Resurrection Life - NCC 50
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Good Evening, It is Christmas time - when we celebrate Christ’s birth, but tonight in our NCC we are looking at the implications of His resurrection.
In studying, I came across this young :
Five-year-old Brian who had a pivotal verse to recite in an Easter program: “He is not here, he is risen” (Luke 24:6). Unfortunately, he could not remember what to say, and the director had to quietly remind him of his line. He then confidently grabbed the microphone and triumphantly shouted, “He’s not here; He’s in prison!”
Well thankfully tonight, we know that Christ is not in prison, but in Heaven.
Because last week we looked at Q&A 49:
Where is Christ now?
Christ rose bodily from the grave on the third day after his death and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
Question 50
What does Christ’s resurrection mean for us?
Christ triumphed over sin and death so that all who trust in him are raised to new life in this world and to everlasting life in the world to come.
Turn with me tonight to a pivotal passage in 1 Thessalonians 4
13 But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope.
14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus.
15 For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep.
16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.
17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.
18 Therefore comfort one another with these words.
The term asleep in this context is a metaphorical reference to Christians who have died. This metaphor is particularly appropriate because of the future resurrection of the body. Just as a sleeping person expects to rise in the morning, Christians who have died will experience a bodily resurrection and will rise again (v. 16; Jn 11:11).
11 These things He said, and after that He said to them, “Our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I go that I may wake him up.”
12 Then His disciples said, “Lord, if he sleeps he will get well.”
13 However, Jesus spoke of his death, but they thought that He was speaking about taking rest in sleep.
Until this happens, for deceased believers to be out of the body is to be at home with the Lord (2Co 5:8).
Apparently the cause of the Thessalonians’ grief was related to the misunderstanding that dead Christians would miss the events and subsequent blessings associated with the Lord’s coming. Paul corrected this misunderstanding by teaching that the dead in Christ will rise first (1Th 4:16).
look at v 16
16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.
In contrast to unbelievers who grieve over the loss of loved ones, Christians who grieve over a fellow believer can do so with hope because of the future glorious resurrection.
Christ’s resurrection has huge implications for the believer today. Chrysostom said this:
1500 Illustrations for Biblical Preaching Resurrection, Believers’
Chrysostom, early church father and orator, deplored the ostentatious public lamentations that were made at Christian funerals in his day: “When I behold the wailings in public places, the groanings over those who have departed this life, the howlings and all the other unseemly behavior, I am ashamed before the heathen and the Jews and heretics who see it, and indeed before all who for this reason laugh us to scorn.”
He complained that such conduct had the effect of nullifying his teaching on the resurrection and encouraged the heathen to continue in unbelief. He asked what could be more unseemly than for a person who professes to be crucified to the world to tear his hair and shriek hysterically in the presence of death.
“Those who are really worthy of being lamented,” Chrysostom admonished, “are the ones who are still in fear and trembling at the prospect of death and have no faith at all in the resurrection.” Then he drove home his point with these arresting words: “May God grant that you all depart this life unwailed!”1132
v. 14 - Jesus’s resurrection revealed what resurrection will be like for those who have fallen asleep. We can partially understand the nature of our bodily resurrection by reading about his (Lk 24:36–43).
36 Now as they said these things, Jesus Himself stood in the midst of them, and said to them, “Peace to you.”
37 But they were terrified and frightened, and supposed they had seen a spirit.
38 And He said to them, “Why are you troubled? And why do doubts arise in your hearts?
39 Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. Handle Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have.”
40 When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His feet.
41 But while they still did not believe for joy, and marveled, He said to them, “Have you any food here?”
42 So they gave Him a piece of a broiled fish and some honeycomb.
43 And He took it and ate in their presence.
DA Carson put it this way: The resurrection also demonstrates the gospel’s concern for human beings embodied. In other words, some people think of our ultimate state as kind of ethereal spirit beings without any connection with bodies. But part of elementary, fundamental Christian truth is that in the new heaven and the new earth, the ultimate goal, the home of righteousness, there will not be just heavenly existence. It’s earthly existence. It’s a new heaven and a new earth, and we will have resurrection bodies like Christ’s. That’s one of the great arguments of 1 Corinthians 15. Paul argues that if Christ rose from the dead in a resurrection body—which, however strange in some ways and remarkable it was, could be touched and handled, could be spoken to, could be seen, and could actually eat human food—then when we, who are finally resurrected on the last day, come into that final state, we will have resurrection bodies like his resurrection body. That is our destination. So his resurrection is the firstfruit of what is often called a general resurrection at the end of the age. All human beings will be resurrected, whether to life or to condemnation, because we are essentially embodied people.
vv. 16-17
The ESV Study Bible Chapter 4
Dead Christians rise from their graves to the realm of the living, and then the living and the dead together are caught up from the earth into the air to meet Christ. The Greek for “caught up” (harpazō, “to grab or seize suddenly, to snatch, take away”) gives a sense of being forcibly and suddenly lifted upward (see John 6:15; Acts 8:39). together with. The dead Christians would suffer no disadvantage (cf. “we who are alive … will not precede,” 1 Thess. 4:15)
Although we do not completely understand how it will all come to fruition, we do trust that God has everything under control. His plan will come to pass and we will spend eternity with Him.
as the final part of vs. 17 says
17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.
From vv. 13 -17
You come to v. 18 and find that Clear teaching about the Lord’s return should result in comfort and encouragement (Paul’s goal), rather than fear and divisiveness. These words refers to vv. 13–17.
What does Christ’s resurrection mean for us?
Christ triumphed over sin and death so that all who trust in him are raised to new life in this world and to everlasting life in the world to come.