Relevance Of The Resurrection
This morning the Relevance of the Resurrection
Is there relevance and any significance concerning the Resurrection for us today I know it’s a historical event that took place in the 1st century in Jerusalem I know that Jesus died on the cross and God raised Him from the dead but is there any relevance for us now
We are living in the 21st century what does an event that took place in the 1st century have to do with those of us living in the 21st century does it really matter
When you think about the problems the economy the social disorder the breakdown of the family with all the things that will deal with today what Relevance is there Does it matter or is it just something we say in church and celebrate once a year
Is there anything I can gain from it to help me well before I move on let me tell you this it did takek place Jesus did die on that Cross and God did raise him from the dead the reason he had to die on that cross because Jesus is God in the flesh He came to die on the cross for our sin the wages of Sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life because we sinned we deserved to die but Jesus died a substituitonary death he had no sin but He became sin so we could become the rightheousness of God He did die
He was not in a coma He died do you believe that He died but Early on that third day morning God raised Him from the dead according to Romans that same spirit that Raised a dead Jesus now lives on the inside of us those of us who h ave accepted Christ as Lord and Savior
12 Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, qthen Christ is not risen. 14 And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty. 15 Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because rwe have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up—if in fact the dead do not rise. 16 For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. 17 And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; syou are still in your sins! 18 Then also those who have 3fallen tasleep in Christ have perished. 19 uIf in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable. But now vChrist is risen from the dead, and has become wthe firstfruits of those who have 4fallen asleep[1]
He became the first fruits of those fallen asleep
He became the first fruits well if you have ever had someone that you love to die and you had to put them in the grave or if you have been fortunate enough to not have to go to the cemetery Great but chances are if its not you you know somebody that has had to visit what we call the cemetery where you have to stand over that open whole called the grave and like the rest of us wonder what happen to this body in the latter days
That what this text is tailored to teach us as the Apostle Paul stood possibly at the cemetery at Corinth where a group of skeptics were listening to him when they asked a kind of silly question
Well what happens to the body How are the dead raised? And with what body do they come?
and they were saying this mockingly and when Paul responded and called them foolish he was not retaliating with some verbal acrimony or bitterness he was merely saying “for you to ask a question like that, “ really peels back how much ignorance you are really displaying because you don’t have to be a genius you don’t have to know the dimensions of biological science to know that there are things that have to die first before they can come back to life
And its out of this concept that Paul addresses for us the quintessential question of bodily resurrection How will it be and with what kind of body shall we be raised with
Have any of you ever possibly entertained that question normally it’s the Christian that is curious about that no atheist or agnostic no nonreligious unthinking person would ever think about this but those who belong to the Lord Jesus Christ know that the cemetery is not our stopping place at best they are just depots until we get a new ticket to another destination
If you have ever asked this question or if you have not let me tell you this from the jump I’m not trying to convince you that what I’m saying is true Paul is not speaking from faith to argument but faith to faith only those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ would dare comprehend something as mysterious and supernatural and translogical as what Paul is describing here in 1 Corinthians 15
So to answer these question What How and When lets listen to what Paul says to the church right now about the body being raised from the dead and how the Resurrection of our Lord is so relevant to that
He takes us beyond the question to 3 analogies 1 inanimate 2 animate and the 3rd astrological an in each he displays the supernatural power of God the omninetience of God or the omnipotence of God and displays it in these natural orders
He begins by asking us to look at God’s power displayed in the inanimate He says look at the life of vegetation in verse 37 and verse 38 He says And what you sow, you do not sow that body that shall be, but mere grain—perhaps wheat or some other grain. 38 But God gives it a body as He pleases, and to each seed its own body[2]
