Sunday Worship Service February 26, 2023

Call to Worship Genesis 2:7
Hymn JBC # 103 When upon life’s billows
The Lord’s Prayer
The Lord’s Supper
Offering
Scripture 1 Corinthians 1535~49
Prayer
Sermon “The Resurrection Body”
https://youtu.be/pusrWl7Wz2A
Prayer
Hymn JBC # 297 I hear the Saviour say
Doxology JBC # 672
Benediction

Today’s Bible passage is 1 Corinthians 15:35-49. However, before today’s passage, 15:13-14 states the following:
If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14 And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.
　Paul, who wrote this letter, states that your (Christian’s) faith is useless without Christ’s resurrection.
　The faith of we who believe in Christ hangs on the fact (truth) that Christ died on the cross, was buried and rose again. That is the beginning of the faith of a Christian.
If Christ did not rise again, we are living while relying on something resembling hope based on something that didn’t actually happen.
However, Paul was convicted that Jesus Christ resurrected, and lived out that faith. Even now for those of us who believe in Christ, the resurrection is certainly a source of hope.
The reason why we can continue living in this world with many painful things, why we can continue to stand through so many difficulties, is because the resurrection of Jesus Christ is now guiding us through the Holy Spirit.

In life, the way people can have true hope is through being supported and protected by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. I, as the one who are in Christ, believe this.
Everyone who believes in Christ can have conviction of His resurrection and live joyfully in the Christ of resurrection. We can also proclaim Christ’s resurrection to others.

In today’s passage Paul answers people’s doubts about the resurrection. Those doubts were, “How are the dead raised?” and “With what kind of body will they come?”
　Certainly, the resurrection is not something we can completely understand as it goes beyond our common sense. However, even if we cannot perfectly understand it, through what is written in the Bible, we can know and believe that Jesus resurrected.
Jesus Christ’s resurrection was not just something spiritual or symbolic. It was accompanied by the resurrection of the body. Jesus Christ’s resurrection was not just some illusion or hallucination by His disciples and others either.
The record of Jesus’ resurrection in the gospel of Luke states that the resurrected Jesus appeared to the disciples and said the following as they feared they were seeing a ghost.

“Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.” (Luke 24:39)
Jesus’ resurrection was not just one person’s body coming back to life (regaining motor function).
Jesus’ resurrection was the power of God defeating death, as well as proof that those who believe in Christ will resurrect with Him.
Jesus’ resurrection was, as today’s passage states, “imperishable” (v. 42), “raised in glory” (v. 43), and “raised in a spiritual body” (v. 44, v. 46). However, it was also a resurrection that people saw with their own eyes and were able to touch and confirm.
Why is it important that Christ’s resurrection was accompanied by a body? Why is there so much emphasis that this is important? It is because Jesus actually lived in a physical body his life as a man.

Jesus’ resurrection being accompanied by a physical body shows that our lives here on earth in our physical bodies is something precious before God.
I think we can say too that because Christ had a physical resurrection, we can treasure our own bodies and lives.
God created us, as well as other living creatures, to live in a physical body. Every person is different, and every other creature’s form is also different.

38 But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body. 39 Not all flesh is the same: People have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another and fish another.
This is God’s wonderful creation work, which shows the how elaborate God’s plan is in making so many diverse forms of life.
However, we who are created by God’s mysterious ways also eventually find our life come to an end. We, as well as all living things, will eventually die.

Therefore, some people asked Paul (most likely in ridicule), “All living things eventually die, so how will there be a resurrection?” This seems like an obvious place for doubt.
In response to this, Paul answers with an example of seeds. “In death there is life”, “Unless you die, you will not come to life”, Paul shows this through the example of seeds of wheat or other plants.

Paul states that “you are observing that if you do not sow seeds, then there will be no plants growing or fruit to harvest. If that is the case, should the dying and resurrection be such a strange idea?”
In the gospel of John 12:24, Jesus also states the following:
　 Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.
Through a seed falling to the ground and dying, new life can be produced. Through Christ’s resurrection, it is predestined by God’s grace that we can also resurrect from death (together with Christ).
The resurrection body will be “imperishable (v. 42”), and” raised in glory and power (v. 43)”. That is the resurrection of “the spiritual body (v. 44)” described in today’s passage.

We cannot perfectly understand that resurrection form now. However, what is certain is that we will be resurrected together with Christ into a new, glorious spiritual body.

Philippians 3:20-21 states the following:
20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.

If what is waiting for us in the resurrection after death is so wonderful, then why does our current earthly body even matter then?
If our resurrection together with Christ is promised after our death, then isn’t it unnecessary for us to toil and work here on earth during this life?
That is not the case. Because we receive the promise of life in resurrection, it is important to live here in our physical body.
This is because our resurrection after death is a CONTINUATION OF OUR LIFE HERE ON EARTH. Jesus appeared to the disciples in a body that still had the holes in his hands and side from the crucifixion, showing a continuation of his physical life.
Our Heavenly Father accepted Jesus’s death and resurrection as covering all of our sins and fulfilling His will. It can also be said that it showed He perfectly fulfilled the mission He was given.

In the same way, how we live our lives here on earth is extremely important. It is important that we live faithfully believing in God in this world that He created.
We are drawn by the resurrection of Jesus Christ to live in faith and obedience to the teachings of Christ who gave His life for us.
We do not live by our own strength. We are given life through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Christ forgives our sins and gives us the freedom of being children of God.
　We are given life by God’s love and grace, so let us rely on God and the certain hope that we have been given in the resurrection. Let us walk faithfully in obedience to Christ together.