Transcript

Well, let’s all turn together to 1 Corinthians chapter 15 as we pick back up with our verse by verse, chapter by chapter study. The Apostle Paul is God’s authority, God’s overseer, for all the churches, the brand new churches of the Gentile world. That means the non-Jewish world. And one of these churches was a church in the Roman empire at Corinth, the city of Corinth. And I cannot conceive of a church that had more problems that needed to be straightened out then the church at Corinth. As we come to 1 Corinthians chapter 15, we come to the last problem that Paul is going to endeavor to straighten out by way of letter. Now remember 1 Corinthians is the record of the letter that Paul sent to the church located at Corinth.

Now he straightened out many, many things, some incredible things he’s had to deal with, and he comes to the last thing he’s choosing to try to straighten out by letter, and that is the doctrine—and don’t be afraid of the word doctrine, the word doctrine means teaching. Everybody holds to some teaching. The movement today that says, well, that’s doctrine, throw out doctrine, doctrine’s divisive, that is an incredibly ignorant statement. Doctrine means teaching, and we must hold to certain teachings as absolute and true and other teaching as false and incorrect, if we’re going to have any unity or have anything to serve God around. But anyway, the doctrine of the resurrection is the doctrine of the teaching, that they were being very misled about. And we do not know exactly the situation, perhaps some in the church were advancing heretical teachings about the truth of the resurrection, perhaps there were false teachers from the outside just having an influence on the church, nevertheless, this was a significant problem, so the apostle Paul begins in what we have as chapter 15, beginning to explain the truth about the resurrection.

Now we come this morning to verse 35 and we’ll go through verse 49 as time allows us. Now I have taken Paul’s explanation about the resurrection and put it under two major categories as we’ve been journeying through this chapter. For example, we’ve had several messages whereby Paul’s main thrust was to defend the truth of the doctrine of the resurrection. Then other sections of chapter 15 his major thrust seems to be just to describe and give us an understanding of the truth of the resurrection. This one comes under the description of the resurrection, it comes under that broad category, and the specific title is the nature of the resurrected body. So here we are under the broad topic of him describing the resurrection and specifically he wants to tell us about the nature of the resurrected body.

Now let’s begin reading in verse 35. “But someone will say, ‘How are the dead raised? And with what kind of body do they come?’ You fool! that which you sow does not come to life unless it dies; and that which you sow, you do not sow the body which is to be, but a bare grain, perhaps of wheat or something else. But God gives it a body just as He wished, and to each of the seeds a body of its own. All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one flesh of men, and another flesh of beasts, and another flesh of birds, and another of fish. There are also heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is one, and the glory of the earthly is another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory. So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown a perishable body, it is raised an imperishable body; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. So also it is written, ‘The first man, Adam, became a living soul.’ The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural; then the spiritual. The first man is from the earth, earthy; the second man is from heaven. As is the earthy, so also are those who are earthy; and as is the heavenly, so also are those who are heavenly. And just as we have borne the image of the earthy, we will also bear the image of the heavenly.”

Now back up to verse 36, for an introduction. Verse 35 rather through the first two words of verse 36 the apostle Paul is responding to what he knows is going to be some anticipated questions by the skeptics. The apostle Paul expected the skeptics to have some questions about his teaching on the resurrection.

Now you’ve got to understand Corinth was a very secular city. Now when I say secular I do not mean they weren’t filled with religion, they had many, many religions, they believed in polytheism, many, many gods, but all their religions and all their gods were of man’s making. They had no reference to any one supernatural, all powerful God, the Creator God, who also became the Savior through Christ. They had no concept of that. They only had a system of religion in gods that fit human understanding. Gods that could be comprehended by the six inches of gray matter between the ears of the common man. And they prided themselves in their great learning and in their great understanding. So having a human based religion as the culture of Corinth has, these folks in the church and perhaps the false teachers in specific had a real problem with the idea that somehow our bodies are going to die literally rot, corrupt, and decay in the ground, and somehow burst forth in a brand new better body. They said, man, we can’t understand that. So Paul anticipates their questions, and he just states the question for them. Verse 35. “But someone will say, ‘How are the dead raised? And with what kind of body do they come?'” He said, I know that’s what you’re thinking, he says, I know that’s the question that’s coming, well, just how does it happen. And if it does happen, what’s this new body going to be like?

Well, Paul understood how depraved minds work. And Paul knows that a depraved mind, and by depraved I mean, the mind of a man that is not spiritually enlightened. The intellectual capacity of a human being without the regenerated spirit within him giving him insight. The natural mind. The carnal mind, the depraved mind. He understands that because he used to have one himself. Before he was converted to Christianity.

