Do You Live Your Life As A Christian That Has Eternal Life?

Voice over - We're all part of a culture. We're born into it. We learn from it and we acclimate with a sign. I guess this is as good as it gets, but when we make the decision to follow Jesus and live from his perspective, everything changes. Suddenly, we're going against the flow. And sure, that often means living differently from popular culture, but sometimes it means living differently from Christian culture, too. We're looking at the Book of First Corinthians to discover the full life that comes when we live counter to culture and follow Jesus against the flow.

Paul:
I'm glad to see you today to be with you on this topic, but I just have to tell you that I don't like to talk about death. Am I the only one? Y'all like talking about death?

Yeah, I don't either. I don't mind talking about the Dallas Cowboys, although that does feel like 25 successive deaths over the last 25 years. And I'm not talking about the rising price of used cars. Because I looked for two months and finally found one that wasn't astronomical this past week, thankfully. I can talk to you about my favorite Mexican food restaurants. We went last night to one of those with our grandkids. So I can talk to you about a lot of those things, but I'm not that keen on talking about death. I remember several years before my mom died at the tender age of 93, she wanted to talk about her will. And about every time we got together, she just wanted to talk about that will one more time. And I'd love to say that I was so mature that I said “of course.” Instead, what I said almost every time was, “Do we have to? Mom, I know there are other topics, do we have to talk about it? Because it meant that I had to acknowledge the fact that she was going to die. It's not that I thought she wouldn't. I just didn't want to talk about it.

Am I the only one? Or do you not like to talk about death either? If you're like me and you don't like it, I know why we avoid it. I mean, this life is all we've known, and quite honestly, some of it—maybe much of it—has been really good. We don't like the idea of that changing. We love a number of people and are loved by a number of people. And we're not keen on those relationships ending, as we understand them, on earth. And we wonder what will happen at that moment of death, just on the other side. And sometimes that wonder turns to worry. And so I put out a survey this week on social media asking this question, what do you think will happen to you when you die?

I gave five options and here they are. Option one: I will cease to exist. Now on the survey, I did not add what the philosophical term is for each one of these, but I will cease to exist is just called naturalism. There's nature, and there's nothing more. There is flesh, but there's no spirit, and when you die, it's over.

Option two: I will become a ghost or an angel. Spiritualism. There's spirit, but no more body.

Option three: I will come back in another life form, reincarnation.

Option four: I will be with God who will one day give me a new body for eternity. That's called the biblical doctrine of resurrection.

And then number five: I'm not sure, I try not to think about death. Technically, philosophically, that's called denial. And here's the picture in the dictionary beside denial.

Now, the reality is, because I put this out on our church's Facebook pages, most people answered number four. I believe that I will be raised one day. But several private replies came back saying I know the Christian answer, but sometimes I'm not sure it's true. And thank you for those responses. I think most of us, if we'd known that was an option, would have put that in as our response too. I know the answer is “Jesus,” but sometimes it feels like it's something else.

So no matter how you answered that question, I wanted to tell you today that there are two realities facing you. The first, you will die. The second, you will then find out at that moment of death which one of these is true. One, you only live once. Or two, you actually live forever. You only live once, Y-O-L-O. YOLO is the worldview of Western culture. Why is that so popular? Well, as I've already hinted at, the pleasures of life are pretty fun. And if you can arrange your life in such a way that you get pleasure after pleasure after pleasure, without addiction, good luck.

Pleasure after pleasure after pleasure without addiction, then really who wants life after death? Because this life's pretty good. I think it's popular because death seems not just inevitable, but so final. I mean, every funeral is a testimony to prayers that we asked for someone to keep living, and those prayers weren't answered the way we wanted. And at every funeral, I feel the pressure, I know Jim does too. Everybody wishes that we pastors had this miraculous power to raise back up that dead person, let everybody go home as a complete family unit, but of course, as you know, in all those funerals, what happens is that those who die, stay dead, and the family leaves without them.

Add to that, to the fact that we have bought into the scientific assumption that death is the end. That life after death cannot be tested by the scientific method. And add to that the vast ignorance of the Bible in our culture. Well no wonder YOLO is such an important belief from people today.

