Resurrected Bodies (Part 2)

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Thanks for tuning in to No Compromise Radio with pastor and author, Dr. Mike Avendrock.

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Today on No Compromise Radio, we'll be hearing Pastor Mike open the Word of God in a recent message he preached at Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston, Massachusetts.

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Now let's join Pastor Mike in progress as he preaches through the Scriptures verse by verse with No Compromise.

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Notice the comparison between Adam and Christ. The first Adam, the last

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Adam. Thus it is written. And when Paul says it that way, he's not quoting things exactly.

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In the Greek, the nuance is there where it's just a general quote, but this is characteristic of Paul to prove a point by referring to Scripture, Old Testament.

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The first man, Adam, became a living being.

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The last Adam became a life -giving spirit. So the first man,

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Adam, becomes a living being. Remember God took the dust of the ground and breathed in life.

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He didn't wait till the monkey stood upright for long enough and then at that perfect time put a spirit inside of that monkey.

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Well, no wonder Genesis is so attacked because if you can get rid of the first Adam, what happens to the last

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Adam? There's no need for the last Adam, Jesus, if you can get rid of the first Adam.

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On a side note, beware of people who say they're scholars and Christians who deny

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Genesis chapter 1 as literal. And they say, oh, it's just poetical. Friends, we have a little saying for that back in seminary.

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Here's the saying. It's a weasel word. For weaseling around, oh, it's just poetry.

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No, I think if you read that, nobody on earth would say that's poetry unless you had an agenda to try to make your friends believe you weren't so stupid that you believed in dinosaurs and the

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Ark and an Adam. Here the comparison is between the first man,

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Adam, and the last Adam. You have two men in your life, Adam and Christ.

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When you were born, you were on Adam's girdle, Thomas Goodwin said. You're hanging on Adam. You're in Adam.

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You're responsible for what Adam did with that first sin. And when you've been granted saving faith and you repent and trust in a risen

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Savior, you're now in Christ, the last Adam. And he's going to compare these two. Matter of fact, he's compared them earlier in the chapter.

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Look at verse 21, 1 Corinthians 15. He contrasts Adam and Christ here.

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For, verse 21 of 1 Corinthians 15, by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead.

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For us, excuse me, for as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.

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Well, back to 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verse 45, Paul quotes Genesis 2 .7.

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He adds a couple of words, but he says, the first man, Adam, became a living being. Actually in Genesis, it said the man became a living creature.

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He's comparing Adam to Christ. Adam yields natural body when he procreates, and we have a father,

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Adam. And so Jesus gives life to those who are in Christ.

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Adam initially disobeys in the probation. Jesus obeys.

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Where Adam failed, Jesus did not. No angel ever had to drive

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Jesus from the garden for failure. Whatever lack in Adam is fulfilled in Christ.

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Adam fails, Jesus succeeds. What's true of Adam is true of all his descendants.

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It's true of you before you were saved. Passing on his nature to one, then the next, to the next.

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His physical nature as a human and his sinful nature as a tainted human from Adam.

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But thankfully, look at the passage goes on to say, the last Adam, not the second

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Adam because there might be a third, fourth, fifth, sixth, but the last Adam, Jesus, there's no other ones after this, became a life -giving spirit.

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The fulfillment of the first Adam is Jesus, the last Adam. And Jesus, what does it say?

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Was a life -giving spirit. The last Adam was a life -giving spirit. What does it mean, life -giving spirit? What's the context of 1

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Corinthians chapter 15? Resurrection. If you think like a Jew, if you slow down in your

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Bible study just long enough to give life, to be a life -giving spirit, what does to give life mean?

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It means in the Bible most of the time, resurrection. Adam gives a body that's worthy of death, frailty, it ends up in the ground and Jesus gives a life -giving body called a resurrection body.

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Listen to these two verses and see if you can catch giving life or life -giving with raising the dead.

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Romans 8, if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised

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Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies.

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There it is. To give life to your mortal bodies. Jesus is a giving life spirit, a life -giving spirit because he takes your dead body and he gives it life.

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Who gives you life, Adam? No, the last Adam. That's the whole point of Paul's argument.

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Now let's turn to John chapter 5 for a moment and let me show you where some of this comes from.

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The life -giving Adam, Christ Jesus, is the one who raises our body from the dead and that's been given to him by the father,

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John chapter 5. Steve's in John chapter 3 right now, it'll probably take him a couple years to get to John chapter 5 so he can remind you of these things once he gets there in two years, but for now

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I need to go here. Giving life, life -giving, tied to the resurrection.