The carnal mind Paul knows, can never understand spiritual truth. If you have someone in your neighborhood, your family and your workplace who is an agnostic or an atheist or an out and out skeptic, do not ever expect to intellectually convince them of the truth of Christianity. God’s truth is not discernable to a fallen mind, the mind’s not capable of his infinite truth. Only a mind that’s been enlightened through the spiritual regeneration of the heart can begin to accept and comprehend. I’m not saying fully understand but accept and to some degree comprehend God’s truth. One of which is the resurrection of the body. Listen to 1 Corinthians chapter 2 verse 14. In 1 Corinthians 2:14 Paul says, “But a natural man” the man who hasn’t had a spiritual new birth “does not accept the things of the Spirit for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them” He can’t the Bible says, he cannot understand them, “because they are spiritually appraised.”

Now the skeptics of this day, very much like the secular humanistic skeptic of our modern day brashly assume that God must function within the limits of finite man’s intellectual capacity to understand. And we see that all over the world today. Scientists and psychologists, sociologists, biologists, you just name all of them, we see this total presupposition that if anything is real, and if anything is true, I must be able to analyze it and understand it with the mental capacity that I have, because if it’s outside of that, it must not be right and it must not be true.

Have you noticed we live in such a scientific age, as a matter of fact, science is such, an imperfect way to try to discover truth, but nevertheless, that’s the god that we have, it’s the god of science. Because we’ve basically said, in our world today, if science says it’s good, it’s good. If so called “science” says it’s bad, then it’s bad. At one time social scientists, psychologists said that homosexuality was bad, and they tried to correct people and change people who had that kind of sexual orientation. They were in line with the scripture. And then one day they just changed their mind. And they decided to say “no, it’s good, it’s just an acceptable alternative lifestyle”, and now all of a sudden that’s what they’re teaching and that’s the position of all the secular schools and universities and schools of thought in the world today. Well, it’s no longer a bad thing, we decided, we’re the scientists, that it’s okay. Listen my friend, God’s standard, God’s morals, God’s absolutes never change. Science may flop back and forth, God’s standards remain the same. Well, but that’s the God that we serve. And why do they come up with such strange perverse, weird conclusions. Because they can’t understand God’s ultimate absolute truth, they can’t comprehend it. Paul said they can’t.

Now look at verse 35, the last two phrases, which includes the two questions that Paul is saying that the skeptics are going to raise. “How are the dead raised? And with what kind of body do they come?” Paul says in essence, the skeptics are inevitably going to ask me to explain how this is going to happen, and to explain what this new resurrected body will be like. In essence Paul is saying, the skeptics are going to say, if you can explain it so that we can understand it, then we’ll accept it as truth; if you cannot explain it in a way that we can comprehend it and understand it, then it’s out. It’s not true.

Well, that’s just pride. That’s just human pride. Man pulls himself up by his own boot straps, man sticks out his chest and raises back his head and says “I am final reality. I am final authority. I must be able to grasp it. I must be able to comprehend it, I must be able to understand it, then we will decide if it’s right or wrong”. My friend, that’s not the way it works. James chapter 4:6 says “God is opposed to the proud”. Once man stands up in his pride and assumes the things these skeptics are assuming, then God far from giving them the grace to understand his divine truth actually prevents them from understanding his truth. Did you hear me. He actually will prevent the proud man from being able to receive and grasp his truth. Why do you think it is that you know a person, I’ve got one in my own family, who has been an agnostic or an atheist or a skeptic and nothing ever seems to get through to them, they never seem to be able to get it, they never seem to be able to receive the truth of God. Why do you think it is. God says I’ll tell you why, I prevent them, because of their pride from being able to grasp it. God prevents them.

Now let me give you a strong verse of scripture, jot this reference down, Matthew 11:25. Matthew chapter 11, verse 25. Jesus is being rejected by the religious leaders of his day, the men who are full of pride have a self made religion, a man centered religion, even though they’ve got the name of God on it, it’s still man centered, full of pride, they’ve manipulated a system of works that they can understand and that they can keep so that they can keep themselves exalted as the authorities over the people. Jesus of course was rejected by them, because Jesus’ message was, you’re all sinners going to hell and I can save you, but I’m the only way. Well, they didn’t want that, that stomped on their pride. So Jesus says to them, Matthew 11:25, or rather he says to God in that context, his Father, “I praise Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that Thou didst hide these things from the wise and intelligent and didst reveal them to babes.” Now Jesus referring to the fact that those religious leaders who touted themselves as the wise and intelligent men of the day, they couldn’t understand Christ, they couldn’t receive his teaching, they couldn’t grasp that he was God incarnate, God in human flesh and the Savior of the world. And Jesus says here’s the reason why they can’t, my Father hid it from them. My Father hid it from them who thought themselves to be wise and intelligent and the Father has revealed it unto babes. Babes like Peter, just a common old fisherman fellow. Probably didn’t have much of an education, but he received the truth and stood on it for God’s glory. Just old common folks would receive it. But the intelligentsia elite of the day generally speaking, reject it. Jesus says I can explain why, God hides it from them, and reveals it to the humble man.

