Sunday
Morning Bible Study
December
27, 2009
Introduction
We’ve been following the life of Jesus through John’s gospel.
John’s gospel is a little different from the other gospels. He wrote about 30 years later and had the
advantage of time to look back at the other stories and fill in some of the
blanks – to give us a little clearer picture of just who Jesus was.
In John 5,
Jesus found a man at the pool of Bethesda in Jerusalem, a man who had been sick
for 38 years.
Play video
clip.
Do people see Jesus? Is the gospel preached? Does it speak to the
broken hearted? Does it build up the church? Milk – Meat – Manna Preach for a
decision
:24-30 Life
and Judgment
:24 "Most assuredly, I say to
you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life,
and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.
:24 Most assuredly
– the Greek is “amen, amen”, or
“truly, truly”
More than twenty times in John’s gospel Jesus begins a statement in this
way.
It’s as if Jesus is saying, “Pay attention to what I’m about to say! This is very, very important!”
Jesus will even say this again in verse 25 (“most assuredly”).
:24 has everlasting
life – present tense. It’s
not “will have”, but “has right now”
Everlasting life is very simple to receive.
You simply have to hear what Jesus is saying here, and believe in what the
Father has done in sending Jesus.
It's believing that God's plan for taking care of man's sins came in the
package of Jesus Christ.
:24 has passed
– metabaino – to pass over from one
place to another, to remove, depart
Perfect tense –
it happened in the past and the results continue into the present.
Lesson
Assurance
There are some groups that teach that we can’t really know for sure about
salvation until after we die.
Jesus says something different.
No need to wonder. God wants you to
know for sure. God wants you to know
now. In fact, eternal life starts NOW.
There are a couple of things that will help you know for sure.
1. Believe
John wrote,
(1 John
5:11-13 NKJV) And this is the
testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. {12} He who has the Son
has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. {13} These
things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have
eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of
God.
This is what Jesus is saying. You must believe. If you believe, you have eternal life.
Do you believe in the Son of God? Do you believe He died for your sins?
2. Love
John used the same phrase in one of his letters that Jesus
used here. It’s the only other time that
this phrase “passed from death to life” is used. It’s also used in connection with assurance
of salvation.
(1 John 3:14 NKJV)
We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the
brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death.
One way of knowing that you are saved is the love God puts
in your heart for other believers.
Why is it important that we be “sure” that we are saved?
Because there is one thing that we will all have to face some day – death.
Illustration
Tony Campolo
writes:
I went to my first black funeral
when I was 16 years old. A friend of mine, Clarence, had died. The pastor was
incredible. From the pulpit
he talked about the Resurrection in beautiful terms. He had us thrilled. He
came down from the pulpit, went to the family, and comforted them from the
fourteenth chapter of John. “Let not your heart be troubled,” he said, “’You
believe in God, believe also in me,’ said Jesus. Clarence has gone to heavenly
mansions.”
Then, for the last 20 minutes of the sermon, he actually preached to the open casket. Now, that’s
drama! He yelled at the corpse: “Clarence! Clarence!” He said it with such
authority. I would not have been surprised had there been an answer. He said, “Clarence,
there were a lot of things we should have said to you that we never said to
you. You got away too fast, Clarence. You got away too fast.” He went down this
litany of beautiful things that Clarence had done for people. When he
finished—here’s the dramatic part—he said, “That’s it, Clarence. There’s
nothing more to say. When there’s nothing more to say, there’s only one thing
to say. Good night. Good night, Clarence!” He grabbed the lid of the casket and
slammed it shut. “Good night, Clarence!” Boom!
Shock waves went over the congregation. As the preacher then lifted his
head, you could see there was this smile on his face. He said, “Good night,
Clarence. Good night, Clarence, because I know, I know that God is going to
give you a good morning!” The choir stood and starting singing, “On that great
morning, we shall rise, we shall rise.” We were dancing in the aisles and
hugging each other. I knew the joy of the Lord, a joy that in the face of death
laughs and sings and dances, for there is no sting to death.
Tony Campolo, in the sermon "The Year of
Jubilee," PreachingToday.com
I’ve been to more funerals than I care to think about.
But one thing I’ve learned from funerals – you better be sure about heaven
BEFORE you die.
After you die, it’s too late.
But if you are sure BEFORE you die, it’s a glorious thing.
Illustration
The Empty Chair
A man’s daughter had asked the pastor to come and pray with her father.
When the pastor arrived, he found the man lying in bed with his head propped up on two
pillows and an empty chair beside his bed. The pastor assumed that the old
fellow had been informed of his visit. “I guess you were expecting me,” he
said. “No, who are you?” “I’m the new pastor at your daughters church,” the man
replied. “When I saw the empty chair, I figured you knew I was going to show
up.” “Oh yeah, the chair,”
said the bedridden man. “Would you mind closing the door?”
