Dr. Kurt Trucksess Afterlife What Does The Bible Say About Life After Death? - Page!1

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2 Saturday, September 23, 2017 One of the joys I have at CrossWinds Church is working with our Spencer campus pastor, Jordan Gowing. It is a pleasure watching him grow in wisdom, pastoral skills and biblical knowledge. A few months ago, he told me he wanted us to preach on what the Bible says about life after death. When I agreed to teach the series on our Spirit Lake campus, and he on our Spencer campus, I had no idea how popular the series would become. With numerous best selling books on out-of-body experiences and supposed trips to heaven, it seems everyone is interested in hearing the Bible s words on life after death. This book is simply a collection of the manuscripts behind my sermons. They were written for the ear, and not the eye. This is not a polished book but it reads like you were sitting in church on Sunday morning. For some of us, that style may put you off. For others accustomed to living in a YouTube world, the casual style will help you connect the biblical truth to your everyday life. I hope this book encourages you toward greater worship of Jesus, in whom every good gift for this life and the afterlife is found. As you read, know I prayed for you as this book was written. If you are a pastor looking for additional resources, check out my web site for resources on other books of the Bible. I also encourage you to check out the rest of the material for this study which include full audio and video of each message, sermon handouts and small group work sheets designed to supplement each message. I especially want to thank Kiley Roth for her patient editing. Each week she proofed manuscripts so I could turn them into chapters of the book. I pray God blesses her and her family for her selfless service to Christ and CrossWinds Church. I also owe a special thanks to the CrossWinds family. Thank you for your encouragement through this series. It was a privilege to study the afterlife with you. Because of God s mercy through Jesus, Kurt Page!2

3 Table of Contents What Happens One Minute After We Die?... 4 Does Anybody Want A Better Body? The Millennium, What On Earth Is It? How Do My Earthly Choices Make An Eternal Difference? What Is The New Heavens and Earth? Answers To Your Questions Part Answers To Your Questions Part Bibliography Page!3

4 What Happens One Minute After We Die? August 6, 2017 Welcome to the CrossWinds Spirit Lake Campus. If you are a visitor, it is great to have you. My name is Kurt. I am one of the pastors. This morning we begin a new series called Afterlife: What does the Bible say about life after death? Pastor Jordan and I can t answer all of the questions you have about life after death in this series but we plan to cover many important ones. At the end of the series, we will have a special week or two called Build Your Own Sermon Sunday. If you check your bulletin, you will see a card with some popular questions about life after death that we will not have a chance to cover in this series. Each Sunday you get to vote on the three questions on the card. Each week we will tally the votes and the most popular questions will be the ones we preach on for that final week. That week, you will have built the sermon. Fill in your card and leave it in the pew for the ushers to pick up after the service. We all need to face it. Unless Christ returns, every one of us will die 55.3 million people die a year. While I am preaching this message, 4,500 will take their final breath. No matter how many vitamins we take or how much we exercise, death is coming and often in an unexpected way. For instance, did you know 150 people will die this year from falling coconuts? More people die every year from falling coconuts than sharks. It is safer in the water than on the beach! Four hundred fifty people will die this year by simply falling out of bed. Did you know that each year an average of 24 people die from popping that champagne cork? Popping a champagne cork turns out to be an effective way to turn a celebration into a funeral. While none of us knows how we will die, there is an equal amount of ignorance on what happens to people after they die. While the body goes to a morgue, what happens to the person? This morning using the Bible as our guide we will peek behind the curtain of death and glimpse beyond the grave. To let the Bible give a good answer, we need to begin by taking a trip to the Old Testament, and I need to introduce you to an important term: Progressive revelation. While that sounds big and complicated, it is actually simple. It simply means that God reveals more of himself and his plans over time. It is like a dating relationship. When you meet someone, even if you enjoy them, you really don t know them. It takes times to learn more about one another. The more time you spend with your date and the more of life you live with your date, the more you know your date. In a similar way, God doesn t reveal everything there is to know about him and his plans for eternity in the book of Genesis. As the Bible progresses, God reveals more and more about what happens beyond the grave. Let s start in the Old Testament to see how God begins to answer the question, What happens one minute after we die? In the Old Testament the answer is a little fuzzy, but by the time we get to the New Testament, things snap into focus. Page!4

5 Sheol - Afterlife in the Old Testament. The most important word that describes life after death in the Old Testament is the Hebrew word Sheol. Unfortunately, the old King James Version of the Bible from 1611 didn t translate this Hebrew word into English consistently or accurately. Thirty-one times it translated Sheol as hell. Thirty-one times it translated it as grave. Two times it translated it as pit. All of these translations are only partial representations of what Sheol means in Hebrew. This has created a lot of biblical confusion about life after death that is still with many Christians today. 1. Sheol is not hell. Hell isn t introduced in the Bible until the New Testament. Hell is also called the Lake of Fire. It is the final resting place of the devil, fallen angels and all who die as sinners apart from Christ. Hell is the final place of punishment at the end of history after Jesus judges everyone. Technically, nobody is in hell today because everyone has yet to stand in front of Jesus for final judgment. 2. Sheol is a place of conscious existence in the afterlife. In the Old Testament, Sheol is a place of conscious existence in the afterlife. This is why translating Sheol as grave is misleading. Sheol in the Old Testament is a place where everyone who died has a continuing conscious existence of life after death. Nobody ceases to exist. While everyone s body went in the grave, everyone s spirit continues to exist in this temporary place after death called Sheol. Some modern translations follow the old King James and translate Sheol simply as grave or hell, which is misleading. Since there is no equivalent English word for Sheol that fully encapsulates Sheol s meaning, some modern translations simply use the word Sheol in the English text to avoid being misleading. Let me show you an example. The NIV uses the word grave for Sheol in Genesis 37:35 but Sheol means more than grave so to not be misleading, the ESV simply translates Sheol into English in that same verse. All his sons and daughters came to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. No, he said, in mourning will I go down to the grave to my son. So his father wept for him. Genesis 37:35 (NIV) All his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted and said, No, I shall go down to Sheol to my son, mourning. Thus his father wept for him. Genesis 37:35 (ESV) 3. Sheol was a place for both the righteous and the wicked. A moment ago, in Genesis 37, we saw Jacob a patriarch was convinced he would go to Sheol, which means the place of the dead in the afterlife. Jacob was not a perfect man but he was a righteous man. Sheol was clearly a place for the righteous dead. As we continue tracing our fingers through Page!5

6 the Old Testament, we see Sheol was also the place for the wicked dead. For example, Korah led a rebellion against Moses during the Exodus. When he died, he was also sent to Sheol. So they and all that belonged to them went down alive into Sheol, and the earth closed over them, and they perished from the midst of the assembly. Numbers 16:33 (ESV) 4. All who went to Sheol did not have the same experience. For some, Sheol was a place of comfort. For others, it was a place of torment. Job spoke of some experiences in Sheol after death as a life of pain. The dead tremble under the waters and their inhabitants. Sheol is naked before God, and Abaddon has no covering. Job 26:5 6 (ESV) The patriarch Jacob s experience of Sheol was very different. It was not a place of trembling but a place of reunion with his ancestors. When Jacob finished commanding his sons, he drew up his feet into the bed and breathed his last and was gathered to his people. Genesis 49:33 (ESV) For the Psalmist Asaph, he expected to see the glory of God after death in Sheol. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. Psalm 73:24 25 (ESV) There are hints in the Old Testament, such as in Deuteronomy 32:22, that Sheol had two different regions often called an upper and a lower region. The reason there were two different regions in Sheol is because Sheol had two different kinds of inhabitants, the righteous and the wicked. While the division in Sheol between the righteous and the wicked was not explicitly stated in the Old Testament, rabbis at that time taught that Sheol had two compartments. 5. The righteous hoped for rescue from Sheol. Even though Sheol was a place of reunion and a place where Old Testament saints expected to see God, it was not a place they wanted to stay. But God will ransom my soul from the power of Sheol, for he will receive me. Selah. Psalm 49:15 (ESV) It is interesting how the Psalmist used the word ransom. Even in the Old Testament God was forecasting that one day he would pay a price that would free the righteous from the power of death in Sheol. If the door to the afterlife is open only a crack in the Old Testament, it is throw wide open in the New. In the New Testament we have detailed descriptions of what happens to both the righteous and the wicked after death which helps us answer the question, What happens one minute after we die? Page!6

7 Hades Afterlife in the New Testament. While Sheol was our key word in the Old Testament, Hades is our key word in the New Testament. The Old Testament was written almost exclusively in Hebrew, the New Testament was written in Greek. Just before the time of Christ, Greek Jews were getting rusting on their Hebrew so they made a Greek translations of the Hebrew Old Testament that was exceedingly popular in the days of Jesus and beyond. It was called the Septuagint. In the Septuagint, every time the Hebrew words Sheol occurred, they translated it using the Greek word Hades. Hades became the Greek word used in the New Testament to describe the temporary realm of the dead called Sheol in the Old Testament. Sheol in the Old Testament and Hades in the New Testament are the same thing. Many people, and even some Bible translations, refer to Hades as hell. That is not true. They are different. Remember Sheol and Hades are the temporary resting place of the dead while they await final judgment by Christ. Hell is the lake of fire which is the final resting place for the devil, his angels and those who die in their sin after Christ s final judgment. Currently nobody is in hell. Everyone is in Sheol, or as they say in the New Testament, Hades. Knowing this, we can see how the New Testament pulls back the curtain on what happens to people one minute after they die. The New Testament gives many details about what happens in Hades. 1. There is suffering in Hades. In Luke 16, Jesus told a parable to emphasize to greedy Pharisees how their fortunes may be reverse in death. In this story, Jesus endorsed the rabbinical understanding of Sheol and Hades that existed in his day. That is the belief that Hades (Sheol) had two compartments, a compartment for the righteous and a compartment for the wicked. People had very different experiences in those compartments based on which one they entered. Before we look at Luke 16, I want to prepare you for something that may throw you off. If you have the NIV, it will use the word hell in this passage. In the original Greek, it is not the word hell. It is the word Hades. In my opinion, that is a poor translation choice by the NIV. The context of Luke 16 is a rich man who habitually dressed in purple and fine linen. He lived in splendor every day until he died. His soul was taken to Hades. A Christian beggar named Lazarus, that laid at the rich man s gate every day, also died and was carried to Hades. The experience of these two men was very different after death because each one was in a different compartment of Hades. Let s begin by looking at the rich man. and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. And he called out, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame. But Abraham said, Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; Page!7

8 but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us. Luke 16:23 26 (ESV) 1. The rich man had a body that could experience pain. And he called out, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame. Luke 16:24 (ESV) Rather than passing out of existence after death, the rich man was very much alive. He had his memory. He could recognize Lazarus as the beggar who sat outside his door for many years. He had some kind of body because it tells us he had a tongue and Lazarus had a finger. He was very much alive and in agony. While his family was reading a well-crafted eulogy, he was in agony. Incidentally, while Lazarus and the rich man have bodies, the bodies they had were not their final resurrection bodies. They were in some kind of temporary body that theologians call the intermediate state. Next week, we will study our resurrection bodies. Never-the-less the bodies they had were real. These temporary bodies have many of the same characteristics as our current bodies even to the point of making them recognizable. Another example of these temporary bodies was Moses and Elijah when they appeared to Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration. Notice Moses and Elijah were recognizable in their temporary bodies. The rich man and Lazarus both had temporary bodies in Hades which were recognizable and could experience pain. Even today, thousands of years later, the rich man has still not been removed from his suffering. 2. There was no chance for change. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us. Luke 16:26 (ESV) After the rich man s funeral, relatives moved on with their lives. The grandkids went back to their baseball games. Aunts and uncles returned to work. While the lives of everyone at the rich man s funeral moved on, change was the one option taken off the rich man s list in Hades. Once we pass through death s door, we cannot pick up our suitcase and move out because we do not like the accommodations. As we will see in the weeks to come, there was one change left for the rich man in the future. He still has to face Jesus for final judgment. He still has to be assigned to hell, the lake of fire, which will be the eternal and just response for his sins. The Bible never says there is a second chance after death. There is not such thing as purgatory. Page!8

9 3. He knew the agony he endured was fair. And he said, Then I beg you, father, to send him to my fatherʼs house for I have five brothers so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment. Luke 16:27 28 (ESV) The rich man complained about the pain he endured but he didn t complain about the justice. He knew his agonies were deserved. Sometimes we think Hades or hell will be a time of reunion with our old friends. The one thing the rich man didn t want was for his friends and family to join him in torment. What did his brothers need to do to escape his experience of Hades? They needed to repent of their sin. They needed to confess their sin to God and place their faith and trust in Jesus to forgive their sin. The rich man was suddenly interested in outreach and missions. The rich man was willing to never see his family again if it meant they were able to avoid the place of torment in Hades. 4. He knew what he was missing. and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. Luke 16:23 (ESV) This may be the greatest agony of Hades. Apparently the rich man could see Lazarus in comfort while he was in agony. To me, knowing what you forfeited by rejecting Jesus and knowing there was no second chance to accept Jesus, would be worse than any of the physical agonies the rich man endured. Some of us might feel I am pulling too many details from Jesus parable about the afterlife. Let me remind you what Jesus did in this parable. He reinforced the rabbinical understand of Hades that existed in his day. If Jesus wanted to debunk it or correct it, this was his chance. He didn t debunk it. He reinforced it. In addition, there are other passages of Scripture that reinforce what we just learned about Hades having a place of torment. then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, 2 Peter 2:9 (ESV) Notice the wicked do not pass out of existence after death. They are kept under punishment until the day of judgment when they will be justly judged by Jesus and given a just response to the sin in their lives for all eternity in hell, the lake of fire. Paradise - There is peace and joy in Hades. Lazarus was also in Hades, but he had a very different experience from the rich man. For Lazarus, Hades was not a place of agony but a place of comfort. Sometimes the Scriptures call the place of comfort in Hades Abraham s Bosom. As we get into the New Testament, Abraham s Bosom is sometimes called Paradise. The Bible doesn t give us as many details about this portion of Page!9

10 Hades other than to say this is where the saints of the Old Testament went after death. It was a place of comfort and companionship. It was place of reunion with the ancestors who lived before us. One of the reasons the Bible doesn t offer many details about Paradise is because Paradise was radically changed when Christ rose from the dead. When Christ died on the cross, he left the compartment of the righteous in Hades, returned to earth and eventually returned to heaven. When Jesus left Paradise in Hades, he apparently took the Old Testament saints home to heaven with him. Speaking to the thief on the cross Jesus said Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise. Luke 23:43 (ESV) While Jesus went to paradise after he died, he didn t stay in paradise. he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. Acts 2:31 (ESV) After three days Jesus rose from the dead, leaving Paradise, the compartment of the righteous in Hades. Forty days later he returned to heaven where he sits at the right hand of God the Father. The Bible leads us to believe that when Jesus left Paradise, he did not leave alone but he took the righteous from the Old Testament, bringing them home to heaven with him. We find this emptying of Paradise to heaven prophesied about in the Old Testament. David said, speaking of not just Christ but of himself: For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol.. Psalm 16:10 (ESV) Psalm 49 is another of many Psalms that carry the same theme of God one day releasing the righteous from Sheol or Hades. This Psalm specifically says that God will one day pay a price to release souls from Sheol, which is exactly what Jesus did. But God will ransom my soul from the power of Sheol, for he will receive me. Selah. Psalm 49:15 (ESV) In the New Testament, the writer of Hebrews talked about the Old Testament saints being perfected with us by the resurrection of Jesus. since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect. Hebrews 11:40 (ESV) In 2 Corinthians 12:2-4, Paul wrote of an experience in his life where he was caught up to Paradise. Notice that the compartment of the righteous after Christ s resurrection was no longer in Hades but it was in heaven. I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows. And I know that this man was caught up into paradise whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows and he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter. 2 Corinthians 12:2 4 (ESV) Page!10

11 To understand this passage, you need to know there are three heavens in the Bible. The first heaven is the atmospheric heavens. It is spoken of in Isaiah 55:9-10 and it says rain comes from the heavens. The second heaven is the place of the sun, moon and stars. As God says in Genesis 1:12, Let there be lights in the heavens to separate the day from the night. When the Bible talks about the third heaven, it is talking about the place where God dwells. That is where Paul said Paradise now resides. Those who were in the Paradise of Hades are now relocated to the Paradise of heaven because they followed Jesus from Hades to heaven. This is why Paul said about death: Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 2 Corinthians 5:8 (ESV) This is also why Jesus said in Revelation 1:18 that he conquered death and Hades. and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades. Revelation 1:18 (ESV) Today, when a Christian dies, he or she goes directly to heaven to be with Jesus. In heaven will also be the Old Testament saints who were brought home from the Paradise of Hades to the Paradise of heaven. The wicked still reside in the compartment of torment in Hades while they await final judgment. What is heaven like? There is a lot we could say about heaven. I will reserve most of it for a future message. Stripping away all the glorious details, it boils down to this. Heaven is being with Jesus. In heaven, we will we have a massive reunion with our relatives that died in Christ before us. In heaven, there will be unspeakable joy. Beyond the joy and friendships will be the joy of seeing Jesus face to face, feeling his embrace and hearing the words, I love you. Welcome home. In heaven, I believe we will have much greater comprehension of the punishment we deserve for our sins. I also believe that in heaven we will have much greater comprehension of the price Jesus paid on the cross for our sin. Every day in heaven we will be overwhelmed with wave upon wave of gratitude to Jesus for dying for our sin and bringing us home to be with him. Being with Jesus in heaven is the pleasure that will trump any other joy that can be found in heaven. When Paul prepared to die, being with Jesus after death was the one thought that captivated his attention. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. Philippians 1:23 (ESV) Imagine the moment you close your eyes in this world and open them to see Jesus in heaven. Imagine the sudden realization that you are the most blessed being in the universe and instead of enduring the never-ending agony of Page!11

