About

Big Apple Chapel is a New Testament based church in New York City, modeled after the pattern of the early church, with a strong emphasis on following Christ as a community of His disciples.

Services
  • Sunday - 10:30 am
  • 520 8th Ave, 16th floor
    New York, NY
  • phone: +1 (973) 837-1041
 

Sermons

BAC Sermons

Reasonable Fundamentals IV: Resurrection pt 3

2007-04-15

Audio

To download the audio-file, right-click here and select "Save target as" or "Save Link As".


Download MS Word File

1Cor 15:34  Awake to righteousness, and do not sin; for some do not have the knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame.

 

IV. On What is the Christian Hope based?  The Resurrection of Christ

D. The Tomb is Empty, our Faith should not be

D1. Our Faith is based on the promises of Christ to Return, Resurrect, Reward, and Rule over All

D2. Subjection to God’s Rule in our lives is not only Christlike, but something we should like

D2a. Those who follow Christ on the highway called “The Delight of Denial” will exchange grief for glory

D2b. Those who Hang with the Holy will boldly follow Christ in the Light of Truth and Righteousness (Eph 5:9)

 

E. What Goes Down Goes Up

E1. We’re in the land of the dying on the way to the land of the living, so die well to live well

1Cor 15:35 But someone will say, "How are the dead raised up? And with what body do they come?" 36  Foolish one, what you sow is not made alive unless it dies. 37  And what you sow, you do not sow that body that shall be, but mere grain——perhaps wheat or some other grain. 38  But God gives it a body as He pleases, and to each seed its own body. 39  All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of animals, another of fish, and another of birds.

 

Jn 12:24  "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain. 25  "He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26  "If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor.

 

E2. God’s eternal Justice necessitates differential glory for differential loyalty and service (cf Rm 1:6-11; 8:17; Lk 19; Mt 25)

15:40  There are also celestial bodies and terrestrial bodies; but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. 41  There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differs from another star in glory. 42  So also is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption. 43  It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. 44  It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.

 

2Cor 5:1 For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2  For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven, 3  if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. 4  For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. 5  Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee/earnest/down payment  9  Wherefore we labor, that… we may be accepted of him.

 

E3. The Dynamic (driving force) of our lives must go beyond the psychological to the Spiritual

15:45  And so it is written, "The first man Adam became a living being." The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 46  However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual. 47  The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord from heaven. 48  As was the man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust; and as is the heavenly Man, so also are those who are heavenly. 49  And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man.  50  Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption.

 

1Cor 6:9   Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? (cf Gal 5:21)

Phil 3:20  For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21  who 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.  4:1  Therefore, my beloved and longed-for brethren, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, beloved.

 

E4. Change is a fact of life and matter of death

15:51  Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed——52  in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet (Isa 27:13). For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

53  For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. 54  So 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  (Isa 25”8): "Death is swallowed up in victory." 55  "O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?"  56  The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. 57  But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

2Cor 3:18  But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed (Rm 12:1-2)  into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

 

E5. Those who trust the Truth steadfastly Toil in the work of the Lord  (cf 1Cor 16:10 Timothy & Paul – works the work= disciplemakers)

15:58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.

 

1Th 3:2 and sent Timothy, our brother and minister of God, and our fellow laborer in the gospel of Christ, to establish you and encourage you concerning your faith, 5…lest by some means the tempter had tempted you, and our labor might be in vain.

 

Questions for Reflection/Discussion/Response:

1. Why do folks object to the Biblical truth of differential rewards/inheritances for forgiven believers?

2. How would you explain the lose life/soul - save life/soul paradox? How does a Christ follower “die”?

3. If change is inevitable and a fact of life, why do we resist it? What can help us embrace it?

4. How do you do the “work of the Lord”?  Do you have any responsibility for the “results”?

5. In what will you change this week? In what will you be steadfast? In what will you abound? What’s glory got to do with it?