April 19, 2026 – The Glorified Body | 1 Corinthians 15:35–58 Baptist Bible Church, Sparta MI

Have you ever wondered what heaven's gonna be like?

When we are resurrected from the dead, what's it going to be like?

The Bible does give us some details, but it doesn't tell us everything.

We see things through the truths of scripture partially.

There's some marvelous things that we simply just don't know, can't comprehend right now.

But there are some things the Bible does share that helps us to know, to understand what it's going to be like.

And 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verses 35 through 48 is one of those passages in Scripture that illuminates a little bit, a piece, of what it's going to be like.

1 Corinthians 15:35–48

And in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, the truths that Paul shares with us are related to the resurrection body.

1 Corinthians 15 · chapter mention

What kind of body will we have?

A body that is equipped to live life into eternity.

There must be something special about that kind of a body, a body that will exist and last into eternity in dwelling with the Lord.

So we're gonna learn today.

We're gonna learn five truths about our heavenly resurrected, glorified bodies.

So let's pray and then we'll dig into the text today.

Father, thanks for today.

Thankful for the opportunity now to open up your word.

Help us, God, help us to understand what your word says, to gain a clearer picture of what eternity will be like, the bodies that we will have, and I pray that as we reflect on these truths, that they would encourage us in our faithful walk with you today.

It's in Jesus' name I pray.

Amen.

Open with me in your own copies of God's Word if you haven't already.

First Corinthians chapter 15.

1 Corinthians 15 · chapter mention

We are going to dig right into verse 35.

But someone will ask, How are the dead raised?

With what kind of body do they come?

You foolish person, what you sow does not come to life unless it dies.

And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain.

But God gives it a body, as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body.

We notice, first of all, this morning the glorified body will be a transformed body, and Paul uses the illustration of a seed planted in the dirt in order to explain what he means by this.

You'll notice a couple things we notice here in the text.

The kernel, the kernel, the seed, is the same kind as the wheat, the head of wheat.

These are both, we would say, the same kind.

So there is, through this illustration, we understand there is continuity between the person you are today, the body you have today, and your resurrected body.

There is some continuity.

Paul says it's the same kind.

You don't plant a kernel of wheat and see an apple tree come up.

Or you don't see a rose bush spring up.

The head of wheat comes from the kernel of wheat.

So there's a continuity of kind.

We notice this in the resurrection body of Jesus, when Jesus rose from the dead.

At times when he unveiled himself, he was recognizable.

You remember when the disciples are on the shore, or on the or they're fishing, and Jesus is on the shore, and Peter cries out, he sees Jesus, and what does he cry out?

It is the Lord.

There was a continuity.

He was recognizable, even in his physical appearance.

When he met with the disciples, and Thomas was present.

Remember what Jesus did.

He invited Thomas, come, feel my scars.

Now, how could Jesus say that?

Well, there was continuity.

His body, his transformed, resurrected body, there was continuity between that body and his earthly body that he had before he died on the cross.

And so he still retained those scars from the crucifixion.

However, we also recognize this morning that a kernel of wheat and a head of wheat are also very different.

These are very different things.

The kernel undergoes a transformation to become something so much more than what it is, something so much more wonderful.

The kernel at its fullest capacity of life is the head of wheat.

We see this transformation in nature today, don't we?

There's the most famous example of the caterpillar transforming into the butterfly, and that's a wonderful transformation.

It's actually, I actually looked it up, it's actually kind of gross.

It's more gross than I remember from second grade.

The caterpillar, when it forms its chrysalis, it goes inside there and it actually dissolves itself, which is really disgusting.

But then in that dissolved state, it uses its DNA, the same DNA, and it rebuilds itself into this butterfly that then emerges.

And so we'd understand.

These are two very different creatures that when undergoing this transformation, it becomes something else, but it's a fuller version of what it was.

And the same thing is conveyed through Paul's illustration of this kernel of wheat.

We don't know exactly all the details of what kind of transformation this will result in, but we do know that it will be something like a kernel to a head of grain.

A wonderful, amazing transformation that will take place when we go into our resurrected bodies.

The second truth we learned from the text this morning is that the glorified body will have degrees of glory.

In fact, we could say it this way: the primary quality of your resurrected body is glory.

The primary quality of your resurrected body will be glory.

The word glory in the New Testament can be translated as greatness, splendor, radiance, honor, magnificence, or brightness.

All of these words are what's conveyed with the Greek word doxa or glory.