The question is, is that what Jesus taught? Is that what the Apostle Paul taught? Is that what Christians believe? Do you remember what we just sang not five minutes ago, here are the words that you sang a moment ago. “I believe in the resurrection, that we will rise again.” That is the teaching of Christianity on this topic. It comes from the Apostles’ Creed that says, "I believe in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting." So which is it? You only live once? Or you actually live forever?

Well today we're going to dive into 1 Corinthians 15, the most comprehensive answer to that question in the whole New Testament, where the Apostle Paul talks all about two topics: one, Jesus' resurrection and second, our resurrection.
Let's start with Jesus' resurrection, about the first half of this chapter deals with that. And in this chapter, Paul talks about three things related to the resurrection of Jesus. Here's the first:

Jesus' resurrection was a real event in time and space. Now when I say “real event in time and space,” or space and time, I'm contrasting that with the fairytale approach. When we read a fairytale to our kids, it says “once upon a time.” Modern fairytales say, “in a galaxy far, far away.” And when we hear those phrases, we know oh, that's not real space. That's a different geography. That's not real time, that's a different calendar. That's a different timeline. And the truth is, that when you turn to the biographies of real people, they're not once upon a time, they say so-and-so was born to these parents at this time in this place. And they died and were buried at this time and in this place.

And so when you read the story of Jesus in the gospels in the New Testament, you realize that they treat him as a biography, as a human, and not as a fairytale. That is, he really was born and lived and died and was buried and was raised in a certain place in a certain time in real space and time. Which means then that Jesus' life and his resurrection are not once upon a time with a different geography and a different chronology than we know. No, no, it was once right in the middle of time. So much so that we can say in the month of Nisan, the Jewish month of Nisan, right about the time of April in about 30 AD, just outside the city gates of Jerusalem, this man was crucified, and the third day, he was raised.

Here's how the Apostle Paul wrote it, beginning in verse three.

“I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the
Scriptures said. He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said. He was seen by Peter and then by the Twelve. After that, by more than 500 of his followers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then by James and later by all the apostles.”

And the coup de grâce. “And last of all, as though I had been born at the wrong time. I also saw him.”

What he's saying is that the proof of the resurrection is that hundreds of people saw this man, who had been dead, alive again later and thousands upon thousands of people believe their report because they seemed like credible witnesses, not crazy psychopaths. As Paul goes through the list, he starts with Peter who just denied Jesus a few days earlier, to whom Jesus appeared Sunday morning at the empty tomb. Then he says the Twelve and he's referring to Sunday night in the upper room. Then he refers to 500. He's talking about in Galilee a few weeks later when Jesus gave the great commission. In fact, Paul says, tongue in cheek, and by the way, most of those are still alive. So if you want to talk to them, go find them. They're not hiding. Then he says James, one of the brothers of Jesus, who doubted until after the resurrection. Jesus appeared to his family.

And from our records, we discover that all the family became followers of Jesus, including James, his brother, who became a leader in a Jerusalem church. Then he says, “later by all the apostles,” which of course means at Jesus' Ascension when he went back to heaven as Acts chapter one tells us. And then finally, Paul says, “as if I had been born at the wrong time,” he finally appeared to me, Saul, on the Damascus road. I the persecutor, met Christ.

And so, the resurrection, Paul is saying here, is a real event, hundreds of eyewitnesses, thousands believed their report.
Second thing about Jesus' resurrection. It is the guarantee of our resurrection. Now Paul uses three arguments here to prove his point. I think all of them carry a certain amount of weight. The first is this. He argues from reason. Let's check this out in verses 12 and 13. “But tell me this—since we preach that Christ rose from the dead, why are some of you saying that there will be no resurrection of the dead? For if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ hasn't been raised either.”
His argument is this. Some of the Corinthian Christians said well, of course we believe Jesus was raised. We know that. But we have Christian friends in our church who died, and they weren't raised. They're still in the ground. And so, our conclusion is, Jesus was raised. No one else is ever going to be raised.

