Hawaii 7 – The Greatest Hope

[music]>> I've never seen [music] a double ukulelebefore.Well, that was truly beautiful. Thankyou very much, brother, for sharing yourbeautiful gifts with us. Thank you.Thank you.Let me just get rid of this microphoneor I'm going to get feedback all eveninghere.And so, umit's already Tuesday night.You know, isn't the time going by fasthere?Uh my wife and I came for 2 weeks and uhwe finish on Sabbath.And uh so, we're already feeling kind ofhomesick for Maui.And not homesick for Michigan, buthomesick for Maui.And so, we've just been uh veryoverwhelmed not just by the waves, butby the waves of love and affection thathave come our way. We want to say thankyou one and all to everybody for yourwarmth, your welcome.And we've just been blessed by thetalents of so many people.And so, tonight uh I'm going to talkabout a topic which it may sound a bitmorbid, but I'm going to talk about whathappens when you die.And you may say, "Why is he going totalk about this question?"The reason I'm talking about thisquestion is the oldest lie ever told isstill running through humanity.And it has a profound impact on peopleall the way around the world.So, um this is our topic. I'm going tocall it the greatest hope.

And uh Ithink that today what people need asmuch as anything else is hope in theirhearts. Would you agree?People need hope. They need a reason toget out of bed.Um in Japan they have an expressionikigai. Does anybody here speakJapanese?Um ikigai means a reason to get out ofbed. And everybody needs a reason to getout of bed, not just to pay the bills,not just to pay the rent, but peopleneed a positive reason to get out of bedor why get out of bed at all.

And sowe're going to talk this evening aboutthe greatest hope that we find in thescriptures. And so as we begin, inviteyou to bow your heads with me and invitethe presence of the Holy Spirit. Soshall we pray?Our dear heavenly Father, uh we thankyou for the blessings of today. Uh wethank you forwarm winds and a warm sun. We thank youfor full stomachs and warm beds.Father, we thank you for all theseblessings of life that we simply justtake for granted.

Now Lord, as we gatherhere tonight, I pray that um I willspeak words from your throne of grace.Lord, behind every front door there is astory to tell.Well, each one of us at some point, onepoint or another in our lives, we havesaid goodbye to a loved one.I pray Lord that as we share the truthabout what the Bible says, about whathappens to those who pass away,I pray that the blessed hope will risein our hearts afresh tonight.So thank you, Lord, for speaking throughme. This is my prayer in Jesus' name.Amen.You know, umuh speaking as a pastor, some things areeasier to do than others. And um if Iwere given a choice between doing awedding or a funeral, I would alwayschoose a funeral.Why would I always choose a funeral?Because nothing worse can go wrong.They're already dead. Sometimes whenyou're standing at the front, the wrongname comes out. Sometimes you mix up theorder of the service.

Sometimes themusician doesn't appear. But it doesn'treally matter because the bad news hasalready happened. And at a funeral, manypeople just kind of sitting in kind oflike zombie mode anyway.Whereas weddings are fraught fraughtwith with possibilities for for thingsto go wrong. You know, somebody I was ata wedding once and somesome guy put all the wedding flowersinto the fridge the night before thewedding.Those flowers did not survive to thenext morning, those roses.Sometimes you you marry somebody and ayoung man and a young woman and both ofthem come from blended families, so youhave four mothers all deciding who walksfirst down the aisle during theprocessional.And they ask you as the pastor, theysay, "Well, what's the protocol? Whowalks first?" And you look around andyou decide who the most fearsome lookingmother is and say that it's that onewalks down the aisle first.And so, weddings are fraught withpossibility for things to go wrong.

I'vemarried people and got the names mixedup at the front. I've learned write thename at the top of every sheet of paperthat you're working from.Make sure you've memorized it as much aspossibleand make sure that you speak clearly.You know, I take I take it's to be myawful wedded wife as different to be mylawful wedded wife.And sometimes if you get the vows wrong,then the people they get the vows wrongas well and it sounds terrible.Andthese days everything is caught oncamera.My wife and I when we got married,a friend of ours, he was an Azeridoctor, he volunteered to take ourwedding wedding video for us and hesaid, "I can do a great job and I'll doit for free." So, we took him up on hisgracious offer and when we got thewedding video some months later, wedidn't feature in it once at all. Infact, you wouldn't know it was ourwedding.The entire wedding video for 3 hours washim discussing in the Azeri languagewith his fellow Muslim doctors what itwas like to watch a Christian wedding.So, our wedding video, we don't appearin it once and so, things do go wrongwith weddings, butdeath is something we all have to dealwith whether we're a pastoror not. We all deal with the reality ofdeath, isn't that right?We all deal with the reality of death,and we have many euphemisms for death.I'm going to share some euphemisms wehave in England. We say that he's passedaway, or he's passed on.

Do you havethat with I'm here in Maui? We say thathe's no longer with us.We say he's kicked the bucket.We say he's at peace. He bought thefarm. He's pushing up daisies. He bitthe dust.

He's 6 ft under. He's shuffledoff this mortal coil. He's been calledhome. He's deceased. He's expired.

He'spassed beyond the veil. Maybe a good onefor Maui is this. We say in England,he's sleeping with the fish.And so, we have many euphemisms for whathappens when people die, because we'revery uncomfortable with the idea ofdeath.And yet,in our journey today, we're going to gothrough the four stages of life.Before life, life itself, death, and theresurrection. This is going to be ourjourney here this evening. And I want tostart out with this verse here, and from1 Thessalonians 4.

