Standing Strong

Christ is risen — and that changes everything about the future. As the firstfruits of resurrection, his rising guarantees ours. Every enemy, including death itself, will be placed beneath his feet. But this isn't just future theology — it has present weight. How we live, what we risk, and whether we hold on all flow from what we believe about what is coming. This Sunday we consider what it means to be truly immovable.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

I invite you to open your Bible to 1 Corinthians chapter 15 as we continue in our third message on the death of death from this chapter in the Bible that's often been called the Magna Carta of the Resurrection. It is the great letter on the resurrection here in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. Many of us, I think, have lost loved ones to death. We have experienced this personally. I think personally I've had to say goodbye to my four grandparents over the last number of years. I had a close high school friend last year who committed suicide. One of my aunts overdosed, one of my uncles committed suicide. Thinking back as I was preparing this message, is thinking back at all the different people in our family's life who were acquaintances or close friends that died of cancer, of car wrecks, of debilitating diseases. It was really remarkable. I could just start thinking more and more, maybe a dozen or more people close to my family who died untimely deaths. And with each death, there's this profound sense of loss and of grief and of the wrongness of it all. Scripture is right to treat death as an intruder, as a marauder, as a thief. Death really is a dreadful foe. But our text this morning assures us that it's also a defeated foe. This morning we're going to look at 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verses 20 through 34, and I'm just going to title our message, Living in Light of the Empty Tomb. Paul's going to be arguing theologically, as he has in the previous verses, but then he's going to make this really personal and applicable to our lives. So living in light of the empty tomb. He's going to argue that Christ has been raised, and because Christ has been raised, death will be destroyed. And because death will be destroyed, all the dead will one day rise again. And because all the dead will one day rise again, we can and must live resurrection-shaped lives, lives informed by this massive reality of a future bodily resurrection. The Corinthians believed many true things. They had a lot of things going well for them, but their lives were also tangled up in pride and division and immorality. And in this case, theological confusion. Paul's going to be addressing one of the roots beneath their confusion and their error. In verse 12, he points out that some of them were mistakenly believing that there is no resurrection of the dead. In Greek thought, as Pastor Jared talked about last week, in Gnostic thinking, they had obviously adopted some of this. They viewed the body as inherently lesser corrupt and something that God's going to free us from, not something that God's going to redeem in the future. And so they would probably believe in an afterlife of the soul in the presence of God without this old wicked corrupt body. That was their view. But our text is going to unfold and contradict this and show a much more glorious way in four ways. First, we're going to see that Christ's resurrection guarantees our resurrection, and then that his resurrection guarantees death's destruction. And then that our resurrection calls us to costly obedience and to sober living. So that's a breakdown of the four steps of our passage. Let's look at the first one in verses 20 through 24. Christ's resurrection guarantees our resurrection. Verse 20 says, But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has also come the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all died, so also in Christ shall all be made alive, but each in his own order. Christ the first fruits, then it is coming those who belong to Christ, then comes the end. When he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. Unless Jesus were to come back before we die, which is possible. Otherwise, death is absolutely sure for us. Yet in the midst of this very real pain and grief and fear at death, God's word is going to plant our feet on more solid ground than something that is as sure as death itself. Namely, that Christ has been raised and that his resurrection guarantees our future bodily resurrection. This is an amazing point of theology, because it's one thing to say, well, I believe in Jesus' resurrection, but to not realize that that has redemptive implications for our own future resurrection. And Paul's going to tighten this up with a one-to-one correlation. Verse 20, he calls Jesus in his empty tomb the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. So first fruits is an agricultural term that simply means when a farmer goes out of the field and he sees the very first ear of corn or sheaf of wheat or barley. And he sees this, even though the rest of the crop is still immature, he finds that very first one that's ready to harvest. And he knows that the rest is going to be ready in time. And he cuts that first ear of