"Glory Days"
1 Corinthians 15:35-58
If someone were to ask you at what age you would describe yourself as being physically "In Your Prime"....what age would you say?
(Listen for answers)
According to numerous medical sites, the human body reaches its physical prime around age 23...give or take a year or 2, depending on the individual.
Now...Charlie over there...he's still in his prime 😊 ....can’t stop that guy.
But for most people, by age 30, the body begins to show visible signs of being on the other side of the mountaintop of peak physicality....
And from there on out....it's just a gradual descent into the valley of wrinkles, hairlessness, compression socks, and Dr's appointments....
The battle against gravity intensifies....
The war of the beltline gets real, right?....
Our bodies begin to make strange noises....
A friend of mine likes to say that after rolling 50 years on his odometer, his check engine light never goes off....
Mark Twain once said: "The older I get, the more clearly I remember things that never happened."
Tom Wilson wrote: "Wisdom doesn't necessarily come with age. Sometimes age just shows up by itself!"
John Wagner quipped: "Don't let aging get you down, it's too hard to get back up"
And Lee Trevino once said: "The older I get, the better I used to be"
Isn't that true?
So often, we have a romanticized idea of our physical accomplishments from back when we were in our prime...
That game you scored 2 touchdowns in high school ..... By the time you're 40....it's become 4 touchdowns
That layup you made to win the game with 10 seconds remaining ....20 years later....that layup has now become a DUNK!
We – as a culture – are obsessed with youth.
We idolize youth....
We do everything we can to turn back the clock and look more youthful...
Millions of Americans spend enormous amounts of money on cosmetics, hair growth remedies, lotions, creams, botox, facelifts, neck lifts, butt lifts....other lifts....
There is perhaps no greater desire of humanity than to remain in a state of youthfulness forever...
Stories that deal with the mythical fountain of youth have been popular for centuries...
Movies such as 'The Age of Adeline', 'The Fountain', and ' Tuck Everlasting' engage people on a deep, visceral level...
Even as I was writing this sermon, the sounds of screaming, adoring fans attending the Milwaukee Brewer Championship parade & celebration filled the air....
....Thousands of people pouring praise upon a group of youthful athletes....all in their 20's .... a few in their early 30's.
Their were people sitting in trees – and standing on 12 foot ladders – just to get a glimpse of these young heroes....
When's the last time you saw people climbing trees to see a bunch of retirees??
Many of you are familiar with the Springsteen song 'Glory Days'...
It's a song from the 80's that reminisces about a guy who once was a good baseball player in high school....
....and about a girl who was once the beauty queen of her high school class....
...and at the end of the song, the lyrics say, "Time slips away, leaves you with nothing, mister, but boring stories of glory days"
Well...today's passage of scripture is also about - Glory Days...
...But It's not about glory days that involve self-absorbed memories from the past...
Rather....It's about – unfathomable, future days of Glory when those in Christ will have resurrected bodies...
...Bodies that will never grow tired....
...Bodies that will never experience the degenerative effects of aging....
...Bodies that will be far greater than these earthly bodies of flesh and bone...
....The Bible calls them glorified, resurrected bodies.....
....able to experience Glory Days that will far exceed that of anything we can experience here on earth....
....Yes, even better than winning the World Series!
Here in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, Paul has been discussing the importance of resurrection....specifically, the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ.
....and how his bodily resurrection is a foreshadowing of how everyone who is in Christ will also be resurrected in a similar way....
As we saw last week, Jesus is the 'Firstfruits' of the harvest of every soul who has accepted the free gift of salvation through His atoning blood...
...those who have made Jesus Lord & Savior of their lives.
Now – in today's passage – Paul wraps up his teaching on the resurrection by giving his readers a glimpse into what a resurrected body ...is like.
These fascinating verses have been pondered for centuries...
...As they pull back the curtain on what we will experience in our heavenly, glorified, bodies.
First of all, when we talk about having a glorified body....it's not referring to glory being bestowed upon us....
....We won't be standing on a stage somewhere with adoring fans shouting our names....
No....God will be the ONLY person receiving glory in heaven....and rightfully so.
Salvation is all because of Him....and we will be thankfully glorifying Him for all eternity because of that unearned gift of salvation through Jesus Christ.
To have a glorified body simply means that we will inherit a body that will be free from the deteriorating effects of sin.
Everything that negatively affects our bodies here on earth is the result of sin.
Disease, aging, emotional distress, pain....all of these are a part of our earthly experience...
...But we will not experience any of these things in heaven.
To be glorified is actually a positional description of the believer's final phase of salvation...
