Is Life Over for Me?

Can we. Okay. We’re good, man. I messed up my moment, man. Gosh.

Okay. Yeah. Can we just give a warm thank you to all those just from our hearts, prayers for those that are in heaven today, our loved ones. I had an uncle who passed in Vietnam, was killed in Vietnam to serve our country. I’ve had my grand grandfather who was a World War II paramedic who lost his insanity, frankly, PTSD, before they even knew what it was.

Just gave his life in the name of freedom. And so many of you guys have family members who’ve given their lives in different wars and different things and given their livelihood, really, just the sacrifices that are made. And we’re here today to be able to worship in freedom. There’s a lot of countries. You can’t do that.

You can’t do this. And we can go out, we can share the gospel and we can do all those wonderful things in the name of Jesus. Jesus has blessed our nation and blessed us so much, and we’re just so thankful for that. Amen. Amen.

Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Happy Memorial Day. Let’s never forget. Let’s never forget those who’ve given their lives as you’re barbecuing today and as you’re enjoying your day, and those of you who aren’t here this morning because you’re barbecuing or we’re missing a few families, a few people here today, always one of our lighter attended Sundays.

But praise God that you get to do that because you have people who have died for you. Believe in this country under God. A country under God. Amen. He’s blessed us so much.

Real quick, those of you who are new with us, thank you for being with us today. Let’s just clap for all those who are. Who are with us today. Come on, guys. Man, we love new people.

People. Yeah. Yeah. There you go. That’s a better welcome.

All right, we have a connection card there for anybody in here. If you’re a new person, you’re a second attending person. If you have a prayer request, if you want to get involved, there is a checklist there. But you can turn that in at our table. You can drop it in the offering box going out the door there.

If you’re not a people person, some of us don’t, you know, aren’t necessarily people persons, but that’s okay. If you would just drop that in the box and we’d love to connect with you, let you know more about the church and who we are, where we’re going, and get you Connected to us. Praise God. Amen. Real quickly, another form of worship is our giving.

Our giving. Just if the tech team could throw up our giving right up there on our giving numbers for this month so far, and if you could throw up the actual giving numbers. There we go. There we go. Yeah.

Good. Boom. Just to get y’ all, just be transparent, see where we are so far this year. So those of you who are givers, you make this possible, man. We cannot do this without you.

The Lord has called you to be a part of this church, and you’ve given wonderfully and without any hesitation. And we’re just believing God’s going to do so much more. We give to missions, we give to other ministries. We do all kinds of things outside of just in here, but importantly for you, you know, to have a church and a building to come to and to be able to have people who serve your children. And you can give in three ways.

You can give online@saltchurch.org give, or you can give by texting to give, or you can just drop it, do it the old fashioned way. Just drop it in the bucket on the way. We don’t pass around plates or anything like other traditional churches do, but we have a box as you go out the door. So we just believe that God, what he puts on your heart to give.

We are blessed to be able to see God do amazing things in our church through your hearts and through your giving and through your generosity. Amen. Amen. And we worship God. It’s an act of worship.

It’s just worship. It’s just pure, pure, unadulterated worship. Right. If I could say that. I don’t know if that’s supposed to be used in the same sentence, but, you know, David danced, you know, in the streets kind of inappropriately, I guess, what people thought was inappropriate.

Right, right. Undignified, I guess, is the word. You’re undignified. So that’s how we worship. Amen.

Amen. All right, well, we are in 1st Corinthians 15. And what the funny thing about this message is, it is a Easter message on Memorial Day. So. But every Sunday is Easter, right?

Every Sunday is Easter. Yeah. Yeah. We’re always celebrating resurrection. But this is where Paul really gets.

This is probably one of the most significant chapters in First Corinthians and probably even in the Bible, because everything depends on this chapter that Paul is speaking on. If you’re new with us, we’ve been rolling through the book of First Corinthians since the beginning of the year, and we’ve been hitting every chapter, and we haven’t been leaving anything out. So it just so happens to fall on this week that we’re talking about resurrection and I think about Memorial Day, all the memorial of those who have gone before us. We also celebrate a different kind of memorial, and that is Jesus Christ, who was raised from the dead, who raised himself from the dead. Amen.

And we celebrate that. That’s the kind of Memorial Day I like to raise, is that God is alive, God is here, and God is still working and moving, and God is present. And Paul is answering questions in this book as it pertains to different subjects and different matters. Different chapters deal with different questions that the church is asking. We went through division, we went through marriage, we went through relationships.

We went through all kinds of stuff over the last number of months, and we just hit it as we go. So if you’re here today and you’re like, you hear something, you’re like, wow, think. Did you set me up? Did your buddy set you up, or whoever invited you to church? I promise you, this is just.

We’re just working through scripture here. Okay? It’s not pointing you out. That must be the Holy Spirit. Amen.

So let’s turn there. Let’s turn to First Corinthians 15. You do have some notes in your bifold as well, if you want to follow along. And this is a bit of a teaching series, so it can kind of go verse by verse. Sometimes we do topical, sometimes we do teaching.

