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[0:00] Our God is a creating, creative God. These numbers are according to Google. I don't know how correct they are, but apparently there are 11,000 types of birds in the world, 34,000 fish, and at least 1.5 million animals.

[0:28] ! Our God is a creating God. Think of all the variety in that. All over the world, these creatures exist. Even bigger numbers when you get into space. Apparently there are 200 billion stars in space. I don't know where they came up with that figure.

[0:46] And 100,000 million stars in the Milky Way alone. It's incredible. Our God is a creating God.

[0:58] So why would we need to worry about how we then will have resurrection bodies? We heard last week about how those who are in Christ, those who are Christians, will be made alive. We will have new resurrection bodies.

[1:20] And we know this because of Jesus, who's the first fruits, the sign of the things to come. His resurrection and his resurrection body, that's the sign of things to come.

[1:34] But how will God do this? How will God take these decaying bodies we live in and raise them up to new glorious bodies?

[1:47] How will he do this? Well, it's hard to imagine, isn't it? And some in Corinth were asking, how is this possible? Do you see that there in verse 35?

[2:00] But someone will ask, how are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come? But Paul tells them, verse 36, how foolish of you to ask.

[2:16] How foolish. But I don't know about you. I often have questions about the future and how things will work. How will the new creation work?

[2:29] But would Paul think I'm foolish to ask those questions? I don't think he would. I think he's saying they're foolish because they're not remembering God in this.

[2:43] Their questions are along the lines of, what kind of fool would believe we can live in forever bodies?

[2:54] That's the sort of line of questioning they're going along. But we can pick up this question and ask ourselves a little bit.

[3:07] How on earth will our bodies be raised? How will they be raised? But as we ask that question, we believe in a God who has creative, wonderful, amazing creative power.

[3:24] So first of all, how could we have new resurrection bodies? What gives us confidence? Well, have a look at verse 37. When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else.

[3:45] But God gives it a body as he has determined. And to each kind of seed, he gives its own body. So imagine a mighty oak tree.

[3:57] To get an oak tree, you don't plant an oak tree in the ground. You plant its seed, an acorn in the ground. And amazingly, out of that little acorn comes a big, mighty oak tree.

[4:13] This is Hog Cod's creative power. In terms of animals away from seeds, thinking this week about caterpillars and butterflies.

[4:29] How amazing is it that this little caterpillar, which looks so different from a butterfly, just transforms? It's amazing. It's a bit like a resurrection image.

[4:41] So we can take confidence in our God's creative power. If a little seed can produce a mighty oak tree, if a caterpillar can be turned into a beautiful flying butterfly, he can take these decaying bodies we're in and turn them into eternal resurrection bodies.

[5:09] Paul then goes on. And he gets very obvious with us. Verse 39. Not all flesh is the same. People have one kind of flesh.

[5:22] Animals have another. Birds another. And fish another. So your body, if you didn't know, is not like a fish's body. Hopefully, we're clear on that.

[5:34] But that's when we can remember how many different types of animal bodies there are, and fish bodies and bird bodies. And then, space, he turns to.

[5:49] Verse 40. There are also heavenly bodies, and there are earthly bodies. But the splendor of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is another.

[6:01] So the sun in space has one kind of splendor. Amazing. Bright. The moon has another splendor. The star's another. And each star is different from another star.

[6:13] So you Corinthians, who say how stupid it is that we believe that God can give us new resurrection bodies.

[6:23] Paul's saying, look how amazingly creative your God is. So you can have no doubt that it won't be a problem for him to take your decaying body and turn it into a glorious new resurrection body.

[6:42] Our bodies will be like little seeds planted in the ground and raised to new glorious life. Like that acorn into a mighty oak.

[6:55] But what will they be like? I don't know about you, but when I look at new things, particularly big things like car insurance deals, I might go on a comparison website, comparethemarket.com, that kind of thing, to compare one deal from another.

[7:16] Is my old deal better than these new deals they're offering me? They lay out my different options. This evening, we're going to compare our current bodies with our new bodies.

[7:30] And hopefully we'll be encouraged. Hopefully we'll be looking forward to what's to come. And that will help us as we go through another week in these current bodies.