And Paul said wait a minute. You made the mistake of thinking that Jesus, because he's the only one raised right now, is the only resurrection that will ever occur. You missed it. He's not the only, he's the first, and there will be many later. If God was powerful enough to raise one man from the dead, then surely it's logical that God's powerful enough to raise others from the dead. And he goes on. You can't say that dead people won't be raised one day if you say Jesus was raised, because he was dead and he was raised. So it's going to happen again.

Second argument. The argument experience, from Christian experience. He begins in verse 17. “And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless and you're still guilty of your sins. In that case, all who have died believing in Christ are lost. And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world.” What he's saying is if Jesus wasn't raised, then his claim to be the Son of God is false. And everything he taught was a lie. And his death was not the sacrificial death of the Son of God for our sins. In fact, you're lost in your sins. He was just a guy who died, has nothing to do with you. And your faith is useless because if his resurrection was a hoax, then the stupidest thing you can do is follow somebody who you know wasn't raised. Just give up on Christianity, just go the other direction, eat, drink, and be merry because tomorrow you may die. You only live once.

Paul's third and final argument about Jesus' resurrection being the guarantee of our resurrection is my favorite. It's one that makes the most sense to me. And this is argument from nature, found in verse 20, it reads like this. “But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. He is the first of a great harvest of all who have died.”

I love apples. I usually eat one a day. I also go see the doctor, but I usually eat one apple a day. Ate one yesterday, about six o'clock, right after dinner. I usually like cheese slices or peanut butter with it. I think it's a small taste of heaven. Sweet apples, Fuji apples, peanut butter or cheese. I'm good either way.

Now apples generally are harvested in September, but there's not a day or a time when everybody goes, “Oh, it's time for apple harvest.” But you can see on this tree, it's ready to harvest. Every apple on there, they're all ready. But there was a time when only one of those apples was red and ripe, and all the others were on their way. And that's exactly what the apple harvester is looking for. That's what the orchard owner is looking for. Not all the tree's ready, not at the stroke of a clock, but one ripe apple. Because if you get one ripe apple, in time, you're going to get them all. That's not true just for apples. That's true for wheat. One head of grain ready, in time, they'll all be ready. True of corn. True of tomatoes. True of anything you grow, when you see one that's ready, you're coming up on harvest season. So get all your ducks in a row. Christ has been raised. He is the first in the resurrection harvest.

And all the rest of us who know him, one day, will be raised. Now you can see why this was a problem for the Corinthians, why Paul had to argue this way. Because they knew Jesus was raised 20 years ago when they received this letter. The problem wasn't that they doubted that. The problem was they'd watched all their Christian friends die and they watched them still in the ground and not raised up. And that bothered them. And we’ve been waiting 2000 years now. And we ask, well, when are we going to rise again? Good question. Wait for it. It's a little bit later in the message. So Jesus' resurrection is the guarantee of our resurrection.

Third, Jesus' resurrection will one day mean the death of death. In these next few verses, Paul begins to line out what Jesus' resurrection means to the end of time, let's begin in verse 23. “But there is an order to this resurrection.” Now he's going to start using chronological words like then and when. “Christ was raised as the first of the harvest, then all who belong to Christ will be raised when he comes back. After that the end will come, when he will turn the kingdom over to God the Father, having destroyed every ruler and authority and power. For Christ must reign until he humbles all his enemies beneath his feet. And the last enemy to be destroyed is death. Then, when all things are under his authority, the Son will put himself under God's authority so that God, who gave his Son authority over all things, will be utterly supreme over everything everywhere.”
Here's Paul's chronology his order of events. First, Jesus was raised about 30 AD in Jerusalem, first of the harvest. Next, Jesus will return. We don't know when, but he will return. Then, we will all be raised. All Christians of all times from every culture, from every era and every generation. If you knew Jesus, you will be raised. Then, Jesus will defeat all of his enemies, the greatest of which, that we have always feared, is death. And finally the kingdom of God will come on earth as it is in heaven, as Isaiah prophesies, there'll be a new heaven and a new earth. As John the Revelator prophesied at the end of the last book of the Bible, there will be a new Jerusalem. And friends, it is going to be an eternity of love and laughter, an eternity of music and of meaningful service and productive work. It will be an incredible eternity of creativity and rest.

