Participants:
Series Code: ILL
Program Code: ILL230010S
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00:14 Praise the Lord, everyone,
00:16 welcome to Imperative Life Lessons, 00:19 I'm Pastor Ryan Johnson. 00:21 It was my very first Sabbath as pastor of the church. 00:25 In fact, they would be intro- ducing me that very morning. 00:30 So on this end, I were among the first to arrive, we shook hands 00:35 with the deacon and made our way to the main room 00:38 where Sabbath School would soon begin. 00:40 Sabbath School is sort of an early morning teaching 00:44 and discussion session. 00:45 We get into the Word, and I wanted to be supportive 00:48 but not overly obvious in the class. 00:51 There was plenty of time to speak out later 00:54 but the lesson was very engaging they were discussing the various 01:00 miraculous resurrections of scripture and Anissa and I 01:03 silently, supportively, appreciated the vigorous 01:08 back and forth among the attendees. 01:10 Eventually, the hotly contested question became whether or not 01:17 people of today would have considered the resurrections 01:21 in the Bible to be actual miracles? 01:24 Have the resurrected individuals really been dead? 01:27 Maybe they'd only been in a coma, hmm? 01:31 And of course, the case of Lazarus was brought forward. 01:35 In which instance it had been four days since death 01:40 and he reportedly smelled of decay. 01:42 So, it was reaffirmed, the resurrections in the Bible 01:46 are genuine. 01:48 And then suddenly, the teacher pointed directly at me 01:54 and he demanded, pastor, well, so much for silent support. 01:59 Pastor, Preacher, why do we not see resurrections today? 02:05 Where are they now? 02:08 That's a great question. 02:10 And the easy response is something like, well, God uses 02:14 healthcare professionals as His angels to facilitate 02:18 resurrection through their medical care. 02:21 And while that is a true answer, I also felt like its 02:25 dodging the question which in essence was 02:29 does God still do miraculous things today? 02:32 And this calling out leads down a path of study 02:36 like us to experience together 02:39 for God is indeed still resurrecting people. 02:44 Father in heaven, be with us as we examine what You can do 02:50 in our lives. Resurrect us, Lord,in thy name we pray. 02:54 Amen and Amen. 02:56 The Bible Chronicles several resurrections, 02:59 Moses was resurrected, he died in Deuteronomy 03:03 yet he appears to Jesus and the disciples in Luke 03:07 chapter nine, verses 30 and 31. 03:09 Now, in Jude chapter 1, verse 9 it even states that the 03:13 devil tried to prevent Moses from being resurrected, 03:16 you should check that out. 03:17 Elijah prayed and resurrected a boy, Elisha, did as well, 03:23 Jesus resurrected a girl, resurrected a son, 03:27 resurrected Lazarus and others at His crucifixion 03:31 and there was some resurrected when He came back from the dead. 03:35 So, of course, Christ Himself rose from the grave, 03:38 that's a resurrection on the third day following His 03:41 crucifixion. Later in the Bible Dorcas was raised. 03:44 A fallen boy was raised, the dead in Christ shall be raised 03:49 praise His name, according to 1Thessalonians 03:51 chapter four and the Bible continues, 03:54 but as many as these are resurrection is never so routine 03:59 in scripture as to be discussed in common terms 04:03 it's always a big deal whether it is a spiritual or physical 04:09 resurrection, it's always considered the 04:12 ultimate of miracles. 04:13 Alright, so what is a resurrection? 04:17 The New Testament word for resurrection literally means 04:23 to stand up again. To have been down but to now be on one's 04:29 feet. You know, Jesus says in John chapter 11 and verse 25... 04:44 So Jesus defines resurrection as though he were dead 04:48 yet shall he live. 04:50 Jesus further defines resurrection in Revelation 04:54 chapter one and verse 18 where it says... 05:08 First, let's appreciate Jesus saying Amen to Himself 05:11 I love it. And Jesus says the resurrection is me. 05:16 And this is why there are no stories of Satan 05:19 resurrecting anybody. 05:21 Christ and no one else is the resurrection. 05:24 So, that's resurrection as Jesus defines it. 05:28 In the Old Testament, Daniel uses the word awake 05:34 to describe resurrection in chapter 12 and verse two. 05:37 David discusses being revived in Plasm 71. 05:42 It's clear from scripture that for true resurrection to occur 05:47 one must firstly have been dead. 05:52 Dead, then alive again, resurrection, praise the Lord. 05:58 I'd like to discuss my favorite resurrection in scripture, 06:02 but first, let's discuss what it means to be dead. 06:07 Now there are obvious cases of death, 06:10 times when there is no question about a person's vital state. 