Why do people say
that when a person dies
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he doesn't die,
he goes on living?
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Are our eyes deceiving us?
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The book of
Revelation starts out with that
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glorious Jesus telling
us that He has the keys
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to the grave and to death.
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Now that's good
news for those of us
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who are mortal and we are dying,
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and we pass graveyards
all the time and we see
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death and
destruction all around us.
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And then He tells us why.
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He says, "I was dead, but
now I'm alive forever more."
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He's referring, of
course, to His resurrection.
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The resurrection of
the dead is a huge issue
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and a big wonderful
picture, both in the Bible,
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the New Testament, and
in the book of Revelation.
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And today we want to
take a look and see what
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Jesus actually teaches.
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You know, we live in a
world today where people...
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In fact, I had it
happen not long ago.
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Somebody passed away
and the family thinks,
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"Well, you know, they're up in
heaven and they're watching us,
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and they can see us."
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And other people who have
had people that didn't live
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too good of a life,
they're not too sure
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where they're going.
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In fact, I had a friend of
mine who was holding a funeral,
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and somebody had
passed away that maybe hadn't
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lived too good of a life.
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And the family came in
to him and just insisted
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that he make sure
that everybody knows that
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this person is in heaven.
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Well he didn't do that.
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He worked it out. He's a
pretty diplomatic fellow.
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But at any rate, we're
living in a world today,
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a world that
is, what can we say,
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that just believes that
you don't die when you die.
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So my question is,
are our eyes, our eyes,
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are they deceiving us?
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Well let's look at
the teachings of Jesus.
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There's no one more
authoritative than Jesus.
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He's the final word.
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He's got the real authority.
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I mean, after all, He's
paid it all on Calvary's cross.
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He's the
resurrection and the life.
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Let's go to hear
what He has to say.
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And we're going to
go to John chapter 5.
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And the picture here
is the death of somebody
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that's very precious to Jesus.
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One of the homes He
loved to go to was the home of
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Mary, Martha, and Lazarus.
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They believed
Him, they trusted Him.
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They believed
He was the Messiah.
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Jesus was seemingly always
surrounded with all kinds of
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controversy and
people trying to attack Him,
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and people trying to get
Him to say something that
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they could condemn Him with.
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Trying to trap Him
because they hated Him so much.
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It's hard for me to
believe why people could hate
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this wonderful
Savior, this wonderful Savior.
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He loved to go to the home of
Martha, and Lazarus, and Mary;
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the three of them,
brother and two sisters.
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And He would find peace there.
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He was out teaching
somewhere, and Martha and Mary
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sent Him an urgent message.
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And they said to Him,
"The one You love is sick."
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And they were hoping,
they knew the power of Jesus
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and how God
answered His prayers.
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And they were hoping
that Jesus would indeed come
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and touch their
brother with healing power.
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So here's what Jesus taught.
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When Jesus got there
Martha comes out to meet Him,
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and He talks to
Martha and He talks to Mary.
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And this is the
teaching that He gave them.
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So we're going to John 5:24-30.
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But before He gets
to Mary and Martha,
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He's also going to
talk to His disciples.
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And we'll see that
interchange as well.
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We'll see that interchange also.
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He says, "Most
assuredly, I say to you..."
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I want to back up
just a little bit.
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I'm telling you the
story of Martha and Mary.
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We'll get to that in a
moment a little bit more.
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But I'm going to one
of the teachings of Jesus
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in John chapter 5, John 5:24-30.
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This is not in the direct story
of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus,
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but it certainly will fit.
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In just a moment we'll see.
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"Most assuredly, I say to you,
that he who hears My word..."
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This is the teaching of Jesus.
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"...and believes
in Him who sent Me..."
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Talking about His Father.
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"...has everlasting life..."
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Well, what a
great promise that is.
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"...and shall not
come into judgment..."
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Amen.
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"...but has passed
from death to life."
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What a great promise that is.
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Right from the lips of Jesus.
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So everlasting life comes
from having faith in Jesus.
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Faith is how you lay
hold on the Son of God.
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And when you lay
hold on the Son of God,
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John says in another place,
"He who has the Son has life."
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So if you believe in
Christ, then you get this
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wonderful promise
of everlasting life.
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Now when a person believes,
he possesses everlasting life.
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That's a wonderful possession.
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It's a
possession you want, I want.
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But the question is,
how is it that he possesses
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everlasting life
when he still dies?
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And we see people die who
give their lives to Christ.
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Many Christians are sleeping
in the grave, so to speak,
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that have given
their life to Christ.
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Well Jesus is
going to explain that.
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And He goes on in
chapter 5 verse 25,
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"Most assuredly..."
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I like the old King James
that says, "Verily, verily."
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"Most assuredly..."
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That's a good way
of translating it too.
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"Truly, truly."
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"...I say to you,
the hour is coming..."
