[Mr. Jeff Lockhart]: You’ve already seen my title today – A Matter of Life or Death.

In Genesis, we read the oldest story ever told. God created life. He created plant life, sea life and all of the animals. And He created each one after their own kind. Then He created mankind. And mankind was special, because they were created after the God-kind – in God’s very image and in His likeness. And if that was not enough to set mankind apart from the other animals, God put a spirit in man – a human spirit that gave mankind an intelligence, creativity, the ability to govern – none of which the animals had.

When we look at DNA – and humans aren’t the only ones that have DNA – plants have DNA, animals have DNA – there’s actually not a huge percentage of difference between human DNA and some animal DNA. But why is it that we can go to the moon and animals would never be able to advance beyond just instinct? Well, God put a human spirit in us and we’re built in His kind. So we have the ability.

Now, these things that we do – our creativity, our ability to govern – they’re not as good as God’s. They’re flawed. But one day, it will develop into where we will have Godlike characteristics.

God put two trees in the Garden of Eden. And, as I’ve said, it was a matter of life or death. The first tree was called the Tree of Life. But Adam and Eve already had life. They had physical life. So why do we need a tree called the Tree of Life? That tree actually represented eternal life. Later in the story – I’m getting ahead of myself just a little bit – but later in the story, they were forbidden from coming back into the Garden of Eden, lest they eat of the Tree of Life and then have eternal life. So that tells you there that was the purpose of the Tree of Life – was to give eternal life. They had a choice.

The second tree was the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. God gave mankind free will. He allowed them to make a choice. I had somebody ask me some questions about free will the other day, and I realized – I use this term a lot in sermons and counseling and everything – because God does give us the right to choose – to obey or disobey. But it’s not free of consequences. There might be something called free will, but it’s not free of cost. It’s not free of consequences. You can’t just do what you want and expect everything to come up roses. “Well, I decided not to plant my crop this year. Let’s see what comes up.” “I wonder why God’s not blessing me this year.” It’s not free of consequences.

So God gave man free will, but He commanded not to eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. They were seduced. Eve was seduced by Satan. They chose to disobey God, which is sin. They chose the wrong tree. And so, they were put out of the Garden, and they were cut off from the Tree of Life, which means they were cut off from eternal life.

So, what happened next? What happened when they died? What will happen when you die? Bill, in a couple of his comments today… you actually started off your sermonette talking about resurrections. I’m like, “Okay, you guys are going to get this twice today.” But they you went in a different direction. But then, you also talked about Tom and Meredith. I heard of, I believe, four deaths this week, three of whom I knew very personally. The fourth one was Ron Goethals, who is not somebody I’ve met personally, but was somebody that we had been praying for. Sometimes, I can go a whole year and nobody dies. I had four deaths this week. And praying for Andrea… Earl would call me twice a day. He’d give me an update in the morning. He’d give me an update at night. And he texted me this morning at about 5:50 – which he never texts me that early. His text was calming, so I called him about 6 o’clock this morning, and he answered, “Good morning,” and then he said, “No, morning.” He removed the good, and so I knew. I knew. I guess it accumulates. And with four in one week… One was a friend of mine from San Antonio that had happened before the Feast. I think he just had a sudden heart attack and died, and they had the memorial after the Feast. I didn’t even know about it until this week. It was almost as a comment, “Oh, you know, when we lost this person, we lost this person….” I went, “Wait. What? I didn’t know Ken had died.” So, it was a tough week. And we need some good news. And so, my pastor in San Antonio, Mr. Rod Foster, always talks about “there’s a better day coming.” And that’s the good news that I want to talk to you about today – this better day that’s coming.

So, I had asked the questions: What happened next? What happened after they died? What will happen after you die? When I was in college, I kind of did my own comparative religion. I knew what our church taught about the afterlife, but then I would ask my college friends what they thought about the afterlife. What had they been taught in the Baptist Church, in the Pentecostal Church and the Catholic Church, and the different churches that were in my hometown? What had they been taught? Most believed that man was given an immortal soul, and that now, today, is the only day of salvation into eternal life. For them, when you died, you either went to heaven or you went to hell – because now is the only day of salvation. This is it. When you die, you’re going to get eternal judgment immediately – whether it’s heaven or hell. Of course, I guess the Catholics have a purgatory, so there might be a waiting room on the way to one of those.

