WHAT KIND OF BODY WILL WE RECEIVE?
The Bible says we are going to receive a body FASHIONED AFTER HIS GLORIFIED BODY.
Look at Philippians 3:21, we read, “Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.”
In a previous sermon we learned if our bodies are going to be FASHIONED AFTER HIS GLORIFIED BODY, we can see what kind of a body we will have.
We have already seen that -
I OUR GLORIFIED BODY WILL BE LIKE THE BODY OF CHRIST
II. OUR GLORIFIED BODY WILL BE A BODY OF FLESH AND BONES
III. OUR GLORIFIED BODY WILL BE A BODY FILLED WITH NEW KNOWLEDGE.
IV. OUR GLORIFIED BODY WILL BE A BODY WHERE THE SPIRIT DOMINATES.
V. OUR GLORIFIED BODY WILL BE UNLIMITED BY TIME, SPACE AND GRAVITY
If God’s Word stopped there, and our new glorified bodies did not have anything else, it would already be something to thank the Lord for.
But here is the good news, THERE IS MORE!
For example…
I OUR GLORIFIED BODY WILL BE ETERNAL
We are told one of the hardest job in the world is to sell cemetery lots.
Why? Because he/she is selling something nobody wants!
This is why when many die their family has to buy them a lot to be buried.
People do not like the thought of dying.
But we know when we reach a certain age we had better make plans because if we do not make plans for death our family will have to do it for us. AND THIS IS SOMETHING OUR FAMILY SHOULD NOT HAVE TO DO FOR US IN A TIME OF SORROW!
But when the rapture takes place we are going to receive a glorified body that will live for eternity.
These glorified bodies the Lord is going to give us is going to :
• Put every funeral home out of business.
• Put every doctor out of business.
• Pharmaceutical industry out of business.
• Put every undertaker out of business.
There will be no need of any of these things once we get our glorified bodies when the rapture takes place.
These mortal bodies of ours that we live in are like the automobiles we drive in MANY ways.
Let me tell you a true story about automobiles.
Illus: A complaint was received by the Pontiac Division of General Motors:
Listen to this complaint…
"This is the second time I have written you, and I don't blame you for not answering me, because I kind of sounded crazy, but it is a fact that we have a tradition in our family of ice cream for dessert after dinner each night. But the kind of ice cream varies, so every night, after we've eaten, the whole family votes on which kind of ice cream we should have and I drive down to the local store to get it. It's also a fact that I recently purchased a new Pontiac and since then my trips to the store have created a problem.
You see, every time I buy vanilla ice cream, when I start back from the store my car won't start. If I get any other kind of ice cream, the car starts just fine. I want you to know I'm serious about this question, no matter how silly it sounds: 'What is there about a Pontiac cars that makes it not start when I get vanilla ice cream, and easy to start whenever I get any other kind?'"
The Pontiac President was understandably skeptical about the letter, but sent an engineer to check it out anyway. The letter was surprised to be greeted by a successful, obviously well educated man in a fine neighborhood. He had arranged to meet the man just after dinner time, so the two hopped into the car and drove to the ice cream store. It was vanilla ice cream that night and, sure enough, after they came back to the car, it wouldn't start.
The engineer returned for three more nights.
• The first night, the man got chocolate. The car started.
• The second night, he got strawberry. The car started.
• The third night he ordered vanilla. The car failed to start.
Now the engineer, being a logical man, refused to believe that this man's car was allergic to vanilla ice cream. He arranged, therefore, to continue his visits for as long as it took to solve the problem.
And toward this end he began to take notes: he jotted down all sorts of data, time of day, type of gas used, time to drive back and forth, etc.
In a short time, he had a clue: the man took less time to buy vanilla than any other flavor. Why? The answer was in the layout of the store. Vanilla, being the most popular flavor, was in a separate case at the front of the store for quick pickup. All the other flavors were kept in the back of the store at a different counter where it took considerably longer to find the flavor and get checked out.
Now the question for the engineer was why the car wouldn't start when it took less time. Once time became the problem -- not the vanilla ice cream -- the engineer quickly came up with the answer: vapor lock.
It was happening every night, but the extra time taken to get the other flavors allowed the engine to cool down sufficiently to start. When the man got vanilla, the engine was still too hot for the vapor lock to dissipate.
The moral of the story is: chocolate ice cream cures vapor lock!
That is a true story about cars but I want to show you HOW OUR BODIES ARE LIKE CARS…
(1)Cars are like our bodies in that they are different colors.
HAVE YOU EVER WONDERED WHY THE CAR INDUSTRY MAKE CARS DIFFERENT COLORS?
Let me tell you why…suppose all cars are painted white and you went to Walmart during the Christmas season to do your shopping and the car lot was filled with white cars only.
And you come out of Walmart to get in your car to go home and you see all these white cars and you have to figure which one is yours.
Sometimes even with the many different color cars it is difficult to find our car.
