1 Corinthians 15:35

But some will say, "How are the dead raised up? And with what body do they come?" Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened except it dies. And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain. It may chance of wheat or some other grain. But God gives it a body as it has pleased Him, and to every seed its own body.

All flesh is not the same flesh. There is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fish, and another of birds. There are also celestial bodies and bodies terrestrial. But the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars. For one star is different from another star in glory. So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption. 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. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.

Father, as we look now into Your Word, we ask that You would open our hearts and our minds, that we would receive from You and understand more clearly who You are, how great You are, Your nature, and Your will. Lord, we ask that You would be preparing us, that we would shine brightly as lights in a dark world. This time set apart this morning would be readying us for the mission field that You have called us to.

Some mission fields are in schools in our areas, others in corporate buildings, and some out on the construction field. Lord, there are many different mission fields to which You have called us, and it is our desire that we would shine brightly Your light into the darkness of this world. We want people to see and know You, that they would come to the knowledge of the truth and enter into that life more abundantly that You've given to us.

A life that extends beyond this life into eternity. Speak to us today as we consider this great topic of the resurrection, we ask in Jesus' name. And all God's people agreed, saying, Amen. You can be seated.

1 Corinthians 15 reveals for us one of the most important doctrines of Scripture. In fact, as we have already considered, if this be not true, if the resurrection of Christ from the dead be not true, then it is very true that everything we're doing is pointless if He is not raised from the dead. That is a pretty powerful statement. Sometimes you might think that this is said in hyperbole, but it really is true. If Christ be not raised from the dead, then Christianity is pointless. The whole of the Christian faith hinges upon this fact. We have banked everything upon this truth that Christ is raised from the dead. Because He is alive, we can be made alive as well spiritually and enter into eternity with Him. But if He is not raised from the dead, then we are still dead in our sins, and we are of all men most miserable. Miserable, we are hopeless.

But we believe that He is raised, and that there were over 500 witnesses to this fact that Jesus is alive. Now, there were people in Corinth and of the Hellenistic Greek culture who questioned the reality of the resurrection. We've already considered that. Paul has addressed that. But now, as we come to verse 35, Paul is addressing those who, in a mocking sense, would say, "Okay, if there is such a thing, how does it possibly happen? With what body does an individual rise?"

There were some in Corinth that claimed there was no resurrection. Others questioned the process of resurrection. The question of the process of resurrection here in verses 35 and onward is really presented in a mocking sort of sense. So, in the city of Corinth, 20 centuries ago, the antagonism towards the idea of the resurrection is just the same as it is here in 2011 in our culture. There are people who say, "Oh, come on. How is it possible that something like that could happen? Just tell us how it all works out because we can't figure it out with our science. We can't figure it out with our instrumentation. It just doesn't seem to fit with our understanding of things."

What that does is it presents man or exalts man to a position.

To where anything we can't understand is therefore foolish and stupid, we should quickly recognize that this places a significant burden on humanity as the supreme understander of all things. Clearly, with the way science operates in our day, it continues to discover things it does not yet understand. Science is always on the cusp of some new finding, which should lead us to acknowledge that there is much we do not comprehend. There are many aspects of existence that simply do not make sense to us.

In humility, we should admit that there are things about the resurrection that do not make sense. They would never make sense to us if it were not for God revealing these truths. In verse 51, Paul states that this is a mystery. The issues surrounding the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and subsequently the resurrection of those who have put their faith in Him, are indeed mysterious. A mystery, in a biblical sense, is something that cannot be known apart from revelation. We would never understand what we do know about the resurrection if it were not for what God has told us.

God has created humanity with an innate desire to live on. All human beings share in this similarity; we all desire to continue and seek something beyond this life. Death stands as a significant barrier that we all wish to overcome in order to discover what lies on the other side. While He created us with that desire, we do not fully grasp what it entails until God reveals it to us. Jesus is the resurrection, and He bears witness to us, making manifest life and immortality through His word. Paul states in 1 Timothy 1:10 that Jesus has brought to light, or manifested, life and immortality through the gospel. This truth would not have been known apart from His revelation.

