Messages with Meaning


Sermons delivered at Sanlando Springs by Pastor Jack Parrott

Built To Last

1 Corinthians 15: 35-49
Presented on March 9, 2008, © Dr. Jack Parrott
I. Introduction

  1. Is there life after death? Yes. What kind of life is it? Is it here on earth, elsewhere? Is it just some kind spiritual or mental existence, or does it involve a bodily existence? Does everyone spend the afterlife in the same place?
  2. Paul is talking to Christian believers about what happens to believers when they die. The New Testament clearly teaches there is life after death for both believers and non-believers, but what Paul writes about in 1 Corinthians 15 is the future of people who have placed their faith and trust in Jesus Christ.
II. There is a confirmation of a future life
  1. The image of a seed is used to point to a future life. A seed is a promise...and for a believer in Jesus Christ, death is a seed that carries the promise of a future life.
  2. Death, the very thing we see as an end to life, is the beginning of a new existence.
    Death starts the process of body transformation. As the old body goes away, God begins something new (Paul: "is not quickened unless it die," v36)
  3. What about those people who do not die before the Lord returns? Since their bodies have not returned to dust, when does this quickening [transformation] take place? See Corinthians 15:51-52
III. There is a connection between life now and then
  1. There will be a connection between the life we have and the life we will receive. I will continue to be "me" in eternity
  2. What makes you "you"?
    1. Not your clothes or your physical body
    2. Your spirit/soul (inner self) is the real you--see v45 "a living being" (NLT, person)
  3. You can kill the body but not the soul--Matthew 10:28
  4. That which makes you "you," your soul, lives on after death. Psalm 49:15 and Eccl 12.7
IV. There will be changes for the better
  1. Just as cattle are made to live on land, fish are made to live in water, and birds made to live in the air, your body is made for where you live. There are Earthly bodies - bodies crafted for limited life on earth; and Heavenly bodies - This new body is made for a future life in either heaven or hell.
  2. Characteristics (What will we look like? People in advertisements?)
    1. Permanent --w/o decay-- bodies crafted for everlasting life (built to last)
    2. Pure/Glorious (not tarnished by sin)
    3. Powerful (not running down, becoming weak)
    4. Physical (built for earthly living as descendents of Adam) and spiritual (built for eternity living as residents of the heavenly kingdom)
V. The model of our new life is Jesus Christ
  1. The resurrected body of Christ is an example of someone who has been resurrected--see John 20 and 1 John 3:2
  2. The transformation begins now. We are changed from the inside out. The inner soul of a person is changed at the moment of conversion (born again)...a spiritual birth takes place when we receive Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.
  3. At the resurrection the transformation is completed when you are given a new body, a body built to last for eternity.


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