1 Corinthians 15: 33-58 Come from the Four Winds!

1 Corinthians 15: 33-58  But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised?  With what kind of body will they come?”  How foolish!  What you sow does not come to life unless it dies.  When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else.  But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body.  Not all flesh is the same: People have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another and fish another.  There are also heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; but the splendor of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is another.  The sun has one kind of splendor, the moon another and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendor.  So will it be with the resurrection of the dead.  The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; 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.   So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual.  The first man was of the dust of the earth; the second man is of heaven.  As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are of heaven.  And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man.  I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.  Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.  For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.  For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.  When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”  “Where, O death, is your victory?  Where, O death, is your sting?”  The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.  But thanks be to God!  He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.  Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you.  Always give yourselves fully to the of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

Paul in the above focus is explaining to the Corinthian Christians that the passage to eternal life comes through the planting of the perishable seed. The perishable seed is the death of the body.  Christians lie in death with the hope of Christ to change them from the perishableness of Adam to the imperishableness of Jesus Christ.  The life-spirit of Adam will cease, but the LIFE-GIVING Spirit of Jesus Christ will exist forever.  No more death for those who are found IN Jesus.  Death has been swallowed up in victory.  Death is a necessary step in this transformation from the physical life to the spiritual life.  The Spirit of God raised Jesus from the grave and we too will rise from the grave, following Jesus, the first-born from death to life.  Where, O death, is your victory?  Where, O death, is your sting?  When God created, all things were created after their own kind.  “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.” And it was so. The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds.  And God saw that it was good.  (Genesis 1:11-12)  Everything came from the breath of God.  Humans were created in a uniqueness of their own.  When the breath of life entered Adam, he became exalted to the point that he could converse with the Lord directly.  His life existed uncontaminated by sin.  But in the fall of man, Adam lost his innocence and purity.  Sin became a part of Adam’s existence.  Cain, his seed, murdered Abel in a fit of jealousy.  This contamination by sin seeped down through Adam’s descendants.  Therefore a new and different life would be needed to restore mankind to God.  A new creation to start a new Salvation would be created by faith in the works of Jesus (the new son of man).  Jesus’s life reveals that faith in him and the work of the cross will restore humans to a righteous God.  The darkness of sin would be done away with through the cross of Jesus.  This darkness of sin in mankind causes death.  However, Jesus paid the ransom price to deliver men and women from its darkness of death.  Jesus paid the ransom price demanded by God to free people from death to everlasting life.  On the cross Jesus paid the purification price for sin; then he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.  (Hebrews 1:3)  Jesus cried out on the cross, it is finished, the will of God has been satisfied.  When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.  (John 19:30)  The will of God because of his great love for humans had Jesus face death under the most humbling and torturous way.  Jesus paid a heavy price to ransom mankind from death, but he said in the Garden of Gethsemane, Not my will but yours be done Father.  The enduring love of God for men and women never left the heart of God.  Even when his precious Children of Israel chose other gods in the wilderness, He loved them.  Yes, He disciplined them, but out of his great love for them.  A parent disciplines their children out of love, so did God.

Paul points out to the Corinthians, God gives all things a living body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body. Mankind came from the seed of Adam, different from all others that God made.  No other flesh was the same as Adam’s.  Adam’s creation was considered very good by God.  Even though Adam sinned, God wanted what He created to live in peace and under his authority.  God sent  many messengers to Adam’s descendants to lead men and women away from sin.  Jeremiah, a prophet, hears God’s involvement in his own creation.  The word of the Lord came to me, saying, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart;  I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”  (Jeremiah 1:4-5)  As we see in Jeremiah’s beginning, God is involved with the creation of humans, even before they are in the womb.  For Jeremiah and other men of God, He sends them on a rescue message to his beloved, the Jews.  In the New Testament, we see Paul beseeching both Gentiles and Jews to come back to God by accepting the Good News of Jesus paying for their sins.  The prophets in the Old Testament were crying out incessantly, come back to God.  Paul is preaching the same in the New Testament.  But the rebellion of men and women to the authority of God in their lives is very strong. As the blessed Israelites, people choose not to love God or obey him.  But this rebellious nature to God’s love and his authority led to eternal death.  God reveals to Ezekiel a valley of dead bones, piled high everywhere in this valley.  God takes him around the valley to look at this horrible scene of dead men and women, now their bones are so dry that they are without flesh.  In our world, every landscape is full of dead bones.  People walk over these dead bones in every country without realizing they are underneath them.  But God knows where they are, not one of them has passed from the living without God knowing.  Just as Jeremiah was known before he was formed, also the dead are known by God when they pass from the scene of the living.  God asked Ezekiel to speak over these bones of forgotten people.  Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord!  This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life.  (Ezekiel 37:4-5)  God will someday speak over these dead bones with a trumpet call and they will arise to life.  And a nation will be born in one day.  Some to eternal life with God and others to eternal destruction.  But in every land and at all times there were good people as Cornelius who tried to do good to all people.  At Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion in what was known as the Italian Regiment.  He and all his family were devout and God-fearing; he gave generously to those in need and prayed to God regularly.  (Acts 10:1-2)  Cornelius lived up to the light given him, but Peter showed him eternal life that comes through faith in Jesus Christ.  The Holy Spirit verified their acceptance of this Good News, and all in Cornelius’ house were baptized in the Holy Spirit.  God is just and He will do what is necessary for those who live a good life like Cornelius’.  However, the gate to eternal life is Jesus, let God be God; He saves to the uttermost.  The bones Ezekiel saw reveal so clearly that man is made of dust.  The first man was of the dust of the earth; the second man is of heaven.  As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are of heaven.  And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man.  All men everywhere must put off the man of dust and put on the spiritual man which comes only through the body and image of Jesus Christ on the cross.

The Holy Spirit is illustrated in the scriptures through the image of the wind.  On Pentecost Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent WIND came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.  This Holy Spirit revives men from the dead, raises them to new life from the grave.   Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’”  So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.  (Ezekiel 37:9-10)  Paul tells his beloved Corinthians that this same hope that is found in Ezekiel will be their experience after death. Their dead bones will rise again to new life.    Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.  For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.  For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.   We all will be changed in a twinkling of an eye.  We will rise new-beings and the angels of the Lord will gather the elect to the side of the Lord.  And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.  (Matthew 24:31)  Our breakfast companions who gather around this breakfast table in anticipation of that great day, be joyful for your names are written down in the book of life.  God knows each of you, not one of you escapes his attention.  He formed you in the wombs of your mothers.  He knows your intentions and He knows your love for him.  He is a just and a loving God; He will come to your aid when you call him for He knows your beginning from the end.  There are vicissitudes in life, hardships and struggles; He understands your frustrations for He was in the flesh as you are in the flesh.  However, we need not stand and gawk in heaven for his return for He WILL RETURN!  The angel said at Jesus’ ascension, “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky?  This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”  (Acts 1:11)  HE WILL RETURN!  In the meantime, exercise the power of God in your life.  Testify of your redemption, let all the captives of sin know that their release from their burdens of sin will come through power of God by believing in the redeemer, Jesus Christ.  Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you!  As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.”  And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.  (John 20:21)  Children of the Lord, having received the Spirit, go forth through the power of God in your life.  Testify with all the saints of God that Jesus is your Redeemer!