Praise the Lord, everyone,
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welcome to
Imperative Life Lessons,
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I'm Pastor Ryan Johnson.
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It was my very first
Sabbath as pastor of the church.
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In fact, they would be intro-
ducing me that very morning.
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So on this end, I were among the
first to arrive, we shook hands
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with the deacon and
made our way to the main room
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where Sabbath
School would soon begin.
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Sabbath School is sort
of an early morning teaching
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and discussion session.
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We get into the Word,
and I wanted to be supportive
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but not overly
obvious in the class.
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There was plenty of
time to speak out later
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but the lesson was very engaging
they were discussing the various
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miraculous resurrections
of scripture and Anissa and I
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silently, supportively,
appreciated the vigorous
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back and forth
among the attendees.
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Eventually, the hotly contested
question became whether or not
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people of today would have
considered the resurrections
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in the Bible to
be actual miracles?
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Have the resurrected
individuals really been dead?
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Maybe they'd only
been in a coma, hmm?
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And of course, the case of
Lazarus was brought forward.
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In which instance it had
been four days since death
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and he
reportedly smelled of decay.
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So, it was reaffirmed,
the resurrections in the Bible
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are genuine.
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And then suddenly, the
teacher pointed directly at me
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and he demanded, pastor, well,
so much for silent support.
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Pastor, Preacher, why do we
not see resurrections today?
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Where are they now?
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That's a great question.
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And the easy response is
something like, well, God uses
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healthcare professionals
as His angels to facilitate
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resurrection
through their medical care.
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And while that is a true
answer, I also felt like its
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dodging the
question which in essence was
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does God still do
miraculous things today?
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And this calling out
leads down a path of study
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like us to experience together
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for God is indeed
still resurrecting people.
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Father in heaven, be with us
as we examine what You can do
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in our lives. Resurrect
us, Lord,in thy name we pray.
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Amen and Amen.
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The Bible Chronicles
several resurrections,
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Moses was resurrected,
he died in Deuteronomy
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yet he appears to Jesus
and the disciples in Luke
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chapter nine, verses 30 and 31.
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Now, in Jude chapter 1,
verse 9 it even states that the
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devil tried to prevent
Moses from being resurrected,
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you should check that out.
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Elijah prayed and resurrected
a boy, Elisha, did as well,
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Jesus resurrected a
girl, resurrected a son,
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resurrected Lazarus and
others at His crucifixion
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and there was some resurrected
when He came back from the dead.
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So, of course, Christ
Himself rose from the grave,
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that's a resurrection on
the third day following His
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crucifixion. Later in
the Bible Dorcas was raised.
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A fallen boy was raised, the
dead in Christ shall be raised
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praise His name,
according to 1Thessalonians
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chapter four and
the Bible continues,
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but as many as these are
resurrection is never so routine
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in scripture as to be
discussed in common terms
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it's always a big deal whether
it is a spiritual or physical
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resurrection, it's
always considered the
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ultimate of miracles.
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Alright, so what
is a resurrection?
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The New Testament word for
resurrection literally means
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to stand up again. To have
been down but to now be on one's
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feet. You know, Jesus says in
John chapter 11 and verse 25...
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So Jesus defines resurrection
as though he were dead
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yet shall he live.
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Jesus further defines
resurrection in Revelation
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chapter one and
verse 18 where it says...
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First, let's appreciate
Jesus saying Amen to Himself
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I love it. And Jesus
says the resurrection is me.
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And this is why there
are no stories of Satan
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resurrecting anybody.
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Christ and no one
else is the resurrection.
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So, that's resurrection
as Jesus defines it.
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In the Old Testament,
Daniel uses the word awake
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to describe resurrection
in chapter 12 and verse two.
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David discusses
being revived in Plasm 71.
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It's clear from scripture that
for true resurrection to occur
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one must firstly have been dead.
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Dead, then alive again,
resurrection, praise the Lord.
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I'd like to discuss my favorite
resurrection in scripture,
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but first, let's discuss
what it means to be dead.
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Now there are
obvious cases of death,
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times when there is no question
about a person's vital state.
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There was clearly no life, but
still for the purposes of this
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study, it's interesting
to follow the medical history
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of what defined death.
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Back in the day, if a
person was not breathing,
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they were considered
dead, and you've heard
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stories like this.
Someone is sick or injured and
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they stop breathing, right?
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And along comes the
local medical person, and they
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hold a mirror to the
lips of the ailing individual.
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And if there is no fog
or breath on the mirror,
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then they declare
the person to be dead.