Our Bible teaches that there is only one name under heaven by which anyone can be saved – or given eternal life – and that is Jesus. So, this makes me think. What about the millions of people that lived before Jesus was born? If Jesus is the only name by which you can be saved, what happened to all those people who were born before Jesus was born? They lived and died. Or, what about the billions of people that have lived since His death and resurrection that aren’t allowed to hear His name. There are seven billion people on the planet today. There are at least a billion people that are Muslims. And, if you live in an orthodox Muslim country, you can be killed for being a Christian. I would not want to be a Christian in Afghanistan today, or Pakistan, or Iraq, or Iran, China. We actually had a member several years ago get baptized at the Feast, and she was from China. But we couldn’t announce it, because she was going home to China. So we couldn’t say who she was or what Feast site or any of that. So, there are billions today that could be killed for hearing about the name of Jesus. So, what type of access do they have? I mean, the Internet is censored into those countries – like North Korea. Can you imagine trying… do you think they watch Beyond Today in North Korea? I don’t think so.

So, are all of these people condemned to eternal death because of when or where they lived? And I would say that the people that I talked to in college – that I tried to explain my beliefs to them – they believe that yes, those people are condemned for eternity – eternal damnation, because they never had an chance to hear of Jesus, the Christ, and His resurrection.

If you believe in these two things – if you believe in an immortal soul and if you believe that today is the only day of salvation – then, of course, for Christians, there is this huge desire to save as many as we can now – today. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t be preaching to you. I should be on a street corner somewhere. Or, maybe I should go Haiti and tried to preach there, because those people aren’t getting a chance.

Just about exactly three years ago, there was a gentleman by the name of John Allen Chau. His last name is C-H-A-U – however you want to pronounce that. I’m just going to call him John, because that was his first name. John went on a missionary trip to a remote island off the coast of India. He had prepared for this as much as possible. He had gotten vaccinations, he had quarantined himself, he’d taken classes in linguistics – it’s easier to spell apparently that it is to say. So he’d had classes in this, he’d studied this, he had note cards. He was going to go preach to these islanders, but he did not get permission. And the thing was, he was never going to get permission. This is off the coast of India. You have to get permission from India to go to certain islands. This island was called North Sentinel Island. They don’t give permission to go there, because the islanders will kill you when you go there. Back in 2004, when there was the big tsunami that came through that South Pacific area in the Indian Ocean, they sent helicopters… India sent helicopters to North Sentinel Island to try to help them, and the islanders shot arrows at them from bows. So, it’s a very primitive, backward island that is cut off from all technology. So John says these people… he called it the island of hell, because, in his mind, they were all condemned to go to hell, because they’d never had a chance to hear the name of Jesus. So, he paid $25,000 for a couple of fishermen to take him to this island. The first day he kayaked, but he got scared. As he was getting closer to the island, he saw them getting their bows ready. And so, he turned around and left. The second day, he actually landed and was walking towards them, but some kid shot at him, and the arrow hit his Bible. So I guess he panicked, because his kayak was down the beach. He was closer to his village. He actually had to swim back to the boat, which was off-shore. He was so scared he didn’t want to take the time to go back to his kayak. The third day, he told his support crew – the fishing boat – “drop me off and leave, and come back the next day.” Two things: One, it showed he was committed. There’s nowhere to swim to at this point. And second of all, he thought that maybe the other boat was intimidating – that the islanders might have been afraid that he was the beginning of an invasion. So, he had the boat leave. On November 17th – which is just a couple from now – on November 17, 2018, John Allen Chau died. They killed him. The fishermen on the boat saw the islanders dragging a body on the beach and burying it. The Indian authorities tried to get on the island to recover the body. They were never allowed to. The islanders fought them every time they tried to come on.

He wrote a letter to his family before he left. And he wrote, “This is not a pointless thing.” Again, if you believe these two things – that you have an immortal soul and that now is the only day of salvation – he said, “This is not a pointless thing. The eternal lives of this tribe is at hand, and I can’t wait to see them around the throne of God worshipping.”

Is this the only day of salvation? Is this God’s plan? Are the people on that island now doomed? I have a pie chart. Let’s pull up the first pie chart. Are the vast majority of everyone who has ever lived… so what we have here in white is those that are saved, and what we have here that is not white is all those not saved. Where did I get these numbers from? I just made them up. I just assumed, based on how the world is, and how people are rejecting God – even those that live in Christian countries that were blessed by being the descendants of Abraham – they’re rejecting God. So they get to hear the name of God, but they reject Him. So, based on just human nature, I would say that if God’s plan is what my classmates told me, the vast majority of people are not going to be saved.

I tried to convince my college friends that they were wrong. I don’t think I ever convinced anybody in college – “No, you’re beliefs are wrong. What you’ve been taught is wrong.” So, we’re going to look at some questions today to see if I can help you be better qualified than I was back then to answer some of these questions.