There is a necessity in the order of what Paul is arguing that there has to be death before there can be life and he points out that all life is born out of death an in the land of vegetation when you look at a dried dead dissolving see that is planted in the damp ground then something mysterious takes place underneath that earth and what you put in the ground is not what comes out of the ground there is something beneath the earth that disorganizes what we put in the earth but in its new growth it moves from disorganization to reorganization from disorientation to a kind of reorientation
And Paul is saying in the same way God gives life to vegetation the Lord has power to display new life in your life when you are raised with the Lord Jesus Christ
Our Lord Christ Jesus even in forecasting his own death in John 12 talks about this when he says unless a seed dies in the ground unless it dies it remains a seed dried dead dissolved desecrated He says but if it dies then it will spring back to life and there will be seeds speaking of His own death and his own resurrection
So we begin with the Lord saying to us Look at God’s power displayed in the world of vegetation and God says If he can do it in vegetation he can do it in you He’s the same God that created you I also created vegetation and God says if He will do it with a plant He will certainly do it with you
He moves on from the animate and says you can actually see how life really functions coco demure seed it weighs 40 pounds you bury that seed that seed then bursts out into a coconut tree
The smallest seed is the epithetic orchard seed there is over 3 million of these seeds inside one ounce and yet when it is planted it burst out orchards and Paul is saying whether it’s a large seed or a small seed it goes through the same decomposition as anything else and yet when it decomposes dissolves disintegrates decays and when every body above the ground think that the end of life is beneath the ground God does something so supernatural that he proves to us that life starts and ends with Him
After talking about Vegetation Paul gives us a Variety as he discusses verse 39 God displayed power in the animal world He now appeals in his own educational upbringing he looks at the bird the fish the different animals he looks at humanity and in that He says God has prepared a body suitable to adapt to the environment that that body is in He says what makes bird birds God gives them hollow wings to fly God gives fish gills so that they can swim in the sea Mammals are giving there skin to ruminate as well humanity all being adaptable and suitable to the environment that they live in but they are infinitely different with variety but yet created by the same God
In the same way he says they are all different and like they are different you too when you and I are put in the earth we will be raised different it’s a kind of difference and variety of such where God says he has provided for these animals everything they need to adapt to the environment that they live in
Now I’m a good researches animal planet all that its amazing how a person can actually think that the diversity and variety is actually a result of something that exploded in the Cosmos and then so intricately designed things so wonderful as animals
The bee hummingbird it weighs the equivalent of two bayer aspirin in the palm of you hand it travels all the way from North Canada to Southern Mexico it can hoover in one place then fly up fly down or backward
Butterflies taste through their feet sharks are virtually beyond sickness there are diseases that are able to afflict a shark a donkeys eyes are situated In a way that it can see all four hoofs at the same time I can go on an on an on about that and the point is God has created bodies for these animals so they can adapt to their own environment
Now if God will do that for a bird a fish a butterfly a shark and an donkey God says He is the God of all creation and He will give you what you need to be adaptable beyond earth into a dimension called Eternity
Then Paul goes one place higher than that and He looks at the Astronomical and says now consider the Celestial verse 40 and he makes a comparison between the Celestial and the Terrestrial in this He speaks of the sun the moon the stars the different galaxy and he speaks of it and gives it a term He says you see them in their Glory
Then he makes this comparison he says now look at the Terrestrial and you look up to the Celestial in the humans and heaven lies you see that there may be special differences but there is no real difference in creative matter in man you find carbon hydrogen nitrogen oxygen but if you would go into the heaven space you’ll find the same substance in the galaxy hydrogen oxygen nitrogen and carbon and the Lord says in the same way that I have done thing in the Terrestrial and the Celestial I have given them the body that they need to be adaptable to the environment that they live in at the same time I have given you what you need in human flesh on earth and God says if I can take care of you in the earthly Terrestrial what more can I do for you Eternal