12 justice, you are blessed with the never-ending mercy and grace of God s love. Imagine the tears of thankfulness that will flow down your face for eternity. What about purgatory? Some of you have heard of purgatory. Hades is not purgatory. The doctrine of purgatory is not found in the Bible. It was a tradition developed by the ancient Catholic church because it had a faulty view of salvation. The church believed Jesus paid for most of our sin but the Catholics couldn t believe the good news of the Bible that Jesus actually paid for all of our sin. They reasoned that Christians surely need to suffer for a few years or even a few million years to pay for the sins Christ didn t take care of before entering heaven. The Bible says something different. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteous. 1 John 1:9 (ESV) The Bible tells us that when we ask Jesus to forgive our sin, he doesn t just take away our sin but he gives to us the purity and perfection of Christ. This is why we can be confident that if we have asked Jesus to forgive our sin when we close our eyes because of death in this life, you can be guaranteed to open our eyes in heaven to see Jesus, not because we are so good but because Jesus is so good. Many of us this morning have a hard time believing Jesus paid for all of our sin. When we confess our sin to Jesus, we often won t forgive ourselves. We punish ourselves even after God forgives us. In punishing ourselves, don t we create a little earthly purgatory to make us feel like we are paying for some of our sin when in reality, the only way to be forgiven is for Jesus to pay for all of it. When someone sins against us and they confess their sin, while we may say we forgive them like Jesus forgives us, don t we have a tendency to keep reminding them of their sin to make them suffer? We create a little earthly purgatory rather than forgiving them completely and fully like Jesus forgave us. My friends, the gospel is good news. The old hymn says it well, Jesus paid it all. All to him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. If Jesus so completely paid for our sin that there is no heavenly purgatory, let us not create little earthly purgatories in our relationships with other people. As we have been fully forgiven, let us be fully forgiving. Conclusion This morning, we are going to celebrate the Lord s supper. We practice open communion. That means if you are not a member of CrossWinds, but you trust in Christ as your savior, we invite you to celebrate the Lord s supper with us. We simply ask you would hold the bread and the cup until they are passed so we can celebrate the Lord s supper together. While the bread and cup are passed, I ask you ponder the great goodness and completeness of Christ s love for us by paying for all of our sin. When we Page!12

13 close our eyes in this life we are guaranteed to open them and see Jesus, not purgatory, in the next life because Jesus loves you so much he paid for all of our sin. Worship him for that. 1 Corinthians 11:27-29 tells us to not eat of the bread or drink of cup in an unworthy manner. That means we should examine our hearts for sin which we often ignore before we take communion. While the elements are passing, I want you to examine your heart specifically for little earthly purgatories you may have erected in your relationships with others. Do you say you forgive others like Christ has forgiven you but them keep reminding them of their sin to put them in a little earthly purgatory to make them suffer for their sin. Prayer Let s pray before the elements are passed. Jesus, thank you for telling us in your Word what happens one minute after we die. Thank you for being a just God that punishes sin. There is no murderer which gets away with his crime. There is no rapist or thief that can escape your justice. Even more than we thank you for your justice, we thank you for your mercy and grace through Jesus. Jesus, thank you for taking all of the punishment we deserve while you hung on the cross. Thank you for giving us such full and complete forgiveness that to make ourselves continue to suffer for our sin or to make others continue to suffer for their sin is actually to make a mockery of the greatness of your cross. So as we have been completely forgiven, help us to be completely forgiving. Amen. Page!13

14 Does Anybody Want A Better Body? August 13, 2017 It seems every week or two I hear of someone in the hospital. Cancer, heart disease, a swollen appendix, and depression are a small sampling of the reasons we end up in a hospital. If you are in the medical field, you are in a recession-proof business. Even if, by God s grace, you manage to avoid a major disease, the bad news is our bodies fall apart with age. We develop arthritis in our joints, bunions on our toes, gray hair on our heads and we put Metamucil in our drinks. Even if you avoid a disease that puts you in the hospital and you are young enough to not worry about age, chances are, you still struggle with your body. Is there anyone satisfied with your figure? Would anyone like to shed a few of the extra pounds? If that is you, you are in good company 57.3 million Americans have a health club membership for that reason. 1 It seems like everybody wants a better body. This morning, I am going to tell you how to get one. I am going to tell you how to get a body that won t get sick, a body that won t fall apart with age, a body that will stay fit without the gym and a body where your complexion always looks great, even without Mary Kay. This is going to be a good morning! If you are new, it is great to have you. My name is Kurt and I am one of the pastors. Last week we began a new series called Afterlife: What Does The Bible Say About Life After Death? Last week we learned what happens to people one minute after they die. We learned that while the body goes in the grave, everyone s spirit continues to exist in Sheol and Hades. They are actually the same place, Sheol is the Hebrew name for the place of the dead in the Old Testament. Hades is the Greek name for the place of the dead in the New Testament. Sheol/Hades is a place of torment for those who die apart from Christ. Those who die with faith in Christ are brought directly home to heaven to be with Christ not because of how good they are but because of how good Jesus is. Last week, we saw what happens to people s spirits when they die. This week, we will look at what happens to our bodies after we die. While our bodies are planted in the ground to decay, that is not the end of the body. As we look at what happens to the body in the afterlife we will trace it out chronologically. We will see what kind of body we get immediately after we die. We will then look at the resurrection body we will eventually receive. Finally, we will look at how this changes the way we live every day. 1 Page!14

15 After death, we get a temporary body. We covered this briefly last week when we talked about the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16. In Hades, both of them had what is known as a temporary body or an intermediate-state body. It is not a flesh and blood body like we have. The Bible doesn t give us many details about this intermediate body. From Luke 16, we know it looks similar to our current bodies. In Luke 16, the rich man asked that Lazarus would be able to take the tip of his finger and put a drop of water on the rich man s tongue. Both Lazarus and the rich man were in their intermediate state bodies. In that non-flesh body they had a finger and a tongue. Lazarus and the rich man could also recognize one another. When Moses and Elijah appeared to Jesus on the Mt. Of Transfiguration, they were recognizable as Moses and Elijah. They were not in physical bodies. They were in their intermediate state bodies. Apparently those bodies bear such a likeness to our current bodies that we are recognizable in those bodies even though they are not flesh and blood bodies. When Saul in 1 Samuel 28 used a witch to try to speak to the dead prophet Samuel, the witch was shocked when the Samuel actually showed up in a recognizable body. Once again, this was not a flesh and blood body but some kind of intermediate-state body, but it looked like Samuel. Just to be candid, not all theologians agree that we will have intermediatestate bodies after death. Some theologians feel we may be simply disembodied souls in heaven. Other theologians feel differently on this issue because of the verses I shared with you. They seem to indicate we have some kind of spiritual body. The best way I can understand our intermediate-state body is it must be similar to angelic bodies. Just as angels have bodies but they are not flesh and blood bodies, in a similar way, we must be given intermediate state bodies after death that are not flesh and blood bodies. They are spiritual bodies. The key thing to remember about our intermediate-state body is it will allow us to be with Christ, which the Bible says is much better. It is better to be with Christ in an intermediate state body than to be apart from Christ in a physical bodies. Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 2 Corinthians 5:8 (ESV) While this next verse is not conclusive, Paul seems to say that while we are without fleshly bodies, while it will be great to be with Christ, there will be a sense of being naked, that literally means stripped of our outer garment. We will long to have our physical bodies back. For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. 2 Corinthians 5:2 4 (ESV) Page!15

16 Paul said we were not created to be naked to be unclothed to escape our physical bodies, but we will always want to be further clothed, which means to get our bodies back. Plato was a philosopher that taught a few hundred years before Christ. He taught that the body was bad and the spirit was good. He wanted people to think that separating the spirit from the body was a good thing. Paul said the opposite. Our body and spirit were meant to be united together. Even though being with Christ in our intermediate-state bodies is better than life in this current body, while we are with Christ in our intermediate state body we will still long to get our physical bodies back because we were created to live in a physical body. How we get our bodies back after they are buried in the grave is the next part of our story. When Christ returns, we get a resurrection body. The Bible tells us that when Christ returns, Christians will get their bodies back. The way to think about this is that the Bible is clear that Christ s resurrection body was only the first body to rise from the dead. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 1 Corinthians 15:20 (ESV) That means Jesus resurrection was only the first bodily resurrection. When Christ returns, our bodies will rise from the grave just like his body rose from the grave. Jesus resurrection body was the prototype for our resurrection bodies. Beloved, we are God s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 1 John 3:2 (ESV) When Christ returns, we will be just like him. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. John 6:39 40 (ESV) Everyone who looks to Jesus and believes in him has eternal life. Jesus will raise our bodies from the dead on the last day and we will live in a real body that will be alive forever. who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself. Philippians 3:21 (ESV) I love this verse. Our bodies will be transformed to be just like Jesus resurrection body. The Bible is incredibly clear that all Christians will get their bodies back from the dead when Christ returns. What will our bodies be like when that happens? The best way to answer that question is to look at Jesus resurrection Page!16

17 body to see what we can learn about our resurrection bodies. Remember Jesus resurrection body was the prototype for our resurrection bodies. How will our resurrection bodies be similar to the ones we have today? Our resurrection bodies will have the same DNA. What is more glorious, to restore an old car or to make a completely new car? Many times it is harder and most costly to restore something old than to create something new. Our God is a restoration specialist. He will not let sin and Satan successfully destroy this earth or our bodies to such a degree that God will be forced to make us a completely new body because he could not restore the old body. The defeat of Satan and sin is more glorious when God takes the dead and rotten old body that was destroyed by sin and rotted in the grave then he completely restores it and vastly improves it. That is why the tomb was empty. Isaiah 59 says Jesus body was beaten prior to his death on the cross. Isaiah tells us he was beaten so badly he was unrecognizable after the beating. People didn t say, Who is it? They said, What is it? That same severely beaten and disfigured body was laid in the tomb to rot for three days. Satan and sin would have had a victory if Jesus body was destroyed beyond repair. There was no victory for the enemy. The very same destroyed and rotting body they laid in the tomb is the body God raised from the dead and brought back to life on resurrection Sunday! Jesus same DNA was back. In the same way, when Christ returns and calls our name, just like Lazarus came out of the tomb, we will come out of our graves. It doesn t matter if our bodies have been dead for 20 years, 50 years or more than 2,000 years. Our very same body will be reassembled, restored and vastly improved. We will get it back when Jesus returns and says our names. Satan and sin will not achieve a victory over our bodies. What about people whose bodies were incinerated? What about people whose bodies were eaten by sharks and whose DNA was scattered around the sea? Will they get their same bodies back? This is my answer. The more complete the ruin, the more glorious the restoration. I know some of you find this hard to believe. Think about this. If Ezekiel in Ezekiel 37 could preach to a valley of dry bones and they reassembled to life and transformed into a vast army, Jesus can raise the dead. If Lazarus came out of the tomb when Jesus simply said his name, God can raise the dead, and it doesn t matter how decayed they are. A few years ago, when I preached at my mother s funeral, we buried her in the cemetery next her church. I said these words, The very same body that we plant in the grave in weakness will one day explode from this earth in power when Jesus calls her name. She will get her same body back and it will be better than ever. The Westminster Larger Catechism says it this way: The self-same bodies of the dead which were laid in the grave, being then again united to their souls forever, shall be raised up by the power of Christ. Page!17

18 If you have any doubts it is literally the same flesh and blood body we get back from the dead, look what Jesus said to his disciples after he rose from the grave. They also struggled to believe it was literally him. See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have. Luke 24:39 (ESV) Our resurrection body will have the same memories. This may be self-evident but it is worth mentioning. Just as we will have our memories in our intermediate state bodies, like Lazarus and the rich man, we will also have our memories in our resurrection bodies. That means we will pick up relationships with friends and family right where we left off. Christ in his resurrection body picked up his relationships right where they left off with Mary Magdalene, Thomas, Peter and the rest of the disciples. In the same way, we will pick up our relationships with our loved ones as if we hadn t left. Remember God is a restoration specialist. He takes what was ruined by sin and he completely restores it plus vastly improves it. That includes our bodies and our memories. We will eat in our resurrection bodies. One of the great pleasures in life is food. God created food. It is not just for nutrition but it was given as a pleasure to enjoy. Three or more times a day we partake in this pleasure. When Cindy and I began seeing one another, she cooked me spaghetti and meat sauce at her parents home. It was simple but it was fabulous. She makes a killer spaghetti. Even at that early point in our relationship, I began thinking she might be the woman for me because she is a great cook! Food is a God-given pleasure in our physical world. In our intermediate-state bodies, I don t think we will enjoy food because food is a part of the material world. Our intermediate-state bodies are not part of the physical world. When we get our resurrection bodies, like Jesus body, we will once again enjoy the pleasures of the material world, like eating! In John 21, Jesus cooked breakfast for his disciples and ate with them in his resurrection body. Another time Jesus appeared to his disciples in his resurrection body. They were so freaked out they thought they were looking at a ghost. Look what Jesus said: And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling, he said to them, Have you anything here to eat? They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate before them. Luke 24:40 43 (ESV) One of the problems we have in our current bodies is weight gain. All I need to do is look at a carbohydrate and it absorbs into my body. It wasn t always that way. Remember when we were young and we could eat almost anything without gaining a pound? I suspect we will be able to eat in our resurrection bodies and not gain those extra pounds. One of the first things that happens after Page!18

19 we get our resurrection bodies is the marriage supper of the lamb in Revelation 19:9. A wedding supper in that culture was a week-long celebration that involved all-you-can-eat food for a week. The Bible doesn t say that after the wedding supper of the lamb Christ s bride was too plump so he took her for a grueling 10K run to burn off the extra calories from the wedding. What is your favorite food? Steak? Lasagna? Barbecue? Here is the good news. God is a restoration specialist. He restores our bodies that were ruined by sin plus he vastly improves them. This means that if you love the taste of lasagna now, in your resurrection body your taste buds will not just be restored but they are vastly improved. Lasagna in your resurrection body will taste even better than it does today. If you love the taste of chocolate, chocolate will taste even better in our resurrection bodies than it does in our earthly bodies. Later, food will get even better. We will first get our resurrection bodies and reign with Christ for 1,000 years on this earth. That is called the Millennium. We will talk about the Millennium next week. Eventually God will make a new creation, which we will talk about in two weeks. In our resurrection bodies, since they are new and vastly improved, food will taste better in the Millennium. In the new creation, food will not just taste better but it will be better so the taste will be improved. The cocoa in chocolate will taste better in our resurrection bodies, but in the new creation not only will the cocoa taste better but it will have even more taste. The tomatoes used in Italian food will burst with even more flavor in the new creation than they do in this creation. God is a restoration specialist. He takes our bodies that are ruined by sin then fully restores them plus vastly improves them. Is anybody getting excited for your resurrection body? Is anybody looking forward to the new creation? Our resurrection bodies will maintain our genders and races. On the Build Your Own Sermon question cards, some of you wanted to know if you would retain your gender in the afterlife. In our intermediate-state bodies, we learned we are recognizable even though we don t have a physical body. Our gender is part of what makes us recognizable. What was Jesus like in his resurrection body? Jesus kept his gender and his race in his resurrection body. We will keep our gender and race in our resurrection body for all eternity. Look in the mirror. Get used to it. We will look like us for eternity. One of the reasons God created race is because God loves variety. He loves variety of races, nations and cultures. While God loves variety. He also loves unity in that variety around Jesus. After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands Revelation 7:9 (ESV) Different cultures and tribes all worshipping Jesus. Page!19

20 How will our resurrection bodies be different? Our resurrection bodies will be immortal. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. 1 Corinthians 15:42 (ESV) Our bodies are like a carton of milk. We will all eventually expire. Today, we live a relatively short period of time. In the Old Testament genealogies, we see people lived for years. People lived a long time in the old creation apart from the Tree of Life. Can you imagine what life will be like in our resurrection bodies that will never grow old? Our strength will never fade. We will have more energy than when we were teenagers but it will last for all of eternity. We will never need to go to the dentist or the doctor because we will never get sick or weak. Our resurrection body will be filled with power. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. 1 Corinthians 15:43 (ESV) Paul s point was simply that as we get older, we get weaker. In our house, I am the first one to bed. I can t stay up late like I used to. One of the great qualities of our resurrection bodies is they are filled with power. The Greek word for power is the word dunamis from which we get our word dynamite. It means achieving power. It means capability power. Our resurrection bodies will be pulsating with capability and the ability to achieve. Do you like to write? You will have incredible writing abilities that do not fatigue in your resurrection body. Do you like to play racquetball? You will be able to play more than three games and not need to rest. Do you like to jog? Imagine running but never feeling tired. The limitations of all of our fatigue and emotional weakness will be taken away in our resurrection bodies. Can you imagine how much fun that will be? Our resurrection body will radiate glory. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. 1 Corinthians 15:43 (ESV) But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body... Philippians 3:20 21 (ESV) Christ s resurrected body before he went home to heaven was normal in appearance. Notice what happened to Christ s body when he ascended to heaven. As I was on my way and drew near to Damascus, about noon a great light from heaven suddenly shone around me. And I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?" And I answered, "Who are you, Lord?" And he said to me, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting." Acts 22:6 8 (ESV) Page!20

