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This is Lord’s Day. March 22 2020. Reading first from Genesis, and then from First Corinthians 15 but before we do that, let’s go to the Lord in prayer, and ask for his blessing upon the reading in the hearing of his word, the spread your heavenly Father we praise you again we come to you, asking that. Indeed, the meditation, of all of our hearts will be pleasing in your sight. We confess that we do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes forth from your mouth and so we ask, dear Lord, give us a great appetite for this. Your word that I mean nourish our souls this morning in the ways of eternal life into your glory, and through the bread of heaven. Jesus Christ and we ask all these things. Amen. So first, brief Genesis chapter one, through to the second chapter in the seventh first. Let’s give our full attention to the reading of God’s Holy Word. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth and earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. God said, Let there be light and there was light. And God saw that the light was good and God separated the light from the darkness, and God called the light Day in the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning. The first day. And God said, Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters. Let us separate the waters from the waters. And God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. And it was so God called the expanse heaven. And there was evening, there was morning. The second day. And God said look the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place and let the dry land appear. And it was so God called the dry land earth and the waters that were gathered together. He called seas and God saw that it was good. God said, Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants, yielding seeds and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed each according to its kind on the ground. It was so near Earth brought forth vegetation plants yielding seeds according to their own kinds and trees bearing fruit, which is their seed each according to its kind. God saw that it was good, there was evening, there was morning, the third day, God said, Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let there be four signs in four seasons and four days and four years, and let them be lights and the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth, and it was so God made the two great lights, the greater light to rule the day. And the lesser light to rule the night, and the stars. God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth to rule over the day. And over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning. The fourth day. God said that the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens. So God created the great sea creatures and everything living, and every living creature that moves with which the water swarm according to their kind, and every winged bird according to this kind that saw that was good. God bless them, saying, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the season let the birds multiply on the earth, there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day. God said, Let the earth bring forth living creatures, according to their kinds livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds. And it was so God made the beasts, the earth according to their clients and the livestock according to their pines and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. God saw that was good. And then God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, or the birds of the heavens, nor the livestock and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in his own image, and the image of God He created him, male and female he created them. God bless them God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth, and said do it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and order the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth. And God said, Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. She’ll have them for food into every beast of the earth into every bird of the heavens into everything that creeps on the earth everything that has the breath of life. I have given every green plant for food. And it was so God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good, there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. Thus the heavens in the earth were finished, and all the hosts of them. And on the seventh day, God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. And so God blessed the seventh day and made it holy. Because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation. These are the generations of the heavens and the earth. When they were created in the day of the Lord God made the earth and the heavens. We know brush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant. The field had yet sprung up the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, and a mist mist was going up from the land, and was watering the whole face of the ground. Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. The man became a living creature. turn out of First Corinthians 15. First Corinthians, 15. Verse 35. Verse Corinthians 15. Verse 35. But someone will ask, How are the dead raised with what kind of body do they come. You foolish person. What do you so does not come to life unless it dies. And what you saw was not the body that is to be but a bear Colonel, perhaps of wheat, or some other grain. The God gives it a body as he has chosen into each kind of seed its own body. For not all flesh is the same. But there is one kind for humans and other for animals, and other for birds and other fish. There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies but the glory of the heavenly bodies is of one kind, and the glory of the earthly is of another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon and another glory of the stars. Four Star differs from star in glory. So it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable, what is raised is 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 has raised the spiritual body. If there is a natural body there is also a spiritual body. Thus it is written, the first man Adam became a living being. The last Adam became a life giving spirits. So for the reading God’s word. This is indeed profound material that we are reading. Chapter 15 and it is as it were an epistle inside of an epistle. It’s very rich and full and wonderful and profound