Sermon Tone Analysis

I CORIN.

15:35-49

 

           I.

The Proof For The New Body

              A.

Our resurrection body will have continuity.

B.

Our resurrection body will have adaptability.

C.

Our resurrection body will have individuality.

II.

The Perfection Of The New Body

 

         III.

The Purpose Of The New Body

 

 

     Centuries ago Job asked the question, If a man die shall he live again?

That is a question which has engaged the minds of men from his day until ours; all of us are interested in the subject, Is there going to be life after death?

Now there were some in the days of the apostle Paul who said absolutely not, there is not going to be any resurrection of the body.

There are those in our day who say that the resurrection of the body is absurd, that it is impossible, that it cannot occur.

The Greeks in the time of the apostle Paul had gathered the immortality of the soul; it was commonly believed that the soul of man was immortal and that it would live on and on and on but the concept of a resurrection of the body was beyond their power to comprehend.

Now the Bible teaches the resurrection.

The very word “resurrection” suggests a resurrection of the body.

It’s really made up of two words, the Greek word which means to stand, and a preposition which means again, so

resurrection means to stand again.

And contrary to man of the religions of the world he Christian faith teaches that the believer is one of these days going to experience a resurrection of the body.

Now in verse 35 Paul raises two great questions.

Question number one: How are the dead raised up? and then question number two: With what body do they come?

Now all of us are interested in these two questions; whether you are aware or not you are interested in these questions, you are interested in questions that have to do with the resurrection of the body.

There may be those of you who have lost loved ones, you’re very interested in this question; you have experienced the loss of loved ones and how heart-rending and how grievous it is.

Some of you, the last time you saw that loved one their body was covered with cancer and the last view you had of that body was a body covered with disease.

There are others of you in this building and your loved one’s body was smashed beyond recognition in an accident, so you are very interested in this question, Will I know my loved ones, will I see my loved ones again?

And then of course it gets very personal to all of us because we know that sooner or later, unless Jesus comes, we’re going to die, we’re going to experience decay, our body is going to be placed in a grave somewhere and so we are very interested in the question, How are the dead raised?

and with what body will they come?

So that’s the theme of the rest of the verses we’re going to study tonight, and in these verses Paul builds the case with devastating logic for the new body of the child of God.

Ladies and gentlemen, one of these days, if you’re saved, if you know Christ in the forgiveness of sin, you’re going to have a brand new body.

First of all I want to call your attention to the proof for the new body.

Paul goes to the world of nature and using analogies from the world of nature he proves that the believer will have a new body.

For instance in verses 36 and 37 you will notice that he goes to the world of botany and from the world of botany, plant life, he shows us that the new body is going to have continuity.

Now what he’s doing here, and I wish I had a seed that I could hold up in front of you (use your imagination for a moment and just pretend that I have a seed in my hand), Paul is just raising that seed to our mind and he’s saying think for a moment what happens to a seed.

He says this seed has got to die, it cannot bring forth life unless it dies.

That’s what he teaches in verse 36.

Well Jesus said the same thing in John chapter 12 and in verse 24, Jesus said, Except a grain of wheat fall in the ground it abideth alone but, He said, if it fall into the ground and die it brings forth much fruit.

So what happens to a seed?

You have a wheat seed, let’s say, you drop that wheat seed into the ground, it goes through a process of decomposition and disintegration, and then out of that seed there comes a plant, out of that seed there comes new life.

Out of the death of the seed there is the life of the plant.

So Paul is saying we know from the world of nature that there is going to be a resurrection body of the believer.

You see, every time we see an acorn buried in the soil and from that soil a mighty tree appear, it is God’s message to us from the world of nature that there’s going to be a resurrection of the body.

Now this new body is going to have continuity, it’s going to be the same and yet it’s going to be different; it’s going to be different and yet it is going to be the same.

When you bury a wheat seed you will get a wheat plant; it will always reproduce after its kind, it will always have continuity.

And, you see, that is exactly the way it’s going to be with our resurrection body.

You know, they actually tell men that we’re dying all the time, that our cells are constantly dying and new cells are being made in their place.

