Resurrection Bodies I (1Corinthians 15:35-49)

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.680 --> 00:00:04.040 If you're able to remain standing, please do. If not, feel free 2 00:00:04.120 --> 00:00:07.629 to have a seat. We're going to turn our attention now to first Corinthians 3 00:00:07.710 --> 00:00:14.150 Chapter Fifteen. Will look at some of the verses in this Wonderful Chapter About 4 00:00:14.150 --> 00:00:21.030 The resurrection of Christ on this morning and then the remaining, well, the 5 00:00:21.109 --> 00:00:23.980 ones after it. Then, not all the rest, but the ones after 6 00:00:24.059 --> 00:00:29.940 it this evening. So sort of two parts this morning. First Corinthians, 7 00:00:33.020 --> 00:00:39.170 First Corinthians Chapter Fifteen, beginning at verse thirty five, thirty five to forty 8 00:00:39.210 --> 00:00:50.000 nine. But someone will ask how are the dead raised with? What kind 9 00:00:50.000 --> 00:00:56.560 of body do they come you foolish person. What you sow does not come 10 00:00:56.640 --> 00:01:00.840 to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body that 11 00:01:00.039 --> 00:01:04.390 is to be, but a bear kernel, perhaps of wet or of some 12 00:01:04.510 --> 00:01:11.069 other grain. But God gives it a body as he has chosen, into 13 00:01:11.189 --> 00:01:15.349 each kind of seed, its own body, for not all flesh is the 14 00:01:15.390 --> 00:01:19.180 same, but there is one kind for humans, another for animals, another 15 00:01:19.260 --> 00:01:23.340 for birds and another for fish. They're heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but 16 00:01:23.459 --> 00:01:27.340 the glory of the heavenly is of one kind and the glory of the earthly 17 00:01:27.579 --> 00:01:33.049 is of another. There is one glory of The Sun and another glory of 18 00:01:33.090 --> 00:01:38.090 the Moon and another glory of the stars, for Star differs from Star in 19 00:01:38.209 --> 00:01:42.930 glory. So it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown 20 00:01:42.170 --> 00:01:49.560 is perishable. What is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor it 21 00:01:49.719 --> 00:01:53.719 is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in 22 00:01:53.840 --> 00:02:00.280 power. It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. 23 00:02:00.159 --> 00:02:04.549 If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. 24 00:02:05.510 --> 00:02:08.349 Thus it is written the first man, Adam, became a living being. 25 00:02:09.229 --> 00:02:15.629 The last atom became a life giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual 26 00:02:15.740 --> 00:02:20.659 that is first, but the natural and then the spiritual. The first man 27 00:02:20.860 --> 00:02:23.139 was from the earth, a man of dust. The second man is from 28 00:02:23.139 --> 00:02:28.300 heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are 29 00:02:28.419 --> 00:02:30.930 of the dust, and as is the man of Heaven, so are also 30 00:02:31.009 --> 00:02:36.009 are those who are of Heaven. Just as we have borne the image of 31 00:02:36.050 --> 00:02:39.569 the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of 32 00:02:39.729 --> 00:02:54.360 heaven. Amen. He may be seated, when Jesus side and rose again 33 00:02:54.479 --> 00:03:01.550 from the dead. It was not just something for him, you know, 34 00:03:01.669 --> 00:03:07.509 a part of his life that might remotely relate to something in someone else's life, 35 00:03:07.550 --> 00:03:15.740 or maybe even your life or my life. It wasn't like that when 36 00:03:15.860 --> 00:03:20.500 God sent his son, I'm to live and to die, to be crucified 37 00:03:20.539 --> 00:03:24.219 on a cross, to be buried, to raise from the dead and then 38 00:03:24.460 --> 00:03:30.009 later to ascend into heaven. These things were done for a very particular purpose 39 00:03:30.889 --> 00:03:37.849 a