A couple months ago, I read an article by Kim Henderson in World Magazine titled, “Wrestling with Hard Truths; Nashville Christians cling to the hope of the gospel amid overwhelming sorrow.”
Patty and I had just been talking about the shooting,
so when I saw the article, I started reading it to her.
I had no idea how moved I would be by the article.
Several times as I read, my eyes would begin to well up,
so much so I couldn’t continue to read.
My voice would crack…the lump in my throat wouldn’t leave. I would read a sentence or two, and have to stop,
I just couldn’t speak.
At some point, I stopped and told Patty, “I don’t know
why I’m crying so… this is just so hard for me to read.”
It was so heartbreaking, the results of evil so clearly seen.
Maybe it’s because I’m at an age where I can imagine myself there. How would I respond?
What if it happened to the school my grandkids go to?
Oh, the thought was all so moving to me.
Two worldviews so clearly displayed,
one leading to despair…
the other filled with the gospel’s hope
amid such a horrific tragedy and loss.
The pastor of the church, Chad Scruggs, was 5 miles away meeting with other pastors and mapping out their plans for the year (just another ordinary day) when he received the news of the shooting.
It’s hard for me to imagine the thoughts and fears running
through his mind as he rushed to his church.
Where upon arriving, the news he received was horrifying.
Seven people lie dead on his church property,
including his only daughter, Hallie.
And just hours after learning his daughter was among the shooting victims, Chad released a statement testifying to the only hope for both his daughter and a world where school shootings are increasingly common, increasingly horrific: ‘Through tears we trust that she is in the arms of Jesus who will raise her to life once again.
The Covenant School shooting is a tragic illustration
of a conflict between two worldviews.
one view led to despair and the death of seven souls…
and the other view to the hope of the good news
promised through Jesus Christ.
The truth is…only one of these worldview’s can be true.
As I thought about this tragedy, I was reminded of Martha, Lazarus’ sister, who, distressed by losing her beloved brother, believed Jesus to be the Messiah, the Son of God; the very one who spoke to her and said…
“I am the resurrection and the life.
The one who believes in me, even if he dies, will live.
Everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.
Do you believe this?” (John 6:25-26)
It’s a great question… for we all will confront this very question at some point, because we all will face death.
Martha believed Jesus’ word.
And so does Pastor Scruggs.
So much so that he is confident that his little
9-year-old daughter is present in the arms of Jesus.
And one day when Jesus returns,
he knows he will see her again at the resurrection.
He and his daughter will live for eternity in the
presence of Jesus.
In the Gospel of Jesus—we have profound hope because of the resurrection.
The resurrection is essential to the gospel,
it’s essential to our faith…
for its Christ’s resurrection
that guarantees our resurrection.
In fact, the resurrection to life everlasting
means endless hope for the believer,
for we will one day be resurrected to eternal life!
1 Corinthians 15 is the most comprehensive chapter on the resurrection found in the Bible. Today I’d like to spend some time reflecting on the truth of the resurrection, particularly our resurrected bodies.
When Paul wrote to those in Corinth, he began by
passing on what he said was of first importance…
He said that “Christ died for our sins, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures… and that he was seen by many other witnesses to include himself.” (15:3-8)
He wants them, and us, to know without a doubt that Christ was raised permanently—forever.
The resurrection of Jesus is essential
to the Christian faith!
In this chapter Paul is driving this point home.
He already made plain, “If there is no resurrection,
then not even Christ has been raised from the dead, your faith is worthless…”
And just to drive the point home even more, he says,
“If we’ve only put our hope in Christ for this life only,
we are to be pitied more than anyone!”
The resurrection provides believers with a framework for understanding the importance of righteous living here in the present.
And I’d submit Pastor Scruggs, along with countless others who have suffered gut-wrenching loss,
understand this truth and they’ve built their lives
upon the gospel of Jesus Christ.
And to bring this a bit closer to home… our own beloved Roger Williams believed this truth and he built his life upon it!
Paul wants Corinthians and us to think rightly about the reality of the resurrection.
Today we find a world much like the world of the Corinthians.
We live in a world where relativism is rampant.
Listen to any talk about truth, and you are bound to hear someone use the line, “We’ll it’s my truth,” even if that truth fails to align with reality.
This blending of philosophical views leads to this
“mushy truth,” people don’t know where to land.
You even see this happening in the church today.
People are hungry for the truth.
The truth matters. It directly impacts what we
believe, value, and do.
In other words, it affects how/what we live our lives for.
