Habeas Corpus - [1 Corinthians 15:45-49]

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There are some funny things said about the resurrection of the body. Tertullian, a church father, said this,
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We will not chew in heaven, but we will have teeth, because we would look funny without teeth.
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Cyprian, the bishop of Carthage, said this about the resurrection body. Cyprian said this.
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I didn't say this. Women should not wear face powder in this life, lest God fail to recognize them in the life that is to come.
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I didn't say that. Yesterday I was in the hospital visiting
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Bruce, walking down the long corridor. His room was at the end of the aisle, and room after room after room we would walk by, and the hospital was filled with, obviously, sick people.
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ICU was on this side of the hospital, and the patient rooms were here, and story after story after story, beds filled with sick people.
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Some that were going to get better, some that weren't going to get better. And think about how many thousands of hospitals there are in this world.
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How would you like a new body that doesn't get old, that doesn't have aches and pains?
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You don't have to wake up and stretch for like 35 minutes just to stand upright. No weakness, no disease.
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I mean, if I go to the store and buy a nice new suit and a tie, and look at myself in the mirror, I think, you know what, there's just something about buying a new pair of clothes, and you think,
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I just feel good. I just look good. What is it about a new outfit that just...
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I'm just kind of feeling nice about the whole thing. How about getting not a new outfit, but a new body?
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Did you know that Jesus Christ's resurrection has guaranteed that all those believing in Him get a new body?
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Now, if you're 18, you're not really too excited about the new body probably, but when you're old like me, you are loving that thought.
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We have people in our church, their bodies are breaking down, and they're getting one day closer to eternity, because their bodies weren't meant to last.
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But the Bible teaches not just the resurrection of the soul, but the resurrection of the body.
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What will it be like? Jesus was raised from the dead as the first fruits for our resurrection from the dead.
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Paul said to Timothy, the last book he ever wrote, he said, Timothy, remember Jesus Christ risen from the dead, confirming that great subsistory atonement.
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But we've got a lot of questions, don't we? Because if you look at people in the ground, if you look at bodies decaying, if you look at us now above the ground but still decaying, how can these bodies, how can those bodies go to that holy heaven?
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It's a fair question, especially when the society says, this is it, evolution's true, you go around once, so grab the gusto while you can, he with the most toys wins.
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It's also true back in the Bible days where they had people wandering around saying like Sadducees, there's no resurrection of the body, there's no final accountability, there's nothing in the end.
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If you turn your Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 15, Paul is going to help us answer these questions. What about the body we get on resurrection day?
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Now when we die as Christians, our spirit goes to be with the Lord, bodies come later.
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What will those bodies be like? Will they be recognizable? And this morning we're going to learn that your body is going to be like the glorified body of Jesus.
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So today here's the program. We are going to go to 1 Corinthians chapter 15 and we're going to catch up on some verses and reviews since we haven't been in this text for a month.
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Then we're going to look at John 5 and John 20 and Luke 24, some passages that teach us about Jesus Christ resurrected body because there has to be a body in heaven.
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Habeas corpus. Latin for what? There must be a body.
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That's used of court language when you don't leave somebody in the jail cell when you're going to judge them because they need to be present.
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So if they're deemed not guilty, you can let them go. So the judge isn't crooked and says they're not guilty, but the guy stays in prison.
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So there has to be a body in court, habeas corpus, and there has to be a body in heaven.
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For Paul, there must be a body. The body will be raised. And I think this is going to be very encouraging because I thought to myself the other day, what if I had a bad back at age 20?
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I think I hurt my back at age 27. And I had to live 969 years total.
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Whatever 969 is minus 29, how would you like to live 900 more years in this body? When I was sick two years ago and I thought, you know what,
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I'd just soon die, I thought to myself, honestly, I know where I'm going. I know the Spirit of God will take care of my family.
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I know the elders better take care of my family. I think that's when they upped the insurance for the life insurance. But everything will be fine with me.
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And I don't have to have this bad back forever. I don't have to have these aches and pains forever.