And Paul writes tothe church of Thessalonica, and he says,"We do not want you to be uninformed,brothers and sisters, about those whohave died, so that you may not grieve asothers do who have no hope."And I've officiated at funerals forpeople who have no hope in theresurrection.And when you officiate a funeral of,say, parents who've lost a small childin a road accident,it's not just grief, but what you see isdespair.People say, "I will never see my littleangel again." And the heartbreak is justtruly heartbreaking to see this, becausemany people, they have no hope in theresurrection. And so, Paul wrote thisletter to the church of Thessalonica,because he wants us to know that in theface of death, we can have hope.And when you have hope in the face ofdeath, then death isn't as bad as itwere if you had no hope. And why is thispossible? Well, this is what Jesus saysin the book of Revelation. He says, "Donot be afraid.

I am the first and thelast and the living one. I was dead andsee, I'm alive forever and ever and Ihave the keys of death and of hell." Andthat's what Jesus says to the ApostleJohn. And so, if Jesus has the keys ofdeath and Jesus was dead and now he'salive forever and ever, he's conquereddeath, then to follow Jesus means ifJesus conquered death for himself, thenJesus can conquer death for us as well.And so, we we we face death not withdespair, but with a sense of hope. So,what are the four stages of life that wefind in the Bible? And the first stageis what I call, you know, before life.And we find that in the book of Jeremiahchapter 1 and verse 5.

And this is Godspeaking to the prophet Jeremiah when hewas a teenager, when he was calling himto be a prophet, God said, "Before Iformed you in the womb, I knew you. Andbefore you were born, I consecrated you.I appointed you a prophet to thenation."So, was Jeremiah's life a randomcollection of random um chemicals on arandom planet in a random uh Milky Way?Uh was it yes or no?No. Before Jeremiah was born, God knewhim. God formed him. He knit himtogether in his mother's womb.

Jeremiah,like each one of us, we are God'shandiwork, fearfully and wonderfullymade. And this passage tells us herethat before this boy was born, God says,"I consecrated means I set you aside fora holy purpose. And I am before you wereborn, I knew you're going to be aprophet not just to the people ofIsrael, but to all the nations of theworld." And this is a beautiful promisefrom God to Jeremiah, and you may applyit to each one of us as well. That wewere formed by God in our mother'swombs, we were knit together by God, weare his handiwork, and before we wereborn, we were known to God. And it's notjust that God knew us, but before wewere born, God knew the purposes that hehad for us.

This is what the ApostlePaul says about God's plans for us. Itsays, "For we are what he has made us,created in Christ Jesus for good works,which God prepared beforehand to be ourway of life."What a beautiful expression that is.We are created by in Christ Jesus forgood works, and God prepared thosebeforehand. Before we were born, beforewe werebefore we are you know,enter this planet,God had already prepared a purpose forus, and that purpose described here weare created in Christ Jesus for goodworks. That is, God created us to be ablessing to those around us.How we are a blessing differs fromperson to person, but God's purpose wasfor us to be a blessing to other people.So, once you move from the first stage,which is before life, then we move tolife itself.When when we had our children, and thething that shocked me about newbornbabies is you think they're fragile, butthey're they're actually not fragile atall.You know, when when when when the babycomes home from the hospital, you carryit out of the hospital, you know, in theback in the seat of the car, and youyou're watching where every foot goes.Has any of you Has any of you had thatexperience? Like, you don't want to dropthat little treasure, and you get theminto the car, and you drive home at 25mph the whole journey, because you'redead scared you're going to hurt thatchild.

And then horror of horrors, youhave to wash the baby that first night.And washing the baby, you unpeel theclothes, it's like getting a chickenfrom Walmart, and you unpeel it, andthere's just like thesegawky legs and gawky arms there, and andyou lift it up, and you realize that itdoesn't fall apart when you lift it up,you know? And and it's kind of you haveto take very care of it, but the thingthat struck me with babies is thatthey're kind of rubbery. And but anyway,umI'm speaking as a father here, allright?My wife took better care of the babiesthan I did, I can assure you. Butanyway, the Bible says um about lifeitself, we go back to the book ofGenesis and this is the formula forlife.It says the Lord God formed man from thedust of the ground and breathed into hisnostrils the breath of life and the manbecame a living being. As we saidearlier on last last week, I said whenJesus breathed into Adam the breath oflife, he gave himself the kiss of deathbecause he knew the consequences of whathe was doing for his own for the plan ofsalvation.

But in this passage here, youhave the formula for life and this isthe formula for life that we find in theBible.It is the dust of the earth plus thebreath of life and you are a livingbeing or a soul. Now,the Hebrews nephesh chayyim, it means aliving being.And when the animals went into the ark,they were also referred to as having asbeing nephesh chayyim as well. Um sowe are a living being when the dust ofthe earth and the breath of life cometogether. Some versions translate thisnephesh chayyim phrase in Hebrew as asoul or a living soul and other versionstranslate it as a living being. And thepoint about this is that man does nothave a soul or man does not have aliving being, but by virtue of creation,the breath of life and the dust of theearth, you are a living being or you area living soul.

You don't possess a soulthat's separate to your body, but youwhen you add those two things together,that's what you get in the Bible. Youget a living being or a living soul.And so in the garden of Eden,God gave commands to Adam.It says the Lord God took the man andput him in the garden of Eden to till itand keep it. And the Lord's mancommanded thethe man Lord God commanded the man, youmay freely eat of every tree of thegarden, but of the tree of the knowledgeof good and evil you shall not eat, forin the day you eat of it, you shall die.And so, what this verse tells us is thatAdam and Eve were created immortal, butthat immortality was conditional uponobedience to God.And if they chose to ate of the eat ofthe tree of the knowledge of good andevil, which they were commanded not toeat from, then they would lose thatconditional immortality and they wouldstart the process of dying.And so, when the serpent came into thegarden of Eden, Satan,this is what Satan says to the woman,says the serpent was more crafty thanany of the wild animal that Lord God hadmade. He said to the woman, did God sayyou shall not eat from any tree in thegarden? So, this is the first theologianin recorded history.

