Week 14 - Designed: Romans 8; 1 Corinthians 15 (Brian Lowe)

Series: Designed
Week: 14
Title: Romans 8; 1 Corinthians 15
Scripture: Romans 8:18-25; Romans 8:15-17; 1 Corinthians 15:35-58; Revelation 21:1-5
Preacher: Brian Lowe

Joni: An Unforgettable Story by Joni Eareckson Tada

Transcript

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Welcome to the sermon podcast of Exodus Church, located in Belmont, North Carolina. For more information about our church and the many ways you can be involved, you can go to our website at exoduschurch.com. Now, if you'll take your Bible and turn to two places, I'd like for you to turn to Romans 8 and then 1 Corinthians 15. Romans 8 and then 1 Corinthians 15. We're wrapping up our series today called Designed. We've looked at God's design in creation. We've looked at God's redesign in Christ. We've looked at God's design for us as a people, as the church on the mission of God. Today, we're gonna wrap up this series looking at God's design for eternity. Where is all this headed? What will eternity be like? In 1992, I was sitting with a few middle school boys at a youth camp in Waco, Texas. We had just come out of a session where Louis Giglio and the guy that was leading worship for him at the time had just spent this hour talking about worship, about the supremacy of Jesus and the importance of singing songs to Jesus. And we had been singing. And at the end, the worship leader said this, Hey, guys, don't forget, we're gonna get to do this forever in heaven. And so I'm sitting with these middle school boys and one of them looks at me and he says, So heaven is forever, right? I said, Yeah. He said, And we're gonna do that forever? It's a fair question. And it's an honest one. Like I think sometimes we have a lot of misconceptions about heaven. We think that when we're in heaven, we're gonna be this spirit being that's kind of floating around on clouds, maybe wearing white, maybe with a harp, you know? Or we think like my friend in middle school thought that we're just gonna be listening to people preach and singing forever, which doesn't sound like anybody's best version of eternity, okay? And so today I want us to understand where we're going. I want us to understand what God's design is for eternity and then what it means for us to long for our eternal home. Now, if you're with us today, if you're listening to this today and you are not yet a follower of Jesus, I want you to know we're gonna talk about what's available for those who have trusted Christ. We're gonna talk about the future, the eternal future for those who are followers of Christ. And if you're not yet, I want you to know you're welcome to follow him. Like we would love for you to confess sin, repent of it, and submit to Jesus as Savior and Lord so that you can have all that we're gonna talk about today, okay? It's free, like it's freely available to anybody who would trust him. But just know I'm talking about what's available to all of us who have trusted Christ, to all of us who have been adopted into his family. That's what we're gonna talk about today is our future and it's available to you. So to do that, we're gonna start with Romans 8, 18 through 23, 24. I'll pray and then we'll jump into God's word. Look at starting in verse 18. Paul writes, for I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now, and not only the creation, but we ourselves who have the first fruits of the spirit grown inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. Let's pray together. Father God, thank you so much for the privilege of gathering here today, the privilege of studying your word. Lord, thank you that your word tells us where we're headed, that your word describes for us the eternal home and the eternal hope that we have because of Jesus. And Lord, we bring a lot of thoughts about that to this moment, some that are from your Bible, some that are from other things we've read or thought about or experienced. Lord, I pray that you would grant just a lot of clarity to us today, that we would see what your design is for eternity and that we would be just so full of hope, so full of joy, so full of peace that comes from knowing that our eternity is certain. Lord, help us, help us see that. Help us see all of that today. And Lord, help us respond with the proper joy and hope and faith today as we think about this. So Lord, give us eyes to see, give us ears that hear, give us hearts that are receptive to and responsive to your word. We pray this in Christ's name, amen. So our big idea today is this, that God's design for eternity is a redesigned world for a redesigned people. That God's design for eternity is a redesigned world for a redesigned people. Let's start with God's redesigned world. Now Paul begins in verse 18, speaking about this present time. He says, for I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. Now he doesn't say that the sufferings of this present time are not real. He doesn't say the sufferings of this present time are not hard. He's comparing the suffering of this present time to the glory that is to be revealed. And he's saying that what we're going through now is nothing on what we're gonna get then, okay? Then he continues in verse 19. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. So creation is waiting on something. Creation is waiting and it's got this eager longing, this idea of creation longing after something, specifically the revealing of the sons of God. Now why is creation longing for something? Look at verse 20. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom or the glory of the children of God. Now what's going on there, okay? Verse 20 tells us that the whole creation, that the whole of creation was subjected to futility. That because of Adam's sin, because of Adam's rebellion, not only was all of the human race plunged into ruin, but all creation was plunged into ruin. Because we rejected God as designer and we rejected God's design, our dominion has been affected. You remember way back early in our series, we looked at what it means to be an image bearer of God. It means that we are to know him and represent him in the world. And God's design for humanity was that we would be his image bearers, that we would be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, that we would have dominion over the world, which means that we are to be the caretakers and the stewards of God's world. And because we rejected him, our dominion and how we exercise that has been affected. And because of that, the whole creation has been subjected to futility. Our dominion is not what God designed it to be and the world suffers for it. Let me give you an example. It feels like every time we try to do something to help, we end up hurting. Okay, I grew up in Mississippi. Let me give an example from there. If you drive through Mississippi, you'll see this thing, this weed that was brought in after World War II to help with erosion. It's called kudzu. Now, it did help with erosion. The problem is you can't kill kudzu with a flamethrower. Okay, and it grows everywhere. In fact, you'll be driving down the road and just this whole bank of trees covered with kudzu because somebody thought they were gonna be helpful. That's how our dominion has been damaged and it's caused creation to be subjected more and more to futility. We could have all kind of other examples. We could talk about bringing in animals, like maybe there's a predator, so you bring in another predator from somewhere else where, well, that predator doesn't have a predator and we just make a whole mess of everything. And it's affected the creation. And the creation is longing because creation is subjected to the futility of damaged dominion. Now, the creation was subjected to futility, but notice at the end of verse 20 that it's subjected in hope. So this creation is longing for the hope that comes, verse 21, that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. So creation is waiting on something. It's waiting on being delivered from its own corruption so that it might obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. More on that in a moment. Verse 22 tells us that creation is groaning. It says, for we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. There's something coming, pains of childbirth, there's pain, and then there's something coming. There's pain and then a baby comes. Then what Paul is saying is that the whole creation is in the pain of childbirth waiting on God's redesigned world. And God's redesigned world comes through three things. Look at verse 19. The creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God, not revealing who they are, but revealing what they are to be. The creation is longing, is groaning, and waiting to be free from its bondage and to get the freedom of the glory of the children of God. What does that mean? It means the creation wants the children of God to be what children of God are to be. For us to be free from sin that has caused us to make a mess of the world. For us to be free from sin so we can steward and have dominion over creation in the way God designed. And so God's world is crying out to be redesigned. It's eager, it's waiting, it's groaning to be remade. And so what we see is that God's world that's been subjected to futility will one day be redesigned. Creation is waiting and groaning for God's redesigned people to care for it in the way that God has designed. Now that day will come when Jesus returns. It's not coming before then. We're gonna keep making a mess of everything. But when Jesus returns, we'll have redesigned people for God's redesigned world. There's a song that we sing around this time. Well, some of us sing it already. Some of you are waiting a couple of weeks. And the song is Joy to the World. Now Joy to the World was written by a guy named Isaac Watts. It was not written about Jesus' first coming, though we sing it during the time we celebrate his first coming. It was written about his second coming. You see, the reason we celebrate Advent is because Advent reminds us that he came once and he's coming again, and that we live in this time between the times of his coming. And Isaac Watts wrote this song we know is Joy to the World. It says, Joy to the World, the Lord has come. Let earth receive her king. Let every heart prepare him room and heaven and nature sing. And then there's this verse that we sing but we don't think about. No more let sins and sorrows grow, nor thorns infest the ground. The writer of this song is thinking about Jesus' return and its effect on all of creation. And he says, no more let sin and sorrows grow or thorns infest the ground. Then he says this, he comes to make his blessings flow far as the curse is found. And the curse is not simply found in fallen humanity. The curse extends all the way through his creation. And when Jesus returns, he's not just coming to claim his people, but to perfect his creation. We're gonna have a brand new, a remade, redesigned world. And creation is waiting and groaning for this. God's redesigned world is waiting for God's redesigned people. We see that in verse 23. Says that not only the creation, but we ourselves, so this is talking about we believers who have the first fruit to the spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. Notice, he connects the adoption as sons with the redemption of our bodies. Now, adoption is a beautiful picture of salvation. It's used throughout the Bible as just an amazing analogy for salvation. We see it in verse 15 of chapter eight, look at that. It says, for you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry Abba, Father. Like if you're a believer in Christ, you've been given the Holy Spirit that's the spirit of adoption, and by him, you cry out Abba, Father. You cry out Papa, you cry out Daddy, you cry out Father to this God you've rebelled against, but who has redeemed you and adopted you into his family. Verse 16, the spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, so the spirit gives us assurance. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. Glorified, now what does that mean? Well, in the Bible, salvation is kind of broken into kind of three parts, okay? We are justified, that's the first part, justification. It means that we are made new. It means that we are forgiven. We are declared righteous before the throne of God. And when people say you need to get saved, that's usually what people are saying. Then there's this other part of salvation we know as sanctification. That's where we are made more and more like Jesus. We are progressively made more and more like Jesus. We will never be fully like Jesus in this life, but we're made more and more like him. That's called sanctification. Now this last thing is called glorification, and this is this one-time action where God will glorify all of God's people from all of time, and we will be made like him. We will be glorified. Now, Paul is attaching glorification to our adoption. And he does it again in verse 23. He says, we are eagerly, we wait eagerly for adoption as sons. And what is that? It's the redemption of our bodies. Paul is saying that the fulfillment of our adoption is the redemption of our bodies. So not only are we forgiven, not only are we accepted into God's family, not only are we given the assurance that comes from the Spirit of God, not only are we given access to God the Father and able to pray and cry out to him, we are given the assurance that our bodies will be redeemed, that we will have new, redeemed, redesigned bodies. Now, what does that mean? Well, it means a couple things. First thing it means is that eternity is not this ethereal spirit world where we're floating around playing harps, okay? Now, we might play the harp, more on that in a minute, but it's not this ethereal floating on clouds kind of thing that we've got in our brains from cartoons, okay? In fact, flip over to 1 Corinthians 15. It's the redemption of our bodies, that our bodies will be redeemed. Now, Paul is answering the question, what will our bodies be like in 1 Corinthians 15? Romans 8 is saying that God's world is waiting to be redesigned, that God's world is waiting on God's redesigned people. Paul in verse 35 is addressing what will our bodies be like? Now look at verse 35. It says, but someone will ask, how are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come? So Paul's like, look, somebody's gonna ask, what's this gonna be like? Now, if you lead anything in our church, whether that's a community group or you teach a class, I would not encourage you to answer the way Paul does in verse 36. You foolish person, okay? Please do not follow Paul. Paul says, imitate me as I follow Christ. Not like that, okay? Don't do that. That's a joke. Thank you, okay, I'm right. Take that out of 11. All right, he says, look, you foolish person, what you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And so Paul is going to unpack some things about our future body, but he's gonna start with our present body and then talk about our perfected one, okay? And he speaks of our present body in four ways in this passage. First, he calls it a seed in verse 36 to 38. You foolish person, what you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or some other grain. But God gives it a body as he has chosen to each kind of seed its own body. So the first thing Paul says about our present bodies, these bodies we have, is that it's a seed. Now, a seed doesn't exactly look like the plant that's coming, but it's connected to it. Our present bodies are like the perfected bodies to come as a seed is like a plant. There's a writer named Joni Eareckson Tada. As a 17-year-old, she suffered a life-changing injury that left her paralyzed from the neck down. She spent the rest of her life encouraging people and families that have been affected by disability. She writes this, Somewhere in my broken, paralyzed body is the seed of what I shall become. The paralysis makes what I am to become all the more grand when you contrast atrophied, useless legs against splendorous, resurrected legs. I'm convinced that if there are mirrors in heaven, and why not, the image I'll see will be unmistakably Joni, although a much brighter, better Joni. Paul says that our earthly, our present bodies are like a seed that has to die so that what we will be can come. Second thing he says about our present bodies is that there is a distinct glory about our bodies. We spent two or three sessions early in this series talking about the glory of what it means to be made in the image of God. Paul picks that up here in verse 39. For not all flesh is the same. There's one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish. I said earlier, I'll say again, we should understand that we are distinct from animals. That we as humans are made in the image and likeness of God. We are distinct from all the rest of his creation. And so if you're watching Discovery Channel or Planet Earth 1, 2, or 3, or Blue Planet, or in a science class in your school, and someone says you're an animal, something in you should react against that and say, no, I'm not an animal, I'm a human being. I have a distinct glory as a human being. Paul continues. There is one glory for the sun and another glory, I'm sorry, verse 40. There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is of one kind, the glory of the earthly is of another. There's one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars, for star differs from star in glory. Paul is getting at this idea of our present bodies having a distinct glory to them. And third thing he says is that they are broken. He uses four words to describe our bodies in verses 42 to 44. He says what is sown in verse 42 is perishable, means it's gonna die. Our bodies, no matter how distinctly glorious they are, will die. In verse 43, it is sown in dishonor. It means we will decay. It is sown in weakness. Verse 44, it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. So he uses this word perishable, dishonor, weakness, natural, all these words to remind us that this body is broken. It's broken. And some of us, some of us in this room don't have to be convinced of that. We sleep wrong, we