Our Rock is not like other rocks. An idol — a statue of stone — means nothing in this world. We have the Rock of Victory. Our Resurrection is guaranteed because death was swallowed up in Him. 1 Corinthians 15:1-2; Psalm 62

Speaker: Doug Janssen, Zane Turk
Sermon #13125
Date: 2026-05-10
Time: Sun 6:30pm

Zane Turk –

All right. Good evening. You guys ready to get rowdy tonight? Rowdy in the truth. Excited. What about those barn burning messages? Fire in our hearts. Come on. Lord, give it to us tonight. Bless this message. (Prayer) Amen.

 

So, let’s read 1 Corinthians 15:1. I’ll just be up here for a couple minutes, and then Mr. Janssen, my science teacher, Mr. Janssen will come up and he’ll sweep up the mess that I make and he’ll make everything right. Everything that I did wrong. He’ll just sweep it up. Okay. 

 

1 Corinthians 15:1, do you have somebody that can remind you of the Gospel? Someone that will bring back to your memory, right? A lot of, a lot of our life is lived in our thoughts, right? We only say a certain amount of words per day, but we have so many thoughts. Sometimes they’re good thoughts. Sometimes they’re self-deprecating. Sometimes they’re negative. Sometimes they’re sinful. But a lot of our life is lived in our thoughts. Most of it, 95%. A study was done. How do you calculate that percentage-wise? It’s probably impossible. 

 

But a lot of our life is lived in our thoughts, and God has decided to give us truth and that truth would purify us. John 17:17, “sanctify them by your Word. Your Word is truth.” The Word of truth is what sanctifies us, right? The inner man. It needs to be built up, right? The inner man. Romans 7:22 it says, “My inward man delights in the law of God.” 2 Corinthians 4:16 it says, “The inner man is being renewed day by day.” 

 

How is it being renewed? But through the Word, through the sanctifying truth of the Gospel, the content that God has given us to purify our thinking. Ephesians 3:16 the inner man is strengthened with might through the Holy Spirit with power, and the inner man needs to be strengthened. So, we need these thoughts. We need this content to strengthen us and that’s what purifies us.

 

The Bible tells us what to forget. Forgetting those things that are behind, and pressing on towards the goal, Philippians 3. Forget some of the things that are in your mind. Why are they there? What are some of us when we’re in church, we’re thinking about like what’s my week going to be like? What am I going to eat? Am I going to eat the Fruit Loops or am I going to eat the brownie when I get home? Am I going to fry my eggs or over easy? What am I going to do? What are we thinking?

 

Sometimes when we’re in church, when we’re driving, when we’re at work, when we’re offended, how do we think? Forget those things that are behind and press on towards the goal, the upward call of Christ in Jesus. 

 

And what does God say about his memory? But that he forgets our sins and our lawless deeds. He remembers them no more. Isn’t that good? He forgets them. God knows what to forget. Do we know what to forget? I think we need to practice, right? And the Holy Spirit helps us practice. How does he do it? But by teaching us all things and bringing to our remembrance those things that Christ has said, John 14:26, right? 

 

You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you because he trusts in you. So, 1 Corinthians 15:1, it says, “I would remind you, brothers.” So, let’s remind each other of the Gospel. Let’s bring it back to our minds. Remind each other. Remind ourselves of this amazing Gospel. 

 

It says, vs. 1. This Gospel is amazing. And just the couple minutes that I have, I just want to bring up the victory that we have in the resurrection of Christ. Isn’t that amazing? Our faith is built on an empty tomb. It’s built on a risen Savior. It’s built on Jesus who is in heaven and he’s interceding for us. He’s praying for us. He has sent his Spirit into our lives and our faith is built on a risen Savior. Isn’t that amazing? 

 

Come on! I want to jump out of my seat. I want to jump for joy cuz Jesus is alive. Who did he appear to first? We heard it in the message this morning. It’s a quiz. Mary Magdalene, right? He said, Mary. And she said, Oh my gosh, teacher. It’s you. 

 

And then who then, who does it say next in 1 Corinthians 15? He appeared to Cephas. And then he appeared to the twelve. And then he appeared to 500 other people. And then he appeared to James. And then he appeared to the apostles. And then as one untimely born, he appeared to Paul. 

