Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / February 5, 2023 | 1 Corinthians - Resurrection Part 2

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February 5, 2023 | 1 Corinthians - Resurrection Part 2 · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Good to see everybody.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: I just wanted to give a a quick shout out to Jeremy and to Caroline.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: You might remember last week was Big Weekend.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: Big Weekend is normally the first weekend in February, and Jeremy moved it back a week just in case something happened.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: Looks like he nailed that.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, we're really happy for Jeremy and Caroline and Genevieve.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: So this morning, the thing Big Weekend did do is it sort of bisected this part one and part two that we're looking at in First Corinthians 15, and we're looking at the resurrection.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: Chapter 15 in 1 Corinthians is the longest section in the whole Bible on the topic of not only just the resurrection, but specifically our future resurrection.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: If you recall the part one, we said, you know, that there's this really important idea that we have to grasp, which is that it's not just that Jesus died and rose again and how that impacts us, but there is a future resurrection for every single person, and it is not some kind of symbolic measure.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: It is that literally we will die and be raised again.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: But the question that we're sort of going to tackle this morning is a bit different, and it's how can two things which should never be connected somehow be bridged, right?
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: Perhaps some of you have been on vacation before and gone over a very large bridge or maybe visited like Royal Gorge in Colorado, and you've seen this bridge that you know cascades over this huge, wide canyon, uh a thousand feet above the river, the Arkansas River below, and you just wonder like, who built this bridge across this thing, and how did they ever get across beforehand?
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: That's kind of the step that we're leaning into this morning because we have to try and connect our physical bodies with the heavenly realms.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: And those two things do not mix with each other.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: Our physical body, as we'll look at in just a moment, uh, does not fit in heaven as it currently stands.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: And yet, by the grace of God, there's a bridge that has been made so that we can understand and frankly answer all the questions that a lot of us have: the hows and the whys and the who's it's for what do you mean our bodies get resurrected later on?
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: So this morning we'll finish out chapter 15 and um and the topic of the resurrection.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: So, if you will, go with me to verse 35.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: We finished off with verse 34 and chapter 15.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: And now comes the questions, right?
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: Paul says, But someone will ask, how are the dead raised?
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: What kind of body will they have when they come?
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: You fool, what you sow does not come to life unless it dies.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: And as for what you sow, you are not sowing the body that will be, but only a seed, perhaps of wheat or another grain.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: But God gives it a body as he wants, and to each of the seeds its own body.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: So, first of all, Paul here sets up, we start out with these two questions, which if you're tracking along, you've probably been asking.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: Wait, my body gets resurrected.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: How?
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: What is going on?
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: What is what's going to happen there?
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: And Paul, he's not calling us a fool, right?
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: But he's responding to, if you remember, at the beginning of chapter 15, there was, to summarize, there was basically a problem in that the church in Corinth, they weren't anticipating how the power of God could be transferred to the resurrection, right?
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: They were like, hey, we believe that Jesus died and he rose again, but we've kind of got some problems with this whole we're resurrecting part of it.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: And so Paul is kind of responding to this fake objector that they have.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: The fool is the one who does not consider the power of God at the end of time.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: The fool is the one not only as lacking in wisdom, but is also lacking in intelligence, because they have not considered the implications of Jesus Christ raising from the dead.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: So he says, You fool, I don't think he's talking to the Corinthians, but we should try to not be fools today.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: And so what Paul then begins doing is he shares the first of two illustrations here, right?
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: To begin to try and describe this crazy concept of the future resurrection.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: And the first one is the image of a farmer.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, take, and he even uses something very relevant to us Kanzans here.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: He says, picture, you know, this a wheat seed, right?
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: A little kernel.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, uh, the farmer places it in the ground, and it's covered over by dirt, and it's basically left there until, in a couple weeks' time, it bursts forth, and then God clothes it in fruit, and it well, the fruit of wheat, and clothes it in leaves and all these beautiful things, right?
