The Glorified Body

[0:00] We are going to engage a subject this morning that we've never really undertaken before. It'll be a one-time effort, I take it. Although it is so involved, there are all kinds of implications that will come from it.

[0:14] And I'm satisfied that you will all have more questions than what we are able to answer. But we will do our best to pool our ignorance. And if you have a question, I want you to feel free to interrupt me.

[0:28] Just stick up your hand, and if I don't call on you, then go like this. Because sometimes my line of sight and my brain doesn't get it together. So we do want to scratch where people itch.

[0:39] And if you are itching someplace in the midst of this study, we can put everything on hold. It's very informal. Put everything on hold and scratch a little bit while we're there and see what we come up with.

[0:51] So what we are going to be talking about this morning is this body versus the body which is to come.

[1:03] And it is glorious beyond description, as we will see. This present body is referred to in the King James in a rather harsh way.

[1:15] It calls it a body of this vile body. And I never thought of the body as actually being vile. And most translations render it a body of weakness or a body of debilitation.

[1:30] But I guess when it gets right down to it, if this body, physical body, has expired and hangs around too long without embalming and all of that good stuff that goes with it that we try to cover up death with, then it becomes vile.

[1:50] It's so odiferous that all we can do is put it in the ground and get it away because it's like everything else that is decaying vegetable and animal matter.

[2:00] It develops a terrific odor. And yet the body that God has made for us, this physical body, despite its end in death, in particular in this world in connection with this fallen body, it is still the most marvelous example of God's creation on the planet.

[2:27] There is nothing to equal the complexity, the amazing nature, the capabilities of the human body. It is almost as if you could say it is God's crowning achievement of creation.

[2:43] And we probably don't think of ourselves that way because we're all aware of the limitations that we have and the weaknesses that we have. But still, even in our fallenness that is going to end unless the Lord comes first, in our physical death and our transfers from that physical body to a new state of existence, the likes of which we can just really not imagine.

[3:12] So what we're going to try and do is look at some biblical examples of what this new body is going to be like. And if you think this present body is amazing with its weaknesses and its propensity to disease and illness and all the rest of it, still marvelous.

[3:35] You ain't seen nothing yet. But the body which is to come is going to be so indescribably wonderful that it just defies my ability to describe it.

[3:49] So we'll allow the scriptures to do that to the extent that we can absorb it. And the first place we want to go to is Philippians chapter 1.

[3:59] Philippians chapter 1. And we've just got to jump in somewhere.

[4:11] So we'll just jump in with verse 19. I dislike doing this because I always feel we have an obligation to the context, and yet our time is limited and we can't lavish ourselves with all that we would like.

[4:30] So I want you to look at verse, well, let's just jump in verse 18. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in this I rejoice, yes, and I will rejoice.

[4:46] For I know that this shall turn out for my deliverance through your prayers and the provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. According to my earnest expectation and hope that I shall not be put to shame in anything, but that with all boldness Christ shall even now, as always, be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.

[5:11] And there he has entered into two new words of concept, life and death. And verse 21 then, For to me, in other words, as far as I am concerned, Paul is saying, to live is Christ.

[5:32] Wouldn't it be wonderful if every believer could adopt that attitude and understanding that for me, for you, what life and living is all about boils down to Jesus Christ.

[5:50] Giver and sustainer of life, resurrection in the life, way the truth in the life, and all the rest of it. I'm satisfied this is what Paul is getting at. To live is Christ and to die is gain.

[6:03] But if I am to live on in the flesh, this will mean fruitful labor for me. And I do not know how, I do not know which to choose, but I am hard pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart and to be with Christ, for that is very much better.

[6:20] Yet, to remain on in the flesh is more necessary for your sake. And convinced of this, I know that I shall remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy in the faith, so that your proud confidence in me may abound in Christ Jesus through my coming to you again.

[6:43] Only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or remain absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel, and in no way alarmed by your opponents, which is a sign of destruction for them, but of salvation for you, and that too from God.

[7:09] For to you it has been granted for Christ's sake, not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for his sake, experience the same conflict which you saw in me, and now hear in me.

[7:23] And Paul is dealing and struggling here with the eventual end of this physical body, his body that he was dealing with, and he's eager to pass on that, and to share the time that he is going to be in Christ.

[7:39] And while we're still in Philippians, so we won't be flipping too many pages, let's come over to chapter 3, Philippians 3 and verse 20. And here he says, For our citizenship, which means our legal, permanent place of residence, our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform the body of our humble state.

