APRIL 21st, 2024 PASTOR DON PIEPER
The Corinthian Complex Dan 12:1-4/1 Cor 15:35-49
“HEAVENLY PEOPLE”
With 1 Corinthians 15, Paul writes the longest chapter in his lengthy letter to them. responding to the objections some are raising to his message on the resurrection. This is our fourth week covering his teaching there. Some might argue that Paul is laboring it the point, reminiscent of the People's Front...
The People's Front of Judea Business Meeting (Skit)
It's not just Stan belaboring the point, so is everyone else in that meeting. That's the case here with Paul and the Corinthians, too. He's responding to those who keep questioning his message...
Throughout the chapter he quotes those among them who belabor the point: “Why are some of you saying there is no resurrection of the dead?” (1 Corinthians 15:12) Others are quoting the Greek philosophers in their midst: “'Let's feast and drink, for tomorrow we die!'” (15:32) Still others are asking, “How will the dead be raised? What kind of bodies will they have?” (15:35)
In response to their cynical questions, questions that suggest that a belief in the resurrection is absurd and unrealistic, Paul makes four poignant points. The first is heard in his emphatic response to these two questions. As he so bluntly points out: “What a foolish question!” (1 Corinthians 15:36)
But then Paul gently tries to help them understand this great mystery. How can Paul be so sure? Well, for one thing, he is being guided by the Holy Spirit. What's more, as we'll hear this summer in a follow up letter he writes, he's had a personal glimpse of what lies ahead himself. “Only God knows whether I was in my body or outside my body, but I do know that I was caught up to paradise...”
(2 Corinthians 12:3-4)
And so, he tries his best to put that into words they'll understand. To do so, he uses the metaphor
of a seed planted in the ground. “What you plant in the ground is not the plant that will grow but only a bare seed of wheat or whatever you're planting. Then God gives it a new body.” (1 Corinthians 15:37-38)
The process by which a seed sprouts into a shoot or sapling, as any botanist worth his/her weight in seed can tell you, is called 'germination'. But this process was a mystery to Paul's peers. Still, they were all aware that if you provide water, good soil and sunlight, seeds always change. Paul's point is this: “Even though you don't understand it, doesn't mean you shouldn't believe it!”
It's comparable to my relationship in using a computer or a cell phone. I don't understand how it works. I could never build one myself, but I daily trust that it works and benefit by it.
Paul's second point with his seed metaphor is illustrated by the children's message a pastor told one Sunday. He asked the kids: “If I sold my house and car and gave all my money to the church would that get me into heaven?” All the children answered in unison: “No!”
Then he asked: “What if I made my bed, took out the trash and helped at the church to keep things clean here, would that get me into heaven?” The kids looked at each other: “No!”
“How about if I gave gifts to my kids and gave candy regularly to all the children, would that get me into heaven?” One child meekly replied: “maybe?”, but all the older kids answered, “No!”
Finally, the pastor asked, “Well, then how can I get to heaven?” - to which one little five-year-old boy blurted out: “Mista, you gotta be dead!”
-2-
Give that child a prize! He nailed it. As Paul put it: “When you put a seed into the ground, it doesn't grow into a plant unless it dies first... It is the same way with the resurrection of the dead. Our earthly bodies are planted in the ground when we die, but they will be raised to live forever.”
(1 Corinthians 15:36, 42)
Paul's second point is this: to live out eternity with God in heaven, we must shed our shell first.
So, One, “Even though you don't understand it doesn't mean you shouldn't believe it!” Two, “to live out eternity with God in heaven, we must shed our shell first.” And three? “Just as there are natural bodies, there are also spiritual bodies. The natural body comes first, the spiritual body later”
(1 Corinthians 15:44, 46)
Dr. Mary Neal, an orthopedic surgeon, drowned when her kayak upturned as she went over a waterfall on a river in Chile. She wound up submerged for 14 minutes and later....shared this:
“I was eventually greeted by a group of people, spiritual beings, with a head, arms and legs, but translucent. They were there to welcome me and help me feel loved. As I was drinking in the beauty and rejoicing with my old companions, I looked back at the scene at the river bank. My body had been recovered. It looked like the shell of an old friend, and I felt warm gratitude for its use.” (Dr. Mary Neal)
Richard Eby, another surgeon, shared this of his experience: “I was the same size, the same shape, as the person I knew in the mirror, but I was dressed in translucent clothing and, to my utter amazement, I could see through my body and noted the gorgeous white flowers behind and beneath me. My feet were easy to see – no bifocals needed. My eyesight was sharp and clear. As a surgeon I was also initially surprised to see that I had no bones, organs or blood vessels. I intuitively realized that they weren't needed. Jesus is the Life here. He provides all the needed energy.” (Dr. Richard Eby)
Burke summarizes: “Just imagine, the point of life you feared most – the death of your deadly body – suddenly frees you! You feel alive like never before! You still have a body, but you realize that something's different as well. You've had an upgrade! No more aches and pains or impairments. The limitations of your earthly body no longer seem to apply to this new, upgraded spiritual body.”