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They're dead, and I
know this sounds ridiculous
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because even a young
person in nursery school
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knows that just
because one isn't breathing,
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that doesn't mean
all life has been lost.
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They could be choking or
they could just need to be
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rolled onto their side
or some other intervention
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and the person may
start to breathe again.
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In First-Aid, one is
taught to check the airway first
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isn't that right?
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But because of their limited
knowledge, people were often
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buried, though they
had not yet actually died.
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Occasionally, occasionally,
an exhuming of a previously
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buried individual was
necessary and upon exhumation,
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the body would sometimes
be in a position in which
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they were not buried.
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Proving that they
haven't actually been dead yet
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and they had rolled over in
their illness or their panic.
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Does that sound awful?
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They thought it was awful
too, so much so that it became
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the fashion of the time
to create graves with twine
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inside the coffin connected
to a bell on the surface
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and the idea was that if
one awoke to find himself
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or herself buried alive,
they could ring that bell
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so that help would come.
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And there are no
records of this ever happening
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but it helped allay the fears
of people who didn't want to be
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buried alive. By the
way, are you spiritually
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unable to breathe? Are
you choking on the awfulness
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the enemy is shoving at ya?
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You know Ezekiel
chapter 37, and verse says...
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The Word brings breath
my friend, resurrection,
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laughter, well, later in history
people thought that if a persons
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heart stopped beating, and
they were definitely dead...
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So, imagine with me, this
is rough, but imagine with me
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a person's walking down
the street and they fall over
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unconscious, the
medical professional runs our
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and puts an ear to the
chest of the ailing individual.
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They may even get fancy and
feel for the radial arterial
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pulse on the wrist,
and if they feel nothing,
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then they declare
the person to be dead
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And of course, we know about
things like chest compressions
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and CPR, huh, just
because the heart is not beating
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doesn't mean the person
does not have life in them.
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Now, it's an exhausting
procedure but someone can
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compress the chest, allowing
blood to circulate and if help
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arrives that person can live.
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Yeah, hey, has your heart
stopped beating spiritually?
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Are you in need of the Lord
to press on ya and work with ya?
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Might you even
need a heart transplant?
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You know our God is a
spiritual cardiologist.
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David says in Psalms 51:10,
Create in me a clean heart
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oh God, renew a right
spirit within me, resurrection,
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and then finally medicine
reached the point where we had
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the technology to measure the
electrical activity of the brain
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and now, if a person
has no brain activity,
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we say that person is dead.
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But there's an article that
came out in the New York Times
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from 2011 showing that sometimes
you can give certain medications
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who are near brain
death and they may revive.
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Oh friend, are you
spiritually brain dead?
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I was doing a week of prayer
and so many students came up
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to me and said,
pastor, I don't feel anything,
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I can't feel God
moving, I feel so depressed,
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so many people need to feel God.
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Well, let's take a look
at the power of the spirit
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to revive even the brain
dead spiritually among us.
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My favorite story of
resurrection is found in the
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second book of Kings, chapter
13, let's begin in verse 20...
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Elisha was a spirit-filled
prophet of the Lord
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who had served as
God's messenger to Israel
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and after his days
were complete, he died.
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Now, in order to
appreciate what happens next,
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we have to understand some
ancient Jewish burial practices.
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When someone died, they
would clean the body and preform
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the funeral rites, then they
would place the body in a tomb
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a cave or an earthen recess
where animal and other invaders
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could not desecrate the body.
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And this meant placing a
rock or some other seal over the
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opening. You will
recall in John chapter 11, when
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Lazarus was entombed, Jesus
requested that the stone be
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rolled away, remember that?
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So, after placing the
body inside, the family would
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allow it to remain in
the tomb for about a year.
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And following this, they would
re-enter the tomb and they would
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collect the bones and
these bones would be placed
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in a special stone or clay
container called an ossuary
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and the ossuary would
then be etched with the name of
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the deceased before finally
being placed with the ossuaries
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of their ancestors.
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That's how they would do
it. Now, with this knowledge
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we can appreciate what is
happening in 2 Kings chapter 13
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and verse 20. Elisha
has died and has been placed
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in the tomb to await having
his bones placed in an ossuary.
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And the Bible reports that
the Moabites, a tribe whom the
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Israelites had been at war with
for some time invaded the land.
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Now, according to history,
it was typical of the Moabites
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to do their raiding during
spring at the beginning of the
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ancient Jewish year,
which was the month of Nissan.
