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‘Death Is Yours’ — What Does Paul Mean? · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Well boosted by a fresh dose of resurrection hope coming out of Easter Sunday,
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  we are talking about death on the podcast this week. We are free to
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  speak openly about dying in hopeful ways that the world cannot speak of, free
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  to say that what is sown into the soil does not come to life unless
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  it dies in that resurrection hope. We started the week with the story of
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  v Raymond Edmund, a preacher who died in the pulpit and event from Pastor
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  John's very formative years at Wheaton College and one he almost never talks about,
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  but he did. On Monday and today we read about death in the Navigator's
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  Bible reading plan. It comes up in the context of Paul talking about division
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  and jealousy in the church. In Paul's words in One Corinthians three, verses
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  one to twenty three, and there Paul gives us this amazing motivation for not
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  getting jealous in this life, and that motive is the gift of death.
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  He says death is ours, and that leads to many emails over the years
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  asking what in the world Paul means here that death is a gift to us,
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  specifically here in one Corinthians three twenty two. How pastor John, would
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  you explain the divine gift of death here in this context? Well, I
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  love this text One Corinthians three twenty one to twenty three. I mean,
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  it's tony. It's very hard for me to talk about this without raising my
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  voice with exuberance, and I will try to restrain myself. But hundreds of
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  realities are thrilling in the Bible, this one is off the charts, unspeakably
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  amazing. So let me read it for our friends so they know what we're
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  talking about. Let no one boast in men. This is first Cristians three
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  twenty one to twenty three. Let no one boast in men, For all
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  things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephus, or the world or
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  life or death, or the present or the future, all are yours,
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  and you are Christ's, and Christ is God's. So Paul is trying to
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  get the Corinthians to stop boasting in human beings. That's the agenda. Back
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  in chapter one, verse eleven, they were saying, I belong to Paul,
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  I belong to Apollos, I belong to Cephus. In other words,
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  they were exalting themselves over others by borrowing significance from their favorite teacher or orator
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  or intellectual, claiming to be superior to others because they were in the Paul
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  group, or the Apollos group, or the Sephis group. And basically,
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  Paul says in chapter three, verse twenty one, you're insane. You're crazy
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  for thinking like that. Why are you crazy? And he gives them the
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  reason. Let no one boast in men, And here comes the reason,
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  because all things are yours, whether Paul or a Paulus or Cephist, or
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  the world or life or death, or the present or the future, everything
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  is yours. So Paul exposes the craziness of the Corinthian boasting by turning their
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  words upside down. They were saying, I belong to Paul, I belong
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  to a Paulus, I belong to Sephus, and paulses, no, they
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  belong to you, you idiots. All things are yours. Paul is yours,
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  Apollos is yours. Cephist belongs to you, and by the way,
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  so does the world and life and death. All things are yours. Crazy
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  Corinthians, come on, wake up to who you are. You belong to
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  Christ, you are fellow heirs with Christ, and he is the heir of
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  God, and God owns everything. Get it. Come on, so stop
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  acting like idiots, Corinthians. Stop trying to prop up your significance in this
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  world by boasting in your favorite teacher. You own everything. The poorest Christian
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  among you, the poorest Christian on this planet, is richer than the richest
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  unbeliever. Specifically, then, what does it mean that death is yours?
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  Along with everything else? You own? Death, it's your possession. It
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  doesn't possess you. You possess it. What does that mean? Now I'll
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  give you my understanding of that statement, and then I'll take you to several
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  pastors of scripture that support this understanding. When Paul says death is yours,
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  he means death is your servant, not your master, your servant. It
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  does for you what you need to have done. If I say the food
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  in my refrigerator is my food is mine, I mean I can eat it
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  without stealing, and it serves me. It strengthens me to do what I
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  need to do. If I say this car is my car, I mean
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  it serves me. I use it. It doesn't use me. I use
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  it. It gets me where I want to go. So I'm saying Paul
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  means Paul is your servant. In fact, he says that earlier in chapter
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  three, Paul is your servant. Paul is is your servant. See if
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  this is your servant, the world is your servant. Life and death are
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  your servants. You don't serve them, they serve you. You don't exist
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  for their benefit. They exist for your benefit. In the end, they
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  will do for you exactly what you need to have done. Death will do
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  for you what you need done. Now here are some biblical pointers to that
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  understanding. Psal one nineteen, verse ninety. Your faithfulness of God endures to
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  all generations. You have established the earth, and it stands fast by your
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  appointment. They stand this day because all things are your servants. Everything in
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  the universe serves the purposes of God. Everything there are, as rc Sproll
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  used to say, no Maverick molecules, every bird that falls, every hair
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  that turns white is of God. Everything serves the purposeses of God. We
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  are God's children, And it would make no sense if God said, well,
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  all things serve me, But when it comes to my children, I
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  just have no idea how to make all things serve them. That is crazy.