corn off and he celebrates the promised coming of a greater harvest. That was Jesus. Jesus' resurrection was that first fruit, that first coming to maturity of the crop that promises, that assures a greater harvest yet to come. Jesus' empty tomb, among other things, was God's pledge that every human who has ever died will be physically raised from the dead, that a full harvest will be gathered in. So we understand from later in 1 Corinthians and then through other passages in the Old and New Testaments that when a believer dies, their soul becomes disembodied. The soul leaves the body and it enters what we call the intermediate state. This is an unnatural state. To be disembodied is to be in an unnatural state. Our natural state is embodied as souls. Believers will immediately be brought into the presence of Christ. And unbelievers, disembodied souls, will, according to Jesus, enter outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. And they will await in these respective locations, they will, in states, they will await their re-embodiment. At the future resurrection, every soul will be reunited with its own body, either glorified and fitted for everlasting joy in God's presence, or raised for everlasting sorrow under just and fully deserved condemnation. But make no mistake about it, Scripture teaches that both believers and unbelievers' bodies will rise. And Paul argues for why this is the case. Verse 22. He says, For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. The very first human, Adam, in the Garden of Eden, he was the very first human, and therefore the head of all humanity that came after him. He was the fountain head of all humanity. And by his rebellion, Romans chapter 5 tells us that death came upon all mankind, and we entered into the curse of sin and death through our forebearer Adam. Well, here in these verses, and then later in verses 45 and 47, Paul says that Jesus is the last Adam and the second Adam. The second and last. There's only two, the first, and then Jesus comes as the head of a new humanity. And he argues here that in the first Adam, wherein death entered the world, including physical death, in the second and last Adam, who comes to reverse the curse, there will be a new humanity, and all will rise from the dead, having been brought under the curse of death through their original parent. This is key for Paul. So because Jesus rose from the dead, Paul can affirm the universal future resurrection of all the dead, both godly and ungodly. Now some would read this verse and say, ah, here's evidence for not just universal resurrection, but universal salvation, because it says, whatever Adam did, Jesus is going to undo it for everybody. So therefore, in the end, all dogs go to heaven. But notice in verse 22 he says, For as in Adam all died, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. And then he says, in verse 23, those who belong to Christ will rise first. So there's a distinction in this, everyone's going to rise physically, but there's still a distinction between those who are, those who belong to Christ, he uses that terminology, and those who do not. And he says there's going to be a temporal distinction and separation between the resurrection of the just and the resurrection of the unjust. Verse 22 and 24, 30, 23 through 24 says, but each will rise in his own order. First, Christ, the first fruits. So that's already happened. Then at his coming, which hasn't yet happened, those who belong to Christ. So there'll be a resurrection of the redeemed. And then he says, Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom of God to the Father, having destroyed every rule and every authority and power, subjugated them, brought them under his full present reign and lordship. And this is where the ungodly will be raised. We see this even more clearly, I think, in Revelation chapter 20, where you see John the Apostle in a vision, seeing something that Paul describes theologically in 1 Corinthians 15. This is fascinating. John sees this unfolding in a vision, what Paul had already said. Look at this. Revelation chapter 20, verse 4. I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the Word of God. Those who did not worship the beast or its image and had not received its mark in their foreheads or in their hands. Safe to say these are those who belong to Christ. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection. So just like Paul said, hey, everything's going to happen according to its order. Here, John, in a vision, sees that order. Those who belong to Christ will be raised first, they will reign with Christ. I wish we had some time to get into interpreting the thousand-year reign and uh end times views and eschatology. That's not what this sermon's about. But what I do want to show from this is the temporal separation. There are two resurrections: the first resurrection and the second resurrection. And to the first resurrection belong those who belong to Christ. Although all will be raised, but not all will be saved. On a practical note, as I was thinking about what kind of difference this makes in our life, the fact that because Jesus rose from the dead, it guarantees our resurrection. I had some sweet reflections. I was thinking about how that our society often