One Life Live It?
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Claim: Christ resurection secures ours by defeating sin and death and offering us a future, immortal, physical, and sinless body and life with Christ.
Focus: Our resurection is sure and a glorious hope before us.
Function: to motivate believers to stand firm in faith and devote themselves to the work of the Lord. v58
Most of you know I’m a big fan of Land Rovers. Even if I can’t afford to have one in this country.
And anyone how knows Land Rovers will know the owners mantra.
‘One Life Live It’
I’ll take any excuse to have a slide show of my best Landy photos - so
Here are a some from our missionary days..
Make room I’m sitting down this could take a while..
photos of landy with = one life live it
It’s a very appealing tag line.
One Life Live it.
It’s a reminder that life is short, and limited - so get on and enjoy it.
And of course - you can only really enjoy it if you have Land Rover to get you places you’d never get otherwise.
One Life Live it.
It’s also a motto adapted from the Bible - from the verses we ended with last week
end of v32
1 Corinthians 15:32 (NIV (Anglicised, 2011))
If the dead are not raised, ‘Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.’
Eat drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die - it’s like the mantra of my generation.
It’s appealing.
One life live it.
I don’t know what live it means for you. Football, family, career etc.
The problem of course is that the bible is not encouraging this as a motto to live by - but dismissing it.
If this life is all there really is - if death is the end - then by all means says Paul,
One life - Live it!
Buy your Land rover - that’s as good as it gets!
And even that’s not that great.
Photos of broken ladies
But, there is life after death.
There is a resurection to come!
But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him.
For death is not the end - we will be raised to new life - either to face God’s judgement - or -if we repent and believe in the good news and forgiveness of Jesus, who died and rose again for our sins. As a first fruit guaranteeing ours.
In todays passage Paul answers some obvious questions we might have about resurrection.
But someone will ask, ‘How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?’
If there is a resurection - how will it happen - and what will our resurection be like? What will our bodies be like - will we have bodies?
Or just be floating souls?
And once we know all that - what do we do about life now?
One life live it?
Or something else?
One life live it - then live another?
Two lives then - but how?
One life sort of so don’t live this one?
Let’s see what Paul has to say about our resurection And what it means for us now.
1 - Resurrection - It’s Going to Happen! v35-41
1 - Resurrection - It’s Going to Happen! v35-41
It seems impossible that a dead body that is buried and rotted away, or cremated to ashes could rise to anything.
And he uses the example of planting a seed To convince us..
When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else.
The general point is that the seed is nothing like the plant.
You plant this small woody, dead looking thing and you get some kind of extraordinary and beautiful plant.
We see God do this in nature everyday - how can you doubt the resurrection!
Paul’s clearly a little frustrated by the Corinthians ignorance or lack of faith in the resurection of the dead.
It’s why he calls them fools in v36.
Look at the seed - it has to die - by which he probably means has to be buried
- or possibly that it drops off the living plant and dies in the ground.
(He’s not giving a science lesson - but just an illustration.)
But just becasue something dies and is buried - does not mean it cannot raise to something wonderfully different.
And when God is in the mix - well anything can happen
But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body.
God is the creator of this life and the resurection life.
It’s not as if he hasn’t done it all before.
It’s not as if he hasn’t created flesh, and seeds and plants that grow.
And this idea leads Paul to remind them of the creation itself.
Not all flesh is the same: people have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another and fish another. There are also heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; but the splendour of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendour of the earthly bodies is another. The sun has one kind of splendour, the moon another and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendour.
If you’re eaten fish and compared it to eating lamb, then you know how different the flesh of each is.
The moon is different to he Sun,
the stars shine with different intensities and gases and sizes and ages.
There are even heavenly bodies and earthly bodies
- physical beings that exist in the heavenly realm
-right now - angles and heavenly creatures worshipping and serving God Almighty
- Jesus himself of course in his resurrected body.
And also human bodies on earth - different but certain!
God is quite capable of raising flesh from death and into something new!
It’s going to happen!
And secondly:
2 - Resurrection - It’s Going to be (so much) better! v42-49
2 - Resurrection - It’s Going to be (so much) better! v42-49
So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power;
Our perishable bodies - meaning - they will waste away - will be raised imperishable.
They will never waste away - they will remain eternal.
Our dishonourable bodies - that we uses selfishly and sinfully - will be raised in glory!
Our weak bodies will be raised in power!
That means,
Death gone.
Cancer gone,
depression gone,
injury gone
tears gone
pain gone
giving in to temptation gone,
selfishness gone
sin gone
struggling with work -gone
difficult relationships gone
pride gone
We will be raised and our bodies, our lives will be wonderful and glorious and powerful to honour and enjoy God and his goodness and work for all time.
Tiredness replaced with energy,
Struggle replaced with success,
self-interest replaced with a joyous love for Jesus and each other
fear replaced by wonder and joy,
boredom replaced by excitement
loneliness replaced by perfect fellowship with each other and the Lord Jesus in person.
disabilities replaced by fulness and freedom
There will be a continuity in our resurrected bodies - after all a wheat seed does not grow into daffodil.
We will have a continuity - just new and so much better!