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Adam gives a body that is frail and dies. Jesus gives a body that's raised from the dead.

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You say, okay, pastor, I got it. All right, well this will reinforce it. John chapter 5, verse 19, and anytime

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I go to a gospel to talk about the Lord, the better. Jesus said to them, John 5, 19, remember earlier in the chapter, he's equating himself to God, they don't like it.

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Truly, truly, I say to you, the son can do nothing of his own accord but only what he sees the father doing, for whatever the father does, that the son does likewise.

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For the father loves the son and shows him all that he himself is doing, and greater works than these will he show him so that you may marvel.

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For as the father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the son gives life to whom he will, both as believers and both as resurrected bodies, and that's going to happen quick in John.

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John 11, who's raised from the dead? Lazarus. Jesus, raised from the dead.

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He raises himself from the dead and he raises on judgment day other people from the dead. Jesus is the life -giving spirit.

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He gives life. Verse 22, the father judges no one but has given all judgment to the son.

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What's the point of maybe all of the gospel of John? That all may honor the son just as they honor the father.

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Whoever does not honor the son does not honor the father who, what, sent him.

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You guys kind of look glazed over so let's talk about this for a second. Now when I talk about my birth in 1960 in Omaha, Nebraska, Clarkson Hospital, I say

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I was born that day. That's probably how you talk, right? I was born on such and such a day.

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Did you know that Jesus, except for one time that I can think of, never says the word,

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I was born. He didn't say I was born. Now he was born of the virgin.

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Holy Spirit, of course, hovered over Mary to guarantee that he was perfect. But Jesus doesn't talk about his birth very much.

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What does Jesus say? I was sent. I came. I came forth.

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Can you imagine if you asked me a little bit, Mike, tell us your testimony first about your background in Nebraska and then how God saved you.

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Well, 1960, Omaha, Nebraska, Clarkson Hospital, I was sent. We don't talk that way.

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Why? Because we had no beginning. Jesus is the eternal son and he's sent on this mission.

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I came for this reason. I was sent for this reason. You listen to John and there's that father sending the son, gladly sending.

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The son gladly going. And the life -giving spirit that Jesus has, think about this passage, whatever the father has, the son has.

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What the father does, the son does. They don't want to believe that he's God, so he says, I do what the father tells me.

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And what does the father do? Gives life. Deuteronomy chapter 32, I kill and I make alive, only used of God.

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First Samuel 2 .6, the Lord kills and brings to life. He brings down to shield and raises up.

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Only Jesus raises up with new life. So back to John chapter 5, verse 24, truly, truly,

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I say to you, whoever keeps my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He has not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.

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Truly, truly, verse 25, I say to you, an hour is coming and now hear when the dead will hear the voice of the son of God and those who hear will live.

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Almost tippy -toeing in between, you hear him now and you'll live as a believer.

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And there's an end time coming as well, that when you hear his voice on judgment day, you'll have life.

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Verse 26, for as the father has life in himself, so he has granted the son also to have life in himself.

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We're coming to the important part, verse 27, and he has given him authority to execute judgment because he is the son of God.

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Do not marvel of this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of the life and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.

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The son is going to usher in judgment on that day. And at the end, it's not going to be, did you believe or not?

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What were your works like? Did they flow out of a saving faith or did they just try to earn saving faith?

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Now let's go back to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. Jesus is a life -giving spirit.

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In other words, he raises people from the dead. That's the point.

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You should believe that Jesus raises people from the dead because he raised himself from the dead and Paul makes this promise here.

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Jesus made the promise in John chapter 5. But he goes on to say something here in 1

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Corinthians chapter 15, verse 46. There's a particular order to things.

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You've got to die before you're raised from the dead. Verse 46, but it is not the spiritual that is first, but the natural and then the spiritual.

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You've got to die first and be raised from the dead and also Adam has to come and then Jesus. However, the spiritual

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Christ is not first, but the natural Adam, then the spiritual. There's a chronological order and so when there's a body in the ground, it shouldn't strike us that there has to be a body first before a resurrection.

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Remember, they kept going back to say there's a body in the ground that smells and is decaying. How can something come to life out of that?

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Well, Jesus can make it come out and by the way, that's what has to happen. You don't need to be raised in a resurrection body until you're dead in the ground.

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That's the point. There's an order to things. There's a sequence. Verse 47, the first man was from the earth.

