The Gaze of the Saints, Part 3

Briefly, to 2 Corinthians, because
as I forewarned you last week, we’re essentially on a hiatus
from 2 Corinthians, which is a hiatus from Philippians, which
is a hiatus from the Gospel of Luke. I intend, by God’s grace,
to finish all four. But this week we find ourselves
in first Corinthians and we’ll get there in a moment. But I
wanted to just briefly give you again a flyover of exactly where
we are. And if you think of concentric
circles, that’s kind of how we have to envision this, because
if you think you must of the great context of Scripture, the
entire Bible, and then you draw another concentric circle inside
of that. And you consider the New Testament.
And then you draw another concentric circle inside of that. You find
2 Corinthians. And inside of that, you find
this great section on the ministry in chapter 2, verse 12, through
chapter 6, verse 10. And you find inside of that a
great section in which we find ourselves called Ultimate Fitness,
or as I’ve titled it, Ultimate Fitness. How do we find ourselves
prepared for heaven? spiritual vigor in a physical
frame. And inside of that concentric
circle, we find ourselves in this little subsection that I’ve
entitled the gaze of the saints. What do we look at as Christians? What are the focal points of
the heavenward? And I have suggested thus far,
just looking at verses 16 through 18, that the focal points of
the heavenward, those that are in Christ, what do we look at?
The Christian’s eyes, first of all, look to a wealth of glory. As we began several weeks ago
to look at the wealth of glory that Paul speaks of almost vaguely
here. And as we entered in last week,
Not only do we have a wealth of glory, but he begins to define
it much more explicitly when he says that we also look to
a glorified body. Now, with that overview, that
flyover, let’s go back to the text, if we could. Chapter four,
verse 16 of Second Corinthians. And then I’ll tell you why we
have to jump out of there into First Corinthians momentarily. 2 Corinthians 4, verse 16, Therefore,
we do not lose heart. And we looked at that and we
saw that it means we do not quit. We cannot quit. But though our
outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day
by day. And we have no argument for the fact that our outer man
is decaying. We all know it. We feel it. We
begin the process of dying from the moment we’re born. Our outer
man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.
But it doesn’t just happen. It is done, it is accomplished
by God’s grace through great and zealous pursuit. Look at
verse 17. For momentary light affliction
is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all
comparison while we look Not at the things which are seen,
but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are
seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
For we know that if the earthly tent, which is our house, is
torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with
hands, eternal in the heavens. For indeed, in this house we
groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven,
inasmuch as we, having put it on, will not be found naked.
For indeed, while we are in this tent, we groan being burdened
because we do not want to be unclothed, but clothed so that
what is mortal will be swallowed up by the life. Now, he who prepared
us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the spirit as
a pledge. Therefore, being always of good
courage and knowing that while we are at home in the body, we
are absent from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight.
We are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent
from the body and to be home with the Lord. Therefore, we
have also as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing
to him for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ,
so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body according
to what he has done, whether good or bad.” Paul said, look,
if you want to look at the context, Paul said, look, in this illustration
that I’ve been using, that death is at work in us, that every
day we go to work in ministry, we are dying. We are afflicted. We’re perplexed. Ultimately,
we’re struck down. And the great illustration that
Paul used there in verses 7-11 of chapter 4 is the dying of
Jesus. We are in the process in ministry
of dying. Paul says, ok, so if I’m dying,
so what if I do? Even if I do, ultimately I know
and I trust a sovereign God that He is going to raise me again. There is going to be spiritual
restoration. And my eyes are set and fixed
upon that. And because of that, Paul says,
and only because of that, Paul says, therefore, we do not lose
heart. We do not quit. We know that
our outer man is decaying. We know in a thousand different
ways illustrations of that. Our eyesight is failing. Our
bodies are failing. And yet, all the while, we know
that our inner man is being renewed day by day. There’s no stopping
the process. It is marching ever onward that
one day we will greet in glory our glorified bodies. But it doesn’t happen by accident.
Paul said it comes by the sanctifying grace of God as we direct all
of our faculties to that great and spiritual goal of oneness
with God and eternity. But as believers, we begin to
focus upon heaven, heavenly things, and that is because, as I said
several weeks ago, our interests are completely changed by God.
