Food
for Thought:
The Trumpet Will Sound
A Summer
Sermon Series: The Jesus I Want to Know
July 15 , 2007
Dr. Mark Ruppert
I Corinthians 15:50-58
When I was in grade school I started to learn how to play the
trumpet. I would take lessons during school and on days when there
were lessons, I would cart my uncle’s trumpet back and forth to
Jackson Elementary School. But one day, I accidentally dropped the
trumpet and caused damage to the point that it needed to get fixed.
It got fixed all right, but dropping that trumpet pretty much ended
my instrumental music career. I focused more on basketball and
never looked back. If you would give me a trumpet to play today you
would want to: 1) either leave the room; 2) cover your ears; or 3)
find some way to put me out of my misery because the sound that
would come forth would not, let me repeat, it would not be pleasing
to the ear.
Our scripture passage tells us that, “we will not all die, but we
will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the
last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound,….” I’ve always wondered
what the sound of the last trumpet will be like?
Will it be a loud, elongated blare of the trumpet or a nice
melodious sound? Will it echo round the world or, how will the
trumpet sound? Maybe the type of sound is not so significant but
what will be announced is, for the trumpet is really a sign of the
“Day of the Lord” and it is a standard symbol of Jewish
prophetic-apocalyptic literature. When you look back in biblical
history the trumpet was used in war and it will announce the Second
Coming of Christ and the resurrection of the dead.
I need to ask you all a very important question. Do you fear
death? Do you fear death? If we do, what is it about death that
you fear? Is it that you will not be able to see your loved ones?
Is it that you may be taken quickly or in your sleep and you will
not be able to “say goodbye” to those you love? Is it the fear of
having a long, drawn out illness that will bring you physical,
mental and emotional pain and suffering, as well as mental and
emotional pain and suffering to those you love?
Now let me ask you- do you know what is the most frequent command
in the Bible? And this command was given by God and angels and a
host of people- by Jesus, by prophets and by apostles. What command
do you think it is? Well it is not be good, although that is
important and it is not be holy, another important one. It is not
do not sin, and that’s a big one. But the command that is the most
frequently spoken is “Do not be afraid. Do not be afraid. Fear
not.”
I mean how many of us want to buy into that command? How many of
us do not want to fear? And yet we probably, collectively have more
trouble obeying that command than all the others. It’s like fear is
our constant companion that we love to hate but can’t do without.
When the exam is upon us, we worry. For years money has been tight
and we, worry. We worry about making it another day. I mean, each
and everyone of us has something on our minds that it would be great
to hear someone say, “Don’t be afraid. It will be alright.” You
see, until we learn to live without fear it will be tough to follow
Jesus. Think about it- “We emerge from the warmth of the womb into
the cold of the cosmos, and we’re afraid of being alone, of being
unloved, or being abandoned. We mix with other children, other
teenagers, other young adults, and we’re afraid of looking stupid,
of being left behind in some race that we all seem to have
automatically entered for. We contemplate jobs, and we’re afraid
both that we [might not] get the one we really want and that if we
get it we [might not] be able to do it properly; and that double
fear lasts for may people all through their lives. We contemplate
marriage, and we’re afraid both that we might never find the right
person and that if we do marry it may turn out to be a disaster. We
consider a career move, and are afraid both of stepping off the
ladder and of missing the golden opportunity. We look ahead to
retirement, and are afraid both of growing older and more feeble and
of dying suddenly. (Following Jesus, N. T. Wright, p. 66-67)
Can any of you relate to some of these big fears, and I haven’t even
hit the smaller ones?
And yet I would suggest that sooner or later the fear of death
seems to creep in and periodically, if not on a more regular basis,
it circles overhead.
This morning we read the passage where the Apostle Paul talks
about the fact that, in verse 57, God gives us the victory over sin
now and hereafter over death. But if you go back to the beginning
of chapter 15 you read where Paul is laying the case for Jesus’
death and resurrection. I Corinthians 15:3-4 says, “For I handed on
to you as of first importance what I in turn had received; that
Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scripture, and that
he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance
with the scriptures." And then if you jump over to verses 12-14 he
says, “Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can
some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is
no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised; and if
Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain
and your faith has been in vain.” Remember what we say when we
recite the Apostles’ Creed, “I believe in the resurrection of the
body and the life everlasting?” There it is again exactly what the
Apostle Paul is saying. But what if they left that part of the
Creed out? What if it proclaimed that God created the universe and
all that is in it? What if we said that God sent His Son, Jesus
Christ to redeem us? What if we affirm that God sent us the Holy
Spirit and God built the church and forgives our sins and we stopped
right there and left out the resurrection of the body and the life
everlasting? Wouldn’t there be a tremendous void? Wouldn’t we
think it was a nice Creed but something significant, something huge
is missing? Would we be tempted to say at the end, “so what?”
