THE RESURRECTION QUESTION - How Are the Dead Raised?
1 Corinthians 15:35-49 April 9, 2023
Introduction:
There aren't many funerals that I do where I don't share one of my favorite stories about one of my favorite preachers.
My Dad's favorite show when we were growing up was “Hee Haw.” By you knowing this you might get a little glimpse into my heritage. My Mom was born in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky. My dad was born in Asheville North Carolina but grew up in the mountains of West Virginia and then in Rock Hills SC. I was born and raised in Lexington, KY, but my roots are deeply “countryfied.” I loved watching Hee Haw with Junior Samples, Grandpa Jones, Miss Lulu, Buck Owens and Roy Clark. My Dad took special note of the Hee Haw Honeys…but my favorite person on the show was a preacher named Grady Nutt. He would talk about making calls in the country and he said, “I always carried around a 97 pound Scotfield Reference Bible…not for spiritual reasons, but so I could defend myself from farm dogs.” Grady’s humor reminded me a lot of my preacher, Wayne Smith. I thought Grady Nutt was hilarious.
In November of 1982 his plane crashed while returning from a revival in Calmaw Alabama. Everyone on board was killed. He was 48 years old.
At his funeral they told stories and jokes and celebrated his joyful life. As his best friend gave the eulogy…He shared the hope we have in Christ, Grady’s hope. He closed by saying, “Y’all know Grady ain’t here…only his shell…the Nutt has gone home!.”
He was speaking an important truth. This body we live in is just a shell. These bodies we live in now are just temporary. They get sick, they break down, they get old and they die. They are not designed to house an eternal soul for eternity. And every single person has an eternal soul which gives life to these temporary bodies.
The Apostle Paul shares this exact same truth in 2 Corinthians 5:1, “Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.”
Tents are temporary. They are designed for camping out…for soldiers at war, or a couple of days at the lake. No one really wants to live in a tent for too long…winds shake them, rain soaks them…bears think they’re sandwich wrappers. After about 3 days they smell like old sweat socks…and it’s time to go home.
So as the Apostle Paul deals with the resurrection in his letter to the Corinthians…He deals with questions concerning this body we live in. Shells and tents versus an eternal home. Here’s what he writes:
“But someone may ask How are the dead raised? What kind of body will they have?” (v. 35)
Folks, despite what you’ve been told, there are:
I. STUPID QUESTIONS
Do you remember sitting in class and the teacher saying, “Now there are no stupid questions,” and then someone would ask a question and everyone in class, including her, knew she was wrong.
[Kari and I were going through a tour of Mammoth Cave…we loved it, but I gave the Ranger a hard time all through the tour…and he gave it right back. We had a blast with each other…but at the end of the day as we got ready to exit, he asked “Do any of you have any questions” and my hand shot up. I told Kari, “Watch this.” She rolled her eyes…and as the ranger looked at me he rolled his and said “Yes" and I asked him "if all of the cave was underground,” and he cracked up…left character for a moment… and said and I quote…"Yes stupid, it’s a cave, its all underground.”
Paul has been dealing with resurrection questions. He's taken us on an underground tour…and here's a Rick paraphrase of a question he's dealing with.
"Some of you might be laughing at the idea that these temporary bodies have any long term significance…you think it’s a joke and sarcastically ask…If the dead are raised what kind of bodies will they have…won't they stink? They're gonna look pretty ugly and zombie like, aren't they? Partially decaying, bones sticking out…why would I want to be resurrected and have to walk around in that condition?
Here's Ranger Paul's answer:
1 CORINTHIANS 15:36-44
Paul says: “it’s a stupid question” when you plant a seed in the ground, it doesn’t grow into a plant, unless it dies. What you put in the ground will be radically transformed when it comes out of the ground.
If a seed gets a new “body,” don’t you believe people will get a new body too? God gives it a body as He has determined and to each kind of seed He gives it’s own body.
Paul’s point: “STOP THINKING OUR RESURRECTION BODIES WILL BE ANYTHING LIKE THESE TEMPORARY SHELLS.”
II. OUR RESURRECTED BODY WILL BE THE EXACT OPPOSITE OF THESE TEMPORARY ONES
This body is perishable…It has a shelf life…usually about 100 years or less. Our resurrected body has no shelf life…it lasts for all eternity. This temporary body is dishonorable (it’s selfish, yearns for sin). The resurrected body will be raised in glory (it yearns to worship God). This temporary body is weak (spiritually and physically). Our resurrected bodies will have power. This body is natural (fallen, failing, sinful). Our new ones will be spiritual (wanting to please the Spirit instead of the flesh).
If there is a natural body, there also is a spiritual body.