So, the first question is: Does God have an immortal soul? And the answer to this is no. That’s an easy question to answer. Man does not have an immortal soul.

[Audience]: [Various members talking]

[Mr. Jeff Lockhart]: What did I say? Oh, I’m sorry. This is why it’s so much better to have a live audience. If I had said that on video in a green screen or whatever, I don’t know if I would have caught that. But I certainly caught there was some rumblings in the audience. So does God have an immortal soul? Yes, He does. Good on ya! Does man have an immortal soul? That’s the one I was answering. No.

All right. So, the phrase immortal soul is actually nowhere in the Bible, nor is the concept of an immortal soul actually anywhere in the Bible. When we actually read from cover to cover, we’re told repeatedly that salvation is a gift from God. Why would we need the gift if you already had it? If we were born, if we were created with an immortal soul, why would we need to be given a gift at a later time?

So, this is the fun question: What does happen to us when we die? I like giving this answer: We go to hell. It’s a shocking answer, but the word that is translated ‘hell’ most often in the Bible is ‘hades.’ And it is even where Christ went when He was crucified. The word simply means ‘grave’ or ‘place of the dead.’ So, where do we go when we die? We simply go to the grave.

So, let’s hit the Bible. Acts, chapter 2:31 – now, this is one of those interesting scriptures. Peter is giving this speech, but Peter is actually quoting Psalms. So, this is actually coming from Psalms 16:10. But, Acts 2:31 here:

Acts 2:31 – “…he” – David – “foreseeing this, spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ, that His soul was not left in hades” – it was not left in the grave – “nor did His flesh see corruption.”

So, Christ Himself just went into the grave. He went into ‘hades.’ He went to hell. But not the hell that is described by Protestant churches. Let me make that clear. A lot of Protestant churches will mix up this word hell with the lake of fire that is mentioned in Revelation. They combine those two concepts together. This is simply a hole in the ground or, in Jesus’ case, it was a cave carved out of stone.

Let’s go back to the Old Testament and look at some Old Testament proofs that we simply go into the grave. So, Genesis 3:19 – this is right after Adam and Eve are kicked out of the Garden of Eden. God is telling them what’s going to happen. So, in Genesis 3:19:

Genesis 3:19 – “In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out it were you taken. For dust you are, and to dust you shall return.”

This is repeated in Ecclesiastes. In Ecclesiastes 3:20:

Ecclesiastes 3:20 – “All” – not some – “all go to one place” – one place. There’s not two choices. It’s not heaven or hell. All go to one place. “All are from the dust, and all return to dust.”

In Ecclesiastes 9:5-

Ecclesiastes 9:5 – “For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing” – the dead know nothing – “and they have no more reward, for the memory of them is dead.”

Ecclesiastes a lot of time… the writer of Ecclesiastes talks about the reward. It is about a man earns his reward when he has worked hard each day, and he gets to have a nice meal at the end of the day. I don’t know if you’ve ever had that satisfaction of knowing that you did a good day’s work, and you go home and you have a nice hot meal, maybe a cold beer. That is your reward. But once you’re dead and in the grave, there’s no need for a meal. There’s no need for daily sustenance. You know nothing. You are dead. So, there is no more physical reward.

Ecclesiastes 12:7 – “Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it.”

I mentioned, when I first started, in the Garden of Eden when God created mankind, He put a human spirit in man that allows us to be more intelligent than the animals. That spirit returns to God, but our bodies go into the grave where we know nothing. This is an important verse. And it is one that is misused to say that we go to heaven when we die. We don’t go to heaven. The spirit mentioned here is that human spirit mentioned earlier in the Garden of Eden. It is not an immortal soul. It is simply our personality, our memories. The important part is that it has no consciousness when it is separated from the body – or no consciousness apart from the body.

Many places in the Bible refer to death as sleep. Would it make sense to describe being in heaven as being asleep? Let’s read the story of Lazarus. So, we’re going to move to John 11:11.

John 11:11-14 – “These things He said, and after that He said to them, ‘Our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I go that I may wake him up.’ And then His disciples said, ‘Lord, if he sleeps, he’ll get well.’” So they’re not understanding that here it means death. Actually, I had notified a few people on Andrea’s death this morning – actually, they had texted me, and that’s how they notified me – “Andrea sleeps.” It’s a method of describing death. But it confused them. In verse 13: “However, Jesus spoke of his death” – Lazarus’ death – “but they thought that He was speaking about taking rest in sleep.” So in verse 14: “Then Jesus said to them plainly, ‘Lazarus is dead.’” Lazarus is dead. I love it when the Bible interprets the Bible – when the Bible gives us our own definitions. So it’s not Jeff’s opinion that the word sleep means death. Jesus Himself is giving the analogy here and is giving the explanation and the definition.

