What an exciting day!
We have been considering the fact that all dominion and power rightfully belong to God and to His Son Jesus to whom He has assigned it.
But we have seen that at the present time, though God has overall complete authority, yet some of that power that rightfully belongs to God is partially controlled by others.
God, in the person of Jesus is in the process, a deliberate, a planned process of restoring all that power to Himself and reclaiming dominion over areas of creation that rightfully belong to Him.
We have looked at various aspects of that restoration and in our last lesson we saw that a very major step in that restoration will be the second coming of Jesus and the resurrection of all believers both the dead and the living.
We saw that this is, or should be, the expectation all who have faith in Jesus. It is our hope.
Only God could ever achieve such a resurrection.
The Bible speaks about Jesus as being the first part of that resurrection and His return to life is a forerunner of the resurrection of those who are His people.
1 CORINTHIANS.
CHAPTER 15.
20. But Christ has truly been raised from death—the first one of all those {believers} who will be raised from death.
1 CORINTHIANS.
CHAPTER 15.
23. But each one will be raised in proper order: Christ, first of all; then, at the time of his coming, those who belong to him.
And more details of that order are given in 1 Thessalonians.
1 THESSALONIANS.
CHAPTER 4.
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.
God will use His great power to reclaim those who rightfully belong to Him.
EPHESIANS.
CHAPTER 1.
19. And you will know that God’s power is very great for us who believe. That power is the same as the great strength
20. that God used to raise Christ from death. God put Christ at his right side in the heavenly places.
And what will be raised? As with Jesus it will be our physical bodies and for those who believe and have died, their spirits, souls and bodies will again be reunited.
ROMANS.
CHAPTER 8.
23. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.
And our bodies belong to Jesus because He bought them with His life at Calvary.
1 CORINTHIANS.
CHAPTER 6.
20. God paid a great price for you. So use your body to honor God.
What an exciting day it will be. The most exciting part is that at long last we will be in the presence of Jesus, our Master, our Lord, and we will be able to give Him the allegiance He rightly deserves from us, His servants.
Well I have more exciting news to share. Our bodies won’t just be resurrected but they will be changed and it will all happen in a nanosecond.
1 CORINTHIANS.
CHAPTER 15,
51. I will explain a mystery to you. Not every one of us will die, but we will all be changed.
52. It will happen suddenly, quicker than the blink of an eye. At the sound of the last trumpet the dead will be raised. We will all be changed, so that we will never die again.
But many years ago this question was raised and it might well occupy our thoughts as well.
1 CORINTHIANS.
CHAPTER 15.
35. But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come?
Well it seems to me that some things may well remain the same.
I believe personally that we will be changed to have the same body as the resurrected body of Jesus.
2 CORINTHIANS.
CHAPTER 3.
18. And our faces are not covered. We all show the Lord’s glory. We are being changed to be like him. This change in us brings more and more glory. This glory comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
It would seem to be evident that after His resurrection Jesus did have a body and was not a spirit being.
We have already remarked on some of the experiences that the disciples had with Jesus after He was raised from the dead. They could touch Him. On a number of occasions He ate in their presence, He Himself referred to His flesh and bones. He was recognised as being Jesus
It would seem that some things in relation to our new bodies may well remain the same for us as well though we need to be careful that some of the references are not mere imagery or attempts to paint a word picture of something difficult to explain.
But it may well be that in our new bodies we will still be able to sing and shout, to eat and drink and possibly to wear clothing, to stand and to use hands.
REVELATION.
CHAPTER 7.
9. After these things I saw a large crowd from every nation, tribe, people, and language. No one was able to count how many people there were. They were standing in front of the throne and the lamb. They were wearing white robes, holding palm branches in their hands,
10. and crying out in a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the lamb!”
Here is further reference to the use of voice.
REVELATION.
CHAPTER 19.
5. Then there came from the throne the sound of a voice, saying, “Praise our God, all his servants and all people, both great and small, who have reverence for him!”
6. Then I heard what sounded like a crowd, like the sound of a roaring waterfall, like loud peals of thunder. I heard them say, “Praise God! For the Lord, our Almighty God, is King!
And we are told that God will feed His people.
REVELATION.
CHAPTER 7.
17. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.
