1 Corinthians 15 - Christmas via Easter Part 2

Tom Shrader continues his Christmas via Easter series by exploring 1 Corinthians 15, demonstrating that Christ's resurrection is the essential proof that His mission to destroy the works of the devil was successful. He addresses the Corinthians' questions about what happens after death, contrasting various worldviews with the Christian hope of resurrection. Paul's logic is clear: if Christ hasn't been raised, then our preaching is vain, our faith is useless, and we remain in our sins, but because Christ has risen, we have hope both now and for eternity.

“Everyone here who is a Christian knows that the fundamental question upon which Christianity ultimately rests is this, did Jesus Christ actually, literally, and physically rise from the dead?”

— Tom Shrader

Series: Christmas Via Easter

Recorded: December 19, 2002

Duration: 41 min

Themes: resurrection, hope, death, victory, faith, sin, salvation, eternity, doubting faith, facing death, new believer, struggling with sin, questioning christianity, grieving loss, seeking purpose, adult seeker

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 15, 1 John 3:8, Matthew 1:18-21, Romans 6:23, 1 Thessalonians 4, John 3:16

Theological Themes: christology, resurrection theology, soteriology, salvation doctrine, eschatology, biblical apologetics, incarnation, redemption

Full Transcript

If you're with us for the first time, or you haven't been around for a while, this is pretty serious stuff today. If you're a guest, I would say to you, God has you here by divine appointment. This is the second part of a two-part discussion on Christmas via Easter.

What started this was 1 John 3, verse 8. John writes this: "The Son of God appeared for this purpose." So why was Jesus born? For this purpose: "that He might destroy the works of the devil." When we talk about the works of the devil, we're talking about rebellion and sin. Ultimately, we're talking about the victory of sin and the bondage that humans are in as a result of sin. God comes through His Son, Jesus Christ, and He destroys the work of the devil.

The Christmas Story

Here's the Christmas story, or just part of it. This may be familiar to you. "Now this is the birth of Jesus Christ. When His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit." In other words, Mary and Joseph are engaged, they have not yet come together physically. Mary is pregnant, and she is a virgin who is pregnant with the Lord Jesus, the Father being the Holy Spirit.

"Joseph, being a righteous man, not wanting to disgrace her, desired to put her away secretly." He didn't want to embarrass her, so he's going to break this engagement off. He's going to do it in secret. As he's considering this, "behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him, saying, 'Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for that which has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.'" So Joseph's thinking like any guy, he's thinking, "Well, what kind of girl are you?" And the angel's saying, "She's a terrific gal, this is the result of the Holy Spirit, it's got nothing to do with another guy."

And he goes on to say this: "She'll bear a son," she's going to have a boy, "and you'll call Him Jesus," that's going to be His name. Why? "For it is He who will save His people from their sin." So John says, the purpose for Jesus in coming to this world was to destroy the works of the devil. The angel tells Joseph, He, Jesus, will save His people from their sin. That's the purpose. That's why Jesus was born. That was His goal, that was His purpose.

Goals and Achievement

But let's stop a second. To have a goal - you're sitting now, you're looking at the year, so you had five goals this year. You sit and you go, "I did that, I did that, I didn't quite get there, didn't do this, didn't do this." You can have a goal or a purpose and not necessarily achieve it.

So we can say that the purpose of Jesus being born was to destroy the works of the devil. We can say that He came to save His people from their sin. The issue is, did He do it? And what we're trying to do is to say, yes, yes He did. The evidence that His mission was successful is seen not in Christmas, but in Easter. We have Good Friday, where Christ died, and Easter, where Jesus rises.

The Gospel in a Nutshell

We've been looking at 1 Corinthians 15, and we could spend literally eight, nine, ten weeks on this chapter, but we're going to go quickly today. I just want to hit three or four points, and I think they all relate to Christmas, to you, to me, to Christ, to salvation. And they also talk a little bit about heaven.

