George Bernard Shaw once wrote, “The statistics on death are impressive. One out of one dies”. As a Christian we must come to grips with the idea of mortality. Hebrews 9:27 And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment. We must accept the fact that there is a difference in mortality and immortality. I am of the firm belief that there is more than you are born, you live, and then you die. There has got to be more than that. An all mighty loving God has got to have a better plan than that. God initially created man to have friendship and love with and to have eternal life. Unfortunately sin got in the way. Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Most people live like there is no tomorrow. We need to live like there is a tomorrow.
Read 1 Corinthians 15:35-58
I. Let’s look at some of the examples Paul uses to convey resurrection
A. Vs. 36 …That which you sow does not come to life unless it dies..
1. Once you sow the seeds of faith it does not live until you die to old ways
2. No longer do the things you used to
a. Holy Spirit within convicts of ungodly acts and thoughts
3. You must die daily to sin and your old ways to be born again
B. Vs. 40 ..There are also heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is one, and the glory of the earthly is another
1. Your earthly body is only temporary and very imperfect
a. It is flesh and not perfect
b. It leads to sin and flesh desires
c. The earthly glory is the work we do for God here on earth
2. Your heavenly body will be perfect in every way
a. The sin nature will be removed
b. The heavenly glory will be in worshiping God in heaven in all His glory
c. There will no longer be pain and imperfections
1. Only five scars will be seen in heaven: on Jesus
C. Vs. 42 through 44
1. 42…resurrection of the dead. It is sown a perishable body, it is raised an imperishable body…
a. Sow the temporary body of flesh and rise a spiritual for eternity
b. Resurrection anastasis -- pronounced: an-as’-tas-is Greek a standing up again, raised to life again, rise from the dead
c. Like a farmer that plants a seed that leads to germination
1. The seed dies so a part of it lives and grows to a plant
2. The deformed seed to a perfect plant
d. Christ took the hard part for us in defeating death
1. Psalms 16:10 For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption
a. Jesus defeated hell, death and the grave
b. We do not have to go through that
2. 43…it is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power:
a. By dying to sin we are son for dishonoring God
b. But are born again for God’s glory
c. Burying our sin admitting our weakness
d. Raised by the power of the Holy Spirit
3. 44…It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body.
a. Born a flesh body
b. Reborn a spiritual body
4. 44…Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural…
a. We are not a spiritual body when we are born flesh
1. It is our original sin nature that we live in naturally
2. It is only when we are born again of the spirit
5. 45.. The first MAN, Adam, BECAME A LIVING SOUL." The last Adam became a life-giving spirit
a. The first man was a living soul by being breathed in By God
b. Genesis 2:7 And Jehovah God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
c. The last Adam, Jesus
1. Who give us life…I am the way the truth and the life
6. 47….The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.
a. A reference to being born of earthly things and desires and wants
b. The second body being the resurrected body
1. Our desires needs, and wants will change when we are born again we have a whole new eternal life worshiping God
7. 48….And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.
a. We are in the image of earthly desires and ways in our earthly body
b. When we are resurrected we will be in the image of Godly ways
8. 50…that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God…
a. At the judgment to the sheep on the right Jesus say
1. Matthew 25:34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:
b. Where as the goats on the left He will say
1. Matthew 25:41, 46 Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into the eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels: 46 And these shall go away into eternal punishment: but the righteous into eternal life.
c. Psalms 37:29 The righteous shall inherit the land and dwell upon it forever
II. Obviously we view death as the end of life.
A. We view life as a one time deal. We are born, we live, we die.
1. 42…It is sown a perishable body, it is raised an imperishable body;
a. Earthly body temporary
b. Heavenly body eternal
c. Heaven with the father; Hell separation
1. There is a heaven and a hell Matthew 25:41 above
B. There are two separate bodies and lives
1. 44…it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.
a. Christ before He was ascended showed in Luke 24:39 See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye behold me having. 42 And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish
b. Christ did this to prove His resurrection to His followers
C. We live our lives as if there is no tomorrow; I assure you there will be one
1. We live it for the here and now
2. We live it like, “What’s in it for me NOW!”
3. We live for the pleasures of the flesh
4. There is no promise of tomorrow
5. Many live like the devil today and pray for heaven tomorrow
a. 1 Thessalonians 5:2 For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.
D. We need to live like we are going to die tomorrow
1. When was he last time you asked a friend or relative that question, “If Jesus were to come back right now……………”
2. I want to ask you that same thing right now
3. Recently I had one of the toughest phone calls I have ever had
Recently my sister called me and started talking about how she is concerned about her future. She is having a tough time with her job and is really concerned about her future. We talked for almost an hour. She talked about how she was happy for me and that she is proud that I have turned my life around. I told her it was all about Jesus and what he was doing in my life. The change in me was about Him and what the Holy Spirit was doing in my heart. She then said, “Well I’m basically a good person and I think I have faith that I will go to heaven”. 2 Corinthians 5:7 for we walk by faith, not by sight.
You cannot imagine how hard it was for me to tell her that it made no difference how good she was and that was not going to get her in to heaven. I asked if she was involved in a church of believers and she said she did not have good enough clothes to go to church. She was brought up the same way I was. That a lady must wear dresses and men suits to go to church. Matthew 23:26 You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.
I made her promise not to hang up on me or hate me. I explained that in Titus 3:4-5 But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit. She then said, “I suppose next you will say our mom and dad are not in heaven either”. There was a silence on the phone as I said, “I don’t know”.
She said she knew my son Andrew and I were good and going to heaven because we go to church and stuff. I had to tell my own sister that had nothing to do with going to heaven. Galatians 2:16 yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.
I would rather hurt her now and see her in heaven, than to not see her in heaven with me and have her doomed to eternal fire. Do I have all the answers and know everything there is to know? No way. But I do know that my bible tells me in John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life: no one cometh unto the Father, but by me.
