A. Today, I want to start with the story of a young boy who came home from worship and Sunday school with a question for his mom: “Is it true we come from dust and after we die, we return to dust?”
1. His mother said, “That’s right, son. Does that concern you?”
2. The boy hesitated, but then replied, “Well, I am a little concerned because the dust under my bed means that someone is either coming or going.”
B. In the book of Genesis, the Bible tells us that God formed man out of the dust from the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being. (Gen. 2:7)
1. Then in the next chapter, God explained to Adam and Eve that when they die, they will return to the ground…for you are dust and you will return to dust.” (Gen. 3:19)
2. Thankfully, although our earthly bodies may be made of dust, our heavenly bodies will be so much more.
C. Let’s turn our attention to an illustration from Max Lucado’s book, When Christ Comes: suppose you were walking past a farm one day and saw the farmer in the field crying.
1. Because of your concern for the farmer, you approach him to ask what is wrong.
2. Extending a palm full of seeds in your direction, the farmer says: “My heart breaks for the seeds,” and then he burst into tears.
a. Between sobs the farmer explains, “The seeds will be placed in the ground and covered with dirt. And they will decay, and I will never see them again.”
3. You are stunned and wonder if the farmer has lost his mind.
a. Then, you explain to him a basic principle of farming: Out of the decay of the seed comes the birth of a plant.
b. You remind him that with the burial of the seed comes the opportunity to witness a mighty miracle of God.
c. Given time and tender care, this tiny kernel will break from its prison of soil and blossom into a plant far beyond its dreams.
4. Any farmer who grieves over the burial of seeds needs to be reminded that the time of planting is not a time of grief, but a time of hope.
a. Any person who anguishes over the burial of the body needs the same reminder.
b. Perhaps that’s why Paul devoted the entire chapter of 1 Corinthians 15 to the issues of the resurrection.
D. In the last sermon from our series “Eternal Questions…Biblical Answers,” we looked at what happens to the Christian between the death of the body and the return of our Savior.
1. I hope our exploration into these subjects isn’t resulting in confusion.
2. Although Scripture isn’t completely clear about all the details of what happens after we die, Scripture is clear that we are safe in the arms of God.
3. At that point, in the intermediate stage, we are not in our final place in heaven, but nevertheless, we are in the presence of God as we wait for the resurrection of our bodies.
4. Scripture is clear that someday Christ will return and time will end and the resurrection and the final judgment will take place and the saved will be ushered into the new heaven and the new earth.
5. 1 Corinthians 15:22-24 reads: For in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. Then the end will come…
6. But until then, Paul wants us to know that those who have died in the Lord are somewhere and somehow safe in the arms of God awaiting the fulfillment of all things.
7. Today, I want us to explore what the Bible says about the resurrection of our bodies.
E. If you are like me, then you have many questions about the future resurrection.
1. One thing we know for sure is that there will be a resurrection.
2. At the beginning of 1 Corinthians 15, Paul presented the resurrection of Jesus as the foundation of the gospel message: For I passed on to you as most important what I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures (1 Cor. 15:3-4).
a. Then Paul proceeded to list the many appearances of Jesus after His resurrection as evidence of the resurrection – He appeared to Peter, the apostles, James, 500 brothers and sisters, and then to Paul himself.
3. Later in 1 Corinthians 15:20, Paul declared: Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
a. The term “firstfruits” means the first in a long series.
b. If there are “firstfruits” then there must be “secondfruits” and “thirdfruits” and so on.
4. The Puritan author, Thomas Watson wrote: “We are more sure to arise out of our graves than out of our beds. Oh! How precious is the dust of a believer!”
a. We are not promised to wake up tomorrow, if there is a tomorrow, but we are promised to rise on resurrection day.
F. But what does it mean to be raised to life?
1. What will be raised?
a. My body? Why this body? Can’t we start over with a new model?
2. These are some of the questions that Paul was addressing in 1 Corinthians 15.
3. Paul wrote: But someone may ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?” How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. But God will give it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body. (1 Cor. 15:35-38)
4. In other words: You can’t have a new body without the death of the old body.
5. One first grade boy got it right when he made a comment to his mother one day.
a. His class at school had been studying the growth of plants about the same time the family attended a funeral of a loved one.
b. One day not long after that they were driving past a cemetery and the two events came together in his mind.
c. “Hey, Mom,” he said, pointing toward the graveyard, “That’s where they plant people.”
6. The apostle Paul would have liked that.
7. Paul would like us to change the way we think about the burial process - it is indeed a planting.
8. The grave is not a dead-end hole in the ground, rather it’s a fertile furrow.
9. It is more than a resting place; it is a transformation place.
G. Therefore, when a Christian dies, it is not a time to despair, rather it is a time to trust.
1. Certainly, we can and we will grieve the loss of our loved ones - we miss them greatly.
2. But we must trust that just as the seed is buried and the material wrapping decomposes, so our fleshly body will be buried and will decompose.
