Scott Brown's sermon 'The Resurrected Body of Jesus and the Christian View of the Body' explores the profound implications of Jesus Christ's resurrection on the Christian understanding of the body. The sermon begins with an analysis of John 20, focusing on Mary Magdalene's encounter with the risen Christ, emphasizing the reality of the resurrected body. Brown integrates apostolic teachings, notably from 1 Corinthians and Romans, to illustrate the theological significance of the resurrection for both physical and spiritual aspects of believers' lives. He contrasts the Christian view of the body, which highlights its eternal significance as designed by God, with secular and pagan worldviews like Gnosticism, Marxism, and Eastern mysticism, which often diminish the importance of the physical body. The sermon underscores the importance of loving one's body as part of God's creation and the hope offered by the resurrection, which promises a future transformation of believers' bodies to be like Christ's glorious body. Brown also critiques contemporary movements, such as transhumanism and the LGBTQ+ movement, for promoting views contrary to biblical teachings about the body. The sermon concludes by encouraging believers to live in sanctification and honor, recognizing the body as an integral part of God’s plan for eternal life.

Please find verse 11 in John chapter 20. But Mary stood outside the tomb weeping and as she wept she stooped down and looked into the tomb and she saw two angels in white sitting one at the head and the other at the feet where the body of Jesus had lain. Then they said to her, woman why are you weeping? Then She said to them, because they've taken away my Lord and I do not know where they've laid him. Now when she said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there and did not know that it was Jesus.

Jesus said to her, woman, why are you weeping? Who are you seeking? She, supposing him to be the gardener, said to him, sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him and I will take him away. And Jesus said to her, Mary, she turned and said to him, Rabboni, which is to say, teacher. Jesus said to her, do not cling to me for I have not yet ascended to my father, but go to my brethren and say to them, I am ascending to my father and your father and to my God and to your God." Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord and That he had spoken these things to her.

Let's pray. Oh Father we thank you for revealing to us the power of the resurrection these events that have changed everything, correct everything, poor blessing upon all flesh. Lord, we're just so grateful to be able to look into these things that you have recorded for us that we might know the power of the resurrection. Amen. Please be seated.

Of course this section of John spotlights the events of the resurrection. It's been very delightful, frankly, to be able to immerse myself in these things. We've been working through the events of Christ's suffering, his crucifixion. We lingered on his death and burial and now spending more time in the resurrection as the Apostle Paul explained that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried and that he rose again on the third day according to the Scriptures. That's 1st Corinthians 15 verses 3 through 4 and we are now here having landed on the last section of that verse, the resurrection.

And of course the emphasis of John is upon the eyewitnesses who saw Jesus resurrected body and they believed. And of course all these things have been written as we learn at the end of this chapter that you might believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that in believing you might have life in his name. And the emphasis of these verses is the seeing of the resurrected body of Jesus Christ. And the focus of this section really marks what will become a greater examination of the sightings of Jesus that took place over a period of 40 days after the resurrection. And this emphasis continues through chapter 21 and we'll continue to try to identify the apostolic preaching of the resurrection during this time.

In fact, chapter 21 begins with these words, and these things, after these things, Jesus showed himself again to the disciples at the Sea of Tiberias. And so the focus of this section is the seeing of the body, the very body of the Lord Jesus Christ. The focus is his body And if you read the text over and over again, it's very clear that this is what the focus is. John wants us to understand this. And of course, the apostles have much to say about the resurrected body of Jesus Christ and the seeing and the handling of the body of Jesus Christ.

And the Apostles take many occasions in the writings of Scripture to explain the reality of the bodily resurrection in great detail. Why? We learned from them that the resurrection of the body of Jesus Christ has massive implications for your body, your body, for your physical body. And I pray that what we'll examine here today will be a bright ray of hope regarding your body and God's plans for your body. I hope that you will love your body more than you've ever loved your body.

I hope that you will love the fact that God put you in a body, your body, like no other body, that you would love your body because Jesus Christ loves your body and he was resurrected because he loves your body and that's very plain in the apostolic preaching of the cross. Last year Nancy Percy wrote a book called Love Thy Body, Hard Questions About Life and Sexuality. She deals with issues of the body concerning the view of the body that really underlies abortion, euthanasia, sexuality, transgenderism, the hookup culture. She identifies that But she actually traces these manifestations to a heretical view of the body. And she's absolutely right.