God has given earthly bodies but He also gives earthly so the question I have not answered yet is the question that was hanging out at the cemetery at Corinth the skeptics and mockers were asking How shall this be? And when Paul recited analogies from the Animated the inanimate and the Astronomical he was answering this and this is how you answer the question today
The question is how shall you be raised you might want to write it down
By the Power of God that’s no over simplification we don’t have time to unpack the Power of God but if you look at the inanimate animate and astronomical you see the parallel of that statement that Paul makes to the Hebrew thought back in Genesis chapter 1 and 2 of the creativeness of God and in that creation what you discover is that God doesn’t have to go look for something to create His power is exemplified by His ability to speak and something starts to happen
Cryoto ex nylo out of nothing God merely speaks and worlds come into existence
I’m talking to Christians now you don’t have to convince anybody that wants to demean minimized make light of make laughable what you believe as a believe about the Resurrection or anything for that matter
You are not arguing faith to somebody’s intelligence is from faith to faith its not a matter whether you believe it or not Its is the truth and the reality of what God has done in the natural and the spiritual order
And there are people who will get offended cause they will say you ought to do all you can to try and convince people nah The bible is not a document to try to convince you Who God is
Nowhere do you find where God says I’m going to fight with you to believe and let me tell you why God doesn’t have too its because He already know you believe and the reason why you know is because God created you
And there is something in you that is restless an empty and dissatisfied until it is filled with the presence of the Almighty God through a relationship with His son Jesus Christ
That’s the reason why you can make all the money that you want to make and you still not satisfied
You can have all the sex you want and you still not satisfied
You can drink all the liquor you want and not satisfied smoke all the weed
Get every promotion plaudits and popularity have ever position every degree and not be satisfied
Because God has made you for Himself and you will never be happy never have real joy never at peace never satisfied until you turn your life in direction of the God that made you
That’s the question How
But even believing Christians who believe in the Power of God still want to ask the question but Bishop SD I’ve had to take my loved one my friend to the cemetery and that’s where we find Paul now at the cemetery and he’s talking and people are mocking and he is saying come look in that grave
That grave has matter in it this may have been a member of the Corinthian Church and Paul was delivering the eulogy we don’t know He could have been standing there and friends of the beloved who were outside of the faith start asking Paul these questions about Resurrection
Paul said How But the Power of God then they ask What kind of body will we have if we are going to Resurrect what kind of body are we going to have
What’s going to come out of the grave Paul here gives us 4 doublets as he plays on contrast
He says let me tell you what is going to come out of the grave in verse 42 he says what is going to come out of the grave is an imperishable or incorruptible body He says we are going to put in the grave a corruptible body but what’s going to come out of that grave is an in corruptible body we are putting in that grave a body that decays and he plays back on the image of the seed that decays dissolves that’s what we are going to put in that grave an eartly remain
But this body that we are putting in there that body decays in fact Paul would go on to say in Romans 8:21 not just will the human body decay but all of creating itself is going to decay everything is going to slow down everything is going to fade away there is nothing that is created that will not dissipate disappear all of it is going to decay
That’s what makes the statement so powerful when he says I’m going to give you a body that incorruptible its hard for you to imagine isn’t it that you are going to have a body that doesn’t slow down doesn’t weaken and it doesn’t decay you cant imagine that because your entire life has been set to preserve a body that decays
From our childhood we have pediatricians and on an on selective surgeons specialists who look over our lives it is to prevent a decaying body from decaying
Everything about our life right now is to prevent decay this health care issue with insurance is because you want to prevent decay one of the biggest money making industries worldwide is cosmetic surgery because people don’t want to decay It is the new Ponce De Leon fountain of youth We Nip We Tuck We lift WE pull We botox and not just women because normally when we hear that our minds immediately go to women nah men too are dissatisfied with there decaying self but I tell you what you do
Go ahead an invest all your money in to that and that’s where you are going to be spending all your money because you is going to decay
