Sermon Central
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Another World To Sing In Series
Contributed by Rick Stacy on Mar 13, 2005 (message contributor)
Summary: 3rd of 5 on Death and Heaven. This message discusses the kind of Resurrection Body we will someday receive.
Another World to Sing In
“It’s not that I am afraid to die. I just don’t want to be there when it happens.”
Woody Allen
Feeling Fine: Farmer Joe decided his injuries from the accident were serious enough to take the trucking company (responsible for the accident) to court. In court, the trucking company’s fancy lawyer was questioning farmer Joe. "Didn’t you say, at the scene of the accident, ’I’m fine’?," questioned the lawyer.
Farmer Joe responded, "Well I’ll tell you what happened. I had just loaded my favorite mule Bessie into the..."
"I didn’t ask for any details," the lawyer interrupted, "just answer the question. Did you not say, at the scene of the accident, ’I’m fine’!"
Farmer Joe said, "Well I had just got Bessie into the trailer and I was driving down the road..."
The lawyer interrupted again and said, "Judge, I am trying to establish the fact that, at the scene of the accident, this man told the Highway Patrolman on the scene that he was just fine. Now several weeks after the accident he is trying to sue my client. I believe he is a fraud. Please tell him to simply answer the question."
By this time the Judge was fairly interested in Farmer Joe’s answer and said to the lawyer, "I’d like to hear what he has to say about his favorite mule Bessie."
Joe thanked the Judge and proceeded, "Well as I was saying, I had just loaded Bessie, my favorite mule, into the trailer and was driving her down the highway when this huge semi-truck and trailer ran the stop sign and smacked my truck right in the side. I was thrown into one ditch and Bessie was thrown into the other.
I was hurting real bad and didn’t want to move. However, I could hear ole Bessie moaning and groaning. I knew she was in terrible shape just by her groans. Shortly after the accident a Highway Patrolman came on the scene. He could hear Bessie moaning and groaning so he went over to her. After he looked at her he took out his gun and shot her between the eyes. Then the Patrolman came across the road with his gun in his hand and looked at me. He said, "Your mule was in such bad shape I had to shoot her. How are you feeling?"
It was then that I said, "I’m fine."
Death comes to all Death is not comfortable, brings little comfort, it jars us, it wakes us up to what’s real because death happens to everyone 100% of the time.
Another World to Sing In
“If the worst were to happen…”
Life Insurance Salesman
Two errors
It’s not If…
It’s not the worst that will happen. In fact, it is the best because we will receive a new resurrection body.
Question One: “How are the dead raised?”
35 But someone may ask, “How are the dead raised? What kind of body will they have?”
36 Foolish person! When you sow a seed, it must die in the ground before it can live and grow.
Death always precedes new life. (36)
Paul’s response is essentially this:
Our present bodies are like "seed" for our resurrection bodies. (37,38)
Death and decay, far from being a hindrance to resurrection, are a necessary prerequisite to it. An analogy from nature helps to press home the point: "What you sow does not come to life unless it dies." You can have a whole sack of grass seed, but as long as you keep it dry and on the shelf in the garage it will never sprout. However, if you take it out and plant it in the dark, damp soil so that the seed begins to decay, then it will sprout. If this is true in the realm of gardening, why is it so hard to believe in regard to the body?
Jesus was the First of a New Harvest
23 Jesus said to them, “The time has come for the Son of Man to receive his glory. 24 I tell you the truth, a grain of wheat must fall to the ground and die to make many seeds. But if it never dies, it remains only a single seed.
Interestingly, Jesus used the same kind of argument about the necessity of death before resurrection when speaking of His own resurrection in John 12:24: "I tell you the truth, 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." Before Christ could bear the fruit of salvation for all of us, He had to die; His death then produced a great harvest of souls. Likewise, before we can enjoy resurrection life, we too must die. There has to be an end to the old before there can be a beginning of the new.