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Now notice how
Jesus explains this.
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"...the hour is
coming, and now is,
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when the dead will hear
the voice of the Son of God."
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Now that, "now is," I
think He's referring to what
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He's about to get ready
to do a little later in John
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in resurrecting
Lazarus from the dead.
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And we'll see
that in a few moments.
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"Most assuredly, I say to you,
the hour is coming, and now is,
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when the dead will hear
the voice of the Son of God;
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and those who hear will live."
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So He's saying that
the dead actually will hear
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the voice of the Son of God.
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And it's the
hearing of the Son of God
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that makes them live.
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Let's let Jesus go ahead
and explain this some more.
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Because it's a very fascinating
explanation that Jesus gives.
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So here we go,
we'll continue here.
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And He says, "For
as the Father has.."
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Let me finish that.
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"...will hear the
voice of the Son of God;
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and those who hear will live."
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Verse 26, "For as the
Father has life in Himself,
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so He has granted the Son
to have life in Himself..."
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So I mentioned in another
one of our sessions together
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that Jesus' life is
unborrowed and underived.
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Our life is
borrowed and derived.
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We do not have
immortal life, so to speak.
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We don't just go on living.
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We don't control our own life.
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But God does. He
has life within Himself.
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And Jesus has that life.
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Now let's go ahead and listen.
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Verse 27, "...and has
given Him," Jesus, "authority
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to execute judgment also,
because He is the Son of Man."
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Now notice several things here.
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And this will get re-emphasized
when we get down to verse 28.
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Notice that the dead...
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And verse 28 will tell us,
"...who are in the grave..."
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We'll come back to that.
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...hear the voice of Jesus.
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It's the hearing of the voice
of Jesus that makes them live.
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That means that none
of the dead right now
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are in heaven, or
purgatory, or in hell.
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We're going to talk about
hell before we're done here.
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And to my knowledge,
there's not a line of Scripture
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that supports purgatory.
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It's totally an
invention of the papacy.
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Let me go on here.
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So the dead are not alive
right now, but are in the graves
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waiting for the voice of Jesus.
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Now when does that voice come?
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According to the apostle
Paul in 2 Thessalonians 4,
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or 1 Thessalonians
4, it comes at the voice
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of the
archangel, the trump of God.
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It comes when Jesus comes again.
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And Jesus is that voice
that awakes the dead, you see.
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Okay, let's go on here.
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It tells us also that
it's at the resurrection
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that Jesus will
execute judgment.
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So He's not
executing judgment right now.
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He's not sending
people to heaven, or to hell,
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or to a non-existent
purgatory, so to speak.
00:09:17.85\00:09:20.59
And we'll talk about
what hell is too later.
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A lot of people have a
lot of misunderstanding
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about that subject.
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And I think the Bible
will be clear about it.
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But let's go ahead.
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So notice that the judgment
comes at the resurrection.
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Now Jesus goes
ahead and explains
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even more what He means.
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And so we're going to verse 28,
chapter 5 of the book of John.
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Jesus is speaking.
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"Do not marvel at this."
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He says, "Don't
think this can't happen."
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One author that I
know says, you know, for us
00:09:47.48\00:09:50.09
the resurrection of the
dead is an amazing thing.
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We can hardly understand it.
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In fact, in
Jesus' day the Sadducees
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had rejected the resurrection.
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They rejected the resurrection
because they couldn't figure out
00:10:00.53\00:10:03.67
scientifically how you could
take a body that decomposes
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and returns to the dust,
how that could ever come back
00:10:07.57\00:10:11.01
into any kind of living being.
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But that's because they didn't
understand the power of God.
00:10:12.41\00:10:16.61
And that's exactly
what Jesus told them.
00:10:16.64\00:10:18.51
He said, "You
have got a problem."
00:10:18.71\00:10:20.05
In fact, they
brought Him a trap question.
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They brought Him a
question that says,
00:10:22.42\00:10:23.85
"Here's a man..."
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These are the Sadducees.
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These are the political people
that are not really believers,
00:10:26.62\00:10:29.82
but they like power.
00:10:29.86\00:10:31.46
And they're basically in control
of Israel when Jesus is there.
00:10:31.59\00:10:34.70
The Pharisees had a lot
of power, but they weren't
00:10:34.73\00:10:37.00
sitting in the
high priest's seat.
00:10:37.03\00:10:39.63
So these Sadducees brought
Jesus this puzzling question.
00:10:39.83\00:10:42.94
They said, "Here's
a man who had a wife.
00:10:43.20\00:10:45.34
There are seven brothers.
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And the first brother died."
00:10:47.24\00:10:48.58
And they went all
through the whole seven.
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And each one of
them married her.
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And finally the
seventh brother died,
00:10:52.51\00:10:54.92
and the woman is still alive.
