Getting the Body You've Always Wanted - Part B

The body that you and I have now is made for this environment. And this environment only. We can handle 14 pounds of pressure per square inch.

That's it. You can't go under the sea, you can't go up into the heavens, unless you're in a pressurized cabin or suit. You're earthbound. You live in an environment of 79 to 20 oxygen to nitrogen, with 1% of varying gases.

That's what you can handle. But imagine in glory, you don't need a suit, you don't need an oxygen tank, you don't need a pressurized cabin. I believe you'll be able to move, transport very quickly, horizontally as well as vertically, as we will see in the New Jerusalem in Revelation chapter 20 and 21.

You'll be able to explore and soar, so sown in dishonor, raised in glory. If you stop and think about it, our lives depend on a very tenuous and often fragile framework known as our body. A slight change in conditions that our bodies shut down. A small invasion of a virus and our body doesn't work properly. Introduce any sort of trauma or wound and our body may cease to function.

We are actually quite fragile in these current bodies, but it won't always be that way. We'll hear more from Skip Heitzig about what our resurrected bodies will be like today here in Connect with Skip weekend edition. But before we get to that, we have a brand new resource for you this month from connectwithskip.com. We'll be asking you questions about the future and wondering, what's next?

Here's Skip Heitzig. That's a question by the way that people ask anytime there is a catastrophe, any kind of catastrophic event, causes people to ask the question, what's next? If there's a car accident that happens, well what's next? I'm going to be able to walk after this? If a disease strikes someone, what's next? Am I going to be cured? If somebody we love dies, we ask, what's next? Am I gonna be able to go on? We want to help you live with confidence, no matter what the future holds, by sending you a powerful collection of Easter weekend messages from Skip Heitzig on the hope of the resurrection.

Anything's possible. If the one who said he's gonna die and rise again died and rose again, that means all of the promises Jesus ever made are possible and can come true. That's why it's called The Living Hope. The Morning That Changed Everything with Skip Heitzig is a DVD collection of six life-changing Easter messages. And it's our thanks for your gift of $35 or more today to help connect more people to the living hope of Jesus Christ.

To give online securely, visit connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888. We'll continue today in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. So if you find your place in your Bibles, we'll catch up with Skip Heitzig as he begins today's study. Now let's move on to the last section of this, and that is the declarations that he makes. Two questions, three illustrations, four declarations as he contrasts this body with the resurrected body. Verse 42, so also is the resurrection of the dead.

Here's the first declaration. The body is sown in corruption. It is raised in incorruption. Now we've figured that out by now. We deteriorate, have you noticed that? Over time we deteriorate.

Even the healthiest people weaken over time. I was looking at a picture of Jack LaLanne the other day. Do you know that he is almost 94 years old? And you know what, he looks really good. But Jack LaLanne, the godfather of fitness, almost 94, he looks good. But he doesn't look as good as Jack LaLanne used to look. So I've heard people as they look at his picture, boy, this is what they say, he looks good for 94. Now if he looked like he does today at 34, people wouldn't say he looks all that good.

Here's the point, even the healthiest people weaken over time and that deterioration, that corruption, we go, I see it. I remember graphically what it was like when I would visit my parents and then the visits would lengthen in time. I wouldn't see them for a long time and I remember visiting them after a long time away. And my brother was there and he turned to me and goes, have you noticed how old mom and dad are starting to look?

See, now our kids are saying that about us, you don't know it but they're doing that. Or you look at an old picture of yourself, right? And you notice the difference and once you get over that, I can't believe I had that hairdo back then in the 80s or that shirt, you know, when you get past that, you just look at the difference of how you look physically.

It's quite a difference. I was speaking to a buddy last week. He goes to this fellowship and Al was telling me that he was dropping his kids off for a sporting event and he was picking them up later on and as he went in to pick up his girls, he walked into the room where all the kids were, up against one side of the wall and he looked at the group and he noticed an older, rounder man and he thought, that looks weird, looks out of place. He goes, he thought in his mind, who's the old fat guy? He said, as I looked across the room, I noticed that the kids were up against a mirror. It was me. I was looking across the room and I saw the kids and in their midst, my reflection, the old fat guy was me, he said. He said, what a wake up call that was.

Sown in corruption, raised in corruption. You know that in glory, no one will ever comment on your age. You know, you start getting comments by people after a certain year. Boy, you're looking really good. I think I never said that when you were 20. You're looking really good. It's like, yeah, for your age, nobody will ever comment on, boy, the years are taking their toll on you. In fact, get this, you ready?

In 20 million years, you'll look better then you do right now. Hallelujah for that. Look down at verse 53, for this corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption and this mortal has put on immortality, that's your physical resurrection, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory. Oh death, where is your sting? Oh Hades, where is your victory? Now look at the second declaration made by Paul in our verses. It is sown in dishonor, that is shame. It is raised in glory, verse 43. There is nothing majestic about a dead body.

In fact, just the opposite. When a person dies, they quickly put a sheet over the body to hide the gaping, gazing, staring eyes. To look at the shame. When a person expires, when a person dies, they lose all muscle function.

