Msg #2031 Saints in Resurrected Bodies

What The Bible Says

Good Samaritan's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice

“Now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept... every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterword they that are Christ's at his coming” (2Cor15:20,23). For the believer the graveyard is not burial ground, it is resurrection ground. Thirty-five hundred years ago the servant Job said, “I know that my redeemer liveth... and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God... mine eyes shall behold him...” (Job19:25-27). Saints will one day be resurrected “when this corruptible shall put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality” (1Cor15:54). Our resurrected body will be like Christ's and he appeared in different forms (Mrk16:12), ate fish and honeycomb (Luke24:42-43), was held by his feet (Mt28:9), entered through shut doors (Jn20:19), breathed on them (vr.22) and after forty days ascended out of their midst (Acts 1:9).

The only man-made thing in heaven is Christ's wounds (John20:27); our incorruptible bodies won't have those, but in all other respects will be just like the firstfruit of them that slept. Till we get there our spirit groans for it (Rom8:22-23), and we should be addicted to the ministry of the saints, as was the house of Stephanas, the firstfruits of Achaia (1Cor16:15), and behave like a kind of firstfruits of his creatures (James1:18).

In this mean time our loved ones gone to heaven know even as they are known (1Cor13:12), compass us as a great cloud of witnesses, as we run the race set before us (Heb 12:1), and, like the slain tribulation saints will do shortly, their souls cry aloud saying “How long, O Lord, holy and true dost thou not judge and avenge...” (Rev6:9-10). The Lord will soon return, even so, come, Lord Jesus.

An Essay for week #31 Aug 2, 2020

Msg in audio at www.GSBaptistChurch.com/audio/gs200802.mp3

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A weekly 300 word essay- The Penny Pulpit
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