Reflections on Change

This is just a little encouragement
to remind you of God’s sovereignty. So far as I know, Drew, we didn’t
talk about this service at all, right? I don’t usually get too
involved in the music, and there was a line in that first song
that we sang today, O Church, Arise, There’s a line there that
could not be any more appropriate for the passage that we’ll consider
today. And as the stone is rolled away and Christ emerges from
the grave, this victory march continues till the day every
eye and heart shall see him. I think I circled the wrong verse. This is what happens when you
get old. There was a really good line. Well, 1 Corinthians 15 will be our passage
this morning. Man, There was a really good
line, Drew, and the Lord used it, and thank you for that. So, in preparation for a great
trip, we, at least I do, begin to mull over some really important
questions. What should I wear? What will
the weather be like when I get there? in what kinds of activities
will I participate? Who will I see? Where will I
sleep? What sites will I take in? What things do I need to bring
with me? We ask all of those questions
for even the most basic trip or journey. But what if our trip
was a permanent relocation, say forever. What questions would we mull
over then? How much more thoroughly would
we begin to think through those questions? How much differently
would we prepare for such a journey? What if the permanent relocation,
the destination, was heaven itself? Well, it’s just those kinds of
questions, a relocation to a permanent destination, heaven itself, that
Paul is pondering and answering here in the section before us
this morning. We come to the fifth and final
section of this chapter. It’s Paul’s discourse on the
resurrection. He has shown the resurrection’s
inseparable connection with the gospel in verses one through
11. He masterfully provided the logical reasoning for the resurrection
in verses 12 through 19. In the subsequent section, verses
20 through 34, he argued that the resurrection is an absolute
theological necessity. And in verses 35 through 49,
he details an absolute, pardon me, the exceptionalities of our
resurrection bodies. That resurrection brings about
transformation. And he describes in full how
our dying, neutral, natural, rather, earthly bodies will one
day be miraculously changed into resurrected spiritual heavenly
bodies. A fantastic section. But that
likely left Paul’s readers, not only the ones in Corinth, but
us as well, with a lot of questions about this upcoming trip. Questions such as these. Is such a change, Paul, as you
describe, absolutely necessary? Won’t the current version of
my body be just fine? After all, when I got saved at
the Billy Graham crusade, we used to sing, just as I am, can’t
I waltz into heaven in this body? I’m rather comfortable in this
God-given body, and I’ve worked really hard to take care of it.
Any chance that I could hang on to this version? Paul, you speak of change, transformation,
I guess you call it. How long exactly will that transformation
take? And when exactly can I expect
this transformation to begin? And what if Jesus comes back
before I die? What will happen then? And what
about poor Uncle Ned? He’s been gone now for more than
10 years. What about all those people who
have died, Paul? Or this? I suppose that a new
body sounds pretty good. Are there any other benefits
to be enjoyed because of this change from mortality to immortality? I mean, after all, everyone dies. Death is very much a part of
our daily life here. Won’t there be death in heaven
as well? Or this? While I wait for my
transformation to begin, is there anything I can do in the meantime?
Does it really matter what I do and how I spend my time? as I wait here on earth? Well, it’s questions like these
and more that Paul not only anticipates, but eagerly and decisively answers
in his final section, verses 50 to 58. And if you would, I
wanna go back to verse 50, and let’s take it, the passage in
full, all the way down through verse
58, where Paul says, now I say this, brethren, that flesh and
blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable
inherit the imperishable. Behold, I tell you a mystery. We will not all sleep, but we
will all be changed in a moment. in the twinkling of an eye at
the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound and
the dead will be raised imperishable and we will be changed. For this perishable must put
on the imperishable and this mortal must put on immortality. But when this perishable will
have put on the imperishable and this mortal will have put
on immortality, Then will come about the saying that is written,
death is swallowed up in victory. Oh, death, where is your victory? Oh, death, where is your sting?