Earlier in 1 Corinthians Paul says that when God chooses those to be his followers, “he doesn’t choose many wise or many noble according to the flesh”. Very few men go, Paul says, that are really something in this world and in the eyes of this world, very few of those come to the point where they humble themselves to honor Jesus Christ in their lives. I like what Adrian Rogers does, he asks his congregation, he said, “I want to know how many of you have earned doctorates, earned masters degrees or earned doctorates and he has everybody to raise their hand”. And he says, “I’ve got good news, God can use you too. He just has a little more trouble with you, cause you more often than other men are swelled up about yourself”. Now don’t misunderstand me, I’m not saying there’s something wrong with learning and education and achieving those goals, but you ought to have the theme of your heart as a child of God, ought to be God, I’m nothing and I’m worthless and all this knowledge is worthless unless you use it through me for your glory. A humble heart before God.

So God gives understanding to those who humbly seek his wisdom, telling him that they are absolutely nothing apart from him and pleading with him to bring them up to his understanding. But the skeptics of that day, the day when Paul wrote the letter to the church at Corinth and the skeptics of our day basically say “God bring it down to us, we’ll accept it”. No the question before God is “God bring me up to you so I can see it”. But Paul says “no, the skeptic is going to say, explain it on our terms and we’ll understand it”. Well, I think mostly for the benefit of the innocent believer in Corinth who may be being misled by the skeptics, and also for the skeptics themselves, God, or rather God through Paul, begins to give some illustrations about the resurrected body, the nature of the resurrected body.

Now let’s look at the first one. Roman numeral number one, first of all Paul is going to show the course of the resurrected body, illustrated in the plant kingdom. Paul’s going to show them the course of the resurrected body illustrated in the plant kingdom. Now he does this beginning in verse 36, the last part of it and going down through verse 38. And it’s powerful and amazing what the Apostle Paul does here. Look at verse 36, if you will. Can I back up. First of all, can I jump back, before I get to Roman one and just point out something in verse 36.

Before we get to Roman numeral one, look at verse 36. And Paul’s response to those skeptics is, two words, first part of verse 36, “You fool!” Here’s his point. The word fool there means one lacking sense. You skeptics have exalted yourself as the people who really are wise, really have understanding, really have learning, he says, you’ve illustrated by your lack of confidence and faith in the truth of God, particularly the truth about the resurrection from the dead, you’ve illustrated you’re one who lacks sense. He says, you’re a fool.

Now, then we continue with the next part of verse 36 and with Roman numeral one, he shows the course of the resurrected body illustrated from, or rather, in the plant kingdom. Now, look at verse 36b. He says, “That which you sow does not come to life unless it dies,” Paul is going to show that God has illustrated miraculous transformations in the natural world around us. Miraculous transformations equal to the miraculous transformation that will occur when a dead body of a human being rises with a new superior body. So Paul’s going to say, “look around you, look around you, it’s out there, open your eyes. Every time you see a farmer take a dried dehydrated kernel of corn or wheat or whatever it may be and take that dead dried dehydrated kernel and place it in the ground and then all it needs is moisture, oxygen and warmth. And a little time with the right moisture, oxygen and warmth, all of a sudden a sprout comes forth and you have a plant. It’s a miracle”. As a matter of fact, I have read where they have found some seeds in the ancient burial tombs from kings and leaders of the old world. And some have estimated those very seeds were thousands of years old, and they planted some of those seeds, and they put out roots and put up a stalk. Folks, that’s a miracle. Every spring when our farmers all around us go out and place those dead, dehydrated little kernels with nothing of life in it, into the soil, and God who’s programmed that seed to do something miraculous shoots forth the stalk up out of the ground, I’m going to tell you, it’s a miracle. And Paul is saying, you see that every day, you see it thousands and thousands, if not millions of times, every year, as spring turns to summer and summer turns to fall, but you’ve missed the miraculous because you’re too familiar with it.

I was out in the woods the other day, become a Baptist preacher very long and you begin to like the woods a lot. I talk to the squirrels and fellowship with the deer, just enjoy that. I was walking down a path and there was a place where, you know we’ve had so much rain and it’s been unusually warm, there was a place where an inch or two of the top soil and the leaves had been washed away. And there were three little acorns laying there. Little nuts. And they were exposed because the little bit of soil that was over them had been washed away. And each acorn had one green sprout coming out and going down into the earth. It’s the most amazing thing, I looked at three little acorns and each one with one little green stem going out and sticking into the earth, and I thought astounding to me. It’s incredible. That acorn had been laying there for a long time, just doing its own thing, and just dying and drying up and all of a sudden, God will allow it to get into the earth and all of a sudden, boom, it starts coming alive. Absolutely incredible.

