Making Our Hope in the Resurrection (Part 1 of 2)

Exposing the Silliness of the Questions

There are good questions that arise whenever someone talks about dead people coming back to life. What do they look like when they come back to life? What happens to their bodies from the point in which they die to the point in which they come back to life? These are questions that certainly came up at Corinth. However, they were asked in more of an argumentative form. In other words, the question was designed to generate an answer that would say, oh, I guess the resurrection doesn't happen because the question obviously proves the ridiculousness of the assertion.

The questions that come up at Corinth were an argument or an objection to the resurrection, which is why the Apostle Paul responds the way that he does. They have two questions: How are the dead raised? And what do they look like after they're raised? What kind of bodies do they have once they are raised?

The point of what Paul writes here in answering those two questions is that he makes sure to secure our hope and to strengthen our hope in knowing that dead Christians come back to life, that it's not the end, that you don't exist in some kind of state of sleepiness or something of that effect, but that you do come back to life.

Everything that the Apostle Paul has been discussing has been to give Christians hope beyond the grave. Give Christians hope that they will see fellow Christians who have died in Christ, that we will see them again and that there is something so much better than what we're currently experiencing in this life that is waiting for us and that we are resurrected or we are brought back to life in order to experience something so much better in eternity future.

The Apostle Paul does a very wonderful thing in our context this evening in responding to these questions and in fact refuting the ridiculousness even of the reasons why they're asking the questions. The questions themselves aren't necessarily the problem, it's what the questions are intended to do and the motivation of the people asking them that the Apostle Paul responds to and refutes. But in doing so in answering these questions the Apostle Paul makes sure to make our hope sure in the resurrection.

Our hope is made sure by exposing the silliness of the questions. Why does the Apostle Paul respond by saying you foolish people? Why does he think that they're foolish? They seem for all reasons that we could think of to be very good questions.

That a person would ask when somebody's telling you that dead people come back to life: how do they come back to life, what's the power, what's the ability that is involved with taking dead people and making them no longer dead people? How are the dead raised? And then of course a huge question to follow that up with is what do they look like? Is it like the walking dead? Is it like a critically acclaimed television show of zombies walking around with their nasty faces? Is that the hope that we have as Christians?

It's foolish questions if the person who is asking them is asking those questions because they think that the resurrection doesn't make sense. You can see how it's sort of critical in that respect. What kind of bodies do you think they're going to have and how is it the dead people can come back to life where you kind of get the snark and the sarcasm perhaps behind the questions. That's what would ultimately make it foolish is because the questions would reveal or could reveal within our hearts but did reveal within the lives of those who contextually were critics of the resurrection and that they denied the resurrection.

That's what we had looked at several weeks ago is that the people at Corinth, not everybody but some people at Corinth denied that this is even possible that this would even happen. So of course it's just like when an atheist when they're talking to you about Christ and they say well how could he have come back from the dead. How do we know that God exists and all that kind of stuff. There are all questions that are asked from individuals who fulfill Psalm 14: the fool has said in his heart there is no God. It's an issue of foolishness.

Because of their foolishness they ask a question to try to put us on the defense and to try to expose what they think is the foolishness of what we're saying when instead it reveals the foolishness of the critic. They think it's an unnatural thing. And so from their perspective that's why Paul responds calling them fools.

If we have a genuine question born from a trust that we are going to be alive again after we die then it becomes a different issue. But if we have the same doubts then it becomes an issue of foolishness and the apostle Paul is certainly speaking to us again.

Having said that most of us in our day and age in our time frame perhaps having been raised within the church having grown up within the church the concept of resurrection doesn't necessarily seem so strange or unnatural. It probably is something that we've even taken for granted. So we may not be struggling with that same issue we may not be the critics that the apostle Paul is specifically talking about.

For us asking these questions of how do dead people come back to life what are they ultimately going to look like we might be in a completely different situation but there's ways in which we understand this passage is still being applicable to us and that will be exposed the more that we go through this. So if you doubt that something can happen after you die where you're no longer dead anymore and you're alive again then if that's the case the view asking these questions to attempt to discredit or prove the resurrection wrong there's so much that's packed within this passage of Scripture that's going to demonstrate the foolishness of that position.

It is also important to recognize that in our day there are similar misunderstandings not the exact same misunderstanding but there are similar misunderstandings about dead people coming back to life in our understanding of that. These questions specifically reveal something that is perhaps a misunderstanding on our part about God. In other words if we ask this question we're revealing that we probably don't understand or not thinking about certain things that have been revealed by God about certain things that might not even necessarily be specific to the resurrection.

So it could be a good thing or it could be a bad thing but it still is a revelation of two specific fundamental issues. Asking the question of how are the dead raised and what kind of a body do they have especially asking how do dead people come back to life this reveals two specific questions. The first one is that it reveals a lack of understanding of the power of God in creation. It reveals that there's a lack of understanding of the power of God in creation.

And again that could be that I'm still asking the question from a genuine concern just curious to know how do dead people come to life but it reveals that I'm not understanding or at least I'm not focusing upon the power of God. I'm not focusing upon the power of God in creation. And secondly it also reveals that I don't know or I don't understand or I have not paid attention to God's design in nature.

