Motivation of the Resurrection Body - Life of Christ Part 113

I was talking to a Christian brother not too long ago. His marriage was in trouble and his wife was determined that she was going to divorce him. And no matter how hard he tried to reconcile with her, nada, nothing, not interested. And yet he said to me, he said, Lon, you know, yet I've made the decision that I am not going to go along with this divorce. I'm going to contest this divorce at every point. I'm not signing any papers and I'm going to keep pursuing reconciliation with my wife.

I want my family to stay together. And he said, but you know what? The guys in my office, they think I'm nuts.

The guys in my office, they tell me, forget it, man. Turn out the lights. The party's over. Accept the divorce. Why don't you move to California, find a nice pretty little 29-year-old blonde and marry her and just kind of start over. Get on with your life.

This woman doesn't want you and it's not happening. And then he said, they always say to me, why are you doing this? Why should you put yourself through this? This is stupid. Why do this to yourself? Now, for a person who believes in Jesus Christ, this is the central issue.

This is the critical question. Why should I? Why should I do what I know God wants me to do when doing what the world system says is OK is a lot easier and a lot less painful? Why should I be faithful to my commitments when I'm surrounded by a culture that considers commitment a four-letter word?

Why should I do this? And that's the question I want to answer for us this morning as we look at the Word of God. And I hope by the time we're done that God will use this as motivation in your life to keep doing what you know God wants you to do and not take the easy way out.

All right. Let's look together. Begin at verse 36.

And let me just remind you the background. Jesus has risen from the dead. He's gone now and appeared to two disciples on the road to Emmaus.

They've run back. They found Peter and James and John. And now they've gathered with them and they've said to them, hey, Jesus is alive. We saw him.

And here's where we pick up the story. Verse 36. And while they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said, peace be to you. Now, in John's gospel account, we learn that these disciples had gone underground. They were in hiding. They were terrified of the Jewish religious leaders, that those religious leaders would come to get them just the way they'd gotten Jesus. And John also tells us one other very interesting thing, that the room in which they were hiding, the doors were closed and they were locked. Now, why is that important? Well, because it explains what happens next.

Verse 37. And they were startled and frightened thinking that they saw a ghost. Why would they think they saw a ghost? Well, listen, remember, the place they picked was a place for security. It had no windows, no skylights, no back doors, no loading docks. There was only one way into this room, and that was through the front door. And the front door was locked. And here all of a sudden is Jesus in the room, except the problem is he didn't come through the door.

He just appeared. Now, these guys aren't rocket scientists, but they're smart enough to know people just don't appear through doors and windows and walls like this. And suddenly they forgot all about being afraid of the rabbis. Now they're much more afraid of whatever this is. And they say, it's a ghost.

It's a ghost. Verse 38. And Jesus said, Why are you guys troubled? Why do doubts arise in your mind?

You guys need to drink less caffeine. Verse 39. Look at my hands and my feet.

It is I myself. Touch me and see. A ghost doesn't have flesh and bones like I've got. And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. And while they still didn't believe because of joy and amazement, he said to them, You guys have anything to eat? And they gave him a piece of broiled fish.

And when they all stood there in shock, he took it and ate it as they watched. Jesus said, Fellas, look, I'm not a ghost. I'm not a spook.

I'm not a specter and I'm not a hologram. OK, is me really touch me and see I got a real body. And what's more, bring me some food. I'll go you one better and watch me eat. I'm going to eat this food right in your presence.

Holograms, ghosts and hallucinations do not eat broiled fish. And the Bible says, verse 40, he showed them his hands and his feet. You say, Well, what was that all about? Well, remember, if Jesus has the same body that he had been crucified in three days before, he should still have the nail prints in his hands and in his feet that he had when he was nailed on the cross. And so he showed him his hands and his feet and said, Look, guys, see the holes. This is the same body. The point is that not only did Jesus have a real tangible body, but it was his body. It wasn't a body that he levitated into and borrowed for a while.

Shirley MacLaine is wrong. He did not come back around and get issued a new body. Did not happen. This was the same body he'd been nailed to the cross with three days before. Or was it the same?

So what do you mean by that? Well, was it the exact same body he'd been nailed to the cross with? Folks, this body now could pass through solid walls and doors. We know from other passages in the Bible that this body could appear and disappear at will. John Chapter 20.

