Good morning, good to see everybody.
It's a beautiful, beautiful day to be in the House of the Lord.
I'm glad we've gathered together this morning.
If you have a Bible, you can turn to 1st Corinthians 15,
First Corinthians chapter 15. We'll be in verse 35 today on
down through 49. The title of the message today
is Raised in glory. And Wells, my oldest said that I
need to encourage you not to be cremated.
All right, so that's a little clue into some of the things
we're talking about this morning, our spiritual bodies
that will receive what an encouraging passage throughout
the chapter in First Corinthians 15.
Throughout this chapter, Paul has been dismantling, if you
will, every argument against the resurrection.
There's been a lot of arguments against the resurrection, and
Paul's been dismantling those. Some, some are denying the
resurrection altogether, this future resurrection of the
Saints. Others misunderstood what it
meant. And so now Paul turns to this
very practical question, what will our resurrection bodies be
like? What will our resurrection
bodies be like? And that's what these verses
answer for us today. As we read the passage, though,
I want you to pay attention. Paul uses a lot of contrast.
I'll try to point those out as we go, but pay attention to
those because he he talks about the contrast between what is
sown and what is raised, What is sown and what is raised.
It's another contrast he reveals between Adam and Christ.
And then the final, the final contrast we'll see is between
the natural and the spiritual. So contrast between what is
sown, what is raised between Adam and Christ and between the
natural and the spiritual. These three contrasts help us to
see that the resurrection is not just about living again.
It's not just about living again.
It's about being gloriously transformed.
Gloriously transformed. So 1st Corinthians 15, if you
would please stand in honor of the reading of God's Word, if
you're able. Again, we're looking at verses
35 through 49 this morning. 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 bear
kernel, perhaps of weed or of some other grain.
But God gives it a body as he is chosen into each kind of seed,
its own body. For not all flesh is the same,
but there's 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 one-of-a-kind,
and the glory of the earthly is of another.
There's one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon,
and another glory of the stars. For star differs from for star
differs from star in glory. So it is with the resurrection
of the dead. What is sown is perishable, and
what is raised as 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 living life, giving spirits.
But it is not the spiritual that is first, but the natural, and
then the spiritual. The first 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. This is the word of the Lord.
Please be to God. Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, as we open this passage in First Corinthians 15,
we have previously looked at just the explicit gospel in the
opening of this chapter. Lord, as we examine that, we saw
that you have graciously redeemed, graciously saved your
people through the life of death and resurrection of your Son and
Father. As we have continued to examine
the passage, we have seen, Lord, that we too will be raised to
life one day, that as Christ has been raised, so too will we
rise. And that should inform the way
that we live here and now. And now we come to this passage
on what our spiritual bodies will be like.
Paul is just further showing that there is a resurrection
that awaits those who are in Christ.
And so, Lord, as we behold this today, would you help us to see
first and foremost more of Your own glory.
Help us to see first and foremost more of how splendid
you are, how gracious you are. Help us to take hold of the
promise of a future resurrection where our imperishable body,
imperishable bodies, where our perishable bodies will become
imperishable, where our natural bodies will become spiritual.
Father, Lord, help us to see these things clearly this
morning, that we might live with a renewed hope, we might live
with a strong foundation, or that we would truly understand
that we should not fear those who can hurt the flesh, but we
should only fear the one who can condemn our spirits.
And so, Lord, may we have a reverence for you as we study
this passage this morning. May our hearts grow deeper in
love with You, more fond of you. May the desires, our affections
grow to be more and more Christ like through the sermon.
It's in the name of Christ I pray.
Amen. Amen.
You may be seated. Have you ever stood at the
graveside of a loved one and felt the sting of weakness?
You feel the finality of death in that moment.
Paul knew that feeling well, but he also knew something stronger.
And so he writes these words in First Corinthians 15.
Paul knew that the same God who raised Jesus will also raise all
who are his. And so here Paul invites us to
look beyond the frailty of our earthly bodies to to the
splendor of our future ones. He takes us from the dust of
Adam to the glory of Christ. If you're taking notes, you can
write this down. Because Christ has risen, we
will be raised in glory, transformed and conformed to his
image. Because Christ has risen, we who
are in Christ will be raised in glory, transformed and conformed
to his image. And Paul in this passage shows
us 3 truths about future our future resurrection bodies.
