THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY
March 31, 2013
Copyright 2013 by Bob Marcaurelle
Job 14:14
“If a man dies will he live again?
Job 19:25
“I know that my redeemer lives and that in the end He will stand upon 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.”
Acts 17:31-32
“He has set a day when He will judge the world with justice by the Man He has appointed. He has given proof of this by raising Him from the dead. When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered but others said, ‘We want to hear you again on this subject.””
THE AGONY
If a man dies will he live again? There is not anyone among us who has not asked this question. We do it in curiosity, hope, or fear – but we do it. And deep inside us we know the answer is yes.
I believe the first to ask that question was Eve. What a horrible day it was when she saw her beautiful son covered blood. I can hear her screams. I can see her cradle his body in her arms. I can hear her thoughts as she wonders, “Is this all? Is my son’s smile gone forever? Will I never hear his voice again.”
THE UNDYING HOPE
Wherever we go in history past or to the remotest spot on this earth today we find that human beings made in the image of God believe in life after death. The ancient pyramids are tombs where bodies are preserved and prepared for the next life. The American Indian was buried with his bow pointing him to the hunting ground above and beyond this life. It is our nature to believe the person we are; the soul; the spirit; the part we cannot see survives the trauma of death. The beliefs may be filled with superstitions and dread but they are there.
There are many reasons we feel this way. One is the indestructibility of the soul. No bullet or knife or nuclear bomb can touch it. It is beyond the reach of all that the cruelties of man and nature can do to us.
Second is the incompleteness of life. When Adrian Rogers turned 65 someone asked him if he was ready to retire. He answered, “Retire – man I am just learning how to preach.” This life is all too short. We all die with our best music still inside us. We are just getting started.
Another reason is the injustice of life. Can it be that children digging their food out of garbage cans all over the world will not get another chance at life? Can it be that the proud Nazis who experimented on children will not be subjected to a higher Power in another Court? Everything that is good and decent in us cries out for this.
Lately even science has joined in. Doctors who work with the dying and others who have witnessed after death experiences, even if they are not believers, talk about the existence of “something” other than the physical.
A passerby interrupted a street preacher. He said, “All this talk about heaven and hell is nonsense. When we are dead, we are dead. We are nothing but a mixture of nitrogen, phosphorus, iron, sulfur and such.” The Preacher did not answer and the man said, “What’s the matter? You don’t have an answer do you?” “Its not that” the Preacher said, I’m not in the habit of carrying on a conversation with a pile of nitrogen, phosphorus, iron, water and sulfur.”
Life is real, life is earnest
And the grave is not its goal
Death you are and to death returneth
Was not written of the soul
THE LATER RESURRECTION
Christianity does not just join most religions with its belief in life after death. It pictures the day, when Jesus returns, and all the bodies of all the ages, with come out to clothe their living spirits who have been in heaven with Jesus or in a place of punishment.
Daniel 12:2
“Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will wake up; some to everlasting life, and some to everlasting shame and contempt.
John 6:25, 29
“A time is coming/when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God/and come out- those who have done good to the resurrection of life and those who have done evil to the resurrection of damnation.”
Revelation 20:11-15
“Fire came down from heaven and
devoured them/And I saw the Great White Throne/And I saw the dead, great and
small, standing before the Throne and
books were opened/Another book was opened which was the Book of Life/The dead were judged according to what
they had done.”
The New Testament associates the resurrection with the return of Jesus. The term resurrection applies to the body. These physical bodies will rise up to clothe our spirits for all eternity. The Greeks taught the immortality of the soul but not the resurrection of the body. That is why the philosophers in Acts listened to Paul, and then laughed when he talked about the resurrection. (Acts 17)
Problems and Questions
Paul asks the learned Philosophers in Athens, who scoffed at the idea that our bodies would be raised, “Why do you think it is incredible that God can raise the dead?” (Acts 26:8).
