses himself to the intellect, to the conscience, and the hearts of his hearers. His arguments, none is able to refute. There is no conscience on earth that has not at some time been quailed in his presence, nor is there a heart that remains wholly unmoved by the force of his weighty appeals. Most people hate him, But one way or another, he makes everyone hear him. He's neither refined nor polite. Indeed, he often interrupts the public arrangements and breaks in rudely upon private enjoyments of life. He lurks in the shadows of the theater and the nightclub. His shadow falls sometimes on the card table. He's often in the neighborhood of public houses. He frequents the shops and the office and the factory. He has a master key to give him access to the most secluded chamber. He appears in the midst of the legislators of fashionable religious assemblies, neither the villain or the mansion, nor the palace daunt him by their greatness, and no court or street is low enough to escape his notice. His name is death." You know, it's often been said that in this world, two things are unavoidable, death and taxes. The truth is, you can avoid paying taxes, but nobody avoids the notice of death. You know, preparing my sermon, I was looking for quotes from famous people related to death. Some of them, like Mark Twain, just tried to shrug it off. He said this, I do not fear death. I was dead for billions and billions of years before I was born and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it. Of course, assumed in his words is the belief that because he did not exist before he was born, neither would he exist after he died. Some make jokes about it. Groucho Marx said, I intend to live forever or else die trying. Some stare death in the face and try not to blink. Clint Eastwood said this, whether or not you like it, you're forced to come to the realization that death is out there. But I don't fear death. I'm a fatalist. I believe that when it's your time, that's it. That's the hand that you're dealt with. Some see death not as a question, but actually as the answer. The murderous Russian leader, Joseph Stalin, said death is the solution to all problems. No man, no problem. Others speak of death in welcomely terms. The playwright Oscar Wilde wrote this, death must be beautiful. To lie in a soft and brown earth with the grasses waving above one's head and to listen in silence, to have no yesterday and no tomorrow, to forget time, to forget life, to be at peace. Of course, death was distant to him when he wrote that. Later on, when he came to his own death, he changed his mind. He said, I'm dying like I lived, beyond my means. Well, the Word of God presents death not as a friend, but as an enemy. The enemy of mankind which came into the world as a result of Adam's sin. But D.L. Moody was right when he pointed out that death may be the king of terrors, but Jesus is the king of kings. Jesus showed his own victory over death on that first Easter morning when he came out of the tomb. Our victory over death will come when we're raised by Jesus and have transformed bodies that are like his heavenly body. Triumph through transformation, that's what we want to think about today as we look at this portion of God's word. So why don't we pray and get into the text. Father, God, you pray for grace and mercy as we look at this. This is something that none of us can avoid, and all of us will be touched by, and someday it'll be personal. So we pray that you'd open up our hearts and our minds to both understand and rejoice at what God has done, what you have done for us through your Son, Jesus Christ. So bless us now, we ask in Christ's name. Amen. Well, the passage can be divided into three sections. First thing, we see the necessity for this transformation. The necessity for this transformation. Secondly, we see the mystery of this transformation. The first is verse 50, and the second, verse 51 to 52. And finally, the victory in this transformation, and that's 53 to 57. The necessity for the transformation. By the way, if you were to do a careful reading of 1 Corinthians chapter 15, you'd find that the Corinthians were rejecting the idea of the resurrection because they simply could not fathom how our present bodies could last forever. I mean, our spirits, yes, they could understand that, but our bodies? I mean, don't you want to be rid of these things that weigh us down and limit us in so many ways? That might have been part of the reason that the Corinthians were so casual when it came to sex. I mean, if the spirit of what matters is what matters, and the body will be done away with, does it really matter what we do with our bodies? Remember, they had a little saying that went with it. It went like this. Food is for the stomach, and stomach is for food. But God will do away with both. They thought, well, it's the same way with sex. Sex is for the body, and the body's for sex. If you have a sexual hunger, then satisfy it, even if it's with prostitutes, because God's gonna do away with our bodies anyways. But Paul says no. Rather than being done away with, our bodies are gonna be resurrected and transformed, and we will belong, body and soul, to Jesus forever. Paul did agree with the Corinthians that our present bodies are limited and weigh us down, and they're not suitable for the world to come. For he writes, starting in verse 50, Now I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Now by flesh and blood here, what Paul means is our natural, physical bodies as they've been affected by the fall. You remember that in the Garden of Eden, There were two trees mentioned, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life. Adam, if he would have eaten from the tree of life, but not from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he would have lived forever in his natural body. But because he sinned when he rebelled against God, both he and Eve inherited fallen, corrupted, perishable bodies. And when you read in chapter five of Genesis, you find names of the early descendants of Adam and Eve. Their lifespans are incredibly long, some of them 800 and 900 years. And yet you find that refrain again and