A Better Resurrection
Jamie A.
McNab
(Quotations
from the New King James version except as noted)
Good afternoon,
brethren. Here we are on God’s special
Sabbath day, and today what I would like to do is talk about what I think is a
very, very important topic. It is one, I
think, that is almost entirely ignored in this world. At least in the religious world that I am
accustomed to, you very rarely, almost never, hear it mentioned. It is something which we in the
What I would
like to do is really to look at the Resurrection of the dead to find out what
we know about it, what the Bible has to say about it, and then also to look
back and think, “Well, because we have got this truth, what should it mean for
us?”
Truth isn’t a
question of just possessing some knowledge.
It is not like you end up at the gates of the Kingdom one day and Saint
Peter is waiting with a questionnaire and he says, “Okay then, how many
Trumpets are there?” And you say,
“Oh...seven,“ and he checks a box “How
many days of Unleavened Bread are there?”
And you go, “Ah,...five,” and he puts a cross against you. It’s not a question of knowledge for the sake
of knowledge. It is a question of the
knowledge we have and the truths that we possess should actually affect the way
we live. It either helps us to see our
lives differently or sometimes it is very, very specific.
For example,
the Bible says, “Don’t eat unclean meats.”
That is something that is very, very immediate and relevant and concrete
and practical, so you know that you can’t eat snakes. Hopefully you know that. And you can’t eat hedgehogs. We were talking about gypsies this morning on
the way up in the car. When I was a
young boy, seven or eight, I was aware that in those days, gypsies would
actually eat hedgehogs. They would catch
the hedgehogs and then bake them in a clay coating, and then, when they had
finished baking them, they would peel the clay off, and off would come the
spines from this nicely cooked hedgehog!
But we know that the truths of the Bible tell us that you can’t eat
hedgehogs.
What about the
Resurrection? What should the knowledge
of that actually do for us? I said that
you don’t hear much about the Resurrection in this world’s churches. The only place, really, that I have heard
about it in any detail at all has been among God’s people, but it is
fundamental. Let’s open our Bibles first
of all to Hebrews, chapter 6, and lay the foundation here. Starting in verse 1 we read,
1 Therefore, leaving
the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, (or the basics) let
us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead
works and of faith toward God,...So we are now outlining, if you like,
the very foundational, basic teachings that we have in God’s church.
2 ...of the doctrine of baptisms, of laying on
of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.
So
we can see there that Paul is laying out the very basic, foundational truths
and saying that we should have gone beyond these, of course, brethren, which is
true.
Today
I just want to focus on this particular one, the Resurrection of the dead,
which is absolutely important. It is
critical understanding to know what God means by “the Resurrection of the
dead.” Why do you need a Resurrection of
the dead? What is its purpose and what
should that do for us?
Turn
to 1 Corinthians, chapter 15, which is, of course, the Resurrection
chapter. There are dozens of verses here
about the Resurrection, but I want to start with verse 20.
20 But now Christ is risen from the dead, and
has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen
asleep. My margin says there, “who have died” because
I think we understand that the Bible uses the term “to fall asleep” to imply
that you are dead.
21 For since by man came death (that was Adam), by Man also came the
Resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, even so in
Christ all shall be made alive.
It means all. All means all! Everybody who has ever lived so far has died
or will die, not counting that small number that live on through the End times
and are changed at Jesus’ return
22 For as in Adam all die, even so in
Christ all shall be made alive. Everybody
at some stage will also be made alive
again.
23 But each one in his own order...: So there is a sequence
here. It doesn’t all happen
simultaneously, all at once. Each one in
his own order. Christ the firstfruits,
(Who has already been resurrected) afterward those who are Christ's at His
coming. (Those who are Christ’s)
And then, later on...
24 “Then comes the end, when He (Jesus) delivers the kingdom to God the
Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power.
So
it does tell us there that there is this sequence, and in that sequence,
ultimately, all who ever lived will be made alive again. They will be resurrected. That was a key teaching that Paul understood
was so important. Wherever Paul went,
basically, he would preach the Resurrection of the dead. It was dramatic information to people in
these days.
If
you turn to Acts, starting in chapter 17, we can pick up two or three of these
places where Paul was preaching the Resurrection, and sometimes getting into
trouble for so doing. Verse 18...this
was Paul in
32 ¶ And when
they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, while others said,
"(Oh
yeah)
We will hear you again on this matter."
So they thought, “This is stupid. This guy is coming along talking about...you
live, you die, and somehow you pop up again.
How can you come back up from the dead?”