It is incredible to us, but not to God. People compare the resurrection with the coming of spring; but there is no comparison because trees do not die in winter. To make a comparison, take a tree and make from it 200,000 toothpicks and sell them all over the world. Let them be discarded, burned or rotted. Then sound a trumpet and watch them come up and come together and give us that tree back. That is the resurrection.
Many questions come to mind. We ask, “How can God reclaim all these particles, some of which have been scattered to the ends of the earth?” I don’t want to gross you out, but people have been eaten by fish and other people have eaten the fish. In our universe are billions upon billions of flaming suns, compared in Scripture to grains of sand on the seashore. Some of those suns are more than 90 million miles in diameter, and beyond them are quasars that are one thousand times more brilliant than the stars. The One who brought them into existence out of nothing and hurled them into space, can surely call back the particles of our bodies.
The Body of Jesus
Jesus did not go to the tomb. He went to the Father in heaven. The Bible says God did not allow his Holy One to suffer decay (Acts 2). The instant the tomb was sealed and the body was out of sight the Spirit of Jesus alive and well entered into it and it changed so it would be what Paul called a “Spiritual body” (1 Cor. 15). It is the visible body of Jesus in which He came back to earth that first Easter morning and stayed and ministered for forty more days.
Our Bodies to Come
The wonderful thing is, His new body is a type, a picture, a promise, a forerunner of our new body that is yet to come. Philippians says, “He (God) will transform our lowly bodies so they will be like His glorious body” (Phil. 3:21).
The when of this is at the return of Christ. When we die we go to be with the Lord, “absent from” our bodies (2 Corinthians 5). Like Moses and Elijah and angels (who are spirits) we will no doubt have some kind of visible form (2 Cor. 5). But our bodies are still part of this sin cursed earth.
One glorious day the time will come and Jesus will come back to the earth that crucified Him and bring us with Him (1 Th. 4). All the world will see us in the sky (Rev. 1) and in a split second the particles of the buried bodies of Christians, in cemeteries and scattered to the four winds will come up and be changed and clothe our spirits for eternity. Paul says we who are alive will be “changed and caught up” to meet the Lord in the air.
Today “Zombies” are popular on TV and in the movies. After a funeral where I said all this, a lady asked me if we who are on earth when Jesus comes will see the graveyards empty and dead people walking around. Folks, this all happens in a “split second”; in the “twinkling of an eye”; which is faster than blinking. A tremendous change will take place in our bodies and no longer subject to gravity we will leave this old world to have that grand meeting in the air with the Lord;His people and thousands upon thousands of angels ().
The what of this is a mystery. Curiosity forces us to ask what kind of body we will have, but Paul tells us the question is foolish. He says the body we will have in heaven compared to the body we have now is like comparing a tiny acorn with a giant oak tree (1Corinthians 15:36).
There is something strange about Jesus’ appearances. He was not subject to gravity as He ascended into heaven. He could suddenly appear in locked room. He was hard to recognize. Mary thought he was a gardener and two disciples on the road talked with Him for a long time before they realized who He was. Think of not being subject to time or space or pain or sin and you have a picture of what we will all be in the resurrection.
Along with the strangeness however, there was a sameness. When Jesus said, “Mary” that was all it took. She said, “Master”. Why? Because nobody could say “Mary” like He could say it. Those special, precious little things that made Jesus, Jesus were still there.
We find this, too, all through the resurrection appearances. When Peter and John ran to the tomb they found the napkin that had been around His head “neatly folded,” folded the way Jesus did it! Coming into the upper room He did again for His disciples what He had always done. He calmed their fears, chided their unbelief, and taught them the Scriptures. To assure them it was really Him, He showed them His hands and feet. The SAME Jesus was in the upper room and the SAME Jesus ministers to you and me in the Holy Spirit.
A wonderful truth gives us the why of bodily resurrection. The blasphemous group known as the “Jesus Seminar” tears the life of Jesus depicted in the Four Gospels to shreds. They remove the ‘Lord’s Supper” the holy of holies of Christianity and say Jesus would never see His death as a sacrifice. They also lay their dirty hands on the resurrection. Marcus Borg says the empty tomb and a remarkable effect on Jesus’ body is “irrelevant”. It means nothing.
