06_04 Presenting…The Son of God – Dead are Asleep
The next document, #06_04, Presenting… the Son of God, is Jesus Himself revealing, by demonstration, four major doctrines that He taught through allowing the death of His own close friend, Lazarus.
This greatest of His miracles illustrates:
- The real state of the dead.
- That there will be a resurrection for everyone who has ever lived.
- That He is the Son of God, who will raise the dead.
- That He will indeed be our Judge!
Mark well His teaching on these subjects. Deception is now attempting to belie Jesus’ teaching using spiritualism and communication with the dead! Another necessary part of true Bible Study is to believe Jesus over any other source of information.
Scripture: John 11:1-6, 11-15, 20-24
Title: Presenting… the Son of God!
The Miracle of Lazarus
The 11th chapter of John is the recounting of the greatest of all the miracles Jesus did while on this earth. It is the story of the death, by sickness, of Lazarus, a close friend of Jesus. After four days since his burial, Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead!
It is obvious from the record that Jesus chose to allow Lazarus to die. He chose also to allow him to be buried and be in the grave four days. It was really important to His purpose, because up until the end of three days after death, it was known that the dead body doesn’t alter much at all; but by the fourth day after death, the dead body begins to rot.
That gruesome piece of evidence is only necessary to the record because people at that time were doubting the actual death of the son of the widow of Nain, whom Jesus raised from the dead while the young man was en route to the cemetery. People were saying that that young man could have just been unconscious. But a man dead four days? Now that man was very dead.
Re-Creation and Divinity
Some people at that time even thought that perhaps life could return again to someone who had not yet begun to decay. But no one could be given life again at the point of rot! It would take re-Creation to accomplish that.
Only God could accomplish such a miracle. Yes, only the Creator God could accomplish that resurrection to life! When Jesus finally came, Martha said unto Him, “I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” But Jesus replied, “I am the resurrection and the life! He that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live!”
The Purpose of the Sleep
If there is one miracle Jesus did that could confirm exactly who He was, the raising of Lazarus was it. Let’s notice Jesus’ own words in verses 11 to 15:
- V.11: “Our friend Lazarus sleepeth: but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep.”
- V.14: “Lazarus is dead.”
- V.15: “I am glad, for your sakes, that I was not there, to the intent you may believe.”
Jesus was revealing to all men that death is only a sleep, a full unconsciousness, until the resurrection. Lazarus would be the living proof of both the resurrection at the end of time and of the divinity and power of Jesus Himself!
Death is only sleep. Sleep until Jesus comes back and raises the dead. (See Ecclesiastes 9:5, 6; Psalm 146:4).
The Deception of Spiritualism
Have you heard of so-called “out-of-body” experiences? Of people who died and their spirit went to heaven, then came back? Friend, Satan is trying to give credence to his lies about the state of those who have died!
You don’t go to heaven, or even to hell, at death! You go to sleep until the resurrection! The spirit of man cannot live without the body. A body, plus the breath of life from God, equals a living soul (see Genesis 2:7). Why would there be a resurrection if people don’t require a body in order to have life? Beware the lies of Satan!
The Coming Judgment
The Bible teaches that “We must all stand before the Judgment seat of Christ” (Romans 14:10). Our only protection from Satan’s lies is familiarity with the Word of God.
Look at John 5:28-29. We are now, according to prophecy, at the point in time when Jesus is at the very doors! The hour of His Judgment is come. For the true Christian, Jesus will soon come to call the resurrection of life!
In Revelation 22:12, Jesus states, “Behold, I come quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give every man according as his work shall be.” This happens at the coming of Jesus in power and glory. At the end of the 1,000 years (Rev. 20), the final Judgment shall sit. Whosoever is not found written in the Book of Life shall be cast into the lake of fire.
Closing Hope
Oh, I thank God for the Book of Life! When those who have kept God’s Commandments by faith in Christ come before the throne, we shall not come into condemnation, but will pass from death to eternal life!
“Blessed are they that do His Commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city” (Rev. 22:14).
Let us pray: Our Father in heaven, what perilous times have come! We know that we must not be deceived by those who teach we can communicate with the dead. We recognize that Jesus is Creator, Saviour, and Judge. Get us ready now for His coming, we pray! Amen and Amen!
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