If you notice in verse 39, Paul says, For not all flesh is the same, but there is one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish.

There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is of one kind, and the glory of the earthly is of another.

We notice here Paul is stating that there are different kinds of bodies, and these different bodies have different degrees of glory.

The psalmist is looking up at the heavens and saying, What is the significance of man?

We're mere specks of dust on a planet that's a speck of dust in a vast universe.

What significance is man?

And yet, what does he say?

Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly being, and crowned him with glory and honor.

So we notice that man in our current state, in our current earthly bodies, we have been endowed with a certain degree of glory.

There is a certain degree of glory in our earthly body.

The glory that we have now is the glory that we have as image-bearers of our Creator.

If you go back to the Genesis record, we recognize, we notice that we are made in the image of God.

And so the glory we have is the glory of the Creator.

We recognize there is a certain amount of sacredness to human life.

There is a sanctity to human life.

Why?

Because we have been crowned with glory and honor, being made in the image of the Creator.

But notice Paul draws a distinction.

He says that there are heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies, and there is a glory for the earthly body, but there is another glory for the heavenly body.

The heavenly body being a reference here to our resurrected bodies.

He says there is another degree of glory.

But then, if you notice in verse 41, he says, there is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars.

For star differs from star in glory.

So not only do we notice that there is a distinction in glory between the earthly body we have now and the heavenly body to come, we also notice Paul stating that there will be degrees of glory within those heavenly bodies, those heavenly resurrected bodies.

He makes this point through describing the distinctions of glory between heavenly bodies meaning sun, moon, and stars in verse 41.

So we would say the sun shines the brightest, then there's the moon, and then within all of the stars, there's a wide spectrum of how brightly we see those stars shining in the night sky.

There's differences, distinctions of glory.

This is a point that Paul is going to come back to to help us understand in just a few verses.

So keep this part in mind as we continue on in the text.

Verse 42.

Paul says, So is it with the resurrection of the dead.

What is sown is perishable, what is raised is 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.

Thus it is written The first man Adam became a living being.

The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.

But it is not the spiritual that is first, but the natural and then the spiritual.

We noticed next the glorified body will be a better body.

The glorified body will be a better body.

Paul once again returns to this agricultural language in verse 42, what is sown, meaning this earthly body, what we have now.

And he's drawing a contrast between the earthly body we have now and the heavenly resurrected body we will have after we are sown in the grounds.

And notice there's several characteristics or qualities to the better body here.

One is that the heavenly resurrected body will be imperishable.

What is currently perishable will be transformed into something that is imperishable.

We live in a world of expiration dates, don't we?

Everything you can see, all foods, they have an expiration date, and there's really two kinds of people when it comes to expiration dates.

There are those who consider those expiration dates to be general guidelines.

You look at the date on the milk and you say, oh, it's only a few days old, still good to drink.

You look at some leftovers in the fridge, oh, it's only been there for nine days, that's still good to eat.

We look at expiration dates, and I don't understand you people.

I don't understand you people because I'm of the belief that the expiration date, it is the law.

It is the law.

The expiration date says this is the date it expires.

It is now no good to eat.

And by the way, especially when it comes to dairy, I in fact believe sour cream expires the day you open it.

It's bad, people.

There's expiration dates, except for maybe Twinkies and McDonald's.

But other than that, most things have expiration dates.

Your body has an expiration date.

And some of you may be feeling that more than others today.

Yeah.

Thank you, brother.

They get older, they decay, they break down, they don't work like they used to.

As bodies age, they grow nearer and nearer to their day of expiration.

But notice the distinction: the glorified body has no expiration date.

The glorified body is raised imperishable, meaning when we are raised, we are raised to eternal and everlasting life.

It's a better body, it doesn't expire.

We notice, secondly, the current body is marked by shame.

It's marked by shame.

What does Paul mean by this?

He means that we are, we are, our current bodies are made dishonorable by our sin.

We are made dishonorable by our sin.

Our bodies are bodies of sin.

And it is that sin that brings us shame.

It's a shameful thing to rebel against our Creator.

It's a shameful thing.

It's a shameful thing to look at the sacrifice that Jesus made on the cross to acknowledge that we've been saved from sin and then to go on sinning against the very one who gave his life to pay for that sin.

That's a shameful thing.

And yet, inherent in our nature, inherent in our bodies is this sin nature, this natural inclination that each of us have this morning to continue to want to sin.