Ladies and gentlemen I say it means everything. The Corinthians believed in the survival of the soul but not in the resurrection of the body. Paul said without the resurrection we are the most pitiful of all men. The resurrection of the body keeps history going and humanity, of which Jesus is a part going. It gives us Jesus back and our loved ones back.
Think what death did to Jesus - physically! It took Him, the one who taught, healed, laughed and cried away. That mighty life was gone as gentle friends took His pale body down, drained of life and stained with His own blood. Those strong, tender hands that built plows, hugged children and cleansed lepers were now scarred and still. Those feet that helped Him stand tall to aid His friends and face up to all the howling winds of temptation were hanging down. His kingly head had to be held in place. His muscular side was ripped open by Roman steel. His piercing eyes, full of compassion, warming the soul and burning at sin, were now glazed and blind. His matchless voice, fountain of the Father’s thoughts, was stilled, to speak no more. Death took away the Jesus they knew and loved.
But the resurrection gave Him back - the same Jesus they knew and loved - different, yes, but still the same. The same facial features, the same stance and walk, the same certain look, the same handshake, the same unmistakable voice, the same everything! Jesus was back!
And that’s what God will do with those we have known and loved and sent before us into glory. He will give them back to us marvelously changed, not subject to sin or sorrow, or time and space - they will be free and strong and alive like never before. But praise God, in those precious, special ways that blend personality and body and make them who they are, they will be the same.
Over the years I have buried hundreds of precious church members, family members, loved ones and friends. And they were all different and special. The way they smiled, laughed, walked, cried, cared, joked, etc., made them who and what they are. And in heaven we will not all walk and talk and look and act alike. That would be hell! When I was young, horror movies had crowds of zombies, all alike. Today we call them clones. Heaven will be heaven because our loved ones and us- minus sin and minus sorrow, will be the same. It is JESUS, the same precious, special, recognizable JESUS who is
A teacher asked a second grade class what was here on earth that was not here ten years ago. They listed movies, cell phones, play stations, etc. One little boy raised his hand and said, “Me teacher – I wasn’t here ten years ago. How right he was. We are all special. There never has been or will be another “you”. We are all special. No one has our face or fingerprint or DNA. I love German Shepherds and like all dog lovers I know the heart and personality of each one I owned. But if you put one them with ten colored like him I could not pick him out. But if you put one of my children with ten thousand with similar features I could pick them out. The same will be true in heaven because of the resurrection of the body.
THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY
March 31, 2013
Copyright 2013 by Bob Marcaurelle
Job 14:14
“If a man dies will he live again?
Job 19:25
“I know that my redeemer lives and that in the end He will stand upon 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.”
Acts 17:31-32
“He has set a day when He will judge the world with justice by the Man He has appointed. He has given proof of this by raising Him from the dead. When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered but others said, ‘We want to hear you again on this subject.””
THE AGONY
If a man dies will he live again? There is not anyone among us who has not asked this question. We do it in curiosity, hope, or fear – but we do it. And deep inside us we know the answer is yes.
I believe the first to ask that question was Eve. What a horrible day it was when she saw her beautiful son covered blood. I can hear her screams. I can see her cradle his body in her arms. I can hear her thoughts as she wonders, “Is this all? Is my son’s smile gone forever? Will I never hear his voice again.”
THE UNDYING HOPE
Wherever we go in history past or to the remotest spot on this earth today we find that human beings made in the image of God believe in life after death. The ancient pyramids are tombs where bodies are preserved and prepared for the next life. The American Indian was buried with his bow pointing him to the hunting ground above and beyond this life. It is our nature to believe the person we are; the soul; the spirit; the part we cannot see survives the trauma of death. The beliefs may be filled with superstitions and dread but they are there.
