Why a Seed Must Die Before It Can Live — 1 Corinthians 15:36 Explained

Hello, and welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick. An Oklahoma rancher and farmer, Les Feldick has been teaching homestyle Bible classes for 20 years in Iowa, Oklahoma, and Texas. Les Feldick's unique style of Bible teaching has made the books of the Bible come to life. When Les is teaching, it's so interesting that people say time just seems to fly by. And now, here is Les Feldick. Good to have everybody, and we're going to jump right back in where we stopped in our last program. In fact, we didn't get very far in the last program, did we? We only got about halfway through one verse. So we'll be turning to I Corinthians 15, verse 35, and then we'll go on from there. And again, we like to just welcome our television audience, and again I want to especially let you know how much we appreciate your letters, your comments, and of course your financial help. We can't stay on the air without that, but most of all we just appreciate hearing from you, and a lot of your letters give us a smile for one reason or another, and we just can't thank you enough as you correspond with us. And again, we always like to remind our television audience we're an informal Bible study. We just like to sort of come across with a home study atmosphere, and of course a lot of folks are using our videotapes in home Bible studies just for this very reason. Let's go right back into the text, I Corinthians 15, and now verse 35 again, for some will say how are the dead raised up, and with body do they come? We covered that in our last program. Now then verse 36, Paul is going to come into another concept of resurrection, and that is that before something can live, it has to die. And this is again a Pauline concept. You just don't find it that much anywhere else in Scripture. Well we'll go back of course to the Lord's earthly ministry, but for the most part as a doctrinal teaching, you do not find it like we do here in the writings of Paul. So he says in verse 36, You foolish individual, that which thou sowest is not quickened, or made alive, except it die. And that which thou sowest, now remember he's talking about the mundane things of agriculture. Whether you're sowing wheat, or rye, or corn, or whatever else, he's talking about sowing things that are going to produce a crop. And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but what do you sow? Bare grain. Now I know this is almost stretching it to being ridiculous, but you see Paul has to make it that in order for people to without a shadow of a doubt, get things straight. In other words what Paul is saying, when you plant something, you don't plant the whole stalk of wheat, what do you plant? The seed. Now that stands to reason that if you're going to plant the seed, you don't expect the seed to just suddenly come up above the ground, but what's going to come first? The stalk again, and then the grain. Now he's using that as a total illustration of our own resurrection experience. So he says you don't sow what you expect to see, the whole stalk, but you sow the bare grain, the individual kernel. Whether it be wheat, or it be some other grain. But God giveth it, this grain, a body as it has pleased Him, and to every seed his own body. Now of course that goes all the way back to Genesis where everything is confined to its own species. There is no such thing as crossing over from one totally different species into another. Now we know we can hybridize, but so far as sowing the seed of an apple and expect to get an orange tree, it just isn't going to happen. And so everything follows in its own species. Now then he says it's the same way in the flesh. All flesh is not the same, but there is one kind of flesh of men, there's another flesh of beasts, another flesh of fish, and another flesh of birds. And there are also celestial bodies, bodies terrestrial, in other words that which is out in space, and things that are here on the earth. And the glory of the celestial is one, the glory of the terrestrial is another. There's one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, another of the stars, for one star differeth from another star in glory. So also, this is all just here in illustration, so also is the resurrection of the dead, it is sown in corruption, death, and it is raised in power. Now we'll go back and see what the Lord Jesus said about it in His own earthly ministry, and it's a portion that we've used often, and you're probably aware of it. Back in John's Gospel, chapter 12, verse 23, and of course this is just shortly before His crucifixion. Matter of hours in fact, the crowds are already coming in from all over the Roman Empire for the Feast of Passover. And amongst that crowd were some Gentiles, some Greeks, and I always like to use the analogy that when we go to the Wailing Wall, we just sort of stand back, and we watch the Jews go through all of their rituals and their prayers, and one time we were there and there were a whole bunch of Bar Mitzvahs taking place, but whatever, we're just outsiders, we're Gentiles, and we're just looking at all this. Well I think the same thing was taking place here, that as all these Jews were getting ready for their sacrifices and the Feast of Passover, there