Please don't think of heaven and of all eternity as being one long church service, dear God, please save us. As one of Jim's and my favorite author says, "We should not think of ourselves as being caught in an everlasting church service. No, we should think of our destiny as being absorbed in a tremendously creative team effort." All of us as followers of Jesus, working together. "With unimaginably splendid leadership." Father, Son, and Spirit, good leaders. "On an inconceivably vast plain of activity." You're not going to be sitting on some cloud, playing a violin or something like that, believe me. You will have meaningful work, more meaningful than you have ever had in this life. "With ever more comprehensive cycles of productivity and enjoyment."
I showed that to my schoolteacher daughter yesterday, she goes, “Man, I'd hate to diagram that sentence!” That's the way philosophers talk, and Dallas Willard's a philosopher. But he's helping us see that in the end there's going to be so far beyond what we can comprehend. And now he's already bled over, Paul the Apostle has, hasn't he, from this first topic, Jesus' resurrection, into the second topic, our resurrection.

So let's look at it because in this second topic, our resurrection, Paul raises three questions and answers three questions that inquiring Christian minds always want to know.

Here's the first. What will our new bodies be like? Beginning in verse 35, Paul starts to answer. “But someone may ask, how will the dead be raised? Or here's the question, what kind of bodies will they have? What a foolish question. When you put a seed into the ground, it doesn't grow into a plant unless it dies first. And what you put in the ground is not the plant that will grow, but only a bare seed of wheat or whatever you're planting. Then God gives it the new body he wants it to have.”

Let's go back to the farming analogy, okay? What you put in the ground doesn't look like what you harvest. Corn kernels. They don’t look like the full ear on the stalk. Now, I know they're alike. They're both corn. But they look different. And that's what Paul's getting at. When what is planted, including when our bodies are planted, comes up, it looks very different.

Let's follow up with Paul beginning in verse 42. “It is the same way with the resurrection of the dead. Our earthly bodies are planted in the ground when we die…” and he's going to make four contrasts. Here's the first one. “…but they will be raised to live forever.”

Second, our “bodies are buried in brokenness, but they will be raised in glory.”

Third, they're buried in weakness, and we know what this is—cancer diagnosis, body shape that we can't stand and we don't know how to change, teenage acne, you name it, we know what it is to have a body of weakness. “Buried in weakness but raised in strength.”

Fourth, buried as natural human bodies, but raised as spiritual bodies. Why? Why do we have to be changed? Here's why. Our physical bodies cannot inherit the kingdom of God. These dying bodies cannot inherit what will last forever. Now your earthly body is going to die. I know it. We don't like to talk about it, but one day God will give you a new body and there will be similarities and differences. The similarity is they're both the real you.

I mean, this is the real me. I tell my wife all the time, “Honey, my hair was always my friend, now it's running away from me as fast as it can.” And I’ve got wrinkles I never had and bags under my eyes. I need a bagectomy. I mean, I don't know how much more my body's going to change, but a lot, no doubt. But Denise and the people that love me, they love the real me. And the people that love you, love the real you. They know who the real you is, and so do you. One day, after you die, and Jesus gives you a new body, it's the real you that will be animating that body.

But there's of course going to be a huge difference. Because this body gets sick and ages and dies. And that new body will not get sick and will not age and will not die. And that new body will be as perfectly fitted for the new heavens and the new earth as this body was fitted for this earth. Now of course you may be thinking, okay, Paul, what if Jesus returns 500 years after I die? And you're already running through the machinations in your mind. Okay, so if I'm cremated, and I ended up in some urn on someone's mantle in their home, and someone accidentally knocks it over. And then when they pick it up, some of the dust there stays down in the carpet, then it gets vacuumed. And then the vacuum goes out in the trash. All the dirt does. Now that's going to go to the county trash heap. Paul, who in the world, how is Jesus going to put me all together again, if that happens?
Or, you may say wait a minute, Paul, it's worse. I think that probably my remains are going to be spread all over these mountains and rivers. They're going to go back into the ecosystem. How is Jesus going to put me back together one day? Or if you say, forget that. I'm going to be buried. I'm going to be buried in a million dollar casket. Great. In 500 years, you might not look real good. How's Jesus going to get you looking good again?