speaks in scientific terms, and they talk about death and they interact with death, allegedly in a scientific way, by thinking that death itself, in human death, is natural. For example, uh evolutionary theory, naturalistic evolutionary theory, claims that death is just the natural result of a process we call survival of the fittest or natural selection in a dog-eat-dog world. Life is cruel, and we kind of just need to get over it. Death is actually something that has to happen for our race to evolve, it would be argued. And while many make that scientific claim that this is natural, this is just forces in collision, and something's got to win, and the rest have to die off. The fact is, even those who espouse that in theory don't live as if that's the case when their loved one dies. Universally, humans across the globe grieve at death. They act as if it's something that shouldn't have happened. They think and they act and they grieve and they cry tears and often have a sense, a profound sense of outrage and moral revulsion at the horror of death. Think especially of the untimely death of a child. Regardless of culture or creed, this universal and inevitable human response to death, it operates at an intuitive level that says death is not natural, it's not okay, it's not right. And it's not merely the cessation of cellular functions of a biological organism. Alive, dead. This one survived, this one didn't. Next. We all know intuitively that's not what death is. Death is something that's profoundly evil, something profoundly unnatural. We all know instinctively that death is not natural selection at work. It is the cruel fruit of the corruption of something that is beautiful and orderly and in life that was meant to flourish, not to die and decay. The amazing thing is the Christian gospel comes along, and the Christian gospel is honest with both our intuitive sense of how we relate to death and with our longings for the redemption of creation. To deny that human death is unnatural and that it came through humanity's tragic fall is to do two things simultaneously. It strips death of its horror, which works until it's your child. And then it strips us of the very, our very humanity in protesting against death. Why should one biological organism protest against death in this endless cycle of natural selection? Just get over it. You should have been better, then you would have survived. The Christian gospel says no. Death is horrifying, death is unnatural. Death wasn't meant to be. And the longing you have, the hatred you have for death is right. And the longing you have for its undoing, and the sense you have that it shouldn't be this way, and you have a hope that it won't be that way one day, it's right. Because that's the promise of the gospel. So Christ's resurrection guarantees our bodily resurrection, but his empty tomb not only promises a future resurrection, it also announces Christ's present reign. So, number two, Christ's resurrection guarantees death's destruction. Let's read verses 25 through 28. Paul says, For he, Christ, must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. And the last enemy to be destroyed is death. For God has put all things in subjection under his feet. But when it says all things are put in subjection, it's plain that he is accepted, who put all things in subjected under him. So much fun theology inpacked in that verse, but it's not sensual what we're talking about. When all things are subjected to him, then the Son Himself will also be subjected to the Father, that is him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all. Here he's basically a really fancy way of saying that there's this order of operations, that Jesus Christ is subjugating everything under his feet, and then he himself, as he presents it to the Father, will line up under the Father's authority and show that there is a unity in the Godhead and yet a natural ordering of Father, Son, Holy Spirit, all that God may be all in all. Paul now lifts our eyes from the empty tomb to the throne where Christ now presides. He quotes a couple Psalms, Psalm chapter 110 and Psalm chapter 8. Psalm 110 reads this way. Notice the two Lords. One is all caps, one is not all caps. One is Yahweh, the other is Adonai. Here you see a prefiguring or sort of an Old Testament glimpse of the relationship of the Father to the Son, who is the Messiah. Jehovah, the Father, in this passage, says to my Lord, David says, his Adonai, Messiah, the son of David, who was also the Lord of David. And he says to him, Sit at my right hand, there's the place on the throne, until I make your enemies your footstool. In other words, in prophecy, there was promised a one day when every enemy would be subjected to God the Son, the Messiah. This is the program of God's present kingdom. All powers are being subdued and subjected to God the Son, whose reign will reach its zenith at his second coming, when the kingdom is consummated. Psalm chapter 8 and verse 6, interestingly, speaks about this dominion over creation in terms of humanity in general. God created humans and He put all things under their feet. But we know that's we know the story. We know how that we have failed in exercising this godly dominion. We have not done what Genesis chapter 1 tells us