He's discussing theword of God.And it was Satan.I don't I once read a book on theresurrection.It was written by a professor of St.Andrews University in Scotland. It wasthe best defense I ever read of theliteral resurrection of Jesus Christ andthe professor was an atheist.It just struck me as odd that this mancould believe in the resurrection andwrite a book about the resurrection andstill be an atheist. Anyway, the womansaid to the serpent, we may eat of thefruits of the trees in the garden, butGod said, you shall not eat of the freeof the tree that is in the middle of thegarden, nor shall you touch it or youshall die. But the serpent said to thewoman, you will not die.And so, in this stage here, um Satanflatly contradicts God. God says, in theday that you eat of this tree, you shalldie.

And Satan says to the woman, "Uhyou may eat of it." And then he says,"And you will not die." So, Eve had achoice to make. Was she going to trustGod, or was she going to trust the liesof Satan? And tragically, she acceptedthe lies of Satan rather than the truthsfrom God.And that original lie, that you will notdie,is maybe the most prevalent lie onplanet Earth today.You find it in Hinduismwith the uh doctrine of reincarnation.That your body may die, but your soullives on.And you go through millions of cycles oflife and death, and life and death, andlife and death, and life and death. Andone day, you achieve nirvana, and youachieve you become part of the cosmicnothingness, you might say, like a dropof water entering the Pacific Ocean. Andthat really isn't good news, because ifyou believe that you're going to liveand die, and live and die, and live anddie, and live and die, and live and die,that means you're going to have millionsand millions and millions of cycles ofdeath.And one day, you're going to achievenothing.I don't know if that looks like goodnews to you.That isn't good news to me.The Bible says you have one cycle oflifeand death.

And then through faith inJesus, you wake up not to millions ofcycles of life and death, but you wakeup to eternal life with no more death.So, the gospel is good news. AndBuddhism is the same with their doctrineof reincarnation. Catholicism also hasthe idea of the immortality of the soul,the original lie from Satan. And so, inthe Catholic faith, when your body dies,your soul allegedly goes to hell to burnforever, or it goes to purgatory, whereyour sins get burned out of you, or yoursoul goes straight to heaven, and youlive forever. So, Catholicism has thisidea of the immortality of the soul, andso does Islam.

Islam believes that youeither go to paradise, or you go tohellfire. And And that's when you die.So, your body may die, but your soullives forever. And so, in much of theworld today, you find that this lie ofSatan still runs. It still has force. Ifyou work in the animist parts of theworld, where people worship spirits, andlet's say you go to Thailand, hasanybody have been to Thailand?

Andoutside the house, you see a small likedoll house piece of on a pole, do youever see that?Or do you have any Thai restaurants herein town?If you go into a Thai restaurant, nearthe entrance, they'll have a shelf withmaybe they'll be maybe a little statueof the Buddha there. And they will havea bowl of rice, and a joss stick or anincense stick, and a cup of Coca-Cola ormilk. And what is that for? That is notdecorative for decorative purposes.In in in and in the Thai culture,Buddhism is technically a form ofatheism. They believe in the eightfoldpath to enlightenment, but in practice,Buddhism is the manipulation of thespirits.

It's animism by another name.And those that little that little jossstick and the statue of the Buddha andthe rice and the and the Coca-Cola orthe milk, they're actually feeding thespirits every day in order to get thespirits off their back so they can dogood business that day and they can havegood luck. So, wherever you go in theworld, that sentence from Satan, youwill not die,that sentence that lie runs throughoutall of almost every part of the worldtoday. People accept that lie. Even inNorway, if you look at Norse mythology,uh the the the um the the the Vikings,the Scandinavians, the Finns, and theSwedes, they believe in Valhalla. Haveyou heard of Valhalla?It's when warriors die, they don'tphysically die, but they go to the thehall where they they drink with otherwarriors.And you know, you think, "Well, this isa this is a an idea from the past."When um Charlie Kirk was killed,the uh chair the director of the FBI,Kash Patel, he tweeted and he said,"I'll see you in Valhalla."Like, I read that I was astonished thatthe director of the FBI believes inValhalla.Uh this is an astonishing thing.

ThatI'll see you in in the like the theendless feast for warriors that yoursoul has has has migrated from your bodyup into this this in this Norsemythology to this a mythical place whereyou're going to drink and party for therest of eternity. So, this lie of Satanruns all around the world today. And ithas implications because if you are notgoing to dieum if your soul is immortal, then whatthe Bible says that the wages of sin isdeath is a lie.And if you're not going to die from yoursins, then you don't need a savior tosave you from the consequence of yoursins. And so, it starts to undo thewhole gospel once you've accepted theidea that you're not going to die.And so, Adam and Eve were driven fromthe garden of Eden anduh the Bible goes on to say in Ezekiel18:20, it says very clearly, "The soulthat sinneth, it shall what?"It shall die.And so, when we were created, we weregiven conditional immortality,conditional upon our obedience to God.But when we were disobedient to God andAdam and Eve chose to put self on thethrone of their hearts rather thanaccept God on the throne of their heartsand selfishness replaced selflessness asthe governing principle in in the Gardenof Eden, then this truth here comesabout. The soul that sinneth,it shall die.The Bible is also very clear that theonly one who is immortal is God himself.Apostle Paul writes this.

He says, "Tothe king of the ages, immortal,invisible, the only God, be honor andglory forever and ever. Amen. It is healone who has immortality and dwells inunapproachable light, who has ever seenwhom no one has ever seen or can see.So, the Bible is clear that the only onewho is immortal intrinsically is Godhimself. We lost our conditionalimmortality in the Garden of Eden in thefall, and now we are all destined todie.Does anybody here think they haveimmortality?No.Umthe older I get, the more real deathbecomes.Particularly when you keep going to thedoctor and they say, "Mr. Vine," andthey said,"Your LDL cholesterol is too high." Whatam I supposed to do about that?Sometimes they say it's good, sometimesthey say it's bad."Your HDL cholesterol is too high andyour LDL cholesterol is too low." Whatam I supposed to do about it, doctor?