So they just mocked and said, “This guy is drunk. He is beside himself.”
Turn
to Acts, chapter 23, verse 6. Paul
is in trouble, again, in this particular
chapter, and he is being interrogated.
6 ¶ But when
Paul perceived that one part (of this group) were Sadducees and the other Pharisees, he
cried out in the council, "Men and brethren, I am a Pharisee, the son of a
Pharisee; concerning the hope and resurrection of the dead I am being
judged!" So Paul could see
here that there was one way to try to extricate himself, because he knew that
there were two parties of the Jews here, the Sadducees and the Pharisees. He hoped to use the Resurrection of the dead as
a means of trying to get himself out of some trouble. But he did point out, “Look, it is because of
the hope of the dead, the Resurrection of the dead, that I am being judged, or
criticized, or condemned here.”
7 And when he had said this, a dissension (an argument)
arose between the Pharisees and the Sadducees; and the assembly was
divided. They started arguing
with each other.
8 For Sadducees say that there is no
resurrection----and no angel or spirit; but the Pharisees confess both.
The
Jews didn’t have a body of beliefs that they all shared. Sometimes today we do find even in the
churches of God some people saying that we should look to the Jews for
guidance. “The Jews understand
Hebrew. They have the oral
traditions. We should pay attention to
Jewish thoughts and Jewish study groups, and so on.”
But
here is an example where there were two groups of Jews in front of Paul. One group didn’t believe in angels or spirit
world or the Resurrection, and yet they were “good Jews.” They were the Sadducees. The other group, of course, the Pharisees, did believe in the Resurrection, and
Paul could see that this was one way of trying to create some dissension and
try to get himself out of trouble.
9 Then there arose a loud outcry. … Because this question of the
Resurrection stirred up some real
heat here. … And the scribes of the
Pharisees' party arose and protested, saying, "We find no evil in this
man; (because he was supporting the Resurrection as far as they were
concerned) but if a spirit or an angel has spoken to him, let us not fight
against God."
10 Now when there arose a great dissension, (a huge fisticuffs, and so
on) the commander, fearing lest Paul might be
pulled to pieces by them, commanded the soldiers to go down and take him by
force from among them, and bring him into the barracks (where he would
be safe).
So
this subject of the Resurrection of the dead actually created almost mayhem
among this group of Jews. It was a very
important topic. Those who didn’t
believe wanted to fight and argue and debate their cause.
So
the Resurrection of the dead has been a very important topic for many years
among God’s people.
Turn
to Acts, chapter 24, verse 14
14 "But this I confess to you, that
according to the Way (with a capital W on Way in my Bible, New King James) which they call a sect, so I worship the God
of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the Law and in the
Prophets.
I
remember Mr. Ted Armstrong years ago. He
was a bit of a young rogue when he was in his late teens, early twenties. He ran off and joined the Navy, I believe,
but he did come to
But
he was in Bible class and he was reading the book of Acts, chapter 24. He had
also been reading, I think, just that particular week, an article in a big
American magazine by a famous American religious teacher who had said
categorically in his article, “Christianity is not a way of life.” He said that several times. I think it was Norman Vincent Peale, who
wrote about positive thinking for people, and so on. Ted thought, “Hang on a second! Here is this leading religious minister in
the
15 "I have hope in God, which they
themselves also accept, that there will be a resurrection of the dead, both of
the just and the unjust. So Paul refers here to the
Resurrection of everybody, the just, the good, and also the Resurrection of the
unjust. Of course, it is not
clear from that verse whether they are all resurrected at the same time. We have to look at other parts of the Bible
to find out whether there is more than one Resurrection. But Paul is quite categoric
- there will be a Resurrection of
everybody, the good and the bad.
I
said a few moments ago that there is very little preaching of this today. Why not?
Paul preached the Resurrection of the dead. If he got into trouble and caused fights and
arguments over his preaching of the Resurrection of the dead, if it is the hope
of the dead, the Resurrection, and we have Christian groups all around us
today, various churches and denominations, how come there is not much preaching of the
Resurrection of the dead today? What
happened to it?