There are secular worldviews that underlie these great movements, Gnosticism, Platonism, Eastern religions, Marxism. I'm going to review these in some detail when I get to the end of this message today. But this is why the resurrection is one of the most controversial and divisive aspects of biblical Christianity. It is the Christian view of the body, of your body, and the body of Jesus Christ. And So there are elements of the Christian view of the body that are communicated in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

And this view marks a sharp contrast with the pagan views of the body. And all of the great movements that affect us today maintain particular theories of the body. And what is your body? And what does your body tell you about yourself? And what is the eternal state or fate of your body.

All of these worldviews proclaim a particular view of the body and I really want to encourage you this morning about the significance of your body. That when you think about your body, maybe it'll shift a little bit. We struggle with hatred of our bodies and things like that. But the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ and its meaning ought to shape the way that you think about your body. So the resurrection tells us a great deal.

Because of the resurrection What is done in your body matters. We learned that from 1 Corinthians 6, 12 through 20. For you were bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit which are God's. Your body is God's body. It's not just your body.

By the resurrection of Christ we learn that he gives life to your mortal bodies. While you are alive now in Romans 8-11 We're told that if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you. So there is life in your mortal body because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The resurrection makes us members of Christ's body in 1st Corinthians 6 14 through 15.

We learn that our bodies are part of his body. Verse 14 in 1st Corinthians 6, and God both raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? And that's where we get the the whole imagery of baptism that you were raised together with him in baptism. His resurrection really is the best hope for your body, for your physical body here on earth and for all eternity.

Philippians 321 makes that very clear because Jesus Christ as a result of the resurrection will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to his glorious body according to the working by which he is able even to subdue all things to himself, including your body. Now the resurrection of Jesus Christ has so much to say about every part of our lives. The removal of guilt by his death, the propitiation of God's wrath by his death, the reconciliation by his death, the removal of the sentence of death on our lives, by his resurrection, and literally our resurrected bodies, personal, real, live bodies. And so the power of the resurrection is unleashed in so many different ways. John in 1st John chapter 3 verse 2 says, when he appears we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is.

And don't get hyper spiritual with that verse because you will see his body as he is and you and your body will be like him. It goes beyond physical, but it is physical. So let's get to the text. I'm gonna do a flyover of the verses we've already covered to some degree in verse one. But I'd like us just to get the context of what's happening here.

Chapter 20 begins with despair. The disciples were not expecting a resurrection. The eyewitnesses said he died, the Romans said he died, Pilate verified that he died, the apostles said that he died, and Jesus Himself said that he would die so he's dead and that's how Those who arrive at the grave are approaching this and they've lost hope. But the Lord had told them that he would that he would rise from the dead but it didn't sink in it didn't it didn't get to them. And this should make it very clear that according to the testimony of the Bible the disciples did not fake a resurrection.

They were in despair. They weren't angling for a resurrection. They weren't even thinking of it. And, well, they didn't cling to the promises of God, which were communicated all over the Old Testament. And Jesus himself communicated it in different places.

And how often does that happen to us? How often have we fretted because we didn't cling to a promise of God? Most days, most days. So they arrive at the grave and the stone has been rolled away. Mary Magdalene arrives at the tomb first.

Now on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb early while it was still dark and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. Mary Magdalene, the woman of whom the Lord cast out seven demons, she had a life and boy God rescued her. What a blessing. You know, Luke 8 tells us there are many women who had infirmities and evil spirits who were close to Jesus Christ. But Mary's perspective is he's dead, he's gone.

What happened to him? The stones rolled away. What has happened to his body? And then she runs in verse 2 to tell Peter and John and to tell them that the body was gone. And when they hear this it's clear that they didn't engineer the whole thing either.

They couldn't believe it either. And then Peter and John race to the tomb. One of the interesting aspects of John in his record of this is that he has himself outrunning Peter. And the other gospel writers mentioned it as well. It's very interesting.

Peter and John had different personalities. This is the glory of the Church of Jesus Christ. He saves all kinds of different people. We shouldn't despise people with different personalities, and you can see their personalities even coming through in verse 5, John's hesitation. John stoops down and looks in.

Well in verse 6 Peter crashes in. Peter comes following and he went into the tomb. So you have these different ways of approaching it. It's interesting too that the way the resurrection happened is never explained. It's just that it happened, just like creation.