So Lazarus didn’t go to heaven. He was simply put into a tomb for the dead. While he was dead, he had no conscious thoughts. His spirit went to God, but his corruptible body was already beginning the decomposition process.

Mankind does not have an immortal soul. There was actually – I’m not going to read it – but when Christ was going into there, they’re like, “Whoa, whoa, don’t go visit him. He’s begun to smell.” So that had already started. Obviously, they didn’t have – well, the Egyptians did – but they didn’t embalm bodies the way we do today. So, bodies would quickly begin the decaying process.

So that section was under the section of “Does man have an immortal soul?” Not God, but does man have an immortal soul? And the answer was no. So let’s move on to the second question. We’re still going to study the story of Lazarus, but let’s move on to the second question. Is this the only day of salvation? Continuing on, we’re going to jump down now to verse 23:

V-23-25 – “And Jesus said to her, ‘Your brother will rise again.’” So John 11:24: “Martha said to Him, ‘I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.’” Now, actually reading from Scripture, that’s first time today, in this message, I’ve used word resurrection. So, to define that, a resurrection is a rising again, as from decay. It is a revival. It is to rise again and it is a revival. So, here, Martha is saying, “I know he will be in the resurrection at the last day.” That’s actually pretty revealing information. Verse 25: “Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection” – “I am the revival, I am the reviving again” – “and the life.’” Again, just like Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. They already had life. He’s talking about eternal life. “I am the resurrection and the eternal life.” “He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live.”

Let’s move to… actually, I’m not going to read it. Well, I guess I am going to read it. So, we’re going to move down to verse 44. So, chapter 11, verse 44. In verse 44, we read that Lazarus is resurrected back to a physical life. There are actually three people mentioned being resurrected in the Old Testament. So, even though we’re in the New Testament – we’re talking about Lazarus here – there were actually three other instances of people being resurrected in the Old Testament. There was actually one time when they were in a hurry, because there was a raiding party coming by, and they threw some bones. I think they were doing a burial, and they buried somebody with the bones – was it Elijah? – and the dead body touched the bones of Elijah, and the dead body was resurrected. So there were actually three resurrections mentioned. I think there was another time where Elisha – I should have looked this up before I came up here – there a boy – he was living with a widow lady and her son died. And he was resurrected back to physical life – physical life. So, the concept of a resurrection was not completely new to those living in Jesus’ time, but all of the people resurrected in the Old Testament were only resurrected to physical life. Eventually, they had a second death. In the New Testament, there are five individuals who were resurrected to physical life – Lazarus being one of them. So, five people named, and then it just simply says, “many saints” at the time of Christ’s resurrection. Again, these people were resurrected back to a physical life. They all eventually died a second time.

That had to be an amazing thing. And I wish there was more written about it. We know that Jesus Christ was resurrected after three days and three nights. And then it says the tombs of the saints were opened and others were walking around. That’s a conversation I want to have. I’d like to see them when they walked back up to their loved ones. “Didn’t we put you in the ground, and now you’re walking around again?” And that was further proof of Jesus’ power when He was resurrected and the amazingness of it when He was there.          

Okay, so finally getting back to verse 44 here – John 11:44-

V-44 – “And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with grave clothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, ‘Loose him, and let him go.’”

So, I think about, “What if my college friends had been right? When you die you go to heaven.” So imagine what has happened here. Lazarus was sick and Jesus delayed. Lazarus died, and Jesus delayed. Where… yeah, he was in heaven. He was up there with the seventy elders and the multitude of angels, and he was up there praising God! And he was saying, “Hallelujah. You are worthy of worship!” Lazarus was having the time of his life! And then Jesus brings him back to this physical earth – back to a corruptible body. What a gyp! If I was Lazarus, I would have been mad at Jesus! “What are You doing? Hey, you know this Father You’ve been talking about and how great the Father is? I got to meet the Father, and now, I’m here with You! And the sisters that argue – Mary and Martha that fight!”

If we had an immortal soul, wouldn’t Lazarus have told everybody? “This is what it was like when I was…” No! We read in Ecclesiastes, “The dead know nothing.” We go to the grave. So, the question, do we have an immortal soul? No. Do we go to heaven when we die? Is this the only day of salvation? No. So, this is another point against mankind having an immortal soul.

Let’s take a look at God’s plan and how it is completed through what Christ called the resurrection, or the revival. So, God’s plan can be summarized in John 3:16-17 – a verse that we quote a lot – one that you could probably almost from memory say with me.