Iknow there's something I can do, Iguess.Um but um they tell you these things,and they look at you with increasedseriousness when they tell you thesethings.Like, "Mr. Vine, if you don't take careof this, then we're not going to bediscussing your cholesterol levels nextyear. We'll be talking about, you know,measuring up your coffin, you know,those measurements."And so, the older you get, the moreconscious you become of the fact thatlife is not forever. And the hopes andthe dreams that we've cherished throughlife, what's going to become of themwhen we pass away? And what kind oflegacy we're going to leave behind us onthis planet?

And so, the psalmist says,uh reflecting on this reality that theolder we get, the more we focus on thespiritual matters. The psalmist says,"So, teach us to count our days that wemay gain a wise heart."And so, young people, teenagers, theyfeel immortal. Is that right?They feel invincible.When I went to uh finished high school,I was 18, and I wanted to see some ofthe world. And so, I had 200 lb to myname, which wasn't a lot of money backthen in 1990.And so I looked around the world say,"Where can I go for 200 pounds?I want to spend a year somewhere on 200pounds." That was $400 at the time. Ilooked aroundand I decided to go to Israelbecause I could work on a kibbutz, acollective farm, for free.

They give meboard and lodging and a stipend and theygive me the sabbaths off.And so I decided to go and I was flyingout on the third week of August and inthe first week of August 1990 SaddamHussein invaded Kuwait.Now this was before the internet.This was before cell phones.So I I was aware that there was a warbrewing in the Middle East.My mom and dad were very aware thatthere was a war brewing in the MiddleEast. They said, "Are you sure now is agood time to fly to Israel because UShas put Desert Desert Shield in place,that big military operation to protectKuwait and Saudi Arabia and Israel andAmerican allies in the Gulf area?" And Isaid with the sense of invincibility,"Don't worry about me.If there's a war, it's not going totouch me. Don't worry about it." So Iflew outa week after Saddam Hussein invadedKuwait and my mom has always been a awoman of prayer but I knew she waspraying for me.We had to wear gas masks when the Scudmissiles were coming in.Um we'd have to sit in the basement. Thesirens would go off and the Scuds wouldcome across from western Saudi Arabiaand we didn't know whether it was highhigh explosives or chemical orbiological or even dirty bombs, nucleardirty bombs. And so we'd have to sit inthe basement with our gas masks onwaiting for the all clear.

And I'd writemy mom a letter from the basement andsay, "Dear Mom,I hope you're doing well. I'm in thebasement while the air raid sirens aregoing off.And uh please forgive me if my writingis doesn't look neat cuz I'm looking atthrough my my gas mask but um pleasedon't worry about me and I'll write in amonth's time."And um my mom, you know, she got thoseletters and she was really a woman ofprayer during that time. The point isthat when you're young, you have a senseof invincibility, but the older you getand the more you go to your physician,the more you realize that this bodysimply wears out.And there's not a lot we can do aboutthat. We can try and delay theinevitable,but um by and large, once you pass theage of about 25, it's all slow downhill.Apologies to anyone who is 24,um but when you hit 25, it's all slowdownhill. I once said it was 16 and Ialmost had a riot on my hands when Isaid that.So um anyway, what's the third stage oflife?

And it's actually death itself. Sothe first stage is before you're born,you are known to God. The second stageis life itself and the formula for lifeis the breath of life and the dust ofthe ground and man becomes a livingbeing. And then you have the third stageof life, which is actually death itself.And the Bible describes it and whathappens in death is you have the exactopposite of what happened in creation.And so the Bible says in Ecclesiastes12:7,when you die, it says the dust returnsto the earth as it was and the breathreturns to God who gave it.And so the body returns to the dust ofthe groundand the breath returns to God. And sothe original formula at the Garden ofEden is simply reversed.

So you see onthe screen there, the formula for lifeis the dust of the earth plus the breathof life gives a living being.And the formula for death is that if youhave the dust of the earth and you takeaway from it the breath of life, whatyou have isnothing.That's it.You have nothing. Sowhen we bury people, we say ashes toashes and dust to dust and so forth.And umuh there was an English comedian whodidn't like his mother in lawand he kept her her ashes in a vase or avase on his counter in the kitchen.He didn't like her, so when he wassmoking he dropped the ash into theashes and he'd say, "I see she's puttingon weight."You know, that was his way of kind ofgetting back at his mother-in-law, butum the formula here, the formula forlife is on the first part. That's whathappens in the creation, dust of theearth plus the breath of life and man isa nefesh chaim or a living being. Andwhat happens in death is the breath oflife goes back to God and to the bodyreturns to the dust of the earth and youare left with literally nothing. Now,the Old Testament Hebrew word for spiritand breath is the same word, it's ruach.And that is the life principle from Godthat you actually finds animates bothanimals and human beings.

You see thatin the story of the flood in Genesis 6,7, and 8. And you see this parallelismin this Hebrew poetry of Job there. Jobsays, "As long as my breath is in me andthe spirit of God is in my nostrils."So, you have you have here the spirit ofGod and the breath of life areparalleled within this verse of Job andthat is the breath of life that goesback to God when we die.And and normally when people die, theyutter their last breath, isn't thatright?And doctors have definitions like beingbrain dead.But normally if you're sitting next tosomebody in a hospital or in aum they're on hospice care, you knowwhen they've passed awayjust by listening to them and you youhear that last breath coming out. Youhear that.And then you say, "Okay, that's it."The doctor may then come and pronouncethem dead, but you already know they'vepassed away because you've heard umtheir last they've given their lastbreath and some cases it's very veryclear when that happens.So, what happens when you die? Do youknow that you're dead?