[8:22] Some translations render it our body of weakness, and I mentioned in the King James it talks about our vile body. Transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of his glory, that is Christ's glory.

[8:45] How is he going to do that? He's going to do that by the exertion of the power that he has, the supernatural power of creation.

[8:55] The exertion of the power that he has even to subject all things to himself. And this body of glory is, of course, contrasted with the vile body.

[9:09] It is a body that is unlike anything that you and I can imagine or identify with. It is going to be a brand new kind of thing.

[9:22] And while we're in the neighborhood, look over, if you would, at just a page to Colossians 1 and verse 25. I think it's significant. Nobody gives us as much information about this as the Apostle Paul.

[9:37] And I'm satisfied that the reason for that is it had not been revealed previously to anybody until it was revealed to Paul and given to him for good and purpose, good reasons, much of which we don't understand.

[9:53] But once again, let's just jump in the middle of a text here. Colossians 1 and verse 24, Paul says, Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of his body.

[10:11] And he's talking about the church. He clarifies that in parentheses here. When he talks about the body of Christ, he's not talking about Christ's physical body. He's talking about the believers that make up the spiritual body of Christ.

[10:25] And that's what he's talking about here. He says, The mystery, I'm sorry I lost my place here, verse 25, Of this church, of this body, I was made a minister according to the stewardship or the dispensation from God bestowed on me for your benefit that I might fully carry out the preaching of the word of God.

[11:01] That is, the mystery which has been hidden from past ages and generations but has now been manifested or declared to his saints.

[11:13] To whom? God willed to make known what is the riches and that means the incomparable benefits.

[11:26] The riches, the likes of which none of us can imagine because it's not thinking in terms of baubles and trinkets and physical things that the world calls riches. This is the riches that transcends all of that.

[11:40] And he's talking about the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

[11:58] And we've dissected that word hope before, LPs in the Greek, and it does not mean what it means in common vernacular today. You've all heard me say that when we use the word hope, it always comes with a question mark.

[12:15] And what that means is we hope it doesn't rain today. And what that really means is it might and it might not. But we don't want it to.

[12:26] So that's our hope. Bible does not use the word that way. And it's a little bit confusing because it's translated H-O-P-E in the English. But what it means is absolute confidence, total assurance.

[12:41] Young people call it it's a slam dunk. It's as good as done. It's complete. It's finished. It's over. That's how certain it is. There is there is no question mark after the biblical hope.

[12:56] There's only an exclamation mark because that's exactly what it is. And Christ in you, because Christ is in you, that is your iron-clad guarantee of your future glorification.

[13:16] What does that mean? It is this opposite of this body of weakness, this vile body, that you can get. This is a body that is virtually indescribable.

[13:30] It is a body that is going to undergo a total makeover. When Jesus was crucified in that physical body with which he was born there in the manger some 30, 33 years before, he had a physical body that hung on that cross, but he also possessed, same thing you do, he also possessed an inner spirit.

[14:01] And this is what he's talking about when he cried out from the cross, Father, into thy hands, I commit my spirit. And the text says that Jesus bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

[14:14] Nobody saw it leave. But it was very real. And your human spirit, which is something that every human being has because it's part of our humanity, it doesn't make any difference even if you're an atheist, you have a human spirit.

[14:30] And when I use the word spirit, please don't associate it with religion because we're not talking about a religious concept. We're talking about an immaterial concept.

[14:41] We're talking about something that has real objective existence, but it cannot be seen or weighed or measured, which leads us to believe doesn't exist.

[14:57] But it does exist. And the scriptures make a big deal of it. So when Jesus gave up his spirit and was placed in that tomb, we don't know all of the time sequence and exactly what took place there, but we do know that there was this human, lifeless body lying in that place.

[15:20] and yet when he came forth from that tomb, and I don't know this for sure, but this is my suspicion, he came forth with same body that went in but a body that had undergone a transformation the likes of which we just cannot begin to appreciate.

[15:44] But you will one day because you're going to have one of those bodies. And even though the text doesn't say this, and maybe I'm on thin ice here, but I kind of think that this is the way it was, that when Jesus came out of that tomb, it wasn't because the angel rolled away the stone.

[16:09] It's because Jesus in a glorified body went right through that stone. no need for the angel to remove it. The angel removed the stone so the women could get in, not so Jesus could get out.

[16:28] What kind of a body, if you want to use that term body, when we talk about body, we automatically think about physicality. So how can something physical pass through something physical?

