October 17, 2010

“HAPPILY EVER AFTER?”

Week Five – “Body Beautiful” I Corinthians 15:35-52

Everyone has an “ever after”. Some will have a “happy ever after” and some will not.

The “happy ever after” place is Heaven. We have talked about that.

Last we talked about the “horrible ever after” place called hell.

Now that we know where our spirits will go, what happens to our bodies after we die? Will we float around on clouds forever?

I. THE NEW BODY IS REAL, V. 36-38

Why do you think the Great Apostle addresses this issue?

Then, like now, there were many false theories and bad ideas about what would happen following death – both to the spirit, but in particular – to our bodies.

Surveys say 30% of Americans believe in reincarnation……..

Even more troubling is 20% of professed evangelical Christians say they also believe in reincarnation.

Two Facts:

Death Is Necessary For Resurrection – V. 36

The New Springs From The Old, Vv. 37-38

(Note His Illustration Of The Seed)

“We see that the blueprint for our glorified bodies are in the bodies we now possess. While orthodoxy (Christian doctrine) does not dictate that every cell of our present bodies will be restored in the resurrection, it does require continuity between our earthly bodies and our heavenly bodies. Just as there is continuity between our earthly bodies and the bodies we had at birth – even though all those cells and sub atomic particles have been replaced and renewed – so too there will be continuity from death to resurrection, despite the fact that not every particle in our bodies will be restored. In fact without continuity, there is no point in even using the word ‘resurrection’”. – (Hank Hangraaf – “Resurrection”)

Joni Eareckson Tada, is a beautiful lady, inside and out. She was paralyzed in a diving accident while still a teen and has spent the last 40 years as a paraplegic. She wrote about her trials in her book “Heaven Your Real Home”. “Somewhere in my broken paralyzed body is the seed of what I shall become. The paralysis that makes what I am to become all the more grand when you contrast the atrophied, useless legs against the splendorous resurrected legs. I am convinced that if there are mirrors in heaven (and why not?), the image I will see will be unmistakably ‘Joni’ although a much better, brighter Joni!”
(BARBARA)

THE NEW BODY IS REAL! Not only is it real but…..

II. THE NEW BODY IS RECOGNIZABLE

A question many have is this, “Will we know our loved ones and will they know us in heaven?”

Let me ask you this – “Do you think we will know more in heaven than we know now or will we know less?”

Of course! Not only will we be able to recognize everyone we love – we will love everyone we see it heaven!

Famous Missionary, Amy Carmichael wrote, “Shall we know each other in heaven? Shall we love and remember? I don’t think one need wonder about this or doubt for one single moment! For if we just think, we know! Would you be yourself if you did not remember? Your memories are an important part of you! We are told we shall be like our Lord Jesus and does He not know and love and remember? He would not be Himself if He did not! And we should not be ourselves if we did not!”

I find three examples of resurrected bodies in the Bible. Of course, there was Jesus, who appeared to thousands for 40 days following His resurrection. You will recall that he could be seen and recognized and touched and that he ate with them. His new body bore a new and improved version of His earthly body!

On the Mount of Transfiguration, Peter, James and John saw Moses and Elijah and they recognized them – even though they had never seen them before!

THE NEW BODY IS RECOGNIZABLE! Not only is it recognizable but….

III. THE NEW BODY IS RADICALLY DIFFERENT. V. 35

The New Body Will Be Indestructible – V. 42
Unlike our earthly bodies which age and wear out and are plagued by diseases – our new bodies will be perfect and stay that way forever!

The New Body Will Be Glorious, V. 43a

The word “glory” = “brilliance” – Philippians 3:21 says, “who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.”

The New Body Will Be Powerful, V. 43b

Jesus was able to walk through doors and into locks rooms………

The New Body Will Be Spiritual, V. 44a

Fitted for an eternal spiritual Kingdom – not ghosts or spirits………

THE NEW BODY WILL BE RADICALLY DIFFERENT! Not only that but.

IV. THE NEW BODY IS REVEIVED AT CHRIST’S RETURN, V. 51-52

Finally, Paul addresses the question, “Who will be resurrected and when?”