When we first come to Christ in faith....we are instantly justified before the Father
Then we are sanctified as we grow in our faith....
...And - finally – we are glorified when we enter heaven and receive new bodies....
Romans 8:30 describes the process this way, "And those He predestined, He also called; those He called, He also justified; those He justified, He also glorified."
It is this glorified body that Paul begins to describe here in our passage for today.
In Verse 35 (1 Corinthians 15:35) we see that Paul sets out to answer 2 questions that the believers in Corinth had concerning resurrected bodies.
How are the dead raised?
What kind of body will the dead have?
Well...Paul begins to answer these questions with tenderness and empathy in verse 36 when he softly says...."How Foolish!"
....or your translation might say, "You Fools!"
Ok....why is Paul being so....direct.... here?
Well....it seems that these questions were being asked from a position of cynicism....rather than from honest inquiry.
As we have already seen, pagan (Greek) philosophy about the body had infiltrated the church there in Corinth....
...and Paul was obviously frustrated that he was having to re-educate them on a topic that the Corinthian believers should have already understood.
But....this frustration is to our benefit today....as we are given a bit more insight into what resurrected bodies entail...
In verses 36 – 39, Paul provides the analogy of a seed and its germination to describe how our earthly bodies will transform into our resurrected bodies.
The second half of verse 36 (1 Corinthians 15:36) is one of the most profound verses in all of scripture.
It reads: "What you sow does not come to life unless it dies"....
....Think of a seed.
Seeds really are tiny miracles...
This time of year, we think of pumpkin seeds, right?
....or a watermelon seed....or a kernel of corn.... or a walnut ....or a tulip bulb.
These seeds are all dormant....they're not growing....they are – for lack of a better term – dead.
....and a seed must cease to exist in its original form as a seed before it can come to life in its final form of a plant
Not only that...but seeds look far different than what they will eventually look like after they begin to grow...
Next Spring, take a stroll down the seed aisle at True Value...or Farm & Fleet.... or Menards....
And look at the pictures on the cartons of seeds...
The actual seeds in these package look nothing like the picture, right?
Paul is saying that our resurrected bodies will be vastly different than what they are here on earth...
And yet, there are similarities between a seed and the eventual plant that grows from the seed.
Believe it or not, a seed houses a tiny, pre-formed baby plant (an embryo) that already possesses the foundational structures of the plant that will start to develop when the process of germination begins...
Also, the seed carries the exact same DNA blueprint inherited from its parent plant....which will dictate the species, leaf shape, flower type, and growth patterns of the future plant...
According to one biology website, "The seed is not a separate entity, but the initial starting phase of the plant life cycle that transforms – via germination – into the eventual mature plant.
So....even though your resurrected body will look vastly different than your current body...
(Some of us are like....thank heavens for that, right?! 😊)
....There will be similarities.
It seems that what makes you "you" will never change for all eternity.
The DNA of who you are will remain intact....
I love how – just as the seed contains an embryonic version of its future glory – we who are in Christ carry within us an embryonic version of our future, glorified nature...
That desire within you to praise God....that longing to be with other believers.... that passion for serving others.... that yearning to speak to God in prayer....that craving for the truth of His Word....
....even - I believe to some extent – our personalities...
Those things about you will never change for all eternity!
In a very real sense...We are all seeds here this morning....(some of us are true hayseeds....but that's a whole nother story...)
We are all natural seeds awaiting a spiritual germination.
...Yet we carry within us the blueprint for what we will always be for eternity.
...Brothers & Sisters, isn't that amazing?
Paul writes in verse 42 (1 Corinthians 15:42) that our bodies are sown perishable....
... meaning that our earthly bodies of flesh and bone will return to dust after we die....
....but that we will also be raised....imperishable.
Meaning that our resurrected bodies will never die.
Verse 43 (1 Corinthians 15:43) says that we are "sown in dishonor but raised in glory"....that we are "Sown in weakness but raised in power"
...and in verse 44 (1 Corinthians 15:44) that we are sown a natural body...but raised a spiritual body"
Personally...I can't wait to see what all you seedlings are gonna look like someday!
I'll bet Lisa's resurrected body will resemble a mighty, beautiful, female warrior....with a passion for keeping heaven free of dust bunnies...
Me? I’ll probably resemble a butter burger....
Ok....moving on.
Paul wraps up this section in verse 50 (1 Corinthians 15:50) when he writes, "...flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable."
In other words...in our present, sinful, imperfect bodies...we are incapable of existing in the sinless, perfect, spiritual realm of heaven.