3. And just as the buried seed sprouts new life, our body will blossom into a new body.
H. Let’s pause for a minute and talk about what Christians should or shouldn’t do with our bodies when we die.
1. Let’s start by saying that there are no biblical commands that require the body to be embalmed and buried, nor are there commands against cremation.
2. Because our physical bodies are made by God and are associated with a human life, then they should be handled with respect.
3. But regardless of what has happened to the physical body after death, whether it was embalmed and buried, and decomposes into dust, was cremated, or was lost in a fire, lost at sea, or eaten by animals, God is able to do what needs to be done to give a person a resurrected body.
a. Do you believe that God is able to do whatever is needed to ensure that you or I have a resurrected body?
I. So, what then is this new body that we will receive?
1. Again, Paul’s seed analogy is instructive.
2. Look at verse 37: When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed.
3. In other words, you can’t envision the new body by looking at the old body.
4. Listen to how Eugene Peterson paraphrases this text, “There are no diagrams for this kind of thing. We do have a parallel experience in gardening. You plant a ‘dead’ seed; soon there is a flourishing plant. There is no visual likeness between seed and plant. You could never guess what a tomato would look like by looking at a tomato seed. What we plant in the soil and what grows out of it doesn’t look anything alike. The dead body that we bury in the ground and the resurrection body that comes from it will be dramatically different.” (1 Cor. 15:37 MSG)
5. Do you see Paul’s point? You can’t envision the glory of the plant by staring at the seed.
6. Similarly, we can’t catch a glimpse of our future resurrected body by studying our present one.
7. All we know is that our body will be changed.
J. Is that enough information for us? No, not really.
1. We want to say, “Come on, Paul, just give us a clue. Just a hint. Can’t you tell us a little more about our new bodies?”
2. Apparently, he knew we would ask, so before he left the subject, he tried to describe it to us just a little further.
3. But remember, Paul was trying to express the inexpressible and to describe the indescribable.
4. He did the best he could with human ideas and words because that’s all he had to work with.
5. Do you remember the illustration I used in a previous sermon about the parent trying to describe to their child how long the 250 mile trip will take? (It’s like watching 5 episodes of Paw Patrol)
K. So, Paul outlines four ways that God will transform our bodies. Our bodies will be changed from:
1. Perishable to imperishable - “The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable” (vs. 42)
2. Dishonor to glory - “It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory” (vs. 43).
3. Weakness to power - “It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power” (vs. 43).
4. Natural to spiritual - “It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body” (vs. 44).
5. Perishable, dishonor, weakness, and natural – those are four unflattering words used to describe our earthly bodies, right? Would anyone argue with them?
L. Biblical scholar, Julius Schniewind certainly didn’t disagree about Paul’s assessment of the earthly body.
1. In the final weeks of his life, he battled a painful kidney disease.
2. His biographer tells how, one night, after the professor had led a Bible study, he was putting on his coat to go home and severe pain in his side caused him to groan aloud the Greek phrase, “soma tapeinoseos, soma tapeinoseos.” (lowly bodies, lowly bodies)
3. That teacher of Scripture was quoting the words of Paul from Philippians 3:21: We eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly bodies to be like his glorious body.
M. You and I don’t go around mumbling Greek phrases, but we do know what it is like to live in a lowly body.
1. In fact, some of us know it all too well.
2. Just a quick look at our prayer list reveals just how afflicted we often are in lowly bodies.
3. Our bodies get so tired and worn – joints ache and muscles fatigue.
a. No amount of vitamin C or ginseng will be able to stop the aging and deterioration of the body – we might be able to slow the process, but we can’t stop it completely.
4. We understand why Paul described the body as a tent.
a. As a dwelling place a tent is not as strong or permanent as a house.
b. Nevertheless, a new tent is more strong and sturdy than an old tent that has been through many seasons of hot sun, strong winds and heavy rains.
c. No matter how old you are, your tent is not as strong as it used to be.
5. But, on the other hand, maybe your tent has never been strong.
a. Maybe your sight has never been crisp.
b. Maybe your hearing has never been clear.
c. Maybe your walk has never been sturdy, nor your heart steady.
b. Maybe you’ve watched others take for granted the health you’ve never had.
6. If that describes you, then let God speak to your heart for just a moment.
a. One of the purposes for delivering these lessons on eternal questions is to encourage us.
b. Few people need encouragement more than the physically afflicted.
c. How wonderful and encouraging is the truth that Paul declared in Phil. 3:21: He will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.