You see, the whole process of germination is an absolutely fantastic and an incredible thing. First of all the seed, most seeds at least, need to become dry, dormant, and I guess you would say completely dehydrated, it’s just, there’s nothing there but death. I remember when I was a little boy about a half a mile from my house, there was a farmers’ supply store, used to love getting on my bicycle and going down to the farmers’ supply store. Now the typical thing I bought from the farmers’ supply store was nails. I needed nails to drive nails into boards to build go carts and build tree houses, I did all that kind of stuff when I was a boy. I remember one time we built, me and my buddy, we built a tree house in a tree, and forgot to ask the man whose yard it was in if it was okay, if we could do that. And he ran us out of the yard, but I used to love building and I was active all day long, and had this big fuzzy fro hairdo, and just was, I wish you could see some pictures, and some of ya’ll will probably do that to me, you’ll probably show some one day, but I was all boy.

I loved it in the early spring when they’d have all the seeds out for the farmers or for the gardeners. I particularly liked those scoops that were in there, I liked the sound of running the scoop down into those dried seeds. Don’t you like that sound. And you, I’d just pick them up and pour them out, the corn or the wheat or whatever else, the peas, just dried and hard, and I have been known to put one in my mouth thinking, I’ve seen horses and such chew this stuff and thinking there’s absolutely nothing to that. Just dry, there’s no taste, there’s just nothing. But that’s the first thing that happens, they are just dried out. And then you place them, or somehow they get in the soil, and they need oxygen, they need water, and they need some warmth. What that seed does in the soil when it warms up a little bit, it begins to absorb great amounts of water, and the little seed begins to swell and swell and God has so designed that dried dormant dead seed as the water seeps in, a chemical reaction begins to take place, that chemical reaction somehow unleashes the food that’s in that little kernel, the food turns into energy, the thing keeps receiving water so that the outer shell bursts. When the outer shell bursts, the food that God’s converted to energy because there was water present puts out a shoot, and the little shoot goes down into the earth to form roots and then it puts out another shoot that comes up through the soil and produces a plant, I’m telling you, that’s a miracle. And we see it thousands and thousands, millions of times around us every year. Pay no attention to it.

Paul says, “You fool!” You think it’s some sort of feat for God to take your dead dried up body and bring forth a new resurrected and glorified body. Have you seen what God can do with a seed. Open your eyes, Paul said, it’s all around you. The evidence that God can do this. He says, that’s the course it’s going to take. The body’s going to die, then it’s going to dry, dehydrate, be put in the ground, decompose and rot, and somehow by the sovereign design of Almighty God those who have received the Lord Jesus Christ are going to go through a chemical reaction, there’s going to be a great getting up morning. When somehow the germination of the old body—now we do not know how that works, they can’t even, they don’t understand how exactly it works with a seed, they just explain what does happen, but they can’t tell you how it happens—somehow what was once the sons of Adam comes back together and there’s going to be a new glorified body. Paul said, you see it every day. That’s the way it’s going to happen on that day.

Now look if you would at verses 37, 38, just sort of summarizing and making the statement again. Verse 37, “and that which you sow, you do not sow the body which is to be, but a bare grain”, perhaps of wheat or something else. “But God gives it a body just as He wished, and to each of the seeds a body of its own.” He said, don’t you understand. God first of all, gives the plant a certain body, the plant produces a seed, the seed dries and dehydrates, God gave it that kind of body, then you plant that kind of a body, that kind of a structure, and then it bursts forth in a plant and that’s a totally different body. That’s the course of the resurrection from the dead. So first of all Paul says, I want to show you the course of the resurrected body as illustrated from the plant kingdom.

Now Roman numeral two. Paul wants to show us the uniqueness now of the resurrected body illustrated in the animal kingdom. The uniqueness. The distinction. Separate from the other body, different from the other type of body, uniqueness of the new resurrected body. And how that is illustrated in the animal kingdom.

Now look at verse 39. He goes to the world of nature and gives a different illustration. He says, “All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one flesh of men,” separate from that Paul said, “and another flesh of beasts,” separate from that Paul says, “and another flesh of birds”, and separate from that “another of fish.” Now notice that the apostle Paul is consistent with the teachings of Genesis that man is distinct and separate from the beasts and the birds and the fish. You’ve got one flesh of men, and then you also have flesh of beasts, and then you also have flesh of birds, and then you also have flesh of fish. The Bible is absolutely consistent in totally refuting the humanistic position of evolution. And I mean the full blown teaching of evolution, doctrine if you will, because it’s the key doctrine in the humanist religion that now controls our public schools.

The key doctrine of the humanist religion is that man has no creator, man has no God, man therefore is the final reality, man answers to himself and to himself alone. Because man at one time was just some sort of amino acids or proteins that somehow reacted together in some sort of a primordial slime, that somehow billions of years ago got there from somewhere. And somehow those amino acids and proteins mutated and evolved, became some sort of organism, and that some sort of organism, somehow, slid its way up on the bank and over billions and billions of years, that organism multiplied and mutated into the fact that it finally became a human being, knocked his tail off, went across the street, got a suit of clothes and began teaching in the university. Paul says “no, in Genesis God said I made man after his image, my image and after his kind, I made plants after their kind, and I made beasts to be after their kind”, Paul picks up on that truth in 1 Corinthians 15 and says, “I want you to know there’s a kind of man, man is of a certain kind, rather, beasts are a certain kind, birds are a certain kind and fish are a certain kind”. Now fish vary and there are various varieties of fish and fish can be interbred, or beasts or whatever, and form different varieties, or types within the species, but a fish never became a bird and a bird never became a horse, and a horse never became a man, there’s not that kind of connection.

