Castlebar Christian Fellowship

1 Corinthians 15:35-49 T

THE BODY YOU'VE ALWAYS WANTED

INTRO
It's amazing what people will do these days to change their appearance and it's even more amazing what they will pay! Cosmetic surgery used to be associated with celebrities or the wealthy, but not anymore. Average people are now spending a lot of money to make themselves as beautiful as they can afford.
In 2006, American's spent nearly $12.2 billion in cosmetic procedures alone. Basic costs include: at least $8000 for a facelift; $4000 for eyelid surgery; and $6000 for a tummy tuck. Some of the newer procedures used, especially for those who want to stay young, are just as expensive. Neck tucks, described as a face-lift for the neck, costs $4800. Knee-tightening only costs about $500 and uses infrared lasers to blast away flab and other unwanted features around your knees. Here's one for the men. Hair restoration surgically transplants strips of hair from a more plentiful area of the head for up to $10000 a session. Earlobe repair helps make baggy earlobes look younger for $500 to $800 per ear. Extreme hand makeover is the last updated surgery for the older generation.
Also you can now purchase gift cards for any occasion. Need an idea for Valentine's Day? How about a face-lift for the wife? That should get you in the good books! ;) Thing is though none of this puts off the inevitable, it's all temporary and ultimately it's all a waste of money. Oil of Olay can only do so much, Botox can only do so much and plastic surgery can only go so far. This body we're in will age, it will waste away and it will die!
My job this morning is to proclaim to you that God has a plan, a hope filled plan that is infinitely better than Oil of Olay, or Botox, or plastic surgery, or hip replacement. So listen up, our God has a hope filled plan that far exceeds your wildest imaginations. See this body we're in now is limited and it will become more limited as we get older. It's limited because of sin. It's limited in what it can do. It's limited in what it can cope with. It's limited in how long it can last. It's limited in how much it can understand. It's limited in every way you can think off.
But God has a plan. A plan of total transformation! A plan to transform limited into unlimited. A plan to transform weakness into power! A plan to make old into new! A plan to turn perishable into imperishable! A plan to turn dishonour into glory! A plan to turn mortal into immortal! A plan to turn natural into supernatural! A plan to turn death into life to the max! There is truth in these verses intended to fill you full of hope this morning. In Jesus there is a glorious future for all who believe in him! So listen up! Don't shut your ears to the hope filled plan of God.
[V35esv] "But someone will ask, "How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?"
There are always people who try to fathom these glorious truths logically. They ask questions like; "How can the dead be raised when their bodies have decayed, or been moved. Or what about soldiers who were blown to pieces in war, or those who have been cremated? How can their bodies be raised? With what kind of body do they come?" However such questions miss the main point! We're not talking here about what is possible on a human level or on a natural level. We need to understand this morning, that we are talking about what is possible to an all-powerful God... If you believe in God this morning then you have to believe that nothing is too hard for him! If you don't believe in God then yes of course all this sounds impossible, however if you do believe in him then you have to conclude that all things are possible for him! What we are talking about here is something absolutely miraculous, something that God alone can do. Human logic and the miraculous power of God don't go well together. You can't work out a miracle, you can't figure it out! All you can do is praise God like the lame beggar who was healed in Acts chapter 3!
This is why Paul says "You foolish person!" to those who ask such questions. He doesn't commend the doubters for their contributions to the ongoing theological discussion. Neither does he commend them for being sensitive to the intellectual trends of their culture. He simply tells them they are foolish! Why? Because they are supposed to have a God-centred view of reality, and with God all things are possible!
When a group of people called the Sadducees tried to trap Jesus with their questions concerning the resurrection Jesus bluntly told them, "Is this not the reason you are wrong, because you know not the scriptures nor the power of God?" In other words if you knew the scriptures, you would know that God is a miraculous God who is not confined by our limitations. If you knew the power of God in your own life then you wouldn't even ask such a stupid question because God is not limited to how things work in your world. With God you have to think outside the box of how things are in this world, because he is above it!