Illus: For example, we hear people walking around the parking lot talking to themselves, saying, “Where is my car!”
You see we are all like cars and the only difference in any of us is the color of our skin.
Illus: Some of us have more MELANIE in our skin and the more we have the darker our skin will be. If we have no Melanie in our skin we are ALBANIOS.
Illus: But we can all go to the same doctor and he does not have one medical book for one color and another for another color. We all are alike except for our skin color.
The racist are to dumb to figure that out but we are all like cars in that we have different colors.
Also we are all like cars in that…
(2) CARS COMES WITH A WARRANTY
A new car warranty is a guarantee that a vehicle is free of defective parts or workmanship errors.
The warranty sometimes called a vehicle service contract or factory warranty, this type of warranty guarantees that these types of defects will be repaired free of charge at a dealership
Illus: You can buy a brand new car, and before you ever buy the car, they will say, “We will only guarantee it will run 60,000 miles.”
It doesn’t matter how much you paid for it, they are not going to guarantee you another mile!
They are being upfront with you, this car is not going to last forever.
These mortal bodies of ours are the same way. When we reach the age of 30 to 32, you can expect that they are going to start giving us some trouble and begin to slow down.
For example…
Illus: Baseball and football players have to retire when they reach their early 30’s, because they are going downhill from there.
Illus: Boxers have to retire in their early 30’s because from then on it is downhill.
Our bodies are like cars in that they are:
• Come in different colors
• Come with a warranty (They are not going to last forever)
Our bodies not only begin to slow down, they are like a car…
(3) In that they begin to show deterioration.
Illus: We can buy Oil of Olay by the buckets, but if we live long enough, we all look like dried-up prunes.
Illus: The Bible tells us that Methuselah lived to be 969 years of
age and can you imagine what that rascal looked like when he died.
Illus: One of my favorite cowboys is Chuck Connors. I personally met him when he starred in the series called “Rifle Man” in a Christmas parade. He was a tall handsome fellow but I recently saw a picture of him and I had a hard time believing this was the same man I met years ago.
We are all like cars with age we began to deteriorate.
• Every year, women spend billions of dollars trying to hide and cover up what nature is doing to them, but it is a losing battle. No matter how hard they try to win that battle, nature will eventually win!
• When we were young, we could jump out of the bed, but now we can lay in bed and when we get up our bones began to snap, crackle and pop like the breakfast cereal we eat.
Illus: Someone walked up to an elderly lady and said, “Lady you have wrinkles in your hose.” She said, “I do not have any hose on!”
Illus: A beautiful girl can walk down the streets and men will whistle at her. But after a few years of ageing she can walk down the street and the only attention she will get will be the neighborhood dogs barking at her.
But let me share some good news to us mortals who know the Lord
Jesus as our Savior.
When the rapture of the church takes place we are going to receive
a glorified body and ten million years will not cause any
deterioration whatsoever!
With these glorified bodies the Lord is going to put all the cosmetics companies and plastic surgeons out of business.
Someone asked, “When Grandma gets to heaven, will she have all those wrinkles?” Here is the good news, “No!”
These old bodies of ours are like cars in that they are wearing out fast. But the aging process will have no affect on us in our glorified bodies.
Some of us might get more wear and tear out of these mortal bodies than others, but eventually one day, they will shut down on us.
These old mortal bodies are like cars….they can look good when they are new but they are all headed for the junk yard (grave yard).
THESE MORTAL BODIES OF OURS ARE LIKE CARS but also…
(4) IN THAT WE HAVE TO KEEP TAKING THEM TO THE GARAGE FOR REPAIRS
This is true for these mortal bodies. We have to keep going to the doctor to get a “tune up” or to have a part removed or replaced.
Illus: Have you ever listen to some of the conversations with the elderly when they are talking. They are constantly talking about…
• Aches and pains
• About who has the best doctor
• About all the medication they are taking to keep going.
• When there next doctors’ appointment (tune up)
THESE MORTAL BODIES OF OURS ARE LIKE CARS in that we are constantly talking about the upkeep we have to take to keep them running.
Also they are like cars we drive…
(5) IN THAT WE ARE INSIDE OF THEM
Every day, we live within these decaying mortal bodies.
Sometimes as we live in these mortal bodies and we are looking out of them the way we look out of our car windows, we can not help but wonder how much use we are going to get out of them before we take our last step.
Illus: Have you ever been by the bedside when someone died? Many times they will take one final deep breath, and when they let it out - THAT IS IT!!!
As we drive down the highway, sometimes our cars will start to “sputter” and we can not help but wonder if we are going to make it over the next hill.
We must have a glorified body, because this body in which we live is not designed for ETERNAL LIFE.
Illus: If you can get 70 to 100 years out of it, you are fortunate!
But one of these days, when the rapture of the church takes place, God is going to give us a glorified body that will last forever!
