Sermon Nuggets Mon August 9, 2010
Theme -Death- A Conscious State?
Verses- Rev 6:9-10 When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained.
They called out in a loud voice, "How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?"
Conscious State
In a past issue of National Geographic there was an article on beauty. What we portray as beauty is ugly in some cultures. Yet this tribesman wanted to appear attractive. He painted himself in white, then bold colors over his face that looks to us like war paint. But such artwork on his face was admired by those he tried to attract.
I guess it is not unlike my older generation looking upon the many tattoos others wear that within some circles is attractive and other circles not so much.
Beauty products abound, each promising to make us look like movie stars or athlete. Wrinkles must be removed, hair must be tinted to hide the gray and blemishes must disappear. Some will be very aggressive using lipo-suction, implants, face lifts and plastic surgery. Yet our bodies were only made to last a short period of time before they die and are gone. We see it in the aging process, even though we try to hide or prevent it.
I wonder what would happen if people put 1/10 of the time devoted to spiritual health and beauty which lasts for all eternity as opposed to the physical which is like a vapor, here and then gone.
Now, I agree that we should be concerned about our bodies and take care of them, but I want us to think about the body we will have for eternity.
D.L. Moody said before he died, “Soon you will read in the papers that Moody is dead. Don’t believe it, for in that moment I will be more alive than I have ever been.”
The last time we preached, we explored Biblical teachings on the existence immediately after physical death. You might call that the intermediary state of people.
I also prefaced my remarks following the Bible interpretation that suggests what is clearly and plainly and repeatedly stated in the Bible, believe strongly. What is unclear, confusing, and mentioned only once or very seldom, believe, but allow for various interpretations and don’t be so dogmatic.
The Bible teaches there is life after death. Justin told me this past week he heard some preacher on TV teaching soul sleep meaning there is no conscious awareness until the second coming of Jesus Christ. On passage we looked at was the story of Lazarus and the rich man. I want to take it up from there again. Luke 16:19-31 I suggested that the context of this passage was before the judgment so it couldn’t have been reference to the final hell and heaven.
Doing a word study from the Old Testament and New Testament the waiting place of the dead was called Sheol in Hebrew and Hades in the Greek. Further illustrations indicated that in the place of the dead there was a division. Gathered to my people identified with Abraham the Old Testament saints. NT used Paradise and Abraham’s side or bosom in reference to this passage.
Now after the Crucifixion you see we are brought immediately into the presence of Jesus Christ in glory. The key figure in the place of the dead is not longer Abraham, but rather Jesus, and all the hope is to be absent from the body is to be immediately in the presence of the Lord.
We will explore more some verses as well as some opinions regarding this conscience experience after death.
Pastor Dale
Sermon Nuggets Tues Aug 10 -After Death Experiences
Verses- 2 Cor 5:1 Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed (talking about our bodies), we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.”
Matt 17:3-5 Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus.
4 Peter said to Jesus, "Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters-- one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah."
5 While he was still speaking, a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!"
After Death Experiences
Rev 6:9-10 refers to the souls under the altar who were slain because of the word of God. They called out in a loud voice, "How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?" This takes place from the place of the dead believers before the second coming of Jesus. Later in the passage it talks about wearing white robes.
Some good evangelical Christians may not agree entirely on how to best interpret this in between period from our physical death to the resurrection of the bodies at the return of Jesus. Part of the differences rests on determining what is figurative, what is literal, what points to the final resurrected body after Jesus returns and what refers to the existence after death but before the second coming.
The Bible has to use ideas we are somewhat familiar with in order to help us get a closer understanding of a realm or world that we cannot imagine with our minds until we get there. So there has to be some figurative language and there has to be an awfully lot we just aren’t going to get. But we can still be helped by what is revealed.
I tried to prepare myself before I went to experience a third world country of India. I talked to people who have been there, looked at photos, seen a little of videos, but going to a third country will vastly open up things that you cannot get second hand. You need to see the crowded streets and explosion of color of clothes and smell the garbage and see the smiles. It will be foolish to think after two weeks I would ever experience India but I understand lots more after being there which is difficult to convey to those who haven’t.
When it comes to the place of the dead we just describe in words pictures to help us get a better idea, but we won’t know until we get there exactly, but what is important to know God has revealed in his word.
2 Cor 5:1 Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed (talking about our bodies), we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.” Paul is contrasting tents to buildings. On one side is our physical body; on the other side is our resurrected body. The first is described like a tent. A tent is temporary compared to a permanent building.
