Sermon Notes (11.20.22)

Week No. 11 – You Will Be Glorified

Ecclesiastes 3:11 – He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. 

The Promise of Glorification

Romans 8:30 – And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. 

The Promise of Glorification

1 Corinthians 15:35-44

[35] But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?” [36] 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. [39] 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. (ESV)

a FAMILIAR picture (v. 35-41)

Seeds – what do they teach us?

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.

I’m eating my lunch in a graveyard. Human seeds have been planted in neat little rows. Stone stakes label the crop. – N.D. Wilson

SETTING – everything will have a place

a FOREIGN picture (v. 42-44)

perishable / imperishable

dishonor / glory

weakness / power

natural body / spiritual body

It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and the most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature, which that if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship. – C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

MISCONCEPTIONS

Why will we be given new bodies? According to the early Christians, the purpose of this new body will be to rule wisely over God’s new world. Forget those images about lounging around playing harps. There will be work to do and we shall relish doing it.  All the skills and talents we have put to God’s service in this present life – and perhaps too the interests and likings we have given up because they conflicted with our vocation – will be enhanced and ennobled and given back to us to be exercised to his glory. This is perhaps the most mysterious, and least explored, aspect of the resurrection life. – N.T. Wright, Surprised by Hope

The Provision for Glorification

1 Corinthians 15:45–50

[45] 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.

[50] I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. (ESV)

FIRST Adam / LAST Adam

1 Corinthians 15:21-22 – For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. [22] For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. 

in Adam / in CHRIST

The man of Heaven took on a body of dust in order that people who are made of dust might take on a heavenly body. He became like a grain of wheat—buried in the ground—but counterintuitively transformed to bear much fruit…The imperishable became perishable that the perishable might become imperishable. Jesus, the glorious one, experienced dishonor so that the dishonorable might experience glory. Jesus, the powerful one, became weak so that the weak might become powerful. Jesus who deserved life experienced death so that those who deserved death might experience new life. Jesus, “the man of heaven”, made himself a Son of Man—a man of the earth—so that the sons of Adam, men of the earth, might become men of Heaven. – Stephen Um

A Prayer for Salvation

“Heavenly Father, I admit that I am weaker and more sinful than I ever before believed, but through your Son Jesus I can be more loved and accepted than I ever dared hope. I thank you that he lived the life I should have lived and paid the debt and punishment I owed. Receive me now for his sake. I turn from my sins and receive him as Savior. Amen.”