Listen to what David Jackman writes; "We must not limit God either to what we have already seen or experienced, or to what we think we can understand... (He continues) ...But we have to start with those things in order to begin to comprehend what lies beyond them. So, in answering his questioners, Paul begins with the natural world that we do know, and draws from it two illustrations of a principle that is to be applied to the world that we do not yet know."
ILLUSTRATION 1 - SEEDS AND WHEAT
[V36-38esv] "What you sow does not come to live unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare seed, perhaps of wheat or some other grain. But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body."
Inbuilt into creation are glimpses of God's hope filled plan, of God's transforming power and of God's sheer unfathomable magnitude. Creation introduces us to Creator! Creation is God's way of saying hello! Paul points us to one little part of God's creation - seeds and wheat - to help us begin to understand the nature of our resurrection.
The Holy Spirit wants us to see that in creation life comes out of death all the time. In fact death is the condition of rebirth. When a seed is planted, it dies and decays; however the miracle of creation is that from that dead, decaying seed life springs forth. From the dead seed comes wheat in the time of harvest. So it is with our mortal bodies, they die and decay, but through the miraculous power of God new immortal bodies will be raised up on the day when Jesus returns. In this way creation points forward to the hope filled plan of God. The only ability you need in order to be raised in power is the ability to die. Death is the inevitable gateway to life immortal.
Another thing that we learn from this seed to wheat process is that what is raised is different from what is sown. The seed changes radically. What comes out of the ground looks completely different from what went into it. However it continues to be the same life form. In others words, a wheat seed produces wheat, not barley or any other kind of grain. Its identity is in its wheatiness! Changed! Yes it is! But it is still identified with what was sown! It is the same with people! What is raised will look remarkable different from what was sown! However you will still be you! You will still have your identity! You don't come back as someone else or something else you come back as the transformed and glorified you! Changed! Yes you are! But you are still you.
ILLUSTRATION 2 - THE DIVERSITY OF CREATION
[v39-41esv] "For not all flesh is the same, but there is one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish. 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. 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."
Paul's second illustration points us to the diversity of God's creation. He is the one who created the human body, as well as all the bodies of animals. He is the one who made the fishes body perfectly suited to the sea. Or the bird's body perfectly suited to the air. Look at all the different types of animals in the world and how they are perfectly suited to their environment, so is it so hard to believe that all-powerful creator God can raise for us a new body suited for heaven? It is the one who made the earth and all that is in it who is going to raise our new bodies fit for heaven! It is the God who made the heavens, who put the stars in place, who created the known and unknown universe! It is this God who is going to raise us up! Can we stop for a moment and think about the magnitude and the power of our glorious God?
Look at his creation! Compare the blazing summer sun with the peaceful light of the moon, or with the spectacular beauty of the millions of stars. Think of the majestic glory of the mountain ranges, or the restless pounding of the ocean breaking on the shore. Focus on the individuality and uniqueness of each snow flake, or the variety of flowers. They are all totally different from each other, and yet each is created and sustained by our glorious sovereign Creator. Learn from the variety within creation that we can see something of the wonders of that new creation that we are yet to see. Can you see the unlimited resources of an all-powerful God? Our God is infinite in power to accomplish anything. So can you see how foolish the how questions are? How isn't a question you ask a God of such magnitude! If you truly understand who God is then your how's will become wow's before his unlimited ability to do whatever pleases him! Why limit God with silly questions about how dead bodies can possibly be raised and transformed?
The Psalmist tell us that; "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handwork." Creation is constantly testifying to us what our indescribable, uncontainable, all-powerful, untameable, incomparable, unfathomable, unchangeable, and limitless God is capable off. "From the highest of heights to the depths of the sea, creations revealing his majesty!" It is this God who is going to raise us up when Jesus returns with new bodies fit for his eternal kingdom! It is in this God that our certain hope rests!
Paul continues by telling about our new bodies!
[V42-44esv] "So it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. It's is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body!
Paul contrasts what is sown with what is raised! Our resurrection bodies will be remarkably different from our present bodies, because they need to be adapted to suit a different kind of existence. Paul points out 4 main differences between what is sown and what is raised!
1. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable!
By nature our bodies are subject to decay, and this process which we experience throughout life continues when we are buried in the ground. The body that is sown into the grave continues to decay, and though it can be delayed, the process is ultimately inevitable. However when Jesus returns we will be raised with imperishable bodies! Bodies that will never know decay, bodies that will never experience death. Bodies that will be invincible, bodies that will live forever! Imagine having a body that never ages... This is the glorious future hope of those who are in Christ. Of those who put their hope and trust in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus! This is why Paul is able to say to the Corinthians in his next letter; "So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal."
2. What is sown is sown in dishonour; what is raised is raised in glory!
The word translated dishonour has to do with loss of status and appearance. What is buried is a poor reflection of what could have been if it were not for the fall. It is imperfect and marred by the effects of sin. Even the most faithful believer dies with his body in a state of dishonour, a state of imperfection and incompleteness. This is true of every citizen of planet earth. Whatever glory and honour that may be given to us in this world is but a poor reflection of what God had designed for us, and it will all be left at the grave, buried with that perishable dead body. However praise God because it's not only a poor reflection of what God had designed for us, but also of what God has prepared for those who are in Christ! As Paul writes to the Philippians; "But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him to subject all things to himself."
Through Christ we have been made citizens of heaven! There is a sense in which all our Christian experience in this world is one of alienation and of anticipation of our heavenly dwelling! Our citizenship is in heaven. For this reason we have hope, because this body that is sown in dishonour will be raised in glory. When Jesus our saviour returns he will transform our lowly dishonoured bodies to be like his gloriously beautiful body! The Christians resurrection body will be physically attractive beyond anything imaginable because it will no longer reflect the effects of sin, but it will reflect the glorious beauty of Jesus! You want to look good - then stick with Jesus!
3. What is sown is sown in weakness; what is raised is raised in power!
Not only will the resurrection body be imperishable and gloriously beautiful, but it will also be characterised by power! This body we're in now is weak and fragile. Human life hangs on the thinnest of threads... (Share malaria story) The body we're in now is characterized by weakness. We give into temptation. We lack physical strength and endurance. We get sick. We break bones, we bleed when we cut our skin and catch infections and diseases. As we get older the aches and pains increase and our immune system weakens even more. And yes of course we believe God has the power to heal, and we know he does at times, but we need to understand that even miraculous healing is a temporary solution. Even if we are healed of Asthma or of a fatal disease we still continue to get colds and flu's, we still age, our outer nature still wastes away! We will never experience total healing in this life, just like we will never experience total freedom from sin in this life! When God miraculously heals it is a foretaste, it is a sign post to our future hope, to the day when we will experience ultimate healing! And I believe God wants to give us more foretastes!
But the ultimate fulfilment to "By his stripes we are healed" is a new powerful body immune from sin and sickness. A body that will be beyond the reach of disease, disaster, death and decay! One day we are going to have a body of power! It will never get tired, never grow old, never stumble, never fall, never get ill, never wear out, never yield to sin. Instead it will be an invincible fortress of power. Can you begin to imagine what it will be like to have a body characterized by power, rather than weakness? One day we are going to have a body with extraordinary powers. One like that of our resurrected Jesus! This is our hope!
Do you remember when Jesus visited the disciples in the Upper room? Perhaps there is a touch of humour in what Jesus did. He did not go up the stairs and knock on the door, did he? That would have scared the life out of them if he did that. Peter would have put all the furniture against the door in case it was the temple police come to arrest them. No, what did Jesus do? He simply came through the wall! Was he a ghost? No because they touched him, and he ate with them! He had a physical body that could walk through walls. Work that one out!
Or what about when Jesus came to the disciples in the middle of a lake, walking on water in the middle of a storm as recorded in John 6. After calming the storm the text says; "And immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going." Or we could turn to the story of Phillip with the Ethiopian Eunuch. After he had baptized him the text says; "And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Phillip away, and the eunuch saw him no more." Then Phillip found himself in a totally different place altogether! Is this a foretaste of what our resurrection bodies will be capable off? See it is not just a matter of the absence of the weaknesses that characterise our earthly bodies. It is the presence of supernatural powers that enable us to do the most extraordinary things! Because...
