FOREVER IN A PERFECT BODY!
Job 19:25-27
Summary: Death holds no fear for those who know Jesus as Savior. He promised that, at His Second Coming, all the faithful will rise from the dead in perfect, immortal bodies and will spend eternity in His glorious presence.
There was an expectation of the resurrection as far back as the Old Testament.
Job 19:25-27a [Job said] I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes — I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!
•• Job probably lived at least 1,000 years B.C., and perhaps far earlier than that. Yet he already had the personal revelation of the resurrection from the dead. He knew that "in the end", long after his death, his Redeemer would stand on the earth and Job, "in [his] flesh ... [would] see God." He clearly expected to live again bodily after death in the presence of God.
•• This hope of resurrected life thrilled Job's heart — "How my heart yearns within me!" — as it should thrill ours today.
Isaiah 26:19 But your dead will live, Lord; their bodies will rise — let those who dwell in the dust wake up and shout for joy — your dew is like the dew of the morning; the earth will give birth to her dead.
•• The great writing prophet Isaiah had the revelation. He saw and wrote of the dead living again, their bodies rising, the earth descriptively "giving birth to her dead". And note that this promised, joy-filled hope was to those who belong to God — "your dead will live, Lord ... and shout for joy". (We will see later that the lost rise also, but not to a resurrection of "joy")
Daniel 12:2 Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt.
•• Daniel gives early hints of two distinct resurrections — of the saved and the lost. We will look (below) at this truth as it is developed clearly in John 5 and Revelation 19-20.
Jesus promised that believers would be raised from the dead.
John 6:40 For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.
•• Jesus spoke of a specific "last day" — the Second Coming of Christ (1 Corinthians 15:22-23) — when all who have "looked to" Jesus in faith will be raised from the dead to live eternally in His presence.
The New Testament Christians were confident of their future resurrection.
Acts 24:15 ...I have the same hope in God as these men themselves have, that there will be a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked.
•• The apostle Paul assured his listeners that "there will be a resurrection..."
•• For Christians this is a great reason for "hope in God". There is life beyond this life, beyond the grave!
John 11:25-27 Jesus said to [Martha], “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; 26 and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?” “Yes, Lord,” she replied. "I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God..."
•• Martha believed Jesus' promise of resurrection for those who believe in Him.
•• And she properly based her faith on the revelation of who Jesus is — the Messiah (the Christ), the Son of God. Her faith was immediately vindicated (), when Jesus displayed His resurrection power by bringing her brother Lazarus back from death to life in the sight of Martha and the other onlookers. He will do the same to millions of believers at His Second Coming!
There are actually two resurrections of the dead.
John 5:28-29 "Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear [my] voice and come out — those who have done what is good will rise to live, and those who have done what is evil will rise to be condemned."
vs. 29, KJV And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.
Acts 24:15 ...there will be a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked.
•• Paul preached what Jesus had revealed, that there will be two resurrections — a resurrection of life for the righteous, a resurrection of damnation for the wicked.
1) THE FIRST RESURREXCTION---OF THE SAVED!
1 Corinthians 15:20-23 But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him.
vs. 23, KJV But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming.
• In this first resurrection, it will be "those who belong to him" who rise. When will this happen? "When he comes"! Appears in the air!!
Revelation 20:4-6 mentions a “first resurrection” and identifies those involved as “blessed and holy.” The second death (the lake of fire, Revelation 20:14) has no power over these individuals. The first resurrection, then, is the raising of all believers. It corresponds with Jesus’ teaching of the “resurrection of the just” (Luke 14:14) and the “resurrection of life” (John 5:29).
1 Thessalonians 4:15-17 According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.
• Believers alive and left until the Lord's second coming will not precede the dead in Christ! To the contrary, "the dead in Christ will rise first. After that we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them."
• We strongly believe in the “Pre-Tribulation Rapture”. Living Christians will be caught up to the Lord when he appears in the air. .but Christians will "not precede ..or go before the dead in Christ. [but] will be caught up together with" the dead in Christ at this first resurrection, which Jesus called the "resurrection of life".
Revelation 20:1-6 And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season. And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.