Are you floatingaround in heaven looking down at yourloved ones? Um some people have the ideathat when you die, you go to heaven.Some people say, "Well, he's lookingdown upon us now and uh my mother islooking down on me." But the Bible saysthat is absolutely not true. The Biblesays in Ecclesiastes 9, it says theliving know that they will die. Is thattrue? Yes or no?Yes.

Then it says, "But the dead knowknow what?"Nothing. They know nothing. They have nomore reward. Even the memory of them islost. Their love and their hates andtheir envy have already perished.

Neveragain will they have any share in allthat happens under the sun. And so thedead know nothing. They have no part inanything that happens among the living.They are gone. They have no furtheremotions. There's no hate.

There's nolove. There's no joy. There is no anger.The the dead know nothing. And so whenyour mother dies, she's not floatingaround on a cloud looking down at you.And if my mother were to die and she waslook down on me and I get say cancerdiagnosis 10 years time,she's supposed she's supposed to be inheaven. You think it's going to feellike heaven to her watching her son gothrough a cancer treatment?Absolutely not.

It's a mercy that thedead know nothing.Because it means they don't see theirchildren going through the struggles oflife.And so God kind of closes that chapterand the dead are dead. They knownothing. Their joys, their hopes, theirfears, their loves, their fears, theirhates, their angers and their hopes,they are gone once and for all. Theyhave no part in anything that happensunder the sun. And this is where thedeception of spiritualism comes inbecause people want to talk with theirloved their long-lost mother.They go to a medium.

They say, "Call upmy mother."And what happens is a fallen spiritappears imitating the motherand that fallen spirit talks them andgives them advice and they and theythink they're talking to their mother,but they're actually talking to a fallenspirit.And those spirits do nothing but lie.And we see this with Alexa and AI thesedays.You can create an AI avatar of your deadmother now.You can you can um play some recordingsof your mother's voice and put yourmother's picture in the software,and your mother will appear on thescreen and literally talk to youas an AI avatar. And so, this is achannel directly into spiritualism inthe modern era because people are sodesperate to have one last word withtheir loved ones. Uh the the Psalm 146says this, "When their breath departs,they that is goes back to God, they thatis their body returns to the earth, andon that very day their plans perish."So, how does David describe death?Basically, that conscious thoughtceases. If their plans perish on the daythey die, that means their consciousnessand their conscious thought and theirunderstanding that something ishappening around them, all of that diesand finishes the day that somebody dies.The Bible goes on to say that the deaddo not praise the Lord, nor do any thatgo down into silence. So, some may saythat the dead when you die, you go toheaven and you join those angelic choirswith a harp and you're sitting around ona cloud.But the Bible says that the dead do notpraise God.So, they're not floating around in someheavenly choir somewhere.

Uh their plansperish, their hopes perish, and they'renot praising God. They are now in thegrave, and there there's noconsciousness left for the dead. Andthat actually, I think, is really goodnews.That they have no further part inanything that happens um in on life. So,how did Jesus describe what happens whenyou die?Well, he had a friend called Lazarus.Lazarus lived near Jerusalem, a littletown called Bethany, about 4 or 5 milessoutheast of Jerusalem.Lazarus had two sisters, Mary andMartha. And for Jesus, the home of thethese these three people was kind oflike his his place of refuge.

He wouldgo there when he was tired. Go therewhen he wants to get away from thecrowds.And umhe he received a note, a message thatLazarus was dying.And when he finally arrived there,Lazarus was dead 4 days later.And Jesus says to the crowd, he said,"Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep.But I'm going there to awaken him."So, Jesus referred to death as a sleep.And the disciples didn't understand.They said, "But he's dead."And so, Jesus goes on to clarify. Thetext says, "Jesus, however, had beenspeaking about his death, but theythought he was referring merelyto sleep."And so, Jesus refers to death as asleep. And I think I mentioned this lastweek, but when you bury somebody in thewest, what's the what's the plot of landcalled where you bury them?Cemetery.And what does the word cemetery mean?It's a place where people sleep.Literally, that's the meaning of theword.It's like we have a dormitory.That comes from the French language,dormi a sleep.So, a dormitory is a place where peoplesleep. And a cemetery is also a placenot where people die, but a cemetery iswhere people sleep.

Even the languageitself tells us, as Jesus said, thatthis man Lazarus is sleeping. When youpass away, when you're buried, Jesuscalls it a sleep. But then, Jesus goeson to discuss the good news for thosewho are have fallen asleep in Christ.Jesus says, "Do not be astonished atthis, for the hour is coming when allwho are in their graves will hear hisvoice and will come out. Those who havedone good to the resurrection of life,and those who've done evil to theresurrection of condemnation. So, whatare the dead in their graves waitingfor?

They're waiting for either theresurrection of life, or they're waitingfor the resurrection of condemnation.So, there are two resurrections thatJesus speaks about. Is that right inthis verse? Resurrection of life, or theresurrection of condemnation. And so, uhwe have this hope that this hope bringsin our hearts, because we say, "There isgoing to be a resurrection, andeverybody's going to be in one of thosetwo resurrections. You're either in theresurrection of life, or some versionssay the resurrection of the righteous,or you're going to be in theresurrection of condemnation." One wayor the other, we are going to beresurrected if we've passed away beforeJesus comes again.

And the Apostle Pauldiscusses this. He says, "I have a hopein God, a hope that there'll be aresurrection of both the righteous andthe unrighteous." And so, the ApostlePaul had this hope in the resurrectionof the righteous, and also of theunrighteous. And so, when you arestanding by the graveside of a loved onewho's died trusting in God as as Jesustheir savior, um you don't grieve asthose who do who grieve with who have nohope. You don't grieve with despair, butyou grieve with the realization that oneday God is going to call my loved onefrom this grave again. And they're goingto be called um to the resurrection oflife.