It could levitate and fly through the air. Acts Chapter one. It was a body that shined with the brilliance of the sun. Revelation Chapter one. And it was a body that was immortal and would never die. Revelation Chapter one. The body that Jesus Christ had after the resurrection was his body.

All right. But it was not just a restored earthly body like he had had before he was crucified, before he was resurrected. It was a body that had been transformed, transmuted, transposed, transfigured, transmogrified, trans everything. It was a glorified body. That's what Philippians three calls it. A glorified body, a glorious body. It was his, but it was different. Now, that's as far as I want to go in the passage, but it leaves us with a really important question.

What's our question? When I was in high school, many, many, many moons ago. There were some things about my body that I hated that I if somebody would have said to me, I'll change it for you. I changed it in a minute.

And I'll bet you if you're in high school, there are probably some things cosmetically about your body. You'd love to change if somebody gave you the chance. And some of the rest of us, when we can remember back to when we were in high school, there were some things we'd have changed in an instant if we'd have had the opportunity. You know what it was for me?

Say, no, we'd love to. You know what it was? It was my hair. My curly hair. I hated my hair. See, I went to high school in the early 60s.

The Beach Boys, the Four Seasons, and pencil straight hair was in. We had girls in our high school who would grow their hair long, put their head on an ironing board and iron their hair to get out every wrinkle in their hair. The guys would let their hair grow long and they wanted it as straight as it could possibly be, not even a hint of a wrinkle anywhere in this hair.

And then there was me. See, when I let my hair grow long, it doesn't grow down. It grows out. Let me show you what I mean. This is a yearbook picture that was taken of me by senior year in college.

What do you think? That's not been touched up. That's the way it really was. I'd take a shower and just shake it like a dog shakes and this is what happened. I hated my hair.

Now, if you're living in a day and age when froze are in, this is good. But when people are ironing their hair, folks, this is not good. In fact, one time when I was a freshman in college, I actually went and had a barber put chemicals on my hair and straighten it.

You say, really? What'd you look like? I look like Ted Koppel, of all things.

It was horrible. Now, if you're like me, I'll bet you you had something cosmetically about your body when you were younger that you didn't like. Or maybe you still don't like.

You still don't like. And I guarantee if you're in high school, there's something about your body that you just would give anything to change. Well, I got some good news, some bad news and some more good news for you. The good news is this, that if you know Jesus Christ as your personal savior, after you die, you're going to get a new body.

Let me show you that. It's in 1 John 3, if you turn there, back in the end of the New Testament. 1 John 3. Look at verse 1. It says, How great is the love that the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God. And this is what we are.

Verse 2. Dear friends, now we are children of God, if we've believed in Jesus Christ. And what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he, Jesus Christ, appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. In fact, Philippians 3 says that by the power that Jesus Christ has in his command, he's going to take our lowly bodies and he's going to transform them into the same likeness as his glorious body. You're going to get a new body.

That's the good news. God's going to raise your body. He's going to transform your body, recondition it, restore it, and give it back to you.

Now, the bad news. Bad news is, I cannot tell you for sure whether the cosmetic changes that you'd like to see on your old body will be made on your new body. See, I may still have curly hair.

You may still have one green eye and one yellow eye or something, you know. You say, well, what if I was fat and I lost a whole bunch of weight? Do I get my fat body or my skinny body? I don't know. Well, what if I went bald, you know? Do I get the body with the hair or the body without the hair? I can't tell you. What if all my teeth fell out?

Do I get the denture body or the one with the teeth in it? I don't know. I can't tell you that. That's the bad news. But I got some more good news for you.

And here's the good news. Whatever your new body looks like, you're going to like it. You're going to like it. It's going to be a glorious body. And believe me, you're going to be happy with your new body. Now, I want to spend the rest of the time we have talking to you about this new body, telling you what it's going to be like, and then answering our questions. So what difference does this make in how I live in this life, in this body?

Okay? So I want you to turn for our last passage of the morning to 1 Corinthians 15, page 815, 1 Corinthians 15. And I want to tell you five things about this new body you're going to get if you know Christ.

Here we go. 1 Corinthians 15, page 815. Look at verse 40.

Five things. Number one, the body you're going to get is going to be a different body. It's going to be a heavenly body.