06:15 There was clearly no life, but still for the purposes of this 06:18 study, it's interesting to follow the medical history 06:23 of what defined death. 06:26 Back in the day, if a person was not breathing, 06:30 they were considered dead, and you've heard 06:33 stories like this. Someone is sick or injured and 06:36 they stop breathing, right? 06:38 And along comes the local medical person, and they 06:41 hold a mirror to the lips of the ailing individual. 06:44 And if there is no fog or breath on the mirror, 06:48 then they declare the person to be dead. 06:50 They're dead, and I know this sounds ridiculous 06:53 because even a young person in nursery school 06:55 knows that just because one isn't breathing, 06:58 that doesn't mean all life has been lost. 07:01 They could be choking or they could just need to be 07:05 rolled onto their side or some other intervention 07:08 and the person may start to breathe again. 07:12 In First-Aid, one is taught to check the airway first 07:16 isn't that right? 07:18 But because of their limited knowledge, people were often 07:22 buried, though they had not yet actually died. 07:26 Occasionally, occasionally, an exhuming of a previously 07:32 buried individual was necessary and upon exhumation, 07:36 the body would sometimes be in a position in which 07:41 they were not buried. 07:42 Proving that they haven't actually been dead yet 07:45 and they had rolled over in their illness or their panic. 07:50 Does that sound awful? 07:51 They thought it was awful too, so much so that it became 07:55 the fashion of the time to create graves with twine 08:00 inside the coffin connected to a bell on the surface 08:05 and the idea was that if one awoke to find himself 08:09 or herself buried alive, they could ring that bell 08:12 so that help would come. 08:13 And there are no records of this ever happening 08:17 but it helped allay the fears of people who didn't want to be 08:21 buried alive. By the way, are you spiritually 08:27 unable to breathe? Are you choking on the awfulness 08:32 the enemy is shoving at ya? 08:33 You know Ezekiel chapter 37, and verse says... 08:50 The Word brings breath my friend, resurrection, 08:54 laughter, well, later in history people thought that if a persons 09:00 heart stopped beating, and they were definitely dead... 09:03 So, imagine with me, this is rough, but imagine with me 09:07 a person's walking down the street and they fall over 09:09 unconscious, the medical professional runs our 09:13 and puts an ear to the chest of the ailing individual. 09:17 They may even get fancy and feel for the radial arterial 09:23 pulse on the wrist, and if they feel nothing, 09:25 then they declare the person to be dead 09:28 And of course, we know about things like chest compressions 09:32 and CPR, huh, just because the heart is not beating 09:36 doesn't mean the person does not have life in them. 09:40 Now, it's an exhausting procedure but someone can compress 09:45 the chest, allowing blood to circulate and if help arrives 09:50 that person can live. 09:51 Yeah, hey, has your heart stopped beating spiritually? 09:59 Are you in need of the Lord to press on ya and work with ya? 10:05 Might you even need a heart transplant? 10:08 You know our God is a spiritual cardiologist. 10:12 David says in Psalms 51:10, Create in me a clean heart 10:17 oh God, renew a right spirit within me, resurrection, 10:22 and then finally medicine reached the point where we had 10:30 the technology to measure the electrical activity of the brain 10:33 and now, if a person has no brain activity, 10:37 we say that person is dead. 10:40 But there's an article that came out in the New York Times 10:44 from 2011 showing that sometimes you can give certain medications 10:50 who are near brain death and they may revive. 10:57 Oh friend, are you spiritually brain dead? 11:02 I was doing a week of prayer and so many students came up 11:06 to me and said, pastor, I don't feel anything, 11:10 I can't feel God moving, I feel so depressed, 11:14 so many people need to feel God. 11:17 Well, let's take a look at the power of the spirit 11:21 to revive even the brain dead spiritually among us. 11:29 My favorite story of resurrection is found in the 11:34 second book of Kings, chapter 13, let's begin in verse 20... 11:51 Elisha was a spirit-filled prophet of the Lord 11:54 who had served as God's messenger to Israel 11:58 and after his days were complete, he died. 12:02 Now, in order to appreciate what happens next, 12:06 we have to understand some ancient Jewish burial practices. 