21 Jesus shown with glory. In Revelation 22:23 the Bible tells us that in the new creation there is no need for the sun or moon to give light in the new creation because the glory of Jesus is what illuminates the new creation. Will our resurrection bodies shine like Jesus body? We might. Even if we don t naturally glow in our resurrection bodies, I suspect there will be times we will glow. Whenever we spend time in Christ s presence, I suspect our resurrection bodies will begin to partake of his glory. Just as Moses face glowed after spending time on Mt. Sinai to get the Ten Commandments from God, in a similar way, we may glow from spending time in the glory of Jesus. Our resurrection bodies sound almost too good to be true. The million dollar question is when will we get one? When will we get our resurrection bodies? The Bible is clear we will get our bodies when Jesus returns. and said, Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven. Acts 1:11 (ESV) When Christ returns, that is when we get our resurrection bodies. I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: Death is swallowed up in victory. 1 Corinthians 15:50 54 (ESV) If you can summarize what we learned, it looks something like this. After death, Christians are with Christ in their intermediate-state bodies. When Christ returns, he will resurrect our bodies and give us our resurrection bodies in the blink of an eye. We will reign with Christ on this earth for a thousand years in a period called the Millennium. Next week, we will look at the millennium and explain it. Ultimately, we keep our resurrection bodies into the new creation when Jesus doesn t just restore and vastly improve our bodies but he restores and vastly improves this earth as he combines heaven and earth together. How that works Page!21

22 is what we will study in the next two weeks. Those are messages you don t want to miss. For the fun it, I want to dive a little deeper into the return of Christ and how it works. 1 Thessalonians 4 details how things will unfold. But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. 1 Thessalonians 4:13 17 (ESV) Christ will return. He will speak the word and the dead in Christ will rise first. The bodies of all Christians will literally explode out of their graves and be instantly transformed into resurrection bodies. Only after the dead have their bodies back will the Christians that are alive follow them to meet Jesus in the air to always be with the Lord. Here is where it gets a little sticky. The Bible tells us we are caught up in the air in our resurrection bodies to be with Jesus. Where do we go from there? Do we return to the earth or in our resurrection bodies head to heaven? I will not dive into this too deeply but let me introduce this topic. The Bible tells us before Christ returns, things will get really bad. Revelation talks about two beasts and the antichrist. It talks about one of the beasts setting himself up in the temple in Jerusalem and the other forcing the world to worship him. The book of Daniel tells us there will be seven years at the end before Christ s second coming when God will pour out his wrath on the earth called the time of tribulation. The question is, when Christ returns for us and resurrects our bodies, is it before these seven years of tribulation, in the middle of the tribulation or do Christians go through the tribulation and Christ returns at the end of the tribulation? The first thing to tell you is don t be too dogmatic on this particular topic. This picture is a little fuzzy. Page!22

23 I hope the pretribulational view is right and Christians are not on earth during the tribulation because I don t like pain. Some support for a secret rapture of Christians before the tribulation is found in the Bible. For instance, God says he has not destined his people for his wrath. and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come. 1 Thessalonians 1:10 (ESV) For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ 1 Thessalonians 5:9 (ESV) In addition, God has a history of rescuing his people from his wrath before he pours out wrath and judgment. God rescued Noah and his family, who were known as the only righteous, before he poured his wrath out on the earth by the flood. God rescued the firstborn of the Israelites in Egypt by them putting the blood of lamb on the sides and top of their doorposts before he unleashed the angel of death against the firstborn of Egypt. God rescued Lot out of Sodom and Gomorrah before God unleashed his wrath and rained down brimstone and fire on those wicked cities. It wouldn t be inconsistent for God to rescue those who trust in Jesus before he pours his wrath out on this world in the tribulation. The problem is there is no place where the Bible specifically say there will be a secret rapture of Christians before the time of tribulation. In addition, a secret rapture was never heard of until the 1900s. For almost all of Christian history, Christians understood that we would go through the time of tribulation. Christ s second coming and the transformation of our body to resurrection bodies would be one and the same event at the end of the tribulation. If you believe in a secret rapture before the time of tribulation, I hope you are right. It is hard to definitely prove from the Bible. A straight forward reading of the Bible leads us to believe Christians may go through the tribulation. What differences does this make? Let earthly frailties whet the appetite for resurrection body vitalities. Every day each of us feels the effects of sin on our bodies. It may simply be the fatigue we experience at the end of the day. It may be the frustration we have at trying to remember something clearly. It may be our battle with cancer, Parkinson s, or MS. Every time we experience those bodily weaknesses, remember our failing body is not the end of this body. Our same body will rise from the dead, be completely restored and vastly improved for all of eternity once Christ returns. You don t need to have a bucket list. Many people have a bucket list. Before they die, they want to make sure they climb the Rockies, parasail on the lake or take a European vacation. There is nothing wrong with a bucket list per se but behind the idea of a bucket list is a flawed mentality that says if I don t do certain things in this life before I die, I will never have a chance to do them again. That is false. As Christians, we will get Page!23

24 our bodies back. Our bodies will be better than ever. We will reign with Christ on this planet for a thousand years in the Millennium plus the new creation for all of eternity. For the rest of eternity we can enjoy the pleasures of God creation in an even better body and do everything we missed on our bucket list because this life is not the end of the body. Remember God is a restoration specialist. He wants to begin his work of restoration in your life today. God loves to take what is completely ruined then restore it and vastly improve it. The more destroyed something is by sin, the more glory given to God when he restores and improves it. That is why God delights in taking the very same bodies that are dead and rotten in the ground and raising them back to life. That is why God will take this very planet when it is ruined by sin and he will complete restore it by removing all the effects of sin upon it. God as a restoration specialist is not all in the future. It begins today. Some of you walked in this morning and your life was in complete shambles. You find yourself struggling with sin and addiction. You can t stand who you are and what you ve become. You came to the right place. God is a restoration specialist. Confess your sin to God and repent of it. Ask Jesus death on the cross to pay for your sin and today begin walking with Christ by reading his Word, talking to God in prayer and gathering with his people. The Bible says that the moment we turn to Jesus we are literally born again. God sends his Holy Spirit in our hearts and he begins restoring and vastly improving us today from the inside out. As I close, I ask if you will call out to God, confess your sin and turn to Jesus with all of your heart. Let the restoration specialist begin his good work in your life today. Page!24

25 The Millennium, What On Earth Is It? August 20, 2017 Good morning. It is great to have you at CrossWinds. My name is Kurt. I am one of the pastors. For the last few weeks, we have been living on the brink of war with North Korea as Kim Jung Un threatened to shoot nuclear missiles at Guam, or even the American mainland. President Trump promised a full-scale war if Kim Jung Un fired those missiles. While all of us would be surprised if North Korea actually launched a weapon, the tensions of the rhetoric in the news have left us uneasy. All it takes is a little time in the history books to realize the atrocities of two world wars are not far behind us. The brutalities of Hitler, Stalin, and Mao Zedong remind us that humanity is capable of great evil. Shattering peace in our nuclear age would be devastating. This morning, I have good news. While we don t have peace in this world, I am going to tell you where we can find it. There still is hope for the planet to experience unprecedented joy and vitality. It will not come from reducing aerosol cans that thin the ozone layer. It will not come from putting a stop to global warming and the melting of the polar ice caps. The way to peace and prosperity on earth involves more radical change. This morning, we will find out what it is. Two weeks ago, we began a series called Afterlife: What does the Bible say about life after death? In the first week of the series, we learned what happens to people one minute after they die. We learned that after death everyone continues to exist either in a place of temporary torment called Sheol in the Old Testament and Hades in the New Testament, or because their sins are forgiven through their trust in Christ s death on the cross, they are brought directly home to heaven to be with God. No one passes out of existence. Everyone continues to live either in God s presence or in a place of torment after they die. Last week, we moved from talking about what happens to the person after they die to finding out what happens to the body after we die. While our bodies are buried in the ground to decompose, or are placed in a crematorium to be burned to ashes, the Bible tells us death is not the end of our bodies. Jesus defeat of Satan and sin is so complete that death is not allowed to have victory over our bodies. When Christ returns, he promises to raise our very self-same bodies from the dead. Just as Christ s very same body rose from the dead, our very same bodies will rise from the dead when Christ returns. What about bodies that are decayed to dirt? The more ruined our bodies, the more glorious the resurrection of the bodies. The level of decay doesn t matter. Our resurrected bodies will not just be brought back to life but they will be vastly improved. They will be upgraded to be like Jesus resurrection body. Just as Jesus resurrected flesh-and-blood body will last forever, so will our Page!25

26 resurrected bodies last forever. The very same body we have today will be stripped of sin and replaced with immortality. We will never die of old age or show our age. In addition, while our current flesh and blood bodies are known for their weaknesses, our resurrection bodies will be known for their power. This morning, as we continue our study, we will see how world history will unfold after Christ returns and gives us our resurrection bodies. We will see how Jesus is the key to peace on earth from that point forward. Many Christians only have a vague understanding of what the Bible teaches about the history of the world after the return of Christ. Most of us grew up thinking the return of Christ was the one decisive event in history that is the hinge upon which everything turns. After the return of Christ, there would be a new heavens and a new earth. We grew up thinking all of God s judgments and rewards took place at that the return of Christ. There are a number of verses that appear to give that picture. And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. Daniel 12:2 (ESV) having a hope in God, which these men themselves accept, that there will be a resurrection of both the just and the unjust. Acts 24:15 (ESV) Theologically this is called the Amillennial view of biblical history. If you were to put it on a timeline it looks like this. The problem is a closer reading of the Bible shows us this picture is too simple. Things are stretched out a bit. The key passage that reveals more details is Revelation 20. Before we look at Revelation 20, let me set things up in Revelation 19. Satan will gain great power in this world and will rule it through his agent called the beast and the false prophet. They will possibly work for one world government. Their goal will be to oppress Christians and destroy the church. During the tribulation period, God will judge the world led by the beast and false prophet with something Revelation calls the bowl judgments. They will bring great catastrophe on the earth. Even though God judges the world, most of the people won t turn to God in those judgments but they will become bitter against God because of his judgments. Everything comes to a head in Revelation 19 in something called the battle of Armageddon where the armies of earth and the fallen spiritual world go into battle against Jesus and the armies of heaven for all the marbles. This is a winner-take-all battle for the future of the universe. Spoiler alert. The good news is Jesus wins. Let s read the final verses of Revelation 19 to see how this unfolds. Page!26

27 Revelation 19 - The Defeat of Satan, the Beast, and the False Prophet Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God. And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords. Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and with a loud voice he called to all the birds that fly directly overhead, Come, gather for the great supper of God, to eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and their riders, and the flesh of all men, both free and slave, both small and great. And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth with their armies gathered to make war against him who was sitting on the horse and against his army. And the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who in its presence had done the signs by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped its image. These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur. And the rest were slain by the sword that came from the mouth of him who was sitting on the horse, and all the birds were gorged with their flesh. Revelation 19:11 21 (ESV) Jesus wins. The beast and the false prophet are thrown into the lake of fire, which is the final place of eternal punishment. The lake of fire is hell. Then we read these words in Revelation 20. Revelation 20 - The Millennium Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he might not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were ended. After that he must be released for a little while. Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years. Revelation 20:1 6 (ESV) Before there is a new heavens and a new earth which is described in Revelation 21 which we will study in two weeks there is a thousand-year Page!27

28 period of peace on earth with Jesus in charge. It is commonly called the Millennium. Where did that name come from? Millennium is from Latin. Mille means thousand and annum means years. This is a period of time where life on this planet is much better than it is now, but it is not life in the new heavens and new earth. For this world to run well, Jesus needs to be in charge of everything. Satan, the great deceiver, who began his deception with Eve in Genesis and who continues to deceive the world today, needs to be taken off the planet. A great angel will bind Satan in a place called the abyss. Literally, this means the bottomless pit. The beast and the false prophet, who are Satan s henchman, will be sent to the lake of fire but Satan is not sent there at that time. He will be put in a 1,000-year jail cell. Where is the abyss? I don t know. It may be a part of Hades or part of Tartus, which is talked about in 2 Peter. I don t know. Satan through the beast and false prophet will try to run the world and it will turn into a disaster. Once they are gone, Jesus and Christians will run the world. Things will work incredibly well for a thousand years. Christians will rule the earth in the Millennium. I want you to also notice that John the apostle says he also saw thrones and seated on them were those whom the authority to judge was committed. Who are these people on the thrones? It is us! Christians will sit on thrones and help Jesus rule this world in the Millennium. Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases? 1 Corinthians 6:2 (ESV) until the Ancient of Days came, and judgment was given for the saints of the Most High, and the time came when the saints possessed the kingdom. Daniel 7:22 (ESV) In addition to providing world leadership in our resurrection bodies on this planet during the millennium, Christians we will also be the worship leaders on this planet during the millennium. The Bible says we will be a kingdom of priests for God. And they sang a new song, saying, Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth. Revelation 5:9 10 (ESV) How much authority will Christians have in their resurrection bodies during the thousand year reign of Christ on earth? Will we rule over a city or over a nation? It depends how we handle the responsibilities God entrusts into our care in this life. In Matthew 25 is the Parable of the Talents. While a talent in the ancient world is a unit of money. In this parable, Jesus is talking about more than money. Jesus tells us that he entrusts in our care different gifts based on our ability to handle them. If we are faithful with what God entrusts to us in this life Page!28

29 now, he will entrust us with even greater responsibility in the millennium and in the new creation later. If we are unfaithful with the gifts God entrusts in our hands now, we will not be entrusted with great leadership responsibility in our resurrection bodies later. How we live now determines what positions of responsibility God entrusts into our hands later. Jesus will revitalize the earth in the Millennium. While it isn t explicitly stated in these verses, earlier in Revelation it talks about the great bowl judgments fell on the earth during the seven years of tribulation before Armageddon. They are catastrophic. For instance, in the second bowl judgment in Revelation 16:3, every living thing in the sea died. In the fourth bowl judgment, the sun scorched people and fried the earth. In the seventh bowl judgment, the earth suffered a massive earthquake that leveled the cities of the earth. The point is that prior to Armageddon, the planet will be devastated and face huge geologic traumas. Some Bible scholars believe the topography of the earth will changed going into the millennium and the mountains will be flattened. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. Isaiah 40:4 5 (ESV) Since this earth is so ruined during the tribulation, some Bible scholars believe Jesus will revitalize this old planet for his glorious reign on this planet for a thousand years. While this is speculative, some scholars believe this earth will return to a pre-noah flood stage where the world was incredibly lush and there was a vapor canopy over the earth that kept the global temperatures even. Many things in the millennium sound like life that took place in the pre-flood times in Genesis. For instance, before Noah, people lived a long time, like 700 to 900 years. Isaiah talks about a time coming on this planet, that is not in the new creation, but people will return to living incredibly long lives once again. Most likely, this will take place during the millennial reign of Christ on earth. No more shall there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not fill out his days, for the young man shall die a hundred years old, and the sinner a hundred years old shall be accursed. Isaiah 65:20 (ESV) In addition, the book or Romans talks about this planet being revitalized when Christians receive their resurrection bodies. Notice this verse is talking about this creation, not the new creation we will talk about in two weeks. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. Romans 8:19 21 (ESV) Page!29

30 There is a lot of speculation on this this. What we have is when Christ inaugurates his millennial kingdom, we have Christians in their resurrection bodies reigning and ruling with Christ on this planet. It appears this planet will be revitalized going into the millennium after it is nearly destroyed during the tribulation. Who will we reign over during the millennium? This is very speculative but there are apparently still normal human beings on this earth that were not destroyed by Jesus in the battle of Armageddon because they didn t participate in the battle of Armageddon. Those are the people we will reign and rule over in our resurrection bodies during the millennium. At first, there probably are not many on the planet for us to rule over, but with incredible longevity, there will be big families. With sin under restraint and Satan with his demonic hordes off the scene, there will be incredible productivity and vitality on the planet. Sin, sickness and death will be greatly reduced. Scientists are already doing incredible things today with technology. Imagine what technology will do in the millennium where all of it is committed to doing good for others, not for war. The Bible says Israel will be the chief nation of the earth and Ezekiel describes a great temple being erected in Jerusalem. For the entire millennium, it will almost be impossible not to believe in Christ when everything works like it should with incredible productivity on this earth. What happens next is one of the most amazing commentaries on humanity in the Bible. After one thousand years of a perfect human environment on the planet, human productivity working incredibly well, and wonderful spiritual instruction for everyone from Christians in their resurrection bodies, with no crime, no war, no external temptation to sin, with the personal presence of Christ and the resurrected saints on the earth and Satan bound in the pit, there are still millions of people who are simply going through the Christian motions. They follow Christ externally but they do not love him in their hearts. With every possible incentive to believe, as soon as Satan is released from the pit, people immediately begin following him. They reject Jesus and choose to follow Satan and a sinful lifestyle. This is like the Garden of Eden all over again but on a massive scale. In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve both chose to reject God and follow Satan as their leader even though everything was perfect and there was no incentive to leave. In the same way, everything will be perfect on the planet for a thousand years but millions will make the same choice as Adam and Eve all over again. They will follow the lie of Satan, turn away from Jesus and go their own way. Remember what will have happened up to this point. Satan and his demonic hordes will have already been decisively defeated by Jesus and the armies of heaven once. Satan will have had 1,000 years in the time-out chair to think about his ways and change them. Like the hardened criminal, Satan will not reform. Immediately upon his release he will begin building a massive army of humans that have only been following Christ externally. Page!30

31 Revelation 20 - The Final Defeat Of Satan And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle; their number is like the sand of the sea. And they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven and consumed them, and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. Revelation 20:7 10 (ESV) This scene reminds me of the Pharisees in the days of Jesus. They saw Jesus performing miracles but they rejected the clear evidence that Jesus is God, which was right in front of their eyes. The same thing will happen here at the end of the millennium. People will clearly see Jesus is the rightful ruler of the earth. The only way things work well is when Jesus is in charge, but they will reject him anyway. Satan and his armies will surround Jerusalem and the saints in the city. This time the battle will not be won by the sword. It will be won by fire. Fire will come from heaven, just like when Elijah prayed to God in his battle with the prophets of Baal, except this time it will be a massive fire which comes from heaven. It will start burning around the city and spread out to completely destroy Satan s army. Satan will be captured and thrown into the lake of fire, to join the false prophet and the beast. Remember the lake of fire is the final resting place for the devil and his angels. There they will be tormented day and night forever, which is the just response for their sin. The fires of hell will never subside. What happens next is called the Great White Throne judgment. Revelation 20 The Second Resurrection And Final Judgment Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. Revelation 20:11 15 (ESV) Earlier in our studies, we learned learned that Christ will raise us from the dead. He will give us our resurrection bodies at the beginning of the millennium. What about those who died apart from Christ and were not raised to reign and rule with him? In the first week of this study we learned they remained in Hades in torment after death. Then, Hades will be emptied of the dead and they will be judged. Everyone in Hades will be judged by what he or she did in life. As Christians, we will not be part of this judgment. We are the ones whose names Page!31