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I'm going to die soon. And I thought, this is going to be a good day. Very good day.
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For you, I hope you shed a tear, but then you hire the next guy. Promote the next guy.
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I don't know what you do. What will your body look like?
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Will it be helpful? You say, well, this isn't very practical. I'll tell you this before we start. This is an intense passage.
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It's a hard passage. You need to use your mind to get through this. We're going to compare Adam and Jesus, the first Adam and the last
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Adam. You've got to engage your mind, but it's going to be a good payoff if you can hang in there.
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Why? Because things like this. When I'm in the hospital, seven years ago, and my mom dies, everybody leaves the room, and I just thought, you know what,
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I might as well just sit here for a while and just think. I thought about things like, she's now a better theologian than I am.
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She'd always call me and say, am I interpreting the Bible right before I teach the ladies? I thought, I need to ask her now because she's a perfect theologian right now.
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I'd look at her face. I'd look at her hands. Something about her hands.
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And she had on her rings. Those are my mom's rings. And I thought, these are the hands that have patted my face, wiped my tears.
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These are the hands that have spanked my bottom. These are the hands that were there for me.
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And because of what the Bible teaches, one day those hands are going to touch my face again.
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She's going to get a new body and new hands. And I'll have a new body and new hands. And if I prefer, maybe
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I don't prefer, maybe I don't want her doing this in heaven, I don't know, maybe I'm too consumed with who Christ Jesus is. But those very hands that Jesus had before He died were the very hands that He had afterward.
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And if you can get the glorified body of Jesus down, you can get your glorified body down as well. It is very practical.
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I think what we should do is we should start up in verse 35. Remember, there are people questioning resurrection.
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He says back in 3 and 4, Jesus' body was raised from the dead. So you should obviously think there's a resurrection of the body, somebody,
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Jesus' body. Not that big of a stretch then to think we will be resurrected.
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They're asking questions in verse 12. They're asking questions in verse 35. But someone, verse 35, will ask, how are the dead raised?
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With what kind of body do they come? Fair question if you're a Christian theologian, but not a fair question if you're really trying to disqualify what the author is saying.
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If you're trying to go after Jesus with some trick question. And when you try to do that, you get this retort back from Paul.
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You foolish person. Forgetting the creative power of God.
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Forgetting God creates the universe with a word. It's not that hard for God to take ashes, for God to take bones, for God to take parts of your body that was ingested by a shark and put them together on that last day.
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Is that past the power of God? A lot of questions, and so Paul gives some answers.
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And we saw last time three of those answers that he gives designed to answer your questions about the
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God who is to be praised because He raises bodies from the dead. In review, fact number one found in verses 36 -38.
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Your resurrection body will have some relation to your current body. Verse 36 goes on to say, what you sow does not come to life unless it dies.
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And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel perhaps of wheat or of some other grain.
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So see what Paul is doing? Plant a seed, a piece of corn that's dried, and out comes a stalk of corn with an ear of corn.
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There's a relationship, but they're not exactly the same. You don't plant stalks of corn. You plant a kernel of corn.
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It's dead in and of itself. But the way God has ordained nature is to take that thing and to grow it up into a stalk with leaves and with a whole ear of corn with a tassel on it as well.
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There's a relationship between the two. Put something dead in the ground, life comes out. Shouldn't be a big deal for anybody to think that way because it happens with seeds.
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Verse 38, God gives it a body as He has chosen. Look at the language again of the sovereignty of God.
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You can't run from it. And to each kind of seed, its own body. Divine agency has got to be factored in.
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How can a body that's in the ground rotting and smelling go to heaven? Factor in divine agency.
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That's the answer. Don't forget God. Not identical of what goes into the ground, but related.
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A piece of corn seed is related to an ear of corn. Your body is going to be related to your new body, old and new.
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We'll see more about that in a little bit. You will recognize loved ones in heaven. Fact two, as Paul is answering these questions.
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Your resurrection body follows creation differences. Found in verses 39 to 42 in review again.