• This 1,000-year period, the Millennium, begins immediately after "the beast" (antichrist) and his "false prophet" were defeated by the Lord
(Jesus Christ and the armies of heaven) and were cast into a lake of fire (Revelation 19:11-20).
• Notice that among the "blessed and holy" who came up in this "first resurrection" at Jesus' second coming (recall 1 Corinthians 15:23)
were those martyred during the beast/antichrist's reign of terror (vs. 20:4). This scene of the first-resurrection saints is showing all the
raised-to-life redeemed of all the ages right up to the moment of Jesus' return to earth in glorious victory.
2) THE SECOND RESURRECTION---OF THE LOST!!
Revelation 20:5 (The rest of the dead (Unbelievers) did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.)
• We have been seen (vs. 6) a millennium of the redeemed joyfully living and reigning with Christ.
• Now, in Rev. 20:5, we are shown the timing of the earlier references by Daniel, Jesus, and Paul to a second resurrection. It occurs at the
end of the millennium (that is, 1,000 years after the first resurrection). Daniel called it an awakening to a life of "everlasting Contempt"
(Daniel 12:2). Jesus called it "the resurrection of damnation" (John 5:29, KJV).
The apostle Paul referred to it as the "resurrection of ... the wicked" (Acts 24:15).
• The tragic destination of these lost souls, raised up at the end of the millennium, is the "lake of fire" (Revelation 20:15).
OUR RESURRECTED BODIES WILL BE LIKE JESUSW' RESURRECTED BODY!
Phillippians 3:20-21 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord 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
.•• When the "Savior from there" (from heaven) appears our bodies will become like his-- as well as those who have been in the graves and come forth, all those who over the centuries have "eagerly await[ed]" Him will be transformed
.•• What the apostle Paul calls our "vile" mortal bodies will be "fashioned like unto [Jesus'] glorious body" (Philippians 3:21, KJV). Just think of that. Our bodies in the resurrection will be like His!
•• At His coming the dead in Christ will rise and those alive and remaining until His coming will be caught up to the Lord together. And we
will be instantly, eternally changed!
1 Corinthians 15:51-52 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed — in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye,
at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.
1 Corinthians 15:51-52 Living Bible
51 But I am telling you this strange and wonderful secret: we shall not all die, but we shall all be given new bodies! 52 It will all happen in a
moment, in the twinkling of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown. For there will be a trumpet blast from the sky,[a] and all the
Christians who have died will suddenly become alive, with new bodies that will never, never die; and then we who are still alive shall
suddenly have new bodies too.
Luke 24:39, 42f Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have... [42-43] They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate it in their presence.
•• Jesus' disciples were startled (vs. 37) when He unexpectedly appeared to them after His rising from the grave. Remember that our
resurrected bodies will be like His. And His body, he said, had flesh and bones and, as we see, was able to eat. Some more amazing
qualities of our future glorified bodies are seen in the following verse.
1 Corinthians 15:42-44, 49, 53 So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised 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... [49] And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man... [53] For the
perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.
1 Corinthians 15:42-44 Living Bible (TLB)
42 In the same way, our earthly bodies which die and decay are different from the bodies we shall have when we come back to life again,
for they will never die. 43 The bodies we have now embarrass us, for they become sick and die; but they will be full of glory when we
come back to life again. Yes, they are weak, dying bodies now, but when we live again they will be full of strength. 44 They are just
human bodies at death, but when they come back to life they will be superhuman bodies. For just as there are natural, human bodies,
there are also supernatural, spiritual bodies.
49. 49 Just as each of us now has a body like Adam’s, so we shall some day have a body like Christ’s.
53. 53 For our earthly bodies, the ones we have now that can die, must be transformed into heavenly bodies that cannot perish but will
live forever
• The perishable body now will then be imperishable.(Will not die-decay)
• Dishonor will be turned to glory.
• Weakness will give way to power.
• The natural body will then become a spiritual body. Still a "body", but not subject to the limitations of our current bodies.
• Our transformed bodies will bear Christ's image.
• Currently mortal, we will then be immortal.
John 14:19 Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live.
•• Anticipating His own upcoming crucifixion, burial, resurrection, and return to heaven, Jesus spoke to them words that should
ring loudly in our ears today — "Because I live, ye shall live also." (KJV)
