Bodies In Heaven (Part 2)

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

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

Continuity Between Our Present Bodies and Resurrection Bodies

You're going to recognize your loved ones when they get a new body. They'll be different because they'll be glorified, but there'll be a relationship there, a continuity. I think that's going to be exciting.

I'd hate to get to heaven and after a billion years of worshiping Jesus, trying to figure out, well, which one of you is my mother? Are you my mother? That would be a bad heaven. How could God do this?

Body, dead, in the ground, then new life? It's glorious. Fact number two found in verses 39 to 42. Not only will your body have some relationship to your old body, but your resurrection body number two follows creation differences.

Verses 39 to 42. Your resurrection body follows creation differences. This is just Paul's outline here. This isn't my outline. This is the second analogy and we're moving from planting seeds to flesh, fish flesh, human flesh, bird flesh.

Verse 39. There's all kinds of different kinds of flesh. Of course there could be resurrected flesh because there's all kinds of flesh for not all flesh is the same. One kind for humans, another kind for animals, another kind for birds and another for fish.

Differences in flesh. Wide variety of differences in the plant world, yes. Wide variety in the bird world, yes. Wide variety in the animal world, yes. Wide variety in the human realm, yes. Body now on earth, dead body in the ground, living body in heaven.

There's differences. That's all Paul is trying to say. Can't God give resurrected bodies? Of course. There's a dissimilarity between men and animals and there's a dissimilarity between our old bodies that are dead in the ground and our bodies in the heavenly.

Speaking of which, look at verses 40 and 41. You're going to see several times, there's five in the original language, the word glory. See if you can spot them when I read verses 40 and 41. Different kinds of glory, glory, glory, glory.

There are heavenly bodies, verse 40, and earthly bodies. The glory of the heavenly is of one kind, the glory of the earthly is of another. There's one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars, for stars differ from star.

Star differs from star in glory. Now we have a complex body right now, an amazing body that is like God's image. We are image bearers and our body is pretty amazing. You can even watch on PBS, can't you?

Evolutionary kind of shows that just teach you about how complex the body is, glorious. Cut yourself, if your blood is any thinner, you bleed out. If your blood is any thicker, your heart can't pump it.

White blood cells, antibodies, all these kind of things, circulatory system, it's amazing. Can you imagine you eat some food and then your body absorbs the nourishment? It's a fascinating thing. That's pretty glorious to think, human bodies, glorious.

I'm telling you, when you see a baby being born and then they hand you that baby, what do you say? Well, there's different kinds of flesh, you handle the flesh, Bert. No, you go like, that is amazing, that is amazing, I can't believe that.

This is even making me forget that the nurses act like I'm just in trouble for getting my wife pregnant, like I'm not even supposed to be in the room. This baby makes up for all that. Talk about reverse sexism, you'll find it in labor and delivery, but that's another story.

You go, this is glorious, the baby, my baby. Well, there's different levels of glory. We are gloriously made, fallen, I know, but there's more glory in heaven, a glorious heavenly body, different degrees of glory.

That's all Paul is saying. Sun's got more glory than the moon, and a glorified body will have more glory than an old body, especially the one that's in the tomb, splendor. Indescribable glorified body.

Resurrection body is not just some dead corpse, it's made alive, perfectly fit for heaven. Fact three, in verses 42 through 44, third glorious resurrection fact, your resurrection body will be better than your current body.

Verses 42 through 44, in my notes I wrote, W-O-O-H-O-O, woo-hoo, Tom said amen, he made it more holy. Your resurrection body is going to be better. Now all the young people, they don't really care too much because you're young.

I tried 11 font, 12 font, 13 font, now the reading glasses, reading glasses on, off, now they're just on. Bad backs, cancer in our church, recent deaths in our church, sickness in our church, we're going to get a better body, perfectly designed for heaven.

Paul says first though, to kind of introduce this verse 42, so it is, see there's the topic, all this glory stuff and relationship and continuity at different, so it is with the resurrection of the dead, we're talking about bodies, so it is with the resurrection of the dead.