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God who gives
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved
brethren, Be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work
of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord. And just to show you that there
is still hope, it was the second song that we sang this morning,
and this was the line. There we will rise to meet the
Lord, then sin and death will be destroyed. And we will feast
in endless joy when Christ is ours forevermore.” What Paul
does here is begin to reflect on all the questions that were
likely flooding his reader’s mind And he comes up with a series
of considerations on this idea of spiritual transformation. What he’s doing is mulling over
a heavenly preparedness. And he comes with these four
considerations that we’ll see this morning. Go back to verse
50 for the very first one. these reflections about transformation,
reflections about change. And the very first one that he
presents to his readers is the stipulation of spiritual transformation,
the stipulation of spiritual transformation. We see it in
verse 50 when he says, now this I say, brethren, that flesh and
blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Nor does the perishable
inherit the imperishable.” In this particular section, Paul
is reflecting or pondering or considering the changes that
we will experience before heaven. And the first reflection that
Paul considers is this stipulation. The stipulation is an absolute
requirement for heaven that our bodies be transformed. This is
new information. When Paul pauses and says, now
this I say, brethren, he does so for the purpose of arresting
his reader’s attention. And the word now is a flag for
an abrupt change of direction in his discourse. He even still, even after this
lengthy chapter, he has some important information to share
with his beloved friends, and he basically tells them of an
absolute, a prerequisite, a mandate regarding heaven. Paul has not spoken about this
mandate yet, not until now. Back in verse 40, he told us
that there were heavenly bodies and there were earthly bodies. And in verses 42 through 44,
he presented a lengthy list, you remember, of differences
between those two bodies. One is perishable, the other
is imperishable. One is sown in dishonor, it is
raised in glory. One is in weakness, the other
one is raised in power. One is natural, the other is
spiritual. And so, Paul did tell us, again
in verse 49, that we will bear the image of the heavenly But
he stopped short of telling us that this transformation is an
absolute necessity, a must. But suddenly, he does do that
here in verse 50. He says, flesh and blood cannot
inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the
imperishable. This is new information. that these bodies of flesh and
blood, these perishable bodies cannot, it is an absolute prohibition,
cannot inherit the kingdom of God. And by kingdom of God there,
it’s obvious that he’s talking about heaven. That has been the
course. The resurrection to a new body, that’s been the course
of the chapter from its very beginning. We cannot waltz into
heaven in these bodies of flesh and blood. We perhaps might have
been able to draw such a conclusion based on the thoroughness of
Paul’s argument thus far. Paul told us our resurrection
bodies would be different, but only now does he say that this
is an absolute. There’s no way that we could
glide into heaven in these clunky vehicles if we wanted to. Our
weak and limited physical bodies are not suited for life in the
spiritual realm. So the first thing that Paul
does is to reflect on this first change to come before we get
into God’s kingdom, the stipulation of spiritual transformation.
But there’s a second. In the considerations of our
heavenly preparedness, not only does he give us the stipulation
of spiritual transformation, but he tells us about the provision
for spiritual transformation in verses 51 and 52. Would you
just glance there, please? Behold, I tell you a mystery. We will not all sleep, but we
will all be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling
of an eye at the last trumpet, For the trumpet will sound, and
the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. The next thing that Paul introduces
in this section as a consideration, something to think about, is
the provision that God has given for our spiritual transformation. He tells us of this. Even when
he says, behold, he begins the verse, verse 51, I tell you a
mystery. And that should get our attention. It certainly did the Corinthian
readers a mystery. Paul isn’t talking about a spooky
fiction novel. Not a mystery in that sense.
This word refers to something that human reason could not discover. We might have wondered about
it, but we could not do enough homework to discover this truth. It’s divine revelation. Human
reason, scientific method could never uncover it. It’s beyond
their reach, it’s beyond their ability to discover. This word
is used to refer to the secret counsels and purposes of God,
which are undiscoverable unless in time he should reveal them.
