Q&A21:What happens to our bodies?Q&A22:What will our new bodies be like?

So the first question, what happens to our bodies after we die? It may be possible for some to arrive at the conclusion that we just get a new body and this old one's just kind of left behind, you know, and we're all done with this carcass. But what we find when we look at Scripture is that's not quite the case. We do get a new body, but it is not generated by leaving this one entirely behind. It is generated by changing the one that we have, even for those who have been dead for a time. So that's real interesting. Now, as much as we're going to try to answer some questions, this will still leave you with questions. Why? Because I can't answer them, right?

So, we will go as far as scripture will lead us. Alright, this question directly addresses how our present body is changed into our new body. Alongside this question is how this present body is changed into the new body if we die physically. and how it is that different from how the present body is changed in the new body for the believer who is alive at the time of the rapture. The next question that is implied after this one is, what will our new bodies, it says by like should be be like, what will our new bodies be like, which is question 22. Let's step our way through what scripture reveals. We do know that there's a resurrection as the Apostle Paul explains for us in 1st Corinthians 15 35 through 44 and I'll Read that in part, 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 and that which you sow you do not sow the body which is to be and but of a bear grain, perhaps wheat or something else. But God gives it a body just as he wished, and to each of the seeds a body of its own. All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another flesh of birds, and another of fish. There are also heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is one and the glory of the earthly is another. There is one glory of the sun and another glory of the moon, another glory of the stars. for a star differs from star and glory. Verse 42, so also is the resurrection of the dead.

It is sown a perishable body, it is raised an imperishable body. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.

We went through this passage not too long ago, when we went through 1 Corinthians 15, and we took a while to go through it. We went through it slowly, and that was by intent, not because I'm just slow, right? And the reason we did that was because there's so much truth revealed in these passages, very important truth for us to know, that we went through it in a fair amount of detail. One of the slides from that lesson is included in the bottom of your handout there in a slide insert. So you can look at that, our study there, it's number 33 in the 1st and 2nd Corinthians series.

Briefly though, we can say that the present body is different in kind than the believer's new body will be, but that the present body is not abandoned and simply replaced. but that the material that constitutes the present physical body is changed into the spiritual body, we will have for eternity.

When Christ was resurrected is what happened that they wrapped his body and put it in the tomb, and then they opened up the door, rolled the stone away, and when people came to see Jesus' body, there he was still all wrapped up, and then his new body was standing next to the old body. Is that the way it worked? No. It wasn't. Isn't that interesting? What took place is Jesus' body, like ours, Jesus' body came out of the cloth material and was made into the new body by a change.

So there is a change that comes about in the generation of the new body from the old body, not simply the old body left and a new one in its place. So that's a key thing and that's why our bodies aren't just buried, they're sown. Our bodies are sown. They are used in the generation of the new body, not by simply taking the old body and making it work again, like Lazarus, but rather instead the new body is made from the material of the old body. There is a change that God brings about. in the generation of the new body, using the old body.

Okay, let's take a look at page 2. Farther along, that makes me think of a song, but be careful, you don't want to get me singing songs. In that same passage, Paul says that the believer's body will be changed. So 1 Corinthians 15, 50-57. 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, and a mystery, remember, is not something that remains all mysterious and unknown. A mystery is something that was previously not revealed, as Paul uses the word, but is now revealed. So it's used differently than we commonly use the word mystery. And by the way, it's Colossians chapter 1. where he actually defines, that's how he uses the word mystery. Okay. I tell you a mystery.

We will not all sleep, and sleep is a euphemism for believers who die, okay? We will not all sleep, that is, we will not all die physically as believers. And by the way, when he says we, who's the we? Believers, right? Okay. And so he actually includes himself in this.

We will all be changed, not simply bodily replaced, changed. 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. This has been termed, and it's not a word that's directly in the Bible, but it is in this passage and others, as we'll soon see, taught This is the word that we call the rapture. It's based on a Latin term. And so that's what this is describing. This rapture. Now here's something to remember.

If you're a believer, all believers will be raptured. All. Some will be raptured, taken up, having as Paul puts it, fallen asleep in the Lord and will be taken up. Others will be taken alive. So all believers will be raptured. Sometimes I hear believers say something like, well, I hope the Lord raptures me.

Well, if you're a believer, you will be. Count on it. You will be raptured. Period. Some will fall asleep, as he puts it, right here in this in the very letter, and others will be taken alive if they're alive when the Lord comes. But all believers will be raptured. Period. Let me resume here in verse 53.

