What’s the Resurrection Therefore?

I. Introduction
A. There’s nothing more frustrating than working hard but feeling like all your labors aren’t really accomplishing anything. You help & serve others, but no one seems to appreciate or even notice it. You say no to your darker impulses and try to do the right thing, but it almost seems to make life harder. And then you see other people who are proud and don’t care about God, and their lives seems to go along fine, they do whatever they want and yet it seems like there are no consequences.
1. It just begins to feel like your efforts are in vain. It gets hard to keep going, to keep pressing on.
2. Life is so hard, so tedious, so draining, so frustrating. And we see little fruit from it all.(See Ps.73)
3. This is the issue our study of God’s word addresses this morning.
B. 1Corinthians 15:58 Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
II. Now in order to understand this verse, you have to understand something about the verses before it.
A. 1Corinthians has 16 chapters in it. Verse 58 is the last verse of the 15th chapter.
B. In 1Corinthians, Paul deals with a number of different subjects. Let me show you a graph.
C. Chapter 15 is by far the longest chapter in the letter. In fact, it’s the longest chapter in all the letters of the NT. I believe there are only two chapters in the gospels which are longer.
D. What’s the point? The reason such a long chapter was created (by Stephen Langton, the archbishop of Canterbury, who split the Bible into chapters in 1205) was because it’s all one subject. Just as 1Corinthians 13 is the love chapter, so 1Corinthians 15 is the resurrection chapter.
E. Now I know that for some of you, when I say 1Cor.15, you already know just what I’m talking about. You are familiar with the chapter and its subject matter, its flow, and you can probably quote several of your favorite verses from the chapter.
1. But there are others who are completely unfamiliar, so I need to give something of an introduction because the verse we’re focusing on is based on the 57 verses before it.
F. 1Corinthians 15 is one of the most precious passages in all of Scripture, a passage which has comforted many on their deathbeds and many others as they remember their loved ones. It’s where God’s people go when someone dies.
1. It’s about the resurrection of Christ, but it’s also about the resurrection of His people on the last day, when we will changed, and our pe3rishable, mortal bodies will be transformed into imperishable, immortal bodies.
2. Here’s how the passage ends: 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.” 55 “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” 56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1Corinthians 15:54-57) — And then comes our verse, v.58...
III. 1Corinthians 15:58 Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
A. Therefore
1. We see in this a very common feature of Paul’s letters: he explains doctrine and then he applies it.
2. And ‘therefore’ is often the way it is expressed.
a. After 11 chapters of doctrinal explanation about salvation by grace, Romans 12:1 says, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice.”
b. And after 3 chapters of glorious doctrinal teaching about the calling of God, Ephesians 4:1 says, “I therefore urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.”
3. You see, the problem with doctrine is that it can easily get left in a corner by itself.
a. It is not good for man to be alone. And it is also not good for doctrine to be alone.
4. And so it is here. Paul has 57 verses of doctrine about resurrection here in 1Cor.15. But that 57 verses of doctrine is not alone. It’s followed by a ‘therefore.’ It’s followed by application.
a. Verse 58 tells us the So What? of our coming resurrection.
b. Verse 58 tells us how we should live in light of the resurrection.
B. my beloved brothers
1. You remember the great poem: To live above with the saints in love, that will be glory. To live below with the saints I know, that’s a different story.
2. It’s hard to love people who are hard to love!
3. And yet, we’ve been studying 2Corinthians for a couple of years. We know what a hard time the Corinthians gave Paul. But we also know that despite their doctrinal struggles, their ethical problems and their hesitations about Paul’s leadership, from Paul’s point of view they were still his dear brothers and sisters. And he tells them this several times in 1Cor. – as he does in 2Cor.
C. Be steadfast, immovable
1. This implies that we are going to experience great pressure in this life.
2. The current in a river or in the ocean doesn’t feel like great pressure unless we are trying to resist it. If you float along with it, it seems like no pressure at all.
3. If our job as Christians is to just go along with the flow of our society, to conform to the latest thinking about how things are and what they should be, then our job is merely one of being adaptable and movable, and making sure we don’t get too attached to any certain way of thinking.
a. And that’s definitely the easy path today. Our society has changed so much in my lifetime.
b. And right now it’s changing faster and more dramatically than I could ever have believed.
4. But if our job is to remain anchored to a fixed object when everything else around us is moving, then we must be prepared for a struggle – fighting to be steadfast and immovable.
5. And we need to learn to live with the expectation that what we believe is going to be unpopular. And that means, we’re not going to be very popular.