When
I was a Roman Catholic, I certainly was aware
of the Resurrection of the dead, but it was only some vague idea somewhere in
the back of my mind. Even though, up to
age 17, I was taught religious knowledge every morning of the week in school,
for nearly an hour, we just never touched upon the Resurrection of the
dead. It was just one of those airy,
fairy ideas somewhere. Since those days
I have seen many televangelists from being in
You
say, “Well, why not?” The reason,
basically I think, is because Protestants and Catholics woefully misunderstand
the nature of man. They don’t know what
man is. They think that man is, or has,
an immortal soul. They think that
mankind already lives on after he dies, so what point would there be in a
Resurrection if you think when you die, and you have been good or just, that
you pop off up to heaven? Or if you die
and you have been not so good, you disappear down to hell, but in either case,
you just live on, in that location up above or that location down below. You don’t need to be resurrected, do you,
because what would the point be? If you
are an immortal soul, then you just live on anyway.
In
a sense, it is almost ridiculous; the Christian world teaches that when you are
dead, you are alive! Common sense tells
you that, really, that is the opposite of life.
You are either alive or, if you are dead, your life is stopped. But they teach, in fact, this crazy belief
that when you are dead, you are actually more
alive.
Some
of them say, “Well, in this fleshly body you are restricted. You can only walk around a little bit, you
can only see so far, but when you are dead, you are free to zoom around.” In fact, they say that when you are dead you
are actually more alive, you are freed up, you are liberated from this mortal,
fleshly body. It really is complete
nonsense.
When
you read the Bible, it talks of death and the analogy it uses, the illustration
it uses, is that you are asleep. We just read that earlier. When you are dead, you are said to be
asleep. Of course, when you are asleep,
really, you are unconscious, aren’t you?
You don’t know much.
If
you go to sleep in the night, and you are really exhausted, like when Charity
arrived from this long flight from
Likewise,
when the Bible says that when you are dead, you are asleep, then you are not
alert. When you are asleep in the grave,
you are unconscious. You close your
eyes, you are deaf, and the passage of a year, or a century, or five thousand
years, you know nothing of. You are
asleep.
I’m
afraid that the Christian world, the religious world, thinks that when you die
you are actually more alive, and
that therefore makes the Resurrection a complete irrelevancy.
Why
on earth would you need a Resurrection?
It is because when you die everything actually stops and ends, because it terminates your life
and your plans and your hopes and dreams, because death is such a categoric finality, humanly speaking, that Solomon got so
utterly depressed.
Solomon
was the wealthiest man who has ever lived.
Bill Gates is a wealthy man; he has billions, but Solomon dwarfed Bill
Gates into comparative poverty.
Solomon
had the wealth, he had the fame.
Worldwide, people came from thousands of miles away to see Solomon and
hear his wisdom. He was a king. The streets were paved with gold, literally.
A ton of silver was worthless in
If
we turn to Ecclesiastes, chapter 2, we can pick up the story there, because it
does fit in very much to why the Resurrection is so important. Starting in verse 4, Solomon is just
recounting some of the great things that he chose to do.
4 I made my works great, I built myself houses,
and planted myself vineyards.
5 I made myself gardens and orchards, and I
planted all kinds of fruit trees in them.
So
he had beautiful surroundings. I can
just imagine that this was the most beautiful spot on the earth at this
time. If someone with all this money
contacted the best landscape gardeners and said, “Look, transform all of this
into the most beautiful place on earth,” then I’m sure that it was.
6 I made myself water pools from which to water
the growing trees of the grove.
7 I acquired male and female servants, and had
servants born in my house. Yes, I had greater possessions of herds and flocks
than all who were in
8 I also gathered for myself silver and gold
and the special treasures of kings and of the provinces. I acquired male and
female singers, the delights of the sons of men, and musical instruments of all
kinds.
So
again, entertainment, Solomon had it all.
The best choirs, the best quartets, the pop music of the day, etc. The best instruments, whether it was harps,
or bagpipes, or whatever. Solomon had it
all
9 So I became great and excelled more than all
who were before me in
10 Whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from
them. I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure, For my heart rejoiced in
all my labor; And this was my reward from all my labor.
So
he had everything. He didn’t stop. He had the time; he had the money. If he wanted something, he had it. The lot.
And of course, in this life, sometimes we think, “Oh, if I just had a
newer car, or my own private airplane, or a bigger house, or a conservatory, or
my own land. If I just had more and more
possessions, I would really be happy.”
Of course, that can help make you happy, I suppose. Solomon had the lot, and he didn’t end up a
happy man.
11 Then I looked on all the works that my hands
had done And on the labor in which I had toiled; And indeed all was vanity and
grasping for the wind. There was no profit under the sun.
Vanity means
just futile, just a waste of time.
Solomon thought, “I have done all of that and, really, what does it
mean? It is actually worthless.” That’s what he said to himself.