We’ve been really digging teaching this year. Have you all enjoyed the teaching? Yeah, just really, really strong teaching this year. And what I would like to say as I open up is I know that there are many here or many who are part of our church that are hurting. I don’t want to deny that some of you are dealing with chronic pain, incurable diseases, possibly, or you’ve dealt with cancer or dealing with cancer, or you’re dealing with.

With emotional and mental health issues or anxiety, depression, ptsd, trauma. You’ve seen a therapist. You’ve even got medication for it, but it just seems not to help. And you’re in that place that it just won’t fully go away. You’re like, will it ever go away?

Maybe some of you are frustrated about being single. I know that every single person doesn’t feel this way, but there are many that want to be married and wonder why they haven’t been married yet. And they think maybe, well, maybe the door’s closed, or maybe that option’s off the table. I Don’t know where you are in that area. We have others who feel that they are suffering because of dumb decisions they’ve made in their lives.

Amen. I think everybody’s been there. Maybe you wish you could go back. You know God’s forgiven you. You know God has listened to you.

When you’ve given that, you know, you confess that sin or you confess that wrongdoing, and you know it for a fact. However, you can’t rewrite the past, and we know that. But you’ve lost that job or that marriage was messed up, or a family member doesn’t speak to you anymore, or maybe you’ve even spent time in jail. You can’t take that back. So now there’s a cloud of despair that’s over you, and you just seem to not quite shake it.

It’s just. It won’t go away. Over your life. Is this it? Is this everything?

Is this just life? Is this the Christian life? Some of you are living for the Lord, and you’re just like, is this life? Is life over for me? Is life over to me?

Well, First Corinthians 15 is for you. This is the chapter that’s for you. And we’ve seen Paul write these letters, and he’s always answering questions, and he’s doing it once again. People were questioning the bodily resurrection of Jesus. Look at verse 12.

How can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? So Paul wants to show them that belief in our bodily resurrection is the core is everything of Christianity. That’s what it’s about. It is not a secondary belief. It’s not just something you can kind of wiggle and.

And it’s not a big deal if you don’t believe that as long as you know Jesus. No, he says, this is why you know Jesus. This is why salvation is available to you. Because without the resurrection, there is no Christian hope. So he’s gotta address this thing.

And evidently, there were some Corinthians that were denying the bodily resurrection of Jesus. And there’s a reason for that, because there was a religious movement of philosophy from Plato to Plutarch and different ones who taught that the body consisted of two parts. In fact, Christians even believe this. We just take it a step further, and we got it right. They believe that there is a body and there’s a soul, or there’s a body and there’s a spirit, and the spirit is good and the body is terrible, and all the tangible things are terrible.

The world’s terrible, life’s terrible. Everything that’s physical is terrible, but. But once we get to heaven, we’ll be done with this old nasty stuff, this physical stuff, and the good part of us will live forever. And they believed that. And this infiltrated the church and started being taught in the church.

Most Greek and Roman philosophers believed in an afterlife and believed that once you got to heaven, all the material would be gone and all of it will be spiritual. And because of this good spirit and this bad body, I gotta get rid of this body. That’s what they taught. So people in the church were like, okay, they were teaching lack of a bodily resurrection of any type of Jesus. Bodily resurrection.

Do people still think that today? What do people believe about heaven? Even Christians, what do they believe about heaven? That one day we will be separated from our bodies, which is partially accurate, right? And we’ll be with the Lord and we’ll live with him forever.

But a lot of people have this opinion about heaven, as if we’re going to be up on clouds with loincloths around us, plucking on harps forever and ever and ever, waiting for choir practice to take place. Just seems boring. Like heaven is this bland place where we’re just away from everything and we’re just sitting there waiting. What in the world do I do? What do I do with all that time?

It’s eternity, right? A lot of people think of heaven that way. And Paul is going to address heaven in a different way. Paul says that the whole point of Christ’s saving work was to redeem the physical things, to redeem the physical body and usher in the kingdom of God on this earth. A physical, tangible kingdom, not just a spiritual kingdom, but a physical kingdom that is glorious and without curse.

What was originally meant to be from the very beginning that we would be able to walk and talk and live, not just spiritually, but physically whole. And Paul answers a few questions here they had questions. Did the resurrection of Jesus really happen? Was his first question. The second was, how does physical resurrection even work?

All of us have those kind of questions, right? And then finally, how important is the resurrection if all of this is true? I mean, like, what does that mean to me? How does that apply to me today? How does that even work?

So he’s going to attempt to answer those things as it applies to us. In verse three, he says, for I deliver to you as the first importance, what I also receive. That Christ died for our sins, accordance with the scripture, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance to scripture. The way Paul writes this Indicates, and most scholars say that this is some type of creed or some kind of confession or even possibly an early church hymn that was sung during that day about Christ’s death and resurrection goes on verse five. And that he appeared to Cephas, who is a name for Peter, then to the 12.

Then he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time. He appeared to 500 people at one time, a resurrected Christ. He’s demonstrating here. He’s setting up the answer to the questions. 500 people saw him, most of whom are still alive in his time.

So he said, you can go and ask him. Though some have fallen asleep, some have passed away. Verse 7. Then he appeared to James and all the other apostles. So all of them saw him.

And last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. As we know that Paul was met on the road to Damascus. He was one born out of time, which he would say an untimely connection to Christ. I bet Paul wished he was able to walk with the physical Christ the way those other disciples were. Amen.