This is the King James version and it uses the word “feed” but the Greek word “poimano” means to act as a shepherd and therefore it is uncertain if He leads them to pasture. There is the mention of springs but whether we are to understand it as referring to drinking or to comfort from the coolness and the soothing sounds, or to something else we cannot be certain
Other translations would put it this way.
REVELATION.
CHAPTER 7.
16. Never again will they hunger or thirst; neither sun nor any scorching heat will burn them,
17. because the Lamb, who is in the center of the throne, will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of life-giving water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
But we do know that Jesus, after he established the Lord’s supper said this
MATTHEW.
CHAPTER 26.
29.I tell you this: I will not drink this wine again until that day when we are together in my Father’s kingdom and the wine is new. Then I will drink it again with you.
He also said this in Luke’s Gospel
LUKE.
CHAPTER 22.
30. that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
And then we are told about a banquet, the marriage supper of the Lamb.
REVELATION.
CHAPTER 19.
9. Then the angel said to me, “Write this: Happy are those who have been invited to the wedding feast of the Lamb.” And the angel added, “These are the true words of God.”
But notice that the clothing of the bride is imagery
REVELATION.
CHAPTER 19.
8. She has been given clean shining linen to wear.” (The linen is the good deeds of God’s people.)
But what about here?
REVELATION.
CHAPTER 3.
4. A few of you in Sardis have not dirtied your clothes with sin. You will walk with me in white clothes, because you are worthy.
5. Everyone who wins the victory will wear white clothes. Their names will not be erased from the book of life, and I will tell my Father and his angels that they are my followers.
And clothing, especially white clothing seems to be a feature of heaven and heavenly beings.
REVELATION.
CHAPTER 1.
13. And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle.
MARK.
CHAPTER 16.
5. And entering into the sepulchre, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a long white garment; and they were affrighted.
LUKE.
CHAPTER 24.
4. And it came to pass, as they were much perplexed thereabout, behold, two men stood by them in shining garments:
We also read this
REVELATION.
CHAPTER 7.
17. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.
So will we have eyes? Surely we will need them to behold God and Jesus in all their splendour.
1 CORINTHIANS.
CHAPTER 13.
12. For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
HEBREWS.
CHAPTER 12.
14. Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:
1 JOHN.
CHAPTER 3.
2. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.
We have already seen that, in heaven, those resurrected were standing and holding palm leaves.
So some things may well remain the same
Perhaps sometime this afternoon you might like to reflect on what you may look like in heaven.
A number of years ago a person who marked correspondence courses was asked by a pupil, if he, that is the pupil, would be bald in heaven. At the time it seemed like a foolish question. But is it? Balding is a sign of aging and decay. Ageing and decay lead to death. Will all signs of this decay be removed when our bodies are changed, Will we still have glasses, hearing aids, mobility aids, crook knees, hips and backs, causing limps and stooping? Will there still be missing parts or other disabilities or will all of these imperfections be restored? What else might change? Try to imagine what you might look like in heaven.
But it would appear that it may not be the shape, the form of our bodies but their very nature, their fabric, as it were that will form the principal change.
To find the answer to what will happen in relation to this change we need to go right back to the beginning of the Bible to Genesis 2.
GENESIS.|
CHAPTER 2.
15. Then the LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to farm the land and to take care of it.
16.The LORD God commanded the man. He said, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden.
17. But you must never eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil because when you eat from it, you will certainly die.”
But we know what happened don’t we? Both Adam and Eve disobeyed this direct commandment from God. They .listened to the deceiver’s lies and they ate from that tree.
And what was and continues to be the consequence?
GENESIS.
CHAPTER 3.
16. Then the LORD said to the woman, “You will suffer terribly when you give birth. But you will still desire your husband, and he will rule over you.”
17. The LORD said to the man, “You listened to your wife and ate fruit from that tree. And so, the ground will be under a curse because of what you did. As long as you live, you will have to struggle to grow enough food.
18. Your food will be plants, but the ground will produce thorns and thistles.
19. You will have to sweat to earn a living; you were made out of soil, and you will once again turn into soil.”
As a result of human disobedience the curse of man’s sin brought death, pain, illness, disease, pests, and disasters upon all humans, upon the animal kingdom, and upon the environment at large.
Humans were now subject to death from age and decay, from illness and from natural disasters.
Animals were now slaughtered and used for human clothing and food. Meat eating animals began to kill and devour the plant eaters. Animals were also subject to the same kinds of outcomes as humans. There would be pain, illness and disease and natural disasters causing physical death.
