This Body Must Be Raised: Four Reasons for Your Resurrection

1:19 great chapter on the resurrection. Since you're going to be raised from the dead, you Christians, you're going to be with Jesus forever in a new body, therefore, don't dilly-dally. Don't dawdle in your studies. you have a precious life. One. abound what does abound mean means do lots of it abound in the work of the Lord that's your studies right now it's what he's given you to do so because you're going to be raised from the dead don't be a slacker The language of verse 58 of 1 Corinthians 15 is paradoxical. I love it. Be steadfast and movable, do lots of work. Like an oak tree, not moving one inch, no matter what winds blow, and doing lots of work.

2:42 That's a remarkable paradox. And our job, our goal here at this school is to try to make oaks of righteousness out of you that don't budge from anything in the truth of God's word. You don't budge. You're a tree, immovable. And you go all over the world doing work filling up your one life with work that he's given you to do. That's an amazing picture, isn't it? There's a correlation between life now and working and the resurrection life coming. If there's no correlation, the verse makes no sense at all. Since you're raised, your work is not in vain.

3:39 Henry Alford, one of my favorite commentators, he just happened to die on the same year that this church was founded, 1871, said about verse 58, to say that our labor is not in vain is to say that our labor will be fully rewarded. Our life and labor are not in vain, but have meaning, purpose, direction, and their proper final reward. So the resurrection of the dead gives purpose and direction and death-defying incentive to your life.

4:36 Yes, it does. You won't fly your death-defying incentive into the World Trade Towers, but you will get on a plane and go to save the people who did. The reason I know 1 Corinthians 15, 51 to 58 by heart, I need to learn it for you. is because I've spoken it over dead people in this room dozens and dozens and dozens of times in the last 45 years. I know it. I can say it anytime over any grave. I tell you, we have glorious news for the families of dead saints.

5:31 I would ten times rather preach at a funeral than a wedding. Ecclesiastes 7 says, it is better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of feasting. For this is the end of all mankind and the living will lay it to heart. Oh, they do. They do. Those funerals are about this size usually, 100, 150 folks. The older they they get, fewer there are. and they lay it to heart.

6:14 Hang on your every word. Tell us something, Pastor John, about this person's future. Do they have a future? Tell us something for us, Pastor John. We need you to talk to us. They don't do that at weddings. There is a holy, God-blessed distraction. It's okay. I just don't really care to be a part of it more often than I have to. I encourage marriage. I'm glad I'm married. Wouldn't want to do that over again, no. That day was a good day. my assignment right now is to address the last words of the Nicene Creed and I'm going to quote them in Greek and you're going to translate them Okay. So I'm going to read them once. Don't talk. Faculty is back up. Let the students do this. Okay. Because dozens of you in this room can translate this. This is simple Greek.

7:26 There may be one word. Somebody's going to know it though. Prostakomen, Anastasin, Necron. That's line one, line two. Chi, Zoane, Tumelontos Ionos, Amen. Anybody know what Amen means? All right, here we go. One at a time, just shout out if you know the meaning, prostachomen. I thought that would be hard. Go ahead, try it. Prostachomen, it's not frequent in the New Testament. First Peter uses it, I mean, second Peter uses it a couple times. Look for, wait for. Anastasim, resurrection, necron of the dead, chi. Zoane.

8:29 To Melanchas Ionos. Yeah. That mellow word in Greek, it's about to happen. You know, there's no word for future in Greek or Hebrew. Closest you get in Greek is mellow, about to be. we look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the age to come. Amen. Here's the question I want to try to answer. Good night with you all over the place with this. This is just glorious. There's just countless glories in this doctrine of the resurrection of the dead. But here's the question I'm going to try to answer. What is behind the word must in 1 Corinthians 15 53.

