Conformed to the image of Christ
Renowned Christian speaker Ken Davis tells a story about a woman who looked out of her window and saw her German shepherd shaking the life out of a neighbor's rabbit. Her family did not get along well with these neighbors, so this was going to be disastrous. So, she grabbed a broom and pummeled the dog until it dropped the now extremely dead rabbit out of its mouth. Then, in a panic, she grabbed the rabbit, took it inside, gave it a bath, blow dried it to its original fluffiness, combed it until the rabbit was looking as good as she could make it, snuck into the neighbor's yard, and propped the rabbit back up in its cage. An hour later she heard screams coming from next door so she asked her neighbor, “What's going on?” to which the neighbor cried out “Our rabbit! Our rabbit! He died two weeks ago. We buried him, and now he's back!” Clearly some resurrection accounts can be a tale of confusion, but the Corinthians weren’t confused about the future resurrection of believers. Some were highly skeptical about the possibility. Even after Paul made a powerful and compelling case that Christ’s resurrection makes the future resurrection of believer’s as certain as Jesus’ own resurrection, Paul still sensed his case would face resistance from those who doubted the possibility of the resurrection of the dead or the worth of it even if it was possible. Some think that the Corinthian’s devotion to the Greek philosophical view that our physical bodies are irredeemable led them to the conclude that any resurrection of the dead would just be some kind of a horror show of decayed human bodies, not unlike a neighbor’s shock over the decayed remains of her dead rabbit once more back in its cage. But one thing we know for sure is that some of the Corinthians could not see the resurrection of the dead in light of the power of God and the impossible ways in which He brings transformation. Who would ever imagine, for example, that a tiny mustard seed would grow into the largest plant in your garden? Perhaps this lesson from nature that burying things in the ground that rise up to become something completely different than what was buried is meant to teach us more than what to expect from gardening!
We invite you to come join us this Sunday morning for our in-person worship service at Leptondale Bible Church in Newburgh, starting at 10:55 AM. For those unable to attend, our service can be viewed live on the church’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/leptondalebiblechurch. This Sunday, we’ll continue a sermon series from 1st Corinthians titled “Written for Our Instruction” with a message from 1st Corinthians 15:35-49 titled “Conformed to the image of Christ.”
God bless!
Pastor Mike