Whether you want to are not because the body perishes Everything around us is an indicator that we are decaying Insurance because we decay the Pharmacy because we decay Hospital Clinic because we decay and may I say there is nothing no vitamin no drug no amount of exercise that can keep you from decaying
We feed our bodies because we decay we clothe them because we decay we put roofs over them because we decay and you can do all of that and you have to live decently and in order but when the day is done and the setting of the sun Everybody in here you are going to decay
I know you cant say it but Paul lifts another line up in 1 Corinthians where he says eyes have not seen ears have not heard and neither had it entered into the heart of man what God has in store for those that love Him but it has be revealed by his spirit who searches the deep things of God and I can hear John talking to me And when he appears we shall be like Him for we shall see Him as he is We shall be just like Christ its an incorruptible body
But in the very next verse He says it will be a body sown in the earth in dishonor raised from the grave in Honor or in glory
That word here in the greek new testament for dishonor is the same word that is used for a person who loses their citizenship they have been stripped of their citizenship and because of that everything that they need to live as a citizen decently has been taken away from them
This is what we see when we come to the cemetery and we put our love one’s in the earth they have been stripped of citizenship of decency that’s why because we love them we honor them by burying them because we know shortly decomposition will dishonor them so we embalm them we cosmetically make them up We put new clothes on them their favorite suit favorite dress favorite color WE put flowers around the casket then we take them to the cemetery and we put them in the grown and bury them in that very place of honor
Because they have been dishonored and yet the Bible says
Sown in dishonor raised up in Glory
We’ve seen that picture its in the gospels on the Transfiguration mountain Jesus in humble humanity light shines out through his humanity and like lightning it burns through our Lord Jesus Christ
Church I pray that you comprehend it that God is going to do something so glorious with your body that even the angels will have to pause to look at you and say Hallieuh raised in glory weight we shall be like Him
That’s not the end of that He says you have something else to look forward to, you will have a sinless body It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. [3]
A sinless body Now Paul is playing on that image in the inanimate of that seed dried dead desiccated dissolving seed You go into the ground weak that word week means you are incapable of producing that is you are impotent and your life is falling apart weak unable to bear the weight of living Weak everything about you the runners leg tire out the thinkers mind incapable to comprehend all of it is weak everything just falling apart
He say you know why your weakness is the result of something Your weakness is the result of Sin
In fact When you die they are going to have a section on your death certificate that says cause of death Cancer want be it Aids wont be it High blood pressure want be it Heart Attack Stroke wont be it dimensia althezierers what be it that might be a byproduct of the reality of it but you can put one word as cause of death on every one of our death certificate and its spelled s I n
Now the intellectual cant comprehend that because the intellectual mind says don’t call me no sinner I may have seizures of corruption because of my environment I may be socially aloft at times but I’m not a sinner
I’m not like the man who sleeps under a bride the dope dealer the prostitute walking the strole the pimp the hustler you are not going to make me like somebody behind prison bars you are not going to put me in the same category as some ignorant demented person
Well I want you to know Status may be separated in sociology culture may be separated by your educational level but in humanity all of us are the same
The bible says WE all have sinned and come short the glory of God on our death certificate Sin that’s what weakens our body an that’s what causes us to be put in the earth
But then that day something is going to happen our weakness is going to give over to strength going to give over to power going to be raised up in a new powerful body something energetic something supernatural is going to get a hold of us and lift us up an we will not be the same that’s the spiritual dimension of life that we are going to be lifted up an that says that in that body that you about to receive it is going to be body where you are not able to sin
I said something shout at the wrong time you are going to have a body where you are not able to sin when people say well what if nah that’s a proposition that wont work once we get these new bodies You will not be able to sin in act word dead behavior attitude will or disposition it will never happen
Cause you got a brand new body
One more thing Paul says you are going to be sown natural but you are going to be raised Spiritual You are going to have a body that’s adaptable to a new eternal dimension
This body is incapable of lifting you where you need to go You couldn’t live in this body in the presence of the eternal this body is marked by decay
