Good afternoon. It's great to be back.
I'd like to thank the congregation once again for the
invitation to be your speaker and for inviting me and Lexi to
spend the day together for just a little while.
This afternoon I want to have another study in God's Word
that's piggybacking off of the study you guys have been doing
in the Gospel of Matthew. See, from afar I listen and I
hear the sermons that you guys are going through.
And Brother Frank just did a series on the Sermon on the
Mount. As we know, the Sermon on the
Mount begins with the Beatitudes.
The beautiful attitudes that every Christian should have,
should exemplify in our lives. As we see in this section of
Scripture in Matthew 5, the word blessed is used frequently in
the Beatitudes. There are 9 total beatitudes and
these attitudes, these characteristics we should have,
we must have if we want to be well pleasing in the sight of
God. But I actually do not want to
talk about these beatitudes this afternoon.
There are nine, yes, in Matthew's account.
Did you know that there are more?
These are not the only beatitudes.
Are blessed ours in the Scriptures you jump to another
book in the Book of Revelation there are 7.
There are seven other blessed are statements made by Jesus.
I just want to talk about one this evening, this afternoon and
that is blessed are the dead. We've been singing a lot about
heaven this afternoon. I've loved it, it's been
encouraging, it's been heartwarming, heart moving.
But there are some other steps that must take place before
heaven. If we do not live during the
time Jesus will return, we will all die.
And we must study this phrase in Revelation 14, verse 13, Blessed
are the dead. Here's the text.
Then I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, right, Blessed are
the dead who die in the Lord from now on.
Yes, says the Spirit, that they may rest from their laborers and
their works follow them. We want to make several points
of application from this passage of scripture.
Here's the first Blessed are the dead.
The first thing we need to see is that death is a reality.
It is something we are all going to face.
It is appointed for man to die once and after this the
judgment. Hebrews 9 and 27.
It is unavoidable. Unless Jesus comes back in our
lifetime, we will all die. This is certain.
This is a guarantee the Bible would say in James 2,
Ecclesiastes 12 and Luke 23. It would define to us what death
is. Death is simply the separation
from the soul and the body. The soul or the spirit of man
leaves the body, returns to God who gave it.
And this we see when Jesus was hanging on the cross, his last
statement of the seven statements.
He cries out to God and he says Father into your hands I commit
my spirit and he breathed his last.
That's what death is when the spirit, the soul leaves the
body. Now we learn from James chapter
4. None of us know when we're going
to die and what is interesting is we all know we're going to
die, but we don't know what part of life we're in.
See what greatly impact and help us in this life.
If I knew, I got three more days, I got a week, I got three
more months, I got five years. That would dictate to us how
we'd we'd live with a certain level of urgency had we known.
The problem is we don't know. The Bible says in James 4 and
14. Whereas you do not know what
will happen tomorrow for what is your life?
It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then
vanishes away. We do not know where we're at in
this process. And Psalms 90 and 12 So teach us
to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom.
We need wisdom because we need to live each and every day as if
it were our last. What if today was our last?
What if you died in the service? What if we died on the way home?
What if we died tonight? What if we died tomorrow
morning? Would we be prepared?
Would we be ready? Because tomorrow is not
guaranteed, neither is next week.
So we have a few questions as we explore this topic.
How often do you think about your own mortality?
Kind of depressing, but it's necessary.
How often do we think about our own death?
Secondly, how do you feel about the fact that you're going to
die? I think I speak for all of us.
Death is not something you automatically welcome that you
long for. Yes, there are moments in our
lives when we are ready for the next, the hereafter.
But when things are going well, when we're excited about how
life's going, we don't want to die.
It's very natural for man to do anything in his power to prolong
his life. How do you feel about death?
And last but not least, how should a faithful child of God
view death? There are people who are scared
to die. Maybe you are scared to die.
I don't know if I'm scared to die, but I'm scared of not
knowing how I'm going to die. Perhaps that is how you feel.
I want us to see how Paul felt. The Bible would say in
Philippians 1 and 21. For to me, to live is Christ and
to die is gain. What a profound statement.
What a profound perspective to view death as the beginning of
something greater when so often we view it as the opposite.
Death is something we dread, but it is not how those who are
spiritually minded view it. So we have to ask ourselves, do
I view death this way? Is death a gain for me?
Do I gain so much more in death than I do in life?