Our desires are changed. Our perspectives are changed.
Our focus is changed. We take our eyes off of the mundane,
passing, temporal things of earth and we place them on the unspeakably
heavenly things. We began to look at the gaze
of the saints. What are the things that we look at? We saw, first
of all, that the Christian looks to a wealth of glory. That’s
really all that Paul defines it. I mean, it is relatively
undefined. He just says affliction is producing
for us an eternal weight of glory. And that’s what enabled Paul.
We don’t know exactly what it is, but that’s what enabled Paul
to consider his great sufferings, constant pressure and persecution
and physical difficulties and heartache That’s what enabled
Paul, this perspective, to consider those great sufferings as momentary
and light. Momentary light affliction. It’s
not that they weren’t real. It’s not that they weren’t severe.
Paul just says, look, in view of eternity, in view of the greatness
of eternity and the glory, the weighty glory that is to be given
to me and to all saints, it’s not even worthy to be compared.
I can’t even really put it on paper. I can’t even really consider
it on the other side of the scales. If you were to put them on the
scales at the same time, the current afflictions weigh next
to nothing. That’s the illustration that
he’s using. This eternal weight of glory just speaks of the immeasurable
nature of it, that there is no end to it, that there’s no measure
to it. It’s absolutely boundless, this
glory Undefined. To be given to us. Paul says. This momentary light affliction
that we all all believers face. But for those who serve Christ,
feel it much more acutely for momentary light affliction is
producing. For us, an eternal weight of
glory far beyond all comparison. There’s nothing like it. Well,
we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which
are not seen. And Paul calls us all to that
kind of perspective. Paul calls us to look not at
the world that is passing away, but to look beyond that. To look
at the things which are not seen. Not at the temporal things that
are passing away completely, but at the unseen things, the
eternal things. He calls us to look at the souls
of men and look to God who is eternal. That said, though, Paul enters
in to another point of consideration, and here is where we began to
focus on the body, the glorified body, because the Christian not
only looks to a wealth of glory undefined, Paul just says, look,
if I had to compare the two things, I can see that there is for me
a wealth of glory. And yet he can’t even articulate
it. That’s how incredible it is. But this he does begin to clarify. And as we look at this, at the
gaze of the saints and what are those things that the heavenward
look to? The second thing that we’ve begun
to consider is a glorified body. The Christian’s eyes look to
a glorified body. Look again at the text. If you
would. Momentary light affliction is
producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison,
while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things
which are not seen for the things which are seen are temporal and
that has to include our bodies. But the things which are not
seen are eternal. For we know that if this earthly tent, which
is our house, is torn down, we have a building from God, a house
not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. And that is what
drew us to consider this earthly tent, this body that one day
is going to be glorified. And Paul says it quite specifically,
we know. That’s what allows us to function
in this world. That’s what allows us to greet
the difficulties and heartache. That’s what allows us to consider
our frail frame that is passing away a joyful thing. Because we know, without any
doubt, we know that if this earthly tent, and Paul doesn’t wonder
aloud whether it might be so, Paul says, we know. It’s as if
the tent is already being dismantled. The center stake is pulled and
the tent is beginning to fold in on itself. Paul isn’t doubting. Paul says, we know that if this
earthly tent, which is our house, this is where our soul currently
resides. And if that tent is torn down,
we have another house. We have another dwelling for
this soul. And we don’t doubt it. And Paul
wanted to give, for some reason, the Corinthians a great deal
of information on this subject. Perhaps the whole gnostic theory
was raging rampant there in Corinth. This idea that all matter was
evil and that one day if we could only shed these bodies, then
we would be spiritually happy forever. Well, Paul says, let
me give you some facts. Let me give you the facts of
the matter, because the facts of the matter are that we will
have some kind of body, some physical structure. We’re not
going to be just like these ethereal spirits hovering around in heaven,
down the streets of gold, through walls and past one another and
through one another. That’s not at all the nature
of these bodies. And for some reason, Paul insisted
that the Corinthians understand the nature of this body. But
these few words that we’ve considered for several weeks, we know that
if this earthly tent, which is our house, is torn down, we have
a building from God. These words are not the only
words that Paul expressed in this consideration. Paul gave
the Corinthians a greater lesson on this body in his first epistle
to them. 1 Corinthians 15. And now, if you would, 1 Corinthians
chapter 15. And this is where we left off
last week. Now, if you thought my overview
was quick last week on this, it’s going to be even more brief
this week. 1 Corinthians 15. Paul provided the Corinthians
much more detail on the physical body, the body that they are
going to have in heaven Paul seems here in 2nd Corinthians
to be reminding them of detail that he had already provided,
and that’s because he had. And here in 1st Corinthians,
that is specifically this great section, the greatest detail
in all of Scripture on what the body will be like in eternity.