But he got to experience Christ. So in these verses, Paul basically is pointing out two things. It happened and it’s the foundation of everything that we believe it happened and it’s the foundation of all things. We cannot even be a Christian movement without the resurrection of Jesus. And in establishing that it happened, Paul points to two pieces of crucial evidence to the early Christian testimony, the empty tomb and living witnesses.

The empty tomb and living witnesses. That’s why he said several hundred of us actually saw the risen resurrected Jesus at different times at different places, including 500 at one point altogether. There were lots of accounts of this. So it happened and there’s a lot of evidence of it. I love how NT Wright says it.

Oxford scholar. He says we only had an empty tomb, but no eyewitnesses. Critics would have concluded that the body was stolen if there was only eyewitnesses but no empty tomb. They would have concluded that the witnesses were deluded or hallucinating. But the two together make for convincing evidence.

So this is what Paul’s doing. He’s proving this. Sometimes people say, oh well, well, this belief in the physical resurrection of Jesus, it’s all a myth, it’s all a legend. Like people are saying that today. You probably had conversations with people about that.

It’s just a legend. It started out as just like good Jewish holy man that was doing a lot of good things and they enjoyed his teachings. Then he died and the people continued to honor his teachings, saying the teachings were on their heart. And then one day they fabricated it or made it untrue that he was actually living inside of them. And then ultimately the death and the resurrection of Jesus came about.

It was some kind of legend that evolved over time. But the problem with this, Paul writes this letter in 53 A.D. 53 A.D.

not too far. And most scholars, if not all scholars, agree with that. It’s not even disputed or debated that this letter was written. Even liberal as well as conservative theologians and biblical scholars would say this. And Paul in this letter points to that hymn that he sung in the church as a point in which they believe the resurrection or witnessed the resurrection.

Even the very liberal NT scholar, New Testament scholar Gerd Ludman, says this. He says he’s basically an atheist, by the way. And he says that the hymn Paul was quoting in verse three, Christ died, was buried, and was raised on the third day, according to the scripture dates, within two years of. Of the crucifixion. Two years of the crucifixion.

These people were singing this song. It takes a lot longer to invent a legend than just two years. Okay. Or just a few years. It’s too short of a time.

It’s too short of a time gap. So that’s thrown out. Think of it like this. Dale Earnhardt. They got a new series, by the way, on Netflix.

I was watching it the other day. Interesting how the race car, NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt in their life. And you know, he got. He was killed in a car accident in the Daytona 500 as he was racing in that. Very, very tragic.

One of the greatest racers in NASCAR to ever be. And who knows what he would have done if he was still alive today. He might have beat Richard Petty’s record. I’m a Richard Petty fan myself, so hopefully he’ll retain those records forever and ever. But if somebody came in here today and stood up on stage and says, I witnessed Dale Earnhardt rise from the dead when he crashed and he hit the wall and all that happened.

He walked right out of his car, walked out, waved at everybody, hopped back in his number three and flew to heaven. Some of you be like, that’s crazy. No, absolutely not. Because I was there. I saw it.

You saw something, but you must have been hallucinating, because I saw it. And other people would say, or I know a friend who was there and saw it. So I know for a fact that I knew may have another friend. I was at his funeral. I know I saw his body.

I know some of you could say that. Or friends could say that. Or those 24 years ago this happened. I can’t believe it’s been that long ago. 24 years ago.

And we can still verify that it happened because of the different people and the different perspectives. So Paul was like, look, if you doubt my claim, ask all these people that are alive, go around and ask them and they will come with the same story. It might be a little bit different perspective the way they saw it, but it all stands on this idea that Jesus was raised, that Jesus raised himself from the dead. He was the resurrected Jesus. Some people say, well, maybe they were all hallucinating.

Well, that’s improbable. I mean, how can 500 people at one time hallucinate? That’s ridiculous, of course, but even if that were the case, the Roman and the Jewish leaders would have produced the body and just blew that out of the water. So that doesn’t really hold water. Another explanation is that the apostles were lying, which is, is just really silly because, you know, death and lack of anything in this life as motivation, as motivation to lie.

I mean, it just doesn’t make sense. I mean, think about it. When you propagate something you know is a lie, it usually is to gain monetary or political power. They had none of that right. In fact, they had persecution, they had death, they had poverty and they kept right on claiming it anyway.

They kept doing it anyway. So that doesn’t hold water. So I agree with NT Wright who says that all other explanations of how Christianity got started from the truly remarkable way, the way it grew and the unlikely birth of the church and its incredible spread across the world, I can conclude at all odds this actually took place even under persecution. Even when it was tried to be. When it was tried to be distinguished or extinguished, it still went forward.

It’s just Jesus rose from the dead. There’s proof. German historian, theologian Wuthard Pennenberg said it like this. The evidence for Christ’s resurrection is so strong that nobody would question it except for two things. First is a very unusual event.

And second, if you believe it happened, you have to change the way you live. It’s an unusual event, doesn’t preclude something from being real. We see a lot of unusual events and we still think they’re real. So that can’t. Why not it be the second man if this is real, I’ve got to live differently.

