Pastor Pat Edwards 4/16/2006
Grace Baptist Church in Bountiful, Utah

Today we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Christianity has always claimed to be an historical religion - a system of teachings and practices based on actual people and events. Recently those claims have once again been questioned. One scholar, Elaine Pagels, make the comment on a TV special that Christianity is not historical but a religion of faith. That shouldn’t surprise anyone since almost every year at Easter many of the popular news magazines put Jesus on their cover with some provocative question casting doubt on the accuracy of the written records. It’s no coincidence that the National Geographic Society released its findings concerning the Gospel of Judas just a week before Easter is celebrated. Time Magazine reported that this gospel paints an entirely different picture of Judas than the one we’re familiar with. Time states Judas is portrayed as Christ’s Confidant: Jesus said to him, "Step away from the others and I shall tell you the mysteries of the kingdom." Judas is also the Loyal Servant: "You will be cursed by the other generations...But you will exceed all of them. For you will sacrifice the man that clothes me." And ultimately Judas will be Triumphant: Jesus answered and said, "You will come to rule over them. In the last days they will curse your ascent to the holy."

Typically the popular media portrays the most extreme views of the most liberal scholars as representative of the academic community but with the Gospel of Judas they were finally more balanced in presenting commonly accepted views. Newsweek reported, The secret wisdom Jesus confides-when he's not laying out a hierarchy of angels, gods and more gods that makes Hinduism sound minimalist-is a lot like that of the Gnostic Gospels, which posit a strict enmity between flesh and spirit. Later they quote James M. Robinson’s comments on the gospel, "It tells us nothing about the historical Jesus, nothing about the historical Judas...It only tells what, 100 years later, Gnostics were doing with the story they found in the canonical Gospels."

The news magazines got it right by pointing out that the Gospel of Judas is just another gnostic story about the life of Christ and that these stories were rejected by the early church. Newsweek also describes some of the distinctive beliefs of Gnosticism rejected by Christianity such as a belief in many Gods and the rejection of the physical world in favor of the spiritual. The Gospel of Judas reports that Jesus wanted to rid himself of his evil and enslaving physical body and that it is Judas who helps him to do so. If that were true what are we doing here today? In fact what are hundreds of millions of Christians around the world doing at Easter services this weekend? If the Gnostic gospels are accurate and Gnostic beliefs are true then the last thing we would celebrate is Jesus being resurrected, to be trapped once again in a physical body after all the pain and suffering he went through to escape it.

So what do you think? Is our physical body a burden we need to be free of? Eastern religious systems certainly believe that. Those philosophies believe in reincarnation but it is a curse that we endure again and again until we finally get it right and are ultimately freed from the physical world and even personal awareness. Some of you who have gone through painful illnesses or surgeries probably also have longed at times to be free of this body. I know cancer survivors who say they will never again endure radiation and chemotherapy treatments - death if preferable. And some of you decry other forms of suffering the human body brings. Certainly many long to be free from the enslaving lusts of the body, the addictions that can make this life hell on earth. The recent newsletter from the Rescue Mission shared the testimony of a young woman whose drug-addicted parents got her addicted to Meth while still in elementary school. By the grace of God she is now free but how many who have gone through such experiences long for death to set them free? So what do you think? Is the body a blessing or curse? Is resurrection something to be desired or denied? Is the Gospel of Judas right or the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John? From the beginning God has made it clear what he thinks. Genesis 1 tells us God created the physical world during six days of creation. It also reports that during each day of his creative activity the Lord looked at the physical world he was creating and pronounced it good.

The problem is explained in the next two chapters. Mankind rebels against God and in doing so brings a curse on humanity and the world we inhabit. Our physical bodies no longer function as originally created and our intellects and emotions choose the way of death over the way of life. And our cursed world contributes to this downward spiral of destruction and death. But the fact that we’ve broken the gifts of life and fellowship doesn’t mean they have to be discarded because they can’t be repaired. In fact just the opposite is true. The repairman has come and as the saying goes, he can make them better than new. And that’s what we’re celebrating today. "No thanks, Judas. I don’t need your help to get rid of this body. I’m keeping it because I’ve found a spiritual Earl Scheib who’ll make it shine like new."