It brings us great shame to do that.

These are bodies marked by dishonor.

But notice that the resurrected body will be raised free from sin's power.

It will be raised free from the sway and the influence of sin.

The sin nature that we all have inherited from Adam and the sin nature that we all have and that we struggle with and fight against on a regular basis.

And the resurrected body, that sin nature will be wiped out.

No more.

You will have no natural desire to sin against your creator anymore in the resurrected body.

Are you looking forward to that day?

I mean, I can't wait.

I can't wait.

I hate to do the things that are shameful for me to do against my creator.

I hate it.

But I also love it.

It's extremely frustrating.

Is anybody with me on that?

It's frustrating.

But the resurrected body will be raised not in dishonor, but in glory.

In glory.

No more struggle with sin.

The resurrected body will be raised in power.

It'll be raised in power.

Our current physical earthly bodies, they are frail.

They are weak.

They're susceptible to disease, to fatigue, to injury.

We are limited in our humanity physically, mentally, socially, emotionally.

We have these human limitations.

There are many who are limited by differing types of disabilities.

But the glorified body is a body that will be equipped for eternal existence with the full capacity to inhabit that eternity free from any form of limitation.

That's a wonderful truth.

It's a wonderful truth to know that what we have now is weak.

The body we will have into eternity will be raised in power, fully capable of inhabiting eternity without limitation.

This final statement, from natural to spiritual, has caused some confusion among people, specifically because Paul has already been talking about this body, body, body, body.

It's an earthly, physical body that we have now, but it is also a bodily resurrection, meaning in the resurrection we will still have a body.

And so the confusion stems from understanding spiritual to be immaterial, like a ghost.

And that's not, Paul's not talking about substance here in these last couple of verses we just read.

He's not talking about the substance, meaning that you are materially a spirit being into eternity.

What he's referring to here is really what John writes in John chapter 3, when Jesus is meeting with Nicodemus.

John 3 · chapter mention

Jesus tells Nicodemus there's a difference between being born of the flesh and being born of the spirit.

There's a difference.

And he tells Nicodemus, you need to be born again.

You were born once physically, in order to enter into the kingdom of heaven, you must be born again spiritually.

You must be born of the Spirit.

And so what Paul is talking about here is spiritual life, spiritual rebirth.

And our glorified resurrected bodies will not have life that comes through physical birth.

You won't be physically born with your resurrected bodies.

You will have a resurrected body that will be animated with life that is from the spirit.

There's a difference, there's a distinction.

And Paul is saying, right now we have your physical life.

Your body is here today.

It's here today because of physical birth.

It's earthly in that sense.

But in the resurrection, you will have a body that is alive because it is given life from the Spirit.

It's spirit life.

And that life will extend into eternity.

In Ezekiel chapter 37, we don't have the time to turn here, but you can mark this down.

Ezekiel 37 · chapter mention

Ezekiel chapter 37.

Ezekiel 37 · chapter mention

There's Old Testament teaching on this as well.

It's why Jesus tells Nicodemus, Are you not a teacher of the law and you don't understand this?

You should, in other words, Nicodemus, you should understand this truth.

Ezekiel chapter 37, we have the vision of the dry bones.

Ezekiel 37 · chapter mention

These are all dead, dusty old bones of dead people.

And Ezekiel sees all of these bones, and in this vision, these bones come to life.

They receive flesh, it's bodily resurrection.

And we read in that text in verses 12 through 14 that God will not only resurrect the dead, he will do so by placing his spirit within them.

So we notice, even in the Old Testament, teachings on the resurrection that say this resurrection life comes through the Spirit.

It's spiritual life.

So we notice the glorified body will be transformed into something better.

The body we have will be a better body in all of these areas.

If we go to verse 47, he continues on in the text, and the next truth we'll recognize this morning, the glory of the glorified body is the reflected glory of Jesus.

I want to take just a quick detour this morning and talk about something and try to tie a few threads together as we talk about glory and the glorified body.

New Testament authors write in several places that believers will receive rewards in heaven.

There are rewards in heaven.

And they often link their teaching of rewards with crowns, with crowns.

They will teach that when you go to heaven, there are crowns you will receive.

And we often think of crowns today as symbols of authority.

Normally, when you imagine or you think of a crown, you think of something like a crown that a king or a queen would wear.

But when the New Testament authors utilized this word, they weren't referring to a golden crown with jewels in it, referring to the rule of a king.