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. So that change that the Lord will bring about in the future, perhaps soon, and I would be happy if the future was before we get done with this class. That would be fine with me. Okay. But when it takes place, it will happen in an instant. And we're waiting for years and years and years, and when the Lord finally does it, it'll go flash! That's all done. You know, I'm standing here before you, I'll go blink, and by the time I open my eyes, I'll be with the Lord. Right?

It'll be that fast. It won't be a, you know, remember those, was it Star Trek where they used to have these people sort of materialize a little at a time and they'd get stuck? Oh man, I can't imagine that. But so you get these people half materialized and they're half here and half there.

It won't be any of that stuff. Okay? And, you know, it won't be, beam me up Jesus, you know? So none of that. So none of that stuck in halfway, or nothing wrong with the machine, or the Lord didn't get you done in time, or any of that stuff. It will be in an instant. It will be absolute. If you're a believer, done deal. And the Lord's not going to go, OK, everybody come up. I'm not sure about you.

The Lord will be absolutely certain about every believer right then. We covered this in more detail in Lesson 34, which was the next lesson after the one I mentioned previously. So Paul tells us at that time, we who believe of the body of Christ, the church, will be taken up to be with Christ at a time of the Father's choosing that he describes like this. And now we're going to shift to 1 Thessalonians 4, 13-18. We do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep. And again, he continues with this euphemism. Those who are asleep are those who are believers who have died physically. So, by the way, why does he use the word asleep? I mean, is he just trying to trick you? What's the deal? Why the use of the word asleep?

Yeah? Pardon? The difference in the Greek word? The word is sleep there. Yeah? I don't know exactly what it was, but there is two different types of sleep. Okay. All right. Norm? I'm just going to say because we're all aware of what it's like to sleep. Yeah. It's something that, you know, hopefully you're somebody who is aware of what it's like to sleep. You know, that would be nice. But yeah, you're correct. Here's a euphemism that we can all relate to. And so that's a part of it.

The other thing is death in our common culture implies something that really isn't quite the case. We tend to think of death as this awful finality, and especially in terms of the culture of Paul's day, where people coming out of the pagan background, death was something, it wasn't good, there wasn't any real hope, there wasn't any certainty. They'd put markings on the gravestones and they would enlist these people called the Association of the Thracian Horsemen to come and do certain rituals to kind of make sure that when you got escorted, you know, this loved one's soul got escorted into the place for the dead, that things didn't go too badly. And basically the things that living people did was kind of a continuance. of this process of trying to make sure that things ended up well with those who had died. Here he puts it, those who are asleep, to indicate that it's just something temporary. And matter of fact, it's a gentle word as opposed to death, which is a word that is more severe and violent. Yeah, Russ? You know, since passage from the body is impressive with the board. Yes.

Notice that I haven't used the term soul sleep, and we've addressed that previously when we were going through the first Corinthian series. I think what scripture describes, and I can only put this as I think reasonable speculation, but I need to couch it in those terms.

And that is that the person who dies is not waiting around, you know, speaking with figures of speech, twiddling their thumbs, saying, well, Lord, let's get on with this, you know. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord, even though in earth time, centuries may go by from the time the person dies up until the rapture. But I think that what scripture indicates is that we are advanced forth in time, if time is quite the right word, to that time. So that, for example, that when Hal went home to be with the Lord a few years back now, when Hal went home to be with the Lord, he's not waiting around and saying, man, this has taken a long time.

His waiting room is just, you know, not quite what I had in mind. He's not in that kind of mode at all, but rather taken forward. Again, this is using our time perspective. Here we are stuck in a time tunnel and brought into the presence of the Lord instantly.

And that's, I think, what Paul means by those who are asleep in Christ will precede those who are taken alive when the Lord comes. Let me read 1 Thessalonians 4, 13-18. 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.

By the way, does this mean that believers will not or should not grieve? No. What's the distinction that he makes here in this verse? Yes, we don't grieve as those who have no hope. Will we miss that person for whatever time the Lord has us here? Terribly. We most certainly will. And so it's not saying that Christians shouldn't grieve or that somehow there's something bad or evil about grieving. but that our grief will not be without hope. Our grief will not be as those who have no hope, right? Because we have not only hope, but a certain hope, a fixed hope, an absolute hope, which is really great. And that's something that should set the Christians apart.

What about those we know that have gone on for us that are not saved? Yes, and this passage is really not addressing that, is it? Yes, it addresses us and it's a much more difficult thing to deal with. Would you like me to address that sometime? Yeah, okay. Yeah, well, the only thing is, yeah, that'd be good. The only thing is we need to get through this. Because that's kind of another subject, you know, how do we deal with this?

