(A continuation of our study of what happened after the resurrection event.)

1 Corinthians 15:1-22
"Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand,
by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.
For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received; that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures,
and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep.
After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles.
Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time.
For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.
But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.
Therefore, whether it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.
Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?
But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen.
And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty.
Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up—if in fact the dead do not rise.
For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen.
And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins!
Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.
If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most pitiable. But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead.
For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive."

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In our last study, we were considering the effect that the resurrection had on the disciples and their preaching. We noted that the first event following the resurrection was a RESURRECTION CELEBRATION held in Galilee where Jesus spent time with the disciples confirming their faith and removing all doubt...He truly was Christ they had listened to and followed and observed as He was nailed to the cross. He had conquered death and the grave!
There is one aspect that we didn't consider in our last study and it has to do with the nature of the resurrection body.
We find ourselves in the presence of a great mystery when we try to contemplate the real nature of the risen body of the Lord Jesus.
When He rose from the grave, He rose to die no more; He would never again be subject to the power of death, for "death hath no more dominion over Him" (Romans 6:9).
His body was endowed with properties and qualities which were new and mysterious; it was totally different both in action and in being from the limitations which had prevailed "in the days of His flesh" (Hebrews 5:7).
He could appear and vanish at will in a manner that was wholly spontaneous and supernormal; He could ignore or transcend natural barriers in a way that is quite beyond ordinary comprehension.
Thus, He emerged from the graveclothes while not a single fold was displaced (John 20:5), and He left the tomb even though the stone had yet to be rolled away. "And behold, there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat on it." (Matt. 28:2)
He revealed Himself to Mary in the garden and then to the women by the wayside, and He withdrew again without a hint to tell them how He came or where he went. "But Mary stood outside by the tomb weeping, and as she wept she stooped down and looked into the tomb. And she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain.
Then they said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?" She said to them, "Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him."
Now when she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, and did not know that it was Jesus." (John 20:11-14)
He joined the two disciples on the way to Emmaus as though He had come from nowhere (Luke 24:14), and He left them in the inn at the village as though He had vanished into space. "Then they drew near to the village where they were going, and He indicated that He would have gone farther. But they constrained Him, saying, "Abide with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent." And He went in to stay with them.
Now it came to pass, as He sat at the table with them, that He took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they knew Him; and He vanished from their sight" (Luke 24:28-31).
Twice He stood in the midst of the disciples who had assembled behind shut doors and iron bolts, and there was no obvious means of ingress or egress.

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His manifestations to the seven by the lake and to the brethren on the hills of Galilee were no less sudden and unexplained (John 21:4).
IT WOULD SEEM THAT ALL THE RESURRECTION APPEARANCES WERE MARKED BY THIS DRAMATIC QUALITY! No one knew where He was in the intervals between each appearance or whence He came on each occasion. Yet the gospel records make it plain that His body risen was identical to His body buried.
HIS RESURRECTION BODY WAS A REAL BODY!
Proof of this may be found in the series of manifestations to the disciples: "To whom also He showed Himself alive after His passion by many infallible proofs, being seen by them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God" (Acts 1:3).
The disciples not only saw Him with their eyes, but they were allowed to feel Him with their hands. It would seem that Mary fell at His feet and held them fast when she met Him in the garden; and it was this eager clasping of His limbs which called forth the gentle prohibition..."Touch Me not" (John 20:17). She had felt Him, and found Him real; she had touched Him, and that was enough!
When He revealed Himself to the women shortly after this scene, we are told that "they came, and held Him by the feet, and worshipped Him" (Matthew 28:9). They had not been without fear and trepidation when they first hear of the resurrection; that fear was not wholly allayed even by the message of the angel or the sight of Jesus Himself. It was only when they held Him by the feet and felt Him with their hands that all their fears were swallowed up in adoring certainty.
ANOTHER FORM OF EVIDENCE IS THE FACT THAT HE ATE WITH THEM FROM TIME TO TIME.
The first occasion was when the two disciples constrained Him to lodge with them in Emmaus. He went in as a guest and sat down as a host to sup with them and they with Him; "And it came to pass as He sat at meat with them, He took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them" (Luke 24:30).
When He stood in the midst of the disciples that same evening, He dispelled their fears in the same way. He asked them if any food was available, and they gave Him a piece of broiled fish and some honeycomb; "And He took it, and did eat before them" (Luke 24:43).
When Jesus met His disciples at the Sea of Tiberias, He prepared the fire on the seashore and prepared breakfast for the disciples. "Jesus said to them, "Come and eat breakfast." Yet none of the disciples dared ask Him, "Who are You: —knowing that it was the Lord. Jesus then came and took the bread and gave it to them, and likewise the fish. This is now the third time Jesus showed Himself to His disciples after He was raised from the dead" (John 21:12-14).
HIS RESURRECTION BODY WAS THE SAME BODY IN WHICH HE CONDUCTED HIS PUBLIC MINISTRY WITH HIS DISCIPLES. Proof of this may be found in the permanence of the stigmata which He bore in His hands and feet and side. On that Easter evening when He came and stood in the midst of those whom He had loved, they heard Him say: "Peace be unto you" (John 20:19). Then without more ado, we read:

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"When He had so said. He shewed unto them His hands and His side" (John 20:20).
There is a larger doctrinal consideration that I would like to suggest before we leave this subject of the nature of the resurrection body. The physical resurrection of Jesus, and His eternal possession of a physical resurrection body, give clear affirmation of the goodness of the material creation that God originally made: "And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good" (Genesis 1:31).
We as resurrected men and women will live forever in "new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells" (2 Peter 3:13). We will live in a renewed earth that "will be set free from its bondage of decay" (Romans 8:21), and become like a new Garden of Eden.
There will be a new Jerusalem, and people "shall bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations" (Rev. 21:26), and there will be "the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month" (Revelation 22:1-2). In this very material, physical, renewed universe, it seems that we will need to live as human beings with physical bodies, suitable for life in God's renewed physical creation. Specifically, Jesus' physical resurrection body affirms the goodness of God's original creation of man not as a mere spirit like the angels, but as a creature with a physical body that was 'very good." We must not fall into the error of thinking that nonmaterial existence is somehow a better form of existence for creatures; when God made us as a pinnacle of His creation. He gave us physical bodies. In a perfected physical body Jesus rose from the dead and now reigns in heaven, and will return to take us to be with Himself forever! "For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself" (Philippians 3:21).
"So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; 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. So it is written: "The first man Adam became a living being"; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven. As 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.
And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven" (1 Corinthians 15:42-49). "Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. Meanwhile we grown, longing to be clothed with

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our heavenly dwelling, because when we are clothed we will not be found naked. For while we are in this tent we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come." (2 Corinthians 5:1-5). In this passage, Paul is saying that to him, it will be a day of joy when he is done with this human body. He regards it as merely a tent, a temporary dwelling place, in which we sojourn till the day comes when it is dissolved and we enter in the real abode of our souls. The Greek and the Roman thinkers despised the body. "The body," they said, "is a tomb." Plotinus could say that he was ashamed that he had a body. Epictetus said of himself, "Thou art a poor soul burdened with a corpse." Seneca wrote, "I am a higher being and born for higher things than to be a slave of my body which I look upon as only a shackle put upon my freedom...In so detestable a habitation dwells the free soul." Even Jewish thought sometimes had this idea. "For the corruptible body presses down upon the soul and the earthly tabernacle weighs down the mind the muses on many things" (Wisdom 9:15).
With Paul there is a difference. He is not looking for a Nirvana with the peace of extinction; he is not looking for absorption in the divine; he is not looking for the freedom of a disembodied spirit; he is waiting for the day when God will give him a new body; a spiritual body, in which he will still be able, even in the heavenly places, to serve and to adore God.
Kipling once wrote a poem in which he thought of all the great things that a man would be able to do in the world to come:
"When earth's last picture is painted
And the tubes are twisted and dried,
When the oldest colours have faded,
And the youngest critic has died,
We shall rest, and, faith, we shall need it--
lie down for an aeon or two,
Till the Master of All Good Workmen
Shall put us to work anew.
And those that were good shall be happy,
They shall sit in a golden chair
They shall splash at a ten-league canvas
With brushes of comet's hair.
They shall find real saints to draw from,
Magdalene, Peter and Paul,
They shall work for an age at a sitting
And never be tired at all.
And only the Master shall praise them,
And only the Master shall blame;
And no one will work for money
And no one will work for fame;
But each for the joy of working,
And each in his separate star,
Shall draw the thing as he sees it;
For the God of things as they are."
It is impossible for us to imagine what we shall be like, but we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is!

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The resurrection changed fear and doubt of the disciples into certainty and joy...the resurrected body of Jesus gives us the promise that we too shall have a body like unto His body when we arrive in His presence, but there is more about the resurrection for us to think about.
Let us consider the doctrinal significance of the Resurrection.
(1) CHRIST'S RESURRECTION INSURES OUR REGENERATION.
Peter says that "we have been born anew to a living hope through the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead (1 Peter 1:3). Here he explicitly connects Jesus' Resurrection with our regeneration or new birth. When Jesus rose from the dead He had a new quality of life, a "Resurrection Life" in a human body and human spirit that were perfectly suited for fellowship and obedience to God forever. In His Resurrection, Jesus earned for us the new kind of life just like His! We do not receive all of that new "Resurrection Life" when we become Christians, for our bodies remain as they were, still subject to weakness, aging and death. But in our spirits we are made alive with new Resurrection power! "But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you" (Romans 8:11). Thus it is through His Resurrection that Christ earned for us the new kind of life we receive when we are "born again." This is why Paul can say that God "made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him" (Ephesians 2:5-6). When God raised Christ from the dead He thought of us as somehow being raised "with Christ" and therefore deserving the merits of Christ's Resurrection! Paul says his goal in life is "that I may know Him and the power of His Resurrection...(Phil. 3:10). Paul knew that even in this life the Resurrection of Christ gave new power for Christian ministry and obedience to God. For Paul the Resurrection was not simply a past event in history, however amazing. It was not simply something which had happened to Jesus, however important it was for Him. It was a dynamic power which operated in the life of the individual Christian!
Paul connects the Resurrection of Christ with the spiritual power at work within us when he tells the Ephesians that he is praying that they would know "what is the immeasurable greatness of His power in us who believe, according to the working of His great might which He accomplished in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and made Him sit at His right hand in the heavenly places" (Ephesians 1:19-20). Here Paul says that the power by which God raised Christ from the dead is the same power at work within us! Paul further sees us as raised in Christ when he says, "We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life...So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus" (Romans 6:4,11).