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's this amazing transformation that happens, but if you were just looking at the kernel of wheat, you would not have expected what comes out of the ground.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: And this is the first sort of explanation that Paul gives us.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: He says, the first thing you need to understand about bridging these two gaps, your physical body that is dying and decaying, and the heavenly realms, is that there's a transformation that takes place.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: What that transformation is, he'll explain in just a moment.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: But the first one is just getting this concept into our minds that what goes into the ground is not what comes out.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: God transforms it, He changes it.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: And this is a little morbid, but it's relevant.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: If you've been to a funeral that has an open casket and you've seen the body of a loved one, you know, looking at that body, it is very hard to imagine what kind of life could come from that.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: And often they don't always look exactly like they did when they were living with us.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: And so there's this gulf that even we have to jump over, which is understanding that that body in the casket is one that is going to be buried, but will ultimately rise again and will be transformed.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: It won't look like it does at that moment.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: Nevertheless, this is sort of hard to imagine, and so then Paul goes on to the next step.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: He says, okay, so transformation takes place.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: It's not the same kind of thing it was.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: There's a change in order, one that only God could create.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: But this change has to do with the kind of body that is being raised.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: As he goes on, he says, not all flesh is the same flesh.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: There is one flesh for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the splendor of the heavenly bodies, and by that he means kind of planets and stars and things, is different from that of the earthly ones.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: There is a splendor of the sun, another of the moon, and another of the stars.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, one star differs from another star in splendor.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: Paul here, right, is now going into this idea.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: He says, well, the concept that God makes different things that fit into their proper home is not foreign to us, right?
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: The idea that God could fashion something that only works in its environment and nowhere else is it's not foreign, right?
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: He talks about all these different animals, and we can look at the animal kingdom, right?
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: So the gray-crowned rosy finch, that's the top right, keeps its nest at 20,000 feet in elevation on Mount Denali.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: We have the uh Arabian camel that travels 100 miles without water.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: We have the that ugly thing on the top left, is the common fang tooth, which lives 16,000 feet below sea level, where the atmospheric pressure is 500 times that of what we're breathing right now.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: You have the Pompeii worm, which lives in superheated water that reaches 570 degrees, and then you have the Emperor Penguin, right, which just rocks out at negative 76 degrees most of the time.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: Now, it's not odd for us to think that going into any one of those animals' environments would be inhospitable to us or perhaps even deadly, right?
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: We know that we must change whatever it is, put on suits or different things like that to be able to enter into their environment, and that's just on earth.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: And so this concept is really only odd to us if we only consider our human perspective.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: But God, in the beauty of his creation, has many examples where he has created something specifically to be able to fit in the place that it lives.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: And so Paul says, not only are we undergoing a transformation here, but this transformation is going to change us in a way that we are fit to live in the heavenly realms.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: This is what he's going for.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: And we should be able to kind of answer that question then of how?
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: How is it that my body could go and be in heaven?
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: Because it doesn't fit there right now.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: The things that live in heaven are eternal things.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: The things that live in heaven don't decay.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: My body does, so it doesn't belong there.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: So what is the answer for how the resurrection happens?
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: God changes things like a seed that goes into the dirt and comes out like a beautiful flower, and as a part of that flower, our bodies are changed.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: Not like they were.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: They are your body, but it is much better.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: As we keep going, though, Paul is then going to kind of summarize this thought.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: So it is with the resurrection of the dead, sown in corruption, raised in incorruption, sown in dishonor, raised in glory, sown in weakness, raised in power, sown in a natural body, raised in a spiritual body.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: See, Paul is not, right, the Greek idea, and the big thing they have a problem with is they're saying, look, in our pantheon with Zeus and Harry's and all these guys here, you know, we've got um these individuals, these gods that come down to earth, but we don't go up to Mount Olympus.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: That doesn't make sense to us.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: And Paul is saying, I agree with you.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: That does make sense.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't make sense that your body would go up to be in the heavenly realms, in the true heavenly realms.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: And so he is just confirming with them.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: He says, You're right, it is different.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: Your body that you have right now is corrupted, it is dishonored, it is weak, it is natural, it's the thing that we expect.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: But that glorious body that is raised is without corruption, filled with glory, raised in power, and it is ultimately spiritual.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: That's the difference.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what your body is going to be.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: No amount of face cream and kale smoothies is going to give you the body that belongs in heaven.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: The only thing that can change your body is going to be God, ultimately.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: So we're set up then, right, with this idea that God is going to change our bodies.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: He's going to do it in a special way.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: And he is going to make it so that the aching knees and the pains that we have now and the diseases and all of those things, that they are no longer a part of the future.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: If we're able to grasp the transformation that happens at the resurrection, all of these things begin to fall into place.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: It is far more than just a concept, it is a future reality that will affect every single one of you.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: You will have a future body that has no more pain.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: As we continue in verse 45, Paul says, So it is written.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: The first man Adam became a living being, the last Adam became a life-giving spirit.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, then the spiritual.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: The first man was from the earth, a man of dust, the second man is from heaven.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: Like the man of dust, so are those who are of the dust.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: Like the man of heaven, so are those who are of heaven.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: And just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we will also bear the image of the man in heaven.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: You might recall back in verse twenty-two, Paul made a comparison between Adam and Jesus.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: And we said at that time, right, this idea is that we all funnel through Adam, the one who brought sin into the world, the first man, right?