particular people, and scripture is full of various ways of explaining this. 40 00:03:38.729 --> 00:03:44.159 Jesus Christ died for sinners, for example, Paul says, John says that 41 00:03:44.680 --> 00:03:50.039 God sent his son to save the world. There was this way in which 42 00:03:50.080 --> 00:03:57.069 Jesus is life was lived, not for himself but for others. Right, 43 00:03:57.189 --> 00:04:02.189 he loved us, as we read earlier. This means, then, that 44 00:04:02.389 --> 00:04:14.460 Jesus is resurrection has implications for us, our lives, specifically the resurrection of 45 00:04:14.780 --> 00:04:24.259 our bodies. His resurrection has implications and leads to our resurrection, and that's 46 00:04:24.259 --> 00:04:30.970 what Paul is talking about here in First Corinthians fifteen. Now let's begin. 47 00:04:31.209 --> 00:04:34.970 Before we think about the answer to Paul's question, which is how are the 48 00:04:35.089 --> 00:04:40.160 dead raised with? What kind of body will they have? We want to 49 00:04:40.199 --> 00:04:46.480 think a little bit about Christ's crucifixion and Resurrection Because, Remember, Our resurrection 50 00:04:46.639 --> 00:04:54.629 depends on his one way to look at this is to remember that the events 51 00:04:54.709 --> 00:04:59.629 leading up to the crucifixion of Christ are set in the context of Passover. 52 00:05:00.589 --> 00:05:04.310 This is key because the Bible identifies Jesus as the fulfillment of the Passover. 53 00:05:04.350 --> 00:05:10.699 He is the Passover lamb. The Passover lamb, however, was not the 54 00:05:10.740 --> 00:05:15.579 only sacrifice of lambs. There was also daily at the temple, a daily 55 00:05:15.620 --> 00:05:21.410 sacrifice of lambs, also of doves to God. Jesus fulfills both of these. 56 00:05:21.490 --> 00:05:27.610 He in fact fills all the temple sacrifices together. But this lamb imagery, 57 00:05:27.730 --> 00:05:31.050 that Passover lamb, the daily sacrifices, these kinds of things are why 58 00:05:31.050 --> 00:05:35.879 John Talks about Jesus as the lamb of God who takes away the sins of 59 00:05:35.959 --> 00:05:42.360 the world in the beginning of his Gospel. It's why Paul Talks about Jesus 60 00:05:42.480 --> 00:05:49.069 as Christ, our Passover lamb. Jesus is, in an Old Testament language, 61 00:05:49.389 --> 00:05:56.870 the sacrificial lamb who dies in the place of God's people, atoning for 62 00:05:56.990 --> 00:06:03.069 our sins and thus rescuing us from our sins and its consequences. Namely Slavery 63 00:06:03.860 --> 00:06:10.939 to sin, fear of death, even the powers in the kingdoms of this 64 00:06:11.180 --> 00:06:16.139 world that rule against Christ. But one thing in the Old Testament that you'll 65 00:06:16.220 --> 00:06:24.290 never see in the imagery of the sacrificial lambs is that they never rise from 66 00:06:24.290 --> 00:06:31.449 the dead. You never see the the throw of the lamb, slit roasted 67 00:06:31.850 --> 00:06:40.360 and eaten and then standing all of a sudden before you. And yet if 68 00:06:40.399 --> 00:06:46.959 you turn to revelation five, this is exactly the description that is given of 69 00:06:46.079 --> 00:06:54.069 Jesus. In revelation five versus six through ten, we have this description of 70 00:06:54.149 --> 00:07:00.029 a lamb that was slain, but instead of laying on an altar or on 71 00:07:00.110 --> 00:07:05.660 a table or something like that, he is he is standing. Revelation five, 72 00:07:05.779 --> 00:07:12.819 six through ten. Here's John's vision. And between the throne and the 73 00:07:12.899 --> 00:07:18.009 four living creatures and amongst the elders, I saw a lamb standing as though 74 00:07:18.089 --> 00:07:23.889 it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are 75 00:07:23.970 --> 00:07:28.769 the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. And he went 76 00:07:28.810 --> 00:07:30.959 and took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the 