The Resurrection: Imperishable and Perishable. 15:35-58

Introduction

Good morning church and turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. We will be continuing our sermons over the resurrection of the dead starting today in verse 35.

When I was a kid I became a little bit fascinated with how things worked. Not electronics because I was convinced there was some magic involved in that stuff somewhere. I mean you shoot electricity through copper wires and somehow it becomes a picture on a screen! That is magic or crazy but I had made up my mind that it was outside of explanation. However, small things seemed pretty cool.

I remember one year for Christmas my dad got me a flashlight that had like 20 different functional lights on it. A spotlight, a flood light, flashers of like 5 different colors. It opened up and became a lantern, and even had a function where it would mimic a candle. It was from China, so you know it had to be good, or so my 9 year old brain reasoned.

Anyway it was about 36 hours before the functions started dying off one by one. I replaced batteries, I blew in it (a holdover trick I learned from our NES system) and finally I had had enough. I went to get my dad’s screwdrivers and I took the thing apart. From the wires to the holders, to the springs, and bulbs I had the entire thing down to individual pieces. There had to be about 100 of them all spread crossed my floor when I realized one key fact that I had failed to think of. It only helps to take something apart if you can remember how to put it back together. Every time I tried, I would have left over parts. Less and less of the flashlight would work. Then I’d undo it again, try again, now this wouldn’t work. I finally decided I would start from square one and go back to nothing again. About that time my sister beth ran through my room and accidently kicked all of the screws, springs, wires and bulbs all over the floor, down the stairwell and all we could do was cringe as we heart the baubles skittering into the either, never to be seen again.

Tension

What about you? Do you ever wonder at how things work? Like what makes them tick? I love some of the turn of the century farm equipment which was designed out of a man’s head in some the most ingenious ways that I would never think of. This lever, pops this valve which triggers this fulcrum to pop this band. It’s wild. I love seeing things like that but I noticed that my sisters didn’t really care. They’d flip the switch and if the light didn’t come on they’d exclaim, “Dad the light isn’t working” and go on along their way. I’d want to know how and why.

In today’s passage Paul seeks to answer some questions the people had about the resurrection. Why? Well because they had no experience with one. Dead people stay dead before Jesus, that is. They had questions and Paul sought to explain it in a way they could get their minds around. So let’s pray and then we will get into it.

Pray

Exposition

1 Corinthians 15:35–58 (ESV)

Broken Physical Bodies are transformed to redeemed Spiritual Bodies. vs 35-49

35 But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?”

36 You foolish person! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies.

37 And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain.

38 But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body.

39 For not all flesh is the same, but there is one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish.

Nature of Physical bodies. vs. 35-39

Paul deals here with the chatter of the faithful fools in the church. He out-rightly calls them foolish, perhaps because they were letting their imaginations get carried away in their explanations but he quickly ties the confusion to something that was concretely understood by people even though it wasn’t.

He likens our physical bodes to that of a kernel or seed. At this point all of us flash back to 3rd and 4th grade when we got to take a been, wrap it in a wet paper towel, and put it in zippy and put it up in the window seal. Anyone else here do this little miracle. Those first couple days you came into the class hoping to see your bean shooting straight up and to great disappointment, it didn’t. You forgot about it because of this lack of effort, and eventually after a couple weeks, you’d see that little vine poking its head up out of the paper towel. At that point, you had never been so proud of a thing you’d accomplished in your entire life. You had created life. You were the best gardener that ever lived. Your bean sprout was so much better than everyone else’s because it was yours.

Paul pulls up this picture in their minds because everyone knew that when you dropped a seed in the ground, it would become a plant. Yet a see and the plant that it would become were so crazy different. The seed wasn’t the plant and the plant wasn’t contained in that little container either. Yet, poof, out pops this plant in a sort of mini-miracle.

He also reminds that out of a wheat seed you wouldn’t see a apple tree sprout just as out of human body you wouldn’t see an animal life sprout. Sorry reincarnation. You won’t become a turtle, or a crow, or a bass.

Instead the specialness of humanity in creation will be carried over to their new spiritual blooming after the seed takes hold.

40 There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is of one kind, and the glory of the earthly is of another.

41 There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory.

42 So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable.

43 It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power.

44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.

