My Body Will Be Made Perfect
- par Church Requel
What We're Talking About Today
Have you ever wondered what your life will be like after you are resurrected? Do you imagine that you might be floating around in the clouds? Have you thought of your life after death as some disembodied spirit or ghost? Nothing could be further from the truth. Tonight we learn what the Bible teaches about our new, redeemed, resurrected bodies!
I KNOW Sermon Series Video
This is the video that 15 of us made together at the end of 2011. Today listen especially to the voice for "I know my body will be made perfect!"
Today's Main Study Verse
Romans 8:23 ESV
And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
Firstfruits of the Spirit
Firstfruits of the Spirit... this is the same wording that we often give to our “tithes,” we call sometimes “firstfruits.” The ancient idea that we give our produce of our efforts first to God. Here we learn that the Christians to whom Paul is writing are the “firstfruits” of the Spirit. In the Old Testament not everyone received the Spirit of God upon his or her life. Now all Christ-followers receive the Spirit of God. You - if you are a Christian - are exactly like this, having received God’s Holy Spirit into your life. There’s more here, though, than that these are just the first Christians. There’s also the idea that the Spirit is doing something new in your life! You and I also become “firstfruits” when we receive God’s Holy Spirit in our lives. We become brand new. We are changed in an instant!
A New Creation
2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
Our Deposit & Guarantee
Ephesians 1:14 NIV84
who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession–to the praise of his glory.
Groan Inwardly / Wait Eagerly
Groan Inwardly / Wait Eagerly - Just like the creation that groans for the world to be made right again (our study last week) you also - if you have the Spirit of God in you - also groan in anticipation. Consider that when the Spirit of God is in you, you become an odd mixture of mortal and immortal... the timeless Eternity somehow living inside the event-driven, time-scheduled human. You know there is more... and you groan toward it! What is the Christ follower most eager for?
Our Adoption
Our Adoption - a legal term. God has adopted us. Consider who adopts who. God’s choice. Whoever heard of son adopting father? Already a reality. (Rom. 8:15 / Gal. 4:6-7). A spiritual reality. Here we have a sense of a need for a completed reality. What? the redemption of our bodies!
1st Thing To Know
#1 Our bodies will be ___________________. Our resurrected selves will find a permanent return to a physical existence in a physical universe. According to Time Magazine 2/3 of Americans (who believe in a resurrection) believe they will not have bodies. A non-physical resurrection. That’s not resurrection at all! The essence of humanity is the spirit joined with the body. The body is as much the real you as the spirit inside you. Even that description shows our dependence more on Plato than on Christianity. God breathed into the physical body of Adam and he became man. The physical with the breath of God combined together. The same is true of you now and will be true of you resurrected.
From A Tent To A Building
2 Corinthians 5:1-2 NIV84
Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling,
2nd Thing To Know
#2 Our selves will be __________________. In my case, it will be me, myself - Mark - who will be resurrected, who will receive a new body. Same for you. Not some reconstruction. Not some start-over version of you. Not some recording of you. Not some backup of you. You! Resurrection does not mean eliminating the old self, but transforming it. That’s why we use the word “redemption.” You don’t “redeem” something that is started from scratch. Rather, you redeem something already in existence.
Putting On The New
1 Corinthians 15:53 ESV
For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.
Description of Resurrection Bodies
1 Corinthians 15:42-44 NIV
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 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.
Resurrected Description #1
________________________________ Some use this to support the idea of a spiritual, etherial heavenly existence. But this nullifies the use of “body.” In every case it is raised as a “body.” In this case a “spiritual” body. From v. 45-49, this seems to have a lot more to do with the contrast between the body of earth versus the body of heaven, rather than the “spirit” inside.
Resurrected Description #2
_______________________________ a body that doesn’t wear out, that doesn’t decay, doesn’t get sick, doesn’t break down. This is why the Bible goes on to write: “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” On earth, it’s “dust to dust,” but our heavenly stuff will be imperishable.
Resurrected Description #3
_______________________ There’s a lot about our physical bodies now that aren’t very honorable. We are broken, prone to sinfulness. Not in heaven. Our new bodies will be able to perfectly bring glory to God!
Resurrected Description #4
________________________ We suffer from all kinds of weakness now. The older, the sicker, the more weak we become. Our resurrected bodies will be powerful in ways we can’t even imagine now!
Resurrected Description #5
_________________________ You want to know what your resurrected body will be like, then just read about Jesus’ resurrection because we are told that our heavenly, resurrected, redeemed bodies will be like his!
Like the Heavenly Man
1 Corinthians 15:49 NIV
And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man.
Like Jesus' Body!
Philippians 3:20-21 ESV
But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.
Interview with Rachel Barr
Rachel suffers from a genetic disorder known as Neurofibromatosis, or NF1 for short. She has suffered 6 leg operations and still needs a 7th. Listen to her story and her testimony. Why is Romans 8:23 so special to her?
My Response
Is there a prayer request you would like to share with Pastor Mark? Is there another response you have to today's talk? Pastor Mark would love to hear from you!
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