Resurrection Gives Us Hope

 And now, dear brothers and sisters, we want you to know what will happen to the believers who have died so you will not grieve like people who have no hope. 14 For since we believe that Jesus died and was raised to life again, we also believe that when Jesus returns, God will bring back with him the believers who have died.
15 We tell you this directly from the Lord: We who are still living when the Lord returns will not meet him ahead of those who have died. 16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, the Christians who have died will rise from their graves. 17 Then, together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Then we will be with the Lord forever. 18 So encourage each other with these words.
1 Thess 4:13-18


What wonderful news! Christians are people who have hope. Yes, we grieve, but not without hope. Because Jesus rose from the dead, we believe that all those who have died, and all who will die, will also rise from the dead.
Recently, a christian woman asked me some questions about what happens to those who have died. She thought that they were in some type of waiting room, waiting until the final return of Christ when their bodies would be resurrected to go to heaven, or that they were just sleeping until the final resurrection. She wondered if the living need to "let go" of their dead loved ones so that they could go on in peace, that posssibly our holding on to our loved ones keep their spirits held to the earth. I have also been asked if people become angels after they die. There are so many confusing ideas circulating about what happens when a person dies. The Bible is clear that, for believers in Jesus, when we die, we go to be with Him.

The Bible often speaks of death as a sleep. In fact, that Biblical description of death is comforting and consoling to the believer.  Jesus said to His disciples, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but now I will go and wake him up." The disciples said, "Lord, if he is sleeping, he will soon get better!" They thought Jesus meant Lazarus was simply sleeping, but Jesus meant Lazarus had died. John 11:11-13
Of the martyrdom and death of Stephen, we read: “He fell asleep” (Acts 7:60). When the Apostle Paul was yet alive, he said that of the five hundred brethren who had seen Christ alive after His Resurrection, “some are fallen asleep” (1 Corinthians 15:6). The Apostle Peter, speaking of Old Testament saints, said: “The fathers fell asleep” (2 Peter 3:4).

That description applies to the body only and never to the soul. This temporary suspension of the activities of the body does not mean that the spirit of man is asleep. The body is the dwelling place of the person part of man. Upon the death of the body, the soul and spirit of a believer goes to be with God, closing the senses of the body until the day of its resurrection.

Philippians 1:21-23For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. 22 If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. 23 I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.

Luke 23:42-43And he was saying, "Jesus, remember me when You come in Your kingdom!" 43 And He said to him, "Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.

"Depart and be with Christ." "Today you shall be with Me." No question about where a believer goes after death.

So, when we die, our inner person goes to be with God. Our bodies "sleep" until the end time when Jesus returns and resurrects them. At that time, Jesus will change our bodies into a body that is like His body in resurrection.

In heaven, we will have a literal body just as real as the one we have now,

Phil 3:20-21
20 But we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives. And we are eagerly waiting for him to return as our Savior. 21 He will take our weak mortal bodies and change them into glorious bodies like his own, using the same power with which he will bring everything under his control.

God will take our weak mortal bodies and change them into glorious bodies like his.
The word “change” means to transfigure. It has been suggested that we have here the thought of metamorphosis which is a remarkable change in the form and structure of a living body. When our Lord took Peter, James, and John up into the Holy Mountain, we read that “He was transfigured before them” (Matthew 17:2). Christ appeared during that brief period of time in His glorified body. He was transfigured (or metamorphosed) before them. It was a body like His post-resurrection body when He appeared to His disciples behind shut doors (John 20:19).
1 John 3:2
2 Dear friends, we are already God's children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is.

Paul describes what our bodies will be like.

1 Cor 15:35-48
35 But someone will ask, "How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?" 36 You foolish person! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. 37 And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. 38 But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body. 39 For not all flesh is the same, but there is one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish. 40 There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is of one kind, and the glory of the earthly is of another. 41 There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory.
42 So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. 43 It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. 44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. 45 Thus it is written, "The first man Adam became a living being"; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 46 But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. 47 The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven.

So, according to Paul, our bodies will be changed:


From perishable to imperishable.
When I hear the word perishable, I always think of food. Produce is perishable because it doesn't last long.
Death is written on the face of all that is alive. The moment we begin to live we begin to die. I know that my body is not like it used to be! Our resurrection bodies will be imperishable. More lasting than food that we call imperishable of course. They will be imperishable in an absolute sense..eternal, immortal. 

From Dishonour to GloryThe word dishonor also means disgrace. Our bodies are born in with shame because of the fall of man.
The word translated glory actually indicates glory that is revealed, made apparent.
I think of Genesis, when Adam and Eve were naked and were not ashamed. After they sinned, they hid because they were naked. Before sin, they had bodies with glory. After sin, they had bodies that were in dishonor. 
Resurrected bodies will not be affected by sin, so there will be no shame, but only glory. 

From Weakness to PowerIt is sown in weakness; it is raised in power (1 Corinthians 15:43).Weak bodies have their limitations. We just cannot do the work that we want to do. I know that for me, my spirit is stirred by many things, and I have the desire to share the gospel around the world, to feed the hungry, to help free those who are enslaved...but, I am just so limited by physical restraints. I set a schedule based on things that I want to do, but realize that I cannot possibly do everything on my list because I run our of energy. But in Heaven we shall know nothing of physical weakness.Here on earth we find that the spirit sometimes is willing, but the flesh is weak. So many people have the desire to serve, but cannot as much as attend a church service because of bodily affliction, but in Heaven all will have strong bodies. The limitations of earth are not known in Heaven. What a glorious change that will be! Raised in power! 
The new body will be a habitation from God, incorruptible, immortal, and powerful.

From the Natural to the SpiritualIt is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body (1 Corinthians 15:44).
When the resurrection body is called “a spiritual body,” it is not meant that it will be composed of intangible substance. Robert S. Candlish has said: “The words natural and spiritual, as applied to the body, have respect not so much to the nature of the substance of which the body is composed, as to the uses or purposes which it is intended to serve.” On earth we are occupied to a greater degree with the natural body, while in Heaven in our resurrection bodies we will be occupied with all that pertains to God and godliness. The spiritual life of man will prevail.The word translated "spiritual" comes from the Greek "pneuma." But the word is pneumatikosGreek adjectives that end in -kos do not describe the substance out of which something is made. They describe the force that is animating the thing in question. It's the difference between saying on the one hand, "Is this a wooden ship or a steel ship?" and saying on the other hand, "Is this a nuclear-powered ship or a steam-powered ship?" And the sort of adjective it is of the latter type, it's a spirit-powered body.

Natural is actually psuchikón from the word psuche, which means soul, with the ending kos, meanins powered by.Our body now is powered by the soul, by our emotions, our mentality, our will. The body we will have in resurrection will be powered by our spirit, which is indwelt by the spirit of God.


Isn't that just the best thing to think about!

For we know that if the tent, which is our earthly home, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, 3 if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. 4 For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. 5 He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.
6 So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, 7 for we walk by faith, not by sight. 8 Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 2 Cor 5:1-9

Finally, as Paul said "So encourage each other with these words."