The first thing he reveals to us is that our resurrection will
demonstrate God's transforming power.
Secondly, we'll see that our resurrection will exchange
weakness for glory. And thirdly, we'll see that our
resurrection will complete our likeness to Christ.
That will complete our likeness to Christ.
So again, the main point, because Christ has risen, we who
are in Christ will be raised in glory, transformed and conformed
to his own image. Let's examine point number one.
Our our resurrection will demonstrate God's transforming
power. Again, we see this in verses 35
through 41. But someone will ask, how are
the dead raised? So Paul's anticipating this
argument that's coming, right? He's he's been arguing for this.
He's been revealing these truths.
He's anticipating this argument. How are the dead raised?
With what kind of body do they come?
And Paul answers very kindly, 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 bear
kernel, perhaps of weed or some other grain.
But God gives it a body as he is chosen into each kind of seed,
its own body. For not all flesh is the same.
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 one-of-a-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 Paul begins by responding to
these questions. How are the dead rays?
What kind of body do they come? Now Paul understands these
aren't honest inquiries, all right?
These are the tractors. These are people who are holding
out false truths, teaching them. They're really mocking
questions. And so Paul answers the fool
according to his folly and says bluntly, you foolish person,
right to answer, Paul uses this illustration from nature.
He says a seed must die before it can live again.
A seed must die before it can live again.
So what you sow is not the full grown plant, Paul, say what?
What you're sowing into the ground with your body is not the
full grown plant. It's a bare kernel.
God gives each seed its own body, right?
So the same principle applies to the resurrection.
The body that dies and is buried is not the same body that will
be raised. It will be transformed by God's
creative power. Paul broadens that illustration
in 39 through 41 where he shows that there's a diversity of
bodies in creation. There's humans and animals and
birds and fish. There's heavenly bodies like the
sun and the moon, but they all differ in glory.
And so to the resurrected body will be a different kind or
different in kind from our present one.
This is the oak tree is different from the acorn.
Resurrection is not resuscitation.
Think sometimes we maybe I do have thought of the resurrection
is like a resuscitation, but God's not merely patching up
your old body. He's transforming your body
entirely. And so the constituency remains.
You are still you, right? It's not that you become a
different person, right? We don't believe in a
reincarnation or anything like that.
You are still you, but the quality of your body is
gloriously different. It's a gloriously different
body. You may think of a Caterpillar
and a butterfly, right? The creature that crawls into
the cocoon is not the same that flies out.
Death in this illustration is the cocoon.
Resurrection is the emergence into glory.
So when you look in the mirror, brothers and sisters, and you
see signs of aging, right? You see signs of weakness, you
see signs of pain. I want you to remember, Paul
wants you to remember. God wants you to remember that
this body is a seed. What God will raise will far
exceed what you see right now, the far exceed what you see
today. The grave may be the garden bed,
so to speak, but God is the gardener.
He's going to raise it in a new way.
Now, before we move on, I thought this would be a good
time to address a question that sometimes arises when we talk
about the resurrection. All right, if our bodies are
sown in the ground, what happens to our souls in the meantime?
It's a question that we were forced to answer with our
children a lot sooner than we thought we would be.
Right, if our bodies are sewn on the ground, what happens to our
souls in the meantime? Well, some have taught this view
called soul sleep, which claims that believers remain
unconscious until the resurrection.
But Scripture consistently teaches otherwise, and the Bible
uses the word sleep for believers.
It describes the body's condition, not the soul's
condition. Right.
The body rests in the grave, it awaits the resurrection to come,
but the soul is immediately conscious and present with the
Lord. Paul says in Second Corinthians
58, We would be, We would rather be away from the body and at
home with the Lord, right? There's an implication there
that being away from the body is to be present with the Lord and
Philippians 123 Paul also writes, my desire is to depart
and be with Christ, for that is far better.
So Paul understood that if he were to die, as he's writing
this letter to the Philippians, if he were to die, that he would
depart the body and be present with Christ and that that is far
better. Jesus even told the thief on the
cross who confessed his belief that he was the Son of God.
Jesus turned to the man and said, today you will be with me
in paradise. All this means is that what all
this means is that the moment a believer dies, your soul is not
asleep. It's alive and in the presence
of Christ. It awaits the day when it will
be reunited with a glorified body.
Yes, that you are present with Christ.