Much of how we imagine this in-between stage is taken from a few verses. Are they literal or figurative? You decide. I believe there is a peek behind the curtain when we saw Hades, and Abraham’s side from Luke. I believe another glimpse is shown to us on the Mountain of Transfiguration. Moses and Elijah appeared in some kind of body, though neither yet has his permanent resurrection body. There they were talking, communicating, and evidently recognizable to Peter James and John. It seems there is communication, there is recognition, there is materialization of some form, but not permanent. It appeared and it disappeared.
When the rich man was in Hades, he asked Lazarus to dip his finger in cool water and touch his tongue. That conveys thirst and suffering, doesn’t it? Was it a literal finger and literal tongue? I think it is open for different interpretations, but willing to say that our souls are manifested in spirit form in body like characteristics to help us understand standing and singing, and going and coming, and speaking and hearing, and thinking, and being in one another’s presence. We are known and observed in some form that is recognizable immediately.
How would the rich man know Abraham, how would Peter know Moses? How would John know Elijah? There is a consciousness that relates to the world beyond.
Pastor Dale
Sermon Nuggets Weds Aug 11
Verses- Acts 7:55-60 But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.
56 "Look," he said, "I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God."
57 At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him,
58 dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul.
59 While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit."
60 Then he fell on his knees and cried out, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." When he had said this, he fell asleep.
Near Death Experiences.
Paul’s inspired writing also implies that the saints in heaven today are incomplete because there will also be a resurrection of the new body. When you die now, you are keenly aware that you have arrived in the presence of Jesus. He welcomed Stephen into glories of his presence while Stephen was being stoned to death. It was an encouraging vision while he was being stoned.
Pam told me of Kevin being in a coma before his death. His Aunt was with him praying when he opened his eyes had a big smile and was then was gone. Did Kevin see what Stephen saw? There are others who will say similar things sometimes when their loved one died. There was a better understanding for those in Christ- there is no death, you move from this conscious experience into a better one.
But that raises other questions of what we might call near death experiences. As a chaplain I have heard numerous stories similar to what is on TV portraying someone in a hospital room and declared died. The medical team work frantically on that person to keep him alive. The person arouses. He or she has sometimes described it as if they left the body and looked down upon to see themselves lying on a hospital bed. There was a feeling of peace and joy and light and wonder. There was a struggle to stay away from their body but they were forced back into the body. The medical team congratulated themselves and family thanked the Lord that he or she was brought back to life, but the patient has told me he didn’t’ really want to come back. It does seem to indicate the soul does leave the body.
However people have been asked what they experienced after their heart stopped and they have been brought back and most commonly they don’t remember anything.
Some have reported conversations that they could not possibly have heard that occurred while they were pronounced dead. Some could even identify family members in the hallway outside their room and what others said and were doing.
I have heard other stories of a tunnel like experience where there was a bright light beaconing them to come. Many will say they do no longer fear death after having that experience. It was peaceful and wonderful.
Another man was in a near death experience. He described it as just the opposite. There was fear and fire and he sensed demonic presence, When he recovered it was very easy for me to lead him to accept the Lord.
But what about these folks who are non Christians that confess to the bright light and tunnel as do some Christians? What about people of different religious backgrounds talking about leaving the body and coming back into it, now at peace with death?
I think there are 3 sensible explanations. First, is all that Jesus lived taught and died for was a lie. And many would rather take the testament of a moment of unconsciousness of various people than the testimony of centuries of the personal relationship and truth and lives changed to multitude of followers of Jesus Christ. Many hold to a universalism and new age teaching for all beings as partly divine or living in the light.
Or secondly, what they experience is not death, it is a semi conscious experience that scientifically is explained by brain waves giving a dream like reaction to chemical break down and it isn’t any more real that you dreams are. Connecticut psychologist Kenneth Ring stresses that near-death experiences do not prove the existence of the after-life but merely show that the act of dying may not be the agonizing event many people fear.
Or thirdly, angels carry us to heaven or Hades. Satan who also masquerades as an angel of light can counterfeit this initial experience, The Great Deceiver wants to have people think that one’s relationship with Jesus Christ has no bearing on the beauty of the afterlife. We see Lazarus had an angel that carried him to the bosom of Abraham.
If it is true that angels await those who have been made righteous by Christ, it is understandable that demonic spirits would await those who enter eternity without Gods’ forgiveness and acceptance. When angels are visible to human beings, angels consistently appear in human form. Personally, I think that is probably related to the spirit world that manifests itself in different ways but most commonly to what we can relate to as a body.
Regardless of people’s experiences all of them must be examined in the context of the Bible, God’s revealed Word. Personally, I am much more concerned about what I will experience after death than what I will experience when I am near death. It is not the transition but the destination that really counts.