7. Our bodies will be changed.
a. Just as God can make an oak out of a kernel, or a tulip out of a bulb, he will make a new body out of our old one.
b. Our resurrected body will not be a reconstruction of our old body, but will be a transformed new body.
N. Would you like a sneak preview of your new body?
1. All we have to do is look at the resurrected body of our Lord.
2. After His resurrection, Jesus spent forty days in the presence of people.
3. The resurrected Christ was not in a disembodied, purely spiritual state.
4. On the contrary, He had a body - a touchable, visible body.
5. Jesus didn’t come as a mist or a wind or a ghost; he came in a body.
6. His body was real enough to walk on the road to Emmaus, real enough to appear in the form of a gardener, real enough to eat breakfast with the disciples.
7. But at the same time, His new body was not a clone of His earthly body.
a. Mark tells us that Jesus appeared in a “different form” or in “another form” (Mk 16:12).
b. So while he was the same, he was also different.
c. So different that Mary, the disciples on the sea, and those on the path to Emmaus did not immediately recognize Him.
d. Even though He had invited Thomas to touch his body, in that same body He passed through a closed door to be in Thomas’ presence.
O. Therefore, what do we know about the resurrected body of Jesus? It was unlike any the world had ever seen.
1. So, what can we say about our resurrected bodies? They will be unlike any we have ever imagined.
2. Will we look so different that we aren’t instantly recognized? I don’t know.
a. I’m sure God will have some way for us to know each other.
3. Will we be walking through walls?
a. Chances are we’ll be doing much more than that.
4. Will we still bear the scars from the pain of life? The disfigurements of disease? The wounds of violence?
a. In my opinion, I don’t think we will bear the scars of our earthly lives.
b. We know that for at least 40 days Jesus kept his scars.
c. And at least one picture of Jesus in Revelation casts him as a lamb that looks like he has been slain.
d. Perhaps in heaven’s accounting, only Jesus’ wounds are worthy to be remembered forever.
P. But if you find yourself in pain in the body in which you now reside, then you can look with great hope to your resurrected body.
1. Are your joints arthritic? They won’t be in heaven.
2. Is your heart weak? It will be strong in heaven.
3. Has cancer racked your body? There is no cancer in heaven.
4. Is your memory failing and are your thoughts disjointed? You will have a clear mind in heaven.
5. Does this body of yours seem closer to death than ever before? It should. It is.
6. And unless Christ comes first, your body will die and be buried.
7. Like a seed is placed in the ground, so your body will be placed in a tomb.
8. For a season, your soul will be separated from your body, but in heaven your soul and body will reunite and you will be just like Jesus.
Q. Since these are the wonderful promises of God, and we know that his promises are true, what should we do? How should we respond?
1. First, we should respect the body God has given us and do our best to take care of it.
a. After all, it belongs to God and it is the temple of God’s Spirit (1 Cor. 6:19).
2. Second, we should purify ourselves, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.
a. That’s what Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 7:1: “Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.”
3. Third, we should stand firm.
a. Notice the way Paul concluded 1 Corinthians 15: 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. (1 Cor. 15:58)
b. Let us stand firm in the Lord and in His truth.
c. Let us not be enticed by the world’s philosophies, for they are empty and meaningless.
d. Let us give ourselves fully to the work of the Lord.
e. Let us not be side-tracked and consumed by the worldly ploy of entertainment, materialism and pleasure.
f. Every reward that matters will come from the Lord and from no one else.
g. We know that our faith and service in the Lord is not in vain.
h. If it is not clear to you now that you have made the right choice by serving the Lord, then it will be clear some day!
i. The Lord has great things planned for our bodies and souls, let’s be sure not to miss out on the rewards of God.
4. Fourth, We should persuade others.
a. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may be repaid for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil. Therefore, since we know the fear of the Lord, we try to persuade people. (2 Cor. 5:10-11)
b. As believers in God and God’s Word, we understand what is at stake for each person.
c. We know the good news and the bad news – For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom. 6:23)
d. We know don’t know that there will be a tomorrow, but we know there will be a resurrection.
e. Let me repeat the statement of Thomas Watson: We are more sure to arise out of our graves than out of our beds. Oh! How precious is the dust of a believer!”
R. Let’s be ready all the time: ready to live; ready to die; ready for Christ’s return.
1. If you’re not ready, then get ready.
a. Put your faith in Jesus.
b. Repent and turn from your sin and turn your live over to Jesus.
c. Confess your faith in Jesus and be immersed in water for the forgiveness of sins.
d. Then walk with God in trust and obedience and cling to God’s power and grace.
Resources:
When Christ Comes, Max Lucado, Thomas Nelson, 1999.
Acorns to Oak Trees: How Are the Dead Raised? Sermon by Ray Pritchard
