Would you take your Bibles, please, and turn to First Corinthians in the New Testament? First Corinthians chapter 15, the end of that wonderful letter, that first letter, actually the second letter, that Paul wrote to the Corinthians. We don't have the first one, but we have the second one, and we call it First Corinthians. He ends that great epistle by talking about the resurrection because the people, to whom Paul was writing, these Greeks and the city of Corinth, they didn't believe in a resurrection, but that's not surprising. Most people in the world don't. In fact, if we estimate populations by religious preference, then probably a good 70% of the people in the world are maybe more do not believe in a resurrection. There's one billion Hindus that believe in reincarnation, that we keep coming back in life in another form, a higher life form. If we've led a virtuous life, a lower life form, if we've had a significant number of sins in our life, so that a person's life goes back and forth until they finally reach something called Nirvana, which is quite frankly nothingness, total bliss, where we are absorbed in the creation itself. The Buddhist view of this is called the Transmigration of the Soul. Buddhist, which make up another two billion people, actually, in total numbers of those on the earth, they believe that souls keep recycling through life, either moving up the chain of the Buddha, or down depending on how they live. The highest form of existence is the Buddhahood, which is full enlightenment, and it goes all the way down through ten different grades until we get to the animal life, the hungry ghost they call it, and then hell, for those who are living in the realms of desire. If you live in a country that has tribal religions, called Anemism, which is not the worship of animals, but the worship of ancestors, then what you believe is that when a person dies, they continue to live on in and through the creation in a bodyless form as a spirit, and they can help control the events of life for good or for evil, depending upon how they are related to by those who are on the earth. In modern, secularist countries increasingly, although it's not a great amount of people, but it's a significant worldview, there is the idea that when you die, that's it. You simply were a creature, sometimes referred to as the naked ape, the highest on the feeding chain of evolution, and your body returns to mulch, to dust, and that's the end of your existence. Only Christians and Jews and Muslims, only the monotheists believe in a resurrection, for the Jewish people to be honest with you, that idea of a resurrection is becoming more and more vague and less certain. And for the Muslims, they have a firm belief in the resurrection, although it is ill-defined and unexplained in the Quran. It is only the Christians who believe in the resurrection that is a robust view of eternal life, one full of hope and anticipation and joy. But that is not often the case. In Acts chapter 17, you remember that Paul visited Greece, he went to Athens. And while he was there, he was perturbed in his soul because he saw a city full of idols and people talking about spiritual things and religious things day and night. And the people there, these philosophers who were talking about their philosophical views and their religious convictions, were curious because they said, this man is teaching some strange thing and Luke says because he was teaching about Jesus and the resurrection. And so they asked Paul to explain himself and you know the sermon that Paul gave, he went into how God was the creator of all mankind and determined their places and seasons on the face of the earth, he quoted some of their Greek philosophers. In him we live and move and have our being is even some of your poets have said, we are also all indeed his offspring. These are ideas about creation and mankind being made in the images of gods and living on in immortal souls that were shared by the great philosophers Aristotle and Plato and Socrates and epimenides and these other people that are in the background of this sermon. But when Paul got to the conclusion of this sermon where he said this, the times of ignorance God overlooked but now he commands all people ever to repent because he has fixed today in which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead. The Greeks would have nothing of it. Luke tells us now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead they mocked Paul. Some said we will hear more this later so Paul went out of their midst. You see that the Greek person did not believe in a resurrection. He was a dualist. He believed in two forces in the world, two divine forces, the God and the demigod and the God the good God was the God of the soul, the spirit which was immortal like the gods and would live on forever. But the demigod was the author of the body and the body which was the container of the soul was evil. It held the soul back. And so the idea for the Greek was that death was a sweet release. It was leaving the shell of the human being behind while the blossom of immortality grew. For the Epicureans they believed that you should follow all the pleasures of the body in this life because it doesn't affect your soul and then leave it behind. Let us eat drinking, be married, for tomorrow we die. It was their famous statement quoted twice in the scripture. The Stoics on the other hand said no, we need to punish and restrain the body so that it doesn't pollute the soul. And there were others who had differing views, but they all believed in this that once a person died, the last thing they would want ever again is any kind of body. So when Christians came and said as they do in the creed, I believe in the resurrection of the body. It was astounding to some people that we would actually want to this or believe this let alone hope for it. But that is what Christians confess. I believe in the resurrection of the body. A radical, hopeful, and life-changing statement. In his little commentary on the Apostle's Creed, J.I. Packer says death is the fundamental human problem. For if death is really final, then nothing is