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Or around our March,
but, while this was the start
00:14:00.30\00:14:05.31
of a New Year, Elisha's
body hadn't been in the tomb
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for an entire 360
days, that's how they did it,
00:14:09.84\00:14:13.72
time required before it's
replacement in the Ossuary.
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It was still lying out in
the sepulcher, and this is how
00:14:18.19\00:14:23.02
the next part of the
story occurs. I love this.
00:14:23.06\00:14:26.49
2 Kings chapter 13 verse 21...
00:14:26.53\00:14:29.56
So, according to scripture
sometime after Elisha died
00:14:51.65\00:14:56.93
they were having another
funeral for somebody else
00:14:56.96\00:14:59.79
when an armed band of
Moabite raiders was spotted
00:14:59.83\00:15:04.83
and of course that wasn't
good, so they hastily placed the
00:15:04.87\00:15:09.47
dead man's body in the
sepulcher where Elisha's
00:15:09.50\00:15:13.17
bones were still laid out
and I suppose they intended to
00:15:13.21\00:15:16.91
return later to place
the man in its proper place.
00:15:16.95\00:15:20.25
But however, when the dead
body contacted Elisha's bones
00:15:20.28\00:15:25.25
he revived and
stood on his feet.
00:15:25.29\00:15:28.19
Resurrection!
00:15:28.22\00:15:29.82
It's amazing isn't it? It is.
00:15:29.86\00:15:31.66
But why, why did this
happen? Some may say, well,
00:15:31.69\00:15:40.10
it's because they were
Elisha's bones, that's why.
00:15:40.14\00:15:43.94
But is that so?
00:15:43.97\00:15:45.47
Was there any
inherent power in the bones?
00:15:48.61\00:15:50.11
Was this some kind of
magical manifestation?
00:15:50.15\00:15:53.82
No, this wasn't
magic; there's no magic.
00:15:53.85\00:15:57.69
This was God. I tell you
what, let's break it down.
00:15:57.72\00:16:04.09
Do you remember what
Ezekiel 4 and 5 said?
00:16:04.13\00:16:08.23
Hear the word of the
Lord, thus saith the Lord God
00:16:08.26\00:16:12.80
unto these bones, behold
I will cause breath to enter
00:16:12.83\00:16:16.94
into you and ye shall live.
00:16:16.97\00:16:19.81
The word, the Lord God
brings breath, my friend,
00:16:19.84\00:16:25.11
resurrections, the bones
ain't got no power. Now, you may
00:16:25.15\00:16:29.18
wonder, if it was God,
then why was God in the bones?
00:16:29.22\00:16:34.52
This is why I love
this story so much.
00:16:34.56\00:16:38.29
To answer that, let's take a
brief look into who Elisha was.
00:16:38.33\00:16:45.97
Elisha first appears in the
Bible in 1 Kings chapter 19,
00:16:46.00\00:16:52.64
when God is talking to Elijah,
let's look at it together,
00:16:52.67\00:16:57.78
Verse 15...
00:16:57.81\00:16:59.31
The literal translation
is, in your place. So Elisha
00:17:34.38\00:17:41.66
was designated by God to
replace Elijah the prophet.
00:17:41.69\00:17:47.46
Let's read their first
interactions, verse 19...
00:17:47.50\00:17:51.73
The prophet Elijah
calls Elisha from the field.
00:18:27.57\00:18:32.84
You know, there's
something spiritual here?
00:18:32.87\00:18:35.38
In the Bible, working in
the field often represents
00:18:35.41\00:18:39.41
doing God's work and my
daddy always taught me that
00:18:39.45\00:18:43.99
when searching for,
say, an elder don't ask who
00:18:44.02\00:18:48.06
can do the work, but rather
ask, who is doing the work?
00:18:48.12\00:18:52.09
Here, Elisha was doing the
work and God calls him through
00:18:52.13\00:18:58.90
Elijah. So, Elisha was
the apprentice of Elijah.
00:18:58.93\00:19:04.04
Let's jump to where
Elijah is taken up to heaven by
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God and Elisha become
the senior prophet, shall we?
00:19:09.54\00:19:14.65
2 Kings chapter
two and verse one...
00:19:14.68\00:19:19.65
Before Elijah leaves, he
asks his student what he would
00:20:05.20\00:20:09.47
like him to pray for and
rather than riches or glory
00:20:09.50\00:20:12.81
or infinite respect
Elisha asks for a double portion
00:20:12.84\00:20:17.58
of the Holy Spirit
that Elijah had with him.
