주일낮설교(한영중)

The Heavenly Bodies

0 2,188 2017.02.06 09:40
Script: 1 Corinthians 15:35~49
Title: The Heavenly Bodies

35 But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?” 36 How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. 37 When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. 38 But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body. 39 Not all flesh is the same: People have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another and fish another. 40 There are also heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; but the splendor of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is another. 41 The sun has one kind of splendor, the moon another and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendor.
42 So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; 43 it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; 44 it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.
If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. 45 So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. 46 The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. 47 The first man was of the dust of the earth; the second man is of heaven. 48 As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are of heaven. 49 And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man.  [the New International Version]

There was a sister. She used to attend church diligently. But one day, she got hurt by quarrel with other sisters, and quit attending church. I’m not sure whether it was the reason or not, but she became poor and started working at a factory near her house.
But suddenly, the factory, which was running without any problem, became out of work due to a slump. While workers at the factory was chatting together, a fairly-old lady said:
“Hey guys~, do you want some fortune telling?” A middle-aged lady answered sarcastically. “Yeah, that sounds good! I’ll go first, so you guys wait, okay?”

The old lady spoke to herself for a while, and then told her fortune. Listening to that, the middle-aged lady got surprised, saying, “Oh my goodness, she is right! Wow, that was exact! What in the world, wow!”
Then, everyone lined up for the fortune telling. And everyone who heard their fortune clapped their hands, got some beverage and fruits, and chatted rowdily, saying “wow, this is so interesting.’
As they asked the old lady how she did that, she answered them. She said, there was a younger brother of her, who was really bright and smart – even excellent. Her family poured out their focus on his education, wanting him to be a great man later.
However, the bright and outstanding brother got sick and passed away. The entire family got panicked, just as like being bombarded. Father drank everyday; mother left the house for several days. She, who was the very sister of the brother passed away, was also depressed a lot.
One day, she got sick, too. So she was staying at the room, and someone, saying he is the brother who was dead, said he wanted to get into her body. So first, she was happy. But then, she asked why, and he said that he wanted to tell other’s fortune.

Yes, the brother said to his sister to be a fortuneteller by his power. She refused first. But, she got sicker and sicker. Even the hospital couldn’t find any problem, giving her more and more pain.
As it become more and more painful, she said there was no choice but to allow his brother to get into her body. Church! The evil spirit is spiritual reality. If we have this kind of things happening, we must refuse. The evil spirit cannot work in us, if we refuse and deny it. Moreover, we should drive it away in the name of Jesus Christ. The one the evil spirit fear most is our God. Praise the Lord!
But since she didn’t know such thing and also since she didn’t believe in God, she eventually allowed the evil spirit work in her, so that she could feel better. Yes, it said it was her brother, but actually it was an evil spirit acting as her brother.

The dead body of the brother is now part of the earth; his soul is now in the heaven or hell; but the evil spirit used that fact to deceive her. As that evil spirit got into her body, she started telling fortunes so precisely.
That was how she told fortune in the factory that day. But the problem is, every people heard their fortune; except for only two. People wondered why they didn’t hear their fortune. So they asked the old lady. “Hey sister~ why didn’t you tell their fortune?” The old lady couldn’t say anything. After a while, she finally answered, “Oh, yeah, yeah, that’s right. Why didn’t I? But… I don’t know. The spirit in me shivers with fear of those two people. I can’t see their fortune!”

Church! Then, one of those two people said, “yeah, yeah right! I am a deacon at my church. There’s no way I get my fortune told because I believe in Jesus! Yes, everyone, we should believe in Jesus, instead of doing such foolish things. It is God and Jesus that the evil spirit fears the most. So let’s go to church with me!”
Now, everyone started looking at the lady who was attending church but quit attending one day. So she said in a little voice, “Yes! I am also attending church and believe in Jesus!” As she said it, she burst into tear.
So she rushed to the bathroom, saying ‘oh, I think I got some dust in my eyes.’ But actually, it was not because of the dust that she burst into tear, but because of the fact that even when she left church, God didn’t forget her and was always with her.
She cried out in the bathroom. And she gave real thanksgiving to God who was with her always. Praise the Lord!
Yes. Church! Let’s read the verse 40 from our text together.
40 There are also heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; but the splendor of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is another. Amen.
It says that a believer is living on earth; but a believer belongs to the heaven, not the earth. God specially determined me and you to live on this earth. Let’s read verse 35~38 now.
35 But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?” 36 How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. 37 When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. 38 But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body.

Our text today is about the resurrection and living forever. It is saying that the resurrection and living forever is going to happen after we die. But the surprising thing here is what follows verse 38.
Look at the verse 38 once again. God gives it a body as he has determined. Amen. This is sad verse; yet, it also brings us thanksgiving and praise. It says God gives bodies. Yet in verse 40, it says there are earthly bodies, and also heavenly bodies. Let’s look at that verse again.
40 There are also heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; but the splendor of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is another. Amen.

