Have you ever been promised something in your life, but you
didn't know exactly what it was going to be like and so you were
left wondering or maybe asking questions about it?
Maybe you were waiting for a birthday and joyfully expecting
what you would get. Maybe you were expecting a baby
and, and anticipating what he or she would look like.
And as we come up to Christmas, maybe you've, we're waiting for
Christmas gifts and maybe many of you have bought gifts for
your children and, and they're anticipating what they're going
to get under the tree. You know, they're, they're
grabbing the gifts, they're looking at the boxes, they're
analyzing them, they're shaking them.
They're they're judging what it might be based on the shape and
the size. If any of you guys are like me,
then your wife probably has to be really creative with her
guesses because there's usually not something under the tree
until a few days before Christmas.
But as we pick up in our sermon series in the book of First
Corinthians this morning, we see that sort of anticipation as
Paul is talking about the resurrection to the Corinthians,
he's told them that Christ has risen and we too will rise from
the dead. And so naturally they wondered
what's going to happen? What sort of bodies will we
have? What are they going to look
like? How is all of this going to take
place? And we're going to see Paul's
answer to those questions this morning.
So if you'll turn with me in your Bibles to 1st Corinthians
chapter 15, we'll be in verses 35 through 58.
And just by way of reminder, we've been going through this
book for for over seven months now.
This is a letter that Paul wrote to a church that he started in
the city of Corinth. And he had been there for a
short time and, and after he left the, these people were new
Christians. They still had lots of
questions. And so they sent him letters.
They sent him questions and say, hey, we, we still want to know
about these things. And so his letter to them is a
response to those questions. And so the last few weeks we've
been looking specifically at chapter 15, which talks all
about the resurrection and what the resurrection is going to be
like and the reality of the resurrection, the effects of the
resurrection. And today we're going to see
specifically what our bodies in the resurrection will be like.
We will see the reality of our resurrection bodies.
But before we do that, let's bow for a word of prayer.
Lord, Your hands have made us, and we have been fashioned in
Your image. We have been created so that we
might find our joy and satisfaction in You and bring
You glory through our lives. And so we ask that as we open
Your Word this morning, that You would give us understanding by
the power of Your Spirit working through Your Word, Teach us Your
commandments that we may behold wondrous things in Your law.
Believe them by faith and walk in obedience to them, bringing
glory and honor to your name. In Jesus name we ask, Amen.
We'll be in First Corinthians chapter 15 and it's a bit of a
lengthy passage, but I'll read through it all to start and then
we'll begin to go through it. First Corinthians chapter 15,
verses 35 through 58. But someone will ask, how are
the dead raised? With what kind of body do they
come, you foolish person? What you sow does not come to
life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body
that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or some
other grain. But God gives it a body as He
has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body.
For not all flesh is the same, but there is one kind for
humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another
for fish. There are heavenly bodies and
earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is of one kind, and
the glory of the earthly is of another.
There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon,
and another glory of the stars. For star differs from star in
glory. So it is with the resurrection
of the dead. What is sown is perishable.
What is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor.
It is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness.
It is raised in power. It is sown a natural body.
It is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body,
there is also a spiritual body. Thus it is written.
The first man, Adam, became a living being.
The last Adam became a life giving spirit, but it is not the
spiritual that is first, but the natural and then the spiritual.
The 1st man was from the earth, a man of dust.
The second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also
are those who are of the dust. And as is the man of heaven, so
also are those who are of heaven.
Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall
also bear the image of the man of heaven.
I tell you this, brothers, flesh and blood cannot inherit the
Kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the
imperishable. Behold, I tell you a mystery.
We shall not all sleep, but we shall be changed in a moment, in
the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.
For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised
imperishable, and we shall be changed.
For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and
this mortal body must put on immortality.
And when the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal
puts on 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 the law, but thanks be to God who gives us
the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always
abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord
your labour is not in vain. Now as Paul begins this
question, you see that he's addressing or he begins
answering their questions. You see their questions.
How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they
come? And, and this seems natural
because we would all naturally wonder what those things would
be like. What are our bodies going to be
like? How is this all going to happen?
But we see the person that he's addressing is not someone who
has a sincere question and a sincere concern because look at
his response, you foolish person, or more bluntly, you
fool. And so we see that at the
outset, he's addressing specifically people who are
scoffing, skeptics. They're not sincerely trying to
understand how all of these things are going to take place.
