SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/8/2016 9:46 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Introduction to “Two Resurrections”
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: John 5:25-29
Message of the verses: “25 "Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour
is coming and now is,
when the dead will
hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. 26 "For
just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have life in
Himself; 27 and He gave Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man. 28 "Do
not marvel at this; for an
hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice,
29 and will come forth; those who did
the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to
a resurrection of judgment.”
Let’s begin
by looking at the age old question “If a man die, shall he live again?” This
comes from Job 14:14a, and as I said this is the age old question for Job to
ask this shows that this question has been asked for many, many years as Job
was probably a contemporary of Abraham.
Now as we look at the verses seen from John we will get the answer to
this question as we work our way through these verses.
I want to
now look at Ephesians 2:1 “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins,” Paul
is telling his readers that this is the way that all believers use to be, that
is that all people are born spiritually dead as a result of the fall, as a
result of being descendants of Adam.
When a person is born again, born from above they receive new life, they
receive a new spirit and a promise that they will live forever. Notice the highlighted phrase “and now is, as Jesus is
saying that this can happen at that time, what will happen? The dead will hear
His voice and the ones who hear it will live.
Jesus is saying that the new birth is the resurrection of an unbeliever
to being a believer. Now we are not
talking at this point about the bodies of believers, but we will bring this up
too, for because believers have a new spirit given to them at their rebirth,
they all are promised a new body at the resurrection, that is the rapture. Paul writes the following to the Philippians “the
Lord Jesus Christ…will transform the body of [their] humble state into
conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has
even to subject all things to Himself (Phil. 3:20-21).”
Now we also
need to bring up the truth of unbelievers being resurrected and also given a
new body, a body that when it is put into hell will never burn up. Now we went over this when we studied the book
of Revelation last year, so this is not new ground, but it is a sobering truth
to understand, especially if one reading this has not been born from above.
The promise
of the resurrection is not new as we see it also in the Old Testament, even
from the book of Job who asked the question “If a man dies will he live again?” Job also wrote “25 “As for me, I know that my
Redeemer lives, And at the last He will take His stand on the earth. 26 “Even after my skin is destroyed,
Yet from my flesh I shall see God; 27 Whom I myself shall behold, And
whom my eyes will see and not another. My heart faints within me!’”
When we
studied the book of Daniel we learned from Daniel 12:2 “"Many of those who sleep in the
dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to
disgrace and everlasting contempt.”
We learn the following from Hosea, “Shall I ransom them from the power
of Sheol? Shall I redeem them from death? O Death, where are your thorns? O Sheol, where is your
sting? Compassion will be hidden from My sight.” Paul used these words in 1 Corn. 15:55 where
he wrote “"O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY? O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR
STING?"” John MacArthur writes “New
Testament passages such as Matthew 22:29-32, John 11:24; Acts 24:15, and
Hebrews 11:35 also allude to the Old Testament teaching on the resurrection.”
As we work
our way through these verses we will see more about the resurrection of the
body, but at this time I want to quote MacArthur again as he concludes his
introduction to this section: “In the
previous section (vv. 17-24), Jesus startled and outraged His opponents by
claiming to be God, and thus exempt from their manmade Sabbath
restrictions. His claim, in large part,
was built on two key realities: that He had the authority to give life, and
that He had the authority to judge (vv. 21-22).
In verse 24, He showed how those divine prerogatives affect sinners:
those who believe in Him receive eternal life, while those who reject Him will
be judged. Verses 25-29 further
illustrate those truths, presenting both the spiritual resurrection of
believers and the physical resurrection that awaits everyone.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: “2Co 5:17 Therefore if anyone is in
Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things
have come.”
My Steps of Faith for
Today: To get the truth of the above
statement to those who need to hear it.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question: “40 days and 40 nights” (Mark 4:2).
Today’s Bible question:
“What tool did Aaron use to make the golden calf?”
Answer in our next SD.
3/8/2016 10:29 AM
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