00:10:55.28\00:10:56.62
And they said, "So tell us, in
heaven or in the resurrection,
00:10:56.65\00:11:02.26
whose wife will she be?"
00:11:02.29\00:11:07.63
And Jesus' response to them was,
00:11:08.06\00:11:10.10
"You don't know
the power of God.
00:11:10.13\00:11:11.93
And you don't
know the Scripture."
00:11:11.97\00:11:13.90
And He went ahead
and inserted the fact
00:11:14.00\00:11:15.67
there is coming a resurrection.
00:11:15.70\00:11:18.34
You can find
Jesus' answer there.
00:11:18.37\00:11:19.97
But I just wanted
to underline that fact
00:11:20.01\00:11:22.41
that judgment comes
at the resurrection.
00:11:22.61\00:11:24.35
Now let's go on,
"Do not marvel at this;
00:11:24.38\00:11:26.31
for the hour is coming in which
all who are in the graves..."
00:11:26.78\00:11:31.02
Now Jesus is very specific here.
00:11:31.05\00:11:33.36
Those who are in the grave.
00:11:34.42\00:11:36.06
You're not in heaven, not
in hell, not in purgatory.
00:11:36.09\00:11:38.79
Not anywhere but in the grave.
00:11:38.83\00:11:40.20
The dead are in the
grave, according to Jesus.
00:11:40.23\00:11:43.57
Now if you believe something
else, you can argue with Jesus.
00:11:44.50\00:11:47.70
But that's clear as it can be.
00:11:47.74\00:11:50.01
"Do not marvel at
this; for the hour is coming
00:11:50.74\00:11:52.71
that all who are in the
graves will hear His voice..."
00:11:52.74\00:11:56.95
In other words, He
wakes them up in the grave
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and brings them
out of the grave.
00:12:00.05\00:12:02.28
"...will hear His voice,"
and notice, "and come forth..."
00:12:03.25\00:12:07.79
Now that's all the dead.
00:12:07.82\00:12:09.29
Everybody that has ever died.
00:12:09.52\00:12:11.03
All the good people,
all the wonderful people,
00:12:11.39\00:12:14.53
all the apostles
who are in the grave,
00:12:14.70\00:12:17.27
they're going to be resurrected.
00:12:17.30\00:12:18.63
All the bad people
like Mao, and Hitler,
00:12:18.67\00:12:22.80
and all those horrible people,
and you might can think of
00:12:22.84\00:12:25.77
plenty more, I'm
sure, they're all coming up
00:12:25.81\00:12:28.41
out of the grave too.
00:12:28.44\00:12:29.78
Now if you're in
Christ, you're not going to be
00:12:30.51\00:12:32.78
subject to judgment.
00:12:32.81\00:12:34.15
Isn't that good news?
00:12:34.18\00:12:35.52
But if you're not in
Christ, you're going to face
00:12:35.55\00:12:37.15
the judgment bar of God.
00:12:37.19\00:12:38.55
A judgment bar that
many people would fain be
00:12:40.16\00:12:43.09
relieved from, would
like to be excused from.
00:12:43.12\00:12:47.16
He goes on to say,
"...will hear His voice;
00:12:49.00\00:12:52.03
those that have done good..."
00:12:52.07\00:12:53.50
Two resurrections here.
00:12:53.74\00:12:55.24
"...those who have done good,
to the resurrection of life..."
00:12:55.77\00:12:58.24
So there is a
resurrection of life.
00:12:58.27\00:13:00.28
And it comes first.
00:13:00.31\00:13:02.01
"...and those
who have done evil,
00:13:03.14\00:13:06.21
to the
resurrection of condemnation."
00:13:06.25\00:13:08.48
So the resurrection of
condemnation comes second.
00:13:08.78\00:13:11.52
Two resurrections.
00:13:11.65\00:13:12.99
Resurrection of life,
resurrection of condemnation.
00:13:13.02\00:13:16.16
And Jesus says, "Of
Myself I can do nothing.
00:13:16.19\00:13:19.43
As I hear, I judge; and
My judgment is righteous,
00:13:19.46\00:13:24.00
because I do not seek My
own, but I seek the will of God
00:13:24.23\00:13:28.70
who sent Me."
00:13:28.90\00:13:30.24
We should not be amazed
at the ability of Christ
00:13:30.27\00:13:34.08
to resurrect the dead.
00:13:34.11\00:13:35.61
I mean, He knows where
every atom is in the universe.
00:13:35.84\00:13:39.31
He doesn't have to put all
the same atoms back together,
00:13:39.61\00:13:41.55
I'm not saying that.
00:13:41.58\00:13:42.92
But Jesus has great power.
00:13:42.95\00:13:44.35
He's the incomparable Jesus.
00:13:44.39\00:13:46.45
And He can and
will resurrect the dead.
00:13:46.79\00:13:52.49