Easter Sunday

April 20, 2025

1 Corinthians 15:51-57

Because He Lives— Death Has Lost Its Sting!

Dear fellow worshipers of our living Lord and Savior,

He is risen! He is risen indeed!

There are certain things that we experience in life that “sting” us— sometimes deeply. If a young person does poorly on a very important test— that “stings.” If we get fired from our dream job— that “stings.” If someone we love ends up rejecting us— that “stings.” But nothing— nothing!— “stings” us as deeply as death.

Ever since Adam and Eve rebelled against God nothing has been the same. Their rebellion, their sin, unleashed death upon all of humanity. From that point forward death has reigned without mercy. Death hangs over us like a suffocating shroud. Death is a constant source of sorrow and shame. Death doesn’t just bring life to an end— it haunts every moment of life that leads up to it!

All of that changed, however, the moment our dear Lord and Savior Jesus Christ emerged from His tomb! From that point forward life— true life!— was unleashed for all of humanity. From that point forward life— true life!— will reign until death and all of its effects are erased! The victory march of life has begun— and death can do nothing to stop it. Even as death appears to still reign, even as death continues to separate us from our loved ones, even as we continue to wipe away the tears that death brings to our eyes, Easter gives us this assurance: Because He Lives— Death Has Lost Its Sting!

Our sermon text for this glorious Easter Sunday comes from the Great Resurrection Chapter of the Bible— 1 Corinthians 15. Under the inspiration of God the Holy Spirit the apostle Paul says to you and to me, “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.”

The joy and the confidence contained in these words is off the chart! How can Paul be so joyful? How can Paul be so confident? It all goes back to what Paul proclaimed at the beginning of the Great Resurrection Chapter of the Bible! In 1 Corinthians 15:3-9 Paul lists six separate times when the risen Christ appeared to various individuals and various groups of individuals. Why did Jesus do this? He did this to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the same Jesus who had been nailed to the cross is the same Jesus who physically rose from the dead!

Paul then goes on to remind the Corinthians and to remind us that the entire Christian faith stands or falls on Jesus’ physical resurrection from the dead. Paul writes, “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.” Do you remember the very next verse? Paul joyfully and confidently says, “But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep” (1 Corinthians 15:17-20). Here in our text Paul expands on the words, “…the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.”

With those words Paul wants us to know that the glory of Easter Sunday will be experienced by all Christians— both those who “fall asleep” before Christ’s return to this earth as well as by those who are still alive when the risen Christ returns to this earth in all of His power, majesty and glory! Look back to verses 51-53. Paul writes, “
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.”

Just as Jesus’ physical resurrection from the dead on Easter Sunday is a “mystery” to our limited logical minds, so also the physical “transformation,” the physical “change” that we will experience when our risen Savior returns to this earth is a “mystery” to us! What we do know, what we can be absolutely confident of, is that these weak, perishable, mortal bodies that we have now will be glorified in ways that we can’t even begin to imagine!

This portion of our text reminds me of what God the Holy Spirit had Paul proclaim to us in Philippians 3:20-21, “But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.”

Picture that in your minds, my friends. Easter both guarantees to us and previews for us that our glorified body will be “imperishable” and “immortal”! Easter both guarantees to us and previews for us that our glorified body will never be able to perish— no matter what force is brought against it. Easter both guarantees to us and previews for us that our glorified body will never be able to die— not from age, not from disease, not from anything. Easter both guarantees to us and previews for us that our glorified body will be indestructible— for all of eternity! That’s what the physical resurrection of Jesus Christ, that’s what Easter Sunday guarantees to us and previews for us!

When all of that takes place— and it most certainly will!— Paul says, “Then the saying that is written will come true: ‘Death has been swallowed up in victory’”! Let that picture sink into your heart and mind. Easter guarantees to us that on Judgement Day our victorious Savior will “swallow up” death— forever! This means that for everyone who believes and trusts in Jesus as their risen Lord and Savior death itself will become “extinct.”

That joyful and confident truth enables us to say with Paul, “’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.” Here is where our sermon theme comes from: Because He Lives— Death Has Lost Its Sting! Go back to Good Friday for just a moment. Why did the Son of God cry out in agony of soul, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34) You know the awful answer to that question. The Son of God was “forsaken” by His heavenly Father because He had willingly taken all the sins of all people— including all of your sin, including all of my sin— upon Himself! This resulted in the Son becoming so disgusting in the eyes of the Father that the Father turned away from His Son. He “forsook” His Son.

Now ask yourself, why did the Son of God victoriously proclaim from the cross, “It is finished! I have reached my goal!” You know the awesome answer to that question! Because His holy, precious, innocent blood has completely paid for all the sins of all people— including all of your sins, including all of my sins! Now connect the dots here my friends. “The sting of death is sin.” The resurrection of Jesus guarantees that our sins have been completely taken away— “as far as the east is from the west” (Psalm 103:12). That means: Because He Lives— Death Has Lost Its Sting!

How does that glorious truth, how does that glory of Easter become our personal possession? The Holy Spirit has Paul answer that question in the closing words of our text, “But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!” Note very carefully that there is nothing that we need to do, there is nothing that we can do to make Jesus’ Easter victory our Easter victory! God gives us the Easter victory of His Son purely by grace through faith in what Jesus has done for us!

As we continue on our journey through this world we will continue to experience a variety of things that “sting” us. Failure will “sting” us. Rejection will “sting” us. But Easter guarantees to us that while we might still feel the “sting” of death when we attend the funeral of someone we love— that “sting” is only temporary! The “sting” of death disappears when we focus on the truth we are here to celebrate today:

He is risen! He is risen indeed!

To God be the glory!

Amen