Download 1 Corinthians 15:35-58 Our Imperishable Future

Our Imperishable Future – 1 Corinthians 15:35-58
4.23.17
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*Last week we talked about the importance of the bodily resurrection of Jesus actually happening.
Apart from Jesus rising from the grave on the third day, our preaching would be useless, our faith
would be worthless, our hope for those loved ones who have died knowing Jesus would be empty, and
we should be pitied more than all men. There would be no reason to follow Jesus if He did not rise
from death; risking our comfort, safety, and lives for His cause would be complete foolishness. Instead,
“eat and drink, tomorrow we die.” But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead as the firstfruits.
Please stand for the reading of God’s Word (congregational in red)
*35But someone may ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?” 36How
foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. 37When you sow, you do not plant the
body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. 38But God gives it a body as
he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body. *39All flesh is not the same: Men
have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another and fish another. 40There are also
heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; but the splendor of the heavenly bodies is of one kind,
and the splendor of the earthly bodies is another. 41The sun has one kind of splendor, the moon
another and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendor. *42So will it be with the
resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; 43it is sown in
dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; 44it is sown a natural body,
it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. 45So it is written:
“The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. *46The spiritual did
not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. 47The first man was of the dust of the
earth, the second man from heaven. 48As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth;
and as is the man from heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. 49And just as we have borne the
likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven. *50I declare to
you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable
inherit the imperishable. 51Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be
changed—52in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the
dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53For the perishable must clothe itself with
the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. *54When the perishable has been clothed with
the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true:
“Death has been swallowed up in victory.” 55“Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is
your sting?” 56The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57But thanks be to God! He
gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. *58Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let
nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your
labor in the Lord is not in vain.
Open in prayer
*V35 - 35But someone may ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?”
There were some in Corinth who argued that God couldn’t do raise the dead because they couldn’t
understand it. It didn’t make logical sense to them. Sadly, we too often think that way. “I cannot wrap
my brain around it, therefore, God could not have done it.” God is so far beyond our understanding
that something does not require our comprehension to be true. His thoughts are not our thoughts and
His ways are not our ways (Isa. 55:8). Going back to verse 35, have you ever thought about these
questions? People have asked me, “what will we look like? Will we recognize each other? Will we look
like the age we did when we died?” We cannot answer these questions with certainty but we do have
an example to look at: Jesus, the firstfruits from the dead which we will examine a bit later.
*V36-38 – Paul starts by using an example from agriculture. In order to grow a harvest, you must sow
seed first. I realize this is shocking and profound; this is why I am studying in seminary, to learn these
kinds of things. A kernel of wheat does not look like a wheat plant. To reach its potential, a kernel must
first be planted in the ground and die. This begins the process of fermentation and decomposition
which triggers new life and results in a full wheat plant.1 The spiritual point here is that the body that
dies is not the same as the body that is resurrected. Although the resurrected body will resemble our
current body in some way, it will be dramatically different and have much greater glory as we see in
the next few verses.
*V39-41 – God’s creation is so diverse: Humans, animals, birds, fish, insects, reptiles, etc. *All these
differ greatly from each other but each has flesh and each has a body. Verse 40 shows there is an even
greater difference between heavenly bodies (sun, stars, planets, etc.) and earthly bodies (humans and
animals). All of them are bodies that God created though. V41 goes on to show that the heavenly
bodies differ from each other in type and splendor. Louie Giglio in his famous talk, “Indescribable”
showed that the star VY Canis Majoris is so massive that if the earth were a golf ball, that star would be
the height of Mount Everest. It is so large that you could cover the entire the entire state of Texas in
golf balls two feet deep.2 God’s creative power and diversity is unmatched. Those who pictured a
resurrected body that was identical to the body before death were showing how foolish they were.
*V42-44 – In the same way, our resurrected body will be drastically different from our current body
because it will be imperishable. We are all aware of the fact that our body is perishable; we break
bones and they don’t heal exactly right, you likely have aches and pains that you didn’t have before,
we bear scars from accidents and surgeries, arthritis kicks in, and more. When my dad visited recently,
he and I went and played tennis at YHS and he made a comment about his mind knowing what he
needed to do but his body was too slow in obeying his mind. We are all perishable. Humanity is
constantly seeking for the key to immortality, how to hold off death and live forever but they will never
find it in science and medicine. Our mortal bodies may last longer if we take good care of them and
with the technological advances of modern medicine but they will eventually fail. Our resurrection
body will be imperishable: it will never break, fail, ache, or suffer disease. Verse 43 says that we will
trade dishonor for glory and weakness for power.
1
2
https://www.gty.org/library/blog/B130703
http://sethdavidmiller.com/2013/06/30/if-the-earth-were-the-size-of-a-golf-ball/
2
*V45-49 – Here, Paul goes back to the comparison between Adam and Jesus that he began in verse 21.
All of humanity bears the image of Adam, we have inherited a physical body like he had that was
created from the dust of the earth and will return to dust. In Genesis 3:19, God told Adam, “for dust
you are and to dust you will return.” However, in the same way, all who follow Jesus will inherit a
resurrection body like his. Verse 49 says, “just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so
shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven.”