were some inquisitive Gentiles, and they are the Greeks then in verse 20. I said verse 23, but let's go back quickly to verse 20, and there were certain Greeks among them who came up to worship at the Feast, and there came therefore to Philip, one of the twelve, who was of Bethsaida of Galilee, and they asked him, saying, Sir, we would see Jesus. And Philip, remembering that Jesus sort of rebuffed the Gentiles in earlier experiences, and so Philip doesn't want to put his foot in his mouth, and so he says, Well now wait a minute, I better check with Andrew. So Philip cometh and telleth Andrew, and Andrew no doubt said, Well let's go tell Jesus. You have to read between the lines a little bit. And so Philip tells Andrew, and Andrew and Philip tell Jesus. Well what do they tell him? That there are some Greeks that want to talk with him. Now look at Jesus' answer, and He answered, saying, The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified. Verily verily I say unto you, except or unless a kernel of wheat fall into the ground, and what die, it abideth alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit, or much grain. Now he's just simply saying what we all know, those of you who are gardeners and farmers in my crowd, we all know that until you put that seed in the ground, nothing is going to happen. It's just going to stay in its container, whether it's a bag or a sack or whatever. But the minute that seed is put into the ground and has moisture and sunlight, the first thing that seed has to do is die. It dies, it becomes corrupt, and out of that death comes then the new stem, out of which will come for wheat for example, hundreds of kernels. And so this whole concept throughout all of God's creation, you know I tell my classes here in Oklahoma over and over, if you're aware of it, everything that you see in nature is constantly screaming the whole fact of resurrection. Every springtime when things begin to shoot out of the ground, and when you plant your crops in your gardens, every time we do that it's a reminder of the resurrection, because Jesus Himself used that analogy. Now when He says, "...unless a kernel of wheat falls into the ground, and dies, it abideth alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." What was He referring to? His coming death, burial, and resurrection, which was only a few days in the future. And what He's basically saying is that for these Gentiles, He was not an object of their faith until He had experienced the work of the cross. And that's why I try to stress to people that Christ in His earthly ministry was almost exclusively to the nation of Israel. Now He had two exceptions for sure, but it was only to the nation of Israel. But after experiencing the death, burial, and resurrection, now that as Gospel can go to the whole human race, not just Israel. And so this is the concept, that once He has died and has been buried and raised from the dead, then He becomes the object of faith for the whole human race. Now if you'll come back to I Corinthians 15 for just a moment again, we come down to the place where He says in verse 42, "...so also," just like planting that seed of wheat or some other grain, "...so also is the resurrection of the dead." It, the body that is lived and died, is sown in corruption, and it is raised in power. Now I think I've stressed it in an earlier program. The reason Paul has been led of the Holy Spirit to make so much of resurrection, is that when Christ arose from the dead, He exhibited more power than it took when He created the universe. And this is what we have to understand, that more power was exercised out of the Godhead at the resurrection of Christ, than in anything else that God ever did. And of course the reason being, that through His resurrection from the dead, He defeated, totally defeated, all the powers of Satan. He totally settled the sin debt for every human being that has ever lived. And remember now, the sins of every human being have already been atoned for. That's why I'm always stressing, when people go to an eternal hell, it won't be God's fault, because they have already received the atonement. They just didn't capitalize on it. They didn't appropriate it. And so that's what's going to make hell so awful. They're suddenly going to wake up and say, I'm here because I chose to be. Not because an unfair God sent them there, but because a fair God has already declared those sins paid for at the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. And so it took all the power that God had at His disposal, to raise Christ from the dead. And that's why it is the very benchmark of our salvation experience. So now he says that it is sown in corruption. Now let's go back to Romans chapter 6, and it's almost enough to make you smile a little bit, that the same kind of language is used, only it's a different word. But it means the same thing, Romans chapter 6 verse 5. I had one lady write, and was asking if I couldn't put these references on the board. Well if I did this, I'd be at the board all the time, and we wouldn't get anywheres for sure. So I hope she bears with me, and I'll try and repeat it often enough. Romans chapter 6 verse 5. For Paul says, if we have been planted, what's the difference? If you sow something, you plant it. You