If we do view death the same way Paul did, it'll really change
how we live. Because if we view death as
gain, it really is not a sacrifice to come here and to
worship. It's really not a sacrifice to
read our Bible. It's really not a sacrifice to
abstain from XY or Z. Sin, if we recognize later is
greater than here right now. But if we do not view death this
way, we haven't truly started living.
The best life is living the life of the child of God for Jesus
and not for ourselves. Psalms 116 and verse 15.
Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His Saints.
It's precious in God's sight. It's a gain in pulse sight.
We need to have the spiritually mature view of death.
Second thing we want to look at is the realm of the dead.
Not everybody's going to the same place.
There's different places in the hereafter and what determines
where we go is how we live right now.
There is a saying a few of us were talking at lunch about
being born again, being a born again Christian, and how
redundant that is. There's no such thing as a
Christian unless they are born again.
Notice this statement. Blessed are the dead who die in
the Lord from now on, who die in the Lord from now on.
What is that talking about? Here is the saying, if you're
born once, you die twice. But if you're born twice, you
only die once. And this statement is referring
to the duality of man. There is the physical side of
man, there is the spiritual side.
If you're only born once, and that's physically, you will die
twice. You'll die physically first,
then you'll die spiritually second.
But if we're born physically and spiritually, there's the
opportunity we only die once. Physically speaking, perhaps
better seen on this chart, every one of us.
When we are born, we're safe. Children are safe.
They do not need to be baptized. They do not need to be forgiven.
They're born safe. But there comes a point in life
when a child goes from safe to lost.
We call this the age of accountability.
And once someone is lost, they are accountable to their sins.
We must be born again, born of water in the Spirit and baptism.
And this we see. It's possible to be physically
alive, but spiritually dead. Can the dead bury their own
dead? Jesus would say only if he's
talking about spiritually dead people burying physically dead
people, because physically dead people cannot bury each other.
It is possible to be physically alive and spiritually dead, but
it is also possible to be physically dead and spiritually
alive. Ephesians one and three, blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has
blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places
in Christ. If we want to be saved, we need
to be in Christ. Every spiritual blessing is in
Christ. There's not a single one outside
of him. The way we get in him is we must
be baptized into Christ and this is a spiritually safe saved
position to be born again. And Luke 23 and verse 43, the
Bible says, assuredly, I say to you, Jesus said today you will
be with me in paradise. For those who are spiritually
saved, they walk faithfully with God.
They when they die, will go to paradise.
Here's a chart of where do we go when we die.
A lot of people think that when a person dies, they go to heaven
directly. They get the fast pass.
They got the fast track. No, not so fast.
Jesus, when he died, did not go to heaven immediately.
The Bible teaches in Acts 2 that his soul, his spirit, was not
left in Hades. The Hadian realm is an
intermediary place before heaven and hell.
And in this place of Hades, Jesus was released.
And remember, a woman clung to him or sought to cling to him.
And Jesus said, do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended
to my Father Jesus. In those three days dead in the
grave, he did not go to heaven, he went to paradise.
Paradise is like heaven before heaven, but not heaven.
Torments, on the other hand, is like hell but not hell, because
in this intermediary place only the spirit of man goes the
difference. One of the differences between
the Hadean realm and heaven and hell is there in heaven and hell
there is the spirit of man in a new resurrected body, soul and
spirit united once again. But this is the intermediary
place, and not everyone is going to paradise.
Not everyone is going to torment, but some will, some
will. The Third Point we want to look
at in our study is the rest that comes after death.
In Revelation 1413. Blessed are the dead who die in
the Lord from now on. Yes, as yes, says the Spirit,
that they may rest from their laborers.
One of the greatest blessings about Christianity, the whole
Bible's about rest. God rested on the 7th day, not
because he was tired, not because he needed to.
The work he had done was completed, and in the Old
Testament he gave them a day of rest.
And that day of rest, the Sabbath, was a foreshadow, a
picture of eternity when nothing else matters.
You just spend this day focusing on God.
That's what eternity is going to be like, the eternal rest.
And Jesus, he would say in Matthew 1128, come to me, all
you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and
lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
This Christian life, it's wearisome.
It can feel burdensome at times. Rest is coming.
We only have a few more days to labor as we sometimes sing.
Rest a great promise, a great blessing.
For those of us who are weary of this life, we need to remember,
we need to remind ourselves when we say there is rest in the
hereafter, we're not talking about soul sleep.
We're not talking about how everyone just going to sleep and
we're resting physically. No, rest in the Bible does not
speak of inactivity. In fact, in Revelation 21, the
Bible says there's no night in heaven.