In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul's writing, and he gives us the gospel in a nutshell. Verse 3: "Christ died for our sins, according to the Scripture. He was buried, and He rose on the third day, according to the Scripture." And then Paul lists these witnesses to the risen Christ. They had seen Him, and he says, "If you doubt that, go and talk to them." He said, "They're still alive."

Then Paul spends the balance, beginning in verse 12 through the rest of this chapter, talking about the resurrection, and also answering a question. Look at verse 12. It says this: "If Christ is preached that He's been raised from the dead, how is it that some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead?"

The Historical Context

Now, you need a little history. We're not sure - it's hard to date the writing of the book of Galatians. There's two schools of thought. One places it at about 49 AD, the other places it at about 55, 56. Remove that for now from the discussion. The first books that Paul wrote were 1 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians. Those are chronological - the earliest books.

In both his letter to the church at Thessalonica, and to the church at Corinth, he addresses this issue. Some people were saying, "What about us?" In other words, they believed Jesus rose from the dead, otherwise they couldn't be Christians. That's fundamental. If you don't believe in the literal resurrection of Christ, you're not a Christian. So that's fundamental to that.

What they were struggling with is, "What about them?" What happens to us when we die? That's what they want to know. Where do we go? What happens to us?

Different Views of Death

I made a list of possibilities. Here's the first one, and it's becoming a little more popular, and that is it's just over - it's extinction. You're just here, and then you're gone, and that's it. I was at the bookstore this morning, and Esquire magazine has their "Meaning of Life" issue.

This is the second year they've done this in Esquire magazine, the Meaning of Life issue. They talk to people. It's not as good as Life magazine used to do it, but they talk to different people—they talk to De Niro, and they talk to Ted Kennedy, and they talk to Heather Locklear, and they talk to the San Diego Chicken. But one of the guys they talk to is Chuck Beres. I love Chuck Beres, what a nut, and what a slime.

Chuck Beres said this—and this is not a direct quote, but you're going to get pretty close here. He said, I'm an atheist. I don't believe in heaven. I don't believe in hell. I don't know what happens when you die, but I believe we're like a leaf that just is crushed up and then we're gone. So it's over.

Now, that makes life a little more difficult, because you've got to try to find meaning now in a life that has no grand scheme. In other words, there's no creator, therefore this is a giant accident, therefore I just landed here, so I ought to pretty much live for me. There's that bumper sticker—it's a goofy, stupid, silly bumper sticker that says, "Practice random acts of kindness and senseless deeds of beauty." That bumper sticker always drove me nuts, because who wants to live a random senseless life? Be nice. Why? Well, to be nice. I mean, that really is what it says, because people have value. Why? Well, because we say they do, but that's really it.

When I talk to the high school students, I tell them, when I was a kid, at least we didn't have to fight that. Almost everybody embraced some idea that there was something. This Esquire magazine had a poll in it, and here's something a little alarming. I've never seen this statistic before. People who believe in God: 76%. That number has always been around 94, 95%. I've never seen that number so low, so I don't know that it's scientific, but it was interesting. So life just has extinction. It's just over. Well, that's going to have a profound effect on the way you live.

Popular Beliefs About Death

The second thought, and it's really catching some sort of momentum in this country, is that a third of the American people believe in reincarnation. Larry always had a way of saying things, and Larry would say it this way: Reincarnation means, if at first you don't succeed, die, die again.

So the thought in reincarnation is this. You live a life. At the end of the life, there's some way that this life is evaluated, and then you either move up the chain or down the chain, achieving perfection ultimately.

I worked with a guy who believed in this stuff, and he said—so we're obviously discussing this—he said, I believe in just migrating through life to perfection. I said, well, have you ever met one of these people, these perfect people? He said, no. I said, it's because they're not there. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. I mean, there are no perfect people, but one out of three Americans believe in this.