There are many reasons we feel this way. One is the indestructibility of the soul. No bullet or knife or nuclear bomb can touch it. It is beyond the reach of all that the cruelties of man and nature can do to us.
Second is the incompleteness of life. When Adrian Rogers turned 65 someone asked him if he was ready to retire. He answered, “Retire – man I am just learning how to preach.” This life is all too short. We all die with our best music still inside us. We are just getting started.
Another reason is the injustice of life. Can it be that children digging their food out of garbage cans all over the world will not get another chance at life? Can it be that the proud Nazis who experimented on children will not be subjected to a higher Power in another Court? Everything that is good and decent in us cries out for this.
Lately even science has joined in. Doctors who work with the dying and others who have witnessed after death experiences, even if they are not believers, talk about the existence of “something” other than the physical.
A passerby interrupted a street preacher. He said, “All this talk about heaven and hell is nonsense. When we are dead, we are dead. We are nothing but a mixture of nitrogen, phosphorus, iron, sulfur and such.” The Preacher did not answer and the man said, “What’s the matter? You don’t have an answer do you?” “Its not that” the Preacher said, I’m not in the habit of carrying on a conversation with a pile of nitrogen, phosphorus, iron, water and sulfur.”
Life is real, life is earnest
And the grave is not its goal
Death you are and to death returneth
Was not written of the soul
THE LATER RESURRECTION
Christianity does not just join most religions with its belief in life after death. It pictures the day, when Jesus returns, and all the bodies of all the ages, with come out to clothe their living spirits who have been in heaven with Jesus or in a place of punishment.
Daniel 12:2
“Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will wake up; some to everlasting life, and some to everlasting shame and contempt.
John 6:25, 29
“A time is coming/when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God/and come out- those who have done good to the resurrection of life and those who have done evil to the resurrection of damnation.”
Revelation 20:11-15
“Fire came down from heaven and
devoured them/And I saw the Great White Throne/And I saw the dead, great and
small, standing before the Throne and
books were opened/Another book was opened which was the Book of Life/The dead were judged according to what
they had done.”
The New Testament associates the resurrection with the return of Jesus. The term resurrection applies to the body. These physical bodies will rise up to clothe our spirits for all eternity. The Greeks taught the immortality of the soul but not the resurrection of the body. That is why the philosophers in Acts listened to Paul, and then laughed when he talked about the resurrection. (Acts 17)
Problems and Questions
Paul asks the learned Philosophers in Athens, who scoffed at the idea that our bodies would be raised, “Why do you think it is incredible that God can raise the dead?” (Acts 26:8).
It is incredible to us, but not to God. People compare the resurrection with the coming of spring; but there is no comparison because trees do not die in winter. To make a comparison, take a tree and make from it 200,000 toothpicks and sell them all over the world. Let them be discarded, burned or rotted. Then sound a trumpet and watch them come up and come together and give us that tree back. That is the resurrection.
Many questions come to mind. We ask, “How can God reclaim all these particles, some of which have been scattered to the ends of the earth?” I don’t want to gross you out, but people have been eaten by fish and other people have eaten the fish. In our universe are billions upon billions of flaming suns, compared in Scripture to grains of sand on the seashore. Some of those suns are more than 90 million miles in diameter, and beyond them are quasars that are one thousand times more brilliant than the stars. The One who brought them into existence out of nothing and hurled them into space, can surely call back the particles of our bodies.
The Body of Jesus
Jesus did not go to the tomb. He went to the Father in heaven. The Bible says God did not allow his Holy One to suffer decay (Acts 2). The instant the tomb was sealed and the body was out of sight the Spirit of Jesus alive and well entered into it and it changed so it would be what Paul called a “Spiritual body” (1 Cor. 15). It is the visible body of Jesus in which He came back to earth that first Easter morning and stayed and ministered for forty more days.
Our Bodies to Come
The wonderful thing is, His new body is a type, a picture, a promise, a forerunner of our new body that is yet to come. Philippians says, “He (God) will transform our lowly bodies so they will be like His glorious body” (Phil. 3:21).