and the passage for us is really set off by the question in verse, 35, where Paul says, but someone will ask how are the dead raised. What kind of body do they come. Paul asked this question and answers it for them. He answers it for us in the verses that follow. What is it going to be like when we were raised from the dead. What will the place be like, what will we be like this of course is something that captures the minds of a soul. There is an inborn curiosity about the afterlife. When you were young, you probably asked those questions. As parents, you’ve heard those questions as adults we think about these things. We think about how the Lord will make that all happen. It’s interesting. It’s amazing, really, as we contemplate it bodies. Right in the grave decaying or decayed in the ground or cremated. How is God going to raise those bodies. We think about these things. And I know of course here for us we do think about these things because every week, usually we confess either. I believe in the resurrection of the body, or we look for the resurrection of the body, right in the Creed’s that we confess, each week together. And so when we do that, what do you mean when you say that, what’s that going to be like. We confess it. What do we mean we don’t make empty professions or just do things mechanistically. We cannot do that we should never do that. No, we mean something by it. What do you mean when you confess that it is the testimony of God’s Word. And then we may wonder how the Lord will accomplish it all. We wonder what the resurrection body will be like, as our bodies given to the reality of time and aging and injury and illness, and this or that condition, we think about this more and more begins to be more and more attractive and appealing to us as we age, and the more we suffer in this earthly body, and the more we are drawn to long for our new bodies. We can’t wait to get that new glorified body knows none of the problems of this body. So whether issues with your back, or sickness or even a new kind of virus. We long for our bodies that will suffer none of these things. But what does that even mean new bodies are they different bodies, how are they new How are they the same. Are they merely necessitated bodies right how does this all work. Well these are some of the things that the Corinthians, perhaps were contemplating and thinking about indeed even denying. As we look in context of what they were saying and what Paul is doing the flow of his argument. We have to remember right as you think about this as we contemplate this, the Corinthians were greatly influenced by the dominant philosophy of that time of that which had shaped and influenced that culture for ages really. The platonic influences. There saw the world as either good and spiritual or as evil, and material, right, that was the dichotomy. And that was it and they developed a system of getting away from the evil, as they saw it from the physical and the ultimate accomplishment of that was to be freed from the physical body from the prison house of the soul, as they refer to it as, and they were indeed weird vest vestiges of this not only remnants but strong influence of this today in the thinking of our culture. Right, it’s it’s certainly true in psychology. It’s dominant in science fiction and New Age spirituality. They’re all full of this stuff. But it was Plato, the philosopher and then later it’s been developed by others. In our passage, this morning. Paul has been battling with this. And this is a good place to remember that these things are not innocuous right they are not indifferent. They mean something what we think. Right, our beliefs, they affect the way that we think about all things including how we think and how we view. God and God’s creation. And they also impact the way that we look at the future. And the way that we think and live here and now. And we will actually appreciate God’s creation and grow in our excitement about the future are our future bodies, the better that we understand what they will be like, we will grow in our understanding and excitement for God’s Word to us, will have meaning when he says things like walk not according to the flesh. But according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on things of the flesh. But those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. And like, When it says that your minds on things above, right, understanding these things better help us to be who we are. It’s another way of saying, see who you are. Know Be who you are. Who are you, why are you here Christian were one who has already possesses the downpayment of the resurrection, your redemption is not yet finished your salvation will be completed only on the last day when Christ who is your life appears, and you were made like him, glorious day indeed. The day of your earthly death is not the day of completion for your salvation. The day of your death is the time when your body goes into the ground and your soul goes to be with the Lord. But that’s not yet the completion of all things, we await the day when the body and the soul come together again. They follow Christ the first fruits, as the harvest that great resurrection harvest. But when that happens, what will the body be like. That is the question. There’s a question in the text How are the dead raised with what kind of body do they come. And so it’s a rhetorical question, which Paul goes on in our passage to answer. Paul says that the resurrection body. Well, first it will be the same and different from the body we have now, there will be continuity, and there’ll be discontinuity with your current body. It will be similar. And this similar. Right. And again, look how Paul starts with what he says in verse 36. He says, You foolish person. What do you so does not come to life unless it dies. Right. And so Paul answers the question he posed with this harsh response. It is a harsh response right a few English translated versions translate that word by how foolish or what a foolish question, but those are not really very good translation because those remove the punch of the harshness that’s very much there in the text, they soften it, but it should be harsh, it should be hard. It’s intended that way from Paul right the word that what he says there is nonsensical or ignorant or ignoramus or unwise right the word means to lack prudence or good judgment. Foolish or ignorant. Paul’s calling them a name here. And that’s okay. Paul’s not being malicious in doing so, he loves these people. He’s being