Participants: Chris Holland
Series Code: IIWC
Program Code: IIWC201328
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00:11 >>Announcer: It has stood the test of time.
00:14 God's book, The Bible 00:18 Still relevant in today's complex world 00:24 It Is Written 00:25 Sharing messages of hope around the world! 00:39 >>Chris: Annie Shapiro was 50 years old in 1963. She was watching coverage of 00:44 the John F. Kennedy assassination on her black and 00:49 white TV and had a massive stroke and fell into a deep coma. Her husband Martin 00:55 Shapiro, dedicated to his wedding vows, spent the next 30 years bathing, changing, 01:02 and dressing his wife. He would comb her hair and brush her 01:08 teeth. He would give her eye drops ever few hours to keep her eyes from drying out. He would 01:12 sleep next to her at night. He prayed for a miracle recovery. 01:19 He went to great lengths to find some type of medical solution. 01:25 During her coma, like an active human being, her body began to break down. She had to 01:30 have cataract surgery, a hip replacement and even a hysterectomy. Mrs. Shapiro 01:36 was successful before this tragedy beset her. She was planning on opening 01:42 businesses in Hamilton Ontario. Now she just laid there, a shell 01:49 of her former self. During her coma the world went on the war had ended, the moon 01:56 landing had happened, technology had advanced. But on October 14, 02:03 1992 miracle of all miracles happened, Annie Shapiro wakened 02:10 from her comatose state. Martin Shapiro shares the story that on that day, while he lay 02:16 next to his wife, she suddenly sat up and said, turn on the 02:21 television, I want to watch I Love Lucy. Her whole world had changed. She had aged 30 02:28 years. Her husband, now 81, looked like an old man. Her son, 02:35 who was 18 at the time of her stroke was now 48 and had two children. Phones were now 02:42 cordless; the whole world around her had changed. Martin said, 02:49 the day she awoke "It was like a dead person come to life." 02:55 When asked by the media why he didn't put his wife in a nursing 02:59 home, he answered quite simply, "When I married," he said simply, "I pledged to be 03:05 with Anne in sickness and in health and I stuck to my vow." 03:13 I believe each one of us is going to experience an awakening 03:19 that is even more amazing than the one Annie Shapiro went through. We are going to 03:24 find ourselves suddenly thrust into a whole new world which 03:29 none of us can even begin to imagine. The Bible announces in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, 04:09 The Second Coming of Christ will be the most spectacular event 04:14 ever to occur on this planet. The Bible tells us that this even will not be missed by 04:21 any living person, Revelation 1:7, 04:38 All of the death, all of the murders, all of sin filled 04:42 darkness of this planet will end in dramatic fashion and a newness will exist that we 04:48 have never experienced before. 04:53 The coming of Jesus Christ will be the climactic close to a 04:56 chapter in this earth's history. Those who have died and are sleeping in Jesus will awaken 05:01 from their grave and it will be as time stood still. Like Annie 05:07 Shapiro, they will not know that a day or an hour has gone by. They will be living, but unlike 05:14 Annie, they won't have broken down bodies. They will be new 05:20 bodies. Completely healthy, optimal in operation. Sadly, for 05:27 some people, the awakening from the grave won't be good news. In fact, the arrival of 05:32 God's kingdom will not be good news at all for them, but truly 05:42 tragic news. The Bible teaches that there are actually two awakenings from the grave. 05:46 Those two awakenings lead to very different outcomes and are 05:53 two completely different events. Jesus had these words to describe those different 06:00 events, John 5:28-29, 06:28 Please notice very carefully: every human being, throughout 06:33 history will be resurrected from their sleep of death at one of 06:38 the two resurrections. Jesus' words are quite clear. "All who 06:43 are in the graves shall hear His voice." He goes on to describe the two resurrections: 1) The 06:49 resurrection of life, 2) The resurrection of condemnation. 06:57 Friends we don't want any part of the resurrection of condemnation. Revelation 07:02 20:6 is the promise that we want to be fulfilled, it says, 07:22 The first resurrection is quite clearly the resurrection of life 07:26 and the second one follows it, which is the resurrection of condemnation. By God 07:31 specifying that those raised in the first resurrection are 07:35 blessed and holy, we know that these are the faithful throughout the generations 07:41 but we also learn that the remainder of the dead, are those who were unfaithful, 07:47 and are raised at some time later from the first 07:57 resurrection. So here is the key question, as we have continually 08:01 asked the question, is heaven for real - what happens to those 08:07 who are a part of the first resurrection? Revelation 20:6 promises that those awakened in 08:14 that first resurrection, 08:28 The