Those saints who have died will arise first and receive their beautiful eternal bodies.

The believers who still remain and are alive at the coming of Christ will then be supernaturally transformed as they rise to meet Him in the air.

The Apostle speaks to that in another passage:

“For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.” I Thessalonians 4:16-17

WHAT IF YOU COULD HAVE THAT BEAUTIFUL BODY WITH NO DIETS OR WORKOUTS?

WHAT IF YOU WOULD SPEND AS MUCH TIME AND EFFORT AND ENERGY DEVELOPING YOUR SPIRIT AS YOU DO TRYING TO DEVELOP YOUR BODY?

YOU KNOW THAT BODY YOU ARE DYING TO HAVE. IF YOUR SPIRIT IS RIGHT WHEN YOU DIE YOU WILL HAVE THE BEAUTIFUL BODY ONE DAY – RESURRECTION DAY!

It Will Be Real – It Will Be Recognizable – It Will Be Radically Different – AND – It Will Be Received At Christ’s Return!

October 16, 2010

"When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: "Death has been swallowed up in victory." "Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?"The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." I Corinthians 15:54-57

I Corinthians 15 is truly one of the great chapters of the Bible! It is great because it captures the spirit of a great man (Paul) and the essence of a great Truth (the Gospel).

Please allow me to summarize several of the great Truths it expresses:

1) God is stronger than the enemy!

Satan's two biggest weapons were sin and death. Through the grace of God in Jesus sin was defeated on the cross and death defeated when He walked out of the grave on the third day.

2) Salvation is stronger that sin!

Because Jesus became a man and proved that temptation can be resisted and that holiness is possible. As a result of His holy life He was able to assume all of the sins of humanity and become the atoning sacrifice for sin! He became like us that we might become like Him.

3) Life is stronger than death!

Jesus had to die in order to conquer death. We have to die in order to become eternal. The wages of sin is death - spiritual separation from God that can lead to eternal death. But because Jesus surrendered to death and then defeated it through the resurrection, we gain victory over death by living in His life!

4) Eternity is stronger than time!

During life, time is pretty much our enemy. We try to learn to use it to our advantage but as seconds become minutes and minutes turn into hours and hour add up into days and days mount into months which multiply into years - well, you know - time wears us down and we die. BUT, when we die in Christ we get the last laugh on time as we are born into eternity! There are no clocks or calendars in Heaven!

If you notice a victorious tone in I Corinthians 15 - you are right! We ARE victorious because Jesus won the victory for us!

Do you have that victory?

October 15, 2010

"And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men." I Corinthians 15:17-19

Two years ago our President was swept into office on a promise of bringing "hope and change". Judging by recent political polls, those hopes have been short-lived and a new batch of politicians are peddling their versions of hope.

When will we learn not to pin our hopes on politicians?

Hope is in short supply today for many reasons. Sort of like it was 2,000 years ago when Paul penned these hope-filled words.

Take some encouragement from this feel good story:

You could call 12-year-old Jack Pittman-Heglund the "comeback kid."

He gave doctors a thumbs-up on Tuesday... an amazing feat considering that Jack had been in a coma for five days after suffering what doctors determined was a heart attack.

His lacrosse team at Keller Middle School is cheering on Jack's recovery at a Wednesday practice.

Their regular uniform color is blue, but this time, all the kids the team wore red.

"This is for Jack," said coach Dan Perry. "It's showing their heart."

Jack collapsed at home last Thursday while talking with his mother.

"I was like really, really sad, because me and Jack were like really good friends... then it just sort of happened," said teammate Connor O'Brien.

Fortunately, Jack's mom knew CPR and she was able to get his heart going again.

"I think she saved his life, and I think everybody's in agreement about that," said lacrosse club president Tracey Perry.

The boy was flown by helicopter ambulance to Cook Children's Medical Center in Fort Worth. He had been there — unconscious — since Thursday's heart attack.

"He was in a coma, and they started weaning him off some of the sedatives, and he started waking up," Perry said. "It's been baby steps form there, but all positive."

That news of Jack's recovery has his teammates smiling again, and signing a giant "get well" card.