Paul uses this word dozens of times in his letters to speak
of the elements of God’s grand plan of redemption that were
previously unknown but now have been revealed with the coming
of Christ. One of the things that always
alarms me about contemporary Christians is their frequent
claim that God told me thus and such. God is no longer in the
business of dispensing divine revelation. We have the fullness of divine
revelation in scripture. But back in Paul’s day, he was just such a recipient
of divine revelation. There was nothing wrong with
Paul walking into the room and saying, God told me, and that’s
essentially what he does here. Back in chapter four of this
epistle, he even encouraged people to think of him and his fellow
gospel workers as, remember this, stewards of the mysteries of
God. God was going to whisper something
in Paul’s ear, and Paul was going to manage the dissemination of
that information. What an incredible calling. And
so here in verse 51, Paul effectively says, God told me, I tell you
a mystery. He basically says, let me give
you some inside information, a secret into the deep things
of God, a little tidbit that I received from God himself. And here it is. We will not all
sleep. But we will all be changed. I’ve
already talked to several of you this morning that you didn’t
sleep last night. I get that. I was up with you. He’s not talking about that kind
of sleep here. He’s talking about death. Not everybody is going to die
and have to be resurrected from the grave. Paul’s point is that
there are going to be people alive at Christ’s return that
still have to be transformed. They still have to have resurrected
bodies even though they did not physically die before Christ’s
return. God is going to meet all the
necessary requirements of our transformation by providing
such change for all believers, living or dead. When he says
that we will not all sleep, he just tells us here that quite
obviously believers, there will be believers alive and functioning
at Christ’s return when we’re all called home to
heaven. And whether we’re dead and buried or alive and well,
we will all be changed, Paul says. So now we know that there will
be this change, transformation. We know the nature of this change.
We’ve looked at it. Imperishable glory, power, spiritual
bodies. And we know that God has provided
for such. But when? When will this transformation
begin? And in verse 52, Paul takes us
right into that very moment. This ought to thrill any and
every believer. He takes us right into the very
moment, the precise moment of transformation. Paul details
this fantastic moment with three phrases. Would you just glance
in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet? Think of this. There is going
to come a time in history when it’s over. Life as we know it
is over, and he calls it here in a moment. The Greek word there
is atomos, from which we get our English word atom. Now the
original idea with this word was it was a particle so small
that it could no longer be divided. We know now that with the atom,
unfortunately, that is no longer the case. The atom has been split. But at the time of Paul’s writing,
this was the idea. It was the tiniest fraction of
time, an indivisible splinter of time. The second descriptive
phrase that he uses is similar. It’s the twinkling of an eye.
It’s just another way of stating the brevity of time involved
in our spiritual transformation. It’s going to come suddenly and
it’s gonna take place instantaneously. This is what Paul refers to as
the twinkling of an eye, a very rapid eye movement, just a blink
of the eyelid. We do that subconsciously an
average of 12 to 20 times a minute. Paul’s purpose with both of those
phrases is to point out the rapidity with which this transformation
is going to be accomplished. There’s no process. There is
no period of development. There is no expectation of maturation
over time. It’s instantaneous. It happens
in the blink of an eye. It’s done and we are immortal. This is a fantastic thought. Well, if those first two phrases
speak of the instantaneous nature of our transformation, the third
phrase, just glance at it, speaks of the precise moment of our
transformation. It will be, Paul says, at the
last trumpet. The trumpet has been from ancient
times the instrument of choice to rally troops to battle or
to call a kingdom’s people together for a meeting. Revelation 8 and
9 speak of a series of trumpets, and I can’t say definitively
whether this trumpet blast fits there in Revelation 8 and 9. There’s great debate whether
or not this is even a literal trumpet, or whether Paul is speaking metaphorically
here of a divine trumpet blast. I don’t see any reason why such
an instrument, even one of massive size or massive quantities, should
be denied the angels of heaven. After all, it was Jesus himself
who said on his Olivet Discourse, Matthew 24, 31, he will send
forth his angels, and with a great trumpet they will gather together
his elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the
other. It’s a trumpet. Even if there
are great quantities or great-sized trumpets, it’s a trumpet. But you know what? The God who
created heaven and earth and everything in it, he doesn’t
even need an actual physical trumpet to render the blare of
a trumpet that will be heard around the world instantaneously. Paul says it straightforwardly
here. The trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised imperishable. He separates the two groups again.
The dead and the living. But he reiterates again that
we will be changed. Whether you’re living or dead,
there will be a moment of transformation. Paul, writing to the Thessalonian
church, presents a more thorough account of this incredible moment. Would you turn briefly to 1 Thessalonians
4, just to your right a few books? 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, and
find your way down to verse 13. Now, to set the context, the
Thessalonian believers were a confused bunch. They were confused about
the Lord’s return. They feared that anyone who had
already died might possibly be missing out on heaven entirely.