9:25 This perishable body must put on the imperishable. This mortal body must put on immortality. So whose must is that? Whose necessity is that? It's not man's, you can't say that. You can't with any authority say, it must happen. Neither can the devil, there's only one answer. This is God's must, right? No argument. Nobody disagrees with this, I don't think. This is a divine Dei, back to Greek, divine must. this perishable body must put on the imperishable. And my question addressed, as I so often do in my Bible reading to God, why? I hope you're learning that question at Bethlehem College and Seminary. That's what we do here. We ask questions and try to answer them. That's education. So I'm going to try to answer that why question. Why must we be raised bodily from the dead? In four steps, they build on each other. So one by itself might not work.

10:53 So collectively, I think they succeed. You judge. Step one, there must be a bodily resurrection of God's people because the risen Jesus today has a body. Clearest text is Philippians 3.21. We await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body by the power that enables him to subject all things to himself. So today, Jesus Christ, King of the universe, has a body in heaven. Luke 24, he said, do you have something to eat? You have a fish. They gave him a fish. He ate the fish to prove he wasn't a ghost.

11:56 and he never laid aside that body. Let's dig in a little deeper. Why not? I know evangelicals who don't think Jesus has a body today. I had to write an email to one.

12:20 Are you kidding me? I said, where did you get that crazy notion? Why does the Son of God still have a body? Why didn't he just reverse Philippians 2, 5 to 8? Right? So now you've risen from the dead spiritually. You can lay aside that human form. You can lay aside that likeness to men. You can lay aside that servant form. You can lay aside that self-emptying and you can take your spiritual seat at the spirit, God is spirit, right hand. Why didn't he do that? And my answer to that question basically comes from the book of Hebrews. I think it is fitting. God does things because they're fitting.

13:20 It is fitting that the one who sacrificed his body to provide a covering for all our sins and who stands before the Father as our advocate, it's fitting that he do that in the very body that represents the sacrifice he made for us. I think that's what Hebrews 9 implies. Christ has entered into heaven itself now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. And Revelation, what, chapter 5, says that when you see him, he will look like a lamb standing as though it had been slain.

14:13 Arise, my soul, arise Shake off your guilty fears The bleeding sacrifice In my behalf appears Before the throne my surety stands Before the throne my surety stands My name is written in his hands the glorified wounds of Jesus will be the most beautiful physical reality in the coming age. Not the galaxies, not mountains, not oceans, but the hands of Jesus.

15:06 So, step one in trying to answer the question, Why are our bodies going to be raised? Is Jesus has a body today. Step two. because in this bodily form, Jesus wants us to be with him and to see his glory.

15:35 I said they build on each other. I think one of the sweetest things that Jesus ever said was in the prayer to his father when he said this, John 17, 24, Father, I desire that they also, he's praying this for you according to verse 20 I desire that they also whom you have given me may be with me where I am to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world so no longer through a mirror dimly but face to face I want them to see my glory.

16:23 He could have just said that. I think we would all just bow down and reverence him if that's all he said. And he didn't just say that. He said, I want them to be with me. You can see glory from a distance. That's a glorious mountain 10 miles away. or you can see glory personal and up close and Jesus said I want that for you I want them to be with me Father where I am to see my glory so I preached here in this pulpit Sunday before last and the main point of my message was a close personal enjoyment of Jesus is the ultimate hope of Christians.

17:19 A close personal enjoyment of Jesus is the ultimate hope, the greatest hope, the final hope of all Christians. I think that's what he's saying in John 17. In and through all the materiality of the new heavens and the new earth, the capstone the end the ultimate goal is God glorified in a close personal enjoyment of all that God is for us in Jesus that's why Jesus said Father I want them to be with me yes to see my glory but I want them to to see it with me I'm going to be with me and isn't it remarkable I remember I keep a little notebook beside me as I read my Bible in the morning they call it a field book I buy them by Paxify from Amazon and the other morning I was just so struck by with me that I just found all of them found all of them just tracked them down which is very easy and long I say Paul loved this phrase as the great thing you know when he described the second coming in first Thessalonians 4 it's the loudest verse in the bible there's archangels and there's trumpet it's there's the shout. Here's the way it ends. We will be caught up together with him in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and he didn't put a period and so we will always be with the Lord.