We don't get all the detail of the physical and chemical reactions that took place for the creation of the world, nor do we get it for the resurrection. John here is just reporting the details. He is an eyewitness. Now the eyewitnesses will elaborate on it in the form of the Apostles themselves. So John, he sees a stunning sight, the grave clothes in verses 7 and 8, and the handkerchief that had been around his head, not lying with the linen cloths, but folded together in place by itself.

Now, John uses language here that indicates very clearly that the grave clothes that Jesus was wrapped in were in the same place that they were as if they were on his body, not folded up like you would think, but actually in place. And it was it was astounding for them to see that and John says in verse 8 that he sought and he believed. I think that this means that John believed that Jesus was resurrected But the next verse may contradict that. I'm not sure. Verse 9, for as yet they did not know the scripture that he must rise again from the dead.

Now actually the disciples were told several times by Jesus himself that he would rise from the dead in Matthew 17 22 in Matthew 26 61 in Mark 8 31 in Mark 14 58 in Luke 9 22 and John 2 19 I'm sure you wrote all those down But I just want to say that there are places that it's very clear that Jesus did communicate that he was going to rise again And but they they just did not hear it. It went right over Their heads, you know, this happens all the time. It happens when people deliver sermons. People don't hear everything and sometimes they miss the most important parts. You realize that later on.

We know that people talk in their sleep, but preachers often talk while other people are sleeping. So apparently the disciples you know are experiencing something like that. But 1st Corinthians 15 makes it very clear Christ died according to the scriptures. It was in the scriptures but they were dull to it. That's very plain from the text.

And what did the disciples do? Verse 10, they went home. They went home. Well in a crisis you want to go home. So they went home.

But what happened when they went home? Here's what happened when they went home. The Bible tells you so they started thinking in John chapter 2 tells us What they were thinking in John chapter 2 verse 18 through 22 the Lord Jesus Christ says that he is he the people come and they say what sign will you show us since you do these things and Jesus answered and said destroy this temple and in three days I'll raise it up And the Jews said it took 46 years to build this temple. What are you talking about? But verse 21 says he was speaking of the temple of his body.

Therefore when he had risen from the dead his disciples remembered that he had said this to them and they believed the scripture and the word which Jesus said. I believe they went home and they started thinking about it and they ended up as a fulfillment of John chapter 2 verse 22. They remembered. They remembered, they said, oh, he told us. And it occurred to them.

I have 15 verses of the Old Testament where there's a prophecy of the resurrection here in my notes we won't review them. But so their confusion didn't last very long as a result. They began to remember and we see an example of this in Peter's very first sermon in Acts chapter 2 and in that sermon Peter actually quotes one of those Old Testament verses that testify to the resurrection he quotes Psalm 16 which 16 10 you will not leave my soul and she all nor will you allow your Holy One to see corruption you will show me the path of life in your presence is fullness of joy at your right hand or pleasures forevermore." Peter quotes Psalm 16 in his message and recognizing the Old Testament did speak of Christ's resurrection. So the disciples have gone home and but the women are still at the tomb. Verse 11, let's pick up our text now.

But Mary stood outside by the tomb weeping and as she wept she stooped down and looked into the tomb and she saw two angels in white sitting one at the head and the other at the feet where the body of Jesus had lain. Then they said to her, Woman, why are you weeping? Then she said to them, Because they have taken away my Lord and I do not know where they have laid them." Now Mary is weeping. Her eyes are tear-filled. She sees two angels and the angels speak to her.

The angels also have bodies, by the way. And they have vocal cords. They're not ethereal, ghost-like spirit beings. And it's interesting, this may be, if not the only, or rather possibly the few, places in scripture where someone is not terrified when they see an angel. Usually when people see angels they are terrified, but Mary is not terrified.

These angels are ministering to Mary and really affirming what the Bible teaches about angels, they are ministers. In Hebrews 1 14, we learn that they are ministering spirits to render salvation to those who will believe. And we also learn from the Word of God from Hebrews 13 1 & 2 that angels actually are walking around in the earth and the writer of Hebrews says, let brotherly love continue. Do not forget to entertain strangers for by doing, for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels you encounter them but you're unaware and what the writer of Hebrews is saying love people because you might be encountering an angel that's what he's saying we don't worship angels we know that the angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him and he delivers them that's Psalm 34 verse 7 we understand from the book of Jude that there are fallen angels who left their home and are reserved in everlasting chains under darkness and judgment. So there are fallen angels and there are holy angels of God.