77 00:07:31.040 --> 00:07:34.920 throne. And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and 78 00:07:35.079 --> 00:07:40.560 the twenty four elders fell down before the lamb, each holding a harp and 79 00:07:40.680 --> 00:07:44.949 Golden Bulls full of Incense, incense which are the prayers of the saints, 80 00:07:45.189 --> 00:07:49.350 and they sang a new song, saying worthy are you to take the scroll 81 00:07:49.790 --> 00:07:54.589 and to open its seals, for you were slain and by your blood you 82 00:07:54.709 --> 00:07:59.939 ransomed for people, or you ransomed people for God, from every tribe and 83 00:08:00.060 --> 00:08:03.180 language and people and nation. You have made them a kingdom and priests to 84 00:08:03.300 --> 00:08:11.779 our God, and they shall reign on the earth. The lamb that was 85 00:08:11.970 --> 00:08:18.529 sacrificed is now the lamb that is standing, and because of the work of 86 00:08:18.610 --> 00:08:24.730 his sacrifice, we have now this heavenly scene in which these twenty four elders 87 00:08:24.889 --> 00:08:30.199 and these angels and others are falling down before this lamb, not a dead 88 00:08:30.240 --> 00:08:37.159 lamb, a standing, risen lamb, praising him as a king by Wret, 89 00:08:37.240 --> 00:08:43.149 by his blood, ransoming people for God, making them into a kingdom. 90 00:08:46.110 --> 00:08:48.590 Now this, of course, is a vision and it's filled with symbolism 91 00:08:50.350 --> 00:08:54.389 and it's it's given to us in this way that we might understand the nature 92 00:08:54.429 --> 00:09:00.179 of our salvation in Christ, why we have hope in him. This is 93 00:09:00.220 --> 00:09:05.179 important because Jesus is not a sheep. Jesus doesn't have the nature of a 94 00:09:05.379 --> 00:09:09.929 sheep. He has the nature of God and the nature of Man. In 95 00:09:11.090 --> 00:09:13.929 other words, to be clear, Jesus is not a lamb when, or 96 00:09:15.009 --> 00:09:18.009 doesn't become a lamb when he is raised from the dead. But in his 97 00:09:18.450 --> 00:09:26.799 humanity he represents and he acts as the sacrificial lamb, except one that has 98 00:09:26.840 --> 00:09:33.600 risen from the dead. So then, what we learn about Jesus's resurrection in 99 00:09:33.679 --> 00:09:37.200 this image is that through his life, through the giving of his life as 100 00:09:37.240 --> 00:09:45.590 a sacrifice, he rises as a king with strength and honor and power. 101 00:09:46.710 --> 00:09:50.269 If you continue down to verse twelve of that chapter, we will read this 102 00:09:50.870 --> 00:09:54.620 worthy is the lamb who is plain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and 103 00:09:54.700 --> 00:10:01.460 might and honor and glory and blessing forever. Actually, the forever comes in 104 00:10:01.500 --> 00:10:09.289 verse thirteen when it's repeated again. So this is Jesus in his resurrected glory. 105 00:10:11.129 --> 00:10:15.330 He is receiving power and wealth and wisdom. In my he is being 106 00:10:16.210 --> 00:10:22.080 worshiped. Now, if that weren't remarkable enough, just that a fact alone. 107 00:10:22.080 --> 00:10:26.480 As I've said, the Bible connects this resurrection with ours and it says, 108 00:10:26.639 --> 00:10:33.159 our resurrection will be like his. Now our nature is only human, 109 00:10:35.080 --> 00:10:39.230 not also divine, which means that he will never worship us right, the 110 00:10:39.389 --> 00:10:43.389 Lord and Savior, will never fall down before us, casting down his crown 111 00:10:43.429 --> 00:10:50.019 and giving us all the glory and power and wisdom and honor, praise be 112 00:10:50.179 --> 00:10:56.820 to God. So we ought to always maintain this great distinction between the creature 113 00:10:56.820 --> 00:11:03.179 and the Creator, even after the resurrection. And yet scripture does say in 114 00:11:03.330 --> 00:11:07.169 First Corinthians fifteen, forty nine, the last verse I read, just as 115 00:11:07.289 --> 00:11:11.169 we have borne the image of the man of dust, that is Adam, 116 00:11:13.649 --> 00:11:20.759 we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. What he is 117 00:11:20.000 --> 00:11:26.960 in his humanity is what we can expect to be. What does that mean 118 00:11:28.080 --> 00:11:33.470 then? What can you expect? Well, that takes us to Paul's question. 