[16:40] I don't know, I don't know. But there is a scientific endeavor that is called molecular displacement and they tell me, I haven't seen this, but they tell me that it has been scientifically demonstrated that it is possible for a solid object to pass through a solid object and it is called molecular, I guess that comes from the word molecules because we're all made up of molecules, you know.

[17:06] It's called molecular displacement and it's a pretty fascinating thing when you think of something physical going through something physical. But that's the kind of body we're going to have and that's the kind of body that Jesus had.

[17:21] And furthermore, this too is an amazing part of this new body. It appears, and I cannot say this, that you can take it to the bank, but from my limited understanding of the texts that are involved that we'll be looking at later, it appears very much that this physical body is going to have properties that will allow it to exercise itself in such a way as eating food or not eating food.

[17:59] In other words, we'll be able to enjoy food, but we will not be dependent upon food for our existence like we are now with these physical bodies. And this spirit body is going to possess the ability to be merely spiritual and nothing else or to be spiritual and physical at the same time.

[18:30] Otherwise, being able to be in a non-physical way, and I've been thinking a lot about this and in connection with one thing, when Jesus Christ returns and combats the Antichrist in Revelation 19, you're going to be there.

[18:53] We are going to witness that. We are going to be those whom he is going to bring with him. How many of us will there be?

[19:04] how many people have gone on to glory, exiting these bodies, and are with the Lord, and what kind of a cumulative effect is that?

[19:18] I couldn't begin to say. How many people are in heaven? I don't know, but I wouldn't be surprised. It's millions. You mean to tell me that millions of people are going to come with Christ and witness that event that's going to take place in Revelation 19?

[19:32] Yep. How's that going to be? Well, in the first place, we will be witnesses of it with our human spirit, but we will not be occupying space.

[19:49] We will have a body that does not require space in which to exist. Now, when God decided to create human beings and make us material human beings, he had to create physical properties to accommodate us because we were going to have a physical body.

[20:13] So he had to make a world, an earth, and put things on it physical because we in these bodies occupy time and space, but in a glorified body, it won't be like that.

[20:26] In other words, we in these existences and these bodies are far from being a finished product. We are still under construction, and the time is going to come when this physical body will be translated, transferred into a spiritual body, the kind that Christ had when he came out of that tomb.

[20:50] and it is going to be a body that will not be saddled with the limitations that this body is. You can't imagine that, neither can I, because this body is home.

[21:04] In fact, in many ways, this body is a prison. You can't get out of it without dying. When you die physically, the prison cell opens, if you will, and the body goes to be with the Lord.

[21:22] Absent from the body, present with the Lord. So, the time is coming when this body is going to be fashioned like unto the body of Jesus Christ, and it will not have the limitations that this body has, and it will not require physicality in which to exist, will not be dependent upon physical food.

[21:46] And by the way, that's something else that I've been thinking about. I still remember from my eighth grade physiology class about the, no, memory doesn't serve me as well as I thought.

[22:05] I don't recall if there are seven systems or nine systems, but I know that one of them is the excretory system, and that enables your body to get rid of physical stuff that it doesn't want and cannot use, and you execute that.

[22:25] Which made me wonder, there are going to be bathrooms in heaven, in the eternal state? Wouldn't it be something, think of it, wouldn't it be something, if these new bodies are able to function at a level of efficiency where you can take in food and enjoy food, because we are going to sit down at the table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom, and with Christ, and we're going to watch him take that first sip of wine.

[23:08] And at the last supper, Jesus gave the wine to them, and he said, you drink of it, all of you. I will not drink of this cup until I drink it anew with you in my Father's kingdom.

[23:24] That's going to be something to look forward to. And it's just as real as the wine that will be served. So I can only wonder whether these bodies will be in such a state that they will be able to totally utilize all of the food that is consumed so that the body is able to burn it up and use all of it so there's no waste.

[23:55] Actually, we go to the bathroom, we get rid of stuff that your body doesn't want and can't use. But I don't think that will be necessary in a glorified body.

[24:07] Yes? With that line of thinking, you would inhale but you wouldn't need to exhale. Well, I never thought of that, but I don't know. What we're talking about is something we don't know what we're talking about.

[24:21] That's part of the big problem. And we're just kind of pooling our ignorance and I am the official ignoramus here. But what we are doing is asking a lot of questions and I think if we focus on Jesus and his body and our body being fashioned like unto his, let's get a better idea of that and let's go to John's gospel, chapter 20.

[24:47] John, chapter 20. And again, for time's sake, we'll start with verse 19.