But, 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. And by the way, we who, here is the we which says that Paul spoke as if the Lord could have come in his own lifetime. See, that's one of the principles that what's described here as the rapture provides for the situation that we can have a hope at any time that the Lord may come during our lifetime, including Paul, including these Thessalonian believers that he was writing to in the first century. The Lord could come at any time. So he says, we, okay?

For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. It's not like, okay, we got the stopwatch going, the dead in Christ are rising first, okay, okay, they're there, they're there, okay, now you ones who are alive.

I believe that what this situation is talking about is precisely what Russ brought up just minutes ago here, and that is that there is this bringing forth in time so that the person whose eyes close here in this present body are brought to be with the Lord right away. They don't experience some delay or waiting room or anything of the sort. There's no twiddling thumbs looking at the watch and, boy, I've drank 54,000 cups of coffee here and this is getting a little tiring. There isn't any waiting room kind of experience here. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together. That word, the Greek word is harpazo, okay?

And that is the equivalent to what we have termed in our English, out of the Latin, the word rapture, to be taken up with the Lord. caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And by the way, that is not the same as what we call the second coming, right? Because we will meet the Lord in the air. This isn't the Lord's coming down at the second coming to rule on the earth. We will go up and meet the Lord in the air.

Therefore, comfort one another with these words. In addressing, briefly, Norm's question, and that is, what about those who you don't know if they're saved or they're not saved, and how do we deal with that situation? This here is particularly dealing with believers, right, and addressing believers. There is a basis for comfort. For those who are believers, regarding those that you know and love and are believers, there is a basis for comfort.

Will we miss them? Yes, we will miss them terribly. Will it hurt? Yeah, there is a hurt there. We'll miss them terribly. But for those who are believers, there is a hope. Not an I hope so hope. It would be nice if this turns out well. but a certain hope, a fixed hope, an absolute hope. I have a hope and there's no way it's going to turn out bad. That kind of a hope. Comfort one another with these words.

There will be a meeting in the air. My grandpa was born in 1890. He went home to be with the Lord in 1987, so he lived 97 years. And so I haven't seen him now for some couple of decades plus. But there will be a meeting in the air. I will see him again.

And as we talked last week, there will be a recognition of believers when we go to be with the Lord. The above passage dovetails with the first Corinthians 15, 53-57 passage quoted above, giving some of the same information as in that passage, and also some additional details. One of those details is that those who have died on the Lord will rise first. Another is that the Lord himself will descend from heaven to catch us all up with him and bring the raptured church those asleep in the Lord and those alive at that time, at the time, to heaven with him so that we shall always be with the Lord. So these passages describe the change from these present earthly bodies to those bodies that we will have.

And it is a comfort to know these things, doesn't it? Comfort one another with these words. And it is a comfort to know these things. He did not want the believers in Thessalonica, nor did the Lord intend for us to be wondering, to be grieving without hope. And so this has been revealed for us. Now there's a confirmation that the present human body of a believer will not simply be replaced by another altogether, but rather the present human body will be changed. This confirmation comes in two forms.

This is Colossians 1.18. He is also head of the body of the church and he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead. First one, so that he himself will come to have first place in everything. Christ's resurrection that we read about there in the Gospels is the first. It's a prototype of our own resurrection. It's a prototype of our own resurrection. And in Christ's resurrection, his body was not just newly created and the old one left in place, but rather his resurrected body was made from the physical human body that was wrapped.

How about that? This guy didn't take all this cloth and unwrap it and unwrap it and unwrap it and unwrap it. Can you imagine these angels sitting there trying to help him get all this stuff off? Instead, he just comes out of it. Boom! There he is. He comes out of it. He's wrapped in burial cloths that was miraculously removed, leaving the cloths in place.

And this is what we talked about in John 20, 1-8. We spoke of it briefly before. Now on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb while it was still dark and saw the stone already taken away from the tomb. And by the way, roll the stone away in order for Jesus to get out? No. They did not roll the stone away in order for Jesus to get out. They rolled the stone away so that people could see that He was raised.

How do we know that? Because later on, Jesus entered the room where the disciples were, and He did by opening the creaky doors, right? No. He walked right in. No door opened, right? So getting out of the tomb was not something that required the rolling away of the stone. It could just come right out. That wasn't the issue. The issue was you need to let people know that those grave clothes are empty. His body is not in that tomb, even though the grave clothes are undisturbed, lying there right where they were.

