20260405 Resurrection Sunday Sermon: Isaiah 25:6-9 – He Will Swallow Up Death Forever

 

Introduction

The Importance of the Resurrection

On Easter Sunday, or Resurrection Sunday, Christians celebrate the most important event in the history of the world. I want to offer three introductory reflections on the importance of the Jesus’ resurrection. First, the resurrection of Christ is the climax of his earthly ministry. Second, Christ was raised for our justification and to inaugurate the New Creation. Third, the resurrection is the basis for all hope when Christians suffer in this life.

The resurrection is important because it was the climax of Christ's earthly ministry.

Jesus, the Son of God, became a human being. The life of the incarnate Son of God are marked by his state of humiliation and his state of exaltation. The state of humiliation of Christ begins with his incarnation. He was born in humble circumstances. His parents fled to Egypt and lived as refugees when he was a baby (Matt 2). Jesus grew and was rejected by his family, who thought he was out of his mind (Mark 3:21). His people rejected him, and his enemies persecuted Him. He was falsely accused and tried for blasphemy. He was executed as a criminal. He became cursed for us (Gal 3:13). His state of humiliation continued as he was buried, and he continued under the power of death for a time.[i] This was the state of humiliation of Christ. Christ’s state of exaltation began with his glorious resurrection. This state also includes his ascension to heaven, his seating at God’s right hand, and his second coming to judge the living and the dead.[ii] The resurrection begins Christ's state of exaltation, in which he intercedes for us, rules, and empowers his church through his Holy Spirit. This was the first reason the resurrection is important it is the pinnacle of Jesus’ earthly ministry.

Second, the resurrection is important because of what it achieves, our Justification and the New Creation.

According to Rom 4:25, "Christ was raised for our justification." Christ died for our sins. Because his death paid the payment for our sins in full, Christ did not have to remain dead. If he was still dead, how could we know that his death paid for our debt of sin? Christ’s resurrection demonstrates Christ’s victory over sin and death and guarantees the doing away of the consequences of our sins. The wage of sin is death, the reward for the justified is life. Our justification is guaranteed by the resurrection. Christ was raised for our justification.

Also, at the resurrection of Christ, the world changed. At the resurrection, God inaugurated the New Creation, in which Christ is the Firstborn from the dead (1 Cor 15:20, Col 1:18, Rev 1:5). And now, because of the resurrection of Jesus, Paul writes, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new Creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Cor 5:17). In connecting our lives with Jesus’ life, not only are we already New Creation, but the resurrection offers us hope of our future resurrection after death (John 14:19, Phil 3:21).

We can declare that we are a new creation, the church is the new creation community. Friendships between Christians are New Creation relationships. The life of a Christian is one of knowing Peace with God, comfort and joy in the Holy Spirit, and the Hope of Eternal Life. This is New Creation life, today, guaranteed by the resurrection.

Now, third, the resurrection is important in our continued suffering in this life.

The resurrection began Christ's state of exaltation. Our sins are forgiven, we are new creation, and sometimes these truths do not match our experience. We experience hurt in the church, the new creation community. We know betrayal at the hands of Christians. Church leaders fail us. When we suffer and doubt, we must remember the resurrection. The historical event of the resurrection assures us that the New Creation has started. The resurrection assures us that God is already answering the prayer, “Your kingdom come, on earth as it is in heaven.” Because of the resurrection, we can already enjoy New Creation peace. We can enjoy change in our relationship with God, with people, and even with ourselves. This is how the resurrection offers hope in our suffering.

Resurrection of Jesus is so important – it is the climax of Jesus’ ministry, he was raised for our justification and to inaugurate new Creation. His resurrection gives us hope in our continued suffering.

Transition

This Resurrection Sunday, we turn to Isaiah 25:6-9 to study and apply the resurrection message. Some refer to Isaiah as the “Fifth Gospel” because of how clearly it anticipates the Messiah and his work. We turn to Isaiah at Christmas. We turn to Isaiah to explain Christ's miracles and teachings. We also turn to Isaiah to explain Christ’s death and resurrection.

Prophetic books call God's people back to God. The Prophets call people back to God by warning of punishment. When the people are punished, the Prophets call people back to God by explaining why they were punished. The prophets also call people back to God by offering hope of future restoration. It is this theme of future restoration for Israel and the nations that Isaiah 25 addresses.

Outline

Isaiah 25:6-9 anticipates the drama of Holy Week with stunning precision. Isaiah 25:6 speaks of things happening "on this mountain" which is Mount Zion or Jerusalem. Then, Isaiah 25:6 foreshadows Palm Sunday, where the Lord enters Jerusalem to prepare a feast. Isaiah 25:7 anticipates Good Friday, where the veil of sin is dealt with. And Isa 25:8 offers the ultimate resurrection promise, death itself will be swallowed up in victory. The text ends with the response to this good news, according to Isa 25:9, we are a people of joy. With all that said, we will look at the Resurrection with the themes of Renewal, Removal, and Rejoicing.