So the body is sown in weakness. It may be sown in weakness, but
the soul is safe with the Savior.
All right, So here's a simple way you can think about it.
At death the body sleeps. It ceases physical function, all
right. It's buried into the ground.
You came from dust, and so to dust you shall return.
But the soul enters the presence of Christ at death.
And then there's this intermediate state, if you will,
between when the time the time when a believer passes and the
time where Christ will descend from the heavens.
In that intermediate state, the believer enjoys a conscious
fellowship with Christ in heaven, awaiting bodily
resurrection. One of the most clearest places
we see this is Hebrews 12/23, where the writer of Hebrews is
explaining what happens when we come to worship, all right.
And he talks about there you haven't come to that which may
be touched, but you've come to Mount Zion, right?
And and he says there that in in a spiritual sense, when we come
together to worship, we gather with the assembly of the first
born, he writes, who are enrolled in heaven and to God,
the judge of all and to the spirits of the righteous made
perfect. All right.
So in worship God spiritually, you're enraptured spiritually in
worship in such a way that you are in fellowship.
You've come to the assembly of the first born here enrolled in
heaven to God, the judge of all and to the spirits of the
righteous made perfect. In Revelation 69 we read here,
when he opened the 5th seal, John writes, I saw under the
altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God
and for the witness they had borne.
So John sees in his revelation the souls of the martyrs, those
who had been slain for the Word of God.
So that's the intermediate state.
Thirdly, you can think about Resurrection Day.
So you have you can think about it at death, you can think about
it in an intermediate state, you can think about it at the
resurrection day where Christ reunites the glorified body with
the perfected soul. OK, we're going to get to that
in a moment as we look at 42 through 44 in this passage.
But another passage that reveals this for us is First
Thessalonians 414 through 18. So if you'll allow me to to read
this passage. For since we believe that Jesus
died and rose again, Even so through Jesus God will bring
with him those who have fallen asleep.
For this we declare to you by word from the Lord, that we who
are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not
precede those who have fallen asleep.
For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry
of command, with the voice of an Archangel, and with the sound of
a of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise
first, then we who are alive, who are left will be caught up
together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.
And so we will always be with the Lord.
And then listen to verse 18 of that passage.
Therefore, encourage one another with these words.
Encourage one another with these words.
So when Paul describes the body as being sown and later raised,
he's not saying that your soul is asleep in the ground.
She's describing the state of your body.
He's describing God's power to transform what is perishable
into that which is imperishable. The believer's body rests.
And that's the question Paul's really dealing with in First
Corinthians 15, right, is what happens to our bodies in the
resurrection. But the believer himself is
already alive in Christ. He's awaiting the day when the
seed of this body burst forth in glory.
Amen. Second thing, the second truth
we see about our resurrection is that our resurrection will
exchange weakness for glory. Like a 42 through 44.
So it is. So is it with the resurrection
of the dead. What is sown is perishable, and
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 has raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body,
there is also a spiritual body. So Paul literally in the passage
is now turning from illustration to direct description, right?
He's he's building the arguments and in doing so, he outlines 4
glorious contrast between the body that dies and the body that
will be raised. The first contrast we see is
that perishable becomes imperishable in verse 42, right?
Our present bodies are subject to decay.
They're subject to disease, they're subject to death.
All right, We spend much of our lives chasing the wellspring of
youth, doing whatever we can to try to slow down this aging,
decaying, disease ridden, death ridden process.
But have you known anyone to finally slow it down?
No. Not even the wealthiest people
in the world can buy that which is imperishable.
Not even the wealthiest people in the world can buy that which
is eternal, right? It all ends the same way,
returning to dust. And yet Paul shows that the
resurrection body will be free from every trace of corruption.
It'll be free from that. There will be no corruption,
right? There'll be no sickness.
There'll be no aging, no decline, no sin, right?
It will share, it will share in as a Co heir with Christ, it
will share in the imperishable life of the risen Lord.
It'll be like him. The second contrast Paul shows
us is that we go from dishonor to glory.
Sown in dishonor, raised in glory.
You see, death exposes the shame of sin, death exposes the shame
of sin, right? If you think back to the Garden
of Eden in the fall of man, in the day that you eat of the
fruit of the knowledge of tree, the fruit of the knowledge of
the tree of good and evil. Sorry, way said that backwards.