That's what we find. So Mary encounters a ministering angel that came to comfort her. And then after the encounter of the angels, Christ actually reveals his resurrected body to her and she sees Jesus. Remember that's what we find running through this. These people are seeing the body, the resurrected glorified body of Jesus Christ.

And so she turned around and she saw Jesus standing there but she didn't know it was him and Jesus says why are you weeping and whom are you seeking? She thought he was a gardener and she said if you've carried him away show me I want to go get him And then Jesus calls her by name and then she falls apart. She realizes who it is. Now how do we explain that she didn't recognize him? How do we explain that this one who had done so much for her who had walked with her.

She doesn't recognize. Well, I'll give three possibilities. I have an inclination but there are at least three possibilities. First of all, we know that she's been weeping and when you're weeping you're not really very much aware of other people And you don't see very well often either if you're really weeping and you have very very tear-filled eyes So she may she may not have actually been in the condition to be all that observant of somebody else at that moment. Second, she certainly didn't expect to see Jesus.

As far as she was concerned, he was gone. And thirdly, you know, perhaps she just wasn't focused on him, you know, out of the corner of her eye, perhaps seeing some movement, thinking he was a gardener, this was a well-appointed garden that Joseph of Arimathea had built and for his own family. But, you know, she could have just perceived him to be someone who is in the garden out of the corner of her eye as would be normal for any of us. You can be so preoccupied that you don't really see people and discern who they are. I don't know if you've ever walked by someone that you know very well and you didn't even see them.

And they might actually be mad at you because you didn't acknowledge them, but you didn't actually see them. And that happens all the time in life. But she did recognize his voice. And she responded. She responded by saying, Rabboni, teacher.

That's who he was to her. He was her teacher. He was the one who was teaching her how to make her way in the world after she had lived such a life and she was what the Bible calls a disciple, a learner. You have a teacher and a learner. In Christianity you have people who have abandoned their own teaching, their own truth, And they have a teacher, they have a new teacher, and his name is Jesus.

And he teaches from the word of God. And they become learners. They set aside their own thoughts about their life and they think differently now about everything because it's the word of God that's taught them. You see this very tender relationship between the Lord Jesus Christ and this woman Mary who had an instructor to teach her truth, propositional truth. In Christianity you don't find your own truth, you find the truth of God And that's exactly what happened to Mary.

It's very interesting, the word Lord in this section appears seven times, indicating the superiority of the Lord Jesus Christ and his teaching. And then the Lord Jesus commissions Mary, look at verse 17, he's actually going to send her away. Jesus said to her, do not cling to me for I have not yet ascended to my father. Now do not cling to me. Now we know from the other gospel writers that there are actually two women who were clinging on to his feet.

By the way Jesus has feet. He's not a ghost like spirit being. He's not walking through walls. He has feet and she is clinging to him. Now when Jesus says don't cling to me what was he saying?

What was he saying? Get away from me. No, that was not what he was saying at all. He was not rebuffing her. He was not treating her like dirt.

He was not saying, don't touch me. That wasn't the essence of it. He's not being rude. Jesus is simply commissioning Mary to go tell the other disciples. In other words, this is not the time to cling to me.

You need to go tell the other disciples. You know, make it happen. Go for it. Go. Go tell them.

And you can see this in verse 17 how tenderly the Lord Jesus actually is speaking to her and treating her. He's really affirming his love for her, his ownership of her, his unity with her. Here's how I know. He says, go tell my brethren, my father, your father, my God, and your God. In other words, he's your father, He's your God.

Jesus was just affirming the condition of her soul, that she was a believer and he was affirming her that she had God, she had a father. So I don't think there's any rudeness in Jesus saying, don't cling to me. He was commissioning her really in joy. And of course we know from other places that she loved much because she was forgiven much. Now in the next verse, we find the Apostles in the upper room.

They've left the grave and we'll speak of these final verses next time. But I'd like to turn to these implications of the matters of the resurrection that really arise from the apostolic preaching of the resurrection. Because the resurrection of your body and the body of Jesus Christ has massive implications. And I pray that this would be a help and encouragement to all of us about the very presence of our bodies, the meaning of our bodies and the meaning for today and also the meaning for all eternity because the resurrection speaks to both of those matters regarding your physical body with face and hands and feet and arms your body in the current condition that it's in today. So I want to just frame this in terms of the controversy.

