I hope you have sensed the theme in the hymns this morning. If you guessed resurrection, you're right. If you didn't, don't tell me. We are in chapter 15 of 1 Corinthians, beginning in verse 35. Next Sunday will be the last sermon as we close the letter in chapter 16. We'll do our monthly Ecclesiastes and then move in April to the book of Revelation. 1 Corinthians 15 verse 35, this is the Word of God. But someone will ask, how are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come? You fool. What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. But God gives it a body as He has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body. For not all flesh is the same, but there is one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, another for fish. There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies. But the glory of the heavenly is of one kind, and the glory of the earthly is of another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars, for stars differ from star in glory. So it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable, and what is raised is imperishable. 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 also must be a spiritual body. It is written, the first man became a living being, but the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual that is first, but the natural, and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust. The second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust. And as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. So just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. I tell you this, brothers, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God who gave us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. knowing that in the Lord your labor is never in vain. Let's pray. Lord, we know apart from the work of your Holy Spirit in the hearts of people, these words have no real meaning or help. So we pray that your Spirit draws people to Christ through the preaching and understanding of the Word of God. that we would not be working in vain. And we thank you for your promise to bless us in that way. We pray in Christ's name. Amen. You can see that the Apostle Paul needed to deal with skeptics concerning the resurrection of the dead, that one day our bodies will rise again Now, ironically, the skeptics were not unbelievers. In this instance, the skeptics were in the church. It was people under Paul's ministry that he had now left that were skeptical that our bodies could rise again. Now, the question is, if they could handle many other doctrines like the Trinity, as far as what they understood, that Christ was born a virgin, The God-man, they accepted all these other doctrines. Why is it they struggled so much with the resurrection of our bodies? Well, if you understand Greek thought a little bit, it'll make more sense because they had accepted the common Greek thought of the day. And this was common among Plato and Socrates and Aristotle. And it was the idea that the body is what causes us to sin. The body pollutes the soul. So if man is ever going to attain the true wisdom and true realization and holiness, he has to get rid of this dirty old body that causes us to sin. And so a common thought in Greek understanding was the body is the prison house of the soul. Get the body out of the way and the soul will be free to be what it's meant to be. And so the body had a very negative connotation. So Paul comes along and says, that body you have is going to rise again and live forever. And they were saying, that's impossible. There's no way if we're going to live in the holiness of God eternally, it can't be with these bodies. And obviously, they had too much continuity when Paul said bodies, they were still thinking of their body the way it is. And it was hard for them to imagine their bodies living forever with God. And so they came up with other ideas and their basic idea was only the soul will live forever and not the body. And the soul will be with God if you're a Christian. And so Paul has to teach them and correct them here. I remember when When my older kids were young, we took them to Balboa Park, which is a natural history museum in San Diego. And there was a 4,000-year-old Egyptian corpse in this, not a cage, but almost like an aquarium. And it was amazing to sit there and look at this. And I can almost imagine someone saying, that's going to rise again? That type of thing? There's no way. And so that was the kind of questions. And of course, we're usually frustrated with our bodies. Is it even hard for us to imagine our bodies living forever? Oh boy. Even that is difficult when you think about it. And so Paul has to defend the resurrection of the dead. It's obviously very important to Paul that you understand this. And so in verse 35, he asked the question that the skeptics are asking, how can the dead be raised? His first response, he doesn't come in very easily, does he? He says, you fool. And in the Bible, a fool is somebody who doesn't take God into account. If you take God into account, who created the world, then he can do something to your body to make it able to live forever. If God is God, He can do it. It's foolish of you to think that there's no way God can do