I’ve got to think about life, I’ve got to think about the world. I’ve got to think about my worldview. I’ve got to think about Everything, everything rises and falls on this. Far from being a secondary Christian truth, Paul is proclaiming, this is the foundation of everything. So he takes this letter very carefully and helps the Corinthians, the early Corinth Church, to understand what it means, the bodily resurrection.

And Jesus is actually the resurrected king. So Paul says in verse 15, if you say Christ didn’t rise, you would. Number one, you would believe the apostles were a liar. We already dealt with that. Verse 15 says, we have even found to be misrepresenting God because we testify about God, that he raised Christ.

If Christ didn’t rise, we’re not just off on a few details. We’re. And we’re not just some religious zealots. We’re phonies, we’re fakes, we are frauds. And because we’ve staked everything on this, it just doesn’t make a lot of sense.

Verse 17, it says, and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sin. Meaning that man, if he didn’t rise from the dead, we don’t. We don’t have any hope for salvation. He didn’t accomplish anything. The cross is great, the blood is great.

We understand that. But how do we even know he’s God if he didn’t come out of that grave? And that’s what Paul’s saying. He wasn’t just a martyr or a good man. Our faith is in a Savior that has raised from the dead.

And then third, and then second, excuse me, or third, rather. If Christ didn’t rise from the dead, verse 18, then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. Meaning that your loved ones who have fallen asleep in Christ, who have died in Christ who’s gone before us, there’s no hope. We have things to really mourn. Then.

That’s why other scriptures say we don’t have anything to mourn, because we know that one day we will be raised from the dead, just like our Christ is raised from the dead. But if Christ did not raise from the dead, then we’re not raised from the dead. And therefore we have nothing to celebrate. We have nothing to look forward to. We have no hope.

Job said it for himself. I know my redeemer lives. And in the end, he will stand upon the earth and I will stand with him. So there was no earthly future for Job or Abraham or David or anybody else if Christ did not rise from the dead. None of that makes sense is what Paul is saying.

4, 19. And if in Christ we have hope in this life, only we are, of all people, the most pitied. Let me stick with that. We are idiots, okay? That’s why atheists think we’re idiots.

If we do not believe that Christ is. Is risen from the dead. If the benefits of Christianity are only what comes in this life, man, we got a bad deal, okay? Because this life is hard. Christianity is hard.

There’s a lot of difficult decisions. There’s a lot of sacrificing yourself, personal sacrifice, dying to yourself. And church is kind of a difficult hobby. Honestly, coming in here today, giving up your Memorial Day morning where you can kind of sleep in and enjoy Sunday night, Sunday morning, maybe you got a barbecue planned and you’re coming to church today, man, that’s kind of inconvenient for you, right? It’s kind of a difficult hobby.

You gotta get up in the morning, you gotta get dressed, you gotta battle your kids, you gotta come try to find a parking space. You have a bunch of people in the room, you know, and some of them are just, frankly, weird. They’re like walking around with Bibles saying, hallelujah, Amen. You run into weird people at church, and you have to deal with people at church and they carry these huge Bibles, you know, and you pray out loud, and that feels completely weird. In a sense, the person’s right there beside you and you’re kind of looking at each other, right?

I mean, those things are kind of strange if you’re outside the church. Not to mention all those people who sacrificed their fortunes, gave up their lives to take the message of Jesus death and resurrection to others. If Christ didn’t rise from the dead, we are pitied. We are pitied. 5th verse 24.

If Christ did not rise from the dead, the whole point of salvation, which was to bring all creation back under the rule of Jesus, has failed. From the very beginning. God’s purpose has been to redeem this sinful world from the curse of sin, to redeem him from the curse of sin. When God created the heavens and the earth, he said it is good. Contrary to Plato, God didn’t create this world and say it’s bad, this physical dimension and say it’s bad.

He said it is good and Jesus wants it back. Jesus is coming back for it, and he’s going to restore all things. He died to redeem it, to cleanse it, to remove it from the curse of sin. And then finally, verse 29 says, if Christ didn’t rise from the dead, saying that you stand in your faith of your fathers is useless. Standing on the faith of all Those that had went before us, who had stood on that, the Davids and the Abrahams and Isaiah’s and the prophets of old, and everybody that stood on that, and your people and your family that died in the faith standing on their faith is useless because Paul makes this interesting statement that have confused a lot of people in Scripture and it describes that point.

It says, if Christ is not raised, what do people mean by being baptized on behalf of the dead? If the dead is not raised at all, why are people baptized on their behalf? So a lot of people, like the Mormons for instance, would say, well, if my great Uncle Joe, he was a hellion and he’s in hell right now, I can go and get baptized for him. Hey, I want to get baptized for Uncle Joe. Some people believe that, but that’s not what this statement is saying here.

Nowhere in the Bible does it teach that you can be baptized on somebody else’s behalf. That’s your behalf, right? You’re baptized in Jesus Christ on your behalf. So what does the phrase really mean? Well, there are a variety of options.

There’s a variety of studies that people have translated. But the best one I’ve seen is the translation behalf of is really in the Greek in regards to. So it reads like this. If Christ is not raised, what do people mean by being baptized with regards to the dead? Those former saints whose faith you are aligning yourself with in baptism?