So you live a life, and at the end of this life, somehow you're evaluated. If you lead a good life, you come back as a higher form. You live a bad life, you come back as a lower form, like a Democrat. I'm just kidding. A liberal Republican. A wildcat. Oh, that's a cheap joke. I don't care. For those of you from the U of A, I am a huge U of A basketball fan. Reincarnation—what kind of life is a mulligan? Take it over.

Then there's a couple of other options, and I'm not going to spend much time on them, because they get into a lot of philosophical stuff, but it's the idea of the soul and the body. The Greeks loved this because they hated the body. They thought anything physical was bad, everything spiritual was good. So their idea of a resurrection and a resurrected body would be about as repugnant as you can imagine. They believed in this dualism, and never would they think that freedom would be in the body coming back with the soul.

And then there's this idea of nobody really knows or cares, and it doesn't really matter. Ultimately, I'll figure it out. And I think there's some of that, even people who sense that this is there. When I turned 30, I remember saying to myself, my life is half over and I better get serious. When I turned 40, I said, my life is half over and I better get serious. When I turned 50, I said, my life is half over. Well, I'm 53 as of a couple weeks ago, and I'm going, do I think I'm going to make it to 106? I don't think so. It's more than half over, but the idea is we better care.

Paul's Logic About the Resurrection

So you've got all those options. Here's what Paul says. I want to talk to you about that, but before I do, I want to talk to you about the resurrection because it's important.

So look at verse 13 through 19. For those of you who are teachers or those of you who deal personally with people trying to persuade them, this is a powerful way to communicate. First Corinthians 15 verse 13. Paul does a series of questions, a logical progression.

"If there is no resurrection of the dead"—so their concern was we don't rise from the dead. If there's no resurrection of the dead, then Christ couldn't have been raised. That is a great point. They're saying there mustn't be anything after death. And Paul goes, wait a minute. Christ was a human. He was like us in every way, except what? Sin. He didn't sin. He ate, He slept, He got thirsty. He did all of these things. He was just like us. He had this human body. If humans don't rise from the dead, then Christ hasn't risen from the dead.

Now, almost as a parenthetical insert, He stops right there and says, think about that for a moment. I saw a book in the bookstore the other day called "What If Volume Two," which would lead you to believe that there was a Volume One. This "What If Volume Two" had scenarios like: What if John Wilkes Booth was unsuccessful in killing Lincoln? What if D-Day failed?

The Central Question: What If Jesus Didn't Rise?

The Corinthians had a pressing question: what if Jesus didn't rise from the dead? That's a great question, and they weren't the first ones to think about it because Paul picks up that logic right there. He's talking to them as they're asking, "What about us? What happens to us when we die?"

Paul says, "Well, first of all, if there's no resurrection from the dead, then Christ hasn't been raised." Look at verse 14: "And if Christ hasn't been raised, then our preaching is in vain. Your faith also is vain." The word "vain" here means empty, fruitless, without purpose, useless. Our preaching is a waste of time.

The Foundation of Apostolic Preaching

Why would our preaching be useless? Well, the resurrection was the central message. In the very first sermon that Peter ever preached, speaking to the Jews, he says, "Men of Israel, listen to these words. Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs, which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know—this man, delivered up by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put to death. But God raised Him up again and put an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in death's power."

His very first sermon, his very first point deals with the crucifixion and the resurrection of Christ. Paul says earlier to this church in Corinth, "I preach Christ and Christ crucified. I don't try to dazzle you with profound words. I don't try to move you with articulate messages or emotional persuasion. I just preach Christ and Christ crucified."

Paul's saying our preaching is absolutely useless if Christ didn't rise from the dead. And obviously, if our preaching is useless, your faith is useless.

Everything Hangs on This Question

Let me read to you again the quote that we started with last week. Ray Stedman wrote this: "Everyone here who is a Christian knows that the fundamental question upon which Christianity ultimately rests is this: did Jesus Christ actually, literally, and physically rise from the dead? Everything hangs on that question."