119 00:11:33.750 --> 00:11:39.509 Then, this rhetorical question. Can First Corinthians fifteen, he says. 120 00:11:39.870 --> 00:11:45.389 Someone will ask how are the dead raised with? What kind of body do 121 00:11:45.549 --> 00:11:52.059 they come now, if this seems like a reasonable and interesting question to you, 122 00:11:52.100 --> 00:11:56.100 you might be taken aback a little bit by Paul's next sentence, which 123 00:11:56.139 --> 00:12:01.179 is you foolish persons. Like, what do you mean foolish? I thought 124 00:12:01.179 --> 00:12:05.289 that was a kind of good question. What kind of body are we going 125 00:12:05.529 --> 00:12:13.090 to have? You foolish person, he says, let's do a little bit 126 00:12:13.129 --> 00:12:18.000 of humility for a moment. If you find yourself balking a little bit at 127 00:12:18.080 --> 00:12:22.240 Paul saying, well, I don't think that's so foolish. The maybe it's 128 00:12:22.320 --> 00:12:28.360 time to quiet your heart a little bit, find some humility before God as 129 00:12:28.480 --> 00:12:33.590 his apostle speaks, as he speaks through his apostle. Because what Paul is 130 00:12:33.750 --> 00:12:37.870 saying here, the reason he calls this question foolish in a way, is 131 00:12:37.909 --> 00:12:43.830 that what he's going to tell us is so basic and obvious part of the 132 00:12:43.909 --> 00:12:48.259 Christian faith that to not know it and not understand it is to be ignorant. 133 00:12:50.019 --> 00:12:54.100 It's to ask kind of a silly question. This is something that you 134 00:12:54.139 --> 00:12:58.409 should know. The good news is that he tells us the answer. He 135 00:12:58.850 --> 00:13:05.370 helps us to be wise. And so if it is unknown to you how 136 00:13:05.490 --> 00:13:09.330 the dead are to be raised with, what kind of body they come and 137 00:13:09.850 --> 00:13:16.159 why that might be important, let's let's humble ourselves before the word of God 138 00:13:16.320 --> 00:13:22.399 and learn what he has to say. So, what kind of body will 139 00:13:22.440 --> 00:13:26.830 we have? Right? This is a good question for people who think about 140 00:13:28.029 --> 00:13:35.389 life and death every day, who have heartaches and trials both internally and externally. 141 00:13:37.549 --> 00:13:39.950 What kind of body will we have? How will we be like the 142 00:13:41.070 --> 00:13:46.100 man of Heaven? Well, Paul's first answer to this is he takes us 143 00:13:46.139 --> 00:13:50.500 to the analogy, the metaphor of a seed. What he says is when 144 00:13:50.580 --> 00:13:58.529 you plant a seed in the ground, something else comes up, something very 145 00:13:58.690 --> 00:14:01.649 different from what you put in. A seed is very exist different, for 146 00:14:01.769 --> 00:14:07.009 example, than an Eggplant, or seed is very different from a sunflower. 147 00:14:09.009 --> 00:14:13.600 And yet of course it is the sunflower, it is the egg plant. 