"The Promise Of The Resurrection” Series

Most of us have a love/hate relationship with our bodies. I mean, if you could change something about the way you look, would you do it? Many people would. As many as 40% would change their looks if they could, according to Synovate’s global survey on beauty.

The fact is, our bodies wear out, they sag, they expand, they wrinkle, the joints get creaky, the arteries harden, gravity pulls everything downward, the heart slows down, the eyes grow dim, the teeth fall out, the back is stooped, the arms grow weary, our bones break, and our muscles weaken. The body bulges in the wrong places.

Our bodies wear out as we grow older. Someone listed 10 signs that you’re getting older. You know you’re getting old when …

10. Everything hurts and what doesn’t hurt doesn’t work.

9. You look forward to a dull evening.

8. Your favorite part of the newspaper is “20 Years Ago Today.”

7. You sit in a rocking chair and can’t get it going.

6. Your knees buckle, and your belt won’t.

5. Your back goes out more than you do.

4. You sink your teeth into a steak, and they stay there.

3. The gleam in your eyes is from the sun hitting your bifocals.

2. Your ears are hairier than your head.

1. When you bend over, you look for something else to do while

you’re down there.

Our bodies won’t last forever. The moment we are born, we begin to die. In fact, you’re falling apart right now as you listen to this message.

Death is the fundamental human problem. It is the sum of all other fears. You can see it in the way we treat the dead. An entire industry has grown up to help us deal with death. When a person dies, we do our best to make them look as if they were not dead.

Many times I have heard someone stand by a casket and say, “She looks so natural.” Well, no, she looks like she’s dead. But death is so final, so forbidding, so shocking to our senses, that we can’t even say the word. We say that someone “passed on” or “departed” or “slipped away.”

Now, I fully understand the need to use terms like these when a loved one has died. I believe the funeral industry plays an important role in bringing comfort to grieving families. But death still stands as an inevitable reality. The Grim Reaper visits every home sooner or later.

But one day all that will change. Because Jesus is a risen Savior, we, who have put our faith in Him will one day receive a brand new body. Because He has been raised, we will be raised to be like Him.

“But we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives. And we are eagerly waiting for him to return as our Savior. He will take our weak mortal bodies and change them into glorious bodies like his own, using the same power with which he will bring

everything under his control.” - Philippians 3:20-21 (NLT)

As Paul tells us in verse 49 of our text, we will be just like Jesus. What was our Lord’s resurrection body like?

He ate with His disciples - Luke 24:41-42

His disciples could touch Him - John 20:27

He had a physical body of flesh and bone - Luke 24:39

He was recognized by His disciples - Matthew 28:9

He could appear and disappear - Luke 24:31

He could pass through locked doors - John 20:19

Some mistakenly teach that until our Lord’s return, believers are ‘asleep” in the grave and have no consciousness until the resurrection. But the Scriptures teach that until that day Jesus returns, “to be absent from the body is to be face to face with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8). The Bible says that between our death and our resurrection, we will have temporary pre-resurrection bodies. This is suggested by the story of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16), as well as passages showing pre-resurrected people doing physical things, such as wearing robes (Revelation 6:11).

Those in heaven today were transformed spiritually by means of the new birth; and now that they are in the presence of our Lord, they have been transformed intellectually, emotionally, and volitionally, in that they think like Jesus, feel like Jesus and choose like Jesus. But on the day of the resurrection, Christ will complete the work of transformation and restoration in those of us who have placed our faith in Him by transforming us physically.

This is the promise of the resurrection!

“We will not be disembodied spirits in the world to come,

but redeemed spirits, in redeemed bodies, in a redeemed universe.”

- R. A. Torrey

Paul tells us what our bodies will be like when Jesus returns.