THE EIGHTH DAY OF CREATION

PART FOUR

MIKE CUNNINGHAM

APRIL 11, 2010

 

 

 

 

In the first three messages of this series I spoke about four Christians each of whom I believe would jump at an opportunity of exchanging their body for a brand-new one. Unless I’m greatly mistaken, the two women [Carroll and Linda] would gladly swap theirs for those of the men, but I know the men [Bob and Sergio] would never agree. Please don’t misunderstand me. I’m not suggesting the women would contemplate a gender change, but rather that they would be willing to trade their present one for any body which wasn’t in such bad shape. Please be assured I’m not making light of the condition the men’s bodies are currently in.

 

 As I have been saying in my previous sermons, you and I are living in what I refer to as being “The Eighth Day of Creation.” Although we are new creatures in Christ we are not yet fully developed. As much as we may want Him to, He will not alter or abort His plan to transform us into becoming beautiful Christ-like people through a life-long process which involves a great deal of suffering on our part.

 

The old Puritan Thomas Brooks describes the present condition Christians are in as being one which is mixed between their good times and their bad times. For instance, Brooks writes:

 

“In this life they have their rejoicing times, and their mourning times, their laughing times, and their weeping times, their singing times and their sorrowing times. It’s true, in heaven there is all joy and no sorrow, all gladness and no sadness. And in hell there is all sorrow, and no joy, all grief and no gladness, all howling and no singing, all madness and no mirth.”

“But in this present life it’s difficult, because if there was nothing but joy, many Christians would look for no other heaven. And if there was nothing but sorrow, most Christians would look for no other hell. If men experienced nothing but joy, O how sadly would they be puffed up! And if they experienced nothing but sorrow, O how easily would they be cast down! But now, by the divine hand of our Creator, our sorrows are mixed with our joy, and our hearts come to be more effectually weaned from the vanities of this life, and to long more earnestly after the pure and unmixed joys in the world of glory!” (A)

 

Obviously, we should pray for healing and do everything we possibly can to remove or alleviate our present condition. And we should take care of our bodies in which the Holy Spirit lives (1 Corinthians 3:16; 2 Timothy 1: 14). However, sooner or later, we will most definitely exchange our body for a brand-new one, and we will not be able to pick and choose what kind of a body it will be, anymore than we were able to select the one we were born into this world with. Back in eternity past our Creator has already planned and decided what our new body will look like just as He did our first (Ephesians 1:11 ). It’s out of our hands! A couple of things we can be absolutely certain of though are that it will be perfectly suited for each of us, and we will love it immensely. And so will everyone else when they see us in it. However, we must first die and then we will rise again in our new body. Anticipating the questions that kind of a statement would generate among the early Christians, the Apostle Paul wrote:

 

1 Corinthians 15:35-49 (AMP)
³⁵ But someone will say, How can the dead be raised? With what [kind of] body will they come forth? ³⁶ You foolish man! Every time you plant seed, you sow something that does not come to life [germinating, springing up, and growing] unless it dies first. ³⁷ Nor is the seed you sow then the body which it is going to have [later], but it is a naked kernel, perhaps of wheat or some of the rest of the grains. ³⁸ But God gives to it the body that He plans and sees fit, and to each kind of seed a body of its own. ³⁹ For all flesh is not the same, but there is one kind for humans, another for beasts, another for birds, and another for fish. ⁴⁰ There are heavenly bodies (sun, moon, and stars) and there are earthly bodies (men, animals, and plants), but the beauty and glory of the heavenly bodies is of one kind, while the beauty and glory of earthly bodies is a different kind. ⁴¹ The sun is glorious in one way, the moon is glorious in another way, and the stars are glorious in their own [distinctive] way; for one star differs from and surpasses another in its beauty and brilliance. ⁴² So it is with the resurrection of the dead. [The body] that is sown is perishable and decays, but [the body] that is resurrected is imperishable (immune to decay, immortal). ⁴³ It is sown in dishonor and humiliation; it is raised in honor and glory. It is sown in infirmity and weakness; it is resurrected in strength and endued with power. ⁴⁴ It is sown a natural (physical) body; it is raised a supernatural (a spiritual) body. [As surely as] there is a physical body, there is also a spiritual body. ⁴⁵ Thus it is written, The first man Adam became a living being (an individual personality); the last Adam (Christ) became a life-giving Spirit [restoring the dead to life]. ⁴⁶ But it is not the spiritual life which came first, but the physical and then the spiritual. ⁴⁷ The first man [was] from out of earth, made of dust (earthly-minded); the second Man [is] the Lord from out of heaven. ⁴⁸ Now those who are made of the dust are like him who was first made of the dust (earthly-minded); and as is [the Man] from heaven, so also [are those] who are of heaven (heavenly-minded). ⁴⁹ And just as we have borne the image [of the man] of dust, so shall we and so let us also bear the image [of the Man] of heaven.