Many believe that the Apostle Paul was describing this experience when he was left for dead 14 years earlier. 2 Cor 12:2-4. Is that why Paul could say with confidence “for me to live is Christ, to die is even greater.” There was no longer any fear for him.
One minute after you die our minds our memories will be clearer than ever before. Our personalities will go on yet without sin. We will still have our uniqueness and distinctiveness that makes us different from one another, not just physically, but more importantly in our very beings. You will know more then than now. Things that are confusing will be made clear.
Now I will add an opinion here. There is no indication in Scripture that focuses the attention on the people who are living. I don’t know if grandpa is watching me now or not. I do know it is against the teaching of the Bible to try to contact the dead, or pray to the dead- that is reserved only for the Lord. And when people do try they are involved in cultic and demonic activities. The Old Testament is very clear not to contact spirits. The New Testament teaches there is only one to whom we pray, it isn’t our loved one, it is not Mary or the saints, it is only God as revealed Father, by the spirit, through the Son.
Pastor Dale
Sermon Nuggets Thur Aug 12
Verses -1 Thes 4:13-18 Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope.
14 We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.
15 According to the Lord's own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep.
16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.
17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.
18 Therefore encourage each other with these words.
I Cor 15
The Resurrected Experience.
I Thes 4:16-18 is a wonderful passage of hope. Jesus introduces the hope of the other side, namely the resurrected bodies we will receive at His return. This is also called the rapture of the church when we meet the Lord in the air. When Christ returns the souls of the saints will join with Him and the angels and receive their permanent resurrected bodies. Those who have fallen asleep are also called the dead in Christ include believers who have died and professed belief in Christ. They will rise again.
We will know others and be known by others, even though we haven’t met. Paul also goes into a lengthy explanation in I Cor 15 of the differences between the body now and the body that is to come. The people in Corinth found it hard to accept the idea of the resurrection. How could God take bodies which have deteriorated, burned, or been destroyed in different ways and reconstruct them again? What if a cannibal ate a person? There are all kinds of things that are hard to understand.
Yet when God first made mankind he did so out of dust? Do you think recreating new bodies is any harder chore for the God of all creation? Paul uses a figurative illustration to helps us understand four truths.
First. Although it is a body it is very different in nature from our physical bodies. Take for example a seed. It seems dead, to have no life, no indication of life in it at all. How can a new plant come forth from this dead seed? Today we may explain it but it is still a miracle created by God.
If God can bring this dead seed to life, he can do the same with a dead body, regardless of its state. Then Paul explains that there are different kinds of bodies - within animal life and within the heavens. All have their own kind of splendor, all are different. So we must remember that we do not just think of our present bodies as to what our bodies will be like.
Secondly, it does not die. It is imperishable and eternal. Our bodies will not die. No one will comment on your age or notice the years taking their toll. Dr. Hinson wrote: “The stars shall live for a million years A million years and a day. But God and I will live and love when the stars have passed away.”
Thirdly, we are raised in power. When my mother was removed from her apartment after discovering she died in bed, Jay Mankie, the funeral director at the time, covered her body in a sheet. But contrast that with the purity of the white robes by the power of Jesus Christ that will raise him from the dead.
We are raised in strength. I always wanted to fly, I always dreamed of being strong. With the resurrected body there will not be any material barriers. I will not have to worry about things I cannot lift or places I cannot go. The angel that rolled the stone away was not to let Jesus out, but that the disciples might come in and see the empty tomb.
Of course some of the details of our new body and existence in heaven is speculative, I believer when a child dies his resurrected body will not be that of a 2 year old dependent upon others for needs. He will be strong, and whatever our new bodies can do so will his. Babies who have died will not remain babies but have the completeness that awaits us all regardless of our age. The one who dies with one leg or paralyzed or burned at the stake will all be completed in our imaginations more than and better than running and jumping and singing and dancing for even gravity will not hinder the resurrected body.
The Fourth idea is that we shall receive this spiritual body. God desired that soul and body be balanced together along with the spirit. It is somehow a reflection of his image. Now without sin and without decay of this world, so we reflect the glory of God and serve him. “We shall also bear the image of the heavenly one”: The glorified or resurrected body will resemble that of Christ’s resurrected body. It will be as real as Christ’s body, but “real” as defined in eternal terms, not earthly ones.
Pastor Dale
Sermon Nuggets Fri Aug 13 -Resurrected Body
Verses- John 21:4-14 Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus.
5 He called out to them, "Friends, haven't you any fish?" "No," they answered.
6 He said, "Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some." When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish.
7 Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, "It is the Lord!" As soon as Simon Peter heard him say, "It is the Lord," he wrapped his outer garment around him (for he had taken it off) and jumped into the water.
8 The other disciples followed in the boat, towing the net full of fish, for they were not far from shore, about a hundred yards.
