TLP 249: Easter, Part 2: The Significance of the Resurrection

Does your family understand the massive implications the Resurrection of Christ has on their lives? Join AMBrewster as he guides Christian parents through the final leg of his two-part study on I Corinthians 15.

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Click "Read More" for today’s Episode Notes and Transcript.

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Episode Notes

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Transcript

Introduction

I have to start today by thanking Adam and Nichole for their part in supporting TLP. Not only have they given monetarily, but Nichole was the one who fixed one of our drives a couple days ago.

I also have to thank my wife. I was not feeling well on Thursday, so Johanna basically told me I needed to stay in bed Friday morning while she went out and made breakfast for the guys. So she and the Resident Assistances handled the morning, and I felt so much better when I finally started to crawl out of bed around 10.

But then I realized this episode was supposed to publish that morning at 12am. And I felt like a total failure. 

But then I received this Facebook message from a friend:

“Hey Aaron! For some reason, I felt like this morning that you needed to hear some encouragement. So I just wanted to say that what you are doing is SO important. I am not a huge podcast listener, but when I do have the time and listen to yours, it's a blessing. I'm grateful for your work. I know it takes a lot of time, but it is worth it. Thank you for all you do.”

I then shard with her what a timely blessing she had been and how the Lord used her to lift my spirits and she replied, “God works in cool ways. You had just come to mind like 3 times in a row and I felt like that meant something. It's easy to feel like "what is the point?" I'm struggling trying to get my next book done by June. And I have regularly asked myself a similar question--"Does anyone care?" but obedience doesn't mean acting when we know the return. It just means acting based on our trust. I must repeat this daily. I hope you feel better soon. And something that has helped me tremendously is remembering that getting off schedule with producing content is OKAY. I'm hardly blogging at all right now because I just can't while writing a book. Take the pressure off. You'll do it when you're able.”

So I took her advice and published this episode as soon as I could. And I think we should all take her advice: “Obedience doesn't mean acting when we know the return. It just means acting based on our trust.”

Today we’re going to talk about a few more implications and applications concerning the Resurrection of Christ.

But, before we do that, please click on the “5 Ways to Support TLP" link in the description of this episode to learn more about who we are and how we desire to glorify God by equipping dads and moms all over the world to be the parents God called and created them to be . . . and, how you can be a part of that.

So, let’s learn the Truth, understand the Truth, and believe the Truth — which, of course, means that we actually live that Truth out in our daily lives and parenting.

Topic

If you didn’t join us last time, you really need to stop this episode and listen to that one first. 

Last time we started studying I Corinthians 15. We saw the absolute importance of the Resurrection to our faith, but also to our daily lives.

I also mentioned last time that I would comment on the fact that some Christian families prefer not to celebrate Easter due to its worldly commercialism. I will comment on that, but I think I need to do it next time. I was looking at the amount of info today, and I want to respect your time. 

Okay, so, today we start in verse 35 and learn about Paul’s third implication of the Resurrection. And don’t forget that these last two episodes have extremely robust free episode notes available at TruthLoveParent.com.

1. The third implication of the Resurrection is that not only will we be raised from the dead, but our resurrection will leave us better than we were because of the Resurrection Body.
   1. (35) But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?” 
   2. (36) You foolish person! — I love the way Paul doesn’t pull his punches. May we all be so bold when it comes to speaking Truth.
      1. What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. 
      2. (37) And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. 
      3. (38) But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body. 
      4. (39) For not all flesh is the same, but there is one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish. 
      5. (40) 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. 
      6. (41) 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.
   3. (42) So is it with the resurrection of the dead. 
      1. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. 
      2. (43) It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. 
      3. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. 
      4. (44) It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. 
      5. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. 
         1. (45) Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; 
         2. the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 
         3. (46) But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. 
         4. (47) The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. 
         5. (48) 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. 
         6. (49) Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.
      6. My friends, does that Truth stir your hearts? We will be changed. I will not always carry with me this cursed body. 
         1. Now, too often we focus on being free from sickness or fatigue or disease or hunger or weakness. 
         2. But this promise is infinitely more than that! BORN AGIAN BELIEVERS WILL HAVE NO SIN!!!!
      7. The glory of this resurrection focus is to systematically draw our understanding to the fact that the Gospel absolutely will and must change us — not merely physically, but spiritually!
      8. All this talk of spirituality and being imperishable and changed is supposed to be drawing our attention to the necessary spiritual change that must occur if we are going to live in God’s presence for all eternity.
         1. Those in Hell will be sinfully separate from God for all eternity.
         2. Those in His throne room must be perfected and sinless . . . forever.
      9. My friends, if you are in Christ, you have to be different. We will be changed in the future, but we also need to be being changed now by holding “fast to the Word.”
      10. “Yes, but, Aaron, what does that mean? What does that look like?” Don’t worry. Paul’s almost there; stick with me.