Without the resurrection of the body and life everlasting our faith
would be left unfinished. We would be born, we would live, we would
die and that is the end. Finished, over, the end. Period. I
believe the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting is the
exclamation point to the Creed and to our faith.
For these words tells us of the God'’ redemptive work continues
to move to completion and it tells us that we are a part of that
work.
The bottom line is this- if Jesus did not rise again from the
dead, then, then the famed British philosopher Bertrand Russell is
correct when he said, “When I die, I shall rot.” You see, with
dreadful honesty Russell drew the logical conclusion of his own
materialistic philosophy of life. But if Jesus did rise again from
the dead, then there is nothing ultimately for me, for you to be
afraid of. Without Christ rising from the dead, without life after
death, all of Christian faith would lose its significance.
Please, let me stop right now and have us recite the Apostles’
Creed, and, as our custom, let us say it together….
Do you see, that if we would have not said we believe in a life
everlasting then all those other affirmations would be meaningless
without that great statement in the final sentence of the Creed.
Clarence Macartney, a brilliant Presbyterian preacher, many years
ago noted that without that affirmation the creed would be like a
great cathedral wrapped in the gloom of night. But with it, “the
Creed is like a great cathedral illuminated by the sun and showing
all the glory of the architect, sculptor, and painter.”
Because we worship a God who raises the dead we can have hope and
confidence now and for the future. Without life after death for
Christ and for us, our Christian faith would be meaningless. Paul
put it this way in I Corinthians 15:14 and following, “And if Christ
has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and your
faith has been in vain.” So our faith would be useless. And verse
16 puts us and Christ in the same boat regarding this resurrection
issue when he says, “For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has
not been raised.” What is good for us is good for Christ and visa
versa. And verse 17, “If Christ has not been raised your faith is
futile and you are still in your sins.” Then this faith of ours is
a shame and we are doomed.
What the resurrection gives us is hope in God’s ultimate
justice. The resurrection is the final act in God’s
redemptive work of restoring His fallen creation. This whole act or
redemption began when Adam sinned in the Garden, and in resurrection
we will turn in our “old clothes” of this frail, mortal, perishable
life for the “new clothes” of eternity. When you think about it
these old clothes, this old body of mine that is decaying, even as I
speak, is only fit for sin and death. And yet the “new clothes” of
resurrection are fit for eternal life, for eternal glory as we stand
in the unbelievable presence of Almighty God. And the new body that
we get will be a heavenly, spiritual body.
The great evangelist, Billy Graham was once asked what we will
look like in heaven. Will we be young, old, or will we just be
spirits? Graham answered, “We won’t be just spirits.
God gave us our bodies, and in the resurrection our souls and our
bodies will be united, but our bodies will be far more glorious than
we can imagine.”
The Good Book never says what our bodies will be like in heaven.
Paul simply says that we will trade the perishable for the
imperishable, the mortal for the immortal.
I don’t know about you but if there wasn’t this promise of “the
resurrection of the body and the life everlasting” I would be
afraid. But Jesus took that fear away when he died and rose again.
God raised Jesus from the dead and God is the business of raising
the dead who believe in His Son, Jesus Christ. That is why it is so
important to live by faith and not by fear. It is when we open
ourselves up to the power of the resurrection that those fears, no
matter what they are, can be relieved. One day the trumpet will
sound and the dead will be raised. That is the hope that we all
have.
“’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, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus
Christ.” Amen.
Key Points
Introduction: Leaning how to play the trumpet in grade school…
An
important question- Do you fear death?
What is
the most frequent command in the Bible?
I
Corinthians 15:3-4; 12-14
The
Apostles’ Creed- what if they left out, “I believe in the
resurrection of the body and the life everlasting?”
I
believe the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting is
the ___________ point to the Creed and to our faith
If
Jesus did not rise again from the dead then British philosopher
Bertrand Russell is correct- “When I die, I shall rot.”
The
Apostles’ Creed- “I believe in God… (p. 14)
Without saying we believe in a life everlasting all those other
affirmations would be meaningless
What the
resurrection gives us is hope in God’s ultimate ________
What
will we look like in heaven?
Conclusion: One day the trumpet will sound and the dead will be
raised. That is our hope. “Death has been swallowed up in
victory…. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through
our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Presbyterian
Church (U.S.A.)
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