 

The resurrection is the most amazing proven fact, because we can see in the lives of the disciples, those who knew him most closely were most affected. They were persuaded. They gave their lives for this message that Jesus was alive, risen from the tomb. 

 

Were they able to steal the body? Well, some say the disciples stole the body, but there was a Roman centurion, a Roman guard at the tomb. There was a heavy stone that was sealed that was in front of the tomb. 

 

And not only was there the Roman guard and the stone that was sealed, but there were the linen cloths lying in the tomb in the exact position that they were as when Jesus occupied them. The garments were there. Wouldn’t the disciples have taken them away? But the garments were there. That’s amazing.

 

The resurrection of Christ, that he is alive. I just want to soak in that in my life. Soak in the resurrection. And the fact that Jesus is the assurance that I will be resurrected one day. It’s the assurance that you and I will be resurrected one day. 

 

And now let’s read in 1 Corinthians 15:17. If Christ has not been raised, then what is the logical explanation? Your faith is futile. If Christ has not been raised, our faith is empty. If Christ has not been raised, we are sitting here in a church talking about morals, talking about commandments, talking about what you’re wearing and what I’m wearing and what you did the other day and what you need to do to get to heaven. It’s futile. It’s empty. It’s broken. It’s dead. It’s death. And if Christ has not been raised, then you are still in your sins. 

 

If Christ is not alive today, we would still be dead in our sins. We would have no victory over those sins that snare us. We would have no victory over the besetting sins, the habits, the addictions, the things that are born into our nature from Adam. We would have no victory. 

 

Vs. 18-19. If Christ is not raised, then we have no hope. But it’s the opposite that’s true. Our faith is not in vain. We have a purpose, an eternal purpose. We have a direction in our life. We have a trajectory that is heaven bound. We have a faith that has substance, a faith that has power, a faith that has conviction, preaching that has unction, preaching that has chutzpah! 

 

You guys like that word, chutzpah? We’re audacious. We go to the king’s court and we say this. Jesus was buried and raised again on the third day and he is alive and he’s coming back. And believe in him and you will be forgiven and you too will be raised from the dead. Isn’t that amazing? What a message we have that Christ is raised from the dead and we have hope not in this life only but in the life to come. 

 

And I’ll close with this last verse in 1 Corinthians 15:54. That’s amazing. The mortal puts on immortality. It says about Christ in 1 Timothy 6:16, it says that he alone has immortality. And I was reading today about immortality, that immortality refers to the physical body, because the soul and the spirit they will live forever. 

 

But immortality refers to Christ’s resurrection body, that it’s the body that is immortal. That is a spiritual body that it was sown perishable but it’s raised imperishable. And Christ was not simply resuscitated from the grave, but he rose in a new order, a new fashion, a new kind of resurrection life that is an immortality that can never be corrupted. 

 

It says in Psalm 16:10 that you will not let your holy one see corruption. This new body that we receive is incorruptible. And we’ll just read this. When mortal puts on immortality, when we receive that same order of resurrection life that Christ has, the immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory. Oh death, where is your victory? Oh death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin. And the power of sin is in the law. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus.

 

Let’s just let that soak in for a moment. Let that soak in that we will be resurrected one day. And Christ’s resurrection is the assurance. He is the first fruits. It’s going to happen one day. It’s guaranteed because it happened to him. 

 

And when that happens, then shall come to pass the saying, “Death is swallowed up in victory.” Wow. Death. That old foe. Death. The old foe. The one that silently lurks in the background of every life. The enemy that takes those who are old and young. The enemy that preys on those who are prepared and unprepared. The enemy that is always lurking, always waiting, always in the background of every human life, who wages war against all humanity. Death, our foe. But when that comes to pass, we will say, Death is swallowed up in victory. 

 

That’s amazing. Let’s have some fun with that. Let’s rejoice. Death is swallowed up in victory. Oh, you death, you who swallowed up the nations, you will be swallowed up yourself. You will be swallowed up forever. Isaiah 25:8. And the last enemy to be defeated is death. And Christ is the one that will defeat you. 