They're actually mocking the Christians by saying, well, what
this resurrection, can it really be true?
Well, what is it going to look like?
And so he's addressing them. But, but we also must understand
that there are people who are sincerely asking the question,
which is why he gives all this detail.
He gives all of these answers because there are those who have
that sincere question. And the first thing that we
learned from Paul is that you will receive a new body.
God has given you a body here on earth for this time.
But when we are raised from the dead, we will receive new bodies
specifically for heaven. And so Paul uses examples from
our world about the difference between heavenly and earthly
things, about the difference of flesh and the different glories
of the stars and the moon. And the first thing that you
must do before getting your heavenly body is that your old
body must die. Look in verse 36 to 38, Paul
says what you sow does not come to life unless it dies.
And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare
kernel, perhaps of wheat or some other grain.
But God gives it a body as He has chosen, and to each kind of
seed its own body. And so we are going to receive
new bodies, but our earthly bodies must die first.
And so he uses the example of a seed.
And when you plant a seed in the ground, you're not hoping for a
larger seed. You're actually hoping for a
plant of some sort of some kind that eventually is going to
sprout out of that seed and grow.
But after that happens, the old seed is gone.
And that's what our heavenly bodies will be like.
We sow our natural bodies into the ground, and they become new
heavenly bodies, something far better and far greater than our
earthly bodies. And then your old body must be
replaced with a body uniquely designed for heaven, with its
own glory. And so here he begins to
contrast these different glories in verses 39 through 41.
Not all flesh is the same. There is one kind for humans,
another for animals, another for birds, another for fish.
There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of
the heavenly is of one kind, and the glory of the earthly is of
another. There is one glory of the sun,
another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars.
For star differs from star in glory.
And so using examples from nature, Paul points out that
your your earthly body has its own unique glory, while your
heavenly body will be distinct in and of itself and have its
own glory. And he uses examples from our
world. We think of us as humans have a
certain kind of flesh, a flesh that is different from the
animals which can live outdoors. You know, we can't live in
extreme temperatures, but certain animals can.
And then even those animals, there's birds that have a
different kind of flesh which enables them to fly.
And then there's fish which enable them to live in the sea.
And so all these different kinds of flesh in God's creation show
that they have different types of glory.
And in the same way, even the sun and the moon and the stars
all have differing levels of glory.
And he's using that to contrast our earthly bodies from our
heavenly bodies. God has created our earthly
bodies and they have a certain amount of glory to them.
In Psalm chapter 8, we see this that that the psalmist says,
when I look at your heavens, when I look at the stars, I
wonder what is man that you are mindful of him and yet you have
crowned him with glory. There is a glory that comes with
our earthly bodies, but it is unique to this earth.
Our resurrected bodies will have their own uniqueness, their own
glory. And so our old bodies must die
and our we must receive, they must be replaced by our new
bodies. And so that's exactly what Paul
wants us to know. We will receive new bodies in
the resurrection. Now, have you ever wanted to
upgrade your vehicle or get a newer vehicle?
I'm sure that everybody's been in that situation at some point
in your life where you felt it was time to get something
better. Now, maybe you got married and
had kids and needed a larger vehicle, or maybe you just
needed something that was more reliable.
I think all of us have probably been there.
And I, I still remember the very first car I bought with my own
money. It was a 2000 Volkswagen Jetta.
And let me tell you, this was a good car.
I loved this car. The first thing I had to do,
though, before I got this car was I had to let that old
Sunbird go that I'd adopted from my sister at Hunka Junk.
And then I could get my new car. But tell me this car was good.
OK, it was a it was a diesel and so it got excellent fuel
mileage. It had heated seats.
It handled really well in the snow.
But probably one of the coolest features was it had a six CD
changer. Yeah, I'm no longer a peasant.
Along with those people who have to, like, change the CD every
time it's done. No, no, no, no.
I can go for six CDs before I got to change that bad boy.
The only problem was it was in the trunk, which made it a
little bit inconvenient If you're on a road trip, you got
to, like, pull the car over and go to the back and swap with the
CDs. But this was such a good car and
it, but it's funny when you look at it today, you think and you
laugh and you know, there may be people in this room.
We don't even young people in this room.