Paul now moves from a picture illustration to more of a theological demonstration of how much better our new bodies will be.
it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. So it is written: ‘The first man Adam became a living being’; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit.
He’s not meaning that currently we are physical bodies but then we will be spiritual (IE - bodiless) that would be to undermine his whole point here.
His point is that now we are natural in the sense that we are in the bodily likeness of Adam - the first man, who is like a representative for all humanity -
but once resurrected we will be in the spiritual likeness of Jesus.
in romans Pauls puts it like this:
Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned—
Our natural bodies - are enslaved to sin - therefore face the consequence which is death - which was the consequences of sin given to Adam and all mankind.
That is exactly the reason we need forgiveness and salvation through Jesus.
He was the only man to overcome that enslavement to sin in Adam.
he was - if you like - enslaved to the Holy Spirit and therefore perfect obedience to God the Father.
He did not deserve death, but chose it anyway to take the punishment we deserve!
So in Jesus we are freed from sin, but we do still currently live in our natural bodies that belong to Adam.
But - a new body is coming that will be so much better!
If you like we will fully achieve in our whole body what Christ has already made us spiritually.
Again in Romans - Paul describes it like this.
For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. So I find this law at work: although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?
But our future bodies are not governed by our natural bodies but by spiritual bodies.
We will be enlivened perfectly and fully by the HS to live for Jesus.
As we are in faith now,
but our bodies cannot keep up.
In this life our bodies are natural - flesh and blood - as he say later in v50, meaning - belonging to Adam - to sin.
But in Christ we will be raised Spiritually. or with heavenly bodies - governed perfectly by the HS.
All sin and evil and sadness is left behind in the ground, on the cross of Jesus,
and we are raised in Christ.
And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man.
or to put it another way
I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.
If you’re here today and you have not accepted Jesus as your Lord and saviour for the forgiveness of your sins,
do you hear what is at stake!
There is no inheritance for those who remain in the flesh and blood - who remain in sin.
We need new bodies - enlivened by Jesus and the HS to entre glorious eternity with God!
Elsewhere the bible explains that all will rise to new life - even those who have rejected Jesus,
but that they will go to judgement and hell
- an eternal death for rejecting this incredible and free offer of resurection - of new life, of forgiveness!
But it can all change simply by believin and repentin.
And even our bodies change finally and fully when Jesus returns!
For believers,
The taste of faith and the HS that we know and enjoy now will become a feast of faith,
The taste of Spirutal assurance will become eternal reality
The taste of Jesus we enjoy will become everything to us.
The perishable becomes imperishable
the mortal becomes immortal
Resurrection - It’s going to be so much better!
3 - Resurrection - It’s going to be exciting and glorious! v50-59
3 - Resurrection - It’s going to be exciting and glorious! v50-59
Listen, I tell you a mystery: we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—
He simply means that before this creation comes to an end - while people are still living - Jesus will return to this earth and all will be changed.
Whether we’re long dead and buried - like Paul - or still living - perhaps like us if Christ returns in our life.
All will receive new bodies
1 Thess 4 17 speaks of the living being snatched up into the air with Christ when he returns along with all those who had formerly died!
All are gloriously changed in an instant to our heavenly, new, eternal, imperishable, immortal perfect, better, inevitable bodies.
in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.
For the Christian believer - Jesus’ return will be exciting!
sudden - explosive, loud - the trumpet, instant - done!
When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: ‘Death has been swallowed up in victory.’ ‘Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?’
This is the confidence we have in Christ!
Even death is defeated when Christ returns!
Where is your victory death?
Where is the eternal enslavement to sin and Satan that our natural humanity deserves and promises?
Gone!
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
No longer will we sin - break the law of God,
no longer will we face pain or tears or frustration,
or anguish.
No longer will we be battling our bodies who crave sin,
No longer will death hold any power or fear over us!
No longer will work and relationships be hard.
Our resurection is going to happen,
It’s going to be better,
It’s inevitable for it’s the power of God who will achieve it.
And it’s going to be sudden and exciting and glorious!
One life - live it?
Phur! - forget that.
Paul has very different expectations for believers who will be raised to heavenly bodies.
Don’t eat drink and be merry,
forget one life live it.
He suggests another way..
Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labour in the Lord is not in vain.
How vain,
meaning without success or results
how vain so much of our efforts and attitudes and decisions are in this life.
We scramble after careers, or education, nice housing, better jobs, more respect, cool friends, good times - how those things are in vain in light of eternity.
Sure there is some earthly result,
but in the light of eternity - it is vain!
But we have a better vision!
A better way.
With the risen Lord JEsus before us,
the firstfruit of resurection guaranteeing his return and our resurection to glorious, new, imperishable bodies.
We can GIVE oursleves fully to the work of the Lord.
We can chose Jesus not self.
We can sacrifice much,
We can love others at great cost,
We can deny ourselves,
we can be bold to declare his name,
we can preach of Jesus
We can persevere under peer pressure against our faith at school or work
We can keep going for Jesus when we’re exhausted
Becasue not one sweat drop of effort or labour for the Lord will be in vain!
It will be full of success and result for all eternity!
ONe life live it?
how about,
One life - Give it - to Jesus in every way.
Pray
Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labour in the Lord is not in vain.