Dr MJ Du Plessis Reformed Church Bellville 5 November 2006 (morning) Scripture NIV

REFORMED CHURCH BELLVILLE: SUNDAY 10 DECEMBER 2006: MORNING SERVICE

Sing before: Psalm 89:7

Let us commence this meeting with God by declaring openly to one another and to God:
Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth. Beloved grace and peace be to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, through the mighty working of God the Holy Spirit.
Amen

Psalm of praise: Psalm 33:1+7

Confession of faith: Apostolic

I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.
And in Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son, our Lord who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried. He descended into Hell, the third day He rose again from the dead, He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty, from there He shall come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, a holy catholic* Church, the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting.

Amen.

After the reading of the Law we confess our guilt and pray for forgiveness and a new life before God with Psalm 84:2
Law
Psalm: 84:2

Prayer:

Doxology
Worship
Confession of sins
Forgiveness
Gratitude
Prayer for the need of the congregation for the church, the authorities and the sinful world and appeal to God's promises.
General prayer
Enlightenment from the Holy Spirit for the sake of the ministry of the Word.

Amen

Psalm: 24:4

Scripture: Revelation 2; Luke 16:19-31; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
Text: Revelation 2:10+11

"Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life".

"He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes will not be hurt at all by the second death. "

A number of families in our congregation were visited by death the past weeks which again gave rise to a number of questions about death. Bearing this in mind we shall today reflect on what the Bible teaches us about death.

People have always whenever a loved one dies had worries and questions about death.

For this reason the Lord included this passage in 1 Thessalonians 4 in His revelation – because He does not want us to be ignorant about what happens to the dead.
He reveals to us what happens to the dead so that we do not sorrow like those people who have no hope.

The Bible is the only place where we can find the Lord's revelation about this and where we find comfort about these things. That is why we go there to seek the answers.

We consider the following:

1.         What is the first death and the first resurrection of which the Bible speaks?
2.         What is the second death and the second resurrection that has no power over the true believer?

1.         What is the first death and the first resurrection of which the Bible speaks?

Our misunderstanding about death goes back to the fall into sin. It is there that all went wrong. There we developed this fear of death as the Lord's punishment for our sins. And who does not fear the Lord's judgment of his sins?

It started when the Lord spoke the words that as from the Fall death would be the punishment for our sins and that the earth would be cursed because of us.
As from that moment we no longer had direct access to the Lord.
Our unrighteousness must now first be punished before we can be at peace with God.
We are also terminally ill for our spirit was also seriously injured.
We therefore find ourselves in a miserable condition.

But the Lord disposed that something would happen that would cure us, that we be liberated from the eternal death to which we are condemned and live – this time eternally.

That is your comfort – we shall be resurrected from death – hear how clearly this is stated in Romans 8:10-11: "But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you".
It deals precisely with our bodily resurrection from death – also quicken your mortal bodies.

What is death? What happens when I die?

The Lord created us immortal.

Our death here is only a disposal of our bodies.
When our body dies we continue to live on without interruption from the moment of not being here on earth to before the throne of the Lord.
This we call the first death. All people die the first death.

Ecclesiastes 12:5: "when men are afraid of heights and of dangers in the streets; when the almond tree blossoms and the grasshopper drags himself along and desire no longer is stirred. Then man goes to his eternal home and mourners go about the streets."

That moment brings the final division among people – then we are also past the point of no return of believing or not believing.

As from that moment we are either in heaven or in hell.
This we see in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus who each had immediately arrived at his last abode. Remember also what the Lord said to the criminal who was crucified next to him.

Luke 23:43: "Jesus answered him, 'I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise'."

This condition does not last long – only for as long as the earth shall endure.

The moment the Lord returns everything changes immediately. Nothing then remains the same.
What happens then is revealed to us in 1 Thessalonians 4. The second resurrection occurs then.
We have just read it together.

1 Thessalonians 4:16 "For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first."

Nobody shall escape this moment.

The Lord shall give a command that all the bodies of the dead shall be resurrected and recreated.
Not all will be recreated to be with the Lord on the new earth. Some will go straight to hell with their body and soul reunited.

Revelation 20 12+13 "And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done."

What about the people who are then still alive?

At that moment the Lord will change them – they will become just as perfect and glorious as the true believers whose souls shall come back with the Lord Jesus from heaven and be reunited with their recreated body.
We have heard what the Lord tells us:

1 Thessalonians 4:17 "After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord for ever."

Death is followed by resurrection. The resurrection of the Lord Jesus is our guarantee of this.

Our life after death is guaranteed so securely by God that we are considered to be in the hereafter already now.

It is not written that we shall be there someday.
This fact is so overwhelmingly true that the Bible teaches that we are already there with Christ.

Revelation 20:6 "Blessed and holy are those who have part in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years."

2. What is the second death and the second resurrection that has no power over the true believers?

Of this terrible occurrence we read in the following passages:

Revelation 20:14 "Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death."

Revelation 21:8 "But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practise magic arts, the idolaters and all liars – their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulphur. This is the second death."

You would have noticed that the Bible tells us that the faithful shall arise first.

Their bodies at God's command resurrected first and united with their souls.
They shall meet the Lord in the air – He therefore takes them away from the earth.

Thereafter the resurrection continues – the other people are also resurrected at God's command. Their bodies and souls are also re-united. But their final destination and how they are treated is completely different.