So, as believers, we’ve got to pay attention to what
we’re paying attention to and ensure we align
our lives with the gospel’s truth.
In 1 Corinthians 15 Paul addresses some wrong thinking—stinking thinking—that was going on within the Corinthian church concerning the resurrection.
He wants to reorient their expectations regarding
the coming resurrection.
He’ll do this by focusing on the
nature of the resurrected body to come.
Why’s he doing this?
Because orthodoxy leads to orthopraxy!
In other words, correct beliefs lead to right conduct.
The story of the resurrection tells a story
with a beautiful, happy ending.
The end of redemptive history is simply this:
God wins, and those in union with Christ will win along with him.
The resurrection life is a gift—a power—we’ve already inherited by faith in Jesus.
It helps us look suffering and death in the eye and see hope.
Death will not ultimately win because of what Jesus has done. He is the first fruit of those who will be raised! What we believe matters!
So, my primary argument today is this:
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the promise of our resurrection from the dead and Christ’s total victory
over sin and death. The empty tomb is full of power.
We don’t have time to go through all of Paul’s thoughts on the resurrection, so today we’ll pick up Paul’s argument in
1 Corinthians 15:35-49
35 But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised?
What kind of body will they have when they come?”
Paul is using rhetoric here.
He knows some will not grasp what he has been saying, so rather than wait for their response, he asks questions he knows will be in the minds of some.
Some may have thought the resurrection was foolish.
The Greeks had a category for resurrection,
but it would have been spiritual in nature,
more of a metaphysical resurrection.
The whole gnostic idea, where the physical body is of no value, what matters is the non-material part of us, the spiritual.
Paul’s letter to the Galatians delt extensively with this idea.
They know what happens to a body
when it dies and is put in the ground.
It decays, it rots, and it turns back to dust.
So how in the world can you bring it back to life?
Turn it into a living, breathing body?
This might have been a step too far for some.
Paul’s answer to this kind of thinking is to say…
36 You fool! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. 37 And as for what you sow—you are not sowing the body that will be, but only a seed, perhaps of wheat or another grain.
If Paul seems frustrated, it’s because of their shallow thinking! They’re digging their heels into their stubbornness and saying, “Draw me a picture, Paul!
And Paul is saying, “Open your eyes, look around!”
For whatever reason,
they had no category for a body living indefinitely.
Paul wants them to stop and think about what they’re saying.
If they’d only stop and look around at the wonders of God,
they’d see how foolish their questions were.
It’s like they’ve become used to the splendor
of God’s creation that was all around them.
This idea isn’t far-fetched because we do the same thing.
We can get so busy and fail to marvel
at all God does for us…
We’ve become used to the miraculous and we miss the wonders of God that are right before our very eyes, too.
The idea of resurrection is nothing new.
Life comes from death.
There are all kinds of parallels if we look around.
Take gardening, for instance…
36bWhat you sow does not come to life unless it dies.
37 And as for what you sow—you are not sowing the body that will be, but only a seed, perhaps of wheat or another grain. 38 But God gives it a body as he wants, and to each of the seeds its own body.
What a great analogy!
Think of seeds and all the different types…
each one is unique.
When the seed goes into the ground,
the husk rots and dies, and from the depth of the seed sprouts a new plant, different from when it went in the ground but still the same.
Look at these rose seeds. A couple of dozen can fit in the palm of your hand.
And yet, these seeds come to life, each one becoming
its own beautiful rose bush.
It looks completely different than what it originally did.
And God is the one that enacts the transformation.
If God can bring new life out of a tiny perishable seed,
He can surely bring new life out of our bodies.
But to drive his point home further,
Paul continues the analogy…
39 Not all flesh is the same flesh; there is one flesh for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish. 40 There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the splendor of the heavenly bodies is different from that of the earthly ones. 41 There is a splendor of the sun, another of the moon, and another of the stars; in fact, one star differs from another star in splendor.
This passage can be confusing when you first read it,
but Paul’s basic point is that God has created all kinds of bodies, and each is perfectly suited for its environment.
Fish have a body suited for water, birds have a body fit for flying, and people have a body ideally suited for life on this earth now.
We can even look up in the sky and see the diversity
and grandeur of all God can do and has done.
It’s a marvelous sight to ponder.
Paul’s point is there’s a body that is appropriate for this age, and there’s a body that’s appropriate for the age to come.
So, is it really so hard to believe that God will clothe us
in a body suited for a new era? For eternity.
42 So it is with the resurrection of the dead: Sown in corruption, raised in incorruption; 43 sown in dishonor,
raised in glory; sown in weakness, raised in power;
44 sown a natural body, raised a spiritual body.