 

You thought you had so much power, but actually you were defeated by him who died and is alive forevermore. By him who is the first and the last, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. He has defeated you, oh death. You are, you are scary. I’m afraid of you. But I know the One that has defeated you. I am in the One that has gone into the depths of death and escaped your corrupting crutches. And we will be resurrected. Amen.

 

I think it’s just exciting. I just want to get excited about that. I don’t know about you, but I think we have the greatest message in the world. I think that this book has the greatest hope that anyone could ever have. And I just want to soak it up. I just want to, I just want to thank Christ for what he has done. 

 

He has given us his victory. We are partakers of the divine nature. And let’s bring this message to the world. Let’s bring this message into the quiet places of our heart. Let’s see the resurrected Christ in the Scriptures. We’ll see him one day face to face and we’ll be like him. 

 

But let’s see him in the Scriptures. Let that relationship grow in our hearts, our trust, our faith, our dependence, the reality of what will come and let it affect our life. What manner of life are we to live if we know this truth and the truth will set us free? Amen. Amen. Let’s just get excited about that! We’re resurrected one day. Amen. 

*****

Doug Janssen – Thank you, Miles, and the band. When I think of Zane Turk, I just think of what was said of the disciples that they had been with Jesus. Can we amen that? Actually, if you think about people in the room that you know, friends, people that have invested in you, just all the best parts of our relationship are Jesus. I mean, if I am just honest, I wouldn’t know any of you if it weren’t for Christ. I would be in “La La Land” as I usually am. 

 

Today I was thinking about my wife a lot and just so thankful for her. A song came to my mind that my mother had taught me. How many of you know that song? “Jesus, Jesus, there’s something about that name.” Just raise your hand if you know that song? Okay. Old school people here. Yeah. Thank you, Mom. 

 

When we pray tonight, just let’s think about our posture in prayer tonight. How about be merciful to me, a sinner. But also we come boldly to the throne of grace. And it’s because of what we heard earlier. We serve a risen Savior. Amen. Amen. So, let’s pray. Let’s pray. (Prayer)

 

God bless the people that put the verses up because I may have like a lot of them and I hope that they’re a blessing to you. We’ll start with Psalm chapter 61. I am quite sure that in this room there are people that have cried out maybe even this exact verse when you’re been going through something. Psalm 61:1-2 is a very relatable passage. Vs. 1-2.

 

I don’t know where you’re at tonight. I mean, you could be really rejoicing and victorious. You could be really suffering. But we all need to be led to the rock that is higher than we are. I find it very interesting that throughout the Old Testament you have these sort of like heroic figures. And the world generally likes to hide all of the like riff raff that happens behind the scenes of, you know, famous well-respected persons. But the Scripture is very open about all this. This is a leader but also saying I’m overwhelmed. I’m so thankful for the honesty in the Scripture in that regard. 

 

This word “overwhelm” can mean cowering. I’m thinking about Gideon threshing wheat, you know, hiding. It also can mean under pressure. Is anybody under pressure? Don’t raise your hand. But if you’re under pressure, sometimes that’s a moment when you say ahh, and I make a knee-jerk decision that I might really regret later. I don’t know if you’ve ever done that before, but overwhelmed. 

 

And in the moment of being super overwhelmed, that’s the moment we need to be led to the rock that is higher than I. Like the conies hiding in a little rock. Look up rock hyraxes. They’re very small rodents and they hide. It’s like their only superpower is they hide. Imagine that. You know, your baseball card. It just has one strength on the back and it says, I hide in the rock. I love that. Okay. 

 

Salvation. We’re going to rehearse together just and I’ll let you go in good time tonight, but we rehearse tonight this concept that we have Christ and he’s the Rock of our salvation. Amen. He’s the Rock of our salvation. He’s not the spaghetti noodle of our salvation. He’s not a cloud, a myth, a legend, a good figure, a worthy person to kind of consider, but He is the Rock of our salvation. 

 

Salvation throughout the Old Testament is just incredible, because it all hands on the character and nature of God. And just think about that culminating in the cross and beyond the cross and resurrection and in our lives. 

 

Psalm 3:8, Salvation belongs to the Lord. Who does it belong to? The Lord. He’s responsible. He’s the only one that’s capable. I want to say, and I’ll say this to my own family, because I love my family so much. I love my girls. 