1 Corinthians 15, Paul takes up
the subject of the resurrection and he essentially says the resurrection
is an inextricably part of the gospel. It cannot be separated.
Then he goes on from that in verse 12 to point out that the
resurrection is logically necessary. There must necessarily be a resurrection. And he does that by series of
these nine, if then, logical conclusions. If this is true,
then this must be true. There must be a resurrection.
The third thing he does in verse 20 is to say that the resurrection
is theologically crucial. If you say there is no resurrection,
the whole of Christianity collapses and is done. The very fact of
the resurrection already being laid out before them, Paul turns
now to this great section on. The body. Look at verse thirty
five. And what he does here is point
out the practical means of the bodily resurrection, and it’s
as if somebody says, come now. You know, for once, you know,
to say that there’s a resurrection, OK. But please, tell me, how is this
feeble body that I carry around that really is more of a boat
anchor than anything functional, how is this body going to serve
me throughout eternity when the cartilage in my knees is already
gone and my eyes are already fading? My hair is long gone
for some. But someone will say, how are
the dead raised? And with what kind of body do
they come? You fool, that which you sow
does not come to life unless it dies, that which you sow,
you do not sow the body, which is to be, but a bare grain, perhaps
of wheat or something else. What Paul does here in these
next numerous number of verses, is to begin to say, OK, let’s
consider your questions for a moment. With what kind of body are the
dead raised? How are the dead raised? How
on earth does this happen? How is it possible? And if so,
if you really can advance this argument, Paul, what kind of
bodies? Paul begins to answer that. And
he does so illustrating by vegetable bodies. And he said, as we saw
last week, that which you sow does not come to life unless
it dies. He says, go to your garden. Go to your garden and
you don’t plant a watermelon. You plant a seed. And the seed
goes down into the earth and begins this process of decay
and then springs to life suddenly by divine providence and it brings
forth after its kind. That’s what he says in verse
37. That which you sow, you do not sow the body which is to
be. You don’t plant a pumpkin. You don’t plant an ear of corn. That’s the miracle of the garden,
right? You go and you take these tiny
little seeds. They’re difficult even in your
hand. And you plant them. And in weeks, mere weeks, up
comes these bright and leafy plants that we call lettuce.
You plant another seed, a spiny round seed, a small ball. You plant it in the ground and
weeks later up comes a green thing. But not until the fall
do you pull up that plant, that very plant and you have a beautiful,
delicious red beet. You plant another seed, a flat
oval shaped seed. And up comes this green thing
that for a long time looks quite unproductive. And then one summer
or one summer day, you look under the plant and there’s a zucchini
as big as a football. And you wonder, how on earth
did I fail to see this zucchini? Paul says, you don’t plant the
body, which is to be. You can’t look to our current
physical bodies and think, oh, well, this must correspond directly
to what our bodies will be like in heaven. The whole point of
the illustration. He takes us to the garden. He
says you plant a natural, corruptible body like these and suddenly
a spiritual, incorruptible body appears. Paul takes us to nature. We looked at that. We looked
at that illustration, but he has a number of illustrations
in this great section. The conclusion of that portion
is in verse 38, and he said, God gives it a body, that seed. God gives it a body just as he
wished. And he gives to each of the seeds
a body of its own. When you plant your garden, you
plant it out and you don’t just throw the seed anywhere and everywhere,
but you plant it so that when the seed comes up, you know what
you’re expecting. It’s not just wishful thinking.
