The Resurrection

“The Resurrection”

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People are interest in life after death; recent surveys say that the majority of Americans believe in some form of life after death. Several bestselling books have been writing about life after death. People are searching for information about life after death. What happens when you die? Do you see a bright light at the end of a tunnel, do you see angels; do you see loved ones who have died?

There are a lot of opinions about life after death:

There are some people that don’t believe in life after death. They are the annihilationist’s; they believe that when you die, that is the end of you. Your soul dies along with your body. When you die it is all over.

There are some people that believe the soul lives on, but the body is forever gone.

They believe that you live on in a dis-embodied state, and that there will be no resurrection of the body.

There are some people that believe in reincarnation.

They teach that when you die you come back as someone or something else; depending on your karma. How you live in this life determines your existence in your next life.

What happens in the after-life has been on peoples mind from the very beginning of time. WHY? Because man has a build-in awareness that there is something beyond this world of sin, sickness and death.

-“He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts”

Every culture has had some believe about the

after-life:

The ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead is filled with ideas and stories about life after death. In the tomb of the pharaoh Key-ops, who died some 5,000 years ago, archaeologists discovered a solar boat intended for him to use in sailing through the heavens during the next life.

Ancient Greeks often placed a coin in the mouth of a corpse to pay his fare across the mystic river of death into the land of immortal life.

American Indians buried a pony and bow and arrows with a dead warrior in order that he could ride and hunt in the happy hunting grounds.

Despite many strange and unbiblical ideas about life after death, men feel the pull of the afterlife.

Where is the best place to find answers about life after death? In the book written by the author of Life and death! THE BIBLE!

The Bible is the only reliable source of information about what lies behind the door of death.

The creator of life has not left us to speculate about death and what happens after we die.

The Jews in Jesus day for the most part, believed in life after death, and in a future resurrection of the body. The one exception to that rule was the Sadducees, V:27-“They deny there is a resurrection.

-“For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, neither angel, nor spirit: but the Pharisees confess both”

They didn’t believe in anything supernatural.

The Sadducees didn’t believe in the resurrection, that is why they were Sad-you-see.

It is the Sadducees who come to Jesus asking Him about the resurrection; therefore we automatically know it was a set-up, they want to trap Jesus.

In the question they ask Jesus about the resurrection- they refer to what Moses taught in , which says if man dies, his brother must marry the widow.

The reason for this was to keep a family from dying out, and to keep the family’s wealth intact.

The Sadducees tell a very bazaar story:

V:28-32-Read.

They tell Jesus this hypothetical story and then ask him, V:33-“In the resurrection which one of the seven Brothers will she be married to?

There thinking is, it is foolish to believe in a future resurrection; look at all the problems it would cause. The Sadducees only believed in the first five books of the Bible, and they thought those books make no mention of a future resurrection, therefore there is no resurrection. The Sadducees denied the afterlife, they deny the doctrines of heaven, hell, and human immortality. They believed that the soul perished along with the body.

They asked Jesus their question in, V:33-Read.

And Jesus gives his answer in, V:34-38.

Jesus begins his answer by stating that there is life after death, and that the world beyond this world, is not like this world.

V:34-“this world…

V:35-“that world…

Jesus gives several great truths about the resurrection and Life in heaven.

I will be honest with you; I have never liked,

V:35-“Neither marry, nor are given in marriage.

I know that there are some people who think this is one of the greatest verses in the Bible, because they can’t wait to get rid of their spouse; but not me!

I love being married to Tess; she is my best friend, lover, partner, and co-labor in the ministry! I can’t imagine life without being married to Tess. But in heaven, Tess and I will not be married.

Jesus tells us three facts in V:35-36:

1. There will be a resurrection, V:33-“In the resurrection”.

2. There will be no marriage relationship as we know it in this life, V:35.

3. In some sense we will be like the angels, V:36.

Being like the angels…?

This does not mean we will become angels; Jesus said we will be equal to angels. We will be like the angels; in what way we would be like angels?

· Angels do not sin.

· Angels do not die.

· Angels do not marry.

Jesus is pointing out to the Sadducees that their question was based on a false assumption. They assumed that if there is a life to come, married people will still be married. They are assuming that life after the resurrection will be just like life on this earth, the only difference is it will last longer. But life in this world, is different from life in that world; there is no marriage in heaven.

No marriage, or procreation in eternity is clearly what Jesus taught. Therefore what Mormons believe about marriages being performed in the Mormon Temple being eternal is false. In Mormon theology marriage becomes essential to one’s development to becoming a God.

So they teach if you in this life make good celestial marriages, in the next life you can produce many offspring, you may fill countless millions of worlds with your children as you ascend to deity. Oh, the tragedy of disregarding the words of Jesus Christ!

To be the children of God is to be the children of the resurrection. V:36.

-“our resurrected bodies will be immortal and imperishable”. Our bodies are part of who we are; your body will be resurrected! We will maintain our unique identity; we will be male and female in heaven. Heaven is going to be better than anything on this earth, or it wouldn’t be heaven!