[25:01] This is after the crucifixion, after the resurrection. Shortly after the resurrection. And in John, did I say 19?

[25:12] I'm sorry, I meant John 20, verse 19. Yeah, thank you. Yeah, verse 19. Verse 19, chapter 20.

[25:24] When therefore it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut, where the disciples were for fear of the Jews.

[25:43] What does that mean? That simply means that the heat was on. And it reached an epitome with the crucifixion of Jesus.

[25:56] And you've got to remember that it was the religious element, the chief priests and scribes, etc., that manipulated Pontius Pilate and put him between a rock and a hard place where he couldn't hardly do anything but go along with their wishes.

[26:13] yet they didn't have the authority to put Christ to death. Only Rome had the authority of capital punishment. So, you know, there was finagling that went on there and Pilate walked right into their trap.

[26:27] and what happened with the crucifixion of Jesus and Peter, James, and John, and the other disciples, they were very, very nervous about this because their leader was gone and their fear was they're going to want a clean house and you know what?

[26:47] They're going to be coming after us next. All of us guys, we've got a bullseye painted on our back and they are all huddled together, commiserating, don't have a clue about the resurrection.

[27:00] That's the furthest thing from their mind. The only one that apparently was not there is Thomas and we don't know why he wasn't there but he wasn't and he is not going to have the benefit of what they are going to gain right here.

[27:16] So, it's the first day of the week and the doors were shut where the disciples were for fear of the Jews. Jesus came and stood in their midst.

[27:29] Wait a minute. The very least the text could say is they were all huddled together and the doors were shut and all at once they heard a somebody was knocking on the door and they were scared and afraid to open the door and somebody went no, it doesn't say that.

[27:49] It just said that Jesus appeared in their midst. nobody's saying anything about would somebody please answer the door? We don't know who that could be. We've scared to death it might be a Roman after us.

[28:01] No. Jesus didn't come through that door. He just appeared in their midst. Supernaturally appeared in their midst. Kind of like the angelic appearance that occurs a number of times.

[28:18] Christians. We read in Luke's gospel about a man named Zacharias. He was a priest and he was assigned this particular time to offer incense in the holy place.

[28:33] And this is in connection with the birth and the promise of John the Baptist coming. And here he is confined. By the way, nobody else was allowed to be there at that time but the priest.

[28:48] And his responsibility was to provide the incense at the time. And the next thing we know, just like that, there's an angel.

[29:01] And Zacharias says, whoa, what is this? He's scared witless because he didn't see him coming, he didn't hear him coming, he's just there out of nowhere.

[29:13] That's the kind of body that we're talking about. And that angel is manifested like in a human body. And Zacharias is terrified, he's scared witless.

[29:27] We see other instances of this, and some of them are in the Old Testament, where there was nothing and all of a sudden, out of nowhere, this being appears. Angels apparently have that kind of ability, which is one thing that distinguishes them from us.

[29:44] But at any rate, let's run it on the text. We are, I've forgotten now where I'm at. Verse 20. Verse 20.

[30:01] Where are we? 20? 20? 20? 20? 20? Okay. Thank you.

[30:14] And he said, Shalom, which is the Jewish word for peace. Shalom, it's a double word. Jews use the word Shalom when they say hello, and they use the word Shalom when they say goodbye.

[30:30] It's Shalom either way, both ways. And it means peace be unto you. And here, when he had said this, he showed them both his hands and his side.

[30:42] The disciples therefore rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Now they're simply stunned about this. I can see their jaws dropping and they're trying to figure out, yeah, it's really him.

[30:55] And it sounds like him. But how did he, how can he, what, they're just filled with questions. And they're stunned through this whole thing. It is just the most amazing thing.

[31:06] And of course Thomas isn't there. And when they tried to tell Thomas later that they had seen the Lord, Thomas said, yeah, right. It just goes to show you the power of the imagination.

[31:18] When you want something to be true so badly, you can imagine it and make it true. Voila, there it is. That's what happened to you guys. You were just self-deceived and didn't realize it.

[31:29] But I have it all together and I know that that couldn't be. Well, you know the story about doubting Thomas. So they are stunned and they see that it is none other than their Lord, although he does look different in some way.

[31:47] And it was hard to put their finger on. And the men who are on the road to Emmaus are going to have the same difficulty. One of them is named Cleopas and we don't know the name of the other.

[31:59] But they are downhearted and they are walking along the road and they kick a stone and their mouths are all sad and everything. And Jesus, and they had no idea it was Jesus.