(from John Burke's book, Imagine Heaven)
Paul puts it this way: “Our bodies are buried in brokenness, but they will be raised in glory. They are buried in weakness, but they'll be raised in strength. They are buried as natural human bodies, but they'll be raised as spiritual bodies.” (1 Corinthians 15:43-44)
So, One, even though you don't understand it, doesn't mean you shouldn't believe it! Two, to live out eternity with God in heaven, we must shed our shell first. Three: “Just as there are natural bodies, there are also spiritual bodies.” Or as Burke puts it, you'll receive an upgrade!
(1 Corinthians 15:44, 46)
And Paul's fourth point? We'll one day, upon Jesus return, get another upgrade and our bodies will be like that of our resurrected Lord, Jesus Christ. As Paul points out: “Earthly people are like the earthly man, (Adam), and heavenly people are like the heavenly man, (Jesus). Just as we are now like the earthly man, we will someday be like the heavenly man.” (1 Corinthians 15:48-49)
-3-
So, as Paul has already pointed out, “there is an order to this resurrection...” It's not that we'll wind up in some kind of limbo, purgatory, or some other holding station. For those who are in Christ, we will wind up with Christ, but we won't receive our full Christ-like resurrected bodies until he comes again. “All who belong to Christ will be raised when he comes back.” (1 Corinthians 15:23)
“Paul explains that one day our earthly physical bodies will be resurrected just like Jesus' body was resurrected, but this doesn't happen right when we die. In essence, when we die, we get an upgrade from our temporary, earthly bodies, (version 1.0), to a spiritual body, (version 2.0), that has far greater 'glory'. Yet it's still not the final version. When all is said and done, and God wraps up human history as we know it, Scripture says all original earthly bodies will be resurrected just like Jesus' body was.
Jesus is the prototype of how our upgraded spiritual body will be united with our resurrected earthly body, (version 3.0). The gospels report that Jesus could be physically touched, eat fish, walk down the road talking with his disciples in his new resurrected body, yet he also displayed the spiritual body's shining brilliance, ability to pass through walls, and move without hinderance. The Book of Revelation affirms this – that God plans on making everything new – both the earth and our bodies!”
(from John Burke's book, Imagine Heaven)
“Dean Braxon's heart stopped for an hour and forty-five minutes during kidney surgery. He talked about seeing Jesus: 'Jesus is pure light! His brightness was before me, around me, part of me, even in me! He is brighter than the noonday sun, but we can still look at him in heaven... And Jesus was shining out of me. I was part of his brightness! All of it was full of life and His love!”
(Dean Braxton)
Dean's experience echoes what the prophet, Daniel, writing from Babylon around 550 BC, was told by an angel, 'Everyone whose name is written in the book will be delivered. Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt. Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead others to righteousness will shine like the stars for ever and ever!' (Daniel 12:1-3)
Jesus reiterates this idea that we will reflect God's glory in heaven when he says: “Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears, let them hear.”
(Matthew 13:43)
Paul notes that “He'll transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.”
(Philippians 3:21)
Even now, this is our calling, to seek, with God's supernatural help, to be more and more like Jesus in anticipation of that day when our sanctification will be complete, and we too will shine!
So “How will the dead be raised? What kind of bodies will (we) have?” One, even though you don't understand it, doesn't mean you shouldn't believe it! Two, to live out eternity with God in heaven, we must shed our shell first. Three: “Just as we now have natural bodies, then we'll have spiritual bodies.” That is, you'll receive an upgrade! And Four: We'll one day, upon Jesus’ return, get another upgrade (3.0) and our bodies and passions will reflect that of our resurrected Lord, Jesus Christ. “Just as we're now like the earthly man, (Adam), we will someday be like the heavenly man, (Jesus).”
(1 Corinthians 15:35,44, 48-49)
How awesome is that?!