 

And I think most dads that you will meet really in any church, their desire for their child is that they would joy in the God of their salvation. I mean like the system and all the little check boxes. That’s not like – God’s heart is that we would rejoice in the God of our salvation. Is that correct? Like check me. That we would joy in the God of our salvation. 

 

Psalm 35:9, “My soul shall be joyful in the Lord.” Joyful in the Lord. It doesn’t say like a transient happiness, but it’s a joy, a joyful posture in the Lord. Rejoice in his salvation. “Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound.” That’s Psalm 89. “They shall walk, O Lord, in the light of your countenance.” 

 

 I want to focus on Psalm chapter 62:1-2. There are many rocks in the world, but there’s none like this rock. I mean, there’s none like this rock. It’s kind of funny to think about like a very fancy idol being crafted out of a block of marble or something. And it’s like the sinful man making himself an idol. Meanwhile, the man himself was formed by God and doesn’t recognize his Maker. And we can so easily do that. Lead me to the rock. 

 

Verses 6-7 in that same chapter, Psalm 62. Where is it? Where is my salvation and my glory? It’s just in him. It’s in him. Have I tried to find it somewhere else? 100% I mean, just absolutely. And that’s not where my salvation is. And the Holy Spirit is so faithful to say, Hey, gosh, that’s not satisfying. But in God is your salvation and your glory. 

 

Vs. 7-8. This is such a great link to what was in chapter 61. Psalm 62:8, “Trust in him at all times, you people. Pour out your heart before him. God is a refuge for us.” I love reading in the Old Testament a lot of, there’s a lot of us and there’s a lot of me. Like God is our God, but he’s also very personal. He’s personal to me. He knows my needs. 

 

He also knows the needs of my family and my church and my friends. Give us our daily bread. I mean, thank you, Lord, that you care about me. But you also care about the generations after me. We see that in 2 Samuel 22, a very similar passage to what we’re reading here. 

 

The God of my rock, 2 Samuel 22:3. The God of my rock. In him will I trust. Vs. 3. He’s my high tower. I mean, look in the mirror tonight, you know, brushing your teeth, everybody, and say, He’s my high tower. I mean, all the wreckage and stuff that I’ve left behind in the years of my life and all the, I mean, just the trail of just today I saw on the sidewalk. It was so funny. There was a, there was dog poop and then someone had rolled a big trash can across it and it just went, you know, and it went like really far. And I thought, that’s what a great picture of my life. Like it just, I looked back and oh my gosh, like what did I, what happened? And God is just there, like Zane said earlier, you know, clean up the mess. Thank you, Lord. You are my refuge, my high tower, my rock. And I rest in you. 

 

But is the rock sometimes rejected?  Where do we see that in the Scripture? Anybody think about it? Where was the rock rejected? I heard it. Cornerstone. We see that in Psalm 118 which leads all the way to Matthew and also Acts. The stone which the builder refused is become the headstone of the corner. The stone that the builders refused has become the headstone of the corner. I was like broken reading Acts chapter 4. 

 

You have Peter, a disciple, we would say he’s been with Jesus because look at what he says. He says to the people that maybe at one time in his life he looked at them. These are like religious leaders and he said, oh, I’m not them. They’re like, they’re something. I’m not something. And he’s looking at them and he’s opposing them, but he’s opposing them with such love. 

 

Do you remember reading in all of your studies Psalm 118? This is the stone. Do you get it? Jesus said, Have you not read? This is the stone. Jesus cautioned also and said, if you don’t fall on the rock, the rock will fall on you. And what a serious thing to take to heart. 

 

And then Peter says something that we should never forget this. Especially we’re in an age where there are many options, but they’re not all good options. There’s so many. The options are just expanding and you can pick anything and be anything and be anyone. 

 

Look at what he says in Acts 4:12. That’s a bold statement. I thought there were like a lot of options. It’s a very diverse world. And this is the thing. All are welcome. But there is one. It says there’s salvation. There’s no salvation than any other. There is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. I mean the Bible doesn’t let it be vague. It’s Christ. He’s the rock. 