[7:41] There's not so many of us here. So why don't you, maybe just on your own or with the people next to you, just have a look for a few minutes.

[7:52] Verse 42 to 43. What are our current bodies like? And what will our new bodies be like? Just two or three minutes.

[8:03] Let's go. How are we doing?

[9:00] Phil says, yeah. Thumbs up. What did you notice about current body?

[9:13] They're perishable, yes. What else? Dishonour. Dishonourable, yeah.

[9:24] Yeah. Yes, raised in glory. There's a bit of a difference in that, isn't there? Yes.

[9:39] Do you feel weak? Thank you. There was one more with our current ones. Yes.

[9:50] Yes. Which is natural, doesn't it? Yeah. I was reading this last week. Huh. Yeah. It's something that's soulish. It's to do with, I think soul is probably to do with the natural energies that we ordinarily have.

[10:09] Like we can put up shelves in front of the car, write a letter, sing a tune. those forces and powers that's all it has earthly earthly yeah and our new bodies when it says it's disonder what is that actually referring to?

[10:45] we'll go through them bit by bit in a moment yeah if I don't answer it afterwards let me know what will our new bodies be like according to this?

[11:09] imperishable yes we go from perishing to imperishable we won't perish amazing I think Ray mentioned one earlier yeah raised in glory glorious yeah power yeah raised in power and then compared to natural spiritual yeah we'll hopefully unpack what that means in a moment so perishable perishable right now these bodies we're in we're decaying recently I've discovered a bit more of the decay getting grey hairs I feel like that's a sign to me my body is decaying a reminder that that's that's a process I'm going through I've been feeling more of the aches and pains in places and I'm sure you'll say some of you will say it's only gonna get worse our bodies are perishing so in in all that this this chapter has really encouraged me that our new bodies will be imperishable no more decomposing no more growing grey hairs and feeling the aches and pains perishable to imperishable dishonour dishonourable and that's due to our sin we have used our bodies in dishonourable ways because of our sins we've used our hands to harm others we've used our tongues to deceive people we've used our eyes to lustfully on others we've used our feet to wander into paths of sin paths we should not tread we have not looked after our bodies as we should and not just from what we have done but our bodies have been sinned against by others perhaps we bear the bruises physically or emotionally from what others have done and so there's a sense of dishonour about them but our new bodies not honourable but glorious glorious new bodies fit for dwelling with our gloriously holy gods fit for a perfect life of holiness freedom from the sin of our own doing we won't be bruised by the sins of ourselves or the sin of others perfect holy relationships with people dwelling in glorious bodies raised to be like

[14:21] Jesus glorious body and then we our bodies are weak and don't have to put your hand up but in the last month has anybody seen a doctor a few of us this side of the roof oh and one over here more than once no has anybody taken medication yeah that's that's quite a lot of us these are signs of our weakness I'm reminded of my weakness every evening when I take my inhaler and put my cream on for eczema we're weak our bodies have limitations and as we get older we'll find we can't do the things we once were able to do hands up if you're planning to sleep tonight because it's not always a given

[15:25] I think that's most of us if not all of us sleep is a sign of our weakness isn't it apparently an average human spends 26 years asleep that's a third of our lives I guess some of us that will be a bit more some of us a bit less that's a sign of our weakness we need it in order to prepare ourselves to have strength for another day it seems to me that when our baby is born they're going to spend most of their time sleeping or feeding because they're weak we're going to be looking after a very weak fragile human being but in that sleep and in the feeding they will grow stronger and healthier but our new bodies will be raised in power no longer feeling those weaknesses and then natural our bodies right now are made for life in the natural world made for this current physical existence but our bodies will come to be spiritual designed for use in a spiritual heavenly world dwelling with God hopefully that will become clearer these last two as we go on and I think it's worth looking just a little bit at Jesus resurrection body if he's the first fruits if he's the sign of things to come what can we expect so can we firstly look at

[17:24] John 21 4-14 and perhaps if somebody could offer to read that that would be lovely John 21 4-14 yeah there is thank you early in the morning Jesus stood on the shore but the disciples did not realise that it was Jesus he called out to them friends haven't you any fish no they answered he said throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some when they did they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish then the disciples whom