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: And because of him, because we are associated with him, that also leads to our sin nature, and the fact that we experience the same penalty that he did, and everybody since him, right?
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: Because of your sin, because of my sin, we experience the curse, which is that ultimately that we are going to receive the punishment of death for our rebellion against a king, even though Jesus Christ has saved us.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_00: That death reigns because of our sin.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_00: But even taking steps back from that, we also say that part of the curse is the fact that your body does decay because it shouldn't do that.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: It didn't do that at the very beginning, but your body is experiencing all of these things literally as effects of the fall.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you don't even have to go very far.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: You can take a step, I mean, our grounds crew does a great job, but if you find a weed, that weed is an example of what the fall has brought.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: And so, because of all of these things, right, we have been funneled through Adam and we have our current condition.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: But then back in earlier in chapter 15, Paul was saying we are now funneled through Christ who gives us life.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: Well, now we get this section, which sort of then goes to the next level, right?
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: We have the first man Adam, and then it says the last Adam.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_00: Who is the last Adam?
• 14:25
  unknown: Jesus.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus, yes.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: It is Jesus.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: Great job.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: The first man Adam became a living being, the last Adam became a life-giving spirit.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: So now we have transitioned from the first Adam brought death, but now he is a living being.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_00: And we're going to talk about, though, the kind of body that he had.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: The kind of body that he had is that he was a man of dust.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_00: From dust he came, and to dust he went, and to dust we go.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: That is the kind of body that we have.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: He was a living being.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: He was one with a natural body.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_00: You remind remember that was something that described the physical body that we have currently.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_00: It is natural.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_00: And in this case, natural does not mean like non-GMO.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: It is not a good thing.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: So natural, then the spiritual.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: First man was from earth, a man of dust, but then we have the second man.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_00: And the second man is from heaven.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, we're talking about Jesus here.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: And the hard part is that we recognize our future while currently living in this current state.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: Because as Paul describes, he says, just as we have born the image of the man of dust, right?
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: That is our current state.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: You and I, our bodies, are made of many things, but ultimately they will return to dust.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: He says, We have those bodies now, but we will have the body of the man of heaven.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: And when will we have the body of the man of heaven when he comes back from heaven?
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: That's what we learned last uh two weeks ago in the first section, right?
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: Because the resurrection of the dead is associated with the end times.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_00: Because ultimately what happens is that Satan is defeated.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: What is Satan's greatest tool and his greatest joy?
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: The death that comes from sin.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: And so, in order to defeat Satan once for all, there must be a defeat of death.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: And so all of these things are coming about when Jesus Christ returns.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: You get your new body, we receive spiritual bodies, and they are transformed from natural bodies.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you're across the gap yet.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_00: This is the goal that we're trying to get this morning.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: That Paul is helping us to see how it is that we can attain by God's grace and the power of Jesus Christ the future that he's talking about here.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_00: We have this natural body, but we're looking forward to a spiritual body.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 50 What am I saying, brothers and sisters, is this flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor can corruption inherit incorruption.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: Listen, I'm telling you a mystery.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: We will not all fall asleep, but we will all be changed.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we will be changed.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: For this corruptible body must be clothed with incorruptibility, and this mortal body must be clothed with immortality.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_00: When this corruptible body is clothed with incorruptibility, and this mortal body is clothed with immortality, then the saying that is written will take place.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_00: Lots of immortality and incorruptibility, right?
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_00: So we'll get to what will take place in just a moment, right?
