1 Corinthians 15:35-58
1 Corinthians Living Together in the Body of Christ • Sermon • Submitted
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good morning
good morning
we are still talking about the Doctrine or Teaching about the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.
We have seen so far in this chapter that the Resurrection
is Foundational to our Faith
it is a Historical Fact
it is Transformational in our Lives
The Resurrection is also a Pivotal Doctrine it is because of the Resurrection that we make choices good or bad.
it is in the Resurrection that we find hope and without it we find none.
Last week we read the verses that take us to the very bottom of despair.
So that Paul said that if Jesus is not raised we have no hope and are dead in our sins.
but the Resurrection is not Just Foundational
It is not just historical
it is not just transformational
it is not just pivotal.
Ultimately the Above All Other facts on this planet all other truths The Resurrection that Jesus offers us is Powerful for Living and Breathing and Dying with Hope.
The Resurrection of Jesus Christ is Powerful to give us a reason to live a reason to die and a reason to not Cry.
How do we press on in the face of all that this world throws at us?
We know that this is not it this is not all there is there is life past the last breath we breath if we are in Jesus Christ.
God is There in the Tough Times Accepting the Reality of Death
Man has an innate desire for the eternal and can never be fully satisfied by the temporal aspects of life. From the time we are born, we strive to live forever. We want to know the secret to eternal life because we who were created in the image of God sense the reality of life after death.
everyone wants to go to heaven but no one wants to die.
it’s like the little boy who the man asked if he wanted to go to heaven
God is There in the Tough Times Life After Death
The Bible clearly teaches there is life after death, for both the saved and the unsaved. To the born-again believer, the Scripture declares that “to be away from the body” is to be “at home with the Lord” (see 2 Corinthians 5:8). But to the unsaved it warns, “Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt” (Daniel 12:2).
You will die physically but you’re so soul will live eternally either in heaven or hell
But for the Christian death is not something to be feared. We see this in the life of Paul.
For the apostle, every day was a new and exciting encounter with the risen Christ. Death was just the means of ushering him into the presence of the Savior. Therefore, Paul feared neither life (with all of its complexities) nor death (with all of its uncertainty). To the Christian, death is not something to be feared: It is the first step of a grand entrance into eternal joy and
There is resurrection coming for all of us some for everlasting life some forever lasting death
When we speak about Resurrectiion it is more permanent than anything this world can offer or even really understand.
we are talkabout Resurrection no resuscitation.
300 Illustrations for Preachers Mississippi Man Revives in Body Bag
A coroner at a Mississippi funeral home was shocked to see a leg moving inside a zipped body bag. Walter Williams, 78, had been declared dead several hours earlier and morticians were about to start the embalming process. Then the coroner, Dexter Howard, noticed the twitching inside the bag. When he unzipped it, he discovered Williams was breathing. Waking up in the hospital, Williams couldn’t remember dying or being taken to the funeral home. According to his daughter, Williams claimed, “He was just asleep.”
While it must have seemed like a resurrection to Williams’ family, it was resuscitation, not resurrection. Williams, like all of us, still must face death. This is unlike the resurrection of Jesus, whose death was in full view of the passing crowds, whose tomb was visited by all his closest friends and guarded by a Roman contingent, and who was seen after his resurrection by over 500 people. Jesus did not rise so he could die again; he rose so we could rise with him.
And this is our hope
Hope for those who die and for a new body to live in for eternity. this is what Jesus offers us through his death burial and resurrection
This is good news
in fact it is the best news there is!
what I would like for us to do this morning let’s find our hope our trust in the resurrection of Jesus and let go of this life so that we can take hold of his eternal life Through faith
We do not want to hang on too tightly to this world and the temporary life it offers.
We don’t want to be like the man named Jack was walking along a steep cliff one day when he accidentally got too close to the edge and fell. On the way down he grabbed a branch, which temporarily stopped his fall. He looked down and to his horror saw that the canyon fell straight down for more than a thousand feet. He couldn't hang onto the branch forever, and there was no way for him to climb up the steep wall of the cliff. So Jack began yelling for help, hoping that someone passing by would hear him and lower a rope or something. "HELP! HELP! Is anyone up there? HELP!
He yelled for hours, but no one heard him. He was about to give up when he heard a voice.
"Jack, Jack. Can you hear me?"
"Yes, yes! I can hear you. I'm down here!"
"I can see you, Jack. Are you all right?"
"Yes, but . . . Who are you, and where are you?"
"I am the Lord, Jack. I'm everywhere."
"The Lord? You mean, GOD?"
"That's Me."
"God, please help me! I promise if You'll get me down from here, I'll stop sinning. I'll be a really good person. I'll serve You for the rest of my life."
"Easy on the promises, Jack. Let's just get you down from there; then we can talk. Now, here's what I want you to do. Listen carefully."
"I'll do anything, Lord. Just tell me what to do."