When we get baptized, we join ourselves to Abraham, we join ourselves to Isaac, we join ourselves to Jacob and all those of old. So their hope is our hope. We share the same hope. We do this together, right? But if they are all dead and gone, why do we get baptized into their faith?

Why should it even matter? Why would we even do this? It just doesn’t let them do their thing. But when we do it, the whole point in what Paul is saying is, I am joining my hope with Abraham, I am joining my hope with David, I am joining my hope with Isaiah and all those of old that we can experience this hope one day together, and we’ll be all together in heaven, resurrected. Amen.

That we’re going to do it together. We’re going to be together. Paul’s going to be there with me and I’m going to be there with you, and all of us are going to be there together. Verse 35 says, but someone will ask, and I love how Paul does this. He’s thinking in his head other questions that people are asking, you know, while he’s talking, have you ever done that?

He said, well, what if they ask this, what if that. So he starts. Has all these objections in his head. He starts spouting out as he writes. But someone will ask, how are the dead raised?

With what kind of body do they come? That’s going to be a big question, right? That’s a question mark. What does that even look like? We have these bodies and they got a lot of problems.

We got to take them with them. I kind of want to get rid of it, right? A lot of us are thinking about that, you know, the aches and pains and the things and. And what about people who are cremated? What about people who were unfortunately killed in nuclear disasters or something like that, and there’s no body there anymore, whatever happens.

How are they resurrected? What does this all mean? How many of you ask that question? I mean, like, how are we raised from the dead if we’re cremated? How are we raised from the dead if these things happen?

I heard the story of an apple tree that was. A guy was buried under this man was buried under this apple tree. And the apple tree’s roots had grown into the man’s body. And when they dug up the grave, it actually looked like a man in shape, a root in the shape of a man, basically, and that all the nutrients from that body had went into the apple tree, and the apples basically nourished the tree. And it was a beautiful, fruitful tree.

And the funny thing about it is that was the best apple tree in town. A lot of people ate off that apple tree and had no clue that they were probably eating this man, this man’s nutrients. So what happens there, like, when raised from the dead? So everybody that ate of the apple, of that tree, that had a little bit of that guy in them, like, how does he raise from the dead? So I’m sure there’s a lot of questions about those things in the following verses.

Paul doesn’t fully answer every question, but he gives us some basic parameters to think about. Resurrection end. In verse 36, he uses the seed analogy to describe resurrection life. He says this. 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 a wheat or of another grain. So he’s saying here, you know, that what we have now is just a kernel. It’s just a C. I want you to think about it in terms of a watermelon. A watermelon seed is very small, not very much, doesn’t make a lot of sense.

But if you put that in the Ground. In fact, some of you have eaten watermelon and it’s fallen on the ground. And then watermelon sprouts started coming up in that area. Maybe you didn’t know it, it was in your backyard or something when you had a Memorial Day picnic, right? And it started coming up.

So what comes that seed. They’re from the same thing, they’re from the same substance. But there’s something glorious and beautiful in the future. A beautiful melon with luscious and water and red and green and all the beauties that come from that. So right now we’re like a watermelon seed.

What’s coming in the future? We can’t even think or imagine what that would even be like. But God’s got some kind of glorious thing for us. You can use the example of a tadpole and a frog, if you like frogs. By the way, I’m sure many of you don’t want to be a frog in the future, you know, but, you know, tadpole in the frog compared to a frog, or a teeny human embryo in the womb compared to a full grown adult.

It’s all the same stuff, just the adult version is much more complex. So what Paul’s saying here is that right now we’re just getting a teeny glimpse of what is to come. We will know all things, we will see all things, we will understand it one day, but right now we’re just a seed. And until it’s buried in the ground and it comes up and it’s risen again, it comes up, we will not even be able to know or comprehend. It’s going to be so complex and so beautiful.

So what is this going to look like? I gave us a few characteristics here just for you to think about as you’re going through your week. If you’re taking notes, here’s our first answer to Paul’s question. What are our resurrection bodies like? Awesome.

Awesome. I just can’t say awesome, right? In North Carolina we say awesome. Awesome. There you go.

The body compared to the resurrected body, again, is like a watermelon to a seed. I can’t even imagine. I’m going, you know, we’re going to be. If you’re not athletic, you’ll probably be athletic, right? You’re good looking, you’ll be limber.

There’ll be no more aches and pains. There’ll be unwanted weight. I mean, think about that for a minute, man. You’ll be the perfect of yourself. And not only this, you’ll be able to fly and go through Walls.

Well, Leon, where do you get that from? Jesus did it. Okay? If Jesus did it, I’m sure we could do it, right? His resurrected body was able to just fly through walls and go all over the place.

We’d be like superheroes. I say that because Jesus in his resurrected body did that. It’s like, I’ll be a better version of Neo on the Matrix, you know, like just flying through the air. How fantastic would that be? How awesome would that be to wake up in the morning and not feel grumpy, not feel, you know, immediately sore and wake up.

I feel great. It’s ready to go. Let’s do this right. I’m waiting for that day. Amen.

That’s going to be awesome. It’s also going to be eternal. Eternal. Verse 42. What is sown is imperishable, but what is.