Paul speaks to that in terms very similar to what he says
here in 1 Corinthians. Would you just pick up with me
in verse 13? But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren,
about those who are asleep. so that you will not grieve as
do the rest who have no hope. And Paul doesn’t rebuke our grieving
at a funeral. He just says, regarding a fellow
believer, we don’t grieve like those who have no hope. We have
the hope of the resurrection. Verse 14, for if we believe that
Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with him those
who have fallen asleep in Jesus. God is able to resurrect the
dead and he will bring them to heaven. This was great news to
the Thessalonians. Verse 15, for this we say to
you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain
until the coming of the Lord will not precede those who have
fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend
from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and
with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise
first. Then we who are alive and remain
will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the
Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. What
an incredible thought. In an instant, at the sound of
a trumpet, we will be changed. The dead in Christ will be resurrected,
they will be changed. We who are alive, and Paul presumes
that it’s him, he’s not wrong in doing so. The Lord could return
tomorrow morning. The bottom line is that instantaneously
all believers, living or dead, will be changed, spiritually
transformed, and fitted for heaven. This is God’s provision for all
who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior. Paul is pondering all these many
questions that might possibly have been thrown his way considerations on heavenly preparedness. And he gives not only the stipulation
of spiritual transformation and the provision of spiritual transformation,
but thirdly, the implication of spiritual transformation.
The implication of spiritual transformation, we see it in
verses 53 all the way down through 57. For this perishable must put
on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. But when this perishable will
have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put
on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written,
death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin and
the power of sin is the law, but thanks be to God who gives
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. In these verses,
Paul provides a lengthy explanation for the single sentence of truth
that he articulates in the previous two verses. He’s elaborating
here. providing the implication of
this spiritual transformation. It’s not just that our bodies
are going to be changed, as great a reality as that is, there is
yet another blessing commensurate with that transformation. To
begin with, Paul restates the necessity of this transformation. This is what he suggested in
verse 50 when he said that flesh and blood cannot inherit the
kingdom of God. Here he states it in the positive.
He employs the word must. This perishable must put on the
imperishable. This mortal must put on immortality. It’s an absolute necessity, it’s
a must. Look at verse 54, where Paul provides now another implication
to this transformation. When this perishable will have
put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on
immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, death
is swallowed up in victory. That first line of Paul’s citation
there, death is swallowed up in victory, is taken loosely,
I might add, from Isaiah 25.8. It’s a simply beautiful string
of promises there in Isaiah 25. Just listen. He will swallow
up death for all time. And the Lord will wipe away tears
from all faces, and He will remove the reproach of His people from
all the earth, for the Lord has spoken.” This is definitive.
There in Isaiah’s passage, God’s deliverance is from the Assyrians. But as bad as those people were,
Paul seizes hold of this image and applies it to death itself. Death is a mere prey for some
predator, swallowed down whole. It’s an incredible image. If you will, this is the death
of death. By Christ’s resurrection from
the dead, death itself is vanquished. By Christ’s resurrection from
the dead, the victory now belongs to Christ. And this victory is
complete, tracing all the way back to the curse brought on
humanity by Adam’s sin, the curse of death, both physical death
and spiritual death. In a directly related thought,
when Paul writes again to the Corinthians, our second epistle
to that church, he employs the imagery of a hungry predator
once again. This time, mortality itself is
the prey. Listen to 2 Corinthians 5.4.
Indeed, while we are in this tent, that is this physical body,
we groan being burdened because we do not want to be unclothed
but clothed so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life. He uses the same exact imagery
of a hungry animal that gobbles up either death or here, mortality
itself. The point of all these passages,
Isaiah’s passage, 2 Corinthians, and here in 1 Corinthians, is
that death and all of the terrors that come with it is to be utterly
destroyed. No more death. What else can Paul do but exalt
And verse 55 is a response, it’s a taunt really of the grave. One of the things I’ve gotten
frustrated about about professional sports is all the trash talking
and boasting. I mean, we’re just promoting
really bad behavior. I can’t say that about Paul because
Paul here is taunting death itself, man’s greatest enemy. Look at
verse 55, O death, he calls out, where is your victory? Crickets,
right? O death, where is your sting? Death brings heartache. It brings
termination to life itself. It is the ultimate punishment
and it brings separation. But whatever horrible and painful
effects death had in his victory over death, Christ removes them. This is the truth proclaimed
by Jesus himself in John 5. John 5, 24, truly, truly, I say
to you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me
has eternal life and does not come into judgment, but is passed
out of death into life. Death is no more. The Christian
person has passed out of death into life. What a glorious truth
that is for us. This is Paul’s concluding in
somewhat parenthetical explanation, verses 56 through 57. He just
explains some of this terminology. Verse 56, the sting of death
is sin. In the original prophecy, Hosea
speaks of the painful effects of thorns. We’ve all felt them.