148 00:14:13.679 --> 00:14:18.240 They are totally connected. As Paul says, each comes from its own kind, 149 00:14:18.879 --> 00:14:24.029 each kind of seed its own body. Let's think about that difference first, 150 00:14:24.309 --> 00:14:28.710 the difference between the seed and the plant. That follows in the example 151 00:14:28.830 --> 00:14:33.470 of a flower, for example. There's lots of differences between us seed and 152 00:14:33.509 --> 00:14:39.860 a flower. Right, if you brought your wife a bouquet of seeds right 153 00:14:39.019 --> 00:14:43.820 for Valentine's Day, she might not receive it, and quite the same way 154 00:14:43.820 --> 00:14:48.899 as if you brought her a bouquet of flowers. They're different. A hard 155 00:14:50.019 --> 00:14:56.370 shell versus petals, something small versus something big. So the question then is, 156 00:14:56.409 --> 00:15:03.529 what is the precise difference between the bodies that we die with and the 157 00:15:03.690 --> 00:15:09.399 bodies that are raised from the dead. Well, one thing Paul mentions, 158 00:15:09.480 --> 00:15:13.279 that is that they're, they will be, according to their kind, and 159 00:15:13.519 --> 00:15:18.559 there will be diversity in that. I think this is his large point here 160 00:15:18.600 --> 00:15:22.950 in this section about flesh and animals and heavenly bodies and stars and sun and 161 00:15:22.990 --> 00:15:28.350 moon. He's saying there's diversity in all of creation, each according to its 162 00:15:28.389 --> 00:15:31.149 own kind. In new creation it will be no different. There will be 163 00:15:31.190 --> 00:15:37.179 a different degrees of glory, different degrees or different kinds of diversity. In 164 00:15:37.940 --> 00:15:43.179 other words, we don't all sort of raise from the dead into some sort 165 00:15:43.179 --> 00:15:48.419 of amalgamation of a body somehow. No, each will have its own you 166 00:15:48.779 --> 00:15:54.889 will have your body, and this is important for how we think. implict 167 00:15:54.889 --> 00:15:58.409 all kinds of implications for how we think about who we are as people, 168 00:15:58.690 --> 00:16:02.169 what we are as people. I won't get into them now. But your 169 00:16:02.370 --> 00:16:07.240 body matters, your soul matters you, that is you, and God doesn't 170 00:16:07.919 --> 00:16:12.600 throw that off. He says in the resurrection of the dead, yes, 171 00:16:12.720 --> 00:16:18.559 you become something different, as different as a seed to the plant that comes 172 00:16:18.029 --> 00:16:25.110 and yet no different as well, an eggplant seed doesn't flo our into a 173 00:16:25.190 --> 00:16:30.549 sunflower right each according to its kind. So again back to the question. 174 00:16:32.669 --> 00:16:40.100 What are the specific differences then? What can we expect? And Paul Answers 175 00:16:40.179 --> 00:16:45.220 that first number one by saying that the body is buried, the one that 176 00:16:45.340 --> 00:16:49.370 is buried is perishable, the seed, to continue the metaphor, is perishable, 177 00:16:49.450 --> 00:16:56.570 but the one that is raised is imperishable. This is one significant difference 178 00:16:56.610 --> 00:17:00.840 between a your current body now and the resurrection body to come, one that 179 00:17:02.039 --> 00:17:07.440 is like Christ's revelation fourteen, speaking of the saints, says they have washed 180 00:17:07.559 --> 00:17:15.269 their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb. Therefore they 181 00:17:15.309 --> 00:17:19.069 are before the throne of God, who serve him night, day and night 182 00:17:19.230 --> 00:17:23.549 in his temple, and he's who sits on the throne will shelter them with 183 00:17:23.710 --> 00:17:32.180 his presence. Revelation seven says they shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore, 184 00:17:32.740 --> 00:17:37.140 and the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat, for 185 00:17:37.299 --> 00:17:41.099 the lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd and he will 186 00:17:41.099 --> 00:17:48.130 guide them to springs of living water, perishable to imperishable. All the things 187 00:17:48.170 --> 00:17:53.609 that you suffer in this light from sunburns, even scorching heat, to being 188 00:17:53.890 --> 00:18:00.319 thirsty and and struggling to continually provide for yourself. God says that in the 189 00:18:00.440 --> 00:18:07.960 presence of the lamb we will be safe forever. We will constantly be fed 190 00:18:07.240 --> 00:18:12.029 and never thirst. We will be taken care of with springs of living water. 