I mean, what is sown is perishable, meaning that it fades away or dies. But what is raised is imperishable. No deterioration, guys. That somehow the molecular structure of our body will somehow regenerate itself and live forever. I don’t even know what that looks like, but that’s what he’s saying here.

You’re not going to get old. You’re going to be your optimal self. My theory is you’re going to be about the age of Jesus when he passed away. I think we’ll all just be like 30 something year olds between that age, which actually science tells us that the optimal age of a human being is around 30 something years old. You know, until you start, you know, going downhill.

I mean, I know that we don’t get long, do we, guys? But we want no more slow declines, you know, and gravity pulling us in the wrong direction and all that kind of stuff. We won’t have to worry about that anymore. Or beautiful. It will be beautiful.

Look what verse 43 says. It is sown in dishonor, but raised in glory. Glory, meaning beautiful, wonderful. Our bodies will be raised to indescribable beauty. Not just vain beauty, but something more, something that we haven’t seen yet.

We’re talking about real beauty, whatever that looks like, because we’re incapable of seeing real beauty in this life. The sinful beauty of the soul, united to God, now reflected through the body of a human being. Joni Eareckson, Todd, if you’re familiar with her, she’s a paralegic, over. Actually a quadriplegic. Over 50 years she’s been walking, or more than that, actually probably more like 55 years now.

And she is an Amazing evangelist who preaches and talks about heaven quite a bit in her books and her autobiography. And she says this. I can hardly believe it. With shriveled, bent fingers and no feeling from my shoulders down, will one day have a new body light, bright and clothed in righteousness, powerful and dazzling. Can you imagine the hope this gives someone with a spinal cord injury like me?

Or someone who has cerebral palsy or brain injured or who has multiple sclerosis? Imagine the hope that this gives someone who is a manic, depressant, oppressive. No other religion, no other philosophy promises new bodies, hearts, minds. Only the gospel of Jesus Christ do hurting people find such incredible hope. Verse 43 is powerful.

Your body’s going to be powerful. Is sown weakness. We’re weak, but we raised in power. And again, I don’t know what that really means, but it’s spiritual power and it’s physical power. The Bible says that we will be like Jesus.

And in his resurrected body, he was. What was he doing? He was fishing, he was eating, he was hanging out, he was talking. He was. But at the same time, he was going through walls and flying.

I mean, it was pretty cool. He was raised in power. We no longer need reading glasses and wheelchairs. We’ll have plenty of power. We’ll have plenty of strength.

We’ll be able to do whatever we want to, Right? That’s what Jesus has for us. Erickson Tada said this. He quoted a little later in this book. She says, I hope I can take my wheelchair to heaven with me.

Now, I know that it’s not biblically correct, but I hope to push the wheelchair to the throne of Jesus. Notice I’ll be walking and I’m going to say, Jesus, do you see this wheelchair right here? Well, you were right when you said that in this world you would have trouble because that wheelchair was a lot of trouble. But Jesus, the weaker I was in that thing, the harder I leaned on it. The harder I leaned on you, the stronger I discovered you to be.

So thank you for what you did in my life through that wheelchair. And now if you will, please send this wheelchair to hell. Amen. Y’ all have got to read her stuff. She’s an incredible woman of God who’s lived her whole life in a wheelchair.

The body is spirit filled. It will be spirit filled. Verse 44. It is sown a natural body. It is raised a spiritual body.

It is sown a natural body. We will know the perfect fullness of the spirit. We will know what it will be like to communicate with God, to Be with God, to be one with God. And the book of Revelation says that we won’t need the light of the sun anymore, that his light will be enough. Could you imagine that constant indwelling light of God himself?

We will be perfectly Christlike. Verse 49. Just as we have borne the image of a man of dust, we shall also bear the image of a man of heaven. No more will we need to be commanded in the ways of God, because we will have God there with us. You will no longer need me to preach to you.

You will no longer need to encourage each other to stay strong, stay in the faith. You know, press on, let’s get through this, because God’s got something. Because God will be there, and he will be present, and he will pour into your hearts everything that you ever need. We will be Christlike, we will be like him, and we will be with him. What’s it like to wake up one day perfectly in Christ’s image?

Think about that for a second. What is it like to not feel jealousy, not feel envy, or not feel anxiety, or not be consumed with yourself or not be consumed with others? And this perfect love, to know joy unspeakable at every moment of the day, what would that be like? Like the psalmist says, in your presence is the fullness of joy and pleasures evermore. What would that be like?

The Bible promises that in the resurrection, this is what we will experience. We will experience the fullness and the pleasure forevermore of being like Christ and our lowly bodies. As Philippians 3:21 says, Our lowly bodies will be like that. Glorious. A glorious body.

Amen. They would no longer be lowly. So all that’s saying about our bodies and answering that and resurrection. So what’s the difference that it makes for me now? I mean, this sounds wonderful.

This sounds nice. Well, I’m glad you asked that question, because Paul answers it. And he answers it in verse 54. He says, because of the resurrection, death is swallowed up in victory. O grave, where is your victory?

O death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God. Can y’ all say thanks be to God? Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore, my beloved brothers and sisters, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord and knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. What can we get from that? First of all, because of the resurrection, death has no more sting. We no longer have to fear death anymore. God has taken care of death.

