The other weekend we celebrated Easter. What is the main point of Easter? Jesus defeated sin and death. He died and rose from the grave; so I thought I would look into resurrection in general a little bit today.
First, I have my only story of someone raising from the dead: from when we were serving in Toronto. In one of the corps we were responsible for – the Warehouse Mission – they had very many great outreaches into the Inner City community. We had talent nights once a month that were amazing – everything from absolutely top-of-the-line professional musicians to people signing their hearts out (and our ears!) or playing instruments that they didn’t necessarily know how to work. It was so much fun! Everyone was so encouraging too. We also had regular meals and did so much more. One thing we had on the wall when you entered our space was a bulletin board where we would place funeral cards and notifications of people’s deaths and memorial services - so we could pay our respects and let others remember those who have been Promoted to Glory. Only once we had to actually take down funeral card – because the person wasn’t dead anymore! Maybe they weren’t really dead in the first place but their information was all on the board and people who remembered them were telling me all about it. You can imagine – it was quite exciting when a number of our people met a friend they all knew, who they knew/thought was dead. That is my only resurrection story. And -according to my wife - they probability they weren’t really dead in the first place but even if it isn’t a resurrection story, it still was more than a little exciting when people cried out that she was alive! (We then took her funeral card down)
It would have been very exciting with Jesus’ resurrection! His friends saw him die and then, after He rose, He actually appeared to hundreds of different people, at different times, in different places, and people touched Him to make sure that He wasn’t a ghost. Paul is writing this letter to people who knew this
Today we are going to ask a few questions of our text, 1 Corinthians 15, about the resurrection at the end of time (the eschaton) as it relates not only to Jesus but to all of us.
First: What does it mean to be resurrected?
It means to be raised again… with a body – as Jesus showed everyone again and again. The resurrection is NOT about ‘going to heaven’. When we die, we DO have the opportunity to go to Heaven. Heaven is where Jesus is. Like the thief on the cross, when we pass on, we can go to Heaven. But that is not what Paul is talking about when he is writing about the resurrection. Paul is making the point in Chapter 15 that the resurrection is something different. The language he uses (in Greek) is quite blunt. He is quite upset that some people seem to think that Heaven was the end of it. Paul says there is still something else. Paul here is talking about what some have called, ‘life after, life after death’ – when we get new physical bodies. What does it mean to be resurrected? It means to be raised again with a body.
How does resurrection and especially Jesus’ resurrection relate to the Gospel?
1 Corinthians 15 tells us that this is the Good News of Salvation. Paul says the Gospel that saves us, as Scripture says, is this (vv. 2-4):
· Jesus died for our sins
· Jesus was buried
· Jesus raised from the dead
So we can have everlasting life: Good Friday is all about Jesus dying for our sins. Easter is all about His resurrection to everlasting Life. But…
Next question: Can people other than Jesus really be resurrected from the grave with a new body and not have to die again?
Yes. This is important. The Apostle Paul says (vs 13) that there has to be a resurrection of the dead, because Christ has been resurrected and many people, who are still alive (when this letter was written) have seen Him and touched Him and can verify what they saw and felt. The fact that you have seen Him, Paul writes, proves that people can be raised.
Now when God ultimately raises us from the grave (at the eschaton; at the end of time) we will be free of death. Paul says that if Christ wasn’t raised (which they know He was) than you can’t be free of death. Everything born on this planet dies. Everything. And so, Paul says, that when Christ rose from the grave, He in essence opened the door to the grave and left it open so that we can all walk out, in due time of course. Many of my sermons talk about how God is with us here and now in our daily lives and this is important. But Paul very importantly says here that vs 19, if our hope in Christ is ONLY for the here and now, we are to be pitied more than anyone. So, can people really be resurrected from dead? Yes, many of those receiving this letter had seen the first person who was raised like this.
Okay, Jesus bodily raised from the grave, never to die again. If we are convinced by Paul that He was first and that we will follow with new glorified bodies, a couple of more natural questions arise:
Question 4: What will our bodies look like? And,
Question 5: How will all this happen?
Verse 35-41, Paul says our bodies, such as they are now, are like seeds. Reinhart is away. He is an amazing gardener. I don’t know if anyone else here is a gardener. Paul says we right now are seeds. It is like this room we are in is one big packet of people seeds. When we are dead and buried, it is like God is planting us in the ground. Then one day, at the time of the resurrection, we will each grow from our seed into brand new people. The English translations, when speaking about the seed bodies, call them ‘perishable’ or ‘corruptible’ or ‘natural bodies’. When referring to the new bodies that grow from these seeds the English translations call them ‘imperishable’, ‘incorruptible’, and ‘spiritual bodies’. One thing all the journal articles and commentaries I have read recently -after long discussions about Greek words and context - point out is that these new bodies are indeed real bodies. They are not just spirits; they are not ghosts; they are spiritual, incorruptible, everlasting bodies. Just as Christ has a touchable spiritual body – that never ages and never dies, so will we. It is neat here too because Paul speaks about animals and birds and fish all having different bodies too – like they are each from a different seed packet that when planted, like we will be when we are buried, and will grow again. He says the same for heavenly bodies as well; so, who knows? We just buried Sally Dzus’ pets and her second husband in the grave with her next to her first husband’s grave; maybe her pets will be raised again too in new non-perishable bodies! Maybe our pets and livestock will be with us at the resurrection.
So… What will our bodies look like at the resurrection and how will this happen? I don’t know but they will be different – like a seed is different from a plant - and they will be bodies that will not perish.
The next natural question is when will this happen?
When will we get our new bodies? Verse 51 onwards: this will happen at some undisclosed future date; it sounds like it will all happen at once. Verse 52, “in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet, the dead will be raised imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.”
There is one interesting footnote that I want to chat about briefly today – not because it is particularly important but just because I find it interesting.
What about the baptism of the dead?
15:29: “Now if there is no resurrection, what will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized for them?” Now no one knows what the baptism of the dead is. We can gather from this that baptism is symbolic rather than transformative – because we obviously can’t save a dead person by baptizing them. But I always thought that this would be a ceremony The Salvation Army might decide do one day (if we ever implement baptism by water) to baptize the relatives of all our unbaptized p-t-g Officers and Soldiers on their behalf.
Why does our resurrection matter?
If we all go to Heaven to be with Jesus after we die anyway, why is this ultimate resurrection so important to the New Testament and Christianity? (See Revelation where Heaven comes down to earth at the Eschaton)
I think it is important because it tells us what the Kingdom to Come will look like when it is fully established at the Eschaton. It lets us know a couple of things:
1) We won’t just be disembodied ghosts or spirits floating around in the air with no body -like Casper the Ghost or Ghost Busters or something. We will have bodies.
2) There will most likely be plants and animals and maybe even stars and planets at the resurrection and as they don’t die or age, the lamb can then lie down with the lion (Isaiah 11:6-9; Revelation 21:1-4) because he has no fear of being eaten
3) We won’t have our old bodies that just keep getting older with all the ever-increasing aches and pains of aging (unlike poor Tithonus from Greek mythology). This is why Paul can say elsewhere (Philippians 1:21) to live is Christ -which is great! - but to die is gain.
And this is our hope, that at the end of everything God will create new heavens and a new earth where nothing will grow old, nothing will decay. Nothing will die because between the cross and the empty tomb, as Christians around the world celebrated last week, Christ defeated death so we can all have life and have life abundantly!
One last thing: Paul ends our discussion in this way. He writes, vv. 57-58, “But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labour in the Lord is not in vain.
Because of Jesus’ resurrection, we all have the opportunity be raised to eternal life.
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