first resurrection, called the resurrection of life, is the 08:31 moment that the dead in Christ are transformed from corruptible 08:35 to incorruptible bodies and they are caught up to meet Jesus in 08:41 the sky. Where do they go from there? They travel with Jesus to heaven. However, they are 08:47 not the only ones who will go on that journey, but those faithful 08:51 followers who are alive at the coming of Jesus also will join 08:55 in this parade to heaven. This is the moment all of us have been waiting for. That moment 09:02 described in 1 Corinthians 15:51, 09:38 That is the day that will fulfill Paul's words in 2 10:05 Timothy 4:8, Friends our mortal sick bodies that can age and die will be made perfect 10:13 to never age and die. We will be with Jesus and he will have 10:22 changed us. Then we rise toward Him and all together with those raised from the dead will travel 10:35 to heaven. We will leave behind an earth that has been decimated 10:40 by the upheaval of the natural world at the coming of Jesus. The wicked who were 10:46 dead will stay dead - we will talk about this more next week - 10:54 and the wicked alive, those who have rejected the love of God and all of His attempts to 10:59 woo them to him, will die and remain on this planet Revelation 11:12 6:15-17 tells of their demise, 11:42 They could stand if they loved Jesus, but instead they rejected 11:48 His please of mercy and forgiveness, they rejected His outstretched arms and they 11:53 chose not to be rescued by the Lamb of God who takes away the 11:57 sins of the world. The love of God is like the sun.if you would take two bowls and put 12:08 butter in one and clay in the other and then put it out in the 12:15 sun - what would happen. The butter would be melted, but the clay would be hardened. 12:22 These are the two reactions to the love of God. Paul put it 12:27 this way in 1 Corinthians 1:18, 12:47 It is the same message but two very different reactions. The 12:55 message of Jesus and His death to save us is foolishness and myth to some and doesn't 13:03 awaken any change in their lives. However, to others the good news is the power 13:09 of God that changes a life forever. Friend, I want that good news to be the 13:15 power of God in my life, don't you? 13:20 So at the coming of Jesus, those who have experienced the power 13:25 of God in their lives - those who have had a transformational relationship with Jesus 13:29 are taken from the sin stricken planet. Those who are alive and 13:35 have seen the message of Jesus as foolishness and rejected the message of the cross 13:41 will be slain by the brightness of His coming - those wicked 13:47 that are dead remain dead. But the followers of Christ are caught up with Jesus to go 13:54 to heaven. What happens to this earth? Revelation 20:1-2 tells 14:05 us quite clearly, 14:27 In Christianity this thousand-year period is often 14:31 referred to as the millennium. While this word never occurs in the Bible, it is a Latin 14:36 conjunction millo, which means 1000, and annum, which means 14:44 years. It is simply a descriptive word for this time period. What happens during that 14:49 1000 years? Satan and his angels are bound in the bottomless pit. 14:55 What is this bottomless pit? In looking at the original Greek 15:00 the phrase bottomless pit is the Greek word Abussos. From it, we 15:07 get the English word abyss. It is the same word used in Genesis 1:2 that describes the earth 15:15 as without form and void. The earth is in a completely 15:22 devastated state. The earth has gone through so much turmoil that it is actually in an 15:32 almost de-created state. Satan is chained to the earth through 15:38 the chains of circumstance Jeremiah also described the earth in this Abussos state. In 15:48 Jeremiah 4:23-27, 16:37 And later in Jeremiah 25:33, 16:58 Satan is chained by the chains of circumstance. He is banished 17:03 to this earth, which is in a de-created state, and no one is alive except he and his angels. 17:10 No one more to tempt, no one more to be led into sin - only 17:18 by himself to contemplate his life of complete rebellion. This earth will be like a 17:31 bottomless pit for Satan. In the utter destruction of this 17:37 planet, one timeless principle is echoed over and over: the wages of sin is death. And 17:51 looking on, the whole universe will bear witness to the 17:58 terrible truth of those words. He will be confronted with the horrible results of his 18:03 rebellion for a thousand years. 