The word they used was a reference to the wreath that athletes received when they won the Olympic Games.

These were called crowns.

This is how our English Bibles translate this word.

But these were olive branches that athletes would receive.

In fact, if you go back just a few chapters in 1 Corinthians, you'll notice this is exactly how Paul uses the word in chapter 9 and verses 24 and 25.

He says, Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize?

So run that you may obtain it.

What's he talking about here?

The Olympic Games, the competitions that the athletes would engage in.

He says, verse 25, every athlete exercises self-control in all things.

They do it to receive a perishable what?

Wreath.

Or crown.

Yeah.

But we and imperishable.

So the idea, the concept of the crown, it was this wreath that the athletes would receive, and they wouldn't receive it because they were now given authority or power to rule.

No.

The athletes received these wreaths and they were symbols of glory.

Symbols of glory, symbols of honor, prestige.

In fact, if you were an athlete in these times and you won a wreath, when you went back to your hometown, you know what they would do for you?

They would make a statue in your honor.

Because you're worthy.

You went to the Olympic Games.

You won the crown.

You are worthy of glory and honor.

And you've brought that glory and honor back to us, your hometown.

They were celebrated as celebrities back then because when they won the crown, they got the glory.

It's all about glory.

Okay, so we notice that these crowns are connected to glory.

This is how the New Testament author.

Used this word, and these celebrities of their time received glory.

It's not unlike our soup and chili cook-off every year.

The winner gets to the crown.

You know the chef's hat?

I think Diane got that for us a long time ago.

And the chef's hat is a symbol of what?

Glory.

That's right.

So those of us that have won the chef's hat, glory.

Glory.

Isn't that right?

You all remember I've won this thing, right?

You haven't forgotten that?

Should have won it twice, but that's another story for another day.

There once was a pastor who died and went to heaven.

And once he got to heaven, he got a crown.

But it was a very small crown.

It was tiny.

And then there was a bus driver who died, and he was right in line after the pastor, and he also got to heaven, and he got a really huge crown, a massive crown.

And the pastor looked, turned around, and said, Oh, wait a second, addressed to the angel in charge and said, Wait a second.

I'm a pastor, and that's a bus driver.

How come he gets this huge crown and I only get this tiny crown?

And the angel responds and said, Yes, it's true, you were a pastor, and yes, it's true, you preached faithfully every Sunday for 40 years.

But when you preached, everybody fell asleep.

He said, When that guy drove the bus, everybody on the bus prayed.

And I think oftentimes when we think of crowns, we think of it in the context that when we get to heaven, we will be rewarded for all of the good works we did in this life.

And we for how faithful we were.

And we served Jesus and we did this and we got the perfect attendance award at church.

And we, you know, we won the chili cook-off seven times, and we did all of these things, and we served and served and served.

And so when I get to heaven, I'm gonna get all of these crowns as a symbol of my glory.

My glory.

As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust.

And as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven.

Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.

What is Paul saying here?

The man of dust was Adam, you know, formed out of the dust of the ground.

And each and every one of us here this morning, we are sons and daughters of Adam.

We bear his image, we have his brokenness.

But we will, in the resurrected body, we will not bear the image of the man of dust.

Instead, whose image will we bear?

The image of the man of heaven, the second Adam, Jesus, it is his image.

And God isn't talking about physical resemblance here.

The Bible isn't telling us we will all physically resemble Jesus.

No, what is the Bible telling us?

It's telling us that in heaven, in the glorified, resurrected bodies, we will be reflector beams of the glory of Jesus.

It is his, it's all about Jesus.

It's about his honor, his glory, his prestige, and his splendor in eternity.

And you and I will have the distinct privilege of reflecting not our glory, the glory of the man of heaven.

Which, by the way, which by the way is why I say if you look back to verses 40 and 41, the degrees of glory, remember it's not about you, but the degree to which Jesus has worked in your life in this life, by his grace, the degree to which by his enabling grace has worked in you and has conformed you into his image and drawn you closer to himself.

The degree to which that happens in this life, I believe Paul's point is the degree to which you will shine out with the radiance of the glory of Jesus.

And all of this is really correlated if you go to Revelation.

If you go to Revelation chapter 4, this is what it says.

Revelation 4 · chapter mention

The 24 elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever.

They cast their crowns before the throne.

Are they keeping the crowns?

They're casting the crowns, saying, Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor.

What is this communicating?

What's this picture conveying?

This is you and me in heaven.