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The sun has a certain glory. The moon has a lesser glory. The bodies in the ground have lesser glory even though they're glorious, but the resurrected body has a lot of glory.
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There's just differences of glory. We know that. There are heavenly bodies, verse 40, and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is one kind and the glory of the earthly is another.
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There's one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, another glory of the stars, for star differs from star and glory.
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There's one level of glory of an image -bearing body that's dead, and there's another level of glory of an image -bearing body that's been given a new body, alive.
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Fact three, last one for review. Your resurrection body is going to be better than your current body.
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I have in my notes, yay, yay, thankful.
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Verses 42 -44, so it is. See the tie -in now? So it is, with the resurrection of the dead.
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And then He's going to give ways your body's going to be better in heaven. He gives several. What is sown is perishable.
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What is raised is imperishable. Your body's going to be better because it's going to be imperishable. No disease, no sickness, no breaking down.
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I used to be 6 '2", I'm 6' now. Slowly getting shorter. Luke is slowly getting, not slowly, but he's at a rapid pace, getting taller.
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But my resurrected body, imperishable. Well, it's going to be even better. Maybe this might be the best.
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Verse 43, it's sown in dishonor, it's raised in glory. You know, our bodies still have vestiges of the curse.
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Adam's sin imputed to us, it's our own sin. And this has a moral or ethical tone to it.
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Dishonor because we've sinned. We've used these bodies to sin. And now we get new bodies.
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I think that's pretty good. Ever use your body to sin? Get a new body.
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Glory. He goes on to say another reason why it's better.
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Sown in weakness, verse 43, it's raised in power. You look at a body in a casket and I'll tell you a word that describes that body.
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Powerless. Oh, I could say corrupt or lifeless, but there's no power to do anything. That's why the
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Arminian version of salvation is so kooky, because that says, here's the antidote and I'm laying here dead and the only thing
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I have to do is reach out and take the antidote and I'm saved. But I'm telling you, you are what if you're in the grave?
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You're powerless. You can't reach out to the antidote. And the last reason why your body's better is found in verse 44.
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It's just fit for heaven. Whatever's needed for heaven, your body will have. Ever say to yourself like I do,
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I just hope I know what to do in heaven. I'm going to die one day and go to heaven. I hope
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I know what to do. I am the pastor after all. What do I do in heaven? Just follow the crowd.
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That's one place in your entire life where you go, do what the crowd does, you'll be fine.
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Worthy is the lamb that was slain. I think I'm going to go to heaven. What if I'm wrong about the charismatic stuff and everybody just charismatically worshiping
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God? I better just kind of go along. Will I be alright? Will I know what to do? Well, this verse talks about your body's going to be perfectly fit for heaven.
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Whatever heaven requires, your body can do. Sometimes Mark Schafer said, please stand if you're able while we sing this hymn.
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Some people aren't able to stand. Whatever heaven requires, your body will be perfect for that.
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Verse 44. Is it sown a natural body? Excuse me. It is sown a natural body.
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It is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there also is a spiritual body.
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Whatever is needed in heaven, your spiritual body will work just fine. And now
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Paul goes to the last fact found in verses 45 to 49. This is new.
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Your resurrection body will be like Christ's glorified body. That's really the message today.
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If you want to know what your glorified body is like, you study Christ's glorified body and you'll get it.
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So first, let's look at 1 Corinthians 15. Then we'll go to two passages at the end to talk about Christ's glorified body after His resurrection so we can get a little taste of what our body is going to be like.
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You say, well, this is all over my head. Is it relevant for anything? Yes, it's very relevant because it's in the
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Bible. It's very relevant because you're going to die. It's very relevant because if you want to take a carnal church and help them, you will talk about end times.
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Because if you realize I've got two days on my calendar like Luther said, today and that day, judgment day, then you live in light of the soon return of Christ.
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So this is helpful. This is eschatology, not just pre -trib, post -trib kind of talk, but eschatology of the body.
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It's important. Notice the comparison between Adam and Christ.
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The first Adam. The last 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.
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Old Testament. 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 until the monkey stood upright for long enough. And then at that perfect time, put a spirit inside of that monkey.