We are incredibly thankful that the Lord has revealed these things to us. He desires for us to understand these profound truths that are presented in this passage. Paul expresses this sentiment in a corresponding passage in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, where he says, "I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep or those who have died." God wants us to know about these matters. The great unknown is something He wishes for us to comprehend. Thus, for all those people we encounter...

In our sphere of influence, there are those who say, "Well, it's just the great unknown. We don't know about it." You might respond, "Listen, I know something about it. I know something about it because God, who created all things, has told us something about it. We can bank on what He says, and He has proved it through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He has shown His word to be weighty enough that we can put our whole stock in it."

In Paul's day, just like in our day, people were questioning, mockingly, the practicality of the resurrection. They were essentially asking, "How can an individual experience this resurrection that you speak of if that deceased individual's body has been embalmed, cremated, or perhaps destroyed in a dreadful accident where their body no longer exists?" They wondered, "What’s going to happen? How do you answer that, church? You’re saying there’s life after this. Well, what happens if this body is gone?" They looked at us with a mocking tone, and to be quite honest, it initially seems to be a valid question.

However, Paul does not validate it very much. Look at how he answers it at the beginning of verse 36: "Thou fool." It seems to be a very valid question, but Paul asserts that it is not. Why does it seem valid? Jesus, the first to raise from the dead, left behind an empty tomb. When we die, we leave behind an empty, lifeless body.

The Sunday following Jesus' crucifixion, some of His women followers went to the tomb where He had been buried. They were intending to finish the burial process of embalming Him for death. When they arrived, the stone was rolled away, and Jesus was gone. The grave clothes were there, but His body was not. From this, one could assume that the body is important in resurrection because Jesus' body was gone. This presents a problem because when we die, our bodies remain here.

So, it seems again to be a valid question, but then Paul says, "No, thou fool," as he opens his response. The problem with the question, "How are the dead raised?" assumes that we are purely physical.

It assumes that all there is to us is what we see here, that we are the sum total of the parts that we can examine. But the Bible reveals that's not the case. The reality is there's more to us than meets the eye, kind of like Transformers. There is a little bit more to this than just what we can interact with in this world. Our physical bodies are not all there is to us.

If all that I was was what you see standing here before you, then it would follow that the destruction of this shell would mean the annihilation of my total being. If I was only this, and I died, or this was cremated, then I'm in big trouble because that's all I was. Now, the honest atheist will have to say that's the case. They will say, "Yeah, there is no life after this, and when you die, you go into the ground, you decay, you rot, you become part of the ground once again, and you're gone. There's nothing left that's there."

But the Bible says something different. And God, who inspired the Scriptures, ought to know if there's something more. Sure, science cannot detect this something more. Some people believe that it can in certain parascience views, but for the most part, with instrumentation and study and observation, you can't necessarily observe this something more that's there. So God would have to speak to us of this other realm, of this other dimension, this spiritual area.

The skeptic will say, "Well, the body is essential, and so resurrection, you need to have the body." But what does Paul say? Notice what he does. By way of illustration, he begins to show that we are not purely physical, that there is something more than meets the eye.

Look at verse 37. Actually, verse 36: "Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened except it dies." Paul uses the illustration of a seed. If you had a seed for wheat or a seed for barley or some other grain, you would take this small seed and place it into the ground. In placing it into the ground, that seed dies.

So that seed is more than what is seen when you just see the purely external part of the seed. There's something inside the seed that is far greater than the seed itself, which brings forth something awesome—something greater than it could ever have been on its own unless it was planted. And so Paul is saying...

We are like that seed. There's something more than just the physical exterior that we see. There's something planted within this shell that continues on after this shell, this seed, dies. Paul uses this illustration because he is speaking of something that is mysterious to us. He is addressing something that is heavenly, that is otherworldly, and we, in this world, cannot comprehend it. The things of God and the things of heaven are so much greater than our finite minds can grasp. Therefore, when God tries to reveal these things to us, He has to speak in language that we can understand.

We must admit at the outset that the idea, the concept, the understanding, and the full grasp of what the resurrection is and what it means for us is something we cannot wholly comprehend due to the finiteness of our minds. So God says, "Let me talk to you like this. It's kind of like a seed." We know what a seed is. We can follow that analogy. You put a seed in the ground, and it gets absorbed. It dies and becomes something else if something comes to work on it. God is trying to bring down this great heavenly truth into something that we can understand, allowing us to say, "Aha, I got it." Although we may not have everything about it, we have a general sense of what is being said.

