1 Corinthians 15:20-58 - Part C

Adam sinned, brought corruption, degradation, decay. He bombed out. He was the atom bomb.

He bombed out. Jesus, and we've been radioactive ever since. Every human being in every generation. Jesus restored that and the full restoration demands a physical restoration. That's why Paul P. labors the idea of the physical resurrection. Our inherent sin means that we are corrupted. Our bodies are corrupted, but it won't be that way forever. Today on Connect with Skip Heitig, Skip shares why your future physical resurrection is necessary and what you can look forward to when it happens.

Then, stay tuned after the message as Skip and his wife, Lenya, share why we are still called to maintain the health of our present bodies. I just look at it this way. We're stewards of what God has given us.

Yeah, we're all sort of who we are by our genetics, but we can also have a part in it by our environment and choices. So, if I'm a steward of what God has given me, what can I do to make sure that I am as usable in God's hands for the longest possible time? Thanks, Skip. Be sure to stay with us after today's message to hear the full discussion. Right now, we want to tell you about a resource that will encourage you even more in your faith. Our lives rotate around crucial moments and decisions where everything changes.

We call them pivot points. Here's Skip Heitig. In this, you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials. Do you think Peter is actually saying that there are times when God knows you need a trial? Is that what he's saying? Uh-huh.

That's exactly what he's saying. You can prepare for inevitable upcoming pivot points in your life. Receive your copy of Skip's pivot points collection of six messages. The pivot point package speaks to marriage, death, depression, recovery, fear of the future, and moving to a new location or job.

This package includes a personal message of direction on each topic from Skip. The pivot points package is our thank you when you give $50 or more to this teaching ministry by calling 800-922-1888 or give online securely at connectwithskip.com slash offer. We hope you'll help us take our messages into the top 20 population centers in our country. That's our vision for the coming year. Will you help us make it happen?

Please call 800-922-1888 or give online securely at connectwithskip.com slash offer. Thank you for partnering with us. Now we're in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 as we join Skip Heitzig for today's teaching. All flesh verse 39 is not the same flesh but there's one kind of flesh of men, another of flesh of beasts, another of fish, another of birds. There are also celestial bodies that is heavenly bodies and terrestrial bodies on the earth but the glory of the celestial is one. The glory of the terrestrial is another. There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, another glory of the stars, for one star differs from another star in glory. Even as you look up into the sky at the stars, yeah, especially on a December evening, a clear December evening, if you look up and you have a telescope and somebody can show you the star Aldebaran, it will have a pink rosy hue. You look at another star Rigel, it will have a bluish tint. If you look at another star, Betelgeuse, it'll be yellowish in color. Different intensities, different temperatures, different Kelvin temperatures, so they're all beautiful but they're all different in their beauty.

They're shining with different intensities. So there's different kinds of bodies with different kinds of intensities. No, I have a thought that could deter us from finishing the chapter so I'm going to keep going.

Maybe I'll pick it up as we go. So also verse 42 is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown in corruption. It is raised in incorruption. Now you have discovered this. This is not a news flash. Our body deteriorates.

Your body reaches its peak around 20 years of age or in your 20s and goes downhill after that. Proven fact. I have a friend who said that he was with a group of kids, young people, in a venue and he noticed a bunch of kids, his kids included, down on the hallway and then he noticed this older, rotund man with graying hair next to him, next to them, standing and he thought to himself, he says, I had this thought, who's that old fat man next to all those kids? And then he discovered what he was looking at. There was a set of mirrors at the end of the room and there were his kids and the reflection and it was his reflection that he was wearing. So when he said, who's that old fat man at the end of the next to the kids?

It's like, oh, it's me. The body is sown in corruption. It is raised in incorruption. It is sown in dishonor. There's nothing majestic about a dead person. The event itself, if you could be awake to look and experience it, you're not, you're dead, but when you die, if you were conscious, you would be embarrassed. It's why we cover up a corpse when they die. There's a dishonor to that event. The way they look, when a person dies, they lose all muscle control, all of it.

And so a person will empty his bladder and bowels, et cetera. Sorry to get so graphic. That's just what happens at death. I've witnessed it a number of times. There's nothing that is, if you were, if you were, you would, oh my good.

I mean, we, some of us are so afraid to be out, get out of the house without our makeup. When you die, they're going to see it all. It's 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.

There is a natural body. There is a spiritual body. So it is written, the first man, Adam, became a living being.

The last Adam, Jesus, became a life-giving spirit. However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward, the spiritual. So he compares the natural man, or the natural body, the human physical body, when he says there is a natural body, and he compares that to a spiritual body. Now, that does not mean that the resurrected body will be non-material. That is just a spirit being. It does not mean it will be a non-corporeal. Same sort of meaning as non-material.

Don't focus on the adjective so much as the noun, not the spiritual as much as the body. It's going to be a real body. A better translation, I believe, is a supernatural body.

