I Believe: The Resurrection of the Body and the Life Everlasting (Isaiah 65:17-25; 1 Corinthians 15:35-58)

Hello, friends, this is Pastor Creighton.

Thank you for tuning in to Newsong Church's Sermon Podcast.

At Newsong Church, we want to see Jesus lifted high in Port Perry, Ontario, as we worship, grow, and serve.

You can learn more about us and find contact info at newsongportperry.ca.

Today we continue our sermon series, I believe, the Apostles' Creed in the Christian Life, with I believe in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.

Amen.

Let's pray.

Well Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditation of all of our hearts be always pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer.

Amen.

Please be seated.

What will heaven be like?

As Christians, we spend we're we we plan to spend a lot of time in heaven.

Probably that's a good question to ask.

What will heaven be like?

Have you ever wondered about heaven?

Imagine what it's going to be like?

What it's going to look like, what it's going to feel like.

Maybe it's like a Philadelphia cream cheese ad, I don't know.

No, I do know.

And it's not going to be like a Philadelphia cream cheese ad.

One of the most honest and tender questions I was ever asked in my couple of years doing this pastoral ministry thing was from a seven uh seventh-grade boy on the cusp of a competitive tournament that was going to occupy the next week of his.

He was reflecting very deeply on whatever Bible lesson it was we were doing this that night, which had to do with eternal life.

And well, he turns to me and he goes, Pastor, is there going to be hockey in heaven?

I think it's a wonderful question to ask, especially for a seventh-grade boy to ask.

Maybe we're fully grown and still asking the same question.

But here he was connecting some dots in his mind.

He knew that heaven is the eternal destiny of a Christian.

He knew that heaven is going to be a place of gladness and great joy.

And he also knew that the thing that gives him tremendous gladness and joy here on earth is playing hockey.

And so conceivably, if this is a place of joy and gladness, then, well, hockey in some way must correspond with that.

Well, I'm not here to preach that there's going to be hockey in heaven.

Sorry if that disappoints anyone.

We can speculate, but we can only go so far as speculation with some of those questions.

What we want to work through is what is it that we picture when we picture heaven?

What will heaven be like?

And what does God's word tell us about what heaven is?

Because often if we don't go to God's word, we go to a place like a Philadelphia cream cheese ad and imagine fluffy, feathery wings and lots and lots of bagels and whatever else we supply our image of heaven to be.

What is it that God's word communicates about heaven?

The ultimate destiny of a Christian, our hope.

The Bible tells us a remarkable thing about heaven.

It is the destiny of a Christian, it is where a Christian soul goes when we die.

But the remarkable thing about the story of the Bible is that heaven, on the last day, comes to earth for a happy reunion.

And heaven brings with it a renewed creation and a resurrection body.

If we want to talk Christianly and biblically about heaven, then we must talk about a renewed creation and a resurrection body.

If we don't, we risk talking unchristianly about heaven.

And perhaps the images resound more with a cream cheese ad than Scripture.

What is it that heaven, what is the hope of heaven for a Christian?

It is the hope of renewed creation and a resurrection body.

At the center of this hope is Jesus.

So let's talk about heaven and what Scripture tells us heaven is going to be like.

It's going to be like a renewed creation.

This renewed creation corresponds to our Lord Jesus' second coming that we talked about a number of articles in the Apostles' Creed earlier.

He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and this final judgment will usher in a new age, the age to come.

The former things will pass away, and with that, creation is renewed and restored.

It's not obliterated, it's renewed.

I say that because it's a temptation to read scripture in such a way that matter, it's like it gets deleted, it's like it gets exploded.

Think of Isaiah 65, for example.

Let's be measured in how we read this.

Isaiah 65, behold, the prophet says, I create a new heavens and new earth.

This is a promise that God is communicating to his people Israel, who are going to be going into exile.

There's hope for the future.

God is going to do something remarkable to renew and remake creation.

It's not deletion, it's renewal.

Even though titles like The Late Great Planet Earth give this idea that there's going to be an heaven and earth 2.0 that takes the place of earth 1.0, we need to look at the whole canon of Scripture for a fuller understanding of the age to come.

In Revelation chapter 21, John the Apostle sees much the same vision that God gives to Isaiah in this moment.

Revelation 21 · chapter mention

In Revelation chapter 21, verse 1, John writes of the age to come.

Revelation 21:1

He writes, I saw a new heaven and a new earth.

The first heaven and the first earth had passed away.

And he goes on to say in verse 5, He who is seated on the throne said, Behold, I am making all things new.

And that's a promise for Christians facing persecution in the first century.

It's a promise for us today.

That God is at work in our world making all things new.

See, the matter that God created matters to God.

God's not interested in deleting, God's not interested in obliterating that creation.

He's interested in restoring it, renewing it, and seeing it renewed in Christ.

The matter that we occupy, the creation that we live in, matters to God.