Now, Jesus, God incarnate, did this very same thing. In John chapter 3, when He was speaking with a very intelligent religious leader, Nicodemus, He says to him, "Nicodemus, you must be born again or you will not see the kingdom of God." Jesus was speaking to Nicodemus about regeneration, where a dead spirit within man can be brought to spiritual new life, giving that individual the opportunity to see and enter into the kingdom of God.

This is a big discussion. There are many books written on the theology or the soteriology of salvation and regeneration. What is that all about? Here is Jesus speaking to a religious expert in his day, and He says to him, "Listen, this is going to freak you out, this whole idea of regeneration. You're not going to fully grasp it because it's so much bigger than your little mind can take. So let me just say it like this: If you're not born again, you will not see it." Even that earthly illustration and explanation totally burst Nicodemus' bubble. He responds, "Whoa, whoa, wait a minute. Must I enter in a second time into my mother's womb and be born? This doesn't make sense."

And so Jesus begins to unfold for him. What do I mean by this? He says in John chapter 3, verse 12, "If you can't believe these earthly things that I'm telling you, you're not going to grasp heavenly things. That which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. You must be born again of the Spirit."

Jesus is unfolding these things in a way that we can grasp. We do this all the time, don't we? We try to explain things to our children in a way that they can comprehend. For example, Ethan comes to me with a DVD and says, "Dad, I want to watch this. I want to watch Toy Story."

I respond, "Okay, let me explain to you, son, how this works. We take this DVD and put it into the digital video drive. It goes inside, and a laser shines on it while it's spinning really fast in the optical eye. The eye sees all the little digital information on there, processes it in its central processing unit, and sends that over to a graphical processing unit, which displays it for you to see."

I realize I forgot to mention the audio, but the three-year-old looks at me and asks, "Can I watch Toy Story?" So what do we say? "Yeah, let's put it in here, push play, and it comes on."

It's equally amazing, but it makes sense to the finiteness of our minds. The concept of regeneration being a spiritual new birth is equally amazing. The idea of our body, this seed, going into the ground and then something that is not completely this seed coming forth from it is also remarkable. We don't fully understand the process, but we explain it in a way that we can understand. It's a mystery.

Because of the mysteriousness of it, some people think it is incredible and just not possible. I love how Paul addresses the incredibility of this as he speaks with King Agrippa in Acts chapter 26. Let me read to you from verse 8: "Why should it be thought a thing incredible unto you that God should raise the dead? Why do you think this is incredible that God can do this? You don't think that He, in all His awesomeness, can perform this great thing?"

Called resurrection? Now, you may not fully understand it, but that does not mean it's not true. There are so many things in this world that we don't understand, but we just say, "Okay, I believe it," even though I don't fully grasp it.

I remember when my dad was trying to teach me how to drive a standard transmission vehicle. My dad, I love my dad, but he's a detail guy. When we went to practice driving stick shift, my dad wanted to explain to me exactly how the clutch works, the flywheel, and the transmission. I was going, "I don't understand any of this." For about 45 minutes, my dad explained the whole process of the mechanics behind the clutch and the flywheel. I thought, "Okay, I step on this, release it, and this and this, and boom, boom, boom, boom, boom." Then I realized, "Oh, okay, don't do that." I couldn't explain it or fully comprehend it, but I knew it worked when you did it right.

There are plenty of things in this world that we don't wholesale reject because we don't understand them. This is the problem with modern science; it has wholesale rejected the truth of the resurrection because we cannot grasp it with our minds. We mockingly hear, "Oh, how are the dead raised? It just doesn't make sense to me." We bury someone, and their body goes into the ground. If we come back 20 years from now, the remains, although different than they were when we put them in the ground, are still there. So, how are the dead raised? This seems ludicrous and foolishness. You've checked your brains at the door, you crazy Christians. What are you thinking? It's still there.