6. Being steadfast and immovable reminds us of Jesus’ teaching on building your house on the rock in Matt.7:24-27, “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. 26 And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”
a. There are storms in life. And they are furious sometimes. They tear at you; they bully you; they push you around.
b. And to survive, you need to be anchored, you need to be well-grounded, fixed to the bedrock. Otherwise, you will be blown around by the winds and washed away by the floods.
7. This applies to many things: faith, doctrine, ethical convictions, church, marriage, family, etc.
8. It’s so easy to bend to the pressure. But God says, Be steadfast and immovable.
D. always abounding in the work of the Lord
1. It’s not just that we survive the storms of life, but it’s that we push forward in the work of the Lord. We keep striving; we keep building; we keep making progress.
2. And it’s not just a little bit: it says, ABOUNDING in the work of the Lord.
a. “Abounding in the work of the Lord” means doing lots of it. “Abounding” means overflowing, excelling, abundant. It means our lives should be FILLED with things that count for Christ.
b. The Greek word here is used in some famous verses:
(1) Lk.15:17 My father’s servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger!
(2) John 6:12 “Gather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost.”
(3) Ephesians 1:7–8 “the riches of his grace, 8 which he lavished upon us”
3. What is the work of the Lord?
a. Jesus said: “We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work.” – John 9:4
b. Ephesians 2:10 We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
c. Col.3:23–24 Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.
E. knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain
1. Here’s where we get to the heart of the matter.
2. When Christ died on the cross, it was a dark day. It looked like all the work Jesus had done was in vain. It looked like His miracles were in vain. It looked like His teachings were in vain. It looked like His amazing encounters with people were in vain. It looked like His suffering was in vain.
a. But His resurrection changed all that. Two thousand years later and we’re still talking about His miracles and marveling at His words and grateful for His suffering — because of the resurrection.
3. And so it’s because of His resurrection that we know OUR labor is not in vain.
a. For instance, because of the resurrection, the preaching of the gospel is not in vain!
b. He is responding to what he raised in 1Corinthians 15:14, “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain.”
c. If there’s no resurrection, all our work to help people come to faith and grow in faith is in vain!
d. If there’s no resurrection, all our efforts are in vain, all our struggle is in vain, all our suffering is in vain, all our hoping and waiting and yearning are in vain.
4. Here is the key! Why should we always abound in the work of the Lord? Because we know our labor is not in vain. And why do we know our labor is not in vain? Because we believe in the future! Because of Christ’s resurrection, we believe in the future!
5. We know our work is not in vain because by dying and rising again Christ has established the future for us, a future of harvesting the fruit of our earthly labors.
6. Because of the resurrection, we believe we will reap what we have sown! We believe we will see the fruit of our labors, even if we don’t see it now.
7. As RC Sproul loved to say, “Right now counts forever!”
IV. Conclusion
A. This is why we can be steadfast and immovable! Because we know about Christ’s triumph over sin and death.
1. This is why we can abound in the work of the Lord! Because we know what Christ has done, first on the cross and second in His resurrection.
B. The fact that Christ’s story ended in resurrection and triumph and glory means that our story will end in resurrection and triumph and glory.
1. And so, someone who knows and believes the truth of Christ’s resurrection will be able to be steadfast and immovable, will be able to always abound in the work of the Lord.
2. They can plough and plant and weed and work, because they know the harvest is coming.
C. We are in the midst of a story. And just like any good story, the plot has many twists and turns. And there will be many more twists and turns before it’s over.
D. And when the story gets scary, or bleak, or exasperating, we have two things to keep us going, two things to keep us filled with hope.
E. We know the Author of the story, and therefore we trust Him that the story is good.
F. We know the story ends in triumph. We know the story ends in resurrection. We know that in the end, our greatest enemies – in and death and even Satan himself – will go down in flames.
G. HOWEVER, you can’t wait till the glorious sunset at end of the story – when the truth is obvious to all – to make the right choice. You have to make the right choice in the midst of the bleakness, in the midst of the scariness, in the midst of the apparent gloom.
H. You have to say, “I don’t believe any of these lies that there is no purpose in all this, that there is no reason why things happen, that there is no Hand guiding my life and my world, that there is no happy ending. I am going to trust Him, I am going to trust Jesus Christ, I’m going to trust His word, I am going to serve Him with all my might. I will not put my security in my country, or in the trajectory of how things seem to be going, or in my human resources. I am going to build my life on His promises — even if everyone else is saying, ‘There is no hope. The sky is falling! The sky is falling!’ I will walk on the path of Christ, for I KNOW where it leads. I know I will suffer, I know I will be hated, I know I will have to love those who don’t love me, but I also know that my story will end in triumphant victory just as His did! For I have a triumphant Savior who never forgets His own, and who never loses in the end!”