Every seed produces its own plant. God gives just as He gives to
each seed its own appropriate plant to us as well. To us as well, he gives an appropriate
physical structure. Not all bodies are the same.
That is the point of this whole section. Not all bodies are the
same. And he uses the illustration
of the vegetable bodies, but that’s not his only illustration.
Look, if you would, at verse thirty nine. He illustrates it
by creature bodies. the creaturely bodies. Look at
verse 39 when he says, all flesh is not the same flesh. There
is one flesh of man and another flesh of beast, another flesh
of birds and another of fish. The same principle that he has
already initiated that not all bodies are the same are now applied
to the animate or animal world, if you would. Now, many people
And I don’t know what it is, what glee people are able to
extract from putting unknown food before people that they
otherwise like and care for and love. But there seems to be this
particular glee in setting a dish before someone that is a surprise,
right? And I see by the smiles that
many of you have engaged in such practice. Well, my wife did it
once. A lot of people would like you
to believe that all flesh is the same flesh. And they’ll tell
you upon the fancy presentation of mystery meat that it tastes
just like chicken. You’ve been to the same dinner
party, I can tell. And perhaps, with the skillful
use of eleven herbs and spices, it does taste just like chicken. Frog legs? rattlesnake, octopus,
slimy snails, all of it, regardless of what you use to make it taste
just like chicken. It is by nature, not chicken.
The bottom line is all flesh is not the same flesh. We see
such a diversity in animals, flesh and blood that appears
in so many different forms in the animal world. Why should
we conclude or even assume that the body that we have now will
be the body of eternity. Paul says not all bodies are
the same, but there’s another illustration. Look at verse 40. Not all bodies are the same.
He illustrates it by vegetable bodies, by creature bodies. Thirdly,
by the celestial bodies. Look at verse 40. There are also
heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly
is one and the glory of the earthly is another. Now here he is talking
about the bodies that we possess. We possess in which our souls
reside. There is one in heaven. There
is one on earth and they’re different. But look at verse 41. There is
one glory of the sun. There is another glory of the
moon. There is another glory of the stars, for star differs
from star in glory. He takes us to the world of the
heavens and He asks us merely to look up and see that not every
orb in the sky is identical to the next. One said it this way,
the God who made these myriads of differences in one and the
same universe can be credited with inexhaustible power. It
is monstrous to presume that he cannot fit a body to a spirit. God can do whatever God wants. And that if God made this myriad
of differences in the heavens, do we not think that God can
make a better structure for our souls in eternity? Paul says
he can. He absolutely can. God, who made
all these differences, All these different animals and different
seeds and different plants and different stars. It’s beyond even our comprehension. To exhaust, you know, here we
are in 2008, I remember reading a story several weeks back on
the news that said they went to some island and discovered
107 or who knows how many new species. And here the scientists were
surprised at it. Why are we surprised? Consider the sun. The sun burns at 27 million degrees
Fahrenheit. That’s pretty warm. One scientist
estimated that if you heated a pinhead to the same temperature,
you would ignite everything within 60 miles. I don’t know where
that lab is. Let me tell you about the power
behind the sun. It is equal to a massive quantity
of atomic bombs going off not only simultaneously, but consecutively
over and over and over and over and over. The power generated
by the sun by scientists has been calculated to be 3.8 sextillion
megawatts of electricity. For the sake of time, write 3.8
with 20 zeros behind it. And yet it takes only 100 watts
to run a standard light bulb. And the sun is so powerful that
it drinks in only a small fraction of that total power output from
the sun, a mere 1.9 billion megawatts. Now, how they calculate that,
I have no idea. But even that, all that to say
the earth uses a very small fraction of the total output of the sun.
Now, aren’t we able simply by looking up in the sky to acknowledge
that the sun is drastically different than the moon? And aren’t we
exceedingly thankful for that? Paul says not all bodies are
the same. One Puritan put it this way. We not only see in
all the diversified forms of animal and vegetable life, but
in the still greater diversities of heavenly and earthly bodies,
there is great diversity among the heavenly bodies themselves.