But the foolishness is on the other side, saying this is all we are. The Bible says this is not all we are. There's something greater than what we see; there's more than meets the eye. Paul illustrates this with the example of a seed. He says when you put a seed into the ground, it doesn't grow into a plant unless it dies first. What you put into the ground is not the plant that will grow, but only the bare seed, whether it's wheat or whatever you're planting, as stated in the New Living Translation. Then God gives it the new body as He wants it to have, whatever body that is. A different plant grows from a different kind of seed. You put one kind of seed in the ground, and a different kind of plant grows. I mean, unless you're a botanist,

You look at the seeds and wonder, "What kind of plant is this one?" You put it in the ground to find out, and then it brings forth something that you would never have known just by looking at the seed. You can even break the seed apart, down to its DNA level, and extract all the DNA. You could look at the code of the DNA all day long, but you're not going to know what it will become until you put it into the ground.

The same is true with us. You can observe it until the end of this whole world, but you're not going to know what comes of it unless God reveals it. Paul, by this illustration, explains to us that there is something more than just our physical bodies. There is more than meets the eye. The individual is made up of more than just flesh. This exposes us to an idea found in the Scriptures: man is either a dichotomy or a trichotomy. That is, he has a two-part being or a three-part being.

Either he is flesh, has a body, and has a soul or spirit—where soul and spirit are considered together—or, in the case of trichotomy, man has a body, a soul, and a spirit. This is what the Bible reveals. It's either/or. You can get into the semantics of whether it is three or two. Personally, I believe that it is three; that man has a soul, and that is who man is. That is where his intellect, emotion, and will are housed.

The soul is the seat of our emotions. It animates us in this physical realm through the flesh, the body that we have. The soul tells the body, "I have this desire for something to eat," and so it chooses to will that the body goes and gets a good In-N-Out double-double, animal style. The soul dictates to the body what it will do and how it will interact in this world, this realm that God has created.

In much the same way, the soul, which is who we are, is able to interact in a different realm—the spiritual realm—through, if you will, the body of the spirit, which is animated by that soul. God created man in this way. You might ask, "Is there scriptural support for that?" Yes, at least one that I can jump to is 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 23: "And the very God of peace sanctify you completely."

And I pray, God, that your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Here, Paul identifies that there is something more than just the body; at least a body and a soul, and perhaps body, soul, and spirit. How is this? Are other bodies this way? No, only man is like this.

Why? Because in Genesis 1, verse 26, God said, "Let us make man in our image." God is speaking within the Trinity—Father, Son, Holy Spirit—saying, "Let us make man, let us create him in our image, in our likeness. Let him have dominion or authority over all the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth." So God created man in His image; in the image of God, He created him; male and female, He created them.

In Genesis 2, verse 7, it says that God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul. Man is unique in the creation of God. He is not just the highest form of animal; he is created in the image of God. God breathed into us the breath of life, and we became living souls—thinking, willing, doing, feeling.

Paul describes the difference among these bodies. In verse 39, he says there are bodies of human flesh, bodies of birds, bodies of fish, and bodies of animals that creep upon the earth. He goes a step further; from those that are terrestrial, which are here upon the earth, he says in verse 40 that there are celestial bodies—other bodies that God has created out there in the universe.

There are also celestial bodies and bodies terrestrial, but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. There is a difference between that which is up there in space that God has created—stars, moon, and sun—and another sort of thing here upon this earth. There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars, for one star differs from another star in glory.

God's creation is glorious, and when you look at just the awesomeness of it, it is truly remarkable.

Of God's power in creation, we see His ability to do things that are so much greater than anything we can do. Not only do we see His power and ability, but we also witness the diversity of His creativity. Not everything is the same; it's not all the same seed. Not everything is exactly identical because God, in His diversity, creates this incredible variety that is brought together in His creation in a wonderful unity.

It's all one universe, but there are so many different parts, just as our bodies are on a smaller scale. It's one body, but it has many different parts, and this speaks to us of God's grandeur. When we look through a telescope, we see grand galaxies at the farthest reaches of the universe that continue to expand. God spoke this into existence. Then, when we look down at the molecular and subatomic levels through microscopes and atomic microscopes, we see that God is just awesome in His creation. He exists; He is powerful and intelligent.