accurate he’s being honest here from the lips of Jesus, our Lord Himself saying things like, You brood of vipers, right in the same way there’s no malice there, it’s accurate. As we think about this. When Paul says this to them. How would this sound to the Corinthians. Right, how would they have heard this it would have jarred them. Because the last thing they want it to be was unwise. Paul knows the culture, he is writing to, and he knows that they should not be thinking like the world. And so he arrests their attention, and he says that they are unwise when they think like the world. He says they’re being the opposite of intellectual or wise or full of knowledge, and he goes on to appeal to God’s creation. To give an illusion for them in verses 37 and 38. He says in what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bear kernel, perhaps of wheat or some other grain. The God gives it a body as he has chosen into each kind of seed, its own body. Right, so this is an illustration, and if you raised in the city, not on the form, we know these things right and we all as little children learn of this strange event that takes place where you take you put these little things into the ground or in a pot. And after a time with water and light. Something grows up out of the ground where you put those little things right there little seeds placed in the ground. When it’s time is up, up, come the tomatoes or the squash or whatever it might be. Right, we may be tempted to think, Oh, well this jam the whole tomato into the ground and covered up and more, no more tomatoes will grow. But you don’t you just have to put a little, little seed in, and the seed is transformed into a plant or a fruit. It’s gone from seed to vegetable right the seed is a tomato seed. It is not the same as substance, but it is not the tomato. There was a transformation from seed to fruit or vegetable. And Paul saying that it’s similar with your body now, you are not going to be like a ghost floating around on the cloud with a harp. Yuck, and how boring, a thought. Another your resurrection body will have a real substance and have real substance, there are sameness and there is difference from your body now to the resurrection body is same, but is different. There is continuity in the resurrection body and that it is not strictly different than the body you have now your soul You see will not go from this hurting and breaking down body that we now have and go into a different body right how do we know that. Well, again, we know that one of the main and obvious ways that we know this is that when Christ was raised his old body was not still there hanging around in the tomb is sold that move from the body that he had had for 33 years with all of its distinct qualities and go into a completely new and different body. No, it was the same body resurrected. Not resuscitated but transformed glorified. There was continuity. Remember two people could recognize Jesus they recognized him right the women the woman that came to the tomb and the disciples they recognized, Jesus, but recall they didn’t recognize him immediately. They were uncertain, their expectations were off. Remember the women who had gone to the tomb. They thought the grave robbers had come and stolen the body of Christ. But then gloriously they realized it was Jesus, there they recognized him. Also remember at the end of the Gospel of Luke and Luke 24. There’s this incident with these two men on the way to mA is that event also shows us that there will be sameness and difference continuity and discontinuity Jesus comes up to these two. And he talks with them over a period of time, and they are telling him about him right there Tyler telling them about Jesus. He said, Don’t you know, are you the only one in the city that doesn’t know what has happened. He has to call them out and beginning with Moses and the prophets says, He explains that the all of the Bible is about him. And it comes time to eat. When Jesus took the bread and blessed it, and broken and he gave it to them and their eyes were open, and they recognized him. And this is what Paul is talking about. You see, he’s saying when you sow a bear kernel, it becomes something else. Right. He says, but God gives it a body as he chose, and to each kind of seed, its own body. So the resurrection body will have continuity sameness with the bodies we have now. But there will be a wonderful discontinuity wonderful difference in this, because this body will be transformed glorified new and new body is created for a new realm, right and that’s what’s next. We see that the resurrection body will be same and different. We also see that the resurrection body will be specially designed, specially designed the new body is designed for the new creation, right, the new heavens in the New Earth that are to come. And it’s hard for us to even grasp or imagine what this will be like, but we must understand. Paul saying here verse 39 when he says, For not all flesh is the same, he’s drawing our attention back to Genesis chapter one, and that’s why we read that earlier. He says for not all flesh is the same but there was one kind for humans. Another for animals, another for birds and other fish. They are different, he’s encouraging us to think about what God has done what our good creator has done, we think back to the very beginning, chapter, Genesis chapter one. God has made different types of creatures, each with their own kind of body that was designed for the realm for which they were made you see again on the second day of creation, God separates the sky and the water. And then on the corresponding day day five got filled those realms with birds and with fish respectively. And then on the third day God made the dry land appear out of the water. And on day six he made the land animals. Right realms and creatures made specifically to inhabit each unique realm. God creates, and God orders. Right, as he creates. It says the earth was formless and void. God answers that formless and void, informing and filling. He is a God of order. And so it’s natural that we would expect this kind of thing. These are unusual things. There are unusual things on God’s great globe, where we don’t see fish flying around and filling the sky and we don’t see birds making nests on the sea floor. So what is with the resurrection of the dead. Again that beginning question that he posits that we ask and we reflect upon what is my resurrected body going to be like, and he tells us here is going to be a body specifically