We're not going to be sleeping in heaven.
Another passage says we shall serve God in heaven.
Revelation 22 and three, day and night.
Well, there's no night in heaven, so how can you serve Him
day and night? He's just saying all day.
In fact, you can't even say it today.
It's just, it's just always for eternity we serve God.
There is no sleep. When the Bible says there is
rest in heaven, it means there is the absence of sin, sickness
and sorrow. We will be finally, once and for
all, comforted in the hereafter. 2nd Corinthians 4 and 17 For our
light affliction, which is but for a moment is working for us a
far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.
Romans 8 and 18 For I consider that the sufferings of this
present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which
shall be revealed in US. Maybe you're here this afternoon
and you're thinking about calling it quits.
You're here, you're overburdened.
It's just been like this for who knows how long, and you're
discouraged. These are some of the best
passages and the New Testament to remind us heaven is so good
that whatever we're going through can't even hold a candle
to how good heaven is. We do not want to miss out.
We cannot give up. It's too good.
What we're going through now is light and the grand scheme of
things. 4th, Not everybody finds rest in the hereafter.
There are quite a few people. They find regret.
They will find regret. And what we mean by this is that
not everybody dies in a spiritually saved state.
Not everybody becomes born again.
Perhaps what is worse, in my opinion, than dying in a lost
state, having never been born again, is having been born again
and still dying, lost, having heaven at your fingertips, but
quitting before the race is finished and losing the prize.
Remember the story of the rich man and Lazarus, The rich man.
It's, it's interesting to me. The rich man on earth is the
poor man in the hereafter, and the poor man on earth, he is the
rich man in the hereafter. 2 Totally different lifestyles. 2
totally different afterlife experiences In Luke 1622 the
Bible says so it was that the beggar died and was carried by
the angels to Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died and was
buried, and being in torments in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and
saw Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his bosom. 25 Son, remember
that in your lifetime you received your good things and
likewise Lazarus, evil things, but now he is comforted and you
are tormented. The rich man didn't get rest in
the hereafter. Lazarus did.
Instead, the rich man, he's filled with regret.
This story, this account in Luke's Gospel teaches us that
those who have died, they are conscious and they're
conscientious. They remember.
They recognize who they are, where they are, and why they are
just like the rich man did. He remembered his family, He
remembered Lazarus. He could recognize Lazarus.
Here are some of the things he experienced.
He saw Lazarus, he spoke with Abraham, he heard Abraham.
He felt the flames, he experienced thirst, he
remembered his life, he remembered his family.
I think the worst part of being an eternal punishment, whether
we're talking about torments or we're talking about hell, I'm
scared of fire. There are.
There are, unfortunately, impressive things.
People have done to get out of the way of fire.
Member of 9/11, the people who were trapped in the twin towers
and rather than being burned alive, it was better to them to
make the jump. People will do a lot to get out
of the way of fire. I think there's something worse
than fire, though. Remembering what we could have
lived like, what we could have changed, where we went wrong.
Having that regret and that guilt for eternity, knowing it
did not have to be like this. That is more painful than the
fire. And fifthly, it's the reach
after death. These people who are in
torments, they are taught and we are taught.
There is a great gulf. We cannot reach over to the
other side. There is no crossing, there is
no changing. Once we have died and this game
of life is over. There is no redos, there are no
undos. Our fate is sealed at that
moment. And in Luke chapter 16 verse 27,
then he said, Lazarus, or excuse me, the rich man, I beg you
therefore Father, that you would send them to my father's house,
for I have 5 brothers. That he may testify to them,
lest they also come to this place of torment.
He remembered his family. This is so bad.
I can't change where I am, but maybe I could change where my
family's going. You ever feel that?
I've felt that on earth. We have felt that on earth and
we're not even in the hereafter. You know what God told him how
this story goes? His answer was no, you can't.
They've got the Word of God. Your family's got the word of
God. They got Moses and the prophets.
If they're not going to hear a dead man come from, come back to
life in the grave, they won't listen.
The message of the Word of God is more powerful than any
miracle. Jesus just taught that Jesus,
knowing people wouldn't believe in him, still died on the cross
because he knew some would be faithful to the Word.
Second to last, last, second to last.
What we want to see is that there is a great and marvelous
resurrection from the dead. We know about this, we talk
about this, but maybe you're here and you've struggled in
your mind. Resurrection.
How is this possible? What is the greatest miracle in
the Bible? It's not the resurrection of
Jesus. The greatest miracle in the
Bible is the first verse of the Bible.