The when of this is at the return of Christ. When we die we go to be with the Lord, “absent from” our bodies (2 Corinthians 5). Like Moses and Elijah and angels (who are spirits) we will no doubt have some kind of visible form (2 Cor. 5). But our bodies are still part of this sin cursed earth.
One glorious day the time will come and Jesus will come back to the earth that crucified Him and bring us with Him (1 Th. 4). All the world will see us in the sky (Rev. 1) and in a split second the particles of the buried bodies of Christians, in cemeteries and scattered to the four winds will come up and be changed and clothe our spirits for eternity. Paul says we who are alive will be “changed and caught up” to meet the Lord in the air.
Today “Zombies” are popular on TV and in the movies. After a funeral where I said all this, a lady asked me if we who are on earth when Jesus comes will see the graveyards empty and dead people walking around. Folks, this all happens in a “split second”; in the “twinkling of an eye”; which is faster than blinking. A tremendous change will take place in our bodies and no longer subject to gravity we will leave this old world to have that grand meeting in the air with the Lord;His people and thousands upon thousands of angels ().
The what of this is a mystery. Curiosity forces us to ask what kind of body we will have, but Paul tells us the question is foolish. He says the body we will have in heaven compared to the body we have now is like comparing a tiny acorn with a giant oak tree (1Corinthians 15:36).
There is something strange about Jesus’ appearances. He was not subject to gravity as He ascended into heaven. He could suddenly appear in locked room. He was hard to recognize. Mary thought he was a gardener and two disciples on the road talked with Him for a long time before they realized who He was. Think of not being subject to time or space or pain or sin and you have a picture of what we will all be in the resurrection.
Along with the strangeness however, there was a sameness. When Jesus said, “Mary” that was all it took. She said, “Master”. Why? Because nobody could say “Mary” like He could say it. Those special, precious little things that made Jesus, Jesus were still there.
We find this, too, all through the resurrection appearances. When Peter and John ran to the tomb they found the napkin that had been around His head “neatly folded,” folded the way Jesus did it! Coming into the upper room He did again for His disciples what He had always done. He calmed their fears, chided their unbelief, and taught them the Scriptures. To assure them it was really Him, He showed them His hands and feet. The SAME Jesus was in the upper room and the SAME Jesus ministers to you and me in the Holy Spirit.
A wonderful truth gives us the why of bodily resurrection. The blasphemous group known as the “Jesus Seminar” tears the life of Jesus depicted in the Four Gospels to shreds. They remove the ‘Lord’s Supper” the holy of holies of Christianity and say Jesus would never see His death as a sacrifice. They also lay their dirty hands on the resurrection. Marcus Borg says the empty tomb and a remarkable effect on Jesus’ body is “irrelevant”. It means nothing.
Ladies and gentlemen I say it means everything. The Corinthians believed in the survival of the soul but not in the resurrection of the body. Paul said without the resurrection we are the most pitiful of all men. The resurrection of the body keeps history going and humanity, of which Jesus is a part going. It gives us Jesus back and our loved ones back.
Think what death did to Jesus - physically! It took Him, the one who taught, healed, laughed and cried away. That mighty life was gone as gentle friends took His pale body down, drained of life and stained with His own blood. Those strong, tender hands that built plows, hugged children and cleansed lepers were now scarred and still. Those feet that helped Him stand tall to aid His friends and face up to all the howling winds of temptation were hanging down. His kingly head had to be held in place. His muscular side was ripped open by Roman steel. His piercing eyes, full of compassion, warming the soul and burning at sin, were now glazed and blind. His matchless voice, fountain of the Father’s thoughts, was stilled, to speak no more. Death took away the Jesus they knew and loved.
But the resurrection gave Him back - the same Jesus they knew and loved - different, yes, but still the same. The same facial features, the same stance and walk, the same certain look, the same handshake, the same unmistakable voice, the same everything! Jesus was back!