again after each one mentioned, and he died, and he died. It may have taken death longer to hunt them down than it does today, but eventually death begged its prey. You know, people in our day are obsessed with staying young, or at least looking like they're young. I mean, health clubs, special diets, hair dyes, wrinkle cream, facelifts and tummy tucks. You know, America's first fitness guru was Jack LaLanne. Some of you may remember that name. He opened a number of fitness centers, actually the first fitness centers, back in 1936. He at one time owned 200 health spas. He had a television program that aired for years, and he invented the juicer. Well, Elaine practiced what he preached. He was careful about what he ate. He said that if you taste something and it tastes good, you should spit it out immediately. He was a bodybuilder and he exercised religiously. Listen to some of his accomplishments. At age 42, he set the world record for push-ups by doing over 1,000 in 23 minutes. At age 45, he did 1,000 jumping jacks and 1,000 pull-ups in one hour and 22 minutes. At age 60, he swam from Alcatraz to Fisherman's Wharf for the second time. This time, he not only wore handcuffs, but he also towed a 1,000-pound boat. To celebrate his 70th birthday, Lalonde swam 1.5 miles off the California coast from Queensway Bridge to Long Beach Harbor, and he did it wearing handcuffs and shackles on his legs, towing 70 boats holding 70 people. Now, he celebrated his 95th birthday with the release of a new book titled Live Young Forever. Death had to hunt for Jack LaLanne for a long time, but in 2011, the hunt was finally successful. LaLanne was bagged at the age of 96. Despite all of his impressive efforts and careful care, Jack LaLanne's body proved just as perishable as all the rest. Our bodies, your body has an expiration date, which you cannot pass. And that's why Paul says, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does a perishable inherit the imperishable. As that song that we sing says, frail children of dust and feeble is frail, we need new imperishable sinless bodies if we're gonna live forever in the kingdom of God. Well, it brings us to our second point though, the mystery of the transformation. Now, when you hear the word mystery, what's the first thing that comes to your mind? You think of children's books like Nancy Drew or the Hardy Boys? Or do you think about that TV series, Columbo? You know, the guy in the dirty trench coat with the disheveled hair who always said things like, ah, excuse me, ma'am, just one more thing. Well, in the Bible, a mystery is something that was not revealed before, but is revealed now. And here, Paul has a mystery for us that has been revealed to him and to him alone. Look what he says in verse 51 to 52. He says, Now, Paul's using sleep here as a euphemism for death, and what he's revealing is that not all believers will die. Now, the Bible says that it's subject upon all men once to die, and after this comes the judgment. But we know already that there were two exceptions to that rule found in the Scripture. Who are the two people in the Scripture who never died? One of them was Enoch, and the other one, Elijah. Ooh, bonus question for ya. How did Elijah go to heaven? Most people say, oh, he was taken up in a chariot of fire. But if you read the text carefully, it says a chariot of fire separated Elijah from Elisha. He went up in a whirlwind, a tornado took him away. Probably saw Dorothy on the way. Well, there you go. Well, even though many, perhaps most believers living during the time of the tribulation will be martyred, some will survive until the rapture. Those who do at that point will have their bodies transformed and new heavenly bodies like Christ given to them. And it'll happen instantaneously. in less time than it takes you to blink. I read somewhere that the average person blinks between 10 and 20 times a minute. That's 1,200 times per day, 438,000 times per year. Well, your first body took nine months to develop and to form in your mother's womb, but the transformation that occurs of that body to the next body is gonna take less time than a blink of an eye. Now, can you imagine at that time some older man, 85 years of age, am I allowed to say that you're older if you're 85? Okay. He's walking by, he looks in the mirror, and what does he see? He sees wrinkles, he can't see real well, he can't hear very well. He blinks his eyes, he opens them up, The wrinkles are gone, the arms are strong, the eyes are clear, the hearing is perfect, and his face glows because he's just been transformed. And what of all those believers who died over the centuries, Adam and Eve, Abel, Moses, Joshua, Ruth, Naomi, David and his son who died in infancy? How about Luther and Calvin, Edwards and the Wesley brothers, and your loved ones who died before you trusting in Christ? Well, they will already have been resurrected and received their transformed bodies. Writing to the Thessalonians who were concerned about their loved ones who had died in Christ and worried that they might be missing out on something, on what God had in store, Paul wrote this. 1 Thessalonians 4, 13 to 17, he says, And now, dear brothers and sisters, we want you to know what will happen to the believers who died, so that you will not grieve like others who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and was raised again back to life, 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 with the trumpet call of God. And first, the believers who had died will be raised 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 one another with these words. Romeo and Juliet, the fair maiden says to her lover, good night, good night, parting is such sweet sorrow, that I shall say good night till it be morrow. You know, there's sorrow every time you look down at a casket and see the body of someone we loved, now dead. But for believers, it really can be a sweet sorrow, Because we know that if that person trusted in Christ, he's now with Christ, and someday we will see them and the Lord and be with them forever. There'll be no sorrow there, no burdens, more burdens to bear, no more sickness, no