know I remember in my farm background when I was young, our area farmers still raised a lot of oats, along with corn. Well I never could as a young person quite figure out the difference in the language. Dad always spoke of sowing oats, but planting corn. Well I always asked myself, what's the difference? Because when you sow you plant, and when you plant you sow. But whatever, here is the same thing. In I Corinthians Paul says that we have been sown in corruption. But in Romans chapter 6 he says we've been what? Planted. So if we have been planted, just like that seed has been placed in the ground, if we have been planted in the likeness of Christ's death, then we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection. Just as certainly as you plant two kernels of wheat side by side, they're both going to come up the same, they're going to be wheat. If we have been planted in the likeness of His resurrection, we're going to be resurrected in His likeness. And so as we're planted together, we come up in resurrection power together. Never that we become God, I always have to stress that. We will never become God, but we become the very manifestation of His resurrection power. Okay, maybe that's enough for now. Come back again to I Corinthians. So we are sown in corruption. In other words this old body as soon as it dies, it begins to go back to that from which it came, to the earth. It goes back into corruption. Verse 43, "...it is sown in dishonor, O as much as we love our loved ones, as they may lay there in that casket, and we mourn for their passing, yet death is our enemy." I think we all hate death. I hate even to lose an animal. It just tears me up to see an animal die. We hate death. We hate the death of our loved ones, and we have to understand that except for our faith in the eternal future, the unbelievers will never see their loved ones again, but we will. We're going to see them, we're going to know them, and we're going to recognize them. Now I've had a lot of questions from the TV audience with that regard, and I guess this is the best way I can answer it. My proof that we are going to recognize our loved ones when we get to eternity, is that experience on the Mount of Transfiguration. When here are Peter, James, and John, and the Lord Jesus, and all of a sudden who comes in amongst them? Moses and Elijah. Did James, Peter, and John ask the Lord Jesus, Who are these fellows? Did they? No, they knew, and here they had lived a couple thousand years earlier. So that tells me that if Peter, James, and John recognize Moses and Elijah, then we're going to recognize our loved ones. We're going to know everybody, and I won't have to beat my brains out trying to remember people's names. I'm going to know them all by name, and we're going to have full knowledge. Now people wonder how I remember names. It's not easy, it's work. You have to work at it, but it's not something that just comes all that easy. But nevertheless, when this old body is buried, if we don't live to see the rapture, and we go by way of death, we have this blessed hope that it's going to be raised a new life, if we're a believer. And the whole concept of resurrection is just exactly that. That body of flesh has to die, and then be raised in resurrection power. Reading on now to verse 44. It is sown a natural body, that which was born of the flesh, but it is raised a spiritual body, like we covered in our last program. We aren't going to go into the Eternity in flesh and blood, we're going to go in flesh and bone, but we're going to have our life source, the Spirit. So Paul says there is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. Even though they are eons apart, yet they are a lot alike, because we are still going to have all the outward features that we have now, and we're going to be spiritual in that we now have eternal life instead of the promised three score and ten. Now then verse 45, and so it is written, "...the first man Adam created, into whom was breathed the breath of life, he was made a living soul. But the last Adam, the second Adam, which is Jesus Christ, he was made a quickening, or a life giving Spirit." He never stopped being God. Now I know there are cults that refuse the Deity of Christ, but that flies in the face of this Book, because this Book says that He was Divine, He was Deity, He was God, and He never gave that up. In fact there is a verse in the Book of Hebrews that implies that even while He was in the womb, He was still God, and He never stopped being God. And He was God all through His ministry, and He was certainly God after His resurrection. Let's move on. Verse 46. It had to be that way, because this is one of the rules of God in His manifestation with the human race, and that is, and I'll never forget a gentleman here in Tulsa. When he first saw that, he just couldn't get over it. And I'm sure he probably almost bugged a lot of people at work, because he just couldn't get over the fact that all through Scripture you have first the natural, and then the what? And then the spiritual. All the way through Scripture, in the genealogies or whatever, first the natural, first Cain, you learn all about Cain, the natural, and then it's Abel, the spiritual, and first Ishmael, the natural, and then Isaac, the spiritual, first