And that’s what God will do with those we have known and loved and sent before us into glory. He will give them back to us marvelously changed, not subject to sin or sorrow, or time and space - they will be free and strong and alive like never before. But praise God, in those precious, special ways that blend personality and body and make them who they are, they will be the same.
Over the years I have buried hundreds of precious church members, family members, loved ones and friends. And they were all different and special. The way they smiled, laughed, walked, cried, cared, joked, etc., made them who and what they are. And in heaven we will not all walk and talk and look and act alike. That would be hell! When I was young, horror movies had crowds of zombies, all alike. Today we call them clones. Heaven will be heaven because our loved ones and us- minus sin and minus sorrow, will be the same. It is JESUS, the same precious, special, recognizable JESUS who is
A teacher asked a second grade class what was here on earth that was not here ten years ago. They listed movies, cell phones, play stations, etc. One little boy raised his hand and said, “Me teacher – I wasn’t here ten years ago. How right he was. We are all special. There never has been or will be another “you”. We are all special. No one has our face or fingerprint or DNA. I love German Shepherds and like all dog lovers I know the heart and personality of each one I owned. But if you put one them with ten colored like him I could not pick him out. But if you put one of my children with ten thousand with similar features I could pick them out. The same will be true in heaven because of the resurrection of the body.
THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY
March 31, 2013
Copyright 2013 by Bob Marcaurelle
Job 14:14
“If a man dies will he live again?
Job 19:25
“I know that my redeemer lives and that in the end He will stand upon 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.”
Acts 17:31-32
“He has set a day when He will judge the world with justice by the Man He has appointed. He has given proof of this by raising Him from the dead. When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered but others said, ‘We want to hear you again on this subject.””
THE AGONY
If a man dies will he live again? There is not anyone among us who has not asked this question. We do it in curiosity, hope, or fear – but we do it. And deep inside us we know the answer is yes.
I believe the first to ask that question was Eve. What a horrible day it was when she saw her beautiful son covered blood. I can hear her screams. I can see her cradle his body in her arms. I can hear her thoughts as she wonders, “Is this all? Is my son’s smile gone forever? Will I never hear his voice again.”
THE UNDYING HOPE
Wherever we go in history past or to the remotest spot on this earth today we find that human beings made in the image of God believe in life after death. The ancient pyramids are tombs where bodies are preserved and prepared for the next life. The American Indian was buried with his bow pointing him to the hunting ground above and beyond this life. It is our nature to believe the person we are; the soul; the spirit; the part we cannot see survives the trauma of death. The beliefs may be filled with superstitions and dread but they are there.
There are many reasons we feel this way. One is the indestructibility of the soul. No bullet or knife or nuclear bomb can touch it. It is beyond the reach of all that the cruelties of man and nature can do to us.
Second is the incompleteness of life. When Adrian Rogers turned 65 someone asked him if he was ready to retire. He answered, “Retire – man I am just learning how to preach.” This life is all too short. We all die with our best music still inside us. We are just getting started.
Another reason is the injustice of life. Can it be that children digging their food out of garbage cans all over the world will not get another chance at life? Can it be that the proud Nazis who experimented on children will not be subjected to a higher Power in another Court? Everything that is good and decent in us cries out for this.
Lately even science has joined in. Doctors who work with the dying and others who have witnessed after death experiences, even if they are not believers, talk about the existence of “something” other than the physical.
A passerby interrupted a street preacher. He said, “All this talk about heaven and hell is nonsense. When we are dead, we are dead. We are nothing but a mixture of nitrogen, phosphorus, iron, sulfur and such.” The Preacher did not answer and the man said, “What’s the matter? You don’t have an answer do you?” “Its not that” the Preacher said, I’m not in the habit of carrying on a conversation with a pile of nitrogen, phosphorus, iron, water and sulfur.”