And so does its cultivation.

So does creation.

You see, when God puts our first parents in the garden, he commissions them to do a work of cultivation.

That's their vocation, to go out and work this garden, to be partners, co-laborers with God in this creation.

It means for us who labor in gardens or labor in our workplaces, we're called to go and cultivate creation to one degree or another because matter matters.

That garden that we care so much about is not something God is gleefully looking forward to burning away.

God wants to see that garden renewed and restored and glorified to the glory that He's always intended for creation to share.

God is interested in renewing all things.

The difference is not that creation gets obliterated, it's that the former age passes away and gives way to a renewed age.

An age of characterized by restored shalom and peace.

Isaiah goes on to say that the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind.

This is what's going to characterize the life everlasting.

The former things are going to give way to the things of the new age.

Things like weeping and distress, Isaiah 65, 19.

Things like tears and death and mourning and crying and pain.

These are the things we read in Revelation 21.

These former things will pass away and give way to a life of renewed blessing and flourishing, everlasting life.

See, in this new age to come, this renewed creation, there will be no more earthquakes that devastate countries.

There will be no terrorist overthrows of governments like we've seen this last week.

Instead, there will be peace and flourishing that characterizes all of creation.

And for one reason, that God Himself dwells with His people.

This is what John writes in Revelation 21.

He sees the holy city, the new Jerusalem, the place that symbolizes God's dwelling with his people and his commitment to his covenant promises.

He sees this new heavenly Jerusalem, this restored, renewed Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man.

Wow.

Let that land on you for a second.

God has committed himself to dwell eternally with his people.

Creation will be renewed and restored, and at the center of it, God dwells with us.

Emmanuel forever.

He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.

See, John and Isaiah both see what one commentator describes as a cosmic paradise, where one vast sanctuary, God's dwelling place, from which one vis it's one vast sanctuary from which everything harmful has been banished forever.

There's a remarkable symmetry between the last two chapters of the Bible, Revelation 21 and 22, and the first two chapters of the Bible, Genesis 1 and 2, where God creates a good creation and he desires to partner with human beings and seeing it cultivated.

Now this creation that fell into sin and corruption in Genesis chapter 3 is being remade and restored in Christ.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

Sin and corruption are no more.

They've given away with the former age, and instead heaven brings a renewed creation.

This is a remarkable hope.

It's not just a far and away hope either, it's a hope for us who labor in this creation presently.

Maybe we labor in a garden, maybe we labor in a cubicle.

But wherever we labor, God being our helper, when we extend our hands to creation, we are anticipating that day when God will renew and restore all things.

When we join our hearts with the great renewer, and we extend our hands to our fellow human beings for their healing and for their well-being, we labor to make things on earth a little bit more like they are in heaven.

We point towards that day when God will renew and restore all things here in a renewed creation.

Heaven brings a renewed creation.

But God's renewal doesn't extend just to the creation we live in.

God's renewal of all things extends to our very own selves, to our bodies.

Heaven brings a renewed creation, and heaven brings a resurrection body.

This is where we need to distinguish what are our eternal destination in the renewed heavens and earth from what we'd call maybe the intermediate state.

The intermediate state the Bible speaks about sparingly, but it's where we go, where the Christian soul goes when we die, awaiting the final resurrection.

If I kick the bucket later this afternoon, that would be a very sad thing.

But I have a Christian hope that my soul would go to be with the Lord, and that's a wonderful thing.

That's a joyful thing.

But that's not my final destination.

My final destination is not a disembodied state where my soul is floating out in the ether sphere, so to speak.

No, my final destination is this renewed creation, this resurrection body in which I am raised.

See, my soul goes to be with the Lord in the sure and certain hope of the resurrection.

This is what Isaiah is anticipating in verse 20.

When he's prophetically, it's a bit of a prophetic telescope.

He's seeing things in this age give way to the age to come.

He anticipates the health and longevity of eternal life in this new creation, but it anticipates this door that Paul walks through in 1 Corinthians 15.

Paul sees a resurrection body that shares the glory of our Lord Jesus.

And to try and explain what this resurrection is going to be like, Paul uses the imagery of seeds and crops.

The seed has to die to give life to a harvest, to see a harvest raised.

And so too do our current bodies give rise to a resurrection body through the power of the Lord.

How are the dead raised is the question at hand.

With what kind of body are they raised?

And Paul asks in verse 36, what you sow, pardon me, Paul answers, what you sow does not come to life unless it dies.

So it is with the resurrection of the dead.

What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable.

This suggests that there is a continuity between the body that we occupy now and that glorified body that we will have in eternity, in the same way that there's continuity between the seed and the crop that it gives way to.

But the difference is not of kind, but of quality.

We're not talking about reincarnation where our soul is assembled or united with some kind of different kind of creature.

Rather, our soul is reunited with the body that God has always intended for us, an imperishable body.