to do, to exercise righteous dominion over the earth and turn the world into a garden city for the glory of God. We have been brought under the curse. Our work has been affected, our families have been affected, sin is rampant, there's injustice in the world, all these things. And so what do we have? We have Christ, the God man, the second Adam, coming now to do what we couldn't do, to subject all things under his feet. The logical extension is that death itself has a target on its back. Verse 26 reads, The last enemy to be destroyed is death. Christ is alive, and so death is doomed. Yesterday marked exactly 82 years since D-Day. Andy and Christine Lang had their anniversary yesterday. It was very brave to get married on the anniversary of D-Day, but they're still with us. Actually, D-Day was a great thing. It was a great victory. Maybe that was a perfect day you can named it. D-Day was codenamed Operation Overlord. It was the decisive and costly turning point for the war in Europe. It claimed about 73,000 lives of Allied forces on the shores of Normandy, France. It did not end World War II. It did not end the war in Europe. But it did render the outcome virtually inevitable because the superior, much superior, Allied forces now were in a position to rout the enemy and push back the German lines. So it didn't end it, but it did spell the decisive end of it. In a similar way, Christ's death and resurrection was our D-Day. Death didn't immediately stop happening after Christ's resurrection. Death still rages now, but its ultimate defeat is sure. He is pushing back the enemy, and at last the enemy will be destroyed. And so if our risen Lord reigns and death will be destroyed, then Paul is going to argue that how we live now matters immensely. We cannot, we must not hear this theology, this truths about the future, and our lives be remain unchanged. And so, number three, verses twenty nine through thirty-two, our resurrection calls us to costly obedience. Verse 29 says, Otherwise, what do people mean by being baptized on behalf of the dead? Dead are not raised at all? Why are people baptized on their behalf? Why are we in danger every hour? I protest, brothers, by my pride in you, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord. I die every day. What do I gain if humanly speaking I fought with the beasts at Ephesus? If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. Paul is now going to frame the present cost of this war in which we're engaged, and to show how Christ's resurrection reframes it, how we are to live. His point is simple. If the dead are not raised, then Christian sacrifice doesn't make any sense. Yet if the dead are raised, and since they are raised, Christian sacrifice makes plenty of sense. He first points to an inconsistency in the Corinthians church's way of life. He says in verse 29, as I'm sure many of you who are familiar with the text are waiting to hear what we're going to say about this. Verse 29, he says, Why are some of you being baptized on behalf of the dead? So just full disclosure, after the service, we're going to have the baptism pool. You can get baptized on behalf of your dead friends and family. We're going to try to be biblical, right? No. Why not? It's right here in the Bible, right? Theologians have tried to parse through what Paul means by this rather obscure phrase that only occurs one time in the entire Bible. Baptism on behalf of the dead. Some believe he's referring to a local Corinthian practice, something they were doing, something he wasn't sanctioning, but just saying, hey, you're doing this, but it contradicts your theology that there's no resurrection of the dead, so you're not even living consistently. Others say he's speaking more of baptism itself as a confession that our bodies will die and rise again. Like, why are you even doing the baptism thing at all if you're identifying in baptism with the death and resurrection of Christ, and you yourself are going to die and your body's going to remain in the grave. And then, of course, there are those who think that this verse sanctions a practice of what they call proxy baptism for the dead. That is, I can get baptized for you if you're dead. Based on only this verse and then some teachings in the Book of Mormon, the heretical sect of the Latter-day Saints, for example, they receive baptism on behalf of their dead ancestors so that their ancestors can be saved, in their view. And they quote this verse. But if you look back at historic Christianity, not only do we not see this practice not happening, we see a number of early church fathers condemning it. And then we look at the rest of Scripture to look for clarification when it talks about baptism anywhere and everywhere else. Does it say anything that would support this idea that one person can be baptized legitimately on behalf of someone else? And we come up with a big zero. Which is why the reformers talked about uh the princess, the princess, the um the principle of, I've got two daughters. The reformers and the princess. That's an interesting phrase. Um, those two words have never been in the same sentence, probably ever. Uh the principle of uh the regla fide. And part of that is interpretation of scripture is that you don't create an entire theological