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  It's not only crazy, it's blasphemous. If all things serve our omnipotent
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  all wise all caring Father, then all things serve us, which brings me
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  then to Romans eight twenty eight. We know that for those who love God,
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  all things, including death, work together for our good, for the
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  good of those who are called according to His purpose. In other words,
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  all things, including death serve the children of God, serve their good.
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  Do for us what we need to have done. Then Paul lists all the
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  things that might separate us from the love of Christ, and included in that
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  list is danger and sword, which means danger and death. We use swords
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  to chop off people's heads in those days, and we know that because in
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  the next verse from eight thirty six, it says we are being killed all
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  day long. Christians are dying for their faith every day. Even today.
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  Somewhere in the world, some Christian's life is being threatened for his faith,
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  and Paul says, death is yours, it serves you. How does he
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  say that right here in verse thirty seven. This is the really amazing part.
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  He doesn't just say death cannot separate us from the love of Christ.
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  He says that that's not all he says. He says, no, no,
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  in all these things, not in spite of them, but in all
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  these things, including death, danger, sword, peril, famine, nakedness,
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  in all these things, we are more than conquerors. It could translate
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  it super conquerors. So if death takes your life, which he says it
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  does in verse thirty six, how are you, in that moment when death
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  has taken your life more than a conqueror, how does it serve you?
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  You're not just a conqueror or. It doesn't just lie there conquered at your
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  feet. It is more than a conqueror. It gets up. Death gets
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  up after you've slain death. It gets up and serves you. Death does
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  what you need doing and takes you where you need going. So if we
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  really believed, Oh God help us. Every time I work on this text,
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  I just shake my head and think, how in the world can this
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  text go out of my head? How can I not live in the light
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  of this text? And it happens just a horrible thing, How it happens
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  to us Christians? This textures goes out of our head. If we really
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  believe this text, what the Bible says about us in First Corinthians three twenty
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  one to twenty three, namely that all things are ours, including the finest
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  intellects on the planet and the best orators and the richest people in life and
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  death and the world and the present and the future. If we really believed
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  these things are our servants, two powers would be dethroned in our lives.
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  One we would no longer desperately try to find our significance in this world by
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  being superior to others or by lining up with people who are superior. We
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  would see that as insane. And secondly, we would stop fearing death.
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  Oh yes, where is your victory? Oh death, where is your sting?
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  It's gone. It's not only gone, it comes back around and becomes
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  our servant, a man pastor John's super conquerors. This text of Fre Corinthians
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  three twenty one to twenty three is truly off the charts, unspeakably amazing,
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  amen, and is one of those super applicable texts to dozens of life situations.
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  It comes up in some of the most profound places in the podcast,
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  which you can see in the new APJ book. If you have a copy
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  of that book. Handy like in you know why we don't need to puff
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  ourselves up with gossip and compulsive lying. You can see that on page on
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  the text comes up and then it comes up with poverty. So you just
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  heard that the poorest Christian on this planet is richer than the richest unbeliever.
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  Incredible point is made from this text and it comes up just about every time
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  Pastor John has ever addressed things like money and shopping and the prosperity gone.
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  And you want to see just how applicable this glorious text is to finances see
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  the book on pages ninety five to two. Thanks for joining us today.
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  If you have a question to ask Pastor John, email me. Ask Pastor
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  John at Desiring Good dot org. Speaking of the practicalities of life, we
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  are back into them next time. Why do we abuse caffeine? We can
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  and we do, but why Bestor John will explain why we do it next
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  time. I'm your host, Tony Rinky See Monday