15 So I said in my heart, "As it happens to
the fool, It also happens to me, (meaning that `both of us die`) And why was I then more wise?" Then I
said in my heart, "This also is vanity."
16 For there is no more remembrance of the wise
than of the fool forever, Since all that now is will be forgotten in the days
to come. And how does a wise man die? As the fool!
So, he thought,
“Look, whether I was wise and wealthy or a complete idiot and moron, ultimately
we are both dead, and in a few years we are both as forgotten as any other, so
what is the point of all this?”
17 ¶ Therefore I hated
life because the work that was done under the sun was distressing (grievous) to me, for all is vanity and
grasping for the wind.
So he hated
life; that basically means that he was suicidal. “Life is just so utterly painful, worthless,
and futile because you die! Everything
is finished and you are forgotten. What
is the point?”
He could see
that no matter how wealthy you are, no matter how material you are, no matter
how powerful you are...That might apply to some of the so-called powerful men
in God’s church. They think because they
are over a thousand, or two thousand, or five thousand of God’s anointed elect,
etc, that that power is meaningful, but ultimately, if that is all you have got
in this life, it is just futile.
18 Then I hated all my labor in which I had
toiled under the sun, because I must leave it to the man who will come after
me. “I’m going to die; I’m going to end.”
19 And who knows whether he will be wise or a
fool? Yet he will rule over all my labor in which I toiled and in which I have
shown myself wise under the sun. This also is vanity.
20 Therefore I turned my heart and despaired of
all the labor in which I had toiled under the sun.
So the man was
at the end of his tether, absolutely despairing, depressed, suicidal, because
he knew that his death was the end.
Turn to
Ecclesiastes, chapter 9.
9 Live joyfully with the wife whom you love all
the days of your vain life which He has given you under the sun, all your days
of vanity; for that is your portion in life, and in the labor which you perform
under the sun.
10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with
your might; for there is no work or device or knowledge or wisdom in the grave
where you are going.
It can be
depressing sometimes to read the book of Ecclesiastes, yet it does show the
mind of a man that has really lost his hope in God. What he says here is, “Look when you are
dead, there is nothing. There is no
work, no device, you have no knowledge.
You are not more alert when you are dead. When you go to the grave, life is not much
more exciting for you. When you are in
the grave, it is over; it is ended.
Death finishes you off.” He says,
“Therefore, whatever you are doing in this life, make the most of it.” Do it with all your might.
Mr. Armstrong
wrote his booklet you will remember, The
Seven Laws of Success, why no human being should ever be a failure. In that, one of his laws of success, I think
number four, after right goal, preparation or education, good health, was drive.
Press on, use your time wisely, be energetic. Don’t lie back and be passive in life because
when you are dead, your chance is over, just like Solomon says there. Whatever your hand finds to do... Make use of the time you have now, because
when you are dead – it’s finished.
That is the
same thing we are facing. We are facing,
naturally speaking, the end of our lives, at some stage. It might be quite close in years, it might be
a number of years away, but whether you live to be 120, or 150, or 200, by
popping vitamins and so on, breathing properly...it doesn’t matter where we get
to, at some stage, we are all finished, goners.
Really, if you think about it, we don’t have
life anyway. I couldn’t find any
quotations, but I know Mr. Armstrong used to say something along the
line that we don’t actually have life itself[1]. Human beings don’t actually have life. What we have, he would say, is just a
temporary physio-chemical existence. All we are, if you think about it, is just a
bag of skin with various chemicals inside that will do things. That is it!
At some stage
of our lives, those chemicals don’t work any longer and we are finished. That is the end of it. We are dead.
So, really, we have a temporary physical, chemical existence. We breathe in the oxygen which oxygenates our
blood, and our heart pumps it around in our veins and arteries, and so on. We eat apples, and oranges, and pears, and
burgers, and so on, and the body digests it, but it is all chemical. Eventually, after a few years, 70, 80, 90, or
100 years, or whatever, it all “packs in.”
So, really, we
don’t actually have life as God has life.
Mr. Armstrong would say, `God the Father and Jesus Christ have life inherent. They don’t have a temporary existence. They actually enjoy life in its fullest
sense.` Now, of course, that is
something that we don’t have naturally, but it something that we can
have, and the beauty and the importance of the Resurrection is that the
Resurrection is our hope and our guarantee and our means whereby we can
enter into and enjoy the eternal God-life.