worthwhile, save self-indulgence. And no philosophy or religion, which cannot come to terms with death is of any real use to us. Here, however, Christianity stands out alone among the world's faiths and isms. For it views death as conquered, for Christian faith is hope resting on fact, namely the fact of Jesus Christ's own resurrection. And the hope that when Jesus comes back with the day history stops and the world ends, he will change our lonely bodies to be like his glorious body itself. And in raising us from the dead, he raises our bodies, restoring the whole person, not just part of me, but all of me, to act of creative and undying life, life for God and with God forever. That is a radical statement. So when Paul gets to the end of this letter to these Greeks, he answers three questions that they have. Question number one, is there really a resurrection? Look in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, and look in verse, I believe it's verse 12. Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? So Paul, in those first 34 verses, he focuses on Jesus Christ and his resurrection. He calls Christ in verse 20 the first fruits of those who are to be raised from the dead. But there were two other questions they had. First, is there a resurrection? Of course the answer is yes. Look at Christ. Secondly, in verse 35, how are the dead raised? How does this happen? And the third question in that verse, with what kind of body do they come forth from the grave? Three questions, is there a resurrection? How does it happen? And what kind of new bodies do we have? These resurrected bodies, logical questions. In the first 34 verses, Paul deals with the fact of the resurrection. He says that the resurrection must be true because of Christ's resurrection. And the Christ in verse 20 is the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep, the first fruits of those who died, meaning that there must be other fruits. Another harvest coming, if Jesus Christ is the first of the fruits to spring forth into eternal life, then there must be a harvest, a vast number of souls to follow after him just as the first fruit always points to a later harvest. And he tells us how the dead are raised and what kind of bodies they come from or with. There are two paragraphs in the Greek, but in the English standard version, there are three paragraphs because Paul tells us three things about the resurrection. Here they are. The resurrection points to a new world. The resurrection promises a new humanity and the resurrection takes place in a great transformation. Let's look at these things as Paul explains the resurrection to us and to the world. The resurrection points to a new world. I want you to notice throughout this passage, this is the key to understanding 1 Corinthians 15 is that Paul follows what we call a motif. He picks some imagery. Here it is farmer language of sowing and reaping, of putting seeds in the ground and harvesting crops. Jesus Christ's favorite image and his parables when he taught about the kingdom of God. He calls Christ the first fruits. He talks about everything in the world having a seed form. And then he talks about sowing and raising, sowing and raising. And he begins this language of sowing seeds to bring for the harvest in verse 35. But some will ask, how were the dead raised with what kind of body do they come? You foolish person, what you sow does not come to life unless it dies and what you sow is not the body that is to be but a bearer kernel or could read a seed. Perhaps a wheat or some other grain, but God gives it a body as he has chosen to each kind of seed its own body for not all flesh is the same. But there is one kind of humans, one kind for animals, another for birds and another for fish. There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is of one kind and the glory of the earthly is of another. There is one glory of the sun and another glory of the moon and another glory of the stars for stars differ from star in glory. Paul makes much of this metaphor of sowing and reaping. But you sow does not come to life unless it dies. What you sow is not of the body but is of a bearer kernel to each kind of seed is its own body. He will say in the next paragraph, what is sown and perishable, is raised and perishable, what is sown and dishonor is raised in glory, what is sown and weakness is raised in power, what is sown and a natural body is raised in a spiritual body. Where did Paul get this idea? Now, why would Paul present the resurrection in the metaphor or the language of sowing a seed in the ground and watching it grow until it brings forth fruit? Well because that is how Jesus describes salvation and the kingdom of God. Jesus said in Mark chapter 4 in one of his many parables about sowing and reaping. The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day and the seed sprouts and grows. He knows not how. The earth produces by itself first the blade then the ear and then the full grain in the ear. Paul will pick up those four motifs, a seed, a blade, an ear, the full harvest of grain and he will use that repeatedly through this passage. He says in verse 36, you foolish person, what you sow does not come to life unless it dies and what you sow is not of the body that is to be but a bare seed, a kernel perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. Now, Paul's main idea here folks is stunning and I want you to hear this. If you get this, the rest of the passage is just unfolds and makes sense. What is usually considered a very complicated chapter in scripture is really not if you get what Paul is saying. He is saying that what we see in our earthly existence and in our physical world are only the seeds of new life in a new world. All that we're looking at are the seeds of things that are growing up to eternal life. Here is his line of thought logically and chronologically and theologically. Resurrection does not come until first death comes. But some will ask, how were the dead raised? What kind of body do they come? You foolish person, what you sow does not come to life unless it dies. You see that's what happens to a seed. It