Okay, so she ran and came to Simon Peter and the other disciple whom Jesus loved. That's John's euphemism for himself. disciple whom Jesus loved, and said to them, They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him. So Peter and the other disciple went forth, and they were going to the tomb. The two are running together, and the other disciple ran ahead faster than Peter."

This is John. and came to the tomb first. And stooping and looking in, he saw the linen wrappings lying there. But he did not go in. And so Simon Peter also came, following him, and entered the tomb. Of course, Peter's always one who rushes in, you know. So even though he came there second, he'd just rush in fearlessly. That's Peter for you.

Simon Peter came following him and entered the tomb, and he saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the facecloth which had been on his head, not lying with the linen wrappings, but rolled up in a place by itself. So the other disciple who had first come to the tomb then also entered, and he saw and believed.

Christ's resurrection was not like that of Lazarus' resurrection a week earlier. It had to be unwrapped by others when Jesus raised Lazarus back to his present life. So here's Lazarus. Lazarus is raised. They've got to take all the wrappings off. He's coming back in this life with all the wrappings back on, and Jesus says, feed him. After a few days, he's hungry. That was Lazarus. Jesus' resurrection was not like that. He simply bodily came out of the wrappings, not needing to be unwrapped, and he came out of the tomb not needing to have the stone rolled away.

All right, now question 22. What will our new bodies be like? Now we move on to the question that grows out of the first one. The believer's new body will be different from the present body, even though made from the material of the present body. There will be miraculous change from the present human form of body to the new one. But how will the new body be different? What does God reveal to us about the characteristics of this new body? All right, so page four here. We talked about Christ's resurrection body being the prototype of the believer's new body.

In addition to the passages shown above, we also know that we will be like Him. This is 1 John 3, 2. Beloved, now we are children of God and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears we will be like Him because we will see Him just as He is. You will have a body like His. Church doors locked, not a problem. Walk right in. That's not going to stop you. You will have a body like his. Yet though we know we will be like him, we don't know exactly what that will be.

We have some clues based on what happened in the case of Christ's resurrection and how Jesus appeared before his ascension. So here's John 20, verse 1, Now on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb while it was still dark and saw the stone already taken away from the tomb. The stone was gone, but apparently that was only so we would know he had risen. Because just a short time later in John 20, 19-20, we read, And when it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut, when the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, Peace be with you. Jesus could apparently enter through walls without doors being opened.

He could talk to his disciples so that he still was quite able to communicate in the language they could hear and understand. So this is another thing. The new body will have the ability to communicate. And additionally, the new body will have the ability to communicate with others even of this body type. Very interesting. Okay, so he could talk to them and then we see in a subsequent account events take place just a short time later. John 21, 1-6.

After these things, Jesus manifested himself again to the disciples at the Sea of Tiberias. We know it as the Sea of Galilee. And he manifested himself in this way. Simon Peter and Thomas, called Didymus, and Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, James and John, and two others of his disciples, not named, were together.

Simon Peter said to them, I'm going fishing. Here's Peter, boy, leading the charge. And they said to him, We will also come with you. And he went out and got into the boat, and that night they caught nothing. Here they are, professional fishermen, all. They caught nothing.

And after Peter so boldly led them off onto this thing, we're going fishing. Why would we go fishing? Because we're so good at it. We've been doing it our whole lives and we're exceedingly competent when it comes to fishing. And we know exactly how to do it.

And by the way, how come it had to be done at night? Okay, that's a part of it. But one of the other reasons, it wasn't until a few decades ago that they had nets that could be made invisible underwater. Prior to that, it was visible ropes. And so the fish, they said, hey, I'm no stupid fish. I'm not going in that net, right? And so the fish would avoid the nets because you could see them. And so the fishermen, in order to be able to try to catch something, would go fishing at nighttime.

That was the usual thing, okay? So, but when the day was now breaking, Jesus stood on the beach, yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. So Jesus said to them, oh, this is funny, children, you do not have any fish, do you? And they answered, no. And He came to them, excuse me, He said to them, cast the net on the right-hand side of the boat and you will find a catch.

It's like, oh man, we've been fishing all night. We know how to fish. But, so they cast and then they were not able to haul it in because of the great number of fish. There was nothing that made any physical sense about what they just did. We've been throwing the net over on this side all night and caught nothing. You mean to throw it over on the other side When the sun's coming up, and the fish can see the net, and somehow that's going to make a difference? No way. No way. That doesn't make any sense. But that's exactly what happened. Okay? They were not able to haul it in because of the great number of fish.