In fact I’m told that about every three years you have a total turnover in your cells, that every three years every cell in your body has died and new cells have replaced them, and yet you are recognizable.

Three years from now we’ll still recognize that that’s you; five years from now, ten years from now we will still recognize it is you and yet a process of death and life is going on all the time.

Well that’s what Paul is teaching is going to happen.

Paul is saying there is going to be continuity, there is going to be something that is going to be recognizable.

In other words one of these days Jerry Vines is going to die and my body is going to be buried in a grave, and then in the resurrection Jerry Vines is going to rise again from the dead, there will be continuity, I will be the same individual, I will be the same person.

Now you say how in the world can that occur?

Well you will notice in verse 38 he answers the question because he says God gives it a body as it has pleased Him, and to every seed his own body.

Now what Paul is pleading here is the power of God.

From a human perspective this is impossible but from a divine perspective all things are possible.

You see, you always have to be aware of what your presuppositions are.

You will always determine what you believe about a matter according to your presuppositions.

You see, I start with a very basic presupposition, I start from the viewpoint that there is a God who is all-powerful, all-knowing, who created this universe and is in charge of this universe.

Now if this all-powerful God was able to create our body in the first place, well then, friends, I’ve got news for you, He can create our new body in the second place.

It resides in the power of God.

So from the world of botany we learn that the resurrection body is going to have continuity.

It will be different and yet it will be the same.

Now in verse 39 he moves to the world of zoology and he takes us out to the zoo and he tells us that there is a difference in kinds of flesh.

He says in verse 39 all flesh is not the same flesh.

And of course we know that to be true.

We know that every species has its own particular makeup, that the DNA of every particular species is different from any other.

You see, when you’re born you get it all in a package.

In your DNA everything about you has already been predetermined and you don’t have to wonder what you’re going to ultimately become.

If you’re born a man you’re going to be a man all your life, you’re not going to be born a man and then seven years later be a 7-pound bass, you’re always going to stay the same.

All flesh is not the same flesh, but every flesh has its own identity.

So he says there is one flesh of men, another of beasts, another of fish, and another of birds.

You see, the flesh of a beast makes it adaptable to its environment of caves.

Or the flesh of a fish is adaptable to water.

The flesh of a bird is adaptable to the air.

And the flesh of a human being is adaptable to civilization.

Now his point is this: that our resurrection body is going to have adaptability.

Now one of these days this old world is going to be over.

God has given us a body that is adaptable to this world, this physical world we know.

We live in this world, we comprehend this world, we relate to this world by means of our physical senses.

We see and we hear and we touch and we taste and we smell, we relate to this world on the basis of the kind of flesh that God has given to us.

But, you see, God has promised us another world; God has promised that He has prepared for us a wonderful place called heaven.

You see, Jesus said, I go to prepare a place for you.

And He’s been up there two thousand years.

You think about it.

Now some of you builders do a pretty good job in six months, nine months, you can build a magnificent house, but you think about our Savior the Lord Jesus Christ, the great Carpenter himself, and for two thousand years now He’s been building heaven for us.

Oh, friends, it’s going to be a wonderful place.

But the resurrection teaches that our body will have adaptability, this resurrection body will be adaptable, it will be suited for the environment of heaven.

Now I don’t know all that entails, I don’t have to know it all to enjoy it all, I just praise God that when I get to heaven I’m going to be perfectly adapted to my heavenly environment.

So from the world of botany we learn that the new body is going to have continuity, from the world of zoology we learn that the new body is going to have adaptability.

But then he takes us up into outer space and he moves us into the realm of astronomy and in the realm of astronomy he shows us that the new body is going to have individuality.

Now what he’s trying to point our here by his reference to the sun and the moon and the stars, and that each of them have their own glory, is that each one of them has a different arrangement of matter, that each on of them is made up of a different arrangement of matter.

For instance the sun’s surface is covered with gases, the moons surface is covered with titanium.

You know those home movie screens we used to have and on those movie screens they had that shiny glittering stuff?

That’s titanium.

And when our first astronauts stepped on the moon they discovered that the dust on the surface of the moon was titanium.

You know why? Titanium is a perfect reflector.

Now that’s exactly what God said the moon was intended to be.