1 Corinthians 15:20-28
But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every 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 “God has put all things in subjection under his feet.” But when it says, “all things are put in subjection,” it is plain that he is excepted who put all things in subjection under him. When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all.
Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. We are coming to the end of the Church year. Well, today is actually the end of the church here. And you've seen a decided turn in the judge Enos of our readings, right? Jesus comes with sheep and goats and sets them on one side and on the other, and judges them. And Ezekiel predicts something similar, that the the son of David the prince, the king would come and judge between sheep, and sheep, right? Jesus is coming, we know this, it will come with power on the clouds with power and might, we will divide the world into two, giving the righteous eternal life and ascending to hell. All the unrighteous are reading from First Corinthians discusses what he is doing. He talks about Jesus being raised from the dead, and the coming thing that he will do, let's take a look at it says, For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under His feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. And again, then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule, and every authority and power. We know that Jesus is now raining over all of creation, up on his throne in heaven. And he is raining now until he has put all things under his feet. What that means is on the last day, when Jesus returns Finally, he will destroy every enemy that seeks to harm us. Every rule, every authority, and every power. When He comes, He will destroy even death forever. Finally, we will be freed. In talking about this, Martin Luther likes to expand on the authorities and powers that are are part of this creation. He uses something he says it's sin, death and the power of the devil is what we have been redeemed from. He does this in his explanation to the second article of the Apostles Creed, when he says that our savior has redeemed us from all sins from death and the power of the devil not with gold or silver, but with His Holy precious blood and his innocent suffering and death, that I may be his own and live under Him in His kingdom, and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness. And so on the last day, that is what he will destroy sin, death and the power of the devil. So I'd like to focus on these authorities and powers that are at work in the world. And examine what it means for them to be gone. Because we are so used to them. They're such an ever present part of the oppression and difficulty of our lives. That I think we don't even think about them being gone. They're just always around us, we accept them. But the great promise of Jesus is that the problems that are every day that you don't even think about anymore, will be gone on the last day. Even the good things that we have that address those problems will be gone. Because you don't need them anymore. So let's take a look at the devil, sin death and the devil. I'm going to take them a little bit out of order. Paul says the last enemy to be destroyed his death. So I'm gonna move that to the end of the sermon sound good? Great. Let's start with the devil. When Luther talks about the devil in this context, he often points to the spiritual battle that is going on. I mean, the devil is at work in all sorts of things. But in the church especially, he is there to try to convince us of two things, things inside and things outside. And the outside is the one who is at work trying to undermine the truth of God. I'm going to start with a bit of a joke. There. St. Peter is taking someone on a tour of heaven. You He's walking through and he goes and he says, this is the this is the Calvinists room. Here's the Presbyterian room. And then he says, Okay, everybody quiet down, and they sneak past a room with a closed door. And somebody in the crowd asked, what's going on in there? He says, that's the Missouri Synod room. They think they're the only ones here. probably heard that joke before. Still funny every time. Right? That's not the case. We don't think we're the only ones in eternal life. But it's funny because we know that there are lots of divisions between us, all right. There are divisions behind different theological traditions. There are fights out there. And it's actually really hard, isn't it? Especially when your family is divided by these things. I know my family has been. Other families are too, especially when you come and you can't take communion together. Or you're discussing difficult theological things and you get in fights and stuff difficult. The pain of these debates and divides is a problem. And the misunderstanding of God's Word as we fight over what the truth is, that's because the devil is out there trying to confuse us. These horrible divisions have been caused by his work. When Jesus returns that will be gone. Can you imagine? There will be no Lutherans. On that day. There will be no Catholics. No Eastern Orthodox, no Presbyterians, no Episcopalians, we will all be one. Finally, whatever the can't even imagine it, can you when Jesus destroys that power, but the devils that work inside of us also is other names Satan, is the accuser. And rightly so. He's the one who whispers in your mind. God can save everybody else. But you? I don't think so. You're way worse than all the people around you. You know, baptism without that worked on the guy over there. But you know, you didn't do it right. You didn't confess your sin, right? If you don't trust enough, you don't work hard enough. It's just not it. He whispers in your minds, and he tells you, you're not good enough. And he's wrong, of course. Because you don't, it's not about being good enough. Jesus came to wipe away all those sins, so that even the worst of us all of us are saved by His grace. We have a him that deals with this. God's own child, I gladly say it and one of the verses is Satan here this proclamation. I am baptized into Christ, drop your ugly accusation. I'm not so soon enticed. Now that to the font I've traveled, all your mind has come unraveled. His accusations are nothing. He doesn't know what he's talking about. Because you've been baptized into Christ. But the thing that we need to worry about just as much is that he also wants you to think that when you sin, it's too bad to get help. And he loves to shame you into thinking, my pastor would never love me if I told him what I'm struggling with. Whether it's addiction, or mental illness or pornography or whatever. If somebody found out there is no way the ground would open up straight to hell. There's a way to deal with that, of course. Simply tell Satan, he's wrong. come and confess your sins. And you'll hear the exact same words no matter what it is. I forgive your sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. And remember that his powers destroyed. Satan doesn't know what he's talking about. He is a liar. And on the last day, when Jesus returns he will never whisper in your ear again.