The whole environment also suffered. There was infestation from weeds and plant diseases. Insects, pests and other disastrous influences brought destruction the natural world. Decay, erosion, eruptions and storms devastated the geophysical environment.
Amongst all this chaos God introduced laws which humans were ordered to obey. This was not possible and so humans came under the curse of the law.
GALATIANS.
CHAPTER 3.
10. Those who depend on obeying the Law live under a curse. For the scripture says, “Whoever does not always obey everything that is written in the book of the Law is under God’s curse!”
Jesus by dying made it possible for the curse of sin to be removed.
GALATIANS.
CHAPTER 3.
13. The law put a curse on us. But Christ took away that curse. He changed places with us. Christ put himself under that curse. The Scriptures say, “When a person’s body is put (hung) on a tree, that person is under a curse.”
And looking further into the future we read these words.
REVELATION.
CHAPTER 22.
3. And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants will minister to Him.
For those who believe in Jesus the original curse has been removed
ROMANS.
CHAPTER 8.
1. There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
2. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and of death.
JOHN.
CHAPTER 5.
24. I can guarantee this truth: Those who listen to what I say and believe in the one who sent me will have eternal life. They won’t be judged because they have already passed from death to life.
But we are not yet living in the enjoyment of this wonderful provision of God through Jesus who took the curse that was on us and placed it on himself and experienced death, the death that that curse brings.
Our bodies are still affected by that curse not only from Adam’s disobedience but from our own as well.
So when will the curse of death finally be removed? Right at this very time we have been considering. Our bodies will be resurrected and changed.
And yes, we can be assured that it will be our bodies that will change. They need to be reclaimed and brought back under the control of the One who paid the price for them, namely Jesus,
ROMANS.
CHAPTER 8.
23. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.
At present we need to control our bodies so that in them we do not break God’s laws.
1 CORINTHIANS.
CHAPTER 9.
27. But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.
As we have seen our present bodies are under a curse. They are subject to sickness, pain, general decay and eventually death and, as a result, the writer to the Romans could only utter this lament.
ROMANS.
CHAPTER 7.
24. What a miserable person I am! Who will rescue me from my dying body?
And here is God’s solution. He will exercise His great power to bring it about.
PHILIPPIANS.
CHAPTER 3.
21. Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.
And what are the implications of that? Paul gives us the answer.
1 CORINTHIANS.
CHAPTER 15.
53. Our dead and decaying bodies will be changed into bodies that won’t die or decay.
And surely this is what we would want. Paul certainly did.
2 CORINTHIANS.
CHAPTER 5.
4. These tents we now live in are like a heavy burden, and we groan. But we don’t do this just because we want to leave these bodies that will die. It is because we want to change them for bodies that will never die.
This is what will happen.
REVELATION.
CHAPTER 21.
4. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
Death will no longer be a problem for us. We will never die we will be immortal and live for ever.
Now the truth of the following verses will finally be realised,
1 CORINTHIANS.
CHAPTER 15.
54. When this body that decays is changed into a body that cannot decay, and this mortal body is changed into a body that will live forever, then the teaching of Scripture will come true: “Death is turned into victory!
2 TIMOTHY.
CHAPTER 1.
10. and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel,
We will be able to confidently issue this challenge.
1 CORINTHIANS.
CHAPTER 15.
55. Death, where is your victory? Death, where is your sting?”
These changes will make us fit to stand in the presence of a holy God and we will be taken to the home that God and Jesus have prepared for their family.
JOHN,
CHAPTER 14.
2. There are many rooms in my Father’s house. I wouldn’t tell you this, unless it was true. I am going there to prepare a place for each of you.
3. After I have done this, I will come back and take you with me. Then we will be together.
You, see this world is not out home. We are going, if we are trusting in the work of the One Who became a curse for us, to a far, far, better place.
PHILIPPIANS.
CHAPTER 3.
20. But we are citizens of heaven and are eagerly waiting for our Savior to come from there. Our Lord Jesus Christ
21. has power over everything, and he will make these poor bodies of ours like his own glorious body.
In the words of the book of Revelation let this be our request. Let it be our prayer.
REVELATION.
CHAPTER 22.
20. He who gives his testimony to all this says, “Yes indeed! I am coming soon!” So be it. Come, Lord Jesus!