32 are written in the book of life. Our judgment will have been earlier at the beginning of the millennium. We will learn about it next week. In this scene, everyone apart from Christ will be taken out of Hades and judged based on what he or she did with his or her life. This means a mass murderer will suffer a more hideous eternity in the lake of fire than a relatively nice person that died apart from Christ. Remember the lake of fire is a just response to sin. Greater sin requires greater severity of eternal punishment. All of it is eternal but some parts of the lake of fire are apparently more hideous than others. The more hideous the eternal punishment is reserved for the more hideous the sinner. Hell is not one-size-fits-all. For some of you, the idea of different degrees of punishment in hell is a new thought. Different degrees of eternal punishment based on the darkness of sin is found in other parts of the Bible. Look what Jesus said would happen on the day of judgment to the Jewish people in Jewish cities that saw Jesus miracles yet rejected him as their savior compared to pagans in pagan cities that never saw Jesus or his miracles when it comes to the day of judgment. Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for you. Matthew 11:21 22 (ESV) The idea of different degrees of hell is new for many of you so in your Digging Deeper Sermon Study sheet I put more verses to substantiate this claim. Time some time this week to read through them. The Bible frequently talks about the day of final judgment. This day of final judgment is not just talked about in Revelation. The Bible frequently talks about it. It is often given as an incentive curb sin since all sin for those apart from Christ will be judged for their sin and none of it is forgotten. before the Lord, for he comes, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness, and the peoples in his faithfulness. Psalm 96:13 (ESV) But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God s righteous judgment will be revealed. Romans 2:5 (ESV) There are many other verses in the Bible I could use to show you how frequently the Bible talks about this great day of final judgment. Years ago, I heard Erwin Lutzer talk about a funeral where he was asked to give the message. The family talked about the man in the casket telling Erwin he was a good man. He helped his children. He served in his community. The family said he was kind man, but he rejected Jesus. I remember what Erwin said to the family, That is good. We know that when he stands before God, God will remember his good deeds. God will be fair. That is true. Nobody will be with God Page!32

33 except for salvation by Jesus alone but for those who die apart from Christ, when it comes to this day of final judgment, God will be fair. The less the sin, the less the intensity of eternal suffering. The greater the sin, the greater the intensity of eternal suffering. We can trust God to be fair. He is the just judge. Thankfully, for Christians, God the Father poured out all of his just punishment for our sins on his own Son. That is why our faith in Christ s death for our sin means our names are written in the book of life and we will not face this judgment. Not only will this judgment be fair, but this judgment will be physical. The dead in Hades are given incorruptible bodies before being sent to the lake of fire. The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection. Revelation 20:5 (ESV) Christians will have received their resurrection bodies at the beginning of the millennium. Everyone else will get an indestructible body at the end of the millennium. The problem with an indestructible body at that point is when you have it, you end up in the lake of fire for all of eternity in a body that is burned but never consumed. Yikes! It is after the Great White Throne Judgment that eternity in the new heavens and the new earth begins. That is where we will pick up in two weeks. Let me show you how the millennium fits in graphically. It isn t just Revelation that talks of two resurrections and the millennial reign of Christ on earth. As I mentioned earlier, the millennium that I described to you, is not something all Christians believe. Some people think it is something only described in the book of Revelation. Since Revelation is hard to understand, maybe we shouldn t believe in the millennium and that Christ will one day rule on this earth. Before you consider crossing out the millennium because it is only found in Revelation, remember there are lots of other things in the Bible that are only talked about in one place, but we don t cross them off. For instance, the details of the Tower of Babel are only found in a few paragraphs of the book of Genesis. That was earth-changing, yet people don t cross it out of their Bibles. In addition, other parts of the Bible talk about two resurrections. For instance, Paul talked about two separate resurrections. Page!33

34 But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 1 Corinthians 15:23 25 (ESV) Paul said Christ was the first to rise from the dead. When Christ returns, Christians will rise from the dead and receive their resurrected bodies at the beginning of the millennium. At the end of the millennium, after Jesus has put under his feet every rule, authority and power (which are Hebrew names for different angelic powers) that is when everyone else will get resurrection bodies and will face the Great White Throne Judgment. In addition, there are Old Testament passages that talk about a time when this planet is vastly improved but it is not the new heavens and the new earth. We already looked at Isaiah 65:20, which talks about a return to human longevity on this earth when 100 years old would be considered young. Isaiah also talked about a time when the animal kingdom will be at peace. It is possible that instead of a meat-based animal kingdom like we have right now, during the millennium, we may have a plant-based animal kingdom. The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adderʼs den. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. Isaiah 11:6 9 (ESV) The time where the hunter and the hunted lie down in peace is a time when the knowledge of God will fill this planet like the waters cover the sea. That sounds like the millennial kingdom because Christ will be here. Knowledge of Christ will permeate everything during the millennium. What should we do with those Bible passages I mentioned at the beginning of this message that seem to teach there is only one resurrection of the dead in the middle of time not two resurrections, one at the beginning and the other at the end of the millennium? Let s read these verses a little closer and see what they teach. and many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. Daniel 12:2 (ESV) having a hope in God, which these men themselves accept, that there will be a resurrection of both the just and the unjust. Acts 24:15 (ESV) These verses say everyone will be resurrected. They don t say everyone will be resurrected at the same time. Page!34

35 Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment. John 5:28 29 (ESV) If you read this verse closely you will see John said there will be two resurrections, not one. There will be a resurrection of life and a resurrection of judgment. The thousand year reign of Christ on this planet is between them. Application There is one big application I want to make. The only one who can bring peace to this world and your life is Jesus. There is a real spiritual battle taking place for who is in charge of this world. The Bible tells us in Revelation 20 that Satan is the great deceiver of the nations. His greatest deception of the nations will be through the false prophet and the beast when they assume world-wide leadership and try to eliminate the church. Satan is not just trying to deceive the nations and control the planet. He is trying to deceive you and control your life. Just like he deceived Eve in the Garden of Eden, he is trying to deceive you into thinking you know what it best for your life, not God and his Word. Just like Satan will run this planet into the ground when he rules it, he will run your life into the ground if he can get you to follow him today. Just as the only way this planet works is when Jesus is in charge, the only way your life will work is when we put Jesus in charge. The only way to have peace on earth is to have Satan bound and Jesus in charge. The only way to have peace in your life is to turn away from the lie of Satan and ask Jesus to be in charge. Rejecting Satan s lie to put yourself in charge of your life instead of Jesus in charge of your life is the only way to find peace today. Page!35

36 How Do My Earthly Choices Make An Eternal Difference? August 27, 2017 Good morning. If you are a visitor, it is great to have you. My name is Kurt. I am one of the pastors. Please take out your notes. I want to begin with two questions. They are found on the top of your notes. Write down a simple Yes or No answer next to each one. 1. In eternity, is there a difference between someone that comes to Christ as a young person versus a death-bed conversion experience as an old person? 2. If Jesus always forgives my sin, for eternity does it make a difference if I continue to sin? We know that once we have trusted in Christ the eternal consequences of our sin are taken away. Is there any reason we shouldn t continue to sin and keep relying on Christ s abundant forgiveness? What do you think? At the end of the message we will come back to these questions and we will see how you did with your answers. At CrossWinds, we are in the fourth week of a series titled, Afterlife: What Does The Bible Say About Life After Death? In previous weeks we looked at what happens one minute after we die. We also learned about the resurrection body. Last week we looked at the Millennium, which is the thousand year reign of Christ on this earth talked about in Revelation 20. We learned there are two resurrections of the dead. The first is at the beginning of the Millennium when Christ will return and raise all Christians from the dead. Jesus will also give us our eternal resurrection bodies at that time. We will reign and rule with him on this earth for a thousand years and into the new creation. Last week, we learned at the end of the Millennium when Satan will be defeated and thrown into the lake of fire where he will be tormented forever and ever. The lake of fire is also called hell. At the end of the Millennium there will be a second resurrection when God will raise from the dead everyone that died apart from Christ. At that time, Jesus will judge everyone that died apart from Christ based on how he or she lived. At the beginning of the Millennium, Christians rose from the dead and were given their resurrection bodies. At the judgment of non-christians, at the end of the Millennium, everyone else will be given an eternal resurrection body when they Page!36

37 are judged, then thrown into the lake of fire forever. Living in the lake of fire forever in an indestructible body doesn t sound like fun, but that is what the Bible tells us will happen. I didn t write the book. I only read the book. Before we jump into this week s message, I want to take a few moments to review this second resurrection and judgment of non-christians at the end of the Millennium. It is called the Great White Throne Judgment. The Great White Throne Judgment Last week, we learned the eternal punishment people will receive in the lake of fire is not one-size-fits-all. It will be a fair and just response to the sin in someone s life. It will never be too harsh or too lenient. While all punishment for sin is eternal, all punishment for sin will not be the same in the lake of fire. This is why God will judge people before sending them there. That means the greater the sinner, the greater their level of eternal suffering in the lake of fire. Even if someone is not a Christian, it is always to their benefit to turn away from sin, because at the Great White Throne judgment, at the end of the Millennium before the new heavens and new earth, God will judge everyone s sin fairly and assign him or her to a degree of eternal, conscious, never-ending punishment that is a fair and just response to the sin in his or her life. Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. Revelation 20:11 12 (ESV) The good news of the Great White Throne judgment is nobody will get away with murder. Nobody will get away with a single lie, deceit or sin in his or her life. Justice will be complete, total and final. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account. Hebrews 4:13 (ESV) The other good news is that Christians will not be part of this judgment. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. Revelation 20:12 15 (ESV) As Christians, our names are written in the book of life. We are not part of this judgment. Yes, I ask you also, true companion, help these women, who have labored side by side with me in the gospel together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life. Philippians 4:3 (ESV) Page!37

38 I love the way Paul said these ordinary, nameless women have their names written in the book of life, not because of what they did but because of what Jesus did, and they were trusting him to save them from their sin. The great news is that God will be completely just in this judgment. Nobody will get away with murder, rape or deceit. The best news of all is that because of Jesus our names are written in the book of life. We will not be part of this judgment. BUT That doesn t mean our lives as Christians will escape serious review. The Judgment Seat Of Christ Just as there will be a judgment at the end of the Millennium of those who don t know Christ, there will be a judgment of Christians at the beginning of the Millennium. It will be called the Judgment Seat of Christ. The Great White Throne judgment at the end of the Millennium will be for those who died apart from the forgiveness of Christ and will be to determine the just, eternal punishment for their sin. The Judgment Seat of Christ will be for Christians. It will be at the beginning of the Millennium, and it will not be a judgment of our sin. It will be a judgment of the way we lived our lives to determine the extent of our eternal rewards. Remember, the Bible is clear we do not pay for our sin because Jesus paid in full for our sin. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Romans 8:1 (ESV) After we come to Christ we are either gaining or losing rewards from Christ based on how we live. We need to understand that God desires to reward us in eternity based on how we live as Christians. We are saved by the grace of Jesus, but we are rewarded in eternity based on the works we have done. Let me say this again. We are saved by grace. We are rewarded by works. This is a major blind spot for many Christians. Most Christians believe they are saved by grace so it doesn t matter how we live once we come to Jesus because all of our sin is forgiven. It matters how Christians live. The choices we make in this life are either gaining or forfeiting eternal rewards that Jesus desires to give us. Will there be tears at the judgment seat of Christ? I think there may be. When Christians gain a better understanding of the greatness of Christ s death for their sin plus they can see the greatness of the rewards Jesus wanted to give them but they forfeited by continuing to live in sin, I believe some Christians will cry. The Bible warns us against losing our eternal rewards because we continue in sin. Watch yourselves, so that you may not lose what we have worked for, but may win a full reward. 2 John 8 (ESV) Page!38

39 I am coming soon. Hold fast what you have, so that no one may seize your crown. Revelation 3:11 (ESV) If it in t for Christ wiping away our tears, we may continue to cry in eternity when we see the rewards we forfeited. Lest you build up too much anxiety, understand Jesus heart at this judgment. He will be like a father that can t wait to award his son after being out of town. Since Jesus loves his kids, he can t wait to reward his kids for how they lived when he was gone. Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done. Revelation 22:12 (NIV) At the Judgment Seat of Christ, my life will be given a serious review. The Judgment Seat of Christ is a prominent feature in the New Testament. Every single Christian will stand before Christ and give an account for all actions, words, thoughts, and even for the motives of their hearts. Christ will miss nothing. Sometimes you will hear the Judgment Seat of Christ called the bema. That is because Paul likened it to the competitive sporting events in his day. After a sport contest in the ancient world, a dignitary sat on an elevated throne (called a bema) and gave rewards to the victors. Usually the reward was a wreath. It was known as the victor s crown. That crown was worn in public. People would look at the victors with admiration because they were winners. In a similar way all Christians will stand before Jesus to be judged for our performance in the Christian life. Every single Christian will either suffer loss or reward depending on Christ s evaluation of how we ran the race of our faith. Remember the Judgment Sseat of Christ has nothing to do with going to heaven. Heaven is secure by Christ s grace and salvation through Jesus. This judgment only deals with a reception or loss of rewards based on how one lived after becoming a Christ. We are saved by grace but we are rewarded by works. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil. 2 Corinthians 5:10 (ESV) All Christians will appear before Christ s judgment seat and they will either gain or lose rewards Christ wanted to give them based on how they lived. Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. 1 Corinthians 9:24 25 (NIV84) Paul said we are to live our Christian lives like we are athletes, not couch potatoes. We are not to float through life aimlessly. We are to run to win. We are to discipline ourselves to be all we can be for Christ and do all we can do for Christ. We know when we stand before Jesus we will receive rewards from Jesus Page!39

40 based on how we lived. The rewards Christ will give us are not perishable wreaths but they will last forever. When Paul said, we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, the word appear literally means to turn something inside out. It means to review something in the greatest depth so the review covers the inside, not just the outside of our lives. What will God evaluate and reward? 1. God will evaluate how we used our gifts and talents. Each of us has gifts and talents given to us from God. Some of us are athletically gifted. Others are whizzes with number and finances. Still others of us are great with people. The question is, What did we do with our gifts? Did we use them only for our glory or did we leverage them for Christ and his glory in this world. On that day, God will evaluate us on what we did with our gifts. 2. Christ will evaluate what we did with the opportunities he provided. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:10 (ESV) God constantly puts opportunities to do practical and spiritual good in the lives of others. Are we live, will we be the priest and the Levite in the Parable of the Good Samaritan? Wille we just pass on the other side of the road whenever we see opportunities to do practical or spiritual good for others? God didn t save us to sit. He saved us to serve others. 3. Christ will evaluate the way we handled temptation. We will also be evaluated by Christ on how we handled temptation. Does Christ forgive us of sin? Yes. Christ completely forgives our sin. But when we turn away from sin, Christ promises to reward us in eternity for saying No to sin and Yes to holiness. The reward Christ desires to give us in eternity for saying No to sin contains far more joy than any temporary empty pleasure sin could offer. Every time we say No to sin, we are saying Yes to greater joy. Every time we choose to keep our mouths shut and not spread gossip, we are saying Yes to an eternal reward from God that is far more tasty than that juicy tidbit of slander. Every time we say No to a few minutes of hidden lustful pleasure on our smartphones, we are saying Yes to far greater joy that comes as a reward from Christ that will last for all of eternity. When we stand before Christ, Paul said we will literally be turned inside out when Christ evaluates us. He will evaluate us on the inside. 4. Christ will evaluate our thought lives. I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds. Jeremiah 17:10 (ESV) Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the Page!40

41 purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive his commendation from God. 1 Corinthians 4:5 (ESV) This is incredibly convicting. What thoughts do you allow to flow through your mind? Are they lustful? Christ will review and evaluate them. Are they hateful? Christ will review them. Are they disrespectful to others? One day we will give an answer to Christ for the thoughts we allowed our minds to chew on. We will either forfeit or gain rewards from Christ according to how we think. 5. Christ will evaluate our careless words. I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak Matthew 12:36 (ESV) We will give an answer for every careless word we spoke when we were annoyed or irritated. Even if our careless words were not spoken in public but in the privacy of our own homes, if we tore down people with hurtful or mocking words, we are still accountable for those words. While the people we are speaking about may not be in our homes, Christ is in our homes. One day we will answer to him for those careless words. 6. Christ will evaluate the way we used our time. Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Ephesians 5:15 16 (ESV) Life is short. It goes by quickly. We will give an answer to Christ for how we use our time. Teenagers, there is nothing wrong with video games, but after a while you need to ask if that is the best use of your time? What will Christ say about too much time in front of the game system? Those who are retired, there is nothing wrong with the golf course, but too much golf may not be the best use of your time. One day each of us will stand before Christ and he will evaluate how we used our time in this life. In this life when it comes to Christ, do we run to win, or do we waste our time? 7. Christ will evaluate us graciously. Thankfully, while God will judge everything about our Christian lives, he will also judge us graciously. Remember, God has no pent-up anger against us either for our carnality or our selfishness. All of God s anger for our sin was completely absorbed by Jesus. The Judgment Seat of Christ is because God does more than completely save us. Out of his goodness, he also desires to reward us. Maybe the best way to think of this is a father that has to be away from home on business for a month. He asks his son to mow the lawn every weekend when he is gone. He promises that as a reward on the weekend he comes back he will take his son for a ride in a plane on the Saturday morning he comes back, and they will spend the morning together flying in the sky. Page!41

