A Seed that Sprouts
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A Seed that Sprouts
A Seed that Sprouts
So, we have been talking about the overall plan of redemption of God of the humans after the events of the garden.
Good creation
Fall of humans (apart from Life)
Redemption through Jesus
Restoration of Heaven and Earth.
Last week, we talked very briefly about Hell
We looked at two scenarios:
Live on in death forever
Die and cease to exist
THIS GENERATED SOME QUESTIONS...
What will we be like
when we are raised?
Here is the short answer…we are not entirely sure.
This question presents a problem.
How do you describe spiritual things, a spiritual existence, using human words in a physical world?
What we have are ancient people, using ancient languages, with ancient pictures to communicate with a modern (today’s) believer.
That is going to present some problems.
But, we are not the first ones to ask this question...
But someone may ask, “How will the dead be raised? What kind of bodies will they have?”
Now, these are TWO GOOD questions.
Sure!
Except Paul, the Apostle, does not think so...
You foolish person! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body. For not all flesh is the same, but there is one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish.
You Foolish Person!
Paul does not mince any words…or he might be saying, “how do you not know this!”
*******INSERT VIDEO*******
New Living Translation (Chapter 15)
When you put a seed into the ground, it doesn’t grow into a plant unless it dies first. 37 And what you put in the ground is not the plant that will grow, but only a bare seed of wheat or whatever you are planting. 38 Then God gives it the new body he wants it to have. A different plant grows from each kind of seed. 39 Similarly there are different kinds of flesh—one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish.
He is going to answer the first question: HOW ARE THE DEAD RAISED?
KEY to understanding SCRIPTURE:
OBSERVE
UNDERSTAND the INSTRUCTION
ACT
So, with that in mind…HOW ARE THE DEAD RAISED?
The SEED is made up of many parts!
This is WHY trying to DRESS up the SEED’s SHELL, the COAT, is...
UTERLY USELESS…Jesus would say, it is not what GOES IN, but WHAT COMES OUT...
That is on EARTH…but did you know there are different kinds of bodies?
There are also bodies in the heavens and bodies on the earth. The glory of the heavenly bodies is different from the glory of the earthly bodies. The sun has one kind of glory, while the moon and stars each have another kind. And even the stars differ from each other in their glory.
That word GLORY…it can be confusing…unless you keep this SEED metaphor in mind.
GLORY=Brightness, power, beauty, pride, what they are made of
People were envious of the gods, they wanted to be like the gods.
And they wanted to be like the gods while ON EARTH.
And Paul is confirming something here.
the heavenly beings were thought of as stars
the heavenly beings are made up of something different than us (more on that a bit later)
the heavenly beings also differ in their composition
So, he is going to pull it together...
1 Corinthians 15:42–44 (ESV)
So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown an unspiritual body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is an unspiritual body, there is also a spiritual body.
What a beautiful piece of writing…SO HONEST!
SOWN IN:
DISHONOR
WEAKNESS
UNSPIRITUAL
RAISED IN:
GLORY
POWER
SPIRITUAL
He goes on...
The Scriptures tell us, “The first man, Adam, became a living person.” But the last Adam—that is, Christ—is a life-giving Spirit. What comes first is the natural body, then the spiritual body comes later. Adam, the first man, was made from the dust of the earth, while Christ, the second man, came from heaven. Earthly people are like the earthly man, and heavenly people are like the heavenly man. Just as we are now like the earthly man, we will someday be like the heavenly man.
So, there is a flow.
But there is hope for us to be like the Heavenly man, Christ.
And…here is where the SEED metaphor comes in...
What I am saying, dear brothers and sisters, is that our physical bodies cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. These dying bodies cannot inherit what will last forever.
This is a CALL BACK to something said in Genesis...
The LORD God said, “Look! The Human(s) is like one of us, knowing good and evil. Now, they can reach out their hand and also take from the tree of life and eat and live forever. The LORD God sent them from the Garden of Eden to serve the ground from which He took them.” Genesis 3:22-23
Driving the humans out of the garden away from the tree of life was an act of MERCY.
Otherwise, they could take the fruit and live in a state of eternal dying.
God VERY MUCH wanted to avoid that.
So, if these bodies, and bodies like these, cannot inherit what will last forever, then what are we to do?
But let me reveal to you a wonderful secret. We will not all die, but we will all be transformed! It will happen in a moment, in the blink of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown. For when the trumpet sounds, those who have died will be raised to live forever. And we who are living will also be transformed. For our dying bodies must be transformed into bodies that will never die; our mortal bodies must be transformed into immortal bodies.
I am not going to spend much time here…but for you who have an view of the “end times” that includes no Christian’s being here during the worst of times…you are going to need to explain this one.
AND…Paul is not talking about every human who ever lived in this verse. That is spoken of in other texts, but he is talking to his Corinthian Christians.
Then, when our dying bodies have been transformed into bodies that will never die, this Scripture will be fulfilled: “Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”
We talked about this last week…the DEATH of DEATH.
For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power. But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ.
So, we had two questions that were asked:
How will the dead be raised?
What kind of bodies will we have?
They are like seeds that must die in the ground, and they will sprout bearing fruit according to what God has designed.
They will not be like the bodies we have today. They will be spiritual bodies, like the stars, all differing in their glory.
So what does that mean for me today?
So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable. Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless.
It is as if…our bodies are transformed like seeds in the New Creation, and we are sprouting all KINDS of FRUIT across creation.
We can start that today.