[18:26] Jesus loved said to Peter it is the Lord as soon as Simon Peter heard him say it is the Lord he wrapped his outer garment round him for he had taken it off and jumped into the water the other disciples followed in the boat towing the net full of fish for they were not far from the shore about a hundred meters when they landed they saw a fire of burning coals there with fish on it and some bread Jesus said to them bring some of the fish you have just caught so Simon Peter climbed back into the boat and dragged the net ashore it was full of large fish 153 but even with so many the net was not torn Jesus said to them come and have breakfast none of the disciples dared ask him who are you they knew it was the Lord Jesus came took the bread and gave it to them and did the same with the fish this was now the third time

[19:31] Jesus appeared to his disciples after he was raised from the dead thank you rose just before we note one or two things from that perhaps you've heard or thought of eternal life in heaven being like floating around in the sky somewhere playing a harp perhaps on a cloud hopefully this evening we're going to get that our new resurrection bodies won't be like that they're going to be real and physical and we see that with Jesus don't we in verse four he stood on the shore Jesus stood there in his resurrection body and we see in these verses he uses his voice that's a very normal thing he calls out to his disciples he prepares breakfast for them very ordinary physical things there is this sort of thing here and in other points where

[20:39] Jesus is sort of a little bit unrecognizable at first they don't quite see who it is and there might be very simple explanations for that they weren't particularly expecting to see risen Lord Jesus perhaps but here he is he's standing he's physically in a new resurrection body and he's eating breakfast with his disciples he had a real physical body can we see a few other verses in Luke as well Luke 24 42 to 43 and perhaps would somebody else be up for reading those couple of verses Luke 24 42 to 43 or Rose would you mind reading them again when you get there

[21:48] I think I said Luke 24 42 to 43 Luke 24 42 to 43 they gave him a piece of broiled fish and he took it and ate it in their presence I think I probably meant to read more verses on that but that's what I gave you I mean that shows that Jesus actually ate food because it doesn't specifically mention that in John 21 but just looking at some of the verses above that Jesus in verse 39 he says look at my hands and my feet you can touch me and see I'm not a ghost I have flesh and bones real physical life there is

[22:55] I think this is clearer in John's gospel actually but in verse 36 while they were still talking about it Jesus himself stood among them in John 20 the doors are locked and Jesus appears perhaps in our new bodies we'll be able to go through I don't know whether that was just very peculiar to the Lord Jesus he is he is God we're not but the point is we do read of him resurrected from the dead in real glorious physical body and we are going to share in these bodies these resurrection bodies as the Lord Jesus does these perishable dishonorable weak natural bodies we live in will be transformed and they will be so much better than before we won't be floating around playing harps on a cloud but we'll get to enjoy real physical life and

[24:10] Paul back in the chapter we've been in helps us to see this hopefully some more more clearly as he compares Adam and Christ so let's have a look at that back in 1 Corinthians 15 an Adam and Christ comparison and he begins in verse 45 basically quoting from Genesis verse 45 says so it is written the first man Adam became a living being and your footnote will say this is from Genesis 2 verse 7 where we would read then the

[25:13] Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and the man became a living being so Adam has the breath of life he has life in his earthly body God breathed the breath of life he's a living being but into Christ there's a little bit of a difference verse 45 continues the last Adam a life giving spirit or spirit of life and I think that's clearer when we read Romans 8 10 to 11 don't mind turning there I think it's helpful to read it Romans 8 10 to 11 but if

[26:14] Christ is in you then even though your body is subject to death because of sin the spirit gives life because of righteousness and if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his spirit who lives in you so the spirit of Jesus who raised Jesus to new life now lives in those who are in Christ Jesus we may be in bodies now which are subject to death but because we've got the spirit within us we will be raised from the dead because of this life giving spirit and I think that's made even clearer we hope in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 1 to 5 for we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed we have a building from