If you eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge, of good and
evil, then you will surely die. Sin brought death.
Death was not a part of the plan for man in the Garden of Eden,
meaning that it was man's rebellion against God.
Man's desire to be like God became unlike God altogether,
became sinful, and brought death on humanity.
It wasn't just physical death, so that is sure.
And physical death is sure because of sin, but it also
brought spiritual death. You're born with the sin of
Adam. You've inherited it from your
first Father. You will surely die because you
are surely spiritually dead already.
So burial is humbling, or at least it ought to be.
It's a humble admission that we are not God.
It's a humble admission that we are finite rather than infinite.
It's it's a humble admission that God is perfect and
righteous and just and we are sinful.
What was once vibrant, the life of a person, what was once
vibrant becomes lifeless in death.
Paul is showing here that what is sown in dishonor will be
raised in glory. In the resurrection, all of that
dishonor will be reversed. Amen.
The believer who once bore the marks of sin and mortality will
shine, will shine in eternity with the splendor of
righteousness. We see in the book of Daniel in
chapter 12 verse 3, it says those who are wise shall shine
like the brightness of the sky above.
The third contrast that Paul reveals here in verse 43 is
weakness to power. He's showing that human life is
fragile. He's revealing that strength
fades and on our best days we're still weak and those best days
pass so quickly. You can read in James about life
being a vapor. You can read in Ecclesiastes
about life being a vapor. You can see in Psalm 90, Moses's
Psalm, Moses's prayer, that life is a vapor that passes quickly.
But the body. But the body that will be raised
will be marked by power and not weakness.
It'll be raised in power, meaning it'll be vigorous, it'll
be whole. It's complete, right?
And it's capable, finally capable of glorifying God
forever. Isn't this one of the most
frustrating things about your weak flesh today is that you do
not have the capability to glorify God always and forever?
Do you find yourself, as I do, wrestling with your flesh,
wrestling with evil desires of rebellion, wrestling with evil
desires of of of lust, wrestling with evil desires of greed,
wrestling with evil desires of pride?
And yet, because of the great grace of God, what is sown in
weakness will be raised in power.
Ephesians 119 through 20 tells us that the power that raised
Jesus from the dead will pulse through every fiber of our
being. And then the 4th contrast that
Paul shows us is between the natural and the spiritual in
verse 44. And when he talks about the
spiritual, he doesn't mean the immaterial.
Sometimes we reveal that we've been discipled by ghost stories
rather than the Scriptures when we think about the afterlife and
we think that our bodies are, that our spiritual dwelling will
now be some immaterial, purposeless existence.
But what Paul means when he says that the natural becomes
spiritual, he means that it becomes totally, utterly
spiritually empowered or spirit empowered.
It's powered by the spirit of God.
The word natural here is the Greek word psychocus.
Sorry, Psychicus. And it refers to the life that's
animated by the soul, meaning it's subject to sin, it's
subject to the weakness of flesh.
That's the natural existence. But the spiritual existence,
well, that's a different word. It's pneumaticos.
And that spiritual body will be fully animated, fully directed,
and fully sustained by the Holy Spirit himself.
It is still physical, but perfected.
It's free from the conflict between flesh and the Spirit
that now wars within us. And praise God for that
liberating freedom. The resurrection body represents
both continuity and transformation.
That's what Paul is showing us here.
The same body that dies is raised, but raised in an
entirely new mode of existence. It's glorified.
You see, God is not discarding what He's created.
You were created in the image of God, male and female, in the
likeness of Him. He's not going to discard that
in eternity. No, no, no, no.
He's going to glorify it. He's going to raise it in power.
He's going to raise it in glory. He's going to raise it
spiritually. He's redeeming it and glorifying
it. Romans 823 calls this the
redemption of our bodies. Just as creation itself there in
Romans 8 groans for renewal, so too do our mortal bodies grown
for this final act of redemption, where we'll receive
the redemption of our bodies in the new heaven and the new
earth. Christ returns.
Philippians 321 declares that Christ will transform our lowly
body to be like his glorious body by the power that enables
him to subject all things to himself.
Praise God. So you see, it's not merely
restoration. You're not just being restored.
No, it's glorification. You're being made new.
The fall has stripped humanity of honor and strength, and in
the resurrection God restores both in an overflowing measure.
What was once humiliated by sin will be exalted by God's grace.