Do you suppose for one second, when considering the greatness of our God, that He is hindered from raising the dead? Do you suppose to mock Him and say, "How can that possibly happen?" Do you think it's a hard thing for the God who created the universe and the stars by His voice? Do you think it's difficult for Him to raise the dead? He breathed life into man to make him a living being here upon the earth; He can certainly breathe life back into man's spirit.

So He says, "So also is the resurrection of the dead." In verse 42, it states that the body is sown into the ground in corruption, but it is raised in incorruption. The body that goes into the ground will decay and die; it will remain there until it is absorbed back into the earth. But that's not all there is to man. There is something more than that. What is planted in the ground in corruption and decay will be raised in incorruption. It is sown in dishonor.

It is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness. The weakest thing for us to consider is a dead body; it can do nothing. It is sown in weakness, but it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body, but something else comes forth from it: a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. This is something that science has a hard time with, but we would only know it by the revelation of God.

You can see the natural body; you can perceive it with your senses. However, there is also a spiritual body. Some people say, "Well, I have a sixth sense. I can understand and perceive these." Great, that's nice, but the Bible doesn't say a whole lot about that. All I can say is that we see a natural body, and God tells us there is a spiritual body. It's there.

Creation is glorious. The heavens, the stars, the moon, the sun, and the grandeur of the universe all point to the power of God. The grandest galaxies and the smallest subatomic particles reveal God's glory clearly. You don't have to look very far to see the Creator's hand. However, everything that we see is under a dreadful curse—the dreadful curse of sin. Everything we witness, even the grandest galaxies and the most intricate life forms at the molecular level, is affected by the fall. It is all under sin, and therefore, everything we see is in a constant state of decay.

Physics proves this. The second law of thermodynamics tells us about entropy: everything moves from a state of order to disorder. We see this practically. Your kids clean their room, but by the end of the day, it has moved from a state of order to disorder. Don't we wish everything went backwards? Don't you wish everything just ordered itself? The laundry? The kitchen? When we see something where that does happen, what do we call it? Fantasia. It's fantasy; it doesn't happen on its own. Everything goes from a state of order to disorder.

Our bodies are corrupted, dishonored, weak, and natural. The reality of our fallenness is clearly evident to us every single day. We see the reality of our fallenness. But the Bible speaks of a resurrection. When we are raised, we will be incorruptible, glorious, powerful, and spiritual. Now that is good news.

The older we get, with each passing day, we recognize the goodness of that news: that we are not only this material shell. What happens in a society where people think that this is all we are? They try to preserve this as much as they possibly can. They try to hold on to this as much as they can.

We live in a culture today that is so insulated from death that we are scared of it. It used to be, in our nation and in the West, that most people died and entered into eternity in their own homes. Grandparents would live with their children and grandchildren, and the grandchildren would see that this is a natural process. This is what takes place. This natural body is corrupted; it dies. But now we've distanced ourselves from it. We've put it in hospitals and old folks' homes so we don't have to be touched by it. The only time we are confronted with it is when it comes to us on the news in a tragic format or when we have to go to a funeral. There, we see it, and we are confronted with death, which people don't like. They don't want it. They want it to be away from them.

But when we, as Christians, reckon with the fact that we shall die and that this is not all there is, we find joy in death. Paul could say, "To live is Christ and to die is gain." I don't know what I would choose—whether I stay here with you or I go and die. I know that it would probably be good for you if I stay here and live, but I would kind of rather die. If people say that today, we put them on Paxil. But the Christian says, "For me to live is Christ; to die is gain." If I stay here, I will live for the glory of God. If I die, it will be to His glory, and I will be with Him immediately. What I should choose, I don't know.

This perspective is so contrary to our culture. Can you imagine how non-believers would be affected if we actually lived—not just with our lips, but in such a way that people would say we have a very light grasp on this world? They would see that we do not count our lives dear to ourselves. That was the testimony of the early church; they did not count their lives dear to themselves. People saw it.

Now, I say this to our own shame, to my own shame, that we don't live like that in 21st-century American Christianity. We don't live like that. We should. As it is written, "The first man, Adam, was made a living soul." So God made Adam a living soul (Genesis 2:7). The last Adam was made a quickening spirit.