So that means that Tess and I will be better friends, more in love than we were ever capable of on this sin-cursed earth.

Please hear this-No one will be disappointed in any way when they get to heaven!

Jesus asserted that the righteous will be raised from the dead; and then Jesus takes the Sadducees back to the book of to prove that the Scripture teaches the resurrection.

-“You are mistaken, because you do not know the Scriptures, nor the power of God”.

Jesus tells them you are dead wrong, because you do not know the word of God.

The Sadducees prided themselves in knowing the first five books of the bible; but Jesus tells them that they don’t know the Bible. God’s word promises the resurrection, but the Sadducees hadn’t read the Bible with an open mind and heart.

What the Sadducees claim to know best, the Pentateuch, they actually know the least.

And because they misunderstand and misinterpret the Bible they also misunderstand God!

The two always go together, when you miss interpret the Bible, you misunderstand God.

Jesus takes them to the second book of the Bible and gives them a lesson about life-after-death.

Jesus quoted from , in V:37-38.

Jesus takes them back to the burning bush and reminds them of what God told Moses.

Jesus points out that God spoke in the present tense about Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob who had been dead a long time when God spoke to Moses at the burning brush.

God didn’t say I was the God of Abraham…God said I AM the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Jesus logic is obvious- It is ridiculous for God to say that he is the God of men who have no existence.

Therefore, because God says, “I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,” they must be living, and the future resurrection is a reality.

The Bible tells us that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob have an Everlasting covenant with God, an everlasting covenant requires life after death or it would not be everlasting.

The writer of Hebrews tells us that the patriarchs knew that the covenant promises were eternal. -Abraham “was looking forward for a city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God; and that God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He has prepared a city for them.

They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance.

And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth and they were longing for a better country, a heavenly one.

The eternal God does not make an everlasting covenant with creatures that live only 70 years, and then go out like a candle. V:38-“God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.

The Old Testament talks about life after death and the resurrection over and over:

- And though worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God…

-“And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.

The Bible teaches that life exist beyond the grave, in both the O.T as well as the N.T.

Jesus talked about His death and resurrection. Jesus raised three people from the dead.

And Jesus promises a resurrection to those who have placed their faith in Him!

Why do we believe in a resurrection from the dead? Because Jesus tells us there will be a resurrection; and because God’s word promises that we are going to be resurrected from the dead. We have God’s Word on it!

Listen, we have already experienced a spiritual resurrection; we were dead in trespasses and sin and Jesus raised us to spiritual life, we have the life of God in us! And if we die before Jesus comes we will experience a physical resurrection!

The grave could not hold Jesus, and the grave won’t hold those of us who know Him! The grave is not the end for the child of God!

When you enter into a relationship with God through faith in Jesus that relationship is:

Personal and it is eternal, God was Abraham’s God personally and eternally! In the N.T. Jesus shows us Abraham alive in heaven.

-“And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and sees Abraham far off, and Lazarus in his bosom.

Jesus told the story; two men died, one when to heaven, one when to hell. Abraham was seen there in heaven. Your eternal soul will never die; when you close your eyes in dead you will open them in a place called heaven or a place called hell.

Jesus told a grieving sister that her brother who had just died would be raised: -“Jesus said unto her, you brother shall rise again. Martha said unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.

Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he was dead, yet shall he live: And whoever lives and believeth in me shall never die.

The real you in your body never dies; and your body that dies will be raised from the grave when Jesus comes for you!

When a person dies they go to heaven, awaiting the resurrection of their brand-new body!

-“We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord”.

The two greatest chapters in the Bible on the resurrection are 1Cornthians 15; .

In these two chapters we are told we will be raised in an incorruptible body, and that it will happen when Jesus comes back for his church in the rapture. The dead will be raised up first and the living will join them in the air to meet the Lord!

It will happen in the twinkling of the eye.

If you are saved, heaven is your eternal home, and we would expect a great God to prepare a great heaven! We will not be disappointed.

The Bible does not tell us everything we want to know, but it certainly tells us more than enough to thrill our souls and make us long for that glorious place.

After hearing about death, and the resurrection from the mouth of the Lord Jesus; what should we do? Knowing that you’re going to die you need to:

1. Make Careful Preparations!

Richard Baxter a preacher from an early generation said, “It is the Ministers job to prepare his people for death”. He went on to say you have not done well by your people, if you do not prepare them to die.

Think about all the preparations we make for things that are over in an instant.

We make preparation for our wedding day; it’s over in 15 minutes.

We make preparations for graduation day, we throw the hat in the air and it’s over.

We make preparations to go on vacation, we search for airline tickets, places to stay, places to eat, and we look at trip advisor for months; and it’s over in a few days.

And yet many people make no preparations for death.

Someone said, “It is important that when we come to die, we have nothing to do but die”.

How can you come to the place to die, and not have anything to do but die?

