The Last Day and the Afterlife

 Praise Jesus today, brothers and sisters in the Lord. We can be encouraged and take great courage in the fact that when we are absent from this body, we are present WITH the Lord granted we walked our life in the truth of Jesus Christ. We daily have to deny ourselves, pick up our cross, and follow Jesus to the very end of our life. What I wanted to speak about today is a couple deceptions that are in the Christian church that make some people sad or make people feel good about a lie, and that is the reality of both heaven and hell. We know that hell is real. It's a place that Jesus talked about frequently where the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched. We know that it is eternal. Jesus spoke about it in such manner. And he even said to Judas that it would be better that that man was never born. So obviously, if annihilation were true and you just cease to exist, that would be 1 in the same thing as Judas never being born.

But the fact is after Judas committed suicide, he went to the lake that burns with fire that Jesus spoke of because he rejected God, and the last act that he did was suicide. He killed himself. Jesus clearly said it would be better for him that he was never born. Not just because he was the one who turned him in, but because of the torment he would experience in the afterlife ever after that. Likewise, heaven is real.

It's a place where we go when we endure with Jesus to the very end. And also, for those of us that belong to our father in heaven, when we die, we will immediately go to the place where God resides, that he has made for us. There is not a waiting place. There is not this, purgatory idea, and it's not, soul sleep where we just sleep in the ground for a 1000 years. Now there are some churches and some Christians that believe in soul sleep, and they believe that you just stay in the ground for a 1000 years, or a 1000000 years, or however long until Jesus returns, and that all Christians for all time, from the beginning of time up until now if you die, will lay dead in the dirt until the great judgment throne of God when he resurrects everyone on the final day.

Interestingly, if we look what the final day is, the final day is not the final day of the world or the earth, but the final day actually represents our final day, our final breath. So when Jesus is saying endure to the end, he's not saying to you, endure to the end of the world or the end of the universe until the day that the whole world disappears and disintegrates, but he's speaking, endure to the end of your life. Whatever your life is, you must endure with Jesus and overcome to the very end of it. And when you endure to that day, on that day that you physically die, then if you have overcome in the name of Jesus, you will inherit everlasting life. This is a really cool thing, guys, because this gives us hope that our God is the God of the living and that we will immediately be with him in everlasting life if we believe. We don't have to soul sleep or wait 10 years, or a 1000 years, or however many years it is for the Lord to return as the Christians understand it. Because Jesus will return for you as soon as you complete your own life, as soon as your life ends. Now a couple things that were coming to my memory today, one was that when Jesus was at the transfiguration, he saw a couple people that had died, Elijah, Moses, and those people were not soul sleeping. But he saw them in the spiritual realm, and they were alive with his father in heaven. No soul sleep.

And later, when Jesus talks to the Sadducees, and we know that the Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection of the dead. He said that God, his father, is the God of the living, not the God of the dead. If it were true that we sleep after we die and that our soul sleeps in the earth until the last day, meaning the last day of the universe or the last day of the earth, then it would have to be said that God is the God of the dead until the last day when he resurrects, and then God can be considered the God of the living only after he has resurrected those dead bodies. But that is not the truth. The truth is Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, all the patriarchs, all the disciples who put their faith in Jesus are living today in the Kingdom of God in eternity, making God the God of the living and not the God of the dead, and that is how it's to be interpreted.

That's clearly what Jesus said and clearly how everyone who has eyes to see will see it. God is the God of the living, not the God of dead people. Therefore Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Jonah the prophet, all these other guys who serve God in their lifetime and overcame all the trials in this life. They're not dead sleeping in their grave waiting for the final Bemessie or the final judgment throne of God. Their judgment has already come, and God has already judged in their favor, and they're already in an everlasting life with our father in heaven.

So we can take great joy and encouragement in the fact that God, our father, is the God of the living. And if you are living in Jesus Christ, and if you endure to the end, you can also have this hope that you will immediately be with the Lord in everlasting life. You will not have to wait. Interestingly, throughout the years, Jews that were both Pharisees, Sadducees, had this kind of idea that the last day meant the last day of the world and that no one would be resurrected from the dead until the last day, meaning the last day of all people on the earth. And one example of this was when Jesus's friend Lazarus dies, remember he was dead for 4 days, Jesus tarried in this town and it took Jesus a while to come into the town and Mary and Martha are saying to him how his body is already stinking in the grave and how if Jesus was there, Lazarus wouldn't have died yet, but Jesus then says that it's to their advantage that he didn't come because, you know, they're gonna see the glory of God now that he has come and is there.