pain, no more parting over there. And forever I will be with the one who died for me. What a day. Glorious day that'll be. What a day that will be when my Jesus I shall see. And I look upon his face, the one who saved me by his grace. When he takes me by the hand and leads me to the promised land. What a day, glorious day that will be. That brings us to our last point though, the victory in this transformation. This is verses 53 to 57. He says this, for this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. Now, Paul speaks of our new bodies as if they're a coat or a robe that we're putting on us. He liked to use that kind of imagery. In Romans 13, 13 to 14, he says this, let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness. Not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife or in jealousy, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts. Or in Ephesians 4, 18 to 23, Paul says this, So then, I say and affirm together with the Lord that you walk no longer as the Gentiles do, also walk, in the futility of their mind being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that's in them, because of the hardness of their hearts, and they've become callous, having given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity and greediness. But you didn't learn Christ this way, if indeed you have heard of him and been taught in him, just as truth is in Jesus. that in reference to your former manner, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted according to the lust and deceit, and that you renew, be renewed in the spirit of your mind and put on the new self, which is in likeness of God, has been created in righteousness and holiness and truth." You ever seen when they do those extreme makeovers? They'll take some average or drab looking girl and they bring in the hairstylist and the wardrobe person. My daughter actually did that years ago. She was on a local television program in Minneapolis. Suzanne and her went down there and they took her off stage and brought her back and they had cut her hair and dyed it weird colors and gave her strange clothes and then they said to Suzanne, they said, well mom, what do you think? And Suzanne said, ah. We didn't like the makeover. We didn't want it to keep going. But you know, they do that with houses too, don't they? You've seen programs like Property Brothers, where they'll buy some house and gut it and refurbish it so the people can sell it and then buy another. I can never understand. Once the house is done, why not just keep the house you've got? Why do you want to buy a new one? Well, if you're a believer, God has got you in the process of doing an extreme makeover in your life even now. He's tearing down the walls of false beliefs that you have. He's trying to rewire your thinking. He's gutting out some of the sins in the different areas of your life. He's making you more functional for service and more morally beautiful. But that makeover is not going to be complete until the transformation of our bodies when we have made our bodies made new like the body of Jesus Christ. And you can be sure, if you're a believer, that He who began a good work in you will continue it until the day of Christ Jesus. Philippians 1.6. And whatever you have to go through, whatever difficulties or heartaches or setbacks or sufferings, you can know that God is causing all things to work for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose. For those He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son. so that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. And these, he also, those who he also predestined, he called. And those he called, he also justified. And those he justified, he also glorified. The end point for us is to be conformed to the image of Christ. And folks, you know, quite honestly, it's a long process. Joel Johnson, did you get saved on this day? Yes, how many years ago? And I got saved on the 10th, which is next year, or tomorrow. It takes a long time to change. I think we need to be patient sometimes with ourselves, and even more so with other Christians. I think every Christian should be wearing a hat that says, under construction, because we are and we will be until the day that Jesus returns, and we're resurrected. But when that final phase of God's reconstruction of our lives takes place, when our natural bodies, whatever's left of them, is resurrected, when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then the saying will come about that is written, death is swallowed up in victory. Back in 2011, in the island of Mindanao in the Philippines, villagers went looking for a giant saltwater crocodile, which had eaten a local woman and was seen snatching and dragging a water buffalo under the water. When they captured it, it measured 21 feet long and it weighed over 2,300 pounds. Do you know there's a crocodile that's still alive in Lake Tanganyika in Africa? It's believed to have killed 300 people over the years. But death has swallowed up Millions and billions of people. But for us, death itself will someday be swallowed up by victory when we're resurrected. And that thought causes Paul to celebrate. Now I have to tell you, in North American football, when a player scores a touchdown, they're allowed to celebrate. But they can be flagged if they do something called taunting, when they mock the other team. because of their score. But here, Paul is taunting death when he asks the question, oh, death, where's your victory? Oh, death, where's your sting? That's the taunt that you and I as believers will be able to make after we're resurrected in our new bodies, which will be imperishable, immortal, and never fading, and never faltering. But like Paul, we can celebrate even now the hope that we have in the resurrection. Why? Paul explains in verse 56. He says this, for the sting of death or for the sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. Now, death came to humanity because the head of our race rebelled against God. The McGuffey readers that were used to teach kids to read for many decades in the early part of our country would give the letters A, B, C, D. Under A, it said this, in