Sermon Tone Analysis

Text: 1 Corinthians 15:50-58

Theme: What happens to the Christian at the coming of Christ?

The Dead Will Be Raised Imperishable.

Date: 03/24/19 File name: Revelation42.wpd

ID Number:

In our preaching from the Book of Revelation over the last three weeks, we’ve heard the Apostle John repeatedly refer to the resurrection of both the saint and the sinner.

In John’s Gospel the Apostle writes, “Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, And shall come forth.”

(John 5:28).

Everyone gets resurrected.

God intended for all men to be eternal.

The question is, “Whose neighborhood will you live eternally in?”

When death snatches the believer’s final breath, our soul is immediately ushered into the presence of Jesus. 2 Corinthians 5:8 reminds us that to be absent from the body is to be at home with the Lord.

There is so much more, however, to the story.

The believer’s hope is not just about our soul going to heaven when we die.

It’s about our bodies being resurrected at the end of the age.

This morning, I want to answer the question, What happens to Christian’s physical body at the 2nd Coming of Christ?

The answer can be explained in one word — Resurrection!

I. THE BELIEVER’S TRANSFORMATION

“I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.

51 Behold!

I tell you a mystery.

We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.

For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.

53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.”

(1 Corinthians 15:50–53, ESV)

ILLUS.

Charles Reynolds Brown, Dean of the Yale University Divinity School at the turn of the 20th century, once said, “There are three things that I could never believe.

Number one, that God would create a world like ours and then turn His back on it.

Number two, that He could create man and then desert him at the grave.

Number three, that he would plant a desire for immortality in the human heart and fail to provide for a realization of that desire.

1. the Bible repeatedly promises us that God will not desert us to the grave

a. man was created by God in His own image — the Imago Dei

1) that mean many things, and one of the things it means is that all men were created to live eternally

b. whatever his or her spiritual condition at the time of death, all people will eventually experience immortality

1) if they are “of Christ” that immortality is spent with Jesus in His Kingdom

2) if they are “of this world” that immortality is spent away from Jesus in Hell

““Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.

26 For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself.

27 And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man.

28 Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice 29 and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.”

(John 5:25–29, ESV)

3) the Apostle John refers to both of these resurrections in Rev. 20, and tells us they are separated by one-thousands years ... that 1,000 years being Christ’s Millennial Reign

c. but the truth is — everybody will be resurrected

1) some to the resurrection of life

2) some to the resurrection of damnation

d. but everybody will be resurrected

1) this morning I want to tell you about the resurrection of the believer

2. since that first Easter Sunday the desire and expectation of every Christian has been the hope of the resurrection

"It was for this He called you through our gospel, that you may gain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ."

(2 Thessalonians 2:14, NASB95)

a. our resurrection gains us the glory of our Savior, and is our ultimate hope

3. belief in the resurrection is not an appendage to the Christian faith — it is the Christian faith

a. Paul bluntly said the whole of Christianity stands or falls on the truth of the resurrection

“If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised.

And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith ... For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either.

And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.

Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost.

If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.” (1 Corinthians 15:13-19, NIV)

b. either Christ rose bodily from the dead, or he didn't, and if he didn't, Christianity is a gigantic fraud

c. without the resurrection the life of Jesus is reduced to one of several speculations

1) without the resurrection, the death of Jesus becomes the epic death of a noble martyr, or

2) without the resurrection, the death of Jesus becomes the execution of a fraud, or

3) without the resurrection, the death of Jesus becomes the pathetic death of a deranged messianic pretender

d. but with the resurrection, Christianity becomes a faith that redeems sinners who come to Jesus in repentance and faith, and he gives them eternal life!

5. the Apostle Paul writes that “ ... we shall be changed ... and our mortal body will become immortal ... “

a. our transformation is necessary because “ ... flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God ... “ (vs.

50)

b. what will that change look like?

“Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.”

(1 John 3:2, ESV)

II.

THE BELIEVERS TRIUMPH

“When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”

55 “O death, where is your victory?

O death, where is your sting?” 56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.”

(1 Corinthians 15:54–56, ESV)

1. what happens to believers at the resurrection?

a. the Apostle Paul answers all our questions in chapter 15 of 1 Corinthians

A. FLESH AND BLOOD CANNOT INHERIT THE KINGDOM OF GOD

1. the Apostle Paul wrote to the church at Corinth to solve problems and answer questions

a. one of the problems in that church concerned those Christians who were skeptical of the bodily resurrection of believer

2. Corinth was a Greek city, and the Greeks — generally speaking — did not believe in the resurrection

a. in fact, a physical bodily after death was loathsome to them

ILLUS.

When Paul had preached at Athens and declared the fact of Christ’s resurrection, some of his listeners actually laughed at him (Acts 17:32).

Most Greek philosophers considered the human body a prison, and they welcomed death as deliverance of the soul from bondage.

This skeptical attitude had invaded the church and Paul had to face it head-on.

The truth of the resurrection had doctrinal and practical implications for life that were too important to ignore.

3. Paul dealt with the subject by answering three basic questions

a. FIRST, Are the dead raised?

b.

SECOND, When are the dead raised?

c.

THIRD, How are the dead raised?

4. let me give you Paul’s answers

B. ARE BELIEVERS RESURRECTED?

ILLUS.

Amazingly, the 21st century church — particularly in the West — is full of resurrection skeptics.

In a 2017 BBC survey or British Christians, a quarter (25%) of all Christians in Great Britain said they did not believe in the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

Nor do they believe in their own bodily resurrection.

A Rasmussen poll from 2013 (the most recent one we have asking the question) reveals that 19% of professing Christians in America reject the central doctrine of the Christian faith.