Do you ever find yourself wondering whether there really is life after death? If you do, it's a common experience. Most people want to know what happens when you die. What will it be like? What sort of body will we have? What will we experience at the moment of death? You may remember a movie a few years ago called "Flatliners" about a group of medical students who experiment with near death experiences to try to answer that very question, in the end with tragic results. You see you don't have to be old for death to be an issue. For example, it's one of the most common questions of young children. All of us are faced with the question from time to time as we see loved ones die or hear of other people dying in tragic circumstances. Nor is this a recent phenomenon. It's a question that has intrigued people for thousands of years. In the reading we had today from 1 Corinthians Paul is addressing a question put to him by the Christians at Corinth. They seem to have asked whether we can be sure that the dead are in fact raised. They may have been influenced by Greek religious thought that said that death was the end followed only be annihilation. Alternately they may have been influenced by the teaching of Plato about the immortality of the soul, where the body is seen as a prison and death marks the release of the soul to soar to the real world of which this world is only a shadow.
	You might like to open your bibles at 1 Corinthians 15 because we need to go back a bit in that chapter to get the full picture. Paul begins the chapter by reminding them of the gospel he first preached to them. The gospel that they received and on which they took their stand. That is, on which they've based their life ever since. What is that gospel? Well, he sums it up like this: Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, he was buried, he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures and he appeared to Peter and the twelve as well as 100s of others, most of whom are still alive. Finally he appeared even to Paul, in his vision on the road to Damascus. This, he reminds them, is the preaching of all the apostles. This is the basis on which all Christians believe.
	So, he asks, how can some Christians question whether the dead are raised? After all, if the dead are not raised, Jesus can't have been. Yet that's the centre of the gospel. Without Jesus being raised from the dead we have nothing.
	We still have people today who question whether Jesus has been truly raised, don't we? Even Bishops! They suggest that either he didn't really die or else that the disciples simply made up the story to explain the new sense of community they'd found after Jesus' death. The difficulty they have with Jesus being raised is that they don't accept the possibility of the miraculous. Our modern scientific learning shows that the miraculous isn't possible. There's always a rational explanation. They've simply swallowed the rationalistic presuppositions of our materialistic age. But no, Paul is adamant that Jesus' resurrection was real and is central to the gospel. Without it, in fact, the gospel is worthless, our faith is worthless. What's more, the apostles would be found to be misrepresenting God, lying about him, because they claim that he raised Jesus from the dead.
	The more you think about it the worse it gets. If Jesus hasn't been raised from death then his atoning work on the cross didn't happen. So we're still in our sins. Those who have died are lost. If it's only in this life that we've hoped in Christ then how pitiful we are! As he says in v30, why do we endanger ourselves every hour, if there's no life after death?
	But rest assured, Christ was raised from the dead and as such he's the first fruits of all those who will subsequently rise. The first fruits here, by the way, are those fruit that assure you that the plant is bearing truly. That the harvest is on its way. And just as Adam's failure meant death for all his offspring, so Jesus' obedience and the life that it brought, means life to all of Jesus' offspring. Life, that is, to all who acknowledge him as Lord, all in fact, who acknowledge him as the risen Lord.
	But then we come back to the question we started with: What will it be like. What sort of body will we have? Perhaps also, Paul is anticipating the question "How can you say we live on after death when we all know that our body stays in its grave or tomb and slowly rots away?"
	Well, Paul says, don't be confused. The body that gets buried is a body that was made for this world. Plato got that much right. But when you're raised to new life you'll be given a new body that's made for the new heaven and the new earth. The body that's buried is perishable. That's obvious if you ever come across a body that's been dead for some time. But the body that we're raised with is imperishable. If you like it's a spiritual body. But don't get this wrong. He isn't talking here about Plato's eternal soul that lives on. He isn't talking about ghosts, or angels floating around on the ether or on clouds or whatever. He's talking about a new body. Something like the body we have now but far more glorious.
	How do we know it's a body and not just the soul or a spirit? Because just as in this life we bear the likeness of Adam, the earthly man, so in the life to come we'll bear the likeness of Jesus, the man from heaven (v49). What was Jesus heavenly body, his resurrection body, like? Well, it was solid. It could be seen and touched. But at the same time it could pass through doors, so it wasn't constrained by the physical limits of this world. It was such that Jesus could eat some fish with his disciples. That is, it was a real body. He wasn't just a phantom, a spirit who only seemed to be physically present. Yet it was a body that was imperishable, a spiritual body that could ascend into the heavens to be with God forever.
	So what sort of body will we have after we die and go to be with God in heaven? One just like Jesus'. A spiritual body, but nevertheless a real body.
	But then Paul has something of a shift of thought. He says, "Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable." It seems that even in Paul's day there were people like Bishop Spong around. People who wanted to convince Christians that all that mattered was what happens here on earth. That we can establish the Kingdom of God on earth without recourse to the supernatural. All we need to do is create a community of belief here on earth and we'll find all the things that God promised us: love, forgiveness, a caring community, healing of our hurts, comfort, support. Back in 4:8 he says (1 Cor 4:8-10 NRSV): "Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! Quite apart from us you have become kings! Indeed, I wish that you had become kings, so that we might be kings with you!" There was a sense of triumphalism that denied the ambiguities and paradoxes of life in the age between ages, that failed to do justice to the 'already' and the 'not yet' of biblical teaching about the end times. They thought they could establish God's kingdom here and now in all its fullness.
	We find the same sort of thinking in those churches today that preach some sort of prosperity doctrine. They teach that you can have all the benefits of God's Kingdom here and now if you have enough faith: wealth, comfort, good health, success. Never mind the 75% of the world's population that will never be well off, just have enough faith and you'll be all right.
	But Paul says No! Flesh and blood can't inherit the Kingdom of God. You can't create heaven on earth. The earth is perishable. It's passing away. Only the imperishable will last. The only way to inherit the Kingdom of God is for God to give you a new body; one that's suited to living with God in heaven.
	Here's what will happen, says Paul: The day will come when Christ returns and on that day some will have died and others will still be alive. But that won't matter, because the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable and those who are still alive will be changed - in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye - and death will have been overcome forever.
	This brings us to Paul's last argument for Jesus' death and resurrection. It's that Jesus has won the victory over sin and fulfilled the law, done away with it in fact, by dying on the cross and rising to new life. If Jesus hadn't risen there would have been no victory over sin and death. It's only in his resurrection that we see that the law no longer has any hold over him. He's satisfied its demands fully. And as a result we too can have the victory over death through our Lord Jesus Christ.
	Therefore, he says, dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord. Don't be fooled into accepting a rationalistic or materialistic view of life. If you call Jesus Lord, make sure you're convinced that he's a living Lord. How foolish those people are who call Jesus Lord, but then claim that he's dead, that he never rose. What use is a dead Lord? No, stand firm in your belief in a risen Lord. Give yourselves fully to his work, because you're confident in the knowledge that your labour in the Lord is not in vain. That is, that the power of God that raised Jesus from the dead is also at work in the hearts of those to whom you speak, and that at the end of this life God has a new body ready for you, that he has a rest prepared for you in his heavenly Kingdom.
	Let's pray that we might stand firm in the belief that Jesus has overcome death on our behalf and that he has a new body prepared for us in his heavenly kingdom.

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