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Boy, that just sounds like a Genesis account, doesn't it? No wonder he's called Adam. A man of dust.

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The second man is from Bethlehem. Second man is from Nazareth.

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The second man is from Palestine. The second man is from heaven.

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Differences between Adam's body and Christ's resurrection body. One's from the earth, one's from heaven.

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Well, he goes on. The second man is from heaven.

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Because he came, he was sent. And like produces like. Verse 48, as was the man of dust,

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Adam, so also are those who are of the dust, us. And as the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven.

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Before we were saved, we were like Adam. And that's what would happen. And he was our father. Now after we're saved, we have the hope of a heavenly body.

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We are those who are of heaven. Thanks to Christ's work.

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It's an unbelievable work, actually. Unbelievably good. If I read these verses to you, hopefully they make more sense now.

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Philippians 3, our citizenship is in heaven. And from it we await a savior, the

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Lord Jesus Christ. Who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body.

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He reinforces the point by saying in verse 49. Just as we have born the image of man, of dust.

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We all can feel that, can't we? We shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.

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We are predestined to become conformed to the image of his son.

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We shall bear the image of the man of heaven. Now that word bear there is kind of interesting. It means to wear something.

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It means apparel. So when you put on something, some clothes, it's a figurative word.

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That we get to put on the clothes of the resurrected body. I said to first service before I had kids and before I became a pastor.

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I loved to dress in super nice suits. And I thought pretty much Armani was at the top of the line for me.

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Or if I couldn't afford Armani, they had like the mini version of Armani. Just called Mani. But you could say to your friends, it's still

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Armani. I was in Berlin. And it was in a western part of Berlin.

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They had a place called Karrawe. And it was a place designed during the communist rule.

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To make all the communists who lived in East Berlin. Remember Berlin was actually in East Germany.

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To make all the people around there jealous of what capitalism could do. And man, it's a deluxe store.

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This is the store we make the commies jealous. We need some more stores like that today. I don't know, it's a different sermon.

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Different floors. On the bottom floor, watches. I just knew not to go over to any of those places.

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Because I thought, I don't think they have swatches here. Let's just keep right on walking.

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Then they had the 6th floor where you could get all the food. Deluxe food from around the universe.

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Right there you could eat. 900 euros a pound. It was right there.

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It was good. On the 4th floor they had men's clothing. I thought,

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I've got to go to Karrawe and get something in men's clothing. Maybe a tie. That would be good. I'll just go get a tie.

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I could be on the S -Bahn with my little bag that everybody else has. Karrawe.

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I'll ask for a bigger bag. Just to make people think I've got something else. I walked over to those ties.

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And they were the best ties. They were so awesome, I even got my camera out and I took a couple pictures of the ties.

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Because what I didn't tell you is when I looked at the back of the ties and I saw 150 euros, I pretty much held my head down in shame.

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Maybe I can buy them on the black market in South Boston or something. I don't know. So here's what

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Paul is saying. The body you've got on now is decaying. It's corrupt.

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You're going to get a put on. Something better than Armani. Something better than your favorite designer.

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You get to put on, it's figurative language, the kind of glorified body that the sun has.

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What kind of body is that? Let's turn to Luke 24 and see an instance of Jesus's glorified body so you can get a little taste.

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Next time you walk through the hospital, I hope you say to yourself, that's one more reason to evangelize these folks because everybody in that hospital that's not a

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Christian is certainly going to get a body. But they're going to get a body perfectly designed for eternal torment forever and ever in hell.

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And I know I deserve that. And since I've been saved from that, I want them to be saved from that too. If you knew how bad hell was, you wouldn't want

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Hitler to go. You wouldn't want your worst enemy to go. You wouldn't want Judas to go.

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For those Christians who are in a hospital, they get a new body. What's their new body going to look like? Got to limp around on crutches with that new body?

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Got to stoop over? Well, let's find out. Luke 24, verse 36.

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Remember, Jesus has been crucified. He's been raised from the dead. Where's Jesus?

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And as they were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them. And he said to them, you dirty, rotten scoundrels, disobeying me.

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Give me 50 burpees right now. How could you deny me? How could you run like little girls?

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Shame to you. What does Jesus say? Isn't it amazing? He stood among them.

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He just shows up because with a glorified body, you can just show up. When I was a kid and I learned that fact, glorified bodies can just walk through drywall.