We don't even know what ACD is. You know, in 20 years from now,
we're going to have technology that looks back on this and
we're going to go, well, that even what we have today is going
to look useless and meaningless. But brothers and sisters, we, we
have the hope that we'll receive resurrected bodies and they'll
never have a need to be upgraded or modified or, or renewed or
made better. But how does this truth affect
the way that we live, that hope and that resurrected body that
has its own glory? This, this new body, how does it
affect us? Now, if the resurrection isn't
true, then that means we don't have the hope of new bodies.
And that means, well, we, we can just live however we want in
this life because it doesn't matter, right?
That Paul argues that earlier in the chapter.
But if the resurrection is true, if Jesus really did rise from
the dead, then that means he was, He is the Son of God.
That means the message of the Kingdom that he proclaimed was
true. And the way that you live not
only matters, but it means everything.
And if we truly believe in the resurrection, that we'll receive
new, heavenly, eternal bodies, then we should live by faith,
seeking God's Kingdom first. That hope, that promise, should
enable us to live this life with that eternity in perspective.
We don't need to be concerned about doing everything in our
power to preserve our earthly human lives, because we have the
hope and the faith that we'll receive new bodies that will
never die. And since we have that promise,
we can willingly give our lives for the glory of God here on
this earth, trusting that God is something better in store for
us. The next thing that Paul teaches
us is that you will receive a superior body.
Not only will you receive a new body, but it will be far
superior. Your heavenly body is going to
be much better than your earthly body.
It's not just a minor tweak, a minor update.
It's not a little bit of an upgrade.
It's a complete overhaul and so Paul uses this example in it and
he shows that this heavenly body is going to be superior to the
earthly body in every way. First, your body will be
spiritual. Look at verses 42 through 44.
He contrasts the fleshly body and the heavenly body.
So it is with the resurrection of the dead, verse 42.
What is sown is perishable. What is raised is imperishable.
It is sown in dishonor. It is raised in glory, it is
sown in weakness, it is raised in power.
It is sown a natural body. It is raised a spiritual body.
If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.
And so he's contrasting. Here's, here's the natural body
that you have now and here's how different it will be in the
future when it's a spiritual body.
Look how much better it is. The earthly body is perishable.
It can die, it can break, it can have disease.
But your spiritual body will be imperishable, never to die,
never to suffer again. Your earthly body is weak.
How often do we yield to the temptation and the power of sin
in our lives? But your spiritual body will be
powerful, and you will be free from the power of sin.
Your earthly body is natural, and it's vulnerable to the
effects of our fallen world. But your spiritual body is
spiritual. Never again to struggle with the
things of this world. Your body will be superior
because it will be spiritual, but it is also superior because
your body will be like Jesus. Look at verses 45 through 49.
Thus it is written, The first man, Adam, became a living
being, The last Adam became a life giving spirit.
But it is not the spiritual that is first, but the natural and
then the spiritual. The 1st man was from the earth a
man of dust. A second man is from heaven.
As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust.
And as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of
heaven. Just as we have borne the image
of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man
of heaven. So here Paul shows us that here,
while you're on earth, you're like Adam.
He was created from the dust of the earth, and everyone who
comes after him is like him. Adam is a a sort of prototype of
all earthly mankind. We all come from him and are
made from the dust of the earth. But then he points forward to
Christ. Last week Pastor Jake talked
about Christ as the firstfruits having been raised from the
dead. He's the one who goes before us,
and now he is the prototype of all of us in our resurrected
bodies, our resurrected state. And though Jesus did become a
man having flesh and blood, he was not from the dust of the
earth. He was fully God, and he came
from heaven. And we will be like him.
And so here he contrasted in the same way that we are like Adam
here on earth. Our spiritual bodies will be
like Jesus. And many of you are familiar
with Super Mario Brothers. This is one of the best selling
video games of all time. And you know the game and you've
played it. And, and the goal of the game is
to get across Mushroom Kingdom to save Princess who has been
captured by Bowser. But it's not an easy journey.
There are many obstacles, many enemies along the way.
There are Goombas and Koopa Troopas and piranha plants are
bottomless pits and and lava. And you have to be careful to
navigate all of these hazards to be able to get to the end to
save the Princess before the time runs out.
But there's one special item, one power up that helps you to
succeed the star. I don't know.
