“Four Questions About the Resurrection”
Philippians 3:20-21

Click for Audio

Pastor Kevin Vogts
Trinity Lutheran Church
Paola, Kansas
All Saints Day—November 1, 2020

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

“I believe in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.”  “I look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.”  We confess our faith each week with those words from the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds.  Paul attests to the resurrection of the body in today’s Epistle Reading, as we continue our Fall Sermon Series on the book of Philippians: “But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.  Therefore, my brothers, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, that is how you should stand firm in the Lord, dear friends!”

You are invited to follow the sermon outline on the last pages of the bulletin as we look at “Four Questions About the Resurrection.”

Question #1) Why Do People Die Anyway?

You’ve heard of the “war” on poverty, the “war” on hunger, the “war” on cancer, the “war” on drugs.  There is another “war” that our government and our best scientists have been fighting for years: The “war” on aging, the “war” on death itself.  From a medical standpoint, no one really has any idea WHY people grow old and eventually die.  We call it “natural causes,” but, scientifically, it’s really an “unexplained phenomenon.”

The Bible, however, gives us the answer that has eluded the scientists: “For the wages of sin is death.”  We die because we are sinners.  NOT that death is a divine punishment for any particular sin, but death in GENERAL is the result of humanity’s fall into sin.  It goes back to the Garden of Eden, as Paul explains in Romans: “Sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned.”

The only comfort the world has to offer regarding death is the idea that death is just another part of the cycle of life, and we should accept it as natural and normal.  That might make sense to our heads, but our hearts know differently, as you’ve probably felt that from personal experience.  For, even when the death of a loved one is anticipated, even when in our heads we can rationalize that it seems for the best, in our hearts it still hurts, and hurts very deeply.

That’s because death is UN-natural and AB-normal.  For, God never intended for anyone to die.  It was his will that we should all live with him forever, in paradise.  Death is not natural or normal, but the horrible consequence of sin.  “For the wages of sin is death; BUT the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Question #2) What Happens When You Die?

After humanity’s fall into sin, God put into action his plan for the salvation of the world, his plan for your personal salvation: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” 

HOW did God “save the world through him”?  Paul explains in Colossians: “For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation.”

God’s plan for your salvation was that his own Son give his life as a sacrifice to pay the penalty for you, to earn for you forgiveness for all your sins. “The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”  On account of Christ, your sins are all forgiven by God, and you are now “holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation.”

Jesus promises, “I am the resurrection and the life.  Whoever believes in me will live, even if he dies.”  Death affects only your body.  But even though your body dies, your soul will live forever.  At the moment of death the souls of all who trust in Christ depart the body and go immediately to be with Christ in heaven.  As Paul says, “I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far.”  “Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. . .  We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.”

The Bible often uses “sleep” as a comforting metaphor for death, especially for the period between our deaths and the resurrection of the dead at Christ’s Second Coming.  For example in 1st Thessalonians, “We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.”  However, the sleep of death is not a state of unaware unconsciousness.  The sleep of death ALREADY includes an active enjoyment of the bliss of heaven, as Paul says, “I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far.”  Jesus promises this in a beautiful, simple way to the thief on the cross beside him: “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.”

Question #3) What Will Happen in the Resurrection?

Jesus says, “My Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”  For a time your soul and your body will be separated, your soul already fully enjoying the paradise of heaven with Jesus, while your body decays here on earth.   BUT, as Martin Luther says in the Small Catechism, “[He] will at the Last Day raise up me and all the dead, and give unto me and all believers in Christ eternal life.”  The same body you have now will be raised up, reconstituted, restored to life, and reunited with your soul.

Job beautifully expresses his confident hope in the resurrection of the body: “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth.  And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes—I, and not another.”

Also in the Old Testament, Ezekiel has a fascinating vision about how the resurrection of our bodies will take place: “The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. He asked me, ‘Son of man, can these bones live?’ I said, ‘O Sovereign Lord, you alone know.’ 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. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.”’ So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them.”

We will have the same bodies we have now, but marvelously transformed and glorified, as Paul says in our text: “He will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.”  What this means most of all is that our bodies will no longer be afflicted with any of the consequences of the fall into sin, as Revelation says: “There will be no more death, or mourning, or crying, or pain.”  Paul describes the resurrection and glorification of our bodies this way: “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.” 

Question #4) What Will Heaven Be Like?

Heaven will be the end of all life’s troubles and griefs, as Paul says in Romans, “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing to the glory that will be revealed to us.”  Isaiah describes the joy of heaven: “They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.”

In heaven we will see God face to face and finally have perfect knowledge and understanding of all things.  As Paul says in 1st Corinthians, “Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.”  This also means that we will know, and recognize, and rejoice with our loved ones who are in heaven.

Heaven will be a great reunion of all the departed faithful.  As Paul says in 1st Thessalonians, “We would not have you be ignorant, brothers, about those who fall asleep.  We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. . .  And so we shall be forever with the Lord.  Therefore comfort one another with these words.”

“I believe in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.”  “I look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.”  The Good News is, your Savior, Jesus Christ, has already waged the war on death—and WON the battle for you.  As Paul says in 1st Corinthians, “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting? . . .  Thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

“But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.  Therefore, my brothers, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, that is how you should stand firm in the Lord, dear friends!”