191 00:18:12.910 --> 00:18:18.869 He will be we will be sheltered with his presence. Notice all of 192 00:18:19.029 --> 00:18:26.869 the ways in which the our experience in our glorified bodies is connected to Christ. 193 00:18:26.779 --> 00:18:30.660 It is because we have been washed in the blood of the lamb, 194 00:18:30.180 --> 00:18:33.980 it is because we are in his presence, it is because he is our 195 00:18:34.099 --> 00:18:41.650 shepherd. Because of that, what will be raised is imperishable. What good 196 00:18:41.769 --> 00:18:45.849 news. That is a second thing, but Paul mentions, is that what 197 00:18:47.170 --> 00:18:53.490 is buried in dishonor is raised in glory. Again from revelation, speaking of 198 00:18:56.119 --> 00:19:00.640 a glory, we read this a revelation nineteen verse, versus six through eight. 199 00:19:04.119 --> 00:19:07.000 Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, 200 00:19:07.279 --> 00:19:11.630 like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peels of thunder, 201 00:19:11.829 --> 00:19:18.910 crying out Hollelujah. That means praise God, Hollylujam for the Lord, 202 00:19:18.029 --> 00:19:22.190 our God, the Almighty reins. Let us rejoice and Exalt and give him 203 00:19:22.190 --> 00:19:27.339 glory, for the marriage of the lamb has come and his bride has made 204 00:19:27.380 --> 00:19:33.380 herself ready. It was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright 205 00:19:33.819 --> 00:19:38.369 and pure. Again, you see the connection. This bride of Christ at 206 00:19:38.450 --> 00:19:41.970 this marriage supper of the lamb, describes his people, his church, and 207 00:19:44.289 --> 00:19:49.730 what happens when his bride comes into this glorious scene and connection with her Glorious 208 00:19:49.890 --> 00:19:59.079 Almighty Savior? She likewise is just exulting and bathing in that glory, Pra 209 00:19:59.160 --> 00:20:04.440 all praise to God, but the rejoicing and the exalting extends to his work, 210 00:20:06.480 --> 00:20:10.549 to his love, to his bride, because it was granted her to 211 00:20:10.710 --> 00:20:17.789 clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure. Our bodies in this life 212 00:20:17.950 --> 00:20:23.339 are buried in this on or. We don't let bodies just hang around. 213 00:20:23.619 --> 00:20:30.339 They rot, they stink, they get filled with with nasty things. In 214 00:20:30.539 --> 00:20:33.660 some cases we have, we can have, all kinds of health problems and 215 00:20:33.779 --> 00:20:37.329 things like this. It's not something that you display, it's not something that 216 00:20:37.490 --> 00:20:45.849 is glorious and wonderful right. But when the resurrection comes, when the Bride 217 00:20:45.890 --> 00:20:51.160 of Christ is brought into union at the marriage supper of the lamb. None 218 00:20:51.200 --> 00:20:55.559 of that. That old body which was sewn and honor is now raised in 219 00:20:56.240 --> 00:21:00.440 in glory. Many other ways at which you could get at that and express 220 00:21:00.559 --> 00:21:07.910 that glory. Encourage you to think about it, consider it hope for it. 221 00:21:08.670 --> 00:21:14.990 Number Three Paul tells us another specific thing about our new bodies. What 222 00:21:15.109 --> 00:21:21.700 is sown in weakness is raised in power. Before the Resurrection, we sinks, 223 00:21:22.180 --> 00:21:26.980 we chosen. Holy Ones of God are described as those who suffer persecution, 224 00:21:27.019 --> 00:21:33.849 imprisonment, dishonor trials of various kinds. In revelation twenty beheading is mentioned. 