It's the same thing, there's going to be a radical difference of glory, and then he gives four reasons why or four ways your body is going to be better here, kind of sub points under point three. You think your body is good now?

Just wait, first reason your body is going to be better as a resurrection body is it's going to be imperishable, 42B. What is sown is perishable, it corrupts, it corrodes, it gets sick, it dies. What is raised, talking about the resurrection body, is imperishable.

No heart attacks, no viruses, no colds, no flus, no stretching. When you get milk, it perishes. How do you know if milk perishes? Our bodies perish, they're perishable, they're corruptible, they decay, receding hairlines, bad eyesight, bad backs, cancer.

Philippians 3, but our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we wait a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.

Therefore, my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved. You're struggling, you're going through issues, your body's wracked with pain, you have all these issues, my beloved brethren, think about the body you're going to get.

Does a resurrection matter for holy living? Of course it does. Stand firm thus in the Lord. Our bodies are corrupting, physical infirmities. I used to be six foot two, I'm probably not even six foot now, I'm just getting closer to the grave every year, basically, is what I'm doing.

Breaking down, probably going to have to use that AARP card in the mail one of these days, some kind of thing. Our bodies are breaking down in heaven, never breaking down bodies. Paul says there's another reason why your resurrection body's going to be better, not just it's imperishable, but the curse is going to be gone.

Look at verse 43. You can read the ethical, moral, sinful dishonor toned in this. It is sown in dishonor. What could be more dishonorable than sin, shameful than sin? It is raised in glory. No sin in glory.

When you see a grave, you should say to yourself, sin, Adam's sin was imputed to that person. You bury a baby, sin, Adam's sin was imputed to that baby. The wages of sin is death. And we've got to get rid of that death, curse, sin issue, because otherwise that's going to affect us in heaven.

That's exactly what God does with the resurrection body, raised in glory. When Adam and Eve sinned, you returned to the ground since you were taken from it for you are dust and to dust you will return.

Wouldn't you like to get rid of the sin that's in you now? Of course we don't have to pay for the penalty of sin. Jesus did that at the cross wonderfully and marvelously. But even when we succumb to the power of sin, which we don't have to, we've got the presence of sin.

Aren't you just sick of sinning like I am? We of all people know better than to sin and we still sin as Christians. I know better and I still sin, Romans 7, for we know that the law is spiritual and I am of the flesh sold under sin.

For I do not understand my own actions, for I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

For I know that nothing good dwells in me that is in my flesh, for I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. I do not do the good I want, but the evil I want is what I keep on doing.

Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be the law that when I ought to do right, evil lies close at hand. I delight in the law of God in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.

Wretched man that I, who will deliver me from this body of death? Verse 25, thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Now we do not know if it is true or not, but one of the commentators would say something like if you committed murder, one of the ways they would punish you is to take the dead body that you killed and strap it onto you in such a way you cannot get out and so eventually the bacteria would seep into you and then kill you.

Who is going to deliver me from this body of death? I have got sin just on me like Bunyan would talk about in the burden of sin and even as a Christian, get me out of this sin. Get sin out of me. One day it's going to be true.

One day it's going to be true. Romans 8 goes on to say, and not only the creation, but we ourselves who have the first fruits of the Spirit grown inwardly as we wait eagerly for the adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies, new better bodies, no sin in our bodies.

What a day of rejoicing that will be, fully redeemed. Well, it gets better if it could, found in verse 33, the second part, your resurrection body will be better because it will never grow weak. It will be raised in power.

Now just think about this for a second. Let's read the verse, ponder it. It is sown in weakness. We are frail creatures, of course, sinful, but here just emphasizing how weak we are really. Of course, our world, we think we're strong, but we're really weak.

It is raised in power. Do you get tired ever? You wish you had more energy to serve the Lord? You ever get listless and kind of just run down and you say to yourself, you know what? I just don't have the energy I once had.

How about if you're older? How about if you're a senior citizen and you go, you know, I really used to serve the Lord a lot more. And now I think about serving the Lord, but then wake up 25 minutes later and have a hermit and a coffee.

