1 Corinthians 15:26 - The last enemy to be destroyed is death.
Death is the last enemy for a number of reasons
1. It is the final thing we will all have to face when we get to the end of our lives
2. It's the last step of our journey on Earth
3. It's our graduation day for the Heavenly life
1. WE NEED TO DEFEAT DEATH TO GAIN A HEAVENLY BODY
We see a lot of movies about ghosts, afterlife, spirits, vampires, underworld creatures. People have a need to fantasize about what happens after we die. Let us see what the bible tells us. We start with a question.
1 Corinthians 15:35 But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?
So what kind of body do we receive after we die? How are the dead raised? We know that we will be showing up at God's tribunal and the question is important.
Let's see the answer as Paul explains this aspect of the afterlife to the Church of Corinth.
1 Corinthians 15: 38 But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body. 39 For not all flesh is the same, but there is one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish. 40 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
So number one: There are Heavenly bodies! We cannot take a earthly body to the heavenly realm.
1 Corinthians 15: 44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.
Number two: We need to sow a heavenly body in order to harvest a spiritual body. When we defeat death we offer our earthly body and life to God and we will receive a new form of body that is still a mystery.
2. WHAT CAN WE DO WITH THE NEW BODY?
1 Corinthians 15:45
45 Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 46 But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. 47 The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. 48 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. 49 Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.
Christ can surely do what angels can do and more. He is not limited to the laws of physics as we understand them. After the resurrection he appeared inside locked rooms (John 20:19 and 26), instantaneously moved from one place to another (Luke 24:31), and traveled through the heavens (Acts 1:9; Heb. 4:14).
1. Jesus can travel at warp speed to any geographical location
2. Jesus can go trough locked doors
3. Jesus can travel between heaven and Earth
Will we be able to do the same?
Philippians 3:21
[Jesus Christ] who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.
We will receive the same kind of "glorious body"! However it seams clear that we will be confined to heaven for a season until God's Kingdom is established on Earth.
3. HOW DO WE QUALIFY FOR A HEAVENLY BODY?
Imagine the joy of having a new and glorious body, alive with energy and youthful vigor. Imagine having that wonderful body and living in a world where people are loving, and where there is peace, safety, and abundant quantities of great food. The God who cannot lie promises this wonderful life to all believers, and it is available to anyone who will come to God through Jesus Christ.
2 Corinthians 5:4 - New Living Translation (©2007)
While we live in these earthly bodies, we groan and sigh, but it's not that we want to die and get rid of these bodies that clothe us. Rather, we want to put on our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by life.
Biologically speaking, the change of a caterpillar into a butterfly is spoken of as a “metamorphosis.” The ugly, repulsive caterpillar is confined to a tomb which it spins for itself. While in the cocoon there is an apparently dead and formless substance. But after the warm sun of spring has beaten its golden rays upon that cocoon, there comes forth a beautiful butterfly. Though the butterfly is different in appearance from the caterpillar, we recognize the beautiful winged insect as being the same as the caterpillar. It is the same living creature, yet different. So also is the resurrection of the body. Now we have a vile body (or a body of humiliation). The Apostle James calls it a “low” body, “because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away” (James 1:10).
The body of Adam, in its original state, was provided with a covering of glory, but when sin entered the covering of glory was replaced with a covering of humiliation. In our present bodies of humiliation we are unfit for the glories of Heaven and God’s presence, but hopefully we look for our Lord’s return when He shall fashion our bodies of humiliation like unto His own body of glory. It will be the same body in that it will be recognizable, but wonderfully changed.
So the question is: Do we all qualify to receive a new body? Is this only for Christians? Will God give a heavenly body to sinners?
The answer is simple: Jesus Christ said: "I am the way the truth and the life and no one can come to the father except by me"
So Jesus Christ will be the judge!
It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body (1 Corinthians 15:44). You need to sow your life in Christ in order to be raised in spirit.
CONCLUSION
Most people want to get to heaven. The problem is that there are many different religious organizations in the world today and they all tell us a different story on what we must do to be saved. And they will all have some scriptures to back up what they claim. Who should we believe? Well, it is obvious that instead of listening to all these opinions of man, we need to be reading what God has revealed to us. After all, it is God who will judge us and God has told us what we must do to be saved.
"He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day." [John 12:48].
If we want to go to heaven, we must follow the plan that God has revealed to us. The only way to heaven is by following God's plan. And the only way to know His plan is to study His Word.
THE LITTLE SATELLITE RADIO
In 1972, NASA launched the exploratory space probe Pioneer 10. According to Leon Jaroff in Time magazine, the satellite’s primary mission was to reach Jupiter, photograph the planet and its moons, and beam data to earth about Jupiter’s magnetic field, radiation belts, and atmosphere. Scientists regarded this as a bold plan, for at that time no earth satellite had ever gone beyond Mars, and they feared the asteroid belt would destroy the satellite before it could reach its target.
But Pioneer 10 accomplished its mission and much, much more. Swinging past the giant planet in November 1973, Jupiter’s immense gravity hurled Pioneer 10 at a higher rate of speed toward the edge of the solar system. At one billion miles from the sun, Pioneer 10 passed Saturn. At some two billion miles, it hurtled past Uranus; Neptune at nearly three billion miles; Pluto at almost four billion miles. By 1997, twenty-five years after its launch, Pioneer 10 was more than six billion miles from the sun.
And despite that immense distance, Pioneer 10 continued to beam back radio signals to scientists on Earth. "Perhaps most remarkable," writes Jaroff, "those signals originate from an 8-watt transmitter, which radiates about as much power as a bedroom night light, and takes more than nine hours to reach Earth."
The Little Satellite That Could was not qualified to do what it did. Engineers designed Pioneer 10 with a useful life of just three years. But it kept going and going. By simple longevity, its tiny 8-watt transmitter radio accomplished more than anyone thought possible.
Matthew 24:13 But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.
Matthew 16:25 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.
Matthew 16:26 For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
Always, Salvation in the Bible is dependant upon our faithfulness and obedience to God. Therefore, I read the passage another way. I see it as saying:
"But he that shall endure (in faithfulness) unto the end (of his life), the same shall be saved."
So it is when we offer ourselves to serve the Lord. God can work even through someone with 8-watt abilities. God cannot work, however, through someone who quits
Death is the last enemy to be conquered and as we decide to follow Jesus we receive this blessed assurance that one day we will receive a new heavenly body.
1 Corinthians 15:26 - The last enemy to be destroyed is death.
Message video and Powerpoint available at http://tonysilveira.com/death-the-last-enemy
