When It Feels Like Death Is Winning | Messy Church, Part 25

July 14, 2024   /   Crosstown Alliance Church

Messy Church, pt 25 – “When It Feels Like Death is Winning”

Sometimes it feels like death is winning

How are the dead raised?

With what kind of body are the dead raised? How can we have assurance we will be raised?

Pau provides answers through three profound transformations:

From Seed to Splendor

1 Corinthians 15:36-38

You foolish person! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. 37 And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. 38 But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body.

John 12:24

Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.

From Earthly to Heavenly

1 Corinthians 15:39-44

For not all flesh is the same, but there is one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish. 40 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. 41 There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory. 42 So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. 43 It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. 44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.

Sown: Perishable, dishonorable, weak, natural

Raised: Imperishable, glorious, strong, spiritual

“There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind.” – C.S. Lewis

What will our bodies look like?

1 Corinthians 15:45-49

Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life- giving spirit. 46 But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. 47 The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. 48 As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. 49 Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.

His body still bears the wounds of this life—ours will not

From Death to Victory in Christ

1 Corinthians 15:50-53

I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. 53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. 14 For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. 15 For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.

2 things will happen when Jesus returns:

  1. Those who have died, their bodies will rise.
  2. Those who are alive, they will be transformed.

1 Corinthians 15:54-55

When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:    Death is swallowed up in victory.” 55 “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”

Application:

  1. When it feels like death has the upper hand…Remember—we win!

1 Corinthians 15:56-57

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

  1. When you’re tempted to drift…Stay steadfast in the Lord’s service.

1 Corinthians 15:58

Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

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