John 3:16-17 – “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that…” everyone is going to heaven… no. There’s a condition here. “…that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” If it was a done deal, if we were born with an immortal soul, then we’d already have eternal life. Now, I’d want to have eternal life – in their mythology – I’d rather have eternal life in heaven than hell, but still, it wouldn’t be conditional. It wouldn’t be conditional. This is conditional. Verse 17: “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”

There are two words that we mix up sometimes. I didn’t really realize this… I was having a conversation with somebody about two to three weeks ago, and I didn’t realize we kind of use these words interchangeably, as if they mean the same thing, but they don’t mean the same thing. Those two words are judgment and condemnation – or to judge or to condemn. Sometimes you can judge something… and for those four people who watched my sermon this morning, I’ve been watching a judge. There a YouTube channel called “Caught in Providence” – and that’s Providence, Rhode Island. Okay, you’ve seen this. So, there’s a YouTube channel called “Caught in Providence,” and it’s a judge that makes judgments. And the people that usually come before him have either gotten a speeding ticket, they’ve run a red light, or they’ve got a parking ticket. And, if they feel like they’re guilty, they just go pay the ticket. But, if they feel like there’s an extenuating circumstance, and they want to argue with it, and they want to dispute it, they have to go before this judge. I’ve got to tell you, this judge almost dismisses every case. Now, somebody will say… he’ll look at the video, and say, “Oh, I see you ran that red light 3/10 of a second. Dismissed.” So, he made a judgment, but did he condemn? The only people this judge ever condemns is people that he sees in his court twice. After he’s already given them a big break, and then they go through, and they’ve run the red light another time – and this time, it was by 4/10 of a second – oh, and they’ve got all these excuses – nope, he doesn’t want to hear it. You’re going to pay the full ticket, and if there are any penalties, you have to pay those too. But I love how, almost every single time… it’s like, if I get a ticket in Florida, I’m going to ask them if I can move it… can I argue this up in Providence, Rhode Island? I want this judge to hear my case. He judges and he usually dismisses the case.

That’s what we have in John 3:16 and John 3:17. We have a Father that will judge us, but wants to forgive us, wants us to have eternal life. He wants to dismiss the charges. He will tell us that we’re guilty, but then His Son will say, “But I’ve paid the penalty.” And then the ticket get ripped up. So, we don’t get condemned. That’s a different word. You can come back from being judged. You can’t come back from being condemned. Condemned in final.

All right. So, reading John 3:16, we see that we don’t have an immortal soul. If we’re going to have everlasting life, God is going to have to give it to us. We don’t already have it. And God wants everyone to have eternal life. So, frame everything that I tell you from this point on in the context that God wants to include everyone – past, present and future.

All right. God wants everyone in His Kingdom. How’s He doing? How’s He doing so far? Could I have another pie chart? So, the white line is Jesus. He’s the only one that have obtained the reward. Nobody else is there yet. So, right now, God’s plan… I mean, when you consider one person out of the billions, you shouldn’t even be able to see the line – it should be so thin. I actually had to make it big enough so that you could see it. Hmmm…well, if you’re only going by the numbers, God’s plan is not too successful so far. He wants everybody. So far, only Jesus has obtained the reward.

Let’s turn to John 1:18. Now, there’s more than one way to look at this. Just looking at the numbers, may not look so good. But there’s more than one way to look at this. So we go to the book oh John 1:18,

John 1:18 – “No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.”

The reason I quoted this is just to prove that no one in the Old Testament is in that pie chart. In case you looked at the pie chart, and you thought, “Well Jeff, you left out all the saints from the Old Testament. No, I didn’t. They haven’t seen God yet, because they’re in the grave and they know nothing. So, I haven’t left them out. They’re just not in the pie chart yet. They’re not there yet.

Let’s turn to Romans 8:29.

Romans 8:29 – “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He” – Jesus – “might be the firstborn of many brethren.”

So, that’s why Jesus is there – that’s why there’s the line there because He is the firstborn, which, again, proves that nobody in the Old Testament beat him there. King David didn’t make it to heaven. Jesus is the firstborn among many.

All right. So, as I said, I want you to be able to give a better answer than I gave in college when I was trying to explain my beliefs, because again, I didn’t convince anybody. So, there are going to be three main scriptures that I want you to memorize. The first one is 1 Thessalonians 4 – we’re going to read verses 13 through 18. (Why is that clock going so fast? I’m almost out of time.) 1 Thessalonians 4:13.