 

And Jesus says to her, I'm gonna read John chapter 11 starting in 23, Jesus sayeth unto her, thy brother shall rise again. So Martha said unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day. And see, you have to understand when Christians and also Jews think of the last day, they're not thinking of the last day of someone's physical life. They're thinking of the last day of the world after everything has come to completion, all the prophecies have been fulfilled, sometime a 1000000 days in the future. And upon that day, God will then resurrect those that are worthy, and the rest he will leave in the dirt to then spend their judgment in hell.

So that is how the Jews saw it, that's obviously how Martha saw it, and it's how many Christians see it today. They they think that their soul sleep or that you won't get your, your heavenly body until years years in the future. And this day will come someday in the future after a rapture and all this stuff that the church has taught. But let's see what Jesus does. So Martha said into him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.

Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever live and believe in me shall never die, believest thou this?' She said unto him, 'Yea, Lord, I believe that thou art the Christ, the son of God, which should come into the world.' And when she had so said, she went her way and called Mary her sister secretly saying, the master has come and calleth for thee. As we know, guys, Jesus calls Lazarus out of the dead. And even after 4 days when he would start rotting in the tomb, Lazarus hears Jesus's voice, he comes out fully with the grave clothes, and all people are frightened.

They are amazed. Those that believe in Jesus are completely astonished. They put their faith in Jesus right there, as would you I. But those who are enemies of Jesus are so appalled that he did this. They immediately try to contrive a way that they will kill Jesus because they go out saying everyone is gonna believe in this prophet.

He can open the eyes of the blind, open the ears of the deaf. He can raise the dead after 4 days. How are we gonna stop people from believing in a guy that does this in plain daylight? And they even said, we're gonna lose our kingdom here on earth if people believe in this Jesus and then the Romans are just gonna take it all from us. So they try to secure their boundaries and they try to figure out a way how to silence Jesus and kill him.

Crazy. Crazy that there are people out there that don't care that Jesus can save them and do a miracle, that he can raise the dead, he can give them life. That is crazy to me that people don't see, that they don't they just have nothing to lose. I have known people even on their death beds, their old age. They have nothing to lose, guys.

 

And still they're unwilling to put their faith in Jesus. They're not willing to give up, the absolutely nothing of a life that they have. You know, it it may make sense in the world when you're young that you have something to live for other than Jesus. Maybe you're living for money, you're living for pleasure, you're living for women. But it's crazy to me that people will live their whole life making excuses.

And then even when they're 80, 90 years old, and on their deathbed, some of these people are still rejecting their only hope in Jesus. It's very sad. It's very sad that the Pharisees and that the modern day Christians today literally just hope that there's no resurrection of the dead. They will tell you there's no hell. They will say don't worry about it.

The afterlife probably doesn't exist anyway. And they don't care that Jesus is the risen Messiah, that he can resurrect people from the dead, give them hope and life. But for those of us that see these miracles, Jesus becomes our Lord. We worship him. We don't care that other people are saying, oh, you can't worship Jesus.

He's just the son of God. He's not worthy to be worshiped. We don't believe any of that rubbish. We worship Jesus. We praise his holy name just as all the angels have done forever and ever.

This is our King who was and who is and who will be forevermore. The kingdom is his forever and ever, and every tongue, every nation, every person will confess even if they hate Him that He is Lord and God. Jesus is Emmanuel, He is God with us. He's the one that resurrects people from the dead and gives us life. And if we put our faith in him, today we will have life.

We will be resurrected spiritually from the dead. It doesn't matter how we interpret the words of the Apostle Paul, it doesn't matter all the doctrines in the church, Jesus will resurrect you today, he will give you life today. You don't have to wait. And if you endure with Jesus each day of your life putting your faith in him, denying yourself, putting to death the old man of the flesh and letting that new man be built up by the Holy Spirit, then Jesus will live in you. The return of Jesus Christ will be today for you, not a 1000 years in the future.

Jesus will return to earth right now for you. He will be in you in your heart. He will return into you and be living in you for now and into eternity. And when you live for him until the last day of your life, then you will be raptured so to speak or caught up into the clouds with Jesus because you've lived with Him, you know Him. He is your personal Lord and your personal King, and He will rapture you at that moment, not in a 1000 years, not after a 7 year tribulation, you already had gone through your tribulation.

So the moment you die will be the day that you meet Jesus face to face. You will know that He is in you and you in Him and you will know your Lord. It won't be you just meeting a Bible or meeting some scripture verses. It will be as the Apostle Paul spoke that you will finally meet him face to face. This world hates Jesus.

They hate God. They hate revelation. They hate the truth. Any words of life to them are bitter, they're hateful, they despise it, they make fun of it, they mock it, they try to tear down anything the spirit of life is doing. But for those of us that have our faith in Jesus Christ, we know that he offers the words of life even if they are the difficult words, the hard words to digest.

We continue to go back to him because only Jesus has the words of life. Jesus says, eat my flesh and drink my blood. When Jesus said that most of all the disciples who were on the outside, you know, those 5,000 men that followed him for food the day before, all of them started to walk away saying, who can understand this? We're not gonna be a cannibal. We're not gonna eat this guy's flesh.

We have a father in heaven. Who is this Jesus? They walked away from him and Jesus turned to his own disciples and he said, are you gonna turn away from me also? And then Peter said, Lord, where will we go? Only you have the words of life.

That is where I want to be. I want to be with Jesus because my hope isn't in my money, not in my wallet, not in retirement, not in my car, not in my house, not in the securities and structures and safety nets of this world But my security and my refuge and my rock is in my salvation of my King, Jesus Christ. He is king of kings. He's the God who was, the God who is, and who forever will be. Is your faith in the rock?

Do you have his hedge of protection around you? Or are you like those Christians in the world who are deceived, who think that they have protection because they're in religion? Let us not be like those who are self righteous, thinking that we're right because we go to church, because we've said the prayer of salvation, and think that we are once saved, always saved. But let let us be truly humble before God, daily working out our salvation with fear and trembling, asking for the guidance of the Holy Spirit, not seeking the counsel of men in things that are of eternity, but the counsel of the Holy Spirit who is given to us to lead us and to guide us into all truth and to bring into our memory the things that he's already taught us and to teach us even things to come. So where is your hope?

Is your hope in Jesus, the resurrected king, who will resurrect you on the last day, who will bring you up the day that you die in the everlasting life, or is your hope in this world? I just hope that as a brother in the Lord, I can encourage you in these last days to put your faith in Jesus Christ. None of us know how long we have. We don't know if nuclear war will break out as they talk about all the time now on the Internet. We don't know if Russia or China will start another 3rd war or start a 3rd war that that's gonna destroy everyone.

We don't know if famine or pestilence will break out. The world is a very insecure place. There's no security in the world. Even the kings will say, fall on us and they will dig tunnels under the ground, and still that will not keep them from the judgments that are coming on this world. If we want protection, it's not about just running to the hills or running underground into underground tunnels or having a food source saved up, nestled away safely in some storage bin.

But the true security is in Jesus and in eating his flesh and drinking his blood. Are we being nourished from heaven such as how the Israelites were being nourished by manna from heaven or are we putting our identity and security in the arm of the flesh thinking that we will be secure when everything hits the fan by our own securities? Man, you won't be able to secure yourself enough, there's not enough that you can do to get yourself enough that you can do to get yourself through even a year, let alone 7 years or the rest of your life, however long that is. You would do better to cry out to your Messiah for mercy and say, Lord, save me. Save me from my sins.

Save me from my enemy. Please give me hope. Let me not be discouraged or suicidal or beat down or destroyed by the enemy, but give me hope, give me direction, give me clarity, give me renewed strength so that I can endure to my last day, whatever that is. And also pray that you can bear good fruit so that you can be counted worthy in the last day to escape the judgments that are coming on the rest of this world. Most people, including Christians, are not gonna be counted worthy because they were just religious.

They had their security in their church, and in their Bible, in their family, but they never had their security in their messiah, in the savior of this world. Jesus already made the way for us. He has already died. He is resurrected. The Christians celebrate this every Easter.