Now we see, what it appears Jesus could eat if he so desired with his new body. Again, that's the prototype for us, right? Jesus said to them, come and have breakfast in John 21 12. Next page, there which is page 5. So when they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?

This is more by implication than statement. So we can't be a hundred percent positive from this, but it does seem at least quite possible that he was eating among them, the way this is written. So in the new body, the ability to eat, but not hunger pains, low blood sugar, you know, my stomach is eating me, you know, that kind of thing. So interesting. Eating seems like it may be possible, but optional. Very interesting. So not only conversing with people who have bodies like ours at present, but at least I would say possible to likely also the ability to eat with people who have bodies like ours, but only as an option, not as a requirement. Interesting. It does seem that all the usual constraints were set aside unless he wanted to use them. He could walk through walls and disappear at will. He could also stand on the floor of the upper room and cook breakfast for them on the beach at the sea.

But when it came time for Christ to ascend, this is the description that we read, Acts 1.6-9.

So when they had come together, they were asking him, Lord, is it at this time you are restoring the kingdom to Israel? What were the people of Israel wanting? What were they longing for at this point in time? What's that? They wanted a king, a ruler. Any king? Which one? They wanted the Messiah, right? And so this is what the Jews were looking for. And their kingdom would be this kingdom in which the Messiah would reign and there would be this time of peace and prosperity for Israel, and he would also reign over all the Gentiles, king of kings and lord of lords. That's what they were looking for.

He said to them, ìIt is not for you to know the times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.î And after he had said these things, he was lifted up while they were looking on, and a cloud received him out of their sight.

Did Jesus correct their understanding by saying, no, there's not going to be any kingdom and Messiah and all that. That's not going to happen. Is that what He said? No. He only told them, now is not the time for that to happen, and the Father is going to be the one who calls the shots on that. But right now, what's going to happen is you will be empowered when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you'll be my witnesses. And so God's got something else going on right now. It's not the kingdom, not the one that you're thinking of, not the one that the Jews in Israel had been anticipating for some great length of time.

They were not going to be freed from the Romans. As a matter of fact, quite the contrary. All right, another question comes up, however. But will there be male and female in marriage in our new bodies? There is in the Mormon, Latter-day Saints belief for eternity and the whole thing. It does not indicate that to the case. Here's what you do read. Jesus answers this question in the course of actually answering a different question.

Matthew 22 23 to 33 on that day some Sadducees who say there is no resurrection came to Jesus and questioned him asking teacher Moses said if a man dies having no children his brother as next of kin shall marry his wife and raise up children for his brother now there are seven brothers with us and the first married and died and having no children left his wife to his brother and so also the second and the third down to the seventh Last of all, the woman died. In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife of the seven will she be? For they all had married her." The Sadducees wanted to put this question to Jesus because they did not believe in a resurrection. The Sadducees were in New Testament times and they were killed off, died off in the 70 AD Roman attack in Jerusalem.

They did not believe in any of the books of the Old Testament. Of course, they didn't believe in the New Testament either. Any of the books of the Old Testament except the first five, and even in that, they did not believe there was any afterlife or resurrection. They didn't believe in angels and miracles. They were what we would call very skeptical of any of that.

So they're putting this question to Jesus as some sort of a brain teaser, like, okay, if that's the way it is, and you go through all this, whose wife, whose husband, how does this work out in the afterlife? They thought they had Jesus pinned on some sort of a real brain teaser. But verse 29, Jesus answered and said to them, you are mistaken.

Well, heaven's sakes. He was bold about it. not understanding the scriptures nor the power of God. Wow! For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. But regarding the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God?

I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. Jesus, quoting from the five books that they believed in, that they said were the truth, used a verb tense, I am, the verb tense, to disprove the Sadducees. I am right now the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

In verse 30 in this context that answers our questions most directly, our new bodies will not have male and female, at least such as to be married or reproduce in them. Marriage on this earth will be superseded in heaven by the romance of Christ in the church, the eternal model for Christian marriage in time. This basically answers that question. Not male and female, at least such as to have marriage and reproduction as we have it now on earth. So interestingly, we will not have this gender arrangement in heaven. And the point being that marriage is superseded by the eternal romance of Christ in the church, which, by the way, is the model for marriage here and now.