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 – “But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep…” In memorizing things, just memorize 1 Thessalonians 4. You don’t have to memorize the verses. Once you find 1 Thessalonians 4, you’ll find the verses. So that makes it easier to memorize. “I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep” – like our beloved sister, Andrea – “lest you sorrow as others who have no hope.” We have hope. And, as Mr. Foster used to say, “There’s a better day coming.” And that’s the day we hang our hope on. Verse 14: “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus.” So our pie chart is going to get a little bigger. It’s going to get a little more white in that pie chart. Verse 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.” Verse 16: “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.” So this is not an entire world. This is what would be considered a first harvest. So you had Christ – the first of the firstfruits – those who are dead in Christ – possibly, I would imagine, a lot of those mentioned in Hebrews 11 that lived in search of a city, a future that was afar off, and they died before they were able to achieve that reward – those like David, those who are asleep, and those who, like Paul at the time, who has now fallen asleep. Up until today, those of us who, if we go back to John 3:16, who choose to obey God, who choose to accept eternal life on God’s terms, not our own. So, we’ve been baptized, we’ve been given the Holy Spirit. Verse 17: “Then we who are alive” – currently that’s us in the room – “then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus shall always be with the Lord.” Verse 18: “Therefore, comfort one another with these words.”

So, this is a good scripture to use. This is a good scripture to memorize – 1 Thessalonians 4. Whenever you are discussing things like eternal life with people, and they don’t understand the timing, this is a good verse to talk about the timing. Christ was first, then those who are dead, and then those who remain alive. There’s an order. God always does things in order.

Now, we’re going to go to 1 Corinthians 15. But as you’re turning there, thinking back on that last verse there – “Therefore comfort one another with these words” – why do I feel so down today? Why did I wake up feeling so down today? Do I have this hope, Jeff? Aren’t I responsible, as an associate pastor, to be comforting people with these words? It is still normal to grieve. It is still normal to have sorrow. It’s doesn’t mean that I don’t have hope. It doesn’t mean that I’m not going to rejoice. It doesn’t mean that I don’t have comfort. But I will think of them. And things will happen. And I will want to share that with them, and I’ll realize, they’re no longer here to share things with. And so I will grieve, and you will grieve, and their loved ones will grieve every single time something happens that reminds us of them. But it does get less and less.

I know with my dad – my dad died in 2007 – the first year was tough. Now it’s a lot easier. On his birthday, it’s a lot easier to remember by dad. On his death day, it’s a lot easier to remember my dad. But the first year, it wasn’t easy, because we are human, and we do have a grieving process that is normal.

So grieving doesn’t mean that we do not have hope. Having sorrow and feeling down doesn’t mean that we don’t have hope. And, as much as possible, we do remind each other, “We will see them again.” There is a better day coming.

All right. 1 Corinthians 15:50-

1 Corinthians 15:50-52 – “Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Nor does corruption inherit incorruption.” Verse 51: “Behold, I tell you mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.”

Now, it’s very similar to 1 Thessalonians 4 – a lot of the same concepts – I mean, it was written by the same person. Paul wrote both of these. So the concepts are the same here. 1 Thessalonians 4 helps us explain the timing – who comes first. What 1 Corinthians 15 adds to the story is, it tells us for the time that this is going to be a spiritual resurrection. And if we just read 1 Thessalonians 4, there is a resurrection mentioned there. But in 1 Corinthians 15, it mentions the corruptible will be put off, and we will put on incorruption. That is physical and spiritual. That’s the point of those verses.

Wow! For those who have never heard this before, that’s spectacular news – and especially for those in the first century who were hearing this for the first time! Because the resurrections from the Old Testament had always been to physical life. The resurrection of Lazarus was to physical life. The resurrection of those saints that were resurrected Christ was resurrected, they were all resurrected to physical life. This is new. It is saying we will be putting off the corruptible and putting incorruptible. We’re taking on a spiritual body. These verses are typically read at the Feast of Trumpets that we celebrate every year.

Let’s turn now to our final passage, which is Revelation 20. So, trying to explain this… it’s not that hard. You’ve got 1 Thessalonians 4, 1 Corinthians 15 and Revelation 20 – the only three things you have to memorize. You can actually write those down in, maybe, the front of your Bible. Resurrection: write down those three chapters. Then, if you are having a discussion with somebody, you know exactly where to turn.