 

1. Then Paul moves on to explain the Mystery and Victory of the Resurrection.
   1. (50) I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 
   2. (51) Behold! I tell you a mystery. 
      1. We shall not all sleep, 
      2. but we shall all be changed, 
         1. (52) in a moment, 
         2. in the twinkling of an eye, 
         3. at the last trumpet. 
            1. For the trumpet will sound, 
            2. and the dead will be raised imperishable, 
            3. and we shall be changed. 
               1. (53) For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, 
               2. and this mortal body must put on immortality. 
               3. (54) When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:
                  1. “Death is swallowed up in victory.”
                  2. (55) “O death, where is your victory?
                  3. O death, where is your sting?”
                     1. (56) The sting of death is sin, 
                     2. and the power of sin is the law. 
                     3. (57) But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
   3. This stands as Paul’s final and climactic refutation that should have left all critics stunned and silenced if they dared to even remotely consider the logical and biblical implications Paul was making. 
   4. But it also stands as the pinnacle for everything that comes next.
      1. Paul was not merely making these observations to refute a false doctrine.
      2. Paul wasn’t simply giving us a joyous glimpse into the pie-in-the-sky-in-the-great-by-and-by-when-we-no-longer-die. 

 

1. Paul outlined these dramatic Truths because they have very real, tangible, and necessary applications for today, this week, this month, this year, and this life.
   1. (58) Therefore, my beloved brothers, 
   2. be steadfast, 
   3. immovable, 
   4. always abounding in the work of the Lord, 
   5. knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
   6. And here Paul makes full circle.
      1. Once agin, the beginning and end of the Gospel is that it changes us.
      2. It will change us physically when we die or Christ comes back to claim us.
      3. It will change us spiritually when we die or Christ comes back to claim us.
      4. But — before all of that — the Gospel will change us spiritually when we believe. And it will continue to change us as we live on this earth.
      5. So, Paul starts the passage by referring to our spiritual change now, he substantiates the power and process of that claim by discussing the Resurrection and the implications those Truths will have when we leave this world, and then he uses all of that as the logical reasoning to justify our worthwhile labor in the Lord.
         1. Seriously, if God can do all of that future work, why on earth could He not do a present work?
         2. If God has those high expectations for our future metamorphosis, what would lead us to believe that He’s not doing that work now?
   7. And it’s this on which I want to focus in our last few minutes.
      1. In verse 58 Paul says, “Therefore.” Everything that comes after is Paul’s logical application of the previous Truths.
      2. First, he starts with “My beloved brothers.”
         1. He’s talking to those who have not believed in vain.
         2. He’s talking to those who received the Gospel, stand in the Gospel, are being saved in the Gospel, and who have proven it by holding fast to the Gospel.
         3. He’s taking to those of us who are Parenting in Christ.
      3. Then he commands us to be steadfast.
         1. The word “steadfast” can be translated many ways. Yet most of the forms have to do with becoming something.
         2. It can refer to coming into existence, coming to pass, arising, becoming finished, or being made.
         3. God want’s us to “be.” He wants us to not only exist, but to exist in such a way that we are determinately new.
         4. He wants our conversion to make us new, but not just new, He desires that the new man created at the moment of regeneration be an enduring and stalwart testimony to the resurrection power of God.
         5. To this point, J.C. Ryle said, ”Tell me not of your justification unless you have also some marks of sanctification. Boast not of Christ’s work for you, unless you can show the Spirit’s work in you."
         6. And our beloved C.S. Lewis wrote, ”If conversion makes no improvements in a man's outward actions then I think his 'conversion' was largely imaginary."
      4. But Paul does not merely call us to be steadfast, he adds another layer when he commands us to be immoveable.
         1. When a skier hits a tree, the skier will be assured that the tree is steadfast.
         2. But we all know that no tree is truly immoveable. I hiked along the Painted Rocks on the southern shore of Lake Superior and was amazed to see just how many trees had toppled over at the roots. Time and wind and erosion have quite the ability to move a tree.
         3. God not only wants us steadfast, He wants us to be immoveable.
         4. This word is a hapax legomena. It’s not used anywhere else in Scripture, but its meaning is clear.
         5. Those who have received the Gospel, stand firm in it. 
            1. Consider Ephesians 6.
            2. Verse 13 tells us that we take on the whole armor of God in order to withstand in the evil day. And — having done all to stand — verse 14 commands us to stand in the armor of God.
               1. Truth
               2. Righteousness
               3. The Gospel of Peace
               4. Faith
               5. Salvation
               6. The Word of God
               7. Prayer.
            3. That is the attire and lifestyle of someone who is immoveable.
      5. But Paul doesn’t stop there. Not only are we to be steadfast and immoveable, we’re called to always abound in the work of the Lord.
         1. Listen, when God says “always,” He’s not being hyperbolic. 
            1. We need to stand firm in Christ in line at Walmart.
            2. We need to live righteously when our children neglect their responsibilities for the 77th time that day. 
            3. We need to wear the armor of God in the hallways of our schools when everyone else is wearing the comfy clothes of worldly-living.
            4. We need to love even when those around us are unloveable. 
            5. There is no time that we may uproot ourselves from the holiness of God. 
            6. There’s no excuse for ungratefulness, grumbling, gossip, and pride.
         2. But we’re not just to always live like this. We’re to “abound” in it.
            1. I love this word. It speaks of doing something so much that we superabound. We’re doing it in so much abundance that someone on the outside might say we’re being a little superfluous. Those on the outside might think our continual righteousness and holy living is a bit overboard.
            2. Is that what people think about your family? Is this what people think about your parenting? “Wow. Those people take their religion seriously.”
            3. “But in what are we to abound?” you ask.
         3. The work of the Lord. 
            1. The “work of the Lord” is not an ethereal nor esoteric notion.
            2. The “work of the Lord” refers to all that God has commanded of us.
            3. My friends, God is calling us to be devoted, passionate, zealous, on fire, overboard, and outrageous as we doggedly pursue the will of God in our parenting.
            4. Does that description define us?
            5. Is that our reputation?
            6. Or are we lukewarm?
            7. Are we like John the Baptist who was extreme in his devotion to the Messiah, 
            8. Or are we like the Ephesians who grew unpalatable to God because they abandoned their first love?
            9. Does our personal involvement in the Gospel motivate our parenting?
            10.     (10)Is our personal evangelism and discipleship of our children God one of the the mainstays of our existence?
            11.     (11)You were not created to work a desk job. You were not created to go to school. You were not created to enjoy sports and entertainment. You were created to take all of those things and actively, daily use them to the over-abounding and zealous worship of God.
      6. And then Paul finishes the whole glorious section off by promising that if we truly labor in the Lord, we can know that our labor will not be in vain. — There’s our foundational word again.
         1. Do you your parenting to be profitable?
         2. Wouldn’t it be great to know that your parenting won't be worthless?
         3. You can — beyond a shadow of a doubt — know for certain that you can be a purposeful, valuable, abundant, full, and overflowing parent . . . but only if you are steadfast and immoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord,
         4. Then and only then will we know that our parenting will not be in vain.
            1. Vanity — that purposelessness that haunts our selfish nagging.
            2. Vanity — that emptiness that results from foolishly fighting for our freedom to live however we want in our homes.
            3. Vanity — that nagging pointlessness that creeps into our parenting when we blithely trip from one godless family endeavor to another.
         5. The God Who raised Christ from the dead, the God Who will raise His followers from the dead, the God Who will create a brand new, sinless body for His followers, the God who right now is empowering His followers to live a renewed life — living in the light of His righteous expectations — that God promises that our parenting will not be in vain when we’re laboring for Him . . . because of the Ressurection.
      7. So, please let me finish by asking, how are you parenting for God right now in light of Easter?
         1. Is God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit the core of your family? 
         2. Are His Word and will the standard by which your family functions?
         3. Do you apply the Truth of the Scriptures to your interpreting, counseling, and training?
         4. Is God allowed in every room of your home?
         5. But, beyond that, the Resurrection encompasses the work of being patient and kind.
         6. It includes working diligently at school.
         7. It requires that we repent and apologize for our sin.
         8. It demands that we one-another the Body of Christ.
         9. It affects our dress, our diet, and our decorum.
         10. The work of the Lord should exist in every fiber of our family. Whether we’re eating or drinking or whatever we’re doing, God should be glorified because we’re doing it all for Him.