"Coach Shane and I have been down to the hospital a couple of times each, and it's positive," Perry told Jack's teammates.

Thank God his mother and the doctors never gave up hope. Hope is powerful!

Of course, we were all rivoted to our TV screens this week as we watched the heroic rescue of the 33 miners in Chile. These men who were trapped 1/2 mile below the surface for over two months in deplorable conditions. They were down there for seventeen days after the collapse of the mine before anyone discovered they were still alive. With hope revived the two-month long rescue effort was undertaken. We celebrated the successful completion of that rescue just a couple of days ago.

Hope kept them alive in the dark, damp, 90+ degree heat of the mine shaft. Hope kept the drillers and engineers and meidcal folks working around the clock preparing for the rescue. And hope sustained the families who spent anxious agonizing hours awaiting the rescue. Hope is a poweful thing.

But, there is hope and then there is HOPE.

Hope, as in wishful thinking, is one thing. This is the hope that was at work in this situation. Everyone worked hard in the hope that all their plans would work and the miners would be saved.

And there is the hope that Paul talks about in this verse. It is a hope based upon a solid fact of history that Jesus Christ was crucified and came back to life on the third day. Because Jesus did arise from the dead and because in so doing He conquered death, we can have a solid hope about our own death and the eternity that follows.

The Great Apostle links all of our hopes on the fact of Christ's resurrection and what His death and resurrection accomplished. When eternity at stake this is what we need. Wishful thinking is not enough.

Thank God for the power of hope! I sure love the feel good stories, but I rejoice in the fact of His resurrection. Therein, is my hope!

October 14, 2010

"I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: "Death has been swallowed up in victory." I Corinthians 15:50-54

Many of the representations of Heaven are so lame! Heaven is often portrayed as disembodied spirits and angels floating in the clouds playing harps. That might be slightly better than hell, but excuse me for not getting real excited about that!

Paul is out to quickly dismiss that notion! He affirms to the believers in Corinth that they will, indeed, have bodies in Heaven. They will not be flesh and blood bodies but they will be new and improved and eternal! These bodies will be especially fitted for the perfect environment that is Heaven!

It may be a good time to clarify that when you die and go to Heaven you will NOT become an angel! God created them a long time ago and they were judged when Lucifer rebelled in the presence of God and he was casted out of Heaven along with 1/3 of the angels who conspired with him. So, the angels who remained faithful spend their time (actually eternity) between Heaven and earth serving God and ministering to you and me (the saints of God)!

You were created to be you and you will be you forever! From the moment you were conceived and God knit you together in the womb, He designed you to be a wonderful unique gift to His plan on earth and then His eternal Kingdom! He celebrates your uniqueness and will preserve it forever by giving you a special glorified body to replace the special earthly body He gave you! During your lifetime of living, loving and serving with Him He has been perfecting you through His Word and His Spirit so you will die a better you than you were when you were born. But following the Second Coming and the Great Resurrection, you will be united with a new and significantly improved body that you will enjoy eternally!

I guess the best previews we have of this eternal body is Jesus after He resurrected and appeared to the disciples over a period of 40 days. People recognized Him so He must have looked very similar to His earthly form. He still bore the scars of His suffering and they were able to touch Him and feel a person. Yet, He was able to appear and disappear in a locked room! How cool is that!?

The other preview I can think of was when the inner circle accompanied Jesus up on the mountain where He was transfigured and Moses and Elijah appeared there. Both of those great men were visible and recognizable. I am not exactly sure how they recognized them since they had never seen them before but I must assume that Jesus introduced them!

Imagine that! "Peter, this is Moses. Moses, I want you to meet Peter!" That's what I'm talking about !!!!!

Heaven is a perfect paradise that will be enjoyed by perfect people who have been redeemed and sancitified and glorified by the grace and power of Jesus Christ! It will be like Eden except eternal. If you want a good visual of Heaven, read about Eden in Genesis. That was the original paradise and Jesus, the Second Adam, came to restore paradise, so why would He change it? When you die in Christ you will go to a real place and eventually become a real person and have a real good time FOREVER - (as in, without end) - and EVER and EVER!