9 When they landed, they saw a fire of burning coals there with fish on it, and some bread.
10 Jesus said to them, "Bring some of the fish you have just caught."
11 Simon Peter climbed aboard and dragged the net ashore. It was full of large fish, 153, but even with so many the net was not torn.
12 Jesus said to them, "Come and have breakfast." None of the disciples dared ask him, "Who are you?" They knew it was the Lord.
13 Jesus came, took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish.
14 This was now the third time Jesus appeared to his disciples after he was raised from the dead.
Christ’s Resurrection
The only complete new resurrected body we can use to help us understand is the resurrected body of Jesus Christ. It was real. He could be touched, he ate a fish and it was gone. Yet he could appear and disappear at will. Sometimes people recognized him on the earth and other times they did not know who he was. We understand with spiritual eyes, not with physical eyes.
Our resurrected bodies may eat, but not have to for continue to exist. There are all kinds of figures in the Bible that speak of the banqueting table, or parties, or feasting, because we can’t have a party without food.
I always felt so badly for Kortney whenever he was here for some event he had to be fed by tube and not participate in the fun of eating and drinking and talking with one another. Sometimes Kortney would go through the line and just pick up plate, knife and fork. Thanksgiving, Birthdays, and Christmas must seem much more boring without food to share. So maybe we’ll have angel food cake, I don’t know.
But life will be different. Christ made it clear that we will not marry or be married in heaven. Race, gender, age, looks will not be important, but we will know one another, A wife will know husband and husband wife, mother daughter father son, but all equal before the throne of God. Our attentions will be more on the magnificent wonder of God whose loves it he purest.
Imagine we will be able to exist on other planets, planets, say, without oxygen or water, without having to resort to “space suits” and other cumbersome apparatuses. IT seems God will use the same atoms, but rearrange them in such ways as to “conform” to the heavenly world.
I’ve read a couple of people use the caterpillar and butterfly as an illustration. They provide insight as to what happens to us when we physically die. The caterpillar is a fuzzy worm crawling on the ground. To the naked, unaided, unaided by scientific knowledge, human eye it is only a worm. But inside that caterpillar there is a butterfly. Oh, not a fully-grown butterfly, but only the potential for one. At just the right time in its life the caterpillar turns gray and hangs upside down on a tree and weaves a cocoon. It looks like it is dying and creating its own casket and tomb. But the cocoon is no tomb. It is an in-between house, a place where a process takes place. So it is more a process than place. Inside the cocoon the caterpillar is transforming into a butterfly. It uses the same atoms as it had as a caterpillar, only rearranges them, recycles them, in order to emerge, rise, from the cocoon as a beautiful butterfly, no longer crawling but flying! Its atmosphere, its arena, it environment is not longer limited to the earth. It can now travel in the “outer space” of the air, the sky, and the heavens.
The same is true of us when we die. Our bodies will be transformed, using the same atoms, into a “body” equipped to live on a different level. When the caterpillar “dies” to being a caterpillar it looks to the casual observer that that is the end. It is not, of course. It is the beginning of a new life as a butterfly. That “different level,” that potential, was always present in us, but not awakened until the right time. Jesus came and told us that “now” is the right time for us to wake up to our potential. When we follow his lead, trust him, imitate his attitudes and behavior, we begin, really he begins in us, the process of really becoming what is inside us, placed there by God, to become.
We die to our old selves and rise to a new level of life. That happens or can happen long before we physically die. Indeed, it has to happen before we physically die or we will not enter into the eternal realm of God, but be consigned to some other life or quasi-life outside of God. Just exactly what we will be, look like and how we will be composed has not yet been revealed. But, what has been revealed is that the process begins by being incorporated into, grafted onto, Christ. He is the essential, key ingredient that starts the process, advances it and finishes it. Without Christ we are like a brand new car with no key. Our outer bodies may look great but there is not life or movement.
Death is the process we know that prepares us for this body. Just like the seed cannot produce fruit without first dying and being buried, so it is with you and me. That is the way that He has chosen to translate us from this earthly life into the heavenly. That is the only way that we can be forever with the Lord.
Dear people some have stood on the threshold and told their experiences, but there is one who went through the threshold into death and life and knows what is even beyond. Christ is the only One who is qualified to tell what we can expect on the other side. He was dead- laid in a tomb for three days. He arose with a glorified body. Here is someone whose opinion can be trusted and comes to us in love. To John the risen Christ said, “Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, the living One, and I was dead, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and Hades.”
There are some things we know, and many we don’t, but all of the passages we have quoted are for two main purposes: To know Christ, to Grow in Him. Amen.
Pastor Dale