And what if a catastrophe happens and you're buried in a mass grave? And you're thinking, oh no, my body's going to rot in the ground. Some plant is going to grow on top of me one day, someone's going to eat a tomato that came from the dirt that had my remains in it. That's enough to gag a maggot. So how can Jesus find all of my ashes or bones to give me a new body? How can Jesus put me together again?

Well, relax. Because your resurrection will not involve the reconstitution of your original molecules into a new body. Jesus is not going to go find all of the atoms that have ever been in your body and make sure they come back together. First off, about every 5 to 10 years, 98% of our bodily molecules are switched out for a new set. So, if Jesus is going to go do that, he's got to find your seven-year-old you or your 14-year-old you, or your 21... 21 sounds good. Jesus, let me look 21 forever. He says, how silly.

No, no, no. Your resurrection will happen because the God who adopted you in this world in time and space, as his child will remember you and hold you until it's time to give you a new body for the new world to come. How could Jesus possibly forget you? He created you in your mother's womb. How can God possibly forget you? He adopted you and knows you and loves every time you've called him Abba. And every time he gets to call you son or daughter. How could God possibly forget you? Jesus died for you. And you said yes to him. How can God possibly forget you? The Holy Spirit lives within you. How is God going to forget you? He is not going to forget you. He will hold onto you. Our hope is not that God will know where our body parts are at the end of the time, our hope is that God will know us and hold us and recreate us. Great question. Great answer from the New Testament.

Second question. When does all this happen? When will we get our new bodies? Well, Paul doesn't answer it in detail, but he starts it in verse 51. And he says, “But let me reveal to you a wonderful secret. We will not all die, but we will all be transformed. It will happen in a moment in the blink of an eye when the last trumpet is blown. For when the trumpet sounds, those who have died will be raised to live forever. And we who are living will also be transformed.” So if you're alive when Christ returns, you don't have to die. You're given a brand new body. Zap, you got it. If you're dead when Christ returns, you've already died, he gives you a brand new body. Either way, you get a new body, Jesus, doesn't forget you. How could he?

Then you may be asking, okay, Paul, what about my mom or dad? They died in the last 8 or 10 years. Do they have their resurrection bodies already because it's not the end of time yet. And do they have to wait until Jesus returns? And if they do, then what are they now? Are they a spirit? Are they a ghost? Are they hanging around my house sometimes? Disembodied weirdness? What is it? And all I'll tell you is this: They are with Christ. “Today you'll be with me in paradise.” “To live is Christ. To die is gain.” “To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.” They are with Christ. They're being held by his power until the final day when he returns and establishes the new heavens and the new earth, and they receive their new bodies forever and ever.

Now up till now, everything we've been talking about concerns a “sweet by and by.” And you would be well within your rights to say, “Is there anything applicable to my life today?” And the answer is yes. It is Paul's third question. And it's very practical. He says, how can this promise help me today? And in the last verse, the last two sentences, he answers the question. And here's what he says. “So my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable. Always work enthusiastically for the Lord for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless.”

That is his conclusion to everything he said in 1 Corinthians 15 about Jesus' resurrection and our resurrection. It's simply this. If God is going to remember you when you die, and Christ will return one day and give you a new body, then your future is secure. And so is your present. So just go about serving people like Jesus did. Just find whoever's in front of you and love them in the name of Christ. Serve them in the name of Christ. Because everything we do in the name of Jesus is not in vain. It's not useless. It's not worthless. It will last forever.