[32:12] In fact, he would be the last person they would expect. He comes alongside, catches up to them, and they're just walking along. They're on their way to this city called Emmaus. By the way, I don't know if you saw it or not, Steve, but I did.

[32:25] When we were in Israel, we came to this particular intersection and he had a sign propped up there, to Emmaus in an airport. And I thought, good man. There really is an Emmaus or the ruins thereof.

[32:38] These fellows were on the road to Emmaus. Jesus came alongside, didn't have any idea that it was Jesus. And he said, boy, you guys are really down.

[32:49] What's going on? You seem so sad. I'd like you. The world dropped out from me. And they said, well, you must be a stranger around here. Don't you know what's happened here the last few days?

[33:01] And they said, Jesus said, what are you talking about? Well, it's Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God, the signs and miracles, and we thought, we hoped that it was he who would redeem Israel.

[33:14] But they crucified him, and he's gone, and it's all over. And Jesus said, oh, foolish ones, and slow of heart, to believe all that the prophets have spoken.

[33:33] Fellas, your problem is you only believe part of what the prophets said. You only believe the part about coming and glory and power and pomp and circumstance. You believe that part.

[33:44] But the meek and lowly part, a man of sorrows acquainted with grief, you ignore that part, ought not the Messiah to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory.

[34:00] You just read and bought the glory part. You left out the suffering part. And he went on and revealed to them from the Old Testament, because that's all that existed at that time, was the Old Testament.

[34:14] and he showed them himself in the Old Testament, probably beginning with Genesis 3.15, the seed of the woman, and he pointed out his being in person to them all through Moses and the prophets.

[34:31] And then the text says, and then Jesus disappeared, just like that, with that body, disappeared.

[34:42] and they looked at each other and said, did not our hearts burn within us when he opened unto us the scriptures by the way and showed us those things concerning himself?

[34:59] What kind of a body was that? I don't know, but I'm looking forward to having one. And so are you. Because our body is going to be fashioned like unto the the glorious body of Jesus Christ.

[35:15] And that word glorious and a body of glory, just, hmm. In Matthew 16, verses I think 19 through 21, if they didn't move, Jesus had just given a wonderful commission to Peter in the 12, and he said that you are Peter and upon this rock, and I won't go into that because our Catholic friends think that Peter was the rock upon which the church was built, but we see that differently.

[35:51] He said, upon this rock, and I think he's talking about the confession that Peter had just made, that thou art the Christ, the son of the living God, and Jesus says, yeah, and upon this rock, this truth that you had just expressed, I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.

[36:10] Well, Hades is throughout scripture referred to as the place of the departed dead. It's a place for dead people. And he says, the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.

[36:28] That is, the church that I'm going to build. And let me just insert something here to stimulate your curiosity a little bit. That church has never yet been built. And we are not it.

[36:39] We are not that church. That church has never yet been built. That's still future. Jesus said, the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. Hades is the place of the dead. And the gates represent the place of authority.

[36:56] And this goes all the way back to Genesis where each community, each town usually consisted of a walled village.

[37:08] And they would build a wall out of stone all the way around for protection. And the city fathers, we would call them the local politicians, or you might call it the city fathers, the council, whoever the shakers and movers were that made decisions, et cetera.

[37:30] They would hold office at the city gate. And this was the place of ingress and egress, where everybody went into and out of. And this is the place where people always met, you know, I'll meet you at the city gate at three o'clock, and so on, it was a meeting place, but it was a place of business, where it was transacted.

[37:50] And these men would get together, and they would hear problems that had arisen in the community, and they would offer solutions, and they would pass laws, and they would make demands, and they would hold trials, and carry out executions, if necessary.

[38:04] That was the court of law. It was there at the city gate. And when you talk about the gates of Hades, you're talking about the authority that rests with that position.

[38:19] The gates of Hades will not prevail against it. That means they will not be able to gain the victory or the advantage over the church that I am going to build.

[38:36] And the gates of Hades represents the power of death. And Jesus is saying, the church that I'm going to build will not be subject to the power of death.

[38:52] And my contention is, that church has yet never been built. And when it is, it will be comprised of glorified individuals who will be there living with Christ in his glorified body.

[39:10] With Peter and James and John, Jesus said to the twelve, you who have followed me in the regeneration, when the Son of Man comes into his glorious kingdom, you also will sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

[39:28] And all of those people are going to have glorified bodies, and so are we. And death will not be able to touch them. We will be out of bounds for death.