I mean, that's just what happens. Was that in my notes? Actually, I didn't even know what a hermit was. How do I know what a hermit is? But you know, in heaven, the place where you're going to want to serve the Lord Jesus Christ with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, your body won't let you down.

No naps in serving. You're just going to be able to serve the Lord full throttle, all out, for all eternity. You can just say, Lord, after you have saved me from my sin and from death and from hell, you've given me a body perfectly suited for heaven.

Underneath your auspices, self-sufficient body, because it will be God's sufficiency that just keeps this body going and going and going forever and forever. I get to serve. Who would want to get to heaven and then want to serve the Lord Jesus Christ with a broken body, infinitely strong body, eternally strong body?

One man said, ultimately strong body. I like that. I love the story of the two old believers. They're both in their eighties and married to one another, telling each other good night before they go to sleep.

And the wife said to her husband, good night, John. We'll soon be 33. We'll soon be 33. You're 84 right now. Oh yes, John, but we're going to be like him. And Jesus was 33 when he was nailed to the cross.

How old we're actually going to be, I don't know. But when you're 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, you'll soon be young again to have that new body.

To serve better.

He says it's even better because of verse 44, here's kind of the fourth sub point. It's better because it's a spiritual body. We're going to get better bodies in heaven that are imperishable. No more curse, raised in power and spiritual body as well.

Verse 44, it is sown a natural body. It is raised a spiritual body, not spirit. This is not body spirit, but there's a body fit for heaven. There's a body perfectly fit for earth. Natural body is the earthly body.

This is not the difference between body and spirit. This is the difference between earthly body, heavenly body. It's sown a natural body. It's raised a spiritual body. If there's a natural body, there's also a spiritual body.

Just makes sense. If there's one, then there's the other. One's perfectly fit and suited for earth, for social relationships, marital relationships, suited for reproduction. And in heaven, there's a body perfectly suited for all that you can do in heaven, for all that you want to do in heaven, for all that you could do in heaven, for all that you will do in heaven.

It's belonging to the future. It's spiritual. It's supernatural. The details, I don't have the details. It's just going to be better. And that's enough for the Christian. Knowing by faith, it's just going to be better.

So if you think the body's good now, there's going to be a better body. If you think the body's decaying now and you can't wait to get out of this body of death, the Bible teaches that it's true. This is doctrine that matters.

The Resurrection Body and Christian Hope in Funerals

Resurrection. Let me ask you this question. Do you go to funerals? Do you go to wakes? If you're a family with small kids, do you take your kids? This is the kind of stuff that you need so when you take your kids to the funeral home, you can tell them about Grandma Carla's new body that she'll get one day.

Grandma Evie's body that she'll get one day. You take those children and you saunter them up to that casket, and there lies a dead, cold, hard body. And they're the hands that used to wipe your tears away and used to make you chicken noodle soup and to pray for you.

And then what do you tell your kids? This matters. The resurrection doctrine matters. Friends, if you're a dad and you don't take your kids to the funeral home, could I try to give you what to say so that you actually will do it?

I don't care if you public school your kids, homeschool your kids, or private school your kids, you better take them to the funeral homeschool. This is life and death. This is how to live and how to die.

Oh, no, we can't make it to the wake today because we couldn't find a babysitter. You know, I've heard that. I've seen the opposite where, I'm trying to think of somebody, the Goddards will say, you know, we're just all going.

I don't care if your kids are this big or your kids are this big. You all walk them to the funeral home and here's what you say ahead of time. Dads, so-and-so lost their loved one. And when you say greeting to them, you don't have to even say really anything.

You just need to say, I'm sorry, I love you, or you can just give them a hug. That's all you have to do. You don't have to say anything. You can say, I'll miss the person, too, whatever you'd like to say, but it doesn't need to be a bunch of rationale.

Just express your love to them either verbally or physically. And they'll probably talk to you. They'll realize you're a kid, and so they'll make it easy on you. Oh, thank you. And I always tell my kids this.

You have to look at the dead body. Why? Because I'm weird? Because, well, I am weird, but this has nothing to do with this. I'm trying to teach my kids the lesson. Here's the lesson. Kids, you have to look at the body just for a few seconds.