goes into the ground and it dies. It rots and falls apart but it gives birth to plants or trees or crops that spring out of its decomposing body into some fuller and richer fruitful life. Jesus said the same thing about himself and human life when he said truly I say to you unless a grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies, it remains by itself alone. But if it dies it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. We must first of all die, he said, in order to bring forth much fruit. And Paul is saying the same thing. Our earthly body is the seed which must die in order for a glorified existence to come forth. Death to self and to sin in repentance, new birth in Jesus Christ through regeneration, sanctification's process of growing up toward God, resurrected glory in eternal life. Paul uses this imagery all the time. He says in Romans that we've been baptized into the death of Jesus Christ that we might know the resurrection life of Jesus. We have died to send his Christ as dead to send in all that we might live to God. We have been crucified with Christ and in the seed of ourselves it's no longer us who are alive but Jesus Christ who lives in us. He says in Colossians for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. In the human body is the seed of the glorified body and eternal life. If that individual is planted by faith in Jesus Christ and therefore dies with Christ in his crucifixion, then the seed of their humanity will begin as it's planted in its grace to grow up towards Christ's likeness and ultimately to Christ's glory. If any man is in Christ he is a new creation. The old things have passed away and they've died and new things are coming are being born. Then Paul makes this amazing statement.
All of creation is in seed form. Look at verse 38. Each creature on the earth bears its own seed form but God gives it a body as he has chosen to each kind of seed its own body for not all flesh is the same but there is one kind of seed for humans. Another kind of seed for animals and another kind of seed for birds and another kind of seed for fish human seed bodies and animal seed bodies and fish seed bodies and bird seed bodies. This is one of the reasons evolution is impossible because seed cannot change over from one seed form to another in its body. Seeds don't cross. They bring forth what they are and each one unique no to the same. Even he says the inanimate objects of the creation around us the sun and the moon and the stars they have their own seed bodies. There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies but the glory of the heavenly is of one kind and the glory of the earthly is another. There is one glory of the sun and another glory for the moon and another glory for stars for stars different from star and glory. The earth is in seed 40 says and so is the sun and the moon and the stars. He's speaking here in metaphorical terms but he's talking about spiritual and historical realities. Human beings are born in the seed form of a fallen humanity. They must die in Christ. Be born again of the spirit and rise to a new life and resurrection. The fallen world born in the beautiful seed of Eden has died and but out of it is being born a new earth that Jesus Christ is making the heavens will die. They will fall the scripture says and they will be born again to a new earth a new heaven a new earth a new mankind all now present in seed form. The seed the blade the ear the full grain Adam the believer the mature saint the glorified Christian Eden the ancient world the developed creation a new earth the born sinner the reborn believer the godly soul the resurrected person in glory but the seed is never sewn in Christ if it never dies to self and sin then it cannot be born regenerated and spring forth to a new life truly I say to you unless a grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies it remains by itself alone but if it dies Jesus said it brings forth much fruit day would would add the wicked or not so they are like the chaff that the wind blows away but the righteous or like a plant planted by streams of living water bringing forth fruit in due season this is the spiritual reality of life this is the reason by the way for the book of Revelation it allows us to see what always in seed form in Genesis 1 to 11 comes to the full harvest in Revelation 1920 and 21 it's the planting the growing the developing the harvesting in the whole metanerad of the whole great story of the gospel there are three powerful lessons for everyday living for you and me in this imagery that lie at the heart of Christianity the church and of gospel faith first of all write these down you'll need these day in and day out in our fallen world not everything is as it seems to the human eye there was a greater and more glorious spiritual reality behind that which our human eyes can see when you and I look out there to that world we think that is the ultimate reality in fact it is not is only the seeds planted in the the blades popping up in the and the kernels growing into something that has yet to be harvested that's why when we say I believe in God the Father Almighty the maker of heaven and earth and of all things visible and invisible there's an invisible reality that grows out of the visible seeds of this world secondly our present world cannot stay the same since it's not the ultimate reality it must change everything must change for everything is now in seed form growing up in the seed to harvest process our efforts to find security and stability and sameness in this life are futile this cannot be so it's like taking up a kernel of corn and sticking it in the ground and expecting the corn to say I'm going to live down here where it's dark and warm and safe and I'm never going to change you see the corn has no choice Jesus says he scatters seeds on the ground and the earth produces the growth by itself he knows not how you and I cannot change or stop or even slow down this process our present world is not the ultimate reality because it's changing it's growing into something God wants it to be and thirdly the purpose of your early life now is