[27:31] God an eternal house in heaven not built by human hands meanwhile we groan longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling our resurrection body because when we are clothed we will not be found naked for while we are in this tent the tent of the body we groan and are burdened because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God who has given us the spirit as a deposit guaranteeing what is to come so we have the spirit life giving spirit in us who guarantees that these mortal bodies will have future new everlasting life and so right now according to these verses it's like we're living in a tent nobody as far as I know wants to live in a tent permanently so we're camping out in these temporary structures but we're looking forward to the new permanent structure to come and the spirit is a guarantee of this spirit that is at work in us so hopefully that's a little clearer so the

[29:05] Adam and Christ comparison continues in verse 47 where we see Adam is from dust and Christ from heaven and I think this explains more of the natural and the spiritual body that we saw in verse 44 so verse 47 the first man was of the dust of the earth the second man is of heaven so Adam of this earth from dust to dust he goes and that's the same for us we're earthly we're real physical earthly beings Jesus is the second man the one who brings in this new humanity people in Christ who will be raised but not to live here but to live of heaven and so we are currently earthy because that's where we belong now but we're going to be heavenly do you see that verse 48 as was the earthly man so are those who are of the earth and as is the heavenly man so also those who are of heaven will be made we're currently made from the place we belong and we will be made from the place where we will belong and right now we're in as we sort of thought about a little bit last week in that

[30:47] Q&A time we're in that now not yet right now we're in dusty earthy temporary bodies now but the not yet is we will be in heavenly spirit infused life giving transformed bodies we're we've got lots to look forward to so we're between the two and we're currently even now being transformed so hopefully we'll see that in verse 49 we read this just as we have borne the image of the earthly man so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man we're being transformed more into Christ's image more into the heavenly man's image and we see one more one more other passage to look up 2

[31:52] Corinthians 3 17 to 18 where Paul writes now the Lord is the spirit and where the spirit of the Lord is there is freedom and we all who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord's glory we are being transformed into his image with ever increasing glory which comes from the Lord who is the spirit so the spirit in us has revealed the risen Lord Jesus to us he's taken that veil away from our faces so we behold Jesus as our Lord and Savior and so as we continue to behold him as we continue to behold him in his word as we have done this evening we are being transformed from one degree of glory into another being prepared for that future heavenly body that we look forward to being in we're going to be transformed physically but we also are being transformed physically it's that now not yet aspect to it and all this is due to our mighty creator gods who has more than enough power to raise these decaying bodies up to resurrection bodies fit for our eternal home hopefully we kept up with that we'll sing a song and then if you've got any questions or reflections on what we've heard we can do that but first let's sing this it seems really appropriate it's all about resurrection bodies the author has dwelt upon some of the things we've dwelt upon this evening in resurrection bodies like

[34:02] Jesus his very own will rise to meet our saviour in joy around his throne will marvel at the mercy that bids poor sinners come be welcomed at his table and share his heavenly throne seems very appropriate!

[34:20] doesn't it we'll stand and sing that's a wonderful fourth verse I thought a resurrection body young radiant vibrant three with powers unthought undreamed of how rich your joys shall be through endless years to marvel endless years design create explore in resurrection wonder to worship servidor put so wonderfully and what we've heard does anybody have any questions or reflections upon that I did sort of feel like the latter bit got a bit complicated yeah yeah I don't know.

[35:34] So you could misread that and say, oh, spiritual is like a wispy, so a wispy, glaring body. But if you think of, and this is not, I remember reading this somewhere, a steamship.

[35:49] A steamship. A steamship. A steamship is not made out of steam. That's the stuff that gives it power. It runs by steam.

[36:00] And if you think of that as a spiritual body, that the power that runs the body is the power of the spirit. I think that's what, you can use your imagination a little bit on that.

[36:12] That's quite a statement. It's quite a thought, isn't it? That we will be, it won't be the spirit sort of outside us, but that our whole being will be energized by the spirit.

[36:25] Yeah. I have another thought, which I think I've got it from a front of somewhere, where it says, the first man Adam became a living being.

[36:40] The last man Adam, a life-giving spirit. I think the suggestion was that we remove the letter A to the back.

[36:52] And instead of saying, the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. Say, the last Adam, this is who he is.

[37:02] This life-giving spirit, and you capitalize the S. That's, resurrection takes us into that area, that Jesus is a life-giving spirit.