First, in Isaiah 25:6, we look at the Resurrection and the Renewal of Eden.

Isaiah 25:6

While Isaiah 24 addresses world-wide judgment for sin, Isaiah 25 presents salvation. Isaiah 25:6 describes a feast that the Lord makes for all people with lavish delicacies to be enjoyed. We get a picture of a renewed Eden in this text. God’s purposes for humanity was to be fruitful, multiply, cultivate and expand the garden of Eden to fill the whole earth to enjoy delight, and the abundance of God’s provision. Following the first sin, humanity experiences alienation and hostility. Following sin, humans are at war with God, at war with one another, and at war with creation, they toil for their food. The goal of God’s redemption is to reverse the consequences of sin.

In Ezekiel 28:13-14, the Garden of Eden was called the Mountain of the Lord. Isaiah 25:6 speaks of the new Mountain of the Lord, Mount Zion. In Eden, God’s purpose was for all mankind to enjoy his blessings. The New Eden Redemption is for all people who turn from their pride to find rest in God’s salvation. New Eden Redemption includes rich food full of marrow, the aged wine well refined. This imagery shows that God does not just provide to satisfy our physical hunger, but he provides in abundance to stir up our delight as it was in Eden. The picture of this feast assumes a world in which God has reversed the consequences of sin.

 Application

The idea of a renewed Eden is important for us today. The resurrection of Christ has inaugurated the New Creation. His resurrection is our invitation as we are part of “all peoples” in Isa 25:6 to “a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.”

Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil and undo the curse of sin (1 John 3:8). We enjoy the Eden blessings today in Christ because of the forgiveness of sins. We enjoy peace with God as it was in Eden. We enjoy peace with one another as it was in Eden. Our gospel-based relationships are marked by love, repentance, and forgiveness. We enjoy the good gifts of creation in a new way by anticipating God’s banquet in the fully realized New Creation at Christ’s return.

Today, because of the resurrection of Christ, we are part of God’s global people who enjoy Eden delight and abundance in Christ. Every time we take the Lord’s Supper, we are reminded that the life we enjoy now as Christians is because Christ died and rose again. If there is going to be a feast that awaits us in Heaven, enjoying New Creation today can include feasting.

We feast with food as we share with others. We also feast whenever we share any of God’s gifts, our talents, our time, our possessions, to see joy increase in others. A young man told me he grew up in a lovely Christian home. He noticed that when their family hosted people, his dad would experience extra joy in preparing special food for their guests. The young man shared how seeing the joy in his dad moved him as a young boy to share his food with others at school to be like his dad.

We are a New Creation people destined for feasting. We have a generous God who invites us to a feast. May God’s love and generosity overflow as we share food, money, time, and our gifts. This kind of generosity is an expression of our faith in the resurrection and the anticipation of the full renewal of Eden still to come.

Second, in Isaiah 25:7-8, we look at the resurrection and the removal of sin and death.

Isaiah 25:7-8

Isaiah 25:7-8 turns from the people’s feast to God’s feast. God swallows up sin and death. According to Isa 25:7, on Mount Zion, God will swallow up the veil that covers all people. This veil is sin and its consequence, death. According to Isa 25:8, God will swallow up death forever and wipe away every tear from every face and remove the reproach from his people.

In Eden, in Gen 2:17, God told the man, “The day that you eat of it, you shall surely die.” The Man did eat, and the Man did die. Now God promises to eat death itself.

Application

For us today, if death is swallowed up, the implications are huge.

The greatest problem facing humanity is our mortality rate, which stands at 100%, minus Enoch, Elijah, and Jesus. Death is the wage of sin. We all die because we are all sinners. Death can only be swallowed up if our sins are forgiven. Jesus was raised for our justification. The first implication is the forgiveness of sins is possible.

A second implication of the death of death is meaning in this world. Death is a huge problem for our sense of meaning and dignity. If we insist that this world and this life is all there is, death makes everything meaningless. If the material world is all there is, then our accomplishments, our travels, our relationships, our struggles and pain are all meaningless because of death. In a thousand years no one will remember us so nothing we do matters.

Because of death, our significance is limited to being part of humanity that will go on after us. But if the material world is all there is, humanity is meaningless and so our role in humanity is meaningless. Death makes morality meaningless. If this world is all there is and death marks the end of any meaningful existence, then there is no right or wrong, and no activity has any real meaning. We can attempt to create meaning, but we know that the meaning we create is itself meaningless. It will die with us.

