Untitled Sermon (2)

Introduction

V.24 "Martha says to Him, "I know that he will arise again in the resurrection in the last day." This is a powerful statement of the understanding that Martha has.She believes in Christ. She believes in the resurrection. She understands that there is a coming resurrection.She obviously is not partial to the Sadducean party. Where did she get the idea of a resurrection of the last day?Sadducee/Essenes = no resurrection (; , ; ).Pharisees = Resurrection = ().It was a debated topic, as is evident in .In general, the common people hoped in the future.

17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was offering up his only begotten son;

18 it was he to whom it was said, “In Isaac your descendants shall be called.”

19 He considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead, from which he also received him back as a type.

1 “Now at that time Michael, the great prince who stands guard over the sons of your people, will arise. And there will be a time of distress such as never occurred since there was a nation until that time; and at that time your people, everyone who is found written in the book, will be rescued.

2 “Many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt.

3 “Those who have insight will shine brightly like the brightness of the expanse of heaven, and those who lead the many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.

19 Your dead will live;

Their corpses will rise.

You who lie in the dust, awake and shout for joy,

For your dew is as the dew of the dawn,

And the earth will give birth to the departed spirits.

20 Come, my people, enter into your rooms

And close your doors behind you;

Hide for a little while

Until indignation runs its course.

21 For behold, the Lord is about to come out from His place

To punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity;

And the earth will reveal her bloodshed

And will no longer cover her slain.

See !! Thus, to see the resurrection is to hope in the future restoration of Israel, of which Lazarus would be included. However, her understanding, like most, is deficient.

V.25 "Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. The one believing into Me will not ever perish.""He is not just the resurrection, but the resurrection and the life.This is not simply a statement of a general resurrection.In Christ there is also, of necessity, life.Instead of doctrinal orthodoxy, Jesus calls her to look to Him for a resurrection.-29Revelation 20:4-6, 11-15He is in command of the life of every person of all time. V.26 "And every/each one living and believing into Me! Will not in any way perish into the age.""living and believing" = v. 25 Resurrection and life = Jesus Christ. Even the dead will be raised, but for judgment of eternal death.Jesus is caling her to understand the fundamental difference between Himself and every other teacher (who espouses a future hope). He teaches the future resurrection.But unlike others, He claims He is in charge of that resurrection!!!That is why He says this (v.26).Now, taking her heart away from Lazarus for a moment, He demands to know what she really believes."Do you believe" NO."Do you believe THIS?! = YES.Jesus does not ask for doctrinal positions here. He is requesting, from her own lips, what she believes in her heart about what He just said."This" = the sovereignty of Jesus Christ over the resurrection of the OT.

The Resurrection

25 וַאֲנִ֣י יָ֭דַעְתִּי גֹּ֣אֲלִי חָ֑י וְ֝אַחֲר֗וֹן עַל־עָפָ֥ר יָקֽוּם׃

26 וְאַחַ֣ר ע֖וֹרִֽי נִקְּפוּ־זֹ֑את וּ֝מִבְּשָׂרִ֗י אֶֽחֱזֶ֥ה אֱלֽוֹהַּ׃

25 “As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives,

And at the last He will take His stand on the earth.

26 “Even after my skin is destroyed,

Yet from my flesh I shall see God;

27 Whom I myself shall behold,

And whom my eyes will see and not another.

My heart faints within me!

Job understood something here. He understood that God will be alive at the last day.He understood that he would be alive at that last day.He understood that there would be a last day. How did he know these things? -22Man was given the Tree of Life.This Tree was to perpetuate life and vitality for the enjoyment of man forever.

1 Then he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb,

2 in the middle of its street. On either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

So much so, that when man died, and was confined to death, he was forbidden to eat from this tree lest the curse be reversed apart from Christ (?).The curse on the man was that of death (2:17). What kind of death?A cutting off from life, i.e. God Himself. Adam did, in fact, die once he ate of the Tree (.) Death, the result of obvious deception by the Devil, was promised and initiated by God toward the man and his wife. However, God also promised that the works of the Devil would also be done away with, namely death. The life of God, promised to the sons of God, would continue. The act of the curse that stopped life would be destroyed and life would reign. Job lived during the time of Abraham, or just before. From creation to the flood = 1656 years.From the flood to Abraham = 292 years. Noah died 58 years after Abraham was born.The oral record of creation, the promise, etc. would have been well preserved.