That's what Paul's saying. Paul's saying your faith is of no value, because you put your faith and trust in Christ. You put your faith and trust in Christ that He died for your sins, that He was buried, and then He rose again. If He didn't rise from the dead, your faith is useless.

Life Without the Resurrection

I'll tell you another thing about that—and this is a total side point, but I hope it's helpful—without Christ, life takes on a darkness. When I was in college, Bertrand Russell, at least where we were, was a very popular author, and he wrote a book titled "Why I'm Not a Christian." He was not only not a Christian, he was adamant about converting others to his position, or at least understanding it.

In one of his writings, Russell wrote this: "The life of man is a long march through the night, surrounded by invisible foes, tortured by weariness and pain, towards a goal that few can hope to reach, and where none can tarry long. One by one, as they march, our comrades vanish from our sight, seized by the silent orders of death. Brief and powerless is man's life. On him and all his race, the slow, sure doom falls, pitiless and dark. Blind to good and evil, reckless of destruction, omnipotent matter rolls on its relentless way. For man, condemned today to lose his dearest friends, tomorrow himself to pass through the gates of darkness."

Happy holidays! That's life without Christ. That's life without the supernatural.

The Jefferson Bible: A Cautionary Tale

I've talked to you about the Jefferson Bible before. Thomas Jefferson was smart—this guy knows a lot of stuff, very bright, sharper than me, no question about it. But he didn't like that Bible, the one you and I teach out of. Here's what he decided: "I'm going to make my own."

So he took the New Testament, he carved out all the supernatural stuff, and he had what's left—what's now known as the Jefferson Bible. If I remember correctly, its original title was something like "The Life and Teaching of Jesus: A Moral and an Ethic," and that's what you have. So if you take out the supernatural, what you have is "The Life and Teaching of Jesus." The last verse of the Jefferson Bible is: "They placed Him in the sepulcher and rolled a stone over the opening." No hope there.

So you take this resurrection away, and this whole thing begins to crumble. Our faith is absolutely useless. We ought to be, conversely, the most hopeful people on the planet. Whatever Russell wrote there is the antithesis of our view. We ought to see hope.

False Witnesses of God

Look at verse 15. He says, "Here's something else"—not just faith and preaching in vain—"Moreover, we are found to be false witnesses of God, because we witness against God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise if in fact the dead aren't raised."

In other words, if God didn't raise Christ from the dead, we're testifying to this. We're lying, that's what he's saying. It's not just a misunderstanding or interpretation. He's saying this is a sham and a facade. We're not just misinformed—we're dishonest co-conspirators leading people into lies.

Again, very important. John Locke, British philosopher, writes this: "Our Savior's resurrection is truly of great importance in Christianity—so great that His being or not being the Messiah stands or falls with it."

Still in Your Sins

So you take it away, and you have vain teaching, vain preaching, vain faith—we're lying. Now he begins to kind of summarize it. Verse 16: "If the dead aren't raised, not even Christ has been raised"—obvious. Verse 17: "If Christ hasn't been raised, your faith is worthless." Now he tells you why: "You are still in your sins."

Your sins of the past are with you, sins of the present are here, and you're condemned to the sins of the future. You have no remedy for your sin. Remember, Paul had given us the gospel in a nutshell: Christ died for our sin. Well, if that death did not provide satisfaction—

to God, let me spend a second on it. God is angry. Some people say, "I don't like to think of God as an angry God." Well, He is. He's mad, and He's wrathful against sin and sinners. So we all judge the sin, but not the sinner. I'm with you on that. The problem is this: God doesn't send sins to hell, He sends sinners to hell. You've got to judge somehow. He's judging the sinners, and there's wrath that's poured out on sin.

When Christ dies—and this is an important word, and you can handle it—He is the propitiation. It means to satisfy the wrath of God. When Paul says Christ died for our sins, he means Christ died for our sins thereby satisfying God's wrath. His people, when the angel said "You'll name Him Jesus for He will save His people from their sin," what he means is deliver them from the wrath of God.