We need to undergo a sowing of death....and a germination to spiritual life.
...In order to experience that heavenly dimension in which we will abide for all eternity...
Verse 51 (1 Corinthians 15:51) transitions to the final section of the chapter where Paul describes a specific event for believers during a specific time in history...
As many of you know, the book of Revelation teaches that there will be a future 7-year period of time called the Great Tribulation...
It will be the final chapter of history prior to the victorious second coming of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ...
But just before Jesus comes....the earth will be experiencing God's judgement through intense war, pain, pestilence, and plagues...
Paul has this dark period of time in mind when describing a spiritual event known as the rapture of the church here in verses 51 through 58.
The Rapture refers to believers who are alive at the time of the Tribulation...
....these believers will be caught up into the clouds to meet Jesus in the air...
Paul describes the event a bit more in detail in his letter to the church in Thessalonica ...
He writes in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 "For the Lord Himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever."
In verse 52 (1 Corinthians 15:52) of today's passage, we read that those who are raptured will undergo a change from their earthly bodies....
....to that of their spiritual bodies....
....and....it will happen instantaneously.
Verse 52 reads, "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."
As many of you probably know, there are different ideas as to exactly when the rapture of the church will take place.
Some believe that it will happen just before the Tribulation begins...
A few believe that it will take place midway through the Tribulation...
While others believe that the rapture will take place at the end of the 7-year Tribulation, essentially coinciding with the second coming of Jesus...
...and the ushering in of the Millennium....the 1,000 year period of time that Revelation describes Jesus as ruling here on this earth before finally assigning Satan to the Lake of Fire....
....along with all men & women – throughout all time - who lived their entire lives in willful disobedience to God...
You see...contrary to popular belief...God doesn't "Send people to Hell"....
....God has graciously given you the free will to choose to accept Him ....or choose to reject Him.
....Your eternal destiny is simply a continuation of the choice that you made during your lifetime.
If you have made the decision to live apart from God in this life...He is gracious enough to allow you to live in that state of separation for all eternity...
Thing is...It's a whole lot better away from God here on earth than it will be in the realm of hell....
Someone once said...."The worst day you've ever had in your life here on earth...will be far better than the best day you'll ever experience in hell...
Folks...that's why we need to get the gospel message out to as many people as we can before it literally is too late...
So...back to the Rapture....
Some pastors and Theologians are so adamant about the exact timing of this event that they almost hold it to be an essential doctrine of the faith...
"To be a true Christian, you have to be Pre-Trib.... or Mid-Trib....or Post-Trib"
I Don't buy into that.
Don't get me wrong....I do have my own thoughts as to when the Rapture will most-likely take place....
....and I'll be more than happy to share that with you if you'd like to talk to me about it....
...But there are many solid, biblical pastors and theologians - a whole lot smarter than me - that hold to a different timetable than I do....
...So, I'm certainly not going to stand up here and proclaim as absolute truth something that isn't specifically – and unequivocally – clear in scripture...does that make sense?
Just remember....The timetable of the Rapture is NOT an essential doctrine of the faith...
....your view regarding its specific chronological occurrence has nothing to do with a saving relationship with Jesus Christ...
You will not come before God someday and hear the words "I'm sorry....you held to a mid-tribulation timetable of the Rapture...no heavenly dwelling for you."
No.
Look– at the end of the day – We know that a generation of Tribulation Saints will miraculously meet Jesus in the air...and - for that crop of believers – it'll be an amazing experience of instantaneously going from natural to spiritual....
...from perishable – to imperishable....
....from corruptible – to incorruptible....
Let's just praise God that this will even take place....and try not to be so caught up in knowing the exact timeframe of its occurrence....
I love how Paul wraps up chapter 15...the resurrection chapter.
Jesus has defeated sin and death....therefore...we can proclaim what Paul quotes from the OT prophet Hosea in verse 55 (1 Corinthians 15:55) "Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?"
Brothers and Sisters in Christ, we literally have nothing to fear in this world.
Yes, bad things will happen....our bodies will continue to decay....we will experience life's buffet of sadness, anxiety, and grief...
But – because Jesus defeated our greatest enemies....sin & death....
We need not fear them any longer.
Fellow Christian....Because of what Jesus has done for you through His death, burial, and bodily resurrection....
....sin can no longer condemn you.
....and death can no longer contain you.
You are free to live fearlessly and courageously for Christ....no matter what happens to you in life!
Because – at the end of time....when all is said and done – we will be the one's dancing on the graves of sin and death!
I'll finish with verse 58 (1 Corinthians 15:58) "Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain."
Let's Pray.
