Sin City is a charade.
Sin City is little more than a charade. Her glistening lights create the illusion of life and hope."Fame! I’m going to live forever!" Her music, her dancing, her wild parties, and her countless enticements offer the promise of joy and lasting peace.
But do not be deceived. It’s all a ridiculous façade. The guiding ethic, the core philosophy, of Sin City is this: "Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die." In other words, this life is all there is. Our destiny is the grave. There is nothing after this lifeor beyond it. There is no God, there is no Christ, there is no good news, no salvation, no heaven, no afterlife, no coming judgment, no resurrection of the dead, and no victory over sin and death. In the end, there is only death. Death is the destiny of every man. From dust we came andto dust we return.
Hope changes everything about the way we live. For those with nothing to live for beyond this life, a sense of desperation takes over. We saw it in New York this week as thousands of shoppers, who had waited in line all night, shattered glass doors and trampled a young security guard to death in order to get a plasma TV, an X-Box, a Wii, or whatever. Another new low!
The rush of the mob was so intense that employees had to jump on top of vending machines to avoid the same fate. Even the police and emergency personnel found themselves being pushed as people rushed past a dying man to find a bargain.
Desperation is at the core of much sin.
At the core of materialism, at the core of greed, at the core of self-centeredness, at the core of sexual immorality, at the core of everything ailing Sin City and the church at Corinth was this sense of desperation. The dictionary defines desperation as, "a condition of being without hope;recklessness brought on by great urgency and anxiety." There is no one more reckless, morally or spiritually, than a person with nothing to live for. In Corinth there were Christians who were living as if there was nothing beyond grave. In our own day Christians live with the same sort of desperation.
But hope changes everything about the way we live life. You saw it in the video when Lola described the faith of her parents. Their faith in Christ brought balance and peace to their lives. It enabled them to face death with a sense of courage and anticipation. It has inspired their entire family,all the way down to their great-grandchildren, to give generously to others.
Hope is the antidote to desperation.
If you want to change a person, you must first give him hope. It’s not just hard, it’s impossible to live a godly and self-controlled life if there is no hope beyond the grave. This is why we have so many Christians who are practical atheists. A practical atheist is someone who gives lip service to his resurrection hope, but doesn’t believe in it deeply enough that it changes his behavior.
It isn’t a coincidence that we end this series on Corinthians talking about hope. People of all ages need the transforming hope outlined in 1 Corinthians 15. The rest of us need to be reminded of it until it transforms every area of our lives.
Paul writes about the gospel.
1 Corinthians 15:1-2 (NIV) says, "Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand.By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain."
What is this gospel? What is this good news? Well first of all, it’s something rooted in actual history. It's something foretold and foreshadowed hundreds, even a thousand years before Christ.
Paul continues in 1 Corinthians 15:3-8 (NIV). "For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve.After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles,and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born."
This gospel first changed the apostle Paul from being a persecutor, murderer, and violent man to being a servant of Christ.
1 Corinthians 15:9-11(NIV) tells us,"For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.Whether, then, it was I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed."
The core feature of the gospel is that God has the power do in our lives and in our death the same thing that he did in Christ’s life. That just as God raised Christ from the grave, so he will raise us from the grave.
Christ will raise us from the dead and free us from the desperation of this life.
1 Corinthians 15:12-23 (NIV)says, "But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either.And 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."
"But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man.For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.But each in his own turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him."
One day we will all be subject to God.
Another feature of the gospel is how God’s power and authority is being reestablished over all things. God is the chief end for which we were created. We were not created to serveourselves or our desires. One day we will all be subject to God, either by our desire or by defeat, when God overthrows his enemies.
1 Corinthians 15:24-28 (NIV) continues, "Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, 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. For he 'has put everything under his feet.' Now when it says that 'everything' has been put under him, it is clear that this does not include God himself, who put everything under Christ. When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all."
Knowing that all things will be subject to God tomorrow changes the way we live our lives today.
1 Corinthians 15:29-58 (NIV) says, "Now if there is no resurrection, what will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized for them?And as for us, why do we endanger ourselves every hour?I die every day—I mean that, brothers—just as surely as I glory over you in Christ Jesus our Lord.If I fought wild beasts in Ephesus for merely human reasons, what have I gained? If the dead are not raised, 'Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.' "
"Do not be misled: 'Bad company corrupts good character.' Come back to your senses as you ought, and stop sinning; for there are some who are ignorant of God—I say this to your shame. When we die, our bodies get planted into the ground like a seed. According to God’s timing, that seed comes to life, and is miraculously given a new, more glorious existence."
"But someone may ask, 'How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?' How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else.But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body.All flesh is not the same: Men have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another and fish another.There are also heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; but the splendor of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is another.The sun has one kind of splendor, the moon another and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendor."
"So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable;it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power;it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body."
"If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.So it is written: 'The first man Adam became a living being'; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit.The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual.The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven.As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the man from heaven, so also are those who are of heaven.And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven."
"I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.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. Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain."
Our hope changes the way we live today.
Our hope changes everything about the way we live today. In a few moments we are going to take communion together. We are familiar with how the bread symbolizes Christ’s broken body and the blood symbolizes Christ’s shed blood. At communion, Christ’s death for our sins weighs heavily on our minds.
But this morning I want you to focus your attention on the empty cross. Have you ever noticed that in the Christian Church, there is no body hanging on the cross? This is not an incidental detail. After Christ died for our sins and was buried in a tomb, he experienced a bodily resurrection on the third day after hisdeath and he ascended into heaven to be with the Father for eternity.
This morning we don’t just celebrate God’s forgiveness of our sin. We celebrate the resurrection hope we have in Christ. That just as Christ was raised from the grave by the power of God, so we also shall live.
Because of Christ’s resurrection, we too can taunt death with the words of 1 Corinthians 15:55 (NIV)."Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?" We give thanks to God this Thanksgiving because he gives us victory through Christ.