But Paul clarifies by suggesting that this pain is like that of
an angry insect, say a scorpion or a wasp. And Paul here personifies
sin as a pain inflicting creature. And it’s an appropriate illustration
for our most feared enemy. This was precisely the order
that James presented James 1.15, when lust is conceived, it gives
birth to sin. When sin is accomplished, it
brings forth death. The only reason that death exists
as a thing is because of sin. Romans 5.12, through one man,
sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and death
spread to all men because all sin. Without any question, the
sting of death is sin. Paul says, next, the power of
sin is the law. Well, how does that work? One
writer nailed it when he said that this one sentence condenses
into six words Paul’s teaching on the relation of sin to law. That’s a fantastic statement.
The power of sin is the law. In Romans 4, Paul said that where
there is no law, there is no violation. I’ve had people ask
me, if you’re driving through the desert and you don’t see
a speed limit sign, can you go as fast as you want? I wouldn’t
advise it. Doesn’t mean there is no law
there. Paul goes on to say, later in
that chapter, 5.13, sin is not imputed when there is no law.
There is no rule. This is one of the reasons that
I always made sure that I had really clear rules on my baseball
team. You throw a piece of equipment
in anger, you’re benched. Because I knew that’s how young
men operate. They operate just like old men. We get angry, we
throw things. But God has given his law, and
through the law comes a knowledge of sin. Remember Paul, Romans
7, the law came and I died. The law came in so that transgression
would increase, Romans 5.20. We would know what sin is. We
would know what guilt, the guilt of transgression is because of
the law. What gives sin its power to inflict
its painful vexations is God’s holy law. These powerful realities lead
Paul to an inevitable doxology. I mean, how could you not be
thankful? It’s a shout of praise in verse
57. But thanks be to God who gives
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. We don’t have to
feel the pain of sin. We don’t have to feel the guilt
of sin because of the law. We don’t have to experience any
of those things because Christ has taken it all. Paul says,
based on Christ’s victory, his conquering of sin and death,
the sting of death is nullified, it’s eliminated. Because of Christ,
we can consider ourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ
Jesus, Romans 6. There’s a fourth and final point. In his reflections on the change,
the transformation that we will enjoy, not only is there a stipulation
and a provision and an implication to our spiritual transformation,
fourth and finally, there is an anticipation. to this spiritual
transformation. Look at verse 58. Therefore,
my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in
the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain
in the Lord. What do we do with all this?
57 verses. doctrine on resurrection. What do we do with it all? This is Paul’s last consideration
and it’s sort of a how should we then live, to borrow Francis
Schaeffer’s book title, given all that Jesus Christ has done
and all that we have to look forward to in eternity because
of what Jesus has accomplished, how ought we conduct ourselves
in these waning years or days or hours? We can tell by the very first
word that Paul is seeking to make practical application of
what he has communicated throughout this whole chapter. He starts
this final sentence with, therefore. Because of all of that in the
previous 57 verses, therefore. And he calls his spiritual children,
it’s like he draws them close, calling them not just brethren
again. He’s called them brethren throughout
this epistle nearly two dozen times. But this time he calls
them beloved brethren. Come close. And he obviously
has their highest good in mind. And he gently and lovingly lays
this assignment before them. Just glance at verse 58. Therefore,
my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable. I would have you note that both
adjectives, steadfast and immovable, are guided by the one verb, to
be or to become. Be steadfast. Be immovable. Become steadfast. Become immovable. And those two words, steadfast
and immovable, are closely related. Steadfastness speaks of a firmness
of position, a person not likely to wander or stray from the faith
or abandon the hope of the gospel. Likewise, the admonition to be
immovable speaks of a ship that cannot be torn from its moorings. I remember when we were kids,
I had three siblings, there were four of us, and my dad would
stand feet apart on the living room floor and raise his arms,
and all four of us would try with everything in us to get
him to budge. Hanging on his legs, grabbing on his arm, and
we were small enough, we were unable. He was steadfast, immovable. The two words here are nearly
identical. which is an indication of the
dangerous footing that Paul observed at the Corinthian church. Paul
appends a final note to these two admonitions. Be steadfast,
immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing
that your toil is not in vain in the Lord. There’s a funny
debate that rages among the commentators of this. on this passage, when
Paul mentions the work of the Lord, the question is, is it
the work that the Lord does? Or is it the work that we do?