So here Solomon
was depressed and suicidal because death ends it, and in a physical sense, that
is correct, but the Resurrection is our hope, it is our means, it is the
absolute guarantee we have that there is something ahead of us that will
stretch out and last for ever, and ever, and ever. So the Resurrection is absolutely so important. It
is probably one of the most important and far-reaching truths that we can have
- the Resurrection. That is the doorway
to eternal life. That is how we achieve
our God-plane existence for evermore.
Come to think
about it, what a great job Satan has done!
When we think about it, Satan has taken the Resurrection, which is the
hope that we all have, the hope of the dead, and Satan has diminished that to
the point of irrelevance, or in some cases totally eliminated that
knowledge. You won’t hear it. In this world, you will not hear people
talking about the Resurrection of the dead!
Satan has suppressed that, he has whittled it down, he has diluted it,
and now it is just a joke, almost, in some religions.
I have a quote
here from the
When I was in
grades 7 through 12, every year you went to a different phase of the book. There was a special motivational technique in
Scottish schools when I was a lad. If
you got it wrong, and you messed your words up, they would strap you with a big
leather tawse.
You had to hold your hands out like this and they took a four foot long
leather tawse and would strap you on the hand. It
would burn for hours
afterwards. Some students actually
memorized the question and memorized the answer perfectly, but I was strapped a
number of times over the years (because I was just human!).
So catechism to
me is a really nasty word, but the
When you start
to look at a topic in the Bible in terms of doing a study, one of the things
that I find helpful is to get the Concordance out and find all the places it is
mentioned.
Now, I was
quite surprised to pick up the Concordance and look up the word
“resurrection.” I thought, “Well, that
can’t be right. It doesn’t appear in the whole Old Testament! The first time “Resurrection” appears in the
Bible is in the gospel according to Matthew.
This is a hugely important teaching, and yet the word doesn’t appear in
the entire Old Testament. However, the
Resurrection was actually known to God’s people and the saints. It just wasn’t actually referred to, in the
King James Version at least, as a resurrection.
It meant a lot
to God’s people in those ancient, Old Testament times just as it really ought
to do for us. Turn to Psalms, chapter
17, verse 15. This is a Psalm of David,
who knew a thing or two about God’s ways.
15 As for me (says David), I will see Your face in righteousness; I
shall be satisfied when I awake in Your likeness.
So, here is
David looking to the future and he says, “Oh, I am going to awake.” And, of
course, we know, as we have seen in other places, that when you are dead, you
are said to be asleep, and when you awake, you waken out of sleep, you are resurrected from the dead. So here, he said, “Oh, look, I shall be
satisfied when I awake in your likeness.” So David actually knows that when he wakes up
from his sleep of death, he will bear the likeness and image of God in heaven.
Turn to Psalms,
chapter 16, verse 7. This is a Psalm
quoted in the book of Acts, in Peter’s sermon.
7 I will bless the LORD who has given me
counsel; My heart also instructs me in the night seasons.
8 I have set the LORD always before me; Because
He is at my right hand I shall not be moved.
So, David had
this picture, this understanding that God was with him, and because God was
with him, at his right hand, I think it gave David encouragement many times
that he wouldn’t easily be swayed.
Because, he thought, “Well, why should I fear? The LORD God is at my right hand! He is watching as well.” So it served two purposes. First of all, “He can see what I am doing, so
I ought to behave.” And secondly, “When
I am under pressure, I know that God is with me.” So it gave David great encouragement. He wouldn’t be moved.
9 Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory
rejoices; My flesh also will rest in hope.
He is alluding
here to the fact that there will come a time when his flesh rests, sleeps, if
you like, in the grave, but it will do so in hope.
10 For You will not leave my soul in Sheol, (which is the grave) Nor will You allow Your Holy One
to see corruption.
So he is
talking there both about his own soul, his own body, his own life being left in
the grave, and also alluding there to Jesus, the Holy One, who would not be
allowed to see corruption.
11 You will show me the path of life; In Your
presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
So David could
actually see, if you like, into the Resurrection. He could see that when he was awake from this
“sleep,” that his soul would not be left in the grave. He would be able to enjoy, he says, “Fullness
of joy.” I am not even sure what that
could possibly include, but to be fully joyous, where every fiber of your
being, every moment of your life is just filled with joy. It is an amazing experience to be in; “At
Your right hand are pleasures forevermore”.
When we are
resurrected and in God’s family of eternal spirit beings, it is just going to
be unbelievable! Pleasure, excitement,
thrills, challenges, fun, joy beyond our ability to comprehend. Of course, David could see that and so he
would be resting in the grave in hope of this fantastic future laying before
him.
