Welcome to this week's edition of the Weekend Sermon. I want to thank everyone who reads the sermons each week. I enjoy writing these messages, and I look forward to this time each week.
I have to make some decisions pretty soon about my job. I've been working at my current job for about 18 months now. I am grateful for my job. However, the stress of the job is really getting to me. I have to deal with numerous irate people every day, and its bothering me. I really need to find something different to do. I want to get into full-time ministry. Please pray for me in this regard as it is an important time of decision.
Also, please pray for me in the upcoming week as I have some doctor's appointments. I am not really looking forward to the next few days.
As you go to prayer this week, please continue to pray for peace in the world. Syria and Iraq are just a mess. Central African Republic and South Sudan also need our prayers. Continue to pray for an end to the Zika virus.
We have been praying each week for the message of the Gospel to reach the nations of the world. This week, let us focus our prayers on Uzbekistan and Algeria.
Since the beginning of the year, we have been in a series of messages on what we can learn about the Christian faith from the Apostles' Creed. Today is the final message in our Apostles' Creed series. I want to focus on the final two phrases of the Creed in today's message as they are related to the doctrine of last things. Our message today focuses on the resurrection of the body and everlasting life.
If you have been reading the sermons for awhile now, you will now that I have dealt with the doctrine of the bodily resurrection and everlasting life on other occasions. However, it is an important area of belief, and it never hurts to emphasize what the Scriptures and our Lord emphasize.
Many people, including some Christians, do not understand what the Bible teaches about the life to come. They do not understand the doctrine of the bodily resurrection. Some have the mistaken notion that when we are with Jesus, we are just going to be spirits floating around. This is not what the Bible teaches.
First of all, I think that the idea of the resurrection of the body is not understood because some Christians throughout the centuries have had a negative view of the physical. They view the spiritual as good and the physical realm as evil. This is not Biblical teaching. God created all things good. Sin has corrupted God's creation, and that is one of the reasons Jesus came. He came to restore all things to the original state in which all things were originally made.
Jesus rose bodily from the grave. His spirit did not just rise, His body rose from the grave. He had a physical form. Thomas was able to touch the nail prints in Jesus' hands. Jesus ate with His followers post resurrection.
Jesus' body was different post resurrection. He had a glorified body. Philippians 3:21 tells us that one day, those who are in Christ will have a body like unto Christ's glorified body.
Paul talks about this concept extensively in I Corinthians 15. I Corinthians 15:44 tells us that our natural body will die, but at the resurrection, we will be given a spiritual body. Paul goes on to say that our corruptible bodies will be changed. We will then have incorruptible bodies. Death will be swallowed up in victory. In our resurrected bodies, we will never die.
There is a lot more to be said about this doctrine, but now I want to move on and focus for a few moments on the concept of the life everlasting.
Jesus told us in John 3:16 that whoever believes in Him would have eternal life. In my favorite passage of Scripture, John 11:25-26, Jesus states that He is the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in Jesus even though they die they shall live. Whoever lives and believes in Jesus shall never die. Jesus would tell His disciples in John 14 that He was going to prepare a place for them that where He was, they could be with Him forever. Revelation 21 and 22 tell us what awaits the believer in eternity.
Through His death and glorious resurrection, Jesus provided us the way to eternal life. We can live forever with Jesus if we will believe that He is God come in the flesh. We need to believe that He died on the cross to redeem us and that He rose bodily from the grave. We must then ask Jesus to forgive us of our sins and ask Him to be our Savior and Lord.
Those who turn to Jesus Christ in repentance and faith will inherit eternal life. They will be with Jesus forever.
As I have said before, I am so thankful that my parents, my uncle, my grandparents and my friends who have died have all known Jesus as Lord. They are all in the presence of Jesus right now. One day, I will be reunited with them because Jesus is the resurrection and life.
Some people wonder a lot what Heaven and the life to come is going to be like. The Bible tells us something about these things. For one thing, we will rule and reign with Jesus when establishes His Kingdom on this earth that will have no end. What all that will entail I don't really know.
The Bible says that we will go in and out of the New Jerusalem which the book of Revelation describes as a beautiful place.
In the life to come, the Bible says that all of our tears will be wiped away. There will be no more sorrow or mourning. There will be no more war. Peace will be upon the entire universe. There will be no more sin, and righteousness and justice will reign.
I believe that I am going to be reunited with my friend Toby in Heaven. It is my hope that the two of us will be able have a place where we can be at peace and rest in the fact that all of the physical and emotional pain of the past is over.
Whatever the world to come is like, I know that it will be glorious because Jesus will be there. Wherever Jesus is, it is wonderful.
It is my prayer that if you have never trusted in Jesus for salvation, that you will turn to Him this very day.
We have now ended our series of messages regarding the Apostles' Creed. I have really enjoyed posting these messages, and I hope that those of you reading them have learned at least a little bit about some of the most important doctrines of the Christian faith.
I am considering three different series of messages. I am not yet sure which one I will start next week. Pray that the Lord will lead me in making the proper decision.
Next week, I will post the verses on Monday. I will not be posting a review on Wednesday. The sermon will be posted on Friday. May God bless you all. Amen.
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