You can work all you want to improve your body. That is a good thing! But thanks to the power and grace of Jesus you WILL someone enjoy a perfect body!

October 13, 2010

"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 labor in the Lord is not in vain." I Corinthians 15:58

When it comes to our faith, everything hinges on the resurrection of Jesus!

The resurrection is the "therefore" in this verse. Because the resurrection is a fact and Jesus did rise from the dead, then all of God's other claims and promises are true as well! ALL OF THEM!

Life matters! Life matters more when you live it for God! Life continues after death when Jesus lives in you!

Since life matters then what you do (or don't do) with your life matters! What you do in this life with and for Jesus has eternal significance! Everything you will enjoy in the next life is infuenced by what you do in this one! Your resurrection depends on His. Since His happened yours will, too! How encouraging is that!?

If the resurrection were not true that would not be true - but it is!

What you do matters even when it doesn't seem to matter. Everything you do either adds or detracts from eternity - your eternity and eternity for others! So, make today count! Keep obeying God and honoring Him! Keep loving others and serving them. Don't life for results or affirmation, live knowing that every right thing you do is recorded in heaven and great will be your reward!

Paul sent this reminder to encourage us! He, of all people, understood how discouraging it can be to serve God and to serve people. God is invisible and people can be ungrateful and life can seem pointless. But look to the resurrection! When Jesus looked defeated and faith looked its darkness, victory was accomplished!

Take encouragement today! Do the hard thing - the right thing - the faith thing!

Today I want to especially send this encouragement to my beautiful daughter who is celebrating her 34th birthday today in the face of some overwhelming struggles. Sis, you know it pays to do the right thing! Payday is sometimes delayed, but God is faithful to those who remain faithful!

October 12, 2010

"How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body." I Corinthians 15:36-38

You have heard all the good news, bad news jokes. There are some good ones.

For humor to be funny it must contain an element of truth and life IS a good news/bad news proposition. You are fully aware of that!

In this portion of Scripture Paul assures us that we who are the redeemed will receive eternal bodies with which to enjoy the eternal paradise that is Heaven. The bad news is we will have to die to get it!

According to Paul's analogy, the seeds of your new and eternal body are resident in your current body!

So, care for your temporary body. Nurture it. Regard it as sacred because it is the temple of the Holy Spirit. Surrender your body as a living sacrifice that God can use for His glory.

But no matter how well you care for it and maintain it, some day death with rip your spirit out of your body and it will be buried or burned. No matter how your body is disposed of, it will be resurrected and renewed when Jesus returns!

God cares about you as a whole person, emotions, mind, spirit and body. And when Jesus offered Himself as the atoning sacrifice for your sins, He redeemed your whole person! The death of Jesus conquered sin and His resurrection destroyed the power of death! His Holy Spirit ministers comfort, truth and health to your mind and spirit!

So, for believers, there is good news and better news! Death will usher you into the immediate presence of God and the temporary separation from your body will result in the reception of a perfect and eternal body!

Live life carefully and prayerful and joyfully! Love God completely and love others passionately knowing that His eternal life and love at work in you and your future is bright!

October 11, 2010

"But someone may ask, "How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?" I Corinthians 15:35

You and I were never intended to die. Death was not a part of God's perfect plan. Being a forever God, He wanted us to have forever fellowship with Him in the forever perfect place He created. If you want a glimpse of God's "plan A" look at the first several chapters of Genesis. Death is God's enemy. He had to conquer it. How did He conquer it? By sending His Son, Jesus to die and then to arise from the dead!

One day He will totally destroy death. The Bible promises that "death and hell will be thrown into the Lake of Fire.

Isn't it good to know that we serve a God Who is not only bigger than life, He is bigger than death! He will restore order and holiness and perfection to His universe!

To get an insight on the resurrection and the "ever after" bodies we will have we can look to Jesus. After His death He resurrected on the third day and for several weeks He appeared to His disciples. Obviously, they recognized Him and yet he appeared in rooms that had locked doors. So, we learn that our forever bodies will be recognizable!

That is good news! It is comforting news!

Your forever body will be as good and perfect as the rest of your forever!