And I say it’s a silly question. Because first of all, it would
be impossible for us to abound in the work of the Lord or to
toil in any way if we were not the ones working. But since all that we do is done
in and only by God’s magnificent grace, the answer is that it’s
both. We work and God works through
us. What Paul gives us here is the
path of safety. It’s a path of victory. It’s
a path of steadfastness and immovability. It’s laboring for God’s kingdom,
whether it’s in our homes or our workplaces or our ministries,
wherever God seeks to use us for his kingdom’s sake. As believers, with a confident
hope in the resurrection, at the Lord’s return, We ought not
be slothful, but working, serving Christ wherever we can, however
we can. We ought not to be plodding along
in our labors, but abounding in it. That word speaks of overflowing
abundance excessively, constantly bearing in mind that the Lord
will surely make our efforts to bear fruit. And that hope of resurrection
provides us the assurance that our ministry efforts here are
not in vain. We’ll close with one very personal
connection to this verse. During my time in seminary, some
of you know I had a little pool business. And during this time as a student
and a pool man, 1 Corinthians 1558 was one of my first ever
memory verses. And at that time, I was also
teaching Sunday school. And Sunday school teachers can
occasionally become discouraged, especially those teaching fifth
grade boys. And I was discouraged. When they were there, If they
were there, they didn’t pay attention. But attendance was a real issue
as well, to have any kind of continuity. And that’s what I was mulling
over one Monday as I was cleaning pools, working my pool cleaning
route. I was working on a massive pool
at an apartment complex, very fancy. And I had all the right equipment.
Specifically, I had this big, long pole that you could extend
and lock down. And this particular property
had two pools. A smaller pool was on one level,
and about eight feet below was a much larger pool. These two
pools were separated by a narrow ledge, about 10 inches wide. And in
order to clean the larger pool, a guy had to carefully inch his
way along the ledge, perched quite precariously between two
large bodies of cold water. As I tiptoed my way across the
ledge on that chilly morning, feeling very sorry for myself,
my Sunday school situation, my extendable pole suddenly collapsed. And I began to do that high wire
wiggle, you know, flapping the arms the whole bit. And at that
exact moment, I remembered my verse. Be steadfast, immovable,
always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your
toil is not in vain. I didn’t fall in the pool that
bitter cold morning. My claim to fame is that I never,
ever fell in any pool while working. The Lord blessed my Sunday school
efforts. By my calculations, that was
about 36 years ago. If we have heaven to look forward
to in a glorified state, What ministry efforts can the
Lord encourage you to complete? Would you humble yourself in
his presence? Our merciful King, we come before
you and thank you and praise you for your incredible gift
to us in this chapter. We thank you for your Holy Spirit’s
work in and through Paul as he penned these things, but wrote
them in such a way that we could grasp these deep things of God. Lord God, we thank you for answering,
going the extra mile and answering these questions that we all had
begun to ponder in many ways. Lord, we thank you for the reminder
that This transformation is an absolute necessity. We can leave
these bodies aside because an infinitely greater one awaits.
We thank you, Lord, that you will make those changes. You
will transform us. Lord, we thank you that for some
of us, we will die. This life we will
face death. There are others that if the
Lord returned tomorrow morning, we rejoice that we would greet
Him in a different way than those who will be resurrected from
the dead. Lord, we look forward with great
anticipation and pray, Lord, that you would bless our efforts
here on earth as we live in hearty anticipation of Christ’s return. Use us, Lord, for your glory
here on earth. And we will enjoy your glory
throughout all eternity. We thank you for this chapter.
We ask your blessing as we go. It’s in Jesus’ name we pray.
Amen.