Now let’s look first of all he says, “there is one flesh of beasts”. Think with me for a moment how God has designed the beasts of the earth, they are fascinating, aren’t they. There are the common beasts, like dogs and cats and horses and sheep and cattle and pigs, those are common to us. Other parts of the world would list other animals as common. Then there are some beasts that are exotic like crocodiles, I like crocodiles. Don’t like to be around them, but I like them. Don’t you like it when it comes on the Discovery channel and the crocodile leaps out and grabs the little gazelle drinking by the water’s edge. Fascinating to me. God designed that crocodile’s body to do that. That blows my mind. Now you just see it all the time and think whoop, no big deal. That’s a big deal. There’s other exotic animals like black panthers and panda bears. Now the panda we think is cute and cuddly, but they tell us if you get around it, it will tear your head off and eat you. There are other animals that are just plain old strange like the platypus. Scientists have their way of organizing animals into certain categories and they don’t know where to put the platypus. He kind of is a little bit of everything. Mrs. platypus when she wants to feed her newborn will lay on her back, secrete milk and let it lay on her stomach, and they come up on her stomach and lap the milk up. Just strange, God designed that animal to do that. Then there’s the porcupine, he’s strange. Has a perpetual bad hair day all the time. God designed him like that, that’s how he protects himself.

Then he says, “there’s another flesh of birds”. Boy, the birds are interesting aren’t they. And you know the birds, though living creatures made by God are vastly unique and different from beasts. Now there are common birds, there are robins and blue jays and crows and buzzards and black birds and sparrows, and some humming birds around here. There are birds that fly fast. You know some falcons can dive on their prey at 200 miles an hour. Some can fly high, there are some geese that can soar to the heights of 25,000 feet above sea level. Some can dive deep. The common loon is known to dive up to 160 feet below the surface of the water searching for a meal. Some can fly far, the Arctic tern flies 11,000 miles one way on its annual migration. Interesting. Some eat a lot. Did you know the common bobwhite quail can eat up to 15,000 seeds in one day. God willing, I’m going to shoot one of those guys over the next week or two, and the Lord willing, I’m going to fry him and we’re going to have homemade biscuits and gravy, because God designed that bobwhite to eat that much so that Baptist preachers can eat them.

But think about how vastly unique the birds are from the beasts and then he goes on and says, there’s another flesh of fish. You didn’t know you were going to have a biology lesson today, did you. Another flesh of fish, now there are some common fish. There’s bluegill, perch, small mouth bass, large mouth bass, common fish. But you know also there are some exotic fish. There’s one fish called a puffer. I got to go snorkeling on my way back from India, and I saw a puffer, and I got after him. I chased him as hard as I could with all the breath that I had, I’d get a few inches from him, and he’d just swell up and just wiggle off, never let me touch him. Just, they just swell up and they get so much bigger than they normally are, it’s just a strange exotic fish. There’s another fish called the pygmy Gobi fish, it only gets to a half-inch long, that’s the full size at maturity. Another fish is called the archer fish. It actually goes to the surface of the water, can spit a stream of water, knock an insect off a branch, then eat the insect when it hits the surface of the water. It’s fascinating. Another fish is called the black swallower. It can swallow other fish twice its size.

And then there’s another fish that reminds me of some Baptist deacons. This fish that is called the small blinny. Now the small blinny looks just like another fish called the rassie. The rassie is a little fish that eats parasites off of larger fish. So the larger fish don’t bother the little rassie, because they like for him to come up and eat the parasites. I don’t know what that feels like to a fish, probably kind of like a back massage after a long day at work, I don’t know. But the small blinny looks just like the little rassie. So a larger fish comes up to a small blinny thinking he’s a rassie. But instead of the small blinny eating the parasites, the small blinny takes a hunk out of the side of the large fish. And that’s the way he gets his meal, and that’s fascinating to me. God designed that fish to look like a rassie, but take chunks out of the big fish, not eat the parasites.

Notice how unique and special that created order called the fish is from the beasts and the beasts from the birds, and the birds from the fish. And the birds from the beasts, what is Paul’s point. These are living creatures and they are fascinating, you see them every day, and the God who can make the beasts and yet radically distinctly different make birds, and radically distinctly different make fish, that God has no trouble in giving you one form of human life during this earthly existence, burying you in the ground and birthing a totally unique and separate form of body on the resurrection day. Paul says, look all around you. The truth is there. All you’ve got to do is look at it.

