Sermon #55 — The Victor’s Battle Cry and our Easter Victory Gift

AN AUDIO SERMON
[see link below]

By rising from the dead — raising us up with him — Jesus Christ has won the great victory and has, thus, restored to us our eternal significance which death had stripped us of.

Death is a powerful and ever-present reality for human beings.  And for us death doesn’t mean simply the end of our physical existence, but more than that it threatens us to strip from us a sense that our lives have meaning and significance. 

Everyone comes naked from their mother’s womb,
    and as everyone comes, so they depart.
They take nothing from their toil
    that they can carry in their hands.  [Ecclesiastes 5:15]

We know the truth of that ancient statement in the deep pit of our stomach.  What will our lives mean a thousand years after we’re dead?  a hundred years?  fifty years?  What is the point of it all?

Our days may come to seventy years,
    or eighty, if our strength endures;
yet the best of them are but trouble and sorrow,
    for they quickly pass, and we fly away.  [Psalm 90:10]

But something else deep in the pit of our gut tells us that this isn’t how it’s supposed to be.  Surely our lives were meant for something more than for us to evaporate like smoke on a windy day when we breathe our last breath.  And, of course, we were meant for more than that. 

You have made them a little lower than the angels
    and crowned them with glory and honor.
You made them rulers over the works of your hands;
    you put everything under their feet.  [Psalm 8:5 & 6]

Death’s victory over us in our fallen state has stripped us of this God-given meaningfulness, purposefulness, our rightful possession of eternal significance.  But God has not been satisfied to leave us in such a wretched condition.

“But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, ⁵ made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.” [Ephesians 2:5 & 6]

Christ is raise — and we are raised in him.  Christ is Victor — and he gives us the victory as a gift.

“‘Death has been swallowed up in victory. ‘ . . . Thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” [! Corinthians 15:54 & 57]

Because of Christ’s victory gift to us, our lives have eternal significance.  “Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, 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.”  [1 Corinthians 15:58]

Read: Mark 15:37-39 & 1 Corinthians 15:50-58

Then, listen to:  “The Victor’s Battle Cry and our Easter Victory Gift”

© 2014 Gary A. Chorpenning; all rights reserved.