*What was the likeness of the man from heaven? What do we know about Jesus after His
resurrection? He possessed a physical body that differed from our bodies but it was still physical. The
disciples were able to place their finger in the nail-holes and their hand in the hole that the spear made
in His side. He made a fire and ate fish with His disciples along the shore of the Sea of Galilee. His
disciples could touch Him. On the other hand, He was able to appear in a locked room and to
disappear. He could ascend into heaven in front of His disciples.
*I want to take a moment to debunk an extremely popular misconception in our culture: you will not
be an angel. People say things like this all the time when someone dies: “Heaven gained another angel”
or “My grandma is my guardian angel looking out for me.” We don’t have time this morning to dive
into a complete study of angels (that could take two to three sermons to do as there are 273
references to angels in the Bible)3 but I do want to give a very brief synopsis. Hebrews 1:14 says that
angels are “ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation”. They are created beings
that do the will of God. Satan was originally an angel who rebelled against God and led one-third of the
angels to follow him and become demons (Rev. 12:4). Man is created a little lower than the angels
(Psalm 8:5, Heb. 2:7). Men do not become angels when they die and angels do not become men
(although they can and do take on the form of men from time to time.) You see examples of that in
Gen. 18, Heb. 13:2, etc. You will be a glorified human being when you are resurrected.
*V50-53 – Our mortal flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God because it is stained with sin
and is perishable. Verse 51 says that not all will sleep but all will be changed. Sleep is a reference to
death here. When Jesus returns, those who believe in Him who are still living will be caught up to meet
Him in the clouds and will be instantly transformed into their resurrection body. *We need to look
briefly here at a parallel passage in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, “13Brothers, we do not want you to be
ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. 14We
believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who
have fallen asleep in him. 15According to the Lord’s own word, we tell you that we who are still alive,
who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep.
*16For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the
archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17After that, we who
are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the
air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. 18Therefore encourage each other with these words.”
Amen! Do you remind your brothers and sisters in Christ that Jesus is coming again? We need to keep
this truth before our eyes often. There is a day coming soon when the last trumpet will sound and
Jesus will return for His church riding on the clouds of heaven! Are you ready for that day? Those who
3
https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/1361
3
have died trusting in Christ, who have fallen asleep in Him, will be raised bodily from the grave and
transformed. Stop and think about that for a moment. In the same way that Jesus’s earthly body was
resurrected from the grave, so will every Christian who has died. Those who have been cremated,
those who have been martyred by beheading, those who have drowned in the ocean, those who
decomposed thousands of years ago; all of them will be raised and changed. Some of you might ask,
“How is that possible?” Well, we serve the God who created a universe by speaking, mankind by
breathing into dirt, and woman from a rib from a man. I am confident that He can take ashes and dust
and bones and create glorified, resurrected bodies from it.
*V54-55 – We mentioned last week that death has been defeated by Jesus Christ but it has not been
destroyed yet. Almost every person in this room has felt the sting of death and it still hurts. Parents
who lost children to miscarriages. Widows and widowers whose spouses left you behind. Parents,
grandparents, siblings, and friends who have died. Death still stings and anyone who tells you that it
doesn’t is not grounded in reality. But listen: there is a day coming soon when death will be swallowed
up in victory! *These words which were spoken in Isaiah 25:8 will finally be fulfilled, “he will swallow
up death forever. The Sovereign LORD will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove the
disgrace of his people from all the earth. The LORD has spoken.” The sting of death will be stripped
away. Right now, 1 Thess. 4:13 says that we don’t grieve like those who have no hope but we still
grieve. When Lazarus died in John 11, Jesus wept even though He knew that He would rise again. To
those who are mourning the loss of a loved one whether it is recent or happened years ago, know that
death does not win.
*V56-57 – 56The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57But thanks be to God! He
gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. When Jesus rose from the grave, He didn’t conquer
death for Himself only but for every person who would believe in Him. The wages of sin, death, were
paid out to the perfect Son of God so that we could receive the wages of righteousness which is eternal
life. The law was the power of sin because in the law of God we saw that we could never follow God’s
standard of holiness. We would never and could never please God. But thanks be to God for the victory
that our Lord Jesus Christ achieved!
*V58 - 58Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully
to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. What is our
response in the meantime, while we wait “till He returns or calls me home”? Stand firm in the faith. As
it says in Romans 8:31, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” Your future is certain and so you can
let nothing move you. Let me close today by asking you if you are giving yourself fully to the work of
the Lord. What are you holding back? Are you wondering if it is foolish to live a life of wholehearted
devotion to Jesus Christ? You can give Him your all; loving Him with all your heart, your soul, your
mind, and your strength knowing that your labor for Him is not wasted. If we really believe that we are
going to spend eternity in the presence of God, enjoying fellowship with Him because of the work of
Jesus on the cross, wouldn’t we strive now to live our lives completely sold out for Him? Right belief
should lead to right behavior. Give yourself fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your
labor in the Lord is not in vain.
Close in prayer
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