Daniel, chapter
12, looking at a few references here of how in the Old Testament, some people
“did know” about the resurrection
2 And many of those who sleep (again, you see, death is likened to
sleep) in the dust of the earth shall awake, Some to everlasting life, Some
to shame and everlasting contempt.
So there are
definitely two outcomes there.
3 Those who are wise shall shine Like the
brightness of the firmament, And those who turn many to righteousness Like the
stars forever and ever. It is a great future. So, we can see there an awakening, a
Resurrection from the dust of the earth, to life, on the one hand, or some to
everlasting contempt. So there are at least
two Resurrections mentioned there.
Dropping down
to verse 13, Daniel was told:
13 “But you, go your way till the end; for you
shall rest, and will arise to your inheritance at the end of the
days." “For the intervening two and a half thousand
years, Daniel, you are going to rest,
you will be asleep, you will be unconscious, out of it, but at the end of that
time you will arise, you will wake up to a fantastic future,” as it says there,
to his inheritance.
Hebrews,
chapter 11, makes some reference to the Old Testament saints and what they did
know. This is the faith chapter and the
heroes of faith.
8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to
go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out,
not knowing where he was going.
9 By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in
a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him
of the same promise; 10 for he waited
for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
So he was
looking way off into the far future. He
knew that this wasn’t his time, even now.
There was another city, made by God, and he was looking forward way into
the future for that city.
13 These all died in faith, not having received
the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that
they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
They knew that
this was not their day, but they saw by the eye of faith, when they will live
yet in the future.
14 For those who say such things declare plainly
that they seek a homeland.
15 And truly if they had called to mind that
country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to
return.
16 But now they desire a better, that is, a
heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He
has prepared a city for them. That is of course, the New Jerusalem.
17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered
up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten
son,
18 of whom it was said, "In Isaac your seed
shall be called,"
19 concluding that God was able to raise him up,
even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense.
So, Abraham was
aware of the Resurrection of the dead.
He actually believed, in his heart, that, if he had to sacrifice Isaac,
God would raise him up. He was aware of
that.
32 And what more shall I say? For the time would
fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets:
33 who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked
righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions,
34 quenched the violence of fire, escaped the
edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle,
turned to flight the armies of the aliens. So these
were many, many people who demonstrated their courage and their valor before
God.
35 Women received their dead raised to life
again. And others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might
obtain a better resurrection. Some of
them were probably told, “If you give up your beliefs, we won’t torture you any
more. We will deliver you or, if you
like, let the lions escape.” And they said, “No, I am not giving up my
beliefs. You are not going to frighten
me out of that. I am going to commit
myself. If I die, I am going to die,
because I am looking forward to something that is far more
valuable.” They knew there was going to
come a better Resurrection,
something far better than temporary, physical release, and they were looking
for the better Resurrection.
As we will see
as we go along, for us, today, we still have that hope of a better
Resurrection, because there is more than one Resurrection. One of them is a better Resurrection to be
in, and that is the one to aim for.
The Old
Testament doesn’t explain very much about the Resurrection. It mentions a few, basic facts, plain. There are some interesting scriptures in the
book of Job. The translators seem to
argue about what, exactly, it means, so I have not used any of those. The New Testament, however, makes things much
more plain. Let’s see what Jesus talks
about. John, Chapter 11 has a very, very
interesting and moving story, starting
in verse 11. This is Lazarus, Jesus’
friend who had died.
11 These things He said, and after that He said
to them, "Our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I go that I may wake him
up."
Again, we can
see what that means.
12 Then His disciples said, "Lord, if he
sleeps he will get well."
13 However, Jesus spoke of his death, but they
thought that He was speaking about taking rest in sleep.
14 Then Jesus said to them plainly,
"Lazarus is dead.
Again, we can
see that sleep equates to death.
15 "And I am glad for your sakes that I was
not there, that you may believe. Nevertheless let us go to him."
20 Then Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus
was coming, went and met Him, but Mary was sitting in the house.
21 Then Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if You
had been here, my brother would not have died.
22 "But even now I know that whatever You
ask of God, God will give You."
23 Jesus said to her, "Your brother will
rise again."
24 Martha said to Him, "I know that he will
rise again in the resurrection at the last day."
So, you see,
Martha did believe in the Resurrection, and, of course, many Jews did. The Sadducees, as we saw earlier,
didn’t. Perhaps the average person did
have that belief in a future life, and Martha certainly had that. She said, “Yes, I know that, Jesus. I know that at the Last Day, many, many,
many, many years away from now, he will rise then.”
25 Jesus said to her, "I am the
resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall
live.