You have an outline in front of me, you can see where I'm going here. But the resurrection really points to one of the most controversial and divisive aspects of biblical Christianity and it is the Christian view of the body and it is communicated in this doctrine of the resurrection and the Christian view of the body makes a sharp contrast with pagan views of the body, with Marxism, Eastern mysticism, postmodernism, the LGBTQ plus movement, even the social justice movement, the transhumanism movement, the environmental movement, the the animal rights movement, all these maintain theories of the body and they speak to what your body is and what it means and it's very important that we understand the doctrine of the resurrection and its meaning for us because the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ has much to teach us about our bodies and his eternal plan for us. So I think we just for I want us to recognize that the most powerful movements that are upon our culture are heretical movements regarding the body. They teach you a falsehood about your body. They tell you lies about the human body, the human physical body.

And what we learn in the doctrine of the resurrection is that Jesus Christ died to take away your sins for the sake of your soul but he did not only die for the sake of your soul he died for the sake of your body the Bible makes that very very clear if you don't If you don't believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, if you're not one of his disciples, I just want to encourage you to believe for the sake of your body. God gave you that body. Whether you believe in him or not God gave you a body and your body matters and it matters to him he actually desires to resurrect your body and to give it pleasure forevermore in his presence that's his intention for your body That's why he gave you a body. So Christ came for the sake of your physical body, not just your spirit, they are connected. And God designed you, he made you, he created your body, he has a plan for your body, he has, God has a plan for the sufferings of your body in this life, he has a plan for your body at your death, he has a plan for your body at your resurrection, He has a plan for your body at your resurrection.

He has a plan for your body for all eternity. And this is actually a very divisive doctrine of the body, which contradicts the heretical views of the body that are about today. So now the looming backdrop in this entire narrative, the grand assumption and everything that's written here that we've observed today. Every step in the process of Christ's crucifixion and sufferings and death and burial really are for one single purpose and that is to save sinners. The resurrection of the body implies a sinner.

Man is sinful and Jesus Christ is the only Savior of sinful humanity And so the resurrection of Jesus Christ addresses man's greatest problem in his body, in the life that he experiences, and it's indwelling sin and the corruption of the body since the fall. This is what we grapple with in our bodies. And you know we've said this in different ways in this church, but the beginning of all preaching of the gospel is not God has a wonderful plan for your life. The beginning of the gospel is that you're a sinner and you're hopelessly lost. And you need a savior, a savior of your body, not just your soul.

And so what Christ does here in this section on the resurrection is to address man's greatest problem, that we are in a hopeless mess without his resurrection. The wrath of God is upon us for our rebellion And this is proved in all the sufferings of Christ for sinners. And this is why the resurrection of the body of Christ has such massive implications for your body, your physical body. Now, I want to talk about just maybe drilling down a little bit more on some of the critical worldview conclusions. I want to begin with talking about the implications of the apostolic preaching of the resurrection and the worldview conclusions that we can make from it.

Now let me just say that the biblical teaching on the body contradicts every religion and every every philosophical proposition that exists today. Maybe there are some that don't but I'm not sure what they are. Maybe you can help me figure that out if there are. But here are a few things that we can conclude about the body. First, Christ's resurrected body was a real body.

It was not an immaterial body. It was a material body that had feet and hands and vocal cords and said words. It was a real body. And later on we'll hear Jesus say, look at my hands and feet. This is his resurrected body.

He says to Thomas, put your finger here and see my hands. Put out your hand and place it on my side. This is not a ghost. This is the body, the physical resurrected body of Jesus Christ. The second thing that the apostolic preaching of the cross maker of the resurrection makes very clear is that there is an effect of Christ's resurrection on your body while you're alive in this world.

It's not just for eternity, it is for now. And Ephesians 1, 13 and 14 make this very clear. We read these words, in him you also trusted after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation in whom also having believed you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession to the praise of his glory. As a result of the resurrection you you as you believe you are sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise. Your body has in dwelling the Holy Spirit which is a seal, which is a guarantee.

This exists in your body. Now the Holy Spirit makes your body alive like it never was before. It is a quickened body. The spirit always has an effect on the body. Every physician knows this.

Physicians will tell you that most people's problems can be traced to psychological problems. The spirit of a person determines often the health of a person. But here we learn that there is a salvation of your body that's going on as a result of the sealing of the Holy Spirit in your life. And it has to do with the beginnings of breaking free from the bondage of sin and death. Jesus Christ breaks the power of sin over your life in your body and you have a different perspective in your body.