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
If God can create everything out of nothing, he surely can do
anything. If he can make the rules out of
nothing, if he can make man from dirt, he can raise man from the
dead. This is just something logical
to us when we think of the power of God.
And this explains Paul's argumentation and Acts 26 and 8.
Why should it be thought incredible by you, King Agrippa,
that God raises the dead? This is this is cookies to God.
This is a little thing, to raise the dead.
God can and he will raise the dead.
First Corinthians 1521 For since by man came death, by man also
came the resurrection of the dead.
For as an Adam will die, Even so in Christ all shall be made
alive. Jesus is undoing.
He has undone the physical death that spread to all man when man
was kicked out of the Garden of Eden and lost access to the Tree
of Life. Here's my favorite part, though.
I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning
those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who
have no hope. We know those verses, every
funeral, those verses. Few of us were talking at lunch.
I got some spiritual grandparents here.
I have lost some spiritual grandparents in the last six
years. For those of us who have been in
the church longer, I can only imagine your list when I think
about my long list in six years. People we miss, we just want to
see again. We just want to hear their
laugh. We just want to talk to them.
We just want to worship with them one more time.
We can't weep like the world, the world, they weep.
They mourn without hope. But we have perhaps the greatest
hope to see our loved ones again, to be reunited on the day
of resurrection, the second coming of Jesus.
And we shall always be together with the Lord.
Last but not least, we would like to close with looking at
the reward that comes after death.
Why do you serve God? Why are you here this afternoon?
You could be doing anything. Why are we here?
Do we want to be here? Why do we serve?
Well, there's a few different reasons why people serve God.
I don't know how or why you serve God.
Let me tell you why I do. I don't want to go to hell.
That perhaps is the most basic bottom level of obedience, fear
of punishment. That is biblical.
If you serve God because you don't want to be punished
eternally, that is scriptural. Knowing therefore the terror of
the Lord, we persuade men. Second Corinthians 5:10 and
11:00, that's biblical. Some people serve God because
it's the right thing to do, and that is the right thing to do.
Some people serve God because it impresses other people, or it's
expected from us. Maybe that's where you begin,
but that can't be where it stays.
Other people serve God out of a love for God.
And I know we serve God for a combination of these reasons, if
not all of them. But it is not wrong to serve God
because you want to go to heaven.
Notice what Jesus said. Blessed are you when they revile
and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you
falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad,
for great is your reward in heaven.
For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
I want to go to heaven. We all want to go to heaven.
Now if we actually dissected that we mean a quite a few
things when we say that we want to be with God, we want to be
with our loved ones who have passed on.
So this is not something selfish, this is not something
wrong, it is good. Jesus used this as motivation
for others. And in Revelation 1413, then I
heard a voice from heaven saying to me, right, blessed are the
dead who die in the Lord from now on, yes.
Does the spirit that they may rest from their laborers and
their works follow them? You ever seen the movie The
Gladiator? One of my favorite movies,
Russell Crowe, his character Marcus Aurelius, he says this.
What we do now echoes in eternity.
That's biblical. And their works follow them from
this life. All of the good deeds we've
done, all of the sins we've committed, they follow.
And people are influenced by them long after we're gone.
The question is, how are we influencing people when we're
alive? Jesus would say, For the Son of
Man will come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and
then he will reward each according to his works.
And behold, I am coming quickly, and my reward is with me to give
to everyone according to his work.
It matters how we live. We're all preaching a sermon.
It's just called our life. In conclusion, God will wipe
away every tear from their eyes. There shall be no more death,
nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for
the former things have passed away.
Look to yourselves that we do not lose those things we work
for, but that we may receive a full reward.
And do this knowing the time that now it is high time to wake
out of sleep. For now, our salvation is nearer
than when we first believed. That's the greatest motivation
right there. You're closer.
We're closer now than ever to the eternal reward.
Why give up? We don't even know when He's
coming back. We could be at the finish line
right now. We can't give up.
Behold, I am coming quickly. Blessed is He who keeps the
words of the prophecy of this book.
Blessed are those who do His commandments that they may have
the right to the tree of life and may enter through the gates
into the city. Blessed are the dead.
We are all physically alive right now.
The question is, are we spiritually dead?
Will we be spiritually alive or dead in the end?
How is it with you? Do you need to obey the gospel
and be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins and
placed into Christ? Have you been in Christ but are
out of Christ or struggling with sin?
Whatever the case, whichever the situation, please come as we
stand and sing the song of imitation.