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No wonder Genesis is so attacked because if you can get rid of the first Adam, what happens to the last Adam? There's no need for the last
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Adam. Jesus, if you can get rid of the first Adam. On a side note, beware of people who say they're scholars and Christians who deny
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Genesis 1 as literal. And they say, oh, it's just poetical. Friends, we have a little saying for that back at seminary.
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Here's the saying. It's a weasel word. A weasel and a rat.
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Oh, it's just poetry. 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 ark and an
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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. You're responsible for what
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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. As a 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 for, verse 21 of 1
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Corinthians 15, by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead.
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For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.
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Well, back to 1 Corinthians 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.
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And we have a father, 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, it goes on to say the last Adam, not the second Adam, because there might be a third, fourth, fifth, sixth, but the last
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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 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.
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And that's been given to Him by the Father. John chapter 5. Steve's in John chapter 3 right now.
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It'll probably take him a couple of 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. Alright, well, this will reinforce it. John chapter 5 verse 19.
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Any time I can go to the Gospel to talk about the Lord, the better. Jesus said to them,
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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
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He sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the
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Son does likewise. For the Father loves the Son and shows Him all that He Himself is doing.
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And greater works than these will He show Him so that you may marvel. For as the
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Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the
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Son gives life to whom He will, both as believers and both as resurrected bodies.
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And that's going to happen quick in John. John 11, who's raised from the dead? Lazarus.
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Jesus raised from the dead. He raises Himself from the dead and He raises on Judgment Day other people from the dead. Jesus is the life -giving
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Spirit. He gives life. Verse 22. The Father judges no one but has given all judgment to the
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Son. What's the point of maybe all of the Gospel of John? That all may honor the
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Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the
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Father who... what? Sent Him. You guys kind of look glazed over, so let's talk about this for a second.
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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, I was born.
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He didn't say I was born. Now He was born of the Virgin. The Holy Spirit, of course, hovered over Mary to guarantee that He was perfect.
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But Jesus doesn't talk about His birth very much. What does Jesus say? I was sent.
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I came. I came forth. Can you imagine if you asked me a little bit, Mike, tell us your testimony first about your background in Nebraska and then how
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God saved you. 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
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Son, gladly sending. The Son gladly going. And the life -giving
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Spirit that Jesus has, think about this passage, whatever the Father has, the Son has. What the Father does, the
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Son does. They don't want to believe that He's God, so He says, I do what the Father tells Me. And what does the
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Father do? Gives life. Deuteronomy 32 I kill and I make alive.
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Only used of God. 1 Samuel 2 .6 The Lord kills and brings to life.
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He brings down to Sheol and raises up. Only Jesus raises up with new life.
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So back to John 5 .24 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever keeps My word and believes
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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
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Son of God, and those who hear will live. Almost tippy -toeing in between, you hear
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Him now and you'll live as a believer. 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
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Son of God. Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear
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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.
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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.
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Verse 47, The first man was from the earth. Boy, that just sounds like a
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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. The 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 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 borne the image of man of dust, we all can feel that, can't we?
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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. We shall bear the image of the man of heaven.
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Now, that word bear there is kind of interesting. It means to wear something. It means apparel. So when you put on something, some clothes, it's a figurative word that we get to put on the clothes of the resurrected body.
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I said to First Service that before I had kids and before I became a pastor, I loved to dress in super nice suits and I thought pretty much
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Armani was at the top of the line for me. Or if I couldn't afford Armani, they had like the mini version of Armani just called
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Mani. But you could say to your friends, it's still Armani. I was in Berlin, and it was in a western part of Berlin.
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They had a place called Karaveh. And it was a place designed during the communist rule to make all the communists who lived in East Berlin, remember
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Berlin was actually in East Germany, to make all the people around there jealous of what capitalism could do.
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And man, it's a deluxe store. This is the store we make the commies jealous. We need some more stores like that today.
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I don't know, it's a different sermon. Different floors. On the bottom floor, watches.
