This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

(upbeat music) This is day four together of our look at First Corinthians
chapter 15, this great good news chapter of the Bible. And in verse 35, which
we're going to begin at today, Paul begins to talk about the question they're
struggling with. He's just argued for the truth of the resurrection.

And now he begins to get into it even more deeply, what they struggle with. In
verse 35, he says, "But someone may ask, 'How are the dead raised? "With what
kind of body will they come?

'" In this verse, he's showing us that they're getting caught up in the details.
And someone is destroying their faith by saying, "Well, you can't explain
everything that's going to happen. "And because you can't explain it all, "or
because you can't think out all that's going to happen, "maybe you shouldn't
believe it at all.

" I'm fine with the fact that God knows more than I do. But even in these
verses, Paul is indicating they're struggling with the fact that in the
resurrection, they're thinking they're going to come out with some kind of body
that's going to be just as miserable as these bodies that we have right now, just
as decaying as these bodies that we have right now. Who'd want that kind of a
resurrection?

We've read through this chapter and we found, first, the truth that the
resurrection is what makes the good news good. And second, we looked at the
truth that the resurrection is what makes your faith real. In this third section
of the chapter, Paul talks about the fact that the resurrection makes the
perishable imperishable.

The resurrection changes everything. It's not just the same going on and on and
on. It's change that we're looking forward to.

They argue that the resurrection didn't make sense because who would want to live
in a frail body like this for all of eternity? Paul says, "You don't understand
the resurrection. " And he teaches us in these verses some crucial truths about
the bodily resurrection, the resurrection of your physical body.

These are the clearest verses in all of the Bible about the resurrected bodies
that you and I are going to have for all eternity. Paul begins to talk about what
that resurrected body is like and he gives us some truths to hang onto. First,
he says, "That which you sow "doesn't come to life unless it dies.

" And there, he's picturing the body we have now but also the body that we're
going to have someday. Listen to what he says in verses 36 to 41. He's just asked,
"With what kind of body will they come?

" Like some body just like now. Verse 36, Paul says, "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 something else. "But God gives it a body as he is determined. "And
to each kind of seed, he gives its own body.

"All flesh is not the same. "Men have one kind of flesh, animals have another,
"birds another, and fish another. "There are also heavenly bodies and there are
earthly bodies "but the splendor of the heavenly bodies is one kind "and the
splendor of the earthly bodies is another.

"The sun has one kind of splendor, the moon another, "and the stars another.
"And stars differ from star in splendor. " As Paul walks through these verses,
he's walking through their confusion.

And they're confused thinking that the body we have now is going to be the body we
have for all of eternity. And Paul says, "No, you need to get "an entirely
different picture. " He says, "Picture the body you have now as a seed.

"And out of that seed, when it dies, "and it has to die in order to be planted,
"and the seed has to die, out of that body that's a seed, "God's going to create
the resurrected body "that you're going to have for all eternity, "even as he did
with the body of Christ. " You remember Jesus' physical body. It died on the
cross.

He died on the cross. That body was placed in a tomb. When they went back to
that tomb, the body had disappeared.

Why? The seed had been planted and been resurrected. Now that hasn't happened to
any of us yet.

We'll talk about when that happens in just a moment. But it will happen. It's
guaranteed to happen.

Look, Paul says it in nature. The seed that is sown doesn't resemble the plant
that grows, but the fact that you sow a seed guarantees a plant's going to grow.
Our bodies are mere seeds of the glorified bodies that God's going to give us.

And he goes through and he says, "Don't think you can understand this. "Heavenly
bodies, earthly bodies, they look different. "Don't think you can totally
understand, "but it's going to grow into something that is glorious, "a
glorified body, the scripture calls it.

" Now what is that seed going to grow into? What is that glorified body going to look
like? Well, verses 42 to 44 give us the briefest of pictures.

So it will be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is
perishable, but it is raised imperishable. It is sown in dishonor.

It is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness. It is raised in power.

It is sown a natural body. It is raised a spiritual body. If there's a natural
body, there's also a spiritual body.

Paul walks through and he pictures for us the resurrected body, a sown a
perishable body, one that's dying, but what's raised is imperishable. He's
saying there that death is defeated, that we're not going to live in a body for all
of eternity that's getting worse and worse, winding down and down. That's the
only experience we have now after we become adults, but that's not going to be what
it's like in eternity.

It's an imperishable body, sown in dishonor. Your body, as you get older, you
feel more and more dishonor in that body, but it's going to be raised in glory.
It's a glorified body.

Death is defeated and sin is vanquished. We're going to live in glory, in the glory
of God for all eternity. Do I know exactly what a glorified body looks like?