It means that not every people will be saved. There are some belonged to the heaven; some to the earth. God wants all to be saved. But not all can be saved. That is a sad fact.
The theory on the Salvation in Theology has two mainstreams. One is ‘selection’; the other is ‘abandonment’. ‘Selection’ is that before a believer was born, God selected him according to His own plan. ‘Abandonment’ means giving up and leaving alone some people. John says about the abandonment in his Gospel.
The light has come, but some didn’t come to the light, because they were walking in the darkness! It is a scary story. It says, they didn’t come to the light because they walked in the darkness. In other words, they were abandoned.

The dogs left on the street are called abandoned. Being abandoned means, it is left away. It is ‘being in the state left away in the Sin.’ Imagine it! Think you are left away in the Sin. That is sad.
But the verse 40 from today’s text says, “there are also heavenly bodies.” It is the body that belongs to the heaven, not to the earth. It is the state of being “selected by God.” It is the state that the book of Acts says, “who were appointed for eternal life believed.” It is the state that will achieve the salvation God planned at the end.

There is God’s decision in the salvation. It means, although this world seems to be run by human’s thoughts and world’s history, it is by God’s will that this world run.
In that sense, what are we? We are the heavenly bodies. This earth is not our goal. We belong to the heaven, where we will live with God forever.

Praise the Lord!

Then, how should we live as heavenly bodies? Let’s read verse 41~43 together.
41 The sun has one kind of splendor, the moon another and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendor. 42 So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; 43 it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. Amen.
The heavenly bodies should live on this earth for the reward in the heaven. The fact that we breathe means there is still something that God wants us to do.
Why God left us on this earth? That is to achieve His will through us. It is written that God gives mission to the believers, and is going to give reward according to doing of that mission.
Paul said several times in his letters that he is living for the reward in the heaven, forgetting what’s beyond him. Today’s text, also, tells us about that reward in the heaven as something better than material or situational things we think of.

I thought, “What would be the reward that is better than the material and situational things?” First of all, to get something better than the material and situational things, we should have a surrounding that is corresponding to it.

What does it mean? For example, people thinks a lot about money in this world. So they try hard to earn money, thinking it is the best. But we can see that when someone has enough money to live without any difficulty, he does not focus on the money any more.
Also as we think about the heaven, we should consider it not according to our material and situational point of view like the world, but as somewhere above that point of view, as a place for which we don’t waste our life here anymore for something material or situational.

Then, we can think what it is and how good it is about the reward correctly only when we have even a little glimpse of heaven in a way that the Bible tells us. Let’s look at the Book of Revelations, 21:18-21.

18 The wall was made of jasper, and the city of pure gold, as pure as glass. 19 The foundations of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, 20 the fifth onyx, the sixth ruby, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth turquoise, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst. 21 The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The great street of the city was of gold, as pure as transparent glass.

Amen. We can see how the heaven looks like here. It says, the city of heaven is pure gold. In the verse 19, it says the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone, saying what those stones are in detail.
Then, we can think about the reward in heaven not as something material or situational anymore, but as something splendorous. Today’s text categorizes splendor into several parts: the splendor of the Sun, the splendor of the Moon, and the splendor of the stars.

One thing we can’t find in the heaven is the “Sin.” Therefore, in the heaven, there is no discrimination, no struggles, no tears, and no sadness. If the splendor of the Sun, Moon, and the starts – the reward in the heaven - are something that can bring discrimination, it does not make sense.
The Heaven is the place that you can’t find discrimination anywhere. It is the place that you don’t need to worry about money or other material things any more, even if you have been worried those on this earth.
Then, what is mean to get reward in terms of the splendor of the heaven?
Let’s look at the Book of Daniel 12:3 first. “Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever.” Amen.
We can see two points at this verse. The first is ‘those who are wise.’ “Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens.” And the second is, that “those who lead many to righteousness [will shine] like the stars for ever and ever.”

When it says ‘shine like the brightness of the heaven,’ I think we can relate it to the splendor of the Sun. Think about the Sun. The splendor of the Sun is the very first splendor that was introduced.
Sun is so bright that it is hard for us to look at it. It is that huge and bright light. If the reward is going to be given in terms of the splendor, I think the splendor of the Sun is going to be the best. Then what does the Bible says about the people who are going to get the splendor of the Sun?

It says that those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens for ever. Who are the wise people according to the Bible? Let’s look at Proverbs 9:10. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” Amen.

It says that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Who are those who are wise, will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and will get the splendor of the Sun? Those who fear the Lord.
The 1st question of the Westminster Catechism is about “the chief end [best goal] of man.” It answered it as “to fear the Lord and worship him forever.” Praise the Lord! I pray in Jesus’s name for us to be those who fear the Lord.

Let’s read Daniel 12:3 together again. “Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever.” Amen.
It says that those who lead many to righteousness [will shine] like the stars for ever. What it says is about the splendor of the Sun, Moon, and stars. Church! Before Jesus went up to the heaven, He gave us His will. That will is, “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

Jesus said to His disciples that He will come back, and ordered them to tell others that Jesus is the Christ our Savior. What He ordered was to tell that God created us to live forever, and He achieved it through Jesus Christ.

When it says “those who lead many to righteousness,” the ‘righteousness’ means the ‘truth.’ Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth.” What it says is that those who lead many to righteousness, or to the truth, will shine like the starts for ever, or, will get the splendor of the stars.

 

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