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I just knew not to go over to any of those places because I thought I don't think they have swatches here.
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Let's just keep right on walking. Then they had the sixth floor where you could get all the food, deluxe food from around the universe right there.
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You could eat for 900 euros a pound. It was right there. It was good. On the fourth floor, they had men's clothing.
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And I thought I've got to go to Karaveh and get something in men's clothing. Maybe a tie. That would be good.
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I'll just go get a tie and say I could be on the S -Bahn with my little bag that everybody else has.
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Karaveh. I'll ask for a bigger bag just to make people think I've got something else.
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I walked over to those ties and they were the best ties. They were so awesome.
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I even got my camera out and I took a couple pictures of the ties because what I didn't tell you is when
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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' 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.
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If you knew how bad hell was, you wouldn't want Hitler to go. You wouldn't want your worst enemy to go.
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You wouldn't want Judas to go. For those Christians who are in a hospital, they get a new body.
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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.
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And He said to them, you dirty, rotten scoundrels, disobeying
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Me, give me 50 burpees right now. How could you deny Me?
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How could you run like little girls? Shame to you. What does
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Jesus say? Isn't it amazing? He stood among them. He just shows up because with a glorified body, you can just show up.
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When I was a kid and I learned that fact, glorified bodies can just walk through drywall. I thought, this is pretty good, sign me up.
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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
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He walks literally, He comes up through His clothes, because His clothes still lay there, except for the little doily thing
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He folded up over there. Through the clothes, through the doors, through the walls, it makes no difference because it's a glorified body.
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Does that mean it's a ghost? Well, let's find out. Peace to you.
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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? It'd be your response. They were startled and frightened.
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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, I get that, but frightened because they thought they saw a spirit.
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When you see something supernaturally happen before your eyes, for them it was a natural response of fear.
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And what'd 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
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He says, alright, what does faith need? It needs to touch. It needs to taste.
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It needs to hear. 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 it is
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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
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He show them His hands and His feet? Because He was a crucified Savior. The resurrected body had physical attributes.
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Touch. Hear. Handle. See.
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It is 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
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Word of Life, Jesus. Verse 41 goes on to say in Luke 24,
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And while they still disbelieved for joy, they were marveling. He said to them, He's going to help them again, the compassionate
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Christ, Have you anything here to eat? Guy just shows up through the walls.
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Peace be with you. Got something to eat? Why would He do that?
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Well, He's trying to help them. Because they're still in the afterglow of the ghost is here. The ghost don't eat.
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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, these are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written, context is a resurrection, context is death, burial and resurrection, about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the
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Psalms, trifold way of describing all the Old Testament, must be fulfilled.
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I taught you these things. I was with you. I, he's saying when
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I was with you as a person now, I'm not disembodied spirit. I have a glorified body.
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Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, verse 45, and he said to them, thus it is written that the 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
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Ascension, 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
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Ascension. The main fact, the disciples worship Jesus.
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Humanity goes to heaven. Bodies go to heaven. When you watch Jesus go to heaven,
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He's going up to heaven in a body. Bodies in heaven. There's one now.
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There's going to be a lot more. He led them out, verse 50, as far as Bethany.
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Lifting up His hands, He blessed them. 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.
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Lock the doors. Sadness. No. Right response this time.
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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?
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And there's the judgment. You get a body that of course is imperishable, of course is powerful, of course doesn't decay, of course is 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, but she can sure touch your face.
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Her hands and your face. Let's pray. Father in heaven, as I look at some of the folks that I'm preaching to,
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I see their bodies are decaying and some can't stand, can barely stand.
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Some are old and close to death. Father, some of us are younger and maybe close to death as well.
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How good is it to know that we're forgiven? How good is it to know that we're cleansed by the blood of the
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Lamb? And how good is it to know we're not just going to be floating around in heaven on some dumb cloud with harps?
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We get a body perfectly fit to worship the Son who's in a body. Father, help lift our minds out of this world and the next day, the next week, this season of Christmas, that we might think about eternal things and not get so bogged down by things like Black Friday.