And so this transformation, this transformation of our bodies is
the spirits climactic work in the believer.
All right. The spirit who now indwells us
as a guarantee of what's to come, will one day finish his
work. He'll breathe eternal life into
these mortal frames of ours. And so the same creative power
that formed the world by his hands and raise Jesus from the
dead will also raise you. Romans 811 says if the spirit of
him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who
raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your
mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
So believer's grave, brothers and sisters, you visit the loved
1A loved believer who's gone on to be with the Lord, you visit
that grave. I want you to know.
Or if one day your children visit yours, I want them to
know, right, that it's not a monument of loss.
It's not a monument of loss at all.
It's a seed bed for glory, right?
The Funeral Home may prepare the body for burial, but God is
preparing the body for transformation.
The coffin might be a field and the body might be a seed, but
the promise is that God will bring forth something glorious
in His own time. Do you understand how this hope
and the promise of God should change the way you face
suffering today? It should change the way you
face aging. It should change the way you
face trials and tribulations. Your outer self is wasting away,
but the truth of Scripture is that your inner self is being
renewed day by day. Every sickness, every
limitation, every Gray hair on your head, every death whispers.
Not forever, not forever. So, believer, I want you to lift
your eyes from the mirror of Decay.
You look into this mirror each day and you see decay.
I want you to lift your eyes from the mirror of decay and
lift it to the promise of transformation.
The body that you inhabits now is perishable, but its future is
imperishable. It's powerful, it's glorious,
It's kept in heaven for you, where it's undefiled forever.
And all of that because of the Risen Christ.
Your weakness is temporary, but glory is coming.
Glory is coming. The third thing that the third
truth that Paul shows about our resurrection.
Our resurrection will complete our likeness to Christ.
Look at these final verses 45 through 49.
Thus it is written, the first man, Adam, became a living
being. The last Adam became a life
giving spirits. But it is not the spiritual that
is first, but the natural and then the spiritual.
The first 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.
You see, Paul now roots the transformation, that future
transformation that awaits. He roots it in redemptive
history. He's rooting it in the
redemptive story, the story of redemption, if you will.
He's rooting it in the story where Christ, the Man of heaven,
will give himself, as he's shown us earlier in this, in this
chapter, will give his life. He'll be buried.
He'll rise again. And so through that comes the
redemption of all who will believe and confess that he is
the Christ, that he's the Messiah promised long ago.
And so Paul draws the contrast now between two representative
men, Adam and Christ. Each one stands as a head of
humanity. Adam is called the first man.
He was made a living being. Verse 45 is quoting Genesis 27
where it says the first man, Adam, became a living being.
In that passage, God breathed into Adam's nostrils the breath
of life, but that life was merely natural, it was earthly
and fragile. Christ however, as the second
head, as the last to Adam, is a life giving spirits.
Then Paul adds the last Adam became a life giving spirit,
meaning Christ the risen Lord does not merely receive life, he
gives life. The first man received life and
could not give it, he gave death.
The second man gives life. So the first Adam transmits
death to his descendants. The last Adam imparts eternal
life to his people, all who will call on the name of the Lord for
salvation. And so in verse 46, Paul
explains the divine order. It is not the spiritual that is
first, but the natural and then the spiritual.
So God's design always moves from creation to new creation.
We are born of the dust, and then by grace we're born of the
Spirit. All right, verse 47 and
intensifies this contrast where Paul writes the first man was
from the earth, a man of dust, the second man is from heaven.
You see the contrast? One is from an earthly glory,
the other is from heavenly glory.
So Adam was shaped from the soil, but Christ came from
glory. Adam returned to the ground in
death. Christ conquered death and
returned to His Father. And then verses 48 through 49
summarize all of this. It shows us that those who
belong to Adam share His nature. And if you're an unbeliever in
here, I need you to hear this. They share his nature and his
fate. What's his nature?
It's frail, sinful. He's mortal, he's going to die.
But those who belong to Christ share his nature and his
destiny. Just righteousness.
Life. And glory, immortality, Paul
writes. 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 gives us one of the
most profound statements of Christian hope.
The goal of salvation is not merely forgiveness.
I'm not saying it doesn't include it's not merely
forgiveness of sins. The goal of salvation is
conformity to Christ. Image that we would be made like
him. Romans 829 says for those whom
he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of
his Son. That process of being conformed
to the image of his Son, that process began the moment you
were born again. Your spirit was made alive in
Christ, but it will be completed.