And even if you could lift it up and usher it into the presense of God it would burn up by holy intensity because our filth and unrightheousness and our sin and our wickedness would not stand in the presence of a Holy God
So the Lord says in the grave I put your natural body but I want you to know that I have prepared for you a new body that will live forever in a spiritual dimension
You will move from the natural to the spiritual from the temporal to the eternal and God says its ready for you and its prepared to live in His presense
What kind of body is this going to be Make no mistake this is not a ghost you are not going to be a ghost this is why you don’t need to be scared of that stuff you see on TV or a horror move no ghost is coming out of the grave paranormal not so will not happen might have been a figment of your imagination you are not going to an angel no
You are going to have a Spiritual Body and that’s an oxymoron a Spiritual body well how this body look well just look at Jesus
This is why the Resurrection is relevant when Jesus resurrected from the grave God had given Him a body A spiritual body and a resurrected body that body was capable to eat He ate fish with his disciples that body was able to speak that body was able to move around He moved from Judea to Galilee He even walked straight through doors John 20 but it was a body He could be touched and handled
A body but a spiritual body
And there are those of us we weep because we have had to put a mother or father some of us mama an daddy some brother sister son daughter husband or a wife in to that cold chilly grave and you hear people say oh my mama daddy they are in that ground
No there not no all that is is just earth matter at the moment of death the believer is consciously in the presence of the eternal God
But the day will come When Christ will prepare a body for us and yes you will be able to identify mother and daddy and sister and brother and we will all get together what a time
Yes we will
S D Smith you mean to tell me I really respected you as a man who had some sense you mean to tell me that you believe in this translogical mobojumbo
Well call it whatever you want to call it we’ll see at the end because the realty of it is that we will be Sown Natural and and raised up spirit
God is going to raise us up in a Spiritual body I’m through but you can go home and go to your family friend cemetery and look at the names of loved ones that you placed there all that’s there is memory and you sit and look at the names and think of their presence
But in reality they are not there
But here’s what I like some have had to bury parents whose bodies have been emaciated ravaged by disease people have been blown up and people are concerned how will they come together we have had talk recently even of people being cremated and people assume that what God is going to do is take your old body and add some resurrected glory to it
No this stuff is going to be gone the Lord is going to give you a brand new body a brand new body capable not to sin and able to worship God for as long as you want to worship Him
So this morning this first question was How then the Second Question was With What but everybody wants to know but When
When is it going to happen I’m glad you asked cause when you read the end of the story this is where Paul gets happy
He says the day is going to come Where the corruptible is going to take on incorruption and mortal immortality but SD you still haven’t answered When
I’ll answer it for you in one line In a moment in the twinkling of an eye how soon is that the word is atomize that means that its so quick until its quicker than a blink its timed but you cant measure it
Its almost like saying as soon as the Lord appears at that exact moment of his appearing you are going to be caught up and you are going to be changed
In a moment in a twinkling of an eye
So the next time you go to the cemetery you can look at the cemetery and say Death where is your sting Grave where is your victory
For Jesus has taken the sting out from death and taken the victory from the grave
So let me tell you what you ought to do until that day be steadfast unmovable always abounding in the work of the Lord for your labor shall not be in vain
Nobody ought to get you shout now You ought to think about one of these days When this life is over I’ll fly away
If you got a loved on that’s gone on one of these days if they were in Christ and You are in Christ Thanks be to God who gives us the Victory IN
IN Christ if you are not in Christ Get In Christ on that great getting up morning when this life is over I I fly away and be at rest
One of these old days Are you Neighbor are you In Jesus
How!!!!
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q [1 Thess. 4:14]
r Acts 2:24
s [Rom. 4:25]
3 Died
t Job 14:12; Ps. 13:3
u 1 Cor. 4:9; 2 Tim. 3:12
v Acts 2:24; 1 Pet. 1:3
w Acts 26:23; 1 Cor. 15:23; Rev. 1:5
4 Died
[1] The New King James Version. Nashville : Thomas Nelson, 1982, S. 1 Co 15:20
[2] The New King James Version. Nashville : Thomas Nelson, 1982, S. 1 Co 15:37-38
[3] The New King James Version. Nashville : Thomas Nelson, 1982, S. 1 Co 15:43