When Jesus comes, He will also destroy the power of sin over all of us. We're all too familiar with the sin in our own lives. It's very simple the frustration, of wanting to be the good person you have in your mind. Like we have this image of ourselves where we say, I'm a good person. And then we say, I want to live like that. And then we don't. And it's frustrating, isn't it? I know it is for me. It was for St. Paul, when he said that the good he wants to do he cannot do and the evil that he hates. That's what he does. And it's frustrating for you is it's frustrating for me. On the last day, that'll be gone. Can you imagine waking up in the morning, setting out your goals for the day and actually accomplishing them? All of them? I can't. What an amazing thing. How crazy would that actually being able to serve and love the way you want to? That's what it'll be like, when Jesus destroys the power of sin. On the day he returns to joy. He'll also destroy the power of sin that is out in society as well. We have lots of really good things that are designed to mitigate the forces of sin in our society and culture. One of them we call government. Yes, I called government good. It's okay. It's there to restrain sin, right? At least that's what it's supposed to be. Even though it seems like with politicians, it only enables it. But his job is to help restrain the sin as we interact with each other. One day that will be gone. When Jesus returns. What about jobs getting paid? Why do we have that we have a whole economic system that is designed to be accountable. Because if you don't have accountability in a system, sinners will stop working. On the last day, we will not need that anymore. You will not need to get paid to go to work. Crazy, right? Can you imagine that? You will wake up every day and think I am going to love and serve my neighbor with no thought of reward. Can you even imagine? When Jesus destroys the power of sin in the world, what a day. The final of the rules, authorities and powers that he will destroy his death. St. Paul says the last enemy to be destroyed is death. We don't have to identify the one at work, and death in the world. We see it all around us. We see it in our bodies as we decline and our friends and our neighbors. But I think the thing that we need to do is the temptation for us is actually to gloss over the sadness and the reality of death. To cover it up and not look away, or and look away from it. We have an aversion to thinking about death as sad. actually focusing on death as a bad thing. People who are forced to do it, who have a lost loved one. They actually go through it, but we try to cover it up. We try not to use the word like funeral. We have to make it a celebration. And I think it's because we Americans have this relentless positivity. And I say relentless because it's actually oppressive. Being positive all the time. Never being able to call a thing bad. never being able to call a thing sad and simply just live in the sadness of that moment. And if there is ever a time to do that, it's when someone dies. I'll say it. Death is bad. And we all know it and we should be able to say it Even when someone dies and goes to heaven, we know that that's not what God has designed us, for. God has designed us, for us to be soul and body living and walking on this earth. And Jesus will come and do that, again. The most popular place on the planet will be a cemetery. On the day Jesus returns, because that's the day the people will get up, walk around and hug each other as they're reunited with their loved ones. Because that's what it means for the last enemy to be destroyed. For death, to be gone, when we all will be together in Christ, and alive. That is why Jesus rose from the dead. And that's what he's coming to do. Our Savior is coming to create a world that we can't even imagine that is so different from what we live through now, that if we were to think about it, it boggles the mind. But it's still the hope that we have that he will destroy every rule, authority and power, even death itself when he comes and brings this judgment. Come, Lord Jesus, we wait for this day. In his name, amen.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai