Hebrews 11:29-38

By faith they passed through the Red Sea as though they were passing through dry land; and the Egyptians, when they attempted it, were drowned. ³⁰ By faith the walls of Jericho fell down, after they had been encircled for seven days. ³¹ By faith Rahab the harlot did not perish along with those who were disobedient, after she had welcomed the spies in peace. ³² And what more shall I say? For time will fail me if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets, ³³ who by faith conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, ³⁴ quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. ³⁵ Women received back their dead by resurrection; [note shift] and others were tortured, not accepting their release, in order that they might obtain a better resurrection; ³⁶ and others experienced mockings and scourgings, yes, also chains and imprisonment. ³⁷ They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword; they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated ³⁸ (men of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground.

Blowing Away the Fog About What Faith Is

Christians and non-Christians can have defective views of what the Christian life really is. Preaching the word of God aims to bring our views of God and his ways more and more into line with the truth. We do this for unbelievers so that you can embrace Christianity on the basis of a true picture of it, rather than a distorted one; and we do it for believers so that you can live your lives on the basis of true views of God and his ways, rather than distorted and deluding and discouraging views.

Glorified and Free on the New Earth

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. ¹⁹ For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. ²⁰ For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope ²¹ that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. ²² For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. ²³ And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. ²⁴ For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees? ²⁵ But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.
Romans 8:18-25

The reason God revealed to us in the Bible what will happen when we die is that knowing what happens to us when we die takes away fear and fills us instead with hope and confidence and anticipation. And when fear goes and hope in God overflows, we live differently. Our lives show that our treasure in God is more precious than the fleeting attractions of sin.

When we relish the hope of the glory of God (Rom. 5:2), we don't yield to the sinful pleasures of the moment. We are not suckered in by advertising that says the one with the most toys wins. We don't devote our best energies to laying up treasures on earth. We don't dream our most exciting dreams about accomplishments and relationships that perish. We don't fret over what this life fails to give us (marriage, wealth, health, fame).

All Appear Before the Judgment Seat of Christ

For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. ² For indeed in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven, ³ inasmuch as we, having put it on, will not be found naked. ⁴ For indeed while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed but to be clothed, so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life. ⁵ Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge. ⁶ Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord—⁷ for we walk by faith, not by sight—⁸ we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. ⁹ Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him. ¹⁰ For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.
2 Corinthians 5:1-10

If you can make the leap of faith in the full blown creed of evolution that grips the minds of many modern people then you will believe that what happens to you when you die is no more significant than what happens to a tree when it dies. It's over. You go out of existence. You feel nothing, know nothing, have no consciousness. Your opinion would be that this sermon series is irrelevant. It has nothing to do with reality—what is really going to happen.

But if you find written on the tablet of your heart the truth that there is a Creator God, and that you are made to have a relationship with him, and that what separates you from whales and dolphins and chimpanzees is not mutations and chemicals, but personhood in the image of God, then you probably will lie awake at night and think about eternity—because, as Ecclesiastes 3:11 says, "God has put eternity in man's heart."

The Dead Will Be Raised Imperishable

Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold, I tell you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, "Death is swallowed up in victory. "O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?" The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.
1 Corinthians 15:50-58

What we saw last week was that the apostle Paul had three preferences about living and dying--in descending order. His first preference was not to die at all but to be alive when Jesus returns and instead of having to experience the separation of soul and body, that he would experience the transformation of his mortal body into an immortal one that would live with Christ for ever in the kingdom.

He says this in 2 Corinthians 5:4, "While we are in this tent (this temporary, mortal body), we groan, being burdened, because we don't want to be unclothed (i.e. bodiless), but to be clothed upon, in order that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life." He does not want to be "unclothed" in the sense of being stripped of his body. He wants his body to be swallowed up into the new spiritual, immortal body at the last trumpet when Christ descends from heaven to establish his kingdom and bring this age to a close. That's Paul's first preference.

At Home with the Lord

2 Corinthians 4:16-5:10

Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For indeed in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven; inasmuch as we, having put it on, shall not be found naked. For indeed while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed, but to be clothed, in order that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge. Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord-for we walk by faith, not by sight-we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. Therefore also we have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.

Today I want to begin a four-week series entitled, "What Happens When You Die?" By "you" I mean believers in Jesus Christ. If you are not a believer, the aim of these messages is to wake you up from the slumber of indifference to the question of death and eternity and to motivate you to consider Jesus Christ as the only way to eternal life and the only escape from hell and eternal death. "I am the way the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father but by me" (John 14:6). There is no other way to God.

John 10:22-30

Since coming to Bethlehem in July, 1980, I have averaged about one funeral per month. One of the things I regret about this experience is that all of you can't share it with me. I know that some of you would not live the way you do if once a month you had to spend three or four hours writing a funeral meditation about the meaning of death, and if you had to think and pray about what you would say to the family, and if you had to stand beside the open hole and the mound of dirt and try to make the decisive farewell significant for the bereaved. I regret that I am the one who does all this once a month, not because it is a hard job and I want someone else to do it, but because it is a gift to me and I would that all of you could share it.

There are two reasons why the ministry of funerals is a gift. One reason is that it keeps my mind and heart awake to the reality and certainty of my death and my wife's death and my sons' death and the death of all of you. It is easy to forget about our dying. Except for those in terrible suffering, death is not usually what we want to happen. It terminates some things we enjoy very much; it severs us from people we love. And for many it is an awful door leading they know not where. Perhaps to judgment and eternal hell, perhaps to utter nothingness. For many it is a great and terrifying unknown. And since our minds cannot endure such constant threat, we very naturally forget. Or, more fundamentally, we really avoid the thought of death by filling our minds with other things. When the Bible says in Hebrews 2:15 that "through fear of death men are subject to slavery all their life," it doesn't mean, of course, that human psychological experience is one of constant fear. It means, rather, that, since death is fearful, and since we impulsively flee fear, man is enslaved to perpetual flight apart from Christ. He may know periods of peace and happiness when for a season he has put the haunting thought of death off his trail. But he will awake and remember that he is a fugitive and must keep running. There is no true freedom where happiness depends on denying the inevitable; there is only slavery disguised in a thousand forms of fun and busyness. And therefore I count the ministry of funerals a gift because it keeps my heart and mind awake to the reality of death and protects me from the enslavements of being a fugitive.

Resurgence hosted an event at Mars Hill Church at the Ballard Campus on October 20th, 2006 called "The Story of the Dead Sea Scrolls." This audio from Dr. Martin Abegg, professor at Trinity Western University and co-director of The Dead Sea Scrolls Institute, presented a very informative seminar on the Dead Sea Scrolls.

The findings of the Dead Sea Scrolls has been hotly debated for the past 50 years and it has not been until the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century that pastors and laymen have been able to grasp the significance of this monumental find. Please listen to this mp3 along with the added question and answer period to be informed and edified from Dr. Abegg. He will show the important relationships between the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Christian faith.

Resurgence hosted an event at Mars Hill Church at the Ballard Campus on October 20th, 2006 called "The Story of the Dead Sea Scrolls." This audio from Dr. Martin Abegg, professor at Trinity Western University and co-director of The Dead Sea Scrolls Institute, presented a very informative seminar on the Dead Sea Scrolls.

The findings of the Dead Sea Scrolls has been hotly debated for the past 50 years and it has not been until the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century that pastors and laymen have been able to grasp the significance of this monumental find. Please listen to this mp3 along with the added question and answer period to be informed and edified from Dr. Abegg. He will show the important relationships between the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Christian faith.

One of the great truths which the Reformers declared and defended was sola gratia which means "only grace" or "grace alone." This phrase emphasizes that salvation is by grace alone. It implies that God saves sinners without reference to their foreseen merits or achievements. He saves them only because it pleases Him to do it. He forgives their sins according to¹ the riches of his grace (Eph. 1:7). The New Testament explicitly teaches this truth. Paul clearly teaches this truth. He teaches it perhaps most clearly in his letter to the church in Ephesus when he reminds them that they were saved by grace alone through faith (2:8-10). The purpose of this article is to look at this passage in Ephesians in order to see what Paul is teaching the Ephesian believers about sola gratia. It will consider the context, content, conclusion, and consequences of the doctrine of salvation by grace alone.

2 Timothy 4:6-8

For me, the end of a year is like the end of my life. And 11:59 P.M. Wednesday night will be like the moment of my death. The 365 days of 1980 are like a miniature lifetime. And these final days are like the last hours in the hospital after the doctor has told me that the end is very near. And in these last hours the lifetime of 1980 passes before my eyes and I face the inevitable question: Did I live it well? Will Jesus Christ, the righteous Judge, say "Well done, good and faithful servant"?