What we’re going to be looking at now is the fact that there is more than one resurrection. What we just described is the First Resurrection. But let’s go ahead and define that. So, in Revelation 20:4-6, John says:

Revelation 20:4-6 – “And I saw thrones, and they that sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshipped the Beast or his image…”

I’m going to stop right there. I am getting short on time, but there’s something I really want to point out here, because we know that God can protect us. God can do anything. We read the story from time to time about Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. They were protected in a fiery furnace. So we know that God has that ability. We know that God can just pluck us up one place and put us somewhere else. Once again, the story of Elijah, where one time there was an army that came up, and his servant all scared, and Elijah said, “There are more with us than against us.” And they opened the eyes of the servant and they were surrounded by angels. I love that verse! I think about that verse, especially sometimes when I’m in Jamaica, and I might be going down a street that maybe I shouldn’t be going down. I think, “Well, there are angels with me.” But you know what? The Bible tells me that God loves me. So, this is not me boasting. God loves me. He wants to protect me. You know who was more important than me? Jesus. Jesus, the Christ. Jesus, the Messiah – the actual Son of God. He was crucified. Now, it had a purpose. But do you know there are actually scriptures that say that there were areas that Jesus avoided, because people were seeking to kill Him? He used discretion. He used wisdom, and said, “You know what?” Even though it would be lawful for him to go down a certain area at a certain time, He’s like, “I tell you what, the better part of valor… we’re going to go this other way. We’re going to go around this town this time, because it would not be expedient for us to go straight on this trip.”

So, even the Son of Man in the flesh did not tempt fate. I mean, that was one of the things about Satan with the three temptations. “Throw Yourself off of here. God will protect you.” And Jesus says, “You shall not tempt the Lord your Father” – or test Him.

So, there’s a verse in Revelation we usually quote, where we’ll say, “When the tribulation comes – when that three and a half years of tribulation comes, we’re going to go off to a place of safety.” Well, if we’re all in a place of safety, who got beheaded? I believe I did a sermon here on the stages of faith, and one of the stages of faith is acceptance. It tells us right here, we’re not all going to be protected. We’ll be protected up to a point, but there are going to be martyrs. There is still a role for martyrs in the future. And it’s a hard thing to read. We all want to be protected from whatever comes along. We all want to be in the place of safety. Somebody that follows God and refuses the mark of the Beast is going to be beheaded. My Bible tells me so. So, it’s a hard saying, and it might be some of us that might have to face that choice. Do you worship the Beast or are you going to be martyred and follow God?

What happens to those who follow God?

V-4-6 – “…they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.” So, their death was short. They were beheaded. They went to sleep. They knew nothing for a short period of time. And then they were resurrected and they got to live with Christ and reign for a thousand years. Verse 5: “But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. This is the First Resurrection.” Now, I did a little trick here. This is kind of a little inset here (pointing to the top of verse 5 on the screen that is whited out) that is talking about the Second Resurrection. All the verses leading up to this was talking about the First Resurrection. So I did a little trick where I kind of whited out that one section. So verse 4 is talking about First Resurrection. Verse 6 continues on talking about the First Resurrection. “Blessed and holy is he who part in the First Resurrection. Over such the second death has no power. But they shall priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him for a thousand years.”

So again, I like it when the Bible defines everything. So we know exactly when this is going to happen. The First Resurrection is going to happen at the return of Jesus Christ. We read that in 1 Thessalonians 4 and 1 Corinthians 15. We know when it’s going to happen. We know who is going to be there – those saints that have died in Christ and those saints who remain alive when Christ returns. And this is great part is, this is a spiritual resurrection, because over such the second death has no power. So, the Bible says this is a first resurrection – which now we have to assume there is more than one. If we’re going to start numbering them, there’s got to be more than one. This is the first one, so there might be a second one. And we’re told very clearly who is in the first one. It’s the saints. And we’re told very clearly what type of resurrection. It’s a spiritual resurrection.

So there’s going to be at least one more. So let’s look at the Second Resurrection. When does the Second Resurrection start? Well, if we go back to verse 5:

V-5 – “But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished.” So now we have a timing on this one as well. So, we know when the first one is. We know when the second is. The second one is at the end of the thousand years – end of the Millennium. This is also a resurrection to physical life. It is a resurrection to physical life. And I think we had that on the chart as well

Resurrections

Revelation 20:

                                                First                 Saints – Spiritual

                                                Second            Rest of the Dead – Physical

I think I got ahead of myself, which is why I’m going back and forth in my notes here. So, the question was… let’s go back to Revelation 20:5, where it says, “But the rest of the dead.” This answers the question, “What about everybody else?” – Those people that lived before Christ was born, so that they never actually got to hear His name. They weren’t part of the twelve tribes of Israel. It answers the people that currently live in Afghanistan, or China, or that North Sentinel Island, where they are so primitive, they’re still using bows and arrows. Because it’s says, “the rest of the dead.” So this is their chance. And we have to be clear. This is not a second chance. This is actually their first chance. If they’ve never been told the gospel, the gospel has never been preached to them, this is their first chance to hear that somebody lived a life that was perfect, and that was selfless, and that was full of outgoing concern and love for others. After they are resurrected to this physical life, after they are taught, they will then be given a choice. And as my title says, it is a matter of life or death. We don’t know how much time they will be given, but they will have a chance.