It will not be completed before this.
It will be completed when your body is raised in glory.
Adam's image means that we inherit.
We inherit sin, we inherit weakness, we inherit death.
That's Romans 512. Christ's image means that we
will inherit righteousness. We will inherit power and life.
That's Romans 517 through 19. So the resurrection is the final
triumph of grace over the fall. Amen.
The moment when the dust of Adam is clothed with the glory of
Christ Jesus. Philippians 320 through 21 says
our citizenship is in heaven and from it we await A Savior, the
Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be
like His glorious body. Apostle John and 1st John 32
adds this we when we see Him, we shall be like Him, for we shall
see Him as He is. So the resurrected body will not
only resemble Christ in splendor, brothers and sisters,
it will perfectly resemble or reflect His righteousness.
That image which was lost in Eden will be fully restored in
the Kingdom of God. This is what it means when we
talk about union with Christ. And what we're seeing here is
union with Christ brought to its consummation.
We were united with him in his death.
We were raised with him in newness of life, and one day we
will share fully in his glory. Think about Jesus after his
resurrection. He appeared to his disciples.
He was recognizable yet radiant. He was physical yet glorified.
He ate fish. He spoke, He walked among them.
His body was fully real and yet no longer bound by the same
limitations. Our resurrection bodies will
share that glory, reflecting His power and His perfection.
So believer, your identity is not tied to Adam's dust, but to
Christ's glory. The world defines identity by
what we were, frail, fallen, fading, but God defines us but
what we will be in Christ, holy, whole and heavenly.
So I urge you to live now in light of that coming likeness.
If you bear the image of the man of heaven, then reflect his
character today. Live as one who bears the image
of the man of heaven today. Let your speech and your purity
and your humility and your hope points to the one whose image
you will soon mirror perfectly. And when you face the decay of
this body, do not despair. Do not despair.
Your aging, your weakness, the joints that give you fits when
the storm's rolling in, your allergies, all those things,
even your suffering. These are not signs of defeat,
brothers and sisters. They are birth pains of coming
glory. The Spirit who even now conforms
you to Christ inwardly will one day raise you to share His
likeness completely. You've borne the image of the
man of dust, and so you shall bear the image of the man of
heaven. This is not wishful thinking.
Paul doesn't spend all these verses trying to encourage the
Corinthians to have wishful thinking.
He doesn't belabor the point so that you and I can read it and
think, man, I hope that's what it's like one day.
Oh, he writes as an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ.
He writes with a pen that's inspired by the Spirit of God to
utter truth for your weary heart, for your weary body.
He writes to encourage you to strengthen your faith, to deepen
your hope, to put still in your spine.
It's not wishful thinking, but Paul writes, is the certain
promise of God secured by the risen Christ.
It's yours in Jesus. So the resurrection is not some
distant doctrine. I hope you've come to see that
in the last couple of weeks, that the resurrection is not
this distant doctrine. It's not something that we just
look forward to know. It changes the way or it ought
to change the way we Live Today. It ought to inform the decisions
we make. It ought to inform the strength
of our spirit. It ought to inform our courage.
It ought to inform our resolve, It ought to inform our
self-control. It ought to inform everything
about our life with Christ, because it's the heartbeat of
Christian hope, not some distant doctrine.
Every ache in your body, every funeral you attend, every
reminder of human frailty. Frailty testifies that this
world is not yet as it should be.
Brothers and sisters, I feel your pain.
I know that this world is not yet as it should be, and yet
it's these doctrines that make us press on.
It's these doctrines that wake us up in the morning that
invigorate our souls and our hearts to love the Lord our God
with all our strength and all our soul and all our heart and
all our mind, and to go and love our neighbor well.
It's these doctrines that give us hope.
But it's a doctrine that should give us, that should make us
want to take that hope to a dying, decaying world.
There is an answer. There is hope.
It might not be immediate relief, but it's final relief.
It brings peace where there's no peace.
It brings joy where there's no joy.
It's Paul reminds us what a sown of weakness will be raised in
power, what a sown and dishonor will be raised in glory.
You see, the gospel did not end with a cross and a tomb.
The gospel ends with glory. Christ raised 1st and you raised
thereafter. It's a glory that begins in
Christ and will one day feel the universe.