If Jesus Christ didn't rise from the dead, then we're still guilty before God for all the sins of the past, all the sins of today, and all the sins of tomorrow. There was a guy in one of the studies this week and he was saying, "My responsibility on Christmas morning is to do a devotional—not everything, but a devotional—for the family, got the kids and everybody in there. You have any suggestions?" I said, "Here's a great one: do Romans 6:23."

Romans 6:23 says, "The wages of sin is death, but the free gift..." Yeah, everybody wants to talk about gifts at Christmas, so let's talk about a gift. But let's not talk about the gifts that you give; let's talk about the gift you can receive. It's the gift of Jesus Christ. Far more important for you this Christmas season to receive this gift than to give another gift. Go ahead, he says, and talk about the free gift of eternal life that's in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The Devastating Consequences Without the Resurrection

Well, Paul is saying if Christ hasn't been raised from the dead, then there is no resurrection for us. We're still guilty, we're still lost. He says here's another point in verse 18: don't talk about seeing these others again, for those who have fallen asleep in Christ are perishing. If Christ didn't rise from the dead, then our parents, our grandparents, our friends, everybody that's dead—they're gone. Gone.

And if we have hoped in Christ in this life only, verse 19, we are to be most pitied. In other words, this thing's just a sad joke. We're just going through this. This is a bad thing.

So here's the summary, then we move on. Here's the summary of this: without the resurrection, our preaching's a waste of time, your faith is useless, we're liars, we're still guilty, those who have died are lost, our present and our future is hopeless.

The Glorious Reality of the Resurrection

And look at verse 20: "But now Christ has been raised from the dead." There's the hope. May I read this to you? This is magnificent, talking about hope. Chuck Swindoll: "Hope is a wonderful gift from God, a source of strength and courage in the face of life's harshest trials. When we're trapped in a tunnel of misery, hope points to the light at the end. When we're overworked and exhausted, hope gives us fresh energy. When we're discouraged, hope lifts our spirits. When we're tempted to quit, hope keeps us going. When we lose our way and confusion blurs the destination, hope dulls the edge of panic. When we're struggling with a crippling disease or a lingering illness, hope helps us persevere beyond the pain. When we fear the worst, hope brings reminders that God is still in control. When we must endure the consequences of bad decisions, hope fuels our recovery. When we find ourselves unemployed, hope tells us we still have a future. When we're forced to sit back and wait, hope gives us the patience to trust. When we feel rejected and abandoned, hope reminds us we're not alone and we'll make it. When we say our final farewell to someone we love, hope in the life beyond gets us through the grief."

Put simply, when life hurts and dreams fade, nothing helps like hope. It's been said that you and I can live 40 days without food and three days without water, a few minutes without air, but not one second without hope.

This doesn't deny the hardship of life. This is simply Paul saying to you and me: listen, in the midst of this hardship, you have hope. Why? Because Christ rose from the dead, and because He rose, His promises are true. We can believe Him.

Christianity as the Only Way to Heaven

I'm watching the other night—I'm watching Donahue. Now there's no way you can do this on a full stomach. You've got to be very careful, and you can only do it about five minutes at a time. They brought him back—I don't know if you all watch this stuff—I brought him back and they put him in a desk and he just simply was bombing so bad they couldn't get me to watch. So they put him back in this new format where he's got an audience and he's doing the old thing and all that.

The other night the question was basically, "Is Christianity the only way to heaven?" Any of you see that? Anyway, there you go—two or three, four people. I can only watch about five minutes of it. But they had a guy on there, a Baptist preacher I believe, and he was saying, "Jesus is the only way. Jesus is the only way—the way, the truth, and the life."

Donahue cannot eat how narrow that is. "Don't you see what this is doing? Can't you see this? Can't you see how harsh it is? Can't you see what you're doing here? 1.8 billion Muslims in the world and they hate us because of this. Can't you see that?" It was awful.