45 Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit.

46 But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual.

47 The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven.

48 As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven.

49 Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.

The nature of the Spiritual body vs 40-49

Paul starts by using 40-42 to describe the nature of our old bodies versus the nature of the new. The concept of glory here is employed to help us get the difference. One body is fully plunged in the frailty and dirt of the earth. It carries with it the weaknesses of mortality and brokenness of sin within it. That earthly body is worth of some sort of recognition and glory as it is but isn’t in the same league with the body to come. It will not be marred by sin, by brokenness, by cognitive decline, and as such carries a higher status worthy of greater glory.

I had a 85 Volkswagen golf that looked like a tick with wheels. If you sneezed too hard you’d pop a bolt off somewhere. I upgraded to a 95 ford tempo that had a really good stereo in it which was great because you needed to play it loud so you couldn’t hear the knock in the engine from the broken motor mount. They weren’t even close to being worthy of being compared to having a truck where all the buttons and switches work. Granted, I’ve never had one because even my truck now dings at me for a phantom tire pressure issue, the back door is always ajar (or so it claims) and my lights don’t go off until about 30 minutes after I leave the truck. When you buy a 13000 truck for 8500 and talk him down to 7 with barely any effort, ask questions.

Paul is saying here that our bodies are works of God’s craftsmanship and beautiful but the new to come isn’t in the same category because, just like a seed is the kernel of the coming plant, the transformation from kernel to tree is so huge they aren’t in the same category.

that body is marked by dishonor and weakness but will be raised/resurrected in glory and power. Sign me up for that. My knee sounds like bubble wrap every-time I get up from the floor, I’ll take some of that resurrected body please.

And at the end, Paul compares and contrasts the old man stuck in Adam and the new man to come that will be borne in the likeness and power of the new Adam, Christ.

Adam was a physically alive being but Jesus will bring spiritual life.

Adam was a natural man, limited by his own frailty but Christ is supernatural, limited by nothing.

Adam was a man of dust, made from the earth where Christ is a man of heaven, not made at all. Btw this might be, ladies, why your husband is okay with a certain amount of dust and dirt and you are not. He’s just reverting to his natural state.

then things change. We are explained too that we live duel lives. We too, like Adam our physical and spiritual father who led us into humanities sin and curse, are men and women of the dust. But, but, but, we are too like our Spiritual Father and redeemer, Jesus Christ. We will live heavenly, redeemed and restored lives that reflect spiritual renewal.

In essence we look like our dad. Both Adam in our sin and Christ in our resurrection.

The coming of Christ will be sudden, transformative, victorious, and final. vs 50-58

50 I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.

51 Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,

52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.

Jesus’ second coming vs. 50-52. Paul explains that it is actually for our own good to die. For the perishable seed is put into the ground but what grows out of its death is imperishable. It won’t die. Death loses its grip entire. Now the reality outlined in verse 51 is that when Christ comes there will be those that have died and gone before, planted like seeds in the ground and some that will not have yet tasted death. Either way, this change from perishable to imperishable, physical to spiritual, finite to eternal will happen to all people.

then some of the scariest and sobering words ever serve as the banner for the coming of the Lord. “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye”. those are both things that happen instantly and without warning. This impresses on believer and non-believer alike the reality. You can’t know when this is going to happen. Revelation 16:15

Revelation 16:15 (ESV)

15 (“Behold, I am coming like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays awake, keeping his garments on, that he may not go about naked and be seen exposed!”)

In essence you won’t be able to pencil in these dates on your schedule. You won’t know when, where, or how this will happen. For the believer, it makes us realize that we need to live our lives every moment as if today, this hour, this moment could be the day the trumpet sounds. On that day you won’t be thinking about how you had plans this weekend or didn’t get to finish your show. You won’t be worried about your upcoming trip or paying the bills. It will only be about Jesus and what you did with him. Did you share him? Did you tell his wonderful news to those in your path? did you think you had more time? For the unbeliever or the one who thought they had more time to get around to it, it will be too late. Inside of that twinkling of the eye your choice will have been made by the lack of seriousness you took the Lord’s offer with. Salvation was available, you just left it in the box, hoping one day to open it.

