It Gets Better

IT GETS BETTER!

I Corinthians 15:35-49

S: Death and resurrection

C: New bodies come at death

Pr: GOD GIVES US A NEW BEGINNING.

?: How?

KW: Contrasts

TS: We will find in I Corinthians 15:35-49 three contrasts that show how God gives us a new beginning.

Type: Propositional

The ____ contrast is between…

I. Death and Life (35-41)

II. Present and Future (42-44)

III. Adam and Jesus (45-49)

PA: How is the change to be observed?

Version: ESV

RMBC 01 May 05 AM

INTRODUCTION:

Have your expectations ever been disappointed?

ILL Personal

When I was in elementary school, you did not know what teacher you would have until the first day of school.

You would go to the class room of your particular grade, and if your name was on the door, that was the teacher you were going to have for the next year.

When I was entering the fourth grade, there were two teachers I could have: Mrs. Williams and Mrs. Johnston.

I wanted to have Mrs. Williams.

She always seemed so happy and jolly.

It seemed to me she would be a lot of fun.

I did not want to have Mrs. Johnston.

She seemed so old and so stern and so mean.

So on that first day of school, I rushed to Mrs. Williams’ door to find my name on the list, but it was not there.

I even checked it three times.

Each time my name was not there.

I knew what this meant.

I was going to have Mrs. Johnston.

Dejectedly, I walked toward Mrs. Johnston’s room praying that they had forgotten me and that I was on nobody’s list.

But as I got to the door, there was my name on the list.

This was going to be a nightmare of a year, I thought.

Those were my expectations, of course, and not the reality.

That mean-looking Mrs. Johnston turned out to be one of my favorite teachers.

She really cared about me.

She worried about me when I was sick (which happened a lot that year as I had mono twice).

She was always so kind to me.

She turned out to be not what I expected!

No disappointment there…that’s for sure!

But sometimes disappointment does come.

Like, have you ever been a blind date that was not what you expected?

ILL Expect

A freshman college student asked her roommate, "How was your blind date?"

"Terrible!" the roommate answered. "He showed up in his 1932 Rolls Royce."

"Wow! That’s a very expensive car. What’s so bad about that?"

"He was the original owner."

TRANSITION:

There is an area of life that has many expectations, and we are all destined to experience.

It is death.

Scripture tells us that we all will die once and then judgment (Hebrews 9:27).

So the question is…

1. What can we expect death to be like?

Let us recognize today that death is not comfortable.

Death does jar us.

It wakes us up to what is real.

ILL Death: Woody Allen

My favorite quote about death comes from Woody Allen, who said:

"It’s not that I’m afraid to die, I just don’t want to be there when it happens."

There are all kinds of belief when it comes to death.

If you are a Hindu or a Buddhist, you believe in reincarnation, that is, you believe you die and come back into another life form, over and over again, until you get it right and reach a place of nirvana (of perfection).

If you a Muslim, and if you die as a martyr in a jihad (holy war), you will immediately be carried away into heaven where Allah abides and receive great rewards (men get a harem of beautiful wives).

If you are a Mormon, if you do all the church says you are to do, you will die and become a god in the celestial heaven.

If you are a Jehovah Witness, you just have to plain work hard to earn your way in, otherwise when you die you will be annihilated.

If you are a Roman Catholic, you believe in more than just heaven and hell, you believe there is an intermediary place called purgatory that you have to work off your sin before you get to go to heaven.

Interestingly, though, one thing that all the peoples of the world hold in common is that death is not the end of the story.

2. For the Christian, we can expect the best when we come to the end of earthly life.

You see, our faith is grounded in the resurrection.

The promise of Scripture is that when our earthly life is done, those who have lived a life of faith will be with Him forever.

If you have been here for the previous studies in I Corinthians 15, you may remember that Paul is speaking with an unshakeable conviction.