Life is real, life is earnest
And the grave is not its goal
Death you are and to death returneth
Was not written of the soul
THE LATER RESURRECTION
Christianity does not just join most religions with its belief in life after death. It pictures the day, when Jesus returns, and all the bodies of all the ages, with come out to clothe their living spirits who have been in heaven with Jesus or in a place of punishment.
Daniel 12:2
“Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will wake up; some to everlasting life, and some to everlasting shame and contempt.
John 6:25, 29
“A time is coming/when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God/and come out- those who have done good to the resurrection of life and those who have done evil to the resurrection of damnation.”
Revelation 20:11-15
“Fire came down from heaven and
devoured them/And I saw the Great White Throne/And I saw the dead, great and
small, standing before the Throne and
books were opened/Another book was opened which was the Book of Life/The dead were judged according to what
they had done.”
The New Testament associates the resurrection with the return of Jesus. The term resurrection applies to the body. These physical bodies will rise up to clothe our spirits for all eternity. The Greeks taught the immortality of the soul but not the resurrection of the body. That is why the philosophers in Acts listened to Paul, and then laughed when he talked about the resurrection. (Acts 17)
Problems and Questions
Paul asks the learned Philosophers in Athens, who scoffed at the idea that our bodies would be raised, “Why do you think it is incredible that God can raise the dead?” (Acts 26:8).
It is incredible to us, but not to God. People compare the resurrection with the coming of spring; but there is no comparison because trees do not die in winter. To make a comparison, take a tree and make from it 200,000 toothpicks and sell them all over the world. Let them be discarded, burned or rotted. Then sound a trumpet and watch them come up and come together and give us that tree back. That is the resurrection.
Many questions come to mind. We ask, “How can God reclaim all these particles, some of which have been scattered to the ends of the earth?” I don’t want to gross you out, but people have been eaten by fish and other people have eaten the fish. In our universe are billions upon billions of flaming suns, compared in Scripture to grains of sand on the seashore. Some of those suns are more than 90 million miles in diameter, and beyond them are quasars that are one thousand times more brilliant than the stars. The One who brought them into existence out of nothing and hurled them into space, can surely call back the particles of our bodies.
The Body of Jesus
Jesus did not go to the tomb. He went to the Father in heaven. The Bible says God did not allow his Holy One to suffer decay (Acts 2). The instant the tomb was sealed and the body was out of sight the Spirit of Jesus alive and well entered into it and it changed so it would be what Paul called a “Spiritual body” (1 Cor. 15). It is the visible body of Jesus in which He came back to earth that first Easter morning and stayed and ministered for forty more days.
Our Bodies to Come
The wonderful thing is, His new body is a type, a picture, a promise, a forerunner of our new body that is yet to come. Philippians says, “He (God) will transform our lowly bodies so they will be like His glorious body” (Phil. 3:21).
The when of this is at the return of Christ. When we die we go to be with the Lord, “absent from” our bodies (2 Corinthians 5). Like Moses and Elijah and angels (who are spirits) we will no doubt have some kind of visible form (2 Cor. 5). But our bodies are still part of this sin cursed earth.
One glorious day the time will come and Jesus will come back to the earth that crucified Him and bring us with Him (1 Th. 4). All the world will see us in the sky (Rev. 1) and in a split second the particles of the buried bodies of Christians, in cemeteries and scattered to the four winds will come up and be changed and clothe our spirits for eternity. Paul says we who are alive will be “changed and caught up” to meet the Lord in the air.
Today “Zombies” are popular on TV and in the movies. After a funeral where I said all this, a lady asked me if we who are on earth when Jesus comes will see the graveyards empty and dead people walking around. Folks, this all happens in a “split second”; in the “twinkling of an eye”; which is faster than blinking. A tremendous change will take place in our bodies and no longer subject to gravity we will leave this old world to have that grand meeting in the air with the Lord;His people and thousands upon thousands of angels ().
The what of this is a mystery. Curiosity forces us to ask what kind of body we will have, but Paul tells us the question is foolish. He says the body we will have in heaven compared to the body we have now is like comparing a tiny acorn with a giant oak tree (1Corinthians 15:36).
