The Glorious Resurrection

1 Cor 15:31-44

 

1. Today is Easter! We celebrate the glorious resurrection of our Lord after three days of death and participate in His resurrection. Sweet fragrances of Easter lilies are full of our sanctuary! Louise Lewin Matthews wrote a famous poem for this Easter lilies:

Easter morn with lilies fair

Fills the church with perfumes rare,

As their clouds of incense rise,

Sweetest offerings to the skies.

 

Stately lilies pure and white

Flooding darkness with their light,

Bloom and sorrow drifts away,

On this holy hallow’s day.

 

Easter Lilies bending low

In the golden afterglow,

Bear a message from the sod

To the heavenly towers of God.

2. Easter lily, this beautiful trumpet-shaped white flower symbolizes purity, virtue, innocence, hope and life--the spiritual essence of Easter. Cold winter is not the end of life, but spring comes with new life. Easter lily needs a cold winter and 1000 hours of cold moist for its glorious bloom.

3. Disciples of Jesus gave up their hope when Jesus died on the cross and they were severely intimidated. But what changed the coward Peter to a brave warrior for the Gospel and fearless martyr? What changed the persecutor Paul to a dedicated missionary for Jesus Christ without fear of suffering and death? What changed 70 million mere humans to fearless martyrs? Most of all, what changed you and me to have a strong hope for eternal life and dedicate our life for Jesus our Lord and His Kingdom? All of us have been totally changed when we met the resurrected Christ. After His Ascension and the Pentecost, every Christian who received the Holy Spirit of the resurrected Christ in their soul has been changed and lived the eternal life with strong hope and courage.

4. As Paul said, “if the dead are not raised, ‘Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die’.”(32b) But our physical death is not the end, but our body will be resurrected with glory. Jesus said that “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.”(Jn 11:25-26) Why did God send His Son to this world? “My Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”(Jn 6:40) New English Journal of Medicine reported a result of survey that 45 year old man with continual exercise and careful diet will live 10 months longer than one of no exercise. People invest and sacrifice so much for this little longer life. However, we live eternity by the grace of God. Some who might suffer or die in the past are cured and live by the help of modern medicine, and it will be improved more in the future. If so, God can do far better than human medicine!

5. Some modern idolatrous believers in science are suspicious in the physical resurrection of Jesus and ours. But do they have any answer for our future after death? A poor woman who lost his only son came to a famous scientist and asked: where is my son now? Will I see him again? This scientist had no answer in his science. Then, he found the Bible and gave the answer to her. The famous chemist Michael Faraday put a silver cup in a jar of acid and it was completely dissolved. He sent it to silversmith, who recovered the same silver cup, shining brighter than before. When he died, a journalist asked him if he had some speculation in the afterlife and he answered: “Speculations? I know nothing about it. I am resting on certainties. I know that my Redeemer lives, and because He lives I shall live also.” If all the disciples of Jesus are totally changed after meeting the resurrected Jesus and died for witnessing His physical resurrection, if all those who met the resurrected Christ in the Holy Spirit have been changed and lived with strong hope for resurrection, isn’t it enough for rational mind to accept it as true? Therefore, Oxford professor of history Thomas Arnold concluded that “I know of no one fact in the history of mankind which is proved by better and fuller evidence of every sort, to the understanding of a fair enquirer, than… that Christ died and rose again from the dead.”

6. When we die, we all will be buried under the ground. But that is not the end. Our souls will immediately go up to heaven, and our body will be resurrected after the Parousia of Jesus and the end of the world and reunited with our soul. Our corpse without soul will decay and return to dust, but God will resurrect our bodies by His almighty power. We die, but eventually death itself will die away.

7. But someone may ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?” How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. (35-36) Caterpillar looks dead in cocoon, but it is transformed to a beautiful butterfly. Paul explained what our future resurrected body will be: “(1) The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; (2) it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; (3) it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; (4) it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.”(42-44) Our resurrected body will be very different from our present body. A comprehensive study of the Bible shows its six characteristics: (1) It does not corrupt and become old. (2) It is perfect without any loss or defect due to decease, accident or punishment. (3) It does not have material or fleshly desires, due to a fundamental organic change. (4) It is never tired and does not need any sleep or rest. Night or decease does not exist in heaven. (5) It has no sinful nature and therefore always joy and peace with no pain or sorrow of soul which are caused essentially by the sinful nature. (6) It is recognizable. Though appearance is changed, individual character is maintained. In heaven, we will meet our beloved people with joy and live together eternally, even though our fellowship will be purely elevated.

8. Then, “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”(Rev 21:4) Like Easter lily, we will be pure and glorified. We will be sanctified and dignified. We will be like angel and more than angel. As our worship leader said once, our praise here is a practice for our praise in heaven with our resurrected voice. I cannot forget the magnificent chorus at Yoido in 1973 Billy Graham Crusade with one million people together. Our heavenly chorus will be with several billions together. How wonderful it will be! Most of all, we will praise directly in front of our Lord, our Father, and our Paraclete! And, it will be continued forever! In this victorious Easter, may God bless all of you with the renewed hope and all-surpassing power of resurrection! Amen.