Isaiah 25:8-9 teaches that life is not meaningless because life goes on beyond the grave. We have not been created for death but for life. Isaiah's prophecy is fulfilled in Christ and his resurrection. “God the Father defeated death forever in the death and resurrection of his Son, Jesus Christ. We still await the final day when the King will make his promised pronouncement, and death will cease to be. But until then, we can live in the assurance that we do have individual significance and that death cannot destroy that.”[iii] The resurrection gives our lives significance.

Paul reaches this same conclusion. In 1 Cor 15:54-55, first, Paul quotes Isaiah 25:8, “Death is swallowed up in victory.” Then Paul goes on to say, “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” He concludes in 1 Cor 15:57 with praise, “Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Paul offers encouragement in 1 Cor 15:58. Because of Jesus' resurrection, and the death of death, Paul writes, “In the Lord your labor is not in vain.” The removal of death and sin gives meaning to all we do.

If there were no resurrection, nothing matters. We are here one day and gone the next. Because of Christ’s resurrection and our future resurrection, everything matters. The impact we have in this life matters. Every act of love matters. Every gospel conversation matters. Every time we encourage one who suffers, it matters. Every time we share the hope of the gospel with someone, it matters. When someone believes the gospel, it matters. Because of the resurrection, the one who believes goes from death to life. This is eternal life and abundant life. This matters. Every prayer, every worship service, every Bible study matters. At the resurrection of Jesus, God swallowed or feasted on death so that we can feast with him forever. His resurrection changes everything.

In this life, suffering goes on, and grief remains, but knowing that he has already swallowed up death and will wipe away every tear, our grief can be lessened as we hope in him. The resurrection of Jesus offer hope in God’s future full removal of sin, death, and tears.

Third, in Isaiah 25:9, we look at the resurrection and our rejoicing.

Isaiah 25:9

Isaiah 25:9 anticipates the day when death is swallowed up in which people will respond saying, “Behold this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us, this is our Lord … let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”

This reminds me of doubting Thomas’ words in John 20:28. Thomas did not believe in the resurrection when the other disciples told him. When Jesus showed himself to him and showed him his scars, Thomas says, “My Lord and my God.” This is our response to the resurrection and to Jesus, “My Lord and my God.” Jesus is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. The resurrection demands a joyful response because Jesus’s resurrection gives our lives meaning, joy, and hope!

Application

For us today, when we talk of the necessity of Christian joy, we need to be sensitive because suffering is real and grief is godly. If we pay attention to the news or live long enough, we will witness or experience suffering that seems incompatible with the love of an all-powerful God. Christians don’t want to be a shallow people who deny pain and pretend to be happy all the time. Now, having said this, there is also a sense, that we are by definition a happy people and the happiest of all people because we are people who believe in the resurrection. Any biblical command to be glad should almost be unnecessary because it should be our instinctive response to the savior of the world conquering the grave with the promise that we too will conquer death.

A gloomy Christian is a contradiction in terms on Easter morning. We are commanded to “be glad”. Christian joy is not a personality type, but a response to the empty tomb! Our joy even when things are hard is part of our witness to the world that does not have Hope. At times, our joy is accompanied by real sadness. We can be sad and glad at the same time. Even when we hit rock bottom, the resurrection offers joy. Because of the resurrection, joy and gladness can always be part of our experience somehow.

Conclusion

Today, we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. Every day for a Christian should be a kind of celebration of the resurrection. The resurrection marked the renewal of Eden, the removal of sin and death, and the resurrection is the reason for our rejoicing.

Isaiah announced these things hundreds of years before the coming of the Messiah. Now that Christ has come, has died for sins, and was raised for our justification, how much more can we today enjoy a renewed Eden, have hope in the final removal of sin and death, and rejoice in him who is both our God and Lord.

The resurrection changes everything. If we look at any trial whether it relates to work, family, health, or personal crisis, the resurrection has something to say. The resurrection means we can always have some hope of a better future because the resurrection guarantees this better future. Christ’s resurrection guarantees our resurrection. Without the resurrection, hope is just wishful thinking. With the resurrection hope is the most reasonable posture of a Christian.

I want to leave you with these two quotes:

D. A. Carson said, “You are not suffering from anything that a good resurrection can’t fix.” Jaroslav Pelikan, said, “If Christ is not risen, nothing else matters. And if Christ is risen, nothing else matters.”

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[i] https://www.modernreformation.org/resources/articles/raised-for-our-justification#top4 ; WSC Q 27.

[ii] Louis Berkhof, Summary of Christian Doctrine.

[iii] John N. Oswalt, Isaiah: The NIV Application Commentary, NIVAC (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2003).