00:20:17.61\00:20:21.58
Now, mind you,
Elijah was a mighty prophet,
00:20:21.62\00:20:24.22
he had stood before
kings, he had prophesied
00:20:24.25\00:20:28.09
the ceasing of rain, he had
called fire down from heaven
00:20:28.12\00:20:32.59
yet Elisha prayed for twice
the spirit and power from God.
00:20:32.63\00:20:36.93
Hmmm, let's read on
verse 10 and he said...
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Elijah says that if God chooses
to let His student witness
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his transport to heaven
that would be the sign that God
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indeed, grant him that double
portion of His Holy Spirit
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and power. And
does Elisha see it?
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Does he see the chariots
of fire and the whirlwind?
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Yes, he does. Which means Elisha
received the double spirit
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he received so much Holy
Ghost in fact that even after a
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successful ministry as
the prophet when he died
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the Holy Ghost was
still with his bones.
00:21:59.85\00:22:02.98
Such that when a dead
man touched his bones,
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the power of the Holy
Ghost was still working
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and brought that
man back to life.
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Just a lesson here, huh, as
long as God is working with His
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people, as long as the
Holy Ghost is working among us
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resurrections will occur.
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A few years ago, we had pipe
burst at our home in Tennessee
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fortunately, my little
brother Rodney is a contractor
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so he sent some of his
employees to help us out.
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Since the damage was so
extensive in order to save money
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Anissa and the kids
stayed with my in-laws
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while I remained at a
local hotel with some of those
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repair men.
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And they would rise early each
morning to work on the house
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while I would study.
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Each evening, we would convene
and have the most interesting
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conversations. Now because
there was a language barrier
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we used Google translate
to talk about everything.
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One evening, Hector, my
new friend told me the story
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or how his brother was
working at a construction site
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when a falling hammer struck
him in the head and killed him.
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For a day and a half, his
family mourned until at last
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it was time for the funeral.
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They put him in a box and
carried him toward the cemetery
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Hector himself was
one of the pallbearers.
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Before committal the preacher
allowed one more viewing
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of the body and
suddenly, the dead man sat up
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saw his surroundings
and began praising God.
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And at first, Hector said
he was afraid, but today he is
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convinced his
brother was resurrected.
00:23:56.00\00:23:59.47
Now, admittedly, the scientist
in me wanted to doubt the
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story, was he really dead?
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I mean, really, really, and
then the preacher in me spoke up
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and asked pastor, what
good does your doubt do?
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Is God not God? Have
you yourself not witnessed
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mighty things? And
I had to admit I have.
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I wonder, one reason we might
not see resurrections any more
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it's because we don't have
the faith to recognize them,
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for is not the Holy
Spirit still working?
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Of course he is. So years
later there we were in the
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early morning Sabbath
School on my first Sabbath
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at the church and the teacher
pointed at me and demanded
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why do we not see
resurrections today?
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Where are they now? And
I thought about everything
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that we've just discussed,
death, the spirit, Hector,
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and God's miracles in my
own life and I answered, sir,
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we do see resurrections today,
friends, be it spiritual or
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physical, God is
resurrecting people today.
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And I wonder what He will
do in my life, I wonder what
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He'll do in yours.
00:25:31.86\00:25:37.77
The baptismal pool was
actually very warm, these days
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you can put heaters
in the water, you know,
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and I was standing there
waiting on the children's story
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to complete, tears in my
eyes because beside me was
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Michael, huh, a man
just a little taller than me,
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tears in his eyes, the
children's story finished
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and they had the little
screen that hid the pool until
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it was time. The person
in the back raised the screen
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and there we were,
Michael and the preacher
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and I introduced
Michael to the congregation
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and I always say, you see
this? this is your church family
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we walk to the kingdom together
we're in your life for a reason
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you are in our life for a
reason, Michael, do you want
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to say something, Michael
did not, and I raised my hand
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in the air, you've seen it
and it never gets old, does it?
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And now, Michael, because
of your determination to walk
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with God and your
commitment to Jesus Christ
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I now baptize you in
the name of the Father,
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in the name of the Son, and
in the name of the holy Ghost
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and Michael, went down
and Michael stood up again
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Because what I didn't tell
you the first time I'd ever
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met Michael was at a little
program named Teen Challenge,
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he was a drug
addict. Resurrection friends!
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God is resurrecting
people. I wonder what
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He would do with your life?
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Oh Father,
Resurrect us, save us.
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In Thy name we
pray, Amen and Amen!
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You know God has plans for you,
you just walk with your hand
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in His hand, He will
lead you to His destination,
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may He bless you.
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And as always,
friends, Be Encouraged.
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