Good morning my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
An important part of the human journey we are all walking is this matter of death. It’s usually an unwelcome and complicated experience filled with emotions which affect us deeply the more we love the person who is dying. The greatest contrast to death is resurrection and perhaps the closest thing most of us have ever come to a ‘resurrection’ is someone who has actually ‘died’ and then been revived by quick action of paramedics or doctors. In that very rare experience, the revival back to life of a person who has actually died normally takes place within seconds or minutes after their heart has stopped beating. I know several people who’ve had that experience and they sure are grateful for a second chance at life!
In the past few days, we’ve been looking at something quite different. It is not revival in a medical emergency, it’s resurrection after death, in some cases a very long time after death. It’s also more than resurrection, it’s transformation and Paul explains that God’s plan for us is that EVERY human being will experience the resurrection and transformation which will give to each and all of us an immortal body with which we will fully experience eternal life.
Some people, those who have trusted in God and Jesus Christ as their Savior, will experience this immortal life in heaven with Jesus and all the holy angels. Those people who have rejected God, or sought some path to God other than Jesus, will live in their immortal bodies, in a place of torment the Bible calls the “lake of burning sulfur” along with Satan and all his demons for all eternity. (Rev. 20) So once again, as I promised you yesterday, let’s rejoin Paul in his hallmark 15th chapter of his first letter to the Christians in Corinth.
I think Paul must have been delighted to write this remarkable chapter, as he was led by the Holy Spirit, since it is one of the most hopeful, encouraging, life giving chapters in the entire Bible! “Just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so we will bear the image of the heavenly Man (Jesus). I declare to you brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.” (1 Cor. 15:49,50) This makes it clear that while on earth our bodies have been like that of Adam, created by God for life ONLY on this planet earth, and for only a relatively short period of time. We are conceived by a miracle of God, shaped and formed in our mother’s wombs by an ongoing miracle of God, birthed by God, then we live, we age, we die, and these bodies of ours decay and disintegrate.
These bodies cannot go into immortal life in eternity, they are designed by God only for life here on planet earth. Our future life after death will require a different type of body. One which does not age, does not require earth’s atmosphere, and normal food and drink and rest. That’s why the resurrected body of Jesus gives us a glimpse as to what our resurrected and transformed bodies will be like!
Paul continues with his description: “Listen, I tell you a mystery. We will NOT all sleep, but we will ALL be changed, – in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be resurrected imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with the immortal.” (1 Cor. 15:51-53) Now that does sound like a mystery, doesn’t it my friends? Do you fully understand it, can you clearly explain it?
If we link with it Paul’s explanation of this miracle, which he wrote to the Thessalonian Christians a few years before, I think it becomes clearer! Look at this: “Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind who have no hope. For we believe that Jesus Christ died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Him. According to the Lord’s own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord Jesus, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Jesus Himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will be raised first. After that we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord Jesus in the air. And so, we will be with the Lord Jesus forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words.” (1 Thess. 4:13-18)
Now, when we combine these two very clear and powerful statements about our resurrection and transformation, what conclusions can we draw about what will happen to our bodies?
First… This event will be a momentary, global, resurrection of ALL persons, from all time, whom God considers to be His people.
Hundreds of millions of dead bodies of people who have trusted God, from every corner of the world, some dead only a few moments, others dead for many centuries, will be raised by the power of God, just as the dead body of Jesus was raised. This resurrection is ONLY the people of God. All human beings who have died without believing in God and trusting in Jesus will remain dead and are not affected by this first resurrection. They will be resurrected, in a second resurrection, at a future time, according to Rev. 20:4,5.
Second… In this remarkable, miraculous resurrection, dead bodies will be resurrected to a new, immortal life. These bodies will be very similar to the resurrected body of Jesus Christ.
These new bodies are designed by God not for life on planet earth, but for immortality, for all the rest of eternity, in God’s presence with all the holy angels and Jesus.
Third… At the same time as this amazing, global resurrection is taking place, all those Christians, everywhere in the world, who are ALIVE at that moment, will experience a physical transformation.
They will not die, but their bodies will be instantly changed, transformed into the same type of immortal, heavenly body which all those deceased people are receiving in their resurrection. While we do not have a detailed description of this body, we do have one example in the Bible of this happening to a living person. You’ll find the account in 2 Kings 2 and the person is the famous prophet, Elijah. He was walking along and talking with the younger prophet Elisha when as the record says, “As they were walking along and talking together, suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them, and Elijah was taken up to heaven in a whirlwind! Elisha cried out, ‘my father, my father! The chariots and horsemen of Israel!’ And Elisha saw Elijah no more.” (2 Kings 2:11,12)
That, my friends, is I believe a picture of what this rapture event will be like when suddenly we who are still alive are transformed ‘in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye’ and are taken up to meet the Lord Jesus in the air! From the perspective of everyone who does not experience this, we will suddenly be gone from planet earth!!
Now let’s understand something very important my friends. Five minutes after this remarkable, global resurrection of all deceased people of God from all time, and the transformation of those genuine Christians at that moment, what will this world be like? All those alive on our planet will be people whom God has viewed as NOT genuinely saved from sin condemnation! Oh, they may have been religious, maybe even devout, but from God’s perspective, they had not fully trusted in God and HIS plan for the deliverance of people living in sin bondage. That’s why Jesus had said to His disciples the evening before He went to the cross: “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except by Me.” (John 14:6)
Yes, we can assume in the hours following this great resurrection and transformation, there will be worldwide confusion, chaos and for many people profound disappointment, and maybe anger that they have been excluded from this event and they are left to live in a world with NO genuine Christians at that moment. Now let’s pause and ponder this my friends, and again I’ll meet you right back here tomorrow as we conclude this study of our resurrection!
Today’s Scriptures are 1 Cor. 15:49-53 & 1 Thess. 4:13-18.
Choose below to read or listen.
1 Cor. 15:49-53
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1 Thess. 4:13-18
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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