The Resurrection - WHAT NEXT?
Read 1 Corinthians 15.35-59
How are the DEAD raised?
Well apparently 1 in 3 Americans think some of the dead come back as ghosts. This in a population that is made up of people who believe God created the whole thing (51%). Then we also have to remember that 80% of those same people think something is being hidden at Roswell NM. There is an increasing number of Americans who now believe in reincarnation. Dr Paul Debell, a psychiatrist, believes he was once a caveman. He is also quite sure his life as a caveman did not end well. He says, "I was going along, going along, going along and I got eaten." I wonder if he remembers that the next part of his life he was a pile of dino dung? This new focus on reincarnation may be because people can feel better about past lives than their present life or it may be an excuse for the current life failure and a hope they will do better next time. This focus on reincarnation is in direct contrast to the teaching of Christianity and the writings we have in the Bible. It may be easier to believe you get another chance than it is to know that this life is the only shot you get.
What Kind Of Body Do I Have?
The truth of the matter is that everyone is going to die someday. Some may live longer and stronger than others but the final truth is none of us is getting out of this world alive. We are UNIQUE creations of God. He made the human body different from any others. The problem with our current bodies is that they are PERISHABLE. They will not last. They are all wearing out or the process we call aging. People are living longer but they still come to the same end. The current bodies bring DISHONOR to us. My mother asked by brother what the gift a person should give to a couple who had been married for sixty years. My brother said, "IT DEPENDS." One old fellow said that nothing ever changes. "When I was five years old half my friends wore diapers, now I am eighty half my friends wear diapers." This highlights the WEAKNESS of our bodies and the reason people are so easily tempted. These bodies are NATURAL or just PHYSICAL and they will all wear out.
What Kind Of Body Do I Get?
We will all die and we will all go through the RESURRECTION from the dead. Then we will receive new bodies that are UNIQUE. These new bodies will be IMPERISHABLE. They are eternal and will not wear out. These new bodies are meant to last forever. They are bodies of GLORY and POWER. They are SPIRITUAL. Paul was clear when he wrote: "I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable." 1 Corinthians 15.50 That is why we get new spiritual bodies.
I am going to be as plain as I can here. I am going to give my opinion. This is much like when Paul said, "To the rest I say this (I, not the Lord):" 1 Corinthians 7.12 Paul wanted everyone to know that they could do this but it was not required, it was how he was going to handle that matter. Here is my opinion and how I plan to handle the matter of my own death. I do not want to waste money or any ground space when I am gone so I plan to be cremated. I have checked into it and funeral homes here in Washington state offer what is called direct cremation. I don’t know what that means. I may have to drive over just before I die an check in but the cost is so much less than a funeral. I found one direction cremation for $266. I found another for over $4,000. I know that my body cannot go to heaven; flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. I will get a new spiritual body and my old body will stay behind here. Whether you are eaten by a dino or you die of old age the body is left behind. If you are not comfortable with cremation then by all means have a traditional burial. My decision is not as radical as what one man I knew wanted to do. He had served as a state forest ranger for 45 years. He said if he could he would drop his body off in the woods so the animals he had made a living from could get a good meal from him. Extreme, yes, allowable, no, but does it violate the scriptures, no. The physical body cannot inherit the kingdom of God.
The Sting Of Death
When I was a small child I can remember getting shots. The one I hated the most was the small pox vaccine shot. It was a group of needles that was stabbed into your shoulder with the vaccine on the ends of them. The nurse would always say the same thing just before they gave the shot. "Now this will not hurt." WHAT, it always hurt. There I would be with tears running down my face and a nurse’s voice saying, "Now that wasn't so bad now." I wish I could stab her in the arm with those needles, and then she could cry while I said, "Hey how do you like that?" It is not natural to have needles stabbed into your arm or other areas of your body. Every adult carries their childhood hurts and pains into their adult life. This is why we respond the way we do at times as adults.
I was in Wal-Mart last November getting my flu shot. There were only two of us in line. We were called to the table at the same time. It was a six foot table with chairs at either end. The nurse sat in the middle and took care of one person and then the other. The guy at the other end was 76 years old. We were told to roll up our sleeves. Then it happened, the old guy started crying. He was afraid of getting shots. He told the nurse that as a child shots always hurt. He began to cry harder and the nurse spoke softly to him to calm down. He continued to cry while she swabbed his arm and smoothly gave him the shot and then pulled the needle out. That is when he said, "Go ahead, and give me the shot." When he found out it was already done he smiled and asked if she would be there next year? That fear is stronger in some people than other. BTW: I got my shot without tears even though I still hate shots and remember how bad they were as a child.
Death carries a sting according to Paul. This sting represents every pain we have ever felt in our lives. Paul says the sting of death is sin. Death came into the world because of sin. The great gift of God is the victory over death and the sting that comes with it. A life of pain often makes us afraid of death and the sting of death. We become like a 76 year old man who remembers how much pain he felt in the past and finds it hard to understand that is not how it is now. I have been with a number of people at the time of their death. Some have had peace and were ready to go and others even though they were ready to face God were afraid. They saw death as painful and facing the unknown could only be compared to the past. I can imagine how they were surprised when they were one moment dying, afraid and the next moment heard Jesus saying, "Now that didn't hurt did it?" We will all be surprised that the sting of death is so easily left behind.
How Believers Should Prepare for DEATH
We are called to STAND FIRM. NOTHING is to move us from our faith. We are called to GIVE ourselves to the work of the Lord. How pathetic we must look to God sometimes. We are afraid someone might make fun of us for being a Christian. We are like an old man afraid of needles unaware of what it means to really stand firm. The following happened over the last 14 days. Two pastors were detained by authorities in China. Christian leaders were attacked and beaten by militants in India. Five Christian in Inner Mongolia were arrested. Five Christian leaders were arrested and beaten in India. A pastor in Mexico has been kidnapped. An Uzbek Christian was assaulted and fined for handing out Bibles. Police placed at least 500 members of the Shouwang Church, in Beijing, China under house arrest in an attempt to prevent them from holding an outdoor Easter worship service on April 24. They had to stand firm against real pressure and persecution.
When I read the following I understood what it means to stand firm and to let nothing, not even death turn us away from Jesus:
"A newly converted Christian from Islam was recently murdered by Muslim militants in the Lower Shabele region of Somalia. On April 18, two members of the al Shabaab Islamist group entered the house of 21-year-old Hassan Adawe Adan in Shalambod town and shot him dead. Adan, single and living with his Muslim family, reportedly came to Christ several months ago. Members of the secret Christian community to which Adan belonged suspect someone informed the Islamic militants of his conversion. One source said that a relative who belonged to the al Shabaab Islamist group had told Adan's mother that he suspected her son was a Christian. The murder has heightened fear among other converts living in the area."
We are called to stand firm, to let nothing move us and to give ourselves to the work of the Lord. The ones listed above have had to stand firm. Our brother Adan discovered that the sting of death was a transition from the physical world of fear and persecution to the spiritual kingdom of our Lord and savior.
POWER VERSE
...as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment....
When we die we all get new spiritual, eternal bodies. Where those bodies spend eternity comes down to how we live our lives today. It all comes down to the truth of what Jesus said, "They (the wicked) will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.” Matthew 25.46
Let me paraphrase this for you in a way you may understand and remember.
When you DIE, you either FLY or you FRY, you choose.