No, I don't. I know that Jesus had a glorified body, and I know that glorified
body, it looked like a human body. I mean, when they saw Jesus, they saw hands
and they saw feet, they saw a head, they saw a mouth talking, so it's not some
strange new thing.

It is something like our body looks like now, but glorified. Glorified in ways
that are above and beyond our understanding. So we're not talking about some
science fiction transformation where you become something different.

We're talking about God taking what you are now, and the idea of glorified is
perfect, perfectly connected to God. It's sown in weakness, he says. It's raised
in power.

The weakness that I feel in my body now, in all of eternity, I'm going to instead
feel power in that body. So this is God, there's no more sickness, there's no
more death in eternity. It's sown a natural body, it's raised a spiritual body.

New life is ours. Now he's very clear here, and in other places in the scripture
that this spiritual body doesn't mean it's not also physical. It is a material
body, but it's spiritually connected to God in the ways that were meant to be
connected to God, in the ways that were meant to be connected from the Garden of
Eden all the way until now.

As Paul talks about this, this body that's connected to us, what he's going to do
in all of eternity, he says you need to understand and be patient, there is an
order to this. One of the questions we have is why don't we have this glorified
body now? He says in the plan of God, and I certainly don't totally understand
the plan of God, but in the plan of God, there's an order to this.

First there was the earthly, and then the heavenly. Verses 45 to 50, here's what
he says. So it is written, the first man Adam became a living being.

The last Adam, a life-giving spirit. The spiritual did not come first, but the
natural. And after that, the spiritual.

The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven. As was
the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth. And as is the man from
heaven, so are those who are of heaven.

And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so we shall bear the
likeness of the man from heaven. I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and
blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the
imperishable. These are amazing verses as Paul walks through this.

In one sense, he's saying, look at yourself. Look at your body. He says, first
came Adam.

And Adam, in one sense, is the father of us all. In one sense, he's the
spiritual father of us all, also because in his sin, Adam and Eve's sin, you and
I have seen ourselves stained by the inevitability of sin in our own lives.
First came Adam, the father of our natural life.

And then came Jesus, who he calls the second Adam here, in quotes, the father of
our spiritual life. And the truth he's saying here is, look at yourself. Look at
your body.

Just like Adam, look, that's how you look. The sin that Adam struggled with,
that's what you struggle with. It has stained your life.

It has marked your life. And he's saying, now you know Jesus. And because you
know Jesus, just as certain as the fact that Adam's life has influence, affected
your life, you can be just as certain that the life of Jesus will infect and
affect your life.

I declare to you, brothers, flesh and blood can't inherit the kingdom of God.
It's not Adam's life that we're looking forward to. It's Jesus's life that we're
looking forward to in all eternity.

So that's why he says in this awesome verse, verse 49, you have borne the
likeness of the earthly man. You see that, don't you? Paul is saying.

You can see that, that you look like Adam. He says, just as sure as that, you're
going to bear the likeness of Jesus. That's how certain you can be.

The fact that all of human history has borne out the likeness of Adam, not just
physically, but also spiritually in our disconnection from God, in our struggle
with sin, that fact guarantees us that in all eternity, you and I are going to bear
out the likeness of Jesus Christ. That's why Jesus came. Just as we have the
image of the earthly, we shall bear the image of the heavenly.

What you see now, he's saying, is not what's to come. What you see now is an
assurance in a great way that something entirely different is on the way because
Jesus came and Jesus died and Jesus was resurrected. And in that resurrection,
you see the promise of something new for all of eternity.

As we pray together today, let's pray about our own bodies, these earthly bodies
that God has given to us and how we see them. Jesus says, we look at ourselves.
It's easy for us to see these bodies as just something that holds us back,
something to be discarded when we go on to be with you in heaven.

But the truth is, the truth is that they are a seed. That in some way, you're
going to take of this physical body and resurrect out of this body, the eternal
body that you have for us, the glorified body. And just as Jesus's body was
resurrected, it wasn't discarded, it didn't just disappear.

It was resurrected out of that tomb. You're going to resurrect our bodies. Jesus,
help us to see ourselves, help me to see myself that way today so that the way I
use my hands, the way I use my feet, the way I use my tongue, the way I use my
eyes, I can see that there's something more to come out of this body than just
the here and now.

I can see that I'm looking forward to eternity even now with this seed of what
you're going to plant that's going to in all of eternity allow me to enjoy the
glorified body, the glorified relationship that I'm going to have with you. So I
thank you and I pray you'd help me to see myself in that new way today. In your
name, amen.

Well tomorrow, hang on, the last verses of this chapter, Paul reveals the great
mystery of God's plan.