42 The father returns from his business trip to find the lawn knee high. His son never mowed it once. Who is sad? The son is sad because he won t be going for a ride in the plane. The father is also sad because he so much wanted to reward his son with a gift. The prospect of eternal rewards is a legitimate reason to serve Christ. I know some of you feel uneasy about this. Many people think we should serve Christ simply out of gratitude for what he has done. If that is you, you are right. We should serve Christ out of gratitude for all he has done. Our God is such a good God that he doesn t want us to just serving him out of gratitude. He also desires to motivate us to serve him through the prospect of rewards. If you think about this, it isn t a bad idea. God built us to be motivated by rewards. Think of all the training, sweat and tears that goes into getting the reward of the Vince Lombardi trophy in the NFL. Football players are motivated to do their best not simply out of gratitude for the game but out of the prospect of a reward. How do businesses motivate their salesmen? Salesmen don t sell cars simply out of gratitude for a job. Salesmen are motivated to sell because of the prospect of a reward. The best salesman of the year gets an all-expense paid trip to Hawaii. Salesmen work harder when they are working for a reward. We have much greater rewards offered to us than an all-expense paid trip to Hawaii. We have rewards that come to us from the hand of Christ, and the joy of those rewards lasts for eternity. (Moses) choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward. Hebrews 11:25 26 (ESV) Moses chose to be mistreated with the people of Israel rather than to enjoy the sinful pleasures offered to him as the son of the Pharaoh, not because he didn t love pleasure but because he was looking forward to greater pleasure, his eternal reward. He said No" to sin for the greater pleasure of his eternal rewards from God. But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great... Luke 6:35 (ESV) Each of us have people in life that hurt us. They lie about us. They say hateful words to us and about us. Every one of us has those kinds of people in our lives that make our skin crawl to be around them. Jesus said, Love those enemies. Do good to those enemies. Expect nothing in return. Even when you do them good, expect to receive hate and not thanks for what you have done. You say, What s in it for me? Why should I go out of my way to love my enemies when it is pointless? If we go out of our way to love our enemies, God promises to reward us in eternity for loving them. Your enemies may not love you back, but God will reward you back. Page!42

43 What do eternal rewards look like? In the first century culture, the reward for victory given from the judgment seat was a wreath. What do God s rewards look like? 1. We will have crowns. Probably the most common reference to God s rewards in Scripture are crowns. For example, the Bible talks about the crown of life, the crown of faithfulness and the crown of righteousness as some of the possible rewards given to us by God based on how we live. Clearly, we see we will have some kind of permanent visible rewards given us based on how we lived. The best way I can analogize this is to think about the military. As you progress in the military, you are given rewards you wear on your uniform. High-ranking generals have all kinds of stars and stripes as visible reminders of their rewards. As Christians we will have all kinds of crowns in eternity that are visible reminders of our eternal rewards. God will reward us with more than visible honor for all of eternity. 2. We will gain what we lost for the sake of Christ. Jesus said to them, Truly, I say to you, in the new world, when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name s sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life. Matthew 19:28 29 (ESV) Following Christ means sacrifice. For some of you, your children are missionaries in a foreign land. They are bringing Jesus to a people who haven t heard of him. You are sacrificing time with your children and grandchildren for the sake of the gospel. They are sacrificing time with their parents and grandparents. While you lose the joy of that family time now, as a reward for that sacrifice, Christ desires to repay you a hundred-fold in eternity. Some people have left behind possessions, lucrative careers or businesses for the sake of making Christ s name famous. God promises to repay them a hundred-fold for their sacrifice. One observation we can make from this is the incredible generosity of our God. He doesn t just pay us back for our sacrifices in this life but he super-overcompensates and pays us back a hundredfold when he desires to reward us. Our God is that good. 3. We will obtain greater glory. Earlier in our studies of the afterlife we learned that in heaven, we will have a degree of glory about us. We don t know if we will literally shine like Jesus, but we will have a degree of glory. Look what Paul said will influence the amount of glory that radiates from us for all eternity. Page!43

44 The Spirit himself bears witness to our spirit that we are Godʼs children. And if children, then heirs (namely, heirs of God and also fellow heirs with Christ) if indeed we suffer with him so we may also be glorified with him. For I consider that our present sufferings cannot even be compared to the glory that will be revealed to us. Romans 8:16 18 (NET) Paul said the greater the suffering we are willing to endure for Christ, the greater the glory we will partake of from Christ. Christ has supreme glory in heaven because he paid the supreme sacrifice of suffering to take away our sins. If God in his sovereignty puts us in a position where obedience to Christ leads us to suffer for Christ, embrace that suffering joyfully knowing that the more we suffer well for Christ, the more glory we will obtain for all of eternity making us a little more like Christ. 4. We gain greater rulership from Christ. In Luke 19, Jesus tell us the parable of the minas. In this parable a master entrusts his servants with money while he is gone to make a return on his investment. This parable is meant to teach us about the kingdom of God. It parallels how God will reward us based on investments he makes in us. The first came before him, saying, Lord, your mina has made ten minas more. And he said to him, Well done, good servant! Because you have been faithful in a very little, you shall have authority over ten cities. And the second came, saying, Lord, your mina has made five minas. And he said to him, And you are to be over five cities. I tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. Luke 19:16-19, 26 (ESV) If we are faithful with the money, gifts, talents and time God entrusts into our lives today, God promises much greater responsibilities of leadership in eternity. Last week, we learned that during the Millennium and into the new heavens and earth Christians will rule with Christ and under Christ. How much rulership we have on that day will be determined by how we live with what Christ has entrusted into our lives today. How can I gain eternal rewards? As we go into this week, it is my hope that each of us lives to gain the maximum reward we can obtain when we stand before the judgment seat of Christ. It is my prayer we wouldn t forfeit any of the joyful awards that could be ours because of our sin. Here is a list of practical ways to gain great eternal rewards. 1. Financial generosity in the name of Christ. Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Matthew 6:19 21 (ESV) Page!44

45 Whenever we express financial generosity in the name of Christ, we do not lose that money, we relocate that money from earth to heaven. We relocate it in a place where it cannot be taken by thieves. It cannot be destroyed. It cannot lose value. God promises to reward us in heaven based on our financial generosity toward the things of Christ on earth. I cannot put enough stress on the importance of being a generous giver. As Paul said, If you want to love Jesus more, give more. Where your treasure is, there you heart will be also. Most Christians practice tithing, which is giving 10 percent of your income to God. A tithe is a good floor for generosity. It is not a ceiling to limit generosity. I know some of you think you can t afford to tithe. The truth is you can t afford not to tithe. God is in charge of your finances. When we tithe, it teaches us to trust in God to provide for our needs. You will be shocked to see how God meets your needs. The best part of tithing is Jesus said we never lose the money. We merely relocate that money to heaven. 2. Practical care for those in need. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just. Luke 14:13 14 (ESV) Every time we give to those in need, especially those who cannot repay us, we earn eternal rewards. What greater motivation is there for visiting nursing homes, the jail, orphans and helping unwed mothers? God promises to reward us when we care for those who cannot repay us. 3. Joyful acceptance of God-ordained suffering. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 1:6 7 (ESV) Sometimes we find ourselves in a situation where we suffer. We didn t bring the trial into our lives, but it really stinks. It could be a physical trial of poor health. It could be a relational trial because your spouse left you alone. It could be a financial trial where you lose your job. Peter said in all these trials God is testing our faith to prove it is genuine. If you have fake faith, you will fall away from Christ in a trial. If you have genuine faith, you will cling closer to Christ in the trial. In your trial are you clinging to Christ or cursing Christ? Christ promises to reward us if we suffer well. 4. Hearty work at my vocation. Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. Colossians 3:23 24 (ESV) Page!45

46 Whatever you do for work, work hard at your job. Don t fritter your time away. Don t give a half-hearted effort on the job. Even if you don t think your earthly boss is paying you well, know your heavenly boss will pay you well. You will receive a reward for how you work not just from your earthly boss but you will also receive a reward from your heavenly boss for working well. Take pride in your work and have a job well-done. God will reward you forever for your work. 5. Every good thing we do will be rewarded by God. knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a slave or free. Ephesians 6:8 (ESV) Every good thing we do we will receive back from the Lord. Jesus will find every last thing in our lives for which he can reward us, and he will reward us for all of eternity. Conclusion There are two main things we learned: 1. We are saved by grace but we will be rewarded by works. Christians are not to be couch potatoes. We are not saved to sit. We are saved to serve. Jesus is so incredibly gracious that he wants to reward us for how we serve after we are saved. He can t wait to reward us for how we live. 2. The person you are today will determine the rewards you will receive tomorrow. Live full-throttle for Jesus today in preparation for the day we will stand before him and be rewarded by him. Let s look at the questions we started with this morning. 1. Will it make a difference in eternity if you come a Christ as a young man compared a death-bed conversion experience as an old man? Yes! A young man has a lifetime to earn eternal rewards from Christ. Those with a death-bed conversion experience will be in heaven by God s grace through Christ but they have no chance to earn rewards from Christ. Both are saved only by grace, but the young man has the opportunity to also be rewarded for his works. 2. If Jesus forgives me of my sin, does it matter if I continue to sin? Yes, it matters. While our sin is forgiven by Christ, continuing in sin forfeits the rewards Christ desires to give us at his judgment seat. Page!46

47 What Is The New Heavens and Earth? September 3, 2017 When was the last time you moved? Do you remember the thrill of exploring a new town and of moving into a new home? If you weren t thrilled by the newness of a town and home as an adult, do you remember how thrilling it was to move when you were a child? Do you remember sitting on your bed in your new home on move-in day and drinking in the thrill of your new home? One day, each of us will have the feelings of excitement that go with moving into a new home. It won t be an earthly home. It will be the thrill of moving into our eternal home in the new heavens and new earth in a city called the new Jerusalem. Jesus said, I go to prepare a place for you that where I am you may also be. I have no doubt we will remember our move-in day for eternity when we arrive at our eternal home. If we love the thrill of a new home and a new city now, I imagine the thrill of our new home in eternity will be beyond imagination. If you are new, I would like to welcome you. My name is Kurt. I am one of the pastors. At CrossWinds we are in a series called Afterlife: What does the Bible say about life after death? In previous weeks, we covered the great tribulation, the return of Christ and what will happen when Jesus gives us resurrection bodies. We looked at the Millennium, which is the earthly reign of Christ. We learned we will reign with Christ and under Christ on this earth for a thousand years while Satan and his demonic hordes are out of the picture. We also learned there would be a release of Satan at the end of the Millennium followed by his final defeat and confinement to the lake of fire, that is hell, for eternity. We studied the Great White Throne Judgment at the end of the Millennium, where all who die apart from Christ will be resurrected and judged by their works before being sent to the lake of fire. Last week, we looked at the Judgment Seat of Christ at the beginning of the Millennium after we receive our resurrection bodies. At that judgement Jesus will reward us based on how we live. We learned we are only saved by God s grace but we are rewarded in eternity based on works. How a Christian lives matters. It determines not his or her salvation we are saved by the grace of Christ alone but his or her eternal rewards. This morning we look at the last big part of of our Afterlife timeline which is called the new heavens, the new earth. That is our final home. Page!47

48 Before we look at the new heavens and earth, to give you a frame of reference, I want to show you how the Bible is structured. Creation Past Creation Present New Creation Future The first two chapters of the Bible describe the creation of this world. They describe life before sin. From Genesis 3 to Revelation 20 we have the problem of sin and God s solution for sin, which is his son, Jesus. The last two chapters of Revelation describe the future creation of a new heavens and earth. The first two chapters of the Bible and the last two chapters of the Bible act like bookends. They describe the creation of this world in the past, and they describe the creation of a new world in the future. The rest of the Bible fills in the details of what happens in between. The exciting part is when we compare the first two chapters of Genesis with the last two chapters of Revelation we find there is continuity them. Our world now will have many similarities to the new heavens and earth in the future. God will not just restore this earth after Satan s final defeat to what it was like before sin entered the world in Genesis 1 and 2 but he will renew this world plus vastly improve it. This is the theme we will follow this morning. Our God is a restoration specialist. He doesn t just renew what was ruined by sin but he renews it and vastly improves it. We first saw this theme when, in the second week of our study, we saw what God promises to do with our bodies. In Genesis we have original sinless Adam and Eve. After sin was introduced into the world, people died. Death dominated the earth. Christians die because of sin in this world. God promises to takes our selfsame bodies that are rotten in the grave and resurrect them back to life. He won t just bring our bodies back to what they were but he vastly improves them. He will upgrade our current weak bodies to be like Christ s resurrection body. Instead of our bodies being know for weakness, the Bible tells us our resurrection bodies will be known for power. Instead of our bodies being susceptible to sickness and fading with age, they will be immortal and we will live forever, just like Christ s resurrection body. We will get resurrected eternal bodies that are not just restored but they are vastly improved. In a similar way, Genesis 1 and 2 describe a perfect, sin-free earth. Genesis 3 forward describes the earth in bondage to sin. As we will see in Revelation 21 and 22, God will give us the sin-free earth of Genesis 1 and 2 back again but just like he will vastly improve our bodies when he resurrects them, God will resurrect and vastly improve this earth when he makes it into the new creation. Let me give you a third example of God not just restoring things to their pre-sin state but vastly improving things. In Genesis 1 and 2, God was in heaven but he walked in the Garden with Adam and Eve. He came for visits. From Genesis 3 forward, man is cut off from God because of sin. God set out to restore Page!48

49 that broken relationship with Jesus. In Revelation 21 and 22, God doesn t just walk with man once again but then he will live with man as God fuses heaven and earth together. Once again God will restore what was lost to sin, plus he will vastly improve things. When God fixes things that are broken, he makes them better than they were before. The bookends of the Bible show us this creation and the next creation are connected together but the new creation that is our final home is vastly improved compared to this creation. Let s see how this unfolds. The New Heaven and Earth Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. And he who was seated on the throne said, Behold, I am making all things new. Also he said, Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true. Revelation 21:1 5 (ESV) God will create a new heaven and new earth because the current heaven and earth will passed away. What is wrong with our current heaven and earth? Why can t we take our current planet and solar system into eternity? 1. The earth cannot be our final home because it is under the curse of sin. The Bible tells us when sin entered the world, it didn t infect people, it infected the planet. And to Adam he said, Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, You shall not eat of it, cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life Genesis 3:17 (ESV) The reason we spray for weeds is because they are out of control due to sin. The reason the cells in our body multiply out of control so we have cancer is because of sin in the creation. The reason we don t have gentle, life-giving rain in Texas but torrential flooding rains that take life is because of sin. Much more than our souls are in bondage to sin. Creation is in bondage to sin. That is why creation fights against us instead of working with us. that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. Romans 8:21 (ESV) Page!49

50 Our current creation is in bondage to corruption. The planet and the universe anxiously wait to be freed from bondage to sin, decay and corruption. 2. The Old Testament talks about the destruction of this creation due to sin. The Old Testament talks about the future destruction of this present heaven and earth because it is imbued by sin. Of old you laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you will remain; they will all wear out like a garment. You will change them like a robe, and they will pass away Psalm 102:25 26 (ESV) Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look at the earth beneath; for the heavens vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment, and they who dwell in it will die in like manner; but my salvation will be forever, and my righteousness will never be dismayed. Isaiah 51:6 (ESV) 3. Jesus talked about the destruction of this creation due to sin. Jesus was well aware that this current heaven and earth would one day pass away, and he mentioned it in his teaching. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. Matthew 24:35 (ESV) 4. The Apostle Peter talked about the destruction of this creation due to sin. The Apostle Peter had what is probably the strongest statement on what will happen to this creation because of sin infecting this world, not just people. But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. 2 Peter 3:7 13 (ESV) If you are listening closely, you will realize I caught you on the horns of a dilemma. Earlier I told you God will renew the earth but these verses appear to Page!50

51 say this earth is so polluted by sin that God will need to destroy it before he can create a new heaven and earth. Has sin so polluted the earth that God must destroy the earth and create a new one? Does God need to destroy this creation in order to make another sinfree creation? I don t think so. 5. If God is forced to destroy the universe because of sin, Satan won a tremendous victory. If God needs to completely destroy the universe to remove the effects of sin in the universe, Satan won a tremendous victory. Satan didn t succeed in destroying the matter in our bodies, because God resurrects our selfsame bodies. If God can resurrect the matter in our bodies and transform our bodies to be without sin for eternity, why couldn t he also transform the universe to be free from sin for eternity? If God could not redeem and resurrect this planet, but he could redeem and resurrect our bodies, Satan found the limits of God s strength. If you think about it, God destroying this universe because of sin instead of redeeming and resurrecting the universe would be inconsistent with the way God operates. Throughout the Bible we see God reconciling, restoring, redeeming, renewing, and resurrecting. All these suggest God loves to take what was ruined by sin and bring it back to life. Most of Jesus miracles were miracles of restoration or redeeming the damage done by sin. In our second week of this series, when we looked at our resurrection bodies, we learned God will not allow Satan and sin to have a victory over our bodies by death but it is the very selfsame bodies we have today that Jesus will raise from the dead and transform into resurrection bodies, just as was done with Jesus. If God will not allow Satan and sin to have victory over the matter contained in Jesus body and the matter contained in our bodies, why would God be forced to give Satan victory over the rest of the matter in the universe? 6. If God can resurrect our bodies free from sin, he can resurrect the universe free from sin. The same Peter that wrote the verses we read in 2 Peter said in the book of Acts, whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago. Acts 3:21 (ESV) Peter said there is coming not a complete destruction of all things but ultimately a renewal of all things. Just as the matter of our bodies will one day be resurrected free of sin, the matter of this universe will one day be resurrected free from sin. Page!51