And there's this little girl, this cute little girl, stands up and says, "Well, John 3:16 said, 'For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.'" And Phil said, "But don't you see how harsh that is?" "No," I mean, "I wouldn't want to..." Here's what he said: "I would hate to live next door to somebody who believed this."

I'm thinking, "Man, Phil, you're nuts. I'm a great neighbor. My dog doesn't bark, I clean my yard. What do you care?" And there was a Jewish fellow on there who was angry—he wasn't neutral, he was angry—and he said, "This is spiritual bigotry. Where are the Jews? At the back of the bus on the way to..."

One guy listening to this heated religious discussion finally spoke up and said, "Listen, listen, listen - the problem with this Christian thing is my God is too big for that. My God embraces all of these religions." That was it - I was done. I got the illustration. That's all I need.

But what no one ever said when I was listening is, "But what's true?" What do you mean your God is so big that He embraces contradiction? He embraces one faith that says Jesus is a prophet and another that says He's God and another that says He didn't exist? See, this is either true or it isn't.

I don't even get into a lot of debates or discussions with it. I don't spend a lot of time arguing about it because if you don't think this is true, then we've got to find out what is true and weigh it against something. I believe the Bible is the Word of God, the inerrant Word of God, infallible. So we're going to put everything against this.

Truth Cannot Contradict Itself

What we know as Christians is this: you've got Christianity and you got all these other religions. Either we're right and they're wrong, or they're right and we're wrong, or we're all wrong. But we're not both right. You can't say two and two is four and you say two and two is five and we say, "Oh, it's Christmas, everybody's right!" You're either right or you're wrong, and that's where that discussion ends.

I say this to you because some of you, I know from years of experience, are about to embark on trips that you've been dreading since you were together for the Fourth of July picnic back home. You're in family situations and you don't agree on this, and this has been a point of contention for you. I know how hard this is. I just encourage you to be loving and kind and gentle and to try to help people understand that what we're talking about is true if you can just simply see that we can't both be right - there has to be a truth.

The issue at Christmas is not was Jesus born. I think virtually everybody believes Jesus was born - some huge high percentage believe Jesus was born. That's not the issue. The issue is why was He born. You see why this is important? And ultimately the real issue is did He rise from the dead? Because if He rose from the dead, it would seem to me that would be proof positive that all that He said is true.

Questions About the Resurrection Body

Anyway, Paul goes on - we're giving you a satellite view of this - and we'll close. Some of you will say, "How are the dead raised?" Look at verse 35: "How are the dead raised, and what kind of body do they come back with?" That's a great question. How can the dead be raised? What kind of body are they going to have?

I mean, we got some that were buried at sea. We got others that were cremated and ashes spread over the Grand Canyon. Some were eaten by wild animals. Some just died and now there are bones. How are they going to have bodies? What's this going to be like?

Then Paul describes what we call the rapture and gives us just a flavor of what is to come. Here's what he says. Look at verse 51: "Behold, I tell you a mystery." A mystery is not like Columbo - it's something that was hidden and now it's known. "I'll tell you a mystery, something that's hidden but revealed: we shall not all sleep, but we will all be changed."

The Moment of Transformation

It's an extraordinary piece of information. What he says is not every person who's ever been born is going to die - Jesus is going to come back. You got it there in verse 52: "In a moment, in a 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."

It's what Paul talked about chronologically a little bit earlier in First Thessalonians chapter 4. Just make a note of it because these passages go together. He's writing to this church and he said this: "We say to you by the word of the Lord that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord shall not precede those who have fallen asleep." So he's talking about Christ coming again. He's talking about some who will be alive. He said, "Listen, we're not going first. First there will be those who have fallen asleep" - in other words, those who have died.

"For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and the trumpet of God. The dead in Christ shall rise first." So those who have died who are Christians will rise. I got no idea what that's going to be like. You've seen pictures of it or where somebody draws a caricature, maybe even a movie, and all of a sudden you have planes without pilots and cars without drivers. You're sitting in a room and they're gone.