What is sown in dishonor and corruption and deterioration in sin, the body that uh that we occupy that belongs to this present age, is going to give way in the resurrection to a raised body, raised in glory and power and purity.

It's a little like um, you know, I've known some people who've who've gone about restoring a car.

And and um, this is just such a poor metaphor, but work with me here.

It's the difference between a rusty old lemon seeing restored into a pristine Rolls-Royce.

There's some kind of continuity there, but boy oh boy, there's such a difference in quality, isn't there?

It's as though this body that we occupy now will be restored and renewed to the glory it's always been meant to occupy, the glory that God has always had in mind for us to share.

And it's the glory we share in Christ.

In fact, we are raised with the same glorified body as Christ Himself.

We shall also bear the image of the man of heaven, is what Paul writes in chapter 15, verse 49.

Just as Christ is raised to a glorified body, so too will we be raised to glorified bodies.

And these glorified bodies will not be the perishable bodies that we occupy now.

They will be imperishable.

They will be incorruptible.

They will be as verse forty two puts, what is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable.

And why is that?

Because verse 50, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.

This we will occupy resurrected bodies suited for the renewed creation which we will occupy forever.

This is a remarkable promise.

It's a promise that I'm I guess I'm struck by because every time I see a cosmetics commercial or beauty commercial, I hear something like this promise being spoken.

Do you hear it too?

Something like reverse the process of aging.

Something like see your wrinkles disappear, or see the gray hair, you know, I don't know, magically leave your head and be replaced with full and luscious hair, whatever that is.

It's a resurrection promise, is what is being sold to us.

That we can have some kind of imperishable body if we pay the right amount of money for this product.

Now there's nothing inherently wrong with cosmetics, there's nothing wrong with taking care of our bodies.

But we need to be mindful that there is no human power that can deliver on this resurrection promise.

There is no human power that can truly defeat death.

We ourselves groan inwardly for the redemption of our bodies, so writes Paul in Romans chapter 8.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

We long for that day when the body we occupy now will be an imperishable body.

I think that's why these commercials resonate so deeply with us, because we are purposed to enjoy eternity in an imperishable body.

And yet, we cannot do that apart from Christ who is raised.

Christ who, being raised from the dead, will never die again.

Death no longer has dominion over him, so writes Paul in Romans chapter 6.

Romans 6 · chapter mention

See, heaven brings a resurrection body.

We share in the resurrection glory of our Lord Jesus, and over this resurrection body, death will not have the final answer.

And this is a particularly comforting truth in the face of death and mortality.

I don't think God's timing is ever an accident.

Earlier this week, I was privileged to take part in a committal where the remains of a of a parishioner's loved one were being committed to their resting place, and this was something we've been waiting for for a number of months, and COVID had prevented.

At this very tender time in the life of this family, these words that we read in our gospel this morning were read at the service.

I am the resurrection and the life, says the Lord.

Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.

This is Jesus' promise to Martha in the midst of her losing her brother Lazarus.

These are powerful words.

This is Christ's promise to us.

He is the resurrection and the life.

And because he has been raised to new life, through faith we cling on to him and we cling on to that resurrection hope that we too will enjoy renewed resurrection bodies in the life to come.

So in Christ, and through clinging to Christ by faith, we can say with Paul that death is swallowed up in victory.

It's swallowed up in Christ's victory.

O death, where is your victory?

O death, where is your sting?

What is our hope in life and death?

Christ alone.

Christ alone.

It's this hope that we can take through each and every trial of life.

When our body deteriorates, when we have aches and pains that we can't explain, we can anticipate that day when we will share in a glorified, resurrected body that belongs to the age to come.

Our hope is Christ, who has gone before us, is the first fruits of the resurrection.

Friends, the hope of heaven gives us reason to rejoice.

The hope of a renewed creation, the hope of a resurrection body.

This is what heaven will be like.

It will be a place of rejoicing and gladness.

Be glad and rejoice forever, writes Isaiah 65, 18.

Rejoice and be glad forever in that which I create.

Friends, this can be true for us now.

We have reason to be glad.

We have a hope of a resurrection body and life everlasting in Christ.

Come what may, God's promises stand.

Heaven and earth will reunite, which gives us reason to delight in and cultivate creation around us.

We will participate in renewed creation.

And we will enjoy a resurrection body which cannot pass away.

So we can take heart even when our body begins to fail.

Because we who by faith cling to Christ's promise, we know the resurrection and the life.

And as surely as Christ is raised from the dead, so too are we and will we be.

So we anticipate that day when the dwelling place of God is with us.

He will be with us, and we will be his people, and God himself will be with us as our God in a renewed creation, in a resurrection body.

So, friends, what will heaven be like?

It will be a renewed creation, a resurrection body, and reason for great rejoicing.

So we sing hallelujah, because hope springs eternal.

Now and ever we confess Christ is our hope in life and death.

Amen.