"New Body" 5-16-21
Overview
The New Body: Our Hope in 1 Corinthians 15
Scripture honors the body God has given us. We are "fearfully and wonderfully made" Psalm 139:14, and our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, bought with the price of Christ's blood, called to glorify God 1 Corinthians 6:19-20. Jesus himself models care for our physical frame, calling his disciples to come away and rest Mark 6:31. Yet Scripture is equally honest: this flesh and blood is not permanent. Aging, decay, and death entered the world through the fall in Eden, when our first parents ate of the tree God had forbidden Genesis 2-3. Every ache and gray hair reminds us that something has gone wrong with what God originally made very good.
But death does not have the last word. Paul addresses an objection in Corinth—how can the dead be raised? With what kind of body do they come?—and answers with a mystery revealed by the Spirit: "Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God... We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet" 1 Corinthians 15:50-52. When Christ returns, the trumpet will not be soft but bold and loud, heard by the whole world. The perishable will put on the imperishable; the mortal will put on immortality. For the believer who dies before that day, the soul goes immediately to be with the Lord in paradise, while the body awaits reunion with the soul at the resurrection—reconstituted, recognizable, and made new.
This hope rests entirely on the cross and the empty tomb. Christ bore our sin, absorbed the wrath of God, and gives us his righteousness. Because the tomb is empty, Paul can promise that "he will transform the body of our humiliation that it may be conformed to the body of his glory" Philippians 3:21. Job confessed it long before: "I know that my Redeemer lives... and after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God" Job 19:25-26. Jesus himself declared, "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live" John 11:25.
For the saint who feels her aging body betraying the youthful spirit within, for the family standing graveside as wind moves through the trees, for any of us weighed down by the limits of mortal flesh—the promise stands firm. Care for your body as God's temple, but do not place your ultimate hope there. The body you now inhabit is not your final body. God has the final word, and the best is yet to come.
Transcript
Would you open your Bibles, please? 4s
With me to first Corinthians, the 15th chapter, for our study today, first Corinthians, chapter 7s
Jack the Lane, who is an interesting fellow. 18s
He is regarded as the father of the modern day emphasis on exercise. 22s
In particular, he was the really founder or the initiator of what we understand is the 31s
work out facilities. 38s
He investigated and he put together machines that are still used today. 40s
So there was a little bit of an inventor in him. 47s
He had a early morning TV show in which people were invited to exercise, right in their 51s
homes early in the morning. 59s
When he turned 40 years old, he swam the length of the golden gait bridge underwater. 63s
He had air tanks, of course. 70s
And then also to celebrate his 40th birthday. 73s
He swam from Alcatraz Island to Fisherman's Warf. 78s
Now, if you've been there in California, that is no short distance. 83s
And not only did he swim that distance, but he also did it handcuffed when he turned 70. 88s
To celebrate his 70th birthday, he pulled 70 boats with a total of 70 people on the boats. 95s
As he swam along, he pulled those boats in the water. 107s
And he did it. 112s
He did it handcuffed and get this. 114s
Shekult at age 80. 119s
He was still doing his two-hour regimen of working out and exercising. 123s
And late in his career, he emphasized the importance of juicing vegetables and fruits and all 132s
kinds of things mixed together there. 141s
He admitted that sometimes a taste wasn't too good, but it was so healthy. 144s
He lifted up the importance of the care for the body. 150s
He looked at the aging process and said, you know, what can we do about this? 155s
How can we try and help maintain health? 160s
He was one who was a proponent for the care of this body. 165s
The Bible has a little bit to say also about the Bible, doesn't it? 175s
I think for example, of Psalm 139, there the scripture says, I praise you for I am 183s
fearfully and wonderfully made. 190s
Paul writes, in 1 Corinthians 6, your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you. 195s
You were bought with a price. 204s
Therefore glorify God in your body. 207s
As the Holy Spirit dwells inside of the believers, Paul lifts up the fact that we were bought 212s
through the price of Jesus' shed blood on the cross and that because of that, we are to use 219s
our very bodies to glorify Him. 227s
Jesus says in Mark 6, come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while. 232s
The Bible emphasizes the care of this body and also emphasizes the need for rest. 243s
We're wonderfully made. It's the temple of the Holy Spirit. We are to glorify God. 250s
We are to care for the body. 255s
And the Bible also reminds us that this flesh and blood, it is not permanent. 260s
It's not permanent. We turn today to the great great book of first Corinthians. 270s
This book is so layered with so many different topics. 281s
Paul, as he writes this letter, he's addressing so many different subjects. 288s
He's talking about divisions that we're occurring in the church. 294s
He was talking about moral lapses and ethical problems, practices that we're occurring. 298s
He talked about marriage and the right reception of Holy Communion. 306s
And part of what he also talked about in first Corinthians was the resurrection. 311s
Specifically, he talked about the certainty of it. 318s
And he also addressed objections to it. For example, one of the objections to the resurrection 323s
is Romans chapter 15. But someone will ask, how were the dead raised with what kind of body 334s
do they come? You see, the objection was that, well, everyone knew what happened to the body 342s
when it was put into the ground or when it was destroyed. So how could there be a resurrection 352s
of the body? He addresses that then in our text for today. Verse 50. 359s
What I'm saying, brothers and sisters, is this, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. 370s
Nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. You see that which is perishable, that which dies, 377s
well, it can't enter into eternity. So right off the bat, he's saying that this flesh and blood, 388s
he reminds us, it's not permanent. It's not permanent. 397s
I remember that on my internship, I had a conversation with a lady. Just one of those, 404s
just the lightful saints of the Lord. She had known the Lord for all of her life. 410s
As we sat, having some tea one afternoon, she would share story after story of joys 418s