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: But Paul's statement there at the beginning that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, right?
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_00: That is essentially his the statement.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_00: It's a summary of what he has been talking about this entire time.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_00: It is a uh it is also a pivot towards what he is going to explain again in just a moment.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: And you might wonder, right, like, why does he keep hammering this point home?
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_00: Why does he keep saying the physical can't inherit the eternal, right?
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_00: Why does he keep going back to this point?
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_00: Well, because it's the biggest obstacle that people have.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: It was the biggest obstacle that his audience had.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: They said, Paul, my body is failing.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_00: What do you mean that it goes to be with Jesus and there's no problems any longer?
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: They're like, in my worldview, that doesn't make sense.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_00: And so he continues to reinforce this point in various different ways while bringing about new details, right?
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_00: There's a transformation that happens.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: That transformation changes what your body is like.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's a different, almost flesh.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_00: And so now, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor can corruption inherit corruption.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_00: And that right there is his explanation, right?
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_00: Why is that the case?
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, why can't you just take my body and place it wherever you want it?
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like, well, because your body, what flows through your veins, is the fact that you are corrupted.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_00: Every single one of you and me and every single person who's ever lived, by design, your body carries corruption.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I shouldn't say by design.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_00: God created it without corruption.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_00: By our design, it is now corrupted.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_00: And this is the problem.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: It goes all the way back, if you will, to last spring, if you were with us when we talked about Leviticus and we talked about the holy place, right, and how there's nothing that can be corrupted that enters into that space.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: There's no sin that comes near to God.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_00: And then later on, when God is going with the Israelites through the desert and he says, If I walked with you, I would have to kill you because of the sin that exists in your camp.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_00: And so, in order to protect you, I'm actually gonna stay back a little bit here.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna go with you in the ark, I'm gonna go with you, you're gonna see me and my angel, and the smoke and the fire that's gonna lead you through the desert.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_00: But if I walked with you, I would have to kill you because I am just.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_00: And so it makes sense that the perfect place that God has prepared for all time would not allow something corruptible to enter into it.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: And so it does require kind of a frame shift.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_00: No matter how you think about your body, you at least have to think about it in the sense that it is failing.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: Your body is not as it should be.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_00: For some of you, that's more apparent than other people.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_00: And for some of you, you will experience that too, in a more present way.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_00: Corruption cannot inherit incorruption is not fit for heaven.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: I messed that up.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm trying to say.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_00: Corruption can't inherit incorruption.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_00: It says it so many times.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_00: You'd think I had it nailed, right?
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 51, though, listen, I'm telling you a mystery.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: We will not all fall asleep, but we will all be changed.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_00: What does Paul mean here?
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_00: We will not all fall asleep.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you might recall, falling asleep is a euphemism for dying, right?
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_00: And Paul uses that phrase, I think it's lovely, multiple times throughout his letters because he is referencing, even just in that simple phrase, that we wake up again.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_00: Your death is that you fall asleep.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: And so he says, We will not all fall asleep, but we will all be changed.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the changed is something that we've said is going to come.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_00: We will be changed in a moment, we will be Changed so that our bodies can inherit heaven, that our corrupted bodies can be incorruptible.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_00: And so now he's saying, Well, we will not all experience that.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_00: Is Paul confused?
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_00: That's the question that people have.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_00: Does Paul think, as some say, that the resurrection is going to come immediately?
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think so.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_00: I think what's happening here is Paul is recognizing the fact that there will be that Jesus Christ's return is going to enter into human history at some point.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_00: And at that point, whenever it is, and only the Father knows, there will be some Christians who are alive and will not have experienced death.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_00: Even earlier in chapter 6 of 1 Corinthians, Paul told the Corinthians, when God raises your body and mine.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't think he's confused here about the future, but I do think he is establishing this fact that for some people, whenever Jesus Christ returns, death won't be a door that they have to walk through.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_00: They will be transformed at that moment, along with those who are resurrected.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 52, though, he says, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_00: That word for moment in Greek is atomos, which is where we would get the word for atom.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_00: And before we made bombs out of the process, people used to think that an atom was the smallest thing and it was indivisible.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_00: And so the word atomos in Greek is this indivisible point.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_00: There's nothing smaller than it.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_00: And so what he's saying here is this process of transformation that God will bring about upon his creation, it will happen like that.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_00: That's the twinkling of the eye.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_00: That's the moment.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus Christ returns and everything changes.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_00: It's not some sort of, you know, eight-week process that we have to go on.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_00: God is going to bring about this change, and it is signified by the last trumpet.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_00: Trumpets being a apparently God's favorite instrument.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_00: He was a brass player.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_00: Who knew, right?