26 "And whoever lives and believes in Me
shall never die. Do you believe this?"
So it is very
interesting that Jesus said to her, “Look, I am the resurrection. I am the life.”
27 She said to Him, "Yes, Lord, I believe
that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world."
32 Then, when Mary came where Jesus was,
and saw Him, she fell down at His feet, saying to Him, "Lord, if You had
been here, my brother would not have died."
That is what
Martha said a few moments earlier.
33 Therefore, when Jesus saw her weeping, and
the Jews who came with her weeping, He groaned in the spirit and was troubled.
34 And He said, "Where have you laid
him?" They said to Him, "Lord, come and see."
Then the
shortest verse in the Bible:
35 Jesus wept.
36 Then the Jews said, "See how He loved
him!"
37 And some of them said, "Could not this
Man, who opened the eyes of the blind, also have kept this man from
dying?" “
If He turned up
in time,” they thought.
38 Then Jesus, again groaning in Himself, came
to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it.
39 Jesus said, "Take away the stone."
Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said to Him, "Lord, by this time
there is a stench,
(“He will stink. He has been dead four
days! His body will be rotten and eaten,
and so on.”) for he has been dead four days."
40 Jesus said to her, "Did I not say to you
that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?"
41 Then they took away the stone from the place
where the dead man was lying. And Jesus lifted up His eyes and said,
"Father, I thank You that You have heard Me.
42 "And I know that You always hear Me, but
because of the people who are standing by I said this, that they may believe
that You sent Me."
43 Now when He had said these things, He cried
with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come forth!"
44 And he who had died came out bound hand and
foot with graveclothes, and his face was wrapped with
a cloth. Jesus said to them, "Loose him, and let him go."
This is quite
an outstanding story, really. Just look
at verse 44. It says that he was bound
hand and foot, so, if his feet were bound with grave clothes, then perhaps he
couldn’t even walk out on his own. It
was as though he had to “float out” almost, because he couldn’t actually walk
with his feet bound together. I think
that is a fabulous story about that. I
just love reading it. The main point was
that Jesus taught the Resurrection.
Martha and Mary knew about the Resurrection and Jesus, of course,
physically resurrected an individual there, and said, “I am the
resurrection and the life.”
Turn to
Matthew, chapter 22. The amazing thing
is that even after that event, the chief priests, and scribes, and so on still
wanted to kill Jesus. Yet what they had
just witnessed there was just absolutely incredible.
23 The same day the Sadducees, (who we met earlier) who say there is no
resurrection, came to Him and asked Him,
24 saying: "Teacher, Moses said that if a
man dies, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife and raise up
offspring for his brother.
25 "Now there were with us seven
brothers.... So these lads have got a story. They say, “This resurrection is stupid. Come on!
Resurrection from the dead! We’ll
not have that! We’ve got a tale that will
catch this so-called Messiah out.”
So they came
along with this hypothetical tale that they built up to demonstrate why the
Resurrection was nonsense.
25 "Now there were with us seven brothers.
The first died after he had married, and having no offspring, left his wife to
his brother.
26 "Likewise the second also, and the
third, even to the seventh.
So this woman
was not much luck to her husbands, was she?
27 "Last of all the woman died also.
28 "Therefore, in the resurrection,
(ha, ha, ha!) whose wife of the seven will she be? For they
all had her."
29 Jesus answered and said to them, "You
are mistaken, (my
margin says “deceived”) not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of
God.
That must have
been a fair-sized insult to these men, because these were the Sadducees, one of
the main Jewish religious sects. Jesus
said, “Look. You are mistaken. You do err.
You are deceived. You don’t know
the Bible! You religious people do not
know the Bible.”
30 "For in the resurrection they neither
marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels of God in heaven.
So Jesus said,
“Look. There is a resurrection, but when
you are in it, you are like an angel.
You are immortal. You are a
spirit being.
31 "But concerning the resurrection of the
dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God, saying,
32 `I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac,
and the God of Jacob'? God is not the God of the dead, but of the
living."
These people
are dead. Abraham is dead; Isaac is
dead; Jacob is dead. God is not the God
of the dead. He is the God of the
living. The only way that the dead can
be alive again is if they are resurrected.
That is what Jesus says there, verse 31, “…concerning the resurrection of
the dead….” So it is very clear
that Jesus teaches the Resurrection of the dead. That makes it very definite. There will be one!
Jesus not only
taught about the Resurrection of the dead.