So Paul begins describing the nature of the resurrected body by showing them the illustration from nature all around them. The God that can do this with life, take a dead dried seed and bring a new sprout of life, make a bird different from a beast, different from a fish, so he can raise you from the dead, give you a new type body, totally different than the body that you had before.

Now the question is, have you received the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior. Have you asked Christ to come into your life and forgive you of your sin, wash your sins away and be the Savior of your life. If you haven’t humbled yourself before God, and said Christ I can’t save myself, I can’t clean myself up, I cannot wash away my sins, I can’t do enough right things, or not do enough wrong things to have a right standing before you, Jesus I trust your death on the cross did all that is needed for me to be forgiven. You have to come to Christ, then if you do, you can be certain, the grave’s not the end for you, that’s just the planting of this body, so it will burst forth in a greater, newer body on the resurrection morning.

[evening sermon – 37:28]

Now we come to new material. Roman numeral number three, he’s going to show the superiority of the resurrected body, illustrated in the celestial world. The superiority of the resurrected body, and he’s going to illustrate that in the celestial world. Now look with me at verses 40 through 42, the first part. In verse 40 he says, “There are also heavenly bodies and earthly bodies,” and I believe he’s talking about the fact that you’re, your body right now is an earthly body, it’s not of the dimension of God’s kingdom of heaven. But there’s also going to be heavenly bodies one day, bodies that are fit for God’s glorious holy, eternal, heavenly kingdom. But then he says, “but the glory of the heavenly is one,” that’s of one type of body, human body, “and the glory of the earthly is another.”

Verse 41, now he goes into his specific illustration from the celestial world. He says, “There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars;” then he makes another scientific statement far advanced for his day. “for star differs from star in glory.” Now we’ve had some biology lessons already this morning, now I want to have a little astronomy lesson with you. You know astronomers tells us that there are 200 billion billion known stars in the known universe. Who knows what’s beyond that, they don’t know. They just, of all the universe they can, at least calculate that’s there, they say there are 200 billion billion stars. Now that’s a 2 with 20 zeros behind it. Astronomers tell us that on a real dark night you can see about 300 stars, or rather 3000 stars with the average telescope. The scientists tell us that stars do indeed differ in size, they’ve even categorized them. For example, they have what they call the super giants. The super giant stars are about 100 times the size of our sun. Still much larger than our sun, but not nearly as big as the super giants, they have the giants. And then thirdly they have the medium size stars. As a matter of fact, our sun would be considered a medium sized star. And then they have smaller than medium sized stars, they call them white dwarfs, I don’t know who came up with these names, I just think that’s humorous. A little white dwarf up there. And then smaller than white dwarfs, they have neutrons stars, the smallest of all stars.

Then they tell us also these stars not only differ in size, as Paul says they differ significantly, they also differ in temperature. Now how they know that I’m not sure, I would say it’s their best guess. I don’t know of anybody that’s gone up there and stuck a thermometer in one of them’s mouth and said, let’s see what your temperature is, but scientists in today’s world have a way of saying things factually when they’re really not sure if they are so. But anyway, scientists best guess is that some stars are around the 50,000 degree Fahrenheit range, this is on the surface, and some all the way down to 5000 degrees. And they guesstimate the interior of the stars ranges from one million degrees Fahrenheit all the way up to two million degrees Fahrenheit. And they do know with their sophisticated telescopes that they differ in color, some stars are blue, some are red, some are yellow, with many, many colors in between.

What Paul wants to point out when he says “there’s one glory of the earth, one glory of the moon, one glory of the stars, then star differs from star in glory”, the simple point he wants to make is, you look at some stars and they are brilliant in their outward illumination and glory is, is, is so obvious, but then there are some stars that are so extremely faint you barely know they’re there. That’s what he means by the superiority of the earthly body comparing it to the celestial kingdom. The new glorified body is like our sun at 12 noon on the fourth of July on a very clear afternoon. That’s the way the glorified body is going to be in glory, the new resurrected body will be in glory. But this present earthly body will be like a far distant little neutron star that with our most powerful telescope we can only barely tell that it’s there. He said, that’s the way you compare the present human body with the glory of the new resurrected body. The present human body is like that faint little neutron star you barely see its glory, but the new resurrected body, they will be like the sun on July the fourth at noonday. Stars differ from star in glory. We’re going to have a totally different body, a body that is in every respect immeasurably superior to the body that you now have. And Paul says, I want to state that superiority, because you can visually see the way the sun shines during the day and then compare that to the most dim star in the night, and that’s the difference between the glory of the human body and the glory of the new resurrected body.