Paul tries to illustrate a basic truth…God has given different kinds of bodies to men, birds and fish…they certainly aren't the same, and our heavenly bodies, which will be given to us by God at the resurrection, certainly aren't the same as the earthy ones we live in now.
He uses the word "splendor" to describe the difference between these 2 kinds of bodies. It's the greek word "DOXA" and it means "brightness or glory.”
Paul says the sun has one kind of this "doxa," while the moon and stars have a different kind of brightness or splendor…even the stars shine differently.
Now catch this point…"It is the same way for the resurrection of the dead. Our earthly bodies die and decay…there's not much splendor or glory in these temporary shells…but our heavenly bodies will really shine.
That's the extreme difference Paul expresses in his 2nd letter to these Corinthians. We've already looked at verse 1 in chapter 5…but look at what follows earthy tents versus eternal houses.
2 CORINTHIANS 5:2-5
Using the terms Heavenly bodies or spiritual bodies must have drove "opponents of the resurrection" nuts…they thought bodies were evil…irrelevant….but Paul says, "You’re a fool if you think our resurrected bodies will be anything like these temporary ones we live in now.”
[Have any of you ever seen "Survivor Man" or Bear Gryllis "Man vs. Wild? They try to survive in the most difficult of circumstances…one of the first things they do is make a temporary shelter…like a "lean to" or branch Hut…for a week they survive on bugs, snakes, plants…but then they're picked up by helicopter and flown home. Even these rugged dudes are excited to get to their real home…it's not easy to survive in the wild.]
Paul's whole point is…”We're camping out here on earth… we live in a tent…we're strangers and aliens in survivor mode…one day God's gonna come pick us up and take us to our real home…We groan for that day…down here it’s bare bones….after the resurrection it’s clothed in the splendor of Christ…and we can't even fathom the difference.
Benjamin Franklin wrote his epitaph while he was still a young man. It wonderfully catches the spirit of what Paul is talking about in 1 Corinthians 15.
"The body of B. Franklin, printer, (like the cover of an old book, its contents torn
out and stripped of its lettering and gilding) lies here, food for worms. But the
work shall not be lost; for it will (as he believed) appear once more, in a new and
more elegant edition, revised and corrected by the Author.”
I do not have the ability or understanding to describe this “elegant revised edition,” nor did Paul, but he did have the amazing insight to share this truth:
III. OUR NEW RESURRECTED BODIES WILL BE LIKE JESUS
1 CORINTHIANS 15:45-49
Adam sinned…he died…we all have borne the likeness of this earthly man. Jesus, who never sinned, died to pay for ours…was then resurrected from the grave, so we shall bear the likeness of the man from heaven…God’s children will be “the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.”
The resurrection, when Jesus returns, is for all those who are “in Christ.” All those who have heard, believed, repented, been baptized and live in expectation of His return.
His victory over death is a gift of victory over death Romans 6:5 says, “If we have been united with Him like this in His death, we will certainly also be united with Him in His resurrection.”
Unless we die to our sin by being buried in Christ…where true belief and repentance leads us, we cannot receive the Holy Spirit to walk in a new life…Peter says it’s not going through the motions of getting wet…It’s the resurrection of Jesus that saves us at baptism…like Noah, his wife and his sons and their wives. They got on the boat because they believed in faith. Belief and repentance lead you to getting on the Ark of Baptism…it connects you to the hope of the resurrection by the Holy Spirit. The same Spirit that according to Paul in Romans 8, raised Jesus from the dead.
This new life starts here and now…even as the Holy Spirit lives in this temporary shell…there is discernible spiritual fruit. And one day that Spirit will have a brand new eternal body in heaven.
And the hope is whether we are still alive when Jesus returns...or whether our bodies are in the ground ready to be reunited with our spirits that Jesus will bring with him.
"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 and the dead will be raised imperishable…" (1 Cor 15: 51-52) and we will be changed!"
You can spend all your life making the tent comfortable and spending an eternity in Hell...or you can spend your life camping out here on earth for the glory of God and spend your eternity in a mansion built by God himself for you…It’s why God made you…for this very purpose.
[I remember hearing about a King that came to one of his servants and said I'm going on a trip but while I'm gone I'd like for you to build me a palace…so after the King left the servant went to work…but as the project progressed the servant started cutting corners, using cheap products and pocketing the money…He used cheap materials, he covered up mistakes instead of correcting them. The Palace looked good on the outside, but lacked strength and integrity in all the important places.
When the King returned…He visited the palace with the servant…it looked beautiful…but it was just a facade…And then the King did something surprising…he said, "this is your home…I'm giving it to you…may the work you've done on it stand for eternity.]
We are building for eternity here…you can choose cheap materials like wood, straw and sticks…or you can build out of material that will stand the test…gold, silver and precious stones.
But, one day all of us will be accountable for the house we've built.
Let's Pray.