Did you guess that, Danny? Is that what you were guessing?
When you get the star, for a limited period of time, you have
a superior body and your your natural body, it was what that
was used to be subject to all the enemies in the game.
You used to die if you ran into them no longer.
Now you are invincible for this certain period of time.
I mean, there are certain things that you can still fall into the
the pits and the lava, but most of your enemies, you're
invincible. You can run through, but you
have to be careful because if there's a limited time where
you're invincible and then it runs out.
So you have to, you have to be careful how far you go.
But brothers and sisters, this is not the case with our
heavenly bodies. It, it is not a a temporal thing
that only lasts for a limited period of time.
Your resurrection body is not going to run out.
It's not going to need to be replaced by something better.
Our heavenly bodies will be complete and final.
They will be perfect just like Jesus's body, superior to our
earthly bodies in every way. In first John chapter 3, John
says see what kind of love the Father has given us, that we
should be called children of God.
And so we are. The reason why the world does
not know us is that it did not know Him.
Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not
yet appeared. But we know that when he
appears, we shall be like him because we shall see Him as He
is. As followers of Christ, we live
here on the earth and and while we live here, we look like
everyone else. It's not obvious to the world
that we're different from them. They don't recognize that we are
children of God. We have earthly bodies.
But when Christ appears and we receive our new spiritual bodies
that look like his, they will see that we are truly the
children of God. And John continues and says,
everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.
Our hope is in a risen Savior, that one day we will have
superior bodies like His. And in light of this, brothers
and sisters, we should strive for purity.
We should strive for holiness because Jesus is pure.
If you want to look like Jesus in heaven, you must look like
Jesus on earth. And if you truly love Jesus, if
you truly want to honor him and receive a body, a superior body
like his, don't just sit on the sidelines waiting for that day
to come. Strive for holiness and purity
in your life, seeking to be like Jesus here on earth.
The next thing that we learn about the resurrection is that
you will receive an imperishable body.
You will receive a new body which will be superior because
it will be imperishable. And you're going to need a new
body because Paul says in verse 50, I tell you this brother's
flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God, nor does the
perishable inherit the imperishable.
Your earthly body is perishable. It's going to die and and it
can't go into eternity. And so you're going to need a
new imperishable body. But not to worry because you
will be changed through Jesus. Look at verses 51 through 53.
Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we
shall be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the
last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and
the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be
changed. For this perishable body must
put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on
immortality. And so Paul here tells the
Corinthians that that not everyone is going to die.
Some people are going to be alive when Christ returns.
But that doesn't matter. It doesn't matter whether you're
dead or alive, because in that moment, every one of us will be
changed and transformed into the image of Christ and receive our
new imperishable bodies that cannot decay and that cannot
die. And this is going to happen in
in the twinkling of an eye. It's right that Paul uses the
eye as an illustration because your eye is the fastest moving
part of your body. It can turn and focus on
something in less than 100th of a second.
And So what Paul is saying is when that day comes, when the
dead are raised, when when we meet the Lord in the clouds,
we'll be transformed in the blink of an eye.
It's going to happen faster than you can even see.
And you will receive your imperishable body and you will
be victorious through Jesus. Verse verses 4554 through 57
says when, when this happens, when the perishable puts on the
imperishable and the mortal puts on 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 the law.
But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord
Jesus Christ, When you receive your imperishable body, you will
be victorious through Christ. And Paul here quotes Isaiah and
the prophet Isaiah and the prophet Hosea.
And in this way, he sort of, he sort of uses their words as a
taunt against death. Once we are victorious through
Christ, what power does death have anymore?
It's gone. Why does death have power?
It has power because of sin, Sin produced by the law of God.
God's law shows us that we are all sinners who have fallen
short of God's holy standard, and therefore we are deserving
of death, since we will have to stand before God, our righteous
judge. And so we fear death.
Death has power and dominion over us because of our sin.
But thanks be to God, Jesus died in our place.
He was buried and rose again on the third day so that all who
believe in him are forgiven, are victorious and will be given
imperishable bodies never to die again.
Charles Spurgeon said, I will not fear thee death.
Why should I? Thou lookest like a dragon, but
thy sting is gone. Thy teeth are broken.
O old lion, wherefore should I fear thee?