I mean all muscle function. It would be like the most embarrassing moment of your life if you were alive. It's shameful, there's a disgrace. And so the body is covered up immediately. It's not a flattering event. I mean we get embarrassed now when people see us without makeup or, you know, I don't have the right tan, I don't wanna wear shorts, I'll wait.

You know, all of that stuff. When you die, they see it all. And so we are sown in shame, dishonor.

We're raised in glory. The body that you and I have now is made for this environment, and this environment only. We can handle 14 pounds of pressure per square inch, that's it. You can't go under the sea, you can't go up into the heavens unless you're in a pressurized cabin or suit. You're earthbound.

You live in an environment of 79 to 20 oxygen to nitrogen with 1% of variant gases. That's what you can handle. But imagine in glory, you don't need a suit, you don't need an oxygen tank, you don't need a pressurized cabin. I believe you'll be able to move, transport very quickly, horizontally as well as vertically, as we will see in the New Jerusalem in Revelation chapter 20 and 21. You'll be able to explore and soar, and so sown in dishonor, raised in glory. That's the second declaration, here's the third. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power.

That's the third contrast. I get more impressed with how susceptible we are, how vulnerable we are. You know, on one hand, we can get pretty strong and we can withstand an auto accident, we can lift weights and live through a lot, and yet, one single germ were flat on our backs.

One little microbe were wiped out. I read an article just the other day about allergies in the United States of America, and they say that we are actually weakening our children's immune systems year by year by keeping them away from germs that you and I were exposed to when we were kids. And what they said is, if you want to stop allergies, then start exposing your kids to pets and dirt early, because the scientists are telling us that you program a child's immune system early on. That's when you program it.

And if you don't program it right, they'll develop allergies later on. It's amazing how weak and susceptible and vulnerable we can become. If you've never read the book by Joni Eareckson Tada called Heaven, I recommend it to you. Now, here's a lady who was paralyzed at a young age, early adult life or teenage life from a diving accident. She's paralyzed from the neck down. She's a strong believer.

Wonderful woman. She's had a long time to think about her glorified resurrected body. In one of her classic moments in the book, she writes this, One day, no more bulging middles or balding tops, no varicose veins, no crow's feet, no more cellulite or support hose, forget thunder thighs and highway hips. I would never say that.

Only a woman could write those words. And she continues, Just a quick leapfrog over the tombstone and it's the body you've always dreamed of, fit, trim, smooth and sleek. Sounds pretty good, doesn't it? That's an extreme makeover, the resurrection. Look at the last contrast, the last declaration, verse 44. It is sown a natural body. It is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body and there is a spiritual body. Now, please don't misunderstand it.

Because some people will read that verse and misread it and go, Aha, I knew it. See, we do continue only as a spirit after death. Here we have a physical body, then it will be spiritual.

Please finish reading that little phrase. Why do you emphasize the adjective and not the noun? The adjective is spiritual, the noun is what? Body. It's a body, but it's spiritual. But it's a body that denotes form, function, physicality. You see, your resurrected body will be spiritual, just like we refer to this book as a spiritual book. It doesn't mean it's not real.

It's non-corporeal, it's immaterial. It's a real physical book, but it's spiritually oriented. It's spiritual in nature. It's dominated by the things of the Spirit. We talk about a person being a spiritual person. It doesn't mean that they lack physicality.

It just means that they're spiritually dominated. So you have a natural body dominated by the flesh in this life. You'll have a supernatural, that's a better translation, body in the resurrection, dominated by the things of the Spirit.

Not susceptible to temptation, not susceptible to sin, but a spiritual body. Well, this then is the body you've always dreamed of. This is eternal. This is the extreme makeover. This is heavenly Botox. This is eternal liposuction. This is a forever physique. That's the resurrected body.

A couple quick questions to tag at the end of this. What about an infant or an elderly person? If a guy dies at 108, will he look 108 forever? Would that not be like the ultimate bummer? Or an infant to always stay an infant? Or somebody who loses a limb to be that way in the resurrection? I don't believe so.

Now, let me take you back. When God first created Adam, and so here you have placed in the garden a fully-grown, prime-age adult. The next day, how old was Adam? One day old, right? Did he look one day old? Did he look like a baby? Did he look like an infant? No, he looked like a full-grown adult in the prime of his life.

He had a parent age, right? Okay, now go to our bodies now. Our DNA in our cells work such that you reach a certain developmental peak and then it's all downhill after that. There's anabolic growth.

When anabolic growth is exceeded by catabolic growth, break down. Right before that peak, that's your prime. That's your prime. We don't know exactly when that is. It's somewhere between your 20s and your 30s. There's debate on that. I remember when I was in college in medical training and I was 19 going on 20, and one doctor said, you are right now at your peak development. It's all downhill after this.

I thought, get him away from me. But it is true. There's a peak, and I believe that in the resurrection that each person will be at their peak genetic development as the genetic code in you, your peak in life. So I don't think you'll forever be an infant or a preemie or an old person. As it says in Revelation 21, the old order of things has passed away.

Everything's new. A second question that comes up is cremation. And I get this question asked me a lot and more and more because now 30% of Americans cremate their loved ones after death for environmental reasons or for personal emotional reasons or for economic reasons.

