The Resurrection Body

Life and Death  •  Sermon  •  Submitted
0 ratings
· 3 views

Since there will be a bodily resurrection, what will those bodies look like, and how can God even raise the dead?

Notes
Transcript

Intro/Recap

We’re in the middle of a series called Life and Death, and all this month, we are asking and hopefully answering the question, “What’s the big deal about the resurrection?” Over the last two weeks as we’ve been traveling through 1 Cor. 15, we’ve seen Paul make the case that not only did Jesus rise from the dead, but that he rose from the dead as the first of many, meaning that those of us in Christ will follow suit. There will be a day when God will infuse these bodies of death with life everlasting. And I don’t know about you, but I’m looking more and more forward to that day with each day that passes.
Paul hasn’t had the easiest time convincing the church in Corinth about the truths of the resurrection because they’re not really seeking to understand, but he’s finally been able to point out their logical fallacy. If you’ll recall, they believed in the resurrection of Jesus, but they didn’t believe in bodily resurrection. But Paul spent considerable time showing them if they believed that Jesus, who was God in the flesh, had died and had been resurrected, then that meant that bodily resurrection was at least possible if not probable. Paul’s been doing what he’s so good at doing.
They were a church confused by the pagan philosophy and gnosticism around them, which taught that no matter what, the physical was inherently bad and it was only the spiritual which was good and lasted for eternity. The idea of a resurrection of a physical body was not only insane, but it was borderline offensive. This line of thinking is known as “dualism” which we really unpacked last week. That’s where we left off last week, with Paul proving from Christ’s own resurrection that God can indeed raise the dead, and that he will one day raise the dead. Christ was raised as the first fruits, and we will later follow as part of the same crop.
This morning we’ll see Paul build upon the case that he’s already made: not only will God raise the dead, but he’ll do it with the same creativity which is already so evident throughout all of creation. Paul’s going to show that we should be able to just examine creation and understand at least part of the process of resurrection, because we see it every year, especially anyone with any kind of an agricultural background. In other words, what he’s telling us shouldn’t be a big surprise; if only we’d open our eyes we might see what God’s trying to show us, and that’s this: agriculture proclaims the truth of the resurrection.

Agriculture Proclaims the Truth of the Resurrection

Paul’s audience has been forced to concede to his argument, namely that physical resurrection is possible. But he knows they’re stubborn, and so he uses an ancient rhetorical strategy known as a “diatribe” where he imagines a back and forth conversation taking place, and he tries to anticipate potential arguments which might be made because he can’t be there in person. So that’s what he’s doing here; he’s having what likely would have been a real conversation with an imaginary opponent.
1 Corinthians 15:35 ESV
35 But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?”
He anticipates the next mental roadblock for the Corinthian church would be in HOW God actually raised the dead. How’s it all possible? What would it look like? Would they be raised with their decomposed bodies? Would it literally look like an episode of The Walking Dead? What would happen to those bodies which weren’t intact? If we fast-forwarded to our time, the questions might be similar to, “How will God raise someone whose body has been cremated?” “How will God raise someone who threw themselves on a grenade on the battlefield?” “How will God raise those whose bodies have been never been found to be buried in the first place?” “How will God raise those whose bodies have been mangled beyond belief?” And the questions could go on and on.
Paul knew the question was borne out of doubt and skepticism and not out of real faith. They weren’t literally asking “how” - they were acting bratty. There are ways to ask questions out of faith, such as when the angel appeared to Mary and told her that she was going to bear Jesus in her body even though she wasn’t married and was still a virgin. Mary responded in faith and not doubt.
Luke 1:34 ESV
34 And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”
Contrast her response with the response with that of Zechariah. The angel had earlier told him that his barren wife would conceive and have a child who would grow up to be John the Baptizer.
Luke 1:18 ESV
18 And Zechariah said to the angel, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.”
They both had questions, but only one of them responded in sincere faith. Zechariah wanted proof before he’d believe, and Mary believed, and honestly wanted to know how what the angel said was going to happen was going to happen. The angel answered Mary’s genuine question, and he hit the mute button on Zechariah because he didn’t believe what he told him. The question isn’t the problem - it’s the motivation behind the question.
Those Paul is arguing with in the church at Corinth relate more to Zechariah than they do to Mary when it comes to their faith. And I’d argue they’re a little worse than Zechariah. That’s why Paul responds to them so harshly.
1 Corinthians 15:36–38 ESV
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.
To show them the incredible power of God, he took a cue from the way Jesus taught and used nature as an illustration. He used farming as an illustration. To a group which thought themselves so wise because of all the philosophy they subscribed to, he taught them a deep spiritual truth with a tiny little seed.
Who hasn’t planted a seed at some point in their life? We may not all be farmers, but surely the majority of us have planted a seed before. The very practice of planting seeds is a picture of the promised resurrection. When schools teach elementary-age children about the growing of plants, they are unknowingly teaching them about the concept of resurrection. When they bring home the plant or the flower in the styrofoam cup, they are seeing this principle of resurrection in action.
How is the growing of a plant like the resurrection? It’s so simple, Paul says, even a child can understand it. We plant a seed in the ground. We bury it, if you will. We have a funeral for that seed. What happens to that seed? Does it stay a seed? No, it decomposes and eventually transforms into a plant. The plant comes from the seed, but the plant isn’t exactly the same as the seed which was initially buried in the ground. The seed had to be buried and it had to decompose before it could become a plant. It doesn’t grow out of the soil looking like the seed it looked like when it was buried - it looks completely different! Who knows what it’s going to look like. Maybe it’ll be a tomato plant. Maybe it’ll be a Redwood tree. Maybe it’ll be a lettuce plant. Maybe it’ll be a bonzai tree. There’s no telling - a seed goes into the ground, but something completely different comes up out of the ground, displaying the amazing creativity of our creator. Paul wants us to see here that this concept of life coming from something that was once buried shouldn’t sound ludicrous to us after all; it should be as obvious as farming or gardening. It should sound so simple even a child could understand it.
Every time we plant something in the ground, whether we realize it or not, we’re admitting we believe in God’s resurrection power.
I would argue that the Resurrection, like creation itself, displays the vast creativity of God.