The same hands that shaped Adam from the dust will one day raise
your body from the grave, radiant and imperishable, suited
for eternity in the presence of God.
But until that day, brothers and sisters, until that day we live
as citizens of heaven. We reflect now what we will be
fully on that day. Our future glory shapes us to
present obedience because we will bear the image of heaven,
of the man of heaven. We must pursue holiness.
We must pursue Christ's likeness here and now.
Our sanctification is the beginning of of our
glorification. It is God's resurrection work
already taking root in US. So again, when you walk through
suffering, when you walk through sorrow and sickness, lift your
eyes to the risen Christ, when you stand beside the grave of a
loved one who died in Christ, remember this is not the end,
it's the planning of a seed that will rise and splendor.
And when you feel your own weakness, remember, your destiny
is not decay. No, no, no, no.
Your destiny is transformation. Your destiny is not humiliation.
Your destiny is honor. Your destiny is not dust.
Your destiny is glory. Christ's resurrection is not
merely our example, it's our guarantee.
Because he lives, we shall live also.
Because he reigns in glory, we shall reign with Him.
Because he bears the image of heaven, we shall bear it also.
Therefore, live now as those who will be raised in glory later.
Let hope strengthen your endurance.
Let holiness shape your character.
Let worship fill your days until faith becomes sight and
mortality puts on immortality. Because Christ is risen, those
who are in him will be raised in glory, transformed and conformed
to his image. Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, we thank you. We thank you for this doctrine
of the resurrection. We thank you that because Christ
was raised and resides now in glory, so too will we be raised
and reside in glory with him and Father.
It's my prayer for these people from my own hearts, that that
hope and the resurrection, that hope and the promise of the
resurrection would strengthen our endurance.
That because of this truth, we would let holiness shape our
character. Because of this truth, we would
let worship fill our days until our faith becomes sights and our
mortality puts on immortality. God.
We see clearly in this word that because Christ has risen, we too
will be raised in glory, will be transformed and conformed to his
image. And as we read it, we understand
that we don't deserve it. We understand that our hearts
are rebellious. They're sinful to the core.
We're always waging war against the flesh.
And if we're not in Christ, raised by the Spirit, then we're
not even waging a war against the flesh.
We're just following its orders. And so, Lord, I ask that you
would save anyone here who does not yet know Christ as their
Lord, that you would help them to see their own frailty, their
mortality, their sinfulness, their rebellion.
Help them to see it clearly, that they might flee to the
cross of Christ to find their hope of redemption, but they
would call on the name of the Lord today and receive your
salvation from their sins. And Father, would you help us
who do know Christ to keep our eyes fixed on him as we read in
2nd Corinthians 3 and four? Help us to behold the image of
the Son of God, to fix our gaze on Him, that we might be
transformed day by day, and that we carry these truths and jars
of clay. May we know God as we have been
known by Him. May we rest in the
reconciliation that Christ awards to us.
May we walk in it. Lord, may we be transformed from
1° of glory to the next until finally, forever, we are
glorified in heaven with Christ. Heavenly Father, we thank you
for your Amazing Grace, for the mercy and the love that you have
shown us, for the life that you have given us.
May we fix our gaze on it as we live out our days.
It's in the name of Christ, I pray, Amen.
I'm going to give you a moment there in your seat to pray and
seek the Lord. If there's a truth here that
you've not believed before or not seen in this way, thank the
Lord for revealing it to you. Ask Him to bury it deep in your
heart that it might bear fruits. If you don't know Christ as Lord
and today is the day of salvation, the Lord is calling
you to Himself. Do not keep turning away from
Him, but turn to Him today in faith, trusting that Jesus
Christ is the Son of God who gave Himself for you, that you
might be a Co heir with him. Give your life to me.
Make him your Lord today. Repent of your sins.
Follow Him. Heavenly Father, we exalt you
above all. We exalt your Son above all.
We exalt your spirit above all. We thank you for your grace,
Your mercy, your love toward us. We ask that you help us to walk
with Christ each day, to set our minds on future glory.
As we face temptation, as we face suffering, as we face the
decaying of our bodies. May our eyes be fixed on Christ.
And we Father, we love you. We thank you for Christ and his
salvation. We thank you for your Spirit
granting us life in Him. In the name of Christ we pray,
and then.