And it creeps other people out. I remember doing a funeral. Well, as we were putting one corpse in the ground, 20 feet away there was a crematorium roaring with its fires, burning up.

It was really kind of a weird experience. So what about it? What about cremating and the resurrection? Well, if you look in the Old Testament and the New Testament, the Bible seems to favor burial.

It always does. It talks about burying people. And that's because that was their statement of faith of I believe in the resurrection of the dead. Just as I am planting this person in the ground, I believe that person will be raised. You see, it was the pantheistic and the pagan cultures that burned the dead. And that's the illustration here.

A seed goes into the ground. Now, having said that, okay, let's push that aside from having said that. Don't for a minute think that it's too hard for God to resurrect a cremated person or that you get demerits if you're cremated. You know what happens when a person dies? All of them decay. You dig up a corpse in 100 years, it doesn't look any different than somebody who's been cremated. Cremation will do in three hours what it takes nature 30 years to do.

It just speeds up the process. But none of this nonsense like, but then what about the resurrection? How has God and the guys are like over all the whole state?

Do you see how silly that is? Isn't your God the creator? Can't the creator be the resurrector? You think it's any harder for God to resurrect molecules than to make people in the first place? Right? If you can believe the first verse of the Bible, the rest is pretty easy.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. He can do that. I think he can pull off resurrection, don't you? So what a ride we're in for.

What a future. A year ago, just a little over a year ago, I sat at my mother's bedside as she was in a very debilitated, deteriorating condition physically just before she died. She was always on her feet, always vibrant, always cooking breakfast, always happy, always laughing, but not this time. This time she was dying. I sat at her bedside and all of the boys were there. She reached such a debilitated state physically that she could not even respond at all.

And her breathing was labored and you could hear the choking going on and the lungs filling with fluid and I'm watching and hearing and monitoring. I got to read scripture to her in those final hours. And I remember I said to her, Mom, you know, we're all here and we all love you. She couldn't respond. But what was amazing to me is she responded to the next statement I made. It's like she mustered up all of the strength to respond to this statement.

After I said, you know, we love you, no response. I said, Mom, you know, Jesus loves you. All of the strength, she gave that final approval. She went nodding her head up and down.

I know that. And I thought of the resurrection. I thought, this is the last time I'll ever see Mom in that condition. Next time I see her, it won't be in dishonor. It'll be in honor. It won't be in corruption.

It'll be in incorruption and glory. And what a body she will have and you will have and no wonder, Paul says, we don't sorrow like people who have no hope. And our hope isn't to be disembodied spirits. Our hope is to be resurrected beings, body joined with soul.

The same body, but very different, as different as a seed and a flower are different. So if I were to go back to the poll that was asked, what is the one thing in your life you want to change? I hope the answer would be something like, I want to invest in something that will outlast me.

I want to invest in something that will outlast me. Everybody dies. Everybody. So far, isn't that the truth? There's just only been a couple of exceptions in the Bible that we read about. Everybody dies, everybody will be resurrected. Now the flip side of all that we've talked about this week and the last few weeks is that unbelievers will also be resurrected and given bodies that will be suitable to endure everlasting torment. Even as you will be given bodies to endure everlasting, not endure, enjoy everlasting life. So it means that right here in this interim time, we put all of our, stack all of our hopes and marvels in just this life. This is where we make choices that really matter forever. If you haven't made a choice to follow Jesus Christ, to have your sins forgiven, and to let him give you the package deal, which is a lot more than just temporary peace and joy and purpose, the package deal is all that we've been talking about.

It's only just begun. Well, let me just echo Skip's exhortation for you to make that decision to follow Christ. Eternity doesn't wait for us to be ready and it could be upon us at any moment. That's just about all the time we have for today.

But before we go, here's more info on this month's Connect with Skip resource offer. It's pretty obvious that this world is filled with imperfect people and that's on purpose. God is into restoring human beings.

You know, he could make perfect people and then populate heaven with perfect people, but he doesn't do that. He takes people who are dinged up, who've been beat up, bruised by time, damaged by sin, and he does a full resto job on them. Complete restoration. Celebrate the joy and beauty of redemption with The Morning That Changed Everything with Skip Heitzig. This DVD collection of six hope-filled Easter weekend messages is our thanks to you when you give $35 or more today to help connect more people to God's Word and the redeeming love of Jesus Christ.

Restoration is based on redemption and redemption is tied to resurrection. To give, call 800-922-1888 or give online securely at connectwithskip.com slash offer. And also at connectwithskip.com, you can get a copy of all 17 messages at our Edge of Eternity series.

It's only $39 plus shipping. Find out more at connectwithskip.com or by calling 1-800-922-1888. And join us again next time here in Connect with Skip Weekend Edition as Skip Heitzig tackles the very sensitive and emotional subject of what happens when babies die. That's next time here in Connect with Skip Weekend Edition, a presentation of Connection Communications. Make a connection, make a connection at the foot of the cross and cast your burdens on His Word. Make a connection, a connection, a connection. Connecting you to God's never changing truth in ever changing times.