Yet, in the context of this passage, the resurrection will be called into action. The dead in Christ will take hold of a new body formed in the will and restoration of Christ. I am convinced on my best day with littlest pain I’ve ever had in my life, in my body, that I will not know how to even comprehend how it feels in the new. Its got to be akin to becoming a super hero or something like the movies portray, Toby McGuire getting up the morning after the spider bite and not needing glasses, being super strong, feeling better than he ever has. And btw, Toby McGuire will always be the real spider man, Tom Holland is a farce, sorry gen Z weirdos.

Paul gives more depth...

53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.

54 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”

Here, the reality is brought to the forefront. We, in our broken and natural bodies will need to put on immortality in order to fit and ready for the life ahead.

Years ago I watched a movie about Steve Prefontaine, a runner in the 1972 Olympics. Its funny the things you remember from when you were a kid but I will never forget a secondary character, Bill Bowerman, in that movie played by “gunny” R. Lee Ermey, who coached him. He also so happened to be a co-founder of Nike. He would get out on the track with some rubber and his wife’s waffle-iron and melt new souls for the runners shoes because the mass produced ones hurt and didn’t fit right. However, every shoe he made was custom to the runner and never survived one race. They’d fall apart right after, bursting at the seems. He couldn’t figure out how to make them last.

I think about that in this situation. Our bodies are not fit for eternity. They are shoes for sprinting not endurance. That is why they are all falling apart. The good news is that they weren’t meant to last forever, just be replaced by eternal ones.

And when that happens “Death will finally lose because it will be swallowed up in Christ’s victory.

55 “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”

56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.

57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

58 Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

The nature of our resurrected and redeemed lives. vs 53-58.

Paul’s tone changes from one of explanation and teaching to one of taunting what used to feel like an insurmountable enemy, now rendered a harmless puppy.

Isaiah 25:8 (ESV)

8 He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken.

Hosea 13:14 (ESV)

14 I shall ransom them from the power of Sheol; I shall redeem them from Death. O Death, where are your plagues? O Sheol, where is your sting? Compassion is hidden from my eyes.

Because of Jesus, death is over. The apparent wins of Satan in the garden, at Golgotha, are reversed on the cross and vindicated in the Resurrection of Christ. Paul, knowing this, understanding this, now mocks sin, death, and hell. Their power has been neutered and they have no say any longer. For those in Christ even our own physical death doesn’t win over us. It is simply allowed to make way for the promise Christ holds out. The perishable makes way for the imperishable. The broken for the perfect. The sinful for the redeemed. The temporary for the eternal.

Landing

The church had questions and Paul didn’t give the play by play. I know, we really would like the play by play. when you tell a kid that Jesus wants to live inside their heart their minds clunk into gear. “Where will he live? How will he get in there? What will he eat.” Their brains can’t make sense of the information as they seek to make it make sense. This is the same way with us. We want to know if we will keep our appearance? Will we care at all? Will I be the same height or is my shortness a part of the fall? Will I look as I did when I died or will we all be 25? Will I be in athletic shape or just as I remember myself? Its funny the places our minds go. But Paul tells us what we need to know here. Your own limits will find their match in Christ’s promise. You’ll be made new so that even death has to bow to his authority. You will taste and see a new life, a new body, a new satisfaction that isn’t available to you now and that you don’t have room for in your mind to properly comprehend.

That is, if you are in Christ. So, here we come to my talk I must have with us this morning. “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.” This sobering reality must be heeded and paid attention too. You don’t have forever and you’re definitely not guarenteed tomorrow. None of us is. You must accept the reality of this and get serious about your relationship with Christ. I know many say they don’t like the scare people into salvation or to use Hell to drum up feelings, I find myself in that category too, but this passage is clearly a promise with a warning. No fear-mongering, no manipulation, no preasuring from me at all. But I care too much to not say something. I want all of you to take hold of this new life, this new body, this promise. And if you’ve not accepted Christ, you will not. And the time will happen in a time and manner that you cannot prepare for. So be ready. Take hold of the promise of the gospel. Put all of your faith, hope, and trust into Jesus and his death on the cross. Repent of your sin and live the redemption he’s given to you. Take hold of that resurrection and see what God can do in your life. I made that decision when I was 15 and have never gotten over it. It’s still what informs my life, my marriage, my family, and my future.

Will it be your story too?