Now in conclusion I want to journey through verses 42, the last part, through verse 49. We’ll just do a running commentary here. Second half of verse 42 he says, “it is sown a perishable body,” When you put your body in the grave, he says, that’s like sowing the seed and that body is a perishable body, just like the seed you put in the ground perishes as it gives birth to the new life, the plant. “Perishable” there means a type and nature that is perishable. We have a dying body. The moment you are born you begin to die. And nothing will reverse that short of the coming of the Lord. Our bodies are fallen in the curse of sin permeates every molecule of every cell in your human body. Our bodies are terminal. They will die and decay until there’s nothing left but dirt and dust. But he said they’ll be sown that way, but he, then says “it is raised an imperishable;” That means a nature and a type that is unable to perish. They’ll have a new composition that cannot die and cannot decay. Just as this first body is bound to death and decay, so the resurrected body is bound to eternal life. Every fiber of the new resurrected body will be energized with the eternal life of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Luke 20:36 says, “for neither can they die any more,” isn’t that a great phrase. “for neither can they die any more, for they are like angels,” Now it didn’t say they are angels, it said they are like them, the eternal nature of angels. “and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection.” So you see, right now this present life, it’s seed time, all of you are seeds. Now you’re not quit ready for the planting, you’re not dried up enough yet. But I look at some of you, you’re drying pretty good. You’re dehydrating pretty good. It’s seed time right now. Then there’s going to be planted time, then there’s going to be resurrection morning later on.

Verse 43, he continues and says, “it is sown in dishonor;” You know these old fallen sinful bodies are a dishonor. First of all, they are dishonorable to man. We all agree in that, because of what we do. You see, we’re made in the image of God, therefore there’s a part of us that wants to live forever. There’s a part of every person that says, I want to live forever, and as a matter of fact, I want to be young forever. Reason you want to be young is because you want to live long. I mean, we diet, we exercise, some of us, we do things for stress relief, we call up the surgeon and see if he can lift it, tuck it, implant it, or suck it off. Why? Because we want to be young, we want to be young forever. We take our hair and we color it, we streak it, and we perm it. You know why, because these bodies are dishonorable to us. That’s what we’re saying. It’s an old terminal, dying, decaying, decrepit body. That’s what we’re saying, they’re dishonorable to us.

But not only that, I want you to know these fallen sinful bodies because of the sin that has infected them, they’re also dishonorable to God. You see God knows nothing of perishing. God knows nothing of dying, God knows nothing of decaying. These things are opposite of his character and his attributes. A human body that dies is a dishonor to its creator. The fact that the human body dies is proof positive that God has left the house and sin reigns in the human race. Every time you read the obituary column it ought to remind you sin reigns in the human race. But he said, we’re sown in dishonor, but praise the Lord for the balance. In verse 43 “it is raised in glory;” Oh how we flaunt the glories of the bodies while it’s vibrant and while it’s young. But your body began dying the moment you were born and there’s nothing really glorious about a dying body. Oh while we’re young, they’re firm and they’re tan, and they’re shapely, our minds are bright and alert, and quick. But very soon the body’s glories sags. And the mind’s glory fades. There’s not lasting glory in these bodies.

But, our resurrected body, the Bible says in 1 John 3:2, “will be just like Jesus’ body”. The nature of the resurrected body will remain in perfect order for all eternity. Won’t that be glorious. Our new bodies will be glorious beyond comprehension. Bodies of perfection that will never wear out.

Well he continues on with the contrast here. He says, also in verse 43, “it is sown in weakness;” Weakness there means it’s helpless to hold off sin, death and decay. At best you’ll be able to hold off death for 80 to 100 years. I mean, our bodies are so weak, the smallest bacteria or virus can put you in the bed, or put you in the grave. Our bodies shiver when it’s cold, and they sweat when it’s hot. Paul says here, that “it is raised in power;” The word power there means a power unknown to this former life, now think about Jesus’ resurrected body. We have in the New Testament the description of Jesus walking through walls. You know, we’ll be able to walk through walls with our resurrected bodies I believe. Jesus could just soar through space, he’d appear one place, then appear somewhere else. I believe we’ll be able to do that. Jesus ate with his resurrected body, so we can assume that we’ll eat. And never grow fat. No heart disease, no cholesterol, barbecue ribs every day for lunch in glory. I don’t know, but they are going to be great. No disease, no death, no fatigue, no need for rest day or night. As a matter of fact, night will be gone because you don’t need to rest. The Lamb is the light thereof in that kingdom and he never burns out. What a new body we’re going to have.

Keep your finger in 1 Corinthians 15 and look at Romans 8:10 for just a moment. Romans chapter 8, verse 10. “If Christ is in you”, listen “though the body is dead because of sin”, that’s your old body, the old man, this old physical house you live in, its dead because sin’s infected it, its terminal, its gone, its just a matter of time. “though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness.” Now here’s what that means. Our bodies, they’re dead right now and they are going to be stone graveyard dead one day, and then they’ll be in the “germinal” state. Now, right now while you’re walking around, talking and breathing, you’re in the “seed” state. But at that point, when you’re buried, put in the ground, you’ll be in the “germinal” state. You’ll begin that process of getting ready to spring forth in a brand new form of life. That’s what Paul is teaching here.