Whether you’re. Whether you’ve lost somebody, whether you’re facing death yourself, man. We don’t have to face death anymore with that fear in our heart. And life’s hardest experience is really death. I think most people are.

That’s their hardest thing because it’s uncertain and we don’t really know death. We’ve never experienced death before because we are all alive today, right? But we don’t have to. The Bible promises us that it is swallowed up. It is swallowed up in victory and we no longer have to do.

And when we lose somebody, when we lose somebody in the faith, we don’t say things like, I’ll never hold my baby again, or I’ll never be able to. To hug my mother again or my father again, or my grandfather again, or my grandmother again, or whomever it is, my best friend. We say this in the faith. We say they’re just gone for a little while, but we will see each other again. They’ve just been temporarily placed in another place.

But when we’re all together again, when God comes back and everything comes back to what it was, they’ve just been temporarily relocated for time, a long little while. They’re still there. My grandmother, my grandfather still there. My uncle’s still there up in heaven. They’re there and they’re waiting and we will see them again.

That’s how we feel about death. You say, well, what about my loved ones that are unsaved? That stings, man. That stings, Pastor. And that’s a really hard reality.

And I don’t really have all the answers today, okay? I don’t know what happens in heavenly realms, and I don’t know if there’s that last opportunity for somebody to give their life to Christ as they’re transitioning from this life to the next. Because I haven’t been there myself. I know that in heaven, our capacity to love, though, is increased and our capacity instead of decrease. It’s not decrease, it’s increase.

And I know that scripture says he’ll wipe away every tear and it will wipe away every hurt, which I assume means that somehow we’ll be at peace with the decisions that people have made in their lives. And, oh, the sting of death is here that some have passed on and have not known the Lord. I trust Jesus. I can trust Jesus. Psalm 131 says, Lord, my eyes are not haughty.

I do not concern myself with the great matters or things too wonderful for me. But I have claimed and I Have quieted myself like a young child with its mother. Like a young child, I am content. And in the meantime, what do I do? I plead with everyone I possibly can to come to know this Jesus that I know, so they can be with me in heaven.

Amen. Second thing is because the resurrection, the worst pain, is only light and momentary lighting, momentary pain, your situation feels permanent, but it’s not. Your situation may not feel like it can’t return back to what it once was, that it’s gone too far, but it’s not even more. God promises that your pain eventually becomes part of the beautiful thing God is making you that his light and momentary affliction is actually making you more like him. And you’ll know one day why.

Notice the phrase death is swallowed up in victory. When you swallow something, it becomes a part of you, right? Death is swallowed up. You digest it. It becomes a factor of you.

And that’s what God is going to do with your pain one day. It’s not just that we had pain on earth and then when we’re in heaven, all that’s gone away and it’s erased and we don’t know it anymore. We’re going to know exactly why we went through what we went through. And it will be a part of us throughout eternity. And we’ll understand fully because that’s how good God is.

He takes all the things that we go through in this life, makes them work for our good and eternity. And we will know. So whatever your situation is, chronic pain, illness, disappointment, mental illness, bad marriages, being alone, it’s all temporary. Because Paul calls light. In a moment, Terry, not very long, we will know.

Amen. We can have hope now. That’s not to make light of pain. We need to pray. We need to ask God to heal us and God to bring us through.

But Paul experienced some. Paul experienced some sort of pain. Betrayal, abandonment, torture, loneliness, chronic illness. He experienced all that. Did you know that?

Paul experienced that. But he said even the worst of the worst is light and momentary compared to the weight of glory that that is coming. I’m going through all of this. Paul says, but man, Resurrection. That’s the one word I can say.

Resurrection. I might be dealing with this person. Resurrection. I might be dealing with this pain. Resurrection.

I might be dealing with this hardship. Resurrection. That’s all we could just proclaim resurrection. Resurrection. So are you suffering?

Is the question. Hang on, hang on. Because this awesome, eternal, beautiful, powerful, spirit filled Christ like body that’s waiting for us, it’s coming. It’s coming. So Just hang on.

Don’t stop praying for your situation, but trust in the Lord just to stay, stay the faith. Amen. I love how A.D. carson says it.

I’m not suffering from anything that a good resurrection can’t fix. Right? Number three. And I’m coming close. Guys, I know my last two messages been a little long, but this is a lot of stuff.

Because of the Resurrection, we can press forward to risk taking trial, enduring death, defying obedience to Jesus for every minister and every missionary. This is a message for you who has walked away from your family and your fortune and carried the Gospel to unreached people all over the world. The Resurrection says it’s going to be worth it. It’s going to be worth it. Your sacrifice is not temporary.

Jesus is going to repay you a hundredfold in his kingdom for all that you’re doing. That means if you don’t get to come home from your missionary journey, if you’re martyred there, don’t worry. It’s okay. Soon you’ll be home in your eternal, forever home with Jesus. And you’ll be glad you gave your life.

You’ll be glad you gave your life to the Gospel. What’s it going to look like when you have been there 10,000 years and all the people that through your ministry and through your sacrifice, even you here today, and you get to meet them and know them and love them and you say, man, I am so glad that I shared the Gospel because I really, really, truly love these people in heaven that I never got to be on earth but my ministry touched. That will be your reward. You will be so thankful for all that you gave. It doesn’t make a lot of sense now to the world, but one day, one day.