this. And that's why He challenges them to even think about God. You fool. And so He gives examples from creation. Look around you. When you put a seed into the ground, He says, it rises again. First the seed dies. And it rises as something different. Does it rise as the seed? Or is it new? Now there's continuity. It's that seed that developed into a plant or a flower, but his point is that it was that seed that died and now was raised something new that can live in that new environment. And so creation has examples in it of the resurrection of the body. Paul says the seed is the most common example. Sometimes people ask, Christians will ask me, is cremation okay? Or should we be buried after we die? And the Bible doesn't really give an answer either way, but sometimes the worry is, if I'm created, how will God resurrect me from the dead? Of course, if you're buried in a thousand years, guess what? You're going to be as dissolved almost as the creation, as the cremation. The point is, God can do it, because he's promised to do it, and it's going to be something new. There'll still be some continuity, it's your body, but it's brand new. And if you ask how, well, Paul would say, well, how did God make the world out of nothing? He can do it. He's promised to do it. Now in verse 19, he goes on to explain, if God can make a plant suitable to be a plant from a seed, he can make your body suitable for heaven. Even though you look at your body now and you say, how can our bodies be suitable to live forever in God's glory? Paul's response, God can make a body that way just like He makes the sun and moon and stars. And that's what he explains in the following verses. He says, like in verse 40, God makes the sun with a certain type of glory. God makes the moon with a certain type of glory. He makes the stars with a certain kind of glory that fits its purpose. And God will make your bodies with a certain type of glory that will fit living forever in the presence of God. You see, if God can clothe the sun and make it fit to live in the sky, then God can clothe your body and make it fit to live in heaven. That's the point. Now, in verses 42 and 44, he applies those examples to us. Like the seed, our bodies will die, but it will be raised new. It will die in weakness and dishonor, and it will be raised perfect and full of glory to live in God's presence. They die natural, but they are raised spiritual. Real bodies, but now they are spiritual. Spiritual doesn't mean without physical attributes. It means now fit to live in God's heavenly glory. You see, the Corinthians could not imagine a body being that glorious. And Paul says, that's what God will do to your old bodies. He will clothe them with imperishable, with perfect glory qualities. The Spirit of God will do this. Now, you need to understand, sometimes when you think about heaven, dying and going to heaven, that in the Bible, heaven is a physical place. It is heaven, God's realm coming down to earth. There's a real earth, the new heavens and earth is a real place. And sometimes that's why it's hard to imagine heaven when we think we're just going to be spirits flying somewhere. No, we're going to be physical beings. And we like the physical. I mean, we're created to like the physical. When I go out and play golf on a beautiful day and I see the mountains, I want this to be in heaven. We're made to appreciate the physical around us. And that's what the new heavens and earth will be. It'll be the beauty of this creation, but even better. But we will have physical bodies on a physical earth. And that's what we are to look forward to. Now obviously the Corinthians were really struggling with this idea, so Paul needs to continue. And he goes on to talk about their relationship to Christ versus Adam. He mentioned this last time we talked about, but he goes back to it, verse 45. Thus it is written, the first man Adam became a living being, and the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. I always smile at this verse because when I first got to seminary at Westminster, my first class, I was new to all this, I had to write a 25-page paper on this verse. I said, on this verse alone? That verse. So I know this verse pretty well. Paul takes you back before the fall. Adam was created a living being, but he was not given a spiritual body that could live forever with God. He was given a body that could die. And that's exactly what happened when he sinned. When he fell, his body ended up dying. But Christ, when he rose from the dead, became a life-giving Spirit. The Spirit should be capitalized there. He gives us the Holy Spirit, which guarantees we will rise again with a new body. and the Spirit will transform our bodies to live forever in heaven. And so he compares Adam, who was only given a natural human old body that could die. Christ guarantees a new body which will live forever. Christ won that reward for us as He went to the cross for us. And then in verses 46 and 47, He gives the order again. This is the way it was meant to be. Adam first, the natural body. One day Adam was to attain a spiritual body. He failed. Christ came and succeeded to give us that spiritual body. And so that's always the way it was meant to be. To start with the natural