There is something strange about Jesus’ appearances. He was not subject to gravity as He ascended into heaven. He could suddenly appear in locked room. He was hard to recognize. Mary thought he was a gardener and two disciples on the road talked with Him for a long time before they realized who He was. Think of not being subject to time or space or pain or sin and you have a picture of what we will all be in the resurrection.
Along with the strangeness however, there was a sameness. When Jesus said, “Mary” that was all it took. She said, “Master”. Why? Because nobody could say “Mary” like He could say it. Those special, precious little things that made Jesus, Jesus were still there.
We find this, too, all through the resurrection appearances. When Peter and John ran to the tomb they found the napkin that had been around His head “neatly folded,” folded the way Jesus did it! Coming into the upper room He did again for His disciples what He had always done. He calmed their fears, chided their unbelief, and taught them the Scriptures. To assure them it was really Him, He showed them His hands and feet. The SAME Jesus was in the upper room and the SAME Jesus ministers to you and me in the Holy Spirit.
A wonderful truth gives us the why of bodily resurrection. The blasphemous group known as the “Jesus Seminar” tears the life of Jesus depicted in the Four Gospels to shreds. They remove the ‘Lord’s Supper” the holy of holies of Christianity and say Jesus would never see His death as a sacrifice. They also lay their dirty hands on the resurrection. Marcus Borg says the empty tomb and a remarkable effect on Jesus’ body is “irrelevant”. It means nothing.
Ladies and gentlemen I say it means everything. The Corinthians believed in the survival of the soul but not in the resurrection of the body. Paul said without the resurrection we are the most pitiful of all men. The resurrection of the body keeps history going and humanity, of which Jesus is a part going. It gives us Jesus back and our loved ones back.
Think what death did to Jesus - physically! It took Him, the one who taught, healed, laughed and cried away. That mighty life was gone as gentle friends took His pale body down, drained of life and stained with His own blood. Those strong, tender hands that built plows, hugged children and cleansed lepers were now scarred and still. Those feet that helped Him stand tall to aid His friends and face up to all the howling winds of temptation were hanging down. His kingly head had to be held in place. His muscular side was ripped open by Roman steel. His piercing eyes, full of compassion, warming the soul and burning at sin, were now glazed and blind. His matchless voice, fountain of the Father’s thoughts, was stilled, to speak no more. Death took away the Jesus they knew and loved.
But the resurrection gave Him back - the same Jesus they knew and loved - different, yes, but still the same. The same facial features, the same stance and walk, the same certain look, the same handshake, the same unmistakable voice, the same everything! Jesus was back!
And that’s what God will do with those we have known and loved and sent before us into glory. He will give them back to us marvelously changed, not subject to sin or sorrow, or time and space - they will be free and strong and alive like never before. But praise God, in those precious, special ways that blend personality and body and make them who they are, they will be the same.
Over the years I have buried hundreds of precious church members, family members, loved ones and friends. And they were all different and special. The way they smiled, laughed, walked, cried, cared, joked, etc., made them who and what they are. And in heaven we will not all walk and talk and look and act alike. That would be hell! When I was young, horror movies had crowds of zombies, all alike. Today we call them clones. Heaven will be heaven because our loved ones and us- minus sin and minus sorrow, will be the same. It is JESUS, the same precious, special, recognizable JESUS who is
A teacher asked a second grade class what was here on earth that was not here ten years ago. They listed movies, cell phones, play stations, etc. One little boy raised his hand and said, “Me teacher – I wasn’t here ten years ago. How right he was. We are all special. There never has been or will be another “you”. We are all special. No one has our face or fingerprint or DNA. I love German Shepherds and like all dog lovers I know the heart and personality of each one I owned. But if you put one them with ten colored like him I could not pick him out. But if you put one of my children with ten thousand with similar features I could pick them out. The same will be true in heaven because of the resurrection of the body.