designed for the New Earth for glory. It is not simply an updated version of your current body, it will be much, much more than that, it will be made for heaven. It is designed for the new glorified earth it will not just be a better, healthier you will not simply be an extreme makeover. The version that you have now thinking of the resurrection in that way is so so superficial and weak, the resurrection of the body is something much, much more is designed for the realm, with which God will bless us. I remember when I was a little kid. One of my older brothers and his friends were into drag racing. And they worked on this little truck that had a very big engine in it. And in its realm, the drag strip was very effective very effective. But if they drove it on the street. It was awful. It stalled all the time the tires weren’t right for the regular Street. And I couldn’t understand as a young boy, why this was. Why does it stall. Why do you always have to keep the engine rev so high. Why was it so clunky on the street. If it’s awesome should it be awesome everywhere. But my brother taught me that the idol had to be high in the tires had to be the right ones and on and on, because they had designed it for the dragstrip, not the city street in its realm. It was great. But out of its realm, not so much. Both were made for transportation right there the regular car and then this car made for the dragstrip. But you can see the difference in design and effectiveness, depending on where they were made for. It’s the same with our bodies, they will be transformed for the new realm of the new heavens and the new earth. And Paul shows us some of the connection. In Romans where he speaks of the glory that is to be revealed. Romans eight verse 22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation but we ourselves who have the first fruits of the Spirit grown inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies for in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope for who hopes for what he sees. But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. We will still be finite, even in our resurrected bodies, we will be human beings that are limited, needing to eat work and laugh and enjoy life in ways that we can’t even begin to imagine our new bodies right same, but new different created for the new realm greater grander brothers and sisters in this time, Especially this new pestilence, that is upon the world. What a wonderful thing to remember. What a wonderful promise to reflect upon to meditate upon. At this time, whatever ailment or sickness or suffering that we endure, or that we have endured for many many many years whether old or new. Brothers and sisters, you will be made new will be made new. What it will be is something that I has not seen, nor ear heard, or it’s entered into the mind of man what God has prepared for you. We hope for that new age, we long for it. Part of that aching and longing that we feel is that we longed to be in our new bodies. Yes, but more we longed to be with Jesus. We want to be in glory, free from suffering and from Satan and for sand from sin, for good. And we long for them because we have the downpayment of them, given to us in person to the Holy Spirit. And God has sent into our hearts is showing us of our salvation, giving us those longings for the age to come. Do you long, an ache for this. How long wars. How long until we see Jesus. How long until all of my sitting in all of my pain all my suffering and all of it. How long until it is all over and I am with you. You’re Christian we long for these things in our hearts jump within us when we think of heaven. We think of glory. Before the face of God. And when we think of all the things that occupy our concerns and fear and disappointments, in our hearts and out in the world. They’ve all been going on for year after year after year. But we know this for certain. We know that the future has been, it has intruded in time, it isn’t true the future has come in and treated now in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And the Spirit has been given to us. So we who live in this present age. We have a heart and a mind that is lifted up to heaven set on things above. Of course we have, as it were, dual citizenship. Right. We are here for a reason. We are to love our neighbor. We’re to be Christ to our neighbor, we are to love the Lord we are to seek to bring him glory and honor and worship him. But ultimately brothers and sisters. Our hope is not here is not here at the year the years roll on and on and on. And all the brokenness and hurt and sickness. It will come and it will come and it will come again. But praise God or hope is not here. Our hope is beyond your Christian. And we have a resurrection body promised to us, that’s designed for that glorious realm. This is part of what the Holy Spirit is sent into our hearts to do too long for that. Now verse 43. It is raised in dishonor. It has raised, it is sown in dishonor it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness. It is raised in power. It is sown in natural body it is raised the spiritual body, if there is a spiritual body. There also is there’s a natural body there is also a spiritual body. We have to be careful when we read this, not to read spiritual as immaterial. That is not what Paul’s saying he’s not saying that it’s raised an immaterial body No, we are to see the contrast that he is making in between the natural and the spiritual. He’s not talking about physical and non physical. How do we know that. Well, we know that because Christ was raised physically. The resurrection body is the spiritual body, what Paul is contrasting here is the soul, or natural body with the spiritual body, and a different body one that is designed for the realm to come. And he continues in verse 45. With this amazing statement right that resurrection body will be the same but different. It will be designed for the new realm. And then lastly, the resurrection body will be what God designed from start for it to be. One of the mistakes that is often made when we think about glory is to think back to the garden. Right there was that popular song, either really, really awful song or a fun song depending on your preference and music and the time you were raised but back in the 60s, and it looks more like this and said, we’ve got to get back to the garden. Right. It was getting back to the garden that’s what we need to do. But that’s all wrong. We don’t want to go back to the garden. We want what was designed beyond