I know Thou art no more able to destroy me, but Thou art sent as
a messenger to conduct me to the Golden Gate, wherein I shall
enter and see my Savior's unveiled face forever.
Praise be to God, we no longer have to fear death, for it is
the doorway into Christ's presence.
Through Christ you will be changed and transformed into an
imperishable body, and you will have victory over death through
Christ. This is the hope that led
Abraham and Sarah to trusting and believing in God.
We remember the story God called Abraham and he went out and the
amazing thing about Abraham's obedience is he had no idea
where he was going. Likewise with Sarah, God
promised that Sarah that she would have a son and though she
was beyond the years of childbearing, she believed that
God who promised would be faithful.
She believed in him and later gave birth to Isaac.
And the writer of Hebrews tells us that these all died in faith,
not having received the things promised, but having seen them
and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they
were strangers and exiles on the earth.
For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a
homeland. If they had been thinking of
that land from which they had gone out, they would have had
opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a
better country. That is a heavenly 1 Therefore
God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared
for them a city. And though Abraham and Nisarah
didn't see the fulfillment of all of the promises of God, they
believed him. They took him at his word.
They knew that there was something better than the earth,
a heavenly city that was waiting for them, a heavenly city whose
designer and builder was God. And their life reflected their
faith in God. Brothers and sisters, that the
confidence that we have is the same as theirs, that we have
hope beyond the grave. After we die, we will receive
imperishable bodies, and we will be ushered in to the presence of
Christ our Savior. We believe that Jesus is the
Messiah, the one who came into the world to save all who would
trust in Him and to give them hope through faith in Him.
One day you will rise from the dead.
You'll be given a new, superior, imperishable body, and you'll
never have to fear or worry about death again.
You will never have to struggle with temptation or weakness
again. You will never have to deal with
trials and suffering again. We will all be changed through
Christ, victorious over death, victorious over our enemies,
forever to live in the glorious presence of our Lord and Savior.
What is our response to such wonderful promises?
Brothers and sisters, look at how Paul closes this section in
verse 485858. Therefore, my beloved brothers,
be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the
Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
All of these promises that we have, they teach us to be
persistent. They teach us to not give up.
They teach us to work hard for the Lord all the time.
Why? Because all of these things are
not meaningless. They're not empty.
They're not in vain. They are producing something in
us, an eternal weight of glory that we will get from our hope.
Far too often, brothers and sisters, we are guilty of
dedicating too much of our time, too much of our resources and
our talents to the things of this world.
Let's be committed to building God's Kingdom, strengthening His
church, making His name great, sharing the good news of the
gospel, knowing that it's not meaningless, but of eternal
value. And all of this, all of this
victory that we have won is because of Christ who laid down
his life for us. And this morning we have the
privilege of sharing together in the Lord's Supper as we remember
his sacrifice that he made for us.
At this time. I'm going to call the deacons
forward. Once, as Jesus was teaching, he
said in John chapter 10, For this reason the Father loves me
because I lay down my life, that I may take it up again.
No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.
I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it
up again. This charge I have received from
my Father. Jesus willingly lay down His
life. He died as the sacrifice for
sin, but He did that knowing that He had the authority to
take his life up again. And through faith in Him we are
forgiven. We have been saved from the
penalty of sin. We are being saved from the
power of sin, and we will be saved from the presence of sin.
And so we follow our Savior with the hope that we will receive
our new imperishable bodies. And so in just a moment, the
deacons are going to pass out the bread which represents
Jesus's body broken for us, the juice which represents Jesus's
blood poured out for us. And they're going to pass these
trays down the aisle, and there will be two cups stacked
together. The, the cup on the bottom has
the bread in it and the cup on top has the juice.
And so if you have been baptized on the confession of your faith
that Jesus is your Lord and Savior, if you are in good
standing with the Lord, we invite you to take the elements,
the bread and the juice and to wait quietly as, as we wait for
Isaac to pray and, and to read a scripture, and they will partake
together. But if you are not baptized, if
you are not in good standing with God, then we ask that you
simply allow the bread and the juice to pass by and that you do
not participate. Let's pray.
Lord, we thank you for the body and blood of Christ our Lord,
broken and poured out for us. We thank you for this body of
believers and the unity that we have in Christ.
We pray that you would strengthen and unify us through
your spirit as we celebrate Christ's sacrifice for us.
In Jesus name we pray, Amen.