52 I think the way to understand this is to simply read the verses surrounding 2 Peter. For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. 2 Peter 3:5 7 (ESV) The passage draws a parallel between the way the earth in the time of Noah was destroyed and purified of sin by the flood and the coming time when the earth will be destroyed and purified not just with water but it will be destroyed and purified at a much deeper level, by fire. Did the destruction of the flood eliminate the earth? No! It purified the earth. Will the destruction of this earth by fire eliminate it or purify it at a much deeper level? The deepest cleansing of this planet from sin would not involve water but it would involve fire, as the very elements of the world would be melted and purified just like metal is purified and dross is removed from metal by means of fire. In the same way God will use fire to purify remove all remnants of the dross of sin in this creation. Once the virus of sin is removed from the fabric of creation by fire, God will then rebuild this creation starting with the same blueprint of the old creation. 7. New means in line with the old but vastly improved. One of the keys to understanding this is the word new used in this passage. When God says, I make all things new, it is the Greek word kainos. That means new in quality and superior in character. It means new in the sense there is continuity with the old but it is so vastly improved that the old is completely obsolete. While all examples break down, imagine this one. Who here had the original iphone? When it came out it was the greatest technological breakthrough that everybody wanted. Today the iphone 1 is obsolete. We have the iphone 7, which is in line with the original iphone but it is so improved that the original iphone is not even desired any more. That is what the Greek word for new means in this passage. When Jesus makes all things new, they are new in the sense they are in line with the old but they are so vastly improved that the old is not remembered. The new creation will be this creation completely purified from sin on the atomic level but God will rebuild this creation off the blueprint of this creation so it is in line with this universe but it will be so vastly improved that it will make this universe obsolete, just like God will do with our resurrection bodies. Let s think this through. This means the new creation will have dirt. It will have water. It will have trees just like our current creation. The water in the new creation will be purer than anything you have ever known. The trees will be more beautiful than you have ever seen. The apples, peaches and pears will be more flavorful and more beautiful. We will eat in the new creation but it will taste better Page!52

53 than anything we have ever enjoyed. The finest meal we eat today will taste like cardboard compared to the flavor of an ordinary meal in the new creation. In the new creation will have mountains to explore and lakes in which we can swim. We will have trails to hike and trees to climb, but all of it will be vastly improved. The water in the new creation will be so clear that we will be able to see everything in vivid color under water in front of us. We will be able to swim in the water without fear of sharks. In this creation, we have pets. In the new creation we will have animals that are our friends. The animals in the new creation will be more beautiful than any animals on this earth. If you like the taste of sweet corn now, imagine what it will taste like in our resurrected bodies in a resurrected, sin-free creation that is vastly improved? How many of you like to travel? You will have eternity to travel in physical bodies in a new earth of dazzling beauty in every direction the eye can see. Simply looking at the beauty in the new creation will explode our senses with wonder and excitement. Take everything you love in this creation, strip it free of sin and make it exponentially better. That will be our eternal home. What will make our new home even better is that God s home and our home will be combined. Heaven and earth will be combined forever. God will live with us on a resurrected earth as we are in resurrected bodies. Can you imagine this? One thing absent in the new creation are seas. Why is that? When we think of seas, we think of a day at the beach. We think of surfing, seafood and fishing. In the ancient world, when people thought of the sea, joy isn t what came to mind. The seas in the ancient world were frightful. The seas were known as the watery grave. Seas separated people from loved ones. Boats in the ancient world had no compass or radar. Their frail ships were at the mercy of tempestuous seas. Seas represented disorder and chaos. The idea of no seas was positive because they saw that as no chaos, no barriers between people, no watery grave. The New Jerusalem In the new creation, where we dwell with God, there is a capital city called the New Jerusalem. As we continue reading in Revelation 21, we read a travel brochure of the city that will be our eternal home. Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues and spoke to me, saying, Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb. And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. It had a great, high wall, with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and on the gates the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel were inscribed on the east three gates, on the north three gates, on the south three gates, and on the west three gates. And the wall of the city had twelve Page!53

54 foundations, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. And the one who spoke with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city and its gates and walls. The city lies foursquare, its length the same as its width. And he measured the city with his rod, 12,000 stadia. Its length and width and height are equal. He also measured its wall, 144 cubits by human measurement, which is also an angel s measurement. The wall was built of jasper, while the city was pure gold, like clear glass. The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every kind of jewel. The first was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, the fifth onyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, the twelfth amethyst. And the twelve gates were twelve pearls, each of the gates made of a single pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass. And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and its gates will never be shut by day and there will be no night there. They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb s book of life. Revelation 21:9 27 (ESV) 1. Jesus is preparing an amazing place for us in the new Jerusalem. The first thing we need to know is who will prepare our home in this city. It is Jesus. In my Father s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. John 14:2 3 (ESV) Jesus tells us he is preparing a place for us. The day when the new heaven and earth arrives and the new Jerusalem is set on the face of the earth as the capital city of the new creation, there will be a place in the city with your name on it, prepared for you by Jesus. That will be our move-in day. It will be a day we won t forget. Just as the new creation is in line with our current creation but it is beyond description, in the same way the new Jerusalem is in line with this creation but it is beyond description in beauty. But, as it is written, What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him. 1 Corinthians 2:9 (ESV) 2. The city is described as having staggering size and beauty. Fifteen times in Revelation 21 and 22 the place where God and his people live together is described as a city. Some people think of this city as metaphorical. Do you think it is real or imaginary? I believe it is a real place. Why Page!54

55 not? First, we will have real, physical, resurrection bodies. Second, we will live on a real, physical, resurrected earth. Why wouldn t we live in a real physical new Jerusalem as the capital city? Remember our resurrected bodies will take up space. The new creation takes up space. Why wouldn t the new Jerusalem take up real space? As for size, the city will be 12,000 stadia on each side. That is approximately 1,400 miles per side. If the dimensions are literal, the city would stretch from Canada to Mexico and from the Appalachian Mountains to the California border. Since the city s height is the same as its width and length, it appears to be in the form of a perfect cube. Interestingly, the holy of holies in the Old Testament tabernacle was also in the form of a perfect cube. With walls 1,400 miles high, if each story in the city was 12 feet tall, that would leave 600,000 stories. At that size you could put 20 billion people in the city, giving each of them 75 acres of space. The point will be there is plenty of room for all of God s people for all of eternity in this city. The gates of the city will be so far apart that some Bible scholars wonder if each gate will open to a different country, or perhaps even radically different landscapes. Imagine people of every nationality, color and racing going into and out of this massive city that explodes with light and color. The city will be adorned by all kinds of precious stones. Geologists tell us these stones are some of the hardest substances on earth. That tells us the greatness of protection God gives his people. These stones are also some of the most beautiful. At the very least, the precious stones represent the incredible wealth and the exorbitant riches of God s splendor. I picture this city infused with light and bathed in color from the precious stones. The gates of the city will always be open because, while the city will be well-protected, there will be nothing in the new creation to protect the city from. All of the enemies of God s kingdom will have been thrown into the lake of fire. When I first read about God s great city, I will admit I wasn t as thrilled as I should have been. When I think of a city, I think of dirt, poverty, homelessness, crime, pollution, sirens and traffic. None of that will be part of this city. All the benefits of a city will be present without all of the detriments of sin. A city is a center for culture. It is a place where people work together. In the city you find music, art, fine dining and friendship. In a city you find the best humanity has to offer as people work together. Remember God s story line. He takes what was good and but was ruined by sin, restores it and vastly improves it. God won t just take us back to the Garden of Eden but he will vastly improve on the garden with the city of the new Jerusalem. In this city there will be no temple. There will be no house of worship, because each of us will go directly to God for worship. There will be no sun in the new creation because the brilliance of the glory of Jesus in the center of the city won t just illuminate the city but it will light up the Page!55

56 entire new creation. There will be no night because Jesus brilliance will shine forever. Interestingly, there apparently will still be nations on the earth because they will surround the city. The Bible tells us the nations of the earth will bring in their glory and splendor. Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever. Revelation 22:1 5 (ESV) In the center of the city, flowing from the throne of God and the Lamb right through the middle of the city streets will be the water of life. Since a river flows downhill, it gives us the picture that the interior of the city might be constructed like a mountain. Water always flows downhill and the river of the water of life will flow downhill from the throne of God and the Lamb in the center of the city, throughout the city. Water flowing from the throne of God may not catch our attention, but in the ancient near east, which is a desert world, water was essential. Water is the source of life. The picture is that water, which is the source of all life, will flow from the throne of God. God will sustain all life in his new creation. Remember we will have real bodies and this will be real water. Ghosts don t need water. In our resurrected bodies, this will be real water we will need and enjoy. God is the one who quenches our thirst and sustains our lives. In addition, the tree of life will be located on either side of the river. We first saw the tree of life in Genesis 1 and 2. Revelation 2:7 tells us the tree of life was relocated to Paradise after the fall of man. Then the tree of life will come back on the new earth The picture we get is in the center of the city will be a mountain upon which God the Father and the Son dwell. The water of life will flow from this throne to give life to everything in the city. Surrounding the God the Father and Jesus will be a garden where the tree of life will be found. It says the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. We know that no sickness will be found in the new creation. What does it mean to heal the nations? The Greek work for healing is therapia from which we get our word therapy. It means health giving. It means the leaves of the tree will give health and vitality to the people of the world. It doesn t mean they will cure sickness, because sickness will not exist. The leaves will bring life and vitality. Page!56

57 We will see the face of God. What is most amazing of all is when it says we will see God s face. Ancient theologians called this the beatific vision. That is Latin for the happy-making sight. Now I know seeing God s face is probably not on the top of your wish list but after I explain it to you, it will be. The one thing people were never allowed to see until these final verses in the Bible is the face of God. Even Moses, when he asked to see God in Exodus was only allowed to see God s back, or you could say the afterglow of his presence. Moses never saw God s face. Paul described God this way. who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen. 1 Timothy 6:16 (ESV) When Revelation 22:4 says we will see the face of God, this should make us sit up and take notice. We will be able to see God and live. Seeing the face of God will be the most joy-filled moment of our existence. All other joys we experience in this life or eternity are nothing compared to the joy of seeing God s face. You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. Psalm 16:11 (ESV) God is the creator of all joy in this world. The closer we are to God, the more joy we will experience. The Psalmist says the presence of God is full joy. That means complete and total joy is found in God s presence. Being with him is never-ending pleasure. We will see God s face, which is the maximum amount of joy than can be experienced. We will gaze into the fountainhead of all pleasure. Think of it this way. When you are sick, a friend brings you a tasty meal. The meal gives you joy but it points back to a much greater joy, which is seeing the face of the friend who made the meal because he or she loves you. All of the pleasures we enjoy in life today point us back to the one who created those pleasures and gave them to us as a gift. God made pleasure for us to enjoy. Seeing the face of God is pressing your face into the creator of all joy and pleasure. There is nothing more joy-filled and satisfying in this world than seeing the face of God. Today, when you enjoy the pleasure of a good meal, thank God for his good gift and anticipate the day when you will see the face of the one who created food and tastebuds all for our joy. When you enjoy marital intimacy, pause and thank God for his good gift and anticipate the day when you will see the face of the one that created us as sexual beings and who created the pleasure of intimacy. One day we will experience even greater joy as we see God s face. The theme we started with rings true again. Adam and Eve walked with God. Our relationship with God will finally be restored plus it will be vastly improved. We won t just walk with God but we will see his very face. Page!57

58 Conclusion Our God is a restoration specialist. Not only has he defeated sin through Jesus but he will one day not just defeat death, the consequence of sin on our bodies, but God will resurrect and vastly improve our bodies. For our final home, God will completely purify this creation with fire, then he will resurrect this creation and vastly improve it. Eternity will be on an earth like this earth but so much better. God will not just walk with man like he did in Genesis but things will be vastly improved as God lives with man. Heaven and earth will be combined. God will not just restore Eden but things will be vastly improved. We will live in the new Jerusalem, which is everything Eden was but so much more. In addition, while Adam and Eve know God, things will be so vastly improved for us, in the new heavens and earth when we will see the face of God, which is the most delightful thing anyone can do, as seeing the face of God is gazing into the fountainhead of all pleasure. Don t we have a great God?. Through Jesus Christ, he has given us so much more than we could conceive. He didn t save our souls but he saves our bodies and this creation. He doesn t just restore. To emphasize the greatness of his defeat of sin, he vastly improves everything. The only proper response for us to to worship and adore Jesus who has given us all this. Let s close in worship as we thank God for the great finish that is ours through Jesus in eternity. Page!58

59 Answers To Your Questions Part 1 September 10, 2017 This is the Sunday you were waiting for. It is the sermon you built! If you are new, we are in the tail end of a series called Afterlife: What Does The Bible Say About Life After Death? During this series, we circulated a card of commonly asked questions on life after death. Each week, you voted for three. Today, I get to answer your most popular questions. There is one change from our original plan. Since so many people are interested in learning answers to these questions, I am lengthening this from one to two weeks. I will start with the most popular questions and work my way down from there for the next two weeks. By the way, a number of you had great write-in questions. If a write-in question connects with one of the questions I am answering, I will touch on it as we look into the topic. This is going to be fun. Let s jump right in. 1. Can loved ones see us in heaven? This is the most commonly asked question. It gathered 133 votes. I think there are three reasons the question is popular. First, the obvious reason is we miss our loved ones. We want to stay connected. Second, popular culture has a number of books that describe near-death experiences where people talk about out-of-body events where they can see their living loved ones. This leaves many people wondering if our loves ones can see us after death. Third, there appears to be biblical support for loved ones looking down from heaven and watching our lives. That support comes from Hebrews 12:1. Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us Hebrews 12:1 (ESV) The writer of Hebrews talks about a great cloud of witnesses. Who are these witnesses? More important, are they our dead relatives? In context, the writer of Hebrews just finished talking about great heroes of the faith in Hebrews 11. As much as we wish Hebrews 12:1 told us our loved ones are witnessing us from heaven, that isn t what it teaches. Hebrews 12 gives us practical lessons on how we should lived based on they way the heroes of the faith lived in Hebrews 11. Notice Hebrews 12 begins with the word therefore. That means everything Hebrews 12 says is the way we should respond to what we just learned in Hebrews 11 about the lives of heroes of the faith. Page!59

60 The heroes of the faith in Hebrews 11, such as Abraham, Gideon, Moses, and David, are not witnesses in the sense they are watching us. They are witnesses to us of the value of living by faith in God. For example, Abraham lived by faith when he set out for the Promised Land not knowing where he was going. Faithfully obeying God s Word appears to be foolishness but from our perspective looking down the corridors of time, we can see God s plans to give Abraham s descendants the Promised Land. We are thankful Abraham lived by faith. Rahab, the prostitute in the city of Jericho, by faith hid the Israelite spies and placed her faith in the God of the Israelites. As a result, she was saved in the destruction of Jericho, not killed. She became part of God s people. She even became part of the bloodline of Christ. Do you see the value of living by faith? The writer of Hebrews said, Since we have so many people that went before us showing the results of living by faith in God s Word rather than what feels right at the moment, let us learn from their example and do likewise. That is why Hebrews 12:1 says therefore let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that entangles and run with perseverance the race marked out for us! There is no evidence in the Bible that our loved ones are watching us from heaven. Hebrews 12:1, which talks about the great cloud of witnesses, is not talking about our deceased loved ones watching us but learning the importance of living by faith in God s Word from the heroes the faith that went before us. Before we completely cross off thinking about our loves ones in heaven, one book I read on heaven had the story of a father talking to his son after the funeral of the little boy s grandfather. The young boy and his grandfather were close. The young boy asked if grandfather could see him from heaven, to which the father said, Probably not. Then the young boy paused and thought for a moment. He made an insightful comment. He said, Dad, tonight when we pray to Jesus, could we ask Jesus to give Grandpa a message? I want Grandpa to know I miss him. The father thought for a moment and said, There is nothing wrong with that. We can ask Jesus to give our loved ones a message. We must remember we are not living our lives for the applause of our loves ones in heaven. Hebrews 12:2 says we should fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. Our loved ones can t see us from heaven but Jesus sees us from heaven. Jesus is watching how we live. Jesus cheers us on. 2. Does it matter if I am cremated or buried? This question came in second place with 116 votes. Up front, let me give you the short answer. No! It doesn t matter if someone is cremated or buried. Technically, cremation only accelerates the process of decay that turns a body into dust. As we already learned, the state of a body s decomposition doesn t matter when it comes to the resurrection. God the Father resurrected Jesus body after it was dead three days. He can also resurrect a body that has been dead for 3,000 Page!60

61 years. The more ruined the body, the more glorious the resurrection of the body. I know the resurrection of a 3,000 year-old body is hard for some of you to grasp. To encourage your faith I want you to realize that if God made the entire universe in six days, he won t even break a sweat when it comes to resurrecting dead bodies. While it technically doesn t matter, I counsel people toward burial rather than cremation. Why do I have this preference? For a number of reasons. First, I think it shows more respect to the body. Remember our bodies are precious. God made them. Our bodies will be raised from the dead. The picture of laying the body of a loved one to rest in the ground until the return of Christ is preferable to the horrific thought of taking your loved one and incinerating him or her to ashes in the flame. The idea of burning a body symbolically pictures the lake of fire, while the idea of burying the body symbolically reminds us of someone asleep in the dust of the earth awaiting the resurrection. Second, there is a rich history for Christians preferring burial to cremation. In ancient Rome, cremation was the standard way to dispose of the dead. The early church, on account of the resurrection, placed a high value on the body. The early church adopted the Jewish custom of burying a body as preferable to burning the body. Burial was a reminder that the self-same buried body would one day rise from the dead. While Plato taught matter was bad and the spirit was good so the elimination of the body was preferable, Christians echoed Jesus saying matter is good and the spirit is good. Both were made by God. As Christians, we don t eliminate the body but we look forward to the glorious resurrection of the body. That is why we bury a body. Since land was in high demand, Christians began the practice of not just burying bodies horizontally in graveyards but added vertical burial chambers. They dug tunnels below the surface and created burial chambers in the walls. These became known as the catacombs in Rome. This was an effort to save space and respect the body by burying it to wait for the resurrection, not burn it to simulate the fires of hell. Third, burial of the dead has Scriptural precedence. Burying the dead instead of burning them is also found in Scripture. Abraham had a burial chamber for his family in the Promised Land. Joseph was mummified and wanted his bones brought to the Promised Land for burial. And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. Daniel 12:2 (ESV) Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed 1 Corinthians 15:51 (ESV) body. The reference to sleep in these passages is a reference to burial of the I know some of the tender-hearted among us have feelings of guilt because you made the decision to have your loved one cremated. Please Page!61