"Okay. Let go of the branch.
what did you say I said let go of the branch I thought that’s what you said hey is there anyone else up there who can help
it takes faith that this body was never ours to start with to let it go
He gave you the body he gave you to use for His glory to show others that He is the answer.
and when you lay this body down in the grave and exchange this tent this outer covering of your true inner self then you will receive a new body of a spiritual heavenly design not corrupted or perishable.
Imperishable immortal
Perfect.
35 But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?”
36 You foolish person! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies.
37 And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain.
38 But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body.
39 For not all flesh is the same, but there is one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish.
40 There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is of one kind, and the glory of the earthly is of another.
41 There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory.
42 So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable.
there’s a reason there is a date on your milk and bread and eggs they are perishable
What when you try to hang on to those things past their date do they get better or do they get worse why because they’re perishable
I can speak from experience especially on milk one of my greatest phobias
But hole says here your body is Sound and this owner look at first 43
43 It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power.
noticed the transformation that takes place in the body because of the resurrection
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.
so what does he mean here he means there’s a difference between the body we currently have in the body we’re going to get
Our current bodies are physical they will die in decay they have an expiration date
Our resurrection bodies will be spiritual bodies’s not
Spirit bodies as in nonexistent no we will get an actual body it will just be spiritual nature
This is something we do not fully understand because we still have finite not infinite understanding we have physical brains not spiritual minds
John tells us this when he says that we do not know yet what we shall be but we will be like him for we shall see him as he is
So after he explains that the spiritual body will be different than the physical body he explains the source of the difference and it comes down to who our father is Adam or Christ
45 Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit.
God gave Adam a physical body a living being but he could not pass on that life to those who came after him because of his curse he could only pass on his sin nature is corrupted
Adam could not give us life because he had no life to give he only had the life that God gave him and Adam ruined that life through his sin Jesus on the other hand is a life-giving spirit when he rose from the dead he gave life to all those who trust in him
But there is an order to things look at first 46
46 But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual.
47 The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven.
48 As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven.
49 Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.
If you were to go back and read Genesis chapter 3 and see the contents of the curse that were a result of Adam and eves sin you could see that everyone since they own
Has experienced the effects of the curse death not life and if you’ve never trusted on Christ if you’ve only been born once been born into Adam the earthy man then you are not going to get a true spiritual glorious body
We are told that you will not experience heavenly glory but eternal suffering and Shane has a red earlier
but if you have trusted on Christ you have hope you have confidence that when you lay this physical body down you will receive a glorious body a spiritual body and incorruptible perfect body not a weak body but a strong body and its place
Paul states the S unequivocally for us in verse 50
Without Physical Death of our Earthly Bodies There is No Eternal Victory for our Spiritual Bodies
Without Physical Death of our Earthly Bodies There is No Eternal Victory for our Spiritual Bodies
50 I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.
We have to let go this is not all there is that is that hope the Christian gives that Christ gives us
no more separation no more baby no more fear of death and dying no more fear no more fear
51 Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,
Not everyone will experience death
But everyone will experience change even if even if you were alive when Jesus returns and raises the dead you’ll still have to give up this whole physical body there’s no getting out of it so why in the world would you hang onto it or give it up anyway sweat Jim Elliot said the man
Who went to serve as a missionary among a group of murderous Indians in south America that like to kill missionaries and kill everyone that came around them he went anyway
and what did he say to the person who said man you are crazy for going you will die he said he is no fool who gives up that which he cannot hang onto for that which he will never lose
So will gladly give the Lord the use of these physical perishable imperfect corrupted physical bodies in exchange for
eternal imperishable perfect glorious strong bodies
52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.
amen and hallelujah
53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.
we’re all gonna get an upgrade Neit is going to be good every tear gone every sickness removed look at what he says in verse 54
54 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”
victory is going to eat death I would love it
As you feel that pain and that exhaustion know there’s coming a day with no more daylight savings time no more losing an hour no more waking up with stuff in your eyes no more sinus infection no more heart attacks no more car wrecks no more broken bones simply glory rest
Which causes Paul to begin to talk smack to death looking for 55
55 “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”
God is There in the Tough Times Everlasting Life
To the unsaved, death is the ultimate defeat of the human spirit.
Our seeking after staying alive and well is constantly under pressure from the fact we know we are going to die.
It’s like in football for my short tenure on the field I remember when someone would freeze either they were going to catch a pass make a tackle intercept or return a punt they would freeze when they felt someone running up behind them to hit them.
People would be like ooooh someone heard the footsteps
because they felt fear knowing they were about to be stung if they didn’t watch out.
I think that is a good picture of what we look like a lot of times when we allow the fear of death to cause us to pull up short of what God wants us to do with our lives.
1 Cor 15.56 “The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.”
notice here Paul tells us where death gets its power from sin
Sin is where death comes from because Death is the required punishment for sin according to the law that is where the curse comes from disobedience to god results in that every time there for as long as we are under the law we are under the curse and if we are under the curse we are bound for death and death has power over us.
as long as we are trying to overcome death through our own power and strength death will defeat us every time because we are sinful
our only hope is for someone to fulfill the requirements of the law on our behalf and remove our sin so death can no longer sting
This is why Jesus the last atom gives us life or how he gives us life
Look at verse 57
57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus defeated death by fulfilling the Law in our place. He paid the price of a guilty person but was innocent. He as God the Son died in our place so that He could give us life forever with Him.