Now look at verse 44, back over in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. He says, “it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.” Just as there’s a seed in its one form of body, and there’s a plant that comes up later, that’s a different form, he says, that’s the way God’s planned humanity. It’s sown a natural body. Now the word natural there is the Greek word psuchē (ψυχή). psuchē means that aspect that we share with the animal kingdom. That means animals have eyes, we have eyes. Animals have bodies, we have bodies, animals have lungs, we have lungs, animals have a brain organ, we have a brain organ. All that stuff, we sow that stuff, that’s the psuchē, that’s the natural man. The word body there is sōma (σῶμα). He said, right now you’re the psuchē sōma, you’re the natural body, that’s what you’re living in right now. He says you sow that thing. And then somehow out of that thing in some sort of germinal process springs forth a pneuma (πνεῦμα) sōma, that’s spiritual body. Pneuma is the word we get pneumonia from, it means of the spirit, of the wind. He said, there’s going to come a new body out of the place where that old natural body was buried, a new spiritual body, not in material, not invisible, truly a physical body, but a body of the spiritual realm, a body that fits God’s kingdom, God’s glory and the heavenlies. A new body comes forth. You’re sown a psuchē sōma, you’ll come out of the grave a pneuma sōma, start a new Greek fraternity right here tonight. The pneuma sōmas. We don’t drink, we don’t party and run around, we just love Jesus. Great fraternity to be in.

A. T. Robertson, commenting on this verse says, “the spiritual body”, the one we have when we’re resurrected, “has some sort of germinal connection with the old natural body that was sown in the grave”. He said, but “the spiritual body’s development will be glorious beyond our comprehension, but not beyond the power of Christ to perform”.

Now look at verse 45. “So also it is written, ‘The first man, Adam”, now the first Adam is the Adam that had the wife Eve back in the garden of Eden, the Adam that ate us out of house and home. The first man Adam “became a living soul.’ The last Adam, that’s a reference to Jesus “became a life-giving spirit.” Now he says the first Adam, God took him and made his physical frame out of the dust of the earth, out of earthly stuff. And then God got old Adam, and he blew a soul in him. He became a living soul at that point. He said, that’s what you got from your first Adam, you got a body and a soul. He said, but now the last Adam, Jesus, he doesn’t just give you a body and soul, he gives you spiritual eternal life. And also a brand new body. So you see my friend, it just depends on who you are in. Are you in the first Adam or in the last Adam. When you get saved, what’s the Bible say, you’re in who? Christ. When you get saved you are no longer in Adam, you’re in Christ.

Folks, I’m walking around down here in a natural fallen sinful fleshly decaying, dehydrating wants to be buried body, but I’m going to tell you, I’m in Christ. Because you see in Adam we fall, but in Christ we get up. Isn’t that good news.

So I am now a spiritual man trapped in the old adamic nature. And one day this old adamic nature, this natural fleshly body will be buried in the grave, and the spiritual man, the new true me will go to be with the Lord in heaven. Until that resurrection morning, when there’s a new spiritual body raised from the grave, then God will unit the spirit me with the physical frame, and I’ll dwell with the Lord forever and ever and ever.

Look at verse 46, “However, the spiritual is not first”, does the plant come first or the seed. No, the seed’s got to be planted first. And then the plant comes forth. He says, continuing in verse 46, “but the natural; then the spiritual.” He says, that’s the order God has for it. Does the plant come first or the seed. No, the seed’s got to be planted first. And then the plant comes forth. He says, that’s the order God has for it.

Verse 47, “The first man is from the earth, earthy;” Now you’re walking around in the first man right now, you’re sort of earthy looking tonight. As a matter of fact, if you die, we could take you out and fertilize the garden this spring. Now we don’t do that because we have respect for the human frame because it’s made in the image of Christ. That’s why if I’m ever asked, I always discourage cremation. Not in a judgmental or dogmatic sense, but since God made these bodies in his glory and his image, even though it’s fallen and decrepit, I think there should be some respect paid to the body. Because God made it in his image. “The first man is from the earth, earthy, but the second man is from heaven”. The new man that you’ll be on the resurrection will be of heaven’s origin. Not of the earth’s origin. Verse 48. “As is the earthy, so also are those who are earthy; and as is the heavenly, so also are those who are heavenly.”

And then verse 49. “Just as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.” Now we know all about bearing the image of the earthy, don’t we? Some of you know more about it than some of the rest of us, cause you’ve born that image longer. We know this earthy is perishable. This earthy is dishonorable. This present earthy, because of sin, is weak and we will bear it for a season, then bury it away and then we’ll be clothed with our new resurrected heavenly body. You see, at the resurrection, creation’s purpose that it should reflect the glory of God will finally be fulfilled. Because all of us on that day will be conformed to the man who is himself the image of God. You see Christ is the image of God, we will be the image of Christ. Romans 8:29 says “For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren.”