It's not the resurrection ofdeath, it's a resurrection to new life,and it's not going to be theresurrection of the unrighteous. So,let's talk a bit more detail about theresurrection itself. And there's apicture from story of Lazarus in Johnchapter 11.I was once asked to preach at a funeral,and umthe person said to me, uh "The familydoesn't believe in the resurrection,but we want you to bring them hope.Well, what am I supposed to say?So, I spoke about John 11. I did aword-by-word study of John 11. If you'veYou've never read this chapter before inthe Bible, John 11, it's the story ofthe resurrection of Lazarus.

As I saidbefore, Jesus had three friends, Mary,Martha, and Lazarus. They were twosisters and a brother. They livedtogether. They lived just outsideJerusalem. Jesus would often go thereand hang out at their house.

They werelike um a place of refuge, a home thatwas always open to him. And they werehis close friends.And when he comes to the graveside,there's many of the Jewish leaders arethere. And Mary and Martha are there,and they're weeping. And Martha comes upto Jesus, "If only you'd been here 4days before, you could have savedLazarus from dying."And so uh Martha says to him,she says, "I know that he will riseagain in the resurrection on the lastday."So, Martha had a hope in theresurrection, the resurrection of therighteous, the resurrection of life, asJesus had been speaking about. But Jesuswas going to demonstrate in his ministrythat he has the authority to call thedead forth from their graves.And so, Jesus said to her, and these arebeautiful words, he said, "I am theresurrection and the life.Those who believe in me, even thoughthey die, will live.And everyone who lives and believes inme will never die.

Do you believe this?"She said to him, "Yes, Lord, I believethat you are the Messiah, the son ofGod, the one coming into the world." Andthat phrase, the very first words Jesussays, "I am."Um every time in John's gospel Jesus Iam, like, "I am the bread of life. I amthe good shepherd, etc." Um in theGreek, it's two words. Uh If you justsay "I am" in Greek, it's "eimi."But the the Greek here has two words.It's ego, we get the word ego from that.So it's ego eimi. So Jesus says, I I am.And that's is the the the word, thename. We think of it in English Jesusjust saying, I am.But when God spoke to Moses in theburning bush in Exodus chapter 3,and Moses said, "Who shall I say hassent me?" God said, "I am that I am."That is, I am God.

I have no beginning.I have no end. So when Jesus uses thephrase I am in John's gospel, ego eimiin the Greek, he's letting us know thatthis is the creator of the universespeak.It's not just I'm doing this or I'mdoing that. He's he's claiming to be thethe God of the universe, the creator ofthe universe, when he says, "I am theresurrection the light. I am the goodshepherd." And so forth. And so Jesusasserts in the in the very first thinghe says here, he says, "I'm the creatorof theI am the source of all life.And you're standing by the grave ofLazarus, but I'm the one who's givenlife to every living being on planetEarth.So you can have confidence I can fixthis problem for you.The God of the universe, the creator ofall life, I'm standing beside you.

Ifyou believe in me, Martha, if youbelieve in me here in Maui in 2026, eventhough you die, you will live againbecause of I am the creator of theuniverse and I am the source of alllife. And then Jesus demonstrates hisauthority over death. So when he hadsaid this, he cried with a loud voice,"Lazarus, come out."And the dead man came out, his hands andfeet bound with strips of cloth, and hisface wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said tothem, "Unbind him and let him go." Andso when when they raised Lazarus fromthe dead, the astonishing thing was, youthink that the religious leaders wouldbe feel happy about this.And the religious leaders would say,"Oh, really? He is He is He's justraised a man from the dead who's beendead 4 days." But the text goes on tosay that the religious leaders were soupset about this because the whole worldis going to follow after him if he canraise the dead from the graves, and theywent back to Jerusalem and they plottedto kill him.Better to kill this one man than havethe Romans come and destroy our temple."We don't want to lose our institution,"said those religious leaders, "and so webetter kill the Son of God."But Jesus demonstrates in this passagehere that he has the authority to callanybody from the grave.Many years ago, it was about 5 yearsago,I tell you a story about the kid thatcame to life in the Philippines.No?I lose track of these things.

I'm sorry.Well, there was a kid who was born andit was born 7 months 2 months premature.It was in an animist village where thewitch doctors had said, "No missionariescan ever come here."And the animist doctor was worshipingthe spirits and manipulating thespirits, and there was a teenage mom,she lost her child in childbirth.Born prematurely. And the child waswrapped up and it was put on a funeralpyre. It was going to be burned laterthat day.And the the teenage mom said, "Beforeyou burn my child, invite thoseChristian missionaries, Adventistmissionaries from the next village down,come have them pray over my baby."And the witch doctor says, "No, we'renot going to do that."She says, "It's my baby."The witch doctor says, "The baby wasborn 2 months premature. That means itsays the soul is incomplete.Even if the body comes back to life, thesoul is incomplete."Nonsense thing, butanyway, the mother, she sent a messageand these two Filipino missionaries cameup to that village.And the mother said, "My child is dead.Pray for it."I Can Jesus raise this kid from thedead?And those missionaries prayed, andnothing happened.And the witch doctor said, "Aha!" hesaid, "Jesus cannot raise the dead tolife. We're going to burn this child."The mother says, "No.We're going to have a meal, and thenwe're going to pray one final time."They had a meal,and as they were having that meal, thatbaby from the the the cloth, it coughedinto life.And they wrapped unwrapped the baby, andthe mother was overwhelmed with joy.And um pretty much the entire villagesaid, "We want to be baptized today asChristians."Because the witch doctor said the childis dead, but Jesus has the authority tocall the dead back to life again.And so, that was the story.

That was oneof my own missionaries who was involvedin that in the Philippines just a fewyears ago. I know that in the missionfield, God raises the dead to life,because that's sometimes the only wayyou can break through the forces ofdarknessand the hold that they have overpeople's lives. It doesn't alwayshappen, obviously, but sometimes God inhis mysterious ways does these things,because this is the only way that thegospel can go forward, and people can beliberated from the fear of the spirits.When Jesus himself rose from the dead,the Apostle Paul said it was with power.This is the gospel concerning his son,this is Paul talking about the gospel ofJesus, who was descended from Davidaccording to the flesh, and was declaredto be son of God with what?Power. According to the spirit ofholiness by resurrection from the dead,Jesus Christ our Lord. And that wordpower in the Greek is dunamis.