hurt for a week and a half. Okay, some of you, you're not yet convinced of that. You will be. You will be. Then he tells us in verse 50 that our bodies, this body is not fit for the kingdom. Look at verse 50. It says, I tell you this, brothers, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. So Paul is reminding us our earthly bodies are not made for the heavenly kingdom. So he wants us to understand our perfected bodies. Look back at verse 42. He says, so it is with the resurrection of the dead. Now Paul has spent all of chapter 15 explaining the idea that Christ has been raised bodily, that it was not that Christ's soul was raised from the grave, but Christ's body walked out of the grave. They came to the tomb and they looked in the tomb and it wasn't that they said, oh, his soul is not here. No, his body's not here. And so when we think of resurrection, this is Jesus' body coming back to life, never to die again. So resurrection is not resuscitation. Resuscitation is when someone's dead and they come back to life and they die. Lazarus. Jesus said, Lazarus, come forth. He came out of the grave. He was resuscitated. Jesus was resurrected. He was brought back to life never to die again. And his body was resurrected. Now he goes on to explain what that means. What is sown is perishable. What is raised is imperishable. He uses this word five times between verses 42 and 57. In other words, this body that we're gonna get no longer subject to decay, no longer gonna die again, imperishable. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. This word has to do with appearance. There will be something beautiful, brilliant, and glorious about our perfected bodies. He said it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown in natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. It is not raised a spirit. It is raised a spiritual body. Like Jesus' body was raised from the grave, our bodies will be raised and made perfect like him. We will be God's redesigned people for God's redesigned world. Now, how does that happen? Look at verse 51. It says, behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment and the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet for the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised imperishable and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable and this mortal body must put on immortality. Paul's describing this sudden change from perishable to imperishable. The Bible teaches kind of these things about when we die. When we die, our body and our soul are separated from one another. Our body is buried, typically. Our soul goes to be either with the Lord in heaven or if we've not yet trusted Christ, it goes to a place the Bible calls hell. And from there, we await the time when Jesus returns when we will all be glorified together with him. Now, there will not, now some people think that or teach that those who are in hell will have this other opportunity to trust Christ again. The Bible does not teach that. The Bible teaches today is the day of salvation. That it's given to everyone to die once and then comes judgment, the Bible says. So if you're thinking, well, when I see it for myself, I'll trust Christ, that's a bad plan. So when we die, we either go to be with Jesus or we go to a place called hell and we wait, that's called the intermediate state, by the way, that's not eternity. We wait for Jesus to return and then all who have trusted him will be glorified with him and we'll have a new body for a renewed earth, renewed heaven and earth and we'll be with him forever. All of his enemies defeated, look at verse 54, when the perishable puts on the imperishable and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory, oh death, where is your sting? Oh death, where is your victory? Oh death, where is your sting? Now, this verse is talking about the reality after we are glorified. There is a sense for the believer that death has lost its sting. In that, we know that if that person knows the Lord, we'll see them again. But death still stings. Death still stings. You stand at a graveside, death stings. But there's coming a day when death won't sting anymore because death will be finally defeated. There's coming a day when there will be no more death, no more mourning, no more pain, no more sickness, no more sadness, no more shame. When we will be with God and he will be with us, we'll have perfected bodies for a perfected world and we'll be with Jesus forever. That's what's described in Revelation 21. John writes, then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. Anytime the Bible takes two opposites and joins them by an and, it's doing that to mean everything. Heaven and earth means everything. Light and day means all the time. Morning and evening means all day. I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, New 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. He will dwell with them. They will be his people and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear. Death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore for the former things have passed away. That's what's coming. We're gonna get a new world with new bodies. And our perfect bodies will be a gift. Imagine a body no longer tempted by sin. For real, imagine a body that's no longer tempted by sin. Imagine being able to do whatever you want to do and knowing that's what you should do. I wanna go take a walk. Fine. Your wants are glorified. Whatever you want to do, do. Imagine that. Imagine the gift of a body not ravaged by sin. Listen, even the glory that these bodies have are still ravaged by sin. Our eyes are not what they might be. Our ears are not what they might be. Can you imagine glorified eyes looking at a glorified Blue Ridge Mountain sunset? Can you imagine glorified ears listening to the people of God from all time, place, and history gathered around the throne worshiping Jesus together? Can you imagine what that sounds like? Can you imagine taste buds to enjoy food, vegetables, and fruit? And I can't figure out if there's gonna