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_00: But trumpets always signifying God's presence.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_00: We can see it in the Old Testament, on Mount Sinai, but we also see it in much greater intensity when we get to Revelation.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_00: In the last trumpet.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think that that's saying, in a sense, some sort of specific process, right?
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_00: We dealt with this again two weeks ago, where we said Paul's intention here is not to try and give us a timeline of events.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_00: He's giving us an order, but he's not trying to say when things specifically will happen.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_00: That's not his concern.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, as you look throughout the whole New Testament, when people talk about Jesus returning, they are far less concerned with the specific timeline than they are understanding and having hope in the events that are coming.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_00: It's more of our thing that we love to try and pinpoint it and figure out this time.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_00: So it will happen in a moment.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_00: This trumpet that's coming, the trumpet that will sound, it is just the last trumpet.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_00: It is the last one that will happen because God's presence is now fully revealed, and the dead will be raised incorruptible and will be changed.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_00: 53.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_00: For this corruptible body must be clothed with incorruptibility.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to say the word corruptible four more times, but as we're talking about this, this is not specific clothing.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_00: There's not a dress code in heaven that God is going to bring upon you, right?
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_00: And it's uh, you know, some sort of oftentimes we'll think of like white robes and such things.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_00: We're not talking about literal clothes here, okay?
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_00: We're saying that God is going to take your body and he's going to add something to it that is going to change it.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_00: So to comfort you, you will have your body.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you'll be, as the question is, if you'll be 25, 35, 45, 50.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know what you will look like, per se, when you get to heaven, but it will be your body, and your body will be better.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_00: But Paul, we can see that the Corinthians actually had some questions about this.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_00: And so for a moment, we're going to flip ahead actually to 2 Corinthians, where he sort of expounds on this idea.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_00: In 2 Corinthians 5, verses 1 through 4, he says, For we know that if our earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal dwelling in the heavens, not made with hands.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_00: Indeed, we groan in this tent, desiring to put on our heavenly dwelling, since when we are clothed, we will not be found naked.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_00: Indeed, we groan while we are in this tent, burdened as we are, because we do not want to be unclothed but clothed, so that mortality may be swallowed up by life.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_00: Picture that for a moment, that the way that Paul describes your body now is a groaning tent.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_00: And how he describes the future resurrected body is something not made by human hands, but is a structure made by God.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_00: Think of the difference there, right?
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_00: But also think here, I think there's a level of beauty in this kind of morbid conversation about the fact that not only does God bring this hope to us, but he understands what it is like to be living in this sort of body.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the sympathetic high priest.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_00: He lived with a body that ultimately failed him.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_00: He lived with a body that experienced all of these pains.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_00: And so the pain that you feel in your body is something that God understands personally because he has experienced it as well.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_00: Our God took on flesh.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_00: He decided to live in this groaning tent for a time so that he could give us hope.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_00: Keep in mind, though, that phrase as we move on about mortality may be swallowed up by life.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_00: That will be our last passage that we look at this morning.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_00: And Paul was referencing something in 2 Corinthians, we're about to look at.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_00: Because you see, at the end of verse 54, he says, when all of these things take place, everything that we've talked about, then what is written, prophecy is going to be fulfilled.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_00: What is that prophecy?
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_00: That prophecy is in Isaiah and Hosea.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_00: Death has been swallowed up in victory.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_00: That's Isaiah.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_00: Where death is your victory?
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_00: Where death is your sting.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_00: The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is in the law.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_00: But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_00: Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the Lord's work, because you know that your labor is not in vain.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_00: Well, if all of these things have happened, right, if we can sort of project into ourselves this idea that the res we are resurrected, we have our new bodies, Jesus Christ has returned, these are the things that we're saying.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_00: Death has been swallowed up in victory.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_00: Right now, in the world that we live in, death swallows up everything.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_00: Death takes everything.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_00: The worst part of our lives is dealing with death and destruction and disease.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_00: But later on, those things are flipped.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_00: And now we look at death as sort of a small child kicking at the shins of God.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_00: Because God is far more powerful than any of his enemies, and death has been swallowed up in this victory.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_00: And so we say, we we can sort of look to the future, where death is your victory, where death is your sting.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_00: What hope that brings us?