Therefore, even though man, in Adam, was promised death, and got it, man was also promised life (). However, this life, the destruction of the Destroyer, is yet to be.The conclusions derived from this truth would have lead to an inescapable conclusion-resurrection.-19Abraham was willing to believe that in order for God to keep His promises, He would have to raise Isaac from the dead after Abraham killed him. This is an understanding that death does not hold where God has promised life.

13 All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.

14 For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own.

Therefore, all the fathers died with a sense of the future, which:Denounced the present world under the curse:

14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.

Looked forward to the time when the original work of God was restored.The only way this can happen is by means of the resurrection. ResurrectionWhat is it?

4 Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?

5 But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God,

6 who will render to each person according to his deeds:

7 to those who by perseverance in doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life;

8 but to those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, wrath and indignation.

9 There will be tribulation and distress for every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek,

10 but glory and honor and peace to everyone who does good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

Vanquishing of the curse of death. The proof of this reality, which is the cause of tremendous hope, is the resurrection of Jesus Christ Himself.

Restoration of life.Reconstitution of the body.

12 All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything.

13 Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food, but God will do away with both of them. Yet the body is not for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body.

14 Now God has not only raised the Lord, but will also raise us up through His power.

The concept of life from death was preposterous to the world. The Greeks:The parallel between these traditional beliefs and the later resurrection of Jesus was not lost on the early Christians, as Justin Martyr argued: "when we say ... Jesus Christ, our teacher, was crucified and died, and rose again, and ascended into heaven, we propose nothing different from what you believe regarding those whom you consider sons of Zeus." (1 Apol. 21). There is, however, no belief in a general resurrection in ancient Greek religion, as the Greeks held that not even the gods were able to recreate flesh that had been lost to decay, fire or consumption. The notion of a general resurrection of the dead was therefore apparently quite preposterous to the Greeks.” , 32Notice that the idea of a resurrection was not ridiculed, but the idea of a general resurrection of the dead, and especially unto rewards and judgment. The resurrection is an event in the future in which:The wicked are judged: (cf. v.6)

4 The wicked are not so,

But they are like chaff which the wind drives away.

5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,

Nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.

6 For the Lord knows the way of the righteous,

But the way of the wicked will perish.

The righteous are rewarded with physical eternal life: -6John 14:18–20

18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.

19 “After a little while the world will no longer see Me, but you will see Me; because I live, you will live also.

20 “In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.

2 “Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit.

6 “If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned.

9 Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him.

10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.

11 Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are made manifest to God; and I hope that we are made manifest also in your consciences.

When is it?Before the Millennium-the resurrection of the saints. .

After the Millennium-the resurrection of the wicked. All nations will be judged then.This is not the judgment of -> there is no mention of resurrection there. However, all the dead will be raised in .This includes all nations and is the final sentencing of them to the Lake of Fire.This is the culmination as what began, at the start of the Tribulation, () the "Day of the Lord"

7 ‘Alas! for that day is great,

There is none like it;

And it is the time of Jacob’s distress,

But he will be saved from it.

11 The Lord utters His voice before His army;

Surely His camp is very great,

For strong is he who carries out His word.

The day of the Lord is indeed great and very awesome,

And who can endure it?

6 The nations made an uproar, the kingdoms tottered;

He raised His voice, the earth melted.

4 A sound of tumult on the mountains,

Like that of many people!

A sound of the uproar of kingdoms,

Of nations gathered together!

The Lord of hosts is mustering the army for battle.

What is after it?The New Heavens and the New Earth.Eternal life “Then”

15 A day of wrath is that day,

A day of trouble and distress,

A day of destruction and desolation,

A day of darkness and gloom,

A day of clouds and thick darkness,

16 A day of trumpet and battle cry

Against the fortified cities

And the high corner towers.

17 I will bring distress on men

So that they will walk like the blind,

Because they have sinned against the Lord;

And their blood will be poured out like dust

And their flesh like dung.

18 Neither their silver nor their gold

Will be able to deliver them

On the day of the Lord’s wrath;

And all the earth will be devoured

In the fire of His jealousy,

For He will make a complete end,

Indeed a terrifying one,

Of all the inhabitants of the earth.