But what they should be considering is their own resurrection. How they should be crying out to Jesus for their own resurrection because they're spiritually dead. And anything that is spiritually dead is eventually gonna be cast out into the fire. We wanna be spiritually resurrected. We want spiritual life that we can endure with our Messiah who already has been resurrected from the dead, who has already made the way.

And if we put our faith in him, then he resurrects us. Evil falls off of us, we're purged, we're purified and made as pure as glass and refined as those metals are spoken of, those 12 metals in Revelation, and were made ready for the wedding supper of the lamb. We need to prepare. Jesus is on the way for His bride, for those who are holy and pure. And a lot of people will not be prepared.

They're wasting time. They haven't secured themselves with Jesus. They haven't bound the strong man as Jesus spoke prophetically. They're not making the way for the Lord in their own hearts but they're wasting time with TV, entertainment, the pleasures of this life, living sinful lives, gratifying the desires of their flesh, gossiping, hating their neighbor, slandering others, living for the gospel of demons that is polluting the way of the truth, they're scattering the brethren, persecuting people even unto death. Instead of living holy and being separate, they're joining themselves with the antichrist of this world.

Where will we be in this whole war of Armageddon? And each of these small battles that come up in our life, will we be victorious? Is Jesus Christ fighting our battles? Are we overcoming in the name of the lamb by the word of our testimony? Do we have a testimony?

And are we overcoming by it and by the blood of Jesus Christ? Or have we lost sight because the light is no longer in us? Jesus said, your eye is the light of your body, but if it has become dark, how great is that darkness? The true light, the light of the world, has already come. And if you receive him, he becomes the light.

He becomes your eye. He will come in you. He will be in your body, and you will become part of the body of Christ. But so many Christians don't have the light of the world in them. They're looking for a light in all these dark places.

They're looking for joy and happiness in places that they will never find, and they're seeking God in all the wrong spots. If you want truth, you need to go to Jesus. He is the truth, the life, and the way. A lot of people think Christians are silly. It will come out eventually that the only ones who had the truth are those light bearers, those Christians that were true disciples of Jesus who had the light inside of them in their hearts and who sought after a kingdom that did not exist on this planet.

A kingdom that is spiritual, that can't be achieved by human hands or the setting up of brick and mortar churches, but truly a kingdom that is chiseled out of the rock without human hands that comes to destroy every other kingdom in the whole universe that brings it down from the beginning of time all the way to the end of time. And that rock will become a kingdom that is forever and ever with a king that never comes to an end. And that is the kingdom we wanna become a part of. It's much better than having stock in some big company. You wanna be joined into this kingdom.

You wanna be accepted into it. You don't wanna be ashamed of it because if you're ashamed, the son of man and all the holy angels and all the holy prophets that belong to this kingdom will reject you. Those who are ashamed, the son of God will also be ashamed of them. So put yourself in the righteousness of God. Ask him to purge you and purify you and make you white and clean that you will be accepted and counted worthy to overcome and escape all these things that are gonna happen in the end times.

 

Put your faith in Jesus no matter how many people think that you're silly, no matter how many people cast you out and mock you for what they say is your silly religion. Put your faith in Jesus because it will be known to everyone, every king, everyone great and small that the only ones who are wise are the Christians who put their faith in this messiah, the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. This king who came in humility to give salvation to all people who would likewise humble themselves as a servant and serve him even unto death, denying themselves, denying the old way, and receiving the new covenant, that is the shedding of blood. I hope this message reaches the ears of some who can hear it and that you would put your faith in Jesus Christ. So I pray, Lord Jesus, for my fellow brothers and sisters who wanna hear your truth.

I don't pray for the world or the ungodly or those who don't have an ear to hear, but I pray for those who have an ear to hear, who you have given it to them to have salvation and be joined into the kingdom of God and their feet set upon the rock. I pray that you would open the ears of the deaf and open the eyes of the blind, that they would come into true faith and that they would speak in new tongues and have dreams and visions like the prophet Joel speaks of, and that they would overcome and be made white and clean and purged and be made new, and that they would be ready for the wedding supper of the lamb and the return of the lord. I pray this in your in your name, lord Jesus. Amen.