Puzzled, the pastor shut the door. “I’ve never told anyone this, not even
my daughter,” said the man. “But all of my life I have never known how to pray.
At church on Sunday’s occasionally I used to hear the pastor talk about prayer,
but it always went right over my head..” “I abandoned any attempt at prayer,”
the old man continued, “until one day about four years ago my best friend said
to me, ‘Joe, prayer is just a simple matter of having a conversation with
Jesus. Here’s what I suggest. Sit down on a chair, place an empty chair in
front of you, and in faith see Jesus on the chair. It’s not spooky because he
promised, ‘I’ll be with you always.’ Then just speak to him and listen in the
same way you’re doing with me right now.” “So I tried it and I’ve liked it so
much that I do it a couple of hours every day. I’m careful, though. If my
daughter saw me talking to an empty chair, she’d either have a nervous
breakdown or send me off to the funny farm.”
The pastor was deeply moved by the story and encouraged the old guy to
continue on the journey. Then he shared the good news about heaven being a free
gift and prayed with the man to make his relationship personal with the Lord
even more.
Two nights
later the daughter called to tell the pastor that her daddy had died that
afternoon. “Did he seem to die in peace?” he asked. “Yes, when I left the house
around two o’clock, he called me over to his bedside, told me one of his corny
jokes, and kissed me on the cheek. When I got back from the store an hour
later, I found him dead. But there was something strange. In fact, beyond
strange—kinda weird. Apparently, just before Daddy died, he leaned over and
rested his head on a chair beside the bed.”
:25 "Most
assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will
hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live.
:25 those who hear
will live
Jesus isn’t talking about a physical resurrection that will take place in
the last days. He’ll talk about that a
little later.
He is talking about people who were “spiritually dead”, people who are separated from
God.
(Rom
6:23 NKJV) For the wages of sin is
death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Paul describes us prior to believing as being “dead”:
(Col
2:13 NLT) You were dead because of your
sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you
alive with Christ. He forgave all our sins.
How could a “dead”
person ever come to know God if they are “dead”?
By hearing the “voice of the Son of God”.
That’s what happens when we share the good news of Jesus with another
person.
Illustration
A man was
driving along the highway, and saw a rabbit hopping across the middle of the road. He swerved to
avoid hitting the rabbit, but unfortunately the rabbit jumped in front of the
car and was hit.
The driver, being a sensitive man as well as an animal lover, pulled over to
the side of the road, and got
out to see what had become of the rabbit. Much to his dismay, the rabbit was
dead. The driver felt so awful, he began to cry. A woman driving down the
highway saw the man crying on the side of the road and pulled over. She stepped
out of her car and asked the man what was wrong. “I feel terrible,” he
explained, “I accidentally hit this rabbit and killed it.” The woman told the
man not to worry. She knew what to do. She went to her car trunk, and pulled
out a spray can.
She walked over to the limp, dead rabbit, and sprayed the contents of the can
onto the rabbit. Miraculously the rabbit came to life, jumped up, waved its paw at the two humans
and hopped down the road. 50 yards away the rabbit stopped, turned around, waved and
hopped down the road, another 50 yards, turned, waved and hopped another 50
yards. The man was astonished. He couldn’t figure out what substance could be
in the woman’s spray can!! He ran over to the woman and asked, “What is in your
spray can? What did you spray on that rabbit?” The woman turned the can around
so that the man could read the label. It said: “Hair spray. Restores life to
dead hair. Adds permanent wave.”
We have something WAY better than “hair spray”. We have the power of God.
Paul wrote,
(Rom 1:16 NKJV)
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God
to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the
Greek.
When a person begins to hear that God loves them and that
God wants to forgive them and save them from their sins, something begins to
come alive.
:26 "For
as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in
Himself,
:26 life
– zoe – life; of the absolute fullness of life
This is a quality of about God, that He has “life”. He is known throughout the Old Testament as
the “living God”:
(Deu
5:26 NKJV) 'For who is there of all
flesh who has heard the voice of the living God speaking from the midst of the
fire, as we have, and lived?
(1 Sam 17:26
NKJV) Then David spoke to the men who
stood by him, saying, "What shall be done for the man who kills this
Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel? For who is this
uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?"
(Psa
42:2 NKJV) My soul thirsts for God, for
the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?
Jesus too has
life.
(John
1:4 NKJV) In Him was life, and the life
was the light of men.
Again, Jesus is getting awfully close to this claim of deity.
Jesus isn’t trying to explain away the Jews’ concerns about Him claiming to
be God, He is only reinforcing it.
:27 "and
has given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man.
:27 the Son of Man
–
This may refer to Jesus’ humanity.
He was fully God and fully human.
Perhaps this is speaking of Jesus’ right to judge humanity because He too
was human. He understands us, He
understands what we go through.