and some pain in her life. At one point, she turned to me and she said, 426s
you know, I'm old. She said, my body just, it just doesn't work like it used to and I'm 436s
reminded she said of my age every single hour. But then she said, but it feels like inside of me, 445s
inside of me is this, this little girl. Even though my, my body is aging, she said, 459s
even though I feel so old at times inside she said, it's just this little girl. 468s
Our bodies weren't created by God to have this continual aging process. God didn't 482s
create us so that we would die. That was not part of his plan. That came about because of the 491s
fall into sin. Remember back in the garden of Eden, the two trees, the tree of the knowledge of 500s
good and evil in the tree of life. And God had told our first parents, they could eat of the 506s
tree of life, the one tree they couldn't eat of is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 510s
But that's the tree. That's the tree that they sunk their teeth into and the result was death. 516s
Death just as God had said, we are reminded every day, aren't we? That this flesh and blood is not 528s
permanent. But that's not the last word, is it? 546s
Look, please, verse 51 with me. Paul writes this, listen. In other words, 555s
listen attentively, hear percure ears, hear come something very important. Listen, he says, 563s
I will tell you a mystery. What's a mystery? A mystery is that which comes from divine revelation. 568s
Paul is writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And so he says, now, listen up. 576s
This is important what I'm going to tell you. And what I'm about to tell you, 581s
I am received from divine inspiration from God himself. Listen, I will tell you a mystery. 587s
We will not all die. When the Lord Jesus Christ comes again, there will still be people that are 596s
alive, but we will all be changed. Why for one to enter into the reality of heaven? There has to be 605s
that change, right? The perishable has to put on the imperishable. And who's the we here? 616s
Well, the we here focuses on the Christian and the and the good that the Christian will experience 627s
in terms of the change bodily that will occur, but the we also, it can also be the reference to the 636s
unbeliever. Well, the change for the believer is good in the new body that we will receive 647s
for the unbeliever to put it succinctly. It will be an eternal dying process, but all, all, 655s
will be changed. Paul goes on to say, in a moment, in a bit of time that is indivisible, 668s
in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, a twinkle of an eye that is barely, barely able to be perceived. 678s
At the last trumpet, for the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised imperishable, 686s
and we will be changed. When God descended upon Mount Sinai to give the ten commandments, 694s
there was the blast of the trumpet. The people of old when they would rejoice and celebrate, 701s
they would oftentimes blow the trumpet. When the Lord Jesus Christ comes again, it will not be 706s
an experience where those who are live simply look up and say, oh, I didn't know you were here. 714s
No, the whole world will know of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ because the sound of the 721s
trumpet will not be soft. The sound of the trumpet will be bold, and it will be loud. 728s
For this perishable body must put on the imperishability and this mortal body must put on immortality. 737s
For those that die before the Lord comes again, the believer, their spirit, their soul, 752s
goes immediately into paradise. The body into the ground or the body is cremated. It doesn't matter. 758s
But when the Lord comes again, body and soul will be reunited. That body will be reconstituted. 770s
It will be better. And so, body and soul we will live with God forever. 780s
That reality is because of the graciousness of God through Jesus Christ. 791s
The Lord Jesus Christ dying on the cross, for giving us of our sins, taking our sins upon himself. 797s
The wrath of God falling upon the sun. We receiving the righteousness of Christ and Christ taking our sin. 805s
The tomb empty death has been overcome. The world reconciled unto God. 816s
This reality of what we can look forward to is born out of the cross and the empty tomb. 825s
And Paul writes in Philippians 3, he will transform the body of our humiliation. 832s
That's the body that we have right now. That's our existence that we have right now in this body. 840s
He will transform the body of our humiliation that it may be conformed to the body of his glory. 847s
Our new body, our heavenly body, imperishable, incorruptible, immortal. 856s
It'll be the same body that we have. In other words, we'll recognize one another in heaven. Most definitely, 870s
but it'll be restored. It'll be reconstituted. It will be better not subject to death and the K. 876s
Oh, the grace, the grace of God. 895s
You know, I'm reminded of times, of being with families as the body or the ashes of their loved one. 904s
He's taken to the site following the service. 912s
It's the cars pull up and people get out of the various vehicles. It's always so quiet. 917s
Sometimes the only thing that can be heard is the sound of the leaves of the trees is the wind blows through the trees. 928s
Take a view of the sound of the shuffling of the feet to the site. A muffled cry. 941s
Muffled voices. Whispers. There is such beauty with regard to the service of 951s
Commital. For right is one arrives and everyone is ready to proceed to the site or has 962s
gathered at the site. The word of God goes forth. As the casket is carried to the site 971s
to the earn is carried to the site. The word of God just breaks the silence of the moment 980s
and the good news and the promises of God. It just rains in such a special way at such a time. 991s
Words like are found in the book of Job the 19th chapter. 1003s
For I know that my redeemer lives and that at the last he will stand upon the earth. 1014s
And after my skin has been thus destroyed, then in my flesh, I shall see God. 1021s
That's the new body, isn't it? Or John the 11th chapter. Jesus said, 1033s
I'm the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me even though they die will live. 1039s
Or words. Words from our very text that are part of the Commital Liturgy. 1049s
We will all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye. At the last trumpet, 1057s
for the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised imperishable and we will be changed. 1067s
God has the final word. I think of the actress Betty Davis. She said, 1079s
Old age is no place for sysis. Truth there, right? This is all so temporary. 1098s
For this perishable body must put on imperishability and this mortal body 1115s
must put on immortality. Beloved, the best is yet to come. 1124s