Two passages from 1 Corinthians 15 teach that not only is our continued life in the body part of God’s plan but he’s upgrading us absolutely free from the Ambassadorial Paint Service to the Presidential Paint Service. 20But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. 22For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. 23But each in his own turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. 24Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. 25For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26The last enemy to be destroyed is death.

This passage gives us a resurrection timetable. First, Christ has been raised from the dead. That starts the whole thing. As in Adam all died, in Christ all will be made alive. Our resurrection is tied to his resurrection. But it will happen like this: the resurrection of Christ, then the resurrection of his followers when he returns. Jesus will then destroy all dominion, authority and power that challenges God. The last enemy destroyed will be death since judgement is now complete and everything is now resolved. After that Jesus hands the kingdom over to the Father and the people of God live happily ever after in the presence of their God.

The second passage explains how that is possible and what makes it so wonderful. 42So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; 43it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; 44it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. 45So it is written: "The first man Adam became a living being"; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. 46The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. 47The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven. 48As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the man from heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. 49And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven.

The analogy of a seed is used to describe how we obtain the resurrection body. The body that is planted in the ground is not the body that springs up days or weeks later. The material body of the seed decays and changes form through various processes and becomes a sprout and eventually a plant but the life that is in the seed moves through all those changes and the life force itself never changes. It remains constant. So it is with those who have that new life given by Jesus.

The first thing we’re taught is that the perishable body is raised imperishable. Half of us in this room have lived long enough to know that our present bodies are perishable - we’re living proof as eyesight dims, hearing fades, joints wear out and organs begin to break down. But the followers of Jesus are given bodies like his when he rose from the dead. They will be physical but not the physical we’re used to because they have to last forever and designed for the new heaven and new earth. We don’t know if we’ll have the ability to appear and disappear like Jesus did or if the new bodies will have extraordinary powers but we know they’ll be perfect and last forever - no more aspirin, eyeglasses or knee replacements.

Secondly, the dishonored body is raised in glory - the body corrupted by sin is gone and replaced by one filled with glory. Romans 7.5-6 For when we were controlled by the sinful nature, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death. But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code. Then a few verses later, 18I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 21So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22For in my inner being I delight in God's law; 23but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. When we are raised from the dead all that will be behind us. The resurrection body will be completely controlled by the new life Christ has given us. It will be a body that serves to the glory of Jesus.

The weak body is raised in power. We are able to resist temptation and sin, but more than that - to behave perfectly. That’s primary but a secondary power might be the abilities Jesus demonstrated after his resurrection - abilities not limited to our present understanding of the laws of physics and biology. In all likelihood the power we will be raised with will seem supernatural when compared to present life. Finally the natural body is raised a spiritual body. This may mean a body capable of being perfectly filled with the Spirit of God, a body capable of doing all that the Lord asks of us in exactly the ways he desires. It may also mean a body that functions as fully in the spiritual world as it does in the physical world. We aren’t sure of all it will mean to have a resurrection body but we are promised just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven.

We will be like Jesus and we will live with him forever. What a promise and what a hope to look forward to. The goal of life is not the destruction of life as the Gospel of Judas and other religious systems assert. The goal of life is to know and love God. That is why we were created - to enjoy his love and fellowship forever. The universe is not a mistake as the Gnostics asserted or a coincidence of nature as the atheist asserts or something to flee from as some Eastern philosophies assert. People were made to exist as body and soul and life is to be celebrated because life is the expression and experience of God’s love. And even though we rejected God’s love the first time around he came back, he became one of us in order to communicate as intimately and as fully as possible God never stopped loving us and wants us back. And this time will be even better than the original because instead of living in a garden that God visits we are told the dwelling place of God will be always with his people.

Revelation 21.1-5a