singularly this it is a season in which you have the opportunity to plant yourself in Christ to die with him in seed form to grow in the spirit that you might rise with Christ to glory on the last day for the planting season will soon be over and the harvest day will come that's why Jesus told these parables about sores and seeds and and wheat and tears in the field he said the one who sows the good seed is the son of man it's Christ the field is the world the good seed is the sons of the kingdom the weeds are the sons of the evil one the enemy who sowed them as the devil and the harvest at the end of the age and the reapers are his angels there's coming a day when things would have grown to where God wants them to be and as in Revelation he says to the angels put down by sickle and reap and in Revelation 8 there's two great reapings a reaping of those who come to eternal life and a reaping of those who come to damnation but this is the growing season looking beyond itself to the ultimate day what is true of the whole creation is true of individuals for this resurrection pictures a whole new world but it also promises a whole new humanity look in verse 42 so it is with the resurrection of the dead he moves from the greater picture of the whole creation seed form to the individual person human beings who must rise on the last day for one reason or the other so it is the resurrection of the dead what is sewn is perishable what is raised is imperishable it is sewn in dishonor it is raised in glory it is sewn in weakness it is raised in power it is sewn in a natural body it is raised in a spiritual body if there is a natural body there is also a spiritual body thus it is written the first man and it became a living being the last and it became a life giving spirit but it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural and then the spiritual the first man was from the earth a man of dust the second man is from heaven as was the man of dust so also those who are of the dust and is the man of heaven so also are those who have heaven just so we have born the image of the man of dust we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven he sticks with his sewing and reaping metaphor and he comes again to this powerful message that what we see now is not the ultimate reality but rather the proof that there is a greater reality the physical gives evidence of the spiritual just as Adam points to Christ and Christ to the resurrection mankind Adam he says was made in the image of God he became a nefesh a soul that says in Genesis chapter 2 that God breathed into Adam and he became a living being a nefesh or suitcase in the Greek or soul a psyche in the English Adam was the seed of what he could have become a glorified man had he obeyed God and so just as the first Adam so he says is the last Adam this one called Jesus Christ more than a soul he becomes a life giving spirit as he says in Romans chapter 5 for a sin and death ended in the world through one man so shall life accrue to the many through Jesus Christ the righteous Jesus was all that Adam would have been had Adam not fallen from grace and into sin but he says and notice is carefully the natural must come before the spiritual the earthly before the heavenly the dust before glory Adam before Christ there's a process here of sowing and reaping planting the incomplete and the inferior before we harvest that which is complete and glorious the perishable before imperishable the the natural before the spiritual or supernatural the dust before the glory the earth before heaven Adam humanity before Christ the new humanity Paul's logic is stunning that our reductive naturalism our scientific realism is both illogical and false rather than deny what we cannot see and believe only what is visible the reality of the creation points to the opposite that what we see now must point to something greater because all of life is moving to something greater something imperishable heavenly glorious eternal Christ like it is not true that what we see is all there is what we see is an introduction to what will be and that is true for you and me once we believe in Jesus Christ we are born again Paul told Nicodemus we're born again so we can both see and enter the kingdom of God there must be this process of the seed changing or everything just dies and that's the end of it all something that 99% of mankind in their psyche whether their Hindu Buddhist Muslim Jew animist secularist or Christian cannot accept they know that in themselves is something that will live forever and Paul says it is Adam made new in Christ for that to happen there must be something radical that takes place and that radical change is the transformation not reincarnation not the transmigration of the soul or a bodyless existence as a floating spirit but a transformation of all the we are soul and body verse 50 I tell you this brothers flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God nor does the perishable and herithe imperishable behold I tell you a mystery we shall not all sleep but we shall all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet for the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised in perishable and we shall be changed for this perishable body must put on imperishable and this mortal body must put on immortality when the perishable puts on imperishable and the mortal puts on immortality then shall come to pass the saying that is written death is swallowed up in victory oh death where is your victory oh death where is your sting the sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law but thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our lord Jesus Christ let me paraphrase what Paul is saying obviously what we are cannot enter the new world so there must be a total transformation and this will come about when Jesus returns our sanctification process will be radically and totally complete in a split second all who are believers shall be changed death in decay will be no more and mortal man will become immortal and the victory of God over sin and the devil and death will be complete and Jesus Christ will accomplish this but