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_00: Because right now, that's what it feels like.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_00: Death stings a lot.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_00: That poison strikes at the very core of our being.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_00: Who has not lost somebody and said that that burns and that hurts?
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_00: The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is in the law.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_00: But let's do a little word association here, right?
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_00: Where death is your sting, and the sting of death is sin.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_00: So where is your sting?
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_00: Well, your sting is no longer there because sin is no longer there.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_00: The reason death had to be there was because of your sin.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_00: And now we're in a place where there is no more sin.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's taking all of these concepts and sort of stringing them together so that we get this fully formed picture, right, of what this future looks like.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_00: The power of sin is in the law.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_00: God gave us the law, but the law was not intended to bring life.
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_00: The law is a measuring stick that everybody fails when they compare themselves to.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_00: It revealed the rebellion of humanity, it revealed how depraved we truly were.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_00: And so the law, though Jesus Christ has now fulfilled it, the law still reveals to us how far we fall short of God's standards.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_00: And so the power of sin is in the law.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_00: But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_00: It is through Jesus Christ that your sins have been forgiven.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_00: It is through Jesus Christ that the law has been fulfilled, and it is through Jesus Christ that you will be resurrected in the future.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_00: It is through Jesus that you have victory.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_00: Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the Lord's work, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_00: Before we get to that, which is sort of our packaged application, let us look back at one more thing.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_00: Two weeks ago, I shared with you a slide, and Paul, if you might recall, was doing this hypothetical exchange.
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_00: He said, If the resurrection is not real, then Christ is not raised.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_00: Our preaching and message is useless.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_00: Your faith is worthless.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_00: We are liars sharing false hope.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_00: You still suffer from your sins.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_00: There is no hope for the dead Christian.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_00: We should be pitied for this false hope.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, well now, right?
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_00: If there is resurrection of the dead, if all of these things take place, flip them.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_00: Then Christ is raised.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_00: Your preaching and message is more valuable than anything else because we have the keys to life through Christ.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_00: Your faith is worth more than anything else that you have in your life because your faith gives you this gift.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_00: We are liars sharing false hope.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_00: We speak the truth and only the truth so that we might give people true hope.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_00: You still suffer from your sins, you don't still suffer from your sins, or at least not the penalty and the ultimate judgment of them because of Christ, which will be shown at the resurrection.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_00: There's no hope for the dead Christian, there is only hope for the dead Christian.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_00: I was talking with a relative literally yesterday who's who their mother passed away.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_00: And they were saying, you know, I've been a believer my whole life, and it's not questioning my faith one bit, but at the same time, I she's gone now, and I have to say, am I going to see her again?
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you will see her again because it is based in Christ.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_00: The resurrection of the dead is happening, so we have hope for those who have gone on and have trusted in Jesus.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_00: Finally, Paul says we should be pitied for this false hope.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_00: No, not in the least.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_00: We have true hope, and because of that, we should have an amazing amount of encouragement because of what it is that we hold to.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_00: Because of the resurrection, all of these things happen and they just flow forth from the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_00: All we're doing is connecting dots.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_00: So finally, with regard to application, right?
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_00: Hopefully, even just listening to these things, you're sort of emboldened by this.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_00: Dear brothers and sisters, be steadfast and immovable, right?
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_00: Don't be shaken.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_00: You are not a you are not a leaf in the wind, right?
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_00: You are not, as James says, a sea that is tossed and blown by the wind that cascades above it.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_00: He says, no, you are strong and immovable.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_00: Why are you strong and immovable?
• 34:13
  SPEAKER_00: Because you understand what's coming, because it is by faith, because you know that ultimately the greatest thing that hovers over you right now, which is your death, will ultimately be defeated.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_00: You can be strong and rest in that.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_00: Always excelling in the Lord's work.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_00: Well, hey, listen, we actually talked about this on the podcast, but there is nothing that you're ever going to be able to do to repay the Lord for what he has done for you.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_00: That is a debt you can't even hope to cover.