[37:15] And the future, you know, I can get lost for words. But the experience we have of the spirit now is just a foretaste of the world of the spirit, and the life of the spirit, because Jesus is life-giving spirit.

[37:36] Amen. Thank you. That was really helpful. I particularly was enjoying the steam ship analogy.

[37:47] Thank you. Yeah, Rose. I think you're probably going to come onto it, but I was just wondering if you could say how it picked up on the new heaven and the new earth.

[37:59] Hmm. I was thinking this is, hopefully will complement whenever we get to the new heavens and the new earth in Revelation.

[38:11] But, I mean, that's going to be a real physical existence. We can imagine life here, can't we? But it's going to be so much better.

[38:22] And it's like this, I think it feels like this earth will be resurrected to new earth, new heavens, new earth. Yeah.

[38:37] Yes, we're waiting for that. Yes, I see what you mean. Yeah, we're sort of... And that will be the new heaven and the new earth. Yeah. Where we have our resurrection bodies.

[38:49] Yeah. So, we... It needs to be clarified. Yeah, thank you. I think we saw that probably more clearly last week.

[39:00] In... I'm trying to remember. Verse 23. But each in turn, Christ the first reeds.

[39:11] He's raised first. Then when he comes, those who belong to him, then the end will come. So, it's not till Christ comes, then we'll be raised to new life.

[39:23] Yeah. We have a new body. Yeah. And our souls, right now, they're... The souls of those who've died, they're secure. They're safe. They're okay. We don't need to worry about them.

[39:35] But we will, with them, be raised. And our new bodies will be joined to the souls. Yes. Yeah. Yeah, thank you, Rose.

[39:48] Yeah. Yeah. One of the things that there's a... This is a guy who writes, N.T. Wright, Tom Wright. Mm. He sets up a straw map, you know, something that nobody really believes.

[40:02] Mm. And then he knocks it down. Mm. One of the straw men that he sets up is the Sunday school teacher who says, Christianity is about going to heaven when I die.

[40:13] Mm. And N.T. Wright says, no, it isn't. It is about the future resurrection. Mm. Mm. Mm. I die, I will be with the Lord in heaven. Yeah. Yeah. That's what we're aiming for.

[40:24] We're aiming for resurrection bodies. Yeah. And nothing less than that is really Christianity. Yeah. Yeah. Amazing. Which makes it interesting when you remember on the Mount of Transformation.

[40:42] It's very much like it. Have you? Yes. Yes. Yeah. they will be recognised. Yeah. It's not going to be that we are faceless and unrecognisable.

[40:58] We're somehow going to be recognisable. I think we are. Yeah. How old will we be? Well. We'll be the sort of summation of all that we have been and the best, of all that God has made us to be through the various years.

[41:18] And that's what we will be. At our peak, maybe. And even better. Yeah.

[41:32] Yeah. I think this verse 4, young, radiant, vibrant, free, that's a good way to put it, isn't it? Yeah.

[41:45] Yeah. Yeah. All sorts of mysteries, aren't there? Yeah. So, some of us might remember Phil Harman.

[41:57] Oh, well, Rob Thomas. In the church that he goes to in D-side, up near Chester, there has been a ministry to people with learning difficulties, specifically Down syndrome people.

[42:11] Now then, in resurrection, what will their resurrection bodies have the disadvantages of Down syndrome, or what?

[42:24] I think, when I pondered it, Down syndrome produces a certain attractiveness of character in some ways.

[42:38] And, I mean, it's all speculation, because that will be preserved. Yeah. Yeah. The beauty and the, the sort of rather special and precious aspects of what somebody has become in their life.

[42:55] Yeah. Yeah. Into the resurrection. Yeah. I, I think I would agree with you. Yeah. No, we had an auntie with Down syndrome, and, like, she was so much fun because of who she was made to be.

[43:13] And, and I imagine in some way that will be preserved, but it's a mystery, isn't it? Yeah. Yeah. No doubt about it.

[43:26] Yeah. Without sin. Yeah. Yeah. Exciting. Should we turn some of these thoughts to praise, prayer?

[43:37]  Um.