Who's the last Adam? Well, look at verse 46. Howbeit, that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural, and afterward that which is spiritual. God created this natural being, Adam, and ultimately we see this other being that came, which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth. Adam was formed of the earth, and God breathed in him the breath of life. He is of the earth and therefore he is earthly. His body is purely physical.

The second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthly, such are they also that are earthly. Just as Adam was, so are we. Everyone who is born of Adam comes out earthly, having this physical shell. God created man as a living soul with a spirit as well. But there in the Garden of Eden, He told Adam, "Of all the trees in the garden you may freely eat, but of the tree in the midst of the garden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat thereof, because in the day that you eat thereof you shall surely die."

We know in Genesis chapter 3 that he and his wife Eve partook of that fruit, and their eyes were opened. They saw their nakedness and hid. God came into the garden and said, "Adam, where are you?" There was a disconnect; there was a death spiritually between God and man. God had to seek man out, asking, "Where are you?" In that moment, man died spiritually, which ultimately brought about a physical death as well. But man died spiritually.

Now, does that mean that man's spirit is holy and completely inactive? No. We see in this world that there are people who interact with spirits that are unholy. How is man's spirit dead after the fall? It is dead in relationship to God, disconnected from God.

So what did Jesus do? This living spirit from heaven, the life-giving spirit, came to man to bring life. How? Through His death and resurrection. The second man is the Lord of heaven, and as is the earthly one, Adam, so are all those that descend from him—us. As is the heavenly, Jesus, such are also those who are of heaven.

If you are born of man, Adam, then you are purely fleshly and will die in that way. Your soul and spirit will go to a place disconnected, separated from God because there is a death spiritually. But if you are born a second time of Jesus, you must be born again. There is something that takes place.

If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. There is now the opportunity to be eternally with God because the Spirit has been given life. As we have borne the image of the earthly, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. The implication is that we must be born spiritually. We have already been born earthly and bear the image of physical flesh. However, if we are born spiritually, if anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation.

Jesus told Nicodemus in John chapter 3, verse 5, "That which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I tell you, you must be born again." This is the only way, Nicodemus. Why is that the only way, Jesus? Because, as stated in verse 50, "Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God." It is the only way because it is not possible any other way. Flesh and blood, this that we have, cannot inherit and enter into the kingdom of God. Neither does corruption inherit incorruption.

This raises a problem, Paul. How then can we enter in? What must take place? In verse 51, it says, "Behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall be changed." Many nurseries and churches have that on their wall. However, it means something more than that. Thankfully, 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 is a parallel passage to this, but it approaches the resurrection experience from a different angle.

In 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, the church at Thessalonica was concerned because some of their brothers and sisters in the Lord had died. They were asking, "What happens to those who die before Jesus returns?" Paul responds, "Listen, let me tell you how this all works out for those who have died." In this passage, he speaks from a different perspective. The church at Corinth is asking, "What about those who are still alive and remain until the Lord comes?" Because you are telling us that when we die, we are birthed into a new resurrection.

What about those who are still here when Jesus returns? Jesus said he will return a second time. So, if we're still alive, what's going to happen to us? Well, Paul says, "Good news! I show you a mystery." We're not all going to sleep, and sleep is a metaphor here for death. Not everyone is going to die. This is really going to put a dent in the statistic that 10 out of 10 people die. There will be those at the second coming of Christ who will not die; they will be caught up to be with the Lord in an event that we typically refer to as the rapture. He brings those who are His to Himself, and they do not experience physical death. They are with Him, and we are told there that they shall be changed.

A metamorphosis is going to take place, transforming one thing into something that is completely different. The idea of a metamorphosis is seen in a caterpillar being turned into a butterfly. It's a complete transformation. Well, Paul, how is this going to happen? It will happen by the same power that God used when He created the glorious bodies of heaven and earth; He spoke them into creation. It is by His power, by His glory.

Okay, well, when is this going to happen? Paul says in verse 52 that it will happen at the last trump, for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we who are still here shall be changed. So, it will happen at this last trumpet. When is that? It is when the Lord comes for His church. We will hear the sound of a trumpet and the archangel. That is when it is going to happen.