12:10 When someone died, they would clean the body and preform 12:15 the funeral rites, then they would place the body in a tomb 12:20 a cave or an earthen recess where animal and other invaders 12:25 could not desecrate the body. 12:27 And this meant placing a rock or some other seal over the 12:31 opening. You will recall in John chapter 11, when 12:35 Lazarus was entombed, Jesus requested that the stone be 12:39 rolled away, remember that? 12:41 So, after placing the body inside, the family would 12:46 allow it to remain in the tomb for about a year. 12:50 And following this, they would re-enter the tomb and they would 12:55 collect the bones and these bones would be placed 12:59 in a special stone or clay container called an ossuary 13:05 and the ossuary would then be etched with the name of 13:10 the deceased before finally being placed with the ossuaries 13:15 of their ancestors. 13:17 That's how they would do it. Now, with this knowledge 13:20 we can appreciate what is happening in 2 Kings chapter 13 13:26 and verse 20. Elisha has died and has been placed 13:32 in the tomb to await having his bones placed in an ossuary. 13:37 And the Bible reports that the Moabites, a tribe whom the 13:43 Israelites had been at war with for some time invaded the land. 13:48 Now, according to history, it was typical of the Moabites 13:52 to do their raiding during spring at the beginning of the 13:57 ancient Jewish year, which was the month of Nissan. 14:00 Or around our March, but, while this was the start 14:05 of a New Year, Elisha's body hadn't been in the tomb 14:09 for an entire 360 days, that's how they did it, 14:13 time required before it's replacement in the Ossuary. 14:18 It was still lying out in the sepulcher, and this is how 14:23 the next part of the story occurs. I love this. 14:26 2 Kings chapter 13 verse 21... 14:51 So, according to scripture sometime after Elisha died 14:56 they were having another funeral for somebody else 14:59 when an armed band of Moabite raiders was spotted 15:04 and of course that wasn't good, so they hastily placed the 15:09 dead man's body in the sepulcher where Elisha's 15:13 bones were still laid out and I suppose they intended to 15:16 return later to place the man in its proper place. 15:20 But however, when the dead body contacted Elisha's bones 15:25 he revived and stood on his feet. 15:28 Resurrection! 15:29 It's amazing isn't it? It is. 15:31 But why, why did this happen? Some may say, well, 15:40 it's because they were Elisha's bones, that's why. 15:43 But is that so? 15:48 Was there any inherent power in the bones? 15:50 Was this some kind of magical manifestation? 15:53 No, this wasn't magic; there's no magic. 15:57 This was God. I tell you what, let's break it down. 16:04 Do you remember what Ezekiel 4 and 5 said? 16:08 Hear the word of the Lord, thus saith the Lord God 16:12 unto these bones, behold I will cause breath to enter 16:16 into you and ye shall live. 16:19 The word, the Lord God brings breath, my friend, resurrections, 16:25 the bones ain't got no power. Now, you may wonder, 16:29 if it was God, then why was God in the bones? 16:34 This is why I love this story so much. 16:38 To answer that, let's take a brief look into who Elisha was. 16:46 Elisha first appears in the Bible in 1 Kings chapter 19, 16:52 when God is talking to Elijah, let's look at it together, 16:57 Verse 15... 17:34 The literal translation is, in your place. So Elisha 17:41 was designated by God to replace Elijah the prophet. 17:47 Let's read their first interactions, verse 19... 18:27 The prophet Elijah calls Elisha from the field. 18:32 You know, there's something spiritual here? 18:35 In the Bible, working in the field often represents 18:39 doing God's work and my daddy always taught me that 18:44 when searching for, say, an elder don't ask who 18:48 can do the work, but rather ask, who is doing the work? 18:52 Here, Elisha was doing the work and God calls him through Elijah. 18:58 So, Elisha was the apprentice of Elijah. 19:04 Let's jump to where Elijah is taken up to heaven by 19:09 God and Elisha become the senior prophet, shall we? 19:14 2 Kings chapter two and verse one... 20:05 Before Elijah leaves, he asks his student what he would 20:09 like him to pray for and rather than riches or glory 20:12 or infinite respect Elisha asks for a double portion 20:17 of the Holy Spirit that Elijah had with him. 20:21 Now, mind you, Elijah was a mighty prophet, 20:24 he had stood before kings, he had prophesied 20:28 the ceasing of rain, he had called fire down from heaven 20:32 yet Elisha prayed for twice the spirit and power from God. 20:36 Hmmm, let's read on verse 10 and he said... 21:27 Elijah says that if God chooses to let His student witness 21:32 his transport to heaven that would be the sign that God 21:36 indeed, grant him that double portion of His Holy Spirit 21:39 and power. And does Elisha see it? 21:42 Does he see the chariots of fire and the whirlwind? 