What worddo you think comes from dunamis inEnglish?Dynamite, exactly. So, that that word isdynamite. Now, let me ask you thequestion. If dynamite goes off in yourlife, is your life ever the same again?No. So, when Jesus rose from the dead,it was like a dynamite explosion.

Thatword is power, but it's like adynamite explosion. And so, when theresurrected Jesus comes into your life,there is a change.Which means that when you follow JesusChrist, and you say, "I'm going tofollow him," there is a change in yourlife. Your life looks different. Yourvalues are different. Your principlesare different.

Your hopes, your fearsare different. And so, when Jesus wasdeclared to be the son of God withdynamite power by his resurrection fromthe dead, that's an indication of thedynamite that Jesus wants to go off inour lives. Now, some people may say,"Well, what about the thief on thecross?" Remember the thief on the cross?And he said, "Jesus," he says, "rememberme when you come into your kingdom."And And then it says, it's on thescreen, it says, "Then he said, 'Jesus,remember me when you come into yourkingdom.'" Jesus replied, "Truly I tellyou," and you see the little comma inred there?"Today you'll be with me in paradise."Now, if your Bible version says, "TrulyI tell you,comma,today you'll be with me in paradise."Does that mean that Jesus was promisingthat he and the thief would be inparadise later that day? Is that what itmeans?Is that what the grammar"Truly I tell you, comma, today you willbe with me."Yeah, that's what he's saying.That's if you put the comma there.Now,also,shift the comma,"Truly I tell you today, comma,you will be with me in paradise."That means I'm telling you today,but sometime in the future you're goingto be with me in paradise.The way you put the commafundamentally shifts the meaning of thatsentence.I know, grammar matters. Look at thosetwo sentences there."Let's eat, Grandpa."Or, "Let's eat Grandpa."What's the difference?It's a comma.

It's like It's like abreath. Like a momentary pause. Likegrammar matters.Okay, grammar absolutely matters. And inthis case, when Jesus spoke with thethief on the cross, the good news for ustoday is there is no comma in the Greeklanguage.So, when we add the commauh if you add the comma umtruly I tell you today you'll be you'llbe with me in paradise, you cannot arguethat Jesus was telling him that thatvery day they were going to be inparadise because that requires a commaafter the words you after I tell you,but there is no Greek in the in thethere's no comma in the Greek language.So, we add the comma and it has aprofound theological significance, butit doesn't exist in the Greek language.And we know that Jesus did not go toparadise later that day after he diedwith the with the with the thief becauseon resurrection morning 2 days later, hedied on Friday, rose on the Sunday,Jesus said to Mary Magdalene, "Do nothold on to me because I have not yetascended to the Father."So, we know that Jesus did not go toheaven on the day he died as some peoplesay with the thief because 2 days laterhe said to Mary Magdalene, "Don't holdme because I have not yet ascended to myfather."And so, that verse that people use herethere"Truly I tell you, comma, today you'llbe with me in paradise." Now you knowhow to respond to that. There is nocomma in the Greek language.And by adding the comma, youfundamentally change the meaning of thesentence, just like grandpa is gratefulthere is a comma in this sentence here.So, what happens in this fourth stage oflife?

The resurrection. The Apostle Pauldescribes it thus. He says, "Behold, Iwill tell you a mystery.We will not all die, but we will all bechanged in a moment, in the twinkling ofan eye, at the last trumpet.For the trumpet will sound, this is thecoming of Christ, and the dead will beraised what?Imperishable, and we will be changed.For this imperishable body must put onimperishability, and this mortal bodymust put on immortality. I say praiseGod for that. That when Jesus comesagain, those who are alive and who arefaithful to him, they will be changed ina moment in the twinkling of an eye atthe last trumpet.

And this mortal bodyputs on immortality, and this perishablebody puts on imperishability, and we arechanged so that we are now fit foreternity. And our mortal bodies have nowbecome immortal. I think that's reallygood news, don't you?Like this the the coming of Jesus is notjust a blessed hope. I would say to youit's our only hope.It's our only hope. It's what keeps usgoing in dark moments.

And what aboutthe resurrection of the wicked?Why does God raise them again at the endof time?We find the answer in Revelation 20:12.It says, "And I saw the dead, great andsmall, standing before the throne, andbooks were opened. Also another book wasopened, the book of life. That was theLamb's book of life that we covered afew nights ago. And the dead were judgedaccording to their work as recorded inthe books." And so the reason God raisesthe wicked from their graves in theresurrection of the wicked um for thefinal judgment, it's so that the entireuniverse knowswho's That's when God showed made adecision who is fit for eternity and whois not fit for eternity. Everybodyunderstands that God's judgments aretrue and just.

And nobody can everquestion those judgments again. Becauseif people question the judgments of God,you have the seed of sin, and you havethe whole sin and problem taking place.Like thiswicked who've been raised from the deadthat final moment of judgment. And thewhat happens to the wicked after that?Bible says this, "Then death and Hadesthrown into the lake of fire. This isthe second death, the lake of fire.Anyone whose name was not found in thebook of life was thrown into the lake offire." So, you may die your first deathum here in Maui.Um but um ultimately, if you areresurrected in the resurrection of therighteous, you are being raised toeternal life. Praise the Lord for that.But if you die here in Maui and you dieapart from God and without faith inChrist as a sinner, then you'll beraised at the end of time for the finaljudgment.