the garden. Because it’s it’s wrong to think that if Adam and Eve would have just never sinned, that they would have just hung out in perpetuity in the garden, And that nothing would have changed. actuality, there was something rater prepared for Adam, for the human race. And we see that this was symbolized by the tree of life. Right this earth that God had made good it was to be glorified it was to be made even better. Adams created and he must be obedience heaven must be earned, and God enters into covenant with Adam. And if Adam is obedience. Right. And he earned. As per the covenant. He will bring all of those whom he represents into that new realm of glorified earth that hadn’t failed. But by God’s grace. Your Christian. Heaven is earned. Because Christ prevailed he kept the covenants that Adam failed to keep in at the end of redemptive history right what do we see we see the reappearance in Revelation 22 of what’s the tree of life. There’s no going back to the garden. Back to probation. It’s not what we want. That probation has been kept Heaven has been around for you by Jesus if you were his. If he represents you if you are in him, your redemption is beyond probation, beyond the garden. Heaven is not a second garden. It is a whole new realm. It is creation greater. It isn’t is over creation, as it were, its creation glorified. Notice here how Paul as he goes on in quotes Genesis two, or seven. First Corinthians 1545. Paul quotes Genesis and he says this. That’s it is written, the first man Adam became a living being. The last Adam became a life giving spirit. There are of course a number of implications we can draw from this passage. Notice that he’s speaking. This is speaking of Adam before he fell right before the fall, pre fall. Adam is good he’s created Good god breeze, the breath of life into him the first man Adam became a living being. nephesh ha, and Hebrew and Paul’s making the point that this first Adam, he became a singer. The last album became one. A life giving spirit. One was given life. The other gives life is the giver of life, but one of the main emphasis here was that Adam was made good. He was made good, a good living being. First Adam wants to move on to something more. There was something more that Adam was designed to move on to, again, the goal was not just to pass the probation. And then just stay put in the garden. The goal was rather to keep covenants, and to earn the right to eat from the tree of life, and to bring all of creation into its graduated glorified eschatological existence. That is the goal, ultimately for which God created us. And that is Jesus. He is the one who accomplished all of this on our behalf, because Adam failed to do so. Christ is the one who came to be our probation pastor or penalty pay or right both of those are needed. Christ accomplish both of them. And his resurrection is the testimony and the evidence that our resurrection body or resurrected body was the goal for mankind from the beginning. But we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory that God intended for us. So when we read in Romans eight of the glory that God prepared for us. We can barely begin to imagine the sufferings. And the sickness of it all, and all of this that we endure in this present age, they’re not worthy comparing to the glory, for which we were made. What Paul say in Colossians three said, When Christ who is your life appears. Then you will appear with Him in glory in glory you see where Adam failed, Christ prevailed Christ came and he accomplished what Adam failed to do. And so now what right Philippians three says our citizenship is in heaven. In from it. We await a Savior, the Lord Jesus, who will what who will transform our lowly bodies to be like his glorious body. But the power that enables him even to subject, all things to himself. Christ is the first fruits. The harvest is coming in our resurrection will be like his, it will be a body like the Lord’s. Can you begin to see how and why this is important to us. Now in this life. Right Christ raise 2000 years ago, in the spirit has been sent into our hearts. And we were being brought forth through this life to what, to the glory. The new heavens and a new earth, the realm of the Spirit of the Living God that place. We’re in only righteousness dwells in all of creation will never again be subject to evil or suffering or sin or decay or sorrow. If you are Christ’s. You have a time appointed for you. Where your body will be transformed. It’s when Christ who is your life appears, knowing that that will happen, then it impacts our lives now knowing that this is the goal. So you see Dear Christian. They aren’t just platitudes or cliches. When the Bible speaks of things like walking in the spirits or walking in newness of life, they’re speaking of the reality of who you are. And her child say recently to emphasize the realness of something. He said this is for real for real. Right, that’s who you are. Right. Raised in glory already not yet consummated, but that’s who you are, for real for real. And the reality of who you are, and what you’ll certainly, certainly have in the future, it causes you to live with hope. Brothers and sisters, it gives you hope and it gives you the big picture of this world, in all of history, so you can live your lives with the right perspective, and for your chief and to glorify God and to joy enjoy him forever. Knowing the certainty resurrected bodies in glory, also gives you a correct view of God’s creation. And it makes you see that your bodies now are the temple of the Holy Spirit in one day they will be transformed. Because they belong to the Lord. You’re Christian you were part of that new creation, right now. And right now, we tune our hearts to the music of the age to come. Even now, it’s part of what we do for all of our lives we have a particular means of grace, when we pray we read God’s word and transforms us, and it tunes, our ears to hear that glorious music of the heavenly city to which we belong. And why wouldn’t we do this, we were made for it. Not for this present evil age that will pass with fire. Oh dear friends let us lift our eyes and hearts. Let us set our minds on things above, let us look away from ourselves away from our own sinful hearts are one in instability. Around suffering, our own confused staggering perspective. Let’s look away from ourselves and to the risen and exalted king in Lord Jesus, who is our life. Man, we more and more recognize and believe that we are united to him. Now and forever. Amen.