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_00: But when all of these things, when I'm presenting these things to you, when you're reading them in Scripture, there should be a really significant part of you that says, if I understand what it is that I have been given, I want to spend the rest of my life dedicated to that purpose.
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_00: Doesn't mean that you have to have a job where you go up and talk for 40 minutes about 1 Corinthians 15, but it does mean that you should be focusing on spending your time on things that eternally matter because you are lasting for an eternity.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_00: There are things that you and I spend our time on right now that do not matter.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_00: And some of them are fun, but we have to lift these things above and say, what are we doing?
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_00: We are excelling in the Lord's work.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_00: What does it mean to excel?
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_00: Well, in chapter 14, if you recall, at the end of his discussion about spiritual gifts, Paul used this exact same word when he talked about building up the church.
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_00: He said, What should you excel in doing the Lord's work?
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_00: Well, hey, why don't you make the vehicle that he instituted to spread the Great Commission?
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_00: Why don't you strengthen that?
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_00: What an eternal thing to work towards.
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_00: But then finally he says, I know that that labor is not always fulfilling.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_00: That oftentimes we work for eternal things and we don't always see the fruit of those labors.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_00: And so Paul, in his final comment on this topic, before he finishes his letter in chapter 16, he says, Know weary Christian, that your labor is not in vain.
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_00: Know that nothing that you do for God's kingdom ever goes unnoticed.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_00: Know that you are building up for yourselves not only rewards in heaven, right?
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_00: But an amazing experience that once you get there in your new body, you get to look back on the impact that God used you to do.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_00: Think about these things.
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_00: Think about what it means to run with endurance because we are steadfast and immovable.
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_00: That we are charging on towards this goal because we know what lies at the end.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_00: These are the things that should ring in our ears over and over and over again.
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_00: Because the body that you live in now, you're getting a better one in the future.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_00: So use it.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_00: Use it to labor for the Lord and know that your work is not in vain.
• 37:10
  SPEAKER_00: So in all these things, we are confident in our hope.
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_00: We work hard for the Lord, and we find comfort in his victory.
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_00: Here in a moment, we're going to transition to a time of communion together as a church family.
• 37:26
  SPEAKER_00: And we're going to leave these things up here.
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_00: And what I'd love for you to do is I'm going to step off for just a minute or two.
• 37:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I'd love for you to reflect on these things.
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_00: Quick note though, we are doing something a little bit different today, and that, Cab, you're going to be following along with us in terms of communion, because after communion is finished, we're going to finish with a song of worship.
• 37:50
  SPEAKER_00: But for right now, just focus on these things.
• 37:54
  SPEAKER_00: Think about your future resurrection and how that changes your life right now.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_00: And then I'll come back up and lead us through the Lord's table.
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_00: For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_00: On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, broke it, and said, This is my body which is broken for you.
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_00: Do this in remembrance of me.
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_00: In the same way also, he took the cup after supper and said, This cup is the new covenant in my blood.
• 38:38
  SPEAKER_00: Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.
• 38:41
  SPEAKER_00: For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.
• 38:54
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, the last words there are that we proclaim your death until you return.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_00: And Father, when you return, all things will be made new.
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_00: God, our bodies will be made new.
• 39:06
  SPEAKER_00: They will be eternal.
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_00: They will no longer be these things which groan and ache and eat us from the inside, Lord.
• 39:17
  SPEAKER_00: No, they will be new things, better things, Father, things that you have fashioned and made.
• 39:23
  SPEAKER_00: And we will no longer be people of dust, but we will be people of your spirit.
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, God.
• 39:29
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 39:30
  SPEAKER_00: Father, it is far more than we deserve.
• 39:33
  SPEAKER_00: But Lord, we are thankful for Jesus Christ, his death and his resurrection, how it impacts us today.
• 39:40
  SPEAKER_00: And God, I pray that we would be steadfast and immovable, excelling in the work of your kingdom, and that we would know that, Lord, as we run, it is not in vain.
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_00: Father, strengthen those who are weary and encourage those, Father, with hope who often struggle to find it.
• 40:00
  SPEAKER_00: It's in Jesus' name.
• 40:01
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.