Look at 2 Cor. 5:1-4, we read, “For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, WE HAVE A BUILDING OF GOD, AN HOUSE NOT MADE WITH HANDS, ETERNAL IN THE HEAVENS. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.”
Notice, some of the things this passage is teaching.
Verse 1 - We are going to be placed in a body that is eternal. “We have a building of God…eternal in the heavens.”
This glorified body will never wear out. I want to remind you that the Bible tells us we are going to have a body that is fashioned after the glorified body of Christ.
OUR GLORIFIED BODY WILL BE AN ETERNAL BODY.
But let me show you one more thing briefly before we close.
II. OUR GLORIFIED BODY WILL BE BEAUTIFUL
There will not be any UGLY people in heaven.
In this life, those who are blessed with good looks are indeed fortunate.
• They get the attention
• They get the job opportunities
• Many times in this life people suffer because their body is not one that anyone desires to have
When the Rapture of the church takes place and we get our glorified body, we are all going to get a BEAUTIFUL BODY.
You can have a beautiful body in this life, but things can change very quickly.
I know people in this life that was blessed with good looks. But years later I hardly recognize them because they have changed so much.
Remember, when we receive our glorified bodies, they are going to be FASHIONED AFTER HIS GLORIFIED BODY.
When Christ received His glorified body, he was in his early thirties. We are told that this is the prime of a man’s life. And if our bodies are going to be fashioned after His body, many theologians believe that when we get to heaven, even though there is no time in heaven, every one of us is going to appear in the prime of life.
When we all receive our glorified bodies, we most likely will have the same age appearance, even though age is no part of heaven.
Heaven will be a place of fairness. In this life, because of the age difference, many times we are not treated fairly.
• Many times boys and girls are discriminated against because of their youth
• Many times adults are discriminated against because of our age
But in heaven, we are going to be given a glorified body that age will not affect. This body is referred to as “glorified” for a reason.
1 Cor 15:43-44, we read, “It is sown in dishonour; 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. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.”
WHAT DOES THE WORD GLORIFIED MEAN?
One of the meaning is…
(1) BEAUTIFUL
Our glorified body will be beautiful. Again, there will be no ugly people in heaven.
Illus: There was a dating game on television, and a young man took this very attractive young girl canoeing. The canoe turned over, and she was furious. He apologized for the accident, but she was furious and she said, “It takes me hours to look this good and look what you did!”
Listen, when we receive our glorified bodies, they are going to be beautiful in the “Twinkling of an eye!”
It also means-
(2) BRIGHT
Remember that when Paul was on the Damascus road, the Lord IN HIS RESURRECTED BODY appeared to him in His glorified body.
Look at Acts 9:3-4 “And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven: And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?”
Our new glorified bodies will be BEAUTIFUL, but also they will be fashioned like His in that they will be BRIGHT!
Listen, we are not going to outshine the Lord Jesus Christ, but WE ARE GOING TO SHINE!
Illus: When we get to heaven, the Father is going to take a look at us, and all of us who have been saved by the grace of God are going to be “Shining trophies of the grace of God.”
We are not the source of light, we are the reflectors of that light.
Illus: We look at the beautiful moon at night, and we see the brightness of that light. But listen, that moon is not the light, the sun shines on that moon and the moon reflects the light of the sun. The moon has no light of it’s own.
The grace of God has been shed upon us, and I am here to tell you that I am not that light, but I am a reflection of that light. And when I get to heaven in my glorified body, I am going to shine as a trophy of the grace of God.
Now as you look at me today, I want you to know that the Lord Jesus Christ has saved me
We won’t outshine Him, but we are going to shine and reflect the glory of God.
Today we live in this old body of flesh, and our life does not always reflect the grace of God, but one day when I receive my glorified body, I will no longer be controlled by this sinful flesh, I will be controlled by the Spirit of God.
Conclusion:
Before we close, I want to point out one more thing. This new body will not be plagued with problems as it is now. There will be:
• No more sickness
• No more colds
• No more blindness
• No more deafness
• No more cancer
• No more diseases
• No more tumors
Our glorified body will be free of all these things. This old body is vile, but the Lord is going to change it.
One day we are going to have a new body, and we are going to use it for eternity to praise the One who gave it to us.
(1 of 2)
I. OUR GLORIFIED BODY WILL BE LIKE THE BODY OF CHRIST
II. OUR GLORIFIED BODY WILL BE A BODY OF FLESH AND BONE
III. OUR GLORIFIED BODY WILL BE A BODY FILLED WITH NEW KNOWLEDGE
IV. OUR GLORIFIED BODY WILL BE A BODY WHERE THE SPIRIT DOMINATES
V. OUR GLORIFIED BODY WILL BE UNLIMITED BY TIME, SPACE AND GRAVITY
(2 of 2)
VI. OUR GLORIFIED BODY WILL BE ETERNAL
VII.OUR GLORIFIED BODY WILL BE BEAUTIFUL
