Sermon Tone Analysis

If you have your Bible (and I hope you do), please turn with me to 1 Corinthians 15.

And if you’re able and willing, please stand with me for the reading of God’s Holy Word, out of reverence for Him.

I Corinthians 15 beginning with verse 35:

May God add His blessing and give understanding to the reading of His Holy Word!

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Like us, you can imagine that there were those among the Corinthians who had some questions about the resurrection and the specifics of it all.

It’s not easily grasped.

Paul responds to their questions saying, “How foolish!”

This might seem a little harsh, but I really think Paul’s just asking the Corinthians to stop and think; to think before they speak (or in this case, think a little before they ask).

“Just think about it,” Paul says and then gives them some illustrations from various parts of the natural world to help them understand.

He begins by using plants as an example.

Anyone who has planted anything by seed will very quickly understand what Paul’s getting at here.

The seeds in the packet that grandma purchased from the local nursery won’t stay seeds if you sow them; if you place them in dirt, fully buried, in time they will produce something that looks and is very different than the seed that went into the ground.

What appears from a seed that’s been sown is determined by God.

And something will appear, if the conditions are right.

That seed isn’t just going to lie in the ground and do nothing—though that’s what some people think about death.

We die, we’re buried, that’s it.

That’s the end.

We know that’s not the case, because God is in charge of all of this.

Death is not the end.

The grave is not the final stop.

In Christ, you will be raised.

And you will be you—resurrected, restored, renewed—but you will be you.

You will be raised and will have a body suited for resurrection life.

Transformation is necessary

Paul turns to animal life and astronomy to explain the variety he’s speaking about.

We are not all the same.

Thankfully, we don’t have flesh like a fish.

Very few of us are furry like an animal (and even though some are, we have a different flesh).

Much to Ruth Fletcher’s delight, no human I know of is sprouting feathers.

The point: God has created all kinds of bodies.

Each one is fit for its environment—the animal for the land, the bird for the air, the fish for the sea.

God is the ultimate Creator of bodies.

God has created different and specific kinds of bodies that can thrive within a particular environment or natural habitat.

Even though we can’t begin to understand the “how”, we need to understand that God is capable of creating a human body that is different in quality and kind than our present earthly bodies.

Beyond flesh and blood, there are heavenly bodies—sun, moon, and stars—which differ in their splendor.

Of course, the sun and the moon are observably different, and stars, though from here, with the naked eye, they seem to all resemble each other, are different from one another in size and shape and splendor.

There is variety and diversity among the heavenly bodies.

This then, is the point: God, the Creator, is capable of making for us a resurrected body.

“With what kind of body [will the dead be raised]?”

It’s a good question, and one with a very clear answer.

It’ll be a different sort of body, a body suited for resurrected life.

The bodies we inhabit here and now are suited for life here and now, a body for life down here.

When the dead are raised, we will have a body suited for life in God’s Kingdom.

Verses 42 and 43 get at this: “So it will be with the resurrection of the dead.”

Paul illustrates the principle and then applies it to us.

He explains the difference in our bodies.

The body we put in the ground will rise to something else, just like a seed does when it’s planted.

In these two verses, Paul shares with us the characteristics of our bodies, pre- and post-resurrection.

The body sown is:

Perishable: we have a very limited shelf life.

Written on us, somewhere only God can see, is an expiration date, a date that says when we expire.

We are perishable people.

I know the world tells us we are invincible and some believe it, or believe that we die and are reincarnated as something else or someone else.

I’m related to a guy who believes—actually believes—that with the help of supplements and vitamins, a little superstition and a verse or two of Kumbaya, he will live for 150-200 years.

All I could say is, “Nah, man.”

That’s not the witness of the Bible.

That’s not going to happen.

We are perishable, a vapor, only here for a moment.

If we’re blessed, we might have 70 or 80 years in this life.

We are perishable.

Dishonorable: the word Paul uses here is also used to describe a loss of rights as a Roman citizen.

To lose these rights would bring dishonor upon a person.

Well, in death, for sure, there’s a lack of rights.

We can’t, from the grave, do anything about anything; at that point, we have no rights.

If our family buries us in this plot, we can’t, from the sealed casket say, “No, I’d rather be there, under that tree.”

If you don’t work out those details before your body is placed in the ground, you’re stuck there, sans rights.

Weak: I don’t have to tell most of you about this.

Some of you younger people might need this public service announcement because it creeps up on you.

Even 10 years ago, I’m not sure I’d have thought anything about my body being weak, or frail, or broken.

But I’m now officially “hurt-myself-while-sleeping years old".

I wake up and discover have hurt my arm or neck or back, just sleeping.

In bed.

Our bodies are weak.

To most of us, it’s blatantly obvious.

Our bodies are frail.

They break and breakdown—skin, hair, bones, eyes, ears.

Weak.

Natural: That is, we are set up for life down here.

This is the only realm in which this body works.

This is it.

When astronauts head into space, they have to be fitted with spacesuits, lest they die.

There is no place this body works except here and now.

“If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.”

We are in Adam—the earthly and frail, weak and human prototype of the entire human race.

We are tied to him.

Transformation is necessary

and

Transformation is certain

“As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth.”

By virtue of being human, we bear the image of our father Adam.

But there’s a 2nd Adam—a heavenly man with a spiritual body (not a ghost, but a body empowered by the Holy Spirit).

As is the heavenly man, so also are those who are of heaven.

This is our state in Christ.

As those tied to Jesus, we will bear His image.

So shall we bear the image of the heavenly man.

This is incredible news!

This is what we with frail, perishable, weak, natural bodies need to hear!

There will be a resurrection, because Jesus is raised, and because Jesus is raised, we who belong to Him will bear the image of the heavenly man!

What do we do with this other than file it away under biblical knowledge?

We’re told what to do in the last verse of this chapter.