But then after that, you gointo the lake of fire, which is the thecalled the second death. It's not calledum this not called indefinite pain ortorturing or suffering. It's the seconddeath. It's the once and for all finaldestructionof the wicked. And you say, "Well, Idon't want that to happen." Well,if the doctor cuts out cancer from yourlungs tomorrow,you want to take that cancer home on apetri dish and nurture it and say, "Thishas the right to life."Or would you rather that cancer beincinerated at the hospital and beeradicated and be gone forever?I want that cancer gone.So, the only way that God can protectour universeis when sinum is eradicated once and for all.That involves the second deathof those who have rejected God's offerof mercy.Bible says, "Blessed and holy are thosewho share in the first resurrection."That's the resurrection of therighteous.

Over these, the second deathhas no power.But they will be priests of God and ofChrist, and they will reign with himfor a thousand years.When those thousand years are over,you have this beautiful imageyou see on the screen. This is one ofthe most precious passages of scripture.It speaks about when the righteous comedown in the new Jerusalem, the newheaven, the new earth.We read there, it says, "Then I saw anew heaven and a new earth." So,unfortunately, Maui will be no moreand Michigan will be no more in thatmoment. But God is going to create a newheaven and a new earth.It says, "For the first heaven and thefirst earth had passed away, and the seawas no more.And I saw the holy city, the NewJerusalem, coming down out of heavenfrom God, prepared as a bride adornedfor a husband.I heard a loud voice from the thronesaying, "See, the home of God is amongmortals. He will dwell with them, andthey will be his peoples, and Godhimself will be with them. He will wipeaway every tear from their eyes.

Deathwill be no more. Mourning and crying andpain will be no more, for the formerthings have passed away."Isn't that a beautiful picture of thenew heavens and the new world?But everything that causes pain in thisworld is going to be no more. God'sgoing to wipe away every tear from oureyes. It's a beautiful picture of whatGod God has in storefor those who are faithful to him today.And so the Apostle Paul, in conclusion,our time is up.The Apostle Paulsays this.We do not want you to be uninformed,brothers and sisters, about those whohave died,so that you may not grieve as others dowho have no hope.For since we believe that Jesus died androse again, even so,through Jesus, God will bring with himthose who have died.We declare to you by the word of theLord that we who are alive, who are leftuntil the coming of the Lord,will by no means precede those who havedied.For the Lord himself, with a cry ofcommand, with the archangel's call, withthe sound of God's trumpet, will descendfrom heaven, and the dead in Christ willrise first.And we who are alive, who are left, willbe caught up in the clouds together withthem to meet the Lord in the air, and sowe will be with the Lord forever.Therefore, encourage one anotherwith these words.These are beautiful words.And when Jesus comes again,he's going to call the righteous fromtheir graves with the voice of theArchangel, sound of the trumpet of God,and those who died trusting in Christwill be called from their graves. Thosewho are alive when Jesus comes againwill be caught up together so that wemeet our Lord in the air.

And we aretaken from this planet of suffering.That's a beautiful promise in scripture.It means that you know you do not needto grieve at the at the graveside of aloved one.You know that one day Jesus is comingback to call them from that grave to thepromise of eternal life. So, our lastscreen here is this tonight.It's a question that Jesus asked Martha,but it's a question he asks us tonight.Jesus said to her, "I am theresurrection and the life.Those who believe in me, even thoughthey die, will live. And everyone wholives and believes in me will neverdie."And Jesus asks her a question, and it'sa question that we he asks of us tonightas well.Do you believe this?Do you believe this?And she said to him, "Yes, Lord. Ibelieve that you are the Messiah, theson of God, the one coming into theworld."And in response to that, Jesus raisedher brother Lazarusfrom the dead.And that question of Jesus to Marthais the question we can ask tonight.Do you believe this?If you believethat one day we'll hear the voice of theArchangel, we'll hear the trumpet ofGod, we'll see Jesus coming in theclouds of glory with myriads and myriadsof angels, that he's coming to raise allof those who died in with faith in him,and save those who survived Earth'sfinal crisis,then you would then we can live withhope today.We live with hope.That's the blessed hope.It's our only hope.We're not going to have an altar calltonight, but I just want to leave youwith this question.Do you believe this?If you believe this,then we face death not as a as theultimate enemy, but death is a beatenenemy.It was conquered on Calvary.It was conquered on resurrectionmorning.Death may have a sting,but it's not the end of the story.And if we believe what Jesus said here,I am the creator God, I am theresurrection and the life,those who believe in me, even thoughthey die, will live.Everyone who lives and believes in mewill never die.If we believe this, this promise ofJesus,we have the promise of eternal life.Do you believe this?I believe this.My prayer is that we can all believethis promise of Jesus. And when he comesagain,he's coming for me.He's coming for you.

Amen.Let's work close with a word of prayer.Our heavenly Father,we thank you tonight for these promisesof Jesus.Father, I thank you that in a world ofsorrow,in a world of cancer,in a world of aging and dementia,in a world where our bodies age and nolonger function as they did,I thank you, Lord, that we need notdwell on the downside, the decline,sometimes what feels like theinevitable.I thank you that we can see beyond thegrave.We can see beyond the grief.We know that one day Jesus is coming forhis own.I pray, Lord, as we prayed earlier thisweek,that every member, every person whosehead is bowed here tonight,that they will indeed believe thesepromises of Jesus.It doesn't cost any money to believethis.You don't have to sacrifice anything forthis.We simply have to believe in our heart.And when we take Jesus at his word,our names are entered into the Lamb'sBook of Life.And we know, Father, that when Jesuscomes again,He's coming for everyone here tonight.I pray, Lord, thatwhen Jesus comes in the clouds of glory,He's going to come for everyone who ispresent here tonightand all those who are watching online.Father, in a world of suffering, fillour hearts tonight with the blessed hopeand with the only hope.In the name of Jesus we ask.Amen.All right, we're not here for the nexttwo nights, but we are back here onThursday. And uh Brother Ernie, SisterKim, what is your