It's not about us, it's not about our glory.

The glory is all his.

It's his glory.

It's his glory.

Okay.

Last point.

The reality of the future glorified body encourages present-day faithfulness.

Notice in verse 50.

I tell you this, brothers, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.

Behold, I tell you a mystery.

We shall not all sleep, but we shall all 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 imperishable, and we shall be changed.

Notice Paul says that this transformation is coming when?

When Jesus comes back.

When Jesus comes back, you and I will be transformed.

He says, not all will sleep, meaning there will be some who are alive when Jesus comes back, and some who will already have passed on.

But whether you're alive or whether you're dead, what does he say?

We'll all be transformed.

Notice he says, in the twinkling of an eye, this will happen instantaneously.

The idea here is that, like, the fastest human movement that we can see physically on the outside is the blinking of the eye.

It's the fastest, it's the quickest movement.

And this is what Paul's pointing to here.

He's saying, it's going to happen just like that.

When Jesus comes back, boom! Resurrection-glorified bodies for all of us.

So knowing this, knowing this truth, impacts our present reality today.

In a few different ways he mentions here.

If you look in verse 54, he says, When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.

O death, where is your victory?

O death, where is your sting?

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.

But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

The resurrection transforms how we view death.

It transforms how we view death.

It transforms how we grieve the death of loved ones.

We notice here death is described as a scorpion without a stinger.

It's described as a scorpion without a stinger.

And while death today remains painful, it remains a source of sorrow and grief.

For those who know Jesus, death has lost its ultimate bitter sting.

This is true both as it relates to the mourning of loved ones that have gone on before, as well as we ourselves approach death's doorstep.

Death is a scorpion without a stinger.

Why?

Because victory over death has been granted to you through Jesus.

It transforms how you view death.

Notice he continues on, he says in verse 58, therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast and immovable.

These are two terms that are related to perseverance.

They're related to the concept of persevering in the faith.

They're related to this idea that we are called to continue on in the faith.

Whether we face trials, temptations, the challenges of life that come our way, we can stand firm in our faith, knowing with certainty what the outcome of our faith will be.

Understanding that this life is not all there is, that there is something so much better coming.

So I'm gonna press on.

I'm gonna keep going.

I'm gonna keep trusting Jesus.

I'm not gonna turn away, I'm not gonna turn back.

You can't move me, because I know my future is secure.

I have certainty in knowing what is to come.

So be steadfast, be immovable.

And finally, what does he tell us here?

Abounding, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

Are you tired of laboring for the Lord this morning?

Are you tired?

Are you tired of killing sin?

Are you tired of turning away from temptation?

Are you tired from serving others here at church?

Nobody say amen.

Sometimes we grow tired in our labor.

Weary hands, weary feet, Paul says, don't stop.

Don't stop serving.

Don't stop laboring.

Don't stop giving your life for Jesus every day.

Don't you stop?

Don't you stop?

Because if you look ahead, you keep your eyes on the prize.

If you look ahead to the finish line, see what's coming.

Remember what's coming.

It's why when you run a race, you get to that last stretch, and what does every runner do?

They all stop.

Too tired, can't finish.

No, what do they do?

They give everything else they have left.

Because there it is.

I can see it.

So I'm not stopping.

I'm gonna give it everything I have.

And Paul's point is because we know and believe in the resurrection and in the glorified body and the life that is to come, don't stop laboring.

Because your labor today, it's not in vain.

It's not in vain.

It's not gonna amount to nothing.

In fact, it's going to have wonderful, wonderful results into eternity.

Don't stop laboring in the Lord.

Don't stop.

Father, thank you for today.

Thankful for this opportunity to be here this morning and to remind ourselves of these truths, to learn more through your word about the resurrected, glorified body.

And there's some amazing things here.

There's things beyond our comprehension, things we can't really wrap our minds around.

Even the concept of eternity itself is a difficult concept for us to really fully grasp and understand.

But Lord, we know it's going to be wonderful.

And we get a glimpse here in chapter 15 of what that life will be like living in these bodies that you have chosen for us and prepared for us.

Father, I pray that as we remember these truths, remember the glory of what's to come, Lord, may that encourage us today to be faithful, to keep walking by faith, to keep persevering, to keep trusting you, to keep serving you.

Because we know what's to come, and what's to come is wonderful.

Thank you, Father.

We love you.

Thanks for loving us.

In Jesus' name I pray.

Amen.