The reason why I say that and draw that out that the question specifically reveals those two issues is because that's how the Apostle Paul responds to the questions. He answers the questions by demonstrating God's power in creation and by reminding the congregation of God's design in nature. There's something that exists in nature that helps as an illustration for resurrection and in fact because of what the Apostle Paul is talking about from creation we conclude and understand that God put an illustration in nature as a means of demonstrating the reality of the resurrection.

There's something that exists in nature that when you look at it and you think about it in the context of the resurrection there's a eureka moment the lights turn on and you're like oh that's what he's talking about when he's talking about dead people coming back to life and then of course the reality of creation in it of itself. How does somebody rise from the dead? How do they come back to life? Well how did you get life in the first place? It was the power of God in creation.

So when we look at the idea of God creating us and then we look at nature and how it was designed we ultimately understand the significance of the resurrection and we begin to have answers to these questions.

But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?” You foolish person! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body. For not all flesh is the same, but there is one kind for humans, and another for animals, and another for birds, and another for fish. There are also heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is of one kind, and the glory of the earthly is of another. 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.

So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. 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. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.”

1 Corinthians 15:35-49

The Strength of God's Power

Interestingly enough though some Christians argue today in a very surprisingly similar way as in Corinth and it relates to the debate that rages between cremation and burial. With the context that we have we would be doing you a disservice if we didn't answer the debate on cremation and burial.

The argument of course is some people believe that you shouldn't or that you can't get cremated because it affects in some way you coming back to life. In case you don't know what cremation is that's that process after somebody dies where they put you in this super hot furnace and they basically take your body and melt you down to ashes. And then you can be put in one of those little urns. Some of us may have loved ones that are currently in an urn or that you've taken ashes and you've spread them somewhere. Those are typical things that happen with people who get cremated.

And of course we all know what burial is where you just take the body and you preserve it or whatever it is you embalm it and then you put it in the ground you bury a person's body and it's a huge debate. Many people even within our own congregation who are very close to the end of their lives take these things into consideration and normally the way that they take it into consideration is of course what can they afford cremation is very cheap versus burial being very expensive.

So what's the concern that some people say well we've destroyed the body therefore what is raised how does that affect my resurrection if I've already destroyed the body. Some people end up having a more moderate view though and that's just simply this is the body that we've been given it's the temple of the Holy Spirit so why would I destroy the body that God graciously gave me and why would I destroy that which the Bible calls the temple.

The fact of the matter remains that the issue is a question where people don't take into consideration some of the very same things that are taken into consideration here in other words people don't think in the debate of cremation versus burial of the very same concepts that are presented within this context that the first century Corinthians were not taking into consideration either.

But there isn't a focus upon the power of God in creation and then the design of God in nature and they actually concluded that there was no resurrection versus today we understand that there is a resurrection but there still is a debate that rages because somebody or both sides even are not necessarily taking into consideration God's power in creation and his design in nature.

Our hope is made sure by the strength of God's power. Paul shows us from nature how resurrection makes sense because it's a part of God's design. The apostle Paul is going to show through God's power and through the design within nature that the resurrection makes sense.

Seeds die so to speak. In order to get the good thing that the seed is supposed to give me uses an example of grain uses an example of wheat and those different kinds of things and we know that there's other things that have seeds that I have to put into the ground I have to bury the seed and then when I do Paul says that basically that seed dies in order for it to become something better.

This example from nature is so hopeful that God's people especially those whose current bodies are painful or whose current bodies are suffering from some kind of a disease or some kind of a physical element and the very thought of a better body is mind blowing earth shattering and intensely attractive and is provided to you by the resurrection.

The illustration that we get that confirms that reality is by looking at the world of agriculture looking at farming and recognizing that in order to get the good stuff something has to happen that transitions the not so good thing. Nobody wants a bunch of seeds. There's got to be something that happens from the

Our Glorified Bodies: Imperishable and Perfect

What body do they have? Certainly it would still look like our current ones. We wouldn't get some kind of a new face. Our current ones but far better. They won't decay, they won't break down, they won't be corrupted, they won't perish. There'll be bodies that are capable of experiencing sinless joy and satisfaction for all of eternity future. Without pain, without sadness.

I might see my body now and think there's so many things wrong with it. I don't look the best, I don't feel the best. Some of that may have been the McDonald's from earlier or perhaps not ever working out in the gym. I don't match the dudes who lift weights. I don't look like the Photoshopped models who probably also don't look like the Photoshopped models themselves.

But after you die, these bodies are changed. We put on new bodies, and those bodies have legitimately no cause for insecurity. They can only have enjoyment. God wants you to know that he didn't make a mistake in creating you in the first place. He just didn't create your body, your current body, to be permanent. He's telling you here that you've got a body that is so much better to look forward to.

Securing Our Hope in the Resurrection

And so be hopeful for when God in his timing gives you a body that only has the capacity for all things good. In responding to those two questions, the Apostle Paul makes sure to make our hope sure in the resurrection, secured in that hope.