And even if you get killed, it’s okay. Even if you die, it’s okay. I know this is hard to grasp and picture, but soon you’ll be in a place where death can’t touch you. It will not touch you. And you’ll be glad you gave your life for others, for those of you whose courageous stand for Jesus, it’s cost you work, it cost you jobs, it’s cost you money, it’s cost you opportunity.

You sacrifice for Jesus, soon it will be over. It will be over. That’s why Paul says, keep going, keep sacrificing, keep moving, keep doing what you do because of resurrection, because you will enter into your reward soon, soon, soon. So be bold and death, defying your obedience. I love this letter.

And we’re getting close. We’re closing. I got one More point, guys, but I have to share this letter by a man by the last name of Judson. Back in the 1700s, as he was proposing to. He sends a letter to the father in law, his soon father in law, to Ashton, his hand in marriage for his daughter.

Judson knew he was getting ready to be called into the mission field in Burma. And in the early late 1700s, that was a pretty big deal. You may not come back alive, he says, as I have now to ask whether you can consent to part with your daughter early next spring to see her no more in this world. Whether you can consent to her departure to a foreign hostile land, knowing she will endure the hardship and suffering of the missionary life. Whether she can consent to the exposure to the dangers of the ocean, the fatal influence of the southern climate of South Asia, to every kind of want and distress, to degradation, insult, persecution, and perhaps even violent death.

Can you consent to all this for the sake of. Of him who left his heavenly home and died for her and for you, for the sake of perishing immortal souls, for the sake of the resurrected kingdom and the glory of God? Can you consent to all this and hope to soon meeting your daughter in the world of glory with a crown of righteousness brightened by the acclamations of praise which shall resound to her Savior from the loss, who were saved through her means, through eternal woe and despair. Wow. It’s only belief in the resurrection that compels somebody to this kind of obedience.

Which leads me to my conclusion. Last point. Because of the resurrection, living for Jesus is the only thing that ever makes sense. It will ever make sense. It’s the only thing that makes sense.

Every one of us has a soul and a body, are both eternal. Those of you who are united to Christ, your soul will immediately, as Paul says, enter from this life into the next. To live eternally with God, to be in the presence of God. Your body will retire, your soul will retire from this body. Go be with that body and await the physical return of Jesus Christ, where your body will once again your physical body will return to.

But those who are apart from Christ, those who are apart from Christ, our souls, your souls will immediately enter into judgment. That there’s. It lives eternally as well. Every soul lives eternally. Every soul was made to live eternally.

But it will be in misery and judgment, separated from a God. And everything you experience in this life, everything good that you experience in this life is just a glimpse of what God has in heaven. So you’re actually living under what God has promised already being fulfilled. That seat, that kernel is already being planted even right now. Look what Jesus said in John 5.

He said, the hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear the voice and come out. Those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment in Revelation. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it. Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in it. And they were judged, each one of them, according to what had been done.

And if anyone’s name was found in the book of life or not found in the book of Life, was thrown into the lake of fire, this is the second, the ultimate eternal death. I cannot emphasize the importance of this moment, guys. If you are here today and you have not traced, placed your trust in Jesus Christ as Savior, the resurrected King, you will live eternally separated from God. And for some of you, for those of you are in Christ, this world is as close to hell that you ever experienced. But for those of you that are not in Christ, this is the closest to heaven that you ever experienced.

And even now, you’re tasting some of the good fruits that God has placed those kernels of seeds for those in Christ. God. God is bringing you to a renewed physical kingdom that he has prepared. He is preparing for you, which includes the glorified and perfect version of yourself in a beautiful world that you’ll be able to walk with God forever. So my question is today.

My question is today, what side of eternity you’re all going to live on eternity for eternity. But which is your eternity? Which is your eternity? Can we bow our heads for a minute? Father, thank you for your spirit.

Thank you for your spirit, Lord. Thank you for your spirit. We want to be like the Corinthians that wrote on their gravestones, which is a phrase that means I shall rise again. They knew it, Lord. They knew they would rise again.

The question is, are our hearts there, Lord? Is there a heart here today that has not received Jesus, not based on your works, not based on your good deeds, not based on how you live, but based on Jesus who is the resurrected one? Have you given your life to Jesus today? At this point, today? Would you pray this with me?

Would you pray this with me? I’m not going to ask you to raise your hand, I’m not asking you to come to the front, but would you pray this with me? And it’s not a magical prayer. It’s just letting Jesus know that you believe that he is the Son of God and that he’s the resurrected one. Belief and faith will make you whole.

Just pray this with me, Father. I believe that you’re the Son of God, that you died on the cross and you rose again. God, come into my life. Come into my heart. Make me a new creation, Lord, in you, Lord, I give my life today.

No turning back. I walk with you from this day forward, and I ask this in your name. Amen. Can y’ all give God a praise? Hallelujah.

Wow. I went long today. I went long today. Sorry, guys. I know you, but guess what?

It’s short, momentary, right? Short, momentary affliction. Sitting in church listening to Pastor Leon speak. Right. For the weight of glory that’s waiting for us.

Miranda, would you come up and close us out? My wife, she can close us out real quick with a prayer. And we love you guys so much.