[39:42] It will have no power over us at all. Well, that's not true of this church, and that's not true of any other church, but it's a future church, and that's what's in store for us in this concept of the kingdom when that is established, and it is going to be glorious beyond expression.

[40:02] When Jesus was transfigured, in that passage that I just referred to in Matthew 16, this is a marvelous thing. I've really gotten into this in the series on Christianity Clarified, and it's now in volume 75, I think, something like that.

[40:18] But he told the disciples, and they're trying to figure out what all of this is going to mean, and he has just talked about the church that he was going to build, and he's going to give Peter the keys, not the keys to the church, he's going to give Peter the keys to the kingdom, and the kingdom and the church are not the same.

[40:42] The church will be in the kingdom, but the church is not the kingdom, they are different. And when he said he was going to give Peter the keys to the kingdom, all of that package they're trying to process, and then right after he tells them what this glorious kingdom is going to be like that he's going to build, then he says, and oh, by the way fellows, in a couple of weeks I'm going to die.

[41:15] What? Yeah, I'm going to be arrested, crucified, and all that goes with it. And Peter is stunned.

[41:27] Jesus, come over here, could I talk with you privately for a moment? And Peter took Jesus aside and said, what are you talking about? You can't say things like that, that's not true.

[41:42] What are you saying? And Jesus said, get thee behind me, Satan. You are thinking just like the devil wants you to think.

[41:55] And he had no idea that the Son of Man needs to suffer those things and to enter into his glory. And Peter is just dumbfounded.

[42:06] He's angry. He's the only person in all of the Bible that really confronts Jesus and chewed him out. And Jesus and Peter are going head to head and they're exchanging.

[42:18] And right there in that same passage of Matthew 16, he makes another really stunning statement.

[42:32] He said, there are some among you who will not taste of death until you see the Son of Man coming in his glory.

[42:51] Well, what does that mean? Well, if you read on, and here we've got a terrible chapter division, if you read on and ignore the chapter division, get into the next chapter, it says, and a few days later, maybe three or four days later, something like that, Jesus took Peter, James, and John, I call them the big three of the twelve, Peter, James, and John up into a high mountain and he was transfigured before them.

[43:28] And I'm satisfied why he did that, because he had just leveled this incident describing his death.

[43:42] He's going to die. And these guys are really upset. They're just trying to figure out what's going on. And the text there in that same passage says that he took these three up into the mount of transfiguration to fulfill what he said.

[44:00] There will be some of you here who will not taste of death until you see the Son of Man coming in his glory. That sounds very enigmatic. What's that mean? And that is going to be fulfilled a couple of days later at the mount of transfiguration when they are going to see a manifestation of their master Jesus in a whole new way.

[44:27] He's going to have a brilliance, a light, a dazzling countenance about him, the likes of which they have never seen. One translation, one, I think it's Luke that says that his garments were whiter than any fuller soap was able to make the wash, you know, and the brightness above the light of the noonday sun.

[44:52] It was dazzling, the light that was emitted from him. And that was a glorified Jesus. He was just showing his stuff.

[45:02] He just pulled back the veil of his flesh and allowed his glory to shine through. And it was, wow, you know, dazzling.

[45:14] Why did he do that? He did that to shore them up and encourage them as to what eventually was coming, even though it was going to be sandwiched in between that experience and the death.

[45:31] And they had to process this, and it was going to encourage them that this is going to be the end game. Not only the end game for Jesus, but it's going to be the end game for us too.

[45:44] And when they saw that, they wrote about it later. Peter said in his epistle, I think it was his second epistle, he says, we were with him in the mount, and we saw his glory.

[46:02] And John, who was another eyewitness, said in the very first chapter of his book that we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

[46:21] And Peter and John both wrote about that. James, not the James that wrote the epistle, which is the half-brother of Jesus, but the James who was with them in the mount, this James has been executed, and Herod had him put to death, so he's out of the picture.

[46:40] But Peter and John both wrote about that experience that they witnessed in the mount of transfiguration. And all of these things come together to provide a kind of existence and a body that has physicality, but can at will dispense with the physicality and be a simple spirit form that does not occupy space and time.

[47:09] Now, if that's true, that's how we're going to witness what takes place when we return with Christ. That's how an untold number of people can be gathered in one place and witness something without occupying space, which is what we need with the bodies that we've got now.

[47:31] But a glorified body is going to be entirely different. So I just want to leave you with this thought that a glorified body is going to be a whole new ballgame, the likes of which we can't even imagine.