It is only partial. The inclination of sin is severely hampered in the converted person's body, but it is not completely destroyed yet. That will happen in your new body. You have a guarantee. You have a seal.

Now in your body, He's renewing your mind and you're thinking differently about your body and what you do with your body and you're convicted about things that you do in your body now that you never were before. That's the Spirit of God living in your body. I was listening to Lloyd Jones speak about this. He said, you are not completely saved until your body is resurrected. Now he didn't mean that your soul is not completely saved.

What he meant is that God has a progressive work of salvation that will finally culminate in the final resurrection of your body and the complete retrieval of your body for his glory. That's what he's talking about. In Romans 8-11, we learn that the spirit gives life to your mortal body But if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you he who raised Christ from the dead Will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you. So this is the Christian teaching about your body that your body, your literal physical body has been given life like it never had before And there are things that you don't do with your body that you used to do with your body. And it has very practical implications.

I would encourage you to read Romans 8, 11, all the way up to verse 17, and you'll see how all of this is meant, You've been given your body so that God would glorify your body together with his body. I don't know what you think about your body, but Jesus thinks much of your body. People struggle with such hatred toward their bodies, but God has a different view of the body than we've grown up thinking often. The third thing I'd like to say is your body will be different in the new creation or how different will it be? You know we should ask you know what will heaven be like?

Well if you read if you read this the narratives and the didactic sections of scripture that speak of heaven, it's really very clear that heaven isn't all that much different than earth. It's physical. It is profoundly physical, and there are physical bodies in heaven. It's you're not an ethereal spirit being floating around. You will have hands and feet and vocal cords.

Some people want to know if they're going to fly. I don't know. I don't think so. You didn't fly here. Maybe you tried when you were six years old.

But you probably won't fly in heaven. Well, we'll find out. We'll see what that's all about. But here's the answer. In heaven, it will be your body your physical body your physical body Will be like his physical body as well It will be a sinless body released from the burdens of sin in your body.

Paul said, who will deliver me from this body of death? You'll never say that again. You'll be completely delivered from the inclinations of sin in your body. That will be a great day. It'll also be a pain-free body.

The pains of your body that you know today just ought to remind you that you're going to have a pain-free body. You know, for at least a dozen years, I had really, really severe back pain. I couldn't move a chair. I couldn't bend down. I could hardly reach over and turn on a light without having some kind of pain.

And about five years ago, I had back surgery. I feel like a million bucks ever since then. I feel like I'm 40 years old again with my back. Well my body when I get to heaven is gonna be way better than that so I'm really looking forward to that. It'll be a tear-free body.

You'll have nothing to weep about. Well, that's what your body will be like in heaven. Does that mean you won't have tear ducts? You know, you might have you might have happy tear ducts. Grateful tear ducts.

Those would be the kind of tears you might by my speculation have in heaven. We learn in 1 Corinthians 15 that the body is sown in weakness and raised in glory. So our bodies are susceptible to the corruption of this world and dishonor and weakness, but it will be raised to incorruption and glory and power. It's quite likely that we'll do an extensive exposition of 1 Corinthians 15 before we're done with the resurrection here in this church. It's possible.

We'll see Well, the Apostle Paul says it this way in first Corinthians 15 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. There is a natural body and there's a spiritual body.

As it is also written, the first man, Adam, became a living being and the last Adam became a living, a life-giving spirit. However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual. What does it mean to have a spiritual body? What in the world is that? And because we're told that we will have a spiritual body.

These instructions to the Corinthian Church teach us that our spiritual bodies are physical bodies. They are not phantoms absorbed into an impersonal universe. The difference in the natural and the spiritual body is not physical, it's spiritual. And the teaching of Scripture is not that our physical bodies become spiritual non-physical bodies. The point is that our bodies are transformed for an imperishable everlasting kingdom of physical and spiritual joy and he's speaking of in 1st Corinthians 15 he's speaking of the spiritual pattern of your life not the physical pattern of your body.

Your body has been given spiritual life that's what Paul is teaching about the spiritual body in 1st Corinthians 15. In Philippians 3 20 we learned that our lowly body will be transformed and conformed to his body. So our bodies will be recognizable. Well that's the question we're trying to answer. What will it be like?