Conclusion

1. 1. Believe it or not, we can rest easy even when our children are unsubmissive to God.
      1. But we cannot rest easy if our parenting has been selfishly motivated by worthless material idols. 
      2. We cannot rest easy when our righteousness — grounded in my own opinions and desires — is nothing more than filthy rags.
      3. You cannot rest easy as you offer sacrifices to God when He only wants your true obedience and fealty to His Word.
   2. The same is true for all of us. You can know that your labor will not be in vain when each of you, individually, open God’s Word, learn it, submit to it, share it, and grow in it day by day.
      1. But there will only be vanity when the people in our house are living for themselves.
      2. There will be nothing more than worthlessness when we wake up, shower, clock in, clock out, watch TV, and go to sleep without being 100% motivated by the honor and glory and majesty of God. 
      3. And how will you know that it’s motivated by Him? 
         1. Your life will be a shining testament to His righteousness and Truth and Gospel. 
         2. You’ll be walking around in the Armor of God, clearly and zealously and superfluously living the Gospel in your every word and deed.
      4. Otherwise, your parenting has no divine promise that it’s valuable work.
   3. So, each of us must search our hearts with the blinding beacon of God’s Word to discover if we truly have been abounding in the work of the Lord. I fear many of us are not because Satan and our flesh like to lull us into apathetic passivity.
   4. And — if you truly have redoubled your efforts to parent in the reality of the fact that God has saved you from sin — you can know that regardless of how your children respond to your light, you are pleasing the Lord.

“Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.”

Now, I’ve found that too often we spend a lot of time discussing the Crucifixion at Easter and not as much time discussing the Resurrection, but the Crucifixion is important too, so on our next episode we’ll talk some confusing elements concerning the Crucifixion and why my family has stopped celebrating Good Friday.

My friends, the Resurrection is a huge deal that has a massive impact on your life and parenting. Easter should be a gigantic focus in our families.

So, to that end, I’ll see you next time.