 

What Paul said in so many words is that their new body will be like the one Jesus has. However, in order to get it they have to first die unless He returns while they are still alive. It’s important for us to remember that every Christian without exception experiences two resurrections. The first occurred to the spiritually dead body which he or she entered this world with the moment they experienced their rebirth. The second resurrection will occur at the exact moment the follower of the Risen Savior dies.

 

The following briefly summarizes what Paul said would first happen to them as they each made their way from the womb to their tomb. “The God whom Paul characterizes as the one “who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist,” (Romans 4:17) or “raises the dead,” (2 Corinthians 1:9) will display His life giving power and His concern for the body in raising dead believers just as He raised the Lord Jesus, (1Corinthians 6:14; 2 Corinthians 4:14). It is the same God who raised Christ from the dead who will endow believers’ mortal bodies with resurrection life (Romans 8:11).” (B)

 

Contrasting the dead body of Jesus with those of His deceased first followers, we learn that the bodies were reanimated after they were resurrected. The first to announce this wonderful news about Jesus was an angel on a day which would become known as Easter or Resurrection Sunday.

 

Mark 16:6 (ESV)
⁶ And he said to them, “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here. See the place where they laid him.

 

Paul drove home this amazing supernatural fact in his letter to the  Christians living in Rome.

 

Romans 8:11 (ESV) ¹¹ If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

 

Romans 14:9 (ESV)
⁹ For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.

 

Addressing His audience about the fact of Him being equal with God, and the absolute authority He has, Jesus told them:

 

John 5:28-29 (ESV)
²⁸ Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice ²⁹ and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.

 

Sharing the Revelation which he had received from Christ concerning those who had been martyred for their faith, the Apostle John wrote:

 

Revelation 20:4 (ESV)
⁴ Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.

 

The resurrected body of Jesus was transformed and so will the bodies of each of His followers. For example, concerning the body of the resurrected Jesus, we read:

 

Luke 24:31 (ESV)
³¹ And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And he vanished from their sight.

 

Acts 1:3 (ESV)
³ He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.

 

As for the birth and death of those early Christians, Paul wrote the following:

 

1 Corinthians 15:42-43 (ESV)
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.

 

However, Paul knew that some of them would still be alive when Jesus returned, and so a little later, he told them exactly what they could expect to happen to them.

 

1 Corinthians 15:51-54 (ESV)
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. ⁵⁴ 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.”

 

Luke provided a chronicle of some of the amazing events which took place during the infancy of the Christian Church, including the account of the wonderful news of how Jesus, after He was resurrected,  was indeed lifted up and exalted.

 

Acts 1:9-11 (ESV)
⁹ And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. ¹⁰ And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, ¹¹ and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”

 

Tucked into Peter’s memorable sermon at Pentecost we read:

 

Acts 2:32-33 (ESV)
³² This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. ³³ Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.

 

And then, zeroing in on those despicable evil men who murdered Jesus, Peter told them to their face:

 

Acts 5:30-31 (ESV)
³⁰ The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree. ³¹ God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.

 

Paul went on to tell those early followers who would still alive when Jesus returned in judgment everything they could expect to happen to them immediately after the ones who had died had been resurrected from the dead.

 

1 Thessalonians 4:17 (ESV)
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.

 

2 Timothy 2:12 (ESV)
¹² if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us;

 

Just as Christ was raised from the dead with an immortal body, so too, would each of those people who were His first followers.

 

Romans 6:9 (ESV)
⁹ We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. Speaking of Himself, Jesus revealed to the Apostle John an amazing truth about Himself.

 

Revelation 1:18 (ESV)
¹⁸ “... I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades,” (Please Re-read 1 Corinthians 15:42-44; 52-54).

