1 Corinthians 15b-16

Intro

Why do you have hope, and what is your hope?

“Art is long, and Time is fleeting, And our hearts, though stout and brave, Still, like muffled drums, are beating Funeral marches to the grave.” -Longfellow

 And our hearts, though stout and brave, Still, like muffled drums, are beating Funeral marches to the grave.

Eastern Legend about death:

Still, like muffled drums, are beating

A certain merchant was walking through the famous marketplace of Baghdad when he saw stranger looking at him in surprise, and he knew that the stranger was death. In terror the merchant fled the market and travelled many, many miles to the city of Samara, certain he would be safe. But when at last he arrived at Samara, he saw waiting for him the grim figure of Death.

   Funeral marches to the grave.

“Very well,” said the merchant “I give in, I am yours. But tell me, why did you looked surprised when you saw me this morning in Baghdad?” “Because,” said Death, “I had an appointment with you tonight, in Samara.”

Our passage today so eloquently and powerfully expressing the reality of the believer’s hope, that it has been featured in the third part of Handel’s masterpiece the Messiah, and by Brahms in his Requiem.

We Shall Be Changed

Our resurrection, while bodily, will not be the same body

the body that perishes is corruptible and has been corrupted

the body that rises will be incorruptible

Why is this change necessary? Why will we not simply rise in our current bodies?

Greek philosophers believed the physical was evil, and the spirit or the “forms” were the perfect

yet this cannot be the case…who created the physical world, and who pronounced it good?

therefore any slight as to the inherent imperfection of the physical is ultimately an insult to its creator.

so again, why?

because the physical world, while not inherently evil, has been pervasively corrupted.

it is readily apparent to all that our earthly bodies are not fit for heavenly eternal life

As the poet Binyon commemorated the fallen in WWI

“They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old. Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.”

in these bodies we age, we stiffen, we grow frail, we sicken, we die

our future bodies we will inhabit for life eternal, without any of the failure of our current bodies

The glorious reality of the new heaven and earth will not be a mixed-matched, hodge podge between the new world and the old—it shall not be new wine with old wineskins—God will make all things new!

those living will rise and those who have died will rise, and all will be changed

1 Thessalonians 4:17 ESV

Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.

1 Thessalonians 4:16–17 ESV

For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.

“moment” Greek “atomos” means indivisible, shortest possible

Victory over Death Secured

Have you ever thought you were going to die? Have you ever been afraid to die?

So many people live in real and constant fear of death

and if you are not a believer…why not? death would be terrifying

But Paul speaks of this coming resurrection as the consummation of the swallowing of death in victory

sting of death is sin—without the penalty for sin, death is just the passing out of temporal life into eternal life, it is sin and its judgement that makes death so fearsome

moreover, the power of sin is the law!

All this attained through our union with Christ’s resurrection!

1 Peter 1:3 ESV

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

Living in Light of the End

How does the reality of our victory over death change the way in which you live today?

How are we to respond to those still living in fear under the shadow of death?

John Harper

http://www.bpnews.net/37601/as-titanic-sank-he-pleaded-believe-in-the-lord-jesus

we are to be steadfast, immovable, abounding in the work of the Lord