This week we continue our series called Chronos. A term which means time. We have decided to study the scriptures this year in the order they were published. It gives us a very unique insight into the early church and the struggles of a growing movement. This review of history is important because The Center’s leadership believes we are on the cuspid of a great awakening in America. An awakening that will challenge the status quo of the current Christian industrial complex. An institution more concerned with Attendance, Buildings and Cash than the Gospel, Grace and Growth of the kingdom.
This week we also continue in the book of the first Corinthians. It’s another book written by Paul around 25 years after Jesus' earthly ministry. Corinth is the original sin city. It was a transitional city and as such there was a lot of anonymity. As a Coastal town people were always coming and going. Some for vacation, most for business. The community was know for their worship of the goddess of sex. They had one of the largest temples devoted to her and the idea of fertility. You can see why when you called somebody a corinthian back then, you were saying they were living without morality. After his 1 ½ years planting the church, Paul left behind Apollos who was an amazing preacher/teacher and yet, we can see from this book the people still had questions. The immorality of the culture was so rampant that Paul had to address everything from why church potlucks should not turn into drunken frat parties and worship of the one true God should not look like a kids first birthday party at a chuck e cheese restaurant.
Last Sunday, we discussed our belief that women can speak and teach in church, because we understand the “church” to be an interconnected people who follow Jesus into the world without limitation of cultural or societal rules. We will not put limits on God although he may put limits on Himself.
Today, we continue our study by jumping into 1 Cor 15 but before we jump into the text for today, Let me tell you a story.
Not too long ago, I was having a discussion with a person in hospice. They were wondering about the afterlife. They had some concerns about what comes next. We discussed their life and their belief in Jesus. My assurances seemed of little comfort. At one point, I read a little of John’s account of Heaven to them from the Book of Revelation. I did so hoping to be an encouragement. As I finished reading, the person looked me straight in the eye and said, its sounds like a wild place. I laughed as the person fell into a deep sleep.
The event of that day and many others has led me to the belief that on our deathbed, we all wonder about what comes next. It’s easy to repeat the great fact: we all will die. Our natural bodies will eventually fail. However, it's an entirely different matter to have peace with your belief in what happens next.
Paul is dealing with this question from the church plant in Corinth. What we can surmise from the scripture, someone was contradicting what he had originally taught about death and eternity. He reviews what he taught in verses 12-34 and then addresses the issue.
35 But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?” 36 How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies.
Obviously, this is the question that has them up in arms. People are asking for specifics about the afterlife. How does it work when people are raised in the final days?
Remember many of these believers were Roman and Greek citizens so they probably carried their culture with them.
The Romans and Greeks believed the soul of the dead would go underground to the river Styx. The soul had to cross the river. A coin was placed in the mouth of the deceased to pay Charon, the boatman of the underworld, for the passage across. If the body was not properly disposed of and did not have a coin, the soul was forced to stay for one hundred years before being allowed to cross the river Styx. This was seen in the mythological story of Aeneas. A story of multiple pathways, judgment and areas of rest or torment in the afterlife.
The standard Roman and Greek practice at the time was to cremate the dead and keep the ashes in a decorated jar. However,If you were from a family of means, a tomb would be erected. Entrances to tombs, where the dead were laid to rest, were made of marble. Heads of Gorgons were carved on to the tomb doors to ward off evil. The tombs were made to stop the dead being forgotten and sometimes they were carved with pictures, showing the deceased with people they knew in life.
Inside the tomb the family of the deceased person placed valuable objects with their body, like pottery, jewelry and coins. It was believed that they would be able to use these objects in the Underworld. Every year families visited the tombs of their dead relatives, making offerings and decorating the tomb.
As you can see, there was cultural and eternal importance surrounding the dead and their remains. Many new believers wanted to do it right to ensure a loved one goes to the right place.
Hence, the reason Paul had to address what happens to a human body after death. Let’s jump to verse 42
42 So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; 43 it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; 44 it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.
A friend (who grew up on a farm) and I were talking this week about how many people fear death and all the rituals that surround the body after a person has gone on. We first talked about cemeteries. I shared about a cemetery I used to walk through at night and all the new lighted memorial items like solar butterflies. We spoke of the expense of items placed on a gravesite and even the cost of all the funeral rituals that have become customary. He wondered aloud if culturally Americans have a hard time understanding the natural process of death because they didn’t experience it as regularly as he did on the farm. He recalled regularly finding dead animals on his explorations as a kid. He then said it was there he came to understand the difference between a Christian and non christian belief about death. He said one day he wandered through the cow pasture and found a huge snake skin that had been shed. As he looked at it and touched it, he realized his own body was just a skin protecting his soul and at death, it was released from the bondage of the old so he could grow.
In the same way, Paul goes on to discuss how Jesus went from a physical body to a spiritual body. He uses the term first and second “Adam” to describe these two different aspects: The physical and the Spiritual. He then unleashes one of the most powerful reminders of our faith in an eternal life. Take a listen beginning in verse 50.
50 I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— 52 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. 53 For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. 54 When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”[h]
55 “Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?”[i]
56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
We believe, as Christians, our belief in Jesus opens the door to eternity with God. When our heart stops beating, the process of our transformation will be completed and our eternal future begins. As Christians, we believe this means our relationships with God continues at a whole new level.
Let’s take a moment to contemplate the idea of a life without sin. Perfection personified in every person and unlimited access to God and all the heavenly creatures.
I personally have no way of accurately describing what that will be like. Maybe it will be the feeling I get when I hear a young child belly laugh or the perfect moment with family or the joy I feel watching another grow? Honestly, I think it will be all these moments bundled together and then lasting forever. A feeling so great the human body could not handle.
But that’s the promise for all who believe.
AND
Why Paul goes on to say,
58 Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.
Belief in God comes with an assistant's title. Our life’s work is to be a servant to the most high King. We are sent to love and serve those He directs us to. Our gifts and talents are not for our glory but are to be used for His.
The disciples knew this…
Reference: Warren Wiersbe Commentary 614-616;
https://historylink101.com/2/Rome/roman-death.htm
https://www.mylearning.org/stories/ancient-greeks-everyday-life-beliefs-and-myths/418
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