This may be a hint again at Jesus claiming to be the Messiah. This comes from an obscure passage in the
book of Daniel where the Messiah is standing before God and being given the
right to rule over the world:
(Dan
7:13-14 NKJV) "I was watching in
the night visions, And behold, One like the Son of Man,
Coming with the clouds of heaven! He came to the Ancient of Days, And they
brought Him near before Him. {14}
Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, That all
peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an
everlasting dominion, Which shall not pass away, And His kingdom the one Which
shall not be destroyed.
Jesus is claiming to be this One – the one who will rule.
:28 "Do
not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves
will hear His voice
:28 graves
– mnemeion – any visible object for
preserving or recalling the memory of any person or thing; a sepulcher, a tomb
Now Jesus is talking about a different kind of “dead” person. One who has actually, physically died and
been buried.
Jesus not only can give spiritual “life” to those who believe, but He can
give actual physical life to those who have been dead and buried.
:29 "and come
forth; those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who
have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.
:29 resurrection
– anastasis (“again” + “stand”) – a
raising up, rising (e.g. from a seat); a rising from the dead
This is not a new concept with Jesus.
The Old Testament also teaches that there would be resurrections when
dead people would come back to life:
(Dan
12:1-2 NKJV) "At that time Michael
shall stand up, The great prince who stands watch over the sons of your people;
And there shall be a time of trouble, Such as never was since there was a
nation, Even to that time. And at that time your people shall be delivered,
Every one who is found written in the book. {2} And many of those who sleep in the dust of the
earth shall awake, Some to everlasting life, Some to shame and everlasting
contempt.
:29 done good
… done evil – does this mean that we are saved by doing good works? I thought we were saved by faith?
Keep in mind that Jesus
has just said (in vs. 24) that it is belief in Him that makes a person be
removed from judgment and condemnation.
(John
3:36 NKJV) "He who believes in the Son has everlasting
life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of
God abides on him."
It’s the person who doesn’t believe in Jesus that will be judged by their
deeds.
The problem is that they will find that their deeds are not good enough.
Lesson
What happens at death?
Where are the dead? Are they lying
in their graves?
When a person
dies, their spirit leaves their body.
The body
is buried in the grave, not the spirit.
Often, the Bible refers to death as “the grave”, because
of the location of the physical body.
The person’s spirit goes to one of two places:
For
the unbeliever, they go to a place called “Hades”.
(Luke 16:22-24 NKJV) "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.
{23} "And
being in torments in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and
Lazarus in his bosom. {24}
"Then he cried and said, 'Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and
send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue;
for I am tormented in this flame.'
For
the believer, the spirit goes immediately into the presence of the Lord,
in heaven.
(Phil 1:23 NKJV)
For I am hard pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be
with Christ, which is far better.
(2 Cor 5:8 NKJV)
We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body
and to be present with the Lord.
I believe that this means that a person’s spirit will be
in heaven, but not their body. That
comes later.
Lesson
Three resurrections
Jesus simplifies the resurrections to just two: the good and the bad. It also sounds like they happen at the same
time. But as we study the Bible, we find
out that there are three separate events that are coming up.
I remember
watching “Let’s Make a Deal” with Monty Hall when I was a kid. Do you remember the end of each show when the
contestant had to choose what was behind “Door #1” or “Door #2” or “Door
#3”? We aren’t talking about doors here,
but resurrections. But you have a choice
of which one you’re going to get. And
best yet, God gives you a peek behind each door.
1. The Rapture
At this event known as the rapture, two kinds of people will receive new,
physical, glorified bodies.
Those that have already died will receive a new body that
will join with their spirit.
Those
of us alive at the time will also get a new body.
(1 Th 4:16-17 NKJV) 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. {17} 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 we shall
always be with the Lord.
2. Tribulation
Saints
After the Rapture, there will be a difficult period of time on this earth
known as the “Tribulation”. During that time there will be people who
come to know the Lord, but they will suffer great persecution and many of them
will be martyred.
These people will receive their new bodies at the end of the Tribulation.
(Rev 20:4 NKJV)
And I saw thrones, and they 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 worshiped the beast or his image,
and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they
lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.
This next period of 1,000 years is called the “Millennium” (not the
Millennium Falcon), when Jesus rules this earth.
3. Unbelievers
Unbelievers will receive a new body as well. Their body will not be made to enjoy the
pleasures of heaven forever, but to endure the pain of hell forever.
This will take place after the Millennium during what is called the “Great
White Throne” judgment.
(Rev 20:11-15 NKJV)
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. {12} And I saw the
dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another
book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works,
by the things which were written in the books. {13} The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and
Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged,
each one according to his works. {14} Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This
is the second death. {15}
And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake
of fire.
Remember “Let’s
Make a Deal”? Sounds pretty tame right
now…You still have a choice of which door you are going to choose. Want Door #1? I hope you
do.
How can you make it through Door #1?
You need to believe
in Jesus.
You need to trust Him to pay for your sins.