Won't affect a lot of church population, but we'll go on. Church will roll on, giving will increase because we got motivation. A little cynical there, sorry. But you see what we're saying? He said this is what's going to happen: there's going to be first those who are dead - they're gone - and then those of us who are alive, boom, we're gone. We're caught up in the air to be with the Lord. That's what He said - we're caught up in the air to be with the Lord forever.

Your Certain Future

There's your future. I can't tell you what's going to happen to you today or in the next few years. I can't tell you what's going to happen in your life, but I can tell you what happens after your death. You're dead for a while, although you're absent from the body, present with the Lord - your soul is there. But you need a body. You got an earth suit, you need a space suit, a heaven suit, and you're going to get one at this point in time when somehow, BAM, this takes place and we will be with the Lord forever.

And the next verse - everybody quits, they talk about that, they miss verse 18 - "Therefore comfort one another with these words."

The Diminished Joy of Christmas

In other words, as this world gets more and more hopeless, I've talked to a bunch of people and I've said, Christmas just doesn't seem like much this year. It could be me. We're getting ready to move, so we didn't put up normally two trees and all this stuff—we only put up one tree. Both of the girls are leaving Christmas Day, so we're going to have our first Christmas without the kids. I haven't been to a mall, and I love to go to malls. I'm driving Main Streets and I haven't seen hardly any lights.

Normally when I hear "I'll Be Home for Christmas," it just moves me. I don't know why—I think of home, I think of the past. I'll hear "I'll Be Home for Christmas" and go, "Hurry up and get home, I'm sick of this." But this year I just don't feel it. I've talked to so many people, and I think there's a couple of things in play here.

I think one of it is that a lot of people are downsizing Christmas stuff. They got their brains whacked out financially, and even coming back a little, they're saying, "You know what, this is stupid. Why am I buying you a bunch of stuff you don't want? This is dumb." Susan and I are not exchanging gifts this year. Now, how dumb do you think I am? I'm on my way to get something, because I know she's lying, but I'm not stupid. I know what she's saying—just one. I can handle that.

I think this whole thing with Iraq plays heavily into it. If it's not that, there's just this cloud hanging around. But you know what? We're still happy. Why? Because I don't know how this is going to turn out, but I know that as a Christian, one day I will be caught up to be with Him forever. Forever.

The Promise of Reunion and New Bodies

I miss Larry Wright very, very much. I know one day I will see him forever. I know there'll be this scene where I'll be on the beach, kind of running along, and there'll be this gal running the other way. She'll have this long flowing hair and this beautiful body, and we'll be getting closer. All of a sudden I'll say, "Grandma!" These new bodies and everything—Grandma will look good, and all this stuff is going to take place. That's what He says.

Look at verse 53. We have to go—I have to work on that because I have to use it at church in a couple weeks, and I have to get that timing down better. "For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality." Then He gets to the punchline. Verse 55: "O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?"

Remember why Jesus came to this earth? To put an end to the works of the devil. Where are they? Death, separation, rebellion. "The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law, but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." There's the truth.

The Practical Application of Doctrine

We have three minutes, so let me take them, because this is all doctrine. I just gave you a bunch of doctrine, doctrine, doctrine, doctrine, doctrine, doctrine. Let me give you a "so what" to this, because I believe in the study of doctrine. Not so you can run a category on Jeopardy, but I believe in the study of doctrine because it affects how you live.

He says, "Now, because all this is true," verse 58, 1 Corinthians 15, "therefore, because all this is true, my beloved brethren, be steadfast"—that means settled, firmly situated. "Be immovable"—that means totally immobile, motionless. "Always abounding"—the word abounding means to exceed all requirements. It's overflowing, overdoing. "Be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain."