By making preparations to die today!

If you are not saved; today is the day of salvation!

Jesus talked about in, V:35-“they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead…

Notice that verse does not say those who make themselves worthy! It says those who are accounted worthy, those who are made worthy.

Because of our sin, we are not worthy in ourselves. It is God who counts, makes us worthy. We are not worthy, but Jesus is.

And when we put our faith in Jesus, God counts us righteous/worthy in his sight.

-“Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness”.

The way you make preparations to die, is to repent of your sins and place your faith in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior!

Child of God the way you make preparations for death is to make sure that there’s no one you need to ask forgiveness from. There’s no note that you should write, no word of appreciation you should give. That you have your life in order, so if death came today you would be prepared!

Do you have any unfinished business? Today is the only day you know you have to take care of it.

It would be helpful for your family if you planned your funeral, pick the hymns, songs you want sung, scripture you want read. As we think about death; make careful preparations.

Second of all as we think about death:

2. Trust God’s Perfect Timing.

From our perspective death comes too soon, but from God’s perspective death is always on time.

Each and every life is a completed story. Sometimes it seems like a person is taken from this life before their work is done. And we say, their life was cut short; they were such a promising young person, there was so much more for them to do. But from God’s perspective that person did not die one day before they were supposed to, are live one day longer than they were supposed to.

-“Your eyes saw me when I was formless; all my days were written in your book and planned before a single one of them began.

-“God has determined our pre-appointed times on this earth”.

When they promising young person, meets a tragic death; we don’t understand.

-“The secret things belong under the Lord our God…

But we must remember that accomplishments in this live cannot be limited by the time we spend on earth. Some who have died young have accomplished far more than others who live into old age. Though we do not understand why some people die young, and some people live into old age; we know that God is too wise to be mistaken, and to loving to be unkind!

As a pastor I have set on the bed with young parents who are holding their infant that was born dead. And yet that baby left such a major impact on that family about life, and death and eternity that family was never the same. Each life is significant, special; and each life is a completed plan.

You will not die one minute before you should, or hang around longer than God intends.

As we think about death and the resurrection as presented in this passage of Scripture.

We are admonished to:

1. Make careful preparations.

2. Trust God’s perfect timing.

Third as we think about death:

3. Develop a Biblical View.

Satan wants people to think that death is the end, or that they will be reincarnated.

But as Christians we proclaim this glorious truth; the Lord Jesus Christ said:

-“I am he that lives, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore.

The Bible teaches us that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. The Bible teaches us that the dead in Christ shall rise first.

The Bible teaches that we sorrow, but not as those which have no hope. Peter tells us to be ready to give an answer to every man that asked you a reason of the hope that is in you.

Hope should mark our lives! The difference between the saved and the lost is the saved are hopeful, the lost are hopeless.

-“We have been born into a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead”.

We know we have a future hope because we can look in the empty tomb of the Lord Jesus… and the message is... The best is yet to come.

The Christian perspective of death should be like the missionary Adinoram Judson who said:

“When Christ calls me home, I will go with the gladness of a schoolboy bounding away from school”.

Now that’s a picture I understand. Because for me there was no better time of the day than 3:30. Because that is when the bell rang, and I was going home. My whole day was about 3:30… How long until 3:30? I want out of here.

You say you must not like this world. No I like this world, and I love my work, but when it comes time to die I want to go with great excitement.

A bird in a cage, may think this is a nice cage, but I want out of this cage.

An elephant at the circus, probably doesn’t like balancing on the back of his buddy, and on balls; and have people stick peanuts in his nose.

If you could raise his big ear, and ask him do you want to get out of here? I think you would let out a big elephant cry… He says forget the circus, I want to be in India!

So it is with the child of God, this world is great; but where I’m going is far greater! That is the biblical view of death for the child of God!

We don’t just believe in the immortality of the soul, we believe in the resurrection of the body; we believe that because the Bible teaches that.

We will have a glorified body that is not subject to old age, pain, disease and death. No more medications, no more Medicare, Blue Cross,

Cox health, no more I thought this medication cost 10 bucks, that’s my co-pay… Well this medication is not on your co-pay it will be $900. Well, I want the generic stuff; we don’t have this in generic… it will be $900. Nobody can fix this mess! Don’t get mad at the person behind the counter, they didn’t make the rules. No more walkers, no more arthritis, no more cancer, no more chemo.

Everything this life has stolen from us by war, drugs and alcohol, a drunk driver, a genetic disorder, old age; all of that will be restored to us! And you my friend will be better than when you were at your best; better by far! There’s going to be a glorious resurrection; and we’re going to heaven; and what a day of rejoicing that will be! And when we see Jesus we will sing and shout the victory!

We have the blessed hope of the return of Jesus and a resurrection and eternity in heaven with our Lord and our loved ones!

I want you to go with me!!

Today Jesus will save you, put his righteousness and you, and make you ready for heaven; if you will repent of your sins and place your faith in him!