In Revelation 14 we read that the Lord entrusts this judgment to an angel and this angel is hard with the people.

Revelation 14:17-20 "Another angel came out of the temple in heaven, and he too had sharp sickle. Still another angel, who had charge of the fire, came from the altar and called in a loud voice to him who had the sharp sickle, "Take your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of grapes from the earth's vine, because its grapes are ripe". The angel swung his sickle on the earth, gathered its grapes and threw them into the great winepress of God's wrath. They were trampled in the winepress outside the city, and blood flowed out the press, rising as high as the horses' bridles for a distance of 1 600 stadia."

The truth is:

That the Lord Jesus Christ reveals Himself as the living Saviour who has compassion and sympathy with our pain and shares it with us.
He reveals Himself as the One who has already conquered death and who shall let us too conquer death – that is the contents of this epistle.
The Lord knows our sorrows but He encourages us.
He wants us to know that the sorrows have a limit that cannot be passed, but we will through his merit pass that limit and then we shall be with Him eternally without heartaches and sorrow.

Can you imagine how often a true believer has asked:

Is it all worth the trouble?
Am I not perhaps crazy to bear so much pain for the sake of Jesus Christ?

Let us consider this question. Is belief in Jesus Christ worth the trouble?

It is no secret that being a Christian can bring us many troubles.
Not only death brings us pain and suffering.
There are many other troubles that carry in them the same pain and suffering as death.

The Lord Jesus promises us salvation from all our troubles through the propitiation that He merited on the cross.

This salvation sounds so simple, but it did not occur so simply for the Bible tells us that in this process of propitiation and salvation Jesus was pierced.

He was also crushed and punished.
Eventually He was all wounds.

The New Testament describes it fully – all ended in the death of Jesus and in His resurrection.

The Lord teaches that He Himself is going to die because He cares for us. The death of the Lord Jesus Christ was to bear the punishment.
His resurrection was to acquire life and to share it out and to let us too arise from death.
His Second Coming is to execute all that He promised.

Isaiah says that the purpose of it all was to cure us. Listen to what Isaiah says:

Isaiah 53:5 "But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed."

The Lord demands of us that we believe this. We have read together what we must believe.

1 Thessalonians 4:14 "We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him."

There is a difficulty arising from the different original manuscripts causing a difference in translation. According to the one Jesus shall bring the dead with Him and according to the other Jesus shall take the dead to Him. The essential fact is clear – all the dead shall be with the Lord.

Listen to what God teaches:

Romans 6:6+8 tells us that God loves us.
Because of that He did not want to leave us in the hands of Satan, where we put ourselves with the Fall into sin.
He sent His Son to conquer death for us so that we might again know God's grace.

When we were still weak Jesus at the right time died for sinners. Hence it is written in Romans 14:9 that for this very reason Christ died and returned to life so that He might rule over both the dead and the living.

That means that even now we are governed by Him.
Which means that death and the grave do not have the final say over us because Jesus lives and from heaven He reigns over His faithful.

Jesus said that He lives and that we shall live (John 14:19).

This means that our life truly commences fully only after this earthly life.
That is strongly emphasized by Ephesians 2:4-6 where it is written that we have already been made alive with Christ and that we are with Him in heaven.

Against this background we hear the words of the Lord Jesus in Revelation 22:13 where he reveals Himself to us: "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End". He is the First and the last."

He has power over life and death, because He overcame death.
He therefore has also the strength and power to let us be victorious in the struggle in life.

In all our troubles we must look to the Lord.

He takes us past our struggle and suffering to the life eternal where He is.
On the cross He converted for all of us who truly believe our sorrows and death into life eternal, joy and glory for His Church.

That is the great comfort of which the Lord speaks in this passage.

True children of the Lord, true adorers of God and His Word, are loved and protected by the Lord Jesus so that at the second death they do not go to hell but enter heaven by God's grace.
Hence there is great gain in being able to deal with the sorrows that come over you to the greater glory of God.

In Revelation 2:10 the Lord proclaims His grace of the true believers.

Note what is being said – the Lord is not going to remove that which causes suffering.

In fact, the Lord tells us that the faithful will bear much sorrow and He tells us who causes it – the devil - "the devil will put some of you in prison to test you …".

The devil is the one who causes all that is the opposite of life and happiness and peace. But let us not fail to see God's grace.

Satan is unable to cause unending harm. This passage says so clearly.
On the cross the Lord Jesus destroyed the devil's works
He destroys all the troubles the devil causes – especially death and what goes with it.
He replaces it with the crown of life eternal that He gives us. We survive the period of corruption.

That which God gives us in Jesus Christ last longer than Satan's works and the consequences thereof.

It is written that the period of persecution will be 10 days.
That is a symbolic figure and signifies that Satan is limited – the Lord has so limited him and the devil cannot himself decide how long the period shall be.

The persecution is concluded with the crown of life that we receive from the Lord Jesus. That is kingship to reign with life over death and corruption. What more may one ask for?

Church of the Lord, the Lord's message to you is not to fear suffering, for all sufferings are limited and temporal. It does not accompany us into eternity. Be faithful unto death, for with death our struggle and sorrow will change into the life of a king who lives with God in perfection.

Amen

Closing prayer
Closing Psalm: 47:4

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
Amen

Dr MJ Du Plessis
Reformed Church Bellville
10 December 2006 (morning)
Scripture NIV