This is Part 6 of a 7-Part sermon series titled “Easter according to Paul” preached at Mt. Gilead UMC in Georgetown, KY.

If you want to listen to the whole worship service, click this first link below.

If you want to listen only to the sermon, click this second link below.

1 Corinthians 15:50-52

What Is the Resurrection of the Dead?

• Throughout this sermon series we have looked at a number of different questions
  • What is the Gospel?
  • What is the Resurrection?
  • What is Death?
  • What is the Point of Life?
  • What is the Resurrection Body?
• This morning we are going to look at another question: what is the resurrection of the dead? (emphasis upon of the dead)

What the Resurrection of the Dead Is Not

• The resurrection of the dead is not the resurrection of the living. What do I mean by that?
• Paul starts off in v. 50 where he left off from vv. 35-49. There he described the resurrection body, that it would indeed be a body, but one that was enlivened and animated by the Holy Spirit, not a body made out of spirit, but a body fully clothed with the God himself—as Paul elsewhere says, “…your bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit…” (1 Cor 6:19).
• And so Paul clarifies things even more in v. 50 as he says, “I mean this, brothers and sisters….” What does he mean by a spiritual body? Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Our perishable bodies in the here and now do not inherit the imperishable realities of God’s future kingdom where death, the last enemy, is destroyed forever.
• So Paul explains himself more that there is a need for new bodily existence in God’s kingdom.
• But he doesn’t stop there. He shares a mystery or a secret in v. 51: “Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed.”
• What is Paul talking about? He says that we will not all sleep. What? Sleep of course here means death. We will not all die? Come on, Paul. Get real! Death waits for no man. Everyone dies. It’s just a part of life. Don’t you know that?
• Paul’s response is “Ah, ah, ah. No, no, no. You don’t know about this mystery, this secret that God has made known in and through Christ. We will not all die.
• How can that be? Well, Paul talks about this is some other places too.
• 1 Thess 4:13-18
  • “we who are still alive, who remain until the coming of the Lord…” (v. 15).
• And so, we see that when Christ comes, he will raised the dead in Christ, but what about those in Christ who are not dead? Do they need resurrection bodies? How can their bodies be raised from the dead if their bodies never died in the first place?
• Well, that is the mystery that Paul is sharing: “we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed” (v. 51). The dead will be raised imperishable, he says, in v. 52, and we (who are still alive at the return of Christ) will be changed and transformed “in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet” (v. 52).
• So the resurrection of the dead is not the resurrection of the living, because the living need no resurrection at all. But they do need something, because indeed flesh and blood as we know it cannot inherit the imperishable kingdom of God. As so, Paul declares this mystery that those who are still alive at Christ’s coming will instantaneously be transformed and changed into their new, glorified bodies. All will be changed. The dead in Christ will be raised. The living in Christ will be transformed. All in Christ will be changed into glory, and death—the last enemy—will finally and forever be completely obliterated as Paul said in v. 26.

What the Resurrection of the Dead Is

• It is for those who have died in Christ, for those who were Christians, for those who were saved.
• There is a special place in the Lord’s heart for those who have loved him and followed after him and passed away in the process.
• We see that God gives to them a special place of honor. In both 1 Cor 15 and 1 Thess 4, we see Paul reiterate again and again that the dead in Christ will receive their new bodies first.
  • 1 Cor 15:52 – “For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.”
  • 1 Thess 4:16-17 – “For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.”
• There is an order: Christ returns, the dead are raised, and the living are changed.
• But only the dead need resurrection; if you or I see the return of Christ with our very eyes, we won’t need resurrection, but we will need transformation.

So What?

• Again, why does this matter? Why should knowing this mystery make any difference in our lives?
• Well, for starters, it should excite us; no one knows the day or hour of Christ’s coming; we could very much indeed be among those who are changed in an instant, in the twinkling of an eye. Who knows? Perhaps you or I will be one of Christ’s followers who never dies.
• Moreover, on this Palm Sunday when we remember Christ’s triumphant victory into Jerusalem, we are reminded that Christ, the King of the Universe, will one day have another triumphant victory upon this earth. On Palm Sunday, we remember not just the first coming of Christ as King, but we look forward to the second coming of Christ as victorious King, not only over the rulers and powers and principalities of darkness in this world, but also that through his death and through his victory over death, his second coming to earth will mean life and life eternal and everlasting. Life that grows. Life that doesn’t end in death. Life that flourishes. Life that brings deep joy and satisfaction with the way that God intended things to be.
• And so, knowing this mystery that all in Christ will be changed makes all the difference for us this Palm Sunday. It gives perspective to what happened 2,000 years ago in Jerusalem, and it gives perspective to what will happen for us 2 billion years from now, for that is eternal life. It keeps going and going and going, growing and growing and growing, deeper and deeper and deeper. More joy in the Lord. More happiness in God. More love for Him and one another. More life and no more death. God will be all in all. Let us pray.