62 understand this is not a matter of sin. It is a matter of symbolism. Some cremate their loved ones because they can t afford burial. Cremation is cheaper. Burial is a way of stating your hope of the resurrection. It is a way to treat a body with respect and remind others that your body is not eliminated but that one day your body will return from the grave. This is one of the reasons older churches have graveyards. The Christians of the church were buried behind the church waiting for the resurrection of their bodies at their church. If a body is burned to ashes, all physical traces of that life and its looking forward to the resurrection are removed. Fourth, burial gives a better chance of leaving a lasting legacy. Some of you have seen photos I shared of the old Trucksess family graveyard behind a church in Pennsylvania. It goes back seven generations. I think it is so neat that I can see the gravestones and the burial plots of my dead relatives. I love that I can read a sentence or two written on their gravestone about the importance of Jesus in their lives. Seeing the place they are buried and reading the tombstone with a message of their hope in Jesus written on it is very inspiring for me. It encourages me to run the race of my life for Jesus just like they ran the race of their lives for Jesus. One day, when Christ returns, their body will come out of the grave. If I am dead, my body will come out of the grave. We will meet and I will thank them for the witness to Jesus they left on their tombstones. If they were cremated, all traces of them would have been forgotten. There would be no place for me to go, no place for me to read about the hope they placed in Jesus and the resurrection. Cremation is less likely to leave an impact for Jesus on the next generation when compared to burial and a tombstone. Please understand, this is not a matter or right or wrong. It is a matter of symbolism, respecting the body, and declaring our hope in the resurrection. 3. Will Christians who commit suicide be in heaven? This question came in third place with 105 votes. Suicide is a terrible tragedy. A friend recently told me suicide is now trendy amount young adults. One of the reasons suicide is popular is in part because of a television series called, Thirteen Reasons Why. In the series, a high school girl commits suicide and leaves behind cassette tapes where she records 13 reasons why she took her life. My friend has a relative that is a pastor. The pastor recently attended the funeral of a teenager that took his life after watching this television series that promotes suicide. What should we think about suicide? First, you need to know that suicide is wrong. It is a lie of the devil. The devil came to steal, kill and destroy. The devil celebrates when you take your life. Second, suicide is murder. It is the taking of a life, your own life. Many times when I talk to suicidal people, I ask them if they would ever consider killing someone. Of course, they say, No. I remind them not to take their own life because it is murder. Page!62

63 Third, suicide leaves a horrifying wound on your parents and siblings. Those who consider taking their own life cannot even begin to fathom the depth of pain they are considering inflicting on their family and friends. Fourth, it shows disbelief in the power of God. If you believe God resurrected Jesus from the dead, you need to believe God can resurrect your life from situations that feel hopeless. Even if you see no future, God sees a way. God will make a way. The Bible is full of stories of people that found themselves in hopeless situations but God came to their rescue. Think of Daniel in the lion s den. Think of David in his battle with Goliath. The problem with being a young Christian is you don t have depth of experience because you can t have depth of experience. Talk to older Christians. They will tell you story after story about how they found themselves in hopeless situations but God came to their rescue. Younger Christians need to hear those stories or you can become overwhelmed by circumstances. Fifth, suicide is the ultimate act of selfishness. It is thinking life is about your happiness. Life is not happiness. None of us are entitled to lives of happiness. Life is about God and his glory. What matters is not that life is tough and we are unhappy. What matters is how we bring glory to God in the tough situations he puts us in. All of this being stated, does suicide automatically exclude a Christian from heaven? No. The only way someone who commits suicide will be in heaven is the same way any of us will be in heaven, it is by saving faith in Jesus, not by our works. There are times when a true Christian, in a moment of utter depression or through psychiatric illness or through the misuse of psychiatric drugs may become suicidal and take his or her life. While suicide is a grave sin, if your faith is in Christ, it is a forgiven sin. Suicide is still murder. We already learned that every Christian will stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ to either gain or lose eternal rewards. Anyone that commits suicide, even though they are saved by Christ, stand to lose a great deal of eternal reward as they stand before Christ and need to give an answer for self murder. Remember we are saved by Christ, but we are rewarded by our works. The thing we must remember is the devil is a liar. Suicide is not the answer. It is a terrible tragedy that leaves behind huge scars and countless tearfiled nights for those you love. Suicide also shows a lack of trust in God to bring good out of tragedy, which is something God s Word tells us is his specialty. 4. Is there an age of accountability below which someone automatically goes to heaven? This question came in fourth place with 75 votes. Related to this question is a question some of you wrote in which is, Will severely mentally challenged Page!63

64 people be in heaven because they cannot understand the love of Christ? These are great questions. To answer this question, we need to begin with babies. Are cute babies sinful? Some people believe all babies go to heaven because they are innocent. Unfortunately, that isn t what the Bible teaches. The Bible tells us there two kinds of sin. There is inherited sin, from which we get our sinful nature, plus there is chosen sin. While a baby is too young to intentionally choose sin, they are still of the line of Adam, which means they have inherited sin. They have a sinful nature. A sinful nature is painfully obvious as soon as a child learned their first word, which has two letters. No! King David affirmed the sinfulness of everyone from the moment of conception forward. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Psalm 51:5 (ESV) This doesn t mean David was an illegitimate child. David was simply saying he was sinful from the moment of conception forward. So while infants are not capable of hearing and responding to the gospel, they are sinful from the moment of conception before they actively choose sin. They are in the line of Adam, which means they have inherited the guilt of sin, plus they have a sinful nature, which will show itself as soon as they are old enough to express it. While the Bible is clear all babies are sinful and guilty before God from the moment they are conceived, there are times when the Bible shows us God was already at work in the life of a baby calling him or her to himself even before the baby was born. King David wrote this. Yet you are he who took me from the womb; you made me trust you at my motherʼs breasts. On you was I cast from my birth, and from my motherʼs womb you have been my God. Psalm 22:9 10 (ESV) It appears God gave David some type of saving faith before he was old enough to consciously possess saving faith. We read something similar about John the Baptist. he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his motherʼs womb. Luke 1:15 (ESV) John the Baptist was filled with the Holy Spirit even before he was born. If John the Baptist and David had some kind of saving faith before birth, even though they were born in sin, it makes it highly unlikely that every infant which dies before being old enough to hear and comprehend the gospel will be damned because of his or her sinful nature. Page!64

65 Another passage that provides a window into this question is examining the way King David reacted to the death of his two sons.the first son we will look at is Absalom. Look at the grief in David s heart. And the king was deeply moved and went up to the chamber over the gate and wept. And as he went, he said, O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! Would I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son! 2 Samuel 18:33 (ESV) Absalom died as an adult son. He knew that according to the Ten Commandments he was to honor his father, instead he engineered a coup against his father. Absalom even tried to have his father murdered. Absalom murdered his brother. He slept with his father s wives. David was heartbroken for the eternal future of this son. Look how David reacted to the death of his infant son that died on account of David s sin. He said, While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept, for I said, ʻWho knows whether the Lord will be gracious to me, that the child may live?ʼ But now he is dead. Why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me. 2 Samuel 12:22 23 (ESV) David was confident his infant son would be with God for eternity. He was confident he would see his infant son in heaven. Let me emphasize the Bible hints that those who die in infancy and those who never come to the mental ability to trust in Christ will be with Christ in heaven, not because they are innocent of sin but because God appears to apply the work of Jesus to cover their sin before they come to the age of accountability. This is not explicitly stated in Scripture. It is implicitly stated. This is because of God s wisdom. Could you imagine what abortion doctors would do if there was a chapter and verse that explicitly told us all babies killed in infancy automatically went to heaven? That information would be used to encourage the death of children! As adults, the only way we can hear the gospel and respond to the gospel is a supernatural work of God in our hearts where he bring us to the point of repentance and soften us to Jesus. In the same way, it appears that God supernaturally applies the work of Jesus to the sin of babies who die before they can hear and respond to the gospel. We will acknowledge there is a degree of mystery to this. God doesn t tell us all we want to know. In my studies, I ran across this quote by Charles Spurgeon. I think it says it well. It is not that God chooses someone to salvation because they are going to die in infancy. Rather, He has ordained that only those who have been chosen for salvation will be allowed to die in infancy. God s justice in condemnation will be most clearly seen by allowing those who will not be saved to demonstrate their inherent sinfulness through willful, knowing transgression. Page!65

66 Spurgeon believed those not chosen by God for salvation would be allowed to grow into adulthood to demonstrate their rejection of God. Those dying in infancy were elect by God for salvation and had the grace of Christ applied to their lives before they were born without their asking for it. This brings us back to our question on the age of accountability. When is it? Jewish tradition says it is 13, but the age of accountability is different for everyone. I think it is safe to go with this statement from James to show us when the age of accountability arrives. So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin. James 4:17 (ESV) When you know you are choosing sin, you are old enough to know you you need a savior. 5. Should I trust near-death experiences? Coming in fifth place with 62 votes is a question on near-death experiences. Should we trust them? My simple answer is no! There are many near-death and actual-death experiences written about in culture. Everybody wants to know what lies beyond the grave. Probably the most popular book is Heaven Is For Real book by Todd Burpo. It is the story of a young boy dying, going to heaven, and eventually being resuscitated. The boy in the book tells us how everyone in heaven has wings. The first thing to realize is claims of near-death or actual-death experiences become replacements for biblical truth in the minds of many young believers. The truth is we should evaluate near-death experiences based on biblical truth, not the other way around. The other thing to realize is we should be suspect of these near-death experiences even if they talk about Jesus. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. 2 Corinthians 11:14 (ESV) Satan loves to pretend to be the good guy when he is actually the bad guy. He does this to deceive people away from the truth. For instance, in the book Embraced by the Light by Betty Eadie which was a New York Times bestseller she talks about her fascinating visit beyond the grave. She even dedicates her book to Jesus. The problem is, when you look into the book, you realize the Jesus she talks about is not the Jesus of the Bible. She describes the Jesus she met as a being that would do nothing to offend her. She claims Jesus told her she has no reason to regret past deeds because humans are not sinful. She claims Jesus told her humans are actually spirit beings that assisted God in creating the universe. My friends, that is not the gospel message. Paul said: But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so Page!66

67 now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. Galatians 1:8 9 (ESV) Betty Eadie says nothing about the problems of sin and Jesus needing to die for our sin. Who are you going to trust? Betty Eadie or your Bible? This is one of the reasons I am very skeptical about near-death experiences. I am not saying they can t happen. I am just super skeptical of them. I have yet to hear or read about a near-death experience that I did not think was wacky. In addition, we should realize that we only hear about positive near-death experiences. Many near-death experiences are not positive. Dr. Maurice Rawlings in his book To Hell And Back tells of many people resuscitated to life in an emergency room. They came to life scared to death about what they saw at death s door. Dr. Rawlings claims his near-death accounts are more accurate because they were recorded immediately after reviving a near-death victim not weeks or months after the fact. The Bible has a few near-death experiences we should notice. For example, Lazarus didn t have a near-death experience. He had an actual-death experience. We don t hear him writing about what lies beyond death s door. Apparently he missed a great book deal and should have made a lot of money. In addition, in 2 Corinthians 12 Paul talked about being caught up to Paradise and hearing inexpressible words which a man is not permitted to tell. Since that happened 14 years before he wrote this letter to the church in Corinth, it likely happened when he was stoned and left for dead in the city of Lystra. If Paul had a near-death or actual-death experience, we do not know. What we do know is Paul was not permitted to talk about it. Whatever we do with near-death or actual-death claims, we must be careful to scrutinize them. Satan wants us to be more caught up in the claims of popular afterlife books than we pay attention the truth of God s Word. Remember, Satan masquerades as an angel of light. In addition, remember this: it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment Hebrews 9:27 (ESV) When you are dead, you are dead. You don t come back. As for Todd Burpo and the book Heaven Is For Real, I don t know what to say other than there are now claims on the Internet that the young boy in the book, who is now a young man, admits he made up at least portions of his story. 6. How can I desire heaven if I know I won t be married to my spouse? This is the last question for the week. The question gathered 34 votes. I understand this question. I have often thought about it. I love Cindy, my wife. I can t imagine the thought of not being married to my best friend. To think we will not be married in heaven is hard to swallow. Page!67

68 The first thing to make clear is to realize the Bible clearly tells us we will not be married in heaven. And Jesus said to them, The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage, but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage Luke 20:34 35 (ESV) While there won t be earthly marriage in heaven, there will be marriage in heaven. We won t be married to one another. We will be married to Christ. The Bible describes us as the bride of Christ. The Bible tells us all the wonder and joy we experience in earthly marriage today was given to us by God as a small sampling of the much greater joy that will be ours in heaven when we are married to Jesus tomorrow. Can you imagine greater intimacy, greater joy and greater satisfaction than being married to your spouse? I can t. Yet the Bible tells us our relationship with Christ will be even more satisfying than our relationship with our spouse. Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. Ephesians 5:31 32 (ESV) All I can say is our relationship with Christ must be incredibly thrilling if it is better than marriage. Of course, this doesn t mean we won t know our spouses in heaven. We will still have our shared memories. I am sure we will still be best friends. The institution of marriage, which is not created by the state but by God, will not exist. I know it is hard to imagine being married to Christ will be preferable to being married to our spouse, but that is what the Bible tells us. To help you grasp this let s look at a verse we touched on two weeks ago. It is Psalm 16:11. It says in God s presence is fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore. Jesus is the fountainhead and source of all joy. While a great marriage is the greatest pleasure this world can offer, being married to Christ is the greatest pleasure eternity can offer. It is being married to the one from which all joy and pleasure flows. Conclusion That ends the first week. Next week we will answer more of your questions. Most of those questions are about the end times. They are questions like, what is the meaning of the number 666? Who is the anti christ? What is the mark of the beast? I look forward to seeing you next week as we finish up the series. Page!68

69 Answers To Your Questions Part 2 September 17, 2017 Welcome to CrossWinds. This morning we finish our study of the afterlife where we are learning what the Bible says about life after death. Last week, I took a shot at answering some of the questions you submitted about the afterlife during this series. Today, I will handle a few more and we will wrap things up for the series. Next week, Pastor Stephen is preaching. The week after that, I have a special message on the CrossWinds vision for the year. The week after that we jump into the book of Colossians. It will be a great study. Colossians is all about Jesus. It is why Jesus is greater than anything. Our study of Colossians will take us through the rest of Last week, I didn t have a chance to answer the final question in your outline. I ran out of time. So without further ado, let s begin with the question I didn t get to last week. 7. How can I desire heaven if I know I won t be married to my spouse? This question gathered 34 votes. To be honest, I think most of those votes came from one woman in our church that all know and love. That is Amber, our nursery director. She came up to me after last week s service and was angry in a light-hearted way. She said this is the question she voted for every chance she had. Amber loves her husband. They have a great marriage. She can t conceive of happiness without him. I understand her question. I have often thought about it. I love Cindy, my wife. She is my best friend. I can t imagine the thought of not being married to her. How can there be happiness without marriage? The first thing to understand is the Bible says there won t be earthly marriage in heaven. And Jesus said to them, The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage, but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, Luke 20:34 35 (ESV) While there won t be earthly marriage in eternity, there will still be marriage in heaven. We won t be married to one another. We will be married to Jesus. The Bible describes Christians as the bride of Christ. The Scriptures say all the wonder, joy and closeness that we love about our earthly marriages was given to us by God to whet our appetite for much greater wonder, joy and closeness that will be ours in heaven when we are married to Jesus. Just so nobody misunderstands, our marriage to Jesus will not be sexual. Our sexuality is a way we can express and receive love, joy and closeness with our spouses. Marriage isn t about sex. Marriage is about the love, exclusivity and commitment of our relationship with our spouses. One of the reasons God created sex in marriage is Page!69

70 to enrich the love, joy and closeness of marriage. Marriage is about relationship, not about sex. Sex enhances and sweetens the relationship. Our marriage to Jesus will be about relationship. The love, joy and closeness of earthly marriage will be ours in our relationship with Jesus but in much greater measure. In fact it will be so much greater that it will make the joy of earthly marriage obsolete. Can you imagine greater closeness, greater joy and greater satisfaction than being married to your spouse? I can t. Yet, the Bible tells us our relationship with Christ in eternity will more satisfying and more thrilling than our relationship with our spouse could ever be today. Look what the apostle Paul said about earthly marriage. Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. Ephesians 5:31 32 (ESV) Of course, this doesn t mean we won t know our spouse in heaven. We will still have our shared memories. I am sure my wife and I will still be best friends like we are today but the joy of our relationship with one another will not be able to compare to the joy found in our relationship with Jesus. I know it is hard to imagine being married to Christ will be better than being married to our spouses, but that is what the Bible tells us. To help us grasp this concept, let s look at a verse we touched on two weeks ago. It is Psalm 16:11. It says in God s presence is fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore. Jesus is the fountainhead and source of all joy. Being united to Jesus forever is being united to pure joy. Jesus is the one who created the joy of marriage as an appetizer for the much greater joy of being with him. While a good marriage on earth is the greatest pleasure this world can offer, being married to Christ is a much greater pleasure eternity can offer. Will we still be best friends with our spouses? Yes, but it will be even more thrilling to be with Jesus, from whom all joy and pleasure flows. 8. Will there be animals in heaven? There were 54 votes for this question. I think the pet lovers banded together and voted for this one. Earlier in the series, we learned what heaven is like right now. In the current heaven there are angels, God and believers in their intermediate-state bodies. We have no evidence there are animals in heaven today. The thing to remember is that heaven changes. First, Christ will come from heaven to earth and reign over this earth for a thousand years during the Millennium. As Christians, we will be on this earth reigning with Christ in our resurrected bodies. Do you think animals will be on the planet during the Millennium? Of course they will! The difference is the nature of the animal kingdom will be changed. The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child Page!70