Adam's fall, we sinned all. In Romans 5.12 it says this, through one man sin entered the world and death through sin, so death spread to all men because all sinned, meaning all sinned in Adam. This deadly moral disease called sin was passed on to all of Adam and Eve's descendants except for Christ, and so we're all born into sin with a heart of rebellion against God. Death is the sting that sin delivers. And rather than the law being able to remove sin, it actually provokes it. It brings it out into the open and shows it for what it is, open transgression and defiance against our Creator. The moment we hear God say, thou shall not, it stirs up something in our rebellious natures that says, no, I will, I'll do whatever I want. So sin comes up against the law, and we refuse to obey its commands. As a result, the law condemns us as being worthy of death. And the justice of God demands that a sentence be carried out against the sinner. But for the believer, that sentence against their sins has been executed against Jesus rather than us. In Colossians 2, 13 to 14, it says this, you were dead because of your sins and because of your sinful nature, which was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave our sins. He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. You know, when Jesus died, they put a cross at the top of His cross. It said, this is the King of the Jews. But a cross, He could have put all of our sins, because that's what they did. They put the crime that they were accused of. It was for our sins that He went to the cross. The law demands that the death, the death of the law breaker. Because we're in union with Christ, in His death we died. Jesus went to the cross, so you wouldn't have to go to hell. Either way, Either way, it has to be paid for, the debt. Because Jesus met the demands of the law, he took away the penalty of sin. Therefore, death loses its sting for the believers. You know, probably have heard that story, you know, the man, he's working with his son out in the backyard, they go into a shed, and as they're in the shed, there's a bee that comes in there, and it's flying around. Well, this kid is allergic to beads. Some of you know what that's like. And so he starts to get all worried and wigged out, and the dad reaches up and he grabs the bee in midair. Ooh. Shakes it and lets it go. And the son's still terrified until his dad turns his hand over and shows him the stinger in his hand. You get the analogy? When they pierce Christ, He took the stinger of death away. So now for us, it's still an enemy, but it's a toothless enemy. And when we die, we're gonna be going off to be with Christ. So death itself will be swallowed up in victory. And Paul says, thanks be to God who gives us this victory through our Lord, Jesus Christ. Oh, victory in Jesus, my Savior forever. He sought me and bought me with His redeeming blood. He loved me ere I knew Him. Even though I didn't know Him, He still loved me. And all my love is due Him. He plunged me to victory beneath the cleansing flood. That's what Easter's all about. It's about the victory over death. Not only for Jesus, but for those who trust in Him. Do you celebrate this victory? I mean, for you, is it that Jesus is a Savior? Or can you say, no, Jesus is my Savior. He sought me and bought me with His redeeming blood. I mean, do you see Him even now working in your life to give you victory over sin so that it no longer has dominion over you? Are you looking forward eagerly to Christ's return? Are you longing for this transformation? If you are not now, you will as you get older. A few years back, I was in a thrift store buying books. Surprise, huh? I brought the books up and set them on the, before the cash register. The young lady looked at me and said, do you want the senior discount? I said, you're the first woman who has ever asked me that question. I said, how much is it? She said, 25%. Yes, I want the senior discount. Now, we were at the senior center just the other day for the Good Friday service, and Stanley informed me that you only have to be 60 years old to be part of the senior center. I'm 60 years old. Chris, where's Chris? I think Chris is 60 today, isn't he? Oh, man. How did I get to be 60? I honestly don't know. Still don't feel like an adult. I'm hoping that will come when I'm 70. Those that are younger, it's gonna go really quickly. And my mother-in-law's right. Life is like a roll of toilet paper. The closer you get to the end, the faster it seems to go. Are you looking forward to that day? Are you longing for your redemption to be complete so that you can have a new body? I got news for you. The best part of this is not that it's indestructible. The best part of it is that it's sinless. You'll never have to think to yourself ever again, why did I say that? Because everything you say and do will be right and righteous. Do you know and trust that it will be worth it all when we see Jesus. Life's troubles will seem so small when we see Christ, that one glimpse of his dear face all sorrows will erase. Well, if that's so, then you should bravely run the race till we see Christ. Jesus won. He defeated death. His side wins. The question I have is this. Are you on the winning side? Have you trusted Christ and Christ alone as the payment of your sins? If you had, this Sunday and every Sunday is a resurrection Sunday. May God bless us. Our Father in God, I do pray for grace and mercy. Thank you for the fact that your son came out of that tomb on Sunday morning. All those disciples were amazed. It said, for the joy they could not believe it, It was too good to be true, and Lord, we know it was too true to be denied. And that's what we proclaim. In a world that's dying, in a world where people are perishing every day, we bring the message that there can be eternal life and resurrection beyond the grave. So Father, we pray for grace and mercy. I ask again for opportunities for us to witness to family members and friends. I pray for this particular message as it goes out over the internet, that it would reach those who are lost, that they might be saved as well. So bless us now, we ask in Jesus' name, amen.