be meat in the new heaven or new earth yet. Like for real, I'm thinking about this because this is important. But I'm confident that the new heaven and new earth will not be less than this world. So maybe like fruit tastes like ribs or something and doesn't do anything bad to you. Can you imagine that? Imagine the gift of a body made to last forever. No heart disease, no joint pain, no loss of mental acuity. Imagine the gift of a body renewed. No more physical disabilities, no more mental disabilities. A new body raised in power, glory, imperishable. I mentioned Joni Eareckson Tada a moment ago. There was a podcast where she was talking about her experience at a conference and she recounted this story. She said, I sat there in my wheelchair and I watched as everyone else in the room, there had to be 500, 600 people, got out of their chairs and got down on their knees for a brief time of worship. She said, with everyone kneeling in the room, I sat there kind of standing out. I looked around, I was kind of sticking up and I could not stop the tears, she says. She said, I wasn't crying out of pity. I mean, I wasn't crying because I felt strange. No, my eyes were wet because it was so beautiful to see everyone kneeling in prayer. And it made me think of the day when I too will be able to get up out of this wheelchair on new resurrected legs. I can't wait for that day, she says, because when I get my glorified body, the first thing I'm gonna do with my resurrected legs is fall down on grateful, glorified knees. And I will once again have the chance to say with Psalm 95, come let us bow down in worship. Let us kneel before the Lord, our maker. And then she says, you know, I realized that in heaven, I'll have the chance to jump and dance and walk and run. It'll be my privilege. A new body that can move will be a blessing for a job well done on earth. But I think that kneeling very still on bended knees, glorified knees, I think when I get to heaven, that'll be my sacrifice of praise to not move when I can move. It'll be the one chance I have to show the Lord how thankful I really am. God's design for eternity is a redesigned world for a redesigned people. That's what's coming for us. And if you are in Christ today, that's what's coming. And can you imagine, can you imagine an eternity to serve Jesus with the gifts that he's given you? Can you imagine, can you imagine an eternity for someone to work on their craft? Scott Harris is a gift to our church. He made all this furniture. A lot of the furniture you see out in the lobby, he made this thing right here. Can you imagine what Scott Harris could do with eons of time to perfect his craft with all the space he needed to do it? We've got some really gifted people in our church, people who love to paint, people who are really gifted at art. Can you imagine the art they might create for the glory of Jesus after thousands of years to get better and better at their craft? We have writers in our church who are gifted at crafting words. Can you imagine, can you imagine the poetry, the prayers that could be written after thousands of years of people perfecting their craft with glorified minds and glorified hearts that are seeing a glorified savior every day? So no, we're not gonna just sing and get preached at for eternity. We're gonna have glorified bodies in a glorified world. And we're gonna get to be with our glorified savior forever. That's God's design for eternity. And because God's design is certain, we can be grounded in the gospel and invested in the work. That's where Paul lends the plane in verses 57 and 58. He says, but thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Listen, our victory is certain. There's no question, there's no question of whether we will be glorified or not if we are in Christ. Jesus has given us victory. It's certain. Verse 58, therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast and movable, grounded. Whatever life is throwing at you, whatever the sufferings of this present time are throwing at you, and they are real, and they are painful, and they are hard, but whatever is coming at you, we can be steadfast and movable because we know where we're going. We know Jesus is coming back. We know we're gonna be with him. So be steadfast and movable. Then he says, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing then in the Lord your labor is not in vain. Because our sins are forgiven and our end is certain, we can spend this time between the times grounded in the gospel and invested in what God has called us to do in the world. And my hope for us today is not simply that we would know what's coming, but that because of what's coming, we would live faithfully now. That's what I want. That's what I want for me, because we get this little bitty blip on the radar of eternity that we get to live. And my hope is that we would live it really well for God's glory. Let's pray together. Father, thank you for your goodness to us. Thank you, Jesus, that our end, the promise of our adoption, the fulfillment of our adoption in redeemed bodies is certain that we will be with you forever, that we will have a new body and a new world with you forever. Lord, what an incredible, what an incredible privilege to consider. And Lord, I pray that as we face really challenging suffering in this present time, that our hearts would be trusting in you and filled with hope, filled with hope, because we know our sins are forgiven and our hope is sure. Our sins are forgiven and our eternity is certain. So Lord, help us. Help us, Lord. I pray for those who are walking through just really painful, difficult times right now, that your promise and your kindness and your grace would give us hope today. Pray for those of us who are sometimes filled with doubt and worry and fear, that we would have hope that makes us immovable, steadfast. And Lord, for those of us who might be tempted to fall away, Lord, would you capture us, capture us today, and draw us near to yourself. Lord, would you work in our lives for your glory alone, we pray in Christ's name, amen.