71 shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder s den. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. Isaiah 11:6 9 (ESV) Instead of eating one another, the animals will dwell together in peace. They will be herbivores not carnivores. In addition, even young children will be able to play with animals that are now considered deadly. The animal kingdom will not fight against us. As we learned earlier in our series, after the reign of Christ on earth for a thousand years, the devil that was confined to the pit so his influence was removed from the earth during the Millennium will be released from the pit. He will rebel against Christ but be decisively defeated and thrown into the lake of fire. God will then purify this creation with fire. He will make a new heavens and a new earth. Heaven and earth will be combined together as one for eternity. Will there be animals in the new creation? Remember the new creation is this creation restored to its pre-fall sin state in Genesis plus everything about it is vastly improved and heaven is added to earth. We simply need to ask ourselves, were animals part of God s original creation before sin entered the world? Yes. They were part of the Garden of Eden. If they were part of the pre-fall original creation, we have every right to expect them to be part of the fully restored new creation. The difference is that just as the earth will be restored to be free of sin and vastly improved, so will the animals be free of sin and vastly improved in beauty and glory. One of the most revealing passages in the Old Testament to show God s high value for animals is Noah and the flood. When God destroyed the earth with water, he didn t simply save Noah and his family, but he saved the animals. God brought the animals from the pre-flood world to the post-flood world. It is also reasonable to think God will bring the animals from this creation into the new creation. A few weeks ago in our studies, we looked at 2 Peter 3:5-7. In those verses, Peter paralleled God s past judgment of this earth with the flood to God s future judgment of this earth at the end of the Millennium with fire. If God carried forward the animals in the previous judgment of water, we have every reason to believe God will carry forward animals in the future judgment of fire. This means all pet lovers can breath easier. You will be able to have a cat or dog in the New Jerusalem on the new heavens and earth. The big difference is everything about the animals in the new creation means they will be free of sin and vastly improved. I am looking forward to vastly improved dogs. I hope this means they won t shed. I am also looking forward to vastly improved cats that hopefully can empty their own litter boxes. Page!71

72 9. Who is the antichrist? This question had 47 votes. In every generation, somebody is labeled as the antichrist. A quick Internet search revealed some popular targets. They were Vladimir Putin, Prince William, tthe pope, Barack Obama and Donald Trump. That is to name a few. The term antichrist only appears four times in the Bible. All references to the antichrist are found in the letter of John. Let me show you three of the four occurrences. Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour. 1 John 2:18 (ESV) Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son. 1 John 2:22 (ESV) and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. 1 John 4:3 (ESV) While we tend to peg the antichrist as one person, John told us many antichrists have come and will come. The way you recognize one of these antichrists is they are people who receive the truth about Jesus but they do not confess that Jesus is from God or that he came in the flesh. They are against Christ. This is anyone who seeks to lead people away from Christ. John s view of the antichrist is very broad. The picture John gave is as you follow the timeline of world history, various antichrists come on the scene, and with varying levels of ferocity and success, attempt to lead people away from Jesus. Jesus also talked about antichrists. Jesus didn t use the term antichrist but what he described fits under John s definition. And Jesus answered them, See that no one leads you astray. For many will come in my name, saying, I am the Christ, and they will lead many astray. Matthew 24:4 5 (ESV) John and Jesus gave a definition of the antichrist as not one person but a series of people that lead people away from Jesus. When we get to the letters of Paul, he didn t talk about the multiple minor antichrists but he jumped to the end of history as we know it. He talked about the one great and final antichrist. Paul also used a different term. Instead of the antichrist, he called him the man of lawlessness. Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those Page!72

73 who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. 2 Thessalonians 2:3 4, 9-10 (ESV) This antichrist will not just oppose Jesus. He will set himself against all other gods worshipped on the planet. In addition, he will sit himself in the temple of God and proclaim to be God. He will be empowered by Satan to do all kinds of counterfeit signs and wonders to convince people he is god. The picture we have of the antichrist begins with multiple minor antichrists rising up to lead people astray and persecute Christians, but everything comes to a head and the end with the great antichrist, also called the man of lawlessness, who proclaims to be god of this world. When we get to the book of Revelation, instead of being called the antichrist or the man of lawlessness, Revelation talks about this final great antichrist as the beast. Actually there are two beasts in Revelation. Both function as antichrists. The first is the beast of the sea, which represents a political antichrist figure. This is the one world government guy that is empowered by Satan. The second beast is a religious antichrist. He is the man of lawlessness Paul described. He is the one world religion guy that sets himself up to be god, to be worshipped, and he performs false signs. (The second beast) It performs great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in front of people, and by the signs that it is allowed to work in the presence of the beast it deceives those who dwell on earth, telling them to make an image for the beast that was wounded by the sword and yet lived. Revelation 13:13 14 (ESV) So who is the antichrist? In a lesser sense, according to the apostle John, it is anyone who sets himself against the truth of Jesus to lead people astray. That would include Mohammed, Hitler and many others. There were many antichrists throughout history. According to Paul and Revelation, there is coming a great final antichrist who will set himself up as ggod of the world and will perform false signs and miracles to deceive people in an attempt to get the entire world worshipping him. 10.What is the mark of the beast? What is the meaning of 666? I am going to combine these questions because they are similar. The first had 48 votes. The second 41 votes. What is the mark of the beast? is one of the most frequently asked questions on the book of Revelation. A Google search reveals 22.8 million hits attempting to answer the question. Every time a new payment method comes out or you get a GPS tracking chip for your dog, people wonder if this is a preparation for the mark of the beast and one world government. Once you understand the mark of the beast, you won t be afraid of the new credit card with a chip. The first thing to understand is the nature of the book of Revelation. It is apocalyptic literature. It was a common style of Jewish writing that lasted around Page!73

74 400 years, both before and after the time of Christ. It developed during a time of intense persecution. It used graphic language to communicate its message and give people hope in times of suffering. As we turn to Revelation 13, here what is important to remember: Satan can t create anything. All he can do is produce a cheap copy of what he sees. In Revelation 13, Satan is attempting to imitate God and be a trinity. Just as there is God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Satan will try to set himself up to be a trinity. In Revelation 12, Satan the great dragon, the serpent from the garden of Eden was cast to the earth. Revelation 13 opens with the arrival of the first beast on the earth. The beast is a person who is an antichrist figure that is empowered by Satan. This first beast tries to take the place of Jesus in the world. Just as Jesus is the rightful ruler of this world that will be demonstrated for a thousand years in the Millennium the first beast will try to be the ruler of this world. This first beast will try to bring about one world government but it won t work. In the millennium, Jesus will bring about one world government but it will work. Just as Christ was killed and rose from the dead. This first beat will have a mortal wound but will appear to come back from the dead as he tries to imitate Jesus. Let s see how this unfolds as we look at the first beast. One of its heads seemed to have a mortal wound, but its mortal wound was healed, and the whole earth marveled as they followed the beast. And they worshiped the dragon, for he had given his authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying, Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it? Revelation 13:3 4 (ESV) Also it was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them. And authority was given it over every tribe and people and language and nation, and all who dwell on earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain. Revelation 13:7 8 (ESV) So what we have is the first beast trying to imitate Jesus by appearing to rise from the dead. He is powered by Satan and achieves one world government. Everybody on the planet goes along with the program but Christians who will end up in jail or dead as they are persecuted by the first beast. Then will come a second beast. Then I saw another beast rising out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb and it spoke like a dragon. It exercises all the authority of the first beast in its presence, and makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose mortal wound was healed. It performs great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in front of people, and by the signs that it is allowed to work in the presence of the beast it deceives those who dwell on earth, telling them to make an image for the beast that was wounded by the sword and yet lived. Revelation 13:11 14 (ESV) While many see the first beast as one world government, the second beast will be about one world religion. If the first beast will imitate Jesus, the Page!74

75 second beast will imitate the Holy Spirit. Just as the Holy Spirit s job is to point us to Jesus, the second beast s job will be to point people to the first beast, who will try to imitate Jesus. Just as Paul told us, this second beast will perform all kinds of false miracles to galvanize the world behind him as he proclaims himself to be god. One of the ways the second beast will try to produce worldwide alignment to the first beast will be through the mark of the beast, which will be the only way to do business. It will be sort of like the sanctions we are putting on North Korea. If you can t do business, things get tough in a hurry. Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name. This calls for wisdom: let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666. Revelation 13:16 18 (ESV) The mark of the beast will be a sign given to the beast s followers that pledge their allegiance to him. As we saw earlier, Satan is trying to imitate God. Just as God is a trinity, Satan with his two beasts will try to be a counterfeit trinity. In a similar way the mark of the beast will be another attempt to mimic what God has already done. Christians were already given a mark by God to set them apart in this world earlier in Revelation. saying, Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees, until we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads. Revelation 7:3 (ESV) Since God marked his people, Satan who is a cheap copycat, then marks his people with the mark of the beast. What is clear is the mark of the beast will not be a hidden mark. It will be an explicit declaration of your allegiance to the beast. Nobody will be hoodwinked into getting the mark of the beast by mistakenly signing up for something online. Today, when we see the security chip in our credit cards, that is not the mark of the beast. That is security against evil people. The mark of the beast will be a conscious decision to pledge your allegiance to Satan and the man that has achieved one world government from the man that has achieved one world religion. Until we have one world government and one world religion, nobody can get the mark of the beast. You can rest easy about that chip in your new credit card. Now let s deal with the number 666. What does it mean? Nobody knows definitively. There are two schools of thought. The first school of thought realizes that God likes to do things in sevens. Most Bible scholars call seven the perfect number. A trinity of perfection is 777. A trinity of imperfection is 666. This chapter is about the trinity of imperfection. It reminds us Satan and his beasts will fall short in every way. Page!75

76 Other scholars understand this differently. Hebrew doesn t have numbers. They assigned numerical values to letters to do math. That is called gematria. You may have heard of this through books on the Bible code. This means you can take any word and assign the numerical values of the letters, then add them up to come up with a number. In the ancient world the number of your name was your hidden code name. You knew the number of your name and your friends knew the number of your name but everyday people didn t know what letters you used to add up the numerical value of your name. Let me give you an example. The city of Pompeii was destroyed in A.D. 79 by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. Part of the city is now excavated. Archaeologists have a city frozen in time at A.D. 79. One of the graffitis they found written on a wall in the city said, I love her who is number 545. Apparently a guy had some kind of relationship with a woman. He was in love with her but he couldn t use her name so he used the numerical value of her name in one language but expressed it in another language. This woman apparently also knew her number but her identity has hidden from people who saw the graffiti because they didn t know her. This is probably what is happening with 666. Interestingly, people have noted that in Hebrew gematria the name of Nero, the great persecutor of Christians in Rome, adds up to 666. John was possibly saying the future beast will be like Nero in the ancient world. Hebrew gematria is confusing for me, just like it is confusing for you. Go easy on me after the service and don t ask too many hard questions on this one. One thing is clear, when it comes to the mark of the beast, it will be obvious. Nobody will get it by mistake. It is a pledge of allegiance to the world ruler enacted by the one leading a worldwide religion. RF chips in your dog and security chips on credit cards are the beginning of tighter control on commerce, but they are not the mark of the beast. We don t have a worldwide religion or government. We have smaller antichrists but the great antichrists, known as the man of lawlessness or the beast, have not arrived. 11. How do I deal with people who say they can communicate with the dead like psychics and mediums? This was a write-in question, but more than one person asked it. People are wondering what to think about our local psychic cottage. First, you need to know the Bible strongly condemns spiritism, mediums, the occult, psychics, horoscopes, tarot cards, astrology, fortune tellers, palm readers, seances and Ouija boards. A man or a woman who is a medium or a necromancer shall surely be put to death. They shall be stoned with stones; their blood shall be upon them. Leviticus 20:27 (ESV) There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Page!76

77 Lord. And because of these abominations the Lord your God is driving them out before you. You shall be blameless before the Lord your God Deuteronomy 18:10 13 (ESV) Some psychics are simply tricksters and Internet junkies. It is amazing how much information people can find with a quick Internet search of a phone number from caller ID. This is how many psychics find names, addresses, birth dates, marriage dates and the names of family members. It is also undeniable that some psychics know information that it would be impossible to know from searching the Internet. Where does that information come from? Some psychics claim they know your personal information by talking to the spirit of your dead relative. The problem is the spirits of deceased people are not wandering the earth. They are either in heaven with God or they are in hades in torment awaiting final condemnation in the lake of fire. The only disembodied spirits wandering the earth are angels and demons. I am confident God will not allow his angels to speak through psychics. The only option left is demons. Demons speak through psychics, not your dead relatives. The Bible shows this taking place. As we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gain by fortune-telling. She followed Paul and us, crying out, These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation. And this she kept doing for many days. Paul, having become greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And it came out that very hour. Acts 16:16 18 (ESV) Psychic information is not harmless entertainment. It is Satan trying to gain a foothold in your life. Clearly we should avoid the psychic in Arnolds Park, except for praying for that psychic s repentance and salvation. Even if we avoid overt psychics and mediums, there are ways to get involved in the occult of which many people are not aware. One time I remember going to Toys-R-Us to buy a jogging stroller when my kids were little. I was shocked to see a bunch of Ouija boards in the game section of the toy store. Ouija boards are made by Parker Brothers, but they are not toys. They are channeling devices. Channeling devices are ways the occult requests spirits to manifest their presence in the physical world. Channeling devices have a long history. We find them in ancient Egypt and other ancient culture. The modern Ouija board was created in the 1800s by a spiritist. The board has the alphabet, numerals and a Yes, No and Maybe on its face. It is used in connection with a pointer. The pointer moves to reveal hidden answers. I have never played one but my high school English teacher one day started explaining to class how he played one the night before but he couldn t Page!77

78 understand how it worked and why it knew so much information about him. That is one English class I remember! I later researched this topic and learned that playing with the Ouija board is engaging in an occult practice. It is not an option for Christians. If you are at a party and somebody takes out one of these boards, leave the party. It is a gateway for demonic influence in your life. I don t care if you can buy it at Toy-R- Us and it is made by Parker Brothers. Avoid it. If you have one, confess use of the board as sin. Trust in Christ s forgiveness, then burn the board. Whatever you do, don t get rid of it by giving it to a resale shop. 12.Does the nation of Israel have a special destiny? This question had 29 votes. To answer this question, let s turn to the book of Deuteronomy. For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Deuteronomy 7:6 8 (ESV) God s purpose is to bless the world through Israel. He has already done that by extending salvation to the world through the Jews (John 4:22). Jesus is Jewish. The Bible is a Jewish book. One of the ways to prove that God has a special destiny for Israel is to simply compare what happened to every other people group in the ancient world. Where are the Canaanites, the Perizittes, the Hittites? They are all gone, but we still have Israelites. God continues to preserve them because they are his chosen people. Today, Israel is in a state of rejection when it comes to Jesus. The Bible tells us God still has a special place for the Jewish nation. One day they will turn to Christ en-mass. Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written, The Deliverer will come from Zion, he will banish ungodliness from Jacob ; and this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins. As regards the gospel, they are enemies for your sake. But as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. Romans 11:25 29 (ESV) Conclusion That ends our series. I hope you were encouraged as we answered your questions on everything from animals in heaven, to the antichrist to psychics. Page!78

79 As we leave this series, I want to leave you with one amazing truth from this series. As Christians, everything about our lives is continually getting better. First, God saves us. We become new people with new desires. When we die, Paul said to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord, which is better by far. Instead of death being a great defeat, it is a huge victory. When Christ returns, we get our bodies back and rule this planet with Christ. When the new heavens and earth comes, we will rule with Christ in our physical bodies over the entire universe. All of this is because of God s amazing grace to us through Jesus. We deserve none of it. As we leave this series, I hope you are greatly encouraged with the truth of what happens to us in the afterlife.. Page!79

80 Bibliography Alcorn, Randy. Heaven. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale, Lutzer, Erwin W. Heaven and the Afterlife: The Truth about Tomorrow and What It Means for Today. Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, Lutzer, Erwin. One Minute after You Die Study Guide. Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, MacArthur, John. The Glory of Heaven: The Truth about Heaven, Angels, and Eternal Life. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, Morey, Robert A. Death and the Afterlife. Minneapolis, MN: Bethany House, Morris, Henry M. The Revelation Record: A Scientific and Devotional Commentary on the Prophetic Book of the End Times. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale, Rhodes, Ron. What Happens after Life? 21 Amazing Revelations about Heaven and Hell. Eugene, OR: Harvest House, Schnabel, Eckhard J. 40 Questions about the End Times. Edited by Benjamin L. Merkle. 40 Questions Series. Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Academic & Professional, Dr. Kurt Trucksess is ordained in the Evangelical Free Church of America. He enjoys reading, writing, time with his family and wrestling with his sons. His favorite topics are preaching and ancient rhetoric. Feel free to contact him at ( You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided (1) you credit the author, (2) modifications are clearly marked, (3) you do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction, (4) you include the web address ( on the copied resource. Page!80