Look at verse 40. There are heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies. And the splendor of heavenly bodies is one kind of splendor, and the splendor of earthly bodies is another kind of splendor. Folks, the bodies we're going to get are going to be different bodies. Our present bodies are designed for earth. But the new bodies we're going to get are going to be designed for heaven. The natural laws that exist here on earth are not going to apply to our new bodies. That's why Jesus' body could fly, walk, you know, go through walls, levitate, and do all this other stuff. You say, but Lon, every law of Newtonian physics says it's impossible, it's impossible to go through walls and just appear in rooms.

I know. But folks, remember, Newtonian physics is describing life on earth. These bodies are for life in heaven. They're going to be totally different. Number two, not only is a body going to be different, but it's going to be imperishable. Look at verse 42. So it will be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown, put into the grave is perishable, but it's raised imperishable.

It's sown, put in the grave in dishonor, it's raised in glory, it's put in the grave in weakness, it's raised in power. Our earthly bodies are perishable. They're weak.

I don't have to tell you that. But the new bodies we're going to get are going to be imperishable. They're going to be bodies of power. And that's why Philippians 3 calls them glorious bodies. These bodies are not going to be weak like the bodies we have now. They're not going to be subject to injury or to exhaustion or to aches and pains.

They're not going to be vulnerable to bacteria and viruses and disease and decay. These are perfect bodies we're getting, gang. And you know what in heaven? Do you know there are no wheelchairs in heaven? There are no walkers in heaven. No crutches in heaven. Did you know in heaven there's no respirators, no hearing aids, no pacemakers, no insulin shots? Did you know in heaven there are no antibiotics, no anti-convulsants, no radiation, no chemotherapy? Friends, did you know in heaven there isn't even a Tylenol in heaven? Do you know there are no handicapped parking spaces in heaven? And you know why? Because there are no handicapped bodies in heaven.

That's pretty cool. Third, the body you get, the new one, is going to be not just an imperishable body and a heavenly body, but third, it's going to be a spiritual body. Look at verse 44. It says in verse 44, it is sown, put in the grave, a natural body. It is raised a spiritual body. And by this, the Bible means that this new body of yours will not have a sin nature like the body you have now does. It'll be a sinless body. And do you realize what that means? It means that your body will want to do right instead of always wanting to do wrong.

It means that your body won't fight back with you when you try to obey God, but it will cooperate. That'll be pretty nice. It means that the word no will be absent from the vocabulary of every two-year-old in heaven. They won't even know the word. You say, would you please do this? And the only word they'll know is yes.

Wouldn't that be great? Fourth, the body you get in heaven will be a sexless body. Matthew chapter 22, Jesus said that in heaven there's no marriage, there is no procreation, no children are born, there's no sex, there's no dating, there's no testosterone, there's no estrogen, there's no body from Venus and there's no body from Mars.

Everybody's from the same place. There's no boyfriends in heaven, there's no girlfriends in heaven, there's no going out in heaven. Nobody cheats on anybody in heaven. Romantic relationships as we know them here will not exist in heaven. And what that means is that not only will heaven be sinless, it'll also be less complicated.

Oh, thank God for that. And last of all, not only is that a body that we're going to get that's imperishable and that's heavenly and that's sinless and that's sexless, but last of all, it's a body that you and I have to have to live in heaven. Look at verse 50. Verse 50 says, I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood, the kind of body you've got now, cannot inherit, look at that, cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor can the perishable, the body we have now, inherit the imperishable. Folks, you and I cannot go to heaven with the bodies we've got. It cannot happen if you want to go to heaven, if I want to go to heaven. We have got to have a plan to get one of these new bodies because the only way you can live in heaven is with one of these new bodies.

So how are you going to get one? Well, remember what 1 John 3 said? It said that God gives these new bodies to his children. You say, oh, oh, well, that's fabulous because the whole world is God's children. And that's great. Oh, wait a minute.

Time out. That's not what the Bible says. It isn't?

It's what the song says. Yeah, but that's not what the Bible says. The Bible says the whole world is God's creation. But there's a very small, limited number of people within that whole creation that are allowed to call themselves the children of God, that are actually a part of being the family of God. You say, oh, yeah, well, then how do they get to be so special? Well, it's not that they're so special.

Anybody can have that relationship, but there's only one way to get it. Listen, John chapter 1, verse 12. To everyone who believes in Jesus Christ, to that person, God gives the right, the authority to become a child of God. Want to know how to become a child of God?