Well, how long is it going to take? Is it going to be a long process? Maybe weeks, months, years, or at least a few minutes? No. What does he say? "In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye." Well, what is the twinkling of an eye? There are actually people who have studied the difference between a wink, a blink, and a twinkle. What in the world is a twinkle? Those who study such things say that a twinkle is when a ray of light reflects on the inside of the eye and reflects out. It travels at the speed of light, which is 983,571,056 feet per second. That's fast.

Now, when Paul said it is going to happen in a moment and the twinkling of an eye, was he thinking of the science behind a twinkle? I doubt it. I think he was just trying to tell us it is going to happen really, really, really fast—faster than our minds can process it. It's amazing how quickly our minds can process something. Have any of you ever been in a car accident before? A number of years ago,

I was visiting some friends in Louisiana and was driving in a downpour. American Californians don't drive very well in the rain. I was in a truck and I hydroplaned. As the back end of the vehicle lifted up and started to move, I was on the freeway, drifting across three lanes of traffic and then across the center median into oncoming traffic. I could actually see the guy in the Ford Thunderbird that I was going to hit, and he could see me.

I had enough time, as this was happening in slow motion, to think, "Lord, please don't let this hurt." Then everything was fast again. Our brains are completely able to process that whole event. What does this say when this is going to happen in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye? It will be so fast that our brains can't even process what just happened. So fast that before you even recognize what happened, you're with Jesus. Yep, welcome home. It's phenomenal.

Now, some people say that's far out, and it is, which is why it's a mysterious thing. But the far-out nature of it doesn't mean that it's not true. God reveals it to us.

For the person who dies, the Christian who dies, Paul uses the metaphor of sleep, and I'm thankful that he does because sleep is a very interesting thing, especially when you're a child. As we get older, sometimes we have a harder time falling asleep. But maybe you, like me, had this experience when you were a kid, trying to figure out when you actually fall asleep. You engage your mind to recognize it, and then you wake up in the morning and think, "Darn, missed it again." You try again that night.

There is a point at which our brain moves from a state of awareness and consciousness into sleep. It just happens; it's painless, and then you're sleeping. The Bible reveals to us that this is what death is like for the Christian. You might wonder, "What if I have a violent, terrible, bad death?" Now,

Obviously, these aren't things that people like to talk about. However, if you read the stories of people who have drowned and were brought back, many of them will tell you that just before they lost awareness and consciousness, there was a total peace.

My dad was knocked off an eight-story building in 1971. He builds high-rise buildings, and it's a miracle that he's alive and that I'm even here because he survived that fall. He said that as he was falling, the fall was not too bad; it was the sudden stop that hurt real bad. While he was falling, he said goodbye to everyone that he loved, figuring that this was it. But there was no fear, no anxiety.

There are people who have fear and anxiety about death. Why? Because the other side is unclear to them. But for the Christian, we ought not to have that fear or anxiety about death because we know, based on the revelation of God, that there is something beyond this life that is far better. Therefore, we ought not to fear these things.

Paul says that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. God said to Moses in Exodus 33:20, "You cannot see my face, for no man shall see me and live." God is so holy, and we are so corrupt that if we were to come in contact with the holiness of God, we would be annihilated. We could not stand in His presence.

Paul reveals this great mystery to us: "We shall not all sleep, but in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet, the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible." Those who have died will be raised incorruptible, but we who are alive and remain shall be changed. In the twinkling of an eye, in a moment, this corruption must put on incorruption; this mortal must put on immortality.

Why must it? Because it cannot enter the presence of God. It cannot inherit the kingdom of God, so it has to put on immortality. In verse 54, it says, "So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, 'Death is swallowed up in victory.'"

You can tell any person in this world today, "Don't worry about death. Death is swallowed up in victory." They might respond, "Wait a minute, I still am going to die. That's not real exciting at this moment." But for the Christian, as soon as we fall asleep, if you will, we step into eternity, and then it is fulfilled.

That saying, "Death is swallowed up in victory," resonates deeply. You can look at it and think, "Oh, that's all it was? That's it?" I really do believe that this will be one of the first thoughts we have when we enter the presence of the Lord: "That wasn't so bad." The sufferings of this present world are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is revealed in us, even if we suffer a terrible death. It's just not worthy. We step into eternity, and wow!