superstructure off of a single verse or a single phrase, especially when it's not sufficiently clear. It should be something supported through uh multiple attestations of scripture, and scripture interprets scripture. That's one of the mantras of the reformers. And here's a casic, a classic point uh whenever you see the Mormons using this verse to justify a practice that's only talked about in this one phrase. I think if we back up a little bit and say, what is the function of this phrase in this passage? It's clearly rhetorical. And Paul doesn't say, I baptize on behalf of the dead, or I have done this, or I support this. He is calling out something that some of them were doing to show their inconsistency. So he's using it rhetorically. I think just being honest, he's using it rhetorically, whether he agreed with it or not, and there's no hint that he approved of it. He was showing that they were being inconsistent with their own theology. So that's why we're not Mormons. Paul then turns immediately to his own manner of life in verses 30 and then in verse 32. He continues with rhetorical questions. He says, Why are we in danger every hour? And then again, what do I gain if humanly speaking I fought with beasts at Ephesus? Ephesus, as talked about in Acts chapter 20, Paul prophesied that there would be uh grievous wolves that would rise up from the flock and that wouldn't spare the flock, that would devour the sheep. And then Paul would be in warfare, theological warfare with him. He says here that he wrestled with beasts at Ephesus. He's like, why would I put myself through that? The sleepless nights, the accusations, my body wasting away as I spend and am spent on behalf of the cause of Christ. I'm in danger every hour. Why would I suffer exposure and ridicule and sacrifice for the gospel if my body's not going to be erased again? Paul famously catalogued his sufferings in 2 Corinthians 11. He endured beatings and multiple shipwrecks, he was left for dead numerous times, hunger, cold, sleeplessness, caring for all the churches. He did all this because he realized his body was one day going to be redeemed. He wasn't just going to be a soul that was going to be untethered from his body and free like a bird, and this body doesn't really matter. No, he could spend this body for the service of Christ, knowing that Christ's salvation involves the salvation of the whole person, body and soul. Imagine an embattled battalion of Marines holding the line because they know that reinforcements are on the way. They're surrounded. Man, if you read some uh some stories from the Vietnam War, We Were Soldiers Once in Young, amazing book, pretty good movie. They're surrounded, they're way outnumbered, and they fight down to the last man. It'd be much easier to retreat, to surrender, to take your own life, but they fight on because they know deliverance is coming and their mission matters in the end. For Christians, that's the case. We know deliverance is coming, and our mission matters in the end. That's why we are called in Scripture and by the Apostle Paul especially that to live a wartime lifestyle. As Christians, we're even though we know we have a victory that is pending in Jesus Christ, the war is still raging. We've had Normandy, we're now in France pushing back the German lines, and we're hoping in the fall of Berlin. There is a war to fight, and it's worth fighting because we'll be raised. I want you to think about your own lifestyle. The lifestyle of your family. Are you and I living as if we're fighting a winning war and a worthy war? Are we living as if there's a war at all? Are we just living like the pagans, like Paul already said? Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. Let's just enjoy this life. Why fight against evil? Why care about the body of Christ? Why care about putting ourselves out of our comfort zones to share the gospel with people, to get out of bed early and spend time with the Lord, to, after a full day of work, to disciple our kids. Why do all that? Paul says, because it matters and it's worth it. Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. That doesn't work for Christians because Christ has been raised and tomorrow is not endless death, tomorrow is resurrection. Tomorrow is the fullness of God's kingdom. Tomorrow we give an account, according to 2 Corinthians chapter 5, for everything we did in this body. Tomorrow is victory, and tomorrow is glory. In a famous poem he wrote, he said, This only one life, yes, only one. Let me say, thy will be done. And when the last, and when at last I hear the call, I know I'll say, 'twas worth it all. Only one life, twill soon be past. Only what's done for Christ will last. And when I'm dying, how happy I'll be if the lamp of my life has been burned out for thee. You only have one life to live in this body. Make it count. Don't live by eat, drink, for tomorrow I die. There's so much more to life. Our final point, number four, our resurrection calls us to sober living. Verse 33 Do not be deceived. Bad company ruins good morals. Wake up from your drunken stupor, as is right, and do not go on sinning, for some have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame. Having offered resurrection comfort, now Paul turns to resurrection