It's easy. Reject everything else you've ever trusted to pay for your sin and get you into heaven and trust what Jesus did for you on the cross. Make him your personal Lord and Savior, and you'll become a child of God. And when you become a child of God, the promise of 1 John 3 is yours, that God will give you one of these bodies that you need to live in heaven.

And you know what? If you're here and you've never trusted Christ as your real and personal Savior, and you say, I'm going to get there another way. I'm going to be good. I'm going to work hard. I'm going to be religious.

I'm going to be nice. You may be a nice person, but how are you going to get one of these bodies? You can't go to heaven without one of these bodies.

So what's your plan to get one of them? God gives them out to his children. His children are not people who are trying to get into heaven by working hard and being nice.

They're people who've trusted Christ in what he did on the cross. So if you're not going to get it that way, man, you better have some other way to get it. And frankly, I don't know any other way to get it. My suggestion is that you think hard and long about junk in your plan and taking God's plan. God's plan will work.

I don't think your plan is going to. Something to think about. Well, let's finish it out. Verse 51. Listen, I tell you a mystery. We as believers will not all sleep. We won't be blown out like a candle, but we will all be changed. Everyone who knows Jesus Christ is going to be personally resurrected and get one of these bodies. This is the promise of God.

Now, you want to see the biggest so what you've ever seen in your life? Go to the last verse of this chapter, verse 58. Therefore, what do you mean therefore?

Therefore, in light of 57 verses, I've been telling you about the resurrection. Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you.

Always give yourself fully to doing whatever it is that God calls you to do. Why? Because you know something. You know your labor is not in vain.

It's not futile in the Lord. Why? Because you're getting resurrected.

That's why. You're getting a new body. You're going to heaven. And when you get to heaven, God is going to have not only a new body for you, but he's going to have a performance review for you.

You're like, oh, what's that mean? It means God's going to sit down and let you put it on rewind and take it all the way back to the beginning. And we're going to view everything you did in regular speed.

And maybe we'll pause it a little bit and talk about one thing or another. But we're going to look at the whole thing again. And you say, and then he's going to throw me out of heaven if he doesn't like what he sees.

You can't get thrown out of heaven. But the amount of reward God gives out in heaven will have a lot to do with what that videotape shows. And it's going all the way back to the beginning and you're going to watch it together with Jesus Christ.

Performance review. Therefore, anything I do for the Lord is not wasted. I'm going to see it again on tape. I love the way the Living Bible translates this. Listen. So, my dear friends, verse 58, be strong and steady, always abounding in the Lord's work. Listen, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever wasted like it would be if there were no resurrection.

But you see, there is a resurrection. As many of you know, I have a special needs little girl. She's four years old. She has a very serious seizure disorder, epilepsy.

The local doctors who were treating her down here in the first year of her life could not really figure out, you know, what to do with her. So, we transferred our care up to Johns Hopkins Pediatric Epilepsy Center. They are marvelous. They have been marvelous. The first time we ever went there, my daughter was one.

So, it was about three years ago. And we went in to meet with them. And, you know, the big doctor, you know, they work in a team. So, the big Kahuna doctor comes in and then all the little duckling doctors that are following the big doctor come in, you know, and they introduce you to all the little duckling doctors. So, we introduced us around everybody. And then there was this one lady there who I could tell she wasn't a doctor, but I didn't know what she was.

But she seemed to be a big shot or something. So, I said to her, I said, look, I don't want to hurt your feelings or anything, but who are you? I mean, what do you do? And she said, I'm a social worker with the American Epilepsy Foundation. I said, ah, social worker, huh? And she said, yeah. I said, well, what's your role in this whole deal here, you know?

I understand the doctors. What are you here for? She said, I'm here to keep your marriage from breaking up. I was like, oh, well, thank you very much. My marriage is in very fine shape, thank you very much. And I don't need your help to keep my marriage from breaking up. She said, well, I hear what you're saying now. That's what they all say. She said, but I think before it's over, you're going to be glad for my help.

I said, I don't think so. She said, well, let me tell you something. She said, going through what you're going to go through.

And you see, I was in denial. I wasn't planning to go through anything. I was planning for God to heal my daughter.

And I had no plans of going through much of anything, folks, to be frank with you. But she said, going through what you're going to go through in the next few years. She said, it does one of two things. It either takes a married couple and pushes them together tight. She said, or in most cases, it takes a married couple and it blows it to smithereens. She said, the largest percentage of couples going through this, we have one person who takes off and runs.