225 00:21:34.609 --> 00:21:41.410 Hebrews talks about Christians being cut in half, but Second Timothy Two hundred 226 00:21:41.410 --> 00:21:45.609 and twelve promises us that if we endure, we will also reign with him, 227 00:21:48.240 --> 00:21:52.920 even though we may die, even though our cut and half bodies might 228 00:21:53.000 --> 00:21:59.480 be put in a in the ground. The Bible promises that if we endure, 229 00:21:59.680 --> 00:22:04.190 even to the end, even unto our deaths, we will reign. 230 00:22:07.829 --> 00:22:11.789 What is sown in weakness is raised in power. Revelation twenty two five says 231 00:22:11.829 --> 00:22:21.579 they will reign forever, an echo of the promises of Daniel Twenty seven where 232 00:22:21.579 --> 00:22:26.299 we read, and the Kingdom of God and The Dominion and the greatness of 233 00:22:26.380 --> 00:22:32.250 the kingdoms under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the saints, 234 00:22:33.210 --> 00:22:37.849 of the most high. His Kingdom shall be an everlasting kingdom, and 235 00:22:38.289 --> 00:22:45.640 all dominions on earth or and all dominions shall serve and obey him. Again, 236 00:22:45.720 --> 00:22:48.599 do you see the connection? The connection between these things that we receive 237 00:22:49.119 --> 00:22:56.319 in our bodies, in our new life and our connection with Christ? They 238 00:22:56.359 --> 00:23:00.309 are never separate. In all of these places where I've talked about, they're 239 00:23:00.349 --> 00:23:06.069 always connected to him, in his blood, in his presence. Daniel Seven, 240 00:23:06.349 --> 00:23:10.109 the kingdom and the Demin Dominions, the greatness of the Kingdom shall be 241 00:23:10.230 --> 00:23:17.380 given to the saints. That's amazing. They will reign in power, with 242 00:23:17.619 --> 00:23:26.579 dominion and control, and yet it is his kingdom, ours because it's his, 243 00:23:26.809 --> 00:23:33.369 because we belong to him. What is sown in weakness is raised in 244 00:23:33.490 --> 00:23:40.569 power. Finally, the last one. Paul mentions four different things. The 245 00:23:40.650 --> 00:23:47.519 last one is what is sown is natural is raised as spiritual. And here 246 00:23:47.640 --> 00:23:52.119 he has in mind this sort of earthly heavenly, a distinction not heavenly like 247 00:23:52.279 --> 00:23:56.470 he talks about with the sun and the moons and stars, but heavenly, 248 00:23:56.509 --> 00:24:03.150 as in of the heaven, of the realm and dominion of God, outside 249 00:24:03.309 --> 00:24:11.220 in the spiritual and even eternal place of the Kingdom of God. What he 250 00:24:11.339 --> 00:24:15.059 says here, in a language that is paralleled in Romans five, is that 251 00:24:15.140 --> 00:24:18.779 Jesus is like Adam. We were born in Adam. We all know that. 252 00:24:19.019 --> 00:24:22.740 We came from our father and we are natural. We are of the 253 00:24:22.779 --> 00:24:29.450 dust. When we die, we go back to the ground. But what 254 00:24:29.569 --> 00:24:36.049 he says is it for those who are in Christ, we come to share 255 00:24:36.089 --> 00:24:44.039 Christ's image because Jesus came as this second ad them, those of Adam are 256 00:24:44.200 --> 00:24:48.960 of the dust, those of Christ are in heaven. So just as we 257 00:24:48.000 --> 00:24:52.470 can look to Adam to understand what it means to be of the earth, 258 00:24:53.269 --> 00:24:56.750 just as we can look to Adam to see what it means to die in 259 00:24:56.869 --> 00:25:02.150 our sins, what it means to have corruption in our bodies, what it 260 00:25:02.230 --> 00:25:07.299 means to have strife and our relationships and weakness and suffering and all the rest, 261 00:25:07.380 --> 00:25:11.059 we could also look to Christ's body, has resurrected body in heaven, 262 00:25:11.579 --> 00:25:22.730 to see Peace and glory and on being imperishable, life everlasting and all of 263 00:25:22.769 --> 00:25:29.450 these other things that he has mentioned. All of this, of course, 264 00:25:29.609 --> 00:25:33.970 follows from a more basic question, which is will there be a resurrection? 