Our bodies will be recognizable and they'll have features like Christ's body. I believe the scripture teaches that you're going to have hands and feet and vocal chords and you're actually going to work. The Bible says that too. You're going to be given to work in heaven. You're going to take them even more dominion in heaven So it's a physical life How many of the elements of life on earth will be in heaven We don't know for sure.

I think it will be many It won't be all that different than living in a physical body here on this earth, except with tremendous helps and blessings. In 1 John 3, 2 we learn we will be like him. And that, you know, we will never displease him again. We'll never say, oh I am so stupid, I'm so dull. We'll have all of his kindnesses extended toward us.

You know that song that we sing, Saved to sin no more. Saved to sin no more. That's what it'll be like. It'll be like having a body saved but no more sin. In Romans 8 20 through 21 we learn that our bodies will be set free from the bondage of corruption, that the whole creation has an earnest expectation eagerly awaiting for the revealing of the sons of God, for the creation was subjected to futility.

But all that will end and that will end for your body, your physical body in heaven. And so God has plans for your body. He has great plans for your body. So therefore glorify God in your body. That's the whole idea.

Now your bodies, when you die, they might be placed in the ground. They might be burned in a gigantic fire. They might be eaten by a shark. They might be burned in a martyr's fire. Who knows what will happen to your body?

But here's what you do know. Jesus Christ will reassemble your body in whatever state it found itself at your death. He's promised to do so. He created your body out of nothing and he can pull it back together out of whatever's left. So that is part of this whole doctrine of the body.

I hope you see the massive implications of the resurrection regarding your physical body. The Bible makes it clear that your body has fallen. The humanists actually claim that man is good, humanity is good. Humanity doesn't need expiation. Humanity doesn't need redemption.

Humanity doesn't need propitiation. Humanity doesn't need resurrection. Like Rousseau said, quote, there is no original perversity in the human heart. Man is naturally good. Well, the Bible says something completely different than that.

Plato had a very dim view of matter. Plato didn't think matter mattered. God does think matter matters quite a bit. And Plato thought that everything was wrong with matter. God said matter was good.

Peter Jones tells us that there are two kinds of religions today. He calls them One-ism and Two-ism. One-ism and two-ism. One-ism says that there is only one truth and that is nature. Two-ism says that there is God the creator and man who is distinct from the creator.

That's twoism, God and man. Oneism says man alone, nature alone. Twoism says there is God, the creator, and man whom he created. And the view of the body is central to these two religions. It's very, very clear.

I'm going to give you six examples of one-ism which argue that there's only nature and no personal God and no personal resurrected physical savior. And I just want us to understand how divisive the Christian religion is among the thinking of people today. And I'm gonna give you six examples from Hinduism, Marxism, transhumanism, Darwinian revolution, the LGBTQ movement, all of these promote heretical theories of the body and we need to understand that. The first example is the body according to Hinduism and Buddhism, which is the self-absorption into non-physical truth, some non-physical being. The body, according to Eastern mysticism, reduces man to a mystical, spiritual, universal divinity.

And when you're burned on the funeral pyre in a Hindu funeral your soul transmigrates into the body of who knows an ant a lizard a fly a seek whatever you know male and female are dissolved and you're absorbed into the universal, undifferentiated universe. That's the Hindu view of the body. I'll quote the popular Swami Vivekananda. He says, when the mind is wholly merged into the homogenous and undifferentiated Brahman, such ideas as this is a man or a woman do not remain at all. And to achieve this in this life, you chant, Om, Om, and you connect the vibration of your own Being into the vibration of the universal being and you become one with the universe and there's no distinction between God and man you actually are God and you're Transported there through this pantheistic Means you This kind of meditation you find in yoga is the ultimate oneness is where distinctions and become an illusion and The goal is really the unconscious annihilation of the self.

That's totally contrary to the view of the body in Christianity. You have a body and you relate to other bodies and you are a created being and your body exists for all eternity. It doesn't slip into this abyss of nothingness. Here's the body according to Marxism. This is the religion of materialism that all there is are collections of matter.

There's no afterlife for the body. One writer explains it as an androgynous, distinction-free, classless justice system ruled by a scientific, socialistic, pagan elite. In Marxism, goodbye to the eternality of the Bible, goodbye to male and female, goodbye to sin and salvation, goodbye to the resurrection of the body, goodbye to the physical you. A third example, the body according to transhumanism. Transhumanism is a modern movement taking hold actually remarkably well in modern times.