body and to one day attain a true body that can live forever in God's presence. Verse 48, those without Christ. will not receive a new body. They will not be able to live in God's presence. Those who have trusted in Christ for salvation will receive the new body. Verse 49, we have all borne the image of Adam, we all have the old dying body, but we will also bear the image of the heavenly man, Christ. As he was raised with a new body, so will we. Now again, you can understand their discomfort a bit. Think of a wedding. Think of you walking into a wedding accidentally wearing shorts, a t-shirt, and a baseball cap. You're out of place. You're not clothed properly. There is certain clothing appropriate for a wedding. Well, it's the same thing true as God's presence. If you're not clothed properly, then you don't belong. You see, it's difficult for us even to look at our bodies very long in the mirror. Now imagine these bodies living in God's presence. It's like going to that wedding. It doesn't seem right. So Paul has to explain, it won't be those dying bodies that you struggle with. They will be clothed differently with spiritual perfection. Now Paul responds, if you struggle with this, you're right. It is not your old body because it doesn't belong. Look at verse 50. Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Your bodies, as they now are, will not be able to live in God's presence. They need to be made new. Now, I should stop here and point out, the day you stand before God, if you're not clothed properly, you will not be able to enter God's presence. You will be out of place. And the only clothing God offers is the righteousness of Jesus Christ in the gospel. It is a free gift, and it is to those who come saying, I don't have the proper clothing, Lord. My good works, trying to be good, is not the proper clothing. It is not good enough to enter this wedding, the marriage feast. I am a sinner. I need clothing from above. That is the gospel. And those who come empty handed to God, saying, I can only receive what you offer in Christ. They receive the proper clothing and will be fit for heaven. And that is where Paul goes in the summary down in verses 51 and following. He begins to offer an outburst of praise to God that this is for us. We will receive this. And so notice the way that it turns into a doxology of praise. Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye. And so whether Christ returns in our lifetime or a thousand years from now, it doesn't matter. All those who are clothed in Christ will receive the new bodies in the twinkling of an eye, and they will stand before Him properly clothed in Christ. The trumpet here is the Old Testament picture of the return of Christ. when he judges the wicked and he saves his people. And so he's still bursting with praise as he closes this portion. Verse 55, he mocks death. Oh death, where is your victory? Where is your sting? Because of the gospel of Christ, death has no power over us anymore. We do not fear death. Verse 57, the sting of death is sin. The power of death is the law. The reason we die is because of sin. But now that Christ has taken care of our sin, death has no power to judge us. In the same way the law of Moses condemned sinners, but the law does not have power over us either in Christ. Christ obeyed perfectly for us. So notice how he ends with a burst of praise to God. Thanks be to God who gives us this victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. God's people would say, Amen. Now someone once said, if you want to see the real difference between a believer and an unbeliever, watch them die. Christians should be prepared to die well. Do not die as unbelievers. You are to die in hope. That doesn't mean you don't have the attendant struggles and fears, but ultimately you die in hope, knowing what's coming. Die in confidence of your resurrection. And even in this life, and I find too many Christians live in fear, fear of death. And you're always thinking about how to preserve your life. You are not to live in fear of death. I mean, we're not to avoid being with God. It's a good thing. Not that you try to die, but you don't live in fear of it. You simply live life. You do not live as if dying is such a bad thing to be with God and eventually to be resurrected. you can live without that fear as a Christian. But not only fear of death, but it affects how you live. Look at verse 58. And so therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is never in vain. Paul is fully aware that if you do not believe in the resurrection rightly, it can affect your life now. and take away your good works and your confidence to continue serving the Lord and being faithful. So Paul says, continue to serve the Lord. Continue to live for Him. Be steadfast. For those good works that you do will not perish in the grave. You will be rewarded for them, and even that is an all-enacted grace, because He brought those about in Christ. And so you are to keep the hope of the resurrection before you always, Not to fear death, but to live for Jesus now in confidence. And we always are to respond to this thanks be to God, who accomplished our salvation freely through Jesus Christ, in whom we have victory over death. Amen? Let's pray.