265 00:25:34.250 --> 00:25:37.759 And Paul's answer to that at the beginning of First Corinthians fifteen, is this. 266 00:25:40.319 --> 00:25:42.000 If Christ is proclaimed, is raised from the dead, how can some 267 00:25:42.200 --> 00:25:47.079 of you say there is no resurrection from the dead? But if there is 268 00:25:47.200 --> 00:25:51.349 no resurrection from the dead, than not even Christ has been raised. And 269 00:25:51.430 --> 00:25:53.589 if Christ has not been raised in our preaching, is it? Our preaching 270 00:25:53.750 --> 00:26:00.710 is in vain and your faith is in vain, your faith is feutile and 271 00:26:00.910 --> 00:26:06.059 you are still in your sins, still in Adam still of the dust. 272 00:26:07.220 --> 00:26:12.180 We are of all most to be pitied. Paul goes on to say what's 273 00:26:12.220 --> 00:26:17.900 the point in fighting beasts at Ephesus, or use other language from the scripture? 274 00:26:17.900 --> 00:26:22.450 What's the whole point of being beheaded for Christ or sawn into or enduring 275 00:26:22.490 --> 00:26:29.329 any type of persecution, being at a great or small if there's no resurrection, 276 00:26:30.490 --> 00:26:33.240 if there's no hope beyond this life, that there's no hope for being 277 00:26:33.720 --> 00:26:41.400 imperishable and all the rest. If there's no hope in the resurrection, no 278 00:26:41.559 --> 00:26:47.390 hope and eternal and permanent holiness, what's the whole point and holding ourselves back 279 00:26:47.430 --> 00:26:52.029 from the things of this world? Why not just give over to sin temptation? 280 00:26:52.190 --> 00:26:53.950 Why not just eat and drink and be merry? If this is all 281 00:26:53.990 --> 00:27:00.109 there is, what's the point? But of course there is a point. 282 00:27:02.059 --> 00:27:06.700 Why? Because Christ rose from the dead and in his rising from the dead, 283 00:27:06.740 --> 00:27:10.660 he promises that all who are united to him will also rise to the 284 00:27:10.819 --> 00:27:17.289 dead, rise from the dead with a body like his. So that brings 285 00:27:17.329 --> 00:27:22.569 us back to what kind of bodies we have. If all we are is 286 00:27:22.769 --> 00:27:29.130 mortal, if all we are is in Adam and under the curse, then 287 00:27:29.170 --> 00:27:33.400 we're just back where we started, back in our suffering, in our trials, 288 00:27:33.640 --> 00:27:37.319 back in our temptations, back in all of that. But if our 289 00:27:37.359 --> 00:27:44.279 bodies are not like that, if they have in them the immortality that is 290 00:27:44.390 --> 00:27:48.230 to come, not because of something that is natural to us, but because 291 00:27:48.269 --> 00:27:53.109 of what we have in Christ, if we have a share in him, 292 00:27:56.069 --> 00:28:00.900 then God's promise to us is that all is not lost. In fact, 293 00:28:00.940 --> 00:28:04.700 all is gained. We have everything that we could ever have and we have 294 00:28:04.859 --> 00:28:11.019 no need to fear in this world, the things of this world, because 295 00:28:11.099 --> 00:28:17.049 we have hope in heaven. Well, that takes us up to where I 296 00:28:17.130 --> 00:28:22.730 want to stop and then we'll continue this evening and thinking about a second implication. 297 00:28:22.609 --> 00:28:26.480 But Paul goes on to say about what is how we come to share 298 00:28:26.720 --> 00:28:33.079 in the Kingdom of God. But I do want to encourage you tonight from 299 00:28:33.119 --> 00:28:37.920 Paul's exhortation here at the end of this chapter, on the basis of your 300 00:28:38.000 --> 00:28:42.349 resurrection, on the promise of Christ's Resurrection, through faith in Him. He 301 00:28:42.549 --> 00:28:49.829 tells us, then, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work 302 00:28:49.950 --> 00:28:57.299 of the Lord, knowing this that in the Lord your Labor is not in 303 00:28:57.420 --> 00:29:02.099 vain. Let us pray