Esau, the natural, then Jacob, the spiritual, first King Saul, the natural, then King David, the spiritual, and all the way through Scripture to the very end of the Book, when you have the appearance of the Antichrist, the man of sin, the natural, and then the coming of the true Christ, the spiritual. And so Paul makes mention of this here. This is one of the laws of Scripture. First the natural, and then the spiritual. Verse 47. "...the first man was of the earth, he was earthy, that was Adam. He was made of the earth, he went back to the earth, he was earthy. The second man is the Lord from heaven, as is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy." And we can't change that. We are earthy in our makeup, although once we become a believer we become heavenly connected and our citizenship is in heaven, but we're still functioning, and living, and producing, and reproducing as physical earthly beings. Verse 49. "...and as we have born the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly." And listen, this is where faith comes in at. We believe it, not because I can lay it out on a laboratory desk and pick it apart, but because the Book says so, and we can believe it. We can trust it. It's the eternal Word of God. Now I know there's a lot in the news media and so forth about these Bible codes that these mathematicians in Israel are seemingly finding. Now I'm not refuting it, I'm not pooh -poohing it, but on the other hand it is so fantastic I'm not ready to jump on it. But it doesn't tell me anything more than I always knew, that this Book is supernaturally put together. Every letter of this Book is in exactly the right place. I remember reading an article by a mathematician back in England in the 30's, and he actually presented it to the House of Lords. How that mathematically again, remember every Hebrew letter and every Greek letter has a direct numerical value, and by using mathematics he could prove that every verse of the Hebrew Old Testament, and every verse of our Greek New Testament fit mathematically. And all he had to do was take out one verse, or take out a word, and it would all fall apart. Well now of course they're doing the same thing with the computers over there in Israel, and they are finding supposedly hidden codes amongst the mathematical values of the Hebrew letters, and it's almost enough to make your flesh jump. But nevertheless I don't need that. Hey I knew this Book was supernatural, and I've trusted it as such for ever so many years, and this is all I ask people to do. In fact in our class in Tulsa last night we were talking about this very same thing. What is God's greatest controversy against mankind? Not His immorality as much as He hates it, not His drunkenness as much as He hates it, not His thievery as much as He hates it, but what does He hate most of all? Unbelief! It just irks God to the core that man refuses to believe what He has said, and that's faith. And we're going to see in our study of some of the Old Testament characters, what was their greatest downfall? No faith. No faith. Esau for example, poor fellow. Everybody feels sorry for him that he seemingly got rooked out of the birthright and out of the blessing. No he didn't get rooked, what was his problem? No faith. He couldn't believe a thing God said. Well the whole world is that way tonight, for the most part. The world is operating in that vacuum of no faith. Come back to the text, I Corinthians chapter 15, verse 49, and now verse 50. Now this I say brethren, that flesh and blood, and we looked at that in the last program, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God, neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. Well that's easy enough to understand, isn't it? You do not put a spiritual body such as Christ's resurrected body back in the tomb. That which goes into the grave is this old physical body which is already corrupt. It's prone to disease, it's prone to failures of one sort or another, and it's that body of corruption that we bury and place in the ground. But when it comes out in resurrection power, it's going to be a new body, fashioned after Christ's body. Now turn to me, we have about a half a minute left if I'm not mistaken, and let's come back to Ephesians chapter 1. This has been a mind boggling request of Paul for me for ever so long, but one thing I know, if I don't experience it in this life, I'm going to in the next one, and so are you. Ephesians 1, and let's just look at verse 18, and this is Paul's prayer on behalf of the believers. Ephesians 1. Now let's turn to verse 19, and we might know what is the exceeding greatness of His power to us who believe, and that we can go according to the working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ when? When He raised Him from the dead. Thank you for watching Through the Bible with Les Feldick, a weekly Bible study. If you would like more information about the Les Feldick Ministries, a Bible study in your area or about this program, write to Les Feldick Ministries, Route 1, Box 760, Kinta, Oklahoma, 74552. That's Route 1, Box 760, Kinta, Oklahoma, 74552. Through the Bible with Les Feldick is viewer supported, and your gift is appreciated. Thank you, and be sure to tune in next time for Through the Bible with Les Feldick.