21:46 Yes, he does. Which means Elisha received the double spirit 21:51 he received so much Holy Ghost in fact that even after a 21:56 successful ministry as the prophet when he died 21:59 the Holy Ghost was still with his bones. 22:03 Such that when a dead man touched his bones, 22:06 the power of the Holy Ghost was still working 22:09 and brought that man back to life. 22:12 Just a lesson here, huh, as long as God is working with His 22:19 people, as long as the Holy Ghost is working among us 22:23 resurrections will occur. 22:25 A few years ago, we had pipe burst at our home in Tennessee 22:33 fortunately, my little brother Rodney is a contractor 22:36 so he sent some of his employees to help us out. 22:40 Since the damage was so extensive in order to save money 22:44 Anissa and the kids stayed with my in-laws 22:47 while I remained at a local hotel with some of those 22:51 repair men. 22:52 And they would rise early each morning to work on the house 22:57 while I would study. 22:58 Each evening, we would convene and have the most interesting 23:03 conversations. Now because there was a language barrier 23:07 we used Google translate to talk about everything. 23:10 One evening, Hector, my new friend told me the story 23:16 or how his brother was working at a construction site 23:19 when a falling hammer struck him in the head and killed him. 23:24 For a day and a half, his family mourned until at last 23:28 it was time for the funeral. 23:29 They put him in a box and carried him toward the cemetery 23:33 Hector himself was one of the pallbearers. 23:36 Before committal the preacher allowed one more viewing 23:41 of the body and suddenly, the dead man sat up 23:47 saw his surroundings and began praising God. 23:51 And at first, Hector said he was afraid, but today he is 23:56 convinced his brother was resurrected. 23:59 Now, admittedly, the scientist in me wanted to doubt the 24:04 story, was he really dead? 24:07 I mean, really, really, and then the preacher in me spoke up 24:12 and asked pastor, what good does your doubt do? 24:17 Is God not God? Have you yourself not witnessed 24:22 mighty things? And I had to admit I have. 24:27 I wonder, one reason we might not see resurrections any more 24:32 it's because we don't have the faith to recognize them, 24:35 for is not the Holy Spirit still working? 24:39 Of course he is. So years later there we were in the 24:46 early morning Sabbath School on my first Sabbath 24:49 at the church and the teacher pointed at me and demanded 24:53 why do we not see resurrections today? 24:56 Where are they now? And I thought about everything 25:01 that we've just discussed, death, the spirit, Hector, 25:06 and God's miracles in my own life and I answered, sir, 25:13 we do see resurrections today, friends, be it spiritual or 25:21 physical, God is resurrecting people today. 25:26 And I wonder what He will do in my life, I wonder what 25:31 He'll do in yours. 25:37 The baptismal pool was actually very warm, these days 25:46 you can put heaters in the water, you know, 25:48 and I was standing there waiting on the children's story 25:52 to complete, tears in my eyes because beside me was 26:00 Michael, huh, a man just a little taller than me, 26:05 tears in his eyes, the children's story finished 26:11 and they had the little screen that hid the pool until 26:17 it was time. The person in the back raised the screen 26:21 and there we were, Michael and the preacher 26:26 and I introduced Michael to the congregation 26:31 and I always say, you see this? this is your church family 26:35 we walk to the kingdom together we're in your life for a reason 26:40 you are in our life for a reason, Michael, do you want 26:43 to say something, Michael did not, and I raised my hand 26:46 in the air, you've seen it and it never gets old, does it? 26:50 And now, Michael, because of your determination to walk 26:55 with God and your commitment to Jesus Christ 26:59 I now baptize you in the name of the Father, 27:02 in the name of the Son, and in the name of the holy Ghost 27:06 and Michael, went down and Michael stood up again 27:13 Because what I didn't tell you the first time I'd ever 27:15 met Michael was at a little program named Teen Challenge, 27:18 he was a drug addict. Resurrection friends! 27:24 God is resurrecting people. I wonder what 27:30 He would do with your life? 27:32 Oh Father, Resurrect us, save us. 27:38 In Thy name we pray, Amen and Amen! 27:42 You know God has plans for you, you just walk with your hand 27:45 in His hand, He will lead you to His destination, 27:47 may He bless you. 27:50 And as always, friends, Be Encouraged. |
Revised 2025-10-20