How different is the sun from the moon, the moon from the stars,
one star from another. Standing, therefore, as we do
in the midst of this wonderful universe in which we see matter
in every conceivable modification, From a clod of earth to a sunbeam,
from dust to the luster of the human eye, how unutterably absurd
to say that we have bodies hereafter. They must be as gross and as
heavy and as corruptible as those which we have now. Not all bodies
are the same. He illustrates it by vegetable
bodies, creature bodies, celestial bodies, even by the resurrection
of the body itself. Look at what follows in verse
42. In verse 42, he says, So also is the resurrection of the
dead. It is sown in a perishable body.
It is raised in an imperishable body. Currently, in our current physical
state, it is a corruptible body. We have proven that over and
over again. We are already on the downhill slide. It doesn’t
mean that you’ve got to wait till you turn 50 to get there.
You’re already in a constant and unending state of decay,
subject to disease, even death. Ultimately, we are subject to
entire dissolution, ashes to ashes, dust to dust. And that
includes you and I. but it is sown in a perishable
body, yet it is raised imperishable. This body that we take on, Paul
points out first and foremost, that it is going to be imperishable. It is a body that will never
wear out. It will never die. It will never undergo decay.
It will never suffer a state of demise. We will never be in
the hospital. We will never suffer injury. Just as the heavenly bodies that
we considered differ from star to star, one to another, so,
Paul says, the resurrection body will differ from our present
bodies. Paul’s whole point here is simply
to point out the absurdity. That’s why he says, not ungraciously,
that the argument is foolish. It’s foolish to consider that
just because we have a body now, that it must be the same kind
of body in heaven. Paul hopes to point out the absurdity
of this argument, this objection that is established on this idea
that the body that’s here and now must be the body of the future. Christians are merely seeds.
sown in the ground. And when our body enters a decay, that’s when the real life begins. Look at verse 43. Not only is
this body imperishable, this body is to be glorified. It is
sown in dishonor. It is raised in glory. The dishonor
that he speaks of there is obviously corruption. It is constantly
undergoing decay. All the revolting things that
come with it, step by step. The glory. The glory you can observe from
a certain extent from the transfiguration of our Lord Jesus Christ. That splendor, that awe that
the apostles were met with. But it isn’t just the fact that
we will have a bright and shiny body. It will be a new body entirely,
as we’ll see in a moment. The Lord Jesus is spoken of in
the Revelation. Chapter one, verse 13, in the
middle of the lampstands, I saw one like the son of man clothed
in a robe, reaching to the feet and girded across his chest with
a golden sash, his head His head and his hair were like white
wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of
fire. His feet were like burnished bronze. When it has been made
to glow in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of many
waters. In his right hand he held seven
stars, and out of his mouth came the sharp two-edged sword, and
his face was like the sun shining in its strength.” Now, I just
ask you to consider, is that the baby that was laid in the
manger? Not all bodies are the same. Paul’s considering the resurrection
body by way of illustration. And he says, not only is it imperishable
and glorified, it is powerful. Can’t you hardly wait? It is
sown in weakness. It is raised in power. Nothing
is more absolutely powerless than a dead body. It can do nothing. It can resist nothing. If it
is donated to science, it can’t raise its hand in objection.
The weakness that belonged to that body in life is perfected
in death. The body begins in weakness and
ultimately ends in demise and death. And yet it is raised in
power. The future body is going to be
filled with an energy like we’ve never had here on earth. It is
going to be endowed with abilities and faculties that we never had
here on earth. Even faculties that we can’t
even conceive. How can we conceive of a body
that would last forever? When that body is raised, not
only will it not be subject to weakness again, but it will be
given, endowed by God with brand new abilities and faculties far
superior to the bodies that we currently have. Not only is the
body imperishable and glorified and powerful, look at verse 44. It is sown in a natural body,
it is raised in a spiritual body. Now, we can’t understand what
he exactly what he’s pointing to when he’s talking about a
dwelling place for the soul that has some physical capabilities
to it. And yet he calls it a spiritual
body. Except to say that this natural
body is the body that we’re given, a body that has We need air. We need food. We’re subject to
pain and decay, even death. That’s the natural body. But
the spiritual body, the spiritual body is quite different. It is
adapted to be the eternal dwelling of the soul itself. Eternally.