[47:46] It's going to have ramifications, capabilities, potential, that these bodies just cannot, these bodies are marvelous. They're marvelous.

[47:56] These physical bodies are wonderful, but they do not begin to compare with the body that shall be. It's going to be just beyond description. And you know something?

[48:08] As far as God is concerned, that's going to be the norm. Do you know when he created Adam and Eve, they constituted what was then considered the norm?

[48:27] And we look at them as miraculous, you know, made in the clay of the earth and all that good stuff, breathe in the breath of life. But that was the norm then. And when Adam and Eve disobeyed God, they forfeited their position of norm and became abnormal.

[48:51] And their children were in their likeness abnormal. Do you realize that we are all abnormal? and when Jesus was here, when Jesus was here for about three years, three and a half years, wherever he went, he was converting abnormality into norm.

[49:19] And when somebody was blind, Jesus as much as said, this is abnormal. normal, I'm going to make him normal. And he gave him sight, and he gave health to the lepers, and raised the dead, and all the rest.

[49:35] And everywhere Jesus went, he overcame this inherited abnormality and reinstituted it with norm.

[49:47] There's an expression, I think, I chuckled when I read it. I don't recall where it is now, but you can find it in the concordance, because it's a word that we never use anymore.

[49:57] It's an old English word, and it's the word wit, W-H-I-T, wit. We don't use that, do we? It's an old word that's gone out of style.

[50:10] But the text tells us that when people came to Jesus and he healed them, it says, he made them every wit whole.

[50:22] And I thought, you know what, that's just like my Jesus. He's not going to heal somebody with a halfway job. Somebody comes to him with a liver malfunctioning and they're discolored and everything and they're death warmed over, and they've got two or three different things wrong with their organs.

[50:43] He's not going to just fix one, he's going to make them every whit whole. He's going to heal that whole body. And when he heals somebody, they walk away saying, man, I never felt so good in my life.

[50:55] And you know what he's going to do that? He did that, he did that for hundreds and hundreds of people. So much so that, I want to leave you with this thought because I think it's very, very important.

[51:09] Everywhere he went, he brought kingdom conditions with him. So you've got to understand, this kingdom is going to be God's fix-it program. This is going to be the restoration of planet Earth to what it's supposed to be from what it is now.

[51:25] And he's going to fix everything and make it the way that it ought to be. So when Jesus said to Peter, to the twelve, who do people say that I am?

[51:38] And they said, some say you're Moses, some say you're Elijah, some say you're this one and that one. And Jesus said, well, who do you say I am? And Peter, always quick with the lip, said, you are the Christ.

[51:52] You are the Son of the living God. And Jesus made a statement that for the first, for the first 58 years of my Christian life, I completely overlooked.

[52:06] never put any attachment to it of any kind of significance at all. But he said, blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood did not reveal that to you, but my Father, who is in heaven.

[52:26] Oh, what does that mean? This is the only place that's found. It's in Matthew 19, Matthew 16. What did that mean? Flesh and blood is not revealed. And what he's saying is, Peter, you're right.

[52:39] And you didn't figure that out on your own, because you wouldn't be able to. But my Father gave you a supernatural revelation, understanding, as to who I really am, and you are on the inside track.

[52:58] God revealed that to you, because you would not be able to put it together on your own. And you know what he was saying? He was saying, you are a very privileged person, and you know, all the rest of Jewry, all of the official establishment, all of the know-it-alls, completely missed it.

[53:16] They never denied the miracles that Jesus did, but so far as his being the Messiah, no, no, they would not buy that for one moment. And what Jesus was saying is that, Peter, God has allowed you to exercise and have a knowledge and a wisdom that transcends that of all of them, because they could not conceive of me being their Messiah because I'm not doing the things that they want me to do.

[53:47] And what did they want him to do? They wanted him to kick out the Romans, they wanted him to establish them and elevate them and so on, and Jesus had the audacity to come to those people and tell them that they were prime candidates for repentance and they needed to repent of their sin and get their act together because the kingdom is right on the verge of coming and they would have none of it.

[54:14] They rejected him because all they did was focus on what the Old Testament said about the second coming of the Messiah and they completely ignored what it said about the first coming of the Messiah.

[54:29] That was providentially revealed to Peter and they put it together. Wow, what a concept. It's a beautiful thing. Well, I've left you a whole two minutes for questions or comments that you may have.

[54:44] Anybody? Feel free. Dave? What age were you going to be when we come back and the story? I have no idea.