Jesus would tell His disciples, "Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many mansions. Were it not so, I would not have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also." So don't be afraid. Don't be tossed to and fro by this dreadful fear of death. For the Christian, death is a good thing. For the non-Christian, it is a bad thing, and that should stir them to fear and to put their faith in Jesus Christ to live, because they want, in their heart, to live on.

The Christian can say with confidence, "Oh death, where is your sting?" It's beautiful. So many are fearful of that dreadful sting of death. Imagine falling fast from an eight-story building, watching the ground come up so quickly, thinking, "This is bad; I don't want to do this," and holding on to everything they can to try and keep this life. But this life is fleeting. He who seeks to save his life will lose it. You can't hold it; it's not possible. The sting of death will come, but for the Christian, we can say with boldness, "Oh death, where is your sting? Oh grave, where is your victory?"

The sting of death is sin. The reason that death stings is because we have sinned, but Jesus dealt with our sin on the cross, so we no longer have to experience the sting of death, although we may taste death. The strength of sin is the law. The law exposes our sin, revealing that death is the result of our sin and not just some sort of unfortunate event.

When we have this confidence, we find ourselves praising the glorious God. Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory! Where does the victory come from? Through our Lord Jesus Christ. Apart from Him, we would remain dead and dying in Adam, but in Christ, we have life abundant and life everlasting.

So for us Christians, what is the application of this? It flows right from the passage, verse 58: "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, for as much as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord."

Our culture today, for several generations, has been telling us that this is all there is. Every one of us is traveling very fast towards a brick wall—death. Once you hit it, it's done. So eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow you die. This existential philosophy suggests that if it's all about just this existence, you might as well live it up.

However, there is a call to the world from God that says, "No, this is not all there is. Come to me. Follow me. Submit yourself to my lordship, my kingship. I'll give you life. I'll give you life more abundantly."

People standing on the outside looking at us will say, "What you're doing is foolish. You're giving of your time, your money, and your talents. You're wasting time because there's nothing after this." Paul says, "Don't be shocked when they say that. Be steadfast. Be immovable. Don't be worried about the idea of death. It will come, and it will just be this falling asleep, and then you step into eternity."

Don't be moved when they say, "Come on, that's just crazy. You're going to wake up on a Sunday morning and spend an hour and a half doing that? You're going to spend your vacation to go to Africa? You're going to spend thousands of dollars to bring talking Bibles or give a tenth or more of your income to the church and to the Lord? That's a waste!"

And it is a waste if it is not true that Christ is raised from the dead. But if it is true, as we believe it is, that Jesus is alive and he makes us alive with him, and where he is, we shall ever be with him, we know this: our labor, whatever it is we do in his name, is not in vain. It is not empty, church. It is not empty.

This world is starving for purpose. Because this whole culture has been told there's nothing after this, there's no destiny, and ultimately no purpose, people are left to find meaning and purpose for themselves. What does that breed? It breeds a society of people who are depressed because we want this to mean something. We want it to have some sort of value.

What I'm endeavoring to do, what I'm spending and being spent for, is important. This is why Rick Warren's book, The Purpose Driven Life, sold tens of millions of copies, mostly to non-believers. They said, "The Purpose Driven Life, I need purpose," and they're starving for it. And what do we have? We have purpose. We have the words of eternal life. Rick Warren knows that; that's why he wrote that book. God bless him. He has revealed this to a lot of people.

God has purpose. You may not know what that purpose is, but He has purpose. He wants you to come into that. When we come into that, life changes. Transformation occurs. All things have become new; the old passes away. That is abundant life.

Let's stand and pray. Father, we thank You for the revelation of Your Word. There are things that we would never know apart from You, the all-knowing One, revealing them to us. Lord, we thank You that in You we have the promise of incorruptible immortality. Be glorified in our lives, whether by life or by death.

Help us by Your Spirit to live in such a way that it's not just our lips saying this world is not all there is, but our lives declare that we have a light grasp and we do not count our lives as much, Lord, because of You. God, work these things into our lives so that in this world in which we live, they would see, "I am so scared of death, and yet this person is not. Why?"

Lord, draw them by, even at the start, a carnal jealousy for what You've given to us in Christ. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Thank you, Val.