confrontation. He's going to give them two confrontating, uh confronting lines here. He's going to say, first, do not be deceived. Because they were being led astray. Bad company ruins good morals. In context, this bad company means resurrection-denying influences. Voices that teach us to think and to act as if the resurrection of our bodies is a myth, perhaps, or that it's irrelevant. It's a distant reality that really doesn't have any impact on our lives here. Any voice in your ear that would promote you to believe that or act that way is what he's talking about here. Bad company ruins good morals. I think we all like to imagine, especially as adults, you know, we talk to kids about the music they listen to, the TV they watch, and blah, blah, blah. But we adults, we're not impressionable. We're actually immune to any influences in our lives, right? Wrong. The oldest saint in this room is vulnerable to voices that contradict God's word. Paul says here, don't be deceived. What you listen to, what you think, who you embrace, who you are entertained by, it ruins good morals. Both deception and distraction are significant dangers for the young and old alike. If we give our ears and hearts to voices that mock righteousness, that scorn the idea of a future judgment, that idolize present bodily appetites, do you think that will not have an impact on your soul? Carbon monoxide is a lethal yet colorless and scless gas that can enter our homes in numerous ways. It actually happened to us. Thankfully, it wasn't lethal levels, as you can tell. I'm still here. But we had a furnace. We bought this house maybe seven years ago, and the furnace had all these holes in the manifold just pumping. Thankfully, trace levels of carbon monoxide into the air. We it wasn't heating very well, so we had some come out and inspect it, and he's like, don't use this at all. You need it replaced, and I don't care who you get to replace it, don't turn this thing on. You have carbon monoxide pumping into your house. Um this is a very real threat. And so we got carbon monoxide uh alarms in our home. Well, the interesting thing is that false doctrine works similarly. And we often think about false doctrine as something that comes from a pulpit. Uh the church down the street, turn on the TV and you see someone. 99% of the time false doctrine comes from YouTube, comes from Instagram, comes from New York Times bestsellers because just the sheer volume of it all. The nightly news is giving you a narrative, is telling you how you should think about the world. And often it's not in line with a world ruled by God for his glory, being redeemed by Christ, etc., etc. Paul is sounding the alarm to awaken a drowsy, endangered church. He's gonna give them the imperatives in verse 34 wake up from your drunken stupor and don't go on sinning. Man, the image is vivid here. Ideological intoxication and moral apathy. The problem with intoxication, with alcohol or some other kind of substance is it desensitizes you to danger. We've all seen the movies, right, where someone is intoxicated and they're stumbling toward danger and you're just wanting to reach into the screen and stop them, and they they're completely oblivious to their vulnerability and the danger. Paul says, Hey guys, you're drunk on the things you've been hearing and taking in from the culture, this Gnosticism and all the rest. And I want to rouse you out of this drunken stupor so you'll stop and won't go on sinning. The last person often to know they're drunk is the drunk person. Everyone else is like, raising eyebrows. There's a desensitization that takes place when we are intoxicated by unbiblical ideology. So, based on these two admonitions, I want to challenge us in two quick ways before we close. First, from the youngest to the oldest here, I want to challenge us to redouble our efforts to treat and then to screen our media consumption, treating it as spiritual company. When you open your iPhone or, Lord help, your Android device. Can I get a witness? No. Um recognize that whatever you're going to consume is spiritual company. We can't bifurcate our lives and like this is the sacred part and this is the secular part, and I can do whatever I want over here, and it doesn't really affect that the two shall never uh mix. And so I'm okay over here, no matter what I do over here. No, I want to I want to challenge you to view whatever you consume and whoever you're around, it's spiritual company that impacts you spiritually. And it's not simply news, it's not simply harmless entertainment. Everything we give our minds and hearts to, especially habitually, is spiritual company that shapes us. Either more into the image of Christ or into the image of the world. Second, I want to challenge us to steward our physical bodies in light of God's plans for them in the end. One of the reasons why the Corinthians thought it was okay, some of them, to go to the local temple and hook up with a temple prostitute was because they believed the bodies weren't going to be raised. This body's just an old junker, anyways. It's going to be tossed in the grave one day, my soul will be free from anything I've done in this life. That's why Paul would constantly say, No, you're going to receive judgment for what you did in this life in