Just, usually the body's before the people. So you go there, and you'll see some people kneel down and cross themselves and other things. You just have to go up, and you have to look at the body. And here's what I want you to think about, kids, when you look at the body.

Who could say to that body, get up, rise? That body's dead, cold, embalmed. Jesus Christ goes to Lazarus' tomb, and what does he say? Lazarus, arise. I am the resurrection. Jesus has the power over death.

Lesson two, kids, you're going to be in that casket one day. I might have to put you in there, or maybe I die first, but you're going to be in that casket. You will die. Now, right about this time, children all are pre-tribulational rapturists, and they believe that I might get raptured.

But when the Lord comes, I'm not saying I don't believe in pre-trib rapture. I'm just saying every kid at the casket is pre-tribulational rapture. Wouldn't you be? Don't you want, even if you're post-trib, don't you want pre-trib to be true?

Deep down, of course you do. This week, I got to preach the gospel to someone for about a half hour, and I said, you know, the wages of sin is death. And in God's economy, the only way for forgiveness to happen is through bloodshed.

Adam and Eve sinned, God shed the blood, and provided atonement, and then wrapped them with the skins of the animal. Day of atonement, the goat was killed. The lamb was killed in the place of the nation.

Passover, the lamb was killed in place of the family. John the Baptist sees Jesus, and he says, behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. You need a substitute, because you're going to die one day.

You're going to be in a casket just like that, and your soul will be in heaven. And then what? You need a substitute. Say, well, I don't really want to think about that. Well, friends, that's why the Bible's written.

So you think about today, and you think about that day. You're going to talk about the Savior when you go to a funeral. Say, it's okay to cry. This isn't some memorial service only. This is to remember Jesus and remember the person.

And it's certainly not only a celebration, because this hurts. And Jesus is weeping at what sin did in the life of a man, Adam's sin and Lazarus' own sin. And Jesus is weeping. He's going to raise Lazarus from the dead.

He's not weeping that he's necessarily dead. He's weeping that sin killed him. So when you have those kids there, and you look at Grandma Carla's body, you look at your friend's body, you look at someone else's body, you just say, we need the Savior.

There's no other hope except for Jesus who can raise bodies from the dead. And then you tell them about Grandma's body. You know, this body right now, it's cold, hard. Something's weird. It's just like a shell.

It's not really real. But that person is going to get, if they're a Christian, an imperishable body, a body that's glorified, no curse, a body that's never going to get weak, and a spiritual body. And you preach to them.

Well, no, we don't want to bring our kids to the funeral home. I just wish you'd start a new body. How relevant is that? I want to know how to die well. I want my children to have an object lesson that they'll not soon forget.

I want my children to go to a place where there's dead bodies, and they know how to minister to other people. Well, I'm not having any open caskets. You can do whatever you'd like. Let's have an open casket, because I want you to see that body.

And I want you to see for that last time, and then think, if this is what the body looks like now, how great is it going to be? I want to die knowing my Savior. And I want to have death, which is sadly the unnatural result in life, my kids to see that.

It's not supposed to be fun. But you can teach a lot at a funeral. Well, what about you? You would like a new body? Can you imagine you get a new body? If you're a Christian, you get a new body perfectly fit for heaven, ready for you.

And if you're not a Christian, today is the day you must repent and believe our God will prepare for you a perfect body that can last in hell forever. We don't want you to do that. We want you to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, so you get the new body, so you can worship the lamb that was slain, worthy as a lamb to receive power and glory and riches and honor and strength in heaven.

Actually, if you study the resurrection body, you might actually want to go to heaven more than you do. How many people here want to go to heaven? How many people want to go right now? Well, not as many.

We have things to do. We've got to see the patriots lose again. Come on. We've got to really, the real things in life. No, but seriously, you go, it's just better. And you know, the Bible doesn't say a lot about heaven.

It says a lot about your resurrected body, though. Perfectly fit for heaven.

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Ebendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. 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.

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. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston, Massachusetts. You can check us out online at bbcchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

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