19:19 Thank you. Paul loved that prospect. I hope you do. Glory with him. So step one, we must be raised from the dead bodily. One, because Jesus today has a body. Two, step two, in this bodily form, He wants us to be with him to see his glory. Step three, when we see it, him, we will be made like him, including a resurrection body. That's step three, to finish step two. If you thought step two doesn't work. Well, it didn't, but it does. Now, 1 John 3, 2. Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be is not yet appeared but we know that when he appears we shall be like him because we will see him as he is or Philippians 3 21 we await a savior of the Lord Jesus who will transform our lowly bodies to be like his glorious body by the power that enables him to subject all things to himself arrivals and routes...

20:40 Why does the visible, touchable, bodily form of Jesus require that we be like him in his bodily form? Why does it work like that? One answer is given, I think, right there in Philippians 3.21 where it says, he makes us like his own glorious body by the power that enables him to subject all things to himself. So, when millions, picture this now, when millions upon millions of long-dead Christians rise to meet the Lord in the air.

21:37 the power of Jesus will be us. Nobody's gonna say, I was weak. Now, there's an objector in 1 Corinthians 15. Yeah, right. This is my paraphrase of verse 35. Yeah, right. 1535. With what kind of body do they come? This is ridiculous, Paul. I mean, this is an absolutely ridiculous doctrine.

22:23 Don't you know that 99.9% of those bodies have turned into soil? And the soil has turned into plants. And fish and deer and cattle have eaten those plants. And humans ate the animals that ate the plants. Get it? This is ridiculous. Those bodies don't exist to be raised there. So much for your doctrine. That's in the Bible. I mean, I just paraphrased it. Paul has a name for people that talk about God like that. Fool.

23:16 That's verse 36. You foolish person. What you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps wheat or some other grain, and God gives it a body as he has chosen. the fool says in his heart there's no God you're acting like there's no God far better far better to be like Abraham who believed God, who raised us to the dead and brings into being that which is not. This is not a problem for God, folks.

24:10 This is not a problem. You remember the Sadducees, they didn't believe in the resurrection. And so they mocked Jesus just like this objector in 1 Corinthians 15. And Jesus said to them, you are wrong. This is Matthew 22 29. You are wrong, Sadducees, because you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God. I don't know if he's that tone of voice. Maybe. you don't know his power. You just don't know what you're talking about. Don't be like that. Don't be a fool.

25:02 His body is sown in weakness. It is raised in power. Verse 43. So one reason that we would be made like Jesus when we see him is so that it will be clear that the power that raises millions from the dead belongs to Christ. That's why he'll do it that way. Then it will be clear. If we are raised because of Christ, raised to be like Christ, then it will be clear the power belongs to Christ. And that's what the universe is about. Making sure it looks that way. There's another reason. This one may be personally more relevant to you. They're all relevant, super relevant. There's another reason why this visible body of Jesus requires that we be like him bodily. Namely, Jesus in his body died so that you will glorify God with your body.

26:15 That's 1 Corinthians 6, 19. Do you not know that your body, so there you are sitting in the pew, arms, legs, eyes, tongues, hands, feet. Don't you know that your body as you sit there is the temple of the Holy Spirit within you. Whom you have from God. You are not your own. You were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. Do you know what he paid for your body? let it sink in. He died.

27:06 The eternal son of God died so that with your body you could glorify God. Do you think that he paid that price for that body to be thrown away after a measly 80 years? He just died to purchase 80 years of glorification, not 80 billion ages of glorification. No, that's not what happened. He bought you for eternal bodily glorification of God. That's why you're going to have a body in the age to come. He bought you for this. He paid for it. Don't scorn it. Summer again. We're almost done. One more. Step one, because the risen Jesus, we're going to have bodies. It must happen. This perishable must put on the imperishable. One, because the risen Jesus today has a body, Philippians 3.21. Two, in this bodily form, Jesus wants us to be with him to see his glory, John 17, 24. Three, when we see him as he is, we will be made like him, including his resurrection body, 1 John 3, 2. And finally, number four.