 

Peter says, “for other foundation can no many lay than that is laid which is Jesus Christ.” Thank God we have a stone for the foundation. We have a rock. It’s not like this, you know, fuzzy idea. The person’s like dangling off a cliff about to die, and someone says like think good thoughts or they hand them like a pool noodle and like hope for the best. This is not what we have. We have a rock. 

 

There’s a great set of cautions throughout the Old Testament about idolatry and sometimes at least in my life, I’ve thought, well, idols are kind of like an old school thing. We do, we have but could, do you think we have idols in 2026? I mean maybe they’ve multiplied much worse. God says in Deuteronomy 32:12, the Lord alone did lead him, Jacob, and his people and there was no strange god with him and God did it by himself. It was his strong arm. He’s the rock. 

 

In the same chapter in vs. 31, I just, I love this verse. And I think I’m learning more and more what it means. But Deuteronomy 32:31 says their rock is not like our rock, 1 Corinthians 8:4. This is just, just remember this for the rest of your life. An idol is nothing in this world. That’s what it says. An idol is nothing in this world. This is talking about meat being offered to idols, but there’s such a clear statement there. An idol is nothing in this world. 

 

I’m not asking you to be introspective. But there could be an idol in your life. It could, something really stupid and it’s eating our time and hurting you. I never forget being in a restaurant in Budapest and sitting there and the lady coming to take a rotten apple from in front of an idol and then replace it with a fresh applet and I said, like, Did he eat it? You know, this is like a rot – but they do it every day or something and they bring an apple. And I’m not making light of their religion. 

 

But I am saying the idol never ate the apple. I mean, it’s just dead. An idol is nothing in this world and it’s certainly not worthy of my time. Really fun homework assignment. Not a homework assignment but 1 Samuel chapter 5 in the very beginning, they bring, you know, the enemy of God’s people bring the ark of the covenant with no respect whatsoever. They don’t care anything about it. They don’t understand the presence of God. 

 

I think that they don’t understand anything about the ark of the covenant, because none of their gods really have any power. And they put it in the temple of Dagon. kind of, ha! ha!, spoils of war. And then Dagon just keeps falling over and finally is just wiped out. Read the passage in 1 Samuel 5. Only the stump of Dagon had left him. I don’t know. Just his feet or something. Just nothing. An idol is nothing in this world. 

 

And we’ll close very soon. 1 Corinthians chapter 10. We read our fathers did drink the same spiritual drink for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed. And it says very clearly that rock was Christ. What a beautiful truth. We have a rock that we can flee to. He is our refuge.

When you are overwhelmed, and I don’t know if it’s now or it’s later or it’s a week ago, but when you are overwhelmed, what a joy that we can go to the rock. 

 

Jesus is not pollutable. I don’t like, I don’t know. Do you remember the Peanuts character? There’s one of them that’s like really messy and is a cloud of all the dust and everything goes everywhere he goes. And that could feel like us, too. But I come like that, you know, to the presence of God and I’m washed clean. The blood has covered and I’m so thankful for that. And he is not polluted by me.

 

Psalm 95:1, we’ll close just very quickly. We sing joyful noise to the rock. If you’re in your car and the whole, like the world is like crushing you and you’re just thinking of all the horrors and the things you read in the news and your own sin and all that. I’m saying this to myself. Lord, give me a song to you, a song of rejoicing. I have a rock. He’s not like all the other rocks. He’s alive. 

 

A warning to go home with, Deuteronomy 32:15. A very, very scary thing that they lightly esteemed the rock of their salvation. I could do that in a heartbeat. Lightly esteemed. I don’t want to do that. Lord, keep me from lightly esteeming the rock of my salvation. And in Isaiah 17:10 it says, “There were not mindful of the rock.” But what joy we have in our hearts that we have a rock. Amen. Amen. 

 

Maybe this week at some point, God leads you in a conversation with a random person or a friend or something and you talk about the rock. I have a rock. What’s your rock like? I sing to my rock, you know, and that might be really weird. And then you can have a great conversation. 

 

Be encouraged this week. You are greatly loved by an unshakable God. And this all depends on him. Amen. It’s him. Someday we’ll be in glory with him. And we’ll say, Oh, thank you, God for the rock. (Prayer)

*****

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