[54:55] That's a very good question. It's one that everybody has and I have too because we would all like to pick an optimum age that we would like to be. I'll just give you a Wiseman theory and it may not hold any water at all.

[55:09] But I think it will be whatever God considers to be our ideal.

[55:22] and it will be an age without any limitations and I think there's going to be a supernatural ability to know one another. I don't think there's going to be any need for introductions.

[55:35] I don't think we're going to go around heaven shaking hands and you are again, your name again. I think we shall know even as we are known.

[55:45] we are going to have a mental capacity and ability that will not be fallen. And I just inject this, I'll hurry along if I may, but you realize that we are all impaired physically, emotionally, spiritually.

[56:07] We're all broke, you know, we're all ruined in one way or another. And yet there are glimpses of sometimes things coming through.

[56:22] And I'm reminded of a video that 60 Minutes ran several years ago. I probably told you about it before. About these people, it's not a nice word to call them, but they're called idiot savants.

[56:39] And they gave demonstrations during the 60 Minutes of these people. And there is no human explanation for the ability of these people to be able to do what they did because they are very deficient in other areas, but super outstanding in some.

[57:00] And the one that struck me the most was this man, he was probably in his 30s, I can't remember his name now, but he had the most amazing mathematical ability.

[57:14] And you could ask him, what day of the week was May 15, the year 1530, on? And this guy would go, uh, that was a Tuesday.

[57:30] What? He never missed. How could he possibly do that? You would have to have a computer, you'd have to have a programmer, you'd have to have an even, and how could he do that?

[57:44] And he did it repeatedly with different things. And yet, they would ask him a question completely out of that realm, something else, and he would demonstrate that he was retarded with the answer that he gave.

[58:00] What's going on there? How can that possibly be? And everybody was just stunned, and they had on psychiatrists and medical doctors explaining, well, we don't know, you know, the human brain is just amazing, and we don't understand this, and why this capability.

[58:16] I just wonder if that wasn't the way Adam and Eve were originally. Because when they fell, you need to understand this.

[58:31] everything about them fell. The fall was total. And the new nature is going to be total, too. It's going to be wonderful.

[58:42] Yes? I didn't know you were talking about the body, but on the way in, I picked this up about Christ, the engineer, and the human body. That is amazing, isn't it? Yeah. I just picked it up, so I don't know you.

[58:54] Thank you for mentioning that. There were copies, I don't know if there are any out there now, left or not. And I've already gone beyond my time. But if you have a question, then that's your fault.

[59:06] Anybody have a question or comment? One more comment. You mentioned Jesus on the cross, giving up His Spirit. I commend you my spirit.

[59:18] I've seen in nurses that I think have seen people in the hospital who can hang on until somebody gets there, like a relative is en route, or a birthday or anniversary, when hospice, I have no idea how they're...

[59:37] That is not unusual. That's been demonstrated many, many times. As soon as that event occurs, it's like, okay, I can go now. Yeah, you're right, absolutely.

[59:48] And one other thing, this same series that I was telling you about, this 60 Minutes thing, one other person they had on it was clearly retarded and blind, blind as a bat.

[60:01] and he was probably in his 20s at the time, and he was in a foreign country, I don't know if it was Scotland or Ireland or Wales, where it was, but it was in Europe someplace.

[60:14] And he lived, I think it was just he and his mother lived together, and one morning, they had a piano in the parlor, and one morning, she heard this piano playing, and she thought, what's going on, who's in there, who came in the house?

[60:37] She went in there, there wasn't anybody there but her son, and he couldn't play the piano, and she walked into the room, and there he was, sitting there on the piano bench playing the piano, and he played beautifully, and he played a song that everybody knew.

[60:55] Well, he couldn't play the piano, he couldn't do that, and he was one of the three examples that were given in that 60-minute special, and this man had an uncanny ability to hear a piece of music, complicated, classical music, that he'd never heard before in his life, and he could hear it played through once, sit down at the piano, and play it perfectly, just as it was played by the professional.

[61:29] How can that be? That is not possible. It is just not possible. Is there something there that is seeping through in this intellect thing of ours, this marvelous brain, spirit, whatever you want to call it, that we don't understand and can't explain, but there's something going on that we just don't know.

[61:52] And I just wonder, even when I get a glorified body, I'll be able to play the piano. We're all in for a whole bunch of surprises, and my next big surprise is I'm going to let you go being only five minutes late.

[62:09] Thank you for being here. I appreciate your presence. Thank you.