And it's usually the man. And you know what's interesting? What's interesting is I ran into a guy who's got a disabled daughter and he said, you know, when we used to take her to parties, birthday parties and other things with lots of other special needs children, he said it was amazing how many single parent moms there were there.

Dads, these dads had all flown to Coop. Three years later, I want to tell you something. This lady is one of our best friends. We love this lady. This lady was right about what she predicted. Because I'll tell you, folks, you know, when you're waking up to it every single day and it's not getting any better and it doesn't have much hope of it getting any better and it's just every day, every day, every day, I'm telling you, I call it the black hole. It is.

And it'll break up a marriage faster than anything I ever saw. You say, well, all right, Lon, I've got to ask you a question now and I want you to give it to me straight up, okay? Did you ever feel like running away and just bagging your family, bagging your wife, bagging the kids and just heading off to California or something? Yep, sure did.

I'm not proud of that, but I sure did. I mean, there were days it was so bad I'd get in the car. I would hear this little voice saying to me, man, why don't you just drive?

Drive till you run out of gas, fill it up and drive some more and just disappear off the face of the map. Don't come back. Just do it. You know, why should you deal with this? Just go.

And I know my wife has felt the same way, too. You say, well, then why didn't you? Why didn't you just run?

Why didn't you, like so other men, just disappear? Because you're a nice person? Because you're a true humanitarian? No.

No. Truth is, I'm a bum who just might have done it, frankly, except that I knew one thing. What I knew was that I was not going to get blown out like a candle when this whole deal was over. I was not just going to go into the grave and nobody was ever going to hear from me again. I knew that the Bible said I was getting resurrected and I knew that the Bible said I was getting a new body and I knew that the Bible said in this new body I was going to live with Jesus Christ forever and I knew that when I get there we were rewinding the tape and going to watch it again together and that everything I ever did on this earth was coming around and I was going to see it again. And folks, if I had just been blown out like a candle, let me tell you something, I would have been much more inclined to go run and do what I felt like doing, but knowing it was going to come around again and I was going to see this again made a whole lot of difference because I wanted to live now in a way that I was proud to see it the second time. I wanted to live in a way now that when it came around the second time I wasn't ashamed of what came around. And see, I know it's coming around again because I believe what God tells me in the Bible. And if you're a believer in Jesus Christ, why should you do what you know you're supposed to do? Why should you do what you know God wants you to do when everybody at the office is saying to you, that's stupid, that's crazy, don't do that, why make life hard on yourself?

Take the easy way out and when frankly you feel like taking the easy way out, you want to. I'll tell you why. Here's the answer, verse 58. For you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever wasted like it would be if there were no resurrection. But folks, there is a resurrection.

You're going to see it again. Why should you live the way God wants you to? Because I think you ought to live in a way that you'll be proud, not ashamed, to see it come around the second time when you're standing in front of Jesus Christ in that new body in heaven. I'll tell you, it brings great motivation to my life and I believe it will to you too.

You know these things. Now as Paul says, let them change your life. Let's pray together. And I want to give you just a moment if you're here and maybe you're teetering in some situation in your life, right on the edge, your friend's saying, ah, forget it, don't do what God wants, go the other way.

And you're just kind of hovering right there, not knowing what to do. If the word of God has motivated you today, I want to challenge you to say, God, I'm making a decision right here, right now, that we're going to do this your way. I'm not taking the easy way out. And thank you, Lord, that you can give me the strength. Take a moment, if you'd like, and talk to God.

Lord Jesus, you know that living in this world is not easy. We've got an enemy who at every turn is trying to get us to disobey God. We have friends and a world system around us who keeps telling us how stupid it is to obey God.

And frankly, we've got a body that everything in it wants to go one hundred and eighty degrees contrary to where you want us to go. But I thank you, Father, that if we know Christ, we have the Holy Spirit living inside of us, and that the Bible tells us that greater is he who lives in us than all this stuff in the world. And that if we make up our mind to obey you, if we decide we're going to do it your way, your spirit can give us the power and the strength, the stamina and the courage to do it your way, if we want to. And so I pray that you would take the word of God this morning and that you would challenge and motivate our hearts with it. Remind us that everything we do here, we're going to see again. And so help us to do the things here that we would be proud to stand before you and watch with you in our new bodies in heaven, because indeed, that's what's going to happen. Use the word of God to change our lives, Father, I pray. And I ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.