The Resurrection of the Dead

1. The Resurrection of the Dead

2. Expecting Eternal Life • Perhaps the greatest motivation for holy living is the faithful expectation of resurrection to eternal life with God. • What is involved in resurrection? • What does the Bible teach for certain about what will happen when we’re raised to eternal life? • Will we have a body? • Will we be just spirit? • What can we know for sure?

3. TWO GREEK WORDS: • ANASTASIS – a standing up again, recovery • ERGESIS – to waken, to rouse, to raise up The Meaning of Resurrection

4. Resurrection Could Be Temporal • The raising of the widow of Nain’s son: • Luke 7:14-15 -- Then he went up and touched the coffin, and those carrying it stood still. He said, "Young man, I say to you, get up!" The dead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave him back to his mother.

5. The Raising of Lazarus • John 11:43-44 – • When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!" The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, "Take off the grave clothes and let him go."

6. Or Resurrection Can Be Eternal • For the righteous: • Romans 8:11 -- And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.

7. 1 Corinthians 6:14 • By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also.

8. Also For the Wicked John 5:28-29 -- "Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out—those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned.

9. Acts 24:15 • …and I have the same hope in God as these men, that there will be a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked.

10. Vital Information on Resurrection • Resurrection will take place through the power of God: 2 Corinthians 4:14 -- because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence. Colossians 2:11-12 -- In him you were circumcised…having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.

11. Everyone Will Be Resurrected • 1 Corinthians 15:21-22 – “For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.”

12. Takes Place Fully On Last Day • John 6:39-40 – And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. For 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. • Vs. 44 -- "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. • Vs. 54 -- Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.

13. 1 Corinthians 15:22-24 “For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power.

14. The Resurrected Body The Bible teaches a bodily resurrection: • Romans 8:11 -- And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you. • Philippians 3:21 -- 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.

15. Yet… Genesis 3:19 -- By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.“ Ecclesiastes 3:20 -- All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return. Ecclesiastes 12:7 -- …and the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it. God will make our new bodies!

16. What Kind Of Body? 1 Corinthians 15:35-38 -- But someone may ask, "How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?" 36How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. 37When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. 38But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body. A foolish question answered…

17. 1 Corinthians 15:39-42 All flesh is not the same: Men have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another and fish another. There are also heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; but the splendor of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is another. The sun has one kind of splendor, the moon another and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendor. So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable;

18. The Resurrected Body of Jesus • Luke 24:39 -- 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.“ • Notice He doesn’t say “flesh and blood” • Usual term is “flesh and blood” • Resurrected body is different, but is flesh. • Acts 10:41 – Jesus ate and drank with the disciples after his resurrection.

19. We Will Be Like Jesus

20. Philippians 3:21 • …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. • 1 John 3:2 -- Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears,we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

21. Yet also a spiritual body… 1 Corinthians 15:42-44 --So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.

22. Quote From ISBE Perhaps the thought is that the touch of the resurrection body destroys all things in the old body that are unadapted to the new state; perhaps there is an idea that the essence of the old body is what we might call "non-material," so that decay simply anticipates the work the resurrection will do. At all events, such reflections are "beyond what is written."

23. 1 Corinthians 15:50-53 I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— 52in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.

24. Awaiting the Last Day… • We can only know so much • There are marvelous discoveries awaiting us • We will not be left in the intermediate state • We will be fully resurrected to a glorious eternal life. • Are you ready for that great event?