What Will We Look Like When We Are Resurrected? Series

1 Corinthians

What Will We Look Like When We Are Resurrected?

1 Corinthians 15:35-58

July 27, 2003

Intro:

A. Colson’s Change

In July of 1984 Charles Colson was speaking at a Baptist gathering.

He told of his change from being an Episcopalian to becoming a Baptist.

He had considered a change dictated by his study of Scripture and his developing personal convictions.

But he did not want his change to be offensive to his dear friends who remained Episcopalian.

Not knowing how to approach the issue, he found himself avoiding his friends.

Then one day his fears were put to rest.

He encountered one of his Episcopalian cronies who assured him there was no problem with his change, but only benefit.

His encouragement to Church was, “When you left the Episcopalian Church and joined the Baptist Churck, you raised the intellectual level of both groups.”

B. Most of us have some uneasiness about change.

1. But there is a change that you are going to make that I know you’re going to like.

2. Today as we look at the end of the 15th chapter of 1st Corinthians, I want to ask the question, “What will we look like when we are resurrected?”

3. You may have a little uneasiness about it, but I guarantee that it will be the best change you have ever made.

4. It will all take place in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye.

5. So let’s look at what the apostle Paul told the Corinthians about our resurrected bodies, first…

I. Our Earthly Bodies Must Die

1 Corinthians 15:35-41 (NIV), But someone may ask, "How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?" 36 How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. 37 When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. 38 But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body. 39 All flesh is not the same: Men have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another and fish another. 40 There are also heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; but the splendor of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is another. 41 The sun has one kind of splendor, the moon another and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendor.

A. Our earthly (our current, physical) bodies must die.

1. Paul begins this discussion about our resurrected bodies by saying that our earthly bodies (the bodies that we currently have) must die.

2. The bodies that we currently see must die.

B. Paul asks in verse 35, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?”

1. Paul has spent the previous 34 verses of this chapter proving that there is a resurrection.

2. He said that since Christ rose from the dead, we will too.

3. And after spending the first 34 verses of this chapter proving that there is a resurrection, Paul sets out to answer the question that everybody wants to know.

4. “So if there is a resurrection, what will we look like?

5. Many people are still a little nervous, even after realizing that there is a resurrection.

6. Even after believing Jesus Christ died on the cross and rose from the dead so that we can have life after death, there is often still a little uneasiness about it.

a. After all, this life is the only life we’ve ever had.

b. This world is the only place we have ever known.

c. This body is the only body we have ever known.

7. “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come”

a. When we are raised from the dead, what will we look like?

b. Will we look different than we do now?

c. Will we be able to recognize anybody after they have risen from the dead?

d. If my friends and children are in heaven, will we know each other?

e. What will we look like when we are resurrected?

C. The first description that Paul gives of our resurrected bodies is that our earthly bodies must die.

1. Paul refers to seeds in his explanation.

a. “What you sow does not come to life unless it dies.”

b. Our physical, earthly bodies must die.

c. “When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else.”

d. And anyone who’s ever been around a seed knows how it works.

e. We all know that in order for the seed to bring forth life, it must die.