Here's the practical ramifications of this: you and I stand firm. We don't waver. Here's the truth, and we believe it, and it changes our whole lives. I have man after man after man who I deal with who will tell me, "As a non-Christian, I had all the stuff that Esquire magazine would say would make me happy. As a Christian, I still have some of that stuff. I was miserable then, and I'm absolutely ecstatic now." Why?

Life Is Not About Accumulation

If we believe this to be true, then what we have to understand is life is not about stuff. That's why you're miserable. Unless you find meaning in Christ and then in your work, you're just going to be frustrated. It just goes on and on and on with no ending at all. It's accumulation for accumulation's sake.

This is a great time of the year because it's a time when things wind down. Some of you just had terrific years. You blew quota away by 137%. You knocked them dead, and they're going to bring you in on January 2nd and say, "Team"—I always call you "team" when they want something—"Team, we're all at zero today." I find those very discouraging moments, but it's true. Why? Because we're just evaluated by this and by this and by this and by this and by this.

Where do you get relief from this? If you're a manager here, this might not be the speech to give to your company when you go back, but you get relief by not living and dying with those results. Because ultimately, they don't matter. Do they matter? Yes, they matter. Are we saying we shouldn't be good employees? You ought to be the best employee, but that's not where you find meaning. That's not where you find purpose, and those are not the things that are ultimately going to satisfy you.

I watched a show the other night on Hugh Hefner, and I'm watching Hef when he got married. This was the "settle down" thing, and now—I don't know how he does this—but she lives next door with the kids, and he's divorced, but they have great relationships. Now he dates...

have seen it, now he walks around with five of these blondes at a time, and he's been, in his term, reborn in this sense. All of a sudden, the whole industry is welcoming him back. He is living the playboy life. I'm thinking, you know what, because you can see that he's Hugh Hefner. You're going to lose the game, my friend.

I watched Strom Thurmond's birthday party when it was going on. You all heard about it since, but I watched it, and here was a podium, and it said happy birthday Strom. Strom Thurmond was sitting there in a wheelchair, and when everybody clapped, he cut a clap. Now Strom did not look bad for a hundred. He looked bad though, and I don't want to miss that. He didn't look bad for a hundred. He looked better than a corpse, but not much, and we're really excited. Yeah, he did look like a mummy. We're really excited he got to be a hundred, and this is not a shot at Strom.

The Physical Game We Cannot Win

My point is, that's where we're all headed. Very few of us are going to get to that point. The point is, we're losing this physical game. You can't win this physical game, so if you invest your time, energy, effort, and money in the stuff that's fading away, you're going to be miserable. You just are, and I'm talking to you now as a Christian. As a Christian, you're still going through this giant circle, thinking you're going to find happiness there.

We were talking about it before I came up - jackpots at 215 million dollars and I'm thinking that solves a lot of problems. I think it would for me because I think I could handle it, but for most of you I don't think it could. I think you get the point.

Christ's Victory Over Death

Jesus came to put an end to the agony of death - not physical death, spiritual death. I know that what I'm telling you is true because the Bible says it. I know that book is true. I hope you have a great Christmas. It's going to be a great Christmas if you take these truths and you understand them and you embrace them.

For those of you who are going to be with family and you are in that very difficult spot of sharing that truth, I really do pray that God gives you wisdom and patience and tenderness and love. For those of you who are not Christians, I hope - and maybe you've been with us all year, I thank you for being here, we're glad you're here, it's great to have you with us - but I'm just telling you if you don't get all this stuff, if you don't embrace Christ as Lord and Savior, your life will never be what it could be here. When you die, you spend eternity in a place called Hell, paying for your sins for the rest of your life.

I don't care how big a stack that sins pile is - you come to Christ in repentance and faith, it's forgiven today. You cannot out sin God's grace and mercy.

Father, thank You for this truth. Let us live this truth. God, thank You for these people that are so faithful. What an absolute treat it is for me to see their faithfulness. Thank You that they're here. God, give us a good rest over the holidays. Let us come back refreshed and ready to tackle the new year. God, we praise You and worship You in Jesus' name. Amen.