If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.
Our bodies are now perishable, temporary, dishonorable,
and weak.
We know this all too well, don’t we?
I do! At 58, I’m beginning to see just how perishable
this old body is.
Oddly, I’ve got more life behind me than I do in front of me.
Time seems to speed up with each passing year.
But my heart is filled with hope!
Jesus’ promise of eternal life and
his resurrection gives me hope!
After I’m planted in the ground, when Christ returns
and raises me to new life, this old soul will be made new, transformed into a perfect resurrection body
that will never decay.
The current laws of nature will not limit our new bodies.
This does not necessarily mean we’ll be super-people,
but our bodies will be different from and more capable
than our present bodies.
Our new bodies
will not be weak,
will never get sick,
and will never die.
Let this sink in…
Paul goes on to say…
45 So it is written, The first man Adam became a living being;, the last Adam became a life-giving spirit.
46 However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, then the spiritual. 47 The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. 48 Like the man of dust, so are those who are of the dust; like the man of heaven, so are those who are of heaven. 49 And just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we will also bear the image of the man of heaven.
The “last Adam” is Christ Jesus.
He rose from the dead and is a life-giving spirit,
he’s the source, and the giver of eternal life.
Jesus said…
“16 For God so loved the world that he gave his
one and only Son, that whoever believes in him
shall not perish but have eternal life.”
later he would say…
And this is the will of him who sent me,
that I shall lose none of all those he has given me,
but raise them up at the last day (John 6:39)
Jesus’ promise to us is that we will someday be like Christ, the heavenly man, experiencing the kingdom of God in resurrection bodies.
Paul doesn’t fully answer what these new bodies for believers will look like.
But he knows Christ finished work on the cross
guarantees this reality: We will one day be free of sin and death, transformed into the people God has made us to be, worshiping God for eternity free of sin, decay, and death.
1 John 3:2 tells us…
“2 Dear friends, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when he appears, we will be like him because we will see him as he is.”
We believe this because God has spoken to us through his Word. He has given us adequate and sufficient information about himself and our future hope.
Jesus’ victory over sin and death gives us hope.
This is why Paul can say with confidence: My dear brothers and sisters, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the Lord’s work, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. (v.58)
I started this morning speaking about a tragedy in Nashville.
Monday morning, March 27th, Pastor Scruggs’ world
was rocked…along with countless others.
He and many others faithfully have place there hope
in the power of the gospel.
The gospel is not a myth that they’ve placed their faith in,
something to help them cope with reality.
No! Scruggs is standing firm on the truth of the gospel…
Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection!
The resurrection empowers us to be immovable.
It gives us an eternal perspective…
…It spurs on and strengthens us to faithfully endure and persevere through all kinds of trials and difficulties.
Jesus’ resurrection helps us understand the statement,
“These light and momentary troubles,” that Paul wrote elsewhere when talking about trials and great difficulties.
(2 Cor. 4:17)
Without the truth of the gospel,
his statement would seem unkind.
Almost belittling or trite.
But it makes all kinds of sense when said
from a gospel perspective with eternity in mind.
In fact, it becomes a statement that spurs us on
to faithfully continue to grow in Christlikeness.
So, we plant our feet in the already not yet kingdom of God and get busy looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. We look to Jesus and his resurrection to make sense of our lives.
Let the truth of the gospel, and that victorious resurrection life to come, spur you on in faithfully walking daily with Christ. The author and perfector of our faith.
And this brings us to our application, and it’s this:
I want you to know, that the best picture of what we will be, is the one we behold & adore in the scriptures, Jesus.
All of us will die.
We will either die with Christ or without him….
Don’t die as a seed that produces nothing;
believe the gospel and faithfully live as a seed that’s
transformed into something far better.
Let this sure hope of the resurrection and the life to come
affect your living now: faithfully be a seed that goes into the ground and dies, trusting the Lord to use it and raise it.
Make it your ambition to be faithful with each day and every moment He give you… You can do this… you know why?
Because our redeemer is faithful and true…
Oh, that our hearts would rejoice in his promises.
I’m convinced that if we could speak to Roger right now he would join in with Paul and say to us…
Rejoice in the resurrection of Jesus!
Rejoice in the resurrection of believers!
Rejoice in the Gospel’s hope to come!
And while here in this life, marvel at the beautiful work
God is doing in and through you, right here and right now.
And as you do, make it your ambition to faithfully follow Jesus today, and the next day, and the next, and the next, until he calls you home. Oh, that all of us would be found faithful!