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(2) CHRIST'S RESURRECTION INSURES OUR JUSTIFICATION.
In only one passage does Paul explicitly connect Christ’s Resurrection with our justification (or our receiving a declaration that we are not guilty but righteous before God). Paul says that Jesus "was put to death for our trespasses and raised for our justification" (Romans 4:25). When Christ was raised from the dead, it was God's declaration of approval, of Christ's work of redemption. Because Christ humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death on a cross, "God has highly exalted Him..." (Phil. 2:9) By raising Christ from the dead, God the Father was in effect saying that He approved of Christ's suffering and dying for our sins, that His work was completed, and that Christ no longer had any need to remain dead. There was no penalty left to pay for sin, no more wrath of God to bear, no more guilt or liability to punish—all had been completely paid for, and no guilt remained.
In the Resurrection, God was saying to Christ, "I approve of what You have done, and You find favor in My sight!" If God "raised us up with Him" then by virtue of our union with Christ, God's declaration of approval of Christ is also His declaration of approval of us! When the Father in essence said to Christ, "All the penalty for sins has been paid and I find You not guilty but righteous in My sight," He was thereby making the declaration that would also apply to us once we trusted in Christ for salvation!
In this way Christ's Resurrection also gave final approval and proof that He had earned our justification.
(3) CHRIST'S RESURRECTION INSURES THAT WE WILL RECEIVE PERFECT RESURRECTION BODIES AS WELL. The New Testament several times connects Jesus' Resurrection with our final bodily Resurrection.
"And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by His power" (1 Corinthians 6:14). Similarly, "He who raised the Lord Jesus will also raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into His presence" (2 Cor. 4:14). The most extensive discussion of the connection between Christ's Resurrection and our own is found in 1 Corinthians 15:12—58. There Paul says that Christ is the "first fruits." Paul uses a metaphor from agriculture to indicate that we will be like Christ. Just as the "first fruits" or the first taste of the ripening crop show what the rest of the harvest will be like for that crop, so Christ as the "first fruits" shows what our Resurrection bodies will be like when, in God's final "harvest," He raises us from the dead and brings us into His eternal presence. "Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is." (1 John 3:1-2).

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After Jesus' Resurrection, He still had the nail prints in His hands and feet and the mark from the spear in His side (John 20:27). People sometimes wonder if that indicates that the scars of serious injuries that we have received in this life will also remain on our Resurrection bodies. The answer is that we probably will not have any scars from injuries or wounds received in this life, but our bodies will be made perfect, "incorruptible" and raised in glory. The scars from Jesus' crucifixion are unique because they are an eternal reminder of His sufferings and death for us.
The fact that He retains those scars does not necessarily mean that we shall retain ours. Rather, all will be healed, and all will be made perfect and whole.
Paul also sees that the Resurrection has application to our obedience to God in this life. After a long discussion of the Resurrection, Paul concludes by encouraging his readers, "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain." (1 Corinthians 15:58). It is because Christ was raised from the dead, and we too shall be raised from the dead, that we should continue steadfastly in the Lord's work. This is because everything that we do to bring people into the kingdom and build them up will indeed have eternal significance, because we shall all be raised on the day when Christ returns, and we shall live with Him forever.
Paul encourages us, when we think about the Resurrection, to focus on our future heavenly reward as our goal. He sees the Resurrection as a time when the struggles of this life will be repaid. "If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory" (Colossians 3:1-4).
The Resurrection places on us the obligation to stop yielding to sin in our lives. When Paul says we are to consider ourselves "dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus" by virtue of the Resurrection of Christ and His Resurrection power within us (Romans 6:11), he then goes on immediately to say, "Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies...Do not yield your members to sin" (Romans 6:12-13). The fact that we have this new Resurrection power over the dominion of sin in our lives is used by Paul as a reason to exhort us not to sin any more.
AFTER THE RESURRECTION, THEN THE ASCENSION. After Jesus' Resurrection, He was on earth for forty days (Acts 1:3), then He lead them out to Bethany, just outside Jerusalem, and "lifting up His hands, He blessed them. While He blessed them, He parted from them, and was carried up into heaven" (Luke 24:50-51). Christ is now in heaven with the angelic choirs singing praise to Him....WORTHY IS THE LAMB WHO WAS SLAIN...WORTHY IS THE LAMB!