The belief in a Second Resurrection is one of those things that makes us very different from almost every other church. Again, most all churches believe in an immortal soul, they believe this is the only day of salvation, and so they don’t see a need for a Second Resurrection. For them, it’s the saints get resurrected, everybody else went to hell. Everybody else went to eternal damnation.

When I did my comparative religion in college – comparing what I’d been taught as a child to what all of my classmates were being taught – this – the Second Resurrection – to me, was the key. This is why I’m in this church. Because I want to worship a God that gives people a chance. I don’t want to worship a God that says, “Okay, because of where you were born, you’re eternally condemned. Just because of where you were born, you’re eternally condemned. I’m not giving you a chance.” That flies in the face, as we read, of John 3:16.

So, let’s move down to verse 11:

V-11-12 – “And then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and the books were opened. And another book was opened, which was the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books.”

Typically, our understanding – because there is like a set of books and then there is one Book – typically, our understanding is that the set of books is the Bible. Once again, they’re being resurrected. They’re going to be told the gospel. They’re going to be given opportunity to understand what we have. We have books. Our Bible is a collection of books. So they’re going to be able to have that Bible there. So, they will be judged according to their works by the things written in the Bible – by the things written in the books. But the Book of Life is separate. They’re going to have to choose to get their name written in that Book of Life.

So, is there anyone else? Not really, though there is a third category. I mean, we have the saints and we have the rest of the dead. Sounds to me like that’s everybody. But there is a third category that needs to be addressed. What about someone like Judas? Judas was a disciple. He followed Christ, and then he rejected Christ. And we might ourselves know someone who came into the church, was baptized, and then rejected this. They might now be an atheist. They may not believe in God at all now. What about that category of person?

Well, I still feel that they fall under “the rest of the dead.” And I still think that they’re going to be part of this group that is judged. Let’s read about this in verse 13 – Revelation 20:13,

V-13-15 – “The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and death and hades delivered up the dead who were in them.” So, in other words, the grave. The grave is delivering up the dead who were in them. “And they were judged, each one according to his works. The death and hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.” And verse 15: “And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.”

So, there will be, we see back in verse 11 and 12, that there is a judgment – again, these two words, we don’t want to mix them up – they don’t mean the same thing. In verse 11, there is a judgment. When we get to verse 15, we have a condemnation. There are those who are, at that point, condemned, because they are not of God. He tells us in Matthew, when He comes back, He’s going to separate the sheep from the goats. And there are those that are His, and there are those that will just reject Him.

I don’t have time to go into it now, and it’s not even in my notes anyway, but in Revelation, there’s this incredible story at the end of the thousand years. We go to the Feast of Tabernacles, and we experience usually a beautiful setting, and we get fed spiritual food for eight days. And all of that pictures a thousand-year reign of Jesus Christ, where the most perfect Being in the world is our Lord and Master, our King of Kings. And at the end of the thousand years, there are people that reject Him. At the end of the thousand years, there is a war against Him. And so, there are those that hardened their hearts and will not accept the gift of God.

So, go to the final pie chart, Jeff. So a lot more white now – a lot more white. Again, I don’t have any real numbers – I just made this up. But we know from John 3:16 – “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son…” There are other verses that say God doesn’t want any to perish, but that all should have eternal life. And so, whatever that number is, hopefully, it will be small – percentage-wise, hopefully, it will be a very small number. And we’ll have all. We’ll all have a large family, won’t we? We’ll all have a large family.

One day, somebody’s going to ask you, what happens after death? Tell them that God has a plan for everyone, and that plan can be found throughout the Bible, but especially in 1 Thessalonians 4, 1 Corinthians 15 and Revelation 20. Those of us that are being called today, if you’ve repented, if you’ve been baptized, and if you are allowing the Holy Spirit to transform you into the image of Christ, then today is our day of judgment. It is our day of salvation. We are being called by a Righteous Judge, and He wants to give us everything that He has. And we are just simply the first harvest. The Second Resurrection is the second harvest. He wants the whole world to be in His family. And He does have plan that will include everyone, if they will accept. Finally, He is going to set a choice before everyone – and it is a matter of life or death. Choose life.