18:13 But let's focus on the more positive aspects of the thousand 18:17 years. What joyous things will the righteous be doing with Jesus? Remember that verse 18:22 6 of Revelation 20 said that we will be priests of God reigning 18:28 with Him for a thousand years. Friends, it is almost unimaginable how amazing it will 18:35 be to be with Jesus for one thousand years. It will be absolutely wonderful. But 18:42 there are liable to be some questions. You know, I once 18:47 heard it said that we will be surprised by three things in heaven - number one that we are 18:51 there, number two by who isn't there and number three by who is 19:02 there. You might have questions.why isn't uncle so and so here, where is pastor so 19:10 and so - they were such good people. Or maybe you wonder how 19:15 that person could possibly be there - they had been so unkind and mean to you The good 19:23 news about the Good News of Jesus Christ is that He will answer every last one 19:30 of those questions. We will actually have the opportunity to 19:35 review God's decisions in the judgment. Yes, you heard me right. The almighty 19:43 creator of the Universe is going to allow you and me to review 19:50 his work. Revelation 20:4 tells of this time, 20:04 and Paul stated it this way in 1 Corinthians 6:2-3, 20:38 Friends isn't God just amazing? The opportunity to actually 20:45 evaluate His decisions. We will look over the cases of the saved 20:51 and the lost. Paul wrote these words, in 1 Corinthians 4:5, 21:13 Every hidden and secret thing will be brought to light. You 21:18 can't hide anything from Him. It will be revealed in those days why God couldn't save 21:23 some people. Their choices, we will see those choices that 21:32 individuals made to reject the sweet love of God. We will see every way He tried to 21:39 reach out. We will see every opportunity He put before them; 21:44 we will see to what great extent He went to with every individual 21:52 in history. At the end of it all, we will only have one conclusion. As Revelation 16:7 22:10 states, Each of us will be able to understand fully why we experienced what we did in 22:16 life. We will see the entire road map that God took us on and 22:23 we will see that His plan was perfect. 22:30 At the end of the thousand years we will experience even more 22:36 joy. Now the Bible does describe Satan being released from His prison and that second 22:41 resurrection of the wicked and their eventually destruction in 22:46 the lake of fire, but we will cover that in detail next week. But with the Satan and his 22:52 angels, along with wicked destroyed in the lake of fire, 22:58 what does God do next? God is going to restore earth to his perfect Edenic beauty that 23:06 it was originally created with. Revelation 21:1-2 describes this 23:16 marvelous event, 23:39 This is a description of our return trip from heaven. We are 23:44 in the New Jerusalem, in that mansion that place that Jesus said he was preparing for us 23:48 and now He is bringing us back to the earth where He will make 23:58 it new again. The chapter goes on to say, 24:17 God will reclaim this planet as His own and restore it to its 24:22 perfect beauty. He is making our home and our home will be with 24:29 Him. Of the vast universe, God chooses to make His dwelling with the only rebellious planet 24:37 there has ever been. Oh what a privilege - what a joy to be 24:44 able to live with God forever. 24:50 My friends, unlike poor Annie Shapiro, when God wakes us up, 24:56 He will awaken us to new bodies, completely perfect bodies - 25:03 never to grow old, experience pain or die. No more handicaps, no missing limbs, no blindness - 25:12 perfect health and perfect harmony. The good news friends 25:19 is that Jesus desires to save you that His power would change you. The experience of 25:27 heaven will be something you'll never want to miss. It comes 25:33 down to a decision, one very simple decision. Will you yield your life to the One who 25:41 gave His life on Mount Calvary? Is heaven for real? It is very 25:48 real. And it will be the grandest time that anyone can every experience. It comes down 25:55 to a decision to believe and have faith in Jesus who died for 26:06 me and died for you. Will you believe? Will you place your trust in Jesus? Will you believe 26:12 in that hill called Mount Calvary? 26:18 Oh heavenly Father, we believe that your son Jesus came and 26:23 died for us. We believe in that hill called Mount Calvary, and we believe that, just 26:29 as he died, he's coming again to take us home. May the power of 26:36 your Son be in us and change us and transform us and make us ready for that day when he 26:42 comes again, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. 26:51 The subject of the millennium and the subject of heaven, the 26:57 subject of the second coming of Jesus is such a thrilling topic to study. After today's 27:03 program, I'm sure you need more resources to help build that 27:07 relationship you have with Jesus. We'd like to offer to you today the Discover Bible guides. 27:12 The Discover Bible lessons are a refreshing look at the Bible, 27:20 and help deepen our relationship with Jesus. Here's the information you need to 27:24 receive today's offer. 28:01 Jesus is coming again soon. He's coming to take us home. He's 28:06 coming to take us to heaven, that we might spend a thousand years with him, and then 28:10 come to this earth, which he will recreate, and live forever 28:16 in perfect harmony. I hope you enjoyed today's program. I invite you to watch again 28:21 next week. Until then, remember, it is written, "Man shall not 28:29 live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from 28:36 the mouth of God." $$$$$ 28:58 $$$$$ |
Revised 2014-12-17