4. What is sown is natural; what is raised is spiritual!
Our resurrection bodies will experience total transformation. They will cease to be limited by sin, or weakness, or gravity, or physics, or time, or space! They will be totally adapted to the realities of the age to come and they will be totally indwelt and permanently filled with the Spirit of God. But we must not forget these resurrection bodies will be our very own bodies changed. Listen to these thoughts penned by bible teacher John Phillips: "Again the natural world provides us with an illustration. Here for instance, is the caterpillar. It lives out its life as an earthbound, circumscribed grub, crawling in the dust. We can see it as it lifts it's little head and stares at the vast expanse of the sky. We know exactly what the little fellow is thinking. It says to itself, "Oh! If only I could fly! If only I had wings! If only I could soar upward to the sky! If only I could catch the rising air currents and wing my way from tree to tree. But I'm only a wretched grub with a lot of legs, crawling up and down the trunks of trees."
Then comes the change. Something akin to death, more akin to death than sleep, overtakes the caterpillar. It feels it coming. It makes a little coffin for itself, crawls inside, and dies to the only life it ever knew, the life of a caterpillar. Time passes and still the coffin hangs where it was placed with what was once a caterpillar inside. But then, suddenly, comes a mysterious call. Only the caterpillar hears it. It bursts out of its coffin. But it has been changed! It entered a caterpillar; it comes out a butterfly, changed beyond all recognition...
Remember, it is exactly the same creature that comes out of that little coffin that goes into it - but it has been changed. It has had a change of dress. It was sown a caterpillar, it was raised a butterfly. It was sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory! It spreads its gorgeous wings and soars upwards to the sky in a blaze of beauty and colour!" How much more shall be changed when the trumpet sounds as Christ Returns and raises our imperishable, glorious, powerful, spiritual bodies out of the earth! "So it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. It's is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body." Paul continues:
[v45-48esv] "Thus it is written, "The first man Adam became a living being"; the last man Adam became a life-giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. 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 off heaven."
Just as every person who has ever lived has received body after the pattern of Adam, so everyone who belongs to Christ will receive their new body after the pattern of Jesus' resurrected body. Adam is the representative of all who die and Jesus is the representative of all who will be raised to eternal life. Those who are identified with Adam - every person who has ever been born - is subject to death because of Adams sinful act. Likewise, those who are identified with Jesus - every person who has experienced New Life and believed in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus - is subject to resurrection to eternal life through Jesus!
So the question is who is representing you today Adam or Jesus? If your representative is still Adam then you are still in your sins, separated from God, and if you die it that state then yes you will be raised, but you will not be raised to glory you will be raised to judgment... But today there is good news, you can change your representative by putting your trust in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus! Today you can enter the hope filled reality of true faith in Jesus and lay hold of him as your representative. Today this glorious future can belong to you and you don't have to pay $10,000 for it. You only have to look to Jesus and change will begin!
Listen to the words of Jesus in John 6:37-40; 44 "All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who send me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given to me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day." - Look to Jesus, he says he will not turn you away! Can you see your need of him, can you see him as your Saviour this morning...? Then rejoice this glorious future belongs to you. "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day." - Is the Father drawing you this morning, is your heart saying yes to the wonderful hope you have heard proclaimed...?
[V49esv] "Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven."
Back during World War 1, a man named Sir Harold Gillies made a name for himself as a pioneer in the art of facial reconstruction and modern plastic surgery. After Gillies witnessed the physical toll that war caused on soldiers, it became his passion to specialize in facial reconstruction. At the beginning of the war, plastic surgery was crudely practiced, with little real attention given to appearance. Gillies worked with artists whose purpose was to, as realistically as possible restore the soldiers' faces to their original likeness.
God has an even better plan for his people! Can you see this morning that God has a much better plan? And we can experience foretastes of our glorious future today!