Nancy and I, of course, do marriage counseling, and recently have done quite a bit of premarital counseling with Aaron and April. getting married in March and then Calvin and See just this last Monday. Was it that long ago? Anyway, Calvin and See this last Monday and it is a wonderful thing to be able to counsel with the Word of God and to counsel in marriage counseling with depth and not be limited to simply this world's tools and techniques for marriage counseling. We have been married, it'll be in November, 37 years, and it just gets more exciting every day.

It is really cool. But as much as that's true, Nancy and I have talked about this. I said, Nancy, I just love being married to you. I'm just crazy about you. But when we go to be with the Lord, it will not be a big disappointment. We won't say, oh man, this is really cool up here in heaven, but I miss being married to Nancy.

It won't be like that. I think what it'll be, it won't be a disappointment, it won't be a step backwards. It will be that the marriage between Christ and the church will be so awesome that it will overshadow the greatness of the very best of the best here. There won't be any, oh, I missed this, or oh, sure would have been nice to have had this. There won't be any of that.

And I'll answer very briefly part of the answer to what about those who are unsaved that die. And part of the answer is realizing that in heaven, when we are with the Lord, There will be no more mourning, sorrow, crying, or pain. That we won't go through eternity saying, oh, I feel so badly for this person or that one. What we will be aware of, what we will be focused on, and even the character of these new bodies will not involve constantly going back sorting through, combing through, re-experiencing the pains and agonies and disappointments of this world. So, I will answer it separately, though. Thoughts, comments, questions, exasperations? Yeah, Russ?

Remember last week you were talking about what would recognize people in Heaven? Yes. Human beings recognize Jesus through the walls, and in their fallen, regular bodies, they recognize him. I think in a nude body, they also recognize Jesus. Yeah, yeah. And here's an interesting twist on that. Remember the account of the disciples on the road to Emmaus? They walked with Jesus and He actually had to deliberately allow them to recognize Him. So that's another interesting thing about these new bodies is the recognition, at least by those who are still in these bodies, The recognition of the person in these new bodies is not something that's a given. So that's real curious. We're talking about something about which we have some revelation. What we do know, what is revealed to us is not exhaustive. But it is what the Lord knows that we need. Other thoughts, questions? The point he was making was this.

What the Sadducees, since they didn't believe in a resurrection, they thought, really odd, I would find it hard to be motivated if you believe that, yeah, there's a God, but this is it. This is all there is to life. When you're done, you're done. You know, that's not terribly motivating to me.

But they thought they had a brain teaser that was going to have Jesus all twisted up and tripped up. They thought, well, we got him now. Right? And the reason that they asked this question was because they wanted to have this brain teaser, this thing that would stumble Jesus, because they didn't believe in a resurrection. And they wanted him to be stumbled by this question.

And Jesus said, you know, you ask this question because you don't understand two things that you don't understand. One is this maleness and femaleness and being married is not going to continue on in heaven. That's one thing you don't understand. The other thing you don't understand is that there is a resurrection and the very books that you talk about The very books that you talk about, that you say you believe in, have within them the proof of a resurrection.

And that is, here is this present tense, I am right now the God of Abraham. I am right now the God of Isaac and of Jacob. And so that present tense verb talks about not just I was when they were around, but I am right now. I'll address your question about who's married to who, and that's that it's not going to happen.

But the other thing that was really what you guys are all about is you don't believe in a resurrection, and I'm telling you there absolutely is one. And one of the other things that Jesus talks about, not in this passage, is Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, the same guys, dining at table in the kingdom. So He knows. And he spoke in other contexts about these very same guys being right there, resurrected in their new bodies in the coming kingdom. There absolutely is a resurrection, and he wanted to make that clear to them. And what's interesting is these guys thought, this is really going to trip Jesus up.

He's not going to have an answer for this. Instead, his answer for this ended their questions. They never approached him with questions again. And it says that right here. Well, that just stumped them. I mean, they were done. They never asked him a question again. They were through. And matter of fact, it even says, even the Pharisees were impressed. Okay, yeah. Okay, I think we're done. I will address the question that Norm brought up. In fact, I can do it next week.

And that is to talk about what about those who die for when we don't have any hope. And by the way, that can be a real difficult one if you're doing, for example, a memorial or a funeral service where the person who died is not a believer. A real challenge to a pastor. How do I present hope in the situation but not for this one?

Yeah. So anyway, we'll get to that question. Okay? Let's pray. Lord, we do thank you for what you have revealed. Certainly we could ask more questions for which there at least don't seem to be answers yet. And yet a day will come, I hope it's today, when we will know and we will have answers for these things. When we go to see you face to face. We do pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.