A. There are some very dynamic preachers who know how to connect with people in a very real way. When you hear them, you say, “that makes sense to me.” You listen, you learn, you believe, and you begin to share the very things you have been taught. It is the way it should be…as long as the person you are listening to is speaking the oracles of God correctly.
B. It has been said, “Tell a lie often enough, loud enough and long enough and people will believe it.” The apostle John warns the chosen lady “If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not take him into your house or welcome him. Anyone who welcomes him shares in his wickedness.” (2 John 11,12)
C. Paul, in the midst of a discussion about the resurrection of Jesus and the resurrection of the dead says these words to the church in 1 Cor. 15:33-34. There was a false teaching happening within the church in Corinth concerning the resurrection of Jesus and people. Let’s be honest, believing that a person physically can come back from the dead, when you have never seen that, is a little far-fetched. Now take that and say, that Jesus NEVER died again and people begin to say, “I don’t know.” Then tell people that no only does Jesus come back from the dead with a transformed body never to die again, but so will everyone else and people say, “I just don’t believe that.” Tell a lie often enough, loud enough and long enough and people will believe it, and that is exactly what was happening in Corinth. Paul quotes the proverb “Bad company corrupts good character.” People became a Christian based upon the teaching of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ, now some of those same people are beginning to say, “Well, maybe Jesus was raised, but I don’t know about grandma.”
D. So Paul address the question that was the seed of the problem (vs 35), “But someone may was, ‘How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will the come?’”
E. Let’s take these two questions and understand Paul’s answer.
I. How Are The Dead Raised?
A. Let me rephrase this opening question. “How can life come from death?” It is not so much, “in what manner are the dead raise?” That is more of the second question. This question, “how is it possible for something that is dead to live?” By the very question, a person admits the thing in question is undeniably dead. So how can life come from death?
B. Paul begins to answer both questions with an example from nature. If you have ever planted a seed – flower, fruit or vegetable – then you understand the illustration. (vs. 36-38)
C. The process by which the dead seed transforms into a living plant is not fully understood by scientists. They talk about seeds being dormant – lying asleep, biologically at rest. But the truth of the matter is, there is no life in a seed. You can dissect it and nothing of the planted seed will pop out. That seed is dead, but when planted in the right soil it comes to life and produces something wonderful. If God can do that with nature, why would anyone think he could not do that with mankind?
II. What Kind of Body is Resurrected?
A. There some Eastern religious ideas that concern reincarnation. It is the idea that when you die you come back to life, but as something other than what you where when you died. Is this teaching in Christianity different? Are we simply reincarnated? No.
B. Paul begins to make a list of things that are different between the body that you and I have right now, and the body that will be raised to live for eternity.
1. Sown perishable, raised imperishable. This new body that I will have will not decay like the physical body I now have. This physical body will not, cannot, last forever because it ages. Spiritual bodies are without age. A child who dies and older adult who dies will not look like their physical body when they are raised. The resurrected body is imperishable.
2. Sown in dishonor, raised in glory. Listen to Phil. 3:20 and 1 John 3:2. This body has little value except to the house of the great body that will last for eternity. Whatever my new body will look like, it will be like Jesus is right now. Listen as Paul says this to the Corinthians in our text (verse 45-49).
3. Sown in weakness, raised in power. What this physical body cannot do, our spiritual body can do. In the physical body, Jesus was limited to some degree, but in the resurrected body is power as far greater. And so it will be with us. The fact of the matter is, that which is physical cannot inherit that which is spiritual. Therefore, a transformation must take place.
III. The End Result
A. Let’s take this to the purpose of the discussion. Death has only one victory – sin. You see, the only power that death has over us physically is if we live this life separated from God, or in sin. Without God, the resurrection will take place, but not so that I can live forever with Him in glory, but so that I will still live forever absent from His glory. The sting of death is sin. Christians understand that so much, and it is so real, that they responded to that chilling knowledge by going through the first death, burial and resurrection called baptism so that go through the second death, burial and resurrection to eternal life with Jesus Christ our Lord.
B. For many, the idea of eternity brings trepidation. Just the idea of knowing that life will continue on after the physical body has died is scary. God wants you to face the fear in faith and know that Jesus has already cross over ahead of you, is the first fruits, of what you will become.
C. The end result is that if I am already died to sin and alive to Christ, then death in the body and resurrection in glory is only the next step. The only fear a person faces in this life is that of sin. John wanted his readers to know that they are living in the light not in sin, because as a person strives, repents, dedicated and lives doing God’s will, then the blood of Jesus Christ continually cleanses them from all sin so that in death they are clean and perfect before God. Not in their own works, but because of His grace and your working faith.
Conclusion:
A. There is but one question as we close: Are you living in sin or are you living in the light? I cannot make this any clearer. Our human, physical body will be destroyed and a resurrection will take place. I will either be raise to eternal life or I will be raised to eternal damnation. The choice is mine and is seen by my actions.
B. If you have not died to self by facing and admitting your sin, repenting of that sin seeking to do God’s will and not your own, claiming Jesus as Master, and through that death been buried in the waters of baptism, then you are still dead in that sin. In that state you will face only the wrath of God and in his justice listen to Him say, “Depart from me, you evildoer.”
C. But if you have died to self, been buried with Christ in baptism, then you were raise a new creation. There has already taken place one resurrection within you. If you have been transformed in essence in this body, then you will be transformed in essence with a new spiritual body when Christ comes again.
D. Therefore, stand firm. Let nothing move you from that conviction. Give yourself over to God’s work because you know that your labor is not in vain. This offer of salvation and eternal life is extended by God through Jesus to you this day. Are you ready to accept it and live the transformed life looking forward to a transformed body? If we can help, then come as we stand and sing.