He took the stinger out of death by taking the sting of sin for us.
He has given us the victory over death by his death on the cross in our place.
So we live for Him! Everything we have that is good is from Him so everything we have is for Him
how could we not give Him our everything that matters because He is the one who makes everything we have matter.
58 Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
Paul gives us the natural response the only response that makes sense when it comes to us realizing that our eternal life comes from Jesus and this life is not going to last.
Be Steadfast immovable.
that means we take a stand for the Word of God and for the convictions that God has given us through his word no matter what the world throws at us.
Why?
They can’t make us move. They may take our lives but they will never take our freedom.
And if they do take your life they can never take your faithfulness to stand for the Lord which is all that matters anyway.
Not only that.
Always abounding in the work of the Lord.
that means not doing a little for Jesus but going above and beyond. Not hallway serving Him but giving him your every thing.
Why because we know that our work our labor that we do for Jesus matters it is not in vain it is not without purpose.
How do you get up and go to work tomorrow like it matters/
by remembering that whatever you do for Him matters forever. Not just tomorrow or Friday or the next day but every day for all eternity.
You may not understand everything about everything but you have this promise of eternal life with Him forever. He doesn’t not need to explain why or how things go the way they go.
We live on promises, not explanations.
This is the motive the point the destination this whole chapter is driving towards and in fact all of Scripture is headed down this road and parks right here.
This is the answer Solomon gives at the end of his search for meaning in a meaningless world. He went round and round and said nothing matter tomorrow will be the same as today no matter what happened yesterday.
but what we do for the Lord that does matter listen to ECC 12 13 and 14
13 The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.
14 For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.
This is how Jesus concludes the book of Rev. 22.12-13
12 “Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay each one for what he has done.
13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”
And John the Apostle who witnessed all of the horrible and terrifying things that come with the end of time and God’s judgment of the world. He looked at all of that and you know what he said?
20 He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!
Why and how?
God is There in the Tough Times Everlasting Life
For the Christian who knows the eternal God, death is only a change of scene, not a change of life. Scripture states, “He who has the Son has life … ” (1 John 5:12). You do not have to die and go to heaven to obtain everlasting life. The moment you were saved, you became a “partaker of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4). You already have eternal life right now! Are you living like it?
You can live above the petty human fears of death and aging, recognizing that the eternal God lives within your soul. When you were born again (1 Peter 1:23), your life became co-eternal with the life of God. You will live as long as God will live. So there’s no reason to be afraid to die. You have everlasting life in your soul! Why should you fear the sting of death? God has given you eternal life. Your life is co-eternal with His—and you will live forever!
The greatest joy in life is serving the eternal God—the lover of your soul. The greatest fulfillment you will ever find will be in living for Him and cooperating with His eternal plan and purpose for your life. There is no need to fear that which God has already conquered. Where is the sting of death? It was eliminated by the death of Jesus Christ, who put and end to death for everyone who trusts Him as his or her personal Savior!
And because of this we stay strong and keep marching on...
Talking about perseverance I read the story of a woman named CHa So-soon
300 Illustrations for Preachers Driver’s License on the 960th Try
In 2010 a South Korean woman demonstrated that perseverance pays off. After 960 attempts, 69-year-old Cha Sa-soon passed all the tests and was awarded a driver’s license. South Korea requires both a written and driving test before a person can receive a license. Cha took the written test almost every day since April 2005. Once passing that requirement, Cha began to work on the driving portion. Although it took ten attempts, Cha finally achieved her goal. She plans to buy a used car so she can visit her son and daughter, and to help make her small business selling vegetables more profitable.
Now that is perseverance she kept after it because the payoff was worth it.
that same is true for us.
Why does the Resurrection Matter for You and Me on a Monday Morning when we are getting ready for work
or on a April 15 as we pay our taxes
or a Thursday afternoon cleaning up a boo boo on one of our kids
or Tuesday night staying up to study for a test?
Why Why does it matter?
Or does it?
I mean heaven seems so far away.
So how can something we will not experience until we die matter this morning?
It makes a difference the same way Christmas Morning makes a difference to a 5 year old kid who is told to behave.
It makes a different the same way pay day matters on Monday
or that grade you are going to get matters when you are studying
or that satisfaction of seeing a son or a daughter that you raised
Only it matters not just for that one moment but for eternity.
You see every day when you get up to serve the Lord it matters now because it will matter for all of Eternity.
Every breath every word every action matters forever because Jesus is important forever. And because of our relationship with Him We matter forever and what we do matters forever.
the question is will you experience enteral life in Jesus
or eternal death in hell.
the difference is have you trusted on Jesus and recieved eternal life or have you rejected Him and will receive eternal hell.
If you have never given your life to Jesus now is the time.