There is a physical body, a natural body, but you're going to get a supernatural body, a physical body, but without the limitations that you have, because you're going to be in a place, in an environment, that demands different capacities. If you wanted to go to the moon, you couldn't go to the moon unless you had a contraption. You have to have a space suit.

It has to be pressurized. You have to have the oxygen you breathe on earth transported with you to take to the moon. You couldn't live otherwise.

Well, heaven is going to be like that. I don't want to live for eternity in a space suit where I'm taking one small step for man and one giant leap for mankind. I want no limitation, but I can't survive in this body that I have. I can't survive on the moon.

I can't survive in the water unless I have something that adjusts my environment. So God is going to give you a body that is suited for the environment of heaven, because you'll be in a glorified body to be able to enjoy a glorified state. It will be a body, but a supernatural body, not a non-corporeal body or a non-material body. It'll be a real physical body. You're just going to get a makeover.

So people ask, back to this question, what is my body going to look like? What if I have a relative who's an amputee, comes to Christ, what will their body be like, or an infant, or an old person, etc.? Well, let me answer the question by going back to Genesis. When Adam was created by God, he was created as an adult. He had an apparent age, even though he had also a technical age. So when God created Adam on day one, how old was he? He was a day old. He didn't look like a day old. He looked probably like a 20-year-old, 18-year-old, I don't know, 20, it's hard to know exactly, but a full functioning adult with adult capabilities. But he had an apparent age. Now I mentioned that peak human development, peak development in your genetic structure is somewhere in your 20s.

They say between 20 and 30, I remember when I was going through medical training, they said 19, maybe it's right in your early 20s, somewhere around there. And then after that, you start going downhill. So Henry David Thoreau, the author, said every man ripens until he reaches age 20, and then he begins to rot. So that's the author, poet's way of saying what science told me years ago. So I believe your resurrected body will have your peak age capacity. So if you were born an infant, or for that matter, aborted in a womb, you won't be an embryo in heaven, you'll be a 20, 22-year-old, full functioning adult. If you died at 104 and drooled on the way out, you won't be like that in eternity, you'll be like in your 20s, full functioning adult with incredible capability. So it's interesting, Jesus, when he raised from the dead, was unrecognizable by a lot of people at first, until he did or said certain things.

Oh my goodness, it's the Lord. So yes, he bore uniquely the marks of crucifixion, and yet he had capability. So he was recognizable in one hand, but in other instances, he was not.

It's sort of hard to tell you exactly what it's going to be like, but it's going to be something like that, something like that. Verse 47, let's finish this up. The first man, Adam, the first man was of the earth made of dust. The second man is the Lord from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust. As is the heavenly man, so also are those who are heavenly. Just comparing the two bodies, the natural body and the supernatural body. And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly man. So Adam was a prototype, Jesus was a prototype in his resurrection.

We all know what physical bodies are like, we have one. That's a prototype from Adam, but our resurrected body, the prototype is Jesus' resurrected body. He's comparing once again what Adam did and what the last Adam, the second Adam, Jesus did. So Adam sinned, brought corruption, degradation, decay. He bombed out. It was the Adam bomb.

He bombed out. Jesus, and we've been radioactive ever since. Every human being in every generation. Jesus restored that and the full restoration demands a physical restoration. That's why Paul belabors the idea of the physical resurrection, the heavenly man. Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does corruption inherit incorruption.

Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. I think we should put that verse in the nursery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.

Be a good perfect scripture for that. In a moment, he's not talking about that. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, not the blinking of an eye. The blinking of an eye is a 30th of a second. The twinkling of an eye, about one ten-thousandth of a second. It's really the time it takes for light traveling at 186,000 miles per second to hit an eye and bounce back for somebody else to notice it. That's the twinkling of an eye, instantaneous. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last twinkling of a last trumpet, for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

For this corruption must put on incorruption. This mortal must put on immortality. What Paul is getting at here is the exception, because everybody's saying, look, everybody dies. People are coming back to life. Paul says, yeah, but there's a resurrection coming.

The natural next question would be, well, when that event takes place, the resurrection, what if there's living people on earth at that time? So Paul says, behold, and behold is a word to grab your attention. Behold, I want to tell you a musterion is the Greek word, a mystery. And a musterion, a mystery in the New Testament is something that was concealed in the Old Testament but revealed in the New Testament. And the mystery is of the coming of the Lord, what we typically call the rapture of the church. So 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, Paul says, I don't want you to be ignorant, brothers concerning those who have fallen asleep dead, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring those with him who have fallen asleep. For this I declare to you by the word of the Lord that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and the trumpet of God, the dead in Christ will rise first, that's bodily resurrection, that's what he's been talking about, rise first, then we who are alive and remain, people who are alive living on the earth at the time, will be caught up together with them, those who have been raised, the dead people, Christians raised, we will be caught up together with him, raptured, caught up, taken by force, and so shall we always be with the Lord.