The Resurrection Displays the Vast Creativity of God

Jesus even taught concept this during his ministry:
John 12:24 ESV
24 Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.
He was talking about his earthly body; he died and was buried - but look what happened! He was resurrected! He was changed. The body that came out of the tomb wasn’t the same as the body which went into the tomb. He wasn’t a corpse walking around looking like something out of a horror movie. Listen to how Paul begins to explain this:
1 Corinthians 15:39–42 ESV
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.
Jesus’ body after his resurrection was completely different; it was changed. He could walk through walls. He could go through locked doors. He could appear and disappear at will. He could eat. He could still have conversations. But he had to reveal himself to people. There was a similarity but there was also a difference. His post-resurrection body was superior to his earthly, humanly body, and it’ll be the same for us as well. I can’t promise that our bodies will be exactly the same as Jesus’ body, but I believe they’ll be similar and I know they’ll be superior to what we have now. There is coming a day when these bodies of death and disease will be transformed into bodies that will resemble that of Christ! This should cause excitement in our lives. We won’t be stuck how we are! As God has transformed us spiritually, he’ll also transform us physically.
1 Corinthians: The MacArthur New Testament Commentary Chapter 45: Victory over Death (15:50–58)

The hope of the Christian is expressed by the epitaph Benjamin Franklin wrote for himself, engraved on his tombstone in the cemetery of Christ’s Church in Philadelphia: “The body of Franklin, printer, like the cover of an old book, its contents torn out and stripped of its lettering and gilding, lies here food for worms. But the work will not be lost, for it will appear once more in a new and more elegant edition, revised and corrected by the Author.”

Again, this shouldn’t be much of a surprise to us. When we look at the vast creativity of God, the question shouldn’t be “how could God resurrect the dead and what will our bodies eventually look like?” The question should be “How could he not?”
We have a Creator who is more creative than we could ever comprehend, and creation testifies to that fact.
All we have to do is look around to see the creativity of God. We just went to the zoo last weekend, and there is so much creativity in all the animals God created. A monkey is not an elephant, and a gorilla is not a chimpanzee. A shark is not a shrimp. There are more varieties of animals than I could ever count. Maybe animals aren’t your thing. Just look outside on a clear night and look to the sky. Every star is different. Every planet is different. The moon is completely different from the earth which is completely different from the sun. Have you seen the recent pictures from Mars? It doesn’t look anything like Earth, but I bet there will soon be a Walmart there. The point is this: our eyes can only see a tiny bit of the vast universe God has created, but what we can see testifies to the creative genius of God. These folks Paul was arguing with were concerned about how God would raise the dead and what kind of bodies they would have - all they needed to go was to go outside and look at the night sky and they should’ve realized their question didn’t make any sense.
As I was writing this sermon, I came across a really interesting fact about amino acids - amino acids are the building blocks of life. Scientists have discovered approximately six hundred octodecillion (1 with 108 zeros) different combinations of amino acids in this world - this is why no two snowflakes are exactly the same, why no two trees are exactly the same, why no two animals are exactly the same, and why no two humans are exactly the same - and it’s also why our resurrected heavenly bodies will be so far superior to our earthly bodies. God is so creative, and there is nothing impossible for him - if he’s done all that on this earth which is broken and groaning and with humans whose bodies are cursed because of the effects of sin, imagine what it’ll look like when he ushers in the new heavens and the new earth.
Just listen as Paul describes how the resurrection changes everything:

The Resurrection Changes Everything

1 Corinthians 15:42–44 ESV
42 So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. 43 It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. 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.
I don’t have to convince anyone in this room that our bodies aren’t invincible. We start the aging process the moment we’re born. We get tired. We get hurt. We get sick. We have to get vaccines to avoid getting really sick and to help eradicate disease. We have to go to the doctor and we have to take medication when we get sick so we can hopefully get better. And if the medication doesn’t work sometimes we have to go to the hospital so we can be better treated there. And it doesn’t matter our age; in this world, babies get sick just like adults get sick. And unfortunately babies can and do pass away just like adults can and do pass away. In this world, not everyone gets to live as long of a life as we think they should, and that’s just a sad reality. Just in the last year or so I’ve officiated at least two very hard funeral services - and all funerals are hard in one sense, but some are harder than others. One of them was for a three-month old baby boy, and I don’t care how much training you have, I don’t care how many funerals you’ve officiated, nothing prepares you to see that tiny little casket, and no experience whatsoever prepared me for when the family opened that tiny little casket to say their last goodbyes. Nothing prepared me for when the baby’s mother decided to read his favorite book to him one last time.
These bodies are broken and they’re not built to last - BUT that won’t always be the case.
These bodies are dishonored because of sin in our lives. Sin has put its stamp on our bodies. BUT that won’t always be the case.
These bodies are weak; there’s only so much they can take before they wear out. BUT that won’t always be the case.
These bodies are only fit for this earth, for a brief sojourn. Did you know that? This body wouldn’t work for eternal life. It has to be changed. BUT that won’t always be the case.
Did you hear what Paul said? We should be getting excited this morning. The bodies sown into the ground are perishable; they will decompose, despite the best embalming and burial practices, just like a seed does. But just like a seed out of the ground will come something so much better. And what comes out of the ground will be superior in every way to what was put in the ground.
There will be a day when when the perishable will be raised imperishable. There will be a day when the dishonorable will be raised in glory. There will be a day when what was sown in weakness will be raised in power. And there will be a day when these natural physical bodies will be transformed into spiritual bodies fit for the new earth and they won’t wear out. There will be a day when this body will be fit to dwell with God.
1 Corinthians 15:45–49 ESV
45 Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 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.
We spend our earthly lives resembling Adam, but we will spend our eternal lives resembling Jesus. That’s the promise of Scripture right there - just as we’ve borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. Do you believe that this morning? I can tell you that. I can quote it. I can believe it with everything I am. But I won’t understand it until it happens and I get to experience it firsthand. I have no idea what it’ll be like when I’m done with this body of sin, but I long for that day more and more the longer I live.
Here’s what I know from what Paul says in 1 Cor. 15. The cemetery down the road isn’t the home for the dead; it’s a garden for those whom Christ will eventually raise from the dead. Have you ever thought about it like that? There will be a day when every single grave is opened, and the dead will be raised. Those in Christ will be raised to eternal life and those not in Christ will be raised to eternal death. Everyone gets raised.
And all of this is only possible in and through Jesus Christ. It doesn’t happen any other way or through anyone or anything else. The idea of all roads leading to Rome and all paths leading to God is one of the biggest lies out there. There is only one way to God, and it’s through Jesus Christ, who said in John 14:6
John 14:6 ESV
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
What does “no one” mean? It means no one. Scripture tells us there will be a day when we come face to face with God. Our world doesn’t like to talk about judgment, but there is coming a day when we will be judged by God. It says in Heb 9:27-28
Hebrews 9:27–28 ESV
27 And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, 28 so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.
Did you hear the second part of that verse? Yes, there’s a day for judgment and that’ll be a dreadful day for those who aren’t in Christ, but when Jesus comes it’ll be to save those who are eagerly waiting for him. Does that describe you this morning? Are you “eagerly” waiting for him?
If you aren’t eagerly waiting for him, or if you haven’t trusted in Christ for salvation, there’s no better time. The Bible says that we’re all sinners and that the penalty for sin is death. We owe a debt we can’t pay to a holy God. But God sent his son to earth in the likeness of sinful man, and he lived the perfect life we could never live, and he died the death we should’ve died. He was crucified on a cross, and all our sin was placed upon him. Your sin. My sin. And in that moment, God dealt with sin in the person of Christ. He had to take care of sin or he wouldn’t be just. Jesus was killed, but he didn’t stay dead.
Romans 4:25 ESV
25 who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.
And because he’s been raised, he’s able to help us. We don’t have a dead savior but a living one! You can trust in him and in what he did this morning. You can place your faith in what he did; salvation is all about what He has done for us and not about what we do for him. It’s by faith we’re saved.
Romans 10:9 ESV
9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
But saying “Jesus is Lord” isn’t just verbal assent. If someone is “Lord”, that means they’re in charge and you’re not. If Jesus is “Lord”, it means we do what he says. (“Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and not do what I say?”) Jesus can’t be your Savior if he isn’t also your Lord. We’ve lost some of this sense of “lordship” in our culture where it’s all about us. If you’ve never trusted in Christ, I’d love to talk to you. Find me or another of the elders and we’d love to talk with you. There’s no more important conversation we can have.
So let me ask again, are you eagerly waiting for the return of Christ when he will usher in the new heavens and the new earth? Are you excited that you won’t always have to walk around in this body of death? If so, then what Paul says next is for you.
Listen to how Paul ends the chapter, and I can’t think of a better way to close this message than to just end it with his words, because nothing I can say can add to or improve upon what he said.
1 Corinthians 15:50–58 ESV
50 I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 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. 53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. 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.” 55 “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” 56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 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.
Related Media
See more
Related Sermons
See more