Forever. It is adapted to be the eternal dwelling of the soul itself. One said it this way, what a
natural pardon me, what a spiritual body is, we know only from Paul’s
description, from the manifestation of Christ in his glorified body.
We know that it is incorruptible and glorious and powerful and
adapted to the higher state of existence in heaven and therefore
not adapted to an earthly condition. And the summary is simple. If
there is a natural body, and we know there is, there is also
a spiritual body. There is a body that is going
to be fitted for eternity for each believer in Christ. His point of this whole section
is that not all bodies are the same. Beginning in v. 35 and coursing down all the
way through v. 49, his point is the same. Not
all bodies are the same. He illustrates it with vegetable
bodies. He illustrates it with creature
bodies. He illustrates it with celestial bodies. He illustrates
it with the resurrection itself. And he illustrates it from Scripture.
Look at v. 45. So also it is written, The
first man, Adam, became a living soul. The last Adam became a
life giving spirit. This first and last Adam, it
is quite simple. Utilized by Scripture repeatedly.
The first Adam is Adam. Our representative in the garden.
The second Adam, the last Adam. There will be no other Adam.
There will be no representative head. other than the Lord Jesus
Christ. That’s the second Adam, the last
Adam. And what he says in quoting Genesis
2.7 here, Genesis 2.7 reads, Then the Lord formed man out
of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath
of life and man became a living being. He’s pointing out that
first man became a living soul by God’s doing. The last Adam
came already with life in himself because it was God. It was God
incarnate taking on human flesh and breathing out life, spiritual
life. He became a life-giving spirit. Look at verse 46 where Paul clarifies,
however, the spiritual is not first. Adam wasn’t given a spiritual
body and thankfully so. Adam did not eat of the tree
of life, which would forever lock him in to that current state
in which he found himself in sin. The spiritual is not first,
but the natural, then the spiritual. The first man is from the earth,
earthy. I mean, can it be any more graphic
than that? Made of dust. Made of dirt. God scooped him up and breathed
life into him and only God could do that. I’ve said it before,
you know, people tinkering in the labs, you know, with babies
and DNA and all this other stuff. You want to impress me? Grab
up a handful of dirt and breathe life. That’s what God did. The
first man is from the earth, earthy. The second man is from
heaven. As is the earthy, so are those who are earthy. And as is the heavenly, So also
are those who are heavenly. Just as we have borne the image
of the earthly, we will bear the image of the heavenly. That
first man, Adam, was merely the dust of the ground and God breathed
life into his soul. But the second man, the Lord
Jesus Christ, was not the starting point of creation. It was God
Himself coming down incarnate, just as we have sung about and
read about And meditated on and proclaimed even this past week. Christ came and took on both
natures. And that’s why he is called a
life giving spirit. We possess faith in Christ. We
have the imperishable principle of life itself. One pastor said, in closing, in Jesus Christ, human nature,
both body and soul, was restored to its pristine strength and
perfection and even raised to a higher level while body and
soul were reunited in a living organism. The future body of
believers will be incorruptible, incapable of decay, glorious,
resplendent with heavenly brightness, powerful, full of energy and
perhaps even new faculties and abilities and spiritual. Not immaterial, but adapted to
the spirit, a perfect instrument of the spirit. You see, having
written those words, we now understand when Paul turned to the Corinthians
in review and said, we know. We know that if this earthly
tent, which is our house, is torn down, we have a building
from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. Let’s thank Him for that great
promise. Our merciful God, We can stumble
painfully through this earthly life because of that great promise,
a promise which Paul spoke with more certainty or as much as
anything he ever said. We know. And Lord, how much we
look forward to those bodies, how much we look and long for
that. Indeed, our gaze is upon not
just the wealth of glory that you have promised, whatever shape
or form that takes. But we know that it must necessarily
include this glorified body of which your word speaks, and we
look forward with great anticipation to that. Even more so, we look
forward with great anticipation to using whatever kind of voice
we have in heaven to sing your praise for eternity. We thank you and praise you.
It’s in Jesus name that we pray. Amen.