your body. 2 Corinthians 5, 8 through 10. If God has created and designed our bodies and so values them that he's committed himself to raising them from the dead on the last day, should we not commit ourselves to taking care of our bodies? These are not disposable shells that are incidental to who we are. They are part of who we are. One theologian at Southern Seminary, I think, makes a very valid point. He writes in his book, Embodied, he actually says, I am my body. He doesn't mean to say, he's a monist, he doesn't mean to say that we are only our body. He views the soul and the body so inextricably united in personhood that you can say, I am my body, I am my soul, because they are inextricably. And then you, it's a very unnatural state to be disembodied. So he argues in his book, it's worth checking out. And it changes the way we view, it radically changes the way we view our bodies. We often think of ourselves as I am a soul and I have a body. He says, No, God made you as an embodied soul. You're just as much a body as you are a soul. Therefore, treat your body with the same dignity you would your soul. Our bodies are gifts to be stewarded and treated wisely, temples of the Holy Spirit to be kept holy, instruments to be offered to God in service to his glory. I'm gonna close. I've got a story real quick. A few months back I had a conversation with my six-year-old daughter, Eden. I was tucking her into bed for the night, and uh she was laying there, and out of the blue, just before I turned the light off, she said, Daddy, and she had this worried look on her face. She said, Daddy, I don't want to die. It's one of those questions, one of those remarks that you don't exactly feel fully prepared for, even if you know the right answers. And so I asked her a few questions to try to understand where she was coming from. Did she, you know, watch a Disney movie where in the first three minutes of every Disney movie ever created, the parents die? Maybe that's what it was. Couldn't her favorite movie, uh Frozen, the parents die. It's just a pattern. She says, Daddy, I don't want to die. So I I had a choice here. What was I gonna tell her? How would I shepherd her heart in this? She was worried. This was gonna keep her up. I don't want to miss this opportunity. This is a golden opportunity to gain access into her heart and then to teach her. And so I just prayed. I was like, I mean, I was a little intimidated. I was like, Lord, give me wisdom here. And so I asked her a few questions and she said a few things, and then and then I gave her the gospel. I didn't have to invent some super fancy answer. I just gave her the gospel that I believe that gives comfort to my heart when I think about death. I explained that death is sad and something we all face because of our sins against God. But death is not something that those who love Jesus and trust in Jesus have to live in fear of. Why? Because Jesus, when he died for our sins, he came back to life. Death couldn't hold him as a captive. And because Jesus died for our sins and came back from the dead, death is a lot like our bodies falling asleep. Paul, in fact, uses that euphemism here: those who have fallen asleep. It's like falling asleep and waking up letters. Since Jesus came back to life, our bodies also will one day wake up and come alive again and be reunited with our souls. And guess what, Eden? Our bodies will be special bodies. They'll be beautiful, they'll be perfect, they'll be like Jesus' glorified body, but it'll still be us. And then we'll get to live with Jesus and those who love Jesus and we'll see him face to face in a perfect world of joy and peace and wholeness. And one level, this kind of sounds like let's just pie in the sky wishful thinking, right? Well, number one, it corresponds with our longings. Number two, it corresponds with the promise of the gospel. These are the very things that we are to disciple our kids in. As I said these things, I did wonder if it would satisfy her, because I mean, she's a young girl, maybe she wouldn't understand all the terms I was using. I wondered if this would satisfy her. And to my delight, and I'll never forget this, and even surprise, a smile slowly started spreading across her little face, and she became giddy with laughter and started giggling and laughing as she was laying there in bed. She was so excited. She said, So we won't stay dead, and we'll get to see Jesus for real. And I'll never forget this line. I can't wait to see Jesus for real in real life. Her joy in the gospel melted my heart. I really think it's the same childlike joy and hope that even a young child can comprehend. That the apostle Paul is pointing us as believers in Jesus Christ. In the end, death will be dead, we'll be reembodied and more alive than ever, for real, in real life. Church, the grave is real, but it's not final. Death is menacing, but it will not be triumphant. The cemetery is not the end of our story. The cemetery is a field waiting for the harvest. Christ is risen and all will rise. And so we believers grieve death, but not as those who have no hope. We labor and we sacrifice, but not as those who labor in vain. We soberly pursue holiness in the fear of God because our bodies belong to the Lord and will one day be raised in glory.