Jesus has the honor and the privilege of being the pioneer who has gone
before us and actually experienced the Resurrection. Turn to Romans, chapter 8
28 And we know that all things work together for
good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His
purpose.
This is a very,
very encouraging verse, if you are “the called”, and I think, hopefully,
that we are all the called. If we are
the called, it says that all things work together for good to us. We can have confidence, really, in that.
29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to
be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many
brethren.
So Jesus, it
says here, is the firstborn among many brethren. Therefore, there must be many more to be
born. So, Jesus is the first, and then there are going to be numerous
others. Jesus is the firstborn of many
brethren!
But, how was
Jesus the firstborn? Surely, the
firstborn was Cain. There were Adam and
Eve, who were created, and then they had a child called Cain, and then
Abel. So surely, Cain is the
firstborn. How is Jesus the
firstborn? When Jesus was born of the
virgin Mary in the little town of
The answer is
in Romans, chapter 1.
1 Paul, a bondservant of
Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God
2 which He promised before through His prophets
in the Holy Scriptures,
3 concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who
was born of the seed of David according to the flesh,
So that was
Jesus, if you like, the first time He was born.
He was born of Mary who was descended from David according to the
flesh. So He was born once. That was Jesus’ first birth, physically.
But, verse 4:
4 and declared to be the Son of God with power
according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.
Jesus was declared to be the Son of God by the Resurrection from the
dead. That is how Jesus was born
again. He was actually born again by
being resurrected?
He was born
first, physical flesh and blood of Mary.
Then He was born again when
He was resurrected from the dead. His
Resurrection made Him the firstborn of God.
Mr. Armstrong clarified that. I
guess he mentioned it several times.
I found this
particular quotation in the booklet Why
Marriage? Soon Obsolete? Mr. Armstrong says about this verse, talking
of Romans, chapter 1, verse 4, and trying to clarify it so that we would fully
understand that Jesus is born by a resurrection from the dead, as we all are
(or will be),
Study
that. Jesus was born of a human mother -- made human, just as you and I. Even
though He was begotten of God -- not of a human father -- yet He was a human
man who could die. The very fact that He was sired by God -- begotten of God
and conceived by a human woman -- proves that humans are after the God kind,
not some animal kind. Humanly, through His mother, the virgin Mary, Jesus was a
son or descendant of David.
But
after having been born once, human, Jesus died. Then, by a resurrection, He was
born a second time.
I will repeat
that: “Then, by a resurrection, He was born a second time.”
Mr. Armstrong
continues ,
And this time, He was "declared to be a Son of
God." This time, born "with power, according to the spirit of
holiness." But, read it without those descriptive words. He was "the
Son of God ... by a resurrection from the dead."
So, if you look
at the verse there, in a sense, if you put some brackets around the words “with
power according to the spirit of holiness,” it would read, “and declared to be
the son of God by the resurrection from the dead.” Mr. Armstrong was saying, ‘Look. If you didn’t have those descriptive words
that are added, then it actually tells you that Jesus was born by a resurrection from the dead.’
So, continuing
with Mr. Armstrong for a couple of sentences:
This
says He (Jesus) was born a second time and this second birth by a resurrection!
And this
is what the Bible means by salvation -- being saved -- in regard to the human
family in general. For we, too, may be born again -- by a resurrection.
So Mr.
Armstrong wants to make it very plain there that that verse tells us quite
clearly that Jesus was born again by a Resurrection from the dead. In this present “Christian” world, people
talk about being “born again,” meaning “Did you give your heart to the
Lord?” If you did, then you are “born
again.” Well, of course, you
aren’t. Jesus was born again. He was born once, physically, and then He was
born again, a second time, by a Resurrection.
Some modern
translations do actually rearrange the words there to make it just a “wee” bit
clearer. The NIV, the International
version, puts it this way, “And who through the spirit of holiness was declared
with power to be the Son of God by His resurrection from the dead.” So that is fairly plain there. Frankly, for most of God’s saints who have
ever lived, that is exactly how we will be born again, by a Resurrection from
the dead. Here at the very end time, a
comparatively small number of us may, hopefully, live right up to the last
trumpet blast and be changed, instantaneously.
But the majority of God’s saints over the centuries will be born again
by a Resurrection from the dead.
When does it
take place? First Thessalonians, chapter
4. When are we born again? When is the Resurrection?
13 But I do not want you
to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, (that term once again) lest
you sorrow as others who have no hope.
14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose
again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus.
So, they are
dead. They are asleep; they are
unconscious.
15 For this we say to you by the word of the
Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no
means precede those who are asleep.
Those wh