 

Paul sent a letter telling those first century believers that they could each expect to receive a glorified body just like the one Jesus possessed when He returned. Letting them know what Jesus would do for them, we read:

 

Philippians 3:21 (ESV)
²¹ who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.

 

Addressing the men who were gathered in Solomon’s Portico about where Christ and His followers would one day live throughout eternity, Peter told them:

 

Acts 3:20-21 (ESV)
²⁰ that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, ²¹ whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago.

 

Paul drove home the same magnificent fact of where Christ and all of His followers would one day live together, and He let them know all about it in the letter he wrote to the Christian living in Ephesus.

 

Ephesians 1:20 (ESV)
²⁰ that he [God] worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, (Re-read 1 Thessalonians 4:16 2 and Corinthians 5:8, and then 1 Thessalonians 4:17).

 

Paul was able to visualize how fantastic it would be if he was at home living with the Lord and the other resurrected Christians. That’s the reason he said that he yearned to die. It was so he could be with Christ. Here’s how he expressed his desire to get away from all the tribulation he  and the other first century Christians were suffering:

Philippians 1:23 (ESV)
²³ I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.

 

Every one of these magnificent events were obviously experienced by those first century people in A. D. 70 when the Roman General Titus lay siege to the city of Jerusalem, destroyed its Temple and massacred the unrepentant Jews in judgment, just as all those divinely inspired writers of the New Testament had promised them. And, their “second resurrection” from the dead has been happening to all the followers of the Resurrected Savior ever since.   

 

Now here we are today thousands of years later living in the Twenty First Century. Let’s see how all these biblical truths are going to play out in our own lives. Imagine its tomorrow morning, and you’re in your car on the Interstate for the one hour’s drive to work. You’re cruising along with the other vehicles at sixty five just as you have been doing for a number of years. It’s a beautiful sunny day. The road is clear and there’s no construction taking place. In five more seconds you should be up and over the last hill and from there it’s only a mile to your exit ramp. Suddenly, you get the shock of your life. One of your worse fears is about to be realized and you know there’s nothing you can do to prevent it. Zooming over the crest of the hill coming from the opposite direction is another car driven by a crazed drunken driver and it’s headed directly towards yours. The last thing you remember thinking is that this is your end, before everything went blank. But you were mistaken!

 

The next thing you’re conscious of is a flurry of activity taking place all around you. You’re lying on your back in a hospital bed unable to speak because of the tube from a respirator in your throat. You’re all hitched up to various medical devices. Doctors, nurses and technicians are doing their thing. You’re surrounded by your closest loved ones, each of whom is encouraging you hang in there and not give up. But, judging from their facial expressions as their eyes dart back and forth from you to the EKG monitor up near the top of a wall, and, as you do the same as them, you know they don’t really believe what they are saying to you. Slowly but surely, those up and down lines on the monitor are getting smaller and smaller. Those folks who care about you dearly continue to plead with you to hang in there. But you know it’s impossible because you’re growing weaker and weaker as you feel all of your strength being drained out of you.  After your loved ones take a final look at the now completely flat line on the monitor, they immediately gaze down at your dead body lying on that hospital bed. Then they burst into tears and cry out in unison saying: “it’s all over!” But they were mistaken!

 

What they couldn’t see or hear was the Man softly calling you gently by name saying: “come on home!” And you did, as you left your loved ones and dead body behind and then flew, all decked out in your brand new invisible, immortal, spiritual body into the outstretched arms of your loving Savior. Later on as you look back from eternity at all the misery and suffering you endured during the often painful process through which your Creator was transforming you into becoming a beautiful Christ-like creature while you were living in “The Eighth Day of Creation” on earth, all of your heartache will fade and become no more than a vague distant memory.

 

PRAISE GOD FROM WHOM ALL OUR BLESSINGS FLOW!

 

Lord willing, next week….

 

 

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(A) The Works of Thomas Brooks, Volume 4, Sermon’s The Crown and Glory of Christianity, Edited with Memoir By Alexander B. Grosart, The Banner of Truth Trust, 3 Murrayfield Road, Edinburgh EH12 6EL.

(B)  From Grave to Glory, © 1990 by Murray J. Harris, pages 217-218, Academie Books, an imprint of Zondervan Publishing House, 1415 Lake Drive, S. E. Grand Rapids, Michigan 49596. I wish to express my appreciation for and indebtedness to Harris for much of the scriptures I cited in this sermon.