And he concludes that by saying, yes, he concludes that by saying, therefore comfort one another with these words. So Paul's been speaking about people who are dead, getting back to life, now he's talking about people who are alive when that event happens. So two events when Jesus comes back will take place. The bodies of living saints will be transformed because this corruption must put on incorruption, and the bodies of the dead saints will be glorified, the seed that has been so on in the ground will be glorified simultaneously.

Dead in Christ will rise first, we who are alive will be caught up, raptured to meet the Lord in the air, so shall we always be with the Lord. So verse 54, let's close this chapter off. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption and this mortal has put on immortality, 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? The sting of death is sin. The strength of sin is the law. The law just accentuates the problem. The wages of sin is death. You read the law, all that thou shalt nots, and the only thing you can say is, oops, I'm in trouble.

Because reading the law reminds you that you have not kept it. And so that just makes the sin problem even worse. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. I'm going to close. You say, well that's the end of the chapter. You're done.

Not yet. I'm going to close with Daniel chapter 12. Just a couple verses.

Why? Because I want you to know, Paul wants you to know, I believe, that the resurrection is not a new, brand new thing. It's been spoken about from the Old Testament onward.

Even Daniel the prophet believed in and taught and spoke on and predicted a bodily physical resurrection. Daniel chapter 12, he says, those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake some to everlasting life, some to shame and everlasting contempt. Those who are wise shall shine, notice this, like the brightness of the firmament and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever. Could it be, just a thought, when Paul talked about, you know, there's different luminaries in the sky, different stars with different glories, they shine with different brightnesses and different colors, that he was thinking of this when he wrote that, that we will shine like the stars forever. And could it be that he had in his mind that in heaven we're all going to shine because we're going to have glorified bodies, but we're going to shine with different capacities, different intensities, depending on how faithful we were to the Lord's calling and work on this earth. Now I hope you know I'm not introducing some new foreign concept, we're all saved by grace through faith, not of works lest any man should boast, but I also hope you know that your reward eternally is dependent upon the work that you do for the Lord on earth.

And we're all going to be shining, you know, John Lennon said, we all shine on, I don't think he had this in mind, Paul had this in mind, and I believe he is hinting at, at least in part, what he elucidates in other places in the New Testament, that in eternity we're all going to have certain rewards depending on how faithful we were to the Lord's calling in our lives and how we led people to Christ or not. And so once again, let me just close. You see, you keep saying that you're going to close and you don't close. Yeah, Paul did that a lot.

And I'm going to give you a little bit of close. Yeah, Paul did that a lot. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. Keep serving the Lord, put some elbow grease into it, put some labor into it, you're not saved by works, but for goodness sakes, if you have faith, it should work. Your faith should work, should produce fruit. So give it all you've got to the finish line. Reach, press toward the prize of the high calling in Christ Jesus. Be steadfast so that you might shine like the stars in heaven.

That concludes Skip Heitzig's message from the series Expound 1 Corinthians. Now here's Skip and Linda as they share why we are still called to maintain the health of our present bodies. One day we're going to have new glorified bodies, but that doesn't mean we neglect our physical bodies now.

Skip, can you share about why we should still take care of our present bodies? Well, you know, that has become an issue, I think, all over the world, but especially in this country. I think that if you, we've traveled the world and you can spot Americans. Sadly, we're overweight.

Yeah, pretty much as a nation. So I just think as believers, you know, anybody can get too carried away in this. You may have thought I've gotten carried away in this at one point in our marriage, but I just look at it this way. We're stewards of what God has given us.

Yeah, we're all sort of who we are by our genetics, but we can also have a part in it by our environment and choices. So if I'm a steward of what God has given me, what can I do to make sure that I am as usable in God's hands for the longest possible time? Well, it's silly. We'll take care of our cars, get the oil changed, rotate the tires, and then neglect our bodies. I mean, you know, we'll give care to something that is, you know, not a part of our frame and impacting our health. But Skip, you are one of the healthiest guys.

I mean, he wakes up every morning, walks several miles, and does more at night, and you eat a very healthy diet. So it's super inspiring. But it's also that you can be the best available vessel for God. You know, you're in it for the long haul. You're kind of in it to win it and to stay viable and useful to God's kingdom. Right. Our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. I just want to make sure that God has something good to work with for the longest possible time.

It just sort of comes down to pragmatics. Thanks, Skip and Lenya. We hope you've enjoyed getting to know Skip and Lenya a little better through this conversation. You can join them in connecting others with the life changing gospel with a gift today to keep these Bible teachings going strong on the radio, on television, and online. Just call 800-922-1888 to give.

That's 800-922-1888. Or visit connectwithskip.com slash donate. That's connectwithskip.com slash donate. Thank you.

Tune in tomorrow. The Skip Heitzig shares about the practical things that concerned Paul and why this matters to you. Make a connection. Make a connection at the foot of the crossing. Cast all burdens on his word. Make a connection. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never changing truth in ever changing times.