Be faithful today. I mean, imagine the final day when Christ returns and we're all raised to these bodies that will last for eternity. And you find out right then that every prayer you ever prayed, and every baby that you ever held or fed or changed, and every honest day of work that you gave, and every missionary you supported, and every troubled person that you listened to, and every vow that you kept, imagine you finding that all of those were received by God, with the heart that you gave them. And he says, “Those last for eternity. I receive every one of those because I know they come from your heart. And I received them, not in vain, but as a change for all of eternity in history.” Now what a day that will be.

I know that all of you have your favorite movies you like to watch 2, 3, 4, 10 times. I heard the other day about somebody who's watched the Sound of Music 235 times. Really? I could spell Liesl if I'd watched it that many times. And we have our favorite books, a novel that maybe we've read two times, three times, we just love it. Or a story that we tell our kids. The nature of those stories that we love is that the meaning is never found at the beginning. It's never found in the middle. It's always found over here at the end. And until you get to the end, you don't know the meaning.

So, what's your end? What's your end? This old body's going to give up one day and that's it? Or this old body is going to give up one day, and then God almighty holds you in his arms and his mind and his memory until the moment is right. And Jesus gives you forever, the body you've longed for. At the end of the Chronicles of Narnia, end of volume seven, The Last Battle, CS Lewis says it best, "And for us, this is the end of all the stories, but for Peter and for Susan, for Edmond and for Lucy, it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world, and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page. Now at last, they were beginning chapter one of a great story, which no one on earth has read, which goes on forever and ever. And in which every chapter is better than the one before."

You only live once is not an innocent little popular worldview, it's an insult to God who eternally made you for himself. It's an insult to you because God made you eternally for himself and for all of his children.

One day you will receive a new body, and you will live forever. It will be perfectly suited to that next world. And let me tell you, you don't want to miss it. And you don't have to miss it. Because it's Jesus who makes all things new. Now, and forever, and he's available to all. And so to me, the question is, do you believe in this Jesus? I'm talking to people in church, so I know the answer is going to be a presumptive “oh, of course.” But I'm not asking if you believe he lived, of course you believe he lived. Virtually everyone who's done any study at all, or any research or has an education, knows of course, Jesus lived. Even atheists acknowledge that. I'm not asking if you think he lived or if he was ever a historic individual,

I'm asking, do you believe that this Jesus is who he said he is? That he is the Son of God. That he is the King of all kings. And that he is putting together the end of time, just like he's putting together this time. And he will lead us into that. It's all of one cloth. It's not like we try to follow Jesus a little bit here, go to church a little bit here, check off something here. And then one day, thank God, we get into heaven.

No, no, no. It's Christ who is our life, now in part, and one day will be our life in full. They're always together. So do you believe in this Jesus? That word belief is an interesting word because we always show what we believe by our actions. For example, when you came in here today, you found a seat and you sat down, I'm sure you did not debate with yourself, will this chair hold me? You knew it would. And the proof that you believed it is that you sat in it. You didn't even think.

When I say, do you believe in Jesus? I'm asking, does your life show that the most important person in your life, the most important priority in your life, is Jesus and his kingdom. Now I'm not talking here about perfection. I'm talking about the direction of your life. Do you believe in Jesus? If you do, thank God. Thank God, and keep living into him, and keep looking forward to that last day. But you may not believe in Jesus. That is, you believe he exists, but you may never have given your life to him. I know there are people at Preston Trail online and McKinney and Frisco who on a regular basis are thinking about giving their lives to Jesus. And if you're one of those, then I would simply ask you today to do this, would you think about Christ?

I know you've thought about him before, but would you think about him again? Would you think about him as this coming King who one day will give to the world exactly what the world needs as he makes a new heaven and a new earth for all eternity? When you think about this Jesus and what he wants to mean to you, and what it means to serve him now, and what it means to serve him then, to love him now, to love him then, to trust him now, to trust him then. Will you think about that? I'm going to give us all some time to think about this. I'm going to ask the band to come out, and they're going to lead us in a song now, that is so beautiful. It will be a presentation song so that we can reflect as they sing. It's called There Is a King. Lots of kings, lots of presidents, lots of rulers, but there's just one who's above it all. And as you think about this, would you reflect on who this Christ is?



Recorded in Frisco, Texas.