28:33 The celebration of our glorious likeness to Christ is the purpose for the entire material creation. the new heavens and the new earth. The celebration of our glorious likeness to Christ is the purpose, the goal, of the entire material creation. astronomers make wonderful and wild statements about calculations in the universe I love to read them, they're all guessing but it's fine because they're probably all understatements they say things like this, if you counted one star per second non-stop. It would take you over 300 trillion years to count stars.

29:44 There's a name for that number, 10 to the 22nd power. It's called 10 sextillion. So it's just safe to say it's big. It prompts a lot of people to ask the question, what's that about? You puny little earth, teeny weeny infinitesimal little human being. How in the world do you count?

30:17 What a stupid question. The question is, what's it for? What are all those galaxies that we can see, not to mention the ones we can't, for? What are they for?

30:38 That's what you're here for, right? You need to find out what they're for. The astronomers don't know what they're for. Scientists don't know what they're for. The Bible knows what they're for. You know what they're for. They're there to celebrate the glory of the children of God, which is the glory of Christ. Let me read you the text. It's just off the charts. Amazing. Like almost every other text in the Bible. The creation waits. This is Romans 8, 19. The creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. Did you hear that? They're all waiting for something. the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God we're not waiting for it it's waiting for us verse 20 for the creation was subjected to futility not willingly but because of him God who subjected it in hope what hope that the creation itself would be set free from its bondage to corruption, get this, and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

32:05 the great eight comes through again what a chapter if you don't know it by heart shame on you I know, shame doesn't work, does it? So whatever. Learn it! It's the greatest chapter in the Bible. The Bible's the greatest book in the world. What better time could you spend? Close that parenthesis. This tiny planet and these several million redeemed sons of God Amen. is not waiting for the new heavens and the new earth. It's the other way around. The creation is waiting and groaning to obtain our glory.

33:02 your glory the glory of the children of God reflecting the glory of the Son of God because in verse 17 it says if you suffer with him you will be glorified with him your glory will be his glory in chapter 8 verse 29 it says those whom he foreknew he predestined to be conformed to the image of his son that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. You're going to be conformed to Jesus if you're a Christian. You're going to be like him. You're going to shine like the sun in the kingdom of your father. Jesus said. now we can see maybe, I hope that the glorification of the children of God includes new glorious bodies like his glorious body why?

34:09 because the physical material creation is yearning and hoping and groaning to participate in and celebrate your bodily glory. It will be there. The new heavens and the new earth will be there because you're there. It will be material because you're material. It will be glorious because you're glorious. The whole universe will lift up the children of God and celebrate the bride of Christ as she She reverences her bridegroom. I get a little bit bent out of shape when I hear a lot of talk in the last 20 or 30 years about the rediscovery of the materiality of the new age the new heavens it's just right there in Romans 8 and it's not the point Thank you.

35:21 It points. He's the point. He reflected in you, in all of its materiality, for his glory. He's the point and us with him. It's a very personal end to all things. The celebration of our glorious likeness to Christ is the purpose of the whole material creation. Therefore this perishable body must put on the imperishable. Verse 53 of 1 Corinthians 15. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory, or as Jesus said, you will shine like the sun in the kingdom of your Father. So as Paul ends his chapter, and I end this message on the resurrection, 1 Corinthians 15 he came down from the heights of these things into your living room that's where he lands the plane right in verse 58 therefore my beloved BCS students, faculty, staff, friends, guests, all you DG guys sitting right there.

36:56 be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. Don't dilly-dally. Don't dawdle on the way to heaven. Your life is precious. Embrace your life. Love your life. Squeeze out of your life everything you can in action for the glory of Jesus. To the end. This is not in the sermon. Don't waste your life here. They just took these away from kids in Australia. They're not even Christians. That's about the most pagan nation in the world. common grace don't waste your life kids we're trying to say to our teenagers don't ruin your life we know that and I'm just saying there's a lot at stake here you will be raised from the dead nothing you do here is in vain because you were raised from the dead your life has purpose your life has direction your life has death defying incentive.