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I thought, this is pretty good. Sign me up. Walking through drywall. It shouldn't surprise us that Jesus can just show up in a room because he can be laying in the tomb with his clothes on, and then he walks, literally, he comes up through his clothes because his clothes still laid there, except for the little doily thing he folded up over there.

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Through the clothes, through the doors, through the walls, it makes no difference because it's a glorified body. Does that mean it's a ghost?

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Well, let's find out. Peace to you. This is a common thing to say, but now with the full force of John 14,

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John 16. Peace, I'm going to leave with you. Here we get the full peace. Shalom. He shows up, stands among them.

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Peace be to you. What's their response? Be your response. They were startled.

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And frightened. They thought they saw a spirit. It's like they saw

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Jesus' glorified body, but what they heard was, Boo! Startle.

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I get that. But frightened because they thought they saw a spirit. When you see something supernaturally happening before your eyes, for them it was a natural response of fear.

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And what did Jesus say? He said to them, Why are you troubled and why do doubts arise in your hearts?

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He could see the inside, what they were thinking. He could see the outside expression of their doubts. And then he says,

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All right. What does faith need? It needs to touch. It needs to taste. It needs to hear.

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So that's what he does. See my hands and my feet. That it is I myself.

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Notice the continuity. There's not some kind of weird new body that you could never recognize or else he wouldn't say,

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It is I myself. Touch me and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.

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When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. Why would he show them his hands and his feet?

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Because he was a crucified savior. The resurrected body had physical attributes.

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Touch. Hear. Handle. See. It is

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I. Now this makes 1 John 1 so much better. Don't turn to there. Just listen.

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That which was from the beginning, what we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life,

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Jesus. Verse 41 goes on to say in Luke 24, And while they still disbelieved for joy, they were marveling.

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He said to them, He's going to help them again, the compassionate Christ. Have you anything here to eat?

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Guy just shows up through the walls. Peace be with you. Got something to eat?

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Why would he do that? Well, he's trying to help them because they're still in the afterglow of a ghost is here.

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The ghost don't eat. If you put some kind of piece of fish in a ghost's mouth, it has no mouth.

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Drops right through its stomach. Oh, it has no stomach. It drops right to the ground. Right? In my mind,

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I only think if I was a kid, although they probably don't watch Casper anymore, but I'm thinking if you put something in Casper's mouth, it doesn't go anywhere except to the ground because it has no mouth.

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Okay, back to the point. Luke likes to talk about fulfillment of scripture and he says in verse 44, And he said to them,

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These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written, context is a resurrection.

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Context is death, burial, and resurrection about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms. Trifold way of describing all the

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Old Testament must be fulfilled. I taught you these things. I was with you.

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He's saying when I was with you as a person now, I'm not disembodied spirit.

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I have a glorified body. Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures. Verse 45,

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And he said to them, Thus it is written that Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.

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You are witnesses to these things. And then we have Luke with fast speed talking about the ascension.

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So fast that some people say he scrunched everything at the end into some small little paragraph because he was running out of room on the parchment.

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I don't think that was the case. More will be told in Luke. But here we get the mini version of the ascension.

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The main fact, the disciples worship Jesus. Humanity goes to heaven.

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Bodies go to heaven. When you watch Jesus go to heaven, he's going up to heaven in a body.

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There are bodies in heaven. There's one now. There's going to be a lot more.

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He led them out, verse 50, as far as Bethany. Lifting up his hands, he blessed them.

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While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into...

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What are we going to do? Jesus is gone. Here we go again, part two. Run, hide, lock the doors.

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Sadness. No. Right response this time. And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy.

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No great grief, but great joy. And were continually in the temple blessing

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God. We start off in Luke in the temple. We end in the temple with great joy. It's true what was said by Zechariah in Luke 1.

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Blessed be the Lord God of Israel. He has visited and redeemed his people. What kind of body will you have after you die and there's the judgment?

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You get a body that, of course, is imperishable. Of course, it's powerful.

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Of course, it doesn't decay. Of course, it's perfectly fit for heaven. But it's like Jesus' body.

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There's a body in heaven. And after five billion years of worshiping the

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Lord Jesus Christ, if you want to go over and have your mother wipe your tears, well, there won't be tears to wipe.

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But she can sure touch your face. Her hands and your face. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Ebendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life -transforming power of God's Word through verse -by -verse exposition of the sacred text.

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Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 8 .30 and 11 a .m. and Sunday evenings at 6 p .m.

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We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston, Massachusetts. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org

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or by phone at 508 -835 -3400. The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff, or management.