It speaks to the effort to transform humanity by technologies that upgrade the human intellect and overwhelm human limitations, ethical limitations, and physiology. And it's to pursue post-human things, to try to create a post-human mentality. And one of the Most popular examples of this, proponents of this really is Elon Musk, who is presenting what he calls neural link, brain implants for super intelligence, super physiology. This has to do with intelligence enhancing technology. Man's intelligence being interconnected with the global cyberspace, wellspring of knowledge and culture.

It's really about global culture, global media, global education, global language. And Elon Musk wants to stick a chip in your brain to accomplish it. That's transhumanism. Beyond human. Very different view of the body compared to the Christian view.

Here's a fourth example. The body according to Darwinian evolution. In Darwin's book, The Descent of Man, he claimed this, there is no difference between man and the higher mammals in their mental faculties. Which is very interesting because the last time I checked, You know, the dogs are not building cities. They are Batman's best friend, but they're not building hospitals and cities.

But Darwin believed in the superiority of men, of different kinds of men, and they should be dealt with through natural selection. He said, with savages the weak in body or mind are soon eliminated. We civilized men on the other hand do our utmost to check the process of elimination. This is from his book, The Descent of Man. That's a very different view of the body.

In other words, you can go do something to somebody else's body because it's not worth anything. Fifth example, the LGBTQ movement, the LGBTQ plus plus plus plus plus plus movement claims that your biology and your body doesn't really matter. The only thing that matters is what you feel about it. Your body tells you nothing about yourself. You can tell your body whatever you want it to be.

Man as male and female, man as sinner and saved, these kinds of propositions are intolerance, homophobia, transphobia, but rather the body is androgynous, it's transgendered, it's bigendered, it's whatever you can make it up to be. The Bible says man is made as male and female. And this is just a pagan view of the body. So there are heretical views of the body and I think it's worthwhile for us to contemplate the beauty and the life-giving nature of the Christian view of the body. Jesus teaches you to love your body and to recognize how precious it is that God would send his own son to die on a cross and be laid in a grave and be resurrected so that he would resurrect your body, your personal, physical body, and keep it for all eternity.

The body is precious in Christianity. Here's another, a sixth, abortion. This is the lowering of the value of the human body which is formed at conception. Abortion encroaches on the right to life of the body that God gives. That the human body sends no moral message.

The Bible contradicts that. Your body sends a moral message to you and to the rest of the world that your body will be resurrected either unto death and everlasting punishment or your body will be raised again for everlasting pleasure, your physical body. So our text makes it very clear that Christianity is a different kind of religion, a very, very different kind of religion. And it speaks, it speaks to the fact that your body is marred by the fall, you are a sinner, and your body will be eternally reunited with him in the resurrection. Not in reincarnation, not in dissolving into divine unconsciousness, not in universal spirituality, not in disappearing forever into nothingness, you are not a ghost.

And the change of these bodies will take place in an instant. First Corinthians 15, behold I tell you a mystery we shall not all sleep, in other words we won't all, we won't stay in the grave forever we will not all sleep but we shall be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet for the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised incorruptible and we shall be changed For this incorruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this contemptible, I'm sorry, when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?

The sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the law but thanks be to God who gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. So salvation of the body and the soul is accomplished by something that Jesus Christ did when he was raised from the dead. Our faith rests on what Jesus Christ did. Not how you feel, not how good you are. I love how Charles Spurgeon speaks of it.

I'll conclude with this. Remember therefore that it is not your hold of Christ that saves you. It is Christ. It is not your joy in Christ that saves you. It is Christ.

It is not even faith in Christ, though that be the instrument. It is Christ's blood and merits. Therefore look not so to your hand with which you are grasping Christ as to Christ. Look not to your hope but to Jesus, the source of your hope. Look not to your faith But to Jesus the author and finisher of your faith We shall never find happiness by looking at our prayers our doings or our feelings It is what Jesus is not what we are that gives rest to the soul.

And the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the coming resurrection of your body is certain proof of salvation. There is therefore now No condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Would you pray with me? Lord, we're so thankful for the truth and the power of the gospel, for the beauty of your way with the body, how your ways are so far superior, so far more life-giving, so far more blessed. As we think about our own bodies, Pray that you would give us in this church a delight in these bodies that you gave for all that they mean and that we would live in the body in sanctification and honor.

That we would regard every part of our body with honor and only use our members for holy things in keeping with your design. Amen.