we are will not change in essence we will be human beings but what we will put on is the fullness of Jesus Christ just as we put him on in faith in this life we will change form but not essence if we had time this morning we could go to Philippians chapter 2 where it says that Jesus Christ who existed as God did not consider his Godhead to be something to be held on to but emptying and stuffing on the form of a human being becoming in the form of a servant obedient to death on the cross for our sake Jesus Christ as God put on humanity so he could live with us listen to me we as humanity was put on Jesus Christ glory that we can live with God and just as in the twinkling of an eye the egg of the virgin became God and a body so in the twinkling of an eye the human soul will become grievous like Christ so that they can live with God forever in heaven that's what Paul is saying this great massive change will take place the seed is the spirit and the word and the gospel the blade is our regeneration is born again creatures the ear that grows is sanctification this lifelong process of growing like Christ the full grain is the glorification the complete transformation from glory to glory and each person in order to experience this must be planted in the gospel they must be impregnated with the seed of the spirit which is the life of Christ they must die they must grow they must change you know what this tells you and me listen to me everything that happens to us in life good and bad is softening up that seed so that can grow into eternal life you ever notice a kernel of cord it's as hard as a rock but when it goes down into that ground it's softened so that the hard exterior husk that protects the precious life within breaks open and up it grows up towards the light of God the son of righteousness himself Jesus Christ is softening up every one of you that's why life isn't always easy that's why things are often painful and disappointing that's why there's failure in life and not everything there's always success because he's breaking down that that sinful husk that is impervious to grace blind to God and prefers to dwell in its own little universe in the dark he's breaking it open so we can grow up to life with God I believe in the resurrection my friends because it's the only thing that makes all of life fit together that makes sense that gives my existence true meaning the resurrection reminds me that all of life as we know it is in seed form but it is growing towards something larger than life and greater than self and lasting forever it's growing toward the kingdom of God the resurrection reminds me that all life's experience are the soaking of the seed the softening of the hardness of microst so that at microst might be born again into Jesus Christ so there is no longer eye who live but Christ who lives in me the resurrection reminds me that the only real life is that which lies beyond this world what even what have become had Adam and Eve not sinned is what awaits me in the new world that Jesus is making for Christ is making all things new Christ is always the farmer the sower of the seed and all of these parables and stories the resurrection tells me that people who are not born again of the spirit who do not follow Jesus Christ are like a species of creatures constantly living underground in darkness seeds who think that the dark damp lifeless world around them is all there is but once the spirit touches them and the earth cracks open they leap up toward life and light toward God they grow into what they were always meant to be for they have delivered from the domain of darkness and transferred to the kingdom of his beloved son in whom we have redemption and the forgiveness of sins and finally the resurrection informs me that life in this world only has one purpose and that is to get ready for the great harvest so Paul ends with this this marvelous little verse since all of this is true he says therefore my beloved brethren be steadfast and movable always abounding in the work of the Lord knowing in the Lord that your toil is not in vain you know this truth of the resurrection begs the question doesn't it what kind of seed are you in you is the potential for glorified life but only if you're planted only if you're crushed only if you're watered by grace and nurtured by the church tend to do by spiritual farmers pastors and people and grown up in Christ you see you hold the seed to your life you do no one else it is yours to believe on Jesus Christ to give your life to him to lose yourself and him to plant yourself in the gospel truth is to deposit your life into a process that will yield to will glory beyond your imagination to hang on to yourself as Jesus said to love your life is to lose it but if that seed falls to the ground and dies with Jesus Christ it brings forth great fruit that is the question the resurrection ask you do you believe in Jesus Christ have you been planted in him have you been born again are you growing into glory you make the decision that decision will affect your forever that's pray father we thank you for this wonderful encouragement of the resurrection that urges us on to lose our lives now to to plant them in Jesus Christ and repentance and faith to to lose them in his church to be reshaped by the spirit into his new humanity to be a new creation fit for a new heaven and a new earth a new humanity you can start that process even this moment Lord you can send the seed of the word and spirit into every heart and soul and mind here bringing to life that which is in seed form but yet dead and causing us to be born again of the spirit to grow into the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ we surrender ourselves to you we trust that this is true we believe what you have said here and we know